Introduction: In 2010, this started as a one-shot involving a time-traveling Lina visiting Gourry. But thanks to a combination of too much "Doctor Who," working on my own comic and the exquisite Inuyasha fanfic "The Phoenix Blade: Time Lapse" by Fenikkusuken, it grew into something larger.

Now it is 2020, and this story is one of the ones that got away. I wanted to write a mature fantasy romance starring these two characters, one set after the 15th novel. Obviously, it is wildly diverging from novel canon as we've had two more novels in the intervening years. I have become a far better writer in the past 10 years. So, I'm starting it again from the beginning and removing the older version. While some key elements have changed, the core of this story has not. I hope you enjoy what it has matured into.

Vows: Prologue

Gourry's eyes snapped open.

Everything seemed quiet. It was another nondescript inn in another nondescript town. The moonlight shone through the lace curtains and made cobweb patterns on the ceiling. The only sound was crickets chirping and his heavy breathing.

He sat up, scooping his hair out of his face. Something wasn't right. Usually, when he felt like this, it was some sort of mazoku targeting Lina. Always go with his gut, his father had counseled him before his death, and Gourry's gut hadn't proven him wrong yet.

He padded on bare feet to the window and stared at the road. The inn was on a main thoroughfare, and it wasn't that unusual to hear some night traffic. But there was nothing: no mail coach rumbling by, no lost traveler seeking shelter.

Gourry scanned the street, then sighed. Lina had probably sneaked out to bandit hunt again. She swore repeatedly that she would leave him a note or something, but knowing her, the thrill of the hunt had gotten into her and she forgot. Again.

He debated going back to bed, but he knew he was going to go find her. He always would. He was never quite sure who he was saving in the process: Lina or anyone unlucky enough to get in her way on while she was hellbent on bandit hunting.

He had his nightshirt halfway off when a bright flash of light filled the room. Even through the fabric of the shirt, it blinded him and he stumbled back. He tore it off in one smooth motion, throwing one arm over his eyes as he did so. He reached blindly with his other hand for the Blast Sword, wrapping his hand around the hilt as the light subsided.

He blinked several times to restore his vision, but spots kept dancing in front of his eyes. He shifted into a battle stance, waiting for the first blow.

It never came.

It was not quite a minute before Gourry's vision was fully restored. Everything seemed the same except he was standing half-naked in the middle of the room, looking for an enemy he couldn't see. It was not the first time this had happened.

Then he saw the woman crumpled by the door, and his heart stopped.

"Lina!" Gourry tossed the sword on the bed as he raced to her side.

He reached her at the same time she moaned, then pushed herself onto her knees. She cradled her head in her hands for a moment before dragging her fingers down her face, then looked up at him. Her eyes went wide with shock. "Gourry?"

"Lina?" Before he ask anything else, she was on her feet and her arms were around him. Shock rippled through him and, somewhere in the back of his mind, he remembered that he had on nothing but boxers.

"You're alive." She said this into his chest, and he felt the hot slide of tears on his skin. "You're OK."

Gourry could count on one hand the number of times Lina Inverse had fallen apart in his arms, and it woke feelings in him that he tried his damn best on a daily basis to suppress. "I told you not to go out bandit hunting without me," he scolded.

"Bandit hunting?" She shoved away from him and scowled. She flicked her gaze around the room, then swore under her breath before returning her attention to him. He recognized the moment she realized how undressed he was and braced for the yelling.

But it never came. She gave him a slow, appreciative look in a way he'd never seen from her before. Mischief flashed in her eyes as her gaze lingered below his waist. He swallowed, fighting the urge to cover himself with his hands. Or walk over to her and cover her mouth with his instead.

She tore her gaze away. "Dammit all to hell. This isn't the right time!"

Gourry wondered if he could snatch up his nightshirt as Lina began to pace the room. As she pivoted and her cloak flared out, he saw that it wasn't just her attitude that was off. Her clothes were remarkably different. Her cloak was shorter, and she wore black shorts rather than leggings. Some sort of black breastplate covered her chest, secured at her waist with a yellow sash. She wore a bracelet, a piece of leather with some sort of green gem dangling from it, on her left arm. Her boots and the tunic she wore under the breastplate were familiar.

She was a bit thinner, her hair a touch longer. She seemed tired, exhaustion lining her face in a way that hadn't been there when they fought their friend Luke just a few weeks earlier.

Before he could analyze her any further, Lina swung around. "What time is it?" she demanded.

Gourry could barely see the moon from where he stood, but it was enough. "A couple hours until dawn?"

"No!" Lina tugged at her bangs and gave a short scream of frustration. "What time are we in? What year is it?"

