#luida trigun

[nihil-ghost]

@tristampparty Anniversary Day 9: Brad & Luida

[wrathyforest]

Part 2 of our trigun office au  Part 3

close ups under the keep reading

[yuhi-san]

I sat my ass down and put some meta thoughts into word that have been swirling in my head for ages for @tristampparty day 9 Brad and luida

Because i wont be finishing the planned story on time, soo

Brad, Luida and ship three went in completely blind when it came to how to handle vash being an independent pant. They had nothing to go off on and as far as they knew, independents were a theoretical possibility but vash was the first one they encountered (not even luida had the clearance to see anything that could contain mentions of tesla). Vash isn’t really human but he isn’t like a dependent plant either.

I made a post about how that regarding how vash initially seemed to go through a human lifecycle a lot faster, until they realized he just stopped aging at a certain point.

The other thing I wonder is, do brad, luida and at least some of the others know about tesla?

The answer is, im sure it will never come up in canon. And I guess people are inclined to say, no way would vash ever open up to anyone about it.

But I think brad and luida know. Not much. Maybe just that there was an independent before them and she had died from the experiments done on her. Just these two things is all vash ever said.

Because see, in stampede vash came to ship three when he was still very small. It became his home, he actually bonded with all these people, they are like family. And he was still very young when the traumatic loss of his arm happened.

It changes the dynamic between him and these people a lot compared to trimax and 98.

Vash doesn’t have a regular prosthesis but a cybernetic one (or three if you like me follow the hc that his legs are prosthesis as well). also there is metal and hardware (?) on his chest and stuff. But even

My point is, those aren’t things he got from patching himself up or went through shabby surgery in a back alley or something of no man’s land.

 Initial surgery when luida brought him back aside, that must have been ‘experimented’ with vash to some degree because they knew nothing. Can he get sick? How does he response to medicine, to painkillers? To anesthetics? Vash bleeds but does he have bloodtypes like a human? What are they supposed to do when he lost his arm? Give him a bloodtransfusion like they would with a human and hope his body wont reject it? Throw him in a plant tank and hope that the plants can do for him what he does for them?

And even if they were kind and patient and understanding and reassuring about it, there must have been so many moments where it was literally just trial and error because they simply had nothing to go on. It must have been so scary for vash.

But especially with his arm (and possibly his legs). It’s an cybernetic arm. There are cables and shit directly connected to his body. It’s not a regular stump he has, it’s a port, its hardware embedded in his flesh.

And surgeries are scary, especially for kids. Its normal to be afraid of them. But vash must have been beyond terrified by the mention of it. Far, far more so than could be reasonably explained as a normal reaction. So I think vash told them because he was too terrified, too afraid, didn’t know what else to do or say. A hysteric outburst more likely than calm communication.

(“There was an independent before us. They experimented on her. She’s dead.”)

It was terribly for everyone involved.

But, like even if vash didn’t tell them.

At some point, he made the conscious and active decision to trust this people so unconditionally. Despite his rocky start with them and what had transpired with the blackbox, they could reassure vash that he was save and no one would do him any harm.

Vsh trusted them enough to let them put him under, take a scalpel to him, change his body irrecoverably but he would come out of it alright, wouldn’t endure any unnecessary pain by their hand.

Like, if you think about it like that, after the horror of what happened to tesla that shaped him and nai so much, vash found it in himself to trust these people with what then and possibly still might be his biggest trauma. And like rem had promised, he didn’t end like his sister

[rattoes420]

Episodes 7-12 too :3

[briizer]

A continuation of this

(i am never coloring ever again)

[fvckroach]

In typical mom fashion, the first thing she does is criticize his new hairdo

[needle-noggins]

I wanted to point out this page alone because I just really love the idea of Meryl and Luida as foils. Also I just really want to bang a bunch of pots together like, LOOK AT THESE WOMEN THEY ARE WRITTEN SO WELL AND I LOVE THEM SO DEEPLY!

Luida is a character archetype I really adore (one of my dnd NPCS/basically an OC at this point is just. Wizard Luida). Love an older woman in charge who has some internal struggles but exercises empathy and careful judgement. Meryl is... a baby in comparison. The kind of girl, adventurous and a bit headstrong, who may be changed into someone more like Luida with hard lessons and deep self-reflection. I don't know. Maybe I'm just talking out of my ass at this point.

