A/N: inspired by a post by sosoubrette on Tumblr! sosoubrette. /post/150654475578/i-agree-with-piriie-pika-needs-a-cat (just take out the space between the . and tumblr)
Disclaimer: I do not own Hunter X Hunter, Kurapika, or Leorio. I do, however, own this story! Cross-posting to ChocolatteKitty-Kat on and Ao3 and maliciousbubbl3s on Tumblr.
.*.*.*.*.*.
"I'm home!" Leorio called, shutting the door and kicking off his shoes.
"Back here!" Kurapika's voice came from the back of the apartment.
When Leorio walked through the door to the bedroom, it took him a moment to realize that Kurapika wasn't there—he was in the bathroom, ok his hands and knees, scrubbing the floor of the shower. "What, uh… what're you doing down there?"
"Cleaning," Kurapika grunted, scrubbing harder at a mark on the floor.
"I'm pretty sure that's part of the floor, there, babe," Leorio said gently, setting his briefcase aside.
Kurapika sat up and swiped his wrist across his brow. "You know I hate it when you call me that."
"I know, sorry," Leorio sighed. He sat down behind Kurapika and wrapped his arms around the blond, pulling him into his lap.
Kurapika tried to pull away, but Leorio held him tight. "Let me go. I want to finish what I was doing."
"The shower is already spotless," Leorio said soothingly. "You already finished."
"But…" Kurapika mumbled. The scrub brush slipped out of his hand and clattered to the floor.
Leorio sighed and pulled him even closer. "It's okay," he murmured. "Come on." He scooped Kurapika up in his arms and maneuvered the two of them carefully through the doorway and into the bedroom. He sat Kurapika down on the edge of the bed and knelt in front of him, taking Kurapika's hands in his own. "What's wrong?" he asked gently.
Kurapika sighed. "Nothing."
"Come on, talk to me," Leorio urged. "Did something happen?"
"No…" Kurapika sighed.
"Then what's wrong?" Leorio pressed. "Come on, I need you to talk to me!"
"It's nothing!" Kurapika insisted, pulling his hands away. "It's just… when you're gone, sometimes it gets so quiet around here. I have to do something to break it. Cleaning is usually the best option."
Leorio sat back on his heels, stunned. "Why didn't you tell me that's how you were feeling?"
Kurapika shrugged. "It's not like there's anything to be done about it. You have class and work. And even if you didn't, it wouldn't be fair or practical to ask you to spend all your time with me."
"Yeah, but I could try and rearrange my schedule a little bit so I'm not gone for so long at a time," Leorio protested.
"No," Kurapika said shortly. "I don't want you to have to change your life for me."
Leorio smiled kindly and reached up to cup Kurapika's cheek. "You're my whole world. I wouldn't mind changing anything for you."
Kurapika smiled and nodded, but pulled away. "I need to go pick up the things in the bathroom."
Leorio let him go with a sigh. "Hey, what do you want for dinner?" he called out as he started to change out of his scrubs.
"Nothing in particular," came the reply.
"How does spaghetti sound?"
"Fine by me," Kurapika appeared at Leorio's elbow, smiling brightly. Leorio could still see a shadow in the rich blue of his eyes, but let it slide.
Kurapika helped him make dinner, which was generally an… experience, but spaghetti was a hard dish to mess up. Leorio set him to stirring the pot of pasta while he cut some veggies to steam in the microwave. He glanced over his shoulder and frowned slightly. Kurapika was stirring the pot listlessly, staring off into the distance. Leorio sighed and turned back to his vegetables.
.*.*.*.*.*.
"How do you feel about dogs?"
Kurapika glanced up at the question. It had been two days since Leorio had come in to find him frantically cleaning the bathroom, and they hadn't said anything about it since. However, Leorio hadn't been able to get the image of Kurapika scrubbing the already-clean tiles or the conversation that followed out of his head, and had been trying to come up with a solution.
Kurapika tilted his head to the side thoughtfully, his blond hair slipping away from his face. "I don't mind them," he said finally. "They're not the worst, but there are definitely better animals. The only dogs around when I was a kid were the few stray Nightwolves that would wander down from the mountains, and you didn't want to get too close to those. I guess I've never really been around dogs, though, so I've never really thought about it."
Leorio nodded thoughtfully and turned back to his laptop.
"Why do you ask?" Kurapika leaned around to look at the computer screen. "The local animal shelter?"
"Well…" Leorio sighed, shutting the laptop and setting it aside. "I've been thinking about our conversation from the other night, and I guess I just thought that maybe there's a solution to how lonely you get when I'm gone all day."
"... A dog?"
"It was just a thought," Leorio said defensively.
"It wasn't a bad one," Kurapika said quickly. "And I really appreciate it. It's just that a dog seems like a lot of work, because it can't really stay cooped up in the apartment all day on days when I'm not here."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Leorio sighed.
Kurapika laughed. "I have a feeling that you were already kind of set on getting one."
"Maybe a little," Leorio admitted sheepishly. He opened the laptop and clicked out of the browser window, returning to his homework.
"Why don't we go by anyways?' Kurapika suggested after a while. "We could see if we could like… sponsor a dog until it gets adopted or donate to them or something. I know it's not quite a solution to the problem you wanted to solve, but I'm sure they could use the support."
Leorio visibly brightened. "We could go tomorrow!"
"Tomorrow?" Kurapika repeated.
"I have a half day at school, and you're home, right? I could come pick you up after class and we can go together!"
Kurapika smiled at how easily excited Leorio was. "Okay. Tomorrow it is."
.*.*.*.*.*.
