"He started stealing, to supply the feeling."

Killua flipped a Greed Island game card between two fingers, watching its thin frame slip around his middle finger and end up nestled against his pinky and his forefinger. He was laying on a small rocky mound while Biscuit was training Gon to improve his new special Nen technique: Rock-paper-scissors. It was a logical attack pattern in terms of what an Enhancer's capabilities were. Gon utilized his natural strength to compensate for his lacking speed by providing himself with a good, all-around range of attacks. His Rock was strictly Enhancer and focused purely on his own power. Paper utilized Emissary tactics and threw out his aura in a sphere-like shape, which gave him some leverage if faced with a long-distance foe. And Scissors would be noteworthy if he could increase both range and strength to actually slice someone with his own Nen and stretch it to a longer-than-normal reach.

Overall, Gon gave himself a nice set-up, albeit the entire concept was childish in nature.

"Book."

Poof erupted the magical blue book in a puffy white cloud, floating high above his finger with a nestled ring wrapped around the knuckle. Killua took the card in his free hand and slid it into its appropriate free spot, staring at the big words 'Steal' across the top with a deep, creasing frown.

"Book."

Away went the game object and he dropped his hand back to the ground lazily, letting it droop over the edge of the rock so the tips of his nails brushed the rocky cavernous dirt below. He slid his free palm over his face until the back of his wrist guarded his view from the blinding sunshine over head. It felt warm on his cold skin, chasing away the after-morning goosebumps, but the thoughts on his mind were anything but warming.

"Oi, Gon." He had said, just yesterday when Gon happened to have his binder open in the air and was shuffling through his layout of free space cards.

"Hm, Killua?" Gon chuckled, lowering his in-game object just enough for his round, golden orbs to peek over, "Need something?"

Killua wedged his way in next to Gon on the small stump of dirt he sat on and nodded. "Yeah. What are you doing looking at your book?"

"Just browsing through some of my free pockets."

Leaning in close, he peeked at the filled spaces Gon was motioning towards. The first two pages were nothing but random monster cards that they had collected recently and yet to sell. Gon flipped to the next one and half the first sheet was full as well. However, as Killua's blue eyes scanned through, he caught note of one card that wasn't a monster card and immediately pointed at it; curiosity perked. He almost would have missed it seeing as it looked so much similar to the others, blending in, but he was glad to catch it nonetheless.

"When did you get that card?"

"Oh, that one?" Gon laughed, rubbing at his neck sheepishly. "I picked that one up at the last store I went. Apparently if you buy enough of one card, you get one extra free. So they gave me this one as a bonus."

"A Steal card though? What, are they trying to promote stealing?"

"Hahah. I don't think so, Killua."

"Then why the hell would they give you a Steal card as a bonus reward?"

"Beats me."

Killua rolled his eyes and reached forward, snatching the card from its pouch and flipped it over between his fingers, a smug grin on his face. "Then you won't mind if I steal this card do yah?"

There was a flash of some indescribable emotion in Gon's eyes that almost made Killua stop what he was doing, freeze in his tracks, but as soon as it came it was gone and Gon was smiling like the sun again.

"Sure, Killua. You can keep it. Consider it yours."

Gon left right after saying he needed to use the bathroom and get started on hi warm-ups before they trained, at the same time Biscuit was returning from the restroom with food in hand and ready for lunch.

If there was any consolation about the entire situation, it was that Killua definitely wasn't stupid.

Gon's story was totally bogus. The stores they sold their cards never offered ridiculous deals or bonuses like that; the game characters were so cut dry and transparent that it didn't take much to memorize the same straight-faced lines they repeated whenever you stopped by. Killua had the whole rehearsal from the information bargainers remembered by heart, much to his regret. So it was obvious Gon didn't just walk in and magically acquire a Steal card into his inventory.

Gon got it via other means.

Now, why Gon wanted or needed a Steal card was only partly beyond his imagination. Since Gon in general was unpredictable by nature; there could be any number of reasons why Gon would go out of his way to even get a Steal card. Killua knew already by the bravado speech he recited when they were first offered that alliance back in Antokiba; the city of prizes. How Gon wanted to play this game justly; the way it was designed to be played. How he was against cruel tactics and underhanded methods in obtaining game cards. How he wanted to play the game fair and square. That meant with the least amount of stealing as possible with what he can get away with.

So for a Steal card to be in Gon's possession after that little speech was quite a surprise on Killua when it came popping up in his binder.