This conversation is... difficult. Luida is considering having Vash use his angel arm to destroy Knives, to have another July (to which, poor Meryl is like "god the horrors are endless. I saw how that went"). She hates that she even considers it, hates the idea of Vash being a weapon of mass destruction just to take down Knives (ethics of using atomic bombs, anyone?). It is especially hard for her to consider because "this battle with undoubtedly push his limits". Vash is still a friend (and if we want to get Stampy with it, like a son to her), and she knows this could kill him.

Luida scolds herself for being a coward, and I'm not sure in what way - is it cowardly that she won't sacrifice people for the "greater good", or that she's having this internal struggle in the first place? That she won't make Vash pull the trigger?

I forgot to screenshot the panels about it but there's also a very important topic in the conversation preceeding this page about how Vash has been fighting alone, trying to save everyone, but perhaps he needs people to fight for him too. Vash is obviously well-known around Ship 3 as an incredibly powerful plant, so I can understand if they believed him when he said he could take Knives alone, but Luida is now having doubts about Vash's independence - is he too afraid to ask for help? (this is a secret tool that will help us later! Remember that Meryl is here to hear this!)

Using this thread of thought, Luida and her forces attack the ark, which allows Wolfwood to rescue Vash (and then we get the SUPER COOL bit of Vash reversing his angel arm to allow them to escape! and the fall out of the sky! OUGH). It's about the teamwork, it's about helping each other. No one can fight alone. (and then idiot Wolfwood leaves Vash to let him fight Knives alone) (we can already tell this is a bad idea)

[sweetwheat]

Unfortunately, I'm a little late, but I still want to leave it here (okay, wherever it possible, because I tried 😠✨).

21.07 – Birthday of beautiful and amazing characters who immediately won my heart and don't want to climb out of there (please stay there for a long time).

Happy Birthday our dear twins~ ✨

Every day I love and adore you more and more... ✨

[snakegentleman]

I love manga Luida so much; just look at the presence she has:

She commands respect

[7er1ch0]

Nai... please... stop stealing cats.

[officialeggsuprise]

Ok so a bit into my brain for the doctor who au:

Obviously all the different iterations of vash we have seen so far are his different regenerations, 98 is one of the youngest regens and therefore seems way goofier. I think the different stages of max can be different regens, like the spilt black and blonde to all black hair are 2 different regens. And stamp is the most recent and he’s depressed. And he’s The Stampede, vash has a gallifreyan name built into his name so like pop off.

Wolfwood I want to be the Jack character, having known and traveled with vash, getting killed, being brought back and then getting stuck like that. I like the idea of him being from the future and being a time agent too since jacks backstory does involve having a brother so I think he slots into that role p nicely.

So Meryl I had a very fun idea for, stamp Meryl is vashs newest companion and he thinks she looks familiar but doesn’t look that much into it because he’s hurting rn and just wants to not be alone. Meryl grew up on stories from her grandmother of space fairing adventures fighting aliens and saving people, her grandmother who was an insurance agent later became a journalist and inspired her to do so. Yeah her grandma is 98/ max Meryl, but I’m gonna change her name to Myrtle for the sake of not having 2 Meryl’s but Meryl is like the spitting image of her grandma as that happens sometimes, but she is shorter and styles herself differently. She’s in college to be a journalist before getting swept up in the stampede.

So 98/ max Meryl aka Myrtle did the whole bad wolf thing and is the reason woowoo is now immortal, it was an oopsie ok. But Myrtle, woowoo, and Vash were just besties, no romantic feelings here (because I want the stamp trio to be the ones for that and imagine dating a guy your grandma also dated that’s fucking awkward) ((plus I read 98/max more platonic between vash and Meryl vs. stampede where they feel more romantically inclined))

Nai I was going back and forth on keeping him as The Master or making him The Lord since he’s constantly referred to as lord knives and shit. But yeah he’s taking the place of the master here WITH NO SUBTEXT WE ARE NOT DOING INCEST HERE. They simply both looked into the time vortex and got fucked up in different ways with vash running and never stopping and nai going off the deep end, though now the ending of the time war is going to be a little different.

Rem is here but she is taking form as the tardis, I love the episode where the doctor gets to meet the tardis, OBVIOUSLY NOTHING HERE IS ROMANTIC EITHER THE TARDIS IS MOM-ING HIM HERE, it’s so bitter sweet and makes me sob. That means he’s not going to call her sexy I hope we are all ok with that shdhdbfjdbdhbr.

