AN: Alright! We're aiming for no more than 5 chapters. Then they just have to grow a little longer if I can't control my creativity. Oh yes, that's a good way of solving the problem. Don't increase the amount of chapters, increase the length. Oh well, it is one step towards being able to plan out a story and then NOT allowing it to grow due to too much introspection and emotional porn (as a friend of mine so lovingly coined the term).

Also, as some of you have noticed, I tend to make some mistakes i.e. leaving out words, grammar errors, misspellings, awkward use of phrases or words, stuff like that. The reason why this isn't fixed is mainly that I suck reading through something I've written myself. I know what it's supposed to say, so why wouldn't it say what I think it does? *sigh* Now, if you want to avoid this, I need somebody to volunteer to beta this for me. Anyone up for it? (Anyone knows how it works, btw?)

Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers, and I'm sure as heck not making any money on this piece of fiction. ;) Only a whole lot of amusement.

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In absence of mace, superhuman strength and teleportation, the brutal retribution for throwing Mace-sama out the door had been reduced to a good chase around the table in the room. It seemed so trivial and stupid, and underlined the childishness of their relation. Xellos ran a little faster, drawing out chairs to stand in her way as he ran around the table. She cursed loudly as she tried to pursue him, with little success. It would've been a lot faster for her just to stop and turn around, but the game wasn't played that way.

With a frustrated growl she stopped and stamped a foot in the floor, hands fisted at her sides. Xellos used this opportunity to fuel the flame by continuing his round, and stopping right behind her, pretending it to be an accident. He could feel her freeze in her position as he kept standing just inches away from her, and fully enjoyed her discomfort. She'd get angry any second now, but the seconds up to her passing that threshold was worth it all. Sometimes he wondered what went through her pretty little head as seconds like these passed.

She was, as always in these strange situations, vaguely excluding an emotion he couldn't quite point down, mainly because she held it back so damn well he could only get a whiff of it. He often found himself curious as to what it really was, but experience with the dragon told him that it was some sort of state she entered into whenever she was wavering between anger and fear.

"I'm terribly sorry, Filia." He said, soft voiced, and willing himself not to let his smirk leak into it. "I didn't expect you to just give up like that."

She was still standing perfectly still, although he could swear she was shaking slightly. Fear? Could be. Hard to tell with the way she kept most of her feelings under wraps from him. Or was she shaking with anger? More likely. He smiled at himself. He could tip the scales either way, and he enjoyed that fact.

Being nearly all-powerful tended to become boring in the long run. But in situations like this he felt empowered again. Like having this sort of power over the dragoness surpassed being able to kill her kind by the thousands with a mere stroke of his hand. She was there, essentially in the palm of his hand, deciding between anger and fear, and he could make the final decision, tipping the scales to best suit himself. He decided to tip them in favor of anger, which he enjoyed seeing on her like a lover might enjoy seeing his beloved in a certain garment.

"But then again, I suppose that is all that you really are good for, Filia. Giving up, I mean."

His tone was seeping with all the sarcasm he'd been itching to put into it before. But when that didn't achieve the desired effect fast enough he decided to take a step back from her, and gently grab her shoulders with both hands. That sent the dragoness soaring back into consciousness, with a vengeance.

"Get your filthy hands off of me, Namagomi!!" She shrieked, twirling around to smack him.

Xellos had temporarily forgotten that he couldn't just teleport away (after all, when you've lived with the gift of instant disappearance for eternity, or what would damn near pass as it, you tended to take little things like that for granted). As her palm connected with his cheek, they both stood wide-eyed in the wake of the ear-piercing smack.

Filia stared at him, panic written clearly all over her face. His hand instinctually reached to rub the abused skin. This was new. This had never happened before, without some sort of deliberate thought behind it. And certainly not in their little "I make you angry, you chase me"-agreement.

Her hand slowly found its way to curl in front of her mouth in a horror-stricken expression.

"I'm sorry!" she gasped, as if the shock first really sank in now.

Xellos, feeling a bit besides himself only dismissed the apology with a wave of a hand and a quiet "No need.", as he sat down at the table. The silence became mutually awkward. Even Xellos would have to agree that they could both do with a good cup of tea after this life-altering experience.

Filia stood a while, wringing her hands and looking split between furious, panicked and concerned. Then she started pacing, slightly, and after a while, apparently needing to do something to occupy herself, she started to unpack. She dragged the huge bag up on the bed with less ease than usual. The extra strain would've gone unnoticed by most, seeing how she really was insanely strong even without her magical dragon strength.

