Disclaimer: I don't own Trigun or any of its characters.
Author's Note: Dear God I haven't written a Trigun fanfic in the longest time so please be kind to me. I hope my writing has gotten better in comparison to my previous stories. I beg you NOT to read them. They're kind of embarrassing. Please tell me how this one goes, what's good about it and what to improve on. I love constructive criticism! Thank you!
Prologue Part 1
'Ugh… Where… am I?' Meryl palmed the hard-packed dirt shakily, attempting to stand. She spotted her taller companion unconscious beside her. 'Millie…' A group of men were lying all about her with guns at their sides. A few yarz away, Meryl's heart sank to see the infamous Vash the Stampede sprawled out on the ground, gun at his side. Near to him lay the deathly still body of the blue-haired, silky-voiced Legato.
Meryl's eyes widened. She started to run towards Vash but a pain in her leg caused her to collapse only a few feels away from where she woke. On the ground, Meryl slowly began to crawl to Vash's body. Upon reaching it, a tear escaped and fell to Vash's cheek silently. Meryl watched the drop trace the man's strong jaw and drip to the dirt ground.
Meryl heard a stirring from behind her. She turned to see Millie on her hands and knees recuperating from the hit to her head. A couple men got up rubbing their heads and left in a confused state. Shortly after, others followed suit. Millie looked up, saw Meryl and rushed to her side.
Vash's wounds looked fatal so women felt it would be best to hurry him to a doctor as soon as possible. They stood up together with Vash's arms over their shoulders. Meryl shook a little under Vash's weight and with the pain in her right leg.
Millie noticed Meryl's grimace. "Meryl… How do we…?" She looked at the unmoving body of Legato. "Do we just…?" It seemed she couldn't finish a sentence.
Meryl stood straighter and ignored her pain. "We've just got to find a car here in LR town. I'm sure we can get an abandoned one… with the keys still in it…" She looked at the ground, discouraged by her ridiculous words.
Despite Meryl's doubts, the girls did find a car with keys after they all but dragged Vash down from the cliff. It was an old broken down jeep with less than a half a tank of gas in it. Meryl sat in back with Vash's head in her lap, lying across the back seat.
Millie tried to start the car and failed. After a minute of teeth clenching and dying sputters from the engine, the ignition rumbled to life. Millie sat back and started driving straight to nowhere in particular. The gas tank just about emptied a few feels from the entrance of a little village called Jacobstown.
The car ride had been silent, but Millie and Meryl could not forget the sound of that last gunshot. They sat in the car for a few more minutes in deep thought, both wanting but incapable of breaking the depressing spell that was upon them.
"Hey! Are you girls alright?" asked a man in overalls and a construction hat a couple yarz away from the jeep.
Millie was the first to pipe up. Her instantaneous grin was enough to make Meryl cry but she bit back the tears. "My two friends are injured and I was wondering if you had a doctor in this village."
The man came a little closer with a small but friendly smile. "Of course. Man this guy is trashed…" He helped Millie take Vash into the city, Meryl limping behind them.
An hour later, Meryl was sitting up in a white bed inside a clinic. Her sprained ankle was wrapped up in a heated bandage. The doctor had said it wouldn't take too long to heal. She also insisted that Millie get her head checked out. It was a very minor concussion that she would probably only recognize as a few headaches for about a week. She gave them both medication and let them free to go.
Meryl turned back to the doctor. "But what about my friend? Is he going to be ok?" Meryl asked, her hand clutching the crutch in worry.
"You're friend has acquired wounds that no normal human could survive," the doctor answered. "He seems stable for now but I would feel better if he could stay here for the night just to make sure. I can't force him to stay but I strongly suggest it."
Millie smiled at the doctor. "Thank you, doctor. We'll find some place to stay in the meantime and come back for our friend in the morning."
The doctor mirrored Millie's smile. "If you have any trouble in getting him back tomorrow, just tell the nurse that Maddie said it was ok." The doctor winked. "I'm sure she'll understand."
Millie and Meryl smiled at the kind lady and left. Dr. Maddie saddened immediately, hoping that the nice girls and their male friend would be ok. She turned back to Vash to make sure he was perfectly stable before leaving the room. The lights went out as she exited and Vash's body lay unmoving in the shadowy room.