Roberto is gonna be a companion and also happens to be Milly’s uncle and the journalist Meryl is shadowing. He gets tied up into all of this when meryl comes back from an adventure and accidentally brings some of it with her to him and he’s kind forced to come along. Will he die? Good question.

Milly is Meryl’s college roommate and I’ll have her join the crew later on, kind of like in stampede how we haven’t seen her yet but she’ll be on the tardis you better believe it.

Brad and luida are older companions that are now apart of unit and help vash when he needs it, think like Martha and Mickey types but again more parental toward the doctor, left on their own and still help when they can.

Let’s talk about the fucky stuff I wanna do with timelord twins:

Vash and Nai are special since they are twins, they are constant reflections of each other and always regenerate together, as if there were some cosmic force making sure they were never out of sync, they’re always fatally wounded at the same time. They can also feel one another, like a tether that constantly connects them, they don’t just automatically know where the other is but they can always feel the other’s presence as if they were standing side by side at all times.

Now the time war:

In my mind Vash would be fully black hair trimax for this regen (outfit would be different but I would need a post to go over all the fits) and Nai would be almost fully black hair but with that little tuft of blonde. Nai convinces Vash that he just wants the war to end, that he didn’t want to be a soldier fighting in this endless war, and he needs vash to tell his where the vault is and help him get in there because there is something in there that can save them all, Vash at his wits end believes Nai and gets him in and they take the moment, Nai convinces Vash to wait in his tardis for him but the conscious of the machine appears to Vash and not Nai in an attempt to stop Nai, Vash and Nai fight, Nai cuts off his arm and gets to the machine before Vash and the moment is used, Vash (who’s punishment if he uses the machine is to live) ends up in the tardis on the verge of regeneration watching as both Gallifrey and Skaro are destroyed. And as he begins to regenerate he can’t feel Nai anymore. He regens into stamp Vash, though his arm is still missing, like a reminder, every scar he earned in the war as well still marking his body and for the first time in his life he is truly alone. And when he looks in the mirror he sees that his eye color is now that of his brothers, gone is his typical seafoam green, now they are frighteningly blue.

Anyway I will be writing a fic sooooooooooo if y’all wanna know more like outfits and timeline stuff I’d be down to share.

[wrathyforest]

Trigun office au. PART 5

part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4

Additional info:

Humanoid Typhoon  - the nickname that Vash received from granny Sheryl (she’s working at buffet) - for the fact that during lunch he always runs into the counter and does not leave a single donut after.

BadLads company specializes in LED products.

Mr. B.D. Neon has a wealth of criminal experience and is said to be still in business.

Close-ups under the keep reading

[yuhi-san]

Point of View

Chapters: 3/3

Fandom: Trigun Stampede

Wordcount: 16'039

Rating: Teen up

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Vash the Stampede & Nicholad D. Wolfwood, Meryl Stryfe & Vash the Stampede, Meryl Stryfe & Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Vash the stampede/Nicholas D. Wolfwood

Characters: Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Meryl Stryfe, Vash the Stampede, Roberto de Niro, Brad, Luida Lutner, Minor ship three character

Additional Tags: Pre-Relationship, post episode 7, Plants, ship three, Friendship, roberto is the only reasonable one and he has them all figured out, wolfwood is not having a good time here, conflicted feelings, hurt/little comfort, everyone is very protective of vash, the Wolfwood has complicated feelings, Angst, Introspection, Pining, not quite comfort but some reassurance, backstory

Summary:

After seeing Vash collapse in the plant room, there was no way of pretending he was human like them. Wolfwood isn’t exactly handling the revelation well and it wasn’t even news to him. As if everything wasn’t bad enough already, the gang suddenly finds themselves faced with another group here to take Vash. ----- On a spaceship in the sky, both parties try to get a feel for each other and their relationship to Vash. Wolfwood keeps struggling with the events of the days and at least some of it, Brad really gets.

This was initially meant as a one shot. I did always consider adding a part for Brad to the Perspective series eventually anyway but thought about making a separate one shot. But for one this takes place immediately after the end of the last chapter. It was also too tempting to explore some of the similarities between Wolfwood and Brad, especially when younger. Partly because Brad even states that he used to be a lot like Wolfwood in the way he can be harsh and getting worked up about things. And of course their instinctual fear of what Vash is. So here we are. Especially the second chapter was actually meant to be my contribution for @tristampparty day for Brad and Luida but uh, as you all can see i am very late haha

[teaforce-steph]

I'm back to say that Luida and Brad in Stampede gives me so much life I'm SO happy. Aside from the importance of their (spoilers!) main mission requiring cryosleep shifts, It's just a relief that Vash actually has had people that care about him (In a sane and constructive way, sorry Knives.) around in some capacity for most of his very long life. Explains some of the differences in his character too.

