Natsu no E
Summary: TOS AU Colloyd, Zeroshii Nearing the sixteenth summer of his life, Lloyd Irving considers himself your normal, average, everyday teenager. That is, until the ethereal Colette Brunel moves right next door.
Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia. What do you expect?
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Chapter 2: The Dead Sunflower
The next time I saw her was right outside of Marble's.
Marble's is the town's local supermarket. Chocolat, one of my classmates, and her family runs it. It's been the town's most favorite hotspot, and our favorite hangout, for many years now. They've got everything anyone could ever want: food, accessories, and even a candy store for the kids to come to after school and just pig out.
The gang and I were just lounging outside of the store when I spotted her. She was crossing the street to the old flower shop, wearing the same clothes I saw her in yesterday. Zelos caught glimpse of her too and whistled in appreciation. "Well, well, who's that cutie?"
"Zelos!" Sheena hissed, bonking him on the head. The red head whined, shielding his head from any more blows. Genis, who stood right next to me, rolled his eyes.
"Honestly, Zelos. You're such a perv." My friend furrowed his brow slightly. "Funny though…I don't recognize her."
Sheena paused, tapping her chin with her finger. "Yeah…me neither. Is she new here?" I said nothing. I didn't want them to know that I lived right next door to her; probably because I would never hear the end of it from Zelos. Only moments after Sheena said that, the girl burst out of the shop carrying a pot with a dead sunflower in her arms. She looked positively cheerful, but all we could do was stare blankly.
Genis cocked a brow. "Is she carrying a dead sunflower?" he asked. I nodded numbly. "Yeah, she is."
"Well, now that my little cutie is here," Zelos began, flipping his hair over his shoulder. "I'm going to show you two how a real man gets a girl."
"Funny," Sheena remarked dryly. "I don't see any real men, do you guys?"
We laughed at the expression on Zelos's face as he gave an indignant huff and, trying to ignore us, sauntered over to the girl. "Well, hello there my little cutie," he said, leaning on the door post beside her. She looked up curiously, cocking her head at the boy. "I don't believe we've met before," Zelos said, flashing her a thousand watt smile. "My name is the Zelos. What's yours?"
"My name is Colette," she responded with a smile, not really taking notice of his flirtatious advances. "It's nice to meet you Zelos."
"You know, you look kind of lost," he commented. "How about I show you around the place?"
"Oh, that's okay," she replied with a cheery smile. "You don't have to bother; I'm fine on my own."
Zelos didn't look discouraged. "But I insist," he said.
"No, I'm okay."
Genis and I were almost already in stitches. Our red headed friend glared back at us, his green eyes piercing into our backs, but we didn't even notice; we were laughing too hard. Colette followed his gaze and, unfortunately, her eyes lit up at the sight of me.
"Oh! Lloyd! Good morning!"
I froze and felt everyone staring at me. Damn it! I hoped that she wouldn't notice me. I wanted nothing more to just ignore her and shrink away…but that would have been pretty rude. "Uh, hey," I muttered, looking down to the ground. I could already feel everyone's eyes boring into my side and I cringed slightly.
"You know her?" Sheena asked, blinking in confusion.
"Um, yeah," I replied sheepishly. "She moved next door to my house just yesterday."
"Oh really?" Zelos said in a suggestive tone, elbowing me in the ribs. "Lloyd, you lucky bum!"
"Zelos! Shut up," I hissed angrily, wincing in pain. Colette didn't say anything, but kept smiling at me.
"Are these your friends Lloyd?" She inquired, looking at Sheena, Zelos, and Genis inquisitively. I nodded slightly. "Yeah…that's Sheena, Genis, and Zelos."
"It's nice to meet you all," the girl chirped. Sheena and Genis mumbled a 'hello' under their breaths, looking down at their feet. Sensing the awkward mood, I was quick to change the subject.
"So, erm…" I began, looking at the flowerpot. "What do you have there?"
