Disclaimer – Vesperia is Bamco's and Marvel is Disney's.

Inspiration – Imagining Flynn in a Captain America outfit

Teaser – When Flynn woke up seventy years too late, he never thought he'd get a second chance with his supposedly dead best friend.

Baking Mix (Superhero Remix)

When Flynn and Yuri were kids, Flynn was the one who was faster and stronger. He'd thought that was how it was always gonna be. Flynn didn't bank on a terrible bout of pneumonia weakening his lungs or bronchitis a year later making that weakness worse.

He wasn't prepared for Yuri to take his place; he didn't know how to deal with his old limits being overridden. He didn't like having to stop in the middle of gym to gasp for breath or for Yuri to swoop in to save him when he failed at blocking fists to the face.

It only gets worse when Yuri can enlist in the army and Flynn can't. Flynn tries and tries to make it in, but even though the health standards for enlistment are a little more lax in time of war – the need for soldiers is too high to let only those at their peak in – he gets drummed out every time. Flynn feels terrible every time he lies about his name and worse every time its for naught.

But what makes Flynn really feel like a failure – like a hypocrite – is when Yuri, on his last free night before shipping out, calls him out on his bullshit.

"There's no shame in doing other jobs, ya know."

"I know that, Yuri. But it's not right for me to sit here doing nothing compared to..."

"Compared to, what? Flynn, asking to do a job you can't handle doesn't make you brave, it makes you stupid. And refusing to do the jobs you can do – jobs that are really damned important to the war effort – just because they're not important the way you want them to be..."

Flynn had punched Yuri in the mouth for that. The letters they exchanged afterwards were stilted; the distance between them far more than the hundreds of miles between the United States and the European front. It was with reluctance that Flynn finally took up a job as a propaganda artist. His art helped bring in war bonds and Yuri was right, it was work that needed to be done as much as any other.

Still, Flynn felt like, compared to Yuri who was out there risking his life, staying behind made him a coward. He couldn't help like feeling he should be there at Yuri's side... like no one else was capable of having Yuri's back like Flynn could. It wasn't all misplaced pride, arrogance, and patriotism, though he was sure Yuri thought it was. Well, pride and arrogance, perhaps. What Yuri needed was someone healthy to have his back and Flynn hated to admit that would never, ever be him.

So Flynn turned back to his art and tried to convince himself that what he was doing was enough.

"You know, I see you around here all the time, but I do not know you're name," the German scientist said, admiring the sketch book open to a picture of Yuri.

The picture is from memory, of the first time Flynn saw Yuri with his hair cut short and his uniform on. Yuri looked good, but Flynn had longed for Yuri's hair to spontaneously return to its previous length. Flynn had loved running his fingers through Yuri's hair, stroking the shiny locks and feeling the softness of the strands...

Flynn might be a little in love with Yuri. He's not sure and he hates that the war took Yuri away before he could figure it out.

"I'm Flynn... Flynn Scifo." He smiles hesitantly, trying to keep his mind off of Yuri, and offers a handshake to the scientist.

The other man accepted the handshake with a warm smile. "I am Dr. Erskine. I hope my admiration of your art does not bother you."

"No, it doesn't," Flynn gestured for him to take a look. "Feel free to flip through the pages if you like."

"Thank you."

Erskine picked up the sketch book and moved to the first page, slowly working his way through the pages as they chatted. Erskine told Flynn about Germany and why he left before the war officially broke out, about his work with Dr. Alexei Dinoia and the founding of Hydra. In return, Flynn found himself talking about Yuri, his most frequent model in his sketches for all that Yuri was an ocean away.

Somehow, Flynn found himself confessing about the fight he'd had with Yuri before his friend shipped out without him.

"He was right, though. I think that's what made me so angry. If he'd been wrong, if I'd really had a chance of enlisting..." Flynn sighed and shook his head. "If he'd been wrong, I would have enlisted first try and we'd have never had the argument to begin with. Instead... instead I was making an ass of myself trying join up. I mean... what if they'd passed me through and I'd gotten someone else killed because I'm not actually fit enough for duty. What if..."

"What if you'd gotten your friend killed?" Erskine finished for him.

"Yeah..."

"Yet, despite all that, you still feel strongly about fighting in this war? Why is that?" Erskine wondered. "I am sorry, that was just... rhetorical. Thinking aloud. You need not answer if you do not wish to."

"It's fine, really, "Flynn assured him. "I just... I don't like bullies. They pick on people weaker than themselves to make them feel better about their own weaknesses and... I guess I've always wanted to be able to stop bullies from doing that. I used to be good at it, before I got sick. Never recovered all the way, I guess, but I couldn't give up trying to stop bullies. Drove Yuri up a wall, but he always had my back no matter how much I frustrated him."

