As usual, I don't own anything. I'm just a fan writing some fiction. Please enjoy!

21- Tough Love

It was still dark when Lina found herself awake. Something about her surroundings was tugging at her senses, and she had to sit up and rub her eyes for a moment before she figured out what it was. "…Gourry? You okay?" She'd spoken already by the time that she noticed his absence. It took a moment to process, but he was definitely gone- he'd been gone long enough that his side of the bed had gotten cold. Frightened for his safety, Lina jumped out of bed and crept out into the main room where Amelia and Zelgadis were asleep on the couch. Both of them were completely unconscious, showing no signs of having been disturbed, and there was no sign of Gourry anywhere in the room.

Tiptoeing around the room, careful not to step in any of the puddles caused by the leaking roof, Lina crept out onto the porch. The rain from the night before had turned into a soft mist that hung in the air rather than falling, and it was difficult to see very far in any direction. Because of that, it took Lina a while to find Gourry… but once she did, she wanted to yell. The only thing that kept her from doing so was the knowledge that Zelgadis and Amelia were just inside the house, blissfully unaware of the situation.

"G-Gourry… what are you doing?" Lina stumbled out into the grass toward where Gourry was working. He'd collected his sword and had chosen a nearby tree as a target, repeatedly swinging at it with his right arm- or, perhaps it was better to say that he was attempting to swing at it. His body hadn't recovered enough to have the strength to swing around a powerful sword like that, and so he ended up swinging his whole body around as he was pulled by the sword back and forth. It was pitiful for Lina to watch.

After a moment with no response, Lina approached him, calling out a little louder. "Gourry! Gourry, stop! Listen to me, will you?"

"What do you want?" He responded, but he didn't stop swinging.

"I know you want to train, but you're not doing it the right way. It's way too early and you're going to end up hurting yourself. Zel said he'd work with you when you're up to it, but you can't do this to yourself. Not now."

"Leave me alone. I know what I'm doing."

"Gourry!" Lina hissed. "Stop this right now!"

"WHY?" Gourry yelled in response, but as he spoke, he swung too hard and toppled over. He collapsed onto the ground into a puddle. Lina gave a little yelp of surprise and ran to his side, grabbing hold of his right arm to help him to his feet again.

"Because you're going to hurt yourself," she whispered, gently running her hand up and down his back in an attempt to calm him.

"More than I am already? I don't think that's possible."

"Shh. Don't say that." She tugged at his hand and pried the hilt of the sword from his fingers, switching it to her other hand so that she could use the arm next to him to support him as they walked. "C'mon. Back to bed with you. I'll make you breakfast- anything you want, as much as you want. Just name it and I'll find some way to get it to you."

Gourry was unsteady on his feet, even with Lina's support. "I'm not hungry." he responded bluntly.

"Gourry Gabriev? Not hungry? Surely you're joking." Lina leaned her head into his chest playfully.

"I'm not hungry."

"Gourry, you have to eat something. You need the strength; your body's still healing. Amelia's going to take a look at you later this morning, but in the meantime-"

"I'm NOT hungry. I don't need breakfast."

"…Gourry…" Lina's voice was strained. They reached the porch and she helped him up the steps, but once they reached the top, he pulled away.

"I can walk by myself, thanks." he spoke, stumbling forward. Lina ran to catch him and prop him up.

"You can't. You're hurt."

"No kidding." Gourry muttered, turning his head away in refusal to look at Lina.

Zelgadis and Amelia were still asleep, so Lina did her best to tiptoe without blundering into anything. The fire was nothing but embers, and the room was so dark, it was tough to see. Lina managed to guide Gourry back to the bedroom and sit him on the side of the bed. She placed the sword away in the corner of the room and dug through his belongings in order to find a change of clothes. She turned to look at him and noticed him beginning to nod off.

"Hey, don't fall asleep yet. You're all muddy. I need to help you change your clothes."

"…I can do it myself…"

"No, you can't." Lina approached him again, placing the change of clothes on the side of the bed. "Lift up your arms- arm."

Gourry glared. "I can take off my own shirt, Lina. I'm not a child." He tugged at the bottom of his shirt, managing to lift it over his head. His hair got caught, and he had to tug and shake his head around a few times to loosen it. With a smug grin, he handed the muddy shirt to Lina. "There."

"Good work." Lina took the dirty shirt and handed him the clean one. "Now put this on."

