Xonel: Wow. Seriously, I really didn't expect people to like this story so much. I was almost ready to take down the first chapter after reading it again, I seriously thought it sucked. So thanks for convincing me otherwise, I lurrrvvv LEGENDIA! , dark drow, and Moonlight M3lody (who has thus far reviewed all of my stories! Thanks!!), accident prone, and iloveit !!

So I finally got some humorous inspiration today that might actually work and turn into a a full one-shot.

Speaking of which, this whole series will be a collection of one-shots (as I said before), all about various events which slowly chipped away at our favorite knight's sanity (also as I said before). The only new thing I'm saying is I'm not going to write these in chronological order.

This particular one takes place a few months after the last. Chloe and Senel's relationship is not exactly common knowledge, but all of the party members know at this point. Anyway, Will?

Will: Xonel does not claim ownership of Tales of Legendia or anything that is affiliated with Namco.

Xonel: On a side note, I'm equating 1 gald to 1 "pence". So 100 gald is 1 U.S. Dollar.

Grace... Or lack thereof.

Senel, Norma, and I were all sitting at one of the new cafe tables the bakery had just set up outside. The bakery had just started selling some particularly good coffee a couple of weeks ago, and Senel had decided to treat us to some.

Well, he had decided to treat me to some, anyway. Norma had overheard and wouldn't leave Senel alone until he grudgingly agreed to buy her one as well. Apparently she had decided to further impose herself on us by sitting at our table after picking up her "venti-upside-down-carmel-machiatto-nonfat-triple-shot-vanilla-cappuccino-with-white-chocolate-shavings-extra-whip-cream-not-too-hot-and-please-put-a-sleeve-on-it" monstrosity. The cost for her drink alone was 950 gald, compared to 700 for mine and Senel's put together.

Understandably, Senel was a little upset at having to pay nearly a thousand gald for a single coffee. Normally I would be too. I think it was the fact that the weather was so nice that kept me from saying anything. It certainly had nothing to do with the fact that Senel and I were together. Of course not. Not with Norma sitting across from us.

No one had spoken for a while, so it wasn't a surprise when Norma sighed dramatically.

"Man, you two are so dull," she complained.

"What do you mean?" Senel asked in an annoyed voice.

"You're two young love birds and yet you act like an old married couple!"

"M-married...?" Thankfully no one could hear my brief choking fit with my coffee over Senel's loud,

"What are you talking about?!"

Norma shook her head knowledgeably. "I don't know how you put up with him, C. He's so utterly boring!"

"Hey!" Senel said indignantly. "Remember who just paid for that!" He pointed at Norma's cup.

Norma went on, ignoring him. "You two are still young! This is the time for passion! You know, love letters back and forth, cliché balcony scenes, candlelit dinners... You two haven't even kissed, have you?"

By now my face was beet red. Thankfully, so was Senel's.

"What do you care what we do?!"

"Man, I almost wish Vaclav would come back so he could kidnap you, C. Then Senny would be forced to act at least a little romantic and come and save you."

I crossed my arms and assumed as much dignity as I could with my face being its current shade of red. "I can't imagine myself being anyone's damsel in distress." I scowled slightly at the last three words.

Norma grinned her trademark sly grin. "Oh really? I remember you being just that in a certain Thunder Monument."

"A lot of good it did me at the time," I muttered.

"What are you talking about?" Senel asked.

"Oh, um... n-nothing." I still found it somewhat annoying that to this day he hadn't figured out my intent when we were there at the monument. Even after I thought I had clearly spelled it out for him. At the same time, it was such a humiliating experience that I had concluded it was for the best that he didn't even remember the event.

I decided to steer the conversation in a different direction. "Anyway, I was going to train in the Misty Mountains later today. Do you want to come, Senel?"

Norma kicked me under the table. I could almost actually hear her say something along the lines of "you're just encouraging him to keep thinking of you as a training partner!"

"Sure, I'll come," Senel replied.

