Silly Doll
Roderich did not sleep at all that night.
A father! He remembered his own father. So distant, serious, what he was supposed to aspire to become before his mother exploited his love of music. It was a surprise the man had let his wife come out here with only one person to watch her.
A father! That changed everything, but for the worse. Roderich had wanted to say something, anything, before Elizaveta left. But he could not trust himself to speak. He loved her. He did. But he could not do that, he could not be a father. He could not become the distant man who had scared him in his own childhood, who had left him clinging to his mother for any sort of comfort at all. If he became that man... what then? What then?
A father? Roderich could not think about it. Not now. He could hear his mother's reaction in his mind and it made him want to hide in his closet like he was nine years old.
At the same time, this realization gave Roderich something. While he could not possibly deal with the situation, he owed so much to this town, to Elizaveta, that he could at least face her and tell her so. But with his mother around the corner? Oh no, no no. That he did not think he could manage. He would fall into pieces before saying anything. Which reminded him of how he did not want to go anywhere in the first place. How had Theresa managed to make him think otherwise? Roderich had no idea.
Which was when he had gotten the brilliant idea of how he could possibly make himself talk back to his mother. Use the single person who had given him the ability to do it before. Vera Zwingli... Vash Zwingli. The person he and his family had been tricked into thinking was the eldest daughter he was to marry. Vash had done a very good job at putting ideas in his head that Roderich had never thought of before.
Including wondering if women were really like that. Which he found out was not true, as Vash was not a woman. But he played one so convincingly.
Vash did not even bother knocking on the door, opening and closing the door quietly as if he thought someone else would hear. If Roderich had been asleep, he probably would not have woken up. As it was, he looked up from his piano (which he had not touched, simply stared at) at him... erm, her. Vera, not Vash. Vash was so touchy about that particular detail.
"Just today," Vash warned. "If this does not work today... if this doesn't work, you're on your own."
"Fair enough."
"But why cannot you do this yourself?" Vash exclaimed, walking up to him as if he was thinking of shaking Roderich out of it. Thankfully, he did not. Roderich knew that would not help. "You are winding yourself up tighter, eventually you will break! Face the woman!"
He did not know why Vash tried. It was not as if Roderich had not been trying to tell himself of that all night. "I can't."
"Ask Elizaveta, you know she would help you, do anything for you!" Vash stopped in mid breath. Roderich looked away. "What happened, Roderich?"
"Elizaveta is... pregnant."
The silence which followed that statement was overwhelming. Roderich tried to make himself press one of the piano keys to break it. B flat. He should press it just for the note...
"Poor doll, that must be terrible." Vash would never say something like that. Except he would... when he was Vera. Roderich always turned into a 'doll'.
"You have no right–"
"Can't keep it in your pants and now you complain about the repercussions?" Vera rolled her eyes. "'Oh no, I've reproduced! There is time for freaking out now!'"
"Shut up!" Roderich snapped. "Shut up!"
Vera laughed. It was not one of amusement, however. "I will not, dear doll." Roderich found his chin being lifted by one of Vera's fingers so their eyes met. It was Vash again. Or was it? Maybe it was just difficult for Roderich to pretend there was a difference when there was less of one than Vash wished there was between himself and the personality he had made up. "I will talk with your mother. You will back me up. If you back down on this... we will both suffer for it. I would be safer not helping you at all."
But Vash's mind would not allow for that. Roderich admired those thoughts. "Consider it my doing."
"I have," Vera responded. "You follow my lead. Whatever happens... I go home afterward. And stop clinging to my hem."
Roderich blinked and let go, not certain when he had done so.
Vera rolled her eyes again. "You are such a child."
Hearing that from someone younger than him had never been so appropriate.
Notes:
For people who do not know, there is a link to what Vera looks like on my profile. Check it out.
Random Person: Yes, Abbotsford in BC. That is correct.
Today I just realized something. On the way to school I pass an intersection with is Capitol and Alfred. I started snickering as soon as I saw it.