The girls had no trouble finding a small house they could stay in. It had one bedroom, one bathroom, and a small kitchen. Meryl set up a bed in the kitchen for herself and Millie took the bed in the other room. There was also a small couch, which constituted as the living room, that Meryl would use when Vash came to stay at the house.
"Meryl." Millie stood in the doorway to the kitchen. Meryl looked at the bandage on Millie's head and frowned. "I'm sorry, Meryl. I just thought you might like it if I made some dinner for the both of us."
"That's ok, Millie. I don't think there is anything in the cupboards anyway. We'll have to buy some food tomorrow." Meryl leaned her crutch against a wall and limped to the bed.
"But Meryl… we don't have much money left. Our paycheck hasn't come in quite a while. Bernardelli might think we haven't surv- been doing our jobs!" Millie laughed at her slip up. Meryl didn't crack a grin. "Good night, Meryl."
"Good night, Millie…" The tall girl exited the kitchen leaving Meryl in the darkening room. 'What if he never recovers?' she questioned herself. 'Oh GOD! Would you just shut yourself up, Meryl! Vash is not dead! And he most definitely will not die! So get over yourself and get to sleep. You have a ton of nursing to do tomorrow!' Meryl listened to her conscious and let herself fall into an unsteady dreamless sleep.
---TEN DAYS LATER---
'Vash? Vash! Wake up! Quick! Oh Vash.' Rem's motherly voice echoed in his head. "What Rem?" Vash opened one aqua eye to observe his surroundings. He could see a pot steaming on the stove and his red coat hanging on a hook by the door. Light washed through a window to his left.
He sat up and examined his bandaged chest. "Where the hell am I?" he asked himself out loud. The blond gunman sighed and put a hand to his forehead. Suddenly, a flood of memories washed through his mind. Wolfwood… Vash talking to Meryl about his past… Midvalley dead in LR town… Legato's deadly calm smile… Vash gasped, his eyes widening in despair. The men of LR town unconscious on the cliff… Millie and Meryl lying in the dirt beside them… his own smoking gun and Legato's corpse… It was all coming back to him now, painfully. His voice shaking, "What have… what have I… become?"
"Thank you so much for all your help." Vash looked at the door. "He might not have made it otherwise."
"Think nothin' of it. If you need anything else, all you have to do is ask."
"I will. Thank you again."
Vash stared at the door listening to this friendly exchange and waited. The door opened slowly to reveal Meryl holding a grocery bag in her arms. Her smile melted away into shock as she noticed Vash awake sitting up in bed. They regarded each other silently for a moment.
Meryl plastered a smile on her face. "Oh you're awake! Well already that's an improvement." She set the bag on the table. "I was worried about you. You must be hungry. I'll fix you some soup!"
Vash's eyes followed her as she walked to the stove, limping slightly. "Where… where are we?" he asked.
"It's a small village about 200 iles from the town of LR. There's a lot of very kind people living in this town. They let us stay at this house so we could care for your wounds. Do you remember anything? You've been asleep since we arrived. For ten days straight now." She spooned some soup into a bowl and handed it to him at his bedside. "Here. It's my own recipe." He took it slowly. "Drink up. It's good for healing."
The Humanoid Typhoon stared sadly at the hot food. "I… I remember. I remember all of it."
Meryl stood there, uncomfortable about what to do. "Oh hey! I just forgot. I need to…" she stopped herself. 'Vash really needs me… he really needs me. Now is my chance to help him through something. He's opening up again. I'm afraid… can I handle it?' She pushed away her doubts.
Vash looked down at her shoes and noticed she was wearing a small cast. His eyebrows furrowed angrily as he remembered how the men under the control of Legato threw her and Millie to the ground. They must have hurt her leg somehow. He looked back into her slate colored eyes. "You need to what?" he asked, his voice beginning to quiver. Vash was unsure about what he wanted. Was he really ok with Meryl seeing him like this?
Meryl kneeled down on the ground next to Vash's bed. "Nothing. I need to be here to help you. Now please have some soup. Millie and I really want you to get better." She smiled.
