Disclaimer: I don't own HunterXHunter. I am not making profit off of this story.

Clichés are clichés because they happen.

XXX

I awoke feeling completely refreshed, which immediately annoyed me. Three hours, indeed. To my surprise, when I twisted my head to seek Kurapica out and berate him just a teensy bit, I found him asleep by the wall next to my couch. Killua was awake along with Leorio, though Gon still seemed to be conked out like a light.

Killua acknowledged my awakening with a shrug, and I raised an eyebrow in question. Killua simply shrugged again, looking a little grumpy, but Leorio held up a finger to his lips and began to mouth words. I missed some of them but got the general message. 'Don't wake him—he only just got to sleep a little over an hour ago. Practically stayed up the whole night.' Leorio shook his head in exasperation.

I shared Leorio's sentiments. Hadn't I told Kurapica to wake me? I scowled. Of course his chivalrous nature wouldn't allow him to disquiet someone else's rest to supplement his own—what was I thinking? Still, I supposed that was a small part of Kurapica that I found admirable. His manners surpassed those of every other person I'd met.

Suddenly, as though just remembering something, Killua snapped his head around and met my eyes, lips stretched in the widest smile I'd seen on him. He wiggled his eyebrows at me and nodded towards Kurapica as Leorio turned in curiosity.

I blushed instinctively, not because I knew exactly what Killua was trying to convey, but because I knew it couldn't be anything good. Leorio, however, seemed very encouraged and engaged in an enthusiastic, silent conversation with Killua that seemed to involve a lot of pointing towards me and Kurapica. I buried my head in my hands and resigned myself to a long, torturous wait as the two boys snickered quietly.

It wasn't actually a long wait, as Gon shot up from his couch the very next second. "GOOD MOR—" Panicked, Leorio lunged across the room and slapped his hand over Gon's mouth. He frantically shushed the younger boy, frantically pointing towards Kurapica. Gon's eyes widened in understanding and we all turned towards the sleeping figure with baited breath.

When Kurapica didn't move, we all sighed in relief. I watched with some amusement as Leorio and Killua castigated Gon without speaking.

To break up the oppressive air, I scooted off the bed and plopped down beside Killua. Gesturing with my hands, I held up my fingers and mimicked claws and pointed towards Killua's own hands. Killua raised an eyebrow, but seemed to understand what I was going for, since he held up his hand and hardened his nails, like he'd done the night before.

Riveted, I flipped Killua's hand back and forth as I studied it. It really wasn't nen-based at all. No tricks to it—he'd really only changed the shape of his nails. But how? I frowned, not understanding.

Killua rolled his eyes, but allowed me to poke and prod at his fingers. A few more minutes of this and I quickly became bored. I wanted to at least play a game or something. Anything was better than sitting in this oppressive silence.

I glanced back at Kurapica, realizing we'd have to wait until he woke up to do anything else at all. I pouted. If he'd woken me up like I'd told him to and gotten to sleep earlier…!

The three boys beside me seemed to have realized the same thing, because they were silently occupying themselves. Leorio was leafing through the books on the shelves, and Killua had started his epic rematch of rock-paper-scissors with Gon. Needless to say, Killua was losing. Badly.

About two hours and one thousand losses later, when Killua was about ready to strangle Gon and I was about ready to die of boredom, Kurapica stirred.

"Yay!" Gon cheered, and bounded over to Kurapica's side, throwing his arms around the still groggy teen. "So we can talk now, right?"

"Ah, were you waiting for me to wake up?" Kurapica mumbled, rubbing at his eyes. "I apologize for the inconve—"

"Right, first thing's first," I said, clapping my hands together. I got to my feet and crossed my arms. "Why didn't you wake me?"

Kurapica colored. "Well, that is—I intended to, but you were sleeping so peacefully that I…" He trailed off, looking guilty and properly repentant.

I sighed, finding that I was entirely unable to remain angry with him. "Is four hours of sleep really enough for now?" I asked, deflating.

"Yes," he replied, firmly.

"Well, then," I started, still unconvinced, "I guess that's okay."

"It's not okay!" Killua burst out, leaping to his feet. "If you were going to sleep on the floor, why'd I have to share with Gon?" he demanded.

