Before you read, please note -
Rape/Noncon/Dubcon/Sexual Assault will NOT be used in backstory or in any of the main plot moving forward. Some characters will make suggestive comments about the OC that make her uncomfortable at times (sometimes very so), but nothing worse than what's in the 2011 anime itself will ever happen. I know this might not be saying much, given Hisoka's existence, but still, nothing goes any further than words, and uncomfortable looks. I promise.
This story's romance is very slowburn, with a concentration on the character's individual development. There will be moments peppered throughout the story, but yeah, both of these idiots have a lot of baggage to get through before either one is going to realize they've caught feelings for the other.
And finally... Age-Up. I aged some characters up a bit. Sorry. It shouldn't change much in the story: Gon and Killua, for example, are still considered prodigies for accomplishing what they do at such young ages. I just feel more comfortable writing romances for teenagers than I do for pre-teen children, so… Gon and Kil are 13 when they meet at the Hunter exam, Rem is one year older than them at 14. I aged Kurapika up one year also, to keep a bit of a gap between him and the younger kids. I kept Leorio at 19, because otherwise his hilarious hang-up about his age wouldn't make as much sense (and we can't have that). Creative liberties were taken. I hope you guys forgive me.
This first chapter will be a short one. An introduction. They won't all be like this, and the chapters moving forward won't be as stuffed full of long-winded Author's Notes in the beginning either.
Flashbacks/Dreams/speech outside of regular dialogue will all be italicized. Some flashback are dreams, to make that delineation even more confusing.
Thank you guys for your patience! I hope you'll enjoy what I've got in store. Please feel free to review or PM if you want to hear me jabber about this story endlessly. :)
xXxXxXx
Meeting:
"What did you just call me?" His voice had a gentle, almost silky quality to it. She couldn't imagine a person with a prettier voice.
'Big Brother,' the eleven-year-old thought, though she didn't quite dare repeat it. She still couldn't believe she'd said it out loud the first time.
She didn't actually mean it as anything more than a term of endearment, of course. He wasn't her blood, and she knew that. She would never go so far as to presume-
A flash of movement. A sickening sharp crack.
Airem felt a jolt travel up her left arm, and suddenly the limb was bent at an angle halfway between her shoulder and elbow. She registered this dimly just before the pain hit, nearly blinding her with its intensity. She crumpled to the ground and tried to fold in on herself - her body instinctively trying to form a smaller target - but the movement jostled her injury. She cried out.
Her assailant simply gave her a cold look before dropping into a crouch in front of her. He gently picked up her broken arm by the wrist, but even soft handling caused pain to shoot through her body. Her legs kicked out involuntarily as she tried with all her might not to scream in his face.
"Don't ever call me that again." He gave her arm a short jerk for emphasis and Airem clenched her jaw tight, even as her legs continued twitching. "I am not your brother. I will never be your brother. You are not family."
"Okay," she sobbed, unable to prevent the tears any longer. At her posture of complete submission, he finally let go and got up... As if it disgusted him to be that near her. Truthfully, the broken arm hurt less than the rejection.
It had just been a fleeting thought - a moment of fancy - and she'd been rightfully punished for bothering him with it. As if the young master had any use for a lonely little girl's silly hopes and dreams.
She cradled her broken arm to her chest and kept her stare aimed downward.
At the ground; at the droplets that had dripped off her chin as she quietly cried.
Anywhere other than at the retreating back of Illumi Zoldyck…
oOoOoOoOoOo
"You a rookie too, little lady?"
"... Me?"
"I don't see any other little ladies around," the rotund man chuckled. "Except that one with the blue hair and big hat, but she's way over there."
Airem shrugged a bit, nonplussed by how friendly this guy seemed. She'd been led to believe everyone was out for themselves during the Hunter exams. "I guess I am."
"Well here, a juice on me, then. Good luck." He pressed an orange can of juice into her hands before she could refuse politely.
"Ah, um, thank you." She hesitated, expecting the strange interaction to be over now that she'd accepted, but he appeared in no hurry to get anywhere.
To be honest, she already felt a bit nauseous from all the nerves causing her stomach to roil… The last thing she really wanted was a sugary beverage. At the end of the day though, she didn't want to be rude, so she cracked open the can and lifted it to take a small sip-
- only to have the can snatched from her hands.
She couldn't do much but stare as the thief immediately began guzzling the drink down noisily, much to the round man's protest.
"Why, you…! That wasn't for you, you little brat!"
Rem found herself unable to summon up even a little anger at this turn of events. She really had felt pretty close to throwing up, so this had probably worked out for the best as far as she's concerned. She wondered if she should try and act at least a little upset so as not to offend her strange benefactor, but it was hard for her to imagine getting worked up over something so silly.
