Chapter Text
Leorio has only been to one funeral, and it was Pietro's. It was a sorrowful day, the sun wasn't shining, and it would rain, then stop, before picking back up again. They were catholic, so it was a religious affair; gospel songs played on a piano while women from the small choir belted out hymns. No one really cried, at least not so openly, Pietro's parents would just dab their tears with a tissue and continue in with their eulogy.
Leorio sat with his own parents in one of the front pews, and he dazedly watched it all happen. It was an open-casket, but Leorio couldn't bring himself to see him that way, he knew Pietro wouldn't want him to. It was only when they got home did Leorio allow himself to cry for his friend.
What makes the Kurta Clan funeral drastically different from then was that it was bright outside. The sky was the brightest he'd ever seen. The birds chirped joyfully out the windows of the chapel, and it was cool inside. Kurapika tentatively sat next to Leorio on the front pew after he carefully took out each jar of eyes, setting them side by side on a wooden communion table in front of the church. There was no piano, no church choir, and no muffled tears. It was just them and the spirits of Kurapika's clan no doubt swarming around the church from how strong the aura was at the moment.
Kurapika's fingers slide into his own like a puzzle, gripping him in a strangled attempt at being strong but greatly faltering. Leorio put his free hand over his, rubbing his thumb smoothly over the back of Kurapika's hand as they gazed ahead at the picture set before them.
"I never believed in God," Kurapika's voice is faint like he lost it without even talking.
"Hm," Leorio hums to show he's listening.
"I thought that since life was unfair to me, then how could He exist? What creature would wipe out a whole generation and then leave a nine-year-old all alone to suffer for it? My mother would always hum… this song, even though we had our own traditional Kurtan songs to sing. But she sang it anyway, saying it gave her a secretive hope."
Kurapika leans his head on Leorio's shoulder, Leorio caressing his cheek, catching a few fallen tears that rolled down his soft skin.
"Do you remember the song?" he whispers into his hair, he feels Kurapika nod under his weight.
The quiet dragged on for a few more minutes until Kurapika's voice sliced through it, choked and strained, but soft and sturdy all the same. Leorio knew the song the instant Kurapika hummed it's rhythm, his hold on his hand shaking, starting to lose its grip. Leorio held on more sternly to his grasp when it went limb. His voice now above a whisper, the song dying on Kurapika's tongue after a failed attempt of getting through the second verse.
- -
Kurapika was hesitant at first when Mito asked him why he needed to go to the chapel. He was on the verge of telling her a rushed nevermind and changing the subject. Kurapika loathed talking about himself, his childhood, his past, or anything that didn’t involve what he was doing at the moment. It was often a stressful occurrence that made him feel overwhelming emotions and guilt for himself and he hated feeling sorry for himself just as much. It was only easy to confide in Leorio about all these things because Leorio made himself accessible to hearing about Kurapika. There was also the fact Leorio didn’t treat him like a sob story and he could trust him not to rat him out to auctioneers or the police.
But Mito has never given him a reason to not trust her, however, it hadn’t even been two days since he met her. He wouldn’t dump his life story on her or feel compelled to tell anything personal about himself. However, he didn’t want to lie to her, as he didn’t see the need in lying if you didn’t gain from it, and even then he steered far from fables. So after a moment's quick thought, he figured to tell a somewhat-truth.
“I have a possession of a late family member’s that I’d like to hold a funeral for as well as a burial because I don’t have their physical being,” Kurapika decides to say, hoping his voice isn’t shifting to questionable.
Mito didn’t seem to question his motives in a subtle expression, instead, she nodded in understanding and that was enough explanation for her. She took a necklace out of her blouse with a silver skeleton key on it, “actually, we only have one chapel. Great Gran majorly tends and cares for the chapel and the land around it. You’re fortunate; Great Gran makes it quite hard to gain access to the chapel apart from Sundays and Wednesdays. Here, I’ll show you where it is and I’ll let you borrow my spare key.”
The chapel was up on a hill all by itself, where the landscape dipped into the ocean and the sun shined on it best as there were very few trees to garner any shade from it. It wasn’t huge by any means, it was small and resembled a cozy home in a suburban neighborhood if it wasn’t for the cross planted in between the front windows as well as the wooden sign planted into the grass near the mailbox titled, ‘Whale Island Chapel’.
