Christmas: a time of giving

By Yomi

Author's Notes: Oh woe is me. Only a mere 24 hours after writing that one-shot, I'm going to extend and elaborate on it and possibly make this the prologue to the sequel of Untitled. So for readers who are unfamiliar with Untitled, I suggest you read that first to not only understand the setting but to also erase any questions you might have on OOCness. After 27 Chapters plus an Epilogue, I'll be damned if Illumi and Hisoka do not develop and change and remain as they were.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Hunter characters.

Early Christmas fanfic - yes, it's early, but the candy canes are selling in supermarkets already, so why not? >D


"Illu, I'm home!" Hisoka banged the front door open, almost ripping it off its hinges. The living room which greeted him was an utter mess of scraps of brightly coloured cloths, thread ends and puffs of cotton stuffing. Even the television had been temporarily transformed into a part of the wall, its monitor bursting an array of yellow post-it notes of reminders and customers phone numbers. In the background, the frantic whirr of a sewing machine and the stamping of the needle could be heard over music blasting from the stereos.

Hisoka clamped his hands around his sensitive ears and let his previously cheerful expression twist into a scowl. This was not the welcoming that he had expected.

"Illu, I said I was home!" he shouted, wading through the treacherous canyon between mountains of designs and other paper work. The festive season bought out the worst consumerism in all people and although it meant good business for his Illumi (not that his business was never good), but it also meant that Illumi had to spend more time working than relaxing during the holidays.

He veered off into the kitchen lest a stack of boxes topple and bury him beneath. His scowl darkened at the sight of unwashed plates lying to waste in the basin and the tap not properly turned off. He had only been away for two months this time and now the house was in ruins. Rolling up his sleeves, he stalked towards the offending sight and began to load up the washing machine with dirty cutlery. He had to scrap away the mould off the last plates at the very bottom (which looked like they'd been laying there for an entire week) and he opened up all the windows to let the stench out.

Something brown darted across the edge of his vision and was instantly pinned to the ground by one of his play cards.

A rat? We have a rat infestation?! The magician incredulously observed, picking up the dead carcass of the animal by the tail and flung it out the window into the neighbour's backyard.

What better method to frighten all the animals away than by showing them that a dangerous predator had settled into the territory? Hisoka grinned and released his ren, projecting it into all the nooks and crannies of the house, communicating his murderous malice and an insatiable appetite for blood and death.

The music immediately stopped and an unnatural silence settled around the house. The soft pitter-patter of Illumi's footsteps became louder and the assassin ducked his head around the wall and found Hisoka flinging the corpses of a family of rats into their neighbour's backyard.

"No need to stir a scene when you come home," he quietly muttered, returning to his room and work.

Quickly finishing off with the last rat and scrubbing his hands fiercely under the water and plenty of soap, Hisoka dashed off after Illumi. He couldn't believe the lack of affection the assassin had for him. He did call to say that he was coming home right? He rang him two nights ago, so where was the splendid welcome that Illumi always arranged for him? The condition of the house was a disgrace and he suspected that the fridge would be empty since the bins were overflowing with micro-wave dinner boxes.

"Illu? Where's my welcome home party?"

"Not now Hisoka," Illumi sighed with a touch of exasperation, "Can't you see I have plenty of work to do?"

"Where are my hugs and kisses?"

Illumi slammed the pen in his hand down onto the table and got up over to Hisoka. He pressed his cold thin lips onto Hisoka's then returned to his seat. The magician whined and began pestering him for a more passionate welcome.

"Urgh! Hisoka! I just have to get this dress done for Madame Deville's daughter in time for her Christmas party. I don't have time to fool around."

Hisoka abruptly let go and whatever smile and pleasantries he had for Illumi dispersed in an instant.

"If I'm a waste of your time, fine, I'm leaving. If you need to find me, I'll be in a hotel room screwing a stranger."

