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The first clue was a book, even if Alluka didn’t know it at the time.
“Hey, did one of you leave your book with my stuff?” Kalluto had asked, walking into the living room with a hardcover in hand. Gon had been in the middle of trying to teach Alluka Christmas carols (“It’s Christmas Eve, it’s mandatory ”) while Killua sat and criticized them from the couch.
Nobody claimed the book, so Kalluto shrugged and walked away, taking the copy of The Secret Garden with them.
Alluka did take notice when she woke up on Christmas morning in the room she and Kalluto were sharing and Kalluto was examining a high-end knife cleaning kit.
“Where’d that come from?” Alluka asked at the time.
Kalluto hesitated. “Christmas gift,” they said after a moment, although they didn’t say from who and Alluka didn’t have any presents waiting for her as she woke up. Later, Kalluto would claim that the kit had been mailed the day before and they’d just opened it then.
Christmas was a blast. Alluka bounded down the stairs to find Killua and Gon already up and having a pillow fight in the living room where they’d slept. By the time Aunt Mito finally heard the noise from upstairs and came down to scold the boys, Killua had already pinned Gon down and was tickling him viciously. Aunt Mito told them to clean up after themselves (they’d gotten feathers and cushions everywhere) while she started breakfast.
Alluka thought it was funny that they could be so touchy and comfortable with each other when she noticed later that they both avoided the mistletoe like it would give them the plague. Oh, well, she figured that they’d eventually get over their obliviousness.
This was Alluka’s first real Christmas, and the day lived up to her expectations. From Killua, she got a new pair of sparkly shoes; Gon gave her a necklace of shells collected from the bottom of the ocean where only he could reach without scuba gear; Mito gave her a new yellow sundress; and Kalluto made a family picture with a hand-painted frame, wrapped neatly in white paper with a bow on top.
The day after Christmas, she noticed that Kalluto was polishing an antique knife that she hadn’t seen before. She brushed it off as being just a Kalluto thing. They were edgy like that. Maybe the knife had come with the cleaning kit and Alluka had just missed it the day before. She was too busy stuffing herself with Christmas dinner leftovers to think straight, anyway.
She definitely took notice when Kalluto was wearing a new obi the next day. It was a gorgeous pattern of deep purple that brought out their eyes. The whole family let out a collective gasp when Kalluto came down for breakfast.
“It’s new,” Kalluto had said, blushing as they noticed the new garment. Then Gon’s napkin caught on fire from being set too close to a candle, and everyone forgot to ask Kalluto any more questions.
It was a couple days later when Alluka overheard Killua having an argument with Kalluto about cookies.
“No, you can’t have any, Brother,” Kalluto had said.
“What, are they your special cookies? Where did they come from, anyway?” Killua asks.
“They were a Christmas gift from someone from school.”
“Who? They’re Egypersian butter cookies, right?”
Then Gon interjected himself. “Wow, Killua, you really are an expert at sweets.” Alluka peeked around the doorframe to the kitchen to watch them. “Wanna try the new snack I invented? It has chocolate in it. I made some for you.”
Alluka was rewarded by seeing the bright red blush on her older brother’s face.
“Should I be suspicious of this…?” he asked.
“Oh, come on, try it Killua!” Gon inisted. He held out a spoon towards Killua’s mouth.
“What is it?” Kalluto asked.
“It’s peanut butter mixed with chocolate-hazelnut spread, with chocolate chips.”
Killua’s eyes grew big and he snatched the spoon from Gon. “Gimme.”
Gon just laughed, and Kalluto’s mysterious cookies were forgotten.
The next odd thing Alluka came across was as a result of a bit of unintentional snooping.
She couldn’t find the skirt she wanted to wear one morning over a week after Christmas, and she knew that Kalluto sometimes borrowed it, so she just took a peek inside their dresser to see if it had ended up with their stuff. However, what she found in the bottom drawer wasn’t clothes.
