Author's note: The forecast- A generally kawaii and slightly surreal fic with hints of OOCness and a slight chance of fluff! Enjoy! ^_^ - Blacke Inke
Tragic Sky
The night was black and moonless, so the silver stars blazed brilliantly in sorrow for its absence, diamonds swept over the velvet sky that covered the world and icy winter winds blowing beneath it. A city slept, sheathed by sharpened glittering points above, quiet and waiting for the warmth of day, save for a single soul, alone in her reveries atop a small cottage set a small walk down the road leading away with a freshly carved and painted shop sign hanging above the door. The roof shingles were pleasantly cool and curved along her back, relaxing out of the heat of the pottery kilns for the first time that long, hurried day since having fallen slightly behind on production. The golden dragon sighed blissfully, closing her eyes and reveling in a stolen and sorely needed moment of peace and silence.
Her beloved infant ancient dragon had come down with a cold, so she had taken a few days off work to tend to him, leaving her slightly bumbling but competent assistants in charge. They were fully capable of making a sale, but the creation and art of the wares sold was left solely to her, and upon deciding Val was well enough for her to return to work, had discovered much to her horror that her shop was quite sparse. The day then, much to Filia's dismay, had been spent at the pottery wheel or in the sweltering shack behind her cottage where she kept a duo of firing kilns. She was eternally grateful for the night, the coolness, and the feeling of finally catching up with herself and the satisfying deservingness of a small moment that was hers alone. Nothing could disturb her, of that she was convinced, banishing any thoughts of a very likely fracas of an interruption as the icy winds wafted gently through her tangled golden hair.
Filia sighed deeply in pleasure, reassuring herself again that she would remain alone, but just as she had lifted her arms to place them behind her head, the gentle sounds of night shattered, her eyes snapping open as a very familiar and very unwelcome voice sounded over everything.
"Good evening Filia! My, this certainly is an odd place to be this late! Well whatever makes you happy I suppose!"
Snarling loudly, Filia slapped her hands over her face and rolled onto her side, cursing herself for not even sensing him nearby, then adding a loud deliberate groan to make her abhorrence quite well known.
"Oh I jinxed myself!" she lamented, more to herself as she felt the tiles beneath her shift and creak slightly while her visitor took it upon himself to perch, opening one eye at his grinning face virulently, "What do you want, namagomi?"
She fully expected the sight before her, the obnoxious grin, long amethyst purple hair, his slender form perched almost delicately on the roof beside her, dangerously close beside her, and just as he always did, Xellos merely smirked, raising a finger and opening his mouth to answer, but was stopped abruptly by Filia as she sat up, eyes fiery as she shot him a warning glare.
"And don't you dare tell me it's a secret!" the dragon sibilated, her fury only rising as the Mazoku stuck out his lower lip, mockingly pouting.
"Aw, you're no fun," he mused lightly, "Yare yare… And name calling so soon after arriving!" It took all of Filia's self control not to leap, nails and mace flying, on top of him and tear his body to shreds, her tail stiff and rigid behind her as she continued as calmly as possible.
"Well are you going to tell me why exactly you're here, or can I just bash you into next week right now?" Filia added, turning to face Xellos with a scowl.
"Do I need a reason?" was his nonchalant answer, ducking swiftly under Filia's fist as it swung above his head.
Growling and missing her target completely, she concluded illogically she could of course deal with him much more easily if she were not forced to look at him, crossing her arms haughtily over her chest as she turned her back.
"Of course you do! You don't just decide to drop by everyone and awhile completely unannounced!" she countered snidely.
"Why not?" Xellos asked her back brightly, "It's so much fun coming here! And after all we are old friends!" Filia's breath caught in her chest at the word, and she could not help turning over her shoulder to snap back at Xellos, as well as shoot him a complimentary dirty look.
"Old friends? We most certainly are not old friends! I am making a perfectly good life for myself here and I don't need a namagomi like you hanging around here screwing it up or scaring my customers away! And furthermore it is quite rude and presumptuous to simply come by uninvited! Not that I would invite someone like you, but I like to receive guests in a proper and friendly manner, but only if I wish their company!" she spat, vehemently, practically seething.
Xellos was silent for a moment, grinning in the bristling Ryuzoku's general direction until her anger fell away, and she managed to turn toward him a bit more, her expression shifting to one of confusion until he spoke again.
"Had enough ranting? Ready to be civil yet?" he queried acerbically, laughing as he ducked yet another assault, this time from a quickly retrieved mace-sama.