"Oh!" Norma shot up out of her seat, nearly spilling her overpriced coffee. "I almost forgot, I have something I need to take care of. But before I go, Red wanted us all to meet at the new dock tomorrow. He said something about us not having enough fun since we defeated Schwartz. Anyway, have fun on your date, guys!" She put an emphasis on the word date, and before either of us could reply, she was gone.

...xXx...

I went to the dock in the late morning the next day. I didn't stay away from the ocean for any reason other than that I wanted to stay in the shade of the tree I was leaning against. I certainly wasn't afraid. Of course not.

I waited for a while until Senel showed up around noon. There was still no sign of anyone else.

I smiled slightly. "How's your shoulder?"

Senel gave me that cute embarrassed look of his.

Wait. Did I just say "cute"? Ugh! Soon there really would be no hope for me.

"It's still pretty banged up. That Eggtopus was tougher than it looked."

I suppressed a chuckle that wanted to escape in spite of myself, and instead remembered the fact that five other people were supposed to be here. "Where do you suppose the others are? Norma didn't tell us what time to be here today."

"I'm not sure. I only got up a few minutes ago and I came straight here."

"I'm surprised you were able to get up so early on your own," I said playfully.

"Hey. Before all that 'Character Quest' stuff, as Norma calls it, I wouldn't get up until two in the afternoon if I didn't have to."

I shook my head. "I just can't get why someone would sleep in so late."

Senel was quiet for a minute as he looked out across the bay. This new dock had been built in Raging Bay for smaller ships. Essentially, it was meant for the local fisherman who didn't want to sail out to far and risk the Legacy leaving them behind.

I looked out at the bay as well, and noticed that the water was just slightly more violent than usual. The Legacy was traveling a bit faster than it had in a while, so the wind must have been affecting the water in the bay. I was certainly glad we wouldn't actually be going out on a boat. At least, I hoped we wouldn't be. Again, I wasn't scared, just... wary.

"There's Will and Jay," Senel said suddenly. I blinked, unaware that my mind had drifted, and looked behind me. Sure enough, a tall orange figure and a shorter purple figure were making their way toward us in the distance.

It wasn't long before they joined us, and just after we exchanged greetings, the other three showed up.

"So why did you want us to come here, Moses?" Senel asked.

"Me? Bubbles is the one who-" Norma nudged Sandor in the ribs, "Ah mean... Well, Ah thought we could have some fun today! We haven't exactly done anythin' together since we won against Schwartz, so I figured it was time for some family fun! Eh heh heh..."

I raised an eyebrow, suspicious of Sandor, but even more suspicious of my coniving, yellow-clad "friend".

"And how do you suppose we're going to have 'fun'?" Jay asked.

"Simple!" Norma said. "We're gonna have a fishing contest!"

I froze. Not because I was afraid. Just wary. As I said.

"You see, we're..." Norma's voice became thin in my ears. Alright, maybe I was just a little bit, possibly biased against going out on the water. In my defense, it was pretty choppy. I consider waves above five inches to be on the border of being possibly dangerous. Maybe even catastrophic. I has heard plenty of stories about tsunamis and flash floods. Water was always unpredictable.

Therefor, it was completely normal for me to interrupt Norma and ask in a slightly... concerned voice, "Are you sure its a good idea to go fishing when the water's this choppy?"

There was a group silence. "I mean.... I um, haven't been feeling at my best, so I'm not sure if I should risk getting wet." It was true. I had had a slight cough for a while. Sure, it had been going away, but I didn't want to risk having it come back by getting cold.

"Aw, come on, C! It'll be fun! You've turned down all my invitations to go fishing ever since this dock was built, you have to come now!" Norma pouted.

"I'm sorry, I... just haven't been feeling well."

"Norma, do you really want to have it on your conscience if you make Chloe more sick?" Raynard asked. Norma was silent, but her eyes grew big and innocent. It was the type of expression that indefinitely said she didn't care one way or another if I ended up with polio, so long as she had her fun. "Alright, well even if you don't care, I won't let you put someone's health in jeopardy like that."

"I'll stay here on the shore with C," Shirley said.

I thanked the higher powers that Shirley was such a considerate friend.

At least, I did at the time.

