~*Cherry Blossoms*~
We were both young, when I first saw you…
~*X*~
—I actually haven't thought much about it recently—
It was a distinct, fuzzy kind of pinkish-orange that swept across the sky now, the color of ripe peaches. The grass, still slightly tinged yellow as remnants of winter continued to cling to it, rippled under the gentle wind that teased it down towards the ground with careful fingers.
She would have found it beautiful—enchanting, even—if she hadn't been so entrenched in her own thoughts.
Sheena Fujibayashi watched the little clearing with blank, hurt eyes from her position on the forest edge. Dim shadows reached barbed claws for her, but their touch was insubstantial and all they succeeded in doing was covering her skin with patchy spots of darkness, courtesy of the trees up above.
—How you and I first met.
Corrine was perched on her shoulder, his little claws digging into the bright lavender fabric of her tunic. He blinked at her with his dark eyes, nuzzling her cheek affectionately. "What's wrong, Sheena?" The man-made Summon Spirit asked kindly.
The teenage girl stood there, her hands slack at her sides, her thoughts spiraling into deeper and bleaker territory. The weight of the satchel on her back suddenly seemed excruciatingly heavy. The air was stifling and her throat burned horribly with unshed tears.
No! She growled savagely in her head. I'm not alone anymore. I have Corrine. We're going to be okay, we're going to be okay. She repeated it like a holy mantra to herself. We're going to be okay.
The fox-like animal twitched his nose delicately. "Sheena?"
"I'm fine," she said, proud of the fact that her voice held not a tremor. She didn't have to worry so much about the loneliness of being practically outcast among her own people. It was going to be fine from here on out. She and Corrine would support one another.
Corrine nodded, lightly springing to land onto a tree branch above her head. He balanced there, long rainbow tails curling delightedly over his back as he sniffed the breeze. After a moment: "I smell apples!"
Sheena at last tore herself fully from her dark musings, concentrating on her companion. "Really? How far?" She asked, making an effort to apply her full attention to the situation.
"Not far at all," replied Corrine. He bounced off spryly, and Sheena hurried to follow, keeping her eyes on her friend's brightly colored form.
Eventually the winding path through the forest vanished altogether, and a small hill topped with a sakura tree—a cherry blossom tree—came into view. Its branches were spread against the sunset, black and imposing, but positively breathtaking thanks to the thousands of pink-red petals clinging to it.
Slowing to a halt, Sheena felt the skin on the back of her neck start to prickle.
Something's…here…
"Corrine!"
At her tone, the Summon Spirit froze, one dainty paw still lifted. He studied her inquiringly before padding back to her side, winding his way up to her shoulder. "What's the matter?"
Sheena slunk back to the edges of the woodland's shadow, crouching low to the ground, her gaze raking the suspicious clearing and its tree. "It's—"
Before she could finish, something hit the top of her head, hard. Yelping in fright, the ninja darted off to her right, only to run smack into someone.
"Whoa there," said an unfamiliar voice. Someone grabbed her shoulders, pushing her back at arm's length but steadying her simultaneously. "It was just an apple," chided the stranger in a lightly exasperated tone.
Sheena lifted her eyes, fingers tightening around a spell card hidden in her sleeve, and she was shocked by what she saw.
It was a boy. Somewhere around her age, maybe the same year, possibly one above or one below. He had the most brilliant red hair she had ever seen—that was certainly a rare hair color—and cool blue eyes that gave her the impression of looking at a tinted window. She wasn't seeing fully "into his soul" as the saying went. Despite this, the teenage boy was quite obviously handsome. The tilt of his chin promised that he knew it.
She scowled.
Before she could say something (hopefully) witty and sarcastic, Corrine pounced with an astonishingly fierce hiss. The boy scrambled to get away, throwing his hands over his face, crying for her to get the "crazy thing" off of him.
"Corrine, it's okay!" Sheena called, and the Summon Spirit stuck his tiny tongue out before returning obediently to her, crouching behind her legs and poking his head out from around them to glare at the boy.
Struggling to flatten his suddenly messy hair, the stranger grumbled, "I was just being friendly."
