Author Note: Well, I just decided to write fanfiction once again. I'm not sure about ever writing multi-fanfiction ever again after my bad experiences but I'll make a special exception of writing this one-shot for a very dear friend-Potter29vo a.k.a Minnie. Happy Birthday Minnie! This one-shot is dedicated to you! I am very sorry for the Sheeloyd mixed with the Sheelos in this, but this is comedy and cuteness not romance so please forgive me! My writing style originated from you so enjoy!
I don't own Tales of Symphonia. If one day, I found out my grandfather was related to Namco somehow and inherit the company from him I would own Tales of Symphonia. But what are the chances of that happening?
Child on DoorstepBy Michelle of the Night
Dedicated to Potter29vo
Lloyd woke up from his slumber at Zelos's house after graduating from school. Today was a Friday and Zelos's girlfriend Sheena was to come with her grandfather to meet Zelos and him for the first time. But as friends to the pervert, Sheena and Zelos schemed for Lloyd to be Zelos instead so that her grandfather would be content with who his granddaughter marries. Besides, Sheena was afraid her grandfather might say "no" if he saw the real Zelos. He thought nothing could go wrong today, but he was deadly mistaken.
He walked out of the enormous house and went out the door to pick up the mail for his friend, who was sleeping in until noon or something. He was used to this by now ever since he lived here for school.
He almost trip over something, when he held himself in time before he hurt the bundle in front of his house. He picked it up carelessly and ran inside the house, careful not to drop the sleeping child in it. He was stunned, confused, and was clueless enough to even take the child in the first place.
Lloyd sat down on the big comfortable couch, wondering what to do with this child. Then, in the corner of his eyes, he noticed the note in the bundle. He picked it up and read it before his eyes widened in surprise. He knew there was only one person who could help him now.
"ZELOS!!!" Lloyd screamed at the top of his lungs.
No answer.
Lloyd tried to calm himself before shouting again. "ZELOOOOS!!!!!!" Maybe even the whole neighborhood could hear him now.
Still no answer.
Lloyd was getting very impatient now and the child started crying now. One more time:
"ZZZZZZZZZEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!"
That worked perfectly and he started to hear some groaning noise in the upper floor. He waited patiently as the Chosen walked down the steps of the stairs and observed the room around him sleepily. He collapsed on the couch, his head resting on the pillow he carried with him.
Lloyd was getting impatient again.
"Wake up Zelos!" Lloyd cried out angrily as Zelos opened one eye at Lloyd.
"Can I get some rest? I had a terrible nightmare!" Lloyd looked even more bored when he heard this. What gave Zelos the right in the world to think that he was a bit interested in his misfortune? But Zelos ignored this fact and continued anyways. "I dream of this really hot chick and we were in love, but then we broke up. Sad really. Then, one day, she just left me her child, claiming it was mines! How absurd was that?"
Lloyd took the chance. "Congratulations! She left it in the front steps for you!" Lloyd dropped the crying child into Zelos's arm.
He jumped up, more awake than he had ever been. "What in the name of Martel is going on???" Zelos threw the child back to Lloyd, who caught it.
Lloyd wasn't giving up that easily as he threw it back to the Chosen's arms. "You barely said it yourself!"
Zelos threw it back as Lloyd caught it carelessly. "But that was a nightmare!"
"Then, you must have been playing around with the girls around the city again, didn't you? Wait until I tell Sheena!" Lloyd threatened.
"NO! But I can't say the same for you. You've been busy, haven't you Lloyd?" Lloyd flushed as the two stopped arguing for a moment.
The two boys sighed. What are they going to do?
Lloyd handed Zelos the letter, as the Chosen read it out loud:
Dear caring neighbor,
Thank you for accepting my one-year old child for me. I am eternally grateful to you. I will come back for my child when I'm done with my business. Thank you for all your help. Please do not call the authorities.
