One of the nice things about despising evil people, Zelgadis reflected, was that nobody expected you to make excuses for them. When he, Zelgadis, ran off on his own, everyone understood that it was because he was obsessed. He'd get lectured about Amelia's feelings when he, as he inevitably did, made his way back, but that was the extent of it, even when he'd been gone for months.

He had almost been tempted to feel sorry for Xellos. The mazoku had only been gone a few days before popping in, nearly six weeks ago. His everlasting smile had looked a bit wilted at the edges--and that had been before Lina pounded the stuffing out of him. Lina worried when Xellos disappeared.

It was different when Zelgadis went off on his own. She worried then because she thought he would get into trouble without her there to rescue him, beat up the enemy, and stiff him for the bill of the victory banquet, which she called lunch.

She worried when Xellos vanished because she wanted to be there when he finally decided to blow up the world, so that she could kill him before things got too far out of hand. This even though Xellos had, for once in his undeath, taken a stand on something and taken an active role in helping them save the world from Darkstar. Zelgadis, at least, felt substantially better about him now, but he'd still back her habitual suspicion several hundred percent.

Lina, not unreasonably, still worried, since the only reason he'd given for saving the world boiled down to wanting to destroy it himself. But that was patently ridiculous. The little pest had far too much fun annoying humans to want to eradicate them.

It was odd, although typical of Xellos, that after getting fireballed to a crisp, pummeled into the ground, and having his hair pulled viciously, he smiled again as though the world had suddenly snapped into place. Zelgadis was convinced that he had met Lina's demand for information with his usual Clevercloak-san reply for the express purpose of getting beaten up again. And when he had said that he was going away for a while, and he had only dropped in to say goodbye...

It was just lucky that Xellos was both masochistic and effectively indestructible, Zelgadis decided, lips bending grudgingly from under his hood, or he might have been actually concerned about the little monster.

As things stood, however, he had serenely handed Lina a two-by-four and stood back to watch the carnage.

Xellos had been, as near as anyone could tell, ecstatic. He had bounced around afterwards hugging everyone before they could run away, this being his specialty. Amelia was almost as good at it, but she had a natural advantage in being as cute as so many buttons that no one wanted to hurt her feelings.

He had ruffled Amelia's hair and, to everyone's disgust, smeared Gourry's face with illusory lipstick. Worse yet, he'd kissed Lina on the cheek, again, and escaped with his life. Again. If you could bottle that...

Then he had glommed onto Zelgadis, and stayed there long enough for the realization that evil was ice-cold, soft as mushrooms, and used nice soap to sink through the shock. In the process of this intrusion, by some infuriating sleight of hand or airy tentacle, he stole the chimera's favorite mug. Unforgivable. Who had the lockpicks around here, anyway?

It was useless trying to get things back from Xellos. Like the rest of them, he kept everything he couldn't carry on his person in an interdimensional pocket. He didn't even have real pockets in his cloak, only a leather messenger bag hanging at his side, and that barely had enough room for his hardcover travel encyclopaedia. It was no good trying to wrest away from someone things that weren't there, and no amount of physical abuse or emotional blackmail could sway him.

Zelgadis had grabbed his cloak to stop him phasing out anyway. "What are you up to?" he had demanded.

Xellos's buttermilk-white face had lit up at the straight line. He had chirped, "That's a secret!"

"How long will you be gone?"

"Zel-kun! You care!"

"I mean it."

"But it's a secret," Xellos had pouted.

"Where are you going?"

"That's a secret, too!"

"What soap do you use?"

"That's not a secret!" Xellos had winked brightly, wagging his finger in the usual way, and taken advantage of everyone's surprise by pulling away and vanishing.

"Bastard mazoku," Zelgadis had muttered.

"What soap do you use?" Lina had demanded, raising an eyebrow. "What kind of question is that?"

As things stood, however, he had serenely handed Lina a two-by-four and stood back to watch the carnage.
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