Ah, that's why he looked grumpy when I first woke up, I thought to myself. Mystery solved. "Why, you didn't have fun? Good friends should have at least one sleepover together," I said, mostly to spare Kurapica from having to answer, as it was clear that he didn't have one. "Think of it as bonding time."

"…I was asleep; how could I have had fun?" Killua pouted, though his response seemed a little slow. After thinking for a while, however, his previous grin returned, full force.

I was almost afraid to ask. "…What?"

"We'll have more time together," Killua mimicked. Both Kurapica and I flushed immediately as Leorio sat up a little straighter. Gon seemed clueless, as usual. Killua smirked, in a gotcha sort of way, nodding towards Kurapica. "Who knew he could be such a smooth-talker, eh?"

Immediately, I opened my mouth to object, without even knowing what I planned on saying. Smooth-talker? "You—don't listen on others' conversations! You were supposed to be sleeping! You said you were asleep!"

"Why, was it private? Just for the two of you?" he snickered, flouncing away when I swiped at his head.

"Hey, hey, when was this?" Leorio asked, smirking. He completely ignored Kurapica's mortified glare.

"When they thought we were sleeping." Shrugging, Killua scoffed. "As if I need sleep." Clasping his hands behind his back, Killua leaned over and batted his eyelashes at Kurapica. "I'll stay up with you so you don't feel loooonely," he gushed.

"It wasn't like that!" I denied truthfully, though my voice had gone up much too high for my protests to do me any good. "And I don't sound like that!"

"Oh, it wasn't?" Killua deflated immediately and turned away. "Che, how boring." I blinked in surprise at his abrupt loss of interest. Surely he hadn't given up that easily. True to my expectations, Killua whirled around a second later, sticking out his tongue. "Psych!" he said gleefully. "As if I would say that!" He bounded back towards me—like a puppy, I thought to myself—and tugged on my shirt impatiently. "Planning a June wedding?" he heckled.

"You're getting married?" Gon asked in awe, staring at us with wide eyes.

"We're not getting married!" Kurapica and I shouted together.

Leorio and Killua shared a smirk. "Point proven," Leorio snickered.

"You are all being ridiculous," Kurapica said, trying to go for a calm image and failing miserably, as the blush was still prominent on his face. "We have only known each other for a week and—"

"What's time got to do with it?" Killua asked unconcernedly. "I've known Gon for even shorter, and I already know I want to be his best friend. I want to stick with him forever."

Gon beamed. "Me too, Killua! Let's have lots of fun adventures together!"

"Right, see? Even Gon thinks so," Killua pointed out triumphantly.

Leorio nodded in a sage-like manner. "If Gon says so, it must be true."

"What Gon is saying and what you are saying are two completely different things!" Kurapica objected in dismay.

I crossed my arms, trying to think of a surefire way to switch topics. I snapped my fingers as the thought occurred to me. "Keep this up and I won't teach any of you how to use nen!" I threatened loudly.

All the conversation in the room stopped.

Gon regarded me with watering eyes. "Y-you won't teach us how to fly?" he asked in a pitifully small voice.

"Ahhh, but we made a deal!" Killua complained. "Tch, guess it can't be helped. So if we stop, you'll teach us, right?" he confirmed. I nodded, and he grinned. "So teach us!"

That stopped me in my tracks. "Erm, you…you don't mean now, do you?" I stammered.

"Now!" Gon cheered. "I want to learn how to fly!"

"I'm not going to teach you how to fly," I replied absentmindedly, glancing at my watch. Just a little under thirty hours left. "Look, I can't teach you nen in thirty hours. It took me years."

"So it should only take us a day," Killua reasoned.

"Hey!" I bristled.

Gon was resolute. "Just the basics then?"

"When I said 'nen,' I was referring to the basics," I replied dryly. "I'm not skilled enough to be tutoring anyone in advanced nen techniques."

"Well, it'll kill time," Leorio declared. "I interested in this 'nen,' too."

"I am, as well," Kurapica agreed, teaming up against me with the very people who'd been teaming up against us the minute before. I narrowed my eyes at him, and he smiled sheepishly.

