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Where they’re from, summer doesn’t come. She’s an ever-present threat, lingering in the mosquito traps filled up during the spring, in the way Nai’s skin always manages to burn pink before Easter and Vash is forced to rub his skin with aloe as he whimpers long after the sun’s gone down, the chill hurting him almost as much as the burn. Where they’re from, the summer never quite leaves them. She lingers well into the fall, holding hands with the trick-or-treaters on Halloween, she rears her ugly head on Christmas Eve, sweat sticking to the back of Vash’s neck as he sings songs about carolers in the snow.
If you asked Vash, he’d say that the summers have only gotten worse since Rem died and they were shuffled away to this small town; since the system failed them and left them alone, with no one but each other.
“It’s because we killed her,” Nai tells him sometimes, when Vash is especially sad and has managed to get on Nai’s nerves, refusing to be comforted. “It’s our damnation, the precursor to our time in hell. It’s because we killed her.”
But they hadn’t. They hadn’t meant to let the match burn down to his fingers. Nai was supposed to take it from him. It was an accident. It was an accident. He swears, he swears.
He’ll keep apologizing until they believe him. And until he believes it, too.
He and Nai were two halves of the same whole, never shifting, never changing. Nai’s skin was unmarked from the fire while Vash’s was covered in burns and scars, a constant reminder of what they’ve been through, of what Vash refused to let himself forget, of who he couldn’t manage to save.
“Those boys got the devil in ‘em,” the old woman that was supposed to take care of them said. Vash overheard it one night after he sneaked down to get a glass of water and found the woman on her house phone, twirling the cord between her fingers. “The big one loves the Bible plenty, but that don’t mean a damn thing, and you know it. The devil’s trying to get through to him, he doesn’t love Jesus in the right way, not like a good boy should. The way that he looks at you, no baptism in the river is fixing that. They’re almost of age. I’ll let them live in the place above Willie’s old garage. Hope they don’t burn that down, too.”
They were banished there, but over time, that small, one-room apartment became their home, collecting furniture and nicknacks, sunlight and posters to hang on the walls. They were orphaned at a late age– teenagers with nowhere to go. Nai made them both show up for school, insisting that Vash needed a good education. Vash spent his days looking out the window, daydreaming of when the bell would ring, when the two of them would go down to the creek behind their house and dunk their toes in the water.
Nobody from the state wanted to make the drive out to check on them, so they fended for themselves. Their mother left them enough money to live on, whatever accountant she hired dispensed it to them every month through a check addressed to Nai, and every month Nai would make Vash walk with him, cash the check at the bank, trudge through the heat to the grocery store, and he would make the both of them carry whatever they could in brown paper bags, and paid no mind to the blisters forming around Vash’s flip flops.
The first time Vash kissed Nai, they were eighteen.
He only did it because Nai asked, because he got mad when Vash told him that he kissed the girl that lived down the street after school. Vash had never seen Nai get so mad. His eyes filled up with tears, his hands rubbed across them furiously, barely giving the tears a second to fall. Vash knew that Nai didn’t want to be mad about this, but he was. Angry and hurt, and of course, Vash kissed him. He kissed him and kissed him and swore that he’d never kiss that dumb girl down the street again, that it was only the two of them, and it would stay just like that.
It made Nai calm down. “Kiss me again,” Nai told him, and Vash did.
It was the first time that Vash wanted to go further, and he could tell that Nai did too. Nai’s dick got hard, something that Vash had only seen in the mornings sometimes since it made a tent out of the sheet they slept under. Vash squirmed, pressing his thighs together, feeling wet through his shorts.
“Can I touch you?” The sun was bright through the open window, making Vash’s arm burn. The metal fan they had in front of their bed provided the only relief from the heat.
Nai licked his lip. “You want to?”
Vash sneaked his hand up Nai’s shirt, touching bare skin with his fingertips. “Yeah, I want to.”
“Then you can,” Nai answered, and Vash listened.
He started slowly, just exploring his brother’s body. They were similar in so many ways, but so different too. Nai’s hips were straight where Vash’s curved just slightly. His chest was flat, unscared, his stomach was missing that small, soft part that Vash’s had, his body prepped for things that Nai’s couldn’t experience.
The muscles in Nai’s stomach twitched, the sensation of Vash’s hands on him almost too much to bear alone.
“I want to put my fingers in you,” Vash told him, bringing his hand down between Nai’s thighs, pressing two fingers against his hole. Nai gasped, his hips twitching in place. “Here. Have you ever done it?”
Nai shook his head. “Never.”
“What about your dick? Ever touched it?” Vash had never heard Nai moaning or anything. He always found it weird. Vash knew that Nai had heard him getting himself off, even though he tried to be quiet and always did it in the shower, the one place where he was actually able to be alone. Nai’s face was always flushed when Vash came out to get dressed, avoiding eye contact. Vash never dared to look between Nai’s legs.
He wondered if hearing him made Nai hard. He’d have to ask, another time.
“Don’t really wanna,” Nai answered. “Only sometimes.”
“Let me now,” Vash told him, voice soft. “It’ll feel good, promise.”
Nai nodded yes.
Vash slicked up his fingers using only spit, wanting to tease Nai more than anything else. He pressed one against Nai’s hole, while his free hand moved to Nai’s cock, wrapping around it. Nai gasped, his back arching into Vash, his tank top falling down his bicep. Vash leaned in close, pressed more kisses to Nai’s face, the side of his neck, anywhere that Nai let him reach.
Vash pressed his finger into Nai’s hole– just a little, making him gasp as Vash reached down to cup his balls, rolling them through his fingers.
Nai’s body was fascinating for Vash. He wanted all of it, and he wanted it all at once.
He was too tight for Vash to press his fingers into further, so Vash focused on Nai’s cock, jerking it rhythmically, like in the videos on late night TV that he stayed up to watch, long after Nai had gone and fallen asleep.
“Vash,” Nai moaned, and Vash leaned in to kiss him, easing Nai’s mouth open, sliding his tongue inside. Vash groaned into Nai’s mouth, approval that made Nai’s legs shake around him.
“When you want to finish, just do it, okay?” Vash told him. He’d never been with another person like this before. He had no idea how long it would take, but judging from how overwhelmed Nai seemed, Vash thought that it wouldn’t be long.
He was right, because just a second later, Nai gasped out, “I’m gonna-” and then he came, painting Vash’s fist up with his come, spilling onto Vash’s thighs, his shorts.
Vash brought his hand up to his face, admiring Nai’s come on his fingers, his brother’s seed. He wanted to taste it, but Nai stopped him before he could try, grabbing a dirty shirt from their bedside and wiping Vash’s hand clean. Nai scowled at Vash’s fingers, his expression one that Vash was unfamiliar with.
“Will you fuck me, Nai?” Vash asked, positively aching between his legs. If he didn’t get off soon he thought he might just die.
Nai did something Vash didn’t expect, then. He pushed Vash away, snatching his hand back to his chest as soon as he could, his eyes growing large with fear. “No! Vash you can’t, do you understand? You can’t ever do that! Not even with me!”
Vash blinked, shocked, his mouth fell open. “Because I could get pregnant?” He asked, because that was the only logical explanation his brain managed to form.
“No, you idiot!” Nai screamed, and Vash jerked backward, completely lost, and a little freaked out, too. “You have to make it to heaven. If I do that to you, then you won’t,” Nai started to shake his head, curling in on himself, tucking his face against his knees. Nai rocked himself back and forth, a habit that he formed only after their mother died, soothing when no one else was there to do so. Vash could never comfort him like their mother could, especially when he got like this. The Bible, the Lord–all of it was not just Nai’s greatest comfort, but also his biggest fear.
Since their mother died, he would panic about things like this: Vash not going to church with him on Sundays, Vash not reading the Bible, Vash not saying grace before they ate, and he would at times cry to Vash, late at night, about how he was going to hell.
“You always tell me that I’m going to hell for what happened to-to her,” Vash told him. “How is this any different, Nai?”
Nai’s eyes were wild, almost crazed. “Because when He returns, He is going to spare you. He’s going to spare both of us, Vash, for being angels. Perfect angels that live in His vision, do you understand me? He’s going to forgive us for everything else. We are His chosen ones.” His accent was so thick that even Vash had a hard time understanding him. “We need to go to heaven together. I can’t go without you.” Nai’s breath hitched on his inhale, and Vash knew that if he didn’t act soon, Nai would start hyperventilating. “Don’t make me go without you.”
Vash knew that no matter how deep into whatever Nai was experiencing he got, he’d never hurt Vash, so he crawled forward on his hands and knees, fitting himself close to Nai’s body. He reached up to cradle Nai’s face in his hands, rubbed against his cheekbones gently with his thumbs. “Nai, I won’t. Thank you for telling me. You’re right. Jesus will spare us, because He’ll see how good you are.”
Nai nodded frantically, breathing out heavily through his nose, his eyes sliding shut as he let Vash touch him. “We’re going to be together forever, even long after we die.”
Nai latched onto Vash then, pulling him into a hug that Vash happily reciprocated, rubbing down Nai’s back to calm him.
Vash sighed, looking out the window. He noticed that the sun was starting to set, painting everything in their apartment a deep, blood orange– red.
Hellfire. Just for them.
They met Nico on the first day of July, two weeks after they finished high school and began to spend their days lazily, the summer sun beating down, soaking into their bones.
Vash had never seen him before. It was like one second, the house on the corner of Elm and Main was empty, and then there Nico was.
Nico had a mom and a brother that looked nothing like him. Nico sat on his front porch and smoked cigarettes. Sometimes, his fingers would be wrapped around the long neck of a frosty beer bottle, even though Vash wasn’t sure he looked old enough to drink. Sometimes, his fingers would be playing with the cross he always wore around his neck, rubbing the metal across his brown skin. Nico always wore tank tops and shorts, sweat staining under his armpits and down the center of his chest. Nico had strong arms, his muscles ropy and lean. Nico looked at Vash in a way that made the inside of his stomach burn.
Nai was always with him, catching Vash when his steps would falter, when Nico tilted his head as he watched Vash, peering out to the cracked sidewalk with an eyebrow raised overtop of dark sunglasses. “You don’t need to pay him no mind,” Nai told him, growling in close to Vash’s ear, the drawl of his words accentuated by his temper. “We don’t need nobody else. Do you understand me, Vash?”
