Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ For the Love of My Brother ❯ Brother, My Brother ( Chapter 1 )

 

Author Ramble: As I haven't seen the whole series, any spoilers are purely coincidental. All previous warnings and disclaimers apply. I hope that this meets with approval for the first chapter. More coming soon! Hopefully I'll be able to update once a day, but I make no promises. Just depends on the whims of my muses and the teething of my daughter. ^__^

 

 

 

Chapter One: Brother, My Brother

 

 

Vash could never really sleep with anyone else in the room. He didn't mind that usually, because there had been times that being able to sense someone coming into his room had meant the difference between being alive and very very dead. Now, though, it was nothing but completely annoying.

 

Jade chipped eyes slitted open to regard the sleeping countenance of his friend. Nick could be many things, but asleep he was truly beautiful. Long lashes curved over sharp cheekbones, and soft breaths caused the man's unblemished chest to gently rise and fall. Vash envied him the ability to fall asleep just about anywhere. He fervently wished for just a bit of Wolfwood's perfection of body, mind, and spirit.

 

Over time Vash slowly learned to trust the other man, and was hoping that this time he might be able to break his long habit of only half dozing when someone else was near. There had been too many sleepless nights recently, and he was tired. God, he was just so damn tired. Vash allowed his eyes to drop closed and began repeating soft mantras to lull himself into slumber.

 

Nick jerked awake to darkness. He lay perfectly still until he could pinpoint what had triggered his senses. That's when he heard the whimpering, the sound of a lost and broken child. For a moment Nicholas was puzzled as to how anyone, child or not, had managed to get that close to him without making him even stir to semi-wakefulness, then he realized that the sound was coming from the second bed.

 

Vash! Was he hurt? He certainly sounded like he was in pain. As a matter of fact, while Nick watched his friend, wondering if he should wake him, the soft whines turned into full fledged screams of absolute agony. The lanky body thrashed against the sheets, fingers shredding the fragile material under them while the man's almost childlike pleading escalated into racking sobs. It almost sounded like he was crying out for someone. That's it. I'm waking him up. Even if it is just a simple nightmare, which I doubt, he'll wake up the entire town at this rate.

 

He slid himself from under his blankets and padded across the room to where Vash lay writhing and crying in his sleep. Unaware of the very real danger that he was in, Nick reached down and firmly grasped the blonde's shoulder, shaking him roughly. Before Nick could even blink he found himself flipped onto the bed with Vash looming over him. Cold sweat trickled down his spine as he gazed up over the business end of Vash's colt and into fear maddened sea green.

 

“Vash…”

 

“Never again, you bastard! Do you hear me? NEVER AGAIN!”

 

For the fist time Nick realized just how much the sound of a pistol cocking in the darkness sounded very much like death. “Vash, it's me. Nick. Remember?”

 

Slowly, the shadows lifted, and Nick could see awareness come back into the face in front of him. Suddenly he found himself with an arm full of sobbing gunman, and Nick cradled him close, whispering soothing nonsense into the night. Finally, the weeping morphed into something that sounded like speech. Nick couldn't understand much of what Vash was mumbling into his shoulder, but one word stood out.

 

“Knives…”

 

*****

 

Eyes of endless blue snapped open just in time to choke off a desperate scream. Knives pulled upright, hunching down over himself. Phantom pains ghosted across his skin, and he clenched his eyes shut to hold back the flood of tears that he knew would come if he let them. It's over. Just a memory. Not happening again. It's not, it's not, it's not... It's over, not happening again, he's dead Knives. Not again. Never again.

 

Eventually Knives allowed himself to relax back into his mattress, succumbing to his brother's voice sighing through his mind, and ghostly arms holding comfortingly close to his brother's body.

 

Vash won't leave me this time. It's just a dream. Vash is here…

 

“Vash…”

 

*****

 

It seemed like an eternity before Vash had calmed enough to ease away from the comforting protection of Wolfwood's arms. When he did, though, it was with such a heartrending expression of resignation and shame that Nick almost found himself crying for the pain that this man had endured. Though he didn't know the real reason for Vash's anguish, he'd heard that same pained cry from his own mother and he did know what had caused it for her. Rape.

 

Carefully he pulled the blonde closer to him and rocked him gently. “Vash…”

 

“Don't, Nick. Just… don't.” He carefully pulled away from his friend and turned away. “Look, I'm sorry but could you… go check on Milly and Meryl?”

