Title: Carry On

By: bonbonpich

Disclaimer: Hunter x Hunter belongs to Yoshihiro Togashi-sensei.

Summary: KuroKura. Sequel to 'The Sun also Shines at Night.' Kurapika doubted if the path that he'd chosen to go with Kuroro was a right one. With the ghost of his past haunting him, and Kuroro's advances, Kurapika was drove to the edge of losing himself.

edited 17/4/19

Chapter 1 Not so Typical Day

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There was no turning back, no undoing the decision he'd made, the path he'd chosen in the moment.

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Time sure flew by for Kurapika. His situation improved every new day, or so it seemed.

Weeks back, Kurapika managed to contact Nostrad and reclaimed his active role as Nostrad Family boss. Returning to the Mafia took little time, given Nostrad was already waiting for his return every single day. But coming up with reasons to convince Kuroro and how he must deliver to him in 'meeting half ways' manner took quite an effort.

While he carried out that profession, he had a chance to be away from Kuroro. On the other hand, Kuroro no longer kept him monitored 24/7. Still, Kuroro let him go on the terms that he must allocate the time for Nostrad less than him. Said less was much less…being 20/80.

Sometimes Kurapika couldn't help thinking which side of them seemed more immature, his employer or the Spider leader. The former's glory was reduced to zero, leaving him needy (otherwise Kurapika wouldn't be able to pull of that 20/80 time allocating). The latter…he wouldn't say the man was clin-…maybe he was better off not thinking about it.

When he made it to Kuroro's designated place, Franklin and Hisoka acknowledge his presence, the rest of the Spiders did not. But that was just the way most of them were, even among themselves. They wouldn't waste a breathe unless they had something to say. At the moment, things were no longer more than he could handle. Even Nobunaga now seemed to do a lot less than sending a daggered-glare at Kurapika.

After all, with Kuroro's urging, Kurapika had led them to where Uvogin died. The proper burial and the fact that Kurapika bothered to bury his enemy somehow settled Nobunaga to the extent. In turn, it almost gave Kurapika a closure to his own guilt trip.

He sat himself down on one of the cart box, the farthest he could manage from the other Spiders. At this point, it took him little effort to tune them out, especially with the presence of only half of the Spiders.

They were still worried about their leader. Their plan was to stick together until the rest of the Spiders came back and they could see what their opinions were. "You made Danchou changed his mind about ending you, who knows what else you are capable of" was what Nobunaga bluntly said.

As for the reason that Hisoka still stuck around, Kurapika mused his fight with Kuroro hadn't been satisfying. The hungry look on his face was still there whenever he set his eyes on Kuroro. But Kurapika never knew, nor did he care as Kuroro told him nothing.

Though he'd been regaining his clan's eyes at a rate he'd never been able to achieve alone, Kurapika couldn't shake the restless feelings off of him. Worst of all, he was swaying off the track. Five years ago, he swore in front of the Kuruta graves about avenging them.

But now, all he did was squandering away his time with the Spiders.

A soft knock thudded against his head, bringing him back from his shady thoughts. He looked up, already knowing who it was. Kuroro had a habit of putting a book on his head whenever he was consumed by gloomy contemplations.

"The book that you wanted," Kuroro said, smiling with delight like everytime he did when Kurapika returned to him and earned himself the usual glare. "So how did it go?"

"Is it stolen?" asked Kurapika, ignoring the latter question. There was nothing new worth noting anyway.

"Bought."

"Bought with the money from where?"

The conversation ended when Kuroro shoved the book in the boy's lap and sat right next to him, leaving the boy to 'hey!' him, whether for the book drop or for having half of the occupied seat stolen.

There came an audible sigh from Nobunaga. "Same old phrase."

"Just because Danchou knows if it's stolen, Kurapika won't touch it," Machi commented with an indifferent shrug.

"The last time he knew it was stolen, he'd tried to return it to the owner," Franklin recalled, a hint of amusement etched on his face.

"What a troublesome kid," the swordsman crossed his arms over his chest as he observed the Kuruta and his leader across the hallway. "And Danchou…really bought a book for him!?"

"It's from the stolen money anyways," Franklin responded.

Nobunaga clasped his own face, brows knitting. "But still, why does Danchou have to please him?"

They fell into the same silence Coltopi constantly exuded; the kid never contributed himself in anything unless he had to.

"Hah hah hah."

And someone just loved to contribute himself in the strangest way.

Machi, Nobunaga, and Franklin glanced across the hall, where Hisoka sat on the far end on the stacks of boxes. He always liked to sit in a place that gave him the bird's-eye view. Lowering his head enough to peek through one gap of the Pyramid cards, he riddled, "You just don't get it, do you?"

When his comrades made a face, he took it as a request to elaborate. Beaming, he craned his neck to look at Kurapika and Kuroro who were engaged in reading, either not totally aware or just not caring they were being talked about. Hisoka shifted his eyes back to his comrades and was about to spread his hands fully to the sides. "It's lur-" His move accidentally brushed one of the cards, and like Domino effects, the whole stack crumbled down.

There was a quiet moment where Hisoka left his saying incomplete and stared at his ruined creation. Soon after, he went back to rebuild it as if he'd never left its attention.

"Does the maniac know something that we don't?" asked Nobunaga airily.

Too bad for him, among them, he was the only one oblivious to what had been transpiring.

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In the following week, the missing Spiders, Shalnark, Phinx, Feitan, Shizuku and Bonorenof, arrived after their businesses at NGL was done with. Kuroro talked them in, regarding Kurapika, very much the same way he did with half of the Spiders.

Not long after, came a typical day, one in which Kurapika overheard the bloody conversation between the Spiders.