When Leorio pulled up outside of the apartment building, Kurapika was already outside, standing under the awning above the front door. He wore a heavy jacket and dark jeans, and even from a distance Leorio could see his breath coming in puffs of cloud. As Leorio came to a stop, Kurapika darted across the sidewalk, golden hair bright against the deepening gloom of the rainy winter afternoon.
"Where's your umbrella?" Leorio admonished once Kurapika was in the car and shaking water out of his blond locks.
"I think it's in here, actually," Kurapika craned to look in the backseat, then reached back and produced a bundled-up black umbrella. "Ta-da."
"Put your seatbelt on," Leorio laughed, already pulling away from the curb.
The animal shelter wasn't far from their building, but the end-of-day traffic made the drive take twice as long as it should have. By the time they finally got to the shelter and parked the car, the rain had trickled off to a mist. Nevertheless, Kurapika and Leorio ran to the door of the building, Leorio holding an arm over his head as if it would somehow keep his hair dry. The air inside the shelter was blissfully warm, and Kurapika peeled off his heavy jacket and hung it on a convenient coat rack near the door.
"Hello there!" the clerk behind the counter had neon green hair and looked altogether too young to be there. "Welcome to the North Yorknew Animal Sanctuary. What can I help you with today?"
Kurapika hung back and let Leorio explain their situation to the clerk. While he waited, he looked around, his eye finally caught by movement behind a large plate glass window to his left. He wandered over.
The window overlooked a room full of cats. There were several cat trees, most of which had cats on every vaguely flat surface. Any bed or cushion on the floor had at least one feline occupant. Kurapika thought he even saw a large tomcat curled up in what was almost definitely a litter box in the back of the room.
"Our cat population has grown quite a bit lately," he turned at the chuckle next to his elbow. A little old woman, stooped over her cane, stood next to him, a smile splitting her wide, wrinkled face. "As happy as I am to see them all in here, we're rather overcrowded. We won't be able to take in many more before we run out of space."
Kurapika frowned, looking over the room full of cats. "Where are they all coming from?"
"In the cold weather, people are more likely to bring in animals that they can trap off the streets," the woman turned and headed deeper into the building. Kurapika glanced back at Leorio, still chatting amicably with the desk clerk, before following her. After the big window, the wall was lined with smaller windows, looking into small cages, many of which were occupied by at least one cat. The woman took him through a door that led into a small room, one of the walls lined with large cages. These were occupied by groups of very small kittens.
"These are litters that have been brought in by some of our cat foster parents lately. The foster parents take in a pregnant mother cat and give her somewhere safe and warm until she gives birth, and then until the kittens are old enough to be separated. Then, the mother is spayed and put up for adoption, as are the kittens." The woman stopped to coo at a trio of white and black kittens who hurried over to the cage door to mewl at her.
At the sound of a weak little yowl, Kurapika turned to look into a smaller cage that he hadn't noticed before. He leaned down to peer into it and was met by a pair of wide, golden eyes gleaming in the shadows of the cage.
"Hi there," Kurapika whispered, smiling kindly even though he knew the expression meant nothing to the animal.
"Oh, this one is a sad one," the old woman sighed, joining Kurapika in front of the cage. "Half of his litter died within days of being born, along with the mother. There were two other kittens that survived, but they were snapped up within days of getting here—kittens usually are."
"Then why is he still here?" Kurapika asked. He stuck a finger through the cage and wiggled it at the kitten, trying to coax it forward.
"He's not very friendly, as you can see," the woman laughed. "What you can't see is that he's all black. It may be silly, but people still believe that black cats are bad luck."
Finally, at Kurapika's coaxing, the kitten crept towards the front of the cage.
"Why don't you have a seat?" the woman smiled. Kurapika obligingly sat on the floor, and the woman opened the door to the cage, pulled out the kitten, and handed him to Kurapika. Sure enough, his fur was completely black, as were his nose and the pads on his feet. The only spots of color were his golden eyes, and the white teeth and pink tongue visible when he squeaked in protest at being picked up. "Here you go," the woman smiled, handing the kitten down to Kurapika.
Kurapika took the cat and held it out at arm's length at first. When the cat started to wriggle and kick, however, he brought it close and cradled it in his arms. When it reached up to lick his face, he couldn't help but laugh.
"Hey there," Leorio's voice came from the doorway. "I was wondering where you'd gotten to."
Kurapika glanced up, beaming. "Hey, Leorio… how do you feel about cats?"
.*.*.*.*.*.
"That should be fine," Leorio stepped back and eyed up his work. He had moved the chair out of his and Kurapika's bedroom and into the living room, in order to set up a litter box for their new roommate in the corner.
"I'm sure it will be," Kurapika laughed. He was sat cross-legged on the bed, playing with the cat with a feathered toy.
Leorio flopped onto the bed, careful to avoid the kitten pouncing around Kurapika's legs. "I thought you didn't want a pet."
"I didn't want a dog," Kurapika corrected. "They're too needy, and require too much attention, which isn't a practical thing for either you or I at this point. But cats are a lot more independent. I think he'll be okay with us. And also…"
"Yeah?" Leorio prompted when Kurapika paused.
"I'm not really sure. But when I was holding him, back there in the shelter, it was like he… told me that we all belonged together. I don't know; it probably sounds stupid, but…"
Leorio smiled and reached out to pet the cat, yelling when it wrapped its paws around his hand and dug in with teeth and claws. Kurapika laughed, and Leorio wrestled himself free of the cat. It's not really a solution, but maybe it'll help, he thought to himself. "Well, the way I see it, there's one more thing we have to do here," he said out loud.
"What's that?" Kurapika asked, still distracted by the black kitten.
"What are you going to name him?"