Title: i want the catharsis of knowing
Fandom: Trigun
Rating: Teen
Length: 200 words
Content notes: body horror, imminent character death, melancholy
Author notes: spoilers for the end of the manga.
Summary: —something bad's about to happen, but also knowing that i can't do anything about it. (Vash and Knives, after the end.)



“Why are you doing this?”

Vash looks up from where he’s kneeling at Knives’ feet, winding gauze around his calves. It’s the only solution they have to keep Knives from just flaking apart, his flesh trying its damndest to dissolve from his bones, his body remembering its human shape far less than it remembers being a many-limbed, many-winged, many-minded being.

He’s managed to keep his face and chest together, but his limbs are another story. There’s barely a trickle of power left inside him — just enough to keep him living. Not enough to hold his body in the right shape.

“Because you’re my brother,” Vash says, skipping past his usual bright-eyed fool act, no what do you mean? or why do you say that? Maybe he realizes how little time they have left. “I’m supposed to take care of you.”

Knives reaches down with the remains of one hand, touching Vash’s cheek, sliding his fingers through the hair at his temples, darkened by rot. “I was supposed to take care of you, too.”

Vash closes his eyes. He rests his forehead on Knives’ knee for a moment, shoulders moving with slow, deliberate breaths. Then he looks up again, a smile on his face. “Better late than never.”