Colette turned her face away from the frosty window, lowered the teacup she had been drinking from, and listened intently. She wanted to believe that she'd heard the creak of a hotel door being pushed open, and that the sound came from the hallway just outside the room where she was staying. She set the teacup down on the saucer as gingerly as possible, trying to prevent it from clinking against the porcelain. Although her sense of hearing had become unnaturally keen as a result of her transformation into an angel, she was well aware that her wishful thinking could have played tricks on her. Then she heard another sound: that of the same door being closed shut. This time, she had no doubt she'd heard it - and, judging from the direction of the sound, she could tell that the door in question was opposite her room, and nearer to the end of the hallway. Colette held her breath. She heard the sound of footsteps coming closer to her room; then, when the sound became as close as could be, it abruptly stopped. Someone was in front of her door. She didn't dare hope - not after she'd already been refused once; but could he have changed idea...?

Then, she heard knocking.

She jumped up, rushed to the door, and turned the doorknob; then she pulled the door open.

"Llo--".

Colette had been looking expectantly in front of her, her head slightly tilted so that her eyes would be able to meet Lloyd's, at the height she knew where his face would appear. Instead, her gaze landed on a red necklace just like the one she had to wear as proof of her duty as the Chosen of Mana. Above that necklace, she found the face of the owner of that necklace: Zelos. Colette's disappointment was so great that she couldn't help but utter a small "oh"; then, realizing that she must have come off as terribly rude, she tried to reform her face into a smile - but, in that moment, she seemed to have forgotten how to do so in a convincing way, and her smile ended up still looking too much like a frown. Zelos was now looking down at her with a vaguely amused expression.

"My, Colette", he chuckled, "it's not often that a girl reacts to the sight of my face with less than the most pleased smile".

"I -- I'm sorry", Colette stammered, "it's -- it's just -- I thought --".

"-- I know, you were expecting someone else, weren't you, Colette?", he teased her.

Colette's face turned a bright red. "I -- I --".

"...Yeah, he didn't want to talk to me either".

Zelos had suddenly turned more somber than Colette would have thought possible from him. She paused, in thought. After Lloyd had turned down her invitation to go out with her in the snowy roads of Flanoir, she had returned to her room, thrown herself on the bed, and cried against her pillow. In that time, she'd heard someone else knock on Lloyd's door. She had heard Zelos' voice ask him if he would go out to talk about something, and heard Lloyd turning him down as well. Colette could not imagine what was that Zelos had wanted to tell Lloyd, but, she now knew, it must have been something very important. In spite of how much her own rejection stung, she couldn't help but also feel sorry for Zelos; and she could not understand why had Lloyd been so cold with them both.

"Can I come in?".

Usually, Colette would have not answered yes to that question when asked by Zelos of all people, but, on that day, she felt that she could trust him.

"Okay".

Colette closed the door behind Zelos, then went to stand by the round table near the window; Zelos took his seat on an armchair that was in one corner of the room. Colette checked inside the teapot that was on the table near the window, then looked up at Zelos; he'd slid down his seat, and was now almost lying down in it. "I'm sorry that it won't be much", Colette said, "but there's still some tea, if you want...".

"That's okay. You can enjoy the rest of it", Zelos said with a grin.

"Are you -- are you sure?".

"Yep. I'm good".

"Okay then". Colette filled her teacup with the last of the tea; she started to pick it up, then set it down again as she realized how strange this situation had become. "Did you -- did you want to talk about something, Zelos?...".

Zelos chuckled. "Oh, you know, it's just... Well, you know, us Chosens gotta stick together, right?".

"R -- right...".

"Plus, I thought you'd enjoy the company. Man, that Lloyd, refusing such a lovely girl...".

Colette frowned, and something tightened in her chest. "I don't understand... I thought he... I thought he would have said yes".

"I thought so, too", Zelos said, resting his face on one hand. He then sat up and beamed at Colette. "Cheer up, Colette! I'm sure he must have had his reasons. He didn't look too happy to see me, either".

Colette giggled to herself; after all, Lloyd had never once looked happy to see Zelos. "Right. I'm sure he had his reasons...". She turned towards the window; outside, it was still snowing. She smiled. "It's so cold here... But at least we get to see the snow. It's so pretty, isn't it?".

Colette turned around and looked at Zelos; then her face fell. In spite of the happy subject, Zelos didn't look very happy at all.

"...To be honest, I'm not too fond of it".

"Oh", Colette said, looking down at her feet. "You... you don't like the cold?".

"Well, that too", he chuckled. "But it's mostly the snow, really".

Colette wasn't sure what to say in response to that. She turned towards the window again. Now that she'd heard that, the snow didn't seem so nice anymore to her, too. She kept staring at it with a frown, as if she could make it stop with her willpower alone.

"It was snowing on the day my mother died".

She turned around, wide-eyed. "What...?".

Zelos looked away from her, and his gaze seemed to fixate on the wardrobe that was by the bed. "When I was a child. I had never seen the snow before. My mother had come out with me to make a snowman... Then, she was hit by a blast of magic. She died on the spot".

Colette stood there, frozen in place. What she had just heard was too horrible for her to know how to react to it. "I... I didn't know... I... I am so sorry, Zelos...".

Zelos didn't reply to that; he only exhaled, and turned his head slightly towards Colette while still avoiding her gaze. "That's how it is", he simply said.

Colette shook her head; she felt tears begin to well up in her eyes. "How... how could anyone do that?... Your mother was a nice person, right?".

"She was", Zelos said.

"Then why was she attacked? Who would do something like that?".

Zelos laughed darkly. "Well, I suppose that it was an accident, really".

"Oh, I thought so...", Colette whimpered, a bit relieved at the thought that Zelos' mother hadn't been murdered in cold blood after all.

