Time to post the second chapter! Heh, heh... I know you're all just soooo excited to see it up! I just read over this chapter and fixed some things up, so hopefully it's ended up being pretty decent. There's one more chapter after this one, so keep your eyes out for it!
Disclaimer: I still don't own Tales of Symphonia nor its characters, although Rhea is the product of my own mind.
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Everything was coming back to her now; these were memories that Sheena must have suppressed soon after uniting the worlds. "Zelos is the only person from our journey whom I have not spoken to since leaving Tethe'alla... I guess that's because I secretly hated him..." There was a knock at the door that made Sheena jump in surprise, but when she looked up and her old friend Lloyd standing at the doorway she forced herself to calm down. "Ah, Lloyd. Come in."
"Hey, Sheena," he greeted as he stepped into the small home, "I just wanted to say goodbye before you left for Tethe'alla. Colette wanted to say 'bye, too, but she had a lot of stuff to do so she made her personal lackey carry on the message." Sheena laughed softly at Lloyd for being Colette's messenger. He may have been a strong warrior, but when it came down to it, Colette could manipulate him. "What are you up to? It seems like almost everything's ready for the big move."
Realizing that she still had her old diary in her hands, Sheena quickly closed it, "Just looking at some stuff from the 'journey of regeneration'," she replied.
"Oh, wow," Lloyd took a seat down next to her, "That was so long ago."
The Chief of Mizuho nodded, "Yeah. I'm only now realizing how much I'd forgotten about it." She got up to return her journal to its resting place, which caused the necklace that Zelos had made for her to fall to the ground. Sheena hastily snatched it up from the ground; now that she remembered what had happened between her and Zelos, she did not want anyone else to know about it.
"What was that?" Lloyd asked.
"Wh... what was what?" Sheena questioned back, casually dropping her diary and the necklace into the chest.
The swordsman tilted his head slightly, "The thing that you just put into the trunk that Dad made you. Not the book; the other thing."
"Oh, that? That's... just a charm that I had worn during the journey," Sheena replied, hurriedly thinking of a lie to hide the evidence of her relationship with Zelos. Lloyd seemed satisfied with this response, and Sheena was thankful; even after ten years, Lloyd could still be rather naïve at times. Sheena returned to her spot next to her friend and asked undecidedly, "Lloyd... do you remember how I treated Zelos... after his betrayal?"
Lloyd clearly could not tell what brought on this question, but he answered anyway, "Considering how near to Zelos you had been beforehand, you really closed up. It was weird, now that I think about it..."
Sheena lifted her hand up to her mouth and nervously chewed the nail of her index finger as she stared uneasily at the floor, "Damn. I was hoping that you wouldn't say something like that."
"Why?" Lloyd inquired, still not realizing that Sheena felt guilty for how she had acted, "You had every right to be ticked off after he turned his back on us like that."
"No, Lloyd," his friend propped her elbows on her knees and buried her face in her hands, "It wasn't right of me. For ten years, I've lived without regret for my actions towards Zelos, but now... I'm just not so sure. It was so harsh of me to have shunned him the way that I did! Worse yet... the way that I treated him was probably worse than the way that humans had treated half-elves..."
"Sheena, that's just not true," Lloyd persisted, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, "You may have become detached from Zelos, but he still knew that you cared for him. You can't hide something like that, no matter how hard you try."
Sheena sighed, "I can't just change the fact that I feel terrible, though... How am I supposed to make it better?"
A light smile appeared on Lloyd's face as he thought of what seemed an obvious answer to him. "Man, and to think that we all used to call Zelos dense!" Lloyd exclaimed. Sheena could simply stare at him vacantly, unsure of what he meant by that statement. "Confront him, Sheena. I know that it's been a long time, but you can't live with this remorse forever. Just show up in Tethe'alla and talk to him!"
"You're so... spontaneous."
"And you're not?" Lloyd taunted, "Deciding to move an entire village just like that! I'd say you're even more impulsive than me!" The swordsman got to his feet, a satisfied grin on his face. "I'd better get on my way," he announced, "I promised Colette that I'd be home before sundown, and I have to make another stop on the way back. Don't forget to write to us, okay?"
