This Chapter 1. I hope to be working on Chapter 2 soon....

Anyways, comments are much appreciated! Thanks.

Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia, the characters, and story in any way. They are property of Namco.

Bankruptcy

"Lloyd, you idiot!" cried Genis

"Wha-what?!" spoke Lloyd, surprised.

"Why did you donate ALL our gald for the reconstruction of Luin??" shouted Genis, fuming.

"I did?" said Lloyd, looking puzzled.

"You mean you didn't notice?" cried Sheena, who looked incredulously at Lloyd, "Man, and here I thought that they were exaggerating when they said you're stupid."

"I-I…well…isn't it good to help those people out..?" Lloyd stammered, "I mean, c'mon! We're helping them rebuild their homes, isn't that what world regeneration is all about? Helping oth—?"

"Yes, but did you have to give every cent that we owned?" criticized Regal.

"Regal is right, Lloyd. You need to learn to economized," instructed Raine

"I-I…" Lloyd stuttered, at a loss for words. Looking around, he turned to the only one who could possibly offer him support.

"Colette!" Lloyd voiced anxiously, "We did the right thing right? Donating the money?" He waited with baited breath for Colette's answer.

Please say yes! Please! He thought.

"Well…" Colette started. She understood Lloyd's sincerity, but was concerned about the groups future financial well-being as well, "You did…okay…I guess. But you could have…ummm…cut back a bit…"

"She meant that you were tactless," interpreted Presea.

"N-n-no!" amended Colette, upon seeing Lloyd's dejected look, "It was very sweet and noble of you…" Her voice trailed off, unsure of what to say.

"Lloyd, don't pick on Colette," said Genis, "She's too nice." At this Colette turned bright red.

"You shuddap," Lloyd smoldered, hitting Genis on the head. He turned to face everyone.

"We did the right thing alright?" he said with big hand gestures as if trying to make a point.

There was slight uncomfortable silence as everyone shuffled nervously on their feet. Nobody wanted to meet Lloyd's eye.

"Umm, Lloyd? What will we do for food?" Colette inquired timidly, finally breaking the silence.

"We can hunt," answered Lloyd.

"And new equipments?" Sheena added.

"Our current ones are good enough," countered Lloyd

"What about gels?" piped Genis

"I thought you hate gels."

"Shelter?" Regal put in.

"Camp"

"Aww, and here I though we could spend a night at Altamira resort for the night," whined Zelos.

"WELL TOO BAD!" seethe Lloyd

"I don't blame you, Lloyd. At least not as much as I blame myself for not teaching you properly," sighed Raine miserably, "I'm a failure as a teacher…"

Nobody talked much to Lloyd afterwards. Except occasional reproachful glances at him, Lloyd was mostly ignored.

"Aww. Everyone, we can get the money back," Lloyd reasoned, struggling to remain on speaking terms with everyone, "Just do some battling here and there and—."

"We spent a long time 'battling here and there' to save up our gald," Sheena interrupted.

"And here you go spending without asking," Zelos joined in.

"Then why didn't you guys stop me!" shouted Lloyd, "Since you guys are obviously such penny-pinchers, why didn't you stop me when I handed the money over."

"Well, Lloyd," Raine replied, "We didn't realize that until we left Luin and checked our bags."

Lloyd was speechless.

"In other words we trusted you…" Regal said, shaking his head, "We thought you could handle such small matters by yourself. But—."

"It appears that we've been wrong," Sheena finished.

"How could you, Lloyd…" Presea murmured.

"Don't expect us to be picking up after you all the time Lloyd," Genis asserted.

Dammit! Lloyd swore silently.