AN: Alright. I'll not let it go M-rated, at least not really M, if I can possibly prevent it. It was hard, and took an awful lot of cutting, because it seems my mind is at home in the gutter.
But I promise that when it's over I might make an M-rated X/F. Just as I'll finish off Real Roses Have Thorns with an M-rated epilogue, following things through, as it were. This way I can keep most smuttyness out of this one too, hopefully.
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"Hey you guys! We've got action!" yelled Amelia out on the hallway.
A half grumpy-half hurried Lina stuck out her head from her and Gourry's room. Gourry followed afterwards, with Ruby sleeping in his arms, not looking at all awake. He could have been sleepwalking for all Amelia knew, because with his reflexes, it'd be hard to know the difference.
Amelia had reacted very quickly (mainly because Lina had threatened, that if she missed out on a single bit of romantic action, she'd Dragonslave the Princess for her laziness!), and hoped, as she turned her gaze to the crystal ball, that it really happened to be the case. They were standing very close, Filia practically up against his chest, so it had to qualify as some kind of action at least.
She really wished she could have had some sound on it. Of course not out of curiosity, because it would be very unjust to eavesdrop and spy like this, but more to… make sure that things went the way they should. The right way. The just way. Making sure that Love and Justice prevailed, and stuff like that.
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Filia stood as if rooted to the floor. She couldn't believe this was happening, or perhaps more accurately it seemed that it was happening too fast, and that her mind simply couldn't catch up with the experience. The gloved hand that still held her by the elbow hadn't lessened its grip. The feel of his chest pressed against her own made her shiver. Involuntarily of course!
Another gloved hand came up, and tugged a stand of hair behind her ear, and continued to stroke the hair all the way down a couple of times before coming to rest upon the small of her back. All her hairs were standing on end, and she could feel her tail starting to tremble.
"You know, Filia-san.." he started, his voice as silk; seemingly soft, but treacherously strong. "You often were afraid.. of me.. whenever we were left alone.. with each other." The hand on her elbow started to travel up her arm, gently caressing it. "I can't help wondering, what it was you were afraid that I'd do.. to you."
His voice indicated that he at least had a damn good idea of what she might fear, or at least what he thought she feared. And now he was playing that fear like an instrument, and she didn't like tune at all, although she felt herself swaying to it none the less.
His violet eyes looked straight into her, and she found that she was getting slightly dizzy, though told herself that this was just because she was tired, and had been spun around so unexpectedly and violently. She tried to look away, but the gloved finger caressing her upper arm quickly flew to her chin, raising it.
He doesn't mean anything by it. He's trying to get you riled up! He's probably looking for a late night snack, and your anger seems to be his favorite meal! She told herself. Don't let him get to you!
But still, she couldn't help noticing that he didn't seem to be trying to anger her. Apart from his hands on her, which should, by any right, flare her rage (and it would! - in a moment, the back of her mind promised her), he wasn't actively trying to push any of the angry-buttons. He wasn't dropping snide remarks as to what a bore, prude, looser or hypocrite she was. And right now he wasn't stirring any of her rage. He was only mildly brushing her fear.. and something else.
"Is it something like this, I wonder." He continued, leaning closer, still holding her in place with the hand on the small of her back, as his lips graced over the shell of her ear. His breath tickled her, and yet, shivering, laughing and telling him so was about the last thing she was about to do. She just stood still, frozen, not daring to breathe, and with her heart drumming fast.
As he opened his mouth and caught the top of her ear between his lips in a very soft bite, her heart leaped in her throat, and the breath that she'd been keeping came out as a yelp. She could feel the lips quirk into a smirk, and knew somewhere in her mind that this should aggravate her to no end. However, she couldn't get a hold of enough thoughts to manage getting pissed. Her mouth was agape, and her brain was trying desperately to find some words, but had somehow forgotten where it'd stored them.
The hand on her back was starting to draw circles, and with each arc dipped deeper and deeper, eventually brushing the top of her rear, on that sensitive spot where her tail met the rest of her spinal-cord. The other hand had slipped from her chin to rest in her hair, at the nape of her neck. All in all he had a pretty good grip on her, and made a point to show this, by tugging her towards him even further. She felt the urge to bolt, but her mind was still on a zero-success search for words, and thus had no time for operating her feet.
"Or is it perhaps more something like this?" he asked, viciously, as he dipped to place an openmouthed kiss on the nape of her neck. Unwillingly she tilted her head back, as her breath left her mouth in shock, not a moan or a sigh! Definitely not a moan or a sigh! His one leg slid between hers, and he lifted it so that his knee pressed between her thighs.
