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They get jumped at a little trading outpost they stopped at to buy extra rations.
The place is truly tiny, so tiny they don't even have a plant. It's just a cluster of six or so buildings, two of which are residential. Roberto is arguing with the owner of the general store over cigarette prices, Wolfwood is sitting on the hood of the van listening to the radio, and Meryl has wandered off to take some pictures.
The bandits after Vash's bounty choose to strike after they're all separated, and one goes for Meryl.
Vash hears the faint click of the hammer of a revolver being cocked, and he spins around just in time to see the leader is raising his gun at her back.
Vash is across the street to the bandits in a heartbeat.
He grabs the barrel of Bandit One's gun and wrenches it skyward, the shot firing wildly into the air. Two runs at him, gets right up in his space, and Vash dodges his whole pistol mag at point blank range, moving so fast Two can't keep up.
Vash kicks sand into One's eyes and sends him doubling over, stumbling back into Two, and they both topple to the ground in a heap. Wild gunfire comes from Three behind him and Vash drops into a backbend to evade the shots. He spins around on his hands without rising to kick the gun out of her hand and catches it midair, springing back upright to empty the clip into the sand between Four's feet.
The whole thing is over before Wolfwood has even scrambled off the car to bring the Punisher around on the bandits.
Vash is breathing hard, pointing the empty gun at the bandits, who have all crawled over to hide behind Four, the only one who still had a hold of a weapon.
"You're after me. Don't go threatening someone else in the process."
Vash racks the slide on the handgun, popping out the last chambered bullet. He catches it between the fingers of his prosthetic before it hits the ground.
"You should all probably leave now..."
He tosses the empty gun to the side where the bandits are now scrambling to get away, and he slides the bullet into his pocket as he turns around to face Meryl with his voice full of concern.
"Are you okay?"
She opens her mouth to answer, but the angry shouting from behind cuts her off.
"What the hell?! You just turned your back on them? You idiot, leavin' yourself wide open again like that!"
Wolfwood is dragging the Punisher across the sand, his other hand coming up to jab Vash in the chest with his index finger so hard he nearly falls over.
"Ah!" Vash yelps, smacking him away, but Wolfwood just keeps walking, just keeps jabbing.
"You didn't even stop to check if they were off the offensive! The way you were dodgin' all those bullets... Wouldn't even throw a punch... You won't even defend yourself? That sand trick was the stupidest... Thing... I've ever... Seen..."
Wolfwood punctuates each word with a hard poke to Vash's chest, until he's backed up against the side of the building.
"Hey! Wolfwood..." Vash manages, holding his arms up defensively, managing a laugh he hopes is disarming as he waves his hands back and forth. "It worked out in the end!"
Wolfwood's hand slams down on the adobe wall of the building beside his head, leaning in to whisper to Vash, teeth bared, showing his pointed canines.
"And next time when you're not so lucky?"
Wolfwood is so close Vash is having trouble answering clearly. He's so close he can smell the sweat on his skin, the smoke on his breath, the gun oil from the Punisher. He can feel the heat radiating off his body, feel his -
Oh.
Wolfwood's hard.
And pressing into his thigh.
"Is this really about how I handled the situation, Wolfwood?" Vash is flustered, sunburnt cheeks coloring further, looking up at Wolfwood through the fringe of his bangs with wide eyes.
Wolfwood coming onto him is neither unexpected nor unwanted - They've fucked before, many times, but they haven't talked about it, they won't talk about what it or what it may mean or how Wolfwood won't ever look him in the eyes after - but the situation is... Unorthodox.
It's not like Vash had done anything to get him like this.
He'd just dodged some bullets, disarmed some bandits -
It clicks in Vash's brain then, that Wolfwood is this worked up from watching him fight. Watching him spare those who wanted him dead. He feels a heat coiling in his belly, spreading down into his thighs, his core.
"Wolfwood, you're -"
"You two! I swear you're going to kill each other one of these days if you don't stop arguing!" Meryl rounds the corner then, hands on her hips, and the look Wolfwood shoots her is absolutely murderous.
"If you thought we were killin' each other then why'd you come over here to get stuck in the crossfire?" Wolfwood scowls, but he shoves off the wall from Vash, shifting to sling the Punisher over his shoulder with a huff and a roll of his eyes.
Vash notices the way he's standing, facing just enough to the side that Meryl can't see his front.
"To thank Vash! Come on, the store owner is chasing us out... Says we're bad for business..."
