Something More Chapter 10

Author: DQBunny Title: Something More - Stay with Me, Just for Awhile

Something More

Chapter
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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 theme #19: Home body ; Bubbles ; Stay and #21: The Devil's Advocate ; advocatus diaboli

oOoOo

Chapter 10: "Stay With Me, Just For Awhile"

Amelia arrived a day and a half later. During that time, Lina did nothing but eat, sleep and plan their excursion into the city. She planned to move out as soon as the princess arrived. But Amelia got to the inn well after dark and was exhausted. It took both her pleading and a lecture from her mother before Lina gave in and decided to stay another night.

They rented a third room, dividing everyone up by two - the elder Inverses in one room, Lina and Amelia in the second and Gourry and Zelgadiss in the third.

By the time Amelia had fallen into an exhausted sleep, Lina could had drawn a detailed map of the city of Zefielia, complete with changes made since she'd last been home years earlier, in her sleep. She'd questioned both of her parents endlessly about new roads, new business and buildings. She studied layouts of the Temple of Ceiphied and plans of the Royal Palace.

She hardly touched the food that was brought to her and slept poorly. The nights prior to Amelia arriving, she'd prodded Gourry and Zelgadiss into taking the beds - mainly by making sure Zel was asleep before casting a sleeping spell on Gourry and levitating him to the other one. What little sleep she'd gotten was in the chair by the small table and that normally led to a lecture the next morning from both Gourry and Zel once the latter woke and used the Counter-Sleeping spell on the first.

She snapped at anything that moved and literally drove her friends, family and fiancé insane - even more so than she'd ever done before.

After she heard the first murmurs come from Amelia talking in her sleep, Lina bolted from the room to pace outside. She carried with her a spellbook on white magic, hoping to come through with a stronger form of a sleeping spell that she could use on Dinasa. An ordinary one worked fine on most people. If she did have a piece of Shabranigdu inside of her, it would be woefully ineffective.

Perhaps she could infuse it with some sort of spirit magic, she thought as she walked back and forth, a small ball of the lighting spell following her. A modified version of an Elmekia Lance so that both the physical and astral planes would be paralyized. Then she could study the queen and see if there was any way to draw the piece of Shabranigdu out of her.

And if not? Lina wasn't sure what she would do next.

But she was quite ready to kill her if she had to. Her hand absently rubbed the bag of orihalcon pebbles that Milgasia had given her awhile back. She no longer had her demon's blood tailsmen, but the properties of the orihalcon - the same as which shielded the Philosopher's Stone from Rezo - could also serve as a magical boost if needed. She had a bag of them and so did Gourry. She made a note to herself to ask him about them.

She turned and plowed into said swordsman in the process, knocking them both to the ground.

Lina was grateful that Gourry hadn't been wearing his armor - otherwise it would had been a truly painful experience. She levered herself onto her elbows and glared at him. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for you," he wheezed, trying to get his breath back. "You're wearing a trench into the ground."

She sat up, noticed the depression from her constant pacing. She absently ran a hand through her hair. "I didn't notice."

"You haven't noticed much lately." Fully recovered, he decided it was best not to move with her still sitting on his lap. He gauged his chances of being punched, slapped, kicked or fireballed if he sat up and made Lina aware of her exact position. While memories eluded him, at times common sense didn't. So he stayed where he was.

"You need to stop thinking about it for awhile before you forget it," Gourry informed her. "Otherwise, you'll miss a detail because you thought about it too hard."

She adjusted herself and stared down at him. Such a beautiful face, she thought absently before shaking it aside. "Where did you learn something like that?"

"Sword instructor. More often than not, your first instincts are always the right ones. You want to notice all the details and be prepared, but if you concentrate too hard, you'll miss something."

Lina considered that. "It makes sense. It's like when we first met Xelloss. We were wondering so hard about who he could be that it didn't occur to us...well, except you...about what he actually was."

"I think sometimes you get so worried about what hasn't happened yet that you can't see what's in front of you right now."

She narrowed her eyes at him, then realized their current situation. "Like me sitting on top of you and my not having fireballed you yet, correct?"

