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When Nicholas shouldered the front door open, it was to quiet brightness and a fading scent of geraniums and summer.
Oh shit.
“Vash?” Toeing his shoes off since he could expect something more hellish than a slipper to the face if Vash ever caught them walking over the floor, Nicholas slowly made his way across the pristine hallway and into the living room in where Vash recently had taken a liking to be hogged in their clothes while he waited for them to come home. Nicholas poked his head in around the corner, eyes squinting behind his maroon shades. “Angel, ya’ there?”
No other voice answered him aside from the air conditioner’s low hum.
Nicholas cursed under his breath again.
The couch was devoid of a certain blond-haired omega, that much was obvious, but a crumpled heap of their clothes had made a rather impressive mountain on the plush surface. There was a still Vash-sized dip over the pile, however, so he couldn’t be missing for more than an hour, and Nicholas let the mess be. Vash never liked it when someone disturbed his nest; even he chose to convey his dismay in a rather violent way.
For example, kicking his alphas out of the bedroom and forbade them of entrance for the next two nights.
Neither of them had a sound sleep because of it, and as a result Nicholas became more trigger-happy at work that even Legato had to step in before he could blast all the jackasses off his feet.
Vash wouldn’t like it, which was an irony in itself, honestly.
Nicholas checked the kitchen next, taking notes off Vash’s empty cup of milk on the countertop next to a plate with bread crumbs and chocolate smears. It was clear as day what were Vash having before he went out to wherever it was, and Nicholas couldn’t help a fond sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
Nai wouldn’t like it if he knew Vash rebelled from the diet he himself listed.
Well, he wouldn’t like it more if he knew Vash was gone, and the world certainly didn’t need Millions Knives throwing a rampage because of it. They didn’t have enough personals to take care of the corpses, you see. Not to mention of the litter of knives they’d have to pick up from the bloodied ground. Nicholas signed his life for a dirty work, yes, but not that kind.
A quick glance to the ajar door of the bathroom told him Vash wasn’t there too, and sure as hell he wouldn’t be in the office when the only entertainment available there was just the gaming chair Nicholas jokingly bought for Nai so he wouldn’t catch an early osteoporosis as he worked, so the bedroom it was.
But a cold coil of dread wrung Nicholas’s stomach tight as he discovered that his omega wasn’t buried beneath the blankets as well, and he growled.
“Where the fuck are you, needle-noggin’?” Taking his phone out, he contacted Rollo, the head security, for the CCTV footage from the last two hours. He replayed the videos, and spotted Vash’s fluffy blond locks and his baggy red jacket stiffly exiting the lift around an hour and twenty minutes ago—
Nicholas pressed pause, and zoomed in.
--with a guitar case on his back that definitely didn’t hold any guitar inside.
“Fucking shit?! Is he for real?!” Eyes bulging from disbelief, Nicholas bolted out from the bedroom, jammed his feet into his shoes, and made a dash for the lift as his thumb swiped furiously on his phone.
Pressing a specific contact, Nicholas didn’t waste any second after the line got through and screamed with all of his might and rage conducted into one hoarse mix. “Nai, Vash’s gone on a job!”
“What?!” Nicholas winced as the volume of Nai’s voice barely came out stable; syllables attacked by static. “What is he thinking?! Find me his location now!”
“Already on it! It’s closer to the lab than the penthouse, but the traffic’s shit tonight so ya better get yer ass moving!”
Usually it warranted a death sentence to order the big boss around like that, but Nicholas could care less about being the next meat on board for Nai’s knives when he got an omega to drag his ass back home, and God will smite Nicholas sooner than him letting Vash do a job in his current condition.
Nicholas would never trouble it before; he had stronger faith in Vash’s abilities than for the cross around his neck, and he had trusted Vash to claim his life too.
But for the love of God, only an insane man would accept an assassination job when he was pregnant, and Nicholas was going to ransack Hell twice and some more if something happened to Vash and their child.
Vash had to admit, it was slightly difficult to aim in a sitting position.
He was used to lie flat on his stomach with his elbows perpendicular to any rooftop he found himself on, the long barrel of his rifle directed straight to his target with his eye behind the scope. He was used to crispy evening air biting onto his temples as if Death was hovering close to watch him doing its job, its scythe within Vash’s bullet and its cloak choking the poor soul’s head. He was used to the domino of chaos that followed after, its trigger Vash’s impeccable shot and its effect an array of warm, unmoving bodies that none of ever point out whose palms their blood actually colour.
He wasn’t used to rest the rifle against his shoulder with his elbows hanging awkwardly mid-air, his round belly sensitive to every miniscule movement he made to adjust his stance.
