"So you're moving here from Mexico?" Zushi said over the rim of his tea mug.

Gon slipped a mug in front of Ikalgo at the kotatsu. Ikalgo thanked him, still smiling just as wide as every time Gon appeared in his view. Zushi eyed them both suspiciously before dragging his eyes over to Knuckle, who said, "For pole vaulting? You're gonna be on the track team?"

Ikalgo glanced between them, his smile relaxing into a slow grin. "Yes—to both questions. I got a full ride and just moved into Hatsu Hall."

Knuckle gasped. "That's where I live."

"You're both athletes. Of course you both will be living there," Zushi deadpanned.

Gon was in a tizzy. He could only half-listen to the conversation when there was so much to do. He thanked the Lord in Heaven above for Killua's adamant habit of closing his bedroom door, so it was only a matter of plucking the roommate agreement off of the refrigerator and hiding Killua's toothbrush in the bathroom.

There were a fuck ton of dishes, though, and—oh, deary him, the kitchen table was quite a mess. And don't get him started on his room—

Wait , Gon said, catching himself. He put his hands on his hips, souring a little. I'm a guy. I'm not supposed to worry about how the place looks .

This train of thought immediately brought a cartoonish version of Killua to mind, saying, " That's your toxic masculinity speaking. Fuck off with that ."

In the midst of his inner turmoil, Ikalgo turned around to face him, and Gon straightened with a yelp. "Are you gonna join us?" Ikalgo asked, gesturing to the empty spot.

"Y-Yes!" Gon said, scrambling back to the kotatsu. He tucked his crossed legs under the blanket and, perfectly poised, faced his friends. His cheeks were pink and his ears even more so. "I, um, I think it's so cool that you're going to USFC."

"Yeah, when I heard you were transferring and that I could get on the track team... It just seemed fated," Ikalgo said, his dazzling smile flustering Gon and wooing Zushi. "I have wanted to move to California since you did."

"Th-That's ridiculous," Gon stammered, embarrassed. He tucked his hands against his ankles and said, "You love Mexico. I remember you never wanted to leave. Aren't your grandparents still there?"

"Oh, yeah, they'd never budge," Ikalgo laughed, waving a dismissive hand. "It's just me here."

"So... you and Gon knew each other when you were kids?" Zushi said.

Gon took a sip of his tea as Ikalgo said, "Yeah she was—" Gon choked and coughed into his elbow. "He is my best friend."

Gon put the back of his hand over his mouth to hide the gasp he so desperately wanted to choke on. Zushi licked his lips like he wanted to roll up the sleeves on his shirt and punch something. As Zushi smacked his lips and said, "Well... actually— " Knuckle put a hand on the table and interrupted him.

"Okay, but back to pole vaulting," he said.

Zushi took to his phone and started typing away furiously. When he was done, he pointedly put his phone down and looked at Gon, who's phone buzzed half a second later.

20:22 What the actual fuck is happening?

20:22 Were you actually friends with this hunk?

20:22 Yeah 😫🥺

20:23 I haven't talked to him since we were kids

20:23 And he literally MOVED HERE FOR YOU???

20:23 😫

20:23 Don't say it like thaaat

20:24 Why do you get all the hunks???

20:24 I DON'T 🥺

20:24 It's just that

20:25 When we were kids we gave each other promise rings under the assumption that we'd see each other again

20:25 And I THOUGHT HE'D FORGET ABOUT THEM

20:26 PROMISE RINGS??

20:26 Damn. That shit's unbreakable

20:26 UUUUUVOOOOOOOOO

"My grandma said you're still playing the guitar," Ikalgo commented, and it brought Gon's eyes up from his phone.

"Yeah, I do," he said, a bashful smile on his lips.

" Does he?! " Zushi cried, astonished. "This guy had a gig at a café this week!"

"It was pretty fire," Knuckle agreed.

"I'd love to hear it sometime," Ikalgo said, propping his chin on his hand. His dark, black eyes lingered on Gon, and if Gon wasn't in such a panic, a look like that from a guy as good-looking as his childhood best friend would be called 'bedroom eyes'.

And then, seven octaves higher than usual, Gon said, "Okay."

