"What colors do you want on your bracelet, Killua?"

Why did Gon have to say his name like that? It was weird. Killua tried to hide his discomfort, busying himself by studying the bracelet-making instructions Bisky had so carefully written out. A task made difficult when Gon started leaning on him, arms around his shoulders, craning to get a better look. It wasn't that he minded the contact, but it kept taking him by surprise, put him on edge. Maybe this is how friends always were with each other, he thought, eyes quickly darting around the room to see how the other pairs were getting along. Some of the kids had arms already stacked with fraying, sun-faded bracelets, obvious remnants of summers past. He was already so far behind.

"Killua…" Gon's voice stirred him from his investigation, which wasn't too embarrassing or anything.

Killua chewed his lip as he tried to refocus on Gon's question. "Uhh…"

It was probably completely evident he had no idea what friends did.

"Can I have blue?" Killua asked finally. God, he couldn't even answer a stupid question without totally freaking out. Not that Gon had seemed bothered by it or anything, but still.

"Duhhh." Gon said, pulling one of those plastic boxes from his backpack. From Killua's cursory observations, it seemed a pretty ubiquitous accessory for holding string. Everyone had come prepared but him, it seemed.

"How am I supposed to know what you have… Let me see that!"

Gon placed the container in Killua's hand, their fingers brushing for a half of a second. Killua popped open the lid, resolving to ignore the signals his body was putting out at the brief contact. And there was certainly enough there to distract him. The box was portioned into tons of little sections, each one filled to the brim with a rainbow of color, individual strands snaking their way free. The effect was a happy, bright sort of mess. It was sort of impressive, actually, especially in comparison to the basic primary colors the counselors had supplied.

"Jeez, I thought you said you didn't know how to make a bracelet. Why do you have this all stuff anyway? Isn't this kind of girly?"

Gon shrugged, nonplussed. "It's my Aunt Mito's, from when she was little." he paused, then said, thoughtfully, "Is it girly? Hmm. I don't think I really care anyway. I mean, look how pretty!"

He was holding up silvery thread, metallic and thicker than the rest. Killua's eyes lit up, imagining what a bracelet made out of that would look like.

"You want this one, Killua? Unless you want to use it for mine, I guess. But, hm, I think this one should be yours. It kind of matches you, see?"

It matched him? But… Gon had just called it pretty. He was so weird. Couldn't even compliment people normal. Boys aren't supposed to be… that's probably not even what he had meant. Gon was just being nice, was all. Offering up the good stuff was probably another friend thing he didn't know about.

"But that's your nicest one! Don't waste it on me, dummy." Killua scoffed.

"I won't be wasting it!" he protested indignantly. "You're the dumb one. What other colors do you want?"

Ugh, his face was so hot. Why was it so stupid hot in the craft room? And jeez, Gon was bossy. Dictating even the color strings in Killua's bracelet. Or maybe, which might be more worrisome, Killua was just a big pushover. He sighed.

"The black? The light blue. And, ah, the darkish purple-blue one."

Gon got right to work, wrapping each color around his forearm three times to which was, according to the instructions, an estimate wrist size. He ripped them with his teeth, being weird and wild self, then made a knot. Despite himself, Killua was kind of getting into the idea of it now. If he was going to have to wear a dumb friendship bracelet, it might as well be the coolest one. Gon was sticking the string in his mouth again now, using his teeth the hold the knot steady while his fingers started working out the pattern.

"Y-you, ah, didn't tell me which colors you want," Killua said quickly, realizing he had kind of been staring.

"Oh yeah!" Gon said, mouth full of string. "Green."

"You're supposed to tape them to the table, not put them in your mouth, weirdo."

Gon ignored him, face screwed up in concentration as he looped and knotted the strings around. He was going kind of cross-eyed trying to see was he was doing. Killua rolled his eyes. So dumb. Couldn't Gon just do it the way he was supposed to in the first place? But whatever, he had a bracelet of his own to make. He dug into the box, deliberately carefully between the several green shades, landing on a dark foresty one.

"Hm. Okay, green. What else?"

"Oh, just green!" came the answer through clenched teeth.

"But you're not supposed to do one color! It's a four-string pattern! Don't you want it to look cool?"

Gon shrugged in response, and spit out the beginnings of the bracelet, apparently having given up on using his teeth. Instead, he was pinning it to the table with the blade of the scissors he had neglected earlier. The bracelet now secured, albeit a little recklessly, he elaborated.

"I'm sure it'll look cool if Killua makes it. Get started already, or I'm gonna be done with, like, five of 'em before you've even done one row."

The challenge distracted Killua from being too embarrassed that Gon had called him cool. Because that's what he had been insinuating, yeah? Not that it mattered. He got started, quickly and precisely making his knot, laying out identical green strands. Killua could beat anyone at anything. Even at making lame friendship bracelets.