-Keiko, a desperate mother
Zelos folded the letter silently and put it in his pocket. "We have to call the authorities!" Zelos cried out suddenly, taking a dash to the door when Lloyd stopped him.
"She said not to!" argued Lloyd.
"But…" Zelos looked not so happy about this decision.
The two males sat down on the couch and the baby started crying again. Zelos gave Lloyd an anxious look of his own. "Lloyd! You're responsible for him!"
Lloyd shook his head. "No! You should be! You always said you love children."
Zelos opened his mouth to argue but nothing came out. He was trapped. "Fine! Be that way, Lloyd. You're supposed to be my bud." Lloyd smiled innocently as the child cry even louder.
"Hmmm, I think it needs milk." Lloyd stated. Zelos agreed.
"So give it some milk!" Zelos commanded as Lloyd looked down at his chest.
"I can't give it milk…" Lloyd said densely as Zelos smacked his forehead with the back of his hand.
"No, not you! You're so flat! How are you supposed to give it milk? Go get a bottle idiot!" Zelos pointed at the bottle right inside the bundle.
Lloyd walked over and picked it up before feeding it milk. He handed over to Zelos, who claimed to be responsible for it.
Zelos began rocking the child while singing. "Rock-a-bye baby, close your eyes tight. When your father gets married, you will stay here with mommy." Lloyd laughed.
Zelos looked hurt. "What's so funny?"
Lloyd stopped himself from laughing anymore. "It's funny. You sound like a real mother now! Now, you can't deny that you want this child to be yours." Zelos made a face.
"Lloyd, you're crazy. I only sang that because that's the same song my mother used to sing to me! That was also the time my father left my mother and me." Lloyd's face turned serious again, regretting for laughing.
"Sorry."
"It's ok, bud." Zelos tried to lighten the mood up.
The child grew silent at the delight of the milk bottle in its mouth. Zelos sighed in relief. Lloyd and Zelos started staring at the drinking child dreamily.
"Kids are so cute." Zelos commented as Lloyd nodded in agreement.
"Yes they are. I can't wait to become a father!" Lloyd exclaimed out loud.
"Yup, but that means you need a girlfriend and then a wife!" Zelos explained to Lloyd as if he didn't know that already.
"Yes, and I was so close too! I used to send this girl love poems every single day until after three months of poetry from Genis, I finally got her to come over to our place! Then, when she barely came over…boom! You snatched her away from me!"
Lloyd grew red with anger as Zelos shrugged it off.
"It's not my fault for your carelessness. In what mind would a boy send a girl poetry? You are so not with the times, but what could I expect from someone who grew up in Sylvarant!"
Lloyd looked like he was going to rip Zelos apart.
"Poetry are supposed to be romantic!" exclaimed Lloyd.
Zelos snorted at this comment. "Poetry?! Then why did she follow me after I barely show her a diamond ring?"
Lloyd gazed away and was about to explode when Zelos patted him on the shoulder, trying to calm him down when something got into Lloyd.
"Zelos! Now that reminds me, Sheena is coming over with her grandfather today. What will she say if she saw you with this child? You know she is not the calm type." Lloyd said.
Zelos remembered that as well. It was expected to be the day that Lloyd supposed to pretend to be him in front of Sheena's grandfather and he had totally forgotten.
Zelos suddenly smell a very bad scent. "Lloyd, did you brush your teeth this morning?"
Lloyd was shocked to hear this. "Of course I did! The scent is coming from the child!"
Lloyd took the child from Zelos's arms and place the child neatly in its bundle. He started to open the diaper, holding onto his nose. He looked at Zelos for support.
"Get me a diaper!" Lloyd commanded as Zelos ran upstairs.
Zelos came back a few minutes later with the biggest diaper Lloyd had ever seen.
"Zelos!!! Whose diaper is that?" Lloyd questioned.
"My Grandma's."
