10:26 Open snap

— Killua shirtless, knee-deep in the ocean —

10:27 🏈🤼‍♂️ screenshot your snap!

10:27Could I talk to Killua?

10:28Please?

10:30Missed call from🏈🤼‍♂️

10:32 O sorry got distracted talking to Killua

10:28😡

12:06 Open snap

— Killua sitting on the back porch railing, already sunburnt —

"Dude, you look like Rudolph."

"Fuck you, I look amazing—Oh, shit, sorry. I didn't mean to cuss."

"I'm sure you didn't, mister. Best keep that language to yourself."

"Right, sorry Miss Umi, won't happen again."

— Zushi snickering behind the camera as his mother closes the patio door. Killua leaps off of the railing to attack him. —

"I swear to God—"

— The video cuts off —

12:10🏈🤼‍♂️ replayed your snap!

12:12Give me his number Zushi Roll 😡

12:13O sorry can't hear you over me not giving a fuck

12:13😡Zushi Rolllllll

12:14🥳💃🕺

13:46 Open snap

— Killua through the glass of a shop door, flipping the camera off. He's wearing a sunhat and sunglasses —

"Mr. Zoldyck, tell me, how does it feel being a celebrity?"

"Feels like I don't give a fuck that's what it feels like. Quit taking videos of me."

"But Mr. Zoldyck, what do you have to say to your adoring fans?"

— Killua leans in close, takes a sip from his drink straw, and lowers his sunglasses —

"The only thing you should get high on is life."

"Hypocrite."

— Killua shoves his hand into the camera and Zushi screams bloody murder —

13:51🏈🤼‍♂️ replayed your snap!

13:52Let me talk to him D:

13:52Plz Zushi D:

13:53Did he tell you what happened??

13:54I swear to God I didn't do anything I've never lied to you before so why would I now? Shal was my presentation partner in Spanish I borrowed his textbook and bought him coffee to make up for doing most of the work in our projects. It was shitty of me to use him for that but I haven't taken him out since I started seeing Killua

13:55O shit you were seeing Killua

13:55Like, Sexy Times seeing??

13:55🤭

13:56Lmao I'm just pulling your leg

13:56So this is about Shal? Wasn't he, like, super into you?

13:57Yeah D:

13:57I also... never apologized for that time you walked in on us making out...

13:58Yeah tell that to my therapist when you pay for my next appointment 🤲

13:58I'll consult with Killua

13:58THANK YOU

14:00And tell him that Shal kissed me and that I imMEDIATELY told him I just wanted to be friends. I doubt Shal's ever gonna talk to me again tho D:

14:00He made a lot of good memes imma miss em

14:01Yeah Shal's memes were pretty fire

14:01Who will be my meme dealer now D:

14:03LMAO Killua's got lit memes too bruh

14:03Guess you guys never talked memes tho huh 👅🍆

14:04Fuck off 😆 I'm an angel excuse you 😇

Killua had his lips around the straw of a Long Island ice tea mixed by one of Zushi's moms. He reclined back in the low beach chair he had pulled from the back of the Umis' jeep. With the sun on his sunscreen-lathered skin, he felt like he was in Heaven. The pulse of heat along his arms had him ascending into a blissful, calming sigh as he tipped his head to look at Zushi.

Zushi, with his partially Hispanic genes, had the olive skin tone that made for easy tanning. He was lying in the sand on his stomach, his head and arms perched on a rolled-up towel. Zushi blinked open one eye at him and smiled. "This is the dream, huh?" Zushi said.

"I can't believe you grew up here," Killua said. "This is..."

"Amazing."

"Yeah."

They lulled into silence. The ocean waves were crashing in and washing over Killua's muddled mind. He let it all fade away until Zushi asked, "Where did you grow up then?"

"Kukuroo, Oregon," he replied, clearing his throat. He pulled his knees up so that he could pinch his ice tea between them. The alcohol made his head swim a little when he turned to face Zushi. He needed more water but was too relaxed to get up for it. "Rainy all the time and cloudy. Pretty much sums up my family."

"Damn. Pretty area, though. Branch off of the Rockies, national forests... the works," Zushi said.

"I guess, yeah. My family's always been big hikers, so... I really got to know the trails in the area," he confessed. He shook his head then, frowning. "But I hate being so close. I'd rather be on the East Coast, I think. I wouldn't mind going to school in Seattle if it wasn't so damn expensive and if my parents didn't have a firm there."

"So you've been to Seattle?"

"Oh, yeah, I spent a lot of my summers there," he confessed. He adjusted the rim of the sunhat Zushi's mother gave him and smiled. "Alluka and I would just hang out at Pike's Place all day long. Spent my summers at the first ever Starbucks, you know. People watching."

