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It’s around mid afternoon while they’re taking a break from weekly cleaning and having a snack in the kitchen when Vash notices two small heads peek from around the corner.
They vanish as soon as he lifts his gaze from his book, but after about half a second he sees curious, little faces peek at them again.
Vash nudges Wolfwood to get his attention.
"We have visitors."
Nick blinks at him as he munches on his fourth cookie. His gaze flicks to the kids that hide again when they realize they have been spotted.
He shrugs.
Vash pouts at his indifference but offers the kids a smile and a little wave when they peek at them for the third time.
"Hello. Don't be shy." He encourages them, pushing the plate with freshly baked cookies a little closer to the edge of the table.
The two boys look at each other but still hesitate.
Vash’s smile falters a bit. It’s normal for some of the kids to still be wary of him. He hasn’t lived at Hopeland for long, only a few months really, but he had hoped the kids would warm up to him by this point.
Thankfully, the boys have mustered enough courage to step into the kitchen even if a little hesitantly.
They stop in front of the table and pause, eyeing the cookies, clearly interested but neither reaches for them.
“You can have some if you want.” Vash nods to the plate but the boys eye each other before one of them speaks finally.
"You ask." He tries whispering but is not very successful.
The other boy frowns.
"No. You ask. It was your idea."
The first boy nudges the second with an elbow and for a moment they squabble and push at each other.
Vash feels a little perplexed and turns his attention to Wolfwood who is chewing on his own cookie (fifth now) and completely ignores the scene in favor of flipping through his newspaper.
"I'll ask,” another voice piques from the door frame and everyone looks to the source. A little girl with a raggy doll walks up to the group and looks up. She stares at Vash unblinking with her big, dark eyes.
"Yes?" He encourages, hoping the question will be easy enough to answer or allow him to provide an interesting enough elaboration to satisfy the children.
Wolfwood is still ignoring the whole gathering.
"Are you and brother Nico a couple?" She asks, voice high pitched and bouncing off the walls of the kitchen.
There's a pause in which Vash sends a quick and nervous glance in Wolfwood’s direction who looks up from his reading, the whole ordeal having caught his attention for the first time.
Vash feels a tug at his leg and when he looks down he sees that the girl has gotten closer to him and is now stretching her tiny arms up, asking to be picked up.
Vash smiles and obediently does as she wants and sits her on his lap where she wiggles for a moment, getting comfortable and then reaches for the cookie platter which he helpfully brings closer.
"Yes." He answers as she takes a bite of her treat, and munching, sends crumbs tumbling down her shirt. "Yes we are."
It’s not the first time he answered this question; to kids, adults, their friends or families. But it always makes him feel a little breathless and warm under the collar.
Another glance at the person of interest shows that said person does not display any interest anymore.
Vash frowns, lips forming a prominent pout.
The children share a conspiratory look and then some whispers but they don’t ask further questions.
The girl eats her cookie with an expression that looks like a serious contemplation of a five year old.
Vash thinks that that’s that and that he lost with a platter of cookies, acting as a chair for the little princess to recline.
And to be fair these were really good cookies so he can’t be too mad about it.
She swallows and then opens her mouth, dropping the actual bomb on their heads.
"Then does it mean you will get married?" She chirps, looking up at him, and their eyes meet upside down.
Vash opens his mouth, not really knowing what to even say to this when the whole table rattles suddenly when Wolfwood bangs his knee over the underside of it and chokes on his food.
He jumps in his seat and grabs the child in his lap around the middle to prevent her from falling off while she squeaks, meanwhile the boys scatter away.
"Are you okay?" Vash rubs Wolfwood on the back as he coughs and hacks.
Once he has his breathing under control he wheezes.
"What the fuck?"
Vash gasps and his hands immediately fly to cover both ears of the girl happily munching on her cookie.
A cursory glance tells him that she all but lost any interest in them.
“Don’t curse in front of the children.”
Wolfwood scowls at him then quickly looks away.
