Cookies for Gourry
by AeroGirl7986
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Slayers or any of its characters. Slayers is owned by Hajime Kanzaka, Rui Araizumi and some other people. I think that should go without saying, but hey, don't feel like getting sued today!
CHAPTER 3
Lina's mother's eyes watered the second she heard Lina's voice. She hugged her youngest daughter tightly, "LILI! You came back! I'm so happy! I thought I would never see you again sometimes, hearing some of those horrible rumors about you and your travels!" Lina's mother was almost hysterical, hugging Lina so tightly that she could barely breathe. Lina was in shock; So, my parents DID hear about some of those rumors about me? I wonder which ones ..., Lina thought, until she felt her lungs start hurting from lack of oxygen. "Mama, ... need ... to ... breathe." Lina stammered, her face almost turning blue. "Oh." her mother snapped out of her phase easily, releasing her daughter. Lina took a big breath, and laughed nervously to her mother. "Oh, Lili, I'm so glad you're here. Your father and I have missed you so much while you were on your travels for so many years. Please don't run away from us like that again." her mother begged with not a pleading tone, but a concerned tone. Her mother really didn't look old enough to be a mother sometimes, at least not to a teenager and an adult daughter. Gourry took in this reunition, unable to move, unable to even say a word. ... Lili? Was that REALLY Lina's pet name, was all he could only process.
Lina's mother then looked beyond her daughter's shoulder, to the tall blonde stranger. "Lili-honey, do you know this man?" she asked. Just then, Gourry thawed out of his own frozen state, stammering, "Uh, well, um, I am ... that is ... My name is ... um, Mrs. Inverse ... " Lina just sighed, saying with a matter-of-face tone, "This is Gourry Gabriev. He's been my protector since about five years ago. He's a little slow and he makes a lot of dumb comments, but he's a really skilled swordsman. He's even better than me! He's, in fact, a descendant of the Swordsman of Light, like from the legend from Sairaag. We met those five years, when he came across me about to take care of survivor bandits, but he's been with me since then." Lina informed her mother, bringing her almost up-to-date. "Ahh! Lili, what have I told you about raiding bandits' hideaways? And robbery, on top of that! You know that I, and your father, really disapprove of that! You're going to get hurt, doing that, one day, and you'll have no one but yourself to blame; besides, what would I ever do with myself if my sweet little Lili gets hurt?" her mother whining, hugging Lina once again, while Lina just nervously giggled. "Now, now, Mama. Calm down." she reasoned. Lina's mother's eyes met Gourry's gaze again, and smiled, "I'm sorry; how rude of me to get reacquintated with my dear daughter and not invite you both inside. You both must be so tired from your trip! Please, come inside! Come, come, come!" her mother beaconed, with the young pair making their way inside her home.
Lina instantly removed her boots the second she stepped inside, along with her shoulder guards and cape. Gourry immediately followed suit, removing his boots and armor. Lina's mother giggled, "Aww, Lili, you remembered!" her mother sighed, clasping her hands in front of herself with delight, then paused to see the confused look on Gourry's face, "You see, Gourry-hon, when Lili was younger, she'd always forget to remove her shoes when she'd step inside, and get the carpet all dirty, after I've spent all day cleaning it, to begin with; so, one day, I took it upon myself to threaten her with no meals if she'd ever step inside the house with dirty shoes on again!" she tilted her head, giggling. "You could only imagine the look on her face when I told her this; she was so scared, I knew she believed it." she told Gourry, who tried not to laugh out loud at the cost of his health. "Eh, hehe! Mama, don't you have something to do now?" Lina quickly changed the subject. "(snaps finger) Oh, right! I was just about to make a batch of dragon beard candy! Hey, would you like to help me, Lili? You can help, too, if you'd like to, Gourry-hon!" her mother cheered, humming all the way to the kitchen. The kitchen looked huge, with a large window right behind them, with bright sunlight making everything in the kitchen glow; the counter was cluttered, but in a neat fashion, with baking ingredients like a large bag of rice flour, sugar, peanuts, a bottle of corn cyrup, a rolling pin, and other miscellaneous ingredients and equipments; all her culinary equipment looked all like some that would appear in an home-maker's kitchen; she even had a fruit-and-vegetable centerpiece closeby, which was very colorful and nice to look at. Gourry was beyond impressed with the Inverses' home, especially with the kitchen.