There was the book and the knife cleaning kit and the knife and the obi, plus the mostly empty box of cookies. There was also a shiny black phone case (since when did Kalluto own a phone?), a bag of candy, a stack of blank white origami paper, a journal, and a pan flute. Overall, it was an odd assortment of things.
In the back of the drawer was a locked box, and Alluka was just reaching for it to see what other strange things Kalluto might have when she felt a presence behind her.
“What,” Kalluto asked, “are you doing going through my stuff?”
“I was looking for my skirt– I’m sorry, I just got distracted,” Alluka said.
Kalluto reached forward and slammed the dresser drawer, nearly catching Alluka’s fingers. Ignoring her squeak of shock, they ripped open the top drawer and threw the skirt at her.
“Don’t ever go through my things again.”
Kalluto gave Alluka the cold shoulder after that.
In fact, the next day they were hardly around the house at all. Alluka saw them in the morning, when she woke up to what sounded like a tapping at the window. Kalluto reassured her it was nothing– they seemed to be smiling even– so Alluka went back to sleep.
She remembered seeing Kalluto again before lunchtime, packing a lunch to go.
“I’m going to have a picnic lunch. Alone,” they told Aunt Mito.
“That’s an awful lot of food you’re bringing,” Aunt Mito said.
It was true– it looked like Kalluto was bringing enough food to feed themself plus a giant of a man.
“I’m growing,” Kalluto had said, and stared Aunt Mito in the eye until she decided to drop it.
Kalluto didn’t come back all afternoon, so Aunt Mito sent Killua and Gon and Alluka out to fetch them for dinner at six o’clock. Kalluto could take care of themself, but it was a big island, so it would be faster with three people searching.
Alluka wandered down to the harbor and asked the man who ran the fish stall if he’d seen Kalluto that day.
“Oh yeah, them an’ their friend were here earlier. Kalluto was giving him a tour o’ the island, I think,” he said.
“Who was it?”
“Oh, weird name, like U-vaginal or something,” the fishmonger said. Alluka decided not to trust his memory.
She eventually ran into Kalluto walking up the hill back to the Freecss household. They seemed to be in a good mood.
“Did you have a good day?” Alluka asked.
“Yes.” Kalluto smiled.
“Did you meet up with a friend? The fishmonger said you were with someone.”
“He must have gotten confused,” Kalluto said. Alluka shrugged it off.
The next morning was when Alluka started to put the pieces together. She woke up and saw Kalluto sitting on their futon holding a freshly unwrapped pair of tabi socks, the kind with the slit to be worn with geta shoes. They looked handmade.
In the moment, Alluka fell back asleep, but she asked Kalluto about it afterwards.
“Where did the new socks come from?” she said over breakfast.
“They were a Christmas gift,” Kalluto said smoothly.
“It’s not Christmas anymore, though.”
Mito overheard. “Well, traditionally, Christmas lasted twelve days,” she said. “The twenty-fifth would be the first day, and today would be the twelfth day.”
“Oh, like the song? You get a gift each day and it corresponds with the number,” Gon said. He proceeded to grab Killua’s cup of juice and drink heartily from it. Killua didn’t even protest.
Now, washing the dishes, Alluka’s thinking about it all. Not Gon stealing Killua’s juice– although she is thinking about that and how cute they are together and how much they should FINALLY admit their feelings, to themselves and to the other– but no, she’s thinking about the past twelve days, and how it seems like Kalluto has gotten a gift on each day, plus Christmas Eve. She thinks about Kalluto’s odd behavior, their tendency to keep quiet and stay to the sidelines, to occasionally disappear for a few days without explanation, and the other odd things.
“Kalluto,” she says, turning to her younger sibling who’s drying the dishes beside her. “I know your secret.”
Kalluto tenses even as their face remains calm.
“The clues are all there,” Alluka continues.
Kalluto’s hand drifts to their shoulder nervously.
“It’s obvious,” Alluka says. “You’re secretly in a romantic relationship.”
Kalluto blinks in surprise, probably at Alluka’s incredible detective skills. “Yes, that’s exactly it,” they say.