Discaimer: As you all already know, I just own my OC, Hitomi. Hunter X Hunter, on the other hand, belongs to Yoshihiro Togashi.

Chapter 19: Tangled In The Spider Web x Out of Character x The Best Gift Ever

Hitomi still couldn't believe it. They had put the jewels in the auction and a man started to make false charges against them... well that was normal in a way. However, Gon's curiosity was stronger than himself and asked for more ways to falsify the object. Everyone in the room relaxed a little bit and laughed.

It kinda reminded her of the match between Hanzo and Gon.

"Actually, there's another foolproof trick," Zepile said long after the auction.

"Really?" Gon said, excitedly, as Zepile grabbed a ball. He opened it, revealing a little toy inside.

"Even the most experienced appraisers who know how to spot the cauterization trick have been fooled by this," he said, closing the ball once again and showing it to them. "Can you guess how it's done?"

"Were they left sealed?" Killua asked.

"Yeah, the fooled appraisers all bought it thinking that it had never been cauterized or opened," he said. "And they were right too. It had never been cauterized."

They all thought for a while.

"Such a troublesome trick..." Hitomi trailed off.

But her eyes opened in realization.

"Trick Tower... that's like then!" she shouted in her head. "We escaped breaking the wall from a side!"

She pointed at him with her finger.

"Making another hole," Hitomi said, proudly.

"Exactly. They made another hole away from the seal, replaced the jewelry inside with fakes and patched up the hole," he explained. "This method is known as ostomy."

That's when Gon's phone started ringing. As soon as he told his friends that the Spiders were nearby, they started running towards the agreed place.

"Hey, you guys!" Zepile shouted. "What about the auction?!"

"We'll leave it to you!" Gon shouted.

The girl did her best to keep her eyes in their natural purple coloration. She still could remember both of the guys who were in the table. She would never forget their faces. They had been in the Kuruta Clan massacre back then.

"So, how are we gonna get them?" Leorio asked.

"That's impossible," Killua said. "They're way out of our league."

"How can you say that now?!" Leorio exclaimed, standing up.

"Calm down, idiot," Hitomi said. "They'll see us."

Leorio, reluctantly, sat down once again.

"I really thought I could catch these guys," Gon said. "I guess I was being too optimistic."

"Me too," Killua said. "My dad warned me about them three years ago, so I thought I could take them on by now..."

"They are really that good?" Leorio asked.

"Well, imagine that there were two Hisoka sitting at that table."

Leorio paled at the thought, and all of sudden lost his will to capture them. Maybe, he got it totally right.

"Why do you think those two Spiders came to this place?" Killua asked.

"There can be only one explanation..." he replied, too seriously. "They are on a date!"

"Eh, they are?!" Gon asked, blushing.

"Like hell!" Hitomi shouted at him, irritated.

"That may be what they want everyone to think, but they knew that couple sitting behind them were informants," Killua explained, a little annoyed as well. "They are paying careful attention to their surroundings. They'll sense us if we get any closer than we already are. Also, they're acting like they don't even know people are hunting them down."

"That's why they are called the Spiders. They're waiting for us to tangle in their web," she mumbled. "That's when they'll strike."

She was getting surprised of herself, though. Hitomi now chasing a Spider, like her brother. She had argued with Kurapika a lot of times before and now she was doing exactly the same.

Well, it was maybe in the blood.

The thought of it made her feel slightly sick.

A bad feeling snapped Hitomi out of her own thoughts and realized that the others had felt the same as her.

"They haven't spotted us, yet," Killua said.

"You sure? I'm not like you guys, remember?" Leorio said. "I can't use Zetsu or whatever you call it to hide my aura."

"This wouldn't be the right place to use it anyway, we'd be too conspicuous. Also, they're observing everyone in this plaza, looking for any expression, eye movement or behavior out of place," Killua said, before calmly eating a cherry of his cup. "So, just relax and try to act natural."

Killua's face fell when he saw Leorio and Gon's nervous smiles and Hitomi's fruitless attempts to hide her bright red eyes.

"Forget I said anything..." he murmured.

Hitomi took another long breath, calming herself down and making her eyes go violet once again. Killua, however, saw a soft scarlet color still sparkling on them.

"You should have bought contact lenses," he told her. "If the Spiders finds out about them, you'll be in great danger."

"I should have, but I forgot," Hitomi replied, still a little tense. "What do you want me to do? I can't go now to search for some."

