Hello again friends! I don't want to upset you but… I don't own Tales of Symphonia. I hope you don't take the news to hard.
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Yuan opened his eyes slowly as he woke from a deep sleep. For the first time in the past few days, he felt fully aware of his surroundings. He sat up in bed and looked around. To his immense surprise, he wasn't in the slave quarters but in Kratos's room. Shakily he got out of bed, and took in his surroundings. The curtains had been drawn, but it was light outside. Yuan glanced over at the fish tank and noticed a small piece of paper taped to it. Carefully he took it, and looked at it.
Yuan, I am at ------. Yuan stared at the final word at tried with all his might to figure out what it said.
" S, makes the ssssss sound. And the c and h together make a ch sound. Two O's makes a u sound. And the L makes an llll noise," Trying to be quite so he wouldn't be caught, Yuan tried desperately to sound out word. But he had never heard of such a word before. While he was struggling, some one opened the door. Quickly he stuffed the letter behind his back.
" Yuan! Your awake!" Kratos shouted dropping his bags and throwing his arms around Yuan. " The doctor said you might be better today, he's been around a lot lightly."
Ignoring Kratos's blatant disregard for the "man hug", Yuan grinned back at him.
" I see you got my note. I wasn't sure if you'd be able to read it, but I thought I should leave something. I also figured, I could just pretend I didn't know slaves couldn't read if someone else found it," Kratos said smiling at him.
" Yeah," Yuan replied, " I couldn't figure out the last word."
" It says school."
"Oh… Damned silent H! So you got to school on your own?" Yuan asked. Blushing Kratos lifted the bangs out of his right eye, it was bruised.
" I'm a coward, Yuan. I gave him my money, after the third punch," Kratos looked at the floor.
" Don't worry about it Kratos. At least you started to try. Besides, were not near done with your training. Some day, you'll kick his sorry ass," Yuan told him. Kratos smiled at him.
" I didn't even cry that much about it. I've been to busy worrying about you. I thought I was going to lose you."
" You insult me Kratos, I'm made of tougher stuff than that," Yuan said cockily, wiping his nails on his shirt in attempt to look sophisticated. Kratos just sort of stared at him.
" I doubt your nails are going to very clean that way…" Kratos told him, " Your shirts not very clean. You should probably take a bath." Embarrassed by his behavior, Yuan hurried into the bathroom without a word. Half an hour later, and half an hour cleaner, Yuan changed into fresh clothes and left the bathroom. He found Kratos doing work in his study.
" Damn! What sort of teacher gives a kid that much homework!" Yuan said startling Kratos from his work. He was surrounded by piles of paper which were covered in professional type.
" Oh, Yuan you're finished. I've been doing some research," Kratos told him, " And I've finally found what I've been looking for!" Yuan walked over and looked at the papers. Even to his inexperienced eyes, he could tell they were documents of some sort. He raised an eyebrow at Kratos, as if to ask why any child would need to do so much research.
" What is it you found?" He asked, after Kratos failed to get the hint.
" I own you!" Kratos grinned at him. Yuan once again stared at him.
" Duh," He said.
" No, I mean you're actually mine," Kratos insisted. Yuan shook his head to show he didn't understand, and Kratos sighed, " It was something the doctor said that got me thinking. He asked if you were my first slave. And I figured you were the first one I was responsible for. But according to the bank (I have my own account) I actually own you. Your papers are in my account."
"Is this exciting for some reason?" Yuan asked, seeing no difference in who owned him. Kratos looked down at the paper in front of him with a rather sad expression.
" it means my dad can't sell you away," He said when he finally looked up at Yuan. Yuan's eyes widened with understanding. He hadn't even given that a thought.
" Does your dad sell his slaves often? I mean he sold some on the way here, but I figured he wanted to keep the ones he didn't sell," Yuan reasoned sitting down next to Kratos.
" He's only ever sold one house slave, but…" Kratos trailed off, looking away from Yuan.
" Come on Kratos tell me. Does this have any thing to do with you being worried about me corking off. Come one tell me. I told you about my brother," Yuan whined tugging on Kratos's sleeve.
" Fine," Kratos mumbled, pulling his sleeve away from Yuan, but still not looking at him. " When I was really little, I had another slave who took care of me. That wasn't her original job, but she just sort of did it. When I was a baby my mom didn't really know how to take care of me. She didn't know how to wash me, or change me or, feed me or anything. She got really frustrated one day and started yelling at me. So I started crying, and the whole thing was just a mess. The head cook apparently came in and solved everything. She gave my mom some coffee, and picked me up and rocked me to sleep. My mom was so relieved, she just let the cook take care of me. So that became her job. Hestia, that was her name, took care of me twenty-four seven. She's in my earliest memories, more than even my mom.
