New chapter! Hopefully after this my updates will start picking up again My goal is to finish this fan fiction by the end of summer. We'll see if I manage. I also have to get a summer job and just be a human being in general. And man, I also just wanna sit down and read for days on end. Like, what if you could just do that for eternity with no repercussions? Unfortunately, no, life doesn't work like that, and also I like to write, too. But alright. Let's go. End of summer is my goal.
Dart frogs shouldn't have teeth. They're dangerous enough as they are, but the green dart frog is always grinning as if to say I can bite. Doesn't matter that he doesn't have fangs. I bet those teeth could bite through a tortoise shell.
Killua skillfully escapes my hold on his arm to slap Gon's hands and I grimace and snag Alluka before she can run up to the pest, too. She lets me drape over her shoulders and gives up approaching the new arrivals. The other one's an unfamiliar male taller than Naii, making him the tallest in the house, but just from a glance it's obvious he's nowhere near as toned as Killua and the dart frog. He has no presence to him.
"You must be Naii." He extends a hand to her. "I'm Leorio. Gon and Killua are my buds from when we all took the Hunter's exam. Gon's told me all about you. I'm sure you must've heard about me from Killua."
She merely says, "Naii," and shakes his hand.
The man laughs awkwardly before turning his eyes on me and Alluka. "How've you been, Alluka? Guess your brother's still dragging you everywhere, huh?"
"I'm great! It's been a lot of fun going to so many places. Even after he finished with work, we're gonna keep travelling."
"I see. And you're Sera?"
He meets my eyes. His grin falters, but he manages to keep his lips upturned as I return a bored look. I glance over at Killua to see him still fully occupied with Gon.
He promised he was mine, so why does he still favor that thing so much?
Gon suddenly scampers over to greet Alluka and Killua follows, forming a vague circle of the five of us with Naii and Gemmana and her family on the outside.
"You sure you don't want us to come with you?" Gon asks, and I hiss low.
"Yeah, Alluka needs to stay and help mediate relations with the ants, and I can't leave her alone. Plus I plan on training this guy in Nen as we go." I raise a brow. "He's already got a fighting base and his reflexes are good, so it's gonna be kinda like how we trained hunting ants. The less of us there are, the more he'll have to pull his weight."
"Makes sense. Are you gonna head out immediately?"
"The sooner the better. At this point there aren't many nests left. With any luck, this'll be the last one the Association assigns me."
"It's about time this ant thing's done," Leorio grumbles.
Gon turns to the family. "Thank you for letting us stay here in the meantime, Mr. and Mrs. Rivenon!"
"Of course. Friends of the Maruv are friends of ours," Gemmana assures him, and her husband adds,
"Stay for as long as you need."
"How long will you be gone?" Alluka's shoulders tighten when she asks.
Killua ruffles her hair and it tickles my nose."We'll finish super quick and come back. I expect peace to be made once and for all when I get back."
"Yeah! Everyone's been helpful, so everything will work out. That means you have to come back fast."
"We won't keep you waiting. Ask Gon or Leorio if you need anything. Speaking of, why'd you show up?" Killua glances at his taller friend. "I only called Gon."
"What, is there a problem with me coming along? Gon and I happened to be in the same city."
"I asked if he wanted to come!" the poison dart frog answers.
"I'll be counting on you guys."
The two of them bump fists with Killua. Jess walks up with a basket. "Kulli prepared food for you on your journey. There are also bandages, water bottles, sunscreen and bug spray."
I hiss at her and Leorio starts, but Jess gives a small huff and otherwise ignores me. I detach from Alluka to make her pay attention when Killua takes it, saying, "Thanks, that'll be a great help," and shrugs his backpack off to put it in. He doesn't give her much of a glance, so I instead slither up by his side and poke through the contents of the basket before he can zip it up. The dried fruits and meats smell miles better than what we normally eat while going places.
When I look up from the basket, Killua's watching me with a smirk. He ruffles my hair like he did Alluka's before I can question him and zips the bag shut.
"Ah!"
Everyone turns at Gon's exclamation.
"Are the two of you together now?"
"W-Wait, what?" Leorio sputters, going wide-eyed and looking rapidly between us and Gon. Killua's cheeks turn pink, and now it's my turn to smirk. Leorio sees it and gapes, "But isn't he an ant? Wow wait, and you're gay? No, I mean it's fine if you are, but he's an ant! Does that biologically work? I-Is that…"
"Does it matter if he's an ant?" Gon asks with a tilted head.
"But he's not human!"
Leorio waves his arms as he talks, and when he isn't actively expressing with his hands, he points at me. I sneak my arms around Killua's waist, grinning, and hold on tight when Killua only half heartedly tries to push me away out of embarrassment.
Voice low, I murmur, "I've been with plenty of humans before. Difference in species's never been a problem."
"Sera, shut up." He pushes more firmly, but he's still not using enough strength to force me, so I stand on my toes and rest my head against the side of his neck, fully enjoying his rising body heat.
