Thoughts, Author's notes, emphasis, title inspired by the Ice Cream song by Sarah MacLachlan.
Disclaimer: I wish I owned Trigun. That's as far as it goes. :(
Pre-Story Notes: Erm, I wanted to include Knives in here, so he's going to be a bit OOC. Oh, also I got overly fluffy and philosophical, and thus slightly boring. If you want to skip over the random parts, feel free to do so. Sorry for keeping you waiting!
Angelarms: Thanks for reviewing again! My villains are funny? :) I hoped they would be entertaining!
Cherry Blossom Princess2: Thanks for the second review! I'm really glad you're not picky. It makes it so there's less pressure on me. Pressure is not a good thing, no!
Neptune Butterfly: I haven't forgotten Kuroneko in this one BWAHAHA!!!
dark-pyro-angel2: O.o is this soon enough? ::smiles nervously::
Neko-Yuff16: ::sad eyes:: Wolfwood! Yay, Vash and Meryl FOREVER and ::pffbt:: to those who say no! BWAHA!
DailyMassacre: I must ask how you got your name... Dun dun dun indeed. :)
Vash gaped at the woman. Her voice -the same pitch, the same tone, the same mellow feel (when the woman wasn't evil) that Divi had. Even more connections were made -the hair was as black as Divi's, the eyes were shaped similiarly, and the color of their irises were almost exactly the same hue and value. Vash was horrified as it dawned on him that this woman and her brothers were so ruthless enough to harm their own flesh and blood.
"You've finally realized it, huh?" The ironing woman asked when she noticed the expression on his face. She sighed. "My name is Lani," she smiled, extending her hand. "Oh, yeah... sorry." She giggled, which turned into a witch-like cackle as she decided to be evil again.
"Why would you do that? Why would you shoot at your own family?"
She looked at him with half-lidded eyes. "Divi... was an unexpected bundle of surprises. Have you noticed the rather large age gap between my sister and I? She was doomed to be different from the start. She chose to be where she is. It's a shame it had to be this way." Lani stared at the wall in deep thought and silence fell around the room, except for the sounds of their breathing. Lani closed her eyes and turned back to Vash. "The boss said you'd catch on." She said, almost as a praise.
"Who would that be?" Vash asked, not so surprised to find out that there was more behind the 4-person operation.
"You think I would actually tell you?" She laughed. "You're a silly boy. Now, rest up, because tomorrow's going to be a very exciting day!" She patted him on the head -or hair- and left the room with the black cloth and iron.
At least she left the light on... Vash looked around the room. What could he do with a washer, dryer, laundry basket and a pull down ironing board? I could wash my clothes if I could get myself untied, he sighed. No windows and only 1 door, which by the sounds of the brothers talking outside Vash figured to be heavily guarded. Vash sighed out loud again, as fatigue and worry (as 3 certain female individuals came into mind) drained him of energy and the ability to think clearly of the current situation.
Meryl massaged her closed eyes as she tried to asses their situation at hand. "How," she asked again, just to release some of her ever growing pent up rage. "How can you have a spare tire, but no jack?!"
Divi wisely or not chose to ignore her. She was just happy that the bullets had hit the car and blown out a tire and not them. "Hey, at least I know where they went. We can wait for someone to find us or we can take a 10 hour walk to get to Farland."
Farland?! Meryl thought. If Vash got turned in it would be the end of him. The end of her life, her existence because she had fallen so hard for him, invested too much emotional stake in him, spent a large part of her life obsessing over him [it was true even though she wouldn't admit it to herself], and he still didn't know that she loved him.
Would she ever see him again? Would she ever hear from him again? Would they lock him up forever behind a cold, concrete jail cell or would they exterminate him on the spot? Oh, if only they knew the person she felt lucky enough to get to know, if only they knew how many more lives he had saved than indirectly destroyed, that -yes, it may have been absurd, but- he had unintentionally destroyed both cities of July and Augusta. Both times he was set up, both times he had been the victim, not the culprit!
But no, they didn't know. And no one was willing to know if they could get their hands on the $$60 billion bounty that had been so graciously bestowed on his head.
"Meryl? Are—are you alright? You look pale..." Milly asked worriedly.
