Author's Note: Why does inspiration have to strike me hard in the head? And why does Ging Freecss give off the 'badass daddy kink' vibe? We can never know. And I'm apologizing for not updating Hunter Academy. I'm such a shitty author. Thank you for proofreading this, Amy and Marcus!

Miwaku: I don't own Hunter x Hunter.

PROLOGUE

As the sun slowly rose in the east, many of the inhabitants of Whale Island were already awake and busy with their respective jobs. From catching to gutting the fishes, they did what they have to do for a living - a pretty much normal day in the island.

At one of the highest hills in the island, the Freecss household was already awake and bustling around, getting ready for a new day. The only one who was still in his room, staring at the sunrise, was ten-year old Ging Freecss.

'Another day, huh?' Ging scratched the back of his head. 'Might as well start.'

He did his normal morning routine - fix bed, shower, put on his working clothes - and went downstairs to the dining room where his family was probably waiting for him. He was always the late one.

Once he got there, he paused as he saw a little girl with orange hair in pigtails, pouting and glaring at him. It was his three-year old cousin - Mito Freecss. "Why is Mito here?"

"Don't be rude, Ging." His mother scolded lightly with a smile. "They wanted to visit us."

"Actually, we're here to ask if you could take care of Mito for today." His aunt - Mito's mother - told him. "We have to look over the renovations in our store today and we'll be too busy to look after our daughter."

"It's only for today, Ging." His uncle grinned. "Please?"

Ging's eye twitched and he kept from smiling wryly. All of them knew why they had to somehow persuade Ging to take the job. Mito was quite a handful after all. Clingy, always shouting, attention-seeker...those were the three adjectives that Ging always associated with Mito. And he knew that his relatives knew this.

He looked at Mito then at his relatives and so on and so forth until he whispered loudly, "Do I have to?"

His father let out a cough to hide his laugh. "You didn't have to stage-whisper, son. And yes, you have to. You won't be coming with us to town."

Ging thought about it. To help his family with the fishes or to babysit Mito? He definitely preferred the first one, but seeing the hopeful faces of his aunt and uncle just made him cave in. "Fine, fine."

"Did you hear that, Mito-chan? Ging will be playing with you today!"

At the word 'play', Mito smiled widely and clapped her hands. "Play! Play!"

"Play later." Ging's grandmother appeared from the kitchen and sat at the end of the table. "Eat first." Ging made eye-contact with her and felt as if he was played into getting the babysitting job.

He could only sigh inwardly and clasp his hands together for the offering of thanks. 'Well, at least something new from the routine.'

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Three. Two. One. Ready or not, here I come!" Ging started running around the house, looking for Mito.

Immediately after breakfast, Mito insisted that they play already. Ging's parents let them, saying that they have to go...with matching teasing expressions. Ging put up with it anyway because they all knew that he could not say no to his little cousin.

Despite the clinginess, shouting, and attention-seeking, Ging loved Mito. She was, after all, probably the only kid in the island besides himself. And she was family.

He skidded to a stop at the living room, in front of the low coffee table. He knew Mito was under it, the pink skirt she was wearing was a dead giveaway. He knelt slowly and then quickly showed his face and said, "Boo!"

"Ah!" Mito yelped and sat up, only to bump her head on the table. Apparently, her head could already reach it.

"Whoops, sorry." Ging grinned and pulled her out of the table. Luckily, Mito did not cry and just pouted at him, crossing her arms. "I found you so now you're it."

"No!" That was a word that Mito loved saying. Ging had grumbled about how he wanted to go back time and made sure she did not learn it, much to his relatives' amusement and at the same time, exasperation. "Scary!"

"What?" Ging shook his head at that. "I just surprised you. That was not scary."

"Scary! You it!"

"You just don't want to be it." Ging rolled his eyes at his cousin's now-exaggerated pout. "Okay, I'm it again. Go on and hide now." He closed his eyes and began counting. "Ten. Nine. Eight..."

He strained his ears so that he could hear where Mito would be going but the socks she was wearing muffled her steps on the wooden floor. He resigned himself to just look for her. It was not as if she would go anywhere else in the house...

'Would she?' "Three. Two. One! Ready or not, here I come!" Ging quickly glanced at the living room and deemed that Mito was not there. As well as the kitchen, the dining room, upstairs, even the bedrooms and closets. "Where is she?!"

He ran back down and was about to open the door so that he could go out and find her, when suddenly, a hand tapped his back. He turned around rapidly and let out an embarrassing shriek. He lost his balance and fell on his butt on the floor.

In front of him was Mito, laughing and clapping her hands. "You it! You it!"

Ging had to control his breathing. He was really shocked. He did not sense Mito until he felt her hand. And the shriek...it was humiliating. He could not help the anger forming inside him and he let it out. "Why did you do that?! I was worried you went out of the house, dummy! Don't do that again!"

There was a tense silence after that. Mito stopped laughing and just stared wide-eyed at Ging while Ging stared back with hard eyes. Then, the crying and shouting started.

"Dummy! Dummy! No! No! No!" Mito's tears flowed down her eyes as she yelled. "Dummy Ging! Dummy Ging!" She then ran upstairs and Ging winced at the sound of the door slamming closed. He did not know which room or closet his cousin picked to sulk in but he hoped it was not his room.

