Woo, this one is making me go for a run at like 9 pm but I guess that's fine. Just know that I'm braving these streets at night for you guys.

Anyway, I came back and I looked at my follow count and then I was like... erm, what? WE'RE PAST 300 PEOPLE! So so thankful to all of you and I hope that that means I can get some awesome reviews going.

As for the people that have been reviewing - thank you, you rock. You guys keep me motivated, keep me pumped for what I have planned.

Kitteninthemoonlight: That's what I was thinking through-out all of King's battles - I was like why is this adorable little cinnamon bun so freaking awesome. Seriously favorite anime character concept. And I think I'm going to have to go back and edit that scene since it is a bit... jumpy? What happened was that she got behind him and stabbed his lower back area.

LunaWolfSunTigress15: Totally understand where you're coming from. I actually get that more often than you think lol.

SmallLittleCagedBird: I think his unpredictable nature is one of the draws, really. I wish more people underlined it. Idk I just really like him and I'm so happy that you feel I'm doing him justice.

Ryoma98: That was so sweet of you to say! I always love that kind of knives edge attraction, you know? I think I've liked it so much that I've adapted a lot of my characters to emulate it. Such a good trope.

Riddick-gurl1988: I have to get her back to Ichihiro so sadly no but I'm hoping to give her more time with Gon around the Heaven's arc? Fingers crossed.

ecchi-ecchi: Thank you! I always love people commenting on Hisoka.

ShadowLegacy11: Binging is highly encouraged in my story stratosphere.

bebelynn: Thank you so much for commenting on every chapter! That was awesome to see and spicy Hisoka is the only brand I seem to be able to put out honestly. I think I friended you one insta but idk maybe I just sent a request to some random person. We'll see.

Loyal1596: Slow burn is the only burn I think I know how to write lol buckle up.

RainKandySux: Hopefully nothing bad?

skulldrop614: Yeah I made it Mori to kind of mimic theirs. Idk why I latched onto them when I first watched the series but I was seriously bummed when they didn't get more screen time. Hope you like this update!

Chapter 17

I turned, hearing a dull thunk as the playing card embedded into the base of a tree behind me. The wind gave a distant howl, the ocean just beyond filling my nose with a briny, salty scent. Slowly, my eyes traveled back to where Hisoka still stood, his eyes twinkling in the moonlight.

There had always been the possibility of him finding me and wanting to kill me. I had no illusions otherwise. I danced to the side as another card clipped my thigh, watching as his fingers played along a full deck, rolling them out and then shuffling them impassively. Allowing me enough time to think. But also giving himself something to do. My eyes narrowed on the man even as I flipped, easily avoiding another two cards.

No. He didn't want to kill me. My shoulders rolled as I crouched, still maintaining the same amount of distance between us. His eyes roved over the lean lines of my calves and thighs, his tongue wetting his lower lip as he flipped a card over and over and over. I felt an odd swell of excitement, a buzzing in the shells of my ears.

He just wanted to play.

Horrifyingly, I felt my lips curl, my muscles tensing deliciously.

"There she is," he murmured, his eyes rapt on my progress as I slid a bit to the left. How did someone have eyes like that? Like melting gold, like the reflection of a harvest moon on water. There was a ravenous interest in those eyes, their depths churning and boiling. I had never known eyes like his before - so tantalizing and yet with such darkness. His gaze slid over my crouched form, his eyes straying to the light way that my fingers grazed the ground, the line of my leg as I kept one splayed outward. It was a pose for rats, meant for quick escapes. Looking at him, tall and much larger than I was, I knew that he didn't understand the tendency. Had he ever been the smaller one? The one that walked away broken? He was a shark and I'm sure he had eaten many a fish, no matter the beauty.

"I see that you still haven't quelled that particular tendency." His fingers splayed and the cards rolled with them, just another extension of his body. I shivered, thinking of the way that Minoru and I seemed to flow in much the same way. For a moment, there was a deafening roar, something overpowering crashing over me until all I could see were those cards - waves of cards crashing from one clawed hand to another. My mind rang with it, my breath sawing from my throat in long, drawn pushes.

Desperately, I tried to pull myself from it, my eyes squeezing shut as I felt myself sinking further and further into a reality that I wasn't sure was my own.

