Me: I'm updating! WOOHOO!

Zelos: Okay, let's get this over with. What terrible things happen to me in this chapter?

Me: MUAHAHAHAHAHA! Um, I mean…nothing.

Zelos: I bet I die.

Me: I could never do that to you. Especially not before you get together with Lloyd!

Lloyd: Wait, is he going to die?

Me: Nnnnope. He's too cool to die.

Zelos: Colette's gonna die, right?

Me: Uh, I haven't decided yet. I'm thinking I'll just torture her.

Lloyd: You're so mean to her.

Mithos: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Me: Go AWAY, Mithos!

Mithos: Nothing terrible happens to me, because I'm not in this story! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Me: Go away.

Mithos: You can't do anything to me!

Me: I HAVE A FLAME THROWER!

Mithos: You do not!

Me: I do too! See?

Mithos: That's…a phone book.

Me: Your eyesight is obviously funky.

Mithos: Or you could just be an idiot.

Zelos: I'd agree with that.

Me: Oh, shut up and disclaim me.

Lloyd: Accident prone vow number one.

Me: That HARDLY COUNTS!

Lloyd: Whatever.

"What's up?" Yuan said to Kratos in the morning.

"Colette fell off a cliff."

"Yayyyyy!" Yuan and Zelos cheered, only to be death-glared by Kratos.

"Fnnnnwhuhhhh?" Lloyd said sleepily, waking up.

"Colette fell off a cliff," Zelos said cheerfully.

"No!" Lloyd roared, standing up while still in his sleeping bag. "I must recue her—whoa!" And he tripped, falling onto Zelos, sending them both crashing to the ground, Lloyd still in his sleeping bag.

"Oof," Zelos said.

"You know, on second thought, I think I'll just stay here," Lloyd said thoughtfully. "You guys can go rescue her."

Kratos growled. Yuan tittered. Sighing heavily, Kratos started down the trail, Yuan following. Zelos opened his mouth to ask if Lloyd could maybe get off him a bit, as there was a rather pointy rock digging into his back, but thought the better of it.

He stole a look at Lloyd.

He was asleep.

And so...adorable-looking. And huggable, even...

He could stand that rock.

"Somewheeeeeeeeeeeeeere over the rainbowwwwww," Yuan sang loudly and out-of-tune. Kratos ground his teeth some more.

"What comes next?" Yuan asked his red haired companion. "I seem to have forgotten."

"If you honestly think I'm going to tell you…"

"Okay. Fair enough. I'll just sing the same line over and over again! Somewhere over the rainbowwww…somewheeeeeeere over the raaaaainbow…sooooooomewhere over the raiiiiiiiinbow…."

Kratos's eye twitched, and he turned around abruptly, grabbing Yuan and yanking him in a conveniently placed patch of trees, kissing him very passionately.

It was hardly surprising that they got very little singing and Colette-searching done.

Colette was not dead, sadly. She had remembered after the first bounce against the side of the cliff that she had wings, and ended up at the bottom of the cliff with little more than a bruised body.

She'd also fallen on top of Sheena, who was now unconscious under her. Sheena just didn't have good luck. And somehow, Colette had still fallen on top of something with her wings out.

Colette spent the next five minutes apologizing before realizing Sheena probably couldn't hear her.

Maybe taking the clumsy ninja to Mizuho would be a good idea…

Hours later, when Yuan and Kratos got back, Lloyd and Zelos were playing checkers.

"I win," Zelos said cheerfully, taking Lloyd's last piece. Lloyd scowled, and threw the checkers board at Zelos's face.

"Ha," Lloyd said as Zelos shrieked like a little girl.

"We're baaa-aaaack," Yuan said cheerfully.

"Oh," Zelos said disappointedly, sitting up. "Where's Colette?"

Kratos and Yuan looked at each other with oh shit looks on their faces.

"We forgot," Yuan said.

"No no no no no," Kratos said quickly. "We just…didn't find her!"

Zelos smirked and opened his mouth to say something.

"Say anything and I'm throwing you over the cliff," Kratos warned.

Zelos closed his mouth.

"Noooo!" Lloyd wailed. "I'll never let you!"

"Lloyd," Zelos mumbled. "It's okay. I have wings, remember?"

Lloyd looked blankly at him. "You do?"

"Oh…uh…heheh, did I forget to mention that?"

