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Kurapika watched the city fade away in the rear view mirror, the sprawling concrete suburbia flashing away in the evening with their oh-so-familiar green and white lights. The car hummed, the radio was up, the sweet, early spring air filling Kurapika’s lungs. The evening was alive with a restless, buzzing energy.
Leorio sat in the driver’s seat, eyes fixated on the road behind those round glasses of his. His arm rested comfortably on the leather top of the compartment, one hand on the steering wheel and the other resting on his knee, his face aglow with the golden light of the sunset.
The sight before them was something straight out of either a poem or a painting, Kurapika couldn’t really decide which fit better. The sunset was gorgeous , enrapturing enough that he took a picture on his phone for Alluka—who would no doubt fawn over the colors.
Overhead, the sky was a light blue. Farther behind them, towards Yorknew, the sky was darkening. Before the two of them, the horizon was awash with soft pinks and yellows, smatterings of wispy blue and white clouds trailing along lazily. The colors seemed to bleed out onto the vastness of the sky. The cars far away enough were just small black dots fading off into the haze of the evening. The streetlights hadn’t turned on yet.
Kurapika turned his head and watched the trees. As the sun sank lower, and the light began to fade, they waved a farewell with their skinny branches in lieu of we’ll see you tomorrow, don’t worry. There was something so familiar within the sight of the blue-pink sky and the trees with the gaps of sunlight on their leaves. A sort of homesickness. He couldn’t exactly pinpoint how or why, but it sat heavy on his shoulders. Kurapika rested his head against the glass and just watched the trees speed past, and fade away in the mirror with Yorknew behind them.
“You okay?” Leorio asked.
Kurapika sat up and turned to look at him. The sunlight turned Leorio’s face a rosy pink color and brought a smile to Kurapika’s face.
He nodded. “Yes, I’m okay. Just bored, I suppose.”
“The sunset’s pretty, though. You never can get bored of it.”
“Yes, it is. How long will it be until we arrive?”
Leorio took a quick glance at his phone sitting in the cupholder. “Uh- thirty or fourty minutes, I think. I don’t know how traffic will be around the area, so it could be longer.” He gave Kurapika a smile. “This is our first date in a while, this is exciting.”
“Mhm,” Kurapika responded with a nod.
“I’m sorry about working so much, too, we really should spend more time together, but with my hours-”
“No, don’t apologize. You have nothing to apologize for, I completely understand. I’m not mad or upset with you at all,” came Kurapika’s quick interjection. “I’m happy we’re getting a chance to go out and have a lovely evening. Even if it’s in a town neither of us have ever been to.”
“ Hey , all of the restaurants we like were booked and I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go!” Leorio exclaimed.
Kurapika gave him a grin, the warmth nestled in his chest. Leorio smiled back. He turned his face back towards the road, and his right hand shifted.
“I think it’s sweet that you planned this,” Kurapika said. The music shifted to a slower melody, slightly more nostalgic for the drive. “I can plan the next date, if you don’t mind. I don’t really plan them all that much, anyway.”
Leorio shrugged. “I don’t mind.”
“Okay.”
The sky was darker then. Kurapika watched in silence as the cars in front of them glowed red, and the yellow haze where the sun dipped below the horizon grew a dark gray and blue.
Kurapika took Leorio’s free hand and squeezed it gently. The stars were so much more visible. The streetlights glowed a vibrant orange on the green exit signs and on Leorio’s face. Leorio squeezed back three times—a gesture of affection that Kurapika taught him and the kids—and hummed along to the song that filled the silence between them.
They found themselves in a city not much smaller than Yorknew not long after. The red lights of cars and restaurants and traffic lights cast a glare on the windshield. People went every which way, laughing comfortably with friends in the corner booths in cafés or studying alone for exams in bookstores. Kurapika could see someone sitting out on the balcony of their apartment, watching the traffic lazily trickle by from above.
Kurapika watched a couple, hand-in-hand just like him and Leorio in the car, laughing on the sidewalk waiting for the pedestrian light to turn on. Another couple a few blocks away stopped to take pictures of each other on their phones before heading off to their next destination. Once they left his view, Kurapika crossed his legs and kissed the back of Leorio’s hand.
“What’d you do that for?” Leorio asked, but Kurapika knew that he didn’t have any sarcastic meaning behind his question. Green and oranges gleamed in his eyes, flickered on his cheek.
