C H A P T E R F I V E
Disclaimer: I do not own Hunter x Hunter. The wonderful characters are the creation of Togashi-sama. Any original characters who do appear however (and there will be plenty) belong to me.
Summary: It all began when Illumi was caught wearing women's clothes and competing in a beauty competition. However, it would seem that there are other reasons for his cross-dressing, and winning the prize not all that important.
Rating: M 15+
"Anata! Would you have a look at this!" Kikyou delightedly crooned over large group of show puppies inside a low iron fence. They all waged their short tails vigorously, vying for her attention and nipped and licked gently at her hand as she reached down to pat their short golden fur. She picked up a decidedly cute one with large chocolate brown eyes, floppy ears and a snout positively quivering with excitement.
"You think Mike could use some company perhaps?" Kikyou pushed the puppy right next to Silva's less than impressed face, and the dog instinctively nuzzled the gaunt cheek with his wet nose. The silver haired assassin roughly wiped his face and deliberately looked off elsewhere in disgust, unable to understand what his wife thought was so interesting in a furball which could only eat and crap all over the place. At least with his hunting and guard dogs, they were well disciplined, aggressive and appallingly savage. He sighed inaudibly as he felt himself being forcibly dragged off to the next store.
Ye Gods no – not a jewelry stand. He'll be stuck here until sunset and she wouldn't be finished picking out the items she wanted. Just as he was about to suggest to buy the whole store so that they could find a quieter, less crowded place, her hand shot out and grasped a necklace of amber and diamonds like an eager little girl attracted to really sparkly things.
"Oh my, Anata, don't you think that this would go well with the pair of earrings that Killu gave me last Christmas?" she held it up for him to see.
"You've got a lot of earrings," he said with incredible patience and the all infuriating blank look on his face.
Kikyou stiffened and shadows started dancing across her face. Silva gulped, realizing that he had upset his wife's fragile good mood and now he was going to cop an earful of verbal abuse about him being an insensitive, bad husband in public.
"The yellow diamond earrings that Killu had sent home during Christmas. The ones that I'm currently wearing now," she replied with a tight, controlled smile and an equally tight, controlled voice. Silva broke into cold sweat and felt the rising urge to back away, very slowly. If Kikyou was going to blow, he was going to make sure that he was in the next country, well away from ground zero when it happened.
But he couldn't help admiring how those glittering stones complimented her black holter neck top and the deep brown long skirt down to the matching sandals. Even at her age, she still attracted attention from other people by her inborn style, class and grace. Her black hair, once blue-black in her youth but had diminished somewhat with age, was tightly tied up into a high bun. The strands that escaped still curled up like springs and tickled the sides of her face whenever they became loose and had to be hooked back behind the ears again.
She even removed her visor, revealing smoky grey eyes that could barely see after Killua had cut her in order to make his escape from home. And although she could barely tell the amber apart from yellow diamonds, she was unusually happy and would give him the occasional smile whenever she did catch him looking in her direction.
Kikyou failed to notice the merchant looking rather quizzically and uncertainly at her. Silva however gave him a flat glare that read I'm a jealous and possessive husband who is also incredibly violent so stop staring at my wife like that.
"Oh, I mean no offence sir and madam!" he stammered with real fear in his voice and felt that it was in his health's interest to explain. "It's just that your rather…beautiful wife bears quite remarkable resemblance to Miss Arammi. Pray tell are you her relatives perhaps?"
Silva looked at the man as if he were stupid. "Who is Arammi?"
The merchant, overcome by staggering shock forgot about his fear and gaped at them with an incredulous expression on his face. "You don't know who Miss Arammi is?!" He whipped out a flyer with the faces of the finals contestants plastered all over the surface. With a stubby finger decked in rings, he pointed to a particular frame. "This is one of the biggest events of the Festival! That's Miss Arammi right there!"
The picture had almost made Silva crash to the floor. He snatched the piece of paper from the merchant's hand and began to pull his wife away.
Kikyou made a sound of protest and confusion. "What about the necklace?"
"Buy it." He said gruffly, impatient to be off. Then realizing that Kikyou was having difficulty with the clasps on her purse, he quickly threw some Arcadian notes at the man, indifferent to the value, just as long as it was sufficient to cover the cost, and pulled Kikyou off towards the road.
"What's the rush Anata?" she sounded hurt and annoyed.
"Want to get something to drink?" he asked out of the blue. Kikyou hesitated.