This was too much, a voice in her mind screamed at her, begging her to take some sort of (preferably violent) action.
Tell him that he has to stop. Just place your hands on his shoulders, and push him away. Tell him "Xellos, what the hell do you think you're doing?!", and get out of this! The voice screamed.
She managed the first halves of her two strategies. Sluggishly she managed to place her hands on his shoulders, but couldn't quite manage a push. Also, she managed to breath "Xellos…" but the rest of the sentence was left unsaid. She looked into those dangerously violet eyes and forgot the rest instantly.
There's some kind of magic in this. She thought. He's cheating, I know he is! I'm not like this! I am not! Although this does feel good, but.. He doesn't mean anything by it! He's trying to get to you, somehow. This is just a new game!... and even if it wasn't it'd still be wrong!!
The last thought was just sufficiently delayed for her to feel utterly lost and hypocritical.
His hand skimmed down her side and up again, eventually brushing a thumb against the lower arc of the swell of her breast. She gasped as she was reminded that the only thing she was wearing underneath her panties. The silken fabric suddenly felt a lot more erotic than she'd imagined it would when she'd bought it with Amelia, just earlier the same day. She hated herself from squirming in his grasp, hoping that the hand would perhaps touch her some more.
This wasn't how she was supposed to be reacting, she knew that! But somehow she just couldn't seem to fight it.
The other hand came to rest on the lower arc of her hip, and clamped down with some sort of dominating force, not enough to hurt her, but definitely enough to mark that she wouldn't be able to get out of the embrace. She got the message.
The nerve of that..Slap him one! No, wait a sec.. He's after the anger! Don't give it to him! She thought, somehow convincing herself that she was at least fighting him on some, higher level, when in fact it felt like she wasn't fighting him at all.
"Or perhaps you even fear I'd do something like this?" he asked, maliciously, as the hand that up to now had only graced the breast finally came to outright grab it, massaging it through the fabric, and his knee finally pressed all the way against her crotch. She arched back as the unfamiliar sensation rolled through her, her legs nearly giving out on her. She was vaguely aware of the wall behind her, as her head scraped against it, as she leaned it back, baring her throat (against all instincts) to him.
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"This isn't right!" Amelia shouted, shocked and with her cheeks burning brightly.
"It seems like there's… something happening, though." Lina inferred, although she looked like the embarrassment would cause her to fireball something any minute now.
"Well, yes, but this wasn't what was supposed to happen!" Amelia cried, the hint of despair marring her pretty features. "This isn't how it's supposed to go!"
"Then how would you like it to go?!" Lina asked, a little growl to her voice. "If this doesn't prove some kind of interest, I don't know what will!?"
Gourry stared sleepily at the ball.
"Love most often leads to sex, but I don't think sex necessarily leads to love." He said, managing to sound like a lewd fortune-cookie.
Lina's eyes flared, and she turned to her husband, looking ready to either yell at him, hit him or fireball him. She apparently spotted her daughter, and took her from her husband's arm with great care. She gave Ruby a kiss on the forehead, before turning back to Gourry, smacking him upside his head with a slipper.
"You foulmouthed, perverted, ignorant jellyfish!!" she shrieked, as she slapped him a good one on the shoulder too. "Why would you say such a thing in the presence of two delicate ladies!? Not to mention your own child!!"
Amelia, blushing, cleared her throat.
"Well, yes, but, that actually was my concern.." she admitted.
"You're right. This could mean anything, or nothing at all. We can't say what he really intends to do about this, nor what feelings he might be reacting upon." Zelgadis said, using logic and a cool, clear way of reasoning to avoid being caught up in the embarrassment of the topic. "Still, Lina had a point about the.. show of interest."
"But you just said that we couldn't know what it meant!" Amelia sounded confused, pouting slightly.
"The point is that we can't." He explained. "You're right, this isn't what we're hoping for. If they… get together like this… I think we can all agree that there would be no guarantee that love was involved in this, and hence it would be silly to let them out. But it still raises the question: When would you let them out?" Zel insisted.
It seemed like none of them had thought of this. When was it really enough? When they held hands? When they kissed and gazed lovingly into each other's eyes? If Xellos were to spontaneously propose to the dragoness? When would it be enough? What would prove that they were together, that there was actually any love there?
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Xellos' smile broadened. She could feel it against the skin on her throat.
"My, my, Filia. I dare say I rather think you're enjoying this.." he said, his voice as smooth and as venomous as a snake.
