Author's Note: Well it is 10:41 p.m. on May 31, 2003, and I would just like
to say that I am glad that I had enough extra time and energy to write
this, despite the lack of sleep that I have been having just stressing over
school and sports, and on top of that the constant musical concerts that I
have been forced to attend, but I guess that is what comes with being a
violist. And another thing that didn't help was that fact that my sister is
graduating from the 6th grade, and coincidentally she was chosen to be the
valedictorian for her class. But with all the lack of sleep I am still
surprised that I got this out.
Anyways its not that any of you are actually reading this, but those of you who are I would just like to thank you for reading my uncontrollable urge to complain to you about my meaningless problems. Well anyways I will let you read now, that is if you haven't already skipped over this stupid section and well enjoy. Oh and I don't know if this chapter is all that great, but hey at least I got it out.
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The Love and Death of The Past
~*Chapter 3- Unhealed Wounds*~
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"Sit." Yuki said as she motioned to the bum, that had just entered her office, nearly making her sick not only to his appearance, but to his smell as well. He had to be oblivious to it, as to enter her office, which was tainted with that of bloodlust and lust alike. He was a completely disgusting creature, but his reasons for showing up had completely caught her interest, making her completely forget about his odor, except for the fact that it kept tugging at her senses, silently reminding her that he belonged on the streets.
He slid the picture across her desk, and into her hands, smudging it with the heavy almost crusted dirt that rested so needlessly on his hands. She took it with acute interest and stared into the picture. It was the eyes that had given her away. They were so innocent, and yet they were also tainted with things no woman should ever have to experience. She studied the other figure in the picture. It was a tall woman, with brown almost glossy hair. It seemed that the two were close. Maybe, if this were in fact her, they would need to use the brunette as a tool to render her victim weak.
She never really had the chance to learn of the child's name. She only remembered that it was similar to her own mother's name. Yuki recalled the only rival that she ever had to face in her life. Meridth. Yes, that was her name if she remembered correctly. She was the wife of William Stryfe who she had killed so valiantly only years ago.
'Valiantly? If you call killing the man you love valiant.' Yuki snorted in disgust at her own thoughts. It was true that she had felt guilty at first, but then she had realized that it was only so that she could rise in power. It was something that the other workers found completely disgusting at first, but then learned to live with it. She averted her attention back to the picture to try and remember what the child's name was, concentration apparent to the man, by the way her brow furrowed in aggravation. A small smile graced his lips and then he cleared his throat and pointed to the writing on the back of the picture.
Yuki growled in agitation and flipped the picture over and read the two names aloud.
"Meryl Stryfe 23, Millie Thompson 25." Meryl.of course! That was what her name was. Meryl's father was so proud of her; he even talked about his daughter after they had finished making love. A disgusting thing to do, and yet, he had loved his daughter so much. It seemed that he loved his wife even more, but why go through troubles to cheat on his wife with someone else? She shook the thought out of her head and then set the picture down, folding her arms across her chest.
"Where did you get this picture? When was this taken?" She asked coldly, almost uncaring. The man raised an eyebrow and then looked to the ground.
"I got it from an old friend. He claims that it was taken 3 years ago, but I am not entirely sure. He's related to her in some way from what I know. Personally, I fell in love with her eyes from the moment I saw it, but then, there was a rumor going around, one that supposedly buried a long time ago about one of your missions going unfinished. I managed to do some research, and then I found out that she was connected to it. And judging by your now vacant expression, she is." He sat back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest, noting how quickly she had taken in the information, disbelieving. She looked clueless at first, but masked it, cursing him for his incompetence. He had made a fool out of her, so he was definitely going to pay.
"How much do you want for this information?" She asked sweetly, putting him on guard almost at once. He leaned forward, his hand going down to his side, fingering a small gun in it holster, unnoticed by anyone else in the room. Yuki leaned back, his smell dancing around in her nostrils.
"More than you can supply. I know more than you can ever imagine about this girl. But to put a price on life? I hate everything about it. I will not take your damn drug money even if my life depended on it. It's true that I came in here to sell this girl out, but that's only because I am just as bloodthirsty as you are. Just give me her eyes, and I will be content." He stated matter-of-factly. Yuki reared back, startled, and disgusted by this offer. He wanted her eyes? She could never think of a more disgusting offer than that. She stood up and folded her arms over her chest, and walked over to a window, opening it with much urgency. She just wasn't able to tolerate his disgusting smell any longer.
" You can go and cut her eyes out of their sockets yourself. We only taint our hands with blood so much." Yuki said as she stared out of the window, towards the starry night sky. The man smirked and shook his head.
"I wont touch another person with my own hands, if it would risk killing them."
"You just said that thirsted for blood. Are you honestly that backwards?" Yuki asked in mild aggravation. This man was confusing her more and more. Not only that his sick and twisted thoughts were going to haunt her, but he knew it now more than ever.
"You wouldn't understand. It's a family matter." He retorted angrily. He felt like walking over to her and ripping her throat out, and yet, he felt as if there would be a much better use for her in the long run.
"Humans get more disgusting every single day." Yuki said airily, still content with staring out at the starry night sky. The man chuckled; it was just too ironic. He stood up, walking over to her, blowing off the guards that had started to walk towards them, machine guns ready. He grabbed Yuki by the hair, suddenly, running his lips over her exposed neck.
"You are the first human to ever agree with me." He stated, smiling mischievously as she shivered at his touch. Yuki turned to face him, looking him straight in the face, suddenly noticing his angelic features. She stared at him momentarily before motioning to one of her guards.
"Show him to a room and get him some clean clothes. We may need him." She said, motioning towards the door. He smiled wickedly before walking with now confused guards. She placed her hand against the spot on her neck as the room emptied, consisting only of herself and thought for a minute. How was she going to go about extracting all the information about Meryl from him? She touched the moistened spot on her neck gingerly once more.
