Disclaimer: Trigun is locked away in a large gold chest in the producer's home, not mine.
Chapter Ten: Strange Hobbies
Rhianne bounded over the dune, leaving a spray of sand behind her, and almost instantly Knives was at her heels. She looked to her right and smiled at him. He was trying to beat her, that much was obvious. The look of determination smeared across his face was proof of that. She grinned, and veered off course and plowed into him, grabbing him around his middle and pushing him into the sand. They landed there, her arms around his waist and her head on his chest; her hair sprawled out like a deep brown fan over his white shirt.
"What the hell are you doing?" he demanded, glaring over his muscular chest at her. She moved her head so that she could see his face, and grinned at it. Letting go of his chest, she stood without answering, and extended him her hand to help him up. Knives refused and got up on his own.
"I couldn't just let you beat me, now could I?" Rhianne responded before taking off towards the nearby pod. She reached it in an instant, laying her right palm on the hull of the ship, grinning at Knives who walked leisurely down the slope.
"I win." She boasted, grinning mischievously at him through a large loose clump of her hair. Knives' eyes widened a little "we were racing? I wasn't aware" he bluffed. Rhianne smirked. He wasn't very good at lying.
"Oh well. I won and that's that." She said, leaning into her ship, her upper half disappearing beneath the scarred metal surface.
"Girl?" Knives asked absently.
"Rhianne." Came the reply "and what is it?"
"When you first met me, you said I was an extremely powerful plant. And just now you lied to me about being the most powerful plant alive, it is true… isn't it? I am the most powerful plant, aren't I?" He leaned back against the hull of the ship, waiting for her response. The other plant sighed.
"No Knives, you're not. I'm sorry to burst your bubble. Remember how I said some of the weaker plants needed the help of guns to form the Angel Arms? Well, you're one of those plants, Knives. You're pretty powerful for a plant of that heritage, but that's about it. I'm sorry." Came her voice from the pod. She sounded genuinely unhappy to be telling him this, but Knives had a sneaking suspicion that she had been waiting to drop the bomb on him since her first comment.
Knives bit his lip. He eyed the door of the door he had left partially intact, and considered slamming it on her and leaving her to be smothered beneath the sand.
*I wouldn't do that if I were you, Knives. Remember the storage room door?* Rhianne's mind spat back at him, accompanied with a rather tight pinch on his mind *and besides, don't ask a question unless you are prepared to hear what people have to say. You've been omnipotent too long, my friend.*
Knives sighed. The damn girl had a point, it hadn't been wise to ask in the first place, but he needed to know. But… that didn't necessarily mean he had to agree with it. The solution to all his problems was simply to close the door and… Another sharp pinch at his mind told him off, and he leaned back against the smooth curved exterior of the pod. A few strands of hair fell in front of his face, and he noted that it was time for a haircut.
Silence built itself between them, neither wanting to talk. The only sound was Rhianne rustling her things inside the pod. Knives closed his eyes against the light of the suns, but found the noonday sunlight too harsh and moved his gaze to the sand. He sighed. Typical woman, taking so long with everything. She couldn't just take the necessities, like she said she was going to, no, then that would make things easy.
*I never said that, don't put words in my mouth* Rhianne's mental voice chided him *I'm almost done, and would you quit sending me those angry thoughts? Think something happy, for once Knives!*
Knives didn't answer her, instead, he decided to focus on her mental voice. Mental voices were tricky things, because they sometimes sounded like that of the sender, but other times like your own. But hers was different. It was the mental voice you hear when you think to yourself. It had no tones, pitches, or octaves. It was just… there. It was odd, because Vash used to talk to him mentally when they were children, and his mental voice was always his own. But she was different. Different from Vash, different from him, different from all the plant angels… she had something more to her than that. Sometimes it seemed as if another life spoke from within her as well. Curious… could she possibly be-
"Done!" Rhianne interrupted his thoughts. She pulled herself from the pod, a large backpack on her shoulder and a large plastic plank in her hand. She put her hand on his shoulder "ready to go?" she asked. Knives shrugged her hand off and started to walk up the dune.
"What exactly did you get?" he asked as they trudged through the sand. Rhianne shrugged, and her pack shifted accordingly.
"Nothing much, just the essentials. Clothes… stuff." She smiled at him. Knives looked temporarily sour, then pointed at the board in her hand "what's that then? That certainly doesn't look like a necessity" he prodded. Rhianne smiled.
"Ah, I'll show you when we reach the top of this dune." She pointed to a nearby dune. Knives' eyes widened "that dune? It's huge and completely out of the way!" he shouted, but his female counterpart was already halfway up the hill. That girl would be that death of him, Knives grumbled as he took off after her.
Knives' observation had proven true, it had been an unusually large hill for his planet, but they reached the top of it nevertheless; Rhianne out of breath and Knives pretending not to be.
"So, what is this thing?" Knives demanded breathlessly, pointing to the hunk of plastic in her hand. Rhianne placed it down on the sand.
"It's a Sandboarding board." Knives blinked "a what?" Rhianne sighed.
"In the early 21st century, Sandboarding became an uber-popular sport to those who lived in dry, dusty areas and who either couldn't afford to or simply couldn't go snowboarding. My planet was predominantly snowy, so I learned to snowboard. But I've Sandboarded, and made sure to bring my board with me when I came here."
"How's it done?" Knives asked, sounding unimpressed.
"I'll show you." Rhianne laughed, and stood on her board. She bent down, strapped her feet in and fixed her hair. She was just about to push off when Knives' hand encircled her wrist. She turned around to meet eyes with him.
"Don't try anything." He said menacingly. Rhianne pushed his forehead lightly
"Knives, you're so untrusting, when are you going to lighten up? Look, you can run alongside me if it makes you feel any better." She grinned "that is… if you can keep up." With that said, she pulled her wrist from his grasp and launched herself down the hill.
