Hello, everyone! It's been a little over a week, and here I am, already chugging out a new chapter! I'm pretty shocked myself, but I think I really like this chapter. I'm working on improving the way I write events since I do tend to gloss over many unimportant details, so long chapters tend to be very elaborate even though very little is actually happening. Really need to work on that. Anyway, just a warning, it might get pretty disturbing somewhere in the middle, so be wary! I hope you guys enjoy it! Here we go!

Disclaimer: Hunter X Hunter belongs to someone else, no matter how much I want it to be mine. Kind of like that boy or girl who's totally out of your league. Sad truth.

Spotlight

Chapter Six: My Brother's Wife

There are two types of people in this world - ones who live their lives however they want, and ones who simply can't, no matter how much they would like to.

Ayaka was in a lot of trouble. At that very moment, she was dealing with two very angry men whose faces blended a smoothie of mixed hatred, and it was all thanks to her silly mistake. The man in the blue uniform to her left was a balding middle-aged referee, and the man to her right was a guy named Gustavo Brimstone, her opponent.

"I didn't sign up for a fight," Ayaka found herself explaining with an itchy, nervous laugh, raising her voice when a crowd of people suddenly cheered for the contenders in the ring next to them. She swore the entire arena smelled distinctly of intense BO, and she desperately wanted to get out of there. "This is your signature, isn't it?" the referee argued with an exasperated sigh, impatiently flashing a piece of paper so close to her face that she almost tripped over backwards. It was the paper she had just filled in, and yes, that was her careless scribble of a signature. Oh, shit. "Yeah, but…uhh, I thought it was for something else. Nevermindthanksbye!"

She glanced around for the exit, but the referee raised his worn out clipboard and immediately blocked her path.

"It's six thousand jenny to withdraw, you know," he said flatly, giving her a taunting glare before taking out a pen from his sleeve to write something down on the paper. "Didn't you read the fine print? You can't leave the building without paying." And Ayaka, just like always, froze stiffly on the spot. She stood there for about five seconds before violently shaking her head like a child refusing to eat vegetables. No way. No way. No way were they taking her money. No way!

"NO!" she yelled, grabbing the paper from the man before he finalized her withdrawal. "Just… no. Uhh, I'm fighting! Yeah, that's right. I'm fighting."

A heart on the sleeve,

A tear on the pillow

Lies to believe,

A poor old widow

Hisoka enjoyed taking some time out of his day just to watch the preliminary rounds. He was often disappointed, but he still derived a little bit of pleasure from watching the ugly army ants beat each other black and blue. There was so much fire and conviction in their eyes, so much candor and confidence in themselves that it always, without fail, turned him on.

Then there were those that annoyed him - the arrogant ones who believed that gallons of steroids in their biceps would grant them the license to fight on the 200th floor. They made him itch, and it wasn't the kind of itch he bothered to scratch. They were worms, and sometimes he made them eat their own dirt, slowly and painfully until they begged him to stop. But he reserved those only when he ran out of things to do.

But today was different. Today, instead of ants and instead of worms, there was a special little mosquito - a mosquito that had already taken a little nibble out of him. Now, that was the type of itch he just couldn't wait to scratch. And mosquito bites, well, the more you scratch them, the itchier they get. But he just wanted to return the favor, really. After all, it was the polite thing to do.

His rubbery smile stretched wider as he bent down and clutched his twisting, jumping stomach. He was getting much too excited.

Ayaka stood by the edge of the ring. Her knobby knees quivered frigidly against each other when she watched Gustavo Brimstone take his shirt off with an exaggerated swoop. He had an incredibly lean and well-toned physique, and she would've admired those hard muscles if they weren't about to be used to beat her up. Was this guy really going to take their fight seriously?

"Clean hits are one point each! Three points to win this round!" The referee had begun to explain the rules, but she could barely tell his voice apart from all the screaming and yelling going on around them. Like it mattered. She was going to lose anyway. "If you step out of the ring for any reason, you lose a point! No weapons at this level."

Ayaka's warm face suddenly lit up with a shot of adrenaline. Yes, that's it! All she needed to do was jump off the ring three times and she would lose! She sighed a long breath of relief as she and Gustavo were called over to the center of the ring. She gave him a confident grin, but he merely chuckled hotly in response as he coolly set his hands on his narrow hips, stretching his torso from side to side to warm himself up.

A bell chimed, and the referee chopped his hand through the air while exclaiming a loud "FIGHT!"

