A/n
I would just like to brace you for how long this chapter is. It's x2 more than normal chapters because I felt bad for not updating :).
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Kurapika shuffled underneath the thin sheets covering his body. He pulled them in an attempt to gain more warmth to no avail. Their hotel room had no lighting or heating, so throughout the night, the chill of the outside air danced on his skin.
He gave up and let himself sink back into his state of drowsiness. On the verge of falling back asleep, Kurapika could hear a faint voice comin from Y/n. Still barely conscious, he tuned in. Her voice carried from where she stood, at the foot of her bed. She whispered ever so softly, conversing with someone he couldn't hear.
"Yes, thank you," she hushed, "don't worry."
There was a pause in her conversation as she gave her attention to the other person.
"Goodbye," she whispered.
A click silently carried its way to his ears along with a beep, signalling the end of a call. Kurapika felt bad for trying to listen in on her conversation, so he noted to not bring it up later.
Y/n shuffled at the edge of her bed. The sheets of her bed made a soft sound as she rummaged for something. Kurapika kept still not wanting to be found out. All of a sudden, the noise stopped. All he could hear was the sound of his own heartbeat.
Then, footsteps started to make a path to where he lay until the girl was standing at the foot of his bed. She let out a defeated sigh. With one swift movement, she threw something down onto the poor blonde, hitting him in the face.
The contact against his face was enough to jolt the man awake, straight out of the feeling of drowsiness. Kurapika opened his eyes to the sight of a pillow that had been thrown in his face.
"What the hell?" he groaned in confusion. He hesitantly sat up and his eyes were met with Y/n's bored ones.
"You sleep forever," she said puffing her cheeks out in annoyance.
Kurapika, with droopy eyes, reached for his phone to check the time. On his screen read "6:37 AM". He looked over at the girl in disbelief, then back to the time, and back to her. "You're kidding right?"
Hidden in one of her hands, she revealed another pillow which she had taken off her bed. She chucked it at the man, hitting him in the chest. "Get up. We got a lead," she told him, walking away, into the bathroom and shutting the door behind her.
Kurapika stood up, getting out of his bed. As he got ready, he called to Y/n, "where are we going?" he asked.
Y/n, in the middle of getting ready herself, called back in response, "we're going to the city's central district. There's someone there we need to meet."
Kurapika sighed in displeasure, but not wanting to press further, he dropped the subject. He would just have to wait and see just who they were meeting and why. Y/n always seemed to keep things to herself, even though they were partners. He thought things would be different after last night, but she doesn't change. She was annoyingly consistent.
They finished getting ready and Y/n pulled them back into the city. Her cheery mood from yesterday, slowly returned as they made idle chitchat, walking along the dusty gravel paths that marked the city streets. She mentioned the most random things. She pointed out some of the old buildings that had been standing since the time she had lived in Meteor City. She told stories of the crazy experiences she had with every building she pointed out.
"And there, when I and Togari would get bored, we'd sneak up onto their roof and watch the people walk along the streets. The people who owned the building would always catch us in the act, but they would never say anything," she laughed at the memory.
"Oh, and there," she continued. Kurapika watched her with contentment as she told stories from her childhood. The smile on her face was evident. She looked at the run-down city with much happiness. She said she never longed for Meteor City, but the look in her eyes as she spoke of her fondness of those memories told him otherwise. Her words were true, but so were her actions.
Kurapika was happy enough to listen to her stories without as much as uttering a single word. Because, for a second time in their relationship, Y/n was finally opening up to him.
Y/n continued to tell stories of her past. She felt comforted by his open ears that would just listen to her stupid childish antics from when she was younger. It was freeing. She never had anyone just listen to her, so when he gave her the opportunity, she just couldn't stop herself.
There was a pause in her rambling, and Kurapika asked a question she hadn't expected him to ask, "what was Togari like as a kid?"
Kurapika, whose eyes had stayed on her the entire walk, was suddenly met with her gaze. He thought maybe he had asked too personal of a question. "Sorry," he apologized.