Wolfwood sneers a little at that and shakes his head, stalking out of the alleyway like an angry wet cat. He doesn't turn to look at Vash, but when Vash glances at him while jogging past to the van, he gives Vash a stare so openly hungry that Vash is still tingling from it when he throws himself into the backseat.
•••
Wolfwood has been giving him these looks all day following their hasty departure from the outpost.
Ever since they loaded back into the van he's been flashing his eyes at Vash behind his sunglasses, muscles in his jaw tense, fingers gripping the Punisher's belts so tight the dark brown skin of his knuckles has gone pale.
Meryl hits an uneven patch of sand and the van jostles, hard, and Vash is sent careening into Wolfwood's side.
"Sorry..." Vash mumbles sheepishly, bracing his hands on Wolfwood's thigh to shift back into a sitting position.
His touch makes Wolfwood go tense all over, and he jolts forward in his seat so hard Vash is sent flying across the seat again, back onto his own side.
"When are we fuckin' stoppin' for the night, little girl? I gotta piss." Wolfwood's voice is uncharacteristically strained, and there's a faint growl to his words that Vash has only noticed when he's been in combat.
"Too much information!" Meryl laments, struggling to right the wheel, sighing as she checks the positions of the suns in the sky, now dipping low behind the horizon. "Now is good a time as any, I guess..."
Vash notices the way some of the tension bleeds out of Wolfwood at Meryl's words, and when he settles back in his seat, he looks directly at Vash for the first time since the outpost.
He raises his eyebrows.
Vash raises his in return, blinking expectantly.
Wolfwood cuts his eyes down between Vash's legs, so brazenly it makes Vash blush, then back to his face. Raises his eyebrows again.
It's a question Vash knows well.
Vash bites his lip, feeling electricity tingling through his body, all the way down to his core, fingers curling on the edge of the seat from the look in Wolfwood's eyes - Hungry. Possessive. Wanting.
Vash nods.
The grin that curls across Wolfwood's face then is absolutely predatory.
•••
Wolfwood is antsy all through setting up camp and cooking dinner, snapping at anything even remotely sarcastic Roberto says, jiggling his leg when he sits, chain-smoking even worse than usual.
"What's gotten into him?" Meryl asks, mystified, as she watches Wolfwood pace the edges of the camp like a prowling animal.
Vash shrugs with a smile, eyes crinkling up in the picture of innocence, and Meryl smiles back, offering Vash the last of her rice (which he refuses, and makes sure she eats instead).
He glances at Wolfwood over her shoulder and his heart skips a beat when he sees how intensely Wolfwood is staring at him.
Vash insists on taking the first and second watches, citing his lower need for sleep and how he's not really tired. Meryl protests, but yawns halfway through, so it's a battle she quickly loses. Roberto is all too happy to collapse into his sleeping bag without so much as a word, and Meryl is softly snoring after about ten minutes of tossing and turning.
"Finally," Wolfwood growls, throwing his cigarette down as he stalks across the sand to Vash, pushing him up against the side of the van as their lips crash together.
Vash can't help the little moan that slips out of him as Wolfwood drags his fingers down his torso, tongue pushing into his mouth, hand slipping between them and into Vash's pants.
"You're gonna have to be quiet, needle-noggin," Wolfwood breathes into the kiss with a grin, sharp around the edges as he cups Vash's cunt through his underwear, rubbing two fingers down the length of his folds. "Don't wanna wake 'em up."
Vash chokes out a sound that may or may not be indignancy as his back arches off the van door, and Wolfwood takes the opportunity to kiss him harder, tongue licking deep inside his mouth.
"You're a fuckin' tease, you know that?" Wolfwood murmurs, his fingers slipping into Vash's underwear, thumb finding his clit immediately. "Bet you do it on purpose."
There's a flirtatious edge to his voice that tells Vash he's messing around a bit, playing things up just for him, and Vash briefly wonders how he's gotten so close to him he recognizes his subtle tone changes.
"Gettin' me all worked up all day."
It's Vash who deepens the kiss then, kisses him back open mouthed and wet, strings of saliva connecting their lips every time they briefly draw back to breathe. Wolfwood's rolling his clit between his fingers, coaxing it out of its hood and to full hardness, flicking his thumb over the head in just a way that makes Vash cry out.
Wolfwood catches the sound in his mouth, muffling it with a kiss, and he grins against his lips as he slides two fingers inside Vash, spreading apart in a v-sign to stretch him open.
