The discussion shifts, Madelyn now forced to argue with herself for her wants and desires.

What Madelyn was feeling, had been contaminated by the boys. With each passing second, minute of affection, she was feeling herself slowly fall for its charm. She could be having that, considering Clarisa's inclination was the same as Killua's and Daniel's.

They all would per their partner on a pedestal of their design, treating their partner with a kind of respect they would show a close friend. But of each of them, it was more than just that.

From her perspective, the way Daniel alone looks at Killua, if she walked through every moment in her life, she saw her roommate give her that exact expression at times.

It was annoying her, to know that she could be having the same thing the boys were having, but she, herself, was forcing it to the sidelines because she wasn't ready. She wasn't ready to open herself to someone in that way.

To see Killua do it gracefully at times, to accept those feelings, but at some moments, he'd pushed Daniel away from the topic; he was skirting his feelings, making sure he wasn't bombarded all the time.

He knew how to get balance…

It's the only thing she'll comfortably respect about Killua; although, not to his face though.

But on the other end of the scale, she's now starting to hate herself. Why can't she accept the fact that she'd like to feel loved, to be showered in attention and affection? Why is it these boys, that's making those walls about certain feelings crumble under its weight?

She couldn't pinpoint it, but she'd certainly bring it up now, "You know what frustrates me the most about you two…?"

The two boys raised an eyebrow in concern, Killua broaching the topic, "What exactly frustrates you about us?"

"The freedom you give each other, while also drowning each other in affection. Like, you're giving Clarisa bad ideas. Things I know for a fact, she'll use on others…" especially me.

"-Is that really, so bad?"

"-It can't be that bad?"

Daniel and Clarisa argued at the same time, each with different words. They both felt the same way, even if others find it disgusting or the feelings excessive, it's for each other, not because they're trying to say to the world: Look, look at my partner; no one can love their partner more than I do. They are more special than the individual specks of snowflakes they tread upon.

"My point, I find the two of you overbearing. I want these moments hidden so that I can think and feel about these kinds of things on its own, not be tempted by them."

Daniel crossed his arms, "Then why don't you…?"

"Wh… What?"

"Think about this on your own?"

"Your standing right in front of me, being super mushy with each other."

"Then ignore it…"

"H…" Madelyn was completely confused, taken aback by the boy's words. Does he not realise he had been talking to her and Clarisa, about their feelings for each other, while recounting their history with one another? "How? You're being so mushy with each other… I'm surprised one of you hasn't tongue fucked the other."

As Daniel's face went red, Killua burst into laughter. The comment was so off-putting, but the delivery was priceless. Killua couldn't deny it was his internal feelings, but he has standards, rules he set in place for himself.

In private, he couldn't give to fucks what others think, but in public… with others, he's reserved, "I have standards, you know…"

"Yeah, but your eyes say something completely different."

"Oh, you know what I'm thinking?" Killua taunted with a sly smirk. He was daring her to say it, to say what she thinks he was thinking about.

When she turned away, Killua's lip curled upward, "You won't say it… whether it be because you're uncomfortable saying it, or a small part of you believes you'll wrong, you won't say it. You may even think we'll take it as an insult…"

Clarisa stayed quiet, not because she was respecting her friend's opinions. She wasn't. It was because of the concern being laced in her words. It sounded like she was angrier with herself, than she was with Killua and Daniel's actions, towards one another.

"Either way, don't contaminate my personal, internal feelings."

Daniel retorted back objectively, calm and relaxed about the matter, "You're more focused on what we're doing… not what we're saying."

"Oh, I'm listening… I'm hearing and seeing your actions."

"Are you really…?" Daniel taunted back, "You argued we're one step away from tongue-fucking each other. You're not paying attention to the words, just our physical attraction to one another."

"I… I am not!" She retorted defensively, face bright red. She could see the other smirking about the issue, but he wasn't saying anything, just listening to his partner argue she wasn't paying attention to the subject or plot, "Why don't you say something too… Mr High and mighty."

"Why, when my partner said it for me? You're not paying attention to the plot, just the action."

