CHAPTER 14:

Knives grunted as he shoved the spade into ground and hefted a small mound of sand up, into a wheel barrow and repeated the action. The storm had died down the night before and he was clearing up the mess that was left in the garden, thankfully him and Vash and managed to get a tarpaulin over most of the plants, however sand had still gotten to some and the door to generator, which was underground, was still partially buried in at least two feet of sand, Vash was still sleeping off his two days off being awake, despite Knives instance he go with him. It was still early and the child sun had barely left the horizon. He looked behind him as he heard the creak of the back door. Eliana walked out, still wearing her pajamas and slippers, and a dressing gown her left arm in the sleeve and the gown just resting over the right shoulder.

"Mornin'." She yawned. Sitting down at the small table next to the back door. And looking at him through the fence.

"You shouldn't be out of bed."

"But it's boring as hell."

"Your shoulder won't heal if you aggravate it."

"How can I fucking aggravate it, I can't even fucking move it!"

"Even if you jog it, it can still do damage."

"Well, sitting around doing nothin' can't hurt it can it?"

"Probably not." He grunted again as he shoved the spade in deep and threw the contents over his shoulder. He thrust the spade in and there was a resounding thud as he hit metal. He looked down and shifted the thin layer of sand away with his foot to see the edge thick metal door. He thrust the spade into the sand next to it and leaned on the handle.

"Vash wants you to get better. He feels guilty about what happened."

"He does? How come? It wasn't his fault"

"He'd feel guilty if a person got murdered three towns over." She smiled a little.

"He's really that bad?" Knives nodded and resumed digging. She leaned back a little in her chair sighed. As the door opened and Vash walked out, his hair flopping down over his eyes and his clothes looking rather scruffy and worn, they were heavily creased and hanging loose.

"Morning'" He groaned, stretching his arms and back.

"You look like hell." Eliana pointed out, stifling a giggle.

"I've seen him look worse."

"I bet."

Vash rubbed his eyes and brushed some of hair out of the way of his them. He yawned again and looked at Knives.

"Hey Knives want me to take over? You look like could use a break." He looked at Vash and nodded. Shoving the spade roughly into the ground.

"I'll see you at dinner." Vash nodded.

"Sleep well." He crossed the garden to the fence and putting his foot on the bottom slat vaulted over the fence, he picked up the spade and resumed Knives job of digging.

"We should talk."

"About what?"

"About what me and Knives are."

"Ah."

"Well I take it you know he... we aren't human."

"Yeah, kind of figured that when he starting talking in my head." Vash smiled a little then returned to his previously somber look. His voice turning rather melancholy.

"Honestly, I don't really understand the details myself. We were on a ship, when they were still flying I mean, before the great fall. One of the plants malfunctioned, and when they went to check it out they found us lying at the bottom of it. Rem, she was um…one of the women on the ship, she stopped them from killing us and took care of us."

"She sounds nice."

"Yeah, she was. She died a long time ago." He paused for a moment. "Knives killed her." His voiced seemed to take on an ever sadder tone that before. Her eyes widened a little. Knives had said he before hadn't he, when he'd been talking about first killing someone.

"If that wasn't the first time, how many other people has he killed?" She thought to herself.

"Did he?" Slipped out, as she looked at Vash, her eyes glazing over a little as her attention drifted away.

"Yeah, it's a long, old, story." There was a dull thud and the door swung open, Knives walked out and leaned against one of the post holding up the porch. He closed his eyes, making him looks almost asleep. He turned to look at Eliana.

"Talking about me again." Vash shrugged and resumed digging. "Besides I didn't exactly kill her per se anyway." Vash sighed heavily and thrust the shovel into the ground.

"I thought you were going to bed?" There was an awkward moment of silence, where Eliana looked between the two, although neither was making eye contact with the other, there was a level on tension. It was tangible you could almost taste it, see it, let alone feel it.

"Why'd you come back out?" Vash asked, resuming his work.

"To tell you not to try and fix the power without me, and besides I didn't wanna miss the convocation." His lip turned up into a smirk. Just before he caught a whisper of her voice.

He quickly looked at Eliana, Her eyes were scrunched up tight, then at Vash. He didn't look he heard it he wasn't even looking up, Knives looked at her again and gently tapped her chair with his foot. She opened her eyes and looked up at him, a pleading, no begging, look in her eyes.