Ayaka flashed her opponent an apologetic smile before she turned and dashed for the defining border of the ring. Almost immediately she heard disgusted shrieks and passionate booing from the audience, and while she hated the disapproval, she had to remind herself that it was all just a stupid mistake to begin with. Besides, if the feds found out she was starting to get violent again, they'd have her head. But not only a few steps after she had started to sprint, she felt a firm hand grasp her long dirty blond ponytail. "Tsk, tsk. Where do you think you're going, sweetheart?" Gustavo laughed. Three blinks later, Ayaka was viciously wrenched from the ground and thrown back to the center, spinning and skidding like a flat stone on rough patched up concrete.

"UGH!" she gushed as her head painfully smashed against the solid cement a few times before she came to a full stop. A stab of electric pain shot through her spine and into each of her limbs, rushing back upwards all at once in a wave of throbbing hysteria. She could hear a high-pitched ringing in her left ear as both her eyes failed her for a few moments, her vision going pitch black before it slowly returned to her, fuzzily and unreliably. It took her two whole seconds for the ringing to stop, just in time for her to hear the fervent cries of excitement that erupted from the bleachers above. Damn those sadistic people.

"Critical hit!" the referee shouted from somewhere behind her. "One point to Brimstone! Are you all right, Benneteau?"

Ayaka scrambled to her knees, unable to stand without falling back down again. Was she all right? WAS SHE ALL RIGHT? Did he see what just happened? A jolt of throbbing pain pierced through the soles of her feet; she had forgotten that they were still injured. Losing wasn't going to be easy today.

"Are you out of your mind, Brimstone!" she spat at him as she placed a numb hand on the back of her pulsing head. It had already begun to swell. "Can't you see I'm letting you win?"

She heard him shuffle in front of her when she finally pushed herself to stand upright. "Ayaka, was it? Call me Gustavo," he said avidly as he cracked his knuckles. "Sorry, but I don't wanna end up in some low-level floor, so I gotta fight you seriously." Ayaka gulped. This guy was fast. Even if she did reach the edge of the ring, he was only going to pull her right back in using as much force as possible. Should she fight back after all? But she'd get into trouble if she did.

And then... she spotted Hisoka. There he was, standing behind the rest of the crowd, leaning against the gray wall with his muscular arms folded neatly and casually across his chest. He looked absolutely superior, and he wasn't even doing anything. She could feel the sudden uncomfortable twisting of her stomach as her body painfully recalled what had happened the last time she had seen him. It was telling her to run away.

"Hisoka…" she mumbled silently, and he smiled at her like he had heard her. She really had to stay away from him. Didn't she conclude that he really was a crazy, dangerous man who wasn't above hurting a child? She already had one insane person in her life, and she most definitely didn't have room for another.

"Eyes over here!" Gustavo yelled as he materialized in front of her. She let out a small yelp and took a single slippery step back, but it was too late. With a soft swoosh, Gustavo had tucked his elbow behind his torso and released the full power of his fist onto her stomach in a gut-wrenching uppercut.

All went black.

The bleach, it was much too dilute,

The blood, it just wouldn't come off

So I breathed into it, the flute

But out came just a rusty cough

When she came to, she found herself back in her room, nestled underneath three or four heavy blankets. The knob of the thermostat had been turned to the highest setting and she was completely drenched with sweat, but she felt so frighteningly cold. She cleared her dusty throat as she sat up, pulling the colorful feathery blankets over her numb shoulders to warm herself up. Just then, two loud voices exploded right outside her cheap-looking door, and one of them was wailing so loudly that she could already tell who it was.

The door slowly creaked open and Wing walked in, followed by an extremely tall man in a business suit and a crying woman in a white kimono. Her parents.

"I told you this would happen, Raoul!" the woman hissed quietly, baring her perfectly aligned teeth at the man. Only Wing seemed to notice that Ayaka was already awake. "We should have never signed her out of that hospital! Raoul, are you listening? How could we have been so blind? My poor baby..."

"Ayako, please," he replied softly as he cupped her small pointy chin in his big warm hands. "I'm sure they have it all wrong. Remember what the probation worker said? Our little Ayaka has been so wonderful these past few months. She couldn't have done-"

"I couldn't have done what?" Ayaka finally interrupted, swinging her thin legs over to the edge of the bed as she looked at them with tired eyes. Her voice sounded low and croaky. Did she have a cold?

