Laundry Day: Star Slayers
Takes place after Episode One and Guy's Night Out
A week after assembling an amazing crew, Lina and her new friends have more or less become comfortable with one another's presence. As has been Amelia's custom, the perky medical officer is skipping down the hall with a cart rolling behind her. Today is laundry day and since joining Lina's crew Amelia has made it her personal duty to collect everyone's dirty clothes. When Zelgadis initially re-made the ship he didn't design a laundry chute or system to handle the laundry. It will certainly be included in the next installment of upgrades, but for now Amelia will enjoy her little chore and use it as an excuse to interact with Zelgadis . . . I mean with the crew.
Walking up to the first door, Amelia gives a hardy knock. She isn't the dainty princess type after all. "Laundry day, Miss Lina!" Amelia shouts.
From within the cabin a loud groan is voiced by the obviously half asleep occupant. No other sound accompanies the groan. No rustling sheets and no footsteps. Lina apparently has no interest in answering Amelia's call.
After taking a long and quite unnecessary large breath Amelia announces her presence once again. "MISS LINA IT'S LAUNDRY DAY!" The small girl cries. Not only is her proclamation enough to wake Lina, but also succeeds in waking everyone else on the floor that isn't awake already.
THUMP!
Lina is startled right out of her bed and onto the floor. "Ow," is Lina's only immediate response. Rolling from her tangled mess on the floor, Lina stomps across her cabin and forcibly throws the sliding door open. "GEE AMELIA!" Lina practically yells at the girl, "Why do you have to do this in the morning? Can't you at least give me another ten minutes peace?"
"Captain, I told everyone yesterday on the crew log that today was laundry day and when I was coming," Amelia replies easily. She is used to Lina's morning outbursts. "You're the one who slept in. Besides," Amelia beams in an angelic glow. "It is such a wonderful day, who wouldn't want to be awake and enjoy what L-sama has given us? The morning is the best time to greet everyone and mingle before the business of the day interferes. Wouldn't you agree?" The young woman looks at her friend expectantly.
Offering a dead pan expression Lina's reply is dripping with sarcasm, "Oh yes, who would ever want to sleep through this." Lina is tempted to just slam the door in the lively girls face but she is running out of clean clothes. For a few moments Lina just stares at the girl's smiling face unblinking.
"Fine!" The red head throws her hands up in defeat. While delicate, Lina is not the most elegant of ladies. Her clothes are strewn around the cabin haphazardly. Like a tiger attacking its prey Lina starts chucking every article of clothing she finds at Amelia's face.
"Miss Lina . . . your room is a little . . . messy don't you think?" Amelia is trying to be careful with her word choice, but there is no polite way to tell someone with a room as untidy as Lina's that there room is simply 'interesting' or 'uniquely decorated'.
"Oh, you aren't satisfied with just being the laundry police? Now you want to nag me about my room?" Lina launches an extra stinky stocking at Amelia. "Well, I'm the captain so . . . perhaps I can hire a maid?" An expression of mischievous amusement replaces her annoyance. "Want the job?" The captain of disorganization pauses when she realizes that she has no idea where the matching stocking to the one draped on Amelia's shoulder is located.
"Uh, that's okay," Amelia quickly darts into the room, retrieves the missing sock and quickly leaves the maniacal captains presence.
After Amelia has all the captain's clothes in the cart, the princess walks confidently to the room across from Lina. As Amelia knocks on the door the princess hopes that the ships cook is still present. Sylphiel is known to get an early start on breakfast sometimes. "Miss Sylphiel, I'm here for the laundry," Amelia calls.
The door opens with a pleasant sigh, "I was waiting for you." Sylphiel already has her laundry bagged and sorted. Instead of handing the bags to Amelia the gracious young lady, begins placing her own bags in Amelia's cart. "Do you need any help Miss Amelia?"
"No it's alright, Miss Sylphiel," Amelia says with a wave of her hand. "I've got this," giving a victory sign, she smiles and arranges Lina's laundry into a separate pile before bagging it properly. "You probably want to get started on breakfast as soon as possible right?"
"Shhh," Sylphiel hushes Amelia as she glances nervously at Lina's door. When the captain fails to appear, Sylphiel lets out a sigh of relief before explaining. "Yes I do, and I don't want Miss Lina eating it all before dear Gourry can join us." Making her way down the corridor for the kitchen, Sylphiel turns long enough to assure Amelia that she will save some food for her.