"Ok."
* * * *
In a trendy café by the busy sidewalk, Kikyou sipped her iced lemon tea under the shade of the large umbrella, her vision consisting of blurred shapes and fuzzy colours representing the many people swarming by at lunch hour. Even on this hot summer's day, there was enough cool breeze in the air to break apart the humidity and stuffiness in the masses of people.
"This was a good idea." She sighed feeling the chill cooling the body down. "Anata, I want to talk to you about something." She couldn't see that Silva wasn't paying the desired attention to her words because he was staring rather grimly at the piece of paper in front of him.
"Shoot," came the disinterested reply.
Kikyou made sure the glass was firmly placed on the table, determined to get her point across even if Silva was being his usual obnoxious self. "It's about Illumi. I think he's getting old enough to establish his own family. I'm thinking of picking a girl for him."
Silva grunted with distaste at her suggestion, causing her familiar warm sensation of anger to rise again. "He won't be needing a wife dressing up like this!"
She barely caught the paper that Silva threw at her. Unable to decipher the contents of the page, she sighed and dug into her shiny black designer bag for her visor and attached them on. The world came into view immediately, and so did the faces on the flyer. One of them was instantly recognizable.
"Illumi!" her voice rose several octaves and so did her fully blossomed anger causing Silva to flinch. "What on earth is he doing dressed like this! Oh Illu!" she sobbed hysterically, her wringing hands already rending the offending flyer into a mangled piece of rubbish. Poor paper, Silva thought.
A somewhat womanish man shriek cut through the air, dispelling their frustration with welcome curiosity. Silva saw the people all part to make way, gasps of fright rising into the air like a Mexican wave. Kikyou stood up slightly and caught a glimpse of man sprinting down the road as fast as his legs would carry him.
"I remember him. He's one of Killua's friends who came to our place
the other day."
* * * *
"You are an absolutely USELESS IDIOT!" Doctor Faust roared racing down the street after Leorio, his white lab coat billowing dramatically behind him.
Leorio emitted a woman's high-pitched scream and ran as fast as his legs would carry him. People, on hearing his squealing which very much reminded them of a pig slaughterhouse, smartly moved aside to avoid the rampage of the mad doctor. Silver glints cut through Leorio clothes, missing him only by bare micro-millimeters. Scalpels?!
Killua's ears pricked up. "Sounds like someone is being cut down." He commented to Gon and Kurapika, sucking on his lollipop as they approached the street corner.
A large figure dangerously swerved in from around the other side of the corner and collided straight into Gon. Killua immediately took the lollypop out of his mouth in case another inconsiderate jerk would rush around and knock him over. He didn't want to choke on the lollypop.
The force of the collision sent Gon reeling and he landed on his backside. "Owie…"he muttered, quickly attending to the scrapped skin on his palms.
"Leorio? Oh my gosh, is that you?" Kurapica exclaimed, hauling the man to his feet. The doctor-in-training shook his head to clear his swimming vision and glanced about nervously like a hunted animal.
"What are all you guys doing here?" he asked more out of courtesy than anything else because his attention was too caught up with his other impending doom. He didn't fail to note however, that apart from his three friends, they were also accompanied by an IT looking man and a kid with fuzzy brown hair.
"What do you mean what are we doing here? Question is what are you doing here?" Killua wagged his lollipop at him. "Gon and I have been here for three days already. We bumped into Kurapica, Wing-sensei and Zuchi today." Killua could tell that by the way Leorio's eyes were constantly darting around that he wasn't particularly concerned about getting to know the people he and Gon had befriended at the Celestial FightingTower.
Kurapica eyes flashed dangerously at Leorio and he stepped on his foot hard to make him acknowledge his new friends. "I met Wing and Zuchi on the way here. Arcadia is a country with a rich history, culture and tradition. The Coronation Festival is something that should be compulsory attendance for every Hunter."
Wing and Killua shivered slightly at those last few words, but Leorio's doom was upon him, heralded by a fearsome warcry. Kurapica's chain shot out in time to intercept a dozen shiny steel scalpels, hideously sharp, and other sorts of surgical equipment with extremely pointy tips.
"Oh?" Killua breathed out lightly and narrowed his eyes at the blond haired man in the distance, scrutinizing his every move. "What'd you do this time Leorio? Try to pick up that man's daughter?"
"Do you guys all see me like that?" Leorio said, huffing heavily, and he became even more incensed as his friends all simultaneously nodded in total agreement.
