New Uses for Old Toys
It happens while I'm making a midnight snack run: Vash, come now.
Knives just awoke, mentally reaching out for me. I rush through the door, to him.
"Knives? Knives, you're finally up!"
He sits up, then stands, a bit stiff from his wounds. A hand runs through his hair as it catches the starlight, looking closer to white than blond.
"...You shot me again, Vash."
"Yeah, sorry about that disagreement, brother. Maybe we can try something else next time?"
"Agreed, Brother. But, will you listen?"
"We'll both listen, brother."
If this all seems a bit too calm, I'm sure it's just 'cause we're both too tired for doing this the old way by now. Even Knives must be tired of it.
Knives rolls his eyes a bit at my last choice of words but still nods; we have the whole future to sort this out. To answer the important questions, to be brothers again.
"So, Vash... You hid the Angel Arms, didn't you?"
"Don't worry, Knives. There will be no need; people never come around these parts."
"Just us, then? There are absolutely no humans near me here, Vash? You finally got it right."
Knives is way to jovial while saying that. Uncomfortable! I don't have the heart or spine to correct him.
"Maybe you should get back to bed for the night, Knives. I mean it's late and there's nothing to do around here."
"I'm sure there's something we can do. I know, how about you give me a tour of this place?"
"I don't know, Knives. It's real small and simple, a tour's not needed."
"If it's small, that just means we can get the tour done quicker."
"Haha! You win brother, you win!"
Vash's nervous habits are showing again. Even after a century apart I still know my twin better than anyone. The way he's scratching the back of his head, laughing as he recounts old jokes that aren't even funny, is a dead give away about how nervous he is. Is it me? He switches on the light and I see just how modest his choice of house was. It looks like it belong to some old hermit decades ago, and was then abandoned after their death. Lovely. I take a nonchalant sip from the glass of water Vash gave me. He continues to talk nervously.
"Oh, and this is the kitchen. It even has a refrigerator and dining set! Though the fridge is kinda empty, except for eggs and cheese, right now. I'll have to be going into tow- I mean to get supplies, soon. "
He walks back to the hall where my room was, seeming even more anxious. He stands in front of one of the doors, blocking it.
"That over there is the bathroom. You definitely don't want to forget, it's pretty important."
"What's in the room behind you Vash?"
"Oh? This one? It's mine, but it's messy, so we won't be going in."
"No, it's not. The other room, with the door open, is yours. It has your coat in it, and the bed's unmade. So what's in this one?"
I have him cornered.
"Knives-"
I swing the door open.
"Bluesummers. Vash, why is he here? He failed?"
I must be scaring Brother, from how he rushes to place himself at Bluesummers' side, effectively shielding Legato from me.
"No he didn't, Knives! I shot him. He wanted to die for you. He didn't fail;please, don't hurt him."
I stand my ground, a brow raised in question.
"He wanted to die? He should have died, then. So, he failed."
"He didn't try to avoid it! I- I shot his head. I thought, I was sure he'd died. You know the only reason I found him? While you were asleep, I kept thinking, and I was afraid; Knives, brother. I was afraid you'd ask me to show you his grave, I was also afraid that you wouldn't. So I did the only thing I could think of. I went to bury him, because I knew no one else would. I was finally ready to bury the only man I'd killed, but when I got to the town, he was nowhere to be found. Some townspeople remembered I had protected them from Midva- I had protected them. They agreed to help me look, we checked the cliffs and the morgue before the town coroner recalled a doctor friend of his having a gunshot patient with blue hair. They'd found him in the commotion, and didn't know who he was. I couldn't let myself be too hopeful that he'd stabilize, but even the doctor said it: he was clinging to life with tenacity.
He has a future, Knives. He was meant to have a future. Let him keep it."
Vash just has to go looking terribly broken up over a human, again; I know what I have to do if I want to keep Brother.
"You realize he's brain dead, Vash, right? But- if it's that big a deal, keep him. Just think of it as a hand me down, little Brother."
Vash cries, actually cries upon hearing this, before giving a small, sincere "Thank you, Brother."
I just have to remind him of one last thing:
"You know the humans only helped him because they didn't know who he was?
If they'd found out, he'd have had a worse death than anything you'd give. Remember that, Vash."
Later that night, after Vash's asleep, I return to get a look at Legato. I'm not going to hurt him and incur one of Vash's fits, I just want to see the damage. I remove the bandage form my old pet's forehead. If it weren't for how distressed Vash was, I wouldn't believe that the narrow hole with it's healing flesh came from a gun of the caliber that I made.
Is that a testament to the strength of My Brother's flesh, or just another preternatural Bluesummers trait?
I pry Legato's eyelids open to reveal those disaffected yellows. Doll's eyes, doll's face; if he doesn't wake up, then there's nothing more to him than trash. "Clinging to life with tenacity", as if. I doubt Legato would find it tasteful to linger uselessly like this.
His body always did seem like a cruel joke played on him.
