Guess what?? That's right. It's more Everything or Nothing
👑
thinking again about togashi has repeatedly cited the 1970s BL action/comedy shoujo “patalliro!” as one of his biggest influences, which means that due to various similarities too specific to be ignored, we can infer, to the point where we pretty much know for a fact, that the inspiration for killua was maraich juschenfe, a canonically gay transfem-presenting tsundere jealous uke who was also raised from birth to be the perfect assassin and quits to date the protagonist. who gets pregnant despite the series going out of the way to tell us that shouldn’t be possible because he’s “biologically male” (it was the 70s).
twice. he gets mpreg twice.
you should really watch patalliro. you watch patalliro and youre like “oh, hunter x hunter is gay on purpose! okay!”
I like to think that while we're seeing Hirano discover his feelings in real time, Kagi is hopefully seeing the signs, too. You can't just casually tell the person you've been half assed rejecting for months that you love them out of nowhere. Seeing is believing in every sense in this case. Kagi pays so much attention to Hirano, it'd be impossible for him not to notice something changing.
As for Hirano himself, it probably won't be big news to him like Miyano's realization. He's already starting to notice his feelings, so he's likely suspecting of it even when he isn't actively trying to figure himself out. His "aha" moment would more than likely be that moment that he realizes that romantic love can manifest as easily as a comfortable companionship as it can a heart racing tryst. That there's no right way to love someone.
Once he accepts it, sometimes it's overwhelming - after Kagi gets home from a game or practice and radiates happiness, when he pouts because there are green peppers in his dinner, when he falls asleep at his desk after dedicating himself to studying for exams - all of those times he can only think of how much he loves him. Payback for all the times he's ever made Kagi's heart race with his insane antics.
So how does Hirano deal with it?
Touch.
He starts breaking the ten second rule little by little. I mean, he's already starting to. Once Kagi realizes it's been getting progressively longer and says something, Hirano drops the rule altogether. Starts letting Kagi lay his head in his lap when he comes home from practice, petting his hair while he starts to fall asleep on his lap. But it's not enough because now he wants to hold him, too. So during lap time he starts lazily tracing messages on Kagi's face once he falls asleep.
だ-い-す-き (I really like you)
あ-い (love)
こ-い-び-と (lover)
One day when he's half asleep himself, he starts doing it out of habit without checking to make sure Kagi is asleep first. Kagi notices. So he starts staying awake to see if he does it again. And there they are, the same words. Until one day Hirano draws "I love you" on his forehead and Kagi can't keep the facade up, whispers just loud enough so Hirano can hear but quiet enough so as not to startle him, "I love you too, Hirano-san."
So, the cat's out of the bag, he guesses.
What now?
I've recently read Stormbringer and it's done things to me. I also Really wanna see it animated
pathetic sapphic yearning is so fucking back
Killua and Gon mimic each other a lot.
On the start of the fourth phase of the hunter exam, while in the boat, they sit like this:
and by the end of their talk, Killua mimics Gon:
They half mimic each other in heaven's arena too, probably subconsciously (these two panels are on the same page)
They lay down in the same pose on the campfire chap, so i can't tell who mimicked who.
And killua has his usual 'cool kid' pose when he sits up. His default way to sit.
but he mimics Gon every time he changes poses.
this one is the funniest to me cause they sit so differently when they are a little away from each other/not paying much attention to each other
but when they are side by side, or right in front of each other BAM
And I am not sure is if this has any meaning, but I do find it interesting that when Gon is overwhelmed, frustrated, or defeated he usually sits with both knees up and his arms crossed.
But while waiting for Pitou to finish healing Komugi, he mimics Killua's mannerisms
Anyway, if you know more moments of them mimicking each other please share! It brings me life.