Oh. My. GOD! I'm sorry! I really have to get off my lazy but and UPDATE, don't I? Don't worry, I will NOT abandon this story, I will eventually update every time. Next time I'll be faster, I promise! (I enjoyed the luxury of not updating for a long time, though!)

Disclaimer: Yep. No own.

Bound Souls: Making Firia Happy

Firia couldn't believe it. Why had her whole body just suddenly freaked out? There she was, doing dishes after she had eaten dinner. At first it was just a little throb, but after a little while, her body had hurt badly. It wasn't a pain that gradually got this racking, but it suddenly hurt. And she had broken a plate because of it too!

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There was only one explanation for this. Xelloss. Wherever he was, he had gotten hurt. If it was a fight, good thing he hadn't kept on fighting, otherwise… Well, she wouldn't be able to do anything because of the pain. Hopefully he was alright, because she couldn't look for him right now, not when her body was in this state.

She pushed herself up into a standing position with much effort, only to fall back down again, trembling. She couldn't hold her own weight, it hurt that badly! What did the namagomi do? Again Firia pushed herself up, then grabbed a hold of the counter and hobbled around the kitchen to Xelloss's bed, then collapsed, just missing it. Not only was Xelloss hurt, but he was weak.

With tremendous effort and a lot of time, Firia made it to her stairs, up them, and then to her bed. She then pulled her cloak, boots, gloves, earrings, and headband off---which took a lot of time and energy--- and not even bothering to get into her night clothes, went to sleep, despite all the pain.

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"Finally," Xelloss panted as he staggered up the steps to the vase and mace shop. He pulled on the door… and it opened. Xelloss winced. Firia must have been very pained and weak to leave the shop unlocked.

After lots of thinking and the pain never dulling, Xelloss finally figured out a possible answer to why his body erupted in pain. He was still part Mazoku, so still needed negative emotions to live. He couldn't live off of pure emotions, nor could he survive from just negative ones. And it just so happened that he lived with a dragon that had both of those…

Then he tried to teleport back to the shop. When he didn't, he just thought that since his whole body hurt, he lost the concentration to teleport without the words. So he tried the spell with words, but that didn't work either. So, pained and weak, he trotted back to 'Vases and Maces', hoping very much that Firia managed to get to sleep. He didn't have the energy to dodge her and her mace tonight!

So now, here he was, hobbling up to Firia's front door, which was unlocked and unguarded. Xelloss, who was relieved that Firia wasn't up, locked the door and slumped onto his bed and went to sleep.

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Firia woke up the next morning feeling much better. The pain had dulled to a low throb, and she was hyper. Very hyper. So to get rid of her hyperness, she ran downstairs, completely oblivious of Xelloss, who was still asleep, got her mace, and ran into the backyard to practice.

Once again, she started off very slowly, in very simple poses, then started speeding up, her stances getting more and more complicated and complex. Soon she was switching between stances so fast that if a passerby would have looked at her, they would have thought her to be very funny-looking. Then, ever so slowly, she went slower and slower, getting into simple poses again, until she stopped, barely panting and not sweating like she usually was. Then she stretched and went at it again until she looked at her clock from the window.

"Omigod!" Firia squealed, "I'm late opening my shop!"

With a swift, extremely fast movement, Firia ran inside and threw her mace aside. Then she kicked Xelloss repeatedly until he woke up.

"Hm? Wha—Oh, hi Firia… whatcha doin'?" Xelloss mumbled.

"Get some breakfast going, I need to set up shop!" exclaimed Firia, running off behind the curtain now that Xelloss was awake. Xelloss waited to hear the usual click of a lock and squeal of a door before he got up out of his bed. Slowly he made his way towards the kitchen, wishing Firia would've let him sleep longer. It was a wonderful feeling, and made him feel much better. The pain from the night before went away much more quickly than if he didn't go to sleep, too.

Xelloss got out a pan, spatula, and his pink apron and set to work, cracking eggs and slicing bacon. It was a wonder how he could cook… it suddenly came naturally to him. He was really good at making extremely toxic and poisonous stuff, though. Things that could kill even the toughest and biggest things.

Then Xelloss squealed. He forgot to put his hair back! How DARE he forget that! The food might be toxicated now! Quickly Xelloss went into the bathroom, pulled out a hair tie, and put his hair back into a ponytail. Hopefully he didn't get any hair in the food! That would be bad. Now relieved, Xelloss set to work again, not having a single problem after that.

"Firia-chan! I've got the food!" Xelloss yelled out to Firia from the kitchen. Then, not bothering to wait for an answer, he took her plate and went through the curtains.

"OK! I--- Oh, thanks Xelloss! It helps to have you around!" Firia then hugged Xelloss and went back to having an animated conversation with a customer.

