Chapter four

Your eyes were met with a pair of striking gray orbs.

"Chrollo?" Pakunoda uttered, referring to the newcomer.

Your entire face warmed as you stared right at the boy by the doorway. He looked really pale, had chin-length dark hair, and a pair of entrancingly doe eyes.

Chrollo, Paku had called him. This was the boy who all your friends seemed to admire. The knowledge filled you with a feeling of awe as well as curiosity.

After the brief staredown, you attempted to make your presence smaller, shifting close to Sarasa just as the boy fully went through the door. In doing so, you completely missed how the boy's own face had flushed a subtle shade of pink from the little staredown you shared.

Little did the both of you know, the two other girls didn't miss the reactions, making them share knowing looks.

"Hiii, Chro!" Sarasa greeted enthusiastically, waving a hand.

"Sarasa," he nodded before finally looking again at you.

You felt a light nudge from the girl beside you, bringing you out of your skittishness and making you look up to formally relay your name to him.

Hearing your voice, the boy was silent for a moment before he too introduced himself, "Nice to meet you, 'm Chrollo."

After that, the two of you fell completely silent, making the other occupants of the room sweat as they watched the exchange. What awkwardness!

Paku took it upon herself to break the stillness, asking the newcomer, "So, what's up, Chro? Need help with anything?"

Chrollo blinked once before composing himself and answering, "O-Oh, I was wondering if I could use the player today to watch this." He grabbed a tape he'd kept from within his button-up shirt, making the three of you perk up and look on in curiosity.

"Wow! Is that another Gelman learning tape?" Sarasa asked.

"Well, no, not exactly Gelman. The label on this says it's for Jannan, if I'm correct."

Both Paku and Sarasa yelled in surprise while your mouth fell slightly agape, simply too impressed by the boy's seemingly endless desire to learn. Seriously, he was already apparently good at Gelman, and now this?

Amidst your awe, you couldn't help but blurt out, "That's so cool..."

And although you'd expected the small slip to garner no reaction, you were proven wrong when the boy stiffened and, to Sarasa and Paku's shock, uncharacteristically squeaked out, "...Thank you!"

The exchange made you two skittish yet again, but before the room could fall into a full on awkward silence, Pakunoda answered Chrollo's earlier inquiry, informing him that you guys had just finished using the player and that he was free to use it himself.

The dark-haired boy nodded, pleased with the approval. He excused himself politely to Sarasa, Pakunoda, and yourself before heading over to the player. He placed the tape into the reader, clicked on the play button, and waited for the TV to crackle to life.

You watched as the boy sat down on a chair and took out a pad of paper and a pencil. He took down notes as he went through the language lesson, showing no sign of him struggling in any manner, which was, again, very cool to realize.

While observing Chrollo, you missed the quiet exchange between Sarasa and Paku.

Seeing your and Chrollo's shy interactions, the girls were a bit surprised since they'd initially expected you to immediately hit it off. Though they guessed they failed to take into account Chrollo's more quiet nature.

But thankfully, they decided to come up with a little plan, one that would allow you and the boy to spend some time alone and make you get to know each other.

"I just remembered!" Sarasa yelped out, slapping a palm against her forehead while you looked at her with curiosity. "Sheila told me to help her with something for a bit!"

To the side, Pakunoda sent the smaller girl a look of understanding. Their plan was underway.

"?" You tilted your head. "Do you need me to come with and help?"

"Eh, no worries." She shook her head, lying through her teeth. "Gimme a moment to do it quickly, and I'll run back here so that we can continue the tour."

You saw no reason to argue with that, so you nodded. "Okay, I'll wait for you here then."

"Paku," Sarasa called out. "Sheila said to ask for your help if I saw you around; can you come with me?"

At this, the girl with the buzzcut immediately nodded, "Sure, let's go so we can finish early and you guys can go back to touring around."

Without giving you time to offer a hand a second time, the two left the room, leaving you alone.

Well, not so much.

Your mouth, which had fallen open in disbelief, slowly shut as you turned your attention to the only other occupant of the room, who sat quietly at the front, still deeply into his concentration.

