When the medics carted Vash away to the back of a waiting ambulance and another directed her to sit down to be examined, Raena had nearly pushed them out of her way so she could go with him. She hadn't carried him all that way just to be separated. But the medic was insistent, threatening to stick her with a sedative if she didn't calm down. Rae had reluctantly allowed them to treat her at the scene outside the Opera House, medigel applied to the cuts on her legs from recklessly running through rubble, on her hands from grabbing hot metal shrapnel. When they'd asked her what happened - she didn't know what to tell them without sounding like she was making shit up. Truth was stranger than fiction.

In hindsight, that entire confrontation had been absolutely insane. Who the hell picked a fight inside a burning building, when everyone else had the common sense to evacuate? Only a really angry, really vengeful cyborg. Remembering his threats made Raena even more anxious to get out of there, and get to Vash. Still wearing the bloody tatters of a once glittering gown, Rae managed to hike her way to her hotel room - with some borrowed medical-grade shoe covers on her feet - where she quickly hopped in the shower, changed into a clean outfit, and packed a small bag of miscellaneous mens' clothing she'd taken from the merc ship a few weeks ago. Somehow, one of Vash's shirts had ended up in the mix, so she threw that in, too.

As was expected, the medcenter was total chaos when she arrived. The Opera House was a soft target, leading to many unsuspecting casualties taken in by underprepared hospitals. Figuring out where Vash was required her to jump through too many hoops. After several hours of getting redirected to different floors and sitting in cramped waiting areas, she'd been told he was being held in a room for overnight, post-surgery observation. Brain trauma was a delicate thing to handle, after all, no matter how advanced their medical tech. And even then, it was past visiting hours - she wasn't legally related to him (not that there was any definition of what they were to each other, anyway), and wasn't allowed into the room until the morning shift began.

Vash was sound asleep, a bandage around his head and on his bad arm, tubes running fluid and medicine into his body. He was oblivious to her presence, face placid, but a little pale. Having spent the entire night awake, Rae fell asleep almost as soon as she sat down in the chair at his bedside. Her neurogenic use combined with the adrenaline spike during the fight and flight left her more exhausted than she'd been in years. Curling up in the chair, Rae drifted off, but her dreams were far from peaceful. She could still smell the smoke, feel the heat, and in her dream - her nightmare - the cyborg still had Vash. But instead of dropping him, he'd grabbed Vash by the hair, locked an arm around his neck, and twisted—

Raena jolted awake. Completely disoriented, heart racing in her chest, until she laid eyes on the hospital bed. Vash was still there, still breathing, still alive. She sat up and leaned over the edge of the mattress, picking up his hand and holding it between both of hers. His skin was warm like always. She pressed the back of his hand to her lips, and waited for him to wake up.

As soon as Rae had been out of his sight outside the Opera House, Vash had struggled to stay cognisant. Whatever the medics had to do to him was met with no objection, he only sometimes responded with a confused noise. It wasn’t until they arrived at the medcenter that Vash suddenly came to again. He reacted with a surge of adrenaline fuelled panic - he couldn’t remember what had happened, only knew that the last thing in his mind was the image of the cyborg saying that Rae was the one he was really after and the two facing off against one another. He hadn’t been permitted to move to find out where Rae was, and the medics that he ended up in the care of didn’t know who she was, so he had responded by swearing and swinging fists at anyone close enough until he was promptly held down with straps and sedated. Beyond that, Vash couldn’t remember anything.

He was only one of many who needed surgery after the attack, and he was kept under as much as possible - since he had already proven that he was a danger to himself and potentially others. There was a hairline crack in a bone in the arm where the cyborg grabbed him, but the trauma to his head was more serious and took more work. The gash was deep enough to need sutures and his skull had a - thankfully minor - fracture from where it had impacted the wall. But like Vash said - he was lucky, and the medics didn’t seem to believe there would be any long-term damage to his brain.

It would take him hours to rouse from the sedative, but as he slept he dreamed warm dreams about soft hands against his own and on his face and dark hair that he liked to run his fingers through. It was her hands that brought him back and was the first thing he became aware of as she held his fingers in her own and pressed her lips against them. Vash made a short inhale of breath and felt like he was being pulled from underneath hundreds of warm, heavy blankets. He blinked his eyes open, though they were blurry at first and all he could do was squint at the shape that was Raena. And when he saw her face against his hand, he twitched his fingers and brushed them gently at her cheek, lips quirking in his typical lopsided smile. "Hi there."