Before he could continue, Y/n gave him a smile and looked up to the sky to ponder his question. "Well... he was forthright and very easily triggered. He always said what he wanted and would put up a fight when someone did something he didn't like." She chuckled, "he got in a lot of trouble because of it though. He wasn't all that strong, and I always beat him in a fight, but he was smart. Really smart. He used it to his advantage to outwit people on numerous occasions. I really envied him."
Y/n recalled old memories of her attempt to better him, "whenever we were split up, I would study to become as calculating as him, reading textbooks at some clients' houses, or 'borrowing' them from people. It never really worked - until things went wrong and I needed to become calculating to adapt to our situation," she shrugged.
"Well, you definitely achieved your goal," he said with a smirk.
Y/n side-eyed him, and after one look at his expression, she punched him in the shoulder with little force. Kurapika jokingly looked at her with a hurt expression, "ouch."
She shrugged it off and looked away from him, continuing down the path, slightly speeding up. Kurapika waisted no energy catching up to her. Y/n looked over to the blonde. Their eyes connected once more. Just looking at Kurapika's face was enough to make the girl almost lose her composure. She slapped a hand over her mouth in an attempt to stifle a laugh. Seeing this, a small smile appeared on Kurapika's face in his own attempts to stifle a laugh. This was enough to undo her. They both let out a laugh, laughing at each other's expressions.
"What are you laughing at?" she shouted.
Kurapika placed a hand over his eyes to block his sight and take a breather, "your expression," he responded, trying to calm down.
"You should have seen your face, you looked stupid," she retorted.
Kurapika separated his fingers to look at the girl. Their eyes locked. For a moment it was silent – before the two returned to their antics and continued to laugh. His laugh was sweet and relaxed, while she laughed like there was nothing more comedical in the world.
It was unlike the laugh of his friends. Gon's laugh was more childlike and open, Killua's laugh was mischievous and Leorio's laugh was mature. Her laugh was a sound that rang like a melody in his ears. She laughed so hard, that she almost cried.
As the two were enjoying each other's company, they were interrupted by shouting further down the street. The shouting continued to grow louder the closer they got. Y/n gave a quick look at Kurapika before hurrying faster down the road. Kurapika instinctually followed close behind.
Up ahead Y/n could make out a group of people looking towards a building wall. Their backs were faced away from the two partners. It was hard for the girl to make out what the situation was, but it was evidently a group of men.
"What the fuck is wrong with you boy?!" a man yelled, pointing out his finger.
As Y/n approached, she realized they were crowding a young boy around the age of eight or nine. They were harassing him. As they shouted at him, a couple of the aggravated men were laying kicks on the poor boy.
She wasted no time pushing her way through the people and stood in front of the boy, acting as a shield. "What the hell are you doing?!" she shouted, seething through her teeth. "He's just a young boy."
One of the men looked at her with a smirk, "what are you, this kid's mom?" he chuckled, pointing a broken glass bottle at her. "What are you going to do about it? Want to get beat up bitch?" he asked inching closer to the girl.
"Do you want to get beat up?" she asked calmly, spreading out her arms to block the men from the young boy. "What did he ever do to you?" she asked.
The man's smirk formed into an expression of disdain. He stuck out his finger and pointed past the girl towards the beat-up face of the small child, "His boss said that the D² would be here by today, but this little shit tells me it hasn't arrived from the NGL yet!" he yelled, spit flying from his mouth as he put the blame on the boy.
"Drugs, of course," she thought to herself.
Y/n looked back at the boy's bloodied body. His face was all cut up and there were bruises covering his body. The worst of it was his leg. The boy's leg was riddled with glass shards. Just how disgusting could these people get?
She knelt down to the boy and placed a hand on top of his head, "don't worry," she told him, "I've got it."
Y/n felt a presence approach her, but before she was able to react, she was knocked over the head with the glass bottle the man had been waving around. For a moment, the girl felt a sense of weightlessness before being snapped back into reality by the call of Kurapika's voice who yelled in worry, "Y/n!"