After a second of silence, Leorio squints his eyes and whispers with reluctant suspicion, "Killua...you're the..." He puts up a hand like it hides his voice from the rest of us. "...girl?"
It takes Killua a second to process before— "What? Fuck! No! No we haven't— Get your mind out of the gutter!" This time he finally forces me away in a panic and I burst into laughter as his face blooms entirely red. He shoves my head and I only laugh harder. "Stop laughing! Can't you behave for two seconds?"
Gon stands to the side grinning, and Alluka blushes with a confused look on her face.
Leorio clears his throat. "Um, Killua. Can I talk with you?"
"Nope, we're leaving!" Killua throws back on his backpack in a rush and glances at Alluka once before blurting, "See you guys later," grabbing my hand, and pulling me out of the house, Naii emerging moments later. I want to glare at her in hopes she'll decide to stay behind, too, but my amusement hasn't faded enough for me to look threatening.
By the time I've calmed down enough to get annoyed with her, we're well out of the human settlement. Since she's so prone to keep her mouth shut, I resort to pretending she doesn't exist.
It's only when we stop to camp that I really take note of Alluka's absence. Without her to hang on and chat with or play games with, I sidle up to Killua as he tries to build a fire. After being told a few times that I'm getting in the way, I latch onto his neck and suck. He stiffens, and I remove my lips with a pop. He covers his neck and glares.
"Bored."
"Then go to sleep!"
I stare stingers at the ground that'll serve as bed for the night before ransacking the backpack sitting nearby. "Play War with me."
His irritation evaporates when I pull out the card deck. It's usually Alluka who plays me, but he's joined in sometimes, and he seemed to enjoy it. For some reason, though, he looks at Naii before stopping his preparations and turning to face me.
"Sera." The particular flux of his voice convinces me to put down the cards. He means business. "If we're going to be together, there's a high chance you'll be exposed to dangerous situations. I'm a Hunter, and I'm also a Zoldyck. I'm from a family of professional killers. I'm in a position that invites danger and I don't shy away from it, either. One of the reasons we might work is because you get the thrill of a fight, but you also know when to take things seriously, and know to protect your life. The last thing I want is for someone I care about to get hurt because of me.
"I'm going to teach you Nen. You have a natural talent for it, but training in Nen takes time, and effort. What I'm going to teach you isn't the trial-and-error stuff you've seen in your colony. Nen is powerful, and dangerous, and you have to use it carefully. In choosing to teach you, I'm ignoring the part of me that thinks you'll run rampant given enough power and choosing to trust you."
When he says to use it carefully, my thoughts go to the random shocks he used to give me when I got too touchy that certainly never seemed careful, but I keep my mouth shut, because he's staring at me like a snake that will strike at the slightest movement.
"Can I trust you?"
That word is a very human word. There's no precedent for the concept in the fragmented memories from before I became an ant. There's only an unclear feeling of what it means. It leaves me uneasy.
I don't respond immediately.
I don't know how it got to this point. When did my goal stop being to break free and turn into possessing Killua for more than a round of sex? And where did these feelings that make me cry and shake out of fear, but also purr, come from? If I dwell on it, it's not true it started when he appeared. It was sometime after, but I can't figure out when. I can't figure out how.
Trust is what he asked of me when he told me to jump off a building. It's what those little humans showed him despite the claws he'd bared when he rescued them from an ant. It was that thing the humans in Chwara obsessed on alongside fervor to the living forest to the point Omim let himself be consumed by it.
Killua wants to trust me? He's always been confusing, but for the first time he's a fool.
But it's also one of the conditions he listed if he was to belong to me. I used to think if I was stronger than him, I could trample meaningless conditions like that, but he's stubborn and willful and clever. I originally thought the challenge exciting, but through force, he might be impossible to subjugate. And although plenty of humans before him were willing to indulge my sex drive, he refuses to be swayed easily, even with his attraction to me. Even if I was stronger than him, if I don't give in to his conditions, he's out of my reach.
But I realize as we search each other's eyes that if he told me he'd catch me if I jumped off a building again, I think…
A pressure makes my chest uncomfortable as I realize what that means, my mouth sour.
When did I also become a fool?
I screw my jaw and support myself by my hand to lean closer to Killua, greedily taking his lips. He responds, but only barely, and he maintains his demeanor even as he blushes faintly. I break away to put my forehead against his.
"Fine. Trust me."
Meanwhile Naii stands on the sidelines like, "Ya done yet?" I've recently been made aware of a Chinese saying for when people who don't want it are forced to witness couples being cutesy, it's said the extra person is being forced to eat dog food. I think its a fantastic saying. Naii has been around for most of the ride, and just takes all the dog food in stride. What a champ. What a lady.
But on a different note, we're approaching the final story arch! I have plans. Dastardly plans. Or, maybe they're not dastardly, but maybe they are? You'll just have to wait and see, hehe...