And here comes Chapter 10!

Actually, when I started it I just wanted to make a cute romantic scene, but it turned out to be something more serious. I'm quite pleased with the result, though.

Enjoy!

I do not own the characters or the locations of Tales of Symphonia.

"For the last time: It was an accident! It won't happen again, okay? So Noishe stop being sorry and you stop being mad at him!" Anna said growing more and more frustrated. It really had been an accident. "It's not Noishe's fault!" she said insistent "It doesn't even hurt." That maybe was a lie, still the rest was true.

A week had passed since the incident on the Ossa-Path. It had been a rather uneventful week. It had been fun, Anna didn't deny that, but since she had heard the conversation between Kratos, Yuan and Pronyma, she hadn't dared to kiss or even to touch him for a single time. There had been physical contact, but nothing special or anything and that really frustrated her. Anna didn't want to hold back, not now when she finally knew how much she really cared about him. And the fact that her companion looked far better than the average didn't make things better. Furthermore she was a bit upset that he had obviously no problems with this distance. All in all she was trying to avoid anything that could destroy her self control. She kept telling herself that Cruxis was after them, well mostly after him, but still…. The fact that this was the best thing to do wasn't very comforting, though. Not comforting at all.

In the evening, when she had been dressing again after a bath in a little creek, Noishe had accidentally scratched her. Now there was a long and thin red scratch from her neck to her elbow. Actually Anna thought it was quite impressive that Noishe had managed to cut her skin this straight and clean, but she couldn't admit that while Kratos was around. She wasn't mad at Noishe, who had tried to apologize a split second after it had happened (and was still trying to). Anna had tried to hide the scratch after her clothes, but unfortunately the cut was a bit more painful than she had expected. And it had taken Kratos not more than one minute to find out why she was flinching, when she touched something with her right arm.

He had lectured Noishe in his own scary but quiet way to be more careful, because she was human and not as strong as him. Still…he was overreacting…again. "It won't even leave a scar!" Anna said annoyed "I've been through much worse things and survived without difficulty." But no matter what she said Kratos insisted on taking a closer look at it. "You don't know if it's serious or not. The cut reaches from your neck to your elbow. You would not feel it if a vein would have been damaged" he said calm.

"Yeah, I'm bleeding to death right in front of you" she answered sarcastically.

"Would you please remove your sleeve, so I can treat this cut?"

"My what?" she asked with wide opened eyes "You've got to be kidding! I'm not removing my sleeve!" Even Anna knew that that sounded ridiculous. Some moments later she sighed and said "But make it quick!", while removing her sleeve. Her arm felt quite…naked now and the scratch was burning.

But what made her feel really uncomfortable was the fact how close Kratos was. He wasn't touching her, while he was looking at the scratch. But this fact didn't keep her from blushing. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. It can't take that long to look at something like this! "Have you finished?" she asked and her voice was a bit higher than usual. "…It doesn't seem to have damaged…" but before he could finish his sentence, Anna moved her arm away and put her sleeve back on. "Ouch…" she whispered. It does hurt more than I thought.

"I wasn't finished" he said.

"You said yourself that it's nothing serious."

"…I said that it doesn't seem to be serious. I have to take another…"

"No, please don't!" Anna said, and stopped his move with her hands "It will heal on its own. It's no big deal! Please, believe me just this one time!" And then she moved her hands away, like they had been burned.

"Anna is something wrong?" he asked and sounded quite worried.

"No, of course not. Why do you ask?"

"You don't seem to be…yourself lately." Caught!

"Oh…ähm…what makes you think that?" she asked while her face turned slowly red.

"You are not as…cheerful as usual."

She looked at him for a long moment and then she said "Kratos with all honesty I'm impressed that you noticed something like that. But I have to correct you. I'm not less cheerful I'm just a bit more…controlled. I…keep my distance like I said."

"That doesn't suit your character."

"…But you…Wait a minute! Is this your way of saying that I shouldn't do that?" She tilted her head.

"…I merely said that it doesn't fit to your normal behaviour."

"What again is my normal behaviour? I guess I forgot it." A playful smile played on her lips.

"You do realise that this is childish?"

"That's not childish! This is the payback for a week of suffering!"

"…No one forced you to keep your distance."

