See? I can make romance between Grayfall and Oriole! Well...not that
much, but let's be realistic - they've known each other only for a few
days. And I can have some between Knives and Stormie in the next chapter,
but he's not really the romantic type so not so much mushy stuff.
Warning: Billy, Meryl's daughter, is a real brat. Do not worry. She will get better. ^_^
Keep reading and reviewing! Remember, the more you review, the faster I write.
~~~~~
"...And so, after Knives was fully recovered, Stormie came to live in the underground warehouse next door! It was built by some crazy scientist who thought the world was gonna end, so he holed up in there till the day he died. She was pretty happy to be able to get her hands on that property. Then we lived pretty uneventfully for about twenty years, except for the occasional bounty hunter, and then, all the sudden, this man who looks just like Legato shows up on our doorstep! And then he tells us this story about this murderer who is out to get us and how he's Legato's son and all this other weird stuff, so you picked a pretty exciting time to visit! More potatoes?" Vash smiled, offering the bowl to the woman across the table.
Meryl shook her head silently, still shocked by the whole story to the point where she could not speak. However, Vincent, her husband, was taking it even worse. He'd never heard of the whole ordeal involving the SEEDS ship, the gun-ho guns, the murders Knives had committed, and the final fight between the two brothers. In fact, the middle-aged, blond man could do nothing but sit and stare at the murdering plant, who was sitting calmly across the table form him, cruel ice blue eyes narrowed, glaring angrily back. He gulped a lump down in his throat. He didn't think this was such a good time to be vacationing with the plants. Vash seemed harmlessly goofy, but...a murderer hanging around? And even though Knives was acting fairly passive, there was something about him that was unnerving. Maybe it was the way he just kept staring, staring, staring, never even blinking or looking away. Just staring at Vincent, pouring at his hate through his eyes...
Knives, meanwhile, was thinking his own thoughts. Meryl sure did pick an older version of Vash for her husband, he fumed. Why, in his youth, the man probably looked a lot like his brother, what with the pale skin, long face, and deep, green eyes. His hair, a rich, honey blonde, was not spiked up though, but allowed to hang shaggily just past his ears, much like Vash's did in the morning when he rolled out of bed. And that snobby daughter of theirs... The perfect picture of Meryl with an even worse attitude.
"Murderer?" Vincent spoke up faintly when they lapsed into silence. "Is it safe to be staying here?"
"What's all this crap about an underground warehouse?" demanded Billy, stuffing a cookie into her mouth.
"Oh, he wouldn't hurt you!" proclaimed Vash, chuckling as if Vincent had said something terribly silly. "He only kills plants!"
Even Meryl paled at that. And then dinner got much more interesting.
Three things happened at the same time.
First of all, Vash had put a casserole in the oven, and it began to burn. As the smoke filtered out of the kitchen, it reached the smoke alarm, sending it off. The shrill siren pierced the air. The second thing to happen was Billy, startled by the sound, began to choke on her dessert. She pounded on her chest, coughing and sputtering, and her mother immediately leapt up to help her.
And the third thing to come into play was the most dramatic. The door burst open and Grayfall exploded in, running at such a speed that hardly anyone anticipated what was coming or even realized he was there before it happened. He leapt straight at Knives and hauled him out of his chair. The blond man grunted in surprise, and then yelled as a fist flew straight across his jaw. He stumbled back and fell to the ground, where Grayfall kicked him harshly, screaming insanely.
"WHAT THE HECK?!?!" Knives covered his head to protect it from Grayfall's boot, which was not about to be put off in its quest of lodging in his head.
"YOU KILLED MY FATHER, YOU HEARTLESS JERK!" he shrieked in reply, a voice that made everyone shiver in fear. He grabbed a handful of Knives' hair and yanked him to his feet, giving him a right hook soon followed by a left, which sent him spiraling to the ground again. He then slammed his foot down on the other man's head, grinding into it with his heel.
Vincent, thinking this was the desert murderer, cried out and leapt to his feat, immediately trying to gather up his family and get them to safety. But Billy, who was still gasping from her near-death experience, was moving rather sluggishly.
Vash had been frozen to his spot, unable to believe the sight before his eyes, but now he sat down the bowl of mashed potatoes he had been holding and tore off his apron, ready to go to his brother's assistance.
