Man's Best Friend

Yuri hated visiting the castle. He always felt vaguely like a class traitor just by stepping foot inside. It didn't help that getting access was a hassle in itself. Some of the knights on guard remembered him from when he was in the Knights last year, which smoothed things slightly, but there was still a frustrating wait between asking to be let in to meet with Flynn and actually getting that permission granted.

Someone led him toward the Knight's training ground and told him to wait outside next to some columns. Yuri sighed and leaned against the pillar, crossing his arms. How long would this take? Every minute spent standing around was a minute wasted.

It took five minutes for Flynn to show up. He looked smart in his fancy new lieutenant's uniform and wore a genial smile as he approached. "Afternoon, Yuri. I was told a visitor from the lower quarter wanted to speak with me. Something wrong at home?"

Yuri cut right to the chase. "Have you seen Repede today?"

"Repede?" Flynn frowned. "No, I haven't seen him in weeks. Why?"

Damn. He should have known this was a waste of time. Or maybe he'd known Flynn wouldn't have any information and just wanted to talk to him about this. "Repede didn't come home last night. I went looking, but by the time I realized it was far too late for an ordinary delay, it was too dark. I've been searching the streets since dawn, but…." Yuri's throat tightened. He didn't want to admit how worried he was, but he hadn't slept well last night due to the nightmares. They'd largely involved abandoned pipes and bloody collars.

"Oh, no…." Flynn grimaced. His next words tried to be encouraging: "I'm sure he's fine. Repede is a tough dog."

"I know, but…." But he was still barely out of puppyhood, and it had only been three months ago that there'd been that accident with his eye.

Flynn looked over his shoulder, back the way he'd come. He deliberated for a few seconds, and then met Yuri's eyes with a familiar stubbornness. "Give me a few minutes to talk to my superior. I've done enough overtime to ask for the afternoon off. I'll help you look for him."

Yuri appreciated Flynn's company, though he wasn't sure if it was worth Flynn taking the afternoon off work. All he could do was add another voice of, "Repede! Repeeeede!" as they roamed the streets.

"This is pointless." Yuri kicked a can and glared at its bounce along the street. "I've been this way before.

"We'll find him." Flynn sounded more confident than he looked.

Yuri couldn't stop thinking of the last time Repede came home late with his eye torn up and fur matted with blood. Come to think of it, that had been the last time he'd seen Flynn, too. Had it really been three whole months? For so many years, they saw each other consistently throughout the day, every day, and now Yuri hadn't spoken to Flynn in months. He'd thought that nothing would change between them when he left the knights, but he saw how naive that was now. As if their frustrations with the other's choices weren't enough, there was the simple fact that Flynn was busy in the castle all the time while Yuri hung out in the lower quarter. They just didn't have reason to see each other anymore. It troubled him to think that the only reason he and Flynn were friends had been that they saw each other every day.

But he had other things to worry about now. As hard as it would be, he could deal with losing his friendship with Flynn if he at least had Repede. The dog had been his constant companion in this past year since he and Flynn parted ways, and in many respects, he'd become a replacement. In many other respects, he was even better than Flynn: he never criticized Yuri's cooking or talked back when Yuri complained about things.

And now he was gone. Where could he be? Repede wouldn't wander out of the city, would he? The thought made sick with worry. He'd had play fights with Repede, but that didn't change the fact that he was practically still a puppy. Repede still tripped over his paws when he forgot how big they were now. He couldn't handle a monster fight all alone. The mental image of his dog barking and bristling at a wolf twice his size made Yuri's chest hurt.

"Have you searched the public quarter?" Flynn asked.

Yuri looked up. "No, actually. Repede usually keeps his wanderings to the lower quarter." When they first moved in, Yuri had to carry Repede up the stairs to his room because the little puppy was awkward and nervous climbing stairs. Back then, he could easily carry the little guy under his arm while Repede looked down, wagged his tail, and barked at the stairs he was flying over. A couple of months later, he was big enough - and coordinated enough - to climb them himself, but he still avoided stairs unless he had to. Yuri took it as a given that Repede never went up one of the many staircases to the public quarter, but perhaps he'd decided on a challenge?

"Let's look. It can't hurt, right?"

