Hi everyone, I'm back with a new story. And yeah this story is pretty much using the same setting background as my previous work: "The Prince and His Knight". However, the plot of this story is completely different, so rest assured. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot!

*Warning: OOC, and BL and massive grammar mistakes and weird writings.

Every day, Flynn Scifo woke up to the early hour of six. He practiced his sword skills for about one hour in the knight's training ground before returning to his room, took a quick shower, changing into his uniform and made his way to the prince's chamber.

It was his duty to attend to the imperial prince everyday as his personal guard and servant. He arrived at the prince's door as he stopped, checking his uniform, hair and clothing carefully, making sure that they looked presentable as he finally knocked on the wood surface, excusing himself to enter.

"Your Highness, it is time for you to wake up." The knight moved towards the curtain as he slid it open, revealing a few rays of morning light to fill the room in a golden essence. Not too far away from the window placed a king sized bed covered with black silk mattress, and a person was lying soundly among goose feather blanket.

The prince apparently heard him just fine, but he did not seem to have the intention of waking up just yet. He turned his face away from the disturbing light as he snuggled against the blanket.

"Go away." He snorted.

"Your Highness, you know that is not possible. You have a politic lesson in the morning, and archery training in the afternoon. If you do not wake up now, you will be late!" The knight gently approached the bed, trying to get the prince to wake up. "Your Highness, please wake up." The young prince, who was the same age as him stirred around for a good few seconds before he suddenly shot straight up, causing the knight to smile a little. He mumbled something between 'annoying' and 'shut up' in with half sleepy eyes. His black hair stretched messily around his back, a few stray strands tangled here and there. His night attire was crumbled due to his bad habit of moving in his sleep.

"Good morning, Your Highness."

"Shut up! Why do you have to be so noisy first thing in the morning?" The prince pouted, scratching his head in annoyance.

Despite being yelled at, Flynn could not help but smile, "Shall I let the maid in to dress you up or would you rather doing it yourself?" He said knowing full well what to do next as he crocked his head aside just in time to dodge a flying pillow aiming at him. The first time it happened, it surprised him, but he managed to dodge it nevertheless.

"Argh! Just shut up and get the hell out of here!"

This little annoying lad who always had trouble of waking up early in the morning and seemed to have issues with temperance was his prince. The person he had sworn to dedicate his entire life to serve and protect. Some of his fellow knights asked him why did he choose to become a candidate for this bratty prince since obviously with his talent and attitude, he could have make it as the crown prince's knight of honor. He only smiled, and did not give them a reason.

It brought him back eight years into the past when he was still a ten years old kid. He lived with his parents all the way of the bottom of the capital, where poor people stick together in a neighborhood that formed the Lower Quarter, as opposition to the Noble and Imperial Quarter where obviously only rich and royal members could afford a mansion or two there.

His father owned a small bakery, next to the Lower Quarter's tavern. Along with his mother's help, the two worked together to make money for sustaining their little family. It was a stable job, and they did not have to stave thanks to the leftover bread and sandwiches. However, there were other aspects in life that they needed the money for, which was why they didn't seem to have money for other leisure things. Despite having no new clothes every New Year, or a decent present for his birthday, Flynn was happy and contented with his life. To live with his parents' warmth of love everyday, he didn't want to ask for anything else.

Since when he was young, Flynn tried his best to help and support the family with what he could do. Sometimes he ran errands for his father or helped him delivering orders. Flynn wished that when he grew up a little more, he would find a good job with a good paid so he could help out his family. He heard from Mr. Einar, who lived next door and also worked as the imperial gardener, that if he could manage to find a job within the castle, he is guaranteed a handsome paid. Flynn once thought that once growing up, he would probably apply to help around the imperial kitchen. His parents said it would not be a good idea at all. He did not quite understand why his parents did not allow him to help them making the bread. It did bother him at first, but he gradually gave up the idea. However, even though Mr. Einar paid was quite handsome, the man's family seemed not to be doing any better than his own, considering they had five children to feed. Flynn once wished he could have a brother or sister to play with, but that would bring more burden to his family, so when he grew up a little, he discarded such thought from his mind.

