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Love Scene	By : nekopurinchan Category: +S to Z > Slayers Views: 2062 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Slayers, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Chapter Three

�� Lina wasn�t sure when or how she had gotten into
her bed overnight, and she was more or less unconcerned about the means by
which she got in there. Instead, what shocked her most was not the fact that
Xelloss could still be found at the window in the morning but the fact that she
felt perfectly comfortable with him being there with her. It was oddly
heartwarming to see him lounging on the windowsill, observing daily human life below
in the streets as a simple bystander, but he quickly noticed that she woke up
and turned to greet her with a cheery, �Good morning, Lina-san.�

�� Good morning,� she replied sleepily as she rose
in bed, patting away a yawn while she stretched the stiffness out of her limbs.
She tossed her feet over the edge of the bed and got up to take care of her
regular morning routine, noting how unpleasantly cold the wooden boards felt
against her bare feet. The sun was a deceptive little thing; though it felt
pleasantly warm to bathe in its light, it didn�t quite wash away the coldness
of the approaching winter season.

�� Xelloss continued to sit quietly as Lina poured
water into a bowl and rinsed her face. She couldn�t keep from glancing in his
direction every couple of seconds, wondering what he was thinking about at that
exact moment--wondering why he seemed to have that brooding look that Zelgadiss
used to always wear. Though Xelloss was never the overly talkative type, she
nevertheless felt an unshakable, unsettling feeling because of his silence. She
couldn�t figure out why he still stayed around--why he hadn�t returned to his
duties as a mazoku. There was this uneasy thought she kept having that she was
falling into a trap--whatever it was--but so far he was being really careful
about keeping his goal a secret. There was still that unresolved issue
regarding the war. Though, the only way she could become involved was if he was
there to make her involved. If that was the case, he was wasting
precious time just languidly following her around, so that possibility was also
unlikely. But what if his orders were something else? Was there something
larger going on that she was unaware of?

�� Lina stepped into the bathroom momentarily to
slip into her usual garments. She was adjusting her gloves when she stepped back
out, but she paused when she found Xelloss gazing at her with a question
obviously on his mind. �What is it?� she asked, making a face.

�� After scrutinizing her for a minute, Xelloss
turned away and replied, �Nothing,� leaving Lina fairly confused. She tried to
figure out what he could have been assessing her for, and felt around for
things that might be missing. She even checked to see if the necklace was still
around her neck, which it was. What could have caught his eye, then?

�� The clouds hanging overhead seemed dark and
ominous, Lina noted unhappily. It was clear that a storm was headed in their
direction. She hoped it would just be a passing shower--she�d never been fond
of being caught out in the rain. It was something she hoped to avoid.

�� Xelloss eyed her out of the corner of his eye as
she grumpily eyed the sky, wondering what it had in store for her. She was
fiddling with something underneath her glove on her left hand, an action that
he had begun to notice during the few days he had been traveling with her. He
frowned. Something about it gave him a bad feeling; something about it felt
like an obstacle in his plan, and he wanted to do something about it. If he had
experience with the human desire for privacy and consideration, he might have
just let it slide, but that was not the case. Anything that would stand in his
way had to go--that�s just how things were.

�� He suddenly took her hand, an action that
somewhat surprised Lina. She gazed at him quizzically, wondering what his
intentions were, and did not make a single movement as he pulled her glove off.
He immediately found what he was looking for. �I thought so,� he said, casting
a judgmental look at Lina as she averted her face in shame.

�� Lina snatched her hand away and stuffed it
angrily back into her glove. �Who gave you permission to do that?� she hissed angrily
at him.

Xelloss threw his hands up before
him defensively. �I was just curious, that�s all!� he protested in defense.

�Why would a mazoku like you
care to know?� she spat before bitterly storming away. Xelloss quietly watched
her as she ran from him, confused by what he was feeling. Something felt wrong,
yes, but he didn�t know what. And by some unseen force, he felt compelled to
chase after her. But he was a mazoku--what the hell was he thinking?

�� As Lina strode around town, she constantly fingered
the concealed trinket beneath her glove. It was just a simple ring--a band of
silver metal--but to her it was her most priceless possession. And yet, as long
as she held onto it, she would never be able to move forward from that moment
in time when she received it. It was her frozen timepiece--the wedge between
the gears that was left alone to rust over time. It symbolized the memories she
shared with the person dearest to her�

�� �Hey, Lina.�

�� What is it?�

�� Are you sure you want to throw this away?�
he asked, holding up a small silver ring between his index finger and thumb so
that he could gaze through the center of it. He rolled it back and forth,
seemingly assessing it for value but unable to discern it on his own.

