Author's Note: This was a random idea I came up with at 5:30 in the morning and I apologize for it. This is not one of my methodical "I want it to be great and amazing" stories. This was just a short little idea that popped up and I thought it was entertaining. So, I hope you guys will like it. Wrath & I had Writer's Adrenaline at the same time last night and we both wrote one-shots! She wrote 'Bitter Apple' also a HxH fic, and I wrote this. All in a span of 3 hours so...
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own HxH. I do not own Kurapika. I do not own Leorio. If I did, there would be a lot more stuff like this! I am a huuuuuge LeoPika fan!
Honestly, Leorio!
Written by: Red-chan
Three months. It'd been three months since Leorio's declaration of love. Three months since Kurapika had failed to give him an adequate response. And in all honesty, he wasn't sure why Leorio was putting up with it. Why would Leorio, who was forced to keep their relationship a secret, not get angry or frustrated with the Kurta for his lack of decisiveness when it came to the pair.
Kurapika had actually spent a lot more time with his 'boyfriend' since the escapade in the hotel, and had even gone on a few dates around the town with him. But something in him couldn't quite let him fully enjoy himself. He was always on edge, wondering what the people around them thought, afraid that they would see him as disgusting.
And he had been working exceptionally hard to not see himself or Leorio that way. He'd actually been doing a rather good job . . . until today.
It was the last day that the two could afford to spend together before Leorio had to return to school and Kurapika had to return to his job, a job he suddenly loathed. Leorio had decided that he wanted to go to a cafe with their last couple of hours, something Kurapika found rather odd but accepted nonetheless.
Kurapika had an average sized cup of coffee wrapped in his hands, missing a few sips with steam rising above it. Leorio, however, had an entire breakfast platter in front of him, just eating away without a care in the world. And Kurapika smiled as he watched him stuffing his face, careful to keep his face down to make it seem less obvious that he was staring.
But when Leorio stopped mid-mouthful to look over at Kurapika, he had a feeling he had done a bad job.
"Problem?" Kurapika asked, bringing his cup to his lips and raising his brow.
Leorio shook his head and held up his index finger as he quickly chewed and swallowed his food. "No," he said, taking a quick drink of his water. "You just look . . . happy. Which is something I never thought I'd see during one of our . . . uhm . . . outings."
Leorio's face looked uncomfortable for a moment as he formed the words, and there were those thoughts again, pushing themselves further into Kurapika's mind. Why hadn't Leorio asked him for a reply? Why didn't he push for Kurapika to accept them like he used to?
And why hadn't he told Kurapika he loved him in three months?
"Hey, I know that face," Leorio said, noticing the frown that had overtaken his boyfriend's face. "You're worrying about something. What is it?"
His face always betrayed him when he was with Leorio. Somehow the big lug had developed this way of reading him by the simplest of things: how he sat, the way he twirled pieces of his hair between his fingers when he was lost in thought, how his eyes darted around when he was nervous, or even the way he frowned when he was worried.
"It's nothing," Kurapika replied, forcing a smile and looking Leorio in the eyes.
Leorio watched him carefully for a moment as the younger male drank from his cup and turned his attention to the window where several people walked by. His hunger was gone, and he quickly stood up, alerting the Kurta's attention back to him. Kurapika went to stand himself, but Leorio slid into the booth beside him, making the blond's face turn a light shade of pink.
"C-can I help you?" he stammered, pushing himself against the window.
"Yeah," Leorio replied, leaning his head down on his arms, looking sideways at Kurapika. "You can cut the crap and tell me what you're upset about."
Upset? Kurapika wasn't upset. Curious, maybe, but he wasn't upset.
At least, he didn't think he was.
"I'm not upset."
"Bullcrap," Leorio spat, lifting his head up slightly. "I've known you pretty damn well for a pretty long time now. I know when something is eating at you. And it's been written all over your face for months. I want to know."
So Leorio had noticed. He did want to know what was on Kurapika's mind, despite popular belief by said boy that Leorio didn't really seem to care about that.
But still, he wasn't asking about what Kurapika knew he should be asking about. He shouldn't be asking about why Kurapika was upset. He should already know, because it should be upsetting him as well. Because . . . if it was bothering Kurapika and not Leorio . . . then something was seriously the matter.
