This is NOT the last chapter! If you think that everything's fine after Hisoka gets his way... nope, Illu-chan isn't such an easy catch~~ And does anyone prefer lemon? I haven't written one in ages, so if you prefer it, I could upgrade the ratings... somewhere along the way.

Reviews appreciated~~

Lock of the Heart – Chapter 3

Prodigy Hunter Dead. The newspaper headline read in bold, officious letters. Illumi quickly scanned the report, and finding that 50 percent of it was probably the reporter's fictitious mind at work, tossed the papers to the other side of the hotel room, in the process stretching his arm, and straining the muscles in his chest. He winced.

Killua's electricity attack was more powerful than he'd thought. Although he was used to electric means of torture as much as Killua was, he certainly didn't like it, nor use his body as a live electricity generator. The muscles for most part of his body were still in a state of shock, getting paralyzed and refusing to work at the most sudden moments.

At this state, he doubted he would be able to fight at his full extent against Hisoka. Who would probably be at his doorstep very soon, given the newspaper headline. If his father or Killua didn't beat him to it. Either way, things didn't look pretty. And he had put all these on himself, because of some silly urge get got when being with Hisoka.

He was getting the magician's influence and turning stupid.

Ding dong. The doorbell chimed merrily, and Illumi wondered absently which of the three choices it would be. But as he got closer to the door, the dark aura that seeped through the door's gaps, reeking with madness, unmistakably belonged to Hisoka.

While Illumi's mind was still contemplating on running away (a crazier than usual Hisoka was not to be tempered with), his hands had already grown a conscious of their own and twisted open the door knob.

"Yo, Illu-chan." Hisoka greeted with a maniacal grin, and no matter how handsome his face was, Illumi was always reminded of an asylum breakout. "I take that you already know Gon's dead."

Illumi nodded curtly. He had done that to provoke Hisoka, but now when the man's at his doorstep, he couldn't help feeling like a child who had done something wrong, and too guilty to face his parents. Therefore, he stayed at his doorway, unsure if he wanted Hisoka in his room, or rather, the embarrassment he'd suffer from if Hisoka refused to enter upon invitation.

But the magician made that decision for him, wrapping his arm around Illumi's much too slender waist, and guided the assassin into the room, clicking shut the door behind him.

Now in the privacy of the room, Hisoka leaned close, his breath tinkling Illumi's ear, and Illumi flinched away, both from the proximity and the smell of danger Hisoka was radiating. That must be why his heart was beating like a drum, simply because of his honed instincts against powerful opponents before a great battle. Nothing else.

"Ne, Illu-chan, you killed my little apple, didn't you?" Hisoka practically purred, nibbling Illumi's earlobe. Illumi shivered. "I knew it was you right after I saw the body. You shot a materialized pin into Gon's heart, right? It's always been your best trick, combining the Houshitsu kei and Gugenka kei abilities, shooting out your nen, and then letting it materialize into a needle after the nen had pierced through the opponent's body. It kills without trace, not even a wound."

"You saw right through me." Illumi replied flatly, trying to pull himself free from the leech Hisoka was becoming, but to no avail. And the assassin suddenly jumped, feeling something hot and wet against his neck.

That bastard licked him! Licked!

"If you're trying to avenge for your beloved prey by grossing the hell out of me, you are half way there." Illumi growled.

Hisoka's eyes sparkled in interest, "What makes you think that I'd want to take revenge?" All the while his hands kept wandering across Illumi's lithe body, venturing into sensitive areas.

"Because of the immense interest you have in him, and the way you kept all harm away from him, going as far as warning me back during the hunter exam. You see him as such a worthy opponent that you won't even take into consideration fighting against me. Doesn't that show that he has great importance in your heart? So naturally you'd want to take revenge on me." Illumi replied, swatting Hisoka's hand away from his hip.

"Hm…" Hisoka hummed, enjoying the warm and fuzzy smell of soap on Illumi's skin, and contemplating how he should react to get the most gain out of this sudden epiphany of Illumi's true feelings. So his little assassin was getting jealous of Gon…

He would be a fool if he didn't make use of this rare display of emotions from Illumi, and use it against him, to make his prey agonize in his mind games, and finally, fall into his trap. Hisoka loved hunting.

