A Empty Void Left to be Filled

Rein: Welp, my first story on this site XD

Still got to get use to the set up...ANYWHO moving on

Depression hit me, so i threw this together to try to cheer myself up/get my mind off it, it kinda worked?

I like this pairing, wish you could do the whole Symphonia couples thing in this game, would have been fun.

You don't get to hear Yuri much, which sucks, i think i would do better with his voice than with Rita's, me personally going through a rebellious stage a few years back with a personality kinda like his XD

And now, the actual story! Have fun.

(I dont own the Tales series or tales of Vesperia)

She had just woken up, the night still not quite gone, but the morning sun breaking through the clouds, it was early, too early for any of her companions to be awake, she laid there on her mat, thinking of nothing in particular, just trying to remember the dream she had last night, it was vivid during her sleep, but it escape her as the bliss of dreams faded.

Deciding she had enough time before everyone else woke up, she wandered off near the river, to soak and try to clean herself, the party just having now escaped the marsh they got lost in, the old man spinning tales of treasure and stupidity, all they found was mud, trees, monsters, mud, bushes, mud and trash.

She shook her head lazily to clear her thoughts, looking around real quick before she left the camp to see if anybody else was awake, by any small chance, but to her it seemed highly illogical anybody would be…but then again, he defied all logic, and sure enough, his bed mat was empty.

She grunted at this before stomping off, Yuri wasn't the type to do the same old thing day in and day out, he probably woke up early every now and again, but still, the idiotic boy of a man shouldn't be up this early, he ended up fighting the most out of the group while in the marsh, being the only one besides the dog to be able to keep his footing in all the decaying ground that sunk below their feet, he was visibly tired last night, anybody could see past the stupid tough guy act he had, and he passed out before anybody else too.

If that idiot was going to end up fainting out on their travels today, that's all on him then, she isn't going to play mommy and hold his hand and lead him to all the answers that she had due to her intelligence being the superior of the group.

But she has to admit; in the morning….she was as groggy as anybody else and sometimes, very rarely, stated something that made little sense, even to herself. Getting ready for the well-deserved bath she broke through the bushes that lead to the river, and her eyes rested on the missing person, Yuri Lowell.

He was sitting in the shallow part of the river, waist deep, his back facing her, his head turned ever so slightly so she could see his face, most of his clothes drying on a rock to his left, only wearing some extra shorts he carried around if his main attire ever had to be washed, eyes closed, lost in thought, his face in a relaxed state, frowning slightly, pondering his thoughts, the water shining off his drying back, his arms dipping into the water, fists resting on his legs, long dark hair shining in the sun, falling naturally across his back and shoulders, but leaving more than enough skin to be shown.

She stopped dead in her tracks, staring, her mind a blank as she took it all in. Blood rushing through her body, she stumbled back, creating more noise than she ever wanted in the situation, half running, half falling through the bushes she had just came through, the mud still caked on her legs and arms, she looked back to see if he had noticed her, but all she saw was green plants.

As she approached the camp, she tried to get a hold of herself, slowing her run down to a brisk walk, mind running on all cylinders, thinking of what she just witnessed, why she just stood there gawking for a good minute, then trying to get away as if he was the scariest thing he ever saw.

'He isn't,' she thought to herself, and she knew she was right, but why does that image that is now burned into her mind causing so much grief in her heart?

As she entered the camp she was greeted by the newly awakened party,

"Morning Rita!" screamed the ever energetic Karol, always a bother and never a help to Rita, sure he had some uses to the group, but she didn't care.

"Oh, Rita! I was worried sick, both you and Yuri disappeared before anybody got up, we thought something had happened!" The pink noble had just ran up and grasped for the mages hands, as childish as usual.

"Nah, were fine, I woke up and Yuri was gone already, but I went to take a small dip and he was there. Looks like he was thinking about something, probably won't be back for a while." She tried to play it cool and keep a smug grin on her face, but it just felt off to her, and then it hit her what she just said, knowing she was going to regret it. And sure enough…

"Oh? But than why are ya clothes so muddy? Couldn take the heat an ran away, instead of stayin and let your womanly desires take over?" The old coot had the dopiest grin on his face, obviously pleased with his attack.

"WHY YOU!" And the fireball hit him smack in the middle of the face, heat cracking a bit of the mud that had dried on.

"I will let you know it happens to be very frowned on for a man and a woman to bathe together if they are not a couple, especially when the man is nearly 7 years older than the woman."