"True..." he started to think.

Killua looked around to found Leorio and smirked, taking his sunglasses off.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Leorio yelled, a little annoyed.

"Lend me these for awhile," he said.

Hitomi blinked, before looking in surprise what Killua was doing. He put the glasses in her eyes and stared at her, with an approving smile.

"No one can see your eyes now," he said, "It will work for awhile."

"Do I have to wear this? They are way too... old fashioned," she pouted. "As I expected from such an old man..."

"You little-!" Leorio was about to yell.

He was cut off when they noticed the couple of Spiders standing up and starting to walk away from there. That's why Killua, Hitomi and Gon decided to follow them while Leorio agreed to get in touch with Zepile.

"Hey, you two don't happen to have any tracking experience, do you?" Killua asked.

"The navigators congratulated me for my tracking skills back at the Exam," Hitomi grinned, proudly.

"Good," the boy nodded, before looking at Gon. "And you?"

"Well, I tracked Hisoka during the Hunter Exam," he replied.

Hitomi froze. Had she heard him right?

"Wait, that was before you learned Nen... and let alone Zetsu!" she said, surprised. "And you are still alive..."

"Yeah..." he grinned sheepishly. "Hisoka even complimented me."

Speechless, Killua walked towards him and hit him in the head. Gon rubbed it and grimaced, in pain.

"Ouch!" he complained. "Why did you hit me?"

"No reason," Killua murmured. "I just felt like it."

"Um... I think that we should be going then..." Hitomi suggested, unsure of what to say.

Killua snapped of his surprise and nodded.

"Just remember to never enter their field of vision," he reminded them.

"I know, I know, I'm not that crazy to do that," she said, a little annoyed. "I don't want to suicide because I don't want to die. I'm just too young and pretty to die."

The three of them glared at her. Killua raised an eyebrow.

"What?" she said, defensively. "Just saying."

"They stopped," Hitomi noticed, looking at the couple`they had been following.

"Yeah," Killua said on the other side of the phone. "They're either waiting for someone, or they're trying to draw us out."

"Do you two think they've discovered we're following them?" Gon asked, worried.

"There's a fifty-fifty chance," the boy replied. "But they don't know where we are."

"Maybe they are waiting for us to attack and give away our position," Hitomi added.

"So, now what?" Gon asked.

"For now, let's just sit tight," Killua instructed. "Who knows, maybe they are just waiting for somebody."

A cell phone rang and unconsciously Hitomi tensed. She quickly realized that it was the man's phone.

"Boys, we have to hang up and focus on listening to them," she said.

"Okay," Killua agreed. "If either of us sees anything suspicious we don't even question it, just get out of here. The next time you two hear your phones, just run."

After agreeing, they hanged up. Being careful to not been seen, the girl leaned closer to the wall and peered out the window.

The man, Nobunaga, talked for a bit before directing his eyes to their direction. The girl paled and made a run for it to the door.

The exit, however, was blocked by a young man, whose name was Shalnark. He waved his hand at her.

"Hi," he smiled.

She stepped back and looked at him with gritted teeth. Shalnark, slowly, started to walk towards her while she panicked.

"Oh, hi there, Feitan," he waved someone in her back.

Hitomi frowned as soon as she saw the man behind her.

"I need a second," she thought. "Just a second to run away from them."

She snapped her fingers at her sides, making the walls explode thanks to her Nen. Once they looked at the walls, she started to run.

But she felt a hold in her shoulder and something sharp and cold pressing against her neck. Hitomi was intelligent enough to know that was a sword.

She froze. Her heart was beating like mad, it looked like it was going to rip off her chest.

"Do something funny again and your head will roll," he whispered in her ear.

"Damn it," she cursed in her head. "These guys don't need a second to catch us."

Hitomi was sure she was going to die today.

Reason one, she was kidnapped by the Genei Ryodan. Reason two, her strength was nowhere close to theirs. And reason three, they didn't care about Gon, Killua and her knowing where their hideout was, that meant that the Spiders were going to kill them all soon.

Pakunoda opened the door for them to see a lot of more Spiders, even Hisoka. She flinched at the sight of him, but she decided to play dumb and looked away.

"So Hisoka is a Spider, after all," Killua noticed Hisoka. "Well, he'd taken a liking to Gon and Hitomi, so there's a chance he might help us. I'm gonna pretend I don't know him..."

