Now that I finished my series of Sheelos one-shots, I can get back to making those two characters annoy the hell out of each other in this story! Mwahaha... Oh, and if you've read my Sheelos stories, then I implore you: please read the one that I recently posted. I only have one review as of yet. Anyhoo... onward to the story!
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Colette: (about Zelos) He says that this fire ignites with "one-touch". What is "one-touch"?
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Disclaimer: I no longer feel the need to state that which is obvious... but because of those goddamn legalities, I have to tell you all that I own nothing to do with Tales of Symphonia.
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The Quest for True Love/Chapter VII: Not the Brightest – Sybak/
"Zelos. Zelos, Chosen of Tethe'alla, please listen to me.."
"Mmm...wha?" Zelos responded drowsily, "Who is that? Sheena? No... that doesn't sound like her..." he mused to himself while adjusting to his surroundings. The Chosen looked around, but all he saw was black. Pure darkness. "Where am I?"
The female voice that had spoken let out a small chuckle, "You are within your own dream world," she explained.
"My own dream world?" repeated Zelos, "But this isn't like my dreams... normally I'm dreaming about my hunnies and—"
"No, no," the woman interrupted, "You misunderstand me." At last, the woman stepped forward from beyond the shadows, revealing herself as the one and only goddess—Martel. "I must have worded it badly... you see, I'm not too caught up on my modern languages," Martel pulled a small dictionary out of her shirt and began flipping through it, "Oh, my mistake! I did not mean 'dream world'; I meant consciousness. Zelos, we are within your own mind... the answers to all of your questions lie here."
Zelos raised an inquisitive eyebrow, and then turned around, observing every inch of... nothing. "Is my mind really this empty??" he questioned at last, "Because this is really pathetic!"
Martel quickly shook her head, "Oh no! That isn't what I implied at all!" She tossed her book aside and approached Zelos, "I'm trying to tell you that you're hiding things from yourself," the goddess clarified, "As of now, you hold no answers to your problems. That is why I am here... to aid you."
"Ooookaaay..." Zelos agreed sceptically, "And how to you plan on helping me out?"
Martel smiled warmly at Zelos, "I will tell you where you can find your true love."
Zelos suddenly snapped out of his confusion, "What? Really??" Martel nodded calmly. "Oh, sweet! Now we won't have to travel from town-to-town, we'll know exactly where to go and it will be over! I'll have won the bet!" the Chosen gently gripped Martel's shoulders and looked at her intently, "Oh, gorgeous goddess, tell me where I can find the woman for me!"
"I will now tell you the location of your one love..." the goddess faded from Zelos' sight, and left behind the voice of another woman...
"Zelos! Hey, Zelos!"
He immediately recognized the voice, "What?!" Zelos shouted, "You can't honestly mean that—"
-----))--/-(---)-/--((-----
Sheena tilted her head as she stared at Zelos; he was murmuring words that she could not understand in his sleep. "Zelos!" Sheena waved her hand in front of his face, "Hey, Zelos!"
The Chosen's eyes opened and he unexpectedly shot up into a sitting position, causing Sheena to stumble backwards after being taken off guard. "You can't honestly mean that Sheena is my true love!!" he screamed, completely and utterly terrified. Sheena could do nothing but gaze at Zelos as he continued to rant, "That's impossible! I could never spend my life with that violent banshee! I mean... she's sexy but I could never deal with the fact that she thinks so much; I need a dumb girl!" he leapt to his feet and looked towards the sky, repeating in an echoey voice, "A duuuumb giiiiiiirl!!!"
............Awkward silence...............
"Zelos, what do you dream about?" inquired Sheena, choosing to ignore all of Zelos' comments that made reference to her.
Zelos stopped staring at the sky, and turned to the summoner, "Sh-sheena? Oh, I get it!" he laughed to himself, "I was just dreaming! Man, that was really weird..." The Chosen then mused aloud, "I wonder if maybe the goddess did speak to me and then Sheena just interrupted my fate... That would suck!"
Sheena continued to watch Zelos in confusion, "What on Earth are you talking about?"
"I... I had a vision!"
"You can't be serious," murmured Sheena, "What kind of vision could you have possibly had?"
"Don't make assumptions now, Sheena," the Chosen griped, exaggerating an insulted tone, "It was actually a serious, life-changing vision!" Sheena was clearly not impressed. "Come ooon! At least put in an effort to humour me!"
His companion rolled her eyes and replied sarcastically, "I'm sorry that I don't see the significance of this 'vision', as you call it."
"Just you wait and see!" Zelos challenged back, "I know that my true love is out there somewhere; if the Goddess said that it's so, then damnit, it must be--"
"Hold on a sec," Sheena broke into his triumphant revelation, "The Goddess? Martel was in your dream, Zelos? Ugh! Don't tell me that you're having romantic fantasies that involve celestial beings now!"
