Felins: I'm sick as fuck right now. I wrote this in the brief spans of me being awake enough to write.
"I don't get what ya see in him," Damuron said as he and Hanna ate dinner at a quaint restaurant. "He's a weirdo, Hanna. Plus, ever notice how he doesn't eat."
Hanna laughed. "Lowell's a great guy. He's kind and generous and- "
"Probably a guild spy." He interrupted and took a bite of his curry. "If I were you I'd distance yourself."
Hanna smiled giddily, and worry filled Damuron. "Actually." She held up her hand where a beautiful ornate gold locket sat. "He says that he wants to marry me." Hanna's hands ran over the locket's surface. "He said, that he didn't have money for a ring just yet, but that he wanted me to have this. Isn't it lovely?"
He looked at the joy in Hanna's face. It was so strong and pure. Damuron didn't like Lowell much. Didn't trust him. The guy just showed up and started swooning over Hanna like an idiot. Plus, he was a Krytian. Nothing good could come from this kind of union. "Hanna, have you thought about what this means? You've only known the guy a few years. And, he's a Krytian. They'll never approve the marriage."
Her face soured and she put the locket back in her pocket. "I know. I've thought it over a long time." Hanna's eyes sparked with a new fire. "I'll stand by Lowell come hell or high water." Damuron sighed and let the matter go. If Hanna was determined there was nothing he could do about it. "Besides, the sex is amazing."
He spat out his water and coughed.
He watched Yuri show up from a distance and felt a shiver flow through. Why would the boy come here? He was choosing death. Once Alexei saw him, then he'd probably send someone for his head.
The commandant's cold eyes drifted to Yuri and he placed a hand on his shoulder. "What is it doing here?" Alexei hissed. "You said it was disposed of."
He tried to laugh it off as a coincidence. "It sure looks like him, it's probably just a look alike."
Alexei stared at the boy and snapped his fingers. A medic came running up nervously. "Yes, commandant?"
"I want blood samples taken with today's physical." The medic nodded and walked off. "Hmm, if he is the child then he could be useful." A smile graced Alexie's lips. "Your blunder might have helped us out in the long run."
Flynn had of course been angry to see Yuri there, but not surprised. He should have known better than to think that Yuri would stay back. That wasn't his style. Getting into the knights wasn't hard, at least for him.
Yuri, on the other hand, was outed as a halfer in the first few hours. The man doing his physical had freaked out and sanitized his hands until they were raw. He muttered under his breath about halfer diseases and plagues. Of how Yuri had cursed him. His eyes rolled.
Right, because he could do that.
If Yuri had a gald for every time some idiot mentioned him being cursed, then he and Flynn would never have gone hungry. Oh, well. Not his fault people were xenophobic. Yuri from that moment on dealt with the whispers people made and the venomous glances. They stopped when the commandant approached him.
He felt his body freeze as a cold sweat broke out. Red smoke drifted off him and the scent... The scent was the deep irony tang of blood muddled with ozone. "What's your name, boy?"
Yuri straightened up and remembered the note he'd found in his pocket when he arrived. The person who put it in had smelled eerily familiar. The note had said to run and not let anyone know his name. While looking at this man, Yuri felt the need to trust the note.
"It's Yuri, just Yuri, sir. I don't have a full one." He was orphan so it was a buyable excuse.
The commandant's smirked. "Well, we'll need to fix that. How do you expect to rise through the ranks without one?"
"Sir?"
Alexei placed a hand on his shoulder and the people watching gasped. "This man should be respected for his bravery. It is not often that a man born between races finds the strength to join the knights. Even more, so with the previous tensions between us. Yet, here he stands ready to fight for the empire." Ah, so that was it. Yuri was going to be used for propaganda. "We should all learn from this young man. Yuri Lowell, I look forward to seeing you as a member of the imperial knights."
The crowd cheered and Yuri looked to Alexei wide-eyed. "Lowell, sir?"
"Yes, I thought it would suit you." Alexei smiled and Yuri felt fear. "I hope you don't mind."
Yuri smiled and grit his teeth. "No, sir."
This man- Alexei- He knew Yuri. There was no way he came up with that name off his head. And, his eyes... eyes like a beast who found its prey. Then maybe he knew what he was. If that was true... No, it could be a coincidence. But, Yuri didn't believe that.
Yuri was certain that he got in because of the commandant's speech alone. None of the instructors liked him or wanted to tolerate him. That is all but a few lechers who had an idea that Yuri would sleep with them for a good grade. It felt like an unbelievable stroke of luck that both he and Flynn were assigned to Shizontania. And by, Yuri meant he didn't believe it in the slightest.
