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.
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Chapter 4: Friends"Where were you yesterday, Lloyd?" Genis asked the next day in front of Marble's. We were all eating some Popsicles that we had bought from the store; it was a hot day, and it wasn't long before the Popsicles started melting on us, the sticky juices trickling down to our hands.
"Yeah, we didn't see you at all," Sheena agreed with a nod.
I frowned slightly. I was hoping that they weren't going to ask me anything about me not being there yesterday. "Remember that girl we met the day after we were let out of school?" I asked them, knowing that I wouldn't be able to escape it for much longer.
"I remember her," Zelos said with a smug looking smirk. He took a bite out of his Popsicle and chewed on it as he thought back. "Man, she was a cutie," he sighed.
"Too bad she rejected you," Genis said with a slight sneer, earning a glare from the older boy.
"Shut it brat."
"Well, anyways!" I raised my voice so that they would stop chatting amongst themselves. They stopped, and I coughed nervously. "Later that day, she and her family came over to my house for dinner. She wanted someone to show her around town and she kind of volunteered me to be her tour guide. I was showing her around yesterday."
"Really?" Genis asked with sudden interest. "Where did you take her?"
I shrugged. "Took her on the far side of town, where Golden Stars Theater was. I kind of figured that she knew a bit of the main streets, so I figured to take her somewhere else."
"Oh, really?" Zelos asked with a wide grin. "A theater, eh? Lloyd, you sly dog."
A rapid blush spread quickly across my face like wild fire. "I don't even want to know what you're thinking, you pervert!" I scowled, crossing my arms. "I don't know what you use a theater for, but all we did was talk; we didn't even go inside."
"Lloyd, Lloyd, Lloyd," he shook his head and casually draped an arm around my shoulders. "There are tons of things for you to do with a girl in a theater. Why, just yesterday, I—"
"Zeloooossssss…" Sheena fumed. She held up her fist in warning and Zelos backed away with a sheepish look on his face. She turned to me, her face glowing a bright red. "Just ignore him. We all know you wouldn't do anything like that. RIGHT?" The girl sent a glare over at Zelos, who merely nodded.
"Yes, my beloved banshee. We all know boring little Lloyd wouldn't do anything like that," he joked.
"What did you call me!" Sheena roared. Zelos laughed and ran off with the angry chocolate-eyed girl right on his tail.
I sighed, tossing my Popsicle stick in the trash. "You know, it's sort of obvious that they like each other. I mean, come on, they fight so much it's as if they're a married couple. Too bad that they're too stubborn to admit it."
"Really?" Genis asked as we stepped off of the sidewalk and following Sheena and Zelos out into the streets. "Because…" he began with a sly grin on his face. "I got the impression that Sheena really likes you."
I scoffed, jamming my hands inside of my pockets. "No way! She's just a good friend," I replied with a slight scowl. "She doesn't think of me that way at all."
"I dunno…" Genis said, trailing off.
We walked down the street and watched as Sheena finally caught up to Zelos. She laughed when the boy began pleading for mercy, curled up on the ground and trying to avoid her kicks. Spotting me, she held up a victory sign, a huge grin on her dirt smudged face. I blinked and slight warmth came to my cheeks.
"It sure doesn't seem that way," Genis finished only seconds later.
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"So where do you guys want to go next?" Sheena asked us as we walked past the kindergarten that lay just a few blocks from our school.
I shrugged. "Don't know. How about the beach?"
"But we don't have our swimsuits!" Genis protested with a frown. "How do you expect us to swim without swimsuits?"
"We can always swim with what we're wearing now," Zelos said suggestively, eying Sheena. The girl fumed, raising her fist. "You want me to hit you again?"
The red head laughed sheepishly, holding his palms up in surrender. "No, no. That's okay."
Sighing, I said, "How about we go to the park? There's always something good to do there." This time, everyone agreed.
The park wasn't the biggest thing in the world; with the whole forest around us and the beach at our backs, the town officials figured that they really didn't need a park at all. We already had enough nature to deal with already. It was about the size of our high school, not including the track field we shared with the middle school across the street. There were a decent amount of small hills for picnics during spring and sledding for winter, and a lot of trees to make leaves for autumn.
A small playground sat near the northwest entrance of the park. It had the basics: a plastic play set, metal slides, see saws, and, my personal favorite, swings. Normally it would be crowded with little kids. But only a few toddlers were playing there today, with their mothers watching over them like hawks.
