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

Chapter 21

Arla's eyes fluttered open. A tear rolled down her cheek. She did not understand why she was still alive. The last thing she could remember was the way her Nen started to wrap around her like a suffocating blanket of water and her unfortunate memory of the past.

"What...happened...?" She focused hard and found that her aura was back to normal. It neither tried to consume her or felt out of balance. "How odd..." Wiping the tear away with her arm roughly, she turned her head.

Ai's eyes fluttered open. When their gazes met, she jumped up from her seat, automatically tears flowing down her cheeks. "Y-you..." Tears began streaming down her face again, eyes tired and full of hurt. She covered her face, a sob leaving her. "Y-you really a-are alive!"

Her sobs immediately woke up Gon. "Arla!" The younger male soon jumped up from his seat. "KILLUA! ALLUKA! LEORIO! ARLA'S AWAKE!" He yelled aloud, while Arla flinched at the loudness of his voice.

"I swear," Ai wiped her tears away with her arm, but they kept streaming down her face endlessly as she sniffed. "If Killua and Alluka didn't help you... You'd be gone!" Another heart-wrenching sob left her as she covered her face once more. "Again and again, you keep on endangering yourself. Why? Why can't you understand? Every time you're hurt, I'm hurt!" Arla's eyes widened by a centimeter. "I know I'm selfish, but I don't want you to get hurt... You're not alone anymore, after all." Ai clenched her own shirt, her eyes shut with a painful expression. "It hurts so much when you're hurt. Please, please, think about yourself and then about the people around you... Because next time, I..."

Suddenly, tears sprouted from the older female's eyes.

"I..." Arla managed to say, her throat dry. "I needed to protect everyone. I didn't want anyone to die. If I didn't stop them now, then how many people - how many people who I love and care for deeply will die by their hands...?" She roughly wiped the tears away with her arm. Her voice remained quiet and scratchy. "Everyone here is special to me. My friends, people who are like family to me... I could never just watch them get hurt, especially when I have the power to prevent and destroy those who harm my most precious people. I couldn't just let them hurt you, Ai. I couldn't just watch everyone destroy themselves..." Gon slightly winced at the last set of words.

Ai's eyes teared up some more as she pulled her into a tight hug. "Well, do you think that I would want to find you dead? Do you think I want you to sacrifice yourself? I wish you'd kill me instead." She whispered quietly. "Don't do something that reckless without telling me. I told you that so many times, and yet, you..."

"I know, but there was no time though this time. It was either now or never when it happened." Arla murmured back, holding her best friend close to her.

"You're such an idiot sometimes." Ai sniffled again to herself. Arla somehow managed to smile at those words. "Please, don't do something like this again..."

Arla never replied to the last sentence as she knew that being a Hunter meant that danger would always be in every corner of their job. However, she did respond to the previous sentence with a sad smile. "...I suppose we are both idiots then." The former aristocrat then laughed briefly as they let go of each other, giving her space to breathe and relax.

Ai was still lightly smiling, but despair flickered in her eyes; she noticed, she noticed that Arla did not say anything in regards to her safety in the future, which meant, if a similar situation arises - this would happen again.

Hopelessness once more pooled into Ai as she sat back down in her chair, the smile still etched onto her expression as if a painting; how many more times could she bare this? No - that question was irrelevant - what was more important was that despite that she bared with it - what if Arla died?