With that, Lloyd began heading for the door, but before he could leave Sheena jumped up to her feet, "Wait!" Lloyd turned his head around to face her, still wearing that proud smile. "Lloyd... how much has he changed?" she asked feebly. Without so much as a word, Lloyd reached into his pocket, pulled out a folded piece of paper and tossed it to Sheena. He was then on his way again. Sheena swiftly caught the paper and unfolded it, finding that it was a letter to Lloyd, from Zelos. "Maybe Lloyd isn't that clueless after all..." Sheena said to herself. She then focussed her thoughts on the letter in-hand:
Hey, Bud!
How have things been going? You and Colette have any kids yet? Hehehehe... Seriously, though, is everything all right? I haven't heard from you in a while. I'm actually at the Southeast Abbey right now (if you can call it that) taking care of my niece for Seles; my sister has come down with a pretty bad illness, but I'm sure she'll be fine. She's just as tough as ever, y'know? Her daughter's the same way, too... it's tough dealing with both of them at the same time. "Zelos, I don't need to eat, I need to sleep!" "Uncle Zelos, can you play with me, pleeeaaase?" "I can deal without food! I don't care how pale I am, okay!" "Zelos! Zelos! Pay attention to meee!" Bah... such bothersome females... I wouldn't change any of this, though. It's enjoyable to get out of the city and just spend time here with them; they're all that I really have left in this world. Sucks when I really consider it, but this is what life has handed me, so I'll deal. Well, anyway... you'd better write back to me this time, Lloyd! I felt so unloved when you ignored my last letter!
Zelos
Sheena could not help but smile slightly as she read the letter, "He hasn't really changed that much, has he?" she asked no one at all, "He's mended things with his sister now... that's good. I always thought that they'd both be too stubborn to admit that they cared about each other. Even if I was never fond of Seles..." She walked over to Dirk's custom-made trunk and opened it once again. Sheena added the letter to her collection of memories, and pulled out the necklace once again. She stared at the piece of jewellery in her hand for a moment, and then secured it around her neck, the unscratched side of the heart facing outward. She swiftly tucked it into her top and out of sight. "I guess I'm coming to see you, Zelos."
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At the Southeast Abbey, Zelos was sitting at the end of the dock, his legs dangling over the edge yet not reaching the water. He sighed, running his fingers through his hair; it was not as long as it had once been, but still lengthier than the hair of most men in Tethe'alla, and just as well kept as ever. There was also a light stubble on his face, giving him a sense of masculinity that he had lacked years ago. "Uncle Zelos, you're so boring!" a high-pitched, enthusiastic voice exclaimed. A sudden weight was forced onto Zelos as a young girl jumped onto the former Chosen's back. Had she been any larger than she was, Zelos would have fallen forward into the sea.
"Be careful, Rhea!" he warned, moving the girl off of him and getting to his feet, "You're going to end up hurting yourself one of these days... as opposed to me, who you hurt every day." Zelos' niece giggled at his pain. "Bah, women! You're all the same," he teased, which made Rhea laugh even more, not that she even understood what he meant. "C'mon!" he swiftly picked her up in his arms, "Let's not mope around here, then! There must be something fun to do around here!" His niece squealed excitedly as he carried off, but he suddenly stopped when he caught sight of a familiar woman standing near the abbey entrance.
"Uncle Zelos!" Rhea shouted to get his attention.
"Huh? Oh, ah..." Zelos set down his niece, "Listen, you go and have fun by bugging Mommy; I have to talk to someone, okay?" The girl agreed without any questions and ran off to search for her mother for amusement. Zelos cautiously approached the woman. She looked familiar, and yet so different from anyone that he had ever known. Her hair was a deep violet, and was left to fall down past her shoulders and along her back. She wore clothes different from anyone in the large cities; they looked like the traditional clothes of Mizuho women that he had seen many years back. Once Zelos was close enough, he stared at the woman's eyes and knew right then who it was. He was sceptical when he observed her style of clothing and overall appearance, but a person's eyes never change. They still held that mixture of bashfulness and curiosity that he had seen every time that he looked at her. Even though he was positive of whom it was, he still had to ask, "Sheena, is that you?"