Oriole was just appearing in the doorway, yelling, "Grayfall! Stop!"
But before anyone could do anything, Knives had, using not his hands but some other force of power, as far as the others could see, thrown Grayfall off him and hurled him into a wall. Then he rose to his feet, face bloody and bruised, and wiped a sleeve across his mouth, spitting some watery-red fluid from his mouth. But he didn't look angry. Just guilty.
Vash turned off the fire alarm, not saying a word. There was a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach - he had been the one to kill Legato, as far as he saw. Not Knives.
Grayfall had hit his head hard on impact of the wall, and was now sitting with his back propped up against the wall, long legs before him. He groaned dizzily, head rolling about from one shoulder to the next, and then looked up, eyes glowing dangerously. They were near luminescent.
"You did it - it was you the whole time," his haunted voice whispered, chilling everyone to the bone. "I thought you were someone who...who helped Legato Bluesummers..."
Oriole walked over cautiously, circling around him just to make sure he wouldn't lash out, and then knelt by his side, her hand on his arm. "Grayfall," she said evenly, her tone reasoning, "you should go back to your room. Take some time too calm down and collect yourself."
He shook his head weakly. He didn't want to. "I want to hear what Knives has to say for himself!" he growled. "I want to know if he's proud of what he's done. If he thinks I'm a major idiot for believing he ever did my father any good. All these years I've hated Legato Bluesummers because of his absence, and now I know...the real person I've been hating is you. So, what do you have to say?!"
Knives was speechless. What could he say? "I...I never forced Legato into anything. He did it all on accord to his free will." Wow...that sounded really weak.
Grayfall's eyes filled with tears, and he clamped a hand on Oriole's shoulder, using her as leverage to push himself up. She patted him on the back encouragingly and then sent him on his way, watching as he limped back over to Stormie's residence.
Oriole then turned her wrath-filled gaze on Knives. "I wish I'd known," she whispered, voice trembling. "I'm sorry... It's partially my fault. I shouldn't have shown him, but still... I just wish you'd told him the truth." And then she too walked away.
"What is up with this place?" demanded Billy loudly, clinging to her father's arm. "I want to go home!"
Oriole glanced at her briefly and then shook her head, lingering in the doorway to look back at the scene. She then realized that Billy was staring intently at her mangled hand, eyes wide and horrified. She clamped her jaw shut tighter and walked away.
Vash slumped his shoulders. He'd just wanted a nice dinner!
~~~~~
Knives didn't sleep in his bed that night. He just sat on the floor with his back to the wall, holding a pocket knife in his hand and flicking the blade up and then pushing it down, up and down, up and down. He hadn't even considered telling Grayfall what he had done to Legato, and what a lie he had told at dinner. Legato wanted to die. He did everything on his own accord. No...
Legato had been scared. He had begged to live.
Knives had said no, as he recalled, closing his eyes tightly. He'd located Legato in that dingy hotel room, with that woman, the two asleep and tangled in each other's arms. He'd choked once he realized what was going on; Legato had known better, he'd assumed. So he woke him mentally and prodded him harshly until he pulled away from the warmth of his love and got dressed and left. When he appeared before Knives in person, the young telepath had been verbally and physically abused, but not so much that he wouldn't be able to do his job.
"Please, Master," Legato had pleaded, tears in his eyes, falling to mix with the blood. "I will do anything - just let me go back to her one last time. Let me explain why I will not return. And I...I have some things I would like her to have..."
Well, thought Knives, throwing back his head to hit it against the wall, he could've avoided this whole night if he had just let Legato go back and talk to Heather one last time! Then maybe Grayfall would've grown up knowing that his father was dead, and would not have felt so deserted, and in turn, angry. If he had just known from the start, it wouldn't have been such a shock.
Vash walked into the dark room, not even bothering to turn on the light. He just shut the door and quietly changed. Then, he climbed into bed, lay down, and said nothing.
After five minutes, Knives detected quiet sobbing. "Vashu?" he quietly asked.
"I-it's a-all m-m-my fault," his brother wept softly. "I -I killed Legato... I - I - I'm the one who shot him, not you..."