"Dropping an apple on my head is friendly?" Sheena scoffed. She watched him warily, studying his rather…flamboyant clothes. Not practical traveling threads. He was dressed like a freaking…noble…
"It was an accident! I was trying to surprise you!" The boy protested sharply, but he was grinning, and she felt just a little bit better about him. Maybe he was just some lost kid, though to be honest, he wasn't all that far from Mizuho.
"It was a surprise all right," she acknowledged sarcastically, bending to take Corrine into her arms. Straightening slowly, she questioned inquisitively, "Why were you in a tree anyway?"
Rubbing the back of his head, the boy answered reluctantly, "I was trying to hide." He smirked unexpectedly. "I got you, didn't I?"
As he started to snicker obnoxiously, Sheena accepted the apple that Corrine had gone to retrieve for her. Tossing it at the boy, she smacked him upside the head with the scarlet fruit.
His eyes shot open with the most ridiculous expression she had ever seen. Breaking into laughter herself, she attempted to smother her giggles—and Corrine's—as the boy rubbed his ear, which was now a vivid crimson.
"What was that for?" He complained.
Sheena was about to form a response, and that's when she paused. She was laughing. It didn't happen often nowadays, but Martel, it felt so good. Putting on a serious expression, and failing miserably since the corners of her lips kept twitching upwards of their own accord, she asked, "What's your name?"
"Zelos." There was a slight hesitation in the pronunciation, but she had no idea why.
"Well, I'm Sheena." She inclined her head politely before turning to leave.
"Hey, wait, where're you going, hunny?" He jogged up to her side, and Sheena bristled.
"Hunny?" She repeated incredulously, more surprised than indignant.
Zelos merely smiled, but the edges were too sharp to be considered harmless. "Why's someone as beautiful as you wandering this forest with a talking fox?"
Corrine's ears flattened and Sheena took a step back, inching towards the reassuring darkness of the forest behind her. The sun was nearly extinguished now, and dark blue was coming to claim the last of the tawny glow in the sky. It was later than she had originally thought.
Noticing this, the boy frowned, and then sighed. "Look, I'm not gonna hurt you."
He seemed sincere enough, but the glossy gleam of his eyes—secrets, Sheena, secrets—continued to hide his true intentions from her. She caught glimpses of emotions here and there, but there was nothing concrete. If anything, Sheena was a good judge of character, but this Zelos was just as good when it came to hiding his.
"We're traveling," the ninja told him neutrally. There. Information without giving too much of it away. What would she tell him, anyway? "I'm an outcast from my people thanks to an accidental event involving the Summon Spirit of Lightning? And now I'm wandering to avoid their scorn and earning money for the poor village I decimated so brutally?" No, thanks.
"What about you?" Sheena asked, forcing herself to meet his tinted ocean-blue gaze.
He shrugged indifferently. "Let's just say I'm taking a walk far from home."
"Any reason?" She was curious, despite herself.
Zelos grinned. "Well, Sheena my angel, I'd love to answer your question. Provided you answer questions of mine."
What was with the pet names? Cautious and just a tad annoyed, Sheena nodded. "What do you want to know?" Corrine glanced at her in mild astonishment, as if he had expected her to simply take off into the safety of the forest. Well, relative safety.
"First off…" Zelos lifted one finger and waggled it knowingly. "I bet you're from Mizuho, aren't you?"
Stunned into silence, Sheena opened her mouth before closing it again.
"Not surprising," went on Zelos confidently. "Your eyes are slanted and you're dressed sort of…" He waved a hand vaguely, earning some more of her mild irritation. "Anyway, I'll tell you where I'm from, to be fair. Meltokio."
"Meltokio?" Sheena blinked, and then she realized who she was talking to. "You're…"
"The Great Zelos Wilder," he boasted, hands on his hips.
Sheena regarded him with more than just curiosity now—it was almost anger. She had a heavy dislike for the smug nobles over in Meltokio, with their flowing robes and false faces. They never showed their true selves; their exteriors were as faux and gaudy as festival masks. Not to be trusted.
