Prince Kurapika and Sir Leorio [Leopika Royalty AU]

[9] The Ball (Part 4)

This chapter is inspired by Line Without A Hook by Ricky Montgomery :) I plan to do more Ricky Montgomery inspired chapters in the future too. And happy New year everyone! Here's a video of me playing Hi No Moeru Hitomi (Kurapika's character song) into the new year :,)

And for clarification since I realised I didn't clarify this before, lines or paragraphs surrounded with ** will mean it's a flashback or a character is remembering something, and in the song-inspired chapters, -- will border song lyrics :) I recommend listening to Line Without A Hook during this. I hope you all enjoy the finale to The Ball Arc. And as a prior warning, my keyboard is being super glitchy on my phone ATM so I'm sorry if there's some text mistakes or anything.

Mumbling soothing nothings, Leorio pressed his forehead to Kurapika's, and brushed the sunny, slightly blood stained locks behind his ear, fidgeting with the dangled earring that hung from his lobe. All Leorio could do was hold him, listening to his ragged breaths as the blonde's chest desperately heightened and lowered. All he could do was listen to his breath getting weaker, and weaker, his pulse becoming more distant, quieter, until,

There wasn't any noise. No breathing. No pulse. Leorio tried to let his pleas to Kurapika escape his lungs, but no noise emerged. He could only sob, gripping him closer and caressing his face, begging for him to come back, but he just got tireder from the importing, tireder and tireder as his vision blurred to black, and he felt himself almost be pinned back my void-like hands as he was snatched away from Kurapika, and,

He jolted upright.

He was in bed, not in his own quarters by Kurapika's room, but the medical ward within the Palace. As Leorio looked down at his legs still forming bumps under the thin blanket that only now half-covered him, he took the time to collect his thoughts and look around.
As soon as it sunk in that this was a medical ward, Leorio took his hands and began to pat himself down in order to identify where his wound was - but there was none. So why was he so panicked when he woke up? What happened? Why was he-
Leorio pulled the blanket fully off of him. He was still half in uniform, but his jacket was off, leaving him shirtless, but he still had the lower half of his outfit on, minus the shoes.

Hesitating, as soon as Leorio saw the pants to the outfit he was wearing, it came back to him.

He was at the ball.

And Kurapika...

Leorio sprung up from the bed, he still felt feverish, so as his feet hit the marbled ground, he toppled and wobbled but caught himself on a medical partition by his bedside, and used the bed to push himself with his hand and propel himself towards the doorway to the ward. He didn't care about grabbing his jacket or belongings, right now all he needed to do was see Kurapika.

The last time he saw him, medics had taken him away - it was a blurry memory in Leorio's head, but it was there, and it kept replaying in his mind. The sight of Kurapika's limp body being carried away in haste and fussed over.

In the back of his mind as Leorio frantically darted throughout the empty coridoors, Leorio could only scold himself. How could he!? He just let Kurapika get hurt - severely injured at that.

And then he stopped dead in his tracks as he reached a crossroad coridoor and came face to face with a realisation. His greatest fear.

Nobody's around.