So to start off, this isn't just a crossover of ToS and Naruto. It's a crossover of many, many different things. There will be crossover pairings.

Please keep in mind that we'll be using the Canadian school system, and driving is on the left side of the road. Also, we took a day off October and put it in November. This fic takes place in the 2009-2010 school year.

Disclaimer: I can't tell you how awesome it feels to say that neither of us own Tales of Symphonia, Naruto, Bleach, Full Metal Alchemist, Fruits Basket, Trauma Center: Under the Knife, Romeo and Juliet, and Death Note.


Chapter 1 – Once Upon a Time

"Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale." – Hans Christian Anderson

Lloyd awoke to the sound of an alarm buzzing away in his ear. That was odd. That was very odd. He couldn't remember the last time he actually woke up with the alarm. Could it be that he was finally starting a good habit? He sniffed the air. Bacon… Oh, so that's what got him up. The one thing that did the trick was, of course, food. Scrambling around his large room, he found a clean uniform hanging on the door of his walk-in closet. He wore his usual uniform white dress shirt (complete with school crest), black tie, grey pants, and his own personal touch: red suspenders. Once he was dressed, he headed to the bathroom for a quick clean-up before checking in the mirror to make sure his hair was as impossibly spiked as ever. It usually stayed that way, but on odd occasions (like in the rain, or after a particularly restless night) his hair would fall down over his eyes, making him resemble his father. Creepily so, which was why Lloyd chose to let his hair be spiked. That, and he thought it looked cool. Which, of course, it did.

After this, he followed the smell of food all the way to the kitchen where his father was standing, wearing one of his many suits (he probably had a meeting today). He was finishing off a mug of coffee before heading out to work. Kratos looked up as Lloyd walked into the rarely-used kitchen.

"Good morning," he said in a mildly cold tone. Lloyd was used to that. Neither of the Aurions were what you would call 'morning people'.

"Mhm," Lloyd mumbled, searching the counter in search of the food he knew was there. He found it: a plate full of bacon, eggs, and oh, even those little sausages… His mouth watered slightly. "Food… Did you make this?" He questioned, though it was unlikely, since neither of them knew the first thing about cooking. Kratos shook his head. Lloyd sighed in annoyance.

"Was it those girls again?" His father had a very annoying habit of attracting vast amounts of gift- (in this case, food-) bearing women to the house. Fangirls… Lloyd shuddered slightly.

"Actually, no. It was the neighbours," he answered, rising from the table. "You're going to be late for school."

"No I'm not!" Lloyd yelled. It helped if he voiced his denial. "I will NOT be late!" He grabbed his school bag, not bothering to check its contents. He caught his father's eye on the way out of the room – he was giving the dreaded parental stare. "W-what? Oh, man, what am I forgetting this time?" He groaned.

"Nothing. Assuming you remembered to study for your chemistry test." Damn him… Well, no point in worrying now. Hell, he probably would've failed it even he had tried to study. With one small cringe at the thought of school, he headed out the door, turning for a moment to shout a quick goodbye to his father. Now he began the stupidly long walk down their driveway to the large cast iron gate. Sometimes Lloyd thought his dad made too much money… Although, the gate did keep the fangirls out. Most of the time. Lloyd snapped his head up as he heard a very familiar sound – the sound of a school bus driving away.

"Shit!" He yelled, slamming the gate closed behind him as he began his sprint. It didn't help that the INSANE driver got his kicks from speed. Well, that and fighting with the students… Luckily for him though, after years of experience chasing school buses, Lloyd was pro at catching them, and he managed to grab the door handle as it skidded around a corner. One hand in a death grip around the handle, he bashed against the window to catch the driver's attention. The man looked at him, and, laughing, floored the gas pedal. That sick bastard…

"OPEN THE DOOR!" Lloyd yelled, to no effect other than the complete amusement of the driver, and a good number of his fellow students as well. They turned another corner, and Lloyd struggled to hold on. "OPEN THE DOOR!" He repeated. Apparently some of the not laughing students (he suspected Colette) were protesting against this new form of scholastic torture, because the driver stopped laughing to roll his eyes and open the door. "THANK YOU," Lloyd said – make that yelled. The driver began to laugh again.

