#bugwood

BUGSY: [watching him in the mirror, lips curved] you’re gonna crush the flowers, baby.

NICO: [snorts, amused] what, you don’t trust me?

BUGSY: [tilting her head, feigning scandal] not even a little.

the teasing glances off him, and he lets it. nico’s shameless in how openly he looks at his girl--the way her saree hugs her waist, the warm brown of her skin at the dip of her stomach where the pleats leave her uncovered. the pulse at her throat. a reverence that he hides behind something like boredom.

NICO: [drawling, his grin bent lazy] bold of you to talk like that when you’re dressed like... this, and expect me to behave.

BUGSY: [sweetly] behave, then.

NICO: [laughs, soft at first, then lower] yeah? that what you want from me, jaan?

he says it, jaan, like a caress and like a bruise both. intimate. possessive. casual. it lands on bugsy’s skin and blooms there.nico steps in closer. his body is heat at her back without touching her yet. a heady breath ghosting at her shoulder.

NICO: [low, near her ear now, private] c’mere. hold still for me.

he lifts the gajra, careful despite his hands being hands that know recoil, not ornament. pale petals brush her neck as he guides her hair over one shoulder.

BUGSY: [soft, but teasing under it] mm. since when are you so gentle?

NICO: [clicking his tongue] you keep talkin’, i’m gonna pin it crooked on purpose.

BUGSY: [eyes flicking up to meet his in the mirror, playful] people are going to think we’ve been up to no good, especially since we’re already late.

NICO: [smile widening, dangerous and fond] is that such a bad thing?

deliberately, his free hand slides to her bare waist. skin on skin.

BUGSY: [sharp inhale, lashes fluttering] nico--

his thumb presses into the soft curve right above her hipbone, where the saree blouse ends and nothing shields her. he pinches; not hard enough to bruise, but enough that she jolts and heat spills up her throat.

she swats at his wrist, bangles clinking.

BUGSY: [hissed whisper, scandalised and delighted] you--!

NICO: [voice dropping innocently, all gravel and amusement] we’re goin’ to your cousin’s, right? big family thing, lotta aunties. that what you said?

BUGSY: [narrowing her eyes at him in the mirror] mhm.

NICO: [tutting thoughtfully] so what i’m hearin’ is, i gotta look holy.

BUGSY: [deadpan] you. holy.

NICO: [without missing a beat] yeah. you’re bringin’ me. they’re gonna assume i’m good.

BUGSY: [laughing] baby, no one’s ever assumed you’re good.

NICO: [leaning in, mouth at the shell of her ear now, words almost a kiss] you do.

bugsy goes soft at that--immediately, viscerally. all her little performances, the mock-judgment, the teasing, melt for a breath. she ducks her gaze, hides in her shoulder. it’s embarrassing, she thinks. how transparent that makes her. on the contrary, she loves how he notices.

BUGSY: [quietly] don’t say things like that... i’ll get spoiled.

NICO: [gentler than his face lets on] that’s the plan.

he presses the jasmine into her hair, tucking it into the braid at the crown, knuckles grazing her scalp, slow, reverent. the petals sit against her dark hair like small moons, fragrant, and it is almost indecently lush--the way she looks tonight. the air between them grows heady with it: jasmine, her perfume, and something like gun smoke that clings to him even in silk.

bugsy watches her lover in the mirror. watches the way his brows pinch in concentration, the way his mouth shapes around a little sigh when a piece won’t sit right. he is so determined to make it perfect. and he is so bad at admitting that’s what he’s doing.

BUGSY: [soft, unable to help herself] look at you. fixing my hair like some film hero.

NICO: [snorts] i ain’t singin’ in the rain for you.

BUGSY: [grinning] liar.

his hand returns to her waist--like it belongs there, like it’s a handle god left specifically for him. spreads his palm over her stomach beneath the drape of her saree, fingers splayed possessively against warm skin. he tugs her back that last inch so her spine meets the line of his chest.

their bodies lock.

BUGSY: [breath catching] nico…

NICO: [lazy, smug] yeah, baby?

BUGSY: [trying to sound annoyed, failing] we’re already late.

NICO: [presses a kiss just behind her ear, slow, indulgent, the kind of kiss that says mine without him having to risk the word] they can wait.

bugsy closes her eyes. lets her head tip back against his shoulder, exposes her throat like surrender. he takes that invitation the way he always does--as if she has placed a holy relic in his unsteady hands and he’s terrified of letting it fall.

his voice softens.

it’s always startling when it happens, like a gun going quiet.

NICO: [low, truth-telling] you’re beautiful, doll.

BUGSY: [flustered, protesting on instinct] shut up.

NICO: [easy] heh, nah.

Fandom: Trigun Stampede (Anime 2023), Trigun (Anime & Manga 1995-2008) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Mashwood flavors Characters: Vash the Stampede (Trigun), Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Meryl Stryfe, Millions Knives (Trigun), Zazie the Beast (Trigun), Roberto (Trigun Stampede), Legato Bluesummers, Conrad (Trigun), Tesla (Trigun), Dominique the Cyclops (Trigun) Additional Tags: Body Horror, Bugs (Zazie), mixing all three triguns, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, hard scifi perpetual motion machine plants, 4th deminsional harmonics, Experimental Style, POV First Person, Alien Biology, No Smut, Altered Mental States, Canon-Typical Violence, Clones, Hive Mind, quantum entanglement, psychic links, hallucination (zazie benevolent), ego death, Inspired by Sense8 (TV), Medical Procedures, Trans Male Character, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Dreams and Nightmares, Comes Back Wrong, Inspired by Lilith's Brood, Inspired by The Locked Tomb, VashxPadre Deniro (Vashwood with extra steps), Identity confusion (scifi), Time Loop, Alien Cultural Differences, MerylxDominique, Background KnivesxLegato, Padre Deniro (AU Actual priest Trigun98 Wolfwood with extra steps), Plant oc (Valentina), minor character deaths (gunho gang), Knives & Zazie alien friendships, VashXMillyXWolfwood (Past tense), inspired by Annihilation, Mashwood flavored, word count inflation due to bloat from html Series: Part 2 of Becoming Eden Summary:

Nothing hurts.

Above me is a blue squiggle on a red plane. The blue is filled with faint wiggly movements. And it’s not till I blink that I realize it's my own visual static. That’s the sky. The red is canyon. There is tinnitus in my ears so loud I can’t hear myself think. And when I touch my face I can feel it- not like when I’m drunk or sedated and my nose feels like it's only tenuously attached to my face. I am anchored in my body like I am at the bottom of my grave.