Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Splitting with Gon to journey with his sister had been one of the hardest decisions Killua ever had to make. Gon was his sun – Gon brought fun and joy into his life, a light he never imagined he could have in his world dominated by cruelty and darkness. He couldn't bear to be without him. But Alluka and Nanika were just as important. More important. 

Not a second goes by that Killua doesn't regret leaving Alluka behind with their family when he left to take the Hunter Exam. At first, Killua blamed Illumi's Nen needle for causing him to forget about Alluka, but then, he started to criticize himself. Even if the needle had been there since he was born (quite honestly, he had no memory of when the needle had been implanted) and was constantly manipulating his every thought, to Killua, it was no excuse. The truth still stands that Killua abandoned his precious little sister, condemning her to a life of solitude in a concrete box miles below the earth's surface, while he got a taste of freedom.

He failed her. And Killua hated himself for it.

So much so, that every time Alluka looked up at him with a smile and asked to be praised, a small part of Killua died inside. Killua would think, ‘I left her in the clutches of monsters, and the only thing she wants out of life is to be happy with me.’

And that's why Killua had to part with Gon. Killua needed to make sure that Alluka was able to live. Really live. Killua was not doing this out of personal guilt – no, he was doing this because he wanted his most precious person, Alluka, to have the life she deserves. The life she had been denied. He wanted to give Alluka the same thing Gon gave him, a life worth living.

Killua knew that leaving Gon was the right thing to do. Now that he was responsible for another, that he was someone else’s light, Killua knew he had to be a more stable person emotionally and mentally. He needed to be someone that his sister could rely on for anything. To give her advice in her own dark moments, to support her with all the small things, to actually be able to give her a normal life. Killua knew that his own very fragile mental state would not cut it. And as much as Killua did love him, Gon was really making it worse.

Gon had given Killua the ability to see another life for himself, to realize that there was more to life than the darkness, and that life was worth living. He brought joy and fun to his life of loneliness and destruction. But running parallel to this life-changing journey Gon took him on, Killua started to slowly become more aware that while his first priority was Gon, Gon’s first priority was Gon. That the selfishness that initially inspired him and lit a flame in his heart was also causing Killua to melt.

It was so fucking hard to care so much for someone who did not value you in the same way. Killua wasn’t at all talking about unrequited love, he was talking about realizing that having to watch in silence as someone you care about self-destructs and then not really care about the consequences, was wrong. That someone who was willing to kill themselves for 5 minutes of power to avenge someone he met twice with no thought of the pain it would leave with the people he left behind. On Killua.

That someone who told Killua that he didn’t care at all and then never apologized or realized that those words were more heart-wrenchingly painful than anything Killua’s family had ever put him through.

That Killua had cried over Gon more than he’d ever cried in his entire life. He was pretty sure he hadn’t cried before he met Gon at all.

Killua started to realize that while Gon would forever be his light, he was also irreparably hurting Killua. That this was not okay. That if Killua was going to try to be a person that maybe one day didn’t hate himself, that if he was going to be the guiding light in Alluka and Nanika’s eyes, this was a spiraling cycle of trauma he would need to leave behind. Killua needed to learn how to be his own person outside of Gon.

Killua didn’t need to cut Gon out of his life forever, nor did he want to, but he needed to learn how to exist outside of his current dependency. It very much was not co-dependency. Killua realized that now. The flippant and dismissive, “Oh, sorry!” he received from Gon in response to everything Gon had said and done during the chimera ant raid had been the final nail in the coffin. It was a half hearted throw away apology that held no candle to the actual things Gon was apologizing for. Continuing down this road meant subjecting himself to a lifetime of torture.

Again.

Physical torture he could handle, but emotional torture, coming from someone he actually cared about for once, was fresh and new for Killua, and it left him raw.

If he’s going to be the stable figure in Alluka’s life, Killua had to pull himself together, which he wasn’t sure he could do because he was fairly certain he was just shattered little fragments loosely and limply hung together with tape and scar tissue.

Despite all of this, when Gon and he said their final goodbyes, Killua knew that if he turned around to look at Gon’s retreating form for even a second, he would not be able to hold himself back from running towards him. So he didn't turn around. He hid his tears, and he squeezed Alluka's hand a bit tighter to reassure himself that she was still with him – that he wasn't abandoned and wouldn’t fall back into the rotting pit of darkness. And neither would she.

Killua chuckled to himself when he realized how much his fucked up family had effected his opinions on his own self worth. Killua was to be a tool – the perfect assassin. Killua was to be the heir – a perfect Zoldyck. Killua was supposed to be obedient, detached, cruel, heartless, and emotionless. But he never wanted to be any of those things. Killua wanted to be like Gon. He wanted to be able to truly smile without thinking that he didn't deserve to smile.

He wanted to be happy, but more importantly, he wanted Alluka and Nanika to be happy.

So off they went on a journey to see things Alluka had only ever dreamed of, finally experiencing the world outside of the confines of those four walls. Killua took Alluka to places he read about, explored the world, and catered to Alluka's every whim. Every time Alluka lit up at seeing something new, Killua’s heart started to come alive again. It wasn’t that he was living vicariously through Alluka, Killua was genuinely loving seeing the world for himself. To wander with no restrictions was an expression of freedom he’d never had before.

(They both pretended like they weren't constantly checking over their shoulders, always slightly on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop and Illumi to appear to put a stop to all of this. They ignored that their freedom was conditional, temporary, and only at the allowance of the very thing they were trying to escape, meaning their freedom wasn’t really freedom at all.)

Killua knew that he needed to nurture Alluka’s own independence just as he discovered his. One way he tried to do that was by making the world seem less scary by teaching Alluka how to defend herself. Killua taught Alluka the basics of martial arts and Nen, and refused to teach her any kind of assassination technique. Killua did, however, ensure that even if Nanika was in the driver's seat, she could handle herself equally as well as Alluka could.

Alluka and Nanika wouldn’t have to feel helpless and not in control of themselves ever again. No one could lock her up again because they wouldn’t be able to get her into the room in the first place.

Naturally, Killua taught them Nen to the best of his ability. He admittedly wasn’t a great teacher, his own experiences being relatively quick with teachers as most things did just come easily for him without much explanation, but he tried his best. They discovered that Nanika was a specialist, as expected, but Alluka was a manipulator. Which was unfortunately in line with the trends of their family. She hadn’t decided on a Hatsu yet, and was struggling with reconciling her Nen type as something that could exist outside of controlling people. She didn’t want to be like the rest of their family, especially Illumi. It brought back horrible memories for the both of them.

Control. So much of their lives had been dominated and ruled by control. It was incredibly difficult to imagine herself perpetuating that agenda. Killua rightfully didn’t push her, and told Alluka that they would figure it out together in her own time. That they’d keep searching until she came up with something that was free of control.

Seeing Alluka grow more and more every day, Killua resolved that no one would ever take this life and freedom away from her. Killua would not allow Alluka to be hurt. Killua would take any and all damage meant for Alluka, and he would do so with a smile on his face.

He would die for Alluka.

He would die for Nanika.

He would die for Gon.

He would draw the attacks away from Alluka even if it meant sacrificing an arm, an eye, his life. Any of it, all of it. He would gladly give up if it meant saving Alluka. His resolve had never been greater.

Unbeknownst to Killua, it was at this moment when his resolve firmed that a flame sparked within him.

Killua knew that if Alluka was going to be sticking to the basics of Nen (for now, until they got past the trauma-blocked Hatsu training), he would have to be strong enough to protect both of them. The first problem Killua tackled was his Nen reserve. When Killua had been escaping with Alluka from Kukuroo Mountain, Killua had not been able to use Godspeed for as long as he wanted to, and that ultimately put Alluka in jeopardy. As such, Killua needed to up his Nen reserves so that this would never be a problem again. It wasn’t an improvement that would happen overnight, and it would take a long while before he got his reserves to where he wanted them to be. Sadly, it was one of the few things that being a prodigy wouldn’t give him the easy way out to accomplish.

Killua spent a lot of his training time just meditating and increasing his reserves through the methods Bisky taught him. Sometimes simple training was the best training.

However, during one of his meditations, Killua discovered something... Different about his Nen. It wasn't as though anything had changed within his Nen, nor that it was tampered with, but there was something new that he had never noticed before. Something new. It was weird. It seemed to be akin to a second Nen ability, but it was an entirely different class than his own Nen type.

Strangely enough, it was made of green lightning that behaved like a flame rather than actual lightning. Killua could only come to the conclusion that he was a specialist along the same lines that Kurapika was – he was a transmuter, but when he used the green flame, he was a specialist, just like when Kurapika used his scarlet eyes.

It behaved somewhat oddly though, Killua had noted. The flame's intensity varied directly with his emotions. ‘Great,’ Killua thought while rolling his eyes with a resigned and tired look on his face, ‘I either go from perfect control over my emotions to a fucking bomb on legs. What fun this new Nen will be to learn.’

However, no matter how hard he tried, Killua couldn't use the flames for the basic Nen principles or actually use it for anything. It just sat there, silently laughing at him and making him hyper aware of his emotions. It was the strangest thing because he knew they could manifest externally eventually, and it frustrated Killua to no end.

‘Ugh, this must be what learning Nen is like for normal people. Except this ability just mocks me,’ Killua huffed and ran his fingers through his hair.

‘Well, one thing is for sure, I’m not meditating under a tree for 50 years or whatever that old man did to master his Nen to understand this. I’d just give up on figuring out this whole flame thing and just ignore it if it wasn’t driving me crazy knowing it’s there. It’s making my skin itch every time I feel any degree of emotion! This is my karma for trying to somewhat attempt to go on a journey of emotional stability, isn’t it? Ew. Feelings suck. Why did I do this?’ He glared at the ceiling like it personally offended him.

It did actually, now that he thought about it for another 2 seconds. The crown moulding clashed dramatically with the ceiling color, and who even approved those light fixtures? Were those polka dots?? He’s adding bad architecture design to his growing list of reasons why his original pre-meeting Gon plan of not giving a fuck about anything might have been the better way to go.

Actually, now that he’s been unable to rip his eyes away from it for 5 solid minutes now, the ceiling might actually be genius in an offbeat camp type way. Maybe Killua should look for a shirt like that.

Shit. He’s actually going crazy. Screw these dumb flame things. These flames were solely responsible for like half of his current problems. It’s like the worst Nen covenant deal of all time – we give you: a new power that will be attending the world’s wildest rave every other hour under your skin that you cannot use or turn off. You get: even worse anxiety, just the worst sleep ever, and get this, the feeling of ants all over you all the time. How can you refuse? Killua would like a refund, please.

Maybe the ceiling wasn’t actually that bad–

Okay, yeah, time to call an adult. And by an adult, he means Kurapika.

Killua whipped out his phone and dialed Kurapika’s number. As the phone rang, he hoped Kurapika was in the mood to actually pick up the phone this time. When they last spoke, Kurapika needed recommendations for who to recruit as bodyguards for that baby-prince on that stupidly big whale ship headed to the Dark Continent, or as Killua has affectionately dubbed the birthplace of the Chimera Ants, Hell.

Not his monkey, not his circus.

So Killua did the mature thing and threw Bisky under the bus as quickly as possible and made it not his problem. He even told Kurapika exactly how to deal with her so she’s 100% stuck on that boat now and did not back out. Ha, take that as revenge for beating him up last time and calling it “training,” Bisky!

“Killua?” Killua resisted the urge to dramatically fist pump into the air. It was a miracle, Kurapika actually picked up the phone. “Is this important because–” Killua quickly cut him off before Kurapika could attempt to get out of listening to his problems.

“Kurapika! Thanks for answering. I wanted to run something by you real quick and get your opinion since I think I might be in a similar situation to your weird “I am sometimes a specialist” thing. Except mine developed out of nowhere a few days ago, I have zero idea of what’s happening to me or what it is, and I think it might start eating away at my skin next. Thoughts?” Killua joyfully said with a grin while absentmindedly rolling a piece of his hair in his fingers.

He’s learned now how to deal with Kurapika’s “my problems are more important, so I don’t have time to listen to you” thing. Just steamroll the blonde and provide enough concerning information quickly so the shock jumpstarts his mom friend instincts and causes him to momentarily forget his own issues. Then, Kurapika will be pestering Killua to hear all about it and will then spend more time on it than Killua would have himself. Kurapika’s super helpful and a great friend when you’re able to make him remember that not everyone is tuned in to his 24/7 slow burn revenge drama and trick him into paying attention to you instead.

“What?! Killua, explain now.” Ah, the sweet, sweet sound of victory.

“Well, if you insist.” Killua proceeded to fill Kurapika in on everything he’s observed with this weird flame thing and his inability to mold it. He made sure to go into excruciating detail about everything. This was his Kurapika time, and Killua was going to milk it for all its worth. Hopefully he’ll finally get some answers that will make the lovely lava river under his skin turn off.

After the info dump, Kurapika was silent for a moment on the other end of the phone. “You’re right, it does sound somewhat similar to my emotions in combination with my eyes triggering specialist abilities. Not being able to access it is a problem, however. We can’t learn anymore about it unless you’re able to interact with it in some way, and if things stay as they are now, your body’s situation could get worse. This is potentially very time sensitive.” Kurapika paused, and then almost hesitantly continued, “If it really is like mine, then there is likely a genetic component, meaning that our best lead right now is for you to contact your family.”

Killua clicked his tongue and let out the most dramatic groan of the century. “Tch, and here I thought I wouldn’t actually ever have to contact them again.” Asking his family about anything seemed to be like the worst idea ever given how he left things last time when retrieving Alluka. But Kurapika was right, and his life really could be on the line if they don’t figure this out quickly. “Fineeeeeeeee! I’ll do it, but I’m not happy about it,” he pouted. Damn Kurapika and his logic.

Kurapika, ever the pragmatist, was completely unfazed by his antics, but still tried to console him, “I am sorry, but it seems like that’s the only route to get more information right now. You should also continue meditating and trying to draw it out as well. It might have different conditions than how you currently use and access your main pool of Nen.”

“Are there other ways to access your Nen? What do you mean by that?” Killua questioned.

Kurapika elaborated, “It seems you’ve accidentally hit the trigger to activate it, but you haven’t found the trigger to access the abilities it has yet. In my case, the trigger to access my specialist pool is my eyes going red, but the trigger that activated the specialist abilities in the first place was a specific moment of my overwhelming hatred of the Spiders bubbling to the top for the first time after I had activated my Nen. It’s possible there’s two different activation requirements that need to happen in your case as well.” See? Kurapika can be so insightful when he’s not completely wrapped up in himself.

“I think you’re probably right, it just sucks that I can’t figure this out quickly. I genuinely have no idea what the first trigger was in the first place, how am I going to figure out the second trigger?”

“Given the caveat that my Emperor Time is our only data point, the triggers could be emotional, thought based, or an actual change to your body,” Kurapika tried to comment helpfully.

So it was potentially Killua’s emotional self-betterment improvements he’d been working on. Wow, that's a point against having good mental health.

Kurapika continued, “It’s also possible that it’s something you’ve experienced or done in the past before unlocking your Nen. I had the overwhelming, “vision going red from hatred” moment happen frequently before Nen, and nothing happened. But it was the first time it happened since I awoke my Nen did it serve as my first trigger.”

“As much as that makes sense, I really can’t land on what exactly could have been the trigger for me,” Killua grumbled. “But I can narrow it down a little and say that it was most likely emotional based.”

“You should try to remember exactly what you were thinking about chronologically the day it unlocked.”

“Yeah, I’m trying to, but there were a lot of different things going on in my head that day. I mean, it was an unhelpful amount of things and a lot of different emotions being felt.” Gon, self-hatred, protection, resolve, Gon, his love for Alluka and Nanika, joy, despair, happiness, and so on. Ew, he didn’t want to talk about feelings with Kurapika of all people. Killua didn’t really think that Kurapika was the best person to talk about feelings with given that Kurapika’s own coping mechanism to deal with his emotions was murder. Though, to be fair, he’s not much better himself. “But I get your point. I’ll go through that day again a few more times and see if I can settle on a few of the thoughts or emotions it might have been. Let me think for a second.”

Killua paused, running back through his thoughts again. He tried grouping some of the emotions together to see if there was a pattern or a string of feelings. What was the most extreme? ‘Oh, what if it was the feeling that I was willing to die to protect my sisters? That degree of resolve was a through line that influenced a lot of what I had been thinking.’ Killua’s brow furrowed. ‘How do I say that to Kurapika without it sounding like I was thinking about self-sacrifice?’

Killua took a stab at it, “Maybe, overwhelming resolve? Like a “no matter the cost” mentality, or something.” That didn’t sound too bad.

“Killua,” Kurapika’s voice carried his disappointment, his tone clearly conveying that he picked up on what Killua was explicitly not saying. Killua winced.

“Can we not?” Killua said, trying to preemptively avoid a long scolding.

Kurapika clearly did not want to drop it, but gave in, “Fine,” he said tensely. “Just keep me in the loop with everything, okay? I’m going to do some additional research on my own and get back to you.” See? Now Kurapika’s invested. Killua mentally patted himself on his back. Good job, Killua.

“Yeah, like you can do research on a whale boat in the middle of the ocean. I can’t believe you even have cell service there.”

“You’d be surprised at some of the unique Nen users and phenomena happening on this ship.” Aww look at Kurapika attempting to be mysterious and trying to get Killua invested.

“Lol that sounds like a you and Bisky problem.”

Kurapika released an audible and very tired sigh. “Melody is actually here as well, you know. And Hanzo.”

“Who is– oh, he’s that bald dude from forever ago that was the worst ninja ever, right? That’s so weird he’s there.”

“I– yes.”

“Melody is alright though,” Killua admitted. Melody was good for Kurapika and did a good job at keeping him in check when needed.

“She’s a very good friend,” Kurapika warmly agreed.

“Oh! Alluka says hi. She’s still upset that she didn’t get to meet you after the election. But then you ran away before we could see you again, and now you’re stuck on that boat, so it’s gonna be a while. So right now, Leorio is her favorite. You gotta up your game, Kurapika, you’re like, third to Leorio and second place is empty. Third to Leorio.” Killua shuttered.

“I can see that you’re trying to guilt trip me into feeling bad,” Kurapika sighed.

“Obviously. Is it working?”

“What a kind thing to do to someone who is helping you, Killua.”

“I mean, what are friends for, right?”

“You know,” Kurapika started. Because as much as he tried to deny it and hide it, Kurapika could sometimes be as much of a little shit as Killua, he’s just usually more polite about it. “Leorio is here too, actually. And has been inducted officially as Ging’s replacement in the Zodiacs.”

Killua’s eyes flew wide and nearly dropped the phone. If he had been drinking something, he’s sure it would have been flying everywhere.

“What?!” Killua incredulously shouted.

Kurapika chuckled. “You’re forgetting that he almost won the election to be Chairman of the Hunter Association.”

“I’m sorry, I forgot that qualifications mean nothing anymore to the Hunter elite,” Killua snarkily retorted. “The only way this makes sense is if he was the PR addition to help boost the Zodiac’s image and pacify the public after everything. He’s the mascot of the mascot characters.” Killua laughed at his own joke. “I’m team Leorio for world dictator or whatever because it’s funny. But you have to concede that the only way he joined the Zodiacs was because Leorio is like the first and only Hunter Association’s meme. I bet he wins the next Zodiac popularity poll by a landslide.”

You gotta love that Leorio’s rise to fame, stardom, and political power has single handedly been because literally everyone hates Ging. Very funny. And because Hunters never gather all together like they did during the election nor will they probably ever do that again, this is the actual only inside joke all of the Hunters have.

New Hunter induction steps are as follows:

1. Get your Hunter’s license
2. Learn Nen
3. HaVe YoU hEaRd AbOuT LeOrIo??

Killua would bet that even if Leorio ends up being a terrible doctor, all of the Hunters would still make appointments to see him. The most well known Hunter in the world, everyone, Leorio Paladiknight.

Shit, does that make Leorio cool now? No, of course not.

“Pariston left the Zodiacs as well, so there’s another new member to contend with Leorio in that popularity poll,” Kurapika slyly commented.

“Who is it? I don’t know who could really compete with meme lord Leorio though.” Killua raised an eyebrow.

“Me.”

“Shut up! What the fuck, Kurapika?!” Killua exclaimed.

“Language! You’re only 12-years-old and shouldn’t be saying that.”

“I’m literally 14, Kurapika, and you don’t you dare try to gloss over that bomb you just dropped?!”

“What are friends for?” Damn Kurapika for using his own sarcasm against him.

“So this is just all payback for the guilt trip then?”

Kurapika snorted. “Of course.”

“So you and Leorio are Zodiacs now? For the record, I stand by what I said. Leorio is winning that popularity poll in a landslide. I bet you get like 5th place at best. Damn, do I have to find a way to join now too? There’s no cat, so the snake might fit me. I think I could beat up the snake lady. You two can’t be elites without us, okay? Gon could be…” Killua trailed off, his voice suddenly losing its enthusiasm, “Gon could be the ox. Cuz he’s so stubborn. And rams his head over and over into things and has a one track mind.”

“That does sound like Gon,” Kurapika remarked. Sensing something might be wrong, he carefully said, “Do you want to talk about–”

“No.” Killua quickly shut him down.

“Are you sure–”

“Seriously, drop it, Kurapika.” Killua tensed up. He wasn’t going to talk to Kurapika about feelings he didn’t even want to talk to himself about. “Anyways, don’t die on that ship before my sister gets to meet you, ok?” He was deflecting, but Killua did mean it.

Realizing it was a losing battle once again, Kurapika relented, “Of course, you don’t get to die either before then too, okay?”

“Yeah,” Killua smiled to himself, “Really though, thanks again, Kurapika. I’ll make sure to keep you updated.”

“Thank you for trusting me with this, Killua.”

As touching as this was, Killua couldn’t resist himself, “So I can trust that you’re definitely going to pick up your phone next time I call, right?”

“Goodbye, Killua.”

“Yeah, yeah, bye, talk later.”

Before he even considered the can of worms that was dealing with his family, Killua had something very important to do first. Killua quickly grabbed the video of Leorio punching Ging and opened up his text chain with Leorio.

Killua || Old Man Leorio

Killua: ging-gets-recked.mp4

Killua: lol you punched him so hard you stole his campaign, his kid, and his job

Killua: because I had to hear about the Zodiacs from Kurapika of all people before you, I am making and running a Leorio meme account in retaliation

Killua: I’m giving you a heads up because I’m nice like that and I make sure to tell my friends when I make big career changes

Killua: enjoy the dumb whale boat to hell

Killua: :3

Serves him right. Alluka’s gonna love helping photoshop Leorio doing all sorts of embarrassing things. Killua feels a little better now. Bullying Leorio never fails to raise his spirits.

He still needed some therapy chocolate to mentally prepare himself for having to interact with his family. Killua grabbed the chocolate bar he had stashed in his bag and quickly woofed it down. Gosh, the sacrifices he’s willing to make to not die.

Killua reluctantly pulled up Milluki’s number. As the phone rang, Killua mentally braced himself for the unpleasant conversation that was to come.

“Killua?” Milluki greeted with a groan. Killua smirked to himself. Any displeasure he can cause his family to experience was a win in his book.

“Ah, well if it isn’t my favorite older brother,” Killua commented jokingly, but then grimaced when he realized that it was actually true. Illumi set a ridiculously low bar.

“What do you want?” he asked shortly. Killua winced as he heard the crunching of potato chips through the phone.

“I need you to put gramps on the phone,” Killua stated. Milluki snorted.

“Why would I do that for you? If you really wanted to talk to him, you should just come home already. Mamma cried for hours after you pulled that stunt with it.” Killua gritted his teeth and dug his fingernails into his palm, attempting to keep his anger in check. He’s given up on trying to reason with his family when it comes to Alluka.

“What do you want?” he managed to get out. Milluki smirked.

“I want Greed Island. The actual game this time, not a save file.” Killua let out a breath. Of course Milluki would be fixated on Greed Island after the last time. A steeper price than he was expecting, but doable. Probably.

“Greed Island is worth more than just putting gramps on the phone. You’ll owe me a favor too,” he countered. Killua knew how desperate Milluki was for Greed Island at this point.

“Eh? You’re not in any position to bargain here! If you don’t like it, then why don’t you come back home and ask gramps yourself,” Milluki shouted indignantly.

“Ok, fine, you’ll owe me two favors then. Or we could bump it up to three just to make it more balanced.” If Killua had to deal with his family right now, he was going to make it miserable for them too. That otaku should be grateful he doesn’t demand 20 favors for that game.

“Ok, ok, fine! One favor!”

“Oh, no, that ship sailed, we were at three favors, but now it’s four.”

“Fine!” Milluki grumbled.

“I’ll get it to you through our normal method. Now put gramps on the phone.” Killua made a mental note to get in contact with Tsezguerra. Killua was sure he’d be willing to sell him a copy after everything that happened. Dodgeball binds people together stronger than most trauma does.

“Just get me that game!” Milluki put the phone on mute. God, what a drama queen. Just for that, next time he visits home (which is hopefully never if he has his way) he’s gonna break some of Milluki’s prized figures.

“Killua?” Zeno’s voice came through the phone. Despite being blindsided by him during the chimera ant invasion, Zeno was still at the top of Killua’s admittedly not very competitive list of most liked family members. Aside from Alluka, of course.

“Gramps! It’s been a while,” Killua said with a tinge of a smile.

Zeno chuckled, “Killua, you certainly know exactly how to make Milluki upset.”

“I wouldn’t need to use him as a middle man if you’d just get a cell phone, gramps.”

“What need do I have for a cell phone at this point?” God, he really was a grandpa. Zeno struggling to learn how to use a cell phone would be really funny though. Killua sighed and pivoted the conversation back on track.

“Gramps, I need to ask some questions about the genetic history of Nen specialists in our family,” Killua stated outright. He really wanted this conversation to be as short as possible. He heard an unexpected sigh come from Zeno.

“Oh, so then you must have discovered that then,” Zeno resignedly commented.

“Explain,” Killua demanded and narrowed his eyes. This was gonna be much more of a big deal then he thought, huh?

“Before I was born, my grandfather, Zigg Zoldyck, voyaged to the Dark Continent and kept some things off the official reports. Zigg touched an unknown object there, something happened, and he suddenly found that he had a strange flame-like specialist ability that he couldn’t seem to activate.” Zeno spoke with an air of reverence like this was an honored story and not that his grandpa had the excellent idea of touching mysterious weird shit on the Dark Continent.

