Kuroro finally saw Kurapica come out of the bank, so he started up the car and drove it over. He stopped in front of the entrance and the blond – although he sort of was a brunette now because of the wig – climbed into the back of the car. The moment the door closed, he drove away.
"Got what we need?" he asked Kurapica.
"Of course, I do," the younger man assured him. "You knew I would, or you would not have sent me in." He brought a hand to his head. "I can't wait to get out of this wig."
Kuroro laughed softly. Well, the boy wasn't wrong. He knew he could do it. More importantly, the young Hunter had followed his instructions and had technically broken a few laws in the process. Things were definitely progressing well. He glanced at Kurapica in the rear view mirror. The younger man was opening the briefcase. He took out a sheaf of papers and started looking through Professor Forkey's finances. Kuroro waited patiently for the reaction that he knew was coming.
"There's something wrong, here," Kurapica said after a moment. "There's money coming in constantly. Hundreds of thousands of zennies every single day. It certainly is suspicious."
"Is it through bank transfers?" Kuroro wanted to know. "Is there a name on it?"
Kurapica looked quickly through a few pages. "No," he said. "It's all money deposits from an ATM. And there's nothing on here that can tell us which machine was used."
"Sounds lie organized crime," the older man commented. "That would explain a lot. That might complicate things a bit."
"How so?" Kurapica asked him.
"Well, you worked for someone associated with the mafia; what is their household like?"
The younger man thought for a moment. "Full or armed, trigger-happy people."
"Exactly." He glanced at the Hunter again. "Someone's asked me not to get rid of anyone, so we'll have to lie our way through."
"I thought that was the point of the disguise from the beginning?" Kurapica commented, tone questioning.
"Well, yes," Kuroro admitted, "sort of. I didn't expect there to be more than a few people at his house, however. We'll have to find a way to get to the Scarlet Eyes and get out without arousing suspicion. Only distracting the old man might not be enough to pull this off."
"I could find a way to get him to show me the Eyes," the younger man suggested, "the distract him while you grab them. If he'd such a pervert as you said, I'm sure he can be convinced to be in the room alone with me."
Kuroro glanced at him. "I don't like it," he commented. "That means you'd have to go in alone. It's too dangerous."
"I can defend myself," the younger man assured him.
"What if they have nen users?" Kuroro objected.
"You could free my abilities," Kurapica sent back.
"No," the Spider Head told him. "I'll not do that just yet."
They'd reached the hotel and parked by then. Kuroro took off the sunglasses he'd nicked from the car owner and threw them onto the passenger's seat. Kurapica got out of the car and slammed the door harder than he really needed to. He started toward the hotel as Kuroro quickly got out of the stolen vehicle and went after him. Neither of them talked. This discussion wasn't something they were willing to have in public. The elevator ride up was tense.
As soon as their door closed behind them, Kurapica turned on him. "Why?" he demanded to know.
"I don't think that I have your loyalty yet," the older man answered.
"So, you're saying that I need to prove myself first."
"Would you expect anything less, were our roles reversed?" Kuroro asked patiently.
"No," Kurapica had to admit. He sighed and pulled the wig off, then looked thoughtful for a moment. He walked to the couch and sat down. Kuroro followed. He sat beside him, waiting to hear the result of his inner debate. Finally, Kurapica tossed the brown wig onto the coffee table. He raked his fingers through his hair and sighed. "What do I have to do for you to remove the bind?" he asked the Spider Head.
"As you've said," Kuroro told him, "you need to prove your loyalty to me and to the Gen'ei Ryodan."
Kurapica's frown intensified. "How do I do that?" he asked.
The Spider Head resisted the urge to grin victoriously. Instead, he kept his expression serious. He turned to Kurapica and waited until the blond met his gaze to continue. "I'll free your nen," he said slowly, "when you have a twelve legged spider tattooed on your skin."
Kurapica paled. His eyes widened and an expression of horror came over his face. He was immobile for a moment, then suddenly got up. "I, I'm going to change," he stammered before walking to the bedroom. The door closed behind him. Kuroro stared after him, wondering if he'd gone too far. Perhaps he shouldn't have mentioned the tattoo. Just as the thought entered his mind, he brushed it aside. No, it wasn't too early. The timing was just right. No matter when Kuroro would have decided to mention the tattoo, the proud Kuruta would have reacted the same.
