fic notes: Anyone who has watched Slayers has seen Lina, Gourry, and Zelgadis drink a little when they have dinner in a restaurant, but Sylphiel was never with them. What if she was there too? She probably wouldn't take it too well.

This is not part of my "Carrots of Fire" fic, just a stand alone.

disclamer:

1: Slayers; I do not own, or profit from.
2: This is PG13 for mild language.
3: What are you doing still reading the disclamers? The fic is much more interesting I assure you.

"This looks like a good place." Lina sat down at a table and motioned for her friends to come over. Zelgadis pulled up a chair for Amelia while Gourry and Sylphiel sat next to Lina. They were in a large pub known to serve food quickly. Planning to leave town the next day on business they wanted to fill up while they could.

"Hey, one round of drinks over here!" yelled Lina over to the waiter while she was deciding what to eat. "And make her's water!" she said while pointing to Amelia.

"Lina san! I can order for myself." pouted the Seirunn princess.

"You're too young, no grown-up drinks for you." Lina was also wondering how Amelia's father would react to finding out it and decided she didn't want to know.

"I'll let you have one sip of mine if you promise to be a good girl, okay?" Zelgadis said to Amelia, making her blush a little.

"Actually, I think I'll have water too." Sylphiel said to Lina.

"Come on, how often do we get to travel together, you'll be fine!" Lina replied as the waiter promptly set a large mug in front of each person at the table. "You're not going to make the waiter take your drink back, are you?

Not wanting to be rude, Sylphiel didn't argue any further. She wouldn't assert herself unless it was about Gourry, or unless she was asked to do something cruel, and Lina was fully aware of it. She just took a sip from her mug as Lina smiled approvingly.

When they started eating, Zelgadis took a sip from his glass and paused for a moment. "Hey, does this seem a little strong to you guys?"

Lina started to drink her ale, and almost choked on it. "Ack! You're right, this is really strong." Knowing that the strength of the ale was different from town to town, she didn't think much of it, untill she noticed that Sylphiel had already finished her entire drink.

Sylphiel's face was flushed as she was silently looking at the empty glass.

"Um... how often do you think she drinks?" Lina asked the others, visably worried.

"Seeing as how she's a shrine maiden, I would say never." was Zelgadis's guess. "Don't worry, we'll just calculate this, what she just drank probably equals three drinks. Now, how much does she weigh?"

As Lina looked at Sylphiel's hourglass figure she started to regret talking her into this.

"Oh, ya like me that much?" Sylphiel said as she noticed Lina looking at her.

Lina decided to put that comment aside. "Ah, Sylphiel... I think you should have water after all." But she wasn't paying attention to her.

"Ohhh! That's so sweet of you, cute widdle Lina-chan likes me!" Sylphiel said, her voice a little high. She then hugged Lina and rubbed their cheeks together. "Hee hee... I love you too... freinds forever...".

Zelgadis cringed, he couldn't stand it when Lina acted cute to him, but this was even worse. He moved his chair to a nearby table. "Mind if I sit here? I don't know them." He said to the patrons already at the table.

"Hey! Stop it!" Lina said while trying to fight off her overly affectionate friend, for different reasons both of their faces were flushed. "How are we going to calm her down?" She asked to Gourry and Amelia.

"Hmmm..." For once Gourry had a look of concentration on his face, for a long moment he looked down at the table with visible focus. As he looked back up all three ladies were staring back waiting for his decision. Pointing at Lina he began to speak. "Pull my finger!"

"Baka!" Screamed the redhead as she stopped on his foot causing the poor man to yelp in pain. Her drunken friend was the first and only person to laugh at this.

"As soon as we're done eating, you're going straight to bed." Lina stated, sitting her friend back down.

"Why the hell do we gotta leave so soon?"

Everyone at the table gasped, they were stunned that their preistess would use such words.

"You watch your damn language young lady!" Scolded Lina, with a stern look on her face.

"But Lina-san, you swear all the time. And isn't Sylphiel older than you?" Asked Amelia.

"Don't start with me you little bi..." Lina stopped as she notice Sylphiel starting to pull her tunic off. "Ack! What are you doing?!"

"Whew... it's so hot in here..." She had her tunic up past her navel before Lina grabbed it and pulled it back down. Noses were bleeding freely from the other customers and moans of dissappointment were heard when the show was stopped.

"You can't do that in here!"

"Why not? I don't think it'll bother anyone, right Gourry-sama."

Gourry just looked at her for a moment trying to pinch off his nosebleed, he decided to hurry up and spit out a response when he realized Lina was glaring at him waiting for one. "Umm... go ahead, I don't mind."

"I'm sure you don't!" As tempting as it was getting, Lina didn't want to see Sylphiel publicly humiliate herself. But with Gourry's words of encouragement she tried to remove her tunic again. This time however, the owner stopped her.

"Miss, if you can't behave yourself I'll have to ask you to leave." His hand was placed on her shoulder, which she found irratating. Quickly, Sylphiel spun around and punched the man in his nose, causing him to stumble backward and crash into an occupied table. As he was laying on the floor unconcious the whole room became silent.

Lina was the first to pull herself together, she looked at Amelia and Gourry who nodded back, dropped a few gold coins on their table, grabbed Sylphiel by the arm and ran out the door. Zelgadis excused himself from his table and walked out after them.

The sun was setting as they left the pub and the streets were crowded, which was good news to Lina. It would be easy for them to slip in to the crowd and get away from the pub owner untill they reached the inn they were staying at which was a few minutes of walking away.

"I can't belive you did that! I never thought I would see you knock someone out." Lina said.

"Well... he shouldn't have stopped me." Her excuse just got a laugh from Lina and Amelia.

"You know, this is all your fault Lina. You made her do it." said Zelgadis. He decided not to push the subject when Lina gave him an icy stare. The last thing he wanted was to provoke her into fighting him on the spot. As much as Zelgadis would hate to back down he knew that he would lose and have to ask Amelia to heal him.

Lina noticed Sylphiel slow down with a distressed look on her face. She was walking a little akwardly now, even for someone who was drunk. "Is something wrong?" She asked.

Sylphiel giggled and told her "Ohh... I hafta tinkle really bad!" She then fixed her gaze to a nearby bush.

"No! Absolutely not!" Lina started walking again, pulling Sylphiel with her. "You can take care of that as soon as we're in our room."

"Lina-chan! It can't wait!" She cried as they left the area.

When they arrived in the inn, Lina paid for a room for the two of them.

"You go ahead, Lina... I think I'll sleep in Gourry's room..." Mumbled Sylphiel as she was bouncing from foot to foot, much to the amusement of the others.

"Oh no you don't! You're coming with me tonight, and don't take this the wrong way either."

Zelgadis watched as Lina dragged Sylphiel to their room. "Hmm, the evidence is sure building up with them, eh Gourry?"

"Yeah, I think Sylphiel might be drunk." Gourry said in a tone of voice that suggests deep thought. Zelgadis and Amelia didn't bother to explain.

The next morning after they left, nobody told Sylphiel what happened last night. "You had a little too much to drink and fell asleep, okay?" was all Lina had to say to her.

"If you say so..." Sylphiel was curious to why her friends wouldn't explain further, but didn't press into it. As they were walking to the next town, Lina noticed Sylphiel was rubbing her right hand.

"Are you feeling alright?" Lina asked her.

"Well... I don't know how I hurt it, but my hand is really sore today. Do you know what i did to it?"

Gourry almost fell over from laughing as hard as he did. He was about to speak, but Lina stopped him before he could.

"Who knows?"