Approaching the seat beside Chrollo, you quietly sat down, making sure not to create any noise that would disturb the boy from his task.

You glanced at the dark haired boy, before turning your attention towards the TV screen. The lesson was in the only language you understood, so you were able to follow along.

The speaker was moderately paced, which allowed for an easy learning curve. Although you couldn't say you were anywhere near being fluent after watching a bit, you were able to get most of the basics down.

As the speaker droned on, your interest became more and more captive, and before long you were finally deeply fixated on the lesson, noting everything down like the pale boy was.

Taking every step seriously, you listened close, whispering back the words and phrases being taught and unknowingly catching the attention of the male beside you.

"Now let us proceed with some common phrases to use every day," the announcer said, making you subtly nod your head along as if to indicate you were following along.

"Good morning," the voice on the TV said in Jannan, and you repeated it, stumbling a bit on your pronunciation. At the same time, you faintly heard the boy's voice beside you, uttering the same words but with more certainty.

"Good bye,"

"Good b-bye...?"

"Good bye,"

"Nice to meet you,"

"Nice to-" You copied along, pursing your lips as you thought of the next words to the expression, having just barely remembered the words to complete it.

"Uhh, what did he say again...?" You furrowed your brows in contemplation, looking up at the ceiling as you struck a blank. You tried once again, "Nice to m-"

"–meet you" A voice suddenly came beside you, completing the greeting and reminding you of what you missed. You blinked and turned your head towards the speaker.

As Chrollo uttered those words, he looked at you with an expectant look, which you took as a signal to follow after him.

"...Nice to meet you," you repeated his words, smiling towards the end.

The dark-haired boy's face pulled up into a smile as he replied, "You too."

Just like that, the two of you looked at one another before sharing beaming grins.

"You're a fast learner," Chrollo forgo all shyness prior to the interaction as he remarked, impressed by your progress, "Are you sure this is the first time you watched this learning module?"

"Thank you." You smiled back, feeling the same lack of shyness as he did. "Yeah, it is. But I probably wasn't as fast or good as you. I mean, you already know Gelman, and now you're even learning another language."

The boy humbly looked back at his paper, thinking back to when he first started studying the language. "Jannan seems to just be a dialect of Gelman, though. So it's easier for me to learn the basics and go from there. I'm sure anyone can do that if they really try."

"But, that's still so cool," you insisted, making the other flush. "If I get Jannan down, I want to try learning Gelman too. Maybe then I can finally understand what's happening when we watch power cleaners."

"You know Mighty Sweepin' Power Cleaners?" The boy perked up, earning a nod from you. He excitedly asked, "Who's your favorite cleaner?"

"I only watched it for the first time today," you answered. "But my favorite is Red, What about you?"

Hearing this, the boy's eyes widened by a tiny fraction. "Mine's red too!"

With this shared interest, the two of you continued to talk, with the boy divulging with you all he knew about the show with his added knowledge on the language they used.

As the two of you fell into a lull, the sound of the television still continuing to drone on in the background made you realize then that you had actually taken up the boy's time for his language lesson.

"Oh- right, sorry for interrupting your lesson." You suddenly apologized to the boy, bowing your head lightly, "I've never had anyone to talk about this stuff with before yesterday, so I'm sorry if I was being annoying..."

"You weren't!" Chrollo waved off, his eyes wide as he watched your head come up from its bowing position. He told you, "We can talk about Power Cleaners if you like, or if you want to talk about Gelman or anything, really."

"Are you sure?" You asked, a hint of uncertainty in your voice. Although Sarasa didn't have any qualms conversing with you, Chrollo was different in that you were not sure if he really minded such stuff. He initially struck you as someone who preferred his alone time.

"Can I ask why?" Why has everyone been so kind to me?

"Because," he answered, his face flushing a light pink, "friends listen to each other, and since you're Paku and Sarasa's friends, we're friends now too, right?"

You blinked in surprise, a familiar warm feeling spreading across your chest just as it did when Sarasa found you and asked you to be her friend. Friend, they all wanted you to be their friend.

