A/N: HELLO READERS! I miss you guys so very much! Even though I've lied, betrayed and abandoned you guys on multiple occasions, I hope there are still some of you who are willing to forgive me. Being a writer is hard! I'm much more of a reader. I figured this out after i don't know, what four years of writing? I must say, I should never be allowed to write anything other than a one-shot. This is the sad reality of a short attention-spanned teenage girl at the height of her high school career. I've been studying quite hard last year and I've been getting satisfactory grades because of that. This year I hope to study VERY hard and get VERY satisfying grades because its the year that matters the most. So it's sad but I can only make time to write during this holiday. I wish I can complete this series, unlike how I just killed off ILY, GB... No matter how many years this will take, I will complete this!
I honestly just finished this chapter and I wanted to share it with the world so much, I'm going to post a 2k chapter. With a title I will now attempt to pull out of my anus.
GLITCHED: Toward a Different Path
"I'm tellin' ya. That's the one I want!" A badgering voice that bore the hoarseness of man long past his youth echoed across the room and bounced back with twice as much passion. An angry finger and thumb snagged onto my outreached hand and pinched the skin until it turned a fair crimson.
I pulled my hand back with a start and stared with disbelieving eyes as the elderly man stubbornly climbed his way up on the chipped ladder. Quickly, I tried to stop the man again before he climbed too far. "Sir, please wait! I will get the book for you, so please come down!"
He turned to look down at me with his jaded brown eyes, knotted thick brows and lopsided pale lips. His eyes travelled toward my firm grip on his shoulder as he tried again to shake me off. I placed both hands on him this time and repeated, "Please get down. It's dangerous."
He squinted behind his heavy lidded eyes and began shouting a string of proud statements of his younger days when he had no problems climbing up steep mountains till dawn, but he stepped down from the ladder obediently.
"Thank you," I whispered after a sigh of relief.
I climbed up on the ladder and reached up for the spine of the book that the man had wanted when a dull chime sounded from behind me. I turned around in anticipation.
"Hello—"
"Hey, want lunch?" a daring voice sang with a casual bravado.
My gaze fell upon the man marked with St. Peter's cross, standing in front of the check-out counter. With a vehement glare in my eyes, I coldly recited the foremost protocol of the library. "No food or drinks are allowed in the library."
"Oh, I forgot. Then I—"
"So are ya goin' ta get my book after telling me ya more fit ta climb that thing than this old body or not!" a familiar barking bit me of the side and demanded my return of attention.
I hurriedly dipped my head in apology. "I-I'm sorry. I will get it immediately."
I quickly pulled the book out by its red spine while a soft voice mumbled behind me the remainder of the sentence from earlier, "—will deliver your lunch to your kitchen table."
My head snapped backward on cue to trace after the man guilty of those words, doomed to only find soft chiming of metal in his trace. And despite my itching need to run after a disappearing man and what sounded like the clink of my house keys, I must first help this important guest properly check out one of my precious books.
~x~
I kept close to the door on my adjacent as I cautiously slumped into the sturdy back of a fairly new chair. There was a hardcover novel balanced between my palm and my lap, my eyes skimming over the yellowed pages and keeping watch of the people who passed by the large front window at the same time.
Multitasking as I was, my free hand that was not supporting the novel fiddled with the slight jewel that hung from my left ear. Every few seconds or so I peeled my gaze off the fictional pages and dedicated my focus solely on the window in front of me. That criminal lurking about would definitely return. And he was quite skilled, experienced at that—a ninja of sorts. Appearing and disappearing between fractions of a blink of an eye.
A few minutes, and what later became hours passed before the slightest hint of jet black marred on ghost pale marble blurred by my faltering focus.
An irksome twitch that ran along the line of my lips turned into a shaky smirk at the corner. "The criminal always returns to the scene of crime."
A soft breath exhausted from the criminal's mouth as a response, his throat hovering carefully over the defence of my hard cover novel erected as a last minute fortress. A pleasant gleam of surprise glazed over his dark eyes and a careful grin donned his lips.
"You have a quick reaction time." He retracted the hand he had been fast enough to place on the back of my chair, leaning away from my book. But I followed forward with my book upheld and gaze hardened.
"And I suppose you have come to return something?" I said with much emphasis on the latter verb.
He brought his pale hand down on top of my book and eyed me with his blank gaze, pushing just slightly in face of a challenge. "Are you threatening me with the blunt edge of this book?"
I scoffed at his dull questioning tone. "Not so much a book but maybe legal rights?" That had come out more of a question than a statement suggesting the events of the previous day in which I had my house key stolen by a shameful excuse of a man known to the world as Kuroro Lucifer.
And the said man smiled down at me with a look that implicated the innocence of an angel all the while clutching my key between his guilty fingers. And I must point out that his poker face was becoming rather irritating.
"Relax, I was just about to return what I borrowed," he eased off the building tension with a careful wave of his hand, and my key was back in the safety of my palm.
I closed my finger around the cold metal of the key and glared up at his expectant eyes. He was waiting for my reaction, enjoying his usual twisted games. I seethed, "Borrowing requires permission from the owner. What you did was stealing."
