Archive of Our Own ^beta

Fantasy AU

The mountain path was steep, the ground uneven and he had a few near misses several time, though he did actually fall down twice already and he was certain that if he made another misstep that he was going to sprain his ankle. As he walked further up the rocky pathway, entering the dense forest that made his heart race, anything could attack him and he was woefully underprepared to fight back. He though about all the choices that he had made which ended with him travelling up here, though a desperate man would do something this desperate when he had a lot riding on his shoulders after all.

He cursed the villagers who appeared to have confused him for a knight even though he had already told them several times that he was a doctor. Though Leorio wasn’t too sure how they were able to take point a and go all the way to point d, he had even spoken to the elders of the village but they seemed to have the same view point as the rest of the village, he was a knight to them and they offered him money to take this task, even giving him half to begin with and the rest once he had completed the task.

The task itself was for him to rescue a child from a vicious dragon.

Leorio had never met a dragon before, never seen any from a far of distance either. All he knew about them were from books, fables and tall tales that were told in the villages that he was raised in, along with some art that he caught sight of when he travelled, but what he did know from all that was that to deal with a dragon you did need someone who knew how to slay a dragon.

Which wasn’t him.

After all dragon’s no longer existed, though there had been a few travellers that he had met who claimed to have seen dragon’s going to and from certain villages and countries, but they all said that dragon’s were incredibly rare and they felt like to see a dragon was a blessing. He thought that they might not be right in the head, given that some of them were usually delirious, having been without fresh water for a few days, but his friend told him that he should believe them. After all why lie about dragon’s when there was so many other fantastical creatures to lie about? Each and everyone was focused on dragon’s alone.

Of course money was money, Leorio needed it to keep his practice running. If he needed to save a child from a dragon, the child needed to be alive and there was no actual mention to kill the dragon, just that he needed to save the child, although a few of the villagers tried to get him to state that he would also kill the dragon but he just put some distance between himself and them.

Taking a quick drink from his flask, he knew he wasn’t qualified to do this, but still money. He couldn’t afford to ignore this and move on to the next village, he didn’t know how long his practice would survive if he continued travelling as he was, and he had already been gone for nearly a month now, he would need to return soon to make sure everything was still going okay.

He was on edge, every sound made him jump, even when it was just his own feet breaking the branches beneath him. Walking quickly he found the forest started to thin out and the rocky path began to change into a smooth pathway, one that lead towards a castle further up. His first thought as he gazed at the rather regal building was how had someone managed to build a castle on top of a mountain, and then another though was why did a dragon need a castle?

Pushing aside those thoughts he took a breath, trying to calm himself as he entered the open gates, wondering for a moment how often visitors came up here for the gates to be really necessary, and headed towards the door.

Leorio considered that maybe he would face the dragon right away, or if he was extremely lucky he would find the child and be able to run back down the mountain path with them. Though he didn’t exactly have that kind of luck, unfortunately, which was why he was doing this task for the village.

As he came to the rather imposing door, he gave himself a shake and knocked, because he might be tasked with attempting to kill a dragon, but he wasn’t going to be rude straight away.

The door opened without anyone behind it to open it.

Peaking his head into the doorway he looked around and saw no one, he took a tentative step inside, noticing that the castle hallway was actually rather well kept, which was kind of surprising if a dragon lived here. Surely it would have been wrecked, or not even had a human touch to it?

“Um, hello?” he called out with a tremble of fear in his tone as he did so. Still he looked around a bit more as he came further into the hallway, he was ready to run if there was even a slight sign of a dragon around.

“Hisoka look!” a young voice loudly whispered, causing the dark haired man in the hallway that was looking around to frown and try to see where the voice came from.

“Gon, when you whisper you are meant to do so quietly.” a male voice spoke with a sigh, he wasn’t even whispering and as Leorio turned around he saw exactly where that voice was coming from.

A man walked out of the shadows heading towards him and Leorio took a step back. The man was tall, with amber eyes like a cats, his hair was ginger and his skin deathly pale with freckles sprinkled across those high cheekbones and rather delicate nose, but what unnerved Leorio was the rather knowing grin on his lips and his movements, he walked towards him calm and collected even though a stranger had just walked into his own him without permission.

“My apologises.” the stranger began, though to Leorio he certainly didn’t sound apologetic about it at all. “My ward here doesn’t understand how to be tactful in these situations.”

Now Leorio was well and truly confused. This man was sorry that the child hadn’t been quiet enough? Was he hearing that right?

“Oh Hisoka! That’s not what you’re supposed to say!” a young boy leapt over to them, landing directly in front of the ginger man, who simply looked down at him.

“Then what was I meant to say then Gon?” he asked quizzically, while the young bout turned toward Leorio with a smile.

“Am sorry I was talking about you, but usually no one comes in through the front door, that’s why it’s always unlocked.”

“That’s not...” the older man sighed, shaking his head before looking back at Leorio, the stranger in his home. “What are you doing here? The mountains certainly don’t seem like a place a man like you would be venturing up, aside from soldiers most people stay away.” he looked over Leorio carefully, as if searching for something that would make him out to be a soldier or the like but with a frown he returned his gaze to his face.

“Well...” he wondered if maybe he should simply lie, but given how those amber eyes looked at him with a pointed look, he moved away from that train of thought. Then he realised that he was thinking the man could read his mind, which was impossible, no one could do that.

“Hisoka, we’re meant to introduce ourselves first.”

“He already know our names now.” Hisoka told him, but he looked down at the boy who pouted at him, it was enough for him to change his mind.

Leorio bit back a smile at the scene before him, he found the man to be intimidating and yet a young boy was able to sway him into being polite was rather amusing.

“I’m Hisoka Morrow and this is Gon Freecs, now who are you?” he added a little bit of a sharp pointed tone to his words and Gon was about to correct him again, yet Leorio decided to speak first, otherwise he could be here for longer than he intended.