The key Mito gave Kurapika opened every door in the chapel so it was easy to maneuver through it. After the short ceremony, Kurapika sat on his knees and clasped his hands, and attempted to pray. Leorio copied his pose and closed his eyes too. It was hard, and he wouldn’t say his prayer out loud in fear of embarrassment. As expected of himself, he gave up trying to talk to God after a minute or two of attempting to pray for himself and shifted to praying for his clan instead. He prayed for their peace and eternal well-being, he prayed for Leorio, the kids, and Mito and Great-Gran too; that they live long and be safe along their individual daily tasks. Kurapika’s not sure if God heard him if he existed, but Kurapika wasn’t remorseful enough to ask God to forgive him for the lives he took or ruined, as he liked to think the man upstairs would understand why he did it at all. When he’s sure he asked or acknowledged everything he could think of in that five-minute time slot, he neatly picked himself off of the ground. Leorio stayed positioned for a few seconds more than him, raising up with a helpful hand from Kurapika.
Then they started to place the jars of eyes into a large metal box. It was deep inside and the perfect place to store his clan. Leorio brought it the day Kurapika told him of his plans to hold a funeral, and after work, he came back home with it. Leorio was gentle in how he held the eyes, equally gentle when he placed them in the box, Kurapika taking notice of how ginger his actions were with each jar he picked up and stored like he knew he was holding parts of Kurapika. Together, they heaved the box out the backdoor of the chapel, sitting it on the steps. Kurapika took both the shovels leaning against the chapel walls and gave one to Leorio. The sun beating down on Kurapika as he jabbed the tool into the dirt of the flower bed, swinging the shovel to drop each scoop of dirt off into a pile to the side of him.
Eventually, after digging a hole deep enough, the two carried the box to it. Kurapika put a combination lock on the handle of the box that he carried in his satchel. He conjured up his chains, tightly wrapping his Judgement Chain around the lock.
“This box is only to be opened by those who know the combination,” he announced sternly, channeling energy from his clan’s eyes to act as the dependent aura of a beating heart. “If this box is forcefully opened by bypassing the lock, the culprit will die immediately upon breaking this condition.”
Leorio tilted his body to gaze at what he was doing, “how will you know the condition was broken?”
“I will know because I can feel it. I set the condition with Judgement Chain and Judgment Chain is a part of me.” Kurapika explains, unleashing the box from his chains and they vanished from around his fist. With Leorio’s help, they push the box into the hole, where it settles like a puzzle into the ground. Kurapika gives it one last glimpse that Leorio patiently allows him.
“Come on, let’s cover it back up,” Kurapika instructs and they waste no time getting to work on it.
The sun sets around them just as Kurapika finishes neatly patting the dirt with his shovel. Leorio hangs back as Kurapika does some additional work over the ‘grave.’ He takes a packet of seeds out of his satchel and kneels onto the grass of the flower bed. He got the seeds from Mito when he asked for them and she didn’t question him, happy to indulge his want to plant flowers somewhere on Whale Island. He delicately poked holes into the dirt above the box with his fingers, dropping seeds into them before covering them back up. He opened a half-drunk bottle of water and poured it over each seed, planning to come back each day Great Gran lets him to see their progress.
“Okay, we can go now,” Kurapika declares after stuffing the bottle and empty seed pack back into his bag. “Did we lock up the chapel? Thank you for your help and just… being here, it made things easier.”
When Kurapika picks himself up and looks over at Leorio, he’s just staring at him with a frown. Kurapika fixes his face into an expression of confusion, unsure if he had done something wrong or to offend him. “What’s the matter?”
Leorio walked up to him, placing his hands on his shoulders. “Kurapika, I think you’ve been strong for long enough.”
Kurapika startles at the declaration, for the first time shrugging off his touch. He offered him a stifled scoff, about to walk past him to check the locks on the chapel. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Leorio only reaches for his arm, pulling him back enough that they're a couple of inches apart. “Kurapika, it’s over. The fighting, the fear, the hopelessness. It’s all over now and you’ve made it this far. It’s okay to show how you really feel now.”
“How I feel?” Kurapika said under his breath in a childish contemplation of searching for a meaning in it. “How do you know what I feel? Are you me?”
Leorio grits his teeth, his grip on his arm sliding up to his shoulders, holding him there in case he tried to free himself to avoid what he knew was revealing. “Don’t play stupid, Kurapika! You know what I mean. It’s okay to be human and honest with yourself. It’s okay to be sensitive and raw--it’s okay to cry--”
“No it’s not,” he quickly interjected. “It’s not okay to cry. Why should I cry now? That’s a foolish thing to do, I can’t even believe you suggested such a nonsensical thing to me. Do you think just because everything is done and all those years I’ve wasted getting to this moment will make me feel some kind of human sentiment? Or maybe I could sob about having to figure out what else to do with my life now that I’m somehow still walking and breathing and living? Leorio, you say the most idiotic things sometimes--”
Kurapika huffs out when Leorio gives him a sympathetic smile and moves his warm hands to his face, wiping away some wet stuff from his face. Was it raining?
