Full Summary: This was originally written as a You/Vash series on another site but required extensive editing, so it was turned into a fanfiction! Because you/choose your own ending series' are not allowed, it was changed up a bit to include an OC, but keep in mind during the flow of this story that it was originally meant to include the reader. A young girl meets the man who destroyed everything she held dear but he is not the man she thought he was. As she begins to fall for the man in the red coat, unfortunately Knives and Legato have other plans for her.
Warnings: This story has been rated T for violence, some language, sexual situations, underage drinking, some trigger warnings such as physical abuse, sexual abuse and mental character torture. There will be two "adult scenes" which will be written off-site and linked for those who want to read them, but will allow for those who do not to safely and without effort skip them. All of the above will be sprinkled throughout but we figured a fair warning in advance would save any shock you may have in the future, for our more sensitive readers.
Disclaimer: We do not own Trigun nor do we own the items or settings where this story takes place. All we own is the idea for this nifty little story and our original characters. Please don't sue, as all you will get from us is the lint from our pockets and some wallets which may contain dead moths that won't even be alive to fly out when you open them.
Title: Finding Love on Planet Gunsmoke
Chapter: The Man in the Red Coat
Chapter Written By: Peggi
Edited and Revised By: Devy
Walking into the first bar she came across in the middle of the city, Kallie sighed gratefully to be able to finally quench her thirst. As soon as she walked in, most of the men eyed her, cat-calling and whistling at her. She ignored them, knowing that they would stop; they always eventually do. Once she reached the bar she smiled at the bartender, her ice-blue eyes showing just how exhausted she really was. She simply ordered a glass of water and viewed the other patrons out of the corner of her eye. Once the bartender handed her a tall glass of water, she handed over a few bills and made her way to the back of the bar.
'What kind of churchman is he, anyway?' she wondered to herself as she passed a man who was obviously a priest, smoking like a chimney and downing what appeared to be his third mug of beer, while gambling money away in a game of poker.
She sighed as she sat down, happy to finally be able to relax, trying not to down her water too quickly. She was very dehydrated and knew that if she drank too fast, she would likely make herself sick. She'd been walking almost all day, and was grateful for the break. Unfortunately, her break was about to be cut short when a man in a red coat burst through the door and ran up to the priest. She tried not to stare, but the man in the coat had made quite a scene. Besides that, she actually thought he was pretty cute. Suddenly, the man in the coat pulled on the priest's arm.
"We have to get out of here, now!" he urged.
"But I'm winning!" the priest protested, but seconds after stood up quickly when there was the sound of gunfire from somewhere outside. "Oh, okay, I see what you mean. Let's go!"
Before turning to leave with the man in the red coat, he grabbed what appeared to be a giant cross, which was an odd item to carry around, but then again, Kallie didn't know much about priests. Both men took off as quickly as coat-man had come, and the patrons were all starting to panic because of the gunshots from outside. Kallie was more frustrated than afraid, as it seemed that every town she'd been in had some sort of gun-fight at some point or another, so she calmly took a few gulps of her water and then stood, getting ready to run out the back exit like the other patrons were starting to do.
She realized that the priest and coat-man had run right into the street where the shots had been fired, and wondered if they were okay. She brushed it off, realizing that they had to have been mad anyway to run towards the sounds of guns. Kallie was about to leave through the back when she heard shots being fired from somewhere near the back, so she froze, suddenly reality that she could die at any moment catching up to her. Shaking from fear, she walked up to the window near the front and peeked outside to see if she could see a safe way to get outside.
When she looked out, all she saw was complete chaos. People were running through the streets, people were shooting at one another, even very young children had somehow managed to find guns and knives and were killing their own parents and everyone else who was anywhere near them! Down the street she could see a man sitting down in the bed of a pickup truck, dressed in pure white in an outfit that was the strangest she'd ever seen. She could barely make out his face, especially with his short blue-toned hair covering his eyes, but he seemed completely calm and his lips were forming a small smile. Her eyes were fixed on him, but a huge truck sped in front of him, obviously containing people trying to get out of town, and the moment it had passed, the man was gone. He had completely vanished.
