Disclaimer: Tales of Symphonia and all related references (to be noted at the end) do not belong to me.

Authors' Note: This is a series of vignettes, written for a thirty day (though I only made it to twenty) writing challenge some time ago. This is an OT3 fic, meaning a three-way relationship between Lloyd Irving, Colette Brunel, and Zelos Wilder, so if that sort of thing bothers you, I highly advise you to click the back button now.

Further notes will be made at the end, so as not to clog up the beginning.


Journey

"And all along I believed I would find you. Time has brought your heart to me—I have loved you for a thousand years . . . I'll love you for a thousand more." -Christina Perri, "A Thousand Years"


Cycle (Year) One

Beginning -

When the Journey of World Restoration finally drew to a close, Lloyd Irving decided that he was going to go on a second journey to rid the world of Exspheres. There was no question about this, because really, everyone who knew him expected something like this from him. Going on a second journey was such a Lloyd Irving thing to do that his announcement didn't even get a batted eyelash. It was so normal, so expected, so Lloyd.

It was also very Lloyd to want company—company, that is, besides Noishe, because while his beloved canine companion was always a constant in his life, there were only so many conversations one could have with their dog-like creature, especially when all of Noishe's participation consisted of growls, barks, and whines. Of course, just as it was expected that Lloyd would want to go on a journey like this, so, too, was it expected that Colette Brunel would want to go. Aside from the two being close friends since childhood, anyone with eyes could see what they felt for each other, even if the two people in question could not.

So, all of that was expected. What was not expected was for Zelos Wilder to volunteer himself for the trip as well.

"No." Lloyd's denial was flat and absolute, and Zelos' expression was one of exaggerated offense. Colette merely glanced between the two. "There's no reason for you to come. Don't you have stuff to do in Meltokio?"

"Handled it already." Zelos' answer was quick, and Lloyd looked disgruntled that he had a response prepared so quickly. "C'mon, bud, loosen up and let me come! I promise I won't get in the way."

"Get in the way of what?" Lloyd asked suspiciously, but before Zelos had a chance to answer, Colette spoke up instead, a little smile playing at her lips.

"I don't think it'll be too much trouble to bring Zelos along. Besides, it could be fun to have another person with us, don't you think?"

"That's my sweet little angel!" Zelos threw an arm around Colette's shoulders, drawing her into a one-armed hug, and Lloyd scowled even as Colette smiled. "We Chosen have to stick together, right?"

"Yup!"

"See, bud? Colette wants me to come, too." Zelos reached over and looped his other arm around Lloyd's shoulders, drawing Lloyd into a reluctant hug as well. "So, looks like we're all going on this journey together! Everyone agreed?"

Colette bobbed her head in a nod, and even though he was doing his best to keep his scowl up, Lloyd sighed and allowed his lips to twitch in what was almost—almost—a smile of his own.

"All right, all right. Fine, you can come."

So even though it was expected for Lloyd to go on such a journey, natural for Colette to go with him, and strange for Zelos Wilder to want to go, that was how the three of them started off together.

Accusation -

They'd met many people during the Journey of World Restoration already, but it would be crazy to assume that they'd met everyone there was to meet, and so Lloyd, Zelos, and Colette met many new people on the Journey of Exsphere Retrieval as well.

Of course, meeting new people meant meeting new women, as well.

"Oh, hi!" The innkeeper's daughter was petite and brunette, and she had dimples when she smiled. "You're the ones Father mentioned—the ones looking for remaining Exspheres, right? My name's Cindy, by the way."

"Well, hello, Cindy." Zelos reached out to take her hand, and Cindy's cheeks flushed as he flashed her a smile. "My name's Zelos Wilder. The pleasure is all—"

"Knock it off, Zelos," Lloyd said, his voice tinged with exasperation. Colette giggled behind her hands as Zelos gave Lloyd an affronted look.

"What? I was just saying hello!"

"For you, that's enough."

"Cindy, do you think you could show us where the Exspheres are kept?" Colette asked, choosing to ignore the bickering between her two male companions. Cindy looked bemused, but the blush was fading from her cheeks, and she nodded.

"Of course! Follow me." She turned and started out of the inn's front door, and Colette followed after. Zelos gave Lloyd a sulky look.

"Y'know, bud, you don't have to be so hateful." Lloyd rolled his eyes, and grabbed Zelos' arm to pull him along.

"Yeah, yeah. Just c'mon."

