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“Am I being kidnapped right now?” Killua asks loudly from the passenger seat, moving his head to try to see through the gap in the bottom of his blindfold.
Gon drums his fingers on the steering wheel in excitement. “Would you care, given that you’re being kidnapped by your husband?” he asks playfully. His wedding band glints in the afternoon sunlight shining through the windshield.
Killua blushes, and Gon can hear his heart rate increase slightly. “No comment.” He pauses. “Wait, does that mean you are kidnapping me?”
Gon laughs. “No, silly, it’s just a surprise.”
Killua grumbles.
An hour of driving later, they arrive at their destination.
Gon guides his new husband out of the car and wraps him in a hug.
“I’m really excited. I really hope you like my surprise,” he says softly into Killua’s ear. Gently, slowly, he removes Killua’s blindfold and steps to the side. Killua blinks in the light, but Gon knows he’d recognize this place anywhere.
The late afternoon sun casts the field in gold– a familiar field, one they used to call the Border Field, because it separates Civilization from the woods. Their woods.
“Gon! You didn’t– this is–” Killua sputters.
Gon wraps his arms around Killua and Killua hugs him back, rocking back and forth in happiness. “Our honeymoon is supposed to be time just us, together, enjoying life,” Gon says. “I thought it would be nice to go back to our place again.”
“Yeah,” Killua says breathlessly. “Yeah.”
Gon pulls two packs from the truck of the car and hands one to Killua with a grin.
The woods have changed completely in the past decade, and yet in so many ways they’re exactly the same. The same is true of Killua and Gon: they’re ten years older but as soon as they’re shaded by trees, they fall into their old way of walking.
“Do you remember us?” Gon murmurs, brushing his fingers over the bark of an old oak. A squirrel watches them from a few meters away but doesn’t call out an alarm.
They follow their old route along the stream, but the trusty log bridge from their youth has rotted away, so they leap across at the narrowest point they can find. Their legs are longer now.
It’s good to be back. They spent months here with only each other, until Gon began to think of Killua as his and himself as Killua’s. Now, it’s legally true.
Hey, wanna go to the lake? Gon asks, using the signed language that only he and Killua know.
Killua’s eyes gleam with playfulness. Gon always loved their color, like an autumn sky. Race you, he says, and before Gon knows it they’re taking off through the trees, all attempts at being quiet abandoned as they duck under branches and leap over fallen logs.
“I win!” Killua shouts as he skids to a stop on the muddy shore. Instead of slowing his own momentum, Gon tackles him, and they fall to the ground in a tangle of limbs and laughter.
“Dirty cheater!” Killua yells.
Gon rubs mud into his husband’s hair. “Who’s the dirty cheater now?” he teases.
Their wrestling devolves into a full-blown mud fight. Some time later, they lie panting and grinning in the dirt, absolutely filthy.
“Fuck,” Killua says, feeling the clumps of filth caked onto his scalp. “I’m going to wash this off.”
Killua decides to keep his clothes on as he wades in, a slight disappointment in Gon’s opinion, but he decides to join him.
The water is cold but the afternoon sun is warm, and Gon’s swam in this lake in much harsher temperatures.
“Let me get the dirt out of your hair,” Gon says, bobbing over to Killua. Killua lets himself fall backwards and floats on the surface of the water, head facing his husband. Gon brushes his fingers through Killua’s hair, scrubbing out the dirt.
It takes them much longer to get the dirt out of their clothes than it did to get it there in the first place, but after a while they just float on their backs, side by side.
Casting a mischievous glance towards Killua, Gon sinks beneath the waves. He opens his eyes against the sting of the water and pushes himself lower. From below, the surface of the lake looks like rippling silver.
A patch of silver breaks off as Killua dives to join him. His hair floats around him in a halo, pushing upwards as he paddles himself to Gon’s level.
Hey, Gon signs. Pretty.
Killua reaches out and flicks him on the forehead with a finger. It doesn’t hurt as much underwater.
Gon reaches for Killua’s hands and it’s like they’re dancing. It brings to mind their wedding dance, which wasn’t that long ago.
Killua is so beautiful here. Ethereal, like a creature of the lake.
Killua reaches forward, hands coming to either side of Gon’s head, and they kiss. It’s short and chaste, because they’re underwater, but it’s perfect.
They rise to the surface, grinning like fools.
~~~
Gon nuzzles up against Killua contentedly. When they were kids, they always slept in separate sleeping bags, but now they’ve zipped two of them together into a giant one that leaves no room for personal space. They’ve gotten used to falling asleep tangled in each other’s limbs, beside the warmth of each other’s skin, feeling the fluttering of each other’s breath.
“I’m so happy to be husbands now,” Gon mumbles into Killua’s neck.
“Yeah, me too,” Killua whispers.
“I’ve always wanted to marry you,” Gon says.
“I know. You told me in your vows and also when you proposed.”
“‘Cause it’s true.”
Gon had always liked Killua, ever since they met. He pictures that moment again, running the mile in Mr. Satotz’s class, when Killua caught up to him and leapt over a fence instead of going through the gate.
“Cool!” he’d said, in awe of this new boy’s demeanor, his confidence and his athleticism, and his appearance, with his striking white hair and ice-blue eyes.
They’d become best friends practically instantly.
Gon had always loved Killua, had always cared for his whole self and wanted to be with him every moment that he could. It had always felt so natural to be beside him that loving him wasn’t even a question, although Gon hadn’t always known the right words for what he was feeling.
At some point during their teenage years his appreciation for Killua had grown to include an appreciation for Killua’s body, and that had been a confusing time. They eventually figured things out and started dating.
And now they’re married. Gon can’t stop smiling.
“I love you,” Gon whispers, not for the first time.
“I love you too.”
They fall asleep like that, just holding each other, content in the time that has passed.