99
He was given the number 99. He was indifferent about the number, just like how he was indifferent about almost everything that goes around him. At first he tried to make a connection with it, some kind of a sense in a way. Could it indicate the 99 hearts he slashed? Or the 99 whips he got for getting over excited and slashing the wrong heart once? Or maybe it's the 99 days that he might be locked in the dungeon's cell, once his family had their hands on him.
He cringed at the thought. It was his first time in what they call "the real world" and his family was not on board. He knows he hurt his mother the most, but he feared that his father would be the most aggravated one. And then there was his brother. A chill went over his body causing the hair on the back of his neck to prickle. He tried to shake the sense of terror that threaten to numb him to soullessness.
Killua went around the tunnel sizing up the competition in what's supposed to be the outmost test, the hunter exam. However, he was feeling bored by the second. It was very hard to keep him interested; it felt like he had a short attention span. If something doesn't excite him, pumping adrenaline through his veins, then it was pointless by default. It was like petrified victims, way too easy of a kill. He would walk away from them most of the time earning a punishment from his father for not going on with the mission. It didn't bother him much to go through penalties. The disappointment in his father's eyes and the nothingness in Aniki's black holes were by far worse.
Then spikes caught his attention, and for a change, were able to hold it. Gon was a bottle of energy and excitement, and once Killua had a sip of that, he was hooked. The intensity and warmth in his new claimed friend's eyes made him loosen up his guards. The way he pats him on his shoulder was friendly and a same-level touch which was very different from how his father and Aniki hold him in dominance, as if to show authority and keep him in control. With Gon he felt…safe. A word no assassin in his right mind should ever use.
He knew the hurricane of risks that follows him in every direction he goes and every heartbeat he skipped. But he was selfish. He couldn't bare not having Gon, he knew he should have skated away instantly yet he couldn't, he needed the fix, the innocence, and that pure un-judgmental look that Gon embraced him with effortlessly. He was possessive and Gon in his mind, belonged to only him.
He decided that 99 is his lucky number. It was the number that brought him to Gon in a way. The number of the heartfelt laughs they were destined to share or those silly moments that will take place as they fight play, or maybe the number of the towns they will discover as they embark on their endless journey. Killua could easily give more than 99 reasons of why this friendship has become vital to his core existence.