Madelyn closed her eyes, turning to face away from the boy, "Why even bother listening to you anyways."

Killua quirked an eyebrow, "You weren't even listening to us in the first place."

"Alright… alright…" Daniel stepped in, relenting to the fact that he believed they're now going too far. Sure, Clarisa had been trying to hold in a laugh the whole time, but with Madelyn now turned away, it meant they had gone too far with the teasing, "I get it…"

Madelyn was about to retort, but Daniel stopped her, "the gist of the argument. How Killua and I act towards one another is… I don't believe you consider it disgusting…" Daniel rubbed his chin as he thought about it, "You consider it to have too much 'PDA', it makes you uncomfortable, because it's something you've been questioning with yourself. But remember, YOU draw that line… not your partner, unless their line is shorter than yours, then technically they draw the line. Killua at the start didn't like PDA… he still doesn't like it now, to this day."

"A specific kind…" Killua butted in, "I can handle sap to a certain degree. But at the same time… using it in a teasing manner, I'm willing to disregard that line." He immediately waved off a hand, stopping anyone from arguing further on the topic, "Daniel is right. You and your partner need to set up those boundaries and break them when the two of you feel comfortable doing so. But enough about being sappy… considering I can tell you're still uncomfortable because I've seen it being reflected in the mirror. We have a story to get back to…"

Madelyn finally relaxed, now that they were off the topic. She knew it'll eventually be brought up, but being in an emotional state can be taxing, especially considering how she felt about romantic gestures.

It was too much to handle, the love and affection. She may one day be in this position if she ultimately chooses to pursue a relationship. But after what she experienced as a kid… love isn't given, it's earned in her eyes. And no matter how hard she tried; it was never received.

Clicking his fingers, the girls' eyes snapped towards Killua. He made sure they maintained his absolute attention, "I called Daniel, asking him to come to me. Originally, I wanted to do things alone… but things started to change. The number of guards in towns was starting to double. It was becoming more tedious to deal with the insane number of enemies… So, I got Daniel involved. We tag-teamed, taking down many puppets… but there came another problem. They tracked us down. I thought about going to the next nearest town, but someone was watching us… another Chimera Ant we later learned was Flutter."

"Killua and I headed towards the forest, hiding out. We wanted our watcher to come to us, but they had a way of tracking us."

"The first attack came as a boulder slamming into the spot we were hiding. I avoided the attack by heading higher into the trees, only to get attacked by another ant. We were led into a trap, created by the Chimera Ant in the sky. I threw Daniel higher as I dealt with the ant attacking us."

"The only problem was there were more hiding higher in the tress. I got surrounded by five more Ants. Killua and I dealt with them, me knocking them down or breaking their guard, while he finished them off."

"Before I could finish off the last one, the one still below us on the ground disrupted us. He slammed the boulder into the tree, making us fall from our branches. In the process, we lost the other Ant. Rather than trying to find it, I decided it was best to take the one on the floor out, believing it to be the one leading the unit. Just when I was about to take it out… it…"

"Blew an explosive fart in his face." Daniel's expression grew dark, "I snapped… making several mistakes along the way. First, I failed to check to see if Killua was okay… Second, I went after the Ant by myself. And third, I showed off my weapon at the time's special skill. It was called Wolfbane, a miniature scythe, that doubled as a whip-blade. At the time, I had it set as a whip-blade, but I transformed it back to the small scythe."

"Which was a huge mistake on your part…"

"I know… but all I saw was a seething hatred for the Ant. I took out his mode of transport, then when I was about to kill it, I got knocked by something small, making me miss my intended target."

Killua's expression fell, he knew what happened. Even if Daniel didn't at the time, he knew… his partner had gotten shot by Ikalgo. He had failed to keep the enemy distracted, believing that he was the Octopus' original target.

Instead, while Daniel was blinded by rage, Flutter was hoping to take out Daniel first. He failed because he was not only resilient, he was ignoring all his pain. Plus, he probably hadn't removed the flea bullets as he had.

"Given my reaction at the time, I intended to make it suffer out of revenge, so I started by lobbing off one of the arms. It… it was the very first person I ever killed."

