Konbanwa Minna-san
Uh….
I guess with this one-shot I declare myself as LEOPIKA FANS!!!
Wooohoooooooo!!!!
*sigh* C'mon you guys out there, the fellow Leopika obsessie, write more about them… it's just me or Leopikas are getting rare to see? I mean, gosh, lately I started to betray this pairing by liking a Kuroro-Kurapika fics out there (which are extremely well written) So guys, More Leopika! Long live Leopika!
But nothing, I repeat, nothing out of the safe-mode boundary in this fic , I say this is a mild shounen ai
Well, maybe not yet, maybe I'll write a true yaoi later, when I've gathered enough guts to do so
And like human's nature, I made mistakes, so bear with me while I'm trying to polish my writing skill
Meanwhile, enjoy
Now, do I forget sumthin'?
Ah, right… the disclaimer… Well, you know the routine!
***The man with the silver spoon***
People dies. It happens all the time as the ending part of every mortal's life. They could try to prevent it from coming early, they could manipulate it with some of technologies, and they could impede it for a while. They even made a specific profession to deal with it, called doctor. But eventually death would swing its scythe anyhow. And nothing they could do but to accept it, whether they were ready or not.
The man knew that. And he, being one of those dealers knew some death would be there, along his road. Still he couldn't go trough the claws of dread that sunk into his neck as he stood there, in front one of the so-called sophisticated life-supporting machine, hearing the simply sickening monotone that rang simultaneously with the displayed flat red line among the screen's blackness. It was wrong. It didn't suppose to be flat, it supposed to be fluctuating, forming curves with valleys and peaks and playing the pulsating tunes of heartbeats. The line was supposed to be alive.
So was the woman that was lying in the operating table… She was his patient, a soon-to-be mother that had trusted both her life and her unborn daughter to his hand.
The child that was on his hands...
"Doctor Leorio…" a sheer call came to his ears, a gentle pat felt broke the coil of stiffness that tangled around him.
…would never know her mother
He whirled his comrades disorientedly, and was surprised to see calmness settled in his eyes, "The child, we must put her in incubator…" he said, slowly removing the newborn into his own hands.
The newborn, she wasn't even crying. She couldn't, the pain to be born in two digits of hours must have disabled her voice, but her entire body was clearly crying. Her skin still held a transparent shade of carmine; vulnerability that appears in common premature cases. Her eyelids were tightly closed, contrast with her mouth open to catch the first air with her probably not yet fully formed lungs.
She was small, very small indeed, light and fragile and had just become an orphan…
No.
No! She's not dead! She's only temporarily unconscious of the anesthetics! His mind tried to calm down the raising dread.
The line curved some rattletrap graphics as his other comrades took the last method on their usual efforts to prevent life escaped out one's body, using the artificial pulse from electricity to stir the blood pump up. But the sickening monotone was back again, washing away all the remaining hopes into sad acceptances.
But for this doctor, the rookie among the team, the failure of their last method was only another additional block of ice on his enormous stacks of disbelief.
"No!" he blurted out, leaving his supposedly doctorish calm demeanor behind, yanking away the white sheet his another comrade used to cover the woman. "Don't! She's not dead!" he snapped, with fear that was clearly colored his voice.
"Doctor Leorio… We've tried…" his senior intoned in trying to make his junior accept the loss.
"No, no Doctor Hatori! We haven't tried to use Ten!" he hastily replied, grasping the woman's hand to give her some of his life force. Soon translucent blue waves gushed out the young doctor's body; ten, kind of vigor with preserving effects, at certain cases might heal one's injury a bit, but certainly not in this case. The team knew it, for they released sighs of rue and witnessed the young doctor's act of intransigence with understanding.
Eventually the coldness of the woman's hand shattered his stacks of disbelief into countless pieces of piercing frustration.
He had lost her. Life had left her. Death had claimed her, allowing her only a mere time to give her daughter a brief touch of affection, and a shred of energy to curved her last smile.
Blasts of guilt emerged from pit of his stomach, and he started to shiver, for the realization that he had just lost a life grasping him with obnoxious icy coldness.
"We've tried our best…" said a voice behind him.
"You're tired, get some rest, we'll take care of the them." another voice spoke, this time a pair of hands was gently pulled him back.
How? How could? How could they be so calm? Uttered the young doctor in his bewildered eyes.
