Most of us have got something like that, though, yeah? Not nice things to see.

[ that's just how it is — everyone has their own skeletons, the ugly parts of them they don't want anyone else to see. and there's — there's nothing to be ashamed of, in that, he thinks, as vash's laughter splinters into something sharp and painful.

luckily, though, the distraction comes in the strangest form possible; or, well, perhaps not strange, but rather unexpected. and even now, even here, with the broken shards of the memory laying at their feet, the simple mention of junpei is enough to make charles smile, sweet and luminous and quite obviously besotted. ]

Did he? [ so, yes, that is him indeed, ] Vash, right. Good to meet you, mate. Any friend of Junpei's is my friend, too.