"I really don't want to be in a TikTok," Killua said, but his insistence did little to convince Kurapika. If anything, it just egged him on.

"I know you know the dance," Kurapika said.

"Yeah, because I sent it to you . I thought we could do something for the stage— not a damn TikTok ," Killua said. He'd be lying if he said he couldn't fall asleep without getting a few TikToks in, and the habit nearly slipped away entirely until Gon, half-asleep, became entirely too invested in Killua's dim phone screen the night before when Killua sent the dance over to Kurapika.

And by Friday night, Kurapika had watched it a dozen times over and had the choreography committed to memory. When Killua came into work that evening, Kurapika had pawned off his phone to Leorio under the impression that Leorio would be their camera man.

"I've got a bar to run, dude," Leorio said.

"The drinks can wait—I gotta see this," a customer said, waving Leorio off and eliciting a laugh through the group of people he was with.

Kurapika gave Killua a " you see? " look, and Killua gave him a dull stare that slid into a smirk when he caught the intrigue on the customers faces. He feigned disinterest, arms crossed and a grimace on his face until they egged him on with compliments and requests for a... TikTok dance .

He sighed, dramatically relenting, and gave them a bow. "Well, if you insist ."

Leorio recorded the several takes it took for their choreography to sync up. When it did, Kurapika took the phone back, the customers got their drinks, and they all cheered and spread a round down the table full of vodka shots. Killua took one the moment Kurapika sent the video off to the great wide web and let the alcohol sent a hot flush through his system.

Killua drank on the job plenty of times—read: most of the time—but that night, he got particularly wasted after a few fourth year students from a nearby university tipped him to film another video—this time with them and a dance they invented. After yet another successful video, he was three shots in and feeling it .

Working at a club had plenty of perks. On weekend nights, it felt more and more like a fucked up frat party, especially considering the number of college kids that came by. Drinking, talking, dancing, lap dances (people did that at frat parties, right?) and just like every frat party, there was an entry fee that sexy motherfuckers didn't have to pay (Killua and the other dancers). Unlike a frat, however, Killua was getting paid to party, and he considered that a bonus.

Later in the evening, though, when things mellowed out, Killua was back on the pole until two in the morning when he metaphorically clocked out for the night.

Killua's head felt heavy as he sat on the bus that early, early morning scrolling through videos and memes. His brain was still sloshing with alcohol, and continued to do so as he staggered off of the bus at his designated stop. As the bus continued on, he paused to look across the street to his apartment building, where the living room window was still lit.

A faint smile tugged on his tired lips. He frequently forgot that his new "normal" involved coming home to the company of his favorite person.

Weird , he thought as he crossed the street. I've never had a favorite person before .

It seemed like an off-handed thought, but the more he considered it, the more he realized how he looked forward to his interactions with Gon. He never really despised the thought of seeing Gon, even from the start. He had only ever avoided Gon when his work was a secret.

His legs ached as he climbed the steps of the building. He took a breather at the end of the hall, stretching his arms and legs out as he went. They were tight from the bus ride, and they would sink oh-so wonderfully into his mattress that night. Or perhaps Gon's mattress. He wasn't quite sure what the plan was, and he wouldn't know until he opened the door and heard Gon's bright voice chime, "Welcome home!"

"Hey," Killua said, smiling as he nudged his shoes off and kicked them to the side. He locked the door behind him as he wandered down the hallway and tossed his duffle in front of the laundry room door. "How's it going?"

Gon was perched at the kotatsu, a text book open, his guitar out, and a sheet of music paper beside it all. Gon lifted his pen up from the paper and said, "It's good. I was just working on something—but you can't take a look at it yet! I wanna finish it first 'cause you might not like how it is right now and—"

"Alright, chill," Killua laughed, blocking his view of the music sheet as he walked past. "I work again tomorrow night so you'll have the place to yourself."

