Lightning flashed through the windows as the storm howled through the night.

Roderich turned away from watching the storm back to his guest and wife. Whilst holding his cup of tea he sat back down on the couch next to his wife Elizabeta, a beautiful woman with long brown hair and bright green eyes. Across from them sat Gilbert Beilschmidt, a young man with silver hair and bright red eyes, he was an old friend of both Roderich and Elizabeta. Gilbert had come over the night for dinner and supper, and now they were chatting idly to pass the time.

"So Gilbert," Roderich began, "What do you and your brother do now?"

Leaning back in his eat, he replied, "He decided to open up a garage, working on cars. I help him around with the customers mainly. What about you and Eliza?"

"Retired," Roderich sipped his tea, "After the last sale we had enough to live comfortably."

"So you sit around playing piano all day," Gilbert interrupted him, "That sounds so boring."

"And what is wrong with that?" Roderich returned, slightly annoyed, raising his free hand.

Elizabeta put her hand on Roderich, calming him, her eyes filled with love, "Dear, please calm down, you said you would be civil," she then turned to Gilbert, her eyes flinty, causing Gilbert to have old memories of frying pans and pain, "And that's the same to you to."

Gilbert rose up his arms in defence, "I can't help it if the Aristocrat is so touchy."

She continued to look at him for a few seconds, though she turned her attention back to her husband when he continued talking. "You know I don't like you calling me that," Gilbert shrugged to the comment, "and I don't spend my entire time playing piano. I also tutor Lili on weekdays."

"Lili, that's Vash's younger sister isn't she?"

Roderich sipped his tea again, "Yes she is."

"How has that old stick in the mud been? I haven't seen him since the Russian job a few years back."

"We don't actually get to see him," Elizabeta answered, "But Lili says that he is fine, though still very taken up with his work."

"That sounds like Vash, only caring about money and his sister," Gilbert laughed.

They continued chatting for a while, discussing the other people that they know and the work that they used to do. Eventually Elizabeta got up to go get stronger drinks, a fine wine for her and Roderich, and a beer for Gilbert. As she sat down, placing a tray down on the coffee table, the doorbell rang.

"Who could that be?" Elizabeta asked.

Gilbert instantly turned to Roderich and said, "How many people know where you live?"

"Not many," Roderich replied, worry tinging his voice, "We decided to live in the mountains to get away from the people."

Standing, Gilbert pulled a pistol out from the small of his back, "And I'm guessing those that should know wouldn't be visiting in the middle of a thunderstorm."

"I guess we should greet them anyway," Roderich said, standing up as well, "Eliza, would you please get ready in the kitchen for some guests."

She nodded in response as Gilbert then said, "Let's go say hello then."

They both headed down towards the main door, Gilbert taking the lead, his pistol held out before him and Roderich a few feet behind him. When they reached the door they swapped positions, Roderich in front to open the door and Gilbert behind to cover him.

Before he opened the door though, he looked through its people. Suddenly though he threw open the door, throwing away caution as he ran out into the thunderstorm.

Gilbert quickly followed after him, shouting, "You dumb Aristocrat! What are you doing?!"

Roderich had run out into the rain, straight towards two dark figures huddling together in the downpour. Gilbert stood against the doorway as he watched Roderich run, his pistol trained on the two figures that he ran at. It took a few seconds for Gilbert to realise who had come to this isolated house at such ungodly hours, and when he did realise, he dropped his gun and ran after Roderich.

For standing in the rain was Lili, dressed in what appeared to be her pyjamas and nightgown, though it was thoroughly soaked. But what caused Gilbert to run as if demons were on his tail was the body she was barely keep on his feet, Vash. Vash looked like he had gone through the seven pits of hell, his shirt torn and soaked with blood, a gash across his chest.

As Gilbert approached he could hear Lili pleading, "Please help Big Brother, I can't stop the bleeding." She collapsed as soon as Roderich got to her, falling into his arms. Gilbert got there just in time to catch Vash as he slipped from Lili's arms.

