A/N: I don't have tumblr to participate in Colloyd Week there, but here I am! With another soulmate fic less than a week after posting the last one I wrote…

Part 2 of 'On Angel's Wings' is on its way. I promise. I said its projected release is June and I'm going through with that.

Written for Day 1 of Colloyd Week 2022: Soulmates.


They say having a soulmate is both a blessing and a curse.

For one such as Colette, it would most definitely be a curse.

She walked to the outskirts of the village beside her two best friends in the whole world. She had spent every breath since the day she realised she loved Lloyd hoping with every fibre of her being that her name was not inked in tiny letters on the inside of his left wrist (1). Because if he did, he was doomed.

If he did, he would spend his life pining after her.

It was already painful enough knowing that she liked him even though she bore no mark claiming her as his soulmate. It was already painful enough knowing that she was destined as Sylvarant's sacrifice.

Leaving him to someone else would be the hardest thing Colette would ever do.

And yet, she had to. She did not have it in her to stoke jealousy in her heart. Because all she wanted was his happiness.

"Hey, did you bring it?"

"Of course!"

Genis spread out a picnic rug obligingly; there was a cute wicker basket beside him, containing a few tasty morsels. Colette had not been allowed near it for fear she would trip over them and scatter both the snacks and her dignity.

Although the blanket was now set out, none of the three chose to sit there, instead plonking onto the grass beside it. Lloyd was seated within arm's reach of the food. Colette squeezed herself between and slightly behind the boys. It had rained the day before, softening the dirt, but the sun had shone strongly enough to dry it well.

"Sunset's nice today," Lloyd commented.

"It's nice every day," retorted Genis. "Is there something different about this one?"

"Well, no, but I can still say it's nice!"

Genis sighed. "Sometimes, Lloyd…"

Colette giggled. "I don't know, Genis, but I do think this one is especially pretty."

Faced with two against one, Genis was forced to give up.

They sat in companionable silence. The cicadas' buzzing began to grow louder as the sun inched towards the horizon.

Lloyd leaned back on his hands and stretched.

She stole a look at his left arm, straining for a glimpse. But Lloyd's coat was snug and wouldn't ride up enough to reveal his bare wrist.

She had never asked whether he had a mark. She could not ask whether, at their first meeting, her name had blossomed into existence onto his body, surrounded by a flower that matched her soul. (It would probably be a chrysanthemum (2).)

She was too much of a coward to know the repercussions of her life. And maybe she didn't want to know what her death would do to him.

Her eyes began to droop closed, lulled by the comforting heat of her friends beside her and the warm light of the sun against a darkening sky.

Genis had never hidden his mark. It said PreseaColette thought that was a beautiful name. So did Genis; he blushed almost every time he peeked at his wrist.

Colette wondered if she would live to see the day she met Genis' soulmate.

As she drifted to sleep, an idle thought floated by: would she ever meet Lloyd's?


"Colette. Hey, Colette, wake up."

She mumbled incoherently.

The voice laughed. "Yeah, I get it, you're sleepy. But c'mon, you'll miss the sunrise!"

She tugged the covers down just enough to peer out, her eyes heavy.

"That's it!" said the voice, and whoever was beside her yanked off her sleeping bag. She yelped and curled up to protect herself against the chilly air.

"Whoops, sorry. Here."

Warmness wrapped around her, with a familiar scent. She sniffed it, basking in the pleasant feeling it gave her. The tang of metal, the earthy wood, the flowering vines…

It was only now that Colette registered who had dragged her out of bed and whose red jacket was currently draped over her.

"Ah! Lloyd!" she stammered.

He grinned at her. "Did you only just now realise it was me?"

She gave him a lipless smile and pushed her index fingers together.

Lloyd laughed again and took her by the hand to help her up. "Do you want to see the sunrise, then? I scouted out a good place while we were setting up camp yesterday to watch it. Or do you want to sleep?"

She shook her head, eliminating the last traces of fatigue from her brain. She inhaled the crisp air. "No, we can watch it. What about Genis?"

He threw a glance at their friend, snoring quietly with a dopey smile on his face. "Think he's dreaming about Presea. Let's not interrupt him."

Colette wanted to giggle at that.

"Besides," he continued, smiling at her, "it would be great to see it with you. Just the two of us."

Her heart beat faster.

