Title: Strange Encounters

Summary: Flavio encounters a rather…unusual ronin. And meets his son…and husband?

Pairings: A very slight Shiki/Gerald if you want to see it that way.

AN: It's been a while since I've written these Guardian Chronicles, but after reading this I'm sure you'll understand why I waited~ Hope you enjoy nonetheless!


It was nearing sunset as Flavio stepped out of the café to change the menu on the street sign once again. Though he had spent the entirety of the day at the café helping out with customer service, something Regina still needed lessons in, he certainly hadn't been bored.

He had spent the breakfast rush keeping Lynus company as he rested up from a long day at the hospital and an non-too gentle shove by some jerk in a hurry, causing him to stumble into the gutter outside the café, hurting his ankle and hand. Lynus was a delight to speak with, so it wasn't like it was a chore chatting with him. He wasn't even bothered when Axel all but stormed into the café with a scowl of concern on his face.

Naturally, the first thing Axel asked was whether Lynus was ok, to which Lynus himself answered with a gentle and comforting, but firm nonetheless 'yes'. And the second thing Axel asked, directly to Flavio this time, whether or not he knew the bastard responsible.

With visions of legs sticking straight out of a trashcan flickering through his mind, Flavio honestly wished he did get a better look at the jerk. But he was too busy worrying for Lynus' wellbeing to get a profile on the guy. While that answer didn't fully subdue Axel's understandable protectiveness, it did calm him somewhat.

Though, regardless of the lack of a description, Flavio couldn't help but feel that the Guardians would be able to track the guy down. His days were obviously numbered. The best thing for him to do was to skip town and never return.

Unconcerned by the customers of the café gossiping around them, Axel crouched in front of Lynus, one hand on his leg, the other resting on the back of the chair which he sat upon. He leaned in close to him, their faces inches apart as they spoke softly to each other.

Flavio hadn't a clue what they spoke about. It was none of his business, after all, and he had politely took a step back to give the two some kind of privacy. After a few minutes, Axel stood up and grabbed Lynus' bag, slinging it over his shoulder.

After ensuring that Lynus was ok to be moved, to remove the icepack from his ankle, Axel thanked Flavio for watching over Lynus again before he promptly, and effortlessly, picked the all too slender medic up into his arms. There was no hesitation, not a moment to consider how they were going to help Lynus back to the inn – he just picked him up and held him close. Cradled him. As if…he was the most important thing to ever existed.

It…

Flavio felt a slight tug of envy when he once again realised just how loving and comfortable Lynus and Axel were with each other. In broad daylight. In public. Though Lynus had blushed lightly when Axel lifted him up into his arms, it wasn't necessarily from embarrassment. Shyness, but embarrassment. The warm smile on his lips and the sheer fondness in his gaze was telling; this has happened before. Numerous times, most likely. And neither of them cared in the slightest who was around to see them.

With another apology from Lynus and a word of thanks from Axel, the two turned and left the café.

And soon after that, just as he had anticipated, Flavio had to deal with a needy and clingy Fafnir who wanted his full and undivided attention. And fending him off took up most of his day after that.

While Flavio didn't mind that Fafnir was doing little sulky and childish things to gain his attention, it was cute and endearing after all. He just wished that he wouldn't poke his most sensitive weak points after he perceived him to be ignoring him. Flavio was sick of getting either odd or amused looks from the customers each and every time he uttered a high-pitched 'eek!' of surprise.

That little smug smirk Fafnir would grant him each and every time was also rather annoying.

An unsettling trill suddenly racing down his spine caused Flavio to lift his head up and look around at the street once more. He couldn't quite put his finger on what he was feeling, but it felt like to him that he was…well sensing, for a lack of a better word, a powerful presence. Not that of the monster kind, though. The human kind. As if…there was a veteran explorer near.

As he glanced around, somewhat nervously, his gaze soon settled on two figures walking along his side of the street. One human, the other canine.

The man appeared to be that of a ronin. And he appeared menacing; deep scars on his chest that seemed to reach all the way round to his back, heavy bandages around his left arm, golden gauntlets on his wrists and forearms, and a long blade within reach by his side. And his eyes were narrowed and red, and piercing. His hair an ashen grey and his face hard chiselled with a scruffy beard.

And walking alongside him, head low and ears perked was a wolf with unusual bluish grey fur, quite large, easily reaching the man's waist. Though not nearly as big as Chi-hung from the Guardians, it did appear larger than Wulfgar from the Beowulf guild.

He, along with his wolf companion, looked like someone you wouldn't want to mess with.

M-maybe he should just dart back inside the cafe?

