Y/N POV

I open the cap. It clicks satisyingly, and I look at the top, which wetly shines. I frown and swipe a finger over it. The liquid mockingly shines back at me. 

Everyone starts to drink. I bring the can up to my lips hesitantly. I take one sniff before I yell out, "Stop!" 

Gon says the same at the same time. We glance at each other and smile. "There's something-" Gon says.

"-that's off with this soda," I finish. 

Leorio immediately spits it out and starts raging. Kurapika calmly pours the soda on the floor. And Gon brings the can to his eye and starts peering into the can. 

My frown deepens. What was he doing?

I nudge the person next to me, Kurapika, lightly. "Hey, Pika. Is Gon alright?" I talk quickly and the first half of Kurapika's name gets jumbled up and cut off.

Kurapika looks around me in surprise. I look ahead, cheeks aflame in embarrassment. Thankfully, he doesn't do anything and looks up, staring at Gon. "No. Back up slowly, Y/N," he jokes. I laugh, slightly glad that his uptight demeanor from earlier is gone and that the atmosphere didn't get even more awkward.

Tonpa starts to beg for forgiveness. I roll my eyes at this pathetic man. Obviously, he spiked this drink earlier. After all, who just carries around sodas? Especially to this so-called Hunter Exam? I knew my instincts were right. 

Tonpa walks away. 

"I'll be right back guys. I'm going to follow that guy. Don't wait up if the exam starts. I'll find you," I tell the three boys. 

Gon waves. "We'll see you later then, Y/N." 

Leorio sniffs in contempt. "Bold of you to assume that she'll make it to the second phase, considering you just picked her off the streets."

I snort, rolling my eyes. "Trust me when I say, Leorio, that, out of the two of us, there's only one that's going to emerge victorious."

"Um, yeah. Me."

I shrug. "Whatever you tell yourself." 

I turn to start to follow Tonpa. Behind me, I can hear Leorio spitting profanities. His voice fades away as I walk out of the vicinity, focusing on Tonpa. Something about him still seems off. I hear him talking to himself about the other candidates. I learn information about them and laugh quietly at the funny encounters he had with them. 

Then a boy comes up to Tonpa. He has messy white hair and these beautiful sapphire blue eyes. He smiles at Tonpa. "Can I have more juice?" 

Tonpa gapes at him, and so do I. 

There was a toxin inside there, I think to myself. And if he has had many of these, which Tonpa's body language is suggesting, shouldn't he be sick? 

"O-of course," Tonpa stutters. He reaches into his sack and pulls out a can. 

The boy gulps it down. He tosses the can back to Tonpa, who's still staring at the white-haired boy. Tonpa opens his mouth, and the boy smirks. "I'm immune to poisons," he says menacingly, as if he already knew what Tonpa was going to say. The way the snow-haired boy says his words, though, radiates that they're not so much a threat, but a warning that could become a threat - if Tonpa decided to step even a toe out of line.

Tonpa scoffs and walks away. I go to follow when someone grabs my arm. 

KILLUA POV

The girl following Tonpa starts to leave, mere footsteps behind the fat old man. I raise an eyebrow as my eyes follow her quiet movements. Without warning, my hand darts out and grabs her wrist. She freezes and trips a little over her own two feet before quickly composing herself.

She turns around and looks at me. Shock takes over her face, but it's covered up in seconds, vanishing without a trace. She smiles kindly, but even I could tell that she is annoyed at me. "Hello. Do I know you?" 

I raise an eyebrow at her. "Don't keep up the act. I know you were following Tonpa and spying on me." 

She scoffs. "Don't flatter yourself. I wasn't spying on you." She wrenches her wrist from my hold and rubs it a little before letting it fall to her side. 

I roll my eyes. "Yes, you were. Don't argue with me." 