Gourry's smug expression faded as he took the shirt and had to put it down to get a better grip on it. He had to twist it multiple times around his torso, and finally managed to pull his head through the neck hole. It took him another moment to get his arm through the right hole and to pull his hair out of it.

It would have been amusing to Lina if it hadn't made her so sad. This was Gourry Gabriev, the world's finest swordsman, reduced to the state of a toddler who couldn't even dress himself without assistance. After the difficulty he had with his shirt, he begrudgingly accepted help with his pants- anything for Lina to allow him to sleep sooner. She could tell that his strength was fading and it would only be a matter of time before he dozed off again. She'd have to get his breakfast to him as soon as possible.

With a comforting smile, Lina helped him back into bed so that she could tuck the blankets around him.

"So… do you have a request for breakfast, or do you want me to surprise you?"

"I don't want anything." Gourry tugged the blanket over his head.

"You need to eat. I'm not going to say that again." Lina insisted. "Tell me what you want or I'll have to get creative."

"I want you to stay here with me." Gourry peeked above the blanket timidly. "Let me sleep a little while longer, and then I'll think about eating."

Lina leaned over him. "Think about it?" she asked pointedly.

"Please, I just wanna sleep. Will you stay with me?"

Lina pressed her lips together pensively. He looked so pitiful, she felt bad about forcing him to eat when he was so adamant against it, she… couldn't do it.

"…okay…" Reluctantly, Lina crawled into the bed, snuggling next to Gourry as safely as she could. "I'll make you breakfast in a few hours."

"…don't bother…"

Gourry's answer made Lina a little nervous, but she had drifted off to sleep before she could think about it too much.

Amelia started to wake up as soon as the sky began to get light. She tugged herself away from Zelgadis' arms in order to sit up and look around. Adelaide was awake and sitting across the room, tending to the fire.

"Miss Adelaide! Good morning."

"Good morning, Princess." Adelaide gave a respectful nod. "Did you sleep well last night?"

"…as well as we could with that leak over to sofa." Amelia glanced to where she and Zelgadis had thrown at raincoat over their feet. "If we're going to stay at this house another night in this weather, I'll want to do some work on the roof."

"Are we staying?"

"Well, it's not like we've made any plans. Mister Gourry needs a lot more rest, and I'll have to keep an eye on him to make sure that everything is healing correctly." Amelia situated the blankets back around Zelgadis, who was still asleep, and stood up to join Adelaide by the fire. "Where is Mister Pokota?"

"He was asleep in the chair in the back room, so I let him stay there." Adelaide gave a nod in the direction of the back room. Unlike the bedroom that Lina and Gourry were sharing, it didn't have a door attached, so they'd hung up a towel to afford at least a little privacy to whoever was staying in there. Adelaide originally had insisted that Amelia and Zelgadis take the private room, but Zelgadis decided that it would be better if Adelaide wasn't in the main room. It was too risky- if an enemy burst in the front door, they wouldn't want Adelaide to be so easy to discover.

The two were interrupted by a soft voice from across the room. Lina had peeked out of the door to see the girls sitting by the fire and smiled.

"Oh, good! You're awake! Gourry and I didn't bother you when we walked through earlier, did we?"

"You walked through here?" Amelia asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"Yeah. He woke up when I was still asleep and wandered outside to try to practice his swordsmanship."

Amelia scrambled to her feet. "He what? It's way too early for that! Is he okay? Did he hurt himself?"

"No. I stopped him before he could." Lina shook her head. "He fell and got all muddy. I had to help him change clothes. He… could barely put his shirt on by himself. It was awful to see him like that."

"He'll improve. You can't expect him to immediately be able to function the way he used to." Amelia tried her best to offer Lina some solace. "Mister Gourry is a very determined man. He'll be back on his feet in no time, I guarantee it."

"I know, I know." Lina gave a nod of acknowledgement. "But thank you. I guess I just need to have more confidence in him."

"Confidence isn't going to be enough." The voice that interrupted their conversation belonged to Zelgadis. It wasn't clear how long he'd been awake, as he was still lying under the blankets in the same position he'd been sleeping in. "Gourry is going to be in a bad state mentally. He's going to need guidance and support. People who fall into depression typically forget to perform certain essential behaviors, such as eating or bathing… neglecting physical needs and personal hygiene is common, and it only makes the situation worse. If you really want to help him, it'll be best not to coddle him. By all means support him and help him, but also push him if he needs it. Even if he's angry with you, you have to make him take care of himself. It's the only way he's going to improve."