Vash woke with a start, sitting up in the bed he was lying in. He instantly regretted that decision, as his chest started to burn from his wounds. He breathed heavily through his nose as he lay back down in the bed. He ran his hands along his chest, checking the wounds he had receive from the previous night that had now been bandaged. Luckily for him they had been fairly shallow, nothing more than cuts, but they still ran the length of his chest, making his movements painful for now.

The door opened suddenly grabbing Vash's attention. "Good, you're awake," Roderich said as he walked in, carrying a tray of tea and biscuits.

"Edelstine, where am I?" Vash asked, confused about his surroundings. The last thing he remembered was fighting the assassin in the rain.

Roderich sat down on the chair next to his bed, placing the tray on the side table. "At my house," he answered. He took one of the cups of tea and passed it Vash, then taking the other cup for himself.

Vash sipped in the tea, grimacing after he did so, "You know I detest tea."

"You might, but it's good for you," Roderich retorted, "And Elizabeta made it, so you will drink it."

Against such an ultimatum Vash drank the tea, though he honestly would have preferred to have a cup of coffee. The only other times he would drink tea is when Lili would make it for him. "Where is Lili?" Vash asked his voice tinged with concern, realising that she wasn't here and that he didn't know what has happened to her since the duel.

"She's sleeping at the moment, Elizabeta is with her. What I'm more concerned with is what happened to you. If Gilbert Beilschmidt wasn't here, you would be in a lost worse condition."

"Gilbert Beilschmidt? White hair, red eyes, tends to brag and loves himself too much?"

Roderich sipped again before he replied, "That's him. He said that you had worked with him before."

"A while ago, though I thought he was retired."

"He is."

Vash took one of the biscuits from the tray as he put his teacup back, eating it, "Then why is a retired mercenary visiting an old fence and a thief?" he asked between bites.

"We went to the same school. I would say that you should remember, but you never came to school. But never mind that," Roderich placed his teacup back down onto the tray, "I want to know why have you come here? You've never done that before."

"I had nowhere else to go. And believe me, I'd rather I didn't."

Roderich sighed, "You need to rely more on other people Vash."

Vash laid back into the bed, turning his face away from Roderich, "Are you here to ask me questions or to berate me? Because if you have nothing else to ask I need to rest so I can leave here as soon as possible."

"I would like to know how you got those wounds," Roderich began as he stood up, "But we'll wait until tonight when you can tell all of us." He picked up the tray as he left, leaving Vash in the bed, having already fallen asleep again.

Vash parried the Assassins first slash as he lunged towards him, deflecting it to the side. Vash quickly countered, lunging towards the leg, but the Assassin quickly dodged back, recovering from his first attack. Vash's opponent was definitely well trained, and he will not be easily to defeat. What Vash needed to do for now was to discern his opponent's tactics, to try and find an opening that he could use.

Vash's thoughts were then rudely interrupted as the Assassin came back in for another attack. This time Vash kept wholly on the defence, using his rapier to deflect the half incoming attacks, dodging the other half. The one thing he could not do was take the attacks head on. The Assassin's katana would easily snap Vash's thin rapier in half, and lead to his death. So whenever the Assassin lashed at him, Vash would use his sword to ride along his opponent's blade, turning it away from Vash's body as he also stepped to the side, making the katana miss him completely.

Their fight continued on for what Vash felt like was ages, countless amounts of attacks and parry's, as the rain continued to pour down on them, Lili watching silently from the house. The rain was to Vash's advantage in this fight. Whilst the rain had soaked his clothes, weighing down his body and arms as he defended himself, it also slowed down his opponent even more, who was wearing much thicker cloth. Vash knew that this difference was what gave him the opportunity to win this fight, without it he would most likely have lost by now.

After a while Vash was able to discern the attack pattern of his opponent. He would first lunge in, lashing out quickly across Vash's chest. Then he takes two high swipes to his head, then a quick low attack at the knees. He ends by jumping back and preparing for a counter attack, which Vash doesn't give. After a few seconds of waiting, he then repeats the attack but reverse the order. There was no direct opening Vash could find in his opponents assault, his movements too fast for Vash to slip through his guard and skewer him.

