Disclaimers: If Hunter x Hunter had been mine, Illumi would have a wide collection of chains and silk, and Hisoka would have had Illumi on his bed even before Yorkshin Arc. Unless these actually prove true, I am not in any way connected to the production Hunter x Hunter. I'm just one of them pitiful fans. ;p

Author's Notes: Okay, I decided that bloodlust does not suit this fanfic. At all. Sucks royally, but meh. I'll just stick to Hisoka and his sexual harassments then. I also noticed that I suck in changing point of views. Probably got used to 1st POV. Meh again. Ehehe... but I'm trying my best here, okay? Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed! *bows deeply* This chapter is a tad shorter than the others, but I'm working on it ^^;

OF GAMES AND ASSASSINS
by: Cherrie ( tartarus000@yahoo.com )

Chapter 12 - Fixation

Gods... women and their issues.

Milluki scanned through the flashes emitted by the monitor as the computer continued to load the files from the fifth bank he'd hacked for the day. The small window at the bottom-right corner of the screen presented a beeping 89%, and the boy continued on his progress as thousands of names were listed on the screen, a hundred at a time, or so it looked like.

It also sucks that in every list, our names just have to be on the very bottom.

100%.

Reaching over for a handful of potato chips, Milluki stuffed them into his mouth and pulled his chair closer to the computer. Wiping dirty fingers on his pants, his skilled fingers then hovered over the keyboard and started typing at lightning speed. Computers were his specialty, after all.

Without encountering any problems, he was able to get inside the 'Zoldick' files in no time. He scanned through the names under the surname, and it wasn't long before he found the account he was looking for.

Illumi Zoldick. Account no. 226-70053187. Amount stored: 859,000,031.13

Milluki sighed and shook his head. Once again, he couldn't believe he was doing this. It was nothing short of cruel, he'd think to himself. Perhaps he wouldn't have minded it so much if this was another person, but this was his elder brother for cryin' out loud. The guy earned the sum - and a huge sum at that; he must admit that it surprised even him that his brother had reached the billion spot if he'd add up the amount of money he'd taken off from the other four bank accounts - and it just felt wrong to do what he was doing, even if it was from his mother's orders.

Aniki, I swear I'll double these numbers once this is over, he thought, cringing still as he pushed the single button that would terminate Illumi's account information. He watched helplessly as the long line of numbers all went down to a disturbing 0, ruining the near perfect account of his brother. For the meantime, I'll just be in hiding, just in case you do decide to come back even just for the sole purpose of ripping my head off.


"Okay, so this is Hisoka's offer."

A group of three preteen boys was huddled atop Killua's bed, giving the impression of having a serious meeting. Killua was in the middle, Gon on his right, Alluka on his left. A small, light blue cellphone was laid in the middle, facing Killua, the unanimous head of the said group.

"He said he might tell us where they are, under one condition," continued Killua, pressing a few buttons on the cellphone and retrieving the last message he had received. Upon opening the message, he presented it to the other two and read, "I want you boys to be good and won't tell any grown-up anything that I tell you."

"Well that sucks," said Alluka with a scowl. "What use do we have of that information if we can't even get the help of Otou-sama or someone else? We can't take him by ourselves, can we, Killua?"

"We have as much chances of it as an elephant does on going through a mouse hole," was Killua's sarcastic reply. "We can't do anything about it too, 'cause it also said in this message that if we even plan to tell even if we swore not to, he'll make sure that there'll be serious consequences." Killua sighed and gave Alluka a look. "Hisoka hacking through heads, dislocating joints and slicing out limbs for piranhas to eat is just playing around. A serious Hisoka is just too scary."

Alluka winced, thinking that with all of Killua and his lies, he was probably serious about that one. He briefly wondered, again, how in the world his brother would even want to be in the company of such a man. He never thought of Illumi as the aggressive killer, and outside work, he would only kill if he found it fit. This Hisoka guy was a crazy man as far as Alluka's assumptions were concerned.

"Not to worry though," Killua pressed a few more buttons again and presented a whole new message to the other boys. "See, here is an update of how they're doing. They have just recently boarded a plane. One clue Hisoka left to us is that they are in a different continent."

"Big help that gives us," it was Alluka's turn on sarcasm.

Gon blinked and stared at the message some more. "Has he said anything about Illumi-san?" he asked, a question to which Alluka took an immediate interest in.

