Dig for Fire

Disclaimer: I do not own Trigun.

She really should have seen this coming.

After working as a Disaster Investigator and following him around for so long, Meryl honestly should have seen this coming. However she, being the naïve woman she was, thought the Humanoid Typhoon had finally calmed down and decided to live a peaceful, simple life with her and Millie.

Boy was she wrong.

The day had started as normal as normal could get in their household. Meryl had gone in to check on the homicidal manic that resided in their upstairs bedroom and had noticed that they were low on medicine and bandages.

If it were up to her, the short woman would have simply ignored the factor and let the egotistical plant die, but that wouldn't have been a great idea since this certain egotistical plant happened to be the brother of the man she was currently head over heels in-love with. Therefore she sent out to buy more supplies.

What a good person she was.

On her way out though, she was stopped by Vash who wanted to go with her. Of course she agreed and they sent out to the General Convenience Store down the road. The town was buzzing with excitement ever since it had hit water. It gave people hope, something Gunsmoke was dangerously lacking.

Even Mr. Teller, the owner of the small store, was in good spirits. He asked Meryl how her patient was and she was tempted to say, "Oh he's plotting the end to all humanity but thank god this moron to my left shot him up or else we'd all be in trouble."

She said he was doing well.

They swam through the ocean of people once again. They were a block away from home when Vash's head shot up, immediately reminding her of a dog.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Stay here." He was off like a bullet to a crowd of people. Meryl followed soon afterward and stood in the swarm of nosey neighbors.

"What's the matter?" she asked a large woman in front of her.

The large woman seemed middle-aged had unruly brown hair that was hidden underneath a bandanna; she seemed very into whatever was happening. "Well dear, it seems there's some kind of hostage situation over in the Mayor's office. Around ten or twelve thugs want to take over the town or something like that."

If Meryl wasn't holding the bandages she would have rested her head in her hands. Did that man ever think? He didn't even have his gun anymore, how was he going to take down a dozen ruffians?

"Oh look at that!" exclaimed the woman. "It seems a young man is going to try to fight the thugs! He's kind of scrawny though, but definitely handsome!"

Meryl felt her heart sink down to her feet. He had taken guys out without his gun before, right? Yes, all those times when she and Millie had first met him he had never used his gun.

But was it all just dumb luck?

"I-I can't believe it…." The short girl's attention was instantly brought back to the woman.

"What? What happened?" she tried to look over the crowd but she was too short. Damn her short stature.

"That scrawny young man just took out most of the thugs. I'm not even sure how! It was faster than light!"

Meryl let out a sigh of relief. "He's okay,"

The woman turned and faced the younger one, "Oh my, is that man your boyfriend?"

Meryl felt her face burn and instantly sputtered, "N-n-no! He's just my roommate!" The older woman's eyes twinkled and she gave her the classic Oh-Yeah-Right-You-So-Like-Him look.

The insurance agent looked down at her feet and the woman laughed, "You know dear, you can go in front of me! It must be hard to see anything with your height!" She instantly took Meryl and pushed her in front of herself. "No, that won't do! You still can't see a thing can you? We'll just have to move you up then!" The woman began to push the tiny woman through the crowd. "Excuse us…sorry…the girl can't see a thing…there we go!"

As embarrassed as Meryl was, she was still happy for the woman's kindness. She turned around to thank her, but the woman was gone. Her attempt to look for her was cut short when she heard one of the older man yell, "Aw hell would you look at that!" Attention was now back on the fight and she saw Vash stand in front of the office calmly with that dumb lopsided grin as a large man stepped out from the building.

The man was obviously the boss; he was the biggest of the thugs and wielded a huge machine gun. His dark, greasy hair was held back with an elastic hair-tie and he had a cigarette sticking out from the corner of his mouth. He reminded Meryl of some kind of ape the way he trudged out of the office.

"What's all this then, eh?" he had asked.

Vash stood there smiling, as if the goon had asked from for directions to the local church. "Hello there! I was wondering, if you could please stop this hostile takeover and to please give yourself up peacefully. I would be awfully grateful."

The Boss looked at him like he had grown another head. "Y-y-you can't be serious? No I will not stop this hostile takeover, why the hell would I?"

"Well…" the blonde pointed to the many men who now littered the outside of the building. "Look at all these guys! This must be an omen that it is a bad idea."

It seemed as if the man hadn't noticed the fact that his comrades were all defeated and now laying motionless on the ground. He seemed to have the same thought everyone else did, how did that scrawny guy do all this?

His thoughts were interrupted by Vash. "Don't worry, they're not dead."

"No," He quickly reached back and grabbed his gun. "But you are!"

