Disclaimer: I don't own anything! The song is Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright.
Author's Note: Really been on a roll with Sheelos recently. Don't know why.
Not quite sure why I am so determined to do this to Zelos—I like his character, I really do—but the ideas for stories like this keep coming.
-/-/-/-
"And tell how those laughing eyes burnt my
heart with an immortal ray, how her mouth
so like a rose, and the shimmering fragrant
locks of her hair, and the whiteness of her arms
and her sweet voice taught me to weep for love."
-Ugo Foscolo (On Himself)
-/-/-/-
I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this Hallelujah, Hallelujah
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
He plays the piano haltingly these days, his fingers stuttering over the ivory keys. He used to play so well. Seles had taught him, as much as children can teach each other anything. The notes echo through the mansion and he feels like he's the only one who hears them.
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty
in the moonlight
overthrew you
He hears her voice before he sees her. "Sorry, I thought this was empty."
It is their favorite alcove to hide from the dinner parties and the gossiping ladies—or was.
The word is out of his mouth before he realizes it. "Wait."
She turned back and he caught a flash of hazel in her eyes. She was as beautiful as ever, though she seemed vaguely uncomfortable in the dress. It was a lovely dress; off-white with an open neckline and skirts that flared away from her hips. Her hair is up in a ponytail, as always, and still she moves with that hidden strength vibrating in every step.
"What is it?" Sheena doesn't sound angry. Just tired.
The words are caught in his throat, if, indeed, they were ever there in the first place. He knows he should apologize, should ask for her forgiveness, should try to explain his actions, but he can't force the words out at all.
She's patient for a few beats before she turns to leave.
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne,
she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Sheena had changed very little since he first met her almost eight years ago. She's still fiery, still opinionated and sassy and brave.
The first words she spoke to him were "You blind or something, Red?"
It's the first time anyone has ever spoken to him like that. Perhaps a little rude by Meltokio standards, but honest. It's refreshing and Zelos wants to hear more. He remembers dragging his eyes up and down her body. "I'm very glad I'm not." He'd said.
She had rolled her eyes declared him a womanizing idiot before promptly stepping around him back in the direction she'd been going before they'd run into each other.
Sheena is the first of so many things. Of midnight escapades to the kitchen, of flirting (on his part at least) that never went anywhere; of laughter and shared sodas under the summer sun.
Zelos couldn't get enough of it.
She was also the first to really snap at him, to never watch her opinion. To never care about the Chosen status.
He thinks that that's what really made him start to fall in love with her.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah Maybe I've been here before
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
Zelos has always had trouble sleeping. It's nothing new and Sheena's presence had never changed the fact. But now, when he wanders the moonlit hallways, he hears the echoes of her laughter, sees ghosts of her presence.
He's not sure whether he hates that or not.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah
They don't speak these days. Not like they used to. Not about the little things, the important things. These days, it's all business.
Zelos doesn't know when Sheena became such a good mediator, especially since the King doesn't seem to think much of the Sylvaranti and the Sylvaranti are suspicious at best. Not that Zelos can blame them. Going on looks alone, it was difficult to tell Tethe'allans from Sylvrantis, but when people spoke, they had a distinct accent that could very easily be traced to one of the worlds.
But Sheena and Lloyd are a good team to try and work out the peace negotiations. There have already been incidents of violence. None of them tragedies, but mistrust of strangers ran deep. They're all there for those meetings, their entire group of misfits, but it's Sheena that Zelos always remembers seeing, who he always focuses on.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah There was a time you'd let me know
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
What's real and going on below
But now you never show it to me do you?
They'll have dinner together sometimes, the whole group. Never anything fancy—none of them really liked that stuff anyway—and they change up the place. Sometimes, they'll eat at Dirk's house, or they'll stop by a Trietan bazaar. They eat in Meltokio sometimes, in a little café down by the Research Academy.
It's at one of many celebratory dinners that the villages are putting on. It had taken some of the villages a little while to put together enough food for a feast like this. There are long tables spread out and the scent of home-cooking saturates the air.
They meet up by accident, out near the edges of the party. She's leaning on a railing, poking half-heartedly at something on her plate.
"It won't kill you, I swear." Zelos says, trying to keep his heart out of his voice.
Sheena's eyes flick to him. She won't forgive him. He knows that and he knows he deserves nothing less. "I don't think fish is supposed to be this color."
Zelos hazards a glance at her plate. "…I think you're right. Reddish-purple isn't a healthy color for most things."
They don't speak for long heartbeats and the silence that stretches between them isn't comfortable, isn't awkward, isn't much of anything really. Finally, Zelos asks, "How've you been?"
Sheena doesn't look at him when she replies. "Just peachy."
Remember when I moved in you?
The holy dark was moving too
And every breath we drew was hallelujah
Mizuho's move to be closer to the new Tree, and therefore still not quite a part of either of the still separate pieces of the new world, is a tame chaos. Crates and boxes are everywhere; stoves and refrigerators are heaved onto carriages and new homes are being built. The area smells of sawdust, cleaning supplies and sweat and people can be seen sitting on crates, heaving sighs.
"You should rest." He tells her when he finds her working late into the night.
"I'm fine." She says, giving a dresser another hard shove with her shoulder. It was bigger than she was and probably weighed twice as much.
"Whose is that anyways?"
Sheena took a minute to read the name on the piece of paper stuck in the mirror. "Yihn and her sister's."
"Why're you trying to move it on your own?"
"Because I want this move to be over and done with already." She sighs and leans back against the dresser.
Zelos studies her face. "How much sleep have you been getting?"
"Enough." She says tersely.
"You're lying."
Sheena hates that he can still know her so well, even after all that he's done. "I told you, I want to finish with the move so we can settle back into normalcy."
"You won't be able to help anybody if you keep wearing yourself out. Sit."
She doesn't have to listen. In fact, her stubbornness told her not to, but she'd been working since dawn with only the one lunch break. She was exhausted. So she slid down the dresser until she was sitting on the ground, where Zelos joined her.
Zelos almost says something a few times, but every time he tried, the words just…stopped. He glances at Sheena and isn't surprised that she'd dozed off. He settles into a more comfortable position by the dresser.
It's surprisingly easy to drift to sleep here and Zelos pretends for no one's sake but his own that he doesn't know that it's because it feels so very like their journey, with nothing but the stars above them and the ground below them with the sound of gentle snoring and a crackling fire to break the silence.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah Maybe there's a God above
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
The questions pertaining to whether he was going to continue the Chosen line persist. (Did they not yet understand? There was no Chosen. No Goddess, no heaven, no regeneration. Not anymore, even if Zelos had never really been convinced that they existed in the first place.)
He tells them every time that there is no Chosen anymore. He says it with his head held high, with pride because damned if he wasn't going to be proud of what he'd risked her for.
And even if there still was a Chosen, he can't see himself in anything lasting longer than a night with anyone but her.
It's not a cry you can hear at night Hallelujah, Hallelujah
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah