Disclaimer: Yep, don't own it.

I decided to continue 'Light Night Quandary' with a sequel from Meryl's POV. Been thinking about it for a while. Please note that because Meryl is a very different person (from Vash), the vibe of this is completely different from the original. Please enjoy and leave me a review. =D

Warning: mature situations, slightly erratic tenses (again, intentional)

Midnight Burn

Meryl's skin felt like it was on fire.

No man had ever made her flesh and muscle burn like he did. She could have orgasmed just by the way his fingers grazed her neck, and the gentle way his smooth lips found the sensitive spot beneath her earlobe. To say nothing of the rest of his body pressed tightly up against her beneath the sheets.

If not for her nerves still painfully tingling, she would've thought she was dreaming. Earlier in the night, she would not have thought it possible that the two of them would end up together - like this - legs and bodies intertwined. But here they were.

She looked down at her forearm, noting the long cut along the pale skin. It had stopped bleeding some time ago, but the feeling of his metal implants slicing through her thin flesh still made her wince. She shouldn't have been gripping his shoulders so tightly; she should've tried to take some of the control from him. But she was half his size. And he was a man on a mission. Even though it had been slightly awkward at first - he had muttered something about his scars and Milly in the next room - it hadn't stopped them. When she had accidentally kneed him in the chest, and he had caught her hair in his arm, they had to disentangle themselves from one another and start again. But by their third round, they had perfected the way their bodies fit together. And despite their difference in sizes, they fit together well.

It really was a perfect thing, Meryl thought. How real this was; how real he felt. She had long ago memorized the shape of his face - the way his eyebrows quirked or the movement of his cheekbones as he talked or smiled - but memorizing his entire body was another matter.

Up close, she saw more scars than ever before, and when her face had been buried in the side of his neck, she saw a small metal staple holding the skin together below his hairline. She wondered how it happened. When she kissed the plane between his pectorals, she saw the nails hammered into his skin and the jagged outline of his scarred flesh. She wondered if he had put those implants in himself. As her fingers trailed low on his abdominal, she felt another series of metal stitches in the coarse hair above his genitals. He ground his teeth together at her touch and she quickly pulled her fingers away from the scar. It hurt when he pulled her chest up to his, the metal grate above his heart digging into her breasts, but the bite of the steel was nothing compared to the happiness she felt being with him.

He had been quiet for most of the night, hardly speaking to her - his mouth too busy with other things. He was rarely this serious, and it scared her - yet thrilled her at the same time. She always had difficulty with her fantasies about him. Her mind couldn't control how he would react to her, so it skipped that part and focused purely on the physical aspect. But nothing her imagination invented could come close to the powerful muscles in his body holding her up against the wall, and the desperate sound he made as he came close to orgasm.

He grunted and sat up suddenly, running a hand through his fallen blond hair before looking down at her. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest, and she felt it pound up in her throat as his eyes traveled around her waist and up her stomach before landing on her neck. He frowned and sudden panic flew through her. Was he regretting this? Was he having second thoughts? Was he going to leave? Was she going to lie there - helpless as he left her after they finally just found each other?

No. That wasn't it. He looked.... confused. A little disoriented. She tilted her head to examine his expression closely. For a moment, she saw a flash of a cheesy grin on his lips, but it quickly disappeared.

The cold wind blew in the window and her nipples hardened at the sensation. His eyes darkened as he noticed this, and she blushed - her hands running over her chest to hide the arousal. He looked deep in thought, and she didn't dare disturb him. She could still smell the result of their many encounters off his body. And probably off hers too. It mixed in with the smell of his hair and the fragrance of the desert that always seemed to accompany him. She loved that smell: it was heat and spice all rolled into one. No matter how hard she tried, she could never recreate the scent in her mind, it was only when she was close to him that she could smell it. She could pick it out anywhere.

He looked like some sort of angel sitting over her like this, his hair and skin glowing in the dull moonlight. His eyes always seemed to glow at night, despite how dark it got outside.

A small smile suddenly played on his lips as the wind picked up again. It ruffled his hair and created goosebumps on his tanned skin. Meryl shivered, despite her best efforts and reached for the blanket, tugging on it questioningly. Her movements brought her up closer to him and she gasped softly as she realized he had hardened again. She wondered if he had even noticed.

As he lay back down beside her, she felt his arousal rubbing against her stomach. He pulled her into his arms and ran his hand down her back and onto her ass, squeezing it lightly. She heard him chuckle: a light breathy exhale beside her ear. Wrapping an arm around his neck, she slowly dug her fingers into the tight muscle of his trapezius and placed a fleeting kiss on his jaw.

"What's wrong?" she asked him softly, watching the flicker in his eyes.

She was half-expecting him to make some dumb remark about their situation, or grin stupidly at her. But he didn't. He just smiled at her like she was the only thing that mattered. Those large aqua eyes told her all she needed to know. When he rolled onto his back and pulled her on top of him, she felt the sting go through the cut in her arm again. She felt her body buckle as she lowered herself onto his hard length, feeling her inner muscles stretch to accommodate for him.

"You're skin's burning," was all Vash said before kissing her.

**

Fini

Reviews are strongly encouraged; criticism welcome (I realize this is quite different from the original, but it's more… Meryl). Nothing is more important than feedback - of any sort. ^^