As Filia unpacked, Xellos looked over her belongings. A lot of very girly and feminine gowns and accessories. Especially ribbons in rose and pink colors. The simple action brought a bit of normality into the strained situation. Not exactly their kind of "normal", but this more universal form of normality was at any rate better than the universal kind of awkwardness the air had been filled with.

"Aren't you going to unpack too?" she asked, but then took a look around the room and probably concluded, correctly, that he'd had been traveling very light, since he could just pull wished belongings from nothingness. But not now. Nothingness was not accessible to him in here.

"If you want, I could borrow you a set of spare clothes." She said, her tone mocking, but not looking at him as she laid a new gown out on the bed before going to fetch hangers in the closet.

He smiled, slyly. She'd given him a window of opportunity to reclaim their "normal" status, and he would be a fool not to plunge through it. Besides, she was making it a lot easier for him than she'd probably intended, which made it even more interesting. If she'd only joined the group a year before, she'd know that he wasn't one to be too proud or insecure to wear a dress. He'd in fact looked quite convincing (or at least more convincing than Lina, although that, arguably, wasn't saying much) when they had to sneak into Femille.

"You don't want to do that, Filia." He smiled, knowing that what he was about to say would shake her up a bit. "You might not want to wear that dress again afterwards."

She looked at him, a little surprised perhaps that he didn't just flat out dismiss the offer. She the scoffed and stuck her nose in the air.

"You're right. I'd probably end up burning it, seeing how there'd been a filthy Mazoku in it!" she made a dramatic sniffle. "Not to mention the mental scars it would inflict!"

He recognized the teasing, overdramatic tone. She must have picked it up from him along the way, but that wouldn't help her. He'd been playing this sort of game longer and better than she could ever hope to.

"Yes. You'd probably end up suffering from serious self-esteem issues afterwards, since I in all likelihood will look far sexier and more elegant than you wearing it."

It was only meant to irate her, and it certainly seemed to achieve that.

"You.. you pervert!" she hissed, her cheeks flaring a bit. Oh how he enjoyed that.

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Amelia sighed relieved as she switched places with Zelgadis in the core. She hadn't expected it to be this exhausting. But she supposed it was better that it drained a little too much than a little too little. If they could get out, they would. Things weren't exactly progressing at the speed she'd expected, but then again, Zelgadis had said that she was a wee bit of an optimist at times.

She took a moment to look at the crystal ball, then looked herself over in the mirror, trying to freshen up a bit, took the tray (Which Gourry and Lina thankfully hadn't ravaged) and headed towards the door with purposeful strides.

"Remember I'll be sitting here, and I can't come to your rescue." Zel remarked before she opened the door out of the control-room.

"I know. I'll try to steer clear of lying and go for "not telling the truth" instead, just like you said!" She smiled happily at him.

She supposed it was a terrible thing for her to be so excited about him tutoring her in the not-so-glorious art of subterfuge, but then again, it would serve her well in situations like these. And less severe cases of course, as in diplomatic cases, or other problems that didn't involve locking up two forces of nature, against their will (!), in a little container and shaking it.

And bending the truth instead of outright lying was something she seemed to have a knack for. Zel had claimed that she'd been mastering bending the truth to fit her sense of justice, but that wasn't true at all. If something was true then it was also just, and so it followed that something that was just was also true! However, it was true that when she thought of it that way, it was far easier to hide the truth.

"Good. The last thing we want is them catching on." Zel mumbled, apparently mostly to himself. With a happy nod Amelia was out the door.

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Filia was beginning to grow hungry. She could feel her stomach gently rumbling, and hoped it wasn't loud enough to alert the room's other occupant. He'd only laugh, the bastard. It wasn't fair, she noted sourly. He was well fed by her negative energies, but she, on the other hand, had exhausted herself by getting angry time and again, and had gotten nothing to eat since her shopping-trip with Amelia earlier on the day. And that hadn't even been very much. No tea either.

Her stomach gave a loud groan, and she clamped her hands around it, as if trying to silence it. Xellos looked up from the book he'd taken to reading since her last Mazoku-boycott. He smiled, smugly. She glared. She was just about to rant on about the unfairness of the situation when he spoke up.

"Don't worry, Filia. Food is on the way." He said simply, and returned his eyes to the book.