"Now that is the dream. This here? Basic bitch dream," Zushi said, gesturing to the beach. Killua laughed, looking out over at where the back of the jeep was propped open and Zushi's mothers watched from afar. They were to far to hear them cussing.

Killua turned back to Zushi with a smile. Zushi sat up a little, his entire front now caked with sand. "Well, I'm gonna go for a swim to wash all this off."

"Sounds good. I'll hold down the fort," Killua promised.

Zushi pushed off and wandered up to the waves. Killua put his sunglasses down then and waved when Zushi turned back to face him. Zushi waved back before tipping back into the water. Killua tucked his hand against his mouth, hiding his giddy smile.

Zushi's phone lit on the towel next to him.

Snap from Gon Freecss.

Killua frowned at it. He reached over to pick up Zushi's phone, squinting at the dimmed screen where Gon's username was. The sight of it was so familiar on his own phone that, for a second, he smiled. The feel of it on his face—light, easy, energetic—reminded him that he wasn't supposed to feel like this when he saw Gon's name on his phone. It wasn't even his phone.

He set it down but, a moment later, he picked it up again and typed in Zushi's passcode.

Zushi had saved his chat with Gon and Gon had let him. Killua read through it, biting his thumbnail between his teeth as he did. He furrowed his brow at the name—Shal. So that was the rat bastard who Gon took out for coffee. Knowing it didn't change what Gon had said to Shal.

For a moment, he wanted an explanation. He had been so dead set on ignoring everything to do with Gon that an explanation never crossed his mind.

His thumbs hesitated over Zushi's keyboard.

14:11 🍣is typing...

14:12 Why did you tell Shal you liked him?

14:12 Killua???

14:12 🏈🤼‍♂️ is calling

14:12 Missed call from 🏈🤼‍♂️

14:13 🏈🤼‍♂️ is typing...

14:13 Just answer the fucking question

14:13 You know I don't like serious talks over text D:

14:14 Well suck it up and deal with it

14:14 I'm not fucking talking to you answer the question

14:15 OKAY okay give me a hot second

14:15 🏈🤼‍♂️ is typing...

14:17 I still LIKE other people I can't stop liking people but it's different when I'm with you. With Shal I liked him as a friend but I abused his grades to keep mine up. It wasn't until I met you that I even realized that I just liked him as a friend. That whole line between friends and WHATEVER was blurred before you and I would up letting people fuck with me and I didn't even realize it.

14:18 And if that makes me a fuck boy then fuck it yeah I screwed around with people but I always did it consensually. But bottom line I don't like Shal the same way he likes me, but I like him AS A FRIEND.

14:19🍣is typing...

14:19 Did you fuck with Zushi

14:19 WHAT

14:20 NO what gave you that idea??

14:20 Well since your line was blurred or whatever

14:21 Zushi's STRAIGHT I don't I wouldn't do that

14:21 I mean it'd be kinda hot if my roommate was gay... I thought about it before like back in high school wouldn't that be cool??

14:22 Not every gay guy would fuck you Freecss

14:22 Take me for example

14:22 D:

14:23 You don't mean that do you??

14:25 Can I call you? What's your number?

14:34 Killua's gonna call you later dude

14:34 How later???

14:35 I have a team get together tonight but I'll send you my schedule

14:35 He said and I quote: "Fuck his schedule. My terms, bitch" and then walked away

14:35 Shit okay his terms

14:36 Is he royally pissed at me?? I told him everything D:

14:36 He's screaming at the ocean

14:36 He just threw the lawn chair

14:37 D:

14:37 Tell him not to pull anything

14:38 He said (and again, I quote) "I'll pull what I want when I want where I want"

14:38 I'm assuming it's a euphemism

14:40 God that's sexy

14:40 He's so hot when he knows what he wants if ya know what I'm saying

14:41 I'm trying not to know what you're saying

14:41 brb Kill's on the run he's sprinting down the beach at top speed

14:41 the guy's like a fucking greyhound dude shit's made for running

14:42 Yeah I noticed he has especially good stamina

14:42 😳🗣

Killua didn't touch his phone for two days. He didn't so much as check the time on it. Instead, he stuffed it into his duffle and promptly forgot it existed as he let Zushi take the wheel. When they weren't hanging out with Zushi's moms, Zushi had them on the move. If money was involved, Zushi's mom would slap a twenty in her son's hand and say, "Spend it wisely," and they'd make the day out of it for the sake of their own wallets.

Surprisingly, a twenty could go pretty far. On the first day, they spent that time theater-hopping after paying for two tickets to Avatar II. After emerging from the chilly theater into the dense San Diego heat, they went back home for food and walked it to the beach where they cooled off in the ocean until dusk.

