Leorio woke to the sound of cereal being poured into a bowl in the kitchen. He stretched and went out to the kitchen.
"Hey Alluka, did you sleep well last night?" Leorio asked.
Alluka nodded. "How is Brother?"
"He's going to be just fine! Can you watch him for a bit while I go out? I need to buy some things."
"'Kay!" came the reply.
"Alright! I'll be back soon!" Leorio said.
xxx
Honestly, Leorio was lucky that treating Nen colds was a easy as it was. Considering how dangerous they could be, it was fortunate for everyone involved that clearing it up with venting emotions was the majority of the treatment. Otherwise, Nen colds that were caught early were mostly treated for symptoms, like fever. Killua's had been pretty bad so Leorio planned to give him a fever reducer but on his trip there, Leorio's fever reducer had gotten jostled out of place and spilled so he needed to make another batch.
It took a while but Leorio finally managed to get together the things he needed. After he'd gotten the ingredients he needed for the medicine, he had decided to get some food for himself and head back to the hotel where Alluka and Killua were. On his way though, he saw a very familiar tower of dark hair and an equally distinctive green outfit.
"Leorio!"
"Gon!"
Gon jumped into a hug with Leorio. It hadn't been that long since they'd last seen each other but seeing one another was always a joyful experience, especially with Gon's exuberance.
"Did you change your cologne, Leorio? You smell different," Gon asked.
Leorio took a whiff of himself as he answered. "No, same stuff as always. What are you up to out here, Gon? I thought you went home."
"Ah, yeah, I guess I didn't want to go back yet," Gon said, looking like he felt a little awkward.
"No?" Leorio asked.
"I guess… I miss Killua. He's off traveling with his sister right now and the last time I was on Whale Island, it was with him so..." Gon trailed off.
A few awkward moments of silence passed between them as Leorio considered the risks of telling Gon that Killua was right here in the same city and also missing him. It was pretty clear that Killua wouldn't want Leorio to tell Gon where he was, but...
Gon gave an embarrassed chuckle and said, "Sorry for bringing up something weird like that. Why are you here, Leorio?"
Leorio faltered. He hadn't even considered that he might want or need go back on his promise to not tell anyone what Killua said. He had been focused on helping his patient instead. Sometimes you had to tell little lies to keep people calm so you could help them.
Leorio knew he shouldn't tell Gon that Killua was here or that he was sick and especially not that he was sick because another person told him he didn't deserve to be Gon's friend, but at the same time, he knew that he had to tell Gon. Killua was undoubtedly right. Gon would demand that they go see Killua and then certainly rush off to confront their master. Gon took to people policing his friendship with Killua almost as badly as Kurapika took to spiders. But not only did Gon have a right to know, it was probably the only way Killua would actually get completely better. He was doing better now after venting what was wrong but Leorio knew better than to think that Killua would actually manage to get better just from that. He felt things too powerfully.
"Hm?" Gon looked at Leorio inquisitively, waiting for an answer, and then a look of realization passed over his face. "Ah! Leorio! You smell like Killua! You're here with him! He's here!"
The excitement and joy that suddenly lit up Gon's face faded to unhappiness just as quickly. "I…'m not sure if he wants to see me though."
The look on Gon's face was what settled the matter for Leorio. "Gon, let's get something to eat. I'll tell you why I'm here."
xxx
As expected, Gon was furious when he heard what was wrong with Killua. What Leorio hadn't expected was how sad Gon looked too.
"It's just...I can't believe Bisky said something like that," Gon said. "When we were training, she'd praise us for what a good team we were and how strong we were when we fought together. Why would she say something like that? Why would she try to drive us apart?"
Gon fell silent for a while, fuming. Leorio waited to see if he wanted to say anything else but when nothing was forthcoming, Leorio decided to make a suggestion.
"Do you want to see Killua?"
Gon looked up at Leorio. "Really? You think it would be okay?"
"Well, he'll probably be mad at me for bringing you into this but, I think he'd be really happy to see you so…yeah! I think it'd be good!" Leorio said, seeming confident.
"So… do you want to see Killua?" Leorio repeated.
Gon seemed to consider it for a bit before nodding. "Yeah, I think it would be nice to see him! Besides, when I was sick, Mito always made me feel better with love so maybe I can help Killua feel better too!"
"You really care about Killua a lot," Leorio commented with a smile.
"Of course! I love him! He's very special to me!"
xxx
When the two of them got back to the room, Alluka was coming out of Killua's room.
