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Killua leaned lazily against a rock, gazing into the shadowy canyons and keeping his eyes and ears perked for any unusual movement. His search was fruitless—other than the squirming boy laying in front of him, the night was still.
Gon’s constant tossing and turning was starting to grate on Killua. Gon, for whatever reason, couldn’t sleep, but Gon wasn’t like Killua. Gon needed to rest properly if he was to stay in top condition, and Greed Island, as they’d come to find, was dangerous territory. They’d both need to be vigilant in the morning as they resumed their journey to Masadora, but at this rate, Gon would be exhausted.
Killua was disappointed but not surprised when Gon finally opened an eye to peek at him. He merely raised an eyebrow back.
A second later, Gon was sitting up with two wide eyes and a huge smile on his face. Killua sighed. Acknowledging him may have been the wrong move.
“Killua—”
“No,” Killua retorted.
“But—”
“Go to sleep!”
“I can’t sleep!” Gon whined, pouting. “I still feel wide awake. Aren’t you bored, too? Can’t we do something?”
“No. We need to save our energy.”
“Can I at least take first watch, then?”
Killua had no plans of letting Gon take first or second watch, but he didn’t say that. “Are you actually going to take first watch, or are you going to run off and leave me alone and defenseless?”
Gon arched an eyebrow. “You’re not going to be defenseless. You’d wake up long before anything got close enough to hurt you.”
“... You have a point.”
“Why don’t you just come with me?” Gon pleaded. Killua didn’t like the mischievous glint in his eye. “We should get more practice killing the monsters around here. The more we do it, the stronger we’ll get. And you had fun monster-hunting earlier today, right?”
He did have fun—Ging had really outdone himself with this game design, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t have any leftover adrenaline from the day either. But if they weren’t careful, they’d be in over their heads soon. There had to be stronger monsters around that they hadn’t encountered yet, and they were unfamiliar with the area. Throwing sleep deprivation into the mix made things even worse.
But the problem with Gon was that once he set his sights on something, he wouldn’t wait for an answer from Killua before chasing it. (The problem with Killua was that he couldn’t help but follow.)
So before Killua could protest further, Gon was sprinting into the darkness, shouting “Race ya! Whoever defeats a monster first wins!”
Killua groaned and took off after him.
~
It wasn’t long before the sound of Gon’s footsteps disappeared, and Killua soon skidded to a halt beside his friend. It was immediately obvious why Gon had stopped so soon.
In front of them, a hulking beast with glowing red eyes and a huge sword in one hand was staring them down. Its face reminded Killua of a lion, but a quick glance down revealed that it had horse-like hooves. Probably fast, then. Strong, too—maybe as strong as the Cyclops they’d fought earlier, but this lion-horse appeared much more mobile. Judging by the immense aura surrounding it, it was likely a higher-ranked monster than they were equipped to deal with.
Killua’s heart pounded. Every instinct screamed at him to turn around and flee, but one look at Gon’s stance told him that the boy was getting ready for a fight.
“Gon,” Killua whispered. It was a plea. But Gon was fearless in a way that Killua was not.
Gon surrounded himself in aura and leapt forward, facing his opponent head-on in Gon-typical fashion. The beast did the same. It was fast, but Gon was a little faster, and he dodged the first swing of its sword, which went plunging into the ground. As the beast struggled to dislodge its weapon, Gon grinned and jumped at the monster again, landing a Nen-packed punch directly in the monster’s ugly face, but it barely flinched. Gon leapt away, visibly surprised at the lack of damage, and by this point, the monster had retrieved its sword. It advanced again, but its sword moved faster this time—maybe the first clumsy swing had been a ruse to lower Gon’s guard? Gon dodged again, but narrowly, and now Gon was on defense as the monster kept swinging.
Gon couldn’t keep this up for long. Killua felt terrible for being unable to move any closer, but his feet were rooted to the ground. What was wrong with him? How could he leave his friend like this, after everything Gon had done for him? He was supposed to protect Gon. He owed him at least that much.
Killua summoned his aura. His fear was too strong to fight, but he couldn’t run away when Gon was here, so he was stuck watching.
That was, until Gon lost his balance.
The lion-horse saw its chance and raised its sword high in the air, preparing for a mighty swing, and Killua moved without thinking. He was at Gon’s side and shoving him out of the way when he felt a heavy weight hit his shoulder, and he knew he’d been nicked. He still couldn’t bring himself to turn and fight back, as pathetic as it was, so he did the next best thing. He scooped his friend up in his arms and ran and ran and ran, weaving between rocks with silent footsteps. The clacking of hooves gradually faded away behind him. The creature may have been fast, but Killua was a Zoldyck. He knew how to make a getaway.
As the panic began to recede, Killua slowed to a jog and looked down at his friend. He was surprised that Gon wasn’t protesting, but Gon appeared transfixed by something… His shoulder? Oh, yeah, Killua was bleeding. Well, it was nothing he couldn’t deal with.
When Killua felt reasonably sure they were in the clear, he glanced around until he spotted a small alcove, ducking into it and placing Gon gently beside him. “Are you okay?” he asked Gon.
“I’m okay, thanks to you! Are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
Gon frowned, and his eyes glittered. Something in Killua’s heart twisted. If Gon cried because Killua hadn’t been fast enough to get them both out of the way or strong enough to fight alongside Gon in the first place, then Killua wouldn’t forgive himself.
Gon ripped off a piece of fabric from the bottom of his tank top, wrapped it around Killua’s shoulder, and tied it tightly. It wasn’t a terribly deep wound, so that was enough to stop a lot of the bleeding.
“Does it hurt?” Gon whispered.
Yes, but he’d had worse. “No,” Killua answered.
That seemed to bring Gon some relief, because he smiled at Killua. It was a small yet heartwrenchingly warm smile. It was blinding and bright and distracting and the burning in his shoulder floated away as Killua stared.
“Of course it doesn’t. Man, you’ve always been so strong!”
Only because you’re here.
“Yeah, yeah. Will you go to sleep now?”
Gon laughed. “Okay, fine. I think I burned off enough energy anyway.”
The boys laid down. Killua was still planning to stay awake and keep watch, but he didn’t say that.
“I guess neither of us won,” Gon murmured.
“Who cares about that? I tried to tell you that was a stupid idea, but you didn’t listen.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Really?”
“Well, yeah, I’m sorry you got hurt. But you did save me! I knew you would if things got bad.”
“Idiot!”
Gon just laughed again before finally closing his eyes.
Killua sighed. It wasn’t the first time Gon got himself into trouble and inadvertently dragged Killua down with him, and it wouldn’t be the last.
But it was a small price to pay to keep his best and only friend by his side.