(For disclaimer and author/story/series notes, see the Prologue.)

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Day 1, Part 1: The Answer

Sheena couldn't remember the last time she had felt this warm, this comfortable, this safe, and with it came two surprising, unexpected emotions that had long since eluded her: optimism and hope. She could've sworn there were strong arms wrapped around her, encompassing her, shielding her from all of the dangers and sorrows awaiting her outside her bedroom door. She released a low, contented sigh and sank further into the overwhelming warmth and sense of security, her mind drifting blissfully in and out of consciousness, feeling irresistibly relaxed and at peace. It was such a far cry from how she had felt since...well, she wasn't sure she had ever felt like this before. It was a wonderful feeling. It was a feeling she wanted to hold onto as long as she possibly could.

Her first clue that something was wrong was when the warmth behind her moaned softly, although she initially wrote the sound off as a product of her imagination. Her second clue was when she felt the nonexistent arm draped over her waist tighten its grasp on her; that clue was harder to dismiss, and her mind immediately began its ascent back to alertness. Her third clue was the phantom kiss she felt pressed to the back of her neck. What woke her fully, though, was a male voice—a familiar male voice—whispering in her ear, saying that if she was game, it was early enough that they could squeeze in a slow, lazy round of lovemaking before the day got started.

She had been able to write off the first three oddities as a pleasant dream. But at that point, she couldn't ignore the fact that the physical sensations she was experiencing were real, as was the voice she'd just heard. For the first time in nearly six years, she wasn't alone in her bed.

...There was someone else in bed with her.

The instant that thought registered, her eyes flew open and she squealed, extracted herself from the heavy arm holding her down, and jumped out of bed, her heart pounding wildly, pulling the blankets with her and holding them up to cover herself, gaping at the sight before her.

There was a man lying in her bed—a man who was apparently just as alarmed by her sudden scream and extraction from his arms as she was to find him there, judging from how his eyes likewise flew open and he jumped to his feet, rubbing at his face as he struggled to fully wake up.

"What?" he asked, peering at her through his fingers. "What, what, what? Sheena, what's wrong?"

For a moment, all she could do was gape at him, her lips parted and her eyes wide, but in an instant, fury replaced all confusion and shock. Not only was there a man in her bed, but she recognized who the man was. And more than that, he had absolutely no right to be touching her, let alone climbing into bed with her. "Zelos?!"

"Yeah...?" he replied, lowering his hand from his face. "Exactly who were you expecting?"

She couldn't believe it. She could not believe it. Zelos Wilder had been in bed with her. Of all the things to wake up and find, this was the absolute last one she had expected. This was either the worst nightmare she had ever experienced...or the man was still the world's most perverted idiot and would, therefore, soon be officially, permanently dead, and she would feel no regret or remorse for having caused it. "You bastard!" she finally screamed at him. "Get out! Get the hell out of my bed, out of my house!"

"Whoa, whoa, what?"

She stepped forward, overwhelmed by blinding rage. "How dare you! What in Jizou's name do you think you're doing here?!" And then she was on him, punching him, shoving him, and inflicting as much pain on him as she possibly could.

"Sheena, what the hell are you doing? Hey, ow! Stop it!" He tried to grab her hands, but she refused to be stopped. This was a complete outrage; he did not belong anywhere near her, let alone in her bed with her. No, this jackass deserved every single bruise she could inflict on him—and if it got him the hell out of her house and back out of her life sooner, then that was even better. "Sheena, calm down! What's gotten into you this morning?! It's me!"

"What do you think has gotten into me?!" she shouted at him. "I haven't seen you in nearly six years, and then one morning you suddenly show up here, in my house, in my bed?!" She gave him another shove, nearly shaking with her fury. "Get out, Zelos! I always knew you were a jerk and an idiot and a sick, selfish, perverted, arrogant, stuck-up son of a bitch, but to do this, to just walk into my house and...and...climb into bed with me, and then hold me like that..." She shoved him again, hard, pushing him back into her dresser, resulting in a dull thud as his bare back collided with the wood and a rattle as the mirror shook under the impact.

His face twisted into an expression of pure confusion. "Are you serious? Of course I climbed into bed with you!" He motioned at the futon on the floor. "This is my bed, too, thank you very much!"

His bed? His bed?! She was incredulous—and utterly livid. "Are you out of your idiotic little mind? Your bed?! You're insane!"

"I'm insane?! Sheena, what about you? What the hell has gotten into you this morning?! I'm your husband! Of course this is my house and my bed, and of course I would hold you at night while we're sleeping! I wouldn't be much of a husband if I didn't, don't you think?"

"Husband," she repeated, spitting out the word like it was the most disgusting thing she'd ever tasted. "Great Jizou, you really have lost your mind, haven't you?"

"I've lost my mind? Sweetheart, what about you? Why are you suddenly screaming at me and hitting me this morning?" He rubbed his jaw. "And for the record, that first smack really hurt! If you didn't feel like having sex right now, that's fine; just tell me, don't smack me! Man, that's really gonna leave a bruise..."

"Good, it was supposed to!"

His eyes narrowed as he resumed gaping at her, and in the back of her mind a voice was trying to point out that he looked every bit as confused about this as she felt, which didn't make any sense to her, but she chose to ignore it, focusing instead on the fact that he was still in her house. After a moment, he shook his head and motioned at her. "C'mon, everything was fine when we went to bed last night! What's going on here?"

"When we went to bed last night?" She let out a crazed, hysterical laugh. "What, are you drunk? Or did you just finally lose the last of your screws? I went to bed alone last night, Zelos; you were nowhere to be seen. And trust me, even if you had been hanging around, I would've rather shoved you in the garbage disposal where you belong rather than invite you into bed with me!"

He stared at her again, but then he took a deep breath and lifted his hands in an obvious effort to calm her. "All right, Sheena, stop. Let's discuss this like rational adults. Seriously, what's going on here? Nothing out of the ordinary happened last night; everything was exactly as it usually is—as it's supposed to be. So what's gotten into you this morning? Did you have a nightmare or something?"

He still didn't get it, did he? How could one man be so totally and completely dense? "What's gotten into me? What's gotten into me?! You're trespassing in my house, Zelos! You and your perverted, despicable fantasies have led you to break into my house and climb into bed with me! You don't see anything wrong with that?!"

"Sheena, you're my wife," he retorted, more forcefully that time. "I'm your husband. I belong here just as much as you do because it's my house, too. And any perverted fantasies I have about you—which, granted, are plenty—are completely legitimate because, oh, we've been married over five years now. Remember that?"

As if she would ever marry him! "You really have lost your mind, haven't you? Well, then let me remind you, in no uncertain terms: I can't stand you or the sight of you, and I distinctly remember telling you the last time we talked that I never wanted to see you again. None of that has changed since then." That voice of reason in her mind tried to point out that he looked stunned and confused by her words—and, more than that, hurt, of all things—but she refused to dwell on that and instead plowed on, "If you value your life at all, then get the hell out of my house, Zelos, before I kill you in the slowest, most painful way I can think of! Get out!" To emphasize that, Sheena shoved him again, that time toward the door.

But still he shook his head, refusing to give in. "Sheena, calm down! Stop!" He lifted his hands defensively as she came after him again, forcing him further backwards, and that time he did manage to grab her hands and hold them tightly, almost painfully, to prevent her from moving any further. "Ayame, stop it!"

Instantly, Sheena froze, then she abruptly pulled her hands from his and took a step backwards, feeling as if he'd just slapped her. For a moment all she could do was gape at him, her eyes wide, her heart pounding. "...What did you just call me?"

He blinked once, then twice. "What, you mean by your name?"

"You don't know my real name," she whispered. He had called her Ayame. This made no sense whatsoever. "You can't know my real name."

"...Ah, obviously I do?"

No. That was impossible. Zelos...he couldn't know that. "I never told you that! How do you know that?!"

"Yes, you did tell me, the night after we got married! Your real name is Ayame Takara! We were standing right over there—" He pointed at the living room, but his face quickly grew puzzled, as if his brain was having trouble fitting together all of the pieces in front of him.

But again Sheena ignored that weird look; she was too busy trying to figure out how the hell he knew her real name. "I never married you, and I certainly never told you that," she said, more softly that time.

Zelos shook his head and looked back at her, his perplexed expression vanishing in favor of desperation. "Yes, Sheena, you did! See, proof!" Lifting his left hand, he took off his wedding ring—wait, when did this idiot get married?—and held it up in front of her face. "Read it!" She gaped at him again, hesitating, but he grabbed her hand and placed the ring in it. "Read it." She swallowed hard, then walked over to her window and, in the faint light streaming in from the approaching dawn, looked at the ring, located the inscription inside it, and did as instructed.

"Forever Yours, Ayame Takara," she read aloud softly, unable to believe what she was seeing.

"Remember that?" he went on. "Ayame Takara. It means 'Iris Treasure.' Your grandfather named you that after he found you in the forest while admiring a wild iris."

She was starting to feel lightheaded and nauseous as he snatched the ring back from her, as if afraid she would try to steal it. "I never gave you that ring," she whispered, then looked up at him, meeting his eyes. "I never told you that!"

"Yes, you did! How else could I have this? How else could I know that unless you'd told me?" Sheena didn't answer, fear beginning to creep over her. This made no sense. How could he possibly know that? She hadn't given him that ring; she would've remembered if she had! Or...had she and she just didn't remember it? Zelos's brows furrowed in concern, his voice lowering to a horrified whisper, clearly wondering the same. "You really don't remember, do you?"

...No. No. She shook her head sharply. She remembered every godawful thing that had happened the past five-plus years, and not a single bit of it had involved Zelos Wilder. Of that, she was absolutely certain. "I can't remember something if it never happened!" He groaned in frustration, then looked around her room again as if the answer was hiding there somewhere. But the fear building within her was too alarming, too paralyzing, to currently deal with, and so instead she fell back on the most comfortable emotion for her: anger. "Seriously, Zelos, just quit joking about this already!"

"I'm not joking about this, Sheena!"

"This isn't funny anymore!"

"No, you're right, it isn't!"

They fell quiet, the only sound in the room their heavy breathing, looking at each other intently. Sheena gritted her teeth and gave him her best glare...which she expected wasn't as effective as usual seeing as fear had already begun overwhelming her anger. "I'm only going to say this one last time, Zelos. Get out of my house."

But he no longer seemed to hear her. Instead, he was looking around the room, his eyes narrowed, his gaze intense. "Something is seriously wrong here," he mumbled, more to himself than to her. "This is...this is our first house." His eyes snapped back to her. "And you..." His gaze fell to her waist, but then, in a move that left her stunned, his eyes not only widened, but Zelos suddenly fumbled at the dresser, grabbed the pair of scissors sitting atop it, and brandished it at her, his face alight with fire and fear and his tone shifting from confused to demanding and angry. "Who are you? What did you do with Sheena?"

...Say what? Sheena blinked at him, taken aback by his abrupt change in demeanor. "What are you talking about? I am Sheena."

"No, you're not. You may look like her, but you aren't her."

What the hell? How could he look at her and yet say, with such certainty, that she wasn't herself? She didn't even look any different than she had the last time she'd seen him! "Yes, I am!"

He shook his head. "No, you're not. You aren't my wife, and this isn't my home." He paused, his eyes widening again. "Oh, Jizou." The hand pointing the scissors at her trembled and he lowered it. Next she knew, he was running out of her bedroom and heading toward her storage room...how the hell had he even known she had another room when he'd never even been in her home before this?

She followed him into the room, just to make sure he didn't try anything weird. "Zelos, what do you think you're doing?"

Before she could process what was happening, though, he whipped back toward her and pointed the scissors at her again, his face not only frighteningly furious, but downright scared. "What did you do with them? If you so much as laid a finger on my family, I swear, I will kill you, no matter who you look like."

Egads, this was making no sense whatsoever. Not to mention he still wasn't leaving! "Zelos, seriously, what are you talking about? Since when do you have a family? And even if you did have one, why would I hurt them?"