Filia tried to keep her emotions from surfacing, but could only manage to contain some of them. It wouldn't be good if he could read her now. Although she wasn't in any doubt that she was pretty obviously enjoying his attentions, and that there was no way of hiding that, bar flat out stopping him. Something she found herself unable to do.
"I am not." She managed in a trembling voice, but it didn't sound convincing, and it didn't even sound like she herself believed it, either.
"Doesn't that make you ashamed?" he asked in her ear, ignoring her unconvincing retort, with a voice dripping with malice, as he pressed her against the wall. A hand venturing down her thigh, underneath the hem of the dress, only to wander up to cup her rear. She knew she should be outraged by this. She knew that somewhere, deep inside of her, there was the usual urge to punch him into the next dimension, but this urge was slowly drifting deeper and deeper, until she lost sight of it.
Her hands had found their way from his shoulders into his purple locks, which seemed to be a grave mistake. He caught her wrists, flashing her a vicious grin, and flipped her over, so that her hands were on the wall, him still holding her wrists in place against it, and leaning in over her. He then collected her wrists in one hand, leaving his other hand free to grab her around the mid-section and tug her violently against him.
"Or perhaps it even excites you?" he said, and she could swear there was barely any voice there. The thick atmosphere of the night seemed to leave his breath hanging in the air, so that she could sense the words, rather than hear them. "To have a filthy Mazoku like me touch you like this." He nibbled at her neck and shoulder blade, exposed from the nightie, which was hanging oddly on her, bunched up around her waist, as her tail was raised highly. She was even further ashamed by the fact that she found herself squirming, not out of discomfort as much as in a hope to receive more of attentions. When nothing really happened, or at least didn't happen fast enough, she could find it in her to spit a comment at him.
"It doesn't." she objected halfheartedly, irked by the fact that her voice almost sounded meek and demure.
"Is that so?" he asked, voice soaked with sarcasm. "You're lying! But then again, you're a Golden. You're a liar, a hypocrite and most importantly; you're weak! You're no match for me, Filia. I could take you right now and you wouldn't put up much of a fight! I could take all that innocence and purity right away from you, and you couldn't do a damn thing about it!"
A voice inside Filia's head conceded that this was in fact the case, but by the way he spoke the words, he hadn't realized how they were true, or even if they were true at all. It sounded more like he believed them to aggravate her rather than to reflect any truth.
"You wouldn't dare, Namagomi!" she bit out, half hoping it would sound defiant, half hoping it would spite him, but also fully knowing he'd take it as a challenge.
"Wouldn't I, Filia?" he asked, the hand from her mid-section coming up to fisting a handful of golden locks and yanking her head back forcefully, but not overly so. This was all a matter of dominance. And she hated to admit that she was dominated. But what hurt even more to admit was the fact that she somehow liked it.
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The girls exchanged glances, then looked from the ball to the door.
"He's bluffing!" called out the chimera from the core.
Lina shot him a glare.
"Bluffing how and bluffing why?!" she asked, her voice indicating that the chimera better have a damn good and believable hypothesis.
"He's testing if we're in charge of this, I'm certain." He said, and Amelia was calmed down a bit by this. "If he really did want to.. do that to her, this would be the least effective way to attain that goal."
"It sure doesn't look ineffective!" Lina barked, but not as threatening and growling as before.
"Think about it! Why now where he's got nearly no power? Why so aggressively that it's only a matter of time before she starts fighting back with all her might?" Zel calmly explained. "It's almost as if he's trying to provoke her into fighting back and causing a scene. I'm telling you, he's trying to either scare her or make us come to her rescue!"
"What kind of emotional moron would pin a girl to the wall and- and- and do such a thing just to prove a point!?" Lina exclaimed, her hands gesticulating wildly towards the ball.
Amelia and Zelgadis shared a glance, then made sure that not to make eye-contact with the sorceress. Only Gourry seemed to notice this, and opened his mouth to comment, when Amelia managed to cut him off.
"Aaanyways… Let's keep our collective cool and see how it goes, shall we?" Amelia suggested, nervously. She really wished they could have gotten sound on the ball. It would have been so much easier if they could hear what they were saying to each other, because right now, she couldn't quite tell if Filia was struggling or participating. Then again, taking another glance at the ball, Amelia was pretty sure Filia didn't even know that herself.