Vash sighed, though not without a helpless smile.
Having to be five months far, Vash could still walk around and have no one noticing his belly without properly giving him a once-over, but he couldn’t lean his body forward without a stab of ache and making the baby uncomfortable. Knowing this, Nai and Nico always took great caution about how Vash settled for himself, better it be when he sat, ate, bathed, or slept.
Oh, his alphas would be mad if they knew Vash was out here for a job with their child on the way, but Vash just couldn’t help himself.
Not after his recent client, someone from the Bad Lads Gang that almost had Nai’s head once during past crossfire, paid Vash to kill the Punisher.
Vash wasn’t the type to let emotions consume him during working hours, but the hot boil of wrath that threatened to ensnare his vision in red as soon as that man pulled out Nico’s photo was dizzying—nauseating, even, as if he was repeating his first weeks all over again when he couldn’t stomach any of his alphas’ cooking and retch his guts out into the toilet bowl.
He could only bid thanks to whoever invented blockers, because if he wasn’t wearing one that time, his client would’ve died from his flaring scent alone.
The client had only contacted him yesterday, but Vash already collected every single information about him that existed in less than three hours, driven by the clamour in his mind that screamed alpha is in danger, protect your alpha, eliminate the threat to your family.
(Vash’s instinct had never been loud. It whispered, it haunted, it sang and cooed at Vash, but never once it roared. The moment Vash laid his eyes on Nico’s photo slammed onto the table, it rattled the cage of his heart and rose its hackles. It desired blood, and for his family, Vash shall deliver)
Vash had sent the man away with a smile, razor-sharp on the edges akin to the knife Nai fancied to use to coax answers out of his enemies. He had him assured that the Humanoid Typhoon always got his jobs done, and that he could expect the Punisher to be out of his turf in mere few days.
“Well,” Vash quirked up a lopsided grin that showed a fang as he recognized his target walking out of a limousine, flanked by four bodyguards in suits and black glasses, “no one can get into his turf anymore if he dies, now.”
With a low exhale, his finger pulled the trigger, empty cartridge clattering to the floor in tandem to the door connected to the rooftop banging open.
Vash’s smile softened as his bullet lodged itself between the man’s eyes, blood spurting from his skull as gravity stole him from his feet, his bodyguards panicking as if headless chickens. Night rapid breeze brought froth the scent of rainforest and morning dew, the scent of furnace and cinnamon, and Vash ever so gently turned around, rifle lowered to his lap.
“Hey—”
“DON’T YA’ HEY US, IDIOT!”
Vash yelped as Nico reciprocated his greeting with a yell, though his sound of surprise mostly came from Nai grabbing Vash’s shoulders with enough force to send the weak screaming and thrashing with blood dripping from torn skin.
Vash? Vash thought it just stung a bit.
“Vash, what were you thinking?!” Nai rarely lost his shit, being the holder of the remaining braincells between the three of them, but when he did, something in Vash shrank from guilt, his inner omega whimpering at the fact that he made his alpha worry. “You’re with a child, and yet you still accepted a job?! I thought I’ve made it clear that you shouldn’t!”
“Nai’s right! What if something happened, huh?!” Nico took Vash’s face into his hands, forcing wide baby blues to meet dark brown, trembling with flashes of emotions. Vash’s mouth parted open, but since Nico was such a keen alpha, he cut him off before one word could even escape him. “And don’t give me bullshit of ya’ knowing yer stuff, because the world’s a bitch, and if it said some shit will go down then it will, angel. Ya’ hear me?”
“Yes.” Vash nodded, almost numb with how empowering his alphas were when feelings reigned over them. “Yes, alpha. I’m sorry,” he continued softly to placate not only Nico, but also Nai. He shifted to kiss Nico’s scent gland on his wrist and craned his neck to the side to kiss Nai’s nose. They slumped noticeably under his touch, but the anger hadn’t left, festering their scent like an arson over the foliage and a rain over the burning woods.
Vash hated it, and he hated himself a little bit more when he knew it was because of him not being able to mute his haywire instincts.
You’re doing this for them, but it still told him in Vash’s own voice, as Vash set the rifle aside and opened his arms to let Nai and Nico in, limbs turning jelly as Nai nuzzled the gland on his neck and Nico palmed the twin mating bites on his nape to keep Vash in place. His alphas were carved by cruelty and violence, but when with Vash, their hands spoke no other language but affection and love as if the blood had never touched them.
You’re doing this to keep your alphas safe. You’re doing this to keep your child safe. You’re doing this to keep your family safe, and you won’t hesitate to do it again for them, will you?
