This chapter is loooong overdue. I blame it on my sister, because I gave her free reign and she wrote the whole chapter. I wonder if you'll all like it?

Thank you! (And hey, if you don't like my story, why get mad at me when I don't update? That's to that anon reviewer) I want to put this on RIGHT NOW so I won't type any more. XD

Please enjoy! (Hmm, reading it for the first time for me too)

'The meal was so tasty, Mito-san!'

Aunt Mito straightened from her dish picking (Killua was still recovering from being forced to eat the red capsicums and Gon was too enthralled in talking to his grandma to realise anything) and smiled at me.

'Thank you, Wind. But you can call me Aunt Mito if you want. Mito-san makes me feel old.'

'Okay, A-aunt Mito.' I stammered, rolling the word Aunt in my mouth. It felt strange, but in a nice way. I haven't had to call "mother", "father", "aunt" for such a long time. Even though Avril was nice, it never actually felt like home, it was too grand, with all the titles and respectful bows and stuff. But Whale Island just had this calming effect on people…

I stood up and helped carry the dishes over to the sink. Aunt Mito immediately started washing, and after hesitating for a moment (would it seem rude or unneeded?) I started drying with a random towel I picked up on the bench. Aunt Mito smiled at me.

'You're a guest, Wind. You shouldn't do this.'

I put on a stubborn face. 'I want to.' Aunt Mito just laughed and kept on washing.

'So Wind, I heard from Gon that you and Killua are pretty rich. So what do you think of this humble abode?'

'I really like it here. It's really nice, nicer than both our homes.' Aunt Mito raised an eyebrow at that, but kept silent and kept on washing. I continued, 'Being rich isn't all that fun sometimes, Aunt Mito. Killua's home was very strict you know, his family wanted him to join his family business that he didn't want to join for… various reasons. And well, I guess I tried too hard to reach the expectations that were pushed on me. That was what Chiiyo, my caretaker, told me anyway.'

That was true in this world at least. Chiiyo had said I had gotten the disease because I tried too hard to master the elements. And on Earth it was me who pushed myself, not anyone else.

Aunt Mito made a noise that indicated she was listening.

'Is it strange to say that I only had one friend before meeting Gon and Killua?' Aunt Mito looked surprised at that, her hands stopping the rhythmical motions of rubbing a particularly stubborn stain.

'Really, Wind? You seem like a sweet girl.' I laughed at that.

'My family was prestigious. You heard that our country works on a monarchy system, right? So there's the High Queen, she's the most powerful. The High King, the Imperial Princess, any children of the current king and queen, then the other kings and queens and nobles. And even in the nobles, there's the higher court and the lower court. And I haven't even delved into details yet. Children are expected to know manners at an early age to not "disgrace" their parents.'

'That seems harsh.' I snorted through my nose as I dried a huge pan.

'Yeah.'

'But why is there more than one king?' Aunt Mito asked peacefully, holding a clear plate to light to see if she had missed any sauce stains. I put yet another round plate into the growing pile of dry plates to my side and picked up another one. It was relaxing, with sunlight trickling through windows and bird chirps and Gon's chatter…

'Well, I showed you before right? Everyone can control an element. So there's a king and queen for each element. Kings and queens are decided by who is the strongest manipulator in the clan, but strong powers are usually passed down anyway. So there are pretty much established "royal" families. It's just that once in a while there would be someone ridiculously strong in another family in the clan and they change leaders. That's all.'

'So who's that friend you told me about just then?'

I put another plate on the teetering pile and looked at it critically. I should start another pile…

'She's called Dusketha, but she hates that name so she goes by Dusky. She's a crazy girl who climbed through my window one day and plopped on my bed and said "Do you want to be friends?"' Aunt Mito laughed at that.

That was obviously fake. But that was what Chiiyo said happened. Dusky became my friend, and the king and queen were so amazed that an adopted person who couldn't manipulate an element at all could sneak through the kingdom's strictest security system that they made her show her skills.

And then she got promoted from talented-little-girl to a trainer and so gradually rose up to become Captain of the Royal Guards with me backing her up whenever she did something crazy.

'I'm really glad I became Gon's friend, Aunt Mito.' I said quietly to her. 'It was pretty lonely, even with Dusky's company. Meeting them in the Hunter Exam and becoming their friend was one of the best things that happened to me.'

'Don't be sure, I bet there'll be more good things to happen.' Aunt Mito said.

'Of course.' I nodded. 'I only wish that you could meet Dusky as well. She's with another close friend of ours called Kurapika.'

'I'm sure I'll meet them all on day, Wind.'

I smiled up at her.

'Of course.'

'And that's all the dishes finished.' Aunt Mito said as she dried her hands on her apron. 'I'll put away the dishes now and we can join Gon's conversation. Boys, they didn't even try to come and help! I'll put them into good use next time and you can sit at the table lazily.'

And at that I laughed.

'So, so, so, so!' Gon said excitedly.

'What, Gon?' Killua said tiredly. There were limited numbers of time that any person could listen to Gon say "so" and not get annoyed or tired.

'Do you like Aunt Mito and Grandma?'

'Yeah.' Killua brightened.

'Aunt Mito is really nice. Reminds me of Chiiyo.'

We were sitting on the floor of Gon's bedroom. I had been given another room (Aunt Mito muttering stuff like it wouldn't be decent if I shared a room with two teenage boys) but I stayed here to talk to them because obviously it made more sense for one person to move rather than two people. And also because Gon's room had the tree trunk-root-thing in it and mine didn't.

'Only in the afternoon she kept talking about how Killua and I would make a good couple.' I added.

Killua did a spectacular spit-take with his cup of water.

'What?'

I nodded in agreement. 'Yeah. I don't know where that came from though... Anyway, apparently tomorrow when we're going to the main town to buy a satellite dish and the computer set up, and we're going by ourselves. Something about Aunt Mito not knowing anything about that stuff anyway and us being responsible enough to know not to waste money.'

Which wasn't true, at least in Killua's case. Gon and I were fine, we weren't extravagant and stuff, but Killua could spend thousands of dollars in one go and not blink an eye. Especially if there's chocolate involved.

Not that Aunt Mito knew that. She probably thought that if Gon could go out and pass the Hunter test at twelve years old and have friends do the same thing at the same age that they'd all be as mature as Gon was.

Killua gaped at me. 'Ourselves?'

'You know, like a date, only not. Since there's three people.'

'Date?'

'Didn't we already go on one already, Killua? By ourselves without Gon? Only it wasn't that fun because you kept going into iceblock mode…'

As Killua recovered in the corner, Gon had this cunning face on.

'Ehehehehehe…' He evilly (it couldn't really be as evil as I thought it was, right? I mean, it was Gon) chuckled.

