"This sucksssss, being banished to this room is so boringgggggg," Killua whined as he drew a card from Gon's hand. The hybrid snickered, and the Valkyrie just about spat fire when he saw that he had drawn the joker. "Now it sucks even more," he said, descending into a pout.

Why do I suck at this game all of a sudden?

"Well, you should have expected as much. We did lose Isolde for three entire hours. And as for the suckiness: it's your negativity, maybe if you weren't so negative all the time~~"

"Oh shut up! Idiot… HA!"

Gon smiled in false positivity, his eyebrow twitching. He had immediately drawn back the joker.

"Where's all that positivity getting you now, huh, Gon?" Killua taunted, always quick to gloat.

"I'll show you where," Gon said in a dark tone and a wicked grin. Then out of nowhere he snatched the cards out of Killua's hands and threw the entire deck into the fireplace. They went up with a "whoosh" and the flames turned blue as they heated up for a moment, then faded back to their usual orange.

Killua started back and forth from the fireplace to Gon's grinning face.

"Bitch," he stated simply.

Gon cackled, and leaned over the arm of his chair to grab another deck of cards off the shelf. "Let's play something else this time!"

"Something you can win so you don't have to throw the cards into the fire?" Killua drawled.

"Yup!"

"You're a total dipshit, ya know that?"

"Yup! Now come on, let's play war now!"

Killua sighed and deftly snatched the deck from Gon's hands.

"Hey! I can shuffle-" he protested.

"-mixing all the cards up on the table in a giant messy pile is not shuffling."

Gon blew out his cheeks, and Killua demonstrated his shuffling skills, expertly slinking the cards in and around each other with that satisfying "fwap, swoosh" noise. The Valkyrie ran through a few simple shuffling tricks, and looked Gon in his widened eyes with a cat-like expression the entire time.

"You're so good, what the heck!"

"All part of basic training," Killua gloated. "I've been able to shuffle like this since I was four."

"No way! That's crazy! I couldn't even thread a fishing pole till I was seven!"

"Hah! Loser!"

"Big talk coming from someone who doesn't even know what a reel is."

"I do too! It's uh… the part that catches the fish."

Gon smirked, "You mean the hook and bait?"

"Yeah, that's what I said," Killua said with a stubborn look on his face as he continued flipping through the cards with deft fingers.

"Ya know," Gon started with a particularly evil smile. "You're not that good with cards, not really."

Killua knew he shouldn't take the bait.

But he did.

He always did.

"Oh yeah? Well what do you know?" He demanded, refusing to let the blow to his ego stand.

"It's just that compared to this other dude I know you're nothing but a novice~~"

"You know other dudes?"

Gon made a little noise of surprise and insult, and Killua cracked up.

"Yes, yes I do know other dudes!"

"You sure?~~~"

"Tonpa! And all his people! Come on, Killua, you SAW them!"

Killua snickered, "Those pussies? I wouldn't consider them dudes."

"Killua!" Gon said in horror. "That is not a nice word!"

"Who are you," the silver haired boy teased with a smirk, "Knov?"

"No, but you shouldn't say mean words like that!"

"Ah yes, I apologize mister holier-than-thou, your poor virgin ears must be bleeding from the onslaught of my naughty, naughty, phrasing. Please forgive me, your lordship, I seem to have sinned," Killua said, barely managing to choke it out around the laughter bubbling up his throat.

"I don't have virgin ears!" Gon declared.

"Then why can't you handle my advanced vocabulary? I bet you're too scared to say any 'bad words,'" Killua said the last part in a mocking tone.

"I can too curse! And I do! Just… not regularly!"

Killua snickered, "A likely argument."

"I say fuck all the time!"

Killua's jaw hit the table.

I- I do not compute-

"Wait, that's illegal!" Killua yelled, jumping up from his chair.

Gon laughed out loud.

"Go wash your mouth out with soap THIS INSTANT!" Killua ordered, only half joking.

The tan boy fell out of his chair laughing.

"I'm gonna go- I'm gonna go read my bible now," Killua sputtered.

Gon had physically lost the ability to breath, he was rolling back and forth, wheezing with tears rolling down his cheeks. "Wha- What's wrong Killua? Can't handle my advanced vocabulary?"

"Ya know what? Ya know what?" Killua declared, throwing the deck of freshly shuffled cards into the fire. "Fuck you! Yeah, you can go fuck yourself!" The Valkyrie declared as he gave Gon the finger.

Gon was wheezing, he sat up, using the mantle to balance. He then used his middle and index finger on each hand to form a heart up in the air above his head. "Hearts!" He declared in response.

Killua's eyebrow twitched.

"Hearts?" Gon asked, beckoning Killua to mimic the gesture with those honey colored eyes of his.

"No."

"Hearts?"

"No."

"Hearts?"

"Fuck."

"Hearts?" Gon choked out, sputtering with laughter.

"You. Fuck you!"

Gon dropped his hands down and bent over once again in hysterics.

"You sure are enjoying yourself, aren't you?" Killua asked while making physical threats to himself to try and contain the laughter that Gon was spreading to him like some sort of disease. "You really take pleasure from my suffering, huh, you short little asshole?"

"Come on, Killu-Killua, let's play war!" Giggling all the way, Gon grabbed another deck, sat in his chair, and dumped the cards all over the table. It was physically painful to watch. He was using the palms of his hands to mix them up, like some sort of damned soup.

The Valkyrie dragged his hand across his face and released a dramatic groan, his tail swishing behind him in annoyance. "Just like that? Back to cards?"

"Yup!"

"You're a little bitch, ya know that?"

"Yup!"

With a soft chuckle, Killua shook his head and sat back down in his chair. "Cut that out, it causes my physical pain to watch," the silver haired boy ordered as he gathered the cards up and out of Gon's reach. Their hands brushed together as he snatched the cards away from the tan boy, and Killua's stomach gave a little flip.

He arranged the cards into two neat stacks and began shuffling again.

For the next hour, the two boys played war over and over as the sun set. Stars pricked across the sky, and dinner time quickly approached. All was silent, all was peaceful. Killua watched in amusement as Gon flipped his top card face up with such determination, as if the manner in which he flipped the card could affect his draw. The aces pulled back and forth between them like the tides, and this time Killua did not mind when he lost.

What was this feeling in his chest? Friendship? Why had his eyes started drawing to Gon like opposing magnets? Why did the brush of their hands, in an entirely casual manner, make his stomach do backflips?

Killua contemplated these things as he happily lost to Gon over and over.

If it had been anyone else, he would have been grumpy. Especially considering Gon had literally set the game Killua had been winning on fire in favor of a different game, which he was now winning. If it had been anyone else, Killua would have shot insults and given excuses as to why he was losing.

But it was Gon, so Killua didn't mind.

He would curse whenever Gon gained one of his powerful cards. He would complain about how boring the game was. But he continued playing, because he was happy. More than happy, to play this card game with his friend.

Just when he thought this peaceful and joyously simple moment would never end, a blood curdling roar shook the entire Neko-Village.

And a giant crash assaulted Killua's ears.

Eyes of sapphire met eyes of honey-gold.

"The monster," Killua started.

"It's back," Gon finished.