I paused as we passed, watching the little kids run around the monkey bars with smiles on their chubby little faces. Genis and I had met on that very same playground when we were only little kids. It had been such a long time ago, but I could still remember it as clear as day.
"Hah! You little runt! Take this!"
"This will teach you to mess with us!"
"Hey! Back off!" I stepped between the boy curled up into a ball on the ground and the bullies. "He didn't do anything to you!"
"Well if it isn't Irving," spat the leader: a real nasty kid named Forcystus. He was five years older than me and much bigger. "Meddling little runt. Now run along and let the big kids continue their work."
"No!" I said defiantly. "I won't let you hurt him anymore!"
"Oh really?" Forcystus sneered. He looked back to his gang, a bunch of middle schoolers named the Desians, and smirked. "Should we listen to him gang?"
A chorus of 'no's filled the air. At this, the older kid shrugged carelessly. "Well, majority rule. Get him!"
I gingerly touched my cheek, remembering the blows that Forcystus and his gang had landed on me. There were so many of them…I still had a scar behind my ear because of that day. After a while of punching me, they got tired of me and left, leaving me alone with Genis.
"Hey, you okay kid?"
The kid on the ground looked at me and nodded numbly. "Yeah, I'm fine…but are you okay?"
I grinned, despite the throbbing in my cheeks. "Yup! It doesn't even hurt." Of course I was lying; it hurt like hell. My nose was bleeding and I was sure my face was going to be purple for a whole week. But I didn't want to seem weak.
"You didn't have to stand up for me you know," he muttered.
"Of course I had to!" I protested, startling the boy. "If I didn't, those bullies would have creamed you!" I paused. "What in the world did you do, anyways?"
"I accidentally threw a ball at the blue haired guy's head," he replied sheepishly. "I didn't mean to! It's just an accident!"
"I believe you," I said, helping him up. "My name's Lloyd. What's yours?"
"G-genis. It's nice to meet you, Lloyd," he stuttered. "You know…that was pretty cool of you…standing up for me back there."
I grinned. "You think so? Well, nice to meet you too, Genis!" I grabbed the ball that I had been playing with earlier. "You wanna play with me?"
"Sure!"
"Lloyd? Lloyd!"
I blinked and saw that my friends were already a far ways ahead of me. "Come on!" Genis yelled his hands cupped around his mouth. "What are you doing just standing around there for? Let's go!"
I took one last fleeting glance at the playground and ran after them. "Yeah, yeah! I'm coming, I'm coming."
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"It's so weird," muttered Sheena as we continued our stroll down the park. "We all wait for school to end but, as soon as it does, it's so boring afterwards."
"Well, it's not our fault that there's nothing to do," I replied with a shrug. "After all, school just ended a few days ago." They didn't seem to be very satisfied with this remark.
"You know, we could have gone to the beach, but noooooo! You guys kept complaining that we didn't have our swimsuits. A little nudity never killed anyone," Zelos whined. Sheena grabbed his collar menacingly.
"Don't you start that again!"
As they began to argue for what seemed the eleventh time that day, Genis and I sighed simultaneously. "Don't they ever give up?" my best friend muttered in exasperation. "It's times like these I wonder why in the world we're even friends with them."
"Remember the first time we met Zelos?" I asked. I gave a grin, watching his face scrunch up.
"'Course I do," Genis scowled. "How could I not?"
"Ugh, Professor Sage always gives out so much homework! Even on the first day of school!" I wined, stuffing my history textbooks into my locker. "I don't see how you can always stand this much of a load, Genis."
The ivory haired boy shrugged. "It'd be much easier if you actually tried doing your homework, rather than just sit around watching TV all day." I sent him a glare and slammed my locker shut.
"Can't you just ask her to stop giving us so much, though?" I asked as we continued down the hall. "She is your sister after all; she'd listen to you."
Genis sent me a flat look. "No way. Besides, I actually like homework; it's pretty fun, once you get the hang of it."
"Only you would think homework is fun, Genis," I muttered.
"Hey!" my best friend protested. "I'm sure lots of people enjoy doing their homework too!"
I gave him a smug look. "Oh really? Name one."
"Erm…" Genis began. "Well…oof!" My friend winced as he bumped into another person walking down the halls.
