Hello. I'm late again, thanks to that story I told you about last chapie combined with a serious bout of writer's block. But I have good news! I finished the depressing story, and I'm not working on any other contest entries, so I can focus on this now ^_^ And like I said, I got over the block, so that'll help too.
Let's see now, reveiws . . . First, to lyerial. Sorry, Legato's girl was just a random girl, she shouldn't be coming back (though no promises) and you'll find out Wolfwood's first (and second) deeds next chapter. Sharem – Shhh!!!!! Actually, I am planning to have some fun with Knives, but not yet . . . And Raditz. It is not wise to read fanfics at 4:00 in the morning. That's almost as bad as writing them at 4:00 in the morning ^_^ And I don't want to be a scone. I'd much rather be a doughnut, because then Vash would eat me ^_^ Wait a minute, I don't want to be eaten, do I? Maybe a cigarette . . . I wouldn't mind being between Wolfwoods lips :)
**
Midvalley sat in a dark corner of the building, nursing his drink slowly. He hadn't been very happy to hear Legato had been found safe and sound, although that may have had something to do with the fact that he didn't know until after nearly five hours of searching. As soon as Zazie had told him to stop looking, he'd crawled into the closest resturaunt and curled into a booth. It didn't matter to him that he could trace a path through the dust coating his table. He didn't care that his unidentifyable food both smelled and tasted strongly of cigarette smoke. All that mattered to him was that they hadn't checked his ID before handing him a beer.
No. Too strong. Not sick. No. Not her. Doesn't need my help. Midvalley stared out the door at the passing crowd, looking for some chance to do good. He wasn't so much worried about running out of time than of losing face. Legato had gotten his second deed already, and Midvalley had seen the proof himself that Zazie had earned one of his own. Midvalley was the only one yet to make progress. And the crowd outside didn't present any options that he could see.
With a sigh, he dropped some money on the table and stumbled into the bright light outside. He wandered down the streets, staring at each person he passed. Everyone in this town seemed so damn healthy, there was no chance for him to do anything. No starving kids, no injured people, no abused wives or sick husbands. Losing hope, he turned to go home, with a stop by the bar where he'd skiped work today.
"Scuze me, budy, spare some change?" Midvalley looked down to see a young, well dressed child. "Spare change?"
"Look kid, I'm probably more broke than you are." The young boy hung his head and started to walk away when Midvalley grabbed his arm. "Listen, here." He handed over three double dollars, the only thing he had left in his pocket. Overjoyed, the kid ran off and Midvalley smiled. There. One good deed done. He looked down at his wrist and frowned when he saw it hadn't changed. Oh well, maybe it takes a while.
Ten minutes later, Midvalley walked into the dingy bar where he was working. "Scrub!" He jumped at his boss's voice. "Why the hell weren't you in today?"
"There was an emergency, sir. One of my friends was missing."
"So you skipped out on your responsibilities?"
Midvalley gulped, seeing where this was going. "Sir, I'm sorry, but I was worried about him. I did come in to explain, right?"
"After your shift was over! Do you know how much trouble you put someone through? Now, get out of here, scrub. I have work to do!"
"But, sir, when do I-"
"You don't! I gave this job to you on good faith, now get out of here!"
Impossible. He'd spent the whole day searching and worried and what did he get for it? Squat. Less than squat! Midvalley reached into his pocket, intent to get himself a much needed drink. "Shit, that little street rat." Grumbling and uttering several more curses, the sax player headed home.
**
It was already dark when Midvalley stumbled from the house again. He rushed down the streets, brushing right past Wolfwood as he headed in for a late dinner. He ignored the priest's inquiries and just hurried down the streets. Nearly a half hour passed before he reached a small, poorly lit building. He looked around, taking in the thick smell of alchohol mixed with smoke, vomit, and various other scents that he didn't want to identify.
Aaah, he was home!
The residents of the building and the surrounding alleys were equally disgusting. Most were unshven and reeked strongly. Several had probably never had a bath in their life. Most were tripping over thin air, too drunk to even stand on their own. It was so good to be amongst real people again! Midvalley pushed his way up to the door and tried to get in when he was grabbed from behind.
"Lookie here, fresh meat!" Midvalley's eyes widened as a huge meaty arm closed across his throat. "And where do you think you're going, half-pint?"