Hisoka turned around and left but worriedly hung around the front door, wondering why Illumi hadn't given chase to stop him. He slowly counted to ten, straining his ears in the oppressive silence that revealed nothing. Sighing, he opened the door and stepped back out onto the cold cobbled streets.



~*~*~*~*~





Hisoka hated Florence with a passion. Everything offended his eye today – the grey skies, the chilly winds cutting into his face, the slippery road, the old buildings more drab and dull than Illumi's grandmother and the disapproving looks he received from the wealthy residents as he passed by, his trench coat a blemish in the fashion of the week. Even the empty can on the street pricked him like a thorn in the side. He negligently kicked it and the aluminium can bounced twice and rolled until it rested at the feet of a dirty beggar.

"Hey Mister, can you spare a quid or two for the festive season?"

Hisoka rolled his eyes and ignored him, continue to trample up the road wondering how he could release his pent-up anger and frustrations. No scrumptious dinner, no spa prepared, no naked Illumi lying in bed under warm sheets waiting for him.

"Hey mister, you new to town? For a quid or two, I can take you to all the tourist attractions around here and recommend a good hotel to stay at."

He stopped and pinned the man a flat look. "I happen live here."

"Never seen your face before buddy. Come on, just two quid, and I take you to all the landmarks and tell ya a good place to eat that's nice and cheap."

Hisoka shrugged off the man's hand whose fingernails were lined with dirt. "My partner and I live here. He owns the doll store just two streets away."

"Ah…that young man with the black hair. Yes, I see him walk by everyday – by himself. It aint look like he's hooked. Look, we can start off at Garibaldi's Bay…""

"Take the money and stop pestering me." Hisoka dug into his pocket and threw some bills in the man's face, taking his chance to leave whilst the beggar hurriedly picked up the notes off the ground.

The sky rumbled and a soft drizzle began to hit Hisoka's face.

Stupid Florence and its stupid lousy weather.

He made for shelter in Illumi's store. A happy customer had just walked out and Hisoka stepped in before the doors closed. One of the shop girls – Mindy – mistook him for a customer at first and was halfway into her customary bow before she recognized his gaunt face and striking red hair. She automatically dropped the act and greeted Hisoka with an ugly face, wrinkling her nose as if she had just caught a whiff of raw sewage.

"Look who's finally decided to drop by," she drawled, venomously to her sister who was in the process of retrieving her sword.

"It's so nice of you to come Master Hisoka." Linda flashed him a smile tainted by a sickly sugar sweetness. "I'm afraid you've arrived at a time where you can be of no use to anyone as all the work has already been done and we're about to pack up for the evening and go off holidaying for two weeks in the hot and warm Mediterranean."

"You girls are taking a break?"

Mindy rolled her eyes and turned her back to him, heading towards the counter to help her sister pack up and count the money. "He doesn't even know," she muttered, wrinkling her nose in disdain again.

"You girls are leaving Illumi to run the store all by himself for the next fortnight!?"

Linda looked him straight in the eye, her lips pressured into a flat line and her voice tight and restrained, "Master Hisoka, this store is closing down for two weeks and we would never leave Master Illumi to take care of this place after his most terrible illness last month."

"Illumi was sick?"

She fluttered her eyes innocently at him. "Why, not long after you selfishly left once again to pursue your own meaningless endeavours, Master Illumi caught a dreadful flu and had no one to look after him for an entire week. I'll bet he was in bed suffering from a high fever with no one to wipe his back or place a cold compress on his forehead. The poor dear."

The magician was gone before Mindy could throw one more insult at the man.


~*~*~*~*~





Hisoka stormed back down the street, ignoring the beggar who raised his hat in thanks. Damn women and their natural knack for guilt trips he fumed, shouldering people who were too slow to get out of his way aside.

He fitted the key into the front lock and gave it an angry sharp twist almost snapping the metal in the keyhole.

Illumi was in the living room packing the last of the boxes with old proofs and designs to be stored in the basement.