Then he ran out of the room to leave Killua (in ice-block mode) and me (confused) to ourselves.

Nice, Gon.

'Aunt Mito! Aunt Mito!'

Aunt Mito looked up from her tea cup, which she was cupping in her hands, and saw Gon running towards her excitedly.

'Yes, Gon?'

Gon plonked into the seat opposite Aunt Mito and stared at her. 'You're the one who said to Killua it'll be like a date, right?'

Aunt Mito chuckled evilly.

'Of course.'

'You're making him think that it's a date because you have something planned for them right? What is it?' Gon asked.

Aunt Mito grinned at Gon. 'I need your help.'

'Of course I'll help you!' Gon's eyes sparkled.

'Okay. Somehow, they need to be by themselves for most of the trip. I was thinking of maybe all three of you going, but then you pretend that one of our neighbours asked you to help them, and so you leave them and they go by themselves after you tell them the way.'

Gon nodded, frowning in thought. 'How about I pretend to be sick and so they have to leave by themselves?'

'I've thought of that already,' said Aunt Mito, glancing down into her teacup (Gon smiled. Aunt Mito was such a good planner person!), 'But I couldn't make myself think of you being sick.'

Gon ran around the table and hugged her. 'I'll be okay, this is pretend!'

Aunt Mito smiled and patted Gon's back. 'True. But then, they'll still be suspicious of why you're sick. I'm sure they've already realised how fast you recover from everything.'

'Oh yeah…' Gon stopped hugging Aunt Mito and straightened. 'How to make them believe me?'

After a short silence, both gasped and looked at each other. 'Girl-Gon!' they shouted simultaneously in excitement.

'No one can resist it!' Aunt Mito laughed.

'Not true,' Gon insisted, 'You and Grandma can both resist it.'

'But that's because we're used to it.'

Gon grinned. 'True...'

Silence filled the room.

Aunt Mito and Gon looked at each other and chuckled evilly at the same time.

Upstairs, Killua and Wind shivered simultaneously.

'Did you feel that?' Killua asked Wind, all awkward thoughts of… the D-word disappearing from his mind.

Wind nodded. 'Yeah. That was weird.' She looked around the room suspiciously. Inwardly however, she was cheering because Killua was finally out of ice-block mode.

Wind's view!

Something shook my shoulder.

'Wind, wake up.'

I grumbled incoherently and punched in the direction of the thing.

'Wind!'

I opened my eyes blearily and saw… Aunt Mito standing two metres away from the bed holding a long skinny wooden pole. She poked me a few more times in the shoulder with the pole.

'It's time to wake up!'

I nodded and got ready to turn over and go back to sleep the minute Aunt Mito left my room…

Which she didn't.

I looked her in confusion.

'I'm not leaving your room until you get out of bed, Wind.' Aunt Mito said to me sternly,

I sighed and got out of bed, shoving my feet into slippers.

Aunt Mito smiled and came over, ruffling my hair affectionately. 'That's my girl. Now get dressed and come down to breakfast in five minutes, okay?'

I nodded sleepily and started shuffling towards the wardrobe. Through the wall that I shared with Gon's room, I could hear Aunt Mito begin to shout at the two sleeping boys inside.

'Wake up! It's time to get up! Don't be lazy! Come on! Wake up!'

I had reached my wardrobe and pulled on my dress when I heard Aunt Mito shout something else.

'KILLUA DON'T YOU DARE FLIP OVER AND FALL BACK TO SLEEP!'

I chuckled and began to wrap my bandages around my arms. No wonder Gon was so energetic in the morning.

Finishing my wrap-bandages-around-every-limb process, I made my way to the bathroom and washed my face (the water was so cold! If I wasn't awake before, I definitely am now!) before going to the kitchen/dining room.

'Good morning, Grandma.' I bobbed my head at her before sitting down at my seat (which I knew because Aunt Mito had drawn a cartoon version of my head on top of my porridge with honey).

'Good morning, Wind. Did you sleep well?'

I smiled at her. 'I did! Did you, Grandma?'

She smiled back at me in her sweet, old-person way. 'Yes, thank you.'

We sat there, smiling at each other, not bothering to break up the comfortable silence in the room. Before long, Killua entered the room, stretching and rubbing his eyes.

'Morning.' He plonked down and stared at his honey-cartoon head on his porridge dazedly.

'Good morning, Killua.' Grandma shifted her attention to Killua. 'Did you sleep well?'

'Better than I usually do. It's so quiet and peaceful here, it's probably not possible to sleep badly.'

Grandma smiled wider. 'That's good to know, then.'

She looked at me, staring at my honey-head again, and back at Killua, who was also staring at his honey-head.

'Eat first. Don't bother waiting for Gon. He'll be down soon.'

I blinked at her. 'Oh. Okay then.' I began to eat, careful to spoon my way around the honey head, which was still intact in the middle of my bowl. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Killua do the same.

We kept eating, glancing at each other trying not to destroy our honey-heads, until there was nothing left in the bowl except for the honey-head (and the little island of porridge supporting it).

I glanced at Killua, and he grinned at me. 'On the count of three. One… two… three!'

Both of us scooped up our honey-head porridge islands at the same time and ate it in one gulp before leaning back and sighing happily.

I was still rubbing my stomach contently when Killua elbowed me.

'Hey… where's Gon? He should've come down ages ago.'

I nudged Killua with my shoulder. 'We should go check up on him.'

'Yeah. Let's go!' He leapt up from the table and ran out of the room.

Not that we knew it at the time, but as we ran out of the room, Gon's grandma looked at us and smiled. Not her usual smile, but a smile that was a little, you guessed it, evil.

Gon's view

As soon as Killua closed the door to slowly wander off towards breakfast, Gon and Aunt Mito leapt into action.

'Here's the thermometer, we'll go and warm it up a bit in the sun. Don't want it too hot!'

'Where's the bathrobe?'

'Gon, get off the face-towel and drink more hot water! Your cheeks aren't flushed enough!'

'I'll go pinch my cheeks then.'

'You've got the bathrobe on inside out, Gon!'

'Aunt Mito, the thermometer's ready!'

'Okay, get into bed, now, quick!'

Gon lay down in bed in the fluffy pink bathrobe (the only one that Aunt Mito could find) and Aunt Mito tucked the blankets down firmly around him. She placed a hot towel onto his forehead.

'Ah, it burns!'

'Sorry!' Aunt Mito took it and waved it a few times in the air to cool it down somewhat. She refolded the still-steaming towel back onto his forehead.

'Better?'

'Yep! Thanks, Aunt Mito.'

Aunt Mito smiled at her nephew. 'Your cheeks are red enough too, so you can stop pinching them now.'

Gon let go of his cheeks with a sigh of relief, and carefully placed his arms next to him.