�� That�s not worth the trouble to barter,�
Lina explained, packing the larger items into a brown bag. She didn�t even turn
around to see what he was making a big deal out of, so she didn�t notice how he
was eyeballing the size of the ring compared to the size of her finger. Consequently,
the next move caught her by surprise.

�� Gourry took her hand and slipped the ring,
coincidentally, onto her ring finger as if he were making a proposal. Lina
blushed furiously and went silent as her heart raced in anticipation, waiting
to hear what he had to say, but again he let her down. �I thought it would
fit,� he declared contentedly as he nodded like a child.

�� She realized that he wasn�t going to say
anything else when he turned around and went back to idling. Confused and a bit
hurt, Lina suddenly became aware that Gourry had no idea what his gesture had
meant--after all, he didn�t even know what a fianc�e was. She giggled weakly
and dropped her head, fighting back the tears that were threatening to fall.
Just a moment ago she was so happy. It hurt to think that she had been stupid
enough to think of something like that, and it hurt her more to know how
excited she had been about it.

�� When had she fallen so deeply and completely
in love with him?

�� Lina sat down on the edge of a water fountain
and rolled the small, circular piece of silver between her fingers. It wasn�t
as brilliant as it had been six years ago when they first found it, but it
still had a piece of the magic left. Even if Gourry didn�t think anything of
it, she still remembered it as the happiest moment of her life. He was
irreplaceable.

�� Or, at least, he was irreplaceable as long as
she held onto these old memories like this. Maybe it�s finally time to move
on, she thought. She knew it was, but as she thought of him she felt a
warm, nostalgic feeling fill her bosom. One by one her fingers enclosed the
ring in the palm of her hand, obscuring the fragment of her memory from view. She
closed her eyes as if to make a wish, then let it fall out of her hands.

�� Her eyes shot open as a clanging noise pervaded
her ears. The ring had bounced against the edge of the fountain where she sat,
sending it nearer to the drain. Her face went pale. Not yet, she thought
as she hesitated, I�m not ready yet.

�� In a humiliating display of desperation, she
stepped into the fountain, sinking almost waist-deep into the water, and waded
over to where the trinket sat, shining against the bed of gray stone. Relieved,
she picked it up and slipped it back onto her finger, but then her smile faded.
After all that had happened, it was clear--her love for him hadn�t waned; he
still existed in the deepest corner of her heart.

�� Though her heart stung limitlessly, Lina was
less than stunned to know that she was still hopelessly in love with Gourry. She
had been with him for so long, after all. It just didn�t feel right anymore
without him by her side. But then, it wasn�t worth the pain she felt to think
about him. What did she have to do to be able to forget about him? What would
ease her pain?

�� She waded over and sat down on the inner edge of
the fountain, exhausted. Her feet remained suspended in the water, an image rippled
by the illusion of the water�s surface. Rain began to fall from the sky,
generating little waves on the surface of the water, distorting the image Lina
saw of herself as she stared into her own reflection. The Lina she saw there
wasn�t the Lina she knew--strong, confident, and beautiful. No--the Lina she
saw was none of those things. She saw a girl--torn, tattered, and fallen. She
was actually grateful that this disconcerting image of herself was blotted out
by the rain falling from the sky--grateful for the mercy granted to her by the
gentle storm that rumbled in the distance.

�� The droplets of rain that pelted the top of her
head suddenly came to a halt, and a dark figure appeared behind her reflection
in the water. She looked up, wondering whose kindness was bequeathed unto her,
and was slightly disappointed to see Xelloss standing there with his cape
thoughtfully held out above her head.

�� You might catch cold like this,� he chided her
gently, knowing how fragile to weather the human body was. He, on the other
hand, was not susceptible to disease.

�� She frowned at his kindness. He�s just like
the others, she told herself. He will leave you, too, and then you will
be lonely again. Haven�t you experienced this enough to know that you�ll only
get hurt in the end? She dug her nails into the palm of her hand, causing
herself some pain. �Don�t be stupid,� she commanded herself quietly.

�� Lina-san?�

�Xelloss, don�t you have somewhere
you need to be?� asked she, offering him naught but a cold shoulder in exchange
for his generosity. She was expecting the answer to be yes, but she had
never considered the possibility of a no.