 

For just a moment Nick considered staying, forcing Vash to admit what had happened, but finally he nodded and turned away. “Sure, Vash. I'll do that and head over to have breakfast or something. Okay?”

 

The other man shuddered. “Thanks.”

 

Alone in the dark, Vash snuggled back down into his bed and pulled the blankets over himself, making a tight cocoon to shield him from the world.

 

“It's over. It didn't happen again.” He whispered, pulling a pillow close to his chest.

 

“Good night, brother.”

 

And against all odds Vash slept, feeling his brother lying next to him, each protecting the other from the monsters of the night.

 

*****

 

Knives woke in a very bad mood.

 

I could feel him there with me again. Holding me close while we slept, protecting me like he hadn't in more than a hundred and thirty years. My brother's arms cradled me to his warmth and for the first time in many years I slept deeply and without dreams, knowing that I was protected because he was here with me again. The blonde plant sneered at the very thought.

 

“Legato.” Moments later there was a slight tap at his door.

 

“Enter.”

 

The blue haired telekinetic (1) took three steps into the room and dropped to his knees. “How can I serve you, master?”

 

Knives looked down at his strongest servant with something between fondness and loathing. “Find Chapel, Legato. He's being neglectful of his mission. I want my brother brought to me.”

 

“Yes, master.” Legato's bow scraped the floor before he rose gracefully to his feet to leave the room as quietly as he had come.

 

“Oh and Legato…”

 

The blue haired man turned back to Knives and raised a questioning brow. “Master?”

 

“Make sure that Chapel understands the price of failure.”

 

His servant gave a sharp nod and swept from the room. Knives made a mental note to reward Legato for his service by making sure that he didn't linger when it came time for him to die. After all, as good as he was at his job; the man was still a spider.

 

“This time, Vash, I'll show you that to save the butterfly, the spider must die. I'll make you understand that for us to live they must die.”

 

*****

 

Vash woke rested but not refreshed. The twin suns had already risen and the air was scorching and dry on his skin. His mouth felt like cotton, and his head throbbed, and he hadn't even been drinking the night before. All in all it was shaping up to be a truly awful day and he hadn't even gotten out of bed yet.

 

His opinion was confirmed when he heard Wolfwood arguing with Meryl and Milly just outside the door.

 

“We're going to miss the sand steamer! We have to get him up!”

 

Meryl his groggy mind supplied.

 

“I'm telling you to leave him alone! He was up late last night, and I'm sure we can catch the next one!”

 

Ah, Nick. Good friend that he was, he defended him to the quick tempered girl.

 

“Ah, maybe we should take this somewhere else or he'll be up anyway.”

 

Sweet Milly, the voice of reason. Vash sighed and heaved himself out of bed to stagger toward the door. He pulled the wooden panel open swiftly and was greeted with one bright smile and two open mouths. Ah, the makings of a wonderful morning.

 

“Good morning, Mr. Vash! Did you sleep well?”

 

The blonde thought uncharitably that Milly should be able to tell by looking at him that he hadn't slept all that well. Instantly he felt guilty, and gifted the girl with a weak grin. “Wonderfully, thanks, Milly!”

 

Wolfwood slanted him a suspiciously knowing look and Meryl just humphed and turned away with a mumbled, “well let's go then!” and dragged an apologetically waving Milly behind her.

 

Nick put a restraining hand on his friend's shoulder when he moved to go back into the room for his things. “Vash…”

 

“Not now, Nick. Now I just want to move on.”

 

“You'll have to face him soon, Vash. Knives won't wait forever you know, and when he comes after you, he'll take them” he nodded toward the girls. “down to get to you.”

 

“I know, Nick. I just don't want to have to fight him again.”

 

“Some things can't end in peace and love, Vash.”

 

“I know. This one can though. I'll make sure of it.”

 

Wolfwood wasn't convinced, even when looking straight into the determined face and sad eyes of a betrayed brother before the door snicked closed. Silently, he wondered who would win this fight, and he sent up a little prayer to a god he didn't really believe in, hoping for Vash to get his happy ending.

 

Alone in his room, Vash looked out the grimy window. “This time I'll win, Knives. I'll prove to you that we can live in peace. I'll teach you how to love again brother, and neither of us will ever be alone again.”

 

Somewhere far away from Vash, Knives shivered.

 

 

 

 

(1) I've read that telekinesis is the power that Legato has, however after hearing what he can do with it (I haven't gotten that far in the series yet) I think that really he has more of telepathy. Either way, telekinesis is what they call it so that's what I'll say it is too. ^__^