Title: Genuine Liars
Author: Ashelyne
Rated: T for violence and swearing
Pairing: Killua Zoldyck x OC
Edit: This chapter was edited 10 July 2015! Later chapters are much longer in length.
g-e-n-u-i-n-e
l-i-a-r-s
1: Sugar
"Thanks for coming! Please come again!"
The young girl gave a bright smile as I handed her mother the bags of candy. Three bags filled to the brim with rosy pink cotton candy, milky white chocolate bars, and gum drops. Gross. Immediately, the child reached for the bag and began to devour the pink substance, the mother trying to usher her daughter out of the store.
The door fell closed behind them, instantly shrouding the rest of the shop in silence. It was 7pm on the dot, leaving only an hour of work before closing. Most people tended not to enter the candy shop later than 6, so I could probably spend this last hour catching up on one of my books.
After I retrieved the ancient text from under the counter, I opened to where I last left off and slipped my Hunter License out from under the yellowing pages. This piece of plastic meant both the world and nothing to me. It was valuable yet useless. But I knew that losing this piece of plastic would lose me more than I could ever regain.
Which is exactly why I used it as a bookmark. It wasn't something that people would expect.
I skimmed over the previous paragraphs in an attempt to remember what I had last read. I was just starting where I left off when the door chimes resounded and rang in my ears. Curious (and hoping that this would be the last customer for the day), I raised my head and offered the mandatory smile.
A teenage boy, white stick prodding out of his mouth, casually glanced around the store, not bothering to glance in my direction. My smile faltered. Keeping his hands in his pockets, he observed the contents of various jars, eyeing the chocolate bars in a way that made me uncomfortable.
Then he did something strange. He took a handful of the chocolate bars and began peeling the wrappers back, the color of cocoa peeking out. Then he took a bite. What.
"You know, you're supposed to pay for the things you use," I commented, returning my gaze to the book.
The boy removed the stick from his mouth, glancing around the area again. The lollipop stick was in one hand, the handful of chocolate bars in the other.
"There's a trashcan behind you."
The boy nodded, turning on his heel to dispose of the stick. Then he turned back around to face me, eyebrows raised ever so slightly. He began walking closer, and I counted the number of bars he had taken. Three.
"Three chocolate bars will be 375 Jenny." I stared up at the boy through my lashes, but he didn't make a move.
His hair was white, almost silver looking. He was pale, so his emerald eyes stood out against the rest of him. He wore a simple black vest, arms exposed. Muscular but lean. He was skinny yet toned at the same time. "Four chocolate bars."
I must've looked confused. He repeated it. "I bought four chocolate bars. Isn't that 500 Jenny?"
"I-" As if to prove his point, he dug out the fourth bar from his pocket. Whistling, he placed all four onto the countertop as he fished for the correct amount of change from his pocket.
I stared at him for a few seconds, unsure of what to make of this arrangement. So instead, I swallowed hard and tried to keep it professional. Pfft. Because candy shop workers are just so professional. "Right. 500 Jenny, my apologies."
He stared back, head tilting to the side. "...How do you have a Hunter License? Did you steal it? No, I doubt that you could've competed a feat like that…"
What.
Teeth clenched together in an attempt to hide my acute anger, I deposited the Jenny and slided the bag towards the boy. Just ignore him. He probably doesn't know what he's saying.
"Can you see?"
I stared at him like he was dumb. What was that even supposed to mean? "Well, I'm not blind," I responded, clicking my tongue and dropping my gaze back towards the book.
He nodded inwardly. "That confirms it." What. What was he even saying…?
Taking a shaky breath, I felt relieved when I heard his shoes clicking against the wooden floor. Good. When the door began to chime, I glanced up again, forced a smile, and recited the line I was to say after every purchase. "Thanks for coming! Please come again!"
That night, I held my Hunter License between two fingers up to the light. Huh. This plastic had the power to do a lot, didn't it?
I lowered my hand, closing my eyes. The Hunter Exam was just as grueling difficult as anyone would say. It was only because I was born into a family of Hunters that I was able to accomplish what I did. I first entered when I was 15, yet failed for inexperience. At 16, I failed during the second to last phase because of a stupid mistake of overestimating my opponent. Then last month, I was 17 and reentered, determined to win. There, I met Nuly, a really, really kind girl a year younger than me. We met in the first stage in which the applicants were told to solve a puzzle. It was a string of riddles, and with Nuly's help, we both passed the first phase.
I reopened my eyes, feeling a gnawing in my heart. Nuly was so kind.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING
The noise bounced off my ears as I jolted up, hurrying to find my phone. Ugh, the ringing always scared the crap out of me, but the phone itself was decent. Nearing the source of the sound, I hastily answered after retrieving it.
