The date 2!

I must thank my sister for her beta-ing, my good old friend RGNN for slacking off *glare* and my lovely lovely reviewers and favouriters and story-alerters. YOU ALL RULE! (or technically not, since having more than one ruler wouldn't be called ruling anymore...)

But anyway, enjoy!

Zushi and Efoe stood tersely outside, Zushi rubbing his butt a little. A crackle came from the walkie-talkie in Efoe's hand.

'–They have gone and bought tickets over– 'Gon's voice crackled through. He had been chosen to stalk Wind and Killua after careful deliberation. After all, both Wind and Killua had good senses, good observational skills (though it was hard to say for a certain white-haired boy right now) and good perception. And Gon was well… Gon. He was good at stalking. He excelled at it! So he had been chosen.

'Where are they going?' Efoe asked then hastily tacked on an 'over.'

'–Umm… Inside? Over –'

'No, Gon. After they go inside.' Efoe said patiently, trying to ignore Zushi who was on his back peering over the wall. He was also trying to ignore, of course, the weird stares he was getting from the general public and the worried mothers that were ushering their children away from him.

He wasn't successful.

'–I'm buying tickets now… They seem to be going towards the shark area. Over–'

'SHARKS? WHYYYYYY? They should be going to the romantic tropical fish area! Or the beautiful jellyfish area! Why the sharks?' Efoe burst out. He glared at the hapless Zushi in annoyance. 'Ow, watch it, Zushi! You're killing my spine!'

'Oh, sorry.'

'–Err… Efoe? You forgot the over, over. –'

'WHO CARES ABOUT THE FRIGGIN' OVER WHEN OUR STUPID FRIGGIN' COUPLE DOESN'T KNOW THE MEANING OF FRIGGIN' ROMANTIC AND IS FRIGGIN' GOING OVER TO FRIGGIN' LOOK AT THE FRIGGIN' SHARKS?'

'–...Me? Over–' Gon's voice came crackling through. '–I got the tickets! Over. –' Efoe sighed and pushed Zushi off his back.

'Let's get going then. Over.' He said as he dusted his knees. Zushi was once again standing there rubbing his butt.

'Oi, Efoe! You didn't have to push me! Now it hurts even more!' Efoe just shrugged and walked towards Gon, who was waiting there holding three tickets, his trade-mark enthusiastic grin in place. He simply handed them over, and Efoe nodded. Zushi shot Efoe a hurt look and went to Gon. The three of them walked inside together. Then Gon went off to stalk Wind and Killua, leaving Efoe and Zushi to their own devices.

This wasn't a good thing. At least, not for two certain people…

Wind's view

'You know, Killua? It's the first time I've ever been to an aquarium. I was always cooped up inside just in case I overexerted myself.' I told him as I paid for our tickets. We walked into the aquarium.

'Yeah, me too. The closest I've seen to an aquarium is my mother's fish tank, and that only contains piranhas, so it doesn't count.' I looked at Killua with a raised eyebrow.

'Piranhas? Seriously?'

'Yeah.' I laughed and looked at the map I was holding. I was pretty glad Killua had gone over his total iceblock faze. I mean, it was amusing the first time, then the second and third time… not so amusing. And it was hard striking up conversation with an ice-block you know?

'Well, let's get to one of these areas… Wow, it's actually pretty big.' Killua looked over my shoulder and then hastily stepped back. And pointed.

'Why don't we go there?' I looked in the direction he was pointing. 'The Shark Exhibit?' I read slowly. Killua suddenly looked unsure.

'Umm… If you don't want to, it's fine.'

'No! I love sharks! Let's go!' I reached out and took his hand and started dragging him. A sudden crack! came from where Killua had stood. I turned around and raised my eyebrows. He had frozen up again, the now familiar purple lines covering the entire left side of his face. I sighed. What was wrong with him today?