“I’m Leorio Paladiknight, pleased to meet you both.” he nodded to them both before realising that he needed to continue talking from the look Gon was giving him, clearly the young boy hoped he would have an interesting tale to tell for him being up here. “I… I was asked by the villagers to come up here. Am meant to find a child and free them from the dragon.”

Hearing him say that, Gon took a step closer to Hisoka, who simply chuckled as those hazel eyes looked up at him before moving to look at Leorio.

“Hisoka...” Gon spoke softly, sounding rather distressed to Leorio confusion, wondering why the child’s eyes were watering at his words, the ginger haired man stopped as placed a hand gently onto the boy’s black and green tinted hair.

“Calm down, it’s fine Gon. Did the villagers say anything else Sir Paladiknight?”

“Um… it’s doctor, am not a knight or anything, but they did speak about a dragon, some wanted me to kill it but… am a doctor not a fighter.” he told them, information that appeared to calm Gon down enough that he didn’t look at him with such fearful eyes any more.

“A doctor… but they want you to bring the child to the village.”

“Yea, pretty much.” he couldn’t do anything more than shrug, because the whole business with the elders of the village was too much to talk about really.

Hearing that Hisoka scoffed but he continued to stroke Gon’s hair and the boy seemed to be soothed more by his touch than needing words spoken to him to calm him down further.

“I see. That is interesting.” he appeared to be thinking something over before shaking his head. “You’re an unexpected guest, though they aren’t too uncommon.” he looked down at Gon who smiled up at him with a nod before turning to look at Leorio. “You can stay here, there is a storm coming, it will delay your return to the village. Unless you choose to leave now, but even then you may well be caught up in it. Unless of course you are going to try to find the dragon and child?”

“I doubt the villagers will let me come down from here without the child.” he admitted quietly, recalling the rather feverish looked that the elders had on their faces when he agreed to their task, it looked like they were possessed.

“Very well, Gon?” hazel eyes and amber one’s locked, a quiet word was spoken through their gaze, before the young boy nodded and he ran up the stairs and down the hallway, with the lights turning on as he did so.

That struck Leorio as being a little bit spooky, but he wouldn’t comment on it, given that the pair of them lived in a castle, perhaps there was some perks to go with it. Not to mention he had just walked into their home without any permission and they were still kind enough to let him stay, when he was certain that other’s would have simply cast him out into the storm that was meant to come along.

“I don’t suppose they mentioned why they wanted the child rescued?” Hisoka inquired as they began to make their way up the stairs, following Gon at a slower place.

“No, though I did ask, but they ignored it. Only a woman came up to me and begged me to not do this, saying that the boy was safer with a dragon than he would have been down here.”

“And yet you still went ahead, due to money am guessing. It’s the easiest way to get people to do what they want.” the ginger haired man scoffed as his eyes narrowed in displeasure.

“Yes. It’s the only way I would be able to keep my practice open.” he admitted, although he now found himself rather ashamed of being bought off like that, as Hisoka said it was an easy way to get people to do what you want with payment, but he had a real reason to do it.

“Oh? So is there someone seeing to your patients since you are here?” he asked, interested in his answer.

Leorio felt a heat rise to his cheeks, because there was three of them, but he was the one with the actual medical knowledge, the other two; Kurapika and Melody; just had basic medical training. He felt those amber eyes look at him, as if he could read his mind though Leorio pushed the thought away once more.

“So you were desperate.” he concluded even though Leorio said nothing and they eventually stopped at a door. “You can stay, see out the storm here. If you wish, we can have you go back down the mountain without having to go by the village. Though there is a price to pay, a test of sorts before I will help you return.” Hisoka opened the door and Leorio saw that it was a rather impressive bedroom, clean and a fire was already lit and warming up the room. “Gon will fetch you for dinner.” he turned away from him to return to walking back down the hall.

“Yea… oh, thank you!” he called after him before closing the door quietly, not seeing how he had startled the amber eyed man by his gratitude.

“That was nice of him, makes a change huh?” Gon had quickly and rather quietly returned to his side with a wide grin on his face while Hisoka shook his head.

“He’s a strange human.”

“Aren’t all human’s strange to you?”

“True, but I must say that you would be the strangest.” he teased the boy as they walked down the hallway. “At least he stills falls into my rough expectations of humanity.”

“You don’t think he’s going to go looking for a dragon though do you?” Gon asked him curiously, his tone shifting back to worry once more.

“It didn’t sound like he would. All he needs is money for his practice to keep helping his patients.” he told him.

“A practice? Oh, cos he’s a doctor? That’s why he has that odd smell, overly clean...”

“Antiseptic, disinfectants and a hint of blood.” Hisoka broke it down for him. “Along with a faint hint of leather.”

“I caught some patchouli off him too.” Gon added and noticed the pleased look on his guardian’s face, realising that he had left that one out on purpose. They were silent as they walked towards the kitchen, since Gon was going to start dinner. “Do you need to kill him?”
“No, he’ll have a test, I already told him that.” as Hisoka told Gon that, he considered a test that could work with a man like Dr Paladiknight, since he wasn’t a fighter they couldn’t face off after all, it had to be fair.

“So, who is the child that the villagers are after? Did he say?”

He blinked as he looked down at the boy. “You know who they are after Gon.”

“Huh?” the young stared up at him before it dawned on him and his eyes became wide. “Oh, they are after me! But why? It’s been two years and I even sent a letter down...”

“Because it’s not about where you are to them, it’s who you are with, or rather what you are with.”

“I guess, but I’ve already said that I was fine.” Gon reminded him stubbornly with a frown and Hisoka decided that there was no point in trying to get him to understand the issue.

“Go and cook some dinner for yourself and the doctor.”

“Aren’t you joining us?” he moved to the kitchen but turned to look at him walking away.

