Title : Moral Lessons
Author : lynlyn
Yahoo ID and email : cloud121383
Warnings : Kuroro / Kurapika slash warning, implicit and explicit references to sexual activities but no outright descriptions, swearing, blatant disregard of the canon characterizations, and the usual Geneiryodan inclination towards violence
Rating : M for adult themes
Disclaimer : I do not own Hunter X Hunter, its characters, or anything associated with it. I'm not writing this for profit; I'm only doing so for personal satisfaction, plus the fact that I want to try my hand at writing semi-professionally. Any resemblance of the characters or the story itself to actual people and situations is entirely unintentional and accidental. Please don't sue – I'm only a college student.
Notes : This is cross-posted to my LiveJournal account, and the 30 Kisses LJ community. I wrote this as a sequel to Festivities (authored by Yukitsu), and since Festivities is kind of a follow-up to Wild Hearts, Moral Lessons can be considered a sequel to WH, too. Kurapika and Kuroro are very much a couple here, so coming from the quasi-relationship they have in WH, reading this may be a bit of a shock to the unwary. I'm warning you now that they are out-of-character, especially coming from a canonical point of view. This is what happens when I let my muses loose, without the restrictions of plot development, and is the first time that I've attempted to write anything remotely smutty, so please bear with my inexperience in using sexual innuendoes.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Kuroro Lucifer came awake completely, silently, without a single movement to alert anyone nearby to his ascent to the conscious world. Something had roused him from his sleep, and from the lack of foreign nen in the vicinity he instantly knew that it was nothing threatening, but just the same he stayed still and took a second to take stock of his surroundings.
It was very early in the morning, judging from the muted, grayish light filtering in through the room's two windows. In the wan illumination of the young dawn he could just make out the outlines of several objects – clothes folded neatly on the floor, two small traveling bags leaning against the wall by the door, the low table and the wooden chest that came with the rented room, and his roommate, still sleeping deeply under the heavy blanket of the futon beside him.
"Dancho," someone said quietly, almost inaudibly. Kuroro recognized the voice immediately, and his senses pegged the accompanying aura as belonging to his second-in-command. Pakunoda was waiting behind the door. It was probably she who had awakened him in the first place.
He got up noiselessly, careful not to jostle the other futon and its occupant. His feet didn't make a single sound as he padded across the tatami mats towards the closed door of the room. He was decent – well, mostly decent, as Kurapika had insisted that they try wearing the bathrobe-like pajamas that the inn had provided them, and the cloth belt had somehow come undone during the night. He still had his boxers on underneath, but Pakunoda probably had an important reason for rousing him from sleep this early and wouldn't appreciate him meeting her in his half-naked glory, so he closed the open robe and tied the sash in a secure square knot.
Kuroro unlocked the latch on the door and pushed it open, the surprisingly sturdy sheet of thin plywood sliding silently on well-oiled rollers. As he'd expected, his second-in-command was right outside, somehow managing to sit comfortably on her heels in a skirt that was just slightly longer than her usual provocative outfit. As he knelt down and copied her seating position he wondered at the time. The sun hadn't even risen yet, but Pakunoda had already changed out of her bedclothes and into one of her business suits.
"Good morning, Dancho."
"Good morning," Kuroro returned affably, but he knew that Paku hadn't disturbed his sleep just to greet him. "Is there anything wrong?"
"Shalnark called in," she started immediately. Kuroro caught her eyes flicking quickly to the room behind him. She was checking to see if Kurapika was awake. Kuroro shook his head; there was no need to wake the young man for now. Pakunoda's quiet alto lowered a bit more in volume as she continued to speak.
"The auction has been rescheduled to today, at three in the afternoon. Shalnark said that he didn't think we'd have any problems acting now, but four more full contingents of hired security arrived just thirty minutes ago. We don't know how they found out, but they know that we're here."
Kuroro swiftly added the figures in his head. "That's just one battalion shy of the men we took on in York Shin. They're getting pretty paranoid for such an obscure group…"
"It is the largest underground auction this region has for this season."
"It's not even an underground activity anymore, now that they're going to do it in broad daylight," Kuroro corrected with just the slightest scowl of displeasure. He brooded for the next few minutes, thinking over what would need to be changed in their original plans.
"Dancho?" Pakunoda prompted when he finally heaved an annoyed sigh of acceptance.