“Seriously?” Killua exasperatedly stared at the ceiling and pinched his nose. Damn, what a great family Killua had. They even found ways to fuck up his life from beyond the grave. Screw Zigg and his inability to reign in his impulsive “I just gotta touch it” tendencies.

Zeno, completely ignoring Killua’s irritation, carried on, “Unable to do anything about it, Zigg waited, and eventually, the effects faded but never went completely away. It didn’t end up negatively affecting him at all, it was just there.” Ok that’s great, looks like Killua’s not gonna die. Small mercies. “My father inherited the same thing, but I did not, neither did Silva, nor any of your siblings. I had thought it was gone for good from the family.”

“Clearly not, or else I wouldn’t be paying for Zigg’s idiocy now,” Killua couldn’t help himself from commenting, huffing slightly.

“He was an honored Zoldyck head, Killua.” Killua could hear Zeno’s disappointment through the phone. He was sure his grandpa was shaking his head.

“Yeah, whatever.” A thought occurred to Killua, “We can keep this between ourselves. No need to tell the rest of the family.” He really didn’t need his parents sending out people to try to bring him back home to “monitor his health” or anything like that.

Zeno chuckled, very used to Killua’s gruff demeanor. “Since it’s not going to negatively affect you, I won’t say a thing. This time.”

Great, time to end the call now while he’s ahead. “Thanks, gramps.”

“Of course, Killua.” Seeing that as a socially acceptable place to hang up, Killua hit the “end call” button as quickly as he could.

Killua truly hadn’t been expecting a family lore dump when he called. He was kinda assured that he wasn’t going to spontaneously die now. Probably. Damn, so the only thing to do is just wait until it fades to the background, huh? That sucks. More skin ants for a while then, yay.

The more he thought over his grandfather’s words, he came to a different realization. He was like Alluka now, and his flame was like Nanika – something other that came from the Dark Continent. That actually made him smile. His sisters would be excited to know that they’re more alike now. It almost made the skin ants worth it. Almost.

Wait.

Did that mean that Nanika was somehow related to the flame thing? Did Alluka have a flame too? He’d have to talk to them about this ASAP.

Killua glanced at the clock. 5:16 pm. Wow, he was really stuck on not fun phone calls for 2 hours. Alluka said she was going to be back at the hotel by 7:00 pm. He sent that text he needed to send to Tsezguerra, and was assured that he’d take care of getting Greed Island to Milluki.

Killua sprawled out on the couch. He deserved a nap after all that.

⚡︎ • ──────   /ᐠ - ˕ -マ ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁   ────── • ⚡︎

Killua happily stretched his arms over his head as he laid down on the grass. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Gon beside him before quickly looking away. Killua was satisfied just laying here in silence, basking in the comfort of knowing Gon was there next to him.

And like all good things, it was quickly ruined by Leorio.

Leorio walked up to the pair with heavy loud footsteps, smiled at Killua and said, “Onii-chan.” Wow, Killua hated that. What a disturbing thing for Leorio to say.

“Onii-chan.”

Killua jolted awake, now realizing it was Alluka calling out to him while lightly shaking his shoulder. Killua rubbed his eyes, still disoriented and blinking awake. He hasn’t slept that deeply in a long time. Normally, he’s able to still be relatively aware of his surroundings and able to wake up at a moment’s notice. Today’s emotional rollercoaster must have affected him more than he thought. He did feel a lot better though.

“You must have been really tired, onii-chan,” Alluka observed as she patted his fluffy hair. “You weren’t stressing out because I was gone, right?” she said with a tinge of worry, hoping that it hadn’t been affecting him.

This was a relatively new development. Now that he was sure Alluka could handle herself if anything happened, Killua thought it was perfectly fine if Alluka wanted to go on day-trips and errands by herself. Killua desperately did not want to be smothering Alluka or make her think that she didn’t have her own independence and agency. Killua didn’t control her. But most importantly, he wanted to make sure that Alluka knew he trusted her and wanted Alluka to build up more trust in herself.

Alluka had been thriving in her new independent “alone” time. She was enjoying the light socialization with the townspeople and exploring the marketplaces on her own. The world was very different without Killua there, and while she was alone, Alluka found she didn’t mind this kind of silence. The twins had figured out that if they got a medical mask and sunglasses, Nanika could walk around and no one would think there was anything off about her. Nanika was overjoyed, and loved being able to walk around in the driver seat more often. Today, Alluka packed herself a picnic lunch and hiked to a very pretty flower field she’d heard about from a local to take pictures of.

Alluka had picked up photography as a hobby. She didn’t want to forget anything on this journey and wanted to remember everything in crystal clarity. Being isolated for so long made her want to preserve every new experience she had. Alluka had quite the eye for it if she did say so herself. She enjoyed taking pictures of Killua and nature the most.

Alluka was still very determined to catch Killua’s embarrassed flushed face on camera. She hadn’t been able to yet, but it would be the crown jewel of her “The Many Faces of Killua” collection. Alluka wouldn’t tell Killua this, but she had started taking photos of Killua to prove to him that he had emotions and was allowed to feel them. Alluka might not know how to read people all that well yet, but she knew Killua. She knew her brother struggled with self-worth, and this was her way of assuring him that he was human just as much as she or anyone else was. She knew that every time Killua glanced at an emotive photo of himself or one of the two of them together, his eyes lightened a little bit, and looked just a little less like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Nanika enjoyed photography just as much, but was much more avant-garde when she got her hands on the camera. Or she’d just take 20 pictures of a single ant, valiantly determined to document the ant’s journey to lug a leaf back home. Or taking pictures of people in crisis and emotional distress. Nanika had this very lovely set of photos of people hunched over with their elbows on their knees and head in their hands. She would squat down in front of them and try to get as much of their face as she could in the frame. Nanika was able to find at least one person like this in every place they went to. She dubbed the collection, “Universal Despair."

Killua was very proud of her, and thought that Nanika should submit it to an art gallery. Nanika wanted to do that eventually, but it wasn’t ready yet, and she’d only submit it if Alluka was done with her collection as well so they could submit together. It was only fitting if their collections were displayed side by side. Nanika and Alluka also thought it would be funny if they had a bunch of photos of dramatic and embarrassed Killua next to pictures of people on the brink of a mental breakdown. The contrast would make each of their collections more impactful.

“I wasn’t stressed out about you.” Killua shook his head and smiled softly. He wanted to assure her that he had no regrets about her solo-roaming time. “Actually, I was stressed out about literally everything except for you today. Thanks for being the least stressful thing about my day!” He cheekily poked Alluka in the side. Alluka puffed up her cheeks and swatted Killua’s hand away. “How was your hike? Did you get any good pictures this time?”

Alluka immediately brightened and whipped out her camera. She started clicking through the gallery excitedly. “It was so great! The locals were right, the flowers there were so pretty in bloom! Look!” She shoved the camera in Killua’s face. He leaned back slightly, and looked at the picture Alluka proudly displayed.

She had gotten a beautiful shot of a giant field of multicolored tulips swaying in the wind against a sunset sky. It was a gorgeous photo, and there would have been nothing weird about it except for the fact that the foreground and main subject of the photo displayed the ugliest looking two headed frog he’d ever seen. The heads were stacked on top of each other at a weird angle. One was upside down. It had two extra hands on its head held up to the sky like antennae. It looked like the unholy love child of a radioactive mistake and a decaying corpse.

It was awesome.

“Woahhh!! That’s so cool! How did you even get it to sit still for the photo?” Killua’s eyes lit up in wonder.

“Zetsu makes me the best nature photographer,” Alluka grinned with pride, “I dub this photo, “Beauty and the Beast.” But check this next one out.” Alluka turned the camera away and clicked through the gallery once more. “Since I was fully hidden with Zetsu, I set the camera to a timer and approached the frog silently and then released Zetsu and poked it with a stick at the same moment. It jumped up in surprise, and I got the BEST photo from it.”

She turned the camera back to Killua once more. It was the same shot composition, but this time, the frog was in the air, fully body extended but contorted and twisted at a weird angle that didn’t seem comfortable, and the most alarmed expression on its faces. One face looked like it was screaming with huge wide bulging eyes like it had seen a ghost, and the other looked like it had just found out that Alluka had stolen its first born child.

“Holy shit, Alluka, this might be your best work yet. This is incredible. We need to frame this,” Killua said in genuine wonder and appreciation. Damn, Alluka really knocked demented surrealism out of the park.

If it was possible, Alluka’s smile got even wider, glowing from her brother’s praise. “Oh, and Nanika got another photo for “Universal Despair.” This one was quite good, too.” Alluka clicked to the right photo and showed Killua once more. “She managed to find a guy who just found out that his son wasn’t really his biological son, and that his wife of 20 years had been lying to him and cheating on him the whole time. Nanika thinks they’re getting a divorce now.” The photo captured the moment perfectly.

“Damn, that guy’s expression really screams “my life is a lie.” You’ve got such a great eye for singling out these people and taking the picture at just the right moment. Excellent job, Nanika!” His sisters were both so talented.

“Nanika says that she’s happy you praised her and that she also really likes this picture,” Alluka relayed, then put her camera down and dug into her bag. She settled down on the couch beside Killua. “I brought us dinner!” She pulled out two take out boxes with silverware and handed one to Killua. “It’s from that place you liked a lot last time.”

“You’re the best! I’m starving!” Killua excitedly dug into the food. After a few bites, Killua figured it was as good of a time as any to bring up his findings for the day. “Soooooo, you know how I have the whole skin ants thing I mentioned feeling?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, after some investigation I did today, I can safely say that the weird secondary Nen flame thing it’s not going to kill me!”

Alluka choked on her food. “W-what? There was a chance it could have killed you?!” Her concern quickly shifted to anger, “Nen flame? You only told me about the skin ants! Why didn’t you tell me you were that concerned about it and that there was a chance it would kill you?” Alluka stared down Killua with furious eyes.

“I didn’t want to worry you unnecessarily before I had all the facts of what was happening,” Killua tried to justify his reasoning, but Alluka wasn’t having that.

“You can’t just not tell me when things just because they’re dangerous, Killua.” Oh no, she dropped the “Onii-chan” while she’s still Alluka in control, not good. “Nanika is furious as well.”

“It wasn’t a big deal!”

“Your life is a big deal to me!” Alluka screamed, eyes alight with worry and anger. Killua got quiet, unsure of how to respond.

“I’m sorry. I’ll be sure to tell you the next time something is a concern,” Killua softly apologized.

Alluka leveled him with a long hard look. “Good, you better. You can’t not tell me things.”

“I know, I’m sorry. But I am trying to tell you now.” Killua gave Alluka’s hand a squeeze before going back to his food. “I was able to talk to Kurapika today, and I have a better idea of what’s going on now. It was cute, I think he cares about this more than I do.”

Alluka huffed and mumbled into her food, “Of course everyone cares about it more than you.”

Killua chose to ignore that, and continued, “We think it is similar to how his Emperor Time functions, but the only difference is that I have no idea what triggered the fire to unlock in the first place, and no clue what the trigger would be to be able to use it. Kurapika suggested there might be a genetic factor, so I called home today and talked to Gramps too.”

“Onii-chan–” Killua waved off her concern and interrupted her.

“It was fine. Turns out we have an idiot back in our family tree who went to the Dark Continent, stupidly touched some magic rocks, and unlocked this fire thing too. It never did anything to him, and just dimmed down over time. It appeared a few other times in our family, but never did anything, just this strange thing that was silently there.” Killua looked Alluka in the eye and smiled. “Since we know it’s benign, I thought you and Nanika might be happy to know that I have something “other” from the Dark Continent inside me too now.”

Alluka’s eyes widened in shock. She was silent for a moment before her eyes started to water. “Nanika and I are very happy.” It wasn’t the same situation as her, not by a long shot, but it made her feel a little less different, and loved that it was something she could share with her brother. Sensing that Nanika wanted to say something, she easily let her take over.

Nanika’s wide black eyes still wet with tears stared lovingly at Killua with a wobbling smile. “Nanika didn’t know Killua had fire too. You’ve been hiding. Nanika loves Killua and Killua’s fire.” Nanika’s speech patterns had improved over the years. Turns out being around other people and not isolated in a box will make your vocabulary better. But she still has a long way to go.

“Nanika, what do you mean “too”?” he asked, startled.

“Alluka has flames too, always had. Like you, from blood. Nanika woke them up by accident when we were born. Now Killua not hiding, Nanika can see. Alluka’s are purple, Killua’s are green.” Nanika patted her own head. “Sorry for Nanika not telling Alluka,” she apologized to her twin, the head pats had been directed at Alluka, “Nanika didn’t know Alluka didn’t know. Always been there.”

“So because you’re used to it since birth, you don’t have to deal with the skin ants? Lucky,” Killua groaned and threw his head back over the couch.

Nanika laughed, “Killua silly. No ants in Alluka, only Nanika. Nanika is not ant.” Nanika still struggled with metaphors sometimes and would often take things literally, but it was so cute that Killua didn’t fully have the heart to correct her every time or fully commit to teaching her otherwise.

“You’re wayyyyy better than an ant! Ants are terrible! Alluka is so lucky to have you while I have the skin ants,” he gagged. Ever since his lovely experience with chimera ants, he’s had a little bit of a hatred towards regular ants. Just bad memories.

“Alluka says that Killua is dramatic and an idiot.” Nanika hesitated, “Nanika does not think Killua is an idiot. Only Alluka.” Killua could practically hear Alluka shouting, “Betrayal!!” from inside. “Nanika loves Killua, but Killua is dramatic, yes.” Nanika chuckled.

“Now you’re both ganging up on me. That’s not fair! My ants can’t help defend me,” Killua countered, but Nanika just laughed harder. “I mean, someone has to know more about this flame thing, right? I just wish we could go somewhere where I could finally get this under control so that I don’t go insane from the skin bugs.”

Nanika peered at Killua curiously before nodding in understanding. “Aye!”

Nanika’s eyes started to glow.

Killua immediately went onto high alert and reached for his sister. “Wait, Nanika–”

The bright white light enveloped everything, and suddenly, they were no longer in their hotel room, and instead were in an alleyway still clutching their take out food boxes. Their bags landed, clattering to the floor a few feet away from them.

Killua quickly scanned Nanika for any injuries then checked himself. They were both fine. That really scared him. He let out the breath he was holding in.

Killua leveled a half-hearted glare at Nanika while brushing the dirt off of him. “Nanika, we really have to do better at teaching you sarcasm,” he bluntly said.

“Nanika does not know what Killua means.” Nanika refused to make eye contact. Killua narrowed his eyes with suspicion. That guilty little shit. She knew what she was doing.

“Right, because Nanika is perfect and knows everything,” Killua sarcastically taunted.

Nanika literally sparkled and smiled earnestly, “Yes! Yes! Nanika is perfect and knows everything. See? Killua is not idiot, Killua is very smart.”

Killua rolled his eyes. He really needed to stop using sarcasm around Nanika. She liked to pick and choose what she took literally, it was always a toss up.

“Sure, Nanika. Soooo now that you’ve worked your magic and brought us somewhere, care to tell us where you’ve taken us and why it couldn’t have waited until after dinner?” Killua needled. Damn colloquialisms making “I wish” a casual comment!

It wasn’t the first time Nanika had decided to use her power of her own accord while “blaming” the wish on Killua. But usually, it was on a much smaller scale. Acting on things like, “I wish I had more chocolate right now” or “I wish we could jump to the front of this line” or “I wish they had this shirt in my size.” Nanika was cheeky and thought it was funny. If Nanika had to stop making requests like Killua had asked, she could stretch her legs and use her powers once and a while to get the double effect of annoying and helping Killua.

“In the flame place like Killua asked so Killua doesn’t scratch off his arms from skin ants! Nanika did very good. Killua now give Nanika praise and head pats.” Nanika held her arms open wide asking for a hug.

“Nanika, what made you think this was a good idea…” Killua started but trailed off when Nanika made a noise of discontent and further wiggled her arms in the air asking for a hug. Not being able to deny Nanika or Alluka much, he caved and gave her a hug much to Nanika’s satisfaction.

“Now head pats,” Nanika demanded. Killua relented and gave her head pats. “And tell Nanika that Nanika did a good job,” she pressed. Nanika was a little manipulator through and through. Damn, his personality rubbed off on her a little too well.

“Yes, Nanika did a good job. So where are we?” he tried to question again. Nanika grunted indignantly and headbutted Killua’s chest while in the hug.

“Nanika already said that we are at the flame place. Nanika cannot be expected to know geography. Nanika is more powerful than geography. Geography bows to Nanika,” Nanika frustratedly explained once again.

Killua raised an eyebrow. “I thought Nanika was perfect and knew everything.” Nanika pulled away from the hug and crossed her arms.

“Nanika is perfect and does know everything,” she insisted.

“Does everything not include geography?” Killua teased. Nanika stuck her tongue out at him.

If Killua wasn’t going to appreciate her good work, then she was going to leave! She’ll come back later once Killua realizes just how good of a job Nanika did. And with that, Alluka took back over.

“Do you have any idea where she’s taken us, Alluka?” Killua tried again while putting on his trusty six strap backpack.

“I don’t see all of Nanika’s thoughts, onii-chan. I’m just in the dark as you are. But I can tell you that Nanika is pretty upset that you don’t understand her supposed genius of this teleportation.” Alluka glanced around the alleyway with disdain as she bent over and grabbed her own backpack. “I’m usually on Nanika’s side, but couldn’t she have made our landing zone a little cleaner?”

“Want to go explore and figure out where we are?” Killua asked with a grin. “Might as well enjoy the mystery.” Really, this wasn’t any different than anything else they’ve done with traveling together.

Alluka matched his grin and held up her camera. “I’ve got my camera out already. Let’s go find some weird stuff.”

⚡︎ • ────  ᓚ₍⑅^.‸.^₎📸  ᓚ₍ ^. ‸.^₎ﾉ🔪  ──── • ⚡︎

Immediately after stepping out of the alley, Killua knew that this wasn’t somewhere he’d been before. It vaguely reminded him of York New city, but it was so much cleaner. Lots of things had little mascot characters, and there was technology he’d never seen before like giant TV screens that covered the whole side of buildings! So cool!

But the biggest thing that tipped them off was that the language was different here. Thankfully, the spoken language was the same, but the written language wasn’t. It wasn’t too bad, he could fake being able to read enough to make it seem not suspicious.

If the language was different, then the money was probably different too. Killua quickly pickpocketed a few people, only taking a few bills from each person. He wanted to make sure they had some money to work with. As he walked by a vending machine, which was noticeably so much more advanced than the ones he’d been used to seeing, Killua noted that the cost for a bottle of water was labeled as ¥150. He wasn’t sure what the currency name was yet, but if a bottle of water cost 150 of them, it meant that the scale of money was proportional to Jenny, as a water bottle from a vending machine back home would be around 150 Jenny as well. That was one less thing to worry about.

“Onii-chan!” Alluka excitedly gestured to a shop that seemed to sell merchandise for some of the mascot characters she’d seen before. She grabbed his sleeve and pulled him in. Alluka was overwhelmed with the level of cuteness of these characters. Her eye gravitated to a white cat-like character with a black hood and a devil tail. Alluka held up the keychain version and snorted. “Look, it’s you, onii-chan.”

Killua laughed and gestured to two other white cat characters that were very similar, one with a red bow, and one with a yellow bow. “Then these two are you and Nanika.”

Alluka agreed and eagerly grabbed the three keychains. She walked to the front of the store. She didn’t even bother to think about the money, Alluka had already assumed Killua had swiped some. Alluka fell just a little bit in love with these cute characters. They matched them so perfectly!! She’s putting these on her backpack as soon as she leaves the store and making Killua put the one she got him on his bag as well.

The sales clerk behind the counter was a kind looking middle aged woman who had a big button of one of the characters pinned to her work apron. “Did you find everything you were looking for?” she asked.

"Yes." Alluka put the keychains down on the counter. “I’ll take these three keychains please.” The clerk began checking them out, and Killua readily handed over the necessary cash.

Killua asked, “Hey, do you have any maps around here that we could look at? We’re trying to plan where we want to go next, and our phones aren’t working.” Which was true.

“Sure, we’ve actually got some Hello Kitty themed maps.” She grabbed one from a stand and handed it to Killua.

He unfurled it. One side had a map of the city, and one side had what seemed to be a larger map of what looked like an island. So this city is on this island. Killua saw there was another map next to the one the clerk had taken off the shelf, this one branded with a different character, and pulled one off the shelf. When he opened this one, Killua only needed to glance at it for a moment before he realized he needed to buy these maps fast and leave the store as soon as possible.

“Hey, I’ll get these two maps too. Thank you!” Killua handed over the money, grabbed Alluka’s hand, and led her out of the shop. He quickly brought them to a street bench on a street with no one walking down it. He opened the map again. “Alluka, look at this! This is a world map!”

Alluka looked down at the map. The shapes of the continents were somewhat recognizable, but their orientation was all wrong. They were twisted, rotated, flipped, or upside down. It was like they were all scrambled up. This wasn’t the world map they knew. The little cute character in the corner holding a small globe now seemed oddly smug to her.

Killua whistled, “Nanika was right, she did make geography her bitch.”

Alluka could distinctly hear Nanika haughtily announce in her head, “See, Alluka? Killua understands now. Nanika is more powerful than geography. Geography bows to Nanika. Nanika is perfect and knows everything. Nanika wants apology head pats.”

“Nanika wants apology head pats, onii-chan,” Alluka relayed.

“Yeah, she’ll get them later. Sorry for doubting you, Nanika,” Killua apologized, his eyes never leaving the map, “It has to be connected to the Dark Continent somehow, right? Because that’s where our dumb ancestor got the flames things. And Nanika said this was the flame place.” As Killua’s eyes wandered around the map, he made a mental note to learn the written language as quickly as possible. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think we might be in a parallel world, or a parallel dimension, or something. Maybe the flame things were never supposed to be in the Dark Continent in the first place, and some Nen ability summoned it from here? How would we even get back?”

Alluka was still processing everything, but one thought rang true to her and blurted it out before she could stop herself, “Does it matter?”

Killua tore his eyes away from the map and looked up at her. “What do you mean?”

“Does it matter if we’re in a different world? Does it matter that we find a way back?” she clarified. Alluka’s confidence grew as she spoke and cemented her thoughts, “I mean, I know I should be worried to some degree, but I’m really not. All I’m hearing is that this is somewhere where Illumi– where our family can never reach us.”

Killua’s eyes sparkled as he picked up on what she meant. “We’re actually free here.” For real this time. No more looking over their shoulder worried that Illumi could be there. No more assassin clan head expectations. They could actually thrive here and really live their own lives.

“The more I think about it, the more it seems like just another part of our journey for us. We wouldn’t be doing anything different, just more exploring and seeing places we’ve never been before. But this time, we have the whole world to explore,” Alluka continued, getting more excited about the prospects.

Killua’s excitement had been growing too as he listened to Alluka voice her opinion. But it suddenly dampened down when he realized another implication of what this meant. If his family couldn’t get to him, then neither could Gon. Killua had always imagined that he’d eventually have Gon back in his life again in some capacity. Killua might have been coming to terms with the need for their separation, but he didn’t ever expect there’d be something this final so soon.

In this moment, Killua realized that for all his talk of letting go, he had always been holding onto the “later” and “some day” when it came to his relationship with Gon.

This would be final. It would be the conclusion of their story together.

Killua didn’t know if he was ready for that. But it didn’t really seem like it was up to him anymore. He shouldn’t be thinking this way right now. He already had told himself many times that he was okay with leaving Gon to be with his sister. That it was the right thing to do. That it wasn’t healthy for himself. It really wasn’t.

Killua already made his decision, so why did it feel like the wound was still raw?

‘Oh,’ Alluka realized, watching as sorrow marred Killua’s face, ‘he must be thinking about Gon.’ That was probably the one thing that would tether Killua back and make his heart torn about this decision. Alluka could say something along the lines of, “If Nanika brought us here, I’m sure she could take us back.” but she didn’t have the heart to say it out loud. Alluka could already safely admit to herself that she’d spent all of 1 hour in this world and never wanted to leave. It was perfect. They had cute things and Illumi wasn’t here. Their family wasn’t here. They’d never be able to get here. And Killua was with her. It was practically paradise. Nanika agreed, “See? This place is the best. Nanika does not want to leave either. Nanika is the best.”

‘Yes,’ Alluka easily admitted, ‘Nanika is the best.’

Alluka had no intentions of going back. She wanted to stay here permanently, and because she knew that her brother would never leave without her, it meant that he would be staying here too. Alluka couldn’t break her brother’s heart by putting the idea of potentially leaving one day in his head and then never acting on it. Killua was the only person she had, and she loved him dearly. Because she was choosing to be selfish, Alluka was going to do Killua the courtesy of ripping the band-aid off, valuing his long term happiness over preserving a false hope that would never come to be.

Alluka knew Killua. She knew what would happen if she put that idea in his head. He would waste his life. He wouldn’t make roots, wouldn’t make friends, wouldn’t live life if he knew that none of it would matter and he’d leave everything behind one day, rendering it useless. He’d think it would be better to have not cared then to have cared at all if it was going to end in inevitable heartbreak. He wouldn’t let himself get attached or too invested if he knew it was short term. She couldn’t let Killua put a pause on living his life, instead forever waiting for something that would never happen. Alluka loved Killua too much to do that to him.

She was sure this was the better choice. The happier choice. But it still hurt her that she was hurting him by making this choice.

Alluka was certain Killua had also realized that if Nanika brought them here, she could take them back. She was certain Killua understood what her silence on the matter and not trying to comfort him meant.

“When did you get so smart, Alluka?” Killua smiled, but his eyes didn’t match his words and were clouded with sadness. He quickly blinked back the tears threatening to emerge before Alluka could see them. “You’re right, this is great! Who cares?”

              🌍
⚡︎ • ─────  ᓚ₍⑅^｡‸｡^₎ﾉﾉ   🗑️  ───── • ⚡︎

The siblings eventually learned that they ended up in a place called Tokyo, Japan. For the next month, they roamed Japan while learning the written language. Alluka thought Kanji was stupid, why did they need three different sub writing systems for their single language? Killua had picked it up easier than he’d expected, because of course he did. Alluka couldn’t fault Killua for being a prodigy at most things, but boy did it make her envious sometimes! She wanted a cheat code sometimes too!

Wait. “Hey, Nanika, if Killua wished for it, can you make it so that I know written Japanese?”