“You talk to him about his life, see what he does with the human’s outside of healing them. Perhaps you can learn something.” Hisoka left him alone, heading out towards the garden while Gon just watched him go with a pout on his face.

“But… what if they were wanting to rescue Kill...”

Suddenly the ginger haired man was before him, his hand firmly covering his mouth, amber eyes glowing in warning while a thin trail of smoke trickled out of the corners of his mouth. “You know the consequences if you utter his name.” he growled at him.

“I...” Gon pushed his hand away and glanced down at the faded carpet beneath his feet. “I’m sorry, but he’s a doctor. Couldn't he help?” there was such hope in those eyes, a hope that Hisoka didn’t understand and likely he never would be able to understand, after all hope was for human’s and creatures who had something to lose, not for someone like himself.

Gon was a boy who would always trust people, even if they didn’t have the best intentions at heart, he would see the good that they would bring to his own personal cause instead of the bigger picture.

“He might, or he could be too big of a risk.” Hisoka sighed and walked away from him again. “Go and make dinner Gon, I’ll be back in the morning.”

“Hisoka, be careful.” the boy said quietly, because while he had faith that his guardian would be safe, he didn’t want to risk not saying those words, he already lost one person and he never got to say anything to them as they left, he simply watched them walk away from him and his aunt. He wasn’t going to make that mistake with him.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine.” he turned to him with a grin as he walked away and somehow Gon felt a bit more at ease as he walked into the kitchen to start up dinner.

Leorio found himself walking around the castle, there was no where that was off limits for him, apart from where Gon and Hisoka slept. He took a shine to going to the library and looking through all the books that were related to medicine, some looked to be incredibly old, while other’s were newly out by a year or two.

He sat down by the fire and began to carefully read through some of the older books, carefully turning the pages as he slowly read the rather regal lettering that the book had.

“It’s like they didn’t want people to read it.” the man muttered to himself, finding that one page was taking him a lot longer to read than it should.

“Probably because they only wanted people of their own class to read it.”

“AH!” Leorio jumped out of his seat, nearly dropping the book had the ginger haired man not been so quick to catch it, he looked at him with a smug grin on his face. “Don’t do that! It’s an old book, I don’t want to wreck it!” he snapped at him, thought that made Hisoka grin more broadly than before.

Really Leorio should know better than to snap at his hosts, who had kindly allowed him to stay, but when he was frightened he tended to go onto the offensive, lashing out at people, which Kurapika had told him would likely be the way he would die.

“It’s old, but many of the books from that era all have the same things written inside them, it’s not a great loss if it’s destroyed.”

“But it’s history.” Leorio countered, not understanding how this man didn’t care about the history of medicine given that it was important to the learning of the human body and how people used to think about the human body in the past.

“It’s no concern to me, the castle had the books here long before I arrived.” he told him with a simple shrug and sat down on a chair across from him, the lightening in the sky making his figure look far more intimidating that it needed to be.

“Wait, so the castle isn’t yours?” Leorio had wondered for the past few days why there was no servants, it seemed like Gon was the one doing everything even when Hsioka was around the young boy was doing everything, cooking, cleaning. It made him wonder if Hisoka actually thought of Gon as his ward or just easy and cheap labour.

“Of course not. Am just a guardian.” he said with ease and a shrug, daring Leorio to challenge him on this.

“Huh, well that explains why it’s just you and Gon here.”

“Ah because there would be more servants? I suppose that is unusual, but I never cared too much for lots of people around.” his finger went to his lips as he spoke. “I’m actually rather shy.”

Hearing this the dark haired man snorted and chuckled, while amber eyes looked over at him questionly at his reaction. “You sure don’t act like it.”

“There is just you and Gon. I’ve never been one to like being part of a big group, I prefer limited company.” he informed him, picking up a book that was on the small table next to him and smiled. “Besides Gon keeps me on my toes enough, I don’t need anyone else around me.”
“Yea, um, how did you become his guardian? He doesn’t seem to have picked up much from you...” Leorio mentally cursed himself as he realised that maybe Kurapika was right about him not knowing when to keep his mouth shut.

“Hm, oh, only two years ago officially.”

“Why?”

“His family was unable to care for him, there was other issues but they wished for him to be safe and since the boy trusted me, I took him in.” It wasn’t the whole truth, but as far as Hisoka was concerned, Leorio didn’t need to know anything more than that.

Their meetings usually occurred in the library, sometimes Gon would join them before wandering off when it became clear that what the two older men were talking about was something he didn’t understand or care about. Leorio began to warm up to the two of them, with Gon becoming something of a little brother to him and Hisoka was like another friend, though different to Kurapika and Melody of course, the man was happy for him to read the older books and even had paper and pens out for him when he came to the library so he could make notes to look into more when he returned to his practice.

The storm that Hisoka predicted lasted longer than a mere week, although it wasn’t consistent.

“Right I think it might be time for me to go. So should I take this test?” he asked Hisoka as they had some afternoon tea in the rather open drawing room while Gon was making dinner.

“Not yet. The storm isn’t over yet. Should you pass, you’ll likely get stuck in the middle of the mountain, I can’t have that.” Hisoka said with such ease and confidence that the doctor couldn’t find it in him to argue against him.

“All right, fine I guess, I just don’t want to out stay my welcome is all.”

“You’re not. Gon appreciates your company, it makes the place feel a little bit more lively.” he tease him, since Leorio’s temper got the better of him most of the time and it was so refreshing to hear a loud voice yelling in anger, not in rage or out of hate, but because he was concerned and worried about something the young boy had done, or on the occasion something Hisoka had done.

The storm had been meant to last a week, yet it was nearly a month until it finally began to properly calm down, no longer having intervals of an hour or two of calm, but instead a full day or two. Which was when Hisoka disappeared from the castle, which wasn’t unusual, Gon even said that the man would go off on his own for a few hours, but he never returned after four hours.