"Are you-" Vash touches his arm but Wolfwood stands up so suddenly his chair scrapes over the wooden floor.
"I'm fine,” He bristles and then hides his face in both hands.
"Wolfwood." Vash is really getting worried now and he sets the girl down on the floor. He gives her the whole platter of cookies and shoos her gently out of the kitchen.
Once they are alone he puts a gentle hand on Wolfwood’s shoulder.
He tenses suddenly and it throws Vash off. That’s not how he reacts to his touch usually. Not like if it burned him.
“I have to uh, do the dishes.”
“I did the dishes.” Vash points out with a frown. “Seriously, are you really fine?”
Wolfwood shrugs.
“Nick.”
"What?" Nick grumbles when Vash tries to look him in the face.
The way he keeps avoiding his eyes is really getting on his nerves now.
“She’s a kid. She was just asking questions as children do. It doesn’t mean anything.” Wolfwood gives him a side glance.
“Yeah. It doesn’t.”
Vash’s frown deepens.
“Why are you upset? It was just a-”
“Kid asking questions, yeah I heard you the first time.”
Vash recoils from his raised voice.
“Okay.” Nick sighs and rubs his face. “I’m gonna…go now. I need to do some things.”
Vash nods. He doesn’t know what things Wolfwood needs to do but he knows they’re not to involve him specifically.
Before he can think to stop him, Nick leaves the room.
Vash drops down onto the chair with a dramatic sigh and props his elbows on the table.
Holding his head face in his palms he glares at the hallway.
What was that all about?
Nicholas is a great scout, always has been, as shown by their shared history. He could easily track Vash down across the desert and pop up ‘by sheer coincidence’ at a random town that Vash has been staying at that time.
But few also knew he was amazing at hiding and covering up his tracks if needed. If he didn’t want to be found he wouldn’t be and that was that.
Vash almost forgot about this until now because he would have never expected for Wolfwood to need to hide from him at their own home.
Vash could probably track him back down himself, the Orphanage wasn’t that big but after an hour of Wolfwood hiding off somewhere like a child that he wasn’t anymore he gave up and let him sulk until he was ready to talk about what was bothering him.
Except that didn’t happen for hours and Vash was getting antsy and growing self conscious as well.
Truly, it wasn’t a big deal. Kids said all sorts of things just because they were curious and didn’t mean much by it. Wolfwood, of all the people, should know that.
And yet he was acting like that…that thought, that idea was so…replusive even.
So Vash couldn’t help but feel irritated by his childish behavior.
“Ah.” Vash stops in the entrance to their shared bedroom. "There you are."
Wolfwood grunts an acknowledgement but avoids looking at him and stubbornly glares at the pile of laundry he is folding.
"Uh. Yeah."
Vash watches Wolfwood fold the laundry for a moment, chewing on his bottom lip, until he finally pulls away from the doorframe and joins Wolfwood near the bed. He picks up a shirt and folds it neatly and puts it away on a steady growing pile of clean clothes.
They work side by side in silence for a while.
"You were avoiding me the whole day," Vash finally says, not stopping his folding.
Next to him, Wolfwood frowns, clearly either annoyed at Vash or at himself or both, but otherwise he stays stubbornly silent.
"That hurt my feelings,” he lets him know with a side glance and makes sure that a bit of that hurt bleeds into his voice. It’s not that hard to fake anyway.
“Sorry.” Nicholas grumbles next to him and turns around to pick a bit of the folder laundry stack and starts putting it away.
Vash watches him with growing irritation until he finally blurts what’s on his mind.
“Is that really such a repulsive idea to you?" He sighs while fighting with a particularly stubborn sheet.
That gets Wolfwood’s attention and he blinks in surprise at Vash’s words.
"Huh? What is?"
His mouth pulls up in a grimace but he says nothing for a moment.
“Hey-”
"Us being married!" He finally snaps, dropping the laundry and putting his hands on his hips.
"Huh?" Nick blinks and closes the drawer where he put away the clean shirts.
"Nicholas."
“I don’t follow.”
