A/N: Hello hello! So, for those new readers I'd like to go ahead and let you know that this is a sequel to another fic. It's not necessary to read Assassin's Luck before this one but I'd suggest it simply so you'd understand everything.

To the readers who have been waiting; welcome back! I'm super excited for this fic. Unfortunately I can't link this with AL to indicate they're part of a series but they are. If you look it up on ao3 it's titled You may call it Luck, but I call it Fate.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this first edition of Hunter's Luck and ill try to have chapter two out in a timely manner.

Something wasn't right.

It was like falling asleep during the day and waking to find the sun had already gone down, a sense of disorientation settling not just over his mind but over his body too. Or putting something in one place only to find it somewhere completely different later on, walking into a situation to realize he'd been there before, hearing someone say something that went against everything they were and knowing they meant it. There was no way to really prove anything was amiss and yet...it was wrong. Just wrong.

Something wasn't right.

He felt it in his bones, in his very core and if there was one thing Gon would forever trust it would be his own instincts.

There was something wrong even with the way he blinked open his eyes. They were heavy and uncomfortable and dry, like he hadn't opened them for days. Bright lights blurred everything in his vision, blocked it all out so he couldn't see so he shut his eyes, counted to ten and tried again. This time the lights narrowed, became strips along the ceiling above his head. He watched them, wiggled his toes, his fingers, grasped at the sheets he found beneath his palms.

Wrong.

He found the bandages on his forearms next, traced them with his fingertips. The wounds beneath them throbbed and it was with great clarity that he recalled how he got them. The beach and Killua, Illumi, whispered words and blank faces. Fingers cutting down the lengths of his forearms.

The wound just under his right clavicle was bandaged as well. He remembered that one with even greater clarity; a pale limb piercing straight through him, the blue of Killua's eyes as he fell. That one had been so much worse. At least with his arms he'd been face to face with the assassin, could see clearly in his features that Killua wasn't truly with him. The other blow had come from behind, unseen and only vaguely prepared for. It was so much worse knowing there was a possibility, however small, that Killua had been conscience for that part of the fight. That he could have given him the wound on purpose.

Wrong.

He went to trail his hands down, stopped on the muscles of his abdomen and changed course, lifted them up to rest on his neck. There was gauze there, too, but this wound was phantom to him. He could remember its deliverance as well as he could feel it. Which is, to say, not at all.

Wrong.

The bandages pulled almost painfully taut when he wrapped his fingers around them but he tugged on them anyways, gauze rough against both the skin of his palm and the skin of his throat. Eventually they gave, unraveling in small bouts until air kissed at his revealed flesh. He dropped them, allowed them to settle on his stomach and found the wound with his nails. It was small, a horizontal line under the crease of his jaw, still puckered with raw sensitivity. He could barely feel the ghost of his touch there.

WRONG.

Gon plunged his fingers into the wound, twisting and pulling at the tissue because this was where that wrongness was originating from and he saw no other way to rid himself of it. He felt blood bloom under the touch, dripping down towards his chest, and a distant twinge of pain.

And then he opened his mouth. Not to speak, per say, more to make some sort of sound, any noise really but suddenly pain exploded down his throat all the way to his sternum, a fiery trail. It burned like acid, like skin being ripped away, hot and sharp and real, and the worse it got the more he tried to scream. The only thing that reached his ears was the strangled sound of air rushing past his lips and a furious beeping at his side.

He scrabbled at the cut again, split it open further, felt the pain decrease but only minimally.

wrong. wrong. wrong. wrong. wrong. wrong. wrong. wrong. wrong. wrong. wrong. wrong. wrong. wrong. wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong WrongWrongWrongWrongWrongWrongWRONGWRONGWRONGWRO-

"Gon!"

Killua's face swam into focus above him, the fluorescent lights that had been Gon's point of focus creating a golden halo around him. It only made the assassin look more pale, features fixed in an unhappy grimace.

"You idiot, what the hell do you think you're doing!?"

He grabbed at the Hunter's hands, held them in his own until Gon was no longer trying to scream, no longer trying to claw at himself. The beeping monitor calmed into a more steady rhythm and Gon fought to catch his breath, entire body shaking and gaze fixed firmly on Killua.

Another face swam into focus, this one blonde and petite. She looked concerned, her little pixie mouth pinched in worry.