Meryl turned on her heel and faced Divi head on. "Where is Farland?!" She asked, sounding more demanding and harsh than she realized.
Divi looked slightly down (as she was 6'30" and Meryl an even 5 feeles tall), her brilliant turquoise eyes widening in fear. She gulped, and as she lost the ability to speak she pointed in the direction of the setting suns.
Meryl took off in a dead run, refusing to acknowledge the two female voices that called out her name, begging her to return.
I'm not going to lose you again, Vash. Even if I have to take on the entire government by myself, I will not let them take you.
Milly and Divi stared at the continually shrinking image of the short woman running after the setting suns.
"I've never seen Meryl like that before..." Milly commented, blinking in amazement.
Divi shrugged. "Love does crazy things to you." She sighed. "So what do we do now?" Divi winced. "She really did run after him."
"Hmm..." Milly hummed as she stretched out her arms and leaned backwards into her seat. "I don't know. I have a feeling that someone will help us very soon." She winked at Divi, who stared back in wonder.
5 minutes later, as if on cue, the sounds of a churning engine made itself apparent. A familiar choppy-haired blond was seen in the driver's seat, complete with his infamous scowl. He noticed the stranded females and stopped.
"Mr. Knives!" Milly shouted and waved her hands in the air, even though he was only 15 feeles away.
He got out of his car and threw a jack at Divi. It landed neatly before her feet. Milly jumped out of her car and ran toward the blond. "Stay away from me!" His warning failed as Milly nearly tackled him. "Get... off... me... Spider..." He choked, barely able to breath in Milly's gigantic bear hug. "Just because my idiot brother rendered me incapable of murdering you humans," he said as he caught his breath. Divi stared in question as Knives spewed out his now harmless ranting. "That does not mean I despise any of you less."
Milly was unfazed. "But you came!" She smiled.
"I only came here willingly to escape the wretched hellhole you 3 so generously dumped me in." He replied, his voice as icy and cold as his vivid blue eyes were. That was a lie and they both knew. Erm, he's happy working in a geoplant? I suck at writing for Knives. "Where's the short-tempered puny spider?" He asked. "Do I want to know?" He added in fear of getting disgusted.
"She's running after Mr. Vash." Milly answered. Knives groaned. "Mr. Knives, what happened to your face?" Milly asked innocently. There were marks and scratches all along the right side of his face.
He growled in reply. "You really want to know?! This little varmint attacked me and wouldn't get out of my car!" He pointed viciously at the passenger seat of his car, where sat a peaceful looking little black cat.
"Nyao?" It yawned in greeting at Milly.
"Uh, Ms. Milly! I kind of need your help here!" Divi pointed at the (what was to her) incredibly heavy jeep.
Milly smiled at Knives. "I'm sorry, Mr. Knives, but I have to go now!" She tackle-hugged him again and ran back to her car.
Before he left Knives yelled "Take this evil familiar of Satan with you!", throwing the innocent black kitty by the scruff of its neck (acquiring a few more scratches) at the girls. Milly safely caught it in her loving arms.
"That was random," Divi said off-handishly after Knives was gone, with a subtle suspicious undertone.
"The kitty?" Milly asked, scratching said object contentedly between the ears. It purred in delight.
"No. How a man you know just happened to come to the right place, has the right tool, right at the time when we need it?!"
"Oh. Well, you're just lucky, Ms. Divi!" Milly giggled, setting down the kitty in the back seat and cranking the jack, effortlessly lifting the car.
Divi felt kind of angry at how all these coincidences weren't explained, but she then thought of better things. "Hey, Ms. Milly? How far can Meryl run?"
"Meryl? Oh, Meryl has a lot of stamina from chasing Mr. Vash around so much, so I think she can run pretty far. Why do you ask?"
"I was hoping we'd catch up to her before she collapses so she wouldn't be unconscious and/or too tired when we meet up with Vash."
"Meryl won't collapse from running, I'm sure of it. She wouldn't give up on Mr. Vash so easily." Milly and Divi finished replacing the blown out tire with the new one. "But we should still help Meryl get to him faster!" Milly giggled.
Divi agreed wholeheartedly, glad to be back in a fully functional car.
