Hello everyone! As usual, I don't own anything, I'm just a fan writing some fiction. Please enjoy, and thank you for reading!

43- Promises to Keep

When Pestis and Enrique managed to catch back up with the group, they found that Zelgadis and Zara had already joined them. It appeared that it hadn't been long, however- Gourry was still desperately clinging to Zara, both of them overcome with emotion. It had been a rough night for everyone.

Seeing Zara again caused Enrique to stop, pausing to catch his breath, but Pestis continued on closer and was met by Zelgadis.

"Wow, you really came through for us, Zel!" he exclaimed with a smile. "I knew you could do it-"

SLAP

Pestis' cheek was already bruised enough from Gourry's earlier assault, but Zelgadis didn't seem to notice- or care. "Oww…" the professor whined. "Zelgadisssss, whyyyyy?"

"I've got a bone to pick with you." Zelgadis whispered harshly. "I'm not very happy with how you handled things. But we'll talk about that later."

"Alright… I'm glad to see that you're safe too." Pestis muttered, rubbing his cheek. "At least Gourry asked me if I was alright before he hit me…"

Zara was now clinging to Enrique instead, crying on his shoulder while Enrique stared silently, unable to do much else. Shizuri watched, dabbing tears away from her eyes with a handkerchief, and Lyos watched, filled with emotion as well but secretly wishing everyone would just stop crying already. It was like a sob-fest. Could they all just realize that everything was okay now?

"So now what?" Gourry finally asked once he'd regained his composure. "Do we just… go home from here? What's going to happen to Azarel?"

"It's going to take Azarel a long time to recover from being impaled by a holy sword." Pestis broke in. "So, in the meantime, we'll probably have to do more research about the Key of the Aqualord. With what we've learned from Azarel tonight, it's clear that there's more to the Aqualord's power than we'd counted on."

"Some final battle." Zelgadis sighed. "I don't like leaving villains out and about to do more evil, but I guess we don't have much of a choice. If we have time to break away from fighting Mazoku, we should take it. Especially with Lina…"

"Lina!" Gourry gasped loudly. "Oh my gosh, Lina!"

"Wh-what's wrong?" Zara demanded. "What happened?"

"N-no, it's not…" Gourry stammered. "We're probably too late already…"

"Too late?" Zara gasped. "What's going on! Please-"

"It's just… the baby is being born now." Gourry interrupted, and Zara's eyes grew wide.

"Now?"

"Well, probably…"

"You may still have some time." Shizuri broke in. "The whole process is probably going to take longer than you think."

"If we hurry-" Pestis jumped up and started forward, though he lost his balance and fell face-first into the snow.

"You're in no shape to hurry anywhere." Zelgadis scolded, picking him up. "But… it looks like there aren't any other major injuries…"

"I'm fine." Shizuri held up her hands. "I'd say it was pretty clean for a Mazoku battle."

"Speak for yourself." Pestis groaned, still leaning on Zelgadis for support.

"Gourry did more damage to you than Azarel did." Lyos scolded. "It's your own fault."

Gourry cringed. "I'm sorry… I overreacted…"

"No." Zelgadis placed one hand on his shoulder. "You did not overreact."

"What about the baby?" Zara jumped up, tugging on Gourry's hand. "What are we gonna do?"

"You can go on ahead of us." Zelgadis offered, helping Pestis up a second time. When he'd moved to comfort Gourry, he'd left the professor to stand on his own and he'd fallen over again. "You can move faster than we can. You know the way, don't you?"

"I-I can find it." Gourry nodded. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely."

"You need to be there more than we do." Shizuri picked up Zara- who had been vying for his father's attention, waving his arms and jumping up and down, asking to be picked up- and handed him to Gourry. "We'll help Professor Nisery while you get back to Lina."

"Th…thanks…" Gourry shifted Zara's weight from his right to his left shoulder and gave an awkward wave. "I'll… see you…"

"Run! Be off with you!" Pestis waved his arms around as though he were trying to shoo them off. He kept his arms outstretched as they disappeared from sight. "…remember me…"

"Okay, cut the theatrics." Zelgadis hit him over the side of the head. "You and I are going to have to have a long talk on our way back."

"Ooh, how lovely." Pestis was in a daze, leaning on Zelgadis' arm with his head on Zelgadis' shoulder. "You have a wonderful shoulder, Zelgadis. Has anyone ever told you that?"

