Genre: Romance

Pairing: Lina x Gourry

Summary: A job that Lina and Gourry have taken on gets... complicated when one of them is hit with a lust spell. LG. Ch 3: Back in the present...

Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers.

Author's Notes: I don't know what it is about my birthday, but I'm always particularly inspired by it, though I can't believe nearly two years have gone by since my last update. Ack.

Where I ramble about the actual chapter—Part 3! I've, uh, never ever finished a multi-chapter fanfiction in my life? So this is kind of a first. I felt pretty sad about not updating this as quickly as I wanted after chapter 2, but this third chapter gave me a hell of a lot of trouble because a) life happened, b) I quickly realized why most lust-spell-variant-fanfiction have both people under the spell, which is basically the consent issue (which I hope I have hand-waved enough); and c) I often find that writing for me is like 10% actual typing of words, 40% agonizing over edits, and 40% overcoming your personal demons. Also, if you were wondering why there's an entire flashback from Chapter 2 from Gourry's perspective, I originally intended this thing to be a oneshot (did I mention I have never ever finished a series?) that was comprised only of that particular flashback, but I was unsatisfied with it and, when writing Lina's side of it, ended up reverse-engineering what is now the first two chapters. And then my foolish heart couldn't not include it here.

Where I blubber my thanks—Thank you to everyone who commented on this in the past! I'm terribly sorry I missed the comments when I fell off the face of the universe, but reading them helped inspire me to finish this, so thank you all for that. I also want to say that I'm really grateful for the Slayers fan community; even though the series is older, it's always been very dear to my heart and I'm happy that people still remember the show and are still inspired by it, so thanks to everyone who creates for it.

A last note on the rating—there is a more explicit version of this chapter on Ao3 as I wasn't actually sure where this fell on the FFN guidelines and started second-guessing myself. As a result, I also pulled the entirety of the fic back to a T, which feels a little like pulling a punch, but the other version does exist.

But without further ado…

Unlucky in Lust

Chapter 3

Back in the present, Lina soaked a washcloth into a basin of cold water and wrung it out, wondering if there was even a point to treating Gourry's light fever as if it were real. She'd folded the cloth into a neat rectangle and was about to place it on his forehead when Gourry stirred.

Fresh panic rose in Lina's gut. What should she do? Put him back to sleep? While that was tempting, she couldn't avoid him forever… That and Circe had said it would only get worse over time, didn't she? Better to deal with it immediately. Lina Inverse never shied away from anything, and she wasn't about to start now.

She'd no sooner made up her mind than Gourry opened his eyes with a groan, his hand going to his head. Lina threw the washcloth aside and moved to stop him from standing.

"Hey, there… take it easy," she said, pushing him down and forcing herself to sound calm. "How are you feeling?"

"Better now that I know you're here," he said, even as he shrugged off her help to swing his legs over the edge of the bed to sit up, and Lina lifted an eyebrow.

"Guess Circe hit you harder than I thought if you're going to spout a lame line like that," she said, and Gourry winced a little.

"Is she why I've got this awful headache?" he said. "I feel like I've been hit with a club."

"Yeah, she got you with one of her potions, and you, uh, lost consciousness shortly after," Lina explained. "I brought you back here."

"Did you get her?"

"Nope. Lost her trying to deal with you," Lina said.

Gourry gave her a rueful half-smile. "Too bad. I was kinda hoping you'd turned her in already so we could get our money and eat."

"At least your appetite hasn't suffered any," Lina said.

"No... Can't say it has…" Gourry said, eyeing her.

Lina was glad he was joking around with her, but things were far from fine. "Seriously though, are you okay? Any side effects at all?"

Gourry flexed his fingers experimentally. "Maybe a little overheated or something… Why? What spell did she use on me?"

"Well," Lina hedged.

"'Well' what?" he said in the silence that followed. "Am I cursed? Is it a repel-girls spell? Disfigurement? Is it permanent?"

"It's not incurable…"

"Lina," he said more seriously. "You're making me nervous. Tell it to me straight."

Even with him staring at her so, she couldn't quite get the words out. Besides, did she even have to say it? Was he even under a spell? Unlike what Circe had described, it didn't seem like he was itching to tear her clothes off in a lust-induced stupor. By his own admission, he felt fine!

