I've nothing to say. This is chapter 24. Hope you enjoy.

Apparently, tomorrow the entire village is going to shut themselves up in their homes, and no one will be allowed to speak a word until three days have passed to express grief, whatever that is. Jiakair invites us to join and I scoff. Then Naii begins to reply in the affirmative and I jump to refuse. There's no way I'm spending three days closed up in a tiny hut without even being allowed to speak!

Jiakair seems disappointed, but Naii says crisply, "They're young and ignorant."

Killua immediately defends, "It's not like I don't get it. We should really stay, but this guy here will definitely make a racket and disturb your mourning. We'll leave and let your village have some peace to mourn your loss."

"Did someone die?" Alluka asks quietly.

Killua lays a hand on her head. "Don't worry about it. You ready to leave?"

She nods, her eyes still worried, and her brother smiles at her. The three say their goodbyes to Jiakair, and I pick my teeth, craving some meat. Then we're back in the forest (the sparser one this time, the one we came here through). I do my best to trample every plant underfoot.

When we're a distance from Chwara, Naii asks Killua, "Have you received the next location?"

"Yeah." He pulls out out his phone, the bulky, bug-like thing, and clicks on something, some words popping up. "The southern point of the Darecheon Desert." Then, addressing the particularly cold tone in her voice, he says, "If something's bothering you just say it."

"We should have stayed."

"I already said, Sera would have made an uproar if we made him sit still for so long," he gripes, eyes closing briefly and lifting his chin. I snicker.

"We killed their god. We owe them to stay and join their mourning ritual to make up for our crime. If Sera refused to sit still, we could have tied him up and used a gag."

I hiss and move closer to Killua, returning her her stinging glare.

Killua smirks. "That's true—" I scowl at him, "—but I had another reason to leave." He shoves his phone back in his pocket. "We'll be making a pitstop in Rumen before heading for the Darecheon."

"Why?"

"It's a surprise."

I tilt my head. Killua's a human who's more than a little complex. It makes it hard to guess what he'll do, and if he says something like that, I can't be sure what to think. "Will I like this surprise?"

"It's not for you."

Alright, that's not as concerning. Still, I wonder what it is, and is it for Naii? Or Alluka? What if it's for him? If that's the case, he must know it's a good surprise since he doesn't seem bothered. Chances of it being for him are low, though.

Those chances just drop as we travel, because that little smirk never leaves his face, and seemingly subconsciously, he urges us along a few paces faster than usual. His mood spreads to his sister, and Alluka's sprightliness returns. I keep my eye on Killua. That good mood of his adds a new splash of pleasantness to his face. When he's smug, it can be irritating or heart pounding, and when he's serious, his power makes me want to do all sorts of things to him, but excitement's a new one. His eyes practically radiate, and when he speaks his voice is lighter than usual. For some reason it makes it hard to look away from his face. I'm not sure how I feel about the change.

What exactly is he looking forward to?

The next day we enter a small human settlement and 'catch' a bus, which apparently means the same as catching a train. I can't say I get how humans use the word. The bus is like a single segment of a train, but it moves around with the other manmade cars instead of having its own path. The inside is lined with rows of semi-puffed seats. I take one by the window with plenty of sun. Contrarily, although the sun's its usual warm self, the inside wall of the contraption is cold to the touch. Annoying, but I use it as an excuse to lean against Killua. Alluka and Naii sit on the other side of the bus, the little female with a window of her own.

The sun rotates in the sky while we're on the bus. Shortly after sunlight stops coming through my window (and I gladly huddle closer to Killua for warmth, because humans and their blasted air conditioning), Alluka leans around Naii to ask Killua about food, and I readily second the question.

"We're eating late today," is Killua's answer.

My lips twist into a grimace and I lay my head on his shoulder with a huff. He doesn't mind it. He hasn't seemed to mind my nearness in the least, not even when I press my forehead hard onto his shoulder in an effort to get a reaction. I'd sink my teeth in in revenge if it wasn't hard to keep my venom from injecting. The air conditioning leaves me without enough energy to really pester him, so I just steal one of his arms for heat and try to fall asleep.

In my dream, the warmth pressed against my chest turns into another chest, the faint pulse of a heartbeat humming so quietly it'd be easy to miss. The low sound infects my own chest, and I know my heart's doubled its palpitations.

Then comes the jolt and I gasp, then groan, and then I'm jerked again as our bodies begin to rock. The rhythm is consistent, but not, teasing and taunting, and I wonder why I'm just taking it. I begin sliding my hands up the abs—

—and snap awake when Killua shoves my head off his shoulder.

I blink, reorienting myself and where I am, then process what he just did. My jaw tightens as a strange heavy sensation weighs down the inside of my chest.

Oddly enough, his expression looks angrier than I feel. He's gone rigid, his eyes caustic, but there's also red around the corners of his eyes that doesn't seem related to his anger.

He glares at me, then leans over with his elbows on his knees and puts down his head, hands clasped behind his neck.

