Killua was playing the piano again, feeling the keys. He'd always loved the thing, ever since he'd seen his mother playing once when he was three. Killua let his fingers retrace the same keys he'd heard that day as he closed his eyes, and let himself remember.

Killua was wandering around the mansion one day, he'd managed to evade the butler that was ordered to follow him around again. His name was Gotoh. He was just exploring a passage he'd never been down before when he heard footsteps. "Young master, I know your there" His eyes darted around, then landed on a slightly open door. There! Killua slipped inside quietly, before closing the door without so much as a sound. He had mastered the art of slipping through the corridors silently, mostly to avoid his butlers. He kept walking down the corridor, when he heard something. Is that...music? It was faint, but utterly beautiful. As a 3 year old he couldn't exactly appreciate the artistry, but he felt compelled to follow it to the source.

The music got louder, and when Killua peeked around a corner his eyes went wide with wonder. His mother was sitting at a piano in the middle of a vast room, gliding her fingers across the keys with her eyes closed. His eyes shone a little. Mother's...doing that? With her fingers? It's so...pretty. He was in awe, Killua had no idea it was possible to create something so whimsical with your hands. He was completely entranced, unable to look away. He listened to his mother play for quite some time, before she opened her eyes and noticed him. She blinked, then smiled. "Kil dear, what brings you here?" He walked into the room, then laid a hand on the piano's side. "What was...that? It was so pretty" She laughed softly, then scooped him up and set him beside her on the bench. "It was called Pern sweetheart, your mother's favorite song to play" His lips parted slightly, and he pressed down one of the keys on the piano. The note rang out, but his mother removed her hand with a slight frown. "Kil dear, this is not a toy"

He nodded. "I wanna...do that too" She blinked. "Do...what?" he tried to remember what keys his mother had pressed, then sat up on his knees and tried to copy a few as best as he could. I want to learn that too. His mother's eyes widened. "You...copied those keys, just by watching them once" He blinked up at her, eyes shining a little. "I...did it right?" He felt so happy, then his mother played a few keys again. Killua watched her, remembering their positions. He reached over, then copied her. His mother's eyes brightened, and she ruffled his hair a little. "Kil darling, you're a natural" He smiled back at her. "Though...your father and I have already decided your path." He blinked, then looked down. Right...I've gotta become an assassin just like Illumi-ni and father. Killua glanced back over at the piano. "But...I can learn that too right?" His mother smiled softly, then flipped a few pages on a book that was resting on the piano. "Sure sweetheart, but first you must learn the keys" She said, before gliding her fingertips over the keys lightly. Killua crawled onto his mother's lap, then nodded.

The song came to a close, and Killua stopped playing. He sighed, looking down. I miss the time when mother was like that. His mother had been the one to teach him how the piano worked, and the basics. One day his father caught them and forbade him from learning anymore. However, he'd spend every scrap of his free time on it. It was not that long after that when mother stopped treating him like a kid and started acting more like father. He'd helped plan the layout of his own mansion when he was about 8, they'd started building it when he was younger so it would be finished when he came of age. Killua had specifically added the very room he was sitting in at the moment for this exact purpose, under the guise that it would be an interrogation room of sorts. There had been things that were set in stone like the dungeon and training room, but most of it he got to choose placement and other details. Killua had to get his father's approval of course, and he'd made his own edits.

This was why Killua knew every hallway and room like the back of his hand, not only that but he'd been given a copy of the floorplans to memorize. Killua sighed, before placing some sheet music on the top of the piano. He thought for a moment, then went over and locked the door. He didn't want Gon to hear the song he was making until he was finished. Killua sat back down, then placed his hands on the keyboard. The song wasn't originally made to have words, but one time he was humming along to the music and the idea had come to him. The song didn't have a title yet, or lyrics for the chorus. None the less, he started playing. "You and I~" He started. "We're like fireworks and symphonies harmonizing in the sky-" Killua paused, then huffed. I don't like that, it sounds weird. So he rewrote the lyrics and tried again. "We're like fireworks and symphonies exploding in the sky~" He smiled a little, then kept going. "With you, I'm fine-" He paused again, frowning slightly. Reading it and singing it are two different things, it sounds awful. He'd never actually planned on singing the song himself, he hadn't even known that he had what one would call a 'beautiful' voice since his father had forbade musicmaking in general. Killua yet again erased and changed the words on his sheet music, then attempted it a second time as he resumed playing. "With you, I'm alive~"

