Oh My God, They Were Roommates

[ 24 ] Every Breath You Take

"So... you weren't an escort for my dad," Gon reiterated, and for the hundredth time, Killua nodded against the hand he used to hold his head up above the kotatsu table.

Gon put his elbow to the table surface and sighed. Killua glanced at him, curious as to what, exactly, was happening. "I feel... weird calling him 'dad'. Do I just call him 'Ging'?"

"Call him whatever you want. He started a literal brawl in a white-collared event full of CEOs," Killua said. He dropped his hand down as Gon hummed, sounding far away. "You've really never met him?"

Gon shook his head. "No. My Aunt Mito raised me," he said, only to shake his head. " Mom . She's basically my mom . I don't—I don't know who my actual mom is, but she's basically it."

"And she never... talked about Ging?"

Again, Gon shook his head. "Whenever my abue mentioned him, my ma usually changed the subject. Or she'd start cursing at him. Or... throw something. She doesn't think fondly of him."

Killua licked his bottom lip and sighed, "Right." because he didn't know what else to say to that. Sure, he had family issues, but he didn't talk about them . He didn't even know how people would cope with the amount of shit on his plate, so he just kept it to himself.

But now he was intrigued, so he decided to keep Gon talking. "Did you know he lived in San Francisco?"

Gon shook his head. "No. I didn't even know he was in the US, honestly. I figured he was still back home. Like, in Mexico."

"Oh. Does that... bother you?" Killua asked, and Gon glanced up at him, lips pursed. "I mean, it's fine if you don't want to meet your dad. I guess I just want to know how you... feel about him?"

"Indifferent," Gon decided. He pushed to his feet then and said, "I think I'm gonna go to bed now."

Killua watched Gon walk off to the open bedroom door. He had hoped telling Gon would ease some of his own anxieties about the night, but it only fueled them. As dismissive as Gon was trying to be, Killua was all to familiar with liars.

Gon shut his bedroom door behind him. He turned off the lights and, dressed in his grubby basketball shorts and tshirt, collapsed onto his bed. He wormed his way under the blankets and laid there, facing the window, his brow strung tight. It grained on his aching brain and the muscles in his forehead until the morning, when he didn't realize he fell asleep like that and woke up with a raging headache.

Distantly, he heard the buzzer in the foyer going off. It was only nine, which meant that Killua was probably still around to see who was at the door. Sure enough, Gon's phone blinked on the pillow next to him—a text from Killua.

Gon picked up his phone, curious and frowning. He couldn't seem to unstick the sour expression from his face.

"Ikalgo's at the door. Do you want me to answer it? "

Ikalgo was in the same boat Gon was in, and realizing this had Gon realizing the very reason his forehead hurt so much. His father —No, Ging Freecss. Just Ging.

Sure, he could go around telling Killua, Zushi, or even Knuckle that his father was back, but they were never there. They weren't there for the eighteen years of his life in which Ging just didn't exist . He had no notion of a father. Aunt Mito was it all—his primary caregiver, his guardian, his mother in all sense of the word.

Gon replied to Killua and decided to get ready for the day as he waited for Ikalgo to come up. He weaseled himself into a pair of jeans and tucked his pajama tshirt into it.