Sleepless

A/N: Ok, this one shot has taken the better part of the past month to write and, honestly, sitting here writing it, I didn't think I was ever going to finish it, just like I'm never going to finish my Furuba fic. ' I just upset Blu. Well, I hope you enjoy this. Just like all my one-shots, it kind of goes –makes downward slope motions with her hands- weeeee-ooooo….. ooo…. '. I just lost half my readers. Fun. Well, those of you who are still with me, enjoy.

Danke.

It's just one of those nights where it's just impossible to sleep no matter what you try to do. I don't mean you go to bed at 9:45 and don't fall asleep until 10:15, I mean you lay down and don't get sleep until maybe the fourth moon is close to setting. And I just despise those nights, because those are the nights when you think about things you don't want to be thinking about. They're stupid thoughts, crazy thoughts. Likes, thoughts about the people you know and what you really know about them and maybe, sometimes, how you really feel about some of them. It's crazy, you keep telling yourself, but then you go back to thinking those stupid, crazy thoughts.

That's when you begin to try and make yourself tired by reading, writing, pacing the room like a hungry lion, many various things. I must've opened and closed the window a million times that night. I even laid there in my bed for nearly an hour poking and prodding my snoring, tall friend in the next bed over with my foot.

I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was sleep, but it's like my brain just plain wouldn't allow it. I tried thinking about sleeping, but no matter what thoughts I tried to force my brain to process everything always led back to the same one thing every time… and it just so happened that as I began to ponder on that one thing, he passed by my and Millie's open door. Maybe he couldn't sleep either, maybe he was sleepwalking, or maybe he even knew I couldn't sleep, at the time I didn't know, I wouldn't know for sure for awhile either.

I followed him down into the hotel lobby. Standing there at the top of the stairs, looking-the-idiot, I could see the bluish silver light from the doors' small circular window stretch across the room and dance over a thin coffee table set beside a small couch. Sitting on the couch, his hair askew and his eyes glazed, the Humanoid Typhoon yawned and stretched. On the low table in front of him were two bowls of ice cream. Just before he looked up, I thought 'Why's he need two?' He smiled at me and said in a cracked, tired voice "Join me?" Maybe it was just me he didn't seem all that surprised to see me… which just adds to the bits of suspicions I have about him.

Tucking my hair behind my ear, only for it to fall back into my face because of its length, I sauntered down the stairs clumsily using the wall for balance and seated myself next to him on the couch, my weight making it sink slightly.

"Ice Cream?" he offered, stifling a yawn. I eyed the "ice cream" which was basically now a thick liquid swimming in a small bowl.

"Thanks, but I think I'll pass," I declined. He shrugged, un-phased, then offered me coffee. Without waiting for an answer, which for the record, was going to be a 'no', he stood and walked to the check-in desk, where a clerk had left a coffee pot and a tray of mugs, and poured two cups, the melted ice cream forgotten.

He held one of the mugs out to me as he sat back beside me. I accepted it, knowing that if I didn't, he'd get upset. Plus… maybe I did want coffee after all.

And then… well, there was silence. It was nerve-racking. Just sitting there sipping coffee in the quiet. I'd break the silence sometimes by going "Hmm…" or something…

When I couldn't sit there in the dark without saying a word, I asked "So… how was your day?"

He laughed a little and answered "Oh, same old, same old… Play with random kids, eat, sleep… Yeah, uneventful." He nodded and looked away from me, staring out the window, like he couldn't look me in the eyes. He seemed like such a simple minded person on the outside, yet I knew what was going through his mind was deep and I could probably never understand his issues. That upset me, the fact that I could never comprehend what passed over his mind. Such distance… As much as I denied it, I wanted to be there for him.

He sighed, running his fingers through his already messed up hair.

"Vash?" I said, my voice cracking from lack of use. He looked at me, a little surprised to hear me speak up and draw him out of his little day… night… dream.

"Hmm?" He raised his eyebrows at me and I forgot what I was going to say. Was I going to say anything at all? I simply stared at him with my lips parted slightly, loosing grip on my thoughts. I broke away and stared at my hands at rest on my knees. I don't know why I'd said his name in the first place.

"Uh… thank you for the coffee," I said, my words slurring together. He nodded, smiling a little, and continued staring out the window.

Not seeing where this… can it even be called a conversation?... could possibly be going, I stood and started walking away. "I should try and get some sleep…" I said.

I had already made it half way up the stairs when he called out, "Wait!" I turned to see him reaching out towards me, like he could grab the back of my oversized shirt from where he was and pull me back to him. "Uh…" he smiled sheepishly and lowered his hand to the back of his head. "Uh… don't, uh… leave… okay? Not yet? Come back?" Dumbfounded, I went back to him, frowning at him as I sat down.

"I… hmm…" He was searching for the words to tell me something, I figured. With a frustrated sigh, he said "I didn't want you to sleep just yet. I was sure tonight I wanted to tell you some things, but it seems I don't have the courage or power it takes to say things like what I need to tell you…" He blushed.

I was at the point of the mixed emotions of anger, flattery, and confusion. The cause of my anger was the fact that he kept me from sleeping! I needed my dear rest and he held it just out of my reach! I didn't even know he could do that…

The reason that I was flattered, though, is probably obvious. This man could dodge a speeding bullet, shoot a man even, even if he hated doing it, he could, but he couldn't speak to me about, most likely, something simple and trivial. He didn't have the courage to say a few words to a small woman? Of course at the moment, I didn't know what he was going to say.

And yet another sigh. Man that was getting old. "There are some things that… I've been thinking lately… that… Ah…" I squinted at him, and then it was obvious why he was struggling, why he wouldn't look at me.

"Vash." I smiled at him as he looked at me. My stomach danced uncomfortably and my heart beat rapidly under my ribs, like some young high school girl head over heals for a boy she may never acquire for her own.

And the rest… is fuzzy in my memory. You know, it takes either a real dedicated person or a real idiot to love the $$60,000,000,000 Man. I think I'm the latter.

And somehow all of that leads us to where we are now. And even after running all that through my head, I'm still unsure about how we got here. But, something funny, or at least funny to me, I don't think I want to sleep now. I just want to lay here next to him and stare at him as he sleeps. It's odd what a stupid thought like how you really feel about someone you thought at one time that you hated. You know, someone like Vash the Stampede.

A/N: Yeah, that was my rare piece of crap. Not rare because I usually write good, but rare because I usually don't write. And I think I found out why; because I struggle when I write. So don't expect to see anything else any time soon. Well, like you ever expect to see anything new… Who the hell am I talking to?

Jeff: Uh, Buggy, maybe you should go to bed.

Buggy: -snoooooore-

Danke.