It was tempting to fall asleep again just like this, even slumped over the bed with her head down and back bent. But at least she was close to him, the small amount of contact bringing her comfort, allowing her to relax. As soon as Rae thought she might doze off, she felt his fingers moving and sat upright. "Hi." Seeing his smile made her smile, too, and her heart ached, the last moments of her dream lingering in the back of her thoughts as she looked over him, thinking of how close he had gotten to a different fate. She wanted to laugh and cry at the same time, because he was the luckiest son of a bitch in the galaxy, but she refused to let a tear slip and blinked the moisture back.

Vash knew this wasn’t the case and knew what had happened, even if the memories of the event were blurry, but he couldn’t help but joke and tried to twist his fingers around her own as he hummed and asked, "Did I drink too much?"

Her expression faltered at his question, momentarily wondering how hard he'd hit his head. "You don't remember?" The nurse had warned her that they wouldn't know the full extent of his injury until he regained consciousness. Even if the scans showed he would recover normally, it was never a full guarantee. But there was something about that little smirk of his, and that tone of voice. "You had ten glasses of champagne at the party," replied Rae completely deadpan, going with the 'joke' for a moment. Pausing for dramatic effect, then delivering the punchline with an arched brow. "Spilled all over you. You absolute lush. Such a mess. I had to carry you out of there on my back."

Regretting the joke as soon as he saw Rae's slight expression change, he was relieved when she leaned into it. His memories of the night were bits and pieces, little glimpses and flashes that he could piece together, images of the senator and of the cyborg, but it was a sequence of events that he couldn’t quite understand in its entirety. At the very least, he remembered spilling the champagne, and he gave a soft laugh and then winced. "Mm, sounds like a good night, then," he mumbled instead, head tilting back into the pillows and eyes squinting for a second. The sedation was still wearing off and it was thankfully muffling whatever pain he was in, but his body still felt like it had been hit by a truck and every movement was an effort.

Rae tensed when he winced, wondering if she needed to get a nurse or a med droid in to dose him again with more painkillers, or if she should have let him sleep a little longer. Both of them could probably use the rest, but she'd been so anxious to see him. Now that she knew he was stable, she didn't have to keep herself awake, though she wanted to talk as much as he could manage without wearing him out. She shifted the chair forward, its legs scraping on the tile, hopefully not disturbing the patients on the other side of the divider curtains.

For a second it seemed like he had fallen back asleep, but then he took another deep breath and roused himself, fingers tightening on Rae’s hand to give it a gentle little tug in an attempt to pull her closer, since in his current state he couldn’t even think about moving enough to sit up. "You okay? You get hurt?" The joke was done, because now he had tilted his head to frown in concern down the bed at her. As his vision cleared he searched her for injuries. He couldn’t remember fully how they had escaped the building itself, if Rae had gotten hit after he’d been knocked out. His mouth felt dry and throat sore from the tube they’d had down it before, but he cleared it a little and with what strength he had, made to pull Rae as close to him as possible so he could shift his bandaged arm a little around her, or as far as it would go.

At his urging, Rae perched on the edge of the bed. "I'm okay." Really, she'd come out of it surprisingly unscathed, though she should've been the one to get knocked around. The cyborg wanted her. He'd taken it out on Vash instead, almost killing him despite likely having orders to take him alive. Next time, Raena wasn't going to let him get away that easily. She knew she had done wrong by him years ago, and maybe it was partially her fault that the man had become the monster he was today. But he'd gone after Vash. Anger clouded her expression. "That guy almost killed you, though. Instead of facing me, he knocked you out cold and ran away. I'm sorry." Guilt overtook rage, her frown softening into a look of shame. "It should've been me."

