- one -
It must have shocked him to the core, that day, when she came into the room with something other than her usual white uniform on. Mind-boggled, and more than just a little flustered, he kept asking why.
"I don't understand..." And he'd look at her with astonishment each time, like seeing her for the very first time.
Maybe it was for the first time. But of course she didn't think it was odd.
"It's just a little change," she said. But was that it?
She wore jeans and a white T-shirt, shrugged, and told him, "I had long hair once."
- two -
"My favorite color?"
He could be so weird, sometimes, asking random questions out of the blue. Like, what's your favorite food? Have you ever played the violin before? Do you know who the Yankees were? Stuff like that.
She answered every time, though, to please him.
Spaghetti. A little. Who?
She tapped a finger upon her thoughtful mouth, staring past his shoulder. "I don't know..."
Wasn't it an easy question, though? She wasn't sure how to answer.
Close to him, she trailed a hand on his sleeve. "Well, I like red..."
Then she looked into his eyes. "But green's better."
- three -
"Look!"
He looked; up in the sky shot a star, streaking past in yellow through the smoke from his cigarette. He smiled; it was a nice thing to look at, if he had to look away from her.
She turned her wide, bright eyes to him and said, "Make a wish." She closed her eyes, her face turning solemn. He did so too, and after a moment, they looked at each other again.
"You're not supposed to tell anyone what you wish for, right?" he asked.
She nodded. "That's right."
He smiled sadly. "Then I'll never get to tell you."
- four -
"Ow ow ow..."
"Hold STILL, will you?! I can't bandage you up properly if you keep squirming!"
"But it hurts!"
Meryl sighed. She really dreaded having to patch up Vash time and time again; it was a wonder the man didn't collapse from all the injuries.
Milly came in with fresh bandages, ready to hand them to Meryl, but then stopped.
"Senpai... do you smell tomato juice?"
Meryl stopped as well, sniffing the air. Ah ha...
"You're right, Milly. I do."
They both stared at Vash. He tried to look completely innocent.
"But I don't have any this time... honest!"
- five -
Lightning flashes in the sky, and I wonder if this planet will ever get rain. But it's virtually impossible, since there are no bodies of water large enough for rainclouds to form. I sigh, and I also wonder what it would be like to stand out in the rain, just dancing to the beat of the drops falling all around me, on me.
Maybe it'd be better than my best dream. Maybe it would be the sweet salvation this land needs, just a quick, cool drink from the sky...
Have you ever felt it rain, Vash?
"Only inside of me."
- six -
She brushed a hand across the back of her head, studying the new feel it presented. It was so different today, but that was to be expected, now wasn't it?
She looked up at her mother, saw her smiling down at her child, holding up a mirror to her face.
"It looks very nice, Meryl. Do you like it?"
Meryl nodded absently, her young eyes questing the vision before her. Turning her head either way, she inspected her new self.
Meryl frowned. "It looks... feels so different, Mom!"
Her mother laughed. "Of course, Meryl! You've never had short hair before!"
- seven -
A slap tilted his world side to side, vision rocking as he tried to maintain balance.
"Get away from me, you creep!" The girl stalked off in a hurry, huffing and puffing about how she had just been mistreated. Of all the nerve, right?
He didn't get it. After all, what was so bad about wanting a kiss? He'd never done it before... not before then, at least, and he'd heard the older boys talking about it...
Yet now, cheek stinging like crazy, he saw girls for what they really were.
A young Nicholas D. Wolfwood declared, "Girls are icky."