Zelgadis Greywords and the Magic of Carealot

Disclaimer: I do not own: Slayers or anything else that ends up on this story! There are way too many crossovers for me to list them all so I'm not gonna!

Now…where were we? Ah yes! It's party time in Saillune!

YEA PARTY TIME! CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES COME ON!

Insert: Dragon Talk…

Filia sat quietly in a corner of the auditorium where the younger members of the palace staff and guard along with cadets from Saillune's royal military academy were throwing Amelia the most raucous and misbehaved party she'd ever seen!

'Why am I here?' she asked herself and not for the first time! She usually never accepted Amelia's invitations to the party but Amelia had begged her to come because it was her 21st birthday and it was VERY important. Now she knew why she never agreed to come to these parties! It also gave her insight as to why the very formal and polite Capt. Kaiba never invited her. It was rather a shock to see him in this setting! It's true she'd always been a tiny bit resentful of the fact she never got an invitation from him but now she understood!

Seto was out on the dance floor with Yuffie. She seemed to be getting a little too "friendly" with him. Not that Seto seemed to mind he soon switched partners and the next girl wasn't anymore restrained than Yuffie was! Her hands were all over the human captain and Filia struggled to understand why it bothered her that he was being man-handled by all those women! He was quite popular in fact. She decided she would leave soon this was not the place for her!

Seto seemed to finally become aware that he was being watched. He looked around pulling his current partner off of him who scampered off to find herself another toy. Surprised Seto noticed the very demure Miss Filia sitting alone in a corner of the auditorium. He could've sworn she had been watching him just a second ago and she seemed to be trying to look anywhere but at him. He cut through the throng of party goers like a shark in the water heading straight for the solitary bench Filia was sitting in with an untouched cup of punch in her hands.

"Miss Filia…what are you doing here?" he asked her surprise quite evident in his voice and his face. Filia just shrugged and tried to look casual.

"Amelia begged me to come," she replied simply. He sat down next to her.

"I'm surprised Miss Filia. This really isn't the sort of place I thought you'd feel comfortable in…" he began and Filia could tell he had switched back to the polite and heavily restrained captain of the guard she was used to talking to!

'Oh so that is why he never invites me? How thoughtful of him!' she thought. She smiled at him then.

"May I ask you a question captain?" she began and he could've sworn she was blushing. He shrugged

"Sure," he replied simply and nodded.

"Why do you let those women use you like that? They don't seem to really care about you!" she asked suddenly catching Seto by surprise. He could swear he heard a bit of resentment in her voice but immediately dismissed the idea. A dragon couldn't seriously take an interest in a lowly human like him. She was probably just curious…yea that's it! Just curious!

"It's just stress relief Miss Filia it's not supposed to mean anything," he explained seriously. She frowned.

"Well that doesn't seem right! I mean Amelia is always talking about love and loyalty…I don't know…It just doesn't seem very loyal behavior…"she replied truly looking confused. Seto sighed heavily. How do you explain things to a being so far above your status? It's like a rat trying to explain to a human why it likes to live in a sewer! It's impossible! But he would try anyway…

"I am a soldier…a human soldier. We live hard lives and die young most of the time," he began seriously "but when we're here we don't have to think about that. We can just feel alive! We need that sort of relief otherwise we lose our focus and our will to fight on," he smiled sadly and turned to her.

"Unlike you Miss Filia…You will probably go on forever and you definitely don't need a place like this to reaffirm your focus or your will to live. A being like you is too good for this place," he stated with a sad faraway look in his eyes. Filia opened her mouth to deny it after all no one was supposed to know she and Val were really dragons!

"I saw your tail," he declared with a tiny smirk of amusement before she could say anything and she did blush deeply then.