"Watch it, brat! I'm walking" the other boy hissed. "Yeah!" The large group of girls clinging around him said in unison. I looked at him oddly. His hair was such a long flaming red that I nearly mistook him for a girl at first. He was tall and lanky, just a little bit taller than me. He stood cockily, enjoying the attention being given to him by the girls hanging off of his arms. The guy looked pretty popular…but I don't think I've seen him before.
"Don't call me brat!" Genis retaliated, his face as red as the guy's hair. "Who in the world do you think you are, anyways?"
"Why, I am the great Zelos Wilder, exchange student from the prestigious Meltokio Academy," he said, looking self-important. "I'm here on a three year exchange program to observe what the public school system is like. And, of course," he added, "to meet all the cute hunnies."
The girls giggled loudly—too loudly. Genis and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes; a foreign student: no wonder those girls were all over him. The girls in this town always loved the foreign boys. Don't know why, but they just do.
Suddenly, the boy paused and looked over my shoulder. He suddenly cringed. "Uh, oh."
"ZELOS!" I swirled and found an irritated looking girl behind me, hands on her hips and tapping her foot with impatience. I had to admit; she was pretty. She had the nicest figure I've ever seen on a girl my age: slender and richly curved…not like I took notice to any of those things, of course! I looked at the girls behind me and saw they were glaring at her in pure jealousy. They must have noticed that she was far prettier than they were.
"Hey Sheena," Zelos said sheepishly. "You're done with Science already?"
"Yes," the girl huffed. "And now we have to get to Math!" She looked at the girls and glared threateningly. "Shoo! You have to get to your classes too!" The girls grumbled and broke up, but not before waving goodbye to Zelos. "I'm sorry about this guy here," the girl said in apology after they had left.
"Don't mention it," Genis shrugged.
"Yeah," I shrugged in agreement.
"Well, I'll make sure he doesn't bug you again! See ya!" She waved a goodbye and dashed off, with the redhead in tow. I looked at Genis, and he looked at me.
"Yeesh, he was weird," Genis whispered as we turned into our next class.
"I know," I muttered. "I hope we'll never see the likes of him again."
I couldn't help but sigh in the irony of it all. "In the end, we're stuck with Zelos anyways."
"Huh? Did someone say something about me?" Zelos bound up behind me and hovered over my shoulder. "Huh?"
"We were just talking about how we first met you and Sheena," Genis replied.
"Oh, I remember that!" The redhead grinned. "You bumped into me in the hallway."
"Hey!" The boy fumed, his face turning red. "You were the one that bumped into me!"
"No I wasn't!"
"Yes you were!"
"No I…"
"ENOUGH!" Sheena placed her hands on her hips. "Before this thing gets out of hand, it's late, so we'd better get home already." The two gave each other one last glare before replying innocently, "Yes Sheena."
"We'll see you tomorrow, then?" Sheena asked as she and Zelos began towards the gate.
"Yeah," I shouted after them. "How about we go to the beach or something? The weather lady said it would be nice out this season."
"That's a great idea! We'll meet you at Marble's in the morning so we can go, okay?"
"Yeah, sure!"
"Okay then, bye guys!"
"Bye!"
As we turned and walked around, Genis whispered, "Lloyd, what in the world are you thinking? Zelos plus beach full of girls is not a good thing."
I shrugged. "Oh well. At least we'll have fun watching Sheena beat him up."
At this, we could both agree.
Cont.
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A/N: Heh, it's a filler chapter. Sorry about this, but it's kinda nesseccary. Kinda. The next chapter is probably going to make you hate me in the end, but the thing that's going to happen is 100 nesseccary. Trust me. Well, read and review please! I've never asked before, but please do! Oh, and here's a little thanks to those who've been reviewing; sorry for the long wait!
RevivedSin: Yes, they do get the summer off when we're all studying xD I came up with this story in the summer so it's set in the summer.
TUF STUF II-Henrika foreva-II: Hey! Thanks for reviewing every chapter! Hope you stick with this story for a while longer.Lugiamania: Thanks for your reviews, especially the one for chapter 3; it's nice to know what I'm doing right.
Lord Cynic: Hey, I've read some of your fics before! You're good oOU Thanks for the review; hope you enjoy.
GyppyGirl2021: Heh, cute is good, non? XDKaguyaEvenstar: Well, I didn't want to overload people with descriptions of characters all at once so I introduced them at different times. Thanks for telling me that was good.
KatonKageNaruto: Heh, I'm sorry that my next chapter was so slow in coming; I was pretty busy this whole month.
Well, thanks everyone! And don't forget to R&R.