Promises

Sunsets were always something to be treasured. They always told the end of a good or a bad day, ending it beautifully. But there was something about sunsets that made them look so lonely. Something so flawless shouldn't seem so lonely, but yet it was. Beauty always comes with a cost, and the sunset's costs were to be lonely. That's why the clouds always try to reach for the sun as it sets. They loved the sun more than anything and they didn't deem it being lonely as a fair cost, who would? So day after day they tried to reach out for the sun just before it disappeared under the horizon, trying their best to reach the lonely sun and try to make friends with it. But day after day the clouds will fail but that didn't make them stop for they would show up once more the next day and the next after that. Maybe that was what made sunsets so beautiful? The clouds determination to make sure the sun will never be lonely again was just beautiful but heart-wrenching all the same. Or so Killua thought.

Sunsets usually meant the end of a day's training or the end of the bloodshed he had caused that day. He would always look up (no matter where he was) and watch the sunset until the sun disappeared, then go back to what he was originally doing.

But that was what sunsets usually meant for him. Ever since he has meant Gon it has been so different, the sunsets made him feel something so entirely different, see something he has never seen before. Usually when he saw the sunset, he would think that it was just the sun and the clouds where the clouds endlessly chasing after the sun, but not anymore, not since he met Gon. Now when he looked up at the sky before it turned dark, he started to see himself as the sun and Gon as the clouds. Kurapika was the pink that suddenly appeared and Leorio was the orange that consistently watched over the pink.

Seeing this, Killua would blink and turn away, only to turn back to see that the sun was no longer there. He would once more blink in disappointment and be angry at himself for missing the ending of the day before he would turn and walk away with his hands stuffed in his pockets glumly.

Gon noticed Killua's pattern to always watch the sunset after a few weeks of knowing him, and found it unique how he would always watch it no matter what. Gon would smile and stop talking to let Killua watch the sunset, only to begin talking once more when Killua looked away and the sky was already dark.

This routine went on for as long as the two had known; only pausing when the rain had made it impossible to see-Killua instead would stare at the clock for the normal amount of time the sunsets would last.

The routine certainty didn't stop when the ground was covered in blood and tears were being spilt. Gon had remembered that day clearly; for it was a day he had never wanted to come.

Both of them had been fighting an enemy just too strong for them. They did eventually win, but it came at a cost that no one would've ever wished.

Killua had stared into Gon's eyes, trying to focus in on the honey ones that stared down tearfully at him. He was about to say something before he noticed something out of the corner of his eye, the day was coming to an end. Gon had looked up and understood, holding Killua tightly to him as they both watched the sunset together. Only something was different this time and it wasn't the fact that Killua was dying in Gon's lap, no. The former assassin had broken the silence, something that had never been done before in their routine.

"Look..." he weakly pointed to the sky, his finger shaking from the strain as he let it drop back to his side. "The clouds finally… reached the-… the sun." And it looked so. The sun looked to be happier than it normally did and the clouds gave the allusion of hugging the once lonely ball of light. Gon had weakly smile despite himself, tears still falling.

"Yeah," he whispered a bit cheerfully. "they have." When the sun had disappeared, Gon looked back down at Killua to see that he had closed his eyes, no longer breathing. Gon hugged his friend close to him, his cries echoing loudly around him as he mourned for the boy in his arms.

At his funeral Gon made sure it started when the sun started to set and end when the sun was no more, then he casually laid down the flowers in his hands and walked away with shadows covering his eyes.

The setting sun had meant something different for Killua, and so had it for Gon once upon a time. Now whenever Gon looked at the sunset, he had to turn away remembering the times he had spent silently watching them with Killua and remembering the promise he made to himself ever since that day after the funeral.

He would never look at another sunset as long as Killua wasn't by his side.