"How do you know that?" she hissed more than asked, glaring at him. Now he was acting all superior again, and it was getting on her nerves more than usual, mostly because she didn't feel entirely on top of the situation.

"Just a feeling."

There was a knock on the door.

Grudgingly she got up and opened it. Amelia was beaming happily behind it. Oh… Amelia's happiness was probably overwhelming enough for him to be able to sense it on a distance. Filia worked up the energy to smile, which became a lot easier when she spotted the tray in Amelia's arms.

"How are you doing?" she asked. Before either could answer she continued. "I've brought up some dried vegetables and fruits, and hopefully this bread will be able to pass too. I'm sorry, but I didn't bring anything for you, Xellos-san."

"I'm well taken care of, I assure you." He said, politely, nodding from behind the book. Filia noticed that his voice was a little strained, and she figured that Amelia's unabashed happiness was not only seeping through her mind to her face, but overflowing the entire room and hallway, and drowning everybody in its happy wakes.

"Any progress on getting us out of here?" Filia asked.

Amelia looked positively blank for a second or two.

"We're no further than we were before." She said, eventually.

Filia sighed. Well, it would have been too much to hope for.

Amelia settled the tray on the floor, and tried, gently, to push it through. Something wouldn't let it pass, and she methodically tried removing one thing, trying, and repeating until she found the offending item. In the meantime Filia tried to make conversation.

"So, any clue as to what it is?" Filia asked. She was met by another silence, and Amelia seemed very focused on trying to figure out which of the things on the tray was blocking it.

"I.. I think we have a very good idea of it, yes." She answered, slowly.

"Oh, great! Maybe I can help." Filia suggested, trying to be helpful. She wasn't an expert on barriers, but she knew more than most, and she was just about ready to try anything that might get her out of this.

"Yes, possibly." Amelia said. Filia stared at her. She really had to be consumed by finding out what wouldn't pass the barrier, because she didn't add anything to that statement.

"Soo.. Can you perhaps tell me a little more about it?" Filia prodded. When that was met by a little silence she added: "Like, why it might be here, or how it works or something like that?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I said." Amelia answered. "Aha! Sorry, Filia. You can't have the wine, for some reason it won't go through. But water seems to be possible."

She got up, and smiled, although looking like she was in a hurry.

"I hope that will be enough. I'll come back tomorrow, okay?"

Filia was struck dumb, trying to find her words. She was just leaving? Without entertaining Filia, without staying around to offer some real conversation, some interaction that wasn't just civilized scratching and biting at each others' throats? What was the hurry? She shot a glare to the Namagomi, but he wasn't looking at them, so Amelia couldn't have felt threatened.

"Goodnight!" she said, and waved. "Sleep tight."

It was in all probability what Amelia always said when she greeted a friend goodnight, but the sentence spurred a line of thought in the dragoness that she didn't at all like. She looked around the room, wideeyed. That's right. It was getting late. They wouldn't be let out tonight. And there was only one bed…! If they both had to sleep on it they would have to sleep tight.

Xellos peered at her over the edge of the book.

"Thank lords she left! I wonder what she was so happy about.." he mused, possibly most to himself. "Still she was acting strange, and.. Filia?"

Her wide, panicked eyes snapped to him, then darted to the bed.

"The bed is mine and I am not sharing it!" she hissed, and walked to sit on it with her tray.

He looked puzzled and surprised.

"You can sleep on the floor, Namagomi!"

He cocked his head to a side. Apparently he hadn't thought of this either. Then, to her aggravation, he smiled.

"Silly little dragon." He chided more than said. "I thought you'd realized by now that we Mazoku hardly ever sleep."

"Really?" she asked, her voice edged with skepticism.

"Really." He assured her, giving her a face that was just sufficiently honest for her to know that he wasn't trying to play innocent about anything. "Oh we can sleep, just like we can eat or drink for that matter. It's not like we're incapable of sleeping, but where's the point if you don't have to? I usually only sleep when I'm bored, and around you being bored is… a rarity."

She looked at him, but couldn't find any traces of untruthfulness in his voice or face.

"Evil never sleeps, huh? Never knew it was so literally true." She mused, with a little bittersweet smile. She sat down at the big table with her tray and began to eat. Then she froze. If he wasn't going to sleep then what was he going to do? Read all night? Look at her in her sleep? She'd go crazy! She knew she couldn't bear to have his eyes on her for long usually, and the thought of him looking at her while she slept was… not something she wanted to think about, really.