"Uh, yes, a while back. It was his first message to me actually. Let's see," a few more buttons pressed, "Here we go: Hey Killua! Remember me? I hope Gon-chan's--blah blah blah blah..." Alluka caught the winces on the other boys' faces as Killua passed through those lines, "blah blah...okay, this part makes better sense. As you already know, I'm here with Illumi. I'm helping him, you see. Tell dear Hime-chan that no, she is not the victim here, and no, neither is Illumi because he's actually the one bossing me around (huhu...), plus no, she shouldn't worry her cute little pink pedicures over Illu-chan because he's in good hands. Pause for obligatory gag."

Gon obediently did so.

Killua nodded and continued. "You may call me in this number if you wish to know more. I don't have much time, Illumi's calling for me. He's sick by the way, although I think you already know that. Tell your brother that Illu's getting better so he need not worry, the kid might pee on his pants if he think about it too much. Ja, tell Gon that I-- okay, I don't need to share that one. But that's it as far as what Hisoka wrote is concerned." Killua closed his cellphone and looked at his companions.

On his side, Gon was busy hitting a fist to his chest to regain the ability to breathe. The dark-haired boy seemed to look a bit pale. "Promise me you'll never let me read that whole message ever," he said between sick wheezes as he rubbed goose bumps off his arms.

"Aa, gladly," said Killua, who then reopens his cellphone to erase that certain message.

Alluka, on the other, hand was seething in place. "That--that sick bastard, I'll kill him!!!" The boy then proceeded on clawing one of Killua's pillows and actually succeeded in pulling out a handful of feathers from it before the other pulled it away from him.

"Oi, pull his hair out for all I care, but leave my things alone!" he said, bopping Alluka's head once, but succeeded in doing nothing but spread a mist of feathers all around, creating an even bigger mess. Before he could react, Killua then found himself choking on feathers as Alluka jumped on top of him to shove any bunch of feathers within his reach.

"Oi Killua?" asked Gon, poking Killua on the cheek to switch his attention to him instead of spraying feathers and spit all around. When he got the other boy's attention, he raised a hand to ask, "Are Leorio and Kurapika adults yet?"

Killua blinked at that. "Oh yeah..."

"Leorio and Kurapika?" asked Alluka, looking from Killua to Gon.

"They're the two guys we met with at the mall," explained Killua. "You weren't able to officially meet yet, I think. Gawd, Hisoka and his timing. I'll introduce you to them next time we meet them, although I'm not entirely sure if they're considered as the 'adults' Hisoka was talking about, Gon," he said, saying this to his dark-haired friend.

"Can you ask Hisoka if we can tell them, then?"

"Now wait a second here!" Alluka waved his hands around and gave Gon The Look. "You mean you're actually going to just agree with that Hisoka guy!?"

All Gon gave was an innocent blink. "Do we have a choice?"

"I don't know--"

"Come on, Allu, it's Hisoka we're talking about here. You should've been there with me during the exams--"

"I was out studying, Killua, unlike someone I know..."

"Hisoka is the devil reincarnate, and no, Alluka, I have no idea what you're talking about," Killua pauses to stick a tongue out at his brother. "Still, I'm going to try to negotiate."

"Of course, you have to know if such a word actually exists in Hisoka vocabulary," added Gon.

"Yes, that too, but it'll be easy if I use Kurapika against him," Killua then gave Gon a considerable look. "And probably your name too if I'm desperate. You kind of have that effect on Hisoka."

Gon and Alluka promptly turned green.


The insistent ringing of a familiar song on high-pitched cellular phone tones rang through Illumi's ear like a death call. With a groan that clearly spelled out his annoyance, he pushed himself up from the comforts of his pillow to glare at the accursed thing that woke him up.

And the damned thing actually had the nerve to still go on ringing.

Hissing out a curse that would've had Hisoka pouting on his heels (an image that did not appeal to him whatsoever), Illumi stared down at the lump beside him and started tugging at the covers. It's been a while since he started sleeping with Hisoka beside him that he somehow got used to finding the magician whenever he would do as much as move his hand an inch to the one side. It didn't bother him anymore, so long as Hisoka would keep his hands to himself. The magician was usually a quiet sleeper, but there were moments when he would intrude on Illumi's space, albeit accidentally. Still, that didn't change the fact that the assassin was territorial. Plus the fact that Hisoka can be a bit... intimidating when it comes to his expertise in making someone uncomfortable. Illumi had decided long before that Hisoka was doing it on purpose, and that he would not give the guy the satisfaction of thinking about those things for longer than a few minutes.

"Oi," he mumbled out when the big lump for a body refused to wake up. "Answer your damn phone before I throw it out the window."