She huffs, blowing some stray hairs that escaped from her hairstyle away from her face. I laugh. She turns to me so quickly and pounces, and then suddenly a beautifully decorated cinquedea is next to my neck. But it wasn't out of the blue. I push my hand up to my neck and wrap a hand around the incoming weapon. It doesn't scratch me, as it lies flat against my palm. 

Her eyes widen, and she withdraws the cinquedea, questions dancing on her face. She pushes the italian dagger into her backpack when a harsh energy starts seeping from her. 

My eyes widen, and I feel frightened for a second, as I feel the energy inching closer to me. What was this? It feels like the energy Illumi radiated, but somehow different. 

"Shit."

The energy disappears. I should've confronted her about what had just happened, but the feeling of Illumi's energy and hers, mixed, still lingered in my mind. 

"My bloodlust escaped." 

"Bloodlust?" So there is a word that describes what Illumi and the girl had been emitting.

"Let's just start over," the girl breathes. 

"Sure," I yawn, pretending that the gears in my mind weren't working overtime. "Killua." 

"Y/N." 

"Pretty name." The words spill out of my mouth before I know it. I sway from foot to foot, trying to play it off.

She does the same, simply replying, "Back at you."

"You seem fragile," I say, trying to keep the conversation going.  

She gives me a look. "What's that supposed to mean?" Her cinquedea is back in her hand and she seems to be on the verge to strike before I grab her arm, stopping her. The only benefit of being taller.  

"So, if you ever do get hurt," I continue, "I'm not hesitating to punch you. It always fixes me up, so it'll probably fix you right up as well."

Y/N yanks her arm from my grasp and scoffs. "That's such a weird way to word something. I'm not going to get hurt."

I look at her blankly. "Are you stupid? Everyone gets hurt once in a while. It's life, you're not perfect. Unless you're me." 

"Please. You really are bad at talking to people. That's not something you use to keep a conversation going. You're genuinely making me wonder if you have ever spoken to another human." I frown. "And while it was extremely wise and poetic, it's stupid. What happened to starting over?" I can hear the sarcasm dripping out of her words.

"Nothing. It wasn't me that was the problem." The words slip smoothly off my tongue.  

She rolls her eyes, but I don't miss the smile tugging at her lips. 

Suddenly, the garage door opens. Sewer door? Large door. In the entrance way stands a strange man with purple hair. He explains what we're going to do. Behind us, the elevator door that would let us leave slams shut. The sound echoes throughout the sewer and I spot many people shiver.

The crowd starts slowly walking forward; the task from the purple-haired man had been to follow him. Me and Y/N look at each other. I raise an eyebrow slightly. "It's probably an endurance test," she guesses. "Since the crowd is now running." 

"Sure." 

For some reason, that word gets her so mad. "Just shut up." 

I chuckle, but listen to her. 

Y/N POV

The skateboard in Killua's hands hits the floor, and he jumps onto it, gaining a few meters on me almost immediately. I click my tongue in his direction but race forward and catch up. I click my heels together, and my shoes turn to roller blades. A custom-made present given to me by my mother.

Killua looks at my shoes. "Nice," he comments. I nod in response, and we skate next to each other in a comfortable silence. Surrounding us are the sounds of thick and heavy pants from tired men and women. 

Now that I think about it, this comfortability I feel next to him is weird. I'm usually reserved when I meet someone new, but today seems to have proven differently. 

Some time passes, and I spot Leorio. He's panting as well from exhaustion. I'm about to say hi to him when he turns around and erupts. Like usual. 

"Hey! Wait up, kids! Show the exam some respect!" 

I mumble a few things under my breath before turning and facing the sweaty guy. "Anything else you'd like to say, Leorio?"

Killua opens his mouth, but I shoot him down with a stare that tells him to shut up. I am going to handle this. I'd only been with Killua for only a few minutes as we had waited together for the exam to start, but I can already assume that if someone got him mad, he would say somethings that he shouldn't say.

"Why are you using rollerblades? And why is he on a skateboard? That's cheating!" Leorio shouts, jolting me from my thoughts. I shake my head a little and twist my head so I can see him.

