"Hey Zelos! We're going to go explore the city!" Lloyd exclaimed happily. "Yeah, yeah. Do what you want." The front door of his house opened and the sounds of many footsteps were heard. The door closed and the footsteps faded. "You aren't going with them?" Zelos asked, turning to Shihna who was sitting next to him on the couch. "I've seen enough of Meltokio," she replied. So much that it makes me sick, she thought. She hated this city, with so many millionaires and billionaires who had plenty of money to spare, yet they wouldn't give a cent to the people who had nothing. It disgusted her...and one of those rich bastards was sitting right next to her right now. "Oh, I see! You just wanted to spend time alone with me! Ah ha ha ha!"
"There's no way I'd want to spend time with you!" Shihna snapped. "I just don't want to go out. I hate it here." Zelos raised his eyebrows. "Oh? I thought you'd be happy to be here after being in a dump like Sylvarant." Shihna turned and glared at him. "I'd rather be in Sylvarant than being stuck here with an idiot like you!" Zelos' cool, blue eyes met her chocolate brown ones. "So you would rather run around with Lloyd, hmm?" He smirked. "So you did fall in love with some dorky bumpkin when you were over there." There was silence for a moment. "You think...that I fell in love with Lloyd?" she asked, trembling slightly. "Are you saying you didn't? I can see it, hunny. The way you look at him-" "At least I'm not like you! While I was gone you probably played around with millions of other girls! You probably toyed around with their feelings and broke their hearts one by one!" Zelos blinked. He didn't think that his teasing would make Shihna explode. She was going out of control. "You probably didn't worry about me at all when I was gone! I was always thinking about you...about what you were doing and if you were thinking about me! The entire time I was doing it for you! I'm happy that I didn't kill Collet! She deserves to live more than you, you stupid Chosen!" His eyes widened. Were those tears in her eyes? Shihna gasped for air. "I...I should've just saved the rest of them in Sybak and left you there." With that she turned and ran out of the house, leaving a stunned Zelos sitting on the couch.
"She...was thinking about me the whole time?" He couldn't believe it. Shihna was thinking about him...and he had made her cry. How could he? He was such an idiot. Making a girl cry was bad enough, but making Shihna cry was unforgivable. He ran his fingers through his hair. What was he going to do? She probably never wanted to talk to him ever again. She was the type to do a thing like that. Exactly that kind of woman. Still...he couldn't leave her alone. He had thought about her while she was gone. She was in the back of his mind every day and at night he couldn't stop worrying. Worrying if she had gotten killed...or if she wasn't going to come back. He wanted her...more than anything. He had to find her. Absolutely had to.
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Shihna sat down on the edge of a fountain, tears streaking down her face. Saying such stupid things...and to think that she got hurt by them too. She stared bitterly into the fountain, watching her reflection in the rippling water and cursing her weakness. She had never thought that Zelos, of all people, would ever be able to say anything seriously hurtful to her. How could he even suggest that she had fallen in love with Lloyd? Her hazel eyes grew hot and wet but Shihna brushed the tears away irritably. The sun was starting to set. Everybody else would be back soon. She couldn't go back looking like this. She was a ninja after all. She couldn't show her weakness...not in front of them. Especially not Zelos. She would never show her weakness in front of him. Never.
"Shihna..." She turned. Oh, great. She thought he wouldn't come after her. "What do you want?" she demanded, her voice shaking slightly. "I...I'm sorry I said those things to you, Shihna," Zelos said. She looked up into his face and saw an unaccustomed frown painted on the Chosen's face. Then she jerked away. She couldn't bear to face him now. Tears were beginning to burn in her eyes again but she willed herself not to break down, not to completely lose it in front of him again. She had sworn that. But...she felt her defences weakening. Why did she always end up forgiving him? "Is that all?"
"Uhh...I love you," Zelos mumbled. "Huh?" She stared at him blankly. "I...love you." Despite being angry at him she still found her face going red. "Wh-what are you talking about?! Don't think that saying something like that's going to change anything!" Zelos found himself smiling. This was exactly the reaction he knew she'd have. "I'm serious, you know."
