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November arrived with the tender falling of the orange leaves and longer nights. The chilly winds that began the previous month evolved to more winter-like weather, bringing beautiful landscapes of gold and ochre that were better enjoyed with a warm cup of a hot beverage and a cozy blanket on one’s lap. But beauty and nostalgia were not the only things that came with the weather; it also meant the arrival of some diseases and common colds. The time of the year when local hospitals saw a rise in workload, not only because of the patients seeking treatment and comfort for their sicknesses, but also because of the endless lines in clinics and vaccination centers, consequences of the countless vaccine campaigns that flooded the radio and TV advertisements seeking to prevent the spread of certain viruses that peaked during the winter season.
Such was Leorio’s duty during the last couple of weeks. He was assigned with a group of nurses and med students to go to different workplaces and schools to provide this necessary service. That day he was supposed to be at the vaccination center set outside the clinic of the hospital where he was doing his practices. A horrible decision, for he would have to work outside in the cold.
Contrary to his belief, there were not a lot of people in line as opposed to the corporates and schools he had been to during the last weeks, where having vaccines up to date was almost mandatory or at least more convenient, since people didn’t have to make time in their agendas to go stand in line at a vaccination center that could or couldn’t be near them.
Just as he was properly discarding the syringe and vial of his last patient, the next one approached.
Blond, average height, devastatingly beautiful.
“Oh, hi! I thought I told you my lunchtime was at three…”
Kurapika was standing in front of him with an unamused look on his face.
“I know. I’m not here for that.”
Leorio raised his eyebrows, wondering what his boyfriend could possibly want from him during working hours.
“Right…” Leorio said when it hit him. “Take a seat.”
Both seemed uncomfortable, although for totally different reasons.
Leorio didn’t find it weird to supply medical care to his friends and boyfriend, but he was more used to diagnosing and treating minor symptoms, providing first aid to unimportant injuries, and—regarding Kurapika—delivering emergency care when needed. Rather than… well, applying vaccines.
Kurapika wasn’t dealing with it any better. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Leorio; he did, with his life. That was the only reason he was there, in that specific vaccination center and that particular line. His awkwardness was due to his aversion to needles and injections in general. He had had injections before, countless times, but more often than not he had been unconscious or too sedated to actually give a fuck. Getting stung voluntarily while completely aware was something else.
The blond took a deep breath as he sat on the plastic chair next to Leorio; his heart pounding fast as his boyfriend cleaned his hands and took a new syringe from a box on top of a nearby table.
“I didn’t think you’d come,” Leorio added, trying to ease the atmosphere a little.
“Me neither, but Senritsu caught a cold the other day, so…”
“Ah! That makes sense. So, influenza?” he asked, opening the case of the corresponding vials.
“Is there any other available?” Kurapika froze, trying to keep it cool, but the uptight look in his eyes gave him away. Although it went unnoticed for Leorio.
The tall man nodded lightheartedly. “Pneumococcal,” he added as he showed the vial to his boyfriend so he could be certain he was getting the right vaccine and check its expiration date. “But that’s more like for children and old people, unless you haven’t got it as a child. Your arm.”
Kurapika raised his eyebrows and blinked a couple of times.
“You do have it, right?” Leorio queried, a bit worried his boyfriend might go around the world unvaccinated.
“Y-yeah…” Kurapika stuttered, taking off his jacket and rolling the left sleeve of his shirt up to his shoulder. “Well… I guess I do…”
Leorio sighed loudly. “Do your people get vaccines, to begin with?”
Kurapika didn’t answer, and that was all Leorio needed to hear.
“Oh my God, Pika!!!” He yelled, flabbergasted. “Have you been going around life like this?!”
“We are a secluded clan! We don’t need vaccines!”
“Yeah! But you’re not secluded anymore! What the hell, Kurapika!?”
“Calm down!” The blond screamed, annoyed. “I did get vaccines, stupid… some of them.” Leorio raised an eyebrow, demanding an explanation. “After I passed the tests to go to the outside world, I was taken to a clinic to get vaccinated.”
“Which ones?”
Kurapika was caught off guard by Leorio’s sudden question and rude tone.
“I don’t know! The important ones.”
“MMR, polio, smallpox, hepatitis, Tdap?”
“Yeah, maybe. I don’t know!”
“Piiiikaaaaaaaa!!!”
“I got a lot in a short period of time, okay??”
Leoro snorted, sending his head back.
He began to think rapidly. Kurapika probably had the usual vaccines mandatory for children; that included the pneumococcal shot. But then again, this particular one was relatively recent, and if his calculations were correct, Kurapika had most likely passed his tests before the vaccine was recommended and regularly applied to children at all.
Well, they were already there. And one could never be too cautious, right?
“Okay, I think it’s better if I apply the pneumococcal as well, you know?”
"Wait, what?”
“It’s for the best, sunshine.” Leorio stated, finally approaching his boyfriend with a cotton filled with alcohol to rub a small section of his upper arm, close to his shoulder; Kurapika shivered. “And later I can take a look at your vaccination card and see what you are missing to schedule the application.”
Kurapika ignored him, not on purpose, but his boyfriend was now holding the syringe between his slender fingers; he preferred not to look in his direction.
“You do have a vaccination card… right?”
“Yeah, somewhere… I guess.”
“Great.”
The moment Leorio approached him, the blond flinched. This time, the quick movement didn’t go unnoticed by him.
“What?”
Kurapika swallowed hard. “It’s… a large needle.”
“It’s standard, actually.”
The blond took a deep breath, turning his face and closing his eyes.
“Okay, get it over with.”
Kurapika took a deep breath once more, squeezing his eyes and visibly tightening his whole body.
