(** Hi, Hi! I jus wanted to say that I am a total Amelia/Zel, Lina/Gourry and the rest- I can’t figure out- person. If you have protestz, especially against Zel and Amelia, than don’t read any further. Amelia is fourteen in this fic and Zel is eighteen. Oh, and Baka is Japanese for stupid, idiot... that type of stuff. The fiction was created by me, Miho, but the characterz Lina, Gourry, Amelia, Zel, Rezzo are copyrighted Slayerz material! Oh yeah, slight lemon warning... but otherwise, on with the show!**)

Amelia and Zelogadis: What is Love?

Zelogadis spent the last fifteen minutes of the night screaming for mercy.

Or that’s how the dream ended.

He sat up so fast, his blanket flew off his body and landed in a crumpled mess on the floor. He was breathing like his lungs had caught fire. And he was sweating so profusely that you could’ve have mistaken him for a fat man who drowned two many beers on a sticky Summer’s night.

"Damn it!"

Zelogadis lodged his stone fist to the bed, causing it to creak loudly under his force.

It took him a few minutes to calm himself. Beside him he could hear the loud snoring of two of his companions in the surrounding rooms. The low rumble through his walls told him that Lina and Gourry were still asleep. But he knew he had waken up somebody.

He was afraid that she would come.

And she did.

"Zelogadis-san?" He heard the soft padding of feet. He looked down at the crumpled bedsheets. Choosing to ignore the voice entirely, he moved his frame to face the window.

"Leave me alone, I’m fine." He said quietly.

He could hear her pout. "No. You’ve been screaming through the nights for the last week! And everytime I want to bring it up with Lina and Gourry, you always divert the subject."

"It’s none of their business." Zelogadis gruffly replied.

The bed springs creaked as the small compact body sat on the opposing end of the bed.

"Is it any of mine?"

Her voice was filled with worry and concern. Different from what she was usually sized up to be, an annoying brat. Though lack of sleep did that to people -- made them act differently.

"Amelia, go away." He turned to look at her. Amelia challenged the gaze, her wide blue eyes staring fiercely from her petite face.

"Zelogadis-san." He could see a tinge of pink on her cheeks. It was only then that he realised that he had managed to get out of his shirt somehow. It didn’t matter though.

"Please, Amelia, go back to sleep."

She hesitated for a moment, before getting up and walking towards the door. Before she creaked open the door, she turned to look at him one last time.

"I’m here for you."

She slipped silently out the door. Zelogadis watched the slightly open space where she had crept out with weary eyes. He slumped back onto his bed, staring at the shadows on the ceiling.

"Zelogadis, you’re losing your mind."

He curled up in bed and waited for morning to come.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Amelia came down the Inn’s outdoor stairs, duffel bag secured in one hand. The Spring sun pierced through the chilly morning air, and it felt good on her skin.

"Amelia! What took you so long?!" Lina tapped her foot impatiently. Gourry had his mouth stuffed with a fistful of bacon. Zelogadis was no where to be seen.

"Huh? Lina-san, where did Zelogadis-san go?"

"Right behind you." Came a mumble from behind. Amelia turned around and watched as Zelogadis walked past her and greeted Lina with his usual expressionless tone.

"There’s a cave south of here. It’s filled with useful spells as well as treasure."

At the mention of ‘treasure’, Lina immediately perked up.

"Really? Treasure?" she marvelled.

Gourry started coughing and she immediately slapped his back. A ball of chewed up bacon spat out of his mouth.

"Thanks Lina." He smiled. Amelia looked at Lina and both girls shook their heads in exasperation.

Lina immediately began to yell some things to Gourry that would just float out of the other ear. Why bother, Amelia thought. Amelia looked past the two to Zelogadis, who was already well on his way. Amelia ran to him, sporting her usual smile and contented expression.