Lyos groaned. "To think that this guy is a retainer of Shabranigdo… what will the Mazoku do now?"

By the time that Gourry and Zara made it back to Pestis' house, they were soaked through from the rain. They hated to step inside and get water everywhere, but there wasn't much to do. The two wrung out their hair, at least, and Gourry took Zara's hand, leading him toward the back of the house, where they could find towels and dry clothes. They passed through the room where Miss Hayze was resting, and Zara noticed her right away.

"Hey, hey! You're alright!" Zara exclaimed. She opened one eye and looked at him with a smile.

"So are you. I'm glad."

Gourry took the moment to pause by the fireplace. He knew that Zara was not as affected by the cold, but he was freezing after being soaked through in the wintry air.

"So where's the baby? What's going on?" Zara continued to pester Miss Hayze with questions.

"I don't know." Miss Hayze answered with her eyes closed. "The room at the end of the hall seems to be soundproof. I can't hear a thing. I suppose it's just as well."

"I can't imagine why Mister Nisery would soundproof his bedroom…" Gourry muttered.

"Me neither." Zara piped up. Either he didn't notice the sarcasm in Gourry's voice, or didn't think too hard about it. He wouldn't know, anyway.

Gourry reluctantly pulled himself away from the fire. "I'm going to check on things. Stay here, Zara."

"Yessir." Zara nodded obediently, beginning to pull waterlogged objects out of his bag and place them in front of the fireplace to dry out.

Gourry wandered down the hallway, wringing his hands nervously as he approached the door at the end. He reached for the doorknob, but stopped himself and gave it a knock instead. After a few moments, he became afraid that no one would answer, so he called instead. Maybe it was soundproofed one way but not the other. Was that possible?

"Hey! It's me, Gourry! Is everything okay?"

There was another pause. Gourry could hear some commotion from within- it sounded like Lina was in some real pain, not that he could do anything about it. Amelia's voice sounded… frantic? Or was it excited?

Before he could knock on the door again, Amelia opened it just a crack.

"MISTERGOURRYPLEASEWAITJUSTAFEWMINUTES."

That was all. The door was closed again, and the confusion once again was muffled. Gourry stood, speechless. Had the door just been slammed in his face? Well, Amelia had been too polite to slam it. But the concept was the same.

Reluctantly, Gourry pulled himself away from the door and moved back toward the room where Miss Hayze and Zara were waiting for him. The woman still looked as though she were asleep, but Zara looked up at him expectantly from his place by the fire.

"Is the baby here yet?"

"No, not yet." Gourry shook his head. "Be patient a little longer. Why don't you come with me? Let's get into some dry clothes."

"Oh, yes!" Zara jumped to his feet and followed after him. Within a few minutes, both were dressed in warm pyjamas with their wet clothing hung to dry over the bathtub that Lyos had so graciously cleaned a few weeks before. Gourry took Zara's hand and led him back to the fireplace with a brush in hand to tame the boy's unruly hair. It was clear it hadn't been cared for in weeks- a testament to the low importance of personal hygiene to Mazoku types. Did full-blooded Mazoku have to brush their hair every day? Even the ones with long hair? It was a good question, but Gourry didn't have an answer. Maybe he'd ask Enrique later.

"Zara," he began once all the knots in the boy's hair were sorted out. "Azarel said some interesting things when we were fighting her tonight."

"Yes?" Zara began warily.

"Azarel tried to murder you, that's not a question. But the way she did it… she said that you poisoned yourself. Is that true?"

Zara was silent.

"I'm not angry, I promise. You won't get in trouble. It's all in the past now and everything has worked out. But I need to know."

The boy stayed in place, still tight-lipped.

"Are you okay, Zara? I'm your father. I worry about you. I need to know these things."

"…yes, I guess I must have." Zara finally murmured. "I'm sorry."

"This is not something you can be sorry for, Zara. It's not something that can be done on accident. This sort of thing requires conviction."

Zara hung his head. "But it wasn't like that. I had nowhere to go. What was I supposed to do?"

Gourry took a deep breath. "Can I tell you a story?"

Zara nodded mutely.

Gourry shifted and placed one arm around the boy's shoulder. "There was a swordsman once, who was so lonely and desperate, that he was willing to throw his sword away."

"Throw it away forever?" Zara asked. "But a swordsman's sword is his life."