The sounds of the gun going off and the onlookers screaming filled the town and did not seem to end until the Boss' shots did. There was a loud bang and everyone's eyes were now glued back to the Mayor's Office.

A cyclone of dust swirled around the scene and Meryl had a hard time seeing past it. When the dust had subsided the tiny insurance girl was surprised to make out the man's machine gun was now in pieces around him and Vash standing unscathed. "Those fancy new guns," He shook his head. "It's all fun and games until they explode randomly without cause or reason. What a shame."

The Boss looked at his shattered gun in disbelief. "How…how the hell did it just explode?" He looked at Vash with fury burning in his rugged face. "Who the hell are you?"

A hideously off-key laugh erupted from the blonde and Meryl was tempted to run up and beat him for making such an ungodly noise. "Oh how silly of me!" His voice then went down three octaves. "I am a warrior for Peace. I am the Mayfly of Love. I am-"

"YOU'RE VASH THE STAMPEDE!" the boss screamed and everyone in the crowd let out a gasp of surprise, including Vash. Meryl began to hear the audience talk among themselves.

"Him? He's back?"

"I thought he left us alone after we dragged him around with that truck!"

"He sure doesn't look like that haggard ol' thing we saw before, eh?"

"Nah, he sure doesn't!"

"Do you think he wants payback for what we did to him?"

"Of course not you ol' coot! Why would he be tryin' to stop this guy then, huh?"

"Maybe it's all a show or somethin' and they're all in a gang together!"

If she could, Meryl would've screamed at the men's ignorant chatter, but she was too engrossed in what she saw before her. One of the bandits had arisen from the ground and was now aiming his revolver for the unsuspecting blonde.

"VASH!" she screamed and the sounds of shots brought everyone's gossip to a stall and attention back to the scene.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The shots hitting, Vash's plunge, even when Sheriff and his men finally arrived it seemed like it had been a lifetime. Meryl felt as if she was underwater and no matter how fast she wanted to move she only moved at a snail's pace.

The small woman collapsed to the blonde's side. "Vash! Vash! Come on, say something!" It was no use, he was out cold.

"Miss, we're going to have to ask you to step away from him."

Meryl looked up to see the Sheriff standing over her. "W-what do you mean?"

"We're going to bring him to the local hospital, then take him into custody."

"WHAT?" she exclaimed. "You cannot be serious! This man just saved your entire town, while you and your men were taking their dear sweet time!"

"Ma'am, me and my men were positioned around the scene and were ready to act at any given moment."

"In other words, you waited until it was safe enough to do something," she snarled. "You're a bunch of cowards!"

"Ma'am, I'm not going to ask you a-" he was cut off by his name being called. He swung around and saw a woman and her husband rushing towards them. Meryl instantly recognized her as the woman from before.

"Sheriff Rockwell! Please let my husband tend this young man's wounds! He used to be a doctor in May City!" Before the Sheriff could refuse, the older man had already begun to rip Vash's shirt off. The doctor looked to Meryl, "Miss, you would've have any medical supplies in that bag would you?" She quickly handed the man the bag and watched him work, wondering how he had known.

She had to admit the doctor knew his stuff; she had never seen Vash's wounds so neatly wrapped. Maybe she could send Knives to him and see what he could do. At least then he'd be out of her hair.

Speaking of hair…

Meryl brushed a stray lock of hair away from Vash's face. His hair was soft and she let her fingers move farther, taking a risk she wouldn't have if he weren't unconscious.

As an added bonus, the Sheriff had let Vash off the hook. At least she didn't have to worry about that.

"Sempai!"

Meryl immediately removed her hand from the outlaw's hair and swung around to see Millie standing in the doorway. "Oh Millie you startled me."

Her partner gave her a smile, "Sorry Sempai, I just came in and didn't know where everyone had gone." The tall women then noticed Vash on the bed. "Uh oh, what happened to Mr. Vash this time?" She looked over Meryl's shoulder to see the unconscious blonde.

"It's a long story, but h-" There was then an earsplitting crash in the other room followed by a scream.

Millie casually glanced at the wall, "Looks like Mr. Knives is up. I think it's time for his medicine." She watched her friend get up from the chair, "Are you sure you're up to it, Sempai? I can do it this time if you want." Meryl just shook her head and left the bedroom.

(AN: Looks who's back with another chapter story!

Did you miss me?

I was planning on posting this a lot sooner than this, but I have more work from my English teacher than you can shake a stick at. Thanks to my procrastination and lack of an attention span I've managed to finally upload the first chapter of this baby!

Please review! It justifies my laziness!)