Vash always said that there was no one to help but themselves. He usually said this while they were bartering their potassium iodide with desperate people. Lili would have to look away; she couldn't take the drawn faces or the rotting teeth anymore.

But that was with Vash, and he wasn't always around. Sometimes, Lili would be left to her own devices, legs dangling off of the side of a building, watching the empty streets below.

Today was one of those days. She watched the sky, wondering if it had ever been blue. Now, it was just tumbling clouds. Sometimes they were a sticky yellow, turning green at the edges; sometimes, it was a light grey, like fine ash that sometimes fell like what Vash called snow. Today, the sun must have been bright, because the clouds were rolling and orange.

Lili watched the water boil nearby, occasionally looking over the edge of the building and licking her dry lips. It took her a couple of seconds to realize there was another person.

He was tall, and he walked with his back straight and his steps purposeful. A gun was slung over his shoulder like her brother, but it didn't fall in with the curve of his back, like another limb.

She hesitated. She shifted.

Suddenly, the gun was pointed right at her head. She froze, breath catching in her throat.

He asked her something in another language.

"I can't understand you," she responded, voice sounding very small in the quiet street.

"You know German?"

"I know what we're speaking."

He grunted, and the gun was slowly lowered. Lili allowed herself another look. Professional gear, a smart coat, worn boots that were shined with something, nonetheless. He squinted at her.

"Who are you?"

Vash always said to never give anything to strangers. She wondered if her name counted as something.

"Lili."

"Ludwig."

Although it seemed as though Ludwig was just moving through, he had set up camp. Lili saw him from time to time, walking swiftly through the ruins, gun looking stiff and awkward on his back. They talked, when her brother was selling pills.

"Have you seen the ocean?"

She had clambered down from her perch on the roof, but one hand wouldn't leave the ladder. Ludwig stood a few feet away, hands looking unsure by his sides. He kept looking around, clearing his throat, looking at his shiny boots.

"No."

"Oh." She followed his gaze to the barren tree. "Have you ever seen a green tree? My brother says they're green sometimes."

"Yes. They're very… large."

She looked at him. "Large?" She laughed, and it echoed off of the brick buildings and came skipping back to her own ears. "Do they get bigger when they are green?"

"No, they have leaves." Ludwig smiled at her, and it was a very nice smile. It made everything about him seem less hard. The smile had soft edges, and it had been a long time since anyone had smiled softly at her. "It's like fur for trees."

Liechtenstein laughed again.

Ludwig broke up the monotony. It was Vash, moving away with his pill bottles and his ammo. The burnt out building, with gardens of broken glass, with shadows scalded onto the walls. It was the swirling sky, or the dead clouds, the occasional far-off bird.

"Do you ever wish you were a bird, Ludwig?"

Ludwig looked over at her. They stood underneath the slope of a roof, watching as the ashy, thick rain fall. A bird was in one of the puddles, the mud and soupy asphalt clinging to its feathers. Lili crouched down and offered crumbs of food.

"No, not particularly."

"Maybe a fish?"

Lili smiled as the bird hopped nearer, croaking pitifully.

"Careful, it might bite—" Ludwig took a step closer.

"I don't think so."

Lili reached forward, hand getting a splattering of rain. She hissed and withdrew, but the bird skipped closer underneath the protection of the building. Its head tilted, and Lili realized it had extra eyes. It croaked, and she fed it the rest of her bread.

Lili watched the bird, and looked to find Ludwig's eyes already on her. She looked back down at the bird.

"Have you ever kissed anyone?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

Ludwig was glaring down at his boots. "He's gone now."

"My brother used to kiss someone. He's gone, too. I liked him."

Ah, her brother. He would watch her, sometimes, when she talked with Ludwig. The gun was in his hands, back on his shoulder, twirling through the air, to his back again. Lili hadn't meant for him to find out about Ludwig. He had. There wasn't very much Vash didn't know about.

She sat next to Ludwig, and they took turns watching Vash pace the building. Lili snuck Ludwig pills, but even she could see how the radiation here was eating away at him. Made his strong shoulders sag with sickness. She held his hand, which was clammy and comforting.

"You could go west. People say the radiation isn't as bad there."

Ludwig sighed. He looked so tired; Lili wanted to reach up and rub the frown lines away like soot. She reached up, anyways, but she pulled away before she touched his cheek.

"Please don't die.'

Ludwig laughed.

Lili squeezed his hand.