Yayness! -dances- There was a section in the sports page of the newspaper about the Turin Olympics! -grins- I'm so excited! Olympics! -freaks out- Gerao, my email is just weird and thanks for the love from AirJay. I'm... touched. Yeah. That's the word I want. Touched... emotionally. Oh, I do not own Slayers. I cannot own Slayers, even if I tried. Keep dreaming folks.
Juu-ichi
"Lina?"
"Yeah?"
"I really like you."
"Do you?"
"Yeah."
"Gourry?"
Hmm?"
"I really like you too."
It was dark. Not dark like Amelia and Zelgadis's little broom cupboard, but dark as in the twilight outside. Lina and Gourry were sitting by the players' entrance to a hockey rink. It was to be the same hockey rink that they would need to play their final Olympic game of the year against the United States of America. There was amazingly nobody else around as the twilight got dimmer and dimmer."Lina?" Gourry asked. "What are you going to do after the Olympics are over?"
"I'm not too sure," she replied. "Probably I'll go back to Manitoba. I know that my sister is going to want to see me. She is such a pain."
"You have a sister?"
"Sure I do. Her name's Luna and she's a huge pain in my rear. Didn't I ever tell you that?"
"No."
"Then I must be one of the worst younger sisters in the world."
"No you aren't."
"Do you have siblings?"
"No."
"Then you cannot say."
Gourry thought for a moment.
"Would you be going to Manitoba to visit or to stay?" he asked.
"Why would you ask that?"
"I kind of want to know how long we are going to be there."
"Gourry," Lina sighed. "Who ever said that you were going to go along too?"
"I want to be with you Lina," Gourry said, gently taking Lina's hand in his. "Is that alright with you?"
"Do you really mean that?"
"Of course I do. I did say that I really like you," he answered.
Lina just could not reply. She sat there and let the tears form in her eyes. It touched her that Gourry spoke from his heart. Not many people could ever do such a thing. Gourry was not hollow like that. Well, he was a bit hollow in his brain cavity, but that was a completely different matter entirely and did not bother Lina too much. She buried her face into Gourry's shoulder and cried. It hurt for her to cry, since it was not a very Lina thing to do.
"Oh, thank you Gourry," she sniffled.
"I only thought that it would be expected," Gourry said. "I really like you."
"Really like or love?"
Gourry was taken aback by Lina's question. Love? Was it love he felt? He did feel the same kind of happiness with Lina as he did while on the ice playing hockey, yet he could not answer Lina. All he could do was look at her for quite a while.
That was when the unthinkably random occurred. Lina went and hugged Gourry, right before initiating a kiss. It scared Gourry at first, thinking it might be some sort of trap, yet discarded that idea after about half a second. He let the shock go and kissed her back. For a while, it was almost as if they were weightless. It was blissful, adrenaline-producing, serene...
"What in the world do you two think that you are doing?" a voice said. Lina and Gourry looked at the athletes' entrance to discover Zelgadis standing there, arms folded and a scolding look upon his face.
"You peeping tom!" Lina yelled as she stood up quickly and got in Zelgadis's face. She went to punch him, but the chimera easily dodged it and went and yanked Gourry by the hair so that he could hiss in his ear.
""At least I found a closet to retreat to before I started to put the moves on my woman," he angrily whispered. "What in the hell were you two thinking?"
"Well, she started it!" Gourry said defensively.
"Just get a closet or a room or some sort of secluded spot next time," Zelgadis moaned. "People can see you here. Do you really want people to watch you?"
"Nope," Gourry said, shaking his head. Lina did not say anything, for she was too disturbed by the fact that Zelgadis mentioned Amelia, a closet, moves and himself in the same sentence.
"Fine. Well, a reporter is looking for you both. He wants an interview or something like that," Zelgadis said right before he walked off.
"Great," Lina sighed after Zelgadis left. "We're getting love advice from him. What's possibly next?"
"The game!" Gourry replied happily. Lina's spirits went officially went from being annoyed by the goalie to being angered by her boyfriend.
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"...aaand welcome to the Men's Olympic Ice Hockey Championship Game!" AirJay screamed hurridly into his microphone. He was as ecstatic as ever, maybe even more due to the timely introduction of an energy drink that goes by the name "Bawls".
