Time Can Change Even Dreams

Yume skipped happily down the open streets of the town of Gorge, drinking in the beautiful, warm sunny day and the freedom granted by youth. She waved to the residents of the town as she passed them by, calling out greetings and wishing them all a good day. Her well wishes were returned with just as much exuberance as all the townspeople liked the girl quite a great deal. With a springing leap, she jumped onto the back of her thomas and stood there for a moment, teetering precariously. Then she hopped to the steps of the general store and swung the door wide, barging in with a tinkling laugh at the surprised expression captured on the store clerk's face.

Over the past years, she had grown into a fine young woman, her figure beginning to round out as puberty coursed its wild way through her veins although it did not promise her much in the way of development. However, such petty things did not concern this girl for she was too enamored with the world and all its wonders to care about those kinds of little details. Unconsciously, she took every day as an opportunity to learn more about the people around her and the events that affected her life, reveling in the little things that make a person's life so enjoyable. Her large brown eyes pleaded with people to talk to her and tell her things that they normally would not tell to one her age but for a reason that they could not exactly pin down (her empathic powers) she could understand completely how they felt and form a strong rapport with them.

The store clerk smiled at her antics and moved out from behind the counter to help her up from the giggling mass of girl that she had melted into. "Having a lot of fun, Yu?" he asked her as he extended a hand to grasp her own. He was a tall, gangly boy by the name of Rance, no older than eighteen. His head was crowned with a shock of golden hair and he had a pair of expressive, green eyes that seemed to bore into a person's soul. He was also mildly infatuated with Yume. She was intrigued by him slightly as his kind heart, gentle ways and even how he looked reminded her of someone that she had once known but she was unaware of his affections toward her. He would have asked her to be his girlfriend a long time ago except for the two tall, daunting barriers of her father and uncle, two men with which Rance wanted no contact whatsoever. Instinctively, he knew that if he dared to ask the girl out on even one date, he would soon have both of the creepy men breathing down his neck and most likely digging a grave for his future occupation.

"Of course!" She grinned up at him and grabbed his hand, using him as a counterweight to catapult herself to her feet where she proceeded to dance around, waving a piece of paper above her head happily.

Rance chuckled and grabbed the list from her hand, glancing over the groceries. "I think you're in luck today, girl. We've got all of your items in stock."

"That's so great, Rance! Uncle Legs will be so happy! Whenever we run out of hotdogs, he gets in such a bad mood! It's scary!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands together in excitement.

"He's always scary," Rance commented as he browsed through the isle of the general store, putting the listed items in a large bag for the girl. She was trailing behind him, talking animatedly.

"Awh, that's not nice! Yeah, he can get really angry sometimes but that's just when he's grumpy! Like, early in the morning, or when he's hungry, or late at night, or-"

"All the time," Rance finished for her teasingly. She mock glared at him and stuck her tongue out. He raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't really flatter you much, Yu."

She wrinkled her nose and ignored his statement, saying instead, "Is that all of it?"

He nodded and moved back through the store and to his cash register where he rung up all the items. "Your total is twenty-three double dollars and fifty-four cents," he announced in his official voice he used when conducting business with most other customers.

Yume pulled out a small wad of money and handed twenty-four double dollars to Rance. He tucked the bills away and gave her back her change and the bag. "Any chance you'll need help carrying that bag home?" he asked hopefully.

She gave him a funny look and said, "No, silly. I have my thomas. That and the fact that you can't leave the store unattended!" She moved as if to leave the store.

"But I never get to see you!" Rance said hurriedly, wondering where he was going with this.

Yume cocked her head to one side. "So, are you saying you'd like me to come visit you sometime?"

Rance felt his face begin to redden and his vocal cords fail. In a strangled tone, he said, "Uh, yeah, I guess so."

"Well, then why didn't you ask me straight out?" She rolled her eyes in a way that was both exasperated, but didn't hurt his feelings. "I like spending time with you!"

"Uh, I was thinking more of… a different way…" He struggled to find words to convey what he wanted to say.

"Like on a date?"

"Um…" The inquiring expression on her face was so cute that Rance thought he would die from blushing before he was able to say anymore. He gasped deeply, wishing that he didn't feel like he was suffocating, and hurriedly said, "Yeah. There's that monthly town dance tomorrow and, well, I was thinking you and me could go. It's not formal at all so you don't have to wear a dress or anything and I would really love it if you could come because I've wanted to take you for the past couple months but I've just not been able to ask you so, could you?" It all came flooding out and before he could stop himself, he had spilled his guts to her and asked her to the dance. He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the blunt rejection to come barreling down.