“Nanika does not want to. Suffer.” Alluka wanted to scream. It was so not fair!

They also had this weird custom where they put their last name first and their given name second. Something about how addressing someone by their first name was very intimate and signaled that you were very close with that person, so you needed to be polite and call them by their last name. It didn’t make sense to her. Why would anyone want to be known by their last name? No, she was not biased.

Okay, she was a little biased. She liked being known as Alluka, it emphasized her being an individual. That she was a person. That she wasn’t one of many. She was herself. She also didn’t want to walk around with everyone calling her “Zoldyck.” Killua had felt the same on the matter, and they decided to just ignore the custom and introduce themselves only with their first name so they wouldn’t have a last name to default to.

But Alluka really did like Japan. She especially loved the rich history and the shrines that scattered the landscape. Alluka found that she fit right in at shrines, her go-to outfit mirrored some of the traditional shrine maiden robes. They were so cute! She loved traditional Japanese fashion. She eyed her brother from the corner of her eye. If only she could convince him to wear something better than his usual style. Maybe she’ll get lucky and he’ll let her put him in a kimono one day. She could only dream.

As she continued to day dream about fashion, she wasn’t watching her footing, and tripped over a big book that was left in the middle of the path.

“Oh no, I’m so sorry, are you okay?” A voice questioned her. Alluka looked up. Her eyes locked onto soft brown eyes. The prettiest, kindest eyes she’d ever seen. And they were looking at her. They were concerned for her.

What even happened? Who cares?

She just wanted to keep looking at this extremely beautiful boy.

Ba-dum.

The boy extended a hand out to her to help her up. Alluka took it without thinking about it. “Lambo kicked my book again and it ended up over here, I’m so sorry! Are you blah blah blah blah blah, blah…” Alluka’s brain had yet to catch up on what was happening, let alone be able to focus on what this boy was saying, she was still stuck staring into this boy’s eyes.

‘His eyes are so pretty. Oh my god, he’s such a gentleman, he helped me up.’

“Nanika thinks so too!”

‘He’s so cute!’

Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

Alluka’s vision tunneled. The whole world blurred around her, going dark and gray around this boy who stood unflinchingly in the darkness like a beacon of light painted in warm inviting colors.

He was actually sparkling, right? Right? Is he an angel?!

Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

Her heart was beating so fast, Alluka almost thought she was having a heart attack.

‘Nanika, what do I do? He’s too cute! I can’t handle it!’

“Nanika doesn’t know!”

Is- is this what she thought it was?! She’s never thought about another person like this before. Her heart was beating so wildly, and she was sure her face was bright red.

“Alluka?” She snapped her head towards Killua, who had a knowing look, blue eyes alight with mischief, and a teasing grin stretched wide across his face. He looked like he was one step away from laughing hysterically and was enjoying this immensely. “He asked you a question.” Killua gestured to the so incredibly adorable boy in front of her.

Alluka’s eyes met the boy’s once more. She felt like she had been waiting her whole life for this moment. It was like she had been swimming upstream, treading water, and trying not to drown her entire life, but never realized it until this moment when that feeling was suddenly gone. Her whole world shifted, heart ablaze with this new realization. Everything she cared about shifted and re-ordered themselves in priority in her head.

A new cardinal guiding truth made itself known to Alluka for the first time.

‘Oh,’ she thought, her head still feeling like it was in the clouds and her heart lighter than it had ever been before, ‘I understand now.’ Something had awoken inside of her, and it was like a switch flipped.

Alluka smiled, “I’m so sorry, I’m still a bit disoriented from falling.” Alluka purposefully stumbled into the boy, looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes, and grabbed the boy's hands with hers. “Would you hold my hands to make sure I don’t fall again?”

‘This is love at first sight.’

“Nanika likes the cute boy too!”

Killua’s jaw dropped, eyes wide, unable to believe what he was seeing. Whom the fuck was this?!

A bright red blush exploded across the brown haired boy’s face. He struggled to make eye contact with Alluka, his eyes darting everywhere but her face, clearly overwhelmed and nervous, but he didn’t try to take his hands away. “S-sure! I mean– um, If you’re not feeling good, I’ll make sure you don’t fall again!”

Alluka grabbed onto his arm and pulled it close to her chest, causing the boy to somehow get even more red. “Thank you so much! You’re so kind.” Alluka used her free hand to interlock their fingers together with the arm she had trapped. “I’m so sorry, I missed the question you asked before, what was it?”

“I– I– um– what was it?” The boy stuttered out, his mind still skipping while trying to process this new situation.

“I don’t know, that’s what I’m asking you, silly!” Alluka teased coquettishly. “My name is Zoldyck Alluka. But since you saved me, you should call me by my given name, Alluka. What’s your name?”

‘Oh my god,’ Killua blanched, ‘I did not sit through her ranting several times about how the whole last name first custom was stupid just for her to throw it out the window immediately! Did- did she do it JUST to make it seem more intimate that she’s asking him to use her given name?!’ Killua watched on incredulously. Alluka is really out here using knowledge for evil to torture her poor brother.

“I- I- I’m F-Futa della Stella.” Futa tripped over his words and struggled not to drop his book that was held tightly in his other hand.

“Oh, that doesn’t sound Japanese. I’m not Japanese either, so we have that in common. So then, I’ll call you Futa, okay?” Killua swore that Alluka literally sparkled.

“A-ah, o-okay.” Futa shyly met Alluka’s gaze with a smile.

Alluka giggled.

Alluka giggled. Killua had never heard that sound come out of her mouth before.

‘What the fuck is happening?!’ Killua screamed in his mind, his face stuck in horrid disbelief, still locked into that expression from sheer shock, while his eye violently twitched. It seemed like it didn’t matter that he looked like a frozen deranged manakin because neither Alluka nor Futa had actually acknowledged Killua’s existence, firmly trapped in their own bubble of whatever teen romance bullshit this was.

Don’t get him wrong, Alluka having a crush was not the problem here. He was actually excited to be the cool, supportive older brother. While he could go all over-protective, this is actually all Killua ever wanted for Alluka – to have the opportunity to do normal things and have connections with people outside of himself. He’s actually overjoyed that she’s interested in someone.

What Killua didn’t understand was Alluka’s instant transformation into this smooth-talking, suave, giggling girl?

Is Alluka possessed? Bad choice of words. Is Alluka more possessed than usual?

Killua cursed, swearing that this was somehow Bisky’s fault. Yeah, she’s not allowed to hang out with Bisky again. No way she and Alluka had been “training” like Bisky claimed.

While Killua was busy having an internal panic attack, Alluka had no such problems and kept her conversation going.

“So if you’re not from Japan, where are you originally from, Futa?”

Futa timidly met her gaze. “Italy,” he answered.

“Oh, I love Italy! I’ve always wanted to go,” Alluka replied without hesitation.

Killua was undeniably certain that Alluka knew nothing about Italy, where it was located in the world, or even knew what Italy was in the first place. He was pretty sure this was the first time Alluka had even heard the word “Italy.” Nanika was staunchly ani-geography after all.

“Where are you from, Alluka?” Futa seemed to have gained some of his footing back because this was the first question he’d asked her.

That was something Killua had looked into. The Republic of Padokea didn’t exist here. While they didn’t need to develop an extensive backstory, instead choosing to try to live as close to the truth as they could, after being repeatedly hounded about where they were from, they clued into the fact that foreigners in Japan were a relatively big deal. Killua decided it would be best to pick a place they would be “from” so they could shut down those questions. Nanika had been incredibly not helpful with deciding this part of their backstory. “It doesn’t matter,” Nanika had insisted petulantly, ignoring all of Killua’s carefully laid out logic. Alluka didn’t really care as well, so like most things, it fell on Killua’s shoulders to be proactive and make a decision before it bit them in the ass.

Because the continent shapes were relatively identical, Killua figured out that the Republic of Padokea was in the same place as several countries in this world’s continent of Africa. Kukuroo Mountain specifically would have been located in Algeria. Killua was at a little bit of an impasse – the siblings didn’t know the language of any place other than Japan, and they didn’t know the culture of any of the rest of the world. Thus, no matter where Killua picked to say they were from, it wasn’t like they were going to be able to say anything about the country that would actually reflect the correct degree of knowledge someone should have about their home country. He figured Algeria was as good of a place as any, at least they could quickly point to it on a map if asked, and decided to go with that.

“We’re from Algeria, but we moved around a lot and haven’t been back in a really long time. I like to think we’re from everywhere,” Alluka chirped happily, sounding far more worldly than she had any right to.

‘I’m from everywhere,’ Killua mocked in his head, utilizing his best Alluka impression for his audience of no one, ‘YOU CAN’T EVEN READ A MAP!’ he indignantly screamed.

“S-so do you go to school around here, Alluka? Or are you just passing through? I haven’t seen you around before,” Futa asked, furthering the conversation of his own accord. Futa’s confidence was slowly growing, but his blush was still ever prevalent.

Oh my god, Killua’s going to be doomed to watch 12-year-olds flirt for the rest of his life, isn’t he? Was this divine karma for all the people he’s killed or something? Killua desperately wished someone else was here with him so they could share in his pain of having to sit through this.

Alluka doesn’t even miss a beat, “My brother and I just moved into the neighborhood actually! I’ll be transferring to a local school soon. I can’t quite remember the name of it though, where do you go to school, Futa?” Alluka slyly asks.

She’s lying so easily?! When did she learn that from him?! Killua didn’t know whether to be frightened or proud.

Wait.

What did she say?????

“Oh, that’s great! I attend Namimori Elementary!” Futa answered excitedly.

“I just remembered, Namimori Elementary is the school I’ll be attending as well!” Alluka happily stated.

Futa smiled warmly looking genuinely happy, “That’s great that we’ll be going to the same school!”

In the distance, there was a crashing noise and a kid started crying followed by muffled shouting and gunshots. Alluka was too far off in her self-induced tunnel vision lala land to hear any of it. 

Killua was still struggling to process what was unfolding in front of his own two eyes, let alone pay attention to random far off noises.

Proving that he was somehow the only one with a brain, Futa grimaced, “I’m so sorry, that’s Lambo, I’m supposed to be watching him. I have to go take care of him, but I really enjoyed meeting you, Alluka, and we’ll see each other later at school!” Futa apologized, then took off down the street, book tucked under his arm.

Wow, Killua third wheeled so hard that Futa didn’t even notice he existed or deserved a goodbye.

“Bye bye, Futa!” Alluka called, waving after him. Without dropping her smile or bothering to look at Killua at all, Alluka announced, “So we’re gonna stay here now in whatever this town is, and I’m going to that school, okay?” The tone of Alluka’s voice suggested that there was no room for questioning her and had a vaguely threatening tinge.

“You literally lived in a box for like 8 years, how are you the smooth-talking, flirty one, and I’m the emotionally confused awkward mess?” Killua mumbled rhetorically. Alluka just grinned at him.

“I don’t know, but that sounds like a you problem, onii-chan. Do better,” she prodded, eyes still alight and swirling with newfound emotions. Killua sighed. It was really his own fault that Alluka adopted some of his natural antagonism.

Killua had still not fully processed what just happened, nor would he for a while probably, but what he did know was that this was probably the happiest and most full of life he’d ever seen Alluka. She was practically bursting with joy at the seams.

And he wasn’t going to jeopardize that under any circumstances. He’d do whatever it took to preserve that.

“Of course we’re staying here,” Killua agreed easily while straightening out the expression on his face into something more casual, “Don’t worry, I’m ready to settle into my new role as the worst stay at home mom ever. I was gonna let you stay up as late as you want, but now that you have a boyfriend, you’re on a curfew young lady,” Killua laughed. He might not want to be the overbearing brother, but he was absolutely going to be the teasing brother. “I also need you to know that we will be extensively talking about what the fuck just happened later. No you can’t get out of it. You made me listen to you flirt with that kid, I am entitled to reparations.”

Embarrassed by her brother’s teasing, Alluka’s smooth air had vanished, her now very flushed cheeks puff up, but her attempt to look intimidating has instead made her look more like a very cute squirrel. Alluka opened her mouth to retort, but a thought crossed her mind. Suddenly, a very sly grin worked its way onto her face.

“Oh no, onii-chan, don’t you see? You have to go to school too.” Killua freezes mid laugh, his smile now rigid. Alluka smirks, perfect. Time to lay it on thicker. “You said you were going to give me a normal life. And if I want to have a normal life, I can’t have people asking questions about why my older brother and only guardian is a delinquent who isn’t in school when he’s clearly not old enough to have already graduated. Think of the rumors that would haunt my every step. I would never be normal.” She didn’t even feel bad about using emotional blackmail against him.

Killua reluctantly concedes, “Who taught you how to be manipulative?” He didn’t have the heart to even try to argue with her about this and possibly ruin this happiness high she was on. Did Killua want to go to school? God, no. But if this is what it took to ensure Alluka’s normal life, he’d gladly do it. Not that he absolutely wouldn’t complain and bitch about it along the way.

Alluka stared blankly at him with a raised eyebrow. Her expression silently said, “You did.”

“You’re much too powerful now. I regret everything.”

⚡︎ • ──── ᓚ₍⑅^.‸.^₎ﾉﾉ  -`♡´-  (•◡•๑).ᐟ ──── • ⚡︎

≽/ᐠ｡_｡ᐟ\≼

Chapter Text

For all that Killua was incredibly supportive of Alluka’s romantic pursuits, he cursed the fact that this kid had to live in the most boring small town ever. Why couldn’t it have been somewhere more cool? Like Tokyo or Kyoto. Or literally anywhere else.

Japan had so many interesting places and things to do that they’d never seen before! Like amusement parks! Those were so fun. Killua was pretty sure they existed back in their world too, but nothing this technologically advanced or on such a large scale nor had they ever visited one. Sure, rollercoasters didn’t have anything on Killua’s top speeds, but Alluka got a kick out of it and loved the adrenaline rush. She claimed it was like flying. Nanika enjoyed them just as much. Personally, Killua loved amusement parks for the junk food, special edition sweets, and people watching. Amusement parks attracted all sorts of weirdos.

Killua once saw a dad trying to wrangle his five hyper-energetic kids who were all on leashes and pulling in different directions. They were all tangled up, the dad’s arms were stretching and contorting to try to keep up with the little hellions, and he looked like he hadn’t slept in a week and regretted ever taking these kids out in public in the first place. Later, Killua saw a little toddler beat up one of the costumed mascot characters by punching the guy in the balls and then repeatedly kicking him once he was down on the ground. The mascot’s stitched-on eternal grin just made the guy look even more pitiful. The toddler’s mom couldn’t even be bothered to reprimand or stop her kid, and just sat to the side with her nose buried in her phone.

It was great.

Killua stayed far away from the clowns though. Hisoka really ruined clowns for him. And bubble gum. Honestly, fuck Hisoka for that.

Killua also really liked playing the carnival games. He found great joy in watching the employees’ faces as he effortlessly won all of their rigged games. It was cute that they thought that blunted darts were somehow not going to make him pop all of the balloons on the game’s backboard, or that whatever game they had with slightly altered equipment was going to affect him at all. Some of the top tier prizes were really great too! He’d won them two cell phones and the most glorious glittery purple cat-eye sunglasses that day. Apparently, the sunglasses were from a famous name brand designer and were worth more than the phones he’d previously won. Killua regularly wore the glasses much to Alluka’s chagrin.

His point was that Japan was full of fun and interesting places to explore. Namimori was explicitly not one of them.

The siblings had only been passing through Namimori by accident in the first place. Killua had eyed the small children’s playgrounds, cookie cutter identical houses, and sleepy quaint atmosphere with immediate disdain. He wanted to move on and get out of there as quickly as possible.

But noooooo.

The most boring town ever just had to house his sister’s dream guy. Namimori was the most unremarkable place ever. If Killua had to assign Namimori a color, it would be beige for how bland, uninteresting, and average it was. Killua had thought Whale Island was plebeian, but at least they had places to explore and interesting weird animals.

And Gon.

Namimori didn’t have any of those things.

He would grit his teeth and deal with it, but Killua knew he was going to have to find some way to entertain himself so he didn’t inevitably go stir crazy and drown in his own personal hell that was middle-class suburbia. Killua, skeptical that anything remotely interesting could exist in Namimori, was certain he was going to die of boredom.

He’d resigned himself to his fate now that they would be living in Namimori semi-permanently. Killua had completed his task of securing them their new house. It had been Alluka’s idea to become Futa’s neighbor. She wanted to live out her “girl next door” dreams, and that was only possible if she was literally next door to him. Killua didn’t really think that’s what the phrase meant exactly, claiming it was more of an idiom, and advocated that being a few doors down was good enough, but Alluka wouldn’t hear any of it, and his argument had fallen on deaf ears.

It had only taken some light stalking to figure out where Futa lived. After that, it wasn’t hard to convince the people who previously were Futa’s neighbors to sell Killua their house. Honestly, he was offering them a very reasonable deal and was buying the house for more than the current market value. The neighbors weren’t inclined to sell at first, but Killua was able to convince (read: threaten) them of how good of a deal it was. They quickly came to their senses and realized how much of a critical error they were making by trying to pass up on this amazing deal. The neighbors–sorry, the previous neighbors were practically jumping to leave, signed away all the legal rights to the land and house, and were all packed and out of the house by the next day.

The deal was just that good. No other reason.

When Alluka heard how he’d acquired the house, she immediately burst out laughing. “Oh my god, did you make them an offer they couldn’t refuse?” Alluka had wryly said in between intermittent bouts of sniggering. Claiming it was an attempt to learn more about this world, Alluka had taken to watching some of this dimension’s most popular movies, and it showed.

As much as Killua wanted to venomously refute her on principle, he really couldn’t because, technically speaking, that is exactly what happened. Instead, he settled for responding, “Shut up! Idiot!” Which, unfortunately, did nothing to deter Alluka’s fervent cackling and seemingly just added fuel to the fire.

Regardless of Alluka’s half-joking, movie-driven belief that he was going to “take care of” the neighbors, Killua had upheld his end of the agreement and transferred the money in full to the previous owners of the house once they signed the contract. Killua was in his legal era, thank you very much. Or rather, he figured it would create less problems for Alluka’s Love Story™ if their presence was as non-problematic as possible to not invite a lot of questions. You know, doing things the “normal” way like buying a house properly and legally.

To be clear, Killua did have enough money to pay for the house. Over their time roaming Japan, Killua used pickpocketing and the tricks Zepile taught him to buy and sell art and antiquities to rack up a good amount of funds.

It seemed like Nen existed in this world, but instead of people having raw unshaped aura, everyone was a specialist that had the “flame” thing as their only pool of Nen. Though, it appeared that people’s ability to access and use the “flame” mirrored the typical person’s proficiency with Nen back home. Meaning, everyone had it, but it was incredibly dormant, not everyone even had the potential to activate it, and would likely take years of meditation and study to use. So basically, no one could use it or knew it existed in the first place.

While it might not be exactly the same as Killua was used to, it seemed like “aura,” or rather, “flame” could still slip out occasionally from people as some antiquities would have an extremely faint, hazy imprint of their flame on the work of art. Killua had to massively charge his Gyo with Nen to be able to see it, but it was there. For the intents and purposes of finding valuable antiquities, the lingering traces method continued to work well enough.

Killua himself still had no way to access his own flame, but he was much less concerned now that he was seeing people with flames on a day to day basis. Plus, the skin ants seemed to calm down slightly in this world. It still sucked, but he was able to ignore it a little better now. However, Killua was still able to use his regular Nen just fine, so maybe it was a biological difference that made the people in this world unable to fully use raw Nen and only have Specialist-type flames? If he actually cared more about scientific discovery, Killua would have investigated that, but he didn’t care, and left it at that.

That was another thing, Killua had needed a bank account to legally buy the house and pay the previous owners, but getting one meant having a legal identity. The literal big bag of cash he’d been carrying around was no longer sufficient. Killua had initially been very worried about establishing an identity for them in this new world. They're in a new dimension and were foreigners in Japan. Killua had no grasp of the government structure, what loopholes he could exploit, and was still working on perfecting his reading of Japanese. Kanji threw Killua off sometimes, so his reading of Japanese was still a little flawed. Killua had been prepared to have to trudge through a lot of shit before getting anywhere near anything that would be air tight enough to look passable to most people. It didn’t need to be perfect, just good enough that it let them buy a house and register for school.

As it turns out, creating an identity and a paper trail in Japan was frighteningly easy. So easy that Killua actually pitied Japan’s census employees. Killua had quickly learned that he was stressing about nothing because not only was it completely legal to just adopt a new identity on the fly, but there were actually agencies called night movers (1) that would arrange it for you?? They weren’t even underground shops or anything like that, nor were their services pricey. They actively advertised, were very public, legal, and easy to find. To top it off, Japan’s very strict privacy laws ensured that no one would be looking that closely at his data or information.

It was perplexing to Killua, but he guessed that was what was normal here if it was all above board. A lack of an extensive paper trail was apparently not that unusual, nor people just popping up out of nowhere like daisies. Killua would have thought it would have been suspicious as hell, but that shows what he knows about what was “normal.”

During the identity crafting process, there was the chance for them to take on a new last name, but Alluka had proclaimed that her relationship with Futa couldn’t be built on a foundation of lies, and she averred they keep all aspects of themselves as close to the truth as they could. Killua was sure it had nothing to do with the fact that Alluka had already told Futa her last name was Zoldyck just to emphasize the whole weird Japanese “first name is intimate” thing. Nope, not at all.

Killua often lamented over the fact that his Hunter’s license was meaningless here. It wouldn’t open any doors, nor prove that he was very competent despite his age. Instead, they had to play the “emancipated minors whose parents worked overseas” angle to get them registered at school by themselves.

The new Zoldyck residence didn’t stand out and blended in with the other houses. It was overwhelmingly average, but it was exciting to have a space of their own that they could do as they pleased with. Even at Kukuroo Mountain they didn’t have the ability to actually do what they wanted with their rooms.

Now, Killua and Alluka looked around the empty shell of a house and were practically vibrating with excitement to run out and buy things to fill it with.

Killua grinned at her. “Let’s get a big comfy couch and a huge TV! I’ve always wanted one of those. Oh, and I want a new skateboard!”

“I want to put my pictures up all over the house! We can finally frame them!” Alluka added, matching his energy.

“Yeah, that’s a great idea! It will be like our own gallery!” Killua agreed.

“We should also get our uniforms and anything else we need for school.” Alluka was very excited to start school, meet lots of people her age, and romance the socks off of Futa.

“Oh yeah, that,” Killua remarked dismissively and walked towards the door. “I’m sure the uniform will be as dull as the people there.” He rolled his eyes, disinterested.

“While we’re obviously doing this for me, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make some friends too,” Alluka said firmly. Alluka had been thinking a lot about this. She knew that Killua would have to be given a kick to actually jumpstart his life again and not just play the waiting game he was accustomed to.

“I already have friends!” Killua stubbornly insisted.

“Not in this world, onii-chan!”

“I don’t need more friends,” Killua protested. “Gon, Leorio, and Kurapika are enough– Oh shit, I forgot about Kurapika.” Killua’s eyes widened and his face rapidly paled with guilt, which was quite an accomplishment seeing as he was already paper-like pale to begin with. “I promised to keep in contact with him on the whole second Nen thing.”

Killua truly did feel bad about that. Kurapika was probably worrying and stressing over Killua’s lack of contact. For all that he liked poking the blonde, Killua never wanted to become something that added to the overwhelming pressure Kurapika subjected himself to. Killua didn’t want to be another burden Kurapika had to carry.

On the Leorio side, Killua absently noted that the meme account would also have to be put on hold.

As for Gon, Killua was doing an excellent job of not confronting his feelings and actively avoiding thinking about that whole situation since they arrived in this world.

Alluka leveled him with a disappointed look. “Yes, Kurapika must be enough for you. He’s so important to your daily life that you forgot he existed for a month,” she spoke flatly, purposefully not bringing up Gon. Killua winced and turned his head away in shame, trying to escape his sister’s judgemental gaze. He was a bad friend.

“Ok, I messed up,” Killua conceded, still avoiding eye contact. “We’ll have to figure out a way to let Kurapika know that I’m safe.” His mistake weighed heavily on his shoulders and made his insides twist with guilt.

“Oh, we will, but that’s something we can deal with later. You’re not getting out of this conversation by trying to change the topic.” Alluka’s searing eyes pinned Killua in place.

It was time to change tactics. If Alluka had to make him think it was a favor to her, made her stressed, or was a part of her romance master plan as a guise for Killua to actually start talking to people again, then so be it. It’s not like that wasn’t the truth anyways. She was truly worried about him. This time, Killua didn’t have Gon guiding the way for him to make connections. It was going to have to be Killua stepping up and trying to reach out to people, and Alluka knew that Killua wasn’t going to do that naturally on his own.

Alluka sighed, and softened, “It’s just that I’m worried about you, onii-chan. Nanika too. We’ll always have each other, and I love you more than anything, but I don’t want you to be putting your life on hold for me.”

Killua reeled back, hurt flashing across his face. Was that how she saw it? “I’m not doing that. I’m enjoying our journey for myself just as much as you are–”

“Yes, you are doing that,” Alluka asserted firmly. “You may know a lot more than me about the world, but I’m not stupid, onii-chan. Isolation made me ignorant, not naive.”

Killua flinched. “I didn’t— You’re not,” he paused, frustratedly running a hand through his hair, exasperated at his own inability to effectively say what he wanted to. He took a deep breath. “I don’t think you're naive,” Killua assured her, not wanting Alluka to assume what he was thinking. “This time together has been just as much about me as it has been about you,” he maintained stubbornly.

Killua didn’t fully agree with Alluka. He was enjoying his life with his sisters very much. Killua wasn’t sure how else to get the point across, and words were clearly failing him. Regardless of what Killua thought, he was clearly doing something that bothered Alluka, and that’s all that mattered to him.

Alluka was proving to be much more eloquent when expressing her feelings. “Don’t doubt for a second that I know you love spending time with me and are genuinely happy on our journey. I love you and love everything that you do for me, but this whole time you’ve put me before yourself. I don’t want that.” Alluka shook her head. “Just be my brother. Let me support you just as much as you support me, okay?”

“Aren’t I already doing that? That’s all I’ve ever tried to do,” Killua said defensively, a little defeated. The self-loathing bug burrowed a little deeper into his heart. He blamed his own inadequacy, like always. Once again, he wasn’t good enough.