"AHAHA! What's wrong? You held on pretty good! MUCH better than last week!" Lloyd scowled at the insanely muscular man; he remembered the many injuries this maniac had caused him over the years.

"You're crazy!" He yelled in return. As he turned to find a seat, the bus sped up (how fast did these things go?), causing Lloyd to stumble. This, of course, gave the man more reason to laugh.

"AHAHA! So, Lloyd, you good to babysit the girls tonight?" How in the hell he went from torture to babysitting, Lloyd didn't know. What was even more confusing was Lloyd's response.

"Yeah, that's fine."

Sometimes, Lloyd hated his life.

Clinging to the backs of the seats for dear life once the bus started moving again, he looked around. The only empty seat was next to that weird kid at the very back… What was his name? Ulquiorra? Something like that. Lloyd made his way to the seat, trying not to be flung into the ceiling, never mind the floor.

Once he finally got there (it HAD to be at the back), Lloyd flopped down with a huge sigh. Ulquiorra looked startled for a second, then went back to looking out the window.

"Uh… Sorry…" Lloyd mumbled, with no response from the person sitting next to him. He took his backpack off to rest it on his knees, and looked around at the rest of the bus. He saw Zelos talking at Sasuke somewhere near the front, which reminded him to thank Sasuke for the food. No doubt Itachi had made another feast for breakfast and left them with too many leftovers.

The rest of the twenty-minute bus ride was very awkward, at least for Lloyd. He was used to talking, and since he was sitting beside someone who rarely spoke at all, he was left to fidget and look around (and hang on to the back of the seat in front of him, when the bus made an especially sharp turn).

They finally reached the school gates, and the bus changed to driving at a more normal speed. It stopped in front of the school, and the doors opened. Everybody scrambled to get off the death trap as soon as they could, much to the amusement of the driver.

"Have fun at school, kids!" He said to the escaping students, still laughing.

"Screw you, Kenpachi!" Someone yelled from the crowd. This made the driver laugh even more.

Lloyd was (of course) the last off the bus, and he knew from the moment he looked up at the large letters that wrote out 'CENTENNIAL ACADEMY' on the front archway, he was in for a very, very bad day.


After buying his lunch, Lloyd headed to the table where he and his friends usually sat. Only Ling was there, which was rather unusual. After unceremoniously dropping his food onto the table and sitting down, he mumbled a quick "Hey," and rested his head on his arms.

"You fail your chemistry test?" Ling asked between mouthfuls.

"How did everybody know about it but me?" Lloyd answered, frustrated, after lifting his head back up. "Even my dad knew, and I don't remember complaining to him at all!"

"Well, you might want to start using that agenda they handed out to us at the beginning of the year."

"Bah. I'd just forget where I put it."

"Touché."

At this point, Naruto showed up, instant ramen in hand. After almost tripping on Lloyd's bag, he set himself and his food down, grinning madly. Before the other two could greet him, he shouted, "I totally ACED that math test!"

"How'd you manage that?" Ling asked, at the same time that Lloyd mumbled a depressed "Damn you."

"Iruka said that if I didn't do well on this one, he wouldn't buy me any more ramen, so I kind of got Colette to help me over the weekend…"

"You two had a study date?" Lloyd asked, smirking.

"It wasn't a date! It was over the computer!" Naruto half-shouted back, attracting the stares of people around them.

"Right. Hey, where is everyone?" After looking around, Lloyd realized he didn't see any of their other friends in the cafeteria... come to think of it, he hadn't seen them in the halls either.

"Ichigo went home sick, and the grade elevens are on a field trip." The blond answered after downing his ramen. "I think that English teacher's taking them to the zoo or something."

"What does the zoo have to do with English?" Ling asked, somehow already finished his massive pile of food. Naruto shrugged.