"Don't worry Miss Filia your secret is safe with me! I've known since the first time you visited!" He chuckled slightly as she fidgeted nervously. There was a certain innocence to her…a purity of being that was irresistible to Seto. She was free of all human weaknesses and he despised the fact that he couldn't be strong enough to get rid of his weaknesses! During his youth he had heard many stories about dragons and had longed to go out and adventure in hopes of maybe one day meeting a dragon. Not just any old dragon but a golden dragon! Like Filia…

When he received his first promotion and heard the rumors of Amelia's adventures regarding the most powerful of dragons he had worked all that much harder to be close to the princess' palace staff in hopes he might someday get his wish. When he first saw her he knew! He couldn't explain how he knew but he knew! Seeing her tail peek out of the bottom of her dress was simply confirmation. And Val had simply blurted it out one day when he was playing with Mokuba. Little Val was so at ease with them now that he would even shed his human disguise when only Seto and Mokuba were around!

"Thank you for not telling! I don't want to attract attention! Who knows what trouble it might start?" she replied nervously and again he just smiled wistfully.

'I would die before letting anyone hurt you!' Seto thought as he smiled at her.

"Still Captain…it doesn't seem fair that they don't seem to care about you! Or you about them!" Filia countered confused. He sighed heavily again.

"It's not that I don't care! These people are my co-workers and I do care about these people…people whose lives may depend on them trusting me and vice versa," he began feeling a little flustered at a loss as to how to get his point across without inadvertently offending her and/or alienating her. Filia seemed so naive sometimes!

"So by letting them do these things to you…you demonstrate that you trust them…Is that it?" Filia deduced wondering why she still felt disturbed by it. He nodded and smiled in that sad way that seemed out of character for him. It made her want to reach for him and comfort him somehow but she held back. That would most certainly be out of character for her!

They sat in amicable silence for a minute. The music shifted to a soft romantic ballad. On the dance floor Zel held Amelia close and she just looked up at him dreamy eyed and happy. Lina leaned contentedly against Gourry's chest and Martina and Zangulus had stopped for a moment in their dancing to kiss. Filia sighed sat back and closed her eyes for a moment. She was truly happy for her friends they deserved every bit of happiness they found in each other.

It disturbed her however that Seto who had been such a good friend to her and Val from the minute they set foot in Saillune was not happy. He deserved happiness too seeing after all how hard he worked at making sure everyone around him trusted him and did their best. He seemed to be looking out for other people's peace and happiness by sacrificing his own. It didn't seem fair. She turned to him once more and he was watching her with an intensity that always made her feel a bit giddy and self-conscious. She couldn't understand why.

"But captain isn't there even one among them that you hold above all the others? Like Zelgadis with Amelia and Gourry with Lina," she added truly perplexed. He chuckled again and shook his head.

'No one could hold a candle to you Miss Filia!' he thought sadly "no… there is not…" he replied sadly. Filia merely replied with a soft "oh I see" and casually observed the partygoers asking her self why she was feeling relieved that he had no one special among them. These thoughts were suddenly too strange for her to deal with. She decided then that it was time for her to go back to Val.

"Well I think I better get back to Val now captain. Thank you for your company! It's always nice to talk to you!" she smiled cheerfully and stood. He stood with her and nodded solemnly.

"The pleasure was all mine Miss Filia," he intoned gravely. She smiled and silently he escorted her to a side entrance and held the door open for her. She exited and she winked out of existence teleporting herself directly back to her room. Seto closed the door behind him and threw himself back into the raucous party with wild abandon trying hard not to think about her magical smile or her pretty blond locks that for a moment he'd desperately wanted to touch…

Ahhh Seto Kaiba! If ever there was a character that really needs a hug it is most definitely him! At any rate if you're not familiar with Yugioh…Seto is a psycho little bishonen who is thoroughly obsessed with his dragon cards. To the point of being willing to kill for them! He is completely overzealous on the protection of his dragons, his brother and his company! (In that order! Scary boy!)

So I translated that here into a severe crush on Filia (the only dragon around), fatherly instincts towards little Val and of course Mokuba and a serious obsession with the ultimate perfection in the performance of his job…don't really know where it will all end though…

My sincere apologies however…carpal tunnel pains and a severe lack of time due to excessive work (I work at a bank – no such thing as bankers' hours anymore!) have prevented me from getting as far as I wanted too this time. sighI was hoping by the time I got to posting this I could start with the seriously cool stuff that I'm dying to write but alas it must wait one more post…

Again my apologies I will post soon!

Thanks for reading and reviewing!