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Author: DQBunny |
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Something More Chapter Disclaimer: "Slayers" does not belong to me, but belongs to Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. I'm just borrowing them for a little while. Note: This fic was originally written for the LiveJournal community, "30 romances," a themed community similar to "30 kisses". All 30 parts will be combined to form one complete story that is the prequel to "Law of the Land." This chapter contains themes #6 - Soooo not funny ; Sarcasm and #7 - Think pink ; Blow oOoOo Chapter Four: "Father and Daughter" Lina prided herself on acting businesslike at all times. Okay, most of the time. Exceptions were made when her temper was pricked...which happened quite a bit as Gourry once pointed out to her - just before she clocked him in the forehead. She didn't often give into the girly squeals that Amelia did. But this situation was different. After all, she reasoned, a girl was expected to react when she'd just seen her father for the first time in seven years. "Papa!" she shrieked, racing the short distance to his side. Her father spat out the unlit cigarette, grabbed Lina up in his arms and twirled her around. She laughed, remembering the times he'd done that when she'd been little. And suddenly, she understood why Amelia was always so excited to see her father whenever they returned from one of their journeys. She literally burrowed into him, inhaling the scent of the cologne he'd used and the wine he drank for breakfast. A quick sniff confirmed that he hadn't gone back to smoking, thank goodness. It was so wonderful just to be Daddy's little girl again, even for a few minutes. Gourry couldn't decide if he should look away, approach them or remain where he stood. He decided on the latter option. It amazed him. Lina had expressed some annoyance before over Amelia and Prince Philionel's overzealous reunions. Granted, neither Lina nor her father had broken out into twin songs about justice yet either. If either of them did so, he was running...fast and far. Lina loosened her grip and pulled back to study him. He was essentially the same person she remembered, but with greying hair around his temples and a few extra lines etched into his face that she hadn't remembered seeing before. Absently, she wondered if she helped out them there. "What are you doing here?" "Looking for you!" Her father threw back his head and laughed. "I was about to give up and go home, when I caught sight of you entering town yesterday. I lost track of you pretty quickly, but then stumbled upon you at the inn. By the way, you owe your sister eight gold for that meal." Lina's eyes narrowed. "Eight gold? For that meal? It wasn't even worth five gold! Papa, how could you?" "I had to tip them to bring it over to the inn." "You don't tip them three gold for carting a substandard meal next door! One gold at the most." "It's not my money, Lina-chan." "No, it's my money since I have to pay her back!" "Hence why I have no problems spending it," her father replied with a quick grin. "That's so not funny, Papa!" Gourry was convinced. This man was definitely Lina's father. Lina's father peered over his daughter's shoulder at the swordsman standing a few feet away from them. He glanced down at Lina, then back at her companion. He gave Gourry a broad smile. "So, son! You've finally found a good use for that sword of yours, I see!" Lina and Gourry both turned pink, then scarlet. "Papa, it's not like that!" Gourry realized his next statement would literally mean life or death for him. So, he crossed his arms over his chest, gave Lina's father the most serious gaze that he could muster and replied, "Inverse-san, I utilize my sword to the best of my abilities whenever I'm around your daughter and am able to keep her happy." "Cut it out with the sword innuendo!" Lina yelled at him. "Huh? Who's got a sword in a window?" Gourry scanned the area, wondering if someone was in trouble. "Jellyfish!" "There's jellyfish with a sword in a window?" "No, egghead!" Lina marched back over him and grabbed his shirt. "There's nothing but jellyfish in your brain!" Gourry blinked innocently at Lina. "But you just said..." Lina's father watched and smiled as the two argued. He'd heard rumors about her traveling with the Swordsman of Light and it hadn't taken him long to figure out it'd been the same young man he'd prevented from throwing his sword into the sea several years earlier. Fate has a way of working in mysterious ways, he marveled. "I still don't get it!" Gourry protested. "Look, you just told my father that you were using your sword to make me happy!" "I do use my sword to make you happy," he replied in a serious tone and ignored her shocked gasp. "Whenever you're in trouble, I use the Blast Sword to protect you. Doesn't that make you happy?" Lina simply blinked in astonishment at him. She wasn't sure if she wanted to throttle him or...throttle him. Instead, she wearily leaned her forehead against his chest and considered hitting herself against his breastplate just hard