"Gyahh!" said the diminuitive princess with a strangled voice. "H-How long have you two been there?" She shook Lina violently, trying to turn her around. Lina looked, and gasped.
Standing in the clearing, holding the bag of money for Naga, was Zelgadiss Greywords, and beside him was Gourry Gabrieve. To say the men were perplexed and puzzled was to put it kindly.
"Oh gods..." Amilia sighed.
"Alright, let's get to the point, what have you heard, how long have you been there?" asked Lina.
"A few minutes..." replied Zelgadiss, his eyes fixed on Amilia with a strange look.
She went to him and said, shyly, "Um, hi..."
Zel looked down and said softly "You love me?"
Amilia suddenly smiled brightly and threw her arms around Zelgadiss. "With all my heart! Didn't you know?"
Zel seemed uncomfortable. "I guess I did, but I never let myself believe. Who loves a chimera?" he replied.
"Me, silly!" said Amilia, hugging him tighter.
Zel was hesitant, but he hugged back. "Um, well then, I never thought I'd have a chance to say this, but, I love you too, Amilia..."
Amilia gave a little squeal of pure joy and beamed up at Zelgadiss. "You have now made me the happiest girl in the world, Mr. Zelgadiss, please let me make you the happiest man!"
She hesitated for a minute then a cloud seemed to settle on her and she went on, "Of course, if you heard me say "I love you" then you know there is an issue..." She looked down, feeling her happiness hung by a very slender thread indeed.
Zel nodded slowly, still hugging Amilia. " I think I can compete with any man who might come your way, but I have no idea how to deal with my rival if it's a woman I'm up against, Amilia, and it frightens me..."
Amilia gulped, not knowing what to do or say.
Meanwhile, Lina had walked over to Gourry. "Um, hi..., did they let you off or something?" she asked, hesitantly.
Gourry replied matter of factly "Nah, we're done, so Phill said we could join you girls at the hotspring. Then he asked us to do this one thing first and give some woman named Gracia, or Naga, some money. I guess it must be for Amilia's sister over there..."
Lina nodded. "Okay, Gourry did you hear what I said earlier? About you?"
"Uh huh." replied Gourry.
Lina waited a second then asked, a bit impatiently "And?"
"And what?" was the reply.
Lina ground her teeth, she wasn't going to bop him, not yet...
She decided to come to the point, ony it seemed suddenly very hard to do. "Um, okay, did you hear the part where I said, uh, er... where I said..." she gulped, and forced it out, "where I said that I love you?" Blushing furiously she lowered her eyes to the ground, trying to understand why it should be so damned hard to tell Gourry, of all people, her feelings.
"Uh huh! I sure did!" said Gourry brightly.
"And...?" said Lina slowly, begining to get a bad feeling about this.
"And?" asked Gourry back, puzzled.
Lina began to deflate. She could feel tears coming, and didn't know what to do. "I just thought... maybe you loved me too." she half whispered.
"Well of course I do." said Gourry as if he were explaining something he had thought was obvious. "I've loved you since that day on the road we first fought the bandits, you remember, back when you were a little girl? Of course, it wasn't right to love a little kid and all, so I've hung around to wait for you to grow up, but do you mean you didn't realise that already? I mean, I always thought the problem was that you weren't ready to have feelings like that, so I kept my mouth shut, lest I scare you off, and just let my actions do the talking. I do hope they were saying "Lina, I love you!" at every opportunity."
Lina looked up, startled. He thought she knew already how he felt! But he hadn't told her! But she had made him think she wasn't ready to hear the words actually said! And, truth to tell, he had been right! "Gourry!" she said slightly paniced. "You're starting to make sense! You're scaring me!"
Gourry scratched his head. "Huh?"
By now, Zelgadiss and Amilia, who knew Gourry and Lina only too well, were starting to laugh. The two older sisters were looking at Gourry and Lina with stunned looks on their faces.
Lina sighed. Then she smiled. "Okay, not the hearts and flowers I was dreaming of, but at least we can talk about it." With that she suddenly lept up and kissed Gourry.
Gourry caught her as she leapt, then, taken by surprise by the kiss, tottered back a step and "oofed" to the ground. He seemed quite stunned for a minute, then said a dreamy "Wow... that was worth the wait..." as he looked at Lina, almost, but not quite, focusing.
For her part, Lina had ridden out the fall safe in Gourry's arms, and now gave a happy shout of "Victory!" as she held up her two fingers in a "V" sign to the world at large. There was some clapping from the onlookers and Lina beamed a big smile to them. Then she got serious.
"Okay Gourry, now that we love each other, I have to know where you stand on me and other women." She blushed furiously at this, but realised it had to be now, if this was something Gourry wouldn't want she needed to know from the start.
Zelgadiss added whistfully "Yeah, I'd like to know what the answer to all this is too."