"Ma! Ma!" My hands shook, a warm wetness drying between my fingers. Metal stung my nose along with something meatier - something fouler. "Don't leave me!"

"Focus." The soft zing of a card being released was the only warning that I had, my cheek stinging as it bit through a sliver of my ear. Gasping, I stumbled to the side, blinking away whatever vicious nightmare had followed me into the living world. Hisoka's eyes had gone hard, glinting in the moonlight, any trace of a smile turning into a focused line. He had that card in his hand again - the one that listed me as a target. His only target.

My stomach rolled, clammy sweat making the sea air feel blistering.

His eyes roamed over me. "You're usually sharper than this, Mori."

I could feel the implications, sense the double-edged way that that one statement was meant. He had told me how quickly his amusement could turn to ravenous destruction. I blinked, forcing myself to remain steady as I took another calculated step back. Would I be able to outrun him? Maybe. If I could get to Minoru. I could feel him tugging impatiently at that cord that we shared now, his senses firmly in-tune with the level of duress I was under.

Still, at this distance, I would have to put a little more focus into actually communicating with him. "Forests remind me… I don't like being alone in them."

"Odd quirk," Hisoka mused but his eyes were sharp, running over me with the precision of the deaf follow another's hands - reading my faces, reading the tension, and the sweat coursing down my body. Finally, they stopped at my hands, clenching and unclenching at my side. "Your brothers don't seem to be the type to live in the forest." A single brow quirked. "Aren't thieves only successful when they have someone to take from?"

I gritted down on my urge to tell him to shove it, sliding to the side as he followed me, his eyes becoming sharper, more intent. I tensed, sensing the change in my very bones. Still, I answered him. "We don't. This was from the life I lived before I found them."

He moved too fast. One moment he was smirking, his shoulders hunched forward like a lion about to pounce and then the next-

"You're going to need to let that go if you want to survive, pet." His breath was hot against my ear, his lips warm and surprisingly soft against the shell of my ear. The prick of a card, sharp as a dagger ghosted across my throat. I didn't breath - I barely blinked, the night around us dark and quiet. It was just him and I clutched in that moment - two bodies taking up one small place in a very dense forest. Against my back, I could feel the solid roll of his chest, the warmth of his body just a centimeter away from my own. "If you let those memories cloud your judgment, something bigger and meaner will come and tear you to shreds."

A dribble of blood pooled along the edge of the card, slipping down my throat. Against my ear, I felt the sharp intake of his breath, his free hand going suddenly to grasp my jaw, tipping my head a bit to the side. It was an intimate embrace - strange and forbidden in its very existence. His very presence made my blood hum, my skin tingling with a mixture of emotions that I couldn't completely untangle.

But the thing that I did know was that that taut thread that stretched between us was made of violence - an urge to destroy that I couldn't completely fathom. He brought it out of me like I was sleeping before I met him - before I came to this competition.

My breath caught as his tongue ran warmly along the shell of my ear, the open wound there stinging as he gave a low hum of approval. That hand locked around my jaw tightened for a moment, his nails digging a bit into my cheeks. His whole body was big - so much bigger than me. How many years had he trained to be this strong? I could sense it just in the restrained grip on my skin. Without a second thought, I knew that he would be able to crush my jaw into tiny, bite-sized bits if he felt the urge.

"Is that why you never talk about your own?" I whispered and against my back I felt him go stock still.

I took my chance, driving my elbow into his unprotected side, feeling the burst and smear of warm blood coat my hoodie as I drove it into the old wound. For a moment, I caught sight of his surprised stare, his face frozen into an expression of wonder as I slid from his grip, putting the same amount fo distance between us as before.

The blood was sliding down my throat in slow rivulets now, I could feel it dribbling to dampen my collar and undershirt. Even to pull off that little move, I had had to let the card slide a little further into my exposed skin. Not a pleasant exchange but one that I was willing to make.

Smirking, Hisoka brought that exact card to his lips, his eyes locking mine as his tongue slid along the blood still dampening the surface. My mouth tightened into a slimline, something in me itching to wipe that smug look off his face. But - My lips turned, my eyes catching the slight turn fo his body as he slid his injured side away, standing to the side.

