The conversation turns to a sour note, Killua admitting Kite was one of the contributing factors to why they were no longer with Gon.

Clarisa swallowed thickly, "Was… the reason why Gon was willing to die for revenge? Wait, does that mean Kite died? Wait, is Gon also dead?"

"No, Gon is alive… and Kite is technically alive too. I'll explain it once we reach that point. You need the context in order to understand the Chimera Ants. There's a reason I say he's more of a mentor… considering he left a huge impact on Gon, one that made him want to become a Hunter so he can find his father."

Killua paused, trying to think from which point he should start at? The introduction to Chimera ants, or should he gloss over that moment to instead focus on progression, to what Kite was hunting.

In the end, revealing the biology behind the Chimera Ants would be a better point to start from "We teamed up with Gon's mentor of sorts, and tried to find what was called a Chimera Ant Queen… they're ferocious beasts that eat other creatures, and create amalgamations, 'Chimeras' with traits of various animals. So, to give an example… a falcon with scales. Due to the size of the queen, and given its location, he was worried it'll start eating humans…"

"Which it did…" Killua added with a frown, "We tracked it down NGL, and found small villages that had already been ransacked. Nothing was left behind, just some splatters of blood… so we kept moving. First thing we ran into, was a half-naked rabbit-bird. He was physically strong, it took three of us to take him down the first time… the second time we ran into him, I killed him in an instant, severing its head after finding that it almost killed Daniel. More on that later…"

Daniel gave a nod, "It managed to escape thanks to another Ant's help. So, we continued… We found the underground ruler of NGL's main base of operations desecrated. In it, we found things located in this country that had been banned, drugs and guns. Also, four Chimera Ants, one for each of us to deal with. Kite, killed mine along with his… and Gon's. He chastised us for not giving that final blow. But, at that point I had yet to kill anything… When I saw, what I assume at the time that the chimera ant had killed Killua, I guess… it was one of the first few times I snapped. I through a card shrouded in Shu into her face as pay back. Then I tried to make my enemy submit so I could help Killua."

"Unfortunately for this idiot…" The boy in question pointed at his partner, "I already took care of my enemy. I think… if Kite hadn't helped Daniel… I would've done so. I tried to help him afterwards, to get him over that mental box of taking another life in order to save others… but it just wasn't possible at the time. Even when we were surrounded… even when Gon and I had taken care of our enemy, Daniel failed to take his enemy's life… the pleas of the Chimera ant broke him. Kite once more had to save him… I protected him while Kite took care of the rest… He chastised Daniel. But that wasn't all… we had to continue to bring him with us, even if he was a walking target. At the time I didn't like it, but Kite having failed to kill all the enemies, said leaving Daniel to walk back on his own is not an option. He… was a walking target… So, we had to keep moving…"

"That wasn't the only problem," Daniel suggested, "I had this grandiose dream… where I thought I could save Killua with my strength, alone. It was a pipedream that went up in smoke after failing to deal with the second ant. I felt like I was a failure… and that enemy was yet to be the worst to come, Pitou… a royal guard."

Madelyn crossed her arms at this part of the story. Why is Daniel so hung up about being able to defend and protect Killua, after admitting they're trying to build up each other's strength? When exactly did the switch happen? "I don't get it… why do you want to protect him so badly… when clearly, Killua has the upper strength here?"

Daniel frowned, "We already found out why I wanted to protect him so badly… I didn't meet him the first time at the Hunter's exam… that was the second time. But you'll have to wait for that."

While Madelyn pouted from so little information being given, Killua addressed the deadliest enemy they dealt with, up to that point, "We found the nest… but neither of us were prepared for this kind of enemy. Pitou, also known as Neferpitou is a Chimera Royal Guard, they, were far stronger than what we've ever dealt with. Within a split second from their reveal, they took Kite's arm… and tried to take ours' after pouncing. Daniel used his body to protect us, at the cost of a scar which has healed."

The boy turned his back to them, pulling up his shirt to show of the wound. Clarisa covered her mouth, horror filling her eyes. It was a large X mark, eight lines criss-crossing the middle section. It had healed, but the mark will be not only a painful reminder to Daniel, but one for Killua too, "It's…"

Daniel pulled his shirt back down, "Yeah… it was painful for a time. Now it's just a reminder that I need to get stronger."