Lloyd knew it was a joke as he shook his head, pointing that he really needed a normal one now. But then, he already saw some leftover ones in the corner of the bundle and grabbed it. He carefully to clean the child's behind while Zelos bend down next to Lloyd to have a closer look at the baby.
"Wow, he looks so much like you! Are you sure he's not truly yours?" Zelos asked as Lloyd curled his hands into fists.
"No, you could totally tell the child is yours. The small red hair growing is quite obvious." Lloyd turned it back to his friend.
"Look it's a boy! Wow, look how small it is." Zelos stared at the child, bare of a proper covering for the bottom half of its body. "Just like you Lloyd!"
Just then, the child squirted some kind of yellow liquid on Zelos as he cried out a "YUCK!" and ran to the nearest restroom. He came back after awhile as Lloyd tried hard not to laugh anymore. "That's what you get for insulting him."
Zelos glared at Lloyd. "Yours is still smaller than mines."
Lloyd didn't take that quite well. "And how would you know that?"
The Chosen smirked slightly. "It's quite obvious."
Lloyd ignored the last comment and put the diaper on the child before he wiped the sweat off his forehead and picked up the child and placed it carefully into Zelos's arms again. "You're responsible for it."
"Of course! The great Zelos always take his responsibility!"
Just when Zelos said that, Sheena came walking in. It seemed Lloyd had left the door open again. She looked happy at first, but when she saw the boy in Zelos's arms, her face changed a different color. Zelos was grinning at her until he followed her gaze right at the boy in his hands as he flung it over at Lloyd, who barely caught it.
Sheena was about to explode now. "ZELOS!!! Whose child is that???"
Zelos ran and hid behind Lloyd, who step forward in his place. "No, Sheena. It's not Zelos's child, it's my child."
Sheena jumped. "WHAT?"
Lloyd jumped as well. "No, no…I mean I found this child."
This calmed her down a bit. "How do I know???"
"We have proof!" Lloyd tried to clear himself, nudging Zelos as the Chosen stepped forward now, shaking a bit.
"Proof?" Zelos asked stupidly, wondering what Lloyd was talking about.
"The letter!" Lloyd shouted, showing signs of nervousness.
Zelos nodded as he pulled a folded piece of paper and handed it to Sheena, who nearly ripped the paper from her shaking hands before opening it completely.
Sheena read it out loud, "Zelos, you owe me 500 gald."
Zelos tried to smile innocently before snatching that note back from Sheena and stuffed it in his pocket once more.
"This is the right one." Zelos pulled out another folded piece of paper as Sheena accepted it again with shaking hands.
She read the next one out loud once more. "Zelos IOU: You owe me a pair of underwear."
This time, Zelos retrieved the note back even quicker than the last, his face flushed. Sheena was getting really impatient now. "ZELOS! LLOYD! What kind of schemes are you playing???"
Zelos pulled out a third one, really nervous this time. Sheena took it again. "What kind of I owe you this time?" She unfolded the paper. "Dear caring neighbor, thank you for accepting my one-year old child for me. I am eternally grateful to you. I will come back for my child when I'm done with my business. Thank you for all your help. Please do not call the authorities. From Keiko, a desperate mother." Sheena read the whole letter out loud, shaking at every word.
At the end of the note, Sheena was now giggling at the top of her head. Lloyd and Zelos was dumbstruck.
"Zelos…you've done it…you had drive Sheena insane." Lloyd whispered.
"Nonsense!" Zelos walked over by Sheena's side, helping her come through her laughter.
"That's what you guys wanted me to do right? You guys want me to laugh at this big joke right? What kind of joke is this?" Sheena started tearing the letter in 10 pieces now before Zelos's eyes.
Lloyd looked like he had seen his mother died. "But…but that was the proof!"
Sheena gave out a fake laugh. "If you guys could write poetry to me, you guys could have written this all in a few seconds!" She ripped it again.
Zelos placed his hand on top of her shoulder. "Calm down, you're just overreacting."