"O-Okay," Gon said, scratching his head with the end of his pen. He pouted as he studied the page and continued thinking as Killua went to fetch clean clothes and a fresh towel from his room.

Killua emerged, scrolling through his phone, and as he passed on the way to the bathroom, he put Kurapika's TikTok in front of Gon. "That video we saw yesterday. I sent it to Kurapika and this is what happened."

Gon gasped, amazed. He clutched at Killua's phone and cried, "Whoa! Amazing! You guys are so talented—! Hey, where are you going?"

"To take a shower," Killua said, waving his clean clothes out. "I'll be right back."

Gon slumped over Killua's phone to watch the video again, and again, and again for all ten minutes of Killua's shower. It fascinated him how anyone could move that well .

It's better than the original , Gon thought as he investigated the likes and comments. It was nearing half a million views, and he thought to himself, Good! Killua deserves that level of recognition! He wished the whole world could see Killua move like that! And, in his curiosity, he wondered if Killua was in any other videos that Kurapika posted. It sent him on a deep-dive through Kurapika's TikTok, which primarily took place in the club. Considering they danced all the time anyway, Kurapika's videos weren't really focused on that. They were borderline ASMR as he did his makeup for the night. There were some of his pole dancing practices, and one of his videos even had over a million views.

Killua came back to Gon still glued to his phone, watching Kurapika's content. Killua laughed and said, "Dude, you know you can watch it on your own phone?"

"Yeah, but you gave your phone to me and I just didn't turn it off—I was too fascinated," Gon said, his hand all but chasing after it when Killua extracted his phone from Gon's clutches. Their eyes met and Gon opened his mouth to ask that they spend another night together.

"You wanna sleep in my room tonight?" Killua asked.

Gon floundered for a second. Heat flushed to his face. Sure, it was one thing to ask the same of Killua, but to have Killua ask him ? It was too much for his heart to take. It defied every last spec of doubt he had in his head that told him that Killua was just entertaining him.

Gon put his hands to his cheeks and looked down at his textbook, smiling like an idiot. "I, um, yeah, that'd be nice," he said.

"Okay, cool," Killua said, "I'm pretty exhausted so I'm probably gonna pass out as soon as I hit the mattress. So..."

"Oh! Right, yeah, you're probably super tired from work! Let me just clean up my stuff—"

"Oh, no, take your time—"

"It's fine! Just gimme a sec," Gon said, shutting his textbook and stacking his papers. He ran to put Melvin 2.0 back and, once in his room, jumped into his pajamas for the night.

Killua was just opening his bedroom door when Gon skidded out of his room. Killua jumped, startled, and hurried through the door to avoid being flattened by Gon cruising in.

Gon flung himself at the bed and rolled towards the wall. He wiggled under the covers and waited, beaming with his face just barely tucked underneath the sheets. Killua could still see his rounded cheeks, though, where they gave away the smile. They huddled in together, the light from the window casting a bluish glow into the room where Gon huddled close to the edge of his pillow, and watched Killua sigh from exhaustion, half-groaning from the pain of his sore muscles.

"You okay?" Gon asked in a whisper.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Killua said. "Just thinking about tomorrow."

"It'll be fine," Gon promised. He reached a hand out to Killua's stomach, where Killua's hands were clasped together. He linked his fingers between Killua's as Killua's breathing leveled out and he fell into a dead-to-the-world sleep.

Gon made sure his alarm was set before closing his eyes and preparing for a temporary death. They woke up similarly to how they had the night before. Killua didn't move a damn muscle, which meant that their fingers were numb against his chest. Gon weaseled his free hand out from under the pillow to shut off his phone alarm. They had an hour before Retz and the others were due to arrive, which gave him a little time to hit the snooze button.

He put his numb hand a little further around Killua, nestling close so his cheek could rest on Killua's arm. Killua sighed in his sleep and turned towards him. Gon smiled until Killua kept turning—and turning—and turning until he flattened Gon beneath all of his compact muscle.

