Written for hisachan1518 – hope you like ^^
With an exasperated, and somewhat habitual, sigh Kurapika walked through the automatic sliding doors of the large hospital. He stood in the familiar area of the emergency room, quickly glancing over the various people who were still waiting to be seen. Not seeing the one he wanted, the blonde moved to the receptionist's desk and patiently waited for his turn as the nurse dealt with another admittance.
She turned with a small smile as the other man was sent off to take a seat, limping awkwardly while holding a bag of ice to his left knee.
"Can I help you?" She asked puzzled after seeing that Kurapika didn't appear to be injured.
"I'm looking for a man with black hair who came in about an hour ago; Nobunaga Hazama." The nurse's face brightened at the name.
"You must be Kurapika correct? He's waiting in examination room D, it's on your-"
"Thank you, I can find it." Kurapika cut her off. He knew where it was, he knew where every room in this entire building was because he seemed to spend more time here than he did at his and Nobu's apartment in the evenings. Walking quickly the blonde boy found the room and entered without his usual polite knock, he was beyond irritated tonight so common courtesy was taking a back seat.
"Yo Kurapika!" Nobunaga greeted. Kurapika's eye twitched as he took in the older man's grinning face, his loose black hair, and the more than likely broken arm he was holding against his chest. Nobunaga was sitting on the typical examination bed covered in that thin sheet and a young male with shades was standing across from Nobu holding a file folder open in his hands. Tall and thinly built, the man was wearing a white lab coat with a stethoscope around his neck and every inch of his body screaming; doctor.
Ignoring his ever klutzy boyfriend Kurapika addressed the familiar ER doctor,
"What did he manage to break this time?"
"Well…" Leorio started before marking something down and looking up at Kurapika, "just his arm. A clean break in his radius, so it will take time to heal but it should be as good as new after about a month."
"I'm sorry for the trouble he has caused." Kurapika apologized. It seemed all he ever did was apologize because of Nobu. His life would be a lot less troublesome if he found someone more reliable than this oaf… but there was something about Nobu that Kurapika didn't want to lose. Now if he could figure out that specific what, Kurapika would be set.
"Haha, it's no trouble at all, that's why I'm here you know; taking care of people is something I do with all my heart." The doctor turned to the white cabinet in the corner and began pulling out supplies. "But since you're here, would you like to give me a hand? If not I can call a nurse in to hold his arm instead."
"No, I can help if it is just holding his arm..." Kurapika moved over to Nobu's side, who was sitting on the bed hunched over and even then he was still taller than the Kurta, but out of the two of them only the injured man was smiling.
Leorio positioned Nobunaga's arm until he was satisfied, passing it off to Kurapika to hold it steady as he turned his back to begin mixing what was needed to make the cast.
Nobu leaned more towards Kurapika to whisper, "So how was your day?"
Glaring out of the corner of his eye at his boyfriend Kurapika kept silent. This was one night he was beginning to think he should have worked late… but it was long past the time for regrets.
After making sure the cast was nearly dry, Leorio motioned for the blonde who had helped him to come with him into the hallway. Raking a hand through his hair, Leorio sighed.
"I'm sorry to have to ask, but why exactly does he come in so often? I mean, there is no way he's always injuring himself, is something else going on?" Looking to his feet but swiftly back to Kurapika's blue eyes Leorio saw the suspicion there.
"I assure you most of Nobu's injuries are due to the negligence of his own personal safety."
Leorio raised his hands in a defensive gesture.
"Oi, oi I'm not trying to say anything, I'm just kinda worried. Having a regular patient in the ER isn't exactly a good thing and I've seen that guy more times than I can count. I just wanted to know if there was something I could do to help ya two out."
"I'm sorry," Kurapika's face and voice reflected his sincere apology.
"It's fine, fine…" Leorio's expression became serious as he returned to the matter at hand, "But really, he's been in here too many times for my liking. What kinda work does he do?"
Turning his head away, Kurapika's face went pink. What Leorio thought was embarrassment was really Kurapika's shame; how could he admit that he was dating a professional thief? Okay, maybe professional was stretching it since Nobu was more of a grunt than anything…
Quickly clearing his throat Kurapika spouted out the first lie to come to mind;
"He works in construction!"
Leorio arched an eyebrow, knowing you don't get such a clean break from working construction. But instead of pushing it, he shrugged it off; after all he was supposed to help people not investigate them, so if it was something worth lying about it was probably best he stay out of it.
