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Wolfwood is going to yell at Vash.
Trouble seems to follow him everywhere this week, whether it's someone recognizing him, or he sticks his nose into other people's problems. This time, it's the former, when he wanted to visit the town's Plant at one of their pit stops and say hi.
Wolfwood, of course, accompanies him. He smokes while Vash and the Plant lady finish exchanging words, waiting as the two Plants do their weird Plant connection where Vash siphons his energy for her. Wolfwood is never happy when Vash does that, always ending up exhausted after it, but no amount of arguing will change the guy's mind. Wolfwood knows the drill by now to hide his complaints behind a cigarette.
What he doesn't know is the little surprise Vash is harbouring, has been harbouring for a while.
Not long after leaving the facility, a suspicious group of men recognizes Vash and decides to pick a fight with them to make some quick cash. Wolfwood curses as the men open fire at them, blocking the bullets with the Punisher as he yells for Vash to run.
They make it out alive, of course. The men are amateurs to be going after their expertise in escaping. Wolfwood is thrilled that they made it back to their hotel without any injuries and escaped the men who had given up on them after running a couple of blocks. Vash looks a little pale and out of breath as he leans against the side of the building, but Wolfwood takes it as exhaustion from giving up his energy earlier. He'll drag Vash to bed once they get to their room.
They get to their room without issues, except when Wolfwood hears a thud behind him. He turns to find Vash passed out on the floor, lying on his side.
"Spikey?" Wolfwood kneels before Vash to tap his face. He gets no reaction from the other man. "Vash—hey." He shakes Vash to wake him up, but to no avail. That's when he notices a red stain on Vash's side, darker than his coat, and a bullet hole. Wolfwood curses and lifts Vash into his arms to lay him on the bed, quickly unfastening the rows of buttons on Vash's coat to tend to the wound. His movements stop when he sees more than just a bullet wound under Vash's coat.
There's a suspicious bump on Vash's abdomen.
Wolfwood recalls Vash being sick in the morning multiple times weeks ago. He played it off as eating something spoiled. Wolfwood also remembers having sex with Vash weeks earlier than that, a night when both of them were drunk, and when one thing led to another.
Vash is pregnant.
"What the fuck."
Wolfwood stares at the bump, frozen by this discovery. His gaze then moves to the wound that's dangerously close to it. It sparks him into action to treat it, filing Vash is pregnant for later in his mind. He removes Vash's coat, throwing it in the bathroom to be patched up later, and grabs their limited medical supplies.
Wolfwood grinds his teeth. Vash is going to get an earful from him for being so damn reckless.
Sterilizing the tweezers with cheap alcohol, Wolfwood stills his shaking hands to dig into the wound. He finds the bullet and chucks it into the garbage and grabs a thread and needle to close up the injury. Vash continues to sleep all the while.
With the wound taken care of, he fits Vash into a plain shirt and fails to not stare at his stomach before fetching his lighter from his pocket, needing a smoke badly. He thinks twice when he remembers that smoking is bad for the baby and throws the lighter on the table.
Wolfwood passes the time by staring out the window, looking down as people walk about while gnawing on an unlit cigarette, thinking: how the hell did Vash hide this from him? He attempts to recall the last time he saw Vash's stomach—weeks ago, now that he thinks about it. Vash covered himself up with baggy shirts and dressed in the bathroom more often than not lately. Wolfwood commented on it—they've seen each other naked—but Vash laughed and gave some excuse, some white lie, so Wolfwood brushed it off as Vash being a prude.
Maybe he's jumping ahead of himself. As much as Wolfwood hates to think about it, maybe the baby isn't actually his, maybe it's some other guy's baby that Vash slept with. Yet, as Wolfwood ruminates on when Vash could've sneaked off to sleep with someone, he comes up with nothing when they're always together in every waking moment (except when Vash got captured last month for a brief couple of hours). Vash isn't the type to sneak off to have a little fun, claiming it's too risky, and his scars wouldn't attract any admirers.
It's not long before there's rustling behind him, and he turns to see Vash coming awake. Vash's eyes flicker across the room in confusion until he spots Wolfwood. He struggles while sitting up, but he still manages to smile. "Hey."
"Hey," Wolfwood responds, nonchalant.
Vash sees something on his face and drops his smile. "Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you."
"I'm worried about something else." The glance he makes at Vash's abdomen has the other freezing. Vash touches his side where the closed wound sits.
"Were you gonna run away without saying anything?" Wolfwood asks, failing to hide the frustration he feels in his voice.
Vash looks away with guilt on his face. Wolfwood's chest tightens. Vash doesn't trust him for something this serious, that his only option was to leave.
"I didn't want to burden you with this," Vash murmurs. He wraps his arms around his middle.
"But you'd leave once you can't hide it anymore," Wolfwood scoffs. His words make Vash hunch over himself, wrapping his arms around his legs and burying his face into his knees. Vash doesn't respond.
Wolfwood can't see the other's face, so he walks over to sit at the edge of the bed. Vash jumps and looks at him with tears in his eyes. Seeing Vash's fear dampens his frustration. He's frustrated, yes, but he's frustrated that Vash is making decisions on his own, that he would just leave instead of talking to him because there's a baby involved.
"Hey." Wolfwood tips Vash's chin up. "No more hiding, okay? And no more getting into trouble. I don't want you or the baby getting hurt."
"But—"
"I'm not leaving you alone."
Vash stares in disbelief. Seconds later, his tears fall. He wipes them away in a rush. "I'm sorry," Vash mumbles. "I'm sorry for assuming and hurting you, I don't want you to feel responsible. I didn't know what to do."
Wolfwood wraps an arm around Vash's shoulders and brings him closer. "Well, I feel responsible, but that's 'cause I want to, and I don't want you running off taking care of a baby on your own. The little thing might pick up on one of your too many bad habits."
Vash huffs before burying his face into his shoulder, shaking but relieved as he grips the front of Wolfwood's shirt. "You have bad habits, too."
"You have more," Wolfwood shoots back. Then he asks quietly, "How many months?"
"Three," Vash whispers.
Wolfwood rubs Vash's back before kissing his temple. "We'll figure it out."
They'll figure it out together.