Chapter Text
Yuri is seven years old, and he’s going to kill his best friend.
“But I didn’t even fight the merman! It ran away,” Flynn reasons, his arms crossed, like he wasn’t just fished out of a river by a bunch of strangers. He doesn’t look half-drowned anymore, now that he’s dried off. The old rag around Flynn’s shoulders clashes with the dry clothes the strangers from the caravan gave him. They’re nice and neat, with fancy stitching around the hems. Too bad they’ll be ruined in the scuffle, but killing Flynn takes priority.
“And I’m not even—” He windmills his arms, almost smacking Yuri.
“Hey!”
“Sorry. But I’m not even injured or sick or anything!”
“You’ll have a cold by Wednesday,” Hanks says, exhausted. He pinches the bridge of his nose and gives that real big sigh that means he hasn’t figured out how to punish them yet. Which is good, since Yuri’s not done giving him things to punish them for.
“No I won’t?” Flynn’s forehead wrinkles. “I feel fine.”
“That’s not how it works, kid, and Yuri put the stick down!”
“He hit me!” Yuri exclaims.“And he almost died!”
“No, I didn’t!”
“So you’re going to finish the job?” Hanks grabs the stick, which means Yuri’s never going to see it again, which is also Flynn’s fault.
“I never know where to begin with you.” Hanks shakes his head. “One of you doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong, and the other doesn’t care. Hellions, the both of you. ”
“I know what we did wrong,” Flynn argues. “We shouldn’t have played so close to the river.” He straightens and nods at Hanks, but it’s a clumsy imitation of the way the knights bow.
“I told you!” Yuri clenches his fists. “I told you the river was dangerous after it rains!”
“It was your idea to go!”
“How was I supposed to know you wouldn’t listen!”
“Alright, that’s enough of that,” Hanks says, placing his hands over both of their eyes. He always does whenever they fight, saying it’s easier to put down your weapon if you can’t see the target. “Disengage, kids.”
“Fine.” “Sorry.”
“I’m too old for this,” After an extra second to make sure they aren’t going to attack each other, Hanks lifts his hands. “You two should know better by now.”
Yuri glares at the ground. He doesn’t know what he’s feeling, but it’s… it’s kind of burning and jagged, like the scrap metal that’s always lying around the lower quarter. It doesn’t feel like ‘angry’ or ‘sad’ or ‘frustrated’. It’s close, something like all of them at once, but not really. It hurts.
“Alright,” Hanks starts, and he’s using his gentle voice, which makes the feeling hurt worse. “First up. Flynn.”
Flynn straightens, his face going blank.
“You really worried us, kid. We’re not tearing into you just for the sake of it. You could have gotten seriously injured, or worse.” He ruffles Flynn’s hair. “You’re lucky that caravan came along when they did, and that Yuri was around to flag them down for you.” Hanks closes his eyes for a second. “We— We’re very, very lucky you’re safe.”
Flynn stares at him for a moment, eyes wide, and then looks down, pulling at the bottom of his shirt. “I’m sorry I made you worry,” he whispers.
“I know,” Hanks says. “I forgive you, but be careful next time.” He smiles. “I don’t know that I’m the only one you need to apologize to, though.”
Flynn’s still looking down at his shirt, mouth opening and closing, but before he can say anything—
“Hanks, we need your help negotiating prices!”
“Can’t you…” Hanks sighs, walking to the door. “I’m in the middle of something,” The man in the doorway— he can’t be from the Lower Quarter, or else he wouldn’t dare make that face at Hanks— waves him even closer.
“I know,” he says. “I’m sorry. It’s just—” He glances at Flynn and Yuri and starts to whisper. Yuri strains his ears, but he can’t make any of it out.
“Fine.” Hanks sighs. “I’ll be right back, kids.” He shoots them a stern look. “Don’t think this means you’re getting out of anything. We’ll discuss punishments later.”
“Eh?” “Yes, sir.”
Once Hanks leaves, there’s a long moment of silence. Flynn nods to himself, thinking, and he better be planning a great apology if he expects Yuri to forgive him anytime soon.
“Well, Yuri,” he says, finally, “I’m glad that wasn’t a big deal.”
Yuri attacks him.
“Yuri! No— Hanks said you couldn’t— Hanks said no biting!” Flynn yells, falling to the floor. Then he bites Yuri back anyway like a hypocrite, but that’s alright because it means they’ll both get in trouble if he tries to tattle.
