Author's Note: Before beginning what at least in is my first Slayers related story, I would like to point out a few things about my creation. I suppose you could look at this story as a bit of a crossover. The reason for this is I'm writing this story on the assumption that on some basis, the world of fiction is connected. In this particular case, the worlds of The Slayers and Ronin Warriors (or YST) are treated as one. You could argue that the Ronin world is outside the barrier that ceased to exist once Try began, but the important thing here is that the worlds co-exist. So I suppose I'm asking you to imagine a world where all fictional characters could have the potential to meet on at least one plane, but I'm only dealing with two of them in this instance. Everybody with me so far? Other thing is introducing two characters briefly. Rina Grayowrds, my penname, is a character I created to be Zelgadis Grayword's younger sister by two years. She got transformed into a chimera soon after Zel was, so as far as that goes they look somewhat similar. I'll try to get pictures up at least on a link for you to see. The second is Kaily Date, who is the character created to be Sage Date's younger sister. So here's where a bulk of the Ronin Warrior aspect comes in. Just imagine a blonde blue-eyed girl who is a strong warrior but wants nothing more than to be everybody's friend. Getting on this girl's bad side is hard work, but you do stay there. My best friend and I have always thought there was a huge similarity between Zel and Sage, so this is part of where this sharing of worlds comes from. If you want to know more, I can tell you, but I should get on with the first half of this cute little story. Enjoy!

For A Friend

Part I

Looking out at the snow falling on the ground, Lina Inverse sat on the windowsill thinking intently about the many events, people, and dreams entering her mind like the falling snow on the landscape before her. So many things had happened in the past two years. She had met many new friends in this time, saving the world when the time called for it, but somehow or another she always managed to have a little fun every now and then, keeping everyone's spirits alive. Now, she, Lina Inverse, was a world-renowned sorceress, and even the fiancé of Gourry Gabriev. The two of them were still waiting for the right time to get married and settle down. But in the meantime, wasting no time, she made sure to keep her magic skills up and all of her friends, including Gourry, on their toes.

Lina rested her chin on the palm of her hand and smiled. All of her friends; Gourry, Zelgadis, Amelia, Rina, and the rest of them had shared a great deal of adventures together, and if she could go against fate one more time, she couldn't think of any others she'd rather do it with. Trouble was, there was no way of getting a world-threatening situation just by wishing for one. Things just didn't work that way.

Then the door opened behind her with a creek, and a tall figure with long blonde hair and bangs that covered his right eye dressed in green pajamas stood in the open doorway. It was Gourry, and he was looking oddly serious.

Lina turned around on the windowsill, in her white pajama pants and button down long sleeve shirt. "Gourry, is something wrong?" she asked him, looking a little worried.

"Lina, we need to talk," he announced and shut the door behind him. "This is serious."

"What's so serious? Did something happen? There isn't a new monster on the loose or another piece of Shabernigdo hasn't been reborn or maybe a-" Lina guessed before Gourry interrupted.

"No, no, it's nothing like that. It's more important," Gourry insisted, looking slightly annoyed as he walked over to her bed and sat down on it.

Lina pushed herself off the windowsill and sat down next to him and asked, "more important than the fate of the world?" Her eyes were wide with wonder, and then an idea struck her. "Nothing happened to you, did it?"

"No! It's not about me, or the world! It's about Zel, Lina," Gourry told her with obvious frustration.

"Zel? What's wrong with him? He didn't go off on his own again, did he?"

Gourry shook his head. "I think it has something to do with that jewelry thing of his and something to do with that girl he likes."

"Her name is Kaily, Gourry," Lina corrected him, eyes slightly narrowed.

"Yeah, her," Gourry added in, completely oblivious to his fiancé's annoyance.

"So what's the big emergency?" Lina asked, leaning forward with her hands gripped to the side of the bed so she wouldn't fall off as she looked into the strangely serious eyes of the blonde swordsman beside her. Gourry was rarely serious about anything, so even at such common news as this, she supposed she should give it her full attention. "He hasn't shut himself in his room again, pacing around, in an attempt to figure anything out, has he, Gourry?"

"Not quite."

"Not quite? How can you almost lock yourself in your room?"

"Well, he came into my room to talk to me about things. He said he needed a different opinion on a few matters. So I said sure he could talk to me about it, and next thing I know he's pacing around my room telling me everything that's on his mind. It was so intense and serious, Lina."

"It's Zelgadis, of course it's serious. He doesn't go around spilling his guts just because he feels like it. He only does that when something's been on his mind for a long enough that he has no other choice. That's his nature; he lets his guard down around practically nobody if he can help it. Rina's told me he wasn't always like that, but once Rezo turned them both into chimeras, it just gets worse and worse. Then when he met all of us things started to get better, he became more open, and started smiling again. But seven years is a long time to get over. Seven long years with no friends but his sister and two people he met under Rezo's command, only to lose both of them because of Rezo's foolishness. And you know how far he's come since then, he's a great guy, and he tries harder than practically anyone when it comes down to it," added in Lina, crossing her ankles and looking down at the wooden floor and then back up at Gourry again.

"Yeah, and then he met Kaily and things started changing again. I gotta say, I know the feeling. You think you have everything finally worked out great and then some girl shows up," Gourry pointed out.

Lina glared at him, "some girl shows up, huh? Is that how it works?!"

Gourry winced, "I didn't mean it like that," he said looking up at the ceiling with a weak smile, one hand scratching the back of his head.

"Is that so..." Lina said coolly, eyes narrowed and lit with a hint of annoyance.