Sure the plot is going fast and events are overlapping BUT I like that they've spared just enough time to give characters some depth and growth in amongst the chaos. Luida is a cool old lady once again 10/10.

[briizer]

Vash eventually sneaking Mutt into the SEEDS ship. It actually goes well!

[idsfantasy]

Summary:

At one year old, Vash knew he aged faster than humans, and had tried to come to terms with the fact that he would probably die well before any of the humans he met.

He didn't anticipate just how wrong that assessment was.

Vash knew that, as Independents, he and Kni were different from humans. Like any Plant, they had gates (though Vash still hadn’t figured out how to use his, if he even could at all), and had special markings that only appeared under certain kinds of light or when using their powers to talk to other Plants. It just so happened that, according to Rem, the twins looked and acted like they were relatively normal, eight year-old, human children.

Which, of course, was part of the whole ‘different from humans’ deal given the two were only a year old.

Not that it bothered Vash much. He’d heard about human infants from Rem, and he was more than happy that he could actually understand and enjoy the life he was living. He couldn’t imagine having to eat just mushy baby food for so long! He might actually understand Kni’s dislike of eating if they had to do that.

But even if Kni teased Vash for not acting like a Plant, it wasn’t as though Vash didn’t know he was one. It just didn’t really feel like it mattered.

At least it didn’t until one night at dinner, Kni looked up from his largely untouched plate, and asked, “Rem, since we age faster than humans, how long are we going to live?”

“I don’t know, Kni,” Rem said. “Dependent Plants have longer lifespans than humans-”

“But you said we’ve been growing faster than humans,” Kni interrupted, “and the dependent Plants don’t seem to age at all.”

As the implication of Kni’s statement set in, Vash felt his fork slide from his grasp and clatter to his plate. Eyes wide, Vash whipped his head up from his meal to face Rem, who inhaled sharply, her smile strained and fading.

“I don’t know,” she said again. “The only real reference for long-term Plant aging we have are the dependent Plants, but-”

“But we’re different from them, and the bulbs keep them alive! What if being independent is why we’re growing so much?” Kni said, and Vash could hear the note of worry in his voice. “Are we just going to age fast forever until we die in a few years?”

“Wait, what if we never get to see the planet? What if we die before we can even wake anyone up?” Vash’s voice cracked as he added his questions to his brother’s, his heart pounding faster and faster as thoughts of the future flew through his mind. “And what about you? If we don’t stop aging fast, we’ll die, and you’ll be alone-”

“Oh, boys…” Rem quickly stood from her seat, made her way around the small table to stand behind the two Independents, who immediately turned to face her as she rested a hand on each of their shoulders. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I promise, it’s going to be okay. Sometimes…sometimes even humans don’t live as long as others, but that doesn’t mean that the time they do have isn’t precious. No matter if you live as long as a human or less, your lives have meaning. Don’t ever doubt that.”

Then, Rem pulled both Vash and Kni into a tight hug, but not before Vash saw the start of tears in her eyes.

After that conversation, Vash had consigned himself to the fact that he and his brother likely weren’t going to live as long as the humans on the ship.

And then they discovered Tesla.

And then there was The Fall.

And then Vash was found by the crew of Ship 3. 

A member of the crew, Luida, recognized him as an Independent (though she was the only one who seemed to know what that was), and Vash was locked in a cell by a crew that didn’t know what to do with him. He didn’t know what to do with himself either. He didn’t eat, except for when the hunger got too fierce, and marked the days that went by on the wall. Ticking down the days to where his rapid aging may end his life before the hunger or the humans did.

Vash had spent nearly a third of his life in the cell before he was able to earn their trust by saving one of the Plants, and finally Vash knew that he had a purpose. He couldn’t generate electricity, or water, or food, or any other useful resource, but he could at least make sure his sisters were healthy enough to do it in his stead. He started helping other crashed ships with their Plants, and the crew of Ship 3 became something like a family. 

Then his role in The Fall was discovered and Vash ran. He found Kni, only to lose him once again, along with his left arm. A left arm that Brad, the very man whose accusation of betrayal caused Vash to run, replaced as an apology.

