A Heart Frozen Over (MHA X HxH)

13

There was a slightly shocked silence. Tsukauchi, Echo, Silva, and Mr. Aizawa were all speechless. Aizawa crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes slightly. "I thought you weren't smart" Echo gasped. "hey! He's plenty-" Gon giggled, cutting her off. "Math and numbers I'm bad at, but strategy and combat I'm pretty good with" Aizawa glanced at Tsukauchi, and he nodded slightly. "Interesting" Aizawa finally said. Tsukauchi smiled a little. "You're a natural kid. Say, what's your name?" He smiled. "Gon Freeces, Mr. Tsukauchi" He was about to ask another question when Aizawa spoke. "Remember how I told you about that kid who's living with me?" His eyes widened in shock and slight concern, then nodded. "that's him?" he nodded, and Tsukauchi quickly scanned over his features. "Are you sure your quirk doesn't let you catch faint scents? Because that seems a little bit unbelievable" Silva muttered. Gon shook his head, "No, it's not. I told you, I was born with it" Suddenly Aizawa sighed and put a hand to his head. "Alright, question time's over. Freeces, we're going home"

He followed Aizawa out of the restaurant, then they walked for quite some time before he spoke. "Why didn't you alert anyone? Going for it yourself instead?" He smiled. "I had no way of knowing the situation, but there wasn't anybody else in the room with that woman. You were nearby anyways, I knew you'd follow me" Dawn let out a short faint purr, Gon stroked her head a little. Aizawa hummed in contemplated for a few moments, then glanced over his shoulder at him. "Tell me, do you have experience in combat situations?" He nodded once, Aizawa's eyebrows raised slightly. "Huh. If you had shown to be capable of lying, I probably wouldn't have believed you" Then he sighed as they turned a corner. "That's an issue. There's this thing called 'rational deception'-" Gon laughed. "Oh! Like what Echo said. Sometimes I have to lie so I come off as normal, I don't lie to you though" That was true, but not exactly. Sure he hadn't lied, but sometimes he didn't tell the whole truth.

Aizawa blinked, then looked back to the road they were walking along. "Good. What would you tell someone if they asked you if you were emotionally balanced?" Gon blinked. "I'm not sure what that means but I'd say I was fine" he nodded. "Have you told anyone except for your two friends and Tsukauchi about your fake emotions?" He shifted Dawn a little in his arms. "Only that rude employee when Echo was trying to get her to let me stay" Aizawa hummed in thought. "I haven't had much time to get you ready for U.A, but it's in a year and a half. I probably should have tested your potential a while ago" Gon shrugged a little. "I mean sure, I don't mind-" He suddenly paused when his eyes caught something. It was a sign. The sign said, 'now hiring, Nakuta Island' with a photo next to it. Gon's heart cracked a little, the island that was depicted didn't resemble whale island in any shape or form but it still made him remember.

"Mrrow" Dawn meowed loudly, nuzzling his shoulder. Aizawa paused and Gon averted his eyes from the photo, then kept walking with that small smile. "my bad, didn't realize I stopped" He lied. Gon had taken to doing that when his spells happened, playing them off like he was just lost in thought. Of course, the three people who knew about his condition knew the real reason but they let him get away with it. "Alright. First, can you find your way back to my apartment without your phone?" Aizawa asked. Gon blinked. "Well, sure. Even if I didn't know the layout, if I find the way I came I can probably get back by following my own scent" They kept walking, but Gon realized that Aizawa wasn't heading back to the house. He paused, then pointed down the street they should've turned on. "isn't the house that way?" Aizawa sighed. "yes, but we aren't going there" Gon blinked, then caught back up with him as he didn't stop with him.

They arrived at a large building, Gon recognized the insignia on it. U.A? "Why are we here?" he handed Gon a visitors badge and walked through the gates, Gon followed close behind. "The school has the resources I need to test your potential. Plus you'll be going here eventually if you make it in, it wouldn't hurt to know where things are" Gon nodded, then they kept walking. Eventually they got to a room that appeared to be a gym, but with accommodations for a whole handful of quirks. Aizawa went into a back room and brought out some materials, then set them down. "This is the basic test I do with all my classes, minus the long jump and two running tests. You've already proven your exceptional at those things" He handed Gon a grip strength tester. "Try this" Gon was more worried about breaking the strength tester than getting a good score, he ended up getting 105 KGs. Aizawa set up a few things on the floor, then proceeded to do 3 other tests. Seated toe touch, repeated side steps, and situps.

After he was done, Aizawa nodded in approval. Not full on 'I'm so proud of you' approval, but a quiet acknowledgement that he had some potential. "There would usually be a ball throw, but not only do we not have time for that, you're not technically supposed to be here so you can't cause a disruption" Gon nodded, standing up and lifting Dawn into his arms. He'd ended up having to do the situps with her on his lap and the side steps with her in his arms, but it didn't hinder him that much. Aizawa sighed, then cleaned up the small mess they made doing the tests. "You may go back to doing whatever you were doing, there's work that needs to be done" He said tiredly.

Gon was on his way back to the hideout, after texting himself the location of the school of course. He just walked, keeping his practiced resting face. It wasn't a smile, but it wasn't blank either. He had practiced this face for about a week before he mastered it. "Hey Gon!" He glanced over his shoulder, only to smile a little as he saw Shim running towards him. "hey Shim" She caught up to him with a winded look, then he noticed how she looked kind of concerned. "That Mac donalds I work at, someone tried to kill someone there!" He nodded. "yeah, it was that rude employee who tried to force me to leave the store because Dawn wasn't a certified therapy animal" her eyes widened. "How- how do you know that?" He stroked Dawn a little and she purred slightly. "I was there, she made it look like suicide but I caught her scent on the knife" Her eyes gleamed. "Woah! You helped solve that case?" He nodded. "yeah" She rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry that you had to...ya know...see that. I never did, can't imagine looking at all the blood-"

"Mrrow" Dawn ended a spell as his mind started to drift to Killua's death, Gon snapped out of the memory almost before it began playing through his head. "Say, where exactly are you going?" Shim asked curiously, ignoring Dawn. "Oh, to the hideout" She blinked in confusion and Gon smiled in her direction. "Echo and Silva's hangout spot, I usually go talk to them when Mr. Aizawa makes me go outside for a few hours each day"

"Maybe you could...come hang out with me?" Shim suggested, blushing a little and looking away. I guess...it wouldn't hurt right? He'd been friends with the other two for about a year, nothing happened to them. Maybe the dark spell in his life was over, maybe he could try letting in new people. So far, those two girls were the only people he'd really let in. Sure he lived with Aizawa, but he didn't really grow any attachments. They honestly didn't interact much, and when they did it was orders, questions, or Aizawa checking in on his progress with expressing fake emotions. "Sure" She glanced back over at him with a bright smile, he smiled back. "Great! I might not have a hideout place like those other two girls, but my older brother made a tree house a few years ago and let me use it" She offered. Gon shrugged. "Sounds fine to me"

He and Shim hung out all the time after that point, he still visited Echo and Silva's hideout the most often though. Gon slowly felt the walls his mind had used to protect him from loss start to crumble as months passed. He felt emotions a little more clearly, and quite a few times he actually experienced genuine happiness. About 4 months later however, something happened. Something small that would have a long lasting effect Gon was not prepared for.

1510 words

To be continued...