Vash tried to search her face for more answers as she sat there in thought. She looked so tired, and he felt guilty for having kept her waiting. When she spoke again, Vash frowned. It was muddy in his head but he remembered the man saying he wanted Rae, but he couldn’t understand the connection or why the cyborg hated her so much. As she apologised, Vash detangled his hand from her own so he could cup her cheek. "Hey, hey, stop. Don't say that." He offered a little laugh - a touch breathless and dry and with very little humour behind it. "I can take a good beating. That's what I'm here for. Punching bag." Vash winced at the wavering memory of what it felt like to have a cyborg hand around his forearm, though. "Sure prefer it when you're the one beating me up, though." He added as an afterthought with another chuckle.

There wasn't anything he could say to change her mind or make her take back what she said - Rae would have always wanted the cyborg to strike her down instead of Vash. Not only did the man have a personal vendetta against her, Vash meant far too much to her to get caught up in it. Even if she'd been trying not to let him back in, the more time they spent around each other, being together, the less certain she was that she'd ever really let him go. It wasn't fair. He'd hurt her so badly, and she'd been so angry with him for so long. But then he'd come crashing back into her life, and it was like the years apart had never passed. She still didn't know how to reconcile those feelings, not without talking about them, but she had no idea how to broach the subject.

He didn't want to think about how dangerous it had been, or the fact that he was now in the bed in a medcenter lucky to be alive. Especially not with the look that was on Rae's face - one of guilt and shame and anger, and that was his fault, he thought. Or at least, partly. Softly, as he gazed at her, he murmured, "I wouldn't ever let it be you over me." Not now that they were something again. Even if they hadn't spoken about it, and it was just a feeling that lingered over every interaction they had together, Vash wasn't going to make the same mistake twice in his life to let something with Rae completely fall to pieces in front of him. He was still working on how to express that to her, still somewhat anticipating rejection because of his poor track record, but in that moment - full of painkillers that were making him feel loopy and warm and with her cheek against his hand - it felt like the easiest thing in the world to say. "Not ever." Vash insisted, frowning, very serious suddenly for someone who was always smiles and jokes and teasing.

Which he then ruined by cracking a little smile afterwards as he moved his hand to tuck some of her hair behind her ear. "Besides, who's gonna keep me in line if you get torn to bits by a crazy cyborg? No one. I'll run wild. The universe won't know how to cope."

Vash never seemed to take a damned thing seriously, not even now, lying prone in a hospital bed - while he always seemed to think she was oversensitive, thinking and worrying too much. He laughed, and she cringed, but she leaned into his hand instead of pulling away. She was just too relieved that he was alive to even get mad at him. But then that jovial mask was slipping, if only for a moment, and she saw something in the way he looked at her, there in his soft expression. Unless she was imagining it. Just projecting her own feelings onto him again. Because he'd never said the words to her before, not then, not after she'd told him she was leaving the ADF, that she wanted to be with him. That she loved him. He didn't say it back, and not long after, he'd left her behind. So maybe when he said Not ever, she was reading too much into it. Somehow.

She almost asked what he meant. Where they really stood with each other. But she hesitated, scared of the answer, afraid of putting her heart out on the line only to get it broken again. And then that moment passed. Rae laughed once, quietly. "Oh, please. I could beat the shit out of him," she smirked, rolling her eyes and trying her best to go along with the lighter tone. She leaned over as close to his face as she could get, lowering her voice, "Cyborg or not. I’m a fuckin’ neurogenic super soldier. You and the universe have nothing to worry about."

As Rae leaned in close, Vash gave what amounted to a soft giggle. He kept his fingers touching at her hair, as if he was just remembering what that felt like, and smiled. "I feel so much better. You're my hero." She was, too. It may have sounded a bit like a joke, but there was a lower level of seriousness behind it. This was surely just one of many times that Rae would help him, and save him, and as much as he considered himself to be lucky he knew that ultimately she was his lucky star. The drugs were really doing their work, because he gazed at her unabashedly, a little drunkenly soaking up her features so close to him. That image of her in her dress with the rebar and the fire behind her had stuck in his head, and he remembered it then. Without the hesitation of wondering whether she would pull away or not he curled his fingers into the hair at her neck and gently eased her just that tiny bit closer, enough to press his parched lips against her own.

