Pairings: Kratos/Yuan/Mithos
Warnings: Threesome ahead, m/m/m, this means homosexuality, don't like, don't read
Spoilers: The ending of the game, in the scenario where Lloyd talks with Kratos at Flanoir. If this makes no sense to you and you don't want the game plot ruined, please do not get mad at me if you read it!
This is dedicated to Seventh Sage and her fic with the first ever Kratos/Lloyd pairing on the site! I hope she continues it, hinthint... but anyway, it was her story that gave me the courage to post a... slightly nonconventional pairing for my favorite game. You go girl!
Living on Derris-Kharlan
a Yuan/Kratos/Mithos one-shot
Welgaia had always been a silent city when it had been populated by angelic half-elves, but now Kratos almost wished for such a population, it was that quiet. And he had only been here for five minutes or so. But five minutes alone with his thoughts, and they started drifting back 4000 years ago… they always did. He had, after all, been at his happiest back then… before Martel had died. He couldn't really blame her, Kratos decided, as his slow steps began to move toward the heart of the deserted city. She gave up her own mortal life to save the great seed, and this would ultimately mean the survival of his son… but back then he did not have a son, nor did he ever think he would have one.
"Why are you here Kratos?" a voice asked to his right, and Kratos' eyes sought out the owner of that voice. Blue eyes framed by blue hair, and most often accompanied by a calculating expression. He was not disappointed, but Yuan's eyes seemed to have lost their luster, something which even now pulled at his heartstrings.
"I could ask you the same questionc," came the mumbled reply and Kratos kept walking. But this time, he was not alone.
"In order for the world to leave discrimination behind it, we must not be there… am I right?" Yuan spoke calmly, and didn't need for Kratos to confirm his question to know it was correct. "You haven't changed."
"Neither have you."
"Did you hope I would not choose to remain on Derris-Kharlan?"
Kratos didn't answer. Truly he didn't know. Part of him had longed for Yuan's company, to feel more like he had 4000 years ago, but the sensible part of him had assumed Yuan would remain with the renegades. They had, after all, been quite loyal to him.
"You're brooding."
Kratos turned to see the calculating look again. "I think by now I deserve to brood."
"You? I disagree."
"You don't know half of what I've been through."
"I could say the same for you. Or did you forget that I remained with Mithos after you left?" Yuan's eyes sparked with anger that had waited so long to be released. "Did you forget that it was I, and not you, who watched him waste away until he became Lord Yggdrasill of Cruxis?"
"You probably caused it," Kratos shot back calmly, "With the whole Martel fascination."
Yuan's eyes looked surprised. "What?"
"Raine took a look at that ring of yours." Kratos' eyes rolled down Yuan's form to settle on the gold band. "Apparently you weren't as loyal as Mithos and I were meant to believe."
"What are you talking about? You left Mithos and me without an explanation!"
"Why is Martel's name on your ring? Along with the 'swear eternal love' part?"
Yuan blinked. "Are you saying what I'm jumping to the conclusion that you're saying? You think that Martel and I…" he shook his head. "You're crazy! You know I don't do that!"
"Then what does it really say? And why were you so upset about loosing it, or was Raine lying about that as well when they told me what had happened in my absence?"
Yuan glared at Kratos. "I don't think I need to explain myself to you, Kratos, or should I bring up Anna?"
Kratos sighed, looking up at the walkway that their feet had lead them too. "You may, if you will answer my question."
Yuan nodded, also looking at the section of Welgaia that they had arrived at: the warp to Veinhiem, Mithos' castle. "Most of the engraving has warn away, after all I haven't taken it off for 4000 years. But when it was new, the engraving read : swear eternal love, Mithos, Yuan, and Kratos. It was signed with Martel's name as it was a gift that she had made. She made three of these rings, one for each of us. But I was the only one she had a chance to give a ring to before she died. I looked but I could never find the other two rings, and then after you left I stopped looking. She made me promise never to take it off, because it was a symbol of her approval of our relationship. Does that clear things up for you?"
"Yes." Kratos held back a smile. "You had everyone thinking you and Martel were engaged."
"Don't make me hurl."
Kratos did smile, such a comment was almost natural coming from Yuan. He enjoyed speaking bluntly to Kratos and Mithos' veiled comments.
"Your turn."
"What do you want to know?"
"Is there anything I need to know, Kratos? In the way that you needed to know if I had truly been faithful to you and to Mithos? Or are the ideas surrounding Lloyd's birth true?"
Kratos sighed. "Partly. I did love Anna, she was a wonderful woman. But I loved her in the way that you and I loved Martel, not in the way that we loved each other or Mithos."
"So explain Lloyd."
"Things happen, people need comfort. But once Lloyd was born, neither one of us could just abandon him. And then, when I thought them both dead, there was no reason to bring it up."
"No reason? Kratos, Mithos and I were waiting for that knowledge!"
"How was I to know that? You two didn't seem to have missed me very much."
