(Warnings and Disclaimers same as previous chapter)

To Love a Monster (part 8)

~Goodnight Kiss~

by: AniDragon and TheLostZelda

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The sun was just beginning to set when Zelgadis and Amelia arrived back at Seyruun castle. Xellos felt them coming before he saw them; they were practically bleeding happiness. With a barely audible hiss, he melded into the shadows just as they came in sight, in the hallways leading to their rooms.

"I had a wonderful time today, Zelgadis-san," Amelia said as she opened the door to her room. She spun back to face him, stepped backwards over the threshold, and smiled.

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself," Zelgadis replied from the hallway, "Perhaps we can do this again sometime."

"I'd like that," She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist, "I've missed spending time with you."

He returned the hug, pulling her closer. Though he was still a very reserved person at heart, he'd gotten used to her casual touches and embraces over the course of the day.

"I guess we'll have to make up that time, then."

She nodded against his chest, enjoying the closeness. She felt like she could just stay there forever.

Zelgadis's train of thought was on a similar track. He wanted to hold her longer… Just a few more minutes… But he knew he had to let her go eventually. It was getting late, and she probably needed to get up early the next morning.

He reluctantly pulled away, meeting her gaze. He gave her a small smile, "Good night, Amelia."

"Good night, Zelgadis-san."

She leaned forward, hoping to kiss him, but just as she did he stepped back and turned, not noticing her movement. She almost stumbled forward as she watched him leave down the hall.

Did… Did he completely miss that? She thought to herself. She thought she'd been pretty obvious the whole day. How could he just turn around and leave?

She sighed, stepped back into her room, and closed the door. So much for a perfect evening.

She jumped slightly when she felt a presence behind her, especially when that presence lazily wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Xellos-san?" She questioned.

"Did you have fun today?" He purred into her ear.

She flushed, "Um… I did, yes…"

Was he angry? She'd accepted his proposal, but then had spent the day with another man… It was certainly grounds for him being angry.

"That's good. I certainly wouldn't want you to become estranged from an old comrade."

"You… aren't mad?" She asked, surprised.

"Of course not," His voice sounded silky, and his breath tickled her throat, "I know your feelings for Zelgadis-san, after all. I wouldn't be satisfied from just having you if I didn't have a fair competition with him."

"I don't think I like being thought of as a prize," Amelia pouted.

He hugged her closer and placed the gentlest of kisses along her neck, "I wouldn't say that. It's your decision after all. It's up to you to decide which of us you want to be with… Which one of us... makes you feel the best."

As he spoke, his fingers drew circles on her stomach. He felt her shiver, but she didn't protest.

"It's funny, though," He continued, "Zelgadis-san gets so angry at the thought of us together… But he hasn't even tried to kiss you yet. It makes one wonder if he really sees you as a woman."

"Zelgadis-san is a gentleman," Amelia spoke up, but the words felt hollow.

"Perhaps," Xellos agreed, letting one hand drift down to her hip and brush her leg, while the other settled just bellow her ribcage, "But surely he can see how much you want him. How much you crave his touch."

Amelia wasn't sure what to say or do at this point. She couldn't deny anything Xellos was saying. She knew he was only trying to plant the seeds of doubt into her mind, but his words made too much sense for her to ignore.

She also couldn't ignore his hands, which were making her feel things no other person had ever made her feel.

She needed to get away from him, to clear her head. She turned to him, which left the hand that had previously been on her stomach now on her lower back. His eyes were open, observing her and her reaction.

"I…" She took a step back, and he let his hands drop away from her, "I'm sorry, Xellos-san, but… I have a lot on my mind right now… I'd like to have some time to myself, to sort through it all…"

"Of course," He closed his eyes, then leaned over to brush his lips against hers. He smiled when he pulled away, "Take all the time you need. I won't be going anywhere far."

He vanished after those words, leaving Amelia feeling confused, vulnerable, and shaken. She sat on her bed and hugged her knees close. How had such a perfect day with Zelgadis fallen apart so quickly?

Zelgadis was preparing for bed, smiling, feeling that the day had gone exactly as planned. After a moment, though, he heard a tell tale poof in the corner of the room. He smiled a little more, hoping his good mood would once again repel the unwanted company.

"Well, you seem to be in a pleasant mood tonight. Did you have a good time with Amelia-san?" Xellos grinned as he floated.

"As a matter of fact, I did," Zelgadis smiled up to the Mazoku, "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason," Xellos drifted down to the floor and walked up to Zelgadis, "I just thought that something had gone wrong, since she looked quite upset about something."

Zelgadis's smile flipped, "What are you talking about?"

"Hm… Well, surely you did something that wasn't to her liking…"

"I didn't do anything to her!"

"Ah…" Xellos opened his eyes slightly with an amused smirk, "So that's why."