"You know Shigure, any excuse to get out of marking papers."

"That sounds like him." They turned in surprise to see Kiba appearing from the mass of students in the cafeteria. After carefully placing his bag on the table, he took a seat next to Ling.

Lloyd eyed the bag, noticing that it seemed to squirm and move of its own accord. "Kiba, did you bring Akamaru to school again?"

"No," he said quickly, revealing a bagged lunch composed of dog treats from his pocket.

Ling reached out and poked the wiggling bag. It barked. Kiba's eyes darted about for a moment before he hung his head and sighed, shoving a handful of treats into the main pocket of the bag. Sounds of munching were heard.

"Fine. But it's not my fault! He gets lonely at home!"

"Don't you have like, twelve other dogs?" Naruto asked. Kiba remained silent as he fed his bag. "Oh yeah, did you guys hear about Ino?"

"Huh? What about her?" Lloyd asked, only vaguely remembering the blonde girl. She was one of many who were a member of his school's 'Kratos Aurion Fan Club'. In fact, if he remembered correctly, she and some pink-haired girl were co-presidents.

"She's been missing since Friday night," he told them all. Ling nodded.

"Yeah, I heard her dad's been going crazy trying to find her."

"Oh, please," Kiba said, laughing. "Knowing her, she probably just got lost in the mall or something." They laughed for a moment before the piercing sound of the bell was heard. Lloyd groaned loudly, and began the depressing process of collecting his belongings.

"Wait, what do I have next period?" He asked as he slung his bag over his shoulder. Ling rolled his eyes.

"You know it's pretty sad that you can't even remember your own schedule, right?"

"You know it's even sadder that you can?"

"… Grade twelves have gym next."


Lloyd never would have known how his day could have gotten worse until he walked out of the changing room to see Lulu standing at the far side of the gym, clipboard in hand. He mentally sighed in defeat, trudging over to what was sure to be his death: the girls' gym teacher.

The horror stories were numerous. The cardio, the kick-boxing… Lloyd shuddered. The worst of all were her activities on rainy days, if he'd heard correctly. He just thanked Martel that it was autumn, otherwise he'd call his dad to arrange a funeral then and there.

Walking over to Zelos who was on a bench, tying his shoes, Lloyd asked, "Do you know why Lulu's teaching the guys today, too?"

The redhead looked up. "I think Gai's on the field trip with the elevens. How'd you do on the chemistry test?"

Lloyd sighed, flopping down on the bench. "I'd rather not talk about that."

"Aw, cheer up, Bud! You're forgetting about the wonders of having Lulu teach!"

Lloyd stared at him. "What possible good could come from that monster?"

The redhead's eyes glazed over, and an all-too-familiar smirk crossed his face. "Co-ed…"

As if on cue, the grade twelve girls stepped out from the change room. There weren't many of them (Centennial Academy was known for two things: its ridiculous prices, and its lack of a student body), but something about that just made them all the more attractive to the male side of the grade. A few stood apart from the rest, of course, and those few were Sheena and Temari; neither of which were single, but both looked drool-worthy in a gym uniform. Well, drool-worthy for some. Lloyd himself had a different take on the whole 'female body' thing. What was it Zelos called it? Oh, yeah, 'complete innocence'. Sheena said it was that 'innocence' that made him the only grade twelve guy that wasn't a pig, and therefore the only one she would hang around with. The fact that Zelos also chose to hang around with Lloyd was something she tolerated, though barely.

"Why hello there my dearest and voluptuous Sheena," the redhead said upon her approach. "Care to do a few laps before we start?"

"I can hurt you," she stated, sitting down next to Lloyd on the bleachers.

"Ow…" Zelos cried, clutching his chest in mock pain. "Sheena, your words are like poison!"

"Good. Now be quiet before I start stabbing you with conjunctions."