This man was certainly aggressive, and yet he was gentle. He was blood thirsty, and yet he wouldn't kill. He was definitely a mystery that she would have to solve, but for now, she had to push aside his contradictive personality and focus on more important matters, those being Meryl Stryfe and how she was going to go about killing her.
~*~
Millie closed the door behind her, leaving Meryl to sleep. She was certainly wondering who was going to get to the house first, Meryl's family or Vash. Certainly Vash would come first, after all, it took hours just to get him to leave Meryl alone. Maybe he was just returning the favor, after all she had taken care of him after he had shot Legato, which of course sent him off the deep end for a while, and then when he had left. Millie couldn't help but think of how helpless Meryl became after that.
She walked down the stairs quickly, too lost in thought to pay attention to whom was approaching her quietly. She sidestepped him, as if not even noticing that he was alive, but recovered quickly when he tapped her on the shoulder.
She whipped around and smiled widely at her friend and then fished her keys out of her pocket. She titled her head knowingly and then nodded as he took them reluctantly.
"Vash, don't bother Meryl as much all right? The pain finally came to her ten-fold last night, she was crying so hard, so just be careful. Some pain killers are in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, so just give her two if she is in sudden pain." She stated. Vash tilted his head in minor amusement. She hadn't even said hello to him, but just started barking out orders. He had to admit, Millie did change a lot after Wolfwood died, she became much more stronger, and maybe taking care of Meryl was the only way she was able to compensate for what she had lost so long ago.
'No she didn't lose him. Not at all.' He thought noting the sudden determined look that set in her eyes. He nodded slowly, and then turned around to walk up the stairs. Millie nodded, but didn't move as she watched him ascend the stairs. She couldn't help but wonder if it was really healthy for Meryl to go through the torment of being around Vash again, but then knew that it was. It was part of love and it was part of life, but the thing that surprised her most was that Meryl WAITED for Vash to return, to return to her. She sighed complacently before descending the steps to head to work.
~*~
Meryl's gray eyes fluttered open slowly taking in her surroundings. She was lying in her room, with little memory of ever returning to her room last night. She blinked realizing that she had barely any memory of last night, except she remembered her family, and Vash. Meryl shot up in her bed as she thought about Vash, wondering if it was simply a dream or not. The sound of flesh ripping tore her thoughts in half, and she doubled over in pain, suppressing the urge to scream, but a whimper managed to escape her lips as she let her tears fall rapidly and wildly.
~*~
Vash entered the apartment, closing the door silently behind him and walked towards Meryl's bedroom door. He wondered if he should even walk in there, knowing that Meryl would probably call him a pervert and throw something at him, which he wouldn't avoid, due to respect for her pride, and yet, he would be at an advantage all the same. It wouldn't be like she would be able to chase him around after all she was injured, and if she did move around suddenly, her wound would rip open, and even she wouldn't risk that kind of pain. He stood next to her door, wondering if he should risk entering anyways when he heard a light whimper from within the room.
'Maybe she's dreaming.' Vash thought. If that was the case he definitely did not want to wake her. He cracked open her door, just to make sure she was asleep, and when he saw her lying down in her bed, unmoving, he decided that she was asleep. He closed the door slowly, not making any noises and then walked to the kitchen, deciding on what to make her for breakfast for when he did wake up.
~*~
Meryl's body went limp when she heard her doorknob turn. Was Millie still home? She glanced over to the clock, and quickly ceased all movement despite the increasingly intolerable twinge that sent sharp shivers of pain rocketing throughout her entire body. She was lucky that she had her bloodied side to the mattress of the bed, otherwise, the intruder would have seen her blood soaked sheets, and rushed to her side immediately. As soon as she heard the door close she let out rough jagged breaths, as hot blinding tears impaired her vision once more.
She slid out of her bed, and quickly ripped the sheets off of her bed, frowning at the small bloodstain that appeared on her mattress, she was definitely going to have to clean that up before someone saw it. She walked to her door; her right hand permanently attached to her bleeding side, and wiped the tears out of her already red and puffy eyes before opening it quietly and peeking out. She let out a small sigh of relief.
'Good, nobody is there.' She thought before making a beeline to the bathroom. She closed and locked the bathroom door behind her, before stripping off her nightgown and looking at her almost naked figure in the mirror. Her eyes roamed over the naked portion of her top half, criticizing herself in her mind. She always managed to find something 'dishonorable' about her body, she also made it into a habit of hers to wish something was different about her body every time she looked herself in the mirror.
And this time it was just what she wanted to see; a naked body caked in blood. She frowned in mild disgust before taking the bandages off of her body and throwing them in the waste bin. She grabbed a washcloth and turned the water on quietly, making sure not to have it on too loud and cleaned her stinging wound, cleaning up all traces of blood as quickly as possible.
She cringed in pain as she accidentally stabbed her wound with the washcloth, letting out a ragged strangled cry of pain. She slumped to the ground as the pain escalated to something that she never could have imagined, and watched the blood flow from her newly opened wound, which was supposedly stitched closed flawlessly. She frowned absently before staring back at the bloody cloth angrily. Of course that little piece of material would be the thing to cause her so much pain.
~*~
Vash went still as he heard Meryl cry out in pain. He put down the wooden spoon ( I really like wooden things so please don't ask) with which he was stirring some oatmeal with and walked briskly to her room, worried that she may have hurt herself in her sleep. He opened her door and froze. Instead of a crying Meryl, he saw an empty room. He looked at her bed and noticed that the sheets were thrown carelessly to the ground.