"Phinx and Feitan will cause a small distraction just outside the auction site – something mundane and not too alarming, maybe a loud disagreement, then a brawl between themselves. If they want to involve any of the guards, it's up to them, but I don't want them to cause too much damage. They have to fool the guards into thinking that there's trouble to be dealt with, but not one the Geneiryodan caused."
"You don't want us to draw attention," Pakunoda said, more as a clarification than a question.
"Yes. I want to be able to return to this inn without being chased, and with no one at the auction realizing that we've stolen the items until after we're long gone. I don't want to us to be identified, either, because I'd like to stay here a couple more days before we separate. So we'll send Nobunaga and Machi on patrol around the site, to get rid of whoever may be calling for backup. If a call does get through, Franklin and Shizuku will intercept them, and dispose as needed."
"We'll be spread really thinly."
"It should work, as long as everyone does what they have to do," he mused. "And no one like Kurapika shows up to try to make a bid for revenge," Kuroro added, smiling lopsidedly.
The Geneiryodan second-in-command smiled at seeing the rare humor her leader was showing. She didn't really believe in portents, but she wanted to take it as a good omen that nothing disastrous will happen when they implement this new, hastily-constructed plan. If Kuroro Lucifer felt up to joking before a mission, then it could only mean that he was confident that the operation would succeed.
"And the infiltration team will be…?"
"Shalnark, Coltopi, you, and me. We already know the route to the storage rooms, and with Coltopi duplicating an item every thirty seconds, it shouldn't take us more than thirty minutes," Kuroro said decisively. "And if Bonorenolf doesn't mind, I'll have him stay behind again this time, make sure that our cover isn't blown here while we're dealing with the auction. It will take us the whole morning to set up, at most an hour for the operation, and at least an hour of making sure that no one will follow before we get back here…"
Pakunoda stayed quiet as Kuroro's voice trailed off. He had already dealt with the most important details, and she didn't have any questions, but she waited for him to mention one last name, waited for a few moments before it finally dawned on her that he had omitted it on purpose. She barely managed to control her incredulity, stopped her voice from rising a few octaves, and instead channeled her disbelief into a hiss of surprise.
"You're not thinking of leaving Kurapika here?"
"Yes, I am," Kuroro replied, surprised at the vehemence in Paku's whisper. "I'm not saying that he's not capable of carrying out any task I would have him to do – in fact, he's become very adept at infiltration and surveillance. But this has become a zero-tolerance mission. We would need to kill; and if things don't run according to plan, we would have to get rid of everyone on that auction site."
"You're protecting him," the mind-reader said almost accusingly.
"Well, yes. He has killed before, and he doesn't hesitate as much now if there's an absolute need to do so, but I don't want to place him in a situation where he'll be forced to kill for a mission that he doesn't really need to get involved in."
"Are you sure that is wise – to decide what is best for him in his place?"
"Why can't I?" Kuroro was confused now. Pakunoda had never questioned his decisions to leave any member behind to guard hideouts before, and he truly had no idea why she was doing it now. He wouldn't be leaving orders for Kurapika, but that was almost the same as leaving a member behind as a lookout.
"We know the different ways these missions could go; we know what we need to do in worst-case scenarios. Kurapika doesn't. He doesn't know how violent it can get when something happens that we need to kill everyone in sight."
Kuroro stopped to see if Paku understood his points. She still look unconvinced, and kept looking between him and the sleeping figure in the room behind him. He thought that maybe she was concerned about how Kurapika would react to being excluded.
"He'll understand. He didn't actually volunteer for this mission, if I remember correctly."
"If you're sure, then," she conceded dubiously. "I just hope that your confidence will not be proven wrong when we come back."
"It won't," Kuroro said as a final assurance. Then, issue having been solved, he shifted immediately to his dancho persona. "It's approaching six thirty. Wake the others, if they aren't up yet, and tell them to get ready. We're leaving in thirty minutes."
Pakunoda nodded, stood up, and started on her way towards the other members' rooms. Kuroro shut the door and prepared for the day's activities. Kurapika was still sleeping, probably exhausted from the sightseeing the two of them had done yesterday.
As he preferred to leave before his lover awoke, Kuroro washed up and dressed as silently as he could. He thought briefly about waking the blonde to ask if he would agree to stay behind, but decided against it in the end.
