[FIN] Simple Swordplay

[BlackPidgeot]

"I didn't say that," Yuri blinked. "People are people."

He then paused as he was asked about Flynn. The man giving a long dramatic sigh before placing his hand on his hip.

"That's a long boring story."  

[Tymiko]

The girl gave Yuri a determined look. She sat herself down right where she was, criss-crossed her legs, and put her elbows on her knees, propping her chin up on clenched fists.

"I like stories, especially long, intricate ones. Let me be the judge if it's boring or not."  

[BlackPidgeot]

Yuri blinked once, then looked thoughtful. "Okay..." he said before sitting himself down too and leaning back against a tree, folding his arms behind his head.

He took a moment to think back, his eyes gazing distantly at the sky in silence.

"Well..." he started eventually. "When we were kids, we both lived in the poor part of town. I got picked on a lot by the other kids too..."

He could almost see the kids surrounding him and hear their taunts.

---

"What kinds of parents name their kid Yuri, anyway? Oh that's right, you don't have any!"

"Ha ha! Yeah, whoever left you here probably couldn't even tell if you were a boy or a girl!"

"I can't either! You're such a girl, Yuri."

"Look, I think he's gonna cry!"  

[Tymiko]

"Picked on?" Ty repeated, looking surprised. "Why?" She couldn't imagine what he'd be picked on for, save maybe his girlish looks, but as children, didn't all kids seem at least a little androgynous? "But you fought back, didn't you?"  

[BlackPidgeot]

"Not at first," Yuri admitted. "It hurt, and what hurt even more is that I knew they were right."

Even then he had long hair, refusing to let anyone cut it. So he did look more girlish than a lot of the other boys. Plus it was also true that he didn't have parents. He was just different from most of the kids and being different makes you a target.

"Then this blonde kid just came out of no where."

---

"Hey, leave him alone!"

"You gonna make us? Just cause your daddy's a soldier doesn't mean you can tell us what to do."

---

"They pissed him off pretty good and Flynn let 'em have it. Beat up one kid and chased the others off."  

[Tymiko]

"Right about what?" the girl wanted to know. "What'd they tease you about?" She listened eagerly as Yuri continued, however, understanding that this 'blonde kid' was Flynn. "Wow. That's pretty bold to do for someone you've never met."  

[BlackPidgeot]

"Well they would tease me about my looks and for being a poor and an orphan. Back then it use to bother me. But after Flynn and I became friends, he helped me figure out how to stick up for myself. Once I realized that I couldn't change who I am, and that there's nothing wrong with it, it stopped bothering me so much."

Yuri then grinned a little.

"Yeah, I know. It's part of what I like about him. We're both that way. Don't like to see other people suffer."  

[Tymiko]

"Mmm..." The girl smiled wistfully at the ground "That's a pretty cool story." Unfolding her legs, she pushed herself back up onto her feet. "So...you've never had any reason to doubt him?" she asked, going back over to her toy sword to pick it up.  

[BlackPidgeot]

"I wouldn't say that," Yuri said, still looking rather distant as he spoke.

"Things changed after his old man died. He was a real pain for a while."  

[Tymiko]

"What made things change between you two?" she asked, waving her sword around a bit, as if slashing at an invisible foe. Eventually, she walked over and playfully poked Yuri in the stomach with the tip. "Did you guys have some huge fight that brought you closer together than ever when you made up?" The girl laughed lightly, imagining the scenario.  

[BlackPidgeot]

Yuri laughed, "Nooot exactly." His face grew a little somber as he thought about it for a moment.

"Flynn's dad died, so he and his mom moved away. We didn't see each other again until the military academy. It was then that we didn't really get along."  

[Tymiko]

"Why didn't you get along then?" Ty asked, perplexed. "I'd have thought that after so long, you guys would have been happy to see each other again. Isn't it said that 'distance makes the heart grow fonder' and that 'familiarity breeds contempt'?"  

[BlackPidgeot]

"Yeah you would think. But by then we both had very different ideas about things. Flynn was also too busy trying to be the perfect soldier and being angry about his dad. We didn't really see eye to eye until some pretty bad stuff happened."

He then rolled his shoulders. "Then after that I guess the rest was history. There's still things we don't agree about but if we did it would be pretty boring."  

[Tymiko]

The girl sighed miserably. "I wish people didn't have to grow up. They change too much. It's like the person they used to be is lost forever. I hate it when people change," she said bitterly. "It's like I don't know them anymore...so I pretend not to."

Raising her brows, she frowned. "Do you think if you hadn't known each other before - maybe if you had just met in the military for the first time - that you would have been as close with him as you are today? Because of all the bad stuff that happened that made you see eye-to-eye, I mean."  

[BlackPidgeot]

"It's hard to say..." Yuri admitted, turning his gaze to the sky thoughtfully once more.

"Bad things can bring people together, and it did with our brigade. Its because of things happening in our lives that make us change, for the better or not."