Chapter Text
The moments Nai implodes always start with silence.
Vash tilts the passenger seat back as far as it’ll go, so he doesn’t have to watch.
His raw legs slip onto the dashboard. The snow packed into his soles, layers of frozen snot, the cum from his weeping cervix all melt into shallow pools on the leather interior.
It’s rare for Vash to call him crying. Nai’s the one who blasts through his voicemail, always getting cut off mid sentence and phoning back to keep his panic going. By the 15th unanswered call, Nai usually pulls himself together. Vash is either fried past the point of speech, laid out on someone’s couch, or finding his way home through a string of miracles.
Today, they don’t even make it to the resolution.
He’s waiting for Nai to show up at his apartment begging for an explanation, so he can pacify him with an embellished truth or a cheap lie depending on which upper or downer is winning that day. Or for Nai to lead with “rehab,” so Vash can hold his legs open until he forgets Vash is a shadow dragging his life around.
Rinse, repeat.
“You’re not even gonna ask me who did it?”
Nai’s eyes fix to the road. The edge of his jaw moves around words.
Of course, he’s not. That’s not how this works.
Still, it’s been months since someone managed to throw Vash into the gutter before he could do it himself, years since the last time Nai had anyone besides him to rail against.
“You’re not even a little curious?”
Angry? Pent up? Bored?
The chill Vash invites into the car settles over everything, turns Nai’s spine into a metal rod, shows up as a low jittery buzz in the back of Vash’s throat. His legs vibrate above him, draining the blood to his skull. He shouldn’t be able to feel that.
The running list of things stolen from him gets longer: Nai’s emergency credit card, $160 worth of Xans and the 8 ball he needed to survive this week, his phone, his arm, his underwear, his peace of mind.
Yeah, he can’t do this.
He needs to bar out in his own bed. He wants to take a long forever kind of nap, but it’s too late: the passenger door won’t open until Nai’s does.
Vash jams his bottom lip between his teeth. Nai pulls the seatbelt across his lap like a joke and speeds past his exit.