[ it is almost too much. the thought of wolfwood cold and lifeless, the thought of vash digging his grave all alone, the thought of it happening again. he knows the misery must had felt, that all encompassing despair that sinks into the very marrow of your bones. the hollows you out until there is nothing left but a shell of the person you were.

he knows it intimately, spent nearly twenty years stuck in that mire with no hope of escape. he almost fell right back into it when vash didn't wake up─when kni wailed about how his brother was dying.

he doesn't want to fall back into again, he doesn't want vash to stay stuck in that mire.

dante exhales again, his other hand comes around to settle on the other side of vash's face, thumbs brushing gentle lines across his cheeks. he presses a kiss to vash's forehead before resting his own against him again, god what he would give to have vash smile again, to laugh again. the weight on his shoulders looks as though it is crushing him, slowly but surely, and it kills dante to see it happening. ]

We will, angel. I promise you we'll get through to him. You're not going to have to go through that again. [ his chest aches with vash's despair, with affection so large it feels as though it'll swallow him whole, with the need to take all vash's pain from him. he presses a kiss to vash's lips, short and sweet, wiping away tears with his thumbs. ] I won't let it happen again.