So has anyone out there ever get one chapter done of a fanfiction, finish another, but have a whole chapter's worth of story completely unwritten in-between? That is the current fate of the Nehszriah. I implore the plot bunnies for moral support! -is pummeled with stuffed bunnies- I do not own Slayers, Major League Baseball, death, painful childhood trauma or the chili-cheese fries of doomage that I can eat all day if necessary.

Pre-Chapter Notes: Maria is pronounced mar-EE-ah, not marie-ah. Just think of how a Japanese person would say it. I watched two episodes of Gungrave and fell in love with the pronunciation.

Juu-roku

Dinner For Two! Chimera's Lament!

Amelia walked into the office and sat down at her desk. The clock had not yet struck eight and the neat and orderly desk she had left the night before had transformed into a large-scale mess of forms, memos and other miscellaneous papers that made poor Amelia want to cry in despair.

"You are late," she heard Zelgadis say right behind her. She jumped and saw him standing in the doorway to his office.

"L-Late Mr. Graywords?" Amelia asked nervously. "I was under the impression that getting here an hour before nine was early."

"I changed the hours yesterday. Be in by eight-thirty or you are late."

"I am sorry sir, but you never informed me."

"Then I must have been thinking about it. Why did you not figure it out?"

"I am a secretary Mr. Graywords, not a mind reader," Amelia sighed, quite disheartened at the mess before her. She was just about to dive into the mound of paperwork on her desk when another rather large stack of papers landed in front of her.

"I hope you do not mind all of this paperwork Miss Seiryuun, but I am in the process of expanding the business to include a publishing sector and the work is a bit too much for me to handle alone." With that, Zelgadis gave a wry, sarcastic smile and disappeared into his office, closing the door behind him and leaving Amelia to her work.

This is insanity! Amelia thought as she looked over the topmost page of the new stack of papers. Great. He is having me take care of his business with the Slayers. Miss Lina was right. I must have been loony to accept this job… doesn't he realize that Amelia Wil Tesla Seiryuun is only one person? I guess not.

Sighing heavily, Amelia got to work. She knew at that point that she would have to work straight through lunch just to get catch up with all the backwork.

80808080808080808

Amelia let out a relieved sigh as she inspected her desk. It was clean and devoid of all the stray papers that had littered it previously throughout the day. Ten minutes before six and her work was finally done! The work had worn her out, with all of the sorting, filing and delivering of different papers to various other workers in the small building, but the feeling she had was one of great accomplishment. She picked up her purse from underneath the desk and began to walk towards the door to go home.

"Miss Seiryuun," Zelgadis said, stopping Amelia in her tracks. Amelia reluctantly turned around to see her boss standing in the doorway to his office with a serious look upon his face. "Would you mind if I had a few words with you?"

"No problem Mr. Graywords," Amelia said.

What did I do? Better yet... what did I not do?

"Please sit down," Zelgadis requested as Amelia followed him into his office. She warily obeyed and sat in a chair as Zelgadis took his own seat behind his desk.

"Is everything alright, sir?"

"I am not quite sure yet. How long have you been working for me Miss Seiryuun?"

"About a month's time."

"I see… I've noticed you seem a bit overloaded with the work I have given you, have you not?"

"Only a little," Amelia admitted softly. She directed her eyes down to her hands that were folded in her lap.

It's my performance… she thought. He must not think I am really up to the challenge. Oh no…Please don't be mad…

"I am... sorry," Zelgadis said, an apparent strain in his voice. Amelia looked up and saw that her boss had a far-off look upon his face, eyes directed at the picture frame on his desk. "Even though you were the best candidate, I should have realized that you were only a novice at being a secretary and given you at least a little bit of a break…"

"…Mr. Graywords… I…"

"Hey, I apologized, alright!" Zelgadis snapped, making Amelia jump slightly. "It's hard enough doing that!" Amelia looked back down at her hands, embarrassed for Zelgadis's outburst.

He sounds really tense, she thought. It is kind of scary. He's never tried to act this nice before.

