The warmth of the sun upon the pale, still dewy and sweat-stricken flesh of her face woke Misaki gently from a blissfully undisturbed slumber. Perhaps had she not felt so wonderfully relaxed and mellow, she would have been suspicious of the sudden advances in the "arrangement" between Illumi and herself the night prior. However as it stood at present, she was overwhelmed with a fascinating sensation of peace and attachment that she couldn't have likely found the words to properly describe if even she wished to.
The hollow echo of water droplets on glass encouraged the smile that threatened to reveal itself to surface on to her lips as she languidly stretched her limbs. Well aware that the space next to her on the bed had been long abandoned, she log-rolled a complete rotation across the king sized mattress once before she finally lifted her lids.
The pillow smelled of his hair, and she hugged to it momentarily before finally using her elbow to prop her chin up to see the display on the digital alarm clock.
'Nine-twenty three…' her mind whispered in a dreamy sort of manner as she nearly plopped on to her back once more.
In an instant the trance-like sensation was broken and she scrambled to perform a "double take" at the clock. Indeed, the segments of illuminated, green lines unapologetically confirmed her previous reading. Moving almost too quickly for her limbs to keep up, Misaki dived out of bed, unintentionally dragging the sheets with her.
'Damn, I'm late!' she mentally cursed as she rushed toward the bathroom, trying unsuccessfully to recall the last time she had been untimely for any work-related event.
None-too-gracefully prying open the steam-smothered shower door, she stepped inside and nearly hip-checked an unsuspecting Illumi out of the path of the water's spray. He simply stared at her.
"You didn't wake me up," Misaki scolded him without bothering to make eye contact, her voice tainted with a desperation he had never heard in it before.
Ignoring the fact that his hair was still veiled with a diluted layer of foam from the shampoo, he merely shrugged her off.
She simply sighed out a short, frustrated breath as she raced through her shower routine at an alarming rate.
"Have you ever heard of an organization called L.I.G.H.T.?" she questioned seriously despite the urgency still looming in her tone.
He thought about it for a moment before replying with a simple, "No."
Followed by an unreasonable flood of water, Misaki threw open the door and hurriedly prepared for her return to Kareko Village, too caught up in her time predicament to properly concoct a viable excuse for her absence.
"Maybe we should just ask Haku about the meeting ourselves?" Gon suggested quietly, sitting backwards in one of the dining chairs with his chin rested on the frame while gazing up at his friend's back.
Killua grimaced at nothing in particular out the window. Certainly if even Gon had even reached a point of doubt in Misaki returning, then his own apprehension was not unfounded. Unconsciously, he clutched at the window frame he was leaning against, both irritated and concerned as to her whereabouts, as well as partially confused as to why he even ought to be.
Something was wrong, he was positive. Something must have happened, and it was unlikely (in his opinion, at least) that that something was specifically good. She had devised a plan the night before, he was convinced, and yet something had distracted her and lured her away before she could even begin to explain it to them. That was nearly fourteen hours ago now…
After hesitating for what he now understood had been too long, Killua had agreed that the two ought to follow the girl. Unfortunately by the time they had reached this conclusion, Misaki had already disappeared down the alleyway behind that odd, decrepit old man with the long, white beard. She had undoubtedly fallen in to Zetsu almost immediately after, as the boys searched long and thoroughly for any trace of their guide ultimately to no avail. Nearly being spotted by a sudden group of village housewives wandering the streets finally persuaded the boys to abandon the hunt and return to their temporary residence.
"Yeah," Killua murmured as his mind fixated on the obscurity of there having been such a group of woman wandering the village together after dark in the first place.
His body was feeling noticeably weary from anxiety and lack of sleep, and he sincerely hoped that his mind would be functioning effectively enough to catch any discrepancies in Haku's account of the previous evening. The fact that the man had stumbled in reeking almost intolerably of booze only just before dawn was disconcerting enough . It was almost guaranteed that he would be experiencing a fairly awful hangover once he had left the safeguard of slumber.
"Alright, let's go wake the geezer up," Killua sighed.
'This is going no where,' the blue eyed boy thought in annoyance.
An unforgiving thirty five minutes had lagged past in which the pair had managed to do little more than hoist Haku out of bed and literally drag him in to the kitchen in order to prop him up in one of the chairs. The blue wig and black rimmed glasses were lying in a heap on the table next to the man's bent elbows. His face was cradled in his hands, and every now and then a pitiful groan would escape between his fingers.
"Haku-san, are you asleep again?" Gon questioned with a frown after a solid five minutes of no response.
A soft, gurgling snore echoed from within his palms.
Approaching the limit of his patience, Killua violently slammed down his knuckles against the table but a few inches from Haku, who in response jolted awake and winced in pain while lifting his fingers to his temples.
"Tell us what happened at the meeting!" the former assassin snapped quite a lot less tactfully than he'd have preferred under normal circumstances.
"Okay, okay," Haku caved instantly, his voice cracking dreadfully as he spoke. "Just refrain from yelling, please."
The boys exchanged glances, and Gon offered up an enthusiastic thumb.
"What is it that you boys would like to know?" Haku inquired in a half-inebriated slur.
In unison, the two cried out, "Everything!"
"Ow…" Haku whined as his dried eyes squinted painfully. At an unnaturally slow pace, he recounted, "Okay…um… I went to the meeting. The…men were all there… and they talked…"
"About what?" Killua urged impatiently.
"…They talked… about… taxes."
"Taxes?" Gon repeated with knitted brows.
"Yes… taxes," Haku agreed.
A brief silence fell over the table.
"…Was that all?" Killua asked finally, trying very hard to hold in his frustration.
"No."
Another silence…
"Well, what else did they talk about?" the artificial brunette hissed.
"Oh…" Haku mumbled. "…They talked… about… planning… holiday events… and then… about… going out for… drinks to celebrate… 'Daisuke' as their newest… resident…It was fun but I… I think I… drank too much…"
"You stupid, old geezer!" Killua exploded, "We don't care about taxes or holidays parties, and we especially don't care about you going out for drinks! Did you find out anything about L.I.G.H.T.?"
"Please don't shout!" Haku shouted.
"Answer the question then!"
Letting out a pathetic sound that registered somewhere between weeping and grunting, the man finally replied, "No, they didn't… but two of the members of L.I.G.H.T. were present."
Gon and Killua glanced to one another with wide eyes.
"How do you know…?" the blue eyed boy began.
He was cut off abruptly by the front door, which creaked gently on its hinges as it opened to reveal Misaki, complete with costumed disguise. All eyes turned to the girl whom they had nearly been willing to give up for dead. She paid no heed to the intensity of their glances and smoothly crossed the room, seating herself amongst the group.
Her gaze met Killua's, whose eyes were narrowing at the whiff of freshly applied, scented soap he had caught (as it lingered in the air from her skin along the path she had traveled passed him). The level of vigilance residing in her amber eyes told the story of the obviously pleasant rest she'd managed to obtain, quite unlike that of himself or his comrade.
'It looks like we have two people that need interrogating now,' he thought.