USEFUL ➴ Illumi x Reader

LXII. Yes

"Did you dodge when I aimed for your neck?"

"Yes." I sighed, so I had it on me, to kill Illumi, the man was now looking around the room. After a few seconds he added. "It was very well executed, surprised me."

I stared at Illumi, incredulity in my eyes. "Illumi." His eyes slowly met mine, "Did you just compliment the technique I used to try to kill you?"

"Yes." He answered, clearly not seeing or understanding my point. "It still inflicted a lot of damage, didn't expect so much from someone being strangled."

I must've looked like a fish, opening and closing my mouth. There was no way I could get my message through.

"You forbid me from killing you. But not hurting you...?" I mumbled to myself. Illumi was a big mystery. What went on in his deranged mind? Did I want to know?

"Yes, killing me is forbidden." His voice chimed nonchalantly. "We'll see about other restrictions..."

"You fixed your toy?" His onyx hypnotic eyes fell on me again, swallowing me whole, taking me to the depths of doubt and trepidation.

"To be decided." His voice low and serious, dragging the syllables just enough for the grim effect. "It's almost dinner time, we should go."

"How do you know the exact time though?" I wondered as I pulled myself off the comfortable bed, covered with a f/c bedspread.

"Training." I tilted my head in confusion as I strolled to the door.

"Huh, you must've had a lot of different trainings" His hand rolled the golden doorknob, swiftly opening the door.

"Yes."

"I feel like you're saying that a lot... OH WAIT" I stopped in my tracks, turned around, going through the door once more to grab the blueprints that were laying on the bed. "Ah, better to not get lost." I dashed to Illumi's side, he was waiting on the corridor, his porcelain mask impassive.

"Why are you waiting to punish me?" I asked as I followed him through the corridors, I had done this path more than once yet it still seemed like a foreign thing to me, what a good maze this was. 

Silence followed, "Illumi?"

"Yes?" His oddly cheerful voice, devoid of feeling seemed absent-minded.

"Where did your immense bloodlust from back then go?" there were a lot of blank spaces in this story, and it simply didn't make sense that he wouldn't immediately punish me once we arrived. I mean just being here was sort of a punishment, but this couldn't be it.

He seemed less talk talkative outside the room, could it be the walls had ears in this place? That wouldn't be surprising, actually it would explain some stuff...

Not wanting to look distrustful I decided I'd pay more attention returning from the meal. I could insist on returning alone, so I could get used to the endless corridors, and look extremely lost needing to pay close attention to everything...

Glad with my good idea, I glanced at Illumi, envying his silky flowy olive hair, "How much poison will be in my food?"

"Not enough to kill you." Ah, yes, slow punishment, the torture of knowing no one in this building was on my side.

"Exquisite spices you Zoldycks seem to enjoy, deadly..." Sarcasm appeared to grow at alarming rates whenever I was in this manor. Unbelievable. I was about to add another remark but we had arrived to the large dinning room, Kikyo was already there, sitting at the left corner of the long table. She was wearing a gorgeous deep crimson dress, the bottom looked even larger with the unnatural fold on the seat.

"Ah Kikyo, we were just talking about poison. What are your favorites?" Her red lips curled into a devious smile, her visor light trembling, today her whole outfit was asking for blood.

"My dear Y/N, what a most wonderful conversation theme you brought up." I sat on the usual place, in front of Illumi and close to Kikyo. "I have a better one, why did you suddenly abandon our very welcoming manor?"

So nobody bought the story of me having something more important to do, huh? Shocking. My e/c eyes switched targets to Illumi, "Your son must've told you, Kikyo." The door opened revealing large Silva, dropping drastically the room temperature. Icy people, the Zoldycks. "I remembered an important promise I had made."

The blue feline eyes of the head of the family were now on me as well, he sat on the other corner, facing his wife. Who promptly kept the inquiry going, "Promise to who? Your spider friends?"

"That was a missed guess there. I also had to go check the management of my businesses." I smiled politely, swallowing the venom that I wanted to spit out. The food was quickly served, a dark green thick soup in the red bowls with intricate gold dragon drawings.

"Excuse my meddlesome behavior, I was merely wondering if there was something lacking in my host manners." Ah yes, rule number one of good host manners: poison your guests. I contained myself from a massive eye roll and smiling innocently, mimicking her humble fake speech I heard myself echo in the large room.

"I promised I would help Killua in a Greed Island task. I assumed it wouldn't offend you if I quickly left to honor my promise to your son." By the corner of my eye I think I saw Illumi smirk, but that couldn't be. I refused to believe it.

Kikyo was now quiet, they knew I had gone to Greed Island and that their son was also there. It was Silva's time, "What task was it?"

"It was like a team sports challenge, that dodge ball game was intense. Your friend Hisoka was there too, Illumi."

"He's not my friend, Y/N, I've told you that."

"Oh true, he is just... Useful, was it?"

"Yes." I leaned back on the fluffy black chair, deciding to leave Illumi and glance to his parents. Milluki wasn't here today, nor was Zeno somehow and that only made the room feel more awkward.

Author's Note: Summer is killing me, it's so hot. How to survive?