"I don't know the particulars, but… we probably don't need to worry. If you don't feel unusual, then it must not have worked," Lina said.

And thank Ceiphied for that.

Gourry seemed to consider that. "It's nothing unusual... It's mostly the headache."

"A headache, I can handle," she said, hand outstretched.

"Wait…" he said, but she'd already stepped forward to touch him. The height of the bed being what it was, she was nearly level with his face, knees bumping into his, when she put two fingers to his temple to cast a recovery spell.

"There," she said a moment later. As the faint halo of white magic dissipated, she was startled to find him staring intently at her.

"Thanks for taking care of me," he said, eyes searching her face, for what she wasn't sure.

"I…." she said, then hunched her shoulders. "Don't read it into it. It wouldn't do my reputation as a magical genius any good if my bodyguard was laid up by a third-rate sorceress like Circe."

"Uh-huh," he said, smiling at her, and as the magic faded fully, she felt her heart hitch in her throat as he reached up to take her hand in his and draw it gently down.

"Gourry?" she said hesitantly, her heart suddenly hammering in her chest. "How do you… feel?"

"I'm fine, but now that you mention it... there's something different about you," he said, and a small alarm bell went off in her head until he continued, "You… smell different or something…"

"Well, thanks," she said, annoyed and maybe slightly disappointed. "Who do you think dragged you all the way into town? You owe me. It wasn't easy."

"I didn't mean it like that," he said, refusing to let go of her wrist even when she tried to wrest it away. "It's… nice."

"Oh?" Slightly confused, she started to straighten, to edge away, but he pressed her wrist against his lips, and she froze, transfixed, unable to process what was happening.

"Actually," he said, taking advantage of her inaction by using his free hand to tuck a finger under her chin, his eyes now boring into hers, "it's irresistible."

"What?" was the last word Lina got out before he tugged her down sharply and kissed her.

The kiss was electric, sending warm currents down the length of her body, and she didn't even resist when his arm came around to crush her against him.

Get out of here, Lina, she thought hopelessly, but it was already getting harder to think when his mouth was moving like that... Obviously, she'd misread the signals, and Circe's spell really had worked...

But just at this particular moment, she didn't care. He felt wonderful as he deepened the kiss, his mouth opening so his tongue danced against hers, warm and insistent enough to make her knees buckle as they tumbled back onto the bed, her arms slipping down to brace herself on his chest as she landed on top of him, and when he curled a hand around her neck to kiss her deeper still, she was just so tempted to give in and let all her feelings for him from the past few years show through...

"You don't know how much I want you…" he breathed, and the words immediately jerked her back.

With as much willpower as it took to summon the Ragna Blade, she forced herself to break the kiss and push herself away from him, vowing that she'd die trying to find an antidote but only after she'd wiped Circe off this plane of existence.

"Lina…" he said, sitting up, and it was as if they hadn't just been furiously making out a few seconds ago, save for a very endearing tuft of hair on his head that was still sticking up… She shook off the thought. One of them needed to think clearly, and it certainly wasn't going to be him.

"Gourry, we can't."

Hurt crossed his face, and Lina briefly wondered how in the hell Circe had been able to layer such a vile spell with a component that could fake real emotion.

"We can't because you don't really want this," Lina said, voice small, her eyes shut. She crossed her arms against herself, protectively.

His hands, which had previously been doing very interesting things just a few seconds ago, reached out to settle firmly on her waist as he said, "But I do."

She swallowed hard and then, all in a rush, said, "Gourry, Circe hit you with a lust spell."

"She what?" he said.

"...I didn't want to tell you. I actually thought it didn't work until… well, just right now. That's why you're feeling the, uh, way you're feeling… That's why…" She stopped when she noticed the incredulous look he gave her. "Er, you… you do know what a lust spell is, right?"

"Yeah," he seemed to ground out. "And what you're saying is that this… spell is making me seduce you."

"It has to be."

"Really?" he pushed, standing now. "Not anything else at all?"

"Yes, really!" she said, hurt and more than a little irritated. "You can't tell me this is how you normally act. And I know how you feel about me…"

"I guess you don't know anything about my feelings," he said, almost to himself.

"I know that Circe's much more clever than I gave her credit for if the spell's making you talk like this!" she said. "I know you don't want me like that. You've told me before, and it's okay, I—"

"When have I ever said that?"

