Li: Well this actually came to me Saturday night while sleeping, but it took me until today to write it out…or maybe it was Friday…agh…who cares?! I got this oyako in my head and it won't GO AWAY!!! –beats head against wall in frustration-

I do not own Tales of Symphonia. The lucky bums at Namco do.

Miracle

---

Lloyd sighed quietly, snuggling further into the blankets. The group had split up in Flanoir, with four of them leaving with the doctor to take care of Altessa, with him (Lloyd), Colette, Sheena and Genius remaining behind. The other three had tried to coax Lloyd out from his room to no avail; the twin swordsman was not coming out, especially not after the shock he had just been through.

He had just met his father, the traitor Kratos. It stood to reason why he was shocked; first you think one's father is dead for fourteen years and then he turns up again and nearly kills you on several occasions before you actually find out who the bloody hell he is! Most people would be in shock, but added onto the fact that Kratos was a seraphim, and angels didn't have children…Lloyd felt like a total outcast.

There was nobody in the world that was like him. He was a freak of nature.

Sighing again, the teen snuggled into the bed so that the very top of his head was visible. Not wanting to bother with the rest of the world, he simply faked being asleep as a knock came at his door. Again.

'Go away…' He thought, not moving a muscle. He didn't want to deal with anything else at that moment. He had enough trouble sorting out the Kratos-is-my-father situation as it was. When the knocking stopped, he assumed that the person had left. Slowly relaxing his body he poked his face out of the covers, staring out of the window at the snow falling outside. Completely transfixed, he never noticed the person that had silently crept into the room and sat on his bed.

Until the person wrapped a pair of arms around him in a cautious hug, efficiently pulling Lloyd onto the person's lap. Letting out a startled yelp, he turned to find himself looking right at the person he had been thinking about; Kratos.

The Seraph had a look on his face that seemed to be half-concern, and half something else that Lloyd couldn't completely tell what it was yet. There also seemed to be a bit of guilt in those wine colored orbs as well as they stared gently at the teen in his arms, a soft silence filling the air.

Kratos spoke first, drawing a deep breath as he began "Lloyd…" The teen looked right back at him, urging the 4,000 plus angel to keep talking. "..I think I owe you an apology…and an explanation."

"Why?" Lloyd was curious now. "Not the apology part, but…what do you need to explain?" Tilting his head to one side, an eyebrow arched in a curious look, he resembled his toddler self that Kratos nearly jumped and gasped. Stifling the impulse, he instead sighed again and pulled Lloyd in closer to his chest, sapphire wings slowly wrapping around the two. Resting his head on the teen's head, the ancient angel let out his breath in a soft whisper.

"Why I left you behind all those years ago." His voice seemed slightly strangled, and a shudder seemed to go up his body. Lloyd gaped silently, lightly grasping his father's shirt. The single contact seemed to give Kratos a bit of strength to say what he had to, for he started again, "After I…killed Anna…" biting his lip to keep from breaking over the memory, he continued, "And she returned to her human form, K'var returned. He was after the Exsphere, and during the chaos of the battle, you fell off of the cliff with Noishe and Anna."

"I saw you falling, and when I just barely missed catching you…I lost it." Lloyd audibly gasped at the fact that Kratos had lost his temper, a silent rage inside of him at the mention of K'var's name dissipating. Looking up at Kratos' face, he saw a small flicker of remorse in the wine red orbs that stared back at him.

"And then…?" Lloyd offered, wondering how the ending turned out. The Seraph tensed, his arms clutching Lloyd closer to his body. The teen could hear his heartbeat, which seemed to be racing despite his calm face.

"…After the Desians were either all dead or gone, I went to the edge of the cliff and looked for you. But when I only saw the half eaten Desian corpses, I feared the worst." Kratos seemed to be in a trance, the shock and numbness he had felt from loosing his only family coming back. Lloyd tensed when he heard the angel's breath growing ragged and harsh, worried for his father.

"I went down to the base and when I didn't even find a trace of you, I completely broke." Speaking faster, trembles went up and down the angel's body, voice nearly hysterical. "I thought that you had died; I thought that if I had seen you fall earlier, I could've caught you, and we would've been safe…I was wishing for a miracle, wishing that you'd run up to me, and that we could hide from Yggdrasil."

"Kratos…" Lloyd looked up, his concern filling his voice. Kratos didn't seem to hear, and he was shaking his head defiantly.

"It was then that Yggdrasil appeared and dragged me back to Welgaia. What happened then was a bit blurry for about a year or two, but I remember being forbidden from having sharp objects." That single sentence told Lloyd all that he needed to know, and it scared him; his father had tried to kill himself!! And from the sound of it, he'd tried to commit suicide several hundred times.

When Kratos drew a breath to continue, Lloyd wrapped his arms beneath his father's in a tight bear hug, face buried into the violet fabric of Kratos' outfit.

"Dad, get a hold of yourself!" he yelled, sending a slight wave of shock through Kratos. The seraph looked down to see his son trembling from held back tears as he continued to rant. "I'm not dead, I'm right here!! You don't have to try and kill yourself again! I'm right here, you idiot!" suddenly realizing what Lloyd was yelling about, Kratos tightened his grip and buried his face into Lloyd's spiky chocolate hair.

