PART SIX

PART SIX

~~~~*~~~~

Everyone thinks it's so romantic
They say we're two of a kind
And the more that I think about it
The more that I realise what I've been missing

~*~

After Zelgadis had made his appearance in her room, Lina had completely given up all hope of being able to have a *private* conversation with Gourry.

So now they were on the road again, and Lina, to relieve stress, was enthusiastically fireballing anything within her reach that so much as twitched.

Amelia blinked worriedly as her red-haired friend bounded on ahead of them, sneaking up behind a trio of unsuspecting bandits with a manic gleam in her eyes.

"Uh…you think she's okay?" she whispered to the silent chimera beside her.

"Oh, she will be." He smirked. "When she finally *does* figure out what she wants."

They turned around as one to stare knowingly at the oblivious blonde swordsman behind them.

Said blonde swordsman, sensing eyes on him, looked up and noticed their stares.

"What?"

Amelia giggled. "Oh, nothing!"

Zelgadis fretted that the smirk was becoming a permanent fixture on his face.

~*~

"Fireball!"

Lina smirked in satisfaction as she watched the unsuspecting bandits in front of her disappear in a huge, glowing, orange explosion.

Enthusiastically grabbing the treasure that the unfortunate bandits had dropped, the sorceress hugged the trinklets close to her chest and squealed happily. "Treasure!!! Ahhh…this is really a very effective method of relieving stress!"

And the cause of all that stress? One very blonde, very dumb swordsman named Gourry Gabriev.

Lina grumbled to herself. She'd finally come to terms with the fact that things had, indeed, changed since she'd first started travelling with Gourry. The importance of getting the Sword of Light from him had dwindled (but by no means completely disappeared!) as her friendship with the blonde swordsman grew; and now that friendship, on her part at least, had developed into something more.

Yes, Lina admitted, she *did* love Gourry.

Now, the problem was, she had *no* idea what to do about it.

Gourry was probably clueless about her feelings, as he was about most other things, she mused with slight amusement. But how was he to know if she'd kept right on beating him up anyway…and what if he didn't *return* those feelings?

Lina was so busy fretting that she didn't even notice the slight movement behind her.

~*~

//As if I didn't know they were talking about Lina and me,// thought Gourry, his lips twisting into a wry smile as he regarded the backs of the princess and chimera walking in front of him. //I may be dense sometimes – okay, a *lot* of times – but I'm not *that* dumb…//

And well, he had been thinking about Lina anyway. Which was why it hadn't been that hard to guess what the pair walking in front of him had been laughing about.

//Lina…//

He wondered what she'd been about to say to him in her room at the inn just before they'd been interrupted. She'd been smiling, which meant that it was probably something good. And, she'd had her arms around him too…

Gourry smiled.

He knew that he wasn't exactly the brightest person around, but there was one thing he was sure of – that his feelings for the red-haired sorceress had grown into something that went beyond simply protecting her. Even though she'd probably never feel the same way, Gourry was in love with Lina Inverse…

A scream coming from somewhere in front of them interrupted his thoughts.

Gourry's head jerked up, eyes wide and alarmed.

"LINA!!!!"

Author's note:

Wildfire's Angel & fireball4u, thanx for the reviews! :)