Unlike most summer days on Gunsmoke, today was perfect. For some unknown reason, the average summer temperature decided to break free from the mundane and bless the citizens of a small town with spring weather. As a result, children were out playing in the suns' rays instead of boxed up inside the house living off popsicles.
The middle of town, where a large variety of cafes and shops occupied the area, was the meeting point for the intense games of cowboys and outlaws, tag, and dodge ball. Children seemed to meet here to engage in some friendly competition, and at the moment it was seven boys to one blond male.
"Come on! Join our side already!" One child cried, tackling an outlaw. The man, who had spiky hair and a big red coat, had already tasted dirt several times that day and couldn't act the least bit surprised to be face first in it again.
"Hey, let go of me! You guys are too strong. There are seven of you, that isn't fair!" Vash cried out. Desperately, he tried to wiggle his way free of their grasp. For a moment he thought he had managed to escape until a plump boy jumped onto him. A crack sounded from the middle of Vash's back, and he cringed.
"Ha-ha!" The boy cried triumphantly. "You'll never escape us!"
"If you kill me, make it quick." Vash requested. He was struggling for air, making his voice scratchy and hoarse.
"No way! We're gunna make you suffer!"
"Anything but that!" The outlaw gasped.
He felt four small hands grab his wrists and then something long and itchy wrapping them together. For all he knew, he could be tied up for hours, but then again what did he care… he had nothing better to do anyway.
Suddenly his sunglasses were snatched off his face, and the sun blared magnificently into his pupils.
"Gaah-!" He scrunched up his eyelids, making ridges across his forehead and near his eyebrows.
"Vash…?" The voice was a woman's and sounded distinctly familiar. He squinted up at the individual. Her face was catching wrinkles, but her eyes looked young and youthful- a smoky violet. Like the voice, the face looked familiar, an undertone of a good friend rested behind her aging skin.
"Tied up yet again…" The woman sighed. "You never did seem to find anything better to do than play with children."
"Meryl!" Vash's eyes bolted open, and the youthful image of Meryl in his mind's eye disintegrated into the woman before him. He had been planning to hunt the insurance girl down and do some catching up, but was unable to fathom when so much time had passed by. The attire he always remembered her wearing was long gone, replaced by more casual fitting clothes and her midmorning shade of lavender hair had turned into a dark black. Thankfully her eyes had retained the same glow, which gave the outlaw a soft form of comfort.
"It's been along time…" he said sheepishly. He wiggled forward. "Okay, kids, set me free. I'll be back tomorrow." He told the youngsters.
"Hey! Not so fast! We're not done with you!"
Meryl gave but one stern look and the child reluctantly removed the rope. "Fine, have it your way. But you better be back so we can finish this!" he growled, handing Vash back his sunglasses.
"I'll be back…" Vash promised, using his now free hands to stand up. Speck of dust lingered in the air as he patted himself down. He ignored several glares that were cast his way by the children. He would have much rather received a thank you or even a small smile, but maybe the youngsters were keen on keeping an intimidating status.
When he and Meryl left the group of children, he could think of nothing to say. Where was he supposed to begin? His eyes lingered to her finger. She had been married. He thought of asking her about it, but decided against it because it sounded like a heavy subject to start off on.
"Do you want to catch up over a drink or something?" Vash asked awkwardly. He scratched the back of his head, staring at her.
"I know a place near by," she answered.
"Alright."
Within ten minutes they were seated, Meryl with a cup of tea, and Vash with a fresh glass of water. Unsure of what to do next, the outlaw silently twirled his pinstriped straw in his glass making the ice tumble amongst one another and clink when they came in contact.
Meryl stared at him silently. Decades had passed since she had laid eyes on him. Sure, she saw pictures of him consistently, but to come in contact with the legendary gunman felt surreal. As she watched him twirl his straw innocuously, she couldn't shake the eerie feeling she was seeing someone who had died long ago. Her eyes stayed glued to him, eating up his movement, and she yearned to hear more of his voice, a sound she hadn't heard for too long.
"So…" He said after he could delay the silence no more.
His voice sounded just as it always had, warm yet strong, a comforting tone.
"How is Bernardeli?" He asked sincerely.
A small half smile occupied Meryl's face. "I haven't worked there for years…"
"Why not?" He asked, somehow feeling a little depressed.
"When I got assigned a new job, it just wasn't the same anymore," she explained and then sipped her tea.
Amazing, she thought, she was be facing this man decades later and he looked exactly the same as the first moment she had seen him tied up in the desert- and not a day older. Like deity had made a living photograph to watch over mankind. He even had kept his hair the same color and style, had continued to button up his red coat every morning, while wearing the same silver loop through his ear lobe. His eyes had rested on aqua today, and although they had been over washed with past experiences, they still retained the same shape and depth as before. She was sure his body had collected more scars which he carried like a living piece of history, displaying victories and losses, yet he would never disclose them to anyone, for he was insecure with himself. Funny really, that this legend was so soft and insecure at times, but she supposed that was why she had loved him.
"So…did you settle down then? I mean, after you quit the insurance society." He asked her.
"Yeah, I got married if that's what you mean… you know, started a family." Meryl saw the outlaw's eyes widen by a fraction from across the brown circular table. He raised an eyebrow back at her serene expression.
"You mean, like kids?" Vash asked curiously.
"Three boys." She answered, and carefully sipped her tea.
"Ha!" Vash cried out. "Just your luck to end up with three boys! I bet they're a handful. But then again, if an insurance girl can handle a deadly outlaw, you can probably handle a few little boys."
