Thank you for reviewing, Lauren-sama and Small Lady...
     Lauren, you're right that the plot is thickening.  I won't say more
 than that right now, though.  Aside from that, thanks for the wish for 
luck.
     Small Lady, I'm glad you seem to enjoy the idea of a jock strap.  I
 think.  But, actually, I think Xelloss is the only one with a spare 
pair of socks in his pants in the series, except maybe for some of the 
chara who don't turn up past perhaps one episode or whose clothes don't 
let such things show.  (For example, it's hard to tell that Garv wears 
pants at all, and Rezo, both of them, wears robes...)  But, really, 
enough about the covert codpiece usage in Slayers...on with the story!

     Slayers is the creation of Hajime Kanzanka and Rui Araizumi.  I 
don't own it; they and a lot of other people do.  I'm not making any 
profit off of this story.
     All lyrics used in this story are from the songs of This Mortal 
Coil.  _(Nothing But) Blood_ is copyright I. Watts-Russell / J. Fryer & 
Momentum Music Ltd.

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Mr Somewhere
+=== A Slayers Fanfic by Ryo Hoshi
09 +===+ The Horizon Bleeds and Sucks Its Thumb

              Should have been enough to change your mind
            Could have been enough to take your breath away
                              -- (Nothing But) Blood

     Filia sighed, her tears having finally slowed, and leaned against 
Xelloss's chest.  Though it was comforting, it wasn't completely so.  He
 didn't feel alive, even though his flesh was warm.  She couldn't hear 
his heartbeat, even though she had an ear to his chest, and it was too 
still.  Besides...no matter what, he still felt like and was a mazoku.
     _Xelloss, kneeling beside the slain Knight of Ceified, his gloves 
stained with the dragon's blood._
     Filia shuddered at the flashback of to her dream, and the reminder 
of whom and what her lover truly was.  "Filia-san?  What's wrong?"  She 
pulled herself away, and out of his arms, so she could look at his face.
     "Xelloss..."  He was confused, clearly so, and there was worry in 
his expression and she wondered if he really be worried about _her_.  
"Please go..."
     _Damn...  Lord, will I manage to ever spend an entire night with 
her without *something* going wrong?_  "As you wish, Filia-san."  He 
slipped out of bed silently, switching to his usual, dressed form as he 
did, and teleported away silently.
     Filia sat still for a few seconds, surprised that Xelloss left so 
easily and quickly when she asked him to go.  Then, recovering, she 
hugged one of the pillows close to her chest, and cried into it.  As she
 did, she couldn't help but think that Xelloss was more satisfying to 
cry on than her pillow.

     Zelas was fetching another bottle of wine, on foot as she had found
 that teleporting did strange things to a good wine, when she discovered
 Xelloss sleeping among her wolves.  She smiled.  He didn't often sleep 
-- mazoku didn't _need_ to sleep, but like many other things with them, 
not needing to did not mean that they _couldn't_ -- and she hadn't seen 
him sleeping with the wolves since when he had been quite young.
     She carefully put the bottle down in a safe place, and went over to
 Xelloss.  After simply enjoying watching him for a few moments, she 
gently shook him awake.  She needed to know why he was _there_ instead 
off on his mission, even though she did have a guest of her own to 
entertain.
     Xelloss jumped slightly.  "I'm sorry, Zelas-sama, I did not want to
 disturb you..."
     She nodded, with an understanding smile.  "What happened, 
Xelloss-chan?"
     Xelloss nodded, and answered her.  He was more direct than usual, 
skipping over the details (particularly the embarrassing ones) and only 
telling of what was directly related to both his mission and why he was 
sleeping among her wolves.  Sometimes, it was to his benefit that she be
 in a hurry.
     Zelas tapped her chin thoughtfully as Xelloss finished with, "And I
 don't know why she asked me to leave, Mother..."
     "I don't think it's anything you did, Xelloss-chan.  Sometimes, a 
woman just wants to be alone.  But, are you certain that she mentioned 
'the eyes of Shabraningdo'?"  Xelloss nodded.  "Then you better return 
to her in the morning.  Make her some tea, apologise for not making her 
breakfast -- feel free to tell her that I ordered you not to cook for 
her, and _why_ I did," Xelloss winced at that, "and then ask her about 
them.  She was a priestess of the Fire Dragon King; this may be a 
prophesy."  Zelas paused, and then added, "If she asks _any_ questions 
related to her dreams, answer them as fully as you can.  We may need 
her."
     Xelloss nodded.  It went without saying that, if it truly was a 
prophesy about what they suspected, it was not likely to be one from the
 gods.  "Are you sure she'll tell me about her dreams...?"
     Zelas smiled, fangs clearly showing.  "Tell her that you have been 
ordered to answer any questions she might have about them, as fully as 
you can, _*after* she has told you about her dreams_."
     Xelloss smiled back.  "Thank you.  She will be surprised at such 
honesty from me," he said, very amused by the thought of Filia's 
reaction to that.
     There was a quiet, rather polite cough from one of the openings.  
Xelloss looked up to see Dynast standing there, looking patient.  _I 
thought Dynast had sworn to stay in his fortress until Shabraningdo 
returned..._ Xelloss thought to himself.
     "I'm sorry, Dynast!  I have the wine, and my servant shouldn't be a
 bother now.  He's having some girl troubles on his current mission," 
Zelas said cheerfully, standing up.
     Dynast nodded, understanding.  "Servants can sometimes be quite bad
 with their timing for needing their superior's attentions.  Sherra once
 spent a bit too much time disguised too well as a human once, and 
turned up in the middle of the night in a panic because her borrowed 
form had started bleeding unexpectedly..."
     Zelas joined Dynast in the door, looking interested.  "It just 
started bleeding suddenly...?  How strange!"
     Xelloss watched, somewhat stunned, as Zelas and Dynast walked away.
  From the direction their voices -- still discussing Dynast's story 
which Xelloss would have found amusing any other time and place -- it 
sounded like they were going to Zelas's bedroom.  _Lord...  *Zelas-sama*
 and Dynast?_

