Chapter Text
Leorio’s chest was a horrible cocktail of emotions when he picked the familiar blond hair out from the crowd. It was anger, frustration, sadness, concern, and excitement all at once. He was seeing Kurapika for the first time in years. Kurapika had picked up when he’d called. Kurapika had called him. And he was seeing the blond bastard today.
Gon was practically vibrating where he walked. Hopefully getting closure on his most distant friend would help the kid. Killua, on the other hand, seemed cool as a cucumber. Leorio could tell he was nervous by the way he had his hands jammed in his pockets. No one could see them shake if they were hidden. But the kid hid his anxiety well. Alluka, on the other hand, looked curious. Gon and Killua had regaled her with stories and Leorio had gruffly chimed in, in between resident shifts.
Though they had all told her about Kurapika, just telling someone about another person didn’t give you the full picture of who they were. Especially Kurapika. Still, Leorio almost laughed at the very visible schooling of features as Kurapika finally caught sight of all of them. He bent down to pick up his luggage and began to walk towards all of them. He seemed to give everyone a perfunctory, searching gaze, before stopping on Leorio: three feet apart from him.
If Leorio had thought he’d sounded like shit the two times they’d talked recently, that clearly had nothing on how Kurapika looked . His blond hair was greasy and straggly, Kurapika’s skin was as pale as death, and the heavy eye bags looked like they might as well have been permanent. Leorio got the impression that he was looking at a dead man walking. The only evidence to the contrary was the shaky breaths Kurapika took as he looked up to him with blank eyes.
Before he could stop himself, Leorio closed the gap between him and yanked Kurapika to his chest, hugging the smaller man tight. It took a moment, a long and agonizing moment, but Kurapika returned the embrace, hugging just as fiercely. The chains of his nen bit into Leorio’s back, but he hardly cared. Gon, of course, took this as being a group hug and joined in. Leorio chuckled, and gave the younger boy room. Kurapika sniffled again, and Leorio’s suspicions when they’d been on the phone earlier were confirmed. As the blank, tired look melted into tears. As Kurapika mumbled apologies through snot.
Leorio just stayed silent as Kurapika tightened his hug over Leorio and now Gon. Killua still stood off to the side until Kurapika looked up, knowing someone was missing. Killua then slowly walked over and joined in, the tiniest of frowns on his face. The hug lasted a moment longer before Kurapika broke away.
“I— sorry,” Kurapika sniffled, using the sleeves of his blazer to wipe at his eyes, “for all this.” That was when Kurapika noticed Alluka standing a good three feet away. She looked up at him and, after a few moments, gave him a wave. Kurapika slowly gave her a wave back, looking absolutely dumbfounded. He blinked a few times before seemingly regaining his composure. He set down his briefcase and held out a hand. “You must be Alluka.”
A smile bled onto Alluka’s face as she finally stepped forward and met Kurapika’s handshake. “And you’re Kurapika!”
“Yes.” He gave her a smile back but Leorio couldn’t help but see how wooden and hollow it was, grief lurking behind it. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Mhmm!” Alluka grinned wider, shaking Kurapika’s arm up and down wildly. Her enthusiasm startled a laugh out of Kurapika and his smile became a little less hollow. Leorio felt a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding released in a hiss.
“Oh! Can we go get food?” Gon asked, looking up at Leorio before his head swung over to Kurapika. “There’s this really good pizza place, you’ve got to try it!”
Kurapika nodded, gently extricating himself from Alluka. “Yes. Food sounds good.”