Day 213
To him time has generally been a flexible concept. On the SEEDS ship it had mattered a somewhat, he'd had to keep time for the sake of Rem and the other humans. It was important to know when to eat, when to learn, when to rest. On GunSmoke, with the growing realization of what he was, who he was, things had changed. Time has little meaning to those who live outside of it. The passing of the days meant little to him, the passing of hours still less. He was not of the spiders; so eager to fill every hour of their little lives, striving for survival. He was a Plant, he did what he wanted, when he wanted, everything had a time and he would wait. He had learned to be patient, learned not to worry about the management of days and hours.
The only reason he'd kept some semblance of time keeping was for his human servants, he found it good to be punctual in their case.
Now, however, he found himself wishing he had a watch.
His brother had gone out as normal that morning, but had not returned for Lunch. As if this was not concerning enough, he was also late for dinner. Such behaviour, even from the occasionally sloppy Vash, was unheard of.
He lies back on the bed, pondering what to do. He is growing increasingly hungry.
The door to the main room is still locked, so the kitchen is barred to him. He could, he ponders, probably break the door. He is strong enough for that, though only barely, yet that would result in some annoying explaining to do, if there was anyone to explain too…
He shakes his head, dismissing this last thought. Vash is blocking him from communicating telepathically with him, yet Knives feels sure that, if his brother were in deep trouble or dead, then he would feel it.
Just then he hears the front door open. He sighs in relief and then scowls in anger, remembering his irritation at his brother's lateness.
Reaching to the side he picks up one of the dreadful Mills and Boon books.
He throws it at the door as it opens, angling and timing it so that it would hit his brother straight on the forehead as he enters.
It does not, in fact, hit anything other than air, though this is nothing to do with Knives' excellent targeting skills.
The book sails over the head of the small, dark haired girl in white, in her hands she holds two, tiny guns. Derringers, Knives recalls them being named.
The woman fires one of the guns and Knives ducks, barely missing a bullet to the head.
When he looks up the woman is snarling, an enraged, grim expression upon her face. She slips away one used gun and takes out another from her cape.
Knives almost expects her to fire again, and bunches his aching muscles to leap out of the way, to his surprise though she does not.
'Listen Knives,' she spits, managing to put a fair amount of venom into uttering his name, 'Vash is indisposed. He sent me and my friend to watch over you-'
'Hi Mister Knives!' piped up a voice behind her, and another girl, tall and brown haired leaned out from around the doorway. She smiles and gives a small, friendly wave, there is something in her eyes, an innocence, which reminds Knives of the children he met a couple of weeks ago, reminds him of Vash.
'-and make sure you don't get into any trouble.' Continues the other woman, ignoring her friends interruption, 'so I'm gonna make damn sure you stay put. Vash thinks you won't cause any problems, but I don't believe it. So here's the deal. You move, I shoot. You say something wrong, I shoot. I feel you doing anything to my head, I shoot. Hell, you even breathe wrong and I shoot. I don't particularly like hurting people, but I'll make an exception for you. Am I clear?'
'Crystal,' replies Knives dryly, 'I don't suppose you'll tell me what exactly is occupying my brother?'
'No.'
Knives frowns and studies the woman further, there is something familiar about her and her accomplice… he searches through is memory, trying to recall…
Ah yes, he remembers now, from the reports sent to him by his Gung-Ho Guns, Wolfwood in particular, they'd told him that Vash had travelled with two women such as these… what were their names again?
'It's nice to know Vash has such faith in you, Mary,' he hazards, 'to leave you alone with such a monster as I.'
'Actually it's Meryl,' points out the tall one, 'and I'm Millie, you should really try to remember people's names better, it's polite.'
'Millie!' scolds Meryl, obviously a little displeased that their identities are uncovered.
Knives allows himself a smirk, and settles himself down onto the pillows. His eyes do not stray away from Meryl, and the two strong souls set up a staring match.
Their epic battle is only interrupted by a rumbling sound.
He blushes, and puts a hand over his belly; he tries to regain his lost dignity and fails miserably.
'I'm hungry,' he says to the two astonished women, there is no note of apology or request in his voice.
Meryl grins nastily, taking a smug pleasure in his predicament. Millie looks concerned, though.
'Shall I get you some food, Mr Knives?'
'Yes,' replies Knives gruffly.
'Don't Millie;' snaps Meryl, 'he doesn't deserve it.'
'But Mr Vash said we had to look after him,' says Millie sweetly, 'and that includes feeding him. I'll go and rustle something up now.'
