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There was no visible injury—No apparent explanation as to why Gon Freecss wasn’t opening his eyes.
Killua had found his friend lying in an open thicket beneath a clear sky. The night air was frigid, which was why it made no sense to the silver tress Hunter why he could only see his own breath ghosting past his lips and not Gon’s.
“Oi…!” He shook him; wilted at the forced motion. “Gon!” Minutes stretched by with one supplicated call after another, “Gon—Wake up!”
After the twentieth plea, Killua felt himself begin to panic. His friend—his best friend—wasn’t breathing. A trail of incomprehensible noises came from his throat as he shook Gon more vigorously. The trees around them were bending and warping; the stars were falling one by one.
“Gon. Don’t do this, open your eyes!” The ex-assassin begged, hot moisture greeting his chilled face.
Pale hands precariously reached down to lift the fellow hunter up, “Please…please.” He buried his face into the other boy’s shoulder, tightly holding him. “You idiot!!”
Gon really was unwise. He had left the rest of the group to tail an enemy on his own, only to somehow end up like this—unresponsive in the dirt.
“Stupid, stupid Gon!! Answer me!” Killua’s cries were desperate now; coated with a thick layer of resentment. “You can’t do this again, you can’t leave me again!”
A year had passed since the two teenagers had rekindled their friendship. Upon separating after the 13th chairman election, they’d grown as individuals—chasing down different paths before finding their way back to each other again.
The day of the Chimera extermination was a distant memory now; albeit a bitter one. There were times when Killua would frantically look to his side to make sure Gon was still there and not treading too far ahead of him. When they worked out their differences during their reunion, they agreed to labor together as a team and try to see eye to eye on any issues that might arise in their future. They pinky swore on it, in fact. Gon insisted. Thinking back on that promise now, Killua had to wince, “We’re supposed to be partners! So why aren’t we both lying here unconscious?! Why is it just you?”
The situation took on a new seriousness when Killua realized that Gon had no pulse.
No. That couldn’t be right. He checked it again—First by his wrist and then his neck.
…
Nothing. No rhythmic beat to lull Killua into reprieve. His pupils dilated at the grim apprehension that his dearest friend might be gone.
—Definitely not. Gon Freecss wasn’t dead. There was no way.
Killua swallowed the lump in his throat to gather his vocals once more, “Gon, that’s enough. I don’t like this game anymore. You’re just messing around, aren’t you?” Cracking a broken grin, he chuckled, “You’re so awful. You really are. This is the worst joke.”
The voice he wanted to hear; the laughter he yearned to drown in didn’t come. A pure silence descended as the night weighed heavy atop their bodies—threatening to crush them, alive or dead.
This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t happening.
A hospital? Yes. That’s right, he needed to get Gon to a hospital.
But wait—they were in the middle of nowhere. The nearest town had to be at least several hours away.
Killua’s breath hitched as he dug through his mind, trying to think of something, anything that he could do to save the person in his arms.
“Gon? Gon…I can’t do this, I can’t— I can’t lose you….!” He was screaming now, salty tears flooding from his eyes. “We’re supposed to stay together! We’re supposed to grow up together! You and I have plans, so you can’t break your promise. You can’t!! GON!!”
With a deep inhale, Killua cried out his best friend’s name one final time, rattling echoes through the forest. With a vice grip on Gon’s back, a sudden surge of electricity burst from the ex-assassin’s hands, passing through the limp body he clung to. Killua lifted his chin at the abrupt jolt, unsure how his nen had spiked without his control. Quickly pulling back from his frantic embrace, Gon made a sharp cough. Almost instantly, relief poured through Killua, extinguishing his fear.
The raven haired Hunter coughed several more times before coming to; his eyelids rising with a pained expression. The first thing to greet him was a tear-stained Zoldyck with tight fists. “…Ki…llua?”
His friend let out a distressed yelp as new tears came; rewetting his face as he yanked Gon back into his arms, pressing his nose into the crick of his neck.
“It’s okay, I’m alright.” Gon affirmed weakly before being squeezed harder.
“Stupid…stupid!”
The tan teenager could only assume that he’d been out cold for far too long. What he couldn’t quite figure out was how Killua had managed to wake him up. His skin felt like static.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were planning on chasing after the enemy alone?! I would have come with you! I thought we promised to work together! Aren’t we a team?” The ex-assassin spoke angrily now, swallowing back his impulse to cry harder.
Gon wasn’t used to seeing his companion in such hysterics. Whatever had happened must have been bad.
“Killua, you’re wrong.” His voice became clearer now, “You’ve got it all wrong. I wasn’t chasing the enemy.”
Killua blinked away his blue rivers, trickling down into creeks, “Don’t lie. You’re bad at it.”
“I’m not lying. I was doing something else when they caught me off guard.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because…we made a promise, didn’t we? I wouldn’t run ahead without you.”
Killua leaned back with a scowl, “Fine, if you’re telling the truth then what the hell were you doing that was so important that you had to put yourself in danger?”
Gon’s eyes teased at the spinning constellations overhead, “I…can’t tell you.”
Killua let Gon drop to the ground with a thud.
“Ow!”
“At least have a proper excuse.”
There was an elongated pause before Gon sighed loudly, reaching into his pocket to pull something out. He held whatever it was towards Killua from his laying position, “I wanted to show you later, but I guess now works too.”
