okay so (warning for some spoilers btw) i was in the shower and the brainworms started eating me with this idea of having known flins ever since you were a child wandering out to play all alone and coming across a very tall, rather strange looking man who, if he weren’t so eerily calm, would perhaps make you flee in fear of being consumed by one of the many monsters you know roam freely over the land. your family had warned you never to stray too far in your eagerness, and yet there you were, standing before a complete and total stranger.
he says hello and inquires about whether or not you are lost and perhaps looking for someone, and when you say no, no one in particular, he politely urges you to be more cautious and seek a place to play much closer to safety. while you know there is truth to his words, you now can’t help but feel somewhat grateful for this odd yet courteous man you’ve discovered who intrigues you so, sapping the aimless boredom from your bones simply by existing in these woods. you don’t tell anyone about having met him.
and against most everyone’s wishes but your own, you wander out in hopes you’ll find him again so that he’ll so softly tell you what a mistake it is, and it takes several weeks or perhaps even months, but you do finally see him once more, and this time you so astutely make a guess as to what he is (“you’re not a monster… are you one of the fae?”) and he confirms, telling you of his name—a long entanglement of syllables that has trouble settling upon your youthful tongue, until he ponders for a moment and simply insists that, rather than “mr. fae,” you call him “flins.”
(you are the first to call him by this name.)
ever your secret, you seek him out all through your youth, only happening upon him once in a blue moon and rejoicing whenever you do. he no longer finds it useful to politely suggest that you err on the side of caution, and since he has no intentions of imposing upon your free will, he simply greets you courteously each time you meet. until there comes a time when you no longer do.
although you were rather unwavering in your quest to find him throughout your childhood, he assumed the day would come when things of greater interest and importance would take precedence in your life. while there was something more heartbreaking about it than what he’d originally anticipated, flins must come to terms with the fact that your youthful days of pestering the mysterious fae man have all but come to an end.
what he isn’t prepared for, however, is how your absence leaves him feeling more aimless than the child who stumbled upon him that day long ago, unknowingly making a rather empty existence feel significantly more whole, even if only from short, infrequent encounters.
(much to your dismay, you had gone away for some time, leaving behind the unchanging fae man who filled your life with wonder. you fully intended to return once given the chance, but you assumed he would not miss you either way.)
when the darkness threatens to consume him, he does not expect your hands to be of those that fish him from the icy waters; that your face would be one he opens his eyes to when he thought he might never see it, nor any other, again.
your eyes shine with the same light as they did before, but this time that light shines amongst the ratniki who help keep the darkness at bay—something he thinks you are indeed most suited for.
