Possibly one of the most pointless things I've written, Colette, Sheena, Lloyd and Zelos have a late night conversation around the kitchen table. "Bliss" timeline one shot. Inspired by the fact that I seem to end up writing at silly times late at night/early in the morning, and by a silly joke comment I made to one of the chibi-muse real-life counterparts about how I was sure the chibis must be helping me eat the late night snacks I have while I write :)
Manga, for anyone who doesn't know, is a Japanese comic book. I'm not sure why but I get the impression that's the style Sheena and Colette would draw. Four panel gag manga is a manga in which there are four panels which contain a joke.
For the chibis, parts of my imagination I'd hate to lose. And for the chibi-muse real-life counterpart who drew me the lovely cartoon of the chibis trying to steal my cereal :)
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Tales of Symphonia. I have lots and lots of ideas to write, but Namco actually own Tales of Symphonia I believe.
"Everything alright?" Lloyd yawned as he grabbed a glass of water.
"Yeah, Miles woke up and when he went back to sleep I couldn't," Colette said, finishing off a panel of something she was drawing.
"And you?" he asked the summoner who was also sat at the table, scribbling away on a piece of paper.
"She was awake, drawing and had snacks, of course I woke up," Sheena shrugged, gesturing at the angel and the kitchen table. Plates and boxes were strewn across it, telling Lloyd that they'd managed to finish off a large quantity of toast, cereal and biscuits.
"You know you can eat these in the morning, at breakfast, really," he picked up a cereal box, blinking in surprise as he noticed, from the weight of it, it was nearly empty.
He wasn't entirely sure what the women found funny about that but they were giggling.
"Cereal," Sheena started.
"For breakfast?" Colette finished.
Then they started giggling again, scrabbling around the snack debris and drawn on pages, looking for a blank piece of paper. They soon found one and began scribbling on it together.
"Sometimes I just don't understand," Lloyd shrugged and sighed.
"You mean you actually understand them sometimes?" a sleepy voice joined the conversation.
"You OK Zelos?" Colette asked, concentrating on the drawing she and Sheena were working on.
"Missed you," he bent down to kiss Sheena on the top of her head before plonking himself down into a chair. He rubbed his eyes then opened them wide when he saw all the stuff strewn across the table.
"Lloyd, bud, why didn't you sound the alarm?" he said in a pretend distressed tone, grabbing hold of the younger man by flinging his arms around the other's neck.
"What?" Lloyd was still half asleep and totally clueless as to the cause of the redhead's mock distress.
"They, they, they've," the ex-Chosen stammered, pointing at the table. "They've been DRAWING!"
"Yeah," Lloyd shrugged and took a sip from his glass of water, acting as though Zelos wasn't hanging around his neck, he was used to this.
"Drawing, Lloyd, DRAWING! That means strange little joke mangas we won't understand," the older swordsman was still acting as though the world was about to end.
The women put the finishing touches to their latest creation then somehow managed to slide it across the table, avoiding any of the debris, to Lloyd. He picked it up and scanned the four-panel gag style manga about appropriate times of the day to eat cereal. He chuckled when he got to the end.
"Should I worry that I got that?" he looked over to Zelos.
"Oh no! The world's going mad!" the redhead let go of the brown haired swordsman and started running around the kitchen in a panicked manner.
The women rolled their eyes, got up out of their seats and began clearing up the plates.
Lloyd frowned, puzzled, and motioned for Zelos to stop running around so he could concentrate.
"You two hardly said a word to each other about that joke, but you drew it just like that," he snapped his fingers. "How'd you do it?"
"We can't always do that," Colette said as they both shrugged.
"I guess we just have the same sense of humour, think of the same jokes," Sheena added, giving the angel a hand with the washing up.
"You see, we should be scared Lloyd," Zelos said, unable to keep a straight face this time as a grin spread across his face.
"Ah, stop teasing them, you like their work as much as I do," Lloyd smiled gently.
"They know I don't mean it," Zelos grinned. He screeched as he got washing up bubbles flicked at him by the two standing at the sink.
"Sshhh!" Colette said. "I've already had to get Miles back to sleep once tonight, don't wake him up again."
"Thanks for dealing with that," Lloyd smiled at her.
