So...very very exciting! This is actually my first Trigun fic, and I'm oh-so proud of it! Please, tell me what you think. I would really appreciate it. :D
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It was very hot. That would, of course, be stating the painfully obvious.
A dry wind blew across the desert, blowing a fine layer of sand over the lonely, nameless town. Tavern doors rattled and a few stray men scurried out and home to their significant others, but more importantly to escape the heat of the crowded bar.
Someone's forgotten Thomas lay dead in the street, another victim of the heat.
Several iles out of town, from the shimmering desert, came a faint tune. A man, singing. His voice was hoarse from lack of water, and his words came out uneven from his labored breathing...but the emotion of the song he sang overcame that. He sung it softly, but the conviction of his voice would have made anyone who happened to hear stop and turn their head.
"So... On the first evening
a pebble from somewhere out of nowhere drops upon the dreaming world."
He trudged on, the burden on his back forcing him to walk slower than he would normally.
"So....On the second celestial evening, all the children of the pebble join hands and compose a waltz."
He stopped and panted, wiping the sweat from his face with one of his gloved hands.
How strange that song sounded when he sang it! She had sung it so much better... They were beautiful, powerful words when she sang them..
A single drop of blood dripped onto the sand below him. He winced, not particularly wanting to know whether it was his own or his brother's. Just the sight of blood made in want to throw up, he'd seen plenty of it recently.
He trembled and choked back the bile building in his throat.
"S-s-sound Life!"
He took a deep breath and started walking again, his voice raising to counter the harsh wind that was stirring up the sand.
"So... On the third night,
The children of the waltz cause ripples on the face of the world!"
He noticed in the distance a brown streak of a town. Never had he been so happy to see any sort of civilization. He had walked iles and iles to get this far, and he was finally there. Well, almost.
Taking care not to hurt him more than he had to, he gently laid his brother on the sandy ground before joining him. Time for one last rest before the final push.
He looked at his twin lying there so peacefully beside him, his chest going in and out. He looked human. Peaceful. One would never know to look at him that he had nearly brought about the end of humanity countless times....
Sometimes he wondered why he went through so much trouble to spare his sibling.
He looked towards the town in the distance. How he hoped there were at least two someone's there who cared very much about him.
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The petite girl with short, raven hair sat on the porch swing. She was thankful that the wind had died down. No sand blew in her face now, but she wished that there was a least a slight breeze. She'd completely taken off her derringer cloak, and wore her half-sleeved undershirt. Gone were her leggings, over-shirt, and boots.
The heat was beginning to get to her now.
A fly landed on her nose. Her first thought was to get it off as soon as possible. But an ordinary house fly was very interesting at this point of view, and she found if she just crossed her eyes a certain way and squinted she could see every deta-
"SEMPAI!!"
Meryl Stryfe sat bolt up right, fascinating fly long forgotten, and shouted loudly,
"MILLY!"
"Oh...did I scare you, Sempai?" Milly's ever-growing smile asked.
"No, Milly," Meryl asked behind cupped hands. "I'm just ever-so-fond of screaming your name."
"Oh! Ok then." Milly continued to beam
"Well??"
"What?"
"What did you want, for crying out loud?!"
"Oh, nothing really. I was just going to the store, and I wondered if you needed anything, or wanted to go! I didn't know where you were."
"Well, I'm right here," Meryl said, feeling a little ashamed for snapping at Milly, even if her friend didn't even notice. "And no, I don't want to go. It's too hot to move, let alone carry groceries."
"Ok, Sempai. I just wanted to let you know. Have a nice afternoon!" Milly tripped down the front steps, perkier than ever.
Meryl gazed out into the shimmery desert, looking for any signs of life. It's what she'd been doing since the day Vash left. Even though it had only been two weeks, she was beginning to lose hope. Not to mention her temper and will to go on.
"Please come back, Vash," She whispered, gently rocking back and forth on the swing. It had become her mantra for the past two weeks. She squeezed her eyes shut as little tears escaped from the corners. "I can't take this anymore. I can't take the constant disappearance...I can't take tracking you down. I can't take losing you again. Not again." She was of course referring to the two years while everyone thought Vash to be dead. She hadn't realized how much she had actually cared about that big goof-ball with the spikey hair, who really only called her 'Insurance Girl' anymore for old-times sake. Maybe she was being silly. To think that for some reason, she was extra-special to Vash.
Sighing, she wiped the little tears out of her eyes, frustrated and mad at herself for losing it momentarily. She started to tell herself that she didn't really care. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, and she was going to enjoy it, damn it! He wasn't going to ruin HER day!
Defying the heat, she stood up and stretched, listening to every bone in her back pop. She'd go inside, take a long, cool bath with a book...and then start to make dinner. Yes, that's just what she'd do.
Her hand was on the door handle, prepared to go marching in, when she heard something.
A cat meow.
Looking over across the road, she saw a black cat sitting on a trash-can. It was small and alone, but it had a strange fire burning deep within it's eyes.
"Kuroneko." The word parted her lips.
They locked eyes for what seemed like eternity, neither moving a muscle. Meryl's hand still on the handle. A frozen moment in time.
Suddenly, without warning, a dog barked, the cat scampered off, and Meryl jumped, bringing her back to reality. As quickly as it had come, the spell was broken.
She shook her head and shuddered at the strange encounter. What had it been? She looked down at her hand that still hadn't moved from it's place on the doorknob. It was ever so slightly shaking.
The dog continued to bark irritatingly at something in the desert. She lifted her eyes to the dog, and then to what he was focused on.
It brought her eyes back to the desert. Where she saw a tiny figure in the distance.
"No." She stared at it, unable to form a coherent thought.
Without thinking, she turned away from the door and ran down the front steps and looked out to the edge of town. Meryl looked harder at the figure out in the sand. Was it a mirage? No. It was real. No mirages lasted this long...and they rarely moved!
All at once she wanted to shout out his name, wanted to go get Milly and tell her, wanted to leap for joy. But something inside her refused to take her eyes off the tall person in the distance. That somehow if she looked away now, he would be gone with the sand.
She caught her breath.
She thought her heart would explode.
Oh you better not be kidding me. It better be him.
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He had stopped singing. He could barely swallow. He wasn't sure what to do, because as always he hadn't thought these things through well enough. But he did know one thing. Water was at the top of his list. His brother had never felt heavier. Even heavier than that cross...
Nice one, Wolfwood, He thought. Giving me your cross to bear, eh? Those were his last coherent thoughts before he completely lost consciousness.
The Stampede stepped into the city limits, and promptly fell over, tumbling to the ground, brother and all.
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