Hmm. That last chapter seems to have affected you guys a bit. *Big Evil Author-Lady Grin* That means I'm doing my job right.

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Vash had taken Knives out of the room, out of the apartment, and out of the building. Well, if going to the roof counted as leaving the building, then they left. But regardless, they were well out of earshot of any of the events in the apartment. Which was what Vash had in mind, actually. He didn't want any of the ladies to be privy to what was next.

"You're a dick," he said simply as he rested his elbows on the ledge and stared into the street below.

"I know," sighed Knives, mirroring his brother's pose.

"That was a horrible way to let her know what's been going on between you and Ace." Vash pinched the bridge of his nose, and suppressed the urge to pull on his sunglasses. Wrong sort of fight.

"I know," Knives agreed simply.

"You would not believe how shocked she was. She was… lost. She couldn't even stand anymore."

"I know."

"You could have said something before now. I had thought you were going to when I left you two alone to go pick everyone up. But obviously you didn't."

"Obviously."

"Why?"

"You said it. I'm a dick."

"That's not an answer."

Knives sighed, ducking his head so he could run his fingers through his hair as he tried to word an answer. "I didn't want to," he said finally.

"Why not? Because it is so much better to have done it this way?"

"No, not that. I didn't want to say it was over."

"You've been with Ace for almost a year now. I think that would make things over between you two."

"That was before I knew she was a plant. Before I knew…" His voice trailed off and he sighed again.

"Knew what?" prompted Vash. "Knew that she was worthy?" he supplied, his voice twisting the words a little.

"Knew that she wouldn't die on me!" Knives snapped, then colored and refused to meet his brother's eyes.

"Like Meryl will?" Vash said softly.

Knives nodded.

Vash sighed. "She is getting older, but we have years left before I need to worry about her dying. Besides, if I denied what I felt for her, I would have missed out on the best twenty years of my life, so far. She's my best friend, my lover, and the mother of my child. I could have run away and missed out on all of that, just because I didn't want to lose her. But then I would have just lost her before all the chances I've had to love her. Mortality is a horrible reason to not love someone."

"I can't… I couldn't take it if she died on me. You may be able to bear losing your wife someday, but I couldn't take it if I lost her. It was bad enough, knowing that she was out there, roaming the planet and I couldn't touch her. To not have her beyond even that… I couldn't do it. It was better that I didn't think about her so much. Ace helped me pretend that I didn't want her."

"I thought you were happy with Ace."

"Ace is… comfortable. She's someone I can be content with. Anne, I can be happy with, I can wake up every moment and marvel that she is in my life, and not just in m life but such an integral part of it. Ace, I would miss dearly, but losing her would not kill me. Losing Anne might."

"Then why not tell Ace that you want Anne?"

"Because that isn't fair to Ace. I can't just get Anne back into my life, then turn around and push her away. That's not fair to her; it's like saying that she was just someone to fill the time. And that isn't the truth."

"Then why didn't you tell Anne that you two were through?"

"Because I want her, dammit! I wanted a way to tell Ace that we were through, one that didn't hurt her, and I wanted to find it before Anne ever knew what we had been. Anne herself had said that what we did when we were apart wasn't the other person's business."

"So you were going to dump Ace and not tell Anne what you to had been up to?"

"Yes! …. No. I was going to… I don't know. I don't know what I was going to do. I just wish I had done something different."

"I wish you had, too."

The two plants fell silent, moments passing without comment, both ruminating over the discussion. They watched as Anne left the building and turned to the left. "She isn't going back to work," Vash mused.

"There's her shadow," Knives pointed out as Mark turned the corner and ran off after her. He sighed. "She's not going to be single long," he predicted.

"Mark does like her a lot," Vash confirmed.

"She says that they're just friends." Knives couldn't keep the note of jealousy out of his voice.

"No real reason to stay that way now, is there? What with you breaking her heart and all." Vash purposefully sounded as cruel as he could. The sight of Anne's face as she crumpled to the floor haunted him, and he felt that justice decreed that his brother share some of the agony.

Knives sneered at Vash, going on the offensive as a way to pretend that the barb hadn't scored.. "What, and you're so wonderful when it comes to women? I seem to recall that Meryl had to track you down more than a couple times before you stopped running."

"Is that what this is, Knives? Are you running from what she meant to you?"

"No."

"Then there's no reason for you to bring that up."

Knives and Vash fell silent again. "I hate him," Knives said after a moment.

"It's your own fault."

"I hate me, too."