"I was just saying that when a girl comes into a guy's life things obviously change. In the case of Zel an' me, things change on the level that we've never really dealt with before. And for a warrior that's like coming up to some brand new challenge, one that has something you've never seen or sensed before. You get a kind of awe and respect for it, and pretty soon you wanna know all you can about this new technique, style, or opponent because you're so deeply fascinated by it!" Gourry exclaimed with obvious enthusiasm.

"So in short you get obsessed whenever something that's remotely different or interesting comes along," Lina said in a flat tone, eyeing Gourry with a hint of malice in her auburn eyes.

"I guess so, but it's not that complicated. When it comes down to the whole girl thing-"

"Girl thing, Gourry?" Lina repeated, eyes narrowed and one eyebrow twitching as she hinted through the tone of her voice the trouble she had with his word choice.

But all of that went completely over Gourry's head and he continued, reminiscing, "yeah! Girl thing. Anyway, things change and sooner or later you find yourself lost without this person, that is if you luck out and find the right person in the world for you."

"And what happens if you don't?"

Gourry seemed to ponder this for a moment, then sat upright holding his ankles with both hands as he sat on Lina's bed answering, "you just will! That's why they're the right one for you, Lina."

Yes, but say you met somebody and you thought they were the one, but then something happened and you met someone new. So, are they the one for you, or was it the first? Or say by chance you met them both at the same time, then which one's the one for you? Or is everything simply all by chance and there really is destiny..." Lina said with a glow in her eyes.

"What?" Gourry said with clear and downright confusion. "Sorry, I didn't get a word of that, Lina."

"Never mind, jellyfish brains. What's up with Zel? That's why you came in here, isn't it?"

"Am I?"

Lina face faulted and fell flat on the wooden floor, and then pushed herself up again before sitting down on her bed once more, next to Gourry. "Yes, Gourry. You had a talk with Zelgadis, remember?"

Somewhere in the depths of Gourry's head, a light went on. "Oh yeah!"

"Oh boy..." Lina sighed, resting her forehead on her right hand.

"Well, he seems to be pretty upset about a lot of stuff, Lina."

"Oh yeah, there's a surprise..." Lina put in, annoyed with sudden boredom as she twiddled her finger with a lock of Gourry's long blonde hair that lay on the sleets beside her.

"Are you going to listen so we can try to help or are you just going to keep commenting every time I try to explain this to you?" Gourry said slamming his hands down on the bed, causing Lina to jump.

"Hey, hey, calm down there, Gourry...I was just saying that for Zel, being serious isn't that strange. I mean it's great when then guy's happy, but you explaining something to me is a bit more odd than Zelgadis Graywords being serious."

"Ha, ha, very funny, Lina," Gourry said, not looking very amused. "So are you going to listen to me or not?"

"I suppose I could," she answered in a far away voice, leaning back and wrapping her arms around her knees after a short stretch. "Shoot."

However, Gourry turned his head away from Lina and sighed. "Oh I give up," he said exasperated.

Lina blinked. "Wha?"

"If you don't wanna listen I can just leave, ya know..."

"Gourry...I'm sorry, I'm listening now, talk away."

"And you'll listen?"

"Yes."

"All right then," Gourry said triumphantly, as he turned around again. "Where was I?"

"Why Zel's upset."

"Right." He cleared his throat and then continued again. "So anyway, I was sitting there listening to Zelgadis talk about just about everything. And I mean everything. About how he's still frustrated about that Ceiphied dragoon guy telling him to just go on living and not keep obsessing over finding a cure for his curse, Rezo in general even though he's dead, all the adventures we've had together, how much his life has changed, Rina and how much he cares about her and keeping her safe, how much he misses Zolf and Rodimus, the whole thing with the Ronin Warriors and Kaily, all the rimes he's felt like he's lost her, about this ring he has, even showed it to me. It's really pretty too, and what else...? Oh yeah. He talked about Sekhmet, and all the stuff surrounding the jewely thing he gave him. There's even a poem that goes with the thing, and Zel's convinced that part of it involves Kaily in a way, which worries him. He's actually really worried about it. Stressed out even. I mean he's worried about not putting her in any danger as well as how to deal with what the other Ronins may think."

"That's because he's low on confidence and doesn't know what they'll think. He's probably got some idea in his head that if they knew half of what went through his mind daily, or the fact that he has an engagement ring in a box in his room that he'd never be able to see her again. He's afraid and he's just going to have to get over that," Lina pointed out in a calm voice.

"But what about the jewel thingy? What about that?" Gourry asked.

"I have no idea. That thing's not from our world, and I'm not any more knowledgeable about it than you are. All I know is that it has some special power that he one day is to find, and a clue to how to do that is in the poem."

"So can we help him with that?"

"Does he want help with it?'

"Why should that matter? I mean he's our friend, and if he needs our help we should go out of our way to do something, shouldn't we?"

"That's why you came in here isn't it?" Lina asked, looking up at Gourry. "To ask if there was anything we can do to help Zelgadis out, am I right?"

"Yeah, basically," Gourry answered, blinking.

"Well, I don't know what we can do, but I promise you that if there is anything we can do, we'll find a way to do it, ok?

With a big smile on his face, Gourry nodded. "Thanks, Lina."

"Lina smiled back. "So what did you have in mind?"

Gourry shrugged, "do you have any ideas?"

Lina thought for a moment and then an idea struck her, and her eyes narrowed. "I might have a little idea that could work..." she said with a sly smile.

Gourry blinked. "Really?"

Lina then moved closer to Gourry and sat up on her knees to whisper something in his ear. The two sat there, Gourry listening while Lina told him her plan. Soon, Gourry nodded and Lina grinned. "It's a plan then," she said.

To be continued...