Chapter Text
As Kurapika started walking away from the campus emergency clinic, the gravity of the situation that just occurred started to hit him. Sedokan, his student, had been withering away for months and he had been too focused on his own problems to even notice those around him who were suffering. He felt like a failure and he couldn’t even imagine how difficult the next steps for Sedokan would be. Bulimia is a corrosive addiction, and on top of having to regain his former strength and allow himself to heal, Sedokan would have to free himself from his addiction.
Kurapika felt absolutely worthless for not being able to help his student more, but in the moments as he was walking aimlessly away from the clinic, he vowed that he would make his any of the classrooms he worked in a safe space for every single student in them, so that when Sedokan returns, he will be prepared to help him in his journey to recovery.
Kurapika was so lost in thought that he didn’t see the enormous crack in the sidewalk until it was too late, and he was already sprawled on the ground, the contents of his book bag spilling out. While he may seem graceful at first glance, Kurapika was one of the clumsiest people ever, constantly tripping over nothing and running into things… or people. So, when Kurapika went to pick up his things he was even more clumsy than when he initially tripped, his surprisingly lanky limbs jutting out everywhere. He was sure that if someone were to take a picture of him now and put it side by side with a picture of a monkey, they would look almost identical in stance.
After dropping his things while trying to pick them up for what seemed like the thousandth time, Kurapika just sighed in defeat and decided to take a little sitting break in the middle of the sidewalk. he sat crossed legged with his book bag laid over his lap, placing his elbows on his knees and taking a long breath with his face in his hands.
“Ok Kurapika, you. can. do. this.” He said out loud but only to himself.
he slowly started to regain his bearings, leisurely picking up his strewn items and rising from the ground. Kurapika let out a deep sigh when he was finally upright, and once again started down the sidewalk. he walked about ten steps before he decided to check his watch, seeing how much time passed while he was in the crisis center.
“FUCK!” all of the people around him turned to look at him, a small child looking up at him with curiosity from the new vocabulary word. “I mean uh… darn” he sighed in relief as the child went back to walking with their mom.
Despite averting a mini-crisis of having to explain a cuss word to a child, Kurapika was still going to be late to work at the coffee shop. His manager, Chrollo, was going to have his head if he was late to the first shift he’d actually not called out of in weeks.
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Kurapika dashed into the doors of the coffee shop, bell dinging above the door, right as the clock struck 11am and his shift started.
“Cutting it a little close, aren’t we, Pika,” Chollo said in his silky voice, smirking at Kurapika disgustingly. Kurapika responded only with a glare at the nickname that he hated so much. The only people who are allowed to call him Pika are his family (Dead) and Gon (alive, but not for much longer if he didn’t pull his head out of his ass and notice that white haired kid in his class), and definitely not some egotistical jackoff who he slept with one time in freshman year.
“Sorry,” the blonde said, breathless from running across campus, “I ran into a little trouble after class this morning.” Kurapika thought back on the trouble of the morning and smiled. He didn’t know why, but the thought of that lanky buffoon and his stupid medical outfit brought up a warm feeling deep within his chest. Maybe he should give Mister Leorio a shot. Kurapika didn’t usually date because he was always so busy with his masters program, TAing, and his work at the coffee shop, but something felt different this time.
“Ew,” Kurapika was immediately pulled out of his thoughts, “you’re totally down bad for someone.” Chrollo looked at the blond with disgust, leisurely going back to his manager clip board of tasks for the day.
“No I’m not!” Kurapika said defensively, and slightly too loud, blush creeping onto his cheeks. “I am definitely not down bad for someone” he stuttered trying to come up with another comeback as the blush on his face grew, “if anything, I’d say I’m the opposite of down bad for someone, I’m up good for someone” the blush subsided from his face, “and that someone… is you! haha.”
The expression dropped from Chrollo’s face, instead being replaced by a frown.
“Ok, mister funny guy, if you’re so up good for me, then you can clean the bathrooms for the entire shift.” With that, his manager handed Kurapika a pair of yellow latex gloves and a mop bucket.
Kurapika stood there, dumbfounded as to how he got himself into this situation. Curse his mouth, he thought, the feeling of defat overwhelming him now.
Well… if I have to clean the bathrooms, then let’s clean ‘em like no one’s ever seen before!
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Kurapika sighed as he pulled off the rubber gloves on his hands. The soreness of scrubbing the floors on his and knees all day flooding through his system. For the second time that day, he started thinking about Leorio unprompted, but this time, the tall man’s clumsily written phone number seemed to stare at him from his hand.
605-457-6958, call me!
Kurapika thought for a moment before pulling his phone out of his back pocket and dialing the number. The line rung for a few moments before connecting.
“Leorio Paladiknight speaking,” Kurapika was so surprised that he actually picked up that he dint know what to say “…uh hello? Anyone there?”
“yes I’m here! Its me… uh Kurapika” he was still quite nervous but slowly regaining his bearings.
“you told me to call you if I needed help with the.. uh… panic attacks, and you know, I think I’m having one now, and it can only be resolved with…” he gulped down his anxieties before saying the next line.
“It can only be resolved through dinner with you.”