Chapter Text
Kurapika couldn’t tell the difference between being awake and asleep. His body ached, victim to gravity and a thick layer of sweat under his clothes, under a blanket he didn’t remember pulling over himself. His skin prickled as he shook, chills running up and down every nerve in his body. He had to fight to open his eyes, like someone had glued them shut.
Sleep pushed him onto the bed, pulled him through the mattress and cast him out into the darkness. He couldn’t breathe quite right. He couldn’t smell anything. He couldn’t touch or taste or feel anything at all. But when he forced his eyes wide open, he gazed out at the expanse of dim red—of scarlet —and he shut his eyes again.
When he tried to speak, with lips chapped and crusty, someone’s gentle hand stroked his cheek.
Leorio couldn’t make out what Kurapika was trying to say. He could hear him muttering, or at least trying to. But it always came out like whimpering. Leorio didn’t want to think about what Kurapika was dreaming of.
As he dipped the compress into the water beside him, he heard Melody’s concern through a soft tone. “You don’t have any idea when he’ll get better?”
Leorio stared down at the compress in his hands, his mouth already forming the words ‘ I’m not a doctor, so I can’t say...’ , but he didn’t want to scare her. “As soon as we can get his fever to break.”
“You think he caught it somewhere? I mean, he was around a lot of people.”
“That’s usually how it works—I imagine the stress wore down his immune system. It’s common, but...I don’t know. I wanted him to catch a break, not... this .”
Melody nodded quietly.
“Not that—er, not that he’s, like, gonna die or anything. Sorry, that…that sounds bad...”
“It’s okay, I know what you meant.”
The silence crept in again, and Leorio folded the compress and laid it across Kurapika’s forehead, pushing the bangs from his face and stroking his hair. The motion felt a little odd, especially with Melody sitting next to him, watching Leorio’s movements with curious eyes.
“You, uh,” Leorio laughed awkwardly, moving his hand away, “you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”
“I want to, as long as I’m not distracting.”
“You’re not. I just wanted to make sure.”
“Thank you,” she said, and folded her hands in her lap.
Leorio twiddled his thumbs, his elbows rested on his knees. “You’re not afraid of catching whatever he has?”
“If you’re not, I’m not.”
He nodded while the silence crept in again.
Kurapika could hear voices, but they all blended together, so it was hard to make out how many there were or who they belonged to. It sounded like he was underwater.
It felt like he was underwater, too, floating in a dense nothingness. Pressure built up around his head, and his ears hurt. Every sound was muffled, every vision made cloudy. Up above, on the surface, came a dim red light, and below, there was no light at all.
It was into the scarlet, or into the darkness.
Kurapika didn’t know which way to go. He didn’t want to sink, to fall deeper and deeper, to drown, but he didn’t want to come up for air and face whatever the surface had in store.
Around his wrists, chains pulled him up.
Around his ankles, chains pulled him down.
Kurapika tried to pull from them both, but resistance to one was submitting to the other. When he opened his mouth to call out, his mouth, his nose, his throat, his lungs all burned with water.
He could see the bubbles around his head while his limbs stretched, about to tear.
Melody tucked her chin to her chest as she slept. It had to have been pretty early in the morning, maybe three or four AM. Leorio would’ve been keeping better track if he wasn’t fighting to stay awake. He couldn’t rest easy knowing his buddy needed help, but his eyelids drooped, and everytime his chin ducked down he shot his head up again.
He reached into the water bucket and splashed his face—trying not to think too hard about Kurapika-sweat-water germs.
“H-h-...”
Leorio lifted his head towards the sound. Kurapika’s face scrunched up while he began to writhe. Leorio pulled his chair closer to the bedside.
“...help…”
Leorio stroked his tears with his thumb.
“...please…”
“I’m here, Sunshine,” he said, “What do you need?”
Kurapika whimpered, his brows furrowed, his lip trembling.
“Kurapika, it’s okay. I’m here.”
“...please…”
“Can you hear me? It’s just a dream, buddy...”
“...anyone…”
“It’s a nightmare, Kurapika. You’re gonna be okay.”
Kurapika’s eyes flitted until they were half open. He wasn’t looking at anything in particular. Leorio would’ve believed he was still asleep, if Kurapika hadn’t said, “...Leorio…?”
“Hey,” he smiled, and his hands returned to his sides. “How are you feeling?”
“...I’m…cold.” He was already wrapped up tight in a blanket, but it wasn’t very thick.
“Do you want my jacket?”
Kurapika managed a “Mm-hm…” before his eyes shut again, breathing slowly.
Leorio slid off his jacket and laid it out across Kurapika’s chest and shoulders. Hopefully it was a little warmer, since he’d been wearing it all day.
Kurapika sat in an empty house. His house—his living room floor, the carpet beside the chair his mom loved to sit in.. He sat, surrounded by toys and books from his childhood.
His chest ached. No one was home.
Leorio’s jacket lay folded on his lap. It smelled like him.
Kurapika pulled it to his face, shut his eyes tight, and breathed it in.
I want…
Leorio stroked his hair. “You’re gonna be okay, Kurapika, I’m right here.”
I want to go home.