"Let's take a vote," Leorio interjected hastily, before I could object. "All in favor of Arella teaching us nen?" All four boys raised their hands. "Then it's settled!" he announced, then blanched at my murderous expression. "H-hey, it was a fair vote."

My eyes narrowed, but I decided against causing Leorio bodily harm. Telling these guys to stop being stubborn was like telling a cat to stop shedding. "Fine," I ground out, and took a deep breath, gathering my thoughts. I began a short, introductory explanation. "The four fundamental techniques of nen are ten, zetsu, ren, and hatsu…"

"…and it is possible to have more than one hatsu ability, but many people just focus on one. Any questions?" I prompted, rocking back and forth on the balls of my feet.

All four boys were silent, absorbing the basic run-down I'd just delivered. Somewhere in the middle of my lengthy explanation, Kurapica had procured a pen and pad of paper from who-knows-where and was currently frantically jotting down notes.

"So…what type of hatsu ability do you have?" Gon asked curiously.

I blinked and opened my mouth. Then I closed it, realizing I honestly didn't have a clue."You know, I never really thought much about it." Four pairs of eyes stared incredulously. "It never seemed important!" I defended myself.

"You never wanted to know more about what you were actually doing?" Killua questioned skeptically. "No wonder it took you years. You're such an airhead that I'm surprised you managed to learn at all."

I scowled, rapping Killua on the head with my knuckles, ignoring his yelp of protest. "Well, I guess I could start thinking about it now…," I mused. "Out of the six types, enhancement, emission, manipulation, transmutation, conjuration, and specialization, I can definitely rule out conjuration, since I'm not actually summoning anything. So that rules out emission and transmutation as well. I'm not really projecting my nen."

"Is it manipulation?" Leorio guessed. "Since you're sort of manipulating the air?"

"No—can't be," I replied, shaking my head. "Manipulation is the ability to control things, not change them the way I do."

"Then enhancement?" Gon suggested.

Kurapica eyed me. "You don't seem like an enhancement type. Enhancement is more of an offensive technique, right?"

I pursed my lips in thought. "Not necessarily. Remember, self-reparation—healing, I mean—is also considered an enhancement technique. And I am 'enhancing' the air particles. Maybe I am enhancement. Maybe I'm not. I could always just be in specialization, since that seems to encompass pretty much everything else. The only surefire way to know is to do the water test, but we don't exactly have the materials for that right now."

"Man, this stuff is complicated," Leorio grouched, tugging his ear in irritation. "And these are just the basics?"

I looked at him in amusement. "Leorio, I haven't even taught you anything yet. I've just been talking."

His mouth opened in a small circle, and he smacked his fist in one palm. "Oh, that's right," he sighed.

I bit my lower lip. "This…is where it gets tricky," I admitted. "I don't know of a safe way to activate nen, other than years of meditation, which is what I went through. I practically grew up with nen." True, there was a way, but I didn't know if I had enough control to prevent serious injury. I didn't particularly want to force the nen out of anyone, since that could potentially be fatal.

"So it's impossible?" Kurapica asked evenly, and the look in his eyes told me that he knew I was holding something back.

Shifting my weight back and forth between my two feet, I coughed. "No, there is another way but, um… You could die," I said bluntly. "And even if you don't, you'd probably be left feeling extremely fatigued for up to a week. Basically, I'd be forcing my nen into your body, which would force your nen out. But if you aren't able to close your nen nodes afterwards, you'll use up all your nen and die. I'm not experienced enough to help you if that should occur. So I would prefer to not use that method."

"Then the only way is through meditation?" Gon asked curiously.

I nodded. "For now, yes. That's why I said in the beginning that I wouldn't be able to teach you in 30 hours. But after the hunter examinations are over, you'll probably be able to find a master qualified to help you force open your nen points. I'm assuming none of you want to spend years meditating." I rolled my eyes.

"What were you planning on teaching us if you can't even teach us nen?" Killua grumbled, and I couldn't even find it in me to get offended by his sarcastic tone. It was sort of endearing, in a way.

