The persistent wave of indistinguishable group chatter woke Killua just after dawn. The boy cautiously crawled toward the edge of the lean-to and peered around the mass of bound sticks to find that the beach was absolutely saturated with people. His blue eyes nearly bulged out of his skull at the unexpected flood of tourists, some in bathing suits and many others wearing nothing at all. The latter was almost enough to cause his instant, involuntary blush to spread through his entire body, and he struggled awkwardly to retreat completely back in to the shelter to escape the sight.
"Finally you're up," Misaki greeted him, a skewer lined with unfamiliar types of cooked fish and fresh pineapples in her hand.
"Wh-what are all these people d-doing here?" he asked so quickly that he occasionally stumbled on his own tongue.
"These are the Volcanic Islands, remember?" she replied while cocking her head slightly at him. "Tourists come here year-round on vacation."
"…But there wasn't even one other person here last night!"
"They were probably in the city over there," Misaki explained while pointing eastward beyond the trees. "There's more than just one beach, too. There could have even been an event happening on another one."
When he finally graced her with eye contact, she shot him a small but noticeably wicked grin.
"We were lucky, though," she went on, "we washed up on the exciting beach."
"What's so exciting about it?" Killua asked doubtfully
"It's a nude beach, of course," Misaki said as though it were the most casual thing in the world.
She chuckled lightly as Killua lowered his face as though to hide his fire red cheeks.
"We have a lot to do today," she insisted seriously, "and there is a very strict dress code on this beach." Pointing at his shorts with her free hand, she commanded, "The pants; lose them."
With eyes so wide one could scarce see his eyelids, the silver haired boy shouted back, "I'm not walking around naked in front of a bunch of strangers!"
"Relax, I was joking," Misaki said calmly, holding up a defensive palm. She handed him the kebab and added, "Eat up. I meant it when I said there is a lot to get done today."
She turned to leave, but halted suddenly, laughing louder than she had ever done in his presence before.
"Don't flatter yourself," she giggled, "I wouldn't actually want to see a kid like you strutting around naked."
Lowering his brows, Killua growled, "Well I wouldn't want to see an old lady like you naked, either!"
Snapping to alert, Misaki tucked a loose strand of hair back in to her ponytail before using her index finger to indicate something seemingly dire in the distance. Caught up in the tension, Killua rushed forth to see what it was.
"You mean like that old lady there?" she asked with mock-innocence just in time for the young boy to catch a glimpse of exactly what he wanted to see least.
"You're bad natured, Misaki," he grumbled with the slightest amount of playfulness as he dived back in to the shelter with both eyes squeezed forcefully shut. "I'll get you back for that one!"
The sound of her snickering lessened and then faded in to the hustle of the crowd.
Seating herself on a large rock only a few meters from the site at which Killua still remained, Misaki withdrew her umbrella from the sling on her back. With her legs nearly fully extended, she lazily engraved curved lines in the sand with the closed parasol tip, drawing nothing in particular while she mused.
She wondered quite fervently whether it was especially appropriate to speak and behave so playfully with Illumi's younger brother, specifically while in the midst of a contract that was rather grim in nature. There was a strange part of her psyche that she had always managed to keep effectively locked away and often even separate from her conscious thoughts. This regarded her personal life and honest emotions, which had never threatened to bleed out and color her composure before.
Yet, here she was; in the company of Illumi's sibling and somehow willing to admit truths to him in between the carefully crafted lies. There was a persistent and irritating sense of betrayal somehow in the thought that perhaps Killua now knew more about her in such a short span of time than his elder brother did following twelve or so years of making her acquaintance. She supposed that this could be rooted in her typical lack of desire for human contact outside of work circumstances. Coupled with Illumi's own apparent wish for solitude and separation from developing personal connections beyond the most animalistic of motives, perhaps it did make sense after all...
Despite such a lengthy stretch of time having known Illumi, she admittedly did not truly yearn to know about him. Spending the vast majority of her time solely in the company of her own thoughts, there was something wonderfully refreshing in the knowledge that there was someone so willing to share the pleasures of human touch with no strings attached.
'Sins of the flesh are the most fun,' she reasoned, smiling slyly at the collection of lines in the sand.
Still, was it wrong to feel a… bond, of sorts… with the brother of the only person whom she actively sought out beyond the call of duty; the only human she'd previously shared any personal piece of herself with, even if it did not transcend her physical body?
Honestly, she did not know, but she had a pretty good guess as to what Illumi's response would be…
…though she supposed that she didn't much care at the moment, at least.
A/N: I know this one didn't have a lot of action or movement in it, but we'll be back to the plot next chapter, I swear it.