She looked down at her dead sunflower and beamed. "I saw this in the window of the flower shop. I was just supposed to shop around for some seeds for my grandmother's garden, but it looked lonely…so I bought it!"
"You do know it's dead, right?" Genis spoke up wryly. I elbowed him harshly. "Genis, shut up," I hissed under my breath, but, to my surprise, Colette merely smiled.
"Really? I don't think it's dead. Sure it's a little wilted…but that's because people neglected to take care of it for a while. With a little love, I'm sure it will be as beautiful as all the other flowers in the store."
I was befuddled at her odd logic. What's dead is dead; there was no chance for reviving that old, shriveled up sunflower. Whenever I'd pass by Mrs. Valentine's old flower shop, I'd always notice that strange, shriveled up thing in the window. It was always there, but I never did anything about it; I just kept walking. But, instead of saying that, I just nodded.
"Well, I'll see you later, Lloyd!" Colette chirped, shifting the plant onto the crook of her arm. "I have to get back home before Grandmother starts to worry. Good bye!"
"Uh, yeah, see you later," I gave a feeble wave as the girl skipped off happily with her dead flower in tow. How a girl could be ever that happy still escaped me.
"She was weird," Sheena stated bluntly.
"Yeah!" Genis agreed with a nod. "And that whole sunflower thing was creepy."
"Well I think she's pretty cute," Zelos drawled with a huge, exaggerated grin. "You're lucky to have her as a neighbor, Lloyd." He looked at me and so did the others. I cringed, silently wishing that I were somewhere else right now. I couldn't believe it! It hadn't even been more than a day since I've met her and she was already beginning to cause me trouble. Could my day get any worse?
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"Dad! I'm home!"
I kicked my shoes off at the front door as I entered, not noticing the extra slippers that lined our front mat. My dog Noishe bounded up to me enthusiastically, barking loudly as he padded around my legs. He was a big dog, almost the size of my waist, with soft white and green fur. According to dad, Noishe was discovered outside of the house not long after Dad found me. We had no idea what kind of breed he was, but we didn't mind much; it was fun to leave people guessing whenever we brought him out for a walk.
I grinned, leaning over to scratch him on the head. "Hey, Noishe. How's it going?" He whined, licking my cheek. "That tickles Noishe! Where's Dad?" Noishe whined once more as he led me out into the living room. There were two people I didn't recognize sitting on the couch, and one familiar figure sitting across from them on a chair.
One of them was a kindly looking middle-aged man and the other was a gentle old woman with a slight smile crinkling her face. They were listening intently to the story my father was telling them, nodding and laughing at the appropriate times. Noishe padded up to my father's chair and whined, resting his head on his strong, calloused hand. He paused his story for a second and looked behind at me.
"Lloyd!" He said heartily in that thick Irish accent of his. "You're home!"
Now, Dirk wasn't your average, everyday stereotypical father figure. He was Iselia's blacksmith; people all over town, even out of state, would come to him to get their jobs done, and Dirk would always do it with flare. That aside, normal fathers would be taller than their sons; when he stood up to greet me, he only reached up to my shoulder.
I never had any other family besides Dirk; he's been there for me ever since I was a little kid. He didn't look anything like me: his skin was deeply tanned, and his hair was rough and course, like the texture of his hands. He was short and stocky, and I was tall and lanky. But I still cared for him all the same.
"Yeah," I nodded, shoving my hands in my pockets, trying to avoid the unnervingly familiar blue-eyed stares from the two strangers. "Genis and the others had to do something at home so I just came straight back here."
"Good timing, lad!" He laughed, patting me on the back. "You're just in time to meet our new neighbors." Directing me towards the couple on the seat, he said, "This is Frank Brunel and his mother, Phaidra Brunel. They just moved in next door yesterday."