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Having a hand fisted in her hair left Xellos with a lot of power over her. First of all, she couldn't really run, because one might wrestle out of a grip around the waist or shoulders, but the hair would be pretty damn hard to disentangle from his grasp in a hurried escape-attempt. Second of all, he could "steer" her around the room, without much trouble. He forced her to walk to the table in the middle of the room, and pressed her down against it, her chin and chest pressed against the cold surface.
She found that she was panting. This was really bad, her inner voice told her. And yet, somehow, she couldn't help noticing the great care he took in being gentle about looking forceful. Not one single lock of hair was being pulled to the point where it hurt, but she was pretty sure it looked like it.
She couldn't quite see him, as he was leaning in over her from behind, but she was certain he was smirking evilly, probably with both his eyes open.
"Do you fear I'd take you?" he asked, as freed himself of his cape with the one hand. The clasp clattered as it fell to the floor. Getting out of his blouse was a little harder, but he managed without having to let go of the hair for very long, switching one hand with the other. As he leaned in over her again to whisper in her ear, she could feel his naked chest against her shoulder blades. "Or do you fear even more… that you will like it, my little, helpless Gold!?"
The way he'd said it was not supposed to make her shiver deliciously with anticipation, she was pretty sure of that! Nor was she supposed to be so… unconcerned about it.
This is so unreal! She thought. I don't understand any of this! I know what this is supposed to look like and I can guess what it is supposed to feel like, and yet, I'm actually lying here, not fighting back at all! I can't help feeling that I'm supposed to be kicking and screaming, but… I'm not.
She simply couldn't put down why. If anything it was the strange feeling of connectedness with the Mazoku. She felt she knew how his mind worked, and she couldn't help feeling that he'd never just take advantage of her like this, not without some other motive, not without warning, and certainly not without telling her why, so that she might agonize over her terrible fate.
She didn't know what he thought of her, but she did know that she was vastly entertaining to him, and this just seemed like such a.. boring way to throw away all the friendly enmity they had build up so far. It was almost like this couldn't be happening. And yet, the hand sliding up her thigh told her otherwise.
He'd pressed a leg between hers, and was using his knee to force hers apart. To her great indignation, she simply shifted her position, obediently moving to stand with her feet a bit apart, still bend over the table. Why was it she couldn't take this seriously? Did she really want this to happen?
Sure, she was attracted to the Mazoku, and it would seem even more foolish to try to deny it to herself now, but she'd been afraid of something like this. She'd been so scared that he might start toying with her like this, but mainly because she was afraid he'd stop. She feared most of all that he'd see right through her, notice how she felt, and laugh at her for being such a silly and conceited dragon, to think that he would have any such interest in her.
So yes, this situation should scare her witless, if not for the reasons he thought then for others, but it didn't. Even as his naked arm wrapped around her mid-section, pulling her up against his chest, and the hand previously in the hair found its way to press her hips back against his. She merely whimpered at the sensation, and hated herself for enjoying this more intimate embrace.
"What's the matter, dragon? All out of fighting spirit?" his voice was filled with mock-concern and sing-song-sarcasm. "I suppose you wouldn't mind if I finish this, then?!"
Xellos made a gesture towards the light, and the window, and suddenly everything became totally pitch-black.
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The crystal ball went black. Lina and Amelia shared a frustrated "NO!" and started glaring at the ball. Lina smacked it for good measures, but it didn't help.
"Is it dead?" Gourry asked, keeping a healthy safety distance to the two frustrated magic-useresses. He'd gotten Ruby back, and was currently standing, so that he could shield her from whatever outburst Lina would come with. Not that he for a moment thought Lina would actually fire anything at him while he was holding her, though.
"No! It should be working just fine!" Amelia whined, channeling new magic into the ball.
"How did this happen? Did he cut the link? Or did he turn out the lights?!" Lina asked, like somebody might ask why the screen is dead, in the hope that the mere action of voicing the correct answer might magically return it to working condition.
"He's bluffing. I'm certain he is." said Zel from his seat in the core, sticking to the only important fact in this situation. How Xellos did it was irrelevant. What mattered was the why. "He's trying to make us loose contact with the room, so that we'll assume the worst. And he knows we will!"
Filia's shriek echoed in the control room.
"Hey! You managed to get sound on it?!" Lina asked, eyes wide and the smile not entirely unlike a proud parent as she looked at Amelia. "Great! Now, get the picture back on!"
The shriek faded but managed to return as an ear-splitting scream, laced thickly with fear.
Amelia's expression said it all though.
"Um.. no… I didn't do anything. That was from the building…"
They were standing still for a second, looking at each other. Then the girls sprinted towards the door.