He stepped aside, leaning in the wall with hands wrapped around his self. Besides him, was the incubator. Catching the sight of the carmine premature newborn with eyes closed, helpless, couldn't even cry to express the pain… was unbearable. Worse, there was nothing the team could do but to wait and see if the death was merciful enough to spare her. And he couldn't any form of aura energy on her for she's too fragile to receive some.
She could join her mother in any time.
Even if she survives, if her eyes later open, she'll see the motherless world.
And how could he look into those innocent eyes later? To see the sadness inside them that was caused by his failure? How?
He backed a step, ripping off his masker with his trembling finger and half stumbling-ly reaching out of the suffocating room. Walking in unsteady steps hurriedly, he saw the woman's husband, the newborn's father, the man that obtained the status as a father and a widow at the same time. The man was surrounded by his comrades… And soon enough he heard a weak howl of grief from him; it drove him to walk faster, heading to anywhere out... seeing nothing but white blurs of the hospital's walls, smelling nothing but the nauseating blend of formaline and blood, hearing nothing but the machine's sound residue, mixed with some screams from his own head; You failed! You failed to save her! You failed!
The white blurs shifted to black as he felt himself breaching out the front gate. The night's stillness was tampered by sounds of his stark paces against the graveled path. He walked and walked, not bothering the cramp that seized his legs as a result of him abusing them with staccato steps in the freezing air. But gradually the deficit of rest he had been keeping since two days before thrashed him to allay down at the wooden bench nearby.
Sweepoing the sweat beads off his temple, he flinched his gaze at the white painted building that protruding up between the smaller silhouettes of the surrounding houses. York Shin Memorial Hospital, he felt waves of disappointment stroke his gut as he read the neon letters embedded on it.
How simple his mind was, to think that with being a doctor, by graduating from the best medical academy, he had guaranteed himself capable to rescue ones' lives, just like turn down the palm. It's your first case and you failed, how could you be sure that you won't loose another cases?
He had received the lesson about how handle this kind of situation with proper manner of his profession. Basically two things, calm down and accept the reality. But of all unfortunate events the gray world had, why this was the one which had to fall on him, on his first case for even worse? Now he had no longer the self-assuredness that someday, when he had gained enough experience in his career, he would out of the materialistic bureaucracy that was plaguing the cradle of humanity. And creating an uncorrupted medical system of his own with genuine purpose to help others that was worth to help.
How could he manifest that marvelous wish of his if he couldn't even save a single life?
He cracked his knuckles, he had always hated that feeling, feeling of being useless. He had had it countless times along his life, like when he lost his best friend, like when his two other friends was taken as hostages, like when he saw his beloved one suffering of hatred… At those times, he could only give mere words that barely ease they burden without doing any significant act.
He wasn't blessed with any special force or ability like his friends, he only had his luck, and his skill on bargaining… Luck? Bargaining? He smirked a mockery at himself. Probably he had lost his bargaining ability, since he couldn't win the bargain on the woman's life.
As for his luck… it had never come to use when it was about anybody else than him. He had always under the smiling fortune for he, with no talent in martial arts, surprisingly achieved the Hunter status; for he, one with a brain that just at the humble distant above the standard level could pass the entire required trial to be a doctor, in a short term even… But when it came to help other people, it never worked. He had never succeeded in helping his friends; most of his attempts to do so turned out to be a blunder… and eventually he was back in the state of being useless.
He slid laying on the settee. Chill breeze coming from the sea not far from his site was the only companion he had, stroking his skin in mild swirl, as if was pitying him. Flocks of seagulls were squawking around in their journey home to their nests in the cliff's crevices.
As the ambiance went colder, the bundle of assorted distress inside of him grew larger, annoyingly stuck in his pot gut like a constant nausea that couldn't be spewed out. How he wished he had someone who kind enough to share his burden with.
"Leorio?" a tender, familiar voice hailed his auditory range.
Without changing his position, he flinched his eyes at its owner, who was apparently standing before him. What he saw was the person he has been longing to see for so long. Beautiful, that word had always been the impression he got whenever he saw him, his beloved one.
"What a coincidence …" he said again, with a brief smile added as a bonus.