"It's nice to meet you young man," Frank said, shaking my outstretched hand. To my surprise, his hand was not as frail as I thought it would be. Off to the side, Phaidra cooed. "He's such a handsome young man, Dirk. You raised him well," she complimented with a large smile.
He laughed. "You give me too much credit! I did nothing at all except push him along."
"Yeah, very painfully too," I muttered under my breath; he caught this and punched me lightly on the shoulder.
Frank simply smiled at the two of us. "I have a daughter the same age as you Lloyd," he told me suddenly. "She's somewhere here…Dirk invited all of us to dinner tonight."
Oh, crud. No wonder they looked so familiar. I really should have guessed that they would have brought her too.
"I think she went out to see my workshop," Dirk replied, going to the back door and sticking his head outside to see if she was there. "Lass! Come back inside." Sure enough, as soon as he pulled back, the girl walked through the door, smiling at my father gratefully.
"Thank you, Mr. Irving," Colette said. She looked out to the living room and her eyes caught mine. Once more, I had the uncomfortable experience of having her unnerving azure blue eyes bore into mines. Another smile came to her face, but, this time, it was directed towards me.
"Lloyd! I was wondering when you'd get home," she chirped. Frank and Dirk both gave me odd, suspicious looks.
"You know her?" Dirk inquired, cocking a brow.
For some odd reason, I felt myself feeling an odd case of déjà vu. "Yeah," I sighed, "I helped her out when she tripped yesterday while moving some stuff inside her house."
"You tripped?" Phaidra exclaimed in alarm. The girl raised her hands to calm the woman down. "I'm alright, Grandmother. I didn't hurt myself at all. Lloyd helped me."
"Still," Frank chided, shaking a finger at her. "Didn't I tell you that those boxes were heavy?"
"I knew that, Papa," Colette insisted calmly. "I'm sorry…I just wanted to help."
Watching this scene with a blank expression on my face, I had no idea on what I wanted to say. They were making so much fuss over her tripping over something; it's not like she was hurt or anything. Well, at least it looked like she had control over this situation.
Frank wrinkled his brow stubbornly. But, with a steady gaze from his daughter, he sighed, letting his shoulders droop. "Alright. Just be careful next time, Colette." The girl smiled. "Don't worry! I will!"
Dirk cleared his throat and stepped up. "So, since you just moved in, I'm sure you'd be wanting a tour guide to show you around the place, hmm?"
"Well, we've really haven't much time to look around Iselia yet," Frank admitted sheepishly. "I've been too busy getting introduced at work, and Phaidra can't walk very well, so we don't have much time to be shown around."
"Papa," Colette spoke up. "If…Lloyd doesn't mind…could he could show me around town? You know, just so I know where everything is."
This was a startling request, coming from her. Why in the world would she want me to show her around? Dirk gave a hearty laugh. "Why, that's a great idea, Lass! I'm sure Lloyd wouldn't mind giving your daughter a little tour of the town, right Lloyd?"
He elbowed me sharply and I instinctively replied, "Sure, I wouldn't mind."
"Will you let me, Papa?" Colette pleaded, clasping her hands together. "Please?" Frank looked troubled for a moment and looked down at his daughter. For a split second, something passed between the two. I could only stare blankly as Frank smiled weakly in, what I believed, was his second defeat that night.
"Alright, Colette. You can." He looked at me and asked, "When are you free?"
I blinked surprised he even bothered to ask me. "I'm free tomorrow," I lied. I did promise the others that I would meet them later again at Marble's, but for some reason, I wasn't in the mood to meet them again tomorrow. Not after today.
"So it's settled then!" Dirk bellowed. "Lloyd will show Colette around town tomorrow."
"Thank you so much!" Colette clasped her hands together and beamed brightly. I looked down at the ground to hide the sudden blush that had spread across my face. What? Where'd that come from?
"Uh, yeah…" I muttered. "It's my pleasure."
Tomorrow isn't going to be easy, is it?
Cont.