"Anyone can be killed. It doesn't matter how strong, how powerful, or how influential someone is—they can still be killed. No one is invincible, least of all to a Zoldyck."

Killua had heard those words hundreds of times, pounded into his head by his father, grandfather, mother, Illumi, even Milluki, until he could never forget them. He'd witnessed the proof of those words dozens of times—how many times had he seen Illumi take down powerful politicians and their bodyguards with nothing but a needle? How many times had he seen his father take down roomfuls of dangerous fighters in less time than it took Milluki to finish a bag of chips? To be a Zoldyck was to be death, and no one escaped death.

Six months into his latest assignment, and Killua was beginning to have serious doubts about those words.

His father had refused to divulge any information about their client's identity, but that didn't matter—Killua didn't need information about the client, he only needed information about his target and that he had plenty of. Name, age, hometown, habits, routine, fighting style…everything was included in the file he was given. Not that he needed any of that. When it came down to it, there were only two pieces of information he really needed to know about Gen Freecs, and he'd figured out both of them within five minutes of meeting the man.

Number one, Gen Freecs with an idiot. An infuriating, cheerful, unable-to-do-basic-math-in-his-head, how-the-hell-did-he-even-survive-this-long idiot with no self-preservation whatsoever.

As for the other thing…oh right. He was, by all accounts, unkillable.

Poisoning didn't work—and not for lack of trying either. Several of the world's rarest and deadliest poisons later, and the most harm Killua had managed to do was give man a mild stomachache. If the man hadn't been so…cheerful and green and anti-everything Zoldyck, Killua would have seriously thought the man was a long-lost cousin of some sort.

Attacking him head on didn't work. Gen hadn't even seemed to realize Killua was attacking him—he'd merely glanced down at his shredded jacket (Killua had followed his gaze with something like horror—his strongest attack and he hadn't even managed to break the skin, and the red marks on Gen's chest were already fading, holy hell, how strong was this man?), patted Killua on the head, and mumbled something Killua didn't quite catch but had sounded an awful lot like "so adorable." And then he'd walked away.

(Killua hadn't tried that again. Just the memory was enough to make him wince.)

Shooting him didn't work. Bullets seemed to be frightened of him.

(Killua couldn't think of any other explanation as to why they seemed to swerve around him.)

Fire didn't work. Last time Killua had tried, he caught the man roasting marshmallows.

Electrocution didn't work. The one and only time Killua had tried, the man had walked around with a bright smile for an entire day because "it brought back memories."

Hanging him didn't work. (Killua had actually managed to get a noose over his head, somehow. Gen had spent the next thirty minutes swinging back and forth from the ceiling making 'wheeeee' sounds and showing absolutely no signs of neck-breaking or asphyxiation).

Peering out from his hiding spot perched in a tree, Killua adjusted his sniper rifle (one of Milluki's own creations. He'd normally never resort to using anything of Milluki's, but he was getting desperate) and aimed it at an oblivious Gen, who was currently enjoying a slice of chocolate cake in an outdoors café.

Holding his breath, he took aim, pulled the trigger, fired—

"Oops, dropped my fork!" Gen exclaimed.

-and looked up just in time to see the bullet pass harmlessly over Gen's head. Gen, who was crouched on the ground looking for his fork, didn't even notice. Killua let out an incoherent noise of rage.

"Oh, there it is," Gen said happily, oblivious to both the large explosion behind him and the steaming 10-year-old in the tree in front of him. He took a moment to look at the fork in his hand.

"Eh, five second rule," he declared before digging back into his cake.

Killua's shoulders slumped dejectedly. Sure, he could try again—he still had a few of Milluki's special bullets left—but people were already swarming to the site of the explosion and he wasn't sure he could pull off another attempt without accidentally harming bystanders. His contract had been very explicit that there were to be no collateral deaths, after all.

With one hand, he pulled out a notebook and scribbled Assassination Attempt #207: death by explosive bullet—failed. At this rate, he'd need to get a bigger notebook.

"Sir? The chocolate cake you ordered," a waitress said, delivering another slice of chocolate cake to Gen's table.

Killua narrowed his eyes as Gen thanked the waitress before paying his bill and exiting the restaurant, leaving the chocolate cake behind untouched. That was another weird thing about Gen Freecs. It didn't matter where he was, be that a hotel, a restaurant, a café, the middle of a freaking volcano, or being chased through a rainforest by goddamn man-eating lizards (that had been…a rough couple of weeks)—he always, without fail, left some form of chocolate behind.

Killua hesitated and then, after making absolutely sure that Gen was gone, he clambered down his tree and made his way over to the still-untouched cake. No sense in letting good chocolate go to waste, after all.