Vash swore that he hated lying. He always had, ever since he was four and he knocked over the cookie jar and quickly blamed the shattered ceramic on Nai. It was the worst trouble he ever got into with his mother, the saddest he’d ever seen her face.
Vash hated lying, but he still did it anyway.
“We don’t, Nai,” he said, letting Nai drag him away.
Vash dared to steal one final look at the boy on the porch, just in time to catch him mouthing the words, The creek tonight Vash's way.
Vash did his best to nod, hoping that Nico knew he would be there.
The night was sticky, the kind of night that clings onto his skin, nothing but moist air and mosquitos, crickets singing in the distance.
Vash smelled the cigarette smoke before he spotted Nico leaning up against a tree, his cigarette hanging from his lips as he tossed rocks into the creek to try and skip one across, visible only under the moonlight streaming through the trees.
Vash thought that Nico was pretty. He almost wished he could stay and watch him for a while.
His foot fell onto a stick just right, or maybe just wrong, breaking his illusion and alerting Nico of his presence.
“Hey, gorgeous,” Nico greeted him, a slow, sleepy smile spreading across his lips.
“Hi there,” Vash answered, stepping in close to him.
In that moment, everything for Vash was about to change, every last bit of his normal, torn to shreds.
“What’s your name?” Vash asked.
“Nico,” he answered, easy as ever, drawn out as a Saturday afternoon. He had a different-sounding drawl to his words. He was not from around here, but then again, neither was Vash. This was somewhere where people are rarely from. This was a place where people end up, a meeting ground for sinners, cast away.
“Mine’s Vash.” The handshake that followed lingered, Vash not letting go, Nico holding on, too.
Nico’s smirk grew. He linked their fingers together, pulled Vash a step closer to him.
It was obvious to Vash what Nico was inviting him here for–well, the closest thing to a slutty hook-up that this town had to offer.
Vash wanted him, he wanted it, what Nai wouldn’t give him.
“So you’re that Saverem boy, the one that gets fucked by his brother,” Nico said, tactless and tasteless beyond belief.
Vash didn’t let go of Nico’s hand, but he did roll his eyes and scoff. “Now, who told you that?”
Nico shrugged. “Everyone.” And this wasn’t news to Vash. He had always known what everyone said about the two of them. Those twins aren’t right. They’re closer than brothers should be. I saw them kissing, down by the creek.
Vash only did it once, pulling Nai in for a kiss after school, ankle deep in the cool water of the creek, minnows nipping at their heels. To this day, he had no idea if anyone saw them, or if that was just another judgment coming down on him from above. Nai moaned against his lips, and that was all that Vash remembered. That’s all that was really important.
“They’re full of it,” Vash lied, and he knew that Nico could tell right away, his eyes glistening as he looked at Vash
“He doesn’t fuck you,” Nico guessed, and Vash tilts his head, waiting for Nico’s next assumption. “But you kiss him. You mess around with him.”
“He don’t fuck me,” Vash answered.
“He doesn’t want to, does he? You poor baby,” his tone was teasing, his free hand came around to pull Vash’s body against his and cupped the small of his back, running his fingers through the hem of Vash’s shorts. “Can’t get it at home, so the stranger down the road is the next best thing?” Vash didn’t answer, he just stared into Nico’s deep, warm eyes. “When did he stop giving it to you?”
“He never did. Never been fucked,” Vash answered proudly, his chin tilted up, almost defiant. “Thinks it’s against the Lord. He’s worried I’ll go to hell.”
“Just for that?” Nico scoffed. “Baby, no.” His grin was sharp, dangerous. “You’ve done worse than that already, haven’t you? I heard you were a little murderer, too. You like startin’ fires?”
To this, Vash narrowed his eyes, trying to take a step backward before Nico’s hand on his back caught him.
“Hey, cool it, settle down, now,” Nico told him, voice a soothing rumble. “I never said that was worth damnation. I sure as hell won’t be at your pearly gates when you go. I’m nobody’s judge, especially not pretty boys like you.”
“Then what are you?” Vash asked, letting himself be held close again. Nico was strange, Vash realized. Strange in a way that he had never known before–maybe he was a little like him and Nai, a little broken in the head.
Nico smiled with his teeth when he said, “A punisher.”
Vash laughed–such an outrageous claim for a boy like him. “Oh yeah? You gonna punish me for my sins?” His tone was flirtatious, daring. He rocked his hips into Nico’s, teasing him, unsurprised when Nico was already a little hard.
“Your brother as pretty as you?” Nico asked.
“Yeah,” Vash admitted, not missing a single beat.
“Then maybe I’ll punish him for his, too,” Nico said, and then he leaned in to kiss Vash.
Vash could tell immediately that Nico was the more experienced kisser. Nico met him with a hot, open mouth, licking against Vash’s tongue immediately, making his knees weak. Vash’s hand came up to cup Nico’s jaw, holding him close as his hips started to rock slowly against Nico’s.
Vash wondered what the rest of the town would think if they saw him fucking the new boy back in the woods. What would they say about him then?
Nico gripped his ass greedily, pulling Vash against him, the seam of his jeans hitting just where Vash wanted, making his eyes roll back into his head. He already felt lost in it, ready to give up everything and everything for the boy in front of him, this beautiful stranger that lived down the road.
“You gonna let me fuck you, Vash?” Nico asked.
“Please,” Vash answered.
The resulting flurry of movement was fast. Vash found his face pressed against the nearest tree, so he brought his hand up to shield his cheek from the bark. Nico didn’t bother to pull his pants down, sliding his underwear to the side, growling as he realized that Vash didn’t wear anything underneath his shorts, that he’d come prepared and ready.
“Fuck, you’re wet,” Nico told him, forcing a shiver out of Vash. “You sure you’re a virgin?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Vash mumbled, his chest heaving. “Do it. Take it from me.”
Nico entered him without any preamble, without any fingers or foreplay, sliding his cock inside of Vash all at once, moving slowly when Vash hissed, his walls accommodating the stretch of Nico’s cock.
“It’s gone, baby,” Nico said. “I’m inside.”
Vash let out a breath, ecstatic, free.
What Nai wouldn’t give Vash, Nico would, Vash realized, moaning as Nico started to really fuck him, working up a rhythm. It didn’t hurt as much as Vash expected it to, his body loose, ready for Nico, ready for this.
If God didn’t want him to fuck, then it just wouldn’t feel this good.
Nico split apart his insides, carving a space inside of Vash meant just for him. Vash could feel it, far off in some distant, celestial way. It was meant to happen exactly like this, with Nico buried deep inside of him.
Vash brought his fingers down to play with himself, rubbing in familiar circles as Nicholas kept fucking into him, his thrusts rough and deep, losing their rhythm every few seconds as Vash couldn’t help but squeeze down around him. “It feels good,” he admitted, his voice choking.
“Yeah,” Nico agreed, and his voice sounded perfectly breathless, perfectly gone.
Vash wouldn’t have expected that he’d lose his virginity like this– out in the open, with someone he didn’t even know. But he wouldn’t change it for the world.
Destiny. This was pure and unfiltered destiny, a miraculous alignment of the stars.
Vash finished first, spasming under his finger and around Nico’s cock, tipping over the edge with a high-pitched cry.
Nico didn’t hold on much longer, a gracious gentleman, making sure that Vash finished first. He pumped Vash full of him, his dick twitching as he spilled, making Vash’s face twist up as he squirmed at the new feeling– wet and hot and full.
Even if he were going to heaven, Vash didn’t think that there was a God in the entire universe that could make him give up this.
“Fuck,” Nico breathed. “I wanna go home with you. I wanna do you again.”
Vash shook his head, wincing as Nico slipped out of him, his hole sore and used for the first time. Vash liked the feeling, rocking his hips back and forth as he spoke, dipping his hand lower to press inside, feeling Nico’s spunk slide out around his fingers. “You can’t,” he managed. “My brother. He’s already gonna know.”
Nico kissed the side of Vash’s neck before biting down gently, just placing his teeth there. “What, does he check your cunt every night or something?”
Vash took his hand away from himself.
“No, I don’t know,” Vash stuttered, because he couldn’t really explain it. Nai would sense the sin on him. He would. “He’ll smell you on me or something. I probably reek of cigarettes, now.”
Nico hummed, considering, turning Vash around to face him. “He’s gonna be sad.” It was a statement, not a question. Nico already understood Nai in a way that so, so many other people never had and never would. Vash felt his chest tighten up.
“Yeah. He wants me to be pure.”
“What do I have to do to see you again?” Nico asked, bringing their faces together to drag Vash’s lower lip through his teeth. He kissed it after, nice and sweet. “I have to get on his good side, right?”
“You sure ask a lot of questions that you already know the answer to,” Vash remarked, and Nico smiled against his mouth, kissing him with every other word that Vash said. “You know that you do.”
“So? How do I do that? Give me a hint, blondie.”
The answer was simple, easy. It was the only way that Nai would ever respect someone after doing this to Vash. He needed someone to meet him where he was, and there was only one possible way it could happen, even though right now, Vash wasn’t so sure that it’d work. For all he knew, Nico had learned everything he knew about God from the evening news, straight out of New York City.
“Church on Sunday,” Vash answered. “The one in town. You don’t have to travel. Just pretend like you know what you’re doing and-”
Nico laughed then, a musical sound, harmonizing with the crickets, the bats searching for the orchard. “Already was planning on going to that,” he said, and Vash had to bite his lip to contain his happy gasp. “I love two things in this world– my little brother and the Lord. I think Nai and I have more in common than you think.”
Vash’s heart sang, thumping against Nico’s chest.
“You think I could be the third thing you love?” Vash asked– feeling stupid, feeling hopeful, feeling like they were one in the same.
“Ask your brother,” Nico answered, non-committal and avoidant, perfectly expected, making Vash grin.
Vash leaned in to kiss him.
Vash doesn’t get home for a long while, staying by the water’s edge even long after Nico goes home to sleep. Vash doesn’t know what time it is when he finally gets the courage to trudge his way back home, but he knows it’s late.
Nai was asleep when Vash left, and Vash is happy that he’s still sleeping now. His heart jumps with excitement. If he can just make it to the shower. He can wash off the smell of Nico’s cigarettes from around his mouth, Nico’s seed from between his legs.
