Itsy Bitsy Spider

70. Scarlet Nocturne: Eclipse

They were born roughly four years apart, but as far back as he could remember she had always been in his life in the Kurta Clan. Not next to him as a best friend, as Pairo had been, though she had been close. And not family. No, simply... near.

The sight of her tousled brown hair and brown eyes were nothing new. Those had always been bobbing up and down somewhere around him, either at his sides or Pairo's. They weren't as dark and rich as Pairo's own, of course; that came from his father's side of the family. Aira's were much lighter, of Pairo's mother.

He'd known her for a long time, he realized. He would come over and he and Pairo would both lean over a carved crib, putting their pinkies in her tiny palm and comment over and over on whose hand she'd held first or how squishy she was. They would continue to do so until someone came in and begged them to let the poor baby sleep already, and shooed them outside, after which he and Pairo would go take a peek at some of the riding birds instead. (Days without schedule or commitment, he missed that.)

Time passed, and soon baby became toddler. As soon as she'd been able to stand on her own two feet, it seemed as if she never left them alone, always following after them with her tiny arms outstretched. Kurapika put up with it at first, but it grew tiring. He found it annoying. He wanted to spend time with Pairo alone, running through the forest without a needy toddler clinging to them or tripping over herself. He found increasingly innovative ways to get her out of the way and took it upon himself to do so because Pairo was too nice to. Yet even toddlers could learn, and soon his childish lies about girl-eating-monsters had no effect.

But whether he'd been trying to pry himself and Pairo away from her or she'd come waddling back with short arms raised and tugging at the hems of their clothes, she had always been a part of his life. As a voice leaking in through a crack in the doorway, as an off-beat rhythm amid the other drummers during festivals, as a sight of a poorly cut mushroom when she tried to help in the kitchen. She had always been there.

Present, that's what it was. Even when he hadn't been with her, she had always been one face among dozens in the village, a person they wouldn't be the same without. She was a Kurta; she was part of his clan and one of them, one of him.

And yet, when he finally opened his eyes and realized just what he was doing, he looked at the one entangled in his conjured chains—Chain Jail, the one where he would die if he used it on anyone other than a Spider—he was surprised it wasn't Aira. He knew he'd lost control and aimed it at Lucky, that much he could vaguely comprehend in hindsight. But everything after wasn't something he could understand. With the flow of things, he'd just somehow assumed that...

That the one in his prison for Spiders should have been Rein.

The young boy's arms were pinned tightly to his sides, the silken fabric of his sleeves twisted between the links of the chains. But the wooden ridges of his sandaled feet dug firmly into the floor, grounding him with an unwavering determination as his grimace became a proud badge. Able to stay standing, he slowly raised his gaze. "The only person here I'm going to let you even think about hurting," Kalluto said, "is me."

* * *

Kalluto—with breaking, cracking sounds tearing from his chest as he wondered whether he would tear in half himself—now understood why the pumping of the heart was called a beat. At times it could be violent, and the beating of his heart now was the most frantic as it had ever been.

A simple flick, a fleeting will, any single steel inch forward could do him in for good. And he was near helpless to do anything about it.

Kalluto tried to reel in his heavy breathing and quickly shot a look off to the side. Rein's teeth were shut, gritting together as she glared at Kurapika just coming to his senses. Her knees were slightly bent and hidden by the folds of her skirt, but with the situation, he knew Rein had been more than ready to attack or spring forward and take Lucky's place as the target of the chain. Kalluto was only grateful he'd been a step ahead of her.