The office was a mess. Paper and shards of glass are scattered across the room from the furniture to the floor, cans of beer are decorated here and there, one or two lamps are bent and broken, trash cans dented, a part of the wall was chipped indicating that it was hit hard but not hard enough to do damage probably caused by the lamps, the curtains had been ripped out of their rods and onto the dirty floor. There was a light breeze coming from the broken window that sent a slight shiver to Kurapika's skin.
The office is pitiful to look at.
Light Nostrade is even more pitiful to look at.
The ex-mafia leader was kneeling in front of the Kuruta, begging him for answers he does not hold. The master is even close to tears as he mumbled about anything and everything that involves his position in the Mafia, how he climb from the top using her daughter's services, and how he was going to lose everything he worked so hard for. He said it was for Neon but Kurapika doubted it.
Neon, a name suited for the gold digger of the Nostrades, was able to gather quite the needed attention for the family to climb the top. Her services are not the ones offered on the streets and is priced far from those. Her fortune-telling was rumored to be 100% accurate and because of this powerful men flocked to her, giving her large amounts of cash in exchange.
Too bad that Neon's light went out in just one night.
The loss made Light insane. Gone is the calm demeanor the young blond has first witnessed and was replaced by anxiety and fury. The leader will lose all his money for a gift to her daughter worth 12.9 billion jennies, hoping he will replace the money through Neon working overtime.
12.9 billion jennies is exchanged to obtain the eyes of the Kuruta. For the young bodyguard, those eyes were priceless. No amount of coins, cash or checks can be exchanged for those eyes he too holds. Thanks the heavens that the family was inching bankruptcy. He will not know what to do the next time the Scarlet eyes will fall in his hands only for him to surrender them to the spoiled body-parts collector.
"Kurapika… "
The quiet sob brought Kurapika out of his train of thought. Light nostrade clutched his traditional clothes tighter and Kurapika feared that the fabric might tear. The blonde oh so gently pried his boss's fingers away from his tabard. He only has one, afterall. The material in order to make it is in Lukso Village and he has not been there since the tragedy that befell his family.
"Mr. Nostrade" he addressed gently. The Kuruta still needs to keep up appearances so his boss will rely on him even more although deep down he does not want to respect the damn bastard.
"How am I going to be one of the Mafia leaders now? Neon…" the man choked back a sob, "she—her prophecies are lost! No other leader will come to me now. There will be no money, no power, no security. Bastards like Zenji," he spat the name as if it was acid in his mouth, "are going to come back and have their revenge on me. I just know it. He's going to take advantage of this weakness." The mafia patriarch wailed in agony. "What will I do now kurapika?"
Again, Light was asking Kurapika again for answers he does not hold. He is an employee, not an oracle like Neon and he certainly is no god to know what will happen next to the family. He has no sincere interest for them to be honest. All he wants is to retrieve the eyes stolen from him.
But of course he will not say this so expressly to his employer. Through Nostrade and Neon, he will have the chance to gather the Scarlet Eyes and so he will do everything even if he has to sell himself for the eyes of his brethren.
And so he said, "I will do everything you require me to do, Mr. Nostrade."
Light smiled even though the smile looked rather misplaced to his aged and swollen face, happy that his remaining employee is loyal to him. Loyalty is a foreign thing for the boss. Never have people given Light loyalty. He pays his employees for their loyalty and if they fail to give him that, they were punished.
Exploitation though is something he is very well familiar with.
The leader stood up from his kneeling position, careful of the glass shards that littered the floor, and headed for his office desk. He grabbed a folder and slid to Kurapika's direction after opening a drawer and sweetly, sickeningly, smiled at him.
"I want you to participate in a project of mine."
AN: Okay. This idea has been bugging me for five to six years now. I'm writing it again cuz I wanna see how these two will turn out. This will be a slow burner and I don't know if it'll be romance or friendship. I just wanna see. Also, trigger warnings. I'll put a trigger warning in the chapter that contains it. R&R! Crisnicmic out.