“Relax, Pika. If you tense your muscles, it will hurt more, and the needle might not come out.”
“What?!” Kurapika turned suddenly with wide eyes. That was not something a doctor should say to a nervous patient. Leorio would certainly have to work on that.
“Just… relax, okay?”
“I can’t,” Kurapika pouted. “Not after what you just said.”
Leorio sighed; not even the children at the school he was at two days before had given him that much trouble. He crouched to get to his boyfriend’s eye level.
“It will just be a second, alright?” he whispered; the soft tone in his voice was enough to start bringing peace to Kurapika’s mind. That, along with Leorio’s tender look in his eyes, was all the blond needed to stop thinking of needles and pain. “Think of something pretty, like the film we watched last night or what you wanna do on our date on Friday evening.” Kurapika breathed a small laugh. “You could also sing a song.”
Kurapika nodded, breathing slowly to ease his body. He shrugged his arms and started to mumble the first song that came to his mind: the main theme from Law and Order.
Leorio chuckled; if it worked for him, then so be it!
Once he was sure his boyfriend was ready to take the shot, he stood beside him and grabbed his arm, ready to stick the needle inside.
“Ouch!!!!!” Kurapika yelled, a little overdramatic and louder than he intended.
“I haven’t even touched you yet!”
“Why is it taking you so long, Rioleo!!! I’ve been here forever!!”
“Gosh, Pika. You’re worse than toddlers, ya know?”
“Yeah, well, if you would’ve gotten a lifetime of vaccines in the span of a couple of days, you’d be terrified too, I swear,” Kurapika quarreled, visibly annoyed and anxious.
It wasn’t just childish behavior for the sake of it; it was actual aversion to injections. Of course, if a preteen who had never been stung with a needle before suddenly received several shots in a short period of time, then naturally he would develop a certain fear and distress for them. It was already unsettling for the average person; given Kurapika’s experience, it was even worse for him.
“Just do it!”
“I’m trying!”
When the needle finally entered Kurapika’s arm, he let out a small squeak. Leorio tried to work as fast and smoothly as he could, and before the blond could tell, the whole shebang was over.
“You can open your eyes now, sunshine," Leorio said, as he discarded the syringe and vial.
Kurapika let out a long sigh. Until next winter, stupid vaccines.
“Thanks,” the blond added, fixing his sleeve.
“You’re welcome. Now, on to the next one.”
Kurapika jumped from the plastic chair. “No, no, no, no, no…”
“Sunshi—”
“Didn’t you need the vaccination card or some other shit?!”
“Yeah, to schedule the rest, but you’re already here and we have the vials right here as well, so…”
“So nothing!” Kurapika roared. “I’m outta here!”
Leorio grabbed him by the arm and pulled his boyfriend towards him.
“Don’t be like this! It’s for your own good, Kurapika!”
“The hell with it! See if I care!!”
“But I do care!”
Kurapika moaned as he brought his head back in anguish. “Whyyyyyy?????” He complained, pouting like a kid.
Leorio brought him closer to his chest and wrapped his arms around him. Kurapika didn’t move, only stumped his forehead against Leorio’s chest, yet he let himself be pampered by his boyfriend’s gestures.
“I know you hate this, but it really is for the best…” Leorio whispered, laying soft kisses on his boyfriend’s golden strands.
“You keep saying that, but I don’t see it,” the blond mumbled.
“I don’t like the idea of you going around without proper immunological protection. Not to mention you could put others at risk.”
Kurapika raised his head to look at him, pushing Leorio slightly away.
Now, that was different. He might not care about his own health and live a short life avoiding vaccines, but if the well-being of others was at stake, then maybe he should give a second thought to the matter.
“Oh?”
“Yeah! You could begin the apocalypse, you know?” Leorio added with humor.
Kurapika chuckled. “You promise it won’t hurt… too much?” He asked quietly, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend’s waist.
“I’d rather die before causing you any pain, sunshine.”
Kurapika smiled. The injection would hurt what it was meant to, but at least his suffering wouldn’t be prolonged by careless maneuvers; he was in good hands. He stood on his tiptoes to reach his boyfriend’s lips, leaning on Leorio’s shoulders, though the latter still had to bend a bit.
“Okay…” the blond whispered as their foreheads were pressed together.
Kurapika went back to his seat, rolling his sleeve. He started mumbling a song, not the theme from his favorite TV show, but something more peaceful. A lullaby from his youth, one his mother used to sing to him every other night when he had trouble sleeping or just because she felt like it. He squeezed his eyes as he felt the cold alcohol-soaked cotton touching his skin. Then a sharp sensation that caused him to hold his breath, and lastly, Leorio’s soothing voice.
“Done.”
Kurapika opened his eyes slowly, relieved, but also amazed that it had passed so quickly.
Just as he was recovering his breath and putting his jacket back on, Leorio offered him a small bright red lollipop.
“W-what’s this?”
“Your reward,” Leorio answered proudly. “For being a good boy and not crying.”
Kurapika giggled, accepting the little present.
“I’ll be working in the clinic next week if you want me to check your vaccination card.”
The blond pursed his lips, meditating for a bit. “Only if you are the one applying them.”
Leorio smiled. “Of course!”
Kurapika approached him once again to kiss his cheek. “I have to go back to work. See you at lunchtime?”
“Sure.”
Just as he was leaving, Kurapika turned.
“I’ll pass by the clinic on Monday.” Leorio nodded, letting a triumphant sensation expand on his chest. “That is if I can find the wretched card; I have no idea where I left it…”
Leorio’s gaze darkened. What the actual fuck.
“I just hope I didn’t burn it…” the blond added unconcerned.
“KURAAPIKAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!”