'How do I look?' Gon asked.

'Sick,' Aunt Mito replied with a wicked gleam in her eye. Then the two of them stiffened.

'I think that's them,' said Aunt Mito. She took the thermometer out of the sun and stuck it into Gon's mouth. 'Remember to make your face look sick!'

Just as Gon had fixed his expression, the door to his room burst open to spill Wind and Killua through the door, who, in their haste to get through the door, had tripped over each other into an untidy pile. They quickly untangled themselves and looked at the scene in front of them. Their eyes widened.

'Are you sick, Gon?' Wind asked worriedly.

Aunt Mito smiled worriedly from her seat next to Gon's bed. 'I'm afraid so, Wind.'

Killua stared. 'What are you sick with?'

'Probably the flu,' Aunt Mito replied. She gently took the thermometer out of Gon's mouth and checked the temperature. She sighed.

'How is it?' Wind again.

'Forty point three degrees Celcius.'

'That's so high!' Killua now.

Gon smiled wanly at his friends. 'I'm sorry for getting sick and not being able to come with you to get the computer.'

Wind walked over and began to fuss over Gon. 'Don't be sorry! No one can help being sick! It happens to everyone!'

Killua frowned. Something wasn't right…

'Gon, you haven't been near anyone except us for the last two days, and we're not sick, so you couldn't have caught it off us. The island is so natural and fresh that diseases probably can't live here comfortably, and you recover from everything just like that.' Killua snapped his fingers.

'So how come you're sick?'

Wind stared down at Gon. 'You're right, Killua. That's weird.'

Gon looked up at Aunt Mito, who winked and nodded as inconspicuously as possible at the boy.

The spikey-haired boy closed his eyes, breathed in, and when he opened his eyes a second later, his hair… was long. Roses and sparkle-y, pastel rainbow light filled the room, orchestral music began to play. The pink bathrobe made him seem even more vulnerable and fragile.

Wind and Killua twitched.

Gon looked at his friends again, and giggled inwardly. Their expressions!

Outwardly, he gazed at them softly, huge brown eyes conveying oceans of emotion. 'I don't know how, but I must've been really weak at the time or the virus wouldn't be able to attack me and make me sick.' Gon closed his eyes, his long lashes brushing against his cheek, and sighed gently.

A vein throbbed at Wind and Killua's temple.

A lone violin began to play, tragically, plaintively.

A light appeared and shone on Gon's face; long black hair rippled under the soft beam.

Wind was gagging. Killua had semi-frozen into ice-block mode.

'I –'

'I GET THE POINT!' Wind shouted. 'Get better soon! We'll be leaving now! See you when we come back!' She pulled Killua, still half in ice-block mode and staring at his best friend, out of the room and kicked the door shut with a bang.

Aunt Mito and Girl-Gon looked at each other and laughed evilly.

'Now,' Gon said after changing back from Girl Gon, still laughing, 'On to Phase Two.'

Aunt Mito winked and left the room, leaving a laughing-so-hard-he-can't-move Gon behind.

Gon wiped his eyes, still laughing. Their expressions were too funny! Wind looked like she was about to vomit, and Killua looked like he was a particularly disturbing googly-eyed fish head or something!

He really needed to do Girl Gon more.

Wind's view

I charged down the stairs into the kitchen as quickly as I could to get away from Girl-Gon, pulling a frozen Killua behind me.

Once we reach the kitchen, Grandma looked up at us and asked worriedly, 'How's Gon?'

I let go of Killua's hand and smile weakly. 'He's sick with a really high fever.' An image of a silky long-haired Gon with his own personal orchestra, eyes glistening with rainbow light rose unbidden into my mind.

I shivered involuntarily. Next to me, Killua finally unfroze enough for his mouth to move.

'That was…' he whispered hoarsely at me.

I glanced at him and nodded in understanding. '… even more disturbing than the first time.'

'Is that even possible?'

'Obviously. I really don't want to see that again…'

We both shivered and stood there, trying to get over our mutual trauma.

After , Aunt Mito walked into the room and smiled at us.

I stared. Was it just me or was there a glint of evil in her smile…? Nah, no way would Aunt Mito be plotting something. She's too nice.

'Gon should be okay in a few days, it's just a cold, I think.'

We looked at her and grimace-smiled. 'That's great to know!'

'But since he can't come with you anymore and take you to the shop,' Aunt Mito continued, 'I'll give you a map so you don't get lost.'

I smiled at her. 'Thank you, Aunt Mito!'

Next to me, Killua snapped into action. 'Yeah, thanks.' He grabbed our packs, handing mine to me, and walked out of the room and out the door.

Aunt Mito walked me to the door and handed me the map as I pulled on my bag and strapped my staff the outside of the bag.

'I think you'll be more responsible than Killua and not lose this map, Wind,' said Aunt Mito. 'At the start, follow the main street south out of the village and go left at the first split road, okay? I can't remember any more than that so you'll have to read the map after that, I'm afraid.'

I nodded and took the map, tucking it securely into my bag. 'Thanks, Aunt Mito! I hope Gon gets better by the time we come back!'

'Don't worry, I'm sure he'll recover as quickly as he usually does!' Aunt Mito smiled wider and patted me on the head reassuringly. 'Now get going or you won't get back in time for lunch tomorrow!'

'Then I'll be going now!' I waved at Aunt Mito and ran to where Killua was waiting impatiently.

Killua scowled at me. 'What took you so long?'

'Aunt Mito said to go out the village through the south main street way, then turn left at the first split road place,' I explained as we began to walk down that particular road, 'Then she forgot which way to go, so she gave us a map too.'

'She could've just given us the map without telling us all that!'

I frowned at him. 'She doesn't want us to start the wrong way! Or we'd get lost, since we're tourists here!'

Killua sighed and began to walk faster.

'Killua, why are you in such a hurry anyway?'

'I want to get away from that.'

An image of a sleeping Girl-Gon invaded my mind.

'Good point.'

'Exactly.'

…

'But now you've made that come back into my head!' I punched Killua hard.

Killua punched me back. 'You're the one who asked for it!'

I punched him again. 'Your fault!'

'Was not!' He returned the punch.

By the time we got to the split road, our arms were covered in bruises and we'd already forgotten why we were punching each other in the first place.

Killua looked at me. 'Which way was it again?'

'The left.' We looked down the left path, which led… into the forest. The right, in contrast, followed the river.

'Are you sure Aunt Mito said the left? It leads into the forest.'

'Oh really?' I answered Killua sarcastically. 'But we should follow Aunt Mito anyway. She knows this place better than us.'

'Fine.' Killua slouched and stuck his hands in his pockets. 'Let's go then.'

So we did, each step taking us closer to the forest.

