"Do you have any idea how old I am? I don't think you really know what you're saying," he said with a nervous laugh. "I'm not even human."
"I do know what I am saying and I don't care about any of that. I don't care what you are."
He sighed heavily and kept his eyes pointed away from her. "Don't say that. You do, too... you will. You'll die and...I won't."
"Don't you think I know that?" She asked in a voice barely above a whisper. "Don't you think I've thought of that a million times already?"
He still refused to look at her. His eyes focused on his freshly bandaged hand instead. He clenched and unclenched his fist, testing the dressing. "Why then? I don't understand."
To his surprise, she laughed. A joyful sound full of mirth and amusement filled his ears. He looked at her questionably, feeling a little shocked and bothered by her strange reaction.
She caught his eyes and smiled, "Am I to understand that you want me to tell you why I love you?"
He paused for a moment, taken aback by her quiston. Certainly, he claimed himself to be the mayfly of love, but the fact was his experience with romantic love was nil at best. It wasn't that he was not interested in woman or not interested in having a close, loving, romantic relationship with a woman... it was just not something he ever seriously considered. He'd always rationalized that it was not something he meant to experience. There were too many reasons not to pursue it, too many consequences. Besides, who in their right mind would love him like that?
"Well?"
Vash pursed his lips together and tried to maintain his best poker face as he nodded mutely, almost childlike. He felt bewildered and foolish for even wanting to know why and yet, he waited to hear her answer, his eyes mesmerized by the expression on her face and the shine of her violet eyes.
"You act as though you've never heard those words before."
Vash gritted his teeth and made a face, "I...haven't. Not like that...not in that way."
"You surprise me, Vash," she said simply as her eyes filled with warmth. "Regardless of what you are, or what you think you are... or the crimes you think you've committed and the guilt you carry around...you do realize you deserve to find and be loved, don't you?
He opened his mouth to speak but she interupted him.
"You distance yourself from everyone around you. You still don't call me by my given name. You never talk about yourself and you've never mentioned your past unless you had to. You would probably die if it meant saving just one person and you have scars to prove it. You walk around with a burden of guilt on your shoulders that would crush most people and yet you act so shocked to hear that someone loves you. What makes you think you don't deserve love?"
"No. I don't think that."
"You must."
"That's not it at all."
"Well, that's not how it looks from where I stand."
He stood suddenly and approached her, crossing the room in a matter of seconds only to stand within a few inches away, his height towering over her. He concentrated for a second, causing a sudden flare of feathers to burst from his arm and float soundlessly to the floor. The woman took a startled step back from him as her eyes searched his face uncertainly.
"Look at me and now and tell me what you said before," he gazed down at her intently. "You're afraid of me."
"I... I know what you are."
"Do you?" He asked, an unspoken challenge in his voice.
She glared at him defiantly, "Yes, damn it! You're a plant! You're not human, but you have a heart better than most humans!"