Kurapika hummed, tucking a lock of blond hair behind his ear. “I love you,” he replied without thinking. Leorio smiled.
Because he loved him. Two years into their relationship, and Kurapika was still—and always would be—incredibly, blindingly in love with this man. So much it made his head pound and made his stomach flip; a current running under his skin. And it was nice, having such a warm and comforting feeling take the place of hatred in his heart.
“I love you, too,” Leorio replied, and Kurapika gave him the biggest grin he could give anyone.
—
The restaurant was a lot bigger than both Kurapika and Leorio expected. It was a red brick building with light pouring onto the sidewalk from the wide windows, flyers and various local advertisements taped against the glass next to the painted logo. On the outside, it seemed so much smaller than it actually was.
They sat in a back booth, far away from the live pianist performing a piece by Debussy. Leorio’s fingers were intertwined with Kurapika’s as he watched the cars drive past the restaurant.
“This is a lot nicer than I expected,” Kurapika said quietly.
“I agree. Did you expect anything less?” Leorio teased, raising his glass of ice water to his lips.
Kurapika gave him a roll of his eyes. “It’s a lovely place,” he mused. “Thank you for this, Leorio.”
“You needed a day out. We both did.”
Kurapika nodded. The music filled the air, partnered with the hushed chatter of the other couples in the restaurant. Leorio knocked against his ankle with his own, prompting a chuckle from Kurapika, and they watched the quiet nightlife walk under golden light of the street lamps.
Their hands broke apart when their dishes came; Kurapika thanked the waiter, and Leorio rubbed his hands together excitedly. It took Kurapika everything not to burst into laughter at his expression.
They ate in relative silence. Kurapika absentmindedly trailed a finger down a braid in his hair and Leorio would talk about his day. Kurapika wasn’t really listening, he was just paying attention to the cadence of Leorio’s voice.
Once they paid for the bill, they left the restaurant side by side, their shoulders knocking against each other.
They passed shops with straggling customers on their way to their homes, cafés with flickering neon open signs in dark windows, apartments with closed curtains that let out slivers of warm light onto the pavement.
When they passed a small bookshop, a song crackling from a speaker above the shop’s window, Leorio stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, under a patch of bright orange light, a hand held out towards Kurapika.
“May I have this dance?” he asked. Kurapika could see his own breath rise up in the air, he could hear the blood roaring in his ears. He grinned.
Kurapika took his hand. “Yes, you may. But I have to warn you, I’m a terrible dancer,” he responded.
“I’m well aware,” Leorio replied, inching close to him. “My mind and my feet remember all of the times you’ve stepped on me in the kitchen dancing to some song you had stuck in your head. It sounds like you need some lessons.”
Kurapika tossed his head back and laughed, his hand on Leorio’s back. “I’m sorry about that, I really am. Teach me, then.” A smile eased itself onto Leorio’s face, in that way Kurapika was all-too familiar with, and Kurapika could feel himself melt into the concrete.
Leorio hummed along to the song, a hand finding Kurapika’s waist, the other taking Kurapika’s other hand. The leaves above them rustled in the breeze as Leorio took the lead in the dance.
They found the rhythm quite quickly, Kurapika followed along as best as he could, smiling as Leorio muttered lyrics under his breath. The two of them swayed, underneath the orange glow and the gentle gaze of the peeking stars, as the city gradually gave into the night. Their only members of a meager audience and witnesses to their dance were the trees, the streetlights and the stars, and a cat curled up in the windowsill of an apartment above them. The world was quieting but they were so awake.
Kurapika followed Leorio’s movements, or at least he tried , because he’d trip over his feet with most of the turns, and the two would burst into a fit of laughter. They would gather their bearings, though, and keep going.
And then the song ended. To Kurapika, the dance felt like an eternity, and all at once, a split second. A flicker of a moment that was burned in his mind. Leorio and Kurapika pulled away, fingers still intertwined, smiles still on their glowing faces. Warm, free laughter bubbled up
in their throats. Hand-in-hand, they walked down the sidewalks to their car, the sound of their footsteps a quiet chorus.
They were just Kurapika and Leorio. Nothing more and nothing less than just that, and that was all that mattered. They had each other.
Kurapika settled into the passenger seat, laughing with Leorio as he got into the driver’s seat. Their noses and cheeks were red from the cold, but neither of them wanted to complain.