"Yep... it's me," Sheena responded warily. It was very awkward for her to be speaking with Zelos after all the time that had passed. She had expected him be angered – as he should have been – but he was not. The former Chosen threw his arms around Sheena and pulled her into a tight, friendly hug. Sheena turned her head slightly so that she could look at Zelos, her eyes widened slightly in disbelief, "Z-Zelos?"
"I never expected to see you again." His voice was muffled as his face was buried into Sheena's shoulder.
"I never expected you to be happy to see me!"
Zelos tightened his hold around Sheena, lifted his head to look at her, "Why wouldn't I be?"
The summoner's face turned red and she glanced off in another direction, "Ah... no reason..."
"If you say so." Zelos released Sheena from his embrace, "Come on; let's go and talk inside the abbey. It's getting kind of chilly out here." Sheena nodded and headed towards the small building. "She definitely didn't come here to just say 'hi'," Zelos mused, watching her for a moment before following, "Even after all of this time, I can still tell when something's on her mind. She's the worst at hiding it."
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Sheena observed the interior of the abbey in disbelief. Since the last time that she had been there, it had changed so much; for one, it was much larger. The right corridor that used to lead to nowhere was now longer and had two doors, each granting entry to a bedroom. Also, the area that was once a small cathedral had been transformed into what was both a kitchen and living room. "When did all of this happen?" Sheena asked at last.
"Oh, yeah. You haven't been here in a long time," Zelos recalled, "Well, I guess this place isn't so much an abbey anymore, is it? It's a home." He walked down the hallway as Sheena followed, "After the worlds were united, Seles didn't have to stay confined to the abbey, and she came to live with me in Meltokio. Things were all well and good for quite a few years, but it just wasn't the same for her. I guess she had become attached to the dingy abbey and was just too stubborn to admit it." Zelos opened one of the doors and motioned for Sheena to enter. She did so, and Zelos followed her in as he continued, "But she did eventually decide to come back here. It was made larger at that time with the additions of Rhea's bedroom and the guestroom, which we're in right now. It's my room for the time being."
Sheena sat down on the bed that was pushed against the back wall. She let her eyes wander, making a point to avoid looking at Zelos. It was strange to just keep up casual conversation with him. "Rhea... is that Seles' daughter?"
Zelos scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Riiight, you don't know about that, either. Rhea is just... something that happened while Seles was in Meltokio. I'm glad to have her, though; both her and Seles." The former Chosen joined Sheena in sitting on the bed. It did not take a lot for Zelos to notice Sheena's uneasiness as she nervously rubbed her right arm just to have something t do. "How'd you know that I was here, anyway?" Zelos asked, changing the subject as if he were previously not talking at all.
"Lloyd gave me the letter that you had recently sent him," Sheena replied, looking out of the room's sole window to continue avoiding eye contact with Zelos, "Has... Lloyd told you anything about me?"
"Hmm..." Zelos seemed to be considering the question deeply, even though it was a very simple thing to answer, "Maybe... but perhaps you should refresh my memory." Sheena turned her head towards Zelos, finally facing him, and stared at him inquisitively. "Come on. Tell me about everything that has happened to you."
This is what he had always done back during the journey of uniting the worlds; he was urging her to talk. He wanted to listen, knowing that she wanted to speak. Sheena nodded, and then began recounting all of the interesting and not-so-interesting events from the past ten years. It was as though they had gone back in time; back to when they had been so close that they could tell the other anything without a worry of how they would react. Zelos was hanging onto his old friend's every word, even though Lloyd had told him much about Sheena's life. To him, it was just enjoyable to hear it narrated in the summoner's voice. He had missed her, and now she was realizing how much she had missed him.
After quite a lot of time had passed, Sheena felt a spell of weariness suddenly come over her. She stopped talking and yawned, casually glancing out the window to find that the sun had set quiet a time ago, and it was now pitch black. "Oh no!" Mizuho's chief exclaimed, quickly jumping to her feet and continuing to look outside in disbelief, "It's gotten so late! I should be back at the village by now!"