Erskine handed Flynn back his sketchbook. "Will you meet me here tomorrow morning, Flynn? I think there is something you might be able to help me with in my research. I have been looking for someone with the... right disposition to assist in moving the research into testing and that you are the perfect candidate."

Flynn probably should have backed out when he found out what Erskine's testing phase entailed. Instead, Flynn got into what looked like a metal coffin, okayed the injection of drugs he didn't really understand, and told Erskine's technician – an Eric Mordio – to keep the vita rays going even though the pain of the transition was overwhelming.

When the haze in his mind cleared and Flynn stepped out of the coffin, he really did feel reborn. He was tall – at least as tall as Yuri – and he could feel the strength in his arms again. His legs felt amazing, like he could run for miles. Breathing hadn't felt so easy and effortless in a long time.

Then a shot rang out and a hole appeared in the middle of Dr. Erskine's forehead.

He was a super soldier meant to be leading the fight against the Nazis and instead he was dancing before audiences at fund raisers. It was a step up from the propaganda art, Flynn supposed. Still, he had never felt more useless. At least before he knew, deep down, that he'd never be able to keep up with the other soldiers. But now he knew the problem was more likely to be the other way around.

Flynn could help and he wanted to help. He wanted to fight.

Instead he was still raising war bonds. It was important work. Flynn just had to keep reminding himself of that.

Yuri Lowell was listed as MIA, presumed dead. Flynn dressed in his uniform on autopilot and then went to beg Eric Mordio to help him do a parachute drop into enemy territory, in the region where Yuri's division was most likely to have been taken as prisoners.

The whole thing was a blur, really, his senses not kicking into gear until he was pulling his chute like he'd done it a thousand times before.

Landing on the ground, Flynn hid the chute, got his bearings, and then walked for miles with only his heart, and the memory of the map in the General's office, to guide him.

"Yuri Lowell. Sergeant. Three-two-five-five-seven-zero-eight-three."

Flynn freezes at the sound of Yuri's voice, rough and rasping. The raven-haired man is clearly out of it and when Flynn manages to move again it's only because he can't stand the sight of Yuri's head lolling from side to side in the grips of whatever nightmare formula he's been injected with.

"Yuri?" Flynn says quietly, gently shaking his friend's shoulder. "Wake up," he adds insistently, already reaching with his free hand to undo Yuri's restraints.

"Yuri Lowell," is the fevered reply. "Sergeant."

"Yuri, it's Flynn."

That get's Yuri's attention and his eyes blink open to reveal the dark violet irises that look glassy and drugged. He focuses with effort on Flynn and then frowns. "You're not here," Yuri decides almost immediately. "You're back in the states. You're safe. You're also... not this... tall. Or buff. Really, really... buff." Yuri's eyebrows furrow in concentration as he looked Flynn up and down.

This would have been hilarious if Yuri had been drunk, not drugged, and they were at a bar or a pub or someplace safe, compared to, say, the Hydra facility they're currently in.

"I really am here," Flynn insisted, guiding Yuri into standing up and leaning on him. "I really am taller and healthier too."

"How?" was the suspicious and disbelieving response.

"Oh, you know, ate my vegetables, worked on breathing exercises, volunteered to test out a super soldier serum for a German scientist who defected to our side..." Flynn trailed off at Yuri's incredulous look.

"Okay, now I know this is a hallucination 'cause Flynn couldn't be that stupid."

Flynn winced. "I'm not sure how to argue that point without insulting myself," he admitted.

As Flynn tried to navigate their way out of the building the same way he came in, Yuri seemed to grow more coherent and aware of their circumstances. That was fortunate because Alexei, Erskine's deranged ex-lab partner, made an appearance. He cheerfully announced that he, too, had undergone the super soldier process and wanted to know why Flynn was special.

"I'm not," Flynn told him, enjoying the look of rage that crept across Alexei's face as he spoke, "I'm just a kid from Brooklyn."

Then Alexei pulled his face off and about the only thing that stopped Flynn from freaking out was Yuri's muttered, "weirdest hallucination ever. Also, Flynn, please tell me that your skin isn't optional like his is? You can work the skinny kid look and the buff war hero look, but skinless muscle man is just... no one can work that."

"My skin is definitely not optional," Flynn assured him in a quiet undertone.

"Thank god."

At any rate, the two of them got away from 'Red Skull' and regrouped with the other escapees that Flynn had rescued earlier. Yuri couldn't keep going, exhausted from his ordeal, and so everyone bunked down for the night, with those who were able to keep shifts doing so.