"Let me finiiiish!" Tethe'alla's Chosen objected in a whiney voice, silencing Sheena because she did not want to have to listen to his childish protests. When she stopped talking, Zelos continued cheerfully, "Good! Now, as I was saying, Martel came into my dream and told me that she would give me a clue as to my love's whereabouts... and that's when you woke me up! Now you're going to have to suffer by going to even more towns that my ultimate hunny probably isn't even in!"
Sheena folded her arms across her chest, "I can't believe that you're actually putting an effort into aggravating me."
Zelos grinned proudly, "It's what I do!" He turned to face the northern region of Tethe'alla, "We must get moving onwards to our next... uhm... hunny-scouting-place!" Sheena merely sighed at his vocabulary. "So... let's go!!"
And so, they went. After many hours of travelling through the rough terrain of Tethe'alla's field, there was still no civilization in sight. In fact, they had not crossed any towns or cities since leaving Heimdall. It goes without saying that after spending so much time with one person, one tends to being agitated by their presence: this situation is no exception, particularly for Sheena, who could no longer stand Zelos'... Zelosity. ((A/N: New word!))
"Man, how far do we have to walk?" Zelos complained, trudging along the path, "It feels like we've been travelling forever!"
Sheena was in no better a mood than Zelos; though where he was weary, Sheena's was frustrated. "Well Zelos, I don't know how much further we have to go because someone refuses to tell me which town we're going to!! And that same someone decided that Heimdall – a village in the middle of nowhere – was a good place to anger villagers so that we had to leave and move on!!"
Zelos stroked his chin in understanding, "Ah, yes, of course..." he seemed to comprehend where Sheena was coming from, but then again, Zelos does have a tendency to act like something that he isn't, "...You're just moody because of those 'feminine issues', right?" The summoner's eyes widened in surprise; Zelos was far too bold for his own good. "Sheena, Sheena, Sheena... you need to learn how to control those senseless emotions—"
"Zelos!!" Sheena had no desire to control those so-called 'senseless emotions', and at that moment, those emotions were those of – as mentioned before – frustration. That frustration was taken out on Zelos with a swift and forceful slap across the face.
"Owww!" Zelos cradled the left side of his face in his hand, "I'm not amused by your anger anymore... it's going to leave me disfigured, and that would be a crime against nature!"
Calmed down after unleashing her rage upon Zelos, Sheena was able to block out the Chosen's pointless comments. "Tell me where we're going," she demanded coolly.
"Why?" The summoner's eye twitched slightly in impatience. She held up her hand in a slap-ready position, causing Zelos to cower, "Eep! Okay, okay! We're going to Sybak!" Sheena gawked. "What? What is it?"
"Zelos!" she scolded, "Earlier today you were shouting about how you needed 'a dumb girl'!"
"I have a tendency to change my mind," he stated calmly. Sheena sighed with blatant annoyance. "...Ooh, look! Sybak!" Zelos shouted suddenly before dashing towards the distant – yet visible – city ahead.
It took a moment for Sheena to react. "What? Ahh, Zelos! Don't leave me behind like that!" she ran after him, catching up just as they arrived at Sybak. Sheena came to a stop at Zelos' side and rested her hands on her knees, taking a moment to catch her breath. "Z-Zelos," she managed to say between breaths, "Can you just gimme a second to..." her voice trailed off when she looked up to where Zelos had been, but was no longer. "Where are you?" Sheena muttered under her breath, standing upright again and looking around. She quickly caught sight of the Chosen whom was already doing what he did best: flirting.
"Hello there, beauty," he greeted the first female student that he came across.
The girl that he had hit on turned around and stared at Zelos blankly. She was wearing the Research Academy's tacky uniform, and had on rather large glasses that unfortunately attracted attention to her not-so-attractive seaweed-green eyes; her plain brown hair was left loose and frizzy, with numerous split ends. The bottom line: she was everything that Zelos wasn't. "You must be kidding me," the girl said in a droning tone.
"Heh, heh... what do you mean?" Zelos questioned, being sure to never lose his enthusiasm.
"The chances of someone like you willingly being involved with someone like me are extremely slim," she responded plainly, "It is obvious that your reason for even suggesting this is for your own personal benefit... like a bet or something that you hope to win."
Zelos was impressed by this girl's knowledge, "Wow! So if you know so much about my situation, maybe you can help me," he proposed with a contented smile, a gorgeous smile that just made the girl melt.
"S-sure," she stammered, blushing, "My advice would be to return to your hometown. From my own personal observations, and also from people whom I know, it is common that one finds their 'true love' in the place that they grew up."
"Really?" The girl nodded. "That's good to know. Thank you very much, my lady!" Zelos took the girl's hand in his and placed a soft kiss upon it, "I shall not forget the help that you have given me; it will take some consideration, but I'm still pretty sure that I'll go back." The student gulped shyly and nodded again, her face redder than ever. "Goodbye!" Zelos rushed over to where Sheena was waiting, "We don't have to stay here any longer."