Yuri nodded and followed Flynn toward the nearest road leading out of the lower quarter. He felt a pang as he went up the steps and imagined Repede putting his front paws on it, barking, and looking up at him with a wagging tail and nervous eyes. That little dog was a lot bigger now, and he prayed he saw him again.

They walked along the main street of the public quarter, calling Repede's name and asking any shop venders if they'd seen a blue dog with one eye today. All they got were a lot of shakes of the head.

"Are you sure you haven't seen him?" Flynn asked a fishmonger. "He's about this high, with blue and white fur. One of his eyes is scared over and he was probably carrying a pipe."

"I told you," the man snapped. "I ain't seen no dog. What are the Knights doing looking for stray dogs, anyway? What's next, are my tax dollars gonna pay you guys to get kitties out of trees?"

Yuri started to move forward, but Flynn, without even looking at him, put a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you for your assistance, sir."

The man snorted as they walked away. Yuri glared back over his shoulder, but the man wasn't paying attention. He supposed the man was just grumpy because the building behind his stall was being demolished, kicking up a lot of dust and driving customers away. That didn't give him the right to be an unhelpful ass, though. "What a jerk," he muttered.

"He had a point," Flynn said mildly. "Perhaps I should have changed out of my uniform before starting the search. It must look odd for a lieutenant to spend the whole day looking for a dog."

"Who cares what people think? You'd have spent twenty minutes picking an outfit."

"Appearances matter, Yuri. If I want to rise through the ranks, I need to make a good impression on people."

Yuri was not in the mood to argue about this again. Had they always argued every time they had a conversation? Surely not if they saw each other every single day. Sure, they'd bickered a lot in their childhood, but the arguments seemed to come faster and more heated in the past year. Maybe that was why they saw each other so rarely these days. In any case, he knew he was far too testy from worrying about Repede to even hope an argument could end peacefully.

Flynn seemed to be having the same thoughts. "Let's split up. You search the neighbourhood east of Short Street, and I'll take the one to the west. We'll cover more ground and meet up back here at sunset."

Yuri agreed and Flynn walked away. Before heading off in his own assigned direction, Yuri climbed onto a planter next to a lamppost and tried calling again with his hands cupped over his mouth. "Repeeede! C'mere, Repede!" All he heard in response was the trundling of carts and the din of shoppers, some of whom gave him annoyed looks for shouting.

"You gonna keep disturbing the peace?" the fishmonger shouted from his stall. "Your dog's not here, mate."

Yuri gave the man a dirty look. He noticed a couple starting to walk toward the fishmonger and he called, "Hey, did you guys know there was an outbreak of poisonous algae off the coast?"

The young woman looked up at him, startled. "I beg your pardon?"

"Yeah, contaminated all the fish around here. Terrible. Oh well, guess we'll have to stick to chicken for a little while." Well aware that the fishmonger had a knife at his stall, Yuri hopped off the planter and took off before anything else could happen.

Yuri roamed the neighbourhood. He called Repede's name, he shouted offerings of cookies and treats to the sky, he asked anyone he saw if they'd seen a dog recently, but there was no sign of a single blue hair. When the sky began to grey, Yuri's stomach tied itself in knots. It had been twenty-four hours now since he'd first starting wondering where Repede was.

Repede wouldn't do this. He had an excellent nose and could always find his way home, and he and Yuri had become an inseparable pair in the past year. There had to be a reason he hadn't come home - something had to have happened to him. Could he be hurt? Did some kidnap him - rather, dognap?

He wanted to keep looking. He kept thinking that every time he turned a corner he'd see a flash of a tail. He must have rounded a hundred corners today, though, and still there was nothing. The sun was going down and it was time to rendezvous with Flynn. He toyed with the idea that Flynn had found Repede, but he knew the pair of them would have come running to find him if he had.

With nothing else to do, Yuri forced himself to turn around and begin the walk back. He couldn't help but feel that this was giving up. Dammit. This was all his fault. He'd thought Repede was old enough to roam the streets on his own, and look what happened. What a terrible pet owner he was. What had he expected when he'd taken the dog in? Yuri was the guy that couldn't even keep a potted plant alive, and he expected to take care of a dog? He was so useless. He'd let Repede hurt his eye, too. Repede would have been better off staying with Flynn in the Knights rather than coming to live with a stupid, useless owner who couldn't even protect a damn puppy!

