[Closed]

[ih8spiders]

Characters: ih8spiders, alphaspider
Location: Casualty Communal 11OP
Rating: PG...?
Time: backdated to January 11 morning, following this thread
Description: Kuroro realizes just how lucky he is to have Kurapika as his weapon partner.

Comments

[alphaspider]

Kurapika looked stressed. Or tight, for the lack of a better word. Since the blond wasn't saying anything, Kuroro finally had time to think about his current situation and the recent things happening from the perspective of someone who wasn't unhappily bored in prison. That was it, the change he'd noticed in Kurapika. Alongside the apparent concern for Kuroro that he had surprisingly been allowed to see, Kuroro was finally noticing that Kurapika seemed be worn out, lips thin around the corners. Even his irritation at the mural didn't compare to his usual ire.

Why, then? Was Kuroro being too stressful? No, he was his usual, the debacle with China aside. This sort of tension was not one that Kuroro saw often, or at least not in this form, and he had yet to place or identify it. He walked ahead, and eventually slowed his pace to walk next to Kurapika, glancing down at him curiously from time to time.

[ih8spiders]

Aaah, he was starting to get tired. It was as if his body had begun shutting down at the first sign of the end being near. It was a good thing that the Communal had elevators, because he didn't think that he could manage eleven flights of stairs at this point. Maybe he could take a nap until lunch...

Kurapika's scattered thoughts made it difficult to focus on anything else other than his current task of getting back to their flat. Kuroro's act of slowing down to walk beside him went by without any comment from him, too - it was just the natural, decent thing to do for a companion, wasn't it?

[alphaspider]

Kuroro watched Kurapika discreetly at first, and then more blatantly when it became clear that the blond wasn't paying attention. That was odd in itself. He continued watching until they reached the Communal, and walked with Kurapika to the elevator -- even going as far as to push the buttons for him when Kuroro would have normally chosen the slower but more entertaining path up the side of the building.

"Are you coming down with something or did you just miss me that much?" he asked after a while, teasing partly out of concern but unwilling to provoke Kurapika if was anything else.

[ih8spiders]

Kuroro's question broke him out of a brown study of his blurry, glassy-eyed reflection on the elevator doors. He looked up and found Kuroro looking down at him, which would have been disconcerting at any other time, but he merely went back to waiting for the elevator to arrive. For a moment he considered answering with his usual deflections, but then decided that that he just didn't want to go through the effort of deflecting and dismissing. He was sick of being dishonest, in any case.

"Of course I would have missed you." A touch of sarcasm would help make his answer sound more miffed, and at least help disguise the honesty in his words--as tired as he was, he was doing this purely in the interest of getting Kuroro to leave him alone now, and he didn't want to end up spilling all of his guts with just one question