"Yes, I was an idiot, wasn't I?" he gasped quietly, feeling tears gathering in his eyes. "I was so certain that Yggdrasil would go through with his promise to restore the worlds after Martel's revival…I thought that you were dead, beyond my aid, like Anna…I didn't want to live anymore." Control and the angelic transformation completely useless against the burst of emotions, an untold amount of tears ran down his face; a whole fifteen years worth.

Lloyd felt the sobs race through his father's body, and in that second he realized that no matter what happened, past or present, his father loved him with every ounce of strength he possessed. Tilting his head up to look at Kratos, Lloyd continued to listen to the beating of the Seraph's heart, which had kept him moving for over four thousand years, which he had only surrendered to one person, then two. The first was obviously Anna, and then his son, who he had believed to be dead for fifteen years. Not stirring from his spot, Lloyd grabbed the blankets that he had wrapped himself in earlier in the evening and pulled them around both himself and Kratos, who startled at the motion. As he watched, the teen snuggled up closer and rested his head against his chest, eyes slipping closed in a way that they had done when he was a toddler.

With a weak, happy smile, Kratos repositioned himself on the bed so that he wasn't so uncomfortable, keeping Lloyd on his lap. Rubbing his son's back, he commented softly, "You'd always do this when you were smaller…especially when Anna was trying to get you in bed." Laughing, he watched Lloyd blush slightly as he heard the story before continuing, "Depending on how active you were, I'd either read to you or show you the stars. It never seemed to be long before you fell asleep. Well, for me at least."

"…But one time, you asked me what the thumping noise you were hearing was." Kratos stated, earning him a slightly puzzled look from Lloyd. "You were in that exact same position, and you said you kept hearing something go thump. And when I explained that it was my heart, you wanted to know how big it was." Laughing softly, he shook his head in amusement. "When I said that it was only as large as a clenched fist, you demanded that it was too small to make such a large noise. When I called it a miracle that a heart can keep a body going, you asked me something that I'll never forget…"

"And that was…?" Lloyd seemed to be falling asleep, safely held in his father's warm arms. Kratos gave him a soft loving smile before answering.

"'What's a miracle?' that's what you wanted to know." Hugging Lloyd tighter, he continued, "I couldn't answer right away, and when I finally found my voice again, Anna had taken you to your room. And I never got a chance to answer you after that."

"Well then…what's a miracle?" Lloyd stated, deep brown eyes locked onto his father's wine red orbs. If any of the others had walked in right then, they would've either done a double take, thought wrong thoughts (incest!) or possibly both. There was a feeling in the air that hinted at a deeper meaning than anything that the others had heard before. Kratos returned the gaze in full, a smile dancing in his eyes as he decided to voice the answer in his heart and mind.

"You." He said simply, eliciting a startled gasp from Lloyd. "You are the miracle I didn't deserve to have, and yet I have you regardless. Every day, from the moment you were born to the very moment I realized who you were several months ago, I've felt like out of all that I've done in my long life, I must've done something right." No longer afraid to let his soul be hurt, Kratos let it show to the one person left that meant a thing to him. His sapphire wings glowed all the brighter, their spectral hue illuminating a small space in time that had no beginning and no end, just father and son, once more together.

Lloyd let his father's words sink into his head, the realization that he was loved by someone with all their heart swamping his mind. Letting large, happy tears run down his face, he flung his arms around Kratos' neck and sobbed again.

"…Daddy…" Was all he managed to choke out a good while later, earning him a hushed laugh and a tight hug. Smiling, the teen let a smile cover his face before he fell asleep, feeling more secure than he had felt in years. Kratos continued to hold Lloyd, a serene look in his eyes as he took in his son's sleeping form. Finding himself not only incapable of movement but unwilling, he chuckled and rested his head against the backboard, slipping off into blissful slumber.

---

A few hours past before Colette wandered up the steps, her present for Lloyd clutched in her hand. When she reached his door, she sighed and simply pushed it open quietly, her eyes widening when she saw what was inside. Lloyd was fast asleep in Kratos' lap, with the auburn seraph sleeping as well, arms tightly holding Lloyd to his chest. The small angel didn't know why, but the scene made her happy, unbearably so. Something about the two just together like that, without a care for the world around them and simply happy to be together again, just like a true family, was so intoxicatingly joyful that it brought a tear to Colette's eye and a happy smile to her face.

Placing the snow hare on Lloyd's dresser, she quickly shut the door and leaned against the wall just as Sheena and Genius came up the stairs. Seeing the tears running down her face, they went to comfort her before noticing her smile.

"Colette? Are you okay?" Sheena asked, puzzled. Colette nodded.

"I'm just…so happy. So happy that I'm crying…" the small angel sniffled quietly, thinking back on how peaceful Lloyd had looked snuggled up to his father. "…Let's leave Lloyd alone; he's asleep right now." Trotting back down the steps to her room, she couldn't wipe the smile from her face.

'Lloyd…your father loves you so much.' The thought ran through her mind, and she stopped to giggle briefly. 'Good to know I'm not the only one. Keep Kratos close to you, Lloyd…' And with the picture of the two Aurions happily asleep in her mind's eye, Colette continued walking to her room, a happy song leaving her mouth quietly.

Li: -quits banging head against wall- Finally out of here! Now I can go to work on KoL!!! –cheers- R&R for Kralloyd oyakos!!! WOOO!!!!!! –dances happily, then begins to type chapter five for KoL-

Any and all who mistake this for incest shall have Leila the golden dragon sicked upon them. THIS IS NOT INCEST!