Eternities seemed to pass, one after another in long, consecutive stretches, with Killua all too aware of the close quarters Misaki and this stranger were with eyes never straying from the other. Something burned furiously within the pale boy, whose blue eyes grew colder, and he finally swooped forth and snatched the bottle of wine from the man's outstretched hand and firmly positioned himself between the two. This did manage to successfully break the man's concentration on the girl, and he stared blankly down at the adolescent boy while studying his defensive posture as if to evaluate it.
"Here, Misaki," Killua murmured to the girl with a relative softness to his voice while keeping his sights prominently on the male. He leaned in to her slightly in order to place the bottle in her palm.
She grasped it, but did not look away from her original distraction. It was an unreadable expression which she donned, causing an agonizing lurch within the suspicious boy. What on earth was she thinking now, while staring so intently at this idiot who apparently knew her name?
"Who are you, anyway?" the silver haired boy bitterly asked up toward his stubbled face.
Cocking his head at the former assassin, he simply replied, "Fukui, Yuto."
Grunting, Killua growled, "Well, what the hell do you want?"
Misaki was smiling now, if only slightly, at 'Yuto'. She lowered her chin and glanced up at him through her dark lashes.
"I was sent by Satotz-san to assist Misaki with her mission," he lied, putting to use the information he had once obtained from the girl.
Gon shifted from somewhere behind him, but Killua jumped in before his friend could respond with any sort of enthusiasm.
"Do you know this old man?" he asked the girl.
She was silent for a moment or two, as if considering the question carefully and then finally answered with a serious lack of spirit, "We go way back."
"That's great!" Gon chimed in too quickly for his comrade to best him this time. "We need all the help we can get to slow the eruptions!"
"Gon!" Killua called to him, his voice tinted with disbelief and reprimand.
"We do need to start building our group exponentially in order to successfully meet our quota," Haku agreed, stepping forth with his hand extended.
'Yuto' stared at the open palm but made no motion to shake it.
"Kamaka, Haku," he introduced himself, retracting his hand and opting for a bow instead.
Cheerily mimicking his bespectacled friend, the tanned boy grinned and greeted, "Gon Freecss!"
The blue eyed boy kept his hardened stare on the man, even while abandoning his more obvious defensive stance to slip his hands in to his pockets.
"…And this is Killua!" the dark haired boy added, gesturing toward his closest companion.
"Why?"
Everyone turned to view the paler boy, who was flashing a dangerous glare at 'Yuto'. The man simply cocked his head in the opposite direction.
"Why would Satotz send you now?"
"It is not my place to question my client."
"I suppose it's been decided then, hasn't it?" Misaki interrupted before further protest was possible, her voice stripped and barren of traceable emotion.
A firm jab with the heel of an expertly angled hand against the ball joint of Illumi's left shoulder rotated his upper body enough to face a severely unimpressed looking Misaki. She had only just lead him in away from the others, and already her brows were arched inward and sunken low over her eyelids, the amber in her irises glowing dangerously under the light of the moon and stars.
"How long have you been following me?"
Her voice was fairly controlled, though there was a definite element of disdain lying dormant in her words. Indeed, she was notably upset.
"That's no concern of yours," Illumi replied monotonously.
His eyes and face, even while manipulated to almost perfectly resemble that of another, revealed nothing to the girl now. She folded her arms, pivoting her face to eye him sideways and pursed her lips.
"I do not need a supervisor," she debated flatly.
"You are not authorized to make that decision."
She nearly widened her eyes at this but caught herself right away, admittedly stunned at his offhandedness toward her ability to judge and carry through a job.
'He doesn't trust me at all,' she inwardly acknowledged, scanning his face for any changes. 'Though I suppose I always knew that was so.'
"We're in the middle of preventing the end of humanity," she explained a little bit coldly. "I assure you that I'll dispose of the boy as soon as this set back has been corrected. I'm good to my word; I never accept a contract I won't finish."
"The contract will be finished," he agreed, drawing a step nearer to the girl and arranging his hands above her right elbow and the small of her back.
He slipped his left palm lower, down her thigh, and heaved her body in to him, securing her knee to his hip. For the first time, she resisted his advance.
"This is not a game, Illumi," she warned in a deceivably indifferent tone, turning her face sharply away from his.
The action of the plum haired girl, avoiding his attempt to sway and silence her, coupled with her words caught the disguised Zoldyck off guard for a moment. He stared quietly at her, recognizing the twinkling in her averted stare as that of spite and suppressed irritation. It was then that he realized that she was apparently offended by his presence here, and pondered it for a few seconds to analyze the situation at hand.
Was she so proud that she could not fathom his need to check in on her? If that was the case, why would she postpone her contract, which should in reality take no more than a moment's time to carry out? Gon was no match for her, he knew, and especially not if she simply attacked him without initiating a battle. It wasn't her style to necessarily insist upon a fair fight in order to eliminate a target, and he had seen as much from her with his own eyes time and time again, so what was the delay? How could she be so bothered by his intervention?
There was only one answer he could reasonably consider; she had become personally attached to the boy, and was now questioning her ability to dispose of him. This thought disgusted him, as he had considered Misaki to be a fairly capable assassin, with no friends to distract her and her eyes always seemingly locked on to the job. He wondered how deep rooted the affection someone like her could possibly develop for another person, and wondered seriously what he could do to break it.
After all, there was always a way to break a person one way or another, was there not?
