A Genius Thrown to the Wolves

Beasts Ch. 44

"You better eat up, we've got a long day ahead of us." "It could be a long three days ahead, with the about of sugar I'm about to inhale." Hisoka froze. Did he hear what he thinks he just heard? It was still as monotone as ever, but could it be true? "Kiyo, darling?" "Hm?" Kiyotaka said looking up from a big bite with his cheeks stuffed, head tilted slightly to the side to ask with his body language what he couldn't with his words. "Did you just tell a joke?" It was silent, and Kiyotaka met his eyes. A small smile became visible through his stuffed cheeks. He winked before digging back in. 

Hisoka didn't know what to make of the situation. Kiyotaka had actually mindfully made a joke. But what's more, HE WINKED AT HIM!! He'd never once recieved any kind of flirty or teasing gesture from his trauma damaged kitten! This was huge progress, but at the same time he doesn't know that he wants others to see this side of Kiyo. "Don't worry, they won't" Kiyotaka responded having read the complex and quick changing emotions on Hisoka's face. Hisoka chuckled at this, leave it up to him to be able to read minds without using his nen. He's so glad this dangerous kitten is on his side. 

After their leisurely breakfast, they left to meet up with the rest of the phantom troupe. Upon arriving, once again, all eyes were on Kiyotaka.  "HA HA HA I find it quite ironic that the cat is the least modestly dressed one here" Uvogene bellowed out, breaking the silence. "I would disagree, seeing as your whole upper body is exposed." Kiyotaka retorted. "Well it's not as immodest since I'm a guy. Duh" He said rolling his eyes. "I'm a guy too, which makes you more immodest than me." Kiyotaka once again refuted, everything about him being monotone. "WHA- You're a guy?!" Uvogene said eyeing Kiyotaka in disbelief, getting uncomfortably close to him in the process. "This was discussed yesterday you big oaf" Machi said grabbing Kiyotaka by the collar and, quite literally, tossing him over her shoulder and back into Hisoka's arms who just kept him there and began petting his ears. The group on in disbelief for how fast the cat relaxed. 

"A-Hem" Chrollo cleared his throat as a sign to pay attention. When his troupe was finally ready to hear their orders, he went over them one more time. The meeting itself took just over five minutes, before they split up, they were surrounding the building and waiting for the shadow beasts to leave with the auction items. Form there the rest of the group would be notified and then the attack would be launched once the were far enough outside the city. They didn't want people being suspicious of the authenticity of the items. 

They didn't have to wait long, it was a matter of minutes, the shadow beasts got in and out there. They even made up some lame lines to say as they were leaving to make it sound like the items were still inside. It was totally lame in Kiyotaka's eyes. They were made out to be hot shots but they played into the troupes hands exactly as they were supposed to. Now they were on a random mountain with uvogene insisting to fight alone. That left the rest of them to wait for the fight to be over. This was no issue for Kiyotaka. He simply laid in Hisoka's lap as Hisoka pet his ears, and played cards with the rest of the present troupe members. 

Shalnark was starting to get bored. "Say, what did the boss want with you after we left?" He asked, addressing Hisoka. "He wanted to make sure Kiyo here could fend for himself~" "So can he? You implied yesterday that he wouldn't break under Feitan's torture, and we both know what that's like." This caught Feitan's interest and tuned in while fiddling with his cards. "Because he could, his nen ability is the multifunctional one." "And what is his ability?" Shalnark asked, getting a bit giddy. Hisoka pretended to think for a minute "Not telling~!" "What! That's no fair!" Shalnark said pointing an accusatory finger at Hisoka. "The boss knows, but I have no obligation to tell you." Shalnark pouted before getting up and moving to sit next to Hisoka who eyed him suspiciously. 

"Can I pet your ears?" He'd gently asked Kiyotaka. Instead of getting a yes, he saw Kiyotaka turn his head to Hisoka. They very clearly had a conversation that no one was able to hear, but he didn't push to know what because Kiyotaka had turned his head back around and said yes. Shalnark slowly brought a hand to Kiyotaka's head. He was tentative at first before comfortably petting his ears. "Wow! They are even softer then Machi made them look yesterday!" He'd said with stars in his eyes. He seemed to be in a trance, smiling uncontrollably as he continued to pet Kiyotaka's ears. Hisoka's hand that had been petting his ears migrated down. Now it was resting on the swell of his back, and his pointer finger just barely rested against the base of his tail. The slight touch gave Kiyotaka the feeling of positive reassurance, not that he would admit he wanted it or anything. 

The fight was over in less than an hour, and the only reason it lasted as long as it did is because Uvogene just wanted to fight. When he was done with the shadow beasts he was fighting, the last one was trying to make his get away. Shalnark, Phinx, and Feitan were more than enough to subdue him and bring him back, he was the one they needed alive after all. Once the got back Feitan began torturing the beast. There was still the issue of Uvogene's fight with the other beasts, he'd been infested with eggs that would hatch and tear his t shreds of he couldn't get them out. After explaining this to the boss, he turned to Kiyotaka, "Can you do something about this?"