i'm waiting 'round the bend,
my huckleberry friend
and me.
-audrey hepburn; moon river
"ne, killua.." gon starts, voice slow and gentle, because he can tell killua is stressed, he can see it in the lines of his face and the tense of his shoulders, the sharp aura filling the air, and he can smell the blood the other boy had tried to disguise under melon-scented hand soap. he can feel killua's tensity, and he finds himself wondering just what had happened that day. what had his job been? clearly it was distressing. killua never came to the hotel this disgruntled after a job, unless he had been forced to take someone's life. but who's? gon finds himself wondering, and forces himself to stop the ever-flowing stream of thoughts pushing through his head and to the back of his throat.
he'll talk about it if he wants to. gon tells himself.
he'll talk if he wants to, so don't force it.
don't force it.
"yeah, gon?" killua responds, trying to come across as nonchalant, but gon can sense the underlying anxiety, worry, fear, and he finds himself walking to where killua is sitting on the edge of the bed and pressing a quick kiss to the tip of killua's nose. he greets the press with a 'hey' and a soft smile, peeling out of tight, new jeans and into threadbare pyjama pants that barely made their way to his ankles. it dawned on him just then - killua was so much.. bigger than he was five years ago. bigger than he was lastyear, and gon isn't quite sure how to feel about it.
he's still taller than killua, of course, but the point remains.
"ne, killua?" he asks again, stepping into a pair of sweatpants himself. killua lifts his head and responds with a muffled 'mmph,' and you smile.
"do you want to dance?"
...
a soft song gently plays from the speakers, and they begin. at first they're clumsy, tripping over each other's feet and kicking each other's legs, but after a few moments they settle into a rhythm, a step-one-two, step-one-two, step-one-two that has them wrapped around each other and burying faces into each other's necks. and killua begins to sing along, his voice small and sweet and timid, tickling against gon's throat, and then he decides, fuck it, and sings along, voice raspy and rough, a massive contrast to killua's gentle one.
gon feels something wet against his chest, and he realizes killua is crying. he's crying, but he's still singing, voice floating beautifully despite the waver of tears, and gon gently combs his fingers through killua's hair, and finds himself crying as well, pressing his face into the top of killua's head.
...
the song ends and they remain standing, gon gently swaying them left and right, left and right, left and right, left and right, and he finds himself thinking of how beautiful bodies of water look when the moon reflects off them. a beat of silence envelops the two of them, only interrupted once by the sound of killua's voice.
"i love you."