Eyes Open

written by Riseha

Summary: [AU] The bandages slid off her eyes; Kurapika's eyes widened. "Gon, your eyes... The Kurta Clan's Scarlet Eyes! How did you...?" Fem!Gon.

Genre(s): Family/Friendship/Romance/Action/Drama/Angst/Adven ture.

Pairing(s): Possibly Fem!GonxKurapika/Hisoka.

Disclaimer: I OWN nothing; Hunter x Hunter belongs to its rightful owner.

Warning(s): Violence. Blood.

Author's Note: Is there another story like mine, here? Gon's name is a shortened form of 'Gwendolyn' which means 'holy link' in reference to Gon's ability to bring people together.

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PROLOGUE

Bandages

Gwendolyn Freecss—or better know as simply Gon—was undoubtedly the island outcast.

It wasn't the fact that she was evil or mean—quite the contrary actually, Gon had a sweet-nature and kindhearted heart, and was always willing to help. It was because of this that all the children in the island envied her for how much every adult liked her.

The problem started when she was five.

Adults always patted her dark hair and always complimented her pretty blue eyes.

Children noticed this and they had to agree, the fatherless child's eyes were undoubtedly the brightest, bluest eyes they'd ever seen.

Gon could still remember the day people stopped compliment her sapphire orbs.

As a child, she'd known that the adults liked her but the children thought she was stuck-up and isolated her for being the adults' favorite, they thought she was stealing their parents' affections from her.

She had no such intentions of course, but they thought she was a liar.

She was quite gullible, so, when they suddenly became nice to her and led her into the forest to play, she suspected nothing. She still remembered the last time she saw the world, saw the lush green forest, the flora and fauna living within it.

She knew quite a lot about forests because her grandmother and aunt always brought her into the forest, taught her which animal was which and which herb was safe and what're their purposes.

She should've expected to see wild animals, dangerous beasts.

She didn't, too ecstatic that the other kids were finally playing with her, and she just followed them.

(It would be the last time she made such a mistake.)

She didn't expect that the kids would shove her into a liger's cave. She knew a lot about ligers, aggressive creatures they are, but only towards threats to their home or territory. But most of all, they were attracted to blood.

Gon stared at her bleeding palm in shock, wincing from the pain and trying to stave it. She gazed up at there light was spilling in from above.

Ligers lived under trees with thick roots, she was impressed and thought that it was cool that they could claw their way hundred feet down, regardless of rocks or any other obstacles.

It was not impressive, however, when she was face to face with a mother liger with her eggs, in overprotective and suspicious mode.

Gon screamed, scrambling back when the liger sprang to her feet and lunged. Her back met the cold, hard wall of the cave, mindlessly raising a hand to fend the monster off. She cried out in pain when the liger's teeth sunk into her skin, piercing her bone. The pain was unbearable for a child such as her.

She stared, driven to tears from the pain, at the liger who was ready to rip her arm off.

She saw the message in the creature's eyes i just want to protect my children and you're a threat and i won't tolerate that but that didn't make her feel any better; rivulets of blood dripped down her forearm, stained the liger's ivory teeth, and creating polka-dots on the ground.

She didn't dare move lest the liger tear off her arm sooner.

She didn't dare to look the creature in its slitted amber eyes, so wild and dangerous.

Her gaze was drawn to her blood: on her arm, on the ground, on its teeth. Her vision abruptly filled with spots, tears blurring her vision, when she recalled her 'friends' betrayal.

Then the rage came crashing upon her in reminisce of a tsunami. Her vision colored by red when she recalled their sneers and leers when she fell, crying for help.

-don't forgive them-

And she saw red.

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"Gon?"

The girl in question groaned, blinking.

Light filled her vision, exploded and colored her dark world. It hurt her eyes and she squeezed them shut again, momentarily ignoring the sob filling the air and the exhales of relief.

She blinked rapidly, shielding her eyes from the light but once she regained her bearings, she realized that shielding her already covered eyes were unnecessary.

She reached up to touch her eyes, a bandage obscuring her goal. "Wha...?" she whipped her head around wildly to where she could smell her aunt.

"Mito-san," she called, reaching out a hand which her aunt took. She swallowed, suddenly feeling thirsty. "Water," she croaked, and she exhaled in relief when cool glass touched her skin. She gulped down the offered water greedily, holding the glass in her hand as she gathered her thoughts.

