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Vash has been fidgety all evening, Wolfwood’s begrudgingly noticed. It’s hard to miss the way Vash raps his pen against his notebook and bounces his leg, especially when the buckles of his boots keep rapping against the wood of the library chair. They’ve been at this for the last 2 hours, and Vash doesn’t seem the type who likes to stick in one spot for too long. Honestly, Wolfwood’s pretty sure he checked out mentally and started listening to his music about 20 minutes ago.
All of this to say, Wolfwood wouldn’t mind ditching the library himself. It was always too quiet, too calm here- makes him tired. Vash doesn’t have a goddamn thing in his dorm worth doing (Wolfwood notes to himself to try and get him like a TV or something, geeze), and Livio is out of the apartment until later that night for labs and a shift at the coffee shop. He taps his pen against his chin and watches Vash, whose eyes were glued to his book but not quite reading any of it.
“Oi,” Wolfwood says, watching Vash only flick his eyes towards him, “what’s the rest of your day look like?”
“Oh, uhhh… nothing really.” Vash shrugs, sitting back in his chair with an exhausted sigh. He stretches his legs out as he does, slotting them on either side of where Wolfwood has his ankles crossed. “Probably going to sit at the fountain and read or something. Why?”
“You wanna crash for a movie at my apartment? Just till you want me to take you home or whatever.”
A range of emotions flash over Vash’s face when he asks, and settles on something between flustered and hesitant enthusiasm. Wolfwood realizes a second later he did the college frat guy equivalent of asking to hook up completely unprompted. Lord, would it kill him to think for a second before he spoke?
Wolfwood interrupts any space for Vash to speak to clarify, waving his hands to metaphorically clear the air. “Not like that, shit, I realize how that sounds. Like an actual movie. That would be a lame ass line otherwise.”
Vash snorts a laugh, hiding it behind his hand in an attempt to stifle the volume, “Yeah, uh, I was about to say.”
“Oh fuck off.” Wolfwood huffs, crossing his arms. He could kill for a smoke and some cold air to ease his hot face right now.
“While I am going to have to turn down your propositioning me-” Wolfwood growls another, more drawn out ‘Fuck Off ’, “-I think that a movie’d be fun.” Vash smiles, and it’s the kind he likes to see on the blonde’s face. Wolfwood can’t help but offer a lopsided smile of his own.
“Sounds like a plan then. I’m parked just down the street if you’re down to walk.” But Vash is already shoving all his things in his bag, so Wolfwood doesn’t press for a response when Vash forgets to.
Vash is a veritable passenger princess for the total of 10 minutes it takes to grab fast food and drive back to his apartment- which is nothing new. He’s driven Vash around a couple times since they started studying together, and he’s gotten comfortable taking control of the aux and navigation. Wolfwood can infer enough about Vash’s missing arm to know his carefulness about distracting Wolfwood and double checking intersections is a habit borne of trauma, but it’s absolutely not going to stop him from getting said passenger princess label. Vash only pouted the time he brought it up, but has since used it to his advantage.
Nick regretfully admits that it’s sort of cute, but not anywhere Vash can hear him.
For all their nights killing time together, Vash hasn’t been to his apartment yet, something that only strikes Wolfwood as they’re climbing the steps to his floor. He knows him and Livio can leave the apartment in peculiar states of disarray… God, he hopes Livio tidied up before he left for work.
Vash is nice enough to juggle their food while Wolfwood unlocks the door, and he, unbeknownst to the blonde behind him, winces as he opens the door. It’s not… dirty , but it’s clearly lived in. There’s some empty cans from last night’s marathon of some new shitty reality show with Livio, and the dishes really need to be washed... But it doesn’t reek, and it doesn’t look like they threw a house party for two days straight, so Wolfwood breathes a sigh of relief and lets Vash through so he can shut the door behind him.
Vash takes everything in while he locks the door, humming slightly to himself and then looking at Wolfwood with a bright expression as he approaches to take some of the food off his hands.
“Sorry if it’s messy, kind of spur of the moment to invite you over.” Vash only shrugs with a scoff, shoving the straw of his drink in his mouth.
“You okay with hanging out in my room? We can stay out here if you’re uh, not cool with that.” Wolfwood is trying very hard to not imply he’s trying to jump Vash’s bones the second he gets him alone. He’s been trying to take this slow, and it seems like Vash is too. There’s something about genuinity here that keeps Wolfwood from trying to turn on his charm.
Vash, despite it all, rolls his eyes, “We can hang in your room, I’m not going to implode. You’ve seen my dorm, so it’s only fair” He adds at the end, indignantly. “Show you mine, show me yours, whatever they say.” He waves his drink in lieu of his full hands, and it’s Wolfwood’s turn to roll his eyes as he guides Vash to his door.
