Chapter Text
Most Hunters take their newly granted licenses and go do something stupid, Leorio imagines. After all, if given night-unlimited good credit, money, and a literal license to kill, most people would do something a bit stupid. The kind of people he met during the 287th Hunter Exam only reinforced that idea — Hell, Leorio himself’s not even immune. He periodically remembers the fact he challenged Hisoka to a fight and face palms about it, sometimes in the middle of lectures or labs, other times while out for a drink with classmates.
But ignoring the rather weird approach he took to get there, Leorio is actually pretty proud of himself. He’s been doing well in college, despite not having much experience with higher education. (Or even formal education. His high school had less than a hundred students, and half the time the teachers were late for their own classes or wouldn’t even show up. Leorio knows how to study independently, is the point.)
He’s approached by a member of the Hunter association for a form of supplemental training, apparently given to all who pass the exam. It’s practically an afterthought compared to all the readings and labwork.
Leorio, unlike other freshmen, did not make the mistake of signing up for one million clubs — he has confidence in his ability to make friends and find study groups without acapella or improv or fraternities, thanks. But he did make the mistake of signing up for one too many classes, and is now deeply overwhelmed.
Intro to Film and Media Studies, since he needs a Humanities credit at some point to earn the undergraduate part of his degree and thought it’d be easy and good to get out of the way early. Intro to Psychology, since it’s an important part of medicine even if Leorio doesn’t intend to focus on it. Organismal Biology, which has both a lecture and lab section. Plus one mathematics and two science courses required for his major.
So. The recommended freshman course load is four, maybe five courses. And Leorio is taking six.
It’s fine, really. He can handle it. Kurapika at least Leorio knows is probably putting his life on the line by now for the sake of eventually avenging his family and culture — compared to that, Leorio’s struggles to read fast enough between lecture blocks are nothing.
(Leorio floods his friends’ answering machines — he knows they risk their lives on the regular, even if he’s not always sure of the exact manner in which they’ll be doing so. Has Gon gotten any new leads on his father? Has Killua’s family stayed away? Is Kurapika back to hunting the Phantom Troupe? Was he successful in finding anymore of the Kurta clan’s eyes?)
(Leorio calls Kurapika the most. Whatever comes to pass, Gon and Killua have each other, and from their limited calls, they’ve found quite a few mentors along their journey. But Kurapika…he’s alone. He chooses to be, to an extent — Leorio expects that’s why he’s never gotten anything but voicemail. But Leorio looks back on old arguments, on calm picnic lunches and car chases alike, and knows that Kurapika isn’t happy alone. He cares deeply, and that’s exactly why he’s so driven now.)
(Leorio worries about Kurapika a lot, actually.)
And after how hectic the Hunter exam was, the relatively calm climate of a good University is a welcome sight. Leorio makes a point to make friends in his limited free time — a few group chats and study groups with his classmates from the Pre-Med track who share notes and queries, a weekly screening with some friends from his Film course, a text chain with his lab partner where they bitch about how unclear the professor’s instructions tend to be.
Leorio knows he can come across as rude and abrasive at times, but compared to the football team jerks he’s downright demure. He might be a bit neurotic, but the girl who color-coded and blocked out her whole schedule and included time for hangovers has him beat. And even his background as a Hunter isn’t so exceptional, when some of his classmates are foreign royalty or Elympic Athletes.
Leorio fits in just fine in college, and it’s so refreshing to be normal.
Lucas Palmer is not at all ashamed to admit he dropped a class on the first day because one of his classmates made him nervous.
He never imagined himself doing such a thing. He’s at Nellcor on an athletic scholarship for rugby — that’s a contact sport, even if most people don’t think it’s as bad as football. He’s not an easily intimidated person. But the choice to drop wasn’t because of petty physical intimidation.
It was because during his first day of Advanced Multivariable Calculus, his deskmate had introduced himself with the casual little tidbit that he had a license to kill.
Most people would not have that as their first thought when meeting a Hunter, since they’re such a secretive bunch. But those who want to learn about them can, and Lucas had been very interested during high school.
He’d actually entertained the idea of taking the exam until he saw a Hunter in person
It wasn’t part of a conversation, wasn’t any kind of explicit threat. It hadn’t even been up-close — Lucas had been a spectator. Specifically, as a treat for getting all his college applications in, his dad had snagged scalped tickets to a match at Heaven’s Arena. They’d set out on a road trip for it practically the minute his high school diploma was handed out, and Lucas had been ridiculously excited about it.
