Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Roses ❯ Scars ( Chapter 5 )

Scars

"Xellos, where have you been?" Lina yelled across the hall as Xellos closed the door to Zelgadis's room.

"I just went to get some pretty things for Zel."

"You what? You got him pretty things? Why the hell would you do that?"

"He wanted pretty things, I think, he was a bit delirious when I talked to him."

"When you talked to him? When I talked to him, he mumbled a bunch of nonsense and even called me `mommy.' Is he better?"

"I don't think so. He didn't say anything, but I pushed some hair out of his face and he grabbed my hand and wouldn't let go for half-an-hour."

"This is not good."

"I hope those roses I got him cheer him up."

"Yeah, I hope so t-- Roses? You got him roses?"

"Don't worry, I got him bluish white, red ones mean I love you. These are `get well' roses."

"Whatever, I don't have time for this. Amelia should be here later tonight."

"I thought it was tonight, I mean now."

"No, it's five in the morning."

"Oh."

"You mean you've spent all night buying stuff for Zelgadis?"

"Well, it wasn't all night. The sun had set three hours ago when I was talking to Zelgadis…"

"You are strange."

"I'm hoping that's compliment."

"I'm going back to bed. Tell me if those stupid flowers do anything. If they don't, Gourry has a recipe involving rose hips we might want to try and I don't want them to go to waste."

Lina left the hallway and slammed her door shut, waking up everyone who was not already awake from her screaming at Xellos."

"Roses have hips?"

* * * * *

Worry, exhaustion, stress, confusion, and flower-hunting had made everyone in the group more tired than they thought. Even Xellos had to rest a while.

It wasn't as if Zelgadis was going anywhere.

"Oh, yes, there are two rooms under the Mettalium name, are they your friends, miss?" the innkeeper asked a late arrival.

"Yes, their my friends. I wonder why there's only two rooms."

"I don't know, just ask them one thing for me."

"Of course."

"Tell them to keep it down."

"Okay, I guess."

Amelia ran up the stairs and turned down the hallway.

She ran into the room after fumbling with the lock. "Miss Lina!" she whispered excitedly. "Oh," she said, noticing she had the wrong room.

Zelgadis quietly slept on the bed, his pajamas and blankets tangled around him, he had obviously had a bad day's sleep. To the right of the chimera, Amelia's left, Xellos floated in the air, taking a long lazy cat-nap (it would have to be long and lazy, that's the way cat's nap).

The room stank horribly of sweat and saliva and vomit, the first two almost drenched Zelgadis's pillow. The room smelled heavily of roses, the source of which stood proudly in a vase on a dresser next to the window, the heavy flower scent just enhanced the smell of sickness, making the stink heavier and worse.

"Oh, I guess I can't give him his present now." Amelia muttered.

Zel rolled over in the bed, which made Amelia suddenly realize all his blankets were tangled up and surely wouldn't be any good for warmth in that state.

She tugged the blankets off of Zel. She gasped and dropped the blankets on the floor, completely forgetting about them.

Zel's pajamas had slid slightly down his hips, where they wished to stay, as opposed to being fastened at his waist, where he had tried to keep them all day, yesterday and the days before.

A screamed pushed past managed to push it's way through her throat, encountering chokes at first, causing tiny noises, but she finally managed to scream.

She ran out of the room, forgetting about the door, and charged down the hall, her tears drowning her whimpering Lina's name.

Something suddenly slammed into her and pinned her to the wall. There was a pause as she regained her breath and stopped her tears, just to have a hand close around her throat, allowing her to breathe slightly, not enough to make any sounds.

She opened her eyes to see who it was trying to kill her, and she was thrown into more shock and terror when she realized it was Xellos.

"What did you see, what are you screaming about?" he asked, and loosened his grip enough to allow her to whisper.

"Br… bruises on… he was … they… it… ra-"

"That's enough!" Xellos said, and tightened his grip again. "Understand this: if you tell Lina or Gourry, or Zelgadis, or anyone about this …"

"KKKk?"

"That's a secret, a secret you really don't want to find out. Understand?"

Amelia nodded her head.

"Good," he said, and released her , dropping her to the floor.

"Lina and Gourry's room is two doors down from ours. Argue about accommodations with them, quietly."

* * * * *

"Zelgadis, where'd you go now? Damnit, I left the door, open, I hope he didn't run away. No wait, this is a sick mortal, he wouldn't have gone out the door, he's probably still in this room. Great, now `m talking to myself."

Xellos looked in the dresser again, stopped himself again, checked the bathroom, checked the closet, and, having no clue where to look for a chimera, checked the vase of flowers.

Xellos thought a while and decided that no, Chimera's do no hide in vases or drawers or under sheets, but they might hide under the bed.

There was Zel, right under the bed. It wasn't like the first time, when Zel seemed scared of being sick and ashamed of throwing up all over the bed, this time Zel was angry about something.

"You wanna come one out of there Zel?"

"No," Zel said. Strange, for some one who was delirious sixteen hours ago, he seemed very well, not in prime health of anywhere near there, but in comparison, he was doing fine.

"Come on, it's just me."