What did he mean by that? Surely…

They came to a striated rock, reddish and cream layers stretching across its surface. It was larger than the dark green bushes which would have otherwise obscured their view.

"You're right," she said, picking her way across carefully; Lloyd's firm grasp on her arm reassured her. It was true that she could simply fly to the topreally, she could bring them both far above the treetopsbut it was the principle of the thing. And she liked relying on Lloyd. "This is a good spot."

He beamed at the praise.

They sat on the outcropping, side by side, as fire spread across the horizon and bled upwards. Silhouetted against the sun, Mount Fooji was dark in the distance apart from the barest glint of its silver and white-topped peak. The treetops were stained orange, just as they would be in autumn. Lloyd's hair was a deep mahogany, close to maroon; he sat there with one leg stretched out, the other tucked up against his chest. Like nothing in the worlds mattered besides the dawn of a day.

Her eyes shot back to the east before he spotted her taking in the wrong view.

"Hey, Colette."

She made a questioning sound in her throat, turning towards him without fully clicking into conversation mode.

Then she blinked at him; he was nervous, she realised suddenly. But she couldn't pinpoint the reason.

Her face burned. Had he noticed?

Before she knew it, he had pulled himself together and looked her right in the eyes.

"I don't know if there's someone else," he blurted out. "If there is, I'll back off, promise. But I have to say it, Colette."

His eyes ignited an inferno within her, bright and raging and impossibly serene.

"I like you."

She froze.

"But what about her?" slipped out.

Lloyd frowned. "Who?"

It wasn't Sheenaalthough she did a good job of hiding her wrist, it was obvious from her flustered reactions that Zelos was her soulmate. "Don't you have someone in Iselia waiting for you?"

"Huh? No? Why would you think that?"

She gave a wry smile. "That's why you want to go back so badly. Is it Chocolat?"

"ChocoColette, I don't have a mark."

They stared at each other, bewildered.

Finally, Lloyd stretched out his arm to her, palm facing upwards.

There was nothing decorating his wrist.

There was no mark on his wrist.

Having given his jacket to her, his arms had been bare all this time. But in Colette's ingrained terror, she had automatically avoided looking.

Numb. She was numb as the day Kvar's sword had scored her back and she had felt nothing but the gaping emptiness inside.

In turn, she pulled back her sleeve slightly and held it out.

Lloyd looked down. His eyes widened.

"Neither of us have marks!" he spluttered.

She withdrew her hand, covering her wrist again. "I like you, too, Lloyd."

His eyes lit up. She cut him off before he could get too excited.

"But does this mean… If we don't have each other's name written there… are we not meant to be together?"

Goosebumps raised themselves on her arms and in her heart.

He shook his head emphatically; a grin threatened to split his face. "Nah. Dad told me that just because someone doesn't have a soulmate, doesn't mean you can't find romantic love. There've been plenty of couples who got together who weren't soulmates, he told me."

She fixed her eyes on the ground. "I was always meant to die. That's why I didn't get one."

"Hey, don't say that." Lloyd took her hand and leaned down a little. His face was so close. "You were born to live. And even if you were supposed to die because of that dumb Yggdrasill, I'm not gonna let that happen. You're going to survive, and live, and be happy and free to walk your own path."

Colette was still learning how to live facing tomorrow, without surviving in the shadow of death. It was difficult. Every day she breathed in guilt and wallowed in solitude. Her friends made it easier. She knew a day would come when she could live both for herself and for others.

And if she could walk the same path that Lloyd was on…

"Then, are you sure that I'm the one?" she whispered. "Without a mark to show you?"

Lloyd rested his forehead on hers.

"I think that maybe soulmate marks exist to nudge people in the right direction. They're for people who don't know what they want and need some physical sign to tell them. But for us, we don't need that. Because I've always known, somewhere deep in my soul, that I would choose you."

And he kissed her.

Maybe it was a blessing after all.


(1) To be specific, the mark is just over the spot where the veins that gather deoxygenated blood from the tip of the ring finger exit the hand to be carried back to the heart. You may be able to see it on your own wrist.

(2) In Japan, the white chrysanthemum means truth while in the West, it symbolises death. Both also use it as a symbol of grief.

I always thought that, if I ever wrote a soulmate AU, I would want to turn it on its head and explore it. I hope you did enjoy it even though I didn't exactly follow the prompt in a conventional way. Constructive criticism is welcomed.