Work Text:
Author's Notes: Yuri might be a little shit sometimes, but his heart is in the right place.
Tales of Vesperia is the property of Namco Bandai.
Between dreams and reality, both harsh and cold, Flynn found little rest. His work was the only real release for him and he wasn't getting a whole lot of that done with Yuri lounging around his office. For days now, he had been hyper aware of his presence, and it scattered Flynn's thoughts every time.
To be fair to Yuri, it wasn't really his fault. His behavior hadn't changed much, although he remained cooped up in the palace since snow constantly covered the streets of Zaphias and the palace gardens. It surprised Flynn a little, but he never brought himself to ask Yuri why. He would watch the drifts pass, staring at the stark grey blanket of clouds that covered the sky, but he never ventured out beyond the balcony, and even that was rare. What was it about snow that drove him in and kept him so close that Flynn hardly had time to think?
With Yuri's playful side, Flynn had expected that he would be out in the thick of it, lobbing snowballs at guards and passersby and building snow forts and people with the children of the Lower Quarter, whom Flynn knew he was well acquainted with. But he barely budged from the sofa in Flynn's office, head nested against one arm and his legs hooked over the other.
Today he bothered to ask. "Why don't you go outside for a bit? Some fresh air will do you some good." Yuri had very recently gotten over a cold, but his argument still stood. Yuri hadn't been outside since before he fell ill.
"I don't like cold weather." And here Flynn had gone through the trouble of getting him a few sets of winter clothing in a similar dark tone to his other clothing: a heavy wool coat, gloves, a scarf, and similar items. But he still needed these things.
Something in his voice was sullen and soft as he continued to stare out of the window, humming to himself while he swung his feet against the side of the sofa. Flynn felt like had be been acting strangely since his illness, but Flynn also wasn't a very good judge of strangeness considering what he had almost done a few nights before.
He tried so hard to put that out of his mind. It was easier said that done.
He didn't fight Yuri on it. He couldn't. He couldn't force him to go outside. It was a childish thing to even consider, but the option of him continuing to remain so close was maddening in more ways than one. After three days of snow on the ground and Yuri at his side, Flynn was nearly at his wit's end. Thankfully, Estellise returned just in time to save his sanity. She and Rita had come from Halure, flakes of ice clinging in their hair and to their clothing. They were a saving grace. With them around, maybe he could think about something other than Yuri for a change.
They weren't even here to see Flynn, but it was all the excuse he needed. He knew Estellise would want to check on the people of the Lower Quarter and Rita was probably tagging along with the excuse of overlooking the factory's production. It was as good an excuse as any to get out of the palace.
Flynn had other reasons to be out of the palace, it seemed. Rita and Estellise hadn't come alone. Above the city, loomed Ba'ul and Judith and Karol met them in the great hall of the palace.
"We've got a delivery for the Commandant," Judith said coyly, looking right at him. She brandished a clipboard a second later. The form summed up the contents of the delivery and Flynn couldn't have been more grateful for them. Much needed supplies had finally arrived care of Fortune's Market, and Flynn set a few of his knights to unloading the crates and he was finally able to pull away to coordinate them with Sodia's help.
But his relief was short lived. The others came to help, and Yuri, too. He had offered his assistance after all, so it should have come as no surprise. For the time being, he was able to stop thinking, though, and simply work.
These supplies would need to be sorted and rationed and readied for the people. At some point during all of that, he had to break away and move on to other tasks, but his friends were still hard at work. These things would help Hanks and the citizens of the Lower Quarter a great deal, easing, if only a little, the harshness of the winter that had only just begun.
Work took his mind off of Yuri and the dreams. It was such a relief that he found himself at it well into the night, planning troop reassignments with Sodia's aid. Winter in some areas made for more desperate monsters, while some thrived in the icy conditions. He had to reinforce the troops in areas like Nor Harbor, Heliord, and Aurnion to keep the monsters at bay and the citizens safe. Half of that was keeping the morale of his men up. In the winter months, that was difficult with the scarcity of supplies, but with the help of the leaders of Dahngrest and Nordopolica, he was hoping that would be a little easier this year. The whole world had to work together at a time like this, and they had proven months before that people were capable of breaking the bonds of distrust and disagreements in favor of survival. Flynn had hope.
