Disclaimer: Sadly I do not own Tales of Symphonia.

Chapter 2

After parking my vehicle in my garage I went outside. It was a nice warm day. The breeze was gentle. The sky was clear. Taking a deep breath my gaze swept at the rebuilt Luin. Children were laughing and playing in the streets. Women gossiped with one another. Men went about their daily jobs. It was peaceful.

There was no particular reason for picking to live in Luin. I could have lived anywhere else just as easily. But the climate in Luin was perfect, and it was right on the water, which is always a plus.

"It's so peaceful," a raspy voice came from beside me, bringing me back to reality.

I looked over quickly to see a small old lady. She was hunched over and held a cane in her weak hands. She smiled warmly at me before looking back at the town.

"Yes, it is." I replied, turning my gaze back to the town before me.

"Hard to believe just a short time ago this city was in ruins." Sorrow seemed to spark in her eyes at the memory.

"Hm," was all I could think of to say.

"All because of those filthy Desians... Those half-elves," her sorrow soon turned into anger.

I glanced at the old woman. It would appear she was one of the handfuls of people still discriminating half-elves. I gave no comment to her last remark instead I just watched the children play.

She chuckled softly. "I apologize for bringing such a gray topic up," she paused, "Oh how rude of me. My name is Rose."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Lady Rose. I'm Kratos Aurion."

She smiled warmly in reply, a long silence followed. It lasted to the point I was becoming uncomfortable.

"Ah well, I have a grandchild to feed. I must be going. It was nice meeting you Mr. Kratos. Hopefully our paths will cross again." She waved as she turned and walked off.

I blinked as I watched the old lady disappear. What an odd woman. Usually when strangers try starting a conversation and introduce themselves they mean to talk to you a bit more. Maybe she just didn't know what to say. She had tried to talk about the Desians I guess. But I hadn't really kept the conversation going much.

Oh well. It doesn't really matter. Turning to enter my home, I sighed. Another day home alone. Yuan was right as much as I hated to admit it. You could always find me in this house. I never really made friends with anyone in Luin. But that was my own fault for being so anti-social. There was always the possibility of joining Lloyd and his journey to collect all the exspheres. But I wasn't really up to the task. If he asked me to help though of course I would.

Well my day after that went as any other. I trained for a bit, made dinner, went out for a little while then came home for bed. Sleeping and eating wasn't really necessary when you have a Cruxis Crystal but it killed time.

Sighing as I got into bed my mind wandered. Life had become dreadfully boring and uneventful. But I wasn't really doing anything to make it more exciting. So it's a little unfair for me to complain. I had faintly thought about what could be done to make my life more eventful as sleep took me.

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Author's note

Sorry, this chapter is a bit short. And sorry if Kratos and/or Yuan seem kind of OOC. I'm trying to keep them in character as much as possible.