Tempest Wind (Vash x F!Reader)

Lover's Face

You sit on the slanted rooftop, your feet dangling over the edge. Vash's large red coat wrapped around you, your hand grabbing both sides and pulling it closer together in your front. Your heart is heavy, with guilt and shame tugging on it like a ball and chain.

"You do deserve kindness," Vash's voice says. "You deserve to live and be seen. While I don't know why you keep beating yourself up, I know you aren't a bad person. I think you are too hard on yourself. Maybe one day you'll tell me what truly burdens you. And when that day comes, know I will not judge you."

Your head is quiet, but a boulder has settled in where your guts and heart used to be. He doesn't know you, so why does he blindly believe that you are worthy of his kind words? How can he believe that he won't judge you? Your fingers reach the Project Seeds emblem on the chest of the coat, and you feel the whole jacket weighing on you. That's until you feel a gentle hand on your back, softly rubbing circles into it.

You feel a gaze on you; it makes you feel strange and uneasy. It burrows through the coat and into your skin. It is dissecting you, taking you apart like scalpels. You look over to Vash, but his eyes are pointed up, a gentle smile dancing on his lips as he admires the performance of the worms in the sky, the way they paint the night in green hues. This is not what you're sensing; his gentle touch is proof of it.

"What makes you so special?" A new voice speaks up; it doesn't come from Vash; it originates from somewhere behind you. Is it the man you were hiding from? You remember the two of you running over the rooftops and stirring the sleep of some locals. One turned on his light and came to the balcony to cuss you out, but Vash had pulled you behind a windmill and hidden. This voice is too cold and calm to belong to that angry man.

In your head, you know you want to turn around; you want to see who it is, but your body is content the way it is; that's familiar to it, sitting on the slanted metal with Vash's hand on your back. You know the view in front of you, but the rest is somewhat hazy.

"How did you ensnare my brother?" The same voice speaks again, but this time there's anger in it. What is it talking about?

The touch on your back awakens something more. Pain. There was stabbing pain in your back, between your shoulder blades, yet Vash's hand was still gentle. This isn't right. You rip yourself from the comfort of the situation and turn around to see a muscular figure standing a few steps away from you.

"Who are you?" Your voice has an edge to it, trying to cut him like a blade. The question itself is useless. It takes a single look to reveal the answer. It is Vash's face staring back at you, but the expression is so filled with malice that it could never be him. The paleness of his features and the choice of skintight white garments with Plant markings covering it leave no space for doubt, and you answer instead of him, "Millions Knives."

The stabbing in your back intensifies as if more blades impale you, but the pain only makes your mind clearer. This is a memory. How are you stuck in a memory?

"You won't dodge me that easily... What is going on?" The fire in you sets ablaze as you stand up and shift yourself between Vash and his brother.

"Doctor, could you reassess the memory manipulation process? She shouldn't be able to resist me. If she can, then he will also be able to." The twin speaks more calmly, still looking straight at you, but the words aren't directed at you.

"Explain!" you growl, taking a step forward, and the world flickers. Instead of the dark night and rooftop scenery, you're in a lab. Your mind is clear, and you see strings of blades like tentacles coming off the man before you, and they run somewhere behind you. As the scene flicks back to your memory, the blades are gone.