I wagered on God in a kind stranger

[anthophilia]

[ There had been a while when he’d been terrified. Worried that maybe making a baby would drain Vash the way healing the Plants does, that it would take something from him. But he’s trying to be better about that kind of thing; Vash was willing to give everything to make the world safer for humans, and now that he has room to live for himself, Wolfwood needs to let him do that the way he wants.

He’s pretty sure he was worried for nothing. He’s never seen Vash happier, brighter, or more alive than he is with the baby.

The world isn’t perfect, but he’s come to terms with the fact that it doesn’t need to be. It’ll never be so safe that there’s no threat at all, nothing that could possibly harm them. But they’re closer than he ever thought they could have been. Knives – or Nai, as he’s going to have to get used to calling him – is out there, somewhere, no longer hellbent on the destruction of everything that isn’t a plant. He checks in with Vash from time to time – something made possible by a lot of hard work by Vash, Luida and Brad. They’ve tried to explain it to him a number of times, using examples ranging from radio waves to a network of tubes, and he still doesn’t get it. It doesn’t really matter if he doesn’t understand it – the important part is that is works. The Plants can communicate with each other now even over great distances, and it turns out that happy Plants are way more productive. The goal is still a world where they’re not reliant on Plants for everything but the girls are happy to help out, and most of them are now housed where they can look out over the settlements and towns they support, watching over the people they care for as the world slowly becomes one where flora takes root and transforms the soil into something nourishing rather than dry and barren. Vash goes out and visits them, letting people know if something needs changing to keep the Plant happy and comfortable, sometimes just to chat with them – it’s different face-to-face than over their little network, he says. It’s kind of a steady job for him now: Plant Advocate and Counsellor. Sometimes he’ll laugh out of nowhere, and Wolfwood has long since learned not to ask why because he doesn’t get Plant Humour. He did get it when the baby arrived, though – Vash had been holding the kid when he’d suddenly closed his eyes, tipped his head to the side, and started to cry gently, and the baby went silent and still. Wolfwood had freaked, predictably, and Vash had taken his hand, placed it on a patch of feathers that had appeared with all the emotion, and his mind had filled with a sound like nothing he’d ever heard; inhuman, like a wet finger on a crystal glass or the sound you’d think a star would make. Haunting, but somehow beautiful, joyful. Vash had opened his eyes, still wet with tears, smiled wide, and told him: My sisters are singing.

It's all quiet now, though. Vash is tucked up on the sofa, drowsy from a nap with the baby still conked out on his chest. Wolfwood had taken the opportunity to make an easy dinner – pasta for them, a bottle ready to go for the kid – and wolfed his down just watching them as they slept. Seeing Vash stir, he’d gone to get a bowlful, holds it out to trade for their tiny little miracle. ]

Sleep well?

Comments

[spiculatus]

[ it finally feels like vash might be seeing the kind of world rem always wanted.

plants and people working together to build a better home; the unforgiving desert slowly giving way to creeping patches of green. luida even told him that nai’s been helping propagate the new plants — he still keeps himself at a distance from humans, but there are stories around the settlements of the strangely dressed man who appears and makes the plants bloom. their sisters are happier, too; they don’t speak to one another in a language that consists of words, but the spill of information that comes over the plant network is always wrapped in happiness, impressions of the towns they’re finally allowed to see and the people who finally know enough to pay them visits. initial efforts at farming are finally beginning to yield crops, lost technology has been useful in efforts to seek out water deep beneath the planet’s surface and dig out wells, and there’s even been talk of harnessing more lost tech to build a rail system to connect the settlements and make travel and the sharing of resources faster and safer.

but, selfishly? the thing that makes vash happiest of all is what he has right here.

he and wolfwood had settled back at the homeland orphanage, livio in tow. at first, they’d been crowded right in along with the kids and the other caretakers, but wolfwood had thrown himself at the challenge of building them a little cottage on the grounds. (and whenever vash had tried to give him credit for what a sweet gesture it was, wolfwood usually just went pink and grumped out something about being sick of having an audience whenever he wanted to play grab-ass with vash.) sure, the place is a little ramshackle; there isn’t a single wall in it that’s perfectly straight, the building materials are a mix of whatever they had on hand, and it has just enough of a lean from the outside for the kids at the orphanage to refer to it as “the crooked house”, but vash loves it.

and for a few years, that had been enough. they still brought up the idea of kids of their own as an idle sort of fantasy, but nothing ever panned out and none of the ship’s records had anything helpful on the topic. (although brad did admit, gruffly, that he’d destroyed a batch of records on the subject years back — but he’d sworn up and down that there wasn’t anything useful in them, and insisted it was nothing vash would have wanted to see.) besides! they had all the kids they could ever want at the orphanage, so it was impossible to feel any real heartache about having to keep that little bit of their dream on the shelf.