Xelloss turned back into the living room, blushing. He quickly went to the kitchen, cleaned everything, then went to his now-cold breakfast. With a very weak fireball spell he heated up the eggs and bacon, then slowly ate, absorbed in his thoughts.

Suddenly, he had an idea. A really good idea that would make Firia really happy. Quickly, he scooped up his plate, teleported in the shop, taking Firia's plate and leaving so quickly that he wasn't noticed at all except for "a draft when the windows aren't open". He washed those two dishes and walked briskly out to the shop, where Firia was waving to the customer she had previously had the conversation with.

"Firia-chan, are you going to need me today?" Xelloss asked hopefully.

"Aw, have you been called to your mistress?" Firia whined, "It'll be lonely."

"No, I just want to go out of the house for the day, maybe even out of town."

"Oh! OK then!" Firia said, bubbling with happiness. For some reason she didn't mind if he was out of town, as long as he wasn't with his mistress. Otherwise she'd be lonely.

"Thanks Firia-chan," with a deep bow, Xelloss teleported away.

"I wonder what he's doing?" Firia wondered aloud.

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Xelloss circled the fountain in the town square, feeding off of both negative and positive emotions he happened to come by. He had to think of a place where jewels were plentiful. The dragons defiantly had lots of them, considering at least all the priestesses were wearing them, but he doubted he would be welcome there. Then there were regular human mines, but the gems there would be too small. He might be able to come across a jewelry store that had that big of a gem, but he doubted it.

So, having that be his best bet, he started searching around for jewelry stores and asking them if they had really big gems. The ones they showed him were huge, ranging from one inch by one inch to several inches. But all of them were too small for what he was thinking.

Then it hit him so hard that he mentally stumbled. He knew a Mazoku that hid out among the humans who specialized in gems. He ran out to the edge of the town, then, when he knew he was out of sight, teleported to a town that would've taken months to walk to.

This town had an eerie feeling to it. Beggars lay everywhere, people walked silently and briskly, avoiding eye contact with everyone. The houses were small and cramped-looking, and all the buildings were rotting and looking like they were poorly cared for. The silence made Xelloss uneasy.

Deciding that right now was not the best time to teleport, Xelloss walked along the street, looking up at the store names. 'The Black Moon Inn'… 'Halberd's Staffs'… 'James's Grocery Store'… then finally, he came up to a sign that said 'A Mazoku's Treasures'. He walked inside the store.

Right away you could tell the whole place was enchanted. The store was bathed in a soft magenta glow, islands of cases gave off the scent of magic, and there was no sound, not even the scratch of a tree against the wood or a squeak of a mouse. Xelloss teleported up to the counter and rapped three times on the glass case in front of him.

"Yes yes, I'm coming. Hold on a second," said a very high pitched voice from behind the curtain. Xelloss obeyed and waited patiently for precisely two minutes, twenty three seconds and forty-one milliseconds (he counted) before the woman came out.

"Oh, hello Xelloss. I haven't seen you for a while," the woman said in a dream-like voice.

"Hello, Veronica, I was wanting to do something, and I think you're the only place that will… suit my needs," Xelloss said.

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"I was wondering…"

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AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA---- Hm. Yeah. Maybe I should tell you the reasons I didn't update as soon as I thought I would.

Can't avoid saying this, for it was absolutely true. For the first two weeks, I was lazy.

Then I got banned from the computer. Another week there.

OK, what's next? Lazy, got banned… now I say I will update during the weekend. My memory is not the greatest, and I forgot that we would be leaving Friday to go to a birthday party, and not come back until late Sunday. I thought I would have time to write it, then type it quickly after school Monday. Nuh-uh. No time there.

So, I worked on this yesterday, finished it today. Now I'm posting it. I will do the reviewers responses later… I just want to get this posted.

Wow. Xelloss with a ponytail. And squealing. Interesting. Nice visual memory I can keep.

Responcer wonsers:

Hitteh Pitteh: M-M-M-MIKI! What's with all the criticizing all of a sudden? Oh fine. I'll answer it. First of all… exaggerating 'de love. Uh… how do I explain this… OK, Xelloss was hungry that day. So, why not have fun to get the negative emotions he needed? Also, the restaurant was the place to explain another way how Xelloss changed. Eh? And blushin' and stuffs? Why, Xelloss's personality has changed, silly! He has the right to ask questions and blush, you know. And you know what love is, so you know if you were feeling it…. At least a little bit.

Wow. What DOES Xelloss smell like? Hm. Perfume and flowers--no. I dunno. It's kinda like I can tell whether the clothes I have are yours or Sierra's… just by smell. Yeah, I know it's weird.

Muafua! More blushing in this chapter! And thanks for the… ahem lovely review.

Cyberimp6: gasp A really nice review! It makes me all snuggley inside! Ish snuggleful

Encyser: Yus! Oi know how you feel! Oi think. Oi moite have lost the e-mail…. Yus, Oi did. Oh well.