Hola there! On my last story, I got writer's block then I got the idea for this story so…yeah. Anyway, this one should be better. I hope.

A.N- the car has no roof, but it does have a windshield. ^_^

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            I woke up facedown on the warm sand with the twin suns blazing at my back. There was no memory in my mind of how I had gotten here. Throbbing with pain, I sat up and dusted the sand from my face. When I began to study my surroundings, I realized that that there was nothing surrounding me but desert and a few sand dunes. Not knowing where on the planet I was, I fell backwards in despair, but instead I landed on a cushy rock poking me with hidden objects. I then realized that the rock I had landed on was my bag. Surprised and thrilled, I quickly turned around and ravaged through my messenger bag for water or anything that could tell me where I was. What I found was my clothes, a small aspirin bottle, and a note. It was neatly folded in one of my pant pockets. It read: I'm sorry if I couldn't help you out of this, but there were more things than us at stake. The note wasn't signed, but I'm pretty sore I knew who wrote it. There was just no face to match with the body that was pictured from a faint memory. I crumpled the note, threw it back into my bag and reached for my water. I unscrewed the cap and gratefully drank a few mouthfuls of life. When I was putting it back into my bag, there was a cloud of dust that caught my attention on the horizon and it was heading in my direction.

            Eventually, the cloud took shape of a car. The car soon stopped near me when I spotted two men inside. There was a blonde one in the driver's seat and the other one with much darker hair stepped out of the car and walked to me. He then stopped and lowered his sunglasses at me, but all I could do was stare up at him.

            "Are you okay, kid?" he asked me. I threw him an evil glare for calling me kid. Apparently, he took that as a 'yes' and held out his hand, "Come on, we'll give you a lift to town."

            I took the man's hand and he helped me off of the ground. Since I probably had a concussion, I began to tilt to the side a bit on my feet. The man noticed my instability after picking up my bag and asked me if I was alright. I told him that my head hurt so he offered me a pig-a-back ride to the worn-down car. On the way, I noticed that the man had a small cross on the back of each wrist on his jacket. Not many people that I've seen actually have that on their clothes, so I had to ask the man the most obvious question.

            "Are you a priest?" I asked him, pointing to his left arm.

            "Yeah. I'm a traveling priest." He said, "By the way, I'm Nicholas D. Wolfwood." The priest held his hand out again for a friendly handshake, but while he did that, he dropped me flat on the ground. I sat up as he apologized for dropping me, but he then picked me up once again. Soon enough, we reached the small car. The priest had let me down to lean against the car while he talked to the driver. The driver then turned around and waved at me with a mindless, but friendly smile. The priest had thrown my bag into the back, next to a huge cross. He then opened the door for me, but before I set foot in the backseat, I had to ask him what was up with the driver.

            "Don't worry about it," he said, "You'll probably find out about it soon enough."

            When I was comfortably fit in the back, the priest closed the door and took his seat in the front. The driver started up the car and continued driving their initial direction. While we were moving, I looked back at where they found me. My hair was getting blown in my face, but I didn't care. All I wanted to do was try and figure out how I got there in the first place. Several minutes later, the priest called out to me.

            "Hey!" he yelled to get my attention, so I turned around to face him, "I never did get your name."

            "I think it might be Alex." I said. 

            "Okay then," the priest replied, "Just call this guy Vash," he pointed to the driver. At the time, I was so out of my mind that I never had recognized the name of the Humanoid Typhoon, "he's a bit of an idiot, but you get used it." As he said that, the driver said otherwise.

            "I am not! I thought we had an agreement that you wouldn't go broadcasting it to everyone!" he said, turning around to face me, "I shall have you know that--"

            "Keep your damn eyes on the road!" the priest interrupted. The driver then quickly turned forward.

            "Wait a minute," he said after about a minute, "there is no road!"

            "Well," the priest argued, "just try to not get us killed!"

            At the time, I was so out of my mind that I never had recognized the name of Vash the Stampede. The two of them continued to argue about driving and roads when my head began to hurt worse than it already was. Maybe I did have a concussion, but whatever it was that made me hurt so much, I could barely stand it. I shut my eyes tightly and held my head, hoping that the pain would soon go away, but it didn't. There was nothing I could do but wait it out. Even that seemed to add more pain. So, I laid down across the backseat and let the twin suns burn at me once again. I hoped it was all a dream and I could wake up in my own bed back in Orleans next to someone I felt comforted by. A minute later, the thought occurred to me; if it is a dream, why does it hurt so much? I had little time to think about it before my injury caught up with me. The last thing I remembered was that the twin suns burned out.

*_*_*_*_*

            When I woke up again, I was still in the backseat, but it was dark out. There were no suns beating at me, no sand dunes, and no headache. The driver was leaning over the car door, trying to figure out if I was okay or not. He was the first person I saw when I first opened my eyes.