Before Zelos could counter Sheena's remark, the piercing sound of Lulu's favourite whistle blasted through the room, and probably the whole school. Lloyd groaned. There was no escaping it now; the horrors of Lulu's gym class were about to begin. Lloyd, Zelos, and Sheena joined the mass of grade twelves moaning and groaning their way over to the source of the screeching whistle.

"Good afternoon, class," she said quickly, not looking up from her clipboard. "Since the classes are joined today, I suppose it would make sense to have a free period-"

"All right! Free period!"

"WOO!"

"-but since I don't believe in free periods, I've decided to do health instead," she finished. The students' groans grew in unison.

"Why don't we just play dodge ball?" Grimmjow suggested with a menacing sneer. Lloyd's eyes widened in fear.

"I second that!" Ikakku shouted. Of course he would be open to the bloodbath that was grade twelves playing dodge ball.

"Yes, well, unfortunately, Mr. Madarame, I don't. Sorry Mr. Jeagerjacques, your suggestion is defeated due to Nurse Unohana's complaints from the last time. Today we'll be doing health, specifically the female anatomy."

"All right!" Zelos smiled. "Can Sheena demonstrate?"

SMACK.

"Mr. Wilder, you will refrain from making vulgar comments in this gym class. Ms. Fujibayashi, you will refrain from retaliating. Even if he does deserve it, and there will be no student demonstrations."

"Then can you demonstrate?"

SMACK.

"Alright, Mr. Wilder has inspired a change of plans. Mr. Jeagerjacques, dodge ball it is; Mr. Wilder on one team, and the rest of the class on the other." She said before walking quickly away to get the balls. This time it was Zelos' eyes that widened in fear.

He gave Lloyd a pleading look, but the brunet shook his head, "No way, man, you got yourself into this mess."

"Thanks for the support."

"Anytime!" He cheered, following Sheena to the safety of the other team as Lulu returned pulling along a box full of shiny, red balls. She picked one off the top, and threw it into Grimmjow's hands.

"Mr. Jeagerjacques will start with the ball, and I'll be in my office. You're all in grade twelve so I'll assume you know how to 'play nicely'."

Lloyd didn't like the sound of Grimmjow's maniacal laughter as he tossed the ball up and down with one hand, but he was damn sure that however unpleasant it was for him, it was worse for Zelos. But for the moment, Lloyd was going to enjoy the five minutes or so he had of pummelling Zelos, because he figured it was around the end of that time that they'd turn on the next in line of easy prey. In other words, him. Suddenly he wondered if it was too late to call his dad about those funeral arrangements...


Walking down the hall to French next to a whining Zelos was trying indeed. The redhead had managed to protect his 'precious' face despite the many shots aimed there by Grimmjow, and was now voicing his complaints to Lloyd who was, of course, ignoring him. Lloyd was busy nursing his own wounds; he'd been right about them turning on him, of course. By the end of the period, the game had become a very unfair battle between the members of Centennial Academy's own gang (led by none other than Grimmjow) and the rest of the students in the class. Sheena put forth a valiant effort, but the gang both overpowered and outnumbered them.

He felt arms wrap around him and jumped, suddenly brought out of his thoughts. "Buuuud, are you even listening to me?" The redhead behind him complained. Lloyd sighed, but Sheena interjected from beside him before he could reply.

"Hey, stop bothering Lloyd! Seriously, I don't know how he can put up with you sometimes! And come on, both of you, you're blocking the hall."

Pouting, Zelos let go of his friend, smoothing out some wrinkles on the other's shoulder, and they continued to walk down the hallway. Lloyd was lost in his thoughts deeper than before, a light pink just barely dusting his cheeks; though it was almost impossible to see in the strange fluorescent lighting of the school.

Again, however, he didn't have much time to dwell on his thoughts as they entered the foreign language room, signs written in French, Spanish, and German greeting them. Zelos and Lloyd took their usual seats at the edge of the middle rows of desks. The back was taken up entirely by the members of Grimmjow's gang (who really only pushed everyone around and made a lot of noise), as it was in every period.