Zelos shook off his own fatigue and noticed that night had fallen, as well. "Ah... but you can't go back in the dead of night. It would be far too dangerous, even on a Rheaird," he stated in a levelheaded manner.
"And what do you expect me to do?" Sheena snapped, causing Zelos to move back, surprised. He was only thinking of what would be the wisest decision. "Do you want me to leave my villagers unaware of where their chief is? And just after Grandpa's death? They'd be completely paranoid!" Sheena frantically searched her mind for any ideas that could get her home safely, but found none. Zelos watched her as she had an anxiety attack, and it was growing to agitate him.
"Will you calm down and listen for a second?" he spoke up in a stern voice, "You must have told at least one person in the village that you had gone to see a friend or something, right? As long as someone knows that, then they'll all realize that you're safe! So stop freaking out!"
Coming to her senses, Sheena sighed and lowered her head in defeat, "I guess you're right... Sorry for blowing up on you like that..." She sat down on the bed again, "Damn, what am I going to do now?"
Zelos stated the obvious answer, "I guess you're stuck here for the night." Sheena lifted her head to meet Zelos' gaze. A part of her felt at peace with Zelos' presence, and embraced the idea of staying with him, but that part of her mind could not be accepted. When she looked at her old friend, she knew that he had every intention of trying to revive what had been killed between them at the time of his betrayal. Her heart began to pound furiously, almost struggling to escape her body and scream out 'no!' for itself. Casually, Zelos let his arm encircle Sheena, his hand firmly on the back of her neck, ready to pull her forward to meet him in a kiss. Sheena did not move; she did not object, she did not consent. She simply sat there, praying that whatever she would let happen would be for the best. It was by no means love that had her feeling so sceptical. Throughout the years, even she had had several men that she was involved with, although the love for them had faded. This love may have lasted for over ten years.
"What was all the yelling?" Zelos and Sheena turned their heads towards the room's doorway and saw Rhea standing there, appearing half-asleep since the feuding friends had just woken her up.
The former Chosen swiftly rose from his spot on the bed, releasing Sheena, and walked over to his niece, "I'm sorry, Rhea," Zelos apologized, "We just have a tendency of making our points loudly..." The girl nodded with a yawn, too tired to realize that she had no idea who 'we' was and that there was a mysterious woman in her uncle's room. "Just go back to sleep; we'll be quiet." Rhea nodded again and turned to return to her room when Zelos stopped her, "Ah, wait!" he glanced back towards Sheena, whom was off in her own world of questions without answers. He knew that what he was imposing on her was wrong. "Why don't you go and sleep in your mom's room tonight?"
Sheena abruptly faded into reality and understood that Zelos had wanted Rhea to move so that she would have a place to sleep. She was not comfortable with making the child leave her room, even if she was also uncomfortable with sharing a room with Zelos. "No, it's okay. You can keep your room. I... I can just stay here with Zelos, it's fine," the summoner blurted out, ignoring the constant objections that her heart was still giving her. She warily glanced towards Zelos, waiting to see if he consented.
The swordsman stared at her sceptically, "Are you sure about that?"
"Yeah, I'm sure," Sheena replied, unwilling to go back on her statement now. In fact, Zelos asking if she was sure gave Sheena reassurance: he had changed a lot. The old Zelos would have grinned and made a sick comment. He was mature, and not about to force Sheena into any awkward situations. She returned her gaze to Zelos' niece, "Go back to sleep." Rhea was finally able to leave the room without any more disruptions, though still too exhausted to even question Sheena's presence.
"That was a bold statement... coming from you, I mean," Zelos commented after his niece was gone.
The face of Mizuho's chief was slightly red as she spoke, "Yeah, well... it's no big deal, really... No different than that time that I slept in your arms near the Linkite tree," she said, looking downwards to avoid looking at Zelos once again.
Her old companion walked over to the bed and sat down next to Sheena, throwing his arm around her shoulders, "My, my... even at twenty-nine years old you're modest."
"It's a good quality to have, though," Sheena persisted.