            "Hi," he said, "It's good to see that you're awake."

            "Where are we?" I asked weakly.

            "December. Just got in too."
 

            I slowly sat up, trying to not aggravate anything. The driver helped me stay up a little by putting his hand on my shoulder, supporting me a little.

            "Try not to move too much." He started as I reached to feel my head, "You don't have a concussion or anything to be worried about. All you have is just a bump on your head. After a good sleep, you'll be fine."

            "That's comforting." I said. I looked around for my bag, which was on the floor, and took out my water bottle. I drank as much water as I could, leaving very little behind. I threw it back into the bag, not thinking much of it, "Hey, what did you say your name is again?" I asked.

            "Vash....why?" the driver said quietly.

            "Oh, that's nice…and the priest? Who's he again?"

            "Wolfwood."

            "Alrighty then," I grinned and gave him a thumbs up, "Where is he?"

            "Over here."

            I turned around and saw the priest behind me, smiling. For some reason, I was a little relieved to see him.

            "Well, I see that you're finally awake now." He said, "That's good. Hopefully Vash told you about your little bump on the head."

            "Yeah, he did." I replied, "Now there's one thing I've got to ask--"

            "Save the questions for later. Right now, we should get to our rooms."

            "Our rooms?"

            "Yes," Wolfwood said, "I got you a room for the night."

            "Why? You didn't have to." I began to protest about his actions, but the priest stopped me.  

            "Don't worry about it." He came up beside me and opened a car door. I shifted to the opening and hopped down. It was a bit shocking to land on my feet for a second, but I quickly got over it. The priest took my bag down from the car and led the way to our rooms. I was struggling with my walking for a bit. I swayed, stumbled, and had to use either the wall or the rails for support. Vash was walking behind me and he partially kept me on the right track.

Still, I felt a bit guilty about Wolfwood paying for a room. I had no money with me, but I'm sure I could figure something to pay him with. With my mind completely ignoring everything in my path, I nearly tackled the priest when he suddenly stopped. I shook my head, ridding my guilt temporarily. Wolfwood handed me my bag, opened my hotel door for me, then handed me the key.

"Are you going to be okay?" he asked.

"I'll be fine." I said, trying to be reassuring, "Well…goodnight."

"Goodnight." Said Wolfwood and Vash simultaneously. I walked into the room and closed the door behind me. The room was small, but I couldn't complain. Of course, you had your basic necessities; a bathroom, bed, couch, phone, phone, and a little balcony. Even that surprised me.

I threw my bag on the bed and emptied it there. I sorted through my four-day supply of clothes and soon found my favorite old baggy shirt and boxers. I changed into that, then I refilled my water bottle in the sink. The water spilt over onto my hand had reminded me that I had spent most of the day lying in sand. So, I decided to wash my face. I felt more refreshed and alert afterwards, now I didn't want to go to sleep, I wanted to go out side and breathe in that fresh air.

On my way, I took the bottle with me and threw it in my bag. I then went to the glass doors and quietly opened them. A sudden cool breeze came, chilling me slightly. I went farther out and shut the doors behind me. There was nothing outside that I could run into, except the rail. When I reached that, I looked down and noticed that we were four stories up. There was a pretty good view from up here until I smelled the smoke. I sniffed around, trying to figure out where it was coming from, then I realized it was coming from next door. I peeked around the wall to see who it was and to my surprise, it was the priest.

"I thought priests didn't smoke." I said.  

"Not many do," he replied, "Are you feeling better?"

"A lot better. What did you do to me?"

"Nothing really, Vash just suggested to put a damp cloth on your forehead to cool you off a little. How long were you out there anyway?" he asked.

"I'm not sure. I just woke up there." I sat down against the wall that the priest was opposite to.

"Do you remember anything before that?"

"Not much."

There was silence between us. I couldn't think of anything else to say and besides, I was getting tired, so I stood up and prepared myself to go in and sleep. With my hand on the door handle, a question came out from the darkness.

"Alex," the priest asked, "how old are you?"

"Twenty-four." I replied, "I'll see you in the morning Mr. Wolfwood."

I opened the door and walked back into the room. My eyes were heavy and my body aches suddenly came to my attention. The bed was across the room and seemed cluttered with my belongings. At the moment, I didn't care for cleanliness, so I just threw my clothes to the ground and crawled under the blankets. As I lay there, slight memories began to come back to me. I remembered a man who seemed to be in love with me. I remember him arguing with others for my sake. I even remembered him being perfect for me with his light brown hair, gorgeous dark eyes, and beautiful soul. Whether he's okay or not was a question that couldn't be answered, but I was strangely calm about it. I felt protected.

It took me a few moments to realize how lucky I was to find someone with a kind enough heart to rent me a room for the night, but there's something about that priest that bugs me. It has become apparent to me that he is not like others. Maybe I can figure it out before I leave.    

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Hmm, that wasn't too bad, huh?