What caught his attention even more however was the bloodstain that was very eminent against her white mattress. He mentally cursed himself, knowing that she was awake long ago. Of course he would be dumb enough to believe that she was sleeping. He walked out of her bedroom and knocked on the bathroom door, knowing that she would have gone into it only to clean her wounds.
"Meryl, you in there?" He asked.
Meryl froze on the other side of the door after hearing Vash's voice. Was he really there? She sat in silence for a moment before scrambling to get the door open. She looked up at him from her position on the floor, completely oblivious to the fact that her wound was bleeding rapidly, and that she was partially nude.
'Wow...I wonder if she knows that she's...wow.' Vash thought to himself as he stared down at her partially naked body. He was absolutely blown away with how beautiful she looked, despite the fact that she was bleeding so heavily.
Vash knelt down next to her, an arrogant smile threatening to play at his lips, but he managed to keep it under wraps. He lifted her up gently and sat her on the bathroom counter. He glanced around for her nightgown and grabbed it quickly, wrapping it around her upper torso, just enough to cover her nakedness. Meryl blushed furiously, completely forgetting that she was naked, but couldn't help but smile at his modesty. The next thing she knew was that he was draping a towel across her lap.
'He's too modest.' Meryl thought as he grabbed a washcloth and doused it with hot water. She looked at him, getting over her previous state of embarrassment and watched him carefully, wondering what he was doing here. He waited until the washcloth was dripping with scolding hot water and cleaned the blood from around her wound, deep in concentration.
He had to admit, he was never close to a woman like this before, and thought of being this close to a woman who was well nude, made his pulse quicken with absolute uncertainty. The fact of the matter was this was Meryl, and she still had yet to slap him for even looking at her in her "vulnerable" state. The thought of that made him smile. She definitely wasn't acting like she used to. He cocked his head to the side as he wrung the washcloth out, watching the blood mix with water and spiral down the drain.
Meryl turned and watched him, her eyes flooding over with passion. He turned suddenly, looking into her gray eyes and smiled. 'Oh God.' Meryl thought as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Can you move for a sec?" Vash asked. She did so obediently and he opened the medicine cabinet, and began looking for her painkillers. She was going to need it if he was going to have to find a way to keep the wound from reopening again. But what was he supposed to use to keep it closed? He grabbed a small yellow bottle with her painkillers in it and opened it, placing two of them in her hands.
Meryl frowned with mild distaste, she hated taking medicine, but as long as it made the sudden surge of pain go away she didn't have a problem with it.
"Vash, when did you get here?" She asked, tired of the elongated silence. He looked at her before filling a small pixie cup with cold water. (Sorry into interrupt the story once again, but those little pixie cups that people put in their bathrooms are sooo coool.)
"Take your medicine." He said as he handed it to her. Meryl frowned and snatched the cup away from him and took her medicine before asking him once more.
"Not too long ago actually, I just wanted to check up on you before I left the city." Vash stated. Meryl looked away. She could feel them, the tears that threatened to flow from her eyes, just like the last time he left her. Her hands started trembling violently, she had to stop, she couldn't cry.
'Who was I to think that he would stay?' Meryl thought to herself. She couldn't help but believe that she was the one being selfish. Besides he probably had more important things to do. She felt a hand rest on top of hers and she turned and looked into a pair of beautiful liquid aqua eyes. She felt that she could just melt after looking into them.
"Meryl are you alright?" Vash ascertained. Meryl flashed him a forced smile and nodded.
"Vash, you aren't really going to leave again are you?" Meryl asked, turning her hand in his to squeeze it tightly. Vash sighed heavily. He didn't know what to tell her. He had to leave; he had his own reasons. He nodded slowly. He hated having to leave an injured woman all by himself, especially one who had saved his life on some occasions.
"Please don't go. It's been so long since I've gotten to see you. I-I-" Meryl stopped talking and turned away, withdrawing her hand from his. Vash felt selfish. He just couldn't turn her down like that. After all she did take care of him after his fight with Legato. He did at least owe her that much. 'All right then I won't leave for now.' Vash thought, still keeping his eyes on Meryl. She turned her head and looked down at her wound, which was bleeding with more intensity than before. Vash followed her gaze and cursed himself before grabbing a towel and pushing it against her wound. Meryl shrieked in mild pain and surprise.
"How am I going to stop it from bleeding?" Vash asked contemplating on the different ways that he could close her wound. He gave her painkillers to numb the pain, which seemed to have taken affect quickly, much to his surprise. Meryl sighed long and hard, causing his attention to drift back to her once again.
"You can always sear it close, as much as that would hurt." Vash shook his head almost at once. He definitely didn't want to burn her just to help her wound, besides, the thought of smelling burnt flesh just about disgusted him. Meryl cleared her throat and frowned.
"Vash we are really all out of options, unless of course you are able to stitch my wounds back together."
"We can always call a doctor to come and do it." Vash retorted. Meryl shook her head.
"You remember how long it took for the doctor to come last night, so why would we wait, all the while have me lose more blood, possibly go unconscious just for a stupid doctor to arrive when we can just sear it closed? I mean yeah it will hurt, but honestly I don't want to be the epitome of life's cruel jokes, pain being one of them." Meryl stated bluntly. Vash looked down at the now blood stained towel. For now he was going to have to get her something to eat, so that her blood count would go up.
"Stay here. I made some oatmeal for you, we will just give you that for now, you know until the doctor arrives." He said as he walked out of the bathroom.
"VASH!" Meryl yelled, frowning angrily at his stubbornness. She frowned as she went to jump off of the counter, but Vash's voice stopped her.
"I said stay there!" He yelled from in the kitchen. Meryl froze in place. How was he able to know that she was moving? She cursed herself mentally. Of course he was able to know, he was Vash the fucking Stampede. She let out a low growl of frustration and positioned herself back on the counter. She muttered some obscenities and glared at the wall in front of her.
