Mild Trigun Oneshots

A Cry for Help (Vash & GN!Reader)

Plot: Fate keeps crossing Vash's path with yours and every time you seem worse off, sad and lost. Vash sees his own pain mirrored in your empty expression and offers you a listening ear, while he reflects on his inner turmoil.

Tags: no use of "y/n", platonic, strangers, mental health, depression, anxiety, trauma, opening up, recognizing your pain in others

***

It's you again. Vash is surprised to see your familiar face at the bar again. How many times has it happened over the course of the last few months? Certainly enough times to look suspicious. Are you following him? From what he has gathered, you are a bounty hunter, but you have yet to make a move on him. Vash doesn't know much about you, not even your name, yet you catch his eye, and he notices you. He observes the dark shadows under your eyes, the tiredness in them, and the dull expression deepening each time he sees you. It's almost like you aren't there at all.

Vash takes a step forward to approach you, finally deciding to seek some answers, but a few drunk patrons stumble into him just as you stand up without a single glance at him and walk off in the opposite direction. Vash sighs deeply as he looks back at you, disappearing into the crowd, his hands busy with helping the drunks find their footing again. He wonders when he will see you again and if the resignation on your face has grown deeper by that time. He knows what it means to be plagued by demons and to feel a weight on your shoulders that never seems to lift. So it hurts to see a familiar reflection of his feelings on the faces of others.

He settles in by the bar, asking for a place to stay the night and ordering himself a beer to start off his evening. The first glass turns into many as time goes on, and he finds himself giving people a well practiced smile while talking to them about the mundane. Yet his mind drifts back to you. Why does he keep running into you? He can't stop thinking about the way you looked. You must have been lost somewhere deep in your thoughts, the expression on your face so unrestrained and raw. Before, you were always on guard, the lines of your face schooled into neutrality despite the numerous hints at it being a carefully crafted mask. Vash knows it all too well, so it remains buzzing in his head.

You fill his thoughts to the point that the merriment around him fades into the background, leaving only you in his mind. Or perhaps he is thinking of himself? The growing empty void inside that swallows everything whole and feels so heavy—he knows it. He feels it. The doom in his head, the worries and insecurities that consume him from within—they get so hard to bear at times. Could it be fate that crosses your paths? He can't take all these whirling thoughts mixed with shouts and songs and the smell of cigarettes and strong liqueur any longer. Vash rises from his stool and walks into the fresh night air.

As Vash takes deep breaths to steady his racing mind, he walks further away from the saloon. The cobblestone street is only barely lit by a few lanterns and the silvery moonlight. It's quiet and peaceful, a stark contrast to the chaos in his head. He finds himself drawn to the edge of town, where the darkness seems to swallow up everything around him. The tall walls on either side of the narrow alley block off even the moons. As he looks up to see the sliver of twinkling stars above, he notices the toes of a pair of boots on the edge of the roof tiles. Someone is there.

He knows just how dangerous it can be for him to let his curiosity get the better of him, but it feels as if an invisible hand is beckoning him closer. Vash walks around the houses until he finds the route most likely to lead him up onto the rooftops, and he decides to follow it. He has to hop over a small gap between buildings to get to the slanted surface where a figure lays, looking up to admire the constellations painted on the dark canopy of the night sky. The loud thud of his step is what wakes you from your daze, and you sit up to look over your shoulder.