Summary: When a freak accident in the final battle against Mithos leaves Zelos permanently speechless, he has to reevaluate his entire life and his relationships in order to find the support he needs to find his strength once again. Fortunately, Lloyd has every intention of being at his side every step of the way.

Notes: This is the last chapter here on fanfiction dot net. If you want more, check out my Ao3 profile. The Plotbunny Adoption Agency has been ported over there and I'll be continuing to update that version. You don't need an Ao3 account of your own to read it. I've decided against continuing to x-post this series here since its location makes it unlikely that anyone who'd actually want to pick up an unfinished plot would stumble across it, something Ao3's tagging system is better suited for. I'm also more active on Ao3 in general and would prefer to only post completed stories here.

Say Anything

"Agh…" Zelos dropped his sword and collapsed to his knees, his breath jagged and burning in his throat. His right hand flew up to his neck and came away with sticky, red blood covering the fingers of the glove. "Rai…" he doubled over, coughing.

The others were not too far away, but they were fighting Yggdrasill. The room was getting ripped apart; each magic attack shook the walls and dislodged large pieces of debris loose. Zelos had moved out of the others' way for a few moments to catch his breath and do a little mana replenishment. It was bad luck that had caused the sharp piece of metal to slice his throat before hitting the floor a few feet away.

Only bad luck…

Zelos pressed his hand back up against his neck, trying to stop the blood flow. From the feel of it, and from the fact that he hadn't bled out yet, Zelos guessed that the major arteries and veins in his neck had been missed… not that it did him much good to know.

Raine was on the other side of the fighters and was casting healing spells on the rest of the group. She didn't see Zelos crouched on the ground; no one did.

"Help…" he breathed the word, making no real noise. It was getting harder to inhale; his body wanted to cough up the blood that was trying to drain towards his lungs.

"Zelos?" Suddenly, Sheena was there. "Are you okay?" She knelt down next to him and gasped. "Oh goddess… I'll get Raine!" The ninja scrambled to her feet and raced across the room, darting in between combatants and over to the silver-haired healer.

By the time Sheena had taken Raine to Zelos, the room was becoming fuzzy. The blood loss, coughing, and shallow breathing was a bad combination, especially for someone whose family wasn't known for overwhelmingly good health in the first place. It wasn't until after Raine finished her spells that it even registered to him that they were there.

The pain went away immediately, though the coughing took much longer to dissipate. When he stopped shaking from the force of the coughs, Zelos looked up into Raine and Sheena's faces. "Thanks," he said… or tried to. With a surprised look on his face, he cleared his throat and tried again, but there was still no result. Horror replaced the surprise on Zelos' face.

"Zelos?" Raine gave him a concerned look. "Can you speak?" Zelos shook his head emphatically from left to right: a definite 'no.' "I'm sorry," she whispered.

Zelos frowned and reached out, grabbing her shoulders and attention. "Not your fault," he mouthed as clearly as possible. "Don't apologize."

There was a loud scream from the fighters and Yggdrasill disappeared to be replaced by a floating crystal and a hazy outline. "It's over," Sheena whispered. "Come on," she pulled Raine and then Zelos to their feet. "We should be there. We'll figure out how to help you in a little while, okay Zelos?"

He just nodded in understanding. Stooping over, he picked up his sword; he didn't entirely recall dropping it, but had known when it was gone. When he'd sheathed the weapon, he followed after his friends. They reached the others in time to see Lloyd smash Yggdrasill's Cruxis Crystal.

The shards circled around Lloyd strangely, yet were overshadowed as the Eternal Sword appeared. "Eternal Sword!" the brunette swordsman yelled. "Reunite the two worlds!"

A blinding light filled the room and the sensory overload accomplished what blood loss could not. Zelos found himself falling into a dark void, never knowing that when he hit the ground he was just outside the destroyed Tower of Salvation in Tethe'alla.

"Zelos? Oh goddess, that doesn't look good. What happened to him?"

'Lloyd?' Zelos struggled towards the familiar, comforting voice. "Lloyd?" There was no sound when he spoke; that was when he remembered.

"Don't speak," Raine admonished. "Don't even try. You need to let your throat heal the rest of the way on its own or you might never speak again."

Blue eyes flickered open in shock. He sat up and the world spun lazily around him. When he swayed, Lloyd reached out to steady the redhead.

Zelos looked around and the worried eyes of his friends and then up at the blue sky with the purple sphere of Dherris Kharlan above them. In the distance, a silhouette, that was almost a tree, sat transparently on the horizon.

"When Colette couldn't talk, she would write letters on out hands to spell out words. Why don't you try that," Lloyd asked softly, running his fingers soothingly through Zelos' hair.

Nodding in agreement, Zelos leaned towards Lloyd and closed his eyes. The last thing he was aware of before drifting off to sleep again was the sensation of Lloyd's shoulder against his cheek and the feeling of being safe in the red clad teen's arms…

"You're going to have to wake back up sometime," Lloyd warned Zelos, who snuggled further into the covers. Sighing in exasperation, Lloyd sat down the edge of the bed and gave a final warning. "If you don't get up now, I'm going to attack you."