Just then, she felt someone behind her, a gun aimed at the back of her head. She was filled with terror, too afraid to move a muscle, desperately wanting to scream or beg for her life, but despite her mouth gaping open, no sound escaped her lips.
"Don't worry, I won't kill you," a soft voice whispered, almost soothingly "unless he doesn't listen to what I have to say, that is. Now scream, so that he knows I have you."
Kallie didn't know what else to do, and after a few failed attempts, a scream finally came from her mouth. She was still shaking, hoping, praying that the man behind her didn't shoot. She didn't want to die. Not this early in her life. Not like this. She felt the tears falling relentlessly down her cheeks, wanting to keep screaming so that whoever this man was trying to alert would just hurry up and get there, when suddenly someone burst through the doors. The man with the red coat was now standing before them.
"It took you long enough," the man behind her said, almost casually, which made it even more terrifying.
Kallie was too afraid to turn her head but could clearly see the emotional pain on coat-man's face as he spoke, "let her go, Legato! Just let her go, please! She isn't involved in this, so let her go! You've already hurt so many people!"
"I'll make you a deal. If you kill me, I will let her go," the man named Legato proposed to him.
"I...I can't kill you, I just can't! And you know that!"
"You kill me, or she dies."
Kallie wanted so badly for the coat-man to kill Legato but he just stood there. She wanted to fall to her knees and plead for her life, to plead for Legato to die, to plead for him to let her go. She just wanted to be anywhere else but there at the moment. Suddenly she was afraid that if coat-man tried to shoot Legato and missed, she could be hit and die anyway. Or what if he had his finger on the trigger too tightly and when he was shot he accidentally fired? About a thousand other scenarios started fleeting through her thoughts, and she just stood there, crying, for what seemed like an eternity. She couldn't move, she couldn't speak. She could just stand there and cry. After a long pause and terrifying silence, Legato spoke.
"Fine then, you will meet my master, and you will die. Take this wench, but keep her alive for a little while. She may come in handy. You can use her as an excellent human shield, a personal toy, even. Personally, I would use her for target practice, but you're simply not as creative as myself."
Legato shoved Kallie towards the man in the red coat and she turned as he caught her, seeing the man for just a split second before he turned to walk away. It was the man she'd seen before, sitting in the bed of the pickup truck. Chills ran down her entire body, remembering how calm and almost amused he'd appeared and still hearing that calm, almost soothing voice in her mind.
He was at the back of the bar and Kallie let out a sigh of relief, wiping the tears from her eyes and grateful that the ordeal was over, when he suddenly turned back around to face them. Without any warning, Legato raised his gun again and fired, hitting Kallie. She was in too much shock for it to register right away, but she heard him speak.
"You see? Excellent shield. The bullet hit her, rather than you. I just knew she would come in handy."
The next thing Kallie knew, she was falling, her vision going black, pain surging through her entire body. She felt like she'd been lit on fire and her hearing started to go fuzzy. She saw flashes of images around her, switching from the blurred images to black for just a few seconds. She saw the man with the coat catch her. She saw the pained expression on his face. Had she been completely coherent she probably would've taken time to blame him for not shooting Legato when he had a chance, but as it was, she was too out of it. Then, just as quickly as it had all happened, she lost consciousness and prepared herself for what was to come next. Death.
Death, however, did not come for her as she'd expected it to. She still felt the pain in her side and now a new, aching feeling all over. She opened her eyes, instantly realizing she was not still in the bar, and she tried to rub her eyes to clear the blurred vision. It hurt to lift her arms and she instantly noticed that she was laying down in a bed. She propped herself up with her elbow and looked down.
She was not wearing a shirt or bra and her clothing had been replaced by bandages, wrapping around her body. She blushed a bit, realizing that the man in the red coat must've undressed her to remove the bullet and bandage her up. She clearly wasn't in a hospital, so that was the only other logical thought. She was slightly embarrassed, but mostly grateful that he'd saved her life. Just as she was lost in her thoughts, the door slowly opened and a young woman entered the room. The woman was carrying some clothes that were neatly folded in a pile and smiled at her when she saw she was awake.
