Kicking the Fourth Wall

Fist Posted: 03 27 2013

Vash sat slouched in the surprisingly comfortable metal chair in front of the ancient terminal. There was a keyboard and a rotating scroll device which allowed one to navigate through its contents. He licked sticky doughnut icing off his fingers and grinned inanely at the screen.

"What's so funny?"

Oh crap, hadn't Knives been asleep? In fact, hadn't he left him snoring his head off on the very other end of the ship? His brother came and leaned heavily on the back of the chair. Vash chose to protect his doughnuts rather than the terminal. In hindsight that was a mistake.

"I asked you…" Knives began in a waspish voice, then his eye snagged on the screen and he fell silent with his mouth open on his unspoken words.

Vash seized the moment to take his doughnut bag and slink back down to the other end of the ship.

"Vash!" Knives dropped into the seat and somehow managed to make the rooms doors slam closed and lock before he reached them. "What in the name of all that is sacred, is this?"

Vash sighed dramatically at the door, he could see what was going to happen, Knives had a peculiar sense of humor, and it did not include this. But he did have the resources to ease the situation along. He sauntered back to his brother, careful to stay out of reaching distance, and very reluctantly offered the half eaten bag of doughnuts as a peace offering.

Knives did not even look at him as he knocked them out of his hand. Vash managed to catch the bag and several doughnuts on his fingers before they hit the floor and straightened scowling at his brother.

"You didn't have to do that!"

But Knives did not seem to have heard him. Vash felt his ears redden as his brother scrolled through the pages in front of him. He had only started on the story and could very well guess where it was going, there was, he had discovered after reading several, a fairly predictable set of outcomes. And he knew Knives would pick this up after just reading three.

In fact, Knives did it in one.

"Brother." He said in a dreadfully calm voice. "What is this?"

"Stories about love and peace." Vash answered happily. That was the reason he read them.

"It's a story about you!" Knives thundered. "You and, and …" His jaw worked but nothing came out. Him and Meryl, in a rather intimate setting, but sweet overall. He had found several on similar themes, he just hoped that Knives would not make the intuitive leap.

"If you're here…" Knives turned back to the screen and his fingers flew over the controls. Vash winced as the full range of what the terminal had hidden suddenly appeared. Knives's face was a picture of horror and fury and it settled down into an intense stare.

Vash inched towards the door as silently as he could. There had been a great range of things represented on that terminal, some had pared him with Wolfwood, and others with his own brother. Knives had his own stories, and Legato Bluesummers featured, but Knives might overlook that, as the man had been a servant, but the one that he hoped Knives would not find…

A dry throated cracked gasp told him that he wouldn't make it to the door in time. Somehow, in this light, he wished Milly Thompson the best, but Knives would never see it that way.

Knives didn't even bother to manifest his angel arm, he put his fist through the screen of the terminal and fried the electrics of the machine. The room flickered dark and the doors automatically unlocked. Vash made it to the dubious safety of the passage outside, where emergency lighting was already flickering on.

Vash leaned against the wall and waited. He ate the doughnuts, the ones he had caught tasted especially good. It was perhaps an hour later when Knives stormed out of the room with a perverse smile on his face. A little alarmed, Vash glanced back in the room. The terminal was still dead, but further along the wall was another jury-rigged device which Knives had left on, and had parked the chair before, an invitation.

Vash seated himself and inspected it curiously. Nothing had changed, the stories were all there. Suspicious, he rapidly inspected the site and several others that his brother had left open. In fact, he had catalogued every tale regarding them, he had also left open a map of old earth, focusing on a region, an island nation, Japan… Vash felt his stomach clench in dread when he saw the name Yasuhiro Nightow. Below the map was a countdown, four seconds, three seconds… Vash leaped from the chair and went after his brother with an anguished yell.

"Knives!"