The pervert must have been able to hear all that even though his head was ignited, because right after he got the last of the flame out he had to make a comeback,

"Well why didnja just snuggle next to him, lay your head on his bare chest real soft like, confess to him, watch his face go soft, and let him wrap his strong manly arms around you as you let him undress ya and wash your bare body off while not a single word escapes either of your lips?"

And a low blow fireball shuts Raven up real nice.

"Who confess to wha now?" Great, the problem in question just walked in.

Judith, who Rita always pegged as the sly crafty type, was the one to answer, 'anybody but the old man would have been better' she told herself in her own mind, as her face went red as she buried it into a book.

"Oh, Rita was just telling us how she went to take a dip and saw you half naked in the river, and we were just curious why nothing happened between you and her, after all, knowing you, I bet you would have flirted with her just to make her heart skip ten beats."

She said this so sweetly with that innocentlittleme smile she had, but her eyes seem to smile their own twisted dark way. And to top it all off she couldn't help herself and had to hold her body a way that made parts of her….look bigger….as if to imply if she was there something WOULD have happen. Yuri just stared with a half dumb half idontcare look he seemed to have perfected from a young age.

"I didn't notice Rita in the first place; I was just trying to rest my eyes for a bit since I couldn't sleep that well last night. Even if I had noticed her I doubt I would have teased her. There's a limit to what I am willing to do, and I'm not the old man, I want to live to see my 60's."

She gave a small sigh of relief, after Yuri's statement everybody had drop the topic quite fast. Within an hour everybody seemed to have moved on, once food was made, everybody ate, and the day rolled on, it went quite slow, till Estelle had to mention the mud on everybody.

"Well why don't we head off to the river like Yuri and Rita did? I don't know about you, but I can't stand being covered in mud like this, till I left the castle the closest thing to mud I saw was when the gardeners watered the plants, and even then the soil didn't really become mud."

The poor noble had of course gone into one of her long winded rants, which Rita didn't mind usually, but of mud of all things, not to mention the older teen reminded her of the river and the image of Yuri she had tried to tuck away into the back of her mind.

And she reminded everybody else too, it seemed like everybody but Yuri had a say, even Estelle mentioned how much Rita seemed flustered by it, in the end she screamed at everybody to shut up and threatened to burn them all and dry up the river, and with that everybody did as she said.

Of course Rita wasn't done there, she took one of her books and sat at the complete opposite side of the camp from Yuri at all times, giving him death glares, which when their eyes did meet, he just gave her that stupid smile and shrugged it off, like it was no big deal.

Of course that image crept to her mind every time she even glanced his way, and she could barely do any reading at the rate it was going. The way he sat, the water covering him, his hair flowing down his back.

'I wouldn't mind seeing that again.' The voice came out of nowhere, and at first Rita thought that someone had come up and started talking to her, then she realized it was her own voice, she had started whispering to herself!

What shocked her the most wasn't that she was talking to herself, she did that every now and again just out of habit of hearing her voice, but it was what she was saying that scared her the most! She heard the words hansom, silky, and cute, three words she had barely, if ever, said in her entire life.

They seemed to come out on their own, but she shut herself right up, but the damage was already done, she had turned bright red, and she felt it too.

She was just glad Raven or Judith wasn't around to hear it, instead everybody was off doing their own banter, Estelle and Judith went bathing, and the boys went to sneak a peek, probably just going to get a spear through the ribs though, knowing Judith, she was a flirt, but she wasn't one to let things go too far believe it or not.

Yuri was asleep against a tree with his arms lazily resting in his lap, in a very unusual way for him, his head tilted very lightly and looking down, his bangs covering his face slightly, mouth slightly ajar, and one eye visible, shut tight….wait…

Yuri….asleep….alone with Rita, and he was in such a cute position too…wait…did she really just think that? She bashed the heavy book she had against her head, trying to snap herself out of it, but she just couldn't, she kept looking and looking, stealing glances up from her reading, not even noticing when she ran out of pages and was looking at the blank pages at the end of the book.

'Stupid stupid stupid, stop it, stop pestering me by looking like that, why do you have to try to tempt me? I know your just sitting there, waiting for me to get up and come over, to sit next to you and try to catch me in the act, you want to make fun of me for earlier this morning, just like the rest of them.'

She walked off in a huff with her book, finding a clear place to relax and try to re-read what she missed, but her mind wandered elsewhere, words like idiot, stupid, jerk, and bastard kept creeping across her mind, all pinned at that one man, sound asleep unaware of what went through the young girls mind.

End of chapter 1 everybody, i have 2 and 3 finished at the time of uploading this one, so, rate, comment, whatever, moving on!