AN: Whoa, okay. A little more than a couple of weeks, I dare say. Oh well. At the very least you have a little update here. And I can promise you that the next chapter is right on its' heals (To be fair, I parted this chapter up in two, seeing how the last part wouldn't agree with me, so it's almost finished).

Warning, to all of you faint of heart. The rating will change from the next chapter, as there'll be some serious lime. I hope that won't bother too many of you. Tell me if that is so and I'll consider making a T-rated only version of this fic.

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Blinded by the shadows - swallowed by the light.

He'd used most of the night to wonder what had gotten into her tonight. Surely she was just teasing him, and he didn't really mind. This more friendly and teasing atmosphere between them was by far better than the awkward one two years ago. He was just… amazed that she dared to do such a thing. She sure had changed.

He'd tried not to look too much at her while she slept. But once in a while, when she made a barely audible sound, he looked, just to see if everything was all right.

She looked so peaceful and delicate as she lay there. Her hair gently spread over the pillow. Some of it was falling down in front of her face. Without thinking he slowly reached out and gently brushed the hair away from her face.

She sighed, pleased.

He quickly as a lightning withdrew his hand. What the heck had gotten into him?

"My my, Zelgadis.."

The unwelcomed voice made Zel look around the room to pinpoint its owner. He found him, sitting in the window, very relaxed. He gave him a cold glare.

"You…" he snarled.

"Yes me."

"What are you doing here? How dare you.."

"Oh, I'm not daring anything… Yet!" the Mazoku smiled, with an eye open. "I'm merely watching the young princess, as are you."

"I'm protecting her; you're watching her for your own perverted, monstrous pleasure. There's a slight difference in motive!" Zelgadis growled through his gritted teeth.

"Is there now?" Xellos asked and, stroking his cheek with his index finger, looked as if he was genuinely mulling it over. "What if I'm really trying to protect her too? Or what if you're really- "

"Not even remotely funny, Xellos, and I'm not letting you near her!"

"Ah, you say that as if it's something you have any control over, or even influence on, Zel-kun." Xellos said, his tone maliciously sweet. "But the fact of the matter is that even if you could stop me for now, I, or anybody else for that matter, would only have to wait a while, and the little princess will be defenceless yet again, while you on the other hand probably will be out there, searching for your cure."

Zel's eyes narrowed, and Xellos shot him a victorious look.

"Am I wrong, Zel-kun?" he asked, sweetly. "I mean, this is how it always goes. You pretend you care, and you perhaps convince yourself that you love your friends, but when it all boils down to it, you leave them to fend for themselves, not even thinking twice. For that cold-heartedness alone you'd make a great Mazoku."

Zel fisted his hands, and began feeling himself shake. With anger, probably, but the bastard's words really stung. He told himself it wasn't true. He didn't… He hadn't. Had he?

"And yet, you come prancing back, acting like the little princess safety and happiness is your business, while we all know that you'll only leave her again." Xellos smiled. "Sometimes I swear you're even more hypocritical than the little Goldie."

"I only left her to protect her from monsters like me." Zel muttered, trying not to let the Mazoku get to him, but in fact doing just that.

"Monsters like you, Zel?" Xellos said, raising both eyebrows, acting surprised. He then chuckled, mirthlessly. "Why, don't flatter yourself, Zelgadis Greywords, you're nowhere near a true monster. In fact, the only real damage you ever done to your friends were to hurt them with your selfishness, your self hatred, self pity and your obsession with your cure."

Xellos got up from the windowsill, and walked to the edge of the giant bed, standing on the opposite side of Zelgadis. Zel started getting a Rah Tilt ready. It wouldn't do much harm to Xellos, granted, but it would buy him a little time to save Amelia, should the bastard Mazoku start attacking.

"See? There we go again with the hypocrisy." Xellos gestured towards the chimera. "You act like you care, when in fact you couldn't care less. I'll bet you'd even hand over the princess if I promised you your cure in return. What do you say?"