"Ah!" Gon exclaimed at the sight of the magician.

The two other kids froze in their spot and Hisoka sweatdropped, still avoiding eye-contact.

"What is it?" Nobunaga asked. "Is there someone here that you do recognize?"

"Well, no... not really," Gon trailed off.

"Yeah, there is!" Killua exclaimed, finding something else to cover it. "It's that girl from before!"

Hitomi stared at Shizuku in recognition, who blinked. She had beaten her in arm wrestling before.

"Oh, I remember," Feitan said, looking at Hitomi. "She is the kid who arm wrestled."

"What do you mean?"

"You arm wrestled her a couple of days ago and lost," Franklin told her.

Hitomi opened her eyes slightly in amazement. That girl was a Spider.

"Oh my god, did I-?" she thought.

"At that time you were using your right hand," the man cut off the kid's thoughts.

"But why would I do that?" Shizuku said, surprised. "I'm obviously left handed!"

"Figures..." Hitomi's face fell, feeling a little disappointed.

Nobunaga looked at the little girl.

"Wow... Did you really beat Shizuku in arm wrestling?"

"Something like that..." she murmured.

"All right," he said. "I'm gonna take you on."

After a long time arm wrestling, Hitomi's hand started to hurt like hell. She had already been defeated several times, and that guy didn't give her a break.

And he even told her that he was around the seventh or eighth in the Spider's strength.

"The strongest arm wrestler among us was a guy known as Uvogin," he said. "But it seems he was killed by the chain dude."

"Yeah?" she smirked. She was grateful that she had Leorio's glasses on, because her sight was already red. "Why should I care?"

Her hand collided painfully with the table once again, like he wanted her to shut up.

"How many times do we have to tell you?!" Killua said, a little angered. "We don't know who he is!"

"Yeah, and even if we knew we wouldn't tell you!" Gon shouted, making Killua look at him like he was insane.

"You two!" Nobunaga warned them. "The next time you speak without permission, I'm gonna hurt you!"

Killua froze in his spot.

"I'd prefer to die before helping you!" Gon yelled again.

Machi grabbed him by his shoulder, in a warning way.

"Your friend is an enhancer, isn't he?" Nobunaga asked Hitomi.

"It's quite obvious, isn't it?" she replied.

"Uvo was your typical Enhancer too. A very simple-minded guy," he smirked. "But he was a real stickler about time. He used to slap Franklin and me around whenever we were late. I could never beat him in a fistfight."

Her hand slammed with the table again, making her wince and dropping her glasses in the process. She was lucky enough that her eyes were violet now, but in the other hand Leorio's glasses were out of her range.

She had to be careful with her emotions now.

"We've known each other since before the Genei Ryodan was started. I'm closer to him than anyone here. H-He never... would've..." tears began to roll down from the thief's cheeks. "He never, ever would've lost a fair fight! That must've ambushed him or something! I won't get away with it!"

The girl knew she had to calm down, but it was impossible for her to do so. The sight of the merciless killer crying over her dead friend made her a little angry.

Scratch that. Really angry.

"I'll find him no matter how many people I have to kill!" he shouted. "This Chain-user obviously has a big grudge against us. All we really know is that he was recently hired by the Mafia's Nostrade family."

Killua's eyes opened in realization. He now knew who they were talking about.

"You might not know him personally, but maybe you've got some information on him," he pleaded. "Think about it real hard. Don't hold back, tell us everything you know right now!"

"Such an empathetic person we have here..." she murmured, pissed off.

Nen was being concentrated in the hand that held Nobunaga's. Gon and Killua tensed, knowing what was about to happen.

"So you're crying... Does that mean that you know what feels to lose someone? No. People around you can't kill your friends, but, oh yeah. You can do that, of course. That's because you have feelings, that's it." she looked at him with her scarlet eyes on. "Then, how come you can be that cold-hearted when you take all those people's lives away?!"

In her outburst, she slammed Nobunaga's hand with the table. Her action obliged Feitan to keep her down by force.

"Hitomi!" the boys shouted.

Gon was immediately thrown in the floor by Machi, who pressed her foot against his back to refrain his movement.

Killua wanted to move too, but he felt Hisoka's card pressing against his neck.

"Move... and I'll kill you," Hisoka said.

The boy just froze in his spot, realizing that the magician was dead serious.