He wondered at first whether Kurapica would stay holed up in the bedroom. After a moment, he heard the shower turn on. He figured that Kurapica wanted to get rid of all of the makeup and girly perfume that he was wearing. He picked his phone and made a call, checking up on his Spiders through Machi. As he spoke, he got to his feet and started pacing slowly in the cramped room. The news were excellent, and he found himself smiling victoriously as he pressed the button that would disconnect the call. He heard the bedroom door open, and he turned towards it.
Kurapica paused in the doorway. "You look very pleased with yourself," he commented.
"Well, I am," the Spider Head answered. "I've just received excellent news."
"Care to share?" the blond wanted to know. He walked over to the couch and slumped, rather uncharacteristically, onto the thin cushion.
"Not just yet," Kuroro told him. "I'll need the confirmation first."
Kurapica shrugged. "As you wish."
Kuroro glanced at him. An amused smile pulled at his lips. "You've still got black around your eyes," he commented.
"I know." The blond made a face. "I couldn't get it to come off."
"At least you got the most of it," Kuroro pointed out. "It's only the waterlines." He walked back to the couch and sat next to him. "It's not that bad," he added, still looking at him. "It really brings out your eyes."
Kurapica looked shocked, or perhaps scandalized. "Are you being serious right now?"
"Well," the older man said with a smile, "not entirely. It's true that the blue does pop out more, but I admit I like you better without makeup."
Kurapica blinked, shifted uncomfortably. He opened his mouth as if he were about to say something, but then he closed it without speaking. He leaned back, the back of his head atop the back of the couch, and sighed. Kuroro observed him quietly, wondering what was going on in that blond head, wondering where his thoughts were going.
He was fascinated, he realized. There was something about that boy, about his sharp mind, his beauty, his strength that was mesmerizing.
Kurapica glanced at him. "You're staring again," he commented.
Kuroro turned back to face the room, as bland and boring as it looked. "We have a lot of work to do tomorrow," he began after a moment, ignoring Kurapica's comment. He didn't know what to tell him anyway. He leaned forward and got the laptop from the coffee table. Once it was on his knees, he pulled up the university website and browsed through it until he got to the profile that he wanted. "Here," he said, turning the computer slightly towards the blond so that he could see the screen. "This is Professor Forkey. This is our mark. We have to get him alone, somehow, then get him to invite us into his home."
"You mean me," Kurapica said. "He'd going to invite me. I have to get him alone with the Eyes, right?"
"I really don't like that plan," Kuroro commented.
"It's the best option and you know it," the blond insisted.
"I'm going to be shadowing your every step," Kuroro informed him. "And you are taking the knife.
"I don't like that knife," Kurapica told him.
"I know," the Spider Head informed him, "and I don't care. Either you take the knife with you, or we abort and wait for him to voluntarily part with this pair."
Kurapica sighed heavily. "Fine," he finally relented.
Seriously, for all of his qualities, Kurapica could be tiring to deal with. Kuroro wasn't sure if the blond realized just how much he let things slide with him that he wouldn't from any of his other Spiders. That thought made him pause. It was true that he was still more or less in the process of buying Kurapica's loyalty. He'd never really had to convince anyone to join the Ryodan before. There were always people interested in being part of their adventures, most of whom weren't even worth looking at, but a few of whom could potentially prove useful. None, not one of them, showed the promise that Kurapica did.
This was why he let the boy haggle with him at all. He was not one to use authority to make people do things anyway, preferring to make them see things his way instead. But he wasn't sure he could do that with Kurapica. Still, he thought he could still make him work as one of the Spiders, regardless of the dislike that the young Hunter had for their methods. He might never make a thief or convince him to abandon his rigid no-kill rule, but the Kuruta could make an amazing strategist, an excellent undercover intel gatherer and, well, so long as no one needed to be permanently dealt with, he could potentially be used in combat as well. At the very least, Kuroro knew that he could send him into a dangerous situation and know that he would come out unscathed. Like now.
That didn't mean he liked it, though.
This was really strange, actually. He'd never really had a problem sending one of his Spiders into dangerous situations. Well, then again, he'd never sent one of his Spiders into a dangerous situation without the use of nen, either. For a moment, he nearly reconsidered. In the end, he decided that this was still the best solution. There was simply no way that Kurapica would allow the Spider tattooed onto his skin unless Kuroro had something to give in exchange. This was the only way.