Lloyd nodded slowly.

"Oh…well, I have wings."

"Oh."

"So," Zelos said, cheering up, "We're Colette-less?"

"Yes," Kratos said, cursing his bad luck.

"Yay!" Zelos and Yuan said, jumping up in the air.

Kratos death-glared. They stopped cheering.

"Oh well," Yuan said, shrugging. "We'll catch up to her later."

Kratos scowled. When was Zelos going to suddenly disappear? When were Colette and Lloyd going to get some time alone?

Yuan, Lloyd, and Zelos looked at each other and started singing the evil song of evilness.

Again.

Kratos smacked himself about the head with his hand, hoping that maybe, just maybe he could beat himself senseless.

Kratos was about to scream by the time they got to Luin.

"Eighty-nine million, ninety-eight thousand, and seventy-six bottles of beer on the—"

"If you all continue this," Kratos said with deadly calm, "I will poison your food so that you are unable to talk all day."

"Can he really do that?" Zelos asked.

"Well…" Lloyd shrugged. "It's Dad, so…probably."

"He can," Yuan said. "It's some…poison or such."

"He did just say that," Lloyd pointed out.

Yuan shrugged.

"The people here like you," Kratos said, ignoring them completely. "You know what that means, do you not?"

"Of course I do!" Lloyd retorted hotly. "Don't insult me, Kratos!"

They walked towards the inn.

"What does it mean?" Lloyd whispered to Zelos, who shrugged.

"Got me. Hey, Yuan! What'd he mean by tha—"

"KRATOS, HUNNY!" Yuan shouted. "LLOYD AND ZELOS ARE STUPID! WHAT DID YOU MEAN BY WHAT YOU SAID?"

Kratos started trying to beat himself senseless again.

"Stupid?" Zelos said.

"We are not stupid," Lloyd snapped.

"Yes you are."

"No we're not," Lloyd and Zelos said together.

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"ARE TOO!"

"YOUR MOM'S STUPID!" Lloyd blurted.

"Touché," Zelos said, high-fiving Lloyd.

"It means," Kratos said, sighing again while he payed the innkeeper, "that if you get kicked out of this inn, they'll be very disappointed in you."

Lloyd shrugged. "We won't get kicked out," he assured Kratos. "Besides, it's always Zelos's fault."

"Hey!" Zelos protested.

"It's true! Last time you yelled and screamed and they—"

"I WAS GETTING MOLESTED BY FISH! OF COURSE I'M GOING TO YELL!"

"Okay, okay! But I was actually referring to when you went into 'Math Mode…'"

"Oh." Zelos considered this, ignoring the stares he was getting. "I…okay, maybe that was my fault."

Lloyd nodded. Zelos burst into tears.

"OHMYGOD! ICAN'TGOON! MY MATH IS GOOOOOOOOONE!"

"Slow down," Lloyd said soothingly. "Breathe. We'll get you more math."

"No no no no no," Yuan whispered.

"OH LLOYD!" Zelos cried, hugging the red-clad teen tightly.

"Gaaack!"

"I LOVE YOU!"

Lloyd mumbled something unintelligible, blushing a bit.

Kratos coughed loudly. "Your room is upstairs," he said.

"Yay!" Zelos said, grabbing the key and running up the stairs.

Lloyd stared after his friend and continued after him, muttering something about how mania could be cute sometimes.

Kratos groaned.

Yuan smirked.

"You're know I'm going to win," he said, heading up the stairs himself.

Kratos scowled. There was no way he was going to win unless he got Colette back. And it was still a good three hours before dark. And most people knew Colette, especially considering she was the Chosen of Regeneration…

Nodding to himself, he stepped out of the inn, determined to find her.

Zelos: I didn't…get hurt or molested or killed in this chapter…wow.

Me: I know. That's because the chapter is so short. Next chapter, I promise.

Zelos: No no no, really, it's oka—

Colette: What happened to me?

Me: You DIED.

Colette: Oh, okay.

Me: ALONG WITH ALL THE DOGS IN THE WORLD!

Colette: -sob- NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Me: Hehehehehehe.

Mithos: You're so cruel. Nice job.

Me: I know, right?

Lloyd: She…likes reviews…so yeah.

Me: If you weren't you, I'd totally fire you.

Zelos: Yeah, and we all know how well firing Mithos got rid of him.

Me: Oh, shut up...