“I was worried too, jerk! Stupid! Stupid, idiot jerk!” Yuri pulls at Flynn’s hair. “How are we supposed to be knights together if you die first!”
“But I didn’t!” Flynn returns the favor, pulling Yuri down to the floor by his hair, and he shrieks.
“Ow, ow, ow, Flynn, ow! You know that hurts!”
“Then why did you pull mine!”
“Because it doesn’t hurt as bad for you! Your hair’s shorter!”
“It still hurts!”
“Better get used to it,” Yuri sniffs, rolling onto his side and away from any payback. “Knights fight dirty.”
“They do not,” Flynn kicks towards Yuri, but it doesn’t connect, which means Yuri gets to stick his tongue out at him.
“You know they do. You saw those guys destroy Meredith’s fruit stand.”
“Those aren’t true knights,” Flynn argues, and his face gets even redder than it was when they were fighting. “They’re— they’re doing it all wrong. We’ll be different.”
“Well duh.”He rolls his eyes. “But if the other knights are jerks, we have to be ready to fight back.”
“Or we can convince them to be better,” Flynn insists. He’s always so sure that if he tries hard enough, everything will work out. Yuri should bite him again.
Instead, he groans. “It’s a good thing I’ll be there to protect you. Do you wanna try making friends with the merman that almost drowned you, too?”
“I was going to fight it!” Flynn aims a kick at Yuri again, but he’s even worse at it than before.
“More reason for me to step in.” Yuri thumps his chest, then flinches when it hurts more than he expected. “I’ll protect you from the other knights, mermen, evil rivers, bandits, monsters, anything!”
“Maybe they should be protecting me from you,” Flynn snips. Then, quieter: “You can’t keep using dirty tricks in fights, Yuri. It’s dishonorable.”
“But it works better and ends the fight faster,” Yuri argues. “Plus! I don’t go for anyone’s eyes!”
Flynn just looks at him, his face fixed in that one expression that makes Yuri feel guilty for existing. Talk about unfair fights.
“Fine.” Yuri huffs. “But it’s on you when I wipe the grass with everyone fair and square. At least if I fought dirty, they could feel better about themselves.”
“Thank you,” Flynn says, sincerely. Figures. He never has a hard time thanking anyone, but getting an apology is like pulling teeth.
Yuri’s face falls, remembering what they argued over in the first place. He turns over on his side. “Yeah,” he says. “Whatever.”
“Yuri?”
Yuri shuffles further away, curling into himself.
“Why are you so mad?”
He isn’t mad. Or, he is, but it’s not just that. It’s the same hurting, jagged, hot iron feeling as before, and it gets worse whenever he thinks about Flynn disappearing into the water, even worse when Flynn doesn’t apologize, and unbearable when Yuri thinks that one day Flynn might do something like this again and Yuri might not be around to save him, and Flynn doesn’t even think he did anything wrong, and Yuri is mad, actually: he’s so, so angry that it feels like it’s going to burst out of him like shrapnel, but even fighting Flynn didn’t fix it, so what will?
“I wasn’t gonna die,” Flynn says, and the feeling surges, the rush of it almost blocking out his next words. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”
All at once, the fight goes out of Yuri. That hurt, jagged thing in his chest ebbs, catching on something and leaving splinters on its way out. If there’s anyone in the world that can’t be told that people don’t get to choose when they die, it’s Flynn Scifo.
Instead, Yuri turns around. “That’s still not an apology.”
“You bit me,” Flynn replies, “so we’re even.”
That doesn’t seem right, but, “Yeah,” Yuri says. “Okay.”
He reaches out across the space between them, pinky extended. Solemnly, Flynn does the same. Then, he pauses.
“Hanks is gonna be so mad,” Flynn says, staring at their hands. It’s only then that Yuri realizes how scraped up they are.
“It’s fine,” Yuri says. “Rub some dirt on it.
“You’re so gross,” Flynn replies, nose wrinkling. “You have to take care of stuff like this, or it gets worse.”
“Alright.” Yuri rolls his eyes. “We’ll go clean ‘em and split an apple gel in a minute. Now stop stalling.” He shakes his pinky at Flynn.
“Okay, fine,” Flynn hooks his pinky around Yuri’s, finally cooperating for once in his life. “We’re alright?”
“Yeah,” Yuri agrees, sealing the agreement with a shake. For now, they’re alright.