Vash found himself feeling relieved that she was staying. He looked into the steaming soup. A tear fell into it causing a ripple on the surface. Vash began to sob slightly, his body shaking a bit.
'What do I do? What do I do?' This is the reason Meryl was hesitant to stay. She didn't know how to react to this. Her first instinct was to hug him until all his sorrows drowned but she felt that it would be a little too forward of her. So she simply placed her hand in his wrist. "I'm here Vash." She stood and took the bowl from his hands and set it on the table.
Vash looked at her in surprise. He saw her sit next to him on the bed and stare at him. Her lilac eyes revealed an emotion he couldn't place. Anxiousness… fear… guilt… care…
"Vash… please. I can't imagine how miserable you must feel-" Her jaw dropped a little. Vash had wrapped both his arms around her middle and cried into her lap like a sick child in pain. Meryl placed her shocked hands slowly down on his head, her fingers playing gently with his hair.
"Oh Meryl…" His voice came out muffled in her lap, his voice wracked with sobs. "What I have I done?"
Meryl released the first thought that came through her lips. "What you had to, Vash. You did what you had to do." Vash didn't seem to hear her. His sobs grew a little louder. Meryl's heart hurt to hear him like this. She leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. After a few minutes of stroking his head gently, the tears slowed and sobbing subsided.
Vash had fallen asleep with his arms wrapped around Meryl's waist and his head in her lap. She noticed that he had eaten none of the soup. She sighed, worrying about his lack of sustenance. Meryl found that she couldn't get up from the bed as Vash was practically on top of her. She was happy that it was Sunday and she didn't have to go to work. He would wake up and she would be there. Maybe then he could talk to her… about what he was feeling. 'All I want to do is make him better. I want him better.'
Meryl started to doze off a little after a half hour of sitting as still as possible without waking the outlaw. She couldn't even lean against the wall without having to completely change position. Her back began to hurt as her eyes drooped lower…
He had never fallen asleep. Vash could not keep his thoughts off of Legato or the woman he was currently grasping. Legato had threatened her life, but was that enough to kill him? What that enough to kill anyone? 'No one has the right-' He willed Rem's voice to cease for the first time in his life. He did not want to hear her. What he did hear was Meryl's stomach growl as he suddenly realized that she had not been moving for his sake. It had been long enough. He unwrapped his arms from the small woman and sat up. "Sorry…" he whispered.
It was almost inaudible, but she heard the apology. "Don't say that like I did you a favor or anything. I wanted to help…" She trailed off.
Tiresome of masks, he put on one last rather ineffective happy façade. "Go get something to eat Insurance Girl. I'll finish this soup." He smiled a bit.
'Oh Vash… Finish? You didn't even start it yet and it's probably cold by now,' Meryl thought to herself. Silently, she picked up the bowl from the table and heated it a little over the stove fire and returned it.
Vash accepted it. "Thank you," he whispered, hoping she would take his apology the right way.
She did. Meryl knew that he wasn't just thanking her for the soup. It was for staying with him. She couldn't believe that she was actually considering leaving him in such a state. She hoped he was feeling just a little better now. 'I hope it makes him happier that he knows he always has someone there to hold him.' Meryl smiled. "You're welcome. I hope you like it! Get some rest after, ok? I'll be back soon. Bye!" She strode from the room.
Vash looked after her. "Good bye…" He turned to the soup and started eating.
Meryl walked slowly down the dirt road to Millie's construction site. She had found a job digging out the old well in town. Meryl stepped with her lavender eyes glued to the ground. 'I'm glad I stayed. I would never have forgiven myself if I had left him alone to cry. I want to know…' Meryl slowed her pace a little. "What must be going through that poor man's mind?" she asked herself with a detectable edge of worry in her voice.
"Miss Meryl? Miss Meryl?" an unsteady voice caught Meryl's attention. She looked and saw and old man in a red hat and vest to her left. "How is your friend doing?" he asked kindly. "Is he feeling any better?"
"Oh much better thank you," Meryl replied. "He finally regained consciousness. In fact if he keeps healing at this rate, he should be up and about real soon."