That day, he was to drop off a special order for an old woman who lived at the other side of the lower quarter. In order to do that, he had to take the path of staircases upwards, crossing the Public Quarter for middle class's people and then took another stairway down to reach the other side. He hated to walk the long way, but he had no other choice since the bridge connected between the two parts was broken last month. They were working to repair it, but it wouldn't be finished anytime soon. The people here knew their important value was not quite a priority for the empire, if someone did not go and report that, the Empire would probably leave the bridge un-repaired for another year.

"Hey Flynn, you want to join our battle?"

He walked past a group of kids who was calling out to him. They usually gathered at the plaza and played fighting. Flynn sometimes joined them when he had free time and most of the time whichever side had him won. Thus, the kid always wanted to have him on their side.

He waved his hand apologetically as he promised them another time. He was not really free today.

Trailing along the stone staircases that lead him to the plaza of the Public Quarter, where most of the festivals and important events of the capital were to be held. Since it located at the middle of the whole city, providing convenient access for both Noble and Lower Quarter.

The plaza was quite crowded today, as he heard that some royalties would be visit and observe the construction of the four golden statues of the spirits that started at the end of last month. The four spirits of Water, Fire, Earth and Wind were said to be the Builder of this world-Terca Lumireis. After the statues finished, it would be a memorial symbol of the capital. Not that Flynn was interested in it. He thought if they had enough gold to make four statues out of it, they could have use it to help other poor people here and out there in the world.

Dismissing the thought, Flynn made his way across the plaza, trying not to collide against anyone; the least he wanted to crash into was a noble. They would not let him go unharmed without a good yelling. After climbing down all the steps, he stopped for a bit and began rummaging through his pocket for a small map that his father gave him earlier to tell the direction to the woman's house.

Then suddenly, he felt someone grabbed him by the arm. He gave out a surprise cry as he was turned around only to see a young kid probably around his age. The kid had short and silky black hair, a fairly white skin and a round pair of black eyes. His clothes were beyond the style of Lower Quarter, and from the glittering shine the fabric gave off under the sun, it was no doubt this kid was from the Noble Quarter.

"Hey! I'm lost! I need your help to get me back to the castle." The kid demanded.

Flynn raised his eyebrow skeptically. Seriously? Who did this kid think he was? Suddenly showed up from nowhere and demanded him to show him the way to the castle just like that? The blond yanked his arm out of the other boy's grip, as he rolled his eye annoyingly, "I'm sorry, but I have something that I need to do right now. I don't have time to spare for you."

He turned his head to walk away. However, the other kid was apparently quite persistent as he grabbed his sleeve, turning him on his feet and almost lost his balance. Thankfully the basket of bread was somehow managed to stay within his grasp. He would be dead if he dropped it. Flynn annoyingly turned around, surprise yet again to see an expression between a sullen, about to cry but trying to act tough kind of face. His double black orbs stared directly at him, bored deeply into his blue ones. Flynn sighed internally; he looked away as he told the kid that he would show him the way back once he finished with his errand.

That brought a smile to his face, and now that he looked closer, the kid had quite girly feature. If it were not for his voice and short hair, anyone would have a hard time guessing his gender.

"Hey, what is your name?" The raven-haired kid spoke, trailing next to him.

"I'm Flynn. And hey, aren't you supposed to introduce yourself first before asking for someone else's name?" Flynn was busy reading the map and tried to find his way around. Wishfully hope that he wouldn't get lost.

"My name is Yuri Lowell." The boy smiled, amusingly looking around the buildings here and there with obvious excitement. "And that is a nice name you have there, Flinnie."

"Fl…Flinnie?" He rolled his eyes in annoyance yet again. He happened to like his name very much, even though the meaning was somewhat different from his feature. But still, having a kid who he barely knew picking up a nickname for him was somewhat unpleasant. Despite that, he did not have the need to argue with him, and to be honest, from the way the other kid spoke, it did sound kind of cute.

After a short while, Flynn managed to arrive at the old woman's door. He knocked on it lightly and after a minute, a young girl came and answered the door. Her blue hair was tied into two-pony tail, she greeted him with a bright smile. Flynn handed over the basket of bread to her and waited for the girl to return with the payment.

