Quiet In The Church

"Brother! I am home!"

For some reason it was quiet. Heidi could not recall the last time she had come home and iMarcus had not commented on it, or her brother had not been immediately there. Heidi set down her bag near the door and cleared her throat.

"Vash? iMarcus?"

"In the living room, Heidi." By the sound of Vash's voice, something was wrong. Heidi did her best to stay calm as she entered the room. Vash was sitting on the couch, without anything in hand. Now she knew something was wrong. Her brother did not often, if ever, place himself somewhere without something to do. He was the type of person to always keep himself occupied. No matter what. But even double checking the situation... no, there was nothing there.

"Is... there something wrong?"

Every time she had asked this question over the past few weeks she had been given a negative. Was he going to keep this from her as well? As much as she respected Vash's decisions about what he kept discreet, she did not think she could blindly accept it if he said it again. Especially not when he was acting like this.

Vash cleared his throat.

"Sit down, please."

Heidi sat down without much change in her posture, eyes still on the other. Vash seemed to be struggling with himself, but managed to speak.

"I know... this is going to be difficult for you to hear. I assure you there is no pleasure in my saying it. Something has happened today."

"Ha-happened?" Dread filled her heart.

"Yes." Vash nodded a few times. He was at least looking her in the eye, then it could not be too bad, could it? "iMarcus is gone."

The words entered her and did a funny thing where they did not actually click with all of the meanings she knew they would have. "What do you mean?" she asked, despite herself. Vash sighed.

"While I had Kiku over... to fix his programming... and something went wrong. I am sorry."

"B-b-but he can't be gone!" Heidi gasped, clutching her hands in front of her chest.

"He... he is Heidi."

"There was nothing to fix!" Heidi exclaimed, rising to her feet. Vash followed suit, taking a step toward her.

"He was becoming a public nuisance. I was just trying to–"

"And now he's gone? How could you, brother?" Heidi sobbed, turning and running right out of the house.

"Heidi, no! Heidi! Heidi! I am sorry! I'm sorry..."

For once, she ignored her brother's calls and continued to run. iMarcus gone? But... but he was practically part of the family! Maybe a irresponsible father... but it was more than she and Vash had ever had before! Vash was the world to her, but it had always been just them. Them and that stupid family inheritance and those horrible guardians, who she knew were only doing what they thought was best, but did not bother to know them one bit...

Heidi had never run off on her own without an idea where to go and without telling her brother where she was planning to be. Which was why she probably ended up in the long since abandoned church in the centre of town.

Now simply sniffling, she carefully stepped around the rotted planks of wood which used to be the pews, moving toward the front of the building.

Which was when she heard someone else crying. Blinking to clear her eyes, Heidi pulled out a handkerchief to help with that problem as she glanced about. "H-hello?" The crying came to an abrupt halt. Behind where an organ probably once was, someone else stood up. Even before the other woman turned Heidi realized who it was. "Natalia! Oh, are you all right?"

Unlike Heidi, Natalia did not bother trying to wipe away the evidence of her previous actions from her face. "I'm fine."

Heidi did not believe that, but decided not to push the matter. "I'm sorry for bothering you, I didn't know anyone was here. I'll leave you to... um... I'll leave." Natalia did not say anything, so Heidi turned to walk back.

"Why are you crying?"

Surprised, Heidi turned back around to look at her. "Oh! Um... it's nothing. I just..."

Heidi blinked rapidly to keep the tears from surfacing once more, but to no avail. Why was she crying? iMarcus was gone. She had probably just made Vash upset and it was not as if he had wanted for this to happen! Vash was hiding something from her, had been for a long time now, and Heidi was not used to not having it figured out by this point. He always had tried to protect her, but she was always able to do something for him in return...

"Brother has been avoiding me lately." And when he finally faced her, it was to tell her that iMarcus was gone. More tears slipped down her cheeks. She pulled her handkerchief up to dab them away.

Natalia looked slightly shocked, but then her face softened. "You poor baby..."

Natalia opened her arms. Heidi walked back over and hugged her. Then she offered Natalia her handkerchief.

"...thank you."

"Oh no, don't thank me!. I should be thanking you!"

They ended up sitting there in companionable silence. Eventually, they both stopped crying.


Notes:

Before Heidi and Vash arrived in Hearth... they had a very difficult family life. Their parents died when they were little, left them with a fortune and caretakers, the caretakers of which wanted to set Vash up with a job in the government and marry Heidi to another wealthy family. Of course, Vash was not going to have that. A lot happened before they got to Hearth.

Hearth has a church, but since most people's religions are so wide-spread and many do not obviously practice them, it is not used. Let alone no one is quite certain what religion the church is for. It was gutted a long time ago.

"My brother is avoiding me" is an excellent way to get Natalia's sympathy, it seems. Then again, it is something understands well...