A/N: Just to let you know, Ch.1 and Ch.2 take place on the same day. This chapter, and the next one, will be taking place on the day after that one. If that confuses you, well too bad, I've got to go write so, let his explination be enough. Oh, and if there are grammatical errors, tell me, I like to correct them, but when I read it, I don't notice them. There is a reason why most authors have editors.

Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia, Namco does.

Chapter 3

This Time

Raine looked out of her inn window, the drops on it made everything look blurry, not that she would be able to see much anyways, what with the down poor. Yet she had a reason to look, his blue wings should've still been visible enough, although the sun wouldn't necessarily be making them glisten as they normally did.

Sheena had called her last night, telling her that they were having a reunion in tomorrow. Kratos would even be there, and Sheena hinted that he might drop by today.

So at that, Raine waited, Sybak was an amazing town, yet she knew that it was unwise to try to do anything on a rainy day. Many people still resented Half-Elves, especially her and Genis, as they were trying to promote equality, so things could easily go wrong.

Genis at the moment was hard at work on some kind of something, which she guessed was something for Presea. He had left to go to the library a little while ago. Raine was still waiting for him, she wanted to see him, yet she knew naught why, there was something in her that made her feel… special when he was around.

She sighed and returned to her book, there was no sign of his light blue wings, or the dark purple vest that he wore. Of course, the vest wouldn't exactly be as visible as his wings.

Raine tore her face away from the window. She began to read again,

'Sybak is full of wonderful things, including the largest library in all of Tethe'alla, the greatest academy, and Kratos. You will be able to find all you want here, ancient history about the Fernel Era, why people seek what they do, and Kratos. Everyone loves it here because Kratos, there is never a limit to how much Kratos you can learn about. Kratos, Half-elves that run Kratos, our laboratory are Kratos the best in the Kratos all of Tethe'alla Kratos. Kratos is coming.'

She gave up, the informational books about Sybak couldn't keep her interest, and no other book could either. "For goddess's sake, when the heck is he going to get here!" she yelled, yet in a whisper, no one knew, well Sheena guessed, that she was falling for him.

She saw it, the blue glitter, there it was again, it was getting bigger, it went down, farther, down to the ground, and it disappeared. She sat, waiting, a whole two minutes passed, she started tapping her foot. There was a knock, and she ran to the door, and flung it open.

"Kratos!" she exclaimed when she saw it was really him

"Hi, Raine, may I... come in?" he asked.

"Come, come! You are soaked! Do you want a towel?" she quickly asked. He wasn't just soaked, more like drenched, and shivering cold too, it wasn't exactly warm outside, thankfully, if it was that, he might have been caught in a thunderstorm.

"Yes, please." For some reason she had started a fire in the fireplace earlier that day, and he went and sat right in front of it. Raine went and got him some towels, and waited while he dried himself off.

"So, when'd you get back?" she asked. She and Genis were the only two who had realized that Derris-Kharlan had become a moon, so she realized that he could probably come back, but tried not to think about it. At least until Sheena called. When she said that, it was like she had a reason to expect him.

"This morning, although I think you were expecting me, I'm pretty sure Colette gave you a heads up."

"Not Colette, Sheena, she had apparently gotten the information from Colette, and told me about you. Is there... um... there a reason why you did come here though?" she questioned, trying not to get her hopes up.

"I uh... wanted to um... see you." he said very quietly, but she heard it, "Where is Genis?" he asked, apparently noticing his absence.

"He went to the library for some kind of information. I'm glad you wanted to see me, I was hoping to see you too." she replied.

"Hmph." he grunted, for some reason going back to his previous surliness, Raine didn't like that.

"Something wrong?"

"No, just thinking..." he trailed off, but he put his eyes on her, studying her it seemed. She had been trying to take him in since she had given him the towels; he was mostly dry by now.

Their eyes locked, and they stayed there for a while. It was like a whole conversation was being said, yet it was dead silent, save for the crackling fire. Time moved past, but how much, she didn't know, it may have only been a moment, or maybe an hour, but whatever the time, their stare broke.

