Chapter Text
You had done your best. Tried your hardest to make sure that since arriving on the desert planet that no one realized you. Weren’t. Quite right . Experience had been a harsh teacher when in the past others had learned the facts about your hardiness . So it was easier to just hide it. As long as you didn’t stay in one place too long, or with the same people for too long it all worked out in the end.
But now you had slipped up, and it was right in front of Vash, only six months after the infection incident, the turning point of starting to be friends. Actual friends. You knew it the second your eyes shot open as you regained consciousness, your elevated heart rate putting strain on the muscle that had stopped beating. You feel the tacky blood between your fingers, you’d passed out on your side, been fumbling with the long nose pliers you kept in a side pocket of your pants, trying to pull the bullet that had lodged into your side out. You’d woken up on your back, a pool of liquid under you, and Vash flinching to the side, mouth agape at the fact you seemed to be breathing again. Scrambling around you feel the handles which are sticky from being under you, Vash seems to have broken out of his momentary stupor and grabs your shoulders.
“Snipes, you’re bleeding out! ” The worry is evident in his tone, and you can see the panic on his face. Shit how long had you been out for? His hands are on your shoulders pulling you up into a sitting position and leaning against him. Damnit, you can barely feel your legs, realizing your hands are moving on autopilot. You can’t even feel the pliers grasped in them now, how much blood have you lost?
Your rapid breathing is telling you to get that bullet out now! Before you succumb again “Pull the bullet out” pressing the pliers into his hand. “Pull it out, before I black out again, Vash.” Deep down, you know another round of shock to your heart won’t kill you, only shorten the time you have awake and fine motor control. You don’t need to do more damage while routing around inside yourself.
“Hang on, this is going to hurt.” He’s got a bottle of booze from somewhere and is dousing the pliers and your side with the stuff. The burning from the alcohol leaves you sucking air between your teeth. Of course it’s going to hurt. You focus on your breathing, trying to tune out the metal prodding from your side. The hand of your non-injured side is holding onto Vash helping to keep you up right. You can feel it, when the metal teeth grasp the bullet, when he finally pulls it out.
“I need to try and clean the area up before I wrap it.” His downturned blue eyes are staring into yours, something you don’t quite know simmering in their depths. “Can you stay awake long enough for me to do that?” You nod. You know you can, the hard part is over now, but he doesn’t know that. “OK. Once that’s done we can keep going to the next town. It’s only a few Iles. Then we’ll get you to a doctor.”
“No. No fucking doctors Vash.” Teeth grit hard enough you can feel the muscles in your face screaming. He’s working away, his own jaw clenched tight.
“Neither one of us can treat this properly, Snipes. I don’t want you dying on me.” Heat laces his words no matter how soft he’s spoken them. You aren’t going to die. Not from this. A piece of you fears what is coming. Will this be the last time you hear him call you by that nickname? Before he goes back to calling you that stupid moniker, if he even chooses to talk to you again.
“I said no.” He has the compression bandage wrapped around you and tied off. You can tell from the sigh that leaves him he is exasperated with your stubbornness. The tightness of the bandage is helping, and you find yourself taking deep breaths. A few more moments and you roll away from him, getting your feet under you. A stabbing pain erupts at the movement, body screaming at you to lay down and sleep for the next few days.
“Hey, take it easy!” You keep your eyes on the ground instead of facing him. There’s no way you could handle the look of pity that would cross his features. The way his eyes would turn down with the quirk of his lips. You'd had enough pity in your life, seeing it on his face might be enough to break you in your current state. You take a step, then another, before an arm is wrapped around you. “Lean on me. We’ll be in the next town in no time.”
You barely remember the walk there, you just keep focusing on breathing. If you keep your focus on that, you don’t have to pay much attention to the muscles inside of you shifting. At the edge of town you try to get him to head to the hotel “I told you, you need a doctor.” His tone booked no argument. He pushed the door of the clinic open calling for assistance “Help, my friend’s been shot. She needs a doctor!”
“No I don't. He's overreacting. I was grazed, I’m just tired” slurs out of your mouth and you feel him tense beside you. He doesn’t get a chance to respond when a nurse grabs you and brings you into the treatment room. While the nurse is undoing the compression bandage Vash is filling in the doctor about your injury.
