AN: Wow, thank you for all the reviews. I never expected it to get so many so soon. I am truly grateful! And as with so many other fanfic writers, I love to receive reviews, praise, criticism and suggestions alike, and this in turn fuels my writing enthusiasm. So thank you.
Again, this fic does contain a few pointers to my other slayers fic Real Roses Have Thorns, but I am trying to keep it so that it can be read separately.
To those Xel/Fil fans who actually read the other story (to follow this one or for the heck of it), I am honored. :D
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters nor the world of the Slayers.
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They glared at each other, neither willing to yield or even blink.
He won't get the better of me! Filia thought, steeling her nerves. Of course, the only thing that usually kept her sane was the fact that she could chase him away when it all became too much. Without that option, she wasn't sure how she was going to last. But she had to. Somehow. He wouldn't get the better of her!
He seemed to catch sight of her inner battle, and his glare turned into a self-satisfied, smug smirk. Her frown deepened.
"Well, isn't this nice?" he asked, his tone anything but sincere. "If you only had a bit of your precious tea, this might even be like my usual visits to your little shop."
She bit the inside of her cheek to avoid an unconstructive remark on that one. If she started to cave in now, she wouldn't last long. That purplehaired, pompous, phony priest wanted her to get angry. He enjoyed it. She knew that much. But even if she'd had some tea, this still wouldn't be like his usual visits.
Don't let him get to you.
"How long do you think it is going to take?" She asked instead, opting for looking out the window instead of at him.
He shrugged.
"Hard to tell, really. But I sincerely hope it won't be for long, Filia-san." He said, his voice almost uncharacteristically honest.
Well, to be fair, this is about as bad as it can get. Filia thought. Their usual tolerance of each other seemed to rest on the unspoken condition that they were enemies in an almost childish way, annoying each other, calling each other names, him irritating her to the point where she would chase him.
Just like little boys would tease little girls they liked….
She shook her head, hoping that the thought hadn't surfaced to show on her face. It wasn't like that. Not really, anyways. But it was just as childish.
However, since he couldn't run and since she probably couldn't turn into dragon, where were they, really? What was left when that wasn't? All of the sudden she wasn't even sure how to react to him. There'd been few other times where she'd been in a similar situation. Like the time where he'd saved her from Valgaarv, or, as she blushed to recall, the time he'd held her captive right before Amelias wedding, to prevent her from interfering with the two lovebirds. It had been… a rattling experience. And thinking back upon it now was not helping the situation.
She wished more than anything that she had a good cup of warm tea right now to calm her nerves. In her favorite porcelain cup. She closed her eyes and tried to envision the steaming hot pot of tea, gently pouring into the cup. The crisp sound of her lifting it from the saucer, and-
"I suppose I'm not lucky enough for you to have forgotten your infernal mace, or coincidentally left it outside this room?" he asked, and her eyes snapped to him. His tone was awfully conversational, but his face had taken on a smirk.
"In fact, it's just in the bag over there." She said and pointed. "But I won't be using it. First of all, it wouldn't do much good because you wouldn't fly away; you'd only end up ricocheting off the walls and destroy the interior! But also because sudden bursts might do something to destabilize the field, and then we don't know what'll happen."
"Who knows? Maybe it'll just disappear." Xellos suggested in a voice that conveyed that he was just the kind of person who'd press a lever, just to know what happened, or play with fire for the kicks of it. "Anyways, your noble intentions aside, Filia, we both know that it's only a matter of time before you lose it and start getting violent. After all, that really is all that is the only strategy any Golden Dragon employ when it comes to problem solving. "
His smirk leaked into the tone, and she shot him a narrow-eyed glare. Her fist clenched, and she fought to calm her temper. He really had to love getting a rise out of her. She wasn't violent. She wasn't! She was just temperamentally challenged! This was where a good cup of tea would have done wonders. Oh, she could just feel the heat of the cup, radiating to her hand, feel the weight tug at her fingers as she would lift it to her lips, and taste the rounded and rich liquid as it ran over her tongue and proceeded to spread its comforting heat down-
"Starting to feel the abstinences, are we? From the tea, I mean." She looked at him only meet his mocking grin.
How did he know? She frowned. She'd just gotten better to keep her emotions so that he couldn't just eat them right off of her, so to speak. Apart from a few emotions she didn't have much control over, such as her anger.
"And before you ask, no I can't read your emotions, nor your mind." He sat down at the chair by the desk. "I've just never been alone with you for this long without you pining for a cup of your precious tea. And besides, your fingers were starting to twiddle with an invisible cup, just like you would with a real one. You really are so easy to read."
She glared at him. Okay, so maybe it was an addiction, or a safety blanket, or whatever he might call it, but who was he to judge? He was the one running away every time something even started to scratch the surface. Besides, he had been alone with her for longer intervals of time without her needing a cup. But again, it hadn't exactly been normal circumstances, so she supposed they didn't really count. Instead she noticed something else in the statement.
