I didn't take six months! XD
This ones a bit longer than I meant it to be, but it's worth it. Enjoy!
Quick translation: "Bruder, ich lieb sie..." means "Brother, I love you..."
The hours passed by in silence once Roderich left. Vash did very little for a long while, only occasionally groaning, lifting his head from his knees, or shaking his head. Time crept by very slowly the longer he waited for word; all hours laden with guilt. It was a time of self reflection, in which the proud Swiss man took as an opportunity to hide his face in a pillow and curse his own mistakes. As the time passed, his anger toward himself grew to worry, then fear, which finally found him lying face down in the mountain of pillows on his bed, tears threatening with every passing moment.
How could he have ever been so stupid? He should have known better, Roderich wouldn't betray him, and the more he looked at it, it wasn't really betrayal even if he had; after all, when did they become official? Switzerland was under the assumption that after last night they were official, but just because he thought so didn't mean much, the Austrian's traditions might be far less strict than the expectations of the Swiss. He wanted to take it back and forget it had ever happened, but his pride forced him to lie on the bed, making only slight whimpers and distasteful grunts.
He should go looking for Roderich, try to apologize for the misconception, but his pride tied him to the bed like a thick set of chains. He couldn't admit he'd made a mistake, but if he continued to sit there and stare at the sheets he might as well forget about a repeat of last night. Of all the stupid things! Vash groaned and hid his face in a pillow, yelling into the soft feathers and fabric that muffled his sound for a short while. As his noise subsided, a soft knock echoed from the door. His heart skipped a beat. What if it was Roderich? What if he'd heard? The blonde mentally smacked himself as the door creaked open. He sat up, staring to the half open door as the figure from the other side came into view. At the sight of the pink skirt, he sunk into a greater depression. Lilli had heard him, and once more, he was pissed at himself for not being excited to see her.
A sigh on his lips, Vash forced himself to sit up slowly, struggling for a moment against the mental weight that told him to continue to pout until Roderich came around. He kicked his feet over the end of the bed and stood on the area rug in a wobbly fashion, uneasy with everything that seemed to be going on. He had to keep up a smile that, he couldn't let Lilli know how upset he was, or that life was not turning out as peachy for him as she might have thought. He didn't want to let his problems rest on his sister, he had to smile and act like nothing was wrong. He paused while he struggled to maintain his balance before he approached Lilli with a smile, doing his best to seem like his usual self.
The look on her face said he wasn't doing a very good job. Her face was red with embarrassment, yet her confusion and worry furrowed her brows, causing Vash to stand back a moment and stare at her quizzically. He looked her over to see what exactly it was that bothered her, or to understand why she'd come up, when his eyes fell upon the silver tea tray in her shaking hands. On it sat a small plate of small tea sandwiches and steaming muffins, along with a tea pot and two porcelain cups of a matching design. Was it really that late already?
Vash looked back up to his sister's eyes, trying to read her thoughts, to understand the meaning of all this before she said a word, but her blush only grew and her shaking increased, harsh enough that plates and porcelain cups chattered against the silver tray in a rather bothersome fashion. Trying to avoid catastrophe, Vash gently took the tray from her hands and walked over to the couch up against the wall where he set the tray on an end table beside it. Free of the distraction, he moved back over to his younger sister and took her right hand in his left before gently resting his right hand on her forehead. It wasn't often she shook in such a way, and he was afraid that in all her worrying over him the last few days she may have fallen ill. Her face was warm, but no more than usual, at least as far as he could tell. He sighed softly and met her gaze, staring into her green eyes in a worried manner just as he usually would.
"Lilli? Is something wrong?" Vash asked gently. His sister said nothing, only shook her head and turned her gaze to the ground. Vash sighed softly, moving his hand that had been on her forehead to her chin before he pulled her face upward gently, forcing her to meet his gaze again. "Lilli? Did something happen?"
Again there was no response, but Vash decided pressing her for answers would not work at the moment. Instead, he pulled his right hand back from her face and gently led her over to the couch, her hand still shaking in his grasp. He couldn't understand her, he wasn't scary, she wasn't ill, and the room was warm, so why she shook he didn't know. Reaching the white upholstered furniture, Vash encouraged his sister to sit while poured them both some tea and set the plate of food on the coffee table in front of them. Liechtenstein sat in silence while he moved about, fixing her tea the way she liked with a dash of sugar. He handed her the cup, being careful not to spill any before he moved to his own cup, in which he thoughtlessly dumped nearly half the sugar into before he sat down beside his sister, aimlessly stirring his drink with the tea spoon.
The siblings sat in silence for a long while. It wasn't the same as dinner the other night or breakfast on the day this had all started, it was far more depressing and nerve racking than either of those times they'd sat down together. The only sound in the room was the clinking of the metal spoon against the side of the porcelain, which eventually grew annoying and Vash stopped to take a sip of his tea. Lifting his gaze over the rim of his cup, Switzerland watched his sister country, who continued to stare at the amber liquid without ever once thinking to drink it. Her eyes looked sad, sadder than Vash was accustomed to. Even the ribbon in her hair drooped in a depressed fashion, as if it too wanted to cry. Why was she so melancholy? Had Elizavetta scolded her for making muffins in the kitchen or something? But that seemed so unlikely, no one ever found reason to scold dear Lilli, not even Elizavetta had ever found anything wrong with the things she did.
He'd never seen her like that, sure he'd seen Liechtenstein avoiding his gaze, or he'd seen her being particularly quiet, but he'd never seen his dear sister so close to tears. Hesitantly, he lowered the cup of tea from his lips and set it on the coffee table, watching his sister silently. That's when he saw; a single water droplet slid off her cheeks and splashed in her tea, forming ripples along its surface just as his gun had at the pond a few days before. Slowly, cautiously, Vash slid the cup free of her trembling hands and set it on the coffee table as well before pulling her in close to him, his firm grasp wrapped around her shoulders. At that, Lilli broke down and Vash hushed her in calming tones, waiting for her to say something, to explain just what had brought her to tears.