�� He raised an eyebrow at her. �Whatever do you
mean?�

�� She felt irritated, believing that he was
feigning ignorance. �You know--don�t you have something better to do?�

He gave her a smile that seemed to
hint at melancholy, but Lina convinced herself that she must have been
imagining things. �Are you telling me to leave?� he asked.

Taken aback by the hurt tone of his
response and confused by his reluctance, she began slowly, �That�s not it.� With
a heavy sigh, Lina dropped her head, watching her reflection in the water as it
continued to ripple. �I�m just a bit frustrated because I�ve been wandering for
so long--�

�� So have I.�

�� The uncharacteristically serious tone of his
statement more than slightly surprised Lina. She turned to face him, gazing at him
with searching eyes. He wore an alien expression that she wasn�t used to seeing--it
was strangely sincere and true. His eyes were unfocused like the eyes of a lost
puppy; Lina could see that he was wrought with confusion. He lifted his eyes to
look at her as she gazed at him, returning her stare with his own, but Lina did
not see herself reflected in his eyes. Instead, he was looking somewhere far
away, searching. It was almost as though he, too, had lost something important,
something irreplaceable�

�� No. That�s impossible.

�� The idea seemed so outrageous that Lina had
trouble swallowing it, but the pieces did fit when she put them
together, and they fit so seamlessly that there was no doubt left in her mind. Why
hadn�t she realized it before--the reason Xelloss stayed around was because he
had nowhere else to go. And if he had nowhere else to go, that could only mean
one thing.

�� Beastmaster Zelas Metallium is dead,� said
Lina, stating the truth outright and without the slightest reserve. A faint
glimmer appeared in the depths of Xelloss�s eyes before he concealed them once again
behind his casual fa�ade, but Lina easily read through his pretense and stood
up, leaving the shelter he provided for her. She put her hands on his arm and gently
pressed her fingertips against his skin, reminding him that he was not standing
there alone--she was standing there with him. And even without the emotion-reading
abilities of a mazoku, Lina could clearly see that he was confused by her touch.
His smile gradually weaned, and he looked down into her glossy eyes, staring mutely
as though unable to speak.

�� She rested her head against his shoulder and
stroked his arm soothingly, never once turning away from his gaze. He could see
the sympathy in her eyes--the sharing of pain. He was alone; she was alone.
They were both lonely even as they stood next to each other, touching as though
there were miles of separation between them. He could clearly see her standing
there, but the numbness prevented him from feeling her presence. It made him
feel unbearably heartsick.

�� Xelloss lifted his other hand and tenderly
stroked Lina�s cheek, catching the stray tears that fell as a response to his
touch. Lina kept her eyes closed as he ran his fingers through her hair and gazed
at her glistening, wet eyelashes. She shivered slightly when he stroked her
hair again, starting just above her ear and accidentally brushing the tip of it
along the way. He drank in every ounce of her emotions: the sadness, the
loneliness, the longing, and even the unappetizing warmth that drowned his mind
in a murky bog. There was no filter to stop those feelings from rushing in--they
broke easily through the fractured dam that surrounded him and poured into his
soul. They were the only reason he was still aware that she was standing there
with him; it was the proof of her existence.

�� She could barely catch the inaudible whisper of
her name that passed through his lips. Lifting her eyelids, she sweetly
replied, �I�m here.�

�� Then he pulled her into his arms, embracing her
tightly, desperately. Lina endured the dull pain of her shoulders and gently wrapped
her arms around him, rubbing his back consolingly and whispering soft,
reassuring words into his ear. �I�m not going anywhere,� she told him,
promising him with words that she had often longed to hear. It was all she had
to offer. But he had something else to offer her--information that she
otherwise would probably have never known.

�� So mazoku can be hurt, too�

�� They took shelter beneath the cover of an old,
abandoned shack as Xelloss spilled his thoughts to Lina--from the start of the
war to the painful sight of helplessly watching his master�s demise. She cupped
the side of his head in her hands as he spoke, stroking his hair lightly as his
head rested in her lap. The way he was now, he really was like a lost puppy
without an owner. There was a peculiar apathy in his voice, and as he spoke he
wore the eyes of a fawn.

