"Okay, everyone partnered up yet?" Gourry called, looking over the assorted sparring groups. Even though he was considered one of the best members, you'd never hear him actually claiming to be the best, he was by no means the president of the club. Mainly because everyone knew his...tendency to simpleness and the duties of leadership weren't suited to him. But at times when the other club leaders were unable to lead and organize practice, it fell to Gourry to manage it. "With everyone else gone, there isn't anyone for me to practice with..."
Then his eyes spied a figure not seen within recent memory. Actually, not seen within in the last week but the concept of time sometimes eluded Gourry as it did other absent-minded people. At the moment, all he really processed was the appearance of a sparring partner.
"Oi! Zesigsdal! Over here, over here!" he waved to his younger, stony friend. "Thank gods you're here. Now I have someone to spar with."
Zel shrugged. He actually hadn't been planning on going to practice today but his job didn't begin for several hours and he had already finished all of his homework. Plus a good workout may be just the thing to get rid of some frustration. He dropped his school bag and jacket on the sidelines of the marked out field, clasping his swordbelt around his waist before stepping out.
"It's felt like forever since I've had a good spar," the upperclassman saluted Zel, a salute the chimera returned. With no other words, Gourry began.
Zelgadiss knew the truth behind Gourry's words. The upperclassman was a cut above practically everyone else. Only the strength and speed given to him by his cursed form bumped Zel up to be a possible equal. Zel wondered what kind of outside instruction did the blond have to gain such skill. From the school talk, Gourry had easily beaten the top members of the Sword Club on his first day of school.
It was like a story, a nobody comes out of nowhere and beats the living tar out the proclaimed champions. Come to think of it, Gourry also matched the stereotypical handsome blond hero and/or prince. Zel was reminded of that by the screeching members, male and female, of the Drama Club on the sidelines. They had been trying to recruit Gourry since day one.
"Still drawing quite a crowd," Zel noted, weaving his blade through Gourry's defensive web of steel. "Those Drama people sure are persistent."
Gourry shrugged. "I've told them many times but they don't listen. It probably has something to do with those photos...," he muttered.
"The ones with you in drag?" smirked the lower classman, managing to get a thrust past Gourry's guard. Cries of despair rose from the Drama Club as Zel's sword cut awfully close to Gourry's long hair.
"How did you learn about that?" Gourry winced at the memory, not the close call. Being the generally easy-going person that he was, he had been roped into cross-dressing for a few festivals during his first year. "I could have sworn I burned all of the photos."
"Apparently, not all of them. If you'll help me, we can burn Xelloss's entire album of those kinds of embarrassing photos."
"You were in drag??" Gourry chortled.
"NO!" Zel answered a bit too forcefully to make Gourry think the contrary. "Xelloss is just a pervert."
Xelloss sneezed in the teacher's lounge.
"Hey, Zel."
"What?"
"You're upset about something." It wasn't a question, but a statement.
Zel gritted his teeth. "What makes you say that?"
"Hmmm," Gourry thought aloud, parrying Zel's strokes instinctively. "Let me see, all I've been doing is defending but you're still having a harder time than usual in getting past it. You haven't even complained about my lack of counterattacking. Sometimes you aren't striking strategically but just impulsively, as if you want to strike out at something."
"...do you really have the brains of a jellyfish or is it all an act?"
"Oi, I'm not a complete idiot, specially not in swordcraft." To prove his point, Gourry managed in two strokes to both disarm his opponent and tag him several several times on his neck, chest, and arms. "And if I can do that to you, you must really be out of it."
"Baka! What are you doing slicing up my shirt like that?!"
Tag = Cut in shirt.
Gourry blinked, then scratched his head laughing. "Oops."
"Oops you say. Well 'oops' this!"
The other students on the field paused in their practice as the sparring between Gourry and Zelgadiss extended beyond that of mere practicing.
"He's on edge again isn't he?"
"Yep."
"So, what's the problem?" Gourry was laying back on a small grassy knoll on the far edge of the practice field where he could still keep an eye on the other students. In his mouth, he was chewing a grass strand.
"What problem?" Zel retorted, sitting next to Gourry.
"And people say I'm stupid. It's obvious something is bothering you, Zel. Tell big brother Gourry all about it."
"So what? You can give me advice?"
"If I don't know what the problem is, I won't know whether I can give any advice. Besides, my grandmother always said talking things out always makes you feel better. It's even better than just releasing all of your feelings on some defenseless training post."
"Oh?" Zel wondered how Lina would react to that kind of advice. Well, if her explosive tendencies were the result of pent-up frustration then she had a lot of frustration tied up. But what did she have to be frustrated about? She wasn't a walking statue!
"Could it be...that little girl?"
Zel snickered. "By little girl you mean...?"
"Your girlfriend. No offense of course."
"LINA ISN'T MY GIRLFRIEND!"
In Sylphiel's kitchen, Lina quickly stifled a sneeze.
"Ah, gomen, Lina-san," Amelia apologized, coughing a little as she tried to rub some white powder out of her eyes. "I guess I shouldn't have suddenly poured all of that water onto the flour."
"No cough you shouldn't have."
"Are you ready to die of embarrassment yet?" Gourry asked good-naturedly. "I'm sure everyone outside heard you yell that. There's nothing wrong with having a girlfriend you know."
