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The world can seem so hollow when you're making your way through the seas of sand that make it up. It’s made things so much more difficult and annoying making it easy to wonder what kind of cruel God would serve mankind such a fate.
It was easy to point to examples of such punishments throughout the text, at least what remained of it, but even this felt over the top. Stranding a whole race of people on such a desolate destructive environment felt more like a means of insolation than the actions of a benevolent caring god. Such an uncaring entity left to watch over the most devout and the nonbelievers, it made everything certainly seem hollow by comparison. Because should such a force ever truly care about each and every person left behind, or did they just watch on smiling with glee as their creations suffered by the various means they’d left behind?
These were the questions at a moment like this as Vash, Meryl, Nicolas, and Roberto were currently struggling with the engine on a, thankfully, cool night.
With no signs of life for miles there’s an unease that sets in as it dawns on them that if they don’t get this fixed up now then tomorrow morning would quickly become hell. The currently off cold air quickly boiling over into the usual crisp burning air they all were used to. Leading to coy offers from both Vash and Wolfwood to try and help them out in repairs, but only to be met with rebuff from both of the reporters. A vague explanation being given about how it was their car and thereby their responsibility to fix.
This left the two men with nothing obvious to do. They’d briefly discussed walking in opposite directions to try and find a settlement to get some help, but holes were poked through those ideas rather quickly. The night could be just as dangerous as the day, after all. To split up now, no matter how good the idea, could easily lead to one or both of them getting lost or killed. Leaving it so that even if they were able to get help there was no guarantee they would be able to reliably make their way back.
So after enough time standing around letting their eyes drift from place to place awkwardly they made their way onto their backs. Sand making its way into every crack and crevice it could, though it already had a home in many of the spots it was able to find. With the only feeble attempt they were making to keep some distance from it being putting their hands behind their heads.
Instead of letting themselves focus on the grinding of the tiny ground up rocks beneath them they let themselves slip into ideal chatter.
It was few and far between, but strangely meaningful in the grand scheme of what they were used to talking about. Starting out about the stars and the clouds up above, before morphing into something more– personal.
“You got any stories to tell, needle-noggin?” Wolfwood half heartedly asks, releasing an annoyed sigh laced with nicotine and sand particles. Briefly glancing over at the man laid out at his side before his eyes go back up. Forcing himself to focus on the twinkling stars and the comforting cold they can provide compared to the harsh heat that you just had to get used to in this world.
“Stories? What kind of stories do you mean?” He coyly replies, knowing he had a good few but also that if he picked the wrong one it could be greatly off putting.
“Just— stories I guess? Tales about your life and all that. You’ve been around for a bit, right? I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of messed up shit and could tell a thing or two about it.” He shrugs back, getting more and more curious with each passing minute about what all this seemingly immortal man had witnessed.
“Stories still feels a little general, is there anything in particular you were thinking of?” He meekly tries again, once more considering the plethora he had to offer. However, there were was only so far those could take him if he didn’t know the tone his companion was looking for. They were enjoying each other’s company, after all, and to disturb that would be a horrible thing.
With a low grumble Wolfwood lets himself really look into the void above. “Okay, you’ve seen the sky for awhile, yeah?”
“I have,” He raises an eyebrow at that question. It feels specific enough, but still strange all things considered, though he could begin to see where this was going now. “What about it were you thinking?”
“What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen happen in it?”
Again, there had been ideas floating around in his head, but now that push came to shove he was finding it hard to really pin down a weird one. Eventually though, he decides on, “Strangest, I think it’s hard to define strangeness when it comes to the sky. There’s just always so much going on up there,” He moves his metallic arm up towards the nebulae black above. Reaching out as though he could find the answers he was looking for swimming within it’s curious insides. “I’ve seen it bloom.”
“Bloom?”
“Yeah, bloom. Like when it changes to a bunch of different colors.”
