Pleasant Surprises
“Okay, everybody! Free time is over!” Vash called as he re-entered the main house, a glint of the setting sun flashing across the bottle green of his prosthetic arm. “We have a guest to entertain and Meryl needs help with dinner.”
The kids followed after him like ducklings while Nicholas stood frozen. Half of the reason that Julai was nothing but a steaming crater was here, bouncing a baby on his hip and lecturing a toddler on the inherent value of all life. No one at the Eye would ever believe it. Hell, Nicholas wouldn’t have believed it if he weren’t looking at it himself.
Vash glanced over his shoulder, noticing Nicholas’ lack of movement. “Is something wrong?”
“No,” Nicholas said, shaking his head and stepping onto the porch. “Nothin’ at all.”
The house was cozy. Warm lighting flooded the rooms as music drifted out of an antique record player that had been placed near an exceptionally soft looking couch. A large, well-worn table sat in the middle of the adjacent dining room, and Nicholas could hear the clinking of dishes and chattering voices seeping out from behind a nearby door.
“—and get this, Meryl, he was looking for his cat the entire time!”
“Is that so,” Meryl said, pushing the door open with her hip and setting a pot onto the dining table. Zazie was trailing closely behind with an armful of plates that were teetering precariously as they walked. “I’m sure he was very grateful for your help, no matter how he may have expressed it.”
“That’s the best part!” Zazie finally reached the table, placing each plate in front of one of the many chairs. “He thanked us! Multiple times! Can you believe it?”
Meryl turned her head, making eye contact with Nicholas through the doorway. “What a pleasant surprise.”
“It’s not all that impressive,” Kaite said, emerging from the kitchen with a handful of silverware. “He said ‘thank you.’ So what? Most people get thanked when they do something helpful.”
“Not us,” Zazie insisted.
Kaite kept his eyes on the table, carefully arranging the forks, knives, and spoons. “Yeah. Well, don’t get used to it.”
The conversation was familiar to Nicholas. It was similar to the ones he’d had with Livio growing up. Most people saw Hopeland as a burden, a waste of tax dollars. No one wants to say that they hate orphans, but not many people are all that keen on helping out without getting anything back. Not only did these kids have to deal with that, but they were also seen as threats. Dangerous. How much did they have to go through on a daily basis for a simple “thank you” to cause this much happiness in a child?
But it wasn’t Nicholas’ job to fix the state of the world. He was only here to make sure that they were properly cared for and safe to be around.
“You gonna stand around all day or are you gonna help?” Lina said, glaring at him in a lightly stained apron while Tonis peeked out from behind her legs.
Nicholas straightened up. “What do you need me to do?”
Lina looked behind her and signed something to Tonis. The boy nodded and signed back, pointing where Nicholas couldn’t see.
“Maylene is in her playpen right now,” Lina said, focusing on Nicholas again. “She’s cranky, so Vash is trying to calm her down, but he’s no good when she gets like this. Go help him. Make sure he doesn’t have a breakdown or whatever. I don’t feel like dealing with two crybabies today.”
Sure enough, if he strained his ears, Nicholas could hear the faint sound of a baby crying. He followed it to a room filled with various toys and children’s books. It appeared to be a nursery. Inside, Vash and Elendira were fussing over Maylene, trying to get her to accept a stuffed koala, but she ignored them and continued to sob. She was wearing a simple, baby blue shirt with slits cut into the back, so Wolfwood could clearly see her leathery wings fluttering in distress.
“Come on, May-may,” Vash said, sounding desperate. “You love Koko!”
Elendira nodded along, peering over the side of the playpen and shaking the koala. “And Koko wants you to be happy!”
“That’s right! Koko doesn’t want to see you cry.”
Nicholas snorted. “Doesn’t seem like Koko is workin’.”
Vash spun around, startled by Nicholas' presence, but he managed to hide his surprise quickly. Nicholas didn’t miss the stance he’d fallen into, though. Like a predator who’d noticed someone creeping a bit too close to their child.
“Sorry about this,” Vash chuckled. It was almost as fake as his smile. “She gets a little worked up sometimes and it takes a while to calm her down. You can go relax. Don’t worry, she’ll be happier than ever before you know it!”