"Exactly. He was going to throw his whole life into the ocean, where it would sink forever and no one would ever find it. Don't you think that's sad?"

"Yes." Zara nodded. "I think it's very sad."

"Someone stopped him, though."

"Really?"

"Yeah. A fisherman saw him about to throw the sword, and couldn't help but interfere. It was too nice of a sword to throw away, he said. A sword like that was too valuable- throwing it away would be a terrible waste. If the swordsman kept the sword, he could do something meaningful with it. When it's something that means everything to you, you can't just toss it aside. You have to do something with it. Do you get it?"

"Yes. I do."

Gourry tugged on Zara's cheek in an attempt to get him to smile. "I don't think I have to tell you who that swordsman was, do I?"

"No." Zara shook his head.

That was enough for the moment, and Gourry kept his arm around his son for a few minutes, staring at the fire in the fireplace.

"Zara," he began finally, "look at me."

The boy obediently turned around to face him, a questioning expression on his face. Gourry reached out and cupped his cheek in one hand.

"Don't ever, ever do anything like that again."

Zara looked down at the carpet, but he reached up and placed his hand over his father's. "Yes, Gourry."

"Do you promise?"

"I promise."

Gourry slid his hand away, and Zara turned back around so that he could lean back and rest his head on Gourry's chest. Gourry began running his fingers through Zara's hair, and after a while Zara leaned forward to give him more room. Gourry absentmindedly began to braid the boy's hair.

"Your hair looks very nice up, the way you did it earlier."

"Enrique did it." Zara replied.

Gourry smiled. "He seems like a sweet boy. What do you think of him?"

Zara's face visibly reddened. "I really like him."

"I'm glad." Gourry replied. "He really likes you too."

There was silence for another moment, but Zara's smile could be clearly seen, even from the side view that Gourry had.

"It's funny, I never had long hair at your age. I grew it out when I was older."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think I should cut it?"

"That's your choice."

"I like it long."

"Then you should keep it."

Zara closed his eyes and thought on it a moment. "Yeah… I probably will-" He cut off abruptly as he picked up a sound from the other side of the house. It was the sound of a crying infant and a woman's voice- Amelia's- trying to soothe the child into quiet. Zara jumped up, unintentionally yanking his hair out of Gourry's hands, leaving the unfinished braid to hang loosely over his shoulders. "Baby!" he yelled with excitement.

Gourry suddenly choked up. He felt like he couldn't breathe. Was it happiness or fear?

Zara met Amelia at the doorway to the hall, jumping up and down as he looked at the crying bundle in her arms. Gourry finally managed to pull himself to his feet, inching forward.

"Is Lina okay?" he choked. The baby looked fine. That wasn't his immediate worry.

Amelia's smile made the answer clear, however. "She's wonderful. You should be very proud, Mister Gourry. They're two beautiful twin boys."

Gourry couldn't form a response to that last sentence. He stood mutely, his mouth hanging open. Zara, however, was unfazed.

"Twins? No way!" Zara exclaimed, jumping up and down. "Twin brothers! Hey, Lady, I have two new brothers! Two!"

Miss Hayze smiled without opening her eyes. "How lovely."

"Amelia, lemme see! I wanna see!" the boy continued jumping up and down, and Amelia laughed in response, leaning down to offer the child a view of his newborn brother.

"This is the big guy. His younger brother is smaller. So small, actually, that we're a little worried about him, so Lina's keeping him for now to see if he'll nurse. If we can get him eating, he should be fine, but…"

"Y-you think he'll be okay?" Gourry asked, still choked with concern, now for his youngest son rather than his wife.

"I can't say." Amelia wasn't going to lie, but she wasn't going to be pessimistic either. "We'll see in a few minutes. I'm sure it'll all work out."

"Linaaaa!" Zara yelled, running down the hallway. Amelia watched with a smile, so she must have been confident that Lina was in a stable enough state to put up with a yelling, excited Zara. That comforted Gourry more than anything.

Amelia approached Gourry, offering the crying bundle to him. "Would you like to hold him?"

"…uh…" The sound that came out of Gourry's mouth was not coherent, but he reached out anyway, and Amelia relinquished hold of the infant into his father's arms.