Killua pressed a hand to his partner's shoulder, coaxing the boy to relax. The past cannot be changed, they're merely relieving it through their words, much like the girls were. He could see the two of them had reacted to his partner's words.

He stated in the past Daniel was not a killer, it's not in his blood. But the fact is he had killed someone, possibly several out of revenge. But what he had gathered so far, what Daniel was doing at that time, sounded eerily similar, to Assassin Mode.

If what he suspected was true, the further they tempered their connection, the possibility of each of them accessing each other's skills, may become very possible later down the road. He dreaded what would happen to Daniel, if his mind became narrow-minded, accessing, and utilising God Speed, or any of his other abilities that required electricity running through his nerves.

Would it even work… considering it was running through only his nerves? Would the connection even allow for something like that to exist? They needed to make sure there were barriers in place to stop something like that from happening.

"I guess… I failed to keep that Ant's attention on me. There was a sniper shooting flea bullets at us. I thought it was focused on only me, but it seems like you were its first target."

"I'm… I'm sorry for running away from you, Killua. If only… If only, maybe you wouldn't have-"

Killua stopped his partner, "Again. The past is the past…"

Daniel offered a nod, "When I came back, I was… covered in blue blood. I had a few more enemies surrounding me. I guess… I was scared… I was scared from what I had done. It was the first time I killed anything, and, I couldn't repeat the process. I ended up trying to run away, but I felt pulses, places where I was hit. But there was nothing in those spots. I searched the rest of my body as I tried to run, pulling out at least two flea bullets."

"Wait…" Killua paused, "exactly how many times did you felt like you were shot?"

"I counted three, why?"

Killua pressed a hand to his chin. While in a state of panic, the feedback of his partner's pain had ricocheted off his partner. This was problematic news. If one of them breaks, they snap under pressure, they'll be able to feel everything the other is feeling. Why was it set up like this…?

Why was panic the sole reason Daniel could sense his emotional and physical state?

On top of the issue with possibly utilising the other's hidden skills, now he had to worry about the feedback from the other? Does that mean if he becomes stressed, he'd be able to feel what Daniel is feeling?

If the two of them were forced into such a state would pain constantly bounce between them…?

This was a real problem he needed to address with his partner, "If what you say happened, and it's not paranoia settling in, it means we have an even bigger problem on our hands." Killua glanced at his partner, "We need to talk about it… alone."

Daniel understood his partner's troubling thought. If it's a topic they needed to address alone, it's something that could become an issue later. He didn't know to what extent Killua was worried about the issue, but for him to argue that it's a bigger problem than a glaring issue they hand with their connection.

Killua saw something problematic with their connection, Daniel simple losing himself to the blind rage, was nothing in comparison to what his partner had just realised, "In that case, I just have a few things to briefly mention. During that state of panic, I tried to summon the courage to take another life… I… I begged for your help."

Killua looked his partner in the eyes, taking note of the pain and sorrow in his facial features. He knows, that his partner now realises his mistake at the time. He wanted to chastise him further, but these small subtle changes are what makes their relationship better in the long run, "I believe I felt when you begged for help."

When Daniel's eyes widened, the boy further explained "I felt a ripple, a distortion within my own, aura. I was going to stop chasing after the sniper, to instead go after you. But then he shot me again. There was a huge problem if I went after you first. If I didn't deal with him, the one in the sky may have directed his attention to you. At the time, the places I got hit were bleeding non-stop. If I didn't take him out, I may have bled out before I could save you… or at worst, we both could've bled out."

"I… I shouldn't have run ahead."

"It's ok… we both made mistakes then. After finding the sniper, he led me into an underground cave system, hoping that I'd fall into the water below me, to be eaten by the hungry Chimera Ants. Instead, I slipped my fingers through the Chimera Ant's skull, hoping to kill it. However, what I killed was the host. The ant hiding inside burst out of the human suit, hoping to strangle me. But I severed one of its tentacles, to use it to stick to a stalagmite, so I didn't fall into the water. The last thing I wanted to do was get devoured by hundreds of hungry fish Chimera Ants."