Madelyn was quite during the whole ordeal. Daniel had been living that for months… she couldn't imagine having to go through that ordeal, "How did you survive?"

"Hmm…?" Daniel turned his attention to the girl, "Killua ran… Kite stayed behind."

Killua gave a nod "We lost Kite… he sacrificed his life, so all three of us could run away. If it weren't for Kite, knocking the enemy away, Daniel would have lost his life… After that incident, Gon broke with rage. He was about to kill the Chimera ant, but I knock him out. Although, my main intention was to knock some sense into him… then take the other two and run like my life depended on it."

"But before I ran… there's a few things that need to be said about the situation, since Daniel wouldn't remember everything." Considering Daniel's memories would've been lucid at time; he'd be able to add finer details to the situation "Daniel's wound was deep, he was crying and clinging to me. Gon was ready to get some revenge on an enemy far stronger than us. Another thing, we later learned that was the last time we'd see Kite alive…"

"Technically…" Daniel added.

"Technically… Also, technically… Even though Daniel was clinging to me, he was begging for me to leave him behind. I basically went on a 'fuck everyone' rant, continuing to run no matter what stumbles across our path. Lucky for us… we didn't run into any enemies. When I felt like we were out of danger, I dressed Daniel's wounds to at least slow down the bleeding, then continue to bolt towards the entrance to NGL. I grabbed a first aid kit and our stuff. Daniel and I had a conversation, then I dressed and closed his wounds."

"What kind of conversation…" Madelyn asked out of curiosity.

Killua felt himself blush "A heartfelt one… mixed with our worries. Daniel is by no means a killer… during our battles, we were put in situations where we had to kill Chimera Ants… Daniel was the only one who hadn't killed one. He was chastised by Kite for not doing so… but their humanistic nature, was stopping him from taking their life… if they didn't speak… he might have had an easier time killing them."

Daniel gave a nod, "I was taught the opposite of Killua… life is precious, by Nathaniel… I was taught to fight with the intent to knock out, disarm or hold enemies down… never kill. The Chimera Ants… at least the situation taught me I could kill, ONLY, when a certain condition was met… the same condition, Vastorie told me to never seek."

"Revenge…" Killua explained, "If I got hurt, Daniel tended to ignore everything around him. It was a bad habit of his that was impossible for him to break. He cares… so much about me," The boy's cheeks tinted at his words, but it was the truth. He couldn't deny it at this point, even if he tried "even when at the time, our relationship hadn't been established yet. We were tasked with a job that required us to beat three assassins well, that was what Netero, the guy leading the backup called them. There were softies… all of them were… Well… two out of three were."

Daniel gave a nod, "It turns out my sister was one of those assassins… she trained me, while Killua and Gon would fight the other two. But she wasn't the only one that helped us. Bisky, our old trainer, returned. She forced us to hold Ren for three hours, then we'd fight the assassins… We had only a month to beat the assassins. We found out who they were once we got to the location where we were supposed to beat them. We found a hotel to lay Gon down while Killua and myself tried to find clues to their location. If Gon wanted to keep pursuing Pitou… to save Kite, we needed to beat them."

"Bisky was called by the person who met us first, to help us find and take down the other three assassins. Palm, the… you know."

Clarisa nodded, "Yeah, her…"

Madelyn looked at the boys, then her housemate, clueless about what they were gesturing to each other about. Who exactly was Palm? "Who is she…?"

"Gon's Ex-Cougar girlfriend."

There was a long pause before she asked the question in a much darker tone, "What…? Why are you talking about this with such a light hearted attitude, given my backstory?"

"Because Gon… is an idiot, and you'd be considered smarter than he is in this case." Killua argued in Madelyn's favour, even though he honestly trusts Gon more than her right now "He has no sense of stranger danger. He'll walk up to a stranger and ask for their name without prompt. He makes friends with the strangest of people… Ones I can't argue against sometimes. But then again, we're also friends with an octopus and chameleon. So, we can't say shit… For fuck sake… Kurapika is the leader of a Mafia group, and Leorio is training to become a Doctor. He doesn't care about who he makes friends with… or stays friends with for that matter."

"We should also be talking about the fact Palm gave up on Gon, because she realised, she was being blinded by his infectious, bubbly personality. AND, Palm wasn't the first…"

"Wait, he's been with other cougars?"

