Being stuck in his home his entire life with an unsympathetic father, Luke didn't have chances for a lot of things most kids did. Until his little adventure started, he had never seen the ocean, and had never visited a market or shopped before, and had never seen more than a few trees in one place. Hell, he never even had a single friend his own age (Natalia most certainly didn't count).
But the thing that Luke had always wanted, that Duke Fabre had never allowed, was a pet. Luke had learned all about the different kinds of monsters and animals, but the day he found out that humans owned them he was in awe. Reading about ferocious wolves in the forests and giant birds that flew through the sky, Luke couldn't believe that people just had beasts like that hanging around their houses.
Of course once Guy told him that pets like dogs and cats were common in people's homes, Luke demanded one. No matter how much Luke begged and insisted, his father shot him down. Filthy, noisy, smelly animals had no place in a noble's home, he was told. Luke didn't get it, who cares about stuff like that? It wasn't like the staff ever let the mansion get too dirty anyway. Nevertheless, Luke's request was always denied.
Then one day, Luke was given Mieu. If you told Luke when he was younger that would have ended up with a sacred beast as his loyal companion, he would have been too excited to ask what that was. When he got Mieu, he was appalled.
His first pet was a tiny, useless, high-pitched, clumsy, annoying, small, thing. Honestly if cheagles couldn't breathe fire (and the inevitability of Tear smuggling him home anyway) Luke would have left Mieu behind in that dumb tree from the beginning. Of course Mieu would have probably followed him home anyway.
Meeting Yuri, Luke was jealous. Not only was Repede a dog (which makes for a way better pet than a cheagle), Repede was a cool dog. Everything about Repede made him the coolest sidekick, from the pipe (could dogs even smoke?) and scar on his face to the way his tail zigzagged like a lightning bolt. And granted Luke hasn't exactly seen a lot of pets in his life, but he was pretty damn sure a dog fighting with a knife was rare.
Honestly the thing that bothered Luke the most was Yuri and Repede's friendship. Repede followed Yuri everywhere loyally (well Mieu did that too but it was huge pain when Mieu did it), fought along Yuri's side, and (even though Yuri denied it) Luke was almost certain that Yuri could translate Repede's barks without the need of a sorcerer's ring.
Sometimes Luke considered trying to be a friendlier with Mieu, after all they'd be stuck together a whole year, but then he'd find entire pages in his diary almost completely black with scribbles and tiny little paw prints and he'd throw that idea out the window.
Damn Yuri and his stupid perfect dog.
Eventually, Estelle took notice. Sitting down next to Luke on the lone couch in the Inn's lobby, she asked him, "Luke, are you interested in Repede?"
Luke startled, a bright blush on his face, and hastily asked her why she thought that.
"Well, you watch them a lot, and…" She looked at Luke with a sweet understanding smile on her face, "You've never had a pet either before, have you? I know I've always wanted one like Yuri."
Luke bit back whatever retort he was planning. He didn't even think to consider that Estelle would have longed for the same stuff as he did, since she's always to bubbly and happy…
"I'm not jealous or anything," He muttered, embarrassed, "It's just not fair that Yuri gets such a cool pet while I get this thing." He idly kicked the bag at his feet that held the sleeping cheagle. Mieu made soft little noises at the contact but didn't wake up.
Ignoring Luke's usual violence against Mieu, Estelle brought her hands up to her mouth and giggled. Luke narrowed his eyes at her, "What are you laughing at?"
She clasped her hands on her chest and smiled brightly at him, "I think it's perfect!"
Just as Luke was going to ask her what the hell she was talking about, a voice from behind asked, "What's perfect?"
Both Luke and Estelle jumped in their seats and swiveled around on the couch to find Yuri leaning on it's back behind them. He looked down at them indifferently but raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
While Luke sputtered in surprise, wanting to tell the man off for coming up from behind and scaring him like that, Estelle's face lit up.
"You and Luke!" She answered enthusiastically.
Luke looked at her with an oh-Yulia-what-are-you-doing-look. Yuri snorted and asked her, "Us? Tell us princess, on what level of perfection do I match with the great son of a Duke?" He waved his hand vaguely at Luke, who scowled and opened his mouth to tell him off but closed it when he saw Estelle's expression. She had a huge smile on her face, like her strange revelation had made her very happy, and for Luke ruining Estelle's mood when she's this excited is just as hard as yelling at Ion when he's tired.
