Title: Protective Measures
Summary: Flavio had wanted to ask Lynus about the hospital and about Mahogany. But after some creep decides to follow Lynus from the café, those questions could wait…
AN: I just had this sudden urge to write Flavio and Lynus in an oneshot together. And, as per usual, this took a life of its own. Hope you enjoy reading nonetheless!
Flavio hadn't been able to get what that hexer from the Guardian Guild had said to him yesterday out of his head. What he had said, the way he had said it, and the way Lynus winced apologetically and empathetically was something Flavio just could not brush aside. It was like…they both knew something about Fafnir and Bertrand that no one else could see.
Could they…know about Fafnir's arm?
He supposed it wasn't a bad thing if they did, right? Lynus was a medic; he probably noticed the abnormality of Fafnir's arm when he first laid eyes on him. And Mahogany was a hexer and hexers were…notoriously unpredictable (some would say freaky) with their psychic abilities.
After their encounter with the hexer telling them that Fafnir should be dead, Fafnir spent the next hour or so reassuring him that the hexer had probably said the same thing to multiple people before him, and that he was obviously an airhead if he had already walked into multiple walls. And that Flavio was just over-thinking things again, as was his habit.
Flavio wanted to dispute that last comment, but he…really couldn't. He was an over-thinker and analyser. Still a rude thing to say, nonetheless.
But it was Bertrand's suddenly inability to look him in the eyes the next morning that was also bothering him. Flavio had heard him sneak out of his room last night and head down stairs for something. Bertrand's room was across the hall from his and Flavio himself was still awake going through his documents, so that was why he had heard him. He had also heard when Bertrand hastily made his way back into his room.
He had asked Bertrand that morning if something happened to him last night, but Bertrand simply told him that it was nothing to worry, and to stop being such a fuss-pot.
Of course, Flavio bristled with pure indignation at the name, but Bertrand wouldn't tell him anything more. Something obviously happened with him last night but he was unwilling to say anything about it.
…Maybe Flavio should just talk to Lynus about it? That would help to clear some things up, surely.
The sound of the little bell above the door of the café pulled Flavio from his thoughts. He lifted his head up from his folded arms where he was slouched against the breakfast bar of the café and turned his attention to the door out of idly curiosity. He sat up straight, though, in surprise when he realised that a certain orange-haired medic was standing just inside the entrance, his bag upon his shoulder and a few pieces of folded up papers in his hands.
Flavio immediately stood up and pushed away from the bar to make his way over to Lynus. He hadn't seen him this morning at the inn and noticed that a few of his guildmates looked subtly annoyed. He wondered if something had happened to him, too. He didn't have time to ask, though, as he was dragged to the café by Arianna as they had promised to have breakfast there with Regina instead of the inn that morning.
"Ah, Lynus? Good morning."
"Good morning, Flavio," Lynus greeted in return with a soft smile on his lips. "Sorry for popping in early, but I just wanted to hand these recipes over to you. They were given to the hospital by an explorer and since we don't exactly need them, I thought they would be better off here."
"Oh?" Flavio murmured, slightly confused as Lynus handed over the papers he had been holding. His expression lightened into realisation though when he recognised the eccentric scrawl and formatting. "Oh! They're Auspices' recipes. Thanks a lot; we've been looking for these."
Lynus smiled kindly at him and nodded his head idly. "I'm glad I was able to give them to you. And not Zeryn."
Flavio immediately bristled, unconsciously tightening his hands around the recipes. "Yeah…" he muttered, his eye twitching slightly.
As Lynus laughed softly at his reaction, Flavio straightened himself up and pushed aside his annoyance (and trepidation) of said blonde-haired highlander. Before he could turn his attention back to Lynus, he looked up when felt strange sensation of being watched. He could feel eyes on him. Yes, Lynus was there, no doubt looking at him, waiting patiently for him to turn his attention back toward him.
But, no, there was another set of eyes. Not familiar ones, either.
Flavio glanced around in a purposely unwary and casual manner. There were a few customers still lingering around. Most of them still in their sleepy, grumpy stupor of being up so early in the morning and were waiting for the effects of their coffee to kick in. However, his gaze fell upon a tall man alone at a table near the door to the café. Probably in his late thirties, with brown hair and dressed in a long trench coat that was grey in colour. He was leaned well back into his chair, his elbow on the table and his hand resting in the palm of his hand. And focusing in on their direction. Rather blatantly so.
