Completely pointless piece of plotless fluff. Set during the game when the party stay at Altamira.
Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia. Namco own it I believe. I just have a lot of fluffy plot bunnies and a bunch of persistent chibis/muses/whatever you want to call them :)
Sheena smiled and waved at Colette who was sitting next to Lloyd playing in a patch of sand. The group had decided to have a little break in Altamira and the small angel seemed to be thoroughly enjoy the short vacation. Sheena had decided to simply relax in the sunshine, sunbathing in the shade of a beach umbrella, and had kept an eye on Colette and Lloyd to make sure they were OK. So far they'd gone swimming in the ocean, played childish games in the water, searched for interesting creatures in the small rock pools and had eaten a couple of ice cream cones. Sheena smiled as she remembered the way, when they couldn't decide which flavour they wanted because so many sounded good, the couple had bought a large cone with scoops of several different flavours in it and had sat side by side contentedly sharing the slowly melting treat, getting it all around their mouths. Once that one had been finished they'd returned for another, trying more flavours.
Now, having cleaned the ice cream off their faces, they were trying to build something out of the sand. The dark haired girl smiled, those two seemed like two little kids enjoying their first holiday at the seaside. Then she realised, frowning, that it probably was the first time they'd had a chance to play at a proper beach and, in Colette's case, act like a child. As the Chosen she would have been expected to behave in a very mature and adult way and would have, no doubt, been discouraged from playing silly, childish games like the ones she'd been playing with Lloyd earlier.
It was good, Sheena thought, that Colette could have the opportunity to enjoy a day when she could forget about her title and the journey they were on and just play on the beach. The summoner stood up and walked over to the young couple who were contentedly playing with the bucket and spade Lloyd had bought for the angel earlier.
"Trying to make a sandcastle?" she asked.
"Mmmhmm," Colette smiled happily.
"You're not doing that well are you?" Sheena nodded at the structure which had collapsed and crumbled.
"Not really, no," Colette frowned.
"How about I teach you two the secret Mizuho technique for building the best sand castles?" the older girl offered.
"Really?" the blonde asked, her eyes lighting up with delight.
"Why not?" the summoner smiled. Then she looked around the beach, trying to find a certain redheaded Chosen.
"ZELOS! HEY, ZELOS!" she yelled when she spotted him by the snack stand. He waved to let her know he'd heard her then wandered over.
"What it is my voluptuous hunny?" he asked.
"Go get another couple of buckets, fill them up with water and bring them back here. Oh, and whatever that is go get more of those too," she instructed him, nodding at the glass in his hand as she noticed Colette admiring the drink which had a little umbrella tucked into the glass.
"Anything else you'd like? Shall I move those clouds over a bit or get those seagulls to sing happy songs?" he asked sarcastically, the smile on his face showing that he wasn't serious.
"Please Zelos, Sheena's going to show us how to make a really good sandcastle, please could you fetch us some water?" Colette asked politely.
"See, the little angel knows how to be polite and ask nicely instead of ordering people about," Zelos said to Sheena. She punched his arm.
"Alright alright, I'm going," he mumbled, wandering off.
He returned a minute later with their drinks, smiling at Colette's reaction to the little paper umbrella. The fact that it actually opened and closed seemed to amuse and impress her. She seemed like and appreciate the little things in life like that, she enjoyed small things like spotting a pretty butterfly or curling up cosily beside the fire with Lloyd in the evenings. As he started his next task of fetching water for the sandcastle he pondered over why that was. Perhaps, he thought, it was because when she was younger she had to concentrate on Chosen matters and lived in a strict environment where she would have had to have acted seriously and not waste time on things others might consider petty and trivial. Or maybe it was just naturally a part of who she was, possibly it was a bit of both.
"This is really good, what is this?" he paused as he walked past the group with his new purchases, two plastic buckets, when Colette asked him a question.
"Just a mix of fruit juices. Does it not taste familiar at all?" he replied.
"Nope, I don't think we had any of these in Sylvarant," Colette shook her head. Zelos ran through the names of the fruits used in the drink and none of them seemed familiar to either Colette or Lloyd. He shrugged and continued on to the ocean.
When he returned he was unsurprised to see that both Colette and Lloyd had gotten themselves another drink.
"You two really like those huh?" he smiled. They nodded.
"Wish we had some of these on Sylvarant," Lloyd said, putting his drink down as Zelos placed the buckets of water next to Sheena.
"Anything else you need now?" he asked.
"You can stay and help build the sandcastle if you like," the summoner offered.
"Building sandcastles is for children. I, the Great Zelos Wilder, do not have time for childish games, there are hunnies to woo," he smiled, beginning to wander off.
"Suit yourself," Sheena shrugged.
She had just finished helping Lloyd and Colette build one corner of the castle when he returned with an ice cream and sat down next to her without saying a word. Once he'd finished his snack he gestured at the bucket and space.
"You want to help?" Sheena asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well I figure if you're going to build a really great sandcastle then you need someone as handsome as me to help so that the castle itself is handsome, I mean some of my gorgeousness is bound to rub off on the castle if I build a bit of it," Zelos smiled. Sheena shook her head and passed him a bucket.
After several trips to fetch more water the four young adults had built a rather impressive castle. Lloyd collected up the umbrellas from their drinks and stuck them into the castle then Colette suggested finding some nice pebbles to add as more decoration. He nodded and stood up then held out his hand to her. She grasped it tightly with her own and they wandered off in search of more things to add to the castle.
"Those two are really having fun today aren't they?" Zelos smiled.
"Yeap, they deserve a break," Sheena nodded.
"I think you're enjoying yourself too," the redhead said.
"I just taught them how to make a good sandcastle that's all, you should have seen the mess they were making of it before I offered to help," the summoner replied.
"Nope, I reckon that, really, you like building sandcastles but you don't want to admit it because you don't want your tough Mizuho ninja image to be ruined by people finding out you like doing something childish," Zelos grinned.
"Well what about you, you didn't need much encouragement to join in," Sheena grinned back at him.
"Like I told you if you're going to have a gorgeous castle you need someone gorgeous to help you build it," he replied.
"With you helping I'm surprised it didn't end up looking like a crumbling old ruin," Sheena laughed.
"Heeeey, that's not nice," Zelos mock-pouted. "Although imagine if it had, Raine'd be over here going all ruin-mode over it."
They laughed, receiving inquisitive looks from Lloyd and Colette who'd returned with buckets full of pebbles and shells.
"What's so funny?" Lloyd asked as he sat down beside the castle, dumped the contents of his bucket out onto the sand and began placing the pretty items on the castle.
"Imagine if the castle looked like a ruin," Zelos said.
"Ohhhh, marvellous, I must study it!" Colette giggled as she did her Raine in ruin-mode impression.
"It must be very old and interesting despite the fact that it's only a bunch of sand. I shall spend hours studying it," Lloyd joined in
Unfortunately the professor chose that exact moment to walk by and heard them. Sheena tapped Lloyd on the shoulder and he turned around, a look of horror on his face as he spotted their teacher walking angrily towards them.
"Run?" he suggested to Colette.
"Run!" she nodded as they leapt up and ran towards the ocean where they'd be safe from Raine's anger, their laughter carrying on the gentle breeze that flowed over the beach.