Chapter 14

"Happy birthday Gon!" Mito and Killua shouted as he made his way sleepily down the stairs to the kitchen.

Killua and Mito had both gotten up an hour early to set up the decorations and cook a nice breakfast for him. It had taken Killua a bit of time to unlatch himself from Gon without waking him up or upsetting him but he had done it. He had untangled their limbs inch by inch until he was finally able to tiptoe out of their room and get to work downstairs.

He and Mito had wrapped Gon's presents that morning as well and they sat on the table covered in green paper doomed to be destroyed.

Gon took in the strategically placed green streamers and the small boxes on the table with a grogginess that was slowly beginning to fade away. He blinked a few times and it was gone.

When he had first awoken he had been sent into a slight panic when Killua wasn't by his side, but calmed when he smelled a warm meal being cooked and the sounds of polite conversation going on. He let his mind wander around the maze of reasons why Killua and Mito might be making breakfast when he finally realized what it was. It was his birthday.

Gon had given them a bit of time to prepare as his eyes drifted shut again even though his mind was racing. When he could wait no longer he went down stairs, rubbing the last remnants of sleep from him eyes.

"Thanks you guys!" Gon said as a bright smile broke out onto his face. He ran at them and they were pulled tightly into his arms before either had time to react.

Mito wrapped her arms around Gon immediately and Killua hesitantly did the same.

"I love you Gon." Mito said. Killua grumbled something under his breath that only he could hear.

"I love you too Mito! What did you say Killua?" Gon asked. Killua started a bit, like a frightened cat. Then he answered coolly.

"I said Happy Birthday Gon," Killua spoke gently.

"Thank you Killua," Gon squeezed Killua a bit tighter.

"Okay Gon!" Killua said quickly and shoved Gon off of him as his face heated up. "Why don't you eat breakfast or open your presents?"

"Let's eat breakfast!" Gon said louder than necessary.

Mito smiled and began to dish out the eggs, sausage, and toast onto three plates. After Gon and Mito had bowed their heads (Gon had told Killua earlier that they were saying prayer) the boys dug in like hungry animals.

Breakfast was gone as quick as it came and it was suddenly time for presents. Mito's came first.

Coffee mix for Oba-Chan's coffee and new materials to replenish his travel supplies. New materials for his sewing kit, a nice face towel, and other commodities.

He promptly thanked Mito and put the coffee to the side to make for Oba-Chan after he opened Killua's present.

Killua's present was wrapped in a light blue paper. When Gon lifted it up it flopped limply down where he wasn't holding it. He turned to Killua to give him a curious look and blinked when he saw Killua nervously fidgeting with the green strings around his left wrist that had once been in his wrists. Gon gave him a bright smile to try and calm him before he pulled open the paper of the present gently.

Once the paper had been removed and thrown onto the table to be cleaned later Gon was left holding a large piece of paper with drawings all over it. Lines and dashes and one big X.

"What is it Killua?" Gon asked gently, slightly confused. Killua clutched at his strings a bit harder before replying flatly.

"An adventure." Killua kept his gaze directed at the floor but Gon's excited intake of breath rose his eyes up from the wood. "You don't think that it's… Lame?" Worry laced Killua's voice.

"Lame?! No, this is awesome! We get to go on an adventure Killua!" Gon smiled brighter than the sun's rays in Death Valley. A small wavering smile also joined Killua's face. "Where does the adventure lead Killua?" Gon asked innocently. Killua's smile was replaced with a playful smirk.

"Now wouldn't you like to know?"

"Killuaaa~" Gon whined.

"Well it wouldn't be much of an adventure if I told you what it was for, would it?"

"No…" Gon looked down at his map but a soft smile came quickly to his face. "I guess we'll have to get started now if we want to finish before nightfall. You made this didn't you? This looks pretty elaborate. Challenging."

"Well I couldn't just give you a straight path. That would be no fun."

"No it wouldn't…"

With the still steaming coffee set in place at Oba-Chan's grave and good luck's wished by Mito they were on their way. Killua followed beside Gon silently as he sorted through the clues and paths given to him by the map. Killua only helped him when he was absolutely stuck.

