Okay! My first Tales of Symphonia fic! I hope I did well!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Tales series or anything associated with or owned by their company.

It had been about a year after Lloyd and Colette's World Regeneration Journey and all of the events that led up to the uniting Sylvarant and Tethe'alla. The duo, along with Noishe, was out diligently searching the world over for Exspheres. After a few weeks of roaming the country side, they made their way to Altamira to get some information on Exspheres from the Lezerano Company. It was night when the three docked in the port. Seeing it was too late for them to visit the company, they headed towards the hotel for a good night's sleep.

Lloyd, however, wanting to stock up on supplies at night, so that they could make a fresh start in the morning, stopped on the second floor to buy what they needed. It was then that he heard voices arguing out in the almost empty room.

"You've already told that one!" Lloyd glanced over at a booth with young children surrounding it.

The man at the head of the booth rubbed his chin, "What about the one with the Merines falling in with an Orerine, a sworn enemy of her race: the Ferines?"

A little girl rolled her eyes, "You told that one yesterday."

The man began to pace, "Hmmm, how 'bout the one with the young ex-knight breaking the princess out of the palace to warn their friend of an approaching danger?"

A young boy chimed in, "I heard that one on Remday." All the children began to get anxious.

"What of the arrogant noble finding out he was a replica, changing his ways as he tries to save the world?" The man began to sweat as his face turned paler at their answer.

"You've told that one already! Twice!"

Lloyd, feeling bad for the man, stepped in, "What about the one of the boy raised by a dwarf and his best friend going out on the Journey of World Regeneration, only to end up saving two worlds at once?"

All the children went wide-eyed with curiosity, shaking their heads, "Oooo, tell that one!"

"Please mister! Tell the story!"

"What happened?! What happened?!"

The bunch went wild with excitement as Lloyd tried to calm them down.

"Alright! Alright! I will tell you, but you got be quiet!" he said with a smile.

All at once, an anticipant silence hung above the excited children as the settled into their positions to hear of what was to be an exhilarating story.

Lloyd gave the man a wink, and settled into the man's chair ready to tell the story. The man, on the other hand, gave a huge sigh of relief and went off to get a well deserved break.

Lloyd entertained the children with every detail of his adventure that he could recollect, excluding all the times he killed the Desian leaders, or how the church was a fraud, or any other extremely violent acts the group had to enact to save the world, or how perverted Zelos was, and all the cussing that was involved on the journey, which was a lot, and the story turned out to be a pretty good one.

The kids would giggle at the times when Lloyd and Genis would goof around together. The girls sighed when Lloyd spoke of what he went through to get Colette back. The boys cheered after every heroic scene Lloyd would describe to them, and booed after every defeat. The action and adventure kept the kids at the edge of their seats, and they even got the hero slaying the dragon like all classic fairytales. Hearing of all the places the group went, from Heimdall, the City of the Elves, to Aselia, Lloyd's home town they were in awe. They even gasped when Lloyd revealed that Kratos was his father. They were the perfect audience.

Lloyd decided to wrap up the story with their great victory in battle, and how he united the two worlds with the help of his friends.

"…and everyone set off or returned to their new life in the world they had created, while the hero and the Chosen went off to collect Exspheres, so that no one would ever use them for evil ever again." Proud of his story, Lloyd leaned back and let out a content sigh.

The children burst into applause. They all began to talk excitedly about what they just heard.

"The Chosen was so cool and nice! I wish I could be like her!" One girl cried out.

Two boys began to fight with imaginary swords, "Lloyd was the coolest! He could take on anyone and could beat everyone!"

"Nah, Kratos was cooler! He had been helping them all along!" one boy argued back.

"Regal was the best! He was always so calm and collected! And he refused to fight with hands because of the woman he loved," a little girl swooned.

A little boy snuck around the table secretly before somersaulting out into the open, "Sheena was pretty awesome, being a ninja and becoming village chief!"

Lloyd laughed at their antics before getting them to calm down, "They were all great!"

The group began settle down when Lloyd saw one girl at the edge of the group with a questioning look on her face.

Lloyd called to her, "Hey, what's wrong?"

The girl looked up with a blush on her face, "I was just thinking of something."

Lloyd gave her a confused look, "What is it? You didn't like the story?"

The girl shook her head vigorously, "No! It's not that…it's just…" she trailed off.

After a moment off waiting, she blurted out, "What ever happened to Lloyd and Colette!?"

Lloyd's face began to heat up, "What do you mean? I told you they went on a journey to collect Exspheres together."

The girl frowned, "No, I mean what ever happened to them! Are they together? Did they ever admit their feelings?"

Lloyd coughed awkwardly at the question.

"Yeah! Did they ever get together?" a boy piped in.

"Did they ever kiss?" all the kids giggled at the questions.

And all the girls sighed when someone asked if the hero and the Chosen fell in love together.

Lloyd gently tugged at his collar, hoping that it would cool him down.

"What gave you the idea that they liked each other?"

The little girl answered back, "It was obvious!" All the kids nodded in agreement.

One small boy spoke up, "Lloyd went through everything to save her! He would always protect her, and he always worried about her! He wouldn't have done that if he didn't love her," all the kids nodded along with him, "Also the hero always gets the girl in every fairytale! And this is definitely the perfect fairytale!" The children all voiced their agreement.

Lloyd began to think about that. Sure, he liked Colette. She was his best friend, and he was willing to doing anything for her. And, sure, he could admit he liked her, but did that mean he loved her? Was their story really the perfect fairytale?