�� Juu-ou-sama divided her forces into two--one
for offense and one for defense. I took charge of the former group while she
handled the latter. It seemed sensible at the time; naturally, she was the best
choice to defend our base. My powers are also more suited for attack rather
than defense, so it seemed like a natural choice to put me in charge of the
offensive team. But now that I think about it, it�s my fault that they even
reached the island. If I had destroyed them earlier, they would never have
gotten the chance to get near�

�� But I underestimated the power of the Earth
Dragon King. Though I could destroy a fleet of dragons in a single swipe, I was
no match for his power.�

�� When I recovered enough to be able to move
again, I was already too late. Juu-ou-sama was down on one knee--I had never
seen her so badly wounded before--and she used the remaining ounce of her power
to reduce the Earth Dragon King�s power by half. After that, Deep Sea-sama was
able to break him into two more pieces, and we destroyed then one by one.�

�� He paused. �I didn�t know where to go, Lina-san.
So I came to you.�

�� She was actually a bit surprised that this was
the result of losing a master for a greater mazoku. The only other similar situation
was in the case of Valgaav, but even he was only a loyal follower that was
picked up and turned into a mazoku by the Chaos Dragon. She had imagined that
someone like Xelloss would suffer more severe repercussions to his existence if
his master had died, but that hadn�t been the case. Sighing inwardly, she secretly
thanked the dark lords for allowing him to survive and bringing him to her care.

�� After a while, he fell silent as if in a deep sleep.
Lina was a bit baffled by the sudden development--she didn�t even know that mazoku
slept. Nonetheless, he seemed unresponsive when she poked and prodded at his
cheek, and Lina contentedly accepted the notion that he had fallen asleep. Thinking
back to his story, she felt a bit sad and leaned over to embrace him as he
slept, cupping her arms around his head as she rested her cheek against his
shoulder.

�� She wanted to punish someone for all of this. It
wasn�t exactly her place to revolt against the ryuuzoku, but she had no reason
to favor them, either. They had more than once shown that their morals were
questionable at best. Even so, she knew that it was unreasonable to try and
fight them on her own. She was only a human being, and if Xelloss wanted
revenge he could easily do it himself. But slaying a thousand dragons would not
bring his master back from the dead, and he knew better than that.

�� Lina held him tightly. She was angry; she cursed
the gods for being unfair--for causing him and her so much pain. Why had they
both lost what was most precious to them, and how were they supposed to fare
now?

�� Lina-san.�

�� Her eyelids fluttered open, and she groaned as
her blurry vision started to focus. She lifted her head a bit and realized that
Xelloss was still quite comfortably resting his head on her lap, looking up at
her as she dozed. She blushed a bit and averted her gaze, an act that made him
chuckle. He reached up, pulled her face down, and kissed her sweetly.

�� She closed her eyes. There was something so
tender and wonderful about his kiss, something she would not expect to receive
from a mazoku. He pulled away to sit himself upright before kissing her on her
cheek and then once more on the lips as she watched him with heavy eyelids. His
affection was warm and innocent--it was pure and unhindered. Lina felt tears
come to her eyes as he took her hands into his own, small into large, and
continued to place gentle kisses on her lips, cheek, and forehead. She couldn�t
quite put her finger on it, but something about it all was capable of moving
her to tears. When he pulled away and smiled just as sweetly at her, she felt tears
trickle down the sides of her face and fall off the tip of her chin.

�� It�s almost time for dinner,� he told her as
he got up. �Are you hungry?�

�� She felt a small rumble in her stomach and
nodded, allowing him to help her to her feet. She couldn�t explain the warmth
she was feeling from him, but she cast the thought aside for the moment, turning
her attention to food. Hunger was something that could be explained, after all.
Curious happy feelings could not.

�� After returning to the inn for a good dinner and
warm shower, Lina�s thoughts drifted back to the ring that she had tried to
dispose of earlier that day. She walked out of the bathroom with her towel
draped over her shoulders, dripping cold water from her hair onto the cold
wooden flooring. She sat down on the edge of her bed, ignoring Xelloss as she
confronted her own internal dilemma.

�� Her heart was confused, and she knew it. It�s not
like Xelloss was replacing Gourry--no one ever could--but instead, he was
taking up another section of her heart. The silly girly feelings she had in
response to his affection proved it. But that was what bothered her most. When
had she become attached to him? And why him of all people?

�� Xelloss frowned as he watched her fiddle with
her ring, mulling over something by herself. Something about it made him
unreasonably upset--so upset, in fact, that he momentarily forgot all about his
own problems. He wanted her problem--their problem--to disappear.

�� She saw his approach and pulled her hand inward
towards her body, as if trying to put distance between him and her treasure.
She knew that he was up to something--that gleam in his eyes gave it away, but
what was it?