No way...there's no way he could be serious. This is all a joke, right? She dared to look into his eyes again. What if he was serious? "You're the type of person to say a thing like that without meaning it at all!" Zelos took a few steps closer. "Really, I'm not joking." Shihna backed away. "Stay away from me, you idiot!" He didn't listen to her and continued stepping towards her. "Stay away..." she said again, turning her face away. She was scared to look at him. If she faced him any longer she feared that she would end up forgiving him. "Shihna..." he said softly, wrapping some strands of her silky hair around his finger. "Go away, idiot..." she mumbled. She could feel his breath on her cheek. "I wonder...what Shihna's kiss tastes like?" he murmured, slowly turning her face towards his. "There's no way I'm letting you find out!" she exclaimed suddenly, slapping his hand away. "Awww...you just had to ruin the romantic moment, didn't ya?" Zelos rubbed his gloved hand. "Having a romantic moment with a sick pervert like you? I wouldn't let that happen even if you paid me!" she said angrily. "Heh. I could've just forced a kiss on you instead of being all nice about it," he said with an evil smile on his face. "I wouldn't let a thing like that happen," she stated confidently. "Oh, really?" he challenged her. "Really," she said. Zelos grinned. "Whatever you say, gorgeous."
She glared at him and started walking away. "I'm going back to Mizuho. You guys don't need me anyways." Zelos jogged after her. "Wait, wait! Of course we need you!" He grabbed Shihna's wrist. "What are we going to do without our beautiful summoner?" Shihna faced him, annoyance showing in her features. "I'm still mad at you, so shut up and go away."
"Ooh, so cold," he said, his hand still keeping a firm hold on her wrist. "But I can see that you've forgiven me already even though you won't admit it." Shihna tried to pull away but failed. "What are you talking about?! I would never forgive y-" She was silenced by Zelos' lips suddenly meeting hers. "Mmmhhh..." She attempted to push him away, but she felt one of Zelos' arms wrap around her waist preventing her from moving away. Shihna started hitting him as hard as she could with her foot, kicking his shins as hard she dared. Despite all of her efforts to make him let go he still held on for what seemed like centuries. In vain, she stomped hard on his foot. Finally, he pulled away. "Ow. You're so violent, my voluptuous hunny." Shihna whacked him in the head with her free arm. "That's what you get for forcing a kiss on me," she said. "Oh, but I did, didn't I? I really did force a kiss on you," he said cheerfully. Shihna's face reddened and she turned away, covering her mouth with one of her hands. Zelos snickered evilly. "Did you like it?"
"No way!" she retorted quickly. "Oh? Then why is your face so red?" he asked, poking her in the cheek. "If you didn't like it you would be disgusted instead of blushing," he pointed out. "I-Idiot. I would rather die than be kissed by you," she said, trying hard to hide her embarassment, but failing horribly. "So you're going to commit suicide now that I've kissed you? Man, that's a waste," he said with a big smile plastered on his face. "You're not worth commiting suicide over," she replied. "That just contradicted what you said earlier." He poked her in the cheek again. "Stop that!"
"Heh heh. You're so cute," Zelos said, starting to stroke her hair gently. He had no idea why, but touching her hair just made him so...happy. What was this feeling? Why did he feel this way? When he said that he loved her he wasn't entirely serious. He admitted that he was attracted to her. Hell, he wouldn't mind if she wanted to get into bed with him, but she just...wasn't that kind of person. "Zelos, why are you looking at me like that?" Shihna's question brought him out of his trance. "Oh! Uh...nothing, nothing!" He pulled his hand away from her head. "You're really weird, you know that?" She started walking back towards Zelos' mansion. Zelos stood there for a while, staring at her back. "You coming?" she asked, without turning around. "Yep!" He ran to catch up with her. "I guess I'll stay for a little longer. Lloyd and the others need me after all," she said. "Heh. I knew you'd change your mind."
He knew...that he needed her too. More than anything. But did he love her? He had no idea.
SakuMeiMei Says: You do love her, Master Zelos!! XD YOU DO! BELIEVE IT!
Anyways, I'm sorry. (Again?!) I've been gone so long...and I could've finished this when I just got back, but things happened and I got writer's block several times. I'm a bad person. Sorry. DX I promise I'll catch up on my writing and basically everything else.
Actually some of these lines...were written by my friend who happened to be over when I was writing most of this. XD She happened to add in lines that fit while I was away from the keyboard every once in a while and they happened to fit. I had to draw the line when she put in the line "remorse glistening in his crystalline eyes" which happened to make the chapter 10 times cheesier. XD It's so cheesy I start laughing when I say that line. (I'm laughing right now. XD) She also put in the magic three words when I couldn't think of what to say. My writer's block was that bad. DX It worked out somehow. Around 2 or 3 in the morning we started to twist the chapter for no apparent reason because we both had the block and everything was looking suggestive to us. XD If you were to look at it in the condition it was at that time you probably would've never believed I had wrote such a thing. XD It was that bad.