"That could've been handled better." Ging muttered and sighed. He knew that they should talk about it and that he should apologize for shouting at her. However, his heart and mind raced as he replayed the earlier happening. He was not angry at Mito for doing that - he was angry because he did not understand how Mito did that to him. His senses were keener than normal, something they take advantage of during fishing. And he shouted those statements because of his childish stubbornness. 'I mean, who wouldn't be mad at that? It sucks to be snuck up on!'

"Ging, what are you doing on the floor?" The door suddenly opened, revealing his grandmother. "And where's your cousin?"

"Nothing. Upstairs. Sulking."

"She isn't the only one." His grandmother murmured and Ging knew that he was being teased again. "Anyway, you two probably fought again. It's better if you leave her alone for now. Come help me clean these shrimps. We're gonna make some gumbo!"

Ging glanced at the stairs then upwards. 'Hopefully, she won't do anything reckless.'

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

'I change my mind. She just did something reckless.' Ging and his grandmother just watched as Ging's parents, uncle, and aunt ran around the house, looking for Mito.

"Mito-chan! Where are you, sweetie?"

"Are you in here? No, you're not."

"We should tell the rest of the townspeople so that they could help us find her."

"Ging, what happened?"

They all paused in their actions to stare at Ging, who could only ruffle his hair in agitation. "We were playing hide-and-seek and then, we fought and shouted. She ran upstairs and I haven't seen her since."

"Oh where could that girl be?" His aunt bit her lip worriedly. "The island is so big. She could be anywhere."

"I'll find her." Ging stated. "And I won't stop until I do." He then went to put on some shoes. "I'll also tell the others. Try to look for her around here."

"Son, please know that we don't blame you for her disappearance." His father approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "She is quite stubborn after all. Only she would do stuff like this."

Ging snorted and smirked. "Yeah, and so am I. Probably in the genes. I'll be off then!" He ran out of the house and towards the woods, hoping that his sense of smell would not fail him.

He could only guess that this was Mito's way of attention-seeking. After the sulking, she decided that she wanted to sulk elsewhere ('Again, how did I not sense her? Seriously.') It was also his fault anyway, for not talking about it earlier and letting the argument get into them. Damn his stubbornness.

Letting out a tired breath, Ging sped up his pace until he reached town. He began telling the people about the situation and that helped spread the word. Once that was done, he was about to go back to the forest to search but he overheard a conversation from a group of fishmongers.

"Hey, I heard that the huge fish in the forest lake has been appearing lately."

"That ain't a fish. It's a monster I'm telling you! Not even the best fishermen can catch that."

"It's big enough that it could eat a human whole!"

"Should we tell the Hunters about it?"

"Nah, they probably couldn't do it, too."

"More like, they wouldn't care enough. They're only for fame and finding new shit after all."

'Hunters, huh?' Ging stopped listening and began running again. 'Weird.' He did not dwell much on it and focused on finding Mito. He was glad that he listened though. He had a clue then on where to find his troublesome little cousin. 'And only stubborn ones will attempt that.'

He climbed up a tree and began jumping from one branch to the other. It was much faster than running on the ground, but held more danger if he slipped and did not land carefully. He remembered seeing the said forest lake - which was more of a swamp than lake - and hoped that he was going in the right direction.

Then, he heard splashes. 'Bingo.'

Ging pushed himself harder to get there faster and when he did reach it, he stopped and looked around. He just noticed that the sun had already set and only the crescent moon and stars lit up the dark sky. The swamp was a dark, murky liquid but his eyes let him see the movement of something big circling the water.

He did not expect that he would feel so...excited.

It was as if he was receiving a wrapped-up gift, not knowing what is inside but wanting to know anyway. He wanted to know, wanted to see the so-called monster that the fishmongers kept saying. Was it really that big? What does it look like? Can it really eat humans whole? The questions bombarded his mind. However, he knew that it was not the time for that.

Ging then eyed the surrounding foliage and to his surprise, Mito was in one of the holes in a huge tree trunk, shaking and crying.

Carefully, he made his way to the tree, climbed up until he reached the hole, then reached out a hand. "Mito, let's go home."

Mito stopped crying and when she saw Ging, she scrambled her way towards him until she touched his hand. "Ging! Scary! Scary!"

"I know, I know. That's why we'll go home." He pulled his cousin to his arms and then dropped down to the ground, carrying her in his arms. With one last glance to the dark swimming figure in the swamp, he turned away and began walking towards where their house was.

There was the occasional sniff from Mito in which Ging comforted with a rub on the back. They were silent on their trek home when it was broken by Mito.

"Sorry. Love you, Ging."

It was a quiet whisper, but Ging heard it clearly. And it made him uncomfortable and embarrassed. Words of love and comfort always made him uneasy. He was not sure why but it was probably because of his awkward personality.

"Sheesh, okay. Just calm down. We're almost there." Ging grumbled out but inside, he was smiling a bit. 'The things I do for this family.' He then remembered the feelings he encountered at the swamp. The excitement, the thrill, the curiosity...

'If that's what a Hunter feels like, then it sounds like fun!' Ging smiled up at the sky then looked down when he felt Mito relax against him. She was asleep.

'But first, I need to plan this.' And this was the start of Ging Freecss' life.

TO BE CONTINUED

Author's Note: Wow, what a prologue. So excited with this! Hope you are too!

Expect in the next chapter: Master, Cries, Tragedies

See you next time!