Restless -

Lloyd was always restless. Whether he was happy, content, or upset, he was always fiddling with something, or tapping his foot, or simply moving. He was even active when he slept, being the type to flail limbs and twist bed covers until they ended up in a heap on the floor. So it wasn't a surprise, then, that he took a walk when he found himself unable to sleep one night, walking outside to sit with Noishe and look up at the blanket of stars above.

What was surprising was the fact that Zelos joined him not too long after. When Lloyd looked to him questioningly, he simply said, "Can't sleep," and plopped down to sit beside Lloyd. Lloyd let the subject drop after that, because he thought that maybe this wasn't a subject that needed talking about—that maybe they already knew the reasons why, even if they didn't want to admit them. Some time after that, Colette wandered out of the inn to join them, too, and there the three—four, if one counted Noishe—sat, staring up at the stars in comfortable silence.

At some point, Lloyd took both Colette and Zelos' hands, though none of them could say exactly when that was.

Snowflake -

"Did we have to come to Flanoir?" Zelos complained. His voice was a whine, and Lloyd rolled his eyes, though Colette seemed not to notice as she twirled around in the snow, her arms spread wide. "C'mon, bud, who would want to stash Exspheres out here, huh? It's freezing. There's nothing out here but ice, snow, more ice, and more snow. And did I mention it's freezing? Because it is. It's balls to the walls cold out—"

"Will you give it a rest?" Lloyd demanded, though his expression was sympathetic. He knew full well the real reason why Zelos couldn't stop complaining about the snow. "Look, the faster we find the Exspheres, the sooner we can leave. Besides, if you keep talking so much, you'll just lose that much more body heat out of your mouth, right?"

Zelos gave Lloyd a painfully familiar look—a look of pity. "Bud, how many times wereyou dropped on your head as a baby, anyway?" Lloyd scowled.

"Get bent. I'll leave you out here to freeze."

"Wait, no! No, no, no! I'm sorry!" Zelos' exaggerated yowls of protest were punctuated as he threw himself on top of Lloyd, wrapping his arms around Lloyd's shoulders in a tight hug. Lloyd only just barely managed to keep his balance, preventing them both from toppling over into the soft powder at their feet. "Seriously, don't be mad. It was only a joke!"

"Joke or not, get off me." Zelos did, though only after a minute, and Lloyd turned to give him a light, half-hearted shove. Colette finally stopped twirling to look over at them, though she swayed a little on the spot from dizziness, and her cheeks—split with a wide smile—were flushed from cold and excitement.

"Are we ready to move on?"

"We are, yeah," Lloyd said, indicating himself and Zelos. He grinned. "Are you?" Colette giggled.

"Sure! I was just catching some snowflakes on my tongue." To demonstrate, she tilted her head back again and opened her mouth, catching a few of the falling flakes, which no doubt melted the second they met her tongue. She looked back to Lloyd and Zelos with a smile. "It's so much fun! We never did see much snow in Iselia, did we, Lloyd?"

"Nah, not too often. Though it was fun whenever we did." Lloyd tilted his own head back to mimic the action, and Zelos huffed a little, kicking at the snow by his feet.

"At least someone enjoyed it." Lloyd and Colette exchanged glances and grins, and as Colette approached Zelos, Lloyd crouched down to scoop some snow between his palms.

"The snow can be fun, Zelos!" Colette said, and he looked at her with a skeptical expression. "No, really, it can be! There are lots of things you can do with the snow."

"Like what?"

"Like build snowmen. Or igloos! Or even snow ang . . . well." Colette's smile faltered a little, but she perked right back up as he continued to watch her. "Maybe snow angels aren't the best, but you can go sledding! And you can even make snow-cones! Genis used to say that we shouldn't use actual snow to make snow-cones, but he always ate the ones Lloyd and I made anyway."

"Yeah?" Zelos asked, and Colette nodded brightly. "I see. I also know what you're planning to do with that snowball, bud, and I swear that if you throw it at me I'll—" His words were interrupted with a well-timed snowball to the side of his head, and as he reached up to brush the snow out of his long red locks, he turned to glare at Lloyd, who grinned. To his right, Colette was smiling just as deviously.

"You can also have snowball fights," she said cheerfully. "I think I forgot to list that one before, but it's still a really fun game you can play." Zelos grinned tightly, and bent down to construct a snowball of his own. Seeing that he was preparing to fight back, Lloyd and Colette both hastily began to scoop more snow together, and Zelos chuckled darkly.