But before Flavio could contemplate what he should do, the wolf suddenly lifted its head to look at him, pitch black eyes staring directly at him. It flicked its ear back before suddenly darting forward at an incredible speed, to lunge forward, directly at him! Flavio managed to utter out a surprise "wah!" before the wolf barrelled into him, front paws on his chest and open mouth inches away from his face. The force and the suddenness of the attack caused Flavio to fall backward, landing heavily on the ground, winding him immediately, where the wolf than proceeded to…

Whine excitedly and sloppily lick his face?!

W-what in the world?! He had never seen this wolf before in his life! Why was it acting like it was so excited to see him?

A surprising bellowing laugh of pure amusement cut through the air as Flavio tried to push the overly affectionate wolf off of him. "Now, Farley, what did I say about not jumping on strangers? No matter how adorable they are!"

With a low, seemingly disappointed whine, the wolf that had to be named Farley stopped attempting to lick Flavio's face and prompted got off of him, leaving him dazed, confused, and rather dirty. As soon as the wolf had scrambled away, though, Flavio felt a pair of hands suddenly grab him from under his arms. For a split second he was alarmed, but he soon recognised them to belong to none other than Fafnir, so didn't struggle when he hauled him to his feet.

"Are you all right?" Fafnir promptly asked him as he thankfully gave Flavio a hand towel to wipe the, ah, doggy drool from his face before he narrowed his eyes in the stranger's directly, glaring at him protectively.

"Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry," Flavio immediately responded in hopes of cooling Fafnir's protectiveness toward him and quickly wiped the remnants of the salvia from his face and neck before he turned to look at the ronin as well.

The man…he honestly didn't look as intimidating now. Not the way he was playfully chiding his wolf companion. Bent down at the waist, he scratched the top of Farley's head, the wolf wagging its tail so energetically, that its back legs and butt were actually wiggling. Stark contrast to when he felt laid eyes on them.

"Sorry about Farley, yeah?" the man abruptly said as he stood to his full height and smiled broadly at Flavio with his hands planted on his hips. "Four years old, but still an overly excited pup. Reminds me of my own son!"

"Oh, ah, no harm done," Flavio said in response while Fafnir remained silent and on guard next to him, still eying the man off warily. Oddly, though, the ronin didn't seem at all perturbed by Fafnir's narrowed eyes. Either that or he was oblivious to his glare?

The man parted his lips to say something else when another voice, one that was unfamiliar and yet Flavio sworn he had heard somewhere before, interrupted him. "Shiki!"

The ronin immediately snapped his mouth shut and turned slightly to look over his shoulder. Out of sheer habit, and maybe even a bit of curiosity, Flavio turned to look as well, and watched as two men, one dressed in a brown gunner's coat and the other with striking blue hair and numerous small bandages on his face and neck.

Flavio somewhat recognised the two men, though he hadn't been introduced to them formally. He was fairly certain, however, that this blue-haired landsknecht was the infamous blue-haired 'dumbass' he had heard rumours about. The one they called Simmons of guild Cosmos. And the other was…Gerald? His long-suffering guardian? Or was that uncle? He couldn't remember exactly.

He also recognised them from that little incident that his guild didn't believe actually happened in the labyrinth. Yeah, that one. The one with the landsknecht and hexer riding a giant moa.

That one.

"There you are," the gunner said with a frown, and yet there appeared to be an expression of…relief in his eyes. "How many times have I told you not to go roaming without telling me?"

"Ah, I'm sorry, dear Gerald," the man called Shiki all but cooed unexpectedly, earning a flush and a huff from the other man. "But give me a sec, yeah?" he said before he turned his attention back to Flavio.

"Hurry up, dad, I'm starving!" Simmons complained with a disgruntled pout on his lips.

Shiki immediately whipped around and planted one of his hands on his hip while the other waved exuberantly with the other. "Hi Starving, I'm dad!"

The pout on Simmons' lips abruptly disappeared and he smiled widely, exuberant and overly cheerful.

The two of them then proceeded to sniggered to each other, completely oblivious to both Flavio and Fafnir, and of Gerald who had his hand covering his face in the most exasperated way possible. It was probably a good thing the two were so oblivious to those around them, as Flavio knew beyond doubt that he was staring incredulous at the two.

Flavio never really had a father figure growing up, but was this…a father-son bonding moment?

Simmons turned away from his, er, dad, though he remained smiling. He seemed to glance idly in Flavio's direction before doing a double-take and, unexpectedly, his smile broadened as if he recognised him.

"Oh, hey, you're that guy from the labyrinth!"

Flavio blinked at him before he gave him a nervous and lopsided smile. "Y-yeah, that's right. When you were…riding that giant moa, right?" He then glanced over at Gerald, who of which had his brow furrowed, as if trying to recall when that event took place. "And you were being chased by two gunners on foot."