"Well, not said, per se, but at Amelia's birthday. I kissed you, and you pushed me away, and..." Lina trailed off as she caught the look of surprise on Gourry's face, and then her brain caught up with her words. "Um, never mind…"

"No, not 'never mind. You… you did remember what happened on Amelia's birthday," Gourry sputtered, crowding her. "But you told me you didn't."

Lina felt the solid foundation of her righteous irritation crumble away into an unsavory mix of embarrassment and mild horror. Nothing to do now, but double down. "It's not like I lied! I just didn't… tell the entire truth…"

"Lina…" he said with what sounded like both exasperation and affection, though Lina couldn't tell which was winning out at the moment.

"You… you can't 'Lina' me!" she protested, shoving him ever so slightly backwards. He caught her by the hand before she could do it again, which might've put butterflies right back in her stomach in any other context… if she wasn't using her other hand to point an accusatory finger at him. "The way you're talking, you know exactly what happened, so you didn't forget either. So don't get up on your high horse and blame me when I'm blaming you!"

"For Ceiphied's sake, I'd throttle you right now if I wasn't so distracted by wanting you," Gourry said with a groan and such a look that this time, the butterflies stayed and multiplied… For a second, she thought he might pull her against him, but he closed his eyes as if fighting something and let go of her hand instead. "You're making it really hard to think right now…"

"Like that's been your strong suit!"

"Does it matter who lied?" he sighed. "We were both wrong."

"No, we're not! My intentions were good," Lina argued.

"And the road to hell…"

Annoyed, she cut him off. "I didn't want to ruin us!"

"Ruin us how?"

"You pushed me away. I wasn't going to let three years of our partnership get destroyed by moonlight, a footrace, and… and some stupid kiss!" She threw her hands up in the air. "You know what? I'm glad I lied. Clearly, you had no problem pretending like nothing ever happened. You didn't want me."

"That's not true."

"Don't spare my feelings," Lina said miserably. "We're past that. I don't want you to feel sorry for me…"

"I don't feel sorry for you."

"Then I don't want you to pity me…"

"Will you stop putting words in my mouth?" he said.

"Then what is it? What other reason could it possibly be? Why did you reject me on the night of Amelia's birthday?"

"Because I love you!"

The admission was so unexpected, Lina only had the presence of mind to say a quiet, "You do?"

"Yes! I thought it was obvious…"

"To whom?!"

"Everyone but you, apparently," he said, then closed his eyes and sighed. "This... was not how I planned to tell you how I felt…"

"You mean, under the influence of the spell?"

"This has nothing to do with a spell!" he insisted. "Lina, I've loved you for a long time… You're stubborn and sort of perverse, you're very greedy, you badger people beneath you like no one else…"

"I'm starting to see why you didn't try to tell me before now..." she said dryly.

"You never let me get a word in edgewise," he continued, ignoring her, "and despite all that, somehow, you're… you're the one. The only one I want to be with."

"Oh," she said, and it was starting to sink that he might actually...

"The point is," he said, "I pushed you away on Amelia's birthday because I didn't want our first night together to be some drunken fling in the public gardens of the Seyruun palace…"

"Drunken?"

"Extremely drunken," Gourry said, and Lina didn't even have it in her to try to correct his grammar. "That's why it made sense to me that you'd forgotten everything. That's why I didn't push anything until, well, the way you looked at me when you healed me just now…"

"Wait, wait, wait… Back up. I couldn't have had that much to drink… I mean, I remember that night perfectly right up until the kiss…"

"If your memory was so perfect, then you would've remembered it wasn't just one kiss…"

Lina blanched. "There… was more?"

"Let's just say that you wouldn't have been happy if Amelia had run into us sooner than she did…"

"Amelia saw us?!"

"I mean, at the end, yes..."

"Arg, just tell me how the night actually went," she said.

"Sure..."

A few weeks earlier (again)…

It was Amelia's eighteenth birthday, and it seemed like the entire kingdom had gone all out to honor the princess.

"They really broke out the good stuff," Lina said, as a server handed her another glass of wine.

Of course, because Lina was on her fourth glass of non-watered-down wine, it actually came out as, "Thar rally berk ert tha gud stuffed."

It didn't matter. Gourry understood her. He wasn't sure why, but he'd always been able to interpret what she was saying in these circumstances, even back when they hadn't known each other all that long.