"Oh, that is it. You are both going down, or I'm not the Great Zelos Wilder!"

Haze -

Colette didn't really remember the first time she met Zelos. Of course, it was to be expected; due to the effects of the angel transformation, she'd been little more than an automatic puppet, moving according to basic life functions, but doing no more than that. Still, she could recall little details, as though she'd viewed the scene from behind a shroud of some sort, with cotton balls stuffed deep into her ears.

She could remember bumping into him. That much was clear, because even in her transformed state, she could register things which could be a "threat" to her physical self. She could recall hearing screams, though no discernible words, and though she'd dismissed them at the time because they didn't seem to be life-threatening, she thought now that they must have come from the girls Zelos had surrounded himself with. She could remember that he said something to her, though she couldn't recall what, and she most vividly remembered the moment when her angel state registered him as a threat, and she threw him single-handedly across the plaza.

That was all Colette remembered of the first time she met Zelos. The rest blurred together, her angel mind deciding that it was useless, unimportant information. Perhaps that was one of the things she hated most about the angel transformation, because if she had to make a list of the most important moments in her life, meeting her fellow Chosen One would definitely be near the top.

Zelos didn't really remember the first time he met Colette. Like Colette, it was because of the angel transformation. Unlike Colette, it wasn't because of his own.

No, he'd been perfectly aware of his senses that day. He hadn't been drinking, nor was he under the influence of anything else. He was surrounded by a gaggle of noblewomen, but he wasn't paying that much attention to them—only enough to make sure that they didn't touch him without him initiating the contact first. No, instead he let them chatter and gossip and fawn, following him around the city until it was time for him to go to the palace to meet with the King, Princess, and Pope. It was an ordinary way to waste the day, and Zelos could remember tossing about the idea of bringing the group of girls to the palace with him, just to see the look of indignant rage on the Pope's and King's face. (He likely wouldn't have, because he was on decent terms with Hilda at the time and wouldn't have wanted to anger her unnecessarily, but he'd still considered it.)

So, he remembered everything up to that point quite clearly. He even remembered certain details of the moment clearly, and that was what drowned out everything else.

He could remember her wings—they were the first things he'd noticed. Of course, he'd seen them many times after the fact, but seeing them for the first time was something that was branded permanently into his memory. While he could vaguely recall one of the girls around him criticizing Colette for her out-of-season "angel costume," he could remember the feeling of absolute certainty that the shimmering wings were real. He could remember feeling his heart stuttering in his chest, cold sweat starting to break out on the back of his neck.

He could remember her voice—or lack thereof. Due to his carelessness and her inability to care, they'd collided pretty hard. Their shoulders hit with enough force to make even him stumble a bit, and Colette had been knocked back several paces. Yet she hadn't so much as gasped—nor did she say anything, even when he forced himself to address her. No, her mouth stayed shut in a firm line, no surprise registering.

And he remembered her eyes.

Her blank, soulless eyes. Those were the final things he noticed, when he forced himself to look into them, and when he looked at those eyes—staring blankly at him, as dead as a corpse's, or perhaps deader—he felt nausea roil unpleasantly in his stomach. He'd tried to brush it off, tried to flirt with her and act flippant, but the longer he looked at her, the more sick he felt. He had to keep his voice quiet and low to prevent himself from vomiting all over the cobblestone, and he made a vague excuse so that he could escape as quickly as possible. Despite their outcries, he found a way to ditch the girls shortly after, too, so that he could have time enough to empty the contents of his stomach in a back alley not too far from his manor.

He didn't really remember his first meeting with Colette too well, because all he could think about when he thought about that day was how she'd looked and acted—how she'd been, because of the angel transformation.

And how he would be the exact same way, were he forced to go through the Journey of Regeneration for Tethe'alla.

Lloyd didn't really remember his first days in Tethe'alla.

He didn't even know how many days they spent there, originally. He thought it was a week, or maybe a week and a half, but either way, the days passed by in a blur. Everything from the Tower of Salvation to the moment when Colette regained her soul on top of the Fooji Mountains ran together, and no matter how many nights he sat awake, trying to force them into some form of coherent sense, he couldn't. He gave up after the first couple failed attempts, anyway, because it made his head hurt, and there was no use dwelling on the past, regardless.