He loved Kurapika, the quiet, principled young man who had barged into his life one rainy York Shin night and overturned almost everything he knew end over backwards. He liked the blonde's sharp intellect, and he wondered at how Kurapika managed to keep his innocent grace even with such a dark and painful past. He marveled at the way they balanced each other's strengths, made up for the other's weaknesses, complimented each other the way only attracting opposites could, and tolerated and accepted whatever differences might exist between the two of them. He trusted the blonde with his life and with his heart, and he knew that the Kuruta felt the same way about him. In both cases, it wasn't a trust given lightly, an act only people with their background and peculiar work experience would understand and know how to do.
Kuroro felt that one of the reasons why Kurapika had allowed himself to fall for his former mortal enemy was because he knew that the older man wouldn't coddle him, patronize him like others would. Kuroro tried not to, of course – Kurapika was capable of taking care of himself, and was an accomplished artifact hunter and a powerful fighter in his own right. He treated Kurapika the way the blonde would treat him – never with kid's gloves – but being the older, the leading person in their relationship, Kuroro sometimes found himself spoiling the younger man – much like a love-struck husband doting on his beloved wife.
Which was why he slipped out with the rest of the Ryodan that morning without telling Kurapika about the changed mission. He didn't want to risk entering into an argument that would waste time – an argument that he knew he would eventually lose no matter how logical his rebuttals would be. The less tactful of the Geneiryodan would probably laugh their asses off if they realized that their leader chose to yield in a good number of arguments with their youngest member because he loved Kurapika too much – very much like a love-struck husband who didn't want to anger or lose his beloved wife.
---ooOOOoo---
As Kuroro had predicted, it took them the entire morning to set up and prepare a distraction, the kind that wouldn't be traced back to the Geneiryodan. Shalnark, acting on a sudden impulse, called several animal rights groups and tricked them into believing that the auction happening that afternoon included some rare and endangered species, to be sold off to private collectors and hobbyists. By lunchtime, a large group had gathered outside the building, and the guards were kept busy trying to keep the angry mob from rushing inside.
On the agreed hour, Phinx, playing the part of a furious activist, picked a fight with some of the guards, and Feitan, flitting behind the security barricade, gleefully pushed random guards into the already volatile mix. A full-blown riot immediately erupted. With everyone distracted, the infiltration group easily sneaked inside the building, even if they didn't have the required passes. It was a tie and gown affair, and the four of them were dressed appropriately – anyone who did notice them just assumed that they were early guests, trying to escape from the trouble brewing outside.
They did have to kill a number of people, especially those they met once they entered the employee-access-only areas. It was only natural to assume that what security remained inside to guard the auction items would be more alert to suspicious people without authorized passes. But once the problem of the sentries was dealt with, the operation proceeded accordingly. Shalnark and Pakunoda carried the genuine items to Coltopi, and handed them over to Kuroro – who had the storage skill ready – and then returned the fake items to their respective crates. Working like an impromptu assembly line, they were able to finish well within the projected time limit.
The rest of the afternoon was spent covering their tracks. Nobunaga, Machi, Franklin and Shizuku had done their tasks well – too well, in fact. No one arrived on the scene to help suppress the riot until after Nobunaga and Machi had ceased killing any guard they saw about to speak into their standard walkie-talkies, and Franklin and Shizuku had stopped intercepting any police vehicle that approached within blocks of the area. The auction's organizers eventually decided to call the event off, since it seemed that the roiling mass of humanity was discouraging their guests from venturing into the vicinity.
Shalnark even had time to lead Shizuku back into the building, to dispose of the bodies they'd hidden in broom closets en route to the storage room.
Kuroro worried that some of the Geneiryodan might be dissatisfied with the way they handled the mission. They'd had to act more underhanded than usual, and they wouldn't be able to boast about pulling off the theft, since they had so masterfully fooled the organizers into thinking that nothing untoward had happened, except for the misunderstanding that had incited the riot.
He shouldn't have worried. They all trooped back to the inn in high spirits, satisfied with a job well done, delighted with the deception and mayhem they had participated in and caused. Kuroro had almost forgotten about the warning Pakunoda had given him that morning.
But then Bonorenolf met them at the front gates of the inn, already abnormally large eyes bugging out even more than usual, and informed Kuroro that a livid Kurapika was waiting for him at the inn's lobby. That was when he realized that his second-in-command may have been right in warning him not to leave his partner behind.
Kuroro might have been able to placate the irate blonde by apologizing sincerely and explaining his reasoning behind his decision, but Nobunaga made the situation worse by opening his mouth before Kuroro could start to say sorry.
"Aww… did the widdle Kuwuta get weft behind?" the swordsman sneered. He was still riding on the thrill of their latest raid, and failed to see the horrified looks his fellow members were shooting him.