"Honey!" her mother cried as she gathered her in an embrace. "Oh, thank god! We were so worried!" Her father promptly joined in and wrapped his plane-span wings around them both, pulling them closer towards him in a tight hug as waves of disgust pulsed through Ayaka's veins. She flashed Wing a nasty questioning look, but he merely shrugged and placed his hands behind his straight back. Well, he sure was helpful.

Ayaka set a palm on her cold sweaty forehead as she wriggled free from her parents' embrace. "What the hell are you guys doing here?" She wrapped the blankets over her back and eagerly tucked her numb feet underneath her thighs to keep them warm.

Her parents looked at each other hesitantly, and for a moment they seemed to panic silently. Wing cleared his throat and walked up to her, gingerly examining the bruise-like heavy bags underneath her blue eyes. "Gustavo Brimstone was murdered soon after your fight," he explained, pushing up on his glasses with his forefinger, a serious glint twinkling beneath the lenses. "Ayaka, you're the prime suspect because of... your history."

"What? So you brought them here, Wing?" she blurted out, clenching her teeth as she bit down hard on her chattering jaw. She could feel the allergic heat rising abruptly from her neck to the the apples of her cheeks as a sore knot formed in her tight throat. She recognized the feeling immediately; why wouldn't she? It was all too familiar to her, this recurring shame.

"You guys told him my 'history?' Is that right?" she said nastily, feeling a heavy stab at her chest as she gazed accusingly at her parents' guilty faces. She turned to Wing and scowled. "Let me guess. My parents told you that I stabbed my brother in the neck and he went crazy because of that. Right?"

Wing's face remained serious but calm, which indicated a yes. He really was a reliable man. Raoul gently reached for Ayaka's chin, but she shrugged away from his sickening attempt. "Just go, dad. You and mom need to leave, and take your pack of lies along with you, okay? When I told you last Christmas that I never wanted to see your faces again, I meant it."

"But, Aya..." her mother pleaded. "Aya, we've missed you! Please just let us fix this one thing!"

"How about Ryuu, mom? When was the last time you tried to fix him?" Ayaka spat as she defiantly rose to her feet, sending them a heavy glare they seemed accustomed to receiving. She dropped the blankets on the floor as she walked up to her mother, nearly pressing her sweaty face right up against hers. "Oh, that's right! You guys don't even want to see him. All you do is pay the hospital bills like some sugar mommy and daddy. How could I even forget? I have to work my life away in order to pay those damn actors to pretend they're you because you guys don't give a damn about him anymore."

Wing's dark eyebrows arched as he listened.

"That isn't true!" her mother cried, her red lips quivering as her tears smeared the black mascara down her rosy cheeks. "We want to see him, Aya! But... but he keeps saying those scary things about you. We just can't bear to remember all those scary things!"

Ayaka grabbed her mother's kimono and roughly jerked her forward, reaching with the other hand her mother's fragrant slender neck. Wing could see Ayaka's bloodshot eyes; she wasn't herself at all. Or was this the real her? She was someone else entirely, and she was burning. All the frostiness in her veins had disappeared, replaced by red hot lava. "Scary things?" Ayaka repeated as she snickered lightly. It. Was. Just. Too. Funny. "Scary things, she says. Did you hear that, Wing? Scary things!"

Ayaka suddenly erupted with such extreme laughter that she fell to her hands and knees from the lack of oxygen. Her diaphragm rocked up and down violently as she breathed out a wave of loud shrieking giggles, choking and blinking the salty tears in her eyes away. Boy, she almost wet herself from the entertainment.

"I'll tell you what's scary, mom." Ayaka suddenly turned serious, a heavy scowl rippling on her dry, chapped lips. "Scary is when your baby brother rapes you after you help him with his math homework. Scary is when he does it again in front of his friends. Scary is when he stabs himself in the neck with a pencil and blames it on you, so you get expelled from school, you get put on probation, and you get admitted into a mental asylum where he later joins you because you're his wife and he loves you, and no one believes the real story because who would stab himself and lie about it? But you know what? The scariest is when you find out that even after all that, you can't hate him, you just can't, he's gotten so deep under your skin that he's already a part of who you are and yet you can't blame him! It isn't his fault he's sick. Right? But hey, no hard feelings, mom and dad, because the fake Raoul and Ayako are doing an Oscar-worthy show of your unconditional love. You should send them a thank you card for making you look soooo good."

