A/N: Hey guys! here's a little seasonal fic (yes, I know, seasonal makes you think Christmas, but no… it's February guys, try to think more February and less December.) I hope you enjoy it! Please review! I'll love you forever if you do! (oh, and that totally rhymed…)

Lloyd bit his lower lip in concentration. He narrowed his eyes so that wrinkles appeared on his forehead and his normally separate eyebrows came together to form a furry crown. Needless to say, it wasn't a good look for the young swordsman. As he held his hand parallel to the ground trying to get the positioning just right, he actually felt a bead of sweat roll from his hairline into the small, nearly invisible crease between his eyebrows. Lowering his hand toward the floor, he placed the final cut out heart on the card.

Immediately all signs of tension evaporated from his face and he looked, once again, like the sweet, naïve seventeen year-old idealist that he was, as opposed to the slightly constipated seventeen year-old he had so recently resembled. Holding up his creation for Genis to see, he said, "What do you think?"

Genis rolled his eyes at the gaudy, pink heart shaped card. "Well, for a start, Colette is spelled with two Ts"

Lloyd's face fell. Spelling had never been his forte, but even he knew that misspelling a friend's name was not a good sign. Looking down at his card, he scratched his head. As suddenly as if he'd just sat on a pineapple he grabbed the glitter pen and squeezed in a second, rather squashed looking T. "There!" he exclaimed triumphantly.

Genis laughed, but quickly disguised it as a cough. Turning away from Lloyd and his monstrosity of a Valentine's Day card, he looked at his own slightly smaller and only slightly more tasteful one.

As if he were reading Genis's thoughts, Lloyd replied to the Sorcerer's cunningly concealed snorts with one of his own. "Yours isn't much better. Besides, does Presea even know what Valentine's day is?"

This was a question Genis had been pondering for a while, but before he could even open his mouth to reply, a voice cut off what would have an incredibly ambiguous answer.

"She will soon, if the great Zelos Wiler has anything to say about it!" The red haired chosen stood there, nonchalantly leaning against the doorframe. "I'm kidding," he hastily added before Genis could so much as glare at him.

"You better be," muttered the half-elf.

"So, Lloyd, you sure are dressed for the occasion, I see. Red with just a hint of red. Very valentiney. Not very manly, but valentiney."

"You're one to talk, Mr… pink vest," Genis snapped. The chosen always put him in a bad mood, and Valentine's Day was no exception.

"Excuse me, this, my small friend, is a gentleman's peach. Besides you're wearing a short-tard, so you're definitely not allowed to criticize my fantastic dress sense." Zelos did a sort of graceful, balletic twirl—and by sort of, I mean mostly not. "So, what are you two up to?"

"Making Valentines!" Lloyd said excitedly. "Raine taught us about it. It's one of the only useful things I've learned from her, actually."

"You mean the only thing," Genis corrected. "So, Zelos, I'm sure you have exciting Valentine's Day plans, we don't want to keep you from them." He said in a half-hearted attempt to rid the room of the egotistical swordsman.

"Nope!" Zelos chirped. "Now that you've spoiled my plans with Presea, I'm a free man tonight."

"What?" Genis exclaimed, half in disbelief, half in disappointment.

"I know, shocking. The great Zelos Wilder doesn't have a date on the most romantic day of the year." Zelos smirked and plopped himself down on the ground next to his companions.

Genis opened his mouth and blurted out the thoughts he never meant to say out loud. "What about Sheena?" Genis regretted saying it as soon as the words were out of his mouth. Even Lloyd recognized how stupid it was and clapped his hand over his younger friend's mouth, perhaps in hope that if he covered the orifice from which the objectionable words had come from would somehow make them go away.

Predictably, Zelos's face changed from smilingly pleasant, to despairingly glum faster than Genis running from Raine's cooking. He recovered quickly, though, and shot up onto his feet. "Just remembered, there's somewhere I have to be," and he bounded out the door.

"Yeah, like that fake date you don't have!" Lloyd yelled after him. Turning to Genis, he said, "That sounded cleverer in my head."

"I'm sure it did Lloyd," Genis nodded, lips twitching, trying not to smile.

The two friends returned to their labour intensive work and when they finally finished, the sun was beginning to disappear below the snowy horizon of Flanoir.

XXX

Zelos hadn't spent many Valentine's Days alone. He'd usually have a pretty girl on each arm and parade them around like horses, flaunting them in front of all his friends… and enemies. However, this year was different.

He could remember only one other year after the age of ten when he'd spent Valentine's alone. He had been eighteen, and he had just met the love of his life. Of course, she knew who he was, but unfortunately for him, she wasn't as interested in him as he had expected. In fact, she more or less hated his insides and his outsides (the latter of which he didn't think possible).

He remembered having an elaborate plan involving his hunnies, but that plan was quickly shoved to the back of his brain when he ran across that girl of his dreams. She made him practically non-verbal with her charming way of ignoring everything he said. He simply had to have her.

Luckily for him, he had managed to worm his way back into her life. Of course, he was constantly beating himself over the head every time she slapped him or ever time he insinuated that he didn't care, because, frankly, he did, and as much as he would've loved to deny it, he found Sheena Fujibayashi absolutely irresistible.