They had let to be allowed the opportunity to buy spell cards yet – Biscuit's orders, and Killua made sure to confirm this when they had crossed paths in the city scouting for various new food cards.

"No spell cards, yet. I told this to Gon already twelve times. So, I hope to avoid repeating myself this with you." Biscuit wiggled her finger in the air, like a true authoritarian.

"Number 4." Killua said, despondently, and she giggled as she lowered the digit and the number from the air.

"Good, good." A nod. "But I'm serious, Killua. We're not doing spell cards yet, not until you both pass the remainder of our training course. Then afterward, we will begin working on completing the game! There's no point in carrying all those spell cards with nothing to use them for let alone anything to protect. We don't have any special slot game cards yet. Once we start looking for them, only then will we actively seek out filling ourselves with magic spells. Understood?"

"Yeah, yeah. I got it."

She raised her finger back to the air.

Killua only held one eye open and spoke up immediately. "Number 2."

Biscuit bobbed her head with a giggle.

"Book."

Killua opened his binder back up and held it close to him, eyeballing that same Steal card he took from Gon and frowned. If Gon wiggled his paws on this in absolute secrecy, then there had to be a viable explanation as to why. He was always straight-forward, his focus simple and tracing the same, dictated path making him easy to read, easy to anticipate.

And easily mislead.

Gon wanted a Steal card obviously to steal something. But what?

"Ne, Killua." Gon's voice broke out over his troubled, blurred thoughts and he glanced up from his spot with a blink. There was a foul odor in the air, the stench of sweetened bleach making Killua's nose wrinkle in disgust. Although he wanted to plug it out from his nostrils, he pinched the inside of his own elbows to stop himself. Better to take a big whiff of it, to take a big whiff of reality then to ignore it. "Do you know where my backpack went?"

"No, why?" Killua's sight followed Gon as he began rummaging around the area Killua lay, looking for it. "What do you need?"

"Just something from it, that's all."

Gon found it parked over behind another boulder not too far off from their campsite, when he cheered out loud in that same, goofy way he always did when excited. Whooping, Gon thrust his pack to the air and did a little dance, wiggling his hips back and forth just like a child. Killua rolled his eyes.

"You're so stinking weird, Gon."

"You're awesome too, Killua."

Idiot.

Trotting away, Gon waved and Killua barely made an effort to wave back, not wasting time to even open his eyes for that matter, before dropping both his arms flat across his face with a hefty sigh.

"Hey, Biscuit." he called, after a moment, when the sound of her soft, dainty footsteps tread into range and he could clearly hear the quiet exhales of her breath from the said distance. "Can I ask you something?"

Biscuit came to a stop beside him, dropping an armload of goods in paper bags presumably piled with foods. "Hm, what is it Killua?"

"You're the one who's been paying for our food, right?"

"Well, of course. I manage the food and the money that goes into it because you two lack the cooking finesse to make a decent meal and I certainly do you want you boys wasting perfectly good food."

"So Gon isn't helping you or anything with our meals?"

"Nope. He did offer though, saying something about his Aunt Mito teaching him some things about how to cook..? I'm not sure who this Mito is but from the looks of it, he was pretty serious."

Killua made a low 'hmmm' sound and rubbed his chin, staring straight up into the blue sky above. Not a cloud in sight; clear. But the air around him was noxious; toxic on his tongue, like a terrible aftertaste that even soap couldn't scrub out. He poked at it, letting it hang out and running his finger over the scratchy length. This flavor was worse then all the toxins and chemicals his family had subjected him too throughout his childhood. Much worse. "Is he helping to pay for anything else then that you can tell me?"

"Not that I know of."

He didn't respond immediately to her, turning on his side to look forlornly in Gon's general direction, where he had left to, and was long since out of sight. "Why not, Killua?" Biscuit quarried, her head cocked to the side while she began to unwrap some fruits and vegetables from some carefully wrapped foil packaging, lips pursed out.

Blue eyes darted over to a faintly growing plume of smoking rising from the underbrush in the small row of trees parked just outside their stony campsite and he drew his arm up and over his face again, turning his vision from bright to dark.

Gon's stealing something.

It was so obvious.

The smell, the taste, the sight.

Drugs.

"Killua?" Biscuit tried again and the tiny laugh Killua made felt very, very wrong on him. "Why the sudden curiosity at least, if I may ask?"

Gon's stealing for drugs using the exact method he swore he was against ever trying out.

"Oh, you know Biscuit. No reason."