Killua's skin became pruny and pink. His nose started to peel on the second day without his phone. Zushi giggled about it until Killua peeled off an entire strip of transparent skin cells like a goddamn snake, at which point Zushi said, "Holy shit, you're shedding!"

"I'm just tryna live, leave me be," Killua whined.

Their twenty dollars that day had been halved by a boba shop down the road from Zushi's neighborhood. They sat on the bar top facing the street, sipping their drinks and watching the traffic roll by. Killua tucked his feet against the stool spokes and tapped idly at his sunburnt nose. He popped boba in his mouth and sipped on tea like he was living the dream.

The dream ended when Zushi asked, "What're you gonna do about Gon?"

"I don't know," he confessed. He propped his head on his chin and turned to look at Zushi. They had only been in San Diego a total of four days and somehow, Zushi looked more like himself. Dark, olive skin highlighted the edge of defined tan lines. He wore Hawaiian printed tank tops and frat boy shorts.

Killua never thought he'd say it, but Zushi had the makings of a frat dude bro. To top it off, Zushi was straight. He had all there was to it.

Zushi looked down at the counter top and said, "Are you gonna call him?"

"No," Killua said. Zushi looked up sharply, solidifying the hunch he had before. He was being too harsh. "I don't know. I get why he did it but that doesn't make it right, you know? Maybe I just shouldn't date book stupid jocks."

"Yeah, Gon's kind of an airhead," Zushi agreed with a sigh. "But he's your airhead right now."

"No he isn't," Killua huffed, sucking down a mouthful of bobas. He bit into them and swallowed them all down in one go. "Okay fine. Yeah, he's my idiot right now. I guess I have to call him whenever I decide. Did you actually walk in on Gon making out with Shal?"

"You read that?" Zushi laughed. Killua frowned at him. Zushi cleared his throat awkwardly and looked away. "Yeah, but I could tell Gon was majorly embarrassed. I mean, the guy's fine with PDA—he hangs off all of the players on the team like a monkey—but kissing... not so much."

"Oh," Killua hummed. He thought about all of the times they made out in the locker room.

Rationally, he wasn't mad at Gon. Gon's excuses made sense, but the fact that an excuse was even needed rubbed Killua the wrong way. He wanted to avoid a situation like this, but somehow, he had stumbled right into it. It was selfish of him to wish he had stayed at the gym longer the day he eavesdropped on Gon and Shal.

This mean that logically, Killua wouldn't be able to hold back if he saw Gon again. The chances of seeing Gon again were so impossibly high that Killua couldn't imagine a time where Zushi had successfully kept them apart. At the moment, he wasn't sure what he would do first: Punch Gon or kiss the fuck out of him.

"Could you give me his number?" Killua asked. Zushi raised an eyebrow at him. "So I can call him later."

"Yeah, sure," he said.

Killua had some semblance of self-control, so he waited for a time when he was entirely alone. He could see it on Zushi's face, wondering if Killua had called Gon already, wondering if Killua was keeping the final result from him. Killua would give him a flat stare from over the dinner table that evening and the next.

And then, Christmas happened.

One of Zushi's mothers was Catholic, so the morning of the holiday, she squeezed Killua by the shoulders and said, "You're absolutely welcome to come to mass with us."

"Oh, no, I'm fine here," Killua said with a bright smile. "Thank you, though."

Meanwhile, Zushi's other mom was fiddling with Zushi's tie while Zushi whined, "I can do it myself!" His mother batted his hands away and said, "Hush up and let me do this for you."

Killua waved farewell from the front porch as they drove off down the street. He could see Zushi in the back of the Morano waving back until they were around the corner and out of the neighborhood. When they were gone, Killua swung open the front door and locked it behind him on his way to the guest bedroom.

The Umis set Killua up in their spare room in the basement. Their basement was small, cozy, and came equipped with an extra bath. The windows were almost too small for a lizard to fit through, which Killua thought might be a hazard, but he didn't mind the all encompassing dark in the evenings. In the mornings, he could barely tell if the sun came up at all and wound up sleeping in to unreasonable hours. His five in the morning schedule was sure to be fucked.

Killua shut his bedroom door and pulled his phone out. He brought up Gon's contact and, thumb hovering over the call button, hesitated.

I won't be able to turn him away.

Do I want to say 'no', though?

Killua pressed the button and put his phone to his ear. He listened to the ringer go off for several seconds. His heart started to beat faster, heavier in his chest as it drew near the end of the attempted call.

He swallowed and it pained him to consider it. His hand shook. What if Gon had decided he wasn't worth waiting for? Killua figured his own narcissism prevented him from considering that sooner. As if he wasn't worth it.

The thought terrified him enough to hang up, but before he could, Gon answered the call.

"Hey, this is Gon."