"Well, here, you can be my guinea pig," I said, smiling widely, and sent a blast of concentrated nen straight at Killua. A split second and a loud clatter later, Killua was nowhere to be seen. I blinked. "Um…"

"Wow, you're fast!" Gon exclaimed, staring in awe at the ceiling.

I glanced at the upper corner of the room, realizing that Killua had attempted to evade my attack of aura by hiding behind and above me. I gulped. He probably could've slit my throat in the time it took me to blink, before I even thought to turn around. Note to self: no sneaking up on Killua, I decided. Not an ex-assassin for nothing, this kid.

Kurapica frowned. "What did you do?"

Leorio nodded. "Yeah, I didn't feel anyth—"

"What was that?" Killua demanded, cutting Leorio off in a panicked voice. "You—it didn't feel like that before!"

I blinked, kind of perplexed at his alarm. I really hadn't scared him that badly, had I? "Well, yeah, it doesn't usually feel like that. I just used a bit of offensive nen. I normally use defensive, so it doesn't usually feel threatening." I turned to the other boys. "I basically projected my nen at Killua only, which is why he was the only one who could feel it. I just used emission hatsu."

"I thought you just said your hatsu isn't emission," Gon pointed out.

I nodded. "Right, it's not. But you don't have to have an affinity with a specific type of hatsu to use it. It just means that it won't be as effective."

"Seemed pretty effective to me," Leorio joked, nudging Killua, who had by now dropped back to the floor and was warily shuffling back to the group.

"Che, so that's what it was," Killua muttered, then his voice dropped even lower as he said something meant only for his own ears. He looked up. "It there a way to counter that?"

"With nen, of course," I replied blandly.

He scowled, seemingly unsatisfied with my response. "…Is that what…what Hisoka does? He feels like that, sometimes." Killua glanced up at my face with a guarded expression.

At the mention of Hisoka, I grimaced. "…Yeah, that's what he's doing. He's not really concentrating on using emission hatsu, though. It's more like his bloodlust just seeps everywhere."

"Hey, hey, I wanna try, too," Gon exclaimed, pouting at being left out of the loop and completely cutting through all of the tension.

Smiling slightly, I reached over with my hand. "Alright, just a little bit, then."

Five hours and several lengthy explanations later, I held up a hand. "Can we stop, now?" I gasped, plopping down on a couch. "It's not easy, using a hatsu that isn't my main type."

The four boys didn't seem like they'd disagree. They all looked just as haggard as I felt. Surely, getting bombarded by nen for hours was a quick way to deplete stamina.

"I guess we should take a break," Leorio suggested. "But hey, I feel like we've gotten the feel for it a little," he said optimistically.

"Yes, I'm sure it will be easier to activate our own nen once the time comes," Kurapica agreed.

Gon whined. "Aw, I wanna learn now," he protested. "Can't you just do that dangerous shortcut thing for me?" he pleaded.

"No," I said firmly. "I'm not going to be the one to tell your Aunt Mito that I killed you."

"Hah, you're making it sound as if you could," Killua teased. "This kid wouldn't die even if you tried to kill him."

I rolled my eyes. "Look who's talking, Mr. I-Won't-Die-Because-I-Run-Away-At-The-First-Sign-O f-Nen."

Killua scowled. "I don't run anymore! And I didn't run in the first place either! I was relocating to a strategically advantageous location so that I could defend myself better!"

"Sure, sure," I said comfortingly, patting him on the head. Killua swiped at my arm.

"Tch, treating me like I'm a kid," he grumbled.

"But you are a kid," Leorio snickered.

Killua hummed thoughtfully. "Well, I guess I am compared to you, you old geez—"

It wasn't really much of a surprise when Leorio tackled Killua, sending them both sprawling over a couch. "Why you—!" Leorio growled, attempting to put Killua in a headlock. Killua, to his credit, successfully evaded every one of Leorio's advances, even though Leorio seemed to gain great strength when his pride was at stake.

Gon willingly jumped into the fray on his own volition. "I wanna play, too!" he exclaimed, pillow in hand. The impromptu brawl quickly turned into a pillow fight of epic proportions, with feathers flying everywhere.

"You should act your age, Leorio," Kurapica reprimanded, but stopped abruptly when a pillow smashed into his face.

