Disclaimer: Tales of Symphonia belongs to Namco, not me.

Authors' Note: Takes place after you get Zelos' Cruxis Crystal in-game. Mild spoilers (mostly pertaining to that), but this game came out seven years ago; if you haven't beaten it by now . . .

Anyway, if you read, please review.

Simple and Clean

Zelos couldn't sleep.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't. Stuck at their little campsite with the feeling of the Cruxis Crystal branded into his chest, he felt more like suffocating and dying than sleeping. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option, either.

Nonetheless, he stubbornly kept his eyes closed, his arms folded behind his head, pretending to be asleep. When everyone else woke up in the morning, he'd pretend to wake up just as he always did, unapproachable until he had his morning coffee. Coffee always fixed everything.

"Psst. Zelos?"

Zelos kept his eyes closed. He'd heard the whisper, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to answer it or not. Still, he couldn't help but wonder what she was doing awake, when it would send Lloyd into a fit of worry if he knew.

"Zelos?" A petite hand reached out, touching his shoulder, gently shaking him. "I know you're not sleeping."

Zelos cracked open one blue-gray eye, raising an eyebrow over it as he looked up at Colette. "If you knew," he whispered back, "then why are you shaking me, hunny?" Colette sat back, her eyes widening in surprise, but after her surprise faded, she smiled.

"Because even if you could ignore my voice, I knew you couldn't avoid my shaking." Colette stood up, and extended her hand down to him. "Will you take a walk with me, Zelos? I don't want to wake everyone else up. Oh, and don't worry - Noishe agreed to take over watch for me. He'll bark if anything shows up."

Part of him wanted to refuse - it'd be easier to keep up the lie if he said he was going back to sleep - but she already knew he was awake, and it wasn't like pretending to sleep was doing him any good anyway. Opening his eyes fully, Zelos reached up and took her hand, allowing her to use her angel strength to pull him to his feet. Carefully - with Zelos keeping hold of Colette's hand to keep her from tripping - they made they way through camp, walking a good distance away so that they could talk normally and not be heard by anyone else in the group.

"So, my sweet little angel, what can I do for you?" Zelos asked, releasing her hand once they stopped. Colette spun around to face him, a gentle smile playing on her lips.

"It's not what you can do for me. It's what I want to do for you, Zelos."

"Oh?" Zelos raised his eyebrows, and smirked. "Something tells me my bud wouldn't like this conversation." Colette's smile fell, and she tilted her head to the side.

"Huh? Why?" Before Zelos said anything, Colette seemed to catch on - possibly from something in his expression - and her eyes widened, her cheeks flushing. "Oh, no! No, it's nothing like that!"

"Oh? Then what is it?" Zelos never let his smirk fall. "Come on, hunny - don't be shy."

"I want to help you," Colette said, clasping her hands behind her back. Her embarrassment faded from her cheeks, but her smile remained, her cerulean blue eyes suddenly a lot more serious than Zelos liked. "I noticed that you were having trouble sleeping, Zelos - you've been having trouble sleeping for awhile, and I think I know why."

"How'd you know?" Zelos asked, dodging around the subject at hand. "It's not like I made a show of advertising it."

"Nope, you didn't," Colette agreed brightly. "But your breathing was funny - it was different from someone who's asleep. And . . . I've been there. I know what it's like to not sleep, but pretend like you did."

Zelos could see where the conversation was heading, and he didn't want to hear it. "Colette, I'm fine," he said, his voice coming out a bit firmer than he meant it to. "Trust me, I don't need a pep talk to get through this."

"That's good, because that's not what I brought you out here for. I wanted you to feel something." Colette's smile was as easy as ever, and Zelos - his mind jumping to a few not-so-pure places - raised his eyebrows.

"Excuse me?"

"I want you to feel something," Colette repeated. "Here, spread your arms out like this . . ." Colette spread her arms out, stretching out her fingertips as far as they would go. "And then do . . . this!" Suddenly, Colette began to spin herself around, her long golden hair whipping around her, her eyes squinted shut. She looked foolish, honestly, spinning around in the middle of the summer night, her own clumsiness causing her to stumble and almost fall due to the speed and force of her spinning. She stopped after a few moments, looking almost out of breath, her cheeks flushed and her blue eyes bright. "Give it a try!"

"Uh . . . No thanks," Zelos answered, turning away from her to head back to camp. "It's getting late, and besides, I'm not sure I really trust Noishe with guard duty. He's not exactly the most reliable guard dog, if you know what I mean."

"Noishe gets scared easily, but he'd never let anyone get hurt - he'd bark if anything came up, I promise," Colette said earnestly. "Zelos, don't go!"

Zelos had every intention of ignoring her, and had already started back to camp. What he hadn't banked on was Colette running after him and pouncing on his back, throwing her arms around his neck and both of them off balance.

