Chapter 1
"You fucker—"
—is all Kuroro hears before a fist collides with his face, nearly sending him reeling backwards. He pretends that he doesn't stagger with the force, but the sharp impact to his nose, the sudden wash of blood, make his eyebrows arch high on his face. If this had been directed towards someone with less experience, surely they would've been left on their knees.
The medical student—Leorio, if he recalls correctly, stands before him with a furious intensity in his eyes. His fists are clenched by his side, his knuckles grazed with blood, and there's indignance in every line of his body. Kuroro didn't think he had it in him.
"Tell me," Leorio demands, so angry and in love, "what did you do to Kurapika?"
Kuroro isn't certain what that is supposed to mean. He straightens his posture, steadying his feet beneath him, though Machi has already acted on his behalf. Thin threads woven by her hand, stretch taut against Leorio's throat. Another step towards him would mean certain death.
Machi sends a glance his way, weighted with implication. "Are you—"
"You can let him go," Kuroro answers with utmost composure, though she seems to have been alluding to his reaction instead. He shifts his attention to Leorio while pinching his nose. "I don't see how that is any concern of yours. Though, whatever Kurapika has told you is hardly mine."
"What Kurapika hasn't told me," comes Leorio's response, and Kuroro thinks he understands now. Leorio wants to hear everything from his own lips. When the threads have loosened, he has the audacity to lunge forward, seizing Kuroro by the collar of his jacket and pulling him up so that they're eye-to-eye. A visible tremor shakes through his hands, barely restrained by his temper.
"You are not his lover," Kuroro says, and the word Beta lingers on his tongue. The scent of fresh blood fills his nose, though he doesn't detect anything indicative on Leorio. Nothing heavy and oppressive as he would have expected were Leorio anything but a Beta.
Leorio's hands fall slack for the briefest of moments, before tightening their hold again. "I'm his friend." Something seems to sting at his eyes, as if he would never be anything but that, but his gaze does not falter and Kuroro meets it as evenly as he is able to. "Does marking Kurapika make you his lover?"
"If you have seen the mark," Kuroro says slowly, thinking of the claiming bite concealed behind the collar of Kurapika's dress shirt, "then you would know what it means. I have nothing to say to you."
From the corner of his eye, he catches the way Machi's brows lift faintly in surprise, how her mouth parts in question. It's to be expected, since he did not divulge the slightest of details to her. Apparently, Kurapika chose not to do so to his companions either, if Leorio felt justified to approach him in this manner.
The sound of brisk footsteps approach them in the hallway, and then there's a cautious hand on Leorio's shoulder. "You are going too far, Boar."
At the sight of Cheadle Yorkshire standing behind him, Leorio quickly pulls back, his hands falling to his sides. She's dressed in scrubs just as he is, but she dons a white coat appropriate for a physician and medical director. Perhaps it is her authority that makes him lower his head, offering a semblance of apology, because Kuroro knows that while he might regret causing a commotion in such close proximity to the medical wards, he doesn't regret landing a punch on him.
"This is not what I asked of you," Cheadle says sternly.
Kuroro adjusts his collar and sweeps his hand across the nonexistent dust on his clothing. "For someone who is supposed to be well-versed in healing, you are rather violent."
"Fine." Leorio chooses not to respond his comment, but his gaze grows heavy with the weight of knowledge, the way that he knows something that Kuroro does not. "While we would not disclose confidential information in any other circumstance, Kurapika's supposed—mate deserves to know that he is currently under our care." Kuroro pauses, for an unfamiliar unease makes itself known in his stomach. Kurapika seemed fine enough a few days ago, where nothing could warrant him lying in a hospital bed. "He's been unwell enough that recently, more serious treatment has been necessary."
"Kuroro Lucifer." Cheadle's tone anchors him. "I'd like for you to come with us."
Notes: Please make sure to read my other work Nightshade first.
These are just some short, self-indulgent scenes I decided to write, since updating Snowdrop and writing about the Dark Continent is rather difficult for me right now. The prose and tone of this one will likely not match the rest of my A/B/O series, since I'm just exploring some scenes that didn't make it in my other fics.
I think one of the questions I received most often was, how Leorio or the Spiders would react to their relationship. So this fic might explore that.
Feel free to leave a comment or let me know if there's anything you're interested in seeing fleshed out more. You can also reach out to me on Twitter (seiyunablog) or Tumblr (seiyuna).