"Zelogadis-san!" She said as she fell into step beside him. She side-glanced him once, and fought off the urge to blush. It was as if the world always had a special spotlight just for him. The sun struck his blue skin in a way that made it glow. His eyes were wonderfully light blue in the morning light, like sapphires. But Amelia was sure that even if the heavens decided to cast a rain storm over them at that precise moment, Zelogadis would still look good. It was just part of his nature.

"How are you feeling now?" she asked.

"Good." He hastily replied, not even bothering to look at her.

"So, do you think your cure is in the cave somewhere?" Amelia looked ahead. "I hear this place is a mythical magical place. Very ancient."

He walked silently. Amelia laughed uneasily.

"I don’t think you’ve had a good rest have you?"

He stopped. Amelia screeched to a halt beside him.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Zelogadis felt his fists shake. He was angry. It needed to end. The way things were going, it wouldn’t be good for him or her.

She noticed his fists trembling and stepped infront of him.

"Zelogadis-san?"

"Listen." He began. "I’m not going to beat around the bush with you. I’m expecting you will be as mature about this as I am."

He closed his eyes.

"I don’t like you."

He could hear her breaths stop short. He opened his eyes and watched quietly as tears spilled down her cheek. Zelogadis shook his head.

"Don’t cry, it won’t get you anywhere," He briskly stepped past her and turned his head slightly.

"It’s not like I hate you."

Zelogadis resumed his walking, watching the beautiful mountain scenery up ahead. It was calming for a man that was on the edge, like himself.

But it wasn’t soothing enough.

"Sorry..." he whispered.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Amelia slumped to her knees. It wasn’t like she hadn’t been expecting that. In fact, she pretty much set herself up for that one. They were companions, that’s all. She was a fool to expect anymore than that.

But was it such a stupid thing to think so?

To think that maybe he would look at her and smile, or give a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder? Was she stupid to think that Zelogadis could feel... For her?

"It sure looks like it..." She whispered as she wiped away the tears from her eyes. She shakily got up, just as Lina and Gourry stepped on to the scene.

"Hey Amelia, we saw you on the ground for a minute there, did you trip?" Gourry asked. Amelia forced a smile and nodded her head.

"Yep." She meekly answered. "Clumsy me."

Lina sighed and patted her on the back. "Amelia, just don’t do this in the cave up ahead alright? there might be traps."

"Yes, I’ll try my best." She walked forward, trying best to keep her composure. The three of them walked into the cave, Amelia in tow.

She felt like crap.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Zelogadis lit himself some ‘lighting’ and entered the dark cave. The walls were covered with words from an ancient civilisation. The ‘cure’ could be somewhere on these walls.

Though it didn’t bring him as much joy as he thought it would.

He bit his lip to prevent himself from thinking any further.

"It might be here...." He said outloud. Zelogadis drew out his sword and stealthily made his way down the dark hall. The hall smelled of a bitter-sweet rosy musk. Kind of like what roses smelled like when they wilt in Fall.

"Not a very nice smell." He commented. He stopped and felt for the walls when his head took an ugly spin. "What... the....?" His knees buckled, and where there was suppose to be ground, there was air. The world was spinning at such a rate, it shattered the speed of light. He was engulfed in cold darkness. He felt a strange fatigue take his body, and slowly he closed his eyes.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Amelia felt a disgusting nausea, one that just made her want to barf up her guts. She could see Lina and Gourry infront of her yelling at eachother, but then they’re bodies swerved and were taken away by an odd spinning.

"Lina-sa..guh." her vocal cords cut short. Her chest felt heavy. She couldn’t scream even if the world was crashing down on her. Which it did. The walls closed in on her and the ground disappeared from beneath her. Everything was spinning. And she squeezed her eyes shut to avoid the sight, and ended up falling into unwanted slumber.

______________________________________________________________________________________

"Shut up boy!!" Rezzo slapped the young Zelogadis in the face, the human one. The little boy. The world was dark and lonely in Rezzo’s mansion. There was no lights, no lit fire places.

Just broken dreams and broken hearts.

"Grandfather..." His small voice pleaded. The man looked at him angrily.

