Disclaimer: All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, at http/deburu98249.jog. but written correctly. If you visit, don't steal!

Setting: Years after the game, years after RRT.

Warnings: Way way shorter than the last one! Beware of FLUFF, maturity and prose that might border into poetic-prose at times. Hey, with a name like "Blush"... eh, think of Sean Connery towards the third paragraph. Then stop thinking of him.


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Normal Version,

#14 – Blush

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As he got a pair of glasses out of his pocket and smiled, amusedly saying 'Let's see, let's see!', she suddenly wondered – how long had they been together that he had started to need glasses?

She looked down at the reports she was supposed to be checking. To say that he 'needed' glasses made it sound as if he was a blind old man, and this was a complete lie. At twenty-nine Zelos Wilder was still beautiful, if less boyish than when they had first met. His features had somehow changed - as was natural - and gone from hiw fresh charming to a more mature attractiveness.

He was going to be, Sheena Fujibayashi realized, a very handsome old man one day, and she was going to be a very lucky old woman.

Zelos looked up at her and arched an eyebrow. "Anything you wanna say, or are you just staring at my beauty?"

She sneered just a little and rolled her eyes. Glasses, it seemed, didn't modify personality. "I was staring at your glasses, actually."

"Spectacles, if you please," Zelos corrected her.

"Since when did you...?"

"Remember I kept getting headaches?"

"Was that because of your eyes?"

The redhead half grimaced, half grinned. "Yep. I need them to read."

Sheena laughed. "I don't think I ever imagined you wearing glasses. Spectacles."

"I couldn't get used to the contact," the man sighed as if that was one of the worst tragedies ever, "And these ruin my image! You wouldn't believe how long it took me to pick these out..."

"Oh, but I would..." she had experienced a few of Zelos' shopping trips. They were as tiring as any of her village's high-rank missions.

"Anyway, this is between you and me," he took a finger to his lips and winked at her. "Secret, yes?"

She sighed. "Yes, yes..."

"Good!" he exclaimed, pushed the spectacles up his nose and continued reading wherever he had left off.

Sheena, however, didn't feel like she would be able to concentrate that easily. It was a far too pleasant noon to be doing paper-work – that's why she had asked to move to the garden. But outside, with the sun falling softly on her skin and the sounds of birds rhythmically chirping somewhere not too far and not too close made concentrating even more difficult.

She looked up from her report to where Zelos was absently pushing a strand of shoulder-length hair behind an ear. He had cut it a few months ago, after much thinking and after deciding that he looked holier with short hair. The reason had made her laugh but it oddly fit him. He had been talking about growing a beard though...

She looked away and into the lush garden of the Wilder estate. How long had they been together that she had shed her fighting attire and even the successor's dark garb and had started wearing simple clothes such as the ones she was wearing now? Not meant for fighting but meant to sit down and be a leader.

How long had they been together that he, too, had started wearing sensible attires instead of bright-pink jackets? How they had changed and yet it had all been so slow, so gradual, that it had taken a silent warm noon to make her notice that she, too, wasn't nineteen anymore but almost twenty-seven.

How long had they been together that she couldn't imagine life without him anymore?

She got up from her chair and stretched her arms behind her back. He, too, looked up and grinned as if he had always known she hadn't been working and had just been waiting for her to rise.

She circled the table on which they had been working and without any warning hugged him into her chest and kissed his cheek. "Don't grow a beard," she said, "It'd make you look evil."

He quickly looked down into the papers he was still holding and she knew he was blushing, which was strange in a man almost thirty and even more so in him. But it wasn't long before he got up, face fresh as a few minutes before, and said nobody could blame them for taking a rest every now and then.

Her answer bears no importance. It was part of their daily life. How long had they been together that such daily life existed... the answer to that, too, was unimportant. Just that the question existed was enough at the time.


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Notes: Short, I know, but bear with me. You know how muses are – she didn't accept anything different at all.

I dunno how IC this could've felt. What with Sheena nearing twenty-seven and Zelos pushing thirty... well, it was a little bit too serious for me, but that's how it came out and how I decided to leave it.

Thanks to all the reviewers from last time! Given how long it was and the non-existent time to spell-check it I'm surprised there weren't more complains, heh. I can only hope this one will be better in that sense, at least...

I hope you enjoyed this O-dai as well. Be sure to drop a line or two if you did! If you didn't, critique is always appreciated, too.

See you soon,

WDR

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#15 – Impression

(whooo, fifteen already!)

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