Itsy Bitsy Spider

77. Till We Meet Again

And all too soon, it became goodbye.

They each had their own places they wanted to go, whether it was specific or not. And Rein, without a particular destination in mind other than 'away', gathered what little belongings she had and decided making money would be a good start for a new beginning, and a strange one at that. A life without any of the Troupe members wasn't something she'd had any experience with for long periods of time, at least in her intact memory. Even when the Spiders were separated, she was always with at least one of them, whether it be Machi, Feitan, Bonolenov or Nobunaga. Going off on her own with the idea of moving out and moving on instead of a simple outing felt a little...

Maybe she'd ask if she could stay with Machi.

Rein shook her head to clear it of all her negative thoughts. She'd chosen a path. She could do this. Making money herself as opposed to stealing it was a foreign concept, but with the whole Arena thing Zushi kept rambling on about, she was sure she could make some cash easily.

Lucky came in, then knocked on the door behind him. "Red, hurry up! We won't make it in time for the airship."

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Rein got what little she had and followed his anxiously hurried steps out of the lodge. Today was their last day to leave, and everyone seemed to be outside already, prepared to head out. But when she stepped outside onto the grass, something was amiss. "Where's Feitan?"

"He hasn't been here since this morning," Phinks answered gruffly. "Left in the middle of the night. Now come on, you slowpokes need to get moving." He gestured for them to follow him and walked quickly, fastening his pace when Zushi trailed his heels and tried to make conversation.

It was only when someone patted her back—she wasn't paying enough attention to see who—that her legs finally started to drag her body onward.  She moved ahead with the rest of them, but still, her eyes were clouded. "Fei's gone?" she whispered. "Fei's gone."

"What's wrong?" Lucky asked, coming up behind her. "You worried about him?"

She tried to speak, but the shaking of her head came first as she struggled for words. "It's not that. It's Fei, I'm not too worried but... he just... left." Rein ran a hand back through her hair. "That makes sense, I guess, he's always the first to leave after a mission and he hates all the long drawn-out goodbye stuff but... I wanted to say it. I wanted to say-" She cut off. After the times she hadn't gotten to say goodbye and it had been too late, it...

"You know, I've never really said it before. 'Goodbye'." Lucky slowed his pace to walk by her side, waving at Machi to go ahead of him with the others. "It's always 'later' or 'see ya', just so I have a sliver of a chance of meeting them again, even if the likelihood of it is close to zero. But you'll see Feitan again." He grinned at her, and ruffled her hair. "You'll definitely see Emo Loser again, so you don't have to say 'goodbye', right?"

"I... I guess so." Rein whacked the arm on her head and pulled him down by the hood, messing up his hair as payback. When she was done, she didn't see much of a difference to his already mussed hairstyle, so she elbowed him too. But she smiled at him and he smiled back, and when she looked ahead there was Gon and Killua and all the rest of them, waiting for her. And in their presence during these last few moments, there wasn't any pain lingering in her chest.

It took them roughly two hours to get to town, during which they talked, laughed, and brought up good memories. The idea that they would be separating still hovered like a dark cloud above them, but they grasped its silver lining and carried on happily to the spot where they would finally split up. It was inevitable that they would reach it, but as her feet came closer and closer to the fountain in the middle of the plaza, she found herself wishing more and more that they never would.