He kicked a rock so hard it hurt his toes, but he welcomed the pain. Anything to distract him from the painful, heavy guilt that said he was giving up and he should stay out looking for Repede longer. Why, though? It was obvious he wasn't around. He was probably - and Yuri squeezed his eyes shut for a moment - dead. Hit by a cart or something. And then his body was dumped in the trash because who cared about street dogs?

Blastia light from the lamp shone on Flynn's armour when Yuri approached. He stood stock still, eyes peering out at the lights coming to life in the windows across the promenade. He looked to Yuri, and they didn't have to say anything.

Flynn's whole body slumped with his sigh. "I'm sorry, Yuri."

"Yeah." Yuri fell into a seat on the planet. His legs felt hollow and unable to support him. He'd lost his dog. Some pet owner he was. He'd lost his dog. The words kept rebounding in his head as his brain fought against accepting them. It didn't seem like that long ago he was just a puppy yapping at Yuri's heels….

"Maybe he got lost." Flynn sat next to Yuri. "Maybe someone found him and took him in and he doesn't know how to get out of their house."

"Yeah. Maybe." Yuri crossed his arms on his lap and leaned forward. At least the fishmonger had closed up his shop for the night. It was cooler and quieter than it had been earlier, which Yuri appreciated. He couldn't face a crowd of cheerful shoppers right now.

They sat in silence as the street darkened and emptied. Platitudes about how Repede was surely safe and sound somewhere else in the city would just make Yuri feel more hollow. The moon was starting to rise when Yuri slumped forward, let out a tense breath, and then dug his fingers into his hair. "What am I doing?"

"Hm?"

"I left the Knights because I didn't feel like it was changing things fast enough. I wanted to do things my own way. But I… I can't even take care of a damn dog, and I wanted to help the whole empire? What a joke."

"It isn't your fault Repede went missing."

Flynn didn't use the word 'dead', but Yuri felt it. He was still convinced that getting hit by a cart was the most logical answer. "A lot of things aren't my fault, but that doesn't mean I couldn't have stepped in and fixed them."

"There's always a place for you back in the Knights." The words hung in the night.

Yuri sighed and raised his head. "No, there's not. The Knights don't need someone so useless they can't even keep a dog alive for more than a year."

There was another long silence. Flynn understood that Yuri didn't want to be comforted right now. That was the thing, wasn't it? They fought and disagreed until the cows came home, but at the end of the day, they knew each other like one hand anticipates the other.

"Yuri… I understand why you left the Knights."

"Yippee."

"Maybe the reason I keep asking you to join again is because it's lonely without you around."

Yuri could relate to that. This morning had been painful, and that had only been the start. It was amazing how empty a bed could feel when there had been a dog at the foot of it for three hundred and sixty five mornings prior. "That it? Softy."

"Or maybe I'm upset because I know why someone like you can't stand to work in the Knights, and I'm angry I can't make them tolerable for you yet."

"You should visit the lower quarter more often."

"Yeah. I should." He said that every time Yuri suggested it, which was every time they met. The visits were only getting less frequent. Yuri told himself this was a good thing; it meant Flynn was getting more responsibilities at the castle.

"I understand why you stayed in the Knights." Even if he didn't like it sometimes and wanted to punch every person in a uniform, Flynn included.

"I'll stay at the Comet tonight, if you want."

It would be nice to not go home to an empty room, but, "Nah, you should get back to the castle. You've taken enough time off already. You need to be there bright-eyed and perky-tailed tomorrow-"

"Yuri." Flynn grabbed his knee.

"Eh?"

"Listen."

Yuri raised his head and heard the breeze. He heard crickets beginning their nightly serenade. He heard -

"Is that…?"

A low whine drifted to the street. It was so soft, he wouldn't have been able to hear it earlier today when the street was packed with shoppers and carts. Yuri was on his feet in a second. "Where's it coming from?"

The whine - more like a whimper which made his heart throb - came again, and this time Yuri whirled to place it. "There!" He jabbed a finger at the lot with the half-demolished house. Without waiting for a response from Flynn, Yuri ran forward. The call of distress from his dog pulled him forward like a fish on a line.

"Repede! Repede?!" It occurred to him that it might not be Repede. It could be any dog, after all. Except he knew it wasn't. He recognized his dog's voice like a mother could pick out her baby's crying.

Away from the street, the light from blastia was dim. On the other side of the lot, Flynn called for Repede as well, both of them scrambling over fallen beams and piles of brick in their search.

