Cherrie's Universal Rule When Reading Her Yaoi Pieces applies here. Read chapter 2 for the whole statement.

Disclaimers: Hunter X Hunter © Yoshihiro Togashi, Shounen Jump Weekly, Shueisha and Nippon Animation. This fanfic is written for entertainment purposes only.

Author's Notes: Damn it, I can't finish Luminescence!!! To the HxH_Fics ml, remember that time I told you that the farthest I've gone on that chapter was the part where Illumi gave Hisoka a robe? I'm still stuck in that scene! *throws a mad fit* Grrrr...rrr..!!! *bites Hisoka-plushy's head off* Anyway, I apologize for the delay for this chapter. I'm not sure if I'll be keeping up the same pace as I've had during vacation. I'm currently being bothered by college application forms and for some strange reason, I feel so nervous that the only thing that comforts me now is studying o.O How can that be!? I'm a lazy bum, why am I studying so hard all of a sudden!?!? 0

OF GAMES AND ASSASSINS
by: Cherrie ( kurapikasama@yahoo.com )

Chapter 5 - Getting the Message

Alluka was near hysteria. He fidgeted in place, looking around helplessly, all the while taking brief glances of his two older brothers lying around in the same room he was walking around in. For the past twenty minutes, that was all the child did while the two rested in their own little territories.

"Are you two quite done yet?" he asked, so frustrated that he stamped his foot on the carpeted floor.

Nobody answered him. If there was a response, it was a crisp snort from Milluki who had sprawled himself on the bed on the right side of the room. "I want to go home!" whined the huge boy, his whole body filling up all the space on the small bed. "Why can't we just go and have me marry the Schwarz girl?"

Alluka rolled his eyes. "Oh please, Millu, Hime-neesan doesn't even know you exist," he mocked.

Killua rolled over, not knowing whether to sigh in relief because Alluka stopped fidgeting and yakking about Illumi or sigh in exasperation because it seemed as though there'll be another round of his two brothers' arguing. His limbs were dead tired. They've been walking, running, splitting up and even climbing up tall buildings the whole day looking for Illumi and - Killua shuddered at the thought - Hisoka because apparently, his story did not in the least bit comfort Alluka. If possible it only made his condition worse and his suspicion towards Hisoka rocketed sky high. He was convinced that Hisoka brainwashed Illumi, which Killua found ironic because Illumi was the expert when it came to that field.

Back in the restaurant, the waitress refused to reveal anything, but with a bit of discreet questions, Killua was able to extract a few things from her. One was that, yes, the person he saw with Illumi really was Hisoka. Also, it sounded as if the magician was quite known in the place, being that the girl just referred to him as "Hisoka-san". But by mentioning that they were Illumi's brothers, the waitress started moving around uneasily and quickly excused herself to go get their orders.

Killua wondered what it could be that Hisoka made the girl hide. And how was it that it looked as though the girl looked afraid, as if he was actually planning to pounce on her? The only information he found delicate was whether or not she knew where Hisoka and Illumi stayed, and when he did ask, she honestly looked like she didn't know. So what else was there to hide?

"Killua, let's go look for Oniisan again!" cried Alluka, who was by then pulling at Killua's long sleeves.

Killua grumbled, tempted to mess his hair around in frustration. "Naw, Allu, it's 8:30 in the evening! We'll order dinner downstairs, go to sleep, then look for Aniki again tomorrow," he said, keeping his head under the pillow he used to level down his brothers' arguments. His ears were also hidden by the soft white pillow, but Alluka's groan was undeniably loud.

"We're never going to find him!" he cried as he sat down on the chair in front of the mirror, his young face in a pout as he visibly sulked over his two brothers' lack of dedication. Killua didn't really call it 'lack'. He and Milluki were doing their jobs just fine. Alluka's just too dedicated.

While Killua stayed still in his own position, Milluki sat up and sought the two's attention. "Come on and let's eat!" he ordered, clapping his hands to call his two brothers with a newly found enthusiasm that he seemed to have lost a few moments back. It only made Alluka seethe even more

"Sure, I made you move to find Oniisan and you say you're too tired but when it's food again--"

"Allu, I would really appreciate it if you'd pipe down about my eating habits," said Milluki, who was now standing straight up with both hands on his bulging waist. "Trying to find Illumi is different from regaining strength through the art of eating." Not that you make the activity look like an art, snorted Killua in his mind while Milluki continued. "It's not that I don't care about him, but really, you've got to admit that the latter is a much more inviting task," he said.

Having no other choice, Alluka allowed himself to be dragged by Killua out the door. As usual, Milluki led the way towards the hotel restaurant and also took charge of their orders. Killua just sat quietly beside his younger brother while the raven-haired boy continued his sulking spree, ignoring their older brother even when he asked him what he wanted. Truth to be told, Alluka didn't care because, in Milluki's own words, he's in his silent tantrums again and didn't have much appetite.

