Broken Wings
N.W. 502
First Love

It was mid-spring, the trees of the little orchard Zelos had started in full bloom, ribbons strung between the branches and hung with paper lanterns Genis had brought from Mizuho. The morning was dawning bright and clear, and warm enough that Lloyd had no concerns about wandering the orchard barefoot.

Something he did fairly often of a morning, when it wasn't freezing cold.

And as he found the small gazebo he'd built, also currently strung up with ribbons, Lloyd looked around himself with a sort of wonder as the events of the last few weeks finally sank in.

Their breaths were heavy, hearts pounding fast and hard as they held onto each other. Zelos was nowhere to be found, nor did they know where Genis or Tenebrae were. And as Lloyd shifted, pulling Colette into his lap and curling around her as much as he could, all he could do was pray that they'd gotten out in time.

Colette was crying, frantic breathing turning into hiccups, trembling as the adrenaline from their desperate flight wore off...

The scent of smoke filled the air, heavy and hot, but they were safe here for now. The wind was blowing the fire away from them at an angle, though it wasn't harsh enough to save them from the smoke, nor would it stop the fires from reaching them eventually.

But for now... for now, they were okay to stay here.

Colette's dress was destroyed, much of the white fabric simply gone, burned away. Thankfully, she'd gotten the fire put out before it had burned her skin too badly.

Lloyd's clothes weren't much better. The only thing that had saved him from getting swallowed up in that inferno altogether had been his massive wings, which had borne him into the air with enough haste to escape the unholy winds that came with a fire of that magnitude.

He was safe. Colette was safe. But the others...

Shadows moved, a familiar feline form slipping free from them, Tenebrae's eyes raking over their burnt clothes and settling on the still near-hysterical Colette.

Lloyd took a deep breath, relieved to see Tenebrae was alright. Though, as a being of pure mana, he really shouldn't have been so worried, but... "Genis? Zelos?"

"Zelos is a few hundred yards north, in a mild state of panic. Or, he was when I found him. He's heading for the Ginnungagap to retrieve Aqua now. Many of her water monsters can get themselves airborne; with any luck, they'll be able to contain this blaze," the Centurion replied. "Genis is at the eastern edge of the fires, using his water spells to soak the earth in the fire's path."

Lloyd let out a sigh, very much relieved now. Genis and Zelos were okay. He and Colette were okay...

Colette sniffed, hands rubbing at her eyes as she frantically tried to wipe her tears away. "We should... we should help. There has to be something..."

Something in her expression, in the terror etched across her face and in the lines of her entire body, had Lloyd's heart breaking.

Because this had been aimed at them, at the surviving angels and the half-elf who dared try to help them. If he hadn't grabbed Colette and pulled her away, his massive wings granting them the speedy escape that had spared their lives, he could have... No. He would have lost her.

"Marry me."

More a demand than a question, but...

Blue eyes rose to meet russet, shock, confusion, and then realization in those depths. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Colette's next move was to claim his lips with her own, a breathless 'yes' escaping between kisses.

What had been a split-second decision had turned into three days of frantic fire-fighting, followed by a week of rapid-fire planning. And now, just a few weeks later...

"You're not getting cold feet, are ya bud?"

Lloyd chuckled as he ran his hands over the white-painted rail of the gazebo. "No. Far from it." He'd thrown himself into the wedding preparations with as much fervor as Colette and Genis had, and though he hadn't seen Colette's dress yet (she was still firmly of the opinion that it was bad luck for the groom to see the bride's gown before the wedding), he really, truly hoped that Genis hadn't been lying when he'd given Lloyd the details he'd been begging for.

Not enough for him to know what his long-time friend would be wearing, but just enough for him to make her jewelry to match.

"You realize you've got about, oh... twenty minutes before Raine and Kiernan get here, right?"

He stopped, glanced up at the sky to judge the time, and realized that Zelos was right. He'd been standing around thinking about the whirlwind the last month had been for too long.

So really, Zelos shouldn't have yelped when he stepped out of the gazebo and took to the air, shooting back to the house and landing on the western terrace, carefully staying low enough that Colette wouldn't see him from the eastern terrace, nor would he see her, if she was out there.

Five hundred years, almost to the day that Colette had broken his heart. No longer would this time of year be a reminder of the schism between them...

It took Lloyd but a few minutes to dress himself, though he glared at the boots now upon his feet.

Zelos and Genis said it often, and really, Lloyd was in no position to argue. He really did spend too much time running about barefoot.

"Ah, now there's a groom. And here I was worried you were going to marry Colette in your pyjamas."

Lloyd turned and threw a piece of junk metal at Zelos' head, fully aware that the redhead would either dodge or catch it. Mana fields brushed against his, and Lloyd was quickly stepping out the door, heading down the steps to meet Raine and her family.

He hadn't liked Kiernan Alderash the first time they'd met. Too much of a resemblance to Decus, really. Dark blue hair, similar facial features and hairstyle...