"Me encantaría salir contigo," Ikalgo said in completely fluid Spanish that had Gon's brain spinning. The romantic intentions were only compounded by the look he was giving Gon. Go out with me sometime?! Gon thought, flabbergasted.

"D-Don't be ridiculous," Gon stammered, looking nervously at his friends.

Knuckle snickered and said, "Bro, you just turned so red right now."

Gon put both hands to his cheeks. His fingers felt like icicles compared to them. "Sh-Shut up!" Gon whined.

Knuckle started cackling and Zushi hid his smile behind his hand. Ikalgo folded his arms on the edge of the table, and it drew Gon's attention back to him.

"¿Podemos hablar ahorita solos?" he asked, and Gon swallowed hard. Could I talk to you alone? Hearing Ikalgo speak Spanish unlocked a part of Gon's brain that he reserved for his aunt and grandma for the past decade. It made him feel at home , like he wasn't thousands of miles away from Aunt Mito.

But talk with Ikalgo alone? Ikalgo's suggestion had Gon's nerves bubbling back up.

"S-Sure," he said. He cleared his throat and turned to Zushi and Knuckle, who were cackling to one another about the entire situation. "Would... it be okay if I talked to you guys later? It's just that—it's been a while since I've talked to Ikalgo and we have some things to discuss... alone..."

Zushi's mouth fell open, and Knuckle gasped, only to gasp again when he fully understood the suggestion. "Oh! Oh, of course. Privacy, got it," Knuckle said and followed up with a wink. He pushed to his feet and grabbed Zushi by the arm along the way. As they scattered to the foyer, Zushi whisper-shouted to Knuckle, " Alone?! " and Knuckle shushed him.

Gon followed after them after a moment, offering a faint, nervous smile to Ikalgo as he dismissed himself. When he made it to the foyer, Knuckle and Zushi were aggressively whispering to each other while tying their shoes, and when Gon approached, Zushi grabbed Gon by the shoulders and shook him viciously.

"Tell me the truth—Are you comfortable being alone with this strange man?" Zushi hissed in a violent whisper-shout.

Gon's brain jostled in his skull. "Yes, of course. He was my best friend."

"Emphasis on ' was '," Zushi hissed. "I'm number one now."

"Damn straight," Knuckle said, but quickly corrected himself. "Damn gay, I mean."

Gon rolled his eyes. "I'll be fine. I'll keep you guys posted," he promised, and shooed them out of the apartment. He locked the door after them and, after a moment, turned back with a sigh of relief.

Ikalgo was just getting to his feet and leaning against the doorframe as Gon busied himself with resituating the shoes in the foyer so he could delay this moment for a while longer. This sensation in his gut was unfamiliar to him and he hoped it wasn't indigestion. It was both pleasant and terrible, and he blamed it on the discomfort of having to come out— again —to the guy who used to be his best friend.

Gon rubbed a hand over the back of his neck and said, "Listen, Ikalgo..."

"You're trans then, huh?" Ikalgo said, matter-of-factly. Gon nodded, and hated how guilty he felt when doing it. "I didn't know, I swear."

"I thought—I thought my mom might have told your grandma," Gon said, and he dreaded to think that she hadn't . It felt impossible to him that Aunt Mito would blatantly censor his transition for the sake of pacifying family and friends back in Mexico.

"Ya sabes cómo es la vieja," Ikalgo said, You know how the old lady is, and Gon did know exactly how Ikalgo's grandma was. She was the woman who fawned over Gon as a kid since she always wanted a little girl to pamper. She used to point at Gon, nudge Ikalgo, and say, " You better treat her right when you two get married ."

"Yeah," Gon sighed. "I do know."

He slowed at the archway to the living room, where Ikalgo put a hand on the frame and met Gon's eyes. Gon clenched his teeth to keep from speaking. He hadn't expected Ikalgo to outgrow his baby fat and glasses, but there he was, brandishing a shadow of facial hair and dimples that would make any person of any gender sexually attracted to men.

Gon sucked in a deep breath because shit , he was already so into men.

"¿Todavía hablas español?" Ikalgo asked. Do you still speak spanish?

Gon nodded. "Yeah, I guess."