"These mind games won't work with me. Just tell me what you want from me. Is it my money? Are you planning on blackmailing me or holding them hostage to get my fortune? Are you one of those damn hunnies who keeps following me around, fantasizing you're my wife and thinking you'll conjure up some magic and step into her shoes—in which case, you did a horrible job of it because this isn't my home anymore and you aren't...you aren't..." He motioned at her stomach and shook his head. "Or are you just trying to make me lose my mind? What's the deal?"

Her lips parted, and she stared at him blankly. "Zelos, I keep telling you, the only thing I want from you is for you to leave!"

"Not until I find out what you've done, why I'm here, and where they are!"

"I haven't done anything! You're the one who suddenly showed up this morning in my bed! You weren't here last night!"

His eyes narrowed sharply. "Then how did I get here? What did you do?"

"Nothing!"

"I don't believe that. I didn't do anything different last night, and I know Sheena didn't either, so it had to have been you, whoever the hell you are. Now what did you do?"

Sheena opened her mouth to reply...and abruptly stopped as the answer hit her like a ton of bricks. She suddenly felt very, very faint and nauseous. "Oh, Jizou."

Zelos lifted the scissors at her again. "What did you do?"

"It...it can't be," she whispered. "That's impossible."

"What?" he countered. "What?"

"This can't be connected."

"Damn it, Sheena, what can't be connected?!"

She lifted her eyes to his, alarmed by the pure confusion and desperation she saw written there that matched how she felt exactly. It had to be the cause of all of this—she'd only just finished it last night!—but she had no idea how this, a half-naked Zelos Wilder(with surprisingly short hair, she finally noted)was supposed to be an answer to all of her problems, especially when it was obvious he had no more idea of what was going on than she did. One thing was clear, though: she needed more information. There was only one thing she could do, only one possible place to go. Spinning on her heels, Sheena raced into her bedroom and started grabbing her clothes from the dresser, sliding them on, then she hurried back into the living room.

Zelos moved into the doorway to her storage room, the scissors still in hand, staring at her as if she had lost her mind. "Hey! Don't even think about leaving until you've given me some answers!"

She would give him answers if she could, but she didn't have any yet to give. Ignoring him, she rushed to the shrine in the corner. "What did you do?" she shouted at it. "Answer me! This isn't what I asked for!" As expected, there was no response, nor was there any change to either the shrine or the offering. "Damn it."

Grabbing the little piece of wood off the shrine, she hurried to the door, slipped on her shoes, and threw it open. "Hey!" Zelos called after her, and from the corner of her eye she saw him set the scissors atop a cabinet shelf and begin following her. "Where are you going?! Sheena, stop!"

Sheena didn't answer him. She raced out of her house and into the nearby forest. If the shrine wouldn't give her any answers, then she had to try the one other place connected with it. A minute later she reached the river. "Where are you?!" she shouted at it, and while she was sure talking to a river looked stupid, she really didn't care. "Show yourself! I didn't ask for this, and you know it!" Still there came no response. "I'm not giving up until you've explained how this happened, how he came to be here, and how he knows things he can't possibly know!"

She could hear Zelos behind her, cursing softly and muttering in pain—why, she wasn't quite sure, nor did she particularly care—but she ignored him again and continued staring at the river. And then there, suddenly, he was, floating above the gently flowing water: Verius. Her eyes widened—she'd been expecting Jizou, not her reincarnated friend-slash-transformed summon spirit—but before she could consider that, he bowed his head to her. "Sheena. Chosen One Zelos."

"Verius!" both she and Zelos said simultaneously. From the corner of her eye, she saw Zelos abruptly stop beside her, still dressed in only a pair of boxer shorts and a light sheet he had apparently grabbed from her bed before following her here. His feet were bare...oh, that was probably why he'd cursed before: from walking through the forest without shoes.

"It is very good to see you both again."

Wait...what did this mean? Why was Verius here? Did that mean he was responsible for the mess she'd awoken to this morning? "Verius, what's going on?" She was impressed at how calm her voice sounded compared to how she felt. "Are you the one who did this?"

"I am."

...He did this? Really? "This is a joke, isn't it?"

"This is not a joke, Sheena," he replied. "I am simply doing as you asked."

"Doing as I asked?!" Had he lost his mind in the years since he'd become a summon spirit?! "No, you aren't! You sent me him!" She motioned incredulously at Zelos. "He definitely isn't what I asked for!"

Verius, to her amazement, gave her a pointed look, clearly not impressed by her tone. "Actually, Sheena, he is exactly what you asked for."

Beside her, Zelos suddenly shook his head. "Whoa, everyone back up a sec. What are you two talking about? What did you ask for?" He turned from Sheena to Verius when she didn't answer him. "And whatever it is, why do you think I'm it?"

Verius fixed her with a pointed look. "Would you care to explain this to him, Sheena?"

Explain this? To him?He was kidding, right? She could feel her face grow warm and she refused to look at Zelos as she shook her head. "No, I wouldn't, because I refuse to be held responsible for this. I mean, he is the last thing in the world I ever would've wished for!"

With a low, disappointed sigh, Verius turned to Zelos. "Last night, Sheena completed a wish tag."

That seemed to take him aback. "...A wish tag?"

"Yes, a wish tag."

He stared at Verius a moment, his eyes narrowing. "What...?"

This blasted summon spirit was determined to tell Zelos about her very private, very personal wish tag, wasn't he? Well, then, she could at least control some of the information he received. She folded her arms to her chest, continuing to glare at Verius. "A wish tag is something we make in Mizuho to—"

"I know what a wish tag is, thank you very much," Zelos snapped at her. "I'm trying to figure out why you made one and what you could've possibly wished for that caused this to happen." Her blush deepened, but he ignored that and turned back to Verius. "So what are you saying, Verius? That Sheena is so unhappy with me and with our life together that she wished for a different one, one without me in it, hence her missing memories of the last few years?"

Verius shook his head. "On the contrary, Chosen. This woman is not your Sheena, and this world is not your own."

That got her attention. "What?" they both said, once again in unison.

"You are in an alternate world, one that was identical to your own to a point but that then, in an instant, changed radically. A single incident played out very differently in your world than it did here—an incident which, as a result, had profound changes on the states of your universes. That single choice resulted in the creation of this 'alternate' world." Verius tilted his head slightly. "This world is, I suppose you could say, a 'What if?' scenario to the world in which you live, Chosen."

Zelos lifted his hand, blinking at Verius several times. "Okay, let me get this straight. You're saying I'm in a different world?"

"A different, mirror universe, that is correct. It is similar to your own, and yet, because of that one altered moment, it is becoming increasingly different the farther in time you move from that event. I am certain you have already begun to see the vast differences between your worlds."

"An alternate world resulting from a different choice..." Zelos murmured. "So what 'single incident' happened differently here that changed everything?"

"Roughly seven years ago, you and your friends attended a party hosted by the king to celebrate the reunion of the two worlds."

"Right...?" he prompted. "That was one of the best nights of my life. It changed everything for me...for us."

Verius bowed his head. "I am well aware of that. Here, however, that night played out very differently." He turned to Sheena. "Sheena, do you remember the night of which we speak?"

She shrugged, still trying to wrap her head around this 'mirror universe' concept. That had been a long time ago—as Verius had said, nearly seven years ago—and had been nothing spectacular, but she never forgot the few Meltokio parties she'd attended because of how different they were from the norm for her. "I guess. It was nothing special, just another boring, typical, over-the-top Meltokio party." Wait, what had Zelos been saying about that night being 'one of the best nights of his life'? She looked sharply at him. "What do you think happened that night?"

To her amazement, his eyes softened in a way she had never seen before. "You and I spent the night out on a balcony, talking...and soon after that we started dating." His eyes suddenly narrowed. "What do you think happened that night?"

"Started dating?" she replied with an incredulous laugh. "You?! Not a chance! Yeah, I remember finding you out on that balcony that night, and we talked for a few minutes, but you made some idiotic, perverted joke like you always do, and I got pissed at you, gave up on ever getting anything real out of you, and left."

"...Oh," he replied, his face falling. "So did you two ever date here? You and...y'know, me?"

Her? Date Zelos Wilder? She scoffed. "Are you kidding? You are the last person I would ever consider dating!"

He smirked and lifted his hand, the early morning light catching on his wedding ring and making it shine. "Obviously not, if you gave me this."

Her face flared again as she motioned derisively at it. "I never gave you that!"

Instantly his smirk faded, and next she knew he was looking at her with an expression of surprising thoughtfulness and somberness. "No, I guess you didn't here, did you?" Zelos cleared his throat and looked back at Verius. "Okay, so that explains that...I think. That night happened differently here than it did in my world, resulting in a world where we apparently never got together like we did in mine. But what it doesn't explain is why I'm here now, in this world that clearly isn't my own, so let's go back to my original question. You said she made a wish tag. What did she wish for?" Instead of answering that, Verius looked expectantly at Sheena, and a moment later Zelos was looking at her, too. "Sheena? What did you wish for?"

...Damn it. She could tell her face was bright red again, embarrassingly enough. And there was no way she could possibly answer that question. Her wish had been far too personal and...desperate; she refused to share something like that with anyone, and especially not with a Zelos Wilder who was clearly delusional and was convinced they were married.

"Will you tell him, Sheena?" Verius gently prodded.

She shook her head and looked away from them both, folding her arms to her chest. "Absolutely not. I would rather swallow a thousand needles."

He sighed softly. "Then I apologize, but if you will not tell him, I must. She wished for happiness, Chosen. She wished for love and companionship."

Damn it, why couldn't he just keep his mouth shut? That was her wish, and it was definitely none of Zelos Wilder's business to know! She gave Verius the most scathing look she could manage, although the heat in her face from her blush indicated it probably wasn't as effective as she'd hoped.

Zelos's eyes narrowed and he blinked a few times, thinking that over. "And so, in answer to her wish, you sent her...me?"

"This isn't what I meant, Verius, and you know it," she snapped. "I would never, never have wished for him! I feel nothing for this man but the deepest disgust and contempt!"

"Sheena, I am a summon spirit of the heart, and before that, I was your friend, Corrine," Verius calmly replied. "You told me many things back then, and one of them was about your feelings for this man, the 'crush' you once had on him."

Agh, he did not just say that! As glad as she was to see Verius again after all this time—and the mention of Corrine, as it always did, still made her stomach lurch in sadness and regret—she really wasn't appreciating his insistence on sharing so much embarrassing, personal information with the idiotic, nearly naked man standing beside her who apparently believed she would date and marry him. "I...I did not! I never had a crush on him! Lloyd, yes, I'll admit to that one, but him? I would never have a thing for an idiot like him!"

Verius gave her an unamused look. "Sheena, do not lie to me, to yourself, or to him. You did have budding feelings for him once, many, many years ago."

"No, I didn't!"

"Yes, you did. Even Chosen One Zelos knows that."

The red-haired idiot had the gall to shrug innocently. "Yeah, I do. You—or at least my version of you—told me that yourself a few years ago. Granted, I wrecked it back then by pushing you away and trying to make you hate me, but that doesn't erase the fact that you did once have a crush on me." Sheena blinked at him, her eyes narrowing, not sure what he'd meant by 'pushing you away' and 'trying to make you hate me,' but her embarrassment silenced her tongue and he continued before she could respond. "You aren't telling me anything I don't already know."

Agh. That was not what she'd wanted to hear. And she really didn't want to know how red her face was right then. "Okay, fine, so I might have had a very minor schoolgirl crush on him once, but that was over a long time ago. Drudging something like that up now after all this time and after everything that's happened since then is definitely not how I'd wanted my wish to be answered, Verius!"

"While it is true that you were the one who made the wish, Sheena, that does not mean you get to choose how it is answered," Verius reminded her, his voice a mixture of gentleness and sternness, as if he were speaking to a petulant yet dearly loved child. "How I answer it is my choice, as the one gracious enough to have heard your wish and decided to grant it."