"Then make sure to tell his 'boss' that he won't be working for the next month and I suggest you talk him into finding a safer profession, he's got more scars than I care to count." Leorio walked away with Nobunaga's chart under his arm.
It was less than three days later that Nobunaga and Kurapika were back in the ER, Leorio once more assigned to looking at Nobu's injury. He rolled his eyes behind his shades, wanting to curse.
"What were you doing that you managed to break the cast and re-break your arm?" Leorio's voice was restrained. If not for their surroundings he would have yelled the question and maybe even hurled a few insults at his patient's intelligence.
"Just this and that." Nobunaga tried to wave it off with his unbroken arm while Leorio poked gently at the other to see if there were any other injuries. They were waiting for the x-rays to come back to determine just how serious the break was…
"This and that?" Leorio's eyebrow rose, "And you managed to crack the plaster plus your arm? Must have been some interesting this and that…"
The door opened to reveal a black haired woman in a nurse's uniform and holding a brown envelope.
"Here are the x-rays Leorio-sensei." She politely handed them over and left without another word, though Kurapika noticed a blush on her cheeks after looking at Leorio. Glancing to the older man himself, Kurapika had to assume it was because he was somewhat handsome. His figure was thin, he was tall, his personality kinda reminded him of Nobu's in the early days…
Leorio slapped the x-rays up to the light board, his chin held between the thumb and index finger of his right hand with an unhappy look on his face.
"You're going to need another cast. And this time I'm making it doubly think so you can't fu-" Leorio stopped himself, "so you can't break it." Nobunaga snickered at the doctor's save while Kurapika stared out the window. Today was his first day off in two weeks and he was spending it indoors as opposed to outside like he had hoped. Nobu was becoming even more troublesome than usual and Kurapika was beginning to wonder if maybe the two of them juts wouldn't work out. They were in a situation where they rarely spent much time together; thieves operate at night whereas Kurapika had day shifts with his body guard job. It just didn't work…
"There!" Leorio exclaimed and stepped back to see the double thick cast he had made around Nobu's arm. "Oh! Just a sec!" The Kurta watched as Leorio turned back around to the white cabinets in the corner and rummaged about for a second before producing a black permanent marker.
Kurapika couldn't help but laugh softly as he watched Leorio scrawl on the dry plaster,
ONLY IDIOTS BREAK THE SAME BONE TWICE
It may not have been very professional of Leorio but it caused Kurapika to laugh and Nobunaga to growl. Recapping the marker Leorio smiled.
"There now. Hopefully this will stop me from seeing you anytime soon."
Unfortunately for Leorio he saw the regular duo just over a week later sitting in the emergency room. With a curse under his breath he stalked over and was about to lay into Nobu when he stopped and glanced at Kurapika's face. Taking a knee in front of the blonde Leorio felt Kurapika's forehead.
"Bloody hell he's burning up."
"Why do ya think I brought him here?" Nobu growled, waving his casted arm about.
Leorio called over a nurse so she could fetch them ice as he carefully picked up Kurapika and brought him to the closest examination room. Thankfully there wasn't anyone else in the ER at the moment.
Laying Kurapika out Leorio started to strip him down so they could cool his body temperature as fast as possible.
"What happened to him?" He asked Nobunaga, who was standing in the corner with a worried look on his face.
"I don't know. He came home early from work complaining of a headache, went to lie down and next time I checked on him he was sweatin' like crazy and burning a hole in the mattress."
The door opened and a nurse came in with a cold compress, but one look at the patient and she hastily went to gather more. The Kurta's skin was flushed, and no matter what Leorio did seemed to only help a little.
The beeping of a heart monitor was the thing to rouse Kurapika from his sleep, his blue eyes fluttering open to stare at the white ceiling tiles. He turned his head to see someone asleep in the chair beside his bed.
Leorio's eyes popped open as he felt fingers brush his own and he looked down to see that Kurapika was awake, a hesitant smile on his lips. Leorio rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
"Hey," he said softly, a smile forming on his own face.
"Hey," Kurapika returned before struggling into a sitting position.
"Whoa! Hold on!" Leorio tried to force Kurapika to lie down again but the Kurta wouldn't have it and eventually Leorio had no choice but to prop up pillows behind him to keep Kurapika from falling back. "Stubborn…" he muttered under his breath.
Just then the door banged open to reveal an over-happy Nobunaga with a plastic bag in his hand.
"So you're awake Kurapika. Here!" Nobu deposited the bag in Kurapika's lap and leaned against a clear space of wall; it was as those he had never been worried.
