The Slayers & the characters from it were created by & are copyright Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. (Lovely...a standard disclaimer...)
Xelloss knocked on the door gently. "Filia?" he said, quietly. He wasn't sure she'd be awake; it was near midnight, and he hadn't been expecting to have finished his last mission from Zelas-sama so quickly.
There was a slight stirring and the door swung open slowly. "Papa-san?" the boy who opened the door said. Xelloss grinned and picked the boy up.
"Hello, Alyosha-chan!" he said happily, ruffling his son's short purple hair. "You're getting big!"
"Papa-san..." Alyosha said. Xelloss looked into his son's serious blue eyes.
"Something's wrong with Mama-san," he said flatly.
Alyosha nodded. Xelloss put his son down and rushed into the bedroom. Filia was lying, pale and silent, in their bed, Val and Zeria sitting watch. Xelloss's eldest child looked up, tears in her eyes. "Papa-san! Where were you?"
Xelloss looked away and muttered, "Doing a chore for grandmother." Not as quitely, he said, "What happened to Mama-san, Zeria?"
Val was the one who answered that. "We were attacked."
"What?" Xelloss tried not to yell, but he knew as Filia stirred on the bed that he had spoken to loudly. Val quickly stood up to see what was discomforting his foster mother, leaving Zeria and Alyosha to explain what had happened.
"Some mazoku -- I think they were from Dynast-dono -- turned up looking for you...they tried to take Mama-san and my brother hostage when they found out that you were gone," Zeria said.
"They were scary!" Alyosha added.
Xelloss lifted an eyebrow, certain that Zeria was leaving something out. "Where were you and Val during all this? I thought that I had told you to protect your mother and little brother?"
Zeria blushed and looked away, and from Val's matching blush Xelloss could guess quite well what the two had been off doing. He sighed mentally; he had not thought it was the best idea to tell Val that they had adopted him, but Filia had become pregnant with Zeria so soon after Val's egg had hatched that it was certain that Val'd figure it out eventually.
But weddings should not come on the heels of funerals.
"Val, would you please take Zeria and Alyosha to the kitchen for a little?" he said to young man. Val looked up and nodded, understanding.
Once the room was empty, Xelloss sat on the edge of the bed. "Filia?" he said quietly as he removed his cloak and his bag, draping them over a chair. She opened her eyes, and Xelloss smiled an honest smile of relief. "How bad..."
"Not that bad," she said weakly. Xelloss frowned and, dropping his cape to the side, pulled the sheet back.
He winced slightly -- on any other person, such a wound wouldn't bother him in the least, but on his Filia... He reached out, his fingertips only a hair's width away from touching the ragged, discolored edge of the wound. "Filia..."
Silence, utter silence, reigned for several long minutes.
Xelloss sat up and pulled off his boots and gloves. He smoothed Filia's hair, and then pulled a dagger out of his bag. "I'm sorry, Filia..."
Filia smiled wanly. "Don't be, Xelloss. We both knew that..."
Xelloss smiled back, his smile reflecting hers. "Yes," he said. He leaned down and kissed Filia. As the kiss deepened, he shifted his grip upon the hilt of the blade and then, quickly, drove it into her heart.