"Like all the missing pieces of my heart, they finally collide~" He let his eyes drift shut, he didn't actually need the sheet music to play the song anymore, it just had the words on it and where they were placed. "So stop time right here in the moonlight, Because I don't ever wanna close my eyes~" he paused again, then erased a few letters. " 'Cause I don't ever wanna close my eyes~" Then he bit his lip and played the chorus, he still hadn't decided on what he wanted there. Hmm... He kept playing the chorus, but couldn't think of any words to say. "With you, I fall~" He continued, after the chorus ended. "It's like I'm leaving all my past moments and silhouettes upon the wall~" He stopped, then erased and rewrote again. ""It's like I'm leaving all my past and silhouettes up on the wall~" Killua let his eyes drift shut again. "With you, I'm a beautiful mess~ It's like we're standing hand and hand with all our fears over the edge~" He opened his eyes again, puffing out his cheeks slightly as he edited his lyrics again. Maybe I should sing it first before I write it down in the future. "It's like we're standing hand and hand with all our fears up on the edge~"

"So stop time right here in the moonlight, 'Cause I don't ever wanna close my eyes~" He kept singing, even though he hadn't written a chorus yet he made himself improvise. "Without you, I'm broken~ like a half of a whole~" Killua's fingers paused, then he grabbed his phone. There's a better way to go about this. He clicked the record button, then started playing the chorus. He didn't sing it, just played it. Once he was done he ended the recording then grabbed his pencil and flipped over his sheet music. He clicked play again, then wrote the words as he sang. "Without you, I'm broken~ Like a half of a whole~" He didn't care about legibility right now, and he continued without pause. "Without you, I have no hand to hold~ Without you, I am torn~ Like I'm a sail in a storm~ Without you, I'm just a-" He hovered with his pencil over the page, lips parted slightly. The recording ended, and he played a few keys on the piano. "Without you, I'm just a..." Again, he couldn't think of what to say. Damn.

He left that part out for now, then revised his lyrics and sang them as he played again.

"Without you, I feel broke

Like I'm half of a whole

Without you, I've got no hand to hold

Without you, I feel torn

Like a sail in a storm

Without you~"

He played the last few keys. "I'm just a sad song~" He smiled a little. Sad song...I like that. He started from the top, then sang as he pressed the keys. Killua made a few more edits along the way, then looked over the words when he was done. He blushed a little, realizing that he'd essentially written a love song. It wasn't intended that way, not at first. At first, he'd actually started making the song for Alluka. But then he and Gon started to get closer, and it started to shift meanings. He slipped the sheet music back into its place, then sighed. I wish I had more time. He only managed to get small slivers of time every day, sometimes every few days, to use his piano. Killua stood up as he closed the piano, then made his way to the door. Father wanted me for something today, I should probably go now instead of later. He unlocked the door and made his way out, then over to the room that he and Gon shared. He knocked on the door, then waited. "Come in!" He opened the door and peeked in, Gon was sitting on the bed practicing spinning his knife. He's getting better at that. "Killua, need something?"

He sighed. "I'm going to father's mansion, he needs me for something. If you need anything just call Mitsuba or Gotoh alright?" He blinked, then nodded. "Alright" He closed the door again, then exited the mansion and drove over to his father's. When he got there, his father was sitting in the front room and talking to a girl around his age. She had long blonde hair and brown eyes. She was wearing an elegant and frilly pale yellow dress, and seemed to be a little nervous. "Father?" His father and the girl glanced over at him, then his father beckoned him over. "Son, come sit" He resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he sat down across from them with a sigh. "You needed me for something?" His father nodded. "As the future head of the Zoldyck family, you have to start thinking about the future" The...future? He crossed his legs. "I do" His father smiled. "Well then, it should be obvious why I called you here"

Killua honestly had no damn clue, but he didn't say that. The girl stood up, then bowed slightly with a shy smile. His father got to his feet as well and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Meet Harumi Hatako, your fiancé"

1859 words

To be continued...