"How is Killua?" Leorio asked. "Is he still sleeping?"
Alluka shook her head. "He's awake. Actually, he said he wanted to get up for a little bit. Welcome back, Leorio!"
Alluka noticed Gon come in the door behind Leorio and said, "Ah! Gon! Hi! It's good to see you again!"
Killua yanked the door open and thrust his head out. "Did you say-" he was interrupted by a cough and that combined with the sudden exertion of rushing to open made him lean heavily into the doorframe, winded. "Did you say Gon was here?" he wheezed. "Why is-?"
"Killua!" Gon cried. He immediately went to Killua and held him tightly. "Killua! I know it hasn't been that long but I missed you so much!"
Killua weakly tapped on Gon's shoulder. "Gon, I can't breathe…"
"Ah! Sorry, Killua!" Gon released Killua and stood back with an awkward laugh.
Still winded and now without Gon holding him up, Killua started to waver again but this time Leorio stepped up and caught him.
"I'm glad you're feeling better but clearly you aren't ready to be getting up yet, Killua," said Leorio. "Alluka, will you help your brother get back to bed?"
"I'm fine, you don't have to baby me," Killua said, indignantly freeing himself from Leorio's support.
He stood on his own for a moment leaning into the wall again.
Something between a whine and a growl came from Killua. "I'm… still tired. I'm going back to sleep," he said, trying to hide his tiredness with irritation.
"Ah, Killua!" Gon said suddenly as though remembering something important.
"Huh? What is it, Gon?" Killua asked as Alluka slid under Killua's arm to support him.
"I-! Um, actually, never mind. I'm going to see Bisky though so I'm leaving for a while. I'll come back though, okay? Then I'll tell you!" Gon said, flashing Killua one of his signature grins.
Killua blinked in confusion and surprise. "Uh, okay," he said as Gon trotted towards the door. "Hey, wait, why are you-?"
"I'll see you later, Killua!" Gon called, leaving the room.
There was a brief moment of silence after Gon left and shut the door behind him until Killua turned and glared at Leorio. "You told him everything, didn't you?" he growled.
Leorio tried to convince himself that Killua was still too sick, tired, and weak to actually hurt him and wouldn't in front of Alluka anyway but the glare he got from Killua was heartstopping.
"Well what did you want me to do?" Leorio asked, sounding both nervous and defensive. "You should have seen how sad he looked when he said he didn't think you wanted to see him again!"
"I wanted you not to tell him. I didn't even want you to do something! I wanted you to NOT do something and somehow you couldn't even manage that!" Killua raged.
As Leorio fumbled for a response, what he has just said clicked for Killua. Gon was sad because he thought I didn't want to see him again…
Interrupting both of them, Alluka said, "Brother, be nice! He was just trying to help!"
"Forget it, it's not worth getting that upset over," Killua said, clearing his throat. "He would have found out anyway. If he'd asked me I would have probably told him too," he paused for a moment before muttering, "Though I would have put up more of a fight than you probably did."
Killua looked winded. He felt winded. Being sick like this sucked.
"Sorry I freaked out on you like that," Killua said. "Can you go with Gon and make sure he doesn't do anything too stupid or dangerous? You know what kind of things he can do when he gets all emotional like that. He's probably not thinking clearly."
"Yeah, I gotcha. But! You're still my patient and you're still sick so back to bed! Doctor's orders!" Leorio said, eliciting a giggle from Alluka.
"Yeah, yeah, I got it…"
Killua got back into his bed and Alluka left, promising to get Killua something to eat and return. Gon had tried to cover it up but the worry on his face when he saw Killua had been pretty plain.
I must look worse than I thought. Though I suppose getting winded running to the door would have done it…, he thought.
Killua groaned, frustrated. Gon was definitely going to do something stupid. And right after giving him these feelings too…
xxx
Gon had left the room pretty suddenly, feeling confident, but he realized suddenly he had no idea how to find Bisky. It wasn't like he had her phone number or email address.
Hmm, how did we meet up with her last time? He thought, trying to recall. The memories of the times around when he and Killua had been going after the Chimera Ants were pretty fuzzy and he couldn't remember most of them well. The period when they were training with Bisky was generally a little clearer but try as he might, he couldn't find the answer.
"Agh! I can't just go and ask Killua! It will ruin my setup..." Gon said out loud to himself
"Setup?" a voice questioned from Gon's side.
"Ah! Leorio!"