A warm and liquid sensation spread over her head. Unable to think straight, the girl stood up from her crouched position. Y/n took a deep breath before, in a flash, turning around and landing a punch on the guy behind her. Her fist connected with the center of the man's face, knocking him to the ground, leaving him with a bloodied and broken nose.
She shook off the pain in her wrist as she scanned the rest of the thugs. In an instant, Kurapika was on the ground with the boy, placing his arms carefully around the boy's body to lift him up. Kurapika stood up, the boy cradled in his arms, "you good? Your head looks pretty bad," he comments. A trail of blood ran down the center of the girl's face.
"I'm fine," she says brushing off his concern, "you don't have to worry about that."
"I'll take your word for it," he said.
Y/n refocused her attention on the more pertinent issue at hand. The group of men didn't seem like they were going to back down. The problem wasn't numbers, as there were only four more of them, the problem was that it would be hard for her to restrain herself.
The boy was a drug runner, the same as she was. This kind of thing often happened to her when she was younger, but she had no way of fighting back at that time. Now, she was older and no longer associated with that kind of job or the rules that came with it. Fighting back was never allowed, but now... it would be a different story – and she was aching for a fight.
Y/n quickly looked back at Kurapika and the boy. He gave her a worried look, as his hands were full, and he couldn't be of aid to her. She shot him a reassuring smile to let him know she'd be fine.
One by one as the men came toward her, she easily knocked them down. It was quite therapeutic for the girl as she let out her built-up emotions that always threatened to surface.
As the final man fell to the ground, Y/n's head started pounding in pain. Kurapika walked up beside her, "put your arm around my shoulder for support," he said. She indulged and wrapped her arm around his shoulders for to keep herself upright.
"We have to go back," he said, starting the pursuit back to the hotel room, "we have to get you two's wounds cleaned up."
Y/n halted in her tracks, "no if we keep going, we'll reach the place we were trying to get to faster rather than if we were to go back to the hotel."
Kurapika looked at her in disbelief, "will they help us though?" he asked.
"Probably," she responded turning the group towards the direction they had previously been following. "Let's go."
"Unbelievable," he whispered underneath his breath.
They continued walking down the gravel paths. Every once in a while, Y/n would steal glances at the boy to check in on his condition. Considering everything it was a miracle he wasn't crying. Or maybe the little boy wouldn't let himself cry, who knows?
Soon a building that stood apart from the rest approached their line of sight. In contrast to the other buildings made of scrap metals or grey concrete slabs, this building was built from red bricks.
Y/n put a hand on the young boy's head. She leaned in and whispered softly, "we're here," she informed him. Kurapika watched as the girl spoke ever so gently to the vulnerable boy.
They were finally well into the central city district. Y/n led them to the red brick building. She pushed open the front doors and the group entered. It was a well-kept building, and based on the furniture and people drinking inside, Kurapika could deduce it was a bar.
Eyes watched them as they walked further in. They attracted attention. Y/n had now dried blood running down her face and the boy Kurapika carried in his arms was beyond battered up. No one said anything and minded their business, going back to drinking.
Y/n approached the bar, "can we get some water?" she asked the bartender. She was a woman with dyed navy-blue hair. She had dark eyes and defined cheekbones.
"That's going to cost you a lot, honey. There ain't much water here. Alcohol is cheaper than water in these parts," she informed Y/n.
"Yeah, I know. I'm not new here," she responded, sitting down on one of the bar stools. "I'll get five glasses."
The woman looked at her with a suspicious glance before getting what she had requested, "you rich or something honey?"
"I've got good connections," she said nonchalantly.
As the bartender filled and placed the glasses of water on the counter Y/n found it a good time to do what she brought them here for, "do you know Kelsie?"
The woman's eyes shot up in shock, "where'd you hear that name?" she asked in a panic.
"Gotcha," Y/n thought to herself. "So, you do know her," Y/n noted out loud.
The woman placed the final glass of water on the counter, "what do you want with me?" she asked.