Except, where Decus had been a fighter, desperately in love with Alice and loyal to the bitter end, Kiernan was a scholar just as Raine was, and as much as they'd teased Genis about Miriam, Raine and Kiernan had taken over a century to admit to having feelings for each other.

And toddling along between the two professors was a seventeen-month-old little boy who had his mother's silver hair and his daddy's brown eyes.

Lloyd grinned and crouched. "Hey, Kloitz!"

"Unca Lloy!"

He chuckled and caught the little boy as he rushed forward, grinning at him and nearly tripping in his hurry. Raine's belly was round, a second child on the way, and Lloyd couldn't help but feel ecstatic.

"I'm glad you guys could make it," he said. "I know it was short notice..."

Kiernan shook his head. "It was no problem. It's not too far from Asgard, really. And Kloitz enjoyed the traveling. Taking after his Uncle Genis, I'm afraid," the blue-haired main said, giving his son a fond look.

Lloyd chuckled. "More like all of his uncles. Though, I was planning on sticking around the house for a few years. It's been a while since I did any serious crafting, and working on Colette's bridal ensemble reminded me just how much I love working with jewelry."

Raine hummed. "I think it would be good for you to settle down for a while. I remember the last time I visited your house outside Luin, I almost had to physically drag you out of the forge."

"Yeah, he gets pretty absorbed in stuff, doesn't he?" Zelos piped up as he skipped down the last few steps. "Hey, it's a squirt!"

"Not a squirt!" Kloitz grumbled back, to much laughter.

"Come on, Genis and Miriam are up with Colette, and Tenebrae's managed to talk Ratatosk and Richter into leaving the Ginnungagap for a few hours. They're in a lull at the moment, anyway; can't do anything more until the most recent adjustment to the seal settles," Lloyd said. "You guys should see the orchard. Zelos and Genis really outdid themselves."

Raine laughed. "I can imagine. Given how overboard Genis went with the decorating at our wedding..."

"Probably a good thing we insisted on short notice," Lloyd agreed, stepping out the door and leading the two half-elves out back to the gazebo... Where two redheads waited for them.

Richter's hair was braided down his back, acid green eyes glancing over them even as Aqua appeared out of thin air, the Centurion of Water half-draping herself over her Knight in a familiar manner.

"When did you change your hair?" Raine asked as Ratatosk shifted, glaring over his shoulder with eyes that were just shades darker than his hair.

The spirit snorted. "This is my natural coloring. And...it didn't feel right, holding onto Aster's form so completely after Emil died."

"He's been a redhead for most of the last four centuries," Lloyd added. "But, it suits him."

"And white suits you."

The vaguely-familiar voice had Lloyd turning, blinking at a young man with a fair resemblance to himself.

Except he knew those golden-brown eyes, and that mana.

"Solum."

The earth Centurion nodded, and Lloyd understood the resemblance now. Solum never really had given up his form entirely, though the changes had set them apart just enough that, while strangers might mistake them for brothers, they weren't identical.

"So... who's officiating?" Kiernan asked, as if it had only just occurred to him.

Lloyd shot Zelos an amused smirk, and Raine groaned softly. "I know that look. To think I used to enjoy seeing that look..."

"Oh?"

"Well, used to be that look meant someone was about to get themselves straightened out whether they liked it or not. Nowadays, it just means trouble," Raine explained to her amused husband.

Lloyd chuckled and let Kloitz down, as he could see Genis stepping out to join them. They wouldn't have music, but none of them truly cared.

Still, Genis' appearance meant that Colette was soon to follow, and so Raine and Kiernan took their son and stepped off to one side of the gazebo, Richter and Ratatosk finding a spot near the railing on the other side.

Zelos stood by him, Genis joining Richter, Aqua, and Ratatosk even as Lloyd stood near the northern end of the gazebo. The southern end was where Miriam and then Colette would be walking up...

Solum stood next to Kiernan, seemingly happy to help keep excitable Kloitz distracted, and Lloyd could see Tenebrae's tail swishing back and forth, though the Centurion of darkness was still laying on the roof.

Lloyd didn't have more than a moment to acknowledge the presence of the last two to join them—Origin, who, while not actually invited, Lloyd wasn't surprised to see, and Verius, who would be leading the ceremony—before Miriam came around the corner.

But he didn't see Genis' wife. No, his eyes were locked on the woman who trailed after her, white dress embroidered in multiple shades of blue, with purples and a few splashes of pink peeking out. And though her veil covered her face, and the tiara and necklace he'd finished for her just a few days previous, he couldn't help the lone thought that passed through his mind, a thought he gave voice to as Colette stood in front of him.

"You look like a princess, love."

"Your princess," Colette whispered back.

His, indeed. After so very long...

He barely heard a word of what Verius said, too busy taking in every detail of his wife on their wedding day.