On the map the paths were marked with unbroken lines and that was what they had traveled so far, but now they were fast approaching a new part of the map. The lines were broken up into dashes for a little bit and then went back to straight lines. There were a lot of parts on the map like this but when Gon asked Killua what they meant he simply stated, "You'll know when we get there."

Gon complained for just a moment but he truly was excited to be on this new adventure through his old home with his best friend.

Gon broke through the tall, man sized green bushes into the dashed line territory. Before him was what seemed to be a course of some kind. Bright red flags an inch in width and a foot in length were tied loosely around the limbs of the trees on either side of them in a straight line forwards.

"Ready, set, go!" Killua shouted abruptly and sprinted forward without warning. Gon was quick to recover but not quick enough to stop Killua from getting the first flag from the tree by tugging on it gently.

"Cheater!" Gon shouted at his back but was soon side by side with the silver haired ex-assassin yanking the flags from the trees much more violently than his companion. He shoved in front of Killua with a quick push and pulled the flag Killua had been reaching out to get.

However, Killua's feet had not been touching the ground for he had jumped out to grab the flag. As a result he was flung into the bushes where he suddenly disappeared.

Gon paused in their race and waited to see if Killua would get up and if he was okay. He slowly approached the bush, skeptical of foul play.

Something had hit Killua right then, and it wasn't just the ground. No. As Killua had been launched into that bush, a smile plastered on his face he finally realized that this was the best time of his life. His time with Gon. Ever since Gon had come into his life he had finally begun living. He hadn't realized until now just how much fun it could be to live.

Laughter erupted from the pale skinned male in the bush, reliving Gon of some of his concern but none of his wariness.

"Killua?"

The laughter continued and Gon finally decided to just see what he was doing. He peeked over top of the bush and meet a smiling mouth open wide in laughter and a bright forget me not eyes filled with mirth and tears. Whether they were from happiness or laughter Gon could not tell.

"Are you okay?" He questioned.

"You're the only reason I'm happy!" Killua was still laughing, though it was an important breakthrough for him in all reality. "You really did it. You gave me a reason to live." His laughter died down and he looked back up at Gon, closing his eyes in a soft smile. "Happy birthday."

Gon's heart pounded at Killua's words. Well, fluttered would be a much more accurate word but that implies an emotion that wouldn't make sense, so in Gon's mind his heart pounded. Before Gon could respond Killua was up on his feet, shaking the leaves from his hair before dashing quickly ahead to grab more flags.

"Killua wait!"

"Catch up! I won't let you win easily!" he called over his shoulder.

A grin once again broke out onto Gon's face.

Once they had finished their race and returned to unbroken line territory they counted their flags.

"1, 2, 3, 4…" Gon counted out loud once Killua had finished his count. Just looking at the two piles they had it wasn't clear who had more.

Because Killua had finished he began to mess with Gon, shouting out random numbers to disrupt his concentration.

"8, 2, 6, 27, 13, 4, 52, 98…"

Gon's count began to falter. "5… 6… 9… 11…" His eyebrows furrowed when he realized that he had messed up somewhere along the way. "Killuaaa..." Gon whined. Killua snickered but stopped his random outburst of numbers.

"24, 25. That's it. I have exactly 25."

"I know," Killua leaned back against the tree behind him.

"What? How?" Gon asked in surprise.

"Because I have 25. And I put out 50 flags. I knew as soon as I was done counting my own."

"How?" Gon asked again. Killua raised an eyebrow at him.

"Because half of 50 is 25. So if I get 25 and we both collected all of the flags then you would have to have 25."

"Oh." Gon said, even though he only half understood. Killua rolled his eyes.

"It looks like we tied." Killua spoke as he gathered up the flags in his pile.

"Aww. That's no fun."

"But I did put up one last flag. It's not the same color of these though." Killua baited Gon.

"Really? Where?" Gon's eyes brightened.

"I guess you'll just have to find it because I forget." Killua's smile resembled a cat's. In a second Gon was off. He had completely forgot about his flags, which lay on the ground where he had been not two seconds ago. In a snap Killua was after him. Grabbing his flags on his way.