When he didn't use his damsel voice, Rae had to believe he was at least somewhat sincere about calling her his hero, even if it was the drugs loosening his tongue and making his pupils look a little blown, his expression dreamy. It was sweet, though, and it was nice to have her efforts to save him, repeatedly, acknowledged. Any thoughts she had about leaving him to fend for himself were just that - there wasn't any chance she'd actually risk his life. Not for anything. Some part of her wondered if that was pathetic, getting hung up on a man who'd disrespected her feelings and kept most of his locked away, who she could only trust to a certain extent because of that. No matter how many times they put themselves on the line for each other, until they had that conversation, there was always going to be that underlying fear that he'd leave.

But then he kissed her, and that doubt was silenced. For the moment.

Vash just gently held her there, the kiss he offered different to the ones he usually did - more tender and more thankful than insistent and warm. Part of that was because he didn't have the energy for anything else, and the rest was because he had just wanted to feel her lips against his own. He broke the kiss softly, thoughtful for a moment as he blinked dazedly up at her again, looking as if he'd just been hit in the head all over again. "I'm glad you're such a badass," he murmured, because she was so close nonetheless and wouldn't have to strain to hear him. "He's really got it out for you." Vash had just been in the way.

Rae held his hand against her neck, running her thumb over his wrist. Eventually she would have to explain who the cyborg was, and why he was so fixated on her, but she didn't want to worry Vash while he was in recovery. Because, even if she didn't quite know what he was thinking, she wasn't so dense as to ignore that he obviously still cared about her, more than he might say. And as much as she wanted to be loved by him, it was also difficult to accept when he'd been injured because of her. Worse, after all that hero talk, she didn't want him to think less of her, knowing the truth. It wasn't Vash's burden to bear.

Still, his eyes crinkled again in a little smile, and he asked with a cheerful tone, "So can we get out of here? I'm feeling a lot better." He wasn't, not necessarily, but he was awake and to Vash that was a big plus. Besides, he hated the medcenter, and usually ran to the more underground medics whenever he needed healing, where it was all no questions asked and in and out. He wanted to be home, in his bed, maybe with Rae to hold, so he could sleep for the next six days at least.

"Not yet," she shook her head, loose curls bouncing, "But maybe in a day or two, after they run a few more tests on you. Just to be thorough." Under normal circumstances, he probably would've been kept even longer, maybe a whole week, but he wasn’t the worst off coming from the Opera House. "The hospital’s overcrowded right now, so they're trying to keep a steady flow of outpatients. If they think you can make it home, they'll probably release you just so they can free up a bed." Rae sighed. "They still don't know how, or why, but the Opera House was attacked. On the news, they’re saying it was a GLF bomb plot. Part of the building collapsed right after we left. So. You really are stupidly lucky," she tried to smile a little, but it was difficult. Being somewhat of an empath gave her an entirely different reason to dislike being in a medcenter, around the concentrated ebb and flow of life and pain.

Vash wasn't interested in taking sides with anybody. The GLF claimed that they were for the people, but he didn't believe it. The Alliance was unsurprisingly terrible at so much - but he'd come to know some wonderful people through it, too. He believed wholeheartedly that both sides were only in it for their own benefit, at the risk of harming lesser folk along the way. He would never fight in somebody else's war. That it could find them without warning frustrated him - that they'd been caught in it when they had nothing to do with it wasn't fair. Those were the things that made him want to risk stealing through the Gate - but looking at Rae here, so close to him, made him reconsider that desire very seriously.

Vash finally dropped his hand from Rae's neck and started to carefully shift up in the bed, wincing a little because his body still felt deeply sluggish and heavy but he eventually ended up on one elbow, his sore arm still a little useless and slung over his middle.

Despite the fact that the effort to sit up even a little had been hard enough, Vash was determined. "I don't wanna stay here," he said, bluntly. He wasn't sure if he meant the hospital bed or the planet - he'd been crashing at Calo's barracks, or in the cockpit of the ship he'd gotten a new job on. He wanted to go home, back to Terminus. Or somewhere else - escape all of it with Rae in tow, and all the others that he cared about. It wasn't likely.

Growing fidgety, he started to pluck the wires and tubes from his arm. "C'mon. I wanna go."

Rae didn’t exactly want to stay here, either. Not on Mahoroba, in a hospital, sitting next to her...whatever Vash was to her. Friend? Ex, but not quite, because they'd slept together more than a few times in the past weeks, and she didn't want to stop seeing him, so it was muddy? Whatever they were to each other - she didn’t want to be in such a miserable place, watching him in pain and struggling to sit up, trying to rip the tubes off his body. But he’d been badly hurt, and she couldn’t leave him here alone, least of all when she still considered herself partially responsible for his condition.

