LeoPika short stories and one shots!

Revenge Alt Ending

SIKE what if Kurapika didn't die at the end of the last chapter. This starts right when Leorio gets to the crime scene. CW: talks about addiction, urge to take drugs and self harm.
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It was three days later when Leorio showed up to find the door unlocked and swinging open on a slight breeze. He ran inside, checking the kitchen then bursting into the bedroom. Kurapika was collapsed on the bed. He didn't seem to be breathing.

"Kurapika!" No response. Leorio swept to his side and checked his vitals. He's breathing. Heart rate is slow but it's steady.

Leorio tore open the front of his shirt to search for injuries and found bruises decorating him like ink spills on a canvas. Yellow, green, and purple splotches with more intense ones farther down on his body.

Kurapika stirred, closing his shirt against the cold. "Eli- no. Not righ' now."

"Kurapika?" Leorio backed up a bit. "It's me, Leorio. Elias is gone."

Kurapika wasn't responding, only curling closer into himself to ward off imaginary hands. "Sorry. I'm sorry." His words were sluggish and quiet.

Leorio's heart was screaming but he kept an even tone. "Kurapika. Wake up, I'm here."

Again, no response.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"My friend, he's... not responding. I found his doors open and he was collapsed on the bed. He's muttering to himself, and he's breathing, but I think he was drugged by his boyfriend. Yes. We are on 34th street, in the Bronson apartment building. Room 208. Yes, the door is open. Thank you. I will."

Leorio hung up the phone and did his best to talk to Kurapika and wake him up. "Kurpaika, it's okay, I'm here. Please wake up."

He reached out and stroked Kurapika's face, to which he recoiled. Leorio's heart broke. Kurapika has learned how to resist touch even in his sleep. What has that guy done to you?

Brief images flashed in his mind, filling him with remorse and anger. He needed Kurapika to understand that it was him, Leorio, and he wasn't going to hurt him.

"I just need you to wake up."

Then he had an idea. He reached down and grabbed Kurapika's foot. He slipped the fuzzy sock off and held him gently. "Creepy-crawly caterpillar." He muttered in a sing-song voice, softly tickling the bottoms of Kurapika's feet. Tears were falling down his face as he repeated the dumb nursery rhyme. "He is so hungry for one, two, three of your toes."

Kurapika's toes twitched, but he didn't pull away, even when Leorio pinched them in turn.

"Fourth toe, then the fifth is too big for the creepy-crawly caterpillar to eeeeat." Leorio was sobbing. He hoped that Kurapika would recognize it was him. He was the only one who knew that dumb song because he was the one who made it up. He used to sing it to Kurapika when he was grumpy after an argument or getting ready for bed. Back when times were simpler.

The corner of Kurapika's mouth twitched up into a smile, the faintest movement, but he was alive.

"Please come home."

Thundering footsteps in the hall. Medics rushing in with a stretcher. Police doing a general sweep while the detectives got to work. Leorio just stood in the bedroom, answering questions and wiping his face.

Driving to the hospital behind the ambulance. Waiting room. Crying. Waiting. Blaming himself. Beatrice patting his back as he told the story.

"um, Beatrice?" A doctor with red hair. "It's about the blond John Doe."