Title: Of Tolerance

Characters: Lina and Zelgadis

Pairings: slight L/G and A/Z if you really squint.

Rating: PG

Timeline: Between Revolution and Evolution-R

Summary: Nothing is worse than being stuck in a library with a very angry Lina, as Zelgadis soon discovered. Friendship fic with Zelgadis and Lina.

The wall seemed to shudder when a loud slam echoed throughout the library. Zelgadis gave a start, losing his grip on the ladder, which began to tip backwards. He hastily seized at the bookcase, only for the bookcase to began to fall as well. Instead of simply falling to the ground, the contents of the bookcase knocked into him, THEN he hit the ground.

He pulled his head out of the pile just in time to see a very angry sorceress storming past him without taking any notice of her surroundings.

There were two possible explanations for this: A) Gourry had said something to Lina that had resulted, predictably, in angering her, or B) Seyruun had somehow run out of food.

Taking into account that Seyruun was a prosperous country, and Lina's hometown had managed to feed her for over a decade, Zelgadis decided that it was the former. That, and there was a pink slipper clenched tightly in Lina's fist.

Zelgadis could only hope that she wouldn't notice him, but to no avail.

"Zel!" Lina snapped. "What are you doing sitting around? Get back to work!"

Perhaps she was too annoyed to notice the bookcase and numerous tomes pinning him down, or maybe she just didn't care. It didn't matter too much, and Zelgadis just grunted, pushing the bookshelf back up and beginning the tedious task of putting the books back up, in order.

"Stupid Gourry," Lina muttered angrily. She slammed a stack of books down particularly hard. "Idiot... Jerk... Jellyfish brains..." Each angry mumble was punctuated with another book hitting the table as she sorted through them.

'Well, at least now I know that Seyruun isn't going into a food crisis,' Zelgadis thought sarcastically. Lina's fury seemed to hover around the library like a haze, and she seemed determined to make him do more research. He mentally weighed his options, and then sighed, rolling his eyes. He'd probably get a fireball for this... "I give up... Lina, what did Gourry do?"

A page ripped slightly as Lina's hand jerked. Hastily, she let go and fumbled through the desk drawers for something to fix it with. "What makes you think he did anything?"

"Why else would you be slamming books around and blowing up at everything?" Zelgadis tried not to roll his eyes.

"Nothing," Lina scowled. She finished her clumsy repair of the book and tried to read it again. "He just made a... comment..."

It all made sense now. Zelgadis had a pretty good idea as to what Gourry had said, "You know that everyone only remarks about that because you let it get to you, right?"

Lina's jaw dropped, "What?"

"It's true," Zelgadis insisted. "That's the one thing that's guaranteed to get you angry. If you pretended that you don't care, eventually people will get tired of it."

Well, that wasn't necessarily true... But Zelgadis was certain that either way, the library was going to go up in smoke in about five minutes. At least this way there was a slim chance of preserving the peace and salvaging whatever good mood Lina had before.

"Hey, Lina!"

They both turned to see Gourry bounding towards them, an ice cream cone held in each hand. "Look! I brought you some Ice Cream!" Amelia was trailing behind him, looking amused.

"Ooh!" Lina beamed, the anger leaving her face so quickly it was as if it was never there. She snatched the cone.

One of the librarians started towards them, but a sharp glance from Amelia subdued her.

"Your idea, I suppose?" Zelgadis inquired quietly. Amelia gave a smile and a nod.

There was a sound of something being hit, and they looked back at Gourry in Lina in time to see Gourry stagger back a bit, a slipper mark on his face.

"Knew it wouldn't last."

Zelgadis and Amelia jumped, looking back to see Pokota floating there and watching the sorceress and swordsman with interest.

"Pokota-san, when did you get here?"

"Knew what wouldn't last?"

"Was here the entire time," Pokota shrugged. "I hid when Lina came storming in here, though." He finally answered Zelgadis's question, "I knew that your attempt to get Lina to ignore comments on her chest wouldn't last."

Zelgadis shrugged, "It was worth a try."

A/N: Written for Earthstar_chan on livejournal. I had a lot of difficulty coming up with a friendship situation for Lina and Zelgadis, and I'm still not quite satisfied, but hopefully it's okay. There will be a companion piece to this.