"Yo," he answered with his usual genial tone. "So what's wrong? What can't you ask Killua?"
Gon looked down, feeling frustrated and maybe a little embarrassed. "Well, I don't know how to get in touch with Bisky and when I try to remember how we got in touch with her last time she trained us, I can't. It's like I know what happened but I still can't remember it. I know Palm had something to do with it, but..."
"Well that part lines up with what Killua told me. He said Palm was the one who got Bisky to come in," Leorio said, trying to sound encouraging. "Why don't you call Palm and ask her how she got in contact with Bisky? You have her contact info, right?"
Gon looked like he still felt a little discouraged by the fact that he couldn't remember that event, but he called Palm anyway. She was happy to pass along Bisky's number to Gon, though she did tease him slightly for not just looking Bisky up on one of the websites available to Hunters for gathering information.
"Still, I'm happy I got to talk to you, Gon," Palm said. "Good luck with whatever it is you need to talk to her about. I'll send the number to you after we hang up."
"Thanks again, Palm! Bye!" Gon said, hanging up.
Gon's phone buzzed a moment later with the arrival of Bisky's number and Leorio noticed a shift in Gon's aura.
"So what's the plan, Gon?" Leorio asked, quite certain that Gon was getting angry again. He didn't want to let Gon sabotage his own plan right from the start.
"It's obvious, isn't it? I'll call up Bisky and ask her where we can meet and then I'll make sure she knows she hurt Killua and put him in danger and that no one gets to tell Killua whether or not he can be my friend but me!" Gon said, getting visibly heated again.
"Okay, okay, but take a breath first," Leorio said, trying to calm Gon down.
Gon put his hands on his knees, closed his eyes, and took a breath like Leorio suggested. He finished up with a shake of his head and said, "Okay! Let's call Bisky!"
The phone rang a few times before Bisky answered.
"Hello, Gon," Bisky answered in her usual, high voice.
"Eh? How did you know it was me? We didn't exchange-?"
"Everyone's contact information is online, Gon. Isn't that how you got mine?"
"Uh, no, I asked Palm for it. She said the same thing…" Gon trailed off a little.
"Well, that aside, why did you call?" Bisky asked, getting straight to the point.
"There's something I need to talk to you about."
"Clearly, given that we're talking on the phone."
Gon made a face but pressed on. "Could we talk in person?"
"Well, I don't have any pressing jobs at the moment so I suppose that's doable. Send me the location. I'll leave tomorrow," Bisky said, hanging up.
"That was fast," commented Leorio. "What did she say?"
"She said to send her where I wanted to meet."
"Well that was easy enough! Nice job!" Leorio said. "Where are you going to meet her?"
Gon hadn't actually considered that yet, a fact that became clear when he crossed his arms and his brow knitted.
"Didn't think that far ahead, huh?" Leorio said. No surprise there.
"Should I have Bisky meet me here?" Gon suggested.
"Huh? Why?"
"So she can apologize to Killua!"
"Hmm."
Leorio now made the same face as Gon had been, resting a curled finger just above his chin. "Risky, don't you think? And what about Killua? Will he be okay with that?"
"Well, he'll probably be mad, but it will make him get better, right?" Gon said.
"It's possible," Leorio said. "It would depend on how the apology goes probably. Would she even apologize?"
"I'll make her apologize!" Gon said confidently.
Leorio couldn't really come up with any response he thought might sway Gon so with that, it was settled that Gon was going to invite Bisky to town to apologize to Killua. Gon initially thought he would meet with her at the restaurant where he and Leorio had met and discussed Killua being sick but Leorio suggested they meet at a nearby park instead. There was no way that conversation was going to last a whole meal inside the restaurant, assuming they even managed to order anything. Leorio couldn't leave some hapless server to get stiffed by his young friend.
"Alright, should we go back to Alluka and Killua?" Leorio suggested.
"No," Gon said. "I can't go back and see Killua yet. I'll see you later, Leorio!"
Gon turned and ran off, heading for the edge of town. Leorio guessed he was probably headed for the forested area just outside of town.
"Mountain kid… why would he choose to sleep outside in the woods when he could stay in a perfectly good hotel room with the rest of us?" Leorio grumbled. "He's a Hunter now, he could even afford his own room if he didn't want to stay with us. Money means nothing to these kids…"
Leorio typed out a text to Gon.
Are you going to stay out on the woods tonight? What are you doing?
Gon took a while to respond but finally replied,
Yeah, I'll be fine! I have a plan! See you later!
