Fic written for trigun_shots
Title: Necropolis
Fandom: Trigun
Pairing: Could be seen as past Wolfwood = Vash or as Wolfwood/Vash friendship. Your choice.
Word count: 549
Rating: 13 up
Warnings: Anime canon, angst, mild yaoi if you read it that way (what used to be called shounen ai), canonical character death, alcohol abuse.
Summary: Vash takes a walk through Tonim to sort out his thoughts after discovering Wolfwood in the church.
xposted to my LJ.
"Necropolis"
The only sounds in the town were the flutter of drapes in opened windows, and, if one got close enough to the building that formerly housed the Plant, the hum of the residual generators that ran in the absence of the "liberated" being that once supplied them.
There was once a city, called the city of the dead. The legend was that the city was perfectly preserved as such, that it was hauntingly normal aside from the absence of humanity. Yet the city would take one out of any group of travelers to encounter it for its own.
Vash slid his glasses firmly enough over his eyes that he could feel the grooves of amber glass bite into his cheekbones, allowing the doors of the old church to slam behind him as he walked away. Why did it have to be you? Why?
Joey told Knives and I the story, when we were young, we were telling ghost stories despite Rem's saying that was too traumatic for us. Once the city had been normal, until a jealous man had pursued the rival for his only love's affections there. The man filled with jealousy had killed his rival there, and slaughtered the city to prove his power to his love.
The disappearances at Tonim had been unusual in that, in most of the other vanished towns, from Carcasses to Demetery and Berd, fire had ravaged the remains, as cooking pots and stoves would often be left unattended, campfires unextinguished, and no firefighters left, even were the town to have some in the first place, to quell the flames. Tonim, in contrast, had remained entirely standing until the fight between Wolfwood and his mentor had taken out the bar and a few surrounding buildings.
It was said the city of the dead was alive, that it consumed not only one out of any group to enter it, but that the veil of darkness pervading it could even clutch onto the souls of the living, causing them to act with unthinkable coldness to the plight of the person they were losing, because, after all, in the city of the dead, death was inevitable.
He quickly glanced around him to make sure no one was following him, then slowly slid the bag containing the bottle of whiskey from his coat, sure he could still smell the priest's blood on his hands as he placed a small straw in the bottle, nursing it as he walked through the city's streets as high noon approached. Could I have saved you somehow? Could this have been different? I will never know. I want to know. . . no, I don't. I want to forget.
Many believed the city sought its strongest vengeance against those who held love for another in their hearts, as a hateful, twisted love had been the source of its downfall.
Vash slipped the bottle back into his coat as he walked to the inn, looking up to see Milly waiting at the window. How will I ever tell her? The pain is bad enough for me, but she will hurt too. She waited for him to return, and only I return, to tell her something that has broken my heart, something that could destroy her. Necropolis, city of the dead, your name is Tonim.