And so, while Milluki and Killua tallied down the possible hotels, apartments and boarding houses that could be found around the city, Alluka kept his eyes past the clear glass window overlooking the main road. And that was when he caught a glimpse of two figures standing across the road, two pairs of eyes looking at, and past, him. Despite the flashing lights made by the passing cars that would've been enough to blind the rest of the hotel from seeing the shadows across the street, Alluka could make out the figures of his older brother and the man he saw earlier that day.

It was out of instinct that he didn't take his eyes from the two - from what happened earlier, if he looked away, they might disappear again. With only his arm moving, he grasped the front of Killua's shirt and pulled him violently enough to have him shoved on the edge of the table.

"Ouch! Hey, watch it!" cried the white-haired Zoldick, but his younger brother's insistent pulling made him look up to see what Alluka was pointing at. And just like what happened earlier, the boy was once again pointing at the ghostly figures they saw back in the restaurant. Killua gasped and leant over a bit closer on the window. "Milluki, look!" he said, waving his hand back at the direction from which he remembered Milluki to be sitting at.

From across the road, Killua could've sworn that he saw Illumi smirk. The assassin was leaning against the brick wall of a coffee shop with Hisoka by his side. Most of the magician's body was hidden by the shadows of the alley, but it didn't have to take half the light of a lamp post to tell Killua that Hisoka was being far too close to his brother for comfort. He all but gaped when Hisoka looked away from him to whisper something to Illumi, all the while slithering a hand behind the assassin's back. He guided Illumi to move away from the wall he was leaning on and pulled them both deeper into the alley. The last things Killua saw were his brother's eyes still staring at him until he completely disappeared.

Again, it was Alluka who saw them first and it was Alluka again who woke up from his daze. "That man just touched Oniisan again!!!" he bellowed, poking a frantic finger on the glass. Killua thought he heard something crack and quickly pulled Alluka away lest he displays the strength their family was known for.

"Oh shit, the brat's right, Killua," mumbled Milluki, whose inner half was still drowning in a glazed stare at the darkness of the alley.

"No, Oniisan!!!" With a violent push, Alluka escaped from Killua's hold and managed to shove past him. The young boy wasted no time and jumped into a fast sprint towards the main door of the hotel, and before Killua could call out his brother's name, all that was left for him to see was Alluka's figure zooming past the busy road. Various cars honked their horn, but Alluka paid them no heed and headed straight for the alley Illumi and Hisoka disappeared to.

"Oh damn," cursed Killua, and without a second to spare, he bolted right after his younger brother while ignoring Milluki's indignant cries for them to come back.

With both his brothers gone, Milluki silently fumed in his seat while weighing whether or not he'll go after the two. He looked around him and saw that everyone in the place was staring at their table, at him particularly. Letting out a frustrated roar, the pale boy didn't have any other choice and angrily went out to follow the others.

* * * * *

"We've been following them the whole day and they didn't even notice," said Illumi as he ran and jumped past alleys and buildings, with Hisoka a few steps behind him. "They're too busy looking for us to notice the things behind them," he added, and though it had to take a keen sense of hearing to catch it, the assassin's angry puffs of breath contributed to his obvious frustration.

Hisoka let out an amused grin as he listened to his friend continue on complaining about his siblings and their discipline. He never really knew those people back there; all he recognized was Killua. But he bet that the boy didn't see this coming. Sure, the boy knew that his older brother's been hanging around him during the duration of the Hunter Exam, but perhaps he didn't expect it to be something more than a brief alliance. Hell, even he didn't expect Illumi to keep coming back to him and vice versa. Things just went on on their own, he supposed.

"I bet Alluka doesn't even know how far our distance is. Those kids are neglecting their training, I just know it."

Illumi seemed to be oblivious as to whether or not he was listening. Hisoka shook his head. He just realized that whenever Illumi was angry or annoyed with something, he tended to let them out verbally. It almost came out as a surprise because he really thought that the other was a bit on the quiet side. Sure he had his own share of playfulness every once in a while and he knew how to ride along whenever Hisoka cracks something up, but he's not the type who'd steal the limelight from him. He'll usually stay still and just listen. But then again, Hisoka decided that Illumi had to relieve stress one way or another.

The Illumi who ran to him a few days ago continued to open up little by little. The assassin didn't seem to see it, but Hisoka's starting to get a glimpse of him with every word he utters. And the magician liked things that way. The more he knew about the young man he was with, the more he felt attracted to him. It also didn't help that he's got gorgeous hair. How many times had he mentioned Illumi's hair anyway? He was starting to get obsessed with it. Being so close to him while they slept was a complete torture, but he only went as far as staring. He had to congratulate himself for such an enormous feat on self-control, but he couldn't help but wonder just how he managed to last every single night like that. Usually he ended up tiring himself to sleep just when the sun was about to rise, too busy trying to not jump Illumi on the hours of the night.

