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Vash walks steadily forwards, each step leading him farther away from civilization and deeper into this empty wasteland. Sweat drips down his nose as he tilts his head up to verify the positions of the barely risen suns. Without landmarks, celestial navigation is the only option for a traveler without any navigational technology such as himself.
As he continues his journey, now oriented ever so slightly more east, Vash finally allows his thoughts to stop skirting around the purpose of this journey. And as always, his thoughts follow the same pattern they have for the last 34 times he did this trip, and likely will continue to follow in the years to come.
Is he a terrible person, for allowing this indulgence, time and time again? If he stopped these annual journeys, would that save anyone? If he broke the truce during this visit, could he use the opportunity to solve this decades long conflict? Is he, at this very moment, walking into a trap 34 years in the making? Is this even worth all of the moral agonies and the inevitable pain?
As he thinks, his feet continue to carry him steadily through the desert, displaying none of his internal doubts and conflicts. And then, on the horizon, his destination appears.
A small rocky outcrop, barely noticeable among the sea of sand. And beside it stands Million Knives, the dangerous underground criminal whose name only a few in the shadows knew enough to fear.
Vash comes to a stop, six meters away from Knives, a tense silence filling the air. His gaze locks onto Knives until, by an unspoken signal, both remove their outerwear, and place them side by side on the rocky surface. Put together like this, the contrast between their clothes is stark. Vash’s jacket is brightly coloured, worn but well loved, fraying edges patched with care. Knives’s cloak, in comparison, is gleaming, seemingly untouched by the passage of time, almost sterile in its colourless folds.
As their clothes settle onto the ground, Vash looks up at Nai, his twin brother for whom his heart aches whenever they are apart, and smiles.
“Nai!” he cries, as he leaps onto his brother. Nai, expecting this, manages to brace himself to prevent getting bowled over.
“Vash!” he laughs back, spinning them both in a circle, strong arms wrapped firmly around Vash’s waist, as if nothing could ever make them let go.
“You’ve turned into such a muscle man, Nai,” Vash teases, “Only a decade ago, and that would have made you fall right over!”
Nai scoffs, “You’re one to talk, you’ve just been getting skinnier, I swear. Compared to you, anyone could be considered a muscle man, you stick.”
“I am not a stick!”
“Are too!”
“You’re just a big fat gorilla!”
“Fat goril– ! I don’t even eat, how could I be fat?”
“I don’t know, you’ve always claimed to be talented, this must be one of your talents!”
“I’ll show you talented!”
With an outraged growl, Nai wrestles Vash onto the ground, both of them shoving and laughing as they roll around in the sand. Eventually, they calm down, breathing hard as they lay together on their backs, silly smiles on their faces.
“...I’ve missed you, Nai,” Vash says softly, sobering for a moment. He watches Nai’s face tighten for a moment, a million unsaid words flashing over his face. After a moment, Nai lets out a sigh, wordlessly agreeing to follow the unspoken rules, and replies with a simple, “Me too, Vash. I’ve missed you so much.”
After letting the moment between them rest for a few more seconds, Vash sits up, pasting a smile over his face. “Well, time’s a-wastin! It’s your turn to choose what we’ll be doing.”
Nai snorts as he props himself up on his elbows. “So impatient, little brother. What if what I wanted to do was just lie in the sand together?”
Vash can feel his face forming a pout as he whines. “But Naiiii, that’s such an old-man activity.”
“Well someone here needs to balance out your immaturity. Sometimes I swear you still act like you did when we were 8 months old, despite being over 40. But if you’re going to be a baby about this anyway, maybe we can play an old classic–’Capture ‘em Cowboys’. We can see if at least your body has grown up, even if your brain clearly has not.”
Vash smirks, “Now who is the one who hasn’t changed? Of course cowboys is the game you pick. You have the rope?”
In response, Nai tosses a silvery coiled up rope at Vash. Snatching it from the air, Vash slowly widens his stance, feet digging more firmly into the ground in preparation to pounce.
Nai follows suit, drawling out, “Well, well, howdy there, pardner. What could a fine gentleman such as yourself have to do with a little ol’ outlaw like me?”
