Work Text:
"Why do you like my brother?" Kalluto asks Hisoka with his head resting in his hands, eyes narrowed almost protectively at the man. Hisoka supposes he’s always favored his eldest brother, from what little Illumi’s told him about his family life.
They are both in a small cafe, waiting for the dark-haired assassin. Illumi isn't late; they're only early. Hisoka likes to see the assassin’s oddly displeased face when he’s earlier than him. Kalluto is tagging along for a reason Hisoka doesn’t mind enough to wonder about.
The magician smiles at the question. There are many things he can say to it. He can lie, he can be the melodramatic fool many close to him presume he is, he can ignore it, he can tell the truth. He licks his lips teasingly, a mischievous grin growing. So many options to choose from.
In truth, what comes to mind at first isn't the usual answer one would hear from a person in love with another. Well, anyone sane, that is. His answer isn't hard to state, he isn't fishing desperately for results, and it wouldn't take a long to explain at all. However, it would take a while to understand for anyone but him and Illumi alone.
Though Kalluto's young indeed, he has a lifetime to comprehend.
The question, notwithstanding, isn't why. It's what. What doesn't he like of his companion? Or maybe it’s love. Obsession? Infatuation?
Hisoka licks his lips, some artificially sweetened taste from his gloss enlightening his taste buds, as he stares unashamedly at his lover’s younger brother. His mind lazily skips through the possibilities. How does he respond, indeed?
Illumi's affection is dangerous. Tastefully so. He quivers in pleasure just thinking about it.
Illumi's love can kill. Illumi’s love is a weapon. Illumi's love is a poison. It's a drug. It's a death contract only waiting to be fulfilled.
In short, to be loved by the man is to be imprisoned - Killua could certainly attest to that - or maybe it's to be set on death row if the affection is strong enough. Hisoka, as they are now in their current relationship, could be damned to an eternity in Hell, to be tortured and assaulted in every fashion under the Sun. Illumi's affection is a killer.
But Hisoka's always loved good threat.
The assassin's affection is the only one like it. It is a danger to not only anyone who stands in the way, but to whom of which it's directed towards. Hisoka craves anything precarious, anyone with the power to potentially kill him. Like Chrollo. Like Gon. Like Silva Zoldyck.
But, as he’s already established, the assassin is a drug. And Hisoka is addicted like no other.
Illumi's different. Every part of him, every feeling owned by him is a threat in itself. He was trained to be a killer, and the result turned out to be just marvelous. A man who could not be tamed, no part of him.
Hisoka was attracted to him for this reason. The threat he posed. He longed to fight with him to the death, to see who the ultimate winner would be between the two. He'd followed him for ages, spent every waking moment tracking down that scent if only for a taste of that aura, of that compelling poison. If they were to have a bit of fun as foreplay before the real event, so be it.
However, they gradually grew closer. It was strangers at first. Strangers who just happened to chance upon each other and understand each other's quirks and obsessions. Then they became co-workers almost. Illumi could contact him for aid, and Hisoka would happily make his way wherever to help out, maybe trigger a fight or two throughout the ordeal. And finally, he was in too deep. He'd spent so much time with the man, felt some part of what he had to offer, understood his understanding in life.
Almost frighteningly, one day he found that he had no desire to fight with him so soon, to kill him at all anytime close to the current date. How Illumi feels in the matter he has no idea. Though he’s not dead yet, so maybe that spells something in his favor.
Still, Hisoka reveled in the fact that he could be killed easily by the man he'd only slept with the night before. That the very man whose body he'd explored with a lustrous vigor, whose body lied right next to his in bed as they slumbered, had the power to break trees with his own bare hands. What could he do to his spine when he least expected it?
That at one moment they could kiss contentedly, and in the other there would be bloodshed and difficulty breathing.
Illumi's love as treacherous as rocky waters, and Hisoka just so happens to enjoy that.
So, what to say? He taps a long, thin finger over his pursed lips, a if he were thinking.
"Oh, his body is just wonderful," he opts to say, grinning at the boy and curling his tone into something of deeper, more lecherous waters. A predator over his prey. Kalluto immediately looks away from his golden eyes, cheeks flushing from the little glimpse into his brother’s sex life. Hisoka idly wonders if he’ll soon grow angry, demanding to know why he only liked the assassin for his body.
Sure, Illumi’s body is an added bonus. A simply delicious bonus. However, he’s in it for the poison, not the glass it comes in.
And so it was a something of a lie he’d told, one Kalluto may just find later on, yet a subtle truth he could discover in this tastefully tangled thing one may simply call love.
“Hisoka.” He turns his head back, smiling lazily at the figure standing tall behind his chair who arrives a few minutes after the conversation.
“Ah, Illu! I thought you would never make it.”
It takes great focus to see the nearly imperceptible twitch downward of Illumi’s thin-lined mouth or the slight narrow of his large, owl eyes, but Hisoka is able to clearly see them. And Hisoka grins, cocking his head to the side almost innocently at the sight.
It’s later on that Hisoka realizes, hilariously, that Kalluto is making it a point not to look his brother in the eye as they speak. He can see that Illumi has taken notice of it, but is quite confused over why.
Without clear reason to those at the small table with him, Hisoka throws his head back and laughs. He should speak about Illumi’s body more, if this is the reaction it warrants.