Disclaimer: I do not own HunterxHunter

Setting: Any time in the 1001 Nights timeline, definitely after 'Chapter 7 – Double Trouble', but perhaps a bit further than that.

VIOLIN

"Kurapika, Kurapika! Look at what I found!" Fino ran with great enthusiasm towards the blonde girl; who was leisurely sitting on a comfortable sofa reading a book. Kuroro and her had decided to stay a night in that inn again, since the town happened to be the nearest to the Centaur Forest. Fino was holding a small, long, rectangular box in her hands.

"What is it?" Kurapika took the box from her hands and inspected it.

"Inside! Look what's inside!" She gestured at her to open the lid of the box, which Kurapika did. Inside the box was an old violin, but she knew that it was well preserved. She lifted the old violin out of the box carefully, as if handling a fragile item. She looked at it carefully, but since she was no expert in violin, she could not give any comments about it.

"Whose is that?" Suddenly Kuroro joined in the conversation casually. He looked at the old violin with interest. Kurapika looked at the expression on his face, and then back to the violin.

"If this violin interests you, it means it is valuable." She thought out loud.

"How did you come up with such analysis?" Kuroro looked at her with amusement, but nonetheless did not deny her statement. "Look at the violin again, this time use Gyo." He told her.

Kurapika did as she was told, and to her surprise she saw faint aura blanketing the violin delicately.

"This is a masterpiece. When someone who is not exposed to Nen uses all his efforts and concentration into making a piece of work, they unconsciously put Nen on it. That's why some art pieces really draw attention." Kuroro explained as he took the violin from Kurapika's hands.

He looked at it briefly, before placing the violin on his shoulder. He felt the balance, and when he was pleased, he gestured at Fino to hand him the bow. Suddenly, with the swiftness of an expert, he began tuning the violin, adjusting the strings and then when he was satisfied with it, he started playing a song. It was quite simple, yet Kurapika gawked at him unceremoniously. She had never thought that a bandit like him would be able to play something as high class as a violin. When he was done with his mini concert; he smiled with satisfaction at his skills and then handed the violin back to Fino; who was still dumbstruck.

"Wow…I never knew you could play the violin." She said in a whisper, as she took the violin from his hands with rather shaky hands.

Kurapika said nothing and instead she stared at Kuroro as if he was a complete stranger to her. Fino said some praises to Kuroro, which he politely declined; saying that he was just an amateur and did not deserve such praises. When Fino went back to the store room to put back the violin, Kuroro turned around and noticed Kurapika's gaze still fixed on him.

"What?"

"I never thought you can play something as refined as a violin." She said bluntly and without batting an eyelash. Kuroro chuckled at her brash comments; trust her to say something hurtful at him without even the slightest hint of remorse.

"She taught me." He said airily before walking back towards his book on another couch.

"Ishtar?"

"Mm-hm." He just mumbled and said nothing more. He continued reading his book, and from the way he answered, she knew that he did not want to be pestered about his so-called foster mother. Kurapika sighed; his mood always turned sour when her name was mentioned.

She was awakened by a sound of violin. She thought she was dreaming, but then the sound seemed too real. She listened to it for a while, before finally prying open her eyes and scanned the surrounding in search of the person playing the violin. When she found the person, her sleepy eyes grew wide and suddenly her sleepiness evaporated.

There, sitting on a fallen tree trunk near the campfire, was Kuroro playing the violin; his back towards her. Kurapika turned around to look at him, and Kuroro sensed her movements. He stopped playing and turned his head to look at her. When his dark eyes met her blue ones, he put down the violin.

"She gave it to me." He told her without waiting for the question to be said. "She said nobody in her family could play it, so might as well give it to someone who can play it."

"And I bet you are more than happy to accept it. It's a masterpiece after all."

Kuroro smiled at her; one of his rare ones. Kurapika blinked at his action. "I'm not going to sell it for money." He said as he put the violin back into its box.

"Play it again." Suddenly she found herself blurting out, before she could stop the words from pouring out of her mouth.

Kuroro looked up and stared at her with puzzled eyes. Kurapika only looked at him, too embarrassed to say anything else, but Kuroro smirked and took out the violin again. He adjusted it on his shoulder and began playing it; this time it was a soft melody, which lulled her into sleepiness.

She stared at him as he played, but before her heavy eyelids finally closed, she saw a smile on Kuroro's lips directed towards her. Then, she fell into deep slumber.

Author's Note: This was inspired by a picture of Kuroro playing a violin in deviantART. If you are curious, got to deviantART and search "HxH – Kuroro violin". I think violin suits Kuroro just fine. He is, after all, a very debonair person in my opinion. I don't know if Kurapika would appropriately acted the way I mentioned in this chapter, though. Been a while since the last time I mentioned Fino. I miss her =P She's such a sweet girl.