It was cold, Lina and Gourry were walking through a forested area following a battle from a Mazoku.
"Honestly Lina, could you TRY not to be so popular with Mazoku?" whined Gourry.
"Hey, it's not like I invite them to attack me!" snapped Lina.
"Yeah but this time…" Gourry started then he looked down at his hands to see the Sword of Light in its holster but the holster broken off from the rest of the belt.
Lina caught a glimpse at the pathetic looking thing.
"Okay, okay we'll go to Atlas City tomorrow and I'll get you a new whatever that is,"
Gourry whimpered an: "Okay,"
Lina just shook her head. Suddenly she looked up and noticed that it was starting to snow.
"It's the first snow of the year," Lina awed.
"So?"
"It's just a happy memory… from my past,"
"A happy memory?"
"In Zephilia we have this fun tradition that involves the first snow fall. The crop season is in autumn and it's very important to us because it brings in the town's profit but when it's winter we get to celebrate all the hard work. When the first snowflakes fall, the next day we give each other presents to show our appreciation for all the care put into the town and each other. I know I sound all mushy but it was the only time throughout the year when my sister didn't have that stick up her ass and actually lay easy on me. The snow in a way brought us together. We built snowmen, had snowball fights, sled, skiied… almost everything you can do with snow we were able to do together without fighting. You know, I actually miss that part about being with my family," Lina rushed on excitedly.
"It sounds like fun," added Gourry.
"It is," agreed Lina happily with a warm smile. "What about you? Did you ever do anything with your family when it snowed?"
Gourry immediately stopped walking and clutched the Sword of Light in one hand down at his side. He was so usually quiet that Lina had to stop walking and turn around to glance at him.
"Gourry? Did I say something wrong?" Lina asked.
Gourry snapped out of it with nervous forced laughter.
"Oh it's nothing! It's just winter wasn't as fun for me as it was for you! When it snowed my family was STUCK together and a lot of fights happened because of it,"
Gourry's grip on the SoL was so tight it was as if his hand was trying to break it.
Lina could sense that something was very off about him but she didn't know what.
"I didn't really have a childhood it was more like I had different stages of training in my life. The Sword of Light was the #1 priority in my family. It caused a lot of problems and the last time it snowed…. they almost KILLED each other for it,"
Lina's eyes flashed with horror and then she felt as if it was urgent for her to quickly change subjects.
"Hey look, there's the town up ahead! All right! When we get there we can eat, drink and be merry but I'll still be Lina and you'll still be Gourry," Lina joked and elbowed Gourry playfully.
"Owe… huh? Okay, I would like that too…. Who's Marry?" Gourry replied finally coming around.
Lina shook her head, grabbed Gourry's arm and dragged him along.
"Come on!"
"SERIOUSLY who's Marry?"
Lina and Gourry just finished eating their meals. Gourry sat back in her chair staring off into the distance. Lina caught that and in an instant she jolted to her feet.
"Well I'm off to do some bandit hunting… what do you say? Do you want to go with me?"
"Naw, I know it's really early but I'm REALLY tired so I think I'll just go straight to bed," Gourry replied stretching as if to try and convince Lina that he was exhausted.
"All right, suit yourself," she replied with a shrug.
She left the table with a gleam in her eye and then almost ran out of the inn. Gourry slowly made his way to his room, went inside and fell into bed. He crashed there and lay on his back staring up into the ceiling a thousand thoughts going through his head. Thoughts he had long forced himself to forget, thoughts he knew that he couldn't avoid forever. Then a sudden fear washed over him.
"I can't let Lina know anymore about it! I know she tends to do her own things and once she catches wind of something she doesn't let it go… ever! I would just be dragging her into my own personal affairs and I can't risk getting her hurt because of me! I wouldn't be able to live with myself if that happened," were Gourry's last thoughts before he drifted off to sleep.