Zelos squirmed in response, but did nothing else. He'd been roommates with Lloyd at nearly every Inn they'd stopped at since the redhead had joined the group; they were used to each other by now.

"Well," the brunet leaned over Zelos, "you can't say I didn't warn you." Lloyd reached over and started tickling his friend.

Zelos shook in mostly silent laughter and he sat up fast in order to make a bid at outmaneuvering Lloyd. He grabbed at the teen's shoulders and twisted until Lloyd fell back on the bed. Zelos moved fast, pulling himself over until he was straddling Lloyd's waist and had him pinned, breathless, to the bed. The brunet's face was flushed and it occurred to Zelos he could just lean down just a little ways to kiss him.

And then the door opened without a single knock.

Zelos sprang off Lloyd and nearly fell to the ground. The latter, however, just sat up and tried not to look disappointed.

"While I'm sure that scene was far more innocent than it appeared, its still probably a good thing I walked in when I did," Raine smirked. "Otherwise I might've been interrupting something." Both guys turned interesting shades of red. "Zelos? Have you tried to speak since waking up?"

Zelos shook his head and, after thinking for a moment, tried out a few of the sign language motions he remembered learning from the deaf guy he'd attended Sybak's Academy with. You said no talking, he signed slowly, his hands feeling clumsy.

"Sorry," Raine shrugged, "I only know a few letters right now. Sheena was showing me a few earlier. She said you might know it." Zelos shrugged in resignation. "Anyway, I don't want you speaking for the rest of the week, okay?"

Zelos nodded in understanding. He reached over to grab Lloyd's hand and began tracing.

"How long since the fight?" Lloyd spoke slowly, one word at a time as Zelos' fingers danced along his palm. When Zelos nodded, Lloyd answered. "The battle was yesterday. You've got to be starving. What's safe for him to eat, Professor?"

Only paying attention with half an ear, Zelos got up and made his way over to his bag. He pulled out a fresh set of clothes and gave both Lloyd and Raine pointed looks.

"We'll wait for you outside," Raine told him, then dragged Lloyd out with her.

Dropping the clothes on the floor, Zelos leaned forward and let his face drop into his hands. He took a few shuddering breaths and felt tears prick his eyes.

What if this was permanent? What if he was mute? As the Chosen people tended to run roughshod over his life and choices already, but without a voice to fight back, to interrupt and argue and weaponize his words?

No. Now was not the time to freak out about this. He'd submit to whatever restrictions Raine placed on him, accept whatever healing she thought he needed, and in a week he'd be talking again. Maybe two weeks if the damage was particularly tricky to heal. He had to think positively or he'd never get through this.

He couldn't let anyone see him without his smile.

Grabbing his clothes once more, Zelos changed into the fresh outfit and went out into the hall.

Zelos was doing the fake smiling thing, pretending he wasn't freaking out inside and... Lloyd really didn't know what to do to help him. There was no guarantee Zelos would get his voice back and if he didn't? Things were going to be difficult on him pretty much every day from here on out.

There'd been a moment, earlier, before Raine showed up bringing reality with her, that Lloyd had thought Zelos was going to kiss him. Had wanted Zelos to kiss him.

Maybe it was terribly selfish of him, but Lloyd was terrified that Zelos would use this as an excuse to pull away. That they'd never find out what this unspoken something between them was because Zelos was too determined to self destruct.

Case in point, Zelos' fake smile while he twirled the spoon through his soup without really eating anything.

"You know, food does a person a lot more good when they eat it instead of play with it," Lloyd muttered, giving Zelos a pointed look. Zelos huffed and rolled his eyes, but the spoon started traveling to his mouth more often. Lloyd finished his own lunch and waited patiently for Zelos to finish too. There was still more soup in the bowl than Lloyd would've liked when Zelos shoved it away, but it was good enough for now.

"You're still going to travel with me to gather Exspheres, right?" Lloyd asked.

Zelos shrugged and doodled on Lloyd's hand the word 'liability'.

"No, you aren't," Lloyd responded emphatically. "There's no one else I'd want to come with me. And no matter what happens, I want to learn that sign language you were using earlier. That seems really useful."

This time Zelos' smile was quieter and shyer, but real.

Additional Plot Notes:
* Zelos does not get his voice back.
* He and Lloyd learn sign language together.
* Zelos has to deal with people trying to talk over or for him and pushing them to respect his agency.
* Seles has a bit of a rocky start and is very ableist but she gets over and joins the sign language lessons.
* Zelos does have to spend time extricating himself from Church politics enough to be able to leave with Lloyd.
* Zelos/Lloyd is a slow romance because Lloyd doesn't want to push while Zelos has so much stressing him out already and Zelos does need to be the one setting the pace with how other people are treating him.
* Zelos has at least one major meltdown over how difficult it is to make himself understood now.