I absent-mindedly tapped my walking-stick-once-staff and dragged him forward, my sun-hat crammed inside a bag whacking my hip (the stupid, too-small-to-carry-anything-bag another of Efoe's ideas; I swear he knew more about dressing a girl up than a girl) since we weren't outside. It continued that way, me dragging Killua, Killua gradually thawing out. We reached the shark area with Killua only mildly stiff.

Thank goodness.

'Wow…' I gaped up. Killua unfroze with a snap and looked at the entrance with his hands in his pockets, though he was also staring at the entrance.

The entrance to the shark area was this huuuuuge shark head, its jaws gaping wide as an entrance for the visitors. Watching other people walk into the gaping maw and into the red-lit throat was a bit disconcerting, since it looked really real in a non-real way.

'Let's go in then!'

'Yeah.' Killua said with his hands still in his pockets. Maybe he didn't like me dragging him by the hand? I shrugged and skipped inside carefully avoiding the teeth. Killua followed, walking slowly. I turned around with a pout. And for some reason, he looked at my face and immediately looked away, looking instead at one of those information tablets they have all around the place. The red light in the tunnel made him look all red, red hair, red-tinged skin, etc.

'Killua, walk faster! Or I'll drag you again!' He looked sharply at me and walked a bit faster, still in his slouch and dragging foot-steps. I fell back to walk next to him, staring at the really detailed work that the people had done.

They had even drawn veins!

'I really like this place.'

Killua nodded. 'Yeah.'

'I want to do something really bad.' Killua looked sharply at me.

'What?'

'Yup!' I quietly slunk over and crouched down. Then with a finger, I burnt a little circle onto the floor. 'Now I'll always know that I was here!' Killua looked at the burnt circle.

'You're weird, you know that?'

'Yeah. Of course I know, idiot.' He shrugged. 'Oh look, the end of the tunnel!' I ran forward to see a non-red long glass corridor with sharks all around. 'That's so awesome…' The speakers came to life and a voice boomed out.

'Guests, you are lucky enough to come here exactly at the shark feeding time! Please enjoy the experience.'

I excitedly pressed my face to the glass, staring up at the place above the water, where a shadowy figure was standing with what looked like a large tank. Probably the feed-the-fish guy.

The figure reached over to the large tank, and threw something into the water. Immediately, the water surrounding the thing in the water – probably the shark food – turned red, and all the sharks suddenly rushed towards the red place. The water began to swirl and bubble with the thrashing movements of the sharks. I couldn't even see the individual sharks anymore. The bodies of the sharks were all entwined, moving sinuously in a big, ordered mess, if that makes sense.

'As you can see, we cover the food with blood to attract the sharks because they are extremely sensitive to the presence of blood...' The voice droned on and on while the sharks fed, giving bits of information that I tuned out of.

Actually, from the shouts and exclamations of the people in the tunnel, I had a feeling that no one was listening to the voice and its information.

Suddenly, the water right on top of Killua and my head turned red, and more sharks, as well as sharks from the first feeding frenzy, rushed over, turning into a swirling mass on top of my head. I craned my neck, gaping at the shark. My eyes flickered between the two feeding points in front of us and on top of us. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Killua doing the same thing.

All along the corridor, water turned red, and feeding points were established. The melee in front of us had slowly diminished as more feeding areas were created. Smaller sharks probably ran away to less dangerous feeding areas, since all the humungous sharks had rushed over first and dominated the food falling into the water.

I glanced at Killua and catching his eye, grinned widely at him and gave him a thumbs-up. He grinned and gestured back, then we both looked to the sharks in front of us just in time to see a tiger shark the size of a submarine decapitate a dead tuna fish.

The stalkers' view

'What the HELL are they doing now, staring at sharks eating bleeding fish?' Efoe glared at the two pale-haired figures staring entranced at the deadly creatures tearing apart dead fish. 'Can't they pick something more romantic? Like CORAL REEF AREA EXHIBIT THINGS? With PRETTY COLOURS and EXOTIC FISH? Not SAVAGE SHARKS more intent on KILLING than on CREATING a ROMANTIC MOOD?'