enough so she could pass out and be free from her current insanity. "Oh, Gourry...Gourry...you jellyfish," she said softly, almost affectionately. "Lina-chan." She automatically shoved Gourry back before whirling around to face her father. "Papa, this is Gourry," she said, indicating the heap of swordsman on the ground behind her. "He's my protector." "Yes, I'm familiar with him." Her eyes widened with surprise. "You are? You've met him?" Her father stroked his chin. "He's talking care of that Sword of Light of his, isn't he now? I swear, he was behaving just like a third-rate swordsman, wanting to throw that beauty into the sea..." Lina whirled back around, hands clenched into fists. "You nearly threw the Sword of Light into the sea?" Gourry decided he was definitely confused, with Lina and her father both discussing the family heirloom he no longer had. He got to his knees. "But, we don't have the Sword of Light anymore, Lina." "You no longer have the Sword of Light!" Lina's father cried, outraged. Lina whirled around. "Papa, it's a long story," she hastily said before turning her attention back to Gourry. "I know that, jellyfish! I mean before, when you met my father!" Gourry scratched his head. "When did I meet your father?" "Gourry!" "Lina-chan, how in the world did you manage to let something so valuable get away? "Papa!" It took nearly half an hour, a trip back inside the tavern and half a bottle of wine before the entire story was related. Gourry's memory appeared to kick-start once he figured out what was going on and recounted a vague story about encountering a fisherman while deciding what to do with the Sword of Light during his years as a mercenary. Between the two of them, Lina pieced together what happened and was quite impressed that Gourry and her father had worked together to defeat a Mazoku. But when she asked why he wanted to throw the Sword of Light into the sea, Gourry remained tight-lipped on that. She didn't press it and a slanted glance at her father confirmed that he felt that particular subject would be Gourry's to tell Lina on his own timetable. Lina figured Gourry would probably forget and she would have to remind him one day. They ordered lunch, then moved onto recounting the tale of how the Sword of Light was lost, Lina doing pretty much all of the talking. She heavily censored the account, basically explaining how Gourry was kidnapped by Hellmaster Fibrizo, she cast the Giga Slave to break the spell holding him captive and in the resulting melee, the Sword of Light got absorbed into the Giga Slave. She decided it was not a wise thing to describe how the Lord of Nightmares inhabited her body. Gourry remained tight-lipped on that as well, but it helped when she stepped on his foot at several intervals during the tale. She also related how Xelloss had gotten the sword back, but Gourry decided to let it rejoin the other weapons of light after the end of their fight with Dark Star. Her father was crushed and Lina couldn't blame him. They were a merchant family and the Sword of Light had been valuable. So, she launched into the story about how they acquired the Blast Sword and that seemed to comfort him. This time, both Lina and Gourry talked freely about their adventures, about Lina's early adventures with Naga and then the most recent ones with Amelia, Zelgadiss, Filia and Xelloss, and Luke and Millina as well. By the time they'd reached the conclusion of their story, it was well after dark and they had spent the entire day talking and eating. It had been, to Lina, a very good day. In fact, it even made her forget about her current problem - until her father pulled a familiar-looking parchment out of his coat pocket. An uneasy feeling settled in Lina's stomach as he placed it on the table and pushed it across to her. She scanned the words, recognizing the notice that she and Gourry had initially seen the day before. Her father noticed the slight flicker of distress in her eyes and folded his arms on the table. "You know what that is, don't you, Lina-chan?" "Yes. Gourry and I saw it yesterday." She pulled it to her and fiddled with it. "It's actually an older notice, but it took awhile before the Guild realized that you weren't in Zefielia and released it to the other kingdoms. Let me tell you what's going on back at home." Lina's father poured another cup of coffee. He gestured to the plate of cookies that were brought out for dessert. Gourry grabbed one, but Lina kept her hands folded in front of her feeling slightly uneasy. "About a year ago, Josef the Blue came to see us. You remember him, right?" "The chairman of the Zefielia Sorcerer's Guild. The guy's old as dirt. He gave me that...name." Lina shuddered at the memory. "The man's a pedophile." "Your name is why he came to see us. He said because you did not complete your graduation ceremony that you weren't officially a part of the Sorcerer's Guild." Lina half rose out of her seat and jabbed a finger at him. "You and Mama told me it was my decision to make. I don't ever want to be known as Lina the Pink!" "And it was. I don't blame you, Lina-chan." He shuddered. "That was a