The bell rang to signal the beginning of class, and (as per usual) the teacher had not yet shown up. Kakashi Hatake – or Monsieur Hatake, as students were to call him – was infamous for always showing up at least ten minutes late. There were suspicions that he would be later if it weren't for the fact that the entire class would leave after longer than fifteen minutes.

Surely enough, their consistently late teacher appeared in the door five minutes (which was possibly a new record) later. The class paid no attention to this; they had a steady routine in French class. Monsieur Hatake would show up late, and they'd keep talking for at least twenty minutes, when he'd finally start the lesson. He would talk with the students sometimes in the pre-lesson time, and today he walked over to Lloyd and Zelos, the latter of which was trying to help the former with the previous night's homework.

"Bud, what's so hard about conjugating 'er' verbs?"

"Everything! How do I remember what endings to use?"

The redhead sighed. "Yeah, knowing your memory, you'll never get it..."

"Hey!"

"We having fun over here?" The teacher interrupted, smiling. Lloyd let out a frustrated sigh as Zelos laughed and replied.

« Bonjour, Monsieur Hatake. »

« Bonjour, Wilder. Comment ça va? »

« Ça va bien, merci. Et vous ? »

« Ah, ça va bien aussi. » He gestured toward Lloyd. « Il a des problèmes avec ses devoirs? »

Zelos laughed again. « Oui, oui. Il pense que les verbes 'er' sont trop difficiles à mémoriser. »

They both laughed at this, and Lloyd merely looked between the two, confused beyond belief. He had a feeling they were laughing at him, but due to his lack of skill concerning anything to do with the French language, there wasn't a chance in hell he'd ever understand them.

« Oh, Monsieur, j'ai oublié – j'ai un rendez-vous avec le médecin, alors je quitterai la classe dans… environ quinze minutes. » Zelos told their teacher, who nodded.

« Avez-vous une note ? »

"Yeah, right here," Zelos handed over a white sheet of paper. Thank the GODDESS they were going to start speaking in English again.

"Okay, you know when to leave."

After this exchange, the conversation died out. Lloyd looked hopelessly back down at his homework, while the teacher left and Zelos looked around the room. The redhead spoke up after a few moments.

"Hm..."

"Huh? What is it?" Lloyd looked up and tried to follow Zelos' gaze across the room.

"That L guy... He's eating cake..." And surely enough, he was. With his hands.

"Uh, yeah, he's always eating something. Like last period, he was eating some kind of candy. Though if Lulu caught him, he'd probably be dead..."

"Heh, maybe the 'L' stands for 'El Riskayyy'."

Just as Lloyd started laughing, there was a lull in conversation throughout the room. So, of course, everyone turned to stare at the now embarrassed brunet, whose face was quickly turning the same colour as his friend's hair. Said friend looked at the clock, and started to get up to leave.

Conversation started to pick up again after the class stopped looking at Lloyd, and he turned to the redhead beside him. "Hey, where are you going?"

"I have a doctor's appointment."

"What? Why didn't you say anything before?"

"I did, but it was in French." He grinned and waved goodbye to his friend, who huffed and again looked toward his homework.

Just as Zelos closed the door, the silver-haired teacher went to the front of the class and announced,

"Put away your binders, there's a quiz today based on last night's homework."

Yeah, today was not a good day.


What with what was probably a complete failure on the chemistry test, and what was definitely a complete failure on the French quiz, not to mention the savage dodge ball game in gym class, Lloyd was just about certain that nothing could make the day worse.

But Murphy's Law is a sadistic bastard when applied to life (especially his), and he mentally groaned when he turned the corner outside the school to see the gang lying in wait for easy prey – him, for example.

He tried turning back before any of them noticed him, but to his dismay, Grimmjow called out to him before he could put a safe distance between himself and the group.

"Hey, you! Aurion!"

Lloyd cringed and stopped in his tracks. Sighing, he turned around. "Yeah?"

The blue-haired (was that natural?) thug sauntered up to him, grinning. Lloyd knew he was in for it.

