Chapter 2 : Ultimatum
When Vash and Meryl came back home they found Millie sipping slowly on some Ceylon tea. When she noticed them she stopped and lifted her face from the cup, spreading the aroma in the room. She smiled and announced, "Hi Sempai,hi Mr. Vash! Do you know that drinking tea may help slow bone loss and protect against osteoporosis?"
Meryl glanced at her, an annoyed expression on her face:"Did you come to the Water Fair too?"
Showing the most innocent face Milly replied: "Yes I was there too but I was with my Excavation Team and townspeople were congratulate us for our job!".
"Sure?" asked Meryl. Her inspective tone suggested she expected an answer. "Yup Sempai! There was a big stage in the central square, and the Orchestral Band and the hot dog seller and the..."
Milly began to make a long boring list of the things she saw at the Fair, but Meryl cut her off from going on any more –"Ok Milly, we understand!"
"But probably you two were too busy to notice!" Milly said maliciously. Meryl's face turned red for what Milly has just implied and she became very upset and, to escape this embarrassing situation, she declared that she was going to bed. Milly –who really enjoyed herself tormenting Meryl with double senses of metaphoric games- yelled after her, "Don't you want Mr. Vash to follow you?"
Vash jumped in to cool the argument, saying, "Milly, please don't anger her! She has just finished hitting me over the head at the Fair."
Milly replied, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Meryl was out of earshot, "But Mr. Vash, I know she likes you! I just want to encourage her."
"I'm not so sure anymore," Vash said with bitterness. "When did she last tell you that? "
Milly looked at him with her big reassuring eyes. Then she asked, "You mean… after what happened with Mr. Knives?" Hearing that name, Vash became suddenly silent so Milly went on quickly, changing her tone "I'm sorry Mr. Vash…It's my fault too. If I hadn't refused to take care of him… leaving Meryl alone with him…"
Vash cut her off. "Please, stop complaining, Milly. You don't have to feel any guilt."
Milly began to reassure him again, "It's possible that she changed her point of view, but she is a strong, independent woman with the strength to overcome obstacles…I'm sure she still loves you." Vash smiled and stood up from the chair and suddenly hugged her. "I can never thank you enough...but I will try!" and saying that he held her too tightly, causing Milly to make a sound similar to a shriek. "Stop please! Hey, Mr. Vash, you're squeezing me like toothpaste!"
Then Vash released her and announced he was going to sleep, dragged his feet tired to his lay on his bed and began to think. He still felt love for Meryl, but why did he not want to talk to her? He needed answers but… whom could he ask? He was afraid to ask directly to Meryl and, from what Milly had told him, she didn't know anything about it either. He could, of course, ask Knives, but he'd cut off their mental link when he'd left their home. That reminded him of the things he'd hiding from the girls. In fact he has told some lies to his two friend too…
One year had passed and his deal with Knives was going to expire. He'd granted Vash one year of time in which he would not kill anyone, but only because his brother had won their last showdown . To pay Vash the tribute he deserved, but he would not accord more time as a favor. Vash wished to use this time to make Knives see the good in humanity. He had asked the girls to help him in this task, but it was a complete and utter failure. Knives had left a few days after he completely recovered. Hard to believe that only three months have passed since the day Meryl exited Knives room in tears and shut the door behind. The following day Knives just left without any good bye or explanation to anyone.
Vash hadn't told the girls that Knives had given him an ultimatum before because he was afraid to tell the truth.A voice in his head yelled him, "Afraid of what? Getting them involved? What, did you think that if you never spoke to them Knives would leave them alone, that he would disappear and would never find you again?!" He'd began to talk aloud to himself, and tremors had snuck into his voice as Vash realized for the first time just how upset she was. "If only I had told them they could have helped! I don't know how, but it's better than putting myself through this alone!"
He suddenly felt a strange sleepiness, his vision blurred, but he definitely did not fall asleep completely. His eyes strained to focus and he felt a painful pressure on both of the temples of the cranium, like two clawed hands gripping tightly.
"Vash!"
'Where the hell am I?' he asked himself. He could feel the tubes in his left arm and the metal patches on his chest burning. The room was dim, possibly even nighttime, which made even more difficult to realize what was going on.
"Your time has expired… I'm not willing to wait anymore. To me the answer is clear. Mankind has not much time remaining."
He felt his hand sweating. Shortly after he could barely make out the image of a silhouette entering the room, a blinding flash of light shining around it, as if it was on the threshold to hell. Or probably it was just a nightmare. But, what happened after that? He couldn't remember. It was all still very fuzzy in his mind.
The silhouette then spoke as it shined a bright light into his eyes, making him wince. It was a bit unclear, but he was fairly certain that it said, "Vash? Are you awake?" The silhouette came closer to him and tried to wake up him with a gentle touch.
'It's Meryl !' Vash suddenly realized, shocked to recognize the figure as her. It was the
most awkward sensation he had ever felt. He'd miistaken the person he loved for someone else and, moreover, that someone was Knives. But why had his brother made his presence felt right in that moment? Then something captured his attention. Mesmerized him almost.
'Why is she caressing my forehead? Why is her shirt open so much?'
Her hand traveled down his real arm. He did not realize he had been folding his prosthetic arm as if to protect it.
"Maybe you could just sleep a little longer. Vash, you ought to rest or you will faint". He nodded and seemed to get a little sad when Meryl turned her back to him to leave his bedroom. He grabbed her wrist to prevent her from going away. "I want you to stay with me," he said.
"Ok, Vash. I won't leave right now. Just let my hand go so I can sit." Saying that Meryl sat on the old rocking chair next to his bed. "I heard you talking in your sleep, Vash. What's up?" Seeing that he was still silent she added, "You know you can't hide anything, don't you?"
"You are a good liar, instead of me" he whispered softly with bitterness so that only someone near could listen, but unfortunately for him Meryl was close in that moment.
"What?" she hissed almost jumping from the chair.
"Yes!" Vash repeated, this time with more pride and less self consciousness. "You never told me what happened that day!"
Meryl was speechless from bewilderment. She was completely astonished, not understanding at all what he was talking about. Vash, thinking that she was dissimulating, just got more angry and yelled, "What happened between you and Knives?!"
His question dumbfounded her, and she could not respond immediately. After Meryl recovered from the sudden wonder and disbelief she said, "Eh?! Are you talking about the day before your brother left?" The honesty of her question was unexpected and disarmed Vash. He believed he would have to fight to obtain some clarifications from Meryl.
She instead simply crossed her arms, glanced at him and said sarcastically, "There's not much to say. He remarked with usual menace about killing all the spiders…He scared me, that's all!"
Not wanting to push further the argument Vash accepted her answer as true. He found it hard to believe that Meryl had said everything, and he was tempted to read her mind, or at least try to. It sure was an irrational behavior caused by jealousy, but he just could not help himself.
"Ok, Vash, I'm going back to sleep and you should too." Saying that, Meryl turned her back to him before he could say anything to stop her from leaving again.
Saying the truth she just did not want to remember, it took two months for her to remove those images from her mind. She had experienced nightmares for over a week after what Knives had made her see. Meryl just could not still understand why he made her see, made her a participant to something in which she was completely powerless.
A/N: As you know this is my first Trigun fic and, moreover, my very first story written in english. Fortunately Hope-is-4Ever has collaborated to correct my grammar. I am very lucky to have a person such as her wanting to cowrite with me. I want to thank my friend Ilaria too,I really appreciate her support :she reads every chapter of my story and she never got bored .Now I would like you reader helping me in coming up with the main idea of this story !! Please remember: as you read this spend a little time to review too!