Disclaimer: Oh yeah baby, I own them...only in my mind!
Chapter 1: A Day in the Life

121 years later...
The room was pitch black. Vash was sprawled on the bed of the inn he was currently staying at, gazing out of the open window at the stars. A cool breeze blew on his face, causing him to shiver and cover his shirtless chest with a blanket

'Well, now what?' He pondered, gazing at a particularly bright star. 'That's the seventh town I've been chased out of...there's not too many other places. Damn my vampire blood! Maybe Knives was right...' Vash's mind traveled back in time to the night he left... ...

"Well Vash, maybe there is hope that that woman's principle's won't stick to you"...the shine of Knives' blood teeth as he leered down at him..."hope,yet...for after all you are half vampire."

"No!!!" Vash yelled, wanting to deny his origins. But how could he when they were the reason he got ran out of yet another town today?

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Vampire Hunter Meryl Stryfe leaned back against her chair, arms crossed, brows furrowed in thought. The reports were impossible. Surely Bernardelli Vampire Hunters Co. had to be wrong. 'It's just -'

"Meryl!" Any further thoughts were cut off when her partner, Milly Thompson, an Amazon of a girl, burst into the room. She continued, "Meryl, did you see the reports? They're just so impossible, I can't make any sense out of them!"

"Yes, I know Milly," Meryl sighed. The Bernardelli Vampire Killers Co. was the most successful chain of vampire hunters throughout the world, with the most advanced technology and the world's best hunters.

'Milly being the possible exception,' Meryl thought, with a grim smile. It wasn't that she regretted being partnered with Milly, but sometimes Milly just wasn't all there...then there were times when she had a true, instinctive intuition, something that Meryl knew herself to be lacking. 'We do make a good team,' Meryl reflected, 'I just sometimes wish she wasn't so naïve.'

"Whoo-hoo...earth to Meryl!" Milly shouted, waving a hand in front of the elfin-sized hunter's eyes.

'Or childish,' Meryl continued with a genuine smile, this time. 'But then, it wouldn't be Milly without it.' The girls had been a pair of vampire hunters ever since they had first applied at Bernardelli. "So Milly, what do you think about this?" Meryl asked, raising her hand that held the report from Bernardelli to indicate what she was talking about.

"Well, I don't know yet...it's strange, though, that none of our hunters in that area have caught the vampire yet." Milly stated, matter-of-factly.

"True, Bernardelli hunters never run into trouble, that I know of, and always get their vampire." Meryl agreed. "Well, I suppose we should go to the city of August and see if we can help. Who knows," Meryl shrugged "maybe there were only rookie hunters there. But I still think that even our rookies would be able to nail the vampire. Come to think of it...there were two old-timers there, who knew the ropes well. They wouldn't have missed anything."

"Oh well, Meryl, we won't know until we get there," Milly finished.

"And, as Bernardelli will probably assign us to the case anyways...we may as well start packing." Meryl stated. "Be ready to leave as soon as the go-ahead arrives."

"Ok, Meryl, I just have to run to the local store and buy some pudding." Leaving her partner no time to argue, Milly rushed off, as quickly as she had flown in.

Meryl sighed, then smiled affectionately. 'My partner's weird quirks...'
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Vash awoke the next morning, feeling groggy and lifeless. The years had been hard on him, but he continued, nonetheless to live in Rem's principles. Humans were not bad people, in his opinion, only scared of what they did not understand. 'Which I can understand,' Vash thought. 'I think... I'm not even sure of myself. All I have...are your principles, Rem.'

Vash stretched and yawned, in an attempt to shove away his gloomy mood. The sunlight streamed through the windows, and the birds conversed, slowly dissolving his despair as he continued through his morning hygiene routine.

'At least I managed to escape alive, for the seventh time,' Vash thought, 'Well, there's yet another city-August-that I can't return to for at least another hundred or so years.'

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"MILLY!!!" An agitated, urgent voice yelled. "We've got to get going, NOW!"

"I'm coming Meryl...just let me pack my pudding for the road," Milly's voice said sweetly, as if they were in no big rush.

Meryl groaned and mentally slapped her forehead with her hand. 'At this rate we won't make it to the city in time to check everything out...Bernardelli did say to leave as soon as their full report arrived.' She hurried Milly once more.

