Hisoka yawned as he emerged from the bathroom in a white bathrobe, once again in his room at the Celestial Tower. His flaming red hair was now loose and down around his shoulders, still wet from the shower.

He swiped his deck from the table and began methodically shuffling. Glancing out at the setting sun, he ran his thumb over the edges of his cards, and then swiped the first card.

The Queen of Spades. An unlucky card, that one.

His eyes studied the card momentarily before he swiped it back into his deck with a flick of his wrist. As he began re-shuffling, his lips curved into an amused smile as he thought of another unlucky someone.

That fortune teller this afternoon…she had certainly not been a regular street vendor.

Then again, she was a Nen-user, and that was what made her interesting, Hisoka mused as he shuffled his deck once again. There was no mistaking the Nen that had surrounded her when she had taken hold of his hand, green eyes glowing with Nen. To be able to see the divining threads wrapped around a person's hand, was that a Specialization ability?

Hisoka smirked slightly to himself, lifting his left hand to inspect it. The fortune teller had said it was covered in black threads, but aside from several old paper-thin cuts, his palm looked clean to him. Divination—an unusual gift, even among Nen-users.

"What an interesting girl," Hisoka murmured to himself as he reclined in a chair, shuffling his deck again. This time he shuffled longer, almost absently as he stared off into space, remembering.

According to what she said, she had been born with her Nen, and that's what had surprised him. People who were naturally born with Nen capabilities were extremely rare, after all. They were anomalies of the Nen world; incapable of doing the basic Nen functions of other nen masters and yet having a fully developed Hatsu and Nen signature, something that should have been impossible and yet happened anyway. Many had gone on to become famous artists in the regular world, such as Beethoven or Picasso or the knife-maker, Benz.

And to think that one had lived right under his nose this whole time. Hisoka felt a grin forming, and he began cackling softly to himself in the emptiness of his apartment.

This fortune-teller, this anomaly, had piqued his interest.

.

.

It was dark; the moon had risen, and Kaede stood up, stretching as her limbs creaked in protest after staying in the same spot for so long. With a satisfying series of cracks, she rolled her neck and loosened up the stiffness in her back.

The streets were deserted save for a few stragglers. She leaned down, feeling her muscles stretch, and picked up the meager amounts of money she had earned throughout the day. It wasn't much, but it would get her through the next day.

"Kaede!"

She turned at the sound of pattering feet, a faint smile appearing on her face.

"Lucy," she said.

A little girl stepped out of the alleyway's shadows and into the yellow light of the streetlamp. Her long brown hair hung in dirty snarls around her face, wide brown eyes crinkled in a friendly smile. She was barefoot.

"Kaede," she said, "what are you doing? Aoi and Midori are waiting for you."

"Ahh," Kaede replied, her eyebrows creasing slightly, "sorry. I was just about to leave. How did you guys do today?"

She liked Lucy. Lucy was young, and her hands were covered in the most beautiful shades of crimson and violet and cobalt blue that Kaede had ever seen. They stretched far from her tiny hands, and they always left a smile on Kaede's face. She had never seen anyone with such a gorgeous tapestry of threads.

Blue, she thought. Blue is for friendship. And there it was, proof that they were friends, stretching from her index finger to Lucy's. It was one of the few strings on her fingers, and something she valued greatly.

"Badly," Lucy shrugged, wrinkling her nose. "Aoi shoplifted a few things, and I stole a bracelet. But the pawnbroker doesn't want to see us anymore. Midori managed to snag a pizza box, though. You?"

Kaede smiled, and hefted her bundle of money. "I met a few interesting people today, but other than that I got the same amount as usual." More like one. Hisoka, the fighter from the Heaven's Arena.

"Hmm," Lucy said, and then shrugged, turning to grin at her. The moonlight sparkled in her eyes. "Whatever! We're all used to being hungry, and it's best to save whatever money you get for tomorrow. Today, Midori said we'd play a game."

They headed down a secluded alleyway, a small corridor between old buildings. There was a small candle flickering, and it sent eerie shadows across the stone wall.

"Aoi?" Lucy called cheerfully, her voice carrying in the darkness with ease, "Midori?"

"Oh, Lucy and Kaede. Hey!" Two boys got up from the ground, the flame from the candle wavering haphazardly from the sudden movement and rush of air. They were nearly identical, with dirty, gaunt cheeks and scraggly hair, if not for the color of their eyes. In the dim candlelight, they were indistinguishable, but Kaede knew that in the daylight one's eyes would by a pale green and the other light blue.

"Hey," Kaede said, relieved. "How are you guys today?"