Leorio's eyes returned to Kurapika and watched as the blonde moved carefully to open the bag, pulling out cans of juice.
"Thanks Nobu." Kurapika whispered politely though if he was being honest he was a little irritated. Setting the cans on the small table beside his bad Kurapika looked at Leorio. "Why am I here?"
"This guy," Leorio pointed his thumb towards Nobunaga, "brought you into the ER yesterday with a high fever. You don't know how panicked we were trying to bring it down, even had all the nurses panicking to find ice for ya."
"I'm sorry." Kurapika's head bowed and his bangs covered his eyes.
"Hey, I'm just glad we managed to chill you out. Though I suggest you don't strain yourself too much for the next while. I don't think any of us want to experience something like that again. Take a vacation from work, go somewhere calming. See ya." Leorio stood from the chair and walked out without another word. His behaviour struck Kurapika as strange but he could do nothing about it as Nobunaga claimed the chair next.
"Yo…" he began before scratching the back of his head, "Listen Kurapika, I know now's pretty bad timing and all but the boss wants us on a job pronto and I can't say no ya know?"
"Then why even come?" Kurapika's voice was icy, icier than Nobu had ever heard it.
"Well… I just thought, ya know, you might worry if I wasn't around."
"Just go Nobu. I'm tired. I'm going to rest a bit more."
"Yeah," Nobu nodded, "that's a good idea. I'll call you later." The taller man tried to kiss the Kurta's cheek but Kurapika turned his head away, refusing to open his eyes to even look at his boyfriend. Slightly put off by the display Nobunaga turned and left without another word, leaving Kurapika to his thoughts.
Sometime later Leorio knocked on the door to Kurapika's room before gently opening it to see the blonde sitting on the wide window ledge. One knee was bent and used to rest his chin upon, staring out the window with his arms hugging his leg while the other dangled to the floor. He didn't even glance away long enough to see Leorio approach.
Looking out the window himself Leorio saw the sky as the colors changed from a crystal blue into the soft pinks, purples, oranges, and reds that marked a sunset. He pocketed his hands in his white coat and wondered what Kurapika was thinking.
They stayed that way, in silence, as the world around them continued forward. Outside the room Leorio could hear the nurses switching shifts, and saw outside the window as the street lights flickered on one by one. Finally Kurapika lowered his leg and leaned back, turning away from the window to smile softly at Leorio.
"How are you feeling?" Leorio shifted his feet, wondering what was causing that gentle smile.
"Better, better than ever in all honesty."
"Really? That's great!" His voice was overly loud in the room when compared to the softness of Kurapika's.
"Hah…" Kurapika sighed as his smile fell. It wasn't as great as Leorio may think… Kurapika had spent a good portion of time on that window sill, thinking about a great number of things, but mostly that it was time to end it with Nobunaga. Now was the perfect time while Nobu was out, Kurapika could be free to move on and not worry until he returned to the city.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Leorio stepped forward and started to reach out a hand to touch Kurapika's arm but something stopped him. That smile again… that's what stopped Leorio. He finally noticed what that smile did to Kurapika, especially against a background of a darkening sky. The Kurta looked… ethereal, like a god.
Leorio swallowed.
"Nothing is wrong Leorio. In fact, everything is just starting to become right." Kurapika turned his head away but for a second before climbing off the sill and returning to the bed. "Will I be able to be release tomorrow?" Pulling the sheet up as he prepared to climb into the bed Kurapika turned to look back at Leorio. "Leorio?"
Leorio shook his head.
"Wha? Oh, uh, yeah you can probably be release tomorrow. I'll bring you the papers to sign if you feel like you really want to."
"Thank you." Kurapika settled on his back and closed his eyes, leaving the doctor to stand there in the naturally darkening room.
It was a couple of days following Kurapika's release that Leorio found himself scratching the back of his head as he stood in front of Kurapika's apartment complex. He didn't really understand what he was doing here, kinda knew he shouldn't have come in the first place, but still felt like it was something that needed doing.
With an intake of breath Leoio buzzed Kurapika's apartment number.
"Hello?"
"Hey Kurapika, it's Leorio."
"Leorio? What are you doing here?"
"I just thought I would see how my patient was doing but if you're too busy I can go. Sorry for intruding." Leorio took a step back and was about to turn away when Kurapika's voice coupled with the automatic click of the door unlocking called him back.
"Wait! Why don't you come up for some tea?"
Up in Kurapika's apartment Leorio was stunned to see many neatly packed and tapped cardboard boxes. He stood in the doorway until Kurapika walked by carrying yet another box. Leorio waited for Kurapika to add it to the highly stacked pile and wondered what he could possibly say.