"Cheers!" Lina said happily, clinking her wine glass against his pint of cider with more zeal than necessary. She drained her cup and looked at him curiously when he only sipped his. "Is something wrong?"

"Huh?"

She tapped the rim of his nearly-full mug with a finger. "Evting we et end dren tonnit es fee end yer no ven rying!"

He squinted at her before his mind supplied the translation: "Everything we eat and drink tonight is free, and you're not even trying!"

Well, there was no way he was going to respond to that.

There was a reason he had stopped drinking with gusto an hour ago, and it only took half a glance at her to remember why.

That damned red dress.

He'd seen Lina wear a dress before, but this… was different.

This dress ran red, wrapping around her body, skimming her shoulders, and curving low over her chest. It made her look not at all like the impetuous, spell-flinging sorceress he'd sworn to protect and a lot like a woman he wanted to kiss and maybe even... He turned his attention back to his mug and took one last sip to firmly stop that train of thought.

Thankfully, drunk Lina's attention span was very short. She drained her goblet and lifted a gloved hand to fan herself. "Gourry, it's hot. I'm heading outside…"

"I'll come with you," he said, relieved to be doing something. Outside in the cold air seemed like a great idea.

He followed her. In the thick of the crowd, they pressed close together, and instinctively, he put a hand on the small of her back so he wouldn't lose her. A pleasant jolt went up the length of his arm as he touched the soft skin of her back, realizing for the first time just how low her bodice dipped in the back and how nice a view it was. It'd be very easy to slip a hand to her waist, pull her close, and...

If Lina noticed how quickly he'd retracted his hand, she didn't say anything.

Once they were outside, he followed her out to the balcony and down a set of stairs, leading into the gardens.

"Ah, much better… No one's even out here!" Lina said with a happy sigh, breathing deeply and stepping lightly along a path that wound through the flower beds.

The royal gardens were beautiful in the moonlight, lined with trees swaying in the breeze and full of lush flowers. Lina walked onto the grassy lawn, and to Gourry's surprise, sprawled on the ground, dress and all. Gourry sat down next to her, enjoying watching her as she closed her eyes.

"You look comfortable," he said.

"Yeah, I am," Lina said. "You know, I have to say this is kind of nice. We're on the road so much, it's refreshing to stay in one place and relax…"

"Don't tell me you're actually wanting to settle down." Gourry snorted at the thought.

Lina's smile was lazy. "What would you say if I did want to? Right now. Right here in Seyruun."

"I wouldn't mind settling here with you," Gourry said without thinking... and bit his tongue.

Had that actually come out how it had sounded? Knowing he'd follow Lina for the rest of his life was one thing. Talking to Lina about being with her for the rest of his life was another.

Luckily, Lina didn't seem to be paying attention. Her eyes had opened, and her gaze was trained on the line of trees a few yards away.

"Lina?" Gourry asked. "What are you thinking about?"

"It's nothing really," she said. "It's just there was a forest near my home in Zephilia, and my favorite spot to play was near a gigantic oak tree. Sis and I used to race to it from our house…"

"Did you win?"

"Nah," Lina said. "She's blessed, you know… but I tried."

"That doesn't surprise me," Gourry said. "You seem stubborn enough to try even if you know you're going to lose."

"Mm-hmm," Lina said. Then she grinned at him, her eyes lighting up mischievously in a way he'd come to love. "Want to race?"

Gourry laughed. "What? Trust me, you are in no condition to run."

"Coward," Lina said as she stood up. She kicked off her heels and put her hands on her hips. The effect was slightly spoiled because she nearly toppled over from the gesture. "You can't…" she paused to giggle. "You can't take me."

Gourry shot her a grin and lifted his hands. "Fine. Let's do it."

"First one to that tree over there wins."

"Okay. On the count of—"

"Go!" was all the warning Gourry had before Lina started sprinting forward, her skirts flying behind her.

"No fair!" he yelled, but the head start didn't matter. Without her using magic, it was woefully easy to overtake her.

"Gourry! You're cheating!" she shrieked.

"I'm not cheating, I'm winning!" Gourry said, looking back at her.

"Ray wing!" she said and launched herself at him. Her tackle took him down, and they rolled together before coming to a stop in the soft grass.