then another one of those heats had rolled around, and now? here they are.

as far as babies go, vash is convinced theirs is the most perfect one that’s ever existed. a head of downy blonde hair, a body full of fat little baby rolls, and lungs strong enough to bring down the house whenever he’s got a complaint to register with management. (vash likes to say — at 3AM bottle feeds, when wolfwood is at max cranky — that rem always said he was a perfect baby who almost never cried, but that miss melanie swore that wolfwood could wail loud enough to break glass when he was this age. wolfwood never thinks that the see? he takes after you! jokes are very funny.) it’s hard to tell how many plant characteristics he might have inherited; he’s aging at the rate of any normal human baby, no glowing or feathers spotted so far, and there’s a part of vash that hopes he’ll be lucky enough to end up as a perfectly ordinary human. but either way, vash couldn’t possibly love him more. ]

Think we both did. [ keeping his voice low, because their little one is still drowsing. but he reaches up to grab at one of wolfwood’s arms and tug him down on the couch with them before he trades him — baby for pasta. the baby fusses a little right as he’s handed off, but he always seems to settle as soon as he’s tucked into wolfwood’s arms; it makes vash’s heart ache to see how good wolfwood is with him, all the love and pride and wonder written all over his face when he looks down at what they made together. ]

[anthophilia]

[ He takes the baby gently, clutches him close. Bows his face to get a good sniff of baby head - ahh, that's the good stuff - and takes the chance before he settles back down to give one fat thigh a squeeze. He's always liked kids, but thought of babies as the annoying part you had to put up with to get there. This little guy, though? He's irresistable. Squishy and sweet, perfect in every way. They'd asked for some quiet time to adjust in these first few weeks, but daylight hours still bring a stream of kids from the orphanage promising they'll be so, so quiet - often accompanied by either Livio or Miss Melanie, who claim to be there to hustle the kids out if they make so much as a peep but always manage to wrangle a cuddle.

The first time Wolfwood had told Livio to make himself useful and handed him a bottle, the sight of his face as he cradled the baby and offered the milk - first nervous, then surprised at how fiercely the little sprout latched on, then overcome with tenderness - had healed something in Wolfwood. He's pretty sure it healed something in Livio, too. ]

Good. Gotta get your beauty sleep for your adoring public, huh?

[ The baby nestles in, gives a little sigh and goes right back to sleep. Lucky. Wolfwood's smile is still achingly tender as he looks back at Vash. ]

How're you feeling? Everything good?

[ Hey, when the love of your life brings your child into the world you gotta be grateful and solicitous even if it is a lot less inconvenient than the way humans do it. He does wonder, sometimes, how it would have gone if it had been a plant and a human woman - but as much as he's working on forgiving Nai, he kinda hopes he doesn't have a chance to find out. ]

[spiculatus]

They’re definitely his fans, not mine.

[ and okay, maybe vash knows that’s not entirely true. the day they’d moved out of the orphanage and into the crooked house, there had practically been a riot, with tears and tantrums and one particularly bold little boy who’d promised to fight wolfwood for him, but! no point rubbing his fan club in wolfwood’s face, right?

but vash is currently earning the right to be looked at with such tender devotion by stuffing his face full of pasta, enough so that the only reply he can manage at first is a thumbs up. hang on, chewing… swallowing… ]

Better than good. [ with a little nudge to wolfwood’s side, careful not to jostle their little sprout. ] Room service around here really goes above and beyond.

[anthophilia]

[ Wolfwood knows that's not true, but he's not worried.

He could take a kid in a fight.

Besides, the face-stuffing is worthy of adoration, as far as he's concerned. Vash had told him once that he doesn't actually need to eat, or at least not nearly as often as humans do. Seeing the terraforming had started to help that make a little more sense - most flora will grow if you stick it in dirt and make sure it has light and water, but give them some extra nutrients and they thrive. Vash eats more now - usually more than once a day, even - and it brings Wolfwood joy to see him doing it, not weighing it up as if it's something he could deserve or not. Even more joy to provide for it, even if he's getting a lot of help from the orphanage staff. Life hack: make pasta sauce at the orphanage, because then the fact that you never learned to cook for fewer than 20 people isn't a problem and you can just cart a little pottle of it home with you to heat up with the noodles. ]

Only the best for my babydaddy.

We gotta think of a name. The kids are threatening to do it by popular vote. Wouldn't mind having the responsibility taken out of my hands, but the current frontrunners are Vash Deluxe and Rocketbaby.

[spiculatus]

[ listen! vash likes all of wolfwood's nicknames, but babydaddy feels like a badge of honor.

