"One way or Another." [ Chrollo x Reader x Hisoka ]

"Ain't no letting go"

We had arrived, approximately, 20 minutes ago. Although, it was a new meeting place, I still felt at home, more secure than I ever felt at the Zoldyck mansion. I'd been tied to a worned down column, I assume, because they didn't want me to leave, nor to try anything weird. Funny enough, the one who suggested, my tying down, was Chrollo.

I wasn't going to sit there and look pretty while waiting for, maybe forever, for Hisoka. Having scanned all of the members, the only one missing was him, not unforseeably enough. While silently, and carefully, punching the column, my old friend started talking to me. His kind words reaching me with a, mostly, hostile tone.

-"Ari, How have you been, darling?"- If you'd known him for a little over three hours, you'd figure out, that this was his way of expressing anger, no matter how sweet he sounds.

-"I could've been better! Not yelled at, nor tied to a column, maybe?"- He couldn't know just how much I was bursting with happiness, I love my family, through and through. And him, I love especially.

-"Ah... That's not nice, you've belittled us for little less than a year, surely a few hours aren't much."- Finally, he closed his book, maybe he'd found what he was searching for, maybe because of the uncanny arrival of our missing leg.

-"Goddamn it Lucy! You knew, why would you be mad?!"- Throwing a fake fit was easy, and I needed to draw their attention to my mouth, not my newly freed wrists.

-"Well, preferably, you should've told everyone else. Besides, I did not receive information about you not attending meetings."- Not oustandingly, the boss had already figured out what I was doing, I suppose, decades, of knowing me, didn't go to waste in his mind.

We'd stopped talking, and our missing component, still refused to show himself at the window, even though, he knew we'd already seen him. Maybe that was part of it, he did grow rather excited at the thought of arguing, and fights, and such. While the gang was getting drunk off of, too many, beers, I'd managed to best my teammates.

All of a sudden, at the window, just across the room from me, a shadow emerged as though it barely arrived. A happy Hisoka found himself entering the room, through a strange door, by the time the rest realized his presence, he'd already been building a castle of cards. However, once they acknowledged him, he wasted no time into turning into his normal self.

-"My, do my eyes deceive me? Or is that truly, the woman about to surpass me on absences?"- His tone, jokingly, of course. Yet, Kuro, hadn't found in his heart to let his passive aggressiveness towards that man, go. Noticing this, the magician decided to push him over the edge.

-"Dear, just, how have you been? Other than incredibly bored, almost marrying that absent souled man."- Once more, all around could tell his words were simply to annoy me, but their hidden objective, was much more interesting.

-"You've never known when to quit, have you? Either way, your jealousy is radiating, dear."- Knowing both of these men for over a decade, going on a decade and a half, let me read their intentions clearly and concisely, which is why, before I said that, I looked at Kuro, barely, containing himself, and then decided to act.

Hisoka laughed, the obvious reason being, it was a joke we had, the real reason? He was happy to see me back, not because he cared, just because it meant he could annoy the man he refused to call boss. His laughter, his real laughter, not the one he just displayed, was much more... sentimental. It was infused by all of his, ceaseless, emotions, that he's hidden since young.

As he cocked his head back to stare at me, Morrow realized that I wasn't tied down to the column anymore, something his superior already knew, but he lacked that information. And so, ever so slightly, he eyed Kuro quickly, to tell if he knew what was happening. Kuro, had not yet taken his eyes off of the jester, and was swift in telling what the magician meant in his eyes.

-"You know, I never understood why we decided to be thieves, having so many career paths available to a gang of murderers."- Their reaction time was lacking incredibly, compared to mine. After all, I was the one who started the idea of robbing, no matter how long ago that was.

-"Darling, after all that we've done, I sincerely don't think it's appropriate to start questioning ourselves now."- Ever so quietly, Chrollo got up from his make-shift throne, making his way over to me while speaking only so that I would understand his words, no peeping-toms and all.

-"Oh, I'm not doubting, I'm simply stating. It's weird that in a troupe of murderers, and thieves, and assasins, none of them have ever thought to get you alone, other than me, of course."- Chrollo has always been a very smart man. Quite cunning, and never one to miss details, so the moment he got a hold of my plans, the spark in his eyes ignited. We were officially on our merry way, to play our mind games.

-"Yet, you've never given me reason to doubt you, up until now at least, is it possible that you plan on harming your boss? I don't recommend that, number two."- All this he said while shortening our distance greatly, we had previously been a few feet from eachother, now he was taking extra precaution so that nobody would know what was happening, going as far as to crouch down to my level and being, but a few inches, from my face.

-"Dearie me, I never meant to cause you any mental disturbance, just to make sure you know that you are constantly in deep, deep, peril, my darling"- I knew I could manipulate him into letting me into his mind, his thoughts and rationality's which, at the moment, wasn't very far away from succeeding, I was mere reactions away from having him in the palm of my hand.

-"You can't toy this game with me any longer, I'm well aware of what you can do, yet, it's not my biggest concern. My only issue would be if it affected my troupe. If not, try me."- Being so caught up in my thoughts, I failed to realize that I wasn't truly listening to him, my body, instinctively, paid more attention to the energy he was giving off, rather than, getting further away from him.

Even as his eyes bored into me knowing that I had fallen for his trap, I focused more on his lips and his proximity than anything else. Not on what it meant to him, nor what it meant to me. We both heard heels clacking on the cold, hard, concrete floor, but we didn't dare look to the right.

-"My, my. If I was foreign to your tricks, I might've thought you'd actually kiss her Chrollo."- Every word out of Hisoka's mouth has always been hostile, but this he meant with all anger residing in him, and he said it with his heart on his sleeve.

-"If you were an inkling, a single drop, of the man I am, you would never say, nor do, something as uncomfortable as that."- The boss had gotten up, with his hands calmly by his sides and his hair messy from the position he'd just been in. Anybody could tell how much this meant to him, just how prideful he was. But again, just like the magician, he had too much rage towards, he was wearing his heart on his sleeve.

The seconds before I said anything felt tense, not because there was bloodlust or aura being thrown out by either of them, rather, just to men putting themselves down to the wolves. Hisoka, standing with his legs crossed, one in front of another, and his hands on his hips, fingers grasping one of his cards, as if to not back down. Chrollo, on the other hand, completely relaxed, the only emotion visible, was in his pretty eyes, and it was visceral anger, not something quite common, clearly, he wasn't even attacking.

-"Hisoka, stay out of this. Chrollo, just, who do you think you are?"