AN: So for those who are unfamiliar with the novels, this fic was inspired by the emotional turmoil that Lina and Gourry were experiencing after the defeat of Hellmaster in Novel 9, The Cursed Sword of Bezeld. The characterization is a bit different from the anime and in some surprising ways as well, particularly Gourry's attitude towards losing the Sword of Light (in the novels Hellmaster returned the SOL to Dark Star). This is basically a what if, instead of going to Bezeld, Lina and Gourry decided to explore some ancient ruins thought experiment. And the rather uninspired title is just the conclusion Savvy and I would come to every time we discussed the relationship dynamic between those two in the novel. And this is the FFN safe version, and there's a full length adult version on AO3.
It felt too easy. The thought niggled at the back of Lina's mind as they searched the ruins for treasure, her stomach sinking more and more with each empty, boring room. It was increasingly becoming clear that anything of value had already been plundered or there was never anything special in these ruins in the first place.
"Another empty room." Gourry said as he folded his arms across his chest and smiled, and Lina wanted to smack that stupid smile off of his face.
"Well it's not as though we're going to find a new sword fast!" Lina said as she walked back in the hallway as her frustration mounted, "These things take time! People don't exactly leave legendary swords lying about."
"I still don't see what's wrong with this sword." Gourry said as he patted the plain old regular sword on his hip.
"It's hardly legendary." Lina scoffed, "And it won't do a damn thing against a demon and…"
They both stopped in their tracks as they noticed a sliver of light illuminate a series of cracks along the wall. "Where is that coming from?" Gourry asked quietly.
Cautiously Lina moved closer to the wall and ran her hand along the cracks, "I think there's a hidden door there."
They shared a quiet moment as they examined the wall as Lina tried to listen to her gut. But if there was any sense of malice or danger she did not detect it. Still, ruins were places to exercise extreme caution in.
"Do you know how to open it?" Gourry asked as Lina moved her hand along the wall and then pulled it back as one slab of stone started sinking into its recesses.
Before either of them could react, a loud grinding sound rang through the hall as a doorway opened before them revealing a fairly large room that save an altar covered with a red velvet table cloth and a large treasure chest was empty.
"Well if that isn't a beautiful sight!" Lina exclaimed as her eyes grew diamonds, "Even if it isn't a sword it's bound to be valuable!"
"If it hasn't already been looted." Gourry said as he folded his arms across his chest and frowned.
"Just open it already." Lina shot back.
"Are you sure it's safe?" he asked. "I mean, this feels a bit too easy."
"Reasonably sure." Lina replied dismissively.
Gourry looked at her out of the corner of his eye and then shook his head as he walked up to the treasure chest. "There doesn't appear to be a lock." He muttered as he reached out to touch it and then he let out a shout as the lid opened and shut down upon his arm.
Gourry used his spare hand to try to open it, but it wouldn't budge as sweat broke on his forehead as Lina felt sick to her stomach as the fact that she had made a grievous miscalculation became obvious as he grabbed his sword and brought it down upon the chest, but his sword bounced off harmlessly!
"A demon!?" Lina exclaimed as her heart raced as she started to chant as energy emanated from the chest and Gourry cried out in pain as the guilt stabbed at Lina's heart as she finished her chant, "Elmekia Lance!"
The treasure chest shrieked as it collapsed, leaving a scarred wooden box behind. Lina felt an urge to cry well within her and she started doing everything she could to stomp it down as Gourry sat down on the altar as he looked at his bloodied arm. Lina took a deep breath and stepped forward to look at the wounds and winced when she saw that underneath his armor his shirt was torn and that the blood was coming from a chest wound as well. She cringed as she tried to get a feel for how bad it was and then she hoped her voice didn't sound too choked as she said, "It's not too bad. Nothing a Recovery spell can't fix!"
"Thanks." He said mechanically as he fumbled with the clasps on his armor as Lina felt the weight of unspoken reprimands. While he never spoke them he had to be feeling them, and any moment now he would really let her have it!