Immediately after he said that, Gerald's frown was replaced with an expression of realisation. Before resignation. And then sheer exasperation. Oh yeah, he remembered it now.

Shiki abruptly threw his head back on a loud, boisterous laugh as Gerald dragged his hand over his face in such a way that it appeared that an hour didn't go by without him doing so at least once. And Simmons, for his part, just kept smiling, seemingly oblivious to everything.

"That's my boy," Shiki cheered as he slapped Simmons on the back before lopping his arm around his neck to drag him closer. "Next, we'll aim for a fire drake. That should impress our little dark hunter, right?"

"Yeah!"

Flavio blinked. Dark hunter? Wait…they weren't talking about Squirrel, er, Rahas, were they?

"Ah, how rude of me," Shiki suddenly stated as he slipped his arm from around Simmons' neck and turned to give Flavio and Fafnir his full focus. "I haven't introduced myself, have I? I am Shiki, member of Guild Cosmos," he said in a professional manner before breaking out into a wide grin. "But everyone calls me dad!"

Flavio wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that, so he simply smiled politely. "Oh, it's nice to meet you. My name is Flavio," he said before he tapped his knuckles against the centre of Fafnir's chest to indicate toward him. "And this is Fafnir. We're members of the Midgard Library."

"Pleasure to meet you," Shiki said in a good-natured, friendly manner that actually gave the indication that he was being truthful and he reached around Simmons to clasp Gerald by the shoulder and tugging him forward. "This is Gerald, my husband."

Flavio blinked while Gerald bristled and blushed at the same time. "Stop telling everyone that!"

Shiki, however, ignored him as he dropped his hand from Gerald's shoulder to instead place both his hands on Simmons' shoulders and positioned him in such a way in front of them that it appeared that he was proudly showing him off. "My tall son, Simmons."

"Hi!" Simmons said cheerfully as he waved at them.

Flavio practically heard Fafnir blink in a stoically bemused manner while Flavio himself returned the wave with a small, nervous wiggle of his fingers.

Completely unperturbed but the lack of response, Shiki then reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small leather bound wallet, the kind that kept important notes or documents. But as he flipped it open, he revealed that he was using it as a sort of pocket sized photo album. He flipped through a few of the photos before he pulled one out and lifted it up, all but shoving it into Flavio's face.

"This is my small son, Lynus," Shiki said proudly.

Even though he instinctively took a step back, Flavio nearly had to go cross-eyed to get a practical look of the photo, and when the image came into focus, he felt his eyebrows reach up toward his hairline. The photo was that of Lynus, seemingly taken without warning as he sat at a table or desk that was covered in notebooks and folders. He was looking toward the camera, but appeared startled. Though rather cutely, but startled nonetheless.

Flavio…wasn't entirely sure what to think of that. Surely this man wasn't Lynus' real father? No, he must simply mean adoptive. Yeah, that sounded right. From what he heard from Hrothgar, a few people were protective of the medic and some even consider him as a son or brother to them.

Still, he was…curious to say the least. Maybe he should ask Lynus about it later.

Flavio didn't have any more time to dwell on it when Shiki shoved another photo into his face. "And my emo son, Rahas."

Flavio blinked and looked at the picture. Unexpectedly, the corner of his mouth twitched into a smirk. It was a picture of Rahas alright, and he was glaring with such utter hatred at the camera as someone out of shot pulled back his hair from his eyes to allow for a clear view of his entire scowling face.

Heh, emo. Glad to know he wasn't the only one to think so.

Shiki then proceeded to shove two more photos into his face. "And my spacy daughter, Kerri, and my angry daughter, Tiffany."

Flavio didn't immediately recognise the two until a few seconds later when he realised that he had seen the small hexer girl riding the same giant moa as Simmons, and the blonde-haired gunner was the one who was chasing them on foot with Gerald.

"You…have lovely children?" Flavio muttered while Fafnir, having thankfully remained silent and not utter a single sarcastic retort during this entire time, snorted loudly.

"Oh, you've met my kids?" Shiki asked as he carefully placed his photos back into his wallet and into his back pocket.

"Well, really only Lynus and Squi-Rahas," Flavio answered. "Lynus is just a really lovely person. And Rahas…really likes trees?"

"And windows!" Shiki added with a wide grin. "Learnt from the best!"

Next to him, Flavio felt Fafnir twitch and he knew, he just knew that Fafnir was about to say something sarcastic. He had been silent for too long.

So Flavio stomped on his foot before Fafnir could utter a word, instead causing him to lowly grunt in pain while Flavio smiled politely at Shiki once more. He tried to ignore the pout from Fafnir as he wracked his brain on what to say to the other man, debating whether to invite them inside the café for dinner, which would have been the polite thing to do. Or to excuse him and Fafnir so that they could get back to work within said café.