Even so, he didn't remember them. He simply hadn't paid attention to much of anything, for he was in too much of a rush to try and find a way to save Colette. He didn't really remember his conversation with Yuan in the Renegades' base, he didn't remember his first trip through the rip in space-time that let the Rheairds slip through; he didn't even really pay attention the first time they met Zelos. Genis teased him about not being able to understand simple concepts because he kept having to ask who their enemies were, but that was mostly because every time someone told him, Lloyd felt his attention wandering back to Colette, and her blank eyes, and her vacant expression.

Whenever he slept, it haunted his nightmares.

So he didn't remember his first days in Tethe'alla—he let everything pass him by in a whirlwind, only coming back to focus when it was legitimately important. What he did remember was the moment Colette regained her soul, when she smiled brightly for the first time in what felt like centuries. He remembered when she turned to Zelos, and when Zelos finally looked her properly in the eye—and he remembered being surprised at his own realization, being shocked that it was the first time Zelos properly looked at her, but he knew it was true nonetheless. And he remembered feeling a euphoric swoop in his stomach as Zelos claimed that they, as Chosen, would need to stick together, and Colette agreed, because that deal made him feel ecstatic even if he didn't know why at the time.

Now he knew why—or at least, he thought he did—but he still didn't know precisely what it meant.

Flame -

"Booyah! Campfire is made!" Zelos dusted his hands off, as though casting the simple fire spell had been a feat of great excellence, and he dropped down onto the blanket they had spread out on the grass. Colette and Lloyd were in charge of making dinner that night, and as they debated over various chili ingredients (Colette wanted to add raspberries, and Lloyd wasn't so sure that was a good idea), Lloyd looked up.

"Well, at least you're useful for something." Zelos had laid back on the blanket, but now he propped himself up on his elbows, and gave Lloyd a flat look.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lloyd shrugged.

"You're not helping with dinner, are you?"

"Are you telling me you and Colette can't handle chili?"

"We can handle it!" Colette cheerfully reached over to pick up a banana, and held it up for Lloyd's inspection. "Lloyd, you like bananas, right? We could add bananas to the chili."

"Bananas are good," Lloyd agreed, though he was looking doubtfully at the fruit she held in her hands. "I'm just not sure they're good for chili. Why don't we just go with beef?"

"We're going to use beef, but we need something else in it, too. How about strawberries?"

"Colette, I really don't think that fruit works with this kind of—"

"But it does! Not if you add a lot, but just a little bit can spice it up!"

"If you're talking about chili and spices," Zelos said, for at this point he'd crawled over to where they were sitting, ingredients spread out around them to be tossed into the cooking pot, "then you need to go all the way." Picking up the small container of ground up chili peppers they had, Zelos turned it upside over the pot, adding the entire thing in. Colette and Lloyd's eyes widened in turn, and Lloyd turned to smack Zelos on the arm. Zelos pouted. "Bud! What was that for?"

"What was that for? What do you think? Do you even know how hot that chili is going to be now?!" Zelos raised an eyebrow in the face of Lloyd's anger.

"Do you?" Lloyd made a face, as if struggling to find the words, before he finally settled on:

"Really, really hot!" Zelos snorted.

"It's not chili if it's not really, really hot. Deal with it, bud."

"It's okay, Lloyd. Maybe tonight's chili can be an adventure." To accentuate her words, Colette picked up the container of raspberries, and dumped them in as well. Lloyd sighed, even as Colette beamed. "There! We have the raspberries, so that should be it for the fruit. Zelos can have the banana." She dropped the unpeeled banana into Zelos' lap, and he gave it an odd look as he picked it up.

"Why do I get the banana?"

"Bananas are good," Colette said, echoing Lloyd's words from earlier. She added, "The Professor always said they were a good source of potassium." Zelos considered to look at the banana for a moment before a mischievous smirk curled on his lips.

"You know what, my sweet little angel? You're right. Bananas are good. And while you two throw that chili on the fire, I think I'm going to use our handy-dandy bananas to make us some drinks."

Formal –

Zelos, having grown up in the heart of noble society in Meltokio, knew how to dance. It was simply a part of that world, practically a requirement; if you were going to be a noble, second in power only to the Royal Family, you needed to know how to handle yourself on the dance floor. Beyond that, Zelos was simply born with a natural grace. His movements were smooth and fluid, and so dancing wasn't difficult for him at all.

The opposite could be said for Lloyd and Colette.