“Why, I’m just making sure this area is all above board, making sure all the varmints are brought to justice!” At the moment the dramatic shout of “justice” leaves his lips, Vash makes his move. He dashes forwards, shooting out his left arm to grab at Nai.
Nai immediately dances backwards, kicking out sand as he does so, aiming at Vash’s face. Expecting this, Vash drops underneath the spray of sand without slowing his forward momentum.
Vash’s fingers graze against Nai’s chest, but he doesn’t get a chance to get a grip before, with a powerful leap, Nai jumps right over Vash’s head and lands behind him.
“Hey, that’s cheating!”
With a near-audible eye roll, Nai says, “I’m not using any abilities you don’t have, it’s perfectly fair.”
With a glint of true challenge in his eyes, beyond the confines of their game, he adds, “Unless this cowboy is too yellow-bellied to handle any real competition after spending so much time only chasing outlaws who are far from being on his level?”
Vash grits his teeth, the comment skirting too close to what they’ve agreed to not discuss in this little arrangement of theirs. Then he takes a deep breath, letting the tension go. It is true that even now, he has been instinctively holding back, just a little.
“Fine, if that’s how you want to play it.”
He darts forwards once again, arm outstretched. But this time, when Nai dashes just out of reach, he leaps sideways using the same powerful jump Nai had previously used to escape, and snaps out the arm holding the rope. The speed and angle of the rope sends it shooting behind Nai, curving around to loop multiple times around Nai’s body, pinning his arms to his sides. Vash uses his grip on his end of the rope to reel in Nai, placing a triumphant hand on Nai’s wrapped up chest.
“That good enough for you? Pardner?”
When Nai looks up at Vash, the frustrated knot in his chest loosens slightly at the sight of Nai’s bright eyes gleaming with pleasure, replaced by a flustered embarrassment and something unnameable swooping low in his gut.
“That was perfect, Vash. But you had better keep it up, since this time,” Nai gives the rope a firm tug, unraveling it from his body, “I’m the cowboy. And I ain’t no tenderfoot to catchin’ outlaws!”
For the next few hours, Vash and Nai continue to play, taking turns in capturing each other as they shout out increasingly ridiculous cowboy-inspired threats. Vash’s muscles burn pleasantly as he indulges in the rare experience of pushing himself to his limit without the cloud of all-encompassing fear for his life or the lives of others overshadowing the experience.
Finally, after Vash’s stomach growls loud enough to be heard, they take a break for lunch.
As they sit together on a picnic blanket Nai brought, Vash feels progressively more flustered with each dish that Nai reveals he has brought with him.
“I know you don’t normally bother with food, you don’t need to do all of this just for me. I’m used to providing for my own needs at this point, you really don’t need to fuss.”
“It’s not fussing, it’s taking care of you. And I enjoy this.” Nai looks up at Vash, eyes soft, “Just let me do this while I can alright? You deserve to be pampered once in a while.”
Vash flushes, unable to agree with the sentiment, but not willing to press the point. Nai isn’t one to be easily budged once he has made up his mind.
As he reaches for the potato salad, Vash blurts out the first question that comes to mind in an attempt to switch topics.
“So Nai, have you ever, like, needed to sneeze more than ten times in a row? I always get weird looks if I get a sneezing fit that is long enough. And we’re plants right? So we can’t exactly get sick in the usual way, so sometimes I’ve wondered if the sneezing is less about germs and more some strange plant instinct to, well, spread… spores…” Vash trails off, his plan to avoid feeling awkward failing spectacularly as his private pet theory, spoken aloud for the first time, sounds more and more ridiculous with each clumsy word that falls out of his mouth.
Nai chokes on his laughter. “So what are you saying, Vash? You think if you sneeze enough near me, your spores might land on me and impregnate me? Let me tell you, that’s not how it works.”
Vash can feel his shoulders rising defensively as he splutters.
“So no, Vash, I don’t think your excessive sneezing is so you can spread spores. The birth of another independent is bound to be significantly more complicated than that. I think you just have a sensitive nose, and bounce around too much in places full of sand.”
“Well, it’s not like I usually have other plants around to compare my reactions to,” Vash mutters defensively, avoiding eye contact, then wincing as he realizes what he just said.