The old man nodded approvingly. "That's wonderful, dear. I'm happy to hear that."
Suddenly the ground began to shake and a huge boulder shot out from the well followed shortly by the retractable X from Millie's stun gun. Meryl shrieked as she leapt away from the swiftly descending stone. "Oh dear!" exclaimed the old man.
"Sorry about that!" Millie called out from the well as she rose to the top of the well, yellow construction hat adorning her head.
"Huh?!" Meryl looked at her companion. Millie laughed nervously.
A couple minutes later, Millie and Meryl were sitting on a stone wall near the well. "Mr. Vash is awake?" Millie asked. "Gee Meryl! That's wonderful news." She grinned.
"Yeah," Meryl agreed.
"That's great. You must be excited."
Meryl's eyes widened. 'How does she do it? How does she know so much and act like none of it is a big deal? It's odd…'
"Uh… Oh yeah! That reminds me…" Millie pulled a brown envelope out of the left side pocket of her overalls while looking at Meryl out of the corner of her sky blue eyes. She handed the envelope to Meryl. "It's today's wages."
Meryl received the envelope. "I'm sorry about this, Millie, making you do all the work by yourself…" Meryl looked up at her best friend. "It's not fair."
"Don't worry about it!" Millie looked up at the sky. "I always work the fields at home and besides, by keeping busy, I don't have time to think about my problems. In fact I don't think about anything at all."
Meryl looked away for a moment. Millie was speaking of her first and only love, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, who had recently been killed by one of Legato's lackey's, Chapel the Evergreen, Wolfwood's former mentor. Millie had loved him more than anyone else. Meryl knew that Millie was pretending to be ok not only for her own and Meryl's sake, but to honor his memory.
The raven-haired woman mentally shook away her thoughts and turned her attention back to her friend. "Incidentally," she changed topics. "How is the well coming along, anyway?"
"Not too bad according to the schedule. It looks like we should reach the underground water vein in about one week," she informed happily.
Meryl placed her hands on her hips. "Well let's splurge on dinner tonight. What d'you say?"
"Wow! Do you really mean it?" Millie asked incredulously.
The shorter woman nodded and they got up from the wall to stop by the Variety Store to buy some ingredients. After purchasing their products, the girls started on their way home each holding a filled grocery bag in their arms.
"You know something, Meryl? This place kinda reminds me of my hometown," Millie noticed as they walked down the road.
"But there's nothing here. Your home is actually like that?" asked Meryl.
"That's right. It's just a quiet plain ordinary little village, but it was a great place to live because my whole family was there." Millie smiled.
"Oh yeah… family…" Meryl never knew her parents. Her mother died shortly after childbirth and her father left the infant in the care of her older brother, Harry. He was a good care provider, but Meryl always wanted more. She remembered the last time she saw her brother. It was before she left for December to work at the Bernardelli Insurance Society after college. She was instantly placed as a traveling representative in the line of risk prevention. The job kept her busy. She hadn't written a letter in ages or received one. She decided that it was because Harry never knew where she was.
"Huh?" A figure sitting on a cliff distracted her from her train of thought.
"What is it Meryl?" Millie inquired, stopping next to her smaller friend. "Oh?" she looked where Meryl's attention was currently focusing.
"That man up there…" Meryl whispered.
The next evening Meryl sat next to a window in a wooden chair mending Vash's red coat. She thought about her encounter with Vash on the cliff.
"I'm ending lives! There's always another choice. There had to be another way. I just didn't see it in time to do anything about it. Rem said so. There had to be a way."
Meryl and Millie had sat together at the table near Vash that evening, discussing the day of Legato's death. Meryl had regretted pursuing him because of the pain they caused but Millie had had none of it.
"The only reason you followed Vash is because you care about him! Isn't that right? It could have happened anyway. What's wrong with taking a stand and acting with your heart? Well like my big, big sister always said, 'Never hold back in matters of the heart.'"
Meryl was brought back to the present as she pricked her finger with the needle. 'Oh Vash…' She gazed up at the fifth moon, unable to tear her eyes away from the crater that would scar it forever.