"Kurapika," Leorio whined, and he felt the other's hand interlock with his. "Let's go home."
And so they did. Both headed back to their hotel, neither forgetting the conversation they would have once they returned. Despite that, they enjoyed their walk back, walking hand in hand as Kurapika kept his head down, embarrassed beyond belief at the PDA.
But once they were back at the hotel, the light mood shifted away.
"Alright," Leorio said, locking the front door and facing Kurapika with crossed arms. "What's with you? Spit it out."
Kurapika was speechless at first; he hadn't even had time to do anything aside from walking into the room before Leorio began interrogating him. Don't get him wrong, he knew that it was coming, but a little moment to relax wouldn't have killed the darned doctor.
He sighed.
"Honestly, Leorio. Isn't it a tad bit obvious as to what might be bothering me?"
When Leorio seemed to come up with nothing, he continued.
"We've been here, in this room, for three months, Leorio. How many times have we had sex? Probably more times than I can count on my hands. How many dates have we gone on? At least once a week. How many times have we had an actual conversation about . . . us? Only a handful of times. Are you seeing a pattern?"
Leorio opened his mouth to speak, but closed it quickly before actually speaking. "Sixty-six times."
"Excuse me?" Kurapika asked.
"How many times we've had sex in the last three months. Sixty-six times," Leorio replied, shrugging.
Once again, the blond was absolutely speechless.
"I-that wasn't my point!" he shouted, throwing his arms up. "My point was-" Kurapika grit his teeth and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. "My point, Leorio, was that you don't really seem to care that much anymore."
"What?" Leorio asked, shaking his head. "What is it that you don't think I care about?"
"Me!" Kurapika said, his eyes shooting open. "Us. This whole situation. I don't know."
Leorio's eyes got soft as a smile grew on his face and he leaned into his palm.
"I'm not sure I want to know where this is coming from, but to keep from being accused of not caring again, I'm going to ask. Just what the hell have I done to make you think I don't care?"
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
"You stopped," Kurapika responded quietly.
"Stopped what?" Leorio asked, now leaning against the wall.
Kurapika sighed and sat down on their bed with his head in his hands. "You stopped getting angry," he said. "You stopped pushing me to call you my boyfriend, for me to see us differently . . . you just stopped."
Leorio blinked with surprise. That was it? That's what Kurapika was worried about?
"I thought it would make you happy," Leorio said. "I figured that maybe I should lay off for a little while. No use spending what little time we have together fighting."
This truly shocked Kurapika. He would never have thought Leorio to do something quite like that, or even be able to keep it up for three months.
"That's all?" Kurapika asked, looking up at him. "You stopped being pushy and grumpy . . . just to make me happy."
Leorio laughed and leaned his head against the wall. "Well yeah," he said, walking over and sitting on the bed next to Kurapika, putting an arm around him. "I love you, remember? Sometimes you do crazy things when you're in love."
Love. There was that word again. The word he kept tripping over. And the word he'd been longing to hear from Leorio ever since that first night.
But now he wondered . . . what good would it do Leorio to not say it to him for three months? It didn't fit with his other reasoning. There's no way he would think that not telling Kurapika that he loved him would make him happy . . . was there?
"Remember?" Kurapika asked. "You only said it once, and I'm not positive it wasn't a dream."
The bitterness in his voice stung Leorio; he could tell by the way the doctor's arm stiffened as it held him, but he did hold him tighter.
"I said it," he said slowly. "But you know . . . you're not the easiest person to say it to."
Kurapika shot him a glare, pulling away from him a little.
"What is that supposed to mean?!"
Leorio threw his hands up in defense, almost as if to ward off evil spirits, or in this case, evil Kurta bashes.
"Calm down, Kurapika! I just mean that . . . you've had such a problem with PDA over the years that I couldn't really find an appropriate time to say it. And if I only said it when we were having sex, you would have accused me for being a liar! Or a pervert. Or probably a lot of other things!" Leorio said defensively.
It slowly started to sink in, and Kurapika began to relax. Perhaps Leorio was right. He had always been very against PDA, and often kept Leorio at bay. There was a certain amount of space and breathing room that everyone needed, that's what he believed. He was very good at instilling that, even in Leorio. Maybe he pushed it just a little too far.