Killua smiled slightly, "It's here where I met the one who'd later become friends with… the first friend I actively asked to be a friend. You see… I followed Gon like a puppy, intrigued by everything he did. Daniel was the same for me."

"Except, I didn't follow you like a puppy… technically. What I felt, I'm pretty sure was considered having a HUGE crush on you, I just failed to realise it."

Killua nodded with a blush, "An- Anyways… I didn't think I'd be friends with Gon like I said at the start. And it was Daniel who asked if we could be friends, I just didn't feel anything from it, sorry…"

"No problems, I wanted to be your friend, only because I was enamoured by you."

"And now…?"

"There are many reasons… MANY, many reasons…" All of which I will not name because someone will get annoyed at us, and some of those reasons are not something I'd want to air out.

"Right… I called the Chimera Ant cool because he was willing to sacrifice himself to protect his allies. I wouldn't allow him to do so… So, I went against the rules I set for Daniel and myself… don't reveal anything new to the enemy. I showed the ant, which I later found out was Ikalgo that I had yo-yos, then when I got attacked by another larger, Chimera Ant… I threw Ikalgo to safety before showed that I could also sharpen my nails into claws. I sliced through that ant that tried to bite me in half like I was making sashimi."

The small joke got a chuckle out of Daniel, even though it was about murdering something in cold blood. It was just… the delivery was like he just stopped caring mid-sentence.

Killua pressed on, "After revealing two secrets, I jumped along with the stalagmites, trying to reach land. I didn't want any more of those guys coming after me and considering they were distracted with a huge meal, that was the perfect timing to escape. When I reached land… that's when things took a turn for the worst. I was hit by a Nen ability, where I become a dartboard."

Daniel raised a finger, now realising that's why he lost the connection with Killua "That explains why I lost the connection to you."

"Yeah, I realised this earlier… when I go into Zetsu, it does the same thing. But for this case, because it didn't put me into a state of Zetsu, I think because it took over my body, turning it into a dartboard, that's why it lost the connection…"

"I guess we need to add that to the long list of issues we need to talk about."

"Yup…"

"Actually… there's one thing I need to mention about this situation. When I lost that connection, I became erratic, pleading for you to still be alive. I even felt it waning… losing its strength with each passing second."

"I had a feeling… Actually, after taking all those hits from the Nen fishes, I thought for a split second… I was going to die. I was bleeding profusely, between the wounds I suffered from Ikalgo's flea bullets, and the two sibling's darts, I was on the verge of bleeding out… it's also when I felt our bond get stronger. I could tell you were getting closer… even though Ikalgo was trying to help me… to save me… I tried to warn him about you."

"Wait, back up…" Madelyn stopped the boys from progressing, "What you mean the Chimera Ant was trying to save you? Did he have a change of heart?"

"Because I called him cool… he decided to help me."

"That's hardly a good reason…" The girl crossed her arms, "If he's was willing to betray his allies because you called him cool, he'd just as easily betray you if someone else came along and gave him an even better compliment."

Daniel shook his head, "It's not as simple as that… Let me explain. After saving Killua alongside him… and recovering from my own, wounds, including the exhaustion settling in from pushing myself to save Killua. After I woke up and pay the hefty bill-"

"Hefty is an understatement… considering we both come from rich families."

"Right…" Daniel sighed; how could he forget. Then again, that wasn't important to the story, it was just Killua making an offhand comment about them belonging to families that were considered rich, "I was talking to Ikalgo. It was mostly word vomit, but I brought up how much we cared for each other not only as partners but friends as well… he wanted a piece of that, to have friends who didn't use him just because he was useful to them… under their system, they used each other."

Killua offered a nod, "Yeah, once the sibling told the flying Chimera Ant that they killed me, they had a small victory chant; they even stated that they got a promotion after their kill. Since Ikalgo didn't say anything, it's safe to assume he didn't get the promotion."

"He wanted to have friends he could not only depend on, that they could also depend on him as well. Not only that, he betrayed their allies… there was no way any of the Chimera Ants would want him back. Anyways, I got to know a bit about Ikalgo, his name mainly before I passed out from exhaustion, but I spoke to him about what I hoped to give Killua during our relationship…"

"Which is…?" Killua raised an eyebrow, "Wait, don't tell me. I have a gut feeling you're going to be cheesy about it."