Vash sure wouldn’t, but he wouldn’t tell his alphas that. He could only guess what the members of Eye of Michael had to endure if they caught their boss and their best hitman in a foul mood.
Vash was only their Ace; their wild card that people didn’t know was affiliated with them until Vash revealed his hands, but it didn’t erase the possibility of Vash pulling the trigger over and over again so Nai and Nico could come home to him. To his embrace. To his warmth. To him and him only.
Vash purred, content in the arms of his alphas atop of an abandoned building in the middle of the night where police blared their sirens red and bright below. He might choose the promise of their home over anything else, but only because it consisted of Vash, Nai, and Nico.
“Alpha,” Vash called out, his face lax and dreamy. Now that his job was done and he had eliminated a threat to his family, he had nothing more to do other than looking after his alphas and child. “Let’s go home?”
“Sure, angel. Let’s.” Nico nodded, and Nai hummed his assent. “Let’s go, my dear. You can take the backseat to stretch your legs. I know you must be tired.”
Sounds good to him! “Okay, then Nico can hug me while you drive.”
Nico shook his head, surprisingly, and chuckled. “Sorry, beautiful, but Angelina can’t drive back home by her own. Someone’s gotta ride her.”
Vash pouted, but then he pictured himself plastered to Nico’s warm back as they raced through the police as if Vash’s gloves weren’t dotted by gunpowder, and he brightened at once. “I want to ride on Angelina!”
“No,” his alphas said in simultaneity, and Vash rolled his eyes.
“You two are no fun!”
“Sweetheart, I won’t risk ya’ on a bike even if it’s my prized gal.”
“Vash, baby, it’s safer if you use the car. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves now, do we?”
Vash sighed, but he couldn’t find an argument to counter Nai. An afterthought also told him that balancing himself on Angelina with his growing belly probably wasn’t the best idea in the world, and Nico’s tendency to go wild couldn’t be nice for them too. At the very least, Vash could trust Nai to be gentle with the car, since he was such a caring brother and alpha and all that. Nai would soon disembowel himself first with a spoon than hurting Vash.
(That “left arm incident” didn’t count, no, Sir!)
As Nico supported him back to his feet, Nai returned the rifle into the guitar case and hefted it up over his shoulders, pointedly ignoring his mates’ cackles at how unfitting it looked over his immaculate three-piece suit.
“Ya’ think ya’ can play a guitar, handsome?”
“I’m more of a piano person, thank you very much.”
“Aww, you should try it, Nai! You have talented fingers, you know!”
“Damn right. Those fingers always open ya’ up so well, angel.”
“Nicholas!”
Vash smacked Nico across the arm for that, cheeks burning but his lips were grinning. “Nico, you can’t just say that out loud! We’re in public—”
A tall silhouette emerged from the opened door, as silent as the five moons rising, with a glimpse of silver raised on their arm. Vash saw the blunt end of a gun muzzle aimed to their general direction, and he whipped out his Colt from the holster around his thigh within a second.
This time, it was his instincts who used his voice aloud.
“Down.”
Wordlessly, Nai and Nico fell to their knees as if puppets with their strings snapped, and Vash’s bullet found home inside that person’s left eyeball before their finger could do as much as twitch on the trigger.
The body thudded to the floor, surrendering to Death, and it cleared the echo of Vash’s voice from his alphas’ mind, their heads spinning around in disbelief. Alas, the damage was already done, and Vash growled in displeasure as the putrid scent of blood began to waft in the air, dirtying Nai’s and Nico’s scents like a rot on an otherwise flourishing flowerbed.
God, he hated it, but it couldn’t be helped.
Protect your alphas , eliminate the threat to your family.
In the end, the night was still young.
To no one’s surprise, the night ended with the three of them staggering into the penthouse with blood caked on skin and clothes.
The only relief this situation provided was that Vash stayed clean, barren of blight only death could serve, and that took an edge off Nai’s mind. None of them minded the presence of blood and flesh, but if Nai was allowed a say in fate, he’d prefer to dismember Vash entirely from vileness of humanity. Never again violence’s shadow would touch Vash’s feet, never again gunpowder’s fog would blanket Vash’s sight, never again Vash had to know hurt.
But daydreams stayed a daydream. It wasn’t like Nai could delude himself with vision of paradise when it was Vash who pulled the trigger from miles away as if burning arrows from the highest of skies.
For now though, Nai could really use a goddamn shower.
Yet he didn’t even have the time to properly peel his socks off when Vash clasped a hand on his shoulder and his other on Nicholas’s, and began to push them forward like them combined didn’t weight thrice his size.