"You didn't notice the change in Mithos? Loosing his sister, and then his lover?"
"Mithos did hunt me down like an animal, if you remember."
"There was no other choice. We didn't know why you had left in the first place."
"Whatever. We have eternity to reconcile the stupidity of my actions."
Yuan didn't comment for a while, his eyes scanning the purple circle on the floor in front of him. "Do you think Mithos changed Veinhiem… from when we were all there?"
Kratos looked at Yuan for a long moment before answering. "The path to his throne room is the same that it always was. I have no idea what he did to his living quarters however."
"Want to find out? No matter what he did, Veinhiem will be the most comfortable place around here."
Kratos nodded, and wondered slightly if Yuan was really wondering the same thing he had: had Mithos changed their bedroom?
Kratos had spoken true when he said that Veinhiem had not changed. Both Yuan and Kratos knew every twist and turn of the stairways, every secret passage that avoided said stairways, and had they both been looking for Mithos' throne room, they would have found out about Veinhiem's only inhabitant much sooner than they did. As it was, this inhabitant noticed them first, hearing strands of their conversation.
"-if Mithos didn't change the bedroom, I claim the bed."
"-that would be something you would do, Yuan-"
"-just upset you didn't think of it first-"
Eyes narrowed, but a small smile found it's way on to lips that had not smiled in what seemed like an eternity, as the inhabitant made to follow the two through the twisting chambers of Veinhiem.
"Yuan, what did Mithos do to alter his form?" Kratos asked, after a few moments of silence that was broken only by their footfalls on the staircase.
"I don't really know the specifics." Yuan said after a while. "It seemed as if he split himself in two almost, one body for Mithos and one body for Lord Yggdrasill."
"He did seem to have a different persona for each body." Kratos agreed.
"But then he would use Mithos's voice in Lord Yggdrasill's body… and I just gave up trying to figure it out." Yuan finished.
"Did it ever cross your mind that he accelerated his body's growth to match ours?" Kratos asked.
"Almost immediately when I first saw it." came the reply and Kratos chuckled.
"Don't tell me you didn't think the same thing."
"I do not deny it," was the only reply.
The two had reached a room at the top of the staircase and both stopped in front of a large door.
"Do you want to, or should I?" Yuan asked, and when Kratos didn't answer he swung open the door.
Both men blinked in surprise. Nothing had changed. It was as if the three of them still lived there even though two had left the castle long before and the other was dead. One would expect to open the closet door to find the clothing for Yuan and Kratos as well as Mithos hanging there. It was very strange… and highly unlike Mithos to do… or rather, it was exactly something Mithos would do but not something that the leader of Cruxis would do.
But neither one had a chance to comment on this as another voice asked from behind them, "Is there a particular reason why you are standing in my bedroom?"
Both froze upon hearing the silken tones that were so familiar to both and disbelief seemed to etch its way into their expressions as they turned around to see the figure leaning on the staircase railing, watching them with a bemused expression.
"Do you have an answer for me?" Mithos Yggdrasill asked, standing there in the form familiar to the two as Lord Yggdrasill of Cruxis.
"Why the hell are you still alive?" Yuan was the first to recover, his words blunt as usual.
"Because no one has killed me yet," came the drawled reply.
"I beg to differ." Kratos shot back.
"Really? Think on it Kratos. You were there, after all, when my younger form was killed. And you were there when my Cruxis Crystal was destroyed. What do you not understand?"
"You did create two different forms," Yuan crowed almost triumphantly. "And used your Cruxis Crystal to store one or the other when you weren't using it!"
"Yes. A very simple thing to do, really. So I merely waited until your son and his friends left, fused my conscious with another Cruxis Crystal and you get my continued existence." Mithos was smiling now, as he watched Kratos consider his words. They were true, there was no need to lie after all. There had been plenty of Cruxis Crystals lying around Derris-Kharlan, even though now Kratos had thrown any others away.
"This is highly ironic," Kratos said at last. "And yet fitting in that we would be left as the only living population of Derris-Kharlan."
"And we have eternity to figure out why allowed the world to pull us apart."
"That's rather simple, now that I think about it," Yuan commented, leaning on the doorframe. "You were suspicious of me after Martel died with her request not to kill me-"
"I still want to know why she did that," Mithos added.
"Probably didn't have the time to finish her sentence. Anyway, then Kratos got cold feet, left, and the Anna/Lloyd thing happened, thus alienating himself from both of us. And then I went to the Renegades which severed any ties I would have had with you. Rather simple, as I said."
"Yet, we have now established that, in Yuan's case, Martel was going to announce her agreement with our relationship so we didn't have to hide it around her anymore; that though Lloyd is my son, Anna and I were not husband and wife; and that there are no longer any issues to deal with concerning any group, be it Cruxis or the Renegades." Kratos continued the line of thinking.
"So what are we waiting for exactly?" Mithos asked, closing the gap between them and pushing the other two into the bedroom.
