Chapter Five

Carefully, at the crack of dawn, a shadowy figure made its way into Lina's room.

Tangled up on the floor, fully clothed, the figure noted in relief, both Lina and Gourry were sleeping heavily, snoring in a symphony of grating noises. Lina was drooling on Gourry's head, but judging from the smile on his face, he didn't seem to mind.

Slowly, the figure reached to the side and drew out a long butcher knife. It glinted slightly in the light.

This time, Luna thought, grinning from ear to ear.

As soon as Luna was an inch away from making contact with her sister's cheek, Lina's eyes snapped open, and she growled. She moved to the side, rolling out of the way, just as Luna swung her dagger in a full arc.

Gourry awoke a split second later, yelping and moving as far off to he side as he could.

Lina lunged from the floor to her clothes, diving her hand into the pile and snatching up her dagger. Within seconds, she had it up and parried against Luna's next hit. The sound of metal-on-metal rang through the early morning air.

"DAMMIT," a gruff, male voice shouted. "I GOT USED TO BEING WITHOUT THAT HORRID NOISE."

Gourry went pale and buried his face under the nearest blanket as the two sisters engaged in a rather intense knife fight right in front of him. When Lina managed to chase Luna out of the room, instead of giving up and letting her go, she chased her older sister down the hallway, shrieking about beauty sleep and delicate maidens.

There were several more clangs of metal, more shrieks, and alot of chuckling from Luna. When Gourry finally mustered up the courage to emerge from his nest, he was just in time to watch as Luka rushed past him and smashed her fists down towards her daughters, one fist for each head.

The double squeals and shouts of protest were louder than the clangs of metal had ever been.

"No!" Luka snapped. Gourry peered out, and saw that both girls were cowered before their mother on the ground, a knife or dagger in hand, their arms held over their injured heads. "No knife fights in the house! Take it outside!"

Gourry blinked in disbelief. Was this really how normal families were?

Lina looked up at Luka with watery eyes. "That's not fair, Mama!" she wailed. "I was sleeping just fine until she came in and started it!"

"Huh," Luna snorted. "You started it by coming home. I was finishing it."

Lina felt a surge of anger, and she held her dagger up, the blade glinting with her fury. "I'm going to kick your ass!" she shouted.

"Hah!" Luna laughed. "Bring it!"

Luka's fists came down again, harder, and both girls were brought to squeals again.

"Ah, yes," Delmas said from Gourry's side, scaring him so badly he almost lost control of his bladder. "The morning knife-fights. Actually sorta missed it."

Gourry felt the blood leave his face. "This is normal?" he wondered.

Delmas nodded sagely. "Absolutely. It's an Inverse family trait. Poor Luka-chan; she hates having to clean up the blood."

"Blood?!" Gourry squeaked.

Delmas reached over and ruffled Gourry's already messy and somewhat sticky hair, guffawing heartily. "You have alot to learn about the Inverse women," he boomed as he walked away.

Gourry scratched his head, then pulled his hand away and made a face. "Ugh. Lina drooled on me again."

Lina, from her spot on the floor, glowered at him. "What did you say?" she snapped.

Luna got up and sheathed her knife. Lina gaped at her from the floor. "You wear that thing to bed?" she demanded, appalled, but also a little impressed.

Luna rolled her eyes and walked away, going into the kitchen to find something to eat. "Shut up. I have to get ready for work, and don't need chipmunk chatters distracting me."

Lina got to her feet. "Distract you from what?" she demanded. "Chewing?"

Luka glowered at the two of them. "Outside," she growled. Delmas reached her side and gave her a kiss on the top of her head, which seemed to be like a button, for she relaxed instantly afterward.

Lina sneered at Luna a final time, then yawned and walked back down the hallway, meeting Gourry in the doorway to her room. She smiled her lazy smile, feeling a flutter of happiness at the sight of him in front of her, in her childhood home. "Hello," she said, reaching up and cupping his cheek gently.

Gourry sighed, closing his eyes and relaxing. At least her morning greeting with HIM hadn't changed into insanity. "Hello," he agreed.

"It's a little early," she observed, "but we could get a head start on the day and take a look around before I start my training."

Gourry blinked. "Look around?"

Lina nodded. "We didn't have time to properly look around yesterday. I want to take inventory. If we're going to stay here a while, I want to know what I have to deal with."

Gourry tilted his head to one side. "Are we staying here a while?" he wondered.

Lina smiled. "Yep. A few weeks at least. I have to learn the trade, and you have to learn to help me. So you won't be bored, if that's what you're worried about."

