Title: We've Come Half Circle
Fandom: Tales of Symphonia
Pairing/Characters: Lloyd, Regal
Warning(s): None
Genre: Gen
Originally published on July 1, the 182nd day of the year - halfway there.
To celebrate, have the ninth installment of the Regal and Lloyd Do Manly Things Together saga, ha ha.
A peaceful world has no need for heroism, for old men like him to strap weapons to their bodies and fight for what they believe in, so he (almost reluctantly) hung up his greaves and returned to Altamira. There was a pile of paperwork waiting for him there; after all, two worlds needed to be bandaged together, and they certainly weren't going to get along on their own.
But he had tasted too much of the open road and the way a sunset looks when framed by trees and water rather than curtains, and returning to a life indoors was difficult for him, to say the very least. He found himself distracted by windows both open and closed – he couldn't concentrate on silly things like diplomacy or bureaucracy anymore. The world he had created for himself was too small, and it was suffocating him.
So it was like food to a starving man when he was up late at night working on papers and someone knocked on the window. He turned and saw Lloyd, who had managed to avoid the guards by scaling the side of the building.
"Hey," Lloyd said, as soon as he was let in. "Look – I did it." He pointed to his legs, where he had strapped on the training greaves; Regal was shocked, knowing he would never have been able to accomplish such a feat at Lloyd's age.
Regal tried to turn back to his desk and failed. "What are you doing here?"
"Thought we could train some more…not like there's anything to fight, but I kind of – enjoyed it, and I thought you might have as well."
Lloyd was not a mind reader or a genius, but he had the sharpest intuition of anyone Regal had ever met. Putting aside thoughts of what the shareholders would say in the morning, he reached into his closet for his old greaves, strapped them on, and breezed out the window with Lloyd.
A peaceful world has no need for heroism, for old men like him to strap weapons to their bodies and fight for what they have learned to believe in…but it never hurts for men like him to stick around.