"Midori was awesome," one of the twins said, a big grin on his face. "Somehow he snagged a deck of cards and a box full of pizza! Full!"

"Straight from the dumpster," Midori said proudly, "and it even had some garlic sauce to boot. Here, we saved some for you." He gestured behind him, to a pile of crates and other emptied cardboard boxes. "Kind of reminds me of the good old days, ah?"

Lucy bounded forward with an eager squeal of delight, quickly drawing the pizza box from its hiding places between two crates. She lifted the cover, and took a deep whiff, sighing in satisfaction. "Pepperoni," she said, gleefully surprised, "Midori, I could kiss you right now."

Kaede smiled, and set down her bundle of money as well, wedging it securely in the gap created by three crates shoved against the wall. The 'good old days' that Midori referred to were probably the days they had spent at an orphanage.

In the slums of the city, you didn't ask questions. But for Kaede, it wasn't hard to guess why Aoi and Midori ran away. In the foster child system, after all, families never took two children together.

Lucy, on the other hand, had never quite understood the concept of family. Instead of Kaede finding her, it was more as if Lucy had found her.

Being homeless wasn't really quite as horrific as most people considered it to be, Kaede thought to herself. They had food, and things to do, and shelter if it ever rained.

"I'm never gonna let you guys go," Kaede said, fiercely.

There was a pause, a lull in the chatter.

"Kaede?" Aoi asked, looking up from the pack of cards he had just pulled out from under his knee, "did you say something?"

"...No," Kaede shrugged, and turned to Lucy and Midori, a faint smile appearing on her face. "But come on now, weren't you two going to show Lucy how to play a card game?"

.

.

Her scissors scratched against the brick in a familiar sound.

"Sharpening your scissors again?" Lucy asked her, squatting by the wall. Kaede did not break her movement, and let the scissor blades scratch against the brick in methodical scrapes.

"You know you never really use them, so there's not much point in sharpening them," Lucy said. She leaned against the wall, cushioning her head from the rough brick with her palm. "And old man Tomu died a long time ago."

"They're still pretty useful if I ever want to defend myself," Kaede defended, shrugging, but she stopped sharpening the scissors. "And besides, the same could be said about your bad habit of stealing. You don't need to."

Lucy giggled, and then looked at her with her big brown eyes, a thoughtful expression on her face. "I guess it's less of something practical and more sentimental?"

"Mmm," Kaede hummed in reply, and shoved the scissors back into her pockets.

"But you're right," Lucy scooted closer to her, and then leaned her head on Kaede's shoulder. "I miss old man Tomu, too. Except I don't have anything to remember him by, so I can't remember his face anymore. At least you have the scissors he gave you."

"It's fine," Kaede replied, shifting her body so she was more comfortable. "I can't quite remember much before I met him," she said honestly. She frowned, and pressed her lips into a thin line.

- scribbling frantically, a harsh pain in the back of her neck. A feeling of dizziness -

.

"Although that's really not important now. It's late and you should sleep, Lucy - "

Lucy clamped her small hands over Kaede's mouth, silencing her.

Kaede frowned at her, surprised at her abruptness, before she stiffened.

Something was wrong. She closed her eyes, feeling the deep hum of the strings around her, shrouding herself as she concentrated. There was a wave of dizziness, but she disregarded it, and was pleased to find that when she opened her eyes, she could see strings stretching from the rooftops and winding around the street.

She found it. A single green thread, coiling around her ring finger. A threat.

The feeling was thick in her throat. Kaede reached out and grabbed Lucy's hand, and held her breath as her gaze danced from the street to the little girl's calloused palms.

Her stomach plummeted. Kaede bit back panicked gasps, and forced herself to drop Lucy's hands, but she could not look away.

"Kaede?" Lucy asked, confused. "Kaede? What's wrong."

Kaede looked up, saw Aoi and Midori's faces and how they had gone silent, waiting. She felt some kind of desperation worm inside her stomach, and she shoved it down.

"...Hide," she hissed, eyes flickering among the three, and then she was stepping backwards, out of the alleyway into the street, and finally when she could bear it no longer she grasped the presence of the thread, so tightly she felt as if her fingers would break.

"Hide," she said, once more, her voice tight, "please."

When she turned around, there was no one there. They had, at the very least, fled somehow into the shadows. Kaede breathed softly in relief, and returned her attention to the thread on her finger. Her scissors weighed heavily in her pocket.

It stretched into the distance. Kaede took a deep breath, and began to follow.

.

.

.

(this has been rewritten because I lost the original chapter 2. Please forgive any discrepancies.)

that being said. I've been a little MIA the past few months. sorry.

updates will remain sporadic. I'm in a little bit of a rut.