Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia or any of its properties.
Notes: This was written forever ago and posted to Tumblr. In an attempt to update this account with some things, I decided to post it here.
Snowed In
In retrospect, they really should have known better.
When the snowstorm kicked up initially, they should have landed the Rheairds right then to seek shelter in Flanoir. It wasn't too abnormal for snowstorms to kick up in that region; that part of the world was always covered in snow, and it would have been stranger for it to be perfectly calm, given the season. But even so, flying a Rheaird in the middle of a blizzard wasn't easy, and if Lloyd was smart, he would have called for them all to spend the night in Flanoir.
But sometimes Lloyd made stupid decisions, and sometimes he listened to Zelos when he insisted they make a break for the hot springs instead, and sometimes Colette didn't speak up when she thought she should have, and as a result of all three of them making poor life choices, their Rheairds ended up crashing in the middle of the Flanoir continent.
At the very least, it wasn't a complete loss; the Flanoir continent was dotted with little igloos and cabins, used by tourists or Flanoir villagers when they needed a get-away. The blizzard was bad enough that any normal person wouldn't have been able to see a thing, but with their angel senses and Noishe's nose, they were able to find an empty cabin to seek shelter in, Lloyd picking the lock so that they could get inside without breaking the window.
"It's not that much warmer in h-here than it is out there," Zelos grumbled, once the door was shut. Their clothes were soaked through with snow and slush, and Noishe shook himself off, sprinkling water over the dusty furniture and floor. "Jeez, who maintains this place? I'm pretty s-sure there's enough dust in here to fill an ocean."
"Stop complaining. At least it's sh-shelter," Lloyd said, though the effect of his tone was somewhat ruined by his chattering teeth. Colette ran her hands up and down her arms, trying in vain to warm herself through her wet clothing, before she walked over to the empty fireplace, peering inside before she turned back.
"Z-Zelos, you can use fire magic, r-right? Ma-Maybe you could light a f-fire for us?"
"Anything for you, s-sweet angel." Zelos made his way over to the fireplace, holding his arm palm out toward it. A magic glyph flared up beneath him before it faded, his concentration thrown off by the violent shivers running through his body.
"M-Maybe we should change first," Lloyd suggested, fighting hard to speak clearly despite rattling teeth. "Get out of these—these wet c-clothes."
"G-Good idea." Colette nodded fervently, and reached to pull her dress off before Lloyd held up his hands, face reddening as Zelos' eyes widened.
"N-Not here, Colette! Use one of the o-other r-rooms."
"O-Oh. Right." Shouldering her travel bag again, Colette turned to head into one of the other rooms, Noishe padding over to guard her door as soon as she closed it. Zelos gave him an offended look.
"It's n-not like we're going to peek."
"With you, it's h-hard to tell," Lloyd said, tone teasing as he stripped off his jacket. Zelos rolled his eyes.
"Bucket'a laughs, bud."
Their choice in dry clothing was mostly limited to their pajamas, but changing out of his sopping wet clothes was at least enough to afford Zelos the concentration to cast Fireball at the fireplace. When Colette stepped out of spare room she had borrowed, clothed in her own night gown and leggings, she grinned brightly at the fire, and held up a blanket she'd found in the spare room.
"I figured we could get as many blankets as we could find to warm up by the fire. The more the better, right?"
"Sounds like a plan to me," Lloyd said, grinning. "Noishe, you wanna check the other rooms?" Noishe whined, but dutifully turned to check anyway as Lloyd took the blanket from Colette, and set to making a small nest by the fire.
In the end, they had a grand total of nine blankets nested in front of the fire (six from the three bedrooms, and the three from their travel bags), and Colette curled against Lloyd's side, huddling up close to him for added warmth. Noishe, too, walked over to lay beside them, pressing his furry body against their backs for added heat. The only one who seemed reluctant to join in was Zelos, who sat awkwardly over on the edge of the sofa, rubbing his hands along his arms. Lloyd gave him a strange look.
"Don't you wanna come closer to the fire?"
"Nah. You two look cozy enough as it is." Zelos cracked a lopsided smirk. "Let me know if you two need some private time. I'll take the dog to one of the spare rooms." Noishe whined his displeasure with that idea, while Colette tilted her head.
"Why would we need private time? You should come over here too, Zelos. It's a lot warmer by the fire, especially with the blankets!"
"No, really." Zelos held up one hand, and shook his head. "I wouldn't want to intrude on that romantic little cuddle you have going on." Lloyd rolled his eyes.
"You wouldn't be intruding on anything. Get over here."
"No, bud, really, it's better if I—"
Rather than continue to try and persuade Zelos with words, Colette got up and jogged over, taking his hand in her own. Zelos started a bit, taken aback by the sudden contact, but Colette only gave him a smile before she pulled him over to the blanket pile, her angel strength allowing her to tug him over easily. She plopped back down beside Lloyd and pulled Zelos down with her, sandwiching herself between them as she reached over to readjust the blankets to wrap around him as well.
"There! That wasn't so bad, was it?" she asked, crawling over to grab the strap of their rations bag. Zelos frowned for just a moment before he replaced it with his crooked smirk.
"You know, you're really wasting a golden opportunity here. If you would just take some nice, cozy alone time by the fire—"
"We don't want alone time," Lloyd interrupted, sounding exasperated. "We want to be with you."
That caused Zelos to shut his mouth, honestly speechless in the face of Lloyd's words. Colette, on the other hand, was quickly pulling items out of their rations bag, her tongue toying with her teeth as she smiled.
"Aha, I thought so! Look! We have graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate! And we have milk and powdered chocolate, too! We could make s'mores and hot cocoa!" She looked back and forth between them, beaming, and while Lloyd had started beaming the second she started listing off the ingredients, Zelos couldn't help but smile in the face of her excitement. "Isn't that the best? Being snowed in isn't so bad now, is it?"
Zelos reached over to put his arm around her shoulders, his arm long enough in their close proximity to reach partially around Lloyd's, as well. "No, my sweet little angel," he said. "Being snowed in with you two . . . it's not so bad at all."