Things to know: Takes place along multiple parts of canon

Approach-Avoidance
The conflict presented when two opposite but equally appealing choices are available but can not both be obtained.

"…Well!"

"Well!"

"See you later!"

Gon and Killua turn away from each other, hiding troubled faces and breaking hearts behind smiles just long enough so the other can't see their expression falter off into pain. Killua's hand tightens around Alluka's with enough strength to make her bones crack. Gon has to remind himself with each numb step that he has no right to turn around and ask Killua to stay with him to meet Ging, to stay with him another day or month or year or second.

One of them turns around (it doesn't really matter who) and the other feels those familiar eyes on their back and turns too. Gon crumbles and begs Killua to stay or Killua takes back the lie about Gon being number two because number one can't be dethroned so easy, no matter how hard Killua wishes. Alluka says something supportive because she may be eleven, but she's not blind. She understands exactly what's happening here.

And they walk towards each other, and it doesn't hurt anymore.

—Or maybe
Killua rushes passed the dazed humans, passed the corpses, passed the overwhelming scent of blood to Gon. He bites back panic and all the other emotions that have been tormenting him the whole invasion, begs with all his heart for Gon to just wait until he gets there, shoves down the overwhelming feelings of wrong wrong wrong that eat him up inside as he runs to his best friend.

But he doesn't have to worry. Pitou can heal Kite. Gon's fine. Gon even smiles when Killua arrives, laughs. "What's with that look on your face?" he asks, happy for what feels like the first time in forever, and Kite stands behind him, frowning down at his mutilated chest, uncaring of the Chimera Ant corpse behind him, unmistakably alive, and Killua sprints forward, hugging Gon, all the worry gone, feeling his heartbeat in his ears.

—Or maybe
Gon raises his hand victoriously about his head. "Accompany on! Nigg!"

The familiar feeling of displacement washes over the two boys as the card activates, Biscuit disappearing in a flash of light as they take off, soaring over towns, forests, oceans…until they land in a small, dusty house with a roof, undiluted sunlight beating down on them and immediately making them sweat. A shout greats them, followed by the sound of a shattering plate and a clattering chair.

Gon's first view of his father is him laying on the floor where he'd fallen muttering curses, lunch a mess on the dusty wooden ground in a deserted house in the middle of nowhere.

"Hi?" Gon offers.

Ging jolts and cranes his head, looking at Gon and Killua with vague discomfort and confusion. "Two of you? But I…." He groans and lets his skull lightly thump back onto the ground. "Elena. I told her only Magnetic Force—"

"Why are you eating tuna in a deserted house in the middle of nowhere?" Killua asks, eyeing the lack of roof overhead. He's less than impressed with Gon's father.

Ging stands up and tries to recover whatever shred of dignity he has left. "Well, it's a long story, kid."

"This is Killua!" Gon practically screams, his words coming out in a rush. Killua feels his face heat up before his friend even says his next words. "He's my best friend!"

And Ging looks at the flushed boy, maybe seeing through him or maybe not. But he offers a lukewarm "how nice" before launching dramatically into his story, drawing the boys into a world they didn't even know existed with giant seals and man-eating plants.

—Or maybe
Killua sprints down York New, weaving in between people as he turns down street after street in search of something good. Venders' stalls have everything imaginable lined up for the taking (for the right price, of course) and something catches Killua's eye. It could be anything, but it's the reaction that matters, the choice to drop everything and walk over to that stall because yes, Killua could do that. Killua wants to do that. He's found it, a goal to pursue.

—Or maybe
Gon gasps as the Zoldyck's butlers descend on them, surrounding all three of them in a matter of minutes, and he knows death is looming on the horizon, a very real possibility if they defy them. Kurapika draws his wooden swords, and Leorio takes out his pocket knife, but the battle's lost. It's written on both their faces, and Gon doesn't think Killua will ever know that he tried, he really tried to get him back, but he might die here.

It's tense, air pulled tight like a wire, no one even breathing until someone finally does, and everything snaps and rushes together and already Gon can see how outclassed they are.

—Or maybe
Kurapika, Leorio, and Killua gasp as Hanzo's blade slices through Gon's legs.

—Or maybe
serial killers should be child's play, but there's something different about this one, a power that Killua doesn't have, and he can distantly here the other four examinees' reactions as Johness rips through him.

—Or maybe
a bird's call distracts the two boys, startles them long enough for a creature to attack and swallow them whole without a sound.

—Or maybe
the sound of wheels grinds harshly on the ground, clear as a bell over the shallow breathing of examinees. A boy zips passed them, calm and cool and condescending. At least, that's how he seems to Leorio. The man feels his temper bubble and rise to near to the breaking point that it physically hurts him to hold back the yell threatening inside his chest, but he does.

The boy glances back, expression bored and absent, before increasing his speed, leaving the group of three in the dust as he heads towards the front, uncaring about the bitter eyes that watch him move up the ranks. Leorio watches the smug little bastard until the darkness swallows him up, mentally kicking himself for not packing something like that.

"He looked like he was my age," Gon says beside him.

Leorio rolls his eyes. Kids, he thinks, pushing the silver-haired boy far out of mind even as Gon looks on in curiosity.

—Or maybe
Gon stares at the claw marks on the trees and readjusts his basket of fruit. He frowns, a warning tugging at the edge of his mind and an unsettling feeling crawling in his gut. The basket is almost entirely full and starting to hurt his arms, but he decides to go the long away around just in case, trying to remember which animal the claw marks belong to.

Gon doesn't become a Hunter until years later, Mito annoyed but understanding she can no longer stifle the seventeen year old. He helps an old veteran examiner w finally make it through and proudly cheers when he gets into medical school, finally, finally and opens a free clinic. Gon doesn't even know who Ging is when they meet at a dig sight, doesn't even believe him because his parents are dead, died in a crash a long time ago.

He gets the truth from Mito, but Ging still isn't his dad. Not really. But he tags along and gets to know they guy, gets to hear amazing stories about a video game called Greed Island ("Someone beat it a few years ago. Gen-something.") and the Spiders (some kid took 'em out. Shame he died in the process. Would've been an amazing Hunter.") and a family of assassins ("They got a kid your age taking over soon.") and the more he hears, the more he sees himself in Ging.

And eventually (or is it inevitably?) he has a run-in with the Zoldyck man his age. Gon looks down at the body, not one drop of blood on the corpse's shirt despite the heart beating in the Zoldyck's hand, and can't help the awe he feels.

"I'm Gon Freecs."

"…Killua."

Or maybe

There is no route that is free of hurt.

There is no right choice, only the fleeting happiness that remains unchanged no matter the reality, and that's enough to make it okay.

Maybe.