“I’m telling you, he has it all wrong. It was a graze, I'm just tired.” The bandage is off and the doctor has pulled over a stool to inspect the area. His gloved hand shifts your shirt this way and that inspecting the wound before he turns to Vash.
“I’m sorry young man, but the lady is right. This is nothing but a graze.” You clamp the pain in your chest down. You catch Vash’s eye and watch the disbelief on his face wash away to be replaced by neutrality, your heart is clenching from that shift and you force the sorrow down. “Though, in such a situation it is possible you might have been seeing things. Such things can happen when those you care for get injured.” After this you doubt he’ll care at all, no one ever does after they learn about the monster you are.
You're off the bed, and heading towards the door again after the nurse cleaned the dried blood from the rest of your skin, her eyes narrowed at you and the skin surrounding the graze, you can’t stay here long. Outside the room you see Vash waiting for you, both of your bags are at his side and your rifle slung over his shoulder. He doesn’t say anything at your approach, just hands you back your things. Together you make your way to the hotel.
The tension between both of you is thick, no easy silence or carefree joking. You can already see Vash is starting to pull away from you. An idea is starting to form in your head. At the front desk you hang back a bit as Vash engages the innkeeper “Any chance of getting a room until next week?”
“Two rooms, actually” you butt in, thoughts swirling in your head. Vash turns to you, a pensive look on his face. There are two rooms and you find yourself pulling the funds out of your wallet, Vash taking the pen to write both your preferred aliases in the register. After you both have your room keys on the steps and out of sight Vash grabs your arm.
“I thought we agreed a while ago, it makes sense to get the one room. A little easier on the wallet.” He’s not wrong. Looking up into his face you can see the confusion in those beautiful eyes. You find yourself trying to burn the image into your memory, another reminder why you prefer to travel alone.
You finally glance away sighing “I just want to spend some time to myself right now alright?” your voice is soft and you hear his own sigh that drags in length.
“Alright, but you’ll come see me before bed right?” You shake your head at him as you reach your own door.
“I think I might just hit the hay now. I’m exhausted Vash” You can see something cross his face, unsure of what it was, doubting it was anything good, before he sighs again.
“Well, can I come in for a minute or two first? I want to ask you something.” You know what he wants to ask about and motion for him to follow you in. “What happened today?”
“Vash, Please.” You know your pleading with him “I really don’t want to talk about that right now. And not in an inn with possible paper thin walls”. As if to punctuate your words you both hear someone else coming up the steps outside the door.
He rubs one of his hands through his hair before sending a soft smile your way that doesn’t reach his eyes, a mask already in place. “Alright. But come get me next door if you need anything, it’s been a rough day for both of us.” He reaches over, pauses as if unsure, but places his hand against your shoulder and gives it a reassuring squeeze. Nodding to himself he steps back, keeping his eyes hidden looking down, turning for the door, stopping just before grabbing the handle “Goodnight, Snipes.”
“Goodnight, Vash.” You can see the ghost of a smile on him as he steps through the door. You finally let your guard drop and route around in your bag for some paper and a pen. You have a letter to write.
As you write you can feel the wetness forming on your lashes, you don’t bother with wiping them away. Letter written you look at the bottom and sign it, dropping then on the bed to get a few hours rest.
When you awake again, it’s the middle of the night and you’re in luck. You can hear the shower in the room next to you running. You grab your things and look over the letter once more, in the end you tear away the part with your signature and re-sign, omitting the final line. Folding the letter, as you head out the room and make it down to the entrance. The whole while listening for steps.
At the frontdesk it’s the same innkeeper as before. You barter with him for some supplies and don’t even protest over his high prices. In the end you have what you need. “Hey, can you hold onto this letter and give it to my friend for me. But closer to the end of the day?” As you slide the letter across the counter you make sure a decent sized stack of bills is under it. He agrees and you wave heading out the door.
Outside, the cold night air makes you shiver and helps keep the wetness behind your eyes. You step off, heading out of town, no matter how many times you're left walking away from those that get close, the pain never lessens.