“You’re the best brother in the world,” Alluka assured him, trying to prevent him from spiraling, “but it sometimes feels like you’re trying to be my parent and my brother. We should be having fun together, partners in crime! Not me walking ahead while you loom watchfully in my shadow.”

“Okay,” he yielded. “Partners. And I’ll do things for me.” His own words were not doing him any favors, so Killua figured it was better to agree than try to reason through everything he was thinking and continue until the conversation evolved into an argument. Despite not being fully on board, Killua did see her point and understood her thoughts. He could do better at being a peer to Alluka and not a guardian. Alluka hugged him tightly.

“Living for myself is hard for me too. Do you think anything about this makes me comfortable? No,” Alluka pulled back from the hug, her voice tinged with a self-deprecating edge. “I have no idea what I’m doing, but I spent so long with my life on hold, like time was just frozen in that lonely room, that I’m not going to let this chance–this person pass me by.” Alluka took a deep breath and determinedly met Killua’s stare. “I’ve spent enough of my life waiting, and so have you.”

“You’re right,” Killua conceded, resonating more with her message. Alluka’s words hit hard.

For all of the emotional mess that he was, Killua was never good at actually articulating those feelings or talking about them. It was one of the reasons why he tried to avoid conversations like this. That and they made him extremely uncomfortable. Alluka seemed to have no such reservations and wanted to talk about feelings all the time as a part of her own self-discovery efforts.

Killua would prefer Alluka literally stabbed him in the gut than have this conversation with him.

“And if I’m going to get anywhere with Futa, I can’t have you haunting the neighborhood like a total anti-social recluse,” Alluka finished wryly, trying to lighten the mood. Killua chuckled.

“Fineee,” Killua tried to match her lighter tone but knew that his words didn’t carry their usual energy. “You’re really twisting my arm here, but I guess I can try to make some friends.” He had wanted to sound flippant and casual, but it came across more defeatist.

“Really?” Alluka looked up at him with sparkling eyes full of hope. How was he supposed to say no to that?

“Yeah, really,” Killua agreed, then quickly added, “But only if they’re not boring!”

Alluka laughed, “I wouldn’t expect any less.” She paused and smiled genuinely. “But really, thank you for saying you’ll try. I feel a lot better now.”

Killua playfully nudged her shoulder. “Anything for you, Alluka,” he said, completely missing her entire point. Alluka was aware that although Killua might be hearing her words, he wasn’t actually internalizing them and changing how he thought. He was still putting her first. But this is the only way Alluka could think of to get Killua started down the path of eventually realizing her point for himself and learning to practice what she was preaching for the right reasons. It was a start, and that was good enough.

“Thank you,” Alluka said softly. “Now, let’s go get those uniforms. No, I don’t want to hear it. Yes, you will be wearing it.”

Killua snorted. “It’s ugly, but I’ll try my best to make it work.”

⚡︎ • ────  🛍️₍^.‸.^⑅₎Ⳋ   🛒₍^.‸ .^ ₎Ⳋ  ──── • ⚡︎

Killua will admit that he was using shopping as a way of avoiding thinking about the emotional conversation he had with his sister. Retail therapy at its finest. However, he was also very much enjoying picking out things for the house, and let the previous discussion float to the back of his mind. Killua wanted to focus on this instead as it was much more significant.

Killua needed to win this very important argument with Alluka over what color they should paint the living room walls.

“We will not be painting every wall a different color, onii-chan!”

“Why not? We’d have so much to look at!” Killua defended, picking out more paint sample swatches.

“It’s a terrible idea! Everything will clash!”

“Yeah, that’s the point. It’s a statement,” Killua stated like it was obvious and with the utmost sincerity.

Alluka scoffed, “A statement of stupidity, maybe.”

Killua rounded on her with a fierce glare, offended. “You take that back,” he said curtly with a menacing edge.

Alluka ripped the paint swatches from his hand and glowered at them. They were truly terrible. “No, I will not. And we are not painting the living room yellow, orange, blue, and red! Let alone in these shades!”

“Fine!” Killua huffed. “Then let’s go with the purple leopard print wall paper.”

“Absolutely not!” Alluka protested immediately, trying to kill that idea as fast as possible. “How about a compromise? You can use the purple leopard print for your room, we’ll paint the kitchen a nice shade of orange and yellow, Nanika can pick the living room color, and I can pick out the colors for everything else.” At least orange and yellow were similar enough. The warm colors would be very uplifting.

Killua rolled his eyes, “How is that fair?”

“It’s not, but you’ve already proven to have very questionable taste, so I’ll be making the paint color decision.” There was no way Alluka was going to wake up every day to be greeted by enough color clashes to give her a headache. She and Nanika had already decided on a pretty light pink for their own room that complemented the furniture they’d picked out already and really tied the whole room together nicely.

“Nanika likes the soft green-blue for the main room!”

“Nanika likes the light teal for the living room,” Alluka conveyed her partner’s thoughts. Alluka grabbed all the necessary samples and purchased the paint before Killua could complain further. They’d gotten a bulk of the shopping done already and even paid extra to have all the furniture delivered by tonight. The siblings had also gotten their uniforms and school supplies, much to Killua’s continued disdain.

Next stop was the book store. Alluka immediately went to the international section and grabbed “Italy’s Arts and Culture: An Overview,” “The Basic Italian Food Cookbook,” and “The History of Italy.”

Killua judgingly watched Alluka load the books into the shopping basket. So now she’s interested in other places?

“It looks like you finally decided it was time to learn where Italy was, good job. I thought you and Nanika were staunchly anti-geography,” Killua spitefully pointed out.

Alluka glared at her brother and continued her browsing, not wanting to merit Killua’s comment with an answer. She picked up “Introduction to Learning Italian” and added it to her pile.

Noticing this, Killua let out a disbelieving scoff. “You know, you have to finish learning how to read Japanese before you try to learn another language,” he heckled her.

“Go away!” Alluka chided him, incensed. “Find your own books!”

Killua smirked, and left the aisle graciously, leaving Alluka to her own devices. He didn’t really have a pressing interest in books, but decided that “100 Ways to Call Someone an Idiot” would be a worthwhile read. His sole selection in hand, Killua met Alluka at the check out and paid for the books.

All that was left was the extra clothes shopping Killua wanted to do. Killua gestured excitedly to a store front. “Let’s go in there! I think the store next to it sells skateboards too.” The manikins in the window looked like a blind child dressed them at random. Alluka had zero interest in going there.

“You can go ahead, I wanted to walk around for a bit and take some pictures,” Alluka politely refused. “We can meet up after, I won’t go far.”

“Alright. Why don’t you scope out a restaurant for us while you look around?” Killua suggested while eyeing the sleeveless black hoodie with green accents on display. That would look so good with these brown shorts he’d gotten the other day.

“Sounds good!” With Alluka’s agreement, Killua rushed into the store. He was sure he could find some way to remedy the school uniform situation.

Alluka got out her camera and started off on her mini exploration. She had clicked a couple of pictures of the small grassy area outside of the stores, but didn’t really find it that remarkable. Alluka noted the flyer in one of the storefront windows for a restaurant called TakeSushi. It looked like it was on the way home and did take out, so she figured it was as good as any. She took a picture of the flyer to remember the address for later.

Alluka eyed the alleyway to the side of the stores and shrugged. Alluka wasn’t that into urban areas, but there wasn’t really much else around here. As she walked through it, Alluka sighed, it wasn’t even that creepy of an alleyway. It was just so pedestrian. Just as she was about to declare it a bust and leave, something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye.

There was some really weird mold growing! It kinda looked like it was in the pattern of a face. Nice. Alluka crouched down and zoned out, intent on studying this to the fullest to get the best possible shot, her camera clicking with every picture she took.

“Hey, little girl,” a voice called out to her. Alluka looked up to see a handful of very large disheveled men. “Did you see anything?” the largest out of all of them questioned.

“Did I see what…?” Alluka trailed off, honestly confused. At a second glance she noticed the very beaten up man, unconscious and bloody, laid out on the floor behind them. Ah. They mean that. She must have tuned out whatever noise they were making because she was distracted by the face-mold and told them as such, “No, I was taking pictures of this mold over here. It’s awesome. Wanna take a look?”

“C’mon boss, she’s just a little girl,” one of the others tried, completely ignoring her offer. Alluka shook her head, they didn’t even have good manners. They could have politely declined or just acknowledged her offer at the very least.

Wait.

Oh my god, was this actually happening? Someone was actually threatening her in such a cliche manner? Did they get their script from an “intro to being a criminal” textbook or something? Alluka schooled her face before she could burst out laughing. She didn’t want to cut their whole side street performance act short.

“She’s got a camera, obviously she saw something,” the supposed boss insisted. “We can’t let her walk away from us with evidence.”

‘You’re the one doing crime during the middle of the day in the back of a very populated shopping center. Did you think no one would see? Who’s dumb idea was this?’ Alluka said rhetorically to herself.

“Then let’s just trash the camera! We don’t have to hurt the girl.” Awww that was so cute that the guy was trying to protect her. Now, what will the boss say?

“No, we can’t just let her go. We have to send a message.”

‘To who???’ Alluka cackled in her head. They were making it so hard to keep her face blank. Alluka raised her camera and unashamedly started taking pictures of them. This was great.

Unfortunately, the sound of the shutter and the accompanying flash caused the thugs to become even more pissed off and abandon their previous plan of talking to her first. The men charged at her swinging. Before Alluka could lower her camera and put these idiots back in their place, someone leaped in front of her.

There was a slight blur of purple, a black fluttering jacket, and the glint of steel. She couldn’t see more as his back was turned towards her. Then, the mysterious hero spoke, “For disturbing the peace, I will bite you to death,” and proceeded to efficiently beat the shit out of the thugs.

Despite being a little put out that she didn’t get to beat them up herself, Alluka gleefully took pictures of the whole beat down. He had a very elegant and yet gory fighting style; he really went in for the overkill. Nice. Did he say he was going to bite them to death? This guy was hilarious!

She got an excellent shot of the tonfa wielding guy smacking the boss-thug in the face, the boss’s face comically scrunched up in pain, while his tooth went flying out of his mouth.

“Herbivore.” Was he talking to her now? Alluka was still a little distracted while admiring her photos. She looked up and met his cool, steel-gray eyes.

“Oh, did you want to see? I got some pretty good ones. Look at the guy’s face here! I got the best tooth-flying action shot!” Alluka gleefully showed the camera’s screen to the teen.

He actually looked interested, and hummed in approval. “Wao,” he said admiringly.

Alluka beamed at him. “You didn’t need to step in like that, I had it handled, but that was very sweet and kind of you, so thank you!”

Hibari Kyoya stared down at the confusing person in front of him. He believed her words. She could clearly handle herself, but she behaved so much like an herbivore? She did take good pictures though.

“Hn, omnivore.” Maybe he could get a good fight from her then. On the other hand, she could be the type who tries to avoid fighting, and thus, would never go all out, making her an unsatisfying opponent, and ultimately, a waste of time.

She chuckled. “You’re great! My name is Alluka, what’s yours?”

“Hibari.”

“Well, thanks again, Hibari, but I have to get back to my brother now before he starts looking for me.” A brother that looks after her? If she was an omnivore, then whoever was taking care of her must be a carnivore. Kyoya’s heart sped up, and a slight smirk made its way onto his face. Maybe he could get a good fight out of this after all.

“If he’s responsible for you, then he must be stronger than you, right?” Kyoya asked, probing to see if he was indeed correct.

Alluka puffed out her chest in pride. “Oh yeah, my brother is wayyyy stronger than me! He’s the best!”

Success.

“Hn, I will walk you back to your brother.” Kyoya had secured an introduction to the carnivore.

“Aww, thank you!” Alluka was genuinely excited for Hibari to meet her brother. What a nice guy! Killua should be friends with him. Alluka approved wholeheartedly. Hibari was like a knight in shining armor swooping in to protect the princess at the last second. Like if a knight was a little darker and mysterious… like that guy they saw in the movie, Batman! Killua would definitely get a kick out of the whole “I’ll bite you to death” thing, so Hibari would meet her brother’s only friend qualification of “not boring.” While her brother did agree to try to look for some friends, Alluka knew that he would delay accomplishing it as long as possible, hoping that she would eventually forget and move on. So Alluka was going to have to push someone in his way as blatantly as possible and basically curate Killua’s friends for him. Starting with Hibari.

Kyoya followed the omnivore silently as she led the way back to her brother. As they approached the shopping center, Kyoya found that Alluka was right to think that her brother had been looking for her. The boy ahead of him was carrying a comically large amount of shopping bags, but the image was offset by him glaring so fiercely at Kyoya as soon as he was spotted next to the omnivore.

“Wao,” Kyoya muttered under his breath, eyes alert and fixated on the boy.

“Onii-chan!! Come meet Hibari! He’s great!” Alluka called out. Her brother’s features instantly softened, the glare long forgotten, and casually jogged over to meet them.

When Kyoya prepared himself to meet the carnivore, he hadn’t expected this. Her brother was a carnivore all right, that wasn’t the problem.

In fact, this was probably one of the strongest carnivores Kyoya had ever encountered. The boy had been oozing with so much killing intent that Kyoya actually froze for a moment before he powered through by sheer willpower and kept walking. Kyoya was sure this carnivore surpassed even his uncle. His heart beat wildly in his chest in anticipation.

The problem was that this carnivore was shorter than him, practically petite next to Kyoya, had fluffy white cloud-like hair, wide cat-like eyes the color of the sky, and refined cute features. The carnivore looked like a small animal.

A small animal with features like a tranquil cloudy sky had come to life.

Could carnivores even look like small animals?! He hadn’t thought it was possible until this moment.

Kyoya had never met anyone like him before, and he didn’t quite know what to do about it. Kyoya did know that he wanted to fight him. However, he refrained from charging at the boy, mollified by the fact that this carnivore clearly wasn’t here to cause trouble in Kyoya’s territory. This carnivore was someone Kyoya had never seen before, and thus, must be new to the area. If Kyoya wanted to get a fight out of him, he knew that he would have to prove himself to the carnivore first and convince him.

“Onii-chan, there were these really funny thugs in the alleyway, and Hibari here swooped in and protected me! Isn’t he great?” Alluka announced giddily.

Killua looked at Hibari with widened eyes full of appreciation. Anyone who protected Alluka was good in his book. Killua could see that Alluka was trying to not so subtly hint that this was someone he should try to be friends with. The guy was the most interesting person he’d encountered so far, so he guessed it didn’t hurt.

Alluka cupped her hands around her mouth to hide her words from Hibari, and mouthed silently to Killua, “He’s like Batman!” Killua raised an eyebrow, intrigued, and turned his attention back to Hibari.

“Namimori is my territory. Those that cause trouble will be dealt with,” Hibari declared resolutely once Killua’s gaze fell on him. Killua fully took in the boy next to his sister. He was taller than Killua, but he seemed to be around the same age as him. Hibari’s eyes held an edge that Killua appreciated. He noted the tonfas in Hibari’s hands. ‘Huh, what an interesting choice of weapon!’ he thought. Killua admired the way the teen effortlessly got his black jacket to drape around his shoulders. It almost looked like a cape and created a really cool effect as he walked. The red arm band on the jacket around his shoulders read, “public morals” (2).

‘Ohhhh this must be the neighborhood watch!’ Killua thought.

“Good for you for looking out for the community! Thanks for protecting my sister. Keep up the good work while you’re on patrol!” Killua smiled brightly, eyes scrunching, and gave a thumbs up.

Kyoya’s heart unexpectedly swelled. The carnivore approved of his patrolling and was encouraging him to do more?! In this moment, Kyoya realized that this was the first person to ever approve of or praise him for his very Cloud-like ways, and he did it so enthusiastically and genuinely. And he’s a very strong carnivore. And he looked like a small animal.

‘The carnivore I wanted to prove myself to approves of me,’ Kyoya thought and felt a light, fluffy satisfied feeling well up inside of him. It felt like he was adrift on a cloud. It was similar to the feeling he had when he saw a small animal, but amplified. ‘Ah, he isn’t a carnivore that just looks like a small animal, he is a small animal and a carnivore.’

The distinction changed everything for Kyoya. Kyoya liked and symbiotically existed with small animals. Thus, this was a carnivore who wouldn’t be crowding if they lingered. Perhaps if Kyoya proved himself enough, they could fight till they bled, then take naps on the rooftop and feed the other small animals together. Kyoya wanted to fight him and pet his fluffy hair. Yes, Kyoya liked the sound of that.

“Hn, of course. The thugs were crowding, so I punished them. I will protect Namimori and the little omnivore,” Kyoya said pridefully while nodding in Alluka’s direction.

“You mean Alluka?” the carnivore asked. Kyoya nodded. The carnivore laughed, “What a good nickname! That super fits you, doesn’t it, Alluka– sorry, omnivore?”

“Onii-chan!” Alluka pouted, cheeks reddening.

“It’s because she can be vicious when she wants to, but hides it under the cute, helpless exterior, right?” He playfully poked his sister’s cheeks. Alluka swatted the hand away.

“Stop it!” Alluka berated him.

Killua kinda understood what Hibari meant by “crowding,” or at least he thought he did. It was worth it to tell him to try to connect with the guy and keep the conversation going, right? Learning you have stuff in common is now normal friendships started.

“And I get the crowding thing. Those thugs must have been soooo boring!” Killua clicked his tongue, exasperated, “Self important dumbasses who group up thinking that somehow makes them less of a waste of space are the worst! I bet none of them even bothered to put up an interesting fight.” See? Killua could do good at trying to relate to people.

Kyoya was struck. The carnivore understands. THE CARNIVORE UNDERSTANDS! He understands why the omnivore is the omnivore and why crowding is deplorable.

Kyoya’s eyes gleamed and he nodded, “Yes, you understand. Crowding should be punishable by death. They were very boring and went down quickly. Annoying.”

Killua grinned. It seemed like they did have more in common than Killua thought. He was nailing this bonding thing. “I agree! Death to the crowders! I’m Killua by the way. No need for formalities or anything. It would get confusing if everyone called my sister and I by the same name, you know?” Killua might be trying a little hard for Alluka, but he did actually think this guy wasn’t so bad. Hibari was someone Killua figured he could get along with.

Kyoya smirked. The carnivore–Killua approved of him enough to let him use his first name.

Meanwhile, Alluka wanted to slap her hand to her forehead, but withheld the urge. Killua didn’t even realize he was doing the same thing he’d accused her of with the whole “using Japanese traditions to their advantage to get closer to someone” thing. Hypocrite!

“Carnivore Killua, I am Kyoya,” Kyoya greeted him. The carnivore was treating him like an equal, so he would do the same. Killua raised an eyebrow at the address.

“Carnivore…?” Killua mused. “I mean, I see how it fits me and matches the theme. But I guess if you’re doing nicknames, then I’ll call you Kyo, does that work? I can’t really think of anything that fits in your theme. I’m not good at that stuff. You can call me carnivore or whatever,” Killua mumbled somewhat at the end while rubbing the back of his head and bashfully turning away, slightly flustered.

This was embarrassing! Alluka better praise him later for the effort Killua was putting in.

“Hn, I approve,” Kyoya practically glowed. Kyoya wasn’t one for nicknames (calling someone an herbivore wasn’t a nickname!), but he would accept one if it helped convince the carnivore to fight him.

Seeing that the conversation could potentially stutter off from Killua’s inevitable awkwardness, Alluka took it upon herself to jump in and asked, “Onii-chan will be transferring into Namimori Middle School in a few days. Do you go there too?”

A hint of an actual smile appeared on Kyoya’s face. “Yes. It is a part of my territory.” Killua would be staying in Namimori. Kyoya was very satisfied.

“Do you cover Namimori Elementary too? That’s where my little omnivore will be attending,” Killua remarked. He was happy there was such a vigilant neighborhood watch in the community. Killua didn’t really worry for Alluka’s safety here, he knew she could handle herself, but it still put him at ease to know that he wasn’t the only one looking out for her.

Kyoya warmed at the easy acceptance and trust the carnivore was giving him. Killua respected his territory, didn’t try to intrude, and found Kyoya worthy enough to trust that he would keep his sister safe. That was a big deal. He knew how much carnivores valued and fiercely protected their young. Kyoya would gladly watch over the omnivore.

“Hn, I patrol Namimori Elementary too. The little omnivore will be safe there,” Kyoya assured Killua.

“That’s great! Keep an eye out for her, okay?” Killua was deferring to Kyoya’s authority on matters related to his territory. How considerate and respectful. Yes, Killua was truly a proper carnivore. He was much better than that Sun baby, who, while strong, frequently instigated trouble in his territory. Kyoya enjoyed the challengers and the fights the baby would bring, but the damage to Namimori? Not so much.

“Of course,” Kyoya easily agreed. Seeing how much Killua cared about his sister’s safety, Kyoya recognized that the carnivore wouldn’t be willing to fight while the little omnivore was around. “Next time, let’s fight,” he declared.

“Huh? Oh sure, why not. I haven’t sparred with anyone in a while. It could be fun!” Killua smirked. Kyo wouldn’t have a chance of winning, but it would be fun to stretch his legs for a little bit. Plus, sparring counted as hanging out with people, right? Right. He and Gon did that a lot. “I guess I’ll see you at school then. We’re still moving in and have a lot of work to get through at home.”

Alluka nudged Killua with her elbow and silently mouthed, “Phone!”

“Oh, yeah!” Killua dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Kyo, let’s exchange contact info so you can let me know when you want to fight! It will be fun!”

Kyoya quickly whipped out his phone, excited to exchange numbers, though he masked the feeling well on his face. The carnivore was saying Kyoya could challenge him any time he wanted! Finally! Someone understands and sees things his way. ‘It wasn’t that hard,’ Kyoya stubbornly maintained. Kyoya could be cordial when someone actually respected his territory and values, but apparently, that was asking for too much. However, Killua did, and did so easily and naturally. Kyoya approved of this carnivore very much. The fights they will have will be glorious. The fact that Killua was also a small animal was just an added bonus.

“The little omnivore took pictures of me that were very good,” Kyoya praised. “I would like copies.” He planned on hanging them in his Disciplinary Committee office.

Alluka smiled brightly and was a little flustered. She hadn’t gotten to share her pictures with anyone outside of Killua yet. Her artistic pride had been stroked for the very first time, and she felt extremely satisfied. Suddenly, social media made sense to her, ‘This is why people post their art work online,’ she thought. ‘It makes me all warm and fluttery to see someone else appreciate my work!’

For Killua, that was another point in favor of Kyo being someone he’d be able to be friends with. Kyo also saw how talented his sister was! His pride for his sister skyrocketed.

“I’ll send them to you!” He looked at Alluka. “See, Alluka? This is why I’m always saying you should submit to a gallery! Your work is excellent and should be seen by everyone! They’d love it!”

“Yes, I agree. The little omnivore has talent. Her pictures would make a very good addition to Namimori’s art gallery.” Kyo was helping him prove his point to his sister and furthering Killua’s agenda by providing a gallery to submit to! Really, this guy was just racking up all the points with Killua.

“That’s a little surprising, honestly. I didn’t think this small town would have a gallery,” Killua noted. He was still of the opinion that Namimori was beige personified, but maybe there was a chance it could have some interesting undertones to it.

“Namimori is perfect,” Kyo declared firmly, his confidence left no room for questioning. “It has everything.” Killua raised his hands in an “I surrender” gesture, which seemed to satisfy Kyo immensely. It was clear that Kyo felt very passionately about Namimori, and Killua didn’t really want to argue with him about it quite yet. He didn’t want to mess up the friendship thing that quickly. Killua would save his breath for another time.

“I’ll have to look into the gallery before I make any decisions,” Alluka said diplomatically, trying to seem professional, but her words were a stark contrast to her very dopey, happy smile and blush. She wasn’t fooling anyone, it was clear exactly how much the idea now appealed to her. Alluka tugged on Killua’s sleeve. “Let’s go, onii-chan! I want to edit these photos.” Alluka’s artistic motivation was soaring, and she wanted to get home as soon as possible to work on her pictures.

Killua stumbled as Alluka pulled him along. “Bye, Kyo!” he called out with a wave. “See you at school!” Kyo did not wave back, but he inclined his head in Killua’s direction in acknowledgement.

Alluka smiled and mentally patted herself on the back. Her mission was already a massive success. Alluka had gotten Killua to make a friend.

Killua would never admit it out loud, he’d never give Alluka the satisfaction, but he was looking forward to going to school now just a little bit.

⚡︎ • ──── ☁︎   ོ☁︎ ࿔༄  ──── • ⚡︎

“Kyoya-chan, welcome home!” Kyoya’s mother, Hibari Lan, greeted him happily from the kitchen.

Despite what Hibari Kyoya’s everything might suggest, he actually had no trauma or dramatic backstory that shaped him into being the way he was. He had a very positive and healthy home life with two loving, supportive parents. Kyoya had very average beginnings and a very normal family, if you discount the fact that his mother was an ex-triad princess who decided that she’d rather be a homemaker than a hitman.

Even then, Kyoya’s behavior wasn’t inspired by his parents. His mother might be a little odd, but she mostly acted like the average housewife, and his father was as civilian as they got and worked as an accountant. Kyoya just was this way.

While Kyoya’s parents might not fully understand him, they still supported him in all that he did. His mother being Flame-active, a Mist, did help Lan recognize her son’s behavior as natural Cloud-like tendencies, so she knew there would be no changing it. Kyoya’s cloud personality traits were just dialed up much higher than the average Cloud. Lan secretly sought advice from books like “How to Parent a Cloud” and “How to Talk With Your Very Anti-Social Child” to help guide her.

Lan also read “Laws of the Animal Kingdom” and watched several documentaries so she could engage with her son about his special interests. She might not get it, but if it was important to her son, Lan was going to make it her business to learn about it so Kyoya felt seen and heard.

“How was your patrol?” Lan asked while walking into the room.

“I met a new carnivore who will be attending Namimori Middle School. He is very strong. He approved of me and gave me his contact information so I could challenge him to a fight whenever I wanted.” Unbeknownst to Kyoya, he actually smiled softly.

Lan’s eyes widened, and alarms went off in her head.

Oh my god, her son made a friend! Her painfully awkward baby made a friend! Not a subordinate, a friend! It was happening, it was finally happening! After 15 long years, he made a friend! Lan needed to stay calm and encourage him like the books said to. She couldn’t mess this up.

Lan could scream about this to her husband later. She was sure he’d be just as giddy as she was.