"Since when have you been so observant of how I act?" she asked, genuinely puzzled.
"Now now, Filia. That's a secret." He smiled at her, infuriatingly.
But when the room was filled with an awkward silence, she was the one to smile.
"No, seriously. Since when?" she smiled, seeing how he was still here, and that gimmick of his sort of lost all of its edge when he didn't disappear more or less after the statement.
"Didn't I just say that was a secret?" He asked, brows raised, with a mockingly puzzled expression. "Or could it be that you dragons turn deaf at will?"
"Just answer me, Namagomi!" she hissed.
"I observe everybody, very keenly, Filia-san." He said, as he turned to her and opened his eyes. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked into those frightening but beautiful violet eyes. "Especially you."
"Why?" she asked, not really sure she wanted to know the answer. She knew she wouldn't hear what she wanted to hear anyways.
"Well, what kind of adversary would I be if I didn't know you better than you know yourself, Filia-san?" he asked, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
His tone unnerved her. He walked closer to her, and she found herself starting to step backwards.
"Like the way you've recently started to chew on your lower lip and fiddle with your hair whenever you become nervous."
Filia realized that she was softly nibbling on her lip, and stopped immediately.
"Or the way you've started to back away whenever I'm getting close to you. Not that you ever really wanted me near you, seeing how a Mazoku might somehow corrupt the holy, pure and righteous Golden Dragons, but now… You almost seem frightened more than revolted."
She couldn't help but think how he actually meant that. Did it please him that she seemed afraid? Did it bother him? Truth was that she was afraid of having him close. She had been for a while now, but it all escalated when she was being held captive by him (in chains no less) during the Amelia-Zelgadis-chaos. There had been… moments, where she'd thought things she wasn't proud of. Like how she thought he was handsome, or how she wouldn't be entirely adverse to his advances, even if she knew he only had done that to intimidate her.
So yes, she was afraid to be near him. But that was mostly because she was afraid he'd eventually figure out what was going on in her mind. She knew he'd never let her hear the last of it, mocking her forever, and as she'd already concluded back then, that was a very long time with their respective lifespans.
And he was close now. Way too close, both eyes open, and not entirely smiling. This moment was too close and too honest, and way outside their normal frames of interaction. She could feel herself growing less and less certain that she could keep her emotions from becoming visible to him.
"The fact that I notice and know these little things makes it so much easier to read you." His voice took a more sadistic tone, as he came even closer.
She was running out of floor to back away on, her hand resting on the windowsill behind her, as she leaned away from him, her back touching the window. She closed her eyes and looked away.
"And when I can read you, I can predict you." His one foot bumped hers, and she could feel the heat of him. "And when I can predict you, I can control you, little golden one."
Her breath hitched as he reached a gloved finger to lift her chin, tilting her gaze to meet his. After a silence that to Filia seemed to stretch forever, he gave her a sarcastic and self-satisfied smirk, before he walked away from her.
"So you see, it is far from without reason that I notice little things about you, goldie." He looked at her over his shoulder with more trademark smile with closed eyes, sliding back into the confines of their usual roles when dealing with each other. "You seem shocked, Filia-san. I said it was a secret, and some secrets are kept secret for your own good."
Filia stood, steadying herself on the windowsill, being and looking rattled to the bone. This would not do. Not do at all! She had to do something to make sure that she would avoid situations like that one. He'd eventually catch a glimpse of her feelings, or perhaps even her hate, guilt or loathing for having them, and figure it out. And then it would all be over.
She took a quick glance over her shoulder out into the garden between this building and the main part of the castle. She was hoping to see Amelia running triumphantly towards them, having figured out how to get them out. But no such luck. And she realized that it might be a good idea to think in a long term plan.
If they didn't talk, she wouldn't get in situations like this, right? She might not be as calculating as the damned Mazoku, but being manipulative came almost natural to most females, when they put their mind to it.
"It's got nothing to do with peoples own good: You only say things are secrets because you think it makes you so damn superior, Namagomi!" she hissed, although it sounded a bit fake. Hopefully he couldn't tell. "It's the same reason why you talk so much, to show that you know so much, that you're so damn superior."
"I am superior, Filia." He smiled. Then he turned to face her, opening one eye and looking at her with a smirk that sent chills down her spine. "Would you like me to prove it?"
His smirk was suggestive, the look and tone too, however, she knew that he was only trying to get her all riled up. Again. But she needed to steer this conversation to its destination.
"No thanks. Besides, I don't think that the conditions favor you right now." She almost bit her tongue. She had to make an insult pretty big in order to make sure he didn't bite the slip of tongue she'd just made, because that almost sounded like a challenge, even in her ears. "I'm pretty certain that you just love to hear your own voice! An insecure little narcissist to the end, Namagomi."
