Four Years Later

I Gon

"Damn, dirty old man, sending me to town all alone."

The snow fell in soft, sweet flakes, sticking on the ground to the sides of the salted sidewalks and roads. The night sky above was overcast in a glaze of dark grey, the only light illuminating the streets coming from the golden lamps lining the sidewalks.

Gon Freecss stared down at a slip of white paper, a scowl plastered across his face, quite an unusual look for him. It wasn't an angry scowl, oh he hadn't been particularly angry for a very long time, it was a familiar scowl directed at his father for making him come all the way out to a town in god-knows-where for some kind of "ingredient," whatever that meant.

It had been four years since Gon met up with his father, four years of intense adventuring, and attempting to make it to the Outside World. It was also four years for Gon to grow and figure out that his dad was disliked by all for a good reason. He was still awed by him, ensnared by the amazing might of Ging Freecss, but that didn't mean that he wanted to deal with his random-ass crap all the time.

His breath fogged in front of his face and he was suddenly made aware of the double-takes those around him were making. Gon supposed that wearing a tank top and thin canvas trousers wasn't the best gettup for the weather. He smiled and looked up at the overhang of the next shop.

'It's the fourth store with a wind chime,' said the slip of paper.

"Two," Gon muttered under his breath as he spotted the shining silver tubes in the breeze.

The problem wasn't that he was sent on an errand, it was that this was one of several that Ging could have done himself. Gon was beginning to get used to it, he guessed, and it wasn't unenjoyable to walk out in the coolness and see the snow. He just wished that it didn't happen every other day.

"Three." His foot steps began to crunch against the falling ice, the blankets overpowering the salt along the pavements. It was a satisfying feeling against the soles of his shoes, a sound that he never heard back home on Whale Island since it never snowed there.

That suddenly got him thinking about Aunt Mito, and about how he should probably write her a letter when he got the chance since it had been a while. She was worried sick, no doubt, what with him finding Ging. His last letter had been... last fall? Oh man, he really did need to write her.

"Gon?"

A small feminine voice suddenly broke into his momentary reverie, pushing a startled, "Huh?" from his chest. He looked up, soft brown eyes meeting a pair of bright blue. He blinked and stepped back. "Alluka?"

Her face broke out into a grin. "It is you!"

She had grown taller, above 150 centimeters at least, everything but that pretty much the same. He still had to look down at her. Her face was a little less round, her lips a little fuller. She looked happy.

Gon's eyes immediately began to search for him in his peripheral vision, to no avail. He looked directly at her again and smiled. "Hey," he said. "How's it going?"

"I've been awesome. You've gotten so tall," she commented admiringly.

"Yes I have," Gon affirmed. "You have too."

"Thank you for noticing!" She perked up to her tiptoes, dropped down, and smiled wider. "What brings you all the way out here?"

"I'm here with Ging right now, actually. He's sent me to collect some things from a shop," Gon replied. He gestured to a bench near them, waiting for her to sit down before he did. He slipped the paper into his pocket, knowing he wouldn't get into trouble if he dawdled. Ging wasn't in a hurry.