The moon shone through her window, her head hung.
"Are... you alright?" A certain preacher asked, waving a hand in front of her face.
"Get out..." She growled, nearly inaudiable.
"Huh?"
"I said get out!" The woman screeched suddenly. "Now! Both of you, out!"
The blonde hung his head shamefully.
"Now just wait a minute!" The preacher demanded, dropping his oversized cross. "You were all swooning over the fact of having visitors for the first time in years not even ten minutes ago! And you kick us out? What the hell is-?"
"If she wants us to go..." The blonde began, "Then I'll go quietly."
The preacher looked at him disbelievingly, then sighed.
"Whatever. Let's go."
The two stepped out of the door, only to be greeted by a gang of lethal-looking women with knives, guns, clubs, and even a few skillets. One even had a wooden rolling pin.
"Vash the Stampede," An overly obese woman at the front of the group spat.
"That sixty billion double dollar bounty on your head is ours!"
All of the woman bgan throwing and shooting thier weapons. Vash the Stampede ducked and ran into a nearby alleyway.
"Woah... that was close, huh Wolfwood?"
Vash looked around, then his jaw dropped. No preacher.
"Wha- Woolfwood? Nooooo! Traitor!"
"There he is! Get'em, girls!"
"N-n-no!" Vash squealed.
"Aieeeee!"
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Cloe leaned casually against the saloon post, listening to the mens' gossip, and smoking on a ciggarette. It wasn't "proper" for women to spend their time inside a musty bar, as it was worldly known, and she wasn't allowed in. Serena eavsdropped on the men as well, trying to disguise it by pretending to wash clothes in a nearby basket. With her eyes closed! Who had ever heard of washing clothes with their eyes closed! Amaya Mizuki paused by the saloon and stared out into the the desert that was Gunsmoke. A man stumbles into the city's boarders. The man, appearing to be only in his twenties, nearly tripped over his own feet in dehydration.
"Water... I need water..." He stammered, before collapsing in a heap on the ground.
"Water?" Cloe Wanners repeated, astonished. "What d'ya want water for?"
"The poor man's dehydrated!" Amaya insisted, rushing to the man's side. "He needs water to help him! There's nothing but desert out there!"
"I know that!" Cloe snapped, putting her ciggarette out on the ground as she knelt down to the man's level. She pulled his face up to meet hers.
"Kinda cute... " She murmured, grinning ear to ear, leaving the man smiling sheepishly.
"He needs something strong! One booze, coming right up for ya, Mr.- "
"No!" Amaya argued. "He's dying of thirst, for heaven's sake! He needs pure water, not alcohol! That'll kill the poor man!"
"No, it'll help him! A growing man needs his fill of alcohol, and it's no difference for Mr. Sir here- !"
"Please, I have a name, ladies, and it's not 'Mr. Sir' or 'poor man', either," The man interjected, but being completely ignored.
"My name is..." He paused dramatically. "Valentinez Alkalinella Xifax Sicidabohertz Gumbigobella Blue Stradivari Talentrent Pierre Andri Charton-Haymoss Ivanovicci Baldeus George Doizel Kaizer the Third-"
"Oh, that's
where you are, needle noggin," A man's voice resounds. Both
Amaya and Cloe stared up at the man, admiring the large cross on his
back.
"Some preacher you are!" The dehydrated man
scoffed, sitting up.
"I thought preachers were supposed to
help those in need! But you deserted me back there!"
"Eh..." The man, obviously a preacher shrugs.
"I guess that it's just to be expected from you, Wolfwood."
"Nah, I just thought you could handle yourself from then on. I mean, you were handling yourself with expertise, there-"
"I was being shot at by a bunch of relentless women!"
Wolfwood inhaled one final time on his cigarette, then put it out on the bottom of his shoe before offering his hand out to the exhausted traveler.
"Excuse me, ladies, I'll just take this hassle here with me, and get him outta your way..."
"Do you two have a place to stay?" Amaya asked curiously.
The man refered to as Wolfwood turned back around to face her.
"You mean you'd offer up your place?" He asks with interest.
She nodded.
"It's just me living there, and it's kind of big for me anyways..."