She looked at him. If she asked what he was going to do while she slept, he wouldn't answer. Or even worse, make a comment that would make her believe that he'd do something to her, just to deprive her of a peaceful sleep. Oh yes, and he would. Because it would make her even more cranky and irritable, and that, in turn, would make her an easier target for his favourite game of "pissing off the dragoness". So not knowing what he was going to do was perhaps not the optimal solution, but at the very least she wouldn't be intentionally provoked into thinking something really bad was awaiting her in her sleep, and sometimes, just as he had said, it's better not to know.

Filia sighed loudly as she bit down on a dried piece of apple with honey dripped across it. She thought for a moment that certainly things couldn't get much worse than this.

Turned out she was wrong.

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Lina stuck her head into the control room. Amelia was watching the crystal ball intensely, and Zelgadis was sitting in the core, trying to look as if he didn't care, while stealing glances at the ball from time to time. Well, Lina had to admit, it was a little exciting. Yesterday she could have sworn that the sparks that flew between the Mazoku and the Ryuzoku were simply sparks that would ignite the explosion, but now it sure did seem like there was something else there.

"So, what's the status?" she asked, looking at Amelia.

"Nothing yet. But they're at least still talking." Amelia answered, staring at the ball with a concentrated look. Perhaps she was trying to read their lips. Or perhaps she was hoping that if she stared intently enough at it, things would spontaneously turn lovey-dovey.

"Most likely nothing will happen until tomorrow, Lina, so just go to bed already." Zel commented.

"On the contrary, Zel, things might start to heat up now!" the redheaded sorceress said with her wicked grin.

"Why? It's night." Zel argued.

"Exactly! And the way I see it, there's only one way it can go because there's only one bed!" Lina chuckled, and she and Amelia shared a look before both bursting out in girlish giggles. Zel sighed. "You thought that one out well, Amelia!" Lina praised.

The Sailrune heiress gleamed with the praise. Their eyes darted to Zelgadis, and when they saw that he was looking a little puzzled, Amelia felt like elaborating.

"There's only one bed in the room, which means that they'll have to share it!" She enthusiastically explained.

"And what better way to bring them closer together?" Lina grinned evilly.

"Except for the part about Mazoku not needing sleep, I suppose." Zel droned. Both girls' eyes snapped to him. "What? You didn't know that?"

Two pairs of eyes, one blue and one red, narrowed at him. Lina fisted her hands. Why hadn't the stupid chimera told them this before!? It had obviously been part of Amelia's plan. Everybody knew that physical closeness to another person was a good way to open up to that person. Of course none of them would have been expecting them to start something serious, but a brush of a hand, an accidental touch, these things really did help speeding up the process.

Lina inwardly cursed herself, too. She'd known this too, most likely, she'd only forgotten it, probably because this bit of information fitted so very badly with the rest of the plan. Possibly Amelia had done the same. Well, that probably meant that there was no way of shortcutting it. They'd just have to wait and hope that Amelia's intuition wasn't entirely off.

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"This has to be the worst day of my life…" Filia mumbled, leaning back on the bed.

Xellos looked over at her from his seat at the desk. Well, he did get a sort of hopeless vibe off of her, but nothing near the despair he'd seen her in a couple of times before. Not even remotely as emotionally hollowed as some of the days where she'd initially been confronted with her people's bloodstained history, the guilt-trip from hell and all the nonsense concerning Valgaarv.

So no, in his experience alone this could only be her sixth or seventh worst day, and making a qualified guess, he ventured that this would only barely rank on a top 50 of "worst days" if evened out over the entire day and compared with the average shittiness of other days in the entire course of her life.

Still, he got her point.

"Is it really that bad?" he asked, hoping that she'd get annoyed. He loved the way she'd bare her fangs in a sneer, and the way her eyes would flash with anger. Just as he'd hoped, her head snapped to look at him, golden cascades of hair whipping around her face as she did so.

"Yes! Yes, it is, Xellos!" she growled, getting up from the bed, and gesticulating wildly with her hands. "I'm here, being locked in with the one person I'd hate the most to spend time with in a confined space, I've been robbed of everything that I enjoy; silence, privacy, calmness, Val and tea! I'm being used as your dinner and entertainment, and I don't even know how long we'll have to stay like this!! I can't take it anymore! I'll suffocate if I'm not being let out soon!"

"The universe must hate you, then, if it's really all that bad." Xellos said.

"Well, yes! I mean, who knows? It sure feels that way!" She ran a hand through her golden locks with a frustrated growl.