"Gourry-hon, have you ever made dragon beard candy before?" Lina's mother asked, pulling out a large bowl from under the counter, glancing at him. "Uh, no, I don't think so." Gourry stammered, shaking his head. Gourry, even though her mother was so nice and courteous, he was still felt intimidated by her; mainly since she IS Lina's mother, and wants to make a good impression, and also because he's afraid of doing something stupid and really did want to do that. "Oh, that's OK! Lili has helped me make some a couple of times before when she was a girl, but it takes many years of experience to get them just right; so if you have any questions, please ask me, ok? Oh, Lili, this brings back such memories; remember when you would be helping, just like you are now, when you were a little girl, you'd used to eat half the batch before I could even get ready to refridgerate it, so I've learned to make two batches from then on, one for Lili to eat, and one for actual use!" Lina's mother sighed, reminscencing on the good old days. "Haha! Yep, that sounds like Lina, alright! But now, she could eat a whole menu, three times over, and still eat food off my plate!" Gourry stated, resting his hand on her head. Lina felt very irritated, with Gourry sharing his stories about her to her mother. Lina's mother was in shock, and stopped what she was doing, almost dropping the entire bottle of corn cyrup in a large pot. "THREE times over? My goodness, Lili ... But I guess I shouldn't judge, since back in my day, I was able to eat an entire menu, five times over, and 15 pints of ale, and still have a little more room to spare!" Mrs. Inverse stated proudily, resuming back to her cooking, while Gourry's jaw literally dropped to the ground. "Wow! ... Do ALL the Inverses have appetites like that? I thought Lina was the only one." Gourry asked bluntly, while Lina's mother just giggled, at the blunt question of Gourry's, and Lina was just plain annoyed by his question. "Of course there is a reason," she resumed to her cooking, "magic can really absorb your energy, of course it always depends on the person and what kind of magic you're using. And it just so happens that, back in my days, I was considered quite the sorceress; and a really powerful one, at that! The way how I'd used to gain back my energy as by eating huge amounts of food, and I guess Lili took after me on that! As I recall, I still have a few projectors left from those years, if you two would like to see them. I even kept the ones of when Lili was a girl!"
Gourry couldn't believe this; Lina's mom was a SORCERESS? This was huge! This would explain a lot of things that had nagged in the back of his mind from time to time. "Um, Mama, do you really think you need to tell Gourry all this stuff? I'd bet he won't even remember half of it in an hour!" Lina smiled nervously. Gourry looked at Lina, whose been quiet for the past minutes, a bit too quiet. "Oi, what's that s'pposed to mean?" he asked, with an annoyed tone in his voice. "Mama, is Papa still at work right now?" Lina asked, ignoring Gourry's question. Lina's mother nodded, "Yes, he won't be home until sundown. Oh, goody, the corn syrup's already thickening up! Now, it's time to refridgerate! Oh, and we're also expecting Luna to be home very soon. Aren't you excited, Lili?" Lina froze when she heard her mother say the name, Luna.
"L-L-Luna? Luna will be h-HERE?" Lina stammered, striken with fear at the mention of her older sister's name. Lina's mother put away the tub of hot corn syrup in a small box, which she casted a chill spell on, to refridgerate the batch for five hours. "Why, yes." she stood up. "Are you alright, Lili? You look pale. What's wrong? Does it have to do with why you left us? What DID happen to you before you ran away? Luna never really told us, and you've always seem to avoid coming here ever since you left. You two used to be so close, now you have that same reaction of fear to her, as you would to a swarm of slugs." her mother pryed; it was obvious that she was oblivious to the real reason she left home, and that fact that she mentioned slugs didn't really help Lina any.