"Here ya go." Vash said as he set the bowl of oatmeal next to her. She looked at it angrily before picking up the spoon and shoving a spoonful in her mouth. She let out a small yelp of pain. Of course she just had to scorch her tongue.
"I guess I forgot to tell you that it was still hot." Vash chuckled to him self. Meryl turned dark and threatening eyes on him, but when she saw his angelic smile, she couldn't help but look away in exasperation. He was leaving again, and here she was arguing with him, yet, she still couldn't stop the words from flowing out of her mouth once more.
"You aren't really going to leave are you Vash? I am sure you have your reasons to leave, but cant you stay for just a while longer, I haven't really had time to visit with you." Meryl looked away, she hadn't tried to stop him last time and yet now she was. Could she really be that selfish?
Vash looked at her for a long time. He was pulled into a very unrealistic daze by just staring at her. Of course this happened to Vash whenever he was looking at a beautiful woman, however, this was Meryl, he wasn't supposed to look at her like she was any other woman. Because after all he knew that she was different. Meryl's voice had yanked him out of his slight daze and he smiled warmly at her.
"Of course I can stay for a few days, besides with your wound being torn open, even though it was sewn together, I suppose that you will need some sort of..protection." Meryl turned to meet his gaze. She couldn't believe her ears. Did he really just say that he would stay?
'He did say it didn't he?' Meryl thought to himself. She couldn't help but smile boldly at him. Then all of his words came into her mind. 'Need some sort of protection.'
"I don't need protection, after all I am a very capable woman, and if that fails, then I will always have Eric to help me out. I mean after all, he's my big brother, and although you are my lo-...friend," she stopped herself almost at once, " Eric is also a very capable man. Exactly like you." Meryl smiled boldly once more and shoved some more hot oatmeal onto her scorched tongue. She savored the wonderful cinnamon taste of oatmeal, and then went back to staring at the wall.
She had completely forgotten about her wound, and become completely oblivious, to the now almost blank look that Vash was giving her.
'Of course she would depend on her older brother. Boy that guy gives me the creeps, always looking, but its as if he is staring through me and not at me. Almost as if he doesn't trust me..I wonder why that is.' Vash thought to himself as he watched Meryl eat her food, he too completely forgetting about her opened wound. He seemed to have disappeared from the planet however, because even when Meryl had continued to repeat his name over and over again, he still didn't answer her, and the distant look in his eyes didn't help much either.
Somehow, Meryl thought that it was her comment that had thrown him off so suddenly. 'It's almost as if.maybe he WANTS to protect me or something.' She contemplated to herself off handedly.
~*~
Yuki had sat in her office going through paperwork, of her previous deals. She couldn't believe how many loose ends that she had to tie up because of clients that had decided to run off without finishing their payments on her product. The thought pissed her off very much. She was too lost in thought to even think about Meryl that morning. She rummaged through papers, trying to remember the faces of clients that she had served, although she couldn't quite compensate. She had always seen a great number different faces, but unfortunately she could not remember anyone by the name of Scott Daniels. She was usually so good with matching up a face with names.
Yuki growled impatiently, she really needed to keep some sort of photo available, like a mug shot of some sort. She cussed to herself, murmuring about the unsatisfactory company that she was now forced to run, why was it? Because she had decided to kill some man that she was so in lust with.
'In lust with huh? And here I thought it was love the entire time. I guess I am nothing more than a jealous bitch. Just like every used to call me.' She thought to herself before muttering obscenities. She was so drowned in thought that she did not even notice a guard that entered her office. Thoroughly unaware of the intruder she continued to go through the paperwork, not really looking at it, just trying to make it seem as though she were doing her job as top executive of this drug ring.
"U-uh Excuse me Ms. Atsui?" He questioned. Yuki shot her eyes up, blinking in momentary shock before recollecting herself and motioning to him with a wave of her hand that she was listening. The man had frowned slightly, somewhat annoyed that she had barely even acknowledged his presence but continued on anyways.
"The visitor from last night would like to see you. He is waiting in his room. He claims that it is important as well." He said before bowing respectively. Yuki looked up, a light showing in her usually cold impassive green eyes. She had completely forgotten about him. She stood up quickly and walked out of her office, closing and locked the door with care. There were just so many things that were important to her in that office, that nobody was supposed to get their hands on.
She followed the man to the 5th floor of the building, where most of her employees lived, almost like small apartments. She of course lived in the pent house of the building, which she had only shared with one other man since that fateful day.
She came to a door at the end of the hall and knocked on it slightly before opening it to reveal a man sitting on his bed. Yuki tilted her head to the side, realizing that she had never laid eyes on this man before. She took in his features, his extremely neatly combed yet short blonde hair, remembering vaguely that it was brown when she had seen it, his nice creamy white skin, which was once caked in dirt, and then the almost intoxicating wonderful smell emulating off of him.
Yuki stared at him, sucked into a desperate trance. She realized that this was in fact that disgusting creature that she had allowed to enter her office only 12 hours ago, in the depths of the night. She watched his blank expression turn to ones of amusement as he turned his head towards her, and almost at once as looked into his blue eyes, her mind was thrown into a cold dark void.
Never in her life had she seen eyes so empty, and yet so truly alive.
~*~*~*~
Yes!!! I HAVE FINISHED IT! Ok, so maybe you don't understand the euphoric pride sweeping over my tired body right now, but who cares. Anyways I hope that you enjoyed it and I feel like calling my boyfriend, who well is most likely doing something completely meaningless right now, I haven't really talked to him since earlier today and I am already feeling as though I haven't talked to him for an eternity. Well it probably has been an eternity in my eyes, but I am just so love struck. Anyways like I said before I hope that you enjoyed the story, and well please review. Personally I thought that the bathroom scene was somewhat cute, and I did notice that Meryl and Vash stared at each other a whole lot. Anyways review and tell me what you think. I will even take flames, because well, I feel like laughing at those who think my story sucks. Oh yes, sorry if they are a little OOC if not a whole lot.
