"There are two things in life to aim at in life: First, to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it." - Logan Pearsal Smith
"Do they always eat like this?" Jarix asked, rubbing his head in amazement.
"To their credit, no," Zelgadis said, leaning back and sipping his coffee. Opposite them, Gourry and Lina were in the process of cleaning out Jarix's larder. Jarix just stared; he'd not been witness to Gourry's usual eating habits previous to Lina's rescue since the swordsman had only eaten when ordered to and then only enough to satisfy his friends that he wasn't going to waste away. Now, however, both sorceress and swordsman were putting away the food like there was no tomorrow. "They're not quite so bad today."
"They've eaten everything I have!" he said mournfully as they started fighting over the pot of stewed rabbit that Amelia sat on the table between them. Lina grabbed the handle while Gourry used his fork to jab her hand and make her let it go.
"Give it to me, Gourry!" she screeched. "You got the last loaf of bread!"
"And you ripped half of it off, too, so half of this is mine!"
"Is not!"
"Is too!"
Jarix simply stared. "I was hoping Gourry could tell me more about Graeswandyr's true nature. All he's said about it so far is, 'You were wrong.' How am I suppose to interpret that? I was wrong about what?"
"You won't get anything else out of him until he's stuffed himself, probably slept a good twelve hours - " Gourry glanced at Zelgadis and caught his eye a moment before going back to beating Lina off his share of the rabbit, " - and...never mind. I think you'd better go get more food, Jarix, or you're liable to have a riot on your hands," the Chimera added calmly.
"It's the middle of winter!" Jarix exclaimed, rounding on Zelgadis. "I'm going to have to go to Melkur for more supplies! And how am I going to pay for it? That was supposed to last me the entire winter."
"I think I can help you with that, Jarix-san," Amelia said as she sat down next to Zelgadis. "My father is, after all, the ruler of Kingdom." She smiled at him. "And it's the least I can do for all your help."
Jarix bowed his head. "My thanks, Princess."
They sat in silence and watched the two eat. "I think it's time to get some short-term supplies before these two turn to cannibalism to sate their appetites. They're going to be hungry again in a few hours and if we don't have anything to feed them, you two may be in big trouble."
"Zelgadis-san!" Amelia exclaimed. "What a horrible thing to say! They'd never do that - " She looked at their two friends nervously: Lina was ripping the meat from the rabbit ferociously. "I think..."
"Eh, I don't think I want to test that theory, Princess," Jarix said. "If you two will help, we can go get some supplies in Beram and be back here in a couple hours.
Zelgadis fixed the Priest with a stony stare. "I thought it took four hours to get from Beram to here."
"Eh heh...Well, that's if you go over the mountain..." Jarix rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"You mean there's another way?" Amelia demanded. Jarix nodded.
"Figures," Zel said, putting his coffee mug down and pushing away from the table. "Come on, then. If we're going, let's get going. Hey, you two!" he shouted.
Gourry and Lina froze in the middle of a duel for the last piece of the rabbit. "What?" they asked with mouths stuffed full of food.
"We're going to Beram for supplies. Try not to kill each other before we get back, okay?"
"You're going to get more food?" Lina asked anxiously.
Zel rolled his eyes. "Why else would we be going there in this weather?" There was a storm howling outside the mountain.
"Good! Because I haven't eaten nearly enough to even begin to feel better!" she said, stabbing Gourry's hand with her knife and stealing the last piece of meat.
"Hey!" the man shouted.
Zelgadis shook his head. "Yeah, yeah..." He straightened and waved at them absently. "Come on, Amelia, Jarix. The sooner we leave, the sooner we can get back." The three of them caught up their traveling cloaks and turned to leave.
They'd barely made it to the corridor down which Jarix led them before they heard a crash and a startled, "Gourry!" from Lina. Jarix winced and Zelgadis took Amelia's arm and steered her ahead of him to keep her from looking back to investigate. "Looks like you'd better add some dinnerware to that list of supplies we owe Jarix," he said with a broad, cryptic grin.
Gourry raised his hand in farewell as the others left. He turned his bright blue eyes sideways and looked at Lina. All the food was gone and she was leaning back in her chair, patting her stomach. "Ah," she crooned. "Now for a nice hot soak, wash my hair - "
She was interrupted as the tall swordsman sitting next to her suddenly stretched out his arm with lightning speed and in one quick, decisive motion cleared the table of its burden. Crockery, cutlery and the remains of their meal alike went crashing to the floor.
"Gourry!" Lina shouted, rounding on her husband angrily. Her reprimand died on her lips as she saw and felt the gas-blue burn of his eyes as they stared greedily at her. Shadows fell on his hair and she shivered involuntarily. A stab of fear twisted her heart as she sensed a glimmer of darkness that hadn't been part of him before - before what? What had he done to himself?