“Where is he? I thought you said he’d only be gone for a couple of hours? This is almost a full day! Chances are the storm will be back again and he’ll be stuck in it.”

“Oh he’s visiting a friend.” Gon answered without thinking too much about it, the two of them were in the library, Leorio had a pile of books by his side while Gon just had the one.

“Wait, he has friends?”

“No, just the one. They don’t live that far from here.” Gon corrected him as he began to get into the book he choose.

“But he’s likely going to get caught up in the storm, it’s the whole reason you two had been stay here for so long. Is he actually an idiot?” Leorio ranted, not realising that someone had entered the library.

“Perhaps I am.” Hisoka strolled into the room and Leorio turned to look at him, though he wasn’t as intimidated by him as he had been to begin with, but he was still weary of him. Those dark eyes saw that the man was soaked, his ginger hair wasn’t slicked back and instead it was a wavy mess around his face. “Although there is a test for you to take.”

Gon’s eyes widened at the ginger haired man before them, though Leorio never noticed it as he was completely focused on the man.

“Wait what?” Leorio didn’t know what to say, should he apologise for talking about him behind his back in such a way? But he’d always had rather dramatic outbursts even in front of the man, so surely this wasn’t unexpected? And the man didn’t even seem to be annoyed with him, if anything he appeared to be amused by his outburst.

“Hisoka!” Gon practically leapt towards him before realising just how wet he was and frowned. “You should probably get changed, you might catch a cold.”

Hearing him say that seemed to make the older man chuckle, though Leorio added to it. “Yea I agree with Gon, we can get some tea made up too. How long were you out in that storm anyway?” he asked as he stood up and stretched, feeling certain bones pop as he did so.

“Hmm, go ahead and put some tea on, we can discuss it there.” Hisoka ignored his question and walked away from them while Gonbegan to gather up the books and put them back onto the shelves.

“Could he not answer my question?” Leorio muttered as he helped, though he kept on book on the table he would go back to it later on.

“Come on!” Gon bounced out of the room, seemingly excited, although whether it was because Hisoka was back at the castle or because of this test the dark haired man didn’t know, and he also wasn’t sure why either.

All he knew was that he had to take the test, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to leave the castle, or at least not without going back down by the village, which he was hoping to skip on because there was no dragon and certainly no child that needed rescuing. Even if the child was Gon, he was happy where he was with Hisoka, why would he separate the pair of them?

The kitchen was warm as the boy began to boil the water and fetch three cups, while Leorio simply sat down and watched him work. He knew well enough that they boy didn’t need his help, even when he attempted to help it usually made things last longer than it had to.

As the tea was being poured out Hisoka arrived, his hair now damp but still falling around his face in messy waves and Leorio wondered why he bothered to style his hair in such a dramatic fashion when no one actually came to the castle.

The three sat at the table, two of them watching the amber eyed man to say what the test was.

“I suppose I shouldn’t really call it a test, since it will just be a job for you doctor Paladiknight.” Hisoka began as he looked over at Leorio who just nodded, ready to take up the job that he was going to be given. “There is a boy in my care, he is unable to wake up.” those amber eyes darted over at Gon to give him a warning look, as if sensing his excited movement as he jumped up with a smile, but he quickly sat down again though the smile remained on his lips.

Leorio was tense, waiting for what else was going to be said while the ginger haired man just grinned over at him.

“He appears to be asleep, but he has never woken up. It’s been a year since he was awake...”

“And you never took him to a doctor in that time?” he asked, unable to believe it, unless the boy was in a coma but surely not, they would have gotten medical attention in that time and would the boy have lasted a year?

“We did send word to the village to send a doctor up, but all they sent were soldiers. Really it’s fortunate that they sent you, they must be desperate to rescue the boy.” Hisoka pondered over it, while Leorio just stared at him.

“What happened to the soldiers?” he had a feeling he already knew, but he saw no bodies anywhere in the castle grounds, or the outskirts of it.

“None of them made it inside the grounds unless Hisoka wants them to.” Gon replied instead.

“Unless he wants them to? What does that mean?” a look between the ward and the guardian told him that it wasn’t because Hisoka was willing to offer those soldiers a place to sleep, a shiver went down his spine as he realised that this was something else and he was rather lucky.

“They learnt that Gon might simply be a child, he’s certain not one to be messed with.” there was pride coating Hisoka’s words as he spoke, making the young boy flush at such praised.

It was rather warming to see, until Leorio reminded himself that it meant he could have been injured or killed by walking through the castle doors.

“So why didn’t you attack me?” he remembered that day, the weirdest day ever as far as he was concerned and he was a doctor.

“Well you didn’t try to kidnap me and you also didn’t attack Hisoka either. You apologised for coming in when neither of us answered the door, so why would we attack you?” Gon questioned him, although when Leorio glanced over to Hisoka, his eyes told him that had the boy not been around the man would certainly be dead.

It was certainly a good thing that the ginger haired man took the boy under his wing.

“Hang on, so the village were aware of this, but they just sent people up to kidnap the kid thinking he was Gon?”

“Oh no, they were sent to kidnap me.” Gon told him as he saw clearly the confusion on his face and he glanced over at his guardian for help in explaining it.

With a sigh Hisoka explained. “The village knows about the boy, however Gon was part of the village...”

It had been three years ago since he and Gon first met. The young boy was inquisitive, bright, and lively, while the other children were more reserved particularly around strangers like him. Yet Gon was more than helpful in leading him around the village, no one questioned the boy at least not in front of Hisoka, and Gon never mentioned if he had been given into trouble about talking to an outside so informally.

“There is a castle up at the top of that mountain, it’s been abandoned for a while now...” Gon mentioned as he glanced at the mountain path that was so clear to see from the village.

“And you never thought to go up and see what its like?” Hisoka inquired.

He had visited the village many times over the past six months, always drawn back to it and always drawn back to Gon. The boy had an aura about him, he didn’t fit in with the village, he seemed other next to the more mundane children his own age.

