Another chapter! I hope everyone is excited. This is going to be a short entry, but also important. I, repeat, do not own Slayers or any of the characters. I am just a crazed fangirl who just so happens to be able to write. I have many OC's in the fiction that are of my own creation, but the main characters are mostly not mine. Please do not eat me.
Shi
Lina Inverse and her coaching staff were creating absolute miracles, much to the surprise of the members of the Seiryuun Slayers. The once childish methods of Lina had greatly improved, showing that she was able to adjust for the situation at hand. Xellos kept on floating about the arena, only giving the defense direction when needed and Frederick and Elena truly earned their spots as offense coach and assistant. Team morale had gone up and everything seemed to be going swimmingly until a few days before Lina's trial was up. It was then when three defensemen, Willy Jones, Alexandre Tierski and Edwin Cay, along with Sam Penn (who played on offence), took a stand against Lina. Not one liked her from the very start and kept the same attitude against her ever since the first practice. Before their second-to-last practice before the trial was up, the four men were causing quite a commotion in the locker room, which lead to much arguing amongst the teammates.
"All I am saying is that she needs the experience of an Olympian to go to the Olympics... or at least have coached college hockey!" Jones yelled. "She coached children!"
"That does not mean that she did not try to improve herself!" Gourry argued. He seemed to be the one fighting for Lina the hardest, since he found it just plain rude to bad-talk women behind their backs.
"Yeah, we've all seen how far she's come," the center man, Jules McInnon, said. Even though he was the shortest man on the team, the Irish blood in him made him a fierce fighter, one that should never be messed with. Cay knew this as the man who was nearly a head shorter than him tried to get in his face.
"Will you all shut up? I am trying to relax a bit here," Zelgadis grumbled over by his locker, fully dressed in his practice gear and ready to go. He was one of the few to not be arguing over Lina's worth as a coach. The "Windmill Trio," composing of the Dutch-descendant Van Dyne brothers Lyman and Frank and their cousin Zach Zimmerman, were already out on the ice practicing their defensive drills.
"If you don't like it, go out to the rink and practice," Tierski snapped.
"Fine then, I will!" Zelgadis exclaimed loudly. "You all are idiots! Just plain idiots! One freakin' woman should not tear us up like this!" After his speech of resentment, Zelgadis huffed out onto the rink to join the others out there.
The locker room was deathly quiet once Zelgadis left. Usually, Zelgadis sat in a corner and would brood whenever there was a squabble that involved the whole team, but never did anyone think that he would scold them.
"See? That Inverse woman is getting to everyone, even Stone Wall there," Jones sneered, shoving Gourry.
"Shut up Jones."
"You shut up you jellyfish."
"No, you shut the hell up and say nothing more about Inverse-san!"
"Damn your chivalry. Such way of thinking died out long ago with dragon cuisine and magic. Why don't you and the coach get a room or something," Jones darkly chuckled. Gourry's patience snapped, causing him to jump forward to Jones in order to beat him senseless. Luckily for Jones, most of the other team members did not want Gourry to wail on him, so it took nearly all their might to hold Gourry back. It was a very uncalled-for comment, but the team still held back their raging captain.
"Take that back!" Gourry yelled. "That was very rude!"
"Like I care," Jones sourly laughed.
Disgusted, Gourry shook off the teammates that were restraining him and went to storm out of the locker. He could not believe that Jones was so cruel! He angrily burst out of the locker room and into the hallway, where he met a very teary-eyed Lina.
"What's the matter Inverse-san?" Gourry asked. He had never seen Lina cry before. She seemed so sad and afraid that it was unlike herself to appear this way.
"Nothing. It is nothing," Lina sniffled. It was a lie. She had heard every word that the team had said about her. She heard the innumerable times that her coaching ability was ripped to shreds and stomped into the ground. It was not like her to cry. She had taken on worse. No, only in her mind had she ever taken on worse.
"What is the matter? You are crying. Something has to be wrong."
"Allergies."
"To what? It is the middle of November."
"I don't know."
"Why are you upset? Did you hear the guys in there?" Gourry asked. Lina started a whole new round of tears and started out towards the rink so she could find Elena, but Gourry moved one of his strong arms in her path and blocked her exit.
"Let me leave," Lina cried angrily, trying her best to hold in the tears. She had felt so good about her job coaching too! It was the stupid trial. Now that it was almost up and her job nearly secure, it seemed as if Tierski, Jones, Cay and Penn would snatch it from her forever with their discontentment.
"Do not listen to them," Gourry said with the utmost seriousness emanating from his voice. His eyes narrowed into a soft, steely look, a look one uses when they want to confess things such as feelings or bring vital encouragement.
"Good, then I won't," Lina sniffed. She barged past Gourry and down the drafty hall towards the rink.
"Inverse-san," Gourry called out.
"What is it?"
"Since there is nothing wrong, according to you," he said while walking down the rubber floor with his skates, "would you like to go out to dinner tonight?"
"I... uh... ... sure..." Lina said, a slight bit hesitant to accept.
"Meet me at the hockey rink."
"Sure."
"Eight o'clock sound alright?"
