This at least is easier to dismiss, though it still made him ache all these decades later. "It is worse to be with someone who doesn't want to be with you, than to be alone. You had your life to live." And Knives was such a distant concern that humans Vash hadn't even met yet had a higher priority for time and attention.

He supposed it would always hurt. But it was a dull and familiar misery, one he'd learned to live with. Vash would return to his humans and leave him alone again soon enough.

"If you want to know, I'll answer anything I can, but I am not ... familiar with the fates of most of your companions. Age alone would catch most by now." It wasn't much at all, really, but... better than nothing maybe.