PART TWO

PART TWO

~~~~*~~~~

I showed some friends of mine
My favourite photograph
You know the one of you and me from way back
And when I told them all
That you were not my guy
They couldn't see it, couldn't understand why

~*~

"Oh, good. That fireball heated up my coffee nicely."

Gourry blearily raised his head off the ground to look up at a post-fireball Extra-Crispy Zelgadis™ (who was still tightly clutching his precious cup of coffee).

"Zelgadis?"

"Hmm?" The chimera nonchalantly flicked a couple of charred bits of stone off his shoulder. Taking a tentative sip of coffee, a look of pure bliss spread over his features. "Aaaahh…"

"Why'd Lina fireball us? Did we make her angry?" asked Gourry, watching the settling clouds of dust from Lina's sudden departure with great fascination.

"Don't worry about it, Gourry, Lina's not angry. She's just a tad sensitive about…certain…subjects." Zelgadis tried his best to fight back a grin.

The blonde swordsman picked himself up and dusted his clothes off, his brow creased in a worried frown. "Maybe I should go see if she's okay."

Despite himself, the chimera lost the battle and he grinned broadly.

As Gourry wandered out of the room, Zelgadis rubbed his stony cheeks vigorously. All this smirking was making his face tired.

~*~

Safely back in her room, Lina flopped face down on her bed and buried her face in her pillow, an embarrassed flush still colouring her cheeks. "Stupid Zel…Gourry and I are just friends! Good friends…that's all. And that's how I want it…right?"

She sighed, remembering the time she and Gourry had first met. When he'd "rescued" her from a bunch of bandits and then grumbled that for all the work he'd done, he'd ended up with a "short, wide-eyed, flat-chested little kid" to "babysit".

"Hmph," she grumbled, rolling over onto her side and looking down ruefully. "They're not that small…"

And then, she recalled fondly, the blonde swordsman had insisted on carrying her all the way to the next town when she'd gotten injured in a fight. Even though she'd almost died of embarrassment then. Smiling at her, he'd said, "it was my grandmother's wish. She told me to be kind to women and children..."

And when she'd moved over to his room and slept on the floor after Rezo's minions had attacked in the middle of the night, Gourry'd offered her the bed, and, when she'd refused, he'd slept on the floor as well.

"How can I let a girl sleep on the floor while I sleep in a bed?"

Despite herself, she had been impressed by his chivalry. Even though she hadn't shown it.

They'd finally killed Shabranigdu with some – well, a lot of – help from her Giga Slave, she remembered proudly. And that was when she'd decided that she was going to continue travelling with Gourry. So that she could try to get the Sword of Light from him…

He hadn't really minded. He'd had that whole thing about being her protector, which he took very seriously, anyway. And they'd had fun, and so many more adventures together…