Genre: Romance

Pairing: Lina x Gourry

Summary: A job that Lina and Gourry have taken on gets... complicated when one of them is hit with a lust spell. LG.

Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers.

Author's Notes: I always find that I'm most inspired to write fanfiction when I have a looming deadline at work, so during a particularly stressful week, this popped into my head. I was going to post this during my birthday week, but life got in the way, so I tried to make a good showing for slayersweek.

Unlucky in Lust
Chapter 1

It was all Lina could do to keep from tearing her hair out.

She was tired, she was bored, and worst of all, she was hungry.

Their latest misadventure was a job they'd taken from the Sorcerer's Guild in a small town at the edge of Seyruun that had them chasing down the rogue sorceress Circe. The Guild hadn't been very forthcoming with the details, but Lina heard that Circe concocted 'strange' potions and that she'd somehow 'damaged' the local lord's son, which was why the Guild had been ordered to take her down for good.

Of course, no one had been able to catch Circe since she'd fled her shop in town. Lina and Gourry weren't the first adventurers to go after her, but they'd been warned by the bounty hunters who'd come back intact that Circe was neither easy to find or defeat. Thanks to the reports from the villagers, Lina had been able to narrow down where Circe had gone, but they were now on day seven of their search and had yet to run into any evidence of her.

Which wasn't helping Lina's temper any.

"Stupid woods… stupid job… stupid witch!" Lina muttered.

"Hey, relax…" Gourry said. He reached out a hand as if to put it on her head then seemed to think better of it, letting it drop. "We've got to be close by now."

"Yeah… There's no other way she could've gone," Lina reasoned. "The path north is closed because of the early snow, and the road to the west is part of Seyruun's Royal Road. A wanted woman like Circe couldn't have gone anywhere but east."

"Exactly. We'll find her," Gourry said amiably. Then with a smile, "No one outwits Lina Inverse."

Lina wondered how he could be so patient with her. Before this job, things between them had become... strained, to say the least. Part of it was their recent travel which had maybe been sort of her fault if you were of the opinion that mixing up the words 'mountain trail' and 'mountain vale' in an ancient tome and inadvertently making your bodyguard brave an icy cliff face for no reason at all was cause for blame.

The other part of it was... No. Lina was most definitely not going to think about that, but she did wonder if she ought to treat Gourry better. She wanted things between them to go back to normal but didn't know how. Maybe after they turned Circe in and were flush with coin again, she'd treat him to a meal… or, thinking of how much he ate, maybe just dessert. That seemed reasonable. She didn't want him to think she was fond of him or anything.

She was counting just how many servings of dessert was fair—no one took advantage of Lina Inverse after all—when Gourry stopped, his hand going out to keep her from walking any further.

His instincts hadn't been wrong. She saw the slight glimmer of a spell on the ground in front of them, the magical equivalent of a trap. Lina tossed a small stone onto the snare, and the air around them warmed.

"Move it!" Lina yelled, recognizing the the runes that had started glowing on the path, and she and Gourry leapt apart as a fireball bloomed from the trap.

Wordlessly, they came back together again, and a figure stepped into the middle of the road.

The wanted poster, Lina mused, hadn't done Circe justice. Tall, beautiful, and curvy in all the right places, she was the kind of woman Lina was immediately jealous of. It didn't help that she kind of looked like Sylphiel with her waves of coal black hair and eyes the color of emeralds. But there was a cruel twist to her smile the priestess would never carry.

"I see you've sprung my trap," Circe said, arms crossed.

"Circe, on behalf of the Sorcerer's Guild, we're here to apprehend you," Lina announced. "I suggest you come quietly or—"

Circe groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Let me guess. You'll take me by force?" she asked. "Trust me, I've gotten rid of every hero and justice freak who's come after me. I'm not about to let some overgrown kid take me in…"

"Kid? Come on, I'm nearly twenty!" Lina said, her hand flying to her admittedly still underdeveloped assets. "Well, maybe I'm still short for my age…"

But Circe wasn't even paying attention. She'd gotten one look at Gourry, and her smile turned all charm. "Now you on the other hand can take me anywhere you want."

Before Gourry could open his dumb mouth, Lina stepped in. "Forget it, Circe. We're taking you in."

"That's where you're wrong," Circe said. "Dark mist!"

And everything went, predictably, dark.

"Lina!" Gourry shouted as the darkness swallowed her whole. He sprung forward, prepared to plunge into the mist when he heard leaves rustle behind him.

He turned, sword ready, but didn't quite make it.

"Shadow snap!"

Gourry tried to fight the spell, but it held him fast. Circe alighted next to him, a smirk on her face.

"Aren't you handsome?" Circe said, stepping forward to run a finger in a line down the front of his breastplate. "I don't make this offer to just anyone, but I could use a man of your talent." She leaned in, her breath warm on his ear, her hand closing around his forearm. "Ditch her, and I'll make it worth your while…"

Gourry exercised the only muscles he could control and just glared at her.

