And the story rolls on…..
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"Oh," said Vash a few times. He looked at Anne for some sort of confirmation, that what Knives ordered was okay with her, but she merely shrugged. "All of us?" he asked uneasily.
Knives scowled at his brother. "Unless you have something infinitely more pressing."
Vash looked over his shoulder, his gaze taking in almost all of the apartment. "Do you think we'll all fit in here? I mean, it's kinda small for six people."
"I don't expect that it will take that long for her to be proved completely wrong in her optimism. We should be able to manage."
"Oh," Vash repeated, clearly at a loss. Then he sighed. "And I had looked forward to getting to catch up with Millie." He adopted a hangdog expression. "I missed her letters so much," he whined. He ate another donut, then said, "I guess I'll go get them after breakfast."
"Or you could call," Anne pointed out. "The miracle of phone service. Millie has my address; I'm sure she can direct everyone here."
Vash shifted from foot to foot uneasily. "But… there could be bandits on the road. Or they could get lost. Or any sorts of lots of things could happen." He thumped the hand that wasn't holding the box of donuts on his chest. "Yes! I shall go and lead them here so that they may arrive safe and sound!" His expression grew very serious, then he turned and dashed back to the bedroom, shoving another donut in his mouth.
Anne laughed. Knives rolled his eyes. "I swear, I'm surprised he could pull himself from that woman's side long enough to rescue you."
"I think it's cute."
"After four years, it's nauseating."
"Ah, see? I have the benefit of not having seen it too much, then."
"A long with many other things."
She sighed. "Yeah. That, too."
They heard something bump, and Vash moan that he was wounded, ouch ouch ouch, but neither moved from the kitchen. A few moments later, he came back in, body armor and boots dangling from one hand, the box of donuts in the other, and a sheepish expression on his face. "Hit my head," he explained.
"Bed didn't move," Anne pointed out. "You might have spent a moment or two noticing where it was before you tried furniture relocation with your head."
He smiled a little at that, then dropped his stuff on the floor. He carefully set the box of donuts on the counter, then whirled and placed both hands on Anne's knee. Very decorously placed, considering that she wasn't wearing pants. His palms cupped her kneecaps, fingers lightly touching the tops of her legs. He dropped to his knees, eyes shining as he looked up at her.
"Can I… take the donuts?" he asked.
She laughed, and took his hands in hers. "They're all yours," she chuckled, then cradled the prosthetic in both her hands. She turned it over and passed her palm over his, then started to play with the fingers.
"This is a pretty good arm. You expect it to be warm, it looks so lifelike." She played with the fingers, crossing the first two and smiling to herself.
A pained smile flitted across Vash's face, and he obviously wanted to take his hand back but was too polite to say so. Anne spent another couple of seconds playing with his fingers, moving the knuckles and running her fingers lightly over the back of his hand before letting go. Vash curled his hand into a fist and dropped it by his side, half-hiding it behind his back.
"You ever think about regrowing that?" she asked, cocking her head to the left as she looked at him.
"Wha?" he uttered coherently.
"Regrowing it. I mean, you could. Technically. It would take a while, though. I once regrew a finger," she said reminiscently, wiggling the pinky on her left hand. "It took me a month and hurt like hell, but I had all of my hand back." She looked at him straight on. "You should give it a try."
"Regrow my arm," he repeated, looking at her like she was mad. "What are you, an iguana?"
She mock glared at him. "No, lizard brain, but it's the same type of deal as regular healing. You take stem cells and force them to become bone, or muscle, or flesh. Really, the only limiting factor to the regrowth is that it takes a while to get all the necessary vitamins and minerals for that much flesh. Just the amount of calcium you need for that much bone is slightly daunting," she mused.
Vash was edging away during her speech, and took advantage of the pause to grab his boots and dash into the living room to put them on. Anne grinned at his retreating back.
"He really isn't doing a very good job of accepting what he is, is he?"
Knives shook his head. "He always wants to pretend that he's human."
Anne chuckled. "Why? There are so many benefits to being a plant."
Knives turned to look at her. "I thought… you don't mind being a plant?"
She shrugged. "There are a few thing s that weird me out still, like that whole angel arm thing. I'm not sure that I'm comfortable with the idea of being a bit of a shapeshifter, but given the option, I'd much rather be a plant than a regular human. There's just more I can do, this way. Actually, I think if I couldn't heal, or do any of my fun little tricks I'd just go mad."
He shook his head. "I don't think I will ever understand you."
"Don't worry," she said with a grin. "No man understands women."
He scowled again. "That isn't what this is about."
She laughed. "That's always what it's about."