The high noon was identical to the day that they found him. Waves of heat fell like rain, which was virtually extinct on the whole of Planet Gunsmoke. A long individual was evident on the deserted street, nothing more than a figure in a window. If one conducted a closer inspection, he would notice that there was one more person confined within the pane, slumped and seated with lowered head, honey brown hair spilled about her face like a curtain.
"You couldn't have known, Milly…" the figure in the window whispered to the glass, trying to clear her strangled throat. The petite, dark-haired woman continued to stare out the window, restraining her eyes, unable to bear the sight of the pain her best friend was feeling.
Milly Thompson stared blindly at her lap through a veil of limp, stringy hair, damp with tears. "He told me to stay here, Meryl…stay here until he came back." She whimpered, trembling, choking on her tongue as it felt too large for her mouth. "He knew that this was the day, Meryl…" She wanted more than anything to say more, but her throat constricted, cinching off her words' path.
What would her biggest big sister do in this situation? Milly wasn't sure as she gagged on her tongue, pain crowding her every thought. Nicholas was…was………
SEEING RED
Can, can, box, package, canister. Bag, can, package, box. Can, can, pack, pack, pack, pack…
Vash dragged himself from his pained reverie, returning the packs of too-familiar cigarettes to their rack before glancing down into his arms. Almost a dozen cans of pudding (chocolate, pistachio, vanilla, banana, tapioca, lemon, butterscotch…) were supported by a single bag of sugar and a box of matches (which he left on the shelf with the cigarettes, giving the pudding cans a dangerous tip). Meryl would not be pleased with his shopping. He could almost hear her now…almost.
He paused in the middle of the aisle of the small general store, slouching over the items, taking a deep breath before continuing to the check out counter. Vash chucked bitterly, remembering that the town was completely deserted on account of Millions Knives. "That'll be $$6, sir," he mimicked hollowly. He dropped a $$10 bill on the dusty haze of the countertop ("Hey, there's no people, so we don't have to pay. Heh. Being honest again, huh? Do what you want, but I'm stocking up now, Vash. I wonder if Milly'll want some pudding, while I'm here getting my cigarettes…?") before lowering his head against the prospect of wind whistling through the empty town.
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Milly remained at the window, watched the forsaken street as it was populated with nothing more than helpless scraps of newspaper and the occasional dust devil. She released a heavy sigh. The action seemed to drain every ounce of life from her tired, unkempt frame. Maybe if she'd asked him to hold her just a little longer or touch her one more time, he would still be here. She lowered her grimacing face into her hands, trying to hide her pain from the world. Her eyes remained dry, but everything inside her ached. The thing that hurt worse than knowing that he was gone was knowing that she would have to go on alone and do her best without him.
She stifled a sob. "Buck up, Milly," she said aloud, reprimanding herself with severity. "Crying isn't going to…isn't going to bring him back…" The tears that had formed in her eyes spilled over.
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This is what you get for taking too long. The jagged red lines on the Tonim Town monument were caked and opaque, dried to a rusty brown color.
Why, Knives… Why did you have to do this?! How can the human race disgust you so much? They have fault, but so do we! Didn't you ever listen to Rem? Everything she told us…was it wasted? Did it fall on ears as deaf as yours? How could you turn your back on her like that… Smashing the spiders to save the butterflies is wrong...! If butterflies were to overpopulate, the result would be even more devastating than letting nature take its course! The humans have lived in turmoil, yes, but it's the only way they know how to live. Don't you see that, Knives? One day, we'll slow in this life that we've been dancing for so long and stop, just like all the others. We're only different from them in the fact that we're more powerful because we've lived longer and know of life's precious secrets. We all reach the same finish line, Knives. Why couldn't you have picked a better road to travel…?
"Mr. Vash?"
The man in the red coat blinked once, glancing blindly up to meet the belly of the speaker. He lifted his eyes more to meet the grim face of Milly Thompson. He instantly became aware of the can of pudding (lemon) that he'd been rolling between his hands. "Hey, I'm sorry!" he said quickly, laughing a little to hide his thoughts. "Meryl's probably pissed because I'm not back yet." He held out the can of pudding to her, but she didn't take it from him. Instead, she took up position next to him and crossed her arms loosely, slumping slightly as she sullenly stared at the monument that Vash had been watching for nearly an hour.
"Can't you smile once for me?" Vash asked, his voice sounding a trifle nervous as he peeked over at Milly's gloomy face. He grinned to show her what he wanted. "Hm?"
Milly's pale blue eyes slid over to study his face. "Don't smile like that," she said, her voice short and almost sharp. "It hurts to watch you smile. It's so empty."
Vash's smile melted slowly from his face, stricken on the inside as his heart tugged at his throat, reminding him constantly of Wolfwood.
"None of us can be happy…" Milly whispered, feeling the clinch on her throat that had become so familiar to her. "Not anymore." She lowered her eyes from the monument to the ground, watching the sand flitter around her shoes, forcing the tears back from her eyes.
Vash remained silent for several minutes, his hands slipping into his pockets as he stared at the monument, watching it, as if it would change what it said at any moment. Maybe it would say "Just Joking!" or "Gotcha, Vash!" He wished it would, but the caked blood never changed. The monument was always scrawled with "Knives."
"I found him, Milly… I should have followed him when I had the chance…before it was too late…"
"Why didn't you?!" Milly demanded loudly, her voice reverberating in a hollow echo off the abandoned buildings around the town square.
It was Vash's turn to lower his head. "I don't know…I was too wrapped up in…me."
"How could you?" Milly cried loudly, turning on Vash. Her fists raised and she pounded them both down against his chest several times, each blow lessening with intensity as her will began to break underneath her. "How could you…?" she whimpered finally, drowning in her own tears as she sobbed to the ground, dampening the dust beneath her. She felt two hands on her shoulders as she cried, and she instantly felt Nicholas with her, standing before her, wondering what had upset her…wanting to comfort her. Milly raised her face to see that it wasn't Nicholas, but Vash. And he was crying with her. Silent, anguished tears slid down his cheeks, darkening his red overcoat where they landed on his chest.
"He was happy, Milly…" he breathed, just loud enough so she could hear him over the wind that whispered around them. His hands tightened in a gentle squeeze on her shoulders, and he could feel her tremble in her grief. "He was the happiest man because he had us. He had you and me and Meryl. And you know what, Mil?" He caught her eyes. "We were the luckiest people because we knew him. Wolfwood was put into our lives as a gift." A slow, sad smile turned his lips in the slightest way as he drew Milly into a hug, tightening his arms around her as her body trembled with sobs again.
He lowered his head to her shoulder, feeling the tears come again as she cried softly against him. The groceries were forgotten. The desolate Tonim Town was forgotten. Even Knives was forgotten, in this moment, as the fateful pair found the comfort that they'd been searching for…in each other…