"Look at her eyes, she is of them," Feitan said, looking at Hitomi's bright red eyes. "I remember now, we killed some guys like that. So, is revenge what you want?"

"Why would I want your disgusting, dirty blood in my hands?!" she snapped.

Feitan narrowed his eyes, but before he could do anything, Nobunaga stopped him.

"Don't do it," he said. "You were going to break her arm, right?"

"First her fingers. I rip the nail off," he replied.

"I don't care what it was, just don't do it."

They started to fight and, after a bit, Franklin suggested to flip a coin like they were used to do in decisions like these. Nobunaga won, so Feitan got forced to let her go. Machi and Hisoka freed Gon and Killua as well.

"I checked them out thoroughly on the way over here," Pakunoda said, "As far as I can tell, neither one of them knows anything. They have no memory of the Chain-user."

"Well, if Pakunoda says so, then I guess that's how it is," Machi said.

Hitomi took Leorio's glasses and put them in her pockets, before getting closer to her friends.

"Guys, did they do anything to you on the ride over here?" Killua asked. Gon shook his head.

"Neither to me," Hitomi said. "She just asked me a few questions and put a hand over my shoulder-"

Her eyes opened in realization. She had said 'memory' recently so...

"That's it," she said, surprised at her own discovering. "Her Nen ability is to read memories just by touching a person."

"Makes sense!" Gon said, amazed as well.

Killua paled at the thought.

"If that's true, we're definitely in trouble!" he thought. "I didn't know who the Chain-user was then but now I've figured it out. If she checks me again, we're doomed."

Hitomi looked at Killua's troubled form and frowned deeply, aware that he knew something that she had no idea about.

The three of them were imprisoned now, sitting in front of Nobunaga, who was blocking the only way to get away from there.

Hitomi flinched at the sight of Killua's ankles. The sight of his flesh made her get the urge to puke.

"How the hell did you get that?" she asked.

Killua just looked at them and shrugged. Hitomi sighed, and ripped a part of the boy's shirt.

"What are you doing?" he asked, irritated.

"I won't waste my own clothes in your stupidity," she said, annoyed as well. She ripped the cloth again in two. "Also, it looks disgusting."

He stared at her in slight surprise, as she kneeled down next to his right foot and started to wrap it with a half of the cloth.

"As far as I knew, you didn't know how to bandage someone," he reminded her.

"I learned," she sighed, irritated.

"When?" he raised an eyebrow.

"It was... well... uh..." she started to think. "Well, who cares?"

Killua didn't take his eyes out of her as she bandaged his ankle. Absent-mindedly, he put a hand over the place where Hisoka had put the card.

"I couldn't move back there," he thought, looking at Hitomi with narrowed eyes as she stated to wrap his other ankle. "If they were going to kill Hitomi, could I have stopped them?"

"You couldn't have. It would've been impossible," Illumi's words echoed in Killua's head again and again. "All it matters is if you can kill your opponent. If not, not try. Never fight a superior enemy, even if it cost you a friend."

"Stop it!" he cried in his mind.

Hitomi let go of his foot as soon as he stood up. She raised an eyebrow at him, in confusion.

Killua wanted to attack Nobunaga, but something inside him refrained him to do so. Irritated, he punched the wall instead and sat down.

The three friends stayed in silence until night, and Nobunaga turned on some candles in order to see in the darkness.

"Hey guys, do you remember the last trick Zepile told us about?" Gon asked out of blue. "It wasn't autopsy or cauterization... it was something else."

"I don't remember," Killua said coldly.

"Yeah, neither do I," Hitomi replied as well.

Gon stayed quiet again, thinking further about it's name.

"Gon, Hitomi... I'll be the bait" Killua said, seriously. "While I distract him, you two make a run for it."

"What the hell...?" Hitomi trailed off.

Nobunaga, on the other hand, smirked knowing that they wouldn't be able to make it. Killua stood up and glared at him.

"I'll stop his first strike, even if it kills me," he said. "That should give you enough time to get outta here."

SMACK!

Not, this time it wasn't Hitomi. Gon was the one to punch Killua in his head. She, instead, watched how Killua grabbed his friend's shirt, pissed off.

"What the hell was that for?!" Killua yelled, angrily.

"Stop thinking only about yourself!" he yelled back. "You shouldn't talk about dying so lightly!"

"Are you serious?! You were talking like that earlier today when you said you'd rather die than helping the Spiders!"

"I can talk like that, but you can't!"

