[A/N: This will be as heavy and overwrought as you may have come to expect from me, that's all I ever write, but it will have what I hope is an acceptable ending. People make bad choices and people suffer for them, sometimes those are different people and sometimes they're not. That's a good way to sum up the message of this fic, besides "child endangerment is bad". I wouldn't say this fic will have a happy ending, nor will the bright moments be enough to chase away the clouds, but I don't write things simply to make others sad. I hope this is something meaningful to other people and not just myself, and I hope it gives you hope with whatever you're going through.]

Those of the troupe still living, gathered around their leader in the dim lighting of the subway tunnel, a segment that required knowing the tunnels themselves as well as the rail schedules to get into. It wasn't their most secure hideout, but that was losing its importance swiftly as their members were picked off one at a time. The tunnel echoed with distant crowd murmur, the sound of a train leaving and hissing off into the darkness, the room lit by not much more than a few phone lights cast the group palid grey. Chrollo spoke.

"This is a problem I believe might mean our end." Even with the idea of defeat in his words, he didn't seem particularly bothered, and in fact he seemed almost pleased. "Between Hisoka and The Chain User, we've lost more members in five years than in the entire history of the Troupe. I believe the spider will live on, but none of its parts will be the same, essentially a new being. Perhaps it's time, just as our bodies shed the original cells for stronger, newer cells, so must an organization change."

Kalluto sat nearest the edge of the room, close to the rails. The silks of his kimono kept him warm, but to the touch, under his hands, they were chilled by the stony air. It was February, and the ice had sunk deep into the earth and taken hold, covering the world outside in white and grey slush that sank into every porous material with intent. His clothes were not clean, but neither were the clothes of the adults who sat with him in the gloom. The recent months had been flurries of messages and signs between members to lay low there or leave that city, no time to relax or get much of anything done with constant sightings of their two biggest threats.

Frankly, he wanted a shower.

Feitan shifted on the stone beside him, reaching up to tighten the bandana around his face. "Anyone dies, should have died anyway. We move on. So should we not bother mourning these dead?" His voice was always so soft, more of a wheeze than a tone. Kalluto liked him the most, and tended to follow him on missions and flights of fancy. He was incredibly skilled, impressive even to Kalluto's recent standards, and he intended to surpass him eventually.

As if aware of Kalluto staring at him in the darkness, Feitan turned just enough to see him peripherally. Kalluto blinked, then turned his gaze back on their boss. This time, it was Nobunaga who spoke. "Of course we will, but if we do it like with Uvo then we'll only be drawing attention to ourselves." He was looking worse for wear, a few grey streaks in his hair either from age, stress, or both Kalluto wasn't sure, and he looked like all the sleep in the world wouldn't help him. He wasn't the only one in the group like that.

"Wouldn't that be better?" Kalluto spoke up, hands itching in his lap to do something. "We draw out our enemies and then kill them, and then it's done." He was no longer the newest member in the Troupe, but he was still the youngest and still trying to prove to himself and the others that he belonged. That he was strong enough and smart enough to take part in not only heists but the planning of them too.

Feitan turned to eye him better, his dark hair blocking most of his face from the light of the phones. "You, advocating for a straightforward attack, you don't want to draw it out?" It was hard to tell around the cloth covering his face, but it seemed he was smirking. He'd been on enough missions and in enough fights beside Kalluto to know exactly the kind of sadist he was, having gone so far as to teach him a few ways to torture a person he hadn't previously known.

Kalluto returned it with a smile. "I never said I wouldn't drag it out when we get them." Across the room, Machi huffed a quiet laugh and pulled her legs in so she could hold them in place, seemingly delicate hands linked securely around her ankles. Kalluto looked back to Chrollo, a challenge bubbling up in his chest. "What if we hunted them down first."

"We're more outmatched than we thought in the beginning, and more so now than then. Just because I think our deaths are inevitable doesn't mean I'd be okay with any of you getting yourselves killed foolishly." Chrollo's gaze hardened in a way that reminded him of his father giving an important bit of information. "I believe Hisoka changed when he resurrected himself, He'd rather kill all of you in the quickest manner possible than have himself a real fight, and The Chain User will stop at nothing to make sure I see you all die before he comes for me. I implore those of you who do go looking for these threats to proceed with caution."

Caution, Kalluto thought, was something he employed to such a degree it could be an art form in itself. It took exact movements to create origami, his works always impeccably done, and he worked to make his way of fighting similar. He always did well to heed his family's warning about the spiders and tread carefully not only with them, but with the enemies they tended to make along the way. This Chain User had been to the Zoldyck Estate once in the past to cause trouble and spirit away his brother, now he was picking off his new gang over some grudge. Kalluto wanted to rip him into tiny pieces and see how such a man folded under careful hands.

