Chapter 17

Filia sat in front of her oval dresser mirror, ready to go to bed. She brushed her lovely gold hair that stopped around her waist and reflected on last night's performance. Personally, she had a wonderful time and enjoyed to be able to show everyone their months of practice payed off. But the irritable young man in bass would not quit. He proceeded to annoy her with his happy-go-lucky grin and he was acting overly goofy during the performance. She was barely close to ripping the rope and smashing him with her keyboard.

"That little immature freak of nature namagomi!" The girl didn't realize she was wacking the wooden dresser with her brush till a crack was heard. The plastic brush was broken in two. Filia growled and threw the object into the garbage can. "Now he made me break my brush!" Flopping onto her pink and white bed, she quickly recalled that day after her piano lesson. Why did he save her? How did he even know where she was? She didn't do anything special for him. Suddenly, a light tap came from her window. She curiously went to see what it was. When she withdrew the curtains, Xellos waved on the other side. Filia rolled her eyes. He often did this to her randomly on any day he felt like annoying her or ask her for something useless. She unlocked the glass window and raised it up and knelt on her knees to level her head with his. "What do you want?" She asked angry already. Xellos shrugged,

"Beautiful night, isn't?" Filia face faulted.

"What - do - you - want?" asking again with more threat.

"Sore was himitsu desu." That was the last straw. The teenage girl's hand searched for her handy metal club of spikes, but it was missing. She started to panic and threw everything in the air, looking for it. "Umm . . . Filia . . ."

"I'm busy Fruitcake!"

"Is this what you're looking for?" She spun her head and saw the young man holding her dear weapon.

"Why didn't you tell me you had it namagomi!?"

"Na . . . namagomi . . . ?" A red pulse appeared by his temple. The girl marched to the window wearing the same pulse, only bigger. "Namagomi, namagomi, namagomi! That's all I hear from you!"

"Sore wa himitsu desu, sore wa himitsu desu, sore wa himitsu desu! That's all I hear from you!"

They growled at each other like two lions preparing to battle to the death.

"I just came by to be the nice gentleman I am and return you this stupid piece of metal!"

"Hey, no one calls my mace a stupid piece of metal, but me!"

"Fine! Oh, before I go, Baka Filia (Stupid Filia), allow me to save your time and beat myself up for you!! That's how gentleman-like I am!!" Xellos took the weapon by both hands and hammered himself over and over until he looked like he was run over by a semi-truck. The mace fell into the bedroom and Xellos fainted from the ladder. Filia peered down from the window and he was sound asleep on the front yard, ladder on top. She shook her head and pulled down her window, drawing back the curtains. As she picked the mace by the handle, she noticed a thin piece of paper, the same metallic color as the club, peeling off. She peeled the rest of the paper from the handle and flipped the note to the white side. The message read,

BAKA FILIA

I KNOW YOU'RE THINKING ABOUT THAT TIME WHEN I SAVED YOU A FEW WEEKS AGO. (HOW DO I KNOW? SORE WA HIMITSU DESU ^_- ) BUT I WANTED TO INFORM YOU, SO YOU WOULD NOT GET THE WRONG IDEA. I WAS ON MY WAY TO DROP OFF THE MACE YOU LEFT BACK AT SCHOOL AND I COINCIDENTALLY SAW YOU IN THE ALLEY WITH THE BASTARDS. SO DON'T GO ON THINKING I WAS THE KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR WHO ARRIVED JUST IN TIME TO SAVE YOU, BECAUSE I HATE YOU. DID YOU GET THAT? I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU, HATE YOU ,HATE YOU, HATE YOU, HATE YOU, HATE YOU!! HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE YOU!!! YOU ALWAYS CALL ME NAMAGOMI, YOU TREAT ME LOWER THAN A DOOR MAT, YOU CAN'T TAKE A JOKE, YOU ALWAYS GET MAD AT ME WHEN I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING, ETC. ETC. ETC. NEED I SAY MORE? HAVE YOURSELF A PITIFUL LIFE AND GOOD-BYE!! IF I HAD THE CHANCE, I'D KILL YOU!