Finally, when he didn't hear anything, he squinted open an eye and was surprised to see her standing there with the biggest grin spread across her face that he had ever seen on her. "Wow, Rance! Really? I've wanted to go to that dance so bad! I thought you'd never ask! Of course I'll go!"

Rance was stunned to say the least.  "Seriously? This is so great!" Then he remembered. "What about your dad though? Will he let you?"

"Of course he will!"

"Are you sure? He seems kind of, uh," Rance looked for a good word, "wary of any guys that show an interest in you."

"Awh, he's just worried about me. He's a really nice guy though! You just gotta get to know him." She smiled at him and Rance thought to himself, Get used to him, yeah, right, but smiled back anyway.

Yume could hardly sit still in the saddle as she rode home with the bag of groceries. She couldn't believe that she was actually going to go to the dance! And with Rance too! She felt like she had a million lightning bolts running through her body, just begging her to move around, dance, run, just do something! The teenager started giggling uncontrollably, overcome by the heady rush young people feel when they finally enter into a relationship long sought after.

As she neared the path that led down to her home, Yume pulled the thomas to a stop. She dismounted and let the beast into its corral, taking off its tack beforehand. Checking to make sure it had enough water and food for the night, she felt a presence behind her and she turned to greet the man cheerfully, "Hi, Uncle Legs!"

Legato stared at her flatly, his eyes betraying nothing but his irritation. Yume ignored this and inquired as to how his day had been. Still he merely did nothing but watch her with his burning golden eyes. And yet the girl persisted, asking, "Were you standing up there thinking again?"

He disregarded her question and instead asked one of his own, "What puts you in such a good mood, girl?"

She grinned. "Nothing!"

"Yes, I'm sure that it is 'nothing,' certainly nothing that would excite me to the degree that you have become. But what is this nothing?" He resisted the urge to try to exert mental force to make her tell him, knowing that it would be completely unsuccessful.  She just continued to smile at him and then turned and skipped down the path to give the groceries to Knives.

Legato grimaced to no one in particular, his face expressing for him the words that he didn't bother to utter aloud: Why do I even try? He then turned and followed the girl down the path on the rock face, pondering what might have piqued her so and wondering how he could ruin what was left of her day.

"Hi Knives-sama!" Yume bounced up to the tall Plant and threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly. Legato slowly walked through the cavern's entrance behind her and watched her happy assault on his master with an impassive expression that barely concealed his boiling rage.

"Hello, girl." Knives smiled at the young teenager. "From your pleased demeanor, I take it that you had a good day."

"The best!" She grinned and let go of his waist. She then picked up the bag of groceries that she had dropped and moved over to their little solar-powered refrigerator. Because they lived so close to the nearby town and Knives did not partake of any food, it was kept minimally supplied with only enough to feed Legato and Yume for a couple days at a time. Humming, she started stocking it with items from the bag while putting the regular, shelf-stored foods on top of the small fridge.

"What do you want to eat tonight, Uncle Legs?" Yume chirped from where she was crouched in front of the refrigeration unit. "We have lots of stuff! We could have sandwiches, hot dogs, chili, soup… what do you want to eat?" She glanced over her shoulder at him questioningly.

"You decide. I find that I have lost most of my appetite," he grumbled. Inside he was berating himself on allowing the child, a mere individual of fifteen years of age, to get under his skin.

"Are you feeling sick?" Yume closed the refrigerator's door and stood, looking at him with a worried expression. "I could make chicken noodle soup if you're not feeling well." Although most humans had no idea what chicken was anymore, a noodle soup bearing that name was a planet wide recommended remedy for almost any illness.

"No," Legato declined abruptly and with a grimace. He had come to dread the child's home cooking, seeing as she was convinced she had talent in the area when, in fact, she had none whatsoever.

"Well, if you would be a little more helpful with more precise input, I could make something that you would actually like!" Yume exploded with a snarl, striding across the cavern to stand in front of Legato, her eyes blazing with dignified rage.

Legato blinked, startled, and took a step back from the intimidating girl. His anger having faded by her sudden confrontation, Yume felt her own snuff out of existence, like a candle that had run out of oxygen. She looked confused for a moment and she quickly retreated back to the refrigerator, muttering quietly about how she would just make sandwiches and she hoped Legato would feel better soon.

Knives was taken aback by the sudden change, although he had seen her have similar episodes before. The Plant had heard somewhat about how moody teenage females could be but he had never given the stories any credit until he had witnessed Yume's sudden emotional transformations. He shrugged it off and sat down in his chair, returning to the paper he had been reading. It was a recent documentation of all the plants on the planet and their average power outputs, downtimes, and other information. The annual report was mainly used as a reference material for biological engineers but Knives obtained a copy of the publication each time its information was renewed to keep himself up-to-date on his bulb-bound siblings' status.