But just as Flavio chose to be polite there was another voice, one that was laughing. Mockingly. Childishly.

"Ah-hah! Though you have my meat-shield, er, Herald's attention now, my eternal rival, rest assured that before the night is through, he would belong to I, Benedict Richardson the Third!"

Flavio winced while Fafnir bristled. Oh no…not again. Did he mistake Fafnir for Rahas again? How could anyone make such a mistake twice? Sure, Lynus said he had very poor eyesight, but he couldn't be that blind, could he?

Unexpectedly, Shiki's cheerful face creased into a fearsome scowl as his eye twitched violently. "That little Dick…" he all but hissed as he bristled.

Sure enough, as they all turned in the direction of the high-pitched voice, they watched as a certain green haired, starry eyed child perch himself dramatically atop of a small stone feature wall outside of the café. And, with an all too dramatic flair of his rich, royal cape, he brandished his sceptre in their collective direction.

"Now, my unequalled rival, I, Benedict Richardson the Third, challenge you to a duel at ten paces!"

All Flavio could think, though, was; here we go again

However, moving at a lightning pace, Shiki stood directly in front of Benedict and clamped his hand atop of Benedict's head. And he was holding him up off the ground as he loomed menacingly over him.

"Heathen swine!" Benedict actually shouted without a tremor of fear in his voice as he clasped onto Shiki's wrist with his hands and immediately kicked and flailed with his legs. "How dare you lay a hand on I, Benedict Richardson the Third! I will have your head!"

"The only thing you'll be doing is clawing your way out of the Lagaardian sewer system," Shiki said in a low and terrifying voice as he glared at the struggling kid with unrelenting eyes.

"I, Benedict Richardson the Third, will not be threatened by your petty threats!" Benedict said defiantly.

"Shiki!" Gerald abruptly chided loudly. "Put him down!"

Shiki, however, kept a firm grip on Benedict's head, unflinching even as Benedict kicked and squirmed, shrilling loudly and honestly rather incoherently about the audacity and indignity of it all. "But Gerald…!" he actually whined.

"Don't you 'But Gerald' me!" the gunner quickly returned as he stomped over to him. "For heaven's sake, he's just a kid!"

"But he's an obnoxious kid!"

"So were you at that age! God!"

"Unhand me, you uneducated swine!"

"Quiet, kid, I'm trying to save your neck!"

"You're my husband! You're supposed to be on my side!"

"Stop saying that!"

Flavio looked at the scene before turning his head to look at Fafnir, to find him already looking at him. They exchanged glances, Flavio silently mouthing "Should we help?" to him while Fafnir simply shrugged.

This…probably happened a lot, right? Better not get involved, yeah?

"Isn't my dad the greatest?" Simmons suddenly asked, his question directed toward Flavio.

Flavio paused for a moment as he tried to think of the right word for the ronin. Honestly, when he first laid eyes on him, he found him menacing and intimidating. Goes to show that you really couldn't judge a book by its cover. Especially not around High Lagaard, anyway.

"He's certainly a character," Flavio honestly answered, which was thankfully a good enough reply as Simmons beamed at him once more.

"He had disappeared for ten years, but now that he's back it was like he never left!" Simmons surprisingly revealed before he started to ramble further. "He had to leave to protect Rahas and Lynus for a while, so that was why he was gone, but he's back now, so it's ok!"

Flavio gaped at him silently for a moment…Protect? Protect Lynus and Rahas from what? Or who?

However, before he could ask, or before Simmons could admit anything more, he abruptly turned and wandered over to where Shiki and Gerald were still arguing, and where Benedict was still lifted off the group by a single hand, flailing and shrieking in a highly 'unroyal' manner.

Flavio wasn't entirely sure what to think about Shiki or about Simmons. They were…an unusual guild, that was for sure.

Maybe he should just talk to Lynus about it? But…be was once again reluctant to do so. Simmons said Shiki was needed to protect Lynus and Rahas. What exactly did he mean by that? Did he mean that literally? And if he did…

Asking Lynus about it might dredge up too many painful memories. And after seeing that faraway look of pain in Lynus' eyes that morning, he didn't want to do that to the gentle medic.

So…perhaps it was best to keep his curiosity to himself for now.

"Husband, huh?" Fafnir unexpectedly muttering pulled Flavio from his musings.

Flavio immediately turned to look at him, only to find Fafnir holding his chin with a deeply contemplative expression on his face. Flavio parted his lips to ask him what he was mumbling, what he was thinking about, but quickly shut his mouth. It was probably better he didn't know what Fafnir was thinking about. If that preoccupied look in his eyes was anything to go by. That was Fafnir's plotting and scheming face.

And Flavio had learnt from experience that nothing good came from that look.