"Why're you always wearing those dorky suspenders? I mean-" he reached out to grab one of said suspenders (which were not dorky, thank you very much), but a hand that was most definitely not Lloyd's own stopped him.

"Grimmjow, just leave him be, or did you want to fail math this semester?" A familiar voice interrupted, and Lloyd looked behind him to see an immediately recognizable shock of bright orange hair. Ichigo coughed a few times, and Grimmjow smirked.

"I don't think you're in any position to be threatening me, Strawberry." The smirk on his face grew wider and more menacing.

"No, actually, I'm in the perfect position to." He sneezed before continuing. "Like I said before, I can stop those tutoring sessions."

Grimmjow's smirk faltered for a second. "You wouldn't."

"I would."

Lloyd looked uncertainly between the two, watching the intense stares they were aiming at each other. After a moment, Grimmjow frowned and gave a glare at each before turning around and returning to his gang.

Lloyd let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Ichigo... But hey, I thought you went home sick. What're you still doing here?"

Ichigo coughed some more before answering, "I called, but of course my dad wasn't home, and I forgot my key, so I stayed in the nurse's office all day." Lloyd nodded before a wave of realization hit him, bringing dread along with it.

"SHIT I'M GONNA MISS MY BUS BYE!" He yelled to Ichigo, who looked more than a bit surprised at the sudden outburst.

Running as fast as his legs could take him, Lloyd ran for the bus, barely managing to stop the doors from closing.

"Ahaha! Don't be such a spoilsport, Lloyd! You know it's more fun when you don't make it in time!" The bus driver laughed maniacally and started driving before Lloyd could take his seat (he swore the man was clinically insane).

"Yeah, FUN," he muttered darkly, taking a seat beside the Ulquiorra kid again.

After another long, torturous bus ride, Lloyd was finally off the damned machine, heading home. Hefting his backpack up, he input the code to open the gate and began the long trek up the driveway. Unsurprisingly, there were two cars parked in front of the house, his father's being neither of them.

Walking in the door, he called "Who is it this time?" as he took his shoes off and dropped his backpack. He noticed a pair of pink heels and black leather shoes on the shoe mat, which meant any one of his dad's male colleagues and...

"Why, hello, Lloyd! How was your day? You aren't going to go play with your friends?" Speak (or, well, think) of the devil...

Angie Thompson. There were no words to describe just how utterly annoying she was. For one, she was one of the many women who ogled over his dad. He didn't want to think about how aggravating that would get, at work of all places... Another thing: she treated him like a kid. His theory was that she was trying to put herself into the 'mother role' of the house, which she seemed to think furthered her chances with his dad. It was obvious that everyone who had ever been around her had come to similar conclusions about her actions, and it was equally as obvious that it would never work. Somehow she either completely ignored this (or was just completely oblivious to it), though, because she kept on trying.

"I'm fine. Who else is here?" Lloyd preferred spending as little time as he possibly could in the presence of this woman.

Presumably from having heard himself being mentioned, Maes Hughes appeared from around the corner.

"Hey, Lloyd! How are you?"

This man was plenty more bearable than most other co-workers of his dad's, but still had his... quirks. The biggest thing was the man's apparent need to show everyone around him the many pictures he had of his wife and daughter. There was no escaping once he pulled out those pictures...

"I'm okay, thanks. You?" He replied, planning escape routes for when the man decided to pounce with his photos.

"Great, thanks! Hey, did you know that it's my darling little Elysia's third birthday soon? Gracia and I went out and got pictures done! Look at what a little angel she is! She is the single most adorable little girl ever to be born!" He continued ranting in a similar manner, and out of the corner of his eye, Lloyd noticed Angie quietly shuffling away.

There was no way she was escaping while he had to suffer.

"Say, Mr. Hughes," he interrupted the other's speech, "has Angie seen these wonderful pictures yet?" Lloyd inwardly smirked in triumph as the woman stopped in her tracks.

