❛ INTO HXH ❜→ ᵏⁱˡˡᵘᵃ ˣ ᵒᶜ

021 ✦ Shoe Sizes

"Juice, you idiot, you got a fever!"

The hazel-eyed girl had accidentally overworked herself from hacking down the brick wall, and her older sibling was reprimanding her as they walked out of the dark tunnel. She sighed, putting her hand over Kurapika's, whose hand rested on her forehead. Pulling it away gently, she placed her own hand there, and she did, in fact, have a fever.

"It's not a big deal, it's just a fever, Kurapika," she muttered, grabbing a blanket out of his bag and plopping onto the floor. "No big deal, I'm just going to take a nap now. . ."

Kurapika rubbed his temples and looked down at his sister, lying defenseless on the floor. "You are such a dumbass sometimes."

"I know."

"Take a nap."

"Already on it."

Juice slowly fell asleep, promptly ignoring all of the other applicants and her friends. Since they didn't have to spend fifty hours in that room, they had nearly two days they'd have to wait before they could move on to the Fourth Phase. Juice went to sleep hoping that there would no trouble with the other applicants and her friends, she didn't want to affect the timeline any more than she already had.

Killua looked her over as she slept, curled into a ball, and completely covered with the blanket. He was curious as to how she came up with such a plan as she did, and in only a few seconds. He was amused by her, and the other boy his age he had met. They were interesting, and deep down, he was glad he met them.

He looked around the circular room with calculating eyes, he was scoping out everyone else that had already passed. Not many, only around ten, had passed. Each was sitting or standing peacefully by themselves, finding a way to occupy their time. The boy glanced behind him to look at Gon, who was sitting by Juice.

He muttered something to himself before sitting down next to Gon, who was now polishing his fishing rod. Killua looked it over, and remembered some of what Gon, Juice, and he had talked about in the First Phase.

"Hey, Gon, remember I said I'd teach you how to skateboard if you teach me how to use the fishing rod?" he asked, gaining the green-haired boy's attention. He looked up at his friend after a second, a new look of excitement on his face.

"Oh, yeah! Now that we have free time, we can teach each other!" he grinned, propping his weapon onto his shoulder. He stood up and brushed off his shorts. "It's too bad Juice is asleep, I wanted to learn how to rollerskate, too."

The silver-haired boy looked down at her again, and this time, she completely sprawled on the floor, the blanket barely covering her. Kurapika, who sat on the other side of her, fixed her blanket and reassured the boys.

"She'll be up in a little while, don't worry about her."  The two nodded and walked further towards the middle of the room for space, prepared to attempt to teach each other their natural skills.

=/=/=

"No, Gon, you need to shift your leg weight in the way you want to turn, and make sure your feet are positioned correctly."  Killua was ready to ready to bang his head against the stone wall when Gon had finally managed. "Yes, like that!"

"This is so cool!" Gon yelled, quiet enough not to annoy the other applicants. However, yelling that made him lose his focus, and in an attempt to stay balanced, he hopped off the skateboard. Unfortunately, the skateboard went flying.

Gon couldn't stop it as it headed straight for a certain girl's sleeping figure, and his eyes widened. "Juice, heads up!"  Killua yelled, waking up the girl. Her eye twitched at the sight of the skateboard, and she swiftly sat up, avoiding the yellow board just in the nick of time.

"Sorry, Juice!" Gon called to her, walking over to the groggy girl. "I kind of lost control," he muttered.

"Yeah, it's fine, Gon," she replied, her glare so cold the boy barely believed her. He sweatdropped, and picked up the skateboard, walking back over to where Killua was waiting. The bluenette rubbed her forehead and laid back down, and after a few minutes, under the realization that she couldn't fall back asleep, she sat up and leaned against Kurapika.

"I want to sleep." she stated, closing her eyes. Kurapika felt her forehead, there was no fever.

"You've already been sleeping for a few hours. Since you don't have that fever anymore, why don't you go with Killua and Gon? They're teaching each other stuff, you can teach them how to rollerblade."

The conversation the three of them had had in the First Phase flashed through the girl's mind, and she sighed, standing up. "Okay." she agreed, smiling at Kurapika. He smiled back, and Juice walked to the middle of the room where Killua and Gon were messing around.

"Gon, didn't you say you wanted to learn how to skate?" Juice called, grabbing his attention. Gon watched as she pulled her skates out of her bag and approached them. He eagerly nodded.

"Yes! Can you teach me?" he grinned, and Juice grinned back. 

"Of course!"  She handed Gon her skates. "Put these on," she instructed. She heard irritated footsteps walking towards her, and turned around to see Killua stomping towards her.

"Hey, what are you doing?! I'm busy teaching him!" he argued. Juice took the skateboard out of his hands and propped it by her side.

"Well, you'll be teaching me now, cool?" she said. 

Killua huffed, but he didn't disagree. "You're too difficult to teach."

A small tick-mark appeared on the side of her forehead. "Hey! No I'm not!"

Killua laughed, flicking her forehead in the process. "Just joking. Maybe."  He paused for a minute. "Hey, Gon, what are you doing?"

Juice looked at the boy sprawled out of the floor, attempting to put the skates on his feet. He could barely fit them on, but eventually, he fastened them tight.

"Um, Gon. . ." Juice stated. "Are. . . are you bending your toes in?"

"Yeah, but they still fit!" Gon exclaimed. Both Killua and Juice sweatdropped. 

"Ahh. . . shoe sizes are a thing, " she muttered. "Gon, take those off, they're too small for you."

Gon let out a disappointed sigh and muttered before taking them off. "Alright. . ."

"What about me?" Killua asked, taking the colorful skates from Gon after he took them off. "I think I can fit in them."

He attempted to put them on, and after a minute, fastened them. He wobbled over to Juice to support himself upright. When Killua leaned against her, she nearly screeched, but she kept it inside. She studied her rollerblades on Killua's feet, and a smile dared to form on her lips.

"Killua, lift one foot for me," she instructed. Killua's eyebrows furrowed as he attempted to steady himself. Once his foot was lifted, the shoe came falling down, and it landed on the ground with a thud.

"Ahahahaha! Small feet!"  Juice bent over laughing, and Killua lost balance and fell over. He angrily slipped the shoe off with ease and threw it at the girl, who dodged it.

"Shut up! I do not!"

"Feet smaller than a girl's, Killua? Who would've thought!"  She continued to shake with laughter, and Killua pouted as he sat on the floor. Gon didn't really get it, but he cracked a smile anyway.

"Forget about it, let's just do something else," he muttered. Eventually, Juice calmed down, and they found something else to do. They messed around playing random games, until a loud buzzer somewhere in the tower went off, announcing the end of the Third Phase. The applicants that had passed were taken out of the tower and allowed to bask in the sun they had missed before being explained the rules for the Fourth Phase.

A man with spiky purple hair and large glasses introduced himself as their examiner, and he looked over everyone with calculating eyes. 

"And now, for the Fourth Phase. . ."

sorry it's a filler chapter >.<

Word Count: 1373