Inspired by the song Son of Man by Phil Collins from the movie Tarzan... and maybe a song or two from Aladdin...
Note: Slightly AU because the 360 game is my only canon. Disregards all other forms.
"You know, you really kinda suck at this..."
"Shut up!"
"Or what?"
"Or I'll make you!"
"Ha, I'd like to see you try!"
One fight later and his face pressed to the ground, Yuri was willing to admit the new kid on the street wasn't completely hopeless. "Apologize!"
Ebony eyes rolled, "Get off of me."
"Not until you apologize!"
"How about a warm place to sleep instead?"
The blonde was surprised enough that his grip eased and Yuri squirmed out from under him, leaving him on the ground looking confused, "What?"
He sighed, "You've been sitting there looking pitiful all day. This isn't the Public Quarter; looking pathetic isn't going to get you anything here. Pity is for the weak and the weak don't survive on the streets for long."
"I-I..."
Yuri tilted his head to the side at the devastated look on the other child's face, "Didn't lose 'em long ago, huh?"
"...No..."
None of the other orphans were going to do anything for a rival... Yuri held out his hand, "Come on, we need to hurry if we want to get anything to eat."
The blonde took his hand and he pulled him up, "Why are you being nice to me? No one else has."
"I already said: you suck at this. I'm Yuri, by the way."
"Flynn."
"Well, Flynn-" he grinned, "welcome to life in the Lower Quarter."
He led the way with Flynn sticking next to him like a bur, never letting go of his hand. But after being dragged quite a ways, he got curious, "Where are we going?"
Yuri held him back at the next intersection, his voice lowered as a pair of soldiers walked past, "I told you, to get food." they stopped by a water fountain and Yuri helped Flynn wipe off all the dust and dirt they could, little ears perked for that noise, then grinning when the school bell went off and dragging Flynn with him as he snuck through the wide bars of the school gate, "Come on. This place has so many kids the lunch ladies never know who's who and you can get a free meal. Only three times a week when it's in session, but free food is free food. Just make sure you don't look like a ragamuffin."
"You talk good."
"No: I talk well. You have to if you want to fit in in the upper Quarters. Squashing your words like the others do gets you thrown out. You were raised around here, right? Talk like it."
Flynn puffed out his cheeks in a display of childish distemper, "Yes, Sir Yuri, I've had etiquette lessons."
"Remember them, then; there's no one to teach you now."
That seemed to hit the blonde boy hard and he was quiet the rest of way as Yuri slipped them into the crowd of equally small children. Yuri hissed at him as he dragged him along, and Flynn looked up to learn whatever it was Yuri wanted to show him, blue eyes widening as the dark haired boy pocketed several fruits and rolls from right under the adults' noses, and no one noticed. Flynn wasn't sure which he should feel more; upset that Yuri was stealing, or amazed that he was doing it so easily. What was probably the most amazing part was how he did it; he wasn't sneaking around and being- well, 'thiefy', he was talking to people.
"Lessons today sucked."
The girl next to him in line looked over in excitement, "I know! I hate figuring!"
The women at the counter rolled their eyes at the bickering children, and Yuri stealthily grabbed an extra apple that slipped into his clothes as they turned to share looks that said loud as words 'Children...' If anything, Flynn was drawing more attention for sticking so close to Yuri and not saying anything, but when they he got asked about it, Yuri stepped in and said he was just shy and new.
As the crowd began to thin out as everyone got settled to eat, Yuri led them away and back outside to sneak away again, "Always slip out before anyone really notices you and whatever happens, don't stay until the end of lunch. They'll grab you and stick you in the classes 'cause they think you're trying to skip out, and the tutors do know every student they teach."
"I- you- you stole that stuff."
Yuri gave him a scolding look, "Look, Flynn, I know you're new to this, so I'm gonna make this clear as I can." Yuri looked him square in the eyes, "Your parents are dead." he jolted, his face turning red and he was ready to tackle the other boy again when Yuri grabbed his shoulders, "They're dead, and there's no one to take care of you now. If you don't get used to doing what you have to, you'll get to see them again real soon, because you won't survive with ideas like that. No one in that school is going hungry because of what we took- those high-class kids don't know what it is to miss more than a single meal. When was the last time you ate?"
The blonde looked away, "Yesterday morning..."
"This food is our life. We aren't harming anyone, and we get to survive another day. It's not right, and it's not fair; life isn't fair; it's not fair that we don't have our parents, and it's not fair that we have to take care of ourselves, but we do have to. It's a choice of bad options, and I'm picking the one that lets me live. What about you?"
"I... I'm hungry, and I want my parents back. I don't like it. You're right, it's not fair."
"So do whatever it takes to survive now, and worry about making it fair later."
Flynn sat in silence with the other boy beneath the shade of a tree and they spilt the pilfered food between them while he thought about everything he'd learned. He thought about all the people that had walked past him in the past two days, and he thought about how Yuri hadn't. Even when he'd attacked the other boy- okay, he'd been insulted, kinda; but his mother had always told him not to resort to violence- Yuri had still decided to help him, even though he had no reason to. Certainly none of the other children had tried to approach him. Maybe Yuri didn't like the unfairness, either.
He felt something shift within himself at that thought, because Yuri didn't seem to let anything get him down. He trudged onward; even after he'd been put in the dirt, then turned right around and helped the one that had done it. 'Strength of heart' his father had called that. Yuri spoke calmly about how things were, and he spoke with something else when he said about changing them. Was it really that simple? Do now, worry later?
He stared down at the partially-eaten apple-half in his hands, then over at the other boy, who was focusing all his attention on the bread roll he was eating. Flynn's mouth opened before he could stop himself, "Teach me."
Yuri almost choked on his food before looking at the blonde, finding determination in his blue eyes like a fire, "We'll have to do more bad things, you know. Steal, things like that. Sure you can handle that?"
Flynn looked away, but only for a moment, "Yes. It's not fair, not now, but I'll do what I have to to make it fair later. So teach me how."
Yuri stared at him for a while, with dark eyes that seemed to go right through him, until he shifted in place uncomfortably, then smiled, "Alright, I'll teach you." Flynn slumped in relief, some part of him that had been afraid of someone else being taken from him soothed by the reassurance that Yuri would stay with him. The dark haired boy glanced up from the last of his meal a little bit later, "Where did you learn to fight like that? Formal training?" Flynn nodded, "Teach me some of that."
"Okay."
The bell rang and Yuri stood up, dusting his pants off, "And that's our signal; time to go." Flynn shoved the last of his apple in his mouth and took Yuri's offered hand, placing his trust in the boy- the only one who'd shown any concern since his parents' death, who had such a strong sense of fairness, who most adults would have called a street-rat. It felt right.
