Kage no Ame

"YOU'RE HERE!!!!!"

"Oi, oi...have you come up with your-"

"Uh huh! They're ALL in my HEAD!!"

"Seeing that you don't know how to write, I suppose so...what do you have?"

"One: I want to be BEAUTIFUL!"

"Oh, now, now, you shouldn't waste your hopes on that...you're beautiful already!"

"Um...okay, if you say so! Wanna hear my next one?"

"Oh...why not?"

"Two: I want WORLD PEACE and that nobody'd fight anymore! Otou-chan says fighting's bad! And-and tha' pasa-pashi-PASUHFITS are against it!"

"Um...heh heh...how about something a little more, um...feasible?"

"What's fee-fee-FEESHABLE?"

"Realistic. Practical. Something I'll be able to do. I can't make the world go round..."

"Aww...okay...three: I wanna be...a BEAUTIFUL bride...and have a HANDSOME husband as king after Otou-chan...!"

He felt like he was on a cloud. Whatever it was that he had landed on, it was soft and silky smooth, and he relaxed his tense muscles in the coolness that surrounded him. He didn't feel sick anymore-just filled with a euphoric sense of rapture. When was the last time he had felt so absolutely safe? ...The last time he was in his lover's arms...and had to worry about nothing... the secure feeling dissipated almost immediately at the thought. He needed his swordsman. He felt warm fingers brush against his cheek in a loving caress, then tracing along the column of his throat. Instinctively, he nuzzled against them, loving the gentle feeling. And with a sentiment that was almost reluctant, he opened his eyes slowly to look up at who had been with him.

Zelgadis' stomach did a triple-axle somersault when his eyes focused on Ameria, who was smiling down at him with hungry blue eyes. "A-A-Ameria?!" he gulped as he flipped over and scooted away from her on the bed-dammit, a bed!-faster than he thought he could.

He ended up falling onto the floor in a heap-the Saillune princess laughed softly at the other shaman's plight. "Welcome to the world of the living...you seem surprised to see me, Zelgadis-love..."

"Damn right, I'm surprised!" the chimera answered brusquely as he sat up to face her. Ameria was definitely NOT herself-she was even in a different outfit: a long dress of black velvet with dark blue roses of an intricate design at the hem and bodice, a dark mantle secured on her shoulders by sapphire brooches and lastly a crown of some sort of black metal and onyx. He blinked several times as he got a good look at the usually white-clad princess-what was with the new threads? "Anou...Ameria...?" he asked hesitantly, noticing a wicked glint in her eye that couldn't possibly be good, "W-what exactly are you doing in that outfit...? And where are we...?"

Said chimera looked up to see Hikaru floating down into the room from the ceiling on his black Fae wings. Zelgadis growled and charged a fireball in his hands and was about to hurl it at the Yousei when Ameria lifted her hand and shook her head: "No bloodshed in here, Zelgadis-love. We wouldn't want to ruin such a beautiful room."

He looked around him slowly, seeing a room decorated with many blues, blacks, and velvet of other darker hues. That and black roses. Black roses that didn't suit the princess at all, but that was beside the point. "Ameria, what are you doing? Do you have any idea of what that...that MONSTER has done to Lina and me??"

"Feh..." Hikaru muttered in unappreciative retort, "You're one to talk about monsters..."

"And where is she, anyway, Ameria?" Zelgadis asked, now approaching the princess slowly and ignoring Hikaru's superfluous comment. "Where are they?? Where's Gourry?! Ima, oshiete!!" [1]

"Why don't YOU stop talking to her so!" Hikaru interjected, flying in between the two. "That is no way to speak to your future bride!"

Zelgadis felt something in him crack and he looked at the Fae as if he had just told him to swallow piss. "B-B-BRIDE?????"

"Yes...your future bride..." Ameria stood and gave him a sweet smile, reaching out to hold Zelgadis' hand in hers-her skin was like ice. "And you are to be my king after Otou-chan...won't it be nice, Zelgadis-love? We'll go back and have a whole kingdom to ourselves to spread justice as bright as our love across the world!"