(even if it had gotten a chorus of ewwws from the kids the first time wolfwood had dropped it in front of an audience.) ]

Okay, but you have to admit, both those names are pretty awesome. [ like, how can you not have a really cool life with a name like rocketbaby? ] Pretty sure Livio's been the one trying to sneak in extra votes for Nico Jr.

[anthophilia]

The only one.

[ Trying to sound dark about it, but he's laughing - quietly, because he's still holding Rocketbaby and the noise from an unplanned ignition can be terrifying.

It's hard, trying to come up with a name for the most perfect person you know. They probably could get away with using Vash, and Vash is worth naming a child after, but given that Wolfwood pretty much only uses that name when things are either dire or... uh, intimate, it doesn't sit right. Livio had suggested blending their names - the baby's a mix of both of them, after all - but everything Wolfwood had been able to come up with had been dumb. Vasholas? Nish? No. ]

I was lookin' through some old records. Apparently a lot of names for people used to be for plants, too. Regular plants, I mean, flora. Used to be a Jasmine at the orphanage, turns out that was a flower back in the old days. I dunno if that would be... insulting?

[ Is it racist to Plants to compare them to plants? He's talking to one of two people who could make the call on that, as far as he knows. ]

[spiculatus]

[ okay! listen! vash knows The Face wolfwood always makes whenever vash makes an off-handed remark (or two) about hoping the baby doesn't end up inheriting any plant traits from him. but... ]

Kinda feels like we'd be jinxing it. [ he reaches out to rub the pad of his thumb affectionately along the bottom of one of those tiny, perfect baby feet, earning a sleepy burble in response. wolfwood is like a sleepy baby magician -- vash has seen miss melanie dump a wailing infant in his arms, and wolfwood always seems to get them to drop off within minutes. human magic! ] Like we should give him the most human name possible.

[anthophilia]

[ He doesn't make the face. It's a close thing, but being a Plant is basically the cause of every trauma Vash has ever suffered. He gets not wanting to pass that down. ]

That'd probably be Adam.

[ He looks down at the little bundle in his arms. Could he be an Adam? Maybe. It's not a bad name, and he's the first of his kind, that they know of. Feels like kind of a heavy burden for such a small person, though. ]

Normal name for a normal life, huh? Like John. Joe. Dave. [ The idea of a tiny baby named Dave makes him huff a little laugh. ] Charles. Bob.

[ Oh. ]

[spiculatus]

[ adam might hit a little too close to home after they only narrowly escaped eden, but the rest of the names are enough to get vash grinning. it always seems extra silly to saddle something so teeny-tiny with a grown man's name -- he's pretty sure brad would be thrilled to pieces if he had a namesake running around, even if he did everything he could to pretend otherwise.

but then.

oh. ]

... Roberto. [ it's a little too grown up for that chubby little face, but. vash drops his cheek on wolfwood's shoulder and smiles down at their little one, his expression soft. ] We could call him Robbie.

[anthophilia]

[ Robbie fits him well - chubby cheeks, cheerful eyes, those little gurgles that Miss Mel swears aren't laughs because he's too young but Wolfwood swears are - partly because he wants their child to always be happy, always laughing, and partly because he's heard it close on the heels of a fart once too often to think it's coincidence.

And Roberto, of course. There'd been hidden depths to that one. Pragmatic, but with a big heart. Wolfwood's glad he had the chance to see them and share a (mostly silent, admittedly) drink or two. ]

A damn fine name. For a damn fine man, and the best baby.

[ He turns enough to press a kiss into Vash's hair, smiling as he does. ]

Let's just hope he manages to outgrow Robbie Rocket, 'cause you know that's what those little terrors are gonna call him.

[spiculatus]

[ it's perfect. vash hadn't really believed it when miss melanie said they'd just know once they stumbled across the right name, but now? he's got to admit that she might've known what she was talking about. ]

No way! [ which comes out a little louder than he intends, and gets a fussy sound from mr. rocket in return, so vash reaches out until robbie can curl the fingers of one little hand around one of his fingers, editing himself down into a whisper. ] No way.

Why would I want him to outgrow a cool nickname like that?

[anthophilia]

[ Just that little gesture makes Wolfwood's heart melt. Vash reaching out, the baby - Robbie - curling fat little fingers around Vash's long, slender one, the way he settles immediately once he does.

He knows them. He knows he's safe with them, loved, calms at a touch. It's perfect, and he looks at Vash with a lump wedged firmly in his throat. ]

You're right. He's gonna be the kind of kid who loves that name. Adult, too, probably. I can already tell. He's gonna be forty and have given us grandkids and he'll still be Robbie Rocket.

[spiculatus]

[ okay! look! at this point, vash knows it’s stupid. wolfwood has promised vash that they’re going to spend the rest of their lives together at least a hundred times over by now, and vash knows that the last kind of person wolfwood would ever been is anyone that would dip out on a kid.