“It’s a bit clunky, but it should work as a temporary solution. Just let me know if it has any issues,” Brad said as he watched Vash flex the fingers of the prosthetic. “We’ll need to replace it in the next few months after all, what with you sprouting up like a weed any time we look away.”

Vash let out a soft laugh at that. “Guess I’ve hit my growth spurt.”

“You only just hit it now?” Brad scoffed and shook his head. “What do you call the last two years then?”

Vash looked down at the new arm and felt his smile dim slightly. He didn’t like to think about his age. When it was just him, Rem, and Kni (Knives?), it wasn’t as though Vash had any other kids to look to as a reference other than his twin, who was growing up at the same rapid pace as him. 

Now, at Home, there were human children out of cryosleep. Not many, but enough to where Vash was very aware of how he went from being something close to their peer to something nearly adult before any of them hit puberty. Sure, his aging was apparently slowing down, something Luida confirmed from what she remembered about Independents, but in spite of whatever relief he felt at knowing he wasn’t going to be dead in a few years from his body’s aging, he still felt the separation.

As an Independent, and one that had human needs at that, he was already too human to be a proper Plant, but his aging made it clear that he was too much of a Plant to be human either. The kids didn’t mind too much when playing with him, less than the teenagers who knew he was a little kid only a couple years ago did anyway, but it made something in Vash’s stomach twist. He knew that the only people actually his age on the ship were barely grown up enough to start preschooling, but whenever one of the kids he’d been playing hide and seek with only a year ago started treating him differently because he looked older than he used to, Vash felt as though it created another layer of distance between them. 

“You’ve got a point there,” Vash finally said before the pause could get too long. He looked back up at Brad, making sure to fix his smile more firmly on his face. 

“Of course I do,” Brad said with a smirk, though…was that a hint of concern in his expression? “Anyway, we’ll get you fitted for a new one in a couple months. I should be able to figure out some of what works and what doesn’t by then. Can’t have you go telling people I made you that thing only for it to not work. That would be bad for my reputation.”

“Of course,” Vash said, his smile becoming a bit more genuine.

By the time Vash turned six, he was taller than most of the humans he met, and the majority of the people he ran into recognized him as and treated him like a full grown adult. A young one, sure, and he’d overheard plenty of comments about his childishness, but in his defense, the other kids his age were much more childish than he was.

In any case, he looked like an adult, acted (mostly) like an adult, and could handle himself on his own. As such, rather than having Brad take time away from important projects at Home to chaperone Vash on his trips to heal the Plants, Vash began making the journeys between crash sites and budding towns on his own. He still stopped by Home occasionally, but as he met more and more people in more and more places, the gaps between his visits grew longer and longer. 

With how much traveling he was doing, it was understandable that he hadn’t really noticed. It wasn’t as though he kept track of time, as he was mostly busy trying to get to dying Plants before Kni did, and with him not staying in one place for long, it wasn’t as though Vash had any long-term references to compare himself to.

Because of this, Vash didn’t notice just how much his aging had slowed until he returned Home and realized that the same kids he’d played with when he’d first been let out of the cell weren’t kids anymore.

In fact, they looked older than him.

“Vash, is everything okay?” Luida asked when she noticed him standing frozen in the hall, watching one of his former playmates walk by. 

Luida herself was showing signs of aging, something Vash hadn’t really paid much attention to with how he wasn’t often around to notice in the first place. Vash had expected that he would look older than her by the time her hair started to go grey. 

Vash turned to face her and asked, “How long has it been since The Fall?”

“It’s been about twenty-seven years,” Luida replied, though her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, highlighting the wrinkles Vash could see beginning to form on her forehead. “Why do you ask?”

Vash inhaled sharply, and looked over at his reflection in the clean metal of the ship walls. Maybe it was because he was similar enough to humans in how he looked and acted, but when he’d found out his aging had slowed, he had assumed that it would eventually just reach human levels. Looking at himself now though, his face looking just the same as it had when he’d turned six years old, he realized that he never should have assumed that to be the case.

A dependent Plant’s maximum natural lifespan wasn’t completely known. They could be pushed beyond their limit, causing their energy to dry up, but even then Vash knew that every Plant on this planet was well over 200 years old. He knew that Plants lived much, much longer than humans.

Vash was different from the dependent Plants, but maybe Vash wasn’t different in this.

Maybe Vash wasn’t going to die before the humans he’d come to consider family. They’d die decades, maybe centuries, before him.

“Vash!”

