Promise? Promise.

Black.

It was dark.

I could not see a thing, but I could hear something.

Someone was crying. Who was it? Was it Pairo? Kurani?

"Kurapika…" I heard a small voice calling me. I dried my tears but did not look up. There was still darkness around me.

I was crying. Why was I crying?

"I'm sorry." I whispered.

"It's alright, Kurapika."

"No, it's not! You both could have died!" I wanted to scream those words, but they came out like a broken murmur.

Silence.

Kurani was never good at comforting people. Or maybe I was just being stubborn.

I had led Pairo and Kurani on one of my excursions in the furthest part of the forest. We had never gone there and I wanted to explore, to be ready for when Pairo and I would go outside of the village. Unfortunately for us we were being followed by a hungry beast, a huge Hornet Lion. Kurani and Pairo had both been pushed down by it, Pairo was on the ground and Kurani over him, covering her head with her arms, both frightened.

At that scene my eyes turned red and I was able to take the beast down with my swords. That was not be enough to cheer me up though. I felt so miserable. Things could have gone wrong in so many ways.

"You couldn't predict what was going to happen." I heard Kurani tentatively say. I ignored her and stayed in my melancholic darkness.

"Kurapika," this time it was Pairo's voice calling to me. I did not answer. "Kurapika, what's wrong?"

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. We were just unlucky."

"It is my fault. If we just stayed at the village… it wouldn't have happened." The dead body of the Hornet Lion was laying meters away from us.

"Kurapika…"

"No!"

"Kurapika…"

"I'm an idiot."

"You are."

At those words I finally raised my head and looked up at my friends, more tears coming down my cheeks. Those were not the words I was hoping to hear. Pairo was very honest with me. Sometimes he would catch me off guard with his honesty.

"You're an idiot for taking the blame, Kurapika. it was not your fault that thing was following us. You couldn't have know."

"I'm a horrible friend!" my fists pressed against the sides of my head.

"Why?"

"…" I lowered my head in shame.

"Protecting us makes you a bad friend?" Pairo asked, serious. "Kurapika, you defended us before the beast could do us any more harm. I am proud of being your friend."

I broke into tears again, Pairo's hand was on my shoulder, shaking me lightly as if trying to make me go back to my normal self. I was so blessed… so blessed to have friends like them. For a long time after the massacre of my Clan I was convinced I would never find anyone worthy of my friendship like Pairo and Kurani, but I was proved wrong after I entered the Hunter exam.

"I trust and can rely on you… We are still going out into the world together." Pairo smiled an honest smile. I retuned that gesture of kindness.

"Yes…" Yes. Those were the words I wanted to hear. He always knew exactly what to say when I needed to pick myself up.

Thank you, Pairo.

I dried my puffy eyes, I got back on my feet and all three of us made our way back home. A comforting silence reigned over us. No, not one of those embarrassing and awkward silences. It was a familiar and warm one, something that I truly miss.

"My father," Kurani broke that perfect silence, both Pairo and I stared at her. "He would always talk about this place where they would sell 'ice-cream'."

"What's 'ice-cream'?" Pairo inquired.

"It's—"

"It's a frozen dessert made out of milk and cream and it is usually combined with other ingredients to give it different flavours." I interrupted Kurani's explanation, to which she gave me an annoyed look. "Er… sorry." I sniffled.

"It's fine, Mr. know-it-all." Kurani said.

Pairo chuckled. "What about it?" he questioned.

Kurani shrugged. "My father would say that they make the best ice cream in a shop located somewhere in a city. I don't really member the name of the city, maybe Shin York or something… the shop was called 'Gelato Delight'…" Kurani glanced around the forest thoughtfully.

"…and?" Pairo said to make her continue.

She shrugged again. "I always wondered how it tasted."

We stared at her for a long moment. What did that have anything to do with what was happening?

"Yes, I wonder, too." Pairo rose his chin and curiously gazed at the branches over our heads. "Frozen milk... that sounds odd."