...Oh. Damn it. She hesitated, embarrassed to realize he had a point—beggars can't be choosers, after all, the voice of reason pointed out to her—but instead of letting that uncomfortable emotion linger within her, she again latched onto her fury and incredulousness and motioned at Zelos. "I realize that, Verius, but him? Seriously?! He keeps insisting we're married!"

"And in his world, you are."

Sheena took a step backwards, unable to believe her ears. "What?! We...we are?"

"Yes, you are. He did not lie to you about that."

She married Zelos Wilder in another universe? What, had that other version of her completely lost her mind? No, that couldn't be it, because even then, doing something so crazy would never be even remotely on her radar. "That...that's impossible! I don't care which world we're talking about, I would never, ever, in a million years, marry him!"

Verius frowned. "And yet an alternate version of you did marry him, Sheena. You saw his ring, did you not?"

She shook her head. No. She couldn't even begin to wrap her head around such a thought, that she would willingly choose to marry an idiot like him, and so she refused to even try. All trying would do was give her a migraine. Instead, she focused on another aspect of this that made absolutely no sense. "So, wait. Even discounting the whole 'this is Zelos we're talking about' thing, which is something I can't even begin to comprehend in and of itself, are you saying you chose to answer my wish by sending me a man who's already married? You take him from his wife, whoever she might be—because I refuse to believe it's me—and bring him here in answer to my wish?"

"Okay, as much as I wish Sheena would quit talking about me like I'm not standing right here, and as completely bizarre as this entire situation is, I have to agree with her on that one," Zelos said. "I already have a wife, and I'm definitely not in the market for a new one. I'm not dropping everything I've built for myself in my world to suddenly be this woman's companion, even if she is her..." he looked at her and pulled a face, "...kinda."

Verius shook his head. "Rest assured, Chosen, I do not expect you to do so. That was not my purpose behind bringing you here. Rather, I brought you here to open her eyes, to help her understand herself and see what is available in front of her that she is currently incapable of seeing for herself. I brought you here to show her another option."

Zelos's eyes narrowed further. "Wait...are you saying you want me to hook her up with this world's version of me?"

She couldn't restrain the derisive laugh that burst out of her as she folded her arms to her chest. "Absolutely not. I refuse. Zelos Wilder is a world-class jerk who I'd sooner kill than ever see or speak to again."

"I did not say it had to be with the other you, Chosen," Verius replied, ignoring her. "It could be with anyone you believe has the capability to make her happy and offer her what she needs most—or, for that matter, it could be with no one. But no one alive, not in this world nor in any others, knows this woman as well as you do. In fact, I dare say you know her even better than she knows herself because you have seen sides to her that she has yet to witness within herself. That is why I have brought you here: not to become her companion, nor even to find her a mate, but rather to help her realize that perhaps she is mistaken about what she seeks and that the answer is not so far out of reach as she believes it is."

For a moment, Zelos considered that silently, his lips tugging downward in a frown. "This is absolutely crazy. You know that, right?" Before Verius could respond, though, he suddenly shook his head and lifted his hands. "Hey, hold on a sec. What about my family? You're saying you expect me to...what? Stay here with this crazy broad and either play matchmaker for her until she's found a husband or play coach while she 'discovers her true self,' all the while neglecting my own wife? I'm flattered you think I'm capable of doing that, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to be selfish and say no, send me home. I'd rather be with my family than here doing...this, quite possibly indefinitely, knowing how stubborn Sheena can be."

Verius shook his head. "I would never take you away from your family for that long, Chosen One. I promise, this will not last beyond a single week, and then I will send you home."

He folded his arms to his chest again, watching Verius closely. "Is Sheena okay? My Sheena, I mean?"

"Yes, she is well."

He visibly relaxed. "And Sophia? Is she all right?"

Sheena snorted. Sophia. "Big surprise there," she muttered.

Zelos's head snapped toward her, his eyes narrowing. "What? What about her?"

"Nothing." When he continued glaring at her, she rolled her eyes. "You claim to be married to me, and yet you're asking how your girlfriend is doing? Or is she your mistress? That's exactly what I'd expect from you."

In an instant, his eyes grew cold, his face hardened, his lips pursed, and he looked back at Verius, to all appearances barely restraining his anger. "Verius, send me home. Now."

"Chosen..."

"Now," he demanded, then pointed at Sheena. "I am not putting up with this. This woman isn't my wife, she doesn't know a damn thing about me, and I refuse to stand here and let her keep insulting me like this when I could be at home with my family instead!"

Verius took an urgent, alarmed step forward, albeit still staying above the water. "Chosen One, please, wait." He looked sharply at Sheena. "Sheena, that was extremely rude. You should not say such things. The Chosen is correct; you do not know him, and as such, you are not qualified to make such assumptions about him, judge his character, and accuse him of something so disgraceful and vile as being unfaithful to his wife. Sophia is not his 'girlfriend' or his 'mistress.' She is his daughter."

Icy blue eyes snapped back to her. "Our daughter."

Sheena felt like she'd had all the wind knocked out of her, like if someone so much as touched her, she would tip over. She could detect the first inklings of guilt and regret begin creeping through her. The anger radiating from him was intimidating...and, if he and Verius were right, it was justified. Zelos was a father? Had she...had she really just cruelly, thoughtlessly insulted an innocent man by assuming his daughter was his mistress? And, worse, if these two weren't lying about him being married to her in this alternate world—a thought her mind still recoiled from but that she had better start entertaining soon since all the signs were pointing to it being true, what with Verius backing it up like this—she hadn't just insulted him and his daughter, but she had insulted her own daughter. She was so shaken by her realizations that she found herself speechless, unable to think of how to reply.

She heard Zelos take a deep breath before turning back to Verius. "Look, Verius, I'm sure you had the best of intentions in bringing me here, but it's pretty damn obvious your plan won't work, not with her preconceived, apparently unshakable notions about me. Let's just leave it at this and call it a loss. I'm sure you can find another way to answer her wish, one that doesn't result in my becoming her physical and emotional punching bag again." He took a step toward the river, his voice growing pleading. "Please, just send me home and we can all forget this ever happened."

"Chosen One, please, hear me out," Verius quickly replied. "I have given this matter much thought since Sheena began constructing her wish tag several days ago, and I am convinced this is the most likely, effective method to achieve a desirable outcome for her. I do not expect you to leave your wife for her, nor even for you to be separated from your family for long. In fact, I promised your wife I would only keep you from her for a single week before I send you back to her."

Zelos's eyes narrowed again. "You talked to my Sheena?"

Verius bowed his head. "I did, immediately before I came here. I explained the situation to her, and she agreed to 'loan' you for this purpose for a short time."

The redhead's mouth dropped. "She did?"

"She did." He gave Zelos a pointed look. "She asked me to tell you that she trusts you."

"I'll never tire of hearing that," Zelos murmured, his face briefly softening, but a moment later it hardened again as he motioned at Sheena, who quickly looked away from them both again, still reeling from embarrassment and guilt and an inability to believe any of this was really happening. "Okay, I hate to break this to you, but you're naïve if you think I'll be able to help someone who doesn't want to be helped, like it's pretty obvious this woman doesn't."

"I do not believe that will be a problem," Verius replied. "I am certain that Sheena's refusal to accept your help and guidance will only be temporary. In fact, while it may not be obvious yet, her attitude toward you has already begun to shift, simply because you are obviously not the man she expected you to be, the Zelos Wilder she knows here."

"Well, I'm definitely not convinced of that yet," Zelos muttered.

"You shall see."

He sighed. "Okay, fine, whatever. If you insist. But even then, why me? Why not pick some other universe's Zelos Wilder or another random guy she could live happily ever after with?"

"I think we both know it is not that simple, Chosen," Verius said. "Sheena can be difficult, stubborn, and intimidating toward the opposite sex when she is convinced of something."

"Yeah, no argument there," Zelos said with a snort. "But then, I'm sure she'd say the same about me."

"That is true." Verius took another step closer to them. "The truth is, Chosen One, that I chose you to do this because your Sheena is happy, not only with you as her husband, but with the life you two have built for yourselves. Because you, unlike me, are limited to witnessing solely one universe, you cannot possibly realize how rare such happiness is in her. As a summon spirit of the heart, I have seen many different Sheenas in many different universes, and of them all, your wife is the happiest, most content, and satisfied with her life."

Sheena peered back at them, floored by that statement—that she was the happiest she'd ever been while married to Zelos Wilder —in time to see Zelos's eyebrows fly upward. "She is?" he asked.

Verius bowed his head. "She is. I would not have brought you here if she were not."

"Huh. No, I suppose not." He cleared his throat. "And you're sure there's no other 'me' available who's qualified to do this instead?"

"Unfortunately, no. It is actually quite rare for you and Sheena to reach the point you two have in your world. In some realities, you are dead, having died at your friends' hands in the Tower of Salvation. In other realities you and Sheena attempted a relationship only for her to turn you away, fearing the same that your Sheena once did, that you would never be happy with her or with the life that came with her. In still other realities, you did not reach the point of acceptance with the Mizuhoan lifestyle that you did and you never asked her to marry you. In many other realities, like this one, you and Sheena never even attempted a relationship."

Zelos was silent a moment, continuing to stare at him. "So it's really that rare that we ended up together?"

"Yes, it is, unfortunately for you both. And yet the fact remains that the effort you and your wife have exerted these past few years to making your marriage work has resulted in an extremely satisfying life for you both."

The man blushed and rubbed at the back of his neck. "Heh. Wow. I mean, I know how happy I am with her, despite the occasional sticky moment where we both want to kill each other, and I wouldn't trade our life together for anything. I guess I never realized she felt the same."

"She does, Chosen," Verius assured him, smiling warmly. "Have no doubt about that."

Zelos considered that a moment, a soft, happy smile toying on his lips, but then suddenly he sighed. "And so you have to understand why I want to go back to her and Sophia instead of dealing with this crazy chick for the next week."

Verius bowed his head. "I do understand that. However, I am begging you, Chosen, please help her, if not for my sake, then for hers."

"I don't know this woman, Verius," he said, shaking his head. "She doesn't mean a damn thing to me. This morning is the first time I ever met her."

"And yet you do know her, Chosen," Verius countered. "As such, I do not believe you capable of feeling for nothing for her. No, you are correct that this woman may not be your wife, but she is the Sheena your wife would have become had that night nearly seven years ago occurred as it did in this world. In that respect, she is actually your Sheena, and you do know her as well as you know your wife. I know you love her and would do anything for her."

"Of course I do, and of course I would," Zelos admitted, his voice softening. "But even if this is my Sheena...kind of...I didn't marry this woman."

"No, you did not, but you would have had circumstances played out differently."

"...Maybe."

Zelos's lips pursed as he thought about that, and in the ensuing silence, Verius turned to Sheena...who felt like a shocked, horrified, confused bystander watching a murder happen right before her eyes, just listening to them talk about her, unsure how she felt about this. All she knew for certain was that she couldn't accept any of it. "Sheena, please show the Chosen your wish tag," he said.

The sudden shift in focus back to her caught her off guard, and she folded her arms to her chest and looked away again. "N...no," she said, her voice sounding pathetically weak. "I...I'd rather not."

"Sheena, everything the Chosen and I have discussed here is true," Verius gently prompted. "In his world, the two of you began dating soon after the king's reunification party. You were married a year later, and you have been together nearly six years now. You have a daughter together named Sophia. You are both overwhelmingly happy there. You may not know this man, but he knows you, he knows Sheena Fujibayashi, and he loves her. Please, trust my judgment in choosing to answer your wish in this way. You may not yet understand my reasoning for it, but I assure you that you soon will." When she didn't—couldn't—respond, he went on. "Let him see your wish tag. You can trust him not to taunt you or tease you about it, as you expect from him. He is not the man you know or believe him to be, and I am certain you will soon recognize that. Please, Sheena."

Still she hesitated, but Verius continued watching her imploringly, and finally she sighed and pulled the wooden offering from her pocket. "Fine." And then, as an afterthought, she added under her breath, "It's not like he can read it anyway."

Zelos grinned wryly as he took it from her. "I've been living in Mizuho for years, sweetheart. I can read it, no matter how messy your handwriting may be at times."