It wasn't long before the others all took two small fishing boats, Senel, Norma, and Will in one, Moses and Jay in the other.

"I hope you feel better, C," Shirley said.

I smiled reassuringly. "It's really not too bad, I just don't want it to get worse."

That was about all that was said for a long while. I honestly couldn't tell if the silence between us was friendly or awkward, which of course made it awkward for me at least.

I opened my mouth, resolving finally to stupidly comment on the weather, when Shirley decided to speak.

"It looks like something's happening out there..."

My eyes followed Shirley's gaze and I frowned. The two boats had come quite a ways closer to the dock by now, and one of them was violently rocking back and forth. Sandor was nowhere to be seen, and the ship that was rocking back and forth was the one that held Jay. Naturally, I figured the two of them were up to their usual antics. Sandor was probably playing a trick on the information dealer.

That was what I thought, until I saw a very large, gray fin rise out of the water, followed by a scream from Norma.

The fin moved quickly, going from Jay's boat to the other, and before I knew it, Senel was hanging onto the side of the boat with one hand, and trying to beat the creature off of him with his other.

I didn't think, I just moved.

My sword was in my hands in a flash, and I was racing toward the creature. I lifted my sword, then thrust it blade down into the ground to execute Tiger Tempest.

The only problem was, there was no ground to hold my sword.

My lungs filled with water, and panic overtook me. I really thought I was going to die. And what a pathetic death for a knight it would be.

"SENEL, HELP ME!!!"

Yeah. Kind of a stupid request, given his own predicament. I'll never forgive myself for screaming that so loudly that all of the Legacy could hear.

But in the midst of all my horrible attempts at dog paddling and wondering if it really was possible for someone to melt in the water, glorious air filled my lungs. I breathed in greedily, still more than slightly panicked because I was still in the water, and I clung onto my savior. I squeezed my eyes shut out of pure terror.

After about three endless minutes of being dragged though the water, I felt good, reliable land underneath me. Of course, I was still a bit shaken, and so refused to let go of the person who had rescued me.

And then I did something I never thought I would do. I buried my face in Senel's chest, for once not caring at all what the heck the others thought. Maybe being Senel's "damsel in distress", though I still despise those words, wasn't such a bad thing, just this once.

Once my panic subsided a bit, and the ringing in my ears stopped, I knew something was utterly, horribly wrong. For one thing, that monster must have managed to rip off Senel's shirt, because what I felt against the side of my face was not cloth. I really hoped that was the case, as embarrasing as it was because the only other explanation would be-

"Uh... Chloe? You feelin' alrigh', hun?"

My eyes flared open, and there was a moment of complete and utter shocked silence before I jumped back as far as I could, lost my balance, and landed on my back. At the same time, letting out a very distinguished, "Eep!"

Yes. Chloe Valens "eeped". Go tell your friends. See if I care.

Everyone was shocked, but it was clear that I, Sandor, and Senel were the only ones who were completely mortified. I could swear I saw a small smirk on Shirley's face. I felt an intense urge to call her many things a knight should not give voice to.

Her and Norma.

I found out the next day that my suspicions were correct. She and Norma had planned everything out, and although Norma claimed not to know anything about my difficulty with water while in full uniform (I managed to convince her that it was in fact the uniform that kept me from moving properly in the water), I have a sneaking suspicion that Shirley knew full well about my... shortcoming.

I suppose I can't blame her. I'll consider it pension for all the times I seriously considered looking for a way to quietly and discreetly remove her from the picture as far as Senel was concerned.

However, Sandor, who was also in on it, I will not forgive any time soon. Luckily, I don't think he expects me to. I won't plot any revenge, though. Him keeping Norma awake all night worried that I'll come in and stab him is punishment enough for the both of them. I'll let him sweat it out for a month or two.

No. I'm not mean. I just have a high sense of justice.

...xXx...

Xonel: Alright, so I actually just finished this a few weeks after I started it. I just got my fifth review for the first chapter, so I felt I had to give you guys some more. Hopefully this chapter was just as good, if not better! Oh, and I'm on a "Wicked" kick right now, so excuse the reference in the story. I couldn't help myself.