"Ghost" Trigun x reader

And there was light

You ran a hand through your hair, looking up at the beautifully lit night sky. The streets were empty in this part of town, further away from the busy center where the saloon was situated. After a while, you finally reached your destination. Carefully crossing across sections of what remained of a ship from the space fairing days, you headed for the center of the site.

Climbing up metal stairs, a familiar glowing glass bulb awaited you. You watched your steps as you walked over cables and ducked under metal machinery.

'Heya, how you doing bestie' you softly asked putting a hand to the plant container.

This place at night was your refuge. Over the years you had taken the habit of spending most of your nights here. You barely needed sleep and so you'd spend time star gazing and talking to the town's plant.

You sat on the floor, back to the bulb, 'you won't believe what happened today.'

You gently spoke, staring far away at nothing in particular, as you retold the events that had transpired that day. It always soothed you, talking to the plant. Over time you had started to believe it could actually hear you, as it sometimes fluctuated in brightness during rants or at questions you asked out loud to no one. Tonight was definitely one of those nights that had you almost believing the plant was sentient; the occurrences and patterns of flickers at revelations of your tale left you in awe.

'I'm so glad I'm not the only one really excited!', you giggled melancholically closing your eyes. 'I know I shouldn't hope for anything, but I can't seem to let go...' you set the back of your head on the glass, 'He can see me, hear me...isn't that crazy?'

A moment passed before you shifted to look at the plant, feeling it flicker. 'I'm not saying you're bad company or anything, it's just that sometimes it feels like I'm the only one carrying the conversation, ya know?' you joked with a smile.

The plant flickered once more, as if offended. You couldn't resist laughing while apologizing.

'If he can still see me tomorrow, I'll bring him over so you can meet him, yeah? Will you forgive me then?'

The plant flickered once more, making your smile bigger.

***

The next morning arrived faster than you had anticipated. It was well past dawn when you awoke. Loosing no time, fuelled by anticipation, you rushed to the center of town that was already full of people.

You stopped on the porch of the saloon, catching your breath and gathering your courage. Was he in there? Should you have given him a time and location? Even if he was there, were you mentally ready to face the blow if last night had been nothing but a freak accident and you'd be back to being entirely invisible to the whole world once more? Should you turn around and avoid the risk of that realization making you lose grasp on what left of sanity you had preserved?

Clenching your fists by your side to stop your hands from shaking, you tried grounding yourself the best you could. You wouldn't be able to live not knowing. If the pain of being a ghost to everyone again would probably make you go crazy, having to live with the 'what ifs' of today would definitely make you cross that line.

With fake confident strides you walked in the saloon, phasing through the swinging doors this time instead of avoiding them. Any other day, that nausea and uneasiness that came with phasing through objects would be an annoyance you'd avoid at all cost, but today the feeling was more than welcome. It helped keeping your mind fuzzy and kept it from overthinking until it would make you chicken out of what you where here for in the first place.

The place was filled with its usual costumers for this time of the day, the rest of the usuals only appearing after sundown. Your eyes darted around the familiar location until they finally found the obvious red coat you were hoping to see.

With weak knees, you managed to walk over to the blond man sitting at a table further in the room. He seemed focused on finishing his breakfast as he didn't seem to notice you standing not far, or at least you prayed that was why he wasn't looking up at you yet.

Gripping the wrist of your left hand to control the shakes that were making their way up your arms, you gently spoke:

'Vash?'

Blue eyes soon met yours as the blond criminal's face lit up as he looked up from his plate. 'Oh, hi! Seems I do have the pleasure to meet you again!' he greeted with a large smile and a hand wave.

You exhaled the breath you hadn't realized you were holding, relief washing over you. Vash was still here and he could still see you!

'Heya there,' you managed to answer, still bathing in the comfort of being perceived, 'how's my favorite criminal doing?'