ficlet for an au where wolfwood just... never ended up with the eye of michael and he's going to be in charge of the orphanage when melanie retires. it's a softer au, at least for wolfwood.
Something loud knocks on the door. Nicholas pauses with his hands in the sink.
Melanie looks at Nicholas. "See who it is, sweet pea?" she asks, and it's how she asks that has Nicholas reaching for the rolling pin instead of the skillet. It's heavier, and quieter, and most of the kids are asleep.
Whoever is at their door this late at night isn't up to any good.
Nicholas gets to the door and peers out the cracked and dusty window, seeing no one in the dark. He frowns, shifting his grip on the rolling pin, and he opens the door.
Nothing but the stars and the faint glow of a worm migration in the distant sands on first inspection, but then Nicholas looks down.
There’s a corpse – maybe a corpse, fuck – on their front step, and Nicholas nearly drops the rolling pin, he’s so goddamn startled. Then the corpse fucking breathes and Nicholas looks frantically about for a raid, because sending some half-dead bastard to knock on the door of an unsuspecting orphanage in the middle of the night is some bullshit the local Raiders would pull.
Not a goddamn thing, and Nicholas’s heart rate starts slowing.
His heart flutters, and Nicholas takes a deep breath to make it stop fluttering. He takes a couple more breaths to stave off the panic and kneels down next to the not a fucking corpse, Christ.
Nicholas mechanically goes through everything he’s learned about seeing if someone is actually alive and isn’t about to kick the proverbial bucket on his front goddamn step and tries to stave off the way his head is swimming.
“Miss Melanie,” Nicholas croaks, because he really could use a hand.
Because if Nicholas hasn’t seriously mistaken him, the halfway to a corpse unlucky bastard in front of him is Vash the Stampede, Humanoid fucking Typhoon.