“Then why are you crying?” Leorio softly asks him, and that he feels the hiccups coursing through his body sharply, jerking his shoulders up and down as he struggles to keep down any sounds of distress. “You don’t have to cry for yourself, Kurapika. It’s okay to cry about other people. Because they said something mean, or because they were hurt. And right now, it’s okay to cry because they died and you miss them. Allow yourself to cry, Pika.”
Strangely, that was all Kurapika needed to break down in tears into Leorio’s chest. Leorio wrapped his arms tight around him, swaying them gently side to side as he wailed the most disgusting sounds he’s ever heard from himself that he’ll think about at 3 AM someday. He’s so emotionally drained that he passes by Leorio calling him ‘Pika’ and even at that moment the nickname was a comfort. Kurapika grasped onto Leorio for dear life, most likely leaving scratch marks on his sweater. But he was too busy missing his family because they died.
- -
Kurapika’s hair was like silk through his fingers, Leorio thought as he ran a brush through his freshly blow-dry hair. Kurapika hummed from his perch on the stool at the kitchen table, contently letting Leorio have a shot at braiding his neck-length hair into a style he saw for short hair on the internet.
Leorio saw a change in Kurapika’s personality since the day they buried his family. Of course, for a few days, he was somber and allowed himself to feel all the negative emotions he locked away inside of himself. But two weeks have passed and Kurapika’s much more bright and excited about things. He laughs unapologetically loud and when Leorio’s busy filling out paperwork, he can hear Gon and Killua whine in protest to whatever prank Kurapika pulled on them before hearing Kurapika cackle in response while dashing down the hall. Kurapika’s eating a lot and sleeping well even though he still gets nightmares from time to time. He’s also taken up drinking herbal tea and gardening with Mito, he deems that it’s therapeutic and Leorio’s just happy he’s got something healthy to put his time into.
As far as their relationship is going--it’s going. They cuddle a lot at night and hold hands when they go out to the shops--but they haven’t had their first kiss yet if you don’t count sleepy forehead kisses and Kurapika’s sloppy cheek kisses he plants on him before he runs away laughing at another successful sneak attack.
While Leorio fumbles to make a good braid to the scalp, Gon and Killua bound into the kitchen, Gon holding out a flyer from the village to thrust into Kurapika’s face to read.
“It’s an Independence Day festival! I go every year with Aunt Mito, but she’s always too busy selling stuff. Do you guys wanna go with Killua and me? It’s tonight!”
Kurapika leans forward to read the flyer and tilts his head up to look at Leorio. Leorio wants to suck his teeth when Kurapika’s movement makes him lose grip on a strand of the braid, but he can’t bring himself to get frustrated when Kurapika flashes him a smile.
“Wanna go?” Kurapika asks him. Leorio gently tilts Kurapika’s chin forward again so that he’s facing ahead again, focusing back on completing his pathetic excuse of a braid--he decides to start over again.
“Yeah, why not? Should be fun,” Leorio mutters in concentration but lets out a snicker when Kurapika cheers with little claps at his agreement.
Gon jumps up and down, turning back to Killua. “Awesome! Killua, we have chaperons now!”
“You idiot, you gave away our plan!” Killua hisses at him with a hit to the noggin.
Kurapika offers a pout, “awe, you guys didn’t want to hang out with me? Am I not fun?”
Gon dismisses Kurapika's mock sadness with his hands. “N-no, that’s not it! You’re fun, really fun! But it’s just a bonus because you two are adults, and--”
“No,” Killua interjects, “if your idea of fun is tormenting us every morning, you aren’t fun!”
Kurapika lowers his head, Leorio stepping back when he jumps out of the chair. He looked crazy with half a braid in his hair and the rest in a side ponytail as he made a giant grin. “Is that so?”
Gon is the first to take off up the stairs, yelling behind him, “Killua, look what you did!”
Killua, after a beat, runs after him, “I didn’t think he’d do anything with Leorio doing his hair!”
Leorio can only sigh with an eye roll when Kurapika rushed after them, cueing the screams and shouts of desperation. He took Kurapika’s place on the stool, deciding to give up on his adult child, but the fond smile on his face tells the opposite.
- -
“Kurapika, are you going to share?”
