Chapter Text
After gazing at what seemed like an endless number of waterfalls, they were finally on their way back to their lodgings.
The return trip to the small set of tourist villas on Scabtree Island, the Waterfall Capital of the World, was all downhill, following a rocky, forested stairway that skirted the largest and most dramatic of the cascades. It was less stairs, and more slide than Killua was comfortable with. He ended up carrying Alluka on his back most of the way because she was still too clumsy for her gangly legs. Even on his back they seemed to catch on everything.
“I wish you were still eleven,” he said through gritted teeth after a root that had caught on her outstretched foot flew backwards and smacked him right in the junk.
Nanika laughed, and then Alluka apologized, even though he could tell she didn’t feel too bad. He didn’t have the energy to argue with her. There was something weighing on his mind. It wasn’t codifiable, though. Birds were still chirping, the quiet sounds of animals in the undergrowth had not stopped, the wind was blowing in a friendly way. There was no indication that anything out of the ordinary was about to happen, and yet something felt… off, about the day, and he couldn’t tell what it was.
Finally reaching the bottom of the rocky incline he let his sister down, and the two of them descended the final path that cut out and away from a steep, bare embankment. Nanika was chattering, saying, “Flowers, flowers flowers,” over and over again, like she tended to do when she learned how to say a new word. His foot planted firmly on the even ground marking the end of the trail, and with that newfound stability the feeling of something that had nagged him all day unfolded into what it had always been.
Anticipation.
The entire forest seemed to go still, and Nanika fell quiet, replaced with Alluka, who looked at him questioningly.
He knew, before it even started, what was going to happen next.
The air behind his ears pressed into his aura as though expanding from a distant explosion. Every nerve ending in his body jumped to attention, aware that something he had ignored and denied and pushed from his mind was suddenly, beyond all expectations, real.
“KILLUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
It was a familiar cry in a wildly unfamiliar octave. The sound resonated in his ears like a temple bell, drowning out everything else. Somewhere Alluka was calling to him and pulling at his arm, but that place was distant, far from the present moment.
He looked up over his shoulder and what he saw might as well have been his own death, time compressed itself just the same. His brain could not wrap itself around the changes in appearance or voice, but none of those things mattered, because the young man half-running, half-stumbling down the bank was unmistakable. He would know him in complete darkness, in a blinding snowstorm, at the bottom of the sea.
Even though he expected it, the impact of a body that had been running so fast and so hard down so sharp an incline pushed what little air was left out of Killua’s lungs and knocked him to the ground. His assailant, who clearly still had no concept of his own strength, tumbled up and over, rolling across the grass and landing ten feet away in an undignified heap.
Somewhere Alluka was calling out someone’s name, happy and excited, but Killua could barely hear her.
Years of training put him on autopilot, aura turning to electricity turning to the chemical impulse to move bringing him to a tense crouch, while the other man still lay on the ground, shaking like someone laughing (or crying?) hysterically. The moment was light and heavy all at once. Killua didn’t know what to do with his body, with his hands. Where were they supposed to go? The sound of his name still rang in his ears, whirling through his brain, shattering all the windows and kicking open all the closed doors.
He stood, thrusting his hands into his pockets to steady himself.
“Yo,” he said, somewhere between an awed whisper and a disinterested grunt.
Black spiky hair flew upwards, revealing dark teary eyes and a wobbly smile that filled the entire world before it grew into a grin that shattered reality.
“Killua…” began a low, soft voice, “I found you.”
Killua Zoldyck was nineteen years old when Gon Freecss slammed back into his life, and his world rearranged itself.