“That’s excellent, Kyoya-chan. Good job proving yourself,” Lan praised him with a soothing, steady voice, completely masking her very loud internal celebration. She was an ex-assassin after all and knew how to put up an effective mask. Kyoya seemed very satisfied with her recognition. “You should invite the carnivore over for dinner sometime. I would like to meet them too.”

“Hn,” Kyoya nodded in agreement.

Lan excused herself, quickly made her way to her room, jumped face-first into the bed, and squealed excitedly into her pillow. It was so hard pretending to be unfazed in front of her little cloud! Her baby was going to bring a friend over for dinner! This was the best day ever!

‘Thank you, unnamed carnivore boy for befriending my son!’

Chapter Text

Reborn looked through his Leon-scope with frustrated confusion as the moving truck pulled away from the next-door neighbor's house. The movers had hauled a full house’s worth of brand new furniture into the home.

The Sawada neighbors had up and left so quickly the day before. It had been rushed, almost frantic, so this move clearly wasn't the result of long-term plans coming to fruition. They had taken off while he was out shoo–training Tsuna, so Reborn hadn’t realized they left until it was too late. Reborn hadn’t noticed last night, he didn’t notice this morning, but he did finally notice about an hour ago when the truck first pulled up to the house and began to unload. Something was clearly afoot, and it wasn’t even Reborn’s fault this time. That made it significantly worse.

Reborn hadn’t called for anyone, so the new neighbors were not his doing, nor did he hear of anyone planning on coming to Namimori through his information network.

Reborn hated that someone had pulled the wool over his eyes and conducted an operation while he was so close by. They played him for a fool. That wasn’t acceptable.

Okay. If it was mafia related, Reborn swore he would have known about it, or at least heard rumors about something potentially happening. Reborn didn’t admit to having shortcomings often, but he did concede it was possible that this was something so covert that he wouldn’t have known about it. There’s no way this could just be chalked up to random chance. It was too clean, too hasty. This was pre-meditated.

Reborn was in the dark with his lack of information. While he would normally just sneak in the house, if this was something that Reborn didn’t even hear whispers about, then whoever was in that house was potentially an actual threat, and he should tread with caution. Reborn hadn’t caught a glimpse of who the new neighbors were yet, and he didn’t want to infiltrate the house until he knew for sure what kind of a situation he was walking into.

Reborn’s eye twitched involuntarily in annoyance. He hated that he was being forced to ask for help. That was now two offenses against the neighbor. Reborn had half a mind to put a bullet through the new neighbor’s head just for being made to lower himself like this. Reborn pulled out his phone and reluctantly placed the call.

“Mu, what an unexpected call,” Viper’s voice drifted through the line.

“Viper,” Reborn greeted. “It seems I require some information from you,” he forced himself to say through gritted teeth.

“It will cost you,” Viper said, sounding amused, clearly picking up on what a struggle this was for Reborn and enjoying it immensely.

“Obviously,” Reborn drawled out. “Someone made Sawada Tsunayoshi’s next-door neighbors in Namimori, Japan, sell their house and leave overnight. There’s clearly a mafia covert special operation at work, possibly threat level gamma. I need to know who is responsible and what the op is.”

Viper hummed. “Give me a minute.”

He genuinely despised being backed into a corner, and Reborn was ready to finally get some answers so he could make a plan for how to deal with the problem. Leon leaned down over the brim of his fedora and patted Reborn’s face reassuringly in support.

“Reborn, are you sure it’s a covert op?” Viper puzzled, sounding a little baffled. “Because if it is, I’ve never seen something like this before.” Reborn tightened his grip on the phone, and his eyes narrowed.

“What do you mean?” Reborn sharply questioned, suddenly a lot more alert. Shit, shit, shit. Not good. Viper was never surprised.

“My information says that there are no ops, not even secret covert ones, happening in that area right now. Additionally, the house in question was legally acquired by a legal Japanese citizen by the name of Killua Zoldyck, an emancipated minor, age 14, as a designated proxy for his overseas parents with genuine legal paperwork. A legal bank served as witness and a valid bank account facilitated the transaction. There’s even a mortgage in Zoldyck’s name. The previous neighbors are alive and well and planning to move to Hawaii. Zoldyck’s record is clean too, he has absolutely zero ties to the underworld or mafia,” Viper rattled off the information.

Reborn cursed silently. It wasn’t possible that Zoldyck was just a normal person.

“The only thing a little weird about him is that his entire stock portfolio consists of only chocolate companies, and he invests in nothing else. The acquisition of the house is air tight, 100% completely legal. If this is somehow faked, I’d pay Zoldyck myself to know how he did it,” Viper mused, genuinely fascinated. It would be money well spent, but Viper didn’t think that this purchase was a part of an operation or tied to the mafia at all.

“So they were even able to fool you,” Reborn remarked ruefully. This must run deep.

Viper sighed. “Honestly, Reborn, it’s all legitimate." They knew he didn’t want to hear it, but Viper was sure that was the truth of the situation. “Occam’s razor and all that. Zoldyck could have a whole pile of bodies in his closet, but this is not an op, he’s not connected to the mafia, and he really did completely legally buy that house.”

“I refuse to believe he’s a civilian.” Reborn would die on this hill.

“Reborn, and I will be charging you extra for this information,” Viper made sure to disclaim, they couldn’t have Reborn thinking they’d just offer up additional information free of charge, “his most recent purchases include a custom-made skateboard, the book “100 Ways to Call People an Idiot,” and purple leopard print wallpaper,” they stated dryly in an effort to prove their point.

Refusing to admit defeat, Reborn clicked his tongue. It was clear that any more information Viper could provide would not be helpful to him. If Reborn didn’t see this as a direct attack against his person, he might have commended Zoldyck for stumping Viper. “I’ll transfer your money immediately."

However, Viper was in no rush to conclude. Viper chuckled. “Mu, I can’t believe you got spooked by a civilian. I know many people who would love to know that.”

Reborn venomously detested Killua Zoldyck. He backed Reborn in a corner for the third time today. That was unacceptable. “How much will I have to pay you to never release that information?”

“I think you know, Reborn,” Viper said humorously. After all, he had paid Viper to not release information about him in the past. It was still fun to needle Reborn every once and a while. Viper knew it would drive him crazy to be reminded of his other various “failures.”

Reborn didn’t even bother to reply and abruptly ended the call. He wanted to throw the phone on the ground and revel in it smashing into a hundred pieces, trying to relieve some of his anger through cathartic violence. But no, he was Reborn, he had to remind himself, and Reborn was still smooth and flawless under pressure. His image would not be tainted.

It was time to meet Killua Zoldyck face to face. The little shit deserved everything that was coming to him.

⚡︎ • ────   💥🔫( ◺˰◿ ૭)💢  ──── • ⚡︎

As soon as he laid his eyes on Killua Zoldyck for the first time, Reborn knew he had been right. This boy was clearly very dangerous and had extensive training. Fuck you, Viper! Reborn was going to enjoy rubbing this in their face later.

Killua Zoldyck had made a fool of him three times in less than an hour, a feat no one had ever accomplished before. If he wasn’t so genuinely furiously pissed off, Reborn might’ve been impressed. But Reborn was indeed outraged, and it was time to face Zoldyck and deliver some well earned retribution— and holy shit, those were some ridiculously strong and pure Lightning Flames. Like Verde level strong.

Reborn stopped in his tracks. Okay, new plan of approach, he needed to be a little more cautious and couldn’t go in gun’s blazing.

“Hello,” Reborn greeted. Zoldyck stopped whatever it was he was doing in the front yard, it looked like yard work, but Reborn didn’t really care, and made eye contact. “I’m your next-door neighbor’s live-in tutor, Reborn.”

Strangely, Zoldyck took one look at him, and groaned dramatically. “I’m just gonna make a wild guess here and say you're secretly like 50, right?” he sounded oddly resigned. Reborn’s eyes sharpened.

“So you do know of the Arcobaleno,” said Reborn while staring at him accusingly, certain he was a plant.

Zoldyck blinked and looked genuinely confused. “The what…?” If he was acting, he was doing a damn good job of it.

“A group I’m a part of. We’re infamous in certain circles,” Reborn clarified, still trying to figure out exactly what Zoldyck did and didn’t know.

Zoldyck shook his head. “Yeah, I’ve never heard of that,” he admitted with dismissive nonchalance. “I actually know someone who did a similar “I’m gonna pretend to be a kid but I’m actually 50 and stupidly buff” thing.” He raised an eyebrow and looked at Reborn assessingly. “And you seem pretty competent and way too dangerous to be actually 3, or whatever. Trust me, I know what a 3-year-old’s threat level should be like, and you’re clearly above that. So, I figured you’re doing a similar thing. She didn’t have the guts to go as young as you are though. Obviously a skill issue on her part.” Zoldyck snickered, then smiled widely at him. “Mad respect for the dedication and the hustle to go full-baby. I’m super here for it. Big fan, it’s hilarious!”

Killua decided he did need to make a good impression on this man as he was involved with Futa’s family, so his approval would be key for Alluka’s Love Story™ to be successful. It wasn’t like it would be hard to engage with him in conversation, Killua thought this guy was great! Reborn was automatically awesome for being Bisky 2.0: the new and improved edition. Really, going full-baby was soooo hilarious!

Reborn was still working on unpacking the several insane things Zoldyck just said offhandedly. He knows what a 3-year-old’s threat level should be? How many babies was he out here fighting? Was he regularly beating up children? Reborn didn’t really have room to judge, but still. Also, was there someone else who was running around out there besides the Arcobaleno that just purposefully subjected themselves to this cursed existence for fun?

There were a lot of things Reborn wanted to follow up on, but the most pressing question he had was, “She made herself look like that willingly?”

“Yeah, wait, is yours not?”

“No, it’s a curse.”

“Ah, that’s rough. Did you manage to find an exorcist to try to get rid of it?” Killua questioned. A good Nen exorcist should be able to make some progress on removing that curse or at least put a dent in it.

Reborn shook his head self-deprecatingly. “This curse is beyond any exorcist's capabilities.” The Arobaleno turned to spiritual exorcists in the past and were quickly found to be a dead end.

Killua winced, and while he did feel bad for the man, there was no way he was going to even hint at Nanika likely being able to help. Killua wasn’t going to expose his sister to a life where she’d be hunted for her abilities just to aid a random stranger. Killua never claimed to be altruistic. Besides, it was Nanika’s prerogative how she used her abilities, and Killua wasn’t going to dictate that for her. He’d already made that mistake once by telling Nanika to not come out anymore back in Gon’s horrible hospital room. Killua refused to do that again.

“Ouch, that super sucks,” Killua remarked sympathetically. “Are you at least taking advantage of the situation with the chaos you could cause by looking like a baby to deliberately mess with people?” he said casually. That’s what Killua would do, at least. Some sort of silver lining.

Reborn almost did a double take, but he was above that. What did he say?? And he said that like it was the only course of action to take when suffering though this shit curse. It didn’t help that was exactly what Reborn did when saddled with this awful infant form. Damn, Zoldyck was really making it very very hard to not like him. Who knew they'd have such similar sensibilities?

Suddenly, Reborn cared a lot less about the conspiracy he had been sure Zoldyck was perpetrating and started seeing everything about the boy through a different lens. ‘It was more of an elaborate prank than anything,’ Reborn rationalized. ‘Really, I should be commending him on the chaos he caused.’

“Naturally, that was the only reasonable thing to do,” Reborn corroborated. It was rare, practically nonexistent, that someone truly appreciated causing havoc as much as he did. “…What did you say your name was again?” Reborn asked, realizing it would be strange if he started calling him by a name he wasn’t supposed to know.

“Oh, I’m Killua.”

“How do you feel about the mafia, Killua?”

“I mean, I don’t really have an opinion on it? All my interactions with them in the past have been kinda boring so I didn’t really stick around that long. Why?” Which was true. The last time Killua had encountered the mafia was in York New City, and all the mafia contributed was standing around and dying to the Phantom Troupe. And before that, Killua’s only contact with the mafia had been through stupidly easy contract assassinations that weren’t very interesting.

“I’m in the mafia. I’m the World’s Greatest Hitman,” Reborn declared, trying to be both impressive and also intimidating. Reborn might kind of maybe like Zoldyck, but he wasn’t off the hook just yet.

Killua, who regularly told people he just met that he’s an assassin and comes from a place where the general public knows the Zoldycks are assassins to the extent that there are tour buses that go to the Zoldyck’s house, saw nothing weird about how casually Reborn announced his title and completely believed him.

Additionally, to the Zoldycks, the mafia threat rank level was way WAY lower than theirs and not really a concern. Therefore, Killua by default thought that “mafia business” basically equals low-tier civilian crime stuff, and thus, equaled “normal.”

“Cool. Kinda weird that you’re doubling as a live-in tutor, but you do you, I guess,” he said, completely unconcerned and just a touch dismissively. Zoldyck grinned slyly at him. “I bet the previous “World’s Greatest Hitman” was super pissed to hand the title off to someone that looks like a baby, huh? Please tell me you keep him alive just to let him wallow forever in his own failure of losing to an infant?” Zoldyck’s eyes gleamed excitedly at the prospect, alight with mischief.

Screw it.

Reborn was revising his plans. Lambo is out. This guy is in.

“Of course, it was obviously the only correct course of action,” Reborn easily agreed. Reborn’s previous anger had evaporated, completely forgotten. Reborn could put aside his pride for this. This kid was as much of a menace as he was, and there was no way in hell Reborn wasn’t going to capitalize on that. Really, they truly were kindred souls. Lambo was an annoyance he put up with because there were no other options for a Lightning Guardian, anyways.

Who would have thought Reborn would ever get along so well with a Lightning? Zold–Killua had ridiculously massive, though untrained, Lightning Flames, was obviously very dangerous, and was in no way a pushover like many Lightnings tended to be. He was already on par with Verde Flame wise, but Killua’s personality and clearly honed capabilities pushed him above Verde for Reborn.

How the hell had Killua not been snatched up by a mafia family yet?! Mafia families would be frothing at the mouth to get their hands on him. Reborn was truly baffled how Killua had gone under the radar for so long, but he was also very content that he was the one to find Killua first.

An unaffiliated, stupidly powerful, and competent Lighting? It’s free real estate. Who even cares if he’s an assassin or something? Reborn can deal with that and change Killua’s priorities easily. Reborn would do what he does best, take credit for Killua’s involvement and make it seem like it was his idea all along.

“I like you. Wanna join me in messing with some people and causing some chaos?” Reborn had thought for a moment that Killua might just be too good to be tied to Tsuna. It would take Tsuna a lot of effort and courting to be able to successfully catch Killua’s interest, let alone snag him as a Guardian. It would be incredibly hard to pin down an element as strong as him. But if Tsuna did achieve it, he would secure the loyalty of an incomparable Lightning and would be the envy of the entire underworld.

And like all of Tsuna’s successes, it would, of course, be attributed entirely to Reborn. Chaos and infamy wins out in the end, as it always does, and Reborn could not wait to unleash Killua on the greater mafia at large.

“Oh, hell yeah! Absolutely, I’m in. Finally, something fun to do around here!” Killua agreed enthusiastically. Reborn smirked, he knew Killua would take him up on the offer. After all, it seemed like they had such similar mindsets and priorities. Reborn could absolutely appreciate a person like Killua who was tuned into the same wavelength.

“We have much to discuss, but first, come by the Sawada house later today.” It brought Reborn great joy thinking of the chaos it would cause in the mafia once they learned that he had basically found a mini-me. But before he could get to that stage, Killua had to bond with Tsuna first.

“Cool. Can I bring my sister with me? She’s been soooo excited to meet the neighbors.” Alluka will freak out that Killua secured an invitation already to meet Futa’s family. See? He could be helpful and aid Alluka in her love odyssey. Killua assured himself that he absolutely was the cool older brother.

“Sure, why not?” Reborn didn’t really care, whatever got Killua and Tsuna to meet as quickly as possible the better.

“Perfect. She’s gonna flip and make way too big of a deal over this, it’s gonna be so funny.” And with that, Killua ran back into the house. It seemed like Killua understood the subtle art of choosing to purposefully cause people minor inconveniences. Reborn approved. It was time to follow suit and mess with his own charge.

Upon Reborn’s entrance to the Sawada household, Tsuna immediately took note of Reborn’s much too content aura. Uh-oh. That only meant doom and destruction was looming on the horizon for which Tsuna would be the inevitable unwilling recipient.

“Where were you, Reborn?” Tsuna hesitantly asked, afraid of the answer he might receive. Reborn smirked, looking all too pleased with himself. Tsuna cursed in his head, nothing ever good came from Reborn looking that self-satisfied. Yeah, he was absolutely screwed.

“I met a kindred soul, we are now friends and decided to team up. You will meet him soon,” he informed Tsuna. Reborn relished in the overwhelming look of horror that took over Tsuna’s face. Killua was already proving to be absolutely worth the trouble.

Meanwhile, Tsuna was having the exact opposite experience and was mentally trying to brace himself for his own upcoming doomsday scenario, but was failing horrendously. His mind was short circuiting, truly unable to calculate the disturbing information that was just unearthed.

The unholy prophecy was true, and the planets had aligned specifically on this horrible day with the intention of making Tsuna’s life into the punchline of a divine comedy… more so than it already was.

‘Oh, no. There’s two of them.’

⚡︎ • ────  ᓚ₍ ^≖⩊≖^₎ᕗ ✧ ᕙ(≖⩊≖૭)  ──── • ⚡︎

Killua waltzed back into the house, a grin proudly displayed on his face, and plopped down on the couch next to Alluka who had been reading one of her books on Italy. Trying to read, Killua mirthfully corrected himself.

“Soooo I just met one of the people that lives with Futa. Turns out we live next-door to a mafia hitman who’s also their live-in tutor. Honestly, not at all sure how that works. It’s a Bisky situation, but they went full-baby. It’s kinda awesome,” Killua divulged. Reborn really was so much better than Bisky.

“Oh, weird. Are they cool?”

“Yeah, he’s surprisingly pretty cool. Anyways, he invited me, because I’m really just so great,” Killua bragged with emphasis, “and thus, by extension of being related to me, you, to come over to their house later today.”

Alluka’s book went flying as she abruptly jumped to her feet, made a noise of alarm while looking completely frazzled, and glared at Killua. Yep, that was the reaction Killua was looking for. Worth it.

“Why didn’t you lead with that?! We have so much to get ready! Oh my god, we’re wasting SO much time.” Alluka ran a hand through her hair, frustrated. “Get up off your ass and help, onii-chan!”

“Yeah, okay, I’ll go get changed,” Killua placated while standing. Alluka pointed at him, stopping his departure.

“Onii-chan, you better pick a reasonable outfit. If I don’t like it, you’re changing!” she said bossily. Alluka wasn’t about to let Killua’s ridiculous fashion sense embarrass her in front of Futa’s family.

“Ehhh? Fine,” Killua spat. “So not fair.”

Three complete outfit changes later, Alluka finally approved of Killua’s outfit. She’d settled on him wearing some jeans, a white untucked button up, and a pink sweater vest on top. It was an outfit Killua did like and wore from time to time, but Alluka wasn’t even allowing him to accessorize! Killua would pout about it, but he’d still let Alluka dictate what she wanted him to do here. After all, it was her elaborate plan at work. He’d play his part.

Seeing as he was ready first, Alluka had also put him in charge of prepping the gift they would bring over. Apparently, that was something they were supposed to do. Alluka had actually agreed with Killua that bringing sweets was the right thing to do. She claimed that the gift needed to be good, but not too over the top and make her seem desperate. Chocolate, which was “casual,” worked, but it had to be nice chocolate so that it still showed she was making an effort. Killua took out some very elegantly packaged and expensive chocolate from his stash. Killua sighed, regretful that he had to give this away. The things he’s willing to do for Alluka. She better appreciate this.

Killua was ready to move on at this point, it had been a good 4 hours of Alluka having a frantic panic attack while planning and prepping for their absolutely completely “casual” visit to introduce themselves to their neighbors.

“Can we go now?” Killua whined. It had been very funny to watch Alluka scramble around for the first hour and a half, but then it just kept going and going and now he was so ready to move on.

“Just one more second!” Alluka called out. Killua slumped his shoulders, raised his gaze upwards, took a deep breath. She must be reveling in his suffering.

After another 15 minutes, Alluka finally emerged from her cave.

‘What was she even doing in there? Hibernating?’ Killua mockingly thought.

“Any longer and you would have actually killed me. Are you happy with yourself?” Killua goaded.

“You’re completely fine. Get over yourself,” Alluka jeered back while straightening out the invisible wrinkles on her dress.

Killua would admit that Alluka did look exceptionally good right now. She looked like a perfect porcelain doll. Damn, she really went all out with her attempt to make a good first impression on her eventual in-laws. Because Killua was sure that wedding bells was the only conclusion to all of this. There was no way Alluka was going to settle for less.

He guessed it didn’t matter if the neighbors were a little off or a little dangerous. Reborn was definitely concealing his actual threat level, but Killua was pretty confident he could take him. Plus, it didn’t really seem like they’d ever be at odds, what with his newest acquaintance being so like minded. Killua could look past a potential threat and make due with the fact that they had to get these people to like them no matter what. Getting along with Reborn at least would be stupidly easy. He invited him to cause chaos together! They are firmly on the same side now.

Alluka did one last hair fluff. “Okay, we can go now.”

Killua sighed. “Finally!”

It was funny that it took 30 seconds to get to Futa’s house. It was still very weird to Killua that they lived that close to someone. Killua watched as Alluka took a deep reassuring breath, probably doing some kind of insane mental mantra, and knocked on the door.

“Coming!” a woman called out from inside the house.

…Was Alluka mouthing, “You can do this,” to herself? Killua snorted, amused, to which Alluka punched him in the stomach in response. Just as he was recovering, the door opened.

“Ack–Hello!” Killua slurred his half pained moan into an actual greeting. Yeah, that was very natural. Alluka didn’t turn to look at him, but she did aggressively stomp on his foot while maintaining her practiced picture-perfect smile. Anticipating the blow, Killua didn’t flinch. “It’s so nice to meet you, we’re your new next-door neighbors. Reborn invited us over to introduce ourselves.”

The woman cupped one of her cheeks, the other hand still on the door, and looked delighted. “How wonderful! Reborn is so thoughtful. I’m Sawada Nana, but please call me Nana!”

Perfect. This must be Futa’s mother. Alluka was so locked in. She needed to prove she was the perfect candidate to be her daughter-in-law.

“I will! I’m Alluka, and this is my brother, Killua. We brought you a gift!” Alluka gleefully held up the chocolate.

“How lovely! Please come in,” Nana accepted the chocolate, and ushered the siblings inside. “The rest of the family should be around here somewhere.”

And at that moment, Futa rounded the corner, entering the living room, and looked very surprised.

“Alluka?” Futa said, confused how she was at his house right now.

“Oh my god, Futa! What a coincidence! It’s like we were destined to find each other again! It turns out we’re next-door neighbors. Isn’t that so weird?” Alluka tried to mirror his shock, and twirled her hair around her finger. Nice. Super casual.

Killua had to refrain from gagging, but at least there were other witnesses to suffer with him this time. Killua had noticed that Reborn was looming in the corner of the room. Yeah, Killua wouldn’t get involved in this mess either if he had a choice. Good call, Reborn.

“You know, I was having a terrible day, but that doesn’t matter anymore,” Alluka commented dismissively before focusing back on Futa, her dark eyes glinting, and flirtatiously said, “You’re here now.” 

The boy in question looked like he was actually melting, and managed to say the very intelligent response of, “A-ahg.” Truly, his sister has impeccable taste.

It would be impolite to bang his head violently against the wall, wouldn’t it? Jeez, Killua wasn’t allowed to do anything anymore because of “manners,” or whatever. Trying to be normal was such a hassle. Why did he agree to this again?

Oh yeah. So he could willingly subject himself to a lifetime of torture via watching his sister flirt with a dumb kid. Unfortunately for Killua, he loved his sister so much that he’d just sit there and take it. So this was really his own fault.

“So where are your parents?” Nana curiously asked.

“They work overseas. I’m emancipated though, so I’m allowed to legally take care of the two of us while they’re away,” Killua helpfully informed her, sticking closely to their story.

Nana clapped her hands together delightedly. “My husband works overseas too. He’s off in Antarctica. Let me show you the post card he sent me.” Nana walked into the kitchen, then emerged again with the photo in hand and showed it to the siblings. The photo featured a blond man in overalls surrounded by penguins and holding a golden pick axe.

Killua and Alluka, who were used to way weirder stuff from Hunters and had very low standards for parental figures, saw nothing wrong with this picture. It made perfect sense that a father would leave his family to go wander around in the arctic. Just look at Ging! At least this guy sent postcards home.

Alluka looked so gleeful at being shown more information about Futa’s family. “That’s so nice he still sends you post cards! They’re so cute! Killua, we have to go meet some penguins some day!” Alluka glanced over at Futa, a soft blush on her face. “Or maybe we could go to the Zoo sometime and see the penguins together, Futa.” Alluka was so proud of herself!! She did it! She actually asked Futa out on a date!

Futa seemed to clue in to the fact that he was being asked on a date, and erupted into an all encompassing blush that reached the roots of his hair. However, Futa was able to bravely meet Alluka’s eyes, and said, “Y-yeah! I’d like that a lot, Alluka.”

Alluka and Nanika, who had been silently watching the whole time while making her own googly eyes at Futa, proceeded to have an internal raging celebration filled with so much excitement and incoherent screaming, that their whole collective mind just shut down, and she literally froze in place, completely unable to respond.

Not really caring about Alluka or Futa, though he now had an inkling of why the Zoldycks had moved next-door, Reborn was focused on watching Killua. Reborn knew that Killua was not gullible, so he was genuinely confused why Killua was actually believing this stupid story that idiot Iemitsu had cooked up.

Killua, who, at this point, was actively contemplating the merits of giving himself a lobotomy, realized it was time for him to step in and compensate for Alluka being off in coo-coo crazy land. It was the perfect time to play their “family photo” card.

Killua had been prepared, expecting it would be odd if they didn’t have their own family photos at this visit, whipped out his backpack, took out his own picture, and held it out for Nana to take. “These are our parents. Back in Algeria, we used to live in an inactive volcano. Because of that, there weren't a ton of animals around, but we did have our dog, Mike, isn’t he just the cutest puppy?”

Reborn immediately understood why Killua was not bothered by Nana’s explanation. The “dog” in question was easily 15 feet tall. It was absolutely not a dog in any way and looked more like a mythological, killer, bloodthirsty, shaggy, stupidly huge fox-wolf. Sure, it’s just a puppy.