Gourry adjusted the blankets around him, cradling him gently. The baby was still crying, and so Gourry reached out and stroked his cheek in an attempt to calm him. It was more effective than he'd imagined. The baby turned his head toward his father's finger, his cries changing from sobs into a more curious yelling sort of sound. Gourry cringed. The kid was loud.

But, at the same time, he was perfect.

"Enrico." Amelia finally spoke up, motioning to the baby. "Isn't that what you decided?"

"Y-yeah." Gourry stammered. Having a name to put with the face all of a sudden was overwhelming. "What about the little one?"

"She hasn't decided on a name for him yet." Amelia shook her head. "She wanted to wait… t-to talk to you, I mean."

Gourry nodded. "Right. I guess… should we…?" He wanted to point toward the hallway, but his hands were otherwise occupied at the moment. Amelia understood what he meant, however.

"Yes, of course! Lina's going to be very happy to see you. Even in the thick of things, she was worrying about you." Amelia nodded quickly. "Where is the rest of your group?"

"They're on their way." Gourry replied. "Zel was helping Pestis, who's kind of in a bad way after everything that happened tonight. Lyos and Shizuri stuck with them, but they told Zara and me to run on ahead."

"Thank goodness." Amelia sighed. She left Enrico in Gourry's care and led him back down the hallway to where Lina and Zara were already talking up a storm. The door was open, and Zara's voice could be heard from down the hall.

"-he must have been super hungry!"

"That's a good thing. He needs all that he can get." Lina had taken all of the pillows from the bed and piled them up behind her so that she could sit up. Her shirt was still unbuttoned, but she had the baby bundled up and sleeping quietly in her lap. "Hey, Amelia! Good news!" she pointed to the infant. "This one's a fighter. I think he'll be just fine."

"Oh, what a relief." Amelia sighed. "I was really worried about him for a while there."

"You should've seen him!" Zara exclaimed, with a smile that made Gourry's cheeks sore just looking at him. "He's so tiny, but he eats just like his parents!"

"That's a good thing, isn't it?" Gourry perched on the side of the bed, still cradling Enrico, who continued to make a racket.

"Of course. He needs to, so that he'll grow up into a powerful warrior." Even Lina's smile looked exhausted, but that didn't make her happiness any less genuine.

"Mister Gourry wanted to know if you'd given him a name yet." Amelia spoke up. "I told him you wanted to wait until you could discuss it with him."

Lina laughed, sheepishly scratching the back of her head. "Yeah, well… I kinda gave him a name already. Sorry about that."

"Don't be sorry." Gourry shook his head. "Enrico was a name of my invention. It's only fair."

Lina smiled quietly, looking down at the sleeping baby. "…Luke. His name is Luke."

There was a moment of silence- well, as silent as the room could get with Enrico's constant commotion. "That's a wonderful name." Gourry finally choked out. "It suits him well."

"I think so too." Lina nodded.

Enrico's crying grew louder, and Gourry jumped, beginning to rock the baby back and forth in an attempt to soothe him. "Lina, have you fed this one yet?"

"No. I'll bet that's his issue." Lina reached out her arms. "Hand him over here."

"I'll hold Luke!" Zara volunteered eagerly. Lina retracted her arms before Gourry could hand her the crying baby, and instead picked up the younger twin and gently placed him in his brother's arms." Be careful with him. Support his head. Don't move too abruptly." she instructed, though it wasn't really necessary. Zara was a responsible older brother.

"They both look a lot like Gourry." Zara observed out loud. "Don't they?"

"Oh good- it wasn't just in my head!" Lina laughed. "They really do look like their dad… especially Enrico. He's got the same nose and everything."

Gourry had frozen up when he heard Zara speak his name. "Y-you…" he tried to speak. "…you think so?"

"Yeah, totally!" Zara exclaimed, pointing to the baby that Lina was holding. "Enrico has a big nose, just like Gourry!"

Gourry's hand flew to his face. "I… have a big nose?"

Lina laughed. "Have you ever looked in a mirror?"

"Luke has more of a chubby face, though- like Lina."

"Excuse me?!"

Gourry laughed at Lina's reaction. "Oh, be quiet, Gourry!" she pouted.

Amelia slid backwards toward the door and waved at them. "I'm going to let you have a moment to yourselves, then. Congratulations, all of you."

"Amelia, wait." Gourry stopped her before she could get too far. "Could I… uh… talk to you for a minute? Alone?"

Amelia stared at him, nodding her head. "…sure."