The other threat, Hisoka, was incredibly strong and crafty enough Illumi didn't trust him not to stab him in the back despite having worked together for more years than Kalluto had been alive. Even though the boss had killed him in a fight, he hadn't stayed dead. He would be too difficult for Kalluto to kill then, so he would focus on more probable prey. He knew that the Chain User was also strong, that anger made him more so, so Kalluto would have to study him first and see what his weaknesses were. His bloodlust was enough to have Feitan reach out and lightly place his hand on the younger's head.

"Settle down, we will kill him soon." It wasn't reassurance, it was a promise. The equivalent of being told not to pout because there would be candy waiting for him at home. It made the ember of fondness grow brighter within Kalluto's chest to the point he couldn't help but smile. Being separate from his blood family for so many years made it all the easier to see the Troupe as family, and Feitan in particular seemed like the older sibling he'd wanted. His brothers had never seemed all that interested in him, and while he loved his mother, she seemed to like buying him pretty clothes rather than commend him on new skills he had acquired, and with her interest in keeping Kalluto near to her being so high it left him at odds with Killua. So he had left. At first he planned to bring his siblings home but that plan was gradually changing into just wanting to catch more than a glimpse of them and instead see what kind of life they led.

Until that point where he could confront his real brother, he didn't think it too silly to consider Feitan his older brother. Maybe more like a cousin, although they looked similar enough. Kalluto focused back on what his leader was saying, growing restless once again. He pulled out a small square of floral paper and began to fold it into a crane, something that would keep him busy enough to stay focused despite his restless energy.

"For today," Chrollo continued, putting his hands together as if to warm his fingers against his opposite palm. "We can rest here, then leave when the sun sets. Get some sleep if you can, and if you can't then at least be quiet, we'll meet up again in a week." He picked his phone up off the ground and turned its light downward to find where he'd decided to lay down, signaling the rest to follow suit. Feitan picked his phone up as well and pocketed it before laying down where he was, arms behind his head and one leg crossing over the other to bounce almost imperceptibly.

Kalluto continued to fold his crane until it was complete, then ran his fingertips over it's curves and corners as it lay cradled between his palms. He closed it between his hands protectively when Feitan reached out once more to touch him, whispering. "What you make?"

He wouldn't crush his artwork like Milluki, or tell him to unfold it and find something useful to do like Illumi might, but Kalluto knew better than to hand over something he was proud of to anyone. "A crane. The paper is from that craft shop I visited in Marlow."

"Shoplifter." His voice was amused and soft as sleep began to settle over him. Kalluto huffed against his knuckles.

"You stole knives from the same city."

"I am also shoplifting."

Kalluto laid down on his side so he was facing Feitan, the paper crane clutched to his chest. He was too awake to nod off just yet, but he could watch Feitan's brow soften by the low lighting of the railway and hear his breathing even out, deepening until he was no longer conscious.

Eventually, sometime after a train passed by their temporary hideout, Kalluto fell asleep. The sounds of the railway becoming a lullaby of electricity and metallic grinding that echoed through the tunnels. Though it wasn't a deep slumber it was restful enough that he wasn't too weary when he came back to awareness as the rest of the Troupe began to stretch and rise, multiple alarms going off in different tunes. Kalluto was surprised when he was beckoned over by the boss upon making eye contact, and approached tensely. He didn't think he'd done anything inappropriate so perhaps this was to be instructive.

Chrollo's expression was as it always was, calm and content. "I would like you and Machi with me until we meet up with the Troupe again, I have something to attend to and I believe your abilities would be helpful." Machi was already coming over with her bag thrown over her shoulder, looking unimpressed with the world at large. He knew better than to judge her thoughts based on her expression by now, and her aura suggested she wasn't in any particular mood.

"I'll need to stop somewhere to pick up more supplies, I can do a lot with my abilities but I'd prefer to have real first aid items." She reached up to straighten her frizzy, pink hair.

"Okay, where are we going then?" He looked back up at the boss and realized he was still holding the paper crane in his hand. He slipped it into his obi to use later, wondering if Chrollo would think him childish for making objects of whimsy out of the paper he used as a weapon.

If he even noticed he didn't make any visible note of it, instead smiling as he straightened his jacket. "A few cities over, I need to meet with someone who may know something useful about the Chain User."

That piqued Kalluto's interest even more than the fact he would be with the leader, although he did his best not to broadcast it too obviously. "Who is it, a crime boss?" The Chain User had been in with the Mafia until recently, so it was more likely than not for an informant to have worked with him either directly or indirectly. Chrollo shook his head, his smile growing with honest amusement.

"No, I believe I found the man who helped him develop his Hatsu."