Sheena swallowed hard, her blush reigniting as he looked down at it, his smile quickly fading. If he could read her people's language, then he definitely wouldn't have trouble reading this tag seeing as she'd written it as neatly as she could. Thankfully, he didn't read the words aloud—that would have just made this already humiliating situation a thousand times worse—but she could still hear his voice reading it in her mind, words she had memorized because of how deeply and thoroughly she had thought them all through before finally deciding on them.

"Please, Jizou, help me. I'm scared for my people and our future. Please send me someone who can help us all. I want to be happy for once. I want to look forward to the future instead of dreading waking up each morning. Help me find a companion, someone who loves me and loves Mizuho and who I can actually love in return. I'm lonely, Jizou...I don't want to be alone anymore. Please, grant me my wish."

For a moment, Sheena thought she was going to pass out from embarrassment and mortification as Zelos looked up at her again, emotion flaring in his eyes that she had never seen there before: empathy, compassion, sadness...something she thought might even be love. She quickly looked away, folding her arms to her chest, unable to meet his eyes again, still refusing to believe this was really happening.

With a low sigh, Zelos looked back at Verius, his voice when he spoke far softer and sadder than it had been a minute ago. "I'm not saying 'no,' but wouldn't it be better if my wife were the one here doing this? Wouldn't this Sheena be more likely to listen to herself than she would to me? I mean, it's pretty obvious this woman hates me."

"I admit, it is possible she would be more receptive to hearing her own voice of reason than that of a man she carries such conflicted feelings toward," Verius replied. "But it will take time for Sheena to come to see, understand, and accept everything that I hope she will, and it is currently impossible for your wife to pass in this world for any length of time as herself."

A quick, curious glance at them showed that Zelos's eyes had lit up with an understanding that Sheena didn't share. "Oh, right, because she's—"

"Yes."

"Whereas I can pass as 'myself' here because the difference between me and the...other me...likely isn't as obvious."

Verius bowed his head. "That is correct. While your hair is considerably shorter than your alternate's, beyond that, you two look the same."

Zelos observed him another moment before glancing at Sheena, who quickly looked away again, still unbearably embarrassed. He then sighed and turned back to Verius. "All right, you said you're only going to keep me here a week, right?"

"That is correct. I cannot keep you from your family any longer than that, especially since your wife made it clear that was the maximum length of time she was willing to let you do this. On the seventh day, whether you have succeeded or failed, I will return you to your home."

"And just to clarify, while I'm here, you expect me to do...what, exactly?"

"Be yourself, Chosen; that is all you need to do," Verius said. "If you can help her find someone with whom she could be happy, that would be wonderful, but I do not expect you to secure her a husband within such a short period of time, nor would I necessarily want you to. Ultimately, Sheena needs to be the one to decide upon the man who will become her companion. Simply let her see you in the same light your wife sees you; let her see the real Zelos Wilder, a man this woman has never received more than a glimpse of in all her time knowing you. In your world, you and your Sheena helped each other grow to accept yourselves and one another, and I believe your presence here will help this Sheena do the same."

Zelos fell silent another long moment, looking back and forth between Sheena and Verius, his blue eyes sharp and piercing as he considered that. Finally, he nodded and turned back to Verius. "All right, if I agree to this, Verius, you have to do something for me."

Verius smiled. "Of course, Chosen. What do you need from me?"

"I need you to keep an eye on my family for me while I'm here. I need you to protect them and help them however they need it. If something major comes up, I need you to send me back there immediately." He pointed at Verius, his eyebrows rising expectantly. "And if Sheena goes into labor, you need to promise me that I'll be there for it. I missed the birth of one child for some unhappy reasons that I really don't want to think about right now, and I am not missing another. Okay?"

Despite her embarrassment, Sheena couldn't help outright staring at him. So not only did 'she' have a daughter with him in another universe, but they had another child on the way? She was pretty sure her mind was on the verge of completely shutting down. Verius, however, bowed his head as if he knew all about that—which he likely did. "Very well. I do not expect your wife's condition to change during the next week, but if something happens, I will make sure you are there for it."

"Thanks."

Verius lifted his head, watching Zelos carefully. "So do you agree to do this, Chosen?"

Zelos frowned, but then he lifted his hands, shrugged, and sighed. "Yeah, fine. I'll do it. I'm still not convinced I'll be able to do anything for her, given her rather obvious opinion of me, but I'll give it a shot. Assuming she lets me, of course." His eyes darted at her and he grinned wryly. "And assuming doesn't resort to constantly hitting or insulting me every time she gets embarrassed or uncomfortable with the situation."

Blushing yet again, Sheena looked away from them both, unable to respond to that. She felt like she was dying a little more inside with every new thing they said. This was, by far, the wackiest, weirdest, most disturbing, unrealistic, and surreal dream she had ever experienced. And above all else, she was starting to think that making that wish tag really hadn't been her best idea ever, not if this was the result, how Verius inexplicably thought Zelos Wilder, of all possible men, would magically solve all of her problems.

"As I said, Chosen, be yourself, the man your wife helped you to become, the man she fell in love with," Verius said. "And Sheena, if you truly want your wish to be answered, you must be patient, open-minded, and nonjudgmental with this situation. I know you often struggle with those traits, but in this, you must put forth the effort necessary to be so. As we have already established, and as I know you will realize once you are past the initial shock, this man is not the Zelos Wilder you know and detest. Listen to him. You can trust him. Give him a chance to prove himself. In doing this, I am attempting to answer your wish, but you cannot dismiss my method of doing so offhand, even though I am not approaching it in a way you had anticipated. Do you understand?" Sheena still couldn't look at either of them, but she did get the message. She nodded faintly, maybe even imperceptibly, but Verius seemed to notice and accept it anyway. "Then I will let you two be, and I will see you again in one week."

And just like that, he was gone. A second later, Zelos took a step forward, his eyes widening as he motioned at his bare, muscular chest, the sheet that barely covered him sliding down a bit around his broad shoulders. "Hey, wait a minute! Couldn't you at least have brought me my clothes?!" Verius didn't return, though, and Sheena heard Zelos growl lowly before he looked back at her, considering her. Finally, he sighed again as she averted her eyes, embarrassed to realize she'd been staring at his exposed, impressive physique, and then he lightly touched her back, urging her to walk with him. "C'mon, let's go home—" She stiffened at the term, and he gave her a tight, awkward smile. "Er, your home."

She couldn't help eyeing him uncomfortably, once again finding herself stuck on the fact that he was wearing only black boxer shorts and that damn sheet. Shaking her head to scatter that thought, she instead looked away from him, trying, without much success, to force herself to ignore his partial nudity. How hadn't she noticed it before he'd tried to point it out to Verius?

Without warning, he looked at his hand, seemed to realize what he'd done by touching her, and pulled it away, giving her a sheepish smile. "Sorry. Force of habit."

Sheena didn't reply, still unsure how to reply, but she did start walking beside him, back toward Mizuho, wincing every time he winced as he stepped on a stone or twig with his bare feet. She purposely tried to keep her mind blank, afraid of what would happen if she were to seriously consider everything that was happening—a so-called answer to her wish—but deep down she knew she couldn't put it off much longer. She was ultimately responsible for this since it had been her wish that had led Verius to answer it in this way, and so it was inevitable she would eventually have to face the consequences.

As expected, once they reached her home—she'd never been so glad before that there weren't many villagers left to see a nearly naked Zelos Wilder enter her house with her—with Zelos holding the door open for her, her brain finally started working again. He was supposed to help her solve all of her many problems? Even though he was married to another version of her? How was this supposed to work? She couldn't even look at the man without being flooded with a wave of confused, conflicting emotions that ranged from disgust, anger, and annoyance at seeing him again after she'd deliberately cut him from her life long ago, to embarrassment at knowing he'd just read her very personal wish tag in which she'd pleaded for help and a companion, to guilt at knowing she had taken him away from his family. The entire situation was bizarre, and unnerving, and she had no idea how to act around him or what to say to him. She was so distracted by her thoughts that she barely even noticed that upon entering her home, he had guided her to her table, urged her to sit down, and then, after shrugging off her bed sheet and leaving it on the edge of the couch, headed into her kitchen area and began sifting through her cabinets, pulling out food.

In time, and with no answers forthcoming to quell her raging thoughts, her gaze fell on him again—and, against her better judgment, she couldn't look away as he silently began putting together some kind of dish. It was perhaps the most surreal yet mesmerizing sight she'd ever seen: a mostly naked Zelos Wilder with extremely short red hair moving fluidly around her kitchen, knowing exactly where everything was, as if it was the most natural thing in the world for him to do so. And for him, she supposed, it really was natural, seeing as he'd said this had been their 'first house,' meaning he had once lived here...a thought that just made the situation that much more surreal.

Oh, Jizou, if he really did know her house this well, then...all of it had to be true. Not that she thought Verius would lie to her, but all of it had to be true.

In another universe, she had married Zelos Wilder and started a family with him.

The reality was finally sinking in, as was the realization that this really wasn't a dream—because while dreams were notoriously weird, there was no way her subconscious mind could possibly be this messed up to be dreaming of marrying Zelos Wilder—and with it came all the accompanying questions. Why had her alternate married him? What had she seen in an idiot like him? How had he convinced her to marry him? Had he caught her in a moment of weakness, had a one-night stand with her, she'd gotten pregnant, and so they'd gotten married? Had she sincerely fallen in love with him, as the 'Forever Yours' inscription on his ring had hinted, and if so, why? Was she really as happy as Verius had implied? Had he been faithful to her? Was Zelos Wilder even capable of being a husband and a father, taking responsibility for his choices, making a commitment to a single woman, and then sticking to it? How did this Zelos differ from the one she'd always known? He was different—she had seen that already in the short time he'd been here—but what had caused him to mature so much? And how in Jizou's name could she get herself to stop staring at his chest? How would it feel to be her alternate and run her fingers down his...?

She quickly shook her head and forced herself to look away from him, her face flaring at where her mind had unwittingly taken her again. She couldn't let it wander in such a direction. She couldn't, especially given their current situation, and especially when the man she was ogling was Zelos Wilder. It was just so hard to stay focused when a single glance at him showed all that perfect, lightly tanned skin and those muscles that rippled gracefully when he moved, indicating he was still keeping himself in great shape...

Sheena jumped a little as a plate with two omelets suddenly appeared on the table in front of her, and she quickly looked down, realizing how distracted she'd been yet again. She forced herself not to look directly at him as he knelt on the other side of the table with his own full plate of food, but her gut told her he knew damn well she'd been staring at him and was smirking about it.

To her surprise, though, he didn't point that out, and instead he motioned at her plate. "Eat." A quick look up at him showed that, to her relief, he wasn't visibly smirking—although she didn't doubt he was smirking internally—but she quickly looked away again as he rolled his eyes at her continued hesitation. "They aren't poisoned, Sheena. And believe it or not, you don't mind them. Honest."

Listen to him, Verius had insisted earlier. You can trust him. Give him a chance to prove himself.

While Sheena still couldn't meet his eyes, and she knew she was still blushing profusely, she decided to give Verius—and this strange man who was acting in no way as she expected Zelos Wilder to act—the benefit of the doubt, and so she tentatively took a bite of the breakfast he'd made for her. She was surprised to find it actually tasted pretty good. Now, if only her stomach wasn't turning cartwheels while her head tried to wrap itself around this whole disruptive, confusing situation, she might actually enjoy the food. Despite not feeling hungry, though, she forced herself to eat anyway; she would feel guilty not eating after he'd gone out of his way to make it for her, and Jizou knew she didn't need any more of that, not on top of the guilt she already felt creeping through her at dragging someone into this mess who never should have been.

She tried to keep her attention focused on her breakfast while she ate, but every now and then she couldn't help herself and her eyes drifted back to him...and to his chest. And sure enough, after that had happened a few times, she could see he'd caught on to what she was doing and was smirking about it...at which point she quickly looked away again. For a moment she debated refusing to speak to him the entire time he was here—Verius had promised to take him home in seven days, so it wasn't outside the realm of possibility—but...well, all the questions that had started forming in her mind led her to dismiss that notion. Humiliated about this or not, those questions had proven she was also curious about him, and she really didn't think she could go an entire week pretending to ignore him. Heck, ignoring him would be downright rude of her, too, which was uncalled for when he'd been gracious enough to agree to this for her sake.

