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A/N: Sorry. I got pulled into this story again. I blame the new genre: Killugon. It's a genre that sums up Killua's and Gon's relationship. That said, I don't think there's gonna be a new "Killua's World" chapter any time soon because of the new genre: Killugon.
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Chapter 16: Competition

There was knocking. Knocking that disturbed me from my sleep. I didn't want to think about what that knocking could be. All I wanted to do was sleep. Still, the knocking continued. The knocking stopped and was replaced by another sound: creaking. Then that stopped.

"Gon," a voice called, "Killua," I knew the voice, but couldn't put a face to it, "It's time to get up."

I opened one eye and saw Hikaryo standing just inside the room. He didn't look all that happy for some reason, but I didn't care. I closed my eye and turned, pulling the covers over me. I felt the covers slide off of me, so I pulled them back. They slid off again and I pulled them again. The next time they tried to slide off, I held on. I could feel the covers trying to escape my grasp, but I wouldn't let them. However, after a strong pull, they came off and I heard a rather loud thump on the floor that I had to investigate.

I sat up and looked over to where Gon was supposed to be. He wasn't there. I looked over to Hikaryo, who was trying to hold in a laugh. I wasn't sure why he was laughing, but I decided to ignore it. I crawled over to Gon's side of the bed and looked over the edge. There, I found Gon rolled up in the covers and sleeping as if he were still in bed.

"Oi, Gon," I said.

He didn't answer.

"Gon," I said louder.

Still no answer.

"Hey, dumbass!" I threw a pillow at him, "Wake up!"

The pillow hit him and he woke up. But it was only for a brief instant where he grabbed the pillow and put it under his head. He then went back to sleep. I threw another pillow at him, and he caught it. He then threw the pillow back at me. I was surprised that he had caught the pillow that I didn't react to it coming back and it hit me in the face.

That little faker, I thought.

I grabbed the pillow from my lap and stood up on the bed quietly, to get a better angle. I then threw the pillow down and hit him on the head. Bull's eye! Gon sat up and threw the first pillow back at me. It caught me off guard and I fell back onto the bed.

He then jumped onto the bed and stood over me with a pillow, ready to throw it down onto my face. However, I tripped him and he fell onto the bed. I then took one of the pillows and pressed it to his face, waiting for him to say mercy. He kicked his legs and flailed his arms while I was pushing the pillow onto his face. It was a few seconds later that he stopped.

I didn't let up, thinking it was a trick. However, he did nothing. I took the pillow away from his face, worried that I might have done the unthinkable, and leaned my ear close to his mouth. I didn't hear anything. I put my lips to his and started breathing into his mouth. I took my lips away and put my ear to his mouth once again. Nothing. I went in again, pressing my lips firmly against his and breathing. Again, I took my lips away and put my ear to his mouth so that I could hear. But I heard nothing.

I was frantic. I put my lips against his one more time and breathed hard into his mouth. Once more, I took my lips away and put my ear to his mouth. This time I heard something. It wasn't the sound I was expecting to hear, though. It was… It was laughter. Gon was laughing. It was only then that I realized that he had tricked me to get a few free kisses in. I blushed and hit him with the pillow.

"You idiot!" I said while hitting him, "You had me worried sick!"

Hikaryo cleared his throat and we both looked at him. He seemed to be in a better mood than he was earlier. I had forgotten he was there, to be honest. I was just so caught up in the pillow fight. However, Hikaryo clearing his throat didn't stop me from hitting Gon with the pillow.

"If you're done playing, boys," Hikaryo said, "Breakfast is ready."

Gon nearly jumped off the bed in one leap. He would have done it, too, if I hadn't thrown the pillow at the back of his head when he made the first jump. After the pillow hit, he fell back onto the bed. He glared at me and I just laughed. He threw the pillow back at my face and it landed in my lap.

By the time the pillow fell down to my lap, Gon was by the door. He pulled the skin underneath one of his eyes down and stuck his tongue out at me. He ran off and I scrambled off of the bed to chase after him. I caught up to him and jump-tackled him. Unfortunately, he was right by the stairs when I did that, so we both went tumbling down the stairs. If I was to describe the impact at the bottom, I'd say it was a crash mixed with a bang. At least, that's how it felt.

I was laying on my back at the bottom of the stairs. I lifted my head up and saw that my legs were on the second stair from the bottom and Gon was in between my legs, laying on me. He didn't look too damaged from the fall, which was a good thing, but I was hurting all over. The fall had gone by so fast that I barely had time to register it all. I think what happened was, as we were falling, I had turned to protect Gon and I ended up taking most of the impacts with the stairs. I laid my head back down, as my neck was sore and closed my eyes.

I felt something on my forehead and opened my eyes again. Gon was staring right into my eyes, smiling. I would have pushed him off of me, but there were two things that stopped me. The first was that my arms were too sore to lift and the second was that Gon was holding onto them. He pressed his lips to mine and I felt his tongue in my mouth. I tried to get my arms loose, but he didn't loosen his grip. My eyes darted over to the doorway of the dining room, where I saw practically the entire household just staring at us. Some of the older kids had covered the younger kids' eyes with their hands.

