They both entered the apartment, where Lina busted in before Gourry and acted like the apartment was her own. Gourry dropped his bag by the door and closed the door behind him as he watched Lina walk around the main room, taking a look around. He stared at the girl for a moment as she continued looking; the name now was familiar to him as well as the way she looked. It frustrated him to think he knew this girl somehow, but he couldn't remember where from.
Shaking his head a little, he went pass the girl who flopped herself down onto the couch, turning the TV on and flicking through the channels.
"You must be hungry. Want something to eat?"
"Sure thing. Hey! No cable?"
Gourry headed into the kitchen which connected to the main room and he began putting things together, turning on the oven and started cooking straight away.
"I'm not buying all those channels when I'm never going to watch them all."
"Wow, you're pretty sheltered then aren't you?"
Gourry raised an eyebrow as he continued cooking.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Oh! Um…nothing. Don't worry about it. Hey that smells great."
Lina got up from the couch and headed into the kitchen where Gourry was beginning to place some of the food on some plates. Lina sat down at the table, grabbing the knife and fork and looking hungrily at the food. The second Gourry placed the food down on the table, Lina was devouring it like air.
Watching on, Gourry realised that she was getting through the food pretty quickly and needed to cook more, so he kept going. He placed more and more food on her plate and she kept eating and eating, suprising the hell out of Gourry. He was beginning to wonder how she managed to look so skinny but have an appetite to nearly match his own.
After some time, Lina had enough food and so Gourry could finally stop cooking. He pulled a chair up and sat down opposite Lina, just glad to be off his feet for a moment.
"I never knew I would meet someone with an appetite as big as mine."
Ungracefully, Lina burped and patted her now well-fed stomach, leaning back on the chair.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, it's suprising considering you're pretty much skin and bones and really flat-chested."
"What did you say?"
Lina glared and within split-seconds had leapt over the table, tackling Gourry off the chair and throttled him on the ground. Lina had a dangerous look on his eyes whilst Gourry had nothing but surprise in his.
"I AM NOT FLAT! HEAR ME?"
Gourry nodded frantically since he had no air to speak with. However something seemed to have freaked Lina out because she stopped throttling Gourry. She looked down at him, the dangerous look gone and instead she looked as though she had seen a ghost. She closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head, shaking the strange thoughts away from her mind.
Moments later they were sat back down at the table, Lina dusting herself off and Gourry rubbing his neck which still had imprints of Lina's hands on it. Then when he gathered himself together he looked over at Lina.
"So I know you're lying. Firstly you're not 18 and I'm pretty sure you weren't kicked out of your parent's home."
Gourry spoke calmly and his statement had surprised Lina. Then realising she was busted she looked down and spoke quietly.
"Fine. I'm not 18. I'm 16 and I'm telling the truth. I know I still look young for that age but that's just the way I'm built. I didn't get kicked out from my home either. I ran away because I didn't want to stay anymore. I was tired of being stuck in one place and I wanted to travel the world."
"So why are you on the streets, stealing things?"
"Well I quickly realised that to travel the world, you need money and being 16, I don't have any savings. I got stuck in this town and have been saving up to leave. The money I took from those guys should really help me."
"It's a dangerous way to live though. You cross the wrong people and they'll be after you, wanting to kill you, they don't care if you're 16 or a girl."
"I said I can handle myself!"
Lina then reached into the sleeve of her top and pulled out an 8 inch dagger which snapped open. Gourry's eyes widened a little seeing the blade in her hands.
"Don't worry; it's just to protect myself. If anyone tries to attack me I can just…hey! What do you think you're doing?"
Gourry had shot out of the chair and was behind Lina before she realised it. He grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back and grabbed the hand holding the blade and placed it just by her neck.
"Or someone could come along and use that thing against you. You have no idea how to use it, and you shouldn't be alone on the streets because you'll end up dead!"
Lina shrugged Gourry off, pulling away from him and stood up with her back to the fridge-freezer.
"Well I'm not going back home if that's what you're suggesting. I can handle myself perfectly fine! So screw you!"
Lina turned and headed for the door but was stopped and dragged back, then pinned against the wall.
"You are not going out there alone. You can stay here for the night and if you really insist on leaving tomorrow, then I'm going with you. You need someone to protect you and so I'm going to be the one to do that."
Lina glared up at the blonde man and they stayed like that for sometime. Gourry could tell she was thinking things through, but taking a bit more time with it this time compared to before. Eventually she came up with her answer.
"Fine then. I guess I could use the help."
"Good, well I think you should go to bed now."
"Who do you think you are? My dad?"
"No. Your protector."