𝖍𝖝𝖍 𝖔𝖓𝖊𝖘𝖍𝖔𝖙𝖘

Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy

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Author: Kurophena (on ao3) 

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Leorio always knew when something was wrong with Kurapika.

They were terrible at hiding it. They thought they were good at it, but it was always obvious. They could curl up under the blankets and try scowl away their anger, but it would never work. It never hid it. If anything, it just made it more obvious.

It had been a few years since Leorio and Kurapika moved into their apartment in York New City together and became official. Gon, Killua and Alluka knew, and visited often, but most of the time it was just Kurapika and Leorio.

Often, Leorio left for business trips. He worked at a hospital in York New, and often the hospital would sent him to at-home patients who cannot make a trip to the hospital in order to give them treatment. He'd become an excellent pediatrician, one that was well known, and well recommended. At times he was rushed off his feet, not at home for days at a time. Kurapika never minded, their love wasn't fragile.

Their apartment wasn't small, but not large either. Somewhere in-between - houseplants in every corner they could fit one, a glossy, wooden, open kitchen with black-marbled countertops and glass cupboards filled with glistening glasses. One cupboard particularly, a cup cupboard, had a shelf dedicated to the mugs they'd gotten as gifts for one another. One year, in fact, they both bought each other a 'Best Boyfriend' mug - the exact same type, colour and all, font, from the handle to the brim. To this day, they can't tell apart the two identical mugs, and who gifted which to whom. Their living room had fluffy couches, brown, with a little coffee table and large television on an oak cupboard TV stand. Randomized black coasters could always be found on any surface they'd sit or stand by, and on the coffee table there was multiple.

Right now, though, there was a fresh cup of tea on one of the coasters.

The drink had been creamed within an inch of its life, and Leorio had plopped about 5 spoonful's of sugar into it. Kurapika hated bitter drinks, especially bitter caffeinated drinks, like tea or coffee - the problem with that was that they like tea. And coffee. So every time they made tea, or had tea made for them, it was always full of sugar, and contained more creamer than it did tea.

Leorio never understood how they could drink it - since he usually preferred his coffee to be black. Originally he didn't like the bitterness, he'd settle for drinks like lattes by pick-up from a nearby coffee shop while on break. However, he'd found that the bitterness of the black coffee helped him kept his edge during late-night shifts. In a way, he can understand Kurapika's dislike of the bitterness, but Leorio hated how unhealthy the sugar-full drink was - though maybe it was out of spite of his own lack of a sweet tooth.

He'd set the tea down for Kurapika, as they currently sat in a small, curled-up, tense ball in the crook of the arm and back of the sofa. Sometimes when they were like this, Leorio just seemed to see no life in them. He always saw Kurapika's energy like a battery - a battery that's hard to recharge, the charger's broken, and it's hard to hold the cable in that perfect place that'll allow it to charge. Sometimes, they just looked pale, sunken eyes and dilated pupils, in general just out of it. An empty husk, oblivious to anything happening around them.

Leorio would take out the blanket, set it out over them and it'd snap them out of it for a moment, he'd be gifted with a weak, mumbled 'Thank you.' but then within some seconds they'd be gone, in a daze again. In their own little world that nobody could snap them out of.

Nobody, except Leorio.

At first, he'd talk to them. Tell them about his day. They'd listen, with this small, weak, forced smile - the kind of smile that's genuine, but so hard and painstaking to keep up. The kind of smile you know is from the heart, but the heart is tired. This never really worked all that smoothly, sometimes, it'd pull them right out of that daze, bring them back, help them cuddle up to Leorio and watch a movie together, snug, safe and sound. But usually, it wasn't that easy.