The other man could do nothing but stare at him, backgrounded by the black mantle of the starless night sky that was making him the leading source of beauty in the entire view. Even with the fact that he saw him upside-downly did not curtail that notion. Then he realized the state he was been; laying ignorantly in the public bench like some heartbroken looser in some lousy soap operas… well, in particular viewpoint, maybe he was.
But he didn't want that particular point of view to be his, so he quickly changed his state by sitting up properly.
He opened his mouth slightly while scrabbled desperately on his mesmerized mind for some words, and ended up settling a single syllable, "Hi…" as a reply. Their eyes met and suddenly he got the urge to call his name for indefinite reason, and so he continued, "Kurapika." and he smiled, for by saying that name was soothing him.
The blonde smiled once more and took the space next to him, placing his luggage aside.
"I didn't know that you're in York Shin." said the doctor, couldn't think of any other sentence to start a conversation.
"I told you on email two days ago." replied the blonde, slightly raising his eyebrows. "You didn't reply, I thought you were so busy, it's okay."
"Ah…" the other man soughed. He had no chance to check his mail since a week or so. "… I didn't check my inbox…" he sighed, "So, what's up?" he asked, when actually he didn't care why the blonde was there, the important thing was he's there, next to him, close enough so the man could inhale his soothing scent of bergamot and that's enough… The question that he's been willing to ask but somehow lost inside his gullet was 'did you miss me?'
"Two pairs of Kuruta's organic rubies was on the catalog of yesterday's auction, so I insisted Right Nostrad to give me couple days off, broke my savings and here I am…" he explained, still smiling.
"Got them?" he prolonged the question in sole purpose to hear the blonde's voice again.
"I lost one, 'guess I need to double my job before I could beat all those money trees…" he shrugged, but then curved a smile. "Guess what, three more pairs to hunt and I can go back to Rukuso to bury all of them." his smile grew wider on optimistic expectation.
The older man smiled back and noticed the absence of strained hatred in the blonde's eyes that he had always has couple years behind; now those viridian pools held the calmness of peace that, he guessed, was allowing him to smile for free.
"Good for you." he replied, still smiling good-naturedly, genuinely happy for him…
The blonde tilted his head, there was a troublous shade on the man's face that held back his usually rich expression. An incredible tense seemed to radiate out from the eyes behind those transparent glasses, concluding that the owner was having an obstacle that whatever it was, surely a very burdensome one. He was looked like a different person with the picture of a proud, buoyant fresh graduated doctor in an indigo toga he received in his email not so long before.
"How was your life Leorio? Or should I call you doctor Leorio?" he asked in return, trying to liven up the conversation a bit.
Being addressed with his profession was felt like a hammer hit, crushing the doctor's thin layer of placidity that he used to hold himself from breaking down and crying or sorts of any other unmanly deeds. He broke the eye contact immediately, bending forward a bit and evacuating his gaze to the horizon.
"I… I lost my patient…" he stammered, cracking his knuckles, "She was my first case and I failed to save her…" he bit his lower lips, trying to prevent the abrupt hot stream that blurring his vision to flow out.
"Leorio…I I'm sorry." the blonde whispered after a moment of shock. No knowing better things to do, he put his hand on the doctor's shoulder.
The man inhaled the frigid air in his lungs' maximum capacity and bent up his head, resting it in the bench's curving top. He stared at the sky, trying to find a single star he could rested his eyes upon so he didn't carried away inside his chaotic mind, but since it was blank black, he closed them, and did nothing but feeling the soreness.
"Am I the best looser in the world or what?" he chuckled at his own sentence, "She was so close to be the happiest mother and I couldn't help her. I made that baby born as an orphan…" he opened his lids and found the blonde blanketing him with a soft, observing gaze. The kind of look the doctor used to comfort him in past events wherein the situation was the way around.
"Don't blame yourself Leorio…"
"-- it's a high risked pregnancy, I knew that, but I, vainly encouraged her to keep the baby. And so she did, and she died…" he paused to take a breath, "And nothing I could do! And that baby, God Kurapika, she was so fragile, I…I can't--" his breath caught in his throat, and he felt something salty moistened his face, "Ah shit!" a swear escaped from his frustration.
He took off his glasses and chafed his wet eyes in irritation, "-- I can't stand to look at her, I didn't even dare to told her husband. I just run my chicken ass off and here I am, meeting you, hahah… How--" he left his line incomplete. How what? Lucky? A sinister thought voiced in his head. He faced the blonde, who apparently was concerning him; Yes, Lucky little Leorio, didn't you wish to have someone on your side just a while ago?