Then another child arrived in the village to visit, a child who already knew Hisoka and kept a respectful distance, even when he had also befriended Gon.

The two boy’s became close, best friends as far as Gon was concerned, although the other boy wasn’t sure about that but he didn’t protest. So Hisoka was the one who began to keep a respectful distance, watching from the pathway of the mountain to make sure the boy’s were all right, having seen how the villagers took to the outsider, it was different to how they looked at him.

That was when he decided to take up residence in the castle above, making a home for himself, making a place for the boy’s to have time to themselves without feeling those judgemental eyes upon them. Although Gon was oblivious to it all, the other boy was not. He knew the villagers had taken a dislike towards him, but what could he do about it really?

So when Hisoka met up with the two of them a month later he decided to offer them a place to stay if they wished it.

“I want you both to go up to the castle.” he gestured to the mountain path and Gon looked at him with wide eyes.

“You live there now?”

“Why a castle?” the other boy was weary still, but Hisoka hadn’t given him any reason to be too distrustful after all he appeared to be taking care of Gon.

“Perfect place, out of the way, hardly anyone goes up there, lovely views.” Hisoka told him easily.

“I see.” the boy glanced at Gon with those blue eyes, waiting for his answer, what ever Gon agreed to do he would follow.

“Is it all right for us to go up?”

“Of course. It’s a bit big for just one person after all.”

Gon grinned and nodded, wanting to see this castle that he had heard about and also, he was friends with Hisoka wasn’t he?

The boy nodded as well and for two months the pair of them would travel up to the castle, stay a couple of nights and head back down to the village again where the boy would disappear for a week or two, before returning to join Gon back up the mountain again, sometime they would even meet up with Hisoka at the bottom of the mountain too.

The final trip up for Gon was when his aunt was there at the pathway and talking in a rush to Hisoka, tears running down her face as she spoke to him before seeing Gon and wiping her face and giving him a smile and a hug, then she waved them off.

Hisoka remembered her pleas, no one had done that before, at least not to save someone.

“Please take him with you, don’t let him come back down, he’s not safe here...”

All he could do was nod. “I will do my best. Though Gon is a stubborn one.”

She had choked out a laugh at that, nodding in agreement. “I know it’s an impossible task, but he trusts you and his friend more than anyone else.”

So Hisoka took Gon as his ward that day, the boy understood that he wasn’t able to return to his village and really, he was fine with it. There was so much to explore in the forests surrounding the castle that he felt no need to return and he had his friend with him too, even though he still left every so often to return to his family.

Until one day when the two boy’s were in the garden he just fell and never woke up.

An urgent message was sent to the village by pigeon carrier for a doctor to come up, though the village just blamed the dragon.

“How did they figure it was a dragon?” Leorio asked him once the memory was finished and Hisoka had taken a sip of his tea.

“Superstition.” Hisoka claimed with a shrug. “they blamed the dragon for stealing away a child and for another being sick.” he paused for a moment as Gon gestured to him face and he closed his eyes, calming himself, though Leorio never noticed the steam coming from his mouth.“They were only ever after Gon of course, the other boy was an outsider, why should they care about him.”

The doctor wanted to know more about why Gon’s aunt would want him to go with Hisoka rather than stay with her, and indeed why no one was saying the boy’s name, he needed to focus on the more pressing matter. A boy wasn’t waking up and it seemed he might be the only one to help.

“Well I should go and see him right?”

Gon looked from Leorio to Hisoka whose amber gaze was looking rather coolly at the doctor and he gulped at that expression, it had been a long time since he had seen such a serious look on his face.

“Know this, you will need to wake him, or you won’t be able to leave the castle alive.”

Leorio blinked as those words sunk in. “Wait… what?!”

Gon winced, while the doctor remembered that this was a test and he needed to pass it or else it appeared he was dead, and what use was a dead doctor to his patients?

“We won’t kill you, I promise you that. However the boy has a protective older brother, he’s agreed to have you look at him. But you will need to make sure that you do wake him up, he doesn’t tolerate failure.” Hisoka spoke as though this was going to be a breeze for Leorio, like his life wasn’t on the line.

“So my choices are either kidnap Gon and slay the dragon and possibly you too. Or try and wake up this boy, but if I fail am dead.” Leorio looked at the guardian and his ward who both nodded, though Gon was rather solemn, aware that this was a difficult decision to make, considering both options would likely have Leorio dead at the end of it. He sighed and stood up. “Let me see him and I can start now.”

Gon moved to lead the way, as Leorio and Hisoka followed, both of them kept in time with each other with each step they made while Gon was further ahead.

Leorio’s mind was racing through so many thoughts, like how he was going to die within the next twenty-four hours unless he can save this boy, though he did find it curious that Hisoka nor Gon had mentioned his name, he was just called the boy. Which did make him wonder if perhaps the village was actually after this boy rather than Gon, or if something more was going on.

“I suppose I should have been clearer. His older brother will only kill you if you give up on him, neither myself nor Gon will protect you if that happens. Yet while you remain within the castle grounds he won’t do anything, he isn’t that foolish to give me his word and then go against it.”

While the doctor took some comfort in that, he did wonder what made Hisoka so special that Gon would gravitate towards him rather than stay with his family, and for the boy to come around so often rather than be around his own family and brother. What was it about Hisoka that drew people in?

Although he was the same really, he hadn’t made any plans to leave even with the storm brewing around them, he had remained in place without sending word out to his friends to say that he was safe, or send any money back to cover their expenses. He liked it here, to get away from the world outside it was rather nice and the company was good too, he didn’t have to be on call all the time, he could have conversations that didn’t usually end up in a fight. Although he and Gon sometimes got into minor arguments and then there were times when he was certain that Hisoka would irritate him on purpose.

“So I won’t be going outside that often.”