Letting go of Illumi all of a sudden (with some reluctance in his part), Hisoka put back on his vicious face and aura, and said to Illumi in a perverted merry way, "Then what are we waiting for?"

…………………………………………

Illumi stood five meters away in the field, facing Hisoka, with the strong wind persistently trying to mess up his hair. The lack of intensity in the "battlefield" would have put him to shame if others were to see that this was all the infamous Zoldick could muster. Yet he couldn't control himself from relaxing upon the sight of Hisoka. It seemed that the magician had bribed his nervous system, making them incapable of tensing up.

But he had to at least put up a good fight for this battle he had worked so hard to earn. He wanted to let Hisoka see him as a worthy opponent.

Another strong gust of wind blew by, sending Illumi's raven dark hair dancing in the air, and in the next instant, the assassin seemed to be also blown away by the wind, dissipating into thin air.

Hisoka smiled. "Too bad, Illu-chan. No matter how perfect your zetsu is, I can sense you wherever you are. Your presence alone is like a neon light flashing… calling for me to pounce on you…" And pounce he did, towards an apparently vacant spot, but his hands came into contact with a slender wrist, and Hisoka clamped down on it immediately.

Illumi didn't bother with hiding anymore, and swept out his leg, aiming for Hisoka's shoulder. The magician blocked it just in time with his other free hand, but Illumi shot out a handful of pins without a second to lose. Hisoka let go of his prey and leaped back, observing the pins' flight before dodging them in the last moment.

"Ne, Illu-chan, why won't you fight me more seriously, considering that it's you who forced me into this battle?" Hisoka mocked, "Do you honestly think that you could win by throwing pins with so little speed and intensity? If you keep this up, you'll get killed…"

"I didn't know that someone like you would kill for love. Tell me, was that boy really worth so much to you?" Illumi asked evenly, dark hair tousled by the wind. Did the boy have more value than me? Was the unvoiced question.

Hisoka merely smiled enigmatically, and totally ignored the question. "Illu-chan, don't you think it's a little unsightly for us to fight around like a couple of mad dogs?" Hisoka's eyes gleamed hungrily, not for blood (as Illumi had seen that enough times to tell), but rather, as if he had become a tasty dish, that Hisoka was dying to devour.

"What are you suggesting?" The assassin could feel the hairs on his arm bristling.

"That we do this in a light-hearted way. We'll just take turns attacking each other, until one of us couldn't take it anymore and surrenders. And the person on the receiving end cannot put up defenses. Nice and easy, eh?"

Illumi felt his stomach lurch. "That's slaughtering, not fighting. Besides, if we cannot retaliate, I'll be at a disadvantage simple because of physical differences."

"Hm… You have a point." Hisoka furrowed his brows and pretended to be stumped. "How about you hit me three times, and I'll attack you once?"

"You're wasting my time. If you don't intend to battle, just leave." No matter how he looked at it, Illumi felt that Hisoka was only playing tricks on him, evasion and a bunch of incomprehensible words, and weird choices that left his thoughts in a knot, jumbled up in his mind.

"That will not do. I still have to avenge Gon, don't I?" Hisoka said merrily to the leaving Illumi, and tugged on his nen. Illumi almost tripped, feeling the sudden jerk on his leg and arm, only to find that Hisoka had stuck some of his Bungee Gum on him, probably during the previous exchange.

"How about I let you choose? It's either three attacks for you and one for me, or three for me and one for you. Which do you prefer?"

Illumi narrowed his eyes, flicking out a couple of pins between his fingers. He wanted to shoot the pins out, just to test if Hisoka was serious about what he said, if only his hands would stop shaking. It was not vigorous nor visible, just thin tremors, but enough to differentiate between life or death for an assassin.

Yes, he was an assassin. He just had to move as he always did. Illumi closed his eyes, then snapped them open, as the pins flew out of his hands at the same time.

