Hey, my first multi-chapter Lina/Gourry story. Wish me luck.

How this story came to be:

I was doing a little research about the astral side for another story when I learned Gourry had plenty of magic potential. It haunted me, hunted me, and attacked me for three days before I finally wrote it down.


"He what?" Lina screeched at the wizened, tired mage before her. It was preposterous. No way could Gourry have—

"What's wrong?" the swordsman asked, pulling on his shirt. After the last battle against several tougher-than-normal bandits (Since Lina had been in the outer world, the bandits in the inner world had gotten far too comfortable), Gourry had been pretty badly injured. Lina's limited white magic had helped, but the blond had needed a real healer.

After finding the first town they could and knocking down a few (all of them, even the clearly marked ones) doors, the two had found a healer.

And, as an added bonus (or maybe to keep Lina from blowing up anything) the man had offered Gourry a free check up. During the inspection, the sorcerer had made an interesting discovery after conducting a few experiments (all of which had unsettled Lina and bored Gourry). Interesting to the two magic users anyway, Gourry was completely unsurprised.

"You knew!?"

"Well, sort of." Gourry scratched his cheek and picked up his sword. The scabbard was getting pretty worn and he needed a new strap. Hopefully the town had a decent blacksmith. "It's one of the reasons why I was trained with the Sword of Light."

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

Gourry looked up puzzled. "Why would I have told you? It just never seemed important."

"But-But-But, you could have been using magic nearly all this time! All this time--!" Mentally, Lina counted nearly all the times where Gourry using magic could have come in handy. Behind her, Gourry began sharpening his sword.

"And when that stupid pyromaniac fur ball stole the Sword of Light! And Dark Star!—"

Gourry began humming and messing with the tongue depressors.

"Wook, Wina!" Lina turned, furious at Gourry. The ridiculous site of him stuffing a million wooden sticks in his mouth did nothing to cheer her up.

"To his defense Miss Inverse," the old sorcerer spoke up, casting Gourry a derisive look while his nearby female assistant giggled at the swordsman. "He probably had a difficult time with learning spells."

Lina glared at the man before deciding to overlook the insult. It was too much energy to blow him up and Gourry was too busy trying to fit more sticks into his mouth to have noticed. The man was probably right anyway. Gourry's memory was infamously horrible and teaching him magic would be next to impossible.

Next to impossible…

"It's a shame though. " The healer said, shooing the assistant out of the room and giving Gourry a thoughtful look. "He seems to have a surprising amount of potential. Maybe even enough to do high level magic, like a Dragon Slave if my tests are correct."

Lina stared at the healer, then at her guardian. Potential? Gourry? Dragon Slave? It was nearly blasphemy. Still, an image of Gourry casting a Dragon Slave and grinning demonically popped into her head and the sorceress twitched. No way could Gourry do something like that.

Still, it was an entertaining thought and Lina spent a few moments imagining Gourry blowing up things left and right. Gourry, surrounded by flames, a strange unholy glow to him, (at odds with his usual gentle nature) muscles bulging as the swordsman threw Fireballs around in a reckless manner he had no doubt acquired from Lina…Hmm, perhaps he was shirtless and sweaty and the fire was about to burn his pants off…

The sound of Gourry's choking awoke Lina out of her reverie and she quickly began helping the swordsman.

When they walked back to the inn, Lina could barely tear her eyes away from Gourry. He looked completely relaxed and not at all concerned. The rising sun cast a cheery light on the small town and many people were up and about and repairing their doors. He waved to any people he saw and even stopped once to pet a puppy.

All in all, Lina wanted to strangle him.

Whenever she was angry and he was perfectly calm and rational, it never failed to irritate her. Gourry was the one who went along with things, true, but there was something just wrong when he was the sane one who had the clear head. She was the one who was the leader so why did Gourry--the moron who never thought much about anything-- get to be collected and at peace…and...

And why did it bother her so much this time?

Her other friends had their own special traits and personalities and quirks, yet at the moment Gourry's usual calm only aggravated her. Over the years Lina had grown used to and excepted the swordsman limited memory and sometimes just plain stupid questions. Sometimes she even enjoyed the questions and being able to answer them. It was nice to explain things, to feel superior and have a mighty brain power at times.

She was supposed to be used to his peaceful attitude. It would even occasionally help relax her and collect her head whenever she would temporarily lose her mind.

But after awhile, it was annoying being the only one annoyed over something that deserved to be annoyed at.

This wasn't just some little event or incident that could and would be easily forgotten or forgiven. This was magic. This was important and powerful and could save their lives and Gourry could use it.

A thought occurred to her. All this time, Gourry could have done magic. Sure it might have been hard, but he could have learned some basic spells when he'd been younger and his powers would have only grown with age and practice.

It was obvious that he didn't know anything about magic from all the questions he'd asked her over the years.

And if Gourry had known some magic, he would have used it in an emergency. So, he knew nothing.

The swordsman carefully dodged a blow to his midsection and sidestepped a seething sorceress. He was unsure of the cause for Lina's rage, but knew it had something to do with that healer and his ability to use magic. She'd been giving him the Evil Eye since they'd left the man's house.

When Gourry had been very young, he had seen a sorceress but felt no curiosity about trying magic himself. At the time, he'd been too busy with beginning his sword training and too tired to pursue a hobby besides eating.