Her questions were cut short as his hands reached out and grabbed her by the bodice of her gown, fingers half-gloved in leather slipping inside the neckline. With an effortless twist, he deliberately parted the fine fabric to lay her bare before him.
"No - !" she gasped as she tried to pull the ruins of her dress back together, pushing at his hands, but he was too strong. He lifted her by the rent fabric and forced her backwards onto the table. Leaning menacingly over her, he finished parting the yards and yards of fabric that encased her. "Amelia...Zelgadis - they'll see!" she whispered, not really caring if they did or not.
"Let them," he said, his voice dark as he lowered his head to plant a kiss on her stomach. "They know already." He worked his way upwards towards her neck while reaching downwards to yank at the laces of his trousers. As his mouth found hers, he pulled her legs apart and moved between them. "I love you, Lina," he whispered against her lips.
"I love you, Gourry," she whispered back. The fear and dismay melted away in the heat her lover evoked inside her; his kisses demanded repayment in kind. As he took her, atop the tattered ruins of her ballgown, she stopped thinking altogether.
Later in Gourry's room, wrapped in a thick bathrobe, Lina knelt on the floor behind Gourry. They'd finally made it to the baths and helped each other wash in-between bouts of love-making. She lost count of how many times they'd made love, alternating between frenzied abandon and melting tenderness, each trying to express without words to the other how much they'd missed them. But now he was sitting on a bench, wrapped in a robe that was mate to hers, and patiently letting her trim off the scorched and blackened ends of his newly washed hair.
As the last scorched length dropped to the floor, she remembered what Gourry had said to Zelgadis right after rescuing her. She picked up a length of his golden hair that was unmarked and ran it through her fingers.
"Gourry?" She made a question of his name.
"Hmm?" he asked, twisting around to look at her. "Finished?"
"Yeah. Gourry, earlier you said something about a Soulbond and my hair helping Zel find me. What did you mean?"
She heard him take a deep breath. He turned and took her hand to pull her up to sit on the bench next to him. Reaching downwards, he picked up his discarded trousers and pulled something out of the pocket. Her eyes went round as she saw the bit of flame-red hair tied up with a length of black ribbon that he pulled out.
"What are you doing with that?" she demanded. "And where did you get it? You haven't been cutting my hair, have you? Because if you have, so help me - "
"No, no, Lina, I haven't!" he said quickly. "I, uh..." Gourry cleared his throat nervously. He wouldn't look at her. "Remember when Zangulus and that sorcerer...The creepy one with all the twins? What was his name?"
"Vrumegun."
"Vrumegun. That was it. Remember when they used that anti-magic circlet on you? To keep you from doing magic?"
Lina nodded. "And you cut it off - and cut my hair at the same time. You mean to tell me you kept that bit of hair? That was a long time ago!"
He nodded. "And then again when we were in Sairaag and you yanked out some of my hair to make a copy of me?"
"Syphiel did that."
"She did? I could have sworn it was you."
She glared at him. "It was Sylphiel, and you yanked out some of mine, too."
"Well, I didn't put all of it in the copy machine." He blushed.
"You didn't." It wasn't a question.
"No." He lowered his eyes and refused to look at her.
"Gourry," she said quietly. "Look at me." Wincing, he looked up.
"What?"
She smiled and took his hand. Opening his fingers, she laid the lock of his hair over hers so they mingled. "What am I going to do with you?" she asked, shaking her head.
"Uh...Keep me?" he said, closing his fingers over the bit of hair and leaning forward to kiss her.
"I s'pose I gotta. I doubt I'll get a fair price for you used." She winked at him and pinched the end of his nose when he was about to protest. "Quiet. What about this Soulbond stuff?"
Suddenly nervous again, he cleared his throat and twisted the two locks of hair in his hands together. He didn't answer for a moment. "I didn't mean you couldn't talk, Gourry," she said, thinking perhaps he'd taken her order to be quiet a little too seriously.
"I know," he said, then cleared his throat nervously.
"Then talk to me, Gourry."
"Lina, have you ever felt like we share a connection? Like we know what the other is thinking before we say anything about it?"
"Sure, I have. We're friends and we know each other well enough to - "
"No," he interrupted her. "I mean more than that. Like - " He rooted around in his memory for an example. "Like that time we fought those two Mazoku in Seyruun when we thought Phil was dead. The one that sealed your powers away. Madooza or something like that."
"Mazdena," Lina supplied automatically, surprised he remembered the incident at all.
"When we were fighting her and you and I knew what we needed to do to kill her and we did it without talking about it. And all the other times we've worked together like that?"