Lloyd's eyebrows furrowed, "Well, what about Colette? She never told him she liked him."

The girl, who started this whole conversation, rolled her eyes, "She didn't need to! She gave him so many hints!"

Lloyd scoffed, "Like what?"

The girl tapped her chin in thought before going on, "Well at the start of their journey she left him behind because she cared about him too much to let him get hurt. She also comforted him in Flanoir, and when she wanted to be closer to him. She's just a little too shy to tell him!"

Lloyd's heartbeat began to quicken. What if these kids were right? What if she really did like him or even love him? He began to think of all the moments they spent together, and everything she did. If she liked him, everything made sense.

Could they be in love? Were they in love?

Lloyd was brought out of his thoughts when the man, that had been telling the stories before, had finally returned from his break.

The children all 'aww'ed in disappointment before thanking Lloyd for the story and following the man away.

Looking at the clock, Lloyd decided it was late, and, finally, went up to his room. He cracked open the door to see Noishe resting peacefully by the fireplace. He stepped in further to see Colette resting on one of the two beds that were in the room.

Lloyd let out the breath he had been holding. 'Good, she's asleep. I won't have to explain why I was late to her.'

At least that's what he thought, before he tripped over one of their travel bags and was sent careening down onto the floor.

The sudden crash woke the tired Chosen up.

"Lloyd?" Colette mumbled tiredly, "Lloyd, is that you?"

The young hero jumped up off the ground with his face on fire. The Chosen's clumsiness was beginning to rub off on him.

Rubbing the back of his head nervously, he answered back, "Yep, it's me." He frowned a little, "Sorry for waking you, Colette."

The Chosen just smiled as she shifted out of bed, "No, it's fine," she began to blush, "I guess I fell asleep while I was waiting for you to come back."

The duo stood in an awkward silence before Colette spoke up again.

"Why were you gone for so long?"

Lloyd's eyes widened, "H-huh?"

Colette looked at the floor, "You went to get supplies, but you've been away for a couple hours."

"Oh…" Lloyd focused his eyes on the Chosen's form, "I was, um, telling some kids a story."

Colette looked up in curiosity, "Oh really? What story?"

"Our story."

Colette became excited at the thought of their story, "Really? Did they like it!?"

Her antics, pure and childlike, made him smile, "Yeah, they loved it!"

"That's good!"

Silence, once again, filled the air. It was like a comfortable blanket enveloping the duo.

"Do you believe in fairytales?"

Colette's smiled faded for a second before coming back in full force, "Of course!"

Lloyd began to fidget, "What exactly is a fairytale…to you at least?"

Colette furrowed her brows and began to pout in thought. In her few moments of thinking, Colette got her ideal fairytale.

"I believe a fairytale is when two people, a girl and a boy, have an adventure together! They fight monsters and they keep each other safe," her smile softened, "and in the end they fall in love with each other, being able to live happily ever after together." Colette let out a light sigh, "Why do you want to know?"

Lloyd's hands began to shake, "Well, after hearing the story, the kids said some things, and it got me wondering," he took a deep breath, "would you consider…us…a fairytale?"

Colette began to think about Lloyd's question, "I guess. We have fought a lot of monsters and we did keep each other safe."

Lloyd chuckled, it was just like Colette to miss the point, "No, I mean," he ran his hand through his hair, "do we have a chance at a happily ever after?" he glanced up at her shocked face, "Do we have a chance….to be in love?"

Colette turned pale and began to clench her hands together tightly, "I don't know…do you?"

Lloyd took a bold step forward, "I do," his voice died off into a whisper, "at least I want to."

Colette was quiet, and Lloyd began to think he made the wrong move, "But if you don't want to—"

"I want a happily ever after too." Colette whispered out.

Lloyd's heart began to thunder, thumping in booming, rapid beats. He took a shaky step forward, and then another one until he was standing right in front of her.

She looked up into his deep, brown eyes, staring him down with shallow breath. His hand, moving slowly forward, cupped her cheek. He slowly traced his thumb around her cheek before returning her shining, cerulean gaze. His throat became dry as he began to focus his eyes on her lips. Time began to slow down as he steadily closed the gap between them. It was timid first kiss, but the emotion stored up in it conveyed to the friends that maybe they weren't just friends anymore.

It took Colette a few seconds to return it, but she did, and Lloyd felt his heart swell. The kiss was slow. It was chaste. It was love. Their lips slowly worked with one another, sending off their love in waves.

When they parted, they were both out of breath and their tongues tied. They could only watch the other breath in and out in somewhat labored breathes.

Lloyd was the first to make a move, gently pulling Colette back in for a short kiss before hugging her closely, and whispering in her ear, "Maybe…this is the perfect fairytale."

Colette smiled into Lloyd's shoulder before returning the hug. She had to agree:

This was the perfect fairytale.

How'd you like it? My first Symphonia fic, but not my first Tales one. I hoped every enjoyed it. I haven't played Tales of Symphonia in a while, so I couldn't remember totally how the characters acted, so I hope this was really close. I'm not sure where the idea came from, but I like it a lot. This is probably one of my favorite fics to write. For me, it just flowed and was easy to write, which is always nice. Even when I was having trouble writing the ending, I just ended up typing it out and I liked it!

I made a couple references to some other Tales games; they are really easy to find. See if you can spot them and tell me which game they are from! If you want to at least!

Thanks for reading! Reviews are nice, and they help me see what you guys like, dislike, and what I need to improve on! Plus, it is always nice to see that someone took the time to tell you that you did a good or bad job, and what could make it better!