Summary: Lloyd finds himself stuck on Earth. Lloyd/OC based, post-game.

Author's Notes: Warning – This story is primarily a Lloyd/OC romance set on Earth (just outside London, England to be exact). If you don't like I recommend you stop reading right now! It takes place almost a year after the end of the game (although in this story there is no ToS game, the events were real and happened in a separate dimension to ours), and is going to be quite lengthy. For those still reading – I hope you enjoy this (please review!) and I do plan to write through to its conclusion. Thank you.

There was a strange boy standing in the middle of the road.

Reimi blinked.

He was still there. With spiky brown hair and a sort of red dungaree outfit he was the most conspicuous thing on the uniformly grey high street.

And also apparently the stupidest. Even children knew not to play in the middle of the road, what was he doing?

She slowed her pace to watch him. He had his back to her and was clutching what looked like two sword scabbards on both hips. A few cars beeped their horns as they rushed past and the boy jumped back into the other lane with a slight look of panic on his face.

Reimi was about to call out and ask if he needed any help when she heard the loud wailing siren of an ambulance drawing swiftly closer. Looking from the boy to the oncoming vehicle she realised he was frozen to the spot, almost hypnotised. There was no way for the ambulance to avoid him because of the heavy traffic in the other lane and it was too late for them to slow down.

Her feet moved before her mind did.

Charging forwards, the sound of car horns blaring all around her, she pushed the boy backwards, away from the vehicle and onto the pavement, just in time.

There was a heavy thud and they landed sprawled in the gutter.

"Are you alright?" She asked breathlessly and hurriedly disentangled herself. The boy had landed on his front, the same as her but hadn't raised his head yet. She cautiously placed a hand on his shoulder then jerked it back as he groaned and raise himself off the ground into a sitting position.

"I-I think so…," his unfocused brown eyes met hers. Reimi gasped as she saw a huge red bump on his head where his face had collided with the pavement. A small stream of blood was trickling down.

"You're bleeding!" She stood up and hurriedly searched for the tissues at the bottom of her bag.

"You alright, love?" A voice drifted over. She found they had landed behind a parked taxi and that the voice was coming from a head peering out the front seat.

"H-hospital," she stuttered, looking from the boy, who still had a dazed expression on his face, to the taxi driver; a thick well-built man smoking a cigarette out the car window. "I'm going to take you to the hospital, okay?" she told the boy.

"No, it's alright. I'm… alright, I just…," he looked around blankly, still in shock.

"Can you take us to the Mayday please?" Reimi asked the taxi driver.

"Sure, should be about a fiver,"

"That's fine,"

She drew the boy round to the back seat of the taxi and helped him in. He barely seemed to notice the change, then got in herself and closed the door. The taxi sped off.

"You both alright?"

"I think so," Reimi replied when the boy said nothing, his eyes widened, staring first round the inside of the taxi and then at the buildings and traffic out of the window.

"Shouldn't be hanging around in the road, kid," the driver addressed the boy who continued his silence.

Reimi decided to change the conversation and started talking to the driver about high bus prices, which killed time until they pulled up outside of Mayday Hospital some minutes later.

"Thanks," Reimi said and pressed a scrunched up five-pound note into his hand before stepping out onto the pavement. The boy was still in the vehicle but after a cough from the driver, followed her example and joined her on the pavement.

"Hope it's nothing serious. You know… up there," the driver pointed towards his head.

Reimi smiled politely and began walking towards the building with the boy at her side.

Just as they were reaching the entrance he stopped dead, seeming to awaken for the first time.

"Where am I?"

Reimi, noticing he was no longer beside her, backtracked.

"The hospital. Isn't this your local one?"

"No," he fixed her gaze on her once more. "Where is this?"

Reimi was thrown for a moment by the strange question and didn't answer.

"One minute I was talking with Kratos and the next there was a bright light and I was here," he seemed to be talking to himself as much as to her.

"Does this Kratos have a number I can call?" Reimi reached into her bag and took her phone out. The boy just stared, first at the phone and then at her.

"…What?" Reimi started to feel a little scared.

"Who are you?"

"My name's Reimi. I live just down the road from here. How about you?"

"Lloyd… But I'm sorry I… I…" he held his head in his hands for a moment and screwed his eyes shut.

"Let's go see the doctor. I'll come with you, okay? I'm sure he can help," she tried to add a reassuring tone to her voice but it just sounded small and worried. The boy reluctantly followed her into the building.

After checking in at the desk, Lloyd was taken off by one of the nurses and Reimi was left by herself in the waiting room, surrounded by various other patients, relatives and hospital staff.

She waited for what seemed an age before Lloyd re-appeared, a bandage wrapped round his head and accompanied by the doctor. He seemed to have calmed down a little and his eyes were no longer darting about the room, constantly taking in his surroundings.

"You're still here?" He gave a faint smile and addressed Reimi as the doctor walked past and went to speak with the nurse.

Reimi smiled back and stood up. "How are you feeling?"

"Well my head hurts… but other then that I'm okay. Thanks for waiting,"

"No prob," she waved the apology off. "Had to make sure you're alright,"

"Miss Reimi, is it?" The doctor interrupted as Lloyd was about to continue. "May I speak with you for a moment please?"

"Huh? …Okay," confused, she followed the doctor to a room that served as a small office while Lloyd waited behind.

"Are you a relative of Lloyd's?" the doctor asked when the door had closed behind them.