"…so I would like to make it up to you for being so demanding…" Zelgadis muttered, taking Amelia completely by surprise. His spine gave a quick shudder. It was not his fault Rezzo had taught him from when he first started working that being kind to employees, secretaries in particular, was highly important. Having a capable and pleasant staff was one of the things that would help him succeed in life and excel to places beyond his dreams. Zelgadis had seen the importance of this with Frances, for she had truly helped him to excel. He also saw that Amelia was definitely nothing like his former lover. She seemed to be too young-at-heart to be like Frances and Zelgadis did not want to completely ruin her confidence.

"Mr. Graywords, I am not quite sure what you mean…"

"Dinner… only as coworkers… if you want…" he said as if he was trying to distract himself from what he was saying.

"I guess it would be alright. I know a restaurant that has some of the absolute best food around!"

"Then lead the way Miss Seiryuun," Zelgadis replied as he stood up and walked over towards his open office door. He felt a little better, as if a weight had been lifted from inside him. Amelia felt slightly more at ease too, yet both of them were wary about the situation they were getting themselves into.

80808080808080808

"Is something wrong Mr. Graywords?" Amelia asked over her menu. Zelgadis glanced over the top of his own and replied frankly.

"I don't usually go to places like this, so I'm not all that sure about what I want to eat."

"What do you usually eat?"

"Thai, Chinese or Italian when I am out. Whatever I can find in the house when I don't want take-out."

"There's spaghetti and lasagna on the menu."

"I don't want that though."

"Is there any kind of food you don't like?"

"No…"

"Then I'll order for you," Amelia proudly said. Zelgadis muttered his approval and began to stare off into space as Amelia waved down the diner waitress so she could order food. The old greasepot diner was surprising at first, yet now that he was in the old relic, Zelgadis was beginning to have flashbacks to when he was a child and his family was still alive. Back when his mother would take him to places like this all the time.

He could see his mother sitting in a booth down the aisle. Her face showed the strain single motherhood had painfully brought her. His younger self sat in the seat opposite her, unaware of his mother's sorrows. The pair were content as they ate. Maria Graywords knew already that she was dying, but did not want her only child to worry. That day, she would take young Zelgadis to visit with his grandfather while she went to the hospital with her mother for the doctors to do some tests…

"Mr. Graywords?"

"Hmm…?" Zelgadis snapped out of his reverie and back to the present. He looked over at Amelia, who was drinking some cherry cola.

"Is anything wrong?" she asked.

"No," Zelgadis said, staring off towards an empty booth in the diner. "I was just lost in a memory."

"A memory Mr. Graywords? I hope it is a happy one."

"Bittersweet. My memories are bittersweet in nearly every single way."

"Even the ones from childhood?"

"They are only saddened now due to the fact that I can look upon the events without a child's blind faith. I now know why things were the way they were back then and I am angry at the reasoning behind them."

"Life is funny that way," Amelia agreed. "When the lies of adults are revealed to a child's thoughts, those thoughts are forever changed."

"At least you understand somewhat," Zelgadis said as the food came. The surly waitress almost slammed down a rather large plate filled with an enormous cheeseburger and a side order of greasy french fries, smothered in chili and melted cheese. A similar plate was set in front of Amelia and once the waitress left, the famished young woman dug into her burger with complete relish.

I didn't realize that she ordered me this, Zelgadis pondered as he picked up his fork and began eating the chili-cheese fries. I can't remember when exactly the last time I ever had food like this was. Frances never would have settled for eating this. This would have been too "unhealthy" for her to take. In fact, this whole place would probably have made her keel over. He then took his cheeseburger and began to consume that. As he went to take a third bite, he froze right before he sank his teeth into the food. His memories attacked him once more, this time being as painful as possible.

It had been a year since the scene in the diner. Eleven-year-old Zelgadis sat in a room in the hospital, next to his mother's bed, distraught about the only parent he ever knew. After leaving Zelgadis with Rezzo that one day, Maria and her mother Eris had unwillingly gotten into a car accident when the red traffic light was run in front of the hospital by a careless young driver. Eris had been killed instantly as a result of the crash. Maria was hospitalized with severe injuries and her health was permanently compromised more than ever before. It was a slow spiral downward that enveloped Maria's entire body. Knowing all and any attempt at survival would be destroyed by her own failing immune system, she had decided to say her final good-bye to her son and let the icy hand of death take her away.