Just before we walked into the forest, my stomach began to grumble like an angry bear. If angry bears did grumble anyway. Killua noticed and stopped.

'You wanna eat lunch before we go into the forest?' Killua asked me. 'It's about lunch time now anyway. Who knew the forest was so far away?'

By the time he finished saying that, I'd already sat down and ate half my lunch. Killua noticed me staring at his share of the food and grinned.

'What do you think you're looking at?'

I swallowed my food and stuck my tongue out at him. 'If you don't want me looking, then eat it already!'

So he did.

Gon's view

'Aunt Mito!' Gon sat at the empty bar.

'Yes?' She looked up from wiping the glasses.

'Can I go now?'

She smiled menacingly. 'What makes you think that? You're not sick, are you?'

He sighed. 'Okay…'

After a while, Gon spoke again. 'Aunt Mito?'

'What?' She stopped sweeping the floor.

'Where do you think they are now?'

'Probably somewhere in the forest by now. Are you sure they'll be okay in there? We do have some dangerous animals in there.'

Gon nodded. 'They'll be fine. They're both insanely strong.'

Aunt Mito sighed in relief. 'That's good then. I was getting a bit worried about leading them into an unfamiliar forest.' She began to sweep the floor again.

Gon sighed. Even though it was for Wind and Killua's own good, letting them go off by themselves like that, but he'd forgotten how boring looking after the shop was. Which made him regret letting them go off by themselves.

Something Efoe had once said to Gon (and Zushi) while they were planning the movie/aquarium date (what was the name of that plan again? Only Efoe could come up with such a long, hard-to-remember name) slowly emerged through the boredom.

'No matter how you feel, helping your friends notice their own feelings comes first!'

Gon had laughed back then, since Efoe kept breaking his own belief ('WHY DON'T THEY REALISE THEY NEED TO BE TOGETHER?) but now that Gon was in the same position, he finally understood the true wisdom of Efoe's words.

And so Gon kept sitting at the bar and played noughts and crosses by himself in the dust that had gathered on the surface of the bar.

Wind's view

The dirt path had disappeared into a grassy path, which soon disappeared into the undergrowth of the forest. Which meant we were now wandering through the forest without knowing exactly where we were.

Killua was grumbling under his breath. 'Aunt Mito's memory… is it actually right? This is so dodgy… as if this will lead us to the village…'

I whacked at him half-heartedly. 'Stop grumbling!'

He stuck his tongue at me. Not that I noticed, because at that moment I saw the coolest flower ever. It had spikey petals, which were white, but the curling veins underneath the surface was dark grey. It looked like something some fantasy author would draw, but real!

I stared at the flower, enraptured. It was so pretty! What would it smell like? I leaned closer to the flower to try smell it.

Killua noticed what I was doing and immediately shouted, 'Get away from the flower!'

I glanced at him, confused, but leaned back anyway. 'Why?'

'That flower's poisonous. One prick by the tip of the petal and you'll feel like your blood's boiling inside your veins.'

'Really?'

'You see the grey lines? They're the bits that hold the poison, and when you squeeze it out, it's actually black-y green, and if you eat one drop of it, the pain you'll feel from your "boiling blood" will probably kill you.'

I stared at him, then back at the flower. Who knew that such a pretty flower was so dangerous?

'Anyway,' Killua continued, 'Let's look at the map.'

I nodded and straightened, pulling the map out of my bag and unrolling it. 'Let's see…'

I gaped at the unrolled map. Killua peered over my shoulder and frowned.

'Are you sure this is the map?'

I nodded mutely. This was the map Aunt Mito gave me!

'This can't be the map!' Killua snatched the map out of my hands. 'There's nothing on it except for a green whale shaped thing in the middle of the map, a tree growing through a house in the middle of the whale, and a signpost on the right of the house thing saying "Computer Shop".'

Then it dawned on him. 'Is… the green thing Whale Island?'

I nodded.

'The tree house Gon's house?'

I nodded again.

'The signpost where we're supposed to be?'

I nodded a third time. 'I think we're lost, Killua.'

He scrunched up the paper and threw it into the forest. 'I told you the left seemed weird!'

'That's because Aunt Mito said to go there!'

Killua sighed. 'We might as well go back and go the other way, since we're lost anyway…'

I sighed too. 'But I don't know where the path is anymore. I've been guessing my way through the forest.'

'We could use Gyo to see if we can trace our way, can't we? Trace our path like spies do with their sensors?'

I shrugged. 'We could try.'

So we did. And then stared at a tree five metres in front of us.

I nudged Killua. 'Do you see that?' He nodded, and we slowly made our way towards the tree.

The tree we were staring at had a really wide trunk, and winding up the trunk was a set of stairs that jutted out from the main trunk, complete with railing. At the bottom of the stairs was a sign which said "Fon's Techshop".

'That wasn't there before, was it?' Killua asked.

'Nope. Don't think so.' I stopped using Gyo, and immediately the stairs disappeared. Start Gyo, and the stairs reappeared. 'The stairs are shielded by nen. And it's a techshop. They should sell computers, right?'

'I think so. Let's go and see.'

We began to climb the stairs, which kept winding up and up and up the trunk. After we'd been climbing the stairs for five minutes, we reached a landing, where a round wooden door was carved into the trunk of the tree. A brass bell hung next to the door, and so I rung the bell, flipping my hood up to cover my head at the same time.

Soon after I rung the bell, an old man opened the door. He reminded me of Netero-san, except without the long eyebrows and with really long white hair.

'Hello,' he said in a smooth, old-man voice and smiled at us, 'Call me Fon. Welcome to my shop.' Then he glanced at me and said, 'It's a bit hot today for a hood, girl. Why don't you take your hood off?'

I stared at him. How did he guess?

Meanwhile, Fon bowed before leading us into the room beyond. All golden wood inside, the room only had one wall, which curved seamlessly around the inside of the tree in an egg, where the ceiling wasn't really a ceiling, all round and non-pointy in a pointy kind of way. Honeycomb style shelves lined halfway up the wall (which was where the wall began to curve inwards), each hexagonal cell holding random bits of stuff, the cells getting smaller and smaller as they got higher. Most of the really big cells at the bottom and some at the top were empty and without a back, serving as windows that flooded the egg room with light.

As Killua and I looked around the room, Fon walked into the middle of a huge hexagonal ring bench.

'Both of you are sure young to be Hunters, aren't you?'

I smiled. I like Fon. He seems nice. 'Killua's not a Hunter yet, but I am.'

Fon chuckled. 'But the two of you are really strong. I could sense your nen from all the way up here.' He smiled at me. 'That's how I knew you were a girl too. To me, the different genders and ages have a different sense to their nen.'

