Entry tags:

!complete, gourry gabriev, lina inverse

Who: Lina & Gourry
What: Gourry gets his foot healed and the two talk about some odd jobs in the past (like him being a stripper)
When: When his foot got fractured
Where: Gourry's apartment
Rating/Warnings: Pretty low
Status: Complete!

Gourry’s apartment was in a rather nice neighborhood, but nothing too expensive. And that whole “two lefts” thing? Yeah, it’d just take LIna around a large tree out front. He lived on the first floor, no stairs here. Inside, Gourry had it elevated next to his desk, smirking at the conversations on the Network. These people were hilarious… and it definitely surprised him how much he missed talking to people more than just around his home and the Times. It’s not that he didn’t want to talk to people, they just busied themselves with things Gourry didn’t really care for. Hitting on a ton of women for a night only was fun for only so long… and then it became tiresome.

And he definitely wasn’t the sort to take someone home for a fun one nighter. Just wasn’t in him to do that. To anyone. He scratched Miss Ell’s ear as she laid on his lap, leaning back in his chair. Lina was coming to his home, so he glanced around, eying the decent sized two-room apartment. Seriously not that messy… as long as she stayed out of his bedroom. The guest room though, untouched and sparkling neat. The two young labs laid on his couch, snoring up a storm.

Yeah. The ‘two lefts thing.’ It hit a nerve, and what was the best way to tell Gourry Gabriev fuck you without actually saying those words?

You eat his food. That’s what you do.

The weather outside wasn’t anything alarming to her, not really, and if things weren’t being spat up from the ground or sky that needed to be knocked down by spell or sword, then she wasn’t going to worry herself sick about it. Lina had been around far too long, and stuff like this was just them being lucky. Worse things had happened, and those things hadn’t given them the rare sight of the aurora borealis.

Wind whipped her hair like fire spreading and in her arms were bags of food, deliciously greasy food in amounts that no healthy person should ever consume but she and Gourry? Their metabolism worked in mysterious ways.

But let’s see if he was getting any. When she approached to knock on the door, she had a cheeseburger hanging from her mouth that she was working through because hah, jellyfish. Take that.

Gourry stood up, depositing poor Miss Ell onto the floor. He hobbled to the door, careful to put weight on his heel of his left foot. He opened the door… and stared at the bag with widening eyes. He reached out to grab at it. “You--did you eat them all?!”

Nuh-uh, jellyfish brains. Lina reeled back and pulled the burger out of her mouth, sneering like the little shit she was. “Not so fast, crippled,” she retorted. “I deserve some of what I so generously offered you after you messed with me! You did this to yourself.”

Really, he did.

But now that they were face-to-face, and blinked down at his foot to examine the damage. “How’re you feeling, anyway?”

“It was a joke!” He groaned, but it was light-hearted as he stepped aside. “Come in before you get blown away from the wind. Then you can look at my foot. And I’m feeling fine. I told you, no biggie.”

It was cozy in here, actually, and Gourry’s dogs - she remembered their names. Butter and Toast all thanks to her once-protector’s inability to stop thinking about food. As for the cat with the angry face? Well. Lina had to tilt her head at that one. Who pissed in her Fancy Feast?

“I was serious about those tricks I mentioned, Gourry.” Don’t worry. The sorceress had really only eaten one juicy meat patty trapped in buns, son. The rest were intact and accompanied by hot, golden and crisp fries. “Well. It’s just one trick, but -”

He hadn’t dreamt of her yet, otherwise she would have known. Their first days together were one hell of a thing to remember, and everything after that too. Three lives together. Three. And here he was, in her fourth, and while things were a little different here she still harbored a sense of instinctual protectiveness over him.

The bags were set on the coffee table and her palms slid against the side of her legs. “You trust me?”

Gourry shooed the two labs away as soon as their big noses caught the food. They whined and made grumbly sounds, but headed off down the hall after he told them ‘room.’ Miss Ell, however, was not one to be told to do anything and she sat on his computer chair, giving the other woman a dark look.

Gourry lowered himself to the couch, looking up at Lina in curiosity. “Well… yeah, I do.” It was weird, but he did trust her. More than probably anyone else he had met so far, which was really weird. But that was something that just… came from her.

Aw, that had her feel almost a little fuzzy. Almost. He’d see her perform some more drastic spells once the dreams came pummeling at him, but she had more passive ones under the belt - she wasn’t the greatest at white magic (that trophy went to none other than Sylphiel), but she could manage. Hopefully it wouldn’t spook him too bad?

“Okay, just…” Lina knelt in front of him, gingerly taking his wounded foot. “Sit still and don’t freak out, please?”

That’s when her hands came alight, a soft white glow emitting - the energy from it soothing. Tingly, warm, and the word recovery seemed to have been the trigger word for the healing spell to commence.

Gourry did jump in surprise, and Miss Ell let out a growl, unsure of what all this nonsense was about. The feline didn’t move from her perch, though. Gourry blinked from his foot, to Lina, and back again. “What are you doing? It feels weird…” He tilted his head. It wasn’t a bad weird, but he was definitely confused. But he trusted her. Also, everyone on the Network knew she was stopping by his place so if anything happened to him, she wouldn’t be able to get away easily.