Vash doesn’t even make it halfway across the room before Nai starts to stir.
Vash’s heart sinks.
“Vash?” Nai asks, sitting up, rubbing at his sleepy eyes. “What are you–?” He takes in Vash’s state of dress, noticing the sandals on his feet. “You were out. You’re just coming home.”
Nai’s springing to his feet, scrambling down their bed as Vash tries to make a run for it, to lock himself in the bathroom and come up with a lie when he’s clean. “Why are you running?” Nai snaps. He reaches Vash before he can scamper away, grabbing him roughly by the wrist and pulling him in.
“You smell like–” Nai’s eyes grow wide. “No.”
“Nai, I–” Vash starts, and then immediately stops, because how is he even going to defend himself? What excuse could he possibly come up with? He snuck out when Nai was asleep to go do the one and only thing Nai’s forbidden him to do, almost sure that Nai would find out.
Guilt stirs in Vash’s belly, making him freeze in place, a cornered animal with blood on his lips.
“You were with him,” Nai spits, snarling. He’s always scared Vash when he gets angry, and now is no different. Vash winces without wanting to. “Please,” Nai begs, grabbing Vash’s other wrist, wrestling him close. “What did you do with him, Vash? Please. Please!”
Vash knows that Nai’s not begging to know, he’s begging for his worst fear to not be true.
Vash closes his eyes when he says, “I’m sorry, Nai,” even though he’s not sure he actually means it.
Nai howls, shoving Vash with both of his hands, pushing him to the floor. Nai stands over him, reaching down to clutch his hand in Vash’s tank top. “What have you done, Vash!? How could you do this to me? For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.” Nai chokes on his spit, coughing, and it’s only then that Vash sees the tears– angrily spilling down his cheeks.
“Nai!” Vash tries, bringing his hands up to grip Nai’s wrists.
“No, you listen to me. You-you whore! First Corinthians, You-you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is s-sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. And you,” Nai sucks in a big, awful, shuddering breath. “You slept with one! You’re going to hell!”
“I was already going to hell!”
“No, you weren’t! You weren’t!,” Nai sobs. “You’re supposed to be an angel, just like me.” Nai loses himself, then, collapsing, his body straddling Vash’s thighs, bare skin against skin. “Do you not want to spend your eternal life with me? Is that it?” he asks, and Vash just breaks.
“No, Nai, Nai, oh.” Vash leans up, slowly moving to cup Nai’s face, happy when Nai lets him. “Of course, I do. I love you. I love you so much.”
“Then why did you do that?” Nai asks. He sounds so small, so vulnerable. Vash doesn't know if he can take it.
Vash says the only thing that he thinks might make Nai slow down, even for a moment. “Nico,” Vash starts, ignoring Nai’s miserable sob at his name. “Nico is a man of the Lord, just like you.”
Nai laughs, a bitter, incredulous sound. “No, he’s not.” He starts shaking his head roughly, Vash’s hands still cupping his cheeks. “There’s no way he would have-”
“Yes, he is, Nai. I swear to you. I promise you. I know you’ve seen his cross.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Nai answers, and Vash knows he’s right.
“He is, Nai. He said he’ll be at church on Sunday. He-he knows that I can still be saved.” Vash tries a smile, forcing Nai’s eyes into his own, wiping the tears away with his fingertips. “I told you that we were going to spend an eternity together. I wouldn’t lie to you. I want you to believe me.”
Nai’s stopped crying, but he sniffs, rather miserably. “Will you come to church?”
“You know what? Yes. Not this weekend, but if you go to church and if you meet him, I’ll go with you next week, whether you like him or not. I’ll sit next to you and it’ll be just like when we were kids, yeah? How does that sound?”
Vash doesn’t think he’s seen Nai cry that hard since they were children, not even when their mother died, so it makes sense that when he starts to calm down, he immediately sags onto Vash, putting his head on Vash’s shoulder, breathing out raggedly.
“Okay,” Nai answers. He sounds like the fight has been forced out of him, and Vash figures that’s enough. He hasn’t won, but peace is restored between them again. Vash leans to kiss the top of Nai’s head, his chest aching.
Oh, the wars that he must be fighting inside of his mind, each and every day. Their mother explained it to Vash like that, back when they were young.
Everyone fights battles inside of them, Nai fights more than most.
Vash starts to feel incredibly selfish. He really hopes this works out.
Later, when they’ve both figured out that they won’t be able to sleep, Vash drags Nai up to the roof of their building, somewhere they sit only when it’s too hot inside to exist, jumping up from the shitty fire escape. Vash has always found the stars comforting, pointing out constellations to Nai as he sits silently, his entire body wrapped around Vash, still coming down from being so upset.
Before their mom died, they used to sit like this in their backyard, Nai tucked into him, his head on Vash’s chest. It used to be softer, then, only scars remaining now, but Nai lays on him just the same. Vash strokes his hair, eventually running out of stars to name, silence surrounding them, infiltrating through the humidity and pressing against their skin.
“Are you gonna marry him?” It’s the first words Nai’s said in maybe an hour. Vash feels them chip away at his heart, wrapping around it.
Vash scoffs. “Who, Nico?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t even know him, Nai.”
Nai makes a displeased hum. “I don’t like that.”
“What?”
“You doing that with someone you don’t even know. You should only do it with your husband,” he stops to think for a moment. “Or wife.”
“So, you’re really not mad that it wasn’t you?”
“I’m not,” he admits, slowly. “I don’t want to do that with you. I told you.”
“What about now, now that I’m not a virgin anymore and it wasn’t you that did it?” Vash makes sure that his voice doesn’t waver as he says the words, almost as if he might be able to convince Nai with that alone. “Would you?”
That makes Nai pause. Vash knows that he definitely hasn’t considered it.
“Maybe someday,” Nai admits, his voice small. Vash wraps his arms around Nai tighter, leaning in to kiss his forehead. “If we could get married, it’d be so much easier.”
Vash laughs, lightly. “It would be, wouldn’t it?”
The two of them stay like that until the sun starts to rise.
xxx
Nico does what he normally does every Sunday, even though this one is different.
He’s seen Nai Saverem at church since he moved, his foster mother suddenly evicted after Nico maybe threw some cigarette butts onto their neighbor’s balcony.
He’s already eighteen, so it’s a wonder he’s not out on the street. He thinks it’s only because of how much Livio loves him that he’s managed to keep his life.
He wakes Livio early, as he does every Sunday. Anna, his foster mother, might not be religious, but Nico’s love for God was burned into him at an early age. It’s the one thing he remembers about his birth parents: getting him into his Sunday best, dragging him off to sit between them at church. He wants the same for Livio, because Livio surely needs it.
Livio is eight now, a whole decade younger than Nico. Anna is his birth mother, his father some deadbeat who ran out when Livio proved to cry too much as an infant, to demand too much of his mother’s attention. A weak man, a piece of shit in God’s eyes and in Nico’s. Nico wanted to do better by his little brother, and he would.
His brother grumbles as Nico tosses an outfit for him onto his sleeping body, telling him that the Lord waits for no one, especially not this Sunday.
He hasn’t been able to get Vash out of his head for days.
It wasn’t supposed to be like that. It was supposed to be a quick fuck in the woods– something that Nico is plenty familiar with. He didn’t expect Vash’s voice to sound so sweet, his hole to feel so good. Yes, on paper, Nico is going to make nice with Nai Saverem just to fuck his brother again, but he already knows deep in his bones that it’s different now, that it’s something more.
He’s been intrigued by the Saverem brothers since he heard the first rumor about them. They killed their parents, arson. The big one fucks the little one, I hear it sometimes when I walk past Old Willie’s place. Thank the Lord he’s dead and gone, probably rolling over in his grave with what those boys are doing on his property.
And to find out that it’s true? They’re freaks, the both of them. Nico knows this. He just happens to really like it.
He spots Nai’s blonde head of hair as soon as he walks into the church, sitting in the back row alone. His hair is lighter than Vash’s, his skin too– as if someone took Vash and desaturated the color on him. Even Nai’s eyes are a shade lighter, brilliant, and blue as he stares up at the preacher.
The sermon is about the summer, all about life and birth and the gifts that the season brings to the people. God planned for summer to be a rejoiceful time. Nico feels himself sweating through his nice shirt.
Nico looks to Nai again, just as the pastor talks about the summer crop, bringing the harvest, about life turning over and over, each and every year. Nai turns to look at them, and for one single moment, their eyes meet. Nai quickly looks away. Nico keeps staring, unashamed.
Fuck, Vash wasn’t lying. He really is beautiful.
Nai is pretty in a way that Vash isn’t: his beauty is haunting, all soft skin and rough edges. The way he looks at the pastor is almost challenging like he’s daring the man to quote a passage incorrectly. Nico understands. He always ends up feeling the same way whenever he goes to a new church.
Nai looks back at him, then, sensing Nico’s staring. Their eyes meet once more, and Nico holds his gaze, unintimidated, curious.
“Is it almost over?” Livio asks him, his voice a hair too loud.
Nico’s forced to take his gaze away from Nai, leaning over to Livio to tell him, “It should be. Just a little bit left. I’ll give you five dollars if you sit still.”
Livio rolls his eyes, but immediately stills, forcing himself to be good.
When Nico looks over to Nai again, Nai is smiling softly at his hymnal, singing along with the rest of the congregation.
Nai manages to sneak out of the back of the church before Nico can stop him, so he’s surprised to find him leaning up against the fence outside, his arms crossed, waiting.
Nico immediately turns to Livio, pulling out his wallet from his back pocket. He slaps a $10 bill into his brother’s hand, saying, “There. Get yourself whatever you want, just get mom milk, too. You know she’ll want some with her tea. You were good today, Livio. Thank you.”
Livio doesn’t bother saying you’re welcome, his manners forgotten in favor of ice cream. Nico doesn’t blame him.
Then, Nico finds himself face-to-face with Nai Saverem.
“What you did was a sin,” Nai starts, and it’s one hell of an opener. Nico takes a step closer to him, allowing the rest of the parishioners to walk past them without being forced to overhear their conversation.
“It was,” Nico agrees. “But the Lord forgives, don’t he?” Nai gives Nico a skeptical look, so Nico continues. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”
Nai just stares at him, calculating and cool, gorgeous as ever. Nico’s suddenly jealous of Vash, knowing that he got to kiss him already.