"Stop." Rae reached for him, but she was wary of getting her hands caught up in the tangle of wires and IV lines and somehow making it worse, so she held back. Any second now, she was sure one of those med droids would come rolling in to check on its patient. She folded her arms across her chest, unwilling to be a participant in his scheme. "I'm not going to help bust you out of a medcenter." Glancing at the door, no one came through - they must've been too backed up and busy elsewhere to rush to check on him. One of the tubes popped free. Rae sighed, finally placing a palm flat against his chest, trying to get him to lie down again. "Please. Can't you just wait overnight, until they clear you? Vash, you can't even walk." Of course, the way she said it, he was probably going to take it as a challenge.

She was right - he did take what she said as a challenge. Vash paused long enough to consider what she said, though, as her hand rested against his chest. But no one had come to the room and he was tired of feeling trapped. Maybe the sooner they were away from the medcenter the sooner Rae would stop looking so worried and sad and exhausted - he couldn't stand seeing her that way. Making her irritated with him seemed to be better than the alternative. He just gave a grumble in response and pushed at her hand, yanking away more and more of the tubes as he struggled, and then he managed to swing one leg out of the bed. The sharp movement sent his head spinning, though, and he sighed and doubled over some. Rae was close enough for him to lean his head into her, and he took a moment to collect himself, knowing that of course Rae was right and that he should rest but refusing to really accept it or fully believe it.

Even when he pushed her hand away and got one leg out from under the tightly tucked sheets, Rae knew she was right - almost wanting him to prove her point by falling on his face, but that was mean. And she didn't really want him to hurt himself even further, so she hadn't moved, waiting to catch him when he pitched forward. Her arms wound around his back, while trying to be mindful of the injured arm embracing him as much as she was trying to keep him from sliding off the bed entirely. Vash was pleading with her, like a small child whining to get his way, or an animal stuck in a cage with the most tragic expression - and it was breaking her heart even more. She didn't want to see him like this, but she was more afraid of his condition worsening if he didn't accept proper medical treatment.

"It's better if I free up a bed, Rae. C'mon. Please. Help me." He couldn't do it on his own, and if Rae refused to help then he would have to be happy with that and try to continue to rest. But he desperately wanted to be out and in his own clothes again, not the post-surgery shift they had him in, and away from the smell of death and medicine. "I don't wanna stay." But he'd stopped struggling now and just held onto her, and the pain medication he was on had started to wear off - especially now that he'd unplugged the flow of it - which meant that his injuries were starting up a dull throb that would surely soon bloom into something more. He felt guilty for having her here, worried and sad about everything that had happened and blaming herself. He didn't quite know how to change her mind - that it was fine that he was the one to be injured and not her.

Vash supposed it wasn't making it any better for her by struggling around and making everything worse, so he pursed his lips and pulled back enough to stare sadly at her. "Sorry." It was the first time he'd said it since they had seen each other again - but it wasn't an apology about what he should have been sorry about. "I just - I don't want to feel useless." It was half-true - mostly he felt scared by being so incapacitated, and the sooner he could get back to normal life the better it would be, the less that it would feel like he really had come close to death.

"You're not going to get better like this," she sighed, reaching up to brush her fingers along the back of his neck, letting him lean against her shoulder. She started moving her other hand over his back, gently rubbing soothing circles over the skin that peeked out under the closure of the hospital shift. "You're not useless. I don't like what you did, but you got the cyborg’s attention. You made him run away." Rae laughed softly, thinking about how incensed the man had gotten with pebbles in his mouth. Except that didn't go too well for Vash. If he'd been hit a little harder, his skull would have more than a minor fracture in it. And that wasn't okay. "But you are still hurt right now. And you need more rest. I'd take you away with me if I thought I could care for you by myself. But I'm not a doctor. Not even a nurse," she murmured apologetically. "So I want you to stay. Can you at least do that for me?"

