Leopika Oneshots (2)

The Park

Kurapika POV

"Caleb!" I yelled, "Get down from there before you get hurt!"

My son groaned, "But daddy, that kid is climbing."

I looked up at the other kid and shook my head. "No, it's dangerous. That kid looks older than you, anyway, and it doesn't look like anyone's watching them anyway. Now, go play! But be careful."

I kissed my son's forehead and watched him walk off. I looked over at the kid Caleb talked about; she looked ten, maybe nine, with long brown hair. She still had on her school uniform. The uniform was navy and white with a gold patch that read Saint Mary Catholic.

I turned away and walked over to a bench. Sitting beside me was a tall man with a heap of paperwork? And what looks like a grocery list. Why was he doing paperwork at a park? Well, his kid was there. Beside him on the ground was a pink bookbag with the name Isabella written in gold letters.

The man would occasionally look up and watch his daughter for a split second, then continue doing his paperwork.

"How many red blood cells are in the body?" The guy mumbled, "Oh, that's easy."

I took a closer look at the "paperwork" he was doing, and I realized it wasn't paperwork. It was homework. Homework for med school. His name, Leorio, is written on the top of every paper.

He looked stressed out, dark circles were under his eyes, and he looked exhausted.

"Papá! Papá!"

Leorio looked up and smiled at his daughter, "Isa, what is it sweetheart?"

The girl in the uniform ran up to the man, "Look what I found!"

The girl held up a mini bottle with a piece of paper inside.

"Wow, Isa," her father gasped, "Did you read what the paper says?"

She shook her head.

"Here, let me see," Then the man took the bottle from his daughter and took the piece of paper out of the bottle. He scanned it over, and his eyes went wide.

He finished reading it and shoved the paper in his pocket.

"What'd it say?" His daughter asked.

Leorio shook his head, "Nothing fun; it's math. Now go, papá has work to do."

I looked up and began to watch my son. He was running around, going down slides, and being a kid. I smiled. I love my son. But, Leorio didn't seem to love his daughter a lot. At one point, the girl fell off the monkey bars and busted her lip. Her dad didn't even look up, and if he did look, he didn't care.

I turned to him, "You should watch your daughter better."

He glanced up at me, "Do I know you?"

"No," I replied, "But I'm telling you that you need to watch your daughter better–"

"She can handle herself, she's almost ten," He mumbled, "I'm trying to do something right now, so if you could leave me alone, it would be greatly appreciated." He flashed me a smile and then went back to his homework.

"I'm just saying, you aren't paying close attention to her. She could get hurt, kidnapped, and so many other things. You're doing a terrible job at parenting–"

"I know," He rests his head in his hands, "I'm so bad at this. To think that I've raised her for so long and I still don't know how to do it?"

By now I could tell that he was crying, "It doesn't help that I had her when I was twelve. I was a stupid kid. Now I have a, not stupid, but a dumb kid– I'm sorry, am I bothering you? Because I was just going on and on–"

"It's okay," I said awkwardly, "Get it off your chest."

"Thank god, you're honestly better than my therapist," He wiped his eyes, "My dumbass had her at twelve, like an idiot. Her mom keep her at her house, I got her every Friday through Sunday, and my dad hated that. One day her mom was just like 'Hey Leorio–' that's my name by the way– 'Hey, Leorio, my family is going on vacation. Can you watch Isa for me?' I say that I will, then after I month a realize that asshole moved a whole state away. So I had to take care of her.

As soon as I got my license, I had to leave school early every day to pick her up from daycare. I was in eleventh grade when she started kindergarten. Do know how weird it would be when a substitute was there, 'It's time for me to leave to pick up my daughter' it was embarrassing. No one thought it was weird, but yeah, it was pretty bad to me. Go to college? I'm in college right now, and I am stressed. I don't think I'll make it to my twenty-second birthday."

He sighed, "Also, imagine being at a family reunion and a one year old baby calls your nephew papá. It was the worst."

The man whistled, "I'm so glad to get that off my chest. I'm so sorry for just dumping all tgat on you–"

"No, no, it's okay," I said, "I kinda went through the same thing with my boy. Not exactly, but it was similar."

"Well, I'll listen to whatever you need to say, because you listened to me."

"It's not a lot," I chuckled, "Definitely less stressful. But, to start, I'm gay. So, in college, I was starting to figure out that I liked guys. But, I was denying it, so I stared going out with this one girl. I got her pregnant, six months in, I told her I was gay. We broke up, and she gave the kid to me because her new boyfriend didn't want a 'gay man's son' in his house. I'm pretty sure they got married, she hasn't asked me about Caleb in four years."

"Damn, that's terrible, I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine, I think your story is more fucked up– not in a rude way."

He chuckled, "Nope, I completely get what you mean. Hey, I'm sorry for venting out of nowhere, would you like to join me and my daughter for dinner tonight? We're just going to this cheap restaurant downtown."

I shrugged, "Sure, why not? I don't have anything else to do."