Damn it! Meryl screamed at herself. Why didn't I ask that girl how far away it would be?! Although she wasn't about to give up any time soon, fatigue was slowly but surely catching up to her. With her luck (which was actually his) she had probably run only 2 miles and 15 degrees off course. The fading suns were nearly gone, and Meryl had a hard time distinguishing things on the dry, hard landscape. Meryl tripped over a rock and her body slammed onto the desert floor.
With the adrenaline rushing she didn't feel any pain -except remorse. "Argh!" She screamed aloud. "Stupid rock!" She continued screaming, kicking away the obstructive rock. "What am I doing?!" She groaned. "Why am I running after him?!" Oh, I can't be that deep in love with him... She groaned again.
She was possessive. She was running after him because she fell so hard for him and she wanted him back. She was obsessive. Her body wouldn't succumb to fatigue because she didn't have time to feel tired –all she kept thinking about was him. Meryl breathed deeply.
Was she that pathetic?! This was Vash! That droopy-eyed, wimpy-looking, bristle-headed, promiscuous, donut-freak-of-a-man!
Yes. It was Vash. She was getting defensive again, even in her own head. Damn it, I never thought that dork would affect me so much. She thought bitterly. She was obsessive, and she was possessive, but both in equal parts. She was also sensible, and she unknowingly kept a fine and delicate balance between possession and obsession, and luckily in between the two extremes was love. Gah, I'm so corny XD
Argh, she groaned mentally, putting the heel of her palm on her forehead, as she did whenever she was annoyed. I'm going crazy. She was crazy, for Vash, that is.
Before she could dwell on tangents any further, Meryl heard the tire tracks and Divi shouting at her.
"Ms. Meryl, are you okay?!"
The car screeched to a stop and both inhabitants of the car jumped out. That's funny, where did the black cat Milly was holding come from?
"Meryl, Meryl! What happened?!" Milly asked worriedly.
Meryl smiled weakly. "A stupid rock made me lose my footing."
Milly extended a hand out to Meryl and the fallen woman got up. "Come on, we've got to go get Mr. Vash right now!"
"Erm..." Divi interrupted. "I don't think that's a good idea. There are a lot of bandits out here, especially at night."
"Bandits?" Meryl scoffed. "I think we can take care of a couple of stupid bandits. We don't need to stop."
"Oh, really?" A dark voice said from the shadows. "How do you three girls intend on taking us out?" An army of men laughed.
Meryl groaned inwardly and was glad she had reloaded all her derringers.
"God I hope the girls are okay..." Vash whispered quietly to himself.
He felt stupid for not being able to get out of this situation. It seemed simple enough, all that were tied up were his hands and legs, and he still had his gun arm, so why wasn't an escape plan formulating?
Well, for one thing he wasn't an escape artist, two he had nothing sharp on him or near him, and thirdly it was already morning by the time Vash woke up at 8AM.
The door burst open in front of him. (Lani liked to make loud entrances, it seemed) "Rise and shine, my lovely $$60 billion prize!" She smiled, eyes gleaming with evilness. "It's time to turn you in!"
"Isn't there any way we can talk this over?" Vash whined.
Lani stopped for a moment, in deep consideration. "No." Vash smiled nervously. "Billy, Bobby, come here! It's time to cash in!" The two brothers groaned.
"Hey," Vash said, annoyed. "You could untie my legs and we'd all be happy."
"I don't trust you well enough to do that. You could have a few tricks up your sleeve that I wouldn't have known about." She pointed out, smiling. "Hmm... I probably should have searched you better..." she added rather huskily, eyeing him.
Okay. Creepy.
"Bobby! Billy!" She screamed. "Haul your butts in here!"
10 minutes of groans, grumbles, complaints, pleas and refusals later, the engine revved and the abducting car set off on its destination.
"How--"
"No."
"That's not what I was going to ask. How long is it going to take to get there?" Vash asked.
"Approximately 3 hours." Either Billy or Bobby answered.
3 hours. Would God answer his prayer that a very special insurance girl be ready and waiting there for him in Farland to take him back home in 3 hours?
With his luck...
::Sigh:: This was... kinda late... Sorry. Anyway, I've drawn a picture of Divi on my website if anyone wants to Yep. 3 choices: a pencil sketch in Roughs, you know what's in the Inked, and a spiffy GIMP-colored pic is in the Originals. Yay.