Neither of them were nobility. Despite being Sylvarant's Chosen, Colette grew up in a small village, in a family with modest income. Lloyd, on the other hand, was raised by a dwarf in a forest, and one didn't get much farther away from nobility and that. As for having grace, well, Colette's clumsiness was legendary, and Lloyd wasn't that much more coordinated. In short, neither of them knew how to dance, though there were times in childhood when Lloyd, Colette, and Genis would jump up and down in actions that they thought resembled dancing, but more closely resembled a trio of monkeys after ingesting a large amount of hallucinogens.

So, neither of them knew how to dance, and ordinarily, it never came up. But one night, while staying in Zelos' mansion in Meltokio, Zelos brought out a couple bottles of fancy wine (never mind the fact that both Lloyd and Colette were still underage; according to Zelos, legal age was never a problem in Meltokio high society), turned on some sort of magitek record player that would make Raine explode with excitement if she were present, and proclaimed that they were going to have themselves a little dance party. Y'know, to celebrate some success in their Exsphere journey.

Well, Lloyd was never one to say no to a party, and neither was Colette, but the fact that neither of them could dance quickly became apparent.

"I am dancing!" Lloyd exclaimed indignantly, when Zelos pointed out that people were supposed to dance to music, rather than have a seizure to it. Zelos once again gave Lloyd a look of pity, while Colette sported a look of confusion, because in her opinion Lloyd was a pretty decent dancer.

"Jeez, sometimes I forget about just how far out in the boonies you really come from, bud." Lloyd's look of offense only grew, and Zelos held up his hands. "Hey now, don't get mad. I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just saying, you have absolutely no concept of proper dancing."

"Dancing is dancing. Colette and I dance just fine." Lloyd turned to Colette, who nodded with a small smile, but Zelos shook his head.

"No. No. I refuse to bear witness to this Rheaird-wreck any longer. You two," he pointed at both of them, "are going to learn how to dance. Right here, right now."

And learn they did.

Zelos taught Colette first, figuring that Lloyd could learn by observing the pair of them. With one arm around Colette's waist and the other holding her hand parallel to his shoulder, he swept her around the living room, twirling her effortlessly. It helped that she was so light, he knew, and also that he had added strength, but dancing with her truly felt like dancing with air. Of course, her innate clumsiness ruined the illusion a little, and Zelos was sure that he was going to have bruises on his feet from how many times she stepped on them, but she still caught on quickly enough. After all, air-headed though she may be at times, Colette was far from a slow learner.

Lloyd, on the other hand . . .

If he was going to have bruises from Colette stepping on his feet, Zelos thought his feet might break from how Lloyd stomped on them—accidentally, of course, but that didn't make it hurt less. Naturally, Zelos had to teach Lloyd the following steps, though he justified it by saying that Lloyd could just mimic what Zelos was doing, in order to placate him a little more. Still, Lloyd wasn't nearly as quick to catch onto dancing as Colette was, and eventually, Zelos called for a break so that they could have more wine, figuring that the wine might help improve the lessons.

Predictably, it didn't make any of them any more coordinated, but it did make Zelos' feet hurt less, and made the night a hell of a lot more fun.

Companion –

"Y'know, bud, I've noticed something. Traveling with you? It involves a hell of a lot of running!"

Not for the first time, and probably not for the last, Lloyd, Colette, and Zelos found themselves being chased by a pack of bloodthirsty, savage creatures that wanted to kill them.

"Yeah, well, that's what you get what you decide to be my companion! It's been that way forever! Don't act like this is something new, Zelos!"

This time, it was a pack that consisted of creatures that were commonly known as eggbears (or, as Lloyd dubbed them, "manbearpigs"). They hadn't known that eggbears lived in the Gaoracchia Forest, or that they lived in packs, or that they weren't too happy with people looking through their dens to try and find Exspheres, but things like this were things that often happened around Lloyd Irving. He was something of a walking trouble magnet.

"Wait, you consider me your companion?"

"Of course! What the hell did you think you were?"

"I . . . don't actually have an answer to that."

"You're dumb, Zelos."

"Oh, look at the pot calling the kettle black."

"What do pots and kettles have to do with—"

"You guys!" Colette had only managed not to trip while running thanks to Zelos and Lloyd each taking one one of her hands to pull her along, but she pulled one of her hands free from Zelos' grip to point up ahead. "There's a cave! We could use that for safety!"

"Or they could corner us and chow down," Zelos pointed out, but Lloyd shook his head.

"No time, let's go!" Moving so that he could place himself in-between Colette and Zelos, Lloyd grabbed the hand that Colette had released so that he could pull both of his companions to the safety and shelter of the cave, all but throwing them inside ahead of himself.