Midvalley twisted, freeing his arm and drawing his gun. Pressing it against the man's gut he ground his teeth together. "Lay off, wide load." The man dropped him and made a grab for Midvalley's gun, but he was faster. Dodging to the left, Midvalley thought it might not be so bad to have a new, younger, stronger, faster body. Getting around behind the thug, Midvalley grabbed the man's hair and pressed his gun firmly against his temple. "Well, now that we've been properly introduced, I'm so glad you've voluntered to give me a guided tour."
"You little punk!"
"Shut up! I don't want to kill you, it would really hurt my cause right now. So just take me inside and show me who runs this crap hole!" The man twisted, trying to dislodge his small passenger, but Midvalley held tight and the man was given no choice but to obey or gain a new hole in the head.
The inside of the building was little improvement from the outside. The air was thick with perfumes that undoubtedly masked less pleasant odors. In every corner, adults and several children as young as ten stood clustered around various tables in the dim light. Midvalley gasped. He'd known what this place was, he'd known what to expect and he'd seen it many times before in his life. But he'd never seen one quite like this.
Suddenly he was flying through the air, wrenched from the gigantic man before him. He hit the ground and scrambled to point his gun at the proper target. But there were too many, a total of six people with more weapons than that stood over him, scowls marked across each face. No other choice, Midvalley raised his hand slightly, allowing his pistol to dangle from one finger.
A tough looking girl, no more than eight or nine years old, stepped forward and took the weapon before motioning to the others gathered around them. They all stepped back and Midvalley felt safe to breath again. He looked at the girl with her rough cut red hair and dirt smudged face. "You can't tell me you're in charge around here."
"No, this is where daddy and I vacation." Her sickly sweet smile faded instantly and she cuffed Midvalley hard across the face. "Of course I'm in charge around here! And I got here because of skill. I'm the best around. Now what the hell do you want?"
Midvalley sat up, eyes once again scanning the rooms. "I guess that explains the kids. I've never seen a place like this employ anyone under drinking age."
"Well, now you've seen one! What the hell are you doing here? You're scrawny, obviously skilled, though I wouldn't bet on you in a fight. How'd you find us?"
"Trust me, I wouldn't have if there was some other choice." Midvalley climbed to his feet now and noticed that several guns were still discreetly trained on him. "Look, I'm having a hard time right now. Give me a few more days and I'm not going to have money for food or rent and I'm helping to support others. I lost my job today, so I came here."
The girl snorted, twirling one beaded strand of hair through her fingers. "Oh, boo hoo. You forgot to mention your sick mother and lame sister. I've heard much better sob stories, so if that's all you've got, then get lost."
"But it's true!"
"It always is, sweety. Now shut up and ship out, you don't belong here."
A tall woman stepped forward and grabbed Midvalley's arm, pulling him towards the door. Starting to get desperate, Midvalley twisted out of her grip and in turn grabbed the younger girl's arm. "Hey, I'd bet that I'm a hell of a lot more skilled than you are. And I know that you're always looking for new blood, why not give me a shot?"
The girl looked at him appraisingly before shaking her head again. "All right, if you let me go now, you can keep that hand." Midvalley released his grip, but he didn't move. "Kid, do you even have any idea what you're getting into here?"
"Yeah, kid. This place is illegal; if the sheriff knew what went on here, you'd all be arrested or worse. That's because this is the place to find gangsters, mercenaries, crooks, and hookers. Like I said, I have more experience than you possibly could. Now, are you going to give me a shot or not?"
The girl seemed to think a moment before raising Midvalley's own gun and pointing it squarly at his chest. Midvalley's breath caught as he stared at the weapon until she suddenly laughed. "I'm Alex. This is a pretty nice piece of work."
She offered the handle and Midvalley took it, laughing nervously. "It's not all that much. Not near as powerful as what I used to carry, but I lost that a while ago." He looked around again. Nothing was out of the ordinary and, suddenly, no one was paying him any more attention than anyone else. He allowed himself a smile; this was where he belonged. Among the low lifes and the cut throats. "So, Alex, what sort of work do you have coming in?"