"Ow," he said, as his back thumped against the ground. "Don't you think that was a bit much?"

"I won," she said simply.

"No, you didn't."

"Look, we made it to the oak tree," she said, pointing to the tree next to them. "And I'm on top, so I win."

It was hard to argue with her logic, especially since his breath had caught in his throat. She was indeed on top, the moonlight hitting the soft planes of her face. She was flushed, probably from both the wine and the run, and some of her hair had fallen out of their pins in a way he found entirely alluring. He wanted to reach out to touch one of her curls, to twirl it around his finger and see how soft it was…

He had to end this. He rolled over, so they could be in a position that was less distracting, but she tumbled next to him with an indignant huff, his legs tangling in her long skirts.

Lina burst into laughter. "Stop moving! You're making it worse!"

He obeyed so he was on his side, looking down at her as she lay on her back on the grass, her hair a fiery halo around the attractive blush of her cheeks, her eyes bright with laughter, her lips temptingly parted... He gulped.

This was worse. A lot worse.

If Gourry wanted to live, he knew he'd have to get up and fast.

But Lina didn't seem like she wanted to kill him. Instead, she was looking at the trim on his tunic, her gaze slightly unfocused. Her hand had come around his neck, and he was sure she was going to slap him at any moment for being too close, but… instead, she kissed him.

It was feather-light and tentative, but it was enough to make his heart race. She pulled away after way too short a time to meet his eyes, uncertain, and it only took him a mere moment's hesitation to dip his head to kiss her again.

It was ecstasy. How long had he been waiting for this? It must have been very long ago since he couldn't remember a time when he hadn't wanted her like this.

And because of that, it was too easy to deepen the kiss, to nudge her lips apart, to mesh his tongue against hers. When she moaned in his mouth, his hands almost urgently tangled around her, one in her hair, the other tracing fingertips down the length of her back to where the v of her dress met skin.

He wasn't sure how it had gotten to this point in the night, but he never wanted it to end. She didn't seem inclined to stop either, as she looped both her arms around him, pulling him closer to her. He was sure she'd never kissed anyone, but what she lacked in experience, she made up for in ardor. She arched into him, her body fitting snugly against his, making him want more.

The strap of her gown slipped dangerously down shoulder, and he kissed her down the side of her neck following the curve of it. She let out one long hum of pleasure as she moved to give him access, then her hands grasped the collar of his tunic to drag his lips back to hers.

This time, as he kissed her, he noticed the lingering taste of wine—five glasses' worth to be exact—and it was as if cold water had been dumped on him. He pulled away so fast, he'd left her still reaching for him.

"Lina, we… we can't do this," he said, staggering to his feet, trying to put distance between them.

"We can't?"

She looked charmingly confused as she sat up, her mouth blushed from kissing, her hair tumbling down around her bare shoulders, and it took all of his willpower not to return to her right then. How to explain this…

"It's not… appropriate," he said, unsure what to say, his own body fighting desire.

"Not appropriate?" she echoed, staring at him as if he'd grown an extra head.

The silence was awkward. Gourry fumbled, and he couldn't seem to think fast enough. He didn't want to take advantage of her. He didn't want her to have kissed him and regret it later because he wouldn't be able to handle it. How was he supposed to say all that?

"What I mean is… we shouldn't, I mean… we don't want to do something we'll regret in the morning…"

"Regret?" She swung around to face him, and whatever she saw there, she didn't like.

"Lina…" he said, knowing he'd said the wrong thing.

"This was a mistake…" she said softly, more to herself.

She stood up slowly, swaying a little, but steadied herself. With more speed than he would've thought her capable of, she stormed back to the stone path leading to the castle.

"Wait!" he called, running to keep up with her. He grabbed her arm. "I didn't say it was a mistake…"

"It's fine, Gourry. It's fine. Okay? Good night."

She wrenched her arm away, and he saw her stumble. He reached out to grab her, but because she wasn't normally clumsy and his head was still spinning from her words, her head hit the stairs before he could. When she didn't immediately open her eyes, Gourry called for Amelia until she came.

After that, it was a blur of activity as Amelia healed her and had Gourry bring her up to her rooms. Amelia helped get Lina into a nightgown before updating Gourry again.

"She's okay?" Gourry asked again.