He gave her a crooked grin. "Something like that, yes."

She tilted her head to one side and tapped her cheek. "Well, then, I might as well take advantage of the current situation and get some questions answered." With that, she inched her way forward so she straddled his waist. He shoved his tongue in his cheek and wondered if she really understood what she position she was putting herself in.

Then Gourry had nothing to worry about, because Lina started shaking his shoulders.

"You jellyfish! Why did you tell my parents we're engaged?"

"Because we are!" He bit his lower lip. "Aren't we? I swore I remember you saying yes."

"Of course I said yes! But, you could had at least warned me before embarrassing me like that! Gods, what if Papa had exploded? Or worse, Mama? Just be glad she considers you the next poster boy for the store. And then you have to meet Nee-chan." She buried her head in her hands and felt the headache coming on. "That is going to be an absolute disaster."

"Nothing's that bad, Lina!"

She peeked at him through her fingers. "You haven't met my sister yet."

He saw the worry in her eyes and the stress that etched lines around the corners of her eyes and mouth. It amazed him that even though she was seven years younger than he was, there were times that she appeared to have seen more than even a great elder would had seen in his lifetime. His heart ached for her and it was that ache that drove him to pull her down so the top of her head was tucked beneath his chin and her ear pressed against his heart.

He wanted to do something - anything - to help her. He was her protector, but he was feeling damn well useless at the moment. She'd promised not to take unnecessary risks, but even the necessary ones were dangerous. If providing her a small pocket of peace was all he could do at the moment, he'd give everything he had to accomplishing it.

She flushed, not quite sure what he was doing. "Gourry, what are you..."

"Let's stay like this, Lina. Just a little while, okay? You need it." I need it, he silently added.

Tentatively, she moved her arms so she returned the embrace. The stress drained out of her, leaving behind the simple, warm emotion that she long ago acknowledged as love. It felt strange, to actually be aware of it and enjoy it - not bury it away like a forbidden spell. They hadn't said the words, but they loved each other. They were going to get married. Yet, they still bickered, laughed, and fought over food.

It was going to work, she thought as she dropped off into sleep. That she was sure of.

From the window above them, another swordsman and sorceress watched the couple on the ground.

"I do believe they're sleep," Raulf observed.

"Well, the night's warm," Lana replied. "Isn't it scary how those two seem like us 25 years ago?"

"It's crossed my mind several times during the past few weeks." He slipped his arms around his wife's waist. "Though, I do think my memory is a bit better than young Gourry's."

She laughed. "Well, you had your smoking habit. Which, I do remind you, you got better about."

"That's because you fireballed me out of the house whenever I tried to light up," he grumbled.

"I'm only looking out for your health."

"Excuses, excuses." He squeezed her. "We did a good job with our girls, didn't we?"

"I believe so. We did receive a lot of flak for Lina leaving home when she was so young. But, I wasn't much older than her when I began traveling myself. Though, I do believe she'll be a bit harder to settle down than I was." She frowned. "She's been through so much. You can't tell on the surface, but sometimes when I look in her eyes, they seem so old. Both her and Luna's."

"Ceiphied has blessed both of our children, Lana."

She slipped from his embrace and started to pace the room herself. "I can accept that for Luna, but not Lina. Zelgadiss-san told me about how she learned Chaotic magic. I knew she had the Giga Slave, but the Ragna Blade and what happened with Hellmaster Fibrizo is completely different." She appraised her husband for a moment. She had a feeling that he didn't know everything and frankly, he didn't need to.

Lana clasped her hands behind her back and thought back over the magic that she'd learned and the whispers of a power much greater than either Ceiphied or Shabranigdu. "I wonder," she mused aloud, "if Lina is blessed by the Lord of Nightmares." Because any normal, mortal person would had been killed by the type of magic she's done, she thought.

It was something that her husband wouldn't understand - but Luna would. Lana made a note to be sure to get both of her daughters together and discuss this.

oOoOo

She woke up kissing him. She wasn't sure who started it or how long they'd been doing so, but she knew it was something that had started as a dream and carried over to reality as various layered sensations poked their way through the fog of sleep that surrounded both of them.