Yume finished making the sandwiches shortly and she brought two to the table where Legato was seated. He gave her the barest of nods to acknowledge her effort, Knives would have angrily protested if he had not, and then began eating. Yume took a seat across from him and took a bite out of her own sandwich, her mood having returned to its former cheerful state.

Legato was quite preoccupied with his mastication but he felt a tingling in his mind as a familiar presence entered into the fifty ile radius that he monitored. He looked up, his face registering shock and another, deeper emotion. Yume noticed the sudden change and put down her sandwich, staring at him with a puzzled expression. "Uncle Legs? Are you okay? What's wrong?"

Knives looked up from the report he was reading with a smile. "I believe that my minion has just noticed that a certain someone is heading this way."

"You have been aware of Vash the Stampede's activities, Master?" Legato asked as he stood up from his seat, feeling slightly hurt that Knives had not cared to share this information with him although he knew better than to expect his Master to confide in a lowly spider such as he.

"Yes, for quite some time now I have known that he has been steadily moving towards us. I did not feel that you needed to know until he had reached this point. I also knew that you keep continuous surveillance on all beings in our immediate vicinity and so would find out of his movements soon enough." Yume sat silently, watching the events unfolding around her while she desperately tried to understand what was happening.

Legato bowed his head and took on a subservient posture, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "Would you like me to go and greet him, Master?"

Knives nodded, his smile taking on a cold edge. "Yes, please do. I'm sure he'll be quite surprised to see you."

Legato straightened and strode out of the cavern and Yume was suddenly filled with a pleased feeling, as though a goal she had strived for a lifetime to accomplish had just been handed to her on a silver platter with all her favorite toppings on the side. She stood and moved to go after him, to ask who he was going to greet and why it made him so happy, but Knives held out a hand and motioned for her to stay.

"Who's Legato going to see, Knives-sama? You said the name 'Vash the Stampede.' Wasn't he that man that there was a bounty for a while ago? And he caused all those disasters?" Yume waited for an answer but Knives merely sat, absorbed in the thoughts that coursed through his mind. Yume walked over to stand by his chair and picked up his hand to hold it between hers, giving him a pleading look. "Please tell me what's happening, Knives-sama. I'm so confused."

"Vash the Stampede is coming here," Knives stated.

"He's a dangerous person though! He could kill us!" Yume protested. "We should leave before we get hurt!" Her eyes then took on a panicked look. "Legato's going to see him! We have to stop him!" She turned to run after the blue-haired human but Knives held onto one of her hands, keeping her from leaving. She looked at him, her expression pained and bewildered.

"He knows," Knives said simply.

"Then why…"

"Because it's what he wants."

"I don't understand…"

"I didn't expect you to. Fathoming the inner workings and motivations of the human mind is a task that few are capable of carrying out and being able to comprehend the results."

"Will Legato be okay?" she asked, biting her lip to stop its trembling. "He's coming back, right?"

Knives stared at her blankly for a moment, formulating his answer, and then slowly said in the tenderest tone he had ever used in his life, "I'll not lie to you, girl. No. He's not coming back."

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Well… I wanted a better chapter title but this one will have to do for now. But other than that I thought this chapter turned out damn fine! ^0^ I like the ending. It was a sudden inspiration for me. I was sitting there trying to think of how Knives should tell her and how she should react and then I was like, "Wait! Why even show her react? It's more powerful if I don't show it! CLIFFIE TIME!!" *lol* Don't kill me though… you'll not get to see the end if you kill me! ^^;;

Yume: I don't want Uncle Legs to die… *sniffles* He's the best…

Jeril: Um… *notices Yume's really short for a teenager* Aren't you supposed to be fifteen?

Yume: That's the fic Yume. Not me! I got stuck in a time warp!

Jeril: *starts humming* But it's the pelvic thrust that really drives you insane! Let's do the Time Warp again! *coughs and recovers self* Oh… well, that's good. I don't want you being my age. That'd make things weird. *nibbles on a chocolate bunny left over from Easter* Only one or two chapters left!! How sad… Probably two. I think things might fit weird if I tried to cram it all into one. Oh, and I made a livejournal to help keep you all informed as to how my progress goes with how much I'm done with chapters and planning fics and stuff! The link's on my profile so bookmark it and check it often. (I decided the website wasn't working for me.) Well… *yawn* it's a bit after 1 AM and I'm really tired and it's past this little one's bedtime. (I wanted to get this chapter done so I stayed up late and in getting it out at this early morning hour, it was not beta-ed, but I think I got all my errors…) So, we'll be dashing off now. Hope you liked the chapter! Until next time, byyyye!!

Yume: And review! We like reading the reviews!

Jeril: Yup, reviews are good, but so is sleep! *tackles Yume and drags her away*