"Yeah… The fall really wasn't as bad as it looked," Amelia said. "But just in case, someone should stay with her. I can send someone up..."

"I'll be here," Gourry said, and Amelia tried not to smile as she watched him brush Lina's hair away from her face.

"Well, if you need relief or if you need to find me, you can let a servant know," Amelia said.

"Thanks, Amelia," Gourry said. Then right before she closed the door, "Congratulations again to you and Zel…"

"Thank you," Amelia beamed and left him alone in the room.

Gourry pulled a chair next to the bed. "What a mess this night was, huh?"

"I'll say," said Lina, answering Gourry's question in the present. "What a mess things have been since then really."

"We've been off, haven't we?" he said.

"Hey, it's the only reason I can think of as to why Circe got the drop on both of us. We've faced much worse than her lot before…"

"So then… how do we get ourselves out of this mess?"

"Why do I always have to do the thinking in this relationship?" she shot back.

"Because you're the only one with the answers," he said." And right now, you have the one answer I can't figure out on my own…"

"Which is?"

"How do you feel about me?"

It was a question Lina had thought about at several points through the years they'd spent together: when they'd first met and she wondered if having him as a bodyguard would mean constant ulcers for her, when Gourry had gotten mad at her for tricking him and Kanzel into thinking she'd died when her magic had been sealed, when Sylphiel had asked her how she felt about Gourry after Phibrizzo had taken him. Hadn't she already answered in her own way when she cast the Giga Slave to save him what seemed like a lifetime ago?

But every time she'd tried to say the actual truth of how she felt, the words had stuck in her throat, and all the easy excuses that she hadn't been ready or that it wasn't a good time kept her from telling him what she knew in her heart to be true…

Well, maybe now she was ready and it was time.

Hearing Gourry say it aloud first definitely helped.

She smiled up at him.

"I love you, Gourry Gabriev," she said, and when that didn't result in the world ending right at that very moment, she decided to push her luck, rise to her toes, and kiss him. He wrapped his arms around her, and she lifted her head, finally giving in to the kiss without guilt, without drunkenness… and then she remembered all about the lust spell. Hell.

"We can't," she said, pulling back, and Gourry groaned in frustration, his head comically dropping back. "Circe's spell."

"Can't you undo it?"

"Well, therein lies the problem," she said. "Circe said it doesn't work against traditional healing spells. There's no cure."

"That's not true," he said, focused on her once again, his hands sliding deliciously down her side to her hips. "There's one cure."

"I can't take advantage of you," Lina said.

"Would it make you feel better to know I'd want this even if I wasn't under a spell?"

"Marginally."

"Then, please," he said, his mouth dropping to her ear, "cure me."

"Gourry," she said, helplessly, and he nibbled at her earlobe in a way that made her feel heat all the way down her spine, that made her shiver with delight as he continued from there to trail increasingly delectable kisses along her jawline. Without even realizing it, she tilted her head, and he went further to the pulse at her neck. She nearly whimpered when he pulled back to meet her eyes again.

"Please?" he asked, his voice thick with longing, his lips only a hairs-breadth from hers. "I need you…"

"Yes," she said impulsively, and it was almost like she'd cast a spell and released it, the electricity between them spiked. His mouth was on hers, slick and hot, and her eyes closed as pleasure sizzled through her, and although she didn't have any real experience with this sort of thing, her body seemed to know exactly what it wanted as she pressed herself against him, her hands twining into his long hair, just as soft as she'd imagined that night at the palace, and her tongue delving into his mouth to taste him while they half-stumbled, half-fell the two steps to the bed, never breaking for an instant even as they landed hard amongst the pillows, Lina yanking him down into her outstretched arms…

In the aftermath, they laid sprawled on the bed, Lina resting her head on her hands on Gourry's chest, thinking, as she tried to still her racing heart.

"Hm?" she asked when he touched a knuckle lightly to the furrowed space between her brows.

"You look worried. What are you thinking?"

Uncharacteristically, Lina pressed her face further into her hands, muffling her answer.

"What was that?" he asked, drawing her chin up.

"Now that you're… free… of the spell," she said, enunciating more definitively, "do you feel differently?"

He gave her one of his sternest looks. "I already told you how I felt. Were you really afraid it was all the lust spell talking?"

"Maybe, a little," she said. Then, "Yes."