A game, I realized, my blood roaring as I brought my fists up to guard my face. The smiling, the licking - all a game. A very clever diversion from his injuries. My eyes slid over the ripped, reddened fabric at his shoulder and then down further to his now-protected side. Whoever had given him those injuries in Trick Tower had probably paid a hefty price but I wasn't about to let their efforts go uncharted.

"What are you thinking about, pet?" he called amiably, his eyes cat-like as we circled each other. Once. Twice.

I forced all of the nerves and edgy emotions out of my voice. "I'm thinking about how long guys will wait to make the first move." I batted my lashes at him. "It's cute that you're shy."

A sharp, amused snort was left in the air, echoing in the place that he had been.

For one painful second, I regretted my taunt. Hisoka didn't look like the type that got them often.

I let out a ragged gasp, rolling to the side before the massive trunk of a leg could ram into my side. A sharp, jarring burst of wind followed the movement, the hair on the back of my neck raising as I realized just how much damage that would have been going into my ribs.

Only for a second -, that's all the time I could give myself before Hisoka was grinning, his other leg swiftly kicking out to make up for his missed one. No time to dodge this time. I brought my arm down, taking the brunt of the kick in my shoulder before I slammed the heel of my palm into his calf, once, twice and then a third time.

A hit like that would have cramped up anyone elses leg, forcing Hisoka to turn and give me his injured side if he wanted to protect it.

Not Hisoka. His eyes blazed an ungodly amber as he stared down at me, that smile only a small slice of a thing as he flipped, tugging his injured leg away with the grace of an acrobat. How had he gotten such grace - such utter control of his body?

My whole arm throbbed, my fingers shaking from the sudden break in combat. Nothing broken - he must have tempered that blow - pulling back so that he hadn't done anything more than broken more than a dozen blood vessels in my arm. That didn't mean that it didn't hurt like a fucking bitch though.

"How's your arm?" he quipped, his voice sly as he smirked across the clearing at me.

I moved before I could think too hard about it, sending a kick to his injured side that he deftly deflected with his hand, pushing me away like a doll. Crouching, I reversed, sending my foot forward again in another attempt to take damage his leg once more.

"The problem…" I gritted down a scream of pain as he sent another vicious kick to my side, the impact making my head spin. Hisoka's voice was low, calm. "With fighting low to the ground…" Another kick and I went sprawling, the attack falling too quickly for me to do anything more than absorb it. Dirt and rocks scraped along my face, my body rolling like a barrel pushed down a hill. My lunges squeezed, all of the air inside of me huffing out in one painful gasp as I slammed into the trunk of a tree. My vision wavered for a moment, darkening around the edges as his lean figure steps closer to me, those eyes burning, burning, ever-burning as he crouches.

Grunting, I tried to scramble up, my shoulder giving a yelp of protest as I leveled up onto my elbows only to be stopped by a hand to my throat. Hisoka's hand, his fingers spanning the full expanse as his eyes melt down at me, soft and buttery. Completely under control. I grit back my instinctive curse giving into the gentle pressure as he forces me slowly back to the ground.

Tall and hulking, he looms over me, his eyes crinkling as he gives me a slow smirk.

"The problem with fighting low to the ground…" His breath is hot against my lips, his body so close that my skin tingles with the almost grazes as he levers himself over me, his legs bracketing my own in an overwhelmingly dominating kind of way. He knows it too. He knows what he's doing. Tensely, I keep my hands at my side, my mouth tipping down in a sullen snarl. Hisoka's smirk only grows, the hand not on my throat resting casually beside my head. He's all around me now - completely dominating all of my senses until there's nothing but his looming wall of muscles, his sweet smell, his eyes keeping mine captive, his lips whispering across mine, so close to kissing that my heart squeezes painfully. "Is that you limit yourself. Balling yourself up means that you give your opponents a smaller target but it also means that on every hit, you will sustain more severe damage."

My mind drifts, taking inventory of the throbbing pain radiating from my shoulder to my wrist and even into my side. He had bruised my whole left side with that hit - one more and I would have more than likely broken something.

