Fic for the day four prompt of Colloyd Week 2023, "Soulmates".
Post-game fic where the group of friends have a reunion. Written with the idea of soulmates being a friendship thing as well as a romantic thing in mind.
There are references to things in the seventh fic ("Free Day") from my set of fics for Colloyd Week 2021 and the fifth fic ("Quote Day: 'Goodness and Love Will Always Win!'") from my set of fics for Colloyd Week 2020 in this, but I don't think you need to have read either of them for this to make sense.
Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia.
Colette smiled as she looked around the campsite she and her friends had set up. The atmosphere was relaxed, warm and pleasant and everyone looked happy. Raine and Regal were sat in chairs next to each other, chatting quietly. Genis and Emil were also chatting together, from the animated gestures they were making she was pretty certain it was probably a conversation about cooking. The others were all playing card games, something she had also been doing until a short time ago. When a game had ended she'd decided that she fancied a snack and had left the games to grab a few things from the table they'd put the leftovers from their earlier dinner on.
While she was stood there she'd decided to do a little tidying, although the table wasn't particularly messy she spotted a few things she could do to improve it, like emptying one half full container into another. She looked up from the table as Presea moved over to join her.
"Do you need any help?" she asked.
"No, it's fine, there's not really much to do. Thanks for the offer though," Colette replied, turning to face her friend. "How's the game going?"
"I've enjoyed most of them, but I just can't get the hang of poker," Presea said, a small frown crossing her brow.
"I can never remember all of the different sets in that one either, and Sheena and Zelos have tried to teach me a bunch of times," Colette shrugged slightly. "I like Koi-Koi better, having the different pictures makes the sets easier to remember."
Presea nodded, agreeing. "I enjoyed that game."
Although she was still a quiet person Colette could see happiness in Presea's eyes, and she thought that her friend seemed happier and more comfortable in herself. She was glad, after everything she'd been through Presea deserved some happier times.
She was glad that her other friends had been able to find places and roles where they had settled and found some peace and happiness too. Although she knew, like it was for herself, that the events they had been through on their journeys would always leave their marks and some deeply unpleasant memories that would resurface from time to time. That was something that made these particular friendships so special, they understood each other very deeply, knew the incredibly difficult things they'd been through, what it was like to have go through things that others could perhaps not possibly even imagine. The events they had shared on their journeys had formed a life long bond.
Colette looked around at the group again and thought how grateful she was to have such special friends. Her gaze lingered on Lloyd, with whom she shared an even deeper special connection. He looked up from his hand of cards and noticed her looking over at him. He smiled a soft, loving smile at her and she returned the gesture, then she had a thought about something on the food table and her smile turned into a playful grin. She reached over and picked something up from a container on it then waved it at him.
"Is that the last of the of the curry pastry pockets Regal made?" Lloyd called over to her. She nodded.
"Is it the very last one?" he asked.
"Mmhmm," Colette replied, looking at it hungrily.
"Those were one of my favourite things tonight," Lloyd said, a slight hint of the sort of whine Noishe made when he saw food that he wanted in his voice. He didn't want Colette to not have it if she really wanted it but equally he really wanted it now too.
"Play you for it?" Colette giggled, gesturing to one of their bags.
Lloyd nodded, then made a 'please give me a moment' gesture. He finished the round of the game he was playing with the others then moved to fetch something from the bag while Colette set up a smaller folding table and a couple of chairs, one opposite the other at the table, adding a third chair when she saw the curious look on Presea's face.
Between only needing to get things to one place and back, rather than having to continuously carry things around with them everywhere they went, and the Lezareno company having created easy to travel with camping gear for people to use on the narrowboats they rented out for people to have holidays on, the group were able to bring quite a few things they previously hadn't had on their journeys to reunions where they were camping that made things more comfortable. Having items like the folding chairs and tables made the campsite feel almost luxurious, especially after having spent so many years camping with just the very basics that they had been able to carry with them before. Although it was only a basic, small kind of luxury it was still, nevertheless, something Colette really appreciated.
Lloyd put a box onto the table as he sat down opposite Colette and she opened it to reveal more, smaller boxes inside. She thought for a moment before selecting one and Lloyd did the same. Then they both took the contents of the smaller boxes, decks of cards, out of the boxes and began to shuffle them.
"Are those decks for the game with the monsters on the cards that Lezareno makes?" Presea asked, thinking that they looked familiar.
"Yeap, it's a good one to play in a situation like this, a bit of skill with building a good deck and playing with it well, a bit of luck with getting the cards you need at the right time," Colette said, an excited look on her face as she set up her play area and looked at her hand.
She looked over at Lloyd and saw a similar look on his. They both gigged softly. Another reason why she wasn't particularly good at poker when Lloyd was in the game, and a reason why he wasn't good at it when she was playing too, was that they weren't very good at bluffing one another.
"Good hand?" Presea leaned over and whispered to Colette.
"Yeap, and he has one too I think," she whispered back then grabbed a coin from the box with the other decks in it to flip it and begin the game.
After a while they noticed that their game had drawn attention from some of their other friends and a few of them had joined to watch at the table.
"Are they deliberately playing in a way to just try to keep things even?" Zelos asked Sheena quietly. She thought for a moment, thinking about the cards she'd seen the couple play during the part of the game she'd seen, then shook her head.
"No, I think they just have decks that are balanced pretty well against each other and are playing a good game," she replied.
The game continued to be very close and got to a turn where who would win depended on how a coin flip went, heads Colette would win, tails Lloyd would. Colette picked up the coin again and flipped it, a little too energetically as it ended up falling underneath the table. She shrugged and reached for the plate the pastry they'd been playing for was on.
"I guess it's a draw, shall we split this?" she asked Lloyd who nodded happily in reply.
"You know you could just look at which side up the coin landed under the table or flip it again," Sheena said.
"Nah, it's a draw," Lloyd said, agreeing with Colette before taking a bite out of his half of the prize.
"Do you think they were planning to spilt it all along?" Zelos leaned over and asked Sheena quietly. Sheena just smiled, shook her head slightly in a 'you know those two are silly sometimes' kind of gesture and shrugged.