She rested her hand on Lina's cheek, while she looked at her with a soft look in her hazel eyes. "She missed you so much while you were gone. I know that she would tend to pick on you, may have treated you roughly in the past, and may not have shown you love by affection like I always have, but know that she really loves you and missed you so much when you were away. I can tell by the look in her eyes. Whatever she did, I'm sure she regrets it more than anything." her mother consoled, Gourry just watching the moment. He's never imagined Lina's mother to be so ... motherly. Lina always seemed like such a tough girl, and never dreamed that her family to be so warm and friendly. He wondered if this was why Lina never wanted to settle down, and why DID she run away from a family that seemed so affectionate and made CANDY maybe DAILY? "Mama, ... thank you." Lina responded, pulling her hand from her cheek, looking down, but with a smile on her face. With that, they heard the door swing open, and a younger woman's voice called out, "Hello? Mama, I'm back!" A chill ran up Lina's body. The newcomer could only be one person, and that would be ... "L-L-L-Luna ... " Lina stuttered, sweating like there was no tomorrow, her face losing its usual peaches-and-cream color, and becoming almost hysterical. Just at the moment Luna walked in the kitchen, her hidden eyes met her younger sister's. Luna blinked.
"Well, long time no see, sis." she casually stated, leaning against the kitchen doorway frame.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey there, fellow readers! Wow, you have no idea how much it took to finish these three chapters this past week, & still have many to go! (EEK!) But, in the end, I know it'll be all worth it! Thank you all for your support:D So, now we get to meet Luna. Hehe, another cliffhanger; done on purpose, of course. I usually like to end things with one of those, but don't worry! I have the next chapter! There is a limited amount on Luna found on the web, but in Slayers Special manga vol. 2 & 3, Lina mentions Luna, about how she was the one who taught her her homemaking skills (who probably got them from her mom) & it was she who urged her to set out for the world, not because she gave her such a beating that she ran away. I'm also aware that she was also mentioned in the Slayers Special novels, which volume they were I don't know. And, of course, there's the anime which only mentioned Luna maybe twice during the whole series, once in the first season & for a segment in the third season (TRY) in the second episode. Luna is a character I really wish we could've met in the anime; I think it would've been cool to see Lina & Luna in the anime, but I guess that's how the cookie crumble. So, I'm sure many knows that Luna has violet hair, that was shoulder-length, & sleek hair with her bangs usually covering her eyes (I guess to give her that scary effect); in all honesty, Luna actually looks sorta like Xelloss (hair-wise, of course), whether if that was intended or not, don't ask me. So, I know I'll be having a challenge, trying to give her details to her appearance, but I will stick with the handful of images I have saved, & maybe make up a few more. Oh, and about Lina's mom's character: since I don't recall Lina ever talking about her or anything, I've decided to take it upon myself to make her this warm, loving, motherly-kind of mom. If this offending anyone, I'm really sorry about that, & honestly don't mean to offend anyone, but I will continue to make her this character. Anyone who has watched Friends before, or was a fan, may find that she will resemble Monica Geller slightly, down to her expertise in the culinary area (this would explain why she looks not like a housewife, but of a homemaker, & all her UPDATED cooking equipment) to her cleanliness. I LOVE Monica, she's hilarious! I guess some would wonder HOW could Lina's mom fit this sort of personality, but I'd like to add that, since Lina could see herself as her mother (both being sorceresses & all), she figures that if she settled down, she'd give up travelling, raise a family, and become a housewife-type person, therefore becoming her mom; I'm not going to say it that that's not what she wants, but just probably not yet. ... HOLY GOODNESS, my notes go on for FOREVER! Hehe, sorry 'bout that! Hope you found the info you wanted to find! Well, I hope you guys like the fourth installment & don't forget to review! (Oh, & if anyone's curious on that dragon beard candy recipe, here's the address: http/ ) Ciao, all!