No Own Trigun, or anything else in here.

Eh, ok. This is a two-part AU short story. Part one being from Vash's POV and part two being from Meryl's. Sounds fun... (Eh, Mayuko, if ya read this, yeah...you know what I'm talking about...) They're all in 8th grade, but this is in NO WAY WHATSOEVER a prequel to Gunsmoke High.

Resemblances to any persons, living or dead, is absolutely 100% on purpose! ^_\\

Eh, for the purpose of the story Knives is not related to Vash at all, Legato doesn't have blue hair, there are no Milly or Wolfie, (T_\\) and Meryl's hair is long enough to hide behind if need be. Should be fun, ne?

LALALA! I'm in a typical Sunny mood! Strange, since I'm gonna flunk my English final tomorrow morning! YAY!

The whole world, anime or otherwise: -_-; (-_-.; for Vash!)

Prince Humperdink: I know, I know, GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!

Well, since he interrupted me, I don't own The Princess Bride either.

Unrequited: Part A: Vash Saverem

I sucked in my breath, catching my first glimpse of her in the physical world that day. She was leaning against the weather-worn brick, her ebony hair falling in her face.

As I approached her, I could see that she was wearing her headphones again. "Shit," I murmured. They were, like, surgically attached to her head anytime before school started and as soon as she left the building in the afternoon.

She appeared to be doing her French homework, having forgotten it yet again.

"What CD, Meryl?" I asked her, being conversational.

No response, not even so much as a glance.

"Don't bother," Vinnie muttered from where he was standing. "She's engrossed."

I stood above her, gazing at her simple beauty, silently loving her even more every second.

It was no secret to anyone that I had been in love with Meryl Stryfe since the fifth grade, especially not to her. I had only asked her out seven times to date, with the most polite of the answers being "Go away."

I watched her take off her headphones and stow them in her backpack. "Morning," she said brightly. "That bitch gave our class extra homework," she muttered.

"Why?" I asked, not needing to query who. It was the general opinion of anyone who took French, or was in the teacher's homeroom, that the teacher was horrible.

"Apparently, no one can remember how to do the imperative," she said, an air of nastiness arising.

"That's better than the Spanish classes. We never learned it in the first place," I said.

"What the hell do you do in there all morning?" she said, not really wanting a response.

I didn't see Meryl again until fourth period Algebra One. I watched her storm into the room and take her desk at the back. I was sitting next to it in a chair. I had forsaken my desk earlier that week, because she always somehow got Phil to kick me hard at least once every other day.

"Go away," she snapped.

"Ah, I see you had another pleasant art class admiring him." I said teasingly. Everyone in our group of friends, except Vinnie somehow, knew she had a crush on Legato Bluesummers. Except that he basically ignores her.

"Oh, no." She rolled her grey eyes. "I just don't feel like putting up with utter morons like you today." Glancing at me, she snapped, "And take that thing off!"

Vinnie and Phil started laughing.

"Like it?" I asked, gesturing at my poncho. "Stole it from Spanish."

"Lovely," she said sarcastically. "Now scram."

She took out her homework and sat in her desk, flashing it at the teacher when she asked. Algebra proceeded as normal, including the part where Meryl took the liberty to read and then be caught not paying attention. I usually spared her the embarrassment by whispering what was going on before it was too late.

Today, the teacher had passed out more worksheets. Meryl started to work on hers, as I slowly inched my chair closer to her.

"Would you go away?" she snapped viciously. I shook my head.

A burst of inspiration hit me. "How long will it take for Meryl to slap me today?" I asked no one in particular. "One, two, three..."

Meryl rolled her eyes, going back to her worksheet.

"Asshole," she muttered. I inched yet closer, trying to see if I could catch the smell of the shampoo in her hair.

"Twenty-one, twenty-two,"

Meryl looked up at Emily, who was watching. "How long will it take for Vash to realize that I'm trying very hard to ignore him?"

"I know," I said, inching closer still. "Forty, forty-one, forty-two,"

At "forty-seven", she snapped, "VASH! MOVE!" The people around us started laughing as she stared at me, her eyes cold with loathing. I moved the chair away by about a centimeter.