~*Neko-Sama*~
Anyways its not that any of you are actually reading this, but those of you who are I would just like to thank you for reading my uncontrollable urge to complain to you about my meaningless problems. Well anyways I will let you read now, that is if you haven't already skipped over this stupid section and well enjoy. Oh and I don't know if this chapter is all that great, but hey at least I got it out.
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The Love and Death of The Past
~*Chapter 3- Unhealed Wounds*~
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"Sit." Yuki said as she motioned to the bum, that had just entered her office, nearly making her sick not only to his appearance, but to his smell as well. He had to be oblivious to it, as to enter her office, which was tainted with that of bloodlust and lust alike. He was a completely disgusting creature, but his reasons for showing up had completely caught her interest, making her completely forget about his odor, except for the fact that it kept tugging at her senses, silently reminding her that he belonged on the streets.
He slid the picture across her desk, and into her hands, smudging it with the heavy almost crusted dirt that rested so needlessly on his hands. She took it with acute interest and stared into the picture. It was the eyes that had given her away. They were so innocent, and yet they were also tainted with things no woman should ever have to experience. She studied the other figure in the picture. It was a tall woman, with brown almost glossy hair. It seemed that the two were close. Maybe, if this were in fact her, they would need to use the brunette as a tool to render her victim weak.
She never really had the chance to learn of the child's name. She only remembered that it was similar to her own mother's name. Yuki recalled the only rival that she ever had to face in her life. Meridth. Yes, that was her name if she remembered correctly. She was the wife of William Stryfe who she had killed so valiantly only years ago.
'Valiantly? If you call killing the man you love valiant.' Yuki snorted in disgust at her own thoughts. It was true that she had felt guilty at first, but then she had realized that it was only so that she could rise in power. It was something that the other workers found completely disgusting at first, but then learned to live with it. She averted her attention back to the picture to try and remember what the child's name was, concentration apparent to the man, by the way her brow furrowed in aggravation. A small smile graced his lips and then he cleared his throat and pointed to the writing on the back of the picture.
Yuki growled in agitation and flipped the picture over and read the two names aloud.
"Meryl Stryfe 23, Millie Thompson 25." Meryl.of course! That was what her name was. Meryl's father was so proud of her; he even talked about his daughter after they had finished making love. A disgusting thing to do, and yet, he had loved his daughter so much. It seemed that he loved his wife even more, but why go through troubles to cheat on his wife with someone else? She shook the thought out of her head and then set the picture down, folding her arms across her chest.
"Where did you get this picture? When was this taken?" She asked coldly, almost uncaring. The man raised an eyebrow and then looked to the ground.
"I got it from an old friend. He claims that it was taken 3 years ago, but I am not entirely sure. He's related to her in some way from what I know. Personally, I fell in love with her eyes from the moment I saw it, but then, there was a rumor going around, one that supposedly buried a long time ago about one of your missions going unfinished. I managed to do some research, and then I found out that she was connected to it. And judging by your now vacant expression, she is." He sat back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest, noting how quickly she had taken in the information, disbelieving. She looked clueless at first, but masked it, cursing him for his incompetence. He had made a fool out of her, so he was definitely going to pay.
"How much do you want for this information?" She asked sweetly, putting him on guard almost at once. He leaned forward, his hand going down to his side, fingering a small gun in it holster, unnoticed by anyone else in the room. Yuki leaned back, his smell dancing around in her nostrils.
"More than you can supply. I know more than you can ever imagine about this girl. But to put a price on life? I hate everything about it. I will not take your damn drug money even if my life depended on it. It's true that I came in here to sell this girl out, but that's only because I am just as bloodthirsty as you are. Just give me her eyes, and I will be content." He stated matter-of-factly. Yuki reared back, startled, and disgusted by this offer. He wanted her eyes? She could never think of a more disgusting offer than that. She stood up and folded her arms over her chest, and walked over to a window, opening it with much urgency. She just wasn't able to tolerate his disgusting smell any longer.
" You can go and cut her eyes out of their sockets yourself. We only taint our hands with blood so much." Yuki said as she stared out of the window, towards the starry night sky. The man smirked and shook his head.
"I wont touch another person with my own hands, if it would risk killing them."
"You just said that thirsted for blood. Are you honestly that backwards?" Yuki asked in mild aggravation. This man was confusing her more and more. Not only that his sick and twisted thoughts were going to haunt her, but he knew it now more than ever.
"You wouldn't understand. It's a family matter." He retorted angrily. He felt like walking over to her and ripping her throat out, and yet, he felt as if there would be a much better use for her in the long run.
"Humans get more disgusting every single day." Yuki said airily, still content with staring out at the starry night sky. The man chuckled; it was just too ironic. He stood up, walking over to her, blowing off the guards that had started to walk towards them, machine guns ready. He grabbed Yuki by the hair, suddenly, running his lips over her exposed neck.
"You are the first human to ever agree with me." He stated, smiling mischievously as she shivered at his touch. Yuki turned to face him, looking him straight in the face, suddenly noticing his angelic features. She stared at him momentarily before motioning to one of her guards.
"Show him to a room and get him some clean clothes. We may need him." She said, motioning towards the door. He smiled wickedly before walking with now confused guards. She placed her hand against the spot on her neck as the room emptied, consisting only of herself and thought for a minute. How was she going to go about extracting all the information about Meryl from him? She touched the moistened spot on her neck gingerly once more.
This man was certainly aggressive, and yet he was gentle. He was blood thirsty, and yet he wouldn't kill. He was definitely a mystery that she would have to solve, but for now, she had to push aside his contradictive personality and focus on more important matters, those being Meryl Stryfe and how she was going to go about killing her.
