Hey all ya'll out there…how's it going? Anyways, this is my second fic…frowns my first one didn't seem to be doing too well…it's called Acceptance of Light…of Darkness, and is a VxM vampire story! Now come on…doesn't that sound interesting? Also has WxM, and L/KxD.
Anyways, this story is an AU fic, the Trigun gang is in high school. It's their senior year. I know it's been used before, but the idea is so good, I couldn't put it down. They are 17-18. Enjoy! VxM, WxM, DxL, and other possibilities as I think up them!
Umm…I got thrown into an insane asylum for a while, after I was forced to face reality and realize that I DON't OWN TRIGUN!!! Or Wal-mart, but that's no big loss compared to Trigun! Oh yeah…don't own SEARCH, but I wouldn't want to, either!
A CHARACTER'S THOUGHTS ARE IN SINGLE QUOTATIONS (' '),
WORDS/CURSES/SILENCES ARE IN DOUBLE QUOTATIONS(" ")….THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW…
"Milly," I sighed for what seemed to be the thousandth time. "May I remind you we are here to get school supplies, not to examine the new favors of pudding!" I sighed yet again and threw an exasperated glance towards my long-time friend whom I'd known since we were in diapers. Milly, a tall girl with long brown hair and the world's friendliest smile was currently mesmerized by the shopping aisle full of pudding that loomed in front of her.'She didn't even hear me,' I realized, feeling my blood pressure rise.
"Fine then, meet me in the school supplies section when you're done drooling." I'd had it. Enough was enough, besides she did this every time we went to the store together. With the thousand-and-third sigh, I folded my arms akimbo and walked off to aisle 17 in Wal-mart, dreading what I knew I'd find. The school supplies section was always the busiest two weeks before school started, and there was a guarantee of little-to-nothing left the day before school started. 'Tomorrow I'll be a senior…not that it will really be any different from the other years. It just means more school work.'
My thoughts trailed off to the past three years of my high-school life. My parents were always nagging me to stick to my studies, and, in order to see it happen, didn't let me have much of a social life. I couldn't decide who was worse…mom, who was a lawyer, or dad who was a doctor. They both knew the importance of school and studying in order to become successful, obviously. "Take care of your education, and it will take care of you," was my mother's favorite saying. My dad gave whole lectures on the importance of education. Yet, I had to agree, their preaching stuck, and I was the valedictorian of the class.
'But still…it would be nice to have a social life, sometimes.' I admit, I didn't have it that bad. I wasn't totally cut off from being with my friends, but I never got to be with them as often as I wished. Mom and Dad were cool about me talking to and being with members of the opposite sex, luckily, but they had problems with me going out of the house for anything other than school on the weekdays.
I abruptly pushed myself out of my thoughts as I entered the school aisle…and groaned. I would have sighed if I wasn't so sick of it already. The whole aisle was a mess, notebooks strewn all over the place, folders littered here and there, pens and pencils…there were none in sight, and the remaining notebooks and folders were either bent, folded, or torn.
"Oh well," I muttered aloud, before bending down and beginning to scavenge for whatever I could find that was intact and serviceable. The hair on my neck rose, and I stood up abruptly and turned around to face the feeling.
'I should have known…Legato.' My lips curled into a snarl without my realizing it.
Legato was the class' salutatorian, and he was none too happy over the fact that he was second to me, a tiny, brilliant, female-to-boot. I enjoyed it though, and was not worried in the least that he would catch up. It was a well-known fact that he had always tried to pass me. You would think that since we were the schools' top students, we would befriend each other and get along, as we were most likely of a society that spoke a language only we could understand, but he hated my guts. And he made no secret of it, either. He spoke, his voice cold and deep,
"I hope you've enjoyed your stay at number one." He paused for breath and the gold glimmer of his eyes shone with abhorrence. "You won't be there too much longer."
"Riiight," was my reply. It may have been pathetic, but it was a classic, and it worked. Especially when combined with a roll of my eyes as I turned my back towards him. "Your threat hasn't worked for these past three years," I tossed over my shoulder, itching to see the hatred make his eyes narrow to a squint.
"Don't take me so lightly," he responded, and I mentally cringed as I heard him take a step closer. I should have shut my mouth right there and then. But of course, me being me…
I turned and faced him, my nose in the air; a smirk on my face, "I already have." His eyes were murderous, and I was truly starting to fear for my life, when:
"You here too, Meryl? I thought the valedictorian of our school would have her stuff three months ahead of time, organized and ready."
