AN: This takes place after Luke and Millina meet Lina and Gourry in the 9th novel and before the 10th and alludes to an incident that Millina mentions.
The stars looked down on her disapprovingly, but Millina did not care. She was thoroughly sick of Luke and his ridiculous talk of their love. At first she had thought that if she persistently turned him down he would get the message and give it a rest, but his skull was so thick that she wondered if there was even room for a brain within. Really, how many rejections could a man take!? Where was his pride!? Some days she handed out rejections by the hour. Most people's egos would be so badly bruised they'd slip through the floor and die. But not Luke. He kept coming back for more.
Worse, he was escalating. When she'd come down for dinner after putting her stuff away she had found that Luke had reserved a private table for them away from the picnic style tables and benches that the other patrons had to make due with. When she caught sight of the white table cloth and bottle of wine that was illuminated by a single candle she rolled her eyes and turned around to walk straight back to the communal dining room. "Oh Millina!" he called as he threw his arms around her as he yelled, "Love-love attack!"
"Get a clue!" Millina yelled as she slugged him off her and he flew back into the wall, knocking a few decorative plates from it, "I could never love you!"
Luke's eyes filled with tears as he stared at the broken plates scattered around them. She scoffed as she turned to leave when he said, "You say that, but you travel with me." She froze in her tracks as her hands balled into fists and she turned to knock his teeth in. But when she did she saw that the tears in his eyes had turned into hearts as he clasped his hands and said, "If you didn't love me then why put up with my love-love attacks? Oh, Millina, you're just so shy and…"
"You don't know when to shut up!" she yelled as she raced out of the dining room and ran up the stairs into her room and slammed the door behind her and locked it. As she started to pack she never heard him come up into his room. She hoped it meant he'd gone to the bar to nurse his wounded pride and wouldn't discover her. Wherever he had gone, though, he obviously felt secure enough in his belief that she would be there the next morning to not bother checking in on her.
She would show him! She would show him just how little he meant to her! She would prove to him just how little she loved him!
She levitated out of her hotel room and took off in a random direction. She was exhausted. She was fed up. In so many ways her life had improved since she left Flowave, but because of him she was hurting for good company. Sure, he was a good enough business partner. He could fight well and was useful in hunting down treasure. And in many ways he was an overgrown boy in need of love and warmth that could have been enduring…had she not known about the monster that lay deep within him. It could have been tolerable if he respected her desire to remain professional partners and nothing more. But for whatever reason he couldn't be satisfied with merely traveling with her. And constantly fending off his advances left her feeling like a fool.
It never occurred to him that she traveled with him because she was too scared of what would happen if she didn't. But from his end it was a sign of her secret love that just had to be awakened. And in some respects she couldn't blame him. Her actions were at odds with her words. So now it was time to show him that she was serious.
She grinned as she imagined his reaction when he would wake up to find that she was gone. The look on his face when he realized that she was really gone and was serious when she had said that she could never love him. It would be unfortunate to miss witnessing the moment when he realized that she left because of how little she cared for him. But at least she knew he would have gotten the message.
And if the wall separating him from Shabranigdo did crumble and fall, then she was sure that Lina and Gourry would be able to handle it. Why else would she have felt such peace when she met them? It was as though something in her bones was telling her that the backup she had long desired had finally arrived. And the longer the situation with Sherra had gone on the more reasons Millina had to trust her instincts. And when Lina had cast the Ragna Blade, well, Millina was all ready to hand over the reigns of keeping an eye on Luke to them.
Millina had heard rumors about the Ragna Blade but had never met anyone who could wield it until she met Lina. Aside from Lei Magnus Millina wasn't sure that any other human could wield it. And while Gourry didn't seem to have any impressive ace up his sleeve, he was a top notch swordsman whose senses were supernatural. Her eyesight was keen but he made her look nearsighted! Further, Millina had seldom seen two people more in tune with each other on the battlefield. They supported each other flawlessly and amplified the other's skills. Surely if there were two humans who could take down Shabranigdo it would be them.
Millina glanced back up at the stars and scowled, "What?"
Of course, they were silent. Millina stared back at the ground and grumbled to herself. Of course, she was taking a chance, betting on the likelihood that Lina and Gourry would run into Luke again and that they would be able to stop him. But she was so sick of his antics. Surely she'd done more than enough to ensure the safety of the world!
"This isn't my burden anymore!" Millina yelled up at the stars. They continued to regard her coldly. Millina huffed. "Well maybe if I tracked Lina and Gourry down and warned them, would that make you happy?"
They continued to glare down in disapproval. Especially because she could feel the hesitation build up within her. What if she did track them down and warn them, and then what if they decided the best thing to do was to kill Luke?
Millina stopped in her tracks. She always stopped there when she thought about telling Lina and Gourry and pondered the plausibility that they would kill him. Because while he drove her out of her mind, she didn't want his death on her conscience. Even if he drove her insane, at times like these she would remember the overgrown hurt boy that he was. Gavroche could have easily become a man like him if he'd had the chance. And when she thought of Luke like that, she felt some warmth for him.
But she could also never forget what happened to her mother and her sister, as well as other women who thought they could heal an overgrown hurt boy with enough love and tenderness. No. Millina would not let that happen to her. She had to be cold. She had to be firm. She had to be unapproachable.
And she had to be there.
A familiar weight pressed down upon her shoulders. But she turned around nonetheless. At the end of the day she was the one who took on this burden to protect Cosette, Cadence, Dougal and their baby. She couldn't just dump this on the remote possibility that Lina and Gourry would just happen to be there and happen to be able to stop him because she was tired of carrying it. Like it or not, she had to go back and carry on.
Slowly she started back to the inn. Well, Millina thought miserably as she looked up, at least the stars are happy now.
AN: In going over the later novels I forgot just how embarrassed Gourry is for Luke. I'm going to have to explore it a bit more, as well as contrasting Luke's approach to romance with Gourry's. I also just want to say, the "love-love attack" thing is in the novels. I could not make up something so…yeah. Anyway, this takes place between the 9th and 10th novel. Anyway, one thing that struck me in the 9th novel was that Millina was described as smiling when she met Lina and Gourry and curious about them, in contrast to future novels where she doesn't really smile. This is my explanation as to why.