Do you have any killugon headcanons? I love your art by the way it's absolutely amazing!!!!
of course i do
i have tons of them
i’ll tackle the general stuff then, because otherwise i have no idea where to start
i think gon and killua’s potential romantic relationship and the way it might progress is very much dependent on their respective understanding of the notion of romantic attraction in general.
killua is almost generic in this respect — he is an early bloomer that discovered his sexuality as a young teenager. he also has communicaton issues, he is afraid of showing any affection out of the fear of it being read as vulnerability, and he is a gross child that probably turns his nose every time he sees a romcom. however, killua is very much aware of the nature of his feelings towards gon.
he also won’t be the first to confess, in my opinion, for several reasons. first, for a very emotional and expressive child, killua is plain bad at expressing deep feelings and Very good at bottling shit up. second, as a result of both that and the fact that he grew up in an abusive household where he had to stumble in the dark trying to guess the intentions of every single family member, killua pretty much assumes that you. don’t really Have to talk with your god given mouth. if he risks his life enough times for gon, gon is Bound to realize that killua is in love with him, right? talking about stuff kind of cheapens that anyway, right? (wrong you dumb child) third, since killua is so bad at talking, he screwed up telling gon that he had been hurt by gon’s behavior, and is it ever not difficult to confess your undying love if you are also mad at the object of your affections, and ashamed of yourself for being this attached.
and then there’s gon, who is pretty much the opposite of generic. the kid, in contrast to almost any other shounen protagonist, is so good at social interactions it’s unfair to literally everyone else. gon is extremely perceptive, he is amazing at reading the character and the atmosphere, and he is so effortlessly likable that he takes it for granted. saying that gon is clueless when it comes to romantic interactions would be imho a major mischaracterization. but he appears to be very peculiar about applying that knowledge and categorizing his relationships.
i have no idea how much influence japanese culture has on the way gon talks about his dates (probably a lot), but while he groups the dates he had with the women on whale island with those with mito, he has no problem identifying which were platonic, and which weren’t. judging from his date with palm, he is also one weirdly sincere smooth motherfucker of a fourteen-year-old. therefore, i am inclined to think that gon considers romantic actions to be extremely performative. on a date he is likely to do whatever he likes and what he assumes the other person would like, which is not inherently romantic, but in the context it can become so (hence why dates with mito are platonic). i suppose, for gon, once he grows up and reaches the point where he becomes interested in romantic stuff, the only thing that will be able to help him differentiate that from platonic hanging-out will quite simply be the presence of kissing and similar romantically-coded actions. if he is comfortable enough around a person his age, i can easily imagine him becoming more physically affectionate with them, which he will eventually classify as romantic attraction.
now imagine these two getting together after like two or three years of separation. setting aside their issue with the events of the ca arc, can you imagine the load of confusion that their interactions will be?
gon is obviously comfortable around killua, and i can easily see him progressing from horsing around to hugs and cuddles and kisses, all the while being his usual healthily communicative self and asserting his appreciation of killua, settling comfortably into romantic attraction.
killua is going to Flip. he has No idea what is going on and half assumes that gon is this affectionate with everyone and half panics, or whatever it is he does while not Communicating. once gon is used to the new dynamic, he probably takes killua out on a couple of dates, framing them as obviously romantic, while all the declarations of “i like you killua!” fly over killua’s head because he’d rather suffer and assume that these are simply platonic outings.
at some point gon gets frustrated with the fact that killua is obviously Not on the same page as him, and probably has to sit him down with a twig full of fireflies and make it Real simple for his emotionally constipated bff. nothing is well in the world but at least gon has confessed his feelings, and killua probably mumbled something to the same extent, and hopefully will articulate it more clearly before the universe decides to teach him a lesson, again.
this turned out half-meta half-rambling but i hope you enjoyed reading that. thanks so much for complimenting my art!