"Why didn't you call me when you were sick!" he demanded, kicking empty cartons out of the way to be nose-to-nose with Illumi.

The assassin didn't even raise an eyebrow and resumed his packing.

"Hey, don't ignore me! I'm talking to you!"

Illumi sighed and stood straight again, expelling a weary breath. "I heard you the first time and if you must have an answer, I didn't call because I thought you'd continue to pursue your prey anyway."

"That's not true!" Hisoka immediately protested without realizing how much of an impertinent but remorseful child he sounded like right now. "I would have come straight back to look after you. Your two twins down at the store think I'm the most irresponsible and useless partner in the world! And that stupid little beggar just up the street says he's never seen me in Florence before! Ha! That's because he's drunk half the time and – "

Hisoka broke off the diatribe on seeing that Illumi wasn't listening and had gone back to dumping bundle after bundle of paper into the cardboard boxes.

"Illu – " he whined, bending down to help, passing him the folders which he refused to accept, vengefully swatting his help aside. Hisoka made a small noise of hurt and pity and retrieved the files, pushing them into Illumi's hands again.

"I care Illu, I do, I swear."

And still he said nothing.


After the last of the boxes were locked down in the basement and the vacuum cleaner thereafter cleared most of the house of fabric scraps and thread ends, the living room was liveable once more.

Hisoka propped up a cushion for Illumi and the latter slumped onto it and placed his feet on the footstool. The magician then took the kettle off the stove and had two steaming cups of hot chocolate made. Illumi took his share without a word of thanks but Hisoka didn't mind – at least his efforts weren't rebuked this time.

"Want a massage?"

"No thanks."

He gave him one anyway and was pleased by the fact that Illumi was starting to loosen up under his touch. He knew that Illumi couldn't stay at him angry for long because only five minutes later, the assassin was in his arms responding to his kiss, however reluctantly he tried to make it out to be.

"I got you a gift Illu," he announced and went to the kitchen bench where he had left his bag. Although tired, Illumi made an effort to sit up and almost snatched the bag away from him, dubiously rummaging inside.

"You…got me a pair of socks."

It was more of a statement than a question. It left unsaid 'I am very unhappy about this and I can be very creative about my unhappiness' whilst a general flat look of disappointment bored holes into the skull of a red haired magician.

Hisoka feigned a hurt expression and sidled up to Illumi along the couch and took the offending article of clothing from him to hold up.

"I think these are great. They're a practical and useful gift."

"It's got a hole big enough for my big toe to peek through!"

"Now now my dear Illumi, drawing out your pins won't magically change them into the six carat diamond ring that you were drooling over in that catalogue."

Illumi felt compelled to call Hisoka a number of names – all of which would in turn make him look childish and immature and the red stain on his cheeks after his tirade would mar his pale features. He swallowed his anger and breathed in deeply, heading straight towards his bedroom.

"Where are you going Illumi?"

He turned around, gave a humourless smile indicated to the room where Hisoka's present was kept. "I'm going to start a big bonfire outside and burn what I had originally planned on giving you."

The magician was instantly by his side, frantically jamming the door shut with a loud slam and even went so far as to press his back against it.

Illumi raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

"You're not going anywhere Illu to start any fires. Remember the promise? I would come home for Christmas this year and we would exchange gifts. You haven't given me mine yet."

"Ah but my dear cheap man, you knew I wanted that six carat pink diamond Cartier ring and I all I see are a pair of socks that don't even have an elastic in them to hold them up."

"We never stipulated what presents we were going to give each other," Hisoka countered stubbornly and crossed his arms.

The staring contest lasted well into its fifteenth minute before Illumi sighed and turned away.

"I am tired Hisoka and I want to get an early rest. Get out of my way."

"We also promised to enjoy the Christmas holidays together, if you've forgotten as well."

The assassin frowned and he felt a snarl oncoming. "Not with a pair of socks that have been a rotweiller's plaything for the past two years we're not!"

