Sᵾđđɇn̷ Ɇm̷øŧɨøn̷s̷ a̷n̷đ Ⱥƀn̷øɍm̷a̷łłɏ Ꝁɨn̷đ Sᵽɨđɇɍs̷

Sŧøᵽ Fɇɇłɨn̷ǥ Ǥᵾɨłŧɏ, Ɨđɨøŧ

☽♥☾♥☽♥☾♥☽♥☾♥☽♥☾♥☽♥☾♥☽♥☾♥☽♥☾♥☽♥☾♥☽♥☾

It had been a couple more days until Chrollo had decided Illumi was well enough to get out of his bed and out of his room, and so Hisoka had decided to help him.

"Hey, Illu." The magician said, seeming truly cheerful as he walked into Illumi's room.

"Did Chrollo already tell you?"

"That I can finally get out of this bed?" Illumi guessed, turning over to stare at him.

"Yeah, he did. And to be honest, I'm glad. It was getting quite cramped in here."

Hisoka gave him a weak smile.

"Yeah, well, I'm guessing you also know I'm here to help you start walking again."

"Hisoka, I think I'm strong enough to get out of my bed and walk." Illumi muttered, crossing his arms.

Hisoka simply shook his head. "Not my decision, Chrollo's orders. You can't go around disobeying him, can you?"

Now it was Illumi's turn to shake his head.

"And aren't you the one who used to fantasize about asking him to duel?"

Hisoka coughed and looked away, seeming to be embarrassed.

"Yeah, well, I-I've changed."

"Oh, I know you have." Illumi let out a soft chuckle.

Hisoka seemed to be surprised, but he didn't say anything about it.

"It's just, it's kind of strange. You've changed so much so quickly."

"Yeah," Hisoka said. "Yeah, I guess I have."

The ravenet tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. "Y'know, I've noticed that while I've been in here, it's like you don't want to be with me anymore."

Hisoka immediately whirled around to face him and for a moment Illumi thought he would've actually opened his eyes, but he didn't. He was very shocked, though.

"W-What? Are- No! Why would you think that?"

"Oh, y'know," Illumi said as he propped himself up, resting his chin on his hand. "You come in here, give me whatever you have or say whatever you need to say, and then just leave. You don't try to say anything, don't stick around longer, whenever you ask a question you quickly say something else and then leave with no time for an answer. It's as if... I don't know..."

"Well, yeah, I guess I have been doing that lately." The magician said, lowering his head. "But- it's just- you counted on me to be there, to show up on time, and- and then you got hurt. You got hurt because of me, because of what I did. You told me before that we needed to wait for the right time for me to be introduced to your parents, and I didn't listen."

"And why didn't you listen?" Illumi asked, trying to soften his voice.

"Because- well, because of your mother. You've told me some things about her and not all of them have been the best or pleasant. You often say how you don't like being around her and how she openly pretends to be so nice. I guess seeing her like that with you- I didn't like it. I didn't like how she was treating you on the outside to put on a show for all the others and once they were gone she'd act a whole other way."

Illumi nodded, his eyes still trained on the magician. "And so, you acknowledge, to me and to yourself, that you were trying to do something good?"

"Well, yeah, but- but I ended up hurting you." Illumi sat up straighter, moving on the bed to get closer to Hisoka.