While the eggbears seemed momentarily distracted, the distraction didn't last long; they doubled back to the cave, as Zelos had predicted, no doubt preparing to use the shallow cave as a makeshift bowl to devour them. Lloyd drew both of his swords, and Zelos unhooked his sword and shield from his waist, but even as both of them prepared to do battle, light erupted from behind them.

"Sacred powers, cast your purifying light upon these corrupt souls—JUDGMENT!"

Holy beams of light rained down from above the monsters, and they weren't simply killed—they were obliterated, blasted into a mist of bone matter and blood so fine that it could hardly be seen. All that remained of them were scorched craters on the ground, and both Lloyd and Zelos turned to look at Colette with an expression of shock as she put her angel wings away.

"I just needed time to cast," she said. "The time it took for them to realize we were in the cave was just enough."

Lloyd and Zelos continued to stare at her for a moment before Lloyd dropped his swords, and scooped her into a hug big enough to lift her up off the ground. The minute he set her back on her feet, Zelos pulled her over and kissed the top of her head.

"I love you!" he said, and though they were just words, he did mean them, in a way. Colette beamed at him.

"I know."

Move –

Sometimes, they wanted to sleep in an inn. Sometimes, there weren't enough rooms at the inn for them to all have their own. And sometimes, there weren't even enough beds.

That was what happened that night. On the plus side, they at least managed to get a full size bed instead of a twin, but it was still somewhat crowded and cramped. After some debate, Zelos lay in the middle, figuring that if Lloyd was going to flail around like a beached drunken whale in his sleep, he might as well not kick Colette while he was at it. Given that Zelos voiced this thought aloud, he got a purposeful kick from Lloyd in his shin, and he'd been about to shove Lloyd off the bed altogether when Colette reminded them that they shouldn't beat each other up, because the monsters and bandits did that enough already.

The true concern in her voice was enough to get them to agree, but it didn't make the situation any more comfortable.

There simply wasn't enough space. To her credit, Colette was small, so she didn't take up much, but Zelos was long. His feet dangled off the edge of the bed a little bit, and he couldn't seem to put his arms anywhere that didn't nudge either Lloyd or Colette. Lloyd, too, wasn't small by any means, and every time he fidgeted he ended up elbowing Zelos, or kicking him, or smacking his palm into Zelos' face.

"For the last time, bud, not the face!"

"I'm not doing it on purpose!" Lloyd hissed back, for the walls of the inn were rather thin. "I'm just trying to get comfortable!"

"Could ya do it without giving me bruises? I'm supposed to be getting beauty sleep, and you're ruining my gorgeous skin."

"Well, excuse me, oh Great Chosen—"

"You guys." Colette pushed herself up onto one arm to look at them, her blonde hair falling across her face, and they both turned to look somewhat guiltily at her, though it was a bit hard to see her in the darkness. Her voice was quiet, and she didn't sound angry, though they still knew they were keeping her awake. "I have an idea."

"For what?" Lloyd asked. Colette paused, as if considering his question, but then laughed quietly.

"For how to sleep better. Since you're having trouble getting comfortable, and since Zelos isn't getting his beauty sleep, I have an idea on how to fix it." Without further preamble, she reached over to grab Lloyd's arm, tugging it toward her so that his arm was draped across Zelos' chest. That completed, she grabbed Zelos' arm—the one nearest Lloyd, obviously—and tossed it over so that it was wrapped around Lloyd in a weak embrace. She then snuggled against Zelos, throwing her arm across his chest so that she could rest her hand against Lloyd, and—seeing where she was going with this—Zelos shifted his other arm so that it was wrapped around her, too. "See?" she said, and the question was punctuated with a yawn. "It's like a puzzle."

"I'm . . . not sure about this, Colette," Zelos said, though he couldn't say why he wasn't sure with it. Lloyd was quiet for a minute before he shifted again, but this seemed less impatient and uncomfortable, and more cozy.

"I dunno, I think it's a good idea. This way we're not fighting for space." Lloyd's breath was hot against Zelos' skin, and Zelos could smell the sweet scent of Colette's hair strongly. "Thanks, Colette. And g'night—both of you."

"Good night, Lloyd." Colette sounded happy as could be, and her arm tightened a little around Zelos. "Good night, Zelos. Sweet dreams." Zelos relaxed, despite himself, and shut his eyes.

"Yeah," he managed. "Sweet dreams."