"Thank you, please continue to support our bakery."

The girl nodded her head and closed the door behind her with a giggle.

Flynn checked the money he just received to make sure that he had the right amount before putting it back into his pocket.

"So…your family has a bakery?" The Yuri kid crooked his head to look at the silver and gold coins that he just put away into his pocket, "This is my first time seeing gald, never knew they are round like that."

The comment ticked Flynn off a bit. Such an ignorant noble kid. Now that he was done with his errand, he had promised the kid to show him the way to the castle. Although he felt annoyed at him, but he could not leave him alone here.

Both of them travelled back the walkway when suddenly Yuri stopped dead in his track. He did not make any attempt to move at all. Flynn found it strange as he looked over to Yuri concernedly, then his eyes moved towards the direction that the other kid was looking at. There in dark corner on the alley, a pair of red eyes lit up indicated something vicious. Flynn cautiously told Yuri to move back as he looked around, looking for something that could be used to his defense. There it was in the corner lied a short wood stick, Flynn kept his eyes glued on the creature as he slowly made his steps sideways, intended to pick up the stick. When he managed to almost reach it, Yuri's sudden shout startled him, as he shot his head up, fast enough to see a sort of blue and white feature dashed at him. Flynn felt himself numbed, unable to run out of fear. His legs gave way as he stumbled to the ground. Then suddenly he felt a shadow appeared in front of him, making a wall between him and the vicious beast.

"Yuri!" He immediately realized that the shadow was none other than the noble kid. The beast claws left a long scratch on him as he tried to block the beast away from him. Trail of blood dripped down the boy's arm from the wound.

"Flynn! The stick!

He quickly lowered himself at the reflex, picking up the stick he intended to earlier as he swung it sideways and hit the beast square in the head, knocking it aside. He grabbed onto the black hair kid to steady him, "You alright?"

Yuri nodded as his gaze followed the direction where the beast was knocked off. Strangely, it was lying on the ground still, with no traces of movements. They believed that the beast was either fainted or dead.

It was Yuri who made the first time, despite Flynn's protest. The black haired boy approached it and after a few seconds checking. He told him that the beast was dead. Turned out, it wasn't any beast, it was just a stray hound. Suddenly a small bark filled the alley, from a dark corner a small puppy of the same blue and white color with a tail like a lightning bolt ran out. It sniffed a bit on the ground before running towards the dead dog. It barked, nudging closer to the creature's bloody skin, seemed like trying to wake it up.

"It must be this little guy's mother. She must tried to protect her son." Yuri said and that shot a drifting pain at Flynn.

"I…I killed his mother." He murmured.

"No you did not." The other kid shook his head, "Look here, she had suffered quite a few severe wounds here on her legs and stomach. She was…about to die anyway."

But even so, Flynn could not deny the fact that he was the one ended such a poor creature's life. Sorrow showed in his eyes, and pain crawled up his stomach, he felt nauseous.

Yuri suggested him to find a place to bury the dog properly, so they covered the dog's body with a white cloth they found discarded at a nearby trashcan. The two boys carried the dog a bit outside of the city through a small gate and found an empty field and dug up a grave for the dog.

"I shall take care of this little one." Yuri said and picked up the puppy, apparently it had fell asleep a moment ago.

"No, I was the one killing its mother. I should be responsible." Flynn protested but was cut off with Yuri waving his hand dismissively.

"Under your family's circumstances, I doubt it would be a wise idea to adopt this guy. I can give him a better care at the castle."

And Flynn couldn't deny that fact, so even with feeling of guilt; he decided it would be best for the puppy to live with Yuri. Since, he believed it wouldn't want to be close to the human that took away its mother's life. Besides, he didn't think his family would allow him to have a pet anyway.

"How is your wound Yuri?" The blonde boy directed his eyes at the scratch along his arm. The blood already stopped, but there was still a long line of angry red marks on the white skin, "I'm sorry." He apologized, taking out a small sash of white fabric and wrapped the cloth carefully around the wound. He could not stop having this guilty feeling welled up his heart.