“Woah, hey! Easy there, angel! What’s got into you?” Nicholas spluttered in surprise, gaze whipping to the oddly solemn omega, and Nai had to grab onto Nicholas’s forearm to prevent himself from stumbling against the carpet as Vash continued to push them in a manner that spoke nothing but displeasure. Vash kept mum behind them, bottom lip jutted and eyebrows knitted together, ignoring Nicholas’s questionings. Something was very wrong.
It didn’t help that Vash’s scent was slowly morphing into dry, sun-burnt flowers, but Nai couldn’t, for the life of him, think of one single thing that could possibly make his Vash angry at them.
He and Nicholas had fought tooth and nails against the steady wave of adversaries who, for some reason, decided it was a good night to ambush them in that abandoned building. Nai, of course, had called for backup, but Legato and Livio could only take so long to reach their location, so the three of them had no choice but to face them head-on as they descended downstairs.
Nicholas forbade Vash of any more gun fight and harnessed his rifle himself since Punisher was, unfortunately, left in the lab for reparation after a job that rendered it incapable to fire a shot without the risk of exploding into bits. Nai had contemplated to just use his knives, but he remembered that Vash hated a slow, agonizing death, so he made do with Nicholas’s spare handgun.
Vash stayed behind Nicholas as Nai led the way down, ensuring not even a single bullet would near his mates and child, let alone some walking filths. He didn’t care if they painted the wall red and clog the staircase with corpses—he could have the building demolished in the next day if Vash desired so. He didn’t care either if several bullets managed to graze him, because as long as they came out of this alive and well, the scars would be a token of his worth as an alpha strong enough to be a protector and a father.
So why was Vash angry at them right now?
“Both of you reek,” Vash grumbled petulantly with a huff. Nai didn’t even realize he voiced his mind out loud. “You got blood everywhere on you, and it smells awful. It makes both of you smell awful! I hate it!”
Nai didn’t get to muster an answer when Vash kicked him and Nicholas into the bathroom, manner once again similar to the time when he kicked them out of the bedroom because Nai became the biggest fool on the planet by cleaning up Vash’s nest without knowing it was his.
(“Why did you kick me out too?! I literally did nothing?!”
“Well, I can’t sleep with only one of you! It’s either you and Nai, or none at all! Nighty night!”
The bedroom door swung shut with a slam before their faces, and Nai sighed so heavily, he thought he was parting his soul along with carbon dioxide.
“Pregnant omega is so confusing…”
“It’s yer own doing, boss. My hands are clean this time.”)
“I’ll be using the bathroom in our bedroom, so I expect both of you to be spotless when you get in. I’ll be waiting!” Vash had ended it with a lighter tone, but Nai wouldn’t be Vash’s brother before anything else if he didn’t recognize a hint of threat lacing his words. The omega gave them another ear-splitting grin before slamming the door shut, his footsteps fading sooner than his scent.
The drape of silence in their spacious bathroom was immediately broken by Nicholas’s incredulous cackles. Even Nai found himself sighing fondly.
“God, his adorableness is going to be death of me. Ya’ think his nose gets more sensitive the more he gets bigger?”
“Based on the papers I read before, I believe so. And with it comes the wild fluctuation of hormones which also explains his abrupt mood swings.”
“Now, now, don’t begin with all of those scientific shits, sweetheart. My arm’s aching and a good massage will be highly appreciated.”
Nai arched an eyebrow, sending his alpha the best unimpressed stare he could give. Nicholas had stripped to his undershirt and boxers, and whilst Nai had always adored red on his tawny skin, he never fared well if it came from fresh wounds. “You just want me to touch you, don’t you.”
“Obvious much?”
“It’s not like you’re ever subtle in the first place, Nicholas.”
“True, that.” Nicholas laughed again, and that too, took an edge off Nai’s mind.
On the far edge of Vash’s consciousness, he sensed warmth closing in with delicate arms as if shawls woven from silk embracing his body. The downy sheets beneath him shifted to announce their presence, and it brought Vash back onto grey ceiling above him and two alphas he found himself sandwiched with on the bed. He couldn’t help but purr sweetly from his throat, and Nico’s scratchy drawl welcomed him on his right side.
“Thought yer already sleeping, angel.”
“Still awake,” Vash insisted sleepily, and it wasn’t long until he let out a long yawn that coaxed a tiny laugh from his left.
“You don’t have to keep yourself awake for us, my Vash. You deserve your rest,” Nai said softly, slipping his arms under Vash’s and dropping his chin onto the slope of his neck. Vash’s purr rose a volume as he began to pepper feather-light kisses along smooth porcelain, palm making slow circles on Vash’s belly that his inner omega swooned at; proud to be a subject of his alpha’s attention.