"Thought I told you to be quiet."
Vash makes a strained sound between a laugh and a groan as he rolls his hips down onto Wolfwood's hand, hands fisting in the fabric of his suit jacket for something to hold onto, panting into their kiss.
"Can't help it," Vash whispers back raggedly, head falling back against the van window as Wolfwood's head buries into his neck, teeth leaving sharp little bites on his throat over the fabric of his high collar. "Can't help how you make me feel."
Wolfwood crooks his fingers right then, right up against Vash's most sensitive spot, and he must know the rhythm of Vash's body during sex enough now to know the sound he's about to make at that is unholy, because he bites him hard enough on the neck to cut off any noise.
Vash's lips part in a soundless gasp, and his back arches so hard his head bangs into the window with a loud thwack.
They both freeze. Vash is still holding Wolfwood by the shoulders, Wolfwood's fingers are still buried in Vash's cunt, both their chests are heaving from arousal and panic.
Twenty feet away, in the sleeping bag circle by the fire, Meryl rolls over and snuffles a little, but she doesn't wake up.
Vash covers his mouth to stifle a manic giggle as he stares at her sleeping back for a few moments, then back at Wolfwood, who can't seem to keep the grin off his own face.
"Damn," he whispers, fingers immediately scissoring open inside Vash to stretch him wide, causing Vash to yelp an aroused whine into his palm. "Can't take you nowhere, blondie."
"Shut up," Vash strains as his hand drops from his face, mouth twitching as he fights off a smile, biting the tip of his tongue as Wolfwood works him open further on his fingers.
"I'm not the one makin' enough noise to bring the feds down on our heads in the middle of the night."
Vash pouts at that, mouth opening to protest, but Wolfwood kisses it right out of him. Their teeth clack together and their tongues drag over one another as they kiss, hungry and messy, Wolfwood's fingers pumping faster and faster into Vash, deeper and deeper.
"C'mon, needle-noggin, cum before my wrist starts to hurt," Wolfwood grouses as he separates from the kiss, biting Vash on the jaw in mock annoyance.
Vash opens his mouth to argue, but then Wolfwood pushes the rough pads of his fingers directly into Vash's most sensitive spot, and Vash cums so hard he has to bury his face into Wolfwood's neck to muffle the shout.
He can feel Wolfwood's teeth on his jaw as he grins, working his fingers harder inside Vash, his thumb rubbing his clit faster and faster until Vash is making shivery little sobs and whines into his shirt, pulling hard against his jacket as the overstimulation spreads through his body.
Wolfwood shifts back from Vash with a smirk, slowly drawing his fingers from Vash and his hand out of his pants. He locks eyes with Vash as he opens the car door behind him with his free hand, shoving him by the chest almost playfully into the backseat.
"Didn't know you could do that on command."
Vash blushes the same red as his coat as he wiggles back into the seat, pulling down his pants and underwear to his knees, just enough to spread his thighs, putting his pussy on full display to Wolfwood.
"S-shut up. I was close anyway."
"Mhm," Wolfwood deadpans as he unbuckles his belt and undoes his zipper, pulling the waistband of his underwear down just enough to free his cock.
Vash notes with no small pleasure that he's rock-hard and flushed scarlet, precum beading up from his head.
Wolfwood wraps the hand covered in Vash's wetness around his dick, stroking up and down a few times to slick himself up. The sight makes Vash dizzy and a white-hot bolt of arousal spears through him, his breath catching in his throat.
"Hurry up," Vash hisses quietly, flush creeping all the way to his ears.
Wolfwood shoots him a wicked grin as he crawls on top of him in the backseat, shifting one knee to the floorboards and bracing his arm on the opposite door.
"Now you know how I felt all day."
Wolfwood glances down to Vash's cunt, shiny with slick, and pulls him open with two fingers as he lines himself up. Vash feels a little frisson of something in his chest when he catches how Wolfwood's pupils blow wide, how his breathing goes erratic when he looks at him.
Wolfwood thrusts as deep inside him as he can go with one hard roll of his hips, and his hand instinctively goes up to clamp over Vash's mouth, muffling the loud cry of delight the second it leaves Vash's lips.
"Dammit," Wolfwood breathes a short laugh as he pushes deeper into Vash until he bottoms out, stilling for just a moment to catch his breath. "So fuckin' loud."