Gourry nodded, his eyes going a little unfocused. He suddenly could smell the distinct scent of bacon, and no longer cared about anything but eating.

Lina went on, hoping to ground him. "You said yourself that you wanted to improve on your own smithing skills," she said, trying to ignore the glazed over look in his eyes. She sighed. Why do I bother?

"Gourry," she snapped.

"Bacon," Gourry answered.

Lina rolled her eyes but dragged him over to the kitchen table. The conversation could wait.

X X X

While Lina waited for Gourry to finish washing up and dressing, she sat in her room, eyeing the bookshelf before her with a red face.

Some of the books so carefully organised and placed in the shelf were embarrassing. While she prided in her sense of realism, when she was a child, she apparently had alot of ideas that she, thankfully, grew out of.

Probably the most obvious one was her idea of princes. There were alot of fairy tale books that, when she flipped through them, brought back horrible memories of princes swooping down to marry her and grant her all of their money and estates.

The other horrible reminder of how silly she had been was a sketchbook full of sloppy and crooked drawings of herself in long and elaborate dresses. She had never been much of an artist (unless you counted magical symbols), and her skill was even less evident in the depictions.

Very early in her travels, she learned that, when on the road, dresses were as impractical as not carrying water. They tangled, ripped, got caught in things, and got dirty very easily. They also hindered her mobility. She had actually started out in a skirt, if she allowed herself to remember, before being forced to, on the nearest town out of Zephilia, break down and buy pants. After that, she never went back.

Lina shuddered and shoved the book back into its place, leaning back and sitting down on the floor. She groaned, loudly; back then she would have given anything to get into messes. Now she just wanted to sleep.

"Lina-chan," Luka said softly from the doorway. Lina looked up and blinked. "Your father and I are going to open up shop."

Lina made a face. "This early?" she wondered.

Luka smiled sweetly, but Lina saw the thin streak of teasing. "Your father needs all of the time he could get," she replied. "Plus, profit."

Delmas, who had been walking by, growled at the first part of the sentence, then made a sniffing noise.

"Should I go with you?" Lina wondered.

Luka shook her head. "No, we have to discuss how we're going to start, your father and I, and need some time to prep the forge. Spend an hour or two torturing Gourry-kun, and then come and meet us."

Lina went pink, suddenly shy. "Mama, tell me the truth...what do you really think of him?"

Luka leaned against the doorway. Her eyes flickered to the side for a brief second, so brief that Lina decided she had imagined it. "What do you think of him, Lina-chan?" she shot back.

Lina smiled faintly, looking to the side. Just thinking about him, especially here, in her home, made her feel all weird and silly. "I love him," she said simply. "He's dumb, and sometimes sexist, and makes fun of my breasts, but..." She shut her eyes, her smile widening. "I still love him."

Luka said, "I know. It's easy to see that, Lina-chan. While he's not the man I had initially pictured you with...well..."

Lina frowned, looking up. "What kind of man did you picture me with?"

Luka scratched her cheek, looking embarrassed. "Well, because of your personality, I always expected you to come home either a very submissive man, or... a woman."

Lina fell to the ground with a thud, groaning.

"But Gourry-kun is just so strong-willed, clearly with a mind of his own," Luka went on, as if Lina hadn't reacted. "I enjoy the challenge he offers you."

"So do I," Lina muttered. "Bring home a woman. What the hell?!"

Luka looked up innocently. "Well, we can't always be correct, can we?"

Lina stayed on her back, her eyes shut. "Oh, whatever. So you like him?"

"Yes, of course. Otherwise he would have been electrocuted by now, don't you think?"

Lina laughed a little. "Yeah, good point."

"Well, I'm off. See you two later."

Lina's eyes snapped open. Instead of her mother standing in the doorway, there stood Gourry. He smelled like soap, and his hair was wet and braided. He was blushing.

"Oh, hi," Lina smiled, not moving from her place on the floor. "You look pink."

Gourry rubbed the back of his head shyly. "Um, I, uh...sorta heard what you said."

Lina stared, her smile fading. So Luka HAD looked over to the side, and she had been looking at GOURRY. What a sneak!

She felt herself go pink. "Oh," she said, frantically going over her words and making sure she hadn't been too rude.

She shouldn't have bothered worrying. Gourry grinned, the grin turning into a leer. "So..." he said, his voice oily. "Bring home a woman, huh?"

Lina darted at him and tackled his legs, bringing him down so hard that he got winded. She then got up and walked away, snapping out, "I hate you all!"

Gourry laughed and laughed.