I stared at him again. He was so strong that he could tell if you were a guy or a girl from your nen? Even Netero-san couldn't, and he was crazy strong!

Killua looked at Fon intently. 'Just who are you? Why do you have a shop in the middle of the forest on such a small island?'

Fon smiled in a cute-old-man way, all eye-smiles and toothless grin. 'I'm a technology Hunter, and because I sell everything technology related, from the most mundane to the most recent to the most fantastical, and because of all the rare things I stock as a result, this remote location is perfect for discouraging good-for-nothing thieves and for rewarding the super determined.'

Fon sounds like he does what the job-finder piercing lady that Kurapika went to find does, I thought, nodding in understanding. They both only help nen-users and their shops are both really obscure. Only Fon's shop is cooler.

Killua was also nodding, until he saw at least fifty cells dedicated to games.

'You have Insane Monkey V!' Killua shouted as he rushed over to those cells. 'And Alien Wars: Requiem! That's scheduled to come out next month!' He turned to Fon with shining eyes. 'How did you get these? These are so rare! And Alien Wars isn't even out yet!'

Fon chuckled. 'I have my ways, boy.'

Killua turned back to the games, mumbling the titles under his breath. 'Water Zombies… Chicken Invaders, haven't played that for a while… SKEGGS… Tree of Life, he even has this game, it was so lame… Greed Island, I've never heard of that one before… Planet of Power…'

While Killua was pouring over the game titles, occasionally ranting and raving by himself when he saw a limited-edition game that he really liked or hadn't played, I explained our need for a computer to Fon.

'Well, we wanted to install a computer with Internet access into a house without any of these things except a satellite dish, so what do you recommend? '

Fon nodded slowly. 'I have five computers that fit your requirements; all of the other models I have need pre-installed Internet connections. I'll bring them all out and you can take your pick.'

He turned around, and within twenty seconds, five new gleaming computers sat on the bench in front of me.

'Okay, I'll go through each one for you now. If you don't get anything, just ask me to stop and explain it for you and I will. Got it?'

I nodded. Fon smiled and pointed to the first one. 'This one is a Comet 5849 from Magnum. It has a 20 inch screen…'

Halfway through Fon's explanation of the third computer, Killua stopped looking (more like drooling) over the games and ambled over, listening to Fon's lecture as well.

When Fon finished, I let Killua do the tech-talk and negotiating, since he knew more about that stuff than I did, and sat on the side, staring out of one of the bigger windows. The view was so nice up here.

Fon had said before that his shop was 80 metres off the ground, and so when you looked out the windows you saw the tops of a lot of trees, and blue skies, and because the shop was inside the tree (the ultimate tree-house!), built to look as natural as possible, birds would occasionally stop on the outer window ledges before fluttering off.

After staring out one particularly big window, nearly touching the floor and wide and tall enough to fit Buhara, I realised that there were two other windows as big as that one, all placed regularly around the room and all looking out at a tree easily as wide as the tree we were in right now.

And then I looked more closely at the bottom of those three windows, and realised that a really fine net bridge spanned the distance from the shop to the particular tree that each window looked at. So I activated Gyo, and lo behold, a round door just like the door of Fon's shop was carved within each tree, the whorls and patterns of the trunks decorating the door artistically.

Next to me, Killua was finishing off discussing which computer was better with Fon.

'Hey Wind, what do you think of this computer?'

I jerked back from peering out of the door windows. 'Uh… what?'

'What do you think of this computer?' Killua sighed.

I looked at it. It looked just like a typical computer. 'Okay. Whatever.'

Fon smiled. 'So you'll be getting this? Wind, may I have your Hunter card? Hunters get 20% off what they buy here.'

I pulled out my Hunter card and gave it to Fon, who beeped it and then gave it back. I tucked it back where it was hidden in my pack while Killua paid for the computer. Then, after lashing it securely to the front of Killua's bag (when he put on his bag the extra computer box made him look like he had a snail shell on his back… not that Killua was a snail, since he was so fast. Or maybe a supersonic snail… I'm rambling too much! Dusky was the one who rambled, not me!), Fon looked at both of us and smiled.

'Not many people visit my shop. In fact, you're the first customers I've had in the last three months. So would you mind joining an old man for tea?'

I nodded happily. 'Sure!'

Killua glanced at the sky, which was just starting to turn pink, and nodded as well.

Fon smiled wider. 'Then if you'll come this way…'

He walked over to one of the Buhara-sized windows and stepped out onto the net, making his way to the other tree about twenty metres away. We followed across tentatively, since the net kinda sagged when we stood on it, and was so fine the forest floor 80 metres down was really clear and far away...

Fon opened the door and ushered us inside and indicated at us to sit down at the bench in the middle of the room. The room was built exactly the same as the shop, except one of the Buhara-sized windows had a bed nestled within it instead of leading to somewhere. Other cells had random things all inside them, or had cupboard doors hinged on the front. From one of these, Fon was taking out cups and saucers.

'I'll help!' I got up from my seat, but Fon rebuked me.

'You're my guests, I can't let you help me!' He placed a cup and a saucer in front of Killua and me before asking, 'I only have Ceylon tea here, do you mind?'

We both shook our heads.

'Good!' Fon clapped his hands together. Metal, mechanical arms then slid out from partitions hidden under the bench and placed one tea bag into our cups before pouring hot water into them.

Both Killua and I gaped at the metal arms.

'Did you make that?' Killua asked eagerly.

'How did you do that?' I asked excitedly.

Fon smiled. 'Yes, I did make them. They do that because of the motors I put into each of the arms, which is activated when I clap my hands. The way I clap my hands tell them what I want them to do. Sensors under the table then tell them which arm needs to do what and where they need to do what they need to do. For example, I just clapped once, which tells them that I want to pour tea. Sensors under the table then tell them where the cups are. The two nearest arms will then activate, and make you a cup of tea.'

He placed his mug onto the table. 'Killua, you try clapping your hands twice.'

Killua did, and immediately an arm slid out and poured out something that looked like steaming creamy mushroom soup into the mug. After he finished, Fon sipped his soup and smiled at our flabbergasted faces.

'Wind, do you want to try? Clap your hands three times.'

I clapped them quickly, and then an arm came out with speakers. It pushed a button on those speakers, from which classical music began to play.

'Clap your hands again, Wind.'

I clapped them three times, and the hand switched off the speakers and put them away.

'That's amazing!' We turned to Fon, eyes gleaming with excitement. 'What else do you have?'

Fon laughed. 'I have a bathroom through that door over there, complete with flushing toilet, shower and bathtub.'

I gaped. 'How do you have a flushing toilet in a tree?'

Fon launched into explanation after explanation as we asked him more and more questions. From that, we learnt he made the net bridges himself from nen-infused metal wire.