She bustles away, leaving Meryl and Knives alone. The two resume their staring contest.
About half an hour later Millie comes back, in her hand she holds a bowl of hot stew, despite himself Knives eyes it hungrily.
Meryl shifts uncomfortably, all that time standing and staring must be taking its toll upon her body.
'Millie,' she instructs, 'take my derringer and keep an eye on Knives whilst I take a short break.'
'But what about the food?' asks Millie, taking the derringer in her free hand.
'Feed it to him later,' says Meryl as she leaves the room, 'the least the bastard deserves is cold stew.'
For a while he tries to outstare her also, but she refuses to play the game, she merely grins at his hard glaring.
There is something odd about that grin, he thinks, it reminds him of some of Vash's grins. It is forced, pasted upon her face like a mask hiding her true feelings. On Vash that kind of smile is heart breaking, on a human it seems, to him, vaguely sinister. He finds he feels much more wary of this, tall spider than the dark haired one.
'This is silly,' says Millie at last, 'I'm going to come over there and give you your stew, I'm sure you can move enough to eat it. But you've gotta promise me that you won't hurt me or try anything, because if you do then Meryl will probably have to shoot and kill you, which wouldn't be good for anyone. Alright?'
Knives nodes his agreement, and Millie trots over, with stew and derringer in hand, though the gun lies limp, flaccid.
She hands him the stew and takes up the chair by the bed, the one Vash usually sits on. The gun now lies in her lap, by her neatly folded hands.
Sipping the hot stew, which is of reasonable quality, Knives continues to study the spider, sitting so quiet and composed, the false smile still plastered over her face. Her eyes strangely innocent yet strangely wise.
'Do you hate me?' he asks at last, his curiosity overtaking him.
'No. Not really.'
'Why not?' he asks, 'you know what I've done, what I can do, perhaps what I will do.'
'Yes, but still don't hate you. Or I try not to hate you, anyway.'
'Why?'
'Because I've seen what hate does. I don't like you, Mr Knives; I don't think I ever will. But I think if I hated you then I'd have to kill you and that would just hurt everyone. Especially Mr Vash. He loves you, and I know what it's like to loose someone you love. If I killed you, if I hated you, I'd be just as bad as you are, or were. So just eat up your stew and then I can go away.'
Knives blinks, and allows himself to look at Millie, really look at her. He sees it, the sadness, the bitterness, the inkling of hatred behind her wide, pale eyes. He picks up the stew and begins to quickly spoon it into his mouth; he did not look Millie in the eye. No sooner has he put down the bowl when Meryl comes back in. She scolds her companion for letting her guard down and shoos her away, taking up the seat in her stead.
She tries to restart the staring competition, but Knives is having none of it, he watches the ceiling instead, ignoring her totally and allowing boredom and weariness take its toll. Soon sleep claims him and he is lost to dreams of Steve, Vash and the endless, twisting corridors of the SEEDS ship.
Later he awakens, why he knows not. His sharp ears catch the sound of breathing, he opens his eyes a chink and, slowly, infinitesimally, turns his head so he can see to the side of him. Meryl is still there, though she too is dozing, her eyes half closed and the gun drooping in her hand.
He ponders: he could kill her now. He pictures himself leaping out of the bed; he could probably simply grab her head and twist it round, breaking the neck. She'd most likely die without a sound then, moving slowly, quietly, he'd sneak out of the now unlocked room and use one of the human's derringers to shoot the other, tall human.
He barely manages to keep himself from smiling at the thought, before closing his eyes once again and searching for elusive sleep.
'Smart move, Brother,' says a voice in his head, and he knows it to be his brother, speaking to him telepathically after so many months. He must have returned at last, perhaps that was what awakened him.
Not knowing quite what to think of Vash's approval, he resumes his search for sleep, soon finding it.
It is morning now and when he looks to the side of him he sees not Meryl, but Millie. She has woken him up and stands before him with a bowl of steaming porridge in her hands. She passes it to him mutely and he begins to eat.
'Vash is back,' she says, and he nods, indicating that he knows this.
'He's very tired,' she continues, 'so we're going to be sticking round for the rest of the day to give him a hand, but we'll be gone by nightfall.'
Knives chews on his breakfast thoughtfully, now she mentions it his telepathic voice had seemed rather weak and tired. It had been hard to tell as it had been so long since the twins had conversed that way.
He finishes off his porridge and hands it to her; she takes it off him and rises to her feet.
'Not going to say that it's been nice to meet me?' he asks sarcastically as she moves to leave.
