This is a little one-shot that was bumping around in my head sfter I saw a twitter post about it. Basically, Pairo has Kurapika promise to marry him before he leaves to enter the outside world. Of course, Pairo always keeps his word. Sorry for the tense change in between sections one and two, by the way!

I hope you'll enjoy~

Disclaimer: I do not own Hunter x Hunter

Promise Me

"Will you marry me?"

Kurapika looked up from the tabard he was folding. "What?" He'd been packing for his departure of the village when Pairo had wandered in. At first, the other boy had just sat down on the bed and stared at him contemplatively, which was odd. Although Kurapika really didn't mind it; he was just happy to be able to spend more time with his partner.

"I mean, when we get older, will you marry me?" Pairo asked, looking him square in the eye, none of his usual shyness in his eyes. There was a kind of determination instead, as if he had been thinking about this for quite some time. The blond was slightly taken aback, putting aside his clothes and sitting next to the brunet.

"Do you want a traditional wedding?" Kurapika asked uneasily, picturing himself all dressed up in ceremonial garb and caked in flowers and paint.

"Nope," Pairo replied, swinging his feet against the bed. "A mix of traditional and the one where you say vows and stuff. You know, like the outsiders do in the book we were reading?"

The blond remembered reading about that. In the book, it had described that the bride would wear a white dress, and the groom would wear some sort of tight, uncomfortable-looking set of clothing called a 'suit'. But who would be the bride and who would be the groom? Kurapika discovered that he didn't really care. It would be fun nonetheless, and something felt secretive and forbidden about participating in an outsider ceremony.

"Well, do you have a ring?" Kurapika found himself asking. That was what outsiders usually gave to their loved ones, right? If he recalled correctly, one was called an engagement ring, and one was the actual wedding ring, which was usually just a plain band of gold or something.

"Not really!" Pairo shot up, running to a small drawer at one corner of the room. "But I have this." The other boy placed a small silver chain into his hand, a piece of polished red glass hanging off of the end. "There. Now everyone in the village will know that you're engaged to me."

It was Kurta tradition to give the person that you wished to marry an engagement token to signify their upcoming union. Most of the time, jewelry was given. Necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings were common. Kurapika remembered admiring his mother's own engagement necklace, a pretty thing with woven beads and precious stones. Although he secretly wished that one day he be able to have a token of his own, he'd never expected to actually receive one.

"Thanks." Curious, the blond attached it to his ear. Immediately, he liked it. There was something comforting about the way the metal tapped against his neck, the glass warm at his skin. "But what about the wedding ring?"

"I don't have one right now, but I swear that I'll have one to give you when you return," Pairo vowed. "When you come back, we can do the ceremony then."

"Okay! I'll get you a doctor and then we'll get married!" Kurapika exclaimed, holding out a pinky, which Pairo took. "It's a promise!" The two linked fingers and shook on it.

Pairo smiled, and Kurapika swore that he would never get tired of the sight. "Promise."

Later, when he was about to leave, Kurapika's mother glanced at his ear. Her eyes widened a fraction, but she said nothing, simply flashing him a knowing smile and kissing him goodbye. Kurapika sneaked Pairo a grin then, giving him a thumbs up. Pairo's beam grew.

And so, Kurapika left the village joyfully with a goal to complete and a promise to fulfill.

I promise.

Six weeks later, Kurapika gets the news. His heart stops then, and he runs out of the city, short legs going as fast as he could, tears streaming hot down his cheeks. He gets back to the village a day later. Instead of the warm embraces and cheery greetings that he so hoped to receive, all he hears is a deathly silence. No jubilant shouting, no boisterous laughter, no quiet humming from the clan elders.

And worst of all, no Pairo.

He searches and searches, sobbing frantically as he passes body after body, eye sockets empty and expressions contorted in rage and fear. His mother, his father... everyone is strewn carelessly in the streets, blood painting the roads a gruesome red, reminiscent of the Scarlet Eyes they had died defending.