Kurapika watched in silence to the side as Y/n conversed with the woman, not wanting to interrupt her with his unanswered questions.
Y/n gave her a smile, "I need some information, and you can give it to me." She let out a sigh, "you see, I know about your business, and I know about the underground deals you do," Y/n said in a threatening tone.
Kelsie threw her hands over the girl's mouth, "shh," she shushed, "be quiet." She scanned the bar to see if anyone heard, "let's go to the back, okay?" The woman removed her hands and lead the group to a room behind the bar, Y/n bringing along the glasses of water.
The backroom was a room reserved for secret deals. It housed a round table with chairs that rimmed the edges. There were bookshelves that were home to record books of previous transactions made in the room. Seeing how the bookshelves were full, it was apparent a lot of deals took place in this room, and they were about to be next.
Y/n pulled back one of the chairs that sat along the rim of the round table and motioned to Kurapika to place the boy down. He carefully set the boy down.
"Do you have bandages?" Y/n asked the woman.
Kelsie walked off to the corner of the room where she pulled out a box and returned to the girl, "this is all I've got."
Y/n popped open the latches and opened the box, taking out the gauze and cloth. She placed it off to the side and took one of the glasses of water. She turned to the boy with a small smile. He looked at her with fearful eyes. Y/n placed a hand on the boy's head, "it's alright, it will only hurt for a moment."
She took her hand off the boy and re-shifted her focus to cleaning his wounds. She bent down in front of him, the glass of water hovering close to the boy's face. The water ran over the boy's cheek, flushing out the dirt and grime from his cut. She applied a bandage and moved to his leg, lifting it up onto her own so she could fully see his wounds. She reached back into the first aid box and pulled out tweezers to remove the shards of glass in his leg. Although it was painful, the boy endured it as Y/n carefully pulled out each shard. When she was finally finished, she ran the water over his leg and wrapped it with the gauze and cloth.
Once it was all over, the boy let out a sigh of relief. He kept his head down and didn't meet the eyes of the adults in the room. Then he felt a pair of hands take his hands into their own. It was the woman who cleaned and bandaged his wounds. "What's your name?" she asked in a gentle tone.
"Beau," he responded timidly.
"My name's Y/n and that man over there's name is Kurapika. It's nice to meet you, Beau," she whispered. She placed one of the full glasses of water in his hands. "Have some," she said.
He was hesitant but indulged in her request. As the boy drank the water, Kurapika pulled Y/n aside, bringing the first aid box with him. He sat her down in a chair off to the side, away from the ears of the boy and Kelsie. "What are we doing here?" he asked quietly. He used a piece of cloth and wet it with the water, dabbing and cleaning off her wound.
"I that phone call I was expecting, this morning. I talked to Kikyo Zoldyck and presented her with a proposition in exchange for possible information. Kelsie is one of her old friends," she admitted. "Kikyo believes Kelsie might know who was in possession of the banned bullets."
"Killua's mom?" he asked, to which Y/n nodded her head in response. "Why would Kikyo think Kelsie knows who has them?"
"Well –" she paused, "that would be because Kikyo and Kelsie collected the bullets and sold them – right here in this room. They used to be friends; that's all Kikyo would say."
Y/n looked over to Kelsie who sat across the table from Beau. "I asked Kikyo for information because I knew she was originally from Meteor City, but I didn't think the connection would lead us directly to what we were looking for," she confessed.
"That's... lucky," Kurapika said as he continued to clean her wound, taking out the shards of glass caught up in her hair.
Y/n locked eyes with him for a moment, "you think something's fishy?" she asked.
"Yeah," he admitted, taking his eyes off her and going back to work.
She let out a small breathy laugh, "you don't have to worry about that," Y/n said, "she wouldn't lie."
Kurapika gave her a look, "and you know this, how?" he asked, starting to bandage her wound.
"I held up my end of the deal," she smiled.
Kurapika scoffed, "you're always so secretive."
Y/n poked his cheek, "you are too. You let me ramble on and on about myself, but you barely tell me anything about your past or present," she said.