Vash really did feel like whining, but he held it back and just let himself relax under the soft circles Rae's hand was rubbing into his back. Her laughter was a relief, and he peeked at her again, lips quirking. He couldn't picture in his mind what had happened before the cyborg had slammed his head into the wall - the last image was Rae standing in front of him, but to hear that he'd somehow made the other man run away made him feel extremely cocky and very proud. Except the fact that Rae was laughing about it, and knowing himself it must have been at least a little bit ridiculous. He sobered though at her following words and her request from him, and that was it, really. Vash couldn't say no, as much as he wanted to. It was already obvious he wouldn't be able to get anywhere without her, and if she wanted him to stay, and if it would make her feel better about his recovery, then he would.

So Vash steadily leaned back into the bed again, sighing and inching his leg back underneath the blankets. He kept a hand on Rae though, to make sure that she didn't go too far, and at that moment an irritated med droid spun into the room to beep angrily at both Rae and Vash, blaming her for the removal of his medication tubes. Vash cringed in apology and was obedient while the droid plugged him back in, and it left them again with another final squealing beep of warning. Clearly it had more to do than to deal with a big baby who didn't want to be there.

After getting a thorough dressing down in binary, Rae stayed out of the way of the droid, making faces behind it while it worked on reconnecting all of the lines. When it spun around to exit, she'd quickly sat back in her chair and pretended to be reading something on her commlink, expression completely neutral and disinterested. "Thanks, bye," she muttered as it floated away down the hall, then turned back to Vash, ready to slap his hands away from the tubes.

Vash fiddled with the tubes again and glanced up at Rae apologetically. "So what'd I do that made him run?" He asked, grinning a little. Hopefully it was a good story. "I bet it was real heroic." At least, he hoped it was a little heroic. Just a tiny bit. And then he patted at the bed next to him and inclined his chin towards the spot. "I'm a bit cold, too... wanna get in here? Just for a second." She looked tired, he kept thinking.

Rae gave him a look. "You know the droid just threatened to kick me out if I kept interfering with your procedure?" But this chair really didn't have enough cushion to it, and her back was sore from curling up in it all day. Casting a quick glance at the door, she decided to risk it, slipping into the empty spot next to him, careful not to knock into anything. This was a tighter fit than the ship bunk they'd shared that time several weeks ago, but it could also be considered cozy, if one chose to look at it that way.

Now that the tube feeding him a steady drip of painkillers had been re-inserted into him he could relax a little better now, a vaguely fuzzy feeling taking the place of where he had been aching before. Maybe he shouldn't complain and should just enjoy the treatment for now, until he was kicked out and left to fend for himself again. Except, maybe not entirely for himself, because Rae seemed like she wanted to stay with him and make sure he was okay. It wasn't surprising behaviour for her, but it surprised him in that he had done nothing to deserve it other than being, in general, a nuisance. He wasn't going to say anything though, lest it make her realise that and then she would be out the door in a flash. He just smiled, a little duller now than his normal brightness, as she squeezed into the thin bed with him.

"Do you feel better now?" she asked, though in a way it was like indirectly, annoyingly, saying 'I told you so'. She couldn't help it. Rae felt for his good hand somewhere on the bed, entwining their fingers as she settled in, though she was trying not to get too comfortable. Just had to stay there until he was asleep again, even though her own body felt heavy and weary. "Need me to tell you a bedtime story? About the bold and brave pilot who stopped the terrible cyborg from going on a murderous rampage?"

Vash was only able to move a little to give her enough room to tuck in close, but he liked how near she was and the warmth of her against his side. He shifted his hand so her fingers could entwine in it, his other bandaged one left draped over his stomach, and he tilted his head so he could peer down at Rae. Her veiled I told you so had him scoffing and rolling his eyes away from her, but he didn't reply because unfortunately for him, she was right, and he did feel better now that he had stopped trying to wiggle around. Lips twitching again, he nodded gently and tilted his head back so his eyes could start to close a little.

"Yeah, tell me that story." He peeked one eye open to glance down at her again, chuckling. "Don't leave out how handsome he is though, alright? Make sure you're very descriptive." Vash shifted enough so that he could tilt his head into hers again, burying his nose into her hair because it brought him almost more relief than the painkillers flooding his blood stream. He closed his eyes again and exhaled deeply.

