Disclaimer – I'm pretty sure that, at this point, Tales of Vesperia owns me, not the other way around.

Outfit – Estelle's nurse outfit... *snicker*

Nurse

It started with sniffles.

Yuri assumed it was his allergies getting to him, so he knocked himself out that evening with some generic allergy medicine that also doubled as an equally generic sleeping aid. While Yuri usually hated taking anything that made his drowsy, his sniffles had already turned into a headache too. So some extra help going to sleep was suddenly a little more welcome.

He woke up feeling cotton-headed and assumed it was an after-affect of the medicine. But his head still ached, as did the rest of his body, and his stomach felt a little queasy too. Though his first choice was to hole up in his room and sleep until he felt better, Judy and Karol dragged Yuri to the doctor's guild instead. Allergies were quickly ruled out as the culprit; Yuri had the flu.

After being prescribed medicine with names Yuri couldn't hope to pronounce properly, he was finally allowed to go back to his room and pass out again. Yuri vaguely recalled someone bringing him soup for dinner – maybe crackers too; he was fuzzy on the details – but mostly he just slept. His fever kept him pretty out of it the next day, but afterwards, he was just achy and miserable, though definitely on the mend.

Now, of course, Yuri was suffering from a different sort of fever: cabin fever. Usually, when Yuri was sick, Flynn would take care of him. Flynn would talk to him or make really horrible soup or absently run his fingers through Yuri's hair when he thought Yuri was sleeping...

Yuri missed that. He missed having Flynn there to take his mind off of how crappy he felt. While he'd been missing Flynn for a while now, the loneliness that hit now made it hard to breathe. It was a sudden, desperate need to see Flynn, to wrap his arms around Flynn's shoulders and bury his face against the crook of Flynn's neck.

That they were in different cities on different continents felt too painful to deal with.

But the thing about being sick is that it makes concentrating an incredibly difficult task. So, despite Yuri's preoccupation with missing Flynn and wanting Flynn and feeling equally bad about being away from Flynn as he did from the flu, a sort of wonderfully random thought appeared in Yuri's head.

The thought was of Flynn, of course. Flynn with a nurses hat on his head and a cute yellow and white nurse's outfit... black tights and the white shoes with the yellow trimming...

Yuri shot up in bed, shaking his head to clear the thought away. Not that it worked. Now that the image was in his head, there was no getting rid of it.

"What am I doing?" Yuri muttered softly. How could he be imagining his friend looking like that? Sure, it would be hilarious to see since Flynn would never, ever let himself look so undignified and... kind of cute, really.

Sexy even.

Yuri groaned and flopped back in the bed. His brain did not need to be doing this now. He was well aware that Flynn matched Yuri's type perfectly, but he'd never seriously considered trying to convince Flynn to date him before. Flynn was straight, after all, and Yuri wasn't good enough for him even if it turned out Flynn was actually bi.

Still... it wouldn't hurt to fantasize a little, would it? After all, Flynn would never know.

But instead of launching into a fantasy of Flynn slowly, sensually, stripping off the nurse's outfit, Yuri's mind wandered back to the time he'd been dating Guy. Flynn had seemed to dislike Guy a great deal, perhaps even bordering on hating the other blond.

More specifically, Yuri's mind wandered back to a certain conversation the two of them had about Flynn's evident dislike of Guy. Though Flynn hadn't worn a nurse's outfit during that conversation, Yuri's mind supplied it now.

"If there's something wrong with him, Flynn, just tell me. It's pretty obvious you can't stand Guy and I've never known you to dislike a person without a reason."

"There isn't anything wrong with him," Flynn admitted, looking away uncomfortably. "He seems nice enough and I haven't heard anything bad about him either. I just... don't like him. That's all. I'm sorry, Yuri... I don't want to cause problems between you and him."

"You're not. Though if you knew something bad about him, then I'd definitely break up with him. I like him a lot, but I trust you more." Yuri felt a little blindsided, and perhaps a bit guilty as well, at the sight of Flynn's bright smile and the feelings that stirred inside him. 'Don't go there, Yuri.'

"Maybe I just needed to hear you say that."

"He's not going to take your place, Flynn. You're my best friend and no one could be more important to me, okay?"

"Yeah..." Flynn frowned again. "You say that now, Yuri, but that just means you're not in love with anyone yet. When you do... well, not even I will be as important as that person. It's okay; that's how it's supposed to be, I guess... just be careful. I don't want you falling for someone I can't stand."

"Uh... sure."

It was even more difficult now, sick in bed with his mind conjuring up the image of Flynn looking adorable in a nurse's costume, to rationalize away that conversation. Had Flynn just been jealous at the thought of losing his best friend? Or had he been jealous at the thought of someone else being Yuri's lover?

Yuri sighed again, this time managing to set aside his more difficult thoughts in favor of a mental image of Flynn stripping off the nurse's costume... to reveal his usual armor beneath. It really figured that imaginary Flynn was as stubborn and uncooperative as the real thing.

He needed to talk to the real Flynn and figure this out. There hadn't been anyone since he'd broken up with Guy... only a few days after that conversation with Flynn. That was nearly a year-and-a-half ago at this point. Yuri was lonely and... even when he was with his friends or the times before, when he'd dated Guy or... he'd still be lonely. On some level, he always felt lonely.

It only ever went away when Flynn was near.

Yeah... it was time to admit how he felt to Flynn. He might not be good enough for Flynn, but that was something Flynn should get to decide for himself. If Flynn thought otherwise, then Yuri could be okay - more than okay, actually - with being wrong. If Flynn didn't feel the same way about Yuri... then maybe Yuri would finally be able to move on and stop looking for a 'replacement Flynn' in the men he was attracted to. Either way, this was something he really needed to confront for his own sake.

Humming softly to himself, Yuri closed his eyes and slipped back to sleep.

A/N – Generally illness-induced epiphanies are not necessarily the best things to embrace. But in this case, Yuri should definitely go for it. And then he should convince Flynn to wear the nurse's outfit. :)