Fandom: Hunter x Hunter

Summary: Nature's giant falcon bears witness to the sealing of a lifelong

Title: Beneath The Falcon's Wings

Author: Hana Rui

Genre: shounen-ai, angst, sap

Pairing: Leorio x Kurapika [LeoPika]

The wind was flapping its wings wildly like a giant falcon, releasing a biting gush of cold late-night breeze that deftly seeped through his windbreaker, straight into the very core of his soul. He didn't seem aware of it, though. And didn't seem to care either that his current supply of blood was gradually turning to ice, making him as wan as a newly washed sheet, and trembling to his guts like an electrocuted klutz. The moon was sending faint beams of light down his face, as though attempting to wake him out of his poignant trance, back to the real world.

Again, he didn't seem aware at all.

The rustling of maple leaves above his head mocked his desolation. He closed his eyes and sighed loudly, willing his ears to ignore the noise, and his heart to numb up to the bitterness… to the scathing loneliness… But there's only so much that a hard-bitten guy of twenty could take. Especially if it concerned the most important person in his life.

Leorio continued his meandering stroll down the park, pushing his hands deep into the pockets of his pants. How many times had he run and re-run the scene in his head? Every minute of every hour of every day, he would indulge in this reminiscence… pausing only for a while to let loose the concomitant tears struggling their way out of his eyes which then would put him to a peaceful sleep… Only to be waken out of it again by the very same scene appearing in his dream…

His brain cells were getting short of understanding and realizing the glaring truth. Even after days, he still hadn't gotten used to the fact that his beloved blond was gone…

"W-What? K-Kurapika, please don't make this too hard for me!" he could vividly remember himself saying, pleadingly, to the rigid back of his beloved.

"You're the one who's making this too hard for the both of us!" the usually calm boy snapped to his face, his uncovered eyes turning a fiery shade of crimson.

Leorio backed away at the unnerving sight, fearing what the guy could do in his currently foul mood. "Please…"

Kurapika turned his back on him again. "It's over," he sobbed. "You are leaving, without any assurance of whether or not you're coming back—"

"I promise to be back as soon as I can!" Soreness and desperation were concurrently present in the older guy's voice. He did not expect it would be utterly straining to get his beloved's consent.

"It's your dream you're after Leorio," Kurapika's voice was low and resigned. Acrid and small. "What do I have against it? Me, being your mere blond fling…"

"KURAPIKA!" All the blood shot like a giant geyser to Leorio's head. He could not believe his koibito thought of himself that way. He grabbed the younger guy by the shoulder and hauled him around to face him. "Would you listen to yourself? Do you even know what you're saying?" Had he not shown him enough love and passion? Had he not given enough of himself to him?

"How important am I to you, Leorio?" Kurapika asked defiantly, unfazed by the fury in his lover's countenance and the tormenting tightness of his grip on him.

"How many times do we have to go over this?" Leorio asked exasperatedly, tightening his hold on the supple flesh with the intention of threatening the unyielding guy. But as he stared straight into his beloved's fiery orbs, the mild and gentle side of him began to dissolve his wrath and he relented in an instant, letting go of the slender shoulders to envelop the other guy in a warm, loving embrace. He had always been the weakest side of their relationship. An all too clear proof that aging didn't necessarily make a stronger man… Even the toughest of all fighters could turn to goo when struck by true love.

"How important am I to you?" Kurapika whispered to his chest, echoing the bitterness of his repeated statement.

"You are my life," he whispered back, merely forcing the words pass the terrible sobs harboring his throat.

"Then… don't go…" Kurapika gripped his lover's shirt and wept arrantly on his chest. "Don't go, Leo-chan!"

Leorio sat on the park bench that seemed to suddenly materialize in front of him as he roused back to the present. He rested his elbows on his knees and caught his cold, pale face in his equally cold, pale hands. In the serene quietness of the night, he could hear the faint tick-tocking of his watch as it ticked off the remaining seconds of the night.

How long had he been walking? He could not tell. Who cared about time anyway? So what if in a few minutes he would be a year older? So what if in a few hours, he would be a thousand miles away from this land? So what if during that time, he would not see his beloved waving goodbye to him at the airport, his smile and the sparkle in his lovely eyes hoping for and anticipating the day they would finally meet again? So what if he didn't have his beloved beside him now? So what—

HELL! Who was he kidding? Of course it mattered! It mattered a lot! Mattered like nothing else had ever mattered to him before!

