Zelos sighed contentedly in his solitude. It was on days like this, when the group was taking a small detour from their greater quest of reuniting the worlds, that the Chosen felt peaceful. At least, as peaceful as you can feel when you're really a traitor aiming to dismantle the central plans of the very group you've been traveling with for the past couple of months. But that was beside the point.
Unlike the dark, noisy Gaoracchia forest towards the north, the woods outside of Meltokio were pleasantly quiet. The only sound to be heard was the gurgling of a nearby stream, which provided what Zelos deemed to be excellent background noise for a midday nap beneath the trees. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like such a nap would ever happen; Zelos had his eyes closed for all of two minutes before the soft sounds of the river were replaced by a frantic rustling in the bushes.
Opening one blue eye ever so slightly, Zelos could make out three female figures approaching his supposed-to-be-napping spot.
"Hunnies? Is that you?" he asked, planting what many would've called a classic Zelos-esque smirk on his face. Couldn't let his hunnies know that he actually preferred being alone in the woods to being surrounded by their loud, insistent, borderline obnoxious praise and affection, right? Besides, he had an image to keep up. "C'mon, ladies, even the Chosen of Tethe'alla needs his beauty sleep!"
A quick smack to the face told Zelos that these girls definitely weren't his hunnies. Upon opening his eyes he realized that, standing directly overhead, was something much, much worse.
"Ahhh, it's the Demonic Banshee!" he pointed and cried. "Hurry, sweet angel and cool beauty, run away while you still can!"Sheena rolled her eyes as Colette, standing beside her, tried to suppress a giggle. Raine just shook her head and sighed.
"Shut up, idiot Chosen. I didn't come here looking to be mocked by the likes of you." Sheena told him, angrily crossing her arms over her very well-endowed chest.
"Oh?" Zelos asked, quirking a curious eyebrow. "Why did you follow away from camp, then? Did you want to see if you might get a look at this wonderful body, my voluptuous hunny? I'm sorry to say that I don't often take half-naked romps through the woods on days off, but if that's what you desire, then it could definitely be arranged."
At this, Sheena's face flushed bright red. "No, you idiot! Why would I ever…I mean…I…that's not why we're here!"
Zelos snickered silently to himself at Sheena's being so flustered. It was a shame she didn't realize how fun she was to mess with.
"Actually, Zelos," Colette chimed in. "We had a question to ask you." Huh. That was odd. Was it just him, or was there something almost…mischievous in Colette's eyes?
"And what might that be, my dear?"
"What, exactly, is your sexual preference?" Raine asked, true to her reputation of being incredibly to the point when posing questions (unless they were questions about ruins, mind you). Zelos took a few seconds to process this; did she really just say what I think she did? Then, once he'd determined that he had not misheard, he burst out laughing.
"Are you…are you serious?" he asked, wiping tears from his eyes. "Man, I've heard a lot of great jokes but this one certainly takes the cake. I didn't know you had a sense of humor, Professor!"
Sheena smiled smugly, catching Zelos off-guard. "This isn't as much of a joke as you think, Chosen. Colette, Raine and I have noticed some interesting things about your interactions with a certain twin swordsman."
"Who, Bud?" Zelos asked. The two girls nodded in response, and it took all of Zelos' willpower to keep from cracking up again. "You've got to be kidding me!" Sure, he and Lloyd had grown pretty close in the relatively short time they'd known one another. Despite the wariness and distrust he usually felt when faced with new people, Zelos found that he'd warmed up very easily to the boy in red. Something about his idealistic, go-getter attitude and lack of a secret agenda made Zelos feel safe around him, to the point where the two were able to talk about almost anything and joke about almost everything. But their playing, their laughing, it was a friendship. Just a friendship. The best friendship that Zelos had ever been a part of, and he still wasn't sure whether or not he deserved it, but a friendship nonetheless.
Based on the looks he was receiving, however, Zelos figured that the girls saw things differently.
"I mean, do you see this body?" he said, flexing his muscular arms in attempts to prove his point. "How could I possibly be anything but straight as a rod?"
"Seriously, Zelos. You can't expect us to believe that all that rough-housing you two do together is just some sort of male bonding." Sheena said, sounding almost accusatory.
"Uh, yes I can. Because that's all it is." Wasn't it?
