You Grow Like a Tree

By Kay

Disclaimer: I own Hunter x Hunter like I own the planet. As in, not at all.

Author's Notes: Just a Killua x Gon drabble I cooked up. Based off of the manga, but since the anime is fairly close to that, and since there's no specific references, it won't matter. I hope someone enjoys this! Thank you!

It happens like everything happens with Gon—as natural as breathing, as taking a step, as killing with hot blood. For years, Killua is content to share candy and train until his stomach is sore from giddy laughing and Gon's knuckles. The requirements of a child are few and plenty. Killua can feel the rings in his body; they grow like trees, taking their time. They keep moving forward, discovering the realm of the hunter and disassembling it as they go, learning to stopper each other when they're too fierce and to bolster each other when they're too weak. He knows this is where he belongs. The world follows as it must, and Killua stays with Gon.

When they are thirteen, Gon says to Killua, "Don't go."

When they are fourteen, Killua can recognize every callus at Gon's fingertips and on the bottom of his toes. There are a hundred and seven in all that survive. Killua knows, too, how they feel when they slide against his own cheekbones or scratch against his stomach—the bed isn't so big anymore.

When they are fifteen, Killua can appreciate the slope of Gon's nose and the clean smell of grass and blood and laundry soap that lingers on him. He spends a lot of time just watching Gon that year—it's like the first month all over again, excitement every time Gon shows something new of himself.

When they are sixteen, Killua's heart begins to betray itself whenever Gon grins at him. At that point, he decides enough is enough. Maybe he's over-thinking it. Maybe it doesn't matter. With Gon, Killua's found, most stuff doesn't matter. The more you can let go, the more you can be assured something will come back. Killua, these days, lives his life mostly by Gon's lessons. They work out a lot easier than his family's have in the past. Easier for Killua, anyway. More allowance for chocolate.

When they are seventeen, Gon introduces Killua to his father. He says, "Killua is my best friend," and then, resolutely, "and he's never going to leave me." Killua punches him in the shoulder and grouses about how he should have a choice in the matter. Later, he thinks maybe Gon was saying something about Ging, not Killua. But much later, he figures out that somehow, somewhere, it'd become all about Killua anyway.

When they are eighteen, Killua has his hands full keeping a very annoying chunk of foundation from collapsing in and crushing them—okay, come on, he's been here and done this, hasn't he?—and so it's a little shocking when there's a puff of laughter against his temple, and then Gon is kissing him, just like that, and it's as natural as breathing, as taking a step, as killing with hot blood. Gon tastes like earth and the fish they had for lunch. Killua drops the whole freaking wall. It's a good thing it can't do much to hurt them at this point, because he has no intention of doing anything but trying to do that again, thanks very much.

Gon laughs more than he kisses. It's irritating. It's a challenge.

When they are nineteen—

Does it really matter? He knows this is where he belongs. The world follows as it must, and Killua stays with Gon. Somewhere, the natural alignment of the planets keep to the formation to make things right, and let in a little light through the window at night so Killua is never left completely in shadow.