INSP: andatsea tumblr com/post/65987139969/wouldnt-it-have-been-nice-if-they-just-stayed-on

DEDICATION: Kitana

NOTE: congrats on reading yona. but this is not yona...

Only in Dreams

The red fruit bled clear, rich juice that left Killua's fingers tacky and lips dewy.

Gon had climbed a towering tree with ease, plucked two straight from the outstretching branches, and thrown one into the air for Killua to catch below. The impact immediately caused brown bruises to bloom underneath his fingers.

They rested under the shade of the same leafy palm, letting the breeze fill their lungs and their bare toes dig the earth beneath the cool grass.

"Your aunt will get mad," Killua warned, just as Gon stood to grab another fruit. He did more so out of finding words for conversation, rather than worry. "You'll spoil your dinner."

In response, Gon only wiped his sticky hands against his shorts and grinned widely. "Auntie's cooking is so good, I have another stomach just for it!"

Killua watched him until he was fully obscured by the foliage. He counted to ten, then looked up when his friend didn't come down right away. All he saw was green and branches; he was much smaller than much of the trees growing beneath the mountains of Whale Island.

The words fell down quick like rainfall: "Killua! Come up!"

He counted to six, and Killua was already there beside Gon at the top of the tree, readying for impending danger. But Gon merely smiled as big as ever, bit a piece of the fruit, and pointed a finger before them.

Whale Island looked as it always did, as if it were virtually unchanging and still while the rest of the world moved on. The bluest seas ate up most of the scenery, but the mountains above did their best in competing for more as well. Killua couldn't see where the ocean ended, but he knew it began where the ports did, built sturdily with the same oaks and pines of their mountains and filled with the descendants of their architects. Like ants, the people either marched in unison by the boats or scattered madly in the markets, and Killua was struck with the thought that, maybe, one of them could upturn their heads just a little and see them, too: two ants on a broccoli.

From where they perched they could also see the waterfalls, and just remembering made Killua feel the warm water pushing against his skin after the dive from the cliff, feeling like he had just been reborn anew. Gon had taken the lead and ran straight for the lake, and because he did not take off his clothes or stopped to calculate the height of the fall, neither did Killua.

"I wish I could stay."

Killua had meant to say, It's beautiful, but his real emotions were unfathomable through language. There was something much brighter than the sunshine reflecting off the water that burned Killua to the bone. There was Gon.

"Then stay," Gon said, offering something other than a fruit or a smile. "Let's stay."