"Too late…" Daniel's lips widened into a smile, "I'll keep it short… I promise…" He then looked at Clarisa, letting her know he was being truthful, "I want to leave an impact on your life, hoping that any changes I instilled in you, ultimately, made you a better person. Whether you stay with me… or chose to be with someone else, I wanted you to be the person you wanted to become, not be forced into."

"Aww…" Clarisa smiled, "that's sweet."

"Too sweet for my taste…" Madelyn spoke in a dry tone. After being nudged by Clarisa, she turned away with a pout, "I'm not backing down. It was sickly sweet."

"It's okay…" Daniel held out his hands to stop Clarisa from forcing an apology out of her housemate, "There's no denying I was being extra sweet this whole time, even though I promised I wouldn't be like this around Clarisa."

"But you shouldn't be forced to act out of character…"

"I'm not forcing myself to act out of character though… I'm making Madelyn feel more comfortable being in this room, without being surrounded by people who are drowning her with sappy, public displays of affection."

Madelyn remained quiet, not even choosing to defend herself on the matter. She'd like it to remain like that, only because she had been questioning herself the whole time during those events.

Killua forced them back into the topic, "Anything else I should be worried about…?"

"No, just that. I only wanted Ikalgo to know that I genuinely cared about your happiness, whether it involved me or not. Other than that, you kinda did…"

"Nope, we're going to ignore that happened for the moment."

"What happened?"

Killua's eyes narrowed, "It's a private matter. It left Daniel feeling uncomfortable, and me questioning the situation."

"Don't forget you slapped my face."

"You asked a dumb question… you get that response. Jeez…" Killua sighed in frustration, "It happened because I wanted to tease you, and that happened due to… nope, I'm not saying it. Fuck it, we're going into overdrive now. We're skipping the less important stuff. Ikalgo joined us, along with Meleoron, another Chimera Ant that became friends with Gon. From there, we mostly bided our time, waiting for the day we attack the palace. Gon desperately wanted us to look for Palm, but I argued it'd be a waste of resources. We didn't know where she was, and there was the possibility, that if captured, she'd sacrifice her life. Otherwise… our plan will be up in smoke."

Daniel gave a nod, stepping in as Killua's defence on the topic, "The after the fact Palm forced Gon into a relationship, threatened us, and attempted to kill Killua, Gon still cared for her… After a bit of arguing, we were forced to assign the job to Ikalgo, giving us one less person to help. Also, Killua and I had a moment… nothing too sappy or romantic… He helped me… um… try to block that no-kill aspect of me…"

Killua gave a nod, "Even though he had killed… on four separate occasions, he got lucky. He was still scared. If there was a chance that we had to split up, he might not be so lucky. There was the King, three royal guards who'd have no mercy… and who knows how many Chimera Ants on the ground, were strong enough to prove to be a threat. So, I taught him to close his eyes, and just swing."

"Not really…" Daniel crossed his arms "You didn't teach me to swing blindly. What you taught me is to ignore what I just did. The moment I make that killing blow, move on as quickly as I can. Just to… forget the evil deed I just made."

"Killing isn't inherently evil though. Release from suffering wouldn't be considered evil…" Killua argued, "Also, in self-defence, it'd be the same. This whole war… was considered self-defence. The King, or more likely… the royal guards are were pushing the scenario. Daniel will explain that later."

"Yup, for the moment, we waited until we had to attack. However, the moment we entered the Palace…"

"It turned into a shit show…"

A\N: I thought about what I wanted to do to recap Eyes Always Watching… One through to… huh… forty-six… this arc has been extremely long. Anyways, I wanted to skip most of it and focus mainly, on when Daniel's memories were wiped.

Thinking about it, there are a few things I wanted them to talk about…

Anyways, I believe the recapping of this story should be done in hopefully… three chapters, because there are many things Daniel and Killua need to discuss among themselves, also, cool ideas I wanted to put in motion.