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Nicholas wakes. It's early morning, the parent sun only just rising and shining into the window of his and Meryl and Vash's room in the orphanage. Meryl's tucked into the crook of Nicholas's arm, her own slung across his chest. Nicholas looks around, but he knows Vash has already gotten up for the morning to do his early morning routine. Nicholas is mostly checking to see if Vash has come back in yet, or if he’ll be back in soon.
It's only been a couple of years since everything went down, and Nicholas is still afraid of waking up to find Vash gone, left behind because Nicholas physically couldn't keep up any longer or his tactics would literally kill him. Home's Plants could only synthesize a partial cure for the Eye's serum; Nicholas just had too much of his body worn out by the experiments and the serum for even the one collection of Plants that weren't overworked and worn out to fully fix.
He still wakes in the night to make sure Vash is still here in a panic, though the number of nights a month Nicholas spends in an insomniac haze of worry have abated.
Meryl yawns when Nicholas moves. She squeezes a little bit and drops back into full sleep, murmuring softly.
Nicholas needs to get up; the Orphanage won't feed itself and there are jobs around the property that will need doing. He hesitates. Meryl's asleep, having finally gotten home late last night from her work trip. Nicholas doesn't want to wake her. and he's sure attempting to get out of bed will do just that.
The bedroom door clicks open. Nicolas tenses.
“Oh! You're awake.” It's just Vash, hair down and damp, shirtless but for sleep pants and a towel round his shoulders. “Good morning.”
“Morning,” Nicholas replies. A year and a half of seeing it, and Nicholas still has a pang of guilt over the color of Vash's hair. “It's not that late, is it?” If it is that late, Nicholas will unfortunately have to scoot out from under Meryl and probably wake her in the process.
Vash hums and pads around the bed to sit on Nicholas's other side. “The parent sun only just rose. We have a little bit longer.” He presses a kiss to Nicholas's cheekbone and brushes Meryl's bangs out of her face to repeat the action. “What woke you?”
Nicholas gestures at the open window. “Didn't shutter the window last night after we got Shortie home.” She'd radioed in late, giving them her ETA, and Nicholas and Vash waited for her at the new steamer terminal on the other side of Hopeland to bring her back to the Orphanage.
Vash smiles at Nicholas, cupping his cheek and rubbing his thumb across the cheekbone. “I won't leave you like that again,” he says. “I wish I hadn't had to in the first place.” Nicholas hates that Vash has always seemed to be able to read his mind, especially in the worst moments, but he's gotten better at it.
Nicholas swallows past a lump in his throat and puts his hand on Vash's shoulder. “Just. Shut up and get in bed for a little bit, idiot.” Vash smiles. He purrs a little as he drops the towel on the floor by the bed and slides in beside Nicholas. His arm reaches across Nicholas so he can grasp at Meryl, holding her as well.
Nicholas is sure he can sleep to Vash's purrs rattling their way across Nicholas's chest. He can't, not right now anyway, but he's been lulled into sleep from it before. He's in a dangerous spot right now, trapped between and under Meryl and Vash, Meryl asleep and Vash fresh from his morning shower.
Not trapped, no.
Nicholas redirects the thought.
Held under them, soft and pliant and comfortable in the early morning light.
“Need to get up soon, Spikey,” Nicholas says. He nuzzles into Vash's hair as though he doesn't need to get up. “Kids to be fed.”
“Getting up will wake Meryl,” Vash points out. His words are light and airy but Nicholas can read the smug underneath.
“Not if you help me.”
Vash just smiles and presses his nose against Nicholas's cheek. Rude.
“C'mon. Our kids've gotta be fed.” Nicholas's words take a little of the smug wind out of Vash's sails.
“Alright.” Vash pulls back, stands up, and moves around to the other side of the bed, where Meryl currently is still tucked up against Nicholas. He runs his hand down her side, light and gentle, and Meryl tries to curl up further into Nicholas.
She's fucking cute, and Nicholas feels bad that they might wake her up because he needs to get up.
“Meryl, I need you to let Nico go,” Vash says. He's got his nose just above her cheek, speaking quietly into her ear.
Meryl grumbles, and she slowly unlatches from Nicholas's side. She's still not a hundred percent there, but Nicholas is able to slide out from her grip, replacing himself with Vash's pillow. At Vash's offended look, Nicholas grins. Meryl immediately buries her face in the pillow and is softly snoring once more. She must've been very tired when she got back in.
”You can stay here with her, or join me downstairs,” Nicholas says. “I've gotta feed a small army of kids.”
Vash kisses Nicholas's cheek. “I'll stay here a moment longer, get dressed.” Taking Nicholas's hand in his, Vash presses a kiss to Nicholas's palm. “Go feed our kids.”
Our kids.
Christ, Vash is going to kill Nicholas.
Blushing, Nicholas tugs his hand from Vash's and turns around to escape the bedroom.
Vash's light laughter follows him down the hall.