"Why?" Killua asks, peering at Leorio. 

That surprised me. Maybe I was wrong. Or maybe he isn't really mad at the question.

Leorio, though, just gets angrier. "This is an endurance test!" 

He's about to say a few more things when Gon comes up. He waves at me smiling, then looks back at Leorio. "No, it isn't." 

"Leorio's gonna scream," I whisper to Killua. 

"If you're talking about the old man, then yeah, he is," Killua whispers right back. We giggle. 

Meanwhile, Gon is pointing out everything wrong with Leorio's point of view. The longer he speaks, the madder Leorio gets. I can see his head boiling with fury, but I guess he sees that other people are staring at him. I'm guessing he only erupted at me earlier because he forgot about the people surrounding him. He really is obsessed with people's love. I can already tell he'll do anything to get a crowd on his side. But I guess I can understand where he's coming from. Why would you ever want anyone to hate you and judge you?

I slow down until I'm next to Gon. Killua does the same. 

"Hey, Y/N!" Gon acknowledges me. "I didn't know that you had skates." 

I explain how they work excitedly. Then Killua asks how old we are. Weird question, and very similar to Gon's.  

After we reply, I can see that Killua is deep in thought, then he does a trick where the skateboard transfers from the floor to his hands. "I guess I'll run." 

They both look at me, expecting me to change back into regular shoes. I grin. "Sorry boys, but I'm not as honourable as you." 

Gon laughs. "That's ok." 

"I'm Killua."

"Gon." He looks at me, waiting for me to say my name. 

"Oh sorry, Gon! We already met." 

"Yeah. She's one hell of a girl. So rude." 

I slap his head. Or at least I try too. I miss and almost fall. Killua starts laughing. "Serves you right, shorty. You should've eaten it, though. That would be even funnier." 

I scowl at him. "Shorty? That's the best you could come up with? You're barely taller than me." 

"Well, do you want to be called a nugget? Canary calls creatures that, sometimes," Killua says wistfully.  

"I'll call you potato!" Gon grins. 

I widen my eyes. "No no no. No. End of discussion." 

"Well, catch up!" Gon goes up ahead, Killua following. I catch up easily. 

"Hey, wait." I put out a hand and Gon and Killua rush into it. "Oh my god, did you not see my hand out?" 

"Well sucks to be a little cutie patootie nugget," Killua mockingly squeals, his face contorting, making fun of me even more. 

"I swear to God, Killua, I'm going to jump you." 

He smirks. "You can always try. Why'd you stop us, though?" 

I hook my thumb back. "Leorio. He stopped."

Gon shrugs. "He'll get back up. Eventually. But we can catch up, so let's wait." 

After a few seconds, Leorio is still on the floor. 

"Ay, let's go." Killua motions to us.

I start to go with Killua, before realising that Gon hasn't moved. Killua sighs and waits a little ahead, alongside me.

Then Leorio jumps up. "Screw that! I'm going to be a Hunter, damn it all!" He runs past us, leaving the briefcase on the floor. Gon whips out a fishing pole, which, might I add, came out of nowhere. But Gon, using his tool, flicks his wrist and grabs Leorio's forgotten briefcase with the hook. He reels the wire back in and slings the briefcase and fishing pole over his shoulder.

Killua starts to fangirl over that move. He catches my eye, and I raise an eyebrow, a laugh almost tumbling out of my mouth. He composes himself, but sneers at me. I roll my eyes and start to skate forward again.

We get to some stairs. I click my heels together, and the wheels disappear. 

"Cool!" Gon exclaims, actually interested instead of feigning it. We start going up the stairs. 

"Hey," Killua suddenly says. "Wanna have a race?"

"Yes." A sparkle gleams in my eye. 

"Sure. The last one up has to buy dinner!" Gon agrees. 

"You're on!" 

"Ready ... set ... go!"