100 Questions- Question 2

It was Tuesday, and the second day of the game. Lilli woke up and dressed quickly. She then turned to her desk before going down to wake her brother. She looked through her stack of cards and set aside the two most import to be questions 99 and 100, and then turned her attention back to the other 98 cards. She sorted through them quickly and picked the question of the day. She then fled down the hall to hurriedly wake up her brother. She walked in his room to find him already up, and half naked with his shirt off. She saw all the scars that were on his torso, and literally ran out of his room, still unnoticed to Vash. She ran and made toast for the both of them along with pouring two glasses of orange juice. Her brother can down the stair now fully dressed and grabbed the toast and juice in one hand and Lilli's hand in his other and again they began up the hill. They walked up the path munching on their buttered toast in silence, with the occasional swig of their juice glasses. She admired her brother, and how nothing seemed to faze him during all the years of struggles. They finally reached the top just like every morning, and both sat on the now dry chairs at the top of the path. Lilli felt her brother's stare on her and she knew why. She knew that her brother was wondering what the question was for today, and she knew he would ask before they got to the bottom of the hill. And she was right, just at the moment Vash spoke "Lilli what will the question be today?" She looked at him and responded plainly "You will have to wait till we reach the bottom, Vash." He then promptly took her hand and all but dragged her to the bottom, and necessitated that she tell him the question. She giggled her cute nervous laugh and then turned to the side in an almost nervous way. "Big Brother can you tell me how you got all of those scars on your torso?" He then instantly regretted pulling her down the hill. She snapped her fingers to pull him out of shock, and looked at him worriedly "you have until my bedtime to answer, remember?" He told her that he need time to think of how to explain, and he would come and get her when he had an answer. She agreed and then walked off like normal to the gardens. Vash went to his office and started to just write, her wrote anything that came to mind, and it often was some long answer to Lilli's question. Since when had she seen his scars, he had never taken his shirt off in front of her and had never brought them up. He thought back to the last couple of hours and then remembered that early this morning he heard the door creak open when he was getting dressed, and he assumed it was just the wind or a maid, but now he wasn't so sure. He thought about how he could answer her question, and he didn't want to worry her, for they were not her issues to bear. She was obviously worried though, so he couldn't lie, but he also knew that she wouldn't take a half truth of an answer. Shit this was going to be hard…

It was lunch time and Vash still had no answer, so when Lilli asked, he said he needed more time, so she simply nodded and began a conversation on a completely unrelated topic. She then finished and grabbed both of their plates, brought them to the sink and wished her brother a good day as he walked out of the room.

Vash still sat in his office and it was now after lunch, about 2 in the afternoon to be exact and ever since the early morning he had tried to figure out the answer to Lilli's question, and it was killing him. He had balls of paper scattered across the floor, all crumpled up answers that never seemed to work. After his 500th attempt he found something fitting and went on a quest to find Lilli. Lilli of course was nowhere to be found, she wasn't in hi s garden her room was empty and so was the kitchen. He slowly walked to check the living room, a room that Lilli rarely visited, but still no luck, even if it was a long shot. He was defeated and he knew that, he had no idea where she was, so he decided to wait till dinner. He walked slowly to his room, trudging up the stairs, each step making a loud klunk. He reached his room and turned the doorknob quickly, he then made his way to his closet, eyes on the floor. He opened the doors and pulled out a plain white tee-shirt, since his current one had been spoiled earlier that day. He slowly started to remove his shirt but stopped when he noticed something out of the farthest corner of his eyes. It was Lilli, sitting on a chair in the opposite corner of his room, and she was clearly amused. He still had to get out of that spoiled shirt though, and so soon he found himself within the confines of his closet. He emerged after about 5 minutes and found Lilli now sitting innocently on his bed. "I heard that you have been looking for me." She said it so smugly, and so knowingly, it made Vash uneasy. "Yes I was Lilli; I have the answer to your question." She perked up at this, she was clearly happy for this turn of event, again it left Vash uneasy, and it was weird for her to enjoy it this much. "So what is it?" "Lilli, you wanted to know how I got these scars, right?" it was a rhetorical question, and that much she knew, so she kept quiet. "Lilli I got these scars by protecting my land, my people and from protecting you." She was still quiet though, and still with wide eyes for a few minutes. "Vash, for your mirror game…" And then her cut her off. "I am going to venture to guess that you have scars, so I was going to ask you my own question, is that alright?" She then broke down in tears, and Vash had no idea why. Then she spoke in between her sobs "V-Vash...*sob*…I-I ha-v-e…*sob*…'ell…yo-u…som-ethin'…*hiccup*… I do *sob* do h-av-e a…sc-ar, it's *hiccup* *sob* and….i ' m s-or-r-y i…ne-v-e' to-l-d you. She had finally calmed down and took a shuttering breath. "Lilli you don't have to tell me, I don't want you to be ok." She looked at him, but continued on with her story. "Vash, I want to tell you." She then pulled her skirt up just high enough to reveal a scar that was about 3 inches long. Vash was shocked and it showed. Lilli took a deep breath, and retold the tale of the scar. "I got it only a few days before you found me actually, one of my citizen's found me in a abandoned building, it was woman no older than 20. She *sob* she actually blamed me and the failing economy for the loss of her house, her husband and most importantly for the loss of her child. When she told me, I broke down in tears, and she scoffed, wondering what I had to cry about, and she pulled out a small Swiss army knife and cut my leg, not deep but deep enough for my leg to bleed." Lilli then dropped her skirt and walked out of his room, to leave him curious about what else she had to hide, and what he had hid from her, without him even knowing. It was at least two more hours since they would meet again for dinner, and Vash finished his work, so he was left to ponder the question alone in his room.

It was around six when Vash went down to the lower level of his house, to eat dinner with Lilli. She was sitting at the table already, with a plate of Pastetli, and a small bowl of leftover soup. His place at the table was set with the same, and Vash sat down across from his sister, her tear-stained face looking down toward her meal. And then the silence was broken…"Lilli why did you tell me that?" She looked up at him, her large green eyes threatening to spill over with tears again. Vash calmed walked over to his sister, and put down the spoon in her hand before lifting her up from her chair and carrying her to her room. When they reached the upper level Lilli was still quietly sobbing, her green eyes looking duller with every tear that was shed. "Lilli, calm down, please Lilli calm down." Vash repeated this statement over and over again in a vain attempt to sooth her, as he lay her down gently in her bed. She finally stopped crying and ended her sobs with a small hiccup. Switzerland again repeated the calming phrase, just to make sure, before Liechtenstein looked up, her face red, and her lovely green eyes puffy. "I'm sorry, Vash, I'm so incredibly sorry." He then set her head upon her pillow and tucked her sheets up to her chin. She sighed as her redden green eyes closed, and she succumbed into sleep. Vash slowly stood up and leaned over Lilli and with a chaste kiss on her forehead, he left the room and went again to his room, to go to sleep and hopefully by the morning everything would be back to normal.