"Let me help." Lina said as she started to unbuckle his armor. Once undone he was able to get it off on his own and then he removed his tattered shirt, and Lina was suddenly aware of a different dimension to her anxiety, one that she spent a lot of time trying to avoid even thinking about. She hoped she wasn't blushing as she started a Recovery spell on his hand as she started to ramble, "Who would have thought a demon would be in a treasure chest like that?"
"So you had no idea?" Gourry asked.
"Just how heartless do you think I am?" she shot back, "I'd never heard of such a thing before. Any chance it was guarding something valuable?"
Gourry stared off at the remains of the chest. "It looks like there's something inside. I don't think it's a sword though."
"Well these things take time!" Lina flared.
"What things?" Gourry asked.
"Finding a new legendary sword!" Lina said and then she got agitated on the look that crossed Gourry's face, "What else? Geez, you've been unusually dense lately. Even for you!"
"I just don't see why we need a new sword." Gourry said.
"Gourry! Look at what just happened! If you'd had the Sword of Light you could have taken care of it, but you don't and look at what happened!" she exclaimed. Besides. What reason would he have to travel with her if they weren't looking for a sword?
"But you were here so it still turned out okay." He said with a smile.
"But what if it's not one day!?" Lina shot back as the wounds on his hand closed. The timing was heavy with expectation as it meant that she had to focus on the ones on his chest now. And the weight of the emotions that swelled within her felt crushing.
"Lina…" he said as the weight became unbearable as she feared greatly what he would say next.
"That's why I'm going to do everything I can to get you a new sword! So nothing bad will happen!"
Only back when he had the Sword of Light, something bad did happen. And they had barely survived it.
She started chanting the Recovery spell and hoped she did not noticeably blush as she worked on healing the wounds in his chest. She took a deep breath and told herself that he was just a comrade as she started the healing spell as she did what she could to ignore the sparks in her belly even as she shuddered, "Is it me or is it cold in here?"
"It is a bit chilly." Gourry agreed as Lina tried to think of something else to talk about to distract herself from the heat emanating from his beautifully chiseled body.
"I might have to find my sweater before I ransack this place then!" Lina said. "So it's probably not a sword but the more money we can raise the better."
Gourry tensed notably and for the umpteenth time she wondered what was up with him! But asking him was unthinkable. Every time she thought about it terror filled her so that her anger spiked and when Gourry said, "But what if the person who owns a magic sword doesn't want to give it to us no matter how much money we have?"
"Do I look like I have the answers to every damn hypothetical?" Lina snapped as she glared at him, "Let's find the damn sword first and then once we know what we're dealing with we'll work out what to do!"
Gourry still looked uncomfortable as she healed him, and she did not believe it was from his wounds. Finally she finished the healing spell and quickly turned her attention back to the treasure chest as Gourry went through his stuff to find a new shirt.
"Now to see what jewels this baby is hiding!" Lina said as she opened the chest and frowned when she saw a plain manuscript inside. "What the…"
She reached in and picked it up and felt deflated as she read, "A blessing of healing!? What a load of crap! We could have died for this blessing of healing!?"
"There's not anything else in there?" Gourry asked as he pulled a fresh shirt over his head.
"No." Lina said with a sigh as she put the manuscript down and then she heard a familiar grinding sound. "Huh?"
She and Gourry turned simultaneously just in time to see the door shut behind them. "No!"
They both rushed to the wall and started feeling the place where it had opened, but it was sealed shut. Lina even tried pressing different parts of the wall to see if it would open the door but none of them worked. "There has to be another way out of here." Lina said as she looked around the room. "I'll go right, you go left, search along the walls and we'll meet on the other side."
"Right." He said.
But though each of them searched the room carefully neither of them could find another exit. Lina groaned in frustration as she met up with Gourry and started chanting, "Damu Brass!" she said as she aimed for the wall in front of her, but to her astonishment no spell appeared. "Huh?"
