Sari: …but will he survive day two?
Moo: I can't wait to find out.
Sari: Er... You wrote it. You should know.
Moo: Eh heh...
Disclaimer: We don't own Namco! Er, I mean Tales of Symphonia! Er, I mean, neither!
Warnings: Little Tiny Spoiler at the beginning. Er, and a lot of spoilers if you've not reached the scene with Yuan and Kratos at Altessa's.Kratos, miraculously, did survive day one on Lloyd's giant ship, which he figured out was named 'The Chosen.' A small child by the name of Genis told him all about it at 5:00 AM, the time he woke his grandfather up on his second day aboard the boat.
"…So that's why she became Martel's…uh…" Genis looked like he was struggling for words. Kratos rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stifled a yawn.
"…Vessel?" he prompted the little boy. Genis smiled happily and hugged Kratos' knees, much to Kratos' horror. Then he darted from the room and into his parent's, where Kratos heard Lloyd's unhappy grunts. Shaking his head in disbelief, Kratos got to his feet and walked out onto the deck, where he saw Colette sitting at a large, circular, folding table eating a bowl of Cheerio's. She was accompanied by all of her children, excusing Genis, who ran past Kratos and jumped into his mother's lap.
"Good morning, Kratos!" Colette said with a smile as he sat down beside her.
"Morning," He said as jubilantly as he could, taking a piece of toast off of a plate one of his grandchildren offered him and buttering it. He unexpectedly sneezed.
Simon the cat was sniffing Kratos' chair, his hazel green eyes staring up at Kratos. The cat mewed and pawed at his hand. Kratos quickly withdrew it. Colette beamed at him.
"Oh wow! Simon normally doesn't like anyone but my son Kratos, but I guess he's taken a liking to you!" She said, forcing another piece of toast upon him. Kratos smiled back uneasily, then, when Colette was preoccupied with one of her children, whispered to the cat, "Psst! Go away!" Simon continued to stare.
Kratos' day wasn't as horrible as it could have been, though it wasn't a dream either. Everywhere he looked there were screaming kids, and he even found himself giving one of them a bath after breakfast. It wasn't very pleasant, seeing that it was little three-year-old Zelos, who was talking non stop about everything from his favorite color to the dream he had last night. He also had to change his clothes afterward; they were covered in soapy bubbles and strange pink goo that he guessed came from a shampoo bottle that Zelos had thrown at him.
"I don't know how you can stand it," Kratos said to his grandson, Kratos, at lunchtime. They were grilling a fish on the grill. Kratos had been very proud, because he had caught it alone, and it was about eighteen inches long.
"Practice," The grandson said matter-of-factly, "Just knowing when to hide, what to say to make them go away, the normal stuff. Besides, when there are so many new adults on the boat, I'm pretty boring to them because they see me every day." He flipped the fish expertly. Surprised, Kratos found himself taking a liking to the boy, something he had thought impossible when he walked onto the boat. However, Colette -who was holding what seemed to be little Presea with tons of kitty litter on her head- interrupted Kratos' talk with his grandson, begging him to watch babies Sheena and Raine while she bathed Presea. Kratos excused himself from a disgruntled looking Kratos, and went to go watch the kids with Lloyd.
"I haven't seen much of you since you came on the boat," Lloyd said to Kratos as they sat down on the deck together. On closer inspection, Lloyd still looked as young as he did when he was eighteen, as did Colette, but they did look more tired than Kratos remembered seeing them, probably from the children. Well, their youthful looks obviously came from their Crusix Crystals, but Kratos guessed his son would have gray hairs if he'd been allowed to age properly.
"Has having all these kids been strenuous?" Kratos asked, absently handing a block to little Sheena, who chewed it before placing it on top of her block castle. Lloyd sighed tiredly, but his smile was genuine all the same.
"Yeah, but I love them. Its kinda cool having tons of little kids walking around acting like me. They remind me of what I was like when I was a kid, and a little bit of what Colette was like too. They're great kids too, a little annoying at times, but they're really great…" Lloyd replied. He didn't seem to notice that Raine was sucking on his fingers.
"You do like them, right?" Lloyd asked, questioning the uneasy expression Kratos had when Sheena flopped into his lap, "Because they like having their –er– real grandfather around. I hate to admit it, but Dirk freaks 'em out a little bit." He laughed a little bit and tickled Raine, who fell to the deck in a hysterical peal of laughter.
"Yeah, they're…er… fun," Kratos replied, knowing he sounded much less than convincing. Lloyd raised his eyebrows at his father, and shook his head.
"I know you never got around to parenting much, but you should give them a chance, Dad, seriously. I mean, I was just as annoying when I was little, but still, I turned out okay," Lloyd reasoned. Kratos didn't say it, but it meant a lot to him, Lloyd calling him Dad. Maybe… maybe he could give the little kids a chance. They were cute… in an annoying sort of way.
"Yeah, I'll try." He grinned at Lloyd and gestured to Lloyd's hair, which was smoking now. Raine, apparently, had read somewhere how to light a match, and was now attempting to light Lloyd's hair on fire with a spare one she found on the ground. Lloyd yelped and grabbed Raine.
"Don't you do that!" Lloyd said it mock horror, "You might…er… burn my brain!" Lloyd said, sounding terrified. Little Raine giggled, and gave Lloyd's head a wet kiss. Lloyd pulled a face of disgust at Kratos, just so Raine couldn't see.
"It all better now!" His little daughter said, happily returning to her block castle, which was a perfect model of the Tower of Salvation, though Lloyd had not the slightest idea on how she knew what it looked like. Once Lloyd was sure Raine was occupied, he hastily rubbed the spit from his hair.
"She always does that. Spits when she kisses," Lloyd said with a grin. And to Kratos' surprise, he was grinning too.
"Gampy!" Little Regal crawled up to Kratos as he was sitting on a beach chair, flipping idly through the pages of a magazine Colette lent him, called Tales from Symphonia. It mostly had interviews with famous people, and gossip, but Kratos had nothing better to do than to read it.
"Er, sorry, but what's 'Gampy'?" Kratos asked, looking around for Colette. Then he thought to himself I can handle this. It's just like Lloyd said. Give the little kid a chance. He smiled down at little toddling Regal. Then, to his slight horror and surprise, he found himself picking up the little kid and placing him in his lap. Little Regal reached out with a pudgy hand and grabbed a bunch of Kratos' hair gently. He giggled.
"My hair," Regal said patting his own hair, which was also reddish like Kratos', "like Gampy's hair too!" He patted Kratos' hair. Then Kratos realized that 'Gampy' meant Grandpa. He smiled at little Regal.
"Yeah, my hair does look like yours! But you have Colette's eyes through and through," He said to his grandchild, who merely nodded and babbled on some more. Then Colette called for dinner, and everyone got up and ran to the table, where everyone wolfed down portion after portion of "Uncle Genis'" famous pasta. Then, with an exceptionally fully stomach, Kratos fell asleep in his bed, not caring that his room was a lurid shade of pink and green, or that he was on a rocking ship with a storm brewing overhead, or that he was allergic to cats, but merely happy to be with the family which he had so long been deprived.
Moo: Now, review! Chop chop!