Antigravity (Flynn Rider x Reader)

XVIII

Published: March 11, 2023
i keep completely forgetting about this shit but hey i'm back! i'll probably be gone again soon

Flynn is still sitting in that "relaxed" position when you return. His eyes are closed. You stop and look at him for a short moment; his hair is longer, you notice, and his expression reminds you of the one that you wear when you're feeling shitty, but too proud to let it show.

"Fitzherbert," you nod, sitting down beside him.

"Bitch," he responds.

You stare at him silently. This is not the boy you knew. This isn't Eugene, this is Flynn. You can't help but wonder what exactly happened to revert his personality.

"Asshole," you respond in kind. His brow arches, a look of mild surprise on his face, and then his expression relaxes. A gleam of pride shows from behind his eyes.

"The Veins," he states.

"Personally, I have a fair few veins."

"Personally, I have a lot of blood. My heart is really helping with that."

You snort. "Flynn, your heart doesn't make blood."

"What?" he asks, confused. "Yes. It does."

You laugh a pitying laugh. "Red bone marrow makes blood."

"The fuck is red bone marrow?"

You sigh. You've taken up studying anatomy and physiology in the past year, and people who know less than you exhaust you. "Red bone marrow is where hematopoiesis takes place. In a long bone, it's found in the epiphyses, but in the diaphysis there is yellow bone marrow in the medullary cavity but that's really just fat storage."

"English, please."

You sigh, exasperated. "Your heart is just a pump. Your bones make your blood, roughly two million erythrocytes a second. Moving on."

"You're a fucking nerd."

"The Veins. Tell me."

"There's not much to tell. Let's just go there. Let's find your sister. Then let's leave." Somehow, he seems even more emotionally tired than you. You're considering asking what happened when he gets up and starts walking away. When he gets to a few yards away from you, he freezes and turns around.

"You coming or what?" he demands. You stand up and follow him. He walks to the city walls, following them along the inside until you're behind the row of buildings that line the wall.

"You didn't take me here to murder me, right?" you ask, only half joking. He turns to you and he looks sad. But then he blinks, and it's gone.

"I wish," he says blandly, and then he turns and points to the ground, not dissimilar to a child pointing at a worm in the road. He's gesturing to a manhole, it's rusty lid imprinted with the seven-pointed star that represents Corona. "Ladies first."

"Um... what?" you ask hesitantly.

"Don't worry. It's not full of shit. There's a ladder, and it leads to the Veins."

"Ladies first," you say, gesturing for him to go.

"(Y/n), please. I don't want to be looking up your dress. Go first." You feel a surge of respect for this man, and after a brief struggle you manage to get the lid off of the manhole. The ladder looks unstable, to say the least, but it's there, attached to the cylinder of a hole by a dozen rusty screws. You start down the ladders, testing each rung with your foot before settling your entire weight.

"You can hurry up. People go down here all the time. Pick up the pace, killer."

The nickname is nostalgic, yet bittersweet. It makes you think of what you've lost -- Rapunzel, Mother, Eugene -- and now you only have Flynn.

You skip the last two rungs, hopping roughly into the filthy concrete floor. The tunnel goes in one direction, dimly lit by regularly placed lanterns. Only a third of them are actually lit. His feet touch the floor not long after yours do. You kick a rock and it clatters down the hallway. You hear Flynn gasp, and you turn to him, confused.

"What happened?" you ask hurriedly.

"Nothing." His eyes are wide. "Don't worry about it."

"Well, of course I'm going to worry about it. I care about you." You pause. "Or, at least I did, once."

"Ouch, killer. Careful, you might hurt my feelings." He contorts his face into a dramatically sad one and pretends to wipe away tears. You turn back toward the tunnel, unamused, and walk away from him. The sound of his footsteps follows you.

"So what happened?" you ask again.

"I told you. Nothing."

"You went like this." You sharply inhale.

"I went like that. That's true."

"Okay. You're an odd fellow."

"Thanks! I appreciate it. You know, that means so much to me."

You spin toward him, walking backward now, and beam. A smile creeps onto his face, except it looks sincere. You feel a twisting somewhere in your chest and turn back to walk forward.

After a while, you come to an intersection.

"Right," he states simply, and you go right.

"Exactly how long will we be walking? Where are we even going?"

"There's a whole underground city in here. We're getting there."

"And she's in the city?"

"I don't know, but my... living arrangements are there. I don't know about you, but I'm tired as shit. I want to sleep, and eat, and piss."

"Are you but a fair maiden, simply looking for an equally fair place to piddle?" you laugh. He's silent.

And so you keep walking, your body seemingly on autopilot. You feel your pulse in your face, oddly, and you contemplate the confusing man behind you.

What an odd fellow.

~+~

At some point, he takes the lead, and you notice just how much taller he is than you. Intersections are beginning to be more frequent, and you get the feeling you're getting closer to his home. The percentage of lit lanterns has also increased, and you suddenly have the craving for a good bowl of popcorn, but that doesn't matter. You start hearing voices echoing from ahead, indiscernible from each other, and a chill passes down your spine.

He makes another turn, and suddenly you're in a cavern, layers upon layers of doors connected by walkways lining the walls.

"This is the heart. Get it, because veins? Don't you worry, no blood is made here," Flynn says, waving his hands tauntingly. You can't respond; you're too stunned by the insane amount of people that crowd the floor of the cavern. You look at Flynn, who is blinking rapidly, his expression showing that he's somewhere else. He grabs your hand and leads you through the small shacks and their raucous voices. After two levels of stairs that seem like they'll give way at any moment, he opens a door and pulls you into his "living arrangements".