The boys continue recounting their history with the girl, further expanding on what happened on Greed Island.

A\N: Next chapter might be delayed.

Daniel glance over each task Bisky made them do. How they were forced to run a seventy-kilometre distance to a department store in Masadora, then after Bisky was done, she made them run back, on the same day.

She'd do this constantly, every chance she got…

The boy then covered what category they learned and in what order, "We started with Shu. Although, it more on an unconscious level. She made us head back to Masadora… by making us dig our way through the mountains. But that wasn't the only thing we'd learn… we also learned the most basic form of En, if we think about it. Awareness… if we were relaxing, we'd be forced to hold rocks over our head via a rope. Even if we were asleep, we'd need to do that same thing."

Killua smiled wickedly, "I had already done this as a kid, so it was easy for me. The first night went okay for Daniel… Gon… Not so much. He had multiple bumps on his head. Now the second night… when Gon screamed in agony, Daniel ended up dropping his too."

Clarisa cringed at the idea of dropping a boulder on one's head. How Daniel didn't die, she wasn't exactly sure. Nen is such a new, complex subject for her right now. She knows as much as the boys were telling her, but experience it will be vastly different to hearing about it.

What she does understand right now, is while Daniel didn't die after dropping the boulder on his head, it would've still hurt.

"After we dropped the boulder, she'd make us pick it up and rebuild her torturous device."

Madelyn just had to know about those nights, if it ever happened "Did Killua ever drop his?"

"Nope, but while Daniel and Gon were sound asleep, she did cut the string one night. I never told them because it wasn't important. She said she'd cut the string on us anyways, so we had to be aware of our surroundings at all times…"

"What about Daniel?"

"Once or twice, I think… Gon… Oh, she probably did it a couple of times to the poor guy. However, in the grand scheme of things… this was unimportant. It was at this point, my feelings for Killua started to take root. Sure, I had noticed many times when I would stop and stare at him… but it was during Greed Island, my feelings had become harder to ignore. I tried speaking to Gon about it, telling him I was afraid of my feelings…"

Killua crossed his arms, "It's so weird hearing it now, considering how comfortable we've become with each other…"

"I feel like it was more of a fear of rejection, Killua. Gon being a little optimistic, told me if Killua rejects me… to ask him again later."

"Of course, he would… No means no, now, not later for him…" Killua paused, realising that that comment could come off as having a completely different meaning in another context, "I mean when it comes to natural progression. He's not going to force you to do something you're not comfortable with… it's just… you might be rejected now, but feelings could change later… you know?"

The girls nod in understanding.

"Good…" Killua looked towards Daniel, silently pleading for him to continue the conversation.

"At that point, I was really afraid of rejection, Gon casually told me that I really, liked Killua. We went back and forth, Gon arguing he'd never outright reject me, whether that be as a friend or because I was gay… for him, while I complained that there might be a point where I'll be unable to be 'just' friends with him…"

"Ouch…" Killua showed off a childish smile.

"Oh, you know what I mean… I wanted to be more than just friends with you… so if you only wanted to be friends with me, it'll hurt to be considered only, friends with you. But to make matters worse… he showed up, right as Gon said he'll stop Killua from drop-kicking me out of his life."

"I wouldn't drop the subject either… I walked into a conversation, where the two of them were being hush-hush about it… but then Daniel had to say: Don't say anything! I still have to... sort things out... If I wasn't curious before… they had my attention then."

"And I didn't want to say anything, because what my father… Vastorie taught me is, it's possible to lust after someone… whereas seeing Nathaniel, I thought I might be in love with Killua… I needed to figure out which one it was at the time."

Turns out it was both… Killua thought to himself.

When he saw Daniel give him a side glance, he realised his partner may have realised the same thing too. But before either of them could bring up the possibility, Daniel moved on "I tried to disrupt Killua's attention at the time, hoping shovel dirt at him, instead…"

"We hit a rock… Daniel wasn't going to say anything about their conversation, and the only thing that interested Gon right now, considering he was a goldfish at the time… was the rock in our way. We couldn't dig it up, and we couldn't dig it out…"

"That's where Gon got a brilliant idea…"

One of a few… Killua chuckled to himself.

