DISCLAIMER: Trigun and its characters belong to Yasuhiro Nightow.
On the Horizon
It was a slow therapy session.
Working together, Vash and Milly had made what could be considered significant progress with Knives. Milly was ready to downgrade him from homicidal to extremely dangerous.
He had even learned how to at least feign politeness. "Woman! May I please have a cigarette?"
Milly waved her finger at him. "No, you may not."
"Damnit, woman I made a polite request!" Knives roared. "Give me a cigarette!"
"I will not," Milly informed him. "Smoking killed Mr. Wolfwood."
"That's preposterous!" Knives snarled. "I know for a fact he was shot! That's how he died!"
"Yes, he was indeed shot. While smoking!" She nodded triumphantly, expecting acknowledgement that her point had been proven.
They went back and forth a while longer. Vash didn't partake much. He excused himself early.
Later, Milly found him sitting outside, hands steepled under his chin. He was staring off into the distance.
"Mr Vash?" she asked. "Are you feeling ok?"
He looked up at her. "Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm fine." He settled back into looking at whatever he was he was looking at in the distance. Though a little bothered, Milly chose to leave it alone and went back inside.
Vash didn't come back in until much later. He'd been staring at the same spot all night.
The next day, after breakfast, she found him staring out the window at the horizon.
Milly hesitated, then tapped him on the shoulder. "Um…Mr. Vash? Are you sure everything ok with you?"
He was definitely preoccupied with something. It took him a while to say, "It's almost our first anniversary, isn't it? Meryl and I have been…together almost a year, right?"
"Yes. Eleven and a half months. You have two weeks to get Meryl a present, Mr. Vash. Better get cracking!"
Vash smiled and resumed looking out the window. "Almost a year. It's been a long time since I've been in one place that long."
Milly wondered what his odd tone of voice meant, but there was no time to think about it now. She had to go to work. She silently vowed she would discuss this weird behavior later, with Meryl.
When Milly came home, that was her first priority. "Meryl, I wanted to talk to you about–"
"Milly, thank God!" Her friend rushed to her. "Have you seen Vash?"
"Mr. Vash? He was here when I left this morning. In fact, that's what I –"
"He was gone when I came home, Milly, and I'm starting to get worried. The sun's getting ready to go down, and he still isn't back." Meryl's tone reflected her concern for Vash. He was usually waiting to greet her when she came through the door. Other people would find that clingy; Meryl enjoyed it, after all the times he had ducked out on the insurance girls.
After he had left to possibly die at the hands of Knives.
Milly changed her mind. She didn't want to add to Meryl's worries.
Just then, the door opened. "I'm home!" called Vash.
Meryl ran to hug him. "Where have you been? You were starting to worry me!"
Vash hugged her back. "Just out walking around. Nowhere special."
Meryl was agape. "You spent the whole day walking around?"
He laughed and scratched his head. "Yeah, well – sometimes you just want to get outside." He kissed her. "I'm back now. No worry."
Meryl's happiness that he was safe and sound overrode her concern, but not Milly's. Milly had this nagging suspicion that something was wrong.
The next day, Vash went out again. Again, he didn't come back until later. Same thing the day after that. And the day after that. He wasn't showing up for therapy with Knives.
"Woman! Where is Vash?"
Milly had to talk to someone about it. Wasn't like Knives had someplace else to be. "I don't know!" she wailed. "He's gone all the time anymore, and Meryl and I don't know where. He always says he's just out walking around, he won't tell us any more than that. He's acting really strange, Mr. Knives."
"Hmph!" Knives snorted. "I suspected this day would come."
Milly leaned in. "What day do you mean?" she asked, eyes wide as saucers.
"Isn't it painfully clear, you two-legged female insect? He has grown tired of life with the two of you, and is slowly returning to his wandering ways." The gleam in his eyes was malicious. "Soon the day will come when he shatters the tiny woman's heart into a million pieces by leaving for good!" He laughed like he'd told some grand joke.