“I will know when he’s around, the grounds of the castle are plentiful, but you can’t go any further out.” he assured him, wanting him to feel a bit at ease, even if the threat of being killed was still around his neck.

Yet Leorio just wondered what could possibly be making a boy sleep for a year without waking up? As they walked up to the room, he realised that the boys room was actual the room for Hisoka, or at least that was what they told him, so he had always kept away. If that was the boys room, then where did Hisoka actually sleep? Unless he was keeping an eye on the boy at night? But he never looked tired.

Walking in he felt the warmth of the fire on his skin as he walked to the bed where a young boy with shocking white hair lay, his skin was pale, but no where near as deathly pale as Hisoka’s and he did actually appear to simply be asleep.

He began to check him over, taking his temperature, getting his pulse and then noticing that although he was sweating his skin was rather cold. He brushed he hands against his arms, everything felt normal, no broken bones or strained muscles, no bruises was on his skin, and he did that for every area of his body. There was nothing physically wrong with him, no broken bones, his skin was untouched and then he moved to go to the back of his head, nothing there either, until he moved down towards his neck and felt something small and round sticking out slightly from the base of his scalp.

“I… need to get my medicine bag.” he said, though it came out in a whisper.

“I’ll get it!” Gon jumped at the chance, just to get out of the room and from his unmoving friend, seeing him like this always upset him, even if this would be a chance of having him wake up.

“Gon don’t run with it.” Hisoka called to him before the boy left the room, he nodded in acknowledgement as he ran off down the hall.

“Did you find something?” Hisoka asked as he took a step closer towards the bed and in turn came closer to the doctor as well.

“Yea. Well maybe. I… has he had any spinal injuries before?” he decided to ask as his fingers moved around the area where the metal was with a frown, he hadn’t heard of anything like this to be used on spinal injuries before and none of the books in the library that he had read ever said anything about this either, he just didn’t know what this was for. Yet why didn’t Hisoka or Gon notice it? It wasn’t that small after all.

“No, not from my understanding.” Hisoka began to frown as well as they looked at each other.

Amber eyes widened in anger as Leorio felt something sharp being pressed against his own neck, he trembled in fear as his heart began to race and even though he didn’t know what was going on, he knew it would likely result in his death.

“Of course you would rather he not awake now Illumi.” Hisoka spoke to the person over Leorio’s shoulder, though the doctor wondered how could the man still sound so calm when someone had managed to sneak into his home and hold a guest hostage, though it was clearly someone he knew and likely someone related to the boy on the bed.

“He’d better like this. No longer causing trouble for the family. You understand that, don’t you Hisoka?” the tall man with long jet black hair said, forcing Leorio to stay close to him but he removed the sharp point of the needle a little bit further away. Not that it gave the doctor a false sense of security, he could tell the man behind him was dangerous and he wouldn’t be able to get away from him.

“All because you didn’t want him to stay here with his friend.” Hisoka tutted at him, as though he was trying to make the man angry.

“A half breed like him shouldn’t be around my brother, he has a superior blood line.”

“Charming.” was all Hisoka said, though a rather sinister grin began to creep along his lips, one that was clearly inviting trouble and Leorio wished he was anywhere but here. “Then I suppose there is really no helping it is there?”

Large, inhuman dark eyes looked at him, not understanding what he meant. “Helping what?”
A quick glance his way and Leorio heard Hisoka in his head.

Grab the boy and run.

He was ready, waiting for a sign from Hisoka when suddenly the amber eyed man was behind Illumi whose focus was on him rather than Leorio, giving him the chance to grab the white haired boy and to run, almost colliding with Gon in the process as he sprinted down the hall.

“I… Leorio what is… Hisoka!” Gon nearly ran back into the room as he heard loud thuds and bangs, broken glass and fabric being ripped apart.

“Hisoka wants us to run away with this kid, come on Gon, he’ll be fine.” Leorio coaxed him, although he didn’t know if the man would actually be all right, but what he did know what that he trusted him to protect the boy and Gon and he got the feeling that Hisoka would do that with his life.

Hearing that Gon ran along side him, though he kept looking back, clearly wanting to help his guardian but knowing that he couldn’t. They ran all the way to the gardens where they heard the stone walls being ripped apart before Hisoka yelled out.

“Killua!”

Once that name was said the castle began to fall apart before their eyes and they returned to running as the ground began to shake beneath them, Gon taking the lead as though he knew what was happening, leading Leorio off the castle grounds and into the forest that wasn’t that far ahead of them now. The doctor tried not to trip over the roots of the trees, though he stumbled a few times he didn’t let go of the sleeping boy in his arms.

Then there was a loud, ear piercing roar which was followed by another and once they finally reached the forest they turned to look at the ruins only to see something that Leorio had never thought he would see in his entire life.

Before him were two large dragons clawing at each other, snarling as they fought, one large green and black scalded dragon with flecks of white flapped its wings in rage as it fought, while the other, with it’s red scales that had an almost purple tinge to them, kept its wings close to its body, letting it’s claws do the damage.

“Hisoka...” Gon said softly, he watched the fight as a tear trickled down his face, one dragon took substantially more injuries than the other, the sharp claws ripping at the brightly colours scales on it’s body until a ball of fire was released from the mouth of the red dragon, which the other wasn’t able to avoid due to being so close. It was enough to bring the boy back to what was at stake. “Leorio, can you wake him up?” he turned to the man, still holding his bag,

“Maybe.” carefully the doctor put the boy down and gently rolled him onto his side, he finally saw the small pin although he noticed that Gon couldn’t seem to see what he was looking at.

“Are you sure...”

Leorio had questions, a lot of them, but he had something more important to do, he needed this boy to wake up. With a deep breath he gripping the end of the pin and slowly began to pull it out, he didn’t expect for the point to be as long as it was, how the boy wasn’t dead from having this in his body for a year and knowing that this boy couldn’t be a mere human if he was able to survive this.