Raine shook her head and smiled in an 'oh, when will you learn?' sort of way. "We've been taking note of your relationship for awhile, so this isn't entirely conjecture. But, if anything, we are fair. We don't want to make any incorrect assumptions about your preferences. As such, we've decided that we won't draw any definitive conclusions until our hypothesis is properly tested—"
"—so we've decided to test it now!" Colette finished off gleefully, resulting in a wide eyed, very confused Zelos. Just as he was about to ask what in Martel's name was going on, however, he was cut off by Sheena.
"Hey, Lloyd! Come here!" She called, and sure enough the twin swordsman walked over to join the group, the confusion on his face mirroring that on Zelos'.
"What's going on here, Sheena? I mean, you three drag me away from camp without any rhyme or reason, and you expect me to—oh, hey Zelos!" Lloyd's face immediately brightened as his eyes met those of the red haired Chosen. The three girls cast knowing glances at each other and Zelos groaned inwardly. Not helping, Lloyd…
"Well, Zelos, you know what to do." Raine said, and gestured to Lloyd.
"Actually, no, I don't." Zelos replied. He refused to be so easily forced into this. Since when had these three begun to take so much interest in his orientation, anyway?
"Go on, Zelos! Try him on for size." Colette explained, eyes unexpectedly eager with anticipation. Does she find this amusing?
"Zelos, do you know what's going on?" Lloyd asked looking genuinely lost and the slightest bit afraid.
Zelos stood and thought for a moment. Was it possible for him to word his way out of this? Probably not, considering it was Sheena and Raine he was dealing with (he figured he would have been able to distract Colette long enough to make an escape if she were on her own, but that was not the case).
"You're not going to leave me be until I do this, are you, my voluptuous hunny?" he asked, turning to Sheena.
"Nope." She smiled with a small shake of her head. "Go on, now."
Zelos sighed in defeat. If this was how it was going to be, then fine. He'd deal with it. Turning to Lloyd, his expression became momentarily apologetic. "Sorry about this, Bud."
He had a feeling that Lloyd had been about to reply, but had stopped when Zelos quickly and skillfully wrapped his arms around the swordsman's neck. He and Lloyd had never been this close before; he could feel Lloyd's rapid heartbeat as their chests pressed together. The Chosen's hand reached out to lightly cup a tan cheek, and almost recoiled in surprise. Zelos never guessed that Lloyd's skin would be so wonderfully soft! He couldn't recall the boy having applied any kind of lotion…
No, stop getting distracted, Zelos told himself. You've got a point to prove. He kept the one hand on Lloyd's soft cheek and anchored the other on his waist. He then allowed himself to lock gazes with the boy in his arms. Determined blue briefly connected with bewildered hazel before Zelos inclined his head at a slight angle, closed his eyes, and allowed lips to meet.
What surprised Zelos the most was not how amazing Lloyd smelled up close. Nor was it how his lips, albeit chapped, were pliable, and tasted like a positively delicious collection of everything Lloyd Irving. No, what surprised him the most was that Lloyd was kissing him back. Well, he might add, judging by the pleasant chills running through him, presumably as a result of the boy's enthusiastic response. What was originally intended to be a simple, chaste, I'm-not-into-guys kiss became something different altogether when Zelos felt a pair of strong arms wrap around his waist and pull him in closer, encouraging him to continue. To this, the Chosen happily obliged. Zelos' tongue passed into Lloyd's mouth with little resistance, and the latter let out a soft moan as the kiss deepened. It was then Zelos remembered that they had an audience.
Almost hesitantly, the Chosen pulled his lips away from Lloyd's and turned his attention the three girls staring at the two of them, looking stunned.
"W-wow…" Colette started, her cheeks flushed bright red.
"I…I didn't think he'd be so…responsive…" Sheena murmured, almost to herself.
Raine remained the most composed, although her face still betrayed her awe at what had just been witnessed. "So, Zelos? Have you come to a conclusion?" The red-haired Chosen looked from a panting, red faced Lloyd to the three girls who'd gotten him into this in the first place and then back again.
"Bisexual." He finally responded with a shrug of his shoulders.
Yay! I've finally gotten my first Tales of Symphonia story up and running. How did you like it? Both compliments and criticisms would be greatly appreciated, so please do review! This was my first time writing these characters, so I'd really like to know what you think :). Hope you enjoyed it!
~Euphoria