I struggled again to get my arms free, but it was no use. Gon had learned his lesson from the last time he did this so he didn't let go. I could feel his tongue in my mouth, reaching and exploring each cheek and rubbing against my teeth. He licked my tongue, I'm guessing he was trying to force it into his mouth but I wouldn't let it leave its spot in my mouth. It was a couple minutes later that he had broken the kiss with a satisfied 'ah', as if he had just had a drink of juice or something. He smiled at me and I blushed.

"You idiot," I said, "There were people watching."

"So?" Gon said. He looked over to the doorway of the dining room and then back at me. "I don't think they mind if we kiss. Do you?"

We both looked over to the dining room entry and everybody standing there were shaking their heads. Gon looked at me with a big grin on his face as if he was saying 'see? I told you they didn't mind.' I tried again to get my arms free, but Gon just wouldn't let go. He put his forehead against mine again and looked into my eyes. His eyes were so kind and gentle that I could almost feel tears coming on.

"Killua," he said while still smiling, "Why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying!" I said, closing my eyes and turning my head, "Now get off."

Gon didn't move.

I looked into his eyes again and said, "Didn't you hear me, Gon? I said get off."

"I heard you," Gon said.

"Then why aren't you getting off?"

"Because you didn't say 'please'." His smile widened.

I sighed, "Please get off."

"Mmm…" Gon thought, "No."

"What?" I said, "Why not?"

"Because I just want to lay on you like this forever, Killua." He rested his head on my shoulder and I sighed again.

"Alright." I said, seeming content, "But could at least let go of my arms? They're starting to hurt."

Gon lifted his head and said, "I'm sorry," while lifting his hands off of my arms.

I hit him on the head and pushed him off of me. He looked at me with that pouting face. I hit him on the head again. He asked why I hit him twice. I told him I just felt like it. It wasn't really that far from the truth, anyway.

I stood up and saw that he was still pouting. I sighed and said, "I'll race you to the table."

He immediately perked up and scrambled to get up. I started to run as soon as I saw Gon getting up. In no time at all, he had caught up to me. We were side by side trying to get through the crowd of people at the doorway. I pushed him away and he pushed back. When we reached the table, we touched it at the same time.

"I win!" We both exclaimed. We then looked at each other.

"Eh?" I said, "What are you talking about? I won!"

"Nu-uh!" Gon argued, "I won because I touched the table first!"

"No," I countered, "I touched it first!"

"I did!" Gon said pushing his head up against mine, "You cheated!"

"How did I cheat?" I said pushing back.

"You started running before I even got up!" He pushed back.

"I gave you enough time to get your stupid ass off the floor!" I pushed.

"That's enough, boys!" I turned my head and saw the old man standing at the other end of the table, "Enough arguing and sit down!"

We pulled our chairs out and sat down. Hikaryo brought out some big plates full of food. One of the older kids that didn't witness our moment earlier helped and soon, there was enough food to feed ten of every person in the house. Gon and I helped ourselves to about a third of the food on the table and started to eat. I hadn't noticed how hungry I was until I started eating.

I noticed Gon was eating at the same pace as me, so I decided to eat faster. Gon saw that I was eating faster, so he started to eat faster than me. When I saw him eating faster than me, I picked up my eating pace to beat his. Pretty soon, Gon and I were on seconds. Gon was just a little bit ahead of me so I picked up the pace again.

When we asked for more, we were told there wasn't any more. I naturally said that I had won our little eating competition. Gon naturally argued my obvious victory. We got into another debate about who was right and who was wrong. Hikaryo sent us upstairs to get our stuff while we were still arguing and we jumped off of our chairs and started running to the stairs. Gon was keeping up with my pace so, right after the doorway to the dining room, I tripped him and he fell on his face.

"Hey!" I heard him call from behind, "No fair, Killua!"

"That's what I call 'tough luck', Gon!" I called back.

A few seconds later, as I was starting to climb the stairs, I felt a tug on my shirt collar. I fell backwards and noticed a smiling Gon running past me. I quickly reached out and grabbed his arm. We both fell back down to the bottom of the stairs. My head hit the floor harder than it did the last time and Gon's head hit directly on my chest, knocking the breath out of me. He lifted his head and noticed I was struggling to breathe.

"Killua?" He asked, "Wh-what's wrong? Killua, are you alright?"

"Y-yeah," I said still struggling to breathe, "Just a little winded is all."

Gon sighed in relief. He then looked at me with a fire in his eyes and said, "I'll race you to the top."

He got up and started to climb the stairs when I grabbed his leg. He fell down and hit his face on the stairs. He looked at me with defiance, as it was a cheap move, even for me to make. But his eyes softened when he saw that I was still struggling to breathe. He asked me what was wrong and I gave a weak smile.

