Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, do not own any aspect of the HxH franchise. Otherwise some things would have been changed (Pitou, you know who I'm talking about).

Gon Freecss was going to make Killua Zoldyck cry.

Out of context it sounded horrible that the boy wanted to make his best friend cry. And in truth, Gon did feel the tiniest bit of remorse for his secret mission. But it was all for the former assassin's own good. It really was, Gon told himself.

In contrast to Killua being raised in an assassin's home, Gon was raised by his loving aunt and grandmother. He was a firm believer of showing love and emotions, as Killua had found out by the boy's many declarations of love and friendship over the time they'd spent together. Gon was taught to believe that it was natural, that it was healthy, to show emotion.

Killua, on the other hand, had been raised on the exact opposite ideologies. Assassins don't need friends and showing any sort of emotion, other than the occasional joy of spilling blood, was a sure sign of weakness. It was absolutely forbidden. Still, since being with Gon, Killua had gotten much better at showing emotions such as joy, anger, disgust, and, occasionally, fear. Even so, Gon had yet to see his friend cry.

He'd seen Leorio cry a few times- the older teen hated being reminded of it. He'd even caught a glimpse of Kurapika shedding a few tears now and again. But never Killua. Surely, he suspected, his friend had cried before. He'd just never seen it. But why not? It's not like he wanted Killua to be sad. But some small insecurity inside of him reasoned that maybe it was because his friend didn't trust him with that vulnerable side of him. And that made Gon angry, angrier than he'd like to admit. After all that they had been through together, he still didn't trust him? No, that wasn't true. And Gon wanted to prove it.

So he would make Killua cry.

He wasn't sure just how he would do it. He doubted that the former assassin would cry over something trivial. In fact, the more that he thought about it, the more that he wondered if he could break the assassin shell that was Killua. But he was determined to do it somehow.

...

Attempt number one didn't go so well. As predicted, trivial things wouldn't work on him- even if it was his greatest obsession. Poor Gon had made the terrible mistake of lying to his friend and saying that they had discontinued Killua's favorite chocolate robots.

Did he cry? No. Did he get angry? Yes. Very angry, in fact.

Because what young Freecss hadn't counted on was his friend quickly running to the nearest store to see if Gon was telling the truth rather than taking his word for it. And when Killua returned, he returned with an aura rivaling his elder brother's. He had proceeded to hit Gon hard and, when the boy woke up several hours later, he found Killua seething and later sulking on the other side of the room.

No, Gon decided, it was not the wisest idea to bring chocolate into this.

…..

Gon actually felt bad for attempt number two. Very bad. While his friend didn't cry, he did shut down. It'd been a few weeks since the first attempt and the two had been sitting on a bench in a park near their hotel, eating ice cream cones.

Killua had been enjoying the silence, albeit slightly suspicious over the lack of his friend's usual chattering. Gon had been eating his ice cream excruciatingly slow, trying to decide just how to approach this. Finally he'd decided to just wing it and pray that he wouldn't get hit again.

"Ne, Killua?" He could almost hear his friend groan, knowing something was coming.

"What?" He paused, afraid to say anything. Maybe he shouldn't go through with it. "Why are you so quiet today? It's weird." Killua raised an eyebrow at him and he took a breath.

"Do you ever miss home?" His friend looked surprised before giving him a look that said You're kidding me, right? Gon kicked a rock on the ground, shrugging. "But it's home, isn't it?" Killua laughed bitterly.

"Yeah, right. That's real funny, Gon. Prison cells, torture chambers, real homey." He licked his ice cream before giving Gon an odd look. "What's with you today?"

"But they're your family. Don't you love them?" Gon frowned and Killua followed suit.

"I guess. But we've already been through this. They only see me as some killing machine to take over the family business, so to speak. Assassins don't really do love." Gon grew frustrated, not liking the fact that his friend was more-or-less brushing off his sad upbringing.

"But they're your family! They're a part of you. You can't run away from who you are. Don't you-" Gon cut himself off seeing the hurt look on Killua's face, instantly regretting the conversation choice. He shouldn't have said that. "W-Wait, that's not what I meant. I just meant-"

"It's okay." Killua whispered, looking down, "Let's just go. Ice cream's melted." Gon flinched at his friend's quiet voice and watched as he got up, throwing the rest of his cone in the trash.