"Of course it is, Zelgadis-love..." she answered in a slow, disturbing voice. "...Now that Gourry's out of the way, of course..."

Zelgadis' blue-gray eyes widened in horror and he grabbed Ameria's shoulder, shaking her for all it was worth. "What the hell are you talking about?! What have you done with Gourry?!"

Letting go of Ameria, Zelgadis backed away-he didn't believe it. "No...you're lying."

"Look at this and say we're lying..." Ameria smirked as she reached behind her and held out the Hikari no Ken, placing it carefully in Zelgadis' now quivering hands.

The chimera stared at the lonely weapon, feeling as if his legs would give out from under him at any moment. And in fact, they did, and he dropped the sword on the floor with a clatter as he fell to his knees, a dark, sinking feeling spreading through his stomach as the swordsman's golden image flashed through his mind. He started to breathe heavily for a few moments, making disturbing choking noises. Ameria looked up to Hikaru, a hint of worry in her eyes, but the Fae shook his head, merely replying with: "Endorphine withdrawl." [2]

After a few more tense minutes, Zelgadis broke out of it. "No! You're lying! You have to be lying!"

"Tell me, Zelgadis-love..." Ameria whispered softly as she knelt down beside the shaman, placing the Hikari no Ken back in his hands and lifting his chin to look into his eyes that were wide with fear and disbelief. She put on her most winning smile. "Do I look like a liar to you? Have I ever lied to you?"

And the sad thing was that he couldn't recall when she had lied to him before. His mind was too clouded to think of one time when she might have told a little fib. Not one. "N-no..." he replied brokenly, choking on the tears that had sprung from his eyes. He pulled the sword close to his chest and hugged onto it tightly.

"I thought not..." Ameria sighed and looked up towards Hikaru. "But we have a present for you that would make you feel better...if you would like it, Zelgadis-love..."

I don't think there is anything that you could do that would make me 'feel better', Ameria... the chimera whispered mentally. Not after this... But then a dark light seeped away from Hikaru's hands and wrapped around Zelgadis' body, causing him to drop the sword in surprise. He felt like he was being lifted, like a great weight was being taken away from him and there was only dark light around him. In a way, he felt like he was choking, but breathing in a breath of fresh air at the same time. After long moments that felt like an eternity, the feeling ending and Zelgadis was able to look up again and into a mirror that just so happened to be opposite him and the Ameria...

But someone he had wished to see for a long, long, long time. Too long, in fact. He pinched soft, lightly tanned skin to see if this was really happening. It hurt. It couldn't be true...how could this pixie...just...?

Lina Inverse shifted in the darkness, rolling onto her back sorely and ungracefully. "The little monster sure packs a punch...itai!" she groaned as the sharp pain flared in her side with a vengeance at the movement. She tried to stay still for a few minutes and the pain started to subside. "Where the heck am I now...? This doesn't look like where I left Zel...ZEL!!"

Not thinking, she sat up too quickly, calling for the chimera and the bite left from Hikaru's attack ripped through her middle and her head started to pound. She bit down on the inside of her cheeks as hard as she could and let the stinging tears fall from her eyes-what other alternative did she have besides screaming? And that wouldn't help at all. "Zel, where the hell are you...?"

The sorceress could barely hear the raspy whisper that floated through the dark air, but the strained her ears to hear her name. She couldn't exactly tell who it was offhand, though. "Zel, 'zat you...?"

There was a quieter reply, but she couldn't make it out this time. If anything, it seemed to be coming from her left-she turned her head to find a pile of rubble that had fallen from the ceiling. He's under there...oh, man... "Hold on, Zel, I'll try an' get you out of there...itai...as best I can, okay?" she said reassuringly through her pain as she shuffled over. She stared at the rocks a moment and decided a spell wouldn't do. One, she could hurt whoever was under them, and two, it was best to conserve what power she had (in case this was an enemy, of course, or for healing them both). Grasping one of the looser rocks carefully, Lina shifted again and pushed it out of the way, along with other debris, creating a large hole in the pile of rubble to try and find the one inside. It had taken her a while, but she finally made a hole large enough to see (almost) clearly. "Zel...?"