“Fixing you up,” Lina answered simply, raising a brow towards his bitch cat - please let that thing have its rabies shot. “With magic. And you mind telling your cat to back off or something? I’ve heard of overprotective dogs but cats?”

Really, pussy. She brought the owner food and was making sure he didn’t have to hobble around like a homeless man. Keep the claws back.

“Oh, she’s probably just scared.” He waved Lina’s words off, laughing. “And she doesn’t like people much. She’ll go find a spot to lay down at soon.” He looked over her hands. “So my foot’s good now?”

“Patience, Gourry,” Lina giggled, turning her head to help push some hair behind her shoulder - she didn’t need the carrot top curtain in the way. “I’m almost done. You didn’t freak out, either. You’re not the least bit curious as to how this is happening?”

He always did go with the flow, didn’t he. If there was someone who could adjust to anything, it was this stupid lump of loveable man. It was only a few extra seconds that she needed anyway, before the energy of the spell quelled into nothing - his foot would be patched up and ready to go as normal now.

Gourry wiggled his toes through the bandages. “Whoa,” he mused. “And I saw someone use a stick to do magic stuff too. Pretty sure all of you guys on the Network are witches.”

Lina shook her hand a little, almost like she was trying to wave off the excess vestiges of unseen sorcery. “Not all of us,” she smirked and rose from the ground. “But there’s a lot of us, yeah. Hawke’s a mage - he and my husband are what you’d call besties. You’ll see him at some point. Grumpy Englishman who's got a thing for Armani suits.”

The paper bags of dinner were plucked from the table and brought to the couch.

“You won’t learn magic, but you might learn some neat combative tricks that involve swords - more than you know now.”

And just like that, a lightbulb goes off over his head. “Will he be upset you went off in the night to give food to some guy?”

Uh, what?

Lina’s brows furrowed, head tilting to the side. “No. He knows where I am and trusts me, so - what’s with you bringing him up? We’ve established there’s no homewrecking going on.” Again, Pete knew how important Gourry was to her. He wasn’t Xelloss, he wasn’t Naga. He was her companion, best friend, something more in three other lives but the latter wouldn’t influence things here. She’d been dreaming about the swordsman since day one, and those confused feelings that had surfaced once (Martina’s words at death, you love him, don’t you?) had been compartmentalized.

“And he knows about you - I always figured there’d be a possibility of you showing your face around here.”

Gourry blinked a few times. There she went again, talking about things he really didn’t understand. “Well, if you say so.” He reached for the bag. Food helped him get over confusing feelings!

Nope, he wouldn’t understand until he experienced all the pleasant and fucked up gifts the Powers to Be of the OC could offer. Lina wondered if whacking him over the head with a chair would trigger a memory or two but nah, she knew it didn’t work like that - unfortunately.

Until then she had to be patient. It was a straight she struggled with already.

“How’re you settling in at The Hanged Man, anyway?” she asked, dipping her greedy hands into a bag to retrieve a carton of fries. Mmm, carbs.

Gourry finished a burger and started on number two. “I like it a lot. Alecto is nice, and Garrett is an awesome boss. Isabel too. Well, besides the asking me to wear tight stuff, but that’s fine. They hired me pretty easily.”

“Not surprised,” Lina mumbled around a fry - Gourry was easy on the eyes (real easy), and hustled when responsibility came his way. He had almost parted ways with her when he thought he fathered two children (they were fish children, what the hell was wrong with his head?) and tried to provide for them like a gullible idiot. “So why all the different jobs, anyway? Where are you really from?”

Dragging out a little backstory from the man was nearly impossible, probably, but she was giving it another go. She was curious. Being a traveling merc made sense in their dreams - it was a common way of life - but what the heck was his deal here?

Gourry munched cheerfully. “East, well, south-east. Had a little bit of family issues so I decided to just leave with what I had on my back. You have to work though, so I worked my way across the States. Every bit I saved up, found myself here and the job was open at the Times. Realized I could do that. Fight on horseback, fight with swords and weapons. Felt… natural.”

There were always parts that mirrored the lives they once lived - and she knew the feeling too well. Lina must have been fated to leave destruction in her wake at every turn, excited for rushes of danger. Reckless living, traveling. Too bad that translated to something too dangerous here, but she survived.

“Must have been something serious for you to just get up and leave like that,” the redhead pointed out in between fry nibbles. “I’m guessing your family wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine?”

“Nah,” Gourry shook his head, taking his own fries and munching before he switched back to the burger. “Thanffs fah fis.”

Gluttonous slob. Lina’s giggle was stifled a little from the cut n’ fried potatoes. “You’re welcome, but you know - if you need to talk about whatever happened with them, your family…” Well, that was her way of saying she was here for that. All she knew about the Gourry she dreamt was where he was raised, and then there was…

Rowdy. Rowdy Gabriev. He wasn’t someone she thought of often, but he’d been the first person she had seen with the Sword of Light before Gourry himself. Did that entire time alteration that happened in Mipross ensure his existence?

