Tempest Wind (Vash x F!Reader)

Time Catches Up

Vash closes the door to your little room behind him, and he turns to face you again. Your head lifts slowly with the hood, and he sees your face, covered in dark and crusty blood, with the exception of where your tears have been streaming down your cheeks. Your eyes are bloodshot and puffy. He can hear your ragged breathing through your slightly open mouth now, better than before, as you look at him.

"Iris..." He knows you are falling apart, and there are no words he could speak to change that, so he simply walks up to you and pulls you into a tight hug. He feels the shaking in your body intensify as whimpering cries escape your lungs. Your fingers are grabbing onto his jacket.

"I-I-I can't... I can't do this..." you stutter out as your face hides into his chest. "All this... I can't—I can't—I can't."

The wailing out of your mouth gets louder and longer.

"I know. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to be afraid. I am here." Vash's voice is calm and quiet as his hands rub your back. "You're safe. I'll protect you. You can let it all out."

"I'm a freak!" you cry out. "A half-breed abomination!"

"That's not true, love." His voice is still calming, and he places a kiss on top of your hood.

"Why was I so hellbent on finding out the truth? Why do I have to remember all this pain?!" The long cries distort your words, and your lungs spasm with every breath. "Why didn't I just die in the beginning like the rest of them?!"

"Cause you were meant for more." His arms tighten around you further as you keep crying, your voice of desperation so loud it even reaches the street. "Why don't we get you cleaned up? I'm sure you'll feel a bit better."

"I don't deserve this! I can't do this!" You still hold on tight to his jacket. "Living is so hard! Knowing and living... How dare they? How could anyone toy with human life in such a manner?! What gives them the right?!"

Vash feels your whole body trembling against his, bigger jolts moving through as your breath gets stuck in your lungs. Your heart races as the rest of your chest is being contracted like something heavy just sat on your lungs. Everything hurts; your hands and feet feel cold and numb. You can't stop your shaking; you can't put a stop to the tears or the crying. You want this to stop. You don't want to feel this way. You had held on for so long and denied yourself the possibility of feeling everything related to uncovering your past. You had just accepted everything presented to you—all the emotions going into beating yourself up, all the sadness felt going into thinking that what you and Vash have is a lie. And when it came to what happened on the ship, you had no more tears to shed, no more emotions to be felt. It was what it was; accepting everything as a fact seemed like the easiest thing to do, but now it came in like tidewater.

"It hurts. Everything hurts," you cry, a shadowy hand squeezing your heart.

"I know. Just keep breathing." Vash holds you so tight against him; you feel his breaths, and you try to sync yours to his. Your body feels strange—a mix of human and corpse. You know you don't need air; your system will regenerate any damage done due to oxygen deficiency, but it is a reaction of your body—the panic cutting off your airways, the calm intake and output helping the human part of yourself settle down. But it is not that simple. The cries still escape your throat, long and loud wails of sorrow only muffled by Vash's chest.

It hurts him to see you like this—the pain you must feel. He just holds you, sure you don't want to move, your limbs frozen in place. He feels his shirt wet from the tears that you shed. He wishes he could just take the pain away, but he admits that you probably need to feel all of them, make sense of it all, and only then can you move on.