"Lina, your magic…"
"Urgh!" Lina groaned as she chanted again and still, no Damu Brass spell.
"Is it that time of the month?" Gourry asked.
"No, you idiot!" Lina screeched as she blushed, "Or have you already forgotten that Recovery spell I just cast?"
"Oh." He said, "But then why…?"
"How should I know why the Damu Brass isn't working? Okay, let's try this then, Bephis Bring!" Nothing. And despite her anger and the work out she was putting in, it felt as though the temperature was continuing to plummet. "Blast Wave!" Lina cast, and still nothing.
"So how is it that you can cast a Recovery spell but none of those other ones?" Gourry said as he wrapped his arms around himself as his breath appeared in the air before him.
Lina shook her head in disbelief as she wrapped her cape around her in a desperate attempt to fend off the cold, "There must be a rune breaker under the floor, and a large one at that, that blocks offensive spells but permits healing ones."
"So, what now?" Gourry asked as his teeth started clattering and she had to fight down the sudden need to hug him. While it wasn't rational, something was telling her that hugging him would make it all better. Or at least it would keep them warm.
An invisible weight press against her shoulders as she forced herself to turn away from him as she wrapped her arms around herself as she grew even colder as she walked over to sit on the altar. Any moment Gourry would start berating her. If they had had the Sword of Light Gourry could have easily cut through the wall. But they didn't. Because she'd let Hellmaster kidnap him and then she'd let Hellmaster return the Sword of Light to Dark Star. He'd not laid in on her yet for it but he had to be furious with her. Especially now that they were liable to starve to death in these ruins. That was, if they didn't freeze to death first.
Gourry sat down beside her, and Lina felt her fighting spirit ignite as she said with more confidence than she felt, "There has to be a way out of this."
It would have been more inspiring if she hadn't started shivering immediately after she said it.
Gourry shifted uncomfortably as he watched her as though struggling with something within himself, and Lina had to fight another impulse to snuggle up to him and his warmth. "Any chance of using your magic to start a fire?" he asked.
"Not if black and shamanist magic doesn't work." Lina said.
Gourry started to scan the room and said, "Looks like that treasure chest is the only wood in this place."
"Burn it." Lina said.
Gourry got up and started to break the chest down. Lina quickly went through her stuff and found her sweater and took off her mantle to put it on, but it didn't help much. She brought out the blankets she would use while camping and wrapped herself up in them but it still did little against the cold. So she watched as Gourry worked and shivered as she started to jerk her hips in an effort to warm up. As always the motion sparked something within her that she wanted to stroke…and as she watched as Gourry's biceps bulged with power as he tore the chest apart she thought of how she wanted Gourry to stroke her into a full on flame that would drive the cold away.
Eventually Gourry finished with the chest and got out his flint kit. But just as it started to spark a cold wind tore through the room and extinguished it. "Dammit what was that!" Lina shouted as Gourry cried out.
Gourry tried again, and the cold wind blew once more. "This is starting to feel like some sick prank." He muttered as Lina felt tears well up in her eyes as Gourry looked at her uncertainly. "It looks like a fire is out. What do you make of this?"
"I don't know! It's too damn cold to think!" Lina said as she looked at him and silently pleaded with him to sit beside her and hold her. But he continued to look at her with a blank expression. So she took a deep breath, the cold air searing her lungs and patted the space beside her, "It's getting to be a matter of survival."
She could feel the heat radiating off of him as he drew closer to her, his warmth inviting and impossible to resist the pull of, like a magnet. He sat beside her and she drew closer in response as he wrapped an arm around her and then they bundled under the blankets. Once they were as cozy as they could be and with little to distract Lina from how nice it was to snuggle up to him she started thinking out loud, "The Blast Sword! If we could just find the Blast Sword then we could cut our way out of here!"
"If we find the Blast Sword and whoever owns it wants to give it to us." Gourry amended as the temperature plummeted.
Lina looked over to glare at him. "What's with you?"