"You wound me so Illu!" Hisoka self-piteously buried his face into his hands, muffling his next words. "How can you abuse the work of art I made for you like that?"

Illumi's eyes widened and the malevolence around him immediately dissipated. "You made?"

The raven haired assassin was led back to the couch again and urged to sit whilst Hisoka retrieved the discarded socks on the carpeted floor and returned them into Illumi's hands again.

"I knitted them myself!" he declared proudly, following up with his inane and idiotic smile which would either make Illumi laugh or stick pins into his head to wipe it off.

"You mean you didn't pick this up in some second-hand store last night?"

"Nope. I've got my knitting needles and some bits of wool left in my bag if you want to check."

Illumi studied the uneven stitching and although one sock was bigger than the other and neither was the same colour as the other, something warm stirred inside his chest, sweetening his voice and tickled his lips into a small smile.

"You're not lying right?" he tried to sound at least mildly annoyed, but it came out more like an acceptance of Hisoka's apology.

He felt the magician's arms pulling him closer and Illumi looked away, embarrassed by the blush he knew was on his cheeks given how hot the room had suddenly become.

"I started learning last week…but never seemed to be able to get the hang of it. But I think the socks turned out rather nicely, don't you think?"

They studied the items in Illumi's hand – one sock was bigger than the other and it was clear that Hisoka couldn't find a ball of wool of the same blue hue thus one was discernibly brighter than the other.

"If you've got so much time to learn how to knit Hisoka, you could stay here and accompany me you know. I could take two days off work and – "

Hisoka placed a finger on his lips to hush him. "I'll make that my New Years resolution then: spend more time at home with Illumi."

Illumi frowned. "I always wanted to ask – why do you go out for such long periods of time anyway?"

"Oh, you know how it is," Hisoka shrugged, pouting slightly, "the prey, the chase, the excitement, the challenge. It's one great big package of fun."

"The more challenging it is, the more fun, right?"

Hisoka blinked, giving the question real thought. "I suppose so. Why do you ask?"

"Oh…nothing. Come on, your present is in my room. Lets go get it."

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Hisoka patiently waited whilst Illumi disappeared into the walk-in wardrobe and re-emerged with his gift wrapped in shiny gold paper. He rudely pushed the large Hisoka-plushie in the bed out of the way (the real one's here now buddy – move over!), making space for Illumi to sit beside him.

"You unwrap it for me," he grinned, refusing to take it. Illumi didn't argue and went about removing each piece of sticky tape.

Hisoka playfully leaned closer still, his hot breath searing Illumi's exposed neck, and looked forward to his present with a child's greediness. He gently worried Illumi's earlobe with his teeth, nagging the latter to hurry up.

Plushies. Two of them hugging one red boxed gift tied with gold ribbon.

Hisoka blinked at the doll that contained his splitting image and the other who possessed Illumi large and inquisitive eyes.

"It looks like you want to hog that present all to yourself," he lightly commented.

"I don't accept all gifts you know," Illumi replied quietly, looking at the floor.

"Oh? And what would you want all to yourself to be tugging with such…viciousness?" the magician continued to joke, prodding the serious little face of the Illumi plushie. The assassin snatched it away from him, arousing a sudden protest that was quickly quelled as he realized that Illumi wasn't thinking of retracting the gift.

Illumi pulled the red box away from the dolls, the velcro easily giving way and rearranged the positions.

Plushie-Illumi had tightly wrapped his arms around plushie-Hisoka's neck and its face held a determination that it would never let go.

Hisoka hugged Illumi tightly, imitating the dolls.

He placed something cold into Illumi's hand and when Illumi looked down, the object's brilliance almost blinded him.

"What the hell, I got you that damn ring. Now how many kisses am I going to get for that?"

Illumi grinned, and with a small laugh, he pounced, pinning Hisoka onto the bed.