Vash flinched away from the sudden pressure on his shoulder, and his head whipped around to face Luida. He processed her outstretched hand and concerned expression the same instant he realized just how heavily he was breathing. 

Vash took a deep breath and forced a smile. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you.”

Luida’s concern remained, though she lowered her hand and smiled back at him. “That’s alright, Vash. But why did you ask how long it’s been? Is there something bothering you?”

Vash didn’t bother to hide his frown, and looked back down the hall. If his suspicions were correct, Vash could be around for decades, centuries beyond any human’s natural lifespan. He loved his sisters, but he couldn’t connect with them the same way he could connect with humans, he was too Independent for that, and Kni…

Kni wanted to destroy humanity, and Vash just couldn’t go along with that. Life was precious, human and Plant. No one had the right to determine who should live or die. Kni however, clearly disagreed. Kni caused the ships to crash, mercilessly killed the humans he considered a plague, and while Vash hadn’t caught him in the act, he had heard of Plants going missing from some developing towns shortly before he arrived to help his sisters who were in pain, dooming the towns to deterioration. Bodies sliced to pieces were left in the kidnapper’s wake, and Vash couldn’t think of anyone other than Kni who would do something like that. Kni was the only living being on this planet who could perfectly relate to Vash, but also he couldn’t relate at all.

Vash had taken some degree of solace in his connections to humanity, but in time, the people he loved would be gone. He had already lost Rem, and it had nearly torn him apart. How could he possibly handle centuries worth of this?

“Vash, please,” Luida’s voice cut through his thoughts and Vash snapped back to reality. She had moved to stand in front of Vash, both hands placed firmly on his shoulders. He wondered when she had done that. “Please, let me help you.”

It was then that Vash noticed he was crying. Blinking furiously, he hastily scrubbed the moisture from his face and broke eye contact with the older woman.

“Vash, please tell me what’s wrong,” Luida insisted, her voice brimming with worry.

Vash took a deep breath. “I don’t think…I don’t think I’m aging at all anymore.”

Luida’s eyes widened in realization, and the pressure from her hands on Vash’s shoulders let up slightly. “Oh.”

Without thinking, Vash found his hands curling over hers, the added pressure on his shoulders anchoring him and his thoughts. He returned her gaze and took a shuddering breath as his train of thought threatened to spiral into worst case scenarios, centuries into a lonely, empty future.

“What if I have the lifespan of a dependent Plant?” Vash whispered, and he felt the burn of tears behind his eyes start up again. “I don’t want to die early, but I can’t…I don’t know if I can handle outliving anyone else.”

He didn’t have to mention who he’d already lost for Luida to understand. The crew of the former Ship 3 may have survived The Fall, but she’d had a knack for empathizing with others as long as Vash had known her, and Luida was well aware of how much Rem meant to the Independent. She had seen just how badly it had shattered him, and had eventually helped him pick up the pieces.

Melancholy moved over the older woman’s face, though it wasn’t long before it was accompanied by resolve. “I have been considering making use of cryosleep, partly because it would allow me to work on my projects with the flora over a longer scope of time without having to worry about dying of old age before they can grow. If I did, I would leave instructions for the others to wake me up if I’m asleep when you come by. While I can’t speak for Brad, I’d be surprised if he wasn’t willing to do the same. It would have its limits, but do you think that would help?”

Vash stared at her, eyes wide as he processed Luida’s words. “You would do that?”

Luida smiled. “I suggested it, didn’t I?”

Then her grip on Vash loosened. Vash instinctively leaned forward, chasing the touch as her hands pulled away, but he didn’t have time to second guess his body’s movement as he quickly found himself pulled into a firm hug. After a brief pause, Vash slowly, but tightly wrapped his arms around Luida in return, bending down slightly to bury his face in her hair as his tears fell and his breaths heaved into sobs.

“I’m sorry,” Vash gasped, though he couldn’t bring himself to let go of her. “I shouldn’t ask you to-”

“Vash, no,” Luida murmured, her voice soothing his fraying nerves as she held him tighter. “You don’t need to apologize for this.”

Vash disagreed. If Luida did use cryosleep to match his lifespan more closely, she’d just be joining him in leaving the people she knew behind if they didn’t do the same. She would outlive her friends. Her children. All for the sake of a broken Independent who couldn’t bear to be alone.

But Vash didn’t say any of that out loud. He couldn’t deny her that choice, just as he couldn’t deny the relief he felt because of it. So instead, Vash buried the guilt beside the rest, and let himself cry in Luida’s embrace.