"Not a chance!" Zel growled.

"Ah, you're only saying that because you're not believing me." Xellos dismissed with a wave of a hand, and casually sat down on the edge of the bed. "But we both know that if you really believed I had your cure, you'd happily hand over this little fragile flower to me.."

Xellos reached out and stroke Amelia's cheek with a gloved hand and a sardonic smile aimed at the chimera.

"Stop it!" Zel raised his voice. This time the damn Mazoku would pay.

Amelia raised her sleepy head a few inches from the pillow. Xellos phased out.

"mmelgaisss?" she mumbled, and tried to open her eyes. "..w…is it?"

"Nothing.." he hissed, and then realised that his tone might have alarmed her. He then walked over to the side of the bed, and tried to sound a little more comforting. "..Nothing at all.."

"oh.. then it must've been my nightmare.." She yawned a little disoriented and sat up in bed.

"Nightmares?" he asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed. The little princess had nightmares. Well, it was better to direct her attention to that subject than to leave the subject of what had just transpired open.

She seemed to be woken a little more up by uncharacteristically sudden his interest. She smiled and tilted her head.

"Sure, just like those you have, and everybody else." She smiled. "Even the defenders of justice are haunted by fears and past experience!"

He huffed. He hadn't meant to sound scornful, but he managed to do so automatically.

"I doubt they're like my nightmares.." he stated under his breath. He'd meant that both by theme and by severity, plus the frequency by which he had them.

She looked at him, with a questioning stare.

"Why not?" she asked.

He sighed. He thought he'd told her that before. Or maybe he hadn't?

"I have nightmares. About being turned into a chimera. About Rezo… I often wake up screaming, soaked in sweat, and very scared. Only to find that I'm living in the nightmare. I'm still me. Nothing seems to change that. I'm still a monster."

Amelia frowned and tried to catch his gaze. But he was momentarily lost in his own depressed thoughts. She needed to drag him out of those. But talking about something cheery would only depress him further. She realised that she had to make him see, that he wasn't the only one with horrible nightmares, and that he couldn't claim to be a monster on that fact alone.

"I have nightmares about the murder of my mother and the disappearance of my sister." She sighed and smiled, although she was very aware of the fact that she was forcing the smile.

That seemed to catch his attention. He looked at her, as if sceptical.

"I often start crying when I wake up." she said, looking empty in front of her, not really focusing on anything. "But then I have to tell myself that it wasn't my fault that it happened, and that it cannot be changed. So, I'm trying to get the best out of having lost them both, namely growing strong.."

Her eyes filled with water, and she tried very hard not to show. She decided to close them and smile at Zelgadis instead of trying to fight the tears off.

"So there. I have bad dreams too. Does that make me a monster?" she tilted her head.

Since he couldn't quite retort on that one, he apparently decided not to at all. An awkward silence followed.

"But it is kinda funny that you have nightmares about being turned into a chimera, even now.." Amelia mused, almost as if to fill out the awkward silence. Zelgadis looked at her as if she was stupid.

"Amelia..." he began, trying to explain for the n'th time that it wasn't all that much fun being turned into a freak. She cut him short.

"I mean, think of all the times you were able to save people because of that? Of course, I know it isn't what you want, and it's okay to be selfish, I guess." She said, probably to comfort him. But instead, at her mentioning of the word "selfish" he winched.

He didn't think of himself as exactly selfish... Coldhearted, perhaps, but not downright selfish. At least not the kind of selfish Xellos had pointed out. Right? It wasn't like he was only getting his body back for his own sake. But then a gnawing thought of whom he then was trying to regain his original form for crept into his brain, and he decided not to venture further on that.

Okay, maybe it was only for his sake.

Amelia saw his reaction and wondered what she'd said to make him shut off like that.

"I also have some nightmares that seems a little strange for most people.." Amelia said, trying to get him to open up. "For instance the one where I'm surrounded by blinding lights..."