No, as much as she wanted to run away and hide from this, it wouldn't work. She truly was responsible for the fact that he was here at all, and she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she tried that. In fact, as much as the realization killed her, she already knew she would open her home to him until he returned to his own universe, not just because he was obviously comfortable here, but if it weren't for her, he would never have been forced from his own home for a week. The least she could do was make a few sacrifices of her own—like supplying him with a couch to sleep on and food to eat. Her social customs might still be rough, but Grandpa had at least taught her some manners before he'd died.

She was half finished with her breakfast when she realized how little he had spoken since Verius had left...and that she had yet to say anything to him since then. She needed to change that; he clearly had decided not to make the first move—which was odd, for a man who was usually such a chatterbox—and so that left her to do so. She wasn't sure how much longer she could go on in silence like this anyway; it was unnerving, what with the three or four gigantic elephants standing in the room with them.

"These are good," she murmured, looking down at the remaining omelet on her plate. She still didn't know what was appropriate for her to say, but she figured at least that was safe.

A quick glance upward showed that he was grinning. "Told ya you wouldn't mind them."

Sheena arched an eyebrow. "I take it you learned to cook after the reunification journey?"

"I help out at home when I can," Zelos replied. "My wife is pretty busy being a chief and a mother and all that, so that leaves me to do my fair share of the cooking and other household chores. She seems to think my cooking skills have improved since then, so..." He shrugged.

"Well, this is better than any cooking I've tasted from you before," she admitted, taking another bite.

"I'll take that as a compliment."

Silence returned as they resumed eating, while Sheena tried to figure out, again, what she should be saying to him. He was being friendly, sure, but it really was surprising that he was continuing to be so quiet rather than chattering on and on or taking advantage of the situation to tease her mercilessly, make her uncomfortable, crack stupid jokes, hit on her, and rub it in her face that they were married, all of which she expected from him far more than this stunted conversation. Well, maybe that was a better place to start than just complimenting his cooking skills?

"You're being unusually quiet," she said, taking another bite of her omelet.

Across the table from her, Zelos grinned again. "Believe me, I know when you need quiet time to think things through and adjust before I start pushing you for any real conversation, especially after something as bizarre and unexpected as this has happened."

She wasn't sure if it was a comfort that he knew that about her and had anticipated her 'freak-out' reaction, or if it was yet another unnerving embarrassment since he seemed to know everything about her and yet she had no idea what he did and did not know. What she did know was that for someone as tactless as Zelos usually was, she was impressed he was respecting her need to mentally work through everything on her own first. She nodded her thanks but didn't say anything else, and instead she continued eating.

And sure enough, her curiosity soon began growing again, especially the more she saw how different he was from the Zelos she knew. She suddenly wanted to know more—about him, about her alternate, about...them. She hated thinking about it, seeing as the thought of being married to Zelos Wilder and everything else that came with that made her feel extremely awkward, but since he was here, and he was half-naked in her home, and he had just made her breakfast, and he was acting downright calm and domestic, she couldn't not think about it. There were too many things she wanted to know. She quickly reminded herself that he was only here for a week, and that meant if she said or did something stupid, ultimately there wouldn't be any permanent negative repercussions from it. After all, once he went back to his own world, she would never have to see him again.

To that end, upon finishing the last bite of her omelet and taking a sip of the tea he'd brewed for them, she cleared her throat. Just ask all those pesky questions, she told herself, no matter how bizarre and embarrassing they—and the inevitable answers—might be. "So, uh, you and the...other me...are married, huh?"

"Yep," he replied, popping another bite of omelet in his mouth.

"How...how long?"

"Five years. Well, nearly six, but technically still five."

Nearly six years. Sheena shook her head, amazed. If not for Verius vouching for him, she never would've believed that. "Wow."

"Yeah, I know. I still have trouble believing that sometimes, too. We dated for a year and then took the plunge."

That truly made no sense to her, why her alternate would date that Idiot Chosen an entire year and then agree to marry him, but she opted to keep going with her questions anyway. "And...and you two have a daughter together?"

A soft, mesmerizing smile appeared on his lips. "Heh...yeah. Sophia."

"That's a pretty name."

He motioned at her. "It was your choice."

Her eyes narrowed. It was? Huh. 'Sophia' wasn't a name she'd ever considered for a child—her child—although she did like it. She always figured if she had a baby one day, she would choose a Mizuhoan name. But she quickly shook that confusion off; after all, that was just one of many things she didn't understand yet. "How old is she?"

Part of her expected him to say she was over five years old, which would explain why she'd married him, but his actual answer surprised her. "Two and a half."

...So then their daughter had been conceived long after they'd gotten married. Sheena looked down at her hands and absently picked at a jagged fingernail. "Tell me about her."

"Heh. She's...she's beautiful. A handful, and she wants to touch everything, and she seems to be taking after us both by being stubborn and headstrong and getting herself in plenty of trouble, but she's...she's absolutely incredible." Her eyes snapped upward; even she could tell how smitten he was with his daughter. "She looks a lot like you, although you insist she has my eyes."

Sheena couldn't help smiling faintly, despite her discomfort at hearing all of this. "And your 'me,' she's..." she swallowed and looked down at her fingernail again, her blush returning, "she's...expecting...again?"

"Yeah. She's due in a few weeks, but realistically, we're expecting it to happen any day now."

"Ah." That explained why he'd insisted Verius send him home if her alternate went into labor. It also explained how he'd recognized that she wasn't her alternate, seeing as she definitely wasn't pregnant. "And you...you live in Mizuho?"

"Yep. Mizuho moved a few years ago, but it's still Mizuho, and it's still home."

Sheena looked up at him again, her eyes narrowing. He didn't seem to be lying about any of this—on the contrary, she had never seen Zelos look so serious and sincere when talking about himself before—but it just couldn't be possible, could it? "I'm sorry, I'm just having trouble wrapping my head around this."

"Which part?" He grinned knowingly. "Besides all of it?"

She motioned at him. "You mentioned that I was chief in your world, and yet...she married you?"

Zelos held up his left hand, once again showing off his wedding ring. "Obviously."

"You live in Mizuho."

"Yeah...?"

She stared at him. "You're her spouse."

His face twisted in obvious confusion. "Yeah...?"

"But the chief's spouse...?" How could she put this delicately, without insulting him again? "Did they change the rules in your world about the expectations for the role?"

"You mean the chief consort?" he replied, his eyebrows rising. "No, I'm the chief consort."

Sheena blinked at him blankly. He had to be joking. "You."

He lifted his hands innocently. "Oh, c'mon, don't look so surprised! You—well, my you—is constantly telling me I'm doing a good job at it."

Zelos Wilder was Mizuho's chief consort in his world. She shook her head in amazement. "I can't believe you agreed to that."

He grinned. "Heh. Neither can I sometimes."

"I can't believe I agreed to that," she muttered.

"Yeah, ditto on that one, too." It amazed her how not-obnoxious he was being about this; the Zelos Wilder she'd always known would have been teasing her mercilessly, not speaking about himself almost self-deprecatingly. This man was so much calmer than her world's version of him, and Sheena couldn't help smiling faintly, feeling herself relax a little. If he really wanted to make her uncomfortable and tease her, he would've done so already, and the fact that he hadn't left her thinking maybe Verius was right that she could trust him, at least with that. "But you did, and I have yet to hear any complaints or regrets about your decision to say 'yes' when I offered."

...Wait, what? "You offered?" Her eyes widened as he nodded and murmured an affirmative, realizing what he was implying. Not only had he married her and moved to Mizuho, but he had offered to accept that role, for her. It was hard to believe, hard even to comprehend, and it took her a moment to grasp the full implication of that. She hadn't consciously acknowledged this before, but now that she had, the very thought stunned her. "You must really love her." For a moment he just stared at her, but then, without warning, he burst out laughing. Her face flushed with embarrassment and she glared at him. "What? Why are you laughing? Because you don't love her?"

Zelos waved that off, visibly attempting to control his laughter. "No, no, not at all. I'm laughing because you finally figured that out! Of course I love her! She's my wife. I mean, do you really think I would've married her and moved to Mizuho if I didn't? I know I've always had a reputation as a flirt, a playboy, and a womanizer, not to mention for being impulsive with women, but marriage is something I take very seriously, thank you very much. Trust me, I never would've married her unless I loved her."

...Huh. Who would've thought him capable of that? "And she..." her blush deepened, and she looked down at her hands again, suddenly feeling shy asking this, "...she loves you?"

"Well, that's really a question for her, not me, but yeah, I think it's safe to say she does. I can tell; she's done an awful lot of things for me over the years that she never would've done if she didn't love me." He shrugged. "Besides, if she didn't love me, she wouldn't be happy with me, and then I wouldn't be sitting here right now. Verius never would've brought me here to help you out if she wasn't."

He was right; if this man's version of her didn't really love him, then Verius would've handled this situation very differently. She just wasn't sure she could fathom loving Zelos Wilder. "No, I guess not," she murmured, then glanced up at him again, relieved to see he wasn't smirking. Heck, there wasn't even a twinkle of amusement in his blue eyes. "I'm just...I'm having trouble accepting that, that you really do love each other. I mean, no offense, but I never thought you were even capable of love, of committing to one woman, and of settling down in a village like this."

He grinned wryly. "That's because there's a lot you don't know about me, sweetheart. I can guess how it must seem from your perspective, knowing how you used to view me, but the fact of the matter is yes, I do love her. More than life itself. I have for a long, long time, far longer than just before we started dating, even if it took me awhile to realize that. I would do anything for her. She's the love of my life. She's my best friend. She's...heh."

The uncharacteristic blush that appeared on his face, accompanied by an almost shy smile and laugh, held her captivated. Sheena suddenly wanted him to finish that thought. "She's what?"

Zelos glanced up at her, but then he quickly looked down at his plate, the smile still toying on his lips. "I would never tell her this to her face because I know she'd just roll her eyes, smack me, and declare me to be a hopeless idiot and unrepentant, over-the-top sap, but she's my soulmate." His eyes snapped up to hers. "We have plenty of issues, and we've had more than a few arguments since we got married, some of which were pretty major, but that doesn't erase the fact that I can't imagine my life without her...I can't imagine ever being this happy with anyone but her."

Her heart was pounding; her face was burning. This whole conversation was downright bizarre—especially when she realized he was talking about another version of her—and once again she had to fight back the urge to run away and not have to deal with this insanity. She'd be lying to say she didn't recognize he meant that, though; as hard as it was to believe, she could see he was sincere. In fact, it stunned her not only to realize she could instinctively recognize that, because of how differently his words had been delivered from nearly every other line she'd ever heard Zelos Wilder utter, but because it meant he was capable of loving a woman—her—enough to give up his playboy life and commit to her for good. And while she would never tell him this, the oft-neglected romantic side of her, a side she'd been certain she'd pushed out of her life for good years ago, found his words to be extremely sweet and touching.

But then she realized something else, something that brought with it a nearly overwhelming wave of guilt. By making that wish tag, she had taken this man—a man she truly didn't know anything about—away from his home, his 'best friend' and 'soulmate,' and his 'incredible' daughter. His very presence here was her fault, and as a result he had to be away from them now, unexpectedly, unwantedly, for an entire week. Her head sank downward, and the smile that had appeared on her face as he'd declared his love for his wife vanished. "Listen, Zelos, I...I'm really sorry about this."

He arched an eyebrow at her. "For what?"

She motioned at him. "For dragging you here like this."

He frowned. "I don't remember you dragging me here, Sheena. I remember Verius making a choice you didn't ask for, volunteering me for this particular mission, and dragging me here himself."