"Whoa!" Zelos had to clamp down on his reflexes fast to keep himself from pulling out his sword or throwing her off, and his sleeplessness made his temper flare a bit brighter than it would have normally, though he still had problems being touched when he wasn't the one initiating the contact. "Hunny, that's really not the wisest thing to do to a man who wields a sword."

"It's okay," Colette said, her breath tickling his ear. "I know you wouldn't hurt me." Her tone was sincere, and the blatant trust she placed in him made Zelos' heart skip a beat, though he did his best not to let it show on his expression. "Besides, Zelos, I still want you to feel it, and you haven't yet."

"Feel what?" Zelos asked, his earlier, irrational irritation melting away in spite of himself. Out of the corner of his eye, Zelos saw Colette smile.

"Freedom."

Without warning, and with both of her hands moving to grip his shoulders, Colette lifted him into the air. Her wings cast a pinkish-purple glow over both of them, and out of sheer adrenaline and instinct, Zelos drew his own wings, a red-orange glow mixing with the light already present. With the presence of his wings, Colette released his shoulders, flying around to float just in front of him.

"Spinning probably would have been easier," she said, speaking as though she didn't notice his shock over the fact that he'd so effortlessly drawn his wings for the first time, "especially since it wouldn't remind you of being the Chosen, but this works, too. Flying's fun - it's one of the best parts of being an angel. And it lets you experience the world in a whole lot of new ways."

"It's not hard," Zelos muttered, more to himself than to her. He'd expected to feel pain, or a strain on his back the first time he used his wings, but instead, he didn't feel anything; despite the fact that his wings were flapping, it didn't feel as though they were supporting his weight at all. Colette smiled again, and shook her head.

"Nope, it's not. I think the wings are really pretty, but I also think they're mostly just for show. Flying just sort of clicks." Colette snapped her fingers. "Like that. It's more like you just . . . you just think that you want to fly, and then you do. It's really easy."

"I . . . see." Zelos frowned, and Colette spun around in the air once, her arms extended just like before, but she flew back to him.

"You can do anything once you're in the air, Zelos," she told him earnestly. "Well, you can do anything anytime, but especially once you're flying." Zelos raised an eyebrow, giving her a crooked smile.

"Really?"

"Really!" Colette grabbed his hands - once again touching him without him instigating the contact first - and suddenly pulled him upwards. "See? Look!"

"Hey, wait-!" Colette spun him around in the air, their arms extending all the way, their elbows locking. She was laughing carelessly, using all of her angel strength to pull them around in a fast-moving circle, and Zelos had to actively use force to maintain his balance in the air. When Colette released his hands, he flew backwards, but easily able to use the momentum to his own advantage to right himself. Colette did the same, quite a distance away from him, but he could hear her laughter clear as day.

"See?" she asked, beaming at him. "Isn't it fun?"

Zelos wanted to answer that no, it wasn't fun, especially since his wings could have probably given out at any time and he would have plummeted to his death. But as he opened his mouth to tell her that, he found that he couldn't quite say it - at least, not honestly. Spinning through the air had given him a sort of rush, and had made his stomach flip, almost like riding the Altamira roller coaster. And in the face of Colette's smile and knowing look - the look of someone who knew exactly what he was feeling, whether he wanted to say it or not - Zelos found that he couldn't lie.

Not to her.

"Yeah," he admitted. "All right, all right, it was fun. But you still shouldn't just spin people without their consent, Colette. It could cause bad things to happen."

"Really? Like what?" Colette flew a little closer, her hands clasped behind her back, and Zelos flashed her a devilish grin, moving a little closer himself.

"Oh, I don't know . . . Lots of things. For instance, it could just so happen to cause someone to attack you."

"Attack me?" Colette's eyes widened. "What do you-ack! No, Zelos, stop!"

After her girly shriek, Colette's protests died away into laughter as Zelos - after pouncing to throw an arm around her waist and pull her closer to him, began to tickle her mercilessly. Colette squirmed as she laughed, trying to push him off her, and finally managed to squeeze out of his grasp, panting as she floated away.

"See?" Zelos asked, grinning. "It's dangerous."

"You just surprised me, that's all," Colette said, grinning back. "I bet you couldn't do it again."

"Oh really?" Zelos folded his arms across his chest, canting his weight to one side, even in mid-air. "I don't think that's a bet you wanna make, hunny."

"I think it is," Colette answered, and turned away from him, her wings sending off a shower of pink and purple sparkles. "Catch me if you can, Zelos!" With that, she took off, flying as fast as she could through the night sky. And though he wasn't one to usually play such childish games with anyone, much less another member of their traveling group, she was Colette, a Chosen One just as he was. And besides . . . she was right. It was fun, and it did feel free. Grinning like a man who was not about to lose to a sixteen-year-old girl, Zelos took off after her, leaving his worries behind him, at least for the night.