What he did see – regrettably, only after the words had already left his mouth – was Kurapika's inheritance finally giving in to anger, storm-tossed eyes of blue darkening into eerily glowing red.
---ooOOOoo---
"Shouldn't we check up on Dancho?" Nobunaga asked into the silence of the lounge.
"Nah," Shalnark answered offhandedly. The information analyst continued to type furiously, face glued to the screen of his notebook computer. "They need to work their problems out on their own. We really shouldn't interfere with these kinds of quarrels."
"What? But it's been five minutes since the brat dragged him up the stairs!" Nobunaga exclaimed in disbelief, referring to the way Kurapika had grabbed Kuroro by the lapels of his suit and hauled the unfortunate man up said stairs, right after Nobunaga had let his cutting remark loose.
"Idiot. You don't understand what's happening, do you?" snorted Machi contemptuously.
"I understand perfectly! Dancho made him release his restrictions months ago – there's nothing stopping the chain bastard from hurting him now!"
"Don't you think that they'd be making a lot of noise if they were really fighting seriously?"
"Chains can gag, you fool!" Nobunaga retorted angrily. "I don't believe this. You guys aren't even worried! I'm going up there right now, and you'll see that I'm right!"
"What!" Shalnark yelped, Nobunaga's ultimatum finally distracting him from his computer. "Wait, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into –"
"Ah, let him go," Phinx drawled. "It'll be his fault for not listening."
"He'll probably force his way in and interrupt Dancho and Kurapika…"
"No," Phinx countered at Shalnark's worried mutter. His eyes glinted evilly at the thought he was about to impart to his companions. "I think the kid's gonna leave the door unlocked on purpose…"
Nobunaga was already stomping up the stairs towards the second floor, so he didn't hear Phinx and Shalnark's last statements. If he had, he would have realized that there might be something else happening, that it wouldn't hurt to be more discreet with what he was about to do. Instead, he charged down the hallway towards Kuroro and Kurapika's room, mind focused solely on the belief that his fellow Ryodan were being tricked, that Kurapika had looked mad enough to kill, that his dancho was in danger, that it was now up to him to stop the chain assassin from finishing what he had set out to do a year ago.
He stopped outside the last door on the left and listened for any sounds coming from the room.
There! That was definitely a groan of pain! He was right! Nobunaga rushed forward and shoved the door open. This should prove that they shouldn't have trusted the Kuruta, and teach the other members not to call him stupid…
The first thing he saw were the chains, twinkling reflected light back at him from the darkness of the room. The last time he had seen the silver links was more than a year ago, in the months that had immediately followed the chain assassin's capture. Nobunaga had tried his best to put that incident behind him, but even up to now the sight or sound of chains could cause him to remember how he had lost his best friend to a certain inexperienced runt of a teenager. Said teenager had grown into a more experienced fighter, but that's not the point…
The point is, chains did not hold pleasant memories for the samurai, and so one can just imagine his shock at seeing them again after so long, now wrapped around his dancho's wrists and one of the legs of the low table at the center of the room. The lights were off, and the only illumination in the room came from the hallway behind him, and so he couldn't figure out what was happening until after his eyes adjusted to the gloom.
Nobunaga didn't know why he almost never noticed the obvious in any embarrassing situation until it was too late, until he had further humiliated himself and the other parties involved by uttering something very stupid, or doing something equally indiscreet. The other Ryodan had never bothered to deal with his clumsiness seriously, usually preferring to laugh his blunders off as something that could never be cured no matter what anyone did. Of course, that meant that he also had to endure Phinx and Feitan's taunts and Kurapika's cool glares of disdain, but they never taunted or glared very long once he got mad enough to pull his sword out. It was just something everyone had learned to live with, an expected distraction that happened every time they gathered for their missions.
But in retrospect, Nobunaga realized that he would have to learn to be prudent from now on – or, since prudence is something that would probably take him years to master, at least pound into himself the habit of knocking before opening doors. As it is, he had already yelled out "You traitor!" and "What the hell do you think you're doing to Dancho!" at the blonde who did not seem to have noticed him barging into the room.
He saw the chains. He saw that Kuroro was lying on his back, hands tied to one of the table's legs. He saw that the treacherous Kuruta was sitting on the leader, and not allowing the taller man to move against him by pinning his shoulders down to the floor. He saw the leader's face set in what seemed to be a pained grimace, and he saw the hate-filled Scarlet Eyes when Kurapika turned his head around to look at him.