Sheena shook her head madly. "I'm not overreacting!" She kicked Zelos's butt once and then hit him upside the head. "I'm not overreacting!" She threw the strands of paper in Lloyd's face. "I'm not overreacting!"
Zelos and Lloyd now had the expression of "What-did-we-do?" look on their faces. Zelos tried to calm down his girlfriend once more. "What more proof do you want?"
Sheena smiled evilly. She pointed at the empty bundle on the ground. "Tell me who this child belongs to."
Both males shrugged. "We don't know." They answered in unison.
"Whose child is this???" Sheena almost screamed at Zelos, as he thought for a few moments before turning over to Lloyd. "Whose child is this???"
Lloyd knew he was stuck. He had no one else to ask except the child himself. Lloyd held the child tight in front of him. "Whose child are you???"
Zelos could have killed Lloyd to show such stupidity when the child started chirping, "Ma! Ma!"
Zelos turned back to Sheena. "His mother."
"Then who is his mother???" The chain began again as Zelos looked over to Lloyd with the same question. "Who is his mother???"
Lloyd held the child out once more. "Who is your mother?"
The baby shrugged.
Zelos turned to Sheena again. "He doesn't know."
Sheena was growing highly impatient of this messenger game already. "If you two don't show me proof this instant, I will leave!"
Zelos held her arm back.
"Sheena, what proof do you want???" He asked desperately. He didn't want to lose Sheena right before their engagement.
"Bring his mother to meet me and claimed this child and everything will be find. So where is his mother???" Sheena raised her voice again as Zelos continued the chain. "Where is his mother???"
Lloyd held the boy out again. "Where is your mother???"
The baby mumbled something but Lloyd could not hear as he leaned his ear to the boy's mouth to listen. He gave up and handed it to Zelos. "What did you say?" Lloyd wondered what was Zelos thinking? A boy that old can't talk sentences!!!
Zelos listened for a while saying words like "Uh-huh" and "Ok". Lloyd and Sheena felt stupid for just being there, watching Zelos having a small talk with an infant.
After awhile, Zelos nodded in understanding. "Oh, so that's where she is! Ok, bye bye. Come again." He nearly placed the infant on the table by accident as if to a phone as Sheena was about to faint to see such an abuse. He finally handed it back to Lloyd/
Lloyd was anxious. "You know where his mother is?"
Zelos winked. "Of course I do. I'll be back in a few minutes or so. In the meantime, Lloyd you have to continue with our plans and pretend to be in front of Sheena's grandfather. See ya bud, and my sweetheart."
He left, also forgetting to close the door.
Sheena was now really upset. "What should I do? Grandpa will be here in a few minutes and with this child, he will never let Zelos and I get married."
Lloyd felt this was the best chance to get Sheena back on his side while Zelos was gone. He did steal the first crush he ever had. Now, it was payback even if he felt his conscious not letting him do so. He didn't have to act anymore.
"Don't worry, we'll work things out with the Chief and we'll explain in details." Lloyd gave her an approving look as she tried to smile.
Chief Igaguri walked in the house of the open door, smiling for he had heard Lloyd's last words.
"There's no need to explain! With a child like that already, there's nothing to do but get married!" Igaguri said happily.
The other two blushed at the same time in embarrassment.
"Grandpa! I don't want to get married to him anymore!" Sheena complained.
"Why not? You already have a child with him…" Sheena shook her head.
"No, it's his own child!" Sheena blurted out as Lloyd finally recover from the embarrassment earlier.
"No it's not! This is not my stray child!" Lloyd cried out loud but was silenced by the wave of Igaguri hand.
"Silence! I shall find someone more trustworthy for my granddaughter's hand." Guilty went through Lloyd as he watched the two starting to walk out of the home. He had lost Zelos's trust.
But before they left the house complete, they were stopped by a person covered in tight clothes and a red cloth that almost covered their face completely except for the eyes. The person bowed once to them before entering the house.