And the same instantly extended to this boy with the charm—deceiving smile.
He pouted. "What's that look about?"
"What are you doing so far from your estate?" Sheena kept a civil tongue in her head, despite her internal grouching at meeting a noble. Not just any noble either, the Chosen of Tethe'alla. Her grandfather had always said to be polite, after all.
"That's a secret," said Zelos with a wiggle of his eyebrows. Sheena scowled and he merely laughed, though she noticed his eyes continued to study her closer than she would have liked. As if he could see through her soul or something.
He was the Chosen. What did she know? Maybe he could.
Corrine made a disdainful sound.
"If you won't tell me what you're doing…" Sheena watched the slow descent of the cherry blossom petals as they drifted down from the tree, soft as snowflakes against her skin. "Where are you going?"
Zelos watched her with his concealing eyes. "I don't really know," he admitted, looking at the forest floor. There was something about his tone, the flippancy was too strong. He looked almost lost to her at that moment, with the sun setting behind him, casting his face into shadow.
Her heart gave a twinge, though in sympathy or something else she did not know.
"You're running away." The words came from her before she was even aware of them, and most importantly, their meaning.
He glanced up in surprise, his juvenile face—he had to be in his early teens, like her—actually showing his emotions for the first time. "Er—"
"Why're you running?" Corrine piped up, bouncing onto Sheena's shoulders.
Zelos wrinkled his nose, looking at the Summon Spirit. "Because being the Chosen isn't all it's cracked up to be, that's why."
Sheena crossed her arms. "It can't be that bad. You've got servants waiting on you hand and foot and the respect of everyone in Tethe'alla. What else do you want?" Typical selfish nobles.
"What else do I want?" He echoed her words with something bitter laced in them. "Sheena—" He took a step towards her, and then he gave a sudden, unexpected yelp as his foot caught on an upraised stone that was lodged firmly in the soil. He pinwheeled his arms and slammed into the ninja with enough force to knock her to the ground. Corrine dropped to the earth beside the pair with a groan.
Sheena blinked the blinding white stars from her vision in a matter of seconds. She pushed her hands against the ground…and noticed that Zelos was laying face first on her chest. Feeling her cheeks burn, she shoved him off and sprang to her feet, a spell card in each hand. "You…you…!"
"Ow," Zelos whined, long and low. He rolled onto his back and peered up at her through his red bangs. "What was that for?"
She tossed a card at his face, and he flinched as it sliced a strand of his hair off. "You did that on purpose!" She accused, not thinking rationally in her embarrassment. "I don't care if you're the Chosen, I'll smack you, understand?"
Inexplicably, Zelos brightened as if she had given him the best present in the world. "You don't care if I'm the Chosen?"
"No, I don't, and—" Sheena's hands dropped to her sides as Zelos leaped up and hugged her. All the breath left her lungs in one whoosh of air. "Z-Z-Zelos, what're you doing?" She demanded weakly.
He released her, grinning hugely, and she blinked in shock. The blue of his eyes seemed positively breathtaking, brighter than the heavens. The next second the abrupt warmth in her chest disappeared and she was left wondering if it had ever been.
"You idiot," she hissed half-heartedly, still red in the face. "What's the matter with you?"
Corrine was watching the proceedings with an intelligent dark gaze.
"Nothing at all, Sheena my dear." Zelos turned to look at the cherry tree that topped the small hill near them. "Let's go sit down, if you want to continue this lovely conversation."
Sheena hesitated as he started walking off. Did she want to go on talking with Zelos Wilder, the Chosen? Her deliberations were cut short, because Corrine puzzlingly nudged her forward from behind. When she peeked down at him, he just swished his tails.
She followed Zelos up the slope and sat beside him beneath the sakura tree. The petals fluttered down like dry pink rain, seemingly infinite in number. Zelos had one leg drawn up to his chest, and his eyes once again perfectly hid his thoughts from her view.
What did she look like to a Meltokio noble? Strange, outlandish? Uncultured? Poor? She was tempted to ask, but the proper wording never came, and she let the silence draw out between them.