I don't know what to think of this.

He turns his head slightly to me. His lips are pressed tightly, gaze sharp, and that red by his eyes stretches all the way to his ears. And he just stares at me.

"...What?"

He releases a long breath. Then, he puts his head back down, glances at the females we're traveling with who aren't looking our way, runs his hands up through his hair, and lets them drop loosely crossed on his legs. Finally he looks back at me.

"You…" He talks quietly, barely audible, and I have to strain my ears to hear. He sighs and looks at the seat in front of him and tries again. "You need to calm down."

Calm down? I was just asleep! It doesn't get much calmer than that!

When I don't respond, Killua takes out his phone and glances at it. Then, under his breath, he says, "Forty minutes. Fine." He stays in his position leaning forward as he tells me a bit louder, "Tell me about something you hate."

After a second, I say, "When something involves me, but someone won't tell me what's going on! What's your problem?"

"Sera, you're a certified idiot."

"And you're an insufferable pain! You didn't have a problem when I fell asleep so what gives?"

"There wasn't a problem when you fell asleep." Suddenly, he perks up. "Wait, I know, you hate that old queen of your colony. Tell me about her."

I can't help but grimace at the memory of the revolting mass of fleas. "I think I'll pass."

"Judging by how she looked, I'm willing to bet the rodent had pig in her, and she ate like one, too. Definitely pig, and a domestic one at that. She definitely gave of the vibes of a stuffed fat farm animal instead of a wild hog."

"And now the filth's dead. That thing doesn't deserve to be talked about after its death." Then the clarity of detail he used strikes me, and I narrow my eyes. "And how, exactly, do you know so much about that brainless sack of lard?"

"She really was gross. Even just thinking about her makes me wanna hurl." He feigns vomiting, and my jaw screws shut shut, indignant. I straighten against the back of my chair and turn my attention out the window. In the window, Killua's reflection sits back, his aura relieved, which only confuses me more. I cross my legs and position myself tighter.

After a while, we finally roll into a large settlement. It's one of the human settlements that prefers structures with height instead of width, with tree-like structures the size of mountains and humans swarming like gnats. These places seem to be the result of human congregation at its extreme. The bus slows to a crawl as it mixes with the mass of other vehicles on the street, and the stops and the starts keep my mood stagnantly sour.

A number of jolting turns later, Killua glances at the girls and informs them, "We get off next stop," which is a lie, because the bus constantly stops, and it isn't until at least seven stops later that we join with a couple other humans who move to get out. I initially intend to wait until Killua's gotten out and Naii's passed so I can walk alongside Alluka, who is the one who's least likely to upset me any more, but when Killua stands up he looks at me and waits for me to follow. I get up, baring my teeth, and end up stuck between him and Naii. The second we're outside I shift over towards Alluka. Her eyebrows scrunch together as she looks up at me.

"What's wrong? Did Brother do something again?"

"I don't get him, Alluka," I growl, leaning over and pushing my head against her shoulder. As expected, she doesn't have a single issue with the contact.

"If you want to eat, stop standing around and come on," Killua interjects. I lift my head to glare at him, but again, again, he doesn't even look my way. Why is he like this? I didn't even do anything! Even after sneaking a peek at his mind, he still makes absolutely no sense. How am I supposed to work on him when he gets all confrontative about nothing?

Alluka, the naive little thing, walks by my side and offers empty comfort until she can't think of anything else to say. Then, out of nowhere she suddenly says, "Oh! We still need to get you shoes!" She hurries a bit forward and tugs at Killua's sleeve so he stops. Then she points at my feet. "He's been barefoot all this time. My feet sometimes hurt, but I have shoes. I bet his hurt a lot more. Let's buy some now!"

Killua glances at my feet, barely meeting my eyes before looking back at his sister. "We'll do it after the surprise. Don't worry, his skin's tougher than a human's, he can bear it until we're done."

I don't really have any desire for those things worn on feet, but before I can get anything in, Alluka persists. "We should go now! What if where we go to lunch won't let him in without shoes?"

This seems to crack Killua's stubbornness. Is there really a rule like that? I guess so, because the boy sighs and does something on his phone before conceding. "Fine, but we have to make it quick."

The girl returns to me with a smile splitting her cheeks. Somehow, I get the impression she thinks she just fixed something. I definitely don't get her brother, but in a different way, she's really just as strange.

This is my first time writing stuff like this, so bear with me. I knew what I was signing up for when I started writing Sera. I'll make clear now it's my intent neither to force it nor to avoid it, so I'm about in the same boat as you guys watching Sera and Killua's relationship unfold, not really knowing what's coming. But I'm also shy, so if anything of that nature does come along, there's a chance it'll be danced around and referred to indirectly, but who knows? The pen is that master, and I will write whatever I think is best for the story, because ultimately, my goal is to write the best story I can. With that said, and on a completely different note, next time we'll be shoe shopping!