A tense silence fills the clearing, the unspoken things between them swelling into an unwelcome third presence that is impossible to ignore.
“...Sorry.”
“...It’s fine. Now eat up, we still have the afternoon ahead of us, and I don’t want you needing a break because you didn’t eat lunch properly.”
Tension slowly fades as Vash continues to eat, the conversation moving on to small talk about the food. After Nai reveals that he cooked all the food himself, Vash quizzes him on how long it took to master each dish, teasing him over some of the disasters Nai had created in their youth. As Nai rarely bothered to eat, some of his choices for food combinations could, at best, be described as ‘unique’.
“This picnic at least was a success. Seriously, this was all really good. I swear I haven’t had food this satisfying in ages.”
Nai snorts, “Probably because you eat nothing but trash. I bet you think donuts are a reasonable dinner.” Reaching out a hand, he grabs Vash’s ankle, his warm grip easily wrapping all the way around. “See? If only you ate real food, I bet you could build more muscle and be less of a stick.”
Vash kicks Nai’s hand away, feeling his ears turn red. “Hey! Don’t badmouth donuts so casually. They are the king of all foods, I won’t just stand here and listen to you disrespecting them like that.
“Anyway, I’m pretty much done here, with this almost-but-not-quite-as-good-as-donuts meal,” Vash says, popping the last bite into his mouth. He lets out a pleased hum as he licks his fingers, chasing after the last bit of flavour. With one last satisfied smack of his lips, Vash turns to Nai, who seems to be staring intently at him, and asks, “So what now? You made it sound like you had a project for us this afternoon.”
Nai grins. “Do you remember in the old documentaries we watched about Earth, how some places had ‘hot springs’?”
“Sure I do, but–how would that even work here? Hot springs were possible due to groundwater near the surface of the planet. Gunsmoke, as you may have noticed, is a desert planet where water only comes from water-producing plants. And even if we had water, we don’t have a way to find where the geothermal energy is close to the surface of the planet in order to use it as a heat source. If we tried to use solar power instead, we’d still need some sort of magnifying device in order to capture enough heat. Maybe…”
Vash cuts off his musings as he notices Nai listening to his rambling with an indulgent grin.
“Well, I brought plenty of water with me, so that’s one problem solved.”
Vash raises a skeptical eyebrow, making a show of looking around the empty horizon in silent question. The two of them and their small pile of personal supplies are the only things in sight.
“Remember, brother dear, that I arrived here before you. I used that time to prepare.” With that said, Nai’s tendrils burst from his back and plunge into the desert sand. When they rise back up, sand shifts rapidly around the entry point, until a standard shipping container for water emerges, dragged up by the tendrils, large enough to supply a small town for a month.
“As for heat, using my gate is manipulating energy. Releasing the energy as heat instead of forming my blades is easy.
“All that is left is somewhere to put the water. And we just so happen to be meeting right by this helpful outcrop of rocks that won’t just absorb the water like the sand would. We just need to dig the hole.”
Looking at Nai’s smug face, Vash can’t help but think he’s earned it. This is a fantastic idea. Vash hasn’t been able to get a real warm bath since their childhood on the SEEDS-5 ship, as water is a luxury not to be wasted, leaving a financially strapped wanderer like himself no opportunity to splurge. The appeal is twice as strong for a hot spring, as the idea of an open air bath had always excited Vash ever since he saw it in his childhood documentaries. Looking at Nai now, Vash is positive that Nai had remembered that excitement when making this plan.
Clapping his hands together in excitement, Vash beams. “Well then, let’s get to work!”
Digging is tough, but progress is steady as they use their exceptional strength to break through solid rock. The afternoon sun beats down on them as they dig and banter, until Vash gives in and strips off his turtleneck. He breathes a sigh of relief as air flows over his overheated torso. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Nai staring, eyes cataloging every new scar gracing his chest, but mercifully saying nothing.
After a moment, Nai sighs, and strips out of the top half of his body suit, letting it pool around his hips.
“Not so high and mighty now are you?” teases Vash, “Feeling the temperature like the rest of us?”
“I never said I didn’t feel temperature, just that you could stand to whine less about it! I already admitted I was wrong for making fun of you for shivering so hard that time you forgot your jacket in the cyro chamber. Will you ever let that go?”