~*~
Millie closed the door behind her, leaving Meryl to sleep. She was certainly wondering who was going to get to the house first, Meryl's family or Vash. Certainly Vash would come first, after all, it took hours just to get him to leave Meryl alone. Maybe he was just returning the favor, after all she had taken care of him after he had shot Legato, which of course sent him off the deep end for a while, and then when he had left. Millie couldn't help but think of how helpless Meryl became after that.
She walked down the stairs quickly, too lost in thought to pay attention to whom was approaching her quietly. She sidestepped him, as if not even noticing that he was alive, but recovered quickly when he tapped her on the shoulder.
She whipped around and smiled widely at her friend and then fished her keys out of her pocket. She titled her head knowingly and then nodded as he took them reluctantly.
"Vash, don't bother Meryl as much all right? The pain finally came to her ten-fold last night, she was crying so hard, so just be careful. Some pain killers are in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, so just give her two if she is in sudden pain." She stated. Vash tilted his head in minor amusement. She hadn't even said hello to him, but just started barking out orders. He had to admit, Millie did change a lot after Wolfwood died, she became much more stronger, and maybe taking care of Meryl was the only way she was able to compensate for what she had lost so long ago.
'No she didn't lose him. Not at all.' He thought noting the sudden determined look that set in her eyes. He nodded slowly, and then turned around to walk up the stairs. Millie nodded, but didn't move as she watched him ascend the stairs. She couldn't help but wonder if it was really healthy for Meryl to go through the torment of being around Vash again, but then knew that it was. It was part of love and it was part of life, but the thing that surprised her most was that Meryl WAITED for Vash to return, to return to her. She sighed complacently before descending the steps to head to work.
~*~
Meryl's gray eyes fluttered open slowly taking in her surroundings. She was lying in her room, with little memory of ever returning to her room last night. She blinked realizing that she had barely any memory of last night, except she remembered her family, and Vash. Meryl shot up in her bed as she thought about Vash, wondering if it was simply a dream or not. The sound of flesh ripping tore her thoughts in half, and she doubled over in pain, suppressing the urge to scream, but a whimper managed to escape her lips as she let her tears fall rapidly and wildly.
~*~
Vash entered the apartment, closing the door silently behind him and walked towards Meryl's bedroom door. He wondered if he should even walk in there, knowing that Meryl would probably call him a pervert and throw something at him, which he wouldn't avoid, due to respect for her pride, and yet, he would be at an advantage all the same. It wouldn't be like she would be able to chase him around after all she was injured, and if she did move around suddenly, her wound would rip open, and even she wouldn't risk that kind of pain. He stood next to her door, wondering if he should risk entering anyways when he heard a light whimper from within the room.
'Maybe she's dreaming.' Vash thought. If that was the case he definitely did not want to wake her. He cracked open her door, just to make sure she was asleep, and when he saw her lying down in her bed, unmoving, he decided that she was asleep. He closed the door slowly, not making any noises and then walked to the kitchen, deciding on what to make her for breakfast for when he did wake up.
~*~
Meryl's body went limp when she heard her doorknob turn. Was Millie still home? She glanced over to the clock, and quickly ceased all movement despite the increasingly intolerable twinge that sent sharp shivers of pain rocketing throughout her entire body. She was lucky that she had her bloodied side to the mattress of the bed, otherwise, the intruder would have seen her blood soaked sheets, and rushed to her side immediately. As soon as she heard the door close she let out rough jagged breaths, as hot blinding tears impaired her vision once more.
She slid out of her bed, and quickly ripped the sheets off of her bed, frowning at the small bloodstain that appeared on her mattress, she was definitely going to have to clean that up before someone saw it. She walked to her door; her right hand permanently attached to her bleeding side, and wiped the tears out of her already red and puffy eyes before opening it quietly and peeking out. She let out a small sigh of relief.
'Good, nobody is there.' She thought before making a beeline to the bathroom. She closed and locked the bathroom door behind her, before stripping off her nightgown and looking at her almost naked figure in the mirror. Her eyes roamed over the naked portion of her top half, criticizing herself in her mind. She always managed to find something 'dishonorable' about her body, she also made it into a habit of hers to wish something was different about her body every time she looked herself in the mirror.
And this time it was just what she wanted to see; a naked body caked in blood. She frowned in mild disgust before taking the bandages off of her body and throwing them in the waste bin. She grabbed a washcloth and turned the water on quietly, making sure not to have it on too loud and cleaned her stinging wound, cleaning up all traces of blood as quickly as possible.
She cringed in pain as she accidentally stabbed her wound with the washcloth, letting out a ragged strangled cry of pain. She slumped to the ground as the pain escalated to something that she never could have imagined, and watched the blood flow from her newly opened wound, which was supposedly stitched closed flawlessly. She frowned absently before staring back at the bloody cloth angrily. Of course that little piece of material would be the thing to cause her so much pain.
~*~
Vash went still as he heard Meryl cry out in pain. He put down the wooden spoon ( I really like wooden things so please don't ask) with which he was stirring some oatmeal with and walked briskly to her room, worried that she may have hurt herself in her sleep. He opened her door and froze. Instead of a crying Meryl, he saw an empty room. He looked at her bed and noticed that the sheets were thrown carelessly to the ground.
What caught his attention even more however was the bloodstain that was very eminent against her white mattress. He mentally cursed himself, knowing that she was awake long ago. Of course he would be dumb enough to believe that she was sleeping. He walked out of her bedroom and knocked on the bathroom door, knowing that she would have gone into it only to clean her wounds.
"Meryl, you in there?" He asked.