“You don’t know him,” is what Nai settles on.
“I don’t. You’re right.”
“I don’t like that,” Nai admits, frowning. “You’re supposed to know him, you’re supposed to love him.”
Nico supposes he’s right. If he were a better man, he would have courted Vash, maybe have popped a ring onto his finger before popping his cherry. Nico’s just never considered himself a very good man. There’s a reason that the Lord forgives. He might as well take full advantage of it.
The perfect verse comes to Nico’s mind, then. “But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins, Nai. I want to get to know him, and I want to get to know you.”
Nai seems like he’s more upset at the lack of internal battle he’s having more than anything, huffing at Nico’s words and turning away, his jaw a hard line of pale skin.
“Will you let me get the chance?” Nico asks, and the single question makes Nai’s resolve crumble– his defenses failed completely.
“Do you want to come over?” Nai asks, and Nico just smiles.
Nai leads him down the road, just a half a step ahead of him. Nico knows where they live as he has been told time and time again to stay clear of it, to stay clear of them, but he’d much rather walk into the lion’s den. He’s always been a fan of risks, of danger. He’s never been afraid of getting burned.
“I still don’t like that you made him impure,” Nai tells him. “He needs to go to heaven. We’re going to spend our eternal lives together, you know.”
“Is that so?” Nico asks, smiling, genuinely amused to hear it. It must be nice, having someone that you love that fiercely, unafraid in the face of being so wrong about how you feel.
“Yes. And now you’ve gone and ruined it.” Nai sounds sad when he speaks, like he’s already set himself up for an eternal lifetime of missing his brother.
Nico scoffs. “You’ve heard of the people that say they’re born again, Nai,” he says. “All Vash has to do is confess and repent. Jesus will understand. He spent his time with the worst of them. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, remember? Vash is good. Your eternal peace is protected, I assure you.”
Nai looks over at him to roll his eyes, like Nico is the dumbest person on the earth. “Vash isn’t good,” Nai informs him. “Vash is an angel sent from above. Just like me.”
Nai has a rough time with things, sometimes, so don’t be too hard on him, Vash warned.
Nico understands now. His chest does something stupid, his stomach flipping, endeared.
“Yeah,” he says, smiling over at Nai, a contrast to his serious expression. “I think that’s true, too.”
Nai doesn’t have to unlock the door to their apartment, he just lets himself in, knowing that the door will be open.
Nobody wants to fuck with the Saverem twins. Nobody except for Nico.
“Hi, Nai!” Comes Vash’s happy voice from inside, and then Nico gets to witness the prettiest thing he thinks he’s ever seen.
Vash spots him, standing behind Nai, and his mouth drops open, shock for a moment, then fading to awe before it turns to true and absolute glee. “Nai!” Vash yelps, jumping up. “Nico! Hi!”
Nico wonders if there’s been a single time in his life when someone was so genuinely happy to see him before. Maybe Livio, back when he was a baby. He probably would have been just as excited to see a mouse. This, however, is something completely different.
Oh, he’s already gone. Gone for the both of them, isn’t he?
Vash rushes over to the both of them. He throws his hands over Nai’s shoulders, kissing his cheek before Nai turns his head, allowing Vash to kiss his mouth, short and sweet. He rounds on Nico then, jumping into his arms, immediately going for Nico’s mouth, uncaring that his brother is half a foot away, that his lips just touched Nai’s a second before.
“Hi there,” Nico says, breaking them apart, smitten, stupid. He tries his best to take in their apartment while he can, looking at the mismatched art on the walls, some obviously painted by one of the twins. There are plants everywhere, somehow alive despite the state of the place. It’s cluttered and small and Nico kind of never wants to leave.
Vash wrinkles up his nose, he’s smiling so hard. “I’m so happy you’re here!”
“I can see that,” Nico responds, he turns to Nai, who is watching them with a curious expression, almost as if he’s taking them in rather than opining, judgment cast aside in favor of learning. “Can I kiss you, too?” he asks, plain and simple.
Nai furrows his brow up for a moment, thinking. “Okay,” he answers, “but just a little.”
Nico doesn’t take his hands off of Vash’s bottom, Vash’s legs wrapped around him, leaning in to kiss Nai on the lips. It’s a chaste thing, but Nai’s lips are soft, and he can’t help but to go in for one more, a stolen kiss that takes Nai by surprise and has his eyebrows raising.
When he pulls away, Nai brings his fingers up to his lips, almost like he can’t believe it, then stares at them in awe.
“See, Nai, we aren’t meant to deprive ourselves of pleasure,” Nico tells him, looking him right in the eye. “What’s the use being here if we walk around miserable?” He waits for Nai’s answer, but he can tell that one won’t be coming. Nai looks at him, transfixed, waiting for his next words, his sermon. “The Lord wouldn’t give us bodies that feel good if we weren’t meant to feel good.”
“Yeah, Nai. You know how I make you feel good,” Vash tells him, sincere, still smiling.
Nai looks between them both, processing.
Nico raises his eyebrow. “Want to see Vash feeling good?” He asks, a shot in the dark, but stupidly hopeful.
“Yeah,” Nai answers, not a moment of hesitation. “Show me. Show me how you do it.”
Nico grins. “You want him on the bed? Or somewhere else?” He doesn’t bother asking Vash, knowing that he’s into it from how Vash kisses against his neck, pulling at his hair, softly murmuring, Nai, please. Nai, please, against Nico’s neck, begging for it.
Nai thinks for a moment, tilting his head adorably. “On the bed. I want to kiss him.” He flushes at his admission, and Nico finds himself going hot at it, too.
“Okay,” he tells Nai, walking Vash across the house, through the one doorway that isn’t an obvious bathroom, hearing the floorboards creak under his feet. Their house is small, cramped, and Nico loves it–he immediately wants to bury himself into their belongings, to keep a toothbrush inside their medicine cabinet.
As soon as Nai comes up behind him, Nico grabs him with both hands, now free, pulling him close. “You’re really beautiful, do you know that?”
Nai looks at him, eyes tracking all over his face. “No, I didn’t,” he answers.
“One more kiss?” Nico asks. “The rest can belong to Vash.”
“Yeah,” Nai answers, and Nico’s leaning in a second later, as desperate as he is controlled, sliding his hand up against the hairs on the back of Nai’s neck, rubbing his fingernails through the short scruff. He’s patient, managing to lick across Nai’s lips until he parts them, deepening the kiss. Nico doesn’t want to give Nai too much, he doesn’t want to overwhelm him.
He stops himself, almost painfully, smiling when Nai chases his kiss for a moment, his eyes wide, his pupils blown.
“See, Nai? Don’t keep yourself from feeling good.”
Nico doesn’t give Nai a chance to respond, instead turning his attention to Vash who is lying needy on the bed, his legs parted, perfect for Nico to slide himself into. He kisses Vash, then, and it’s completely different from how he kissed Nai. Vash’s kisses are open-mouthed from the start, hungry.
Nai comes down to lie by Vash’s side, propping his head up with his hand, watching the two of them. Nico leans down to kiss Vash’s neck, making him cry out, throwing his head back. Nico wastes no time, deciding that for now, he’ll get Vash off with his fingers. He doesn’t bother pulling Vash’s tiny shorts off, moving them out of the way, pleased when he finds that again Vash isn’t wearing anything underneath. Nico immediately slides two fingers inside of him, Vash already wet and wanting.
“Nico!” Vash cries out, then, “Nai!”
Nai’s there in a second, petting the side of Vash’s face as Nico starts to fuck into him with his fingers, quirking them up to a spot that he knows will feel good. Vash gasps, his moans choked. He sounds so incredibly good. Nico knows that if it was just the two of them, he’d only be able to stand about five more seconds of this before giving up and sticking his cock into Vash. But not this time, no. This time Nico has to be patient. He has a lesson to teach, a gospel to share. Nico keeps fingering Vash, and Vash keeps feeling good, loud as hell, as if he wasn’t beautiful enough to demand all of the attention in the room in the first place.
“Nai!” Vash cries out, tilting his head to the side, desperately craving his brother’s kiss. Nai meets him, and there’s no hesitance there, not like there was when he was kissing Nico. Nai’s lips part immediately as soon as Vash asks them to, accepting Vash– giving, giving, giving. Nico watches it happen, watches as Nai’s hand comes up to tangle with Vash’s against the sheets.
“Does it feel good?” Nai asks, his words muffled by Vash’s mouth.
“Uh huh,” Vash answers, rolling his hips up into Nico’s touch. “Nico feels so good.” And Nico knows that this is a moment between the two of them, one that they have to share. It doesn’t bother him at all, instead making his belly burn hot, fucking into Vash’s hole with his fingers just that much faster, ignoring the ache in his arm. Vash cries out against Nai’s lips, moaning. “Nai, it feels s-so good.”
“Let him make you finish,” Nai tells him, and Nico swears.
Vaguely, he wonders if it’s possible to love someone after knowing them for just a few hours. He wonders if it’s some kind of divine intervention, like he was meant to be here, the Lord guiding his heart. He feels it clench in a way that he’s almost never felt before– always too shuffled from place to place to have anything really stick.
He has a feeling that this will be different.
Don’t fuck with the Saverem boys, Nico was told.
He understands why, now.
Nico thinks that Nai was right. They really are angels, sent just for him.
Vash comes a moment later, tightening up, squeaking as he gushes, making a mess on Nico’s fingers, moaning into Nai’s kiss– high-pitched, his mouth open and gasping, Nai’s tongue licking at his bottom lip.
“Shit, you’re perfect, Vash,” Nico remarks, unable to help himself, even if he wanted to. “Good fucking boy.”
Vash sags against the bed, spent, and Nai manages to untangle himself from him, pulling up to look at Nico between Vash’s legs. His face is red and flushed, his hair wild from having Vash’s hands twisted up in it. “Okay,” he says, swallowing hard. “I get it, now.”
Nico smiles, laughing, joyous, free.
xxx
After their first day together, Nico doesn’t really leave.
He goes home to check on his brother every day, sometimes staying until after the sun goes down, returning only to Nai and Vash after Livio is fast asleep, fresh clothes in his hands.