“Nope! What else are brothers for?”
With a huff, Nai turns his back to Vash and continues digging with renewed vigour. Vash takes the opportunity to do his own examination of his brother’s body unobserved. Unlike his own torso, Nai’s is not a cause for concern. Healthy, unblemished skin stretches over the expanse of his back, covering strong muscles that are beginning to become clearly defined, which shift and flex with each of Nai’s movements.
“Vash! Get digging, you better not make me do all the work.”
With a start, Vash shifts his concentration back to the ground, and gets back to work.
By late afternoon, they’ve finished digging. Their hot spring hole is roughly one meter in diameter and one meter deep. It will be a tight fit, but it will be more than enough for the two of them. Around the edge is a small ledge that can be used to sit. Together, they drag the water container to their pool, and pour it in.
“Now,” Nai smiles, “For the fun part.”
Nai plunges his hands into the water, and closes his eyes. His brow furrows with concentration. Vash watches his hands closely, catching how bubbles begin to form underneath Nai’s palms, until his view is blocked from the steam starting to rise from their homemade spring.
“We did it!” Vash whoops, dragging Nai up from the edge of their newly completed hot spring. His arm rests on Nai’s bare shoulders as they look upon their spring together. A fierce knot of pride throbs in his chest, as he takes in the hot spring. A creation near impossible on this desolate desert planet, and yet here it stands, due to Vash and Nai’s combined efforts.
Nai shifts under his arm, turning to look at Vash with a face that says he is equally pleased. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go in.”
Vash watches Nai begin to wiggle out of the bottom half of his body suit, fabric falling away to reveal legs that look strong and healthy, muscle beginning to show. He feels a twinge of embarrassment about his own legs which are as skinny as ever, that he quickly suppresses as he turns to strip as well.
Together, they step into the hot water. Twin sighs of pleasure fill the air as the water soothes their sore muscles. Vash sits on the ledge and lets himself slump down until the water is lapping at his chin. The water sloshes as Nai dips his entire head in the water. Emerging with a gasp, Nai slicks back his wet hair and settles onto the ledge across from Vash, legs tangling together with Vash’s in the tight space of the hot spring.
Closing his eyes, Vash relaxes and allows the heat of the water to sink into his bones. The satisfying burn of a hard day's work is being relieved, but more than that, it feels like tension Vash has been carrying around for years is being slowly loosened. Breathing in the steam, a quiet settles over him, as he allows himself to let go and simply enjoy the moment.
After several long minutes of just floating in a peaceful haze, Vash opens his eyes and looks around, seeing the vast desert just beyond their small rocky outcrop. The desert is empty and harsh, but beautiful in its own way. Their surroundings make this hot spring, this moment, all the more precious, as it reminds Vash of how miraculous it is to be able to carve out even this small oasis from the unforgiving planet.
“Thank you for this, Nai,” Vash says softly, looking over at his brother.
He looks beautiful, eyes closed, his hair slicked back, water droplets clinging to his face. Just like Vash, this hot spring has given him a rare moment of peace, his face soft in a way that Vash isn’t sure he has ever seen before.
As the shadows begin to lengthen as the afternoon runs into evening, Vash stares at Nai. In this transient moment, Nai appears to be both more ethereal than ever, his beauty undeniable, and yet somehow more grounded. Reachable.
The low-grade panic that normally churns in his gut on the rare occasion Vash allows his thoughts to flow in this direction is non-existent, wiped out by the tranquility of the moment. Leaning forwards, he reaches out, and cups his brother’s face.
Nai opens his eyes lazily, smiling up at Vash. Vash leans in closer until their foreheads are touching, their breath mingling in the steamy air.
“I really mean it you know, thank you for today,” Vash murmurs, before leaning in, crossing the distance that is both only a slight shift away and, at times, an uncrossable chasm, to brush his lips lightly against Nai’s.
After a heartbeat, he pulls back, keeping his forehead resting against Nai’s.
“Ah, well, that was a little different,” Nai says softly, face still open and relaxed, fully trusting even as he voiced his confusion.
Vash laughs softly, “That was a kiss, Nai. Surely you’ve seen one before?”