"How DARE you make Karen-chan cry!" Faust's ringing voice challenged, "I will have your tongue for this you ungrateful pig!"
No sooner were those words spoken, Leorio found himself in a circle of accusing stares, their owners having automatically made the logic series: Karen-chan è girlè crying è Leorio's fault è show no mercy. He looked around him in bewilderment. "It's not what you think!"
But explaining, no, pleading, was useless. His sensei had already caught up to him, and between the cracks of his fisted fingers were razor blades winking death in the sunlight.
"I am curious," Gon said loudly. "What has Leorio done to make Karen-chan cry? And who is Karen- chan?"
Faust's twisted expression of rage swung fully, bearing down onto Gon with a pair of mad, golden coloured eyes.
"Karen-chan," he began in a voice that forced blood to stop circulating "is my most favourite student. This moron here said the most inappropriate things at the most inappropriate time which caused her to become very upset!"
Wing found himself having to restrain Leorio from trying to reach out and strangle the strange man.
"Hey! I've had enough of your crap!" Leorio roared back, "Illumi's a dangerous person, and if Miss Karen was hanging out so affectionately with an emotionless assassin like him, I feel it is my right to caution you! Be grateful you…you…lunatic!"
Faust sucked in a breath of surprise which immediately translated into fuel for his rage. He took one menacing step forward. The final threat was uttered. "You stop speaking, as of today."
Kurapica and Killua stood in Faust's way and adopted defensive positions. Gon tugged at Leorio's jacket to get his attention, and conveyed the expression that he still didn't understand what was going on. Question marks continuously floated above his head.
Doctor Faust judged Killua to be the weaker of the two from the stance alone and decided to make his move against him first, or perhaps even hold him hostage in order to coerce the blonde one to back off. Quick as lightening, his hand reached out –
Only to be caught in a painful iron grip. He turned to see his interrupter with murderous wrath.
"How dare you look at me like that!" Kikyou screeched. Her sudden appearance dashed away every bit of bloodlust in everyone, who were just as shocked as the unfortunate doctor, smitten by Kikyou's unrivaled temper.
===== a cloud of dust and sounds of punching and kicking later======
"Gee, where have I seen this scene before?" Gon wondered, scratching his head and looking to Killua for ideas. His friend shrugged but had a small wicked smile on his face in one of the rare moments of appreciation for his mother's skills and abilities.
Kikyou clapped her hands free of dust and humphed and turned her nose high in the air. Faust lay defeated, a crumpled heap on the ground at her feet, most likely unconscious.
"It's a small world Killu." The young assassin started, caught unawares by a familiar voice. He turned around and saw his dad behind him. Silva smiled and bent over slightly to ruffle Killua's messy hair.
Everyone pitied poor Killua as he became trapped in his mother's suffocating embrace. "Oh Killu! Mamma has missed you so much!" Kikyou fervently rubbed her cheek against Killua's and showered a rain of kisses along his face, all the while muttering her grievances.
Killua quickly pushed his mother away, completely embarrassed. "Mum, not in public!" he complained, but his mother instantly frowned. Thankfully, not at him but at the gloved hand grasp around her ankle, disturbing her precious reunion with her son.
"You…have the gall to interfere with ME!" Faust croaked and coughed, struggling on all fours to stand. A vein popped on Kikyou's forehead causing people to back away, very slowly.
===== painful sounds of kicking and stomping later ====
Leorio blinked a bit at the near lifeless body of Doctor Faust sprawled out on the concrete ground. "Somehow, I almost feel…. sorry…for him." He muttered, wiping the sweat from his brow. On the other hand, he couldn't deny that he was pleased that someone had kindly eradicated his problem.
"You're not here to take me home are you?" Killua looked up at his mother uneasily. In his mind, he had already formulated at least six different escape routes, three of which involved the underground sewers, smelly, but carried a higher success rate. One included a lot of roof-top hopping whilst the other two took advantage of the sea of people.
"No Killua, Mamma came here to find a nice, strong Arcadian girl for your brother when…when…" she clutched onto her young son again and hysterically cried, blurting out gibberish. Silva handed them what was left of the flyer.
"Killu! Have you known about Illumi's tendencies to cross-dress? No! This can't be! It's all my fault Anata! I should have never permitted him to grow his hair! I'll burn all his clothes that are either pink, purple, red…and even light green! Oh Anata, what are we going to do!"