"Shrouding our shovels in aura, we could've dug the rock out. Hence, we stumbled across Shu by accident, and Bisky forced us to be in a position where we learned a new skill. Using that skill, we cut the time it took us to get back to the city…"

"Unfortunately…" Killua sighed in defeat, "she made us go back to square one. She insulted our strategizing techniques, before arguing that to improve said skill, we needed to be able to catch every single card in the area… on our own. We each had to come up with our own, way to capture every monster and considering our strengths and weaknesses, we had very different plans."

"After that, she made us train together. This time, we'll be practising against each other. First up, Ko… Gon had already learnt Ko before the two of us, using that as his way to get into playing greed Island. Bisky was capable of using Ko, but she then asked us how would one defend against Ko?"

"Gon argued using Ko, but like Bisky at the time said… unless you're both at a similar level or you're stronger, you'll either be crushed under the opponent's strength… or…" Killua pointed at Daniel, pressing his fist against another spot-on Daniel's body, "they could pull off a feint, and instead, hit you somewhere else where your aura isn't focused."

"I suggested Gyo, but I was only partially right… Here is where we learned about Ken. She expected high results. At the start, Gon could only keep it up for two minutes… she wanted thirty. SO, she made us keep digging out mountains with Shu."

Killua raised a finger, "After some training, she taught us about Ryu, which was the end goal… learning to adjust our aura on the go. But I won't get into any more details, because we already explained it earlier. On top of learning Ryu, she made us train with each other, rotating who would fight who, with her being the fourth. But for her, she was always on the defence, so we'd have to match hers. The reason with this is because we had to be quick, and precise… every application of Ryu needed to be rapid shots."

"After that," Daniel butted in, "We had to do specific training, for specific categories. Once per day, we'd practice either Enhancement, Transmutation, Conjuration or Emitter. For me, Transmutation wasn't an option, so I had to work on Manipulation."

"What would be an example?" Madelyn asked out of curiosity.

"For Enhancement… you have to crush one-thousand rocks before yours breaks. But that wasn't the only thing we did. We showcased our abilities off to each other, after Gon showed his ideas of what he wanted to do, using rock-paper-scissors as his basis for his abilities… we introduced ours. Now back then, mine was in its most basic form, generating electricity. Daniel's however… got an upgrade."

Daniel's smile grew, "I went from manipulating my shadow to being a replica of an image to it being an extension of myself, meaning… you can hurt me via my shadow, of course, if you're equally or stronger than me." When he pointed at his feet, his shadow reverted to its basic form, a blob under his feet.

"That's what it used to look like, but, Bisky didn't like that so much… so she'd stomp on my shadow every time I got lazy, to the point I would unconsciously start to mimic it into acting like a normal shadow. It was hard to do it at the start, to her standards… but I eventually got there. But for now, after everything we've gone through, we hit one problem…"

Killua sighed. He hoped this was a topic they could gloss over, but Daniel thought it might be an area they should cover, "At that point it was almost New Year's… the next Hunter's Exam was coming up. That means I needed to get out and apply for the next exam… so we headed back to Masadora and searched for a way out of the game. There were two ways… Leave Card or via the port master. I may or may have not tortured the NPC into giving me a ticket."

Killua paused, looking over to Daniel, "There was one thing that felt surreal about Hunter's Exam… Gon mentioned the Kiriko, magical creatures that could take me to the exam. First of all, they're just as bad as Gon. Gon has a strong sense of smell… so while they were sniffing me like I was a freshly baked batch of triple chocolate chip cookies, they pointed out that I had two lingering scents on me… Gon… and Daniel's. The thing that bothered me… or I should say embarrassed me the most, was Daniel's smell. The Nen connection was one thing, but now his scent… it left, I guess you could argue a fuzzy feeling in my chest. Maybe that was a by-product of the connection we have…"

Listening to the underline of his words, wouldn't he have been implying that Daniel was unconsciously manipulating his feelings? It could come off that way the more he thinks about it…

"Let me reword that, so I don't come off sounding like Daniel was subtly manipulating me. Our feelings… or more like relationship grows until…" He paused once more. He'll be breaking his rule, jumping further in future than he would've liked. But something about the mood felt right. Fuck it… I'm gonna say it anyway "I know this happens much further into the future of our current reminisces on the past, but it feels right to slot it here into the conversation."