'I don't like to lie, Mr Knives,' she replies, 'I just hope that someday someone can say yes to that question and mean it. Goodbye.'
She exist with this, closing the door behind her, once again Knives hears the key turning in the lock.
He considers his predicament again, despite the heightened numbers in the house his chances for escape are some of the best they've ever been. Vash is obviously wounded, or at least worn out, and the two humans pose little threat to him. Why is it, then, that he has so little desire to escape? Isn't this the moment he has been wishing for? Waiting for?
He sighs again and leans back onto the bed, wishing sleep would claim him, wishing answers would come to him.
The next person to enter his room his Vash, who is looking well enough if a little pale and drawn. Seldom has Knives ever seen him so tired.
'I don't suppose you'll tell me what happened yesterday?' he asks.
'Nope,' replies Vash, moving nearer and looking Knives over.
'Have those other humans gone?'
'Yep.'
'I don't want them to come back.'
'Neither do I, it was too hard on them. It was wrong of me to even ask them to look after you. It won't happen again.'
Knives looks over to his brother in surprise, but can make nothing of his perfectly blank expression.
Knives might not be the most sociable of people, but he knows his brother well enough to know that his blank expression bodes something bad, very, very bad.
He decides not to ask what it is. He fears the answer too much.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Meh, not all that happy with that chapter. I'm not good at writing the girls. It's not that I don't like them, I do, I just find it hard to write them, to be inspired. Anyway, I hope their character weren't too off centre, please remember it's only a snap shot of them, not the whole story, if I was doing more I'd show Meryl's tender side and so forth. But anyway, on with the comments from the last chapter.
Reader's Replies
Silverarm: Yep, from now on there will be quite a bit more of Knives interacting with other people, I think he needs to. Thanks for the comment, I'll put it in mind but, to be honest, I'm not sure I can change much. I've real problem with Semi Colons, I just can't tell where they're supposed to go, and without a beta reader… :sigh: Well, I'll do my best, but you'll probably have to put up with them for a while yet. I hope the rest of the story makes up for it.
Ron the Future Weasel: I'm glad there was no disappointment! Heh, it was probably him who told them about the fishing rods… seems the sort of thing he'd do. And yep, you guessed right! I hope this chapter wasn't… a let down? As I've mentioned I find Millie and Meryl very hard to write.
Angelstrike: Hello! How's the story going? Keep up with it! Heh, I thought that Knives would consider the question, as we must do too. In his own way Knives is very logical, more so than Vash certainly, but what's logical isn't always right. He does think in a different way too, but different isn't always bad. I think there's a high likely-hood that jealousy was a component in the equation, isn't jealousy part of almost any sibling relationship at some point? Did you guess who the special humans were? Heh, enjoy!
TheDreamsoftheDead: :blush: you know, if you keep this up my head will be too large to fit in the review section! Seriously, you've being very nice! And I'm very glad the images are working, I sometimes wonder if I do have a problem with description… please keep up the comments and reviews, I love them all!
Aoi: No! Don't apologise, it's things like that which are useful to me! They remind me to be more careful! I'm not saying swamp me with negative criticism, but careful comments like that, pointing out the odd flaw in my writing is one of the most useful things a reviewer too. So long as you balance it with praise, criticism is a great gift! I hope the children here weren't too annoying, and yes they will be back, though don't expect them to take a huge roll, and certainly they won't be back for a while yet. And yes, you bet right! Have a cookie!
ATO: Heh, to be honest I'm not a huge fan of Trigun slash either. There's a couple of pairings I find semi believable, but on the whole I just look at it for the novelty. I'm not a huge fan of V/W either, nothing against it, we all bring out own interpretations to a cannon, but it's just not my scene. Heh, I'm looking forward to the letters update, BTW, send Lilith-Chan my regards! Oh yes, and again, thanks for the comments on my character work, I hope I managed to capture some spark of Millie and Meryl here!
TeaRoses: Hello! Welcome aboard! I don't know when you'll get to this chapter, but when you next post a review I'll give you a better reply, I don't want to spoil anything for you now. Thanks for the remarks on my Knives characterisation, BTW, I take it as a deep complement!
Other notes: A few other thins, 1: I might change the "stable" part of the summery soon, I don't know if it's a good idea… but it might attract more readers… Also, I've been working on some short Trigun stories. So keep your eyes out! I'm just debating whether to post them separately or in one huge collection…
Next Chapter: Knives leaves the house and goes out on the town! Let's just hope he doesn't paint it red…