The picture really did feature an inactive volcano mountain, a forest, and tall menacing looking walls with aesthetic stone embellishments. Reborn could tell that Killua was also completely serious and telling the truth, so this really was a part of his actual real life backstory.

Meaning that Killua grew up in a gothic evil lair located in an inactive volcano in Algeria guarded by genetically altered mutant wolves.

Which was absolutely hysterical. Reborn believed that this fact painted a much clearer picture of who Killua Zoldyck was than any of the information Viper had provided earlier this morning. This visit was already proving to be quite fruitful.

No wonder they didn’t think anything was wrong with Iemitsu’s dumb penguin postcard.

“My! Your dog is so cute and fluffy!” Nana said absentmindedly while admiring the picture.

“Yes, but he’s sadly overseas with our parents right now,” Alluka added.

‘Looks like Alluka finally returned from her visit to the mothership.’ Killua rolled his eyes.

Fully recovered, Alluka wanted to pump her fist in victory. She was nailing this!! The “family photos” had been a stroke of genius.

Killua and Alluka had decided to make “family photos” after realizing that everyone in the area had them. They assumed they would be questioned if they didn't have any at all, and Alluka had wanted to be able to show off her “family photo” to Futa’s family. Alluka’s photoshop skills were needed. They picked two random people and used their photos as their parents, and decided to leave out the rest of their siblings as that would only invite more questions. Most family photos seemed to feature the family’s pet, so they took a picture Killua had of Mike and added him in. Alluka tried to make the background look as close to Kukuroo Mountain as she could. Killua had thought that was stupid, but Alluka had insisted that she didn’t want to lie to Futa and wanted everything they created to be as close to the truth as possible.

She wanted to share her real life with him. However, it was okay that the “real life” she was showing him didn't include Illumi.

Thus, their 100% completely normal family picture was created. It was perfect.

“Mike is an excellent guard dog, and has this super cute habit of falling asleep while chewing on bones in his bed after eating! He practically hoards them. Mike’s bed is basically full of them at this point,” Killua gloated, proud to show off how good of a boy Mike was.

Reborn was the only one who picked up on the fact that Killua was likely talking about the bones of the intruders the “dog” was guarding against, not regular “dog bones” from the pet store.

“Mama, let me see!” Futa opened his hand and gestured for her to give him the photo. Nana handed him the picture. Futa was a little stunned. “Wow, what a big dog! Is he part wolf or something?” It was an unusual dog, but if Futa’s rankings had taught him anything, it was that there were always much weirder phenomena afoot. He himself talked to aliens regularly.

Alluka’s heart was aflutter. He wanted to know more about her life!!!!

“I’m not entirely sure, but onii-chan should know!” Alluka redirected the question to Killua.

“Ehh, I think he might be at least part wolf? But he does have opposable thumbs, so there’s definitely other beasts mixed in there,” Killua answered as honestly as he could, determined to stick to Alluka’s “only the truth” program with small edits. Killua had learned that there weren’t “magical beasts” in this world, and that the collective consensus was that there were no mystical powers at all. Thus, he carefully made sure to leave out “magical beasts” from his description of Mike, going with just “beasts” instead.

Killua patted himself on the back for his good job at not being suspicious.

At this point, Reborn had realized that Killua clearly did not understand that this was a fucking insane conversation. Or how absolutely absurd the things he was just nonchalantly saying were. Mutant wolves with opposable thumbs that ate people? Really? This entire conversation was both morbidly disturbing yet also hilariously fascinating. Reborn couldn’t tear his eyes away. It was like watching a group of sociopaths trying to play a game of “who’s the sociopath,” where they all had to try to be “normal” so no one would guess they were the sociopath.

Reborn felt like he was like watching 10-year-olds try to put on a Shakespeare play in that everyone was saying their lines with a rehearsed cadence, sounded as stiff as cardboard, no one had any idea what any of the words they were saying actually meant, and they tried to mimic what they thought they were supposed to be feeling while delivering a line.

This was such a massive train wreck that it was actually beautiful and almost brought a tear to his eye. Honestly, Reborn had to give Killua props for this entirely accidental batshit craziness. Truly, this kid was exceptionally talented at leaving chaos in his wake, intentionally or otherwise. Reborn absolutely made the right decision to bring Killua into the fold.

Before anyone could comment further, footsteps patter down the staircase. Nana smiled and called out, “Oh, Tsuna! Come over here and meet our new next-door neighbors! They just finished moving in.”

Tsuna appeared at the bottom of the stairs, and nervously looked at the two new people in his living room as he approached. He took a deep breath, and prepared for this to be another Reborn-concocted set-up. The boy seemed like he was Tsuna’s age, and the girl must have been a little younger. Oh no, they looked really cool and stylish too! Okay, okay, he could do this. He had to or else Reborn was going to shoot him again.

“H-hello! I’m Sawada Tsunayoshi! It’s nice to meet you!” Tsuna bowed slightly, and ended up meeting the boy’s sky blue eyes. Nope, never mind, he really couldn’t deal with this!!

“Tsuna-nii is the best!” Futa declared pridefully to Alluka, wanting to show off his own very awesome older brother.

“Yo! I’m Killua! Nice to meet you, Sawada!” Killua introduced himself with a smile.

“And I’m Alluka. It’s so nice to meet you!” Alluka chimed in, trying to look innocent and cutesy. Alluka was desperate to make a good impression on someone important to Futa.

Nana waved her hand, “Oh, none of that “Sawada” stuff, you’re our neighbors! You should call him Tsuna!”

Killua looked at Tsuna, who seemed to be wincing and staring firmly at the ground like he expected to be brushed-off and ignored. Given his own history, a parent ignoring the wishes of their child didn’t sit right with Killua. “Are you sure that’s okay with you, Sawada? I’d be happy to call you Tsuna, but you don’t seem that comfortable with it.”

Tsuna snapped his head up in shock. He wasn’t being dismissed? And he noticed that he didn’t seem comfortable? Oh, that was new. Tsuna felt a little warm inside. He wasn’t used to people being considerate of his wishes.

Tsuna genuinely smiled at Killua. “It’s okay, I wouldn’t mind if you called me Tsuna! Thank you for asking!” he said happily. Killua was a little stunned at the attitude shift and how bright Tsuna’s smile was.

“O-okay, Tsuna, then. Call me Killua,” Killua tried to recover, but knew it wasn’t as nonchalant as he’d have wanted.

“Can I call you Tsuna as well?” Alluka questioned while eyeing her brother accusingly. Killua jammed his elbow into her side, trying to dismiss her knowing eyes. Regardless, her brother did a great job of trying to make Tsuna feel at ease, and thus, like them more! Good job, Killua! 

“Yes, that’s okay!” Tsuna chirped. Gaining some confidence, Tsuna spoke of his own accord, “What school are you two going to?” Tsuna asked, trying to be pleasant, but sticking with a basic question. He was still very nervous, and Tsuna was sure it showed, but if these two were willing to actually think of what Tsuna wanted, then the least he could do would be to try to have a cordial conversation.

Alluka grinned, “I’m so glad you asked! Futa and I will be attending the same school! I can’t wait to get to know him better,” she said a little too enthusiastically.

Tsuna smiled, but it was slightly rigid. Nothing ever good came from someone being too interested in Futa. He stood a little closer to Futa. Tsuna might not think himself to be a brave person, but Futa deserved to be safe after everything that happened to him.

“Ah, how great,” Tsuna remarked a little cautiously. Alluka seemed to notice entirely none of Tsuna’s waryness, and instead thought this was the best response she could have gotten.

“Yes, it is great! School will be so much monumentally better with Futa there. He’s such a wonderfully marvelous person. And you’re an exceptionally good brother. He is so lucky to have someone as extraordinary and phenomenal as you looking out for him,” Alluka effused, practically vibrating in her seat from how well this was going. Futa’s brother thought it was great they would be together!! She was acing this family approval thing!!!!!

Could Killua just walk out the front door and leave? Because he had never had such all encompassing second-hand embarrassment as he did in this moment. Alluka sounded like a deranged toddler on a sugar high who just learned big words for the first time and wanted to test them out. Did she think it made her look smarter?? Because it absolutely didn’t!

Tsuna was also clearly feeling some of Killua’s pain as he was cringing, so Killua was a little comforted by the fact that he wasn’t alone this time.

“And onii-chan will be going to Namimori Middle School,” Alluka added as an afterthought. Her brother was much less important in this conversation, but she figured it would be odd if she didn’t at least fully answer Tsuna’s original question.

“Oh, I go there too. I could show you around on your first day? I-I mean, only if you want to!” Tsuna was quick to correct, not wanting to insinuate anything. Killua treated Tsuna with a degree of respect he wasn’t used to. He wanted to reciprocate, at the very least. “It's just– I mean, I know that I wouldn’t want to be by myself on my first day. Going to a new school can be very intimidating, and I don’t want you to have to be alone.” Tsuna shyly looked off into the corner. “B-but you’re really cool! So I’d understand if you don’t want to tag along with someone like me,” he concluded self-deprecatingly.

Killua realized that while Tsuna was naturally extremely timid, he was also the kind of person who cared so much that Tsuna was willing to sacrifice his own comfort and push through his nervousness for the sake of someone else. That was incredibly admirable. Futa really did have a good older brother. But what stood out most to Killua was that the same care he had shown Futa, was now being awarded to Killua. Tsuna really was unbelievably sweet, and while what Tsuna was offering him wasn’t that monumental of a task, it came from a place of such genuine pure sentiment, that Killua was truly deeply affected. He wasn’t used to being on the receiving end of true selfless care or people seeing value in him. He really wasn’t.

Perhaps it was because the act was so simple that it was striking Killua so deeply? That someone like Tsuna could feel so much and was willing to give kindness freely to anyone who needed it. That Tsuna could show the same selfless compassion and gentile tenderness in such a small gesture for Killua as Tsuna could for his own brother. That Tsuna had deemed Killua worthy of such thoughtful care.

Tsuna really did have such big innocent golden-brown doe eyes, a bright blinding smile, and— Shit, Killua had a type, didn’t he? But while Gon’s eyes had been fiercely determined, Tsuna’s eyes were so genuinely kind, and softer than Gon’s.

Uh-oh.

“Y-yeah, okay. I’d like that,” Killua stammered and quickly ripped his eyes away from Tsuna. Killua was overwhelmed and not at all ready to confront whatever he was feeling. Any edge Killua might have tried to have evaporated immediately.

Unbeknownst to Killua, his still inaccessible but active Flame mirrored Killua’s internal feelings and hesitantly reached out towards Tsuna, like he was expecting to be rejected and burned. It wasn’t trying to bond. No, Killua was still too cautious to ever commit to something or someone so quickly, even if it was subconscious. His Flame reflected Killua’s reverent awe of Tsuna. Killua subconsciously just wanted to see what Tsuna’s feely given care would feel like.

While Killua was not aware of it, nor was Tsuna, Tsuna’s Flames really liked Killua’s and happily welcomed the connection. Killua wouldn’t understand what was actually happening, but he did feel a sudden sense of reassuredness that Tsuna did, in fact, actually like Killua, and it wasn’t entirely in Killua’s head. Killua wasn’t a leech hanging off his light. No, Killua was potentially wanted.

Flames themselves were not personified nor had minds of their own, but rather, they reflected the will and desires of their wielders. Especially if they were untrained. Flames couldn’t create a connection that wasn’t already there, but they could make that connection a little easier to find.

Watching intently from his spot in the corner, Reborn did an actual double take, unable to stop himself this time, and his eye twitched.

Seriously, it was that easy? No fighting to prove themselves, no shared traumatic experiences, no months and months of courting, no interference from Reborn at all?

The most dangerous and powerful potential Guardian he presents to Tsuna, dramatically surpassing Hibari in threat level and comparable to Reborn’s own, and Killua just immediately folds because Tsuna was nice to him? What? It can’t be that easy–

Oh.

Reborn wanted to slap himself but refrained because he’s more dignified than that. Killua was aloof, mysterious, clearly battle hardened, and so tuned into Reborn’s wavelength that Reborn had forgotten that Killua was still a Lightning. Instantly earning the unbridled loyalty of a Lightning because you were unexpectedly kind to them when they didn’t anticipate kindness was absolutely the most Lightning thing ever.

Reborn will confess that he might have been projecting his own feelings towards Skys onto his image of Killua. Due to their shared flame strength and similar mindsets, Reborn had figured they would feel the same about Skies as well. Reborn conceded that was his mistake for assuming.

‘He’s like Fon,’ Reborn mused, and wasn’t that a dangerous comparison to make? Killua, the unholy combination of Reborn and Fon. ‘Frighteningly competent but acts nothing like his Flame-type except for every once and a while, and then he does the most Flame-stereotype behavior ever.’

Killua and Tsuna didn’t have a full Guardian bond yet, that would still take a while to fully cement, but the two had the strongest instant Flame compatibility out of all of the potential Guardians Reborn had introduced thus far. Reborn would confidently say that they would inevitably end up with a Guardian bond, even without him stepping in to help. He’d give it a week before they had a tentative fledgeling bond.

Well, that was easy. Reborn will take credit for this massive success anyways, of course.

“Onii-chan, why don’t you go spend some time with Tsuna in his room,” Alluka suggested, suddenly caring less about maintaining perfect propriety and wanting to get her brother away from her as soon as possible. She wanted some alone time with her future mother-in-law and Futa without her brother awkwardly standing in the background talking to Tsuna. Killua had fulfilled his supporting role of making Alluka look like the better sibling by comparison, so he should leave now.

Alluka fixed Tsuna with a look, silently suggesting that he should agree with her and say something. Tsuna jumped slightly at her gaze.

“A-ah, okay! Do you want to play video games?” Tsuna hesitantly asked, feeling pressured. He was sure that Killua would say no, and prepared for rejection. Surprisingly, Killua brightened and looked very excited.

“You have a gaming console? That’s so awesome! Yes, let’s play!” Killua hadn’t played video games in soooo long! Greed Island didn’t really count, and even if it did, that was more than a year ago.

Tsuna squirmed under Killua’s unexpected admiration and attention. “O-okay!” Tsuna meekly said and led the way to his room. Tsuna could feel Reborn’s eyes burning holes into his back. Not good, something must be up.

Killua hummed. “I’m really good at video games, you know?” Killua smirked, confidence radiating from him. “I had to leave my gaming system behind before the move, so I haven’t gotten to play in a while.” 

Killua left his Joystation back at Kukuroo Mountain. He bet Milluki had sold all of his games at this point out of spite. Milluki absolutely was the type to do small acts of petty revenge and feel like it somehow had a bigger impact than it actually did.

“Did Reborn make you move here?” Tsuna anxiously blurted out, abruptly changing the subject as they arrived at his room. He didn’t mean to impulsivley say that all of a sudden, but it was all Tsuna was thinking about right now.

Tsuna stiffened at Killua’s grimace. Oh, no. Tsuna just messed this up didn’t he?

“No, that’s so weird. Why would you even think that? Today is the first time I’ve ever met Reborn. We moved here because of my sister,” Killua answered while looking around the room appreciatively. His eyes lit up as he noted the video game console and excitedly made his way over, Tsuna trailing behind him.

Tsuna felt a wave of stress leave him. “Oh, that’s great! It’s just that Reborn has done a lot of weird things in the past like– actually, nevermind,” Tsuna tried to explain, but realized that if Killua really wasn’t a Reborn affiliate, it would sound very strange if he attempted to elaborate further on Reborn’s antics. Tsuna decided to cut his losses and stop talking. Hopefully, Killua wouldn’t try to keep that line of conversation going. “So you’re not in the mafia?” Tsuna had to double check, just to be sure.

Killua scrunched his nose up, a little offended. “Ewww, no.” He might not really have a full opinion on the mafia, just like he’d told Reborn, but Killua didn’t appreciate the insinuation that he was on the same level as those guys. He wasn’t. He was leagues better. Killua guessed that the mafia presence must be prominent in this world. It seemed like everyone was oddly fixated on it. Weird, but whatever.

Tsuna let out a sigh of relief. Wait, that meant Killua really was just his neighbor! Killua had no ulterior motive. Tsuna was hanging out with a normal person! Tsuna was suddenly much more excited to play games together. As long as Lambo didn’t burst in here and literally blow up the room, Tsuna was going to get to play video games with a normal person and have a very normal afternoon!

Then, the anxiety hit.

Tsuna really wasn’t good with situations like this! Hanging out with someone casually that he just met! No way! Plus, Killua was so effortlessly charming and cool. Killua’s foreign features, the light hair and eyes, in combination with his impish grins, gave him a mysterious and captivating aura. Gokudera might have similar coloring, but while Gokudera was brash and jaded, Killua was playful and mischievous. It made him more inviting in comparison to how Gokudera was instantly closed off.

Tsuna couldn’t help but have his eyes drawn to Killua – his presence was magnetic. Tsuna was confident he wouldn’t be the only one who noticed. Tsuna was sure that when he showed up at school later, Killua would be instantly popular. There was no way he’d want to stick around by someone like Tsuna! Tsuna was going to make a fool out of himself. What was he thinking when he offered to show Killua around the school?!

While Tsuna tried to tamper down his anxiousness, Killua, none the wiser, had finished his examination of the game system and was thoroughly confused. The device wasn’t a Joystation.

“This isn’t a Joystation,” Killua considered, brow quirked, while holding the console in his hands.

“Joystation…? Do you mean a Playstation?” Tsuna wondered confusedly. “Playstations are really old. Are you a retro gamer?”

Killua was struck. Old technology? He glanced at the games on Tsuna’s shelf. Oh no, he didn’t recognize any of them. Killua wanted to hit himself. Of course he wouldn’t recognize any of these games! He was in a different world! All the other technology he’d encountered so far was more advanced than he was used to. Why did he think Tsuna would have a Joystation?

“Er, y-yeah. Um, so I’m not used to any of these games, okay? So you’re gonna have to pick one,” Killua muttered sheepishly, knowing he was contradicting his previous vibrato. Killua wasn’t really good at admitting fault.

Tsuna’s heart fluttered just a little. Was Killua just as nervous as he was to hang out with someone? It set his mind at ease to know he wasn’t the only one who would probably awkwardly bumble through this whole thing. It was a nice change for once.

“Okay.” Tsuna grinned shyly, glad he wasn’t the only one drifting in an ocean of nerves. “Let’s play this one!” He grabbed the game, loaded it into the console, and handed Killua one of the controllers.

“Get ready to be crushed!” Killua fiercely declared, alight with competition, and completely zoned into the screen.

“A-ah, okay!” Tsuna stuttered, a little taken aback by Killua’s sudden intense passion.

However, thirty minutes later, Killua was on his hands and knees, controller abandoned by his side, staring at the ground in hopeless despair as the “Game Over” screen flashed mockingly in the background. He’d lost all 10 rounds of the game they’d played, Tsuna winning every time. How was that possible?! Killua was supposed to be good at video games!

“I-it’s okay! I wasn’t good at this game at first either,” Tsuna tried to console him. Tsuna leaned over and patted Killua’s shoulder reassuringly.

‘God, Tsuna really is such a kind person to try to make me feel better instead of bragging about his win. I played so pathetically. I’d be laughing at him if the roles were reversed!’ Killua was ashamed by his performance. He really did play unbelievably terribly.

“It’s not my fault I played badly!” Killua bounced back, and sat crisscrossed on the floor. He picked up the controller, held it up, and pointed at it. “It’s the controller’s fault! Why is it so weirdly and differently shaped! That’s so not fair!” he complained, glowering at the controller. “Once I get used to this dumb controller, then you’ll have no chance against me,” Killua insisted, dropping the controller to cross his arms in front of his chest, and huffed.

Tsuna didn’t expect Killua to have such a childish side to him, but he liked it. It was comforting to know that Tsuna didn’t have to be the one that was the mess all the time. Killua could be just as terrible at something as Tsuna could be.

“Then you’ll have to practice for next time!” Tsuna tried to soothe the situation, but then realized he’d implied further meet ups, and stiffened. “I-I mean if you don’t want to meet up again, that-that’s okay too, I mean, I don’t want to assume–” Tsuna rapidly babbled and frantically waved his hands out in front of him like he was trying to create a barrier between the two of them, while bracing himself for disappointment. No one wanted to spend time with Dame-Tsuna, at least, not without Reborn’s influence forcing them together.

“Ehhhh? Why wouldn’t I want to hang out again?” Killua said incredulously, then smiled at Tsuna. “You’re really great, Tsuna! Let’s be friends!”

This time, it was coming purely from Killua, not Alluka trying to push someone on him. Well, she did a little here, but more in the “go away leave me alone” way not in the “go be friends with that guy” way like she did with Kyo. This was Killua wanting to be friends with Tsuna for his own wants. He really did like Tsuna. Tsuna was such a warm, caring person who saw value in Killua and liked spending time with him. Sure, Tsuna might be a little rough around the edges, but Killua found his stuttering, soft nature endearing.

Tsuna was absolutely the kind of person Killua wanted in his life.

Tsuna was similar to Gon in some ways, but they were also so different. Tsuna wasn’t Gon, and the more Killua thought about it, Killua realized he didn’t want Tsuna to be another Gon. Killua wanted to be Tsuna’s friend not because he reminded him of Gon, but because Killua liked Tsuna. And that was it.

“Eep!” Tsuna squeaked, turned red, and squeezed his eyes shut. Like actually squeaked. Wow, if that wasn’t the cutest thing Killua’s ever seen. Killua knew he was likely starting to pink as well, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away, entranced. Plus, Tsuna wasn’t looking at him, so he didn’t have to hide his own floundering just yet.

Tsuna hesitantly opened his eyes just a little, turned his head slightly away so he was only peeking at Killua through the corner of his eyes and between his lashes. Tsuna was still very red. His very shy slight eye contact made it seem like Tsuna had only opened his eyes to reassure himself that Killua was indeed still there and was a real person. Like he needed to verify that Killua hadn’t left. Killua understood that feeling well, and hit him hard. He wasn’t going to disappear on Tsuna, Killua promised himself.

However, it also made Tsuna look like an adorable flighty rabbit, and Killua was trying his best to prevent his own face from erupting into a furious blush, dumbstruck.

“Y-yeah, okay! I’d really like that,” Tsuna eventually stuttered out, more than just a little overwhelmed, but nonetheless, very honest. He did want to be Killua’s friend. Very much so.

Tsuna was just genuinely overjoyed that he might have made a friend who was not trying to kill him or involved in mafia stuff, actually listens to what he has to say, and doesn’t steamroll him or ignore his words. Most importantly, Killua likes Tsuna for Tsuna without Tsuna having to prove himself to Killua first. Killua just wanted to play video games with him and spend time with him. Killua had even been the one to declare they were friends first. It wasn’t Tsuna sticking himself to Killua and one-sidedly thinking they were friends. Killua wanted him here.

Sure, Tsuna had changed a bit since Reborn had entered his life, but he really wasn’t all that different from the boy everyone called “Dame-Tsuna.” He still was shy, awkward, got scared easily, was quickly overwhelmed, and yearned to be accepted. Tsuna still was who he was.

Tsuna was so happy he was friends with Yamamoto and Gokudera now, but neither of them had wanted to be friends with “just Tsuna” at first. They had still judged him like all the rest in the beginning, and had seen “Dame-Tsuna” as a weakling, someone to look down on. Only after Tsuna proved himself through an act of heroism did the two want to be friends. 

Tsuna would never admit to it out loud, much too afraid to potentially lose his now very precious friends, but he always wondered if they really did like Tsuna or if they liked the “bullet Tsuna” version. Logically, Tuna knew that “bullet Tsuna” was still himself, but he felt so detached from his actions in that state that he didn’t resonate or identify with them.

Finally clamping down on his own wild emotions, Killua figured it was time to give Tsuna a heads up on the inevitable nightmare he was going to be privy to.

“Also, if it wasn’t already obvious, my sister is super into your brother, Futa. That’s why she was acting so weird. I’m just gonna apologize in advance if she’s just popping up randomly and bothers you by aggressively flirting with him right in front of you. I’ve already unwillingly seen it myself, and it’s not something I’d wish on even my greatest enemy,” Killua warned him with a seriousness that suggested that this was indeed the biggest issue in Killua’s life right now. And Tsuna loved that Killua’s biggest concern was something so benign, so normal.

Not the weight of being the heir to a mafia family, not trying to scrape through every day unsure of when Reborn was going to pop up and literally start shooting at him, causing him so much stress that Tsuna was sure he was going to go gray early.

Just Killua’s little sister embarrassing him with her crush.

Tsuna didn’t realize until now how much he really really needed a normal friend.

Tsuna’s heart also soared at the consideration to warn him of the potential chaos so Tsuna wouldn’t have to deal with it, even if it didn’t live up to the usual problems he had. It was a thoughtfulness that Tsuna was never awarded in his now nonstop life of mafia induced insanity.

Killua was his new neighbor, just his neighbor. He wasn’t one of Reborn’s minions and was completely free of the mafia’s influence.

Like a normal person.

Killua was his first normal friend.

Tsuna’s stomach filled with butterflies. He felt happy. Truly genuinely happy. Happier than he’d felt in a really long time. Tsuna knew something so small shouldn’t affect him this much, but it did. It felt so good to be seen by someone for who he was, and then going, “Yeah, I like that guy,” with no additional pretense or pressure to be someone else. The simplicity of it all, Killua’s easy acceptance of him, meant a lot to Tsuna.

Tsuna had to stop himself from crying. It wouldn’t be good to cry in front of his new friend.

“Thanks for the heads up. I really don’t want to see that,” Tsuna said with a close-eyed smile, trying to mask his misty eyes.

Killua looked at him with an incredibly flat deadpanned expression. “Trust me. It’s bad. Like, imagine the cringiest flirting you’ve ever heard and ramp it up to 11. Don’t let yourself get caught as a witness.” Killua’s entire body shuddered like he was imagining the feeling of tiny insects roaming all over him. “Last time, I swear my sister actually sparkled. It was extremely traumatic. I am permanently scarred. I’m sure she thinks she’s the star of a romance novel or something. I wanted to actually gouge my eyes out!” Killua dramatically complained while accentuating his point with elaborate hand gestures and theatrical expressions.

Tsuna laughed at Killua’s very funny melodramatic seriousness. Tsuna was overwhelmed by the feeling of bliss he had by getting to have such a silly, mindless, bantering conversation where Tsuna wasn’t the butt of the joke for once.