Vash sighs, drops his head and takes a big breath.
“You ran away from me after the…well, the thing in the kitchen earlier,” he finishes lamely, feeling his cheeks heat up at the memory. “I know they didn’t mean anything, it was just a silly question, they’re children but you didn’t need to act like…well like that.”
Okay now he really is upset. He drops his hands, the lecturing pose turning a bit too timid for his own liking. Now he feels anxious about breaching the subject himself. Maybe he should have let that fizzle out and never bring it up to Wolfwood again.
If he reacted like this on the bare mention from children who didn’t really have a solid grasp on relationships like that then he doesn’t want to think what his reaction would be if he were ever to suggest it.
Clearly that wasn’t something he wanted and it’s not like Vash ever thought of himself in that scenario anyway. With anyone, let alone Wolfwood. What he had was more than enough. More than he deserved.
He couldn’t just want more. That was beyond selfish, beyond just being greedy and he feared it would destroy what they’d built together in the first place.
He could still take it back as a joke. Just something to tease Wolfwood about once and then drop it, bury it never to be unearthed-”
His anxious, galloping thoughts are interrupted by a tired groan.
"Those goddamn brats."
Vash blinks, his train of thought disrupted.
"Don't call them that," he chides.
"It's what they are." Nick protests and then bypasses him. To his surprise he doesn’t leave the room, never to return. No, instead he …opens the wardrobe.
Actually a special compartment where he still stores the Punisher. Vash knows Wolfwood has been more than happy to put that weapon away, hopefully forever but he didn’t decide to have it disassembled permanently.
He can relate to this as he still keeps his own gun strapped to the underside of their bed, on his side, for easy access.
As much as everything has been peaceful for now…one was never hundred percent sure if any new danger wasn’t lurking just behind the corner.
Better safe than sorry. Or dead.
So Wolfwood still leaving that door slightly ajar just so he could have a way to protect his family was understandable.
"What are you doing?" Vash asks, walking up and trying to look over Nick’s shoulder to see what he’s rummaging for but he’s gently pushed away.
A moment later Nick is closing the wardrobe and keeping his back to Vash for long seconds and his forehead pressed against the wood.
“Nick…” Vash bites his lip. “You're acting very strange today. Are you not feeling well?”
Wolfwood sighs and shakes his head.
“Please talk to me.” He knows he starts to sound weepy but it has always worked on him at least to some extent, made him pull out of whatever weird headspace he has delved into to grumble at him being annoying and whiny but still quell whatever was causing him that distress.
Finally, Wolfwood turns around.
"...Here." He presents a small box in his open palm.
Vahs blinks at it for a moment, utterly confused.
"What is it?" He asks and to his surprise Nicholas blushes bright red and looks away.
He doesn’t elaborate at Vash questioning look and opts to just open the box.
Vash’s eyes widen, probably comically, when he sees two silver bands nested inside the red velvet like material.
"Oh..." He feels his heart drop into his stomach and then raise to his throat and it makes him so dizzy his vision blurs for a moment.
"Is that answer enough for you?" Vash flicks his eyes back to Wolfwood who is still blushing but at least he’s not avoiding him anymore even if what he’s doing is basically glaring daggers at Vash.
Not that really matters at this moment anyway. Wolfwood is always glaring or yelling at Vash for something, and it also carries very little heat behind it anyway.
"A-are you-"
"The brats stole my thunder.” Wolfwood sighs and rams a hand through his face, ruffling his hair. “This wasn't supposed to be like this."
Vash closes his mouth and feels his eyebrows pull down in a frown.
"You ran away from me," He points out, pout evident in his voice.
Wolfwood winces and guilt flashes across his face and Vash immediately feels bad for his words.
"Sorry,” Nick apologizes instead. “I'm not good at this stuff."
"Clearly." Vash huffs out and responds to Nick’s next glare with a grin of his own.
They end up standing like this for a while in silence, neither making any move or saying anything.
"So?" Wolfwood is the first to finally break that stalemate, fidgeting in place and shaking the box in his hand.
