𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐊𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐲 (𝖪𝖺𝗅𝗅𝗎𝗍𝗈 𝗑 𝖱𝖾𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗋）

006

Your hand impulsively reaches out towards his face, lightly grazing his cheek before something unexpected happens.

...

Kalluto freaks out as soon as your finger brushes the side of his face and in response, he drops you onto the cold, hard, ground.

His eyes widened for a split second, he then flinched backwards while simultaneously moving his arms up in a defensive gesture, dropping you in the process. Kalluto stared unmovingly, his heartbeart accelerating much to his dismay. He swiftly folded his arms back, like he was always trained to.

To say the very least, Kalluto was having a little trouble processing literally everything that has happened in the last minute.

'She was staring at me because...she thought I was handsome..? Me, handsome? Mother always said my looks were okay compared to big brother Killua's. But then again, I don't believe she's ever met Killua..Does this mean she sees me as attractive?'

'...I'm glad...'

And for the very first time, Kalluto felt a strange warmth in his chest. It was as if he was being engulfed in a hug by the core of comfort itself. For this brief moment, Kalluto felt like there was nothing holding him back, not his family, not his mother, not killua, he felt as though he was separate from them. Yes, for this moment Kalluto felt the imaginary shackles that once restrained him, break free. The only thing he could grasp onto was you. Every encounter with you echoed throughout his head. This sudden warmness was different from the feeling he got from interacting with you before.
Entirely different.

Prior to this, he had still been carrying his silly insecurities with him, feeling inferior to those around him. His whole life actually, had just been Kalluto attempting to be on par with his siblings. In his eyes, he was nowhere near to their skill level or potential. The only one giving him attention was Kikyo, causing Kalluto to shadow her most of his life. When he attempted to join the Phantom Troupe and then got told that he wasn't good enough, he felt no different than before. Perhaps a little disappointed, sure, but at this point he just learned to deal with it.

When you came along, showered him with compliments, clung onto him like nothing else mattered, defended him like no one else, and looked at him like he was some sort of rare treasure, he felt...happy? Yes, he believes this to be the case. Happy, grateful, glad, and so awfully protective. These are what he allowed himself to feel when interacting with you the past two days, though still being burdened by the haunting thought "I'm not good enough."

However, in that short while you stared him in the eye and complimented him, he came to a realization that you cared for him, not his siblings. You were looking at him, and not anybody else. Those lingering insecurities soon got pushed away, allowing a new warmth to take over.

'Is this what it's like to have a friend..?'

The warmth soon dimmed down, leaving Kalluto feeling lighter than before, more hopeful maybe. Yes, unfortunately his insecurities did come back right after. That sort of thing can't exactly be cured in an instant. Still, he felt something shift somewhere inside of him. What changed exactly? He couldn't really tell you...

Opening up to you still may understandably take a while, he will still get annoyed by you, he most definitely won't let you braid his hair(by choice), he still wants to punch you for what you did to his room, and he also has no problem dropping you on the floor multiple times.
On the other hand, he would kill anyone who so much as hurt your feelings, protect you with everything he has, would probably give you anything you really wanted if you asked him nicely, would get jealous if he saw you talk with his other siblings, and always wants to be with you incase something were to harm you.