Flavio furrowed his brow slightly as he turned his attention back to Lynus. He hoped that he was just being paranoid, but that guy by the entrance was staring over in their direction for whatever reason. Who was he looking at specifically, though? He must be looking at Lynus. Flavio didn't notice anything about the guy before he walked into the cafe. And it was pretty obvious that Lynus didn't know the guy either as he would have greeted him in some way.
He wondered if he should tell Fafnir or Bertrand about the guy. Although he hadn't done anything yet. He was just...staring creepily. And there wasn't really a law against anyone acting 'creepy'. Let's face it; there would have been a lot of offenders if there was such a law!
"Is something wrong?" Lynus' question caused Flavio to immediately snap his attention back toward him.
"Oh no, just thinking about something," Flavio said before he tilted his head to the side and subconsciously reached out to place a hand lightly against Lynus' arm when he noticed the other swaying slightly on his feet. "Not to be rude or anything, but you look exhausted."
Lynus trailed his fingertips over the strap of his bag as he nodded his head slowly, tiredly. "A few long hours at the hospital, I'm afraid. There was an incident in the labyrinth last night and I was called out in the middle of the night to help. We managed to save everyone, just not...every limb."
Flavio felt himself wince and he placed a comforting hand on Lynus' arm, his grip tightening a fraction when he felt the medic sway slightly.
"Any way, how's the cafe doing?" Lynus unexpectedly asked him quickly, no doubt wanting to change the subject. "I heard you were planning on exchanging grimoire stones with your guests."
"Hm. We only just started with this little venture, but hopefully it will improve the reputation of the café," Flavio replied. "Magnus was the one who suggested it."
A smile of pure fondness appeared on Lynus's lips and he nodded his head. "Yes, I know. He was quite thrilled that you took his suggestion into consideration. He was happy all afternoon."
Flavio smiled as well at the thought. "I bet Shen enjoyed that."
Lynus laughed softly. "I had to patch up his forehead more times than I can remember," he replied. "In any case, about these grimoires. Do you have many crafted with monster attacks?"
That question was a little surprising. "Ah, a few, I think. Why?"
"I just have this theory regarding the stones and-" Lynus was suddenly cut off by his own yawn and he flushed lightly. "S-sorry, I guess that has to wait until another time. I better get going."
"Hm," Flavio nodded his head in understanding, though somewhat reluctant to let him go on his own. He could drop to the ground at any second. "Don't fall asleep along the way."
Lynus nodded his head idly. "I'll try."
As Lynus turned and walked through the door of the café, Flavio noticed that the guy who had been staring at them during their conversation had also gotten up out of his seat and walked out a few paces after the medic.
That guy was staring at Lynus.
And he was now following him.
Flavio felt a slight surge of panic rush through him and he dropped the recipes that Lynus had delivered onto the front counter, pausing for a moment to shout out at the chef busy in the kitchen.
"Regina! I'm heading out for a bit. Tell Fafnir I won't be long."
"Sure!" Regina called back. "But it's not my fault if he comes after you."
Right, right. He'd deal with protective Fafnir later.
Pushing away from the counter, Flavio hurried out of the door and into the streets. He glanced in the direction that he would take to get to the inn and immediately spied the orange-haired medic amongst the slight flow of people. And behind him, a few steps back and with his hands shoved into the pockets of his long jacket was the guy from the café.
"Lynus, wait up!" Flavio immediately called out as he broke out into a hasty, but hopefully unsuspicious jog.
Lynus paused in his steps and turned around to face him with a quizzical expression. As he did the guy that had followed him out of the cafe took a side step into a small alleyway and bent down as if he was to tie up a loose shoelace or something. Lynus didn't seem to pay any attention to the guy, and Flavio spared him a quick glance from the corner of his eye as he jogged up to Lynus, smiling at the medic when he reached him.
"You're heading to the inn, right?" Flavio asked, his smile hiding his apprehension. "I'll walk with you. I needed to get something from there anyway."
Lynus looked mildly surprised for a moment before he nodded his head and a kind smile appeared on his lips. "Hm. Sounds good."
As the two of them began to walk in pace with one another, Flavio glanced over his shoulder, his concern growing when the guy moved out from the alleyway and began to walk a few steps behind them. Crap. He had hoped that the guy would have been discouraged from following when he noticed that Lynus had company.
He was obviously planning something. Something malicious, no doubt.
"I wanted to apologise for what Mahogany said yesterday," Lynus suddenly said, prompting Flavio to turn back toward him. "To both Fafnir and Bertrand."
"Does…he really say that a lot?" Flavio asked.