She remembered hearing once that the best of friends could sit without speaking for hours and never grow bored of the other's company. Right now, she felt like she and Zelos shared more than either of them had previously thought.
What exactly they shared, she still didn't know.
"Do you have a family, Zelos?" Sheena asked, her voice the only sound in uncounted minutes. The sun had long dipped beyond the horizon, and the night was now upon them in full force. Stars twinkled overhead, delicate as ice crystals. The pale disc of the moon stroked the clouds silver.
"Huh?" She heard more than saw him shift to face her. The overhead light caused the deep blue of his eyes to shine.
"Do you have a family?" Sheena repeated evenly, stroking Corrine's head as he rested in her lap.
"Oh, yeah. A sister." He left it at that, and she didn't pry about his unnamed sibling.
She said instead, "Do you want her to be left alone?"
"Well, no…"
"If you're running away, not even sure where you're going, who's going to be with her?" Sheena challenged, though her tone was kind. Zelos heaved a deep sigh after a few seconds of thought.
"You're right," he grumbled, leaning back against the tree with a thud. "I guess I'll have to go back and get chewed out…"
Corrine made a snickering sound, likely laughing at the Chosen's lack of planning ahead—(and lack of looking back at what he would leave behind, for that matter)—causing Zelos to shoot a death glare his way. The effect was severely lessened by the dark.
"Hey," Zelos remarked heatedly, causing Sheena to start. "You know a lot about me, but I don't know anything about you. So, Ms. Sheena the Traveler, where are you going, anyway?"
"To Sybak, I guess. We'll figure it out."
"Why Sybak?"
"I'm just taking up odd jobs. Those institute people always want someone to run errands for them." Sheena shrugged.
"Why don't you come to Meltokio, then?" Zelos grinned triumphantly, as if he had offered her the best gig in the world. "I could give you a few things to do."
"Why do I get the feeling you're talking about something else?" She snorted in reply.
"Fatal beauty, thou woundeth me so."
Sheena made a face. "Ugh, you're so lame."
Zelos laughed softly, and she smiled despite herself, resting back on her hands and staring up at the sky. "Maybe, we're not alone," she told Corrine quietly. The fox-like creature perked his ears up. She shouldn't feel this way; have such an attachment already to a boy that she just met.
"I'm not tired, so I guess I better make the trek back home."
"Are you sure? Meltokio is pretty far." Sheena said doubtfully. She totally wasn't trying to prolong the Chosen's stay, thank you very much.
"I'll get a ride at the nearest town. I am the Chosen after all!" He sounded pompous, but there was an undercurrent to what he just said that made the sentence seem almost mocking.
"…Sure. Have a safe journey back, Zelos."
He turned to look at her, really look at her. His eyes flashed in the shadows. "Hey, what if I said I wanted to see you again?"
She wrapped her arms around her knees and exchanged an amused glance with Corrine. "I don't know."
"I guess it wouldn't be hard for you to find me in Meltokio," he went on as if she hadn't spoken. "But what if I want to find you?"
She pondered this, though not for very long. "This tree." Sheena patted its worn surface. "Corrine and I, we'll be sure to visit here often." Never mind the fact that Mizuho was nearby—they'd likely cross paths if he was in the area at the time that she was returning home.
Zelos sighed. "If I have to slog my way over here, you have to go to Meltokio every once in a while. Deal?"
"Heh, deal."
He leaned in and kissed her out of the blue, and Sheena stiffened in shock. She didn't even have time to kiss him back—wait, what, was she going to?—before he pulled away and raced down the hill.
She was left staring after him with her fingers resting on her lips, incapable of creating a sentence to counter his laughter.
~*X*~
—It's pretty different this time around—
The sky was the color of peach fuzz, and the clouds that skimmed across it looked just as soft and fine. A delicate wind rustled the grass and the leaves of the trees, and the air was cool, refreshing. It was Spring, her favorite season, and nature continued regardless of the events of the world.
She would have found it beautiful—enchanting, even—if she hadn't been so entrenched in her own thoughts.