"So?" Vash hums, eying the silver bands but wanting for Wolfwood to be the one to initiate. Maybe he can be a little greedy like that after all.
"What's your answer?" Wolfwood grumbles, his face turning dark from blush but there’s an undertone of actual nerves.
"Depends on what's your question,” Vash muses, lacing his own hands together and batting his eyelashes.
Wolfwood groans into the ceiling and Vash can’t help but giggle a bit. The whole situation feels very surreal.
"You're not gonna make this easy are you?"
Vash shakes his head, his grin turning bigger.
"Nope." He emphasizes the ‘p’.
Nick snorts and picks one of the silver bands from the box. When he takes Vash’s hand, his flesh hand, that smile drops suddenly and his throat turns dry.
The silver is cool when it slides over his skin while Wolfwood’s hand is as always warm and the contrast makes him shiver.
"Brat." Wolfwood huffs, affection and exasperation both dripping from that one word and Vash has to bite his lip against the sob which almost escapes his throat.
“I’m older than you.”
Nick snorts.
“Age has nothing to do with it.” He squeezes hand and Vash feels the metal between his fingers dig into his skin a bit and the reality of it hits so squeezes back.
"Do you want-"
"Yes!" He blurts out, cutting into whatever Nick was about to ask.
Nick frowns.
"Hey now,” he protests. “I thought you wanted the- the whole thing you know.”
"Sorry if you ask me that I will start crying." Vash says, his hand shaking in Wolfwood’s hold.
"Spikey,” He says calmly and steps up into Vash’s space. “you're already crying.” He puts his other hand on Vash’s cheek and wipes away a stray tear from under his eye.
"Oh.” It’s only when he does that that Vash realizes how wet his face is and he sniffs loudly.
"Come here." He’s pulled into an embrace, arms wrapping around his back and squeezing him so tightly that if he was human he’d definitely have a cracked rib about now.
That image amuses him and he hides his slightly hysterical giggle in Wolfwood’s shoulder.
"Better?" Nick asks as he rubs his back and feels him shake in his arms.
Vash only manages a weak uhum and a nod.
He sniffles a bit more but he’s no longer openly weeping so he lets Nick pull away gently and keep him at a distance enough that they can look into each other’s eyes.
"...shit." He suddenly says as his expression falls.
"What?" Vash asks, whipping stray tears with the back of his hand. He suddenly feels worried again. Maybe he got his hopes up after al-
"I forgot to kneel." Nick hangs his head with a sigh.
“Huh?” Vash blinks and then gasps when Nick grabs his hand and very ungracefully tries to get on one knee before him.
"Hey, hey no stop that you don't need to!” He protests and pulls at his shirt sleeve, “Come back here."
With a grumble Wolfwood does but he wobbles, when he realizes his legs are shaking from nerves and relief.
Vash giggles stupidly. They’re both bad at this and such a mess, but it makes him feel better that he’s not the only one. When they're back eye level he leans in or at least tries to, because Wolfwood puts his hand on his chest and pushes him away.
"Ew don't kiss me when you're all snotty." He yells and Vash now bursts into a full belly laugh.
“Is this a way to speak to your fiance!?”
He also immediately breaks down into a sob at the word ‘fiance’ and with a very exaggerated eyeroll Wolfwood pulls him back into his arms.
“You’re such a crybaby.”
“And you’re a meanie.” Vash retorts and hides his face in Nick’s neck but not before he manages to place a quick kiss on his cheek.
“I didn't ask for any of this by the way, I just wanted to know why ran away from me!”
“It surprised me!” Nick sputters. “I'm shy!”
“I know!” Vash laughs and squeezes Wolfwood back so hard until he groans. “And for the record? The answer is yes.”
Now it’s Wolfwood who laughs although his is more a surprised guffaw.
“Yeah I think I got that.” He murmurs into Vash’s ear and then hides his own face in Vash’s shoulder.
Vash smiles and pretends not to notice how he tries to discreetly wipe his own tears.