"My name is Keiko, the desperate mother of this poor child!" The woman who claimed to be Keiko came in and went to Lloyd side since he was still holding the baby in his arms. She had such a high squeaky voice.
"Are you really Keiko, the mother of this boy?" Lloyd questioned, his eyebrows raised at all the rouge colored coverings.
The person named Keiko bend down a little, inches away from Lloyd and speak so only Lloyd could hear. "It's me, you idiot!" The voice was awfully familiar…it was Zelos?
"Oh!" Lloyd cried out suddenly. "You are the lovely Keiko we've been waiting for!" Lloyd knew he must play along with this.
But at the same time, he had to suffer all Zelos had set up for him especially pretending to be Sheena's boyfriend. Maybe this could be a good payback after all. Zelos did burn up Lloyd's last project in school by "accident". "I'll better be going now." Zelos said quickly, grabbed the boy from Lloyd's arms and was heading out the door when Lloyd already begun.
"Miss, there are a few questions needed to be answer." Lloyd wrapped one of his arm around Zelos in a bud kind of way as Sheena and her grandfather stared.
"I really should be going." Zelos answered, sweating a little.
Lloyd took this opportunity. "Where were you all this time?"
Zelos got a hit to the head. Zelos had the urge to hit Lloyd back, but couldn't since he was supposed to be a helpless women.
"But sir…" Zelos started when Lloyd already break it up wit another question.
"What took you so long to get here?" Lloyd asked angrily, while hitting Zelos on the head a second time.
"Sir…"
"And why were you so irresponsible enough to leave your child here???" Zelos got another hit to the head. Zelos was trying to not hit Lloyd back with all his heart.
Zelos was about to answer when Chief Igaguri already stepped in to help. "That's enough as long as she's here to reclaim her child." He pulled Lloyd away from Zelos and wrapped his arm around Zelos now. "How about telling us why you left him here? And whose his father?"
Zelos looked awfully nervous now. What should he say?
"He doesn't have a father sir…" Zelos tried to speak in a heart-breaking voice. "He's a stray child."
Zelos was now pretending to be sobbing in front of Igaguri as he patted him on the shoulder a few times.
"Tell us what happen, poor woman."
Zelos thought he just needed to grab the child and left to save himself and Lloyd from disaster, but all because of Lloyd's questions, even his future grandfather is questioning him now. He glared at Lloyd at the corner of his eye.
"Well, I rode up south to the bridge you see…" Zelos started when Igaguri already cut in.
"Rode?"
"On my bicycle." Lloyd slammed his forehead with the back of his hand, wondering why Zelos could think of stupid ideas at a time like this.
"Continue."
"Then, I bumped into this group of men on the way there and they asked me to get drunk with them." Igaguri looked a little shock while Lloyd gave his head another smack.
"You didn't drink with them, did you?" Igaguri sounded concern now.
"I'm an alcoholic sir." Zelos answered truthfully. Lloyd knew this was going to break any second now.
"I see. Then what happen?" Igaguri seemed to so interested in the story that he is missing out all the flaws.
"I wake up the next morning in the middle of the forest and then nine months later, I have this guy." Zelos answered. Igaguri raised an eyebrow.
"How did you get from the bridge to the forest?" Zelos shrugged.
Zelos pulled Igaguri's arm off his shoulder. "You're making me nervous by placing your arm around me, sir."
But Lloyd knew the real reason, Zelos didn't like older men to touch him like that as Sheena finally got into the whole conversation, not to Lloyd's delight.
"Grandpa, you're being too hard on her. Hello, Keiko. My name is Sheena." She looked at Zelos for a few seconds before blinking. "Have we met before?"
Zelos turned red, but they couldn't see because of the cloth around his face. "No, I never met you in my life."
Sheena took that answer and wrapped her arm around Zelos, who even snuggled in closer than he should. Lloyd didn't like how Zelos took this advantage of Sheena.