"I'm free of the spell, so I freely say that I love you, Lina Inverse. I always have." He twirled a lock of her hair around his finger, tugging on it to bring her close so he could kiss her. She smiled against it.

"And to think, Circe brought us together…"

Gourry made a face. "If anything, those dragon bandit guys brought us together. Circe just… rushed some things along."

"True enough," Lina said. "Still, maybe we should thank her…"

"Mmm, yeah, maybe we should," Gourry said, "but right at this very moment, I had a better idea…"

"Oh?" she asked, lifting an eyebrow. This time, when he tugged her forward, his mouth fastened on hers, his fingers wandering southward until… "Oh!"

Circe was having a terrible day. It really was all she could do to keep from tearing her hair out.

She was tired, she was hungry, and worst of all, she was bored. She didn't mind traveling, but it was wearing her down to fight a seemingly never-ending parade of easily-dispatchable wannabe-heroes. Briefly, she thought of the blonde swordsman who'd crossed her path the previous day. Too bad that entire thing hadn't worked out. She could've used a diversion.

So distracted was Circe by the lack of distraction that Lina nearly took her out with the first Fireball she tried. It was only by happenstance that the sound of the approaching spell made Circe trip so the blast went just over her head.

"Damn," Lina said. "Some people have all the luck."

"Not for long," Gourry said. "We've got this."

Circe, recovered and alert, stood ready. When she realized who she was facing, she smirked.

"Ah, it's you. You both seem to have recovered," Circe said. Though her tone was conversational, her hand reached down to draw a glass bottle from a belt loop at her waist. "Enjoy your time last night?"

"You know what? I did, but that was no thanks to you," Lina said. "So, once again from the top. Circe, on behalf of the Sorcerer's Guild, we're here to apprehend you. I suggest—"

"What? That I come along quietly?" Circe finished, rolling her eyes.

"No," Lina said with a feral grin, "that you put up a fight so I can properly kick your ass."

In response, Circe threw the glass bottle at the ground between them, sending up a screen of smoke.

"Please, is that all you've got?" Lina said, casting wind to dispel it as Gourry moved forward in the void of smoke, sword at the ready, causing Circe to retreat back deeper into the woods.

It was pitifully easy this time to gain ground on the surprised Circe, and Lina almost felt sorry for the other sorceress as a well-placed Dil Brand sent Circe tumbling back into a clearing where an outcropping of hilly terrain trapped her. Her only option for escaping now was through Lina, and Lina sensed her quarry knew she was outmatched.

"You ready to surrender?" Lina asked. "We could make this easy."

"Wait, you don't have to do this," Circe said, as Lina drew near.

"Oh, I'm looking forward to it," Lina said, but stopped a few feet away when she realized Circe had opened her palm to reveal a small mound of silvery dust.

Circe's smile was cruel when she said, "Look forward to this then."

Circe blew the dust in Lina's direction, and Lina held her breath, but whatever Circe had planned didn't even reach her before Gourry sliced the air in front of her with such force that it sent the powder flying back in Circe's face.

"Unhk!" Circe sputtered as she breathed in her own spell, and in the next second, she collapsed on the ground.

Warily, Lina and Gourry approached the sorceress' prone body where Lina nudged her gingerly with the tip of her boot, confirming that, yes, indeed, Circe was unconscious.

"Nice move, Gourry," Lina said as she moved to secure Circe's hands and feet. "Though, I guess, she took herself out in the end…"

"Yeah, I have to wonder though… what do you think she accidentally dosed herself with?"

"I have no idea," Lina said, "...but just in case, let's get her into a jail cell before she can get a good look at us or anyone else. I hear there's no antidote for this kind of thing..."

A few hours later, Lina hefted the full purse of gold coins, their reward for the arrest.

"Ahh, finally we can get out of here," Lina said. "I was worried we weren't going to find Circe in time to travel back to Seyruun for Amelia and Zel's official engagement party…"

"No danger of that now," he said. "Good work."

"Couldn't have done it without you," Lina said. "Now let's celebrate. Dinner's on me. And you know what? Toss in dessert too."

"Wow, Lina, now I know you love me…"

"Hey, I said 'dessert', not 'desserts'. Just because we're actually a thing now doesn't mean you can take advantage of me…"

"No?" he said with a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Well," Lina amended after a moment, "at least not when it comes to food."