In the darkness of the night, once the rush of work dimmed from his being, the hopes and thoughts that earlier sustained him vanished and he was left to reflect on what had happened within the past few days.
He had tried to kiss Yuri. He had leaned down with the intention, or rather, his body had. He still hadn't figured out why he had tried to do such a thing, and that bothered him more than that fact that he had almost done it. Was it something about Yuri that caused this? Was it something in himself?
In that moment, the warm swell, the fluttering that had sunk down into the pit of his stomach came up like fire, searing his insides and beneath his skin. It had been almost too hard to resist, but he had stopped anyway. What had driven him there and what was he going to do now that the feelings were so hard to ignore?
He decided to try and sleep on it. It was so late now that there was no point worrying about it. Maybe after a good night's rest, the answer would come more easily. But he had momentarily forgotten the dreams in his haste and they wasted no time invading his brain and destroying any hope of a restful slumber.
They were worse than ever, the endless city and the sky with no stars. What sort of lonely existence had Yuri lived in this place?
Droves of faceless people, dark and indistinct, passed him without so much as a word or a nod of acknowledgment. Everyone seemed to be in a state of constant rush. Their movements never ceased, never slowed. He would walk, phantom feet carrying him along with them, but he never found a destination or a purpose in the march. It was chilling every time, so much so that when he woke, it was akin to icicles in his veins, sharp and jagged, tearing to escape through his skin. Nothing that came after it was a comfort of any sort, although it was never particularly terrifying. It was unsettling, and left a feeling in his bones that stayed with him all day. The next day was no exception when the ice in his veins woke him just before dawn and with no answer to his earlier questions forthcoming.
He tried once more to put it out of his mind in favor of work.
That worked quite well for a little while, until Yuri rose and lounged about his office for a while. Thankfully, once breakfast was announced, he joined Estellise and Rita and left Flynn alone once more. He couldn't keep avoiding this, this thing that was threatening to spill out of him. He would have to say something sooner or later to someone. He just needed the words. They were going to be hard to find.
It was well into the afternoon when Yuri returned, late enough that the sky was starting to darken with the sunset. Flynn had hardly budged from his desk, the cold remains of his lunch and his tea scattered around him in a circle abbreviated by paperwork.
The sofa squealed under Yuri's weight. He had flopped down against it so many times, and the poor thing was probably an antique by now anyway.
"Been busy?" Yuri asked.
"A little." Flynn set aside a stack of papers and brushed away the crumbles of his lunch.
"Anything interesting happen while I was gone."
"Not really." He wanted to say that he had actually managed to get some work done without being reminded that Yuri was in the room every five seconds, but he managed to not say that. "I'm afraid you're a little late for tea."
Flynn turned just in time to see him shrug and scrunch down into the sofa, letting one of his hands fall down to pet Repede.
There were still little flakes of snow in his hair, silvery white bits of winter melting into the blackness. His face was a little flushed, his nose reddened from the cold of the winter winds. He must have just come in from outside. His gloves were still on, and his scarf still draped haphazardly around his neck. But there was something from the picture missing. Why would he still have those two things on, but not his coat? He was half afraid that Yuri had just sort of dropped it somewhere, like on his bed where the snow could melt and make his bed damp, or on the floor of the bathroom, where he regularly left sopping wet towels. The coat didn't do him much good if he wasn't wearing it or keeping it dry.
"Where's your coat?"
Yuri shrugged again, the slope of his shoulder rising and falling before he rolled to face the back of the sofa.
"Yuri, where is your coat?"
"What coat?"
"The one I just bought for you."
"Oh. That coat." Yuri knew exactly what coat Flynn was talking about. There wasn't any other coat. "I must have lost it."
Flynn sprung out of his chair, irritation pacing his steps hurriedly toward the couch. "You lost it? Where did you lose it? I bought you that just the other day."
"I dunno."
"You just got over being sick!"
"I said that I don't know."
He grabbed Yuri by the shoulder and hoisted him up off the couch. This distraction was the last thing he needed, on top of the fact that Yuri had just gotten over a cold and the lack of a coat could prove to turn back the bit of progress Flynn had made getting him to accept help. Yuri was a handful, sick or well, and he was going to fix at least one thing about that now.