"Maybe back when you were nineteen, but not now." Sheena looked at Zelos with a confused expression; what did he mean? "You can't spend your entire life with one routine; one outlook. Go out and explore, Sheena. I'm sure that that's what your grandfather would have wanted. He was a really free spirit even though he had a village to look after."
"What do you care, anyway?"
Zelos rested his head on Sheena's shoulder, moving his arm so that it surrounded her torso, "Everyone deserves to live their life the way they want to, even if they have responsibilities. Especially people who have been through as many hardships as you, and the rest of our buddies from our journey back in the day." Sheena shifted away awkwardly, forcing Zelos to sit upright again. "Stop acting like you're satisfied with the way things run in Mizuho."
"I'm not acting." She crossed her arms in front of her chest, again avoiding eye contact with the former Chosen. Zelos stared at his past companion desolately; she had closed up. In that moment, it felt as though there was no way for things to return to the way that they had once been. It was hopeless. Zelos moved to the opposite end of the room, sitting down on the floor to escape Sheena. "...Zelos?"
"Forget it. Just go to sleep, okay?"
Sheena's brow furrowed – he was treating her exactly as he treated his niece! Was there something that she was missing? Sheena seethed within her mind as she lied down on the bed, pulling the covers over herself. Her head sank into the pillow, "What did I do?" Sheena rolled onto her side, trying to clear her head of all thoughts to no avail. "God, we're acting like we did ten years ago..." She continued squirm unnervingly in an attempt to force herself to sleep. She closed her eyes, yet beyond the darkness she could still see Zelos. Just knowing that he was in the room made her feel uneasy. She could hear the sound of her heart pounding; a continuous reminder that she was anxious—anxious that Zelos was there, and anxious because she had yet to spill her suppressed apology. "Ten years." That was all that the voice of Sheena's mind kept repeating. "It's been ten years. He seems to have forgiven me for the way that I had treated him, so why should I bring it up? For all I know the topic could just piss him off." The rhythm of her heart seemed to grow unstable as these thoughts consumed her. Sheena brought herself up to a sitting position and glanced across the room towards the former Chosen of Tethe'alla.
Again, Sheena's heartbeat was stressed. "Damnit," she growled softly, placing her hand over her chest where her heart was. "It's him," Mizuho's chief observed, "Whenever I look at him, get close to him, think of him, picture him in my mind... I... remember him for who he was." A sudden desire rushed over Sheena; she wanted to have her diary in her hands, to write down everything that she felt, to share it with something, instead of the someone whom in the past she could rely on. She sighed, resting her back on the bed's backboard while continuing to gaze at the swordsman from her past. He was asleep, that was certain. Zelos had one knee pulled up to his chest, his head resting on it, and his other leg was stretched along the floor. His red hair veiled most of his face, but Sheena could see that his eyes were closed. From her resting place, she could also hear him breathe. He inhaled deeply, silently, and then would let all of his gathered air out in an audible sigh.
As she observed Zelos sleep, Sheena spoke silently to him: "When I look at you, I remember. I remember how much of an idiot you were – not for those lousy pickup lines that you always used to recite, but for the betrayal that cost us any existing feelings..." The summoner turned her head away as though trying to hide the sadness in her eyes from Zelos, who was sound asleep. "I remember how I hated you for what you did. Yet even stronger than that hatred, I remember how I believed that I may have loved you. And I wasn't just giving into that charm you expressed to every woman in the world; I was giving into you." Sheena had to force herself to look at Zelos again, "...I've never had emotions so strong since then. No man has ever been able to comfort me like you did; no man has ever listened to me like you did; no man has ever made me love him like you did..." Sheena slowly slipped under the bedding again, whispering, "...You're all that I've ever had."
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Oh, the emotions! What on Earth is going to happen next? ...Okay, I'm just being overly dramatic. Thank you very much for the reviews, everyone! They are very much appreciated. I'm not going to be responding to them, though, because... well... I'm just lazy. (And just to answer one question: yes, the journey that Lloyd and Colette had gone on was the Exsphere quest.)
Fare thee well, my friends!...until the next chapter!