"No… He was just in an accident so I brought him here. I've never met him before,"

"Ah… Well do you know if he had anyone with him before the accident? Or perhaps a mobile telephone that could have fallen out of his pocket?"

"I don't think so… No one came forward for him at the time,"

The doctor sighed and rubbed his forehead frustratedly. "His head trauma seems to have triggered some quite serious memory loss. We have no means of contacting his relatives or people who might know who he is. He also doesn't appear on any of our records so he's definitely not a local patient of ours,"

"He mentioned someone called Kratos that he was with before the accident…"

"Yes… He told us as much but most of what he said didn't make any sense. I wonder, are you in a hurry at the moment?"

"Not really. I was just on my way home from work but no evening plans as such,"

"Then would you be able to take Lloyd back to the scene of his accident and see if he remembers anything? Or maybe even if you can find his phone if he has one? We're a little short-staffed and can't send any people of our own."

"Okay," Reimi nodded. "It's on my way back anyway,"

"Ah good," the doctor's expression fell into one of relief. "I'm sorry to ask this of you since you've been so kind already… But if you find nothing, bring him back here and we'll think of something I'm sure but for now… That would be the best option,"

"Sure," the doctor held the door open and the two of them stepped back into the waiting room.

"Oh and one more thing…," he quickly said as Reimi was about to return to Lloyd who had begun walking to the exit. "We had to confiscate some property from him; a couple of swords he had on his belt. Maybe he's just one of these 'coss play' people I keep hearing about but just in case, be careful. Best to not trust strangers,"

Reimi vaguely registered seeing sword scabbards when Lloyd was in the road, she had forgotten about them in the confusion that had followed.

"I'll stick to the main roads," He watched her leave the hospital through its main doors, meet up with Lloyd and walk off.

'I hope I did the right thing…' he thought to himself.

Outside the two of them walked back the way they had come. As the hospital path joined with the main road, Lloyd turned as he walked and stared at the lines of cars in the street, now piling up due to rush hour.

"What's up?" Reimi asked, catching his gaze.

"So, what exactly are these things?" he pointed at the closest car and swivelled his head round to face her.

"...The cars?"

"Cars. Are they like Rhieards but on the ground then?"

She frowned. "I don't kno… they're just… cars.. hey," she trailed off and began to frown as she noticed something, "Your swords are back,"

Lloyd looked down at them, "Yeah,"

"Didn't the doctor take them away?"

"Yeah he did but I took them back. My dad made these for me," he replied proudly. "Pretty cool, aren't they?"

"Are you a cosplayer?"

Lloyd just looked blank.

"They're not real… are they?"

Lloyd nodded.

She looked over her shoulder at the hospital entrance back the way they had come but no one seemed to be pursuing them, yet.

"I don't know what it's like where you're from Lloyd but here it's illegal to carry a weapon,"

"But what about the monsters? Who deals with them here?"

She frowned but asked "What do these monsters look like?" despite herself.

"There are all kinds. There aren't any monsters here?"

Reimi's mind boggled, despite her disbelief in his words, his expression seemed one of genuine honesty so Reimi kept going and played along for the ten minutes it took to return to the accident site. She explained to Lloyd about cars and other basic things they came across like parking meters, aeroplanes (which apparently were similar to the 'Rhieards' he had mentioned earlier) and certain foods at a stall. Albeit this was not in great detail since Lloyd seemed to be forever distracted by the next thing that came along.

She couldn't help but laugh a little after the fifth or sixth time it had happened. "You're a very strange individual,"

"What! I seem to be the only normal one here!" he cried back, though sensing it was not to be taken as offence, smiled a little too.

"Well, here we are," she stopped and surveyed the area. It was a little busier than earlier, but they had arrived at the road Lloyd had been standing in at the beginning.

"Do you remember anything before being in the road?"

Lloyd walked a little closer to the pavement's edge and looked down at the tarmac river.

"It's a bit of a blur, but I remember being at Derris Kharlan. I went after Kratos and he was going to come home with me… But then, I was here. I don't know why,"

"Derris Kharlan, is that someone's house?"

"It's a huge palace up at the top of the Tower of Salvation... Huh… Strange, I can't see it from here,"

"Okay… And did you see anyone else? Is there anyone here you know or recognize?"

He took a moment to check but then shook his head. "Everything here is so new. Maybe this is another world I've found,"

Reimi was beginning to seriously worry, it was frustrating enough that most of the things Lloyd said sounded like nonsense, but it was nonsense he obviously believed which made the situation a little dangerous. That plus the fact he had weapons on him freaked her out. She could take him back to the hospital, maybe? Let them deal with him; perhaps he was an escaped mental patient, nice as he seemed.

"Let's go back to the hospital, I don't think there's anything I can do to help you… Maybe they can get in contact with someone you know,"

Lloyd turned away. "They didn't believe me there either. It's okay Reimi you've been kind enough, thank you for helping me this much. I think I'll just try to find my way back on my own,"

"O-oh, no," she stiffened, "I really didn't do anything. I'm sorry I couldn't help,"

"You helped, I just need to think about this a little more, it was nice to meet you anyway. I appreciate it, I really owe you one," he reached out a hand and she slowly obliged, thoughts still racing through her mind of what she should do. He shook it before turning and walking away.

"Don't go running into the road anymore, okay," she called out after him as he walked off, waving backwards with his hand.

Reimi sighed and giving him one last look to make sure he hadn't wandered into the path of any more cars, begun to walk back home.