"Mmm, still warm," he said to himself around a mouthful of gooey chocolatey goodness, closing his eyes blissfully. He wasn't too worried about poison—there weren't many poisons in the world that could take out a Zoldyck, and besides, Gen didn't seem like the poisoning type. Illumi would definitely disapprove still, but then again, it wasn't like Illumi was there at the moment.

"Dang, that's good," Killua said happily, polishing off the rest of the cake in less time than it took Illumi to take out a room full of violent arms-dealers. Gen Freecs may be a weirdo and he was definitely going to die, just as soon as Killua figured out how to kill him, but if nothing else, the man had good taste.

Two Months Later

"Stupid, goddamn, good-for-nothing—" A vein bulged in Killua's forehead as he slapped away yet another godforsaken bug trying to feast on his blood. Three days of stumbling through this insect-infested jungle, over a dozen bug bites, and Killua was about to scream in frustration. To make matters worse, he'd lost his target over a day ago. "God-fucking-damnit, I hate mosquitos!"

Killua hadn't met a creature with any sense yet that wasn't afraid of an angry Zoldyck. Unfortunately, mosquitos did not fall into that category.

"I'm gonna hunt you all to extinction, mark my words—" Picking up a nearby rock, Killua chucked it at the mosquito buzzing away in front of his face. It didn't hit the mosquito, but it did hit a tree with enough force to cut through it.

A very human-sounding yelp made him blink. Following the sound, Killua blinked again as he found himself face-to-face with a smaller version of The-Idiot-Who-Just-Won't-Die.

"Did you shrink?" He blurted out without thinking.

"Huh?" The other kid eyed him blearily, rubbing the lump forming on the back of his head. "Who're you?"

"Who are you?" Killua retorted.

"I'm Gon. Why are you following my uncle?" Gon asked. That gave Killua pause.

Right. The file had said something about a nephew. A nephew he wasn't allowed to harm in any way. Who was currently nursing a lump the size of a goose egg on his head. As a direct consequence of Killua's actions. Shit.

"I'm Killua. I'm, uh…just passing through," Killua said lamely. "What about you? Why aren't you with your uncle?"

"Gotta catch him first," Gon said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It's a game we're playing—he says it's to help me be a better Hunter. We've been playing for a while now though, and I haven't even gotten close."

"I know the feeling," Killua muttered, scowling towards the general vicinity of Gen's location. He hoped.

"Say, how do you know Uncle Gen?" Gon asked curiously.

"Who says I know your uncle?" Killua asked defensively.

"You thought I was him at first, didn't you? That's why you asked me if I shrank, right?" Gon asked. At Killua's silence, he added, "Don't worry about it, lots of people think we look similar. In fact, most people think he's my dad instead of my uncle."

There was a hint of wistfulness in Gon's voice as he said that last sentence. Do you wish he was your dad? Killua almost asks but doesn't. It wasn't his business anyway.

"Anyway, you never answered my question. Why are you following my uncle?" Gon asked. Killua tilted his head to the side, considering the other boy for a moment.

"To kill him." He smiled, just a fraction too sharp. "Does that upset you?"

"Huh." Gon was quiet for a moment. "To kill him, you probably need to catch him first, right? And since you've been walking around in circles for the past few hours, I'm guessing you've lost him." He glanced up at Killua. "What do you say we work together?"

Killua stared at him.

"Work together…to catch him," he repeated slowly.

"Well, neither of us have been succeeding on our own," Gon pointed out reasonably. "At least together, we have a better chance."

"Didn't you hear me say I wanted to kill him?" Killua asked dumbfounded. Granted, he tried to kill Milluki at least three times a week (and vice versa) but he was under the impression that his family wasn't exactly…normal.

"Uncle Gen can take care of himself. And if the day comes that he can't…well, someone needs to be there to stop you from killing him. He is my uncle, after all," Gon said, eyes wide and unblinking. A predator's eyes, Killua couldn't help but think.

"If you stand in my way, I won't show any mercy," Killua warned, neglecting to mention that his contract technically prevented him from doing exactly that.

"I wouldn't expect you too," Gon said with a smile. "Besides, you seem like an interesting guy, Killua. Doesn't matter if you end up being my enemy or my friend…I think I'll enjoy getting to know you either way."

A/N: Yay, I'm back! And this chapter, we finally have Killua meeting Gon! Admittedly, I'm not very good at writing kids...but then, neither Killua nor Gon have ever really been normal kids.

The Gen-leaving-behind-chocolate thing? A reference to chapter 2, when Gon asks Killua what he'd change about his life and Killua replies with "make it so that I could have free gourmet chocolate everywhere I went."

If you liked something, please leave me a review! I'd like to know what you thought of Killua and Gon's characterization :)