"I'm sorry," Kurapika said, his shoulders slumping. "I'm horrible."
"You're not horrible," Leorio said, putting his arm around Kurapika again.
This time, Kurapika gave in and leaned into Leorio's embrace, exhaling slowly as he adjusted his head in the crook of his lover's neck.
"I guess I just don't understand," Kurapika mumbled. "I'm not sure how you could love me, even though I know I put you through hell. I don't get how you can go every day knowing that you love me . . . and not knowing whether or not I love you. And I don't get-"
"Woah woah," Leorio said, making the blond look up at him. "When did you not loving me come into the equation? Because I'm pretty damn sure you're in love with me, too."
Confusion found its way into Kurapika's eyes as he sat back a little to look at Leorio better. "I've never once said I loved you."
"I know," Leorio replied, trying to pull Kurapika closer again. "But I also know that you do."
"Oh, do you?" Kurapika asked, crossing his arms and raising his brows. "And how, parsay, do you know this?"
The doctor laughed again, ruffling Kurapika's hair with the hand that had been holding him. "Do you not know how obvious it is? Do you not see it?"
When Kurapika's face went from shocked to confused, Leorio took that as a 'no'.
"You can play the sex off as lust all you want," Leorio said. "But there's a lot you can't. Like how you'll put down one of your books to come watch some stupid TV show with me-and yes, I'm admitting they're usually stupid, and I usually put them on just so you'll join me-and how you always walk over to the desk when I'm studying and kiss me before you go to bed on your own-which you usually grumble about for a good twenty minutes before I realize you aren't going to let me study-and then you pretend to sleep in the next morning so that I can actually study."
As Leorio took a breath, he saw that Kurapika's mouth had fallen open, and he realized just how oblivious the boy had been to his own actions.
"Kurapika, even though we go against how you've always thought relationships are supposed to be," Leorio said, "you still choose to be around me. You blush every time I get close to you, even when we're alone. You love to cuddle-though you always tell me to shut up when I try to make a joke about it. My point is, Kurapika, that even if you haven't seen it yet, I have. I know you love me, and I know it still tears you apart, even though I'll admit you're putting in an honest effort."
Kurapika just couldn't wrap his head around it. Had all of those little, insignificant things, things that he did naturally with Leorio, really show that he loved him?
It's not like he would deny it anymore. Kurapika was in love with Leorio. Far more than he wanted to be. He just never seemed to be able to say it. Almost like it burned or twisted his tongue every time.
Or maybe he was just afraid that saying it would make it too real.
And he wanted it to finally be real.
"I love you, Leorio," he said with a crack in his voice, earning him a smile from his partner.
"I know!" Leorio said, pulling Kurapika closer once again. "I love you, too."
Then, his lips fell onto the blonde's, who responded eagerly, pushing himself closer to Leorio. The two had never been known for sweet kisses, so they didn't even try to start it off slowly. Almost instantly their tongues were fighting, and their arms were holding each other tightly. Nothing else seemed to matter in that instant as Kurapika finally lost the internal struggle he'd been having for the past five years. Or maybe, he thought as he found himself lying flat down on the bed, that he hadn't lost. Maybe falling in love was a good thing.
"By the way," Leorio mumbled against his lips, giving them both a little time to breathe. "You have bad timing. We're both leaving tomorrow."
Dammit. He'd almost forgotten about that.
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
Thump!
"Dammit, Kurapika! What the hell was that for?"
"For ruining a perfectly good moment!"
Well, no matter what changes happen in people's lives, some dynamics always stay the same.
Author's Note: Yup. That is the randomness that came from early morning madness. Random funny puns throughout the story? Of course. Why not?! Feel free to love it, to hate it, to like, and to tell me why, because I love hearing feedback. Just, no flames please, because my fire extinguisher is clogged up. So, don't make me have to call the fire department xD PLEASE. Thanks so much, les amis for the reading! Makes me happy that you read it. So feel free to a review, and if you've got any questions drop them too cuz well . . . I have no life and I'm usually here xD Hm, by the way, if you guys think this should be rated M instead of T (cuz I just don't know exactly where the line is drawn) then let me know, and I'll change it if it's necessary.