Turning, I saw one of my close friends, Nicholas D. Wolfwood. My face relaxed into a smile. He and I had been friends ever since we entered high school. We nearly always had the same classes, as he wasn't too lacking in the brains department, either. It was fine with me, other than intelligent he was funny in a unique way. Besides, Milly had been in love with him for as long as I can remember. And sometimes, I felt this odd connection with him…
"What's your excuse?" I threw back. "Hey, I 'm not Ms. Perfect," he retorted, with a characteristic wink.
Time froze for a moment. Every time someone called me that…I hated it. I knew he was teasing, but still…I wasn't perfect, never tried to be, and it was annoying as hell whenever I did "slip up." The rest of the school seemed to think that the valedictorian was some all-mighty, error-free being, and I got teased for weeks whenever I did the littlest things, such as getting less than a 100 on a test or homework. Naturally, Legato would rub it in my face for weeks, until progress reports came out, and showed that his average was still not anywhere near beating mine. Or like tonight, for being human for once and buying my supplies the night before school started.
"So, did you do anything this summer besides study?" Nick questioned me. I shrugged. "Not much. Saw some movies; hung out with Milly most of the time. How was SEARCH?"
Nick belonged to an organization of freaks, in my opinion. It focused on encouraging teenagers to share and develop their Catholic faith, but I knew better. Those SEARCH people were mighty weird at times, I swear it must have been a secret cult of evil beings. And Nick was in charge of the summer retreats. I suppose him belonging to that organization was the reason he was 'weird' in a way only describable as Nick.
Think of the typical naughty school-girl, applied to him. He was forever preaching good to others, but I never can really say that I saw him carry it out. I have no idea why he belonged to SEARCH…I think it's to go into those retreats and corrupt the minds of those that went, thereby saving them from whatever the weird SEARCH people try to do to them. At any rate, Nick rode a motorcycle he purchased himself by doing odd jobs for many summers. He also had a bad little habit of smoking, although he claimed it wasn't a habit, and he wasn't addicted…'I can quit anytime I want,' was what he said when I reproached him for it. He wasn't a bad guy, though, and most people found him approachable and nice. I wouldn't be surprised if he won the award for Most Friendly.
Nick had been brought up by his mom, Katherine Wolfwood. She had married Wolfwood's father, Stephan Wolfwood, and after four years of marriage, he died in a car crash. Nick was only two at the time. Katherine and Stephan, however, had planned to have a large family, and so, in his absence, Katherine adopted kids. You would think that normally Nick would mind, but he didn't. He loved taking care of children, and the Wolfwood household was currently up to a total of 6 children, 7 including Nick.
Stephan Wolfwood had been more or less well off, so Katherine had no trouble raising the pack. She hadn't wanted to remarry after Stephan, saying he was the love of her life, although she was only 29 at the time of his death. The reason that Nick had to work for his bike was that his mom refused to have any part in buying it for him. I only hope he doesn't get hurt in an accident. That would just about kill his mother. And, I hope, for his sake, she never finds out about his little 'non'-addiction. She would kill him. If I don't get around to it first.
"SEARCH was great Meryl, you really should go sometime!" For years, literally, Wolfwood had been trying to talk me into joining his religious circle of freaks.
"No thanks…don't ask me again," I warned, teasingly. Forgotten in the background, Legato turned to digging through the piles of leftovers.
'Ha, I wonder what his excuse is,' I smirked evilly to myself. 'He must be trying to be like me…'
"MERYL! There you are!" A breathless Milly runs up to me, pushing a cart full of…need I say? Pudding. "I was looking everywhere for you-" she cuts herself off as she notices Nick, the love of her life. Only he doesn't know it, yet. "Oh, hi, Mr. Wolfwood, what are you doing here?" Milly's voice gets a tad bit higher, and the lightest of blushes stains her freckled cheeks.
Lucky for her, she's saved.
"NICK! MERYL! How was ya'lls summer?"
"Vash, you broom head, why didn't you ever show up to any of the SEARCH retreats?" This of course, was from Nick.
Knives showed up in aisle 17 a few minutes later, Vash's twin and alter ego. Whereas Vash was kind and wouldn't hurt anybody, Knives was violent and prone to act on his tempers if he didn't get his way. Hell, just look at his name.
"Oh…ah-ha-ha…" Vash nervously scratched the back of his head with his hand.
'I've always hated that donkey laugh…' I gritted my teeth together in silent frustration. That boy always annoyed me, whether it was his laugh, his crazy, dumb attitude, or the way he managed to have girls fawning over him, in my opinion, for acting stupid.