She tried to make the tone be mocking enough to make up for the lack of sharp content. It seemed to work, though.
"You're not one to talk. You Golden Dragons blabber constantly, if nothing else then to justify yourselves." He bit back, although more bantering than irritated. "If you don't talk constantly, you're afraid that somebody might stop and see right through you. To realize that you're always hiding behind words."
"Not true at all! I rarely talk when it is not appropriate or needed, and I certainly don't do it for the pleasure of hearing myself talk, like somebody else!"
"I bet you couldn't stop talking even if you wanted to." He said, smirking, challenging her. She fought down her own smile. Hook, line and sinker.
"But then you won't have any to talk to, and you'll look ridiculous when you start talking to yourself, Namagomi!"
"Please, Filia-san." He scoffed. "It is very presumptuous of you to think that I would ever miss talking to you, even if the alternative was talking to the door, which, by the way, very well may turn out to be a better debating partner than you in the long run."
"Alright then, we don't talk from now on!"
"Fine by me!"
"Fine!"
Filia smiled. Silence would be easier to keep than a conversation. Right?
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Lina growled, shooting the crystal ball a dirty look. She was officially off-duty, seeing how she'd only really agreed to trap the two supernatural beings. It was Amelia and Zel's job to keep them. But she had to admit that it did look like something was going on. They talked a lot more than she had anticipated. And that stunt Xellos just had pulled, whatever it was, had almost seemed… But that probably wasn't the case.
Amelia smiled apologetically to her from her position in the core.
"I am sorry, Lina. I really am. But I can't get sound on it!" she started before the redheaded sorceress could.
"But what the heck just happened? Before they were all talky-talky and now they seem, I dunno, angry at each other?!" said sorceress hissed, gesturing indignantly towards the ball.
"They're always angry at each other." Zel dully remarked, his arms crossed.
"Not like this, they're not!" Lina argued.
"I'm still betting they'll end up killing each other." Zel said. Amelia gave him a stare. The Stare.
"At any rate, I don't think they can keep this up. It's only a matter of time before one of them caves in and starts talking to the other."
"My money says she'll cave first. In an hour or so." Said Lina, confidently.
"I'm guessing longer." Said Zel.
"Less than half an hour!" Amelia exclaimed, fisting her hand and striking a pose as epic as the confined space of the core allowed. "Because love is a feeling so strong that it cannot be denied for longer than half an hour at a time!"
"That sounds like one of your logics alright…" Lina started, but gave up.
Gourry, who again hadn't been joining the discussion much looked up at them, Val in one arm, Ruby in the other.
"I'm thinking about ten minutes. And you might be right about Filia caving first, but I think Xellos will be the first one to actually talk." He said.
"Oh you are such a sucker, Gourry! You're on! We're betting a month of diaper-changing-duty on this one!" Lina shot him her victorious smirk.
Gourry squirmed a little in his seat. Then again, he was usually pretty good at predicting people's emotions, as long as it wasn't anything you needed to think to do. And sometimes thinking about emotions often made it more difficult to figure them out. And since Gourry was quite good at not thinking, he had a natural knack for figuring people out. Instincts, that was what Lina had attributed it to. It really was more of a feeling than an actual thought. Which was also why he so often couldn't rationalize why he was right. But he had learned to trust it.
Either way, he was pretty sure that he was going to change diapers anyways, regardless of the bet. A usual consequence of Lina losing a bet was stereotypically a severe attack of spontaneous and highly selective amnesia.
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Xellos looked at the dragoness. Five, maybe ten minutes had passed since they stopped talking, and she was already walking in circles. No doubt the situation was getting to her. If she had reached this point so soon, she'd be very interesting to observe in an hour.
But that was just the trouble, wasn't it? He couldn't just sizzle away and then pop back in an hour or so to check in on her and have a good laugh at her expense. Because he was forced to stay put the very same hour, occupying the very same space, breathing the very same, increasingly uncomfortable air.
And while that most probably still meant that she'd be worthy to laugh at in an hour, he'd most likely not feel very inclined to do so, if he was in any condition to it at all.
This all seemed so surreal. How in the world could anybody take his powers from him? Yes, he knew that they were probably in some parallel existence, a pocket space or something similar, but still. He should be a Mazoku, with Mazoku powers nearly anywhere, anytime and anyplace. And while he still had many of his natural powers, big spells or special Mazoku features were off limits.
And why would this phenomenon show up in Sailrune of all places? It couldn't only be white magic. If it had been, Filia would've been able to go through. And something powerful had to charge it. It seemed unlikely that the royal family of Sailrune would've let a power-source like that go by them. They'd had mages, sages and even a lot of rulers with magical talent. Surely they wouldn't be so blind as to miss a power-source this huge. Especially if that whole fishy story was true, and a member of the royal family indeed had been trapped in here.