Leorio pushed his hands through his hair and let out a huge sigh. It wasn't like he had any other choice! His dream meant everything to him too! And now that he's been given a chance to further enhance his knowledge in his chosen field, the person that he had expected to support him and be happy for him was the person who strongly opposed his decision.

Why couldn't his Kura-chan understand the fact that he's doing this for the two of them? For their future? Why was he being so unfair about this? …So unfair to him?

Leorio squeezed his eyes shut and bit his lip, pushing back the tears and the accompanying sobs that were both strongly demanding release. He pulled himself up to his feet and resumed his aimless, lifeless roving. But he hadn't taken more than five steps yet, when a voice from behind called out to him. A voice so familiar it almost took his breath away… and his life along with it. Slowly, almost cautiously, he turned around…

"Le-o-rio…" the new entity drawled in a rather playful tone.

Leorio squinted and peered harder at the guy standing a few steps away from him, not half-believing the actuality of the whole situation. And as if on cue, the silvery lights of the moon sent beams down the shorter guy's physique, as though to help the dumfounded, taller one accept the reality of it all.

Kurapika!

The younger guy, face as straight as a line, slowly raised his right arm, stretching it to its full length in front of him. The chains attached to each of his fingers chimed, as though demanding for the other guy's full attention. Then, before Leorio could even fully register what was happening, Kurapika's fingers snapped close, leaving his pinky out pointing directly at him. Or, more specifically, at… Wait a minute!

Leorio's whole body tensed up as he stared at the chain snaking at warp speed toward him. "Kurapi-" He gasped as he felt the sharp spear at the end of the chain pierce his chest. The chain then seemed to coil itself around his heart. The pain was only momentary, but the anxiety it had induced refused to fade away. He stared in shock at the chain which was now binding his heart to the younger guy's pinky. He then forced his gaze to the blond-haired creature in front of him, wondering if it was really Kurapika or some other demented nen-user posing as Kurapika!

Then again, it would never be possible for anyone to duplicate those pernicious chains in perfect shape and detail, would it?

"Two conditions, Leorio," Kurapika said. "Two conditions and I'll let you go."

Leorio seemed to have grown roots on the ground he was standing on. Though every cell in his body was so aching to run to his beloved and torment him with the overwhelming love and desire he had for him, his legs just refused to move. Partly for fear of inciting the blond-head's irksome nature and partly out of respect for what the younger guy had planned to do.

Yes, he had always had this much reverence for his beloved's mind, trusting him to do all the right things in all the right situations.

"Are you up to it?" Kurapika asked, his voice firm and full of bearing.

Leorio sighed and obligingly nodded. It wasn't like he had any other choice, anyway, what with Kurapika now literally taking hold of his heart!

"First, promise you're going to be back as soon as you finish whatever it is you're going there for to finish-"

"My doctorate…" Leorio helpfully supplied, an amused smile uncontrollably forming on his lips.

"Yeah, whatever," Kurapika sounded a bit impatient, his face shredding out the straight look in exchange for a faint frown. "You are not-"

"I promise," Leorio said, chipping in to his voice all of the sincerity welling up in his heart.

"I'm not done with the whole condition yet!" Kurapika reproached brusquely.

"It doesn't matter… I promise, just the same… On with the second one."

Kurapika sighed, the frown on his face melting into an expression that Leorio couldn't quite place at the moment. "And secondly…" Kurapika's lips appeared to be trembling and there actually was a faint tinge of red creeping up his cheeks.

"Yes?" the older guy prodded. God, he's blushing like… a school…–girl. Kawaii…

"…" Kurapika looked straight into the eyes of his lover, his green orbs immediately turning red-not with rage as how it had always done so in the past, but with so much passion and want. "…promise me that I'll be… the only being you'll love… for the rest of your life."

Leorio felt his heart skip at the mere utterance of the second condition. It sounded like a threat to him. And the unmistakable gleam of affection, merged with possession that was harboring his beloved's bloodshot eyes, made him gulp and almost faint from confusion and wariness.

"What do you say?" it was the younger guy's turn to prod him.

He honestly didn't know what to say. It wasn't just a threat! It was a lifetime threat, for heaven's sake! What was this kid thinking?

"That is way over the edge," he found himself saying, much to his surprise.

"Hn?"

"You can't possibly be the only being I'll love for the rest of my life!" Leorio felt the rush of wrath at the injustice of it all surge through his nerves. The presence of the guy's nen-chain around his heart seemed to have been pushed into a pit of oblivion. Why did he always have to be so unfair?