They sat there for a moment, their laughter dying away into giggles and snickers, and then soon enough, it became nothing but small smiles. There was a stillness in the air, like the ringing of a bell trailing away, and Kurapika was reminded of the first dates with Leorio, all of the first moments alone. Those had been a few years ago, but he felt like he was sitting in those memories once more.
There was a weight on his knee, and the gentle laughter between the two bubbled up again. Once they calmed down again once more, Leorio leaned over and kissed him, lingering for a moment before pulling away.
“Let’s go home,” he whispered. Not back to the house . Home. They had been dating for two years and the word still left Kurapika stunned. In a good way, of course.
Kurapika nodded. “Okay,” he said. And almost the entire drive home, he watched the colors of the night pass over Leorio’s face.
—
The cold air brought a chill to Kurapika’s skin. He could see the faint puffs of air dissipate from his lips. The back light behind him was turned off, leaving him in the frigid, peaceful darkness of the twilight.
The drive home was filled with quiet, tired conversations of the dinner and their plans for tomorrow. Leorio would go to work early in the morning, and Kurapika was planning on working in the garden, if the weather was nice.
When they got home, they went inside, Kurapika shed his coat and Leorio went straight for the bathroom. Kurapika stood on the balcony, arms crossed, eyes watching the tops of the trees sway quietly.
Kurapika wanted to kiss Leorio at every red light. He didn’t realize, with Leorio working so much and oftentimes too tired to go out, how much he missed hazy drives on the highway, awash with the glare on street signs and the blinding stare of the traffic lights.
A warm hand found Kurapika’s shoulder, and then the fingers trailed down his arm and the palm settled against his own. A smile crept onto Kurapika’s lips.
“Kurapika,” whispered Leorio, his voice hushed and comforting.
“Leorio,” Kurapika whispered back. “Tonight was lovely, thank you. It was…” His voice trailed away. He glanced up at the night sky, and then looked down at the yard again. The grass and trees were bathed in blue light. He thought of Leorio in the driver’s seat, the rose-gold light of the sunset on his face. He thought of Leorio at the restaurant, Leorio outside of the bookshop, Leorio in the car, leaning over to kiss him, Leorio taking his hand and leading him into their dance on the sidewalk; filling the night with his laughter and Kurapika’s head with his smile and charm. “It was fun. It really was.”
Leorio kissed his cheek, his lips curled into a small smile. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. Yeah,” he whispered quietly, almost like he was just talking to himself. “Yeah. I’m glad you had fun.”
The light glinted in his eye, and Kurapika could feel his stomach drop seeing the way he looked at him. Leorio looked at Kurapika like he hung the moon and the stars over their heads; so fond and tender it made Kurapika’s heart ache.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Kurapika asked with a laugh.
“You’re beautiful,” was Leorio’s quiet reply, his voice warm and like honey and fuck everything good in this world . He reached up and tucked some of Kurapika’s blond hair behind his ear—the one with the red jewel earring, the one Leorio liked, that swayed whenever he would turn his head—and cupped his hand on his cheek. “You’re so beautiful. I adore you, Kurapika, every little thing about you.”
A corner of Kurapika’s mouth curled upwards into a small, joking smirk. He couldn’t imagine how bright the blush on his face would be if they had been in proper light. “You are being quite the romantic tonight,” he murmured. “Our dance did a number on you, didn’t it?”
“Oh, am I? And no, actually, it was your beauty enrapturing me the entire evening.”
Kurapika gave him a glare. “Oh, stop it,” he huffed, fighting the urge to swat Leorio’s hand away from his cheek. “You are such a sap, Leorio.”
Leorio rolled his eyes and inched closer to Kurapika, his arms wrapping around him. “Whatever.”
Kurapika rested his head against his chest, his own arms wrapping around Leorio.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
Leorio snorted. “For what? You already thanked me for the date.”
Kurapika shrugged and looked up at him, his chin brushing against his shirt. “Everything, I guess.” Leorio just melted, and kissed his forehead.
Kurapika meant it, from the bottom of his heart. Everything Leorio had given him—his time, patience, love, among other things—was something Kurapika knew he wouldn’t forget about so easily.
Because he loved him. They loved each other. And Kurapika wouldn’t trade any of it for the world.