And on to another:

This is a very rough work. Very rough. It's going to be probably the first
in a series of loosely connected vignettes about What Comes Afterwards,
depending on if I can get this piece to my liking.

Nothing like testing the waters like this.

I am seeking C&C with this big time. ^.^;

True, but who on the list doesn't?

He awoke to the familiar scent of cigarette smoke and dust, heavy in the
air; dust coming in off the dry plains from the open window, smoke from
whoever had a lit cigarette in the small room.

The bed, however, was unfamiliar. It smelled of booze, blood, and sweat,

Must have been one heck of a party.

with this bizarre after scent

'after scent'? Not sure what you mean there.

"Did you really think you'd convert me with mass murder?"

Knives: How about if I give you a calendar too? Would that convert you?

 was the soft

reply. It came from near the window; Knives turned his head toward the
source of the reply, eyes narrowing as he discerned the familiar shape.

Rem had survived, and come for revenge.

Slightly more lanky then himself; Knives' twin was his same height,

the same height

"Picking up Nicholas's bad habits, Vash?" It came out mockingly, Knives'
eyes glittering in the dim light.

I wondered about the smoking. Nice to see Knives mention it.

The imperfect mirror froze between them as they looked at one another, and
for one brief, mad moment, Knives wondered if Vash abhorred that imperfect
reflection as much as he did.

Vash: Can't say I ever even noticed.

And then it was over; Vash broke from his gaze, and tucked everything back
into place. Then, he turned his sights south on Knives' body. The blanket
was flipped back from the opposite direction, and Knives abruptly

stiffened

as the draft he felt left him with the realization that Vash had

apparently

not seen fit to leave him with a single stitch of clothing.

Ah ha. Yaoi fest. Noticed that trend in Trigun fics. :)

The grinding of Knives' teeth was sharply audible in the quiet of the
bedroom. Vash only smiled.

"You're healing well," Vash commented as he replaced the blanket. "You'll
be up and around in no time, I'm sure."

Knives: Up?

Vash: (hand roaming towards Knive's crotch0 Oh yes, hunky buns. Up.

[Insert cheesy porn music]

Knives looked at him for a long moment, the profile of his brother lit by
the lamp at his bedside. He studied the thin lines across his cheeks;
received in the battles with Midvalley and Legato, Knives was sure of it.

Among others.

"Do you want an honest answer?" Knives muttered darkly. "You've always

been

a fool, Vash."

"Says the man currently tied to my bed," Vash pointed out,

Heh. I was going to make a crack along those lines.

 >

A cool hand was on his brow, and quiet voice shushed him once, twice, even
as it's

its

"Now, hey. Don't you knock mom like that. I'm sure she was hitched. Some
how."

Somehow

"Don't tell me your dreams in a place like this!"

"Nick said that too. Did you teach that to him? Teach him not to dream?"
Vash's voice was soft and quiet and a steady drone despite it all. It
wouldn't leave, wouldn't go away, buzzing like locusts in Knives' ears.

"In

the end, he died for the dream."

"You killed him," Knives spat.

"You killed him," Vash returned, features still set in inhuman calmness,
the placid, imperfect mirror turning Knives' rage back at him as quiet
peace. "But we could go on and on, over that for years, Knives. Midvalley.
Legato. Zazie. Hopperd. Monev. Dominique.

Vash: Makki, the Florest. Devem, the Corpse. Beastialty Bob

Knives: Wrong fic, you putz.

Vash: Oops. Sorry.

{And there we have my gratuitous self-plug in C+C for the evening. ^_^)


 How many died?"

"Not enough."

Vash: Quit being vague.

"When will you learn?" Knives sighed softly. "They will destroy us."

"Knives, why was July destroyed?" Vash asked.

Knives: It had bright colors. I don't like bright colors.

Knives blinked at the question, his eyes searching Vash's face. But his
brother would not stay put to be glared at; he got up, to drag the chair
over from window, bringing to the bed.

"Tell me," Vash said as he situated his seat. "Why was July destroyed."

destroyed?

"The Angel Arm. I activated it," Knives said, his brows furrowing. What

was

Vash
trying to say now?

"And so, I became Vash the Stampede, destroyer

Destroyer (since it was his title)

of July," the other blonde

said.

"And you went away to heal, and I went on the run."

Knives nodded, brows still furrowed.

"And who made plants explode?"

Knives: Umm, Lagato?

Vash: Try again.

Knives frowned.

"And who sent Hopperd after me? Leading to the death of one of our
sisters?" Vash asked quietly.

Knives: Midvalley. Definitely Midvalley.

And Knives finally realized just what he was trying to say.

Knives: I'm not gay!

Vash: Ah, no, that's not what I'm trying to say.

Knives: Oh. My bad.

Vash quietly sighed, rubbing again at the bridge of his nose. Knives
struggled in his bonds, till exhaustion took him again and he lay still,
eyes closed.

"Where are you trying to go, Knives?" Vash asked after a moment, his tone
strangely serious. "Your 'Eden' is gone. You have nowhere to go. No where

Nowhere

"You are now," Vash insisted, and pressed on. "You murder your own kind,
slave or not, for your own purposes. You use people not like you to supply
you with power, control, whatever you need. You are a human, Knives, and
you made the Gung Ho Guns, and God only knows who else, into your Plants."

"I so

drop 'I'

 > And it came. It came in floods; Meryl's parentage, Millie's sexual

orientation,

Vash: So you think she was making cookies with Nicholas the night before his
final fight?

Knives: Don't bring logic into this.

Vash's own breeding, Wolfwood's kinks for big guns and little
boys.

Vash: Just like my own. It's why we got along so well.

Knives; Now you're starting to scare me.

"She's not Rem," Knives goaded.

Vash: I know, Rem was much more even tempered and had bigger tits.

"You have no idea what you're missing," Vash replied cheerily, his eyes
focusing off somewhere in the distance; perhaps even now imagining his
'partner in sin'. "'Fornication' is pretty fun, when you get right down to
it. Unless... You don't swing that way? Maybe guys are more your thing?"
Ignoring the outraged noise, Vash continued. "Maybe Legato? He did have
that, 'broody, intense whacko' thing going, I guess."

Which many fanfic writers have capitalized on. :)

And in the dim light of the lamp, Knives wondered just how the hell he'd
get out of this with his sanity intact.

"Sanity' being a relative term.

Nice work. Flowed well, and the dialogue was very good. I like how you
restrained from having Knives suddenly convert; as long as he's been
obsessed, he isn't going to change after a ten minute conversation. Nice to
see the depths of Vash's fraternal love for his brother. Interesting way you
continued to use the term 'plant' for Knives (which he technically is). All
in all, nice work. Glad I read it.

D.B. Sommer

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