Sheena Fujibayashi watched the grass clearing before her, eyes half-closed, deep in thought. She had passed by here many times before, and if she hadn't always been careful not to leave a trail, a path likely would have been beaten into the ground around her.
—And yet some things remain exactly the same.
She fancied she could hear the ghost of Corrine's voice, but mayhap it was just wishful thinking. Her friend wasn't here right now, at least, not physically. She missed him greatly, but she swallowed the pain and walked forward.
The ninja had no idea what kind of whim had brought her out here again. She actually hadn't set foot here in a while, and now with the whole World Regeneration adventure behind her, this place should have been the last thing on her mind. She had a lot of things to do.
Or, she mused, running her hands along the weather-beaten trunks of familiar trees. Maybe that was why she was here, for a bit of mental peace. Now that she thought about it, some alone time would be welcome.
Sheena took a bend in the path and looked up at the familiar small hill with its sakura tree. Petals continued to shower down around it, like a rose-colored storm, and it seemed bigger than it was in her memories.
She narrowed her eyes, and then widened them, as if that could disperse what she was seeing. But no, it wasn't an illusion or some other figment of her imagination.
Someone was leaning against the tree, one leg drawn up to his chest, and she swore she caught the glint of blue eyes.
You're kidding.
Despite her mental objections otherwise, Sheena walked calmly up the hill and sat beside him as she had many times before in their younger years. But she wasn't in her early teens anymore, and he wasn't either.
Her mind told her there should be a fox spirit beside her, and her heart said there was.
Zelos, for of course it was he, smiled up at the sky and caught a cherry blossom between two of his fingers. "We've not sat here in a long time," he observed.
"Not since our fight."
He looked dramatically pained. "You're not still mad about that, are you?"
"You looked at me in the shower." She glared at him, but he just grinned.
"Can you really blame me—ow!" Rubbing his head, he glowered at her and the ninja smirked. "In all seriousness," said the Chosen wryly. "You have no idea how often I used to sit here hoping you'd show up."
The concept startled her. "You did?"
"Of course. All I know is that we got in a fight over the shower thing and you up and leave without another word! I didn't see you again until that business with Cruxis."
Sheena scrutinized him, seeking to read past the tinted windows of his eyes. Even though she couldn't read the truth there, she could hear it in his words. "Oh," was all she replied with. She studied her hands, swiping away petals that continued to dust her fingers.
Zelos apparently couldn't stand the ensuing quiet, since he broke it up after a few seconds. "So the two worlds have become one. A lot of chaos going around."
"It'll calm down eventually. I mean it has to, right?"
"Let's hope you're right, Sheena." He ran a hand through his hair, and she had a flash of his younger self doing the same.
It hit her, then. So hard and so strong that all of her other thoughts crashed into one another and refused to move. The root of her crush with Lloyd…was tied directly and undoubtedly to Zelos. Lloyd reminded her of Zelos when he was younger, with his boyish grin and somewhat naïve air. The Chosen had certainly lost his naivety over the years, but the twin swordsman hadn't. Those two were more similar than they knew.
A warm breeze carried a blossom past her lips. The brushing contact summoned the phantom sensation of a kiss long passed.
"Yo, Sheena," Zelos called, interrupting her reverie. She snapped out of it, blinking hard to bring her surroundings back into focus. "You vanish so completely into your head sometimes," he complained. "What're you thinking so hard about?"
"I…" She looked away, as if the shadows of the forest held something interesting. "Nothing. Don't worry about it."
"Hmm…is it about me?"
Surprised, she turned back to him.
He laughed. "I knew it; you always get so defensive over me." He almost looked smug, but she could sense his underlying curiosity. This was just more of his show.
"I was just thinking…" She toyed with a spell card, if only to avoid looking at her old friend. "That you and Lloyd were similar, when you were younger."
"Ah…" Zelos trailed off, seemingly at a loss for words, which was rare enough in itself.
"You don't think so?"
"You're sorta right," he acknowledged. "I wasn't anywhere near as naïve as he is though."
She scoffed. "That's true."
"You sound sort of frustrated." Zelos, perceptive as always.
"Never mind it."
