Hello everyone, and welcome to my new song fic. I absolutely love Utada Hikaru, so odds are, this won't be the only one of her songs I turn into a song fic. Hope you enjoy.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Tales of Symphonia or With or Without You by Utada Hikaru.
Summary: 'Damned if I do... and damned if I don't. I love you so much, my little Anna. What should I do?' A multi part song fic from the song With or Without You By Utada Hikaru. After leaving Mithos, Kratos finds a little human girl at the Asgaurd Ranch. After figuring out his strange feelings, it should be simple, right? Still being veiwed as one of the four Seraphim, he should be able to easily get Anna away from the Ranch. If only love was that simple...
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Kratos hadn't always been the way he was. His cold crismonish brown eyes hadn't always been so cold, so void of emotion. He used to be quite expressive. But centuries upon centuries of tragics and struggles had changed the man.
Was it so wrong to guard your heart? Was it wrong not to want to keep your heart from being broken and ripped and torn apart, from being bent until it would break? Just because he didn't show any emotions didn't mean he didn't feel them.
Over the years, he had been growing sick and tired of the path his twisted ex-student had been taking. But of course, he didn't show it. Like Kratos, his ex-student, Mithos, hadn't always been this way.
Like Kratos, Mithos had had his heart broken, and ripped and torn apart. Discrimination and rejection because of the boy's race had slowly ripped and tore at the boy's fragile young heart. Finally, it was his sister's death and the raging wore that had caused it to break and shatter.
But unlike Kratos, he didn't try to hide and overcome it. He didn't try to guard his heart. The only thing Mithos Yggdrasil had been trying for has been revenge. And Kratos couldn't take being around Mithos while be was causing so much pain to the hearts of others.
Kratos had decended to the waning planet of Sylvarant. Currently, he stood in one of the work yards of the Asgard Human Ranch. The man wasn't sure of the emotion that wouldn't let him stay away. It was unfamilar to him, seeing as he hadn't felt it in nearly four thousand years.
As he watched the poor humans being worked to death, wave upon wave of sorrow and guilt washed over him. Kratos knew this was wrong, but what could he do about it? He looked around for the little brunette woman he usually watched, finally finding her attempting to move a giant block of stone.
He didn't know why she had caught his eye the first day he had watched the humans be driven like slaves. And he didn't know why he kept coming back to watch her. Why did he even feel so drawn to this one little human female?
She heaved, throwing all her weight into the block. It barely scooted, and sweat continued pouring down the woman's strained face, soaking the top half of the brown garment she wore as she panted heavily.
"Come on, quit slacking off, you lazy bitch!" One of the Desians yelled, cracking his whip across her back. The woman yelled in pain, falling to her knees. Kratos growled as the soldier brought up his whip again.
In an instant, Kratos was in front of the soldier, firmly holding the Desians arm in place with one hand. "I do no wish to see you striking her." Kratos growled.
"Who the hell do you th-- Oh, Lord Kratos. My apologies. Do you wish for me to leave this inferior being alone?" The Desian asked.
Kratos narrowed his eyes. "Yes. And I would prefer you not call the humans that."
"Y-yes sir!" The Desian answered. The faint clinking of metal on metal was heard as his legs shook in fear. Kratos glared daggers at him before the soilder attempted to calmly walk off.
Kratos turned to the fallen woman, his eyes still hard as stone as he gazed down at her, offering his hand. She gasped.
See the stone set in your eyes
Standing before her was easily the most beautiful man she'd ever laid eyes on. His auburn hair spiked in such an unusual fashion fasinated her. His flawless skin and perfect, hard features made it hard not to stare. And his eyes...
Once her brown eyes found his lone visible reddish brown one, she was lost. His eyes, as hard and emotionless as they were, were positively gorgeous. She searched his eyes, looking for some trace, some flash, of she found nothing on the surface, she saw something hidden, and her gut told her that this stotic man did indeed have emotions, but a guarded heart as well.
No human was this beautiful. He had to be a god, at the very least, an angel.
