A/N: Um . . . I know it's not December like I said. And honestly, all I can really do is apologize. I'm really sorry that I made you all wait so long. Seriously, I feel really bad. ;;

To be honest, you have sailor aidos to thank for this. I read her review on "Freedom" and felt so bad that I hadn't updated in so long that I sat down and started writing then and there. Thanks sailor aidos! I owe you one. :D

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters/plot devices/settings, all are © Yoshihiro Togashi. The writing is © me.

"Killua, hold still!"

"No!"

"Come on, it'll be over in a minute."

"Pancake, stop!"

Illumi struggled to hold his brother in the bathtub, while at the same time trying to get some shampoo in his hair. He was also getting very wet . . . damn toddlers and their instinctual hatred of baths.

"It's okay, Kil. I promise, putting shampoo in your hair isn't going to kill you."

"Yes it is!"

Illumi sighed exasperatedly. "You can drink and eat various poisons and not even flinch, I think something as harmless as shampoo isn't going to hurt you any."

"Pancake never uses shampoo."

Realization dawned. Toddler see, toddler do. "Oh no, Kil. I use shampoo all the time. It keeps my hair nice." Illumi demonstrated by taking some shampoo and rubbing it onto his head. He felt rather silly, but he would do anything to get that kid to stop squirming and screaming about shampoo.

Killua watched his brother with wide eyes. Illumi grinned at him and washed the shampoo out of his hair. "See? I'm just fine. And now I'm going to be all pretty."

Killua grinned and reached for the shampoo bottle. Illumi smirked. Well, that had been easy enough. Maybe he was getting this baby-sitting thing down. Finally.

The rest of the bath went smoothly, and Illumi emerged only wet, instead of sopping like he normally was. Feeling quite proud of himself he got Killua into some new clothes, changed his own clothes, and headed off to lunch.

Afterwards, he wished he hadn't.

The whole Zoldyeck family was present for lunch that day. This was a very rare occasion, but it wasn't unheard of. There were times when all of them just happened to wander into the dining hall at the same time. They'd nod at each other and begin to eat whatever was put in front of them.

Illumi vaguely noticed that his mother was pregnant. He probably had another five, six months to go before he would have another baby to take care of. He couldn't wait. No, really. He was absolutely thrilled about having to take care of Killua and another child. Honestly!

Anyhow, no one talked much as they ate, except for Kikyou who cooed over Killua every so often. Everything was very peaceful . . . until dessert was brought out.

Illumi had never really minded pudding before, it was a perfectly respectable dessert. True, he preferred to have some sort of sweet fruit or something, but there was nothing wrong with pudding in the least.

. . . Unless you were dealing with Killua. Then pudding was a very bad thing to have around.

You see, Killua was still very young, and while he was also very smart, he still had a few things to learn about the world. For example, if it looks like shampoo, but it actually is pudding, it is not a good idea to put it on your head.

"Killua don't!" But Illumi was too late. Killua had already taken the pudding and shoved the entire thing, bowl and all, onto his head. There was a gentle plop as globs of vanilla pudding fell from his head.

He looked to Illumi with a huge smile. "Pancake," he chirped, "I'm pretty!"

No one said a word. Before Milluki could make a comment, Illumi gave him a glare that clearly said "If you say a word I swear I will kill you and don't you dare say that Mom and Dad wouldn't let me because I can damn well make it look like an accident." There was a lot of truth in this glare. Milluki shrank back and busied himself with the pudding that had been set in front of him.

Illumi did not want to look at his parents, nor his grandfather. He didn't know what he would see if he did look, but he did know that none of the three would be scared off by a glare. He just kept his eyes fixated on the toddler before him.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Illumi stood and picked up Killua. He took the bowl off his brother's head and put it on the table. Then he walked out of the room, with his back to the three adults.

"Pancake should be pretty too," said Killua. He reached up to his own hair and pulled out some globs of pudding. Then he began to vigorously rub the sticky substance into Illumi's hair. Illumi flinched as he felt it mix in with his beautiful raven locks. He was going to need at least eight showers before he could get the stuff out.

"Come on, Kil, we need to take another bath."

"Why? We're already really pretty!"

Illumi looked down at his brother's smiling face. He wanted to tell Killua that pudding in your hair was not pretty, but he just couldn't bring himself to break his poor baby brother's heart. And who knew? Next time he might just dump a bowl of pudding on Milluki's head. That would be a sight that Illumi would enjoy.

"Well, we need to be even more pretty, okay?"

"Okay, Pancake," Killua said. Then he snuggled into his big brother's arms and promptly fell asleep. Illumi ignored the pudding that was slowly dripping from Killua's hair and down his shirt. Well . . . he at least tried to ignore it. There's something about slimy pudding dribbling down your back that's just really hard to ignore.

Hours later, after Illumi had gotten all of the pudding off of himself and Killua, he managed to get Killua to take a nap. How he did this he would never know, but he wanted someone to build a statue of him somewhere for completing such a dangerous and difficult task.

He was walking down the halls of the mansion enjoying the silence when he ran into his grandfather.

"Oh, Illumi," Zeno said. "You're parents were looking for you. They're waiting in your father's room."

"Oh, thanks." Illumi began to walk away. "Bye."

"Bye, Pancake."

Illumi winced but to his credit, he didn't turned around.

"You wanted to see me?" he asked.

"Yes," answered his father. His mother was sitting next to his father, looking worried. This did not bode well. When his mother was worried, something was afoot. And this something usually involved one of her children.

"Illumi, your sister is coming here."

Illumi frowned. Sister? What . . . Then he remembered. His younger sister, Alluka, had been staying with Kikyou's mother for the past few years. Kikyou went to visit her quite often, but believed that her daughter would turn out to be a better young lady if she was raised away from all the testosterone in the Zoldyeck household. At least, his mother called Alluka's living arrangement "staying with your grandmother". From what Illumi knew, Alluka was a prisoner in her grandmother's house. She never went out and spent all of her time among the stuck-up and prissy ladies that populated his grandmother's home. Sometimes he worried a bit about her being locked up with them, but he never really was able to worry for long. After all, he only saw her maybe once every two years.

"Oh, yes."

Silva leaned forward. "We believe that it's time for her to live here for a while. She hasn't been getting adequate training lately, and we don't want her to grow up not knowing the basics of assassination. So, we want you to train her while she's here."

Illumi paused for a moment to process this information. "All right. I assume Killua will have a different baby-sitter?"

"Yes," said Silva.

"This is ridiculous!" cried Kikyou, obviously unable to hold her emotions back any longer. "Silva, my little girl is just fine! She's being well cared for and when the time comes for her training I'll be the one to administer it. But she's just not ready. What about-"

"That's enough, Kikyou," said Silva quietly. "You're far too busy to train her in the basics. When she's ready for specialization you can take over. But Illumi will be a better teacher for her foundations."

He looked to Illumi. "You may go, Illumi. Get yourself ready for when she comes."

"Yes, father." Illumi stood and left. He did not hear the conversation going on behind him.

"But what about her condition?" hissed Kikyou.

"She's a Zoldyeck, Kikyou," Silva responded. "She's strong."

"But-"

"Stop worrying. She'll be fine."

Kikyou sighed. "I suppose there's nothing I can do to change your mind."

"There isn't."

She stood and began to walk out of the room. She turned back to her husband. "Just remember, I always said this was a bad idea," she snapped. Then she walked out, slamming the door behind her.

A/N: Okay, anyone who's gone through the HunterxHunter series knows that I'm skewing some things about the Zoldyeck lineage. But for the purpose of this fic, bear with me. I promise, my placing of Alluka does have a purpose later on.