Epilogue- No Matter Where

"What would I do if I had not met you?
Who would I blame my life on?"
-"Falsettos," William Finn

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Amelia sat watching the people flow in and out of the inn. Goodness, it certainly was a popular place in town. She almost felt a little bit uncomfortable. It was the first large township she'd been in for months, and she was beginning to realize that people made her the slightest bit nervous. Well, maybe not these people, but the anticipation of the people, namely the Imperial Court in Seyruun, was enough to rouse storms of butterflies in her stomach.

Nevertheless, the thought of home was an exciting prospect. She wondered if Lina and Gourry had yet arrived, if her father knew yet that she had survived death twice and had come back to him.

She wondered if he knew how much his little girl had changed.

Her fingers found the perfect blue stone at her throat, and began to push and pull it back and forth along its cord. Where was Zelgadis? He'd gone out to get supplies while she waited for a table here, and now that she had one, she'd been sitting at it alone almost an hour, ordering nothing but little drinks, and the hostess was obviously getting quite irritated.

"Now look, missy..."

Amelia nearly jumped a foot in the air as the young woman slapped her hands down on the table in front of her.

"I know you said you were waiting for someone, but it looks like I need this table, and if all you're gonna do is sit here and order coffee..." Sparky paused and processed this, then leaned across the table and right into Amelia's face. "You're her, aren't you?" She sounds almost giddy. "You're the girl he was looking for! Of course you are!"

"Huh?"

"Blue guy, lavender hair, nice voice..."Sparky pulled back and nodded sagely. "Yup. You're definitely his girl."

Amelia blushed furiously. Who was this woman?

"Your friend was in here a few months ago, asking for directions. He was looking pretty hard for you, girl. And I'm glad to see he's finally found you." She halted again. "Wait a minute...You're the girl he was looking for...for Seyruun! WAH! YOU'RE THE PRINCESS!"

The entire room quieted down and Amelia could feel all eyes on her. She wanted to crawl under the table.

"Princess Amelia, I am so very, very sorry I was rude, I should have known it was you but you've been missing for ages, and...oh, that would figure in with the blue boy finding you, wouldn't it? Oh. Duh. But, please, Princess, forgive my rudeness! The table's all yours as long as you need it!"

With that, Sparky dashed off to her kitchen, calling to the rest of the staff that they had a very important guest. Many members of the crowd continued to stare at her, and Amelia could hear some mumbled conversations.

"I heard the princess was dead..."

"...Thought she had blue eyes.."

"...Supposed to be married to some prince who thinks she ran away from him..."

"...Eaten by spiders was the news I got. Really, really big spiders."

Amelia decided to tune it out as best she could, but as luck would have it, Zel returned at the moment, and relieved some of the staring eyes.

"What's going on here?"he asked as he sat down across from her and pulled his mask down.

"Your...waitress friend...is a little bit loud."

"Who? Sparky?"

"I guess. She said she knew me from your description from a few months ago."

"Oh. Did she?"

"Uh-huh."she reached for her coffee cup and then pulled her hand back as she saw Zel watching her strangely. "What?"

"Since when do you drink coffee?"

"I...I don't know...I just felt like it, I guess." She cleared her throat and changed the subject. "What took you so long?"

"I was...getting something."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"It had to have been something. You were gone forever."

"It's nothing."

"Tell me what it is."

"Okay, it's something."

"Zelgadis-san..."she pursed her lips in a pout that sent his blood boiling and he had to admit, he'd begun to forget her eyes were ever blue. The gray made her seem...almost more grown up. And that was a silly thought because she had grown up. She'd passed her eighteenth birthday in Dynast's castle; the girl he'd known since she was fourteen was a bona fide woman now.

Eighteen...The age at which princesses got married.

Well, Zel had something to say about that.

"Amelia, I...I don't know if you want this. If you want to deal with it. If you ever want to see something like this again."

"What is it?"she raised an eyebrow. Zel rarely rambled like this, and she figured he had to be extremely nervous about whatever it was he had for her.

"It's um...well, it's because you have this thing that you do..." Good gods, I sound like an idiot.. "Because of...oh, hell. Here."

He reached into the pouch on his belt and set down a small diamond ring.

"It's to...uh...replace the one you lost. I mean, not that you lost it, but...You have this habit of trying to play with it and it's not there, so I thought..."

"Zelgadis-san...are you..."

The entire room fell silent again, and wary of their audience, they scooted their chairs in closer to the table and spoke in hushed tones.

"Are you asking me to..."

"I..."

"You?"

"I don't know."

Amelia, and approximately sixty other people faceplanted into their tables.

"You bought me a diamond ring and you don't know?"

Steeling himself, Zel picked up the ring and took her left hand, sliding it onto her third finger.

"I said that I bought it to replace the old one. You can interpret that however you want."

"I think...that maybe we need to discuss this in private. When we get to Seyruun."

The groans were audible, and Zel had to restrain himself from going ballistic on the whole lot of them, damn eavesdroppers. He concentrated instead on her hand in his, the way the light flickered in this stone -a stone that he'd bought, he, Zelgadis- and knew that this was right. The best decision a man should ever have to make.

"I think that I'm not very hungry anymore."Amelia stood up. "I'd like to continue home. I want to get there soon."

The faintest hint of a smile touching the corners of his mouth, Zel stood up too, and together they walked through the door. As they exited, they heard Sparky bemoaning the loss of good publicity, and smirking a little, Amelia slid her hand into Zel's.

They were on their horse again in minutes, trotting easily down the trade route to Seyruun.

"You know I like this ring better. It's smaller, but it seems...brighter. Nicer. A better ring overall."

"I'm glad you like it."Zel let his left hand drop the reigns and wrapped his arm around her. "I wasn't quite sure if you'd want another diamond ring."

"I only have one."

"You-"

"I only have one." she repeated. "And no matter where I go, or where you go, or where any other ring might be, this is the only ring I have. All right?"

"All right."Zel grinned.

"Good."she smiled, letting her hands caress her necklace again. Leaning back against him, she shut her gray eyes, and let him guide them home.