"Oh, shut up," Naga groaned. She had developed a headache from all of the threatening she had been doing a few hours before. It was satisfying bullying Frederick Yerbinski and Zelgadis Graywords again. In fact, she had really missed it...
"We are going to have an interesting game here today," AirJay said, clearly unfazed by Naga's comment. "Seiryuun, the team that came out of literally nowhere and obscurity, is about to lock horns with the United States of America's Dream Team, chock filled with powerful athletes straight from the NHL of Canada and the United States. All of the athletes we are going to watch here are professionals in some way, yet today is going to show who's country rears the better players..."
"Shut up."
"Naga!"
"Just shut up!"
"I'm just doing my job!"
"I think now would be good to cut to our correspondent in the Seiryuun locker room corridor, Scrik," Naga said, ready to slap AirJay across the face. "Scrik, you're on."
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"Thank you Naga," Scrik said into his respective microphone. An average, almost unassuming man, he stood with a very nervous Lina and Gourry and a collected Zelgadis. "Here with me is the coach of the Seiryuun Slayers, Lina Inverse, the captain and star center, Gourry Gabriev and the goalie Zelgadis Graywords. Coach Inverse, do you have any worries about going up against the superpower Dream Team members?" The foam-covered tip of his microphone flew in the direction of Lina's face, stopping a few inches before colliding with it.
"Well, to be honest," Lina said nervously. "I have had worries since I took the job of head coach four months ago. We have all worked through our troubles before and pretty much made wine out of water with how far we've all come."
"Great Coach Inverse," Scrik cut in. "Gourry, how has you teamwork improved with the past two games of the Olympics?"
"I don't know," Gourry replied. "I guess it improved. We have to make things up on the spot a whole lot, so yeah."
"O-Okay," Scrik sighed. "Zelgadis," he continued, "you have come back from what was a pretty nasty injury. Are you going into this game at one hundred percent?"
"Of course I am!" Zelgadis laughed mockingly. Lina and Zelgadis could not understand this behavior, being it was not like Zelgadis to be like that.
"Your performance in the last ten minutes of the semi-final against Russia was extraordinary. The medics did not even think that you could be on the ice yet you blocked so many shots on the goal that we lost count at around forty. Can you explain how you were able to do this?"
"I haven't the foggiest," Zelgadis said. "I just knew that everything counted and did not let my reflexes take a rest."
"Alright then," Scrik said into his microphone. "This is Scrik handing it back over to AirJay and Naga back in the skybox. Guys?"
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"Oh, we're back?" AirJay said once he realized that Scrik's voice was not coming out of the speaker anymore.
"Yeah, could you get off of me?" Naga moaned.
"Why?"
"Don't make me hurt you."
"Yes dear."
Turned out, the conversation at hand was just the outcome of AirJay accidently hitting his head on the ceiling light when he jumped up after being startled by Kiko. Kiko, for some unknown reason, forgot where he had fallen asleep and woke up only to see AirJay and Naga's feet. He barked and bit AirJay by mistake. AirJay jumped up, hit his forehead on the overhead lamp and fell on top of Naga. Sadly, none of this was caught on the radio, not even the "Get off of me" comment. Kiko did apologize to AirJay though and the pre-game grind continued as usual.
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The room was poorly lit and cold. Tension made the air thick with anticipation. Lina stood in the center of this room, surrounded by her athletes and coaching staff. Everyone's attention was upon her, diligently rapt on what she had to say.
"Today decides how we are going to be remembered men," she said in an animated fashion. "This is Seiryuun's debut at the Games and I know that she is already proud of us all. Yet, how will everyone else remember us? Will we be the ones who the United States demolished, or will we put up the damndest fight we can muster? Even if we do not win, we have to make sure that those Americans remember who in the Nine Hells we are. We have been shorthanded and disadvantaged before, yet we have survived through it all! Are we going to be second place wimps? No! We are going to be warriors! We are going to be Slayers! We are going to strive for that golden medal and even if we do not make it, the fall will be so loud and powerful that it will shake the world! So no matter what happens out there on that ice, remember that we are Olympians. Even if others say we are not, every single man in this room, as well as Coach Elena and myself, are Olympians at heart."
