Another day, another chapter. But who wants to read about these guys?

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Vash and Meryl walked the streets of December, searching for some trace of Knives. Vash rubbed at the back of his head as Meryl looked searchingly at the buildings around them, her expression intent.

"I thought it would look… different," she said after a few minutes. "It's been so long since we were here; I thought things would change."

Vash looked around, comparing things in his memory. "Things haven't changed much, have they?" he mused. "Used to be, every time I went through a town they all looked a little different." The lack of change interested him for a moment more before he went back to musing about his brother.

Meryl shot him an exasperated glance. He kept brooding, and she was getting tired of it. Yes, they were going after his brother. Yes, the thought of confronting him again scared her. Yes, she wasn't looking forward to it. But you didn't see her brooding. No, she was just going to go, with Vash, and make his brother behave. Somehow. Without any dying on her part this time. It was a plan, and a good plan, if a little vague.

She tried to suppress a shudder and failed. Vash, who could and did completely ignore her for most of this journey, didn't fail to notice that.

"You don't have to come with me," he said again, starting an argument that he should know by now he won't possibly win.

"You know I'm not going to leave you to face him alone."

"You'll be safer at home."

"What? Waiting to see if you'll come back to me? Not being there to help you if things go wrong? Look where that got Millie," she countered. They both fell silent for a moment, in memory.

Vash picked up the thread of the argument again. "If you're there, he'll try to use you against me. Just like before, and just like Legato."

"He hasn't succeeded yet."

"So we keep giving him chances? I don't want to gamble with your life, Meryl."

She glared at him. "You aren't doing anything with my life. I am. It's my decision to accompany you. It's my decision to go with you into trouble. I'm an adult; I get to make these sorts of choices."

"I just don't want to see you get hurt. It would kill me, inside."

She lifted a hand and caressed his cheek. "It would kill me if I let you go off and you never came back. I'm not as strong as Millie. Anyway, what part of 'death do we part' was unclear?" Her hand stayed soft on his face for a moment more, then she pinched it. "Besides, I'm not letting you go off on your own. You start flirting with every pretty little thing as soon as my back is turned. That's not happening this time, buster."

"I'm yours," he sighed, resigned, rubbing his cheek where she had pinched it.

"That's right. All mine," she affirmed, taking the lead to wherever they might end up.

Vash contemplated ducking into an alley and leaving her behind, of looking for his brother on his own, but he discarded the notion. She was too good at tracking him down. Even though she might be out of practice, and he might get away with it, maybe, the odds weren't good enough for him to risk it. Instead, he followed behind, watching her as she broke through the crowds on the sidewalk.

He loved watching her. Most people walked around crowds when they wanted to move faster. They would weave in and out of the people before them, darting into openings and taking advantage of gaps in the crowd. Meryl merely strode forward and expected people to get out of her way. Maybe it was because of her size, but she was always so determined to make people give way for her.

He trailed along in her wake and sighed. He wished he knew what his brother was doing. Maybe he had a good reason, a safe reason for having left his ship. Maybe there was an innocent explanation for everything. But, probably not.

And he had found another plant. He wished he knew how that had happened. He had almost given up hope of ever seeing another plant like him and his brother, and now there was one. And he had her. He wondered what he was teaching her; the evils of humanity? How all people were nothing more than parasites to be exterminated? Probably.

He sighed again, looking at the crowd of people, some laughing and smiling, most merely traveling from one place to another, minds on something other than what they saw before them. How could he not find them fascinating? There were so many lives, so many stories, so much to enjoy about people. Knives could never look past their propensity for cruelty, their ability to ignore the pain they can inflict on others.

But not all of them were cruel. And they could all be taught, be trained to be decent. Very few were cruel just for the sport of it, but instead passed along the pain that they felt themselves. If he could only take away their pain, then maybe…

He knew it was a foolish dream, but he still tried. Maybe he couldn't make a difference in everyone's life, but he could try. Maybe he couldn't make everyone's pain go away, but he could try. After all, most of this pain was his fault in the first place. He was the one who could have stopped Knives, back in the beginning, back before the fall. If only he had paid attention, had seen what his brother's pain drove him to, if he could only have helped Knives then, none of this struggle would have happened.

He sighed again and shook his head. Dwelling on the past didn't change the present. He needed to stop his brother's latest scheme, whatever it might be. He just wished that he could have lived with Meryl a while longer. Like forever. That would have been nice.