He also told us that he used five trees, all within twenty metres of each other. The first tree was obviously his store. Then there was his house, which was the tree we were in now. The third tree housed his workshop, which could only be accessed from his house. His fourth tree held his bathroom, accessible from his house and his store. And the last tree? His pantry. And the only thing that his pantry held was…

'Mushroom Cream soup. That's the only thing I eat or drink, and that's the only thing that I'll ever eat or drink.'

Killua laughed. 'Your food obsession is even more extreme than Wind's obsession over pineapple!'

'Or yours over chocolate!' I threw back at him. All three of us laughed.

'But really,' I said to Fon, 'This place is so cool. How long did it take to make all this?'

'It took me a month to fix up my workshop, which was the first thing I did. And then from there I worked at the house for another month, and then the pantry for a week, the bathroom for two months from all the piping I had to do, one more month for the store and the stairs leading up here and then three days after I finished setting up each tree for nen-disguising. So nearly half a year in total.'

'Only? I would've thought so much longer than that!'

Killua nodded. 'I agree. You only took half a year for something people would take fifty years to do!'

Fon smiled at him. 'Nen makes life much easier, boy. Don't forget that.'

By now, the sun had nearly set. I glanced at Killua, who nodded.

'It's getting late now, Fon,' Killua said. 'We should get going.'

Fon looked out the window. 'Yes, you should. I'm sorry for not noticing how late it was.'

We both protested as we walked back to the landing leading into Fon's shop.

Fon bowed at us. 'Thank you for having tea with me.'

We bowed back. 'The tea was really nice, Fon,' I said. 'Can we come back and visit sometime later?'

Fon smiled us. 'No problem. I'll always be here! The only times I'm not here is when I've gone to pick up my soup from my friend who specially blends it for me, and I only go twice a year. Although I am due for a visit next week. So come for tea the week after, okay?'

I grinned at him. 'I'll definitely come! But how will we find you? We only found you because we were lost…'

'No problem, just wait here for a moment.' Fon disappeared back into his store. Killua looked at me but I shrugged. I didn't know what Fon was doing either.

The old man came back and pressed something metallic and hanging on a chain into each of our hands.

'These are my newest inventions – they're called "Trace" compasses,' Fon explained as we peered at the pendant thing (the size of my thumb nail) curiously. 'I've designed these so that whenever you want to go somewhere, you cup the ring in your hands, activate your Nen and then think about wherever you want to go, or who you want to find for a moment, and the needle will point you in the right direction.

'You see the needle hanging freely inside the metal ring attached to the chain? The gold end will point to you to where you want to go. That's what the Nen-activation is for. The silver end you can set it to permanently lead you to one place every time you trace the ring with Nen three times clockwise with your finger. To set which place you want the silver end to point towards, trace the ring with your finger three times anti-clockwise.'

We put on the chains, where the metal ring hung hidden inside our clothes. The cold metal pricked the skin on my diaphragm-stomach area.

'Thank you, Fon!' We chorused.

He smiled. 'No problem. Don't want you lost now, would we? I have to warn you though, because they're new, they won't work in thunderstorms because the lightning interferes with the signals. But that shouldn't be a serious problem most of the time anyway.'

'Thank you again! We'll be leaving now then. See you next time!' I led the way down the stairs. Fon stood above us and watched us start to disappear down the stairs.

'Take care! See you next time!'

Fon was so nice! I'm definitely going to visit him every time I visit Whale Island!

A while after leaving Fon's shop, we sat down under a tree.

'We can use this to get back now!' I said to Killua, taking out Fon's Trace compass.

'Yeah! Let's try these things.' We both took out the compasses and cupped them in our hands, activating our Nen and muttering "Gon's house" over and over again.

'That should be enough right?' I asked after ten seconds. 'Fon said a moment was enough.'

'Good point.' Killua stopped his Nen and peered at it. The needle was lying flat, parallel to the ground, and the gold end was pointing to the right of the newly risen moon.

'Where does yours point to, Wind?'

I hung mine next to Killua's. They pointed in exactly the same direction.

'Yes!' I cheered. 'It's working!'

'Do you want to walk through the night and get to Gon's house tomorrow morning, or find a place to rest before going back tomorrow?'

'Let's walk and get back as fast as possible.'

'Good. I wanted to do the same thing.'

So we walked slowly in the direction of the gold end, careful not to trip on any stray tree root. Twice we had to clamber up a tree and suppress our Nen to avoid fighting with wolf-like animals.

After we ran away from the most gigantic moths ever, I noticed Killua's expression.

'Hey, Killua!' He turned around to look at me. 'Relax your face and smile. You look like you're constipated.'

His face twisted into a grimace smile thing. 'I am relaxed,' Killua said through his teeth. 'How am I not relaxed? Especially after being chased by monster moths with googly eyes?'

I beamed at him. 'Well, at least we're not lost anymore thanks to Fon!' I chirped in an overly-bright tone before marching off with Killua following me, still trying to relax his face muscles from the grossness of the googly-eyed, bus-sized moths.

Gon's view

KILLUA! THIS IS THE BEST TIME TO CONFESS! WIND! REALISE HOW KILLUA FEELS ABOUT YOU! KILLUA! GATHER YOUR COURAGE AND FACE YOUR FEELINGS WITHOUT GETTING DISTRACTED BY THINGS LIKE THE GOOGLY MOTH! WIND –

'What are you doing, Gon?' Aunt Mito interrupted Gon's thoughts.

Gon grinned sheepishly. 'Sending my thoughts out to Wind and Killua to help them get together. Because my instincts are telling me that they just met the Googly moth. And Killua hates googly eyed stuff, and so he might get distracted from confessing.'

'If you have that much free time,' Aunt Mito laughed, 'You can help out in the store. It's getting busy now.'

'Okay! I'll come! But let me send out just one more thought.'

'I'll be waiting.' Aunt Mito left the room. Gon scrunched up his face once more and sent one last thought out into space.

SKY! PLEASE MAKE A THUNDERSTORM SO THAT WIND AND KILLUA CAN HAVE MORE CHANCES OF REALISING THEIR FEELINGS!

Wind's view

The more we walked, the more the half-moon's light slowly disappeared behind a thick blanket of cloud.

'Do you think…' Killua asked me, all creeped-out-from-moths gone from his tone to be replaced by wariness.

'Nah, can't be a thunderstorm.'

Immediately after I said it, a thunderclap echoed through the forest, making both Killua and I jump in shock.

The gold needle dropped and became a normal pendant once more. I put it away and sighed.

Was this more anime-effects at play?

Killua sighed too and tucked his compass away.

'Keep walking, or find a place to hide from the storm?' I asked him.