"Mom, where's Dad?" young Zelgadis asked her. "You told me he always has to work far away. Why can't he come here and see you in the hospital?"

"He will never come back, son," Maria sighed heavily. "I hate to say it Zelgadis, but your father doesn't want us. He left before you were even born."

Young Zelgadis was rendered speechless. He had always been told that his father was off in far-away places, wanting badly to come home yet was always delayed somehow. It felt like a miracle to Maria that she was able to pull the wool over her sharp son's eyes for so long, for she never wanted her son to grow up loathing the man she would have very willingly called "husband" and the father of her child. Now, Zelgadis knew the only truth in the lies that had accumulated over the long years was that his father was far away.

"I want you to take good care of your grandfather, Zelgadis," Maria requested, a wan smile forming on her lips as a last show for young Zelgadis. She was feeling the effects of being off the life-sustaining machines that had kept her alive for the past year. "You know how silly your Grandpa Rezzo can be."

"Sure Mom," young Zelgadis agreed, tears beginning to flow from his eyes. "I'll take good care of him... you can count on me..." He could not continue; the tears were too great. Crying uncontrollably now, he ran up to his mother and hugged her tight. Maria then smiled weakly and closed her eyes.

"Thanks. I love you, my son."

"Mom...?" young Zelgadis sniffed. He drew back and looked up at his mother's face with his blurry eyes. Her face was eerily calm and she was unresponsive. "Mom? Mom! Wake up Mom!" The memory became a blur of heartache, of loneliness, of despair.

Maria Graywords never woke up.

Slowly, Zelgadis came back to the diner. He could hear an alarmed voice quietly calling his name. Looking up, he saw Amelia's worried face giving him a highly concerned look. Zelgadis noticed that he had placed his cheeseburger down and had not eaten a thing since his painful memory came to him.

"Are you sure everything is alright Mr. Graywords?" Amelia asked before picking up a chili-and-cheese-laden french fry. "You seem to be quite distracted, which is not like you at all." She popped the french fry in her mouth and licked the excess chili and cheese off her fingers.

"I'm fine," Zelgadis lied. He then decided to change the subject to avoid having to tell her anything about his past. "Miss Seiryuun, why don't you use a fork for your fries instead of getting your fingers dirty?"

"Oh!" Amelia gasped, as if the act of eating with her fingers was a horrid evil. "I am so sorry! My other friends just eat up everything in sight, so I guess I am used to eating as fast as I can..."

"Even if it means using your fingers?"

"Yeah... sometimes..." Amelia blushed. She looked down at her food and wondered what her boss was thinking about her.

Oh, he probably thinks I am an absolute slob! she thought in distress. Daddy always said that I needed to have perfect manners when I am around others, but Miss Lina and Mr. Kurt just eat so much I have to fight for the right to eat my own food! How embarrassing!

She looked up at Zelgadis, who seemed to almost be amused by Amelia's confession. She blushed some more, picked up her fork and began to eat some of the stray chili-cheese mixture still left on her plate. She kept her gaze on her food out of embarrassment and began to wonder what she should do next.

"I'm sorry Mr. Graywords," Amelia said suddenly. Zelgadis looked up from his cheeseburger, a bit startled.

"What are you apologizing for this time?"

"I feel like I need to apologize for something. I'm not quite sure to what yet."

"Apologize for nothing," Zelgadis said blandly. "In fact, why don't we drop the formalities, eh? I think it would make you and I both feel a bit more at ease."

"Okay then," Amelia agreed as she finished up the rest of her spare chili-cheese mix. She finished it in silence as Zelgadis polished off his own food and the two of them left the small diner less hungry, but more awkward with each other than they thought they had ever been.

Things To Know

Zelgadis/Amelia: Yes! Finally! -dances- Things are becoming right with the world once again!

Zelgadis's Flashbacks: Yes, these explain his childhood's craptastic existence, how his mother died, how he came to live with Rezzo and where in the hell his father is! It was very sad to write and tried to trick my eyes into leaking.

Where Are They Eating?: A diner. You know... one of those things that was popular in the fifties and it was the place to be back when my grandparents were my age.

The Chapter Sort of Cuts Off: That's because the subplot continues on next week!