"I am your teacher, you must call me like all my other trainees. I will not go easy on you just because you are related to me. Here, it makes no difference."

He could feel the unwanted feel of tears welling up in his eyes. He slammed his fist in the ground, upset that he was crying.

"If mother and father were around..." He whispered resulting in another slap across the face. Rezzo stared at him coldly.

"They were weak, just like you are. That’s why they are dead. Only strong people can find a place in this world. We can pretend we can get along with the weak, that humanity is one big melting pot of different personas, and everybody has a part in the grand scheme of things... But, that is not the case. There are people that hide behind the defiant ‘strong’... Those people are the ‘weak’, and will always be lost in the shadows of the stronger personas. We strong pretend to be equal with them..." His voice tightened.

"But not if they are family! No, I won’t stand for it." Rezzo smiled slightly and started to laugh.

"You’re parents were always so compassionate, and they were stampeded over. Their lives were wasted, leaving behind a little child in his horrible wake. .."

An animal cry came from the little boy as he continued to slam the ground with bloody fists. His eyes blurred with the fury of tears.

"Love and compassion will only hinder your existence. It’s best that you are never exposed to it." Rezzo smiled again, and silently slipped out the door.

The little boy slumped to the ground, holding his bleeding fists to his chest. His white shirt staining over with fresh blood.

"I don’t need any fucking love!" He squeezed his fist causing blood to splash across his face. Innocence awashed in blood, he cursed himself.

"All I want is power..."

"And you finally got it, just not in the form you wanted."

Zelogadis now stood on a cliff, overlooking the ocean. The voice behind him belonged to his only relative. Though he was now a ghost of the man he had once been.

Zelogadis watched the ocean waves as if he was in a trance. The man watched him amused.

"Are you going to jump?"

"I don’t want to see you in Hell just yet..." Zelogadis responded. He slowly turned around to face his deceased grandfather.

"What do you want with me?"

Rezzo raised his eyebrow amused. "Oh? I just wanted to visit. Is there anything wrong with that?"

Zelogadis crossed his arms. "I have a feeling there’s more to that."

"Well." Rezzo smiled. "If you insist.... I actually came here to show you something rather funny. But first I must ask you a question." His voice shifted to a more serious gear. "You have feelings for that young princess, do you not?"

Zelogadis snorted. "Don’t be ridiculous."

Rezzo shook his head and grinned. "Now, now, now... You mustn’t lie to the dead, they can see right past you."

"Zelogadis-san."

Zelogadis froze. Slowly he turned away from Rezzo. His eyes went wide in surprise.

"Amelia?!"

She blushed. She was wearing a long white dress that hugged her curves nicely. Her hair fell in curls beside her rosy cheeks. Her big beautiful eyes looked at him with warmth.

She was beautiful.

"Now, now Zelogadis. She had always been beautiful. It’s just you always tried not to notice." Rezzo laughed.

"You really think so?" Amelia stepped closer, watching him intently.

"Yes." Zelogadis replied, looking at the ground.

And then in a flash, the scenery was gone. It was black everywhere, and the silence was corrupted with loud mocking laughter.

"So you do have feelings for her."

He watched in horror as Amelia appeared before him, naked, her lithe body bloody and bruised. Tears flew down her pale cheeks.

"What.... happened?" Her voice whimpered. She crumpled to the ground, her life fluid spilling out of her and forming a crimson pool.

"Amelia!" He ran to her, only to be knocked aside by a glowing Rezzo.

"What can you offer her?" He asked. Zelogadis got back on his feet only to be knocked down again by Rezzo’s magic. He tried again, but a more powerful blow was awarded. Zelogadis sputtered out blood.

"Please." He looked up at Rezzo, tears in his eyes. "Spare her life."

