Tales of Pieces

Summary: A collection of random pairings courtesy of a random generator. May include Romantic, Platonic, or Familial groupings. Due to angsting ability, one may find the occasional One-sided or Unrequited pairing as well. Practice. No explicit content.

(A/N): A project created to cure me of my complete inability to write anything resembling love, using the ToS cast as the unfortunate test subjects.

Due to randomness, pairings may not reflect my personal preferences. Any instances of same-sex pairings will be light and kept non-explicit; of course the latter of which applies to most other groupings as well. I will not promise lack of violence or bad language however, which may cause an M-rating.

Please remember! I do not own Tales of Symphonia or any characters mentioned therein.

#1. For you to be Happy

Zelos/Sheena with some mentions of Sheena/Lloyd, Zelos POV

Implied Canonical—Takes dialogue right out of the Game

Of course he cared about her; it was just hard to see it sometimes.

Zelos kept his affections on the sidelines, presenting the faux yet convincing remarks they all knew and (didn't really) loved, but his real opinions and connections always remained to be buried a little deeper. Because as much as the red-haired Chosen pretended to act under his guise of easily played vanity and physical desires, he still managed to hold a special soft spot for a certain Mizuhoan clumsy ninja who he verbally provoked at almost every opportunity.

Still, he was held back by something that mere willpower couldn't overcome: distrust.

Zelos didn't trust the foolhardy band he was currently traveling around with and hell if they trusted him (and he still couldn't—wouldn't—believe it when the ever-oblivious Lloyd had to open his mouth and claim the opposite). And if he finally went through with his still-developing plan, then any bond he managed to form with Sheena would only end up shattering her heart to pieces. Really, her emotions were a lot more fragile than the girl liked to believe.

Sheena was sweet (admittedly he tended to forget this when she was busy beating on him), and the thought that she could have cold-bloodedly murdered the Chosen of Regeneration (i.e. Little Angel Collette the eternal queen of innocent love and mercy) sounded odd, if not ludicrous. Well, he'd known her for a great deal longer than the rest of the team, so he was pretty certain of her personality by now. He could've easily avoided making her angry, but chose not to. Zelos was only glad that Sylvarant's Chosen hadn't been some maniacal church-brainwashed crazy who would just kill their strange assassin and continue on their merry way.

Or maybe he had Lloyd to thank, again dammit! He didn't know, he wasn't there! Though from the sound of what the others had told him, the beautiful Professor and Arrogant Bastard Angel had everyone but Lloyd in some kind of stranglehold of control for the first part of the journey.

Either way, Sheena had eventually joined up with them, without being murdered or murdering thankfully. And Zelos got to have his own reunion with her later too... Though that was...in Sybak, in the underground prison. Nice.

He was a bit surprised, but not really altogether upset when he learned of the ninja's growing attachment to their clueless leader. In fact, if anything, it made the idea of forcefully parting from this band easier to take. After all, Zelos the Annoyance to the Party could become Zelos the Traitor and Sheena would have someone to rely on in the end to weather the change. It was better that way.

Maybe he could hit two birds with one stone and give Lloyd a push in the direction of being "somewhat less of a prude." Maybe.

Everyone would be happier that probably.

Well, except for Zelos but, he wasn't really counting on that being an option in the first place.

So when the Vice-Chief of Mizuho informed the group that the only option of continuing onward was to form a pact with the Summon Spirit Volt, Sheena broke down and needed someone there to comfort her and convince her to inspire her to keep going. What happened last time she took on this challenge was destructive and tragic, but there was no avoiding it.

Zelos could have gone to her himself, but he refused to. He wouldn't open himself up like that. He wouldn't risk letting her get too attached to him, not with what he was secretly doing and plotting to do in the future. So he pulled Lloyd aside instead and encouraged the boy to follow her.

"It's a pretty famous incident. A quarter of Mizuho's population died. She puts on a strong face, but she's really alone in this village. Go cheer her up, man. She seems to have a thing for you." Lloyd's normally innocent face took on a more serious and pained expression and he nodded in understanding. Of course, he took on the burden of what happened to his hometown, didn't he? Zelos managed a weak, but genuine smile and patted his shoulder as he headed off to where the girl crouched with her small foxlike spirit.

He waited, watching on the outskirts until the light returned to Sheena's eyes and headed back inside the Chief's abode, his mission fulfilled. Maybe he had thrust himself outside of her affections and done it intentionally no less, but if the twin swordsman could make her happy and help her to forget the traitor, then it was all worth it.

(A/N): Its official, now that I've done it once, anytime I use Zelos' POV, I will never have him refer to Kratos by name.