The Zoldyck boy stared at Gon’s hand. In his calloused palm, two very familiar looking rings gleamed in the low lighting.
“…Are those—?”
“Remember when we lost them in the NGL?”
“Ye-yeah, I remember. We were pretty bummed about it.”
“I’ve been trying to find them—specifically ours—ever since we parted ways at the World Tree. At first I thought maybe it would be a good excuse to meet up with you once I found them…. But we ended up seeing each other again before I could actually locate them. I finally got a lead about a month ago. That’s why I wanted to take on this Hunter assignment, so that I could pick them up and surprise you.”
Killua’s eyes widened as he listened. In all the years he had known Gon, he’d never expected him to pull off a good surprise. The Island boy was too easy to read. But apparently when he wanted to, he could be sneaky. A smile etched across Killua’s face as he took one of the small pieces of jewelry and eyed it fondly, “I can’t believe it. Our Greed Island rings!”
Gon began to push himself up before cringing and lowering himself back down again. Killua cleared his throat before crawling over to lie beside him. After a moment, he inquired, “Are you really okay?”
Gon smirked, “I think so. I’m just a little tired…and sore. They really knocked the wind out of me.”
The Zoldyck teen stared idly at the sky before he took his ring and placed it on his index finger, “You weren’t breathing. And your heart had stopped.”
“Really?” Gon turned his head. “I don’t think that’s ever happened before…How am I alive right now?”
Killua had a somber expression, “I was scared.”
Gon gazed up to his hand where the ring was mounted.
“I was scared. And I think my nen reacted somehow. My hands were like defibrillators.”
Gon stared even more intently at the outline of his friend’s fingers before they were lowered back down again. He took that moment to place the other ring on his own hand. “You saved my life, Killua.”
“Stop it, it wasn’t like I meant to. I thought you were already a goner.”
Several moments of silence passed before either of them spoke again.
“Would you have been sad?”
“Huh?” Killua turned to face him now.
“If I had died tonight, would you have been sad?”
The young Zoldyck reimagined the feelings he’d endured while trying to wake Gon up. Involuntarily, tears began to rim his ocean blues again. Before he could come up with some witty way of answering, he felt Gon’s hand touch his in-between them.
“I’m sorry I made you cry so much.”
Killua sniffed loudly, bringing his free hand up to wipe the corners of his eyes. He wasn’t sure how to respond, so he didn’t. Instead he let Gon’s apology rattle around in his head for a while. He wasn’t going to say “It’s okay” after all the worry he’d been put through.
The two friends allowed the dark forest to envelop them as they stared up at the revolving sky. Gon’s hand continued to rest atop Killua’s. They both silently absorbed the small act of intimacy until Killua decided to lift a few of his pale fingers to curl around the tanned ones.
“Are you wearing your ring?” He asked softly.
Gon smiled, “Yeah.”
“Let’s keep them on from now on, okay?”
“I like that idea.”
They both breathed quietly, fully weaving their hands together.
“Hey, Killua?”
“Hm?”
“You’ll stay with me, right?”
Killua turned his head, feeling the cold ground press against his nape. Gon was staring upwards, but he could see his golden irises pulsate with anticipation. The ex-assassin sighed as he gave him a crooked grin, “Yeah.”
“For how long?”
Killua laughed lightly, following his friend’s gaze to the glittered atmosphere above, “Always.”
They pressed their palms together firmly, enjoying the fact that there was no need to consider the exact duration.
For a long while, they reveled in the infinite prospect of always.
~~~
“What happened to them?”
Kite stood in the grass beneath the trees as morning sun drenched the landscape around her. Spinner, one of her students, knelt near the ground, checking the stationary pulses of both Gon Freecss and Killua Zoldyck.
After neither of them had returned to the group, Kite conducted a search for them. Although it only took her a half hour to track them down, it was apparent that they had both passed away hours prior.
“The enemy we’re up against caught them both off guard…First Gon, and then Killua.”
“How can you tell…? There aren’t any injuries.” Spin noted, resting her hand on Killua’s forehead with a pained look in her eyes.
Kite’s crimson hair concealed parts of her face as she turned to look a different direction, “…It’s obvious Gon’s body laid there for a longer duration. Killua’s skin still has some color to it. I imagine Killua was trying to revive him when he was attacked from behind. A blow strong enough won’t break the skin. There’s a strong possibility that internal bleeding caused both their deaths.”
Spinner stood up, “…I’m—…I’m so sorry. I know how close you were to them.”
Kite felt her fists shaking, almost numb, but concealed her evident upset, “Don’t be sorry. If they had to go, at least they went together. In a way, that’s a happiness most of us don’t get to experience.”
Spinner frowned, “But…how can this be happy?”
“Dying side by side with the person you love—I can’t imagine anyone being disappointed in an outcome like that.”
As Kite began to walk away, Spinner stalled, “…Aren’t we going to properly bury them?”
The Pro Hunter let the wind pick up around her, “We’ll come back later. For now, let them rest together.”
In the now brightly lit thicket, Gon and Killua’s bodies laid against one another. Although neither Kite nor Spinner said anything about it, they noticed light grins on both boys’ faces. However sad, it was true. There’s no greater happiness than dying with the person you’d have spent the rest of your life with.