"Do you dance? Do you wanna?"
“Oh.”
Vash flushes, because ‘oh’ is not an answer, and neither is the brief stutter that takes all hope of salvaging his dignity and the saucy response he had originally intended with it. He salvages a few precious brain cells to manage an almost convincingly coy, "How could I say no?"
The dinged-up little radio suffusing the crackle of campfire with the openings of an old Earth ballad beckons him along with the dancing shadows, and Vash smiles as he rises to his feet to meet Wolfwood halfway in the arched layers of stone forming the alcove around their camp. A complement of open strings played in the e major scale, cheerful and pleasant to the snapping of crisped embers. The song is familiar, and Vash can't quite put his finger on why it sounds so strange even as he approaches, taking Wolfwood's right hand into his left and rests his right gently over the back of his partner's shirt.
'...And nothing else matters, never opened myself this way…'
With a slight bend to his knees, they move through concentric circles in time to the music. Step forward, step back, Vash leads first, sweeping and guiding with the point of his boots as they trace patterns in the figure of climbing grape vines into the packed dirt.
‘Life is ours, we live it our way…all these words I don’t just say…’
Halfway through, when they lean away and into a slow turn, Vash encourages Nicholas to direct them out with a back step and pull back in for a near-embrace.
‘So close, no matter how far…It couldn’t be much more from the heart…’
Vash starts laughing at some point, he isn’t sure when. His heart and mind are too busy elsewhere to keep track of anything other than the rhythm of dance and song and how Nicholas grins at him in his wolfy way every time they spin towards firelight.
As he nestles his chin against Wolfwood’s left shoulder and the last few closing bars of the song drift into the desert, Vash kneads into the fabric of Nicholas’s opposite shoulder with his right hand. Smiling and dopey with unfettered affection, he murmurs, “It’s been a while since I’ve danced. Hopefully you couldn’t tell.”
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"But I finished [Near and Mello] together as a set, and although they aren’t particularly laid out as such, I still feel a bit like they’re twins." —Obata Takeshi
whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same:
i. low sky, mahmoud darwish. ii. the world is a sphere of ice and our hands are made of fire, ritika jyala. iii. kadan, 2008. iv. the dreamers, gilbert adair. v. @nathanielorion vi. nagiko, 2016. vii. elektra, sophokles (tr. anne carson). viii. wishbone, richard siken. ix. inbred, ethel cain. x. the boy who, tirol. xi. monster portraits, del samatar and sofia samatar. xii. in the field, @nathanielorion xiii. death note, "use" ch77. xiv. gut symmetries, jeanette winterson. xv. mystic union; fire and wine: poems, john gould fletcher. xvi. @inukai_0055, twitter. xvii. the carnivorous lamb, agustín gómez-arcos. xviii. my sister, the serial killer, oyinkan braithwaite. xix. the beatrice letters, lemony snicket (text); a quiet visitor, holly warburton (art); @unpardonablesins (edit). xx. ada, vladimir nabokov. xxi. this is how you lose the time war, amal el-mohtar. xxii. the borgias, s3e10, showtime. xxiii. @antaarf xxiv. @vilicity xxv. @boymiffy
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Aziraphale has some bad days in Heaven but he finds the strength to keep fighting.
The Devil’s Red Hair
When duty feels too much to take
I fear my weary mind may break
and as my body starts to shake
I find a place to hide
Once I’m alone I check my watch
wherein I’ve stashed a crimson swatch
red silken strands that smell of scotch
give me the strength to bide
The lock of hair I took from you
that sacred fiery scarlet hue
always hidden from others’ view
but ever at my side
Remembering your parting kiss
a well of tears I can't dismiss
but I've no chance to reminisce
nor dwell on dreams denied
We’ll end the war we can’t outrun
I’ll strive until the fight is done
tear down their rules and yield for none
dismantling their pride
If somehow I survive the test
and you will take me to your breast
beside you I will always rest
our hearts forever tied
I stow my treasure in time’s case
and fix a smile across my face
and stride back to my lofty place
and none will see I’ve cried
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