SOUR CANDY | killua z. ✔

47 | five

[ sen's last interactions with her friends before they go separate ways. ]

"WHAT HAPPENED to Sen's hands?"

Leorio was slightly scared of Kotaro Inoue. When he wasn't talking or moving, it was easy to forget he was there. It was like being in the vicinity of a wild, unpredictable animal.

"Your mother, apparently," Leorio said carefully. "The bandages came off a few days ago. I'm not sure what happened, but it'll leave some scars."

Kotaro's lips twitched sardonically. It was a tic he'd seen on Sen. Leorio didn't know what to make of it, nor was he enough of a tactician to try. This kid was even more closed-off than his sister.

"Thank you," Kotaro said. "For keeping an eye on her."

"Anyone would've done it," he said absentmindedly, searching his briefcase for the last of Kurapika's fever medicine. If they didn't take it willingly, he would shove it down their throat.

"There are many people who would like to see my sister hurt or dead," it was like a bucket of cold water to the head. "So, I'll say it again. Thank you."

How the hell was Leorio supposed to respond to that?

"Leorio," Sen's girlish voice echoed down the hall, soon followed by the actual girl. "Leorio, can you scramble this for me?"

In the blink of an eye, she was in front of him, shoving that damned rainbow cube in his face. 

For once, he took it without complaint. He glanced up at Sen as he twisted the Rubik's cube. Her lips were pursed, eyes filled with muted eagerness as she waited. Her hair was tied back with a neon pink scrunchie. 

Leorio couldn't imagine anyone wanting this little girl dead. 

"Hurry," she whined.

Never mind.

"You could ask your boyfriend, y'know," Leorio grumbled.

"He's practicing Hatsu," Sen said. She turned to Kotaro, who Leorio, once again, had forgotten was in the room. "Oniisan, look. I'm bothering someone who's not you."

"Good. Leech off someone else, tapeworm."

"You're a tapeworm!" She shot back, stomping her foot.

With a small pang in his chest, Leorio recalled himself and Pietro good-naturedly ribbing each other after a long day of playing.

He handed Sen her reset puzzle cube.

"When you're a doctor, and when I'm older and have kids, I'm gonna bring them to you for their flu shots," she told him.

The statement came out of nowhere, but there was something about the rare, innocent honesty that made him feel mushy inside. 

Leorio pulled her into a hug. 

Sen was going back to her island to face god knows what. Gon and Killua were heading off to play some deadly video game. Kurapika was walking into the bowels of hell. It could be months or years before he saw any of them again.

The girl awkwardly patted his back in the hug. "There, there."

▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

The old woman at the Japponese restaurant gave Sen a free serving of oyakodon alongside the one she ordered. Like all old Japponese women, she insisted Sen was too skinny. It only looked that way because she was mostly muscle and no fat, but the old woman (like all old women) didn't listen to her.