"Vashu!" Knives made sure to keep his voice quiet. "It was NOT your fault! I forced both of you to do a lot of things! I made you shoot Legato and I made Legato offer himself to death... Neither of you wanted to partake in any of it..."
The shadows near Vash's bed shifted and sat up, looking at Knives curiously. "I thought that he wanted to...to die. He was so loyal to you. And he always said..."
"I understand, Master," echoed Knives, clenching his fist around the closed pocket knife. "The only thing he understood was that I would not allow him to escape with his life. And he was loyal to me, until he met Grayfall's mother. Then he just...he wanted other things and he drifted away. But I just wouldn't let him live. I could let him live..."
Vash tried to make as little noise as possible as he rolled off the edge of the mattress and crept quietly over towards his twin. They sat there, side by side, thinking their own private thoughts and guarding them close from the other.
"Knives?"
"Yeah?"
"Before we were...on good terms, I would've had to go through something like this alone."
"As would I."
"It's good to have you around."
"I missed you too, Vashu."
~~~~~
"Stormie hasn't come home." Grayfall was standing in Oriole's bedroom doorway, hugging himself tight and hoping that his shivering didn't show through.
"It's only 9:30. Town is about an hour away, and since she insists on walking, she could be arriving any second now."
Grayfall shook his head.
"What's wrong?"
He didn't know what to do. He didn't want to be with her, standing in her doorway, feeling awkward, but he didn't want to walk away and remain alone. He wished his mother was around, and that maybe he had a friend or someone to comfort him. He wished he hadn't flown off the handle and attacked Knives an hour earlier.
Oriole stood up from her desk, wearing blue pajama pants and matching, long- sleeved top that buttoned up the front. It was too big for her, hinting that she had borrowed it from the missing plant. She looked comically cute in the baggy clothes, her hair up in a loose bun and one sleeve drooping over her crippled hand, hiding it. The way Billy had looked at her earlier had made her a little self-conscious and even embarrassed. "I'm going to get a snack," she said calmly. "Do you want anything?"
He hadn't had dinner, so he nodded.
The two of them walked to the kitchen, both on edge, and she pulled out a box of chocolates and set it on the table between them. Some snack. Neither one touched the candies, just sat and pretended like they were going to get around to it eventually. Grayfall seemed to be waiting for something.
Oriole looked at the clock worriedly. It was ten now. She was beginning to consider calling Vash and Knives and informing them.
Grayfall got out of his chair and stretched out on his back on the kitchen floor, not caring that he had no apparent reason to or that Oriole just stared. When it came, he didn't want the fear and panic to make him fall or anything.
And then, it sounded as if someone had cranked up a small music box, the twinkling melody eerily echoing in the empty kitchen. Of course, Oriole didn't hear it, still playing with one of the chocolates and bringing it to her lips, nibbling hesitantly. He closed his eyes tightly.
The music was very faint, slowly transforming from the metallic notes to the harp player, accompanied by the piano. Naoshi wasn't close by, judging by the volume, but he was close enough, preparing to kill a plant. But there weren't any plants in the area that weren't right next door, as far as Grayfall knew.
Except Stormie.
"Oriole," he hoarsely said, throat dry and constricted. "Call Vash. He needs to..." He couldn't finish. It was hard to concentrate with the music distracting him, and he couldn't even hear himself speaking. Oriole was staring at him, brown, almond-shaped eyes wide. "It's Naoshi..."
Oriole was already dialing the number.
~~~~~
Knives was the one who answered the phone this time. He listened silently while the person on the other line spoke and then said quietly, "I'll take care of it," and hung up. He looked at Vash pointedly before turning around and opening his dresser drawer, pulling out the gun he had made so many years ago at that abandoned SEEDS ship. He then took Vash's and tossed it to him.
"What's going on?" demanded his brother as fumbled to catch the weapon, confused, brow furrowed. He had sworn never to kill again, and he didn't want to break that vow now. What did Knives want him to do now?
"It's that plant assassin," explained his twin, already halfway out the door. "Grayfall heard his death song. And Stormie's not home. You can stay if you want, but I'm going to look for her." And he broke into a run.