"She wasn't supposed to die. The blow was intended for me".

"What...?", Colette gasped. "No!... Why?".

"Because I was going to be the next Chosen. If I'd been out of the way, then Seles...". Zelos paused for a moment. "See, Seles is not my full-blooded sister. She was born out of an affair that my father had with her mother. The person who tried to kill me was Seles' mother".

"Seles' mother?", Colette cried. "Why...".

"So that Seles could become the Chosen instead".

Colette looked down. "No...", she whimpered, holding her hands tight together and twisting her thumbs. "Why would Seles' mother do something so horrible...".

"Keep in mind that, here in Tethe'alla, the Chosen gets to be a high-ranking member of society. Second only to the King, in fact. So, you see why she wanted Seles to get that spot", Zelos said with a shrug.

"But -- but Seles, too, was only a child!", Colette exclaimed. "She didn't get to decide! Being the Chosen is... is not easy...".

Zelos laughed - and there was something about his laugh that made Colette feel even sadder. "Yeah, it sure isn't, right?", he said. "She'd make a better Chosen than me, though".

"What? Why do you think that?", Colette said, wide-eyed.

"Well, to start with, because I am terrible at it", Zelos said with a bitter smile. "Pretty much anyone could do a better job".

"That's not true", Colette said. "I know you try so hard".

"Hard? More like hardly", Zelos chuckled.

"No, that's not true!", Colette replied, impassioned. "I know you try... ".

Zelos didn't answer. He just sighed, and looked away to the wardrobe again. He shook his head slightly.

Colette took one step forward to where Zelos was sitting. "I'm sure... I'm sure that your mother would have been proud of you".

She had expected to cheer him up, but, instead, Zelos' gaze went dark; something seemed to shift in his expression. "No, I really don't think so".

"Why not?".

"I should have never been born".

"Wh... what?!", Colette gasped.

"That's what my mother said, when she died", Zelos said, factual. "That I should have never been born".

Colette looked down to her feet. "No...".

"Yeah".

Colette shook her head slightly; she sat down on her chair, unsure of what to say or do in response to this. She knew that being the Chosen One had not been easy for Zelos, too, but she would have never guessed that he had endured all of this.

"Sorry for all this story...", she heard Zelos say. "I know it's not exactly easy to stomach".

"It's -- it's okay", Colette said, lifting her gaze to look at him.

"In any case, thank you for listening", Zelos said.

"Really, it's okay".

Zelos tilted his face and seemed to stare at his shoes for a while before he looked up at Colette. There was now some sort of smile in his expression. "You really are an angel, Colette. Not the Cruxis sort - the real kind. The sort of angel that makes people really want to believe in them".

Colette smiled. "I... Thank you. I... I try my best".

"I know you do", Zelos smiled.

There were a few moments of silence where Colette played with the tea that was in her cup. Zelos moved around in his seat and shifted his weight against the other armrest. At that moment, Colette happened to glance out the window. She saw that Lloyd was outside, talking with Kratos. She sighed; although she would have wanted to talk with Lloyd, she understood that it was only fair if this led him to talk to his father. They had a great deal of things to talk about, after all, and this had been their first moment of respite in a long time.

Just as she was thinking that, Zelos looked at her. "I can't believe Lloyd turned you down", he said.

Colette's eyes widened. "Wh... why are you thinking that?".

"I just can't believe he'd do that", Zelos said. "And now, he's out talking to Kratos of all people...".

"No, it's alright", Colette said with a smile. "He should be doing that... He shouldn't be thinking of me. He should do what makes him most happy".

"Yeah, like flirting with both you and Sheena, that's very nice of him".

"Zelos!", Colette exclaimed, turning red in the face.

"Sorry, Colette, but that's the truth", he said, bitter. "For how much we're here wanting nothing but the best for Lloyd, he sure doesn't seem to care that much about either of us".

"That's -- that's not true!", Colette cried. "He just... he just... must have had his reasons... and... it doesn't matter... it doesn't matter if I'm sad...".

Zelos shook his head. "Why is it so bad to wish yourself to be happy, too?".

"That's -- that's because --".

Zelos stepped around the table and faced Colette; he set his hands down against the table - making the teacups clink slightly against the wooden table - and looked straight in her eyes. "You're always so giving, and you're always pretending to be happy for the sake of someone else... Don't you wish you could be really happy, like, really, without having to smile and laugh because people will get upset if you don't?".

Colette couldn't find a word to say in reply to Zelos' outburst. She kept looking down, unable to withstand his gaze. "Maybe they won't like me anymore if they see me sad, or they'll get worried, and...".

"If your friends love you because of the mask you put up for them", Zelos said, serious, "do they love you, or do they love the mask?".

Colette took in a deep breath. "I... I guess you're right...", she eventually said.

"It's important to be honest", Zelos then said. "To others, and to yourself, too. Sometimes it's hard, but...". Zelos moved away from where he had been standing; he stopped in front of the window, then walked towards the door. He turned to Colette again.

"Anyway, Colette, there's one thing that I really want you to know", Zelos said, his voice suddenly lower. "Tomorrow, when we go to the Tower of Salvation... No matter what happens tomorrow, you'll be alright in the end. Trust me on that. You'll be alright. You're a good person, and you never give up... and people like that are always alright in the end, isn't it?".

Colette smiled. "Yes, you're right", she then said. "Thank you. You're a good person, too. I'm happy that we could talk".

Zelos nodded slowly. "I'm going now", he said, touching the door handle. "You better get a lot of rest for tomorrow".

"I will. Goodbye, Zelos".

Zelos closed the door, then he walked back towards his room. When he reached the door, he looked out the window that was at the end of the hallway. Outside, it was still snowing.

"Colette", Zelos whispered to himself, "can you ever forgive me?".