Slayers: Alive

Alive 69

Slayers: Alive

Episode 137: Trapped! Growing Tensions, Critical Proximity

"To save the fairy we must... get her true love to kiss her!" Jillas declared, as per the modified version of the play. Then he added the last minute edits. "Rumor has it that the prince is in love with the fairy, but unfortunately, the prince has gone missing." Originally, the prince was supposed to be conveniently passing by, having returned from a trip to a neighboring kingdom. "Maybe he has been cursed and is closer than we think," Jillas hinted.

Xellos started getting up, but instead of being relieved, Filia had a very bad feeling about this. Jillas said something about Xellos being expected to play another character. He couldn't mean... Behind her long eye lashes, Filia's eye slightly opened imperceptibly. She saw the wolf mask landing on the stage floor after Xellos removed it and she closed her eyes completely. Everything felt like a distant echo as Xellos exchanged a few improvised overly dramatic lines with Jillas. There wasn't supposed to be a prince in this story, let alone a prince that got cursed into becoming a wolf and ended up kissing a fairy. "Noble fairy, you gave your life to save the children of my kingdom and to free me of my curse! If only there was something I could do to save you!" Xellos played his role.

Filia could no longer feel the brightness of the sun beyond her tightly closed eyelids. She opened her eyes slightly, just as she thought; he was leaning over her with a mocking, teasing grin. "Raw garbage," she growled at him from her position motionless on the floor of the little improvised stage. Oh how she wanted to sink into it.

"The show must go on," his grin was so mocking, so teasing, so infuriating.

'Stupid monster, quit making this last longer than it has to!' Filia screamed in her head. Xellos wasn't moving. A dramatic pause was one thing, but this was ridiculous. Then she realized he wasn't going to do anything.

"Can I?" Filia glared at Xellos' question, it reeked of trap. He wouldn't kiss her regardless of how much he knew it would embarrass her, because that would be his action and it wasn't as satisfying as pushing her into taking action.

Filia realized grimly that she ultimately had two choices, well technically three. She could push Xellos away and end this inappropriate situation, but that would ruin the play. The children would be heartbroken and the audience would be disappointed. She would be the villain who couldn't accept one little kiss for the sake of concluding an activity that brought some cheer to people in a world that was still recovering from a harsh disaster. Every now and then she saw it, the scars of the sadness that overtook the kingdom during the time that she had mostly forgotten. She caught those hints of terrible despair in their eyes, they weren't fully over the recent past and they didn't need any more disappointments big or small.

Filia's second option was to grant Xellos permission to kiss her. Then he would tease her endlessly about how she was the one who told him to do it. He wouldn't let her live it down, she would be mortified. Her third choice was to do nothing, to lie there pretending she really had passed out until Xellos did something. Yet she knew he wouldn't do anything and ultimately, the play would be ruined anyway after the scene remained frozen for too long. That made that third option as bad as the first in consequences towards others and even worse in consequences towards Filia. If she chose inaction, Filia would ruin the play and get Xellos' teasing because of her lack of open rejection. She would end up suffering both of the main consequences of options one and two combined.

She had to do something. Then she realized it. Bitterly, Filia mused that it was more so the aftermath of the kiss that worried her, rather than the action. Shouldn't she be worried about the action more so? She opened her eyes and noticed that Xellos had his eyes open staring at her with mocking curiosity. He could taste her every emotion, the fact surfaced clearly and prominently in her mind, refusing to sink back into the depths of her subconscious. It made her feel terribly exposed. No wonder he could always tick her off, he knew exactly what buttons to push to produce certain reactions. What could she do about that? How could she become unpredictable? She didn't know how unpredictable she already was to him.