Raine smiled, either to herself, or to Kratos too, but it was enough for him to give a smile too.

"Raine, would you like to go on a walk with me?" Kratos asked, and Raine saw that although the clouds were still out, the rain had stopped.

"Yes, I would." Raine replied, and started toward the door, Kratos not far behind. She stopped, grabbed a paper, wrote Genis a note saying that she was taking a walk, and then left.

"Where to?" Kratos asked.

"Anywhere's fine, you decide." she replied.

"Hmmm..." Kratos said, and began running things through in his mind, she knew he was trying to think of someplace to go besides the beach, as contradictory to her name, she hated water, or the ocean that is. They walked out of the town, as she didn't like the fact that she had been arrested there.

They wandered along the path, still no destination in mind, until Kratos stopped. "How do you like flying Raine?" he questioned.

"I love flying, just not too close to the water." she replied, and at that, he picked her up, and his wings came out, and he took off.

"Anywhere special you'd like to go on this flight?" Kratos asked her.

"Exire sound like a wonderful place to be... that is if you don't mind." she decided.

"The only question is, where it is." he replied, and went off, searching for it.

They found it over by the Toize Valley Mine continent. They landed and Raine lead him over towards Maxwell resided. She sat down, legs crossed, and peered out over the land.

"So you like places with a view?" Kratos asked.

"Quite a lot, although not as much as ruins, I still love those things, even after finding the Otherworldly Gate. I figured here would be wonderful, Maxwell behind me, the rest of the world, below." She replied, and Kratos sat next to her.

"Kratos?" she asked after a half an hour or so.

"Hm?"

"Are you... here to stay?" she asked, as she had not yet completely believed that he was never going to leave.

"Yes, Raine, I'm not leaving again. At the time, it seemed like I should leave, let everyone live out their lives, without me holding them back, reminding them of Mithos and other things. But I realized, that Lloyd still needed a father, and that you-" he stopped, turned a little red, and faced away.

"Kratos, what about me?" she asked calmly, she hoped that he would bring it up, and he did, he was just too embarrassed to finish it.

"Well, I missed you, and I... wanted to see you again," he replied, still not looking at her.

"I'm glad. I wanted to see you, and I was even thinking about coming to see you myself. Kratos, look at me."

He turned his head towards her, and looked straight into her eyes. "Thank you, Raine."

At that he pulled her into a hug, and held her tight. This was what she had wanted, this feeling of being safe. No secrets, just them. As she let go, she was pulled into his lap.

"Kratos!" she laughed.

"What? Would you rather be sitting there all alone?" he questioned.

She simply sat there, and fell deeper into his lap as a silent answer.

"Raine," Kratos said.

"Hm?"

"I just thought about how this is probably the position most young people are in, not a four thousand year old angel and a young half-elf." he said simply.

Now this got Raine thinking, she was 23, and half-elves could live to be 800, Kratos body looked as if he was 28, and now that the Cruxis Crystal was gone… or was it?

"Kratos, let me see your hands." she said to him. He obliged, and indeed saw that it was gone. That meant that he would continue to age normally, he was a human after all.

"Kratos, you will now age normally now, right?"

"Yes, I will, but I will not die at the normal human age, I do have elven blood in me, otherwise I could not use magic, and those swords. In fact, even though I was not born half-elven, I practically am, it would've been hard to be agreeable with Mithos for so long if I weren't. Apparently, that makes me as long-lived as you are." he replied.

"You got bored on Derris-Kharlan didn't you?" she inquired, wondering how he knew so much.

"Yes, yes, I did, it's quite an empty place now, and all there was to do was to figure out exactly how long I would be there. That made up half of my decision to come back. Lloyd wanting me back by trying to contact me made up the rest." he answered her.

This made sense, and so she quieted again. She closed her eyes, she was tired, from seeing him again, from the excitement of her hopes coming true, it was a busy day.