This caught his attention. As a white mage it wasn't an unusual association, he guessed, but he'd never before heard people refer to it as a nightmare. Other white mages had talked about the same kind of vision, but none of them had spoken of them with any kind of fright or fear in mind. He looked at her quizzically. She bit her lower lip, as if trying to figure out how to explain it. Instead she conjured a light-spell in her hand. She then moved the brilliantly shining orb close to her face and looked at him, with serious eyes.

"Look at me, Zelgadis-san." She said, even though he was already doing so. "And tell me what you see."

"I can hardly see anything, Amelia." He said, honestly. Her face was almost totally swallowed by the light, and he could only really make out some of her hair and her blue eyes.

"Exactly. And that's why it scares me." Amelia said. "I used to be so fond of light, but now I realise that if I have too much of it, it'll swallow a person's face, just like total darkness would. It robs away the colours and steals away the shadows that make up a person's face. Just like some are defined by their flaws rather than their good personality traits. It's what makes them a person. The shadows in the face define the features, the shadows in the soul defines that soul..."

She trailed off. Zelgadis was somewhat taken aback by her thinking. So she'd figured out the principle of the need for balance, all by herself? He was rather impressed. Then again, she had to. You could tell Amelia and Phil that the world needed some darkness again and again and it wouldn't register. They'd have to come there by themselves. And apparently Amelia had.

"I guess that's what I so genuinely dislike about Prince Orin. He's got no shadows." She mused to herself, almost as if putting it into words for the first time.

A little silence ensued. Zel didn't really like her talk about Orin that way. If she didn't like him, there was hardly any point in marrying him, now was there? But then he had to remind himself that he was supporting the marriage out of principle, and that it would be better for her. Also, he didn't want to explore how he really felt about knowing that Amelia didn't like Orin much. It was much too tempting to just rejoice in the fact. Instead he desperately tried to come up with something to break the silence.

"If you like people for their flaws I guess that would explain why you like Lina and Gourry so much." Zelgadis said with a smile, trying to lighten the atmosphere. "And you must find me extremely interesting." His tone became a little sarcastic, but in the self-insightful kind of way.

She cancelled the light-spell and looked at him with a smile.

"I do, Zelgadis-san." She simply said.

Own goal. He tried to kick the ball away, and apparently managed to score an own goal. Just smashing.

Again he was caught in one of those situations where he had to think carefully. It was much too tempting to ask how she felt, or to tell her that she'd best forget about him, but then again that would be assuming that she actually still liked him in that way, which he doubted pretty deeply. So perhaps she was capable of finding him extremely interesting in a non-romantic kind of way? He had this bad feeling that he didn't want to think about that too much either, mainly because it called into question if Amelia ever found him anything but interesting, as in "you're a funny-looking freak"-interesting.

Amelia for her part didn't feel the tension in the room as being a negative one, and she enjoyed her victory. Silently, and without posing, but she still enjoyed it. She had cornered the chimera, again, and if he wanted to get out of that one, he'd have to give her a clue as to what he felt. She was pretty certain he wouldn't do that, but now at least she felt a little more at peace. He knew that she still found him fascinating, and since that was probably all that would ever amount up to, she was quite happy to get it off her chest.

She then felt sleep reclaim her, and she lay down on the pillow, whispering a silent goodnight to the baffled chimera that sat next to her.

Zel, obviously, didn't get a second of sleep that night. But he didn't even get a second of peace, his thoughts churning around way too much for his liking.

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When the morning came, Amelia almost seemed a little frightened to wake up with somebody in the room. Like she had forgotten overnight that she was being watched. Of course she beamed him a happy smile and a morning hoarse "good morning, Zelgadis-san..".

Yes, she looked like she'd just woken up, which, by all rights, was quite reasonable since it was exactly so, but she still looked stunning. Zel was pretty reluctant to notice that he liked her even with her hair slightly morning-frizzy and her eyes not quite clear. He tried really hard to kill the thought as soon as he was aware of its existence.