"Go away!" The chimera moved farther from the mazoku. He may have been a great warrior, but that had nothing to do with Zel's size. He was small, taller than Lina, but the smallest of the men in the usual group.

"Amelia won't come in here again, if you don't want her to. It's just me, you can trust me."

"No."

"It's all right."

"I don't trust you."

"What?"

"How the hell can I trust you? You want them all to leave me, to go away and never come back."

"I thought you didn't want Lina or the others near you."

"I changed my mind, I want you to go away. I don't want you to come near me or influence my life at all. Their being nice now, they don't seem to care."

"Care about what, that you're sick?"

"You know what I mean!"

"No I don't!"

"I don't want to play your games, I want you to go away, I hate you!"

"I-"

"You told them! I can't believe you told them! I hate you more than ever! Amelia hates me now! She only came to see if it was true!"

Pause. Silence, heavy silence, somehow made heavy by the falling snow.

"I never told them, Zel."

"I don't trust you."

"Why not?"

"I never trusted you."

"What can I do to make you trust me?"

"Nothing."

"How about truth or dare?" Xellos said, sitting down next to the bed.

"No, I don't want anymore of your games."

"You can ask the first question."

"No."

"You can ask all the questions."

"Fine. Why are you making me play this game?"

"You said you didn't trust me. I'll answer all your questions, and I won't keep anything a secret."

"How the hell did you know where to find me?"

"I didn't know where to find you. I heard rumors of dragons in that cave. They turned out to be ogres. I had no idea I would find you there, in fact, I wasn't expecting anyone I knew at all, I thought it would just take five seconds to kill them, and that would be it."

"What are ogres?"

"Well, you pretty much know what they look like. A long time ago, a few years before the war with Shabranigdo and Ceipheed some mortal got the idea of taking a dragon and a mazoku, both of them young, weak, and hurt quite a bit, and made them have a kid."

"Made them have a kid?"

"That's right, they forced them to. Anyway, the result wasn't at all what they wanted. It was an ugly thing, a mix between a monster and a dragon, it had no magic whatsoever, it liked to hurt people, but didn't like going out into the world to find anyone to hurt. This was the first ogre. No magic, they rely on scent and sound, they have groups no bigger than five, and they are very territorial. If they see anyone too close to their cave, they use that person as a toy."

"What happened when you rescued me? What did you do?"

"Well, you passed out, I took off what was left of your clothes, I mean, they were all ripped and blood soaked. I used some cave water and washed some blood off you, then I wrapped you in my cloak, took you here, and got a room and wrote a letter to Amelia, Lina, and Gourry, saying that you were hurt. I bought you some pajamas too."

"Why didn't you tell them?"

"I didn't think they needed to know."

"Do they know?"

"Only Amelia, but she won't be telling anybody."

"Why don't you hate me? Why are you being so nice? What are you up to?"

"Up to? I didn't plan on meeting you here, so I didn't have a plan, and I wouldn't leave any of you to die."

"Why?"

"Well, in most cases I want to ask a favor."

"What favor do you want?"

"I don't know yet, actually, I've been keeping an eye on your health and thinking about other things, and talking to Lina."

There was silence for a while.

"Why did you burn the copy of the Claire Bible?"

"Um, can you ask a different question please?"

"Why?"

"You four were so fun, and I didn't want you to be upset, I mean more upset than usual, I mean … I read the thing, and I didn't want you reading it, because it was about chimeras and it said something like `Once bodies are fused together with one mind and one soul, nothing other than a creature of the astral plane can separate them, the spell is permanent.' I didn't want you reading it."

"Why did you care when you just met me?"

"Because, I um, I just met you and I like you. I thought it was just a crush for a long time, but that wasn't it.

Silence again, for a much longer time.

"Zelgadis?"

"Why can't you tell the truth for once?"

"I did."

"You can't like me, I hate it when you tease me and I hate your stupid games!"

"I do like you. If I didn't like you, I would have just dumped you with Amelia to take care of you. You're not naïve, or arrogant, you're smart, with your curse you're immortal, which is a good thing for someone like me."

"I am not. I look absolutely hideous. I'm disgusting!"

"You are not, if you were I wouldn't be trying to get you out from under the bed or taking care of you at all."

"You don't care?"

"I don't care what the ogres did to you, or how sick you are. If I didn't like you I wouldn't care, but I do. No, please don't start crying."

"I can't help it."

"Then come on out, please."

Zel slowly crawled out from under the bed. His eyes were red, and his face was streaked with tears. He'd been crying for some time, it was just now that it had become loud enough to be audible.

Xellos gathered Zelgadis up in his arms and hugged him tightly as he cried, staining Xellos's yellow shirt.

"Please don't cry." Xellos said, not noticing how permeated with rose, the room had become.

For and hour the snow became heavier, and eventually Zelgadis's eyes dried.

"There's nothing to be scared of, or worried about," Xellos said.

"No. They're still out there. They're going to kill me!"

"Who are?"

"I thought you knew about them."

"About who?" The whole hotel shook forcefully, a powerful quake lasting only a second, and then it was gone.

"What the hell was that?"