~~~~~
AHHH!! WHAT WILL HAPPEN?!?! Will Stormie be hurt? Will she even be ALIVE?!?! Not even I know! Review and tell me what YOU want!
Warning: Billy, Meryl's daughter, is a real brat. Do not worry. She will get better. ^_^
Keep reading and reviewing! Remember, the more you review, the faster I write.
~~~~~
"...And so, after Knives was fully recovered, Stormie came to live in the underground warehouse next door! It was built by some crazy scientist who thought the world was gonna end, so he holed up in there till the day he died. She was pretty happy to be able to get her hands on that property. Then we lived pretty uneventfully for about twenty years, except for the occasional bounty hunter, and then, all the sudden, this man who looks just like Legato shows up on our doorstep! And then he tells us this story about this murderer who is out to get us and how he's Legato's son and all this other weird stuff, so you picked a pretty exciting time to visit! More potatoes?" Vash smiled, offering the bowl to the woman across the table.
Meryl shook her head silently, still shocked by the whole story to the point where she could not speak. However, Vincent, her husband, was taking it even worse. He'd never heard of the whole ordeal involving the SEEDS ship, the gun-ho guns, the murders Knives had committed, and the final fight between the two brothers. In fact, the middle-aged, blond man could do nothing but sit and stare at the murdering plant, who was sitting calmly across the table form him, cruel ice blue eyes narrowed, glaring angrily back. He gulped a lump down in his throat. He didn't think this was such a good time to be vacationing with the plants. Vash seemed harmlessly goofy, but...a murderer hanging around? And even though Knives was acting fairly passive, there was something about him that was unnerving. Maybe it was the way he just kept staring, staring, staring, never even blinking or looking away. Just staring at Vincent, pouring at his hate through his eyes...
Knives, meanwhile, was thinking his own thoughts. Meryl sure did pick an older version of Vash for her husband, he fumed. Why, in his youth, the man probably looked a lot like his brother, what with the pale skin, long face, and deep, green eyes. His hair, a rich, honey blonde, was not spiked up though, but allowed to hang shaggily just past his ears, much like Vash's did in the morning when he rolled out of bed. And that snobby daughter of theirs... The perfect picture of Meryl with an even worse attitude.
"Murderer?" Vincent spoke up faintly when they lapsed into silence. "Is it safe to be staying here?"
"What's all this crap about an underground warehouse?" demanded Billy, stuffing a cookie into her mouth.
"Oh, he wouldn't hurt you!" proclaimed Vash, chuckling as if Vincent had said something terribly silly. "He only kills plants!"
Even Meryl paled at that. And then dinner got much more interesting.
Three things happened at the same time.
First of all, Vash had put a casserole in the oven, and it began to burn. As the smoke filtered out of the kitchen, it reached the smoke alarm, sending it off. The shrill siren pierced the air. The second thing to happen was Billy, startled by the sound, began to choke on her dessert. She pounded on her chest, coughing and sputtering, and her mother immediately leapt up to help her.
And the third thing to come into play was the most dramatic. The door burst open and Grayfall exploded in, running at such a speed that hardly anyone anticipated what was coming or even realized he was there before it happened. He leapt straight at Knives and hauled him out of his chair. The blond man grunted in surprise, and then yelled as a fist flew straight across his jaw. He stumbled back and fell to the ground, where Grayfall kicked him harshly, screaming insanely.
"WHAT THE HECK?!?!" Knives covered his head to protect it from Grayfall's boot, which was not about to be put off in its quest of lodging in his head.
"YOU KILLED MY FATHER, YOU HEARTLESS JERK!" he shrieked in reply, a voice that made everyone shiver in fear. He grabbed a handful of Knives' hair and yanked him to his feet, giving him a right hook soon followed by a left, which sent him spiraling to the ground again. He then slammed his foot down on the other man's head, grinding into it with his heel.
Vincent, thinking this was the desert murderer, cried out and leapt to his feat, immediately trying to gather up his family and get them to safety. But Billy, who was still gasping from her near-death experience, was moving rather sluggishly.
Vash had been frozen to his spot, unable to believe the sight before his eyes, but now he sat down the bowl of mashed potatoes he had been holding and tore off his apron, ready to go to his brother's assistance.