"Not interested, huh?" Circe asked sweetly. She drummed her fingers thoughtfully against the side of her face as if thinking. "No matter… it doesn't have to be a choice…"

She reached into a bag at her hip, drawing a small pouch out. Opening it, she upturned a fine silvery dust in her hand and blew it in his face. Gourry flinched and shut his eyes as it hit. Pain lanced through his body and was quickly replaced with heat. Circe took the opportunity to grip the bottom of his chin.

"Open your eyes," Circe was saying, forcing his head down to look at her, "and we'll see just how much fun we can have together…"

"Flare arrow!"

The glade they were standing in burst into flames, the illumination from the fire freeing Gourry's shadow and dispelling the dark cloud, revealing a very pissed-off Lina. Circe cursed as she jumped to dodge the next volley while Gourry fell back to the ground.

Lina ran to Gourry's side. "Are you okay? What did she do to you?"

"I don't know," Gourry said, eyes still closed. He experimentally opened them, blinking once then twice.

"Look at me," Lina commanded, and he did.

She could tell something was wrong. His pupils were wide, and he felt very warm like he was feverish. Lina knew there were powders that had unnatural effects on people, but drugs and draughts had never been her forte. She was entirely out of her depth.

"Lina, I feel…" Gourry said, then he closed his eyes again and collapsed.

"Gourry!" Lina said, but she didn't get farther than that. "Windy shield!" she cast blindly behind her and was satisfied to see Circe's feeble attempt at a fireball whip harmlessly against it.

"What did you do to him?" Lina demanded of the other sorceress when the spells diffused. "If you don't tell me right now, I swear you'll regret it."

"It's a spell I fashioned. Very special," Circe said. "It's one part blind obsession, one part utter devotion, and three parts a certain, shall we say, appetite."

Lina ground her teeth. She had no patience for this. "Obsession? Devotion? Did you put him under a love spell?"

"Ha, no. Love has little to do with it," Circe said.

"What does that even—" Lina's heart twisted in her chest, weighing her down as she put the pieces together. "A lust spell? You threw a lust spell on him?!"

"Not that it matters," Circe said, her mouth pursing angrily. "He saw you first, didn't he? Lucky you."

Lina felt her breath catch. "No…"

"What's the problem?" Circe asked. "I thought you were together…"

Unbidden, Lina immediately thought back to a month ago, the night of Amelia's eighteenth birthday, when she and Gourry… when they had almost… Lina shut her eyes against that image.

No, she and Gourry weren't together. She definitely didn't want Circe to know that, but her silence gave her away.

"So it's not like that then… but I can tell that's what you desire," Circe said with a laugh that made Lina's blood boil. "Does he not love you? Perhaps you should thank me. When he wakes up, he's going to want you desperately…"

Lina's answer was to rend the earth under Circe's feet apart. The other sorceress jumped away.

"Undo this!" Lina shouted.

"I can't," Circe said, smugly. "And don't bother with Recovery and Dicleary. I'm no third-rate hack. My potions stick."

"Not 'third-rate', my ass!" Lina shot back. "If you don't know how to undo your own creations, you have no idea what you're doing. Of all the idiotic, stupid—"

"No one's ever asked for an antidote… not that I've ever stayed in one place long enough to deal with returns," Circe retorted. "The only way to get rid of that spell is to let it, ah, run its course. Otherwise…"

"What?" Lina prompted. She took a step towards Circe, anger radiating off her in waves of magic so powerful that the other sorceress took a wary step back.

"Otherwise, it'll eat away at him. The more you resist, the more he'll want you. It's one of my finest potions," Circe said. "I ought to charge you."

"I ought to Dragon Slave you off the face of the earth…" Lina spat back.

"I don't think you will," Circe said, looking over Lina's shoulder.

Behind her, Gourry groaned, coming to. If what Circe said was true…

"Who do you take care of first? Me or him?"

Lina didn't hesitate.

"Sleeping!" Lina said, pivoting away from Circe and touching her fingers to Gourry's forehead. He fell forward, and she caught him, a Levitation spell making him weightless in her arms.

By the time Lina looked back, Circe was gone.

It took some doing, but Lina managed to get them back to the nearest town and checked into a room at an inn. Maneuvering Gourry over the bed, she released the Levitation spell she'd been holding all day. That done, she sank into a chair, exhausted.

What the hell was she going to do?

Lina believed Circe's claims that the spell couldn't be lifted. The first thing she'd done was take Gourry to a healer after all. She was sure her face was bright red from explaining the situation they'd gotten themselves into. But the visit hadn't done any good. No matter how many spells the healer had tried on Gourry, none of them had cured the slight fever he'd had all afternoon. As far as she knew, that meant he was still under the effect of Circe's enchantment.

Lina glanced uneasily at Gourry, who lay there peacefully enough. Her sleeping spell would wear off in a few minutes, and then she'd be stuck with a guy under the influence of a lust spell that no one could cure.

Of course that technically wasn't true, was it?

If Circe was right, Lina was the only person who could cure it… if she didn't mind throwing away whatever the hell it was she and Gourry had for sex. While she'd actually kind of reconciled herself to her feelings for him, she knew one thing for sure...

He didn't want her.

He'd made that clear, hadn't he?

She covered her face with her hands in embarrassment, remembering just how stupidly she'd acted that night in the palace a few weeks ago...