Maylene didn’t seem to agree, crying even harder when she realized that his attention wasn’t on her. Vash’s smile was beginning to fall, his eyes growing suspiciously watery, and Nicholas remembered Lina’s warning. Sighing, he walked into the room.
“Let me try.”
Vash’s eyebrows shot up. “You…want to help?”
“That’s what I said, isn’t it?” Wolfwood said, crossing his arms. “Will you let me?”
Vash nodded hesitantly, grabbing Elendira’s hand and gently moving her to the side. He kept his posture non threatening, but his piercing blue eyes were following Nicholas’ every move as he approached Maylene, never letting him out of his sight.
“Hey, there,” Nicholas whispered. Maylene sniffled, looking up at him with curious eyes and tear stained cheeks. He stuck his finger into the playpen, letting her get used to him slowly. She observed it for a moment before accepting his offering, pulling the finger while making a grabbing motion with her other hand. “You want up? Okay, I can do that, Little Lady.”
Nicholas carefully took Maylene out of the playpen and settled her against his chest, her head laying on his shoulder. She’d stopped crying at this point, fisting her tiny hand into his shirt and holding him close.
“You were just a little overwhelmed, weren’t you,” Nicholas cooed as her sniffles petered out. “I know, I know. I get that way too.”
Once her breathing was completely even, Nicholas looked at Vash, hoping to transfer the baby over to her proper caretaker, but was stunned by his expression. He was smiling. Not one of those plastic smiles he’d been wearing since Nicholas arrived, but a genuine one. It was nice to see.
“So you can smile like that,” Nicholas said before his brain had a chance to catch up to his mouth.
Vash jumped back, as though he’d been pulled out of a daze. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve been…” How could he put it without sounding rude? “It always felt like you were in pain or sad, but you were tryin’ to cover it up with a fake smile. So that no one else would know.”
Vash blinked. “Oh.”
“You’re sad?” Elendira asked, squinting her eyes at Vash as though she’d be able to see into his mind with enough effort. Nicholas had forgotten that she was there. He wouldn’t have brought the topic up if he had remembered. How unprofessional could he be? Discussing something like that in front of a child, unfathomably powerful though she may be.
Vash grabbed her, smushing their cheeks together as she tried to slap him away. “Everyone is sad sometimes. But I’m with you guys, so I’m happier than I’ve ever been! And I’m going to protect that happiness with everything I have. I promise.”
Nicholas wasn’t so naïve that he couldn’t sense the thinly veiled threat in that sentence, and yet it had been said with such gentleness that it almost made him forget it was directed towards him. And the answer Vash had given her…wasn’t all that much of an answer, was it?
“Dinner’s ready!” Meryl shouted, cutting whatever thoughts Nicholas might have had short.
Vash released Elendira from their hug and let her scurry away, the prospect of food wiping any lingering worries from her mind. He walked to the doorway and looked at Nicholas, not a hint of hostility in his gaze.
“Shall we?” he said, voice full of hospitality. Nicholas gave no verbal response, simply allowing himself to be guided to the dining room.
Dinner was annoyingly good, and Meryl knew it, if the smug smile she shot Nicholas was anything to go by. It was nothing compared to Miss Melanie’s, but Nicholas hadn’t had a home cooked meal since he was a child, and if he weren’t so hungry he might’ve been embarrassed by how fast he ate. The rest of the table went ahead with their usual conversations, paying him no mind. Even Tonis was happily signing away, having chosen to wear a prosthetic arm during the meal. Nicholas had no idea what he was saying, but the boy seemed to be enjoying himself.
Once everyone was finished and the dishes were put away—Nicholas refused to be left out of chores—Vash announced the beginning of “relaxation hour,” telling the children that he’d check on them again at their bedtimes. He handed Maylene over to Meryl and turned his attention to Nicholas.
“Would you like to have a little chat?” Vash asked. His expression was completely open, no anxiety or resentment to be seen. Nicholas couldn’t say he’d ever met a caretaker quite so forgiving of his presence.
