[Wolfwood can tell just by looking as Vash that this is difficult for him. Maybe not saying what he needs to exactly, but finding the right words. It's not like he doesn't understand. He likes to think he's categorically miserable at dealing with others. They both are, which is why up to now their relationship has been such a god damn mess. Who knew that not only were their ideals diametrically opposed, but the way their brain chemistry works too.

But what he'd said to Mizuki is true. He doesn't want to give up. But he doesn't want to feel like he's yelling an an unyielding wall, or a yawning ocean that is roaring too loudly for his words to be heard over its din. That's what it's felt like. That's what it's been.

So he listens. He listens in a way that he feels like Vash still really hasn't, but there's still time for that. And once Vash finishes with that final apology...Wolfwood remains silent. He's not looking away, but instead staring directly at Vash, never once having dropped his gaze even if Vash hasn't been able to meet his own. Thanks to his shades, Vash's skin is still etched with those eerie blue patterns, even though he knows they're not there in reality. He probably should take them off, but...]

...that's a start.

[He moves to fold his arms across his chest.]

You could tell me why. You could. But you're right. It doesn't matter, because that ain't what I want to talk about when I already know why.

[He's pretty sure if he wrote an essay on how Vash feels about himself, he'd make at least an A. That's how many times he's heard that same rhetoric, this concept of needing to be the villain so that he feels like he's atoned for something. And it's not that Wolfwood doesn't understand, as he's backslid into the same way of thinking.

It's just that...as he says, he doesn't care about any of that. This is not about their pasts, or the bad things they've done.

It's about them. Their relationship, and how they're going to save it.]