Disclaimer:Tales of Symphonia does not belong to me.
Rating:K
Spoilers:Kratos' past.
AN:Wow, I wonder how long it's been since I touched my Tales of Symphonia copy.
Parenthood
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There are certain rules to parenting that one must follow in his or her life, Kratos absent-mindedly thinks one day as he bends low to gather the logs required for the Chosen's recovery.
Among many, the first one was to never leave your child with the household animal, especially if said animal was larger than it was supposed to be.
"Kratos!"
Anna's half amused, half panicking screams send him dropping the bags of groceries – the tomatoes for only Anna herself stacked somewhere beyond where he could see them – near the Rheaird he "borrowed" from Yuan and rushing to the entrance of their forest-hidden home, his sword drawn in his hand in the flash of a second.
Anna half-turns on the doorway to the cottage to glance at him over her shoulder, a disapproving smile twitching upwards at the corners of her lips.
"Kratos," she says, glancing again past into the room he still can't see. "Did you forget to lock Noishe's pen?"
He walks closer, the sword in his grasp lowering itself with every step and he stands shoulder to shoulder with Anna. He looks inside before answering his wife (because he still doesn't understand why he would need to lock Noishe up every time they left, even though he was supposed to watch out for Lloyd and could easily break out at any time if he wanted).
A sight meets his eyes and a bemused smile graces his lips for a brief moment before Anna is on him again, and he can't tell whether she is laughing or yelling.
And little Lloyd watches this all from the floor of the wrecked living room, blinking every once in a while to clear his eyes of the flour sprinkling down from his hair. A smashed glass jar labeled 'COOKIES' lies a few feet away from him (Kratos can see why Anna might be yelling and makes a note to himself to leave any sharp objects away from his son in the near future to stop the boy from harming himself, who currently looks perfectly unharmed and innocent) with a half-eaten chocolate chip cookie in the boy's hands.
Somewhere, hidden behind the shredded purple couch lying against the wall of the house, Noishe laughs to himself in a way only a Protozoan can.
The second was to never leave your child with a best friend who was never good with little kids in the first place.
Later, after Yuan finds them (with Kratos holding him at sword point in the moment of a heartbeat) and swearing on his life and love for Martel not to tell Mithos, Kratos and Anna head back to the same cottage after yet another shopping trip to the nearest town where Yuan was left, baby-sitting their son.
(Because they learned their lesson with the dangers of having Noishe alone in the house with the energetic toddler.)
Anna worries all the way back home, insisting that leaving Lloyd with the blue-haired half-elf was a mistake and Kratos reassures her time and time again because he trusts Yuan and knows that he would never let their son come to harm.
(But not quite the other way around.)
The small house is oddly quiet when they come near it and Anna's mumbles only increase as they enter through the unlocked doorway; it's just then that Kratos becomes cautious, suspicion entering his mind as he puts his hand on the hilt of his sword. He hasn't sensed anybody near here, he thinks to himself, but chooses not to rely on his angel instincts only as he was taught to do.
They proceed through the living room – with a new couch standing against a repaired wall – and into the kitchen, with Kratos guiding Anna closer to himself. "There are no signs of break in," he mutters to her out of the corner of his mouth in reassurance and she glances at him before turning her eyes away. He catches the words 'Yuan' and 'meat cleaver' being mumbled under her breath – in order to hide her fright, he knows –but that is all forgotten as the two step foot into the kitchen.
"Daddy!" Lloyd cries from his spot on the counter, his hands in the same cookie jar Kratos swore he put on the highest shelf he could find, and a smile breaks out on the little boy's face.
"Lloyd!" Anna cries in relief and rushes forward to embrace her child in her arms. Lloyd looks in confusion at his father over her shoulder and cocks his head to the side as much as possible.
"Daddy?" He asks, but Kratos' attention is focused on something beyond the two.
"Mmph!" Yuan makes strangled noises from the back of his throat, his hair out of its usual ponytail and ruffled all over the place, glaring daggers at his best friend from where he is sitting tied securely to a wooden chair with bed sheets (Bed sheets!? Kratos thinks). A moment passes before the auburn haired man bursts out in chuckles, which then turn into a full-out rumbling laugh.
Anna turns to see what's going and is then laughing along with him when she takes in the sight, even as Yuan's glare turns deadly and a spark of weak energy gathers itself in the palms of his hands behind the chair.
No one but Lloyd bothers to glance out the window behind the blue-haired man, where just a little out of sight, a crashed Rheaird is smoking in a pile of purple metal and Noishe's pen nearly creaks eerily, strangely empty.
The third was not to force them to eat something they did not want.
"No!" Lloyd cries from his seat at the dining table, glaring as best as he can at his father across of him. Kratos sighs but silently agrees with his son as he pushes the plate with tomatoes closer to the fuming toddler.
"Lloyd," he says gently yet firmly, inwardly curling inside with distaste at the red objects so close to his body while being reminded of his own horrible experience with them. "Come on. You have to eat it."
"No!" Lloyd yells again, banging his little fists on the poor wooden table before him. Kratos sends Anna a desperate look over his son's head but Anna shakes her head in amusement, leaning comfortably against the doorway of the room. He can tell that she is dying with laughter on the inside but he lets it pass for now, reminding himself that he has to focus on the small boy's tantrum.
"No tomatoes!" Kratos' grimace at the name is barely noticeable but Anna disappears back into the living room, where her laughter soon follows. Kratos can feel his eyebrow twitch.
"And why not, Lloyd?" He asks, his voice patient. Lloyd glares and pouts at the same time, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Not hungry," he declares but his father keeps on insisting, pushing the plate closer to him inch by inch.
"Lloyd," Kratos says the boy's name again, barely noticing Noishe's quick glance into the kitchen before the wolf look-alike disappears after Anna. "You have to eat them. They're good for you."
Kratos is dying on the inside.
"No!" Lloyd screams, shoving his fists down on the table with as much force as he possibly can. The next moment seems to happen in slow-motion; Kratos can see Noishe rushing into the room again, chasing a stray mouse. He catapults under the table the very same moment Lloyd's hands touch the table and the size of him sends the table wobbling.
The plate is sent flying from the wooden surface – tomatoes and all – and the next second for Kratos is just a mix of Lloyd's gasp and then joyful laughter, Noishe's barking and Anna's giggles as she comes to look at all the commotion.
Stiffly, Kratos straightens himself and slowly, every so slowly, reaches a hand to his head to pick one of the tomatoes residing there.
On the inside, the Kratos in his mind is long gone, buried under a grave.
And last was to never betray them, because the look on their faces – whether they know you are of any relation to them or not – will crush your very soul apart, beyond any repair.
"Kratos…"
Kratos can still remember the look on his lost son's face, now not a child but an almost fully-grown adult, and the combination of the pain in his voice and the pain in the man's own heart (no matter how many times he reminds himself that he wasn't supposed to care) sends him spiraling down far beyond any grave he ever imagined.
…