"Yeah… hey, maybe we can try that when we go outside." I sniffled and grinned at Pairo, he gave me an excited glance. All these future plans really got us worked up.

"I want to try it, too!" Kurani stated with a pout. "Don't steal my ideas."

"Then why did you share it with us?" I asked her.

"I… don't know…" she looked at her side as if trying to find an answer. "Maybe we could eat it all three together."

"You want to take the test to go outside the village, too?" Pairo asked her with a bit of disbelief in his voice. A soft blush tinted her cheeks.

"Well, yeah! But not right now. I'm not smart like you guys… it'll probably take me a couple of years or more before I feel ready to take the test."

"I thought you never were that interested in going outside." I arched an eyebrow. I liked Kurani, but I was afraid she would butt in my future plans to explore the world. That was Pairo and my dream. I did not want our adventure to be ruined.

"… I wasn't, but…"

" 'But' what?" Pairo asked.

"But… what am I suppose to do here, by myself, without you two around?!" she burst out frantically.

Pairo and I gave each other an understanding look before focusing our attention on Kurani again. "I see." I said.

"You could have said it sooner." Pairo followed. Kurani nervously played around with her fingers and, again, silence fell upon us.

"I just want to taste ice-cream…" Kurani whined childishly, trying to make that sound like an excuse.

How did this conversation arrive at this? Just a few moments ago I was miserable, scared and hating myself for what happened and was worried for my friends. Now… now we're talking about ice-cream and complaining about unimportant things. We were so easy to forgive and go on without holding grudges. Children are the most peculiar living creatures… amusingly enough, we were all children once. Happy-go-lucky and careless about everything. We were once like that and now we can barely understand how it was possible to behave in such a careless way.

How much I have changed.

"I don't think we'll all be taking the test to go outside at the same time." I said, bringing my hand to my chin. "I'm planning on taking it soon enough. Pairo will wait a bit longer and you said you wanted to take it in a couple of years… When we all pass the exam we could go eat that ice-cream together in that shop."

Kurani covered her mouth with both her hands in shock. "Really?" she said breathlessly, not believing what I just said. We never counted her in our outside plans, I'm sure she was pretty excited to be part of this.

Pairo nodded his head with my smile. "That sounds nice. A future objective for the three of us."

"But what if I don't pass the test?" Kurani said.

"No ice-cream for you." I simply stated giving her a taunting grin.

"Hey…" she frowned.

"Ice-cream will be your motivation not to fail." I added and she smiled.

"Yeah. So… is this a promise?" She questioned looking between myself and Pairo with glistening eyes. We both nodded and brought our fists forward.

"Promise." We both said almost unison.

"… What are you doing with your hands?" Kurani had a confused look on her face.

"What? What do you mean?! This is our handshake!" I commented.

"You… punch yourself?"

"Of course not! We bump each other's fist when we agree on something." Kurani gave me a look between confusion and mockery. I demonstrated for her by bumping Pairo's fist with my own.

"Whatever…" she came towards us and, together, we brought our hands together and smiled.

"So, it's a promise." I said.

"Yes, alright." Kurani nodded.

"Alright." Pairo added.

"… alright."

"Huh?"

"Are you alright, Kurapika?"

I was back in the real world and sitting in front of me was Leorio who was staring with a slightly worried expression.

"Kurapika?"

"Yes, I'm fine. My mind was… elsewhere."

"I couldn't tell." Leorio sarcastically answered back. "Lately you've been … weird. Are you sure you're alright?" he questioned. He was probably concerned about the last happenings which involved the Spider and my fever.

"Yes, I'm alright."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I promise…"

Note:

And here is another chapter! Hope you liked it and please tell me what you think :)

Hornet Lion is an animal of my invention.

I wanted to thank akilei and my dear xfirework for the reviews. Very appreciated :)

And now we only have two more chapters before the end of this story. I hope you'll like them :3

Next chapter: Lovebirds