Kurapika smiled, shooing her finger away from his face, "that's true – but I like listening to you ramble. You're like a child."
"Be quiet," she said pushing away and taking the task of bandaging her head herself, "you're no better. You're always blunt and closed off and I was usually nice to you, but you were always... you."
He chuckled, "true, I am me," he spoke, taking the bandages back from her, "and you are you," he said as he finished bandaging her head.
After Kurapika finished tying the bandage tight, she walked back over to Kelsie, dragging the chair behind her.
"You done flirting?" Kelsie asked.
Y/n pulled the chair in front of her and sat on it backwards, letting her chin rest on the back. They sat across from each other, and the silence was unsettling.
Y/n was the first to speak, "Kikyo told me about you," she said.
"That bitch," Kelsie seethed, "so that's how you know that name."
Y/n smiled, "Kikyo told me you go by Blue now. Is that some kind of stupid alias or something?" she asked.
Kelsie scoffed, "I don't like the dangers that name brings, so I guess you could say it's an alias."
Y/n hummed in acknowledgement, "I see. Well, I'm not one to bring up dead names. So, Blue -"
"Kelsie," she interrupted, "you can call me Kelsie when no one is around."
She let out a small laugh, "Kelsie, I need some information, and I think you can help me," Y/n continued.
"And why would I help you?" she asked, leaning forward in her chair and resting her elbows on the round table.
"I'll tell you what I want. Then, you and I can strike up a deal. What do you say?" Y/n asked.
The woman took a moment to think about it. She stood up and reached for one of the record books on the bookshelves. She sat back down and flipped open the record book to a half-filled page. "What kind of information are you looking for," she said, looking up from the book.
"I want information on who bought the banned Hunter bullets you sold," Y/n said, her face remaining unchanged and unreadable.
"I'm sorry, but I can't give away information on my clients or past transactions," Kelsie informed her.
Kurapika sat next to Beau, intently listening to the conversation that was taking place. Beau, well versed in transactions, silently observed the two women.
"Is that your policy? Is it written?" Y/n asked.
"Privacy is my biggest policy, it's why people trust me, honey," she spoke.
"Is it written?" she asked again.
"No, there is no written policy, but that doesn't mean it should be broken," Kelsie responded.
"But it can be broken, correct? I hold information about you that you don't want other people to know, and that's your fault for letting it slip. So, if you don't want rumours spreading, it'd be in your best interest to make an even trade," Y/n threatened.
Kelsie's jaw clenched, "fine," she grunted in frustration, "but, it's going to cost you. In exchange for the information you want, you must bring me one of Mukatolini's Lithographs. I need one more to complete the series of 50 limited-edition works."
Y/n glanced over to Kurapika and back to the woman, "that, in exchange for the buyer's name and complete secrecy regarding our deal, including our identities and anything that happened today," she stated.
Kelsie smirked at the girl's words, "you're a sly fox, aren't you?"
"Only the best," she responded.
The woman marked something down in her record book before standing up and placing it back on the shelf. She walked over to the Beau and knelt down to him, "honey, you better keep an eye on them," she said. Beau just nodded his head in response.
"Hey, Beau?" Y/n called.
He looked up at her with big bug eyes, a silent confirmation she had his attention.
"Come here," she said.
He walked over to the girl and she took his hands in hers, "you're going to be okay," she reassured him. Y/n looked up at Kelsie, "also, as part of the deal, take care of Beau and don't let him back into that drug running shit," she spoke.
Kelsie gave her a look, then looked at the kid, then back to her and sighed, "fine – he doesn't look like he'd cause a problem, but don't expect much boy," she said.
He silently nodded and gave Y/n one final look before she and Kurapika departed, "thanks," was all he said. The softness and tenderness in his voice didn't carry much volume, but it carried a huge weight in meaning.
Kelsie ushered the partners out of the back room and back into the bar. They exited the red brick building. Before the door closed behind them, Y/n turned around and waved to Kelsie who was still standing behind the bar. Kelsie gave her a small nod before the door closed shut.