"You look really tired." He nodded.

"We'll talk later, there's things we need to discuss." He pushed off the post and walked away, heading back into the house. Vash looked at her from the shoveling.

"That was awkward."

"Yeah." He sighed and looked at her.

"He's right Y'know, there are things we need to talk about." She nodded. "He's gotten this idea into his head that maybe I should be more upfront with you... And I guess he's right." She nodded again. There was a brief moment of silence before he spoke again. His voice choking a little.

"I always thought if I didn't tell you, you wouldn't have to deal with it, but I see that's not the case. It never was." Again a nod, but she still remained silent. "You're a part of this whether or not you are aware of it, although from knives has told me about the time he talked to you I think you are. I guess I sort of knew from when you heard us talking that first night, but at least you didn't realize there was anything odd about it."

"How is it possible, what is it, Why can I hear it?"

"I'm not sure. When we were younger, very little, it seemed the most natural thing in the world, we took it for granted other people could do it too. We just constantly communicated that way, so it never seemed unnatural. However when we got a little older and found out Rem couldn't hear us, and she figured out what we were doing that we realized it was something strange." He laughed a little.

"Y'know for the longest time, I thought it was because we were twins. I'd read stories in the paper and stuff about how twins' supposedly could communicate like we do. It was only till I met someone else who could do it too that I was proved wrong."

"Yeah but I..." She trailed off." How else are you different?"

"We aren't all that different really."

"That a load of crap! You're over one hundred and sixty years old and you don't look a day over thirty. That's if Knives wasn't lying."

"Well its not that, that matters everyone has the same feelings, the same heart. That's what matters."

"Bullshit! I've been made to feel like a freak for nearly nineteen fucking years! And you say that's all that matters! No one, No one! Has ever given a damn about me, I've always been made to feel the outcast, the freak!" Vash looked taken aback as she pushed herself up off the rocking chair rather ungracefully and unsteadily got up and walked towards the back door, she kicked it open and strode inside. As she did she spotted Knives sitting on the floor, back to the wall one leg drawn back and the knee raised a little into the air.

"I thought you were sleeping?"

"He makes it looks so easy, but trust me, he's hurting just as much as you are." She looked down at him and went towards the stairs. He pushed up off the wall and followed her, catching up as she got the stairs. He took a hold of her left arm and looped it over his shoulder and began walking up the stairs with her, using him for support. She muttered under her breath, but conceded anyway. He helped her till the top of the stairs, and then leg go. She shrugged him off and went to her room. He followed her entering as she lowered herself down on the bed and picked up a large pillow with a white pillow case and hugged it too her chest, burying her face in it.

"I hate them, I HATE! Them all." He sat down in the armchair by the window, his back to it. Sun poking through the cracks in the curtains. He leant back a little into the chair and crossed his arms.

"No you don't."

"Yeah! My own mother doesn't accept me, let alone anyone else." She took a long deep breath and then let it out slowly. "When I was little, maybe four or five, there was this one time when I knocked a vase of flowers over and the water spilled all over a report Mom and had been working on. I was really sorry and everything, but she just grabbed me by the wrist and screamed at me 'Get out of my sight! I don't even wanna see your face! Then she dragged be to my room, threw my in a locked the door. She left me in there for hours, all the while I was crying and every so often I would call out through the door begging her to let me out. But she never did. She left me in there for hours and hours. It was dark when she let me out." Knives looked over at her from his seat.

"I understand more than you can ever know." He stood up and walked to her, reaching down and took hold of her chin and raised it up so she was looking at him. "I'm not going to vouch for them Eliana, there are people in this world who do horrible things, I'm not going to excuse what they do." He let go of her chin and brought his arm to his side.

"Its easy to hate them for what they've done, and its hard to look to beyond those things and see good in any place. Somehow Vash manages to do, I've never understood how, but he's made it this far. The hate will consume, believe me I've seen it happen, if you don't learn to let it go now, you may never be able to. There are things in this world that make life worth living. There are people who make it worth living." He looked away from her, and at the doorway.

"Sometimes having one person in the world who understands you is enough to keep you going. Sometimes it's enough to make you want to be a different person." He looked back at her, she nodded a little. And wiped her eyes on the pillow. However new tears came again.

"I need to talk to Vash." He said walking towards the door, this time she didn't call him back.