Author: Cyhirae

Notes: As we all know- Tales of Phantasia has had many incarnations: from super famicon to PSX to GBA and finally to anime...All with their own little quirks and changes to the games..sometimes major ones. I stick by the original fan translations of the names (Cuz Cress, Clause/Claus and so on are just..blah to me) and label this work AU...cuz it will be taking influences from all sources.
And as usual, I own no incarnation of Tales of Phantasia or its characters. And this bittersweet drabble fic is Chester-centric, written in my usual first person point of view. Likely spoilers too. And NO Chester x anyone romance. Takes place post game/anime events.

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Time and Friendship

We had come a long way in our journey...both in terms of distance and time. Mint tells me that the entire time Cless was in the past- defeating Dhaos there and returning to our time with help to stop him and to keep me from dying had been all he had given any thought to. I could believe it- that's just so like Cless. He wasn't one to try to go saving the world- he'd just save what he could...and usually wind up doing the former on the way.

His father'd always had high hopes for him. I just know that wherever his parents' spirits are now, they're resting peacefully...knowing he fulfilled their expectations and more.

And that 'more' is standing beside him now as they work on something so intricately mundane after all our travels. A simple little fence, lining the yard of his rebuilt home...a home the two of them now shared. No official word had ever passed between them- but did it have to? All you had to do was look at them to know it was there, and that's all that was needed.

I suppose I could go and help them- but it would feel too much like intruding...and I have my own concerns to see to. Friendship meant unwavering support for each other- but it also meant knowing when it was time to start supporting from further away. We'd grown up like brothers- and like brothers it was getting to be time for us to find our own paths. He and Mint had something special between them...

And a friend had little place in it, right now. They needed their time. Once they were fully sure of one another in all ways- well...I'd come back into their lives, but for now I was going to simply stand aside and watch; ready to help if they needed it, ready to stay out of the way if they didn't.

It was a little lonely honestly...but I wouldn't dream of disrupting them for my own sake. So I turn my eyes to my own project...if you can call it that. We long ago cleared away all the burned remains of the buildings that had been destroyed- my own home included. In so far as we could at any rate...the simple foundation and bare ground were all that remained...that and the tiny grave for Amy and the pair further back for my parents.

Cless' home was all but rebuilt- or rather, replaced...and mine didn't even have a single board in place yet. There was a tent pitched to the side where I'd been staying while supposedly working on it...but the desire to actually work on it just wasn't there. It wouldn't be home: home had been destroyed when Amy died. Anything built in its place would just be a building.

Not like I really knew much of anything about building anyway. I'd seen enough of Cless and Mint's trial and error beginnings on their own home to have no desire to try my own. I'm pretty certain that someone's thumb getting hit with a hammer is only amusing when it's not your thumb being hit. I won't even go into the great rafter adventure. I helped them out there, as Cless has all the climbing talent of a drunken rabbit. He could fight graceful as you please- but climbing and moving between narrow beams? That took talents more up my alley. Once that was done, however? Well..they could do the rest themselves. Funny...houses aren't so hard to build once you get the foundation and beams in place. Everything else just seems to fall into place around it all.

A laugh draws my attention back to the pair before their own home...Mint looking apologetic and holding one of Cless' hands as she tries to wave a healing spell over some hammer abused digit...and Cless is simply waving her off with a laugh, clearly far from concerned. They return to working on the fence- Mint steadying the stile at the bottom while Cless pounds it from above- more careful now to keep the hand that's trying to keep the top straight out of the hammer's impact point.

Not even a full year ago, had the fence needed work, it would have been Cless and me trying to do that and probably just ruining the fence as a whole. Jealous? Maybe a little...We'd been friends for years and now out of a whirlwind of loss, pain and confusion...he has Mint. Somewhere out in all that, Cless grew up, plain and simple. Grew up and grew past what I couldn't let go of.

Even during all of that it had been evident. Cless had fought to try to save something...both a hundred years ago and then off into the future. I'd only wanted revenge, and forced my presence on him and his other friends in the proccess, even though I'd been far from fit for it.

Was it really any wonder he was already settling in again and moving on, Mint at his side? Maybe he doesn't realize how much he's changed, how far he's grown from the Cless Alvein that left the ruins of Totus...but sometimes he's almost like a stranger.

Can a friendship really last when one of us is going on ahead, changing and growing while the other one just won't let go?

"You know, sitting there and glaring at it isn't going to make it stand up and start building itself" Oh not her. I know that voice well, even before Cless and Mint start to call out greeting. A soft rustle and woosh of wind...and she's landing beside the lot my 'house' is on, eyeing the progress..or lack thereof..critically. Arche Klein, half elven witch and, back then...a hyper, overly flirty girl who had the most fantastic ability to annoy me to glaring.

Now, a hundred years later for her and mere months for me...a calm young woman is standing wearing the girl's face, broom resting against her shoulder. A sometimes friend, sometimes irritant...I really don't know what to make of her.

"Arche, why are you here?" I can't quite keep the irritation out of my voice- the last thing I want is someone criticizing my lack of progress on matters. Especially her. What room does she have to even assume to know why I've been so slow about it?

"Oh, they didn't tell you?" Arche peers at me a moment..then suddenly lets out a laugh more reminiscent of her past self as she turns to look to Cless and Mint...who are gathering up their tools and wandering over to stand with us, odd little smiles on their faces. "Haha- guess not. Though I'm thinking I can see why. Well, I can't say I'm much of an architect, but let's get started eh?"

"Huh? Now just a minute- what do you think you're-"

"We're helping you." Cless' smile spreads into a more familiar one as he sets down a bucket of nails and holds out a hammer to me, his own tucked into his belt like some kind of squat, hefty sword. "You didn't look like you knew where to begin so...I thought we could maybe get to work on it together."

"After all..you helped us with ours...and we're friends besides, aren't we?" Now it's Mint speaking as she gives me some sort of quizzical look...

"Well yeah- but your fence isn't done and why Arch-"

"Well I'm here because someone needs to light a fire under you." The half elf grins sharply a moment, then shrugs a bit. "Besides, magic's good for more than just tearing things apart. Besides- didn't we always work best as a team? And I hear your house was always taller than Cless'- safer for us all if I'm the one working on things up there. I heard all about your and Cless' antics on the rafters!"

"Mint, you told her about that?" Cless' tone is nothing short of wounded- but all three are starting to move forward now for the wood that's been sitting under a tarp for who knows how long now...simply waiting for me to start placing it. Their chatter continues as they pull the tarp away...then they turn almost as one to look at me expectantly, waiting. "You know Chester..it's going to be pretty hard to keep going without you."

"Yeah, you better catch up!" Arche's singsong tone rings out...but there's something not so playful about her smile...about any of theirs as they wait for me. All are warm- but somehow wise as well. They've all been growing and changing over time- but it seems friendship's not been left behind.

And I haven't been either it seems...if I'll just stop lagging behind.

It's an awkward start...but then, what new beginning isn't?

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Author's note: and that's pretty much that. Just a little oneshot look at how things might go post-events...given how much Cless changed and how little Chester honestly did by comparison. And for the curious who are still unsure: Yes, Cless and Mint had indeed noticed Chester distancing himself and had opted to let him know he was not necessarily alone.