“I wasn’t intending to, no,” Kurapika said through a mouthful of cake, forking up some and pretending to have a problem with giving Leorio a bite of it. Leorio took the bite of cake off the fork, humming in approval of the taste. They were sitting on a bench surrounded by all the toys Gon and Killua won at the game booths. It got so bad that they were banned from some of them after nearly winning all the prizes and they still wouldn’t let up. Leorio won Kurapika a cute plush Whale and pet goldfish after Kurapika sternly declared he wanted it to a very exasperated Leorio.
“How long do you think your goldfish will live?” Leorio pushed, mostly petty that Kurapika was being stingy with his cake.
Kurapika gasped at him, holding the bowl his fish was in protectively. “Please keep Pairo out of your bitterness.”
“You named it already?”
“Yes, I did,” Kurapika confirmed courtly, giving Leorio the rest of his cake, making his eyes light up.
While Leorio finished the cake and Kurapika watched Pairo swim to and fro in his bowl, Gon and Killua ran up to them with more prizes; Kurapika guessed they got banned or else they wouldn’t be here.
“The fireworks are gonna start soon,” Gon announced to them, bouncing up and down on the soles of his boots. “The best place to see them is on the beach, as the sky is the clearest there at night. We’re gonna drop these off at Aunt Mito’s stand and come back to go!”
Kurapika walked alongside Leorio, holding his hand and they subconsciously bump hips with no mind to space apart. The teenagers were running ahead of them, snickering and laughing about things only they knew. Kurapika stopped only for a short while when they came across a river on their trip. He bent down and kindly tilted his fish friend out of the bowl and into the body of water. Pairo circled around a few times before swimming opposite of the ocean, away from them. The moon created their clearing to the ocean, Kurapika’s flats sinking into the soft sand when they got off the rocky patch and finally arrived at the beach. It was cool and the wind made his tunic billow out. The breeze felt nice and the smell of saltwater strongly felt familiar and like home, like at the fishing port.
They could still hear the faint pounding of music back at the village.
“Guys, guys, it’s starting any second now!” Gon exclaimed to them, running up where the waves barely inched over, turning around to look over the trees in the forest. Killua sat down beside him, leaning back on his hands and even though he tried to suppress it, Kurapika could tell he was just as excited to see the fireworks.
Leorio gripped his hand firmer, his free arm wrapped around his waist as he brought him closer. “How are you feeling?”
“I feel great,” Kurapika replied softly, wrapping his arms around Leorio’s shoulders. It took him a moment to realize Leorio was slowly swaying them to the soft pounding of music they could hear from their spot. They couldn’t make out the words and it seemed to be poppy, but they slowly danced anyway. “I’m happy I’m here with you guys. And that I met you.”
Leorio grinned at him with a warm expression. The shading of the moon shined on him just right, making his usually warm skin a refreshingly cool temperature. Kurapika leaned his cheek on his shoulder, closing his eyes, just feeling their feet rotate around the sand.
“I feel the same way," Leorio said, "I’m happy that you’re happy. I’ll try and make you happy all the time, just like now.”
Kurapika nuzzled into him more and he couldn’t control the smile spreading across his face at Leorio’s words. He wishes he could say the same but the words are caught in his throat. Kurapika’s still growing and learning and moving on. He can’t guarantee something as vital as someone’s happiness--but like Leorio, he’ll try. Because being happy and satisfied is a fulfilling emotion, a high he hasn’t felt in forever. He wants to share it with anyone he can, Kurapika would be more than pleased to start with Leorio.
“Pika,” Leorio calls him by his nickname for him and his voice is deep in his ear.
Kurapika offers a dazed, “hm?”
Leorio pulls away from their embrace, making Kurapika move his head off of his shoulder. Leorio’s lifts his chin up with the hook of his finger. Kurapika seeing him tilting his head and closing his eyes after they subtly trail his lips. So he meets him halfway there, maybe a little eagerly with the way Leorio makes a noise of surprise when their lips hastily collide.
Then there’s the explosion of fireworks and teenage boys’ screams and shouts of amazement as colors burst all around them in the sky.
It was by no means a perfect kiss, nothing like in the movies. Their teeth briefly collide due to Kurapika diving right in, but it makes them laugh until Leorio tries again, and then it’s the perfect kiss. When they both pull away at the same time, they look at the sky, Gon and Killua up and chasing each other in a game of tag Kurapika didn’t even know started.
Before either of them could say something other than stare into each other’s eyes, Gon presses his hand into Kurapika’s back.
“You’re it, lovebird!” Gon shouts teasingly, running down the beach. Kurapika is shocked when Leorio instantly lets go of him and steps back with a wink.
“You heard him, you’re it!” He says before jogging away, leaving him in the middle of the beach by himself.
Kurapika laughs and rolls up his sleeves, despite not being in the best of running shoes, he takes off.