ghastly shade of pink. I never thought it would come back to haunt you like this, and your mother agreed as well, especially since she hasn't been active in the Sorcerer's Guild since your sister was born." Lina sat back down and Gourry finished his cookie. "Inverse-san, what's the big deal over what the Sorcerer's Guild calls Lina or not?" "Call me Raulf, son. It's okay for you to know my name now," he replied with a wink. "When you graduate from the Sorcerer's Guild, you get a color title that shows your status," Lina explained to him. "Remember when we had that guard duty in Atlas City a few years back with Amelia and Zel? Those two were Tayrim the Violet and Daymia the Blue. You get them for having a certain status, performing certain deeds, so on and so forth." "So why'd you get one?" Gourry asked. "Lina-chan was the youngest-ever to complete the requirements for full guild recognition," Raulf boasted proudly. "They thought her the cutest little girl to ever be in the guild. She started when she was quite young, you know." Gourry jabbed his thumb at Lina. "You've got the little part right, but aren't you sure that they didn't mean the deadliest girl instead of cutest?" Lina wasn't quite sure how the vase of flowers sitting on the next table wound up smashed on Gourry's head, but the daffodils combined with the dazed expression on his face simply was lovely. "So, they're after me because I didn't show up at graduation to accept those stupid robes?" she asked as she brushed the dirt and glass bits off her hands. "That is what they claim. They say that because of your subsequent fights with Ruby-Eye Shabranigdu and Hellmaster Fibrizo that you've gotten out of control and that they don't want one so powerful even affiliated with the Sorcerer's Guild." Lina drummed her fingers on the table. "That makes no sense whatsoever. They're scared because I used the Giga Slave twice? They should be on their knees thanking me, not wanting to hunt me down!" Her fingers curled into a fist and she slammed it on the table. "That's completely asinine! And you said this order went out about a year ago?" She hastily did the mental calculations. That had to be while she and Gourry were searching for the Blast Sword, not long after returning from Filia's lands after the fight with Darkstar. "Your mother, sister and I thought so as well," Raulf confirmed and took a sip of his now-cold coffee. "Your sister has some high connections, as you well know, and she was able to determine that the order for the Sorcerer's Guild to bring you back to Zefielia came from the Eternal Queen herself. " The color drained from Lina's face. "Her majesty, the old bat...er the Eternal Queen?" "The very same." "The Eternal Clean?" Gourry asked drunkenly, still disoriented from his little encounter with a flower vase. "Eternal Queen, jellyfish," Lina explained, then sighed. She reached over and cast Recovery on him so he could focus to the best of his abilities. "Zefielia is a matriarchy, which means that it is ruled by a woman. Her title is known as the Eternal Queen. This one is Dinasa III, daughter of Jona IV. She's been in power for the past 25 years and is in her late 40s by now. She has three children, Dinasa IV, Jona and Mercul. Her husband passed away 10 years ago, but it's assumed that she had him killed." "The queens of Zefielia are known to be similar to queen bees," Raulf commented. "Once they bear children with a mate, they get rid of said mate." "So, in other words, she's pretty much using a man and then tossing him away?" Gourry tapped a finger against his chin as he thought this over. "One wisecrack about me and your head will go through that ceiling," Lina growled. "No, you've kept me around, haven't you?" He grinned at her and Lina was tempted to do it anyhow. "But does this mean that the queen selects a random person off the street to be the prince?" "Knowing the past history of princes who have married into the royal family, it's been rough to find someone, but they usually manage it," Raulf replied. Lina pondered over this. "I don't understand why I'd be on her bad side. I haven't done anything to her since the annual Ceiphield ritual when I was 10 and I accidentally got her with a Freeze Arrow." Her father and Gourry both stared at her. "What?" She held up her hands apologetically. "I was bored! I wasn't aiming for her, I swear! I thought I saw something flashing in and out behind her and was targeting it. It only tore off a little bit of her dress. Just a scrap! I'm sure she didn't even miss it! I mean, she never did really figure out I'd done it, right?" "I was wondering who did that," Raulf muttered. Gourry simply shook his head. Lina simply sighed and wished that it was Zelgadiss instead of her father sitting across from her. That way, she could simply fireball both of them. oOoOo Additional notes: The description of Lina's father, and subsequent background about him and his first encounter with Gourry, is taken from the story "The Thing He Sees Beyond the Point of His Sword," published in one of the Slayers Special novels. |
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