Blood of the Children

Green Haired Annoyance and Obstacle Courses

The dorms were cold and harsh. The guards would walk around the room every now and then to make sure they were all sleeping; Killua just pretended to sleep.

The other boys he was staying with were all quiet, except for one.

"Psst! Hey, new kid!" The boy whisper-yelled to him from the bottom bunk. Killua couldn't see him very well in the dark, but when he was getting settled down right before lights out, he had caught a flash of spiky green-black hair.

The boy continued calling him, "Hey, you awake?" He blew a breath of warm air onto Killua's face, not wanting the censors to go off. "I know you're just pretending to sleep, but the guards are gone now so you're fine," even though Killua didn't open his eyes– and wouldn't be able to see him if he wanted to– he could tell that the kid was smiling.

He groaned as the boy persisted, "what do you want?" he whispered back cautiously.

"Finally got you talking, huh?" the boy snickered from above. "Okay, sorry. What's your name?" he added, not sounding very sorry.

He rolled over onto his side, being sure not to get in the line of the censor, "Killua, you?"

"I'm Gon, nice to meet you Killua!" He whispered back. "So you already know about the censors, huh?"

Killua nodded, even though he knew Gon wouldn't be able to see him, "Yeah, got tipped off by the nurse before coming here," he said, yawning.

He could tell Gon's smile was back when he began talking again, "Mr. Leorio? Yeah, he's pretty cool with all of us. Well, correction, most of us."

Before Killua had the chance to ask him what he meant, a voice came from the bed above Gon's, "Will you two shut up? I'm trying to get my Z's before woodchipping tomorrow," the androgynous voice snapped.

He heard Gon shuffle in his bed, "Sorry Kurapika, I just got excited!"

"Whatever," Kurapika responded, sighing.

-

The next morning was drills for Killua. His dorm, referred to as Meruem Hall by the elders (the adult staff), was split up into three groups. Group one went off to 'Woodchip", whatever that meant. Group two went off to "Circle", which was group therapy from what he gathered. And Group three, his group, was sent to do the obstacle course.

Lovely.

The only good thing he could make of it was that the talkative kid wasn't part of his group. He was in Group one with Kurapika.

He was instructed to put clean clothes on, brush his teeth, and put his boots on with the rest of the Group three kids. He sat on his blanket that was his 'bed' for now while he tied his boots. The other boys brushed their teeth in the bathroom outside the dorm room, a guard watching over them in the doorway.

The other groups had already left for their morning escapades while they were left behind, but he did finally get to see what Gon looked like that morning. Since they sleep close to each other, they sat up for morning prayer next to each other. As he had remembered, Gon had tall, black and green hair. He was tanned to a warm bronze and had shimmering brown eyes. Killua would be lying if he didn't have a few unholy thoughts about him that morning.

Though, that was neither here nor there.

The chubby guard waddled into the dorm and crossed his arms, "line up at the door, quickly," he commanded.

Killua sighed and walked to the back of the forming line. In front of him was a tall guy with a pompadour haircut, standing stiff straight. The kid behind him was a boy with blond hair in a bowl cut twiddling his bony fingers.

They were led outside and up to the course that he had seen the previous day. Now that he was closer to it, he realized that it was more complicated than he had thought.

The first obstacle was a path of tires in sets of two. Then there were the monkey bars. They were thin rods of metal and seemed shiny, as if they were coated in sweat from the other night.

Beyond the monkey bars was the wall. It was wood planks set up in an 8 foot wall with not a single grip place to grip.

He couldn't see behind it, all he knew was that it must be difficult from how many kids were being screamed at after they slid down the other side of the wall.

He waited his turn anxiously, knowing that he would never be able to finish the course without help.

"Zoldyck, you're up!"