Gourry slowly got up again, amazingly while still holding Lina. "Mmmm" he said, as if he hadn't heard. "Did I ever tell you I really, really like petite girls Lina?"
Lina was about to say something sharp when Amilia giggled. Lina remembered their conversation about how she and Filia had decided Gourry liked her the way she was but didn't know how to say it. She frowned slightly at Amilia, there's be no living with her now...
Lina softened and snuggled in to Gourry and said "In a roundabout way, yes." She waited a second then gently pressed "But I really need an answer, Gourry." she finally said.
Gourry looked thoughtful. "Well, I don't know. I can't give you whatever it is a girl gives you, so I guess I can't hope to meet that need or whatever it is, but I don't want to lose you to anyone either, and that includes a girl, so, hummm, let me think. Okay, so, the way I see it, the thing to do is this. You must promise to keep the girl time down to what is only fun, not enough to be getting serious. Then, you must only play with someone who doesn't want to steal you away from me. Hmmm, I suppose it would be fair if I knew who it was so I could trust her too."
He pondered a bit, and Lina was amazed to realise there were actually gears whirling away up there. Gourry brightened! "I know! I have it! Lina and Amilia! If they do this girl thing only with each other, well, we know Amilia won't want to lose Zel, and Lina won't want to lose me, so, they can have fun, but neither of them will want to take the other away from her man! Right? So, they'll watch out for each other, and for us guys too, because they want to"
He continued. "And, since Lina and I are wandering for now, we won't be in Seirune everyday. And even when we do settle down, where ever we decide to, one thing's for sure, we aren't going to settle in the palace, so we'd have to come over for visits, again it won't be an everyday thing. So, the deal is that when we do go for a visit, if the girls want to sneak off for an afternoon, or a day, Zel and I can turn a knowing blind eye, and who knows, when our wives come back all refreshed, maybe they will have generously left a little bit for us, he, he. But even if not, they will be so happy, we still can't lose!"
They stared at him. Finally Zel spoke. "Gourry, you're starting to make sense, you're scaring me." "Huh?" said Gourry in reply.
Lina finally looked away from Gourry and over to Amilia. "Huh? Can this be? Are we getting to have our cake and eat it too?"
"Sounds like it, if Zel agrees." replied Amilia. "But then, hey, when you are as perfect as we are, why not?" She burst out laughing. It swept around the circle and soon they were all laughing, the tension of the night was finally over.
Naga then stepped forward and took the money from Zel. She told him to confirm Amilia's good news to their father, that she would be home in the fall. Zel agreed to do so, gladly.
Luna and Lina refused to say good bye, only "Till we meet again." The older sisters walked off. Luna suddenly started crying and looked up to the heavens, her arms outstreached. In an amazingly happy voice ahe shouted "Tami! I'm finally free! Thank you! Thank you for all your love, on both sides of the grave! Please sleep in peace now, I'm finally going on." She laughed through her tears and turned to her sister.
She said to Lina "Before I forget, there is a little chapel in the town of Riverford. You probably passed through the place on your way up here. If you go through it on the way down you might want to know that the priest there doesn't usually ask much in the way of questions of young couples who want to marry, Lina." She looked over to Amilia and went on "I don't know how you feel about it Your Majesty, but if you remember not to tell him you are a Princess..."
Amilia nodded and giggled. "I'll keep it in mind..."
There was a last round of "Farewell" and the older girls dissappeared into the night. As the passed the basket of mushrooms Naga asked Luna if she wanted that. Luna replied "Nah, it's my secret mission that is, to provide mushrooms for the restaurant so they don't have to pay the local collectors. Let them find it there and think the worst, it'll do them good."
Naga responded with her famous laugh. Everyone cringed, except Luna. The very last conversation heard as the two older sisters walked away was Luna enthusiastically saying "Hey, I like that! Will you teach me?"
Lina gasped in horror at the thought, but it was too late now. She looked down, suddenly feeling a stab of fear as she remembered how Naga tried once before to remake the world in her own, um, image. This time, if Luna helped, she might just succeed...
Then she realised there was nothing for it, so she decided to get back to her own life. She looked up and said to Gourry "I will if you will..."
"Will what?" he asked, followed by a heavy "OOOOF!" as Lina elbowed his ribs.
"Get married of course!" she said with an exasperated tone. Obviously, some things weren't about to change...
"Oh that." replied Gourry. "Of course I will. Did you think I'd miss a chance like this?" Lina smiled and hugged him.
Amilia hugged Zel and looked up. "It's tempting..."
"I could fall for it..." he replied.
"It would make sure daddy has no choice." she said.
"It's the risking letting you get away that has me worried. But I think Gourry took care of that!" he laughed back. "Well, it's a day or so to hike to that village, we can talk, and if you still want to when we get there we can be a double wedding with Gourry and Lina!"
"Done!" was the reply.
To no one's surprise, the hot springs turned out to be perfect for a double honeymoon...