The woman finally took notice of Kratos' hand, and started. Hadn't the soldier refered to him as 'Lord'? She tried to scoot away, only to wince and hiss as a searing pain shot through her body from the wound caused by the whip on her back.
Kratos, seeing the absolute fear flash across her eyes, dropped his emotionless mask, something he hadn't done in a few thousand years. "It's okay." he said, his voice deep and alluring, but gentle none the less. "I won't hurt you."
The woman just stared at his hand for a minute before hesitantly extending extending a shaky hand to weakly grasp Kratos' gloved one. He wrapped his hand around her's, pulling the small human to her feet.
The woman screamed out in pain and fell foward into Kratos, who akwardly, yet carefully, caught her. "I-it h-h-hurts..." she wimpered, trembling. Unbeknownst to the angel, her tears were staining his purple shirt.
"Shh... it's alright..." Kratos soothed, gathering up mana as he spoke. The angel mentally stumbled as he replaced his emotionless mask. How could this one little female, this one little human, make him drop the façade, that he'd easily held for the past few thousand years, in a blink of the eye.
A green glow surrounded the gash, closing it up. Though she didn't feel the pain anymore, the little woman continued to cry. "What's your name?" Kratos asked her gently.
"It's Anna." she whispered, though Kratos had no problem hearing her.
"Anna, I promise I will not let anymore harm come to you." he told her. Anna looked up at him, her tears of pain changing to tears of joy as she hugged the stotic angel. Kratos mentally slapped himself. 'What the hell have I just said? Just done?'
Kratos winced at the physical contact. It wasn't exactly something he was used to. Anna lifted her head, looking up at her savior. "A-are you wounded or something? I didn't hurt you, did I? I'm so sorry." she said, then looked down.
"No." Kratos said firmly, and Anna's head snapped up to meet his gaze. "I am not wounded, nor did you hurt me."
"Is something wrong then? You winced, didn't you?" Anna asked.
Kratos stiffened, but luckily, this went past the little human's notice. How was he supposed to explain that it was the embrace that had made him wince? For once, the mighty angel did not know what to say.
Anna continued to stare at him, waiting for a response. Suddenly, she blushed, before she unwound her arms from around his waist. "I-I'm s-sorry, " Anna stammered, looking away. "Areyou clausterphobic? Or a germaphobic, or something like that?"
"No." Kratos answered softly. He was surprised by the gentleness of his tone. It was almost as if he were trying not to scare the human. He mentally shook his head at the ridiculous thought. No, that couldn't be it.
Anna looked back at Kratos again, tilting her head as her chocolate brown eyes glistened with curiosity. "Then what is it?"
"..." Kratos couldn't just tell her it was purely because he wasn't used to the physical contact of another. What would that make her think? 'Wait, why should I even care what this woman thinks? She's just a human.'
Anna let out a small wimper that would have went by unnoticed if it weren't for Kratos' angelic hearing. "Please tell me," Anna pleaded as she frowned. "I want to know, 'cause if I could help..."
Kratos was baffled. Was she really concerned about him? Did Anna actually care? " It's the contact..." Kratos muttered at last, immediately regretting it.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Anna asked, tilting her head again, this time in confusion.
Kratos sighed. 'Might as well...' he thought. " I'm not used to the physical contact of others. No one has touched me in any way since my mother, and she died years ago." Kratos explained. He wasn'y lying, though he knew Anna would never guess that by 'years' he meant nearly four millenia.
See the thorn twist in your side
"Oh... I'm sorry. I had no idea..." Anna said, her voice chocked with sympathy.
"Don't worry about it." Kratos said simply before he quickly walked off.
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Okay, I know there was only one line from the song, and that it was short, but I wanted to post one more time while I was thirteen, since I turn fourteen tomorrow. After I started writing this, I decided to do one verse per chapter. So yes, this will be a short chapter story. I will finish the rest of this chapter and edit it into this chapter. Thank you for reading. Please reveiw. Flames are welcome, because they are used to burn Zelos, but also because any critism is useful to me.
Edit: Alright, I changed my mind again. I'm just going to write the chapters until it seems like a new one is starting in the middle of another.