A hoarse cough was the only response for a few moments and she grew worried. She took a deep breath and took the chance. "Lighting." She pointed the small orb of light towards the opening to see better...

Panic swarmed over Lina's mind and she started pushing the rocks away frantically, starting to forget the pain that was going to cause all hell for her when this was all over. "C'mon, Gourry! Say something! Help me out here!" she called without much hope as she strained to the open the hole wider to try and pull him out. She was finally able to grab hold of one of his limp arms after about twenty minutes of shoving rocks around and she managed to get him out before the heavier rocks up near the top fell on them both-it seemed pretty impossible, but somehow, Lina Inverse manage to do it.

"Whew...that...that was a close one, huh, Gourry...?" she breathed out heavily as she sank down to her knees, the aftershock of her struggles raging their wrath on her side. "But I got you out, and dammit, you should thank me...right...?"

Gourry didn't move. Lina could see many burns and cuts over his body; dirt and grime meshed in his golden locks. His sword, the Hikari no Ken, was gone, too. This was definitely bad. She was trying to hope against hope, and it definitely wasn't working. "C'mon, Gourry, you can stop playing dead, now..."

Lina's head whipped around towards the haughty voice that came from the shadows. "Xellos?! What the hell are you doing here?? Get out here and help me!!"

"Oh-ho, and why would I do a silly thing like that?" the Trickster Priest laughed gaily as he phased in from out of the other side of the wall, that incessant smile on his face. "It's not as if he's dead or anything..."

"Fine, fine. All of you are rather tetchy today, aren't you?" He phased back out and appeared again in front of the distressed sorceress, his mood unchanged. "I was watching, if you must know-I like to keep my eye on my investments..." Lina shot him an unappreciative glare. "But it was only Ameria, after all-he should be coming around at anytime."

"Ameria??" Lina could do nothing but blink. "Dammit...I shoulda known...that Hikaru friend of hers attacks us, too..."

Lina and Xellos looked down to see Gourry's eyelashes flutter and open slowly, revealing eyes of an icy, hate-filled blue. "Because when I'm done with him..." he vowed dangerously, his right hand clenching in a tight fist where his sword should have been, but wasn't, "He'll regret the night that he met me..."

Feathery soft tendrils of hair fell over his face, covering his left eye like a curtain of night. With a shaking hand, he slowly the silky locks behind a round ear, nearly jumping back in surprise to find that it didn't instantly bounce back like wire. Fresh tears welled up in his blue-gray eyes, spilling down in long trails over caramel cheeks. He wiped them away almost frantically and looked at his hands-not ugly, monstrous hands, but slender hands with long, willowy fingers.

"Nothing...is impossible here, Zelgadis-love..." Ameria purred reaching up to touch the former chimera's face, turning his head so that he would face her. He put up no resistance against her hand and she smiled. "Mine..." she whispered and she brought her lips towards his and kissed him-he was unresponsive for the first few moment, but then a fluttering joy spread through her as he closed his eyes and kissed her back slowly. Such a victory. "All mine..."

Kage no Yousei ga ni sora kissu o suru MIDNIGHT.
(The Fae of the Shadows kiss the sky at midnight.)

Sora wa GUREI...ame ga yami to samui desu...
(The sky is gray...the rain is dark and cold...)

"Tell me, now!"
Endorphin withdrawl: animals and humans produce endorphins when they are with their own group, feeling secure and happy. (In other words, it's like brain morphine.) Separation from that security causes the brain to stop production of endorphins, causing symptoms similar to drug withdrawl.
Ain't he pretty? ^_^