A/N: WAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!! FFN is down...... *sniff* Though, by the time you read this, it'll be back up again, but oh well. What am I gonna do about it, huh? Nothin'. That's right. 'Cause I SUCK. ^_~ Anyway. Here is the long awaited (yeah right) next chapter. Also, I realise that in the last ep. Vash throws away his gun, coat, and glasses, but for the purposes of this fic, he didn't. I don't usually change stuff in the actual story of the show, but I wrote it in first without actually realising it. 'Kay? Oh yeah, I just wanted to clarify what I'm doing here. I honestly didn't mean to make it sound like I was doing a bunch of vignettes that would make up a larger story, because, well, I'm not. Not to say that it isn't an intruiging idea, but for my first Trigun fic, I'd rather keep it simple. ^_^ I'm doing something similar with my Yu Yu Hakusho fic "A Winter's Tale", though that's more of a series of loosely related vignettes. Themed, if you will. ANYWAY! Enough of my rambling! On with the story! HUZZAH!!!!






Back In The Sun






Chapter Two: Consequence


"Cast in the name of God; Ye not guilty"

~*~

It's a strange thing people do. Living, that is. It might seems comical for me to think this, but I once dreamed of Rem, and I told her. Everything was so dry, including people's hearts. I had to wonder what would keep them going, living day after day. Was it something inherent? The survival instinct? Or was there more to it than that? An ingrained sense of hope, perhaps...

Sometimes you don't think of what you're doing. You just know that you have to do it. Whether it's because it was assigned to you, or because you made a promise... you know you have to. It doesn't hit you until it's over, exactly what it is you've done. Can you face what will happen when that time finally comes?

I remember the past. I remember what she said to me. Everything she said to me. 'Vash, take care of Knives.' In my heart, I made a promise. Now that I've kept it, how do I move on? How do I keep on living?

~*~

Her eyes were deep grey pools that reflected my own topaz ones. She sighed, and looked into her coffee cup as she lifted it. She had a habbit of doing that, I noticed. She probably doesn't think I've noticed, but I notice a lot of things. Like how she smiled at me when she thought I wasn't looking. The surprise she felt when she found that I wasn't as terrible a man as the rumors told her I was.

"Vash..." she trailed off, probably looking for just the right words to use in such a delicate situation. I didn't blame her, not that there was much she could say. There wasn't much anyone could say at that moment, I thought, that would make me feel better. I was wrong.

"I know you think you've done something wrong. I won't lie to you, Vash. You've taken a life, and there's nothing you can do about it. But punishing yourself won't bring him back; it won't change who he was, or who he would be had he lived. I just... I hate to see you in so much pain... But Vash, you did a good thing. Think of what would've happened had he lived. More innocent lives would've been taken - if you hadn't stopped him."

She paused, her head hung low. I noticed a tear drip on the table of the room at the inn we had come to. She was crying... for me. Again.

"Meryl, I-"

"There's really nothing you or anyone can do to make this better... I just wish I could... But all you can do is wait, I guess. Just keep on living. Walk the path you've chosen. I... If you need me, I'll always be here, Vash..."

She put her coffee cup down, and braced her hands against the table as if she were being pushed against it. I placed my hand gently over hers. She looked up, almost shocked. A tear slips down my cheek and, lands like hers, on the table.

"You've... you've already made me feel better. That's all I could ever ask of you..." And you want to give me more... but I don't deserve it...

She squeezes my hand. I notice that she's trembling. I am too.

***

I had gone to get something for us all to eat. Millie was keeping Vash company in his room while I was out. It was a dusty morning, and a group of children were hanging around near the local bakery, doing who knows what. I paused for a moment, and decided that maybe donuts would make Vash feel a little better. I'd be sure to get some real food, though, too. As I passed the group of six or so children, all of whom looked to be around the age of elleven or twelve, I saw that they were staring at something through the shop's large front window.

Correction, she thought as she looked more closely at the window, they're staring at the window, not through it. What was written there in the dust didn't really bother her at first.

10:30AM - $$30,000
~Cobra

She thought it might've just been something the owner or one of the kids hadput there. Some kind of reminder, or a joke, maybe. She shrugged, and moved past the transfixed children, and into the doors of the bakery, checking her watch. 10:15. Hmm... She decided to be quick about what she was doing. It wasn't out of nervousness (or at least she'd never admit it was out of nervousness), but a sense of urgency to get back to Vash. Wich was partly true. He was in pretty bad shape lately. Considering he'd killed his own brother, he was in better shape than most. Maybe she had actually helped him a little. She smiled at the lady behind the counter. The woman was short, and plump, and had a pleasant look about her. She radiated comfort throughout the entire store.

"Excuse me," she said in her most genuinely polite voice, "could I get a box of twelve, no, make that twenty, plain donuts?"

"Why you most certainly can, dear." The woman went about her business, getting the box and putting all the donuts in, and setting it on the counter in front of Meryl. "That'll be fifteen double dollars, Miss."

Meryl handed over the money, still smiling. She picked up the box, only to drop it back on the counter with a small thud a moment later when she felt cold metal being pressed into her mid-back, and the click of a hammer being pulled back.

***

Vash was restless. Despite his lethargic nature of late, he felt like he needed to be doing something. He leaned out the window to look down at the activity of the people of the town. He expected to see children playing, men and women alike going about their business as usual. The site that greeted his eyes in it's place was disturbing. It wasn't gruesome, or perverted, or anything overtly revolting. It was... nothing.

There was no movement on a street where he had heard children shouting and playing not a moment ago. This situation seemed familiar somehow. As if it had happened to him before. And then it clicked in his mind. This was what it had been like after July. He could've sworn he had heard the children, and then, there was nothing.

He slowly moved back from the window, and toward the bed at the far side of the room.

"Mr.Vash?" Millie had just come back to the room after using the facilities, and was now standing about three feet away from Vash. "What are you doing? Oh... Why are you taking that out now, Mr.Vash?"

He had reached under the bed, and pulled out a box. Opening it, he laid out it's contents on the bed. He hadn't worn these clothes since he came back, and he had almost considered throwing his gun away, though somehow Meryl had convinced him to keep it. It had been a month since that day.

"Somebody needs me."

It was all he said as he once more donned the costume of the Humanoid Typhoon, Vash The Stampede.




A/N: Wow. It's almost 2:30AM. Grrrrr.... It's all for you people, ya know?! Okay, so I'm usually up this late, but that's not really the point, is it? No, thought not. Anyhoo, I've been thinking about this plotline, and I didn't wanna do anything too cliche, ya know? But it's really hard. So gimme time to think about this here thingy-ma-bobber, and I'm sure I'll come up with something original and beautiful. WEEHOO!! Oh yes, the quote at the top is from Big O.

We like the Big O.

Roger Smith rox0rZ our sox0rZ, man.

Dig it?



Next Time:
It's never enough to just be who you are, if you are doing it for everyone else. So he became disillusioned with humanity, and became what they wanted him to be, what they thought he was, despite himself. He did not see the true answer...

The Price of Love