Moving along, Amelia doesn't bother stopping at her room and instead moves across from it, hesitating in front of the polished door. Gourry has a tendency to sleep in like Lina so Amelia wonders if she will have to holler again. On second thought, she can always have the Dragon Slayer wake him up with an alarm of some kind. Shrugging her shoulders, Amelia gives the smooth door a hard knock. "Mister Gourry it's laundry day!" she calls loudly.
"Five more minutes," the mumbled and barely audible reply comes from the cabin beyond. True to Amelia's prediction the squid for brains is even less conscious than usual.
"Miss Dragon Slayer can you please wake Mister Gourry," Amelia asks.
"Right away," the ship responds overhead. After a moment's pause a loud and very irritating buzz sounds from the other side of the wall. Amelia makes a face as she hears it even though she can only perceive a muffled version of the irritating sound.
As soon as the alarm ceases its callous call, Amelia calls out again. "Mister Gourry, it's me, Amelia. I'm here for your laundry."
The door slides open revealing a sleepy Gourry. Wearing only boxers, the muscular man lets out a long yawn. With one hand he holds the sword of light while rubbing the sleep from his eyes with the other. All the while the blonde, blue eyed, picture of masculinity continues to yawn. "Amelia?" The man's words still sound like a prolonged yawn, "What's going on?"
Despite herself, Amelia blushes and clears her throat. "I'm here for your laundry Mister Gourry," Amelia says trying keep her eyes glued to the man's eyes. Blinking more than is necessary; Amelia keeps her gaze trained on him as her hands wring themselves in embarrassment. In her defense, the last time she picked up Gourry's clothes he had his pajama's on. "Did you remember to get it ready like I asked?"
Like an outdated computer it takes a few seconds for Gourry to process the question. Methodically blinking, the man tries hard to both wake up and remember where his laundry is. Looking back into his room Gourry notices the bags stacked in the corner for the first time. "Oh!" he exclaims excitedly, "That's right, Sylphiel helped me sort through my clothes last night." Gourry disappears back into his room to retrieve the bags which he unloads into Amelia's cart. "Thanks Amelia," Gourry offers gratefully.
"My pleasure Mister Gourry," Amelia replies relieved that Sylphiel takes the time to help Gourry with simple tasks such as this. "I'll see you at breakfast alright?" Amelia says as she continues to Xellos's room, skipping over Zelgadis's room. Since she wants to spend time with Zelgadis, Amelia wisely saves the engineer for last.
"Breakfast?!" Gourry shouts and hastily disappears into his room in search of some clean clothes. When the door closes Amelia can still hear the man frantically searching, saying something about not having any clothes left.
"Do you have any laundry Mister Xellos," Amelia asks after politely knocking. In the back of her mind the princess hopes that aliens of his species don't soil their clothing. This is the first time she's had to ask the Regal.
"Coming," Xellos's voice sings in response. A moment later the door gives a customary swish revealing Xellos with a pile of laundry barely contained in his arms. What you can see of his body appears bare. "I'm sorry but I don't have any bags." The tower of laundry is so great that Xellos has to tilt his head to the side in order to see Amelia.
Burning red, Amelia studies the ground and reaches for the laundry with a fretful expression. Eyes wide, teeth grit, and arms shaking, Amelia dutifully takes the laundry and dumps it into her cart. Not only does it serve a purpose of accomplishing her job, but it also serves as an excuse to look away. "Th-thank you," Amelia replies. It takes all her will power not to scream and shut the sliding door in the Regals face. "Please put some clothes on or I'll report you to the captain." Without turning, Amelia makes her way to Zelgadis's room still flushed red.
Xellos looks down at himself. He is wearing shorts and an undershirt. "I didn't realize the rules on this ship were so stringent."
Before knocking on Zelgadis's door Amelia patiently waits for the remnants of her flustered embarrassment to disappear. Taking in a cleansing breath, Amelia knocks on the door. "Mister Zelgadis, it's Amelia," she says with a brimming grin.
"Yes," came Zelgadis's impassive answer. The door promptly opens revealing a face that matches the disinterest in the cold man's voice. "How can I help you Amelia." Spotting the cart Zelgadis immediately remembers Amelia's notice to the crew concerning laundry day. "I don't have any laundry for you."