It was known that Heaven’s Arena was a sort of dueling ground for Hunters, a way to test their strength and show off. It was also known that they used some kind of crazy special effects that blew most movies out of the water, sensationalizing the match on top of the incredible martial arts displays.
Before he’d actually seen it in person, Lucas had thought the fights would’ve been cooler if the effects were absent, and things were more realistic. It was a stupid, stupid thought.
At first, it had all seemed fake — the lights, the announcer, the stupid tricks, it was TV wrestling taken to its extreme. But Lucas was impressed by the sheer showmanship; the special effects allowing for one fighter to clone himself and another to fake tearing off his own limbs was incredible. (The former, probably was a body double, but the latter Lucas has no idea how it was done. Considering what had come next, maybe it had even been real.)
The fight had ended in what looked like a very real murder.
The crowd had cheered and staked bets like that was all normal and well and good, and the pink-haired murderer had walked off stage cool as anything. Like he had just finished grocery shopping and not a public homicide.
Lucas and his dad had driven home from that particular experience in total silence. Lucas had never asked to go back, and he had no intentions to. He was gonna stay as far away from Hunters and all their insanity as possible.
So, when Lucas mentioned he was a rugby player and the guy sitting next to him replied that he was a Hunter, like those were somehow equivalent? Nope. Not happening.
Lucas had opened add-drop on his computer and withdrawn from the class while the professor was still handing out the syllabus. He’d sat through 90 minutes on Advanced Multivariable Calculus, not taking a single note, or moving, or breathing too loud.
When the professor called the day done, Lucas ran out of that class as fast as humanly possible — and despite being a very fast runner already, he thinks he probably beat his best times on speed assessments in the past — and swore to stay the hell away from Leorio Paladiknight.
Leorio considers himself a social creature. Generally, he likes to meet new people, and even if he’s not the most delicate or well-mannered guy, that doesn’t put everyone off.
But making friends is emphatically not why he’s paying millions of jenny in tuition. (Or, well, his Hunter’s license via a few banks who are never getting their loans repaid are technically the ones financing his education, but still!) Leorio will go to mixers or parties and form study groups on his own time — that a professor is now dedicating actual lecture hours to it is galling.
And of all the stupid icebreakers to have during class, “what did you do over the summer” is the most painful. It’s the clearest indicator the professor expects to be surveying a room of recent high school grads, which Leorio emphatically is not. Moreover, he’s fairly certain at least half of his “summer activities” in Yorknew shortly before the semester started were, if not wholly illegal, at least morally questionable.
He’s realized after his Calculus deskmate got spooked — Lucas hasn’t sat next to Leorio even once since the first day of he class — that his Hunter license can be a conversational non-starter as easily as the inverse. So, Leorio doesn’t exactly want to flaunt his status, or the admittedly questionable activities and acquaintances that have come attached to it. At the same time, he doesn’t really want to lie.
So, he settles for vague half truths and prays no one he sat near is particularly nosy.
“Ah…I was a late admission, so most of what I did this summer was hit the books. But I did go to the Yorknew City Auction!”
The tired-looking girl sitting next to him — Anja — simply shrugs and rolls her eyes, but the guy, Griffin, seems extremely excited. The kid did mention he was from a small, rural town, so maybe it’s just the excitement of a big city.
“Oh, man, Yorknew? I’ve always wanted to go to that auction! Or even just the city, the art museums around there are amazing. Uh, I’m a prospective Art History major, by the way. But it’s too far from home — and off campus — for me to justify the trip. What’s it like?”
Ah, so Leorio’s guess about the reason for the interest was right on the money. Still, it leaves him with an engaged and curious audience, which he doesn’t want.
“It was…interesting, but stressful too. There’s so much going on in that city, it feels impossible to keep track!” Like friends who pick fights with mobs and get kidnapped by genocidal cults and actually, maybe it really is a good idea for Leorio to be making new friends at his school, since Leorio’s current friends are evidently all crazy. Except Zepile and Melody. They get a pass.
“I’m glad I went, but I don’t know if I want to go back.” Leorio finishes weakly. Anja then chimes in, still looking annoyed — maybe that’s just her default expression. Regardless, Leorio is kind of glad Griffin got cut off.
“OK, that auction is one of the biggest tourist traps in Yorknew, you can’t say you don’t like the city if that’s your only experience in it. Go back sometime, and don’t just hang around the most expensive neighborhoods.”
“Words to live by,” Leorio grins. “For what it’s worth, it wasn’t all bad. Ended up having a drink with a very interesting sculptor with a lot of knowledge of art and archaeology…actually, Griffin, I feel like you’d enjoy meeting Zepile. I should introduce you two!”