"So you're moving?" Brilliant deduction, he scolded himself.
"That's right. I found a smaller apartment on the other side of the city; it's closer to my work as well." The Kurta motioned to be followed and led Leorio into the small eating area where a steeping pot of tea was already awaiting them.
"What about Nobunaga?" He asked only to see Kurapika's face darken.
"I'm breaking up with him. It hasn't been the ideal relationship for a long time now and I'm tired of always trying to fix something that is beyond repair."
"How could you say that? What has Nobunaga to say about this?" Leorio's fist pounded against the table but Kurapika simply continued to pour the tea.
"He hasn't said anything because he doesn't know. He's… working at the moment but I plan to call him later today to inform him."
"That's kinda heartless you know."
"That may be true but he can't exactly object, he's in no position to come running back and in truth I don't want him to. I'm aware that he takes great pride in what he does and that is one of the reasons why this will never work."
"You're breaking up with him because of his job?" Leorio asked in shock. Kurapika sighed.
"Listen more carefully Leorio; that is only one of the reasons, there are many others as well."
"Like what?" He demanded to know. Kurapika calmly took a sip of tea.
"That is none of your business."
Leorio growled as he snatched up his own tea cup in an attempt to calm himself down. How could Kurapika remain so calm about this? 'Course Leorio was no expert but when long-time relations ended weren't both parties usually affect to some degree?
"Do you want a hand?" Leorio finally asked.
"Pardon?" The blonde asked with a start of surprise.
"Do you want some help with packing or moving? If I'm here I might as well be useful…" The older man trailed off as he saw that same gentle smile grace Kurapika's lips.
"That would be appreciated Leorio, thank you."
"I-it's nothing. Just, just helping out a friend is all. Haha." His raised a hand as though to scratch the back of his head as Leorio forced himself to laugh.
Leorio wiped the back of his hand along his forehead to stop the sweat from getting into his eyes and watched Kurapika placed the last box down in his new apartment. The place was indeed small; one bedroom, a three piece bathroom, small kitchen, and a living/dining room combination. The duo had stacked all the boxes into the living room, trying not to clutter up any of the other room unnecessarily, though the box with the tea pot and cups was placed directly onto the counter. Kurapika made his way over to it now.
"Would you like a cup of tea to help relax you? You did more than your share helping me."
"It was no problem." Leorio waved away his thanks and made his own way into the kitchen, leaning back onto the counter and watching the Kurta move with efficiency. Even after all that work he didn't make mistakes, but Leorio could tell he was quite exhausted.
Setting the kettle on the stove and awaiting the water to boil Kurapika placed his palm to his temple as he felt a little woozy. The two of them had been working hard all morning to move all the boxes and Kurapika remembered he hadn't had the time that morning to eat anything. Maybe he would offer to buy Leorio lunch as a thanks…
"Kurapika?" Leorio's voice sounded far away to the Kurta's ears and he managed to turn his head to catch sight of the taller man pushing away from the counter to approach him. Kurapika waved him away as the dizziness passed and the kettle began to whistle. He stepped towards the stove when a harsher wave of dizziness attacked and Kurapika could feel his body falling without his control. It was as though he was seeing the scene from above.
Leorio reached out to catch Kurapika, one arm hooking around the blonde's thin waist but unbalancing himself. Somehow during the fall Leorio managed to get himself under the other and lay a little dazed on the hardwood floor as Kurapika half fell on his chest.
The two remained in that position until Kurapika managed to blink and looked sideways to see the curve of Leorio's chin. A dark blush came to his cheeks as Kurapika tried to push his body up. Leorio's large hand on his head stopped his struggles and the Kurta looked shyly up to see Leorio had curled his neck to look down at him.
"Take it easy for a second. I know you're exhausted."
"But I'm on top of you…" Kurapika again tried to sit up but Leorio refused to let him, forcing his head to remain on his chest and Kurapika could hear the increase of Leorio's heartbeat. It matched his own.
"It's fine for a while longer. You're not that heavy."
Again Kurapika felt his cheeks heat and wanted to protest against their position but he found himself relaxing anyways. It really was quite… comfortable… like this.
Kurapika's eyes involuntarily closed and Leorio smiled faintly as he heard the blonde begin to snore. Guess he was more exhausted than I thought, Leorio thought to himself and ran his fingers through Kurapika's hair. The strands were so soft. He continued to stroke the Kurta's head and eventually he too drifted off into the land of sleep.