Ayaka shoved her mother across the room to her father. There was a long spell of speechlessness among them as her parents watched on helplessly. Their square shoulders slumped forward and their heads bowed low in humiliating defeat and painful self-condemnation. Not that this was the first time this exact scene had played out. Ayaka had given this speech to them at least twenty times in the past, and she was going to keep doing it if she needed to, lest they forget that there was nothing they could ever do to undo what had been done.

Ayaka bent down and picked up the heavy blankets from the floor, feeling the cold splashing back once more in boggling waves. Wing turned to leave, but she held on to his sleeve to keep him from going. Raoul and Ayako left noiselessly, and they were left alone.

"I'm sorry, Ayaka," Wing said softly, cloaking her tightly with the colorful blankets. "I didn't know. I shouldn't have called them here."

Ayaka shrugged as she herself slumped over. She shuddered from the icy feeling that was slowly winning against the earlier hot spell. "You probably feel really cold. Your nen has been leaking out since you got knocked out," he murmured, placing his glowing hands over her head. "I'll give you some heat. You should meditate and close the channels one by one. Do you remember how to do that?"

"Yeah," she nodded mechanically, shutting her eyes and letting the warmth wash over her senses. "Thanks."

How sickeningly sweet, you bloody hatchet

Fantasies of crimson and screams of scarlet

Worry not, naughty love, the stage has been set

Win or lose, Fate the fairy has played her bet.

Ayaka did not get fired. There wasn't enough evidence to convict her for the murder of Gustavo "Abs" Brimstone and Hisoka didn't press any charges against her, so she was scot-free. Well, almost. Her probation officer had caught wind of her carnivorous attack thanks to one of Hisoka's fans who had recorded the incident and posted it online. In a matter of hours, it went viral, and now at least a quarter of the world knew who she was, what she looked like, and where she worked.

"Business has never been better!" Honmei had said. Ayaka's hourly wage was to be tripled indefinitely, up until the headcount of patrons reached a desired plateau.

Either way, she was found guilty of violating her probation terms. So there she was, picking up litter on Mondays, painting over vandalism on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, collecting donations on Thursdays, and massaging old people's crusty feet on Fridays. Twenty hours a week for twenty weeks. Oh joy. At least she still had time for work.

She had been assigned to operate the main elevator when Hisoka stepped in from the first floor. She prayed silently for more people to come, but nobody else did even after holding the doors for ten full seconds. She could hear him snickering at her discomfort. "Uhh... Good evening," she hesitated, keeping her eyes on the multitude of buttons. He was definitely looking at her. She could feel his intense gaze pricking through the fabric of her uniform and burning her skin an ashen gray. "Where are you headed...sir?"

"Ooh, just my suite."

Why did he have to say every word with a smile? Ayaka punched in the numbers 2-5-1 for his exclusive suite, and she realized that she hadn't been there since her first day all those weeks ago. The shiny gold doors closed, and she immediately cast her eyes down. Hisoka's reflection was clear on the smooth surface in front of her, and he could surely see her face as well. Damn these mirror-like elevator walls! She blushed as she remembered his flawless torso, the curvature of his muscles and dewdrops of hot bath water on his taut skin. She cleared her throat and ran her fingers along the edges of the buttons, desperately trying to distract herself.

Hisoka suddenly giggled, and she couldn't help but look up at his reflection.

"Heaven or hell?" he asked, tilting his red-colored head to the side with a playful smile.

"What?" Ayaka blurted, turning around to look at him.

"Where do you think that guy will end up? You know, that guy who died. I didn't get to ask him."

Ayaka's eyes grew wide, rivaling the size of large coins. Her nen began to burst out again as her focus shattered into bite-sized pieces, little trails of energy escaping the last layer of defense provided by her skin and into the atmosphere of the small elevator. All of a sudden the idea of being in a small metallic box hanging by a string of rope over a hundred or so storeys with Hisoka made her feel sick in the gut.

"It was you?" Ayaka placed a hand over her mouth, backing herself further against the corner of the elevator. "You killed Gustavo Brimstone?"

But Hisoka merely grinned as the speakers released a soft-sounding chime. The elevator doors quietly split open, and the beautiful lemongrass aroma of his suite pleasantly invaded the small space.

"I didn't say that I did," Hisoka smiled as he casually stepped into the festive living room. "Thanks for the ride, and do tell your brother I said hello."

End of chapter five!

Well? How did you like it? Any favorite lines, events, etc? I really like the name Gustavo for some reason. I mean, I would never name any of my future children that, but still. Gustavo. Too bad he's dead.

Let me know by leaving a steamy review! Or just a normal review, whichever you prefer. I need some sleep now...