"Filia..." Xelloss murmured, feeling languid and at peace with the world. The sheets felt soft against his skin, almost as soft as her own, and were so pleasantly warm... "Why?"

"Maybe it's because I'm sorry I made you remember what happened with Hellmaster that time...?" she said softly, cradling his head against her bosom. "You looked so...lost."

"Oh. Maybe I should look lost more often."

She giggled, her chest doing what Xelloss considered to be quite interesting things. "It wouldn't work for too long, Xelloss. I'd eventually just throw you out."

"And you think I'll let you throw me out of anywhere...?" he said, with a challenging grin.

"Oh, I'm sure I could convince you that you didn't mind it at all..." she replied, her grin echoing his own.

Words weren't used much for a little while, the feelings -- physical and mental -- being too satisfying to leave much room for such minor things.

Xelloss sighed, feeling quite satisfied with himself. The tart taste of Filia's physical pleasure was much better than the slightly burnt flavor to her sympathy. He was starting to find the taste of her pleasure a bit addictive, too.

That reminded him of something he had been wondering about for a bit. "Filia...why do you seem to enjoy it so much when I bite your neck and shoulders while we're having sex? I may not know much about dragon anatomy, but several of those spots should cause you extreme pain, not pleasure..."

"Oh... Umm..." He smiled, enjoying her embarrassment. "Well... The matrons always told us that when a man and a woman mated, if she was too enthusiastic for her mate he would bite at nerve centers in her neck to keep her still. We all thought that it must be quite painful..."

"Hm. So I'm not the only one who has problems in bed with enthusiastic dragon ladies. But I feel a bit cheated; you get mind-numbing pleasure, I get a mouthful of sweaty dragon."

For several long minutes, there was silence.

"Filia, if I promise to gently nibble on those nerve centers after getting you aroused enough for it to feel good, will you let me back into your bed?"

"No."

"Please? The floor is hard and cold!"

"Not until sunset."

"But Filia, you said you'd let me back into your bed at sunset!" Xelloss dropped the dishes he had been carrying into the sink, being careful to make sure none broke without it seeming like he was paying attention to that.

"You're welcome to go ahead, Xelloss. I should wait up a while, in case Jillas or Grabos return. Now that the weather's finally turning, they should be back soon..."

"But I'll be lonely! Do you have to...?"

Filia sighed at the look on his face, knowing that he must be only acting and that she was about to do something rather foolish. "If you've any suggestions on what to do to leave some light out for them, without risking burning the house down, you could convince me to not wait up and keep an eye on a candle."

Xelloss looked at her curiously. "Why don't you use a light spell, Filia...?"

"Well... It doesn't look right to the locals, since it's not attached to a lamp or a candle, and even though the barrier's been gone for a few years they're still not quite comfortable with magic being used that casually..."

"Why don't you attach it to a lamp? It should be rather easy to make the globe stick to the wick..." he said, thoughtfully. "It'd only take a little alteration on the spell..."

"You speak like it's so easy to convince it to stick to a solid object," she said, trying hard to hide her annoyance and barely missing success.

"Do you have a lamp?" he asked, apparently oblivious. "Preferably one that's been dry for a while?"

Filia sighed. "There's one in the linen closet, on the top shelf. You should recognize it; you managed to somehow make it impossible for me to refill it back when I had just settled down, and I didn't notice until after burning all the oil in it. Please be careful with it. It had been my favorite lamp, back when it worked."

Xelloss sweatdropped. That little prank had slipped his mind... I hope she's not going to try to punish me for that trick again; I really hadn't known how much she had liked it. He decided to go get it immediately, in hopes that maybe she'd calm down a bit by the time he got back.

Just long enough afterwards for Filia to have calmed down some, Xelloss returned with the lamp. It was a small work of art, made entirely from good, clear crystal with an etched fine floral pattern covering the base, with a matching thin ring around the upper rim of the chimney. It appeared to be already lit, and though it was clear to Filia's more experienced eye the unwavering clear light was definitely that of magic it was very unlikely that the locals would think it was anything but a very good lamp full of top-quality oil.

Xelloss looked very pleased with himself. Filia had only seen him smile this enthusiastically a few times, all of them recently, and, come to think of it, for the same reason. He must already be thinking of his reward for this little feat, she decided.

"Look, Filia! I even lit it for you! I even managed to set it so it'll go out of its own accord at dawn, so you won't have to get up to move it out of the window!"

"How thoughtful." Though turning down the implied offer there was tempting to her, the power of Xelloss's puppy-dog eyes, which she knew he'd use if she didn't accept it, was too great to risk encountering if she could avoid it. "Since you have gone to all this trouble...let's put it in the window by the door, and go to bed."

Time to plot ways to wipe that smile off of his face...

Jillas and Grabos stopped in front of the house and put their bags down. They had met up just outside of town, and had walked in companionable silence to Filia's home. They always spent the first night back home at Filia's house, both to make sure Filia knew they had returned and so they could get her to let them into the shop since they invariably had lost their own keys.

Of course, this meant that they also had lost their keys to Filia's house, since they kept them on the same key ring. To get her to let them in, they had taken to having Jillas toss pebbles at the window; Grabos threw them too hard, and neither had mastered the fine art of knocking on doors at night. However, after going through a pawful of gravel with no response, they got worried.

In silent coordination that would have surprised nearly everybody who knew them, they tried the door. Upon discovering that it was unlocked, they quietly slipped inside, worried.

Filia sighed, happy to have succeeded. Success, and the means she had used, felt good. Xelloss didn't seem to mind losing, either, since he had wrapped his arms around her afterwards, and was now gently nibbling on her ear.

"Xelloss, are you trying to convince me to give you a repeat performance?" she murmured, any reluctance in her words and tone contradicted by her expression.

He chuckled, surprising Filia. "That, Filia-chan, is a secret." One that you should have no trouble guessing, too, he added mentally.

Filia grinned. "I'll take that as a yes..." and moved to kiss him.

In a display of fantastic bad timing, Jillas flung open the bedroom door. There was a short moment where everybody was still and silent and time seemed to have stopped. Then it resumed its flow just as abruptly as it had halted.

"Oneesan!" There was the distinct click of pistols being cocked as Jillas prepared to protect Filia from Xelloss, even though that wasn't necessary at all. It became even less necessary as Xelloss abruptly teleported away.

Jillas lowered his guns in relief, not really wanting to have to fight Xelloss, and dashed to Filia's side. "Are you alright, oneesan? How much did he manage to do to you?" he asked, misunderstanding her shock at Xelloss's sudden disappearance if he noticed it at all.