This is the first Slayers fic I've ever written. Please comment and help me make them better.

    //Traveling with Lina is going to get me killed one of these times.// Gourry thought to himself as he readied himself for bed. It had been just days since they'd met and already they'd been attacked more than he was in a week! And those bandits just wouldn't leave them alone! The Mummy man was really wierding him out. Of course that was better than what the blue guy in the mask was doing to him.

    //I must be sick. That's it. I'm hallucinating that guy into a girl and that's why. . . I . . . anou. . . well it's plausable! I mean, his long legs and slim hips, his shining, volumous hair and cool hands. . . the coolness just radiated off of him. It made Gourry just want to curl up in his embrace and dream.

    A slight breeze billowed the window curtains and the Knight sat straight up in his bed and turned to the dark portal. "Shit!"

    The cream colored cape flowed out behind him as he slid inside. Gourry shivered and backed off the searching for his sword in the blankets he'd tossed of in his hurried retreat.

    "You . . . uh. . . I don't have the magic thingys."

    "I know."

    "So what are you. . ."

    "You don't seem like the type to travel with a sorceress."

    "She was in trouble."

    Zelgadis nodded and sat on the window sill with a smirk, "Ah."

    "What are you doing here?"

    "Visiting." The stormy eyes above the face mask watched him for a reaction.

    "Why?"

    "Do you need a reason? I told you I wouldn't fight you until you left the inn."

    "Why do you want the magic whatever from Lina?"

    "It's mine."

    "Not from the story I heard."

    "Don't believe everything you hear."

    Gourry was getting annoyed. He knew he wasn't the brightest person in the world but it felt like Zelgadis was rubbing it in on purpose. Like he should know what he was doing there.  "What do you want!"

    "Besides my life back?"

    Gourry blinked. He had no idea what the stone skinned man was talking about.

    "You."

    "Me?"

    The cold hand he had imagined from before ran softly over his cheek and with the other, pulled down the mask to reveal skin of deep stone and clusters of even darker rock around his eyes and chin. It should have sickened him bu tthe swordsman only found himself lost in the unnatural beauty of it.

    "W. . . why me?"

    "You, Gourry. I can feel a great power from you. And an even larger kindness. Your soul is beautiful. I want to know it better."

    "You're the bad guy."

    "Not really." He shook his head, "But then you don't beleive me. Do you."

    "No."

    "I do wish you would."

    "Hm?"

    "I wish you could trust me."

    Gourry blinked and looked at the chimera seriously, "Give me a reason to trust you."

    And so it began.

~tbc~