Dis Aliter Visum

Chapter 62

Kurapica looked up from his book when Kuroro walked into the room, carrying some papers in a large manila envelope and a plastic bag showing the logo of a fashionable shop popular with young women. He placed a marker in it and closed it, before putting it on the end table. The room was much simpler than what they had grown accustomed to in the latter part of this little voyage. Rather than a suite, it was just the one bedroom with two queen sized beds. Kuroro didn't really mind either way. It had felt sort of nice, if a little strange, waking up next to the blond, but it wasn't exactly necessary either. Kurapica had insisted on two beds, and since Kuroro had been about to ask the front desk clerk exactly that anyway, he'd gone along with it. The demand had tempted him to ask for a king instead, but he didn't really want an argument when Kurapica had been moody all day.

The blond looked like he was fighting with himself for a moment. He was obviously curious about what Kuroro had been up to for the past two hours, but he didn't seem to want to show it. The Spider Head let him stew for a little longer, walking over to the desk that was pushed against the wall in a corner of the room. He sat on the chair and set the envelope he'd been carrying down on it. He'd had to bribe his way through this, but it was totally worth it, in his opinion. Lucky for him, officials were more than happy to receive a few million zennies to speed up the bureaucratic process. Kuroro had paid easily as stolen money was very easy to come across. He started going through the documents, not that he needed to since he'd read them at the passport office, and waited to see how long it would take for the Kuruta to ask him where he'd been.

In the end, it took quite a long time. Kuroro had had the time to go through nearly all of the papers by the time the blond spoke up. "I know you're waiting for me to feel impatient enough to ask you," he commented. "So, now that I'm satisfied I've thoroughly bored you for long enough, I'm going to ask. Where have you been and what have you been up to?"

Kuroro nearly laughed – nearly – as Kurapica had surprised him yet again. Life was simply never boring with him around. "Passport office," he answered, picking up Kurapica's brand new passport and lifting it up.

"I sort of gathered you were going to head there when you had me take that picture in the automatic machine in the lobby with that wig on," Kurapica commented. "But how did you manage to get the passport done in two hours?"

"Names from gravestones with the same year of birth as we do, or nearly so. For you, I had to pick one that was a year before yours. From those, it was easy to get birth certificates, and then I just sort of sped up the process with a lot of money."

Kurapica frowned slightly. It was an odd sort of look, with just this tiny line appearing by his eyebrow on the right side, above the bridge of his nose. "How much money?" he wanted to know, although Kuroro wasn't sure why he was asking.

"Oh, about twenty-five million zennies in total," he answered, though the actual money was perhaps half of that. He just wanted to know how Kurapica would react to the astronomical sum.

"Stolen money, no doubt," the blond commented with a haughty toss of his head that really rubbed Kuroro the wrong way. But he knew how to be rubbed the right way, so to speak, and he had promised to show Kurapica just how good he could make him feel. Only not just yet.

"Of course," he told him evenly. "I need you to look at the passport, birth certificate as well as the documentation." He pushed his chair back but didn't get up. The wheels didn't really roll all that well on the carpet, but he managed. He motioned to the papers still on top of the desk and Kurapica threw him a doubtful look, but he did walk up to the desk, standing between it and Kuroro. He started leaning forward slightly, but seemed to realize what this position would look like from behind, and he he stilled, picking up the passport and holding it up instead. When he was satisfied that it looked proper – Kuroro had even picked a name that was close to his real name – he set it down, identically examining the birth certificate. He started on the documentation Kuroro had been handed at both offices and the Spider Head let his eyes wander down the slim back.