Tempest Wind (Vash x F!Reader)

Night Watch

You had managed to convince Vash to take back his bed and go to sleep for the night. He was very reluctant, first voicing concern over your condition and then saying that you would sneak away in the night. To be fair, that was your initial plan, but somehow, after only meeting you earlier that day, he managed to see right through you. Vash had masterfully played on your heartstrings, drowning you neck deep in guilt as soon as you even thought about abandoning this strange figure who is now sleeping in his bed, snoring ever so lightly.

Even as he settled in to actually sleep, he threw you a slightly mistrustful glance, and you thought he was still under the impression that you would leave, but instead he said, "Hey, you aren't coming to eat my brain in the night. Are you?" His eyes slightly narrowing as you look at him with confusion, not sure you heard him right.

"What?" The shock in your expression seemed to put him at ease, and he didn't elaborate and instead just snuggled deeper into his coat and blanket.

"Goodnight!" he said, his voice slightly muffled and his expression now cheerful again, leaving you in a state of slight unease.

You sit on one of the jagged stones, watching over the desert. Trying to occupy your mind with keeping watch, looking over the empty sand, you don't see signs of other travelers—no car headlamps, no flashlights, and luckily, no bioluminescence of giant worms either. You try spotting the smaller worms fluttering around, and when that isn't enough, you resort to counting stars. It's all of no use; the sounds and voices are back and getting louder. You hadn't even noticed at the time that when you spoke to the man called Vash, the noise in your brain had gone quiet—too distracted by his words and voice, too many details to notice about him. Now, however, your thoughts are running rampant again.

Some of the fragmented memories of your time on this planet come back to you; some get pieced together, some have details missing, and shards of other memories pop up. But the sounds in your head don't belong to those memories; there is something different about it; it's not a side effect of having laid "dead" for close to a century; not even the memories reappearing are to blame. There is something amiss in those sounds; you can almost grab them and have a look, but they're just out of reach. The returning images of your past tell you it's not the first time either; you had struggled with them before, and they were part of the reason you had tried to find peace in the eternal darkness.

It's not just the buzzing anymore; it is pushed to the back of your head, the long, monotone notes partially transformed into voices, but you can't make out the words. The mismatched noise makes it difficult to focus back on your past time of counting stars or keeping watch.

"Just shut up, go away," you whisper with both exhaustion and anger while putting your head between your knees. You are unaware that Vash has opened his eyes and is now looking at you. He doesn't know what to make of this or what he should do. He had given you the opportunity to talk to him, and while you did tell him unexpected things, he knew that it was just the tip of the iceberg.

You don't seem to have ill intent towards others; nothing has made him think that, but he is afraid of what you might do to yourself, with your past actions still ringing in his ears. He feels drawn to your pain; it is something a little similar to what he has felt in the past. A sense of longing, a wish to belong. Having something else push you to keep going, even if you have no choice in the matter. He had found his conviction, his purpose, his path in life, and he wishes to show you that you have it too.

He feels strange—his chest, his guts—there is something about you, and seeing you clearly in some form of pain makes his innards twist, unsure even why. You are the strangest of strangers.

He hears a deep sigh from your mouth. You lift your head up, leaning it back as far as it goes. He can hear the deep breaths that you take, unaware of the turmoil going on in your head. You try pushing the voices down by distracting yourself again. This time by picturing Vash in your mind's eye as accurately as you can. You had spent the whole evening looking at his clothes, especially the coat. You had seen the Project Seeds emblems on it. What did that mean? Where did he get something like that? You continue with envisioning the prosthetic arm and the light blue glow of it. It was old tech; even you remember that. Something like that arm was rare even during your last roam around. Who is that man? And why does he make you feel safe? You don't trust people; you have no reason to, so why him?