Fish out of water ; killugon mermaid AU

Lesson: Do Not Find Out You're A Mermai- Merman

"Oh," Gon considered "Understandable."

"So you're telling me you didn't even know this shell had powers?"

"No." Gon replied sheepishly, sticking the tip of his tongue out. Killua half-heartedly rolled his eyes. This was typical of Gon. 

Gon furrowed his eyebrows, still seemingly unsatisfied with his explanation which was, in fact, mediocre. "Half-lings are what the merfolk call us. Well that's the polite word for us anyways." His tone was light-hearted but his face-darkened. 

What was it like down there, in those depths, Killua wondered. What was it that could darken Gon, a bright shine on a darkened world.

"Having a human mother I have legs when I'm completely dry. Y'know." Gon smiled toothily, rubbing the back off his neck.

"So some mako mermaid type shit." Killua was generally perceptive, but his obsession with all things mermaid unfortunately included watching every vaguely mermaid-related show on Netflix. Not as funny as it sounds when you're watching for research. 

Gon looked slightly confused with the obscure reference but decided that for Killua's sake he wouldn't say anything about it.

"But that night when you saved me. Why did you give me the shell? Where did you even get it?" 

"Your hair, it-" Gon stopped and looked away, embarrassed. This was obviously not something that was inside his comfort zone. "Just before I saved you I had seen the shell in the rocks - I was scavenging. I decided to give it to you because it matches your hair!"

"Oh." Killua replied. "Oh." Normally people tended to stay away from him, the strange white haired boy with the strange light-house family. No one was this thoughtful. Not towards him anyway.

Never towards him.

The shell was destined to fall into the hands of someone who would one day experience true love. Maybe Gon- Maybe- No.

Before it slipped his mind, Gon thought to ask Killua of his family name, and the entrenching swirl of mysteries surrounding his family. With him everything was weighed down in a blanket of mist and smoke and the enchanted beach they sat on and the entrancing words they twisted around their mouths did nothing to dispense it. 

"Your mother she-" Gon started. Killua's attention was instantly on him, as it always would be. He was attentive in a careful sort of way. Like a small and cautious bird. "She may have been a siren, one of the most powerful there ever was." 

Even more powerful then Retz herself, Gon thought wryly.

 Unblinking cerulean eyes fixated on him. Never fluctuating in attentiveness. Killua was still listening. No one except Aunt Mito had ever listened to Gon this long. No one ever. The feeling of being listened to - heard - permeated his senses, dancing on the edge of exhilaration.

"But how-" Killua stopped and started, lips forming and reforming words in a state of dour distress. The idea of his mother being a siren seemed to confuddle him. "My mother hates singing. I- I- have a sister, Alluka. Her voice, it's beautiful, like the wind fluttering through sails." His face had a dreamlike quality to it, like he was retracing a memory before it soured. "My mother never lets her sing."

"Have you ever heard her sing?" Gon pondered, mostly to himself.

"No." He breathed the word, the sound ringing throughout the empty space in the beach and carrying along the wind, turning the grains of sand in their eternal rest. The emptiness of the beach was loud. The silence was deafening. 

"They say Kikyo Zoldyck ran away to be with her human lover. The King wants her head I think." Gon sniffed, then grinned. "Same with my dad."

"I can't imagine anyone wanting to run away to be with my father." Killua scoffed sardonically, before smiling, slightly more sadistically then Gon. "Though I can imagine someone wanting my mother's head."

Gon was strangely quiet for a few moments before saying, not without excitement. "Does that mean you're a half-ling too?"

Killua's head bobbed - partly in thought, partly in agreement. "Yeah...maybe."

"Don't worry if you are actually half-mer! Transforming into mer only hurts a bit! ...Sometimes."

The fair boy seemed to blanch, barely detectable with his light skin, but since Gon was consistently studying Killua closely, he saw the slight change of colour. The dark-haired boy smiled, an attempt to be reassuring.

"I'll help you Killu! I was worried my first time too but it doesn't hurt too bad after you get used to it." 

Killua pondered on what he knew of Gon. Petulant at times and light-hearted, but a strong will and sharp mind when he needed it. Sometimes as steady as a leaf in the wind but mostly sure as one could be. His heart warmed as he thought of Gon, realising too late that the other had been talking the entire time and therefore only catching the trail-end of his tangent.

"- and it doesn't even matter that you have to take all your clothes off after a while, even if they get weird and crusty from the salt water!"

"Take all my clothes off- hey wait! What are you talking about!?" Killua waved his hands about in a shoddy attempt at communicating his distress.

"To form your mer tail of course! You aren't going to swim around with clothes on! Weren't you listening?"

Killua turned red, then white, then red again. "Can we maybe not try to transform right now? I- I- need time to prepare myself." He stared at his shoes, embarrassed and already regretting his existence. Fortunately, Gon was (obviously) understanding.

"Of course! Meet me back here at midnight and we can see if you're a half-ling and maybe go for a swim." Gon had quietened at the end, as if shyly asking a crush on a date. Killua snorted, but not out of malice. Mostly because he was nervous. Quite nervous.

"Okay, well, I'll see you later?" Killua scuffed his shoes in the sand, a small smile playing around the corners of his mouth.

"Bye!" Gon's smile was infectious, a wind that never stopped blowing and a sea that never stopped crashing.

...

Felt inspo so i posted sorry for literally not posting since august uh no excuse. Also still inactive just felt like it lol