"S'alright, I heard him first so I went to check on him. You would've gone if you'd heard him first," she said as he nodded.
"He's a good kid isn't he?" Sheena smiled.
"Yeah, we're really lucky, he and Hope are both pretty good at sleeping through the night and behaving," the blonde nodded, finishing the last bit of washing up.
The duo sat down again and started gathering up their bits of paper, sorting them into piles.
"What did you draw tonight then?" Lloyd asked.
"Ah, bit of this, bit of that," the summoner replied vaguely.
"Wanna read?" Colette offered, placing the last piece of paper on the right pile.
"Please," her husband smiled. Colette and Sheena pushed the drawings across the table then Lloyd chuckled as Colette yawned loudly.
"You should go back to bed," he said softly, raising an eyebrow as she shook her head.
"I'm awake now," she explained.
"I know what you need," Sheena got up again and started filling the kettle. "Nice mug of hot chocolate eh?"
"Mmm, why not," the angel nodded and soon had her hands wrapped around a mug of the sweet, milky drink.
"Lets take these in the living room, more cozy in there," the dark haired woman said as the blonde followed her into the other room.
"Those two really are great friends aren't they?" Lloyd smiled.
"Yeap, just like us bud," Zelos casually flung his arm across Lloyd's shoulders as he nodded, then started to look at the latest artistic creations left on the table. The pile nearest him was full of more four-panel joke mangas like the one the women had shared earlier.
"Those two shouldn't be allowed to draw late at night, these drawings are crazy," he rolled his eyes.
"Aw, no, they should be allowed," Lloyd said quietly, indicating the pile of drawings he'd been looking through.
"What madness have they come up with there then?" the redhead turned his attention to the other pile of drawings, this one full of a story style manga. He smiled as he flipped though the pages, seeing the people he knew and loved as family featuring in a small, light-hearted story about a typical day in the life of the two women, and how they were happy.
"Those two really are daft and soppy," he said, a wide grin plastered across his face as he finished the last page, happy to see that they were happy.
"Yeah," Lloyd nodded and smiled back at him.
"Uh oh," the ex-Chosen frowned.
"What?" Lloyd felt puzzled again, not understanding why Zelos had a look on his face similar to the one he had pulled earlier.
"They've gone quiet, that means one of two things, either they're drawing or," Zelos started.
"They're asleep," Lloyd called from the living room where he'd gone to investigate the cause of the quiet.
"Bless them, they are cute when they're sleeping," the redhead smiled as he joined the younger man in the living room.
Empty mugs had been placed on the table and the women had fallen asleep leaning against each other on the sofa, the blanket that had been draped over the back of it now wrapped around them.
"What's wrong with the bed?" Lloyd chuckled as he began to untangle them from the blanket.
"It's not warm because there's no one in it. I missed her warmth, that's why I woke up," the ex-Chosen said quietly as he scooped Sheena up in his arms.
"I'm sure she didn't mean to wake you up. I think she and Colette just feel the need to draw sometimes," Lloyd said thoughtfully as he picked Colette up. "More than once I've woken up to find her awake and scribbling away, and she tells me she won't be able to sleep until she's put her idea down on paper. It's like her head gets filled up with thoughts and ideas and she has to let them out before she can get back to sleep from what she's said to me about it."
"Plus they like making sure there's no cereal left for breakfast," the redhead smiled and chuckled.
"Don't get me started," Lloyd laughed gently.
"Anyways," Zelos said, pausing outside the door to the room he and Sheena were sharing. "Night."
"Sleep well," Lloyd smiled as he opened the door to his and Colette's bedroom, shutting it behind him with a gentle kick before placing the blonde on the bed gently.
"Lloyd?" he heard her mumble as he laid down on the bed beside her and pulled the blanket over them both.
"What's that?" he asked, wrapping her up in a big, warm hug.
"I love you, thank you for making me so happy, always being there for me," she mumbled so sleepily he could only just understand her.
He nuzzled her, snuggling as close to her as he could.
"I love you too, and I feel so lucky to have you as my wife, you're so wonderful to me Colette," he whispered softly and smiled when he saw her face light up with an expression of pure happiness before sleep claimed her totally again. He, too, gave into the heavy feeling in his eyelids and soon joined her in a deep, peaceful sleep.