Hisoka just stood there, not moving an inch, as the pins buried themselves in his shoulder. There was no blood, but the muscles around the targeted area started to distort eerily. Hisoka kept smiling.

Illumi never knew that he could be disgusted by human muscles tangling and knotting, writhing beneath the skin, a sight he had gotten used to for years. "I'll let you hit me three times." He announced quietly. If he raised his voice, he was afraid he would throw up.

"Then here I go." Hisoka responded in glee, dashed forward, and in a second, landed two punches and a kick on Illumi's stomach, chest and leg. Illumi knew Hisoka wasn't letting him go easy, as he heard his bones cracking. Usually this degree of injury couldn't even make him feel pain, but perhaps because of the electric shock Killua inflicted on him previously, the strike on the chest hurt like hell. It hurt so much that his heart was threatening to stop beating.

He coughed, and spat out some blood.

"It's your turn now, Illu-chan." Hisoka hurried, his smiley façade without even a crack.

Illumi lifted his gaze to the man who he knew would kill him without hesitation, if the attacks just now weren't enough of a proof. He tried mustering up some hate, some intention to kill, but failed so miserably that he began to doubt if all his life he'd been a saint instead of a assassin.

All he felt, if he still had any energy to, was a low, burning bitterness at himself, for doing the most obviously stupid thing in the world by killing Gon. Hisoka had made it blatantly clear that he was no match to the boy in terms of meaning something to the magician, but he just had to go try.

"What's wrong, Illu-chan? Not attacking anymore?" Hisoka approached, smugness painted all over his face. "Why, are you afraid of hurting me?"

"Do whatever you want." He had no intention of fighting anymore. It was useless anyway.

"Really?" Hisoka stalked even closer, and wrapped an arm around Illumi's shoulder, guiding him to sit beside a boulder. "Ne, Illu-chan, did it hurt when I punched you?"

Illumi glared at him. He did do something stupid, but that did not mean he was going to answer a question meant for the mentally disabled.

"So where did it hurt?" Hisoka continued, his hands running up Illumi's leg, "not here," to his abdomen, "not here either," then finally to his chest. "It's here, isn't it?"

"Killua electrocuted me here." Illumi answered flatly, feeling ticklish as Hisoka's hand rubbed against the injured spot.

"Is that the only reason? Doesn't it feel like someone's clamping down on your heart whenever you try to attack me? Why do you want to battle against me, when you can't bear to hurt me? And why does it bother you so that I care about Gon?" Hisoka almost cooed, gently lifting up the strands of hair that blocked Illumi's face from view. "Don't tell me… you don't know what all these mean."

Illumi frowned, turning to look at Hisoka. "You mean that I like you?"

Hisoka's smile became wider if possible. "Like? That's too weak. How about infatuation? Obsession? Hm… that sounds like a stalker. Passion? That ends too fast. Crazy about me? That's too colloquial. How about – "

"Shut up!" Illumi snapped. Hisoka's ranting was giving him a headache, and goosebumps. I love you, is that enough?"

"More than enough." Hisoka replied, and promptly leaned down to seal Illumi's lips. Just in case his new-found lover changed his mind.

…………………………………………….

Illumi flopped down on the bed, wondering idly, as the sound of the showers rained through his mind. So he loved Hisoka all along? That could explain a lot of things, but he still couldn't help feeling tricked, as if he'd fallen into a trap, and had already been eaten alive without the tiniest realization.

Suddenly, he felt a buzzing from his pocket, and took out his cellphone. There weren't many people in the world who knew his cellphone number, much less familiar acquaintances who dared to disturb him with spam messages.

Looking at the sender, Illumi was more than surprised. It was Killua.

Was his brother setting a date to duel it out? Illumi clicked open the message.

Come to St. Joseph's Hospital next week at 7 pm. Check the front reception for my name. That was all the message said. No reason or explanations whatsoever.

Should he go? It sounded way too much like a hoax. But he owed his brother at least so much.

"Illu-chan, can you pass me my pants?" Hisoka called from the bathroom. Illumi sighed in exasperation. He admit he liked Hisoka, but someday his eyes were going to be scarred by this guy's lack of humility.