"Well, Luke and I were talking about pets," She looked at Luke as if for confirmation but Luke stubbornly turned back to stare at the fire, clearly pouting. She continued anyway, "And I was just thinking about how well you and Repede fit together."
"How's that?" Yuri asked. He circled around the couch and plopped himself down on the other side of Estelle, throwing his arm over the back and making himself at home. Repede followed behind and curled up next to Yuri's feet.
"You mirror each other perfectly!" Estelle said, "You're just like each other! You're both dark and quick, and you even fight in sync!"
Luke huffed, "How does that make them perfect?" he muttered. Then, a thought occurring to him, he turned back to look at her again, "Wait, if that's what makes him perfect, what about me?"
Catching on before Luke, a grin spread across Yuri's face, "Isn't it obvious? You and Mieu are so perfect together." He said 'so perfect together' in a mockingly cheerful tone, like teenage girls gossiping about each other's boyfriends.
Luke's face lit up bright red and he jumped from the couch in defiance, "We are not! How am anything like this stupid thing?" He kicked the bag again and a tiny startled 'mieuuu' could be heard.
Estelle's looked crestfallen and she almost pouted, staring down at her once again clasped hands, "Well I thought it was nice..."
Estelle's expression made Luke soften a bit (damn it was hard to be mad at her) and he reluctantly sat back down on the couch. Yuri gave him a smug look like, What, backing down already? Scowling, Luke stared defiantly in the other direction and crossed his arms, "Well if I were to be paired with an animal, it would be something cool." Luke didn't wait seven years for a pet so he could be put on the same level as Mieu.
Yuri outright laughed at that, making Luke want to throw something at him, but Estelle perked up and looked at him curiously.
"Like what?" She asked.
Luke stopped imaging the noise Mieu would make if he collided with Yuri's head and thought a moment, "Um, I don't know?" He said, "But definitely not a cheagle!"
"I don't know Luke," Yuri looked between him and Mieu with an annoying smirk, "It makes perfect sense right? He's tiny, annoying, adorable, loud, clumsy," He extended one of his fingers in the air with each one, like he was listing them of, "And he's even got your personality! He's monster and everything but once the fire stops coming out of his mouth you find out he's actually completely harmless."
Just as Estelle clapped her hands together and beamed at Yuri exclaiming, "Exactly!" Luke practically lunged over her and tried to strangle Yuri, yelling something like 'I'll show you harmless!'. Yuri just laughed and easily jumped off the way to avoid him and Estelle worriedly called out to Luke to be careful. Repede had to jump away to avoid being stepped on and gave a single sharp bark at them, as if scolding them.
The one-sided scuffle ended when the rest of their group noticed the commotion. Luke got a never-ending lecture from Tear and Natalia about proper behavior in public and how immature it is to start fights with your own companions in the middle of an inn. What if they had been kicked out?! Yuri had been included as well, since as the adult he should be the responsible one here, but he didn't seem particularly ruffled by it and stood off to the side, clearly not listening. Estelle insisted on being included in the scolding, claiming that she had started it all in the first place, but the other girls hardly put any blame on her for it.
Once everyone had settled down Luke sat pouting by the fireplace, refusing his spot back on the couch. The seats had been taken up by Ion, Anise, and Karol (as they were the youngest and the couch was the only one in the little lobby for their big group) and the rest of their group had gathered around with them, relaxing by the warmth for just a little longer before they would have to head off to get some rest. Luke would have gone to bed by now, but Jade and Raven had already headed to their room (claiming something about "old bones", which was bullshit) and Luke wasn't keen on being alone with them. Besides, Guy had sat next to him. Luke decided that maybe being in the same room as Yuri wouldn't be so bad if Guy was in between them.
"So, what were you guys fighting about earlier?" Anise asked, kicking her feet against the bottom of the couch. The grin on her face suggested that she was looking for entertainment.
Rita scoffed at her from her position on the floor, "Really? They just stopped being noisy. You want to set off the pissy noble again?"