"Only if you'll stop being so damned cryptic and tell me why you're still here!" she demanded, cradling the spiked weapon in her lap, hand resting on the tip in case of emergency or desire.
"Yare yare, Fi-chan! No need for such violence! I just wanted to talk!" Xellos defended, holding his hands up in the air, "Is that so wrong?"
Filia raised an eyebrow, nearly bursting into mocking hysterics herself, mirroring Xellos' most puckish grin as she leaned closer to him, lowering her eyes suspiciously with a chuckle.
"Huh, you just want to talk? And what would you, of all people want to… Talk, about?" she asked warily, a hint of sardonic disbelief in her voice. Xellos opened one slit purple eye at her tone and wily demeanor, ready to play another game of 'dodge the mace' as his smile endured, though more pleasant at Filia's confusion.
"Oh, just whatever!" he speculated loudly, "For starters, how is Val doing?" Filia snorted at him, sitting up straight once more and folding her hands in her lap as her tail finally became lax, coming down from the air and resting lazily on the shingles.
"He's very good," she answered sincerely, her lips betraying her with a content smile, "He's growing so fast I can hardly believe- Hey, why am I telling you this? You get a 'He's very good' and that's it!"
The dragon pulled her legs in and crossed them, wrapping her tail around them to the side Xellos sat at, grimacing as he beamed at the news and ran a hand through his hair at her snapping.
"Fair enough!" the Mazoku chortled, "And how's business?" Filia's jaw dropped, gaping at the audacity of the trickster priest to continue with his barrage of personal questions she simply would not give him the decency of revealing the answers to.
"Now that is none of your business, namagomi!" she hissed, huffing and sticking her nose in the air.
"Not so good eh Fi-chan?" the amethyst haired priest elaborated, and Filia sighed.
"Fine, so not it's not, Val came down with a cold recently, and I had to sort of put the shop on hold to take care of him," she admitted with a well placed glower, "And I spent the whole day baking pottery to make up for it, thank you very much! And stop calling me that…" She added hastily on to her sentence as an afterthought, the nickname suddenly irritating her more than his moronic and densely oblivious looking smirk.
Nodding sagely, Xellos gingerly placed his staff by his side, and gently lowered himself onto the rooftop, folding his arms neatly behind his head as he gazed into the deep ebon sky.
"Well we've talked, don't you have cute small animals you could be torturing?" Filia sneered, wincing as she noticed him lie down, "Hey, don't get comfortable." The trickster's face brightened, opening his eyes eagerly at Filia's mention of torment, tearing his eyes away from the stars for only a moment.
"Do you have any cute small animals?" he asked hopefully, and Filia growled disgustedly.
"You disgusting piece of-" she began, cut off by laughter and Xellos' voice as he took her arm gently.
"Oh come on, no sense of humor! Lie down here with me!" he chided amiably, only to have the dragon wrench her arm away.
"No way! Aren't you happy with your little chat yet?" she retorted sharply, folding her arms back across her chest.
"Of course not!" came the brash transparent answer, but it was followed by an unusually soft, yet still jovial addition, "Do you really want me to go?"
Filia scowled, whipping her head sharply in his direction and opening her mouth to answer with the spiteful, caustic affirmative driven to a point with her mace, but for the first time, stopped herself, looking at the slight shadowed form of the trickster priest gracefully reclining beside her. The blue starlight and the wind played with his amethyst locks, tracing them deftly across his pale face, which looked strangely serene, eyes open to reveal his mischievous irises reflecting each sharpened, defined point of celestial light so brilliantly, he himself glowed softly with the stars.
"I uh…" she started, closing her eyes and gently easing her mace off her lap and collapsing, defeated, to her back, "No, not really…"
The dragon was unable to resist stealing a second glance back at him in the tiny silence ensuing, marveling in horror that she had never taken the time to truly look at him, peer past the grin, into his eyes, at his delicate features, into the enigma that shimmered like the stars, forever in darkness, and forever elusive and out of reach above.
"Good," he answered at length, breaking the stillness, "I didn't want to go anyway." His quiet, nearly sincere, utterance startled her, their eyes meeting for the first time that evening, and Filia finally noticed the unexpected air complacency, and almost genuine amicability about his smile.
"Really? And why not?" she asked, turning back to the stars, breathing deeply and exhaling, watching the white cloud of her frozen breath rise, coil in upon itself, and fade away.
"I don't know, why don't you want me to go?" Xellos responded casually, and Filia shrugged.
"Good point," she admitted begrudgingly, glancing furtively out of the corner of her eyes across to him, finding his own eyes turned back wistfully to the heavens.