They went down for breakfast and, to no one's surprise, Lina and Gourry was already there, eating to their hearts –and stomach's- delight. Zel took a chair next to Amelia. He was glad that the dragon-spooker and her husband had already checked (if not knowingly so) the food for poison. Not that there was much point in trying to poison the food if they were only out to get Amelia, which it seemed like they were. Nobody had touched Phil. Zel glanced at him sideways, and noted that anybody who tried to attack Phil was just cruising for trouble anyways.

After breakfast came the diplomatic duties. As they entered the room, both realised that the table and chair was still positioned with the back exposed to the only window in the room. Either they'd have to move it back, somehow admitting that it had been crossing a border, or they'd have to work like they had the day before.

Amelia took a deep breath, and went and sat on the chair, stating her silent opinion on the matter. Zelgadis, not really knowing how he felt about that statement, just went and silently stood behind her. Since he wasn't helping her yet, he was able to stand on an at least half-decent distance.

After the first couple of minutes, he actually found himself wanting her to ask for his help. Why was that, he wondered. Why was it important that he could help her?

As on cue, Amelia's fingers began drumming on the desk, and she leaned her chin on the palm of her hand with an annoyed hum.

He didn't want to ask, but the smirk crept onto his face regardless, and it would be plain obvious when she turned around to ask him for help, that he'd anticipated it. A little more irritated tapping went by, and eventually she gave up with a frustrated sigh.

"I don't get this!" she whined, and turned to look at him.

Today the space between them wasn't as menacingly small, but he'd apparently leaned in a little, so he was still far too close for a stranger or an acquaintance. Even as a friend this would be very close, and he apparently didn't mind her trespassing on his personal space. Well, to be fair, he was trespassing on hers.

He was smiling, she noticed. He was actually smiling. A little smugly now that she'd asked for his help, but he looked... Happy that he was actually needed.

"Well then, Princess.." he said, slightly leaning in over her, placing a hand on the desk on either side of her. "..Let's see if we can figure this out together."

His smile faded when she didn't turn around immediately. As if frozen by his gaze, she just sat there, turned towards him, with him leaning dangerously close. He could feel his own heartbeat speed up, especially at the sight of her unconsciously licking her lips. He was actively fighting the urge to move one of his hands to her chin, tilt her head up and..

But then she finally broke the spell and turned to the papers. Zel cleared his throat, and tried his hardest to focus on the task at hand, which, he had to remind himself, definitely did not include kissing the engaged princess.

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Lina had been up early, and not by choice. She was beginning to think that she and her baby were having their first battle of wills. Well, it would become a fine Inverse-Gabriev. That much was certain.

And after breakfast, she was feeling oddly ill-tempered. Maybe it was the beginning contraction pains, or maybe it was the fact that Prince Orin had returned. Her tolerance for idiots (other than Gourry) and idiocy (again with the exceptions of Gourry) was running dangerously low, and Orin was actively trying to persuade Phil to annul Zelgadis bodyguard-contract with the little princess. He had first tried right after breakfast when he first arrived, then later on the hallways, and dark lords only knew how many times he tried when she wasn't there to listen.

Gourry thankfully was always helpful to remind Orin that Zelgadis was a great swordsman and even a good sorcerer too, so Orin had no reason to disapprove of him. Just like Gourry to totally miss the real issue. While they were all debating Zel's skills as a bodyguard, what they were really debating was whether or not they'd allow her old flame near her. It was basically playing with fire. Lina just hoped nobody important got burned.

As they sat in the library, Phil came in, almost a begging look on his face. Lina caught herself in actually wondering if they'd be able to hide him, should he put his plea into words. Not long after, Orin followed. Lina gritted her teeth. He was at it again.

"Phil-sama, if I may be so bold, I would like to suggest that-" Lina didn't pick up the rest, for she could hear her blood pumping in her ears. Her malicious streak surfaced and her words went out before she had much time to consider them.

