#WTWF chp5

[decembercamiecherries]

Title: Words That Water Flowers

Total word count: 5753

Chapters: 5

Chapter 5 summary:

Koi No Yokan (Japanese)- the sudden knowledge upon meeting someone that the two of you are destined to fall in love

Chapter 5 is up on ao3! You can read it below the cut, too

Thank you again to everyone for the love and attention this story has received so far!!! It's made me so happy ^^

ALSO! There won't be a chapter next weekend because I'm going home so I won't have time to write and/or update this story. So the next update will be weekend of March 11th!

Killua Zoldyck met Gon Freecss at the tender age of twelve on his first day of public school.

Killua had been running late. Very late, actually. His mother didn’t want him to go; she had begged him for weeks upon weeks to reconsider being home-schooled, to staying with her and the rest of their so-called family every single day for the rest of his life with no hope of escape-

Killua remembered thinking that he would rather choke himself then stay cooped up in that horrible mansion with his horrible relatives for another year.

(Years later, with flower petals clogging his throat and the sharp taste of iron on his tongue, he couldn’t help but laugh brokenly. Oh, the irony.)

Because he was so late, Killua had grabbed his skateboard on the way to the front door. He figured it would be quicker to get to school using that than to walk the whole way. He dodged his mother’s snatching hands, skipped around Canary and Gotoh who had been carrying freshly-polished silverware, and bolted down the driveway as fast as his legs could carry him.

Free, Killua had thought, breathing in the late summer air. I’m free.

It didn’t take him long to get to there. Killua was going as fast as possible on his skateboard, loving the feel of wind ripping through his hair and the whistle of air in his ears. On the inside, though, his stomach twisted and his heart pounded- was he excited, or nervous? Killua didn’t know. He didn’t take the time to think about it though, and as Killua turned onto his new school’s street he spotted another boy sprinting down the sidewalk just a few feet ahead of him.

The knots in his stomach loosened slightly. So he wasn’t the only one not getting to school on time. Not that he really cared too much, but. He didn’t want to get in trouble on the first day.

“Are you-” the boy panted as Killua glided up to his side, “-running late, too?”

Killua raised his eyebrows. He would’ve thought that was obvious. “Yeah?”

“Heh.” The boy grinned, sunlight glittering in gold-brown eyes. “I’m- ahhh- glad! I’m not alone.”

Killua felt a pang deep in his chest; that was why he was here, why he was going to public school. He didn’t want to be alone in that mansion anymore. He wanted to know other kids his age. He wanted friends.

“How old are you?” he asked the boy.

“Twelve!”

Killua considered the boy one last time: he had weird spikes for hair, an obnoxious green jacket that was obviously homemade, bright eyes and a face that glowed with a mix of curiosity and simple joy.

Okay. Why not? Killua could always dump this kid if he ever got too annoying.

Killua nimbly flipped off his skateboard, catching it with one hand. He landed on the sidewalk hard enough to send a jolt of pain up his legs, but that didn’t bother him. He was used to worse pain, anyway.

“I’m Killua,” he said as the other kid gaped at him with wonder.

“Ah, that was so cool!” the boy gushed and Killua couldn’t help the blotchy blush that rose to his cheeks.

Killua grumbled, “That was nothing…ah, I don’t know your-”

“Gon!” the boy chirped as a wide smile spread across his face. “Gon Freecss! Will you show me how to do that flip thing with your skateboard? At lunch, maybe?”

Killua had flushed even harder and nodded.

During lunch later that same day, Killua held Gon’s sweaty hand to keep him steady as the shorter boy tried out Killua’s skateboard. Gon’s grip was tight enough on for his nails leave imprints on Killua’s skin.

Killua kind of deserved that though; he had pushed Gon down the pavement fast enough to make Gon wobble on the thin board and shriek at the top of his lungs. Gon’s scream had been so loud that Killua’s ears rang for the rest of the day. But at the time, he was laughing too hard to notice.

Afterwards they laid in the grass together and ate their lunch, talking about dreams and video games and everything in between. Gon spent the rest of their free time carefully weaving them both matching flower crowns.

Killua remembered thinking that those crowns were the most beautiful things he’d ever seen, even if the flowers Gon had chosen smelled too strong and their colors were a harsh mix of red-scarlet-gold.

“You look beautiful!” Gon blurted out as Killua tenderly touched the flowers on his head.

“Stu-stupid!” Killua snapped, cheeks burning like they’d been set on fire. “You can’t just go around saying stuff like that! Its embarrassing!”

“But it’s the truth!” Gon protested and Killua’s mouth shut with a click. “And we’re friends, so it’s okay to say stuff like that to your friends!”

Killua had seriously doubted that- the part about it being alright to call friends ‘pretty’, not the fact that they were friends. Because Gon proved their friendship by coming back to Killua every single day with that million-watt smile of his, and the matching mischievous gleam in his eyes.

Sometimes it seemed to Killua like he and Gon had been destined to meet and become best friends; being with Gon- laughing at his faces during school, sharing the cookies Gon’s aunt had packed for lunch, having sleepovers and falling asleep facing each other- was as simple and easy as breathing. Or at least it used to be, until one day Killua was absent-mindedly thinking about Gon and suddenly couldn’t breathe at all.

The sun-dipped petal that he coughed into his bare hand that day was the start of the end.

He and Gon had been friends for years by then, hardly ever leaving each other’s sides. They did everything together. Gon was everything. So it didn’t take Killua that long to figure out who exactly was the cause of the Hanahaki Disease.

He didn’t even know he loved Gon like that until that exact moment. But it made perfect sense. The petals were the answer to the way Killua’s heart had started to racing at the sound of Gon’s voice, and how seeing his best friend made butterflies come to life in his gut.

He had to make sure, though.

“Gon,” Killua rasped out, just days after he first started coughing up petals the color of setting suns and too bright flames and deep red wine. “Gon.”

“Hmm?” Gon was concentrating too hard on a math problem to notice how Killua’s voice shook and something in Killua’s chest tightened.

That was probably for the best. He didn’t want Gon to get suspicious and start worrying about him, after all.

“Gon,” Killua tried again. “You know the day we met? When you made those flower crowns in the schoolyard during lunch? What flowers did you use?”

Gon paused. His brows furrowed as he frowned.

Killua sighed, disappointed. “You don’t remember, do you.”

“Mmm, no, I definitely do! I just- oh!” Gon brightened. “I remember now!”

“Yeah?” Killua’s stomach was heavy like it was filled to the brim with led. Or, in Killua’s case, petals.

“Yep!” Gon chirped as he gave Killua that all too familiar dazzling smile.

“They were marigolds. You know? Those bright flowers that always smell kinda funny?”

Killua swallowed, ignoring the soft-velvety tickle against his throat.

“Yeah. I know.”