Umbrella.

The tip of an iceberg.

Posted on Wattpad after demanded by Leo_Lubz . I hope you like it!

Chapter was originally posted : 22/09/2023 on AO3 by 0Creativity0 (me).

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Growing up, Gon was considered a lucky kid. He had a loving aunt and great-grandmother, a famous father, he was talented and smart, very healthy. He wore on his face a sweet smile, was well mannered and so polite. Happy everyday, he could take anybody's sadness away in seconds.

The things people seemed to not take in consideration were the whys and the hows. Like how his loving aunt was such a young woman, far from ready to assume the overwhelming responsibilities of (unwanted) motherhood. How she had to work all day to afford to put food on the table. How, from a young age, Gon had to join her, replacing sick old Abe. Abe, who couldn't do much but worry everyone with her fastly declining health, and barely even remembered Gon's name anymore. How Gon had to grow up without parents, wondering why he was different from all these other kids. The silence of his family's secrets had him feeling excluded more than once. How his father had never sent a cent to Mito, how he had been of no help in raising his own child, even on the financial point. How, in fact, Gon had never even seen Ging ever since he left, forever ago. How Gon wasn't talented or smart but just invested and extremely hardworking, fixated on objectives, devastated when he didn't reach them. The claws of failure and worthlessness dug into his skin like blades, ready to tear him apart and leave him there to glue himself back up.

Gon was considered a lucky kid, and by consequence, he considered himself as one. He dismissed all sorts of pain he might endure by comparing them to others'.

His good health was pretty much the one thing that was given to him at birth and that he never had to fight for. He was grateful he had that. However, it started fastly declining one day, when Gon was freshly 15. At that time, Mito was suffering from severe depression. She was overwhelmed, having to take care of a teenager who wasn't her's as well as her dying grandmother. Gon was not informed on the subject, due to the lack of communication in between the two of them. Gon and Mito's conversation had always remained superficial, and by that time, they'd barely ever talk about things other than Gon's grades, Mito's job and grandma's health. So, it was a huge surprise to Gon when, shortly after Abe passed from old age, Mito took her own life. He had been the one to find her body, in the kitchen. A shocking event that would change his life forever, and a truth he was never ready to face.

The reality of his sad situation had come to Gon all at once, and the suffering accumulated from his lifetime resurfaced. And even tho it was a great thing and an essential step for him to get better, it was definitely not what he needed at the moment. Is there even such thing as lucky kids, or is there always more to it?

He was quickly placed in a new home with foster parents: two men by the name of Leorio and Kurapika. They were sweet. They didn't have time for little kids due to their quite time and energy consuming jobs, but they enjoyed parenthood and helping youth with mental health struggles, so they'd offer their house to orphan teenagers until they were ready to leave. Gon had quickly grown attached to them. They talked with him about subjects that were taboo, they had nothing to hide, and told him the tales of the kids that once occupied his room. It was a sort of complicity that Gon had never dealt with before, never had he felt this understood when he lived with his aunt.

That whole thing was how Gon realized that Mito was never cut out to be a mother: not so young and so suddenly, at least. He did not blame her, for her bad parenting. And even tho he should've blamed the grown up baby that was his father, he couldn't bring himself to. Hatred was not the way to go, Gon had a very hard time holding grudges. He considered others' points of view much more than he should.

However, it was quickly that Gon discovered his new parents probably didn't need more problems than they already had. Kurapika worked for an organization. Gon was never allowed to know it's name or it's purposes. Leorio, on the other hand, seemed well informed on it; and it didn't seem to make him so happy. Kurapika would disappear for weeks at a time, without any traces, and these times apart always meant a downfall in Leorio's mental health. Leorio worked for the emergency rooms of a local paediatric hospital. His days were long, he rarely had any breaks, he'd spend dozens of hours at work without even eating, and all of that to come home to an empty bed, for weeks straight. Gon had quickly become his emotional support, and the boy couldn't tell if he was being dramatic or not, but he really felt like the only reason he was there was to keep Leorio company, at some point.

When Kurapika was home, the two men would often argue. Gon knew it by the looks on their faces around each other. Even tho Leorio was hot headed, he was also a responsible man, so even if they did fight, it was never when Gon was by. It seemed to Gon like Kurapika and Leorio loved each other very much. It also seemed, however, like their life plans and objectives weren't compatible. And principally, it seemed, to Gon, like he was the glue holding up their relationship. The excuse they had to play dumb on the obvious reasons to ask for a divorce. Which is why, by the time he was seventeen and after nearly two years of living with the young couple, Gon took off to another continent.

He left a letter on the counter explaining how he was headed to York Shin where he would start new studies, and that he'd paid his plane tickets with a bit of his allowance. He had been accepted in a highschool-university altogether there, to which he had postulated months before, in secret. He explained how he left during the night because he knew they wouldn't let him go because of his mental health, but that he knew better for himself, and decided he would be able to do it. He added that he'd refuse any sort of money from them, other than the monthly allowance he'd been given previously and he'd taken with him, because he wanted full independency, and concluded by saying that he'd accept contact, but if they tried to force him into coming back or trace him down, he'd resort to ultimately cutting them out of his life.

Gon had done all of this, from postulating to that school all the way to buying his plane tickets, on an impulse. A long lasting feeling of adrenaline: hope for a finally brighter future. Now, sitting on his plane, watching as it took off and realizing the consequences of it, he was terrified. But is there anything he could do now, other than flee? And for the first time in his life, Gon felt like his father. Maybe that's what Ging thought, when he left Gon with Mito: it left a bitter taste on the boy's tongue. However he knew that there was a huge difference in between his and his father's situation. That being, Gon took every single one of his responsibilities with him (even his goldfish was there).