Oriole was just appearing in the doorway, yelling, "Grayfall! Stop!"
But before anyone could do anything, Knives had, using not his hands but some other force of power, as far as the others could see, thrown Grayfall off him and hurled him into a wall. Then he rose to his feet, face bloody and bruised, and wiped a sleeve across his mouth, spitting some watery-red fluid from his mouth. But he didn't look angry. Just guilty.
Vash turned off the fire alarm, not saying a word. There was a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach - he had been the one to kill Legato, as far as he saw. Not Knives.
Grayfall had hit his head hard on impact of the wall, and was now sitting with his back propped up against the wall, long legs before him. He groaned dizzily, head rolling about from one shoulder to the next, and then looked up, eyes glowing dangerously. They were near luminescent.
"You did it - it was you the whole time," his haunted voice whispered, chilling everyone to the bone. "I thought you were someone who...who helped Legato Bluesummers..."
Oriole walked over cautiously, circling around him just to make sure he wouldn't lash out, and then knelt by his side, her hand on his arm. "Grayfall," she said evenly, her tone reasoning, "you should go back to your room. Take some time too calm down and collect yourself."
He shook his head weakly. He didn't want to. "I want to hear what Knives has to say for himself!" he growled. "I want to know if he's proud of what he's done. If he thinks I'm a major idiot for believing he ever did my father any good. All these years I've hated Legato Bluesummers because of his absence, and now I know...the real person I've been hating is you. So, what do you have to say?!"
Knives was speechless. What could he say? "I...I never forced Legato into anything. He did it all on accord to his free will." Wow...that sounded really weak.
Grayfall's eyes filled with tears, and he clamped a hand on Oriole's shoulder, using her as leverage to push himself up. She patted him on the back encouragingly and then sent him on his way, watching as he limped back over to Stormie's residence.
Oriole then turned her wrath-filled gaze on Knives. "I wish I'd known," she whispered, voice trembling. "I'm sorry... It's partially my fault. I shouldn't have shown him, but still... I just wish you'd told him the truth." And then she too walked away.
"What is up with this place?" demanded Billy loudly, clinging to her father's arm. "I want to go home!"
Oriole glanced at her briefly and then shook her head, lingering in the doorway to look back at the scene. She then realized that Billy was staring intently at her mangled hand, eyes wide and horrified. She clamped her jaw shut tighter and walked away.
Vash slumped his shoulders. He'd just wanted a nice dinner!
~~~~~
Knives didn't sleep in his bed that night. He just sat on the floor with his back to the wall, holding a pocket knife in his hand and flicking the blade up and then pushing it down, up and down, up and down. He hadn't even considered telling Grayfall what he had done to Legato, and what a lie he had told at dinner. Legato wanted to die. He did everything on his own accord. No...
Legato had been scared. He had begged to live.
Knives had said no, as he recalled, closing his eyes tightly. He'd located Legato in that dingy hotel room, with that woman, the two asleep and tangled in each other's arms. He'd choked once he realized what was going on; Legato had known better, he'd assumed. So he woke him mentally and prodded him harshly until he pulled away from the warmth of his love and got dressed and left. When he appeared before Knives in person, the young telepath had been verbally and physically abused, but not so much that he wouldn't be able to do his job.
"Please, Master," Legato had pleaded, tears in his eyes, falling to mix with the blood. "I will do anything - just let me go back to her one last time. Let me explain why I will not return. And I...I have some things I would like her to have..."
Well, thought Knives, throwing back his head to hit it against the wall, he could've avoided this whole night if he had just let Legato go back and talk to Heather one last time! Then maybe Grayfall would've grown up knowing that his father was dead, and would not have felt so deserted, and in turn, angry. If he had just known from the start, it wouldn't have been such a shock.
Vash walked into the dark room, not even bothering to turn on the light. He just shut the door and quietly changed. Then, he climbed into bed, lay down, and said nothing.
After five minutes, Knives detected quiet sobbing. "Vashu?" he quietly asked.
"I-it's a-all m-m-my fault," his brother wept softly. "I -I killed Legato... I - I - I'm the one who shot him, not you..."
"Vashu!" Knives made sure to keep his voice quiet. "It was NOT your fault! I forced both of you to do a lot of things! I made you shoot Legato and I made Legato offer himself to death... Neither of you wanted to partake in any of it..."