There was a tense silence broken only by the sound of birds outside the window. A pair of crows were making a racket on the roof, and the group found themselves more willing to pay attention to that than to the situation at hand.

"…n-now, isn't that a little extreme?" Amelia finally spoke up. "Surely Mister Gourry would never fall so far into depression that he'd forget to-"

"He already is." Lina interrupted. "I offered to make him breakfast earlier when I brought him in from outside, but he refused. I insisted, and he somehow managed to talk me out of it."

"It'll be too easy to take pity on him and let him do what he wants. Don't fall into that trap." Zelgadis scolded. "You may think you're making it easier for him, but that's only short-term. In the long run, it'll make things more difficult."

Lina pressed her lips together and thought it over before speaking again. "He probably needs more than a change of clothes after falling in the mud like that, this morning. It got all over his hair, and… Zel, would you and Pokota be willing to help him? I'm not sure I'd trust him in the bath by himself."

"I'd be happy to help, and I'm sure Pokota would too." Zelgadis responded, tugging at the blankets and moving himself into a seated position.

"Good." Lina gave him a grin. "If there's one thing Lina Inverse won't tolerate, it's the people she loves neglecting their own well-being. If tough love is what Gourry needs to get better, then that's what he's going to get."

"RISE AND SHINE, SLEEPYHEAD. WAKE UP- IT'S TIME TO GET MOVING!"

Gourry sat up, rubbing his eyes in confusion. "…Lina… what're you… when did you… what are you doing?"

"It's time to wake up." Lina responded with a bright smile, holding up the tray in her hands. "Amelia worked really hard on this nice breakfast! You should dig in before it gets cold."

"I don't want any breakfast." Gourry shook his head, stumbling out of bed. He was heading toward the corner where Lina had placed his sword earlier, but that was exactly what she'd expected him to do. He stopped and turned around a few times in confusion when he found that it wasn't where he thought it would be.

"Uh… where is my…?"

"Your sword? I confiscated it." Lina shot back, nudging him back toward the bed. "You're not allowed to have it back until you eat all your breakfast."

"What? That's not fair." Gourry protested. "Look at me. I need to be practicing-"

"You need to eat first." Lina shifted the tray into one hand so that she could push Gourry back into bed with the other. She then gently placed the tray onto his lap and stepped away with a flourish. "Once you finish, you can have your sword back."

Gourry stared at it and pouted. "I'm not hungry."

"Then it seems like neither of us is going to get what we want, isn't it? That's a shame."

With a sigh of resignation, Gourry picked up the fork and started on the pancakes. Lina, who had already eaten, sat on the edge of the bed and watched. Gourry seemed to realize after a few bites how hungry he was, and while he never made it quite to his normal, ravenous mealtime behavior, he came close. Eventually he got to the toast, and tried to smear some butter on it, but with only one hand to do so, he began to struggle. Lina noticed his difficulty immediately.

"Hey, do you want me to help-"

"No. I'm fine." Gourry shot back before she could finish her sentence. He eventually had to give up, shoving the slice of toast and the lumpy butter pieces all into his mouth at once. Lina opened her mouth, but he sent her a glare as though he were daring her to say something, and she decided against it. There was no point in injuring his pride more than it had been already.

"There. Done." Gourry moved the tray to the side, turning to get out of bed. "Now will you give me my sword back?"

"Not yet." Lina shook her head.

"B-but you said that if I-"

"You're a mess from the mud you fell in earlier. Before I can give you your sword back, you'll have to get clean. Zelgadis and Pokota offered to help you with your bath. Get clean, and then we can talk about giving your sword back."

"Talk about?"

"Yes, talk about! C'mon, then!" Lina grasped his hand and pulled him through the doorway into the main room of the cabin. "Zelgadis! Pokota! Your buddy here is ready for your assistance."

"What? I don't need help! I can bathe perfectly well by myself-"

"Yeah, yeah." Lina shook her head and placed her hand on his back, giving him a push toward their friends.

"Of course you can do well by yourself. We're just here for moral support." Pokota jumped over onto Gourry's head, tapping his forehead in an attempt to comfort him.

"Pokota's right. You'll be fine. You just need some company." Zelgadis gave Gourry a friendly tap on the arm. "Plus, you need someone to tell you where all the mud spots are on the back of your hair."

