NOTHING APART
9 - Granting one wish
With a twitch of his mind Xellos' teleported himself from Xelas hall to the Inn's corridor. He was standing outside Lina's door not sure what to do next. From behind the door he could hear Lina moving around. To the Priest's relief she didn't seem to be crying at the moment. Being a Mazoku again meant he would do a very poor job comforting her. Sure he could remember how humen's felt but he couldn't really bring up any compassion anymore. He did want to comfort Lina but how? Maybe he should just find one of her friends and let them take care of her? But who? Xellos' scratched his head and thought. With both eyes closed the searched for Lina's friends. With a sigh he opened them again. No one of them were close enough. He knocked on the door and opened it when he got no reply. Lina was sitting on her bed looking just as pale and defeated as she had been when he last saw her. But this time he felt no pain and no compassion rose in his body.
"Lina-san?" he asked quietly trying to supress the good feeling he got from her sadness. She turned around to look at him.
"I see Beastmaster-sama decided to end your punishment." Xellos' frowned and walked up to her.
"Yeah she did. I wanted to ask you something," he said and wiped away a tear from her cheek.
"What?" Lina asked and rubbed her forehead with a trembling hand.
"If I could grant you one wish what would that be?" She closed her eyes as her tears started to flow again.
"I'd wish to re-live that day when Gourry told me he was leaving," she answered and pressed her lips together.
"Why not just wish for Gourry-san not to be dead?" he asked although he already knew the answer.
"Cause if I could change what I didn't do that day, Gourry would still be the same as he used to be before all this happened." Lina hung her head. "I just want a chance to right the wrong I did that day." Xellos' nodded to himself. If he got Beastmaster-sama to agree to that everything would be like it should.
"And then you wouldn't have to live with your memories."
"I would wish to still have them so I don't make this mistake ever again," Lina sighed. "I hurt Gourry so badly. I should have told him how I felt about him instead of just sitting there like an idiot." The Trickster Priest leaned on his rod and squinted at her.
"I see," he said and was gone.
Lina hid her face in her hands and cried. What was Xellos' up to this time? He was no longer human and was probably running Xelas errends again. She wasn't angry with the Priest, he was only doing as he was told. With a quiet moan she dragged herself to her feet. There is no point in hanging around here anymore, she thought to herself. Maybe she should go home. She hadn't seen her family for years, not that she was all that thrilled about having to face her big sister again. But she had to do something, she couldn't just sit around and fade away even if she felt like she deserved that. Everything she did and felt was jaded and slow. It would take her forever to walk all the way home. She pressed her hands against her heart that was so broken and sank down on the bed again.
"No, I'll just sit here and fade away," she sighed to herself. "I don't want to live anymore." The words she just had spoken scared her for they were true. She really didn't want to go on living. There was no point anymore. No matter where she went she would still remember how she killed the man she loved. Her head hurt from crying too much and from trying to live with what she had done that day. Trying to find a place to hide from the fact that she had actually killed Gourry. But it didn't work, it never did. As soon as she closed her eyes she again saw Gourry die, again she felt his hand on her face, his lips against hers and the taste of his blood. With a scream of agony she threw herself on the bed and burried her face in the pillow. Shaking from the pain in her smashed heart she cried herself to sleep.
Slowly Lina opened her eyes. Everything was black and from a far she could hear a whispering voice echoing between the walls she couldn't see. Even though her hearing was excellent she couldn't make out what it was whispering to her. Carefully she moved closer to it.
"Lina, Lina," the voice whispered. "Lina I have something for you. I will grant you one wish."
"W-who are you?" she asked.
"It doesn't matter who I am just tell me you want your wish granted." Lina swa0llowed and put her hands over her heart.
"I'd give anything to have my wish granted, anything you want."
"Don't worry about that," the voice echoed softly, "this one's on me Lina." She could feel how she started falling backwards. "I will give you a second chance with the man named Gourry."