As they started walking back to the hotel room, Y/n placed a hand over her heart in a jesting manner, "man, she's scary," she said.
"You're the scary one," Kurapika quips, "you know too much of everyone's business, and you wonder why I'm hesitant to tell you about myself," he laughed.
Y/n shook her head, "you're scary to me because I know so little about you. At least if I have information on someone, I can gauge how they'll react, or I can manipulate their movements. You, on the other hand, I'm slowly learning about every day."
"That's the beauty of a relationship between two people," he explained, "getting to know each other is all the fun. There are lots of things about my friends I still don't know, but I'm not scared of them... because I trust that I know them enough."
"You talk like trust is so easily given," she laughed.
Kurapika looked over at the girl, "if you befriend the right people."
Y/n nodded in agreement, "yeah, that's true." She looked over to the man walking beside her, a smile was present on his lips, "you always smile when you talk about your friends," she notes. "Do you miss them?"
"Yes, but we're all going to meet up soon, so I won't have to miss them for that long. Plus I hardly have time to think about anything else besides what crazy things you're going to do next," he admits.
"Well, it's pointing us in the right direction," she pushes, "but, we're kind of stuck in a complicated situation right now. How are we going to find one of Mukatolini's Lithographs?" she asked.
That was true, it was a rare item and because Kelsie had collected forty-nine out of the fifty lithographs, it would be that much more difficult. "One second," Kurapika said. He pulled out his phone and dialled a number in his contacts.
Y/n looked at him with a curious expression as they continued down the gravel path.
"Hello?" Kurapika said as the recipient answered the call, "I need you to research something for me," he said.
"Were looking for the last one of Mukatolini's Lithographs. I need information on it," he continued to converse with the person on the other end of the line.
Y/n on the other hand listened in as she watched the sun start to fall into the horizon.
"Thanks, Basho," he said before he hung up. He turned to the girl whose mind was seemingly elsewhere, "looks like I'll get to see my friends earlier than expected," he commented.
"Does that mean I'll get to meet them too?" she asked, her attention still remaining on the sunset.
"Yeah, I guess it does," he responded, "one of the people that works for me, tells me the lithograph is being sold at the Bull Market in Yorknew. Coincidentally, Killua and our friend Gon are there looking to buy a game."
Y/n smiled, "the Bull Market is vast. It's going to take us a while to find. One minute if we're lucky, maybe days if we aren't," she laughed, "but who knows, we've been lucky recently."
"Yeah, who knows?" he responded.
"I'm excited to meet Gon, but not so excited to see Killua again. The last time I saw him he threatened me," she chuckled nervously.
"He does that a lot, don't worry," Kurapika said brushing it off, "he threatened me as well the first time we met, and now we're good friends."
"A great start to a friendship," she said nodding her head.
Y/n started to slow her pace as she caught sight of an empty scene. They approached the area where they had previously witnessed Beau being attacked. The men no longer laid knocked out on the ground, and all the evidence that remained was broken bottles and blood marking the ground.
Y/n sighed to herself, "I hope Beau will be okay, or else Kelsie will get what's coming to her."
"You know," Kurapika mentioned, "I was shocked when you punched that guy in the face. I wasn't expecting that. Remind me to not piss you off," he laughed.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh while you still can. If you actually make me mad, I'll really be trying to kill you, not holding back like I was there," she huffed.
"So scary," he said.
"Very," she replied.
They both stole a glance at one another. Kurapika smiled at her. Like magic, her once pouty face was replaced with a smile that matched his.
Maybe they could get along... Emphasis on the 'maybe'.
The two continued to walk on the gravel road until their hotel came into view once more. Tomorrow, they'd leave Meteor City to head for Yorknew and find what they're searching for, and then – they'd finally get the answers they seek.
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A/n
Guys, chapter eight is coming soon! 👀 😏 I'm really excited to write it.
Also, I spent the entire day writing this... 😀 I'm going to get myself chicken strips 🥴