"Why do you not attack, you cannot expect to win if you do not attack," The Assassin suddenly spoke.

Vash kept up his guard, and silently watched his opponent, not replying to the question. The Assassin waited for a few seconds before he shrugged, realising that Vash wasn't going to respond to his questions, and renewed the assault.

During this attack Vash as able to see the only possible opening in the Assassin's attacks. As the Assassin lunges forward to slash at his chest, there is an opening at his legs. The only issue is that if Vash is to take that opening, he would most likely get cut. But as Vash parried the current barrage, he knew that he couldn't keep this fight on for much longer, his arms growing heavy with fatigue. He needed to end it now. When the Assassin lunged for the next attack, Vash took his opportunity. Just as the Assassin closed and slashed out, Vash stepped forward as well, aiming his sword low. Pain flared across his chest as it got lay open by his enemy. But he continued moving, driving his sword through the Assassin's leg, running him through.

Vash let go of his sword, stumbling backwards. He waited for the killing blow, not knowing whether or not he had done enough damage to win the fight. But it never came. Instead his enemy had also stumbled backwards, dropping his katana and taking grip of the sword now in his leg. Vash took this opportunity to run, stumbling towards Lili. But he didn't get far before he blacked out to seeing Lili rush towards him.

"And that's what happened," Vash said, finishing retelling the events of the past night, when he was attacked.

"You actually let yourself get hit just to finish the fight?" Gilbert asked, leaning forward in his seat, entranced by any sort of fight.

"It was that or die," Vash replied, rubbing the bandages across his chest.

"So you were the target of an assassination attempt?" Roderich asked, sipping tea again.

"Yes, it appears that someone wants me dead."

Roderich put down his teacup, a sure sign that the discussion was about to get serious, "What do you intend to do about this?"

"Normally I wouldn't be fazed much; I've had people attack me before, but never at my house. The fact that they've hurt Lili means I will need to found out who sent them and stop them."

Elizabeta walked into the room, sitting down next to Roderich on the couch. "Lili has gone to bed," she said.

Again pulling at his bandages, Vash asked, "How is she?"

"She's asleep now, though she has been scared all day. From what I got from her, and what I was able to hear from you, she had a terrifying night. She had to see her brother kill someone, and watch him fight to the death," Elizabeta answered.

Vash was silent for a few seconds, contemplating what he had let happen to her. "Roderich, I need to ask a favour of you."

"That's a surprise, you rarely ask for anyone's help. What do you need?"

"I need you to take care of Lili for me for a while. Home isn't safe anymore and this the only place I can think of that she could stay."

"Of course she can stay," Elizabeta replied for her husband, "She's like a niece to us, she is always welcome here."

"Thank you," Vash stood up from his seat, looking out into the clear night through the window opposite him, "I need to be leaving now though."

Vash started to head towards the front door of the house, even as Elizabeta and Roderich started protesting that he shouldn't be leaving right now. He ignored them though, keeping silently as he moved onwards.

"I'm going with you," Gilbert said, leaning against the doorway.

Stopping, Vash glared at Gilbert, wondering how he got there before him, "What do you mean you are coming?"

Gilbert shrugged, "Sounds like you're going to get into a fight. Home's getting boring, and I need something to do." He then smiled a smile that had made girls in high school sigh, "That and you'll need my awesome skills to kill whoever is after you."

"I'm guessing that there is going to be no way to persuade you not to go?"

"Yep, I want to show off my awesome skills, that and I'm so bored."

Vash turned around to Roderich and Elizabeta, who had caught up and were now standing behind him, "Are you fine with me leaving as long as Gilbert comes with me?"

"Aren't you going to say goodbye to Lili?" Elizabeta asked.

"No, it's better if she doesn't know where I have gone. She doesn't need to worry needlessly."

Roderich put his hand on Vash's shoulder, saying "Don't get killed out there."

Shrugging off the hand, Vash walked past Gilbert and out of the house, "Take care of Lili for me. Are you coming Gilbert?"

"Time to be fucking awesome again; of course I am, where to first?" Gilbert said, following after Vash into the empty night.

"Back to my house, there are some things I need to get."