"Gourry," Lina sighed with longing.
"But you have to remember to take care of him just as he has taken care of you. Don't hide your feelings from the one you love. Stay by his side forever, for you two are nothing apart." The echoes of the whispers slowly faded away only leaving a very soft sound of two words. "Nothing apart, nothing apart," it bounced around for several minutes before disappearing. Lina felt herself sinking deeper and deeper into the darkness around her.
"Gourry," she cried out, reached out her hands as if he was standing infront of her and then she drowned in the dark.
Lina sat up and shook her head. The whispers from her dream still seemed to echo in her head. Everything seemed a little different that morning. She sighed and got out of bed. Might as well face the truth, she thought to herself. Nothing was different. Gourry was still dead and she was still the one who had killed him. She sat down infront of the mirror and looked at herself. Something was different about her face. Strangely enough all the white strokes in her hair was gone except one, her face wasn't as pale as it had been and the fire in her eyes was back. Lina frowned, got up and walked back to her bed. She sat down and rested her chin in her hand. First Xellos' had come back just to ask her what she would wish for if he could grant her one wish and then she had had that strange dream. Carefully Lina thouched the pain in her heart from Gourry's death. To her surprise she found that it was almost completely gone. Only a sting reminding her of it was still there. With confusion she turned to the door just as someone knocked on it
"Yes," she said slowly. The door opened and Lina felt her body go numb when Gourry walked in. The bare sight of him, alive and well, froze her intire body and brain. She could do nothing but stare at the man who had died in her lap just a week ago.
"Lina we have to talk about something," Gourry sighed and walked passed her. She still couldn't talk. This has all happened before, she screamed inside. She had been sitting exactly like this when he had told her he was leaving her.
"I'm pretty much useless without my sword Lina," the tall blonde man continued when she didn't answer.
"Why do you say that?" she asked just as she had done last time. It felt like she was trapped inside a dream and yet she knew that this had to be reality.
"You said so yourself." She stared at him but this time she didn't have to think to remember the time she had told him that.
"I didn't mean all the time Gourry. I was scared that you'd get hurt since you didnt' have your sword," she objected and refused to handle the situation as badly as she had done the first time. And just as that time she could see the shadow between them in his eyes and it made her even more determined to change everything.
"But it was true," Gourry nodded and looked at her with his blue eyes. "I can't do anything as your protector without my sword, and we both know I'll never get it back". Even though Lina had been through it before she still felt lost when he said that. "So I'm leaving, I'm going back to wandring the roads as a mercenary," he said and turned away from her. Lina stared at his back just as she had done the last time and felt how her body once again refused to move and how her body froze up. Again she saw how Gourry took the silence like she didn't really care. Angry with herself Lina shook her head and rushed to her feet.
"No!" she almost screamed and grabbed Gourry's arm. He faced her with a confused look in his blue eyes. "No," she said again. "Please don't leave."
"Why not?" he asked still confused. Lina frowned at herself. Well, she thought, no point in taking it easy girl, you just go ahead and fight with all you got. Fight for the man you love!
"Gourry this is hard for me to say but I know I should have said all this a long time ago," she began. "You think that I don't care very much about you, don't you?" She looked into his eyes.
"I know you don't," he sighed with sadness in his voice and in his eyes.
"I do care about you Gourry, a lot more than I've ever let you see. I don't know if you remember but when Hellmaster Phibrizzo kidnapt you he gave me a choice. I could either let him kill you and probably me as well or I could cast the Giga Slave and save you but probably end up destroying the whole world instead."
"But you…" Gourry looked at her with wide eyes.
"Yes Gourry, I chose you over the world. At that moment it didn't matter if I destroyed the whole world as long as you lived," she told him still looking into his eyes. "But after that I got scared."
"Scared of what?" he asked.