Nai’s nose wrinkles adorably, “You know I don’t exactly socialize, Vash. I might have seen one in those shows we used to watch but that was a long time ago.”
“Well,” Vash removes one of his hands from Nai’s face to rub the back of his neck awkwardly, somehow more flustered explaining this than from the action itself, “It’s a gesture of affection you know? You use it to feel close to someone you love. Though normally, a kiss on the lips is for, uh”, Vash voice drops as he trails off, “lovers? Not, uh, not usually brothers.”
Nai rolls his eyes, “Oh Vash, you know how little I care for humans and their labels. We’re just us, we’re everything we want to be.” He reaches out, scooping Vash up from where he is perched on the other side of their personal hot spring, and deposits him in his lap.
Vash jolts at the sudden movement, and flushes at the firm press of Nai’s legs on the underside of his thighs. Nai smirks at his expression, then places a hand on the back of his neck.
“You were the one who wanted to try kissing, I just made it a little easier on you.”
After having spoken, the hand on the back of his neck pulls, and Vash’s lips once again meet Nai’s. Despite Nai’s show of confidence, his lips are stiff and uncertain, not sure of what to do. Vash tilts his head slightly against Nai’s, allowing the kiss to deepen. He pushes closer, feeling his bare chest press against Nai’s. His mouth moves against Nai’s, the wet drag of his lips coaxing out a groan from Nai that Vash feels vibrating against his chest more than he hears it.
Panting, Vash leans back on Nai’s lap, dragging his gaze away from kiss swollen lips to meet eyes with the pupils blown wide. Together they breathe, water rippling around their bodies. Nai’s thumb rubs possessive circles on Vash’s lower back, while his other hand remains firmly anchored on his neck.
“I, ah, will admit that not everything the humans come up with is such a terrible idea,” Nai says, voice hoarse.
Vash laughs, bright and clear, and leans back down once again, pressing his smile up against Nai’s lips. The hand on his neck moves up to caress the back of his head as Nai surges up into the kiss. Vash lets his hands slip over Nai’s shoulders to run them along Nai’s back, feeling the muscles underneath his palms. Lips sliding sensually together, their bodies pressing ever closer together, as if striving to make it impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins. Until at last, Nai pulls back, causing Vash to emit a whine of protest he can’t quite hold back.
“Vash,” Nai turns his head, voice quiet, “Look.”
Vash turns to see the first of the two suns just beginning to sink below the horizon, and his heart sinks with it. Biting his newly sensitive bottom lip, he rises up out of the water. Silently, he offers Nai a hand, as he too moves to get out of the hot spring.
Together they dry off, and put their clothes back on. The air is heavy, that which is left unsaid rising once again to the surface.
Nai opens his mouth to break the silence, but Vash cuts him off before he can.
“Don’t. Just don’t.” Vash says, voice hard but a note of pleading within it. “This has been amazing, Nai, let’s not ruin it by speaking of things we know we can’t have.”
Nai visibly relents with a defeated sigh. He reaches out, pulling Vash close, arms wrapping around Vash so tightly as to be on the edge of painful.
“You know I love you, right?” he asks, voice low and serious in Vash’s ear.
“Of course I know, Nai, of course I do,” Vash replies, arms wrapping around Nai just as tightly. “I love you too.”
The cooling air reminds them of the impending deadline, and they reluctantly pull apart. All their belongings are collected, the picnic cleaned up.
As the day turns into night, Vash feels the lively air around this small outcropping of rocks in the middle of nowhere disappearing. Any trace of active life has been quickly and easily removed, as if it had never been there at all. Their belongings collected, and their footprints already being wiped away in the desert wind. Even the hard fought for hot spring is currently evaporating into the dry air, destined to be nothing but an unusual hole in the ground within a week.
Left for last, is their outerwear. As one, they approach what they had discarded at the beginning of this meeting. A jacket and a cloak are pulled on respectively, and with it comes the rest of the outside world.
Vash the Stampede turns to set out on his long walk back to the closest human town, back tense. He keeps his head facing forward as he walks, fists clenching. Behind him he knows, headed in the opposite direction, is Million Knives, always moving so far away, to where he is unable, unwilling, to follow.