He lifted his hands. "Alright, alright, we'll let it go. What brings you to our little meeting point?"
"I was trying to get some alone time," she responded dryly.
"Alone time is overrated." Zelos grinned and folded his hands behind his head. "I'm guessing you're back to talking to me? Or was that a limited time offer for our adventure?"
Sheena spun the card deftly, causing it to levitate in the air of its own accord. "Yeah, yeah, we're back to talking."
"That's good. I missed you."
The tenderness in his voice made her lose her concentration. The spell card glided slowly to the ground, and she coughed, trying to hide the blush she was certain was forming. Thank Martel for nightfall, and its concealing shadows.
"It's pretty dark, isn't it?" He remarked nonchalantly.
"I guess?" Flummoxed by this newest statement, she waited for whatever he was planning on doing next.
There was a small, fiery flash and then she felt something soft and warm brush by her. She was speechless at the sudden appearance of his wings, their feathers giving off a magnificent yellow shine. The glow was as subtle as a firefly's.
"If we're going to sit here chatting, we might as well be able to see." Zelos tossed a hand towards the woods. "With our luck, the biggest, nastiest monster alive is lying in wait out there."
Sheena tore her gaze away from his plumage and nodded. That proved to be a mistake, since now that she was looking directly at him; she was forced to admire the accidental halo that he ended up forming over his head. The light given off from one of his wings caused a golden circle to hover just above his carefully tended scarlet hair, and the appearance was strikingly reminiscent to the Cruxis Angels. Except better.
The radiance around them lent the atmosphere a surreal quality, as if in a dream. Every cherry blossom that fell now became a mote reminiscent of a tiny sun, almost like the light from his wings was contagious.
Zelos had been around too long to not know when he was dazzling a girl. He grinned. "Oh, like my wings, do you?" He fluttered them once, causing a spray of petals to form a cloud around them. The luminescent shifting was astonishing.
She focused all of her attention on the ground, which was, mercifully, mostly unaffected by him. "…Idiot."
"As you say, Sheena my sweet."
Another period of silence that just stretched and stretched until Zelos had to break it again. "Now what are you thinking about?"
Sheena decided to answer him honestly. "I'm thinking that you have two sides."
"Is that so?" His tone was neutral.
She started plucking out strands of grass from the earth, swilling them between her fingers before letting the wind blow them away. "I guess what I'm saying is, I can't figure you out."
"What is there to figure out about me?" Zelos sniffed.
"Well, I know one side is hiding the other, but I'm not sure which side it is." Wow this conversation was taking a turn for the unusual.
"You know which side it is," he replied quietly, bizarrely serious.
She had pulled away all the grass in a circle, and now she began sketching a pattern absently in the dirt. When he leaned over to see, she erased it and scowled. "I think I know. Why don't you show me?"
Sheena expected a snarky remark, something like "Your wish is my command." Instead, Zelos put his hand on her shoulder, and when she turned to face him, he kissed her.
She could be wrong, but she imagined that all the synapses in her brain shortened out. All she could feel was his lips on hers, softer than she had thought, and she knew then which side was false and which was real. His hand came up to cup her cheek, and she closed her eyes to revel in the dark and the warmth of the moment. Even behind closed lids, the golden light of his wings burned.
After a few heartbeats had passed, he broke the contact and looked her in the eyes. For that single instant in time, all of his carefully constructed guards were down and she saw Zelos. Not the Zelos she remembered from her childhood, nor the Zelos that she saw around Lloyd and the others. This was someone completely new and yet not, because it was the teenager that had stolen her first kiss.
Just…matured.
He must have sensed her moment of realization, because he grinned.
Zelos. All this time. Am I really…in love…with…?
She knew the answer to that, and he knew the answer to that.
Sheena smiled despite herself, and when Zelos made a smart comment about it, she didn't even hit him that hard.
Author's Note: So, I said I'd do it, right? This is my formal offering to the "Sheelos" community and the best writer in it, Faux Promises. I hope you like it! Special thanks to Midnight Critic for Beta'ing it for me. Review, if you want.
And yes, I have a soft spot for wings. So sue me.