"Scared of what I feel for you and scared 'cause I need you," she answered and closed her eyes. "I've always thought that I'd never need anybody else. So I tried to prove to myself that I didn't care for you and that I didn't need you, I pushed you away. And now you think that I don't want you around anymore don't you?" Gourry lowered his head.
"I know you don't want me around anymore. Besides you'd be better of without me." Lina's inside screamed.
"No, Gourry I do want you around and I won't be better of without you. I love you." Gourry opened his mouth to say something but Lina silenced him with a wave of her hand. "Let me finish please. I do love you even if I haven't showed that before. If you want to leave because you don't think I love or care about you I'm beggin you to stay. But if you want to leave because you don't want to be here with me for whatever reason I won't try to change your mind. Just promise me to never forget that I love you," she ended. She had used his very own words. The words he had spoken to her just before he died in that other reality. Gourry looked up at her and reached out a hand. Without hesitation she took it and found herself being pulled into his strong arms. It felt so right and it felt so good she couldn't help herself from crying. It finally looked like she had gotten it right.
"You love me," the tall blonde man mumbled in her hair. "I never thought you'd love me, I'm always so stupid and always so…" Lina silenced him again but this time with a kiss. Nervously she pressed her shivering lips to his. And just as the time when he had kissed her when he was dying her heart pounded faster and it screamed that this was right. No, she reminded herself, that other time never happened. This was reality the other wasn't. Carefully Gourry took her face in his hands and looked her in the eyes.
"Is something wrong?" she asked with a trembling voice, scared that he perhaps didn't want this.
"No, Lina. This is exactly right," he smiled at her and caressed her face with his fingertips. "Everything is right now." She smiled at him and ran her hands over his chest towards his stomach where she in that passed reality had seen blood cascading into the air.
"I am sorry about all the hard words and all the punches," she whispered and pressed her face against his chest.
"You know I can never remember things all that long," he said to her and smiled. "It seems being dense has it's perks after all." Lina laughed and hugged him tight.
"You're just the way I like you to be," she winked at him. "You know I like 'em big and stupid." Gourry laughed as he actually managed to remember the last time she had said those words to him. Of course she had been possesed by a ghost that time so it probably wasn't exactly her words.
"I love you enemy of all that lives," he said and looked her in the eyes. Lina playfully punched him in the stomach and growled a little. "Oh sorry I mean I love you Lina," he smiled and kissed her again.
"Just don't try to get frisky with me you little pervert," she mumbled still with his lips over hers.
"I'll try but I won't make any promises," he grinned at her. "I don't know why I have the need to say this but Lina I have the strongest feeling that we're nothing apart and everything together." Lina tilted her head and sent a thankfull thought to Xellos' who she knew she had everything to thank for,
"That's because it's true Gourry. But now," she said and turned to the door taking his hand in hers, "let's get some breakfast! I'm starving!" Gourry smiled at the thought of food as she dragged him out the door and down the corridor.
Xellos' the Trickster Priest teleported himself away from the door he had been eavesdropping by. The conversation he had heard was confusing and he was a little disappointed that Lina hadn't gotten angry. But he figured that if she was going to stick with Gourry he would have plenty of opportunities to draw power from other fights. With a frown he wondered what it was like to be a human. Oh well, he thought to himself, might be best not to think about that. Who knew what trouble he would get into if he was human. Xelas Metallium's General Priest appeared in his Mistress hall and bowed infront of her with a smile filled with tease and mischief.
"Beastmaster-sama, you called for me."
"Ah Xellos' I have a job for you." Do you feel up to it?" The Roguish Priest raised an eyebrow at his Mistress. She gave him a strange look and cleared her throat "Um eh never mind that question," Xelas corrected herself and lit another cigarette.
Well that's that *wipes brow* I'm all done and stuff. Time to go back to school *bangs head on her keybord* Is it just me who got disappointed that there's no lemon at the end??? O.o Hm might have to write a G/L lemon in the near future… *mutters* Ja ne *Wavers*/Atsureki
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