     Filia woke up the next morning, having cried herself into a 
dreamless, unrefreshing sleep, to the smell of fresh-made tea.  She 
rubbed her eyes and cheeks, doing her best to remove the dried tears 
from her face without using a mirror and, pulling on her robe, started 
blearily down to her kitchen.
     She stopped in the door at the sight of Xelloss, wearing a frilly 
pink apron with a rather cute yellow chick on it, cleaning her kitchen 
even though it hadn't really needed cleaning and was now well _past_ 
being spotless.  On the table she normally ate at sat her tea service, 
properly laid out for two and with the tea pot full of chamomile tea.
     "Good morning, Filia-san," he said, not looking up from where he 
was scrubbing the floor.  Filia couldn't help but notice that the tiles 
were even shinier than they could have been when new.  "Are you feeling 
better this morning?"
     Filia nodded, realized that wasn't quite polite, and then said, 
"Yes, I am."  Even though she really wasn't, she didn't want to admit it
 to Xelloss.  She still remembered seeing him, in the dream, with the 
dead Knight of Ceified.
     She couldn't let herself forget that he was a _powerful_ mazoku, 
deadly, and had killed many of her kind, though not ones of her own 
clan.  He had even once threatened her own life, and that of the High 
Elder's.  She had to forget that he had also saved her life, and how 
nicely he had been treating her lately, both in and out of her bed...
     Xelloss was looking at her, eyes open.  "Filia-san, please don't 
lie.  What's wrong?  Please tell me..."  Filia's eyes stared into his 
own, and her emotions were a riot of different flavors serving as a 
spice for the dominant candy flavor of surprise.  "If there's anything 
about it that...I could explain, Zelas-sama's ordered me to tell you as 
much as I can about it, so..."
     "Xelloss..." she said, voice shaky, "why?  _*Why*_ are you _asking_
 me to tell, instead of tricking me into telling you about my dreams, or
 using force...?"
     Xelloss's mouth curved upwards in a bitter smile.  "Can't you 
guess, Filia-san...?"

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     I will admit that I have chosen to deviate from what is officially 
asserted about the nature of the mazoku race in the canon.  The primary 
reason I have chosen to do this is because several of these, such as 
mazoku being incapable of love and even (perhaps) incapable of emotion, 
have certain essential problems.  For example, a character authentically
 without any kind of emotion is less a character and more of an 
attackable force of nature.
     Probably the best explanation for mazoku being said to be incapable
 of love is because as an alternate paring, Lina and Xelloss had been 
quite popular from very early on in Japan.  This was _not_ liked by one 
of the creators of Slayers, who decided to get people to stop asking him
 to get Lina together with Xelloss instead of Gourry by simply stating 
that Xelloss was incapable of love.  At least, this is the version of 
the circumstances I have heard.  (Things from the interviews should be 
taken with a grain of salt anyway.  Elsewhere it is said that higher 
mazoku, which includes Xelloss, are claimed elsewhere to be capable of 
feeling emotions if they are around those with strong emotions.)
     Anyway, to deal with these kinds of problems -- contradictions in 
the official body of knowledge given for the mazoku race, both those 
within it and the contractions that appear when you consider the canon 
directly -- I have decided to treat parts of this as "what others think 
of the mazoku."  Admittedly, I am letting some of this 'body of myths' 
be partially accurate: I would expect a mazoku in love to be _much_ more
 inclined towards stalking his beloved than towards _romancing_ her.
     On the other things...  Dynast might have said that he wasn't going
 to leave his fortress until Shabby was back on the field, but it seems 
that he did count the Rezo incident since he turns up in the novels not 
long after the anime stopped following their plot line in any way.  
Sherra's 'borrowed body' method is something of a shortcut of having to 
figure out how to build a secondary form that will move right, and 
sometimes might be used by a mazoku who just needs to replace one person
 for a little while.  Her problem should be easily guessed by any woman.
     Xelloss is not going to start stalking Filia so soon after 
realizing his feelings for her.  He's giving denial as much of a chance 
as he can.