"Alright, Meryl, let's go. Ah, look, there's the bus now," Milly said, as they walked towards the bus stop. "See? We were just on time."

"One second later, and we would have missed it," Meryl grumbled as they loaded their things on the bus. It was crowded, which meant all the seats were most likely sold out, and the thought of loud, annoying people and crying babies for over 250 iles didn't help to sweeten Meryl's mood.

"Everyone on!!!" Yelled the driver, "We have to stay on schedule! Anyone who lags will get left behind, and that's no idle threat!"

"WAIT FOR ME!" The crowd of people turned to gape as a man, dressed in black and carrying an enormous cross ran up to them. Upon closer inspection, they could see he was a priest. "Here!" The priest shoved the bus fare at the driver, and took his place in line.

"Hey, buddy, this is not the full fare amount! You're missing 30 double dollars! Pay up or you're off!" The driver yelled.

"I...ulp...um" were the only words coming out of his mouth, as he searched for a friendly face. Suddenly everyone who had been staring at him all found something else to stare at for the moment.

"Don't worry about it, Mr. Priest!" Milly pushed herself forward.

'Oh God...' flashed through Meryl's head. 'What is that girl doing?'

"Here you are," Milly smiled sweetly as she put the need amount into the driver's angry hands.

The man known as Wolfwood turned to stare in astonishment and gratefulness at a tall brown-haired girl garbed in a tan overcoat. "Why, thank you very much ma'am. It's good to see there are still some who do God's servants a favor." He smiled and winked at Milly.

"Oh," she replied, blushing. "It's no big deal, really. Besides, my oldest-older sister always said you should help someone in need. It's the right thing to do."

He smiled again. 'Gosh, he really does have a nice smile.' Milly's eyes took in his tall, slender but built shape, and she blushed more when she noticed how his jacket and shirt were cut in a slight V, showing the cleft between the pectorals on his chest.
"Please, you can stay with us. This is my partner, Meryl. I'm Milly." Milly finished as she guided Wolfwood to meet Meryl. One glance at Meryl's face revealed she was not too pleased with what Milly had done.

"GET ON THE BUS, NOW!!!" The driver looked ready to pop a blood vessel, and the remaining people meekly complied.
"I'm so sorry Meryl, please forgive me, I know that I gave up the last of our money, but I couldn't bear to see someone in need and not help," Milly rushed to explain once they were all seated in the bus; Milly and Wolfwood on one seat, and Meryl sitting across the aisle from them, alone. "And I just had to help Mr. Priest."

"Please, call me Wolfwood, big girl," he said, before extending his hand to Meryl and greeting her. She cordially did the same, but her manner was a little cool.

"Meryl Stryfe," she returned. "So, Wolfwood, why are you traveling to August?"

"Oh, I'm just a traveling priest. I go wherever the wind takes me. To wherever I hear God's calling." He returned.

'You mean to tell me Milly spent the last of our money on some aimlessly, wandering...AGH!' Outwardly she smiled, although it was tight.

"And you ladies? Why are you going to that city?" He questioned, turning to look at Milly, who sat next to the window.

"Oh we're vampire hunters with Bernardelli Vampire Hunters Co," Milly supplied and continued, "And we're on our next case. We're chasing this vampire that was last seen in August, but the odd thing is, no one in the city noticed a vampire around. You know, they're unusually white in skin color. But one night, a girl who was drunk and walking home nearly got bitten. She claims..."

"Milly!" Meryl couldn't contain herself any longer. "You don't just go and blurt the particulars of our mission to a stranger! My God!!!"

"No, please continue." Wolfwood implored Milly. "I am a man of the cloth. Perhaps I can be of some help...I'm sure you two, vampire hunters that you are, know that vampires cannot stand the cross.

Meryl considered his words, he was right. He didn't seem overly annoying, and Milly did seem to like him. He also seemed intelligent, a good thing, but more importantly, if she told him no, Milly would invite him anyways. "Alright, but when we warn you to stay back, you had better listen, we do know what we're doing."

Wolfwood saluted, "Yes, ma'am!" Milly laughed at him, "Oh Mr. Priest, you're so silly! Her smile was bright and sweet as Wolfwood looked at her. "Go on..." he said, "What's the rest of the case?"