SLAP!

Hitomi, really pissed off, slapped both boys. Gon was surprised at her sudden outburst while a vein popped up in Killua's head due the fact that he had been hit two times in a row, on the same day.

"Stop it, you two! I will be the one to kill you both!... But in other time," she shouted. "As much as I hate to say it, you won't die today. No one of us will. We're going to get out of here, together."

"Then, how do you think we are gonna do it, Miss Optimistic?!" Killua yelled.

"Using that thing in the head that you don't seem to have. It's called brain."

Nobunaga, however, started to laugh at the scene in front of him.

"Oh, I remember now!" Gon said, all of sudden. "Ostomy! It was ostomy!"

"That's right!" Hitomi exclaimed, getting Gon's idea.

"I remember, I remember!" Killua said, happy.

They turned serious again and glared at Nobunaga, who didn't understand the conversation at all. They activated their Nen and smirked.

"Are you sure?!" he asked. "You'll only get yourselves killed."

"I'm used to the danger," Hitomi joked, pointing at her friends. "You get in a lot of trouble around these two guys."

They ran to him and, before he could do anything, Hitomi broke the wall behind him, Killua at his right and Gon at his left.

Hitomi started to run, breaking as much walls as she could in the process. She tried to get away from Nobunaga, but he didn't expect to bump into someone.

Killua.

"I thought we had to split, idiot!" she yelled.

"You bumped into me!"

"Umm... guys?" a voice said behind them.

Great, Gon was here too and Nobunaga was getting closer. Hitomi sighed, not having more option but to put her hands around her mouth and focus Nen on them.

"What are you-?" Killua was about to say.

"Guys!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. "Are you there?!"

Killua and Gon gaped in amazement. They were sure to hear Hitomi's shouting from another place, far from where they were.

She raised her hands at her sides and they nodded at her.

"Yeah, over here!" Killua yelled.

"Me too!" Gon shouted as well. "It's time we take this guy down, okay?!"

And they started to run away, managing to flee from the Spider's web.

"Moron!" Killua stuck his tongue at the place where they had been. "I can't believe he actually fell for that!"

"But you know, I really would've liked to give him a beating!" Gon said.

"Forget it, there's no way. He would've killed the three of us before we could even touch him! We only know the basics of Nen, we wouldn't stand a chance," Killua said, before turning to the girl. "By the way, what was that?"

"Se-cre-t~!" she replied, irritating him.

Gon, on the other hand, grinned.

"Now you two are back to talking like the Killua and the Hitomi I know," he said. "You know, my job is to do say all the crazy stuff, Killua's job is to keep me cool and Hitomi's is joking around to enlighten the mood! That's what I need you two for!"

"Hey, all our jobs focus on you?" Hitomi murmured, a little annoyed. "Also, how come I look more like a clown than anything else?"

"Whatever you say..." Killua said to Gon, irritated as well.

They ran for a little more, talking more about the Genei Ryodan.

"Their Nen abilities are way beyond us, somehow we have to figure out how to compete at their level." Killua continued. "The quickest and easiest way to find out would be to ask Kurapika."

Hitomi stopped in her tracks, still thinking. Now all made sense... the guy who was hired by the Nostrade Family... The one who wanted revenge... The guy of the chain...

The one who the Spiders wanted to kill had been Kurapika all along.

The other two boys stopped as well. Gon was confused, but stayed quiet.

"You two hadn't figured that out yet?" Killua sighed.

"Kurapika is the Chain-user," she said. "So, that means he killed a member of the Genei Ryodan."

"Yeah, sounds like that."

Hitomi just couldn't believe it, Kurapika had killed someone. She still remembered how scared - even if he didn't want to admit it - he was at the thought of taking someone's life. The Fourth Exam, Trick Tower, was a clear example of it.

"Right now, Kurapika is the only one who knows how to help us," Gon said.

And Hitomi thought that, maybe, her brother needed them too.

"I'll call him," she declared.

"As I expected," Hitomi sighed, clicking the off button of her cell phone. "I keep getting a busy signal."

They heard a sudden explosion, and turned around to see smoke and lights come for a faraway place. It was like a war.

The three stared at it for a while, before jumping into the same conclusion.

"The Spiders!" they exclaimed at the same time.

Gon then called Leorio and agreed to meet. Not long after that, they arrived to the place. There, Hitomi called her brother once again.