Vash was left alone on the porch the next morning. Kuroneko-sama was seated on the ground at his feet. Vash held his hand out to the black cat that then in turn scratched the top of the gunman's hand and ran off.
A truck rumbled up across the street. A man got out of the passenger side door to grab a couple packages for a man who had come out of the building the car had stopped at. Vash's sensitive hearing picked up the conversation between the two men. It concerned the mass disappearances in multiple towns.
Vash furrowed his eyebrows. 'Knives…' he thought angrily.
The man from the truck noticed Vash after handing the packages to the street resident. "First time I've seen him," he said while looking at Vash.
The town resident went on to explain how two girls had brought him to the village to heal from his extensive wounds. The driver of the car looked in the side-view mirror at Vash and immediately recognized him as Vash the Stampede. He yelled at the other man to get in the truck.
"What's with the shouting, Simon?"
"Just get in the damn truck!"
As the truck drove off, the driver informed his partner that the "blond guy" sitting on the porch was definitely Vash the Stampede.
Vash sat on the cliff staring up at the night sky. His aqua eyes couldn't look away from the vast beauty ahead of him. He began to sing the first song that came to his mind. "So… on the first evening of pebble from somewhere out of nowhere drops upon the dreaming world."
"So…" Vash turned to look behind him as he heard a female voice mingled with his.
Meryl walked forward a little and stopped. "On the second celestial evening, all the children of the pebble hold hands and compose a waltz." They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity of silence. "That's a nice song," she said as she went closer to sit by him.
"Mmm," he sounded in agreement.
Only the sound of crickets could be heard in the distance. Vash listened to the echoes in his mind of Meryl's voice intertwined with his.
"You can…" Meryl broke the stillness. "You can stay here as long as you like." She blushed and shivered a little.
"That sounds good. Might not be such a bad idea."
"Huh?" His words surprised and warmed her, as she knew he was only saying that to make her feel better. They continued looking together at the night sky. After a few more minutes of attempting to control her shivers, Meryl let out a light yawn that sounded a bit like a sigh.
Vash looked at her tired profile. "You're cold. And worn-out," he observed.
Meryl looked into his honest eyes. "Do I look that bad?" she asked with a small smile playing on her lips.
Vash chuckled. "Never," he said. "I just figured you'd want to go back inside is all." He cast his eyes down, a frown marring his features for only a moment of sadness for the end of their short time together. He stood up and held out a hand for Meryl to take. He easily pulled her to her feet and let go of her hand.
Her eyes, looking a darker purple in the moonlight, came to rest on Vash's obvious limp. She stood to closer to his right and grabbed his arm and placed it over her right shoulder for his support and slid her left arm onto his upper back. The tall man put some weight on Meryl. She helped him down the cliff and to their house. She led him to the kitchen where his bed was kept.
She released him and he sat down on his bed to remove his shoes. "Good night, Vash," she said and turned to leave the room.
"Wait, Insure- … Meryl. Wait…" She stopped with the door open and angled her head slightly to the side with him in her peripheral vision.
"Yes, Vash?" she asked.
"Uh… nothing. Just, thank you, I guess…" he all but whispered.
Meryl heard him clearly and shut the door. She walked back to him and kneeled on her knees with his hands in hers looking up into his sea-colored eyes. "I'm here for you, Vash. No matter what happens. I'm here."
Vash hugged her, his chin resting on her shoulder. "Stay a little while longer…" he sighed into her ear. He felt her nod faintly. He pulled her gently onto his small bed, laying her down softly next to him.
Meryl could feel his heart beating somewhat quickly against her back. Her pulse also quickened at his nearness. She was surprised at how relaxed she felt in his arms. He too was mildly amazed. On a normal day, Meryl would have clobbered him if he tried this. But regardless of their personal thoughts, sleep soon overcame them.
AN: So... I hope you liked this chapter. I know it may be overly fluffy. The next chapter will be better, I promise. Still just getting into Trigun writing again. Have faith in me! Please review and tell me if a continuation is worth it. I'll tell you this now: whatever you think may happen in this story, will turn out to be the complete opposite. The ideas I have in my head are the most original I've ever had. Keep that in mind!