The shadows near Vash's bed shifted and sat up, looking at Knives curiously. "I thought that he wanted to...to die. He was so loyal to you. And he always said..."
"I understand, Master," echoed Knives, clenching his fist around the closed pocket knife. "The only thing he understood was that I would not allow him to escape with his life. And he was loyal to me, until he met Grayfall's mother. Then he just...he wanted other things and he drifted away. But I just wouldn't let him live. I could let him live..."
Vash tried to make as little noise as possible as he rolled off the edge of the mattress and crept quietly over towards his twin. They sat there, side by side, thinking their own private thoughts and guarding them close from the other.
"Knives?"
"Yeah?"
"Before we were...on good terms, I would've had to go through something like this alone."
"As would I."
"It's good to have you around."
"I missed you too, Vashu."
~~~~~
"Stormie hasn't come home." Grayfall was standing in Oriole's bedroom doorway, hugging himself tight and hoping that his shivering didn't show through.
"It's only 9:30. Town is about an hour away, and since she insists on walking, she could be arriving any second now."
Grayfall shook his head.
"What's wrong?"
He didn't know what to do. He didn't want to be with her, standing in her doorway, feeling awkward, but he didn't want to walk away and remain alone. He wished his mother was around, and that maybe he had a friend or someone to comfort him. He wished he hadn't flown off the handle and attacked Knives an hour earlier.
Oriole stood up from her desk, wearing blue pajama pants and matching, long- sleeved top that buttoned up the front. It was too big for her, hinting that she had borrowed it from the missing plant. She looked comically cute in the baggy clothes, her hair up in a loose bun and one sleeve drooping over her crippled hand, hiding it. The way Billy had looked at her earlier had made her a little self-conscious and even embarrassed. "I'm going to get a snack," she said calmly. "Do you want anything?"
He hadn't had dinner, so he nodded.
The two of them walked to the kitchen, both on edge, and she pulled out a box of chocolates and set it on the table between them. Some snack. Neither one touched the candies, just sat and pretended like they were going to get around to it eventually. Grayfall seemed to be waiting for something.
Oriole looked at the clock worriedly. It was ten now. She was beginning to consider calling Vash and Knives and informing them.
Grayfall got out of his chair and stretched out on his back on the kitchen floor, not caring that he had no apparent reason to or that Oriole just stared. When it came, he didn't want the fear and panic to make him fall or anything.
And then, it sounded as if someone had cranked up a small music box, the twinkling melody eerily echoing in the empty kitchen. Of course, Oriole didn't hear it, still playing with one of the chocolates and bringing it to her lips, nibbling hesitantly. He closed his eyes tightly.
The music was very faint, slowly transforming from the metallic notes to the harp player, accompanied by the piano. Naoshi wasn't close by, judging by the volume, but he was close enough, preparing to kill a plant. But there weren't any plants in the area that weren't right next door, as far as Grayfall knew.
Except Stormie.
"Oriole," he hoarsely said, throat dry and constricted. "Call Vash. He needs to..." He couldn't finish. It was hard to concentrate with the music distracting him, and he couldn't even hear himself speaking. Oriole was staring at him, brown, almond-shaped eyes wide. "It's Naoshi..."
Oriole was already dialing the number.
~~~~~
Knives was the one who answered the phone this time. He listened silently while the person on the other line spoke and then said quietly, "I'll take care of it," and hung up. He looked at Vash pointedly before turning around and opening his dresser drawer, pulling out the gun he had made so many years ago at that abandoned SEEDS ship. He then took Vash's and tossed it to him.
"What's going on?" demanded his brother as fumbled to catch the weapon, confused, brow furrowed. He had sworn never to kill again, and he didn't want to break that vow now. What did Knives want him to do now?
"It's that plant assassin," explained his twin, already halfway out the door. "Grayfall heard his death song. And Stormie's not home. You can stay if you want, but I'm going to look for her." And he broke into a run.
~~~~~
AHHH!! WHAT WILL HAPPEN?!?! Will Stormie be hurt? Will she even be ALIVE?!?! Not even I know! Review and tell me what YOU want!
