All in the Name of Friendship
 Part 2
By: Elizabeth Smith

Lina fumbled with her keys and finally opened the door. Ugh… it felt like an entire circus had tap danced on her vertebrate and then had a beer party afterwards in her skull. She felt awful. At least my chemistry report is almost finished… I don’t know how I would have managed if I had to have too many more nights working on it…Lina dumped her backpack on the couch and stumbled to her room, not bothering to turn on the light.

Which was a mistake.

“OW!! Goddamned fucking stupid little…” Lina glared at the stool she had near her bed. Stupid thing had jumped in front of her, she swore it did. Oh well. Lina yanked off her clothes, leaving them in a heap on the floor and pulled on an oversized Tshirt.

Mmmm…I must have stolen this one from Zel, She thought, breathing in his scent. She relaxed. Perfect. Couldn’t think of a better way to end the day. Lina curled up under the covers and fell asleep.

Or tried to.

Speaking of Zel, where the hell IS he?

Laughter.

Zelgadis and Val came unsteadily up the steps, laughing and joking. They weren’t inebriated, they were, to coin a cliché, “high on life”.

And they were loving it.

They finally reached Zel’s apartment. They looked into eachother’s eyes, and—

“What TOOK you two so long?” Lina opened the door and glared at them. Oops…Zel thought she’d be asleep by then. Guess I was wrong…

“I haven’t been able to sleep worrying about you two! You didn’t even tell me you were going out tonight, and then you stay out ‘till,” Lina looked at her watch. “one o’clock! How am I supposed to get the sleep I need to succeed if you keep me up all night worrying?” She grabbed Zelgadis by the ear and dragged him inside, ignoring his protests. “I swear, you don’t think about anything but those stupid romance movies you’re always watching!” She slammed the door in Val’s face.

It took his brain a little bit to catch up with events.

Huh??

Lina opened the door to glare at him. “And your parents are worried sick! Go home and go to bed! You have a soccer game tomorrow!” She slammed the door.

Val’s mind was still off in “I love Zel” land, but his body knew a command from a mother when it heard one. He was halfway down to his car before he realized Lina wasn’t his mom.

That girl is scary…

Lina turned to Zelgadis. “And you,” She started, and he swallowed hard. “What did you think you were doing? I was worried sick! I come home, and all I want to do is fall into bed, and you’re not home! You didn’t leave a note or anything! I--”

“Yes mother.”

Lina mock-punched him in the jaw. “You jerk. Go to bed.” She stalked off to her own.

“Waitasec, isn’t that my shirt?”

“I’m asleep, I can’t hear you…”

Images…

Lina tossed and turned in bed. She was hot, she was cold, she was restless, she was uncomfortable. Somehow she got to sleep. Images…

A smile came to the redhead’s lips as her dreams took a pleasant turn.

Zelgadis.

Clasped hands, smiling faces…

Lina stilled, the smile on her lips, and fell deeper into slumber.

Touching lips…and…

ZELGADIS!

Pain!

Pain!

Pain!

Zelgadis, lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Val, standing over him with a knife in his hands, eyes vacant and distant. Lina screams.

Lina woke with a start, a scream in her throat and soaked in sweat. Gods, Zel… She threw off the covers and walked to his room, opening the door slowly as to make as little noise as possible.

Zel was sleeping like a baby.

Have you ever seen a bay sleep? Zelgadis was sprawls everywhere that one would usually have to work at getting to on his bed. He had somehow managed to turn himself completely upside down and his head was lolling off the end of the bed. On foot was propped on his dresser, and the other hung off the side. All in all, it looked as if someone had thrown a rag doll there. He was snoring softly.

Lina smiled. She walked in and sat on the edge of the bed, hand removing some of his so-soft hair from his face. She sighed. Zelgadis, I--

“Val…” he murmured, rolling over into a new, equally imaginative position (not like that you pervert!) and resumed sleeping. Lina pulled back her hand and her smile faded a bit.

Damn Val, went and stole my Zel away.

I should be happy.

