SOUR CANDY | killua z. ✔

25 | last

tw: descriptions of injury, brief discussion of gore

SEN WAS only twelve. She thought she had a few more years before she was subjected to shovel talks.

Games were Sen's forte; never before had she been intimidated by a coin trick, of all things. But the Zoldyck butlers were good at making it seem like a life-or-death situation. 

Well, they did have knives drawn.

Sen wanted to be that scary. 

Gotoh— the butler— was impressed by their group's quick eyes. Sen was impressed by the quick hands. Her insatiable love for patterns and games kept her eyes glued to that coin the whole time. Her pulse was a bit fast.

Gotoh smiled. "Well done."

The other butlers started clapping, incongruous with their somber faces.

Sen, upset, wanted to go another round. Kurapika probably sensed that and gave her shoulder a warning squeeze. She'd woken them up one too many times in the middle of the night to scramble her Rubik's cube.

On the other side of the room, a door swung open.

"Oi, Gotoh, are they here yet?"

It was Killua.

"Killua!" Gon exclaimed happily, jumping to his feet.

Sen sat frozen.

Killua's face. There were bruises, new and old, all over. Tiny cuts near his cheekbones. The dark rings under his eyes looked ghastly. 

As he berated Gotoh for not telling him of their arrival sooner, Killua kept glancing at her and Gon with desperate excitement.

She'd asked Kalluto, just once, how Killua was doing. They wouldn't answer. 

Now Sen knew why.

Before she could fully process seeing her friend for the first time in a month, her brain was already adding more bruise liniment to the shopping list and figuring out who the fuck she had to kill. 

Gon and Killua laughed about their ruined faces, and Sen had a strong urge to steal Leorio's knife.

"You're jumpy again."

She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but her field of vision was blocked by a pair of blue eyes. Up close, Sen could see more bruises. Sen thought of Kalluto's little injured wrist. Her own scars itched.

"Am not," she said weakly.

Killua squatted down in front of her so Sen wouldn't be able to look away from him. Smart bastard. 

"Lies," he flicked her forehead. "Were you really that worried about me?"

"No," Sen lied, rubbing the spot he flicked.

"It's not as bad as it looks," Killua said. 

She eyed his turtleneck shirt suspiciously, resisting the urge to start fidgeting. Sen felt like she should be doing something, but didn't know what. It made her feel anxious and a bit useless.

"Fine," Killua groaned, making a face. "I'll let you put that weird bruise stuff on my face."

"Really?" Sen asked hopefully. She still had some left in her bag—

"Not here, idiot," he snatched her backpack. "Anyway, we should go. If we stay any longer, my mom's gonna chew us out."

He grimaced. It was such a Killua-like expression that she managed to smile.