'Hide from the storm,' Killua immediately replied. 'But we'll keep walking in the same direction until we find some place to hid.'

So we walked in the direction we thought was right, hoping that lightning wouldn't strike the tree that we were walking under every time thunder sounded, hoping that rain wouldn't start until we had found shelter already.

And then, after walking around in the dark without knowing where we were or where we were going, what do we see?

Ocean.

That's right. Somehow, we had swung away from walking towards the village and instead walked our way to the ocean.

Killua and I stared at each other before looking around dubiously.

'Do you think we can find a cave in the rock face?' Killua asked doubtfully.

'Maybe…' I shrugged and unstrapped my staff from my back, growing its wings and hopping on. I looked back at Killua.

'Get on.'

Killua complied, grasping the staff with both hands.

I sighed and grabbed his hands. 'Killua, it'll be safer and easier to stay on if you held onto me,' I said, wrapping his arms around me and checking if he was sitting securely on the staff.

The arms wrapped around my waist turned to stone.

'Don't tell me…' I muttered to myself and turned around.

Yep, Killua was once again in ice-block mode.

I sighed and began to fly along the coastline to check for shelter-places. Of all times to be in ice-block mode, it had to be now?

By the time I found a shelter, the rain had started properly, raining down in sheets of water accompanied by flashes of lightning and shuddering peals of thunder. I flew down and landed at the shelter, a large hollow created in the rock face with large tree roots twined through the rock walls, disentangling myself from Killua's arms and sliding off the staff, shrinking the wings and re-strapping the staff to my bag.

So glad my wings aren't actually made of feathers, just wind and light shaped like feathered wings, or we'd have fallen into the ocean and die or something.

After going deeper into the root mini-cave to where the rain didn't reach me, I looked around me properly and frowned. This looked familiar…

Wait… is this the cave that Aunt Mito used to hide in and only Gon's dad could find her? If that's true, then we were close to Gon's house! At least, closer than we were before.

Next to me, Killua unfroze.

'Where are we?'

I leaned back against the rock wall. 'We're in a random mini-cave I found.'

Killua nodded, also leaning back against the wall.

After a while, Killua broke the silence. 'Hey, Wind? If you could fly, why didn't we fly back to Gon's house in the first place?'

…

'Ehehehe, I forgot about my staff?' I asked sheepishly.

Killua opened his mouth to say something when he was interrupted by something cold and wet trickling across the rock floor.

I leapt up. 'The water's getting in!'

Killua peered at the conditions outside the cave, all his complaints about me and my memory forgotten. 'And the tide's coming in, so the waves are starting to reach this place too… What do you wanna do, Wind?' He turned back to look at me only to notice that all the water had been banished from the cave.

He looked at me. 'How long can you keep the water out for?'

I gaped at Killua. 'How did you guess?'

'Because the water suddenly went out of the cave,' Killua explained, somewhat annoyed, 'And since I know it's not me, it must be you. Especially because I know you control the elements.'

'That sounds like something Kurapika would say.'

Killua ignored me. 'So, how long?'

'Depends on how much water wants to come in. Right now, probably for until the storm stops. If the water keeps increasing though, I'll only be able to keep it out for another half an hour.'

Killua nodded. 'Well then, I say we stay here and hope the storm ends before you run out of energy. If it doesn't, we'll run out when you feel like you can't keep it out anymore.'

'Okay then,' I replied, and prepared myself for using my nen to force back the water.

Only I didn't last very long.

In fact, I only lasted another twenty minutes.

I blame it on both the rain, which kept raining harder and harder without any signs of it wanting to stop, and the waves, which got higher and higher as the storm raged harder and harder and as the tide got higher and higher.

'Killua, you ready?'

'Yep. Let's get out of here.'

I focussed all the power I had left into one explosive ball that sprayed all the water that had built up outside the cave entrance outwards as if a bomb had exploded inside the cave.

Following the water explosion, Killua and I ran out of the cave as fast as possible to prevent the water that had sprayed up from landing on us and getting us wetter than we already were. Soon we had distanced ourselves from the ocean and were perched on the limb of a really tall and fairly wide tree. Killua was knocking on the wood.

'This tree's hollow! Let's go inside and hide from the rain.'

And so we did, Killua carefully carving a neat round hole into the side of the tree trunk, him slipping into the tree, me following him into the tree. Which made us somewhat dry, since we were out of the rain, but at the same time we were wedged against each other.

At least we were wedged back to back.

But it was tiring, trying to keep a grip on the inside of the tree to prevent us from slipping down, trying to change positions so that we were wedged side by side.

That was when I remembered about my canvas. Or, as Jeb calls it, the "House Within a Canvas".

You'd expect things that had been living for thousands of years to have more imagination.

I nudged Killua with my elbow.

'Can you reach my bag from there?'

'Yeah. I'm going to have to change the position of my arm though,' Killua warned. He moved his arm from in front of him, which made my grip on the tree weaken, and soon I felt something rummage through my bag.

'Wind, what are you looking for?'

'Can you feel a really big piece of canvas?'

Pause. Then, 'Yeah, I've got it.'

'Okay then, give it to me.'

Something cold and fabric-y brushed my hand. I grabbed hold of it with one hand and shook it open, bringing it up and sticking it to the patch of tree trunk in front of me.

'Killua, if you don't want to suffer,' I began as I lifted the corner of the canvas, 'Follow what I'm doing.'

I covered my head with the canvas.

Killua's view

'Killua, if you don't want to suffer,' Wind was saying to me, 'Follow what I'm doing'. And then she covered her head with the canvas she had me take out of her bag and disappeared.

I stared at the empty spot. Using my nails for grip and support, I poked the canvas. For the next five minutes, I bit it, scratched it, tore it (in my head; this particular material was too strong to be torn, probably someone had made it all elemental in Avril), kicked it, sniffed it, you name it, I did it. I even lifted it like Wind did and looked under it, but there was nothing there except for wood and random beetles.

Finally, I just stared at it. What was this thing? It wasn't real canvas, so what was it made of? How did it make Wind disappear? What does it do?

Did I trust Wind enough to go under the canvas?

I lifted the flap and covered my head with it. The storm immediately disappeared. No more cold rain dripping down my shirt, no more thunder, no more lightning, no more tree swaying.

Instead, there was a soft breeze, chirping birds, and the warmth of the sun.

I opened my eyes.

I was standing in the lounge room of a light-filled house, with wooden floorboards and bright furnishings. Behind me and next to the lounge was a door with a padlock that had a clock counting down from 23:54:03.

Walking a bit further was a dining room, except the dining room had a fridge and pantry in it as well. There wasn't a kitchen, so that was probably why the fridge and pantry were in the dining room. But when I looked into the fridge and the pantry, it was empty except for pineapple. In the fridge, pineapple juice, pineapple chunks, pineapple cakes. In the pantry, pineapple biscuits, pineapple slices, dried pineapple.