Gourry opened his mouth and then he seemed to choke on his words a bit as the room somehow managed to grow even colder. "Well?" Lina said, and then she started to seize up as a multitude of expressions that she could not read crossed his face. Was he finally going to let her have it?
But when he finally spoke it was soft, just a hair above a whisper. "I…I don't want to find a replacement for the Sword of Light."
"What?" Lina said as she straightened. "Whaddaya mean you don't want to find a replacement? Why?"
"I…I never wanted it, the Sword of Light, to begin with." He said as the room grew a little warmer. He opened his mouth to say more but then stopped as he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.
Lina felt as though the ground had disappeared beneath her as she stared at him in astonishment. "But it's your family treasure! Your legacy! And if that wasn't enough it was the Sword of Light! I mean do I even have to explain…How could you not want it?"
But Gourry just shook his head as he stopped talking and the room grew a little colder as Lina continued to probe, "I mean, it had to have been important to you! And we couldn't have taken down the enemies we did without it, I mean, we wouldn't have been able to stop Shabranigdu!"
"Being with you," Gourry said haltingly as though he was trying to suppress a vault of emotion even as the room grew steadily warmer, "Being with you and saving the world, it was what made keeping that damned thing easier!"
Lina continued to stare at him as though he had sprouted an extra head, "But, I don't understand. You didn't like it? Why?"
He closed his eyes for a moment as his grip upon her tightened for a moment before he said quietly, "You don't own something like the Sword of Light without paying a price. For my family, the price was blood and conflict." He scratched his nose as he avoided her gaze, "My brother died fighting to own the sword, and it disappeared in that fight. And it was such a relief that it was gone. But while taking a walk I found it lying among the rubble. And it felt as though I'd been cursed."
"I still don't understand." Lina said as she shook her head as she tried to wrap her head around what he was saying, "You're not making much sense."
He ran a hand through his hair as he shook his head, "Nothing about my family makes much sense. Nothing about how a sword, even the Sword of Light, could be worth killing each other over made sense to me. And I knew that if I came back home with it the fighting would start again. The only way my family could move forward in peace would be if I ran and didn't tell anyone I found it, so that's what I did. But I hated the sword, I hated all it had cost me. I couldn't even give it to someone else. I would be responsible for whatever bloodshed happened to their family if I did. If anything I felt trapped by that sword. So it being sent back to where it belongs, it's a relief."
Was it her imagination, or was it slightly warmer? Lina closed her eyes as the question dropped onto the pile of questions she had, all of them questions she was scared to ask. But one was more pressing than the others. But Lina was terrified to hear the answer!
As she remained frozen by her fear, a familiar chill started to regain ground, as though whatever warmth his confession had generated was dissipating. And spurred by a desire to reclaim what warmth had been won Lina finally found the question tumbling from her, "But if we're not trying to find a sword together, what reason do we have to travel with each other?"
Gourry's eyes softened as he started to run his hand through her hair as he said softly, "Is it so wrong to travel with each other because we like traveling with each other?"
"Gourry, you idiot!" she yelled as the warmth left the room as she pushed him from her, "All this time I was scared you were mad at me for losing your family heirloom! And worried sick that you would get fed up and leave! And here I was worrying myself silly into the impossible task of finding a new legendary sword in months so you wouldn't leave and now you're telling me you enjoy traveling with me!? Now!? Why didn't you say anything before and save me a few months of worry!?"
Their breath visibly hung in the air as they stared at each other as Lina felt as though she was hanging at an intersection, torn between the desire to hit him or hug him. An icy draft wafted through the air and Lina shuddered. Some instinct told her there was only one way to drive it away. She flung herself at him and threw her arms up and grasped him tightly to her as she buried her face in his chest as warmth flowed from him and into her, "Of course I want to travel with you! I rescued you from Hellmaster Phibrizo didn't I? I…"
She stopped. She'd not told him about casting the Giga Slave. Would he be mad at her if he knew? But before she could say anything more she was horrified as a sob escaped her lips as everything she had been through for the past few months escaped with an abruptness that alarmed her.