Lynus sighed softly, wearily as he ran a hand through his hair, pulling it out from his usual ponytail. "Mahogany has the ability to see the past memories of others. Especially those of what he calls 'defining moments'. Usually that means he sees events where the person should have died as, really, those moments are pretty significant."
Oh…well, that would explain quite a bit.
"Must be hard on him," Flavio murmured.
"Hm," Lynus sighed again as he set about pulling his hair back into a ponytail. "He's...learnt to handle it, I suppose."
Flavio nodded his head idly. As they both turned a corner that would take them straight to the inn, he glanced over his shoulder. And winced.
Yep, there was no mistaking it now; the guy was definitely following Lynus. And had moved a little bit closer, his hands shoved deeper into the pockets of his coat. That...kinda freaked Flavio out a bit more. He hoped he could get Lynus safely back to the inn before the guy tried anything. He might not do anything at the moment, but should Lynus be alone for even a second, the guy was likely to try something. Flavio was pretty certain the creep wasn't after an autograph from the famous Miracle Medic.
Flavio quickly turned his attention back to Lynus, not wanting him to become concerned or worried about the creepy stalker guy behind them. "You mentioned that you were at the hospital. Do you get called there often?"
"Mostly for Code Blues," Lynus answered with a slight shrug of his shoulder, giving absolutely no indication the he knew he was being followed. "But I pop by now and again to do some research on behalf of the hospital."
Flavio wanted to ask him if it was true that the hospital funding had been slashed for favour of the cafe instead, but Lynus looked so tired right now that Flavio didn't have the heart to ask him such a question. He was pretty sure Lynus would hesitate in answering because he didn't want to make him feel unnecessary guilty.
Besides, right now he had other things to worry about.
He just needed to keep Lynus talking and not worry him. And not alert the potential psycho behind them that he knew of his presence and possible intentions. Ok, he could do that.
"So, what do you research at the hospital?"
"Materials from the labyrinth and how they can be incorporated into healing," Lynus quickly replied, seemingly happy to talk about his research. "We try to come up with different kinds of potions and tonics. I'm sure you already know about the medicas, but at the hospital, we cater to both explorers and locals, so we need more than a few bottles of medica."
"You must go through the materials fairly quickly."
"Yes, we're always looking for more."
"So you have requests from the hospital? How many?"
"Oh, don't worry about it," Lynus suddenly said with a slightly dismissive wave of his hand. "You have a café to cater to. You have enough on your plate."
"But that means that we do a lot of material gathering, right?" Flavio pointed out. "We could squeeze in a quest or two from the hospital while we're doing that."
Lynus was silent for a moment, his lips pressed together in thought. "You have a point. And we always need new materials...," he murmured before he sighed aloud and pressed his hand against his forehead. "Hah, sorry, I can't think of any at the top of my head at the moment. But there is another request board at the bar. One catered solely for the hospital. You should ask Cass more about it."
Flavio breathed a small sigh of relief when the inn came into view. "Hm, I will."
When he glanced over his shoulder again, his relief abruptly faded.
God, that guy was still the same unnerving distance behind them!
Flavio didn't like it. Not one little bit. He hadn't a clue what the guy wanted, but the fact that he had followed them silently the entire time, keeping pace with them while keeping a suspicious distance made him internally leery. If the guy followed them inside of the inn, he'd likely wait until Lynus was in his room to do anything. Flavio couldn't leave him alone. He needed to alert one of his guildmates.
Axel, preferably.
More worried than before, Flavio placed a hand on Lynus' back and urged him into the inn and toward the stairs that would take him up to his room. "Make sure you get some sleep, ok?"
"I will," Lynus reassured as he placed his hand against the railing of the stairs, subconsciously leaning against it. "Sorry for taking up your time."
"Not at all. Talk to you later."
"Yes, enjoy the rest of your day."
Flavio stayed by the foot of the stairs and watched as Lynus slowly, carefully, made his way up to the top before disappearing from view. With Lynus hopefully safe, Flavio glanced at the stalker guy from the corner of his eye.
It was just as he had feared. The asshole had followed them inside of the inn and was lingering near the entrance, seemingly pacing back and forth slightly as if waiting for someone. For something.
And when Flavio moved away from the stairs, the guy crept closer.
That was it. Flavio wasn't going to leave the inn until he told someone from the Guardians about that guy lingering too closely near the staircase. He was up to something and Flavio didn't want Lynus to find out what it was.