The other boys froze.

"Ah, Kurapica…," Leorio started, blanching when Kurapica hefted the pillow in a menacing fashion.

"I suppose you all must be eager to be put to sleep," Kurapica commented in a deceptively pleasant tone.

Kurapica stalked menacingly towards them as a sudden idea hit me. I waved my pillow from behind Kurapica to get Killua's attention. My eyes flicked over to Kurapica and back, and Killua grinned, nudging Gon. "AMBUSH!" Killua hollered, and we all rushed towards Kurapica, smothering him with pillows.

The impromptu fight lasted until someone elbowed Gon in the stomach.

"Ouch!" Gon exclaimed, mostly in surprise.

Leorio looked up from where he was bashing Killua over the head with a pillow. His eyes flickered to me and his movements slowed. "Er, guys, maybe we shouldn't be doing this with Arella."

"Eh? Why me?" I asked, disappointed. I was holding my own pretty well, after all.

"Well, if that had been you who'd gotten elbowed just now, you'd have a bruise," Leorio reasoned. I blinked. A bruise? I wondered. What's so special about a—oh!

Kurapica sat up slowly from his position on the floor as his eyes widened. "Oh, I see," he murmured.

"See what?" Killua scowled. "It's just a bruise."

"A bruise is caused by internal bleeding," Leorio explained. "If Arella were to get a bruise, she'd die, since she's a hemophiliac. I don't have anything with me to stop internal bleeding."

"Wait, what? Why would she die?" Killua demanded. "What the heck is a hemophla—hemoph..."

"A bleeder," Gon piped up. "Arella bleeds a lot and then she doesn't stop bleeding."

"Doesn't stop…?"

Leorio began to explain. "Her blood doesn't clot, meaning that if she gets a cut, she won't heal, so she'll continue bleeding until she runs out of blood. Same goes for internal bleeding."

Killua frowned as he looked at me. "So then…before, when we were fighting against the criminals and you volunteered to go first… But that's crazy!"

"That's the reason were hesitant about her competing first," Kurapica admitted. "It could have been very dangerous."

"Not really, since I'm good at escaping," I protested.

"Yeah, you really are!" Gon said encouragingly, patting me on the arm.

"But you lost," Killua pointed out bluntly. I scowled, blushing at the reminder. Killua looked at me speculatively. "Is that also why you blush so easily? Do you have special blood or something?" he asked.

Leorio blinked, answering in my stead. "No, that shouldn't be the case," he replied. "Blushing is caused by expanded blood veins, while hemophilia is a disorder. The two aren't genetically linked." Leorio paused and glanced back at me. "But Arella does blush rather easily."

"Yeah, 'specially when she's around Kurapica," Killua added casually.

My face lit on fire. "Th-that isn't true!" I snapped. I couldn't even look at Kurapica to see his reaction.

"Or maybe it's just when we talk about him," Leorio mused. "Wow, even her ears are red."

Kurapica cleared his throat. "I'm certain she wouldn't color so easily if you two wouldn't go so far out of your way to antagonize her," he reprimanded.

"I wouldn't do it if she didn't react in the same, predictable way every single time," Killua sighed, shrugging as though he simply couldn't help himself. "It's not my fault Arella has some weird fixation on you."

"That doesn't even make any sense!" I insisted, willing the heat to dissipate. "You didn't even know me before you met Kurapica, so for all you know I blush easily around everyone!"

"Do you blush around everyone?" Gon wondered curiously.

"I—that's not the point!" I snapped, starting to feel slightly cornered. I glanced helplessly back at the clock. Where was the bell when you needed it? The red numbers glared mockingly back at me. "How is this possible?" I bemoaned. "Still 20 whole hours left?"

"Well," Kurapica began, "We spent about 10 hours initially fooling around and doing nothing. Then, we spent 8 hours sleeping—or rather, you spent 8 hours sleeping. And then there was a 3-hour wait after that while I was sleeping. We spent about 8 hours on nen… The pillow fight took up another hour… So that's about 30 hours in total," he surmised.

I folded my arms and glared. The four boys glanced innocently back at me.

20 hours. It was going to be a long wait.