"Why don't you challenge Zel to a duel, then?" she bit out.

That got everybody's attention.

"If you have so much doubt in his abilities, then why don't you test them yourself?" she ventured further.

"Oh, great idea, Lina. Then we'll see who's the better protector!" Gourry stated. Lina looked at him with wide eyes. Nope, his face was actually serious.

First she thought that he didn't know the implications of that sentence. That he was oblivious to the fact that he was openly asking Orin to fight with Zel over Amelia to see who was the better, more worthy man.

But then she realised that they were talking in Protector-language now, and she knew that when Gourry was talking like that, he actually meant it like that. For him, protecting somebody, being willing to give their life for that person, that was love. So basically he was contesting who loved Amelia the most.

Orin visibly blanched at this. Lina felt a little bad, because she knew that Orin surely couldn't be so blind and foolish that he wouldn't give Zel credit for being both stronger and more experienced in fighting than himself. There was no way he could win this.

Gourry grabbed her hand, sensing her distress, and she remembered all the times the four of them had stood up to even more impossible challenges, putting much more than just their lives on the line, to protect people they loved and cared about. If Orin wasn't willing to do the same for Amelia, then Lina just felt all the more reason for disliking him.

Zel surely wouldn't kill him (she'd only have to remind him that he fought with a dual-edged sword, so the trick with hitting with the blunt end was a no-go), so Orin wasn't really risking his life in any way, if he accepted. He was only risking injury and pain. If he wasn't willing to risk even that, well then.. He didn't love her deeply enough.

Instead of giving an answer, Orin stormed out, leaving a relieved Phil, a disappointed Gourry and an angered Inverse.

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Meanwhile, elsewhere in the castle, problems were solved under heavy sarcastic and teasing banter.

"I find it quite disturbing that the future ruler of Sailrune couldn't figure this one out." Zelgadis stated as flatly as he could while smirking smugly at the frustrated princess.

"Hey! I could." She said, almost in a childish tone. She got a look from Zelgadis, sceptic with both eyebrows raised. "...eventually.." She added. Another look. "..With some help."

"Aha." His tone was perfectly flat and sarcastic, and he found that he was quite enjoying himself. He decided to take it a little further. "I thought you were smarter than this, Amelia."

She opened her mouth in disbelief of his gall. She had the "you did not just say that"-look on her face when she looked up at him over her shoulder. He simply smiled, smugly. Well, she'd just have to turn that, wouldn't she?

"Maybe I'm not so smart, or maybe I'm smarter than you give me credit for." She stated and straightened herself up, sitting now with a superior and proud attitude.

"Oh, how so, Princess?" the word "princess" came out almost dripping with sarcasm. When he said it like that she didn't really mind the title.

"Well, Zelgadis-san, maybe I'm so smart that I just lure you into doing my paperwork." She said with a teasing tone.

"It's a simple task. I'm currently at your service: You could simply order me to do it." He argued.

"Ah, but then I wouldn't have the pleasure of you standing right here, teaching me, talking to me." She said. It was out of her mouth before she realised what she'd said. However, she figured that there was no harm in playing that card. After all, what harm could it do admitting that she liked his company?

Apparently it threw the chimera a little off track, but then again, he'd been in countless of these situations the last couple of days and felt pretty much like an emotional moron to be caught against the wall time and time again like this. He decided that silence wouldn't win a spot in this conversation.

"And you think you'd have to trick me into this, Princess?" he asked softly.

She felt a shiver run down her spine, and the air just became a little heavier to inhale. If she answered on that one, the conversation would turn more serious. She knew that, and as much as she'd like to have that conversation, she was deadly afraid of what the outcome of it might be. So instead, she deflected the subject.

"Can't you stop calling me Princess, Zelgadis-san?" she asked. "It sounds so formal, like you don't really see me as an equal, as a friend."

"Says the girl who held on to calling me Zelgadis-san through almost 6 years." He teased. Although his tone was teasing, it actually sounded like it had bothered him.