Zushi elbowed Efoe hard, making Efoe double up in pain. 'Shut up, Efoe! They'll hear us!' Zushi said, trying to suppress his grin at finally getting revenge for the older boy's abuse from before.

'Yeah Efoe, you're so loud all the time.' Gon glanced at Efoe, and then focused back onto the couple before them still gaping at the feeding sharks with shining eyes.

Efoe groaned. 'Why do we bother helping two people with no sense of romance AT ALL get together?' he asked no-one in particular.

Gon grinned at him. 'You're the one who suggested it.'

Zushi laughed at him. 'Yeah! You're the one who wanted to see them together "to be a cute couple for us to see" to most.'

Efoe groaned again. 'What was I thinking?' Then he looked at the couple, who had matching expressions and occasionally glanced at one another with brilliant smiles.

'Man, they are so cute together!' Efoe leapt up from behind the shark tooth (where they had been hiding) and punched a fist in the air. 'WE MUST PERSEVERE AND GET THEM TOGETHER!'

Gon and Zushi sighed at Efoe's sudden change of heart (his fifty-fourth time declaring the exact same thing since the start of their date) and pulled him back behind the tooth, pointedly ignoring the old granny frowning at them from inside the exhibit.

Wind's view

'That… was so awesome!' I said with sparkling eyes. 'Let's see… the next area is the tropical fish area!' I heard a small sound that sounded like a "yesssssss" in the corner. 'You hear something?'

'No.'

'Oh, okay.' I walked forward, dragging Killua's elbow, with him reluctantly plodding along. We entered the tropical fish area, with its coral statues everywhere and blue lighting. It wasn't as awesome as the shark, but it was definitely much prettier. We walked in and sat on the seats that gave the full view of the whole wall of tropical fishes that were swimming around everywhere. I

t was very calming, and I put my cane next to the seat and leaned back.

'Aah, today was nice.'

'Yeah.'

'Except for Efoe and Zushi forcing me to wake up so early.'

'Yeah.'

'But I guess they had their reasons.'

'Yeah.'

'Are you even listening, Killua?'

'Yeah.'

I sighed and looked at the fishes. They were so pretty. Then I looked at the time.

'Aah! Killua! We need to go! It's already five in the evening, and there was this thing I wanted to do!' Killua looked curiously at me.

'Oh, ok. We can come back later anyway. The aquarium's not going to run away, we'll just come back and explore the rest of it next time.'

'Yup!' I stood up and stretched. Killua stood up as well, and when I was leaning over to get my cane, I had this very weird feeling that there was something being yanked under me.

And I fell. Right on top of Killua.

Ah, the cliché of all clichés. Though this time, Killua had become an ice-block again, his hands frozen around my shoulders in an attempt to catch me, I guess. But right now, it just kind of trapped me there.

Sigh.

How troublesome.

The stalker's view

'I must take things into my own hands!' Efoe exclaimed loudly, causing some people around them to look disapprovingly at him. He ignored them, successfully.

'But how?'

'Ah, you wouldn't know now, would you?' Efoe said mock-cheerfully. 'Gon! Sneak up to them and try to hear what they're saying!'

'Ok!' Gon started walking up to them, shiftily hiding behind pot plants and chairs.

'Zushi, stand behind me and be quiet!' Zushi sulked.

'Fine.'

'Report, Gon!'

'–They said they were going to the tropical fish area! Over. –'

Efoe hissed a very quiet 'yessssssssssssss'.

Now my plan can go into action. Yes, I am genius. I am an utter awesome genius. Wind and Killua should be happy that they get to enact a plan made by ME! Now, just to get them to do what I want them to do…

'–Efoe! They nearly found you out! Over. –' Efoe clamped his hands over his mouth and looked at the two unsuspecting innocent people. They started walking towards the tropical fish section, talking on the way.