Apparently, Flynn had traded letters with the person who was actually supposed to go there. It hadn't been hard. The guy was apparently some stuck-up noble who was disgusted by the mere thought of standing near Yuri.
Yuri didn't want to admit it, but he was glad to have Flynn with him. It meant that he'd have at least one familiar thing with him.
Shizontania was a nice little town. Not much to it, but nice. The air tasted strange. It felt charged and a little greasy. The knights there were relaxed and casual compared to the ones in the capital. A nice change of pace.
The one thing he really disliked was that he got assigned to babysitting the dogs. It was annoying.
The puppies were the awful. Large-mouthed and rude. Repede was the worst of the bunch. The puppy always tried to follow him around especially since Yuri accidentally let it slipped that he could understand him. Now the dog wouldn't shut up.
"Big ugly black dog, why do you stand on two legs?" Repede barked while Yuri cleaned the pens.
"For the last time, I'm a human. Not a dog." Yuri huffed as he threw out the bad straw. "All humans walk on two legs."
Repede looked at his paws in confusion and tried to stand upright. "But, you don't smell like the humans."
He sighed and ignored the dog running around his legs. "It's complicated."
"Complicated?"
"It means it's hard to understand."
A knock came on the wood and Yuri stiffened. Shit, he did not want to be seen talking with dogs. "Hope I'm not disturbing your conversation."
Captain Niren walked in with Lambert behind him. "No. You're a welcome distraction."
"You're pretty good with animals."
Yuri threw out the last of the old straw. "Unfortunately."
Niren raised a brow. "Many would love to have even an ounce of the skill needed to train a war hound. Yet, you have Repede listening to you effortlessly."
Yuri rubbed the back of his awkwardly. "Yeah, well I don't like animals."
"Too bad." A bit of smoke drifted from the man's pipe. "You've got a gift."
More like an unnatural birth defect.
Repede barked for his attention and Yuri rolled his eyes. A pipe was not a chew toy. "Repede's a brat."
"He's a puppy. Of course, he's a brat." Niren stood up to leave. "By the way Yuri, I talk to Lambert all the time. So, don't worry about the others giving you funny looks."
Niren left and Repede's eyes twinkled earnestly. "Does that mean you'll talk with me around humans?"
"No way in hell," Yuri responded and yelped when Lambert bit his leg. "Lambert!"
The warrior dog gave him a course look. "Don't teach my son such coarse language."
Yuri rolled his eyes. Dogs were the worst.
In the short span that they had been in Shizontania Yuri had felt something was wrong. It was the aer. It was thick and saturated. Yuri could see that much when he walked through the town. Normally, the green little blobs would rarely show themselves, but now he saw them often.
It only got worse. The monsters became aggressive and the aer got thicker. It was red like blood. Flynn was left worrying for him after each fight because Yuri would lie on his bed shivering. The thick aer and the mad screams of monsters. It was more overwhelming then he could have thought. Then there was the smell. It was the most alluring thing. Like a large slab of well-cooked meat. He munched on candies to calm himself and held Flynn like an idiot. It didn't matter that the room had two beds they only ever used one.
Yuri was worried he'd have an episode if things kept up. One he'd have no control over. Flynn ran soft soothing circles down his back and Yuri relaxed into the touch. The blonde all the while sullen as he thought of his friend.
If Flynn could drink he would, but laws on alcohol were stricter with the knights. Yuri cuddled into him and Flynn sighed. The halfer was asleep or so he thought. That empty glow looked at him and Flynn bit his lips. "You keep breaking my heart when you do this." Yuri crooned and nuzzled Flynn's cheeks happily. Flynn brought Yuri's face closer and kissed him before moving his hands to the stubs where his horns were. He rubbed in circles and Yuri curled further on him in delight.
At first, Flynn had touched pieces of Yuri's body because he was curious and a child. Then curiosity turned to lust and lust to love. Flynn thought Yuri's body perfect. Right down to the crimson horns. But, he couldn't tell Yuri. If he did Flynn was certain he'd be rejected. After all, the man felt no lust. No love. Yuri didn't give those things a second thought.
Flynn kissed him mournfully. Yuri was his at least for now though. At least, when he was like this. Flynn felt like scum for thinking such a thing.
Felinis: If you recall, in the movie Yuri complains about Repede a lot. I thought incorporating that in this way would be highly amusing