"Does that bother you, Zelgadis-san? I do it out of respect." She looked at him, somewhat shocked.

"A little. For the same reasons you stated." He answered, honestly.

"Then I swear by the heavens that I'll stop calling you that right now!" she vowed, her hand fisted, and almost striking a pose.

"I'd like to see you try." Zel remarked dryly.

"What do you mean?"

"You've been calling me, and everybody else, with an honorific. I doubt you can just drop it. It's too ingrown a habit."

"I can too!"

"Prove it." He said, with an almost malicious tone.

"It can't be hard just to call you Zelgadis, Zelgadis-sa-" She blinked. It really was an ingrown habit. "Zelgadis."

"Aha."

"Well, you're not the one to talk. I may have unintentionally held you and everybody else at an arm's length by calling you with the honorific, but when was the last time you ever gave one of your friends a hug!"

He blinked. Where the heck did that come from?

"I hugged you, didn't I? When we met the other day." He said in his defence.

"No, I hugged you. You let me, true. But I don't think you ever hugged anybody!"

Not true. he thought. When Phebrizzo killed you, I hugged you to me. But I guess you're right.

The silence was apparently all the answer she needed.

"See?"

He scratched the back of his head. Knowing Amelia, fear of physical contact was a lot more grievous offence than social blunders.

"I'll grant you that you might have a point there." He admitted.

She beamed a smile, aimed at nobody in particular. Then after a while, she said:

"Hug me."

He thought he'd heard her wrong, or was imagining things.

"Pardon?"

"Hug me, Zelgadis." She said in a flat, demanding tone.

He looked at her and blinked.

"Oh come off it, for Cephieds sake! It doesn't have to be a long or tight hug. You can even hug me around the chair, if you're that afraid. Just hug me!" she burst out. "If I can stop calling you Zelgadis-san, then you can give your friends a hug!"

There was somewhat of a silence, while he gathered the courage to move his arms from the desk, and circle them around her. Sure, the chair was still between them, and her back was turned to him, but it was a pretty big step for him anyhow.

Her heart sped up, as she felt him slightly tighten his grip, so that he was actually hugging her. It felt nice. And it oddly enough felt a lot nicer than the hugs they'd shared up until this point, which were all initiated by her. She felt his head slouch to rest partly on her shoulder and partly against her head. She let out a slight content sound. It made him instantly tense a little and slacken the hold around her.

"I'm not hurting you, am I?" he asked, concerned.

She tried not to laugh, and strangled the chuckle in her throat, somewhat.

"No, Zelgadis-s.. You're not." She brought up an arm, to encircle his upper body behind her, mainly to hug him back a little, but the gesture and the position suddenly became a lot more intimate by this. However, none of them broke free for a couple of glorious moments.

Then Orin opened the door. Needless to say his scowl became a lot deeper when he saw the two, and his eyes narrowed as he said:

"Amelia-dear. You and I need to have a word. In private!"

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Lina and Gourry was on their way from the library to the dining hall (better 15 minutes early than one late), when they saw Zel stand outside one of the doors. He was standing stoically, but Lina knew him well enough to know that this was his slightly angry pose. The pose he took when there was nothing he could do about a situation he didn't like.

"What are you doing here?" Lina exclaimed, her eyes slightly wide, as she didn't see Amelia anywhere.

"Prince Orin urgently wanted a word in private with Amelia." Zel droned.

"Why?" Lina simply asked, one eyebrow cocked, and leaning slightly back, crossing her arms over her swelling stomach. It was clear that she already knew the answer.

"I think he came in to tell me to go to hell, but he figured that wasn't bad enough when he saw us together.." the chimera said, and urgently felt the need to add: "and no, Lina, nothing like that. We were just having fun with her paperwork, and he apparently found it unprofessional. So now he wants some real, professional bodyguards to take care of it."