Flavio glanced around and his gaze immediately fell upon the blond-haired protector of the Guardians as he stepped out from the tea room and he felt a small rush of relief. He could tell Jhon about the suspicious guy before he left. He was more than certain that Jhon would ensure Lynus' safety.
"Hey, Jhon?" Flavio called out as he jogged over to him.
"Hm?" Jhon murmured as he lifted his head up and smiled politely when he saw it was him. "Ah, Flavio, what can I do for you?"
Flavio decided to get straight to the point. "I hope I'm just being paranoid, but you see that guy over there near the stairs?" he asked as he jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. "The one pretending to tie his shoelaces?"
Jhon's eyes flickered over Flavio's shoulder to where he had pointed before he turned to look back at him. "Did he do something?" he immediately asked with a tone of protectiveness in his voice.
"He followed Lynus from the café," Flavio explained and Jhon's eyes immediately narrowed in a rather fearsome way. "He didn't do anything, but he was keeping a suspicious distance and followed him all the way here. That's why I walked him back. He doesn't know this, though."
Jhon nodded his head almost absentmindedly as his gaze turned back to the creepy stalker guy. "Yes, good, thanks for the tip. We'll be sure to keep an eye on him."
With that, Flavio felt reassured and confident that Lynus was in safe hands. He better get back to the café before Fafnir started hunting for him, too.
… … … … …
It was nearing lunchtime when Flavio decided to head back to the inn, using the cover of completing another quick errand in order to check up on things there. He wanted to see if he was just being paranoid or whether or not his suspicions on the guy were well founded. He was worried about Lynus' safety, but he wasn't frantic with concern. If Axel was anything like Fafnir, the creepy stalker dude didn't stand a chance if he did try anything.
As Flavio drew closer to the inn, he was somewhat startled to see that a small crowd of people had gathered out the front near the entrance. And they seemed to be glancing over in one particular direction.
He turned to look as well. He furrowed his brow in confusion when he realised that they were staring at a trashcan. And that all he could see from the said trash can were a pair of boots sticking straight up into the air. And they were…attached to a person.
He wondered if…
Scanning the crowd, Flavio once again spied Jhon from the Guardians standing nearby. He also had Macerio with him, the brown-haired gunner crouched on the ground, holding his stomach…laughing? Jhon, on the other hand, looked somewhat exasperated, and though free of his armour he had his sword with him.
"Hey!" Flavio called out to the pair, immediately drawing Jhon's attention toward him. "Did something happen?"
"Unfortunately, that guy you told me about tried to force his way into Lynus' room," Jhon explained with a scowl on his face. However, his expression lightened and a smile appeared on his lips. "Fortunately, Axel happened to be there. I'm pretty sure you can guess the rest."
Hm, yeah, it didn't take a genius to guess what happened.
"No need to guess, I'll tell you!" Macerio suddenly said as he jumped up and spun around to face him with a large shit-eating grin on his lips. "Axel punched the guy in the face, slammed his head against a wall before throwing him out of a window! He then jumped out himself to drag the guy across the front lawn and dumped him into a trashcan!"
Flavio had to bite back a laugh at the image of an angry redhead dragging the guy by the leg across the ground, cussing the entire time, before hurling him into a garbage can with a loud clang. He couldn't help but smile, though, when he realised that Fafnir would likely do the exact same thing. He'd probably kick the can down a hill for good measure.
He would have loved to have seen the guy's expression when he found Axel in the room instead of just Lynus. The last thing to cross his mind would have surely been 'oh shit' before nothing but pain and fear.
Serves him right.
"Shame I missed that," Flavio commented idly before he turned his attention back to Jhon and a slight frown of concern appeared on his lips. "How's Lynus?"
"A little shaken up," Jhon replied as his smile faded a little into an expression of concern and his gaze flickered toward the inn. "He says he's fine, but he tends to keep his fears to himself for the sake of others."
Flavio tilted his head to the side and furrowed his brow slightly. There was a mild tone of…exasperation in Jhon's voice. "Why do I get the feeling this isn't the first time something like this has happened?"
Jhon turned back toward him and sighed as he rested his hand on the hilt of his sword that was strap to his side. "Lynus is quite talented as I'm sure you have heard. There are quite a few people who would love to get their hands on such a talented medic. By any means necessary."
Flavio looked at the blond in surprise. E-even going as far as to kidnap him?
Before he could verbally ask that question, though, Jhon smiled politely at him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Thanks for the tip, though. We owe you one."
But Flavio shook his head. "Oh no, I'm sure you would have done the same thing for anyone else."