"For you to make the first move," Came Yuan's reply before the door closed behind them.
For Lloyd, Colette, Genis, Raine, Sheena, Presea, and Regal, years had passed and time had begun to heal the wounds of discrimination among the people of the former Sylvarant and Tethe'alla. But for those on Derris-Kharlan, years and days blended together in such a way that they didn't know night from day any more, yet in truth that didn't matter.
Well, in some ways it didn't… and in some ways one would think it did, Kratos realized during one particularly problematic situation. He should have been prepared, looking back, as he'd even known somewhat that it was coming. After all, he'd heard their voices, yet in the daze of… whatever daze he was now living quite comfortably in, he didn't pay attention. There wasn't supposed to be anyone on Derris-Kharlan, so he couldn't have heard voices...
"I'm starting to think this wasn't a good idea, Genis."
"Lloyd, you are getting married. Of course he will want to be there."
"It still feels weird. What if-"
"Just open the door already, it's the only place we haven't looked. Kratos has to be in there."
Light flooded the dark library room and the three figures lounging in a sleepy daze on the couch were thrown into visibility.
Kratos blinked slightly, from his spot, sitting on the couch in the proper way. Mithos turned his head away from the intrusion, his body still leaning on Kratos's. Yuan didn't even flinch, sprawled out as he was upon both of them.
"Mithos!" Genis's voice gasped as Lloyd added:
"Kratos!"
"Make them go 'way." Yuan muttered.
"Have fun explaining, Kratos." Mithos agreed.
"What's going on here!" Lloyd asked. Genis was still staring at Mithos's sleeping form in shock to comment.
"It's not what it looks like-" Kratos started.
"Yes it is, Kratos, just admit it. Your son just found out you're sleeping with two men, one of which he thought he'd killed," Yuan cut in.
"And one of which tried to kill you," Mithos shot back.
"That too," Yuan agreed.
"Thank you for being so blunt and saying so," Kratos growled at the two.
"I don't feel the least bit guilty, you know," was all that Mithos said.
Kratos groaned as he felt a headache coming on. Yes, they'd passed the problems that had spilt the three of them apart in the past, but now there was a whole new problem presented to him, and it looked as if his two lovers were quite content to make it harder for him.
Finis Est
Footnotes:
Yes, I understand this covers a whole lot of concepts that take a while to think about before one can come to the same conclusion I've made in this one shot. Therefore, if you have any problems with what I have written, read my explanation before you flame me.
First of all, this story is, obviously, set after the time line in which Lloyd had the talk in Flanoir with Kratos and therefore Zelos dies in the course of the game, thus his name is not mentioned at all in the story. Also, Kratos, at the end of the game, says that the existence of all remaining angels of Cruxis would stop the process of leaving behind discrimination when he explains why he is leaving, so I took it a step further and applied that logic to Yuan.
Now, to get the fact that the "Yggdrasill" body still exists, I had to pull some extraneous information together, but here's my line of thinking: It is true that in the game the player fights both the "Yggdrasill" form, the "Mithos" form, and the "Mithos transformed" form. But, the player only sees the "Mithos" form die, and since we know that the souls can live on in exspheres, my theory is that the "Yggdrasill" form never died, and when Lloyd destroyed Mithos's Cruxis Crystal, he freed Mithos's consciousness which would then live on in the "Yggdrasill" body. Of course, Mithos would want/use a Cruxis Crystal, so he got himself a new one from somewhere in Derris-Kharlan (as Kratos implies that there are many left, if he is going to chuck them all into space at the end of the game).
Okay, now some nit-picky details. First, Yuan's ring. Yes, I have done the "Yuan's ring" side quest, but obviously one can see my argument here: the inscription on the ring has been worn off over years of wearing it, therefore only a few symbols are left. Also, Yuan promise Martel never to take it off for the reason stated in the story, and not the fact that they were engaged, as Lloyd and Co. assume off the bat! Second, the sleeping bit. One may argue that Yuan/Mithos/Kratos would not sleep because of their Cruxis Crystals. However, it is proven in the game that with the correct Key Crest, Collette can feel and eat again, therefore I am taking that logic a step further to say that all three use the appropriate Key Crests to allow them the ability to do things like eat, sleep, feel, etc.
Okay, the bit about Lloyd arriving on D-K. He still has the Eternal Sword right? So… exactly what IS stopping him from going to D-K whenever he wants? After all, in the game Yuan says, "It is the eternal sword that makes the impossible possible." And also, since Lloyd used the sword to bring Kratos to D-K originally, even after he said before "Eternal Sword, this is my final wish. Revive the Great Seed (or Giant Kharlan Tree… I don't remember exactly and am too lazy to look it up)!" I think that he can still use it for as long as his pact with Origin stays intact. And did you notice that I left exactly WHO Lloyd is marrying completely up to the reader? . So you can all enjoy whatever subplot you wish to mentally add that makes Lloyd nervous about asking Kratos to come to his wedding.