Post game one shot piece of fluff featuring Sheena, Zelos, Lloyd and Colette. Pointless nonsense as usual. Sheelos and Colloyd pairings.
Dedication: for Minnie. I hope she likes it. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia. As far as I'm aware Namco own it.
Zelos bit his lip and tried not to snigger too loudly as he draped various decorations over Lloyd and Colette who were snuggled up together, leaning against one another, fast asleep.
"Don't do that, they're not a tree," Sheena frowned as Zelos somehow managed to balance a little star shaped decoration on Colette's head.
"It's more fun to decorate these two. There are festival trees in every noble's house in Meltokio now since they started putting them in the castle. No one else has festival love birds decorated with tinsel though," he grinned, selecting a piece of tinsel from the box of spare decorations and beginning to drape it over the sleeping couple.
Although it wasn't traditional in Mizuho to put up lots of decorations like the ones in Meltokio during winter festival Zelos had insisted on bringing along the latest styles of decorations when he'd invited himself along, including a tree to decorate.
Sheena couldn't quite remember exactly how Zelos had managed to invite himself along to her house for the winter festival but she didn't really mind him being here and she had to admit that some of the decorations were rather pretty. Colette had particularly liked the tinsel and had asked Sheena to put some in her hair which somehow looked both cute and silly at the same time.
Although winter festival was traditionally a time of year that was spent with family Sheena had invited Colette and Lloyd to stay with her because she knew that Dirk didn't make much of a fuss about the festival and she had noticed that Colette wasn't entirely comfortable around her father and grandmother which, considering what had happened in the past, she could understand. Even though they weren't technically related she thought of the couple as part of her family and knew they felt the same way about her.
Suddenly Zelos yelped in pain and she laughed.
"That's not nice, laughing at me when I'm in pain," he whined.
"Well I told you not to do that," Sheena shook her head as Zelos rubbed his leg and frowned. He had brushed the tinsel against Lloyd's nose as he was draping it over the swordsman which had caused him to kick in his sleep to try and get whatever it was that was tickling him to stop. It worked, Zelos moved away from him and sat sulking in a corner.
"I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt you, he's asleep," Sheena said to Zelos, her tone like that a mother would use when speaking to an upset child.
"I bet he did. I'm not going to give him his present now," Zelos said in a pretend hurt tone. Then he added in a louder voice "you hear that Lloyd? No present for you!"
Lloyd responded with a snore. Sheena laughed.
"Is that a hint that you want to open presents now?" she asked.
"Well, we've had dinner…" Zelos replied.
"Alright, help me wash up the dishes and then we'll wake those two up and open presents," Sheena said, standing up.
"But I'm a guest, and if I have to help wash up shouldn't those two as well?" Zelos whined.
"I invited them, you invited yourself," Sheena answered in a playful tone as she began to collect up plates.
Zelos collected some dishes and followed her into the kitchen. He placed the plates down beside the sink and picked up a tea towel. As Sheena washed the plates she passed them to him and he dried them, placing them back down on the side once they were dry. They didn't speak but the silence was companionable and once they had finished washing up they worked together to put the plates away. Zelos broke the silence by making comments about how much closer they were to opening presents after each item had been put away, causing Sheena to roll her eyes in a pretend exasperated expression.
"OK then you child, time to open presents," Sheena smiled and shook her head as they put the last plate away.
"Wait, before we wake those two up there's a special present I want you to open, stay right there," Zelos grinned then left the room, leaving Sheena standing in the kitchen with a puzzled expression on her face.
He returned with a small parcel wrapped up in beautiful paper and handed it to her. She turned it over, admiring the wrapping.
"Well go on then, don't just look at it, open it," he smiled.
She carefully peeled away the paper and gasped at the beautiful carved flower he had given her.
"It's a hair ornament, here," he said, taking it from her hands and clipping it into her hair. He took a step back and smiled at her.
"Beautiful, absolutely beautiful," he said softly then moved forward again to place a light, tender kiss on her forehead.
She blushed slightly and found herself thinking for a moment that, as lovely a gift as the flower was, his smile had been an even better one. Then she shook her head to clear that thought away.
"Who said that you could kiss me? Just because you gave me a nice present?" she snapped playfully, grabbing a napkin from a draw beside her.
She rolled up the napkin and began chasing him into the living room, waving the rolled up fabric around like a weapon. The noise of their chase woke Colette and Lloyd up. They moved to sit up without realising that they'd been wrapped up in tinsel and, with surprised yelps, struggled then fell onto their backs. Sheena and Zelos paused and the older swordsman began to laugh. Lloyd glared at him from the floor then leapt up, grabbed a cushion and began chasing Zelos like Sheena had done, wielding the cushion like a weapon.
"I told you you shouldn't have covered them with those decorations," Sheena sniggered as Zelos raced past her.