The Mistake

(And Detective Zwingli's Fix-All Method)

Such a pretty sight was the town of Hearth. From a distance...

Who am I kidding? Things were crazed and not peaceful at all. Not even from a distance. Even from a distance one could see the insanity brewing. It had been building up all day.

To be honest, this had been building up for a while. After all, Elizaveta and Ivan were currently in a spat and that meant the moment they were to meet up again things would go pear shaped. And that meant of course it was going to. After all, Elizaveta felt bad for keep Heidi in the inn. She decided that as long as she stuck with the girl it would be all right. With Vash seeming to want to leave as soon as possible, this was the best time to give Heidi a tour of Hearth.

Combine that with the fact people still had no idea where there things had gone.

So began the domino effect, right in front of the Store.

"Where is my frying pan?" Elizaveta asked, jabbing a finger in his direction.

"Vhere is ceiling fan?" Ivan retorted, still trying to return that favour for Ludwig.

Heidi watched with big eyes as the both of them bickered, drawing the attention of anyone else who came by. Which, oddly enough, was a whole lot of people. Either this town was really small, or not small enough. Heidi was not sure.

Anyone could tell when things were about to turn ugly. It might have just been Elizaveta and Ivan arguing (accusing), but then Natalia showed up. The only person who had the sense (and ability) to go home at this point was Gupta.

"Ivan, I doubt Elizaveta stole my ceiling fan," Ludwig said, trying to calm matters.

"Give it back, you witch!" Natalia hissed.

Raivis hid behind Eduard who would have walked away if Natalia had not been assisting him with his shopping and was currently holding half of what he had just bought from the Store.

Because it was right where it was, Berwald had come out. He heard the accusations and was really ready for the culprit to be here. As there was no obvious culprit, he simply proceeded to be unhappy. Which was not really going to cause anything else except for the fact Matthias had to be obnoxious.

"Don't lose your temper, Ber. No one knows still, I guess. Since it wasn't you. No need to blow up at all of them then."

Berwald then lost his temper when he would not have done so previously.

This caused Hanatamago to begin barking like crazy. Tino was unable to quiet him and Lovino's headache (that he had gotten after Brian and Roy and that stupid new policeman showed up) got worse.

"Ve~ It's okay, Lovino!"

"Shut up! It is not! You are such an idiot!"

Antonio's Lovino-is-distressed senses went off, but he could not get past the crowd into the store. Which would have been fine, if he had not bumped into Yao.

"Watch where you're going, aru!" Yao exclaimed, not in a good mood as Maddox had labelled everything in his house with post-it notes.

Incorrectly. My table is not a bathtub, aru. Last thing he needed was for someone like Yong Soo to come in and take that as a challenge.

"Sorry~" Antonio said sincerely, bumping into Gilbert. Which would have been fine. They would have gotten in an argument of which the likes are seen between best friends all the time. But he dropped his new wrench, which happened to look a lot like...

Well, any wrench. Whatever the case, Matthias leaped at it.

"My wrench!"

"My wrench!" Gilbert retorted.

At this point, Heidi had stopped trying to pay attention to everything. She was really worried about being crushed by someone (i.e. everyone) when she was thankfully pulled from the fray.

"Do not hold it against them," Maddox said to her, a point of calm within the storm. "This is them being rather nice."

"Don't you mean 'they aren't usually this bad'?" Heidi tried to clarify.

"No."

Heidi looked sadly into the fray.

Meanwhile, three cowboys looked into the– um, Vash, Roy, and Brian had diverted their path when hearing a tumultuous commotion. Because it had reached the level where it could be described as tumultuous.

"Oh great," Roy sighed. "Ye take it."

"Nah," Brian shot his brother a look that was either "you take it" or "isn't this both of our jobs?".

And Vash was not going to take it.

Two shots (into the ground, not the air, he was not an idiot) and everyone was quiet.

"That. Is. It." Vash hissed the words in the both angriest and calmest voice he had ever used in his life. He walked forward, making certain everyone's eyes were on him.

They were.

Heidi rushed up to his side as she no longer seemed to have her other protector at her side. She clung to his side and Vash wrapped an arm around her. His other hand, still holding his precious gun, did not move.

"I have had enough of your town today," Vash told them honestly. "So either all of you do not move until I am done with my arrest or I will arrest you all. Anyone who resists will be considered hostile and I have a lot more bullets."

Everyone stayed quiet. Vash patted Heidi on the head before leaving her with Roy and Brian as he walked down the way to the house Brian had pointed out to him earlier.

Everyone watched as he arrested Young Sil and took him to the police station.

"That's na Yong Soo," Roy told him.

"Whatever," Vash replied.

"Okay, okay! I did it! I did it!" Young Sil exclaimed, cowering from proximity to the gun that Vash had not bothered putting away yet.

And suddenly everyone knew why they had really stopped to pay attention to one Vash Zwingli.

"You did it, brother!" Heidi sang out cheerfully.

"How did you figure it out?" Elizaveta asked, rather impressed.

"Yeah... jist when ye 'ad us thinking it was Yong Soo..." Brian began. Both fortunately and unfortunately for Vash, no one was listening to know that he had gotten it right by accident.

"Hard work pays off," Vash replied. Because that was true, whether or not he had gone in to arrest the right person or not.

Plus, he could not tell Heidi that he had only been lucky.

Notes:

Why was everyone in front of the Store? Tino thought a sale would make Berwald feel better. So much for that.

It is a fact that if everyone leaves Young Sil alone, he will leave them alone. At least... he will now.

Another fact about Hearth: there is no mayor. Who is in charge? That is anyone's guess. In present times most people would say Vash, but when it comes right down to it it has always been Elizaveta. Even Gilbert would (grudgingly) admit that.