Wolfwood knows, at the least, his room is tidy, and that’s only because he did his laundry last night and that meant picking up his floor. His room isn’t remarkable by any means- Wolfwood frequents gray, gray, and darker gray for his decorating. It’s just easier to find anything masculine themed in neutral ass gray, he’s found.
His room isn’t huge either, big enough to house his full bed, an L desk, and his dresser on the wall opposite the door, tv stand and shelves on the other. A smaller slide closet keeps his pretty limited wardrobe safe. It’s good for what him and Livio split on rent.
Without hesitation, Vash moves to place their food on the desk, turning around and setting his hands on his hips and taking in the sights. Wolfwood cracks the door, as per him and Livio’s agreement about open doors meaning no inappropriate shenanigans are afoot, and just watches with his eyebrow raised.
There’s a few trinkets on his shelves, mostly gifts from friends and kids from his foster homes that he’s reconnected with. There’s some pictures, a few embarrassing gag gifts, and a lot of books and movies. He’s never owned anything worth risking his security deposit to hang on the walls, either.
“...This is pretty sad, I gotta say.”
Wolfwood throws up his hands with his third ‘Fuck off’ of the evening and grabs the remotes, flopping down on his bed. It’s positioned so it’s lengthwise against the wall, easy to lay on his side and watch TV when he’s feeling lazy. All about convenience.
“I’ll have to get you some plants, orrr maybe some suncatchers.”
“If I remember distinctly, all you have in your room is a mini fridge, some books, and alcohol?”
Vash narrows his eyes, “Hey. that’s different and you know it.”
“I also have more pillows than you-”
“-Also not fair!”
Vash finally sits beside Wolfwood, leaving about a foot of space between them as he starts to unbuckle his boots. Wolfwood’s not sure what possesses him to wear knee high, steel-toed boots to walk around campus in, but he can’t complain. They hug the curves of his calves in a way that Wolfwood prefers not to think about too hard.
Instead, he flips through whatever streaming services he’s been stealing from his friends. “Anything you have in mind?”
“Oh geeze,” Vash sighs, setting his boots to the side and stretching his legs. “You’re going to make me pick? All I watched as a kid was cheesy sci-fi and cowboy movies.” He grabs their food in the meantime, leaving Wolfwood to flip through things himself.
“Just pick one of your favorites or something. I’m pretty into anything.” Vash requests.
In the end, Vash stuffs his face with french fries like he hasn’t eaten in days (and Wolfwood ignores the nagging feeling he might not have) and they watch a cooking show for now, something that’s distracting enough while they eat. Vash steals a few of his fries once he finishes his own, and in the end Wolfwood relents and lets Vash have the rest of them.
It’s nice, the usual fall into bickering much more comfortable when they aren’t scared to get too close in front of others. Vash turned out to have a lot of opinions on food and how the chefs prepare it, and when he suggests they switch to watching something baking related, Vash turns out to have just as many opinions about that too.
Wolfwood concludes he has to get Vash over again, because whatever comfortable space they’ve settled into here is a breath of fresh air. It’s even worse when the window behind Vash casts a warm glow of setting sun on the room, catching on golden hair and long lashes.God, he’s so screwed, he’s even more screwed if his crazy fucking brother finds out.
He pushes that thought to the wayside when Vash checks his phone and perks up, flipping through a few emails. “Oh, shit, I might need to head back to my dorm. I have some stupid ass test due tonight and like 3 quizzes.” The grimace that sets on his features as he runs a hand through his hair makes Wolfwood frown- he wishes he has a better way to soothe it that wouldn’t be awkward.
Vash starts buckling his boots back on, and Wolfwood stands to grab his coat and keys.
“That’s fine, we can always hang out some other time. On Thursdays I open and Livio closes, so we can do something in the evening instead.”
And there it is, that shy sort of smile Vash only gives Wolfwood when Vash is almost sure he’s being hit on. He stands straight, watching Wolfwood with a warm expression.
“I’d like that. It’s nice to get off campus every once in a while.”
The drive home is quiet, windows rolled down to the cool, early spring air. It’s dark now, sun slipping behind the horizon as they had gotten buckled in.
There’s a sort of feeling that Wolfwood can’t quite explain that sits between them, the recognition of stepping into a new place with their situationship, maybe? Vash gazes out the window in the silence, but Wolfwood feels no pressure to fill the gap. Maybe it’s understanding too.
When he idles outside of Vash’s dorm, there’s a brief moment where they both don’t know what to say to each other, and Wolfwood wishes he was a braver man, so he could press a goodnight kiss to his cheek.
That twists something inside of him- he feels like a cliche, romance obsessed highschooler. Is this what seems so sweet to the characters in the shitty romance novels he’s read?