" I sort of took her for granted, but she never seemed to mind, she just laughed at me when I got bossy. I use to spend a lot of time in the kitchen with her. She still loved baking, and she always me help. She was very fat and she used to laugh and say it was because she always made sweets. So everyone was happy. My mom didn't have to deal with me, I was being taken care of, and Hestia said she liked my company. But everything went wrong when I started school. Nobody at school liked me. I'd never hung out with kids before, so I didn't really talk much. But since everyone knew I was rich they figured I was being snooty. So then some of the kids started to pick on me. And finally I got beat up. When I got home that day I ran crying to Hestia. But when my mom found out she got mad.
" My mother thought that if anything went wrong I would go to her. She was jealous. I was her kid, and I was supposed to go to her for comfort. She came in that night, to calm me down, but I told her I was fine. So for the next month or so I kept going to Hestia when I got beat up. She'd baby me, and patch me up and give me nice things to eat. Then when my dad visited my mother complained to him, that I liked Hestia more. She didn't even know anything about it. She cried and said I wouldn't even tell her what was wrong. So one day I woke up and Hestia wasn't there. I went outside and saw she was with my father and some strange guy. The two of them were shaking hands, and Hestia was just standing there. Her hand was chained to a cart. Just as I was going towards them the cart started away. I never said… I never got to… I… I…" at this point Kratos covered his face in his hands and began to cry inconsolably.
Yuan watched his friend in concern. Unsure of what to do he patted Kratos on the back. The two sat there for awhile, as Kratos cried his eyes out. Finally he fell silent.
" That's when I stopped fighting back. I didn't have anyone to go to. I knew my parents would be mad that I wasn't fighting back. Then this year they found out, and gave me you as a body guard," Kratos told him. Yuan nodded, thinking.
" It's late Kratos, you should go have dinner," He said. Kratos got up slowly wiping his uncovered eye clean of tears. Then he left.
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The next day Yuan returned to the school house with Kratos. Everything was back to normal, and no one attacked him. That day at recess, Yuan was waiting for Kratos on the playground, instead of behind the building.
" Kratos, my fine fellow, I have a question of urgent importance," Yuan said clapping a hand on the human boy's shoulder. Kratos gave him a funny look, but nodded him on.
" Which, of your, lovely peers, gave you that beautiful black eye?" Kratos pointed across the playground, at a large boy he was laughing stupidly at some child he had tripped.
" I should have been able to guess that," He mumbled. Than in a voice more loud than necessary he said, " I'VE BEEN CALLED BACK TO YOUR HOUSE. I AM GOING NOW." Then he took overly deliberate steps, away from the playground. The rest of the children watched, as Yuan disappeared around the side of the school house.
" Alright he's gone!" The large bully, said crossing the playground towards Kratos. Kratos covered his face with his arms, braced for an attack. The bully reached him and landed a heavy punch. Kratos fell to the ground with the wind knocked from him. As the bully readied another attack, Yuan came barreling out of nowhere.
" yearghh!" Yuan shouted, and with a great leap he tackled the bully to the ground. Kratos sat up and watched with large eyes. Yuan repeatedly slamming, the boy's face into the ground, and thoroughly enjoying it as he did. For one reason or another, Yuan decided that the boy had had enough. He stood up and wiped his hands together, to get of the dirt and blood.
" Leave him alone," Yuan said and returned behind the house mumbling that only an idiot would fall for that anyway. As he past Kratos he helped him up.
" Sorry, I had to let him hit you, otherwise I'd be in trouble for beating him. Hope he didn't get you to bad." Kratos shook his head, his eyes still wide in amazement. Yuan smiled and continued his way to the back of the house.
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Yay, I updated quickly! I hope this makes up for my two month disappearance. It's sort of a random little chapter but hey, we all love back stories right. Otherwise you wouldn't be reading this story which is a back story in itself. Anyway, someone asked when Kratos and Yuan would be joining the Kharlan war. It will still be awhile before that, although I intend to skip time at some point. I was also considering doing that as some sort of sequel thing, depending on how long I make their childhood. After all Mithos is fourteen years younger than them. Or so it says in the booklet that came with the CD I ordered from Japan. ( I found their ages in amongst the kanji.)