Looking at the girls, the boy crossed his arms, "As you know… my family can be a bunch of dicks. My older brother shoved a needle into my head which controlled my reaction process whenever I felt fearful. The moment I removed it, I agreed to date Daniel, I don't regret it no matter the shit we went through. But the reason I felt like having his scent lingering on me was embarrassing, was because I ignored all my feelings, well… more like my feelings were being blocked off. My crush for Gon got stronger, and me agreeing to date felt normal with me for once… so Gon's confession threw me through a loop, wondering what felt right."

Killua looked over to his partner, "It made it easier, once Gon stated I had to share his feelings with someone else he loved… but that wasn't the only key factor. Hearing Daniel says he'd put my feelings above his own, be happy for me if I were to be with Gon and Sakura… it was at that moment, I had an epiphany. Daniel had unconditional feelings for me… It was the right move, even if there was a suggestive tone to his words at the time, a constant connection that muddied the waters… I grew attached to him and not just because of this connection…."

The boy felt an oncoming blush, a finger awkwardly scratching at his cheek, "I wanted to date him no matter the consequences."

Daniel hugging him from behind set the mood. Like the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle found the perfect home. He's going to relieve this moment for a while. No matter the cheesiness of his words, the embarrassment from the situation, he's going to learn to live with these words.

Then Daniel had to say something that made his lip tremble from the sweetness, "That means the world to me…"

Killua cleared his throat, gently pressing against his partner to let go of him. They couldn't be sappy like this all day, as much as he would like to continue bathing in these feelings.

No matter how much Madelyn pretended to gag…

No matter how enamoured Clarisa looked at them with her big childish eyes that scream 'that's so cute.'

They still had a story to tell…

Daniel was reluctant to let his partner go. So much to Killua's feelings on the matter, he'll continue to allow Daniel to wrap his arms around him. The boy clicked his fingers, snapping the girl's attention from what his partner was doing with him, "Our connection aside, the Kiriko led me to the Exam… that is where I met some old familiar faces… and a new one I'll continue to have mixed feelings about… Vastorie Darkscryer…"

He recounted the moment, even the fact Vastorie was reading erotica as he entered the room. The domineering personality, the cocky attitude. He acted uncaringly, but if an examinee attacked that man, without any effort, he would've rendered the person useless "Dealing with him was not fun… He leaves you with cryptic messages. I didn't know how to feel about that… especially when he told me I should protect Daniel. He acted as though he could foresee the future, but even now… considering how he acted, I don't think he predicted his father coming out of the shadows."

Crossing his arms once more, the boy addressed his biggest concern, "Vastorie acted like he knew his son and I would get together…" biting his lip, he moved on, "I think… more on that later. I went back to Greed Island as quick as I could, considering that the exam was completed in under one day. The moment I returned; Daniel hugged me… then Gon followed right after. We laughed about it together at the moment, but now looking back on it… I'm surprised I didn't notice the boy's feelings sooner…

Daniel rested his head on Killua's shoulder, his arms never leaving his partner's waist. He was glad Killua admitted that. It means so much to him right now, hearing him casually argue that he should've noticed Daniel's feelings for him sooner.

"But I digress. They showed me the spell cards they were hoarding. I wanted to play around with the cards… but when we were looking through the list of names, we could play pranks on, we found a name we weren't expecting… Chrollo Lucifer, the Phantom Troupe's Leader. What we later found out, was that Chrollo was really, Hisoka…"

"Bisky then offered a solution first, once we found out that Chrollo was a fake, but thankfully… we didn't need to visit the person in person. They brought me up to speed with what happened."

