XxX
"It looks like he's gotten bigger again," Genis observed as he watched Kratos come down the stairs. Lloyd was holding onto one of his hands while rubbing at his eyes blearily. "And he's actually not bouncing off the walls?"
"He's probably just tired from all the activity yesterday." Kratos took a seat across from the half-elf at the kitchen table. A mini Lloyd climbed into the seat next to him to whine for some cereal.
"How old do you think he looks now? Maybe three?" Genis wondered out loud to himself, while fetching a bowl and some milk for the boy. "That means, in a few weeks, he should be back to his normal age."
"Perhaps, but we can't really say for sure."
"Yeah, I hope Raine can find a cure. I'd be really embarrassed if she didn't." Genis scratched his head and handed Lloyd a spoon, playing the part of the good older brother. Or maybe a housewife.
"Hello? Everyone?" They heard a feminine voice call trough the front door, and it sounded like she was having a bit of a hard time getting into the house.
"Speak of the devil!" Genis grinned and wiped up some milk off Lloyd's chin with a paper towel.
"Back so soon?" Kratos questioned as he went to the front door, trying to help Raine with the many bags she had with her. "What is all this? Umf!" The air was forced out of him as Raine hurled a very thick book towards his arms, missing just slightly and hitting him in the stomach instead.
"Sorry." Raine rushed out before looking back over her shoulder, calling off to someone in the distance. "Is everything alright back there?"
"It would be if this idiot would make himself useful for once!" Another woman called back, sounding like she was in the middle of a struggle.
"Hey, I…" the man who was unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of the woman's rage was cut off as he was currently being bombarded with luggage.
"Sheena? Zelos?" Colette peeked out the doorway to see two of her former companions. Sheena waved as she kept her arm around a piece of machinery, something that looked like a piece of lab equipment.
"Hey guys! Long time no see. Kratos, can you take this?" Sheena walked trough door and deposited her heavy burden on the man without waiting for a response. "Thanks!"
"No problem." Kratos mumbled and shifted around the equipment along with the bags Raine had already shoved on him as he tried to find a safe place to set them down.
"I missed you!" Colette pulled her into a warm hug that turned out to be more painful than anything, if Sheena's whimpers were any indication. "Uh, sorry, guess I don't know my own strength." Colette giggled sheepishly, a noise so contradictory to the inhuman strength she seemed to posses.
"Eh, don't worry about it. It's not your fault." Sheena smiled, absently rubbing a bruised arm.
"I can't believe you only dragged me here to be used for manual labor!" Zelos complained as he made his way through the door, weighed down with yet more junk that Raine had seen fit to take from Tethe'alla. "Hey, do something with this, kay?" Zelos deposited his load on Kratos who was still standing dumbly by the door.
"So where's Lloyd?" Sheena looked around the room curiously, "Raine told me that there was something wrong with him, but she didn't seem to want to go into details."
"Oh, he's right here!" Genis perked up from his spot at the kitchen table, where he was tying a bib around a small boy in order to keep him from making more of a mess than he already had.
"But that's a little kid!" Zelos exclaimed as himself and Sheena stepped in closer to get a better look.
"It can't be…" Sheena trailed off as familiar brown eyes blinked up at her in a curious manner. "Is it really you Lloyd?"
"Raine had a little accident with one of her potions and Lloyd just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time," Genis tried to fill them in, slightly amused at the shocked expression on both of their faces.
"Oh…how unfortunate." Sheena frowned.
"Yeah…real unfortunate." Zelos seemed to be desperately holding back laughter as he loomed over a tiny Lloyd. "Fear me for I am a big tall giant man! Mwhahaha."
"Zelos!" Sheena shouted and shooed the idiot away from Lloyd before he got scared away. "Aww, but he's so cute!" Sheena beamed as she hoisted up the surprised boy in her arms.
"Isn't he?" Colette cooed as they both fused over the boy and Zelos sighed miserably at the display.
"Even when he's still in diapers he has to get all the attention?"
"I think he likes you!" Colette exclaimed, as Lloyd seemed to have his attention focused solely on Sheena. Or at least…something on the woman was fascinating to him, since he wasn't exactly looking at her in the face.
"Heh, I've always been good with…kids." Sheena deadpanned at the end of the sentence, looking down at Lloyd with a horrified expression on her face. Colette was a bit confused for a second before she let he gaze travel downwards.
"Oh my…" she gasped and covered her mouth. Zelos picked his head up from his current sulking to raise an eyebrow at the two women, and the young boy between them. Who currently had a tiny hand latched onto Sheena's right breast, giving it an experimental squeeze.