That damned luck of his never worked when it was needed. Long ago, he remembered, long ago he was wandering around that very same place, hoping that somehow he would encounter the blonde in a sweet parallelism, and his luck did not work. Now, in his most embarrassing state, the angelic blonde found him. Cursed his lucky self.
"…I hate myself." He mumbled. I hate my luck, I hate my uselessness… I hate me
On the other side, the blonde was confused. He didn't know what to say other than those unserviceable typical cheering up words he had said. He had never been clever in such kind verbal communication. Being clueless of the effective countersign to ease the other man, he did nothing but listening , despite how bad was his will to comfort him with something more than that. Blame his lack of eloquent-ness!
Few fractions of silence afterwards were shattered by a low cracking sounds of the rectangular glasses the man held. He broke it on purpose, silently feeling the pain that streamed out along with his dripping blood.
"Leorio!" the confused blonde exclaimed, hastily reaching the man's bleeding hand to tend the wound. But the man gave no reaction at this, he kept his grip firm on the sharp shards, feeling a bit eased by the pain it caused.
"Leorio-kun dameyo!" the blonde wailed in trying to scrape his fingers off the glass, "You've tried your best, it's not your fault! Don't punish yourself like this!"
The man remained still, only giving a response at the sets of vibration coming from the cell phone inside his pocket. He swallowed his lump of frustration, took it out and sighed heavily at the recognition of the hospital's number on its screen.
"Yes?" he droned in hoarse pitch after had flipped open the flap.
"Doctor Leorio. This is Hatori speaking…" came a close voice of a comrade of his, "The baby had just passed the critical time. She'll live." he informed, with voice enriched with delight.
The same shade of delight graced Leorio's face only for a brief moment before the voice across the line spoke some more words that triggered back his anxiety, "Mr. Saionji here wants to speak with you."
Leorio took another swallow and prepared himself for the worst, but he said to himself that whatever kind of swearing or verbal assault that the man would pour all over him, he was worth it.
"Doctor Leorio?"
"Y-Yes?" he stammered, and was sad to hear the man's voice, which soaked with grieves.
"I just want to say thank you…"
The doctor's jaw hung loose in agape for he didn't believe what he had just heard, "Sir…?" he asked in effort, for it was hard to make a noise from his breath.
"Thank you." the voiced confirmed without any trace of insincerity in the intonation.
But the suppose to be relieving verification only made the doctor more confuse and more guilty, "Sir… I, I lost your wife! Why, why--?" he stuttered in trying to ask the reason of him receiving such a credit.
"I have my daughter. She has her daughter. For we have our daughter." the voice replied in calmness.
"-- No, no Sir! I, I didn't-- I didn't deserve it!" his voice raised in disbelief, so did the vibration in it. "I lost you wife, you should be a happy family if it wasn't because of me!" his discomfortness slowly grew into anger directed at himself. He wouldn't allow his blameworthy self to take any kind of relief nor delectation that he absolutely did not deserve. "Blame me Sir, for encouraging your wife to take the risk, blame me."
"No doctor! I'll be damned if I do so! It's my wife's will, it's our will. And I believe she thanked you too. I believe from the way she smile, that she didn't regret anything, I believe she rest in peace. And I believe you deserve my gratitude."
The man's explanation on the case left the doctor speechless, overwhelmed by alleviation that was melting out of his blustering ebullition of distress. He parted his lips in attempt to reboot again but his voice had dropped into an inaudible sob.
As though it was not too much for him to handle, the widowed man voiced again, "Since it was a girl, as her mother's will, we named her Leorine, after you…"
Something exploded inside the doctor's chest, sending tears rivering out his weary eyes. "Sir, I-I…" his voice raced against his breath to come out, but finally he manage to let out a whisper, "It's my honor…"
But the next voice coming from the other side of the line was his comrade's voice, "You had the name Leorio, I got the honor to be her godfather…" there was a slight burden on his tone. "We've tried our best, but God decides…" he continued with a deep sigh. Maybe he too, even as a senior doctor, shared the same feeling, "…now, wherever you are, go home and take a rest. We'll need you in fit condition tomorrow." And with that, he closed the conversation.