Vash smiles instead, though, soft and honest like before,
“Thanks for having me, Wolfwood.”
Wolfwood regrets how he resorts to deflecting, “You only gotta text me and we’ll hang out, it’s not that crazy, blondie.” but Vash only smiles a little wider.
“Yeah yeah, just let me know if you’re free. I can send you my schedule at the library or something and we can plan around that.”
Vash gives a little wave to Wolfwood as he closes the door and jogs up the sidewalk, and Wolfwood lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He’s going to get halfway through a pack before he makes it home.
The next week is the usual- catching Vash early in the mornings for his pre-9ams coffee, and then spending time after their shared class this semester to study or hang out. More commonly, it’s hanging out.
Wolfwood insists on taking him to the dining hall or caf or even to just the market to grab something for them to eat. It makes him feel better knowing Vash is eating in the first place, because Milly let it slip when they were exchanging notes that Vash has a tendency to skip meals, whether it be he forgets, doesn’t believe he deserves it, or because he simply can’t justify the cost.
Some pang of protectiveness rises in him at the idea that such a ray of sunshine could believe himself anything but perfect, but he cannot, in good conscience for his reputation in his apartment, ever voice that. He knows what it’s like to be on the other side of that sentiment.
Regardless, he texts Vash Wednesday and checks if he’s free, and gets a blessed yes. The runaround of studying and getting to his apartment is the same: grabbing dinner, taking the scenic route so Vash can show him some song, and then heading back to his room to hang out.
This time’s a little different- Wolfwood is admittedly exhausted. He woke up a little earlier because he had to actually open today, because the original opener called out. As soon as he’s finished eating he lays down, leaving room for Vash to sit and handing off the remotes to let him pick the movie.
“Sorry, I’ll watch but I’m tired as hell.” He offers as an explanation, but he sits up a bit so he doesn’t conk out immediately. “If you want you’re free to nap yourself.”
Vash fixes him with a look, contemplating. Wolfwood raises his arm and jokingly invites him in, and Vash, instead, looks a little more conflicted,
“No…like uh. No underlying motive, right?”
Wolfwood chuckles, adjusting a little to make more room and more wholeheartedly offer him a spot on the bed. Truthfully, Wolfwood is terrified of getting turned down or scaring Vash off.
“Nah, I just need a nap. I wouldn’t do anything unless you wanted it, sweetheart.”
Ohh, he hears himself say it like he’s Vash, hearing the words being spoken to him. Vash goes redder than he’s seen before, and he laughs nervously and looks away. “Alright, uh…” And slowly, hesitantly, Vash scoots to lay down in front of Wolfwood, and Wolfwood offers his arm to let him rest his head down on it.
He’s trying really, really hard to be normal about it, but Vash is so warm against him and smells like aftershave and some floral shampoo he’s probably using to keep his hair so soft. Wolfwood is overwhelmed by the need to wrap his arms around Vash and cling to him, let the last few months of feelings he’s acquired culminate into a show of affection that was the equivalent of a koala on a tree.
Instead, though, Wolfwood gently lays an arm over Vash and lets it rest there laxly. “This alright, blondie?”
Vash nods, too quick, but squirms a little to get comfortable before melting back into Wolfwood. “Yea, this is nice. You’re warm.” Vash hums contentedly and goes back to picking a movie. Truthfully, Wolfwood doesn’t know if he can fall asleep like this at first. The way his adrenaline pumps through his heart and makes him feel like a damned flustered highschooler again…
But inevitably the next minute passes, and the endorphins of contact filter out. It leaves him feeling just as drowsy as before. Shit, he wants to revel in having Vash pressed against him like this for as long as possible, but in the end he just noses against the downy hair on the back of Vash’s neck and dozes.
He wakes 30 minutes or so later, halfway through the setup for whatever ancient sci-fi movie Vash has put on. The sun is nearly below the horizon, room dark enough that only the light from the TV illuminates the blonde in front of him. In the time he’s been asleep, Vash has only melded closer, turned slightly towards Wolfwood as he watches. The soft glow of light on his features, well, Wolfwood’s right back where he was last week. Wolfwood contemplates spooking him, but Vash notices he’s awake and glances over, looking just as sleepy.
“Feel better?”
Feel better? God, Wolfwood feels the best he has in months, years even. The body contact is something he’s needed so desperately, and Vash is solid and grounding in his arms.
“Yeah,” is all he can manage, “needed the nap.” Wolfwood breathes a sigh, expelling the heavy air of sleep from his lungs and letting him and Vash just stare at each other for a moment.
Eventually Vash smiles, “You missed the first half of the movie, but I can explain it if you don’t understand.” He says, but it feels dishonest. Loaded. Vash means it, but his words seem to carry a weight that implies something else.
