WARNING: Spoilers ahead! Probably a few pretty major ones by the time this is finished too! ^_^x

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Well, so I own a few stuffed animals from my early childhood days, but other than that, I own nothing.

A/N: Ummmmm, yeah. This has been bugging me to write it for over two months now, so I did.

**Flashback** is pretty self-explanatory

as is **End Flashback**

However, ~~~*~~~ means a scene change without coming out of/going into a flashback

On with the fic…

Of Pudding And A Bounty Hunter

**Chapter 4**

Previously:

He shook his head. Thoughts like that would get him nowhere. As he gazed at her sleeping form, a small smile crept up on him. At least she doesn't hate me… With that, he retrieved a pair of chairs from the kitchen table, plus an extra blanket, and created a makeshift bed next to hers, so that he could keep an eye on her and be there when she woke up should she need anything.

~~~*~~~

Meryl woke up a few hours later, the pain completely gone, thanks to the painkillers she had taken earlier. Looking out the window, she saw that it was still dark out, most likely far too early in the morning for her to even consider waking up. Looking around the room, she saw Vash, asleep in what appeared to be a rather uncomfortable position. He was half-sitting, slouched, in one chair, while he rested his feet on the edge of another opposite the first, a blanket draped over his lanky form. He was gorgeous, even if he was covered in…

She literally smacked herself quite soundly in the forehead. "Moron…" she muttered with a shake of her head.

Vash opened one eye curiously, as he hadn't really been sleeping in the first place. "What?"

Meryl glared at him. "Why you never bother to take care of yourself is beyond me. Get over here so I re-bandage your wounds. Honestly…"

Vash sighed, she was right, he never did bother to take care of himself. But that was because he figured it didn't really matter if he lived, so long as she was alright. With the tiniest semblance of a wince, he got up and walked over to her bed, sitting down on the edge with his back to her. He had once again removed his coat and glasses, doing that before he 'went to bed', and handed her the remaining bandages from when he had taken care of her.

"Shirt" she demanded simply, wondering why he hadn't removed it in the first place. How did he expect her to patch him up if he kept it on?

Wincing just a bit more, he gingerly removed his shirt, exposing his scarred form to her for the umpteenth time. She had told him once that she wouldn't run away, and true to her word, she never had. No matter how many times he came to her full of bullet holes, she always patched him up again like she did it every day.

Having finished replacing the bandages, she moved to get up off the bed so that she could retrieve painkillers for him, knowing that if she had been in that much pain from just one gunshot wound, he had to be in much worse shape from the four he had gotten from Knives.

He grabbed her arms and pulled her back into a sitting position on the bed. "You really shouldn't get up yet" he admonished her. Forgetting about his shirt for the moment, he stood up, turning to face her. "What did you need?"

She answered by simply pointing at the bottle of pills and the empty water glass. picking it up, he went to the kitchen and filled the glass, then handed both it and the bottle of pills to her upon his return. She shook her head, gently pushing the offered items back towards him. "They're for you. I don't need anymore right now." Now it was his turn to shake his head. "I don't need them either."

She snorted, "Oh, so I guess getting shot in the chest four times doesn't hurt the almighty Vash the Stampede at all, huh?"

He frowned, she was mocking him, and it was kind of cute, though slightly annoying. "I don't need pills" he stated simply, placing the glass and bottle back on the small table near her bed.

"Fine" she sighed, frustrated. If he wasn't going to take the pills, the least she could do was help him forget about how much pain he was in, even for a little while. "Sit" she commanded, patting a spot on the bed.

He hesitated, suddenly very wary of what she might do to him for not taking the pills like she had told him too. Plus, Meryl had certainly found reason to hit him over lesser things… Cautiously, he sat down on the bed where she had indicated, as he realized that the particular tone of voice se had used meant that he didn't have a choice in the matter. "What are you going to-" his breath caught in his throat at her gentle touch.

She lightly ran the tips of her fingers over his still bare back, tracing his scars, both old and new, trying to decide where she could work without hurting him. With a small sigh, realizing that she didn't' have much room to work with, she placed two fingers from each hand and her thumbs, and began to gently massage the point where his shoulders and neck connected in small, lazy circles, working her thumbs up and down his spine from the base of his head to his shoulders as she did so.

Vash shuddered involuntarily at the wonderful sensations that now coursed through his body, overtaking the pain he had felt a moment before. Relaxing under her touch, he suddenly realized just how tired her really was, and slowly began to fall back against Meryl's petite frame, despite his best efforts to stay upright.

Meryl smiled, he was finally relaxing. Ever so slightly, she began to push a little deeper into the tissue, all the while gently pulling him back against her, until he was fully braced against her front, allowing him to completely release all his tension.

Giving up his loosing battle to stay in an upright position, Vash sighed contentedly. He enjoyed being so close to Meryl, and even more than that, he enjoyed the fact that she had been the one to suggest such a thing, even though he hadn't really had much say in the matter. He closed his eyes, wanted to remember this for years to come, knowing that she'd probably never let him get this close to her again.

Meryl gradually slowed her fingers as Vash's breathing became slow and even, showing her that he was falling asleep. Once she was convinced that he really was asleep, she stopped completely and gazed down at the outlaw's slumbering form. He was irresistibly adorable and peaceful sleeping in her lap like that. Resisting the urge to reach down and give him a quick kiss on the cheek, much like a loving mother would kiss her child goodnight, she gently slipped out from underneath him, laying him fully down on the bed as she did so. With a last glance over her shoulder at the man she loved, she stood up and began to walk over to the makeshift bed he had been sleeping in himself only moments before.

She got as far as placing one foot halfway in front of the other before she found herself being pulled back into a sitting position on the edge of her bed where Vash was, apparently, not asleep.

"Where are you going?" he muttered drowsily, having rolled over so that he was face down on her pillow, still keeping a firm yet gentle grip on her wrist.

"To bed. Where else would I go?"

"But your bed's over here…" he mumbled, still teetering on the edge of dreams and reality.

Meryl looked at him quizzically, "But you're in my bed and there's no way I'm going to let you go back to sleeping on those chairs again" she said with a tone that meant, 'even think about going back to those chairs and I'll kill you'. She was determined to let him get a good night's sleep for once, as she had always had the feeling that he never really slept, always needing to be partially awake just in case someone tried to attack him at a time when he would be most vulnerable. "So if you'll excuse me, I'll just go over there and get some sleep." Her voice offered no room for argument. Of course, the one thing Meryl failed to realize was that she could go sleep in Millie's bed; whenever she left to go find pudding she didn't some back for days. Meryl assumed it was because she would be buying the shopkeepers out of house and home. However, the thought of leaving Vash alone for even a few hours so that they could both sleep in a decent bed never entered her mind. She got up once again, determined to sleep on the chairs.

"I never said I wanted to sleep on the chairs again…" he muttered slightly more awake than before.

Meryl blinked. She didn't know how it happened, but somehow she had wound up back on her bed, lying next to Vash, covers thrown over her. Somehow, she reasoned, Vash must have pulled her back down and flipped her so that she landed in her current position, which, having seen how he moved while he was dodging bullets didn't seem all that impossible to her, but what she couldn't figure out was how in the heck he managed to throw the blankets over her while his left hand was pinned beneath him and his right was occupied with pulling her wrist.

"G'night Meryl…" he yawned, relinquishing his hold on her wrist so that he could roll onto his back in a more comfortable position.

As soon as she was done being stunned by his actions, Meryl found the strength to glare at him for a few minutes, before giving up on the whole thing with a sigh. This was yet another argument she wouldn't be winning…