"He's still bluffing!" Insisted Zel. "If you run out there it'll all be over!"
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Xellos had indeed turned off the lights, but had also cast a darkness spell in the room, although he was pretty certain the dragoness hadn't got the foggiest as to why.
"Scream for me, Filia!" he had whispered in a voice that was an odd mix of seductive and demanding. And she'd obeyed.
She shrieked, starting low-pitched and ashamed.
"Louder!" he demanded, although not very loud himself, in case their captors could hear the room.
The shriek turned high-pitched and loud until it echoed in the hallways.
"One more time. With.. feeling." He said, and flipped her around to meet his flaringly violet eyes. He let a little of the fear he'd collected seep back into her, keeping eye contact to make sure she absorbed it, and he could see how it welled up in her, so unbearable that she would have screamed regardless of his request. He could have demanded anything of her in the same situation, and she'd still have screamed.
He waited a little in the darkness. He gave it a minute, and Filia was beginning to return from the panic-attack, held in place against his naked chest by his arms around her. Nothing happened. No sound of feet running, and the field was still there. Had he been wrong in his assumption?
"Hmm. Seems like nobody's coming to your rescue." He said, looking at the door, something that would have been impossible if it hadn't been for his perfect night-vision. "It would appear they aren't controlling this after all, then."
He let go of her, and she looked positively confused and ruffled, standing alone in the total darkness, and steadying herself on the table and a chair. He fought the urge to smile, because for all that messed up hair and perplexed gaze, she really did look amazingly well.
As he felt the rush of power ebb away, he felt an odd emptiness surface instead. There'd been something missing, and she hadn't been reacting like he'd imagined she would.
The magical darkness was clearing out now, and the moon shone in through the window. Xellos sat back on a chair, not looking at her. He was pretty sure that the plan had served its purpose, and if indeed the others had had any power over this situation, they'd have come to her rescue. But still, it hadn't gone down the way he'd planned it. First of all, he hadn't planned on taking it this far. He'd thought she'd fight back. Oh sure, she'd come up with a "you wouldn't dare!"-statement, but really, that hadn't been any kind of real resistance. She hadn't even tried to prevent him from holding her down, nor to wrestle free of his grip, or even to slap him. At the very least when he'd repeatedly claimed that she'd liked it, he'd expected some sort of fight, because this was, after all, Filia. Prudish, little Filia, who wouldn't stand for that kind of attention, and certainly not from him!
And yet, she'd let him.
He didn't know why it had annoyed him so.
It's not as though he didn't find some sort of satisfaction in her fearing him, but at the same time, he couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed. He invariably preferred her fighting him back, as if they were equals. He somehow felt that she usually was above groveling in front of him, which was one of the things he liked about her. She wasn't afraid to snap back at him, or even to try to hit him. She battled him constantly, although futilely, and he'd gotten so used to it that this lack of fighting spirit actually… unnerved him. This was not Filia-behavior. But then again, what would be Filia-behavior in this situation?
And that raised a sticky question: Could any Mazoku push her this far?
Could any man?
She did have a tendency to give up once she felt she was beaten, like when those villagers had caught her for being a dragon. She had resigned and accepted her fate. But surely that was given the circumstances. Surely she wouldn't just roll over and obey if any Mazoku waltzed in and threatened her, would she?
This was a bad train of thought and needed to be derailed as soon as possible, he could feel. Because most of the feelings running through his system at this point seemed to be originating from himself rather than her, and he didn't know the names on half of them.
Maybe this hadn't been such a great plan.
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AN: Alright, a little faster on the update, yes? :D I had a little time and a lot of inspiration.
Question: Was this too much for you? I'm curious, because I'm really trying to keep things T-rated, and I know for a fact that I have a very high Smuttiness-tolerance.
I finally got my husband to do some betaing for me (but thank you so much, Momo to Ume, for offering! It was very kind of you, and I might take you up on it later.).
Of course I suppose this helps very little if I post it before it is beta'ed with the new changes, but I figured you'd rather read it with some errors than to read it tomorrow. I promise I'll go through it today and correct errors as I find them.
I think it's a good thing that I don't allow it to turn M (although it took a great deal of work preventing it!), seeing how there's this vibe coming off of me while I write this pair, which resulted in my husband putting on Rammstein's Buck Dich (Bend!). This song has way too many S/M under/overtones, and if I'm really looking like a sadistic bastard while writing it, well…
Also, screw the limit on the chapters. If you'd rather receive more but shorter updates, then it's fine by me. Creativity, run free!
