SPOILERS for Law Ending. Please review, but refrain from spoilers for other endings. This is a fan fiction that came to my head for me, since I stumbled into the Law ending in my Cycle 1.

This is meant to be read as a one-shot (i.e. ideally in one sitting), however I have decided to chop it up to more digestible sizes. So think of the cut-off points as 'pages' more like, as opposed to 'chapters.'

Summary: Flynn's life flashes before his eyes. Flynn/Isabeau. Mild non-con, frottage. Possibly soaked in sappy fluff.

God is in the Details

Flynn has heard before that your entire life flashes before you eyes before you die. He had not believed it. There simply wasn't enough time for that. The entire thing was illogical: whoever actually could say they have seen these flashes by default could not have retold the story— so who was it who told him again?

"And we are no exception. We, too, have brushed against Filth and been spattered with their blood."

Yet.

He would die with his last expression as a wry smirk. It would seem he was wrong, for a tsunami of memories drowned out Merkabah's last words.

He was six years old. He liked stories. Grandmother had the best stories but there were not many young boys who liked to spend time on the floor in front of their grandmother's chair, listening to stories. He liked the fairy-stories best though, stories of heroic samurai, and the founding of the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado by the brave King Aquila. Brave King Aquila who could kill with sword and magic.

Young Flynn often wondered if there was a Western Kingdom of Mikado. Or northern or southern. He sometimes wondered what laid even farther than Kiccigiorgi from the capital. No one thought of that, except Issachar. Issachar, young and energetic and strong.

One day while Flynn was out helping his father with some fieldwork, Issachar came to him and demanded him to play with him and the other children. He was eight or nine. That didn't work out all the time, since Flynn was not so good with the ball games the other children played. The other children didn't tease him too much about it, but they didn't make an effort to include him either.

Issachar was different. He came and told Flynn to play with them more often. More importantly, he liked King Aquila, and admitted to wondering what laid beyond their knowledge of borders. Issachar was charismatic too, especially with the other children. He was like an older brother to all of them, but Flynn was his best friend. Flynn didn't know why either, but he was glad of it.

He was twelve years old when he first had a crush on a girl named Annabelle. Annabelle came from Yukasaka, a village far away. She came with her family, who were traders, and was a sickly girl, but Flynn felt attracted to her immediately. In that week the travelling trader troupe visited, Flynn was sent with around fifty Macca to buy the necessary spices for his mother. Instead, he spent most of it buying stuff for Annabelle; Annabelle, who loved stories as much as him. He didn't remember what he bought, only that he was happy to spend it for her. In return, Annabelle gave him the white ribbon in her hair and a kiss on the cheek with the promise she would not forget him. She left at the end of the week, and he never saw her again. His mother gave him a stern beating for the little spices he ended up remembering to buy, but kissed her boy on the forehead a day later to remind him she loved him. She did not apologize for the beating; mother was stern and true, but she was kind and loving as well.

He was fourteen years old when the travelling traders came again. Annabelle did not come, but her parents gave Flynn a book on fairy stories. They had told him that Annabelle was too sick to come that year (Ah, perhaps she had died.) If so, then Annabelle would have given him her most precious possession; and a valuable skill. In a piece of parchment, which were rare and expensive, she had written down how to read the mystic script. He started learning to read. Precious few books ever reached Kiccigiorgi, but of what founding legends he could get his hands on, he read.

Before he was quite aware of it, he turned eighteen.

—