His hands had crept beneath her tunic and she marveled at the rough-smooth sensation of his callused fingers against her back. She whimpered, adjusted and helped him take the kiss deeper while he tugged her tunic up. She felt her yellow band get pushed up to just under her arms as his hand moved around and covered her right breast. She jerked, moaned and her legs immediately splayed apart so she cushioned the hardness that grown since the kissing began.

She wasn't sure what was going on, but she craved more of it - the way that the excitement of discovering a new spell or type of magic filled her. She suddenly sat back, her bottom sliding back over him to the point where he threw his head back and groaned. She reached for the hem of her tunic, ready to pull it off.

"I'm sorry! I do hate to interrupt you lovebirds, but I should remind you that it is dawn and you're making out in a trench in back of the Mylenta inn, where I am sure everyone heading to the necessary is having a lovely time watching you two put on a show."

The words were as effective as a bucket of ice water. Lina's eyes snapped fully open as she realized exactly where she was, what she was doing and who she was doing it with. She turned her head slowly to the second story windows, where she saw Zelgadiss standing at one of them, his head poked out to address them.

"You're dead," she vowed, the power gathering in her hands before she fully realized it. "You are so dead, Zelgadiss!"

"Lina!" Now fully awake himself, Gourry sat up and tried to wrap his arms around her before she could blow the inn up. "Stop, you'll blow everything up!"

She elbowed him in the gut and shot a spear of magic at the chimera. His eyes widened and he dodged, but it caught him on the shoulder. "What the...," he cried as he crashed to the ground, paralyzed.

"Zelgadiss-san?" Amelia rushed into the room and saw him sprawled on the ground near the window. She saw his eyes blink at her before he passed out.

She crouched by him and shook him. He's sleeping, she realized. "Counter-sleeping!" she called out, but the spell didn't work.

"What sort of spell is this?" she wondered aloud.

Lana hurried into the room, bundled into a robe. "I heard screaming. What's wrong with Zelgadiss-san?"

"I heard him shout and ran in here myself. He's got some strange spell cast on him. It's like a sleeping spell, but counter-sleeping won't work."

"He'll be okay in an hour or so," Lina commented as she stomped into the room.

Amelia sat back on her haunches and took in her friend's disheveled appearance and the dirt streaks in her hair. "Lina-san, what's wrong? It looks like you've been rolling in the dirt?"

Lina ignored her, pushing by her and grabbed the sleeping Zelgadiss. "When you awake, you and I have a date with a Digger Bolt," she growled at him. "If you ever interrupt me and Gourry doing it again, I will make your life so miserable and so painful that even Rezo's curse will seem like a gift from Ceiphied."

"What were you and Gourry-san doing, Lina-san?"

Lina gazed into Amelia's innocent eyes and had the grace to blush and look away. "Just having a private conversation, Amelia."

The princess narrowed her eyes. "Uh huh. I bet you two were making out."

"Amelia!"

"What, I'm not blind or dumb, Lina-san. I heard you two moaning even from our..." Amelia gulped and swallowed as Lina's eyes flashed with anger. "...umm...you know, I bet you I was dreaming! That's it! Just a dream! Well, umm...need to use the necessary! See you!" With that, she raced out of the room as fast as she could.

Lana sighed and placed a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "You might want to take a bath. I'm interested to see this spell you've decided to try on Zelgadiss-san once you're ready for the day."

Lina stood and gave her mother a proud smile. "It's a combination of Sleeping and Elmekia Lance. It brings down someone from both the physical and astral planes. I just thought of it last night."

"But didn't have a target until now. Okay, then. I'll leave you to get ready for the day. Oh, and sweetie?" Lana tossed her a mischievous grin. "There's a lot more comfortable places to make out than in a dirt trench. Let me know and I'll give you a few pointers." She winked, blew Lina a kiss and sauntered out of the room, leaving her youngest to gape behind her.

oOoOo

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