His decision taken, he placed the laptop on top of the coffee table, the screen still showing Forkey's ugly face. He sat back, bringing a hand to his chin in thought. He could feel Kurapica watching him silently, and he glanced at him. He didn't really know what to tell him. His thoughts were starting to fall into place, but he wasn't ready to share them just yet. Instead, he decided to make peace with the blond. Perhaps a compromise of sorts would help. Already, Kurapica was being more and more agreeable. Surely, he would soon start to see things with kinder eyes.
"I think your objection to using my knife is the fact that it is poisoned, am I wrong?"
Kurapica looked at him for a moment, then looked away. "Yeah," he finally answered. "It just feels like a simple mishap could get someone killed."
"That's something that puzzles me about you," Kuroro informed him. "You don't know any of those people, and being associated with organized crime, they're not exactly choir boys. Why does it bother you so much that you might accidentally kill one of them?"
Kurapica was silent a moment, clearly trying to find the proper words to express himself. "Do you remember the beginning of this mad little adventure?" he finally asked the Spider Head. "When I was still your prisoner; when we stayed in that dilapidated hotel?" Kuroro nodded, so the blond continued, "Do you remember what you told me then? You said that when someone dies, it isn't the dead that suffers, but those left behind." He was silent a moment, apparently gathering his thoughts. "I've spent a lot of time thinking about what you said since. It took me a long time, but I've come to the conclusion that you are right. You are absolutely right. It is the people left to bury the dead and pick up the pieces who suffer in the end."
Kuroro was actually surprised. He had not thought that he had made much of an impression on the younger man. He had thought that Kurapica simply disregarded everything he said on principle, back then. He had obviously thought wrong. The realization that the blond had taken him seriously from the start cheered him up some.
"That is why," Kurapica continued, "no matter how many sins those men might have committed, I will not kill them. They still have mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, friends... I will not cause them pain."
Kuroro was silent a moment, digesting that knew information. "What about us?" he finally asked. "What about the Spiders? Are you intending to kill us all, still?"
The young hunter shifted uncomfortably. "It's not like I can, right now," he said. "We are temporary allies at the moment."
"That is not what I asked," Kuroro pointed out, disregarding Kurapica's choice of words for now. "I don't want to know whether you are able to harm us, but whether you still aspire to."
That seemed to make Kurapica even more uncomfortable. "In York Shin," he began after a moment, "a friend of mine told me something that really bothered me at the time." He glanced at the older man. "He said that after I'd killed one of your men, another one of yours cried. I didn't know what to make of it." There was another pause, where Kurapica let out a soft sigh. "Then there was the young woman, Pakunoda. I've long wondered why she had agreed to the exchange. At the time, I had thought that you were all loveless, selfish, evil people. I hadn't thought..."
He was silent for a long time. It was clear that he was shaken by his own admission and that he wasn't sure what to make of the whole situation. Perhaps, Kuroro hoped, he was finally starting to see the Ryodan members as actual people rather than as heartless monsters.
"I don't know," the blond finally said, turning his frank gaze on Kuroro. "A part of me still wants retribution for all that I've lost at the hands of you and your group. I need it. But I don't know that I would be able to exact my revenge, anymore."
That was fantastic news. It was clear that Kuroro's plan was working. Were he not so dignified, he would have gotten up and danced. It was obvious that Kurapica was regretting admitting this, however. The blond opened his mouth to recant, but Kuroro wouldn't let him. He shut him up the best way that he could think of.
He kissed him.
Kurapica made a soft sound of surprise in the back of his throat and Kuroro found himself pushing him back against the armrest of the couch. His blood was already thrumming pleasantly in his veins and he deepened the kiss. The younger man started responding. His hand tightened in Kuroro's hair. When that kiss ended, another began, then another. Things were heating up fast. There was this fierce hunger growing inside of Kuroro. They had things to do; this had to stop. The Spider Head pulled away. He sat back a moment, but he found that the temptation was still much too strong. He got to his feet.
He stared down at Kurapica. The younger man was looking up at him, eyes large, vulnerable. He was breathing heavily, lips moist and swollen. Kuroro turned away.
"Come," he said. "Let's go buy you a weapon. Once that you feel comfortable with."