Someone else

3

He got to know the place a little better in the next few days. It was an orphanage in a small town. It was managed by a woman named Melanie who was called Granny by the residents of the place.

The boy with black hair, that one who had asked him about his arm, was called Nico. Because of his special smile, Vash payed more attention to him, feeling that he has to see it again. Not that there was anything wrong with the way people normally smiled or that he didn't like them, but they didn't have that sincerity what that child was glowing, seemingly effortlessly.

Vash observed how he cared for the smaller ones, comforted and encouraged those who were having a hard time and spent time trying, maybe even without his own knowledge about it, to make a better tomorrow. He was everything Vash longed to be like but what he could never become.

They were similar in their being but still so fundamentally different. One was more than hundred years old Plant who by chance and misunderstanding had also become a wanted criminal and the other only a small, maybe six years old human who had done nothing to deserve these living conditions. 

"How long has he been here?" had Vash asked on one evening when he had watched with Melanie how children chased a ball through the dirt. Melanie didn't have to look to know who he was talking about. Woman had already noticed some time ago how there was some kind of unexplainable connection between Nico and Vash.

"From the start. He was here even before he learned how to talk."

That explained a little why he was like that. It was easy to be happy when you didn't know what you were missing.

Nico didn't only look after other children. He noticed how Vash was sitting all alone and went to talk with him.

"How are you feeling now? Better than before?"

Vash nodded, his condition had definitely improved, but it didn't mean that he had become more talkative. They were siting like that in silence, side by side, for some time until Nico suddenly asked "How were your parents?"

"I didn't have such parents as you may think of them. I only had a mother who raised me and my twin brother. She had a good, brave heart and she taught me to cherish all living."

"What happened to her?"

"She sacrificed herself to save others. There was an explosion and she could have survived if she had come with us but she decided not to and spent her last moments, trying to fix what had gone wrong."

"She truly sounds like a good person. Lucky you, you at least remember her, I know nothing about my parents."

"I heard about it. I'm sorry."

"you don't have to be," couldn't Nico understand what Vash was apologizing for "It's not your fault at all that I was left here."

That was the issue. Vash had no idea if it had been his actions or not what resulted in Nico being here in this place. He had blown up an entire city and the fact that he couldn't remember anything about it, didn't matter at all. Maybe Nico's parents had lived there and couldn't even think about raising a child without a home, because he would have died?

He had no idea and that uncertainty caused him to feel hellish agony.

Without him noticing or even controlling it, tears started to roll from his eyes. It made Nico feel nervous and worried. He couldn't understand what he had said so wrong that it had made Vash cry.

"Hey, don't cry," he wiped those tears away with his dirty shirt sleeve, smearing some dirt unintentionally on Vash's face "I'm younger than you but I don't cry at all."