"I don't think," I said through heavy gasps, "that I could race you up the stairs." I gave a weak laugh. "At least, not just yet."

Gon looked a little disappointed. As much as he loved a challenge, he was never very happy when the challenge was taken away from him. He came back down the stairs and put my left arm over his shoulders, as I was holding my chest with my right. He lifted me up and we both walked up the stairs and to the room.

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Out in the front yard, everybody had come to se us off. The old man reminded us not to spend the night in the forest. He warned us to get out of the forest by nightfall or else something like what had happened last night might happen again. We thanked them all and left towards the forest. I didn't want to go back in there, but I had no choice.

We walked through the forest for a while. It seemed like we were lost, but I put the thought aside. After all, Gon had grown up in forests like this one so he should be able to find his way through it no problem. Gon stopped and I bumped into him. It wasn't like Gon to just stop like that.

"Oi, Gon," I said, "What's the deal? Why'd you stop all of a sudden?"

"That tree," Gon said, pointing to a tree, "We've passed it before."

"Are you serious?" I said, looking at the tree he was pointing to? "It looks just like every other tree in this damn forest. How can you be so sure we've passed it?"

"That mark," he said.

I looked at the tree and didn't see anything. I hit him on the head and said, "Quit it with the cryptic talk! I don't see anything on the tree."

Gon blinked, staring at the tree once again. "But… But I saw it just a second ago!"

"Whatever," I said while starting to walk ahead, "Let's just keep moving."

"Ki-llu-a~"

I looked back and said, "Huh?"

Gon looked at me blankly and said, "What?"

"What do you mean 'what?'" I said, "You said something, didn't you?"

Gon shook his head, "No. I never said anything."

I turned around and started walking again saying, "Alright."

"Ki-llu-a~"

I looked back again and said, "What?"

Gon looked at me blankly again and said, "What 'what?'"

"What do you want?" I said annoyed.

Gon looked at me confused. He said, "Um… A kiss? I don't know."

I walked over to Gon and gave him a kiss. I turned back again and said, "There. I kissed you. Now will you stop saying my name?"

"Um… Okay?" Gon said confused.

"Ki-llu-a~"

I turned around and glared at Gon and said, "I swear to God, Gon, you better stop fucking with me!"

"What do you mean, Killua?" Gon said defensively, "I'm not doing anything! Honest!"

"Ki-llu-a~"

Gon's lips weren't moving. He really wasn't doing anything. I wondered what was saying my name, if it wasn't Gon. I thought back to last night. I remembered seeing an image of something that said my name. The image looked just like Gon. I walked back to Gon, grabbed his arm and started walking again.

"Ah," Gon said, "Killua! What's going on?"

"I'm hearing it, Gon," I said, my eyes darting every which way for that ghostly image.

"Hearing what?" Gon wondered as he tried to keep up with my pace.

"That fucking voice!" I said, picking up speed, "That stupid fucking voice that told me to kill you!"

Gon got more serious because he said, "Which way is it coming from?"

"What?" I asked.

"Which way is it coming from?" Gon said, "I'll find whoever it is and I'll fucking murder them!"

I stopped. I looked at Gon, shocked and surprised. I could tell that Gon was mad, but I've never seen him this mad. Was it because of me? Was he so enraged that someone or something had taken control of his best friend that he would actually resort to swearing and using the word 'murder'? I hit him on the head.

"Ow!" He said, "What was that for?"

"To bring you back to your senses," I said.

"Ki-Killua," He said, "You're crying."

I wiped my eyes and said, "I'm not crying, Gon! I just have something in my eye."

"Bullshit, Killua!" He hugged me and whispered in my ear, "I'm sorry that I made you cry."

I hugged him back and said, "Idiot. I told you I wasn't crying."

"Ki-llu-a~"

I let go of Gon, practically pushing him away, and got in a fighting stance. I wasn't sure if Gon had heard it that time or if he was just mimicking me, because he got in a stance as well. We stood there for a few minutes. My eyes looked in every direction for that sickening figure that twisted my mind the previous night. It was nowhere to be seen so I grabbed Gon's arm again and started walking.

Gon said nothing this time. We walked for a while, but it seemed like the forest was never ending. I didn't understand what was going on. I knew we had gone a ways into the forest and the old man said that we could get out of it by nightfall. Gon tapped my shoulder, taking me out of my thoughts.

I stopped and looked at him and said, "What is it?"

"It's that tree again," He said, pointing to a tree.

I looked at it and said, "Gon, it looks like every other tree. How can you be so sure that it's the same one?"

"I just know, Killua," He said, looking at me defiantly, "I know we've passed this tree before and I can't prove it. You just have to trust me."

I looked at him for a while before sighing, "Alright, Gon. You win. What do you propose we do?"

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A/N: By the way, there's one scene in particualr that I find to be the most perfect scene I have ever written. Try and figure it out. I'll put the answer in an Author's Note next chapter.
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