A/N: This is my first time writing in present tense in more than five years! I'm trying to experiment.
Written for Day 2 of Colloyd Week 2022: Crystal.
Colette wonders if maybe she should have taken off her Cruxis crystal before it was too late.
As the years yawn into decades and decades tick into centuries, Colette finds herself like Lloyd waiting for the class clock to strike three when it's only just after recess.
That was a long time ago. Yet Colette remembers it, fresh in her memory as the day it was born.
It was like the scene just outside her window now. Sunlight streams in through the window, a parakeet darts between the evergreens, the breeze caresses each leaf and the sky is a brilliant blue and perfect for flying kites, and it's just warm enough to make her want to nap.
Instead, she stands up and takes a walk. A day where she doesn't savour the new world built alongside her friends is a day wasted.
When Colette reaches her fourth millennium, she thinks about how Mithos would have felt. Would he have celebrated any birthdays following Martel's death? When any sign of the unmitigated ruthlessness of time would call to mind the knowledge that she would never grow old with him?
When she thinks about it like that, Colette admires him. Not because he would sooner cast Aselia into ruin than say goodbye to his sister—never that—but that he had held on for so long.
Colette doesn't think she can do the same.
"Hey. What are you up to?"
She turns, a smile already firmly on her face. "Just thinking."
She is met with a raised eyebrow. "I know you have your thinking moments more than I do, but I know you. And that's not your 'just thinking' face."
At this, a true smile breaks out. "You got me," she admits, twirling a strand of hair. It's ash blonde because her bright hair would garner the wrong sort of attention for the moment. She pulls a strand and watches it bounce back into place and marvels, once again, at the power of a Cruxis crystal which could give her a disguise so complete that she can experience what having natural curls is like.
It isn't always good. She wakes up in the mornings with a shock of frizz.
"So?"
Prodding. But the kind she likes, from the person she likes. So Colette doesn't mind. She scoots closer until she's in the sweet spot where Lloyd's arm can comfortably rest around her shoulders and she can rest her head on his. He's not wearing his jacket today, but he's given himself bold red locks as compensation. She thinks it makes him look like his father. She could tell him that—he's grown much more open about Kratos in recent millennia—but maybe now is not the time.
"Do you think that I could go on without you? Mithos couldn't. I want to know if I can."
"Where's this coming from?" He sounds bewildered.
"I just…" She sighs. "Mithos didn't know how to live without his sister, right? I'm the same. I don't know what I'd do without you."
"Of course you can." There is not a shred of doubt in his voice.
Colette startles upright, her head a roiling mess of disbelief. "What do you…?"
"Remember?" He's gentle as he coaxes her back down. "We've had a long time to get to know each other. I know you like the back of my hand. Literally."
She flails still, determined to hold to her denial until Lloyd presents her with irrefutable evidence.
He laughs. It fills the air and Colette can feel the vibrations as his presence, his life lends the walls and the table leg and her very cells with his energy.
"I've been learning," she tells him. "How to live for me. But no matter what I do, I can't. I can't just live for myself. I have to live for everyone. For the world we created, and for Martel and Yggdrasill. And for you."
Lloyd nods. "That's okay. What I meant is for you to value your own life. It's okay for you to consider yourself in how other people have touched your lives."
He places a hand over his heart and continues. "Genis, Sheena, Regal… Everyone who shared my path, and everyone who crossed my path—they're all here."
"In your heart," she says, like an echo.
"As long as I never forget what everyone's given us and what they've done for us, then that's enough," he confirms. He glances down and thumbs his crystal. It's a soft blue and pulses when he touches it. "I never asked for eternity. Neither did you. But in a way, I'm grateful for it, because I get to spend eternity with you."
Colette blushes deeply then.
She tries to keep going despite Lloyd's attempt at flirtation. It worked, screams something visceral. Don't pretend it didn't.
"I think I get it. You're saying I can go on without you because I've learned how to live." She fingers her choker. She understands it verbally, maybe logically. But her heart doesn't. Maybe one day it will.
"That's right." He grins. "I hope you never have to, though."
"Me neither."
They sit there for a while, content in each other's warmth. Colette breathes, and the planet turns.
Inevitably—perhaps an hour or two later—Lloyd stirs.
"Hey," he mumbles into Colette's ear. She peeks up at him, blinking away the bleariness of sleep. "Let's fly."
She pushes herself up. "Now?"
"Now."
Colette giggles at his last-minute antics. Lloyd has always been a bundle of spontaneity. That hasn't changed, though undoubtedly he has matured. They both have. Though the flow of time has no hold on their corporeal bodies, their minds are a different matter.
She likes to say that their souls are young, though. They keep them young; otherwise, they would grow old and weary of life. Colette doesn't want that to happen.
So they fly. They hold hands and they shoot up past the clouds where no one can see them. Angels don't need oxygen, after all.
They zip through the sky, laughing madly as Lloyd initiates a series of barrel rolls. Colette feels freedom here when her wings carry her alongside someone rather than to a tower.
Lloyd squeezes her hand. He's done it enough times that the strength of it, the manner in which he only contracts his little finger tells her that it's nothing urgent; he only wants her attention. She looks over at him.
She wears her pink earmuffs so the wind doesn't over-stimulate her sensitive ears, but she has taught herself to lip read. Plus, having incredibly sharp eyes helps.
"I love you," Lloyd says.
She's been unwrapping a present for the past four thousand years.
It is now that Colette lifts the lid. It isn't that the Cruxis crystal forced her to leave everyone behind. It's that she appreciates everyone. Every moment is a joy, every memory an adventure. It is that love is timeless.
This instant becomes crystal.
A/N: Please feel welcome to give me constructive criticism!