Topic successfully changed. Hopefully Yorknew doesn’t come up again….
Griffin’s eyes get very wide at Leorio’s words. “Please introduce me. It’s such a complex field, and I’m kinda…I feel like I’m behind, is all. Any connections or extra avenues to learn would be great. I need a mentor.”
And well…Zepile probably has his hands full training for the Hunter exam since he wants to try for it during the next cycle, but Leorio’s sure the guy can make time for a drink or two. Except, wait, Griffin isn’t old enough to drink in the United States of Saherta. Maybe brunch?
“Where did you go?” Anja asks, and dammit, Leorio had hoped the topic would change. “While you were in the city, I mean. You said you were pre-med, I can’t imagine you were frequenting art museums. Did you meet this Zepile guy at the auction? There’s a lot of scam artists who go there to prey on gullible tourists.”
If Leorio didn’t know of Zepile’s past in actual forgery, he’d be offended on the guy’s behalf. As it is, he forces a smile at Anja. “Nah, Zepile’s a good guy, and he really knows his stuff.”
Anja, to her credit, apologizes. “Yeah, sorry, I shouldn’t have said that about your friend. I just…I mean it when I say that auction is evil, ok? But if you got something good out of it, you’re smarter than most of the people who flock to the city for goods or thrills during the auction. Did you buy anything? And did you take pictures?”
“Ah, I did!” Leorio winces, then pulls out his phone. Technically, it’s an answer to both questions, his new cell being the only thing he bought at the auction that he actually kept, but he’s not about to admit that. Anja would probably eat him alive.
Anja’s first thought when Leorio gets out pictures of a picnic is that she can’t believe she has to explain that she wasn’t asking about his social life so much as the auction and the city. Sue her, Yorknew is her hometown, she gets defensive about it. Then, she gets a closer look at the picture Leorio chose to show them, and decides that it’s more interesting than any story she could hear.
“Leorio, who’s this?” A kid? Leorio isn’t married, Anja’s sure of that since she’s not seeing a ring. And why not wear one during a lecture? But it’s possible Leorio could be divorced — he certainly looks old enough to have had a serious relationship come and go, and something about the fact he’s now in college makes her think midlife crisis . The blond in the photo looks about Leorio’s age, just shorter — his ex? Was it a custody meeting? Does Leorio only get summers, or something? And if not Leorio’s kid, who was with the spiky-haired kid in green? Maybe a much younger brother? A nephew? No, Leorio already said he was an only child…but wait, then what’s with the kid with white hair? A friend of the kid in green’s?
“Ah, that’s Gon. He’s a good kid.” Anja is ready to throttle Leorio for the crime of being vague, but sadly she doesn’t get the chance. The professor calls their little social session to a close, and instead starts discussing the syllabus.
Still, she makes a point of trying to get answers. Politely.
“Hey, so…I didn’t want to bring this up in front of Griffin, he seems kinda indelicate, but were you ok with talking about Yorknew? It seems like it was a touchy subject.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, it was fine. I mean, Kurapika and the kids were always picking fights, but that’s hardly anything new.”
Anja files that information away for later. “Kurapika? Was that the blond?” “Ah, yeah. Crazy work schedule, demanding boss…we don’t see each other often. It’s why I went to the city, we all hadn’t seen each other in months and it was as good a time as we were gonna get.”
Anja smiles. “Thanks for telling me. And sorry to pry. Don’t worry, I won’t bring it up with anyone."
Griffin stares at Leorio and Anja’s backs with wide eyes.
He didn’t exactly mean to eavesdrop. It was just that he’d kinda thought Leorio was cute and wanted to ask for the guy’s number…and instead, he’d heard perhaps a bit too much.
Leorio was in a relationship. A committed, long term, messy relationship, from what little he’d said.
And the thing is, Griffin, really, truly, does not intend to tell anyone. He’s usually good with secrets, namely good at keeping them to himself. But a few nights later, he’s at a party, and some girl mentions a DILF in her BioChem lecture, and Griffin knows who she’s talking about. And his (definitely-not-alcohol-addled-no-sir-he’s-only-19-after-all) brain decides it’s a good idea to mention that hey! That guy is off the market.
“Y’can’t date Leorio, he’s spoken for! Besides, there’s plenty of other fish in the school!”
At that point, someone has the graces to cut Griffin off and get him to drink water. He forgets the whole affair by tomorrow, and gaslights himself into thinking Anja must’ve been the one who spilled the tea. After all, word wouldn’t have spread that far after just one party. There’s no other way all of campus could’ve known within three weeks that Leorio Paladiknight is off the table.