"Don't worry, Keiko, you could stay at my place tonight!" Zelos was hyper now at this thought.
"You have nothing to do, hold this for me!" Zelos threw the child into Lloyd's arm before holding Sheena tighter to his body. "Continue, my dear Sheena."
"We could stay up at night and then sleep together!" Lloyd almost fainted to hear this while Zelos seemed more delighted than ever.
Why? Because Sheena wouldn't share a bed with him even if they were married.
"But that would be such a waste to sleep! We could do other fun things!" Zelos grinned behind the mask while Lloyd felt his face turned red with anger.
"Of course, anything you want Keiko. Such a poor lady such as yourself…" Sheena started as a dirty idea rushed through Zelos's head.
"I know, sometimes I just wanted to slam my head against a wall and die. Let me show you." Lloyd grabbed Zelos off of Sheena in time before he started using that move on her.
"What are you doing???" Lloyd shouted, outraged but at the same time, knocked Zelos's head one more time.
But this time…the cloth came tumbling down and revealed the Chosen in the open.
Sheena and Igaguri stared in shock while Zelos didn't notice a thing. He took the boy off Lloyd's arm and continued out the door when Sheena stopped him. "ZELOS! What kind of joke are you playing???"
Zelos felt his head for awhile before realizing the cloth covering his face was missing. He was busted now!
Sheena was in tears now, madder than ever before. "Grandpa! Let's go!!!"
Igaguri was still confused though.
"What's wrong Sheena?" He asked gently as she held her fist with anger.
"They're friends! They're pulling a prank on the two of us, Grandpa!" Igaguri looked mad as the two of them began to leave.
"Wait Sheena my love!!!" Zelos was calling for her but she didn't listen as she continued ignoring him.
Before Sheena and her grandpa left the door though, a young girl around the age of 16 walked in, licking a lollypop.
Igaguri examined the girl with his eyes before asking, "Is it real this time?"
The girl skipped over to Zelos's side and gave a sparkling smile. "Can I have the baby?" She asked with this girly sweet voice.
Lloyd was curious. "You're here to pick up your younger brother?"
The girl was puzzled. "He's not my younger brother. He's my child." She told them honestly.
Lloyd was shocked. "But you're so young…"
The girl shrugged. "It was an accident. Don't worry! My boyfriend and I are still in love. He's a very intelligent student!"
Zelos snorted at this and whispered to Lloyd. "If he's so intelligent, why would he cause an accident?"
Lloyd gave Zelos an amused look. "Sounds like someone I know."
"Yes it does…what a minute!" Zelos and Lloyd started arguing.
Sheena stared at the girl for some time before speaking. "Then why don't you take care of him? Why did you leave him in the front steps of stranger's house?"
The girl looked even more puzzled. "I didn't leave in front of a stranger's house. I was about to knock and asked for his permission when he already opened the door. Then, I was so scared that I hid and was horrified to see him swoop up my infant before leaving his door open."
Zelos and Sheena gave Lloyd a mad look now.
"So can I have my baby now?" She asked while Zelos handed it to her in the bundle before she started skipping out the door. "Happy every day!"
The four watched her go as Zelos watched over Sheena now. "See? That's what happen when you overreact Sheena!"
Sheena just gave a "hmph".
Igaguri shook his head. "I am getting too tired for this…Sheena marry whoever you want." He walked out the door.
Sheena was so happy, she wrapped her arms around both males at the same time. The next minute though, Zelos pushed Lloyd off his girlfriend.
"Zelos, I'm still going to be your best man right?" Zelos and Sheena exchanged glances.
"We'll see." They said at the same time.
Sheena and Zelos were heading out for lunch when she suddenly asked. "Who do you owe the underwear to?"
Zelos turned red.
"You don't want to know."
A/N: I hope that was okay, I tried the best I can to copy your writing style so it could make more sense to you. Hope you continue writing Minnie!
Thanks to all who reads this and please review! I appreciate all the feedback. Love ya.