Later a friend of his father had tried to teach him magic and met nothing but disappointment and puzzlement. Gourry, the sorceress was sure, could use magic. The few spells the tow-headed boy had managed to memorize were powerful and flawless as long as Gourry tried. After his father had found out, the young swordsman had been introduced to the Sword of Light, the complicated politics of his family and as a result had lost whatever interest in magic he'd originally possessed.

What was the point once he had the Sword of Light? Gourry winced at the thought of how…young and clueless and eager he'd been. As soon as he'd been able to train with the legendary sword, that had been his pastime. His family has convinced him, if only temporarily, that the sword was the most important thing.

Once his aptitude with the Sword of Light had been proven, the training most intense and his skills became unmatched, things became both clearer and murkier. Sadder. His family, whom he loved with all his heart, was consumed by the legacy of the Sword. None of them could see beyond the weapon.

His parents placed all hopes in the swordsman who wielded the Sword of Light, and none in Gourry. They didn't care about what Gourry wanted or his hopes of being a simple mercenary and helping people. They just wanted him to live up to the family name and bring honor to their family. He would always love them, but, (and it was painful, so painful to admit it) there would always be a small cold part of him that would always resent their pressure. Their blindness and obsession with the sword that none besides him could see.

The responsibility, later unwanted, that he had to have the sword and protect it with his life. The responsibility of being the one who would be the one to get rid of it and leave his family in disgrace rather than death and self destruction. It had been necessary to save his family, something they would never see. He had left with the Sword, knowing he would probably never been able to return, knowing what he was doing was right, because he loved them and was willing to do anything to save them from themselves.

He was almost certain he could never return to explain himself either. His community wouldn't listen or understand. And they would have officially exiled him; his own brother had probably been the one to pressure and rally for that.

His brother, older, so much smarter and more mature and whom Gourry'd always wanted to impress, had been the worse than his parents. They'd always been close, always the two of them against the world and the stuffy political world they'd been born into. And they'd been competitive.

When Gourry had proved to be more gifted with weapons that his sibling…Lina might have her temper and be a bad loser, but at least she was fiery about it. She was upfront and after she got back at you or yelled at you, it would pretty much be over. The incident would pass and Lina would accept it as well as she could.

His brother on the other hand, was ice in his hostility and jealousy. He could hold a grudge like no one else. After Gourry had been rewarded with the Sword of Light, the older man had never forgiven his brother and refused to be in his company for long. They never really talked after Gourry had been shouldered the task of taking care of the Sword of Light. Either an argument would arise (Gourry being defensive while his brother attacked, funny considering it was nearly always the other way whenever they sparred.) or there would just be a cold silence and black look whenever they were close.

The rare time when they'd eat dinner together would become torture. The food, normally well prepared would be tasteless and cold, like it had never seen the inside of an oven. The room would be cool, (Gourry would always get goose bumps no matter what he wore) and full of more shadows then he'd ever noticed before. As though his brother's cold attitude had somehow managed to suck the warmth from the hair, the flavor from the food, the light from the room.

Perhaps that was why he loved Lina's company so much. There was never any backstabbing or betrayal; things were somehow simpler than back home, even if there was almost always someone chasing and trying to kill them.

With Lina, there was a bad guy and they would fight and win. That was it. You never worried about what someone would think and how it would affect your family and their honor. With Lina, there really wasn't much honor.

No fancy titles or …responsibility. No politics and speeches (apart from Amelia's of course) and people either could be trusted or not trusted. Black and white, clear, no cold or disappointed looks from people whose standards you'd failed. No betrayal from people you'd considered friends and family.

Gourry smiled and dodged another blow from Lina. Everything was relatively clear and not much ever changed.

Lina swung at Gourry's head and watched with something akin to bliss as the swordsman's head rocked back from the force of the blow. She had forgotten about her real anger and was just enjoying trying to hurt her friend.

After creating some new bruises for a healer to heal, Lina let Gourry be and continued on the way to the inn. After about five seconds of peace, her mind returned back to the problem concerning Gourry and his non-magic-usage.

Enveloped in her thoughts, she barely noticed sitting down and ordering an extraordinarily large meal for herself at the inn's dining room.

Still lost in her thoughts, she left the table considerably early—there was still a bit of food on the table and not all of the waitresses were entirely in tears. Gourry watched in amazement as she ordered a room, quietly and not haggling for an hour over the price, and then headed upstairs.

The only thing that reassured him was the fact that she had left him to pay for the restaurant bill.

Tiredly, Lina trudged up the stairs, found her room and collapsed loudly on the bed. Though physically she was tired, exhausted even, her mind was still a mess. She rolled over, mussing the sheets and cover.

With a start, Lina sat up and knocked her head into the headboard. She ignored the pain the best she could as something occurred to her.

Next to impossible…

Not hopeless, not impossible…there was a chance…

Could she—could she, against all odds and seemingly against the gods themselves, teach Gourry magic? There was no denying it would come in handy, even a few simple spells would help during fights or when she was out of energy.

But, teaching Gourry things…Half the time he seemed to forget his very name.

Still….there was a chance…

Lina found that falling sleeping wasn't as easy as she'd expected.

Next to impossible…

After a while, Lina Inverse drifted asleep with a devious smile on her young and deceptively sweet face.

Downstairs and oblivious to the monstrosities Lina was about to force upon him, Gourry ordered another glass of juice and some more toast. When he heard Lina's horrible rumbling snoring that shook the entire building momentarily, he smiled and ate another piece of bacon.

Everything was simple and clear and nothing really changed.