Momentarily confused, and perhaps a little deflated, Amelia lifts a pondering brow. "You don't have any laundry? Are you sure? I really don't mind doing it," Amelia offers assuming that the reserved man either doesn't trust her or perhaps doesn't wish to inconvenience her. Considering her feelings, Amelia hopes it's the later. Either way she is completely misinterpreting Zelgadis's possible reasons.
"I am sure," Zelgadis says pointedly. His brow betrays his slight annoyance with the persistent girl. "If that is all," stepping back into his room the door begins to slide closed even though he didn't press the button.
"Wait," Amelia puts a hand out automatically halting the door. "What about the clothes you're wearing, haven't you been wearing them all week? I'll wash them separately if you don't want the white fading."
What starts as slight annoyance escalates into exasperation. Zelgadis sighs, "These are not clothes." Fingering the clothing Zelgadis continues to explain as if he is speaking to a toddler, "clothes are made of cloth; my garments are made of nanites. Nanites cannot be cleaned like clothes can."
Amelia stares at the fake cloth Zelgadis is fingering in astonishment.
"Nanites?" she asks in disbelief. "But Mister Zelgadis aren't you made of nanites?" While Amelia understands the concept there are moments it still baffles her and with this added information the medic is forced to reanalyze what she knows all over again.
Slowly Zelgadis answers, "Yes." The word is draw out and accompanied by a raised eyebrow.
"Does that mean . . ." Amelia's eyes go wide and she quickly looks away. Searching the ground with darting eyes as her mind wanders Amelia eventually rivets her blue gaze onto Zelgadis's face once more. Why are all the men making her blush today? Amelia reprimands herself for letting this routine event have such an effect on her, but really? Zelgadis is technically naked right?! "You're not wearing anything Mister Zelgadis?" she finally asks.
Zelgadis stares at the girl in disbelief. "What?" he finally asks. Then slowly realization begins to register in his eyes, "Wait?" The usually stoic man becomes quickly flustered, "No! It's not like that Amelia!" Zelgadis rapidly explain, "The nanites comprising my garments serve a different function then those constituting my body. They serve to cover me, so even if they are nanites originally there limited function makes them vastly different then my body." In conclusion, Zelgadis reiterates, "I am wearing my nanites which now serve as my clothes."
Amelia blinks once to register Zelgadis's explanation before her face relaxes in a relief of understand. "Oh good, that would be awfully strange," Amelia says with a cheery laugh. "I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions Mister Zelgadis. You really are amazing!"
"Uh, thanks . . ." Zelgadis replies awkwardly.
For a moment they both stand there without saying a word. Amelia is content to stand in Zelgadis's presence while the later feels more and more out of place. With nothing to say Zelgadis clears his throat in an attempt to break Amelia's fascinated gaze.
"Is that all?" he asks again politely.
"Yes, thank you Mister Zelgadis," Amelia beams. As the small woman turns to leave, Amelia stops as a new thought tugs to the forefront of her mind. With all the new found trouble she has been having with laundry today Amelia makes a wise conclusion. "Actually there is one more thing."
"What is it?" Zelgadis asks nonchalantly.
"If it wouldn't be too much trouble, could you add a laundry chute to the rooms Mister Zelgadis," Amelia laughs and scratches the back of her head. Her laugh is sheepish and ends with a deflated drop of her head. "I don't think I can do this anymore."
With a knowing expression and just a hint of a smile, Zelgadis nods. "I think that would be a wise investment," Zelgadis agrees. "I'll add it to Lina's list and try to have it done before the next laundry day."
"Oh thank you so much Mister Zelgadis!" Amelia says feeling bubbly inside. "I'll see you later." With an exuberant wave Amelia walks down the hall. Zelgadis offers a weak wave in return, but at least he is showing some initiative interacting with her.
As Amelia waltzes down the hall, she feels content despite the strained encounters she's shared with everyone. Yes, laundry day has been worth the effort, every minute of it.
The End
Author's Note:
Here we have Amelia interacting with everyone in what I hope is a comical scene. This is another Role Play style piece that my sister helped me write, so part of the credit goes to her. I played the part of Amelia while my sister, Clang55, played the role of everyone else the princess comes in contact with. She did a great job playing so many roles and in the character design I established for them from episode one.
On another note I sadly haven't made much progress on episode two due to Rp's and vacation. Please be patient and in the mean time I'll see if I can post Mermaid's Curse instead since that one is complete. It is another AU based on Pirates of the Caribbean… kinda? Thanks for reading everyone, you are a great encouragement! If you have an idea let me know.