"You must have done something really bad then, to deserve such bad karma." He said, his voice not entirely free of sarcasm. "A pity I wasn't there when it happened. I would quite have enjoyed seeing a less prudish and prudent Gold." He refrained from making remarks on any kind of action her race might have committed that could result in some serious bad karma. Some blows were too low, some victories so easy they didn't even feel like you've won at all.

"You know.." she tapped her chin thoughtfully, then turned to face him, waving a finger accusingly at him "..maybe you were! Maybe this is because I let you talk me into meddling with Amelia and Zelgadis's relationship! Maybe it's the universe's punishment for us meddling with the fate of other people. But I just don't get it. I did so very little. I only told you about the bracelet, and helped you keep watch while they sorted it out themselves. It's hardly a crime the universe should feel the need to punish so harshly!"

Xellos looked at her for a moment. That did make sort of sense, to him. But instead of saying "universe" he'd probably switch the word with "the future rulers of Sailrune", which was just as effective but a lot less cosmic.

Filia walked into the adjoining bathroom, taking a very pink nightgown with her.

"At any rate, I'm going to get some sleep, and I hope, that when I wake up, you'll be gone like any other nightmare!" She said, and probably went out to change. This left Xellos with a little while to think.

The others knew that he'd been involved, as stonface and happy-girl had confronted him directly with that more than once afterwards. He wasn't so sure how they knew about Filia, but perhaps this was some sort of punishment, solely to him. Not that he could figure out why they'd go so far, especially involving Filia.

And even if they knew that she'd been involved, and this indeed was a joint punishment, it seemed very unfair to him. After all, hadn't it all turned out sickeningly well for them in the end? If it hadn't been for their meddling, Amelia and Zelgadis probably wouldn't have ended up together like this. Ungrateful bastards.

And how did they keep them in here, anyways? It was a scary thought that humans had invented a way to hold and neutralize Mazoku and Ryuzuku alike. But that would have to wait. Now it was more important to get out of here. They had some purpose in mind that he couldn't quite figure out, but he wasn't going to stay to find out!

If they are controlling this, then they must somehow also be keeping taps on us. And if they are then it should be possible for me to force them to drop the barrier! Xellos thought.

He knew that it would be very unwise to start throwing spells, and in all likelihood it wouldn't do a lick of difference, because any greater spells were naturally off limits for him at the moment.

He could threaten to kill (or just plain out kill) Filia, but that would be throwing away a perfectly good toy, either way. Certainly if Filia felt he seriously wanted to kill her, she'd be too scared to come near him again, and then it would be just the same as actually killing her, from his vantage point anyways. So murder was obviously not the ideal means to put pressure on their jail-keepers.

However, there were some things he was pretty certain that the white priestess with the justice-fetish wouldn't allow him to do (or attempt to do) to her fellow priestess. Of course, if they knew that he was doing this to get them to drop the barrier and intervene, they probably wouldn't react, calling his bluff. So it was better if it seemed real, and that, unfortunately, meant not informing the dragon.

He looked at his goldenhaired companion as she stepped out of the bathroom, dressed in a nightgown decent in design but almost indecent in its blatant pinkness. Then again, he supposed he could forgive the pinkness, seeing how it actually suited her quite well. If only he could get her cheeks flushed to match, and he was pretty certain he could, and that they would, very soon, with anger if nothing else. Well, she wanted out; she'd said as much. And he wanted out, because this was getting increasingly strange and frustrating for him too, not being able to just phase in and out of reality. And he could, in all probability get them out, although he was pretty sure she wouldn't quite appreciate the method. He could only hope that he in this weakened form still was stronger than her. Otherwise he'd get completely thumped for trying. But it was worth a try.

He caught her arm as she went past him to get to the bed behind him.

"Not so fast, little golden one." He said, sugary sweet, and yanked the arm so that she twirled and was caught flush against him. The shock in her eyes was delicious, and as he drank it all in he smiled evilly to himself. Oh yes, it was certainly worth a try!

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AN: I've been asked if this one suddenly turns M-rated like my other fic did. It isn't really my plan, but I'm open to suggestions.

The other fic turned M-rated because it was planned that way (as I also advertised in the description) and hence, certain key-points just had to be totally rethought if it had to move the same way through another path.

This one I have no real plans for, apart from the general story flow. And none of the key-parts involve anything that has to be any heavier than T-rated. So, what are you saying?