Chapter Text

A beam of morning light pierces through shade and into the room, illuminates its entire surroundings. It's just a plain old simple room that anyone can have. It has a desk, a chair, and other ordinary furnitures.

"Huh? It's morning already?"

A voice shatters the silence of the morning. It's a boy's. He slowly climbs out of bed, puts on his green jacket, and draws the shade open.

Being on the 25th floor, this apartment actually has a decent view when compared to the other apartments in the city. Even though everything that surrounds it is all buildings there's a pretty good eagle-eye view to the ground.

The boy murmurs, "Well, I guess that's the last night that I'll spend in this apartment in a while." He opens the door a tiny bit, and peeps through the crack. But no one's is in sight. He opens his mouth to speak, but just before he has the chance to make any sound, another voice in the apartment beats him to it.

"Ah! Gon! You're finally up!"

Gon responds to the sudden voice, however, not surprised at all. "Good morning dad. But 'finally up?' it's still early morning."

"I hope you remember, you're leaving to search for your mother today."

"Don't remind me." Gon answers, disgusted.

"Hey, don't sound like that, she is your own mother, after all. And you should care about her." Gon's dad - Ging, tries his to make Gon feel better about departing, but Gon isn't getting it.

"If you cared about her, you would've come with me."

"I told you, I have to go to a meeting with my colleagues about the project to go to the Dark Continents. I can't decline it."

"Yeah. Sure, sure." Gon retorts back with sarcasm.

"Well. Just to reiterate, you'll leave at nine, which is in one hour. You'll go to the airport and travel to meteor city. But make sure to stay safe. Because that's the home of the Phantom Troupe. Everything's already packed. You should have breakfast right now….Oh! Make sure to practice your Nen every day. Or else your aura will shrink."

"Blah, blah, blah. Yeah I know."

"Listen, Gon. You're already thirteen, you have to learn how to take care of yourself."

"I was taking myself just fine two years ago, before I found you. I had friends, they were really nice….Speaking of them, I really do miss them. Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio." Gon's voice drops as he thinks about his past. All of the good times that he and his friends shared together makes him feel nostalgic.

"No need to feel bad, you'll make new friends along this trip too. And considering this trip will be a long one. You'll have more time to bond with them."

"So you're saying I'm going to completely leave Killua and just forget about him?"

"What else can you do, you've texted him so many messages, but he hasn't responded to any of them."

"So? That doesn't mean anything?" Even though he’s saying this on the outside, deep down, Gon knows the truth.

Ging walks over to Gon and kneels down to get to his eye level, "You have to face the reality. You'll only lose yourself if you sink into your past."

"Are you done with the pep talk? It's not really helping my mood." Gon interrupts him and slowly drags himself over to the table, and sits himself down.

"Alright, alright. I'm done. Here, come have breakfast. Oh, and by the way. I bought a whole box of Pocky for your trip. And they're your favorite flavor - Green Tea!"

"Yay…." Gon answers weakly, His voice contradicts his words.

"And do you know what's even better?"

"What?" Gon replies, annoyed.

"Here." Ging takes out a card out of his pocket, and hands it over to Gon.

"You can have this credit card. Use it as much as you like. I don't care. Buy anything. I have enough money to fulfill your desires."

"Why are you so nice all of a sudden?" Gon voices his doubt. Because Ging's the type of person that would sneak some little trick into the ordinary stuff.

"I know why you are suspicious. But, considering that I left you for the first twelve years of your life, consider this as one of the compensations. So trust me, there's no trick involved in this."

"Oh. Ok then. Thanks? I guess." Gon puts the card into his wallet.

Suddenly, Ging's phone starts to ring, and he answers it.

"Hello, this is Ging Freecss. May I know who's speaking?"

While listening to his father's response, Gon thinks: Wow, that doesn't sound like my dad. He's always so "manly" in front of me, but he's really polite in front of strangers.

Since Gon can't hear the other end of the phone because his dad doesn't have the speaker on, he sits in his chair and quietly munches down his breakfast.

When Ging's call ends, he turns his attention to Gon,

"Well, the car going to the airport is already here. You can leave now, it's better to be early than late."

"Ugh. Listen to your tone dad, you're basically rushing me out."

Ging completely ignores his son's comment, he kneels slightly to get on Gon's eye-level and gently pats his spiky black hair on the head. He speaks with a real even but serious tone.

"Gon, if you think I want to let you go, then you're definitely a fool. I completely regret my actions twelve years ago when I left to be a hunter than to raise you. Promise me, come back safely, with mom, ok?"

As he gets to the end of his sentence, tears begin to well up in his eyes. But he quickly shakes them off with a wipe of his hand. He says, "Alright, let's go."

Gon walks over to his bag. When you think about it, it's actually nothing. Only taking a backpack on a trip that might take months will probably be considered underpacking.

The two of them stays completely silent on their elevator down. Nobody speaks a single word. However, their quiet mood drastically changes when Gon is about to get onto the car.

"I'll miss you, son."

"Mmm. I'll miss you too dad."

With this final exchange of words, Ging collapses. Tears gush out of his eyes. He can no longer withstand the sorrow of departure, of people leaving him.