Well, yeah, but that didn't erase the fact that ultimately she was responsible for this. She'd been thoughtless when she'd made her wish, not considering all the disruptive ways it could be answered, and if she'd known it would result in this, she would've thought twice about completing that wish tag. "But still, if it weren't for me and that stupid wish I made, you wouldn't be here right now. You'd still be with your family where you belong."

Zelos shook his head. "It's one week, not the rest of my life. I'll live. Besides, I don't blame you for this, nor do I think your wish was in any way 'stupid,' so don't apologize." His eyebrows rose pointedly. "This isn't your fault, Sheena. Honest."

While she appreciated his effort to allay her guilt, his words did little when she could already see the bruise forming on his cheek where she had punched him earlier. She discreetly motioned at it. "Well, the bruise on your face sure was."

He lifted his hand to his cheek and touched it, wincing. "Oh. Heh. Yeah, I suppose that is your fault, isn't it?"

She lowered her eyes. "I'm sorry about that, too. You and Verius were right. It's already becoming pretty obvious that I don't know anything about you and who you really are. You aren't the Zelos Wilder I've always known, and I had no right to judge you based on who I thought you were, and especially not to lash out at you like that. You didn't do anything wrong. I'm sorry."

"Sheena, it's okay," he quickly said. "This'll heal." He gave her a goofy grin. "Heh. Actually, it kinda felt like I was reliving the good old days, back before we started dating, when you were still smacking me every time I opened my mouth." A second later, though, he pulled a face. "Of course, now that I think about it, I really don't miss those days all that much..."

Her eyebrows flew upward. "Are you saying your wife doesn't smack you all the time?"

"You probably won't believe me, but no, she doesn't. Playful smacks when I'm being silly? Sure, those I get all the time. 'I want to physically make you pay for something stupid you did' smacks?" He shook his head. "No. Not anymore, and not for a long time now."

Under normal circumstances she would never believe that, seeing as Zelos Wilder was the one saying it, but the man she was seeing right now was so completely different from 'her' Zelos that she did believe him. Other than when they'd first awoken, she hadn't experienced a single urge to smack him for something stupid he'd done. In fact, he was acting far calmer, more mature, and less irritating than she'd known he was capable of being. Hell, he had even made her breakfast without any prompting! Since talking to Verius, she'd been trying to get into the head of this man's wife, needing to figure out what she had seen in him, but judging from his actions the short time he'd been here, it wasn't hard. He was acting like a real husband toward her—granted, to a woman who was his wife but actually wasn't, kind of...agh, this whole thing was confusing, and complicated, and embarrassing, and she could only imagine how weird it must be for him, too, to be with someone who looked like his wife but wasn't. The situation was bizarre and unnerving, definitely, but it was also eye-opening because she was seeing him in a completely new light.

And so, not knowing what to say, Sheena just nodded, realizing she had no right to argue his assertion.

Zelos smiled faintly, then suddenly cleared his throat. "In any case, that's enough about me. I'm here because of you—and because I apparently have a job to do here, even if I have no clue how to do it yet. But a good starting point is finding out how you're different from my wife. So tell me, what's your life been like the past few years? Judging from the fact that my Sheena was under pressure to get married before she became chief, I'm assuming you were here, too. So did you? Obviously not to me, but to someone?" And just like that, her growing comfort level plummeted and her mind set off warning bells. She knew the conversation eventually had to come around to her...but she really wished it hadn't. She nodded, her nerves already bristling. "Mind if I ask who?" She didn't immediately answer, and a moment later he waved that off. "Actually, don't bother answering that. I already know. Orochi, right?"

Her eyes widened and snapped up to his. "How...how did you...?"

"How did I know? Because he was the only other option you had in my world, too. Well, that and because he once had a 'thing' for you, meaning I'm sure he pursued you here, too. Unless something significantly different happened here, it makes sense that you ended up marrying him to fulfill that requirement."

...Ah. She looked down at the table and nodded faintly, her voice lowering. "Yeah. I did."

"So what happened? Where is he?"

Guilt she'd been trying for years to bury was already beginning to well up within her. She really didn't want to talk about this, not with him and not with anyone, but she supposed she had no choice. He was right; like it or not, he was here for her, and that meant he needed to know certain things about her. "Orochi is dead."

Instantly, Zelos's face fell even as his eyes widened. "I'm sorry, Sheena." She nodded, accepting that his horrified, sad expression was sincere. "How long were you two married?"

"A little under three months."

"How long ago?"

"Six years."

"And you've been alone ever since?" She nodded, and his voice fell to a whisper as he murmured, "No wonder you made that wish." Sheena looked away from him again. The truth was, he didn't know the half of it—and if it were up to her, he never would. "May I ask what happened?"

"I'd rather not talk about it." Which was an understatement, but she refused to elaborate on that.

Thankfully, Zelos lifted his hands. "Okay. I get it. I won't push."

"Thanks." As much as she wanted to drop the entire subject of Orochi, though, she needed to know this first. "Is...is your Orochi still alive?"

"Yeah, he is."

Orochi was still alive in his world...likely because he hadn't married her. Oh, Jizou. She swallowed hard. "You said your Orochi had a 'thing' for your...me?"

"Oh, yeah," he replied with a smirk. "The man couldn't stand me all while my Sheena and I were dating, mostly because he viewed me as a threat to you and to his ability to win your heart. If he could've, he would've killed me a thousand times over. Bottom line was, he was jealous of me and wanted my Sheena for himself. That's why I figured he pursued you here, too. Without my competition, nothing would've stood in his way. I'm not surprised you accepted him, either. He's a good man, and he loves Mizuho."

"And even though we weren't married long, he was a good husband," she whispered, still looking down at her hands. I just wasn't a good wife, her mind added, but Sheena bit her tongue, refusing to say that aloud.

Zelos shook his head. "I'm not gonna argue that, sweetheart. It took him awhile to warm up to me, but in time he did. He's a good friend now—one of the best I have. I trust him with my life, and my Sheena is convinced he feels the same about me, although I'm sure he'll never admit that to my face."

At least she didn't have to try to defend Orochi's honor to him, because few things in life made her more uncomfortable than doing so. And...she needed to know this, too. "Is he...is he happy in your world?"

"Yeah, he is," Zelos said with a faint smile. "In fact, he just got engaged a few weeks ago. Took him a few years to even look at any woman who wasn't you, but just this past year he met this woman, Leara, while on a mission in Luin, and fell head over heels in love with her. She fell pretty hard for him, too. Took her awhile—not to mention quite a bit of mental adjustment—but she's come to accept Mizuho and agreed to marry him and move there. She's a sweet girl, and she's good for him. She'll be a good addition to Mizuho, too; she has some craft skills that will come in handy. The wedding's set for a few months from now. He's really excited about it."

The guilt churning within her was nearly unbearable. As happy as she was to hear that the alternate world's Orochi was so happy...the fact that he would never be able to experience that same happiness here made her feel nauseous. "I'm glad to hear that."

Zelos was eyeing her closely again, she realized, but if he noticed her sullen demeanor and the way she had to choke out each word, he didn't ask about it. Absently, Sheena wondered if he was able to put together any of the pieces, even without her stating as much. It wouldn't surprise her, considering how well he seemed to know her. After a moment, he cleared his throat again. "So anyway, if I'm gonna be here a few days, I need to know a few baseline things about you beyond the fact that you were once married to Orochi and are now a widow. The way you reacted to seeing me this morning told me quite a bit, but I need to be clear on this. What's the deal with you and your 'me'?"

And just like that, all feelings of guilt fled her in wake of the ancient anger that immediately reignited within her. Zelos Wilder, the idiotic, perverted, egotistical, narcissistic Chosen she never wanted to see again, let alone talk about. She always seemed to see red whenever she thought about him—and not just because of the color of his hair. "He's a rude, selfish, arrogant, slimy, perverted jackass."

His eyebrows flew upward. "Wow. Why don't you tell me how you really feel about him?"

"That is how I really feel about him!" she snapped. "The man is a good-for-nothing son of a bitch."

He smirked faintly, his eyes narrowing. "You do realize that's me you're talking about, right?"

She shook her head curtly. "You're nothing like him. I may have only known you a short time now, but I can still tell that. You at least act like a normal human being, someone who cares about his friends and family and goes out of his way for them. I sure can't say that about him."

"I'm not fully convinced of that yet seeing as, according to Verius, he and I were identical until that one night seven years ago, but I don't know who he is now to be able to deny it, either. Whatever the case, what is it he did to you?" She pursed her lips and looked away, trying to hold her rage at bay, and after a moment he leaned forward. "C'mon, Sheena, I need to know this."

She silently debated that another moment. She really didn't want to tell him the truth about 'himself'—talking to him about 'him' was plenty weird enough, especially knowing he wasn't really him—but she couldn't not tell him, either. This, too, he truly did need to know. "The bastard skipped my wedding. He swore he would be there for it, but when the day came, he was nowhere to be found. And that wouldn't have been so bad except we found out the next day that he'd been in bed with one of his hunnies the entire time and 'lost track of time.' As if I wasn't important enough for him to 'waste his time' on like that! I mean, I know we'd always had a poor relationship before that, and it had gotten especially bad at the end, but I'd always thought we were at least friends. But then he went and pulled a stunt like that?! And the way he reacted when I confronted him about it...he was so blasé, as if it was no big deal. You'd think it was my fault for choosing that day to get married!"

Zelos eyed her carefully, letting out a noncommittal hum. "So you hate him."

Sheena wasn't sure she hated him—mostly she thought it was hurt and anger at how he'd brushed her off in favor of his damn whores, not to mention all the cruel, unforgivable things he'd said those last few times she'd seen him...not that she would relay that to this Zelos who was better off not knowing such things—but she figured it couldn't hurt to tell his alternate this much, even if it wasn't entirely true. "Yes." She got the feeling that didn't come out as certainly as she'd wanted, but Zelos didn't comment on it. "I told him that was it, I never wanted to see him or talk to him again, and he just shrugged it off and said 'Gladly.' I haven't seen him since."

"Not even at get-togethers with Lloyd and our friends?" Zelos pressed.

She shook her head. "They haven't seen him since then, either. It's like he suddenly realized he was infinitely better than the rest of us and doesn't deem us worthy of being graced by his presence so he completely cut himself off from us to go chasing after women. He didn't even bother to show his face at Lloyd and Colette's wedding three years ago, and I know they invited him because I'd overheard their debate about whether or not they even should invite him after everything he'd done!"

"Mm," he murmured. "And you're sure he's still alive."

"Positive. Mizuho may be cut off from the rest of the world, but even we've heard story after story about his exploits with women and how he's always out and about, flaunting his 'beautiful face' everywhere he goes."

He nodded faintly. "Is he still the Chosen?"

She...really didn't know. Huh. She'd never thought about that, but with the removal of the institution of the Chosen system, wouldn't his title have gone away, too? "I don't think so, but there was never any announcement made about it. I figure the title just died out."

"Mm," he repeated.

Sheena stared at him blankly. Here she was, telling him about his alternate self, and that was the best he could do? She motioned at him. "That's all you can say?! 'Mm'? You aren't going to try to defend him, since he's 'you'?!"

Zelos lifted his hands defensively. "Whoa, hey, sweetheart, don't get mad at me. I didn't do any of that to you, nor to 'my' you, either. My life took a very different route after the king's reunification party...obviously a much better one when it came to our relationship. I don't think it's my place to try to defend him or his choices because I'm not the one who made them."

...Oh. Her face grew warm, and she looked down at her hands, her anger dissipating. "You're right. I'm sorry. What he did isn't your fault, and it's unfair of me to take that out on you."

He nodded, accepting her apology, then watched her silently another moment. Finally, he quirked a smile. "Heh. Well, I guess I can't blame you for wanting nothing to do with him after all that. That eliminates him from the list of possible suitors for you."

...And now her face was blazing. He did not just say that! "You don't have to find me anyone! Verius said it himself: you don't have to play matchmaker for me. I thought I'd made it clear that the way he's going about trying to answer that stupid wish definitely wasn't how I'd wanted."