Kurapika pressed his lips in a tight line, as the frown crept back to his face, this time fierce and intense. "I see…"

Leorio opened his mouth to speak. But his rational sense held him back. Okay, so like a walking, breathing, talking, normal human being he had the right to air his thoughts on things he did and didn't feel strongly for. But what good would it do for him if after just a second of uttering his thoughts out loud, he dies in the hand of his beloved? Or rather, by the impulsive hand of his beloved?

"Kurapika, where are your senses?" Leorio almost kicked his own ass at his own impulsive outburst.

Kurapika simply cast his frown at him.

Leorio felt the onset of a terrible shiver in his veins. "I… mean…" he stammered. "I mean that condition won't allow me to have any acquaintance at all! Kurapika! I'm not going there to be a hermit!"

"So you're saying 'no'?" Kurapika's voice, was low and resigned. Acrid and small.

"Kurapika, it's not like that." Leorio desperately groped for the right words to explain his point.

"And so 'no' it is. You don't have to explain…"

"Kurapika…"

"Although, I might be able to do something about that…"

"Kurapika!" The shiver that was threatening to overwhelm him, took him completely as he watched Kurapika, fierce frown still in place, determinedly striding toward him, his chain decreasing in length as he took each measured step. Leorio looked left, then right, conspicuously contemplating what direction offered a more efficient way of escape.

"Don't you even think about it," Kurapika's voice was horribly terrorizing. His eyes had that look which suggested both mockery and defiance. "I have my chains in your heart, if I may remind you…"

Leorio's reaction made that old, obvious fact seem like a fresh, new one as his face paled and he almost choked at the stalled breath clogging his throat. He had no chance of escape. His luck was slowly failing him-well, not that it had ever been on his side, anyway.

He hardly could make out the expression on the other guy's face, nor the mere outline of his slender body as haze slowly clouded his sight. He gasped almost desperately for air as the inevitable truth began to dawn on him- his troubled beloved would rather have him dead than…

His train of thoughts was cut short by the smooth, slender fingers making a rough pull on his shirt. And before he could even begin recovering from the shock, he felt the soft, supple lips of the younger guy on his own.

He closed his eyes and instantly drowned in bliss. First, his lips stiffened, then eventually succumbed to the probing kiss. His arms snaked around the shorter guy's back and pulled him closer, welding the warm, desirable body against his own.

Feeling the need for air strike them almost at the same time, they drew apart simultaneously and stared into each other's eyes, piercing each other's soul with the residue of the unsatisfied desire welling up in their hearts.

"You love me, right?" Kurapika asked, pleading and demanding at the same time as his eyes gradually returned to the normal shade of green.

"Yes," Leorio merely breathed the word, his voice blending with the icy midnight breeze that blew pass them. Somehow, his body didn't chill the way it had done so a while ago. The passionate rapture in his heart filled his veins with enough warmth to get by even the worst snowstorm in winter. "But-" he stopped short when a smooth, lithe forefinger gently rested on his lips.

"Let me just rephrase my condition…" Kurapika's voice was playful, almost teasing. He gently pulled away from his lover's arms, his heart delighting at the frown of confusion that instantly took possession of the older guy's handsome features. "Promise me that I'll be the only being you'll love this way… for the rest of your life."

It only took a single second for Leorio's frown to soften into a look of affection and his lips to utter the words that sealed his lifetime pledge. "I promise."

The string of chain attached from his pinky to his lover's heart vanished as Kurapika finally allowed his lips to curve into a smile. "I've been really selfish, ne?" His smile didn't succeed in drawing back the tears that seemed to have formed two raging rivers behind his eyes. "I am so sorry, Leo-chan."

Leorio pressed a finger to his beloved's trembling lips, "Sssh…" Then his hand moved to the silken nape and pulled the sobbing guy against himself once again. "I'm just so happy to have you back that I've forgotten all your past immaturity the moment I set my eyes on you again."

Kurapika turned his tear-streaked face up to him and smirked, "Is that so, jiji-san?"

"W-What did you call me?" Leorio's face instantly blushed, with both fury and embarrassment at being called an old man.

Kurapika made that rough pull on his lover's shirt again and put his lips to work before the jiji-sancould even think of a wisecrack to get back at him. And as before, his lover wasn't able to resist his charms and was in a second responding to the kiss. After a while, he drew back and rested his head on the panting guy's heaving chest. "Happy birthday, Leo-chan," he murmured.

Leorio tightened his arms around his beloved and planted a kiss on his blond head. "Wait for me… okay?"

Kurapika merely sighed and bore his head closer to his lover's chest. "Itte rasshai…" he whispered as the mighty nocturnal falcon flapped its wings once again…

-end-

Thanks for reading! :)