So, after managing to keep her name out of his head every Valentine's Day after that, he once again found himself alone… in a custodial closet. Looking around at his surroundings—countless miscellaneous cleaning agents, a pile of sponges and a mop—he felt almost sad. It would've been nice to spend the day with someone, even if that someone was the brat, Genis, with their friend the dunce, Lloyd, or even his neurotic sister.

The bright light from the hall broke through his self-pity and he blinked furiously trying to see what had disturbed him from his thoughts.

"I didn't expect to find you in here," the voice of Professor Raine Sage penetrated to previously dark, silent atmosphere of the cleaning closet.

Still unable to see clearly in the light, Zelos could discern the shape of another extremely sexy woman who was completely off limits in his life. As his eyes slowly began to focus he could see that she was looking at him with a piercing, scrutinizing gaze as if she was looking into his soul. However, she said nothing and merely continued to stare at him.

He stared back. Sooner of later she would crack and leave him alone, or so he thought. He had forgotten that she was one of the most persistent people he knew. "Okay, what do I do?" he finally burst out. Failing to realize that she could not, in fact, look into his soul. However, it seemed she didn't need to in order to figure out what was bothering him.

"That's not for me to decide. She's your problem and you can either deal with it head on, or smell like cleaning supplies for the rest of your life." She shrugged.

Zelos hadn't expected that, nor had he expected it to make perfect sense. She always knew what to say, and even if what she said took absolutely no standpoint, it was extremely helpful.

"Yeah," Zelos said slowly. "You're right—thanks!" and he dashed out of the closet, down the hall and out the frond door of the inn into the busy, couple filled streets of Flanoir.

XXX

It took Zelos less time than he had anticipated to find Sheena. He had expected to wander around looking for quite a bit longer; he'd been banking on that, in fact. He hadn't put any thought into what he would say or do, but it was too late for that. He would have to rely on his winning smile and his fantastic improvisational skills.

Who was he kidding? Spontaneity was not his forte. He planned everything in his life. He planned his friendships, he planned his romances, and he planned his enemies. In fact, the only surprises in his life came from Sheena, so maybe it was fitting for him to finally do this on impulse. Zelos let out what would've been an impressive sigh if anyone had been around to judge it and set off toward the one disturbance in his life.

Weaving around the giant statues covered in snow, Zelos felt as though an eternity was passing as he slowly got closer and closer to his beautiful banshee.

"Hey," Sheena said glumly without even turning around.

Zelos jumped when she spoke. He hadn't expected her to speak, but he supposed her ninja senses had clued her in to his arrival.

"Shouldn't you be off with your hunnies?" She said, with her back to him.

Zelos tried to swallow, but found his throat wasn't working properly, so instead he bit his lip and started talking. He wasn't sure what he was saying, or why he was saying it, but it just seemed the right thing to say. "Oh, them? Naa, I like to take at least one day off a year. Just relax, no show, no hypocrisy, no lies."

Sheena still didn't look at him, but she shifted her weight uncomfortably. "Oh- so, you haven't been with anyone today?" Her voice was wobbly, like she wasn't really sure how to feel about what he'd just said.

"Well, I was just with Lloyd and Genis making valentines and then Raine in a cleaning closet—but not like that. I just don't want to bother making people believe I'm something that I'm not." He shrugged and sighed. "No mask today, just me."

"Just you?" Sheena turned to face him.

She was beautiful. Her amber eyes were confused and her nose was pink from the cold, yet he found it incredibly sexy. She was irresistible even in the snow—especially in the snow. Just as this thought passed through his mind, he felt the first snowflakes beginning to fall.

"Just me." He nodded. "You know, my mother once told me that each snowflake is different; no two are alike. But I like to think that on Valentine's Day they aren't shaped like little stars, but like hearts. They all start out as cold, lumps of ice, but they change. Some are just broken pieces that fall to the ground to join their fellows, but they'll always be separate snowflakes." He held out his gloved hand and caught one. It dissolved into water immediately upon making contact with his palm. "Others are just waiting for the right force to come along to join with. It's much the same with humans. We wander around waiting for the right person to melt our hearts." Zelos glanced at Sheena. She still looked confused, but she was smiling. "I'm sorry, that probably didn't make much sense."

"No, it did! I- I think I understand now." Sheena said and then shivered. "It's kind of cold. I think maybe I'll—"

"Please, don't go inside yet." Zelos pleaded. "I like talking to you. It makes me feel… genuine."

Sheena laughed, "You are genuine, but it is cold, and I don't want to get sick." She smiled up at him, "But I suppose I could stay out a little longer, just… keep me warm, okay?"

Zelos wasn't sure what she meant by that. He never thought Sheena would actually invite him to touch her. As he was pondering exactly what to do with this new power, he heard Sheena's voice from a long way off say: "Come on, I haven't got all night, you know."

She was holding out her hand to him. He shook it. She laughed and put her arm around his waist. "You're funny," she said. Balancing on her tippy-toes, she planted a kiss on his cheek and whispered into his ear, "happy Valentine's Day."

XXX

A/N: well, I hope you liked it. I realize the end was a little like Raine's Flanoir scene in the first game, but oh well, I thought of it before I realized that, so too bad, it stays, Also… I always feel dirty when I say the word companions, so I tried to avoid it, but that didn't work out so well… this is all Firefly's fault (if you haven't seen firefly, do so, it is fantastic.) Anyway, now that I've plugged my favorite TV show, I can say au revoir to you all and once again ask you to pretty please review!