"Further," Meryl's eyes bored holes into my face. Another centimeter. Meryl flipped her middle finger up at me and then raised her hand, trying to attract the attention of the teacher.

"Yes Meryl?"

"Vash is--" She was cut off by the sound of the bell. Gathering her books, she furiously rushed out of the room. I caught up with her quickly.

"I hate you, you know that?" she said, stomping up the stairs.

"So you tell me every day."

"Don't you ever give up?" She spun around on the landing at glared at me.

"Nope," I smiled at her.

"God, I'm surrounding by morons," she muttered under her breath. Once again storming up the stairs, she opened the door to the corridor just as Legato walked up to it.

"Hey Meryl," he said to her.

"Hi, Legato," She smiled at him, but a normal one, the one she gave to everyone.

"Hey," I said as he passed me.

I might as well not have said anything, the way he walked past me, catching up with his friend Caine.

"Well," I declared to Meryl, as she waited for the French teacher to let out the class just before hers. "Someone had a sudden change in demeanor."

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said airily, slipping into the room.

I endured my English class, which seemed like eons, before I could see her beautiful visage again at lunch.

For once, she wasn't the last one to reach the table. She plopped down between Eddie and me. I started in on my lunch.

"God, Vash, can't you eat a real lunch for once?" Phil asked, rolling his eyes.

"Ew," Meryl declared.

I looked down at my lunch. I had bought two pretzels and a Yoo-hoo from the cafeteria, and had brought a jar of peanut butter from home. I picked up the plastic knife that was resting on one of the pretzels and proceeded to spread peanut butter on it.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Emily muttered. Meryl tried her best to ignore me, which I made as difficult as possible.

When we were let outside for recess, she bolted out to the field, stopping at a tree at the edge, which she leaned on. I followed her.

"Vash," she snarled, "we only have a few recesses left in our lives. Can't I enjoy them?"

"Yeah," I said, attempting at being sweet.

"Well, you're not helping by bothering me." She let her hair fall in her face again, trying to hide her eyes. I followed her line of vision to where she was gazing. Legato, with Caine and Knives and the rest of their friends.

Meryl walked further out in the field, trying to lose me. I just kept playing shadow. She started to gaze at the dandelions growing in the grass.

After about five minutes, she got angry. "I thought I told you to leave me alone?"

I shrugged. "I don't want to."

"You're an asshole." She started to walk back to the tree.

"So are you." I followed her.

"I never said I wasn't." She stopped short.

I swore under my breath. "You're right,"

"Haven't you figured out--"

"That you're always right?" I mimicked. "Yes, I have. And it's because you're a girl."

"Well, then let it sink in, dammit!" With that, she ran back to the school, because the bell was ringing.

"Why must you follow me?" Meryl snapped as I walked out of the building behind her.

"I'm not," I defended, speeding up my pace. When I was out of reach of her arms or legs, I asked her, "How could I be following you if I'm ahead of you?"

I must not have been far enough away, because I felt a sharp pain just below my left knee. "Aw, Meryl," I whined.

"Bastard,"

"Bitch."

She laughed. "That's the three hundredth time someone's called me that today. It has no effect on me anymore." She walked across the street and away from me, leaving me with just my imagination until the next morning.

"I love you, Meryl." I whispered to her retreating form.

Part B: Meryl Stryfe

I seriously hate Vash. I can not stand him at all. Everything about him drives me absolutely berserk. Ever since Tory dared me to kiss him (which, for the record, I did not do. I faked it), everyone's been trying even harder to get us to go out. Which I do not appreciate at all.

On the other hand, if it were Legato Bluesummers who liked me, that would be a different story. But, unfortunately, all he really sees me as is someone who just listens to him complain and occasionally shows up at his band's concerts.

I'm just as bad as Vash in that respect. I know, and have known, that I have no chance in the world with Legato, and yet, I still like him. It's not as much as it used to be, but still.

"Hi Meryl," I heard him say as I put down my paint. I always sat with my back to him and Knives, but I would sometimes half-listen to them. Not to eavesdrop, but usually because they were the only ones talking in the hallway. I didn't like to work in the art room. Too noisy.