"Will you quit it with the 'girlfriend' stuff already?" Zel hissed, hiding his head. "Why does everyone think she's my girlfriend? She's just someone to whom I'm connected by bad luck."
"Oh okay. But she does seem to be at the root of your problems if you blew up just when I mentioned her. And what do you mean by bad luck?"
Zel sighed and then proceeded to explain everything that happened since he met Lina not over a week ago. Though Gourry nodded and added appropriate grunts at the right intervals, Zel didn't believe for an instant that any of this was actually being processed. The only thing that was probably in Gourry's mind right now was whether that white fluffy cloud in the sky looked like a bunny or a fish.
"That's quite a lot," Gourry commented after Zel finished.
Zel looked at him. "Did you here everything I said?"
"...actually, I kind of drifted off."
Several sweatdrops appeared around Zel. What else did he expect? Shaking his head, he turned his gaze across the school grounds. How typical it was, everyone else was out there having fun with their friends while he was off on the far sideline, alone.
"But what's wrong with tutoring the little girl for the finals? Sounds like a better job than what you have right now, dre - "
"Don't say it!" Zelgadiss hissed, knocking the air out of Gourry by punching him in the midriff. Gourry was the only person who knew what Zel's part time job was and Zel was intent on keeping it that way.
"...didn't have...to do that..." Gourry winced.
"Just being cautious. You promised to never tell anyone what my part time job is remember?"
"Of course I remember. I'm not supposed to tell anyone that you dre - "
Zel pounded Gourry on the head several times.
"Itaaai." The blond woefully fingered the red lumps on his head. "Anyway, the only reason you need a part-time job is to pay for your apartment. As a child of the faculty, you don't have to pay school fees. So why don't you just move back in with your family?"
"...that would be too troublesome," Zel muttered. "I see them enough at school."
"But that's not the same as being at home with your mother and father and brothers and sisters and uncles and aunts and grandfathers and grandmothers and - "
"I get the picture already! Jeez. What about you, Gourry? What kind of family do you have?"
A lonely wind blew across the grass.
"...I stay with my uncle."
Zel raised an eyebrow. "And your parents?"
"They...wanted me to go to a different school."
"And you wanted to come to this one?"
"I just didn't want to go to the same school as my older brother."
"You have an older brother? I never heard that."
"It's nothing," Gourry shrugged, his hair shadowing his face. "But you're lucky to have a family that cares about you, Zel. I haven't heard a word from mine for the past four years."
Hear nothing from his family? Zel found it hard to imagine given his circumstances. His family went out of their way to see him even as he went out of his way to not see them.
"Doesn't your uncle communicate with your family?"
Gourry snorted. "He's been estranged from the family since he was eighteen. I didn't even know I had an uncle until I accidentally met him when I arrived. Funny how he was here at the farthest place I could purchase a train ticket to. Maybe he did the same thing."
So Gourry had pretty much ran away from his home. Zelgadiss wondered why didn't he try the same thing. But even if he got away from his family, he still had another problem to deal with. His blue hand curled tightly into a fist.
"As much as you say you don't like your family, you'd never really leave them." Gourry winked at Zel. "You don't want to leave the only people that accept you."
"Ba-Baka!"
"It's true." The blond contemplated the sky again. "Your family made it easier for you to live here during the past year even as you tried to push them away. And I think I know why you keep saying you don't like that little girl."
"Well then enlighten me oh knowledgeable one," Zel said sarcastically.
"It's simple. She treats you like a normal person. Probably the first to do so since you got changed right? She isn't scared to death of you, she doesn't idolize you to death, and she's never met you before now. You've been coddled and protected by your parents and the only people you talk with now are people like me who knew you before you got changed. Not that you were very friendly before either."
Zel blinked. "Oi, you're Gourry right?"
"Yes. Why?"
"No, I was just thinking I must have accidentally picked up a conversation with your long-lost twin brother who actually has a brain."
"Hey, that's rather low."
"Maybe. But it's strange to hear something making sense coming from your mouth. How did you figure it out?"
"I don't know."
"Mattaku. Oh well, I've gotta go now or I'll be late for my job."
"Oh yeah, I'm dropping by Sylphiel's place later where she's teaching the little girl how to cook. You want to drop by?"
Zel wondered whether he should grimace at the idea of going or smirk at the idea of Lina cooking. "No, I'll probably be working past then."
"Oh. Well, do you want me to pass along any messages?"
Zel picked up his jacket and school bag. "Like what?"
"Oh I don't know. Like 'I'll be late for dinner, honey' or something. Just joking."
"Of course."
"Then um, could you move your sword somewhere else other than at my throat?"
"Hmm? Oh, sorry about that."
"Yeah right. But seriously, do you want me to tell her that you've agreed to tutor her?"
"I never agreed to - "
"Oh, so you were going to ask her yourself?"
"I haven't decided yet!"
"No need to yell. By the way, aren't you going to be late?"
"Oh $%#%@!"
"Language."
"Tomorrow, Gourry."
"Alright." Gourry watched Zel dash for the wall surrounding the school grounds and easily leap over it. Now what had they agreed on? Oh yes, to tell her that Zel was going to tutor her tonight. He'd better right it down somewhere before he forgot.