Vash I

I had spent nearly half an hour looking for Knives in the ship. I just couldn't find him! And it was out rule that if the other couldn't find you with in twenty minutes, then you win. And it had been thirty minutes. I sighed, and slumped against the door of the recreation room. Unfortunately for me, at that moment, Rem opened the door, and I rolled back, going down the hill. You know, I wish I sould have seen myself. I probably looked like one of the bigger idiots of the population. And there's only seven of us on the ship.

Rem laughed at me, and smiled. Rem was always comforting.

"Vash, you're so silly," she said as she helped me up. I smiled back at her.

"Well, I try my hardest, Rem," I replied. "Ne, I doubt you've seen Knives."

"No, I haven't. Have you two been hiding in the ship again?"

"Well, it DOES get boring!" I said. Rem laughed again.

"It's a good thing that you came, Vash. I was going to find the two of you, and give you both hair cuts!"

A hair cut? Well, I'm always up for something different, I guess.

~~~~

Rem had finished cutting my hair. It was so spiky! I like it though, because Rem did it. She said that it reminded her of someone that she loved. His name was Kenny, I think (this wasn't the first time I had heard her talk about him). I personally wondered what she was going to do with Knives' hair. I hoped it would look good on him.

~~~~

The air feels so cold on the back of my neck. I'm not used to that feeling! I guess I should try calling out to Knives now...

~Knives!~ I shout out to his mind.

Then, I heard someone. ~Who is that?~ Their voice was scared sounding, and definately not Knives.

~It's my brother, Vash. He's my twin.~ That was Knives. But...

~Knives, what was that?! I heard someone that wasn't you like this! Knives, where are you?!~ I cried out to him.

~Just come, Vashu,~ commanded Knives. I've never heard him use this tone before... What's going on here? Knives really doesn't sound normal...

I turned the corner, to see Knives kneeling on the floor, holding a boy our age. The boy was on his lap, much like some sort of animal, or slave. But regardless, the kid had this sort of mysterious beauty to him. Knives looked up at me and my new hair cut. I guess he doesn't like too much, seeing that the next thing that he said was "Vashu! Your hair! It's gone!".

"You let somebody out of their capsule!!! Knives! We're not s'post to be messing with the people back here!" I responded, somewhat harshly I think, because the boy in Knives' arms held onto him tighter. ~Sorry about that,~ I appologized to the boy. It didn't help much, though. He still held onto my brother with waht looked to be a near-vice grip.

"Just calm down, Vashu. I can tell you my story, if you tell me yours first," Knives said. He sounded alittle less angry and confused now. I stood there for a moment, then walked over to them and sat down. I might as well be comfortable.

"Alright," I said. I leaned closer to the boy in Knives' arms, and smiled rather amicably. "I'm Vash. What's your name?" The boy looked up at my brother for approval, which he replied with a nod.

"Legato," the boy spoke softly. "Legato Bluesummers." He's so timid, but it's sweet to see my brother protect him so. Knives cleared his throat, indicating that he wanted me to go back to the original subject of my hair.

"Oh, right, sorry about that. Well, I was waiting for you after thirty minutes outside of the recreation room, and Rem came out. She said that she was going to cut our hair, and it was good that she found me. She was going to look for you, and cut yours, too," I said in one breath; I was more desparate to hear what Knives was thinking when he let out this Legato kid.

"...Alright, I guess I should explain why I let Legato out of the chamber. But you must promise that you don't tell ANYONE about him," Knives said, glaring at me. How could I keep this a secret? Especially from Rem! What Knives had done was wrong! But I guess, the only way to hear his side, was to make the promise...

"I won't tell a soul, Knives. You can count on me," I replied. Knives nodded.

"Thank you, Vashu. I was looking for you, and, logically, this was the best place. I entered this room and I called out to you. Instead, I heard Legato calling for his father."

"But if Legato was in the chamber... How could he speak to you?" I asked.

~I spoke like this Vash,~ I heard the timid boy say.

"See?" said brother, stroking Legato's hair again. "Well, I found Legato's chamber finally, and I saw that he was twitching in there, and the lock had been half-way opened. He sounded so scared, I couldn't just leave him in there." I guess I can understand his reasoning with this.

"We should still tell Rem about what happened to Legato, Knives," I protested, but Knives frowned.

"No, we can't tell any of the humans about Legato! Legato's like us!" My heart stopped. Another Plant being? It couldn't be possible, could it? Rem would have told us if there was.

"Knives... Rem would let us know, right? Right? If there were more people like ourselves, right?"

Knives only answered in silence. His expression was grave, and Legato was cuddled up in his arms.

"Legato," I said softly. "Why didn't you go to sleep like the rest of the humans?"

"I... I dunno...," Legato said. "Knives said I was in there for fourteen years. But I was told I wasn't human... My mommy was a Plant woman."

"They locked him in here, in a prison, because he is a Plant, Vashu!" Knives cried. He's just overreacting to this... It was probably a miscalculation, and they were unequipped to deal with Legato's specific bio- rhythm.

"Knives, I doubt that is the case," I said, trying to reason with Knives. My concern was slowly shifting from finding Legato, to this change in Knives. Something just wasn't right with the situation, but I just couldn't put my finger on it.

"VASH!" Knives shouted, holding Legato close. "Legato's a Plant! Everyone on the ship is just pretending to be nice to us! They're going to kill us!" Knives was really losing it. So I did what anyone else in the situation would do to rectify the matter: I punched the living crap out of my own flesh and blood. And to follow it up, I screamed at what I had done to him. He lie there, knocked over, crying. Legato had also been pushed over (Knives was still holding him, and Knives had taken him with him on his fall), and was ontop of Knives. I scooted back and clammered to my feet, and ran away. I promised that I wouldn't tell Rem about Legato, and I was going to keep the promise. It was the least I could do after punching Knives like that.

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((Wow, wasn't this the lovely little chapter of twin abuse? Hehehehe, I hope you all like this stuff, because this is fun to write. I enjoy switching POVs like this, because it doesn't get boring. I'd go insane if I had to write Legato constantly who speaks in a timid child voice (not for too much longer, though!), or the detail crazed Millions Knives, or the casual intellectual Vash and Kenny, or the cynical Sugara (that rhymed!). Anyways, I'm working on the next chapter!))