"Several…" Killua argued. But this wasn't the main point, that's now history, history they'll need to cover later "That's history. We can't change that fact. Gon's an idiot at times… but I believe he has learned from his past, and who his with… I don't believe he's made bad decisions. What we need to discuss right now however, is the fact Gon had yet to wake up at this point, and we hadn't met Palm. So, for the moment lets focus on how Gon reacted when he did wake up… He thanked me… thanked us really for stopping him from attempting to beat up Pitou and save Kite. The boy also got super excited after seeing Daniel…"

"Yeah… Nearly crushed me to death via a hug. I… I was out in the hall when Killua confessed that Gon was as bright as the sun."

"So, you heard…" Killua frowned, "I was still conflicted at this point. However, let's keep moving on. It was at this point we ran into Palm when we went back to the station to check for an update. We wanted to know if the assassins knew we agreed to their fight. Palm told us about two of the assassins, Knuckle and Shoot. The third was illusive, we found out why though."

"It was my sister, she used her ability to wipe Palm's memory of ever meeting her, so that her reveal would come as a surprise. Plus, she didn't want to help us, she just wanted to take me back considering she could read minds… she found out about my scar. We next found out about Knuckle, who he was and what he looks like. But at this point, we hadn't found out about the third or who Shoot was. When we went back to discuss a plan of attack, while Gon argued with Killua that they should do it as quickly as possible… like in a week, it was when we went back to our hotel, we met Bisky again."

"And by meet… she basically punched Gon in the face after arguing he could beat Knuckle in a week."

"Then we met the illusive assassin, my sister… after she slapped me… then hugged me. From that point on, she went from happy to see me… to wanting to murder me. She can read memories while a link is established. I don't know all the rules to make the connection but what I do now know, is she read my mind… she found out I got hurt from the Chimera Ant, and she was pissed about it. It was tense given the situation. Zaikaria revealed that she's the third assassin, which meant Palm wanted her dead as well. Apart from that, Bisky had us train Ren… we needed to hold it for three hours… then she'll send us to fight Knuckle and Shoot. I'd stayed to fight Zaikaria…"

"It was also around her I started to remember about Alluka. Illumi robbed my memories of her. Anyways, when we reached our milestone, we fought Knuckle and like I said… Shoot was nowhere to be found. When we met him, he went from chastising us, to crying…"

"I'm gonna be honest… It was at this point I thought that Knuckle was a thuggish, less charming and embarrassed version of you."

"He was NOTHING like me…"

"He was unbelievable smart, like a walking calculator. He defeated Gon by just punching numbers into his head… Also, he did feint embarrassment when Gon pointed out that he was crying. We technically won when Gon knocked him out in one punch… but the boy wanted a challenge. So, we kept training until the month was almost over, while also challenging Knuckle whenever we could… I fought my sister. I learnt about her ability to manipulate memories and read them. I lost to her, but ultimately made a deal with her. If Killua loses, when she gets back after her mission, I'd go with her, without complaint."

Daniel looked down at his hands, deep in thought. He was glad he told Killua that… he couldn't have lived with himself if he just disappeared after that night without a trace, "At the start… I believed… or more like felt, there might be a point where I don't think I could escape my feelings for Killua. If he decided to date Gon instead of me, I didn't feel like I could continue to be around him, not without fear of hurting the relationship. I also… I also wanted to be strong enough to be able to protect him, without… you know, getting hurt in the process."

"I guess I kinda felt similar, minus the whole leaving you over relationships. Bisky concluded after my loss with Shoot, that I'd leave the two of you to die if a strong enemy came by… I almost did…"

"We lost in so many ways on the twenty-eighth day… demoralised… insulted… shaken us to the core… When those three, left to save Kite Gon broke down… and so did Killua and I, in a way…"

Killua thought about that trip back, how unbelievable quiet it was for a time. If he were to be honest, he should point out how he felt on the trip back, "You know how Gon was forced into a Zetsu like state… I thought it would be in everyone's best interest that I disappeared. I didn't think… that I should continue to remain by everyone's side after failing to beat Shoot. Sure, it conflicts with me saying I'd protect you… but seeing Gon defeated like that, well… it broke me."