I started to mix the blue paint with black and white, until I had several different shades of blue for my painting. I took the darkest of the blue-black and started to paint the parts that had to be black or some shade near it.

A girl walked through the hallway and jumped over Legato's and Knives's outstretched legs. I didn't even really notice it until I heard the guys start to argue over what she said.

"I'm pretty sure she said it was a maze," Knives claimed.

"I don't think so," Legato murmured. "Hey, Meryl,"

I turned around, my eyes catching his gold ones. "Yeah?"

"What did she say when she walked past?"

I racked my brain. "Who?"

"You're a lot of help," Knives muttered.

"Sorry. I don't pay attention to everyone who's coming and going."

I painted in silence after that, catching glimpses of Legato when I was clearing up.

"Lovely," he said as I passed him, my hands covered in blue paint. I imagined the blue-black color as his hair, and found it rather cute.

Unfortunately, I had to suffer through Algebra and Vash, two of my least favorite things in the world, just after that.

"Twenty-one, twenty-two,"

God, I thought. That moron. Vash was grinning broadly while trying to drive me literally insane. As if that was going to get me to like him.

His latest one was starting a band with a few of his idiot friends. Ha. It's not guys in bands I go for. It's just, oh, I don't know. It's not a band thing, though. I know that.

"Forty-seven," Vash whispered.

"VASH! MOVE!" I snapped. I was aware that half the people in our vicinity were cracking up, but he was really on my nerves. This was nothing new.

He just scraped the floor with the chair.

"Further,"

He didn't oblige. I flipped the bird at him and raised my hand.

"Yes Meryl?

"Vash is--" The bell cut me off. Damn. This meant tomorrow would be another day of having to put up with him sitting next to me.

Vash was his typical obnoxious self the rest of the day.

After school, I started to fight with him about how he was following me constantly.

"Bitch," he said, without much emotion.

"That's the three hundredth time someone's called me that today. It has no effect on me anymore," I laughed as I crossed the street, finally away from him.

Why did that moron like me so much? I thought as I slipped my headphones on. Reaching into my backpack to hit the "play" button on my CD player, strains of "You're So Vain," by Carly Simon reached my ears. I love that song.

"I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee," I sang along softly. Ahead of me, I caught a glimpse of Legato walking home. He was maybe twenty feet ahead. I picked up my pace slightly, slowing down as I was about five feet behind him.

I just kept my eyes dead ahead, sometimes sliding over to him. Silently, I reprimanded myself. I had been trying so hard to get off my crush on him.

As he turned away, I didn't feel the usual pang that shot through me, the feeling of how I could have said something, but didn't. I wondered why.

I followed the road towards my house. One of the houses had a very unkempt lawn, with a bunch of dandelions growing. I picked one of the white fluffy ones.

"I wish that Legato Bluesummers would like me," I said. But, before I could blow it away, a voice popped up in my mind.

'Why?'

Duh, I told myself. So it's someone other than Vash. Someone I actually like.

'Why don't you like Vash?'

Because he's an obnoxious idiot.

'And Legato isn't?'

They had me there. He did tend to be a moron, like Vash.

'Does he even notice you?'

Once in a while.

'Why do you like him?'

I don't know, I snapped at myself. I just do.

'Do you really like him? Or is it just to piss Vash off?'

I gulped, realizing something that I had probably buried since the second I decided I liked Legato Bluesummers.

It was all just to irk Vash. He had driven me to like someone who was basically just like him, except more liked by other people.

I didn't really like Legato.

What really surprised me was that I was able to admit it to myself. "I wish for someone to love who will love me back." As an afterthought, I added, "And please don't make it Vash Saverem." I laughed as I blew away the seeds.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yeah, so Meryl's part was short, but who cares? I like it! I love it! It's stupid! It rocks! I don't care! YAY! -_\\ I think I'll hand this in as my English final. (Yeah, this is why I don't know half the poetry terms...sorry) R&R if ya want! Luv&peaz! --Sunny