Title: You're A Difficult Equation (With A Knack For Heart Evasion)
Day/Theme: July 26 - and if I am four words than I am needing of your love
Series: Tales of Symphonia
Character/Pairing: Zelos, Sheena
Rating: PG
Note: Zelos is a math nerd. Trufax. Also, this is kinda crap. Trufax. Also, this runs a lot more on the song the prompt is from than the prompt itself. Whoops.


Math had always been something easy for Zelos. The way the patterns of numbers would flow and mix had been something he had always had a talent for. Even the toughest problems that had stumped his teachers had been a breeze for him. Other subjects, on the other hand, were not quite as simple as a math problem. He had no taste for chemistry, no fondness for the dull repeating of history, no love for most other subjects shoved down his throat. It was probably good for him that he could whip up some clever words to get girls to pass their notes to him and keep those other subjects up. Math and girls. His best subjects.

But there was one subject that he'd never gotten quite down, even at his school. That strange little foreign girl from Mizuho, Sheena. She wasn't any math problem he had faced, or a girl he could simply solve with a smile and a wink. No, she was different. His title held no sway over her actions towards him, nor did it influence the way she treated him. (Minus she might smack him a little less when they were in public.) She was stubborn. She was fierce. And she did not fall for any of his petty tricks, no matter how many or how often he tried. She was also beautiful, and something that entranced him with the difficulty.

Zelos had always been one for solving problems - be it a math question or a girl, or even a problem that his position as a Chosen could influence. Out of the dull and controlled way his life often was, solving problems were something that always kept his interest and made things a little less boring. So, imagine his intrigue towards a girl that didn't want his attentions. And one that could sweep his breath out from under him, quite literately. In their youth, Zelos would follow her around like a dog half the time. She was interesting, she was different, and her constant rebuttal of his attentions made him more curious than anything.

But, it was when he found her, crying to herself under a desk during a thunderstorm, that the problem became even more complex. How would he solve something like her? Someone that he couldn't woo, someone that didn't care about his status, and someone his status couldn't touch. He couldn't help her get over her fears of thunder, or help her conquer what had caused that fear in the first place. Nor could he influence the minds of her village and allow her to finally be accepted in the only place she had ever called home. Sheena was a problem he didn't have a solution for. Which only meant he wanted to "solve" her all the more.

In the passing of years, he still couldn't catch that heart of hers, or change her mind enough to get her to accept him. But, he was surprised at her using him as a confidant at times, turning to him when she was lost. And even more surprised when he started to do the same (even if she wouldn't often understand him). Maybe it was because he had accepted her as a problem he couldn't quite solve, someone with a like situation that he could understand, that she felt at least somewhat comforted around him.

Even if Zelos couldn't solve her, he knew some of her ticks, some of her traits. He could understand her to a point, solve parts of her equation before he would have to start over and over again. Certain things about her he knew for sure. He could get her angry at him when she was worried, and suddenly the weight was better for her to bear. He could crack a joke and get her to forget the tense mood. He could get her to stare at him with those big, brown eyes of hers seriously - and scare the wits out of him in the process.

Maybe, as much as she was something he couldn't quite figure out, he was the same to her. An annoyance, certainly, but someone that she was drawn to because of the challenge. He knew her well, after years of trying to crack that elusive answer of hers. And maybe, she knew the same about him. She knew some of his ticks, some of his cracks in his armor, and knew some of the ways he would go. And he knew what the outcome would eventually be - one of them would solve the other, and it would either fall one of two ways. They'd either hate the answer they'd found and leave, or-

Well, the or could be solved later. That was another question in and of itself. And Zelos couldn't always solve every equation that came his way, after all. And the here and now, the one with her, was much more interesting than mulling over what a future could and would be. All he knew is that her "solution" would be the most satisfying answer from any problem he would ever solve. If he could ever crack her, that is.