Huh. Why the fuck didn’t she make that connection before?

“Okay, let’s share stories - what’s the craziest, weirdest job you’ve ever had?”

“Door opener,” Gourry nodded. “I opened doors for ducks.”

“A job like that exists?” Lina squinted, suspicious. Definitely weird. Not the craziest. Probably the saddest, and she had to wonder how much that even paid. “That’s…” There was just so many questions. In the end she snorted a laugh. “Well, I can’t beat that, I guess. I used to be a gun runner. Or any weapon in general. International black market stuff, pricings and negotiations.”

Turns out, being a crook sucked and she really didn’t like that aspect, but it had filled the searing need for adventure. Maybe she should have just backpacked through Europe instead.

Gourry looked at her in surprise, burger still in his mouth. He finished it and turned to her. He eyed her almost suspiciously. She wouldn’t lie now, right? “I was a stripper.” Let’s test it.

Now it was Lina’s turn to turn to him in surprise. And maybe choke a little bit on a french fry. It took a couple hits to the chest and coughs for a proper swallow, because the last thing she ever imagined Gourry doing - despite having the physique, anyway - was working the pole in something skimpy like a male g-string.

“You’re serious,” she breathed. “Really? Did you have a stripper name?”

Inquiring minds needed to know.

Gourry’s cheeks reddened. “Wait, so you were serious? You worked with that stuff?”

“Why the hell would I lie about that??” It wasn’t the proudest period of her life at all. That’s where she learned how much humans could resemble monsters, how to kill, survive by barely a hair. Lina’s purpose was to get her family out of debt, and participating in illegal activity paid well above than most things out there.

Though maybe stripping earned more. Who knows. “I mean, it was forever ago - it’s not the kind of thing you can just quit, you know, I had people trying to put my head on a platter for the sake of money for awhile. And now I can’t tell if you actually gave lapdances or you’re messing with me.”

Because Gourry would, she didn’t doubt it.

“I’d give you one, but I think your husband would come after me then.” Gourry laughed. He looked back at her for a moment, fidgeting. Was it time to finally tell someone? Maybe… maybe he could tell her. She certainly gave him information he didn’t think she’d just spill to anyone. He twisted a fry around until it broke, then popped it into his mouth.

“My family is one of those families.”

Definitely wasn’t a request, but hey, maybe Bela and Hawke could capitalize on his secret skill. That bearded man did run a strip club on the side too, so…

But anyway, the concept of Gourry dancing on a stage scantily clad with dollars raining down on him (seriously, what the fuck) was put on the backburner. Sort of. What he said next caused an auburn brow to hike up, hoping that didn’t mean what she thought it meant. “A family of strippers?”

It was a joke. And also what she crossed her fingers for.

Gourry laughed. “I wish.” He grabbed whatever was left in the bag to continue to eat.

Mmm, not a lot of things caused her to lose her appetite but something about what he said did it. There were fries in the carton still that she abandoned, his for the taking if he wanted it, and she brought a knee up on the couch to hug against her chest. “They tried to drag you into what they were doing?”

Talk about deja vu. Lina had been close to someone in the same predicament once, but he’d been pulled in so deep that he was convinced he couldn’t get out of it - ever. It made for a turbulent first relationship and gods help her if her own daughter went down a similar path.

Gourry nodded. “Yeah, well, going to. I got out before then.” He did finish her fries and stood up, stretching and walking around a bit on his newly healed foot. “Should I still rest it?”

Just like that, huh? Lina didn't know if it was something he was bottling up or something he was genuinely over, and maybe tonight wasn't the best night to dissect the truth from him. "Nope, you're good to go," she grinned a little. "Back to work too if you want. Healing's not my specialty but I can do alright in the category, so if you're ever hurt again? Call me."

If he also dreamt about the dragon they first faced together when they met, she hoped he'd call her too. Or at least text. But if he was fixed up and fed, then her job here tonight was done.

"I gotta head out and see how Pete's fairing under the cheerio attacks I left him with, but try and be careful next time?"

Gourry smiled at her. “Thank you for this.” He nodded at her, and headed to the door, wiggling his foot. “You be safe getting home, okay? Want me to get you a cab or anything?”

“I can handle myself,” she promised, rolling her eyes - the drive here wasn’t awful, and she expected the one back home to be the same. If anything she’d ray wing it. Lina almost, almost pet the cat a goodbye but she opted not to. Her own feline would probably smell traitor on her and snub her.

There was a playful punch delivered to his arm before she went through the door. “Oh, and your stripper secret? Safe with me. Your bosses might try to put you up for extra entertainment if they knew about your hidden skill set.”

Gourry laughed. “I was fired from that job, I’ll have you know. Lina, seriously though, be safe. And thank you, again. If I can do anything for you, just tell me.”

Not necessary, but… “I’ll keep that in mind,” she winked with her devilish eye. “Don’t forget to hit me up when things get weirder for you.”

Hey, maybe this would be the lifetime he’d actually let her study the Sword of Light. A girl could dream.