"Oh?" Rezzo smiled. "But I didn’t do this to her. You did. Because you were selfish and wanted to love her." He snorted. "You, who doesn’t know what love is. You, who is filled with hate and anger and resentment. You would poison her, mentally, emotionally and physically... Just to gain your corrupt desires. You are like a black plague, Zelogadis, your existence can only hurt. The more an impression of you is taken in one’s mind, the more sick and diseased one becomes. She was such a lovely, innocent girl. What was she? Fourteen? And this is the end result...."

Rezzo faded away into the blackness, leaving Zelogadis to crumple over Amelia’s lifeless corpse.

"Amelia" He screamed. And screamed. He felt like he could filter all his anguish through his voice.

Of course, that wouldn’t happen.

It was anguish blacker than anyone would know.

**************************************************************************************

Zelogadis woke up, sweat trickling down his brow. He hid his face in his hands, knees tucked to his chest.

"That dream again...."

He slowly lifted his head to look around the desolate, sun filtered room. It was filled with antique furniture and canvases, some blank and some painted. He steadily pulled himself to his feet and travelled around the room to look at the paintings. Most of them were more on the morbid side, people weeping, begging for mercy. He frowned, they were very nicely composed paintings, but almost all of them were dark. His sleeve brushed against the wall making a soft gliding sound. He looked down to realise that he was dressed in a simple button up white shirt with black slacks. He shook his head.

"I don’t believe this..." he muttered.

"Zelogadis-san?" A soft voice spoke from behind him. He turned around and gazed into the wide blue eyes of the princess.

"Amelia?" He asked in shock. She was dressed in a short blue dress that bared her shoulders and long tanned legs nicely. Her figure, he realised for the first time, was no child’s play. It was frail but voluptuous in all the right areas and he took a few seconds to linger on her cleavage. He squeezed his eyes shut.

"Zelogadis-san, are you ok?"

"Yes, I’m fine." He turned away before opening his eyes to gaze out the window. He noticed the gleam of an ocean.

"Where are we?" Amelia came beside him. He shook his head.

"I don’t know." He spoke softly, deep in thought. The last thing he remembered was taking an ugly spin down some dark hallway. Amelia wasn’t with him. Where did this all begin? He was surprised that he didn’t remember. Maybe he bumped his head on the way down...

"It’s so nice here!" Amelia said, taking in a deep breath. She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. "I wonder where Lina and Gourry is? They were right behind me at... that... place." She trailed off into thoughtful silence.

Zelogadis crossed his arms. "Looks like some island. We’re going to have to investigate, in order to get back."

Amelia turned to stare at him. "Where?"

The question disturbed him. "I... don’t know..."

They spent the rest of the afternoon, looking around the house and searching the premises. They came to the conclusion that it was, indeed, an island. With no neighbouring land or islands and no signs of any other human existence. The only sign that humans were, at one point, on this island was the house. The house was a small cottage like thing, nice and cozy, and seemingly made for artists. There was canvases everywhere.

One thing was sure, it was one hell of a beautiful island.

It was covered with exotic flowers and tropical birds. The island was fairly small, and littered with many pools, rivers, and waterfalls. And a beach.

The beach was where they were standing now, the setting orange sun lighting the sky on fire. Strange, he had a weird sensation to paint this. Capture the beauty on a canvas.

Of course, he pushed the feeling away and continued to dwell on the current condition. He still couldn’t figure out where he was before he mysteriously appeared here. And why Amelia was here, and why Lina and Gourry weren’t.

"Ah! The water’s really cold..."

Zelogadis turned and watched Amelia standing knee deep in water. Her slim figure outlined in a golden glow against the dusk sun. Now he wanted to paint the orange dusk, with her in it.

"This is insane." he mumbled walking away. He heard the tapping of bare feet as Amelia came behind him.

"Zelogadis-san, how about going for a dip in the ocean?" she asked enthusiastically.

"Not now." he murmured not even breaking pace. He could hear her sigh in disappointment before running back and splashing in the ocean waves. He turned back to watch her, but he kept it brief. He didn’t like the fact that he was stuck on the island with her. He needed to find a way back, soon.