Lina fisted her hands, so that her knuckles turned white. Of course Orin would grab any straw to get an excuse. It's not like she couldn't understand him. She'd be jealous too in his stead. But at least she'd have the courage to fight the sucker who stood in her way instead of stooping to making lousy excuses. The chimera's words brought her out of her line of thought.

"It is like he is so busy trying to protect her from everything that he doesn't even realise who she is, how capable she is or what kind of wonderful and resourceful person she is!" Zel almost gave in to the need to back this statement up with a renouncing gesture.

Lina shot him a look. Zel deciphered it easily.

"Hey. I don't!" Zel said, defending, and looking slightly insulted.

"Oh no?" she ventured further.

"No, I don't. And it is exactly because I know just how resourceful she is that I'm willingly standing out here, while she's in there, probably giving him a piece of her mind." Zel said. At least it was partly true. While he was pretty reluctant to let her face it by herself, he was more than certain she'd be able to do so. They'd walked from her office to a little room, with no windows in the one half. After a while Zelgadis had agreed that he could leave her alone for a little while, as long as they stayed in the safe half.

"I guess that's the difference between you and Orin." Gourry said, probably mostly to himself. When the two others shot incredulous looks at him, he had to elaborate. "Well, it's sorta like when I first met Lina. I just wanted to be a protector, y'know. I didn't know Lina, and I totally misunderstood what she was and underestimated what she could do on her own. But when I got to know her, I still wanted to protect her, mainly on points where she couldn't take care of it herself. So, Orin wants to protect Amelia from everything, because he doesn't know anything about her. But you, Zel, want to protect her from stuff that might really hurt her. I guess that makes you the better protector!"

Lina bit her lip, trying not to smile too much. If the chimera knew of Gourry's connotations with the word protector, he'd know that Gourry had just gone and said what she'd wanted to say to him for years. Wonderful. And even better, the chimera didn't seem to understand. So, to him they were still talking about protecting somebody, and not love. Even bloody better!

"I know, Gourry, but the problem here is that Orin will never get to know her. We got to know her because we've adventured with her. But Orin will only ever see her as a member of the royal family. She's got no way of proving her abilities in other areas than royal paperwork and diplomacy. And believe me, that's not really her strong suit!"

Lina tried not to chuckle. She knew her husband well enough. He had to say something to that one, and she begged it was as sharp as the rest he'd been saying, intentionally or unintentionally, all day.

"Ha! I sorta know that feeling, Zel. I guess you're stuck with protecting her, then!" the blonde burst out, laughing relieved.

Lina felt like she could burst with happy bubbles right there, and kiss her husband. Especially when the usually sharp, but now quite absentminded chimera said: "I guess you're right." and apparently didn't realise the consequences. He was totally oblivious to the fact that the whole conversation, while taking about protection, was really about love.

Orin came out the door, looking like somebody who was split between admitting defeat and running back into the fight. He gave Zel a slight glare before going further down the hall to attend. Zel couldn't blame him. But it annoyed him to no end that the prince didn't fix the problem. In fact, he would have trusted him more with Amelia's safety if he'd ordered Zel killed on the spot, or even better done so himself. Being sceptic of monsters would only do him any good if he acted on it, and he apparently didn't. Zel's hope that this man would keep Amelia safe was hanging in a very thin string.

Amelia on the other hand came out of the room, looking as radiantly angry as ever. She looked like a dog who'd just barked an unwanted cat away. She looked angry, strong and slightly proud. Zelgadis noted that it somehow suited her. She rose up to the challenge apparently.

She looked at Zel, as if asking him if he was ready to head to the dining hall, and then the four of them started walking, silently accepting that things had been set straight.

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AN: I know there's a lot of thought and a lot of character and relation-development in this, and that it might not be as exciting or romantic as you'd like, but believe me it's necessary for this story to flow (originally it wasn't there, I more or less wrote this part in to make it seem more plausible).

Also sorry for OCCness, although I think it still works. Somehow.

Review if you like. ;)