The Mazoku watched the icy wisps of clouds skate thinly across the sky, coiling about the glittering gems of the stars that shone brightly in the blackness left by the moon, and sighed deeply, feeling Filia's eyes on him and resisting the urge to look at her as well.
"You come up here often?" he asked pensively, "I certainly would, it's quite a beautiful view from here!" The golden-haired woman rolled her eyes at the question before responding, her voice antagonized and exasperated.
"Only when I have a little time for myself and myself alone, which you have rudely interrupted tonight thank you very much…" Filia snapped, staring hard at the sky.
"So sorry! You have such a nice view of the stars though, I don't really look at them much anymore, I'd forgotten how much I enjoy it!" Xellos pondered thoughtfully, "I should come more often!"
"You had better not!" Filia retaliated quickly, "Why do you still come here anyway?"
Xellos thought a moment, considering responding with a certain phrase she seemed to despise, thumbing his chin and chuckling, but quickly deciding against it, unwilling to give up a companion, and someone to talk to.
"To annoy you of course Fi-chan!" he answered smugly, wondering why he remained unharmed after the matter.
"Why me? Don't you have missions, or assignments or whatever you should be working on?" Filia asked almost sadly, to which the priest shook his head.
"Not right now I'm afraid! The world is rather peaceful thanks to the heroic efforts of Lina-san!" he answered brightly, raising a finger proudly in the air as he spoke of his old friend, but hearing his words, the Ryuzoku's lips curled into a wolfish grin, realization dawning on her with the trickster priest's revelation.
"So really what you're saying, that you… Xellos, priest general to Zelas the Beastmaster, one of the most powerful Mazoku in existence, you… Are bored?" she laughed at her own mocking speech, crossing her arms over her forehead amusedly.
"Maybe a little," Xellos sighed with a wry grin, looking fondly to the slender form lolling across the ceramic tiles of her roof, enjoying for once, the sound of her laughter, and the glint of mischief in her eyes as she looked back up to him.
"You're bored?" Filia continued incredulously, "I don't believe it, and you come here to talk to someone who would sooner bash your worthless skull in with a mace than give you the time of day?" The stars gleamed as their light rippled through her long flaxen locks, Xellos the only watcher, cocking his head thoughtfully to the side and nodding in agreement, and clarification, wondering why he had never really looked at her before. Her lithe body shone in the dark, ribboned dragon's tail flipping almost contentedly in the cold breeze, deep midnight blue eyes joyful, all signs of her initial anger, as much as she wanted to disguise it, gone. He looked on in vexation, hardly minding she seemed happy, even wanting it, desiring so covertly and desperately for her to accept him for what he was, talk to him, help him to learn what it truly meant to be happy, having long forgotten, tormented by the knowledge that it existed forever out of his grasp yet before him in gold.
Xellos, suddenly realizing he was staring, quickly found his voice and a grin to cover for himself, looking back to the deep ebon skies dotted with tiny winking points of light.
"Seems so odd doesn't it?" he inquired merrily, "Maybe I'm not just bored."
"Oh?" Filia furthered smugly, "And what else would you gain by coming here besides a good bit of anger?" She smiled arrogantly, knowing that had to be the sole reason, forgetting for the moment she often hated herself for giving in to what she knew he wanted most from her, hating to give the one she hated most satisfaction of any kind.
"Someone to talk to that doesn't have four legs and howls at the moon," Xellos answered amusedly, "Maybe even, for a moment, to forget the world, forget who I am, and just look at the stars."
Filia, taken aback by his soft and reverent voice, opened her mouth to respond, but found nothing, her own emptiness reflected in his gentle tone, and the black sky above her. She suddenly saw a crystal mirror in the tiny points of iridescent light, in it herself, not quite unlike her companion, what she had always seen, and been taught and forced to ignore. Good and evil had been etched onto her soul at birth, she was light, she was born proud and gold, and the Mazoku were born black and wicked of darkness, but as she lay, embraced by the darkness and looking into light, they seemed one, yet so far separated they never touched.
"Then… You're lonely too…" Filia whispered gently, listening to the wind and its messages of her elders she knew must be ignored.
"Loneliness is a fickle thing," Xellos admitted sagaciously, "Anyone can fall prey to it, though I don't see why you of all people have any reason in the world to be!"
Xellos laughed brightly, but somehow admitting how lonesome he was only seemed to reinforce it as he looked at the stars, so close he felt he could reach up and gather a handful of stardust and steal its light, and yet still to distant to reach, just as all things light were to him.
