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“Leorio,” Kurapika says, somehow managing to sound icy, intimidating and severe despite currently being half out of his tailored suit.
Leorio whines, somewhere deep in his throat, one hand wrapped around the smaller man’s tie. (Solid blue - not patterned, one part of his mind idly notices. Kurapika probably doesn’t have anything patterned. Which is a shame - that dull, drab ‘mob boss’ aesthetic doesn’t really fit him at all. Or at least - it doesn’t fit the guy Leorio once knew, the one who’d shown up to the Hunter exam in traditional Kurta garb, fearless and bold and daring the world to say something about it to his face).
“Leorio,” Kurapika repeats, and despite his smaller size he easily manages to push Leorio away from him. “We can’t… We need to talk, first.”
“What’s there to talk about? I thought you’d be sick of the sound of my voice by now,” Leorio says, only half-joking. He’s sort of gratified to see Kurapika’s expression flicker briefly - something approaching a guilty wince before the Kurta tamps down on his emotions and regains his cold composure.
“That’s just it. You’ve said… plenty. Maybe too much. I know exactly where you stand on… on this matter,” Kurapika says, his face flushed, despite his best efforts.
“If you think talking like a lawyer is gonna turn me off, you clearly have no idea why I’m attracted to you in the first place,” Leorio smirks.
“Please be serious. I can tell you don’t even remember the literal dozen times you called me while drunk and confessed that you were in love with me.”
Leorio’s face falls - he’d suspected something like that but Kurapika is right. He doesn’t remember doing that once, let alone… ten-plus times?
“... Sorry. Guess I made it weird, huh? Muddied up that simple sexual tension.”
“There’s nothing simple about it,” Kurapika snaps. If not for the contacts, his eyes would probably be crimson right now as he glares at Leorio. “Just… shut up for once in your life, and let me say this.”
Leorio instantly thinks of a half-dozen snappy comebacks but he swallows each and every one of them. It still doesn’t feel real - the fact that he and Kurapika are finally back in the same (hotel) room after almost two whole years apart. Up until the moment he’d personally laid eyes on the other man, Leorio hadn’t let himself believe that the new Rat had actually come.
Of course, he hadn’t come for Leorio. It had much more to do with the fact that the last set of Scarlet Eyes had been found - and that the Hunter Association was smart enough to use that information as leverage over Kurapika in exchange for his services.
“This is the part where you say ‘thank you, Leorio, I’m so glad you went to bat for me with the higher-ups. Even though I refused to vote in the Chairman elections and they were gonna take my license away, not offer me a fucking promotion, before you stepped in to save my ass.’” Leorio grins over at his fellow passenger, both of them relaxing in the back seat of the vehicle as it pulls away from the Association HQ. Well, he’s relaxing, while Kurapika’s body language most closely resembles that of a cornered rat - fitting, that.
“I wouldn’t have cared,” Kurapika says shortly. “Becoming a Hunter was a means to an end - my key into the flesh collectors’ black market.”
“What, you’d have been fine being stuck in the mafia?” Leorio scoffs.
“I am not stuck anywhere. The mob was a means to an end, too.” Kurapika’s fingers drum restlessly against the glass pane separating them from their driver. “Once I have the last of the Eyes, every single family can burn for all I care.”
“... Well, okay, but you need the Hunters now, don’t you? Even if it is all temporary and you’re just using each other. And you still have me to thank for that!”
“I… I suppose I do. Thank you, Leorio. Is that what you wanted to hear?” Kurapika looks over at him now, smirking, as if he knows full well how the words caused a shiver to run up Leorio’s spine. “I am still not giving you my e-mail, even if we are Zodiac colleagues now. You already harass me enough by phone as it is.”
“You know you love it.”
Kurapika just hums, noncommittal, but it’s not a no. Leorio takes it.
“Honestly… I’m glad you’re here now and all that shit, but I’m really fucking glad you weren’t paying attention to the damn elections. I only ended up in the running ‘cause I punched that bastard Ging - I had no idea what I was supposed to say when they asked me for a damn speech. It’s a good thing you didn’t see it.”
“Oh no, I heard every word. Especially the part where you talked about jerking off in front of the entire Association,” Kurapika says mildly, to Leorio’s abject horror. “Don’t look so shocked. You’re an Internet sensation now, Leorio.”
“Fuck me,” Leorio says, head in hands. Kurapika is the absolute last person he’d have chosen to see him make a fool of himself. Especially since he’d been thinking about Kurapika so often when he’d… been doing that.
“Is that a request?” Kurapika says.