"Repede!"

A tiny woof in response. Yuri whirled around and there, under a pile of collapsed drywall in the corner of the lot, was a shadowy shape, faintly moving. "Repede! Flynn, I found him!" Yuri ran forward and fell to his knees into soft mud. His hands came down on fur and Repede let out a relieved whine as Yuri rubbed his ears.

"What are you doing down here? Where have you been?"

Flynn's footsteps squelched in the mud. "You found him? Thank heavens!"

Yuri squinted through the darkness but was able to make out a long wooden beam beneath the drywall. It lay perpendicular to Repede, just behind his body. Yuri grimaced when he saw Repede's back leg behind him, sandwiched between the beam and the mud.

"He's stuck. It must have fallen on him and he couldn't get out."

"I'll lift the beam."

Yuri remained on the ground, rubbing the fur on Repede's neck, while Flynn shoved the drywall aside and grabbed the beam. It only took slight straight for him to lift it and Repede wriggled out as soon as his foot was free. With a joyful bark, he leapt at Yuri and pushed him backward into the mud.

"Repede!" Yuri laughed as the muddy dog covered his face in slobber. Between high pitched whines and low whimpers, Repede didn't seem to know what he was feeling except that he wanted to cover Yuri in as many kisses as possible. His whole body weight was on top of Yuri now, but with all his guilt and fear alleviated, he felt weightless.

"I feel terrible. He must have heard us calling for him this afternoon, but wasn't strong enough to make himself heard." Flynn crouched next to Yuri smiling as he watched Yuri and Repede fight to lay affection on the other. "I assume he got caught yesterday evening. He's been there for more than a day." Flynn reached out and rubbed Repede's side. This finally got Repede's attention off Yuri long enough to let Flynn know his help was appreciated too.

Yuri sat up, rubbing slobber off his face with his sleeve, and wondered how Flynn felt about his uniform getting covered in muddy paw prints. By the way he was smiling, he didn't seem to mind.

"Let's get home," Yuri said. "I'm sure you're hungry, Repede. What do you say? Ready for dinner?" Repede's attention snapped back to Yuri at the mention of the D-word. There were only a few words that could garner a stronger reaction, including 'cookie' and 'out'.

Repede barked and started to bound toward the street, but the first time his weight came down on his back leg, he stumbled into the mud with a distressed yelp.

"Ah! Repede, take it easy." Yuri hurried to Repede's side, where the dog was now twisted around and licking his leg. "Hey, slow down," Yuri said gently and rubbed his head. "Your foot is hurt pretty bad, but I'll give you an apple gel when we get home, alright? Why don't I carry you."

Yuri lifted Repede in his arms. There was a time when he could lift the dog in one arm, but today he scooped him up with both and held him tightly against his chest. The weight was almost too much for him, but he could handle it on the short walk to the Comet.

Flynn said goodbye at the foot of the stairs. He scratched Repede's ears again and then went home muttering about needing to do laundry. Yuri steeled himself for the last leg of the trip, where he had to carry eighty pounds of muddy dog up a narrow staircase.

"This was easier when you were a puppy." Repede whined and Yuri smiled at him. "What's that? You're still a puppy? No way, you're a grown up dog now. Look how big you are."

Upstairs, Yuri took care of Repede. He gave him both emergency apple gels that were in his cupboard and left him with a bowl of kibble and some pieces of ground chicken to eat while he set up a bath. Repede usually hated it whenever he saw Yuri drag the tin bathtub onto the outside landing and fill it with soapy water, but he seemed to be so grateful to be home that he didn't even attempt to escape the tub while Yuri scrubbed all the mud off of him.

When Repede was dried off and his foot wrapped in bandages, Yuri declared it bedtime. It had been a long and stressful day for both of them, and he'd been up early. Lately, Yuri had been trying to convince Repede he was getting too big to sleep on the bed with him, but tonight, he lifted him onto the mattress without even a pleading look.

"This is just for tonight," Yuri said sternly, climbing into bed himself. "Don't get used to this."

Repede sighed in contentment and thumped his tail on the blanket.

Yuri pulled his blanket up and got comfortable. Today had ended so much better than it had begun. As he started to get comfortable, the weight of Repede's head came to rest on his ankles. Together, they went to sleep.