“Don’t worry, I can play catch up. Why don’t you sleep a little? You look tired.” He says, reaching up without thinking and brushing some stray strands of hair that were falling out of the carefully styled spikes.
Vash balks a little, but he catches himself before he hits the metaphorical ground, “Oh, ahah, it’s hard to sleep with my prosthetic still on.” He’s not lying, but again, it feels dishonest.
“Ah… that’s fair. You can always take it off while you’re here but I get if that’s like… a personal thing.”
Vash chuckles and shakes his head, scooting a little closer and tucking his face into Wolfwood’s shoulder, head still resting on his arm, “Nah, it’s not personal, I just forget that I can do that I guess. Plus, it’s sort of late and I don’t want to accidentally crash here.”
Cool , Wolfwood thinks, That’s totally cool and fine . Vash is so close, breath ghosting over his shoulder and chest, warming the near zero space between them. Like this, Wolfwood can curl the arm under Vash’s head around his shoulders and hold him closer, and really Wolfwood can’t see why he shouldn’t do that. He rubs slow, soothing circles over Vash’s back with his other hand, fingers rolling over the notches of his spine.
“This is going to sound like another bad line, but you should crash sometime. We can get high or something, Livio and I can cook for you… It’d be fun. Livio wants to hang out with you more too.”
Vash moves his face to peek an eye up at him, seafoam stare still as bright as ever in the darkness. “Livio wants to hang out with me?”
“Nothin’ bad. He just likes to make sure I’m not friends with some weirdo.”
“Ohh, well I’ve got bad news for him about you.” Vash says dramatically, squeezing his hand out from between them to put it on Wolfwood’s shoulder.
Wolfwood blows a puff of air in Vash’s face, pouting, “Be nice ya jackass!” There’s no bite behind his words- his lips quirking up in a smile when he says it surely gives him away.
The way Vash is smiling at him now, head laid comfortably on the soft part of Wolfwood’s bicep and his hand snaking to rest over Wolfwood’s side. Geeze, what was he saying last week about being screwed? About being public enemy #1 to this guy’s brother? He has to wonder what happened before that Vash didn’t have a dating pool a mile wide.
As they’re finally shrouded in the darkness of night time, Wolfwood concludes, as the last part of his train of thought, that he’s going to put the LED lights he bought months ago up, so he can see Vash a little better when he gives him that shy little smile again.
Carefully, slowly this time, Wolfwood raises his hand and tucks some of Vash’s hair back. He wants desperately, so so badly, to cup Vash’s cheek, rub his thumb over the impossibly smooth skin there, but he’s afraid of what it might imply. He doesn’t want Vash to feel cornered.
So instead, Wolfwood lets it sit between them, warm in the small space there. “You want me to take you home soon?”
Vash’s smile goes a little sad, a little remorseful, and he turns his head to nose it into the flesh of his arm. “Ugh, yeah, I guess I have to do that huh?”
“You can always stay here, but I know it’d be a little spur of the moment.”
“Yeaaah,” Vash says, sighing dramatically, “I’ve got an early shift tomorrow… But I’ve started asking for Fridays off when they can give’em, so I could stay next Thursday?”
“Livio will be a little too busy to do any cooking for you, but we can run that.”
Vash flashes right back to his bright smile, shoulders drawing up and making him look that much more adorable. Wolfwood’s heart skips a beat.
“You guys don’t need to make some fancy dinner for me! I think not sleeping in my dorm might be good for like, my mental health or something.”
“Oh god, anyone not sleeping in that thing would be a blessing. Now, c’mon, before they start getting all pissy at people over parking passes, cause I don’t have a pass for your lot”
Vash groans, and in what might be the saddest moment of Wolfwood’s life yet, pries himself out of the warmth of his grip and starts getting his coat and boots back on.
The ride home is still quiet this time, but instead Vash has put some indie song on, with a mixture of relaxing guitar and a woman leading the vocals. That feeling rises again, the one about being in some sort of cliche high schooler romance movie, and Wolfwood aches for nothing more than to follow its siren call. To peck Vash on the cheek and send him back to his dorm in high spirits, to cup a gentle hand on the back of Vash’s neck and pull him over the center console, stealing their first kiss so far… Ugh.
He grips the wheel a little tighter to not let his brain run those circles till it convinces him to do something stupid.
Instead, when they pull up to Vash’s dorm, Vash grabs all his things and fixes Wolfwood with that bright smile again. “Thank you again! You’ll see me when you see me, you know how it goes. Thanks for driving me home, also.” Vash waves while he’s still in the car this time, and then he’s over the parking lot and swiping into his hall.
Wolfwood waits till he’s out of sight completely to hit his head back against the headrest of his seat a couple times before driving back home. Stupid little blonde has him wrapped around his finger and he doesn’t even know it.