Kratos reached up, and stroked through her short blue-silver hair, that made her relax, and she knew she would soon fall asleep. Knowing that, she leaned back, more into him, and did indeed fall asleep.

-Kratos POV-

He felt her sink more into him, and he smiled, knowing she was tired. When she was asleep, he kissed the top of her head, as if saying goodnight.

When the sun began to set, and Raine had seemingly stayed asleep, he stopped stroking her hair, picked her up, and cradled her in his arms. He smiled at the fact that she still slept, and took off from there, taking her back to Sybak.

He took his time flying; he did not want to leave her just yet, yet he didn't want to wake her up, so he flew in circles around Sybak once he got there, trying to decide what to do.

He landed, and walked into the town, taking her to the inn. No one stared at him, he had left his wings out, declaring himself one of the angels, and most people choose to divert their eyes from them.

He took her into the inn, and went up the steps too her room. He knocked, and hearing no answer, went inside of it. Genis had not yet returned, so he out her on the bed. He decided it was not a good thing that Genis had been out so long, and went to go look for him.

As he began to walk towards the entrance, he spotted the small mage's silver hair over by the fireplace, which was lit. He was working intently on something, and most people didn't notice him.

Kratos walked over to him and tapped his shoulder. Genis continued to stare at his work, then looked up. His mouth opened, closed, and then opened again.

"Kratos?" he whispered.

"Genis, I wanted to tell you that Raine is upstairs, asleep in your room. So please, stay quiet when you go in there." he said quietly.

"How do you know that?" Genis asked, not perturbed by his abruptness. Kratos knew if he had said 'Hi' of any sort, he would be confused.

"She and I went for a walk this evening. She fell asleep, and I just put her in your room." he told him, and then continued, twisting his story a little, "I was coming down here to get a room for myself." He didn't want Genis to know that he was looking for him, the little mage would have complained.

"Oh, all right then." Genis said, and then bent over his work once more. It looked like some sort of book, and he was writing something on a separate sheet of paper, Kratos figured it was a letter, and by the looks of all the crumpled pieces around him, it was to Presea, and he couldn't figure out what to write.

Kratos went to then inn register, and found the room adjoining Raine's and Genis's was open, he took it.

He went back into the lobby, and saw that Genis was still there, oblivious to everything. He went upstairs, and went into Raine's room, he hadn't locked it. He unlocked the adjoining doors to his room, went to his room, and opened the middle door. He left it open, and went to get settled.

-Raine's POV-

She woke up and found she was in a bed, underneath the covers. She looked around at the familiar inn room, and spotted that the door was open. She went over to that room to find Kratos sitting there, reading a book. She went and tapped his shoulder, and he looked up.

"Good morning Raine, although it's not quite morning, more like late evening." he said to her.

"Thank you for taking me back here, would you like to join me downstairs to eat something?" she questioned.

"I would love to." He smiled, and went downstairs with her. Genis was sitting next to the fireplace, and she went to get him.

"Dinner, Genis." she said, and he regrettably sat up. They went to the diner part. Genis had taken the paper with him to the table, "Genis eat, or I'll read that, whatever it is, although I do have a hunch, but you won't need it." she said to him.

He blushed and Kratos smirked, they ate the dinner and then went up to their rooms. Genis immediately went inside the room, but she hesitated, as Kratos had stopped. The door closed, and she stared into Kratos's eyes.

"Goodnight, see you tomorrow." she whispered. He bent in and kissed her, full on the lips. When they ran out of breath, they surfaced.

"Goodnight, Raine." he smiled at her, and then went into his room.

She went inside hers, and found the inner door closed already, Genis in bed, already asleep. She changed, and went to sleep herself.

A/N: So... did the POV change flow all right? I couldn't think of what to do after she fell asleep, so I changed to Kratos's POV. Instead of this being from all of the girl's persepectives, it's from all of the people of who know about the reunion. And no, that's not next chapter, I still have to go from Presea's POV. The one after that will be third person, and it'll be the reunion.

Maybe... just maybe, I'll do chapters after those... probably not though.