Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia. Namco own it I believe. I just have lots of plot bunnies. :)
Sheena never ceased to be amazed at Colette and Lloyd's ability to make themselves cozy pretty much anywhere. It seemed that if the two of them were together they could always make themselves comfortable and snuggle up for a nap. Even on the cold, rough ground of some of the places they'd had to camp in during the journey they'd been able to curl up together and drift into a blissful state of doziness that had caused them to look terribly cute. Right now they looked very comfortable, nestled together in a large armchair beside the inn's fireplace with a warm blanket draped over them.
Lloyd opened an eye as the four children in the room moved closer to the chair. Moving slowly, so as not to disturb Colette, he put a finger to his lips in a gesture to tell them to be quiet. Then he gently picked up one of Colette's arms, lifted it and dropped it. It fell limply back into place, like it belonged to a doll rather than a person. This caused the children to laugh.
"Mum's silly," Miles giggled.
"Mum's trying to take a nap, go away," Colette grumbled without opening her eyes, making a 'go away' gesture at the children. She'd used a silly tone of voice so they knew that she didn't mean it.
Noishe looked up from where he'd settled beside the fireplace and pulled the face that he pulled when he had had an amusing idea. He padded over to the pile of toys in the corner of the living room, selected one of the plush toys from it and then moved to the chair where the couple were curled up. Moving slowly he softly placed the plush toy rabbit beside Colette then gently took the fabric of her sleeve in his mouth and moved her arm so that she was hugging it. The children all started giggling at this, trying not to do so too loudly. Instead of pretending she hadn't noticed what the arshis had done Colette shifted around a little making exaggerated cozy noises and cuddling the plush toy more tightly. This caused the children to laugh louder. Colette grinned then suddenly opened her eyes and threw the plush toy at them, making a battle cry type noise. The children laughed and scattered, playing along with the game. They ran away, settling a little way away from the chair, and began to play a board game.
"That's better, now I can have my nap in peace," Colette mumbled, the silly smile on her face indicating that she wasn't being very serious.
"You're not really going to go to sleep properly though are you? You wouldn't be aware of how cozy you are then," Sheena smiled.
"Yes, yes I will go to sleep. I'm so comfortable and sleepy right here I'll sleep very deeply, so deeply that you won't be able to wake me up so you'll have to carry me up the stairs to bed later. So there," Colette said, deadpan, then stuck her tongue out and began to laugh.
"Lazy! I'm not gonna carry you up the stairs. You can sleepwalk," Sheena replied, laughing.
"It's OK, if you're still asleep at bedtime I'll carry you to bed," Lloyd told Colette quietly, nuzzling her affectionately.
"You're too soft. And besides, you're likely to be more deeply asleep than she is," Genis, who had been playing a game of chess with Presea, joined in with the conversation.
"Heeeeey," Lloyd half-growled half-whined.
"If you're tired why don't you go upstairs to bed now?" Sheena suggested.
"Because it's really warm and cozy here and I'm just dozing, not really sleeping properly," Colette replied sleepily.
"Ah ha, so you admit it!" Sheena exclaimed triumphantly.
"Bother, my secret has been discovered, now I shall have to destroy you all so you don't tell it to anyone else. After I've had a nap, too cozy to bother right now," Colette said, deadpan, nuzzling Lloyd's chest.
The little angel had almost completely dozed off when someone woke her up by throwing a cushion at her. She opened one eye slowly and pulled a pretend annoyed expression. Working out that it was most likely that Sheena had been the one who had thrown the cushion she leapt up out of the chair and began to tickle attack the summoner while roaring nonsense about waking up monsters, causing the older woman to laugh even more.
Noishe, seeing that this game looked like fun, moved over to Sheena's chair and pushed against it, causing it to tilt so that Colette and Sheena fell out of it and onto the floor with surprised yelps. Then he moved over to where they had fallen and joined in with the pouncing and tickling game.
Worried that the large creature might accidentally knock over a piece of furniture Lloyd jumped up and tried to stop Noishe. All he succeeded in doing, however, was getting himself included in the game.
As Zelos joined in, trying to make the game a bit fairer, Noishe was having no problem winning against the others, the children looked up from their board game. Unsurprised by the sudden burst of childish playfulness they simply pulled their well practiced 'adults are weird' face and turned back to their own less noisy and chaotic game.