Out of politeness, Meryl covered her lips from his view with the palm of her hand, hiding her smug smile. In his own broomhead way, Vash had always been a little naive and oblivious, or maybe he was just trying to flatter her in his never-ending desire to enlighten and encourage others. Whatever the case, he seemed to have caught onto her as his expression changed into a confused and suspicious look.
"Vash, they're too old for that," she explained.
The outlaw's eyebrows weaved together. "How old are they?" He asked
"They have kids now," Meryl laughed. "Tyler you were wrestling with- he's my grandson."
Vash, who had just taken a very large sip of water nearly choked. He did his best to mask his shock, because he knew better than to be so surprised. With as little noise as possible, he forced the excess water to depart down his throat.
It happened all the time to him. He watched plenty of individuals grow, but as his small insurance girl explained she had somehow become a grandmother, he had a hard time grasping the concept. It must have been the lack of contact they kept… but still, she didn't look like she was expected to have grandchildren. Vash slightly shook his head; they had only been apart for a few years!
"But you're not old enough to be a grandmother!"
Meryl tried to resist another small smile.
"You don't have white hair or anything. You don't look like a grandma!" Vash pointed out, as if it would somehow reverse the affect.
"Well, that's a relief," She told him.
Vash blinked. Wait a minute, when was it her turn to tease him? That was his job!
"But what about you?" She asked. "Anyone special?"
Vash immediately diverted his eyes to his glass of water. "No," he answered in a small voice. Why was she asking him this? They had already gone through this before she had departed.
"You know, it's true what they say…"
He looked up at her, his turquoise eyes meeting her grey violet ones.
"It's better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all." She told him. "I would know, because I speak from experience."
Vash watched her eyes corner the diamond ring on her left hand.
"Meryl… I'm sorry to hear that," he told her soberly, "I really am." He knew how terrible it felt to lose someone, and the idea to lose someone so close terrified him enough that he often kept his distance. The insurance girls were probably the longest and closest friends he had ever been with. People had the tendency to fall to their doom in his presence. More or less it was impossible not too; everyday he watched more come and more go, until the thought became normal yet still hard to bear.
Saddened into a silence, he fingered the cold surface of his glass, drawing designs where moisture had condensed. After decorating the glass with a figure of a donut, Meryl changed the subject.
"How's Knives?" She asked.
Vash took a moment to wipe away his donut and various other designs with his palm. The specks of water were cool on his hand. Meryl was trying to be delicate with him in that question, he could tell by the tone of her voice.
"He's…good." Vash answered. "Hasn't tried to eradicate the human race for a while, he even used to ask me about you and Millie- I mean, in a positive way."
For a moment a small smile brushed across Meryl's aging face, she could hear the little humorous tone he had. Vash the Stampede was doing well- still full of a million expressions. At the moment he seemed to have spontaneously put on his bouncy youthful personality. Perhaps he was trying desperately to grasp onto a positive subject and took her question of Knives to bring them out of the saddened tone of Meryl's dead husband.
"So it sounds like improvement," She said, "Does he travel with you?"
"He used to, but we separated a little while ago- it's hard to get along when we think so differently… he has changed a lot though. We still get together at times."
Meryl glanced at her watch and then finished her tea. She shifted in her seat, sitting away from the round little table. "You'll have to come over for dinner and meet some of my family."
Vash had the impression it was time to leave as Meryl grabbed her little purse. Pushing away what was left of his glass of water, he stood up.
"I'm sorry," Meryl apologized. "I need to pick up my granddaughter from a friend's house- my son and his wife are both working."
"Insurance girls are always so busy," Vash commented as Meryl stood up.
"I'm hardly an insurance girl anymore…" She told him, and once again she caught a small stream of sadness in his eye.
Gently, the outlaw grabbed Meryl's left hand over the table, and brought it up to his lips, bending over ever so slightly. He gave her a small kiss on the hand. More skin occupied her knuckles than he remembered, and they were rougher from the wear and tear of motherhood.
"I am glad," he told her softly, "that you got to live."
She stared at him, his slender shape returning as he gently slipped his hand away from hers. She brought her hand back to her side. Then she caught herself thinking sympathetically of Vash. She remembered when she was young, and he was everything. Now staring at his face, she was reminded of how much she had missed him- his words of a better tomorrow. She stood before a man who was both older than civilization and younger than man. He never aged, but at the same time his experience occupied more than could be retained by a dozen lives… dozens of lives and not one of them containing a family.
"Thank you for buying me tea," Meryl told him.
"Don't worry about it- I've missed a couple of birthdays." He answered, twirling the pinstriped straw again. He looked up at her. "I'll be with those kids… I mean, if you still wanted to do that dinner thing sometime. So you'll know where to find me."
She nodded. "Of course. Goodbye, Vash"
Vash watched her turn to leave, hesitating.
"Meryl," he called.
She stopped and turned with an inquisitive expression.
"Whatever you say, you'll always be my insurance girl- you can't escape that." He gave her a teasing smile.
Just like him, she thought as she as turned to leave. He always had to have the last laugh.
Author's note: I am not sure how or when the idea of this story popped into my head, and once I started writing it, it reminded me slightly of a situation in my other story Trigun: Infinity. They weren't meant to have a relation however, and while they can sound similar to a point, they're much more different... okay, now I'm rambling…
But thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, and please take time to review- give my writing advice or pay a compliment.