"Hm, a kid after my own heart!" Zelos grinned when Sheena turned to yell at him, but she only succeeding in blushing and sputtering like an idiot. "At least he didn't make honking noises." Zelos shrugged as Sheena shook her head and pulled Lloyd's hand away, trying to explain to the naïve youth not to do that again.
"Ah, give the kid here." Zelos pulled the boy in his arms and ruffled his hair playfully. "Stop trying to move in on my woman, okay kid?" Lloyd blinked up at the man for a moment before sinking his teeth into the arm that held him.
"Serves you right. I'm not your woman." Sheena crossed her arms and smirked as Zelos whimpered at the fresh bite mark.
"Little brat. "Zelos glared at the kid in his arms only to have his hair pulled on harshly a second later. "Ow!"
XxX
Things had finally calmed down once Raine and Kratos had managed to get all the equipment she had brought downstairs to the lab. Genis was currently working on making some lunch and had everyone rounded up at the kitchen table.
"Is all this stuff really necessary? And why did you have to come back here to study it?" Kratos rubbed the spot on his lower back that was staring to become sore from all the heavy lifting.
"Of course it is. And I think it's better to work on a antidote here, where I can study the specimen, er, I mean Lloyd, personally." Raine explained, closing the door to the basement once they had finished their work.
"I suppose that makes sense. But why bring them along?" Kratos gestured over to the female summoner and the playboy who were sitting at the kitchen table, chatting amiably with Colette.
"I needed help getting all the equipment here." Raine shrugged, "Besides, it's been awhile since their last visit."
"Hmph." Kratos scowled, but said nothing more. Sheena was tolerable for the most part, but Zelos could get to be more than a little irritating and Kratos needed more stress now like he needed a hole in the head.
"Lloyd, get away from the stove! You're going to get burned!" Genis scolded and waved a spoon in the boy's face.
"What's for lunch Genis?" Colette turned to ask.
"Beef Stew! Lloyd! What did I say!" Genis groaned as the boy began crawling through his legs, getting dangerously close to the surface of the hot stove. "Get away!" He tried to shoo the boy, but Lloyd only clung to his leg stubbornly.
"Oh just let him touch the stove already. He'll learn real quick to stay away." Zelos grinned as Genis's face paled.
"You're evil!" Genis exclaimed, trying to inch Lloyd slowly away from the spot where Zelos was sitting.
"Am not! You just need to learn to train the kid, otherwise he's going to be a brat forever. Just like you."
"At least it's better than being a pervert!" Genis snapped back, tossing a dinner roll at Zelos's head.
"Hey! That was uncalled for!"
"Now now children, behave." Kratos sighed as he finally took a seat at the table, pulling a protesting Lloyd into his lap as he did so. Genis placed a pot of stew on the table and the group ate in relative silence after that. Raine had come up from the basement after some time and sat down to eat as well.
"Kratos, there seemed to be a great deal of monsters surrounding the city," Raine commented. Kratos froze for a moment, remembering that he hadn't gone on patrol last night. He felt awful for putting the villagers in danger, but it really couldn't be helped right now.
"I've been busy."
"I know, but someone should take care of it. I'll be busy in the lab, and Colette is still recovering from her illness so…" Raine trailed off and glanced up at something, or someone, on the other side of the table.
"Eh…I don't like that look," Sheena sighed as she realized where the older woman's attention was focused. "Fine, I guess I could go do some monster killing. It's been awhile since I had a good fight." Sheena smiled and went about finishing her meal, wanting to be at full strength for this evening.
"I appreciate it." Kratos said while feeding Lloyd a spoonful of the stew.
"It's not a problem. It'll probably be lots of fun! Right Zelos?"
"Um, since when am I included in this?"
"Don't be so lazy!"
"It's not like you can't handle your own! You don't need me."
"I'd feel more comfortable if you accompanied her," Kratos commented and Sheena went back to finishing her meal, not feeling like arguing with the idiot anymore, especially when she now had backup to do that for her.
"Do you really believe that, or do you just want me out of here?" Zelos leered skeptically over at the man.
"Perhaps a little of both."
"Fine, fine, I know when I'm not wanted." Zelos groaned and began to clean his plate into the garbage, just as Sheena began to do the same.
"Do you now?" Sheena placed her hands on her hips, shooting him a unconvinced look. "Cause I could have sworn I've been putting of the 'not wanting' vibe the whole time I've known you."
"That's not 'not wanting', that's just pure denial." Zelos tossed his plate into the sink full of soapy water only to dodge a blow to the head a second later.