"Well, we're going to anyway!" said Sheena, who was not going to accept any objections, "I don't want to end up wandering around endlessly like we did to get here!"
"But it wasn't endless..." Zelos commented timidly, "See? It ended when we got here?" Sheena groaned at his foolishness. "Okay, okay," he gave in, "We'll stay here tonight. However that does mean that we'll have to share a room," Zelos added, winking suggestively. Sheena shook her head slowly while heading towards the inn. "I'll catch up with you later!" the Chosen yelled across the plaza as Sheena entered the inn. "Hmm... I should really start thinking about whether or not to bring up the idea of going back to Meltokio... or I could catch up on my reading!"
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When faced with the decision of either, one: making another decision, or two: "reading", Zelos – to no one's surprise – chose "reading". The one question left to be answered is what exactly Zelos was going to be reading.
Inside of Sybak's library, Zelos was discretely searching behind each of shelves for something. "Where are they?" he said to himself, reaching further in to no avail. Zelos freed his arm from behind the bookshelf and sighed, "I know that I hid them here..." He tapped his foot while recollecting his thoughts, staring down at the ground.
"Oh, man. I can't believe someone would just leave these lying around!"
"Yeah, I know! If we got caught looking at this, we'd so be punished."
When Zelos overheard these whispered comments coming from a couple of boys, he knew exactly what it was that they were looking at. He lifted his head and looked over to the source of the voices, "My porn!!" he shouted. Everyone in the silent library turned their heads towards the Chosen and gaped. "My, uhm... Honestly, people! Pornography is not necessarily a perverted thing!" Zelos announced to all, "There are multiple definitions for this word and, uhm... stop making assumptions! This is a library; don't be accusing!" The people of the library all slowly returned their gaze to what they were doing except for the two boys whom had discovered Zelos' magazines. The Chosen strolled over to the boys' table and placed his hands upon it, glaring at the students, "Listen, twerps, that's my porn that you're looking at!" he whispered fiercely.
"This is yours?" the first boy asked in disbelief, "I never knew that the Chosen was such a... a..." he stumbled, trying to think of a word that would not insult the beloved Chosen.
Zelos completed the kid's sentence, "A pervert. Yeah, you're the only one who never knew it." Zelos moved to snatch up his magazines, but he halted abruptly, "Gah, what am I doing?" he murmured to himself. The two boys looked at each other in confusion, and then looked back at Zelos. "Listen, kids, keep these if you will, but at some point you're going to realize that love is more than being turned on by... really... hot... nude... Aah! Damnit, I can't think like that!" Zelos took in a deep breath and then went on, "Just take this advice: never make a bet with a sexy ninja." With that, he made his dramatic exit.
Once Zelos was out of sight, the second boy exclaimed, "What a freak!"
-----))--/-(---)-/--((-----
Zelos walked into the inn, and was greeted by the receptionist, "Oh, Chosen! Will you being the night?"
"Yep!" he replied gleefully, "I'm with her," Zelos pointed to Sheena, who was sleeping peacefully on the left-hand bed. The receptionist appeared slightly disappointed by this. "Oh, she's only a friend," the Chosen assured, yawning, "Well, I'd best be getting to bed. Good night." Zelos stepped into the inn's attachment and lied down on the other bed. He folded his arms over his head and rested his head on his palms. He glanced towards Sheena, and then back to the ceiling, "Oh yeah. Tomorrow we're heading for Meltokio."
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Zelos, Zelos, Zelos... he knows that Sheena doesn't want to go to Meltokio! But does he care? Nooo... ah well. It should be interesting, shouldn't it? I hope you're enjoying this story! Oh, and it's time for the replies to reviews:
To Potter29Vo – Good to hear that you liked the last chapter so much! I'd have to say that – even though I haven't completely decided how I want to end this story – it should have a happy ending. But as I said, I'm not sure how that end will be. Thanks for pointing out that I had typos; I'll be sure to fix those up.
To DarkPegasiKnight – Aww... poor Zelos, being called an idiot... Well, at least you enjoy his 'idiocy'. Heehee.
To Chosen One 2 Rise – Ooh, hot springs... that would be interesting! (takes note of that) Thanks for the suggestion!
To Cerse Liminara – T.T You're so cruel to Zelos! I mean... torturing Zelos is fun, and your torturing of Zelos is funny, but... you're so cruel! XD
To jellybeanz225 – Well, Meltokio is coming up next! And damn straight his groupies are going to be there! I have a feeling that it shall be a very fun chapter to write... Mwahaha.
To Luv2Game – I'm still writing, I'm still writing! Look at me go! XD Keeping reading and pitying Zelos for his awkward situations!
To Goin down 2 South Park – Thank you for reading; I'm glad that you like it!
Okay everyone, I'll update as soon as I can; and I will also be writing a New Years chapter to my holiday fic, so feel free to read that when I post it. Until next time—sayonara!