“It always does that, Needle-Noggin! I was thinking more–”
“Sure it changes at dusk and dawn, but what I meant was at the dead of night. When all that’s up there are the stars, clouds, dust and you start wondering if there’s anything but blacks and blues up there. Sometimes, ever few years, it’ll just go boom up there,” His other hand goes up now, letting the sand get all stuck in his already messy hair, as they form a little ball together before moving outward with the boom. It easily conveyed what Vash was trying to get across, but simultaneously it made Wolfwod chuckle with the silliness of it. “And it just burst into all these colors. Ebbing and flowing with the blues and blacks to make this really pretty cascade up there.”
“Alright, alright, I believe you. Still, if it happens every few years why haven’t I seen it?”
“Eh, I guess when I said years I meant decades.” He lets out a nervous laugh, has hands falling back down as he does, “It’s hard to pin down when it’s gonna happen next really. I’ve only seen it a handful of times in my time, but everytime I do I can’t help but take a moment to appreciate it.”
He gets an eye roll for that explanation, but Wolfwood gives him no verbal indication of such. Instead he lets himself begin to wonder if he’ll ge the chance to see a sigh like that. With all the trouble he lets himself get into doubtful at best. Still though, it would be nice.
“What about you?” Vash eagerly chirps after enough time passes. His nerves beginning to eat away at his stomach as he wonders if he’d accidentally killed the mood, and after all the effort he’d put into not doing that as well!
“Me? I haven’t seen anything as big as that before.”
“Well it doesn’t need to be equal size, just what you think is the prettiest thing you’ve seen.”
Vash’s voice rings with a sort of optimizing that wasn’t lost on Wolfwood’s ears. It makes his chest squeeze with a startling amount of embarrassment. As he tries to figure out what beautiful things he might have seen in his time on this harsh planet.
“I guess, I saw some flower blooming once.”
A beat follows as Wolfwood waits to be criticized about his choice. It doesn’t immediately strike someone as being related to the sky, after all. However, as Vash patiently waits for the rest of the tale he realizes he has to give the rest of it up now.
“It was starting to get dark out, and the wind was really hard that day blowing. The sky was painted all reds, pinks, and oranges. With the wind blowing it was kicking up a bunch of dust, but what you could kinda call trees had started to sprout flowers a little while before. And I guess it just looked– it just looked real nice.”
He knew he wasn’t very good at talking about things like this, he was barely good at talking at all, but as he kept shooting glance down at Vash all he could see from the guy was a thoughtful grin.
“That is pretty, maybe you could show it to me sometime? I mean, if you remember where that was of course.”
“A city,” Wolfwood quickly responds, “it was a really populated area since it had all those plants. I was kinda in a haze at the time though, Needle-Noggin, so it’ll take some time to remember where it was.”
Vash lets out a small hum as a response. At least, before properly saying, “That’s fine, we can just put a pin in it for some other time.”
“I’ll take you there though.” He can’t help but blurt out.
Vash cocks an eyebrow at how fast he assures him of that, following that statement by propping himself up on his elbows and looking over his shoulder. “You don’t actually have to, Wolfwood. We probably would end up there where we’re going and all.”
“I know, but that won’t stop me from doing so, someday.” His voice wavers slightly, but there’s enough confidence in it to tell Vash that he’s dead serious.
“You’re gonna show me the sunset someday, with flowers all over the dusk sky?” Vash decides to specify, his own voice shifting around due to the sudden wave of curiosity that grips him.
“Yeah, I guess I am. Funny how that works, huh Needle-Noggin?”
Following Vash’s lead he also props himself up on his elbows. Both of their eyes meeting as that silent line of seeming intimacy forms between them. The implications of Wolfwood’s words being enough to carry them forward into the night, and most likely for the rest of the week.
Because there was clearly something there, but it just wasn’t the right place nor the right time. Especially as Meryl comes striding over with a chipper, “We got it working again!” Both ignoring any indicators the current positions they found themselves in may have shown, but also smothering out any further words they could have been thinking about saying.
They both blink back into the desert, the soft falling of sand particles cutting their cheeks as the begin to stand up again, before following Meryl back to the truck.
As they walk along, however, their bodies bump back and forth slightly. It slowed their pace down significantly, and caused Meryl to shoot them confused looks as they did, but it didn’t matter really. What mattered was that they were reminding each other that moment was still real.
That promise was still left lingering out there in the dust, and it wasn’t going to go away any time soon.