Gon grunted, trapped with Killua's head on his collarbone and his hair tickling Gon's chin. Killua's arm tightened in a vice-like grip around Gon's torso before settling with a deep breath. The warmth and weight of his body would have been suffocating if Gon wasn't so endeared by being inadvertently tackled like that.

He wrapped his arms around Killua's back and closed his eyes against the morning sunlight leaking in through the window. He sighed, content and comfortable in an otherwise unfamiliar room. He recognized the smell of Killua's shampoo after their previous night, and he recognized the tidiness that always seemed to follow after Killua. The clean, neutral furniture, the "Ikea aesthetic", and the fact that Killua didn't have a single piece of clothing out in the open.

The room smelled fresh. Gon took a deep breath and released it through a sigh as he rubbed a hand up and down Killua's back.

When it came time to get up, Gon shook Killua about until Killua roused enough to consider himself mostly awake. Killua sat for a moment, squinting, completely dead to the world as his brain booted up for the morning. Gon tipped his head against Killua's shoulder as the two of them sat on Killua's bed, soaking in the sunlight and preparing for a new day.

Gon kickstarted his morning with a shower while Killua made breakfast and coffee. He was back to singing in the shower and blasting music whilst doing so, and Killua found it laughable and, honestly, a little contagious. He felt heavy from work the previous day, but it didn't stop the bounce in his step, or the rock in his hips as he flipped French toast on the stovetop.

Gon burst out of the bathroom strutting to the beat, his phone still blasting the music. He hopped into the middle of the room singing and swinging his arms to and fro as Killua feigned indifference and delivered the food to the kitchen table.

"' omo tú me tientas cuando tú te mueves ,'" Gon sang as he danced off to grab something from his room, and when he came back, Shakira's verse came up, so Killua casually sang, "' Te dicen por ahí que voy haciendo y deshaciendo— '"

Gon skidded straight off of the living room steps with a clatter. He yelped, swinging his arms wildly to catch his footing. Killua paused, eyes wide and his hand just then pulling his chair back.

Gon and Killua stared at each other from over the length of Shakira's verse. Gon's ears went red as he stammered, "You—!"

"What?" Killua said.

"You speak Spanish?! " Gon cried.

Killua squinted at him and gave an exasperated shrug. " Everyone learns Spanish in high school."

Gon scrambled over to the table, clutching the surface of it like his life and sanity depended on it. "Uh, yeah , and literally no one has an accent like that— "

"To be fair—I was just singing the lyrics–" he started, but Gon would have none of it .

"¿Por qué no me dijiste?" Gon cried, Why didn't you tell me?! and Killua startled at the realization that shit , he actually had to comprehend that.

"I—! I'm not good at it!" Killua exclaimed, flushing with embarrassment. Sure, he could speak it, but that didn't mean he had the slightest idea what he was saying.

Gon relaxed a little, sighing with a laugh. "Oh, okay. Phew."

Killua squinted at him again and said, "Why, what've you and Ikalgo been saying in front of me?"

Gon turned bright red in the blink of an eye. "N-Nothing!" he screamed, voice cracking, and Killua snickered and said, "You told him about my dick, didn't you?"

" I'VE ONLY SEEN IT ONCE! " Gon shrieked. "A-And why did you act dumb when I talked about the tololoche?"

"I wasn't acting! I seriously don't know what a trololoche is—" Killua said, and Gon slammed his forehead onto the table, rattling the plates. "G-Gon!"

Breakfast consisted of Gon picking out his favorite songs and ordering that Killua sing them while Killua sighed and said, "I don't know that song," while Gon grumbled incredulously under his breath and went back on the hunt. Killua popped a slice of French toast into his mouth and thought to himself, I guess I'll have to do my research and learn all these songs ...

He really screwed himself over with this one.

When their designated movie time approached, Gon set to work cleaning up the apartment, dragging pillows and blankets in, and arranging cushions against the stairs so they could pretend they had a couch. He shut the curtains over the living room windows, which darkened the white wall across from the stairs.