Hisoka shook his head. Bad thoughts - his mind was starting up again. If he went on at this pace, he'll be jumping Illumi for no particular reason and the other would surely throw him on some bottomless pit with a wild animal on his tail. He had to do something to at least level things down. "Where will we go now anyway?" he asked, just so Illumi won't get suspicious of his silence. But oh, what he wouldn't give just to get a chance on the other again. His mind started to tick as it would usually do, trying to search for yet another safe opening.

Illumi didn't seem to notice his lack of attention. In fact, he didn't even look like he would care whether Hisoka heard half of what he said or not. "I don't know," was his answer, keeping the same pace even when they realized that they were heading to no particular direction.

"We can't go back to the hotel if they're chasing after us," pointed the magician. Seeing that the other still tried to think of a place to run to, Hisoka found it in himself to take control again. Of course, he was waiting for this, and what he's about to give was obviously one of his initially planned ideas to keep things entertaining, but he found no need to mention that to the other. He kept his smile to himself. "There's a park off to the east. Would you like to try that?"

The two turned a corner, and this Illumi used to look back to check where Alluka was. From afar, he also sensed Killua and Milluki, and they were gaining on the young boy. After spending a few seconds thinking of their growing distance, Illumi turned his attention back to his companion and thought back on his last words. "A park?" he asked, mildly bemused. "Why? Don't those places close at this time of the night?"

"Nope," answered Hisoka, a wide grin on his face as he kept up at Illumi's pace. "The back part of the park that overlooks the sea remains open even at this hour. It's actually meant for lovers just in case they feel like going for walks and all that sappy stuff," he explained, making sure that Illumi caught part of what he was trying to let on.

And he did. The assassin cast the other a suspicious glance. "Just what are you thinking, Hisoka?" he asked., narrowing his dark eyes.

Hisoka didn't even miss a beat, and his grin only went wider. "Well, since they're on our tails now, I figured that we could give them a less than subtle hint on what we're trying to act up on. After all, the sooner they find out, the sooner your girlfriend would know, right?"

Illumi frowned, and something in him knocked him on the head so badly that he even ignored the 'girlfriend' comment from Hisoka. He didn't know why agreeing with the magician seemed so hard now, but he felt a completely disturbing omen just by looking at the man's confident grin. It gave him the chills, and he knew he had to decline. But what was he say?

"Come on, we can't let them chase us forever or they'll lose us again. Where else do you think we'd go to anyway?" insisted Hisoka. He cast a brief movement towards the direction of the ones chasing after them.

Illumi set his lips on a firm line. Hisoka was up to something - worse than usual. "What exactly are you thinking of anyway?" he asked, wishing that the other would answer him properly. But knowing Hisoka...

"Oh, just this and that," came the cheerful answer. "I'll just make sure they know what you got into. You promised me that I can do things my way, didn't you?" he asked, reminding the other just how their agreement went like. Yes, Hisoka certainly had been thinking about a lot of things during his spare time. He gave Illumi an innocent grin, expectant and void of any look of mischief. The assassin still felt uneasy, but Hisoka went on. "So what do you say?"

A pause.

"But--"

"Yes?"

Another pause. "Well I--" Illumi frowned, not exactly having anything to say.

"It's set, we're going!" declared the magician, and without even a second's glance towards the other and even before Illumi could protest, he headed off by himself, leaving the assassin no other choice but to follow. With an uncomfortable sigh, Illumi resigned himself to his fate and went on after the other.

* * * * *

"They're going towards that park!" A pale finger promptly pointed at the black gate held by the brick walls.

Milluki and Killua stopped to stand beside the small figure of Alluka, both pairs of eyes following the progress of the two figures that have indeed entered the park. Killua frowned. "Just where are they going anyway?" he asked out loud, even if he knew that the other two knew nothing more than he did.

"Ugh, let's just follow them and get this over with. I'm still hungry," said Milluki, who's been complaining ever since they started the chase. He ignored Killua and Alluka's annoyed glances and just frowned at the sight of the brick wall of the park. "Damn...of all places to hide they just had to go for those sappy themes," he added. "Oh well, at least I might get to see some people bringing it on, heh!"

"Eew," grumbled Alluka as they started out on following their brother again.

* * * * *

Illumi felt his eye twitch in irritation as Hisoka continued to mindlessly stroll along the empty paths of the park. The magician had a silly grin on his face - at least he had one when he faced Illumi a few seconds ago before he started his Little Red Riding Hood walk - and was humming like a fool in love as far as Illumi was concerned. The young man shuddered at the thought and decided that he should put a stop to the madness.

