All Men are the Same
AN: Hi! This is my first story so don't bite my head off too much, review, and enjoy. : )
Summary: Zelos tries to tell Sheena how he truly feels about her and is continually thwarted by Genis who is appalled at the thought of Zelos bamboozling Sheena into a relationship. Told from Marta's perspective
Disclaimer: I own absolutely none of Tales of Symphonia one or two in any way, shape, or form. Namco does.
Prologue: Revelations
He was sitting at his usual table at the usual inn's usual common room, wearing his usual clothes, pink vest and all, with his usual drink held loosely in his right hand, as usual. But despite most outward appearances, tonight was a very unusual night. For one thing he wasn't surrounded by his usual entourage of tipsy, air headed, female admirers, and for another he wasn't sporting his usual, arrogant, and, though admittedly dazzling, (in doses that are small, few, and far between.) obnoxious grin. Quite the contrary, in fact, he was resting his chin in the palm of his left hand, the one that wasn't gripping the ale mug, and had a furrow browed speculative look on his face, as if he was thinking deeply on something, which, let me tell you is a rare enough thing when it comes to Zelos, but rarer still was what was currently going on beneath that furrowed brow. He was thinking of a woman, one, singular. Not as a species, meant for his entertainment, but as an individual, with a face, a name, and a purpose in life beyond his subject of his thoughts was one Sheena Fujibayashi, and also the events that led to his current revelation.
Earlier that evening Zelos had entered the common room with a girl on each arm and several trailing behind, he had gone up to the bar and ordered a round of the most expensive Palmacostian imported ale, a delicacy only recently made available in Meltokio due to the four year distant world regeneration. He led his groupies over to his table and started talking about all his wild escapades over the last two times he (with lot's of help from us I might add) had brought the world back from the brink of destruction. The girls did all the right things. They laughed at all his jokes, the majority of which could have been bested by Emil's old wolf, they poured praise upon him and doted on him and flirted with him.
But strangely the more of the ale he drank the clearer his mind became, and he quickly began to tire of the company of these girls who were weak willed, air headed, bimbos, and when one of them said gigglingly "Oh, we love you, Master Zelos!" He lost patience and jumped up shouting "Leave all of you boring sluts! Go, get out, I don't ever want to see any of you again!" How sudden, and most likely how dramatic, his outburst was, was probably caused by his semi-drunken state, because, head clearing or not, ale is ale. He was angry that the blonde had said that she loved him. None of them loved him, not really. His thoughts turned to his friends, and the genuine affection he felt for them, Genis notwithstanding. But that wasn't love, not romantic love at any rate, or was it?
"All the girls are gorgeous but... most of them just aren't... right." He thought to himself. He started to mutter about each of us in turn: "Raine, a teacher, downright scary at times, and, like, two hundred years old, so no. Presea, near emotionless, which is damn creepy, and regardless of her actual age she's trapped in the body of a 15 year old, and even I'm not that bad, also she has a thing for Genis so another no for her. Marta, ... very much with Emil, and she can't cook. Collet, she's a cutie pie, but she and Lloyd are... something, they're not really together but there's something... they're in love, thats it. Also she's more of a klutz than Sheena... Sheena I've known her so long, and I've fought with her so long, both by her side and against her." (what he meant by the latter was Sheena getting pissed off and him coming out bruised) He chuckled at that thought. "Definitely a lively one, if not so book smart very intelligent, strong, strong willed, brave, loyal, and also, a very nice figure." He thought, smiling to himself as he pictured her, suddenly a thought struck him, "Oh Goddess, I'm in love! With Sheena!" "Oh boy, I'm gonna need another drink." he said to himself, sighing, so he went up to the bar and ordered another ale, and another, and another, and the more he drank, the more obvious it became, and the more he was astounded that it hadn't seemed obvious before now, he loved her madly, eternally, truly. As he began to see the bottom of his fifth mug, he decided to go home and sleep the night and the next morning he would go visit a friend who knew a thing or two about romance. He got up shakily from the bar, walked a few steps and collapsed. Gringa, the bar maid sighed and looked at the sprawled chosen, drooling on her newly polished floorboards, and called the nearest serving girl "A respectable working class young woman" She thought proudly "No "bunny girls" in my inn." She asked the lass to help her revive the man, and she presently went and fetched some water from the kitchen which she dumped on his face. He coughed and shook his head a little, but remained unconscious. "Looks like Mr. Wilder can't hold his Palmacostian eh?" the serving girl said with a chuckle. "Aye" replied Gringa "Somebody better go'n fetch Ol' Sebastian" One of the more sober of the men at the inn that night ran out the door to "fetch Ol' Sebastian" and Zelos lay there in his drunken stupor, dreaming of the woman he loved.