you carefully walked down the stone steps, watching your feet as you went. you didn't want to trip- the ground seemed a little too dirty here for your liking. you waved to a guard who stood at the entrance of Abyss before walking a little further to explore.
yuri watched you from a little ways away. you hadn't noticed him or the other ashen wolves hanging out against the wall and from the looks of it, he was pretty sure you never would. your eyes were trained on things around you- you were being pretty cautious.
"i'm gonna go speak with her." yuri announced, a little quietly as to not draw your attention.
"i dunno," hapi replied, "she's a little skittish. you'd probably scare the poor thing to death."
"and? i'd like to know what business she has down here."
yuri pushed off the wall and took small steps towards you, his hand on his dagger. if he was going to talk to you, he was going to do it the Abyssian way. sneaking up behind you, he suddenly unsheathed his dagger and placed it against your neck, his face close to your ear.
"why hello there." he bit back a laugh as the other three wolves looked at him worriedly. he was just having a little fun.
suddenly, you reached up and grabbed yuri's hand that was holding the knife and ducked down, releasing yourself from his hold. you swept your leg around and kicked his knees out from under him, making him fall against the stone floor. you held his arm behind his back as you took the dagger from him before jumping up and running out of Abyss, tripping a little on the first step.
yuri stood up, rubbing his back and watching you retreat back to the surface. the ashen wolves were laughing loudly behind him.
"seems like she wasn't too interested, yuri-bird." hapi snorted.
"i'll get her."
— — —
the next time you ventured down to Abyss, it was with byleth. she held steadily onto your arm as you two walked towards the ashen wolves classroom, to make sure you didn't fall.
you'd told her about your previous encounter. she brushed it off as a small thief since you couldn't give her much information about your attacker. he was behind you, after all.
at least you defended yourself, you'd shrugged.
you had accompanied byleth to abyss to talk to constance about her rather ... peculiar problem with the sun. coping mechanisms, byleth had explained. so you sat at a desk in the underground classroom talking to hapi and balthus.
your two companions went silent for a moment, looking behind you, but you were already ahead of them.
you swung your hand behind you, hitting a hard surface that gripped onto your wrist. you got off the bench and kicked your attackers legs, once again planting him on the ground as you held his arm behind him.
"yuri!" the three wolves gasped.
"nngh.. alright alright you win." the purple haired boy murmured into the ground.
you let go and stood up, facing the wolves. "who is this chick?"
"chick? chick?" yuri's eyebrows furrowed. "i'm no chick-"
"yuri-birds a boy!" constance laughed, "i know he doesn't look like it, but..."
you whipped back to face yuri, stumbling on your feet in the process. a little embarrassing, but you brushed it off. "why were you even sneaking up on me? are you trying to get killed?"
"i was trying to see if you were worthy of our time."
"worthy?" it was your turn to be offended. "what if i don't care if i'm worthy or not?"
yuri rolled his eyes. "well the test's over now, so there's no need to be mad-"
"i'm not mad. i don't care. talk to me when you finally get some sense, bird brain." with that, you promptly walked out of the classroom. but not before hitting your elbow on the doorframe.
yuri looked at the entrance where you had just left as balthus sat back down with his head in his hand.
"well, you suck at flirting."