"What's with the bandage?" she asked, feeling the white gauze scrubbing her eyes. Her vision was fuzzy and white, courtersy of the bandage but she was sure she'd still see fine when the bandage was off. "I'm fine, I can see all right."

Aunt Mito was smoothing her hair. "Gon..." she whispered, sad. "You can't take it off anymore."

Gon stiffened, knitting her brows in confusion. "What?" she asked blankly, incredulous. "Why?"

"Do you remember anything from, when- when the liger attacked you?"

Gon tilted her head to the side in thought. "Yes... a little," she muttered. "The village kids pushed me in and the liger bit my arm. I... I was angry, sad and hurt by the kids' betrayal, so I... I dunno, I saw red and then my memory came up with a blank. What happened while I was out?"

She could just hear Mito-san inhaling sharply and closing her eyes, like she usually did when she prepared herself to deliver terrible news.

"When we came to find you, we saw the ligers within the cave, a whole pack of them, torn apart." Gon blinked, confused. "They were torn apart by human hands, and, Gon, the only person there was you and when the men descended, they saw you, um, on a killing spree."

The small girl was horrified. "No!" she protested. "I didn't kill—"

"You did," Mito-san said, sighing heavily. "you were so strong not even three men could restrain you, only when Kenji's father covered your whole face, your eyes included, did you stop. You passed out once your eyes were closed. I bandaged your eyes so that you wouldn't... lose it."

"How can you be so sure?"

"You've been asleep for a week. During that week, we tried to take of the bandage when you stirred. Your eyes were red, Gon, you broke a man's fingers. I barely managed to cover your eyes. And once I did, you slump back down, you didn't wake until today."

Gon 'stared' at her arms blankly, not that she could see them but...

"I... I didn't mean to hurt anyone."

"I know," Mito-san said.

But her tone of voice told the young girl she didn't really get it.

Gon reached up to feel the bandages around her eyes again, sad that no one would compliment her blue eyes, but not willing to take it off lest she hurt anyone again.

"What's wrong with me?" she asked brokenly, voice no more than a whisper and she heard Mito-san inhaling sharply, worried and unsure as to how to answer her. "I've never had... a problem like this before."

"Your father never had such eyes either," Mito-san finally answered. "It could be from your mother's side of the family."

Gon looked up eagerly; her aunt and grandmother never mentioned anything about her mother and father, so she was especially curious despite her unusual circumstances. "Really? Do you- do you know anything about her? Her family? Where she is now?"

"No," Mito-san said, making Gon's mood dampen slightly. "but your father said your mother returned to her clan, deep within the forest."

"Here?"

"No, off the island."

"...Mito-san?"

"Yes?"

"Did Father meet Mother because he was a Hunter?"

"Yes," Mito answered slowly, curious as to why her niece would ask such a question. "his job enlists him to search for treasures. Your mother happened to have something he was searching for I suppose." When her niece continued to stare into space, she excused herself and went back to cleaning the house, sighing and infinitely worried about the young girl.

Mito had screamed at the brats who'd abandoned her niece and had enlisted every available man's help on the island.

She was worried; Gon came out unharmed, physically anyway, but what would the terror and betrayal do to her psyche?

"Mito-san?"

Mito turned, "Yes?"

"I want to become a Hunter." The girl reached up to touch the bandages. "I have to ask him about my eyes, I also want to know why he'd abandon me."

"Gon..."

"I've made my mind up," the girl insisted stubbornly. "You can't stop me."

No, she couldn't, just as she couldn't stop Ging; her heart sank when the thought of losing Gon crossed her mind. She wrapped her arms around her niece in a hug, desperately wishing that the young girl would remain in her protective embrace forever.

She was losing her little girl with bright blue eyes.

And there was nothing she could do.

Don't be too deterred by the length of the prologue, the chapters will be longer than this. Also, I don't think I've seen a story like this yet, a Kuruta Gon and Female one too. So, I'd really appreciate your thoughts and opinions to improve the story. I'll try to keep this Gon light-hearted, but it's my first time writing such a happy go lucky character, I'm more to the angst-tragedy-filled characters, so pointers would help, and do remind me if one of them gets too OOC.

Check out my other new stories too if you have the time! ^^

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