… but it’s the first time in a long, long time that vash has ever let himself have anything long-term. even let himself think about it. and the idea still has a way of creeping up on him, surprising him, when he least expects it. ]

Grandkids? [ his eyes are stinging with tears, but good ones. ] You really think —?

[anthophilia]

Look at him. Handsome little guy, charming personality. Someone's gonna want to lock him in and start a family.

[ He leans just enough to peck a kiss on Vash's cheek without disturbing Mr Rocket, and smiles. ]

We get to spoil him rotten, and then be even worse with his kids.

[spiculatus]

Yeah. Yeah, no, you're right, of course you are.

[ and hey, one thing they've learned after a week spent in the company of mr. rocket is that nothing tends to set off a bout of wailing faster than vash crying, so. he ducks his head forward to wipe his eyes on wolfwood's sleeve before any of those tears can spill over, beaming from ear-to-ear. ]

You think this place is big enough? Kinda sounds like we're gonna have to add on.

[anthophilia]

On the left side. It'll prop up the rest of it.

[ Dryly. But hey, he's sure all the practice from building this means the next part'll be much straighter! It's a nice thought; the little house growing to accommodate a growing family. And maybe when Robbie is old enough to have a family of his own he'll want his own place, somewhere his aging parents aren't constantly chasing each other around, but there'll always be room for them here. A nest to return to. ]

Room for all the family. And... siblings, maybe? You can't deny we knocked this one out of the park.

[spiculatus]

Duh.

[ it's an easy answer, immediate. not just because they've traded that little daydream back and forth until it's as familiar to him as wolfwood's skin under his fingertips; a bright-haired little boy and a dark-haired little girl, often more of them running through the house until it's bursting at the seams. it's a little bit of a challenge, considering they're both a little fuzzy on the details of exactly how they got mr. rocket here, but vash is pretty confident wolfwood is down to keep at it until they figure things out. ]

We can't just let him be lonely. [ like he doesn't already have a whole orphanage full of brothers and sisters to play with. ] Besides, if we make kids this cute, it's like we're doing the whole world a favor.

[anthophilia]

Hear that, bud? You have an important duty to grow up strong and good and pass on your papa's good looks.

[ Ever so softly, whispered down to Robbie. ]

We'll do our best. Fix you up with some cute siblings, teach you about the world. We're trying to make it better for you. It's happening already.

[ And then he's gotta clamp down on that, because there are already two criers in this family and it doesn't need a third! ]

[spiculatus]

[ most of the time, vash still fully expects this to be a dream. at any moment, he figures he's going to wake up back in some too-small bed at some run-down inn, a spring from the mattress digging into his side and wolfwood snoring into his shoulder. what they have feels too good, too perfect to be real.

but the moments always tick by, and vash finds that the dream hasn't faded. he's still here, nestled in with his tiny, perfect family. ]

How many siblings, you think? [ there's a tease in his voice, fingertips rubbing gently along the knobs of spine at the nape of wolfwood's neck. ] Four? Five? Six, maybe?

Wonder if we should just keep going until they stop coming out so cute.

[anthophilia]

[ He grins. Vash has a sibling, sure, but nothing demonstrates his nonstandard sibling experience quite like that. ]

Never say that when he's awake. Doesn't matter how good we raise him, the temptation of "you came out ugly and that's why they stopped" is gonna be too great.

s'a good plan, though.

[spiculatus]

That just means we're never allowed to stop!

[ obviously! wolfwood better crack the secrets on immortality and erectile dysfunction. ]

You don't wanna give one of our kids a complex, right? [ nudging playfully at wolfwood's side. ] We're counting on you, Daddy.

[anthophilia]

[ Oh

oh no.

The context is clear! The context is wrong! But still. He presses his lips together, stifling a laugh. He is not, thank god, about to get a boner while holding their baby, but still. ]

I'm gonna need you to never call me that again.

Liked it a little too much.

[spiculatus]

[ vash snorts at him, eyes bright with amusement. ]

Oh yeah? You know that means I'm just gonna want to call you that more later.

[anthophilia]

Careful. Maybe save it for when this one's potty trained.

[ But he's laughing too, quiet as he can, and leans in to press a kiss to Vash's mouth. Which is about the point that Robbie makes a cranky little sound and flails one chubby little arm up to smack him in the chin, only provoking further laughter. ]

See? He's not ready to stop being an only child yet.

[spiculatus]

[ if this one is just as jealous for vash's attention as the little ones back at the orphanage, they're in trouble. but why make wolfwood fret over his impending doom sooner than he has to?

so vash hooks his chin over wolfwood's shoulder instead, beaming down at their baby. ] Wow. He got your right hook, huh? The world better watch out.