"What's the matter, dad?"

"It's….bec….Nothing." Ging hesitates when finishing off his last word. 

Gon notices that he isn't telling the truth. But he knows that right now isn't a good time to pursue any further.

"Gon... Remember, always enjoy the little detours, to the fullest. Because that's where you'll find things more important than what you actually want."

"Okay. I promise I'll remember it!"

The two of them bring their hands together, and do their usual "Pinky promise"

"Pinky, pinky bow-bell, Whoever tells a lie will sink down to the bad place and never rise up again."

The promise is sealed, and Gon hops onto the car immediately following Gon's steps the door closes by itself. All they can do now, is to wave their last goodbyes.

Gon looks back through the back windshield, he can see his dad's face. It's a mess from all of the crying.

The car start, and begins to move forward. The same goes for Gon's life.

"What did Ging's last sentence mean? What does enjoy the detours mean?" Gon asks himself. "Well, I'm about to find out!"

He shuts his eyes, relaxes, and falls asleep.

However, for Gon, he has no idea that this journey will forever redefine the meaning of his life. 

____________________________________________________________________________

"Mr. Freecss, excuse me. I'm sorry to interrupt your sleep, but we've arrived at the airport."

A voice slices though Gon's dreams, snapping him back to reality.

"Huh? Oh. What's up with the formal 'Mr. Freecss'?"

"You are the son of a famous hunter, and plus you're our customer. Speaking of which, will you need my assistance on checking in and getting the boarding pass?"

"Nah. I'm good. My dad already paid you, right?"

"Yes, you don't have to do anything."

"Well, thanks for the ride. I'll be going now."

"Good luck on your trip!"

"Thanks!"

The car pulls off, and Gon heads into the terminal.

"Huh. So I fell asleep right after I got on, and didn't wake up until I got here. I must be really tired….Ah! Forget it, I'll just get the pass and sleep on the plane. It'll be a 10-hour flight anyway."

Since Gon left for the airport earlier than normal, there aren't many people in line, so he quickly heads over to the check-in area and walks up toward one of the counters.

"Good morning, sir. May I take a look at your passport?"

Gon hands over his passport, along with his Hunter's license.

The lady takes a quick look at both document and then says, shocked,

"Wow, Mr. Freecss, you're already a Pro-Hunter at the age of 13."

"Yes, indeed I am." Gon answers proudly.

"Good for you! And just to clarify, you are boarding the 11:00 flight with the destination of Meteor City, right?"

"Yeah."

"By the looks of things, you only have a carry-on, is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Since you have your Hunter's license, you won't be needing your Visa, so you're all set. Your seat is going to be on the third row, in first class. Here are the boarding pass and your documents.

"Alright, thanks!"

Gon waves her goodbye, and heads toward security. On the way there, he notices the restaurants and shops.

"Oh. They have a McDonalds. I might have some of that after security."

However, after successfully passing security, he realizes that he can't go back out.

"Aww. I can't go back out after getting through security. I'm so dumb….Well, I have one hour and a half of time to kill before I get on the plane."

Gon starts to walk toward the gate, which turns out to be right next to security. After finding a seat, he starts to brainstorm ideas on fun things he can do to pass time. But before he can think of anything, he falls asleep again.

He wakes up to the sound of the loudspeaker.

"All first class and business class passengers can begin to proceed onto the plane. Please take care of your belongings."

After gaining conscienceless again, Gon immediately stands up and rushes toward the gateway with his backpack.

"I just can't wait to sit in a first-class seat before! I haven't been to one! This is so exciting!"

Gon hands over his boarding to the person working there. He swipes him in, and he dashes through the bridge connection between the building and the plane.

After getting onto the plane and finding his spot, he notices that the first class section is filled with rooms. They're pretty small, each has an area of around 8 yards by 8 yards. Each room contains two reclinable seats facing each other, with a desk in between them, a sliding door separates them from the rest of the plane. It's honestly not a lot of space, but considering this is all on a plane, one should be happy about having this luxury.

"I wonder who's the other person in this room? Hopefully, they're not going to be a wierdo. Hmm, is there a name tag here somewhere?"

Gon raises his head, and directly above him, he sees two little screens. The one directly above himself has his name on it.

"Which means that the tag on the other side will have the other person's name."

Gon stands up and gets onto the other side, when he looks up and sees the tag, he falls utterly speechless.

The tag reads: Killua Zoldyck

Suddenly, a familiar voice interrupts his train of thought from behind. It's a voice that he yearns for, it's a voice that will bring joy to his heart just by hearing it.

"It's been a while Gon. I didn't expect to meet you here."

He speaks with a real even tone, but Gon can tell that he's trying his best on hiding his laughter and surprise.

Gon turns around, and immediately smiles upon seeing the face of the familiar silver-haired boy in his classic white T-shirt and purple undershirt.

Gon stands up, and they bring their arms together with a hug.

"Killua….It's been so long. I missed you so much."

Killua's cheeks turn red, "Aren't you a little embarrassed by what you're saying? But anyway….I miss you too."