Umbrella.

Hit the bottom.

Chapter was originally posted : 21/10/2023 on AO3 by 0Creativity0 (me).

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When Gon woke up in the morning, he was all alone.

Killua had left him a message, a text, in which he explained that he'd stayed the night like Gon asked, but now he had somewhere to be, something to do.

Gon sat crosslegged on his bed. His blinds were open, Killua had probably opened them before going. The sky outside was clouded, but the natural luminosity made his mood somewhat better. He laid his back and head against the wall and window behind him, looking at his kitchen. He thought of the previous night, and a grimace formed on his face at the memories of his actions. Even if sober, he'd acted like a drunken man and he'd probably weirded out Killua. He wondered vaguely if it was the reason he'd left, but he was too tired for self-consciousness.

Eventually, he remembered how it all had started: the note; automatically, his hand pushed into his sweatpants' right pocket to grab it, but the pocket happened to be empty. He checked the other side. Nothing. Then his back pockets. Both empty. Soon enough, he started to panic, throwing his covers on the floor in case it was lost in them. He looked in his bathroom and on his kitchen counter, he searched under his bed and in every single drawer of the apartment but nothing could be done: it had disappeared, gone and nowhere to be found.

Gon breathed loudly, horrified and seconds away from crying. Where'd it go? His eyes twitched at the thought of what would happen to him if he didn't do what the note said. Then, he had a moment of clarity and rationalized.

What would happen? What could happen? They were just papers, and if anything, they'd been beneficiary to Gon. Why would they hurt him? How could they even hurt him?

And with that thought, Gon closed the drawers of his kitchen and doors he'd left hanging open in his desperate search, and got ready to take a shower.

The rest of the day would be spent studying for his upcoming weekly exams. Neon will spend the day cleaning the coffee shop, and even if Gon had planned on joining her in the afternoon to help her (even if she had initially refused), but he changed his mind, considering what he truly needed was some rest.

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The following days were a nightmare.

Gon hadn't seen Killua again, he'd been "extremely busy" in his words, and he couldn't make it to Gon's place. So he'd just studied and studied more, by himself, in his strawberry scented prison, and unsuccessfully tried to sleep until the sun rose.

Next day at highschool, he and his classmates started having sport classes. Until then their teacher had been missing, for private reasons, and not only did it mean they would have two more weekly hours of school now that he was back, but, by the end of the year, it would be two hours of swimming classes. The first sport they would be going through, tho, was handball.

Gon had never been a huge fan of sports in general, but he was fine with them and he was actually really good - he'd partaken in various sport clubs and extra sport classes in the past, it gave him a great reputation and his aunt, in her living, liked to know he wasn't just wasting his hours hanging around, or doing drugs, or whatever she thought he'd do if he had free time. Handball was an okay sport in Gon's opinion, plus the teacher was really nice.

The class was divided in equips of three or four, the teacher wanted to have them play matches to be able to examine the class' average level. Nine kids were asked to pick people to be on their teams.

It took a while before anyone picked Gon. He didn't know if it was because of the way he looked or because he was shorter than the average. He assumed it was because they didn't know what he was capable of. It felt unusual, because classmates back in Whale Island knew Gon was good, and they wanted him on their side.