"Yeah, sure." Lina blushed profusely, even though it was not clear since her face was already red from crying.
"Okay! Now it is time for practice!" Gourry said happily. He skated out onto the ice and found the Windmill Trio and Zelgadis practicing. Lina carefully followed him, staying hidden in the entranceway so that the men on the ice could not see her.
"Is that romance I smell?" Xellos asked, popping out of the blue. Lina jumped and looked behind her to see Xellos, smiling cheerily and holding the most random of potato chips in his hand and casually munching on them.
"What are you doing!" Lina yelled.
"Now that... is a secret!" Xellos answered before shoving another potato chip in his mouth. Infuriated, Lina went to smack Xellos, but in an instant, he disappeared, as if he were never even there.
"Is anything wrong Coach?" Frank Van Dyne asked, skating up to the edge of the hall entrance. Lina was still in her punching pose, a move that looked quite ridiculous with nothing there to hit but air. Lina slowly turned her head to look at the defenseman, a twitch in her eye.
"Go practice," she muttered. Frank Van Dyne just rolled his eyes, shook his head and left, happily checking his brother into the boards.
Oh God, they think I'm nuts, Lina thought. This is just great.
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"So he asked you out?" Elena asked, a ring of shock in her voice. She and Amelia had been talking to Lina over at Amelia's apartment, just like they always did after practice. Lina laughed, seeing as Elena was hanging onto every word she said. Amelia though, was strangely absent, having disappeared into the recesses of her own apartment.
"Yeah, is that unusual?" Lina replied. "Well, an athlete dating his coach is a little weird I guess, but at least we are the same age and different genders."
"No, you do not understand," Elena said. "Gourry has never had a girlfriend, ever. Usually he just concentrates on hockey, barely leaving enough time for even friends."
"How do you know this?"
"I went to school with him, I dated his best friend... I work with the man for heaven's sake!"
"You know him well then," Lina asked after a short pause. Elena just nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders and gave a sound that sounded a lot like a "nya."
"Huzzah!" Amelia cheered as she skipped out from the hallway that lead to her bedroom. She held something behind her back and was grinning profusely.
"What is it?" Lina giggled, highly amused with Amelia's bounciness.
"I have the new uniform for the team! It took me a while to find it among all the rest of my things, but I finally found them."
"Let us see then!" Elena prodded.
Amelia took from behind her back, a black ball of material, which she then unfolded to show that it was the uniform shirt. It was truly jet black as a main color, with a silver-grey on the edge of the sleeves and collar. It was Gourry's jersey, so it had a silver-grey "C" on the left shoulder to signify his being captain. On the chest there was a bright green "S" that had been lengthened at the ends and had action lines trailing from behind it, clearly signifying that the letter would be the country's insignia. The same green wrapped around the upper arm, the number 38 poking out in black. On the back there was a larger green number 38 and the name Gabriev right above it in the same bright green.
"When did you get these?" Lina asked, an eyebrow raised. To her, this looked more like a uniform jersey from a professional league, not the Olympic Games.
"Earlier today," Amelia said frankly. "The colors and things like that were decided only last week."
"Are those Seiryuun's national colors?" Lina asked, truly wanting to know. Nothing of that nature was told to her since she arrived.
"We don't really have any," Elena admitted, looking closely at the jersey. "Our ancestors were white magic users according to legend, having built the ancient layout of the city in the shape of a transmutation circle. They liked the color white, but that would kind of blend in with the ice, don't you think?"
"I guess," Lina sighed. She just sat back down on the reclining chair, it having become her favorite piece of furniture in the place. While Amelia and Elena fawned over the jersey, Lina closed her eyes. She only opened them up again when Amelia woke her up, saying that she was twenty minutes late for her date. Cursing, she ran out of the apartment building and over to the hockey rink, where Gourry was waiting patiently.
"Where were you?" he asked. "I hope everything is alright."
"Of course," Lina puffed, a bit out of breath from running. She smiled and sighed at him, entertained by the genuine look of concern on his face. It was good to have someone like that, who's feeling were true. Lina was Gourry's coach for long enough to know that he meant good in all he said and did from taking her down to the nearly frozen-over pond in the park for a picnic to accidently falling into the lake when he checked to see if it was thick enough to walk on. Three millimeters and three inches are just not the same thing.
Parodies/References I Do Not Own So Please Do Not Disown Me
The Windmill Trio: Me and my Dutch roots never really shut up.
Zelgadis's nickname "Stone Wall": This is referring to Confederate General Thomas "Stone Wall" Jackson, a fairly important leader in the American Civil War. My country's weird, I know.
Dragon Cuisine: Yes, just like that episode of Slayers NEXT where the gang end up helping some creepy old dude who has family members resembling each one of our heroes. Oh, how I could go on...
Allergies: The perfect excuse for crying!
Xellos: Well, he has to have his secretive line somewhere, right? The random potato chips are there because he was hungry. Popping out of thin air is hard work.
That crazy uniform: roughly modeled after uniform jerseys in the NHL.
Seiryuun's lack of country colors: I made that up with reference to the anime.