A/N: This takes place after "In Medias Res."
Disclaimer: The characters in this story are from Tales of Vesperia and do not belong to me.
Yuri walked into the living room freshly showered and dressed, and came to stand in front of the couch where Flynn was sitting comfortably, reading a book. In a show of amazing patience, Yuri must have waited a good ten seconds for Flynn to acknowledge him before giving up and announcing: "I need you to go shopping with me."
That was unusual. Flynn marked his place and looked up. "Why?"
"I need new clothes and we need food. And since it won't all fit in my backpack, I need a ride to get all that. Unless you want to loan me your car and hope I learn real fast how to—"
Flynn held up a hand to stop him there. "Let me get my wallet." Setting aside his book, he got up and started down the hall to his room, pausing to call over his shoulder: "Dry your hair. I don't want you dripping all over the seat."
They were on their way inside of a quarter of an hour. Yuri buckled in and slouched against the door, staring out the window as the scenery rushed past. He never seemed to sit properly in a car. On his quiet days, his habit of scrunching up as far from the driver's side as he could get made it seem like he was trying his hardest to keep his distance. However, he seemed to be in a good mood that day. He didn't talk, but his fingers drummed lightly on his thigh as he lip-synched to whatever song was playing through his mind. Still, the silence bothered Flynn. He had a pretty good idea of where they were headed, but asked anyway just to have something to say.
"Where did you want to go look for clothes?"
"Usual place."
Yuri's 'usual place' for clothes shopping was a thrift store not far from where they did their grocery shopping. He bought from regular clothing stores rarely and always at a discount, but somehow he had still managed to put together a half way decent wardrobe.
As he drove, Flynn struggled to keep up a conversation. Yuri's responses were aggravatingly short, his attention fixed on the world outside the car and the song in his head. He got like that sometimes, preoccupied with a particular piece of music almost to the exclusion of all else. If the earworm stayed with him long enough, he could occasionally teach himself to play the melody on piano.
For the rest of the drive to the store, Yuri remained aloof, and Flynn eventually let him have his quiet. It had been a while since he'd been so caught up in a song, and longer still since Flynn had heard him play. He would have to get Yuri to pull out his old keyboard that night. If Yuri was going to drag Flynn out shopping and then ignore him on the way, the least he could do was provide a little entertainment later.
They pulled into the shopping center and parked. Yuri was halfway to the door before Flynn even got out and locked the car. He made a beeline for the clothing section and Flynn turned to the used books to kill time. There wasn't much of interest. Crime thrillers, old cookbooks, how-to manuals, children's books, and a ridiculous number of romance novels filled the few shelves. Idle curiosity led him to pick up one of the romance novels and flip through, skimming paragraphs at random. It was worse than he'd expected. Yuri could write a better story, and Flynn had seen what resulted when Yuri tried his hand at poetry. He shook his head, smiling a little, and slotted the book back into place.
"Flynn! Check it out."
He jumped a little at the sudden sound of Yuri's voice, and spun to face him, hoping he hadn't seen what book Flynn had been looking at. He would never live it down if he'd been caught reading trashy romance novels in the thrift store. That concern melted quickly away as he got a look at what Yuri had come to show him. It was a black t-shirt with blocky white print near the top and bottom along with an arrow pointing up and one pointing down. It read: "THE MAN" and "THE LEGEND." Yuri was grinning enthusiastically as he held it up to himself.
"What do you think?"
"You don't have the reputation to go along with it."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Furtively glancing around to be sure the rest of the shoppers remained uninterested in the two of them, Flynn lowered his voice to answer. "I'm the only person you've been with, and I certainly haven't been telling stories."
"So, maybe it's legendary like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster; rarely seen—"
"Because it's imaginary?" He couldn't help but laugh at the look on Yuri's face.
"Go ahead, make jokes. We'll see how imaginary it is tonight when you're—"
"Hurry and go put that back so you can finish shopping. I don't want to be out all day."
"I'm getting this one."