Kurapika was getting desperate, searching through the ashes for any sign of his friend. Nothing. A thought passes through his foolish mind. Maybe, just maybe, Pairo had survived? The blond felt something in him flutter with hope. He picks through the ruins with vigor, then, growing more and more excited when he finds no sign of his partner. Until, at the front entrance of the library, he sees the empty casing of Pairo's tabard, bokken blades snapped close by.

And then Kurapika screams. He screams and wails and throws a fit until his voice goes raw. He curses the ones responsible, cries out to his deities for guidance. How could they let this happen? Why didn't they do anything? Whywhywhywhy?

At that very moment, lying collapsed in the smoldering remnants of his home, the lone Kurta makes a vow, his second. If he could not keep his word with Pairo, at least he would be able to accomplish another in its stead. So, he promises to retrieve what had been so wrongfully torn from his brethren. To avenge them. To deliver the justice that those murderers deserved.

I promise.

It's during the Hunter's Exam that the Kiriko woman notices. Notices the delicate chain hanging quietly at his ear. Her face softens then, understanding what had happened, and she places a comforting hand on his shoulder as he lets two small tears to escape his eyes. Two little reminders of what he has lost.

Before he leaves, she wishes him luck, pressing a kiss to his forehead, much like his mother would have done. For a moment, Kurapika lets himself imagine that it is his mother who is reassuring him, his mother who is brushing her lips against his temple.

And for a moment, he feels peace.

Until he remembers his promise. His vow to his people, and to his parents, and to Pairo.

I promise.

Next, it's Chrollo Lucilfer who catches sight of his engagement token, when Kurapika is removing his wig. The red glass glimmers like a jewel in the low-light, and the Spider Head's smirk widens.

"Is that why, then?" he asks, voice dripping with so much false concern, and worst of all, pity. Kurapika wants to slap him. And so he does, but he feels no better with the Spider's blood against his hands and the metal of his chains chilling against his skin, a far cry of the warmth that he would never experience again.

"What do you mean?" Kurapika hisses, even as a hand curls protectively around the small piece of jewelry.

"You were engaged," his enemy guessed, lips twitching up in a mock of a sympathetic smile. The blond hears Leorio gasp in shock, but continues to stare his enemy down unflinchingly, his eyes bright red in warning. "You were engaged and we slaughtered her. Your poor, poor, little fiancee, killed by us despicable criminals," he sang, looking pleased when Kurapika's nen spikes and his eyes flash a deeper shade of crimson, this time colored with sadness and anguish alongside his fury.

"You're wrong," Kurapika says, deathly calm, his hand shaking as he fights back the onslaught of memories. "You're wrong. He wasn't poor at all."

The monster blinks, confusion flashing momentarily in his eyes.

"My fiance, you damn murderer," Kurapika ground out. "He wasn't some sniveling coward like you. He defended what he had, what you ripped from us."

"Yet he died while doing so," the man drawled, "must've been pretty weak, then, don't you think?"

Kurapika contemplates punching the man, but instead he takes a deep breath, picturing Pairo, grinning and holding out his arms.

"Kurapika—"

The blond shoves down the memory, but for moment he feels calm. Opening his eyes, which are back to their normal brown, he lets a ghost of a smile flit accross his face. "Not as weak as you. All you do is pillage and take. So what are you? What does that make you?"

"What does this make you?" Lucilfer quips, and Kurapika snaps. So he binds the vile man up in his chains, the chains made up of his conditions and vows.

When he hands over their leader in exchange for Gon and Killua, he feels nothing but relief.

Until he remembers his promise.

I promise.

He's walking back to his room in the Nostrade Mansion, a month or two later, when he hears it.

"Will you marry me?"

Something inside him freezes, and Kurapika stops, not daring to hope. A part of him cries out when he recognizes the voice. It's a bit deeper now, with richer notes than he remembers, but it's still the serene, happy tone that is so familiar to him. That haunts his dreams, just out of reach.

He turns, hear tat his throat, and sees Pairo, sitting on a bed, fully healed and smiling gently at him, with a touch of sheepishness as if saying 'sorry I'm late.' The blond just stands there, shock-still, as a myriad of emotions flicker on his face. Then, as if a dam had broken, he surges forward, stumbling over his two feet.