He felt the heat of the flames and looked over to hear a dragon roar in agony, as he put the needle to the side and watched as the green and black dragon was badly burnt, one wing was nothing more than a skeleton and the other didn’t fare much better, a clawed foot was missing from the hind leg. The other dragon snorted out some stream from its nose before snarling and then going for the neck before it’s front claw pushed the green and black dragon down and then the red dragon disappeared.

“What was that...” Leorio looked as the fallen dragon just lay unmoving in the remains of the fallen castle, he was trying to work out what had happened, what had he just witnessed? Was the dragon actually dead?

“Killua!” Gon exclaimed cheerfully and he turned to look as the white haired boy slowly opened his blue eyes and looked around himself before slowly sitting up.

“Gon? Where… where’s Illumi?” he tried to stand up, his eyes were wide with fear and worry but he fell to his knees before he could get up. “Illumi is trying to trap...” he looked at his friend, visibly trembling as Gon just reached out and hugged him.

“Oh he was making a trap for me was he?” a familiar voice came over to them in a haze of smoke that began to cover the fallen castle and all three turned to see Hisoka slowly walking over to them, with Leorio noting that all his injuries were in roughly the same areas as the dragon he had seen fight.

“Sit down and I’ll fix up your injuries.” he couldn’t comprehend what he had just witnessed, but at least focusing on Hisoka’s injures would take his mind off it for a moment or two.

“Hm? Oh I...” it was obvious that the man was about to decline, but Gon simply shook his head at him and he shrugged. “Very well, since you are the only doctor around, I suppose I can trust you.”

“I’ve been here for how long? Six weeks? How could you not trust me in that time?!” he cried out as he got to work, bringing out his supplies from his bag and worked on the injuries that Hisoka had, most were surprisingly minor, even the areas that had claw marks weren’t that bad. “So… who wants to explain what I just saw?”
The two boy’s just looked at each other, one didn’t know who this man was in relation to Gon and Hisoka and the other didn’t know where to start.

Hisoka grinned. “Simply put, myself and Illumi had been friends for many years. Though perhaps calling us friends is pushing it, but we used each other to get what we wanted would be more apt. Young Killua here was regarded as a trouble marker in his clan, he refused to bow down to the conventions that ancient dragon’s had put in place from long ago.” he paused for a moment to look over at Killua, to see if he wished to add anything to it but the boy remained silent. “He ran away, though he did just go to the human villages around his family home, making it easy for Illumi to keep an eye on him and to make sure he didn’t get into trouble. Then he met Gon.”

“So… is Gon the half breed that man was talking about earlier?” Leorio asked, just remembering what had been said in that room, even though he had been so scared, Hisoka nodded. “But...”

“Half breeds are rare for obvious reasons. A child that survives will be looked down upon by many dragon clans, and should the human’s become aware that they are a half breed, they will wish to sacrifice them for their harvests and other things.” he wrinkled his nose in distaste. “Some just don’t understand the value of half breeds, just because they are regarded as being taboo.”

“Wait, human’s sacrifice them? That’s… that’s an outdated concept isn’t it?”

“It should be, but then again am not a human so I would know if it is or not.” Hisoka told him and continued. “Killua became friends with Gon, neither were aware of the other’s lineage, but Gon could tell that Killua was unlike the human’s in his village but he never thought he would be a dragon.”

“Wait, but Gon met you first, couldn’t he tell that you weren’t like the villagers?” Leorio asked curiously.

“No. Am older than Killua, I have a better ability to conceal my dragon-ness from other dragons or half breeds, so to Gon I was just another human coming by. Until I told him what I was, when it became clear that he had no guidance from anyone about what he was. That was why his aunt begged me to have Gon stay with me in the castle I could teach him things that he wouldn’t have learnt otherwise and Killua would sometimes learn with him too.”

“But if half breeds are regarded as taboo, why did you take him under your wing?” he asked as he finished putting a bandage over his cut wrist.

“I wasn’t going to let him remain unaware of his full potential and he needed to know that basic rules that dragons need to follow.”

“Didn’t you say that the ancient dragons...”

“The basic rules are to keep me safe.” Gon interrupted him with a smile and Leorio nodded slowly.

“Half breeds have certain rules that they have to follow so they aren’t outed as being different.” Killua added, realising that this human could be trusted since Hisoka of all dragon’s was so open to him. “It’s another reason why half breeds are rare, most are killed right away as most dragon’s don’t care about their well being.” those blue eyes looked over to the corpse of the black and green dragon, looking weary as though it might move and attack them.

“And yet you did.” Leorio looked at Hisoka who also looked over at the dead dragon with a frown on his face.

“Of course. I don’t want half breeds killed just because they are seen as taboo, and Gon has much potential.” he said fondly. “As Killua came to the castle more often, Illumi realised that his brother was being friendly with a taboo child. Which was fine in the confines of a human village, because the taboo child would be killed, but here was something else. Killua was getting closer to him and ignoring the rules that the family had in place regarding taboo children. Illumi sent threats to Gon, though why he thought I wouldn’t learn about it is beyond me, but I was willing to fight him because of it, so he backed off and instead he placed a curse upon Killua, making his sleep and then the curse spread across my grounds, any area that I considered to be my home would have the curse on it and that curse meant that no one could say Killua’s name or the whole castle and the lands that I considered mine would be...” he gestured to the ruins. “He kept quiet about the taboo dragon, giving a time period to awaken his brother, if I failed to awaken him within that time, he would tell his clan about what had happened and they would be out for blood.”

“Really? They would kill you?” Leorio was surprised, while Gon looked away and Killua scowled.

“No, they would blame me for what happened to the hier of their clan of course, but they wouldn’t spill the blood of a pure dragon unless they were a literal threat. They would be after Gon instead.” Once he said that he noticed how pale Leorio became. “Has it sunk in yet doctor?”