"Actually, she has, but there's no harm in seeing them more than once!" He moved over to her, beginning his tirade over.

Quietly as he could, Lloyd snuck out of the room, heading for the staircase (but not before noticing and smirking at the glare Angie was aiming at him).

Finally, he had escaped the horrors of his dad's colleagues! The people who invited themselves over constantly, treating the house (though it was a bit large to be called that) as a public area, believing they were free to come and go as they pleased!

Finally getting to the top of the stairs and the end of the hall, Lloyd pulled his key out of his pocket and unlocked his door. He closed and locked it behind himself before flopping down on his couch. His couch that had taken him a considerable amount of time and effort to convince his dad that he needed...

Reflecting on his day, it had turned out pretty badly (big understatement there). What with having been late for the torture device they call a school bus, failing that chemistry test, being almost slaughtered in gym and failing that French quiz (not to mention meeting Grimmjow after school), there wasn't much that went well. Except for breakfast, of course. Which reminded him...

Sitting up and leaning against an arm rest, he grabbed the phone from a side table. Scrolling through the address book, he heard a tap at his window. Looking over, he saw a rock hit the glass after a moment and smiled. He got up, setting the phone down on the cushions and walking over to the window. Opening it, he looked down to see a very familiar redhead, who grinned.

"How do you manage to climb over the fence all the time?" Lloyd asked, still smiling.

Zelos smirked. "With love's light wings did I o'erperch these walls; for stony limits cannot hold love out, and what love can do, that dares love attempt," he replied dramatically. The brunet rolled his eyes. He never had liked Shakespeare...

"So, you coming up?"

The redhead grinned again and began carefully climbing up the wall via the ivy crawling up the bricks. Lloyd moved back to the couch, picking up the phone again. Once again, he scrolled through the menu, and he now pressed the 'talk' button as he reached the Uchihas' number. While he waited for someone to answer, he sat on the couch, back against the arm rest.

Zelos dropped gracefully through the open window just as a voice came through from the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Sasuke. Just calling to say thanks for breakfast." His redheaded friend was now sitting cross-legged in front of him on the couch, and reached to start fixing Lloyd's tie.

"Oh, no problem. Itachi got carried away again and ended up feeding the neighbourhood."

Lloyd chuckled at this and glanced across to Zelos, who seemed engrossed in making Lloyd's tie absolutely perfect.

"Is Zelos there, by any chance?"

"Uh, yeah. We're, uh... working on a project. Why?"

"Hn. Just wondering. He left his Rubik's Cube here, so remind him to pick it up."

"Huh? A Rubik's Cube?"

"Yeah, don't ask. I'm not sure either."

"Okay, then. I'll tell him. See you around, I guess."

"Hn."

With that, Lloyd pressed 'off' and ended the call. He set the phone on the ground before turning to the redhead who was just finishing on his tie. Before he could say anything about the Rubik's Cube (sometimes it was better with Zelos to just not ask), he was pulled forwards by said tie and felt soft lips pressing against his own. Smiling just slightly, he closed his eyes and kissed back. He moved a hand to tuck some stray strands of hair behind Zelos' ear.

After a few moments, the two pulled away for air. "I was supposed to tell you something..." Lloyd murmured.

"That we should do that again?" His (albeit secret) boyfriend replied, smirking.

"Yeah, that was it..."

The two leaned in for another kiss. Zelos began to lean over Lloyd, pressing the latter's back into the arm rest of the couch.

The doorknob shook slightly before the door opened, and a small head poked inside the room.

"FOUND HIM, NEL!" Yachiru yelled down the hall. "Ewww, he's with that guy again!"

Zelos broke the kiss to start laughing, and Lloyd groaned.

Babysitting.

His door needed another lock.


For Fullmetal Alchemist - we're going by the manga and Brotherhood, not the pile of crap that's the first anime. So if you don't know who Ling is, but are an FMA fan, SHAME.

Please review; we're very excited to see what others think of this!

- princespeach and Thingbe