002 - Love

Vash had never wanted kids of his own. In fact, he hadn’t wanted anything at all to do with children. Through an unusual set of circumstances, however, he managed to find himself as the caretaker for two of them—a little girl from Scotland, and a little boy from Denmark.

It all began when Allistor Kirkland found himself in a rather difficult situation. A young woman from a family he knew had given birth to a child she could not keep, and had unfortunately had an unusually hard time finding an adoptive family. Reluctantly, Allistor had taken the child in, and called her Gabriella. He had known he could not keep her for the long term, however; being a father just didn’t suit him, and so he had put the word out to other nations that he was looking for a permanent home for Gabby. Most of them hesitated at the idea, as their hands were full with their own children. Then Lili caught wind of the situation.

She adored the other nations’ babies, and had wanted one of her own. Without a significant other, however, that remained not an option. She had thought of adoption but hadn’t considered it very heavily until Gabriella came along. Because she lived with Vash, it had taken a lot of prodding to get him to finally agree to let her take the little girl in. He finally gave in, though, because it was “the right thing to do and obviously no one else was going to step forward and do it.”

A few months later, Mathias came to them with a similar situation involving a boy he had come to call Adrian. He knew he had been asking a lot of Vash and Lili, but he wanted to see the boy in the care of a loving family. Again, Vash agreed, “because it was the right thing to do.”

He had never expected that he would love them so much.

Then again, he had never expected Gabriella to be so kind and thoughtful, or Adrian to be so perceptive and intelligent. These qualities began to show in them at a very young age, though, and Vash couldn’t help but admire them.

One sunny afternoon in July, a few days after Adrian’s 3rd birthday, the Swiss sat on his front porch and watched the two children playing in the yard. For a moment, Gabby wandered a little too close to the road, and before he had the chance to call out to her, Adrian was already on top of the situation.

“Gabby, Papa says that… that we aren’t s’posed to go near the road,” he told her very firmly.

“But I wanna pick dese flowers,” she insisted.

“But Gabby, we can’t go near the road. Dere are cars in the road.”

“I’m picking them for Papa.”

“But they’re next to the road. We can’t go dere.”

“But… but I just wanna pick them for Papa!”

“Papa!” Adrian cried, running over to Vash as fast as his little legs would carry him. “She won’t listen. You said… you said that we aren’t s’posed to go near the road but she won’t listen to me. You have to make her listen!”

“You’re very right, the road is dangerous,” Vash replied, tousling the boy’s white-blond locks. Then he took his tiny hand, and walked him over to where Gabriella still stood. “Now, what was that you wanted to do, Gabby?” he asked her, though he already knew the answer.

“I wanted to pick flowers for you, but they is too close to the road,” she informed him.

“How about we go pick them all together, then? You, me, and Adrian. I’ll walk over with you so that you stay safe.”

“Okay,” the redhead replied, and reached up to take Vash’s free hand.  

He walked the pair of children over to the edge of the road, letting the girl lead the way. When they arrived near the small patch of dandelions she had been after, she bent down and plucked them all out of the ground, all the while grasping on to Vash’s hand. She then placed many of the yellow plants into his pants pocket, but handed one of them to Adrian as well. In moments such as these, the Swiss man could not help but be reminded how much he truly cared for these children. Seeing how much they loved him and each other made his heart melt, whether he would ever admit to it or not.

“Now what are you three up to?” came Lili’s voice from the open doorway. “Are you out there having fun without me?”

“Gabriella is picking flowers for Adrian and me,” Vash replied.

“How sweet! And it’s such a beautiful day to be outside.”

“It’s sunny!” Adrian exclaimed.

“It is very sunny, isn’t it?” Lili replied. “You put sunscreen on both of them, right big brother? They’re both so pale; I wouldn’t want them to get sunburned.”

“Yes, I made sure they both had it on before we stepped out of the house.”

“Good. Their skin is very sensitive, especially Adrian’s. He already has lots of freckles on his face and his arms.”

“Don’t want sunburn cause it’s ouchy,” the blond boy said.

“Yeah, ouchy,” the redheaded girl agreed.

“That’s right. But Papa isn’t going to let that happen to either of you,” Vash told them, crouching down to their level. He lightly tapped each of their noses, causing them both to crinkle their faces and giggle. “Because guess what?” he asked. “Papa is always going to be here to look out for you two and make sure that you stay safe.”

Though he never would say it out loud, anyone could see that he truly adored these children. A few short years beforehand, he never would have thought that his life would turn out this way; in that moment, however, he could not have imagined it any differently.