"You know… I don't even know if I'd try to find you if that happened." Daniel found himself agreeing with Killua somewhat, even though their thoughts and positions had changed since then. They are after all, reminiscing on their past thoughts "I'm glad you didn't…"

"Same… about me… I'm also glad you rejected going back with your sister. Looking back on it… I kinda regret not thanking you for all the little things you did for me along our stalking date."

"Your say what now?" Clarisa asked dumbfounded.

"Right…" Killua sighed, "I failed to mention that part. You see… Gon dated a girl nearly twice his age and-"

"Hold on…" Madelyn but in, "That would make her what… twenty-three?"

"Twenty-two I believe at the time."

"She's…"

"Oh, believe me, how she went about it… was fucked up. She held Gon at knife-point… him agreeing to it, made him a bloody idiot. ESPECIALLY, at the time… he already had a boyfriend he neglected to bring up. Palm was the jealous type… I'm glad she backed off in the end. Not because of his age, sadly… it was because she realised, she only wanted to date Gon… because he treated her, how she wanted to be treated by the person she actually loves…"

"Gon didn't care she was older?" Madelyn was still confused about the situation. The whole Gon agreeing to the situation was a separate issue. The fact that he didn't reject her says something about him. His curiosity or moral compass has been shattered, and she had yet to find out why he was like that.

"Nope… all he cares about is do they care about the others he loves. He probably thought Palm would be cool with sharing him with another. He's a weirdo like that…"

"So…" Clarisa rolling her finger, she brought up something Killua mentioned earlier, "You said you had a crush on Gon. If you know he had a partner, and you never met Daniel… would you join the polyamorous relationship?"

Killua shook his head, "I'm not good at sharing. Being put into a relationship where I have to love someone, I have no feelings for… would be impossible."

"So, you'd only care about Gon in this case… would the other care if you showed no feeling for him?"

"I would…" Killua pointed a finger at Daniel, "Even if at the time Daniel was okay with losing me to Gon, I cared about sharing feelings for another. I'd get way too jealous, every time Gon kisses his other partner… it's not for me. I'd prefer solo attraction. So, if Daniel didn't exist, I'd be single… and traveling the world with my sister."

Madelyn stepped into the conversation, "Are you saying that because it's what you feel right now… or because you know yourself good enough to make that guess?"

"It's a bit of both, honestly. Even if Gon and Sakura had developed feelings for me at that time, I still couldn't do it… and I wasn't about to tell him to dump Sakura, because that wouldn't be fair on either of them."

Daniel pulled his partner into a side hug, "Killua thinks about these things… he doesn't like making guesses. When you can get him alone… to open himself to you, to let his emotions run freely… it's where you get to see his personality shine through. It's a reason why I love him. Don't get me wrong, you piss him off, he can be downright scary… but if you can hold his attention… his gaze… he's both cute and loveable. A Tsundere through and through."

"I'm not a- you know what, we're getting off this topic! We stalked Gon and Palm on their date. It was weird, seeing him plan the thing with a purpose… he even did it knowing, that his other partner could get jealous."

"Believe me Killua… I tried to convince him to not go through it for secret boyfriend's sake, but he already convinced himself that it was ok, if he told Sakura later. We also found out that fanatics, as Gon called them taught him many things… it is not our place to tell the full story, but he had already kissed women by age ten."

Killua hummed at the thought, "It's possible those women were between the age of early twenties to late fifties. But we pushed him to talk about it with his partners, and besides his feelings becoming conflicted, none of them had gone the whole way with him…" Besides his partners… but I'm not about to air that dirty laundry, "Anyways, Gon pushed for Daniel and I to go on a date, and while I initially didn't want to go because making sure Gon was safe was my initial priority, I eventually agreed to going on a date with Daniel."

"As a pretence… so he could stalk Gon and his date…"

"Which I now regret because I have an amazing partner that cares about his best friend's wellbeing, after he was forced into a Zetsu like state for thirty days."

The boy looked mortified at his partner, "Now that makes me look like the douche in this story. All I wanted to do was to spend some quality time with the person I was in-love with and instead…" Daniel offered a smirk towards his partner, "he wanted to stalk his friend on his date with somebody else. I bet you were jealous it wasn't you…"

"N-No…" Killua's cheeks tinted, caught red-handed by one he cares deeply about. Daniel's expression widened. The boy didn't believe him, and he was right to do so "Okay, I was… besides, you'd be jealous too if I was in Palm's place."

