Sorry for the long wait! Thank you to the people who gave reviews! Hopefully you will still be interested in this story and will read it again… Anyway! There are some VxM moments, small moments, but moments nevertheless. Hopefully in the future I will be able to add in some more…

Disclaimer: I don't own Trigun or any of the characters. Although I really wish I owned Vash and Wolfwood…but I don't. So let me weep in peace.

Return Forever

"Here you go, sir," Meryl said, placing a beer on the table at the bar.

            "Thanks miss," said the customer. He grinned widely and somehow lost forgot where his right hand was moving, and it was moving toward Meryl in the downward direction to something soft on the backside of her. Finally, the hand stopped and felt around this particular soft area on Meryl and gave a squeeze on her buttocks.

            WHAM. Meryl's hand connected with the customer's face with an unexpectedly huge impact and brought the back of her hand back again with an equally painful slap. She scooped up the beer and walked away, the customer mouthing, Buh…buh… over the loss of his beer.

            Meryl shook her head. When will men ever learn?

            "Wow! Another score for Meryl!" Vash shouted from a corner. He had observed this scene, and many other similar scenes, over many bottles of beer. He waved his current bottle happily.

            "Don't do that!" Meryl screamed and dashed over just in time to catch the beer bottle, which had suddenly flown out of Vash's hand and had been making its way down to the floor. Meryl waved the bottle in Vash's face.

            "If you break anymore bottles the boss'll take them off my paycheck!" she snarled.

            "Oh I'm sooooo sooorrryyyy, Meryl-san!" Vash said, cowering under Meryl's ferocious expression.

            "Don't worry, I'll pay!" bawled another drunken man. "Whoops…"

            Meryl sighed, placing a finger on her temple. "What did I say about breaking bottles…" she muttered darkly, shooting them dangerous look.

            "Eh…"

            "Don't worry, Meryl-san." The boss stood behind her. "You can go home, I'll take care of this."

            "Thanks boss!" Meryl swiveled her head to glare at Vash. "Come on, you," she snarled, yanking Vash up from his arm.

            "Ow that hurts Meryl," he complained. "A pretty girl like you shouldn't be doing that to a poor little man!"

            Meryl seethed as a blush crept onto her face. She mentally screamed at herself. Who care's if Vash called you pretty? He's drunk for crissake! She retained her composure and glared at the men who were now bawling with laughter. "Come on, don't make me drag you."

            But somehow, Meryl ended up dragging Vash anyway as he had made new drinking buddies and these buddies were now calling to Vash about tomorrow's drinks, and Vash just had to stop and answer them. She had knocked him down and with a new found strength she literally dragged Vash to the doorway.

            Meryl sighed and told herself to take deep, calm, nonviolent-thinking breaths, at least they had finally made it outside the door. Vash was so damn heavy.

            "I'm tired," Meryl said, yawning. "I should never have taken you to my job."

            "But there's nothing to do all day in the house. Milly has her job at the mines and Knives just sleeps all day. Besides, the guys there are so cool," Vash said bubbly.

            "Really? I take you to work, watch over you and keep you from making trouble, and introduce you to your new, er, friends. And what have you done to thank me?" Meryl demanded crankily.

            Suddenly Meryl was on Vash, piggy-back style. She blushed, grateful that he wasn't looking at her as Vash arranged his hands on her thighs and started walking.

            "Since you're so tired, I'll do the walking for you!" Vash said cheerfully.

            "Er….thanks…."

            "No PROBLEM!"

            "…" Meryl sighed and decided not to protest. She closed her eyes and rested her head on Vash's neck. With all the running around and worrying due to Knive's residence at their house, Meryl used to the rare opportunity to rest. Besides, it wasn't every day that she could be this close to Vash… It then occurred to Meryl that this was the wrong place to be having such thoughts as she was acutely aware of Vash's hands on her thighs and could feel those areas burning with embarrassment. Not that Vash cared.

            By the time they reached home, Meryl was fast asleep on Vash's back, her nose tickling the small of his neck, cheek on his shoulder, breath fluttering his hair slightly. Walking up the staircase, Vash smiled and turned his head to look at her. She looked so peaceful there on his shoulder. Sighing regretfully, Vash entered Meryl's room and reluctantly placed her under the bedcovers. For a moment, he wanted to get in the bed with her and almost did so when Meryl murmured and rolled over. Then Vash remembered that Meryl slapped really, REALLY hard and would probably do so in the morning. Plus, he was drunk which meant a bad hangover the next day which meant the slap would hurt even more which meant he would need more beer. So Vash's drunk mind decided that it would be a bad idea to climb under the covers with Meryl. Case closed.

            Milly had already gone home and was now asleep in her room. That meant Vash was the only person awake in the house. Well, almost the only one.

            Vash paused in front of Knives's room. He sighed and opened the door.

            Knives was lying in his customary position on the bed and staring at the ceiling. He didn't even flicker in his gaze at him when Vash entered. Vash walked over to the bed and stood there, waiting.

            It was deadly silent for a moment. They could both hear the girls' sleeping breaths from the other rooms. It was that quiet.

            Vash spoke first. "Had a good nap, Knives?"

            "Beautifully," replied Knives, voice dry and sarcastic.

            "That's good then," Vash said, smiling.

            "You didn't kill me," Knives commented. "I suppose you still follow that bitch's beliefs?"

            The smile on Vash's face notched down. "You mean Rem? You know Rem's not a bitch Knives."

            "So you still won't kill, not even me. That's so like you, pathetic."

            "No need to be like that, brother. It's not as if you could kill me."

            Knives swiveled his eyes over to Vash, who looked back with calm look. Knives brought his teeth together in a hiss. "You're growing even softer, Vash. You're even allowing me to heal. I'm surprised that Meryl woman hasn't thrown me out yet. Have you taken her virginity yet, Vash the Stampede?"

            Vash slammed his fist against the wall. "Don't talk to me like that, Knives! I am a gentleman and Meryl is the perfect lady, don't make assumptions like that."

            Knives chuckled maliciously to himself. "It's just as I suspected then," he murmured. "Ah, it's so perfect!" He grinned to Vash. "She's a very pretty lady, isn't she Vash?"

            "Don't touch her," Vash said, fighting to control his voice.

            "Oh, are you claiming her as your own? That's so possessive, brother. Isn't she a free woman, free to choose her own lovers?"

            Vash sighed. "I suppose there's no talking to you, brother. I was hoping you'd changed…" He shook his head and walked out the room.

            "She's actually very beautiful, in fact, Vash," Knives called out after him. "If you're not careful, somebody stronger than you will take her away from you." A slammed door answered him. "It could even be me," Knives finished to himself. He smiled one last evil grin and decided to sleep.