Your lips trembled a bit before you contained your composure and answered, "Yeah, we are."

Prior to his trip to the church, Chrollo had only briefly heard about you from the smiley Shalnark, whom he passed just as said boy was heading back to his turf with a fidget toy in hand.

"This?" The boy held up the object, allowing the other to inspect it. "It's just something I got from Uvo's."

"Oh, you mean he isn't there today? I thought he would be." Chrollo tilted his head.

"He is," Shal bluntly answered, which made the dark-haired boy momentarily pause in surprise.

"Luckily, I got help from the new kid, so I was able to get outta there only getting a block of wood to the face." The blonde's casual tone piqued Chrollo's interest.

How did the new kid help Shal escape from Uvo, a guy known for his violent and territorial nature? Were they as physically overwhelming as him? If not, stronger?

"Haha! It's not what you're thinking. They're not some kind of muscle guy like Uvo." Shalnark laughed, seeing Chrollo's thoughtful look. The raven-haired boy looked embarrassed, scratching at his cheek as he awaited the identity of the new kid.

Once calmed down, Shalnark studied Chrollo for a moment before a knowing smile spread across his face. "If I have to describe the new kid, I'd say you're both more similar."

Chrollo's curiosity deepened, but he didn't press for more details then. Instead, he let the day run its course and waited for the chance to meet you himself.

Which he did.

And looking at you now, he could guess why Shalnark said what he said.

You were no muscle head like Uvo, nor were you in any way close to having the right amount of fight to overtake said male. Which only meant you had settled the situation in a non-violent manner.

Like you, Chrollo possessed little skill in fighting and would easily get overwhelmed if he were ever pit against any of the known guys around Meteor City, like Uvo or Franklin, or that one guy who always rode his motorbike around. This was precisely why he usually settled for verbal disarming techniques.

The two of you were similar in this way, and it filled him with a sense of familiarity, and a hopeful glee at the realization he might've met a friend like himself.

Now, he was interested in unraveling your story, hoping for a chance to be friends with you for a long time.

"Ah, Chro, could you teach me..."

"Sure, Just..."

At the same time, through the narrow crack of the door, two pairs of eyes curiously peered into the room, twinkling with satisfaction as they watched you and Chrollo getting along so well.

"Looks like everything's going great in there," Sarasa whispered with a grin. "I think we're naturals at acting, Paku."

"Right?" Paku replied, glancing back into the room. You were giggling as Chrollo animatedly recounted a story. "Y'know what? I'm glad."

"Hm?" Sarasa raised an eyebrow, glancing at her taller friend. "Glad about what? Them getting along?"

"Well, yeah," Pakunoda said, smiling. "I'm glad they both seem comfortable. But I'm even more pleased that the new kid will have more people around her from now on."

Sarasa immediately understood Paku's sentiment. She vividly recalled how you had been treated by your own mother, the tinge of pain in your eyes echoing in her mind. You had shared both directly and indirectly of your hurt and neglect, and the memory struck a chord within her.

As a lifelong resident of Meteor City, Sarasa had never experienced the upheaval you faced—transitioning from the quiet normalcy to the lowest of low. But she had seen how devastated you had been, and that hurt fueled her determination.

Now that you were her friend, Sarasa vowed to treat you with the care and support you deserved, helping you navigate your new life.

They would be your new family.

Young Chrollo (art by me)

Hi guys, I'm back!

Actually, I've had this in the drafts for a week I think? But I didn't immediately upload it since there were parts that I didn't like (specifically how I was going about the chapter towards the end which I originally intended to continue again to the next chapter, it was just getting too repetitive in my opinion)

So after a wholeass week of thinking, I was finally able to make some major changes last night and end the chapter off with some characters thoughts abt you for a change.

Now, abt you and Chrollo's first proper talk, I really just based it off how most of my introductions with other people start by them helping me or vice versa. And with Chrollo being this studious kid I figured he would fit it.

Also I just realized my young chrollo drawing here is kinda giving long haired Jungkook