~*~*~*~*~





Illumi always looked so pleasant in his sleep, not to mention after some very pleasurable activity. Hisoka drew the covers up around the bare shoulders lest his partner catch another cold and stared off into the dark night, brooding about that promise he'd made to Illumi.

Adjusting in the change of lifestyle had been difficult, and he had originally discussed with Illumi that he would adjust move into the transition by gradually cutting back on the way he used to live. First he'd leave home for three months, then the next time it'd be two and a half, then two, then one, then maybe after a while, the urge to freely move around the world would be reduced to a quick visit of another country for no longer than three days.

But his target had been fascinating this time and their battle not resolved. His target appeared relieved and Hisoka came home to find that his Illumi had been sick and up to his eyeball in work. Maybe he should stay at home and play some sort of responsible house wife who made sure the house was clean and that there was always plenty of food in the fridge.

But did Illumi realize just how boring that was?

Hisoka sighed and began to worm back into the bedsheets, reserving the answer for his troubles to be solved another day. As he was about to lean down into his pillow however, a blue ribbon sticking out of the bedside table drawer caught his eye.

Rolling over gently so as not to disturb Illumi's slumber, Hisoka slid the drawer open and found a small blue book with a letter compressed in between the pages.

He eased the letter out and in the dim moonlight studied the spidery script.

From the Forbidden Palace of Greater Arcadia

Penned by his highness Emperor Rodimostev Alannis Kalinnan III on the day 25/11.

Dear Illumi,

How have you been? It's almost been two years since I last met you and the Forbidden Palace hasn't suffered the tidal waves only you're capable of creating since. You know that tapestry you wove for me before you disappeared? I've got it framed and it's hanging above my throne. All my ministers are in awe of it and I'm thinking of submitting it to the United Nations either as a heritage treasure or the tenth world wonder. Really – it's that good.

Anyway, from all the buzz in my country, I hear it's 'Christmas'. Even though we don't believe the religious tripe behind the festive season, it's still a commercial festive nonetheless and an excuse to shower my friends with gifts.

You know I don't have many friends right? I can't give presents to any of my Generals or they'll start to compare with each other about who got what and what are the hidden meanings behind them. Then other ministers will start to spin rumours and I'll have a civil war on my hands in no time. That, or I could hang anyone who so much as gossips, but I prefer not to kill anymore people than I have to these days.

So you're the only person I could think of. I went into the Temple and spoke with Imrahldis. He's a bad influence on me and he's loving it. Thank goodness he has too much fun chasing after the ladies than trying to interfere with politics – gawd knows I don't need anymore trouble right now. But since he is your past life, I asked him what I should get for you and we spent some time discussing the alternatives.

Ever heard of the man Finlay Durand Cardinal? No, I don't suppose you have, but he was a natural nen user, an Emperor during the Cardinal dynasty and his story is actually a popular play. In fact, his ability had been very interesting, and the moment I suggested this to Imrahldis, he couldn't stop laughing. He absolutely and utterly approved – despite the fact that I thought he would express caution and reserve, perhaps even an inkling of distaste. But I have now gathered that man lived to break tradition and the farther you strayed from normalcy, the more he'd love you. Hence his utter love for the idea of the gift which I have included.

I would have just photocopied the necessary pages for you, but you see, that book is actually highly sensitive and classified information (although half of it has been immortalized in plays and operas anyway) but you know what a prune Echlan can be sometimes so I personally scribed this for you. Double checked six times to make sure I didn't get anything wrong, so you can be assured that all the information is correct.

Well, I guess that's about it from me. Best of health and prosperity to you and your family for the upcoming year. I wish you all the happiness in the world.

Rudy.

Hisoka swallowed a gulp and his trembling fingers flipped to the title page of the blue covered bound book. Anything that Imrahldis approved of couldn't be good. His eyes widened to the size of tennis balls when he saw the words:

The power of CREATION – how two men can have children.*

Hisoka got no sleep that night.

The end

* I actually made reference to this power in Chapter 15.5 of Untitled.