Disclaimer: There's this company in Japan called Namco, and within it there's this studio called Tales Studio. They own Tales of Symphonia, not I. Sadly.

Tales of Symphonia; Drama CD Anthology

Rodeo Ride Tour

A fanfiction adaptation by Winged Dancer

Track Five –

That Reminiscent Rain-Sound

It had been raining when they woke up and it was still raining now that they were at less of the middle of the trip between towns. How long had they been walking? Sheena wasn't sure of that. They had left the last village in the early morning (Zelos didn't like to stay much time at the same place; whether because he was easily bored or out of fear of an attack he wouldn't say) and had been walking in that wretched rain for quite some time now.

If anyone asked her, it was almost eleven o'clock. If anyone asked the sky it was still six and a half in the morning: there was no sun visible and all the light they had were some grayish, sad sun-beams that barely filtered across the thick layer of clouds.

She had stopped to look at the sky for a few seconds, and looking back down she realized Zelos had stopped as well but it didn't seem as if he was waiting for her.

"Hello there?" he called towards the side of the road, wiping some of his very wet hair away from his eyes, "The punks standing over there. What's with hanging around making scary faces at the middle of a public road? It's annoying for the travelers, you know."

She sighed. So he had sensed them, too. Well, now that they were so far from town, they weren't even trying to hide, anyway…

Several men stepped from the road-sides, quickly surrounding them. Turning her back towards Zelos, Sheena quickly counted the enemies and started walking towards her companion.

"Are you the one they call Tethe'alla's Chosen of Mana?" dryly inquired one of the men, his eyes fixed on Zelos. It was almost a rhetorical question.

Zelos smirked. "If you are going to ask someone's name, shouldn't you give yours first?"

"We have not a name to give you," interrupted a second man, earning a nod from their leader who continued.

"We are only to exterminate that cursed being known as 'Chosen' from this world."

"In order to have a world built upon true peace!" one of the men in the back cheered, raising his sword.

"Volunteers who fight in the name of justice!" another punctuated.

"Hah! Justice, you hear?" Zelos mocked, "Mix it with idiocy and you have the worst combination."

In one quick jump Sheena had her back pressed against Zelos'. "There are eight of them. They have advantage in numbers!" she whispered to him.

"I'll do five of 'em. You get three," the redheaded murmured in return.

"Four. I'll do four!"

"Aw, you don't have to aim for the impossible!"

"Just because I'm a girl, right! You -!"

The Chosen laughed. "I hadn't thought of it 'cause you were a girl though!"

She rolled her eyes and, as if on cue, the two fugitive's traveling cloaks were off and their weapons ready. "Here they come!"

The attackers were not slow to answer. "Forth!" the leader called, drawing his sword. "For the sake of a bright tomorrow!"

"…say!" Zelos turned to her, smiling sheepishly at the sound of eight men drawing weapons.

"What!"

"Now that I think of it, you'd be OK on your own, right?"

"Stop joking around! Here they are!" she launched herself forward as she heard the clash of iron behind her. She hadn't moved much when she felt a sharp pang at her neck, but the pain passed quickly so she ignored it, targeting the man closer to her.

Her cards were poised and ready to attack when the world around her blurred and she fell to the ground.

It was still raining.

It didn't seem like it would ease any time soon, thought Zelos, smiling wryly at the window and then looking down at the water basin he had in front of himself.

He had taken off his gloves and coat and tried to dry his hair a little, but what was the use if he would get wet as soon as they left? Bah. Stupid rain, no good for his hair.

With a sigh he dipped his headband into the rain-water he had collected and then wrung until it was just humid.

"Here ya go," he said softly to Sheena, who was resting on a rather large bed, while moving her hair out of her forehead and placing the white cloth there.

The girl sighed contently. "Aaah… that feels good," she looked at him with cloudy eyes and smiled. "Thanks."

"Don't worry about it," he smiled as well and motioned to the window, "If it's water you want, just look! As much as you could desire," as if to punctuate his words, the room was illuminated by a momentary flash and a thunder rumbled in the sky. Zelos sighed. "Even now… ain't stopping."