"Kratos, you're walking on thin ice!" Her expression switched suddenly from angry to amused. "I can't believe you tell me something like that! You, who is the most serious and reserved person in this entire universe! That's really quite ironic."

"…"

"You still didn't answer my question."

"Which one do you mean?"

She rolled her eyes. "What my normal behaviour is. Since you seem to miss it so dearly, you should tell me."

"Hmpf…"

"If you don't tell me, I can't do it again. I hope you know tha…" but Anna stopped talking when she felt how Kratos lifted her chin with one hand slightly up to kiss her. This was the first time since three weeks that he had kissed her and therefore her feelings were a bit…intensive. She felt her blood rushing through her veins and a burning feeling spread from her head to the rest of her body. She didn't dare to move, so she just closed her eyes slightly and enjoyed this brief moment.

"…Was…this the answer to my question or did you just shut me up?" she asked smiling, after he had stopped. Kratos didn't answer, but his look was quite self-explanatory. Now she smiled even brighter. "You could do that more often! It would safe us a lot of time and it would keep me from getting on your nerves" she stated.

"…I will consider it."

Anna rolled her eyes and sighed. "You are truly hopeless. What do I have to do to convince you that you don't have to be so…well, so distant?" Again silence. Why does this have to be so laborious?

"Kratos, do you know how a conversation works? If a person asks something the other person has to answer. I really don't want to talk to myself now."

"…"

"You are seriously going to force me to say it, aren't you?" she asked while folding her hands before her chest.

"Saying what?"

"…Since you simply don't get the signs or don't want to get them, I guess for me there's nothing left to make myself clear. Otherwise you will never ever understand what I'm talking about. And I'm tired of the fact that I always have to force you to…physical contact. You maybe are more intelligent than anyone else I know, but when it comes to social things you are…well, like this."

"What are you intending to do?"

"Shhh….I'm thinking." For a while Anna was looking at the ground and was trying to find out how she could say what she wanted to say in a way that even Kratos understood what she meant or had no other option, but to understand.

"Okay, I think this will work. You'll listen and I will talk, which shouldn't be too hard for you since this is basically what we do all the time. And since this is kinda important you are not allowed to interfere."

He sighed, but nodded.

"Good. Alright…Remember what happened a week ago? On the Ossa-Path?"

"Yes, I do."

"And do you remember how I reacted when you came back?"

"Lively."

"And do you remember what I said when you asked me why I wanted to stay?"

Kratos closed his eyes and answered "Yes, I remember that."

"Good, then let me ask you a question. Do you know what I was implying by this?"

"…"

She sighed. "Don't act stupid! I know you're not."

Still no answer.

"Do you really don't get it or do you simply don't want to understand?"

"I know what you meant back then. I apologize if I should anger you now, but I doubt that you have enough life experience to be able to say that with all sincerity."

And he was right. Anna nearly would have slapped him for this comment. Don't freak out! He just doesn't want to believe it, because he's…well, Kratos. You just have to be…absolutely honest.

Some moments later, when she had successfully suppressed her anger, she said "You know that I have a trauma from my time in the human ranch. My scars and the Crystal are not the only marks I carry around with me. I have nightmares yes, but that isn't the only thing. There are…some things I can't…do anymore, because they were beaten out of me. And yet…even though I'm scarred for the rest of my entire life, I can laugh, I can cry, I can enjoy, I can sleep and many things more. I can live! I'm happy, and that's something I wasn't for a very long time. And the reason for all this is you. Okay, Noishe played a part too, but still mostly you."

Anna sighed. It was really quite hard for her to talk about her time in the ranch. She didn't want to remember how horrible it had been. "You might think I'm an inexperienced child. And hey, sometimes I am, but…that doesn't mean I can't be sure about this….about you. I…I…don't care that you are a Seraph and I don't care that you are partly responsible for the bad condition of this world. I can see that you are trying to make up for that, that you are sorry. Maybe without Cruxis I wouldn't have endured hell in the Asgard ranch, but what you've done back then was necessary to save this world. I can't speak for Sylvarant…for Tethe'alla, but…I forgive you. You made a mistake and you are sorry. That's enough for me. And despite I know all this, I don't want to go. I want to stay, even though it's probably the most dangerous and the most foolish thing to do."

