Disintegration

Author: Tenohikari

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia

Pairing: Mithos(Yggdrassil)/Lloyd, and more pairings to come.

Warnings: male/male pairings. Ratings will go up in some chapters. AU twist but with a lot of Symphonia Game/Manga/Anime spoilers. Oh yeah, the story is 100% unbetad – so it's probably littered with tons of grammar/spelling errors.

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia. I do own a copy of the game, the manga series, and some doujinshi... obsessed? Probably.

Summary: During the end of the Kharlan War, Lloyd had died before his lover and brother-in-arms, Mithos. Four thousand years later, Lloyd Irving finds himself not only on the journey of World Regeneration, but into the past he no longer remembers.

Prologue

Death is only the beginning

As a soldier he had wanted nothing but a quick and honorable end. Unlike many martyrs who fought beside and against him, he wanted a death that was quiet with no fuss and with as little pain as possible; but that was simply asking too much. His increasingly blurring russet eyes glanced around the battlefield in despair at the corpses of his countrymen. They looked like broken toys that were broken and discarded by a sadistic and spoiled child.

A child…

That was what his now-dead Captain had called him with the order to retreat right before a broad sword severed his head in one broad stroke. Despite his skill with the blade, the youth couldn't help but stand there as if the blood had bonded his feed permanently to the ground. He was a child after all. Only sixteen years of age, and had naïve little dreams like traveling around the world. All of those dreams were going to come to an end, and the worse was that he would have to break his promise…

"Lloyd, you lied!" another child's voice wailed in his ears, "you liar!"

With great effort Lloyd turned his attention to the one causing the 'fuss' that he could do without during his final moments. Still, he was lucky enough to have four people he considered as his family close by. Kratos, Yuan, Martel, and…

"Sorry… Mithos," he rasped and watched those loving innocent sapphire eyes weep for him.

The sight of those tears made the blade stuck between his ribs almost bearable compared to the vice around his slowly beating heart. Mithos Yggdrassil, the great young hero who wanted to save the world but could not save his friend, screamed in denial and begged for his companions' assistance.

"Lloyd, try not to speak."

He convulsed when healing mana entered his battered body, coaxing it to continue on living. Choking on his own blood, he raised a trembling hand out to the healer. She was crying for him as well. Those similar sapphire eyes, so much like Mithos', followed the motion that pointed to his stomach, before they widened in horror. Both of the armed men at her side stiffened, and swear under their breaths. The healer stifled a sob at the realization that he was way beyond the levels which normal healing mana could cure.

But Mithos did not nor would try to understand the hopelessness of it all. He shook his head and begged his sister to continue healing, or for her fiancée and his mercenary teacher to pull out some powerful elixir that would make everything better. The tears continued to fall like rain, almost drowning out his final words.

"Don't cry… you… brat…."

Lloyd wheezed as he tried to squeeze Mithos' s trembling hand, before smiling. He would have laughed if blood wasn't filling his lungs at the moment, as Mithos' face, scrunched up in anger. The blonde magi-swordsman yelled out uncreative insults like 'stupid human' and 'bad kisser' that washed over him like balm.

'Bad kisser' huh?' He thought to himself when his last few senses began to shut down. He could no longer hear the hysterical voice of the soon to be legendary hero. 'If the gods were truly kind, they'll let me work on that.'

Unlike the other soldiers who had fallen, Lloyd had died with a smile on his face.