Luke yelled at her to shut up, like she had any room to talk with her attitude, but a piercing glare from Tear and a placating pat on the back from Guy, Luke backed off. Eager to share, Estelle happily relaying the conversation from earlier to the rest of them, to Luke's dismay. Karol and Ansie were outright laughing, Karol getting caught up in Anise's enthusiasm. Rita snorted at the "adorable" part, Natalia and Judith simply giggled, and even Tear was trying to hide a smile. Ion was the only one not laughing, but simply nodded with a sagely smile as if he agreed that Luke and Mieu were perfect for each other.
Luke scowled and his face was red with embarrassment, "I'm nothing like Mieu!" He insisted.
"Yeah!" Mieu chimed in from Tear's lap, now wide awake, "Master's way more amazing!"
"Shut up, Thing!"
"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Yuri quipped from the other side of Guy, who was also trying hard not to laugh (traitor), "You're tough."
"Tougher than you!" Luke shot back.
That kickstarted started an argument that mostly consisting of Yuri teasing Luke about how adorable and tiny he was, Luke frustratedly trying to come up with appropriate comebacks and failing, and everyone else throwing in comments to amuse themselves.
Eventually Tear insisted that it was late and this stupid conversation was not worth being exhausted tomorrow. With her insistence, everyone began filing away to bed. Luke stubbornly refused to walk back to the room with Yuri, who just laughed and waved goodnight before heading off. Only Guy, Luke, Judith, and Anise remained, Guy trying his best to convince Luke to stay in the same room as Yuri and doing a terrible job of it because he couldn't stop laughing.
Anise and Judith giggled together and Anise, with a sly grin on her face that Luke knew meant something bad, asked Luke if he knew what Yuri was doing.
Luke just glared at her in confusion, "What are you talking about? He was being annoying!"
Guy gave the ladies a pleading 'Please don't do this' look from behind Luke.
Judith indulged Guy and, smiling her sweet enigmatic smile, patted Luke on the head, "Oh Luke sweetie, maybe you'll get it one day when you're older." With that, she said goodnight and left the lobby.
"Get what when I'm older?" Luke called after her, annoyed and confused. When she didn't answer, he rounded back on Anise, "What am I supposed to be getting?"
Guy tried to end the conversation by distracting the two with thoughts of sleep and suggestions that they all get to bed. They ignored him.
Ansie said, "Come on Luke! He called you cute like, twenty times!" She sighed and muttered something about 'too much competition'.
"He was comparing me to Mieu, he was making fun of me!" Luke insisted, confused and annoyed. Where the hell was she going with this?
Anise turned away shrugged, clearly not caring if Luke got the point, "Whatever, it's your guys' problem anyway. Ask him if you want to know so bad." With that, she followed after Judith.
Luke tried to ask Guy about it but Guy just laughed awkwardly and pushed Luke off to bed. Luke considered taking Anise's advice and asking Yuri himself, but after a moment's thought he decided it wasn't worth it.
He hated it when people hid stuff from him, but he was too tired to wake everyone up over it. He could deal with being the butt of some stupid joke if he could just get some sleep. Crawling into bed, which was ironically the one right next to Yuri's, Luke decided to drop it. Maybe the two of them could get along better tomorrow.
Or maybe the knights wouldn't have to continue their search for the infamous Yuri Lowell because Luke would have already killed him.
That night, Yuri laid in bed, staring out the window. The others were all sound asleep, Luke and Guy having been the last ones to come in about an hour ago, and he could hear Karol's snoring from across the room.
Yuri was ready for some shut eye too, but he admittedly had some trouble falling asleep in unfamiliar places. An after-effect of spending almost your entire life in one city, he supposed. That thought brought him to Luke. The kid would definitely know all about being stuck in one place, wouldn't he?
He glanced over at Luke's bed, the one the others had conveniently left for him right next to Yuri's. (Well, the fact that Luke hadn't forced someone to switch with him showed that he didn't completely hate Yuri.) When Luke was asleep, you almost couldn't believe he was the same person. Sleeping Luke was always curled up on his side with his hands pulled up to his face and his brow furrowed in a way that always made Yuri wonder if he was having a bad dream. But all in all, Luke always looked peaceful when he was asleep. Nothing like the hot-headed, annoying, loud, awake Luke.
Yuri shook his head in exasperation and whispered to himself, "Honestly, you are way cuter when you aren't spewing fire from your mouth."
With that, Yuri turned away deciding that he was going to sleep and absolutely not think about Luke fon Fabre. Stupid kid doesn't even know what flirting is.