Ikalgo nodded, and Gon was far too out of practice to realize that Ikalgo had expected him to say it in Spanish. He smiled a little, his dimples just faint shadows on his cheeks as he looked down and said, "This might come across smoother in Spanish if you don't mind me saying it in Spanish."

"Yeah, please do," Gon said. "I don't mind."

" I'm... confused, " Ikalgo said, looking up to meet Gon's eyes. Gon crossed his arms defensively, shoulders tight. " I thought we agreed we'd wait for each other but—you've already got a boyfriend and—I'm so sure I'm straight, but I'm still attracted to you. "

"How can you be attracted to me when you barely know me anymore?" Gon said. "If you're still attracted to me, you aren't straight."

" But I like women and I like you . "

"Not everything needs to have a term," he said and offered a half-shrug. "Otherwise you can say you're a straight Gon-sexual."

Ikalgo put a hand over his face. " I didn't expect to have a sexual crisis on top of finding out you're already taken ."

Gon caught himself from arguing against it. He could, theoretically, have declared that he was, in fact, available for the taking. He could have, theoretically, decided to take Ikalgo up on his offer.

But something held him back.

It had been years since they last spoke. He couldn't jump feet-first into whatever their past relationship was. They were older, "wiser", and... different people now.

So Gon decided to keep Killua as a buffer. "Yeah, I am. Taken, that is," Gon said.

Ikalgo crossed his arms, his shoulder pressed up against the archway frame. " So what's this guy all about, huh? Killua, was it? "

Gon grinned at the distinct intrigue in Ikalgo's jealous tone. "We're in the same major and yes , his name is Killua."

"No confio en el," he said, I don't trust him, and Gon could have laughed. Ikalgo didn't even know Killua—of course he couldn't trust a guy he didn't know.

Gon tipped back against the opposite side of the archway frame, thoroughly amused. "No seas ridículo. Yo soy lo suficientemente capaz de decidir con quién debería o no salir." Don't be ridiculous. I am very much capable of deciding who I should and shouldn't date.

"Obviamente no, porque no estás conmigo en este momento." Clearly not, since you aren't dating me right now .

Gon pursed his lips to stop himself from screaming. "I-I didn't even know you were coming here ," he said, frustrated. "What's with everyone not telling me when they're about to do something dramatic?"

"Yikes. Trouble in paradise?" Ikalgo said with a cheeky grin that said he wanted to know every little detail about Gon's relationship with Killua.

But Gon wasn't just thinking about Killua now. Killua was the source of many of his problems, but Kurapika was part of the collateral damage. If Ikalgo knew about Kurapika and the blatant lie about Gon being poly, he might still assume he has a shot.

Well, given his current confidence, I'm not sure much would change , Gon thought.

"I... wouldn't say that," Gon said, voice cracking. He cleared his throat as Ikalgo stepped closer, his hand reaching out to settle on the wall beside Gon's head.

"Sé que ya no eres la misma persona," Ikalgo started, I know you aren't the same person anymore, and it had Gon swallowing harder, acutely aware that Ikalgo's voice had dropped into a tantalizing whisper that sent shivers up and down Gon's tingling arms. Wasn't that a sign of a heart attack? His chest did hurt a lot, but he liked to blame that on his one-size-too-small sports bra.

"Pero quiero enamorarme de tí una vez más. Haré lo que sea necesario para convencerte que soy mil veces mejor que tu novio." But I want to fall in love with you again. And I'll do everything I can to convince you that I'm infinitely better than your boyfriend.

The blend of emotions roiling in Gon's chest burst at Ikalgo's proposal: " I'll do everything I can to convince you that I'm better than your boyfriend ." As if his situation with Killua and Kurapika wasn't complicated enough, Ikalgo threw an entirely knew rhythm to this goddamn shitshow of a remix. It crashed the party with an energetic jive with all of the color and spirit of norteña music they'd dance to as kids around the bright streets of their hometown.