�� He smiled. She was reacting predictably, but he
already had something in mind. He reached for her hair, and she expectedly
withdrew from his touch. He kissed it gently, then quickly leaned in to kiss
her forehead, her cheek, and the rosy tip of her ear. He could hear her sharp
intake of breath as he ran his tongue along the outer edge of her earlobe,
nibbling a bit on the end before planting a line of kisses along her jawline. The
sound of her racing heart made him smile.

�� Lina could only succumb to him as he continued
kissing down her neck and chest, which was relatively bare due to the low
v-shaped cut of her button down pajama shirt. She could feel her body
responding to him, and the heat generated by his kisses overwhelmed her senses.
He placed his hands tactfully on the sides of her waist, an area of her body
that was particularly sensitive to touch. She blushed and pressed the palms of
her hands against his shoulders, gently pushing him away. �Stop�� she weakly
pleaded.

�� He grinned. Lina was becoming easier to coax. He
picked her hand up--the one with the ring on it--and kissed her fingertips.
Then he looked at her--a glance that stole her breath away--and pressed her
hand to the side of his mouth. She could feel his hot breath passing across the
surface of her fingertips.

�� She shifted a bit in her seat as he gently
sucked her finger. Her passion was elevating; her precautions were breaking. He
stole everything from her like a thief in the night. She exhaled a breath of
warm air through her red lips and tried to ignore the dizzying sensation of his
touch.

�� And then she froze. He carefully took the ring
between his teeth and attempted to remove it from her possession. She wanted to
stop him--to protect her treasure from being stolen--but her feelings were so
conflicted that her body did not know how to respond. It was as if her mind was
disconnected from her body. She shuddered as his teeth grazed her skin and pulled
the ring off her finger. He quietly spat it into his hand, and she watched
anxiously to see what he would do with it.

�� Throwing it away would be too easy. No--Xelloss
had thought this through to a deeper level than that. If he threw it away, she
might blame him and quickly relapse, and then she would be beyond easy reach. A
better course of action would be to place it just out of her reach and have her
make her own decision to leave it behind. How would he achieve this result?

Seduce her.

�� He placed it down behind her back, leaning in
close to her as he spoke. �I�m not taking this away from you, Lina-san,� he
said. He paused briefly, pressing his face closer to hers so that their lips
were almost touching. At such a close proximity, the red of her eyes made her
appear more like a wild animal. �But I will take you away from him.�

�� Push her into a corner.

�� The dizziness was making it too hard to think.
His warm breath against her lips brought her instincts out to the surface, and
she responded blindly to his bold approach. Slipping her arms around his neck,
she invited him to do just that.

�� Make her want you.

�� Though Xelloss had told himself over and over
again not to rush into things, he couldn�t resist her when she so openly
invited him to devour her. He roughly pressed his lips against hers, sneaking a
tongue into her mouth when she pressed back with her own. She gasped and
attempted to pull away, startled by the sudden feeling of something warm inside
of her mouth, but he pulled her back and continued to consume her. The weak,
helpless moan that escaped her mouth as she shuddered sent his heart racing,
pounding in his ears. It was hard not to take her completely right then and
there.

�� Then Lina suddenly grabbed his hair and pulled,
hard. He winced slightly and let go of her lips, baffled by her sudden action
but even more so by the predatory look that manifested itself in her deep,
crimson eyes.

�� Very good.

�� What the hell am I doing, Lina wondered
as she pressed her hands against his chest and kissed him tenderly just
underneath his chin in an attempt to deflect her own increasing desires. She
kissed up and down his neck, probing his skin here and there with her tongue as
her breath came forth in ragged gasps.

�� Xelloss was greatly amused. For a second, she
had gained the upper hand, but she had failed to carry through with her whim.
It was enough to bring him back to his senses, though, and he tipped her chin
up to plant a gentle kiss on her lips, temporarily ending their passionate
exchange. Mutely, Lina watched as Xelloss stood up and turned to leave. She
wasn�t sure how to respond to it anymore--that primal instinct that took over during
their romantic encounters--and she couldn�t stand the unbearable, insatiable
desire that remained lit at her core.

�� She saw the flicker in his eye as he vanished,
but in her mystified state of mind she could not guess the reasons for it. If
she had (she contemplated the possibility of this much later), she would have
known what he had then realized.

�� It won�t be long, now.
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Love Scene