Xelloss sat and thought, while waiting for Zelas to tell him that she was ready for his report. Zelas almost always took his reports in private: she claimed that she didn't think the others would understand why she would allow him to speak in such a way as he often did to her, even though he was a good servant. Xelloss, of course, understood what she wouldn't say: she enjoyed the way he gave his reports, like he was telling a story to amuse her.

Of course, Zelas's wolves -- which seemed to consider Zelas's private chambers to be their own den, and the Beastmaster's presence to be incidental -- were as always littered all over the floor, and a large black one had settled in his lap. Somewhat automatically, he was scratching behind the wolf's ears. The sweetly sour taste of the wolf's simple physical pleasure matched Xelloss's own thoughts.

Suddenly, a pair of arms slipped around him in a gentle hug, and a familiar voice spoke softly in his ear. "Xelloss-chan, what's wrong? You don't usually brood..."

"Zelas-sama, why did you send me back?" he asked in return, leaning against his mother and master and letting her run her fingers through his hair, smoothing it.

"Xelloss-chan, from all you've told be about that girl, she'd never pull anybody into her bed, and particularly not you. No, don't argue with me about that. She's a very nice girl, and she would ask first." Xelloss nodded as well as he could, since he couldn't argue with that. "For her to pull her into her bed, and have her way with you, means that something unusual is going on. I want to know what this is, before it becomes something important."

"So I have to be a dragon's sex toy...?" he asked, doing his best to keep from sounding like he was complaining.

"I'm sorry, Xelloss-chan. When you're done this mission, would you like to follow Lina around some more? I know you like doing that..."

Xelloss sighed. "Yes, Zelas-sama." Even in mother mode, she was his master.

"Sorry, Xelloss. I need you to do this for me."

Filia sipped tea in her shop, trying to calm down and enjoy the quiet of the slow season. At its start, she had taken sent Gravos and Jillas away, insisting they take a vacation and had even considered closing the shop up for its duration and taking a vacation herself. She had decided against that, though since the dreams had started she was starting to wonder if she should have chosen to take that vacation anyway.

Something, she thought, is very wrong with me. I would never have...done that with Xelloss, even if he had asked. She blushed slightly as her conscious reminded her of certain dreams she had dreamt that had involved the purple-haired mazoku. Why do I keep doing that?

She finished her cup, and looked at the few stray leaves at its bottom for a few moments as a second question formed itself in her mind. Why does he keep returning?

She refilled her cup, and took a few sips as she answered that question: Xelloss is a pervert as well as a namagomi. She knew that didn't really make sense, since she was the one responsible for what she had done to him, but it was much easier for her to blame him.

Xelloss cautiously appeared in Filia's bedroom. If he was right, he should have arrived just before she went to bed. However, he didn't trust his experience with her anymore, as he would not have expected her to rape him twice before, either. She could have taken up sleep-walking, too, for all he knew.

Suppressing slight shudder at his sudden vision of her pulling his clothes off and forcing him down onto the wooden floor of her bedroom, he carefully checked for any sign that she might have already gone to bed, and was relieved to find that her robe and her mace were not there. Xelloss doubted that she'd have taken both with her if she was sleep walking.

He heard the door swinging open, and he turned to see Filia, hair still wet, in her pink robe and with her mace already out. He smiled -- he knew better than to show fear, particularly when it was something he wasn't supposed to be scared of -- and waved. "Hello, Filia-san!"

"Xelloss!" She swung her mace at him, and almost managed to connect. "Namagomi! Are you here because you want to take advantage of me again!?"

Yet another swing of hers almost connected, as her victim was still surprised. "Filia-san, what do you mean, I've take advantage of you? You're the one who keeps raping me! Why are you blaming me?!"

"If you really didn't like it, then why do you keep coming back?"

Xelloss caught her mace in mid-swing, his own eyes open and looking into hers. "Because, Filia-san, something's wrong with you, and I want to know what it is." He was certain that saying why he wanted to know would be a bad idea. "I just came here early...to offer myself."

Filia looked at him, wondering what he was up to. "Offer yourself, Xelloss?"

"Since we'll end up with me in your bed anyway, I though I'd save us both time..." He let his implied meaning sink in, and then caught her free hand as it came up to slap him. "Besides, maybe you'll not injure me in your sleep if I'm in your bed from the start..."

Filia sighed. He did seem to be right... "Alright, Xelloss."

"Thank you, Filia-san," he said quietly and earnestly. He pulled her close, slipping his arms under her robe and around her waist, and kissed her.