**
Zazie sat at the dinner table in silence. Legato was making quick trips from the kitchen, bringing their modest dinner out. The air was tense, and that was the understatement of the year. Wolfwood and Midvalley were sitting opposite each other, one on either side of Zazie, glaring at each other. Well, Wolfwood was glaring. Midvalley was making quite a show of being unconcerned.
"A week," Wolfwood ground out between clenched teeth.
"Let's not discuss this at dinner," Midvalley replied. He was enjoying irking the preist far too much for his own good.
"A week!"
Legato brought out the last dish and leaned between the two boys to set it down, breaking their eye contact and hoping that would abate the argument. No such luck. No conversation lasted in the tense atmosphere, except the brewing fight. "I don't see why it's your business anyway, Chapel."
"It's my business because you've been robbing us! You should have told me as soon as you lost your job."
"Oh, yes, the chance of losing my right to eat is such a big incentive to admit that my cash flow was interrupted."
"We don't have the money to support anyone who doesn't pull their own weight!"
"Really! Now, that's interesting, since neither Legato nor Zazie are working and yet you don't seem to mind supporting them."
"That's because they are still helping out. Zazie keeps the house, you know that."
"And Legato sits in depression. The only reason you're singaling me out is because I had better luck than them, but lost it. Because I was worried about Legato, none the less. Who decided to make you the leader anyway?"
"No one has argued about it yet. I'm doing a good job, after all. Besides, I'm oldest."
Legato set his fork down with a clang. "Now, Nicholas, that is too much. You know perfectly well that both Midvalley and I are older than you."(1)
"That's not what I meant-"
"Isn't it though? Throwing your weight around as if you know what's best for everyone?" Legato was starting to get angry now, too. "You believe yourself to be better than us because you, what, respected life? Knew Vash? Hate your past?"
"No. Nothing like that! I just meant-" Wolfwood stuttered to a stop, glaring with new vehemence as Midvalley broke into giggles. "Forget I said anything, all right? As of right now, I'm the leader here because I'm the only one paying for the food."
"Hold on there!" Midvalley reached into his pocket. "Who said I wasn't going to pay my share?" He waved a small wad of bills in front of his face, smling past them at Wolfwood, before tossing the money to him.
Wolfwood grabbed the bills, quickly counting them as his eyes widened. "There's more here than you said you were going to bring in!"
"That's because my new job pays even better than working in that two-bit bar."
Wolfwood looked around from his plate to Midvalley to the others and back. Finally he sighed, defeated, and left the table. Zazie stared after him before smiling up at Midvalley. "You won. So, what's this new job?"
Midvalley's smile evaporated. "I'd rather not talk about it." Seeing his friend's worried looks he shook his head quickly. "It's just normal stuff, ya know? General work, nothing worth talking about."
Not convinced, Legato let it go and the three boys finished their dinner together. "So, you have a job, how are you doing on your deeds?"
The change of subject didn't improve Midvalley's suddenly foul mood and he growled audibly before replying. "I don't get it! I've been working my ass off, and I'm still black."
Zazie frowned. "Well, what have you done? Maybe you're just doing the wrong thing?"
"Everything! I've given money to poor kids, I helped some old lady with her groceries, I saved a cute little puppy brat."
"Well, maybe you're not doing anything big enough?"
"You didn't let me finish. I also stopped a guy robbing a resturaunt and tackled this stupid bitch who had just tried to kill someone."
Legato frowned. "Perhaps you are sinning when you aren't doing good and the two are cancelling each other out." Midvalley frowned at that, but Legato continued. "Or, more likely, you're not doing selfless acts. You are helping people for your own benefit, not theirs."
"Well, that's not very helpful! Of course I'm doing it for myself, but I'm still helping them! There's no other way to do it, I mean, I know that it's for me too, so it can't be all that selfless."
"We've menaged it."
Legato had obviously said the wrong thing. Midvalley practically leapt from the table, storming past Wolfwood on the couch and slamming the bedroom door behind him. Zazie followed, screaming after him. "Hang on a sec! It's my turn on the bed! You've got the couch with Chapel tonight!"
***
(1)Actually, official sorces put both Legato and Wolfwood in their "mid- to late- twenties" so I don't know who's older there and there is no mention of Midvalley's age, but he looks older to me.
Well, that's the next chapie. I'm still interested in hearing any ideas you guys have for deeds ^_^ and this time, I can garuntee an update in about two weeks . See you then!