The rhythmic tone of the hung up phone rang for a few seconds before its owner closed the flap. He curved a smile between his glistening tears, tasting the bittersweet fate. He glanced at the blonde, who seemed to ask if he was okay with his concern emerald eyes.
"Daijobu…" he answered the unspoken question. "… Daijobu…" but his tears wouldn't stop flowing out, and the funny thing was, his smile wouldn't wear off too. So that's what it feels like, the blend of happiness and sadness.
"… They named her Leorine, Kurapika." he spoke in trying to regain his composure, "Leorine, after my name. What--, I--, I just--," his endeavor failed as he lost control on his voice and started to sob. Not long after, he lost control on his body, for the weariness took control of it; and tumbled down to the blonde's available shoulder.
"Sorry." he muttered, and swiftly tried to sit down properly. Unexpectedly the blonde held his head and gently placing it on his lap.
The man shot him a question through his bewildered eyes, Is this all right? He guessed the blonde had always known the kind of feeling he had for him. And he himself had also known that the blonde's sentient was out of the reach of that kind of feeling, that he had no room in his heart left to be filled by anything else than that matters of vow he had made upon the name of his massacred clan.
He had understood and accepted that fact. But still he could not erase the compassion; and since neither from both of them complained about it, he let it stayed in his heart and left it to be washed away, or at least be kept away from his surface, so that it wouldn't disturb the blonde.
But it was far from easy to be done, especially with the blonde letting him to rest on his lap like that. He was afraid that somehow, the possessive feeling would come up to his surface and demand more than he already got and ruins their friendship. He was afraid to be overwhelmed by his kindness that was given only to serve their friendship that he didn't want to betray. He was afraid, very, so he asked silently, Is this all right? Is this okay?
"It's okay." The blonde assured him
And so he smiled.
"You're relieved. It's okay, let it out…" the blonde whispered, gently took the man's still bleeding hand and started to tend the wound. The man let him to do so.
"Don't." mumbled the blonde suddenly, "Don't ever say that again…" he paused and looked the doctor in his eyes, "Don't ever say that you hate yourself…" then he back on removing the glass shards out of the cut. "You have a meaning for people all around you, you have no rights to hate yourself…"
"… what's my meaning for you then…?"
"You…?" he was a bit staggered by the doctor's inquiry.
"Yes." said the doctor, intensely looked at him, waiting eagerly for an answer.
"…It's hard to explain."
"Then explain it in a single word." he urged him. Hold that possessiveness of yours Leorio!
"Important." He answered after a large intake of breath. "You're important to me." he prolonged the answer, pulling the last glass shards out of the wound.
"Souka…" Important, that's what you get Leorio, be satisfied with it, a thought of him warned. Important…?I could take it, said another thought. He smiled weakly.
"What's my meaning to you?" the blonde asked in return.
"You…" the man scanned his vocabulary for a careful choice of word, "Important-est." he finally stated.
The blonde chortled at his answer, "I thought the most important thing to you is women."
"Not women." the doctor chuckled, "Love…"
The blonde was nudged by that mere noun and accidentally pressed the open cut, causing the doctor groaned a bit in pain,
"Oh, Sorry! Is that hurt?"
"A bit…" he smirked. It does hurt. Love hurts…
"Hold on okay, I'm gonna heal the wound, this is gonna hurt a little." and so he closed his eyes and summoned the chain inside of him.
Beautiful , how the man never bored with that adjective. He watched quietly as vitreous teal billow flowed out of the blonde's hands and heard the all too familiar tones of the clinking chains. He felt no pain in his hand, only a slight ache in his heart. The blonde was so close but so distant at the same time, still unreachable… Ungrateful little me… he said to himself. Don't ask for more Leorio, be grateful of what you already have. He sighed and gave in into his exhaustion.
"It's done Leo--" the blonde stopped the line as he saw the man had fallen asleep. He smiled at his sleeping feature. This man, he is important to him. Was important a precise term to describe his meaning for him? He didn't know.
Importantest, love… he gulped the uneasiness he got in hearing those words. Does the man love him? He had always known that he had something more than an average mutual regard… and it had already been proven by his devotion, by the warmth of his attention and by the look in his eyes. He has been trying to ignore it for he got no rights to take any kind of pleasure the world offered as long as he heard his massacred clan screaming from their graves.