"…pitful…" Sheena's weak voice brought him back to the small wooden room they were in. "Truly…"

"Oh?"

"That I couldn't even… take four men…" she looked up at him, breathing heavily, and closed her eyes. "And then… to just pass out like that…"

Taking back his headband, he got her to open her eyes and smirked. "Ah yes. What a shitty ninja, didn't even recognize when she was poisoned!" again he wet the cloth and again he placed it on her forehead, poking her nose and erasing her frown with that.

"I was truly…" she didn't finish.

"Just be thankful I had a panacea bottle handy and that I was able to find this place, alright? 'Sides, if you sleep a few hours the fever will disappear on its own."

The girl looked around, as if interested by the surrounding cabin, but Zelos knew she was too feverish right now to understand anything. There wasn't much to see anyway: a one-room wooden cabin with an ample bed, an old table, two chairs and an electric oven which didn't look functional anymore.

"Zelos..."

"Mmh?" his answer came out a little bit harsher that he had intended. Whether he wanted to admit it or not he was starting to get annoyed at her…

"Aren't you… hurt?" Yep. Because she was being kind and nice. Because of the fever.

"Heh, idiot… someone with a perfect condition such as I, when faced by morons like those, you think I would even get one wound?" he rested his chin on one of his hands, "Zum-pam-ta-dah! All cleaned up."

She smiled at him and again he felt his stomach twist. That kind of smiles… only because of the fever. It seemed sometimes he could do nothing to earn them in every day's life.

But Zelos Wilder was an accomplished actor; so good in fact that most of the time he kept forgetting to stop acting, so he laughed and continued talking. "You worry too much about other people, you know? You should try to rest a little."

"…I'm sorry," Sheena answered, her voice already turning sleepy. "But to face eight men on your own… it must have been difficult," whatever she had wanted to add was cut off by a fit of coughing.

Zelos smirked in spite of the slightly painful feeling at his chest and stomach. "Sleep."

"…yes…"

" 'Cause your prince will be watching over you, you know?" again he snickered.

She almost laughed as well. "I'll leave it up to you then…"

"Say…"

"Mmh?" this time it went out softer.

"Doesn't this make you… remember?"

Something in the bottom of his stomach said that this wasn't going to be a conversation he could be glad of. "What?"

"That time… it was raining, too…" she turned away from him, sinking slightly into the pillow and closing her eyes. "When we were traveling around the world with Lloyd and the others… I… I don't remember in which city, I got wet in the rain and caught the flu…"

Her chest moved up and down, slowly. Zelos lowered his eyes to his feet. He remembered. "Aah, now that you say so…"

"And you…" she opened her eyes just slightly, smiling playfully at him. "You left me behind and went to the city to play on your own."

"Heh! Ah, man… you are the type to remember that kind of thing, aren't you?"

But she snickered again, if a little bit weakly. "Just that kind of guy, you."

Reaching out to retrieve the white headband once more, Zelos allowed his hand to linger among her hair just enough for him to answer: "Just that kind of guy, I. Didn't you know?"

"Lloyd…!" she opened her eyes now completely, looking at the roof while Zelos twisted the remaining water off the headband, "Lloyd kept watch over me… and then he left to beat some sense into you…"

"Ah, yes…?" he didn't smile. She wasn't looking and he had no reason to smile for himself.

"Everybody was angry…" once more she looked as if she was sinking into the pillow, exhaling and closing her eyes, "I… I understood."

"Sleep," now he smiled, wiping her forehead with the palm of his hand, "Sleep, I'm telling you."

She held onto her hand for an instant. "Mmh. Good night, Zelos…"

As soon as her eyes closed and her breath evened his grin disappeared. He didn't understand. He didn't. Why had he even asked her to come? He wasn't sure. He had only wanted her to come… why when she took his hand his heart had skipped a beat? Why did it almost hurt to think that once the fever was gone she wouldn't touch him like that again?

Bah. Stupid fever, no good for his mind.

He looked at the window. The rain had gotten worse and again he heard a thunder booming far away. Zelos sighed. "Even now… ain't stopping."