His hand flew past my head and in my short moment of startle, just one sixth of a second, he leaned in and whispered a scandalous confession in my ear. "Stealing is part of my job description."
With gritted teeth, I reached out in a desperate attempt to seize this escaping phantom as he so liked to promote himself, but he was by the door before my fingers could grasp a thread of his black top.
His gaze travelled toward the table I was sitting on previously, my gaze followed after. Before my attention was regained, the door slammed shut with the sound of bells chiming and his satisfied voice declaring, "Here is today's lunch delivered by yours truly."
~x~
The following week went by with similarly eventful afternoons. There was nothing I could do to stop the man from doing as he pleased.
But I was an adaptable and rational person. If Kuroro Lucifer so persisted to be my lunchtime menu, then I would be a sensible person and avoid the irritable man for it wouldn't just be our gaze clashing the next time I see his face. So today, I had planned to leave the house despite having a day off which I usually spent between the cozy comfort of my couch and a book. Even though I could just lock every door and window to my house, I had the instinctive feeling that the dark haired man would somehow magically find his way into my sanctuary. Hiding in Gon's ranch was the first that came to my mind, but I knew he would find me there too. Killua always hung around Gon anyway so no point staying with either of them. There was also Leorio, but if I could help it, I would rather not spend my whole day with him. Not to mention the liaison that Neon was to Kuroro.
Alas, I came to the conclusion of secluding myself amidst a forest of trees in a corner of the mountain top with my duffle bag set as a pillow between my back and a tall tree and a novel propped in my hand.
My morning was, thankfully, quiet and pleasant. I was enjoying a much needed time alone to relax for I can't seem to find myself alone during my breaks recently.
Yes, my morning was a breath of fresh air.
Then came the shift in the breeze, the silencing of nature, the unnatural swaying of foliage: the end to my morning and peace.
The novel in my hand snapped shut. My bag came out of its place between the hollow of my back and tree bark and onto my shoulder. I was up on the balls of my feet, ready to chase after my fleeting peace. I managed to speed walk through a cluster of trees without appearing to be running away, but the rest of the route was blocked before me.
"Leaving already?"
I looked up to the pale stoic face I had been evading—unsuccessfully—the past week. His eyes, hair, hands—anywhere I looked would feed the already exploding urge to right hook the man in the ear and hopefully cause him deafness in one ear, since he didn't seem too fond of using it anyways.
But I dug my nails into my palm and remained still. Lately I noticed I had been having more violent bouts when really, I wasn't a violent person. As a person, I was against violence. It was a last resort tactic up my sleeve and I plan to keep it up there. If I were to resort to violence now, it would mean I was at my wits end and to be honest, that was a sad thought.
"How do you keep finding me?" I groaned through clenched teeth. I could already feel a headache forming.
"I just so happened to see you around when I was out for a walk," he retorted with a voice that spoke all seriousness, but judging from what I heard yesterday and the day before that, he seemed to coincidentally walk into me at the same time every day.
"I see. Then I'll just walk away," I said as I walked around him and continued down my path.
He turned around and got in my way again. "And I also happen to have an extra set of lunch."
"I don't care. Move," I demanded before I started stressing beyond quota.
Kuroro stared at me silently as if he hadn't heard me. Then with a cock of his head, he said, "Kurapika, we've been through this enough times. Stop being difficult and follow the drill."
Oh, really now. "Kuroro, we've been through this enough times. Sit yourself down and eat the 'extra set of lunch you so happen to have' yourself like you always end up doing."
"Then stay and watch me eat like you always end up doing." I cringed at the truthfulness of that statement.
"Why do I have to stay and watch you eat?" I asked bitterly.
"Because if you don't I'll tell Neon to bring you along to another picnic," he said through his sandwich.
I scoffed. "So you've resorted to threatening me now?" I sat down anyway.
"If it works, then yes," he replied with a grin.
I watched as he emptied the other contents from his plastic take-out bag.
"Is it fun?" I hummed halfheartedly, not expecting a serious reply, but nevertheless curious. I glanced at him and he lowered his head to meet my gaze. "Bothering me, I mean."
His brows rose with surprise at my forwardness. His lips twitched into a smirk. "Very fun."
P.S. I realize there may be some inconsistency with my grammar from here on and I am too lazy to correct the past chapters, so I will leave it as it is. You may or may not notice these inconsistencies, but either way, please spare me. I wish upon any God for my fic to have proper grammar and flow. I find it to be important to every story, so I will try to keep things as perfect as my imperfect human mind can. From now on. For old readers, I have edited some past chapters and haven't changed anything important to most of them except for chapter 8. I advise readers who haven't read the revised edition of chapter 8 to please do so!
(I'm too scared to say this normally so I'll say it in brackets: Kuroro and Kurapika are so OOC, I want to jump off a cliff and murder a baby panda. But let's just say this is a crack fic and oversee my misdeeds. LOL. I'M SORRY KURORO, KURAPIKA, I KILLED YOUR CHARACTERS.
P.P.S I tried to fix some OOCness in previous chapters. Especially Kurapika.)
Anyway, please review and thanks for reading! I will try to reply to reviews as of now!