He stays up late playing video games with Nai somedays, but others he pretends to lie in bed with Vash, promising that he’ll go to sleep early, that he’s tired, but he always ends up spreading Vash open– sometimes fucking inside of him with his cock, sometimes his fingers or his mouth, and sometimes it’s Vash who gives, his lips fixed around Nico until he spills, Nico praising him the entire time.
Nai always watches, sometimes getting hard from it, sometimes rubbing at himself, almost never finishing.
Maybe someday, Vash remembers. He always comes the hardest, then.
When it gets late, Nai always puts on one of his favorite movies, an old VHS tape from their overly-large stack. He never used to sleep with the TV on, but Nico makes it harder for him to wind down– too exciting and new for Nai to feel sleepy around without another outside comfort.
Nai organizes their movies by genre, dragging Vash down to the local thrift store once a week to pick out some new ones. They’ve been watching the documentaries recently, and Vash always passes out within ten minutes because of the boring narration. This time, Vash sees Nai’s hand move to a different genre.
Westerns.
Vash hates Westerns. He’s told Nai time and time again.
As soon as Nai pulls out the first one, Vash starts to complain, but he’s quickly stopped by Nico.
“Who’s your favorite cowboy? Answer fast.”
“John Wayne, all of his cowboys,” Nai answers, not even blinking. Vash knows that Nai could name about twelve more, but he’s keeping it simple for Nico, not expecting him to know any of his rarer answers.
Nico hops in his seat, tucking his legs under himself excitedly. He only gets like that when he’s talking to Nai. It makes Vash ache, makes him feel things he doesn’t have the words to express.
“Come on, man! No Butch Cassidy? What about Pike Bishop? You have a whole stack of movies there. Don’t tell me you only have the basic ones.”
Nai smiles, really smiles in that way that he always seems to do around the two of them. They come even easier with Nico, without all of the history and burden that he shares with Vash. It’s something different.
Nico is Nai’s first friend since they were little kids, at least the only one that Vash can remember.
“You know I have them, Nico,” Nai answers, rolling his eyes.
Nico gets even more excited, his body almost vibrating where he sits. “Then we should have a movie marathon. A marathon, right, Vash?”
Vash doesn’t have the heart to tell them that he doesn’t like the sound of the gunshots, the way that someone always dies. The both of them are too happy and excited. He cares about them too much to do that. He thinks he loves them both, knows he does, actually. Seeing them happy is enough. He finds himself smiling, fully endeared, his laughter coming easily.
“A marathon,” he agrees. “But we should go get popcorn. Oh! And ice cream.”
Nai turns to Nico, his eyes narrowed. “And you should buy condoms. It’s your fault we keep running out.”
Vash chokes on his spit, hearing Nai say something like that– so open, so sexual. After the first time he watched Nico fuck Vash, he’s insisted that they use proper birth control, ignoring Vash’s attempts to argue it away– citing his hormones, his lack of a cycle for years.
Nico seems surprised at this, too. “Okay,” he starts, smiling at Nai, his grin a bit wild. Vash swears he loves him, loves him so much it sort of hurts. “I’ll get them, cowboy.” Vash gets to watch as Nai blushes at the sweet nickname, his face scrunching up adorably. “Can you both handle the snacks?”
“On it,” Vash answers for them both, assuming that Nai is a little too flustered to speak at the moment. Nico senses it too, leaning in to grab Nai by his face, pressing a kiss to his cheek that makes Nai groan.
“Perfect,” he says. “We meet back here in an hour.”
And they do.
The first gunshot makes Vash jump, and so does every other one after, but it’s okay, he thinks. Nico wraps his arm around Vash’s shoulder, and Nai holds his hand, whispering to him gently to warn him of each and every gunfight before it happens.
Vash falls asleep halfway through the second movie. He figures one of them must carry him to bed, because he wakes up there– wrapped up in a blanket, cozy and almost overly-warm. He hears Nico and Nai talking, and when he opens his eyes he realizes that no, they’re not talking. Or at least, that’s not all they’re doing.
They’re kissing.
Nai has his hand on Nico’s chest, curled up into the fabric of his tank top. Nico’s hand is in Nai’s hair, his leg hooked over Nai’s calves, his foot tucked behind them.
Vash watches them, blinking himself back to being fully awake. He becomes aware of a few things at once:
Nai’s tongue is inside of Nico’s mouth, completely voluntarily, and he brings his hand up to cup Nico’s jaw, tilting it to the other side. It stokes an incredible fire inside Vash’s belly, one that burns hot, forcing him to squeeze his thighs together.
“Nico,” Nai whispers, breaking them apart, letting Nico kiss down the long line of his pale neck. “I want to watch the movie again.”
“Just another second, baby. Please, Nai? Five more minutes, beautiful.” He licks against Nai’s neck, making Vash inhale deeply, making Nai squirm.
“Okay,” Nai answers, his voice shaking from Nico’s mouth on him.
Vash realizes that when they stay up late, Nico’s been messing with Nai, too.
Fuck. Nico is a menace. No wonder he spends every night with them. A few pretty words, and he can have everything he wants.
Nico gets greedy, then, and Vash watches as he slings his leg over Nai’s lap, straddling him. Nai looks up to him with wide, shocked eyes, his hand automatically coming out to the small of Nico’s back to balance him. Nico keeps one of his hands buried in Nai’s moonlight-pale hair, another pressed against the side of his neck.
“Come on, cowboy. You want me to ride you?”
Nai frowns. “That’d make me the horse.”
Nico laughs, and when he leans in to kiss Nai again, Nai meets him halfway, obviously loving it, too lost in Nico to notice Vash spying on them from across the room.
Nico looks like he’s trying to devour Nai, and Vash likes it. He brings his fingers down to lazily press over his underwear, not minding at all that he isn’t getting attention from either of them, happy to take care of himself. Nico starts to rock his hips over Nai, rolling them as if Nai’s cock was inside of him. Nai makes a pretty, whimpering sound, his fingers twitching against the fabric of Nico’s shirt, gripping at the couch cushion.
The movie goes forgotten behind them as Nai’s eyes slide shut, fully losing himself in Nico.
They’re so beautiful. Vash almost can’t take it.
Nico pulls at Nai’s hair gently, forcing them apart. Nai’s breathing heavily, frowning in confusion, but before he can ask, Nico says, “Baby you’re hard,” and Vash has to stifle a moan. He shifts, hoping that they won’t notice him doing so, dipping his hand into his underwear. “Do you want to keep going?”
That makes Vash’s heart flutter with affection for Nico. For how he knows how Nai is, for not forcing him any further than he wants to go, for letting him lead.
“Just this, okay?” Nai says, and Nico grins immediately, starting to roll his hips over Nai’s again, Nai tilting his head back onto the couch, his mouth falling open at the deliberate pleasure. “Nico,” he gasps.
“Feels good, right?” Nico asks. The way his body rolls is insane. Vash thought he knew how to ride dick, but he doesn’t think he’d be anything compared to Nico.
“Uh-huh,” Nai pants, high and breathy.
“Fuck, you’re so hard, Nai. Feels damn good. Can’t believe you’re going to let me get you off. Can’t believe I get to finally feel you like this- shit.”
It seems then that Nai gets tired of listening to Nico’s babbling dirty talk– he kisses him, rough and dirty, and Nico’s resulting moan is enough to have Vash’s clit throbbing under his fingers. They look so beautiful together, so good. His heart clenches up. Nai doesn’t get like this with him. Nai gives, he’s always giving, but with Nico, he’s free to take. Nico doesn’t need him, Nico wants him– nothing more than pure and utter selfish desire between the two of them.
Nai’s orgasm seems to hit him by surprise, making him gasp and cry out Nico’s name, far too loud, as if he couldn’t help it. Nico grabs onto the back of his hair, his hips fucking up into Nai’s roughly, and then Vash thinks he’s coming too– both of them spilling into their pants. Vash’s whole body shudders as the sight brings him to his own orgasm, biting his lip to keep quiet, turning his head into the pillow to muffle his breathing.
“Nico, Nico,” Nai keeps saying, almost a little panicked, and for a moment, Vash is worried, wondering if he should get up to go to Nai, wondering if finishing for someone else other than Vash was too much for him, but then Nico’s rubbing at his face in the same way that Vash does, a learned behavior.
“I’m here, baby. That was so good. I bet you feel real good.”
“I want a kiss,” Nai says, and Nico smiles so bright that it makes Vash ache.
“Yeah? A kiss?” Nico teases. He flops off of Nai, grabbing onto his shirt to get Nai to move, pulling Nai on top of him. “I’ve got your kisses right here. Let’s finish the movie, yeah?”
Vash can’t see them anymore, their heads on the side of the couch that’s obscured by the bed, but he can see how their feet tangle together, how Nai tucks his toes under Nico’s ankles.
Eventually, the sound of their wet kissing stops, and Nico reaches down to rewind the movie. Eventually, Vash falls back to sleep, more content than he ever imagined.
After that, Nai changes. Well, somewhat. He still lectures Vash about the state of his eternal soul as they eat their cereal. He still wakes Nico up early as ever on Sundays, even though Nico tries to bribe him with everything in his arsenal or tries to bury himself into Vash to keep Nai from pulling on his legs to get him out of bed. Nai always gets him in the end by reminding him that someone needs to go get Livio ready for church, that they need to go get Livio ready for church, and it always makes Nico go soft around the edges, saying, “Just one minute, let me kiss on Vash while you get ready,” and today, that is exactly what. Vash wraps his hands into Nico’s hair, the humidity making it curl at the ends. He kisses Nico softly, lazily.
“You sure you won’t go with us?” Nico asks.
“Not today,’” Vash answers, trying and failing to look sorry.
Nico rolls his eyes. “When’s the next time you’re gonna go, blondie?”
Vash shrugs, “Christmas?”
Nico groans, pained, getting up out of bed, untangling his limbs from Vash’s. He searches around the clutter of the apartment for the pants that he tossed onto the floor. Vash will clean up when they’re gone, he always does, offering his service as some kind of repentance.
“Nai,” Nico says, just loud enough for Nai to hear him from the bathroom. “You were right, there’s no saving his soul. He’s done for.”
Vash immediately starts to panic, opening his mouth to tell Nai that he’ll be fine, but then Nai’s opening the bathroom door and sticking his head out– his toothbrush hanging out of his mouth. “See? I told you!” Nai says, finally happy that someone in this house sees reason, and Nico just laughs.