He didn't have time to dwell any further on it, as his goldenhaired companion sat down at the table, and slumped over the table, burying her face in her hands. The hopelessness and restlessness she unconsciously excluded was as delicious as ever, but he found himself not really enjoying it. He would have preferred her anger any day.
"Giving up?" he asked, his voice sweet and filled with fake concern. It really was the only way he could get himself to ask what was the matter.
"Would you stop looking at me, it's driving me crazy!!" she all but yelled into the poor surface of the table.
Silly dragon. Like saying something like that would make me inclined to stop doing it? He thought, smiling wickedly. Sometimes she really did make it too easy for him. It made him wonder if she actually liked being irritated and aggravated.
"If you weren't pacing the floor like a wild animal in a cage, believe me I wouldn't, because frankly, there's not much to look at." He said, enjoying how the situation shifted from uncomfortable and stifling to angry and more… usual. "But then again, I suppose you are a wild animal in a cage!"
"And you're caged in with me, so if you don't want this wild animal to tear you into pieces, I suggest you pipe down, Namagomi!" she hissed.
He laughed. She seemed so claustrophobic right now. But at least she was back to angry. It was by far better.
"So violent we are." He sighed, dramatically.
He really loved getting her all worked up. And nutrition played an ever so insignificant part of it. He loved how she bit back at him, never willingly giving him an inch. How she'd get all flustered with anger, and actually, he also liked how she would chase him. Not that any of them was in any doubt who was the stronger of the two, not anymore at least. But somehow it was just decided per convention that she was "allowed" to hit him (or at least swing at him) with Mace-sama. He could stop her any time he wanted. He just never felt like it.
"I am not violent!" she hissed, but sounded to be in a better mood. In a more Filia-ish mood at least, which relived him a little. There were only so many negative emotions he wanted to see her in, and he invariably preferred to be the direct and sole cause of them.
Sometimes that did bother him. He'd been warned that she should never become a liability to him, that one should never become too fond of a toy, in case it got broken or stolen by another Mazoku. He'd surprised himself by reacting with some kind of passive anger, stating in a cheerful voice that if anybody else laid a finger on the Golden he would kill them. Thankfully Filia was also the caregiver of Val, which made her interesting for Lord Beastmaster to keep alive, and thus the threat hadn't been relevant so far.
A throat was cleared behind the door, and as Xellos opened it he found the chimeric consort standing outside. Xellos smiled his most annoying smile. Yes, it must be vexing for the descendant of Rezo that he couldn't get a fair chance to kick some Mazoku ass while Xellos was influenced by this field. And Xellos found that the least he could do was to remind Zelgadis of that, and hopefully twist the knife a little.
"Amelia is still looking for a way out.." Zelgadis said, mainly looking at Filia, his voice not betraying any annoyance. "But I'm afraid we're talking tomorrow at the earliest. I just thought I should warn you."
Filia's head snapped up from the table, looking at Zelgadis, while the message apparently gradually sank in.
"We're working on arrangements for food, but I'm not sure anything can pass the barrier.. Possibly something with little to no life-force in it."
Xellos looked at him, intrigued. Oh? So, they had no idea what this field was, yet the chimera had somehow figured out that dead things could pass? Xellos wondered how he'd come to that conclusion. It seemed like an ineffective shield, if anything inanimate could just pass through. It had to be tested, though.
"What are we talking, something like dried things?" Filia asked, and didn't notice as the Mazoku went behind her to go through her bags.
"Possibly. Fruits are probably out of the question anyways-" Zelgadis said, and only his keen senses saved him from being struck down by a flying Mace-sama. Filia looked wideeyed at her mace, now embedded in the wall across the hall. Zel looked at the mace with disdain, and went away.
"I'll come back with some food later.."
Filia still stared at her mace, mouth wide agape. Xellos looked at it too, enjoying her expression and inwardly counting down to her reaction.
"Well, I suppose he was right." Xellos said, trying to sound like praise was in order, just to ruffle her scales even further.
"XELLOS!!!" she shrieked, as she finally snapped out of it.
Xellos smiled inwardly as he made his innocent-confused look at her. Oh she was gloriously pissed, and he was even rid of her infernal mace. Bonus!
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AU: This is again growing on me. I'm hoping 3 or 4 chapters, but more realistically it'll be 5 or more… =__= I'm no good at short stories. Anyways, let me know how you like it. Also, I'm hoping for a higher update-speed than I had with my last Slayers bit of fun. I apologize for them occasionally being out of character. ;) They're hard to keep in there. If you like it, have suggestions, criticism or comments, please leave a review.
See you soon.