"I'm going to give him another sedative," she said and her voice reached Gon from a long tunnel. "He shouldn't be awake this soon after such a major surgery."

Killua bristled, dropped the Hunter's hands so they rested on the bed once more. "He's already drugged out of his mind! Can't you see what he just did to himself, the last thing he needs is more of that shit running through his veins."

The blonde cast a nervous glance in Killua's direction, fear evident in her eyes, but shook her head. "He's disoriented. Since he's a hunter the doctor used a combination of anesthetics and sedatives to keep him under. What I'm going to give him is very light in comparison. It should only last a few hours, the rest of the day at most. It will give his body time to expel the remnants of the other drugs so that when he wakes he'll be able to orient himself."

There was sharp pinch in Gon's arm and he followed Killua's line of sight until he saw the hypodermic needle imbedded under his skin, watched as it pulled back, drew blood, and then pushed a clear liquid (now stained red, he thought, and it reminded him of the ocean) into his veins. He also saw the IV further down his arm at his wrist and wondered why the woman didn't just inject him there. Killua seemed to think the same thing as he let out an almost primal sounding growl and the woman scampered away without another word.

It took a lot more effort than Gon would have liked to turn back to his friend. Despite what happened last time, he prepared to speak, he had so many questions for Killua, about the island, about them, about everything but the assassin reached out, placed his fingertips on Gon's lips in a clear symbol to stay silent.

"We'll...we'll talk later, okay? Just get some sleep for now. You look like shit." Killua smiled, but it looked guilty. If it weren't for the black shadows creeping across his vision Gon would have asked after it, tried to figure out just what in the world the assassin had to be guilty about. Instead he allowed his eyes to fall closed and was asleep before he'd even completed the task.

...

Killua sighed and rubbed a weary hand down his face. It wasn't until he pulled it away that he realized it was still covered in Gon's blood. Grimacing, he crossed the small hospital room to its conjoined bathroom and went to wash it away, staring distractedly at the pink water that spiraled down the drain. When he returned, hair dripping slightly from where he'd splashed water over himself, he saw that one of the nurses had come in and re-bandaged the Hunter's throat.

Killua collapsed into what was quickly becoming his chair, pressed up against the wall but still close to the hospital bed. God, he'd only been here less than a day and he was already sick of it. Not to mention that he had a wonderful glimpse of the ocean outside the room's single window. He decided offhandedly that he fucking hated it. Whether he was talking about the ocean or the window was unclear even to himself.

It had taken three days to sail to the mainland. Both current and wind had brought the bedraggled boys to Airin and the beach of a large city. Killua had no idea just what country they were in specifically but he really didn't care. The first thing he'd done was drape Gon over his shoulders and book it to the nearest hospital.

He'd spent those three days on the boat constantly moving the Hunter out of direct sunlight and into the shade of the sails and then trying to keep himself from going crazy the rest of the time. It had basically been a giant waiting game, both of their lives on the line, and yet Killua had never really doubted that they'd make it. He told himself that he was being optimistic for Gon since the other teen wasn't conscious to do it himself.

The exhaustion didn't hit him until he stepped into the hospital emergency room and tried to fill out the paperwork for admitting Gon. Honestly the only information he'd given them was a name, and even then it had been a fake one. Gunther Whales. Similar enough that it wouldn't be weird if he called him Gon though not exactly creative. Whatever. Killua was fucking exhausted. Once he knew his friend was safe (aka they were taking him into surgery and Killua wasn't allowed to follow so he would have had to sit in the waiting room) he left to get himself a shower and a fresh change of clothes. He was back in under an hour and in the waiting room anyways.

Gon had been situated in his own room for most of the day when Killua finally decided to step out and grab something to eat. Nothing much, just a candy bar that he stole from the vending machine down the hall, but when he returned it was to find the Hunter awake and knuckle deep in his own skin. He also appeared to be trying to scream but well...god he couldn't even think about that right now.

Killua cracked his neck and then let his head rest back against the wall. It took Gon out of his line of vision but he could hear the steady beeping on the heart monitor and the other various machines and that was enough to soothe him for the moment. Maybe if he just closed his eyes he could take a nap...he'd tried probably a million times now but sleep just hadn't come to him. After watching Gon try to mutilate himself he didn't think his chances were looking any better but apparently the sudden rush of adrenaline had taken something out of him. Not even a full minute after he'd closed his eyes he'd drifted off.

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-Xen