Le Ohemgee.
Four words.
Urby is writing fluff.
Scandalous!
And some angst.
Well, that's not amazing. What else is new?
Beware, Urby still can't write romance that well...(skidaddles)

Disclaimer: Urby le owns naughting!

Dedicated to Lil-Samuu, someone I can always complain to but never about. She listens to my ranting, go her. :P

This is a post-Crimson, but pre-Banzai! fic.

"Colette?" Lloyd said softly, spying the girl about to take off from the balcony.

"Lloyd?" she turned around, recognizing his voice. "Wh...what are you doing here?" she landed hastily in a nearby tree and folded her wings quickly, getting them in a mess.

"I was about to ask the same of you," Lloyd leaned on the railing, looking at her. "I see you fly off every night..."

Colette shuffled nervously, looking down and drawing patterns on her tights.

"Nothing much...fly somewhere quiet and think, I guess..."

"About what?" Lloyd asked, looking at the incoherent doodles she was making.

"...It depends," she finally answered, blushing lightly. "Just now, I was thinking about you-" she paused.

"What?" Lloyd tipped his head.

"You know, the tower," she said hastily, pointing off in the distance where the Tower of Salvation once stood. "It looked so strong, and then it just crumbled. It's discouraging..."

"But we have to keep going," Lloyd nodded reassuringly. "If we give up now, people will suffer."

Colette hung her head, dangling her feet and swinging them aimlessly.

"But...what we're facing, they're so strong, look impossible to beat," she mumbled.

"We will defeat them," Lloyd said firmly.

Colette sighed and hugged her knees to her chest.

"I wish I could believe that..."

"You have to!" Lloyd shook her gently. "If we don't succeed-"

"I know," Colette fretted. "It's just, it's just...the more I think about it, the weaker we get and the stronger they are."

Lloyd turned her gently around so she faced him.

"You have to be strong, Colette."

"I'm not strong," she whispered.

"Yes you are!" Lloyd shook her to try to get his point across. "You've been through so much more than we have, lost your soul, nearly got possessed by an evil spirit, you name it. And you can still smile, through all that." He propped her chin up to look at her.

"...Not strong," she repeated, turning away. "I've seen strong and I've seen pain. And I know I'm not strong because I've been in pain. You're strong, Lloyd, not me."

She closed her wings around herself, apparently done with that conversation.

"So...say, we win," she began again, opening up a bit. "What are you going to do afterwards? Wander a bit? Settle down?"

"Actually," Lloyd sat on the railing. "I was thinking of going around and getting all the Exspheres. You know, they were people once. Set them free."

"That's noble of you," she smiled. "Can...I come with you?" she put a hand on his shoulder.

"What?" he whirled, surprised at her request and having her hand touching him.

"I want to come with you," Colette crossed her arms and pouting slightly. "It's dangerous alone, you know."

"Exactly!" Lloyd stammered, his mind in too much of a jumble to think very clearly. "You can't come with me-you'll get hurt!"

Colette's face was in a state of shock, she hadn't expected such a comment from him.

"I get hurt all the time on this journey," she countered. "What'll make that one so different?"

"You don't understand!" Lloyd nearly yelled, not wanting to look at her anymore. "I'm not strong like you think I am!" he covered his eyes, sobbing quietly.

Colette placed her hands on his shoulders again. He didn't bother shrugging them off, actually relaxing this time. She was floating near him, flapping her wings gently to keep herself airborne.

"I don't want you to leave me again..." he wept into her shirt. "When you lost your soul, it was like you were dead...and a part of me died as well-"

"Shhh," Colette said soothingly, putting a finger on his lips. "I'm here. I'm not leaving you. Not ever."

She landed in his arms, a perfect fit.

"I'll be with you," she breathed. "Always."

"Always..." Lloyd sighed.

She cupped her wings around them, shielding them from the rest of the world.

"Promise?" Lloyd asked, taking her hands in his.

Colette smiled softly in reply, leaning closer to him.

They shared a soft but very shy kiss, not used to that kind of thing.

They parted only after they ran out of oxygen and needed to breathe.

"I promise," Colette vowed. "I promise..."

Das Ende

Big thank you to all the people that inspired me, and all the fics I read that urged me to write. Without you, this would be doomed in my mind forever.