Yuri fell asleep still convinced the whole thing was a bizarre dream and that he'd wake up being interrogated by people he referred to as 'Insults-to-Mother' and 'Anything-French.' Flynn had absolutely no idea what to make of that.

When Yuri woke up, however, Flynn knew that Yuri knew that none of the night before was a hallucination. He knew that because... well...

"So, this is real, then?" Yuri waited for Flynn to nod. "Well then. Let me be the first to say that you are a complete and utter moron. Letting some doctor use a super soldier serum that in previous tests made skin optional? Stupidest thing you've ever done. Ever. Though the solo rescue mission? Definitely a close second."

Flynn couldn't help the laughter that spilled out of him at the sound of Yuri's continuing tirade. Whatever may have been done to him, Yuri was still Yuri. Flynn had never felt more relieved.

Everything was going fine.

"This is payback for Coney Island?" Yuri asked, looking a little green even as he steadied his hold on the zip line.

Flynn thought for a moment of the horrible spinning tea cup ride that he'd gone on with Yuri one summer when they were still kids. It wouldn't have been so bad, except Yuri gleefully spun them around until Flynn was so dizzy that he hurled into a trashcan after stumbling off the ride. Somehow the memory was a lot funnier now than it was then and Flynn snickered at the thought of getting a little genuine revenge at some point.

In an instant, everything changed.

Flynn reached out to grab Yuri's free hand and drag him back inside the train. Their fingertips just barely touched... and then the train jolted. Yuri's eyes widened even as his grip on the broken door faltered.

"YURI!"

As his best friend fell away into the blinding snow below, all Flynn could think was that he'd just lost his most important reason for fighting.

Later, after he crashed his plane into the arctic and the freezing weather slowly lulled him into a false sleep, Flynn couldn't help but smile. Surely he'd be with Yuri again soon.

Waking up was a surreal let down.

The ball game on the radio was wrong. Flynn remembered being there with Yuri and his gut churned with grief even as he fought his way free and out onto the street.

"I'm sorry," a gruff old man with shock-white hair and a scar across his face. "I didn't think that was the best way for you to wake up, but the Docs overruled me. I'm Don Whitehorse, Director of SHIELD. I'm afraid it's been a long time since you were last awake."

"That's kind of obvious," Flynn agrees, letting the man – Don Whitehorse – escort him back to the sidewalk. The cars are all wrong, the lights are off, and there are signs that are constantly changing. The last ones, the signs, remind Flynn of computer screens... if the clarity were better and they were capable of using colors instead of just black and white.

"It's the year 2015, Cap," Don Whitehorse tells him.

"Seventy years," Flynn murmurs. A rounded number, because if he has to think of the exact number of years he's... skipped over, like some sort of bizarre Rip Van Winkle... and all the years he still has to live before he'll finally get to be with Yuri again...

Well, Flynn might go a little crazy regardless, actually. How is he supposed to adjust to this new century without Yuri there with him?

When Flynn is escorted into a bakery by a very insistent lady assassin called Judy and a guy who thinks a bow counts as a sniper weapon, Flynn's pretty sure his day cannot get weirder.

Then the kid behind the counter turns to yell through the door to the kitchen, "YURI! I really think its him this time!"

Flynn feels like time itself stops as Yuri – his Yuri – steps out through the door and they just stare at each other.

One of Yuri's arms has been replaced with a metal one and his eyes look so old, but his hair is long and tied up into a pony tail and the smile on his face is the most beautiful thing Flynn has seen in decades.

If Flynn just so happened to walk up to Yuri and kiss him right on the lips... well, he's not exactly going to complain about the outcome. The patrons, and the kid working the counter, seemed rather approving in their cheering the two on, so it seemed no one else was going to complain either.

When aliens came to invade the Earth, Flynn got to see the results of Yuri's time as the Winter Soldier up close as Yuri brutally, and efficiently, cut a swath through the invaders. It was terrifying and Yuri was clearly worried that seeing for himself the way Yuri got while fighting would ruin everything.

So Flynn kissed Yuri, in the aftermath when they were surrounded by dead aliens and exhausted team mates. Seemed like the easiest way to convey the sentiment 'I love you no matter what' while simultaneously preventing any of the self-flagellation Yuri engaged in when his time as a brainwashed asset of Hydra came up.

Rita might have flipped up the face mask of her Iron Woman costume and told them to get a room, but Flynn wasn't really paying attention to her at that point. Perhaps not fair, seeing as she'd just nearly died redirecting a nuke to hit the aliens on the other side of the portal the aliens had been using to invade, but if Flynn had to choose between listening to Rita and kissing Yuri... well...