Not seeing the humor of the situation, Killua doubled down, “You’re laughing now, but you won’t be after you see it for yourself. It’s torture, I swear!” he emphasized, trying to make Tsuna understand his point.

But this only made Tsuna laugh more, his cheeks were red from laughing so hard. Tsuna’s smile was blinding, and Killua couldn’t help but smile softly in return.

Killua looked away, suddenly embarrassed by his own actions as a blush spread across his face. “Whatever, you’ll see,” Killua mumbled with a pout. He had lost the energy to argue his point any further and awkwardly darted his eyes around the room, refusing to make eye contact and completely flustered.

Tsuna was just happy to bask in this moment.

Tsuna was on cloud nine, but a little voice in the back of his head reminded him that while this moment might be wonderful, a horrible fate was still ahead of him. The person Reborn mentioned he became friends with and insinuated was his platonic soul mate was still coming. Tsuna shuddered at the thought, and tried to push his looming stressful worry out of his mind, wanting to refocus himself on his new friend.

It didn’t even cross Tsuna’s mind for an instant that Reborn could have meant Killua.

Chapter Text

⚡︎ • ────  ⊹₊⟡⋆ 🖼️⋆⟡₊⊹  ──── • ⚡︎

Killua finished putting on his uniform, looked in the mirror, and nodded in approval as he checked over his final outfit.

Really, his current outfit was considerably more subtle versus what he’d originally wanted to wear. Instead, Killua went with an edited uniform variation that was semi-similar to his favorite outfit. That way, he’d at least be somewhat comforted by the familiarity.

Killua was truly dreading going to school. There was no way it would be fun, and he really didn’t want to be doing this. Killua sighed, the things he was willing to do for his sisters. Killua had offered to walk Alluka to school, but she turned him down, claiming that this was her chance to walk with Futa, so he had to distract Futa’s brother. It wasn’t a big ask, Killua liked Tsuna, and was excited to have him show him around today like Tsuna had offered.

‘School might not be that bad if Tsuna and Kyo were there though,’ Killua thought absentmindedly.

Alluka had already left the house five minutes earlier to go knock on the Sawada’s door. She said she wanted to have a buffer of time so that Killua and Tsuna wouldn’t be looming behind them the whole walk, but still short enough that Killua could distract Tsuna sufficiently for him to not think about catching up with Futa. Killua was unfortunately getting accustomed to Alluka’s personal brand of love induced calculated insanity, and just said yes to whatever she wanted and moved on.

Killua tucked his lunch in his backpack, grabbed his skateboard, and headed out of the house. It was still weird to him that it took barely 10 steps to get to Tsuna’s house. Killua knocked on the door. He could hear a muffled, “Tsuna, answer the door,” from the other side. Ah, that was definitely Reborn’s squeaky baby voice.

Tsuna opened the door and was surprised to see Killua. “Killua!” he greeted, relieved and happy Killua had showed up. Tsuna walked out of the house and closed the door behind him, school bag in hand. “Alluka-chan already came by to walk with Futa, so I wasn’t sure if you were going to…” he trailed off, his happiness quickly transformed into horror as he noticed Killua’s outfit. “What are you wearing?!” Tsuna exclaimed.

Killua was wearing what could only be described as a complete mockery of the Namimori Middle School uniform. Killua had donned a dark blue long sleeve turtleneck under his untucked short sleeve button-up uniform shirt that was slightly unbuttoned at the top, collar popped. He even rolled up the short sleeves once, cuffing them. In place of where his tie should hang around his neck were a pair of purple sparkly sunglasses hanging from the top opening of his button up shirt.

Killua’s tie was not completely forgotten, and instead was tied around Killua’s wrist like a bracelet. The uniform pants were similarly cuffed at the bottom, showing a sliver of his ankles, and making his garish purple shoes ever more apparent. To top it off, Killua had the most perplexing six-strap backpack with a Kuromi keychain on it, an elaborate belt that had several additional smaller belts cascading off to one side and looping around, and a skateboard tucked under his arm.

Confused, Killua looked down at his outfit and then back at Tsuna. “The uniform…?”

If the styling wasn’t enough, Tsuna noticed even more alterations. “Did– did you dye the bottom cuff of the pants purple??” Tsuna sputtered in disbelief. “Wait, is your shirt tinted lavender??”

“Oh, yeah! Doesn’t it look good?” Killua swayed a little from side to side, showing off his modified uniform with pride. “I was really subtle about it, but I had to do something to salvage the monstrosity somehow! It was soooo bland! I had to make it at least somewhat wearable.”

Reborn, who somehow made his way outside, found that this was a good time to offer his support. “I approve of the uniform, Killua. Good job,” he complemented, now inexplicably dressed like a flower.

‘You have no right to talk, your sense of fashion is just as bad! You literally are wearing a flower cosplay!’ Tsuna internally screamed, not quite having the guts to say that particularly out loud to Reborn.

Tsuna wasn’t sure if Reborn meant what he said because he actually approved of Killua’s fashion or if he was purposefully trying to instigate a fight between Killua and Hibari once they inevitably arrived at school. Given Reborn’s own fashion sense and everything else about him, the answer was likely both.

“See? Reborn gets it! Obviously, he’s got great style,” Killua complimented Reborn’s outfits. “Love the flower fit, very avant-garde and yet, you blend in enough at first glance for it to double as a disguise. I'm a big fan of functional fashion.”

‘Of course you’re agreeing with him! You both have terrible fashion senses! Disguises are not functional fashion!’ Tsuna wanted to cry out. ‘Oh no, if this is what Killua did to his uniform and likes Reborn’s outfits, what does he wear on a day to day basis?!’ Horrifying images quickly ran though his head.

“I’m kinda impressed that you managed to find all those great outfits in infant sizes. You must be excellent at shopping,” Killua commended Reborn. Reborn looked very flattered.

“It’s a talent I must bear humbly, and it has taken many years to cultivate,” Reborn agreed, his nose a little higher in the air. Tsuna knew that “humble” was not a word that had ever been used to describe Reborn, and clearly Reborn just wanted to brag to probably the only person in the world who actually liked his outfits.

Killua didn’t even bother to ask how Reborn was changing outfits so quickly, assuming it's an application of his Hatsu–sorry, Flames, since he briefly sensed Reborn using his aura. Bisky turned her Hatsu into a fucking masseuse, Killua’s seen way sillier applications of Nen. This one was at least awesome for making sure his outfit always matched the situation at hand and disguises. Maybe he wasn’t shopping at all and was using his Flames to make outfits? He really needed to figure out how to approach the whole Flame subject with Reborn and get some answers on how it all worked.

“Hibari-san is going to kill you,” Tsuna muttered fearfully.

Killua looked at him skeptically. “Hibari…? Oh, do you mean Kyo? Why? He’s such a nice guy.”

Tsuna, wide eyed and possibly seeing all universes at once, was about to have a mental breakdown. ‘Kyo????’ Tsuna questioned his sanity.

“Kyo” echoed in Tsuna's head like he had surround sound hitting him from every direction, and repeated over and over again. Tsuna’s mind was stormed by thousands of “Kyo”s. Each invocation’s intonation shifted in pitch and tone. Tsuna’s follow up thought of, ‘Nice guy????’ bounced around the walls of his mind on loop, and unsatisfyingly never quite hit a corner.

Tsuna was unwillingly assaulted by the impossible mental image of Hibari Kyoya and Killua chatting happily, each donning genuine smiles and laughing nonchalantly without a care in the world like this was an everyday occurrence. He saw Hibari saying, “Let’s be friends, Killua-kun! You can call me Kyo!” and Killua responded with, “Okay~! Wow, you’re such a nice guy!”

This would actually haunt Tsuna’s nightmares for weeks to come. It was severely spine-chillingly creepy and so incredibly out of character that it went past the uncanny valley and straight into cursed images territory. Hibari Kyoya would never allow someone to call him by such a cutesy nickname, let alone his first name. It was impossible he could even be casual friends with someone!

There was no way Killua actually meant Hibari Kyoya, right? Right?!

Tsuna snapped back to reality, blinking. “I’m sorry, I think I just hallucinated for a second. What did you say?”

Killua looked at him concerned. “Kyo? Er, Hibari Kyoya?” Killua tried offering his full name to clarify. “The patrolling neighborhood watch guy with the cool cape jacket. He’s super nice,” Killua repeated.

“See, that’s what I thought you said, but there’s no way that’s what you said,” Tsuna said with a far away look. Killua put a hand on Tsuna’s shoulder, and looked him deep in his eyes.

“Are you okay?” Killua questioned, genuinely worried.

“You are not the one who should be asking that in this conversation,” Tsuna deadpanned.

Tsuna noticed Gokudera and Yamamoto approaching from the corner of his eye, and was immediately grateful. Anything to stop thinking about what Killua just said!! There was no way it was really what he meant. He must know some other patrolling guy with a cape jacket– NOPE!! Stop thinking about it!!!

“Gokudera-kun, Yamamoto!” Tsuna called out with a wave.

Gokudera rounded the corner, slightly hunched, hands in his pockets, and a scowl on his face. He sped up when he noticed an unknown person standing next to Tsuna, touching his shoulder, and immediately raised his guard, jumping to attention. Gokudera looked at Killua, who had since dropped his hand from Tsuna’s shoulder, but was still standing next to him.

“Who the fuck are you?” Gokudera bristled, hackles raised.

“Who the fuck are you??” Killua retorted, irritated, eyes narrowed with annoyed disdain.

“I asked you first!” Gokudera spat, outraged.

“I asked you second!” Killua snapped back, not even pausing for a breath.

The two continued to glare menacingly at each other, sparks flying.

“K-Killua, this is Gokudera Hayato, one of my friends,” Tsuna tried to mitigate.

“Oh,” Killua blinked. He wanted to at least try to get along with Tsuna’s friends, but this guy sucked! Killua didn’t even start this! Gokudera had been the one to come in, mega-asshole guns blazing! “Then why is he being like this?” Killua questioned Tsuna.

“Gokudera-kun can be a little abrasive sometimes,” Tsuna sighed, resigned.

“Who. The fuck. Are you?” Gokudera pressed on, glare sharpening at Killua.

“I’m Killua. I’m new in town,” Killua said snarkily, offering as little information as possible just to be as bitchy about it as he could.

“Who the fuck said you could come here and bother Juudaime!” Gokudera chided loudly. It took a second for Killua to realize that Gokudera was referring to Tsuna when he said “tenth.”

“Maa, ma, Tsuna, who is this? Will he be joining our game?” Yamamoto interjected, seemingly oblivious to the dramatic tension between the two foreigners, and was promptly ignored by everyone.

Tsuna jumped in front of Gokudera and frantically waved his hands out in front of him.

“Stop, stop, Gokudera-kun!! It’s okay! Killua is my new neighbor and friend!” Tsuna defended. It seemed to placate Gokudera a little, and so he backed off just a bit. However, he still held Killua under his glare.

“So, Killua,” Gokudera scoffed, “let me tell you how things work around here–”

“I already know how things work around here,” Killua interrupted sassily, contradicting him just to do it. Killua did not, in fact, know “how things worked around here,” but fuck this guy for insinuating that he had the right to dictate Killua’s place.

‘Oh no, this is going to devolve quickly isn’t it?’ Tsuna could already hear Reborn reprimanding him in the future for not controlling his subordinates well. Not that Killua was his subordinate! NO! Killua was his friend! Reborn was likely not going to see it that way though. However, Tsuna resolved to keep Killua out of any mafia related business.

“Oh, yeah?!” Gokudera was spitting mad, seconds away from lighting up his dynamite.

“Yeah!” Killua petulantly insisted.

At this point, Gokudera believed that Killua was very directly challenging him specifically. He must want to take Gokudera’s place!

“I am Juudaime’s right-hand, and I won’t give that up to anybody!” Gokudera blew up in frustrated anger, whipping out his dynamite, wicks sparking.

Killua clicked his tongue, and leveled Gokudera with a disappointed judging look in response to both Gokudera’s declaration and the dynamite, then glanced at Tsuna. “Really, Tsuna? This guy?” Killua gestured at Gokudera with his thumb. He was not at all the person Killua would have thought would be Tsuna’s best friend, or “right-hand” as Gokudera insisted on calling it. Tsuna could do better.

Gokudera’s own fuse had gone off, unable to form an actual response due to how all consuming his fury was, and just made a grumbling scream of anger.

Killua put his hands back in his pockets, ready to pull out his yo-yos at a moment’s notice.

But before a fight could erupt, Tsuna had gathered his courage, and bravely stepped in.

“Please stop!! We have to get to school!” Tsuna shouted, body fully tensed up. Tsuna did not need this right now! He just wanted to introduce Killua to his friends and have a regular conversation like normal people did. Could he have just one calm day? No, of course not. That was too much to ask with Reborn now in his life.

Noticing that Tsuna looked genuinely distressed and was actually shaking, Killua backed off immediately. Tsuna mattered more to him than putting this idiot in his place. Gokudera didn’t seem to get the memo and was ready to throw the dynamite.

“Oi! Idiot! He said to stop!” Killua loudly scolded. That didn’t really seem to deter Gokudera, however, and the first stick of dynamite flew.

Killua jumped, skateboard still tucked under his arm, caught the explosive, and gracefully landed, silently. Killua put the fuse out with his bare hands while making uncomfortably heavy eye contact with Gokudera.

Killua judgingly raked his eyes over Gokudera’s form. Gokudera didn’t even bother to listen to Tsuna, who he was apparently so devoted to, or even notice that Tsuna was upset and scared by his actions. Killua wasn’t perfect either, but at least he stopped once he clued into it.

Killua scoffed, “Yeah, some right-hand you are.” Killua dismissively dropped the stick of dynamite on the ground like it was a piece of worthless trash, grabbed Tsuna’s hand, and started walking. “Come on, Tsuna, let’s go to school!” If Gokudera chose not to lead with the complete asshole card next time, Killua would be willing to give him a second chance because he clearly meant something to Tsuna. Killua was Tsuna’s friend, so he was sure he’d be seeing a lot of Gokudera no matter what.

The two didn’t follow them quite yet, Yamamoto seemed to be marveling at the frozen and chalky, possibly crumbling, Gokudera. Once he eventually snapped out of it, they’d be hot on their heels to catch up.

Tsuna’s mind was racing. Killua clearly was more capable than he’d originally assumed, so maybe not entirely normal as he’d thought, but that was currently buried at the back of his mind and mattered a lot less to him right now. His thoughts were dominated by the other thing Killua had done.

“Um, Killua,” Tsuna lowered his gaze. “Thank you for stopping when I asked you to. You didn’t have to, but I appreciate it.”

Killua blinked, confused. “What do you mean? You asked me to, and you looked like you were really affected by what was happening. Why wouldn’t I have stopped?” Killua then looked a little ashamed. “It’s not like it wasn’t my fault too. In my defense, he’s an asshole.”

‘It really was just that simple to him. To notice me.’ Tsuna’s heart warmed and gripped Killua’s hand tighter, and at that moment, he finally clued into the fact that he was holding Killua’s hand and immediately let go with a yelp.

“Oi, is something wrong?” Killua questioned.

“No, no, nothing’s wrong! I-I just saw a bug on my hand. Ahahaha!” Tsuna weakly tried to make an excuse and nervously laughed.

“Whatever,” Killua mumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets. However, there was a slight blush on his face, as Killua also finally noticed he had been holding Tsuna’s hand once he let go.

“Juudaimeeeee!!” Gokudera screamed as he ran up to them, doing a remarkable execution of the doppler effect. He skidded to a stop in front of the two, and threw himself into a full seated bow, forehead to the ground, possibly causing a dent with how much force he’d slammed his head down with. “Please forgive me!! I did a horrible job not abiding by your wishes! I failed as a right-hand and–” Gokudera continued on a very long winded rambling speech about his failures and how great Tsuna was while fully prostrating himself.

“Hey, I’m Yamamoto Takeshi!” Yamamoto introduced himself to Killua, not at all minding the scene playing out behind him.

“Ah, yeah, yo, I’m Killua,” Killua greeted distractedly, he wasn’t really paying attention to Yamamoto. Instead Killua was fixated on Gokudera’s ridiculous behavior. Gokudera was still banging his head into the ground, it really enunciated his speech. Killua had to give it to the guy, it was kinda impressive that Gokudera wasn’t horribly embarrassed by this spectacle he was making.

“Hiiieee!! Gokudera-kun, you don’t need to do that!” Tsuna insisted.

“But I must repent! As much as I hate it, that cat-eyed bug,” Gokudera fixed Killua with a derogatory look, “was right. I was being a terrible right-hand man!”

“Wow, how much did admitting that hurt your pride, mutt?” Killua taunted, viewing his loyalty akin to a dog.

“Not really helping, Killua!” Tsuna admonished him. The implication that Gokudera could take that name as an insulting jab at the circumstances of his birth was not lost on Tsuna, not that Killua would know that. Killua looked guilty.

“Right, sorry.” Killua let out a quick rush of air, sighed, and looked at Gokudera. “Look, I’m willing to be the bigger person here and drop all this if you apologize for being a complete aggressive asshole to me unprompted.”

“Please Gokudera-kun? I want you two to get along,” Tsuna pleaded.

“Fine,” Gokudera forced himself to say. “I’m. Sorry.” Wow, that sounded like that was genuinely painful for him. Unfortunately for Killua, he was used to shitty apologies, and his standards were incredibly low.

“Accepted! Can we finally go to school now? I don’t want to be late,” Killua said, running a hand through his hair, ready to get this school thing over with. This was not how he wanted to start his day! He was already not looking forward to school, and now he was extra annoyed on top of it before the school day even began.

Yamamoto laughed. “You’re so funny, Killua!”

“Not really sure what about that was funny, but okay,” Killua stated.

⚡︎ • ────  =͟͟͞͞(꒪ᗜ꒪‧̣̥̇)ა  ──── • ⚡︎

Tsuna was filled with dread as they entered the school gates. Looking at Killua’s uniform and noticing his complete air of nonchalance, Tsuna muttered, “I just hope we don’t run into Hibari-san.”

As if Tsuna had been summoning the devil in question, Killua glanced around the courtyard, and his eyes lit up in delight when he saw Hibari Kyoya.

“Hey, Kyo!” Killua called with a wave, trying to get his attention. Killua was excited to see him again.

“Oh no,” Tsuna mumbled under his breath fearfully.

Kyo snapped to attention, and his momentary surprise was quickly replaced with a fierce glower as he angrily stalked over.

“No skateboards are allowed on school grounds!” Kyo snapped at him.

There was no “good to see you again” or “wow, I’m so glad you’re at the same school.” Instead, it was annoying criticism that superseded any attempts at being pleasant or friendly.

Killua liked this guy, he really did, and he was still going to give Kyo a chance, but Killua was already on edge and not happy today because of this whole school thing, and then Gokudera had to go and make it even worse by being an asshole, so he really didn’t need Kyo criticizing him right now. He was being annoying, who does he think he is trying to tell him what to do? They don’t know each other that well!

‘Fine! If he’s gonna be like that, then I’m just gonna ignore him!’ Killua huffed, disappointed, and brushed past him.

Kyo stepped in front of him, blocking his path, and his glare heavy. “Your uniform is not acceptable. Altering the uniform in any way is against the rules,” he informed indignantly.

“He’s sorry Hibari-san! It’s his first day, he didn’t know better! Tomorrow he’ll–” Tsuna tried to defuse the situation, but Killua cut him off.

“Whatever, I don’t care! Let’s go, Tsuna,” Killua said tartly, grunting in frustration and trying to keep walking. Killua was now moving from the “this is annoying” camp to being firmly pissed off.

‘Why are people just hounding me today out of nowhere?!’ Was there a sign on Killua that said “please come antagonize Killua today” that he somehow missed?

Kyo was determined to not let Killua pass him, getting in his way once again. “Your backpack is not up to regulation!” Kyo thundered, eyeing the six-strap backpack with contempt.

“Why do you even care?!” Killua fumed.

“You must follow the rules!” Kyo forcefully commanded. Killua would’ve never pegged Kyo as a total buzz-kill straight-laced rule follower. Ugh, great. Whatever.

“Back off, idiot!” Killua seethed, shoving past Kyo’s shoulder.

“No! There are no exceptions, carnivore!” Kyo insisted belligerently, raising his voice, jumping in front of him, and continuing to herd Killua back. Killua was at his boiling point. He tried to be relatively cordial and avoid a confrontation, but Kyo wouldn’t back off!

“Ugghh! Bite me!” Killua shouted in exasperated defiance, his authority issues rearing their ugly head, and presently superseding his desire to befriend the guy.

Kyo suddenly stilled, had a weird look in his eyes like Killua’s words were an invitation, and slowly raised his tonfas.

“For violating the rules, I will bite you to death.” Kyo’s wild grin was all teeth, and he looked slightly unhinged.

At this moment, Killua realized that getting into a fight in the first 5 minutes of school was likely considered “not normal.”

“Wait no—” Killua tried to backtrack, but was promptly cut off by having to doge a tonfa flying at his head. Killua gracefully dipped into a backbend, then tipped back up. Kyo did not let up in his assault. Dodging around Kyo’s tonfas, Killua kept his hands in his pockets.

Kyo swiped at his knees, but Killua jumped on top of the weapon and stood on it, leaning down so his face was close to Kyo’s. “Ehhh? I thought you were going to bite me to death,” Killua goaded challengingly. Kyo’s eyes narrowed, frustrated, and lashed out with the other tonfa. Killua backflipped off from his perch and smirked.

Swipe. Dodge. Slash. Dodge. Laugh. Attack. Dodge.

As they continued this dance, Kyo finally looked like he had enough of Killua’s incessant avoidance. “Stop dodging and fight me!” Kyo shouted.

“Why?” Killua clicked his tongue. “I’m trying to be a good student and not fight before the first day of school has even started!!” He ducked to the right to avoid the subsequent tonfa strike. Killua chuckled lightheartedly, of course Kyo wouldn’t actually care about being a “good student” despite claiming to be a staunch rule follower and enforcer. He was such a hypocrite that it was funny!

Killua suddenly realized that he was actually having fun.

Startled, Killua re-examined Kyo once more. Every piece of information he’d learned about the teen, every offhand comment someone made, every weird remark, every interaction he’d had with him slotted itself perfectly into the puzzle that was Hibari Kyoya to reveal the completed picture in Killua’s mind.

Hibari Kyoya was a feral, gruff, rude, brash, disrespectful, aggressive, antagonistic, asshole with no impulse control, an incredible lack of subtlety, an ego that surpasses his actual capabilities, authority issues possibly larger than Killua’s own, and called people silly nicknames. He protected the people in his town with no care for money and intentionally went after opponents stronger than him for fun with no regard for his personal safety or the injuries he’d inevitably receive.

Kyo would absolutely bite the hand that feeds him, and despite that being a metaphor, given Kyo’s previous words, he’d probably literally do just that. Ha. Yet Kyo was clearly a prodigy who was practically bursting with untapped potential.

And then, with the barreling force of a high-speed train, it hit Killua.

The Zoldycks would have hated Hibari Kyoya. He was the epitome of everything his family despised, the antithesis of every value the Zoldyck dynasty ever had.

Hibari Kyoya was the Zoldyck antichrist.

So naturally, Killua was half in love with him already and was determined to become Kyo’s best friend at all costs.

With his newfound revelation, Killua’s annoyance evaporated and now Killua found everything about him incredibly endearing. Kyo was like a small bird trying to intimidate a big predator. It was so cute! 

Killua was now Kyo’s biggest fan. Killua wanted to do whatever he could to encourage Kyo to keep up this attitude and support him in all his endeavors.

Killua never wanted to return to Kukuroo Mountain, but he was almost tempted to just so he could bring Hibari Kyoya there to meet his family. If they were upset about Killua befriending Gon, Kyo would cause his family to have an aneurysm. His mom would literally foam at the mouth and might actually spontaneously die from the sheer outrage of it all. It would be glorious.

Finished with dodging, Killua quickly moved behind Kyo. Kyo’s eyes widened at the sudden display of speed, it was faster than he could track, and Killua’s abrupt change up caught him off guard. Killua knocked the tonfas out of Kyo’s hands. As the weapons clattered to the ground uselessly, Killua kicked the back of his knees, forcing Kyo to kneel on the ground, and pinned his arms together behind his back, holding them in place with one hand. Kyo tried to jerk out of the hold, but was unable to. It was an unexpected display of physical strength that betrayed the small lithe frame Killua presented.

“Okay, okay, you win, Kyo! I’ll stop skateboarding in school, you can even take it and give it back to me later, but I’m not going to change my uniform back. It violates my important personal philosophy. I did mean what I said when I gave you my number the other day, I’d love to spar with you! I’ll fight you after school for real. Final offer,” Killua conceded.

Killua was MUCH more willing to listen to Kyo now, but he just couldn’t go back to the prescribed uniform. There was no way Killua was going to wear that. But now that he’d figured out Hibari Kyoya, Killua knew exactly how to get Kyo to stop.

It didn’t even take Kyo a second to respond, “Acceptable. We shall fight when the final bell tolls.” Killua released his arms, and Kyo stood back up, grabbing his tonfas on the way.

“Cool! It will be fun!” Killua smiled, and handed his skateboard over to Kyo. “Take good care of it, okay?” Kyo nodded and carefully handled the skateboard. Aww Kyo was such a dork! ‘Who even talks like that? “We shall fight when the final bell tolls?” He’s such a feral nerd. It’s actually adorable.’

As a reluctant observer of the whole debacle, Tsuna was currently losing his mind and attempting to gaslight himself as a means of coping.

‘Aaah, maybe Killua is just really into martial arts?’ Tsuna deliriously pondered. ‘That makes sense– No, who am I kidding? I can’t even fool myself. This is not normal at all!! No one is just that easily better than Hibari-san!! And I can’t believe Kilua was telling the truth! They are friends!’ Tsuna turned to see Gokudera and Yamamoto’s reactions, hoping he was not on his own with this. Yamamoto was delightedly laughing, and Gokudera looked very reluctantly impressed. ‘Nope, like always, just me seeing how insane this is!’

“Get to class, Killua,” Hibari commented while brushing off his clothes and looking very satisfied. “I’ll give you the skateboard back after school.” Hibari walked away, no doubt off to terrorize someone else.

Killua blinked. “Oh, yeah, school. Forgot about that for a second. Tsuna, where are we going?” he asked offhandedly, turning to Tsuna.

“Killua! You fought Hibari-san!!” Tsuna squeaked, still failing to process everything. Killua looked at him a little confused.