"Hey, what--"
"Get up. We're going out."
"Why? I just got back."
"We're going to go find your coat."
Yuri sighed and rolled off the sofa, striding to the door. Flynn shoved one of his own coats from his stand at him before putting one on for himself.
With little complaint, he marched Yuri right back down into town and Repede tagged along. Yuri didn't seem too happy to be out in the snow, but Flynn wasn't prepared to let him rest until they found the missing coat or replaced it. Maybe it was a stupid thing to be mad about, but Yuri couldn't just go misplacing things people bought for his intended use. It was stupid and rude.
They wandered all through town, Flynn telling Yuri to take them back along the paths that he had traveled before, but he could tell that Yuri wasn't taking this seriously. He kept his eyes on the ground and his hands shoved into the pockets of Flynn's coat. They'd be in his own coat if he hadn't lost it. And they wouldn't have been out in the dusky winter streets looking for it in that case.
Snow crunched beneath Flynn's feet as he passed through the Lower Quarter the second time, grumbling under his breath. Yuri was slow to follow, several strides behind Flynn. Sometimes he wondered how Yuri had ever survived without him. He didn't dwell on that a lot as they rounded back up into the Public Quarter and Flynn steered them back to the market. Two hours of half hearted searching had given them no leads for the missing jacket, and by this time he was so tired that he was just going to replace it and be done with the whole affair.
He was mad now. He had every right to be. Yuri had lost the coat that Flynn had just bought for him and on top of that, he wasn't even trying to help Flynn look for it. He tagged along behind, shuffling through the snow in the streets at a snail's pace. He was treating this leisurely, where Flynn was moving with anger and purpose in his step. It built further with each moment, until he finally gave up the search out of frustration. It was dark now, and with luck, they were able to enter the Public Quarter's market just before many of the vendors shut down for the night. The clothing vendor he had originally purchased from was there, counting his day's earning when they approached.
"Oh, Commandant, what can I get for you this fine evening?"
"I'm sorry to trouble you when you're about to close up shop."
"It's no trouble at all sir! Clothes before close and all."
Yuri chuckled from behind him, only steps away and his attention elsewhere.
"I'm looking for another coat like the one I bought a few days ago."
"Of course, sir. Allow me to check to the back stock." He slunk back into his stall and left Flynn and Yuri alone.
"You could at least act like you're sorry you lost the coat."
Yuri shrugged and kicked a patch of snow, but said nothing else. He wasn't smiling at least. That would have probably pushed Flynn to blow up. Why was he so frustrating?
"Mister! Mister!" a small voice called from down the street, and a small form followed it. The little boy skidded to a stop right in front of Yuri and flung his arms around Yuri's waist.
At first, Flynn didn't pay any mind. Yuri often played with the children in the Lower and Public Quarters. When he wasn't bothering Flynn, he was good at making friends.
"Thanks so much for the coat! I promise I'll pay you back someday!"
That caused Flynn to spin on his heel and give the child a second look. He wasn't sure what he had heard at first, but his eyes confirmed what his ears couldn't believe. That little boy, maybe seven or eight years old, with a smudged face and ratty shoes that were a size too large, was wearing a coat that was many sizes too large for him, heavy and dark wool that dropped past his knees with sleeves so long that Flynn couldn't see his tiny hands. It wasn't just any coat. It was the coat, the one Yuri claimed to have lost. He watched, very still and very quiet while Yuri gave the boy a short ruffle of his hair before sending him back on his way.
Those pale cheeks were tinged red with more than just cold now, and those charcoal eyes watched the boy scurry away with a strange mix of warmth and something softer, something sadder.
Flynn's anger melted away long before the vendor returned and long before Yuri's eyes left the path the boy traveled.
He paid for the coat and thanked the vendor. His face felt warm as he stepped to Yuri and thrust the coat over one of his arms.
Those eyes turned on him and Flynn could see that look, that sad, somber, nostalgic look full and clear, but he didn't get a chance to question it.
"What?" Yuri asked, eyes darting away and his cheeks growing a shade more pink.
"Don't lose this one, okay?"
Yuri's hand folded it over and he tucked it beneath one of his arms. "I won't."