XELLOS

AKA NAMAGOMI

Filia scrunched the letter and threw it into the garbage can. She reopened the bedroom window and threw the whole can perfectly onto Xellos' face.

"I HATE YOU, YOU IMMATURE NAMAGOMI!! YOU HAVE YOURSELF A PITIFUL LIFE TOO!!"

Aya's mother meagerly knocked on the door, where her daughter worked on her unfinished homework.

"Aya, your father and I have to talk to you." By the tone of her voice, Aya knew it was something serious and difficult for her to say. She followed her to the kitchen, where her usually cheerful father was now sorrowful with guilt. The girl took a seat and waited patiently for what they had to say. Her stomach was tying into knots, just watching them find the words to explain.

"This may be a shock to you, dear, but . . . Your father and I thought it was best if we told you rather than you finding out for yourself."

"Is this about . . ." Her father finished the sentence,

"Yes, you're twin brother." Mrs. Voellis flipped through the school album of her daughter's grade pictures and found this year's photo. She showed Aya the photo of the eleventh grade and pointed her finger at an outcast student, frowning on the third top row. She then revealed the enfant photo of the daughter and son twin before the boy disappeared. Aya glanced at her mother and father, then the pictures again. Her chest began to throb, for holding back the cries that wanted to burst.

"Why . . . ?" Aya managed to mumble with her quivering lips. "How? What is this?"

"We'll explain everything as best as we can. Please . . ." Mr. Voellis brushed his hair and gathered his thoughts together as Aya watched intensely, to make sure she missed nothing. Multiples of questions and possibilities replicated in her mind, but she kept them in. "(Sigh) you two were around the age of three when it happened . . . Your brother was changing . . . He was beginning to get unusual blue rashes on his skin and his hair changed into a purplish shade. We were afraid that he had caught a terrible terminal disease and rushed him to the hospital. The doctor told us that your brother was not going to die, but this strange disease was not curable. They weren't even sure if it was a disease. They called it 'Chimera'. It's when your skin gradually mutates into the appearance of rocks and stone while your hair changes to purple-bluish needle-like strings. Even the eye colour changes.

"Your mother and I were not taking any chances, so we sent him to the orphanage."

"We were being cautious and didn't want a disease to be passed on to our daughter. Having a son with that image was, as well, unbelievable." Mrs. Voellis added. Aya shook her head. They were lying. They had to be. Her parents wouldn't send her brother to an orphanage just because he had Chimera . . . . would they? "Please try to understand Aya. It was for your-- our own good. Could you imagine having a brother that looked like that? They'll laugh."

"Oh, I understand . . . I understand that we have to look normal just to be excepted into this family!!"

"Aya wait!" They both shouted, but Aya couldn't hear them. She only heard the door slam behind her. Her feet racing down the street, not caring how far she was going or who she was bumping into. Her destination was unclear until her legs could go on no longer. The girl rested her body against the pole of a swing set. Without a second thought, she seated herself in one of the swings, but did not swing.

'How could they? How could they do that to their own son? Don't they love him at all?' Aya let her tears stream down her eyes. 'Let it out' was what needed to be done. Her head ached from much confusion and frustration. 'Zelgadis . . . . I looked for you for so long and you were right there beside me. They told me that you ran away from home! How could they lie to me like that! I don't care how different people look! Who do they think they are!?' She didn't notice that someone had lightly embraced her from behind until he said her name. His grip tightened when Aya raised her head from her hands.

"What happened? Are you ok?" He walked around to face Aya, concern in his expression as he wiped a tear off. Aya attempted to explain without choking in her words and Val listened carefully. By the time she was finished talking, her crying had stopped and her mind was clear from the anger clog in her head.

"Thank you . . ."

"For what?"

"For being there." Valgarv reached out to touch Aya's cheek and leaned closer and closer to her face.

"I think I should thank you, instead." It was awkward that Aya never realized till then, how much Valgarv cared for her. Her heart told her that she would never find another who would make her feel this good and comfortable . . . . Her troubles were gone for now . . .