Anna closed her eyes.

"…Every time I see you in the morning looking at the horizon, you look so sad and so lonely. You look hopeless…and I don't know why. Then I feel sad myself, because no matter what I do, what I say you stay so sad. And I feel guilty, because I'm happy and you are not. I want you to be happy, but I don't know what I should do. And…and…even if there would be way to make you happy, even if you would believe me that I love you I doubt…you would let it happen."

While she had said that, Anna's voice had been soft and calm. She had wanted to make herself clear, once and for all. She didn't know if it had worked, but now Anna felt better. She had said what she was feeling. It had taken her nearly a month to find that out, but it had been worth the time, because now she was absolutely sure about it.

Her eyes were still closed, when she said with a faint smile "This is a bit like when you told me the truth. I didn't want to believe you. And now it's nearly the same. You don't believe the truth and actually you don't have to believe me, if you don't want to. Sorry, that I'm quoting you, but I don't know what else I could say now."

"…You are truly the strangest person I've ever meet" Kratos said some minutes later. A bit surprised she opened her eyes and looked at him. His face was as calm as usual.

"…Is this good or bad?" she asked a bit unsure.

Now his eyes were closed. "You can consider it as a compliment."

Smiling she shook her head slightly. "I can say exactly the same about you…although you are a bit weirder than me. No offence!"

"Maybe I am…"

"Says the four thousand year old angel to the human" Anna answered and rolled her eyes.

After a while she sighed and said "Forgive my curiosity, but do you believe me now or not?" The sunset was nearly over and the first stars were shining above them. It was quiet and peaceful. While she was waiting for his answer, she was looking at Noishe, who seemed to want to hear his answer as badly as her.

"…I suppose I was wrong before. It seems that you are quite sure about what you've said…"

"One-hundred percent sure, but go ahead."

"…It seems that I can assume that you really feel like you say you do."

"Judging from the way you say it, it must very hard for you to believe it. But…that does mean that you take me seriously?"

"Yes, it does."

Anna had wanted to do something now, but she stopped to move after a split second and asked "Ähm…that may sound a bit stupid now, but is this feeling mutual? Because you never said it and I just assumed it since the first time you kissed me. I mean you never said anything that proved me wrong, but I just want to be sure."

"Do I really have to answer that?" he asked and his incredulous look made her blush.

"Well, sorry! But you're the one who never said it clear" she answered, still feeling a little bit stupid "…Although it's a bit obvious, I admit that."

And then she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Anna, you are strangling me" Kratos said after some moments.

"Sorry!" she replied and moved her arms away. But her bright smile didn't vanish. "Hey, since you are not used to physical contact, I just wanted to warn you, before I do this" Anna said, before she leaned forward to kiss him a bit differently than he had. A little more…passionate.

"And? Is it still hard to believe?" she asked and a small grin appeared on her face.

"Yes, it still is."

"You are quite lucky, because I have a lot of time to convince you!" Anna answered still smiling.

Noishe was sitting a bit further away and looked pleased at the two. And his expression was showing what he was thinking right now: It was about time!

Oh my god! Finally! After 10 chapters they are finally really together! Oh god, I was starting to lose hope that it could ever happen!

Oh and about how Anna told Kratos that she loves him: First of all, yes, Kratos would be the kind of person to not believe her, because he thinks he doesn't deserve it. (Just think of how long it Lloyd and the rest took to convince him that he doesn't have to die, to make up for his mistakes.)

Secondly I wanted that her statement shows how serious, how caring and how forgiving she can be. Most of the time she is cheerful, light-hearted and well, a bit like Lloyd, but she's neither stupid nor naïve. She knows exactly how dangerous the situation she is in is and of course she knows that this is all because she is travelling with Kratos, and still she chooses to stay, proving that she really loves him.

And of course I wanted to show, how Anna can see right through him. That she's able to understand him, which is quite impressive (if you consider the difference in age, personality, etc.) Anna is far more serious and intelligent, than she lets people know.

I just wanted to give her character more depth and well, the simple "I love you"-phrase wasn't romantic enough for this chapter so…

And yes, she is by far my favourite character. You could have guessed?

Thanks for reading and if you have the time leave a comment!