A faint grumbling was heard before Hisoka's hand finally shot up to retrieve the phone from the night table. Illumi peevishly watched Hisoka pulling in his cellphone with him beneath the covers.

"Hello?" Hisoka could feel Illumi sliding back beneath the covers, his grumpiness evident even in his silence. Had Hisoka been any more awake than he was, he would've given a smug smirk at that. But he wasn't, and really, it was 4:00 in the morning. "What in the devil's name do you think you're doing calling me up this early in the morning, you sick fuck?" There was supposed to be more threat in that, but he was probably just too sleepy.

"Oh please, don't degrade me as much as to put me on the same level with you, Hisoka," said the voice from the other line. "And besides, the last time I checked, I had no idea where you are, much less the timeline your ass is sitting in."

Aah, of course. Killua. Only one person in the entire world would talk to him like that and actually live to tell about it. Damn that brat.

"And what, pray tell, do I owe the honor of hearing your voice at this ungodly hour?" he asked with as much fervor as the boy he was speaking to.

"For your information, it's still 8:30 in the evening here."

"Whatever kid, what do you want?" Hisoka was in the midst of falling asleep again. He couldn't help but yawn, not even trying to stifle it at all.

"I am very flattered by your obvious enthusiasm, Hisoka," drawled Killua.

"If I were you, I'd speak before this phone call is cut short."

"Bah. I just called to ask about that thing you said last time. We're just wondering if we could include Leorio and Kurapika in this?"

Hisoka snorted. If he remembered it right, Leorio was the more mature-looking one in their group, the one aspiring to be a doctor if his mind was serving him well. He really wouldn't care if he was dead for all he cared, but it'll be a cold day in Hell before he would allow that Kurapika to ever step near him again. It was very seldom for someone to actually use him for their own selfish whims and step out of it unscathed. Or alive, even. And they called Hisoka himself manipulative.

"What was the condition, brat?" he asked irritably, annoyed at the prolonged conversation and the memory of that humiliating moment outside Yorkshin.

"Do you really expect us to blindly follow you around with only us three kids involved? Come on, we're not that stupid."

"Oh? For a moment there I almost doubted that." A snort was immediately heard from the other line. "No. The Kuruta kid still pisses me off. Isn't he busy wrecking havoc on some other bad guy's life?"

"You are such a child, Hisoka."

Hisoka scowled, and was just about to give another retort for that when the man beside him stirred. Illumi's head poked out from the covers, hair slightly disheveled from the unceremonious pulling down of the blanket. Completely forgetting about Killua, Hisoka suddenly had the urge pull the assassin in and kiss him. For the nth time. Although one had to give him credit even for just the fact that his urges had weakened down from pushing Illumi up a wall and doing him until they're both sore to just simple, unadulterated kisses.

But like all the other urges, the threat of being castrated for something so simple still remained.

"Who are you talking to?" asked Illumi, a frown on his face.

Illumi still didn't know about what Hisoka was doing. He clearly didn't seem to be interested in eavesdropping on phone calls either. It looked as if it's because he didn't really care, but Hisoka still wished to believe that Illumi's just too preoccupied. Or something. With what he hoped to be an innocent grin, Hisoka spoke. "Nobody important, love, go back to sleep."

The assassin, not at all oblivious to the endearment (although it would be kind of hard to be given that Hisoka seemed to use it every time he would get the chance to do so), gave the other a hard, long stare before rolling his eyes and diving back beneath the covers. "You are so sick, Hisoka," he said for his final words before burying himself back to bed.

Hisoka sighed, noting still the dismissive tone in Illumi's voice. Of course it was just a joke to probably piss Illumi off, but the other didn't have to be that harsh about it. Okay, so maybe that's not really out of the ordinary for the assassin to be all cold and cruel at times, but still. Somehow you'd think, with all his obvious stunts to show interest, the other would've had a faint idea on what he's on about. But trust Illumi to have saltwater slapped on his face and still doubt that he's still on a boat.

Well, there went his last hopes of getting enough gusto on staying awake. Back to Killua. "Oi," he said, a little more tired this time. "Unless a 'no' would be an acceptable answer for you, I'd just call you back, probably when it's at least past sunrise."

He could hear Killua snickering somewhere on the other line. "Ooh, you're keeping secrets from Aniki! You know, he'll eventually find out and you are so dea--"

The line was cut short even before the boy could finish what he was saying. Really, Hisoka knew what he was going to say anyway, and he couldn't really say that he minded. After all, one would almost think that he's only trying to test Illumi's patience because that's the only way he could get the other to respond.

End of Chapter 12