all these things must come to pass [complete]

[ornithophobia]

Characters:  notexcalibur, ornithophobia, ih8spiders , alphaspider... Also stalwartcane and only7percent . And now with Action seizeyoursouls.
Location: Commercial District
Rating: PG-13ish.
Time: August 10th.  Late afternoon, nearing 5pm.
Description: England's turn to take his medicine -- and a certain person happens onto the scene afterwards. Our villain finds this a serendipitous turn of events, but... In the immortal words of

Comments

Guess who wrote this tag days in advance.

[alphaspider]

The past few days had gone by excruciatingly slowly for Kuroro, stuck in Kurapika's unit as he had been, with only a few trips to his room now and then to fetch clothes and books. The effects of the fear gas had faded away enough that it was only affecting his nerves and sense of smell, but sleeping was a challenge in itself and with nowhere to go and the network moving rather slowly, Kuroro was finding less and less things to kill time with. Not a desirable situation for someone like him.

He had been sitting on the balcony rails, feet hanging over the side of the building, when England's SOS signal had appeared on the network. Kuroro looked out into the city where he pinpointed the signal was coming from and considered the distance. Three days ago, Rhode had still been a meister and he could have reached the place in the span of time it took to blink. On foot, though, anything under ten minutes would probably be considered fast.

But England wasn't his business. His networking did not extend to Prussia's partner yet, and now wasn't the time to start when his mind had been in fragments just days ago. From what he'd seen of the man, England would be difficult to befriend although not too hard to fool.

Instead, Kuroro thought of other matters - no doubt England had been attacked by Crane, maybe England even managed to subdue him. Crane was just an incredibly lucky bastard, when all was said and done. If he had been caught, then should Kuroro visit him in jail? Was Shibusen going to execute him? Or would his death be in the hands of the guests?

Kuroro was musing about the possible outcomes of Crane's capture when the network picked up another SOS signal, this time Kurapika's. Kuroro jumped to his feet and would have fallen off if instincts hadn't made him hold on to the rails for balance. That shouldn't have startled him, if he thought about it, the toxin's effects aside. Kurapika wasn't like him, would have picked up on England's signal and come to the rescue. His stupid weapon and his questionable sense of justice. Kuroro flung himself from the fifth floor balcony, catching himself with a hand on the third floor rails (the unit then empty), before continuing the drop to the ground. He landed in a crouch, and then he was sprinting for the location on the map.

His stupid, stupid weapon. It was one thing for Kuroro to deliberately ask for a dose (or three) of the toxin; his and Kurapika's personalities were built differently -- he did not fear, not exactly. Kuroro wasn't one to hope, but this time, he wished fervently that Kurapika hadn't been gassed yet. Too many issues and repressions, too many fears, too many ghosts. All of his hard work to stabilize the blond emotionally and get Kurapika used to him, gone in a blink and maybe with Kurapika's mind with it.

Not to mention that Crane was surely going to die, although it was a small detail compared to the consequences of the fact that killing would be credited to Kurapika. It would be good for Kuroro if Crane accidentally met his death in the form of one berserk Kuruta, but the amount of damage that would do to the blond's psyche and their partnership would be near-irreparable. Kurapika wasn't a killer like Kuroro, was incapable of taking a life even if it was that of his parents' murderer without his conscience working on overdrive. Kurapika was probably harboring the thought that because Crane hadn't killed anyone here yet, hadn't raped and eaten the souls of children like Adachi, that Crane was still redeemable. Funny how Kuroro fell into the latter category given how their world operated, but Kurapika was his victim and he couldn't blame him anymore than Kuroro could start regretting his actions. The Ryodan did as the Ryodan was wont to do, and they never dwelled on the past.