Seeing through the Flames (Killua x OC) (Kurapika x OC)

Chapter 18

"Leorio," Arla blinked as she sipped her tea, placing it on the side table next to her bed.

"Yeah?" He leaned back, continuing to read his medical textbook.

"What do you think it means to live?" She tapped her finger on the table. "Is it only the fact that our hearts are beating and that we are breathing?" Her eyes darkened. "Or is it when we can feel pain in our hearts?"

"..." He shut his textbook and looked up at her. "What brought this about?"

She giggled to herself and smiled brightly at him. "Nothing really. Perhaps the boredom of your patient?"

He shook his head at her before flicking her forehead. She pouted and grabbed at the sore spot. "Don't think about things like that and go to sleep. You still haven't recovered yet."

"But-"

"Fine. If you really want to talk about it, we can, but only for a little, okay?" He interrupted her. She nodded in agreement. "The meaning to live, huh... I think it really depends on the person you ask this to. A doctor might say that to live means to have a beating heart. A philosopher might say that to live means to finding your destiny or something along those lines. As for me? I'm not really sure yet. I haven't lived as long as the others, so I wouldn't know that answer."

"...I see..." Arla stared down at the blanket. "Then... I wonder if everyone has a fate that they cannot escape from, even if they wanted to. Or perhaps, a better way to put this is... I wonder if everyone can escape from their past completely, even if their past is what shaped them as a person in the first place."

"Well... Perhaps, that's the case, but it doesn't mean that they can't change for the better, choose their own decisions, or do what's right." Leorio smiled sheepishly at her. "I don't think I'm a very good conversationalist when it comes to this though."

She shook her head. "No, you were good. It was very insightful for me. Thank you." She finally laid back down on her bed, turning to the side to go back to sleep.

Leorio then glanced at her worriedly for a minute before returning to his textbook to study for a little longer.

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Skipping over to her father's office, Neon leaned on the door, ready to open it before she heard a female voice.

"Light-san, if you don't properly invest in your business, it'll fail at this rate." Placing a couple of documents given to her by the Marquis on Light's desk, Ai furrowed her eyebrows with concern. After all, she did not want Kurapika to have to find a new job because of something fixable like this. "I'm sure you know that too."

Hands clasped in front of him, he merely sighed with an exhausted expression. "I do... But what am I supposed to do about that?"

Without missing a beat, Ai responded, "Sell some of those overly expensive artifacts and the other things you guys bought."

Both Light and Neon who was outside the door stiffened.

"I can't do that," Light refused immediately, placing his hands down on the desk as he straightened up in his chair, an edge to his voice.

Before he could lecture her on all the reasons why, Ai placed her hands on the documents she just presented to Light. "And let your business go bankrupt? What good will that do, when you won't have the money to hire people to protect you? Because I assure you, the mafia doesn't let go of the people who left quite that easily." Her hand gathered into a fist, crumbling the papers slightly. "And then what? With no one to protect you and Neon, both of you will be killed and those artifacts will get stolen. Would you choose those things over your daughter's life?"