Disclaimer: Wah.
(A/N :) Yes I know. I should be working on 'Nova'. But I couldn't help myself. Inspiration hit me like a couple thousand elephants.
Two Weeks
Meryl
It was only two weeks.
But to me... it felt like a lifetime. Time passed slower as each day progressed. The movement of the people slowed to a crawl. All sound softened to a whisper.
Vash's absence tore at me every waking minute.
At home I paced the entire length of our house anxiously checking out the window every minute of the day. At work I could barely concentrate on the orders, as every time someone even slightly resembling Vash entered through the doors, my heart would catch in my chest and for an uplifting moment I would think... Is it him?
Has he returned?
Is he safe?
And then as the bar doors closed, the light dimmed, and my heart would fall. It wasn't him. He hadn't returned.
I cried myself to sleep some nights. Worrying. Always wondering if he was out there in that unforgiving desert injured, or worse... dead. Always regretting never telling him how I felt before he left.
I had the chance. He was there. But no more. Now if he were dead... I would never get the chance. He would never know. He would never come back.
I was lost. I was lost in my own little world. As the rest of the town eagerly sought the water veins under the dry earth, I was enclosed in a dark world of tension and uncertainty. Nothing Milly said anymore could raise my spirits.
I sat on the cliff where Vash and I spent his last night here, I sang that song in the hopes that he would somehow hear it and return to me. All I could do was wait. My heart in pain.
The day that the digging crew broke water somehow lifted me out of my solemn world as the joy around me seeped into the pores of the towns' people and even into the earth around us.
It must have been the overwhelming jubilation of the town, but I felt a weight lift. It was if I knew he was returning. I knew he was safe.
Finally I let the excitement of the town envelop me. And finally let myself smile.
It was mid-afternoon four days later and everyone was still celebrating. I was walking among the townspeople when Milly shouted, "Meryl! Look!"
At her words I turned to the east.
Silhouetted against the waves of heat where the clear blue sky and the blazing desert met, a lone figure walked.
Vash.
Slowly, with a tired gait, he made his way down the street, stopped, and put up his hand in greeting.
A rush of emotions battered at me, each demanding to be given all my attention. But the only one I felt as he slid the body of another man down off his shoulder and set him next to a fence... was relief.
Forgetting everything and everyone but Vash, I ran to him.
He grabbed me around the waist, twirled me around, and then hugged me deeply. I felt a single tear of happiness fall down my cheek as I buried my face in his chest.
Suddenly in the middle of the hug I remembered all the worry he had put me through. I backed up then hit him over the head, "Don't worry me like that, dumb ass!"
He rubbed his head and smiled, "I missed you too, Meryl."
A sense of calm that I had never experienced before in my entire life fell over me and the corners of my mouth lifted gently.
He was safe.
He was home.
Alrighty then! I shall now get back to 'Nova' ... (Goes and finds a dark room and stares lovingly at a picture of Fredrik Ljungberg.) Is having perverted thoughts.