A/N – I decided I'd post up some Zelos angst. In which – gasp! – he doesn't die! I dunno, I actually rather LIKE deathfic, but I've just been seeing a ton of it for Zelos…so I thought I'd try something new.

Note, this is set pre-canon, before Zelos knew Mithos or Lloyd.

Disclaimer: Tales of Symphonia is all Namco's. And Nintendo's. Yeah, Nintendo's.

'Away From Myself'

I had a wonderful dream last night.

It was a simple dream, but it was a great dream anyway. I'd been walking through the streets of Meltokio, alone, in broad daylight, and not a single person so much as acknowledged me. No strangers smiled at me. No girls I didn't know and didn't care about shrieked gleefully and giggled when I walked by. No little children ran up to me and demanded that I play with them. This was a welcome change, sure, but the real treat was that I didn't hear the titles 'Chosen' or 'Master' even once.

I would've been perfectly content with staying asleep for a much longer time, too. Damn that annoying butler of mine, waking me up like that! And doing it with the phrase, 'Master Zelos', too.

To hell with all this 'Chosen' crap. To hell with my responsibility, to hell with the mana lineage, to hell with it all! So many people would do anything for this title. There are people who live their lives wishing that they could be the Chosen of Tethe'alla. People who would even kill for this title. People like my half-sister.

I honestly wish I could just hand it over to them, because I don't want it. What do I want, then? After all, so many revel in the glory and honor that is the title of 'Chosen'. What more could anyone want?

All I want is a normal life instead of one chock-full of duties I never accepted and empty, groundless praise that I did nothing to earn. Just a simple, easy life.

Geeze, I really am a lazy bum.

Slowly I crawl out of my bed. No use staying in there. After all, it's not like it'll summon back the life in the dream for me. I slip on all my clothes and nonchalantly run a brush through my long, red hair once.

Now all that I'm missing, as I step out of my room, is my mask. That figurative mask of happiness and pride, that mask that hides my true self. I'm such a coward, hiding behind that mask, but I've grown used to it. It's almost as though the mask, the one thing I use to run from myself, really is myself now. Sometimes I make myself sick.

But as I open the mansion door and head out for the day, I know I can't forget it. Applying the same old mask, I greet the ever-oblivious city of Meltokio.

I hope someday they realize their precious Chosen's smile is genuine. Genuinely fake.

End-

A/N - Reviews…? –puppy eyes-