"Eh. He was okay to look at," she shrugged a shoulder, then smiled up at him. Rae took on an exaggerated tone, "The pilot was very handsome, and tall, and so incredibly buff that he had a senator wanting to wash her clothes on those washboard abs." Did he remember that part, she wondered? Because she did, and it still surprised her. "And he looked like he would've let her do it, if the senator wasn't already entangled with his friend. Which I still need to tell you about." It had completely slipped her mind until that moment - the conflict with the cyborg had seemed a lot more urgent in the moment than the politician’s scandal. Not to mention she had no idea what had become of the senator or her apparent lover, though it would’ve been reported if they’d died in the attack. "Later, though. When you're not getting pumped full of some high grade drugs." They looked like they were starting to work, given the way he was sinking into his pillow, and into her hair.

Vash was feeling sluggish again but listened along to her story intently. As she spoke, his memories of the night came swimming back, enough that he could start to make sense of it all again, and it was less than just the general gist that it had been before. He could remember Dania touching at his stomach, and that memory stirred the one of Rae laughing at something Calo was saying. Even though he knew now that she was just looking for information, it still initiated a small surge of jealousy in his gut.

"I'll skip to the good part," murmured Rae, and let her own head lean back. "So... There was an explosion and a huge fire. The cyborg got in the way of the pilot, blocking his escape. Threatening to take him back to her boss." Whoever that was - and that was another thing they needed to talk about. Vash had seriously downplayed how deep the shit he was in with some mysterious crime lord, and at this point, she thought she was owed an explanation. They were too involved with each other not to know the truth anymore. "But he really wanted his friend, the warrior. For something she'd done years ago." Raena chewed at the inside of her lip, then glanced at Vash to check that he was still awake. He didn't seem totally gone yet, but it looked like he might be on the brink. Those details weren't important right now, she decided.

"Anyway. The warrior arrived to rescue the pilot. Because sometimes even the bravest, most handsome and clever of men need help. The two were going to fight, but the pilot stayed, and threw a handful of little rocks at the cyborg's face. Just to piss him off, I guess? I don't really know..." She shook her head, thinking of how stupid it had been. "It made him so angry, he gave up on the fight. Punched the pilot into a wall, and then ran away."

Every now and then he would give a little mm noise to make sure she knew that he was listening, and it would change in tone depending on what she was talking about. He perked up as she got to the bit about the cyborg, and he snorted when she told him what he had done. Of course. Vash felt tired even thinking about how hard his head had slammed into the wall, but he managed to get out a soft and mumbled, "Pilot scared him off. Good pilot."

It hadn’t been good. Rae tensed as she recalled her dream, and the reality of how things played out, voice trembling. "I thought...I was afraid maybe he'd killed you. When your head hit the wall. But then you got up. Mostly. I had to drag you out of the fire." She tilted her head towards him, to see if she needed to say anything more, and if he was already asleep, then she was just going to wait a few more minutes in the bed. She whispered, "I'm glad you're okay."

He was nearly dead asleep by the time she was looking at him again, but awake enough to hear her whisper, and he smiled dumbly and shifted his wounded arm enough so his fingers could brush against her cheek, or her chin, or wherever on her face he could reach while being barely with it. "'M glad you're okay, too," was his answer, followed by a drunk sounding whisper of, "Can't let you get hurt." Completely knocked by the meds and by the effort that he'd made to struggle around before, Vash nuzzled his face closer against her, mumbled a final, "You smell good," and then drifted away into a fuzzy, medication-induced sleep.

Raena kept still as she felt Vash sag against her shoulder and a drug-induced sleep took hold. While it was good he'd managed to fall into a restful slumber, she was a lot less capable of drifting off while lying along the cramped edge of bed. Though he was warm, and being this close made her feel secure, she didn't want to get caught when the med-droid came to make its rounds.

Just to double check that he was absolutely, completely, one hundred percent knocked out cold, she continued to whisper into his ear, "I missed you. So much."

He didn't stir, his breaths becoming slow, shallow, and steady. Rae tilted her head down just enough to brush her lips against his knuckles, then slid off the bed, gently shifting his injured arm to tuck him under the blankets. But as soon as she settled back into the chair, positioning it parallel to the bed, Rae reached for his hand again, holding it as she leaned back and closed her eyes. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep, either, though this time she dreamed they were floating together at peace.