Leorio’s mouth drops open and he stares at the new Rat, entirely speechless for once in his life. Kurapika stares right back, his gaze hot, the simmering tension between them reaching a boiling point-
And now here they are, back in Kurapika’s hotel room, the mood deflating like a punctured balloon.
“I’m… I’m not the person you think I am. And I’m certainly not the person you fell in love with. You can’t even begin to imagine the things I’ve done to secure most of my clan’s Eyes.”
“I know you’ve killed people,” Leorio interjects, because shutting up is just that contrary to his nature. “But anyone twisted enough to buy and sell a person’s body parts like they’re just another fucking jewel deserves it.”
“They do, do they? What about their bodyguards, who only took a job for the paycheck? What about their cooks and servants, caught in the cross-fire? What about the innocent bystanders who look enough like me that they’re kidnapped and ‘interrogated’ and their bodies dumped in the nearest ditch afterwards?” Kurapika demands.
“Well, uh…”
“I’m not making that last part up, Leorio. It happened. More than once. But it didn’t even slow me down. I kept stealing every pair of Eyes I could get my hands on, and I didn’t care who else got hurt while I was doing it… I didn’t care who I had to manipulate or blackmail or seduce to get myself access, either. While you were pouring your heart out into my voicemail, there’s a good chance I was on a 'date' with someone else - lying to them, using them. Ruining their lives just on the off-chance I’d get a shot at another pair.”
“Look, I get it,” Leorio says, swallowing hard. “This world’s a cruel and shitty place at the best of times. You did what you had to do. I saw that side of you in Yorknew - so I know exactly what I’m getting into, here.”
Kurapika laughs and there isn’t even a shred of humor in it. “Yorknew? Yorknew was just the beginning. That was back when I actually cared about Gon and Killua’s lives more than accomplishing my goals.”
Leorio’s body seems to catch up before his mind does. He feels his posture slump, preemptively defeated, as he wets his lips. “When I called and told you about Gon being in the hospital… I just assumed you couldn’t check your phone. That by the time you got my message it was too late and he’d already been miracle-cured. So you didn’t follow up on it because logically speaking there was no longer anything you could do… which is pretty damn cold, but I got where you were coming from…”
“No,” Kurapika says, cold and harsh as an arctic wind. “I listened to your message. I read you texts. I knew exactly what was going on and I… I chose not to come, or even ask how you and Killua were holding up, because I’d just secured another pair of Eyes and my priority was transporting them to a safe place. I chose my mission over all three of you… Does that make it better or worse, Leorio?”
“Worse,” he manages to whisper. “Much worse.”
Kurapika nods, as if that’s exactly what he’d wanted to hear. “Precisely. And… and I’ll do it again. If there’s any point during this expedition where I have to choose between you and the last remaining Eyes - you know what my priority will be.”
He stands there, miserable and resigned yet resolute, arms crossed firmly over his chest, an air of wounded dignity all about him despite the fact that he’s still halfway out of his suit.
Leorio laughs in his face.
Kurapika clearly isn’t expecting that. He frowns - honestly, it’s more of a pout but Leorio has the good sense not to say that out loud. “This isn’t funny, Leorio.”
“Nah, you're right - it’s hilarious. You’re acting like this is some shocking revelation to me. Kurapika, I know all that. I’m aware I’m a distant third behind getting the Eyes and killing the Spiders - I’ve known that since Yorknew. I know that’s all I can get - but I’m still willing to take it.”
“Leorio…”
“I’m not done, Kurapika. Your turn to let me finish. Don’t even dare try to feed me some bullshit about it being too dangerous for me - you can shove it right up your cute little ass, Rat, because I’m not the same guy I was back then. I’m not gonna accept it anymore. I’m the fucking Boar now - making me one of the most well-known Hunters in the entire world. There’s already a target on my back. Our friendship is practically public knowledge. Not to mention the Troupe saw me working with you in Yorknew. They'll put two and two together soon, if they haven’t already. So don’t even think about-”
“Leorio,” Kurapika says, and the way he says it is significant enough that Leorio actually stops talking. “Just shut up and kiss me.”
And Leorio obeys Kurapika without further argument. Not for the first time. Probably not for the last.
He thinks he'll always remember the way that Kurapika looks that night - his contacts out, the Scarlet Eyes burning into his own, almost physically painful in their intensity. People would and have killed to see them - but the Eyes alone, floating in a jar, aren't half as beautiful as the ones captivating Leorio now, because these are Kurapika's, and they're bright and shining and alive.
And he'll do anything he has to do to keep them that way.