Not sure if Yuri was being contrary or if he actually liked the stupid thing, Flynn shrugged. "If that's what you want to waste your money on, go ahead. Just hurry it up."
Yuri's eyes narrowed a bit and he smiled thinly. Flynn knew that expression. It meant he'd just made a mistake and would soon be paying for it. With a sigh, he turned back to the disappointing selection of books. At least if Yuri was taking petty revenge, Flynn wouldn't be getting ignored.
The rest of the weekend passed without incident, and by Sunday evening Flynn had forgotten about that foreboding look he'd seen on Yuri's face. It wasn't until he got out of the shower Monday morning, ready to get dressed for class, that he remembered. As the left the bathroom, he saw the shirt Yuri had bought laying spread out on top of his bed sheets. Otherwise, his room looked exactly the same as it had only a few minutes ago. It was a little disconcerting, largely because he knew Yuri wouldn't have snuck into his room just display a stupid t-shirt that Flynn already knew he had bought.
Passing by the bed, he eyed the shirt sideways as if it was concealing some sort of trap. For all he knew, it might be. Yuri was planning something. Somehow, Flynn had insulted him, and now there was going to be payback. He hoped Yuri got on with it quickly. Waiting around for it was the worst.
Flynn opened up his closet and froze. The shirts were missing. He shoved his dress pants back and forth across the bar to be sure, leaving them swaying on their hangers. His shirts were gone. All of them. Even his coats were missing. A quick search of his dresser revealed that his t-shirts and undershirts had been taken as well. The only thing left was….
Glancing back at the bed, Flynn groaned in frustration. He did not have time for this. He had a test in his first class and didn't need to be spending the morning searching for an appropriate shirt to wear.
"Yuri!"
In moments, Yuri appeared in his doorway, toothbrush hanging from his mouth. "Huh?"
"Where are my shirts?"
"Wat furrf?"
"My shirts, Yuri, the ones you took. I don't have time to play this morning. Just tell me where they are."
He shrugged and made an I-don't-know noise. It was a little difficult to tell around the toothbrush, but Flynn was pretty sure he was trying not to smile.
"Fine. I'm searching your room."
Yuri made no move to stop him as he marched down the short hall and into Yuri's room, heading straight for the closet. He opened it up, expecting to find a rumpled pile of his own clothes, and saw nothing but Yuri's things. He checked every drawer in Yuri's room to the same result. They didn't even hold any of Yuri's shirts that he could borrow. Wordlessly, he stalked past Yuri and went to search the rest of the apartment. Washing machine, dryer, closet, cabinets, oven, dishwasher, fridge—everywhere he looked he came up empty-handed. Yuri had finished brushing his teeth and joined Flynn, hovering behind him and smiling infuriatingly.
"Whatever it was I said to piss you off, I'm sorry. I honestly do not have time for this, so will you please—" Glancing at the clock, he swore. "What did you do with my clothes?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. Wasn't there a shirt on your bed?"
Flynn was going to kick Yuri's ass for this, but it was going to have to wait until later. Rushed and irritated, hiking up his towel as it started to slip, he checked his own room, looking under the bed and even going so far as to open the curtains to look out onto the balcony. He'd forgotten to check outside the front door, and he ran to do that, all to no avail. Short on time and out of places to look—where could Yuri have stashed it all in less than ten minutes?—he returned to his room, reduced to wearing the one shirt he could find in their entire apartment. He picked out one of his nicer pairs of pants and a good pair of shoes to wear with it, determined that he should make it as obvious as possible that it had not been his idea to arrive at school in a shirt printed with such crude humor. Grabbing his messenger bag and keys, he headed for the door.
As he passed Yuri on the way, he jabbed a finger at him. "I hope you're prepared. There is no way I'm letting you off the hook for this."
Yuri winked and blew him a kiss. "Have a good day, sweetie." Finally, he reached his limit and burst into laughter.
Slamming the door on him, Flynn hoped he had an absolutely crappy day. It wouldn't save Yuri from whatever vengeance Flynn chose to rain down upon him, but a little no-no from karma would be nice. One way or another, Yuri was going to regret this.