Outside of the cabin the sound of the rain was almost deafening and the raindrops themselves hurt as they fell on his body. He had managed to dry up a little bit while tending to Sheena but it didn't take more than a few seconds outside for him to become even more drenched than before.

"Sorry, sorry!" he called, locking the door behind him and smiling with what he knew was a rather goofy grin, "I've made you wait."

The men outside didn't look as amused as him. But then again, they usually didn't show much emotion when he was around. Besides anger, of course. And he hadn't even hit on their relatives yet.

"Have you finished your business?" the leader asked, half-leaning on his sword.

Zelos grinned, cynical, as he walked towards the terrorist group. Mud stuck to his feet, making it hard to move. "Well, kind of."

"We hope you'll keep your promise," started another, "We gave you enough time to look after the girl in exchange of you –"

"Aw, shut up! I get it, I get it!" the redhead quickly unfastened his shield and withdrew his sword from its sheath, tossing them as far as he could. He was still smirking as they fell with an unceremonious 'plop' on the mud. "Now we're even. Satisfied?"

The leader nodded.

"But you bastards keep your promise too! Whatever happens after this, don't even think of touching the woman inside."

Again, the chief nodded. "We understand. You can die without worries."

"Heh! So you say, but even without a sword I'm pretty awesome, you know."

"Most probably," the man signaled and again the swords were drawn. "Die!"

The mattress moved and she woke up. Turning to her left she saw Zelos sitting on the bed, as if getting ready to slip in.

He turned to her and smiled. "I'm sorry. Did I wake you up?" he asked softly.

Had she been a little more awake, a little less feverish, she would have noticed he had just changed his clothes and left the old, very wet ones to dry on the chair. She would have noticed, too, that he was pale and tired and that his shirt showed, at some places, small specks of blood.

But she didn't see any of that, or at least not clearly enough for her to even wonder about it.

He smiled at her. "Try to sleep a little more. Good night," he got under the covers now.

"…that's not from before…" she managed to whisper as something caught her eye.

"Yeah," Zelos answered, perhaps too tired to lie.

"That wound…" she reached out to touch his cheek, where a long gash had 'appeared'.

"Yeah?"

"…what happened?" had she been in her right mind, she wouldn't have caressed the cut, she wouldn't have allowed him to take her hand and bury his face there.

"It was nothing," Zelos released her hand and placed it back on the bed. "Sleep now."

"But…"

"I'll get angry if you don't," but he didn't look nor sound as if he was anywhere near anger. "Just sleep.

"…yeah... goodnight, Zelos…"

He turned his back at her and she snuggled inside the covers. Now, at such a close distance she could see he had a few more cuts around his shoulders, and she was also aware of just how warm his body was and that there were only some inches in between…

"Zelos?"

"Mmh?"

"…no… it's nothing."

For a few moments she thought he wouldn't answer and he suddenly looked a bit stiff. But then his figure relaxed and she could hear him saying, just before she drifted to sleep again, "…good night."

I felt as if I had been dreaming… a dream of a far-away rainy day.

It was the most wonderful dream I could have seen.

I opened my eyes: the rain had stopped, and sitting on the window-sill I saw Zelos' figure surrounded by the light of a dazzling morning. He looked at me, and said…

"Good morning… my princess."

Notes: New videogames and books have gotten in the way of my work, which is bad because I don't think I'll be able to update at all once college starts so I want to finish this before.

Anyway, so Zelos' last line is "OMG teH cute!11"… in the original Japanese, I mean. At least for me it was enough to almost melt my fangirl brain… it goes something like "Ohayou-san… o-hime-sama", which basically means "Good morning, my princess" but he just picked the cutest words ever possible.

On another topic, is it just me or that ring from Track 4 is just asking to be made into a fanfiction? Like, Zelos finding the ring, or getting her a real ring which just happens to be green… or something.

Well, since I wrote big notes in track 4 so I'll cut here. Do review, please… translating is not something easy to me mainly becauseit seems my brain wasn't built tomanage three languages, so instead of translating correctly I get all jumbled up and start forgetting words or making up words and mixing grammar, which sucks above all else in the world. There's just nothing I hate more than wanting to say something and realize I've forgotten the word... er, so yeah,

Thanks for reading,

-WDR