Chapter 5:

Eliana sat on her bed, her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms locked around them holding them up. Her head was titled back and was resting against the wall her messy hair hanging over her eyes. She sighed as she listened to the two brothers arguing.

"I didn't think it was gonna be like this. I didn't want to upset anyone."

Outside in the corridor Vash had dragged Knives into she cold here exactly what both were saying. She assumed Vash had taken Knives out to the corridor to avoid her hearing what he had to say. But unfortunately Knives reaction was as Vash had suspected rather loud.

"I can't believe you brought her here Vash." She heard Knives growl.

"You don't know what happened." Vash reasoned.

"Still. That doesn't matter, you know full well how I feel about them. We came out here to get away from them, and now you're bringing one into my house." The growling voice came again, she could barely believe that two people who looked so alike could sound so different.

"Knives, you don't understand."

"I don't need to, and I don't really care. Vash it's a matter of principle you still should have warned me."

"Yeah. I know I should have." Vash spoke with an apologetic tone of voice. His tone changed a little then he followed with. "Now are you actually gonna listen to what I have to say about this?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"You know I left for the orphanage a few days ago." She heard a dull thud and felt a soft vibration through the wall. She assumed Vash had let himself fall against it as he leaned back.

"Well, me and Amelia ran into a little bandit convey that was heading for Ohio town. And we tried to get there before them, but we kind of failed. They... They killed a few people. I'm not sure how many. We stopped them. But Eliana's mom, an old friend of mine, got...badly hurt."

"So that's no reason to drag her out here. She was at an orphanage why not leave her there, or send her to her father. "

"Knives, she blames herself already." He sighed and his voice took on a weary tone, his lack of sleep becoming apparent. "And that's another thing I...there's a chance that I'm her father." He added.

"Tell me you're kidding." There was a brief moment of quiet as Knives waited for his brother to say something after a few moments he spoke again.

"I cannot believe that even you would be that stupid, you know how painful life is." He paused for a moment.

"And with one of them too."

"Knives..."

"Vash, did you even think about the ramifications of this." A deathly silence in which a pin dropping could be heard followed.

"Look Knives, her mother and me. We were in a relationship along time ago. And it got serious we slept together. I called it off not long after that, it was a bit messy. Her mom left pretty soon after, threw herself into her work. And until yesterday I hadn't seen her for years." He took another deep breath, this obviously wasn't easy for him.

"When I saw her mother again asked If Ellie was my daughter and she didn't answer me. In fact she looked downright scared of me. That's about it really."

"So you believe she is your daughter." His voice was faint now it seemed distant like he had walked away.

"I don't know, but now I might be the closest thing she has to family. She needs someone Knives." Vash's voice also sounded faint now.

"That still doesn't explain why you brought her here."

"I haven't finished yet." He said his voice showed a slight tone of irritation.

"By all means then please continue." She couldn't tell from his tone whether this was sarcasm or actual courtesy. She was leaning towards the former.

"As I was gonna say. I brought her with me because she asked me to. She wants me to train her. To be like me."

"And you are actually going to do it?"

"Yeah, when she's ready and she's gotten over her guilt."

"Vash. She's a freak."

"I'm not! I'm not a freak, I'm normal" Eliana unconvincingly reassured herself repeating the same lie she had told herself many a night for the last few years.

"Knives com'on she's just a kid. She doesn't seem like she could hurt anyone." Although he knew that she could shoot someone if her life or those she cared for were in danger as yesterday had proved. Vash seriously doubted that the bandit she had shot would be pointing a gun at anyone for a long time.

"Vash she was something that wasn't meant to happen." He almost shouted at Vash. A tear cut a path through the dirt and dried blood that covered her face. It was soon followed by others.

"Hey I don't give a crap whether she was meant to happen or not Knives. I'm gonna look after her, Right now I'm all she has, and if I didn't bring her with me god knows what she'd be doing right now or if she was still alive in a few months god knows what she'd be doing to keep herself that way." He was clearly getting annoyed at this point, his voice was rising a little becoming less faint.

"So she's one of them, leave her be."

"Knives don't you have any compassion for her."

"Not really." She got the impression of a shrug. Vash gave an aggravated grunt.

"Vash she too me she's one of them she's done nothing to prove otherwise."

"Would you leave it out already." Vash snapped. There was again silence which was followed by footsteps of someone walking away. Her resolve dropped at this point, she fell sideways, landing on the soft cover, and began to cry. She felt sick, tired and cold. All Eliana wanted was to sleep. And escape reality. She had been laying there for a few minutes when the door opened she knew it was Vash without looking. She felt the bed sink a little when he sat down on it.

"You okay." He asked resting a hand on her shoulder.

"God she's been through so much in the last day, Knives reacting like that was the last thing she needed."

Sorry about Knives, he doesn't really like people all that much." He explained to her.

"He... I hate him, he called me a freak."

"You heard that?" 'She shouldn't have heard that' He thought quickly

"Yeah I heard all of it. Everything he said about Me."

"Really, Well he doesn't mean it. Well he does but give him some time and he'll come around." Vash reassured her. "Now you need to sleep. So try okay, I'll go have another word with him."

"Okay Vash." She yawned drying her eyes a little. She snuggled up against the pillow on her bed and shifted to a more comfortable position. Vash walked toward the window, peering out he saw that it was almost dark, he pulled the two thick blue curtains closed over the large window. He turned around to find she was already asleep. Her sleeping face showed much release, he frowned at how happy she looked knowing that all the pain would come flooding back when she woke up.

Vash walked to her bedside and brushed a stand of sandy hair that seemed to be irritating her away from her face.

"Night Ellie." He said softly before leaving the room. Vash quickly strolled out of her and into the hall taking a left her headed into a corridor with a door on each side. He walked to the right door and opened it a crack, just enough to poke his head through. He slid his head through the gap and glanced at Knives with a worried look in his eyes.

"We need to talk about Eliana."