There’s no crying, no hyperventilating, just the sound of laughter and Nico and Nai’s joint complaining in Vash’s ears.
For years, Vash always thought of himself and Nai as a whole, a complete piece to life’s puzzles, but he realizes now that he was so very wrong.
They’ve been missing Nico, probably for their entire lives.
The two of them bring Livio back from church this time, which Vash always loves. He’s still young enough to think that his older brother’s friends are cool, so he happily gives Vash a hug and tells him about school. Nico starts to cook them lunch while Nai goes to grab his Bible, pacing around the small apartment for a few minutes as he tries to wait out the conversation. Nai always likes to reread some of the passages that the pastor read to Vash, as if that will help him through osmosis, or something. Vash can sense how antsy he is, Nai’s emotions always quickly eating away at his skin.
“Nai? Do you want to read to us?” Vash asks, as soon as Livio is done with his story about how he and his best friend went looking for frogs the night before.
Nai nods, sitting down next to them on the couch. Livio, already a little bored and tired, automatically snuggles into Vash’s side, playing with the sunglasses that Vash has in his hair as Nai starts to read from Psalms.
Nico looks over to them, and Vash meets his eyes. He doesn’t have to say anything, Vash can read what they say loud and clear.
Family. Now, they’re a family.
Their world cools down as a line of storms moves in from the west, bringing rain and winds and hail the size of dimes that lands plink, plink, pink against their roof. Besides a few trips out of the house, Vash gets to enjoy being able to sleep with a blanket on without sweating for a few days, feeling lazy and sleepy, cozy as the clouds and rain trap them in. But then, just like always, the summer decides to make her appearance again, the threat always looming, never passing them by.
Vash’s body almost can’t take the resurgence of the heat. He comes down with a fever mid-way through the week. Nico comes home from his shift at the local mechanic shop to find a miserable Nai, clinging to Vash, sniffling. Vash is so sick that he can barely rouse himself, can barely croak out a few comforting words to Nai before he ends up falling back asleep.
“Calm down, Nai. He’s okay, baby. He caught a chill when we were out in the rain the other day, that’s all. Ain’t no hellfire licking in that body of his, just a good old fashioned cold. He needs to sweat it out. We gotta feed him up. Why don’t you go down to Miss Carmen’s store and grab him a can of soup? I’ll make it for him and everything. Get some Vaporub too. She’ll know the stuff.”
Miss Carmen is the one person in town that’s still soft for Nai even after knowing him. She slips him free ice creams, gives him homemade cookies, lets him stock her shelves sometimes for extra cash if the boys are short on a bill. Nai’s always been sweet to her, knowing that she’s a God-fearing woman herself. He calls her “ma’am” and always asks her about her dog, about the plants he brings for her when they have too many new blooms to fit in their jar, his memory for the tiny details better than anyone else that Vash knows.
Nai seems to be comforted by Nico’s words, and Vash can hear him slipping on his sandals and walking out the front door before sleep takes him again. The next time he comes to, Nico’s got a cold compress on his forehead, making him whine miserably.
“It’s cold.”
“You need to wake up, sweetheart. You’re burning inside out. If you don’t drink some water, you’ll turn into a raisin.” Nico’s a natural caretaker, always fussing over the two of them, and now he’s even worse than usual. He forces Vash into a sitting position, handing him a tissue to clean off his face as he keeps the compress in place.
“I’m so cold,” Vash whines. “I wanna go back’ta sleep.”
“Nuh uh,” Nico tells him, gently. “You need to get this fever down. Nai gave you medicine, right?” Vash nods. Nai’s been timing his pills with his watch, the timer going off every few hours. “Not workin’, you’re still burning up. We’re gonna have to put you in the shower.”
“No,” Vash sobs. His mother had to do that to him once, back when he was really young. Vash remembers that it felt like needles against his skin, knives piercing him everywhere– cold and punishing. “Just leave me be. I’ll be fine. Put me on the couch. I’m just going to get you sick.”
“No can do, baby. You know Nai would lose his mind if you had to go to the hospital over this. You don’t want that, do you?”
It’s cruel for Nico to use Nai against him, Vash thinks, but he doesn’t have the strength to say it. He knows that Nico’s right. Nai would be a mess, seeing him like that again after all of these years. It’s much easier for Vash to shiver his way through a cool shower than it is for him to think about Nai losing it in front of a hospital’s staff. But still, he looks up at Nico and asks, “Can we wait until he gets back?”
“Won’t he get upset, baby?” Nico asks, sweet and genuine and as always, considering what’s best for Nai.
“I don’t know,” Vash starts. He feels tears start to pool in the corners of his eyes, feeling young and stupid and foolish. “But I need him.”
“Okay,” Nico answers, his brow furrowing up in a way that it rarely does around Vash. He flips the compress over to the cold side again, listening to Vash hiss. “We’ll wait. You rest until he gets home.”
Vash closes his eyes. Nico starts to tell him about work, and Vash drifts off again.
When he wakes, Nico must have already explained everything to Nai, because Nai looks at him with a very serious face and says. “You have a cold. It’s just a cold.”
“I have a cold,” Vash manages, shaking himself from sleep.
“We’re going to make you okay, me and Nico.”
Vash smiles a little, Nai’s presence already making everything feel better.
Nai gets him undressed while Nico starts the water. At first, he thought that he’d be getting in alone, knowing that Nico and Nai probably don’t want a cold shower if they don’t have to take one, but he soon finds out that he’s very, very wrong. The two of them strip down naked, Nai helping Vash into the tub as Nico makes sure they don’t slip, and gasping as the cool water hits him first.
Nico holds his waist and Nai holds his hands, leaning in close as the water starts to make him shake from head to toe.
“You’re going to be okay,” Nai tells him. “We’re going to make you all better.” And with Nico at his front, and Nai the constant presence behind him, Vash lets himself break. The tears start as a gentle trickle, one that he tries to get a hold of, but before he knows it, he’s downright sobbing. He’s cold and miserable and his skin hurts but he knows he’s safe. He knows they’ve got him.
“It’s okay, you can cry,” Nai tells him. Nico presses his lips to Vash’s cheek.
The whole ordeal must have exhausted Nai, because he falls asleep on Vash’s lap soon after he insists on spoon-feeding Vash his soup while they watch one of Vash’s favorite animated movies. Nico manages to move Nai off of Vash, tossing a blanket on him while he drags Vash back to bed.
“What are you doing to me now?” Vash complains.
“None of that from you,” Nico scolds. “Gimmie those feet.”
“Why?”
“I’m fixin’ you. Just like my real mom did to me when I was a baby.” Nico takes hold of Vash by the ankle, dipping his finger into the tub of Vaporub before he starts to apply it to the sole of his foot. It feels gross, making Vash squirm and complain. Nico doesn’t pay him any mind. Vash wants to ask Nico about his mom, but he can’t seem to get the words out, his tongue too big for his mouth. Even with Nico’s hands moving on him, he feels himself start to sink back into his drowsiness.
Nico puts Vash’s sock on when he’s done, only making the slimy feeling worse. “Quit it or you’ll be sick forever,” Nico tells him, and Vash finds himself listening, letting Nico gently rub the ointment onto his other foot before sliding the sock on that one too.
Nico rubs the ointment on his chest then. The mintiness of it immediately hits Vash’s nostrils, making his nose start to run and a weak cough leap from his chest. He sneezes a few times, one making Nai twitch, almost startling him awake.
“See? Workin’ already,” Nico tells him, giving him a smile. He leans in to kiss Vash on the cheek, then the forehead. “You rest, now. I’m gonna go lay with Nai. The two of us have had enough of your germs already.”
Vash wants to fight, feeling guilty, but he doesn’t have it in him. He just lets his eyes fall shut, listening as Nico carefully shuffles around the apartment.
Vash’s fever breaks around three in the morning. He wakes up covered in sweat, sticky everywhere, and right in between Nico and Nai.
Those idiots.
They’re sick three days later.
Eventually, their good health finds its way back to them. The apartment is a mess, the clutter even worse than usual. Nico makes them throw open the windows, Nai insists that they bag up the laundry to do, even the sheets and blankets. Vash hates the laundromat. It takes forever, and two months ago the single TV in the place stopped working, so he can’t even enjoy a paternity scandal while he waits for his clothes to come out of the dryer. Nai tells him half a dozen times not to forget his book, so naturally, Vash manages to leave it on the counter.
He remembers as soon as they get there, fussing to Nico as he works grease stains out of his shirt. Nai tosses his clothes into the wash, deciding at the last minute that he can wait it out in his underwear, tossing his shorts in too.
“Gimmie a minute, you impatient little shit.” Nico scolds. “I’ll eat you out after I throw these in.”
“You’ll what?” Nai asks, sounding shocked. “In public?!”
Nico just shrugs. “Ain’t nobody coming in here. It’s the middle of the day. Not to mention, Vash is a quick draw. He won’t take long.”
Vash frowns. “Don’t talk about me like I’m a gun from a cowboy movie.”
“Then stop making it be true,” Nico answers, matter of fact. He tosses his clothes into the machine, making Vash strip off his shorts and underwear as he does, leaving Vash naked from the waist down.
Nai walks over to a vending machine in the corner of the room, half-obscured by overgrown plants. He fusses with the leaves for a moment, probably to determine whether the plant is being properly taken care of or if he needs to work his magic on it. He and Vash have always been naturally good with plants, something that their mother taught them when they were very young. Nai likes giving them to people as gifts, although he hasn’t had many to give as of late. He started a new spider plant for Nico in one of their nice pots, one that Vash took the time to paint with swirls of color. It lives on the windowsill behind their bed, with Nai checking it every day, pretending like Vash doesn’t notice him peeking at it. He grabs himself an ice cream bar, and then another for Vash, walking over to hand it to him before he goes to sit on the floor next to their laundry basket, popping the ice cream in his mouth as he watches Nico and Vash with bright, eager eyes.
Vash takes a few licks from his chocolate ice cream before he lets it rest in his hand. He watches as Nico closes the lid to the washer before dropping to his knees next to Vash.
“Hey! What-” Vash starts, but Nico quickly cuts him off with a long lick to Vash’s core. Vash gasps, shuddering.
“Lord, thank you for this meal-” Nico teases, his brown eyes heavy with desire as he looks up at Vash.