"I would…" Daniel had no reason to deny his feelings. If Gon and Killua were on a date, and he was forced to watch it transpire, he'd be jealous every time his partner smiled. Polyamory wasn't for either of them, "I got jealous every time Gon made you smile, so I have no reason to deny that."

Killua opened his mouth to say something, only to close it himself seconds later… they were in similar positions, now caring deeply about each other's happiness. They may have made a lot of mistakes in the past, but now isn't the time to think about the past and focus more on the present… at least when it comes to their relationship and not so much about where they were in the story.

"I understand…" Shifting his attention, the boy found himself unconsciously smiling about where they were in the relationship, but how they felt towards each other and their part within the relationship.

When his partner gave a nod, Killua forced them back onto the history lesson, "Ignoring all the pre-plans with Gon, and the boy trying to get us to go on a date on our own… while I was worried about his safety, we ended up stalking Gon on his date with Palm. Like a double date, except the first couple doesn't even know it's a double date."

"To be fair…" Daniel interjected, "for a woman who looks like she gets out of a well every time you watch a certain tape, she's skilled in the art of makeup. She took all three of us by surprise… to the point that we'd have to search for them first… like a crazy ex-boyfriend."

"Don't remind me… I do regret that time now looking back on it. I was worried about nothing, in terms of immediate danger. Although… the small talk we had, even if you were angry at how casually I mentioned my fractured past, it made our stalking less… prominent, I guess. I started to focus more on you, than what we were doing. Oh, and that death shake… it was really good."

"I'm glad you liked the I'm gonna murder your tastebuds with sugar and chocolate thick shake…"

"When Gon and Palm went walking deep into a forest, I felt on edge… there was a Chimera Ant in the vicinity. I waited until the two stopped before I asked Daniel to follow me to deal with the situation. We ran into the first Chimera Ant we ever dealt with… and this time it could use Nen. I felt… scared I guess at the situation. Bisky's words about running away from my friends to leave them to die… Illumi's voice whispering me to run… it culminated into fear. Daniel was trying to help me through it, to instead focus on the enemy, but every time it turned to me… my body would seize up."

"Every time Killua got hit… I not only got frustrated at myself for being so weak, but angrier… So angry, that for a brief, moment, I was strong enough to hold the enemy down by sheer will. I forced Killua to run… telling him I'll be right behind him, even though I knew deep down, I had no chance of out running the enemy."

"I…" Killua bit his lip, "I gave in and ran, even though a part of me was trying to fight against Illumi's programming."

"I held on for a long as I could, getting pummelled by the enemy. As the last of my strength broke, I had flashes of people I thought I'd miss… I don't mean as I don't care about them, I mean… I felt like at that moment, it'll be the last time I draw breath."

"The moment I broke through my brother's conditioning, I left to save him. Daniel like an idiot, was smiling at the enemy like he was the one that won in the end. You probably didn't even know I was there. I reacted, severing the creature's head before it could react to the danger. I made sure my face was the last one it saw… after it was dealt with, I checked on Daniel. He was alive, just breathing heavily…"

Killua closed his eyes as he tried to relieve the moment. He broke through his own mental block, and was able to finally, confess not only to himself that he can and will have feelings for others. But just as import… he unlocked his forgotten memories, "I remembered about Alluka… feelings on the matter being mixed. Illumi blocked that part of my mind that could deeply care about others, by associating those feelings with Alluka. So, when he removed her from my memories, I assumed I couldn't care about others… but the reality is…"

"He did care…" Daniel hugged his partner tightly within his grasp, "he was just struggling to show it, isn't that right…" He pressed a kiss into Killua's cheek.

Killua felt something inside him swell with affection. Daniel was right, and it's about time he freely admitted that side of him "Yeah…" It was so relieving to hear the freedom in his voice, the acceptance that after so long, whether it was because Gon and Daniel had both been chipping away at his walls, freeing him from the confines of his barriers… or the memories allowing himself to realise those feelings…

He was glad he had people that cared about him, surrounding him every step of his adventure…

He was glad he allowed himself to love someone else, not just what his family had been drilling into him almost his whole life.

With a giddy smile, he expressed those feelings through his words, "Suck it family! Your son is capable of expressing his feelings…" Sucking in a breath, he roared the last bit at the top of his lungs "I WON'T LET YOU TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME!"