It took a full half-minute after his first exclamation for the obvious to finally penetrate his glee at catching the Kuruta doing something decidedly untrustworthy… that both of the occupants of the room were naked. Their clothes were strewn about the floor. It took another half-minute before Nobunaga realized that he had interrupted something that no self-respecting samurai would ever dare to interrupt, or risk losing the dignity and the purity that came with the title.
"Y-you! Dancho! Brat! CLOTHES! AHHHHH!"
"Nobu…"
It was Kuroro, responding first to his horrified scream, but the man's voice was strained… like he was having difficulty speaking. He sounded hurt, but Nobunaga was already reevaluating his earlier observations. The chains… and the positioning… Kurapika was straddling Kuroro, doing… doing…
"AHHHHH!"
"Nobu!"
And the hate he had seen in the brat's eyes wasn't hate at all. Kurapika was leering at Nobunaga, an actual salacious sneer that he would have easily imagined Hisoka doing, not the prim-and-proper Kuruta that they had all come to know and accept.
"AHHHHH!"
"Nobu, I suggest you close the door and leave before –"
Nobunaga's brain had finally caught up to his eyes now, and he didn't miss Kurapika intentionally grinding his hips down on Kuroro, willfully impaling himself further than what Nobunaga thought physically possible, and he knew that no mortal man, not even the dancho, would have been able to think, much less talk, after being on the receiving end of a maneuver like that.
"OH MY GOD!"
The chain assassin was rolling his eyes, heartlessly mocking the trauma Nobunaga was experiencing. And even while "involved", the boy didn't fail to inject the usual toxic amount of contempt into his order. "Takes care of the malicious intent to maul and maim members of the Spiders. And your leader has just heroically sacrificed himself for you. Now if you don't mind, we're busy. Get out."
Nobunaga lost it right there and then. He slammed the sliding door shut and tripped over his own feet trying to back away from it. He scrambled down the length of the hallway on his hands and knees. By the time he reached the stairs, he was hyperventilating so badly that when he tried to get up to walk down, he overbalanced and tumbled down the steps painfully and gracelessly. He was still screaming bloody murder when he burst into the function room where the other members were waiting for him.
They took one look at his beet-red face, the froth that had somehow formed around his lips, and his overall shell-shocked appearance, and instantly knew what had happened.
"Saw something you didn't like, did you?" Phinx chortled.
"We told you that you shouldn't bother them, but you wouldn't listen," Shalnark admonished.
"That should teach you to knock first before entering," Machi announced.
Half of his mind was still trying to kick-start itself from the death it had experienced just a few seconds ago, and most of the other half was preoccupied with the task of attempting to bring his muddled awareness up to normal speed, which was why just then, he didn't possess the mental capacity he would normally need to make the transition from Traumatized to Spitting Mad at his friends' insensitive disregard for his plight.
But his mind did register their indifference, and a tiny voice reminded him that they were right, and an even tinier voice told him that he should have expected it, that the whole Ryodan already knew that their leader had been screwing the chain assassin brat for months now and –
The tiny voices didn't help, and he continued to sputter and froth and moan about his eyes and the loss of his innocence.
"Who's top this time?"
It took Nobunaga perhaps upwards of a minute to realize that Shizuku, the sweetest and most naïve-looking out of all the members, had just pried her nose out of her paperback to ask a question that he would only dare ask after a dozen bottles of beer.
"I dunno… the kid was mad enough…" mused Phinx.
"Ask him then," Feitan said, interjecting the suggestion with a jerk of his head at Nobunaga's direction.
Phinx eyed Nobunaga doubtfully. "I don't think he'll be able to talk much."
"I can't see Dancho being the bottom, though…"
"He already knows that Dancho's doing the kid, so I can't see why he'd react this much."
"Maybe they switched this time around?"
It was almost an hour later when Shizuku finally took mercy on him and knocked him out with her vacuum cleaner.
That, or they had grown tired of amusing themselves watching his face cycle through the most interesting combinations of green and red and puce, and more annoyed and concerned that his yelling might wake the rest of the inn's occupants.
And, as Shalnark had so tactfully pointed out, the couple in one of the rooms above them would probably need to sleep after their exertions, and wouldn't appreciate being kept awake. Even though they knew better, they still didn't want to risk being subjected to the brand of vengeance the younger of the pair had just put Nobunaga through.
---ooOOOoo---
"We've just scarred him for life, you know."
"That was the point."
"Was that really necessary?"
"Are you complaining?"