"Nah, don't worry. It is not a big deal anyway. I had survived worse." And that time, he realized how the black hair boy possessed such a beautiful smile; yet sadden with something that he probably wanted to hide within the depth of his poker face.

"But, still. I…."

A finger was pressed in front of his lips, preventing him from saying anything further. Although he remained silent, inside his heart, he had made a silent determination, a determination to return the favor.

The boy made their way back into the city and climbed up the stairs, while chatting over trivial matters.

"I was wondering how did you get lost? Usually a noble like you would have bodyguards with you right?" Flynn asked questioningly.

"Oh…I wasn't supposed to be by myself originally. But you see I got bored at seeing those boring construction so I tried to slip away. The guards were supposed to watch me though. But honestly, all I had to do was pointing at a sexy lady, and while the guard's attention was focusing elsewhere, I sneaked away. It was that easy." The other kid answered in a matter of fact tone. "But I guess I strayed a bit too far so I ended up getting lost and had no idea which way to go back. I was a bit afraid yeah!"

Flynn found himself speechless at such an acclamation. He shook his head in disbelief. He had ever heard of such a noble kid who would behave the way this kid did. Well, there must be some exceptions out there. Especially this kid, he gave off a quite different aura and impression. He made him actually believed that future of this country would be a bit different. Hopefully better.

When they reached the Public Quarter, Yuri suddenly stopped walking as he raised his head to look at the half-finished statue.

"What's wrong?" Flynn curiously asked.

"This is ridiculous. They use real gold to make these statues you know. Imagine how many lives they could save with this insane amount of gold. I think the spirits would cry if they knew about this." Yuri frowned his eyes in disgust.

Surprisingly, this kid had the same thought as him. He knew he should not be saying this but he just wanted to get it off his chest, "I do believe the spirits would not want them to do this. The Empire could have used other materials, but they chose gold instead. Just imagine my parents have to work so hard to pay off the tax just for them to build this."

"Your parents?"

"We have a small bakery at the other side of the Lower Quarter. But we did not have enough to live you see. I have always wanted to be able to get a job with high pay so that I can help my parents out." Flynn looked down at the ground, wondering what the hell was wrong with him for saying so much to a strange kid that he barely knew and a noble at that.

The thing that he did not expect was the kid suddenly grabbed a whole of his hand, a bright and sincere smile dashed across his face as he gave him a suggestion that he had ever imagine before, "Why don't you go work at the castle? I know, you could apply to be a knight. I heard they get paid a lot. And with this strong body of yours, I believe you would make an excellent knight. If you are good enough, you could rise up in rank and become a Commandant, and then everyone would have to listen to you. You could even change the whole system, I mean like even participate in making rules and regulations. For example, you can change the tax rate."

"I'm not strong at all. And I don't think I have what it takes to become a knight. I have no idea how to swing a sword." Flynn sheepishly refused. He indeed wanted to work at the castle, but he would never imagine him working as a knight. He always won those sword battles with the kids in town, but he knew nothing about swordsmanship.

"You are great, trust me. Like just now I saw how you swung the stick, and I thought it would look even more beautiful if it were a real sword. Seriously, it was dazzling and beautiful. I could watch you do that all day."

"I don't know about this Yuri." He led the boy to the northern staircases and told him to go up there and kept on going straight. That was the path lead to the Royal and Noble Quarter. He could not tell him the exact direction since he had not been there himself. But he believed the kid would manage somehow.

The black haired kid said goodbye to him and did not forget to tell him to consider applying for the knight, "I will be waiting for you" before climbing up the stairs along with the puppy sleeping soundly in his arms.

Flynn looked after the figure until it was too far for him to see. He turned around and made his way towards home. To become a knight…huh?

He found himself running straight home and burst opened the door, "Father, how do I become an Imperial Knight?"

His mother broke a few dishes, and his father almost choked on his tea.

That's it for their childhood! I'm currently writing the next chapter, and I intend to warp everything up by the next one. So it may take a bit of time for me to update it! Anyway, this is a stand alone fic, so there is nothing related from this fic and my previous ones.

Reviews are appreciated, and see you guys soon!