"Just what the hell are you doing, Hisoka?" he hissed, casting a brief glance behind them to see if his brothers were still following them. He caught a glimpse of Killua's white hair behind some trees before it disappeared in a split second.

* * * * *

"What are you doing!? They're going to see you!" hissed Milluki after he pulled Killua in after the child just poked his head out the tree they were hiding in.

"But why are we hiding anyway? Aren't we supposed to get Aniki?" asked Alluka in a whisper as well, mimicking Milluki just in case there was a completely reasonable reason for their hiding.

The bigger boy placed a finger on his lips as a sign of silence. "Ssh. I have a bad feeling about this, so I think we should just watch them for a while," he said. He placed both hands on Alluka's shoulder just when the pale boy looked like he was about to protest before turning to Killua. "Didn't it seem to you as if they were actually letting us chase after them?"

Killua frowned. "I haven't thought of it much. I was just running after Alluka," he said, indifferently shrugging his shoulders.

Milluki rolled his eyes and just grabbed the two young boys on their shoulder to keep them hidden behind the huge tree trunk. "We'll wait a bit," he decided, covering Alluka's mouth before the child says anything else. Risking a small peek for the three of them, he continued to watch as the stranger and their older brother went on walking down the cemented path. His trained ears picked up a quietly hummed tune, which he suspected belonged to the stranger with the red hair.

The young boy frowned. He thought back on Killua's story about the Hunter Exam and how, now that he looked back on the horrible Gitarakuru who was Illumi in disguise, it could've been that those two seem to go along so well. Of them all, it was Illumi who was most strict about associates. Milluki couldn't help but wonder how a strange man could earn his brother's trust, or at least, for this man to be the one his brother would run to.

Just who was this Hisoka anyway?

* * * * *

"Are they still watching us?" Hisoka stopped his humming for a while to ask, glancing back to discreetly look past Illumi's shoulder before setting his eyes on the assassin's face. The other really was pale, and the white light of the moon only enhanced the younger man's pale complexion that it was almost as if he was glowing.

Hisoka wouldn't hide it. In many ways, he found Illumi feminine, and perhaps that was the reason why he found himself latched onto him the first time they met. For a while, he wondered if the attraction was only because he found Illumi beautiful, that even if he knew the other's gender, there was still a part of him that liked the assassin because he saw him as a woman. Illumi would kill him if he found out about those thoughts, but Hisoka couldn't help it.

That was why, during that time that he had to accompany Illumi to buy a few items of clothes, he would make sure that everything that the other picked was masculine. Sure, with his perverted ways his first priority was to make Illumi even more sexy than he already was with his own pick of clothes - though sometimes he regretted doing that because more than half the time he really wanted to jump the other without any other sort of pretense - but everything that he bought the other was, in more ways than one, male.

But though Illumi was now wearing a loose, white long-sleeved sweater and black pants, and even with his long hair tied in a loose ponytail behind his back, Hisoka still found him as attractive as always. He supposed that he really did have a weakness for beauty no matter who held it. The world's coldest and most dangerous Zoldick child was no exception. In fact, Hisoka would categorize Illumi on the top of his "special" list of people to seduce. The danger must've played a part of the appeal. His mind just worked that way, after all.

"Yes, and they don't seem to be planning to leave," said Illumi, in response to Hisoka earlier question. He sighed, his breath forming a heavenly mist due to the growing chill of the weather, but he didn't pay the coldness any heed as he continued to eye the other impatiently. "Why are we here, Hisoka?" he asked again. Until now the magician refused to answer him and just gave him a wry smile every time he would ask.

And that wry smile was exactly what Hisoka gave him again, but this time, the magician turned around to face him, a light sparkle in his eyes. "Are you tired?" he asked, an innocent question that only made the other frown.

"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Illumi, whose suspicion continued to grow more and more each time the other man would show his eccentricities to him.

"I think I want to go back to the hotel. Since it looks as if they still have not caught on the message, I'm going to give it to them now," he said, his grin widening. It only took him three strides to reach Illumi, a split second to grab him and push him to the right and two more steps to fully have him between himself and a tree. Suddenly crushed under the magician's weight, Illumi couldn't help but let out a small groan, but before he could reprimand the other about his actions, his lips were silenced by Hisoka grabbing him in for a kiss.

Least to say, a few meters away from the two, three pairs of eyes gawked at the scene. Killua felt his heartbeat clog his ears, and only at the corner of his mind did he hear the undeniable sound of Alluka's body stiffly falling on the ground.

End of Chapter 5

A/N: *tearful eyes* I don't know if this is a good chapter, but please review! Maybe if I get the usual feedbacks, I'd be encouraged enough to continue faster. I really feel uneasy - probably because of the stress and lack of computer time - these past few days and I really need a bit of comforting. *hint*hint* Leave me even a small consolation, ne? ^^;