Killua was quiet the rest of the day, barely acknowledging Gon, despite the hundreds of apologies the older of the two gave. It continued like that for almost a week before Killua finally seemed more like himself. Even then, Gon couldn't forget the broken look in his eyes. And even then, Killua still seemed shaken up.

Maybe, he thought, he should abort his little mission. While Killua hadn't cried, Gon decided that he never wanted to see him look like that again. Especially not when it was his fault.

….

"Just try and get us, idiot!" Killua stuck his tongue out, facing the rather large man who was twice his size. The man had tried stealing from a woman in town- an awful cliché, Killua had pointed out. The two boys had stopped him, only to be chased into the woods. Gon was feeling uneasy, casting a disapproving glance toward his friend.

"I don't think we should egg him on, Killua." He was unfamiliar with these woods and there seemed to be dangerous terrain and animals he was also unfamiliar with. His friend laughed at him.

"Oh, come on! He's big but lacks any sort of a brain. We've got him easy!" He grinned, watching the man slowly running toward him as if he was already exhausted. Gon still frowned.

"Still…" Killua rolled his eyes.

"Okay, fine. We'll knock him out quick." He said and started to charge up his electricity, earning a yelp from his friend. "Gon?" He turned to see him on the ground, holding his foot.

"You shocked me!" Killua was dumbfounded.

"I didn't-"

"I was trying to warn you, the terrain is wet. What happens when electricity touches water, Killua?" Gon narrowed his eyes. Killua glared back at him, his cheeks flaring up.

"I know what happens, idiot! I'm not stupid!"

"Oh yeah? Then why did you do that, then? Hm?"

The two had neglected their opponent and the man crept up, hitting Killua straight across the face, sending him flying into a tree.

"Killua!" The white haired teen sat up, rubbing his head.

"Okay, you're done for." The man only smirked and lunged at him, a dark aura he'd kept hidden slowly pouring out. The two boys' faces paled and they both took off running.

"See why we shouldn't egg on opponents we know nothing about?" Gon panted as they ran.

"How was I supposed to know?"

"Exactly my point!" Gon glared at his friend. Killua huffed in response before looking ahead and trying to grab at his friend.

"Gon, look-" Killua had skidded to a halt, his hand grabbing at nothing as Gon skidded off the edge of a ravine. "GON!"

Killua crept toward the edge in a hurry, looking down in horror. There on the bottom lay Gon. The fall was only a few hundred feet and could have been much worse. But still, Killua was terribly afraid, his blood running cold. He managed to climb down in record time, running toward the boy lying still on the ground.

"Gon… Gon wake up…" He crouched beside him holding his body close, relieved to find that he was breathing. Though he had no way of knowing for how long. His left leg was badly broken and he had several gashes in his side and arms. "Please, Gon, get up…"

A familiar burning reached his eyes, genuinely worried about his friend. Scenarios flashing through his mind. What if they hadn't helped that woman? What if he had listened to Gon and hadn't gotten cocky? What if they'd watched where they were going? Killua closed his eyes, quietly whimpering as the tears flowed down his cheeks. What if he lost his best friend?

"Ne, Killua?" The crying boy blue eyes were met with eyes of brown. "Wh-Why are you crying?" Gon frowned, definitely deciding he never wanted to see his best friend cry again, despite his previous efforts. Killua suddenly looked angry, angrier than Gon had ever seen him, even with the tears still flowing down his cheeks and onto the boy in his arms.

"Wh-Why do you think? I-I swear, Gon! Y-You're such an idiot! You could have be k-killed! You need to watch wh-where you're going!" Though as Killua yelled at his friend, wiping desperately at his eyes, he felt immense relief.

"Killua?" Gon hesitantly asked his friend.

"What, Gon?" The younger spat, still trying to calm himself enough for the tears to stop assault.

"It's okay." Killua blinked at his friend, confused.

"Huh?" Gon smiled a smile that caused Killua to blush as he did when he was embarrassed.

"It's okay," he repeated, "You can cry."