“As a matter of fact, I would,” he said.
“I figured,” Vash chuckled. “Interrogating and inspecting always seem to go hand in hand. Come on, we can talk privately in my office.”
Vash led him to a room at the end of a hallway, carefully locking the door and moving to a comfortable looking chair behind a mahogany desk.
“So,” he said, gesturing for Nicholas to take the seat opposite to his. “What would you like to know?”
Nicholas plopped down onto the chair and put all of his focus on Vash. “Tell me about the children.”
Vash tilted his head. “I’d assumed that the Eye of Michael had provided you with all of the necessary files—”
“I wanna hear about them from you,” Nicholas interrupted. “Not the Eye.”
“Is that so?” Vash said, his blue eyes softening in a way that Nicholas couldn’t interpret. “Well then, I suppose I’ll start with Lina.”
“She was the first kid you took in?”
“That’s right.” Vash’s smile took on an edge of nostalgia. “She was living with her grandmother, Sheryl, when we met; she was the only family Lina had left. They took me in during a…rough time. Helped me get back on my feet. Unfortunately, Sheryl passed while I was away and Lina was left to protect her family’s forest by herself. Can you imagine? Having to grieve for the last of your family and defend your home all before your 10th birthday?”
Nicholas wanted to tell the man just how much he didn’t need to imagine it, how he could easily relate, but this meeting wasn’t about him.
“I doubt she was very willin’ to leave that forest,” Nicholas said instead. “How’d you convince her to come here?”
“I didn’t need to,” Vash replied, glancing out of the small window near his chair. “By the time I’d gotten there, the forest was ravaged, practically dead. A company had come by wanting the land. Lina put up an impressive fight, but she was still only a child. She had nowhere to go after, so…”
“I see,” Nicholas muttered.
Vash turned to face him again, expression carefully blank. “The next child to come into my care was Kaite, though that wasn’t intentional.”
“What do you mean?” Nicholas asked, leaning forward.
“I was taking a train to Octovern to meet Zazie when it happened to be hijacked by the Bad Lads. I ended up running into their youngest member during this exchange.”
“Kaite was a member of the Bad Lad Gang?” Nicholas said, shocked. The Bad Lads were infamous, led by a man who was known to be as carelessly violent as he was unnecessarily flashy. Nicholas had run into them twice in his life and neither time was one he’d like to repeat.
“Technically, yes, but I don’t want to give you the wrong impression.” Vash fiddled with his prosthetic as he spoke. “It wasn’t completely voluntary on his part. Kaite had been chased around for years at that point by people who had heard stories of carbuncles and the wealth they could bring. He doesn’t talk about it much, but I know that he was imprisoned at least a few times before I found him. It was either agree to join the Bad Lads or be taken by force.”
“Ah.”
“He absolutely hated me at first,” Vash continued, chuckling at the memory. “I’d accidentally gotten in the way of his plans and when I realized what was going on, I couldn’t just leave him, you know? Eventually, I convinced him to help me take the group down and asked if he wanted to come with me. He agreed, of course.”
“Woah, woah.” Nicholas shook his head, trying to process this new information. “You’re tellin’ me that you took down the Bad Lad Gang durin’ an active hostage situation?”
“Yes.” Vash nodded. “You can check the public records if you want.”
Nicholas shouldn’t have been surprised. He had been told time and time again that Vash Saverem was a powerful individual; it was a large part of why he was here. But he still couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that this seemingly innocuous man in horribly bright clothes was the same one who had the entirety of the Eye of Michael on edge.
“Maybe later,” Nicholas said, dismissing the suggestion with a wave of his hand.
Vash simply shrugged and continued, “Lina was not a fan. They were both so stubborn. It was pretty much impossible to get them to be civil in the beginning, but Zazie helped.”
“Zazie, huh?” Nicholas mumbled. “Do you have any idea about their species?”
“Nope,” Vash replied. “They don’t seem to be very interested in figuring it out, anyway.”
“Not at all?”