"Hello?"
Shuffling on the other end. "Era! Era, how are you holding up? How's your job going? What's it like in Yorknew!?"
The slightest tinge of a smile found its way onto my lips. "Nice to talk to you again, too, Nuly." I shifted the phone from one shoulder to the other, stifling a yawn. It was getting late. "But thanks. I'm doing fine. I had a really weird experience at my job today, though."
"Ooooh, really?" she cooed, eliciting a giggle. "What happened? Was he hot?"
"What? How do you know it involves a guy?" I asked, confused by her last question.
"Does it not?"
"..."
"It does! I knew it!" Nuly's laugh resounded over the phone. We had known each other for just over a month, yet talking to her seemed natural. We weren't best friends, but we were closer than acquaintances. She seemed to always have the most exciting stories babbling on about her array of colorful uncles. Literally.
I laughed on my end. "Well, it does, but not in the way you'd think." I recalled the memory, trying to figure what to make of it. "This guy… it's like he, oh, I dunno. He was acting weird. I think he was mocking me. He asked if I could 'see'."
"Huuuh." Nuly went quiet, probably as she pondered the scenario. "Well, I wouldn't make too much of it. There are a lot of weirdos stalking around Yorknew! Be careful and stay wary of men with white vans!"
She caused a laugh to escape my lips again. "Right, right." I left the part out about his comment on my Hunter License since I was unsure how she would react.
We chatted quietly for the next few minutes before she announced that she was heading to sleep. We said our farewells, and with that, I hung up, dropping the phone onto the spot next to me.
Nuly didn't pass the Hunter Exam. She was supposed to, but then I ended up passing instead.
If she heard me beating myself up about it again, she would get angry. She would say that I was worrying about nothing, and that she didn't pass because she wasn't qualified to. Sure, she wasn't the strongest applicant there, but she was definitely one of the smartest. But if one of us was to pass, it should've been her.
Take deep breaths. I calmed myself, waiting for the night to lull me to sleep and cease these thoughts.
The next morning, I changed into my uniform. It was a simple light pink button up shirt, white polka dots striping around my waist. The text 'CANDY SHOPPE' was written across my chest in bubbly blue letters. Unique.
Sighing, I pulled my hair back into the mandatory ponytail as I walked to the store. We were low on workers, so my hours were always weird. I didn't usually work in the mornings, but today was an exception.
The first customer didn't appear until an hour in. It was a feeble boy, circular glasses touching the rim of his nose. He looked over the merchandise before picking out a bouquet of suckers.
Sigh. This was going to be a long shift.
…
Munching on a cookie that tasted, looked, and smelled like it was processed with every chemical known to man, I tried to swallow down the sugary taste. Ugh, everything in this store was sweet and sugary. Sweets weren't my favorite. I really shouldn't have been working here.
"Yo."
I glanced up, slightly shocked to see the same weird boy from last night. His hair was even messier than last night, eyes having the slightest mischievous twinkle.
I nodded towards him, watching as he bent down and grabbed four chocolate bars. Instead of peeling the wrappers back, he merely shoved them onto the table and took out his wallet.
"So, 500 Jenny, right?"
"Right."
He slid his change onto the counter. I counted it up, depositing the amount into the cash register before placing his merchandise into the bag.
"Are you new here?" he asked, staring at me hard with a blank expression. "I come to this store a lot, but I've only seen you twice."
Oh. He probably usually only comes in the morning. "Molley usually takes the morning shifts. I take the evening shifts. Other than that, I've been working here for about a month." I slid the bag towards him, not feeling obligated to lie. It was a conversation with a customer. Normal.
He peered inside before pulling the bag over his shoulder. "Right, makes sense." He stared at me for a few more seconds before his eyes flittered away. "You just finished the Hunter Exam then, didn't you?"
I stared at him, mouth agape. Sure, he saw my License last night, but did I look like an amateur? Yeah, maybe it was February and the Hunter Exam happened every January, but I still could've been a professional.
"It's simple, really," he explained in response to my agape mouth, slowly peeling back one of the wrappers. "It's obvious that you're a new hunter. That, or just really inexperienced. I mean, what hunter works at a candy shop? Era, is it?" His eyes lifted from my nametag to meet my eyes.
Was he… mocking me again? Before I could respond, the door was roughly pushed open. A new boy stood there, finger pointing at the white haired boy in front of me.
"Killua! I found you!"
White haired boy - presumably this Killua - turned around, looking slightly surprised to see the new boy. "Oh, that was quick."
What.
Author's Note: First HxH fanfiction! Hope this works out. I haven't wrote fanfiction for a few years.