Although clearly she was displeased with him momentarily, and first he would have to rectify that situation in order to do so. Maybe he would have to tread new territory in order to seduce her in to obeying him this time. She hadn't ever been angry with him before, he didn't think.
His grip on her arm tightened just enough to convince her to regain eye contact once more.
"We'll go out," he said, supposing it was an easy way to engage a female.
Her face scrunched slightly, brows knitting in confusion.
"What?" she inquired slowly, not understanding.
"We'll go out," he repeated, as though that should clear it up.
Shaking her head in hesitant back and forth motions, she questioned, "We'll go out where?"
Illumi blinked through his reshaped eyes.
"Where ever you want to go out."
The plum haired girl borrowed about a minute to decode the statement, eyes dancing to and fro as though she were reading it as a written sentence in mid-air several times. Her features began to smooth out gradually as she came closer to comprehending the words.
"Oh," she mumbled went she realized the purpose of his sentiment. After a second her eyes widened and she echoed herself in a more shocked sort of tone, "Oh!"
Uncertain as to whether he had overstepped his bounds, Illumi asked, "Is that bad?"
"Well, no… I suppose it isn't," Misaki replied. "You do mean 'go out' on a date, don't you?"
"Of course."
'Of course?' she thought with mild sarcasm. 'He couldn't have been less obvious about it…'
"It's just…" she let out a breath, running her tongue behind her front teeth. "…Well, most people ask someone out on a date, they don't just decide it on their own for both people..."
Illumi blinked again, unable to see the difference.
Opting to hold face long enough to at least persuade her, he rephrased the earlier statement as more of an offer:
"Do you want to go out?"
"You've never asked me that before," the girl mentioned suspiciously.
He shrugged.
"I guess we could," she whispered more to herself than to him, "since I'd like to have at least gone out on one real date in my life in case I never get another chance…"
Her eyes met his again, unreadable.
"Alright," she agreed without enthusiasm.
Inside, he felt a swelling of power. Again, he had won. All he had left to do was seal the deal, and he was quite certain he knew the ideal method of doing so.
He leaned his lips in to hers, and she made no move to draw away this time, as though she were lulled in to a convenient sort of trance. However, just before Illumi actually touched his mouth to her, he sensed a projectile coming from behind. In a swift motion, Misaki (who must have noticed it as well) reached around his back and caught it.
She held up the coconut between them, studying it.
Naturally Killua had followed Misaki and the man, using Zetsu immediately upon their excusing themselves and departing from the group. He did not trust Yuto to join with them, and secretly he did not at all have faith in his being alone with the girl. He might try to cause harm to her, or maybe worse even, try to…
His 'worst case scenario' seemed to come alive before his eyes as he watched Yuto pull Misaki's knee up to his hip. The veins in his temples throbbed violently, and he clenched his teeth.
'I knew it,' he thought sourly to himself, simultaneously reaching for a dislodged coconut that was lying, abandoned, on the ground at his feet. 'Dirty old geezer…'
As it happened, it was unnecessary for him to launch his pseudo-weapon since Misaki purposely turned away from the man. He felt a bit foolish as he lowered his hand and his insides performed relieved and bliss-filled flips against the interior of his chest. The girl had rejected this moron, this Yuto! Could the scene have possibly played out any better?
'I can't hear what they're saying,' the pale boy thought to himself, scanning the brush for a path to the tree that stood just beyond Misaki's post. 'I need to get closer.'
He kept the coconut clasped in his hand (just in case) as he took slow, deliberate steps toward his intended destination, applying the utmost care to avoid rustling the leaves of the bushes as he proceeded. The two resumed their initial and (fortunately) distanced conversing for a short while. He was fairly satisfied with this, at least until Yuto began to lower his face in toward the girl, whose eyes were softly closing as if she were oh-so-willing receive the…
Without a second thought, Killua heaved the fruit at Yuto, first concentrating nen in to his fist in hopes that the contact would ultimately cause more severe damage, and then rushed to the treetop while the two were distracted. To his surprise, Misaki was holding the coconut in her hand the next that he glanced at the two. Even more shocking was that the girl's eyes did not scan the area that the attack had originated from, and instead she simply tilted back her head and stared directly above her in to Killua's eyes.
'She probably can't really see me,' he told himself mentally as Yuto followed suit and appeared to eye his whereabouts also. 'It's too dark…'
"Kil'?" she called out in mild awe. "What on earth are you doing up there?"
His cheeks burned in the darkness before he could even attempt to stop them, and his felt a light dizziness swimming through his head.
"I… was uh…"
He scrambled to think of a viable excuse, but it felt as though his thoughts were being weighted down and severely slowed.
Grasping a hasty handful of nuts from the branches, he managed to blurt out, "…Grabbing more food."
He desperately held out his palm as though the three or so acorns he had plucked were a convincing argument.
Misaki smiled at him, and unfortunately this only caused his cheeks to go from heated to fevered.
"Why don't you come down here, and we'll go back?" she suggested.
"Yeah," he agreed, attempting to brush of the awkwardness as he leapt down to ground level and thrusted his hands in to his pockets. Shrugging coolly, he added, "Let's go."
Misaki turned back in to the trees, and much to Illumi's surprise, his younger brother cut deliberately in front of his alias as he attempted to join the girl's side. Killua glanced back at him over his shoulder, shooting an unmistakably dangerous glare of warning as he subconsciously leaned closer to the plum haired girl while he walked.
'Interesting…' the elder boy thought, realizing that perhaps he now had two situations to monitor here rather than one.