The boy - who finished the can in record time and crushed it - had notably pale skin and a shock of snowy-white hair. These contrasted with sharp blue eyes that narrowed in a smirk; one that was at least 20% condescension, and 80% pure mischief.
He stood out, in other words, and she was pleasantly surprised not to be the youngest person there taking the exam.
"Sorry about that," he drawled in a way that seemed designed to give off as little regret as humanly possible. "I was just so thirsty. Must be the nerves. You don't mind, right?"
Rem shook her head, feeling only mildly perturbed by the whole thing, and feeling only that much on behalf of the man with the juice… who seemed to become even more aggravated by her response. He opened his mouth like a very large, angry bullfrog, clearly in preparation to tell the white-haired boy off some more, but was interrupted before he could begin.
"You wouldn't happen to have any more, would you? I'll take them all, if you do!" As the two continued their conversation about the juice, Airem quietly excused herself. If the man really had more, she risked being offered another, after all.
She chose a patch of wall to lean against to wait for the start of the exam, and furtively looked around. There were quite a few intimidating-looking people gathered. She felt a physical chill across the back of her neck when she accidentally made eye contact with the one dressed as a clown…
"Yo, stupid."
Rem took an embarrassingly long amount of time to notice that she was the one being addressed so rudely.
"Yes?" She greeted, before belatedly also realizing that the only thing worse than being called "Stupid" was to respond to being called "Stupid." The boy appeared to hold the same opinion, as he visibly rolled his eyes.
"Your parents never teach you not to take candy from strangers? Juice fall under the same category, you know." She hadn't been about to argue semantics with him, but whatever.
"Was there something wrong with it, you think?"
"If by 'wrong,' you're asking whether or not it had a bunch of laxative in it, then yeah, there was something wrong," he snickered, raising his arms so that he could lazily cross them behind his head.
Her mouth dropped open in horror. "And you're not worried you just gulped down an entire can of juice mixed with laxatives?"
"Not really," he said, obviously unwilling or uninterested in offering more information.
"Then you came over here to…?"
"See if you were really as dumb as you looked back there. How old are you, anyway? Sixteen? Seventeen? Old enough to know better, I bet."
"... Fourteen," she answered, because in all honesty, she really was beginning to agree that she had let her guard down with that guy. The greatest challenge of her young life, and she'd nearly let the fear of looking rude be her downfall…
"Really? Wouldn't have guessed. Though I guess you are pretty short," he mused. A familiar discomfort made Rem shrink into the loose folds of her hoodie.
"I'm the same height as you, give or take a few centimeters… And a lot of people make that mistake. No big deal," she said, as if speaking the words would make them true. The truth was, she hated how developed she looked for her age.
While she'd never had a lot of friends, she knew from watching tv that fourteen-year-old girls were typically slender and small-chested. Meanwhile, she possessed a body that seemed naturally predisposed to curve… everywhere. The amount of training and exercising she'd done since she was little meant that her waist was about the circumference she thought it should be, and her legs were toned (which she liked) but if anything, that made her proportions in other areas look even more exaggerated by comparison.
Since buying her very first bra at the tender age of ten, she'd taken to wearing baggy clothes. They made her feel at least somewhat comfortable, even if she still had to deal with the occasional comment. She hoped this won't be one of those times. He was too young for that stuff, surely?
"Yeah, well fourteen means you're actually only a year older than me, then," he said. "Old enough that you shouldn't be so trusting."
"You're probably right."
"Of course I am." The boy actually had the audacity to stick his tongue out at her before turning his back to walk away.
"What's your name?" Something about the motion had struck her as familiar, nudging her to ask.
The resemblance was strong enough that she was actually surprised when he deigned to answer.
"Killua," he threw over his shoulder, giving a lazy half-wave without bothering to turn around.
He didn't ask for hers. Incredibly fortunate for her, as it turned out, because her mouth had gone completely dry.
The only thought that passed through her mind until the examiner made his entrance and she was obliged to snap to attention was: 'I should've known. In that kind of situation, He wouldn't have asked my name, either.'
xXxXxXx
A/N - So, a personal pet peeve of mine is when an OC in an OC-centric fanfiction gets introduced, and then has no connection to the main cast, no reason for getting involved with them, and (often, but not always) has a personality that would naturally drive people away, further calling into question why the characters would keep them around... Without calling out names or getting too far on my soapbox, I'll just say that Rem (and this story, by extension) was my response to this.
For better or worse. Gulp.