Meryl froze on the other side of the door after hearing Vash's voice. Was he really there? She sat in silence for a moment before scrambling to get the door open. She looked up at him from her position on the floor, completely oblivious to the fact that her wound was bleeding rapidly, and that she was partially nude.
'Wow...I wonder if she knows that she's...wow.' Vash thought to himself as he stared down at her partially naked body. He was absolutely blown away with how beautiful she looked, despite the fact that she was bleeding so heavily.
Vash knelt down next to her, an arrogant smile threatening to play at his lips, but he managed to keep it under wraps. He lifted her up gently and sat her on the bathroom counter. He glanced around for her nightgown and grabbed it quickly, wrapping it around her upper torso, just enough to cover her nakedness. Meryl blushed furiously, completely forgetting that she was naked, but couldn't help but smile at his modesty. The next thing she knew was that he was draping a towel across her lap.
'He's too modest.' Meryl thought as he grabbed a washcloth and doused it with hot water. She looked at him, getting over her previous state of embarrassment and watched him carefully, wondering what he was doing here. He waited until the washcloth was dripping with scolding hot water and cleaned the blood from around her wound, deep in concentration.
He had to admit, he was never close to a woman like this before, and thought of being this close to a woman who was well nude, made his pulse quicken with absolute uncertainty. The fact of the matter was this was Meryl, and she still had yet to slap him for even looking at her in her "vulnerable" state. The thought of that made him smile. She definitely wasn't acting like she used to. He cocked his head to the side as he wrung the washcloth out, watching the blood mix with water and spiral down the drain.
Meryl turned and watched him, her eyes flooding over with passion. He turned suddenly, looking into her gray eyes and smiled. 'Oh God.' Meryl thought as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Can you move for a sec?" Vash asked. She did so obediently and he opened the medicine cabinet, and began looking for her painkillers. She was going to need it if he was going to have to find a way to keep the wound from reopening again. But what was he supposed to use to keep it closed? He grabbed a small yellow bottle with her painkillers in it and opened it, placing two of them in her hands.
Meryl frowned with mild distaste, she hated taking medicine, but as long as it made the sudden surge of pain go away she didn't have a problem with it.
"Vash, when did you get here?" She asked, tired of the elongated silence. He looked at her before filling a small pixie cup with cold water. (Sorry into interrupt the story once again, but those little pixie cups that people put in their bathrooms are sooo coool.)
"Take your medicine." He said as he handed it to her. Meryl frowned and snatched the cup away from him and took her medicine before asking him once more.
"Not too long ago actually, I just wanted to check up on you before I left the city." Vash stated. Meryl looked away. She could feel them, the tears that threatened to flow from her eyes, just like the last time he left her. Her hands started trembling violently, she had to stop, she couldn't cry.
'Who was I to think that he would stay?' Meryl thought to herself. She couldn't help but believe that she was the one being selfish. Besides he probably had more important things to do. She felt a hand rest on top of hers and she turned and looked into a pair of beautiful liquid aqua eyes. She felt that she could just melt after looking into them.
"Meryl are you alright?" Vash ascertained. Meryl flashed him a forced smile and nodded.
"Vash, you aren't really going to leave again are you?" Meryl asked, turning her hand in his to squeeze it tightly. Vash sighed heavily. He didn't know what to tell her. He had to leave; he had his own reasons. He nodded slowly. He hated having to leave an injured woman all by himself, especially one who had saved his life on some occasions.
"Please don't go. It's been so long since I've gotten to see you. I-I-" Meryl stopped talking and turned away, withdrawing her hand from his. Vash felt selfish. He just couldn't turn her down like that. After all she did take care of him after his fight with Legato. He did at least owe her that much. 'All right then I won't leave for now.' Vash thought, still keeping his eyes on Meryl. She turned her head and looked down at her wound, which was bleeding with more intensity than before. Vash followed her gaze and cursed himself before grabbing a towel and pushing it against her wound. Meryl shrieked in mild pain and surprise.
"How am I going to stop it from bleeding?" Vash asked contemplating on the different ways that he could close her wound. He gave her painkillers to numb the pain, which seemed to have taken affect quickly, much to his surprise. Meryl sighed long and hard, causing his attention to drift back to her once again.
"You can always sear it close, as much as that would hurt." Vash shook his head almost at once. He definitely didn't want to burn her just to help her wound, besides, the thought of smelling burnt flesh just about disgusted him. Meryl cleared her throat and frowned.
"Vash we are really all out of options, unless of course you are able to stitch my wounds back together."
"We can always call a doctor to come and do it." Vash retorted. Meryl shook her head.
"You remember how long it took for the doctor to come last night, so why would we wait, all the while have me lose more blood, possibly go unconscious just for a stupid doctor to arrive when we can just sear it closed? I mean yeah it will hurt, but honestly I don't want to be the epitome of life's cruel jokes, pain being one of them." Meryl stated bluntly. Vash looked down at the now blood stained towel. For now he was going to have to get her something to eat, so that her blood count would go up.
"Stay here. I made some oatmeal for you, we will just give you that for now, you know until the doctor arrives." He said as he walked out of the bathroom.
"VASH!" Meryl yelled, frowning angrily at his stubbornness. She frowned as she went to jump off of the counter, but Vash's voice stopped her.
"I said stay there!" He yelled from in the kitchen. Meryl froze in place. How was he able to know that she was moving? She cursed herself mentally. Of course he was able to know, he was Vash the fucking Stampede. She let out a low growl of frustration and positioned herself back on the counter. She muttered some obscenities and glared at the wall in front of her.
"Here ya go." Vash said as he set the bowl of oatmeal next to her. She looked at it angrily before picking up the spoon and shoving a spoonful in her mouth. She let out a small yelp of pain. Of course she just had to scorch her tongue.