The silence of the room was still uneasily clinging to the back of Vash's thoughts, only growing painfully worse when broken by the hushed hiccups of his sister's tears. Whatever had happened, whatever he'd done, he had to make it right, he had to protect her from whatever would make his precious Lilli cry. Brushing a hand gently down her hair, Vash waited it out, the questions resting on his lips, but he held back, waiting.
Finally, her tears lessened, her convulsive hiccups slowed to a stop, and she lifted herself slightly off his shoulder to wipe her damp eyes. Vash beat her to it, gently using the back of his index finger to dry the tears from beneath her eyes. After so long, her eyes met his again, and she suddenly looked like she might start crying again before Vash shook his head, kissing her forehead and pulling her in close. He could be a good older brother when he wanted to be, he knew how to cheer her up, how to make things right, he just had to wait long enough before he started asking questions. Now that she wasn't crying, it was a good time.
Pulling Liechtenstein to sit nearly on his lap, he cooed and rocked her for another minute or so before he asked again, "What's wrong?"
There was a pause of hesitation, and Lilli hiccupped again, but she didn't launch back into a fit of tears, instead she leaned her head on her older brother's chest, staring at his black t-shirt. He'd finished getting dressed about an hour after Roderich had left that morning, having gone through a spur of excited expectation, thinking he should be decent should Roderich come back to apologize. In the end it was pointless and a false hope, but at least he was fully dressed for Lilli when she came around.
"Why don't you cry anymore?" Liechtenstein finally muttered, her fingers laced in the black fabric of his shirt tensing only slightly. Perhaps out of fear, perhaps concern, she braced herself for whatever Vash's reaction might be.
At her words, Vash paused himself, his smile faltering shortly while he thought her question over. That previous, pained feeling he'd had before she'd showed up returned, making him cringe and force back his pained expression once more. Lilli had never asked him to cry, but he wasn't sure she'd ever truly seen him cry either (excluding the scene a few days before, he wanted to forget that had ever happened). He didn't have much of a response to that, he couldn't tell her he didn't want to cry anymore after all, she might just burst into tears again and he couldn't bear to see that again. Twice in four days was enough to make his heart melt, he couldn't stand to see her cry again, it might just kill him, so instead he went for another response.
"What are you talking about? I cry all the ti—"
"No you don't! You cry for Austria, you cry for me, but I haven't seen you cry for yourself!" Lilli interrupted; her tone was suddenly harsh, upset in a whole new way than before. Vash backed off slightly at her words, afraid she too was angry at him. He didn't say anything in response; afraid she might yell at him again, he hung his head and waited. "Bruder, ich liebe Sie, but… you're an idiot." That felt like a slap to the face, well deserved, but it still kind of hurt.
Vash stared at the ground for a long moment, stunned and short on words. He hadn't been expecting her to say that, usually Lilli was so soft and sweet, hearing her insult him honestly, physically, hurt. He couldn't just sit there in silence, but he was absolutely stunned, after all, what was he supposed to say? His mind whirled; her words were not only the painful truth, but they reminded him of just why she was so adamant about it all, why she wanted to see him cry. He'd hurt Roderich's feelings, hadn't he? And it was his fault.
In a matter of seconds after he came to that realization the world seemed to crash down on him. Reality suddenly came a calling with that horrible reminder of earlier, that heart wrenching feeling of guilt, contempt, rage, fear, every emotion in the book. It was like his sister's insult had just broken him, because without a word Vash bowed his head low till his forehead hit her shoulder and the tears started to run. Of all the times for him to break down, why did it have to be there, with Lilli watching? There was no stopping it, his shoulders lifted at random while he sniffled and wept. There was a reversal of roles in that moment. Instead of Vash playing the strong older brother, it was Lilli who held him and rubbed a hand along his back, whispering gentle, calming words to quiet him.
Down the hall, Roderich reached the top of the stairs beside his relative and friend, chatting quietly about their German heritage as they proceeded at a slow pace down the hall. Ludwig was making an attempt at convincing him that pork sausage was far better than veal, but Roderich seemed elsewhere. His mind was wandering, thinking about Vash, wondering if he'd been too harsh. He'd been distracted like that all night, and apparently Ludwig had noticed. As he finished his sentence, the German paused and looked to the dark haired Austrian. He gave up trying to say something, it wasn't worth it, so they continued up the hall silently until a soft whimpering sound reached their ears.
Roderich moved closer to the door to Vash's room, wondering if that was him crying. Ludwig only smiled slightly, knowing Roderich's concern fully.
"I'll leave you alone for a bit, yeah?" Ludwig remarked. He didn't wait for a response from the Austrian before heading down the hall in search of his Japanese friend that was hiding out somewhere in the house. He left Roderich standing in the hall, listening to the heart breaking sound of Vash's crying.
He sighed and moved into the doorway, looking about the room to find the two blonde's sitting on the couch against the wall. His eyes met Lilli who silently nodded, barely moving enough for her brother to notice. Roderich nodded back and took a hesitant step closer just as Vash hiccupped another cry into his sister's dress. Roderich could feel his heart breaking the more he heard his Swiss man cry. He couldn't help but feel concerned.
From his place just a step inside the doorway, Roderich nervously moved his right hand up to grip his left arm just above the elbow. Lilli watched him in silence, Vash still ignorant of his presence.
"Vash… are you alright?" The Austrian questioned softly, turning his gaze to the ground. The crying stopped, the hiccups and whimpers ceased.
The room was eerily silent.