Zushi, Knuckle, and Uvo were the first to arrive. Gon ushered them in eagerly, beaming from ear-to-ear as they came equipped with junk food and soda. Shortly after them, Ikalgo and Retz arrived after having bumped into each other at the entrance.

"I... didn't realize this was a party," Retz said, her hands on the straps of her backpack.

"Oh, it's a party for the rest of them, but the three of us have work to do," Gon reassured, smiling apologetically as she and Ikalgo toed off their shoes. "Make yourselves at home!"

The living room was buzzing with energy where Knuckle and Uvo were fighting over the blankets. Retz paused at the archway, just past the laundry room door where Killua stood guard, waiting for everyone to vacate the area. She glanced back at him with a faint look of confusion. He shrugged and gestured for her to join the fray.

Gon helped Retz with the projector. They stationed it at the kotatsu and, once there, it was just a matter of propping it up with books and hooking it into Gon's computer. They focused the screen until the image became "crystal clear" (it looked like shit, according to Zushi) and distributed the snacks in preparation to begin the film.

Gon settled in next to Zushi, who was busy with a bag of Cheetos. They all rotated bags through the film, sharing snacks, and shushing one another when the banter got too loud. Gon took notes while Killua sat there with his arms crossed, indifferent, even as Gon turned to him and whispered, "Shouldn't you be writing stuff down?" to which Retz replied, "I've only seen him take notes once in class."

"Yeah, and that was for Gon," Killua whispered back.

"I still have those," Gon confessed, tapping his pencil to his chin. "Haven't read them though..."

"For shame," Killua said before popping a Dorito into his mouth when Zushi held the bag across Gon to the rest of them. Killua stretched an arm back over the pillows and quietly criticized Gon's handwriting through the remainder of the film as Gon grumbled and erased things, flushed from the proximity of Killua's arm to his shoulders.

They went through two films. After the first film, the whole crew left to take a breather outside and walked around the block so Gon, Killua, and Retz had a chance to digest the content and plan ahead for their essay. Gon enjoyed that time as he watched from afar as his friends all but adopted Ikalgo into their group. He supposed it helped that Ikalgo was on the track team, which was entirely why Knuckle and Uvo ever found each other. It was a relief to see that his childhood best friend was doing just fine.

At the end of the afternoon, when the second film was complete, Retz snapped her notebook shut and interrupted this broadcast with fresh new tea. Gon was in the middle of opening the blinds when Retz said, "Now that all that's done, I have an interesting video to show you guys."

She extracted her laptop from her backpack and set it on the kotatsu. She swapped the HDMI cord from Gon's computer to her own, and Zushi whispered, "Ooh, this has got to be juicy. I wonder if it has to do with Ikalgo punching that guy—" Ikalgo elbowed him in the rib when Retz looked at him, eyes wide.

She pointed at Ikalgo and said, "I'm intrigued, but tell me later."

She tapped open a file on her computer and from the freeze-frame, Killua's heart plummeted. Gon stilled at the window, frozen by the familiar sight of Killua in his work lingerie, but instead of Kurapika, he was with a group of college kids at The Phantom .

"Fuck," Killua cursed under his breath as silence spread across the room. Retz hit play.

The video was bound to go viral—anything on TikTok had that possibility—but he underestimated how quickly it would spread. And, it seemed, he underestimated his work makeup was. It wasn't a complete disguise from humanity, or Retz, for that matter.

Zushi straightened, startled, and cried, "Is—Is that—? Holy shit— " He clasped his hands over his mouth as Killua glared at him and every last one of those idiots staring at him.

"Listen..." Killua started with an exhausted sigh, like seeing the video drained several years off of his life, "I can explain."

______

a/n: This is where I was gonna say "That's it! That's all the hxh you're getting from me!" but... I might take that back... Anyway! I hope you enjoyed OMGTWR!