"Hello," Kurapika's polite voice sounded through the phone.

"Oh my god, this is not a recording machine, is it?" Hitomi joked, smiling widely. "You are talking to me? I mean, for real?"

"Hitomi!" he said, surprised.

"The one and only," she smirked. "Well, I-"

"Sorry, I'm busy," he replied, cutting her off. "I'll call you back when I can."

"You said the same thing a long time ago!" she yelled, angrily. "Like hell I'm going to believe you!"

Gon, however, took the phone out of her hands.

"Wait a minute, Kurapika! Just one minute, okay? We need to tell you one thing," he said quickly. "Hitomi, Killua and me met the Genei Ryodan… Well, actually, they kinda caught us."

"What were you three thinking?!" he yelled, making both kids flinch at the loud sound. "Don't you know how dangerous they are?!"

Killua asked Gon the phone and he gave it to him. Hitomi got closer to it, in order to hear as well.

"We know now. We didn't realize it until we saw them in person," he admitted. "That's when we knew we weren't strong enough to take them on. And that's why we need your help, Kurapika."

"And maybe we can help you out too!" Gon shouted.

"This isn't a game. I won't assist in your suicide," he replied.

"You aren't the one to talk!" Hitomi scoffed. "Working like a lone wolf will kill you eventually."

Kurapika didn't talk, annoying the girl a little.

"You don't wanna know where their hideout is?" Killua suggested.

"I have my own sources," he replied.

"We also found out about the abilities of each member."

"Forget it! Just stay away from them! Understand?!"

Killua was getting a little irritated too.

"You killed one of them, and they call you the Chain-user, right? They are dead set on finding you," he said, and Kurapika stayed in silence, making Killua snap. "Even if you don't consider us friends or equals, I'm still gonna make you help us out!"

Hitomi sighed, kindly taking the phone out of the boy's hands and pressing it against her ear.

"Listen, Kurapika. One of them cried in front of us because his dead friend, and it just made me angrier. It made me think about all the lives they had taken, and not only our clan's," she said, quietly. "And, for once in my life, I want to assist you in suicide. We all wanna stop these guys."

Kurapika stayed in silence once again. Pissed off, Leorio took the phone out of her hands.

"Kurapika-!"

"I'll call you back later."

And after that, he hung up. They looked at each other and decided to do one last thing for the boy who wanted to do all by himself.

"We'll be waiting in Dayroad Park.

Hitomi, Gon and Killua."

Hitomi sent the text and sighed loudly. Her eyes stared at the screen for a little, before noticing something she hadn't realized.

"September 4th…" she murmured.

"Yeah, that's today," Killua replied. "What with that?"

"N-Nothing, it's nothing," Hitomi blushed a little, looking away.

"You don't wanna tell us?" Gon pouted. "Come on!"

Leorio started to poke her forehead, teasing and annoying her.

"Don't be mean," he said. "Don't keep things to yourself like your brother! Come, tell us!"

"Tomorrow is September 5th!" Hitomi yelled, a little embarrassed. "M-My birthday."

They all blinked.

"Is that so?" Gon said, happily. "Happy birthday then!"

"It's tomorrow, idiot!" she shouted.

Hitomi woke up next morning to find no one on her room. It was strange for her, she had never oversleep in all her life.

She decided to not think over it again and dressed up before grabbing her cell phone. She was surprised to see a new text of Kurapika.

"The Spiders are dead."

Hitomi had to look at it twice, before understanding. How come they are all of them dead? There was no way! Who did-?

She smiled bitterly. She thought it was better not to worry about it.

She, instead, was worrying over other different thing, Kurapika had not said if he was going to come or not. Sometimes, her insensitiveness pissed her off.

"He never asked my help…" she squeezed the phone tightly. "Maybe, that's because I'm weak."

Weak, useless to him. The thought of it made rage start to slowly burn within her consuming her from inside. Unable to keep them anymore, tears poured out of her eyes.

And now she felt stupid for crying over something like this. But she just couldn't help it.

"Hey, Dummy, are you still sleeping?" she heard Killua's voice from the door.

She flinched. Without knowing what to do, she grabbed the blankets of her bed and covered herself with them. She then resisted the urge to smack herself at her idiotic reaction.

Hitomi heard Killua's steps getting closer and she shut her eyes tightly.

"What are you doing?" the boy raised his eyebrow.

"Well, I was sleeping, until you come in," she lied, her voice broke a little in the last part.