"And why not?" Filia inquired sorrowfully, "I would think you never lonely! Sure I have Jillas, and Gravos, and little Val, but… They're more like siblings really, and Val can't even talk yet. There are times, when he's asleep, and I'm out here looking at the stars, and I miss everyone... And the adventures… I miss it all so much sometimes I think it hurts physically! I even missed… I even missed bashing you in the head daily, namagomi."
The priest smiled as Filia used the word puckishly with a hint of affection to it, chortling softly and tracing patterns in the sky with a finger, connecting the stars to form ethereal sliver and shimmering images of travels and escapades long past.
"Being bored and lonely is a dangerous combination," he mused thoughtfully, "And I didn't even know I was lonely, until about now, all I could think about were how terribly tragic the night sky is. That's what it'll do to you! Makes you think way too much and seek friendship in stars!" Filia raised an eyebrow, a pretentious laugh finding its way into the night wind at the reflection as she noted Xellos' slender gloved hand twisting and flitting gracefully in the air.
"And since when do Mazoku have a sense of tragedy?" she asked skeptically.
"Since always!" Xellos retorted, "Have you ever really looked at the stars?"
Filia, closed her eyes for a moment, letting darkness wash over her vision before opening them to a spray of silver across the black sky, and Xellos' uncharacteristically soft voice beside her.
"It's beautiful really. I was never one for star gazing, but it really is beautiful," he wondered aloud, adding with a smirk, "Tragically beautiful."
"Oh and now you expect me to believe Mazoku have a sense of beauty?" Filia interjected harshly, and Xellos' grin only spread.
"Absolutely, I can appreciate beauty when I see it!" he replied, casting a furtive look in her direction to behold her form once again, bathed in perfect light.
"So then, how is the sky so sad to something that loves sadness?" she continued, the light glinting playfully in her eyes.
"Well, all that light is locked away in darkness, yet it still shines through! Neither can exist without the other, and yet, the stars continue burning brightly. They live, and they die, and it takes the light so long to reach us, we don't know the light has gone out until far beyond its quiet death!" Xellos explained, and the dragon pondered his thoughts, but could only frown, hardly understanding what he meant by them, still scrutinizing the whirling, blazing lights in the sky, and feeling the wind and stardust whip across their bodies.
"I don't understand, what do you mean?" Filia asked irksomely at last, her breath catching in her chest as she felt Xellos' hand slowly close around hers, bringing it up to the sky.
"I'll show you then," he whispered deviously, opening his fingers across the back of hers so that only a few stars were visible between their fingers, "It's perfect, the stars only shine when they have darkness around them, the darkness is only calm and comforting when there is a guiding light, but it's so far away, no one could ever hope to reach it. Tragic, isn't it?"
Filia watched the light dance about their joined fingers, the unexpected warmth from his hand seeping pleasantly into hers, and nodded to herself, enjoying his unexpectedly gentle and halcyon touch.
"I see, yes it is really," was her only utterance, smiling lightly, "Something that brilliant, so beautiful, and yet so far away." Xellos laughed softly to himself, keeping his hand aloft but closing it around Filia's again, watching it fade into the frame of icy blue light as she gently clasped it back at last, one against the stars.
"You can touch the stars, if you try hard enough," the Mazoku whispered fondly.
"Haven't we already?" was Filia's breathless response, turning her head and smiling warmly at Xellos.
He returned it, and the starlight was forgotten as he lowered his arm slowly, releasing Filia's hand and brushing her cheek gently, before wrapping it around her shoulders as she curled into his embrace.
"I suppose we have," he admitted softly, "Quite a feat! Who in the history of the world has done it as tragically as we have?" Filia laughed and shook her head, then resting it against the priest's chest, wondering why he was so warm, why she felt so good in his arms, and why she no longer hated herself for it.
"No one of course, we are sad aren't we?" she retorted at length, her voice muffled by the black cloak.
"Very!" Xellos added, tracing Filia's cheek gently with a finger and cupping her chin in his palm, "But nothing is so beautiful, don't you think?"
The dragon gazed willfully into his wily eyes and smirked, raising one of her own hands to brush his fine, silky purple hair away from his face.
"Tragically beautiful," she responded warmly, the stars fading into nothingness. She closed her eyes instinctively as she felt his lips brush hers, and the stars no longer mattered, she finally felt as if she were soaring amongst them, leaping in infinity with grinning shade by her side, and as they kissed, his touch was gentle and passionate as the dark itself. As one in difference, they were together, if only for one moment hidden in the perfect harmony of the sky, it would remain for eternity, smoldering brilliantly like an unheard and clandestine harmony to stand as a sorrowful beauty, as the stars blazed on.