“As he said,” Nico agreed and carefully made himself snug over Vash’s chest, legs entwining with his stumps as he blew raspberry kisses on his cheek; the way he only gave to the newborn babies in the orphanage. It usually felt embarrassing since I’m not a baby, Nico! and that really tickled, but right now Vash was nothing but content and happy under his alphas’ touches.
“But I don’t want to sleep without you two.” Vash pouted. Admittedly, the moment he dipped his weight onto the bed, it called out to him like a siren’s song and Vash collected enough strength in his body to take off all of his prosthetic before he was out cold over the feathery sheets. He was so tired; having to do a job and avoiding a shower of bullets while fussing over his alphas to make sure they made it out alive and in one piece. He nearly slept in the tub, to be honest, but resisted the temptation just barely.
No matter how comforting the marble against his back, or how heavenly soft the sheets were for his missing limbs, nothing could hold a candle to Nai’s and Nico’s tangible, anchoring warmth.
Vash felt like floating above water as his alphas continued to douse him in their love; silent but cutting just as deep, weightless but sobering just as deep. One could never guess two men whose palms drenched in blood could be reduced into a breath of something so gentle, a caress of something so loving.
Then again, Vash remembered how Razlo stayed unmoving on the floor with his jaws slack from disbelief (and a quite eldritch uppercut) after Vash swiped the floor with his ass, so really, nothing could be accurately determined in this world unless one saw it with their own eyes.
Vash himself wasn’t so different from his alphas—artificial knees too deep into pool of red that he wasn’t sure anymore which one was the sky and which one was the surface. Nai and Nico might never tire to dig the soil below, and Vash might never stop pouring blood in, but contrary to everyone’s belief, especially the ones who knew the face behind the Humanoid Typhoon, Vash hated to see more people drowning in the same red.
Vash wanted to save them. Frightened people who stumbled and clawed through their way in the dark, wronged people who weren’t allowed even illusions of escape, heartless people who had nothing but bloodshed in mind—they were all so fragile. Undeserving of more red. Oh, he couldn’t bear to see them suffering any longer.
Vash wanted to save them. It was always quick. Painless. Merciful. It’d be no different than falling asleep, and wouldn’t it be so delightful, to leave the world without knowing pain?
A hand gently squeezing his hip snapped him from his trance, and Vash met Nico’s searching eyes as he looked down to his alpha. “I can hear ya’ thinking, angel. Quite loud, in fact. Ya’ doing alright?”
Over his shoulder, Nai murmured another tender voice. “What is it, Vash?”
“Nothing serious,” he mumbled, internally thankful for the already unlit lamps in the room so his alphas couldn’t see his smile. They’d be able to catch his lie too easily otherwise. What came out from his mouth next, however, was a truth that rang heavier than a gunshot. “It’s just… I feel bad to get both of you hurt because I was using my instincts instead of my head.”
Vash had tried to ignore several bandages that wrapped his alphas’ body ever since they embraced him from both sides, but not acknowledging them didn’t magically make them disappear. He was just getting better at blinding himself to not feel, but it still couldn’t ease his inner omega who whimpered in shame that he failed to protect his family from any pain.
It was supposed to be quick. Painless. Merciful.
He was supposed to protect them, but Vash never felt like he was enough.
“Ssshh, my Vash. We’re here now,” Nai cooed as his thumb came to wipe the beading tears—wait, he was crying? God, Vash really was a mess. It wasn’t helping that Nai was so gentle as if Vash would soon turn into stardust should he exert a stronger touch than a ghost of a fingertip. “We got no actual bullets in us, so we’ll heal just fine. We’re not going anywhere.”
“They’d need more than just bullets to take us down, darlin’. Baby needs all of their parents present, yeah?” Nico emphasized with a tender rub on his belly and a kiss to his wet eyelids, the roots of his stubble against his skin making a shiver run down Vash’s spine. “Ya’ got us, Vash. Ya’ got us.”
Vash nodded, a little too quickly that rolled one or two tears on his cheeks. “Love you,” he croaked out before it could swallow him whole. “Love you so much, Nico, Nai. Love you, love you, love you.”
His alphas smiled against his skin, their elated rumble low and crystal in their chest. Their love had long since imprinted into Vash’s heartbeat, and he didn’t even need to strain his ears to hear it. Soon, his scent of geraniums and summer fused with Nai’s scent of rainforest and morning dew and Nico’s scent of furnace and cinnamon, and Vash fell asleep with his instincts tamed and his alphas’ entwined hands over his round belly.
Thus, the night slept along with them.