Eager to find a way out of his predicament, Vash ran up to me and threw his arms around me, hugging me tightly. "Meryl! I missed you, how was your summer?"
"GET…OFF…OF…ME!!!" I shouted, before flipping him flat on his back. Everyone looked at me in amazement, except for Milly. The way they were looking at me, you'd think I'd grown as tall as Milly.
"What?" I asked, defiance mixed with innocence in my tone.
"Where…why…where did you learn that?" Vash spluttered, looking up unsteadily at me from the ground.
"Meryl's been taking martial arts for several years," Milly explained. "She's just about to take her test to earn her black belt."
"You didn't tell me about this," Nick said.
"You never asked."
I had been taking Shokotan, a Japanese form of martial arts since I was 11. I didn't like to make the fact public; I felt it was bragging, and besides, I liked to have an unseen edge over any possible opponents. Plus…I just didn't feel comfortable publicizing it; not that I was ashamed of it or anything. Milly was right, I was just one trial away from receiving my black belt. Shotokan was one sport that I was thankful for my size. My tiny size, combined with my speed (I could move pretty fast) made up for my lack of strength. It's not that I am weak or anything, but come on…I was still petite, a measurement which happened to extend to my strength as well.
'Dammit.' I bit my lip in frustration at myself. 'Dammit, Meryl, you idiot, why did you have to let them know?'
Knives was laughing, but then walked over and helped Vash up…Everyone sweatdrops before laughing some more as he donkey-slapped the back of his neck.
Legato, finally in company worthy of his company, The Great Knives, a long-time friend of his, joined in the laughter.
"Heey!" Vash whined. "Knives, cut that out!"
"Oh man…Vash, Vash, Vash…if you wanna know how to do it, this is how. Ya gotta be smooth." With the words of wisdom, Knives sauntered over to me in an overly suave manner and draped an arm around my shoulders. "Hey baby," he drawled. "How was your summer?"
Disgusted by his rather suggestive manner and his proximity to my person, I let my temper get the better of me…I was never very good at keeping it, anyways. Since they already knew of my fighting skills…
"POP!!!" The oh-so-satisfying noise my fist made as it came in contact with his jaw. Like I said earlier, I possess no Herculean strength, but the speed with which I delivered the punch, added to the fact that Knives, while expecting me to hit Vash in some way, would never dream that I would hit him, combined to cause him to stumble backwards, holding a lip that dripped with blood. Not much, but still…
"Agh…Damn you, Meryl!" He cried, touching his bleeding lip with an awed finger.
"Hey, you should have known better!"
Vash, who somehow managed to get a bag of the Dolly Madison powdered donuts, was laughing, showing a mouthful of chewed-up whiteness. Doesn't he know you don't eat the stuff until you pay for it?
Nick smirked, and leaned against a shelf, arms crossed. "Well, you had that coming, Knives. Too bad I didn't get a picture. It was a Kodak moment." He never liked Knives much. I really couldn't blame him.
Knives…now there's quite an interesting character, if I do say so myself. Bad boy to the bone. It seemed he always went out of his way to stand out and rebel. He had to be counted, to feel important, I thought. God help us all if he decided to become a 'Boss Tweed' of the world. One thing in particular he liked to go after was girls.
Rumor had it that by the time he was 13 he lost his virginity, and now, at 18 he was rumored to have slept with 100 or more. I can't say that I thought the rumors false. I had often seen him putting the moves on some girl, though usually he was, or tried to be, discreet about it. So, I did not feel particularly flattered when he put his arm around me, as you can imagine. I don't relish the idea of being another mark on his bedpost.
Sometimes, though I think there is still hope for him yet…after all can anyone related to Vash be so bad? And raised by Rem…but that's another story. You see, Vash and Knives' real parents were killed in a thunderstorm. A huge oak that grew near their house crashed through the roof after begin struck by lightening. Lucky for Vash and Knives, they were both at Rem's at the time. Not so for their parents. The roof collapsed, and the impact was enough to cause the whole house to crumble. I don't really know too many particulars about it. Vash and Knives were only 3 years old.
Rem was the twin's aunt, a sister of their mother. Although she was only 20 at the time of her sister's death, she decided to take in the twins, as she was the only living relative left. Their father was an only child, and both sets of parents had passed away. Sometimes I think that's what caused Knives to be the way he was, but then Vash grew up under similar circumstances and was not so…weird? No, he was weird alright, but not in the way that Knives was. He was like a maniac. And he hated Rem, whereas Vash loved her.