It was very late in the night when Gourry slowly woke up. When he did, his eyes focused on a weird object on the floor in front of his door. He cautiously got out of bed and walked over to it. He discovered it was a box wrapped with blue paper around it. Out of curiosity Gourry began to rip off the paper. As he did so, he started to get eager to find out what was inside. He then tore the box apart until he stopped when he saw what was inside. He reached in and pulled out a brand new holster attached to a nice brown, leather belt. A piece of paper fell off of it, he grabbed it and looked at what was on it. A self-drawn picture of a chibi Lina giving a piece sign with the words:
"Snow makes me happy so I wanted you to be happy too! I want you to have one nice first snowfall day and I want you to keep having nice first snow fall days for the rest of your life. Cause life without would suck otherwise. Your friend, Lina."
"She did this… for me? Lina Inverse, the most selfish and greedy person I know did something thoughtful for me because she knew I was feeling bad? Come to think of it… there were some times since I started traveling with her, when from out of nowhere; she would show that in her own way, she really does cares about people and their happiness. She's so hard to predict sometimes and she's so different from the family that I grew up with. There has to be SOMETHING I can give her in exchange for this but what do you give a girl who has everything and when she doesn't have what she wants, she usually ends up getting it herself? Not to mention the fact that we just blew our money on food and lodging for tonight. Damn, I never wished I had gone with Lina bandit-hunting until now!"
Filled with a new determination Gourry snuck out of the inn and into the town. The next morning after Lina had finished eating her breakfast she noticed that Gourry still wasn't there yet. Worried, she went to his room, knocked on his door and when there was no answer a flash of panic washed over her face. She searched all over the inn in the desperate hope that he hadn't taken off on her because of what she asked him. Finally she fled out the front door and nearly tripped over Gourry who was sitting on the front step of the inn.
"Gourry! What the Hell are you DOING here?! I was looking all over for you! You could've at LEAST left a note or something!"
"I couldn't find one…" a depressed sounding Gourry interjected.
"Couldn't find one what? A Note?"
"I couldn't find one thing to give you in return for that present!" Gourry shouted in frustration.
Lina sat carefully next to Gourry with a soft expression.
"Hey, you don't NEED to give me anything. That was MY tradition not yours. Besides, you needed a belt/sword holster thing anyway… I just gave it to you earlier than expected, that's all. I used the money I stole from the bandit last night so I'm glad to see that it went to good use," Lina explained sounding very modest.
"Still I wanted to find something to give to you in exchange but I couldn't find anything good enough or that wasn't too expensive,"
"Fine then, I'll just put it on your tab. You'll owe me TWO presents next year and I WON'T let you forget it either!"
"You're going to rub it in my face for an entire year, aren't you!" Gourry commented.
"Of course; I AM who I am, after all and you are who you are! I won't ever let you forget it because you are less annoying than most men in the world so it's a big plus for me," Lina smirked teasingly.
"I can't tell if that was a slam or a compliment so I'm taking it as a compliment…I don't want to run into a Fire Ball from you today,"
"The smart decision to make," commented Lina firmly with approval.
Gourry sat in silence for a moment as snow fell around the two of them, taking in the scene until he decided to let some things go.
"One day I want to tell you about my past but I'm not ready yet. It's something that is too painful to reflect on but the more I travel with you, the more I gain the courage to face it one day. I want to be able to let go of the burden that I carry with me and with this sword,"
"Sure...after all, we do have a lifetime to live, don't we?" Lina winked and then smiled warmly.
"We sure do," agreed Gourry with a smile.
Gourry thought: "I know that wanting to get you involved is something so selfish it can only bring me guilt but I want to be like the snow. I want to be able to gently fall on the world and be at the bottom with all the other snowflakes. The only way I can do that is by being man enough to conquer my past. The only person I want by my side when I do that… is you, Lina. Because I left one family behind many years ago but I gained another one with you, Zel, Amelia, Syphiel and everyone else I have met ever since traveling with you. It is the only family that I really need and the only kind of family I want to keep for the rest of my life. You are who you are and I am who I am; that's all that really matters. Each day I know I'm truly alive because you're with me, Lina. That's another thing maybe one day I might have the courage to tell you,"