Lina walked into the kitchen and poured a glass of milk.

I should be happy.

So she would be. Zelgadis needed her, he always had. She would be there for him. Even if she didn’t want to be.

I am happy.

I am.

Really.

She sighed.

“Heartbreaker, You got the best of me!
But I just keep on coming back incessantly!
Why did you have to play your games on me,
I should have known right from the start,
you’d go an’ break my heaaa~aaart!”

There was a moan of protest to the noise from Zel’s room.

“….Heart breaker, you got the best of me….”

Zelgadis woke up in the slightly muzzy, slightly sleepy, but mostly just wha? Sort of way that night people are wont to do. He opened his eyes to tiny slits to let in the least possible amount of light and was greeted by a blob of red.

Oh no…

Lina grinned cheerfully at him. “Hey Zel. Time to get up or you’ll be late for classes.” Damn frigging morning person….

“My classes don’t begin until noon.” He said, and rolled over. At least, that’s what he meant to say. It came out as more of a series of muffled monosyllables and grunts, but Lina had been living with him for a while and could translate.

“I know, Zel. But it’s already 10AM, and I know how you stay in the shower for hours. I didn’t have my first two hours today, so I thought I’d stay and wake you up.” Lina was walking around the apartment getting her multiple bags. “I’m going to be back late today. Your breakfast is in the microwave, I have the timer set so all you have to do is wander in in your patented sleepy daze and press the start button. Your coffeemaker is running and should finish about the time you get out of the shower. Oh, I set out some clothes for you to struggle into so you don’t look like you got dressed in the dark, like you always do because you don’t want to admit there’s light outside.” She said, shouldering a huge bookbag full of bricks, it seemed. “Did I forget anything?”

“You act like my mother,” He grumbled, managing to crawl out of bed and scowl at her.

She shrugged. “Someone has to. Oh, I’m going to be at school in the chem room researching my report until about seven tonight, and then I’m going to work until 11, okay?”

“Since when is that new? You’re always home late.” He’d meant for that to be a joke, but it had come out kind of whiny.

Lina stopped running around picking things up. She smiled kinna harriedly. “I am, aren’t I? I’m sorry Zel.” She leaned her head into his room, where he was currently trying to figure out if she’d picked out his clothes while in a drunken stupor. Well, they’d probably look fine after a few cups of coffee. God knew that whenever he chose his own stuff he ended up changing out of the godawful things once he’d woken up, making him late for class. Damn Lina, she thought of everything. He didn’t need a roommate, he needed a sitter. “Tell you what,” Lina said, pulling his attention back to her. She was currently trying to get the computer to cough up her research report. “I’ll take a day off of work next weekend, okay? We could go do something.”

Zel wanted sorely to say something along the lines of Great! I’ll clear my schedule, but… “Don’t you have something going on? I don’t want you to get behind or get fired because I’m a whiny, little, emotionally attached kid…”

“I’ll have my report done by then, and the soccer games will have ended. I don’t think I have anything planned.” Lina grinned. “Whaddaya say? Shall we make a night of it?”

Zel grinned. “I’m looking forward to it.”

“Great!! I’ll talk to my boss tonight.” Lina stuck the computer floppy between her teeth and searched in her pockets for her car keys. “I’ll call with the result, okay?” She managed around the diskette. Zel nodded.

“Okay. I’m sure I’ll be home, as usual. Jeez, I need more of a life and you need to drop some of yours.”

Lina shrugged. “You could always do my chem report for me.” Finding her car keys, she headed for the door. “Maybe we can even get ice cream, ne?”

Zel grinned. “Hopefully. Haven’t done that in a while.”

Lina grinned back around the disk. “It’s a date then. Ja!” She lugged everything out the door and headed down the stairs, as Zel desperately tried to wake up enough to shave without suiciding.

Lina grinned at the music on the radio. It fit so well. She sighed.

“I wanna be there when you’re feeling high, I wanna be there when you wanna di~i~ie…” Lina caterwauled along to the music…

Part 3

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