The Typhoon ~Vash x OC AU~

Chapter 9: Never Let Go

Leilani

Everything is so different here on Ship 3. Oh, so very different.

The architecture – if you would even really call it that – is so sleek and shiny. The entire place is constructed of shimmering metal with long corridors lined with fluorescent lights. They silently cast piercing glows as the soles of my shoes tap at the ground.

I had been growing restless, my legs itching with the longing to move. To walk. To go. To do anything but lay or sit in that bed any longer. I just couldn't.

So, when Luida gave me the clear, I knew I needed to go.

I don't know where I am, per se. Ship 3's vast network of halls and rooms are all unknown to me, but I walk them, weaving through them like a cell in one's bloodstream. Greywynn is fast asleep in the stroller Luida had gifted me, her long lashes sweeping along her round cheeks. I smile at her.

Vash and I sure do know how to make cute babies.

That thought strikes me for a moment. Greywynn hadn't been planned – or wanted on my part at first – but she's here, and she's surrounded by love. So much love. The love of the Stampede – Nicholas included. The love of Luida and Brad – the things they're doing for us surpassing that of hospitable hosts. The love of her father who I believe so desperately wanted her. And my love.

Though my love had been a slow fire to kindle, it burns a white-hot blue for her. I would do anything for her. Protect her, sacrifice for her, anything. If I had to kill a man to protect her, best believe I would. Or die trying.

I never realized how empty my heart was before her. How vacant and lonely it had been. No one resided within it but me, and though I love Vash, that is different. The love I have for him burns a passionate red with breathing embers. It is sexual but also something deeper. Something meaningful. But it is not the dangerous love of a mother willing to kill for her child.

Children.

Would we ever have more children? Vash and me, I mean. Would we even consider it? Looking at Greywynn, I don't know if I would have enough room in my heart for more. I'm already bursting with too much love as it is. If we had more, I don't think I could comprehend a love like that. Let alone breathe with all the worry. Being a parent has taught me that I am far more anxious than I ever thought.

With me, I never cared about what crossed my path. Danger? Didn't care. Rough patches? Didn't care. Even facing Neon and his rowdy gang is dull. But to imagine her going through any of that... It makes my stomach heave and my head swim.

But it is all quickly replaced by a surge of anger. If anyone dared to even try to harm a single hair on her head I would skin them.

She shifts in her sleep as we round a bend, and I can't help but smile. She's safe. She's safe and healthy and loved. That's all that matters.

I continue through Ship 3, unaware of where I'm going when I come to a grand atrium. It is massive, the ceiling as high up as forty feet – maybe more – with two sets of wide, winding staircases that lead up to another three floors, and a single straight staircase that is wider, but goes just as high in between them. Tables and chairs are scattered in their groupings, inviting people to sit, though they are empty.

However, what steals the breath from my lungs is the floor-to-ceiling windows that stretch the entire length of the front wall, allowing a burst of brilliant vermillion streams to pool on the ground as thin, wispy streaks of clouds brush by.

We are up high. High enough to be one with the sparse clouds that pepper No Man's Land, but nowhere near high enough to touch the stars. Still, as I try to look down, the towns and cities that are speckled on No Man Land's surface are nothing but little clusters.