Vash gave an affirming hum. “I can say it has something to do with bugs. They were found in a field, surrounded by them. No one has any idea where they came from and the people that found them were a little too unsettled by their habit of bursting into a swarm of insects as a joke to keep them around. So, the Eye brought me in.”
“And you weren’t put off by any of this?” Nicholas asked.
Vash shook his head. “On the contrary! Zazie’s pranks keep everyone on their toes! Tonis is especially enamored with them.”
“Tonis?” Nicholas never would’ve expected those two to get along, but maybe what a quiet boy like Tonis needed was a slightly unnerving, extroverted friend like Zazie to play with.
“Yup,” Vash said, his smile widening. “Tonis has always been fond of bugs. When I met him, he was with his mother, Rosa. He used to love showing off the bugs he’d managed to catch. The town they were in was always suspicious, though. They didn’t like the idea of living with sirens—thought they might get brainwashed. After some men went hunting and never came back, the townspeople finally had a reason to act, and they attacked. By the time I got there, Rosa was dead and Tonis was barely breathing. I was able to get him to a doctor I knew in time, but she wasn’t able to save his arm. He stopped talking after that.”
If ever there were a reason for a siren to defy their nature and go silent, Nicholas supposed that would be it.
“But I’m guessing that the one you really want to know about is Elendira.” Vash grinned, placing his chin in his hands and his elbows on the desk. “Am I right?”
“You are,” Nicholas agreed. There was no point in hiding it now.
Vash raised an eyebrow. “You’re shockingly honest, you know that?” He pinned Nicholas with a curious look before sighing. “Elendira spent her first few years with my brother. As you may know, he doesn’t think too kindly of humans as a whole. I’ve been trying to reverse most of his teachings ever since he left her with me.”
“Left her with you?”
Millions Knives was the most feared individual on the planet. At one point he was considered the greatest threat humanity faced. He’d managed to effectively disappear, and the only reason he hadn’t been deemed a fugitive was because there was no one powerful enough to catch him. Well…almost no one.
Vash nodded. “I guess it’s not a secret that we don’t get along very well, but we both care about our family. Elendira is the only other living independent in existence and I’m the only one of us who lives a stable life. It only makes sense that I would be the one to raise her.”
“And you have no idea where he is?” Nicholas asked.
“Not a clue,” Vash said, his grin making a reappearance.
Nicholas was skeptical, but it wasn’t his job to track down Vash’s genocidal— formerly genocidal—twin brother. “And Maylene? She only arrived a couple of months ago, correct?”
Vash looked away, sitting back in his chair. “That’s correct. She was found in a cave next to a dragon’s corpse. It was assumed that someone raided the dragon’s hoard, but didn’t notice her. When I got there, she’d been around humans long enough to mimic their appearance. She gets along fine with everyone here, but…well, I’ve never taken care of a baby before, so it can be hard for me to figure out what makes her upset.”
Vash glanced at Nicholas and smirked. “You don’t really have that problem, do you?”
“I grew up around a lot of kids,” Nicholas said, feeling heat creep up his neck. “Picked up a few things over the years.”
“Did you now?” Vash’s voice was soft, softer than it had any reason to be when he was speaking to someone sent here to inspect his home. Nicholas was used to being cursed, yelled at, even spat on by caretakers who resented the organization he was meant to represent, but never in his career had he been treated like this.
He cleared his throat. “Well, it’s gettin’ late. I think I’ll turn in for the night. I’m assumin’ I’ll be staying in the guest house?”
“Yes,” Vash said, standing from his seat. “Let me escort you—”
“No! No, it’s fine.” Nicholas quickly stood and made his way to the door. “I can get there on my own. No need to go out of your way for me.”
“Are you sure?” Vash asked.
“Yes, completely!”
“Okay, then,” Vash said, a hint of amusement in his voice. “Have a nice night, Nicholas.”
“Just Wolfwood is fine,” Nicholas called over his shoulder as he rushed to leave.
A moment later, Nicholas exited the main house, breathing in the crisp, night air as he wandered over to the significantly smaller guest house nearby. When he was finally alone, luggage sprawled haphazardly across the floor and Kuro mewing at him from her place at his side, he let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding.
He was utterly unprepared for this job.