"Oh! Yeah, well, the girl was drunk and coming home. She was almost there, when she saw a figure ahead, squatting on the ground, his hands holding his head as if he had a terrible headache. She approached him, and was about to offer him assistance, but she screamed when he looked up at her, his eyes were glowing green! Then she saw his blood fangs."

"Is it possible that she imagined it because she was drunk?" Wolfwood questioned.

"It would seem probable," Meryl joined in, "but she was in a neighborhood when she screamed, and people heard her and opened their doors to see what was going on. Many people attested to seeing a being with glowing eyes and blood fangs, but before they could do anything, he left, and no one had the courage to go after him. Not at night, anyways. And they searched the graveyard the next day for proof of a vampire...a coffin that was opened, or anything else, but found nothing. He apparently just vanished." Meryl stopped for air, but continued. "And the really strange thing is that our company has two reliable vampire hunters stationed in that city. They had never noticed any vampire activities prior to that night. It's not possible that a vampire could just show up like that, in a neighborhood without having been seen before. The Bernardelli agents would have noticed any suspicious activities for sure."

"Well, I suppose we won't know until we get there," Wolfwood said, echoing Milly's earlier words.

'Oh no...two of them!' Meryl groaned inwardly.
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The rest of the bus trip included nothing but Wolfwood flirting with Milly in that way of his, Milly's shy blushes and smiles, and Meryl's regretting she had ever let Wolfwood tag along.
'Well, at least I get a whole seat to myself,' she thought as she stared pensively out of the window, the next morning, her mind on their upcoming case. 'If there are absolutely no signs of the vampire...and our top-of the line equipment in August could not detect it...then, the vampire must have left the town. But he wouldn't have stopped in the middle of nowhere...he needs blood, and he didn't get any last night.' A light bulb went off in her head, and suddenly she realized..."STOP THE BUS!" Meryl hollered, jumping out of her seat and running to the driver.

"What?!? We can't just stop out in the middle of nowhere, get back to your seat, young lady!" The cranky driver hollered back. But Meryl wouldn't give up.

"No, you must stop it now! Or...take us to the city of September, only 50 or so iles from August! Please!?!" Meryl pleaded.

"Do you have money? I will, if you can pay," the ever-money-hungry man said.

Meryl stared at him, resisting the urge to punch him in the nose. "But my friend gave the last of our money so that priest could get on," she stated. "And we must go to the city of September."

The bus driver stopped the bus. "Well, it's only 30 or so iles from here, and since I can't go out of my routine, you'll just have to get off here and walk, unless you want to walk 50 iles from August," he said.

"Geeze, Mr, can't you just take us there?" Wolfwood pushed his way to the front to further plead their case. "After you've been so rude and pushy..."

"THAT"S IT!!! GET OUT OF MY BUS!!!" He shoved Meryl out the door, then Wolfwood, although with more difficulty. A sleepy Milly stumbled out a bit later, then their baggage. The bus sped off, leaving the three stragglers choking in the dust.

"I guess we'll just have to foot it..."Wolfwood's voice died down uncertainly when he saw the murderous look on Meryl's face. She'd had enough. Frightened, Wolfwood took off running, grabbing his and some of Milly's bags as he ran in the direction of the town of September, Meryl close by, bags in hand and murder on her mind. Milly laughed and picked up the remaining bags, following in close pursuit.
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Vash strolled along the streets of September, reliving the events that had happened to him in August. 'At least I'm not so pale that people would think I look out of place,' Vash reflected. 'Thank you Rem, for the human part of me.' He knew he was perfectly safe here, that no one even thought he existed, but last night had cut it pretty close. He just couldn't help it sometimes, and try as he might, Vash could not totally suppress the vampire instincts thrashing inside him. That girl had leaned down to help him, and he had seen her neck, uncovered and available. Despite the fact he'd tried otherwise, his blood fangs had protruded from his mouth, and...Vash mentally shrugged off what had happened next.

Poor lonely Vash! Does it seem too corny? I didn't comment in the beginning, and this chapter is so long, I don't think I'm gonna 'talk' for very long. Anyways, VASH AND MERYL FINALLY MEET!!! In the next chapter, anyways...heh heh, well, until next time, and R&R more than welcome! Legato, Dominique and Knives will make their appearances soon...just be patient!
SilverSwan