"Hi there, glad that you're awake. My name is Meryl Stryfe, what's yours?"
Kallie tried to give her name but had to clear her throat a couple of times before she could speak, the coughing making her side hurt a bit worse. Finally she managed to answer the question, "nice to meet you, Meryl. I'm Kallie."
"Kallie, that's a very pretty name. I've brought you some clean clothes, hopefully they'll fit you okay," she informed, setting the clothes down at the foot of the bed.
"Meryl, just out of curiosity...did you bandage me up, or did...did the man in the red coat do it?"
She probably should just be glad that she was even alive and not care if the coat-man had stripped her down in a heroic life-saving way, but the thought of a strange man seeing her naked bothered her too much not to ask.
Meryl just laughed a bit, "I did. I wouldn't trust that pervert to undress and bandage you, so don't worry."
Kallie gasped, "pervert?!"
"Oh," Meryl laughed again "don't worry, he's harmless. A bit of a womanizer, but he's actually a pretty sweet man. Now, get dressed and come on out. We were about to eat dinner and I'm sure you're very hungry. You've been resting since yesterday evening!"
Kallie just smiled at her, trying to ignore the pain she was in, and nodded. Once Meryl had closed the door behind her, Kallie sat up all the way and stood up. She was a bit wobbly, but managed to walk to the foot of the bed and view herself in a standing mirror that was in the corner of the small bedroom. Her hair was matted, probably a combination of sweat and tears that had collected in it, but overall she didn't look as bad as she felt. Meryl must've bathed her, because there was no sign that she'd bled all over herself and not a speck of dust or dirt to be seen. She ran her fingers through her hair and found that it actually wasn't as bad as she'd initially thought it to be.
She grabbed the shirt that had been left for her and slipped it on as carefully as she could. It fit her just right, a bit loose which she was glad about, since she didn't want anything too tight to rub the bandages. It was just a simple black t-shirt, a set of black sweatpants to match. They, too, were a bit loose, but she raised her eyebrows in surprise with how cute they looked on her. She typically wore jeans, but thought that maybe this could be a new look for her. There was also a pair of socks which she slipped on, and her sneakers had been washed and dried. Once she was completely dressed, she sat at the foot of the bed for a few moments to gain her strength back.
Taking a deep breath and mentally preparing herself to leave the room, Kallie stood and left the room. No sooner had she closed the bedroom door behind her and turned back around, did the man in the red coat walk up to her. He had a big, goofy grin on his face.
"Hi there!" he greeted her with the same level of enthusiasm as a little kid on Christmas "I was wondering, are you married?"
Kallie raised an eyebrow at his odd greeting and even more odd question, walking right past him and not bothering to dignify the question with an answer.
"Hey!" he followed her as she walked towards the kitchen, "I was only trying to make conversation with you!"
She ignored his whining and followed the smell of food, finding herself in the kitchen and in a room with two other women. The kitchen was very simple, a table with four chairs around it, very little counter space, a stove and very small cabinets. Kallie couldn't tell what was being prepared, but whatever it was, it made her mouth water and she suddenly realized just how hungry she really was. Meryl was at the stove, stirring something in a pot, and another woman was preparing a salad at the table.
The long-haired woman at the table looked up and greeted Kallie right away with a big smile, "hello there! You must be Kallie. I'm Millie! I bet you're starving, so sit down. Dinner's just about done!"
Millie was certainly right! Kallie felt her stomach grumble as she sat down in one of the chairs at the table and watched Meryl turn the burner off on the stove.
Peggi: Well, my lovely little llamas, how did you like the very first chapter? I wrote this many years ago, initially as a you/Vash quiz on quizilla, but I finally decided to let some friends do an edit job and make it worthy of posting to this site! Keep in mind I was a little one when I wrote this, so don't judge it with flamethrowers and pitchforks at the ready!
Devy: I got to edit it this chapter! Yay! So please send in some lovely reviews, and I will get to editing chapter 2 for you guys!