When he finally awoke it was dark. Only a small patch of light was reminding him that he wasn't asleep.

He blinked, opening his eyes as wide as he could, trying to focus. It took him a moment, but when his vision cleared enough to see properly he figured out what he was looking at. She had done it again..

It was Amelia holding a small sphere of light, from a lighting spell she had casted earlier, by the look of it. The light was fading, dulling quite quickly. With a temporary last burst of energy, the little sphere lit up all of the small clearing with a flash, then faded out completely.

Hearing a slight sigh of distress, he figured he should at least let her know that he was up now.

"Amelia?", he asked to the dark, then waited for an answer.

"..oh...yes?", she replied. Even though he was unable to see her, he knew she looked in his direction when she had failed at re-casting the spell.

"Go to sleep now. I know that you didn't wake me up when you should have, so you've done far more of your share of the watch tonight.", he shifted into a sitting position and adjusted his cloak, "You've been doing that too often lately."

"It's okay..I can manage. Just let me get this spell working again..", she trailed off as she started to chant again.

His hand found her shoulder, she jumped slightly from being shaken from her concentration, "I doubt if your spell will work. You are far past tired."

"No, give me a moment.."

"Now listen..", he said firmly, "We need to travel quite a distance tomorrow, and I can't allow you to.."

The light spell started again, a tiny dull glow flickered as she turned around to face him, "I told you I could do it..", she smiled with her eyes half closed.

He placed his hand over both of hers, extinguishing the illumination, "Go to sleep, Amelia.", both of them sitting in the dark again.

Closing both her hands around his she added, "But you looked so happy sleeping, Mr. Zelgadis. I'd feel really bad if I woke you up..", she sighed, too tired to think of another reason.

"That's no excuse..", he said, trying not to sound nervous about the contact of their hands.

"I know you wouldn't wake me up if the watch order was different..", he could almost tell she was smiling smugly. As much as he wanted to say it wasn't true, he knew it was. Ever since the party had been together, the watch sequence had been Lina, Gourry, Amelia and lastly, Zel. Preventing him from ever having to wake her, thankfully.

Unable to think of anything to say and wanting to change the subject, he removed his hands from hers and tried another approach. Taking off his cloak he draped it lightly over her back, "Please, go to sleep now..", he tried less forcefully.

"Alright..", she muttered contentedly as she gave in, crawled over to his side, curled up and went to sleep.

He didn't feel he needed the light spell he was going to use. He already knew, without having to see, who was always by him.