At least, he laughed until Milly slapped him. The big woman could slap almost as well as Meryl. "Don't you dare talk like that!" she yelled at him. "Mr. Vash loves Meryl, and he would never do anything to hurt her!"
She slapped him again for good measure, ran upstairs. Knives went without his supper that night.
Finally, after more days of Vash disappearing, Milly couldn't take it anymore. He was coming home later and later, with Meryl waiting worriedly for him each night. He would hug and kiss her and tell her everything was all right, but Milly kept catching glimpses of him staring out at the horizon. She was afraid Knives was right, and Vash would soon be gone forever.
On the night she made her decision, she found Meryl cooking in the kitchen.
"Damn!" Meryl swore as she cut herself while slicing vegetables. She rinsed and bandaged the wound, cursing herself for making such a simple mistake.
Vash's disappearances were throwing the whole house off kilter.
"Meryl, we need to talk," Milly said after Meryl was finished bandaging the cut. Meryl had abandoned the dish she had been fixing. Her heart wasn't in it; it was somewhere out there, with Vash.
"Well, come in here and sit down and let's talk, then." Meryl led the way into the living room and they sat on the couch. "What's up?"
Milly fidgeted nervously. "Well, I don't know how to say this, but…I think Mr. Vash may be planning to leave for good!" she blurted in a rush.
Meryl gasped, less in shock at the thought Vash might be leaving and more at Milly's lack of confidence in him. "How can you say that, Milly? I know something's been bothering him, but how can you honestly think that man would leave me? Would leave us?"
"Meryl, I just think –"
Meryl was firm as she took her friend's hands. "No, Milly. I admit I'm worried about him, but he wouldn't leave me. Don't you understand? He came back for me. He has no intention of leaving." She patted Milly's hand. "I have faith in Vash."
Milly hugged her friend. "You're right, Meryl," she said with a confidence she didn't feel.
The front door opened. "Meryl!"
"Vash!" She ran to him, hugging him tightly. In light of Milly's fears, she decided it was time to find out what was bothering him. Meryl would stand by him in any way she could. "Vash, I think we –"
"Later," he said excitedly. "I have something to show you. Come on!" He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the house. "Milly, don't wait up!" he called.
"Vash, what's going on?" Meryl asked this again and again, but he pulled her along with him, eventually picking up and carrying her. Meryl shut up at that point; he refused to answer, and she was just happy to be in his arms again.
He carried her a far distance away from their home, until there was nowhere else to go. They were up against a cliff face.
"Here we are," he said, setting her down. Meryl looked around and saw nothing but the desert at night.
"Vash, what's going on? Why did you bring me out here?" Though she had every right to be angry at being dragged out this late at night into the middle of the desert, she was more curious than upset. His excitement was contagious.
He came over and gave her a kiss that made up for all the ones she'd been missing. "Don't you remember? It's our anniversary. It took me all this time, but I finally have your present ready. Stand over there."
Meryl was too intrigued to argue. What kind of present did you give someone in the middle of the desert at night?
Vash walked over to an object. She figured out it was some kind of power source when he did something and it whirred to a vibrating, humming life.
"Here we go!" He plugged something into something else, flipped a switch.
The entire area was suddenly lit up. Meryl blinked, and then her jaw fell open at what she saw.
She had no idea how he had managed to pull off getting this whole thing set up. Against the backdrop of the cliff face, Vash had assembled a series of large neon letters. The desert basked in their red glow.
She was looking at a ten foot high message that read
MARRY ME MERYL
Vash came over and stood next to her, admiring his handiwork.
Meryl's tears welled and overflowed. The effort that must have gone into making this; that he would go to all this trouble and worry to ask this one question on this one specific night…
"Yes," she whispered.
He turned to her, wearing a hopeful look. "Say again?"
A smile lit up her tear-streaked face, and she smacked his arm. "I said yes, you big idiot!"
She jumped around his waist, locking her legs, and smothered him with joyful kisses.
They spent the night in the light of his proposal. How they celebrated their engagement, only the desert was witness to.