Kill, Save, or the second option? (Hunter x Hunter)

Chapter 47 - Pietro

Wanting to finish buying everything on his shopping list, Friday didn't plan to stay in the hospital the whole day. Seeing the puffy-eyed Leorio, Friday planned to bring him along, to cheer him up, away from the dreary hospital.

"Stay here and rest. You have a big surgery tomorrow." Friday waved his hand to Pietro to bid farewell and walked out with the brat.

Initially, Leorio wanted to stay with his friend but thinking how much the man helped them...He decided to go with Friday. ---

Alone in the room, Pietro got up from the bed and walked in front of the window. He wasn't the type of person who would cry in front of someone. Since the spectators were finally gone, he let go of the tears he'd been holding for so long.

...He was just a nine-year-old child trying to be strong.

Pietro wasn't originally a street rat, born in the slums the moment he was out of the womb. Though, where he came from wasn't any better. His biological parents were very poor, with only his father having a job that only pays minimum wage. Though what Pietro could remember, his mother and father were always smiling. They seemed to be a happy and loving couple even though they were living in impoverished conditions.

They loved each other, and they loved him too... Very much.

He could remember his mother praising him enthusiastically as he learned how to sing the alphabet, and his father raising him high in the air when he once showed him a drawn picture of their family. Everything was normal. Everything was good. Everything was exactly what it was supposed to be.

Pietro then learned a valuable lesson that everything doesn't last forever. Everything would change, like the sands on the beach; it would be washed away, replaced with new ones.

It started with a little cough. His parents thought it was just a cold, so they gave him medicine. However, the coughing didn't stop, so they had to go to the hospital for a checkup. When they found out about his condition, they couldn't afford the surgery, so they opted for expensive medicine instead. The medicine doesn't do much, besides temporarily making him feel better, and significantly cutting down their budget.

The perceptive person that he was, Pietro gradually felt that the tension in his family growing day by day, month after month. He could remember that it was difficult to breathe when his mother and father were in the same room. Before he knew it, his parents no longer smiled- Especially, to him.

His mother still loved him- he thought. Even though his mother didn't smile at him often anymore, there was always a flash of worry in her hazel eyes. Though, there were some instances where he felt that his mother hated him. One time, he was coughing so hard and accidentally spilled the medicine on the floor. Good thing his father wasn't there. Though, his mother... She slapped him hard on the face before grabbing his collar and pressing his face on the floor to lick the precious medicine. His mother apologized without looking at his swollen face and didn't talk to him after that.

That night he recalled that he awoke because he heard his parents arguing across the thin walls. Pietro was pretty sure that the neighbors could hear his parents as well.

"We can't do this any longer. We can barely afford our food! We can't keep buying your son that useless medicine! He's going to die anyway!" His father shouted, but in a whispery voice. He was holding back.

"You can't say that about your own child!" His mother, on the other hand, let everything out. It was her voice that probably woke him up that night. He knew that his mother wanted to say, "He'll get better!" But that would be a blatant lie since only the operation would save him.

Then there was silence. The one who broke it was his father.

"...Let's put him up for adoption. Don't be sad. We can have another child. A healthy child. I know you love him. I love him too. We wanted to buy that medicine for him because we didn't want to see him in pain."

His father was basically saying: Out of sight, out of mind.

Pietro wanted it to be just an illusion....That he was just dreaming. However, the stinging feeling in his eyes told him that this was reality.

He believed that his father managed to convince his mother since the next day, his parents didn't hide anything anymore. Their faces were filled with detestation as they looked at him like he was a sinkhole that was eating their money. Well, that was true.

That day, he was no longer their child. That day, Pietro also learned that he no longer had any parents.

They stopped buying him medicine, and eventually, he ended up in the orphanage. His parents cried when they sent him off. Though, Pietro realized that those were tears of joy.

He guessed, his parents didn't love him enough.

His parents didn't send him to a nice orphanage, unfortunately. His parents lied that he was a healthy boy when filling out the papers. When the orphanage knew they had a dying child, they also didn't want to pay for the operation and sent Pietro out to the streets. Pietro was about eight years old at that time.

He met Leorio and became friends with the boy. It was fun hanging out with him. Thinking that he was going to die soon, Pietro wanted to die while having fun with his friend.

He had a dream where he and Leorio were playing with an old soccer ball, passing it to each other with broad smiles. Then suddenly his vision blacked out and he landed on the dusty ground with a thud. Leorio came over with a worried look and held him in his arms. He would die with a peaceful smile since Leorio was crying... Crying tears of sadness, not joy.

Yeah, that was what he thought his life would have been. It would be a short and bitter life. He didn't have any high hopes that anything would change. After all, sands on the beach change, but in the end, the new grains would be all just sand. The beach would still be a beach.

Then a man named Friday came into his life, saving a stranger like him. He thought the man was like any other. He would leave him alone after finding that he was a burden. He kept a close watch on the man's expressions, always expecting it to turn into loathing in any second. However, that didn't happen. Pietro thinks he knows what the mysterious man is thinking, yet at the same time, unable to comprehend it.

After the surgery, he would live, but he doesn't know what to do with his prolonged life. Even though the man said he would not hold the cost against him, Pietro wished that the man did. If the man demanded something from him, then he would know what to do next. His childish mind believed that the man should take responsibility.

Pietro wiped his tears away before stopping. He took a sniff then frowned. The new clothes didn't smell, but that didn't cover up his sickening body odor. He remembered that It has been days since he washed his body.

The boy looked around and spotted a door that led to a bathroom. Since the person was paying for an operation that was worth millions, the hospital gave them a luxurious private room. The bathroom was a decent size with a bathtub equipped.

His body odor was one of the few reasons he didn't accept Friday's hug offer earlier. After pulling his own set of pajamas and underwear out of the shopping bags, Pietro decided to bathe himself before they return. 

---

Author's Note:

I had fun writing his tragic background story. How did I do? Made anyone teary? No? Then I'll make sure to write Friday's background story even sadder. *Insert evil laugh* By the way, I didn't write this in Grammarly this time, so perhaps there might be more grammar mistakes.  And... I'm going on a hiatus~♡ Who knows when I'll be back?  Love you, darling, take care of the child for me. 

---

Pietro: Why did you save me? You're very mysterious. 

Friday: Because I'm a nice guy! Definitely not because I want to change the plot by not letting you die! Heehee. 

Author: Nah, even if the kid is not Pietro, Friday would still save the child. 

---

Thanks for reading and all of the support!