“Oh, be qu- Ah!” Vash gasps, his hips pushing forward as Nico dives back in. Nico’s always been good with his mouth (in more ways than one), and this time is no different. Vash lifts his leg to give Nico more access to him, pleased when Nico brings a finger to slide into his hole, making Vash clench down around him. “Oh, fuck, Nico.” Vash moans. “Feels good.”
Vash spots movement out of the corner of his eye, bringing his gaze up to meet Nai’s. His cock is hard already, his hand down palming himself. Vash groans, bringing his leg up to toss over Nico’s shoulder, digging in with his heel to keep him close, watching Nai pull his cock from his boxers. It all makes Vash’s body go all tight with pleasure. He didn’t expect Nai to get so worked up from this, especially not in public. It makes everything that much better, knowing how the sight of him getting eaten out is getting to Nai.
“You like it, Nai?” Vash asks, voice breathless. “He feels good. I feel so good.”
“Mhm,” Nai answers, too lost to really talk. His ice cream starts to drip onto the tile floor, and Vash is sure that his is, too, not that he could be assed to care at this point.
Nico licks against him expertly, sucking on his clit, groaning against his hole when he licks into it, his nose brushing up against Vash’s hardness. Nico brings his finger up to tease Vash’s hole, dipping it inside, pressing down against Vash’s wet entrance. Vash shivers all over, the muscles in his legs twitching as Nico keeps giving him pleasure.
Vash is almost pissed when he starts to feel his orgasm creep up, knowing that Nico was right about him being quick and easy. He doesn’t hold back, though, remembering where they are, that anyone could walk in and spot them in a second.
He finishes with Nico’s mouth around him and his fingers twisting into his dark hair, throwing his head back as he cries out with sweat dripping from his temples.
When he can catch his breath, he looks over to Nai, finding his brother quite troubled as both of his hands are dirty– one with his come, and one with ice cream. Vash kind of wants to go and lick them both clean, one at a time, but before his legs stop feeling like jelly, Nai makes the executive decision to wipe them both off on one of his dirty shirts, grimacing at it as if it’s deeply offended him.
Nai looks up at them both, a disgusted scowl across his face. “I’m so sticky,” he whines.
“Let me help you clean up properly,” Vash tells him, finally managing to get his bearings about him and detach himself from Nico.
As the two of them shuffle off to the bathroom, Nico calls out behind them, “Hey! What about me? Don’t I get a reward for giving such good head?”
“You get to watch the laundry!” Vash tells him.
Nai snickers beside him.
Summer always gets the most furious when she’s on her last legs, flaring up one final time as a heat wave sweeps through town in early September. The heat is unbearable–even seasoned veterans like themselves try to escape away from it.
“There’s a pond-sorta thing, off of the creek a bit, down behind my house. It won’t take us too long to walk there,” Nico tells them. Nai’s so hot that he’s lying on the hardwood floor, his eyes shut as Vash waves a magazine to fan him off. “We could go for a swim, beat the heat.”
Nai blinks one of his eyes open, and Vash is suddenly a lot more awake, too.
The three of them set out after the midday sun has started to sink closer to the horizon, towels slung over their shoulders, flip flops smacking against the asphalt as they walk down the wooded main road of the town. A few of their neighbors that had been sitting on their porches stand to walk inside as they spot them coming. The Saverem twins, and now that Nico boy, too– all of them marked by the devil for taking.
They cut through Nico’s backyard, hopping the fence to escape back into the woods. The only people that fuck around back here are people like them– too young for responsibility, too bored, too horny, too something to obey the signs warning them to stay away. Nico jumps as they reach one– a large sign that reads NO TRESPASSING in bright red font that’s stapled to a tree. His fingers graze the metal, slap it, make it clang and rattle against the rough bark. Defiance in action, their youth in the air.
Nico leads the way, zig-zagging through trees, telling Nai to be quiet when he starts to question if Nico really knows where he’s going. “If you get us lost in here, I’m never going to forgive you, and neither is God. He’ll be mad you ruined His angels. We haven’t had a chance to repent for all of the sex, yet.”
Nai’s completely serious, but it makes Vash laugh under his breath, it makes something inside of him grow warm, too, that Nai thinks of himself as someone that has sex now, that he believes in repentance, that his world is less black and white and terrifying than it was a few months ago.
“Yeah, yeah,” Nico dismisses. “You like all that sex, let me remind you, cowboy.”
Nai sputters at the pet name, just as he always does. “Well, yeah! But that’s not the point.”
“I’ll baptize you in the pond my damn self, just keep walkin’.”
It makes Vash even happier that Nai can admit that he likes what they’re doing with Nico. It’s the best and most stable that he thinks Nai has been, at least since their mom died. Vash may not have the same belief in God as Nico and Nai, but seeing them has made him start to believe that maybe life is a blessing, just like all the cheesy, handpainted signs that they sell at the town store say. His faith is full of practical logic, hope, and the warmth of Nico and Nai’s skin as they settle around him before bed.
Vash loses himself in thought as they walk, loses himself in the way that Nico’s hair has grown too long on the nape of his neck, in the way that Nai’s shoulders have freckled from all of the summer sun. He doesn’t know how long it takes them to get there, but when they do, he knows that it’s worth every step.
The trees open up to exactly what Nico promised them. It’s a decently-sized pond, full of still, clear water. It looks mostly untouched from the other brave (or stupid) souls that have wandered this far into the woods, just a forgotten t-shirt on the bank, a plastic bag left behind next to it. There are a few fallen branches along the edge of the pond, probably from the storm that whipped through town the week before. There’s plush, green grass that leads up to the edge of the water, and before Vash can even express just how beautiful and tranquil this place is, Nico’s ruining it, stripping down naked and jumping into the water. He splashes Vash and Nai both, creating ripples that wet up the previously untouched grass.
“Naked?!” Vash exclaims. “I thought that’s why we wore shorts!”
“You won’t regret it!” Nico answers, smiling wildly. The water comes up to his chest, just deep enough to really swim in. “It feels good as shit!”
“A fish is gonna bite my damn dick,” Nai mumbles, and Vash starts cackling as the two of them peel off their clothes, setting them carefully far away from the water.
Vash has never been completely naked in public like this, even though there’s no one around besides them but the forest animals to see. It makes him feel just as much self-conscious as he does a little wild, freedom tickling his ankles along with the blades of grass. “Are you gonna catch me if I jump?” Vash asks.
Nico grins. “I can try!”
Vash moves a few steps back before he takes off running, leaping at the water’s edge, fear not kicking in until his toes are mere inches from the surface of the pond. Nico does try to reach out and grab him, his fingertips brushing over Vash’s skin as he splashes into the water, keeping his eyes shut on instinct. He comes up completely soaked and best of all cool. The water’s been granted mercy from the summer sun by the trees around it. Nico’s hands are immediately on him to grab and scoop him up into his arms. Vash wraps his legs around Nico’s waist, trying and failing to not pay attention to the way their bodies brush up against each other.
“You missed me!” He complains, his smile spread from ear to ear. He leans in to nuzzle the side of Nico’s face, feeling the stubble that never seems to leave his face.
“I tried, though,” Nico tells him, smacking a wet kiss to Vash’s cheek.
Nai’s voice from the shoreline drags all of their attention back to him. “Nico!” Nai shouts. He’s naked, standing there with a stick in his hand, pointing it straight at them. “I think you’ve put your hands on the wrong boy.” Nai’s making his accent especially thick, playing it up for show.
Nico realizes what he’s doing before Vash does, and joins the charade with an overly dramatic gasp of his own as he turns to Vash. “Lord above, it’s cowboy Nai!” He puts an over-the-top accent on too, sounding just like those old movies.
Vash joins Nico in his pretend shock, bringing his hands up to his cheeks. “Oh no! What ever will we do! He wasn’t supposed to catch me here with you!”
“That’s my brother you’re feelin’ up over there. Thought I told you to stay away from these parts.” Nai’s trying his hardest to keep his face straight, but the hint of a smile peeks out from his forced frown.
“And I thought I told you that you’re not the boss of me!” Nico retorts, taking one of his hands off Vash’s thighs to point his own stick-gun at Nai, using his pointer finger and thumb. “You don’t run things ‘round here no more. This is my town now, and this is my man.” To emphasize his point, Nico plants a dramatic kiss on Vash’s lips.
Vash pretends to wilt with it, as if he’s swooning. “Oh, what is little old me supposed to do? These two handsome cowboys are fighting for my love!”
“Now you just stay behind me, pretty sir,” Nico says, gently setting Vash down, his feet squishing in the mud of the pond floor. “I wouldn’t want this thieving bastard to hit you by accident.”
“Protect me, cowboy Nico!” Vash wails.
“I think the only way to solve this is a good, old-fashioned shootout, don’t you?” Nai says.
“I think so too. A quick draw, on the count of three.”
“One,” Nai starts.
“Two,” Nico says.
“Three!” comes both of their voices at once.
“Bang!” Nai shouts, recoiling his stick as if it had just fired a bullet. Nico immediately moves to grasp his chest.
“Oh no! I’ve been hit!” Nico chokes, stumbling around in the water, really playing it up. “I guess what they say is true… Nai really is the best cowboy in the world.” Then, Nico falls into the water dramatically, splashing Vash all over as he lets himself sink to the floor, properly slayed.
Nai comes rushing into the water, then, the two of them ignoring when Nico pops up from under the water’s surface just a second later. Nai scoops Vash up into his arms, picking him up bridal style, still holding his stick-gun in his hand. Nai leans down and captures Vash’s mouth into a very uncharacteristically suave kiss. Vash starts to giggle as he pulls away, saying, “Don’t worry, little lady. He won’t be comin’ ‘round these parts no more.”
Vash is still laughing when he says, “I thought that you were the bad guy! Plus, when did I become a lady?”
Nai scoffs. “No! I’m the good guy! Nico’s the bad guy.”
“Nuh uh!” Nico objects. “I was the good guy!”
“What if you’re both the good guy, and you both win me as your prize,” Vash offers, wiggling his way out of Nai’s arms so he can swim around a little, the heat already starting to make his hair frizz.
“A fair compromise,” Nico decides, already distracted from playing cowboys in favor of hanging off of Nai’s back, the water making him weightless. “What do you think, cowboy Nai?”
“It’ll do,” Nai answers, trying to shove Nico off of him, much to Nico’s dismay.