…

This definitely was Wind's house.

I wandered back to the lounge room and flopped onto the biggest, squashiest leather couch I've ever seen. Looking around, I saw a colourful curtain of sheer fabric partitioning off a section of the house. So I walked over and peered past the curtain, where I saw a massive bed covered with blankets (I saw at least three), cushions and pillows. The floor was covered with a thick white carpet, and apart from the bed, the only other furniture in the room was a bedside table and a wardrobe built into the wall. A large window flooded the room with sunlight (like the rest of the house), and on the wall opposite the curtain was a door, which was closed.

My eyes were burning… The room was so colourful…

Just as I had re-opened my eyes and taken a step into the room, the only door in the room opened with a whoosh of steam, with Wind walking through the door dressed in a T-shirt printed with a pineapple on the front and shorts, drying her hair with a white fluffy towel.

I stared in shock. It was so weird seeing Wind walking around in a T-shirt and shorts…

'You decided to come in!' Wind said cheerily, wrapping her hair in her towel into a turban thing.

'Yeah… What is this place?' I asked her.

'It's my portable house. I, uh, got the people in Avril to design and make one for me.' She looked around shiftily.

I narrowed my eyes at her. Was she lying to me?

Her next question knocked my suspicion out of my head.

'Killua, do you want a shower? Since you're all wet from the rain outside.'

'Here?' I spluttered.

She looked at me. 'Where else would you shower? I have no other shower. And besides, you can't go out for another day anyway, so you need to change out of your wet clothes anyway, and so you might as well go and shower at the same time.'

'Why can't we go outside for another day?'

Now she was looking through her wardrobe. 'That's the way this place was made. If you come in, you need to stay in here for at least twenty-four hours before you can leave.'

Wind tossed a towel, a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, which also had a pineapple printed on it, at me before pushing me into the bathroom.

'So go! Don't want you getting sick now, do we?' Wind shut the door behind me.

I looked at the door bemusedly before switching my attention to my surroundings. The bathroom was so strange; there was no bathtub, instead having a glass cubicle with a showerhead inside.

I sighed and began to undress. Since I was here already, I might as well go and shower, right?

I walked out of the bathroom. Wind, her towel gone from her head and her hair dry, looked up from the pile of cushions, pillows and blankets on the floor.

'Err… where do I put these?' I gestured at the bundle of clothes plus towel in my arms.

'Just throw them into that drawer over there and it'll be cleaned for you.' Wind opened up a drawer set in the middle of the wall before turning back to her cushion-pillow-blanket nest.

Checking to see if all my clothes were there (imagine if I left my underwear out or something...), I shoved my clothes into the drawer and closed it.

Then I opened the drawer again, but my clothes were gone!

'My clothes are gone!' I pointed at the drawer in shock.

'Of course they're gone, they've been taken away to be cleaned.' Wind said exasperatedly. 'Now come over here and sit down.'

I plonked myself onto a fat purple pillow opposite Wind, who was hugging a pineapple shaped cushion.

'Okay, now turn around. I'm going to dry your hair for you.'

'How?' I looked at her hands, which were empty.

'Using my nen. I learnt this off Chiiyo back in Avril.' Wind swivelled me around and began to run her hands through my hair.

I stiffened when I felt the blast of warm air hit my scalp. 'It feels strange,' I told Wind.

She shushed me. 'Just relax. The wind's not that strong.'

Wind continued to run her hands through my hair. 'Your hair's so nice and fluffy, Killua.'

I felt my face heat up.

'And it's so short and easy to dry. Look, you're done already.' Wind sat back and pouted. 'I wish my hair was as easy to dry.'

At her pout, I felt my face heat up even more before I realised fully that I had just taken a shower in Wind's bathroom and that Wind had just dried my hair for me.

I froze.

Dimly, I could hear Wind saying something like, 'Killua, don't go ice-block mode now. What's there to be ice-blocky about?'

I felt a pain at the back of my head and snapped out of my daze.

'What was that for?' I rubbed the back of my head.

Wind looked away. 'Nothing, just felt like it. Anyway,' she continued, 'It's late, so I think we should go to bed and sleep now.'

I nodded. 'Where am I sleeping?'

Wind patted the cushion-pillow-blanket nest under us. 'Here!'

I lay down, pulling a blanket over me. Wind did the same.

'Wait. Wind, aren't you sleeping on the bed?'

She peered at me from underneath her blanket. 'No,' Wind said, her voice slightly muffled by the blanket covering her mouth, 'I feel weird if you were sleeping on the floor and I was sleeping on the bed, but it's even more weird if we both sleep on the bed, and so I thought we'd just both sleep on the floor.'

'Oh. That makes sense.' I lay on my right, facing away from Wind so that I could pretend that she wasn't lying right next to me and go to sleep peacefully.

Then the room went dark.

I sat up. 'What happened?'

Wind's voice sounded somewhere next to me. 'I can switch the lighting in the house from daytime to night-time so that I can just rely fully on natural lighting and not use any lights at all.'

'Oh. Okay then. Good night, Wind.' I lay back down, my back still facing Wind.

'Good night, Killua. See you in the morning!' Within seconds of Wind saying that, I could hear her breathing slow down and deepen until she was fast asleep.

I tried to go to sleep too, but I've never been able to fall asleep unless I was lying down on my left, but Wind was on the other side…

But it's dark now! I won't be able to see her, so I can go lie down on my left and go to sleep.

So I flipped over onto my left…

To see Wind's face ten centimetres away from mine, illuminated by the moonlight pouring through the "window".

I stared. Wind's hair was shining like it was made out of moonbeams itself. Her skin was glowing, the moonlight throwing the shadows of her eyelashes down her cheek. She looked so peaceful, sleeping like that…

No, Killua! You need to sleep!

I flipped around to my right.

No more distractions, no more Wind, just darkness and sleep…

But sleep wouldn't come. No matter how many sheep I counted, how many word chains I made, I still couldn't get to sleep.

I flipped back to my left. Maybe the moon's shifted away from her face so that I couldn't see her anymore…

Wind glowed in the darkness.

I rolled over back to my right and sighed. Why did humans have to like each other? Couldn't we all just stay friends? Then we wouldn't have to deal with all these emotions.

I sighed again, hyperaware of the girl sleeping behind me even with me turned away from her.

How am I supposed to sleep now?

Don't you like my sister's chapter! Give her a round of applause! (the only bad thing is that she writes slow. Like reeeaaaaalllyy slow. You have witnessed it first hand)

^^ Hope next one won't be late. I'm back to writing the next one, haha. Quality won't be as good, but hey, fast updates right?