"I guess I forgot to tell you that it was still hot." Vash chuckled to him self. Meryl turned dark and threatening eyes on him, but when she saw his angelic smile, she couldn't help but look away in exasperation. He was leaving again, and here she was arguing with him, yet, she still couldn't stop the words from flowing out of her mouth once more.
"You aren't really going to leave are you Vash? I am sure you have your reasons to leave, but cant you stay for just a while longer, I haven't really had time to visit with you." Meryl looked away, she hadn't tried to stop him last time and yet now she was. Could she really be that selfish?
Vash looked at her for a long time. He was pulled into a very unrealistic daze by just staring at her. Of course this happened to Vash whenever he was looking at a beautiful woman, however, this was Meryl, he wasn't supposed to look at her like she was any other woman. Because after all he knew that she was different. Meryl's voice had yanked him out of his slight daze and he smiled warmly at her.
"Of course I can stay for a few days, besides with your wound being torn open, even though it was sewn together, I suppose that you will need some sort of..protection." Meryl turned to meet his gaze. She couldn't believe her ears. Did he really just say that he would stay?
'He did say it didn't he?' Meryl thought to himself. She couldn't help but smile boldly at him. Then all of his words came into her mind. 'Need some sort of protection.'
"I don't need protection, after all I am a very capable woman, and if that fails, then I will always have Eric to help me out. I mean after all, he's my big brother, and although you are my lo-...friend," she stopped herself almost at once, " Eric is also a very capable man. Exactly like you." Meryl smiled boldly once more and shoved some more hot oatmeal onto her scorched tongue. She savored the wonderful cinnamon taste of oatmeal, and then went back to staring at the wall.
She had completely forgotten about her wound, and become completely oblivious, to the now almost blank look that Vash was giving her.
'Of course she would depend on her older brother. Boy that guy gives me the creeps, always looking, but its as if he is staring through me and not at me. Almost as if he doesn't trust me..I wonder why that is.' Vash thought to himself as he watched Meryl eat her food, he too completely forgetting about her opened wound. He seemed to have disappeared from the planet however, because even when Meryl had continued to repeat his name over and over again, he still didn't answer her, and the distant look in his eyes didn't help much either.
Somehow, Meryl thought that it was her comment that had thrown him off so suddenly. 'It's almost as if.maybe he WANTS to protect me or something.' She contemplated to herself off handedly.
~*~
Yuki had sat in her office going through paperwork, of her previous deals. She couldn't believe how many loose ends that she had to tie up because of clients that had decided to run off without finishing their payments on her product. The thought pissed her off very much. She was too lost in thought to even think about Meryl that morning. She rummaged through papers, trying to remember the faces of clients that she had served, although she couldn't quite compensate. She had always seen a great number different faces, but unfortunately she could not remember anyone by the name of Scott Daniels. She was usually so good with matching up a face with names.
Yuki growled impatiently, she really needed to keep some sort of photo available, like a mug shot of some sort. She cussed to herself, murmuring about the unsatisfactory company that she was now forced to run, why was it? Because she had decided to kill some man that she was so in lust with.
'In lust with huh? And here I thought it was love the entire time. I guess I am nothing more than a jealous bitch. Just like every used to call me.' She thought to herself before muttering obscenities. She was so drowned in thought that she did not even notice a guard that entered her office. Thoroughly unaware of the intruder she continued to go through the paperwork, not really looking at it, just trying to make it seem as though she were doing her job as top executive of this drug ring.
"U-uh Excuse me Ms. Atsui?" He questioned. Yuki shot her eyes up, blinking in momentary shock before recollecting herself and motioning to him with a wave of her hand that she was listening. The man had frowned slightly, somewhat annoyed that she had barely even acknowledged his presence but continued on anyways.
"The visitor from last night would like to see you. He is waiting in his room. He claims that it is important as well." He said before bowing respectively. Yuki looked up, a light showing in her usually cold impassive green eyes. She had completely forgotten about him. She stood up quickly and walked out of her office, closing and locked the door with care. There were just so many things that were important to her in that office, that nobody was supposed to get their hands on.
She followed the man to the 5th floor of the building, where most of her employees lived, almost like small apartments. She of course lived in the pent house of the building, which she had only shared with one other man since that fateful day.
She came to a door at the end of the hall and knocked on it slightly before opening it to reveal a man sitting on his bed. Yuki tilted her head to the side, realizing that she had never laid eyes on this man before. She took in his features, his extremely neatly combed yet short blonde hair, remembering vaguely that it was brown when she had seen it, his nice creamy white skin, which was once caked in dirt, and then the almost intoxicating wonderful smell emulating off of him.
Yuki stared at him, sucked into a desperate trance. She realized that this was in fact that disgusting creature that she had allowed to enter her office only 12 hours ago, in the depths of the night. She watched his blank expression turn to ones of amusement as he turned his head towards her, and almost at once as looked into his blue eyes, her mind was thrown into a cold dark void.
Never in her life had she seen eyes so empty, and yet so truly alive.
~*~*~*~
Yes!!! I HAVE FINISHED IT! Ok, so maybe you don't understand the euphoric pride sweeping over my tired body right now, but who cares. Anyways I hope that you enjoyed it and I feel like calling my boyfriend, who well is most likely doing something completely meaningless right now, I haven't really talked to him since earlier today and I am already feeling as though I haven't talked to him for an eternity. Well it probably has been an eternity in my eyes, but I am just so love struck. Anyways like I said before I hope that you enjoyed the story, and well please review. Personally I thought that the bathroom scene was somewhat cute, and I did notice that Meryl and Vash stared at each other a whole lot. Anyways review and tell me what you think. I will even take flames, because well, I feel like laughing at those who think my story sucks. Oh yes, sorry if they are a little OOC if not a whole lot.
~*Neko-Sama*~