After Vash’s cowboys end their feud, the three of them don’t stop playing around, not until Nico eventually gets worked up from all of that skin rubbing against his. He starts kissing on the both of them, being a charming menace as usual, and before long, Vash has two fingers inside of him, both Nai’s, as Nico kisses and bites along Nai’s neck, whispering filthy encouragements into his ear that make Vash squirm and wiggle. Nai tilts his head back onto Nico’s shoulders, moaning his name as he works his hand inside of Vash. Nico decides to give Vash love then, too, kissing his lips, sucking on his tongue.
It doesn’t take long for them to work Vash to his peak, and then Nai does something that Vash doesn’t expect, he turns to face Nico, saying “Your turn,” simply, as if it was always his plan to get them both off with his hands.
Nico is just as stunned as Vash is, letting Nai jerk him off under the water. Vash comes around Nico’s back, caging him in between them, bringing his hand down between Nico’s hands to wrap around Nai’s, the two of them pumping his cock slowly, just how Nico likes.
He’s a babbling mess by the end of it– spilling out sweet words from his tongue, praises, thanking the Lord just before he finishes, his spunk dirtying the water as he comes.
Vash wishes he could put this day on an altar. He doesn’t think he’d ever stop worshipping it. Summer’s blessing, all around them.
By the time the three of them make it back to the apartment, the sun’s started to go down, painting the sky with hues sent straight from the heavens above. They color the inside of their place too, warm light spilling everywhere.
Vash heads straight for the bed, flopping himself down, and he’s quickly followed by Nico who lays behind him, pulling Vash’s body into his. He starts kissing the back of Vash’s neck, mumbling about freckles and all of the stars in the sky.
“It’s like my own personal galaxy,” Nico tells him, pressing his lips to Vash’s cheek. Nai settles in behind them both, carefully lying on his side. Nico turns to face him for a moment, reaching out to run his finger down the bridge of Nai’s nose, making him go cross-eyed. “Here too.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere, Nico,” Vash tells him. “I’m sore, now. Give me a break.” He says the words lightheartedly, not wanting Nai to think he did anything wrong. “You can have me again tomorrow, after I sleep.”
“Or,” Nai starts, and all eyes turn to him. Nai’s staring rather intensely at his hands, lost in thought. Everything goes quiet around them, nothing but the crickets singing outside making noise. “You could have me.”
Nico’s rounding on Nai in an instant, pushing him flat on his back, straddling his thighs. “Nai, don’t go forcing yourself to do something you don’t want, now. You know better than that.”
Nai shakes his head, choosing his words carefully. “I don’t want to- I don’t want to put it inside of anyone else,” he starts, and Vash can tell that he’s sorting through what he feels out loud. This is what their mom always taught him to do– take it one step at a time, identify each emotion before he moves onto the next. “But I do want it. Vash does it to me sometimes, with his fingers, because he doesn’t have anything else to fuck me with, but you do.”
“Are you saying you want me to fuck you, Nai?” Nico asks, all of his flirtation gone, just serious inquiry left in its place. Vash can tell how much Nico is feeling right now, his eyes so dark, so intense.
Nai nods.
“No, baby. I need you to say it. I wanna hear the words from you.”
“I’ve been thinking,” is what Nai says instead. “We’re supposed to only have sex with a husband or a wife. But I can’t marry Vash, and it wouldn’t be fair to Vash if I married you. But I love you, and I think that’s close enough, right?”
Nai obviously has no idea the effect his words will have on Nico, dropping them into the conversation as if they were nothing but a simple fact.
Nico smiles, unable to help himself any longer, pressing his lips against Nai’s. “You love me?” he asks, their foreheads resting together.
Vash presses his mouth to Nico’s shoulder. “I love you, too” he says, admitting it against Nico’s skin, the words sun-kissed and warm and just like him.
There are some days when Vash expects to wake up and find out that everything he has, that all they’ve shared, that all of this was just a dream. He can’t deserve something this good. There’s just no way, not after the life that he’s lived, not after the sins that he’s committed.
He decides now that if tomorrow he woke up alone, stuck back in the hospital, covered in burn scars, it would all have been worth it, as long as he could remember this moment again and again.
Nico seems a little overwhelmed, breathing out heavily, laughing. “You better believe I love you both. I wouldn’t put up with your messy asses if I didn’t.”
“If we love each other, then isn’t that enough for you to fuck me? With Vash?” Nai asks, the gravity of the moment entirely lost on him. Instead, he stares up innocently into Nico’s eyes.
“Yeah, Nai,” Nico breathes. “Yeah, I think it is.”
Vash climbs over both of them, bracketing Nai in between them. He presses a kiss to Nai’s cheek, then his lips. “If you’re sure.”
“I am.”
“Well, okay.” Vash answers, looking at Nico, who finally seems to have his head back screwed on straight.
“It’s not like when I do it to Vash, baby. We gotta stretch you open and make you wet enough to take me.”
Nai rolls his eyes, genuinely irritated. “I know. Vash has done it to me before. He’s done it to you, too.”
Nico laughs at Nai’s words, reaching into the bedside table to grab their bottle of lube, shaking it and grinning when he finds it full enough.
“Let me,” Vash says, because he’s itching to have his hands on Nai’s skin, especially during a moment as important as this.
Nico hands the bottle over, and the three of them undress, not wanting anything but skin on skin, wanting to feel everything they can.
The first press of Vash’s finger into Nai’s hole isn’t new for any of them, but it does make Nai moan a pretty sound, his voice low, his hand coming out to wrap around the back of Vash’s neck. Vash works it into him slowly, thankful for how Nico moves to kiss Nai’s neck, forcing him to relax fully. Nico’s mouth on his neck is one of Nai’s favorite things, always managing to get him worked up, and now is no different. Vash is able to add a second finger soon after, pumping them slowly inside as Nico brings his hand down to stroke Nai’s hardening cock, making it fill even more.
“You like it?” Vash asks. Nai’s eyes are pressed tightly shut, his mouth open and gasping and begging to be kissed.
“Yeah, I do,” he answers, and Vash rewards him, kissing him slowly, softly as he keeps fucking into Nai’s body.
Nai opens for him like a dream, his body going pliant around Vash’s fingers. Two is the most that Nai’s ever taken before, so Vash whispers a warning before he adds a third, careful to give Nai a moment to adjust as he hisses. On the other side, Nico whispers into his ear, words meant only for Nai, gentle praises, telling Nai, “You take him so good, baby. I can’t wait to see what you look like under me.” And it just helps to work Nai up further, making him squirm around the stretch of Vash’s fingers.
“I want it,” Nai gasps, pleading, and Nico looks to Vash with a raised eyebrow, asking for permission.
“Okay,” Vash answers, withdrawing his fingers and wiping them clean on the sheets before he shifts, giving Nico the chance to get in-between Nai’s legs, hiking them up around his hips.
“I want it,” Nai says again, this time to Nico alone.
“Don’t you worry, honey. I’m gonna give it to you.”
Vash watches as Nico starts to push inside of Nai. It’s incredible, watching Nai’s body open for him, swallowing him up, and it must feel incredible too, from how the both of them gasp and moan. Vash brings his hand down between his legs, pressing his own fingers inside of himself as he turns Nai’s head to face him, capturing his lips in a kiss. Nai breathes into his open mouth, gasping as Nico pushes further and further inside. “You’re doing so damn well, Nai,” Nico tells him, and Vash moans in agreement.
Nico gives Nai a moment to breathe when he’s fully seated inside, kissing the two of them sloppily, fitting his mouth between theirs, somehow, because of course, he could do something like that– their perfect missing puzzle piece.
“You can move, now,” Nai says, his face flushed, his one hand wrapped in Vash’s hair while the other grips Nico’s bicep. “Please.”
Nico listens at once, starting slow, giving Nai time to ease into a gentle, rocking rhythm, so different from how he first took Vash on the bank of the creek.
It’s hard to believe that that was just a few months ago, that all of their firsts belong to the same hot summer, even down to their first love.
Nico takes Nai gently, letting Vash stroke him with his free hand as he lazily fingers himself. Nai’s cock leaks heavily onto Vash’s fingers as the two of them take turns kissing him, swallowing back his high-pitched cries and moans.
Vash can see how much restraint Nico is using to fuck him. He’s sweating from his brow, the room filling up with the scent of them all. He can tell that Nico wants to really fuck him, wants to pound into Nai and wreck him, but he trusts Nico enough to know that Nai doesn’t need that, what he needs is this– sweet, deep thrusts, the three of them pressed up tight.
Vash finishes first, groaning into Nai’s mouth, hearing Nico say, “Fuck, Vash, you sound like a damn dream. Look at Nai, he looks like he’s going to finish, just listening to you.”
Nai’s brow furrows up, twisting his mouth away from Vash’s to say, “No, not yet,” gasping prettily.
“We got plenty of time to do this again, baby,” Nico tells him.
“All of the time in the world,” Vash adds. “Finish if you want to, Nai. Nico won’t stop.”
All he was missing was the permission to come, because it only takes another few strokes of Vash’s hand and Nico’s cock for Nai to finish, gasping out, shaking all over as Nico fucks him through it. Vash immediately moves to kiss him and help him come down. Nico doesn’t stop fucking him, and Vash knows that he’s getting close from the way his moans sound punched-out, short and tight and wound up.
Nai whimpers when Nico starts to spill inside of him, Nico leaning down to mumble, “So good, baby, you can take it, baby,” into Nai’s ear, and Nai does take it, looking gorgeous as his face smoothes out, nothing but pleasure left in his features, bliss.
Contentment.
It's after Nico cleans Nai up and after Vash fusses over him, kissing his face until Nai groans and pushes him away, that the three of them all lie down to rest. Nai giggles as Nico tells him a story, and he lets Vash play with his fingers, just like he used to when they’d snuggle as kids.
“Tomorrow’s the first day of fall,” Nai says, out of nowhere, as if it had been eating him up for the entire day.
Nico scoffs. “It’ll be another month before we can tell the difference.”
“And three months before Vash finally goes to church on Christmas.”
“Maybe you’ll get lucky,” Vash says, smiling. “Maybe you’ll be able to drag me there for Easter next year, too.”
Things between them may always shift, and they might always change, but Vash knows one thing to be true.
The summer will come for them again