Just a little drabble that came to me after I finally finished my exam paper. Dedicated to Lumi, whose review and very cracky suggestions kind of inspired this. I hope you like it. Unbetaed.
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"Zaoldyek don't do bodyguard duty." Irumi remarked, leaning back against a precariously balanced stack of books and somehow managing not to knock them over. Kuroro looked up with a faint smile from where he was sorting through a box with small nen artifacts. "But I am imposing on your time, even though you already fulfilled your end of the contract. The least I can do is to compensate you for it." He stood and came over, leaning close. "I don't need a guard, you know that, Zaoldyek." Kuroro said quietly, his face serious.
Irumi held his eyes for the long moment Kuroros searching gaze bore into his.
When Kuroro pulled back, the faint smile reappeared. "Keeping you here is just to indulge a fleeting fancy of mine. It is nice to talk about the marvels of nen treasures with someone other than my comrades." He picked up a flute made from the bone of some strange animal. "Like this...taken from a beast raised with nen, shaped into this form by someone else's power, and at last etched with nen markings to become a flute only the devil would dare to play on without knowing it's true purpose first." Kuroro turned it over in his hands. "The demon king's flute...I wonder what tune it might release."
"I don't think anyone ever was insane enough to try and find out." Irumi remarked. "You sure do like dangerous things..."
"Of course." Kuroro set the flute back down into it's case. "Things of power, as well as power itself, have a lure second to nothing else."
Irumi straightened. "Like you collect the nen powers of others." When Kuroro's expression did not change, his eyes narrowed. "So why did you not try to steal mine? Wouldn't it be advantageous to change your appearance at will? You are a hunted criminal after all." Kuroro had, after all, tried to steal from Irumis father and grandfather.
Kuroro just shrugged. "But I enjoy you company far too much to bring down the wrath of your entire familyover such a trivial matter." he replied. "After all, if I don't need a guard, I scarcely need a guise to hide myself behind, either."
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...and then they went out to dinner and started the most impossible romace ever. Argh. I did not put in the innuendo on purpose, but it's kind of funny, so what the heck, it'll stay in. Reviews would be most appreciated.