"M-my-" Gourry swiveled around, but then realized that no matter how he tried, he wouldn't be able to see the back of his head. He gave a sigh and followed after Zelgadis. "…yeah, I see. Okay."

Lina smiled as she watched them, returning quickly to the bedroom so that she could pick up the tray. "Zel was right. Gourry just needed a push." She spoke as she handed the tray to Amelia. "Of course, the best way to push him would be to take away what he likes the most."

Adelaide glanced up from her tea. "I thought you were what he likes most."

"N-no, I… I mean his most prized possession." Lina shook her head. "Take his sword away and he'll do whatever it takes to get it back. It's a secret technique that I've considered a few times before, but wanted to save for when I really needed it. To make sure that he takes care of himself… that's a worthy cause, don't you think?"

"You really know everything about him." Adelaide commented, taking another sip of tea.

"Why do you feel the need to make comments about Gourry's and my relationship? What purpose does that serve you?"

"Just curiosity, I guess." Adelaide replied. "Being around you guys has made me start rethinking my idea of love."

"Rethink?" Amelia blinked curiously.

"W-well, y'know, I've never been very lucky in love. Sure, there were a few girls in boarding school I thought were cute, and toward the end of last year I even had someone close enough to call my girlfriend, but... well, I got so fixated on her, I thought we'd be together forever. A month and a half after graduation, we hadn't spoken to one another since, and I found out that she was engaged to the son of some lord in Kalmaart. I'm sure it was a political marriage for money or prestige or whatever and that there wasn't any love in it, but… it still hurt." Adelaide stiffened, realizing how much she'd just spoken. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to unload a whole bunch of emotional baggage on you guys-"

"Hey, that's what friends are for." Lina smiled and gave Adelaide a wink. "There's no sense in carrying all that weight yourself when there are people willing to help you with it. You have every right to be upset- I'd be pissed too if my girlfriend left me for some foreign lord without even telling me."

"If that woman left you without even telling you, she wasn't the right person for you anyway!" Amelia insisted, placing her hands on her hips. "To abandon a kind, loving person to run off for a political marriage… what a waste. It's possible she was pushed into it, and if so, I feel sorry for her."

"I'm not necessarily against the idea of a political marriage." Adelaide murmured, staring into her tea. "As the daughter of a Marquess, I've always had to be open to the idea. Maybe it would be better that way- to be able to devote my life to someone without worrying about romantic love. Romance, to me, feels more bothersome than it does rewarding. Do you think I'm broken?"

"I think you're perfect." Amelia offered a smile.

"Yeah," Lina added with a slight chuckle, "and if it's political marriages you're interested in, you could always marry Pokota. His people are probably itching to have a princess to look up to."

"Yeah, sure." Adelaide rolled her eyes. "The daughter of the evil Marquess Gioconda, elevated to the status of princess. I'm sure the Taforashian people would be thrilled."

"That's your only objection? You can work around that." Lina gave Adelaide a playful nudge in the arm.

"Besides that," Adelaide nudged Lina back. "Pokota's my friend. What if there's already someone he loves, or he dreams of falling for someone and marrying for love one day? I can't take his potential happiness away from him."

"We're just joking around." Lina poked Adelaide in the forehead with a grin. "You and the stuffed-animal? That's a laugh!"

Adelaide giggled. "Pokota would be livid if he heard us talking about him like this."

"Aw, what the little guy doesn't know won't hurt him."

Amelia started laughing, and the other two girls turned to look at her. "What is it?" Adelaide asked.

Lina gestured toward Adelaide. "Is the thought of this beautiful creature and that fleabag together really so funny?"

"Lina." Adelaide elbowed her with a laugh.

"You know Miss Adelaide and Mister Pokota are both lovely people." Amelia offered. "It's just… so nice to see the two of you chatting and laughing like normal. Everything that happened yesterday really shook us up. It's important to realize the gravity of the situation, but it's also important not to let ourselves get caught up in it. There are more important things to think about."

"Speaking of which- Lina, when are you going to give Gourry back his sword?" Adelaide asked.

"Oh, that?" Lina shrugged. "I'm going to wait until Zel determines that he's well enough to begin practicing again. There's no sense in encouraging him to hurt himself."

"That could be a few days." Amelia finished putting away the plates and glassware and moved across the room to sit on the couch again. "He's not going to be happy with you about that."

"Let him be unhappy." Lina waved one hand dismissively. "My goal is to see him recover safely. If he doesn't like that, it's his problem."