Author's Note: This story takes place during chapter 3, and there may be some spoilers for the game up until that chapter.

It's been so long since I've written a story for Tales of Symphonia, over three years by now! I've always been meaning to write more, but life got in the way, especially college. I wonder if anyone who still comes to this site remembers me, heh.

The idea for this story came to me after a second playthrough a few months ago. It got me wondering if perhaps this was the start of Emil falling for Marta. It took me a while, but I eventually wrote this fic to explore his thought processes for that. It's kind of conflict-les and plot-less, but I hope you enjoy this fic nonetheless. I have other ideas for Dawn of the News World stories, and I hope at least one of those will be another Emil/Marta fic.

Emil wasn't certain what he was feeling.

Marta, Tenebrae, and he, along with new traveler Raine Sage, a former companion of Lloyd's were on their way to Triet. Just yesterday they had met Raine in Lloyd and Colette's home village of Iselia. Lloyd was seen flying towards the Triet Ruins, and Raine had joined them in order to learn the truth about Lloyd, and as she put it, "set him back on the right path again," if he had strayed. While the boy was sure Lloyd had, Raine seemed like a good, if serious-minded person.

They had stopped and set up camp, as evening was approaching. Emil was tasked with filling extra canteens with water at a stream near the site. They would be entering the desert soon. Of course, with the recent strange weather patterns, Triet could very well not be as hot as usual, just as Iselia and the route to Triet were unusually cold for this time of year. The area beyond Iselia was mostly grassland, with wooded areas scattered here and there. Emil entered such a small forest. His and Marta's Black Wolf, Wiluite accompanied him, just in case he ran into any trouble.

With all the events of their time in Iselia out of the way, Emil's thoughts returned to what had been bothering him. Though he really wasn't sure what that was. Part of it was uneasiness. Marta had something to do with it, but not in the usual way. Indeed, as absurd as it may sound, he would almost say that it's what she wasn't doing that was bugging him. Surely, that couldn't be it, though.

Back in Iselia, Emil had snapped at Marta after her usual insistence that "her Emil" wouldn't do this and "her Emil" is that. Things were awkward for a while, but the two of them eventually apologized to each other. Since then though, she hasn't gotten as worked up over him as she usually would. Sometimes she would overtly praise him during and after a battle, only to catch herself and apologize. She wasn't constantly building him to be someone he was not, calling him her perfect knight. She was being … a lot more reasonable than she was at the beginning of their journey. He was glad for it, but at the same time . . . it was bothering him.

He started to recall a conversation he, Marta and Tenebrae had before they went inside the Iselia Human Ranch. Tenebrae had said Emil was awakening as a Knight of Ratatosk to protect Marta. She had told Tenebrae "enough of this Emil protecting me stuff," or something like that. She also said that they would protect Ratatosk's Core together. For some reason, he felt a little saddened by her statement. That was when his uneasiness began. He felt more inadequate than usual. . .

"That's probably it," he thought aloud. Wiluite looked up at him briefly. They then both stopped when they arrived at the stream. It was a quaint scene, the way the clear waters flowed between the trees. The boy idly wondered what it would look like earlier in the day after noontime, as the sun was beginning to set then. Emil partially filled up his canteen before taking a swig. It may not stay that cool when they reached the desert. The weather will likely be off, but it may still be hot there. Afterwards, as he commenced filling the canteens in earnest, he continued in thought,

Marta meant well; she was sorry that she got so worked about me before. But the way she said those things, like me not needing to protect her alone. . .

While he was still terrified of going into unknown places and hat he would find on this journey in general, he was slowly discovering what true courage meant. It had to take becoming a knight to a great Summon Spirit whose power possessed him when real fighting started, but it did give him a bit of a boost to his confidence. A very small bit, but it was a boost nonetheless. Suddenly having to protect someone and go on a world-saving journey were certainly daunting, but he hasn't regretted the experience so far. While Marta didn't say it, nor did she ever mean to, it almost sounded like she didn't think he was dependable anymore. Yes, that must be why he was feeling uneasy: His newfound confidence was being undermined, though he only had himself to blame. And yet . . .

"It still feels like there's something more to it than that." he said to himself. Perhaps he missed her not entirely deserved praise because of the confidence boost it gave him. At the same time, though, it felt like he missed it for another reason. But what other reason could there be?

"I see. You miss hearing 'I love you Emil!' all the time."

Emil flinched suddenly. He recalled a brief conversation with Tenebrae when he was trying to talk to the Centurion about Marta's recent change in behavior. That response was one reason why it was brief. All of a sudden, he felt oddly flustered. The Centurion had also said,

"In other words, you want her to be more cuddly."

"Huh?" Emil exclaimed as he jumped up from his crouching position and blushed furiously. Wiluite cocked his head in bemusement.