"I know," he quickly replied. "But I haven't eliminated the possibility yet, either. I mean, I love you, Sheena. Well, I love my you, at least. And knowing that you are what my wife would've become if things had played out differently between us...I can't help but want to find a way to make you happy. We've discussed it before; if something were to happen to me, I wouldn't want her to be alone and miserable for the rest of her life, and if something happened to her, she wouldn't want me to be alone and miserable for the rest of mine, either. The way I see it, this is kinda the same."

"Well, not really, but point taken," she muttered.

He nodded. "Okay, so if Orochi died years ago, I'm assuming you've been chief alone here all this time?"

Any fire she'd felt while talking about the Idiot Chosen of her world fled her at the mention, again, of Orochi, and her eyes fell back to the table. "...No."

"No?" he prompted.

"I never became chief here."

"You didn't?" She shook her head. "Why not?"

She sighed. Okay, fine, she supposed this was another thing he needed to know. "I didn't feel right accepting the role. Grandpa died at the same time Orochi did, which was before I was officially made chief...and before I was fully trained to become chief. There was too much I didn't know, and without Grandpa there to guide me...we decided it would be best for Tiga to assume his duties permanently instead."

His eyes widened slightly. "Ah. Well, I'd say 'I'm sorry' only I know you never really wanted to become chief anyway, so I have a hunch you weren't that upset about it." Sheena blinked at him, stunned that he knew that, and he smiled faintly. "My Sheena told me awhile back that becoming chief was never her life's aspiration and she only accepted the role because she thought it would 'make up to Mizuho' for the Volt incident, by leading it into a brighter future. I can't imagine you felt any differently here."

Her lips parted, her voice lowering to a whisper. "I've never told anyone that."

"Neither had my wife before she told me, and it took some rather unhappy circumstances to get her to do so, even after we'd been married two years. I'm sorry to hear about your grandfather, by the way."

Wow. Her alternate must really trust him if she'd told him that, a secret Sheena had sworn she'd never let anyone so much as suspect about her. She nodded, grateful for his condolences. Her gut was telling her it wasn't a good idea to press too much about the circumstances of his world, but her curiosity was getting the better of her again. "Is he still alive in your world?"

Zelos nodded. "Yeah, he is. His health isn't what it used to be, though. Illnesses have been hitting him pretty hard lately. We aren't sure how much longer he's going to live."

"Regardless, he survived longer there than he did here," she whispered.

"True."

Another random thought hit her. "And he...he approved of you as Mizuho's chief consort?"

"Yeah, he did," Zelos replied, grinning. "Encouraged it, actually."

She would never believe that except she knew, deep down, that her grandfather never would have let them get married if he hadn't approved of Zelos...yet another realization Sheena simply couldn't fathom. "Wow. I never would've thought."

"Yeah, that came as a surprise to us, too."

Everything he had said so far, the way he had reacted to everything that had happened and everything she'd said...he really wasn't the man she'd always known, was he? He was so different, so much more mature, so much calmer and more tactful and sincere. She was already feeling comfortable with him in a way she never had with any other man. It was bizarre to realize that, but it was true. Maybe it was because he was so clearly comfortable with her, as if this, chatting with her over a breakfast he had made them, was a perfectly normal and natural activity for him—which, she realized, it probably was. Of course, it was also still ridiculously distracting that he was barely wearing any clothes. Her eyes dropped to his chest yet again, as if magnetically drawn to the sight, to the smooth muscles, to the perfect, albeit lightly scarred, skin. And again she found herself wondering what it would be like to be his wife, to be able to touch him like she did and run her fingers over his...

With a start, she coughed and forced her eyes away from him, her face blazing, realizing she was ogling him again, and suddenly she remembered him yelling at Verius earlier that he should've brought him some clothes. No, Zelos wasn't sitting here trying to flaunt his near-nudity in her face; he really didn't have anything to wear here since all of his clothes were at his home with his family. And that meant...well, that meant it was her responsibility to find him something to wear. It was her fault he was here, after all. He certainly couldn't go the entire week wearing this...and really, neither could she since she'd never be able to get anything done, not with this distraction constantly on display before her.

Okay, so she needed to fix the problem—and she needed to fix it, like, an hour ago. She cleared her throat and jumped to her feet, trying to cover where her attention kept going. "A...anyway, I...I'm going to find you some clothes to wear while you're here."

And just like that, all semblance of calmness vanished from his face as he likewise stood, replaced instead by a wicked, obnoxiously familiar smirk that she had never wanted to see again. "Like what you see a little too much, eh?" he asked, waggling his eyebrows knowingly.

And there, finally, was the Zelos Wilder she'd always known and detested. Apparently they weren't so different after all, were they? She fixed him with a glare, her face now as red as his hair. "Sh...shut up! It's not that, it's just..."

The evil smirk vanished, and instead he blinked at her, suddenly a deceptive picture of innocence. "...You're trying very hard not to jump me?"

Her glare hardened. Agh, maybe her impression that he was calmer and more mature had been wrong after all; maybe he'd just gotten better at hiding his true character. "I see you're still a perverted idiot."

Zelos nodded curtly. "Yes, I am. You tell me that all the time, and I know it. But I also know you really don't care." The smirk returned and he pointed at her. "In fact, I happen to know you love it."

Sheena rolled her eyes and folded her arms to her chest. "You wish."

"I don't have to wish, sweetheart," he countered. "I know. I'm married to you, remember? And the fact of the matter is that I know quite well just how attracted you are to me."

She sputtered at the accusation indignantly. "No, I'm not!" She absolutely hated the fact that she was blushing this badly, but he had suddenly reverted to being an obnoxious idiot and she realized she really, really wanted the Zelos she'd been talking with over breakfast back.

"Heh...sorry, but I beg to differ."

Of course he did. "Let me guess, that's the real reason you married her, isn't it? For the sex?" She huffed, now completely back at being unable to believe 'she' had married a sex-crazed flirt and idiot like him.

To her surprise, though, Zelos rolled his eyes at that. "Actually, no, we didn't get married for the sex. In fact, we didn't even have sex until after we'd been married because of Mizuho's silly little rule against women having sex before marriage—which, for the record, my wife and I have kept but have softened considerably. More to, y'know, a strong recommendation than a hard and fast rule. No, we got married because we loved each other and wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. Like I said, I married her because she's my best friend and soulmate." He tilted his head. "Although I have to admit, the sex is an awesome benefit to being married, and I know she doesn't mind it, either."

Sheena blinked at him, unamused. "How did we get on this subject?"

He grinned proudly. "I have a talent for turning any conversation around to be about sex. You tell me that all the time."

"You don't say," she stated flatly. "And for the record, now I know you're lying."

"About what?"

"That your 'me' enjoys the sex."

His eyes widened, once again the picture of innocence. "What? She does!"

Sheena fixed him with her best glare. "I've been married and had sex myself, Zelos, and I can assure you it isn't that great. Only you men seem to find it to be earth shattering and something worth pursuing all the time and you've deluded yourselves into believing women enjoy it just as much as you do."

Without warning, he pointed at her again, his gaze suddenly hardening. "Okay, first of all? I did not need that mental image of you and Orochi having sex. That's just..." He visibly cringed and shuddered, his face contorting in disgust. "And second...you aren't really trying to tell me that you hate sex, are you?"

...Why in Jizou's name was she discussing this, sex and her nonexistent sex life,with Zelos Wilder? "I...I didn't hate it!" she countered, flustered. "It just...it wasn't that exciting."

A glance at him showed he was now outright gaping at her. "You're serious."

She lifted her hands incredulously. "Yes, I'm serious!"

Zelos blinked at her a few times, but then his eyes narrowed. "Okay, I know you and Orochi weren't married that long, but you did try it more than just once, right? Because the first time is notoriously the worst and it improves after that."

Egads, she did not want to be having this conversation with him! "Of course we did it more than once!" Her blush deepened as his eyebrows rose, prodding her on. "I gave it two...three chances..."

His jaw dropped. "Three times?! Sheena, you and Orochi only slept together three times in the three months you were married?!"

Okay, she refused to let him get the better of her with this conversation. Time to turn the tables on him. She folded her arms to her chest. "Oh, and let me guess: you force your wife to have sex with you a whole lot more than that."

He pulled a face. "Of course not! I would never force her to do anything, sex included, and if she were here, she would vouch for that. Ask her if you ever meet her. But you decided you hated sex based on only three times trying it?! Great Jizou, Sheena, we'd had sex three times within the first 24 hours we were married! By the end of our first week being married, I'd lost count of how many times we'd 'tried' it!" He abruptly pointed at her. "And for the record, you love sex, and nothing you say will convince me otherwise. Half the time, you're the one who initiates it, and I sure as hell wouldn't turn it down because it is just that awesome. And I'll say this again: I've never forced her to have sex. Never. You really think someone as strong and violent as you would even let me do something that stupid? No, you enjoy it, Sheena. I can tell, not to mention I know it because you've told me you do. Multiple times, and it was quite clear each time that you were telling me the truth. If you really think you hate it, then maybe you never tried it with the right guy."

Instantly, she felt her blood run cold. He was on the verge of saying something so dreadfully familiar and hated that it had haunted her memories for years. "Why don't you just say what you're thinking, Zelos? You don't think I ever loved Orochi. Heaven knows I heard those exact same words from the other 'you' plenty of times before Orochi and I got married!"

His eyes narrowed sharply and he watched her closely a moment, but he didn't push that, and his face quickly softened. "Sheena, I would never accuse you of that, but I do know the truth. In my world, you never loved Orochi. That's why I have trouble believing you would love him here, either, even without me in the picture. I still remember the look on my wife's face when I first told her that Orochi was in love with her; it was a combination of horror, panic, and repulsion. I can't imagine you felt any differently about him here. You aren't attracted to him, physically, mentally, or emotionally, and that isn't something you can change, no matter what universe you're in. You've told me he was always like a brother or a close cousin to you, and that's how I know you would never truly enjoy having sex with him. Seriously, both parties need to be attracted to each other not only emotionally, but physically, too, at least to a degree, in order to give sex that 'spark' that turns it from something tolerable into something incredible." He motioned at her. "You and I have that spark. You and Orochi don't. That wasn't his fault, nor was it yours; that's just the way it was."

Sheena folded her arms to her chest. This was still sounding suspiciously like everything the Zelos Wilder of this world had harped on, too. "So you're saying I made mistake marrying him."

He shook his head—and, to her surprise, he actually seemed to mean that. "No, no, that's not what I'm saying. Not at all. I know the situation you were in before you could become chief. You had to be married so Mizuho would have a chief consort. In Mizuho, people don't always marry for love, and when your options were so limited, you had to marry someone, and so you chose the best man you had available to you. Orochi loved you, he loved Mizuho, and he would be a good, caring husband. I'm sure you knew all of that, and so you made the best choice you could, given that there was a lot of pressure on you to do something you probably never would've chosen otherwise. I don't blame you for that. My Sheena would've done the same. In fact, I know there were times when she seriously considered it because she never thought I'd be happy living the life of the chief consort. Ultimately, though, I was a choice she had in my world that you didn't, and she took it."

Her throat felt tight and constricted, making her feel like she was choking. The last thing she wanted to think about was everything he was saying, and she certainly didn't want to acknowledge any of it, to him or to herself, but the truth was, deep down, she already knew he was right about that. She and Orochi never had a 'spark'; she hadn't felt it once during the three months they'd been married, nor in the months of courtship leading up to their engagement and wedding. And it wasn't because she hadn't known what it felt like, because she did know what that spark felt like. She'd felt it before, with other men, like... She quickly pushed that thought, too, from her mind, refusing to dwell on it.

No, right now she needed a change of subject, fast, because this current topic would just lead her to one thing: truths she was in no way ready to face yet. "I don't want to talk about this anymore."

Zelos lifted his hands. "Okay, fine, we'll drop it. Just no more thinking you hate sex again, because that simply isn't true, and I will call you on it time and again."

Sheena sighed. It was obvious there was no use arguing that further, so she wouldn't. "Fine. But I still need to find you clothes."