"Yeah? What's that go to do with a Soulbond? Only elves Soulbond and I'm not an elf and you - " She stopped suddenly and looked at him, really looked at him: The delicate bone structure of his face, the large eyes, his tall graceful build, and now that she noticed them, the slightly pointed ears. Other things clicked, too: His incredible reflexes and speed and his ability to see through Mazoku disguises.
"Gourry," she said in a quiet voice. "Why didn't you tell me you were an elf?"
He shrugged. "You never asked."
"Gourry!" she shouted at him. "I didn't know to ask! What kind of answer is that?" She smacked his arm.
"Well, it's not the sort of thing that you just go around announcing, either, is it? Like, 'Hey, Lina, did you know I'm an elf?' Besides, I'm only part elf. My grandfather was human."
"You could have said something when you asked me to marry you." Lina shook her head. "Were you ever planning on telling me about it? Or were you going to let me find out some other way?"
He looked pained. "I wanted to tell you, Lina, but the time was just never right."
"So, what other secrets are you keeping from me, Gourry Gabriev?"
Looking hurt, he said, "It wasn't ever a secret, Lina. But, you know, you've never bothered to ask about me or my family before."
She was about to retort when Lina realized he was right. She closed her mouth and hung her head. "I'm sorry, Gourry," she whispered.
"Hey!" He put a hand under her chin and tilted her face up. "It's all right; I'm not angry or anything." He touched her lips with his fingertips. "But that's what happened: We Soulbonded quite a while ago."
"But how? I thought there was some sort of ritual that elves had to go through to be Soulbonded. We've never done anything like that - have we?"
"I thought so, too, but Jardaan said that a true Bond doesn't need any of the rituals. And these helped." He reached down and took her left hand and turned it over to touch the ring on her third finger. "I didn't know it when he gave them to me, but they're Soulbonding rings. If it hadn't been for them and Jardaan's help, we never would have found you." He let his hand slip from under her chin to cup her cheek.
She reached up and covered his hand where it lay on cheek. "I want to meet this friend of yours," she said. "And thank him."
Gourry nodded. "As soon as we get back to Seyruun, I'll take you to meet him." Suddenly, he lowered his eyes and dropped his hand from her cheek, taking her delicate hands in his strong ones. "Lina..." His voice was soft and gentle as his sunny brows creased at some painful thought.
The sorceress tilted her head to the side and looked at him carefully. "Yes, Gourry?" she said gently.
His lips drew together in a tight line a moment before he spoke. "Lina, while Xellos and I were fighting, he...said some things..." His voice trailed off uncertainly. He seemed to be struggling with something that was weighing heavily on his mind. Finally, he swallowed, and looked up into her eyes. "Did he touch you?"
Lina's ruby eyes went round and she felt a flash of anger at him. "Gourry! How could you think that of me?"
The golden-haired swordsman shook his head. "No, Lina, that's not what I meant. I know you would never have consented to that, even if you had lost your memory." Lina's anger turned to guilt as she remembered the desire she'd felt for Xellos at the first. But even as she'd felt it, she'd known it was wrong.
"Then what do you mean?"
He closed his eyes and sighed. "It's just that Xellos never lies outright. I just want to make sure he didn't try to force himself on you." Gourry opened his brilliant eyes, eyes still shadowed by his ordeals, looked into hers and gently touched her cheek. "Because if he did, I'd have to go find that Master of his and ask her to resurrect him."
Lina gasped. "What are you talking about?! Why would you want to do such a thing?"
"So I could kill him all over again." The hate in his voice frightened her. This was so unlike Gourry...
"You don't have to do that, Gourry," she said as she leaned forward and rested her head against his chest. He put his arms around her, wrapping her in warmth and security. "He tried, but I wouldn't let him. We don't need to go chase down Zelas Metallium and ask her any favors. She's probably going to be quite upset with you for killing her General Priest, anyway."
He lowered his head to rest his cheek on her still damp hair and tightened his arms around her as he picked her up and carried her to the pallet and sat down. "Let her," he said. "Someone needed to teach him not to take things that don't belong to him." Lying back, he pulled her close.
She sighed and snuggled close to him, savoring his warmth and closeness. So much that she started to doze off. Then a sudden noise from the corridor outside Gourry's room made her look up. The swordsman wasn't asleep as she'd thought, but was staring into the darkness.
The sound came again, and this time it could be clearly identified as the sound of footsteps and voices. They were coming from the main living area.
Lina looked up at Gourry. Amelia and Zel are back."
Gourry nodded. "Yup."
"Which means - " She dragged herself out of his arms and jumped up off the pallet and yanked the door open before he could react.
"More food!" He jumped up to follow her down the corridor to attack the recently returned trio and help relieve them of their burdens of food.