"Offer accepted!" Wolfwood exclaims without further adieu.
"Now... just where is this place of yours?"
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"Alright, now if you're going to put up with needle neck here, you're going to have to follow a few...precautions," Wolfwood explained to Amaya.
Amaya had led the two to her abode and the man in the red trench coat drained an entire gallon of her water, ate three steaks that she had willingly prepared, devoured a box and a half of frosted jelly doughnuts, then took refuge on her bed in her room.
But she hadn't minded at all.
"'Precautions?'"
She repeated, smoothing out the front of her dress.
"What
kind of precautions?"
"First of
all," Wolfwood recites, as if he were reading from a
script,
"Don't give the guy alcohol. If he wears a checkered
red and green tie around his head, you know you're in trouble."
She nodded.
"In other words, keep him away from Cloe."
"Secondly, watch out for yourself. And your underwear drawer. The guy's a pervert."
Amaya blushed ten shades of red at the thought of the man in the red trench coat rumaging through her wardrobe and drawers, grinning at her undergarments.
"Also... if I tell you his name, promise me you won't get all choked up or scream."
She wondered why she thought that she would scream at the mention of his name, but she agreed anyways.
"His real name isn't that "Valentino Alkaseltzer" or whatever he said it was. His name's Vash."
She gasped, bringing a hand to her mouth and backing away from the preacher as if he were insane.
"Vash?"
Amaya recited softly, the name falling from her lips,
"As
in... the Humaniod Typhoon, Vash the Stampede?"
"Yep. That's the one," Wolfwood nods.
She looked over at her bedroom door, now knowing with newfound information that the man sleeping on her bed and in her very presence is indeed the same man with a sixty billion double dollar bounty on his head.
"You can really underestimate his personality, though," Wolfwood says, interrupting her thoughts.
"He doesn't act like a murderer, and he isn't all that frightning. But he's got real precise gun skills, and morals you wouldn't believe for the humaniod typhoon. He's also a pacifist, believe it or not."
Wolfwood pauses,
then adds,
"Just do us all a favor and don't say anything the
the other civilians."
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The midnight breeze entangles gently with her hair, causing it to stray across her face. Amaya had resorted to the front porch after Wolfwood had talked to her.
As she sat on the edge of her porch, she heard the door to her house open and she looked back to see Vash standing there. He didn't have that cheerful, childish look on his face that he did before, but instead has a look of saddness.
"What's the matter, Vash?" Amaya asked softly, the name Vash being momentarily caught upon her lips.
"You're afraid of me now, aren't you?" He asks solemnly, sitting down beside her, hanging his feet off of the edge of the porch.
She shook her head.
"Well, honestly... I was shocked to know your true identity... I mean, I didn't really think that it could be... whatever you said it was... it was too long..." She giggled, earning a smile from Vash.
He scratches the back of his head and smiles sheepishly, laughing nervously.
"Well, Valentinez Alkalinella Xifax Sicidabohertz Gumbigobella Blue Stradivari Talentrent Pierre Andri Charton-Haymoss Ivanovicci Baldeus George Doizel Kaizer the 3rd seems to work with everyone else, so I kinda thought..."
Amaya's giggles turns into a stomache deep laugh.
"You mean to tell me that people actually believed that?"
Vash soon joined her, laughing in that strange way of his.
Wolfwood stares out the window at the two of them.
'Those two really are kinda cute together... He thinks, grinning.
"So, what is yourname?" Vash asks after the two of them calm down.
"My name is Amaya Tsukiko. But I don't like my last name all that well..."
"Well, you won't have to wait much longer to change your last name. I'm sure someone will marry you, and you can take their last name."
She was shocked by his comment, but he continues.
"As for Amaya... I think it's a very beautiful name... a beautiful name, for a beautiful girl."
She blushed at his last comment as she try to hide her radiating face from Vash's warm smile.
"...And there he goes again, flirting with every pretty face he sees," Wolfwood muses, smiling to himself.
"But... something in my gut tells me that these two will go somewhere together... nah, I'm just hoping to much. There's no getting rid of that needle-noggin..."
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