Kurapika rushes to him, and is delighted when he feels that Pairo is there, really there. He runs his hands down the brunet's face, memorizing the new grooves and dips of his jaw and cheek, and barely notices the tears running down his face until Pairo brings a hand up and tenderly wipes them away. Kurapika catches the hand and kisses it, a rare, real smile at his lips.

Because Pairo is there. Older, yes, but still the same person he knew all those years ago. Oh, and how much he misses him.

"Why are you here?" he gasps out. He tries to take calming breaths, but he finds that he can never get enough air in the presence of his childhood friend.

Pairo grins at him, and Kurapika cries even harder at the familiar expression. "I'm here to keep my promise."

"But how are you here? I thought you were dead. I saw your clothes—" Pairo silences him with a warm hand on his knee, but doesn't reply. Instead, he takes out two slim bands of silver.

"I have the rings," he says, a blush spreading across his face. "Sorry it took so long but—"

Kurapika flings his arms around his neck and embraces him. He feels Pairo's arms come up shortly after, holding him with the same reassuring compassion he had back then.

"Late is better than never," he tells him, tears flowing freely down his cheeks now. How long has he waited for this moment? How long has he tormented himself over his broken promise?

And so they recite the vows right then and there, both of them knowing the words by heart, and when Pairo slips a silver band on his finger, Kurapika feels complete for the first time in ages. Of course, they kiss to seal the union, just as they had read in the book. Kurapika has never kissed anyone before, but decides that it was nice, the feeling of warmth that spreads throughout his body as Pairo's lips capture his own. Everything about Pairo is warm, warm, warm, like the sun, and Kurapika can't help but reach for him.

"There," Pairo breathes, as the two of them lay together in bed. It is completely innocent, really, their hands the only thing connecting them to each other, much they had done in their childhood. "Now you've kept your promise, and I've kept mine."

"What do you mean?" Kurapika flashes back to last time he had said this, in his own room in the village oh so long ago.

"You've fulfilled the one promise you made to me." Pairo pulls the blond closer, and something feels odd. "You don't have to avenge us anymore, love." Kurapika smiles when he feels the brunet place a lingering kiss on his forhead, hand clasped with the other's. And then Pairo feels too cold, and Kurapika looks up and finds that he can't hear him anymore. He'd certain that Pairo is saying something, however.

"Live for us. That's all I ask of you."

Something clicks into place then, and Kurapika feels something akin to awareness flood into system. Terrified of losing Pairo again, Kurapika scrabbles through the darkness, hands seeking out the brunet blindly.

And then Kurapika wakes up. Alone. Surrounded by piles of cold, empty sheets. Panic rising up at his throat, he whips off the layers of fabric over top of him, tears collecting at his cheeks. Had it all a dream? It had been a pleasant one, sure, but Kurapika always found those to be the most tormenting. Scanning the room, he searches for something, something that might tell him that what he had experienced was real, an not just another fevered dream brought up by the desperate places of his brain.

There's a glint in the corner of his eye, and Kurapika stops his hysterics, captivated by the source. It's a small, slender circlet of silver resting plainly on his ring finger, and his breath catches at the sight of it. For a fleeting moment, he swears he could still feel the gentleness of Pairo's hands on his.

So he remembers his partner's instructions. To start over; start a new path, a better one, that does not involve killing or sadness or anger. It's a vow to live a better life, a happier one, where he can look Pairo in the eye and smile as he tells him all about it.

For the last time, Kurapika makes a promise, and something inside of him quiets, like a fussy child being soothed to sleep at last.

And he is at peace.

I promise.

Added Notes:

Sorry. I didn't come out as I planned, but I hope you like it.

EXTRA QUESTION: Did Pairo actually find a way to put that ring on Kurapika's finger? Or did he just conjure it in his sleep?

I might be starting to upload more one-shots and the like in the future, but it depends on the inspiration I get

Thanks for reading!