"'Olympians at heart'?" Xellos laughed. "What a ruddy load of touchy-feel-good crap! Where'd you ever come up with that bit?" He could not help himself and laughed all the way out the locker room door.
"Damn it all Metallium..." Lina growled, a tic mark forming on her clenched hand.
"Ah, forget him Coach," Josef Kiernov said merrily, waving his hand through the air. "He just wants to make you mad."
"Of course," Lina replied through clenched teeth. "Isn't it the job of everybody to get underneath my skin? Alright! Everyone, out onto the ice and warm up, now!"
The Slayers obeyed and went out to get their blood flowing. The United States had not come onto the ice to do their warm-up ritual yet, so the ice was empty.
"I hope everything goes smoothly for us," Elena said as she walked with Lina and Frederick down the hallway to the bench.
"I hope so too," Lina said.
"What's that noise?" Frederick asked. Lina and Elena went dead quiet and listened to what seemed to be the crowd outside in the rink.
"SEIRYUUN! SEIRYUUN! SEIRYUUN!" the crowd chanted. Lina, Elena and Frederick ran out to the bench to see what was going on. For all they knew, it could have been part of a cruel and taunting chant.
"Kom op Letbal mij hoor u iedereen!" Lyman Van Dyne yelled in Dutch as he circled the ice rink with his brother Frank and cousin Zach Zimmerman. (A.N.: See Parodies/References for my translations done online.)
"Luider iedereen!" Zach told the crowd.
"Voor de liefde van het spel verhuur, hoor mij u gil!" Frank taunted. Lina was amazed at what she saw in the stands. It was a sea of black and green, healthily speckled with bright orange. Only a small section of the stands shone in red, white and blue for the Americans, yet so much support was going behind the underdog Slayers that it was just about insane.
"Zach! Lyman! Frank! Get over here!" Lina yelled. She was only able to catch Lyman's attention, so he skated over to the bench. "What in the hell is going on?"
"We're rallying the crowd!" he said happily, as well as loudly.
"What were you speaking?" Frederick asked.
"Dutch," Lyman loudly answered. "There are so many Dutchmen in the crowd that it is amazing! They came here for us!"
"What is amazing is how into this you are getting!" Lina scolded. "Shouldn't you be warming up for the game!"
"What do you think I am doing?" Lyman cackled. "The crowd is more important than I am right now. They came here to have fun and I want to make sure that they do!" Laughing heartily, he sped off to get lost in the crowd's chanting once more.
"Oh, jeezum crowe," Lina sighed. It was going to be a stressful game as it was, but adding the energy and insanity of the Van Dyne brothers and Zimmerman's orange-clad brethren was just going to make it ten times worse.
Parodies/References I Do Not Own/Want To Point Out Therefore There Should Not Be Another Sacco and Vanzetti
Sacco and Vanzetti: Murder-trial-thing. Long time ago. They were possibly innocent. They were put to death. Not many people would get that.
USA Dream Team: A really mean thing that USA's Olympic committee let happen. Bring back the college kids! They were the ones who humiliated the Reds in '80! Sorry. -bows- Uncalled-For-Anti-Commie-from-Cold-War-Era-Flashback-Moment there.
Manitoba: Canada owns this place, not me.
Zelgadis's closet speech: Yes, he was referring to the little broom cupboard incident. I seem to like having Zelgadis either get laid or want to be laid by Amelia in my fictions. I'm an evil fiction-ka.
Scrik: Also, not mine. Part of the (in)famous Gerao-A.
"Olympians at heart": You get my title now? That part right there was the whole driving point for that title. It sucks, thank you all.
Lyman, Frank and Zach's Followers: I am half Dutch. I know how awesome these people are. The House of Orange shall never fail! -heroic stance-
"Kom op Letbal mij hoor u iedereen": Dutch for "Come on! Let me hear you all!"
"Luider iedereen": Dutch for "Louder everyone!"
"Voor de liefde van het spel verhuur, hoor mij u gil": Dutch for "For the love of the game, let me hear you scream!"
"jeezum crowe": GollumRox rox my sox! Yes, reference to the almighty Forkie who I cannot find anymore. Poor Forkie.