And then, it all plateaued, and the jazzy tune melted into what it felt like to be at a street café in 1940s Paris listening to the crackle of accordion instrumentals on a rusty record player. He could see himself at a table for two, alone, wearing a white button up, brown slacks, and suspenders reading a newspaper—because it seemed aesthetic at the time—as the accordion crescendoed with romantic violins preening against the warm, golden sunlight. A shadow fell over him in the form of Ikalgo offering him a bouquette of roses, saying, " Al parecer no soy el único que llegó temprano. Andas emocionado, ¿O qué? "

Gon checked out an accordion at the school's instrument warehouse the next day. He could be found half-jogging across campus with the bulk of the leather case in his arms, eagerness lighting up behind his eyes and in the shape of a dreamy smile on his face. It sent him mentally spinning around lamp posts in a romantic tizzy.

It had been years since he felt so homesick for Mexico. The damp, dreary San Francisco air had him yearning for it that day, but in doing so, his excitement cast the clouds aside and he felt Northern Mexico's dry heat on his face and sinking into his golden skin...

"Gon?" someone said, and Gon caught himself waiting at a crosswalk—directly beside Killua.

Killua waved a hand in front of Gon's face to catch his attention. Gon blinked, startled, and turned his dreamy smile onto Killua with a delighted sigh. "Hi," he giggled, completely smitten.

Killua rose an eyebrow at him and said, "Where are you going with that—Is that an accordion? Dude, what the fuck?"

"I—" Gon started, but then the light turned white, and students around them started to move. They were nudged together by bypassers—the only buffer being the monstrous leather case in Gon's arms. Now both of Killua's eyebrows were at his hairline, thoroughly judging the state of Gon's affairs.

Gon's target was just across the street—the studio building—and upon looking at it, all of his excitement came rushing back. "I—! I have something to record! I'll see you later!"

He took off running, galloping onto the curb, until Killua jogged up beside him and said, "Record something? I thought you were done with that. You've got a gig and—"

"This is different!" Gon cried, bounding onto the ledge of a brick hedge. He carried himself up step-by-step until he was high above Killua, spinning with ease. "I haven't thought about, like... my roots in years! I miss playing around with the tololoche and the—"

"' Trololoche '?" Killua said, completely butchering it. Gon swept back down to the sidewalk as Killua squinted at him and said, "Isn't that a meme?"

"No, that's trololo and—Never mind," Gon said, rubbing at the back of his head. He balanced the case in one arm before throwing his free hand out with a gasp. "Oh! But I learned the accordion when I was a kid, but like... my hands were too small and it was kinda awkward to hold—but now! I know exactly what I need to do, so I need to do it right now . Like, right now , so I'll see you later—"

"I could help you record," Killua offered, and much to Gon's surprise, Killua still had yet to stop thinking about hearing Gon's accoustics and his voice in the studio basement. Realizing that Gon was off to record made him realize that perhaps he was jealous of Zushi's inclusion that day in the studio basement. He wanted to be the one at the control booth.

Killua's offer had Gon halting in the middle of the sidewalk. Gon rose an eyebrow at Killua and said in a dull, uncertain voice, "You... want to help me? "

Killua rolled his eyes and said, "I wouldn't say that ," because he didn't just want to help—he needed to . Perhaps this was what he needed to get Gon's music out of his head. Perhaps he was too far away from it. He needed to dig in deep to find the flaws and decide that Gon wasn't worth his time.

"O... kay... Yeah, I guess you could help me," Gon said with a shrug. Hesitantly, he headed to the building. He glanced over his shoulder to ensure that Killua wasn't faking it and that he was, in fact, following close behind.

They descended into the florescent, cement-brick hallways beneath the building. They passed a group of students lingering in front of an open studio door and, as they picked their own room, the students watched after them, intrigued by Killua being in the mix. Killua disappeared into the room and shut the door behind them, which only prompted further intrigue from the students.

And then, several minutes later, they could faintly hear the unyielding volume of the accordion through the hallway door. Confused, several of the students snuck up to the door to peer in through the window as discretely as they could to see what the hell was going on there and what student played the accordion?

There, within the studio, they could find Gon standing in the middle of the booth, his fingers playing along the keys as he expanded the bellows of the accordion and drew out a flurry of energized notes. He was talking fervently to Killua, who was barely settled in at the computer putting together the mic arm. Killua was just as enthralled by the sudden way Gon belted into the music, talking over the accordion in a frenzy, as if anyone could actually hear him.