Before Gourry could answer, she started pacing again. "Not that'll tell me much." She whirled, jabbing a finger at Gourry's chest. "Who did we fight last?"

"Well, there's a bandit group outside of town you wanted to ..."

"That's not helping!" Lina screamed and he flinched. She spotted the sword on the bed. "You've got the Blast Sword," she murmured. "Okay, that narrows it down. I can't be too far off."

She fell silent for a moment, as if weighing her next question carefully. "Is Luke still alive?" she asked softly.

Everything fell into place. Lina looked and acted different because she was different. "You're not the same Lina who's asleep next door, are you?"

"Gourry, please. I need to know."

"He died about three weeks ago."

Whatever Lina this was, she apparently knew about Luke and their second battle against a piece of Shabra-whatsit-thingy. He could never quite remember the name, and it didn't matter now. She huffed instead of reacting to his news with grief or disbelief, which meant she had come to terms with it.

She had to be from their future. But how far?

Things like magic and time travel weren't in Gourry's realm, period. That he completely left up to the likes of Lina and Zelgadiss and their other magic-using friends. But he knew that time travel could be bad if it wasn't handled correctly. He glanced toward the wall that connected his room with Lina's. The current Lina. The one he hoped was still sleeping. He wasn't sure he could handle two Linas at once.

Future Lina's sigh drew his attention back to her. "I'm not far off. I need to go back, tweak the calculations ... there's enough for a second try. Only one more, but we can nail it this time." She fished out an amulet from her cloak that looked like one of the talismans that she'd broken weeks earlier. "Don't tell me what you saw just now, OK?"

"Wait!" Gourry lunged, grabbing her free hand before she could do whatever with the amulet that would take her away from him. "You can't just leave. What's going on? Where did you come from?"

"I can't answer that!" Lina tried to jerk free, but his hold only tightened. "I'm not suppose to be here," she hissed. "I'm out of my own time."

"I figured that much out! You're from my future, right?"

She snorted. "There are days when you really surprise me."

"Lina," he growled.

"Look," she countered, "anything I tell you about how time travel works is going to go over your head. Even if I had the time to explain it, I can't tell you what I'm doing. It could cause a paradox, and man am I full of them at the moment. Anything I tell you could harm both me and the younger Lina sleeping next door. Gourry, you have to let me go to protect both of us."

She had him. He would do anything to protect her, even this. He nodded and let go of her hand.

He fully expected her to disappear, but she didn't. She stared at the amulet for a moment. "There's a war going on," she said more to the gem than to him, "and we're losing. I can't tell you any more. What I'm doing right now is extremely dangerous and even more illegal. Hell, I may not even survive getting back to my own time. I don't even know if you're alive or dead at the point in the future where I originally came from."

"Everything's going to be fine," Gourry said, the comforting reply instinctive. "Whatever we've faced ... we've always overcome it."

He gave her a bright, confident smile, hoping it hid the terror that rolled in his stomach. But he knew they would be fine, because he believed in her. He had for years. Lina was the north on his compass, and he would always follow her. They would be fine, because he wasn't sure how he would handle it if they weren't.

She threw back her head in a silent laugh, and some of that terror unknotted just a bit. "You never change," Lina said with obvious affection.

Gourry wondered what had transpired between the two of them in the future to create this sort of intimacy between them. He knew how he felt about her, but Lina ... well, her face was probably sketched next to the entry for "denial" in the dictionary. He almost checked once to see if it really was.

The future Lina approached him as he mulled over this, taking a lock of his hair in one hand and tugging him down until she could wrap her arms around his neck. Gourry inhaled sharply, and then she was kissing him, deeply and passionately.

He'd been half-convinced he was still asleep, but the feel of her lips made him realize that he was very much awake. Nothing in those dreams matched finally being able touch her, to taste her in the way that he craved. Somewhere, somehow, she had finally seen past his shields as a protector and friend and found the man who desired her. It was their first kiss from his end, but clearly not from hers. There was no hesitation, only need.

His hands skimmed up her back, pressing her closer. The edges of her armor would leave grooves in his skin, but they would be temporary scars he'd carry with pride. The self control he honed rigorously threatened to slip as her hands skimmed down his bare arms, and he forced himself to focus only on this kiss. He burned it into the back of his mind, a crystal clear moment he would never forget. He once told her he remembered the things that mattered. This mattered.

She pulled back, her breathing as heavy as his. "You know," she murmured, "now would be the time to tell you something ridiculously sentimental. But you already know, don't you?"

His heart leaped into his throat, words failing him. He knew exactly what she was trying to tell him. He slumped against the door, not trusting his legs to hold him up.

Lina smirked. "Gourry? Find some clothes."

Then she pressed her hand to the gem in the center of the amulet, muttered an incantation, and disappeared.