Vash bites his palm then and Wolfwood grunts, ready to remove his hand, but Vash's eyes are sparkling with a mischief that makes him just tighten his grip instead. Wolfwood rolls his eyes hard as he slowly draws almost all the way out of Vash, and then snaps back in to the hilt, and Vash's high-pitched whine is once again lost to Wolfwood's palm.
"Gonna have to finish like this or you'll wake half the planet," Wolfwood drawls as he starts to fuck Vash in earnest, setting a bruising pace nearly immediately, hips pounding into him hard, fast, needy.
"Wolfwood," Vash moans against his skin, muffled and mostly inaudible, hands scrabbling for something, anything to hold onto. He settles for winding the seatbelt around his prosthetic and digging his organic fingers into the back of the driver's seat headrest.
"Te tengo," Wolfwood pants under his breath as he rolls his hips into Vash hard, fingers scraping over the car door by Vash's head. "Eres mio."
Wolfwood always speaks in a language Vash doesn't understand when they're fucking. Vash wonders if he even realizes he's doing it, or maybe if he's doing it on purpose - Keeping secrets out loud, hiding what he really wants to say in plain sight. Vash wishes he understood, because it's like music to his ears, and he melts at the sound.
Wolfwood's hand trembles against Vash's mouth as his pace becomes more erratic, less measured, faster and more frenzied. Electricity courses through Vash as he realizes Wolfwood's close. He rocks his hips down in time to encourage him, shifting just a little to feel him slide deeper at a new angle, earning Vash a faint growl for his efforts.
"Close," Wolfwood pants raggedly, and his eyes meet Vash's then, locking on, grey staring into blue. "Can I cum inside -"
Vash is nodding against his hand before Wolfwood even finishes his sentence, his cunt absolutely throbbing from the thought alone. Vash's enthusiastic consent is all the permission Wolfwood needs, and he gives one final thrust as he spills inside Vash with a quiet, hoarse gasp.
Wolfwood fucks him through his own orgasm, the head of his cock pushing up against Vash's deepest walls as he fills him up, and the combination of the pressure, the stretch, the sensation of being full has Vash cumming again. He cries out Wolfwood's name, the sound muffled into the other man's palm as his back arches off the seat, grip yanking so tight on the seatbelt it locks up and traps his arm against the door.
Wolfwood collapses against Vash with a shaky sigh as he finishes, hand slowly sliding off his mouth to drop to the floorboards of the car. Vash's chest is heaving up and down, his eyes closed, taking in the warmth of Wolfwood's cum inside him and his body on top of him.
He wants to wrap his arms around him, to pull him close and kiss him and tell him how good that was, but by the time he frees his hand from the seatbelt and reaches for him, Wolfwood is already pulling out and pulling away, sliding off of Vash with a shiver.
"Damn," Wolfwood says with a faint tremor in his voice as he tucks himself back into his underwear, fastening his pants and belt back up. "Damn."
He won't look at Vash. He never looks at him right after.
Vash's chest throbs with a faint ache he's becoming familiar with whenever Wolfwood retreats from him, when he acts like this is all just something physical, something fun, some way to get out their pent-up mutual aggression.
Vash is starting to realize that's not what it is for him. But it's not fair to Wolfwood to tell him otherwise - Vash is dangerous, a poison to everyone he meets, bringing chaos and strife wherever he goes, and he doesn't want Wolfwood entangled in that more than he has to be.
Besides, it's not like Wolfwood has ever expressed any interest in moving things beyond their charged bickering and quick fucks in corners and cars.
It's probably for the best things stay the way they are.
"Smoke?" Wolfwood offers his cigarette to Vash after Vash has staggered back to his feet and did a quick, half-assed cleanup with a bottle of water and a rag from under the seat, doing a hop-skip to get his pants back up his hips.
He half-expects Wolfwood to make a snarky comment about it but he doesn't. He's oddly subdued, especially after the heated words that were slung from both sides during their fuck.
"Thanks," Vash says as he takes the cigarette from him, taking a long drag as he leans against the satellite trailer next to Wolfwood.
The filter tastes like Wolfwood's mouth.
"You wanna get some sleep, blondie?" Wolfwood asks, and when he takes the cigarette back from Vash, their fingers brush. Wolfwood pulls away first.
"Sure, thanks," Vash responds, jaw setting a little harder than usual. "Wake me up for next watch."
Vash climbs onto his little sleeping nest on top of the van without a further word and watches Wolfwood stare up at the stars, like they can answer every unasked question he's ever had, until his eyelids are too heavy to keep open any longer.