"No," Kuroro answered quickly – perhaps too quickly, and his breath caught in his throat as Kurapika raised his head from where it had been lying on his chest to smirk at him. The smirk brought back memories of the mind-blowing sex they had just minutes ago. Under normal circumstances that would have been enough to make him hard again, but he was simply too tired right now. Pleasantly exhausted. And slightly afraid of this more aggressive side his lover had shown him.
As if to reinforce his thoughts, Kurapika lazily pulled himself up with cat-like grace, and dipped his head down to give Kuroro a slow kiss. He responded, of course, but this time he didn't feel the need to dominate. The intense blue glow in the blonde's half-lidded eyes made Kuroro think of a panther licking its chops after a satisfying meal.
"Mmm… maybe I should make you mad more often."
Kurapika huffed and rolled his eyes in exasperation. Then he rolled away and got up. Kuroro wanted to groan aloud at the sudden loss of contact, but as it was after embarrassing situations, he felt the need to start thinking about damage control. So he followed Kurapika to the bathroom, which was starting to fog up from the hot water that was gushing from the faucets the blonde had opened, into the sunken bath that took up almost half of the tiled room.
"You're not thinking of taking a bath right now?" Kuroro protested.
"Bath first, then bed. This won't take too long," Kurapika replied firmly.
He wanted to sleep. He hadn't felt this tired in ages. Hell, he had no idea that sex could be this tiring, not when he was supposed to be the dominant in their relationship. Kurapika, in contrast, didn't look spent at all, arms crossed and eyes carefully waiting for the water to reach the right level in the tub.
Kuroro, not one to pass up any chance to ogle the Kuruta unobserved, found himself admiring Kurapika's backside – the slim waist, the toned muscles, the graceful dip towards the lower half of the backbone –
He had a sudden epiphany, a thought that the blonde could be cheating. He had always thought that the Scarlet Eyes only triggered during their lovemaking because of the emotions the blonde might be feeling, and he had never considered that it could be increasing Kurapika's stamina…
No, that was absurd. The Eyes were more likely to tire the boy out afterwards, even if it did make him more powerful for a short while.
And speaking of emotions, was Kurapika still angry at Kuroro for leaving him behind?
"About this morning… I'm really sorry that I didn't take you with us."
The blonde didn't answer, and Kuroro felt his stomach sinking in dismay.
"It's just that Shalnark received intel that they'd found out, and that they'd moved the auction date to today, and they'd tripled their security, which means they were expecting us – we created a distraction which made it easier for us to get in, but we still had to kill everyone we met on the way to the storage room, and if you went along you'd probably be forced to kill some of the guards too, and I don't want you to stain your hands here, not when you enjoyed the festival so much the other day…" Kuroro's rushed explanation tapered off haltingly, and he cringed when he realized how lame and how desperate his excuse sounded.
Kurapika didn't move, except to turn the faucets off. The awkwardness that had settled in the steamy room while Kuroro spoke felt all the more palpable in the silence.
Great sex, a great night, a nice bath, and a good night's sleep, shot all to hell. Kuroro, you idiot.
Kuroro froze when Kurapika sighed, turned around, and padded towards him on bare feet. The wait almost killed him, because the boy didn't look up until he was standing in front of him. And for what felt like the umpteenth time that night, he felt his heart stop when he saw the affectionate smile the blonde had on his face.
It was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen.
"I can't stay mad at you," Kurapika said softly, raising a hand to touch Kuroro's cheek, "not when you look so adorably lost and confused on how to apologize to me. At least, tell me the next time you want me to stay behind, all right? I'll decide if I'm going or not."
Kuroro nodded dumbly.
Kurapika's smile widened, and his eyes danced with mischief. "Try to pull that stunt again without telling me, and you're sleeping on the couch."
He couldn't stop the relieved laugh that bubbled its way out of his throat, but he managed to fire off a teasing "Yes, sir!" in response to the threat. And when his partner tugged on his hand, Kuroro let himself be pulled toward the waiting bath. He stayed for as long as Kurapika wanted to wallow in the soothing embrace of the warm water, too. Even if he felt strangely revived after his affront had been forgiven, his body still felt ready to collapse – the tension he'd felt during his apology hadn't helped any. But, he reasoned to himself, it wouldn't hurt to make an effort to stay on Kurapika's good side.
Besides, if he wanted to increase his chances of getting more booty from his normally-shy lover, (especially booty similar to the performance the blonde had given him that night) he would have to remain on his best behavior…
--- end ---