"Lina," he said softly as he brought his arms around her and started stoking her hair as she sobbed into his chest, but to her horror she was unable to stop. Any minute he was going to tear her down for not being strong enough, for being such a wuss, for letting any weakness show. But when he spoke his voice was quiet and gentle rather than harsh and reproving. "I'd been so worried about you ever since we stayed in Saillune. I watched you nearly die more times than I care to remember, and through it all you were so brave and strong as you faced everyone down. I don't know what it has been like for you since that boy kidnapped me or why he did, but it must have been a lot for someone as strong as you to be crying like this. I don't know what you did, but I know that because of you he can't hurt us now. And it's safe to cry now. You earned it."
This man! Lina thought to herself as she let herself dissolve into tears that she had been holding back for months as he held her and stroked her hair. How can an idiot like him know just what to say?
By the time her tears ran dry his shirt was a damp and the room was warm, and she pulled back a little to wipe her face as she took a deep breath, "Of course I want to keeping traveling with you. It's enough just to travel with you."
He smiled radiantly as he leaned forward and touched his forehead to hers, and Lina gasped as she felt a charge go through her as she sensed how much he valued her, displacing the fact that there was more that she had to say. They found each other's hands and twined their fingers together as a sense of intimacy grew between them as she felt his breath on her face. She moved closer as she puckered her lips slightly and wondered if he would kiss her.
He did, and a deep sense of want grew within her that she could not suppress. She moved her hands up his chest and winced at the wet spot her tears had fallen on, and despite his kindness at her outburst she could not help but dislike the reminder of her weakness. She boldly pulled his shirt up and off, but to her surprise he backed away. "What?" she asked.
"Aren't we moving a bit fast?" he asked, and then when he saw the expression on her face he added hastily. "I mean, I want to, but this thing that I have with you, after I left my family, I never wanted to feel pain like that again and if we take this too fast and mess it up I'd never forgive myself…"
Lina reached forward to kiss him again, "You idiot. I cast a Giga Slave to save you because Hellmaster was going to kill you!"
Gourry's eyes widened in surprise and she knew instantly that even an idiot like him knew the repercussions of that spell, "Lina, what?"
"Yeah, I could have destroyed the whole damn world and I did it to save your ass, and look, it worked out!" she said as she gestured around her, "So stop overthinking this with us! We'll work out. Because as far as I'm concerned you're stuck with me until the very end! And since there's a likelihood we'll never get out of this damn room, that bitter end might be coming sooner than we thought so we might as well have some fun with it."
"You cast the Giga Slave to save me?" he asked.
Lina froze and wondered if he was going to reprimand her. "So what if I did? And before you take me to task, let me remind you that you wouldn't be alive if…"
She just noticed his eyes getting misty as he grabbed her and pulled her to him tightly. "That means…" he sang, "That you must care about me a lot!"
She blushed, feeling undressed before him before she had even so much as removed a stitch of clothing. "G-gourry!"
He kissed her deeply as he gently lowered her back onto the altar, pulling away to whisper in her ear, "It's okay. I care about you a lot, too."
They smiled at each other and then moved to kiss again but were interrupted when a familiar grinding sound rang through the room, and they both turned behind them to see the door slide back open. For a moment they stared at it, wondering if it had been triggered by someone finding them. But after a few minutes it was clear that somehow it had opened on its own.
"Well that's a relief." Lina said.
"Let's save the cuddle for later and get the hell out of here." Gourry said as he started gathering the blankets.
"Agreed." Lina said she started to look through the room.
"Do we really have time?" Gourry asked.
Lina stopped as she saw the manuscript that had been in the treasure box. A blessing of healing. She smiled as she realized that she felt better than she had since they set foot in Saillune. She walked to Gourry and grabbed his hand, "I guess we got exactly what we needed from this room."