Killua didn't say anything for a bit.

"Hitomi," he called.

"Hm?"

"You suck at lying."

She flinched again before noticing the boy pulling over the covers to make eye contact. She sighed, before sitting up. He stared at her for a bit, a little surprised. He had never imagined Hitomi crying like this before.

"So," he started, looking away. "What happens?"

"Nothing," she replied. "Everything is just okay."

"Yeah, that explains the tears in your eyes," he replied, sarcastically.

"Tears of joy?" she suggested. "Today is a wonderful day…"

He glared at Hitomi.

"Okay, okay, maybe it's not it…" she sighed loudly. "Well… I doesn't matter."

"It does," he replied.

She glared back.

"It's not your business," she muttered.

"It is."

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"But I do."

She gritted her teeth, pissed off.

"What do you want me to tell you?!" Hitomi snapped. "That I feel weak and useless around others?! That I feel just stupid?! That I'm worried about not seeing my brother anymore?!"

She then looked away, realizing what she had done. Killua's gaze, however, became softer after blinking twice. He sighed, sitting down next to the girl.

"You're right in one thing, though, you're stupid," he said.

"Oh, really?" her eyebrow twitched. "Thanks a lot."

"You are not that weak and useless," he said flushing a bit, surprising her. "You had help us all in a lot of things until now, including Kurapika."

"Of course," she said, sarcastically. "Then, why do you think my brother won't come?"

"He will," he smiled kindly.

Hitomi smiled as well, before poking his cheek.

"That's a little out of character, but thanks anyway," she teased.

"Yeah, because you are so on character…" he rolled his eyes, in sarcasm, before grabbing something out from his pocket. "Oh, right, I had to give you this."

Hitomi opened the little box and saw a double-wrapped iron bracelet. She grabbed it and noticed it made a soft, metallic sound when the bracelets clashed with each other.

"I noticed that your ability is to control sound," he explained. "It can help you in battle."

She looked at them for a little more before smiling.

"Can I do something more out of my character?" she smirked. "Thank you."

Killua was taken by surprise when a pair of arms wrapped around his neck. He froze there, blushing in embarrassment.

"Oh my, you're blushing!" she teased. "So shy and cute~"

"Shut up, I'm not!"

Hitomi was eating the ice-cream that Leorio had bought for them for her birthday, when she noticed something else. In front of them, there was someone standing.

In felt so unreal. She blinked a few times before grinning. There was Kurapika. Kurapika had read her message.

"You idiot!" she yelled, accidentally spitting some ice-cream in Killua's face and dropping the rest on Gon's head.

She ran to him.

SLAP!

Kurapika was surprised, but didn't react at his sister's hit. He knew that, in a way, he kind of deserved it.

She wanted to say something else, but she just sighed and smiled softly. Her eyes softened at the sight of him, alive, and well.

Hitomi hugged him tightly instead. She had been so afraid before and now that he was in front of her, she wasn't going to let him go away that easily.

"Hitomi, I..." he trailed off. "I'm sorry I didn't bought you a gift of something."

"It doesn't matter," she smiled. "You're here. That's the best gift I could've ever get."

She released her brother, not letting go of her grin yet.

However her sight got blocked for a huge mass in her eyes. She turned around to see Killua's cat mode and Gon, who had hit her with ice cream.

Kurapika blinked, seeing a vein pulsating with anger on his sister's head, before she started to fight with them. He stared for a while at the cloud of dust that the three kids were doing while fighting.

Leorio then showed up, raising his hand in greeting. However, he was attacked with ice-cream as well. Pissed off, he started to chase them.

The Kuruta boy softened his gaze and released a sigh. Without being able to hold it anymore, Kurapika released a soft, gentle laugh.

Hitomi blinked at him, before smiling as well. She ran to him and hit him with some ice-cream too.

"Hitomi..." he scolded, in a playfully tone, before taking a bit of the cream the little one had in her head and starting to chase her as well.

For once in awhile, Hitomi was happy. Seeing her brother's smile again was the best gift ever. She couldn't ask for more.

Sorry again for the lame chapter!

JokeLover123: We all love Killua XD Well, thanks for reviewing! I wish you had fun this time here :)

SoulXHunter: Thank you for leaving a review :) I hope you liked this chapter as well!

Silent Readers out there: Thanks for paying a visit here! Let's hope you enjoyed it :)

See you all later!