Zelgadis's heart froze. Had he missed something? Had there been something so simple and obvious that, because he didn't notice it, Amelia hadn't enjoyed herself? He started running through everything in his head, thinking over and over again, what he could have done differently. She had been happy and smiling the whole day. When he'd dropped her off at her room, she'd even hugged him. What more could he have done… wait… did she want… a kiss goodnight… from me?

He shifted his gaze to stare at his hands: His stone hands. The ones that he had held Amelia with so lovingly only a few moments ago, he now looked at in disgust. He loved her, he had wanted to kiss her, but he'd held himself back due to his current state. He had thought that maybe she wouldn't have wanted to unless he found his cure, because of this stone skin. This curse that mattered so much to him, but so little to her, had made him miss something that she'd clearly wanted, and had totally spoiled the evening… crap.

Xellos watched Zelgadis with pure pleasure, sure that, even without his ability to feed off of emotions, he would have been able to read his fluently.

"Well, I had best be letting you get some rest," Xellos stated, floating again, "After all, you had a long day, despite doing nothing."

He vanished before Zelgadis could reply. The chimera's knees gave out as he sat hard on his bed. How could he have been such an idiot?

Thinking over the day in his head, he remembered all the advances she'd made that he'd mistaken for casual actions. The hugs, the grazing touches, the closeness… He must have been blind not to notice.

He lay back onto the pillows and covered his face with his hands. He couldn't imagine getting to sleep after this. Damn that Xellos, he was probably enjoying this from wherever he was.

He turned onto his side and sighed. So much for the perfect day.

Breakfast was very awkward the next morning. Xellos was present, looking satisfied and happy, while Zelgadis and Amelia seemed more interested in their food than in each other. In fact, despite them sitting directly across from each other, they managed to completely avoid making eye contact.

Phil took this as a negative sign, but chose not to voice his opinion. He had to trust Amelia to handle this on her own.

Zelgadis, on his part, was trying to figure out how to get a moment alone with Amelia to talk to her about yesterday. He needed to make it up to her.

When breakfast was finished, Amelia stood up, "Well, I need to be getting to my paperwork. I have a lot to do today."

There it was, his opportunity. He began to rise from his seat, ready to offer himself as an escort to her office. But…

"Amelia-san, allow me to escort you to your office," Xellos was already up, and had an arm around her waist.

Bastard.

Amelia looked back at Zelgadis, making eye contact with him for the first time that morning. She seemed to recognise what he'd been about to do, and clearly felt ill at ease about the situation. She shrugged and gave an apologetic smile before allowing Xellos to lead her out of the room.

Zelgadis slid back into his seat, his fist falling on the table hard enough to make Phil jump.

"Don't feel too bad," The prince tried to reassure him, "He always escorts her."

"Right," His voice deadpanned, "Not helping, Phil."

The two sat there for a few moments as Phil tried various speeches before Zelgadis got up, excused himself, and left the room. It was clear that, good as his intentions were, none of the prince's advice was actually worth remembering.

He needed to get his mind off of this. He thought of going to the library, but he doubted he could concentrate on reading. Still, maybe he could go take a look around. He'd been gone a long time, after all. There might be some new books there of interest to him. He recalled Amelia mentioning once, during their travels with Lina, that she was trying to gather more books about chimeras so that he'd have more reading material whenever he visited.

He altered his course to make his way to the library. However, he didn't realize that he had to pass in front of Amelia's office to get there. At least, not until he actually passed by the door.

It was slightly ajar, just enough that he had a clear view of Xellos and Amelia. Xellos was leaning forward over Amelia's shoulder and she was leaning back facing towards him. Zelgadis couldn't see exactly what was happening, as Amelia's head was blocking his view, but was trying his best not to think the worst. Xellos stepped back from her and she sighed saying: "Thank you Xellos-san, I really needed that."

Zelgadis quickened his pace down the hallway and tried even harder to get the thought out of his head.

"Any time, Amelia-san," Xellos leaned back against the wall as Amelia went back to her paper work. She had asked him to proof read a letter to a foreign ambassador to check for any grammatical errors, and he'd approved of what she'd written so far.

He noticed, as he was pulling away, an emotional shift from curiosity to horror and anger coming from the hallway. It tasted like the chimera, and Xellos almost laughed at the situation when he realized what he and Amelia would have looked like from the hallway. He couldn't have planned it any better!

Zelgadis-san, you're making this far too easy, He thought slyly.

~End of part 8~

(AniDragon's Note: I can't seem to get a hold of TheLostZelda today, but I didn't want the chapter to be late, so I'm going to post it now. When I talk to TLZ again, we're probably going to post an updated version with some extra corrections. (Probably nothing majorly different, though.)

*after getting a hold of her*

TheLostZelda's Note: Poor Mr. Zelgadis. ;; XD)