“So… the woman who begged me to leave Gon in the castle… the elders looking… was that all him?”

“Indeed, the deadline was coming to a close after all, having you come up was a perfect way for him to kill off Gon and me. After all I don’t mind taboo children, Illumi had a problem with that.” he sighed, looking at the body of the dead dragon and then to Leorio. “I have always wished to fight him, he’s the strongest dragon in the area, after his parents, yet I didn’t expect that it would be like this.”

“Illumi always used to speak about wanting you to join our clan, he never really wanted to fight you. I think for a time… he thought you were a friend. But...” Killua trailed off, not wanting to talk about his dead brother any more.

“Yes, I would have to join your clan to be accepted by your family, since I was an outsider and those kinds of dragons should only be used by bigger clans.” he scoffed. “They never understood that those like myself should be invested in, much like taboo children.”

“What does that mean. You being an outsider?” Leorio asked, he was trying to learn so much about dragons and yet he got the feeling that he would never be able to learn about them properly, but with Hisoka not being one to play by the rules, maybe he could learn about them. Provided the amber eyes dragon was willing to talk about it.

“It means that I have no clan, or my clan was killed.”

“So can Gon also turn into a dragon?”

The three just looked at him before they began to laugh, with the two boys falling to the groun and cluching their sides.

“Hey am serious!”

“Of course he can’t!”

“Well how would I know that? Am the only human here after all!” he snapped in his own defence.

“Ah, you are right. And if you wish to learn more about us dragons I would be more than happy to teach you.” Hisoka told him with a rather flirtatious grin on his face, making Leorio heat up and looked away.

“Um… how about you answer me this question… neither you or Gon noticed the pin in Killua’s neck, but Illumi was the one to place it there?”

“Illumi was skilled in concealing magic, as you noticed in his human form he can use needles to fight with, he also used them to conceal how Killua was put into a deep sleep, no dragon would be able to feel or see it, given that Gon is half he was clearly taking a risk with him. Undoubtedly he never expected you to be so thorough in your search, he wanted to wait until the time was up so he could kill Gon and have his brother back. Likely he would have used the incident to force me to become part of his clan as well.” Hisoka grinned. “He didn’t expect me to be able to use telepathy to get you to run on my signal.”

“Can we… go?” Gon interrupted them after sniffing the air, which propmted Hisoka to do the same before he looked over at Killua.

“Yea, they won’t look for me if Illumi’s dead, they would assume that I have run away or been killed. They have Kalluto as the next heir after all.”

“But won’t they just go after Hisoka, or go after the village?” Leorio was concerned because if this dragon clan was as deadly as Illumi seemed to be, there could be an even greater risk at hand.

“Nah, given that Illumi was killed by fire they know the villages in this area don’t have that kind of power, and there are no fire breathing dragons around, they were all wiped out years ago.” Killua answered with a friendly smile, one that clearly was to get Leorio to stop over thinking things, they were safe now.

Just as the doctor was about to ask another question, he felt a warm hand wrap around him and he was pulled into Hisoka, who smiled at him. “I can explain that to you later doctor.” he promised and turned to look at the white haired boy. “I suppose you aren’t up to changing?” seeing Killua nod, the amber eyed dragon looked at the ruins for a moment and then to Leorio. “I don’t suppose you have some space for a few guests to join you?”
It was rather forward, but the doctor realised that he hadn’t even thought about offering his home for them to stay. “Oh no, it’s fine. The three of you are more than welcome to stay, it’s kind of small, but am pretty sure we can manage.”

“I just meant for the boys.” Hisoka corrected him.

“You’re injured, you need to rest!” he snapped while Gon just giggled at them.

“Hisoka, you should stay for a while, that way Leorio could learn a bit more about dragons.” Gon pointed out.

With a fake scowl he shook his head. “Very well, but it will be for a week, then I’ll begin to hunt for a new place to stay.” he let go of the doctor and moved to the clearing, taking a slowly breath he changed form, going form the pale skinned human to a red dragon.

Leorio couldn’t help but stare at the dragon before him, it had been one thing to see the creature far away but like this? It was something else. He began to help Killua and Gon get onto his back, before trying to figure out where he was going to sit, but he wasn’t given an option as a claw gently grasped him and put him in place behind Gon.

Once all of them had settled on Hisoka’s back, he took to the air, the human cried out and gripped onto his scales as though his life depended on it.

“Leorio, it’s all right, Hisoka is actually really good at flying with people on his back!” Gon called to him with a big grin on his face, enjoying being in the air as he held his arms out, after all he wouldn’t be able to experience this himself without Hisoka letting him on his back.

“Gon, human’s like myself, we really have no business to be up in the air like this!” he told the boy, fear making his voice tremble however, though he did notice that it seemed like the red dragon was chuckling as wafts of smoke were escaping his large, sharp toothed mouth. “Not one word! Am not a big fan of heights all right?!” he finally admitted, hoping that he wasn’t going to tease him when he transformed back into a human.

Gon gave the dragon a gentle pat and Leorio noticed that the flight became a lot smoother than it had previously, he breathed a little bit easier and he loosened his hold on the scales, but he didn’t let go.

“Oh, there’s my place. That was actually pretty quick.” he commented and slowly Hisoka began to land in the large field a few miles away from the house, it was a smooth landing and gentler too when compared to the take off back at the forest.

Though Leorio wasn’t too sure he could do that again, but given the look at Hisoka gave him as he returned to his human form, the dragon looked like he was more than willing to get him be more at ease with it.

“How did you find your little quest?” he asked him with a grin as Killua and Gon ran towards the house.

“I… get the feeling it’s not really over is it?” Leorio said with a smile as they followed the two, though Hisoka looked around the area, his eyes catching things that the doctor figured he wouldn’t be able to see.

All he could think of was at least the storm had finally passed.

Though with two dragons and a half breed, he was sure more storms and troubles would be on the way.