Changes (Chrollo x Reader)

Chapter 11: Home

It took little to no effort surprisingly. That night was as quick as ever, even for a basic nen user, nonetheless someone as skilled as me or even Nobunaga. They weren't all that the mafia summed them up to be. Quite disappointing to say the least, but something that night stuck with me, even three weeks later to where I am now, I just can't get it out of my head. I never knew this type of feeling and never expected to get it here, but god...I never want to not feel it again, I'm dependent on it, it's like an addiction. Yeah, that's the right word, I'm addicted to the feeling. He showed it to me, just by preforming a basic human action, and for once this places felt, feels like the home I never had.

I can pinpoint every detail, explain it down to its structure, that night after all the fighting and on our way back to the hideout. It's too clear and a sort of epiphany, an awakening to what I've been missing.

So, when I had made it to the car after killing the boasting mother fucker and the winged man who wreaked of teenage angst, I took it as my chance to analyze the troupes skills. Too formal in my opinion, of myself that is, but that's not the point. Anyways, I had noticed that Pakunoda uses a gun rather than hand to hand combat unlike some of the men in the group. Actually, hardly anyone used hand to hand combat, we each have something that's made better with our nen, I just hadn't noticed it before.

I noted that everyone was honed in their abilities, used to them after years of perfection, blood sweat and tears being porn into their life's purpose. It's was then, and still is now, admiring, and awe inspiring. I look up to them, I had realized it that night, but that's just one thing that stuck with me.

We all came back to the hideout, some with bruised limbs or even faces, but that wasn't from the Shadow Beasts but from bickering among troupes members that turned rouge, amusingly. Hardly anyone had anything in need of attention, immediate or not, but we were exhausted none the less. Uvogin, Nobunaga's closest friend was captured by someone who possessed chains on their hands and with a raging hatred towards us for god knows what, and his oddly low and calm demeanor compared to his awkward protecting and fun one was quite a stressor. His physical appearance changed too. Usually he sat up straight or slightly hunched, but his perfectionism in its own way has been folded and prodded just by his thoughts and now he sits defeated in worry. We all noticed and thought about it too, but we didn't show it. I didn't, but everyone had one detail about them that proved they thought of Uvo's well being. We aren't invincible, but nearly.

We each got comfortable in the dead of night, sitting with the merchandise that we took from one beast we decided not to kill who's called Owl. He uses, well used a cloth to hold any item, and it would shrink and fit in his palm. We had a demonstration due to Nobunaga. Feitan, with great success and with a happy expression for once, got any and all information out of him that the guy would spill. He was a millennial, even looked like it, and a few fingernails off and maybe a broken finger or what not got him to speak. Despite Shorty's cute little height, he's pretty fucking scary. He's too good at what he does, but so am I.

That led to Chrollo, and what he showed me.

The moonlight shone as it always did, the night was where we seemed to find each other the most. The Phantom Troupe seems to thrive in that atmosphere. It's the only time I actually feel alive and the only time the members get a break from pretending to be cold hearted killers. I mean we mostly are, but we are human despite the assumptions and rumors.

I sat under the crumbling skylight of a broken ceiling, my new friends resting besides me, drinking their hearts and intentions away, lathering in their victories and success of their mission. Some slept, Feitan and Phinks nearly asleep on each other, Paku downing another bottle of red wine after sharing a glass with Machi and Shizuku, others were enjoying the silence, it's was a peaceful night, but Chrollo wasn't anywhere to be found around us. He wasn't on his pedestal of broken off concrete and rusty metal poles and shards of glass. He was here, I could feel it, his aura, but I had no idea where.