Daniel offered a smile, "We told Killua that a man by the name of Abengane visited us while he was at the exam, notifying us of the bombers, including their abilities. We relayed all that information back to him. After that, we began playing the game, by aiming to collect all one-hundred cards."

"Strangely enough…" Killua pressed a thumb to his chin, "This is how I learned Daniel could dance… one of the cards we needed, required a dance-off. Daniel beat the NPC not only with technique, but with endurance as well…" The boy realised he set himself up for an 'outside and inside the bedroom' joke, but his partner was not the kind of person to take it.

So, he continued "We kept the momentum going until eventually… he got contacted by another player. They wanted to make a trade. The first time we dealt with this player, he stole one of our cards. However, we had an ace up our sleeves."

"More like around Gon's neck, Paladin's Necklace… blocks all attack spells that are used on him. That meant even if they did try to scam us, they couldn't while Gon was wearing the necklace. We had no issues with that trade… but then, after Killua gambled with a card that risked a one-in-twenty chance… at least fifty times, even though we knew rolling that one chance, meant he could die… only Bisky had the guts to knock out Killua. We left the city as quickly as we could… but while he was unconscious, and the others were away, I nearly kissed him in his sleep."

"You still kissed me later on."

"That I did… but that's later on. What happened after we continued to collect cards; was we came to an epiphany. What's something people wanted… that was hard to obtain, but we could make mass copies of?" When Clarisa raised her hand, Daniel stopped her, "it's rhetorical. People wanted to leave, but couldn't bribe the port master or beat him, so we decided to offer people the option to step out. Using the card Quiver of Frustration, we robbed people blind. We cloned as many copies of Leave as we could, maxing the limit. Then, we went out of our way to trade with as many people as possible for rare cards. We got a lot of junk items along the way, but we did well."

The pair paused for a moment, letting all the information sinking. Surely, the girl had a question or two. Neither of them had spoken up, except for that rhetorical question he had just asked earlier "Any questions before we continue?"

"I'm more curious to know how your confession went…"

"Poorly…"

Clarisa pouted, "Really, that's all your gonna say?"

"He hadn't confessed to me yet, so no spoilers on my end. Anything else…?"

Clarisa crossed her arms, "Nope… what's happening in the story is interesting, but I'm noticing you're glossing over details."

"Would you like to know the name of every card we obtained…?"

"No…"

"That's all we did."

"You must have done something in between those situations."

"Nope, just quests and events to obtain cards. We only paused the conversation here, because we were about to talk about how we collected one of the most difficult cards to obtain. For this, we needed fifteen players to complete. Genthru was close to completing the game at this point, having ninety-six out of one-hundred. We met up with the first person we traded with, including four other groups. One of those people, Asta, gave us shit at the start…"

Daniel interjected, "Well, to be fair… we are glossing over things."

Killua raised an eyebrow, "Like what?"

"The walking… the running… the talking to quest givers. We could talk about that…"

Killua looked at the girls. Both shook their head vehemently; they didn't want to hear about that information. Maybe this was his boyfriend's way of trying to get them to stop, to not probe for details about Gon, what he was doing during these moments, "Either way… you're going to have to hear some of this stuff. But we'd rather ignore the majority of it. Anyways, Daniel and Asta go into a little bit of a…"

The boy pressed a finger to his cheek, thinking of the best way to describe 'she got her ass handed to her by a thirteen-year-old sassy boy' "game of smackdowns. You see, all she saw were kids who had no information or help to offer. One of the things they didn't know, was who Genthru was. The bomber… a player killer. We dropped that we not only knew about his ability, but we also had one of the cards the man needed. We had… the better hand. We tried to I would say bargain… but really, we were trying to rip her off for insulting us. However, Gon wasn't willing to hide any information so we gain more. In the ned, she shared some I guess you could describe them as cheat codes. It's a way to pull off tricks in a game, which normally wouldn't allow you to because it wasn't aware of this glaring oversight. Others included buying cards or using a combination of cards for a specific outcome. With all our information exhausted… there was only one thing to do, find a card nobody has, and that we can monopolise… that, was #2 Plot of Beach."