But he had no longer heard those screams, he realized. Since when? He didn't know. He trailed the man's firm jaw; he's a bit skinnier than the last time he saw him. His charm however, had gracefully grown, least that was what he felt when he sat besides him few minutes back. Maybe because he has changed that rather ridiculous looking sunglasses with a now-broken decent one. But wearing glasses or not, that charisma was always his.
He surprised to find himself was staring at the older man's handsome feature, the thing that he would usually do as brief as its necessary. Even the fact that he was wholly conscious of what he was doing didn't bother him to draw back his hand that began to caress the doctor's ebony strands. For what reason, for what caused, he gave himself an 'I don't know'. His hand that usually chained with his weapon, now was left idle… few years aback he wouldn't deform those chains for any reason, it had always stayed solidly in his fist. But somewhere in time between then and there, he had been granted by the secure feeling to let the chain dissolved back as soon as he's done with it.
Where did he got such a feeling? He backed on the same answer on the previous inquiries; he didn't know.
A long, high pitched whistle tore him off his reverie. He glanced the silhouette of the ship harboring in the port not far from their site that was supposed to be his destination before he encountered the man. That ship was supposed to carry him back to the Nostrad Manor.
He held out his ticket and read its departure time, 10.00 PM. He glanced his watch, 09.49 PM. He sighed, the whistle was meant to call the unboard passengers. He was the unboard passenger.
What should he do? Left the man there and quietly leaving? He glanced his luggage; his reasons to come to the city in first place; the organic rubies of his tribe, was on his hands.
He glanced Leorio; sleeping undisturbedly on his lap. Should he leave him now? Most of his thought disapproved, and a little part of him told him to start chasing the boarding vehicle...
The wind helped him to make a decision; it blew swiftly and took the blonde's ticket away.
Kurapika flinched a bit to reach the printed paper, but then letting it be toyed by the mischievous breeze. He guessed Right Nostrad had to stand another night with that spoiled daughter of him being left off his guard. Besides… he glance at sleeping one again… the man was needing him right there. And it was his turn to provide himself for him; like he always on his side back then, providing him all the support he needed to go trough his twisted plot of life.
The thought clicked in his head. Maybe this man was the reason behind his achievement in regaining his steadiness of emotion.
He sighed in somewhat relief, resting his gaze on Leorio's feature once more. It was awful to see him broke down; he wished he could do something more for him. Like what? and that annoying little 'I don't know' thing popped up again.
Still sighing, he caressed him again, showering him with intense gaze, filling his lungs with the man's familiar scent of tobacco flower and unconsciously drawing himself to bent closer on him.
And eventually touched the man's lips with his lips
And there, an example of the noun we called kiss
Yes, he kissed the man
For what reason?
Maybe for everything
Maybe for nothing
Perhaps the man was born with the silver spoon.
Perhaps it was because the dried four-leafed clover that his mother gave him.
Perhaps it was because the horse's shoe that Pietro gave him as a joke on Christmas a decade before.
Perhaps because he was simply lucky…
Perhaps because it was meant to be.
***Ende***
Ummm…. *glomps back and forth*
Do I leave the puzzle undone? Yeah, I leave a gap for you to imagine the next scene followed
How was it? It is my first attempt in shounen ai, hope you like it…
About Leorio's line that he was wandering on the city and hoping to meet Kurapika long ago before this fic take place in time, it did happen on the series (or did I too much looking for a hint for this couple?). Anyway it when he's out of the hotel, leaving Gon and Killua in the room. At the same time Kurapika is also out of the hotel but to my dissapointment, he sees Hisoka, not Leorio!!! Agggrh!!! It's one of few things that pushed me to write this story.
The main reason was I'm a fan of this couple, and I feel sorry for Leorio (c'mon girls, he maybe not the bishonen kind, but he is goodlooking, imagine him with the cool, rectangular glasses and a white doctor's suit, hmmm….) for Togashi-sama seemed trying to present him as the looser (which is not!) And in case you noticed, the other doctor (yeah, doctor Hatori) is Sohma Hatorifrom Fruit Basket (I own Fruit Basket not)
Okay, nuff babble
Please leave me a review will ya?
Help me to improve my writing ability.
Thank you for reading
Any kind of feedback (suggestion, comments, critics, corrections, flames) are gladly welcomed
C'ya on other fics
Quince