After The Eyes ~ A Leopika Story

Chapter 15

The cold air stung their throats when they inhaled, and the moonlight seemed extra bright tonight. They walked in silence towards the palace, and Leorio watched the millions of stars twinkle in the night sky. 

"Do you have a plan I should know about?" 

Kurapika glanced at him, and then brought his eyes back to the path ahead of him. "I need to figure out how tight security is first, and I'll work it out from there." Kurapika explained. His voice sounded colder than usual, most likely because of stress. 

"Alright then." Leorio mumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets. 

They both had matching suits, so they could play the part of a normal duo attending the ball. They were both average black suits, but Kurapika's was ironed more nicely than Leorio's. Leorio's look was more disheveled, and his tie was a little loose. 

The palace's lights came closer, and they knew they were drawing near. They followed the light, and found themselves standing in front of, well, a palace. It was massive, and the price of the property couldn't have been less than 1.5 billion US dollars. 

"Excuse me, no loitering." a security guard said, breaking Kurapika and Leorio frm their trance. 

"We're guests." Kurapika said, showing the security guard their invitations. The security guard scrunched his nose, and let them in through the front gate. 

It took them at least five minutes to get to the front entrance, and they were walking particularly quick. 

Two more security guards stepped in front of them, "Invitations?" one of the guards asked. Leorio and Kurapika both held them out, and the guards let them pass. 

They were let into a lively room, full of chatter and dancing. The room was colossal, it would be hard to navigate an exit. Kurapika surveyed the room, and saw at least two security guards in front of every door. 

He bit his bottom lip, and tried to think up a solution. "I could be a distraction." Leorio whispered. Kurapika shook his head softly, and continued to think.

Kurapika didn't want to use Leorio as bait, cause that could either go horribly wrong, or Leorio would get into trouble. He didn't want to risk it. 

As he looked around the room, he accidentally locked eyes with a security guard. The guard glared at him, and found it awfully suspicious to find the two men just standing by the entrance. 

Time to play the pretty boy act. 

Kurapika smiled cheerfully at the security guard, and took Leorio's hand. He started to walk over to the drink table, where there were bottles of substances neither of them could pronounce. 

"What are you..." Leorio mumbled, looking down at the hand holding his own. Kurapika turned to him, with the fakest grin Leorio had ever seen. "We need to blend in." Kurapika whispered through clenched teeth. 

He tilted his head towards the suspicious security guard, and Leorio glanced over to see that the guard was in fact still staring at them. Leorio looked back to Kurapika and gave him a soft nod. 

Kurapika began reading the labels of all the bottles set on the table. He didn't care what he drank, he just thought that it would be less risky to find something without alcohol. 

He ended up finding a non alcoholic raspberry mojito, which sounded disgusting but it would have to do. 

He poured it into his glass as his eyes subtly drifted through the room. He needed to come up with a plan. Fast.