Chapter 9

Warm steps

On the west balcony

Zelgadis stood torn between outrage and out right shock as Lina and Xellos walked away arm in arm. How dare that that… how dare he insinuate that my part in defeating Darkstar was irrelevant? The fact that Zelgadis often felt mildly superfluous on Lina's quests was beside the point, and-

His thoughts ground to a screeching halt. What is Xellos doing here? They hadn't seen Xellos since the defeat of Darkstar, and before he showed up that time they hadn't seen him since the defeat of Hellmaster. Zelgadis frowned. What is going on? There was also the highly disturbing fact that Lina had just walked away arm in arm with the mazoku whose presence almost certainly heralded trouble.

Zelgadis worry proved greater than his anger and as he calmed down, still staring towards where Lina and Xellos had disappeared into the ball, he became away of a warmth in his arms. Something warm and soft-

He turned red as he realized that he still held Amelia in his arms. Blushing he drew back out of the embrace before looking down at her. She was blushing as well, but smiling up at him, affection clear in her eyes. He couldn't help but smile back at her. No matter how worried or upset he got, she had the odd ability to cheer him up. She had such a warm heart, and her warmth had slowly but surely soaked through to his stone heart. It was funny really, that a princess who believed more firmly in justice than most five year olds, was the person who affected him like that.

That didn't do her credit, she was brave, courageous, loyal, and beautiful… but she was very different from him. He gave an internal sigh, he'd come to terms with the fact that somewhere along the way he had started to return her feelings. But even though she had been maturing during the time he had known her, even though he had come to care for her, there was no way he could pursue a relationship, not with his body like this. After all when Phil became King, Amelia was going to become the Crown Princess. The heir apparent of the white magic capital of the world couldn't be with a chimera, even if she wanted to. In a way the fact that Amelia and Phil would accept him made it hurt worse. But Amelia loved her people, and it was unfair to ask her to choose. If only he could find a cure…

He realized with a start that he had gone from holding her to staring at her, and she was blushing under his gaze, which wasn't exactly what he had intended. His own blush returned with interest and he cleared his throat awkwardly, looking away. He cursed his lack of people skills…

"I'm glad you could make it, Zelgadis-san."

He was still studying the shoes that had temporarily replaced his boots, but he managed to reply, "I did say I would."

"I know, but I worried when I didn't see you at the banquet," she sounded a bit embarrassed, and contrite.

"Sorry," he replied a little guiltily, "the ship I was on got into port later than I thought it would." He finally managed to look back up at her. She was smiling at him.

"I'm just happy you're here now."

He slowly smiled back, "how has everyone been?" It was a safe question, and it would hopefully steer his thoughts back to safer channels.

"Well… it's hard to say," she said frowning slightly. He raised an eyebrow and motioned for her to continue. "When we first got back everything seemed normal. Lina was doing some research in the library and working the cooks I assigned to her ragged. But… she wasn't very excited about the ball. I had to bribe her to even get her to Seyruun."

"The cooks?" At Amelia's nod he continued, "that doesn't sound unusual."

"It's not that. Last week Lina and Gourry were both getting fitted, and after they were done we had lunch. Gourry … made a comment… that it was a good idea that Lina wore a dress… so no one would think she was a boy."

Zelgadis sighed and shook his head; it was surprising Gourry was still alive really. "He should really know better by now."

Amelia sighed and nodded in agreement. "Here's what's strange though. Lina hit him, but only once, and then she stalked off."

Zelgadis blinked, that wasn't really a Lina way to handle things.

"It get's worse… while Lina was gone Sylphiel showed up."

"I thought you liked Sylphiel?"

"I do…" stammered Amelia, "but well… she's changed a bit." At Zelgadis' blank look she continued, "she was wearing a dress and had a huge basket of cookies for Gourry. She's been…"

"Flirting with Gourry?"

"Well she did that before… but she's much more aggressive about it suddenly."

Zelgadis shook his head. He generally didn't believe in meddling with people's love lives, but… Gourry was so dense he might not realize that Sylphiel was trying to… well that she wanted to marry him.

"I guess I'll have to try and explain what's going on with Sylphiel to Gourry… though I doubt how much will sink in."

"There's more. Since Sylphiel showed up Lina has almost disappeared from the castle. I've barely seen her all week, and tonight…"

"Tonight?" he prompted.

"Gourry and Sylphiel are in there dancing… and Lina saw them. It would have been hard not to."

"Is that why Lina is arm in arm with Xellos?" asked Zelgadis. It was bothering him more than he cared to admit that Lina was walking around like that with the mazoku. Lina was his friend, not because she was too stupid to really care he was different like Gourry, and not because she felt you had to be kind to people. To be honest he'd felt that was why Amelia was nice to him in the beginning. But Lina… she had never cared, not really. She'd been curious, she'd teased him mercilessly every chance she got, and used him as a shield on occasion. But she was his friend because she liked him as a person. She'd been the first person aside from Zolf and Rodimus to look past his appearance, and it meant more to him than he could really say.

Amelia considered his question, "I'm not sure…" she mused. At Zelgadis' raised eyebrow she proceeded, "Well Lina was mad at me when I came out here. I don't know what she was doing out here, but Xellos was already with her and it was definitely me she was unhappy with when I called for her. Besides if she was doing this to make Gourry jealous wouldn't she want to be inside where he could see?"

Zelgadis blinked, not only was this a surprisingly logical and objective response, it made a disturbing amount of sense. "Then what was she doing?"

Amelia frowned, her brow crinkled slightly and Zelgadis couldn't help but remember some of the mildly insane things she had done about the relationship she presumed Lina and Gourry had. Not that any of it had ever seemed to help. In fact, he would have bet money that Amelia's actions had driven Lina farther away from Gourry at times, and even everyone else. Lina didn't like emotional situations, and she hated being forced to do anything. Zelgadis scowled.

"If Xellos is here it's probably to tangle us all up in some plan of his… again," he snarled.

Amelia was still frowning slightly, she would have said that too, but there had been times… she shook her head. Lina had been pretty upset with her, which meant she should leave her alone for a while. The best way to continue a happy life was to stay out of Lina's way when Lina was angry. She hadn't seen Zelgadis for some time… and she'd missed him. She smiled.

"Zelgadis-san? Did you get any desert? We got in this wonderful flavored coffee for the ball."

The chimera perked up at the mention of his favorite substance, and Amelia fought against the slight giggle it stirred in her. For all of his gloomy moods, you just had to know what to distract him with. Her giggles turned into a case of butterflies when he held out his elbow to her. Beaming at him she took his arm and they turned to walk back into the ball.