"Are you sure this is ok Lina?" Gourry asked as Lina dragged him towards the glass case containing the book.
"Of course it is! I'll even give it back when I'm done." She lied but Gourry was none the wiser.
They had stayed in the room for the night and decided to sleep and then come to the museum in the morning. After learning that mealtimes between them could be particularly violent after the fight over the food at breakfast, they went to the museum to work out the best way to take the book with the minimum of fuss. They had decided after taking a quick look around that it would be best to take it at night just after the museum closed.
However, they never left the museum so they didn't have to break in as they found a good hiding place in the tepee of an American Indian family at the Wild West exhibit. They stayed silent whilst the guards went round to check that everyone had left and then closed the place up. Lina at that point dragged Gourry out and tried to convince him that it would be all ok, but he still had his doubts until Lina told him she'd give the book back.
"Uhhh Lina? How are we supposed to get out of here with the book? We'd have to break out."
Lina stopped in mid-step, freezing and then sweat-dropping. She just realised that she hadn't thought out that part of the plan just yet. However she was happy with her quick thinking and turned immediately to face Gourry with a confident face.
"We'll just hide back in that tepee until the morning and then during the day we'll just leave and pretend as though we had just looked about for a bit before leaving."
"What about the book they'll see in your hand when they realise it's missing from the exhibit."
"Stop trying to ruin this for me!"
"I'm not trying to do that. I'm just trying to make sure we don't get into trouble."
Lina rubbed her head with impatience and threw the bag off her shoulder and towards Gourry's feet.
"Take a look in the bag."
Gourry picked up the bag and looked inside, then pulled out an old looking book.
"What's this?"
"That my friend is the dummy book that we're going to replace the real book with. It's exactly the same size and looks pretty much the same, so they will be none the wiser until we are far gone."
"Where did you get the book from?"
"I got it from the gift store, they're selling replicas and it's filled with information about the book, where it was found and stuff."
"Did you buy this, Lina?"
Lina rolled her eyes, and played the innocent card, holding her hands behind her back and rolling on the balls of her feet whilst whistling.
"Lina! You shouldn't have stolen it!"
"Hey you idiot! I'm technically not stealing it because I'm not leaving with it. The only book I'm taking is the real one and I've told you I'm going to give it back."
Gourry handed the bag back and crossed his arms.
"Ok then…"
"Thank you! Now, let's get the book."
She turned quickly and headed over to the glass case. She looked around it carefully, seeing if there were any traps or triggers for alarms but couldn't see any so she figured it best to just lift the glass case up and switch the books. She grabbed onto the sides of the case, and very carefully lifted the case into the air. She held her breath momentarily wondering if an alarm would go off. However nothing happened so she placed the case on the ground, switching the books and placing the case back on top. She then took the real book and placed it straight into her bag. She was only looking at it when she felt safe and far far away from this place.
"Ok Gourry, let's head back to the tepee. We might as well get some sleep before we leave, it might look suspicious if we look tired. Gourry? Gourry! What are you doing?"
Gourry had stopped and was looking at the case which contained the sword he had read about. He placed his hands on the glass case and looked at it closely, feeling drawn to it for some reason. He grabbed the long cylindrical case on his back and opened the top, revealing the sword that was placed on the wall of his old apartment.
"Sorry father. I know you're angry I took this sword but this other sword seems incredibly important. I know I need to have it but it means giving up this one. Please forgive me."
He pulled the glass case off and switched the swords and put the case back on then took a long look at the sword. He noticed the tiny pin in the handle and figured that must be what held the blade in place.
"YOU TWO! FREEZE!"
Both Gourry and Lina turned sharply towards the gathered security guards, all holding batons and were ready to use them.
"Hey! Hang on a second here. How did you know we were here?" Lina asked in shock.
"That's easy, we saw you on the security cameras and also you set of the silent alarms the second you stole the book and the sword."
Lina smacked the palm of her hand on her forehead, not believing her stupidity and realising she was blinded by her hunger for power to not realise how difficult it really was to steal something from a museum. However before she could say anything Gourry was moving.
He gripped the handle of his newly acquired sword and ran towards the guards who raised their batons in reaction. He was too quick for them though and easily avoided the baton strikes. He ducked and weaved amongst the security guards, and moved so quick that the guards couldn't even see where he was going. He then lashed out at them with the sheathed sword, and had knocked them all out within a few seconds. He then turned to Lina.
"Quick Lina, we have to get out of here before the police come." Gourry said sternly.
Lina nodded and quickly followed.
Author's Notes: Hey thanks guys. I appreciate all the kind comments you're giving me and I'll keep working hard to keep this going for your enjoyment. I really do appreciate the good comments but I would also love any comments telling me if I'm going wrong anywhere. As I keep saying, I'm not really a true writer, having sucked terribly at English in high school. I'm just writing this because I have ideas on the Slayers universe that I would like to write out that I've not really seen yet in other stories. I figured if I wanted to see it, well then I might as well write it myself.