"A Quiet Collapse"
by Princess of Pain
"I'm just kidding!"
Said with that light, playful tone of voice. Aquamarine eyes wide, vulnerable, bright. Big, stereotypically stupid grin. A dismissive wave of the hand, a turn of the body, a sudden strong view of Vash's back as he moved back to his own room.
The priest stared after, wondering about how true that really was. How often could one man not be serious, after all? In particular, when that one man had so many goddamn serious things happening to him all the time? It was the basic paradox that Wolfwood had, in his time of stalking and befriending the other gunman, not been able to puzzle out.
Was Vash trying to piss him off deliberately? Was that because Vash didn't want him to get too close, or because the blonde was afraid that he was moving too close to Wolfwood all on his own? Did he make all of those stupid faces because he was making fun of himself--playing off a serious offer as a joke, so that if the slightest tone of rejection was colored into the other person's voice, he could laugh and play it off as more of his flaky crap?
He was a riddle, inside an enigma, wrapped in wet leather and cold steel.
"Oi, Vash."
The blonde stopped in the middle of opening his door. His smile was made out of Plexiglass. "Yeah, Nick?"
He stubbed out his cigarette on the doorframe. "You might have been kidding. But I wasn't."
And as the fake smile that Nick had always hated faded away, like so much smoke in the wind, the priest thought that he might actually have a chance--to give Vash the honesty that both men denied themselves.
-end-
