What happened to Gourry won't be revealed till the next chapter. Care to guess what horrible thing Xellos did to the poor dumb blonde?

How In Chaos Did I End Up Here?

Part Two: Rude Awakening

The sun in her eyes was what woke Lina in the morning. She had a headache that seemed to pound in time to her heart beat. She opened her eyes for a second then snapped them closed quickly as the light seemed to stab at them. Her headache worsened and she groaned.

She tried to roll over but couldn't. Her bedroll seemed to be smaller than usual. With a frown, she opened her eyes a crack to see what was wrong. Her eyes adjusted and she was able to make out what the trouble was.

Her eyes opened wide with shock and she screamed then winced as the noise made her head pound harder.

Zel sat upright as Lina screamed. That scream was close by and he turned to the left. He saw Lina and and he blushed. Lina jumped up from the bedroll they had apparently been sharing and stumbled away.

Lina screamed angrily, "What in the name of Chaos did you do to me?"

"What the hell?" Zel finally shouted.

Lina winced then glared. "You tell me. I can't remember anything from last night. Did you take advantage of my innocent self?"

"No!" Zel said impatiently. "You apparently decided to do that on your own."

"Ooooh." Lina was bright red and spitting mad. "Fireball!"

Lina's hair was hanging in her eyes, distracting her so that her aim was off. Her fireball fizzled off into the distance without harming anything but a scraggly old bush. She glared at the burning bush then turned away. She turned to a still sleeping Gourry and took her frustrations out on him.

When shewas finished with him, Gourry was a pitiful ball of moaning misery on the ground. His eyes were giant swirls of confusion as he saw Lina standing over him with the one good eye that hadn't swollen shut. "Sorry... Lina... for whatever... I did..."

"Where's my headband at?" She grumbled, feeling a little better after beating up on Gourry. She decided just to forget about flaming Zel.

Zel had a weird expression on his face as he opened his hand and offered her the black band. Lina took it with another blush and a awkward nod. Zel was even more uncomfortable than she was but coughed it off and started boiling water for his coffee.

Lina excused herself and went off to think.

Great, she thought. I get drunk then climb into bed with Zel. What the hell was I thinking? Obviously, I wasn't because of the booze. I'm never going to get drunk ever again.

Her cheeks turned the same color as her hair. She had not only woke to find herself in a compromising position, but her unconscious self had seemed to be enjoying it. Much as she would like to place the blame on Zel, she had woke to find herself snuggled up to chimera, not the other way around.

Lina was mortified. She didn't know how she was going to face her companions again. It was bad enough that the world (minus the few that knew her personally) thought of her as a scary little girl with a very short fuse. If this got out, they could add the word 'easy' to the description as well.

Lina took a breath and drew herself up proudly. As much as she wanted to hide for the rest of her life, she wouldn't do that. By nature, Lina Inverse was not a quitter. She'd get up, do the right thing and apologize to Zel for doing something improper. In just a few more minutes.

Lina bent her head and shed a few tears for the self respect she had lost.

Zel watched as Lina hurried away from himself and Gourry. She disappeared out of sight and he sighed wearily. Waking up to see Lina sharing his blankets had been the biggest shock of his life. He never expected any woman to be that close to him while he was stuck in this cursed form. He had never noticed before how pretty Lina was-

Zel cut off that thought in horror. Lina... pretty? He slapped himself. "I need to cut it out with the alcohol."

Eventually he admitted to himself that Lina was cute. He took his first sip of coffee for the day and pondered Lina herself. She wasn't the self centered person she seemed. Sometimes the caring side of her personality surfaced but she was quick to laugh it off and explain it away with a self serving motive.But those that knew Lina well knew the truth. Underneath the shallow mask of selfishness and greed lay a big heart.

Zel closed himself off from further musing. He concentrated on drinking his coffee. The pot was almost empty and the time was almost an hour later when Lina returned. She seemed normal until she came close enough and Zel saw her red eyes.

Damn, she's been crying. He thought guiltily then wondered why he should feel guilty. He reminded himself that he didn't do anything.

"I'm sorry." Lina began as she knelt across the fire from him. "I put you in a terrible position."

Zel cleared his throat then said as kindly as he could, "You weren't thinking clearly, Lina."

"I don't think I'll ever touch a drop of wine again." Lina said fervently. "Can we not mention the subject again?"

Zel sighed. "I won't bring it up again unless something happens."

"Thank you." Lina gave him a wobbly smile.

Zel flushed a bit. "Uh, Lina?"

"Yeah, Zel?" She stood and he squinted against the sun to see her shadowed face.

Zel stammered a little but rushed out a comment. "Any guy would be lucky to be your sweetheart, Lina. I just thought you should know that." Zel turned brick red and looked away.

Lina was taken aback but said, "Thank you."

Lina watched Zel walk away to patch up a badly hurt Gourry. Lina frowned a little as she wondered if she had suddenly been shifted into another dimension without noticing.