#fluriary2020

Something is wrong, Flynn can feel that much on the spot, while his body felt as though it were made of stones heavier than he had the strength to carry. The blond was sore and strained from the efforts he had been putting in the past two weeks, doing everything possible to locate Yuri. For now, his eyes remained focused on the maps, charting out new areas to search while crossing off and ruling out other areas they had been in already. Brave Vesperia had been covering a lot of ground and, thanks to Judith with Ba’ul’s assistance, the skies. Flynn is exhausted, but rest can come later, when he’s done plotting out a new course for them to take. Rest can come when Yuri’s found. ‘Alive’, he tosses in for himself, not ignoring the probability that Yuri was gone for good given there had been no sign of him anywhere for the past two weeks... Not even so much as his sword.

All too suddenly, the cabin door swung open, a cold air overtaking the room, unfitting for the summer months, giving rise to goose-bumps, leaving that feeling of something being wrong to increase.

“Hey.”

That voice, the all too familiar one Flynn had been missing for so long now, but relief was not what he felt, trying to dismiss how tired he was, the Captain quickly looked over to the cabin door, spotting the other man leaning against the door frame, but somehow Yuri looked off. Flynn looked uncertain and questioned, “Yuri?”

“I came to say good-bye, Flynn.”

Yuri had the too familiar smile he often wore, but his eyes did not match. They were sad, somber, forcing everything into place for the blond as he stared in disbelief. “Good-bye? Yuri, no. You can’t be...” Flynn’s voice nearly cracked while he spoke, not wanting to believe what he was being told, even if it was from Yuri himself, refusing to even say the word. Yuri could not be gone, the other man had survived too many things that would have done in a regular person. He still had yet to tell Yuri how he felt, having been determined to do so after they found him. This, this could not be real.

“I don’t have a lot of time. Besides, between us, I think we both knew I’d be the one going first.”

“No." Flynn did not like how Yuri sounded, it was too different, unsettling. Forcing himself to move, he was with the swordsman in the blink of an eye, pulling him into the tightest hug he could manage, unable to ignore how cold Yuri felt against him, realizing all too painfully he was the reason for the cold air in the cabin. The hug was slowly returned, the possibility this would be the last time he had Yuri in his arms crushing his heart. “Yuri, what happened?”

“It doesn’t matter now. One minute it’s the top of Zaude, then the next, I woke up like this. You can feel something pulling you away to somewhere, I only know I had to see you first to say good-bye.”

Without thinking about it, Flynn held on to Yuri tighter, as if his love could be stronger than whatever force from beyond was trying to pull Yuri away from him. If he held on hard enough, Yuri would not leave him, again. A hundred questions ran through all at once, yet deep down Flynn knew he had limited time, even if he did not want to truly admit it right now. These last few moments were precious, not to be wasted.

“Our promise, we were supposed to do this together.”

“You’re strong, Flynn. You can do this without me, and you have the gang around too. You’re not alone.”

“I do not want to do this without you, Yuri,” the future being fought for was one born from their vow years ago; a corrupted system that favored those with money, power and connections, a system that tolerated those in the middle, looking down at anyone lower as though they were all dirt, hardly even human and not worth anyone’s time or effort. People mostly left to fend for themselves. Yuri had been born into that system, Flynn had experienced the cruelty of it first-hand from too young an age. They were going to make it a better place, both of them.

“You can’t fight death, Flynn. You’ll have to do it without me around.”

There was a bitter fact to those words that even still, Flynn did not want to accept. If death had a physical form, Flynn would fight the being with everything he had for what it had taken from him, what it was trying to take away now. “It cannot end this way,” Flynn furrowed his brow; anger, sadness, disbelief all mixing together in ways that pained him physically. Continuing, his voice wavered, “both of us were supposed to see things change, it was our vow together. Even back then, I knew you were the one I wanted by my side, even when our ways involved different paths. I love you, Yuri, I have for a long time. You can not leave now.”

A few moments of silence ticked by, feeling all too long and too short at the same time. Flynn refusing to let Yuri go, holding on as long as he could. Flynn wanted to shout, call for death to come manifest itself into a physical form, ready to challenge it so as long as it meant Yuri lived. They were supposed to have a better life together, the blond having been determined to confess his feelings to his best friend once they were reunited. This was not how he imagined it at all, or how he wanted it to be.

Yuri had been the one to break the quiet between them, ending their embrace, taking a step back, looking into Flynn’s widened eyes. “It’s time. Look after the others for me.”

Flynn nodded numbly, noticing that Yuri was fading away before his eyes. The swordsman was against a foe he could not win or truly fight against, a foe Flynn himself could not save or protect Yuri from.

Flynn tried to move as fast as he could to grab onto Yuri’s arm, clutching onto air as the person he loved vanished with Yuri‘s final words the last things he heard. “You’ll be okay, Flynn.”

In his grief, Flynn yelled, “Yuri!” towards a sky with a full moon that was cruelly bright that night.

The next thing Flynn was aware of was sitting up in his bed, part of his blanket clutched tightly in his hand, his breathing was heavy, eyes wide, face damp from tears shed while in his nightmare. Right now, the Captain was uncertain if that being a nightmare was a blessing or curse; it meant enough Yuri was not confirmed to be gone, yet it meant another day of searching, hoping, cursing the man’s name until he was found(preferably alive). It meant another day of not knowing if Yuri had been captured, was in a danger Flynn was unaware of or trapped somewhere where they could not find him.

Glancing at the clock on the cabin’s wall, seeing it was only a couple of more hours until he was supposed to be awake, the blond shoved the covers aside, getting ready for the day early. He did not want to chance returning to that scene born from his fears- instead, he ran over details for the day, going ahead and eyeing the maps laid out neatly on his desk, noting their check in with Brave Vesperia in a couple of days if Yuri still had not been found.