"Yeah, no argument there," he replied, relaxing a little. He motioned at his body and quirked an awkward, and really kind of cute, smile. "I can't really walk around here like this for the next week, now, can I?"

She couldn't help a tiny smile from toying on her lips as her eyes trailed down his body. "No, you can't." Clearing her throat, she forced herself to turn away before she could get distracted again and headed toward her storage room. "Let me see what I can find you."

"Ah, if you're planning on raiding Orochi's old stuff, don't bother," he interrupted. "I've already tried it, and it doesn't fit me. It's about two sizes too small for me."

"...Oh." She froze, then turned back to him, arching an eyebrow. "Do I want to know how you know that?"

He grinned. "The first few weeks after we were married, I needed temporary ninja clothes until you finished making some for me, and he had me try on a few different sets to find one that fit. One of those was his own."

"Ah." Well, that would save them time. "So whose finally fit you?"

"Well, I know it was a long time ago, but do you still have any of Tatsuya's old stuff? Y'know, Michi's father? It turned out his clothes fit me pretty well."

She thought for a moment. Mizuho made a point to not get of any of their old but still usable equipment because it was likely someone else could one day use it. That custom had proven extremely helpful after they'd lost most of their villagers and were limited to the old stuff they'd had, with no one left to make new ones and, for those who were left, no time to learn how to make more because they needed everyone focused on making sure the survivors survived. "Yeah, they're probably still in storage."

"Think Sadako would mind lending me a set?" he asked with a hopeful smile.

"Sadako's been dead for years," she whispered, her heart sinking as another unwanted memory resurfaced. Yet another old friend she'd lost long ago. "So no, she wouldn't mind if you borrowed one."

To her surprise, Zelos's face instantly paled and sank. If she didn't know better, she would've thought he was stricken by that. "Oh. I...I'm sorry to hear that."

And in that moment, Sheena recognized what he wasn't saying: in his world, Sadako was still alive, just like Orochi and Igaguri were. And suddenly she found herself wondering who else was still alive there who no longer was here...and how his world had ended up so drastically different from her own when the only difference between them had been that he and the alternate Sheena had been romantically involved.

"What about Michi?" Zelos asked, his voice low and shaky, as if he was afraid to hear her answer. "Is he still here? Would he mind if I borrowed his father's clothes for a few days?"

Sheena almost hated to tell him the truth, seeing as his expression made it obvious Michi was another villager Zelos knew well. "Michi ran away from Mizuho years ago. No one's seen him since. We never found a body when we searched for him, but we've always assumed he didn't make it out of Gaoracchia Forest alive."

Zelos squeezed his eyes shut for a moment before opening them again, his voice soft when he spoke. "Ah. I guess that's possible, but I wouldn't put it past him to have survived, either. In my world he made it all the way to Meltokio the one time he ran away, so he does know how to take care of himself."

As much as she wished that was true, her gut was saying it wasn't. Given everything that had happened in Mizuho the past few years, she couldn't believe he wouldn't have come back even once to see how his family was doing. Despite that morbid certainty, though, she chose not to voice that doubt aloud. Instead, she cleared her throat, forcing herself to return to the subject at hand: finding Zelos clothes. "In any case, I'll see what I can find you," she said. Zelos nodded but didn't say anything, still visibly stunned by her earlier news. "I'll be right back."

"I'll be here," he whispered.

Sheena eyed him a moment—was it possible he truly cared about Mizuho and its people?—but then she pushed that thought from her mind, put on her shoes, and headed out to the storage building on the other side of the village. Even though the sun was already rising, the village was still extremely quiet, as it always was, but that time she was grateful for it since it meant fewer people she had to make small talk with or try to explain why she was retrieving clothes that had been long packed away. It took her a bit of searching, but eventually she found Tatsuya's clothes—and then she even took a moment to find a set that actually looked decent. Zelos had been extremely sweet to her so far, not counting that uncomfortable 'sex' discussion, and so she opted to not embarrass him by intentionally giving him clothes he would looked horrible wearing.

By the time she'd returned home with the clothes—and shoes, she'd remembered at the last minute, although she didn't know if those sizes matched up, too—she discovered that Zelos had nearly finished cleaning the dishes from breakfast. The sight, again, gave her pause, not only that he was willing to do such menial household chores, but that he had done them completely unprompted.

"Thank you," she said with all sincerity, gaining his attention as he looked back at her from the kitchen. "Not just for making breakfast, but for cleaning up."

He grinned. "You're welcome. The least I can do while I'm here is help out where I can." Joining her by the door, he accepted the clothes she handed him. "Thank you, too, for finding these."

She smiled faintly. "You're welcome."

Zelos took the clothes into her bathroom to change. A minute later he emerged again...and that sight, too, seeing Zelos Wilder wearing ninja clothes, made her do a double take. While she knew her other options would have looked hideous on him, this one wasn't much better, a dull brown with only a few accent colors to break the monotony. Sheena couldn't help chuckling, relieved to see his lips were quirked, indicating he saw the humor in it himself. She motioned at him. "I'm sorry, Zelos. I tried to find you a decent set, but those...well, those clothes really aren't you."

His grin broadened. "No, they really aren't, especially not compared to the awesome outfit you made me for daily Mizuhoan wear, but I'll live for a few days."

To her alarm, though, only a moment later his face fell. Uh oh. She didn't like that look. "What is it?"

"Er...actually, I'm not sure this will work. If I start running around here—or anywhere else, for that matter—dressed like a ninja, it'll start a whole lot of rumors you probably don't want. Not to mention it'll raise a whole lot of eyebrows and suspicions from everyone who sees me. In my world it's expected that I look like this, but here...heh, I doubt your fellow ninjas would be enthused to see me looking like this for long. You might get some questions as to why I'm here."

...Oh, right. He had a point. "The Zelos Wilder of this world wouldn't be caught dead wearing something like this, so it would be extremely out of character for you."

"Yeah."

Sheena thought for a moment, re-envisioning all the clothes she'd seen in storage, but came up blank. "Unfortunately, we don't have any other clothes here that would look more 'normal' on you, Zelos."

"No, I know. I didn't expect you would."

"Then...what are you thinking?" she prompted when he fell silent.

Zelos gave her a sheepish smile. "As much as I hate to suggest this, I do know where I can get some quickly and easily."

Her eyes narrowed. She wasn't sure what he was getting at—or why it made him look so uncomfortable. "...You want to go to Meltokio and have them make you something?"

He shook his head. "No, that would likely raise too many questions regarding my sanity, too. I can just imagine the seamstresses trying to figure out why I'm showing up wearing this and asking for new clothes and then, well, word getting to my counterpart and rumors spreading and causing a gigantic mess."

Ah. Yeah, that would be a problem. "So...?"

"Actually, I was thinking I might be better off skipping the middle few steps, sneaking into my mansion in Meltokio, pretending to be myself, grabbing a set of clothes, leaving, and no one being any wiser for it."

...Wait, what? Was he serious? "You want to steal from yourself?"

His eyebrows rose. "You have a better idea?"

Well, no, not at the moment, but this idea was pretty questionable, too! "What if you run into yourself there? What are you going to tell him?"

He shrugged. "Well, if we go early enough, the odds of running into him would probably be pretty slim. He'd either be sound asleep or out living it up on the town." His voice lowered. "Or at least pretending to be."

That wasn't very convincing. "And if he's not asleep or out on the town?"

"If he's not, then I don't let him see me so I don't have to talk to him and explain who I am," Zelos replied. "It's a big mansion. I know my way around. All I have to do is get to my room, grab a set of clothes, and get out. Piece of cake. I have had ninja training, y'know, so I can do stealth when I want to."

Sheena gaped at him. "You've had ninja training?"

"Kinda had to before I could become chief consort. Not full training, mind you, but I picked up plenty." He smirked. "Thus making me even more awesome than I already was."

She rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help smiling at that. "Yeah, right. Whatever. In any case, I could always ask a ninja here to go there instead and get some clothes for you. They might have more luck getting around undetected."

He gave her a pointed look. "Maybe, but be honest with me: do you really want to get your fellow ninjas involved in this?"

Oh, right. Back to that. "Well, no, but—"

"I can do this, Sheena," he replied before she could finish. "Honest. And if Sebastian sees me, he'll just think I'm his Zelos. I mean, if I can't pass as myself here, then who can I pass as?"

Hm. Her gut was still telling her this was a bad idea and would never work, but she was having trouble figuring out why. Regardless, one problem at least was pretty obvious. She motioned at him. "Well, your hair is pretty short compared to how long my world's Zelos always kept his..."

Zelos grinned. "Heh. You wanna know why I cut it this short? When Sophia was three months old, she decided she loved my hair, so much so that she started pulling it every chance she could. Hard. And, worse, she refused to let go without bawling her head off. After about a hundred times of that happening and my trying to get her to stop, I started cringing every time she reached for me—which, well, also made her start crying, thinking Daddy didn't love her anymore. Needless to say, since I couldn't have that, I took the plunge and chopped it all off, at least until she was a little older...although with another kidlet on the way soon, I might have to wait awhile longer before I can grow it out again." He shrugged. "You insisted it didn't look that bad."

"It doesn't. It actually looks really good on you like that." Sheena had said the words aloud before she'd even realized it, and she quickly looked away, blushing and cringing at her slip.

She fully expected him to take advantage of that to gloat about it, flaunting how 'handsome' and 'manly' he was and how much she loved seeing his 'pretty face' and 'pretty hair,' but instead of doing that, he just smiled. "I'm actually really glad to hear you approve, because it means my wife might not have been lying about that to make me feel better about having to cut it." He cleared his throat. "In any case, this should be a quick in and out of my mansion. If the other me isn't home, it'll be even quicker and easier."

Sheena still didn't like this, not one bit, but she didn't have any other ideas. He was right: if he was going to be here a week, he needed clothes that looked normal on him or it would probably start worldwide rumors about how the Chosen of Tethe'alla had completely lost his mind and become a ninja, something that would cause problems not only for him and his alternate (not that she cared what kind of discomforts 'her' Zelos had to suffer, but it ran the risk she'd have to see him again if he hunted her down searching for the truth behind the rumors), but for Mizuho itself. People might actually start trying to find the village again if they thought the Chosen was spending time here...and Mizuho had more than enough problems to deal with already. Adding even more to them wasn't an option.

She sighed, her decision made. She dreaded it, but since this Zelos was here because of her, she couldn't help feeling obligated to do so. "Okay, fine. If you think it'll work, then we'll do it your way. And I...I'll come with you."

His eyebrows rose. "You don't have to, Sheena. Really. I do know my way there and back without getting lost or in any other kind of trouble."

"I know," she quickly replied. "But it's my fault you're here, and there are still a lot of monsters out there, and I feel responsible for making sure nothing happens to you so you get back home to your family safely, so..."

"Sheena, I've told you already, this isn't your fault."

"But it is, Zelos," she countered. Nothing he said could convince her otherwise. "And besides, it's been a long time since I was last in Meltokio. It...it'll be good to get out of Mizuho for awhile."

Zelos eyed her carefully. "You do realize if you come with me, you run the risk of running into your 'me.'"

Ugh, don't remind me, her mind returned, but she didn't say that aloud. "I wouldn't actually set foot in your mansion! I'd just wait for you outside." She motioned at him. "And besides, you seemed pretty certain he won't see you."

"Well, the truth is I don't know if he will or not," he said. "I doubt it, but I can't guarantee it because, well, obviously I parted ways with the man years ago ago. Not that I'm particularly inclined to like him after hearing what he did to you, no matter how many similarities we might or might not still share."

Huh. She'd never thought she'd see the day when Zelos expressed reservations about 'himself' and took her side regarding her opinion of him. "In any case, I'm willing to take that chance. When do you want to go?"

"Right away, if possible. I don't want to spend much time here and risk having too many villagers questioning you about my sudden appearance and why I'm dressed like this. The sooner I get some clothes that look more like me, the better."

She nodded. "Okay. Then let's finish cleaning up from breakfast and we'll head out."

"Sounds good."

0~*~0

(Continued in Day 1, Part 2: The Repercussions)