"Hmmm," he murmurs, amused. His eyes travel over my face, taking in the defensive glint in my eyes. Slowly, his thumb begins to make circles along the side of the throat, sending tingles of awareness through my spine and into my gut. His teeth flash, more wolf than human. "But you're a quick learn, aren't you, pet? You won't let me get this far next time."

No. I sure as fuck wouldn't. But the fact that he was saying it to me like a statement of fact while he had me pinned to the ground just pissed me off.

I felt my aura roar up, snarling and humiliated. Baring my teeth, I let it lash against him, pounding it back until Hisoka's eyes widened, his golden eyes glinting with confusion and awe. Reflexively, his aura met mine, shivering as they connected.

"You're being quite naughty tonight, aren't you?" he mused, still fighting against me. A single brow quirked, his fingers tightening around my neck.

"Is this the reason you hunted me down?" I asked, finding myself more irritated than cowed. I hated how much stronger he was than me. I hated that he seemed to have all the answers. My lips curled back in a not so friendly smile. "Or did you want to come and take my badge?"

His eyes went hard, calculating. "I don't think that you would be stupid enough to keep it with you when you're little friend is wandering around."

Ichihiro. He was talking about Ichihiro. My aura slammed into his, forcing his own to grapple with mine as they slid along each other.

"I didn't think you were paying that much attention," I snapped sweetly, watching his eyes darken, a ticking starting at the corner of his jaw. Like he was trying to restrain himself. I smiled, my aura flaring out, pummeling his from the sides.

His voice was deep, darker than any night when he replied. "I always pay attention to things that are mine."

"I don't think you can handle me," I hedged, watching as his aura reared back, trying to force my own down. A thrill of excitement tingled up my toes, tickling my stomach as I watched his brow furrow, that hand around my neck tightening until I could feel the prick of his nails.

His final smile was cold, something sharp and dangerous. "And I don't think that you fully understand your situation."

And just like that, I felt my aura quiver, withering beneath a blast of pure bloodlust, Hisoka's smile still in place as my eyes widened, my breath quickening. It was so overwhelming - so close that I could feel it pounding down at me, my insides churning as every cell in my body screamed for me to get as far away from this man as possible.

"Ah," he breathed, his nose nearly rubbing across my cheek as he took a deep breath - like he was scenting my fear, relishing it. Gently, almost lovingly, that hand that was beside my head tangled with my hair, tugging my head back until his lips were traveling along my chin. "There's that look. Isn't it amazing, Mori? How much of your life is led by it? I could sense it right when you stepped foot in this island - right when you let your little toy fly away-"

"He's - he's not a toy," I forced out, resisting the urge to whimper as that paralyzing aura crushed me. It felt like I was breathing it in, choking on it.

His eyes slid to mine, our gaze connecting in one silent moment. His brows creased. "Then what is he?"

I fumbled for an answer, my mind spinning as it tried to process the question. Was it even one? Wasn't it obvious? "He's - he's an animal. A living thing."

Hisoka blinked, something clicking into place in his mind as he stared down at me. "Oh, Mori," he breathed. "You're much more fascinating than even I imagined."

I reeled, confusion making my mind go blank. Slowly, smiling, he levered off of me, his eyes glinting gold in the moonlight. "What do you-"

"I suggest you check the eastern ridge for your little friend," Hisoka mused, his smile lethal and dangerous like I had just given him a secret. "He's been quite busy since you last saw him."

My stomach dropped, my hands shaking with the combination of the information and whatever had transpired between us in the last few moments. His fingers slowly released me, allowing me to scramble back to the base of the tree. My mind worked rapidly to try and process everything.

"What did you mean?" I panted, cold sweat dribbling down my back as he turned, his gait languid as he made his way back into the depths of the forest. My heart gave a hard squeeze, fear pumping through me. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!"

Those eyes slid back to me, melting butter over a fire that was too hot.

The smile that he gave me was chilling. "You might want to dig into your past with him, pet. Because he most certainly is not a living thing."

As always, I hope that you all know that you're officially part of my cult. Buckle up, bitches. Here we like pumpkin spice lattes and fangirl over killer clowns. Welcome to the gang and there's free tissues at the bar right next to the chocolate milk and bubblegum.