Milly broke the possible quarrel between Knives and Nick. She saved me, too. "Meryl, I have to go! It's already 10 o'clock!"
"You didn't even get anything," I pointed out, "Other than pudding."
"I know, but tomorrow's only the first day, so I'm sure we won't really need anything."
"Milly – wait up a second. You want some help carrying all that pudding?" Nick asked, throwing her a wink. Sometimes he could be as smooth as Knives, only it was in a clean, friendly way, not in a way that made you feel like you were about to be ravished.
"Oh…sure!" Milly smiled at him, her eyes involuntarily getting large and sparkly for a moment. She broke herself out of her trance. "You'd better get home too, Meryl, you know how your parents are!"
Yeah. Boy, did I know.
************************************************************************************
I gave a small, yet genuine smile as I waited for the cashier to ring up my purchase. My friends had a way of being able to bring it out of me…breaking, to some small extent the walls of stoicism I'd built up around my family, or my parents, rather, as I was an only child. I honestly don't know what happened, or why my family was the way we were. My parents were highly successful at what they did, they knew how to handle all sorts of people in the world, yet our family life was a failure. They didn't understand me, or know how to approach me.
As I said earlier, I don't know what happened…the strong family feeling and bonds you see in most other families- Milly with her 10 siblings and two parents; Vash, even Knives with Rem; and Nicholas with his mom and all the kids they adopted – they all had that….I guess 'family' feeling. I honestly envied them on occasion.
"35.76" The cashier stated, pulling my mind out of my family problems. I started, before handing her a 50 dollar bill. Accepting my change, I pushed the cart towards the exit and my car, drifting back into my thoughts.
It wasn't that we didn't act like a family. Outsiders saw the perfect family: rich, successful parents, and a smart-can-take-over-the-world-with-her-brains daughter. But the silence that ruled supreme in my family…I hated.
The silence while I road in the car with my mom, or when my dad called the house from a business trip, and my mom wasn't home, forcing me to answer – the awkwardness that comes from 17 years of living with two people who don't know you at all. The dead silence of a cemetery, the silence of a sullen prisoner, unwilling to talk. Or, the awkwardness of a first date, with the small embarrassed silences. Whichever's the easiest for you to understand. We simply weren't close. I reached my car and begin loading my bags.
"Yo, Meryl!" I heard the roar of a motorcycle, and knew who it was before I turned around. Nicholas.
"Are you going to that Welcome-Back part the school's having?" Nick shouted over his motorcycle's engine, putting a foot on the parking-lot ground to steady his bike.
"Huh?" Was my response. "I wasn't aware of this, when is it?"
"Friday night. Think you'll go?"
"I might." For some reason, my school had decided to start the school year on a Thursday. Don't ask me why.
"You think-" Nick cut himself off, and looked down at his bikes handles, fingering them uncertainly. "You think- I should ask Milly to go with me?" His voice cracked in a steady stream of uncertainty.
I laughed so hard it hurt. Nick looked crestfallen.
"Nick," I hurried to explain, smiling, "if your this nervous just asking me if you should ask her, imagine what you'll be like asking her!"
He pouted for a second, but began to smile. "So I guess that's a yes?"
I nodded. "Uh-huh. She'll die from joy." My God. Milly would kill me if she heard what I was telling Nick right now. I could just hear her now…"you, and your children, and your children's children…"
"And you, Meryl, are you going with anyone?" He casually asked before cutting Angelina's engine.
"WHAT? School hasn't even started yet! It's not like anyone's expected to go with anyone. Don't be ridiculous….besides, you know I wouldn't, anyways."
"Well," Nick said, "You could always go with Vash."
"Ha ha." I put the last bag in the car and shut the door. "Goodbye, Nick." I said as I walked towards the driver's door.
"Wait…Why wouldn't you want to go with him? He's not a bad guy-" I cut him off.
"Because, he's Vash. I think that's reason enough. He's goofy, loud, has the most annoying laugh – "
Nick cut me off this time. "He'd go with you," he replied in a soft voice, before raising his left arm in farewell and starting Angelina's engine. "But I'll talk to you later. See ya." His engine roared to life as he took off.
I sighed and shook my head, bemused as I got into the car. I had my reasons. Sure, Vash's goofiness was always a ready excuse, but it wasn't the real reason. There were times when I caught myself lost in his pretty green eyes, or the way his smile would light up his face. He deserved someone better. I was not close to my parents'; I could not get close to anyone in that way, it would only spread the silence.