don’t think about a tristamp vashwood reincarnation au where vash can’t remember his last lives, only but getting flashes of deja vu and pangs of emotions he can’t understand
don’t think about a baby vash, waking up one night on the ship, screaming and crying hysterically, so unconsolable that even when nai fetches rem for help, she is helpless, only able to hold her son as he wails into chest, one tiny hand gripping the back of her shirt, nai’s pant leg balled up in the other
don’t think about rem asking vash what’s wrong when he finally stops crying, and all he can get out is a ragged, “I have to save him,” before a fresh round of tears well up, and he’s back to sobbing, now with renewed mumbling of, “I can’t save him, I have to, I have to,” with his mother and brother resigning themselves to a night of no sleep, never knowing who he was talking about
don’t think about vash and nai finding tesla, and vash already begging nai not to hate the humans, he can’t do it again, not again, please not this life, let them be happy in this life, let him be happy in this life, Vash can’t lose him again, but he knows his brother won’t listen, he never does, and Vash knows he’s lost the strange man from his dreams again
don’t think about vash and nai in that escape pod, nai reaching his hand out to rem, to his mother, please come with us, but vash already knows she won’t, she’s never done it before, she has to stay to save the man with the smokes, but this time he’s able to choke out a goodbye before the pod closes again
don’t think about vash, dreaming, over the years, of old memories with the black haired man with a face of shadow, carrying a tombstone of metal wrapped in cloth and leather, unknowing of who he is, but understanding that he has to find him, to save him, and slowly, slowly, falling in love with his only other constant over the course of 150 years
don’t think about wolfwood, knowing two things for certain throughout his life, one being that he would be the sacrificial lamb to save his family, two being that he loved the strange blond man in his memories, with his silly red coat and yellow sunglasses
don’t think about wolfwood, once forced into the eye of michael and trained ruthlessly, desperately clinging to whatever shreds of sanity he has left, only able to power through because he needs to save his family, he needs to save Livio, he needs to save the love of his life, and wolfwood grows up a little more hopeful
don’t think about wolfwood, brought before knives, face impassive, but mind racing, because this is definitely not his needle noggin, as he taken to calling him over the years, but his new boss looks astoundingly like him, and when he learns of his newest job, nico’s heart nearly rips itself from his chest
don’t think about vash and wolfwood, searching for each other through the desert, vash for a century and a half, wolfwood for a fraction of that, but still knowing they’ll be together soon
don’t think about soon being vash asleep in the back of a car, wolfwood half-dead trudging through the desert
don’t think about vash waking up when meryl hits someone with the trailer, looking out the window, and seeing that cross that haunts his dreams
don’t think about vash leaping from the car before meryl can even process what she did, sprinting towards the man in the sand like a man possessed
don’t think about vash gently cradling the head of the love of his life, unminding of roberto and meryl’s questioning looks
don’t think about vash softly brushing the man’s hair from his face, hand trailing his face
don’t think about vash pressing his forehead against wolfwood’s
don’t think about vash making a promise the others can’t hear
don’t think about wolfwood half-aware of being held
don’t think about wolfwood seeing nothing but red and yellow
don’t think about wolfwood relaxing for the first time in two decades
don’t think about vash promising wolfwood his love
don’t think about wolfwood swearing vash his life