It all started with a simple, "So I ripped his guts open and let him die in the heat of the sun." It was Phinx and Feitan, filling in their comrades of their showdown in NGL.

It pulled at Kurapika's nerves.

"Phinx, Feitan, what did I say about your mundane conversation when Kurapika is around?" Kuroro inserted before anyone could say or do anything.

Surprised, Kurapika waited.

"Avoid our talks about killing when the kid is around." Phinx answered with a light frown, scratching the back of his head. "But I didn't know that he was there!"

It was true. Kurapika had a tendency to hide himself in the shadow, whereas Spider members outright said whatever were on their minds. Then Kuroro felt his back burned from a heated glare. He glanced back at Kurapika. "Yes?"

"Not talking about it in front of me doesn't change the fact that the Spiders still kill people. Ruthlessly," Kurapika directed at him.

Shalnark had to step in, "Come on, Kurapika. The guys they were talking about. They weren't even human. They were killing our people, turning them into their monster slaves. The committee requested our help, it was our job." Shalnark explained but faltered when Kurapika spared him a scowl in response.

Between him and Shalnark there was an issue. Kurapika once had a light impression that Shalnark was the most amiable and sincere person among the Spiders. Turned out the guy lied in his face about the Mafia hiring the Spiders to assault the Kurutas. But then again, Kuroro's comrades would do anything to save their leader's life.

On top of that, he understood perfectly that half of the Spiders had left, solely for the purpose of saving their people, one way or another. And they returned, even though Kuroro didn't require them for anything, just so they could see their leader safe and sound again. The situation had changed little from back then when Kuroro had returned to them, in an imperfect situation, caused by Kurapika's nen that remained rooted.

"Well, I guess we'll lay low for a while, until the job comes…or something." Phinx whistled, lying back against the cart box he was occupying.

'A…job?' Reflected Kurapika as his eyes shifted between Phinx and Shalnark. "A job? You called that a job?"

"Well…isn't it obvious? What we do for a living is our job." Nobunaga brows knitted, wondering what the boy was getting at this time.

"Why don't you guys-" Kurapika began in a low voice, head canting downward with hair (slightly longer now) obscuring his face.

"Kurapika," called Kuroro as he got up from where he was sitting. With a few long strides, he was by the boy's side, gripping one hand on his shoulder. Just when Kurapika snapped his head up, revealing eyes almost red, and finished what he'd meant to say.

"-get a DECENT job!?"

His shout, or rather the content of his words, sent the room into silence.

"A…decent….job?" Shizuku trailed off, her big eyes wondering. She turned to Franklin, as usual. "What does he mean by that?"

"A decent job…" Franklin's thick eyebrow furrowed, "…as in a decent job?"

Someone burst out laughing.

It was Phinx. But he was just a starter. Soon, Hisoka and Feitan followed with chuckles. Then Shalnark and Franklin tagged along. Among them, Nobunaga's laughter was the loudest, too loud for Kurapika to even to think what the heck was so funny.

Phinx's eyes rolled at no one in particular while he laughed his guts off. He ended up with Shalnark in his vision. He poked a finger, "I picture you being a technician! The world today needs your skills!"

Said technician laughed back, "You could probably be an Egypt historian." His eyes then strayed to Shizuku. "Shizuku would make a good housekeeper with her Deme-chan for sure, don't you think?"

The bookworm girl jabbed a finger at herself. "If I'm a house keeper, then," she pointed to Franklin, "He could be a Hollywood actor in Frankenstein."

"And Machi could sit and sew clothes, or she could even be a sergeant!" Nobunaga chimed in. He disregarded her glower that followed.

Kurapika fumed. This is nothing to laugh about! These people had no sense of standards or whatsoever! Then he sensed the worst of it all from the man beside him.

Kuroro's chuckle was audible than any other time. In fact, it was more like a whole-hearted laughter. Even half of his comrades, wore a surprised look at their leader's reaction. It took a while for Kuroro to smooth back into his usual self, he said to Kurapika, "I'd probably like to go for being a librarian," which didn't help Kurapika at all.

"Kuroro!" He grabbed the man's lapel.

Raising both hands up for an act of surrender, Kuroro smiled, "Relax, kid. It's not like I'm really serious about that."

Shalnark observed on that and asked, particularly addressing Machi and Franklin, "I see Danchou still teases Kurapika. Have they been like this since we left?"

"Always," Machi said as Franklin nodded. "But Danchou's got a front seat of being the VIP audience to Kurapika's ethical lecture. So it's a give and take, I guess?"

Shalnark 'pffted' at how Machi had put it. It wasn't everyday she made such comment. He turned to watch as Kurapika went into another silence, most likely calm before the storm for the most of them. It proved him right a beat after.

"You're their leader! You're supposed to be responsible! You-"

"For your information, Shal, this will go on forever. I suggest you go get lunch or something, it's almost twelve," Nobunaga said as he pushed himself up and headed towards the door. Most of the Spiders walked away as well from the scene to do something else instead of watching the Kuruta bicker.

It was a typical day. One of which Kurapika was getting all riled up at the Spiders, particularly at one Spider. Soon he'd get a hand clamped over his mouth by said Spider himself.

What Kurapika hadn't expected, had never expected was to be maneuvered closer to Kuroro. Kuroro's one hand held the back of Kurapika's nape, the other clamping his jaws.

Kurapika's rant was cut short by Kuroro's lips hovered above his, almost brushing. "Please shut up before I shut you up myself."

The room lapsed into silence once again. This time, it seemed that no one was going to burst out laughing. Instead a whistle sounded, it was still Phinx who took the liberty of doing so as he said, "Finally Danchou discovered an effective way to shut the kid up."

The day hadn't been so typical after all.

To be continued