“Um, yeah…? Don’t get all worked up about it, it’s not that big of a deal. Anyways, where do we go for class?” Killua tried to pivot. He didn’t want to be late on day one. Killua already messed up and had a fight. But his realization about Kyo made it very worth it.

“Hahaha! Wow, that was so smooth! You took him down like it was nothing! You’re so cool, Killua!” Yamamoto complemented with a laugh and threw his arm around Killua’s shoulders.

“Oi!” Killua exclaimed, taken aback by the gesture, but did nothing to move the arm away.

“Baseball idiot!! Don’t be so familiar with him! We can’t trust him yet!” Gokudera instructed, not liking that Killua was being integrated into their group so easily. He’d very reluctantly admit that Killua’s fight, if it could even be called that due to how one-sided it was, against Hibari was impressive, but it also made Gokudera understand that Killua wasn’t just an unknown, he was an unknown threat. He needed to keep an eye on Killua and make sure he wasn’t targeting Juudaime.

Tsuna noticed several students watching around them and up from the school windows. They’d likely been watching since the beginning of Killua and Hibari-san’s confrontation. ‘Yet again, I have been thrust in the middle of a spectacle,’ Tsuna reluctantly observed.

“Chill out, Gokudera! Killua’s friends with Tsuna, so that means he’s our friend too!” Yamamoto declared, grinning at Killua. Killua ducked his head, not wanting Yamamoto to see his expression. Killua really wasn’t used to that kind of easy acceptance, but now it seems like he’s gained two more friends. Even if Gokudera was a massive asshole. At least Yamamoto seemed cool.

Gokudera glared at Yamamoto. “No it doesn’t! We still don’t know who he is–”

“I’m Killua. I’m new in town. We went over this already, idiooooot,” Killua interrupted petulantly.

Before it could devolve into another episode of Killua and Gokudera fighting like cats and dogs, Tsuna intervened and diverted their attention. “Aah! School! Yes, let’s go to class! Hahaha!” Tsuna laughed nervously. “I’ll show you the way to our classroom, Killua.”

“Thank you! Let’s go, Yamamoto. I’m going to do great at this school thing,” Killua cheered, walking side by side with Yamamoto’s arm still slung over his shoulder, and followed Tsuna.

‘Why do you sound like you’ve never gone to school before?!’ Tsuna bemoaned in his head. ‘I need to stop thinking about it. Everyone around me now is strange, but I like Killua, and he hasn’t changed how he acts towards me.’ Tsuna had come to terms with the fact that Killua might not be as normal of a person as Tsuna had originally thought, but strangely enough, their friendship was still the most normal one he has. He wasn’t going to bail on a friend who was the only one who accepted him for “Tsuna.” If Killua could accept “Tsuna,” Tsuna could accept “Killua,” quirks, oddly proficient battle prowess, and all.

“Hey!” Gokudera protested, but trailed after them just the same.

The four had made their way to the classroom, but Killua was asked to hang back outside the door so that the teacher could introduce him to the class. Okay, Killua could deal with making an entrance. It wasn’t long before he was called in to join the group.

“Class, we have a new transfer student joining us today. Please come and join us, Zoldyck-kun,” the teacher, who was an older man named Kato-sensei, called out.

Killua entered the classroom, and was immediately struck by being the center of attention for at least 20 people his own age. He’d really never been around that many peers before. It was really unsettling.

“Why don’t you introduce yourself, Zoldyck-kun,” Kato-sensei asked.

“Okay, jijii,” Killua said, he ignored the indignantly outraged look from Kato-sensei. He turned to the class, the weight of having this many eyes on him became ever more noticeable. “I-I’m Killua Zoldyck–er Zoldyck Killua, I guess? But don’t call me by my last name. I don’t like it. Call me Killua. I, um, am from overseas and was home schooled before this, so this is my first time at school, so, um, don’t make fun of me if I take a bit to adjust, okay?” Killua accidentally stuttered. This was too weird! Killua would never admit it, but he’s stupidly nervous which was why he was rambling a bit too much and making errors.

Unbeknownst to Killua, the entire class had seen his confrontation with Hibari from the windows or in person in the courtyard. It was all they were talking about before the bell rang. They were on edge and apprehensive of who this new student could be. Another Hibari but worse?? They were dreading meeting him.

But then he opened his mouth and spoke, and who was this?! No, because this couldn’t be the same guy who fought Hibari from earlier. That insane badass was actually adorable, easily flustered, doesn’t talk like a psychopath like Hibari, and invited all of them to call him by his first name?! He was cute, cool, and approachable??

A fervent cacophony of noise erupted suddenly from the class made up of questions, comments, and squealing. Killua jolted, eyes wide, and slightly blushing as this many people have never expressed interest of any kind in him before. He’s incredibly overwhelmed.

“S-shut up, idiots! I’m not good at this!” Killua blurted out, then averted his eyes, face red, and rubbed the back of his head with one hand. “I can’t even hear your questions,” he pouted.

The class was struck. A single thought ran through everyone’s head: ‘Oh my god, it’s a real-life true tsundere.’

Killua was edgy, but in a mysterious way. He’s the bad-boy rule-breaker trope, but if they looked like a sweet cherub angel. Fights Hibari, wins, but then is an adorable cute blushing tsundere mess? The class was obsessed with this new transfer.

Tsuna was not at all above being affected by Killua’s display, and was mirroring the thoughts of his classmates. He didn’t realize that Killua could have this overwhelmed, stuttering, and cute side to him where he just shuts down and doesn’t know how to cope with things? Why did that make Killua seem so relatable all of a sudden??

The class went wild once more, but this time, they tried to ask questions one-by-one.

“Where are you from?” one student shouted out.

“Algeria, originally, but we moved around a lot,” Killua answered, relieved he could actually hear them this time. The class tittered at his response.

“Do you play any sports?” a boy questioned.

“Does dodgeball count? I did that one time,” Killua commented, not really sure of his answer.

“What are your hobbies?” another was quick to jump in.

“Um, training, exploring, playing video games, and yo-yoing, I guess?” Were the questions ever going to stop? Killua would like them to stop.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” one girl blurted out, face red.

“Girlfriend…? Why would I have one of those?” Killua scrunched his eyebrows in confused disgust. His only observation of dating and “girlfriends” had been Gon and Palm, and that SUCKED for a number of reasons he’d rather not get into.

“What’s your ideal type?” another girl bravely exclaimed, emboldened by the fact that he was single.

“M-my type?!” Killua sputtered. His thoughts immediately turned to the conversation he had with himself the other night at Tsuna’s house that he was venomously trying to not think about. He had noticed that Gon and Tsuna had a few similar features, and Killua had maybe possibly potentially a little bit had been thinking that Tsuna was cute. No! NO! NO! Killua had been trying to bury that line of thought in the recesses of his mind, but now he was being forced to think about it again. Time to dig a mental hole even deeper than before and let that thought die painfully in a ditch.

While he hadn’t actually answered the question, Killua accidentally affirmed that he absolutely has a type to the rest of the class due to his extremely flustered reaction. The girls’ squeals rang out even louder than before.

Killua was frozen, genuinely so overwhelmed that he didn’t even move at this point. What was he supposed to do?! What was even happening?! Killua never in a million years would have thought that the one situation he would be unable to handle would be a room full of interested normie teenagers.

Tsuna, recognizing Killua’s struggle, decided that it would only be right to mirror Killua’s previous consideration of him, and act. Tsuna took a deep breath, stood up, and walked to the front of the room.

“Everyone, don’t overwhelm Killua! You can talk to him later. We have to start class!” Tsuna interjected. It clearly took a lot out of him to speak up like that, and Tsuna was a tad flushed himself. Tsuna’s save only made Killua more flustered, his face was completely red at this point. He grabbed Killua’s hand and led him to his assigned desk. Killua let Tsuna guide him, his eyes full of reverent appreciation.

While the class decided they were absolutely going to try to talk to Killua later at lunch, Sasagawa Kyoko watched Killua’s exchange with Tsuna with quiet fascination. While Kyoko might be the school’s idol and admired by all, Kurokawa Hana was her only real friend, which is why Hana picked up on what Kyoko’s gleaming eyes meant. Hana was the only one who knew about Kyoko’s love of shoujo manga and her secret status of being a huge BL fan. Resigned, Hana sighed, she’d definitely be hearing about this from Kyoko for hours later.

‘Oh! I get it, Tsuna must be his type! Tsuna even stood up for him!’ Kyoko thought excitedly as she watched the pair walk to their seats. ‘It’s “the weak-willed but caring introvert who struggles in school” x “the hyper-competent bad-boy tsundere transfer student with a secret soft spot” ship dynamic trope! I read a manga just like this! Aaah!! This is so cute!’ she internally squealed. Kyoko resolved to do her best to help them get together! After all, Tsuna deserved to be happy, and he was always helping her all the time. Now, she could help him!

⚡︎ • ────  ≽(⊙’_`⊙ マ≼  ──── • ⚡︎

By the time lunch rolled around, Killua was cursing Alluka out colorfully in his head. First, she makes him suffer though watching her insanely cringy flirting, and now, she’s making him suffer through this! School was SO boring!!! Ugh. And he had to sit through this every day for the foreseeable future?! No way.

Learning new information can be interesting, but Killua was able to understand things very quickly, and this entire institution seemed to be designed to teach people that were only a fraction as smart as Killua. Meaning, Killua had to deal with the teachers just explaining things in the most boring, uninteresting, and flat way possible several times and then doing nauseous repetition practice for concepts that Killua had already understood the first time!!

Not even to mention the times that the teacher was straight up WRONG!! Apparently, calling out the teacher on his bullshit was deemed “impolite,” that he shouldn’t curse in school, and that eating chocolate at his desk during class hours was not allowed. He wanted to rip his hair out, it was infuriating!

The only thing that had been remotely interesting was the fact that Reborn was clearly hiding in a tree outside the window. Killua noticed him immediately, and decided that Reborn was going to amuse him if he had to deal with this sick fate. Reborn and he had started a very elaborate game of stealth tic-tac-toe where his classmates were the spots on the grid. They’d have to mark the classmate with an X or an O somewhere on their person without them knowing in order to claim the grid spot, and had to complete a full row of people to win the game.

The overall score was now tied at 2-2. The game was fun, it was all Killua had standing in between him and insanity right now, but Killua could tell it was going to get dull after a while. He’d have to confront Reborn later and brainstorm how to make this manageable. Why hadn’t Reborn given him a heads up that this would suck!

But now a different problem arose. Lunch time meant that the students were free to badger Killua once again, and hound him they did. He was willing to socialize, but it had to be on his terms, and not when these people moved in massive packs like a herd of sheep!

A group of classmates approached him together. A boy with black hair and an average looking face spoke first. “Hey, Killua! Nice to meet you, man.”

“Yeah! We’re so excited to have you!” a girl with brown hair chimed in. “What do you do for fun?”

“Uh–”

“Have you joined a club yet? You should join the gardening club!” a girl with blonde hair suggested with a smile.

“No way! He should join the book club! Can’t you see how sophisticated he is?” the brown haired girl huffed challengingly.

“No! Clearly he’s a better fit for the baseball club!” the black haired boy from before claimed.

‘What the fuck is baseball?’ Killua wondered. He didn’t voice his confusion, sure it would inspire an actual conversation.

“What did you bring for lunch?” another boy asked.

“Chocolate,” Killua replied flatly.

“That’s not enough for a whole lunch!” the blonde girl said aghast. “You could share my lunch with me if you’d like, I made it myself,” she said shyly.

“You can share my lunch too!”

“And mine!”

“Don’t even try eating hers! She failed Home Economics!”

“Like you’re any better! You burnt your last class project!”

“What is actually wrong with you all? Ew. Back off!” Killua exclaimed perplexed.

“You’re so cute!!” the girls cooed, seemingly not getting the message and having the complete opposite intended reaction.

“I-idots! You suck, go away!” Killua tried again. Why were they not getting the memo that he did not want to talk to them? He was being very clear!

“Wow, he’s so precious!”

That was it, Killua was leaving the room! He didn’t bother to say anything, he just got up and left. Like lemmings, the herd noticed, and trailed after him.

“Where are we going, Killua?” one boy asked. Killua started running through the halls, desperate to escape these clearly insane people. After sprinting up a few flights of stairs faster than they could keep up with, Killua ducked into a door, and sighed. He finally lost them.

Killua turned around and banged his head against the closed door. He groaned in pent up frustration, and was so entirely done with this school bullshit. Killua turned around, sighed once more, and finally noticed that he was on the roof.

And that Kyo was seated nearby watching his entire frantic breakdown. Great. Their eyes met.

“Hn, they were crowding?” Kyo asked, assessing Killua’s distress. Killua looked at him with thankful exhausted eyes. Someone who shares in his plight, finally! 

“Oh my god, yes! Exactly that! And I’m not even allowed to kill them! This sucks!” Killua groaned, exasperated, and ran his hand down his face.

Kyo nodded sympathetically. “They are herbivores, crowding is what they do. We can bite them when they annoy us, but we can’t fully take them out. As much as it is a struggle, they are still a part of our flock. It is a burden we must bear,” he commented in solemn understanding.

Killua felt that Kyo’s analogy greatly and accurately summed everything up. “You’re so right, that’s why they move in herds, they think they have a lesser chance of someone lashing out against them,” Killua realized, thinking out loud. “You’re surprisingly very poetic and well spoken,” he complimented Kyo with a small smile.

Kyoya preened under Killua’s praise, a warm feeling bubbling up in his chest. He was very happy with how today was going. Kyoya got a glimpse of Killua’s abilities, just a brief moment of his true colors, and that moment alone was enough to thoroughly impress Kyoya. If that was just a sliver of what he could do, then imagine what Killua was like when he didn’t hold back or took Kyoya seriously. Kyoya shivered in anticipation. He had never been more excited for a fight!

Additionally, the carnivore was also seeing things Kyoya’s way in regards to the herbivores. What a good carnivore. Really, Kyoya wasn’t sure why no one else seemed to understand his evaluations of the world. It was very clear cut and obvious. Maybe they had to be a carnivore, and herbivores would just never understand. Yet another strike against herbivores.

Kyoya eyed Killua’s fluffy looking hair. His fingers twitched in desire to pet it. Another time, not yet. “Hn. As long as you don’t disturb my napping, you can nap here too. You will not be crowded if I am here. Tomorrow, I’ll show you my office. No one is allowed in there except for me, but you may come and go as you like. Herbivores will not find you there, nor would they dare enter.”

Killua grinned brightly. He could escape the idiots!! “Are you just actually the best guy ever?! I will absolutely be doing that. Yes to rooftop naps and quiet time.” Killua had another thought hit him. “Oh, please tell me that we’re still on for fighting after school? I really need to punch something after dealing with people today.” Killua desperately needed to vent after everything.

“Yes, we shall fight. We can fight every day after school.” Killua smiled in agreement, and Kyoya felt the warm feeling increase. He was very pleased with how things were progressing. He got the carnivore/small animal to agree to do small animal things and carnivore things with him. “You will help me feed the small animals,” Kyoya said. His intonation insinuated that this was not a request, but a demand.

Killua shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, sure. Why not?” He’d rather spend tranquil time with Kyo than go back to that classroom of horrors. “Small animals? Do you have a pet? I feel like you would be a cat guy,” Killua noted while observing Kyoya.

Kyoya looked intently at Killua, practically burning holes into his head, specifically eyeing Killua’s white, fluffy, cloud-like hair and cat-like eyes, while internally acknowledging Killua’s small animal status and cat-like mannerisms. “No, I don’t have a pet,” Kyoya stated slowly, eyes still locked on Killua’s hair, but he didn’t sound as confident as he had intended. Kyoya purposefully did not make any move to acknowledge if he was a cat person or not. “We are feeding the wild birds.”

“Oh, cool,” Killua wouldn’t have thought Kyo would be the type to regularly nurture wild animals, but it was very cute how much it contrasted his usual gruff demeanor. Kyo was secretly a softy!!

Kyo stood and got out his stash of bird seed he kept stored on the rooftop. As soon as he opened the bag, birds of all sizes appeared out of nowhere and started to swarm him.

Killua chuckled, and held his hands out for Kyo to pour some bird seed in. Even though Killua now had food as well, the birds clearly preferred Kyo. Several were nestled into his black hair like they were trying to make a nest in it, and one was even adorably nipping at his ear to try to get Kyo’s attention.

Killua smiled to himself. Good hunters were beloved by animals.

Yeah, Kyo was just the best.

⚡︎ • ────  ꒰ঌ( ᓀ ‸ᓂ)໒꒱   ദ്ദി(•⩊ •マ≼  ──── • ⚡︎

Alluka Zoldyck, sorry, Zoldyck Alluka, she needed to get used to having her name said that way now that she’s going to school, was so excited for her first day!

She’d done all of her research for this moment, school-centric TV dramas had been truly an invaluable resource, and she knew exactly how this would play out.

She even had a dream about it last night! It went like this:

Alluka cutely walked into the classroom. Everyone was looking at her and admiring how well she wore the uniform. It looked like it was made for her specifically!

“I’m Zoldyck Alluka, please call me Alluka~! I can’t wait to be friends with all of you. Please take care of me!” And then she’d bow demurely, her eyes wide and glistening, instantly capturing the hearts of the class.

The class would cheer, and Alluka would immediately become the school’s idol, the most popular girl in school. All the girls would want to know what products she used to get her skin so nice – “I only use regular soap, so I guess my skin is just naturally nice, tee-he~!” – and what kind of fashion she liked – “I really love traditional clothing, it’s just soooo sophisticated and beautiful!” – and what her hobbies were – “I love photography! I’m just so artistic!” – and they’d all marvel at how great she was and would want to be her friend.

The boys would think she’s the cutest girl in the class, but she’d take that assessment gracefully. After all, she didn’t need their attention. She already had a crush on the most perfect boy in school, Futa della Stella.

Futa would see other boys trying to talk to her and would interrupt to keep her attention on him! She’d gladly give it, and would act shyly every time she caught him sneaking looks at her in class.

Alluka would get called up by the teacher to answer a problem on the board, and she’d solve it so quickly that the whole class would clap for her and marvel at how smart she was. Futa would be so impressed with how smart Alluka was, that he’d ask her to help him study!

All of her friends would tell her that Futa never interacts with girls, nor has any friends that are girls, so she must be super special! They’d sigh and declare that Alluka and Futa would make the most perfect couple!

Alluka dreamily sighed, her heart aflutter, as she recounted it. She would do everything in her power to become this school’s idol and ensure her perfect romance with Futa.

Alluka flounced, swishing and twirling her super cute uniform skirt as she walked, school bag clasped delicately in front of her, through the school hallway with Futa. Alluka could feel the eyes following her.

‘Yes,’ Alluka thought, raising her chin a little higher in pride. ‘They should be looking at us! Everyone can already tell that we look great together! We are obviously destined to be the new “it” couple of this school.’

Killua had… arranged… for Alluka to be in the same class as Futa. She didn’t really care to know the details, only that he had executed her orders perfectly.

As they arrived at the classroom, Futa smiled at her and ducked inside, while Alluka was asked to wait outside for the teacher, a middle-aged woman named Honda-sensei, to introduce her.

Alluka did a little twirl as she waited outside the classroom door. She knew she was pulling off the uniform so well!! It was actually unreal how good she looked! She even added the classic thigh high socks to complete the look.

“Zoldyck-chan, you can come in now!” Honda-sensei called. Alluka took a deep breath, okay show time.

Alluka walked inside and stood at the front of the classroom, holding her bag with both hands in front of her, Hello Kitty and Mimi keychains dangling.

“Class, we have a new student joining us from Algeria today! Why don’t you introduce yourself, Zoldyck-chan?” Honda-sensei prompted her.

Alluka smiled cutely, and repeated what she said in her dream, “I’m Zoldyck Alluka, please call me Alluka~! I can’t wait to be friends with all of you. Please take care of me!” She bowed properly, and tried to look as friendly and innocent as possible.

Everyone politely clapped and there was a hum of chatter amongst the class. They probably didn’t intend for Alluka to hear them, but she did.

“She’s pretty cute!” one boy remarked to his friend.

“If you’re into traditional girls, sure, but I like Suzuki-chan more,” the friend replied. So he must have no taste, Alluka mused.

“Her hair beads and head band kinda go against the hime look she has going on, don’t you think?” one girl asked her desk mate, noticing Alluka’s pink hair beads and head band with faces on them.

“Yeah, but I think it makes her a little edgy, I like it!” the other girl responded. Alluka made note of this girl. She had chin-length cropped black hair and fierce brown eyes. Alluka would try to be friends with her later. Clearly, at least one of the girls had sense.

“Zoldyck-chan, why don’t you take the empty seat next to Stella-kun?” Honda-sensei was truly an angel. Alluka could tell that Honda-sensei clearly supported the next “it” couple. Alluka smiled as she walked to her desk, and sat down.

“Futa! I can’t believe we get to sit next to each other! What a coincidence~!” Alluka beamed. Futa looked just as happy.

“This is great, Alluka!” Futa cheered.

“Alright class, settle down. Take out your textbooks and turn to page…” As Honda-sensei started the lesson, Alluka could barely contain her joy. This was going so well!!!

⚡︎ • ────  ᓚ₍^*ᴗ͈ ˬᴗ͈^₎ᢉ𐭩*₊⊹  ──── • ⚡︎

Determined to impress Futa, Alluka was hyper focused on learning. Time flew by for Alluka, and before she knew it, it was lunch time. Her classmates shuffled around and took out their lunches.

‘Finally, it’s time to eat lunch with Futa~!’ Alluka gleefully thought, then looked over at Futa.

But Futa wasn’t looking at her.

He was talking to someone else who wasn’t Alluka.

The girl seated on Futa’s other side, who had mid-length brown hair tied into a high ponytail with a white scrunchie, leaned over, said something to Futa, and giggled.

Futa laughed.

Alluka’s insides turned to ice, like thousands of needles were piercing every nerve in her body.

Who…?

Who was that…?

Who was that bitch talking to HER Futa?! How DARE she!!! Who the FUCK does she think she is?!

It was at this moment that Alluka’s own Flames, which had been ever present but very dormant, forcefully erupted around her, completely encasing her form like she was being burned on a pyre for being a witch. It was an accurate comparison to make, but soon it wouldn’t be Alluka burning on the stake amidst the purple cloudy flames. Alluka’s flood gates had opened, and they’d be impossible to shut now.

‘Somebody should dig a grave, but not for me.’ Alluka glared at the girl.

The air was so thick it was almost impossible to breathe. Students were loosening their ties in an attempt to get more oxygen.

“She must be eliminated,” Nanika beckoned, absolutely on the same page as Alluka.

‘No, no, we can’t just kill her, she’s our classmate. It would be so hard to deal with,’ Alluka insisted. She couldn’t have every school day being bogged down by people being sad over this dumb girl dying or whatever. That would be so counter productive! Everyone would be paying attention to that and not Alluka!

The girl in question suddenly felt a heavy pressure fall onto her amidst the thin air. She looked behind her to see Alluka glaring her little heart out.

As soon as Futa turned to look at Alluka, her entire expression flipped, and “innocent angel” Alluka was back, aura tucked carefully away.

“Oh, Alluka! Come meet Watanabe-chan.” Futa smiled. “This is Watanabe Emi we sit next to each other, Watanabe-chan this is Zoldyck Alluka.”

Watanabe raised an eyebrow assessingly at Alluka, scoffed, and rolled her eyes. Futa looked at her questioningly for the noise, but the girl said, “So sorry, I had something stuck in my throat!”

‘This bitch!!’

Alluka’s smile was tight and frigid. “Oh, how lovely to meet you, Watanabe.” Alluka didn’t even bother to put on an honorific, it was her own subtle dig.

“Yeah, it’s so great to meet you too, Zoldyck. Stella-kun and I were just talking about you,” Watanabe said with a laugh, trying to insinuate that they’d been gossiping about her. Alluka wasn’t about to take that lying down.

“Well Futa,” Alluka emphasized her use of his first name, “has never mentioned you to me before just now. I wonder why that is?” Watanabe glared at her.

“Oh, Stella-san!” a new voice called out. A mousey looking girl with glasses and blonde short hair shuffled over. She shyly met his gaze. “I made you some of those cookies we talked about the other day! I hope you like them!” She presented Futa with a small bag tied with a bow.

Futa smiled at her, and took the cookies. “Thank you so much, Yamada-chan! You didn’t have to make me anything, but I appreciate it!” Yamada blushed softly and quickly looked away.

‘WHO–’

“Stella-kun! I was looking for you!” The door to the classroom opened, and a sporty looking black haired girl with pigtails walked in. “You promised you’d help me with my math assignment.”

‘THERE ARE THREE BIMBOS NOW?!’

“Sure, Suzuki-chan! We can work on it after we eat lunch, if that’s okay?” Futa grinned lightheartedly.

“Perfect! I brought my lunch too, so we can eat together!” Suzuki held up her lunch with a smile.

“Oh, Suzuki-chan, Yamada-chan, this is Zoldyck Alluka! This is her first day. Alluka, this is Suzuki Aoi and Yamada Mai, they’re both my good friends!” Futa introduced, not at all noticing the tension.

Watanabe, Yamada, Suzuki, and Alluka all shared a collective look of thinly masked mutual disdain.

“Our Futa, not theirs!” Nanika insisted. “Nanika can just twist them! No one has to know it was Nanika!”

“Yeah, nice to meet you both,” Alluka said through gritted teeth. Alluka was so ready to say “fuck it” and actually kill them at this point, but she couldn’t because apparently these three bitches were Futa’s friends. Yeah right, Alluka saw what was really happening here. These three clearly liked Futa as more than friends. If she couldn’t eliminate them, she would have to protect Futa from their influence.

‘I want to too, Nanika, but we can’t! This SUCKS!’ Alluka pouted. It would be sooo easy to kill them, but it would cause more trouble than it’s worth. She hated that killing them would just be too inconvenient for her plans.

“They will not touch our Futa,” Nanika affirmed, reluctantly agreeing to the “we can’t kill them” plan.

“I’m so glad you’re all here! Now we can all eat lunch together, and you can get to know Alluka!” Futa declared happily. He was excited for Alluka to meet his friends. He really did like Alluka, as more than a friend, and so Futa very much wanted his friends to like her too.

Lovely, Alluka got to spend her lunch in her personal hell surrounded by actual evil incarnate in the form of love rivals.

This was SO not fair!!!!! This was a nightmare! Where was the ideal school life she dreamed about???