"I-I don't like Marta! I-I mean, not in that way! She's a friend! A good friend, one that I care about but . . . I mean, I care about Richter, too, and I don't like him in that way, right?"

He mentally chastised himself for the outburst. Thank Martel he was out by himself, or that he didn't drop much of the water he was collecting. Well, there was Wiluite, but even if the Black Wolf could understand him, he wasn't going to tell Marta or Tenebrae what he did or said. No wait, Tenebrae can actually understand the wolf. On the other hand, could Wiluite really understand what Emil was saying?

It was just two days ago that Tenebrae teased him for supposedly missing Marta's declarations of love. Yes, he had also gotten flustered by the comment, but not nearly as much as he was now. Back then he felt he was only concerned about Marta being okay with the way things were going, and starting to worry that she thought of him as being less reliable than before. Those worries were still there, but that wasn't made him feel so very embarrassed despite there being no one else to be embarrassed in front of.

"What do I think of Marta?" He said as he slumped his shoulders.

When he first met her, he thought she was very cute. He still thought that. When he met her again and became a Knight of Ratatosk, he wasn't sure what to think of her. Many things about her confused him. He was startled that not only that there was someone else, other than Richter, who didn't hate or ignore him, but she seemingly liked him. A lot. Granted, much of it was because she thought he was some knight-in-shining-armor who saved her months ago. That was the cause of his . . . he didn't want to call it "annoyance", but he wasn't sure what it could be. She seemed to like him, and want to be his friend, but this clashed with her obsessive-ness and extreme misconception of him. If she didn't see Emil for who he really was, could it really be said that she liked him? Emil didn't like Marta the way she liked him at the time.

Now though . . . he should be glad that Marta slowed down greatly, and saw him for who he really was. At the same time though, he felt uncertain and uneasy. Yes, it may have been because it made him feel inadequate, but was there more to it?

"I . . . I do like Marta, as a friend. But, do I . . ." Emil sighed, "Am I starting to . . ?"

It was like some silly romance novel or something. Once she started to pull away from her obsession over him, he starts gravitating toward her. Did he miss the attention he used to get? Is he starting to fall for her now that she was much less off-putting?

"Falling for her? Am I . . . falling for her?"

Wiluite gave a soft bark, as if responding to him. Emil turned to look down at the Black Wolf.

"Only I would know that, huh? But . . . I never really thought about dating and romance before. Then Marta comes along and starts saying she loves me, then she becomes more reasonable and I . . ." Emil hung his head, "I just don't know."

"What do I when, uh, if I do fall in love with her? I still don't know anything about going out with someone. I don't think she would stop liking me just because she's stopped obsessing over me, but what does she think of me now?"

The Knight of Ratatosk let out an exasperated growl, "I can't even be sure I am falling for her. What if it's something else?"

Emil shook his head. I'm probably getting way ahead of myself, he thought. Even if it is the start of something, I'm worrying myself silly over it. After all, Marta is still a friend, right?

Wiluite whined slightly, placing his right paw on Emil's knee.

Emil gave the wolf a slight smile, "I'm probably dwelling on this too much. I should just be glad I made a real friend, someone who cares about me."

That's right . . . so what if she first latched onto him because she thought he saved her and was some invincible hero? The fact that she's considering his feelings and no longer seemed to think these things should be proof enough that she did care about him. A part of him still worried that she was pulling back because she didn't think he's reliable enough, but the rest of him couldn't believe she would be shallow like that. Even so . . . the thought of truly falling for her scared him.

"I guess I find love scary, too. I mean, if this does turn to love. But I find this journey scary all the time, and I'm still going through with it."
Wiluite barked again.

"Yeah . . . I'll take this change and these, feeling, I guess, one day at a time. Just like how I'm taking this journey. Whether I really am falling in love with Marta, or if it's something else."

There was another bark from the wolf; though this time he wagged his tail as well. Emil knelt down to pet the monster on his head.

"Thanks for listening to me Wiluite, even if you can't really help or talk to me about it." There wasn't even anyone else he could talk to about this. He didn't really know Raine, he certainly couldn't talk to Marta about it, and Tenebrae would tease him endlessly about it. That reminded him . . .

"Oh Wiluite; I have no idea if you understand what I'm saying at all, but if you do, could you not say anything about this stuff to Tenebrae? I'll never hear the end of it."

The Black Wolf uttered a quick bark. Did he just nod his head, too? Maybe he did understand him.

"Come on, Wiluite. If we don't hurry back, everyone will wonder what's taking us so long."

With that, the boy finished filling the last canteen. He then picked himself back up and started to walk away from the stream, Wiluite bounding along beside him. He hoped he'd be able to stop himself from getting flustered or blushing once he got back, especially if Marta started to talk to him. Oh well; he'll have to take these things one day at a time.