And thus, all good things must come to an end.  I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it.  I hope the ending does not disappoint, and I hope that I can, at some point in the future, write another story that is even remotely as fulfilling as this one has been.

Here is the short epilogue, the conclusion, but…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Disclaimer: Yasuhiro Nightow, Pioneer, Madhouse, and probably some other companies own Trigun.  Not me.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

He placed the book back on the shelf, running his fingers once more over the red velvet spine, feeling the engraved gold lettering, uneven against his fingers.  He blinked slowly, watching it, wondering where the fantasy ended and the truth began.

Turning from the book and the uneven and rough wooden shelves, he prepared to leave, yet stopped in his tracks.  Something had caught his eye about that book, once again.  He pulled it free from the shelf, looking over the cover.  The gold lettering on the front and spine stuck out to him.  The simple title was bold and obvious against the cover, leaving everything to the imagination.  "Somewhere in Time," he whispered to himself, the sound of his old voice sounding strange to him in the small, enclosed space; one of the back rooms of an old used book store.  The name of the author boasted nothing more than "Vash," and was quickly ignored, given the fact that he knew of no author by this name.  He flipped the book over in his hand, searching for the small spark of gold on the back that had eluded him until the point that he had decided to leave.  "The end is only the beginning," the gold letters said to him, faded and less visible than the others on the front and sides.  He stared at that small sentence curiously for a moment before shaking his head in dismissal of his strange thoughts and replacing the book.

"Val… have you been in here all day?"

The boy brushed back some of the blonde hair that had fallen into his eyes as he glanced over to his friend, light green eyes wide in embarrassment.  "I was reading," he answered simply, fifteen year old voice breaking despite himself.

The young man sauntered from behind the side of the bookshelves, hands being lowered into the pockets of his black jeans.  Blue eyes looked up through strands of dark hair.  A strange, wide smirk showed on his face.  "You'd better get a move-on.  You know your mom doesn't like you loafing around.  We've got work to do."

Val frowned at that, stepping away from the bookshelf and towards his friend.  "Don't tease me, Nicolas," he admonished his dark haired companion, the strange book momentarily forgotten as they walked through the doorway that lead to the back room and the maze of haphazardly placed bookshelves.  They exited the store together, the small bell above the door announcing their departure.

"So what was the book about?"  Nicolas asked the blonde, scratching his chin and not really caring all that much.  He asked out of pure consideration for his friends' interest.

Val glanced up at the sky, the harsh double suns that sent rays of light into his eyes as he walked along, feet kicking through tall blades of grass along the edges of the sidewalks.  He pulled out his pair of sunglasses, placing the strange orange-tinted spectacles over his eyes.  "Reincarnation, I think.  Something about love lasting forever."

The dark haired young teen scoffed.  "You're such a romantic, Val.  Boy meet girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl leaves boy for boy's older brother.  Why do you read that girlie stuff?"

"It was about two guys, actually."

Nicolas stopped in his tracks, staring after his friend, watching his hand drag along the whitewashed fence beside him.  "Oh…" He smirked a bit in understanding.  "Ooooh."

"Shut up, Nick."

"Val likes to get it on with other guys, huh?"

"Shut up."

"Likes to do the dirty tango with men?"

"Shut up."

"Nothing to be ashamed of, I'm sure.  Love is love, right?"

Val glanced at his friend, looking strangely serious despite the playful teasing.  His mind was caught up in a whirlwind, half ecstatic over the fact that Nicolas seemed accepting of relationships, no matter what their context, and half nauseous due to the fact that he may begin to understand now the curious looks he was always receiving from Val.  "Yeah."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

…The end is only the beginning.