A/N: Hey it's not midnight yet, I didn't miss my own deadline!
Ahh, sorry for lateness anyways. I wasn't feeling very well today. But here's the chapter! Have you noticed that they are getting progressively longer? I think the first one was only three, four hundred words. This one is over seven hundred. On top of that, the chapters are connecting less and less with their verses. Oops.
Music wise, try And the World Was Gone by Snow Ghosts.
I remember at Michael's house
In the living room when you kissed my neck
And I almost touched your blouse
Kurapika called them for a favor. Apparently Leorio hadn't left his house or spoken to anyone ever since he'd walked out of their apartment a few days ago, and the blonde was beginning to worry about him.
"Ha?" Killua said, slumped against the couch with his cell by his ear (he'd broken their home phone after that conversation with Ging). "Why don't you just go visit him then?"
"We'd just end up fighting again. Please, Killua?"
They ended up going.
Leorio lived in a small house next door to the university he was studying at with a few other students. When Gon and Killua showed up everyone else was out, apparently done putting up with Leorio's new found, and frankly quite frantic, love for research. Killua could see why as soon he opened the door; he reeked like he hadn't taken a shower in two weeks, he wore only a loose pair of pajama bottoms (and damn Killua had never wanted to see that much of Leorio, really and truly) and he was in such a state of disarray that it looked like he might actually be the one dying instead of Gon. Honestly though, Killua could relate. He'd been keeping himself together this long, but it was so hard, and he was so tired.
"Perfect timing!" Leorio crowed, ushering them into the house and pulling a shirt over his head at the same time.
"For?" Gon questioned, peeking over the edge of the giant parka Killua had insisted he wear. The winters were cold and unforgiving here, he wasn't about to risk Gon getting sick on top of everything else. Well…sicker.
"I wanted to examine the affected area, get a good idea of how fast this thing is spreading." Leorio babbled for a minute longer, moving around his room and collecting various instruments that he'd probably stolen from one of the lecture halls. It was mostly medical talk, things Killua really didn't care to follow, and he was ready to just let Leorio run himself out but Gon reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder, effectively silencing him.
"If I let you, you have to promise me something."
The look Leorio gave him was suspicious but he agreed nonetheless.
"I want you to moderate yourself, okay?" His wide, earnest eyes and serious but gentle expression brokered no argument. "Trying to help me is one thing, running yourself into the ground is another. We're all worried about you. Go to class. Eat. Sleep. And then maybe do a little research on the side."
Leorio's shoulders slumped, his head sagging forward like he'd let out a breath that he'd been holding for too long. When he looked up again his eyes were glassy but he was smiling, a small fragile thing. "Yeah, alright," he said, voice rough.
The grin Gon gave by no means fit the situation, but it lightened the weight of the space around them anyways. "Great! Then I'll do the exam."
From where he was perched on the edge of Leorio's bed Killua gave a small cough. "Do I need to, uh, leave the room or….?"
"Nah," was Leorio's response, already turned back to his pile of medical paraphernalia. "I just need Gon to take off that jacket and his shirt."
Gon did so using a technique that involved moving only his good arm and maneuvering around his bad with slow, easy movements. It left Killua a little breathless, thinking about the pain he had to be in and how quickly he had adapted to make it manageable. It was nothing short of amazing, really. But then Gon turned around, baring his back, and Killua found he couldn't breathe at all anymore.
Only a few weeks ago Killua had walked into Gon's room and watched him read, watched the light play across his body and admired the shadows it created. There had been no physical evidence of his disease. Then there'd been the night of the storm, of their first kiss, and he'd seen how bruises had blossomed across Gon's skin in that brief time. Now, they had spread down across his shoulder blade, inky shadows that reached to take over more and more of the body they grew on. His entire shoulder was dark, covered almost completely from throat to deltoid in the swollen, painful tissue, and it splattered down towards his ribs in uneven splotches, appearing first and foremost where the bone was closest to skin. It was spreading fast, too fast.
Leorio conducted his exam and Killua shook silently where he sat.
That night, after they'd left Leorio's house, after they'd made him promise to take care of himself and made him eat, Killua curled up against Gon's back and pressed his palms into his bare stomach to feel him breathe. He kissed along Gon's spine, mindful of the bruising, and then up to the back of his neck, lingering there until he felt tears prick at his eyes.
Gon who had allowed it all in silence, wound their fingers together and pulled Killua's arms tighter around himself.
It was the first time Killua allowed himself to cry since Gon had been diagnosed.