Fic for the day two prompt of Colloyd Week 2023, "Birthday Present".
Post-game fic, set in the same timeline as the other post-game fics I've written where Colette and Lloyd are living in Mizuho.
A comment in a review for the fic I wrote for the Colloyd Week 2022 day five prompt, "Crossover", from MannaTea inspired this one a bit, so this one is dedicated to her.
Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia.
Lloyd looked up from the design sketch he was working on to see Colette with her hands wrapped lightly around her mug of hot chocolate, her gaze on her drink as she looked deep in thought.
"Gald for your thoughts?" he asked quietly, trying not to make her jump. He mostly succeeded, although he noticed her shoulders shift a little as she blinked.
She shook her head slightly before turning to him.
"Sorry, I was just thinking about your dad's birthday, and what to do to celebrate it," she said.
"Have you had any ideas yet?" Lloyd asked, putting his pencil down on top of his sketchbook.
"Well, I know he doesn't like a fuss or anything, but I'd really like to do something special for him. He's been so wonderful, helping us so much over the years, and even back when I was still just a child in Iselia he always behaved in a way that sort of made me understand what having a kinda regular dad was like. He was like you, he saw me as a person first, rather than a title, and I'll always be grateful for that, for being able to experience some everyday, regular things like other children would have. I want to say thank you to him, but I'm not sure I could find the right words, and I wouldn't want to make him uncomfortable, I know he doesn't like soppiness," Colette replied, her voice trailing off as her gaze drifted back down to her mug.
Lloyd smiled softly and put one of his hands over hers.
"I think saying thank you to him, as well as happy birthday, is a very nice idea, and something I'd really like to do too. We've got plenty of time still, I'm sure we'll think of something," he said, nodding confidently.
"What are you working on?" Colette asked, gesturing to his sketchbook.
"The design for the jewellery box commission," Lloyd replied, turning the sketchbook round so she could see it.
"That looks really nice, practical as well as beautiful. You do make such good storage boxes, no matter what they're for," Colette said. She paused for a moment then her eyes lit up in a way that Lloyd recognised meant that she'd had an idea.
"Do you think you could make a little trinket box with a hidden compartment in it that your dad would spot that we could hide a letter in?" she asked.
"He's the one who taught me how to make hidden compartments so I bet I could," Lloyd said, a bright smile appearing on his face as he figured out what Colette was planning.
He grabbed his sketchbook and flipped to a clean, blank page.
"What sort of size letter would you want to hide inside it? And do you want to put anything else in there too?" he asked, his pencil poised over the page.
"I think it's best if we don't make it too obvious, so he doesn't spot it right away, so just something small. Oh, maybe you could do a sketch we could put in as well as a letter?" Colette suggested.
"I think that sounds fun," Lloyd smiled, excited for the challenge. "So a compartment small enough to hide a little, folded letter and a sketch in, something like that?"
Colette nodded, waving her hands animatedly with a delighted expression on her face as she started picturing the present and thought about what to write in the letter.
"Maybe something this sort of size, yeah," she said, indicating the measurements with her hands.
"Exactly the type of thing I was picturing," Lloyd grinned back at her. "And for the decorations on the outside there's some Dwarven carving patterns dad taught me that have nice meanings in them, like family, that would work on something that size."
"That sounds perfect," Colette beamed. "Oh, should I maybe do a bit of embroidery to put inside it?"
Lloyd nodded happily and started drawing, his expression one that Colette knew meant that he was enjoying being creative as he worked on a design. She grabbed a piece of paper and a pen herself and started jotting down a few notes. They talked to each other as they worked and had soon filled their pages with ideas they were excited to work on, ones they were sure they could complete before Dirk arrived.
A few weeks later they had managed to comfortably finish everything they had wanted to do in time and had given Dirk that special present when he visited for his birthday along with a few others after having cooked him a birthday dinner. The following morning Colette's expression had a slight hint of concern in it as she started working on cooking breakfast.
"Are you alright?" Lloyd asked softly, pausing what he was working on to move and wrap his arms around her.
"I'm just, I, I really hope your dad liked everything for his birthday. I know we tried to be careful to not cook anything too fancy, just things we know he really likes, and he's used to us baking all year round and the cake wasn't too elaborate, and I know we did our best to make the things in the box nice and not too soppy but I hope it was all OK for him and that it wasn't too much. I wonder if he's found the letter and that lovely sketch you did," she answered quietly, her voice a little muffled as she snuggled close to him.
Lloyd kissed the top of her head and hugged her just a little bit tighter. He loved that she wanted so much to make his dad's birthday perfect. He thought about the dinner and the presents and was sure she had nothing to worry about.
They'd worked hard to write the letter together, finding just the right words to express what they'd wanted to say, and had taken it in turns to carefully and neatly write out the paragraphs in the final version they'd then put in the box, some of them being specifically from one or the other of them, some being from both, and had both signed it at the end. He was sure his father would be able to work out which were which, and not just because his handwriting was clearly different from Colette's.
The sketch he'd done had been based on a photograph Regal had taken with the three of them in it along with Noishe. Dirk hadn't spotted the hidden compartment when he'd opened the box but that was what Lloyd had aimed for, hoping that he'd find it later on so he could read the letter by himself.
"You saw how happy he looked and how much he enjoyed the food, and I'm sure that the letter was perfect, as was your suggestion for the sketch. I bet he looked at the box again last night when we went to bed and that he'll have found the compartment and seen everything now too," Lloyd reassured her before kissing her once again and turning back to the kitchen counter.
The pair worked together quietly but happily, preparing a breakfast full of things they knew were Dirk's favourites, occasionally passing Noishe little morsels, saying that they wanted him to help them test the food but also secretly doing it because they didn't want him to feel left out. They looked up when Dirk appeared in the doorway and said good morning, then turned round from the counter as he moved over to them and grasped them both in a tight hug. As they returned the hug Lloyd looked over the top of his dad's head and gave Colette a little wink and a smile, trying to indicate that he thought that the hug meant he was right about Dirk finding everything. Colette smiled back at him, her head nodding very slightly to let him know she'd seen and agreed as Dirk patted them both on the back a few times before settling at the kitchen table and asking what was for breakfast that smelled so good.
Lloyd answered with a list of some of the things that were still cooking as he and Colette began placing the items that were ready on the table.
The smiles on their faces, along with the similar one on Dirk's, stayed on their faces throughout breakfast.