A Genius Thrown to the Wolves

Mother Hen Ch. 53

"Do you want to join us for dinner?" Kiyotaka asked, extending the invitation Chrollo. He silently took a seat and Kiyotaka got him a plate, which Chrollo happily filled with the various foods spread on the table. Before he began eating he handed a sheet of paper over to Hisoka. "I hate to admit you're good at anything, but you do seem to have a way with words." "And what do you need my way with words for ha~?" "That paper contains a fortune given to me through a nen ability, unfortunately, as I said, I can't seem to make much of it. Know what you need to do now?" Hisoka gave a sly smile, "I do." Hisoka began to decipher while Chrollo enjoyed his cooking. The table knew Hisoka had solved the little riddles when he began to lightly chuckle. "I never thought the big bad boss was capable of obtaining a lover." "So I was right about the moon phrase." Chrollo not quite believing it, despite the validity of the nen ability. "Oh ho ho, what an interesting lover you'll have!" This caused Chrollo's head to snap up to Hisoka "You know who it is?" Hisoka gave a taunting style "The chain user." "What." Chrollo stoped chewing left in a state of shock.

Chrollo had never thought about love, much less love with an enemy. An enemy who has his whole troupe in a frenzy for revenge because he killed one of their own. He gets it, they all have big bounties on their heads, and having someone challenge them because they get to big for their britches is not an uncommon occurrence. This one is however. Not only had the chain user managed to kill their strongest fighter, but he'd also gotten rid of the body, no bounty had been claimed yet. Which only meant one thing. His kill was also a revenge kill, but for what? That's what Chrollo wants to find out. He still hadn't decided if he'd let the chain user live should he himself find them. He didn't care about love, he'd gone his whole life without it, he certainly didn't need to start.

"What are you going to do?" Hisoka asked, breaking the shock induced silence. "I have not decided yet." Chrollo looked up at Hisoka clearly about to say something, but Hisoka beat him to it. "I won't tell the rest of the troupe about this potentially troubling fortune of yours." There was a brief pause, Chrollo staring at him before he rolled his eyes and continued, "Kiyo~ here won't either." Chrollo looked to Kiyotaka to see him finishing the food on his plate, completely disinterested in the conversation being held. "Either way, the only chance he has at survival is if I'm the one who finds him, even then his odds aren't looking very good." Chrollo just nodded, and finished his own food before walking out the door with an obligatory sounding 'thank you for the meal' and leaving.

Gon and Killua let out a breath they didn't even realize they were holding in. They couldn't believe their ears. The big bad boss of the phantom troupe has a predicted future love? They couldn't believe it. It was something they talked about when taking a bath, they even got Kiyotaka to wash their hair again and he weighed in his opinion when asked. They didn't get much from him though, he was as minimal worded as ever. The two boys, however, continued to talk all the to the time their heads hit their pillows wondering what Chrollo was going to do, and how sorry they felt for the poor person that was the chain user who got Chrollos attention enough to make him think about possibly sparing them an immediate death.

And just like that they drifted off to sleep.

It was Hisoka and Kiyotaka's turn to have there own little conversation. Kiyotaka decided it was the best time to confront Hisoka about some information he suspected he was holding onto. "So the chain user." He started laying in bed looking blankly at the ceiling. Hisoka laid down next to him, pulling Kiyotaka against him and placing head in the crook of his neck, giving it a few pecks before responding, "what about the chain user?" Hisoka knew Kiyotaka had just rolled his eyes despite him being faced away. "Please. A few pecks and the innocent won't distract me." Hisoka placed another  kiss behind Kiyotaka's ear, "it was worth a shot~". At this Kiyotaka turned around in Hisoka's arms, looking him in the eye with no more of an in between them. He knew that the close vicinity was tempting enough to make Hisoka give up his little game in order to close it. "The chain user, you've been meeting up with him." "I have" Hisoka responded quickly trying and failing to close the distance, visibly annoyed when Kiyotaka didn't let that happen.

"The chain user. It's Kurapika. Right?" Hisoka shouldn't have been, but he was surprised that Kiyotaka knew who the chain user was. "He is." He his his surprise well. "Please. Acting surprised offends me at this point." Just not well enough. "Sorry kitten, I didn't mean to offend." Kiyotaka just continues. "So you're keeping the boys away from Kurapika to keep them from finding out who the chain user is." "That's correct". A smirk made it's way onto Hisoka's face as it so often did, "you also seem to enjoy playing mother hen with them~". 

Kiyotaka let a small smirk of his own show on his face. "Mother hen ha?" With this one sentence, Hisoka felt dumb. Like he had completely misread the situation. And he had. "Before I meet you I wouldn't have been able to show the kind of emotion needed to be a 'mother hen'." "And since meeting me?" Hisoka asked almost scared of the answer. "The emotions I've managed to feel and develop, are currently only felt in relation to you." This confused Hisoka a bit. "Then your care for the boys?" Kiyotaka's expression dropped into a seemingly care free one. "Fake. But thanks to you helping me experience emotions, I can now fake them much better." "Why?" Kiyotaka chuckled a bit, "You think they'd make thrilling opponents, I know they'll make excellent tools."