"Hey, there's big bro!" Killua's keen eyes caught his brother's figure far off, as well as Hisoka tagging along beside him. Illumi was looking annoyed.
"Who is that man!" Kikyou exclaimed in horror, noticing that Hisoka had his arm improperly curled around Illumi's slim waist with a haughty smirk on his face. Both of them were engaged in a conversation with the clown not heeding Illumi's annoyance at his unacceptable touching, but he held Illumi tighter still, only because it made Illumi even more annoyed, and he was so cute when those small lips pursed in anger.
Kikyou adjusted her visor and clenched her fists. "I am going to kill that man right now! Here!"
"No mum!" Killua held her back. She looked down at Killua, astonished and tried to speak but couldn't form coherent words in her blank mind.
"It's not that I approve mum, but that man, Hisoka, is a dangerous person."
* * * *
"Do I have to use expletives to get the message across to you Hisoka?" Illumi coldly glared at the magician. "Get your hands off me this instant!"
"Aww Illu, don't be like that! You can't deny the fact that we're bound together, otherwise we wouldn't have met up in the same hotel. It's a sign of fate!"
Illumi's callous gaze said that he didn't see any humor in Hisoka's words and five pins materialized in his raised hand. "And this sign from fate says that you're going to be reduced to nothing but a bloody pin-cushion if you don't get out of my sight."
Hisoka tightened his grip around Illumi's waist, partially in defiance, the other half in spite, mocking the assassin, daring him to land the lethal blows on him. "Why the cold shoulder, Illumi?" he said with venom equal to Illumi's repulsion for him, "I thought you were the one who didn't want to break up with me."
Illumi's lashed out, viciously knocking away Hisoka's arm. He strained his snarl into a vindictive smile. "Yeah, I was, but guess what! I don't need you anymore. I've got someone else now – so have a good day. See you then. Bye bye now."
That little bit of information shattered Hisoka's haughty confidence and his smirk dropped, revealing an angry, cold face. Illumi ignored Hisoka's increasing rage and pressed on his advantage, only too delighted that Hisoka was hurt by each word. Serves him bloody right Illumi thought in bitter triumph.
"I mean, she's cute, pretty, affectionate and considerate, devastatingly loyal and won't dump me to chase a boy at least fifteen years her junior! Gods – look at you! Only a desperate and tragic fool would think that he needed you. In retrospect, I'm thinking that I would have been better off buying a dog instead of wasting all those years with you. Go home Hisoka, and get a life – "
The magician grabbed him and kissed him passionately in public, on the streets. Illumi's eyes widened and he fought to pull away, cursing and berating himself ceaselessly in his mind for dropping his guard that gave Hisoka the opening.
And then he was saved. Someone dragged Hisoka away and after roughly wiping his mouth, Illumi fled the scene. He'd be damned if he would let Hisoka see the two large drops of hot tears that were ready to spill down his cheeks.
Hisoka furiously turned to confront the damned fool who had dared to interfere. But he was punished by a punch to his face which was capable of knocking him to the ground. He then felt rough hands grab the front of his shirt and lift him back onto his feet. Although the punch was strong, Hisoka was still able to get a good look at the man: fashionably cut blonde hair bordering on light brown, old scar running from right temple to the bottom of his left cheek and possibly hazel eyes behind a pair of yellow sports shades. Nen user, damn, Hisoka thought. He abandoned the Zoldick for the moment to deal with this man.
"We don't force women to do things that they don't want in this country. Learn to respect our laws and customs."
Hisoka pried away the fingers gripped onto his shirt and he gave the man a ridiculing smile. "Just get laid will ya? You're so sexually frustrated that you look constipated."
And Hisoka experienced something that hadn't happened to him for a long
time. He got the living daylights beaten out of him, and the man made it
look easy too. And no, the cheers that erupted as he lay broken and battered
on the ground were not for him.
* * * *
"He's dangerous." Killua repeated once again, trying to sound convincing but also disappointed by Hisoka's complete and utterly humiliating defeat. Kikyou regarded her younger son doubtfully, but decided against the killing for the moment even though the red-haired man in that injured and vulnerable state could make for an easy kill. He can thank his lucky stars that he's out in public with at least two hundred witnesses around.
Silva clapped a hand on his son's shoulder. "Killu, you know the reason why your brother is here?"
Killua nodded, and proceeded to tell his friends and family, as he knew it, what was required of Illumi and why he had to go about dressing up as a woman.