He didn't yell to Gon to slow down or stop he just went after him. He wouldn't have even if he called after him so he saved his breath. He knew that with the direction that he was heading that Gon would get there any second now. They had been close in the first place.

He followed Gon's quickly disappearing form with an agility that would have the fastest man on earth in awe.

"Yes! I knew that I had seen something in that tree!" Gon exclaimed and Killua knew that he had seen the blue flag waving in the wind above the swamp-like-pond the tree was towering over. Gon quickly scaled the tree and yanked the flag from one of the tallest limbs. He held it high like a trophy and grinned happily. Killua smiled and called up to him.

"You win. I guess you get to give me a task to do as your reward. I will do one request of yours." Gon thought for a second before he decided.

"You have to do 50 pushups!" He yelled down. Killua raised an eyebrow but got down on the ground and did 50 pushups. He did them with ease and didn't even break a sweat. He stood one minute after he had gotten down and brushed the dirt from his palms onto his pants.

"Aww. That was too easy… You should do 100." Gon began to climb down from the tree.

"You have to win again if you are going to ask another request of me. And I could do 100 just as easily." Killua said, bragging without knowing it.

"What!?"

"How many can you do?" Killua asked.

"I don't know. More than 50." Gon hopped off of a branch the last ten feet to the ground. He looked up at the massive tree behind him. "You know, this used to be my favorite tree. I would come out here and fish until the moon was further overhead than the sun."

"Really? There are actual fish in there?" Killua questioned disbelievingly.

"Yeah, there used to be this huge fish in there that no one had caught in years but poachers came and poisoned the lake so that it would float to the surface." Gon's fists tightened and turned white, the flag within his hand being impaled by his short finger nails. They killed every living thing in there and then took the king of the lake. They left the rest of the dead fish just floating. It smelled so horrible."

"Did you find the poachers?"

"Yeah." A smile came to his face. "It turns out that the king of the lake hadn't been killed by the poison. Once I ran the poachers out of time and made landed a hit or two on their faces I took the king to a nearby lake that hadn't been contaminated. It took the help of half of the village to carry him but we did it. Now this lake it still unable to sustain life so there are no fish."

"Did you ever see the poachers again?"

"Nope. They never came back." He smiled. "Where to next?"

It was about noon now. The sun was shining softly down on the two through the bright green leaves newly created by the spring trees. On the map Killua gave Gon there was a check mark where they would soon be at. Killua told Gon that there would be a surprise at the mark, spurring Gon to find it faster.

They had gone through four dashed line zones. Killua had done a total of 300 pushups counting the 50 from last time. The numbers Gon had given him had gone up 50 at a time. Gon had done a total of 200 pushups, his number rising up 100 at a time.

The score was Gon- 3, Killua-2. But Killua wasn't about to give up. The check mark was only the half way point.

With a last turn they arrived at the check mark. Gon's eyes widened as he took in everything there was to see.

Which equated to nothing.

It was just more forest. Trees, leaves, vines, bushes. However, Gon didn't need his eyes to know that there was something amiss. He took a deep breath through his nose with his eyes closed to help him focus on that one sense. The second he identified the scent his eyes snapped open and he rushed to a nearby tree and went around the back of it. Tucked into a slightly hallowed out grove was a wicker basket.

Gon pulled the basket from the tree and turned back to Killua who had been watching him closely.

"Lunch?"

"Yeah, Mito made some food for us and I brought it out here this morning."

"It smells really good!"

"Leave it to you to worry about the smell but not-"

Bang!

The sound of a gunshot ripping through the air attacked the boy's eardrums and right behind it the ringing of wicked laughter. The two shared a glance that relayed both of their thoughts.

Poachers.

It's December!

Gomen for the horribly late update but I did finish the NANOWRIMO thing. Thank you guys so much for your patience and understanding and reviews. Seriously, I'd have a bad day turned great because of your sweet reviews. The updates will come faster, hopefully. I do have basketball to worry about now but I won't let you all down. There will be a bit more action from here on out. I'm planning on progressing the story a bit quicker because the last like 5 chapters were pure fluff.

Luv ya! ;)