#*meryl careful you're igniting her mom instincts*

[stxrblccd]

"Okay. Okay--" She's quick to recognize the confused spiral that she begins to fall into, and is quick to guide Meryl by her shoulders towards the porch, encouraging her to sit down on the steps.

"It's not easy to understand." Mona crouches down in front of her, a comforting hand on her arm as she peers up at her. "And there are still remnants in there, old habits. There always will be. But... Time and circumstances are tricky things, even the smallest difference could have changed this Knives." Her presence, too, also seemed to be an abnormality, as no other Vashes had known of her. A thought she's quick to expel.

"How about we take some time to think of something else, hm..? Do you like tea? We have plenty. We can sit inside or stay right here, whichever you prefer. But you really should take your mind off of this, at least for a bit. It's not a nice thought, but if it's been this long to look, I think it'll be okay to take a moment for yourself." Mona doesn't like how quickly she's growing distressed trying to piece together everything.

Three.

Is this what Knives would have, will, become given enough time after Julai? If Vash hadn't done whatever he'd done and, she assumed, sent them all out into other realities. Would the Knives of her world have been like the one from this world? Growing crops, giving them away. Plucking children from the streets to raise as his own?

"Sorry, this is... This is a lot." She might need some time to really grasp all of this.

"If–if he can be like this, then why...?"

Was this the Nai Vash saw in his brother, the reason he still loved his twin so fiercely even as his brother was trying to kill him?

"I don't understand."