Yes, the atmosphere is perfect, Killua isn't frozen up for once, Wind looks like she's actually enjoying it, and they're going to the relaxing pretty tropical fish section! Not some gory shark feeding. Tropical fish always make a good stage…

Wind and Killua weaved through the coral statues in front of the area and went into the short tunnel.

Now, I must find the chance to use my ability. Ho, they must be unsuspecting. I must be careful…

Efoe sneaked in, with Zushi close behind.

'Hey, Efoe, what are you doing?' Efoe turned around and glared at Zushi, finger firmly on lips to signify a very firm BE QUIET! to Zushi. Zushi just shook his head and went forward before Efoe could catch him.

He wanted to enjoy the aquarium too, thank you very much.

Gon was already there, in the back corner looking at the fish happily. Zushi was climbing up there to join them, and Wind and Killua…

Efoe looked around and saw them sitting in the middle row, Wind leaning back and Killua looking at the fish relaxedly.

Aha, perfect.

Efoe sidled closer to them and activated his nen really weakly, hoping they wouldn't sense it. Then he slid a really really thin sheet of nen under their feet.

Or more like Wind's feet.

They sat there for awhile, and then suddenly Wind looked at her watch and talked to Killua. Then she stood up, with Killua close behind.

Then Wind leaned towards Killua to get her cane.

Now!

Efoe yanked the nen under her shoes, and she fell forward with a surprised look on her face. Then a resigned one, when she realised what position she was in.

This surprised Efoe, because he thought that she would at least be embarrassed. But Killua…

Killua became an ice-block again. Efoe groaned and nearly bashed his head against the wall. Gon and Zushi were happily eating in the corner in contrast.

Efoe slowly moped towards them, stealing a handful of gummies while at it. Then he watched the two of them to see how it would work out.

Let's hope that they profess their undying love for each other, like in their plan.

Hehe, all is not lost yet! They can still profess!

Efoe eyes the scene with a critical eye.

That is, whenever Killua snaps out of his iceblock mode.

Wind's view

'Err… Killua? Can you let go of me? Killua? Killuaaaaaaa.'

No response.

'Killua, if you don't let go of me, how can we get out of this position?' I asked in a calm voice.

I had a crush on this guy. A little crush, but still a crush, none-the-less. But he didn't like me, so I should act natural, and act normal.

Anyway, this was too anime cliché for me to feel anything special about this.

'Killua, snap out of it. Come on…' I slapped him on the cheeks a little. It always seemed to work in the other animes. But… it didn't work.

I sighed and gathered up all the available moisture in the air. Then I put it in front of Killua's face and let go.

'W-w-what?' He spluttered and looked at the position we were in. He started to stiffen up.

'Killua, if you dare turn into an ice-block again, I shall personally drown you with the coldest water I have in my arsenal.' He shook himself out of it and blushed.

'I'm sorry Wind!' He let go of my shoulders so I could get up. I rubbed my shoulders a bit. He had a strong grip.

Which is to be expected of course. He can open sixteen tonnes of door after all…

I shrugged in reply.

'It's nothing… But.' I looked around the room. 'I really like this aquarium… Hey, is that Zushi?' His white martial arts outfit stood out.

'Gon's there too.'

'And Efoe.'

'What are they doing there? Gon!' Killua called out. Gon looked up with a snap and a smile. Then he froze when Efoe whispered something. Zushi looked alarmed too, and they suddenly bolted for the exit.

'Oh no, you don't.'

I chased them, with Killua hot on my heels. But I had to slow down though, to get through the coral statues.

I wouldn't want to break them after all. They were really pretty and detailed. They continued sprinting.

'After them!'

'Yeah!'

We chased them out of the aquarium, Gon and I laughing, Killua still blushing a little, Efoe having this conspiring look on his face and Zushi with this funny desperate expression on his face.

Definitely a moment I would remember.

It wasn't until a bit later that I realised that it had already been two months.

The story arc was picking up again.

Well, the story is starting canon again! ^^ Haha, hoped you enjoyed the date. Killua in iceblock mode seemed so unlikely I just had to put it in. XD

See you all next week!