Author's Notes: Once again, here I am, posting a chapter that I'm not satisfied with. But I can't figure out what's wrong with it, and nobody else will tell me, so I'm posting it in hopes that it's just my internal perfectionist being a brat. Anyway, this is all in flashbacks (hence the overuse of italics), therefore it's all mostly stuff I made up off the top of my head. My apologies for there not being much in the way of characters from the anime, but I'm working on back story, which is always fun. As always, enjoy, review, and no throwing of rotten vegetables. Please?
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or places from Trigun, though considering most of the stuff in this chapter is original, I almost don't have to say that. But I do anyway, to cover my own arse. So please don't sue?

The young boy awkwardly wiped a tear from his eye, trying his hardest not to break the hug.
"Soon, we're going to find a planet. Then we'll be together again." Rem smiled and led the young boy to his pod. Micheal Saverem never saw his mother again.
After what had only seemed like moments, Micheal woke up. Looking up eagerly, expecting to see his mother's smiling face greeting him, his smile faded when he saw that it was only his aunt. "C'mon hun," Aunt Laurel said as she held out a hand for him to help him up. Still groggy, he stumbled as he got up, reaquiring his 'land legs'.
"Where's mom?" He asked after regaining his balance. "She hasn't been waiting too long, has she?"
"The trip only took five years, hun, but..." His aunt's expression told it all, without need to finish the sentence.
But Micheal had to make certain, maybe from the shock, he couldn't believe it. "But? She's okay, isn't she?"
"She... Didn't make it. Apparently something went wrong with the ships. We were all going to die if they crashed, so she went back. She saved us all, at the cost of her own life." A few seconds of depressing silence followed her explanation, before the two broke down crying.
Drying off his eyes after about five minutes of crying, he sniffled and tried speaking. That failed, so he coughed and tried again. "What am I gonna do now?"
"You can come and live with me and Joseph. You can be like our son, since we can't have one. Would that be okay with you? He nodded and she hugged him, tears starting to flow once again.

Losing your dad at age seven was bad enough, but then losing your mom eight years later (even if it only felt like three) was worse. But at least Micheal had his mother's sister and her husband to stay with, so it could've been much worse. After awhile, most of the others that had known Rem started to lose the memory. But Micheal never forgot. When the society had built up enough to keep records, Micheal was just listed as Laurel and Joseph's son. That only served to depress Micheal further. His mother was forgotten, just a name on the list of people who didn't make it through the first few year; those with someone to remember their names, at least.

Chink, chink, chink. The chisel went further into the stone as chips of granite flew off in random directions. The tombstone Micheal had been working on for the past seven months was almost complete.
"Micheal, your friend is here to visit," Laurel called from the back door. Nine years after landing, the houses were simple but at least they were houses. "Should I have her come back?"
Her? Micheal tried to figure out who it could be, but had no idea. "Yeah, go ahead," he called back, curious as to who the visitor could possibly be.
He looked over his shoulder across the back yard, only to lay eyes on the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.
"Hi Micheal," she said, waving meekly, yet smiling brightly.
"Um... Hi." He smiled as well, trying to hide his confusion.
Apparently, he didn't hide it well enough. "You don't remember me, do you?" He shook his head at her question. "I'm Emily. Your mom was friends with my mom, and we used to hang out." She smiled again, a smile that seemed to make his insides feel funny. "I searched all over after they started doing records, and finally found you after remembering you aunt's last name. I did this because I had stumbled upon your mom's name, and..."
"It's okay Emily, that's actually got something to do with what I'm doing now." He pointed at the nearly-complete tombstone, missing only the dates.
"'In loving memory of Remarie Meryl Saverem, mother, wife, and wonderful person. She will always be missed.' Aww, that's so beautiful." She edged closer, and then hesitantly hugged Micheal.
He hugged back, and probably held it a little too long. Realizing this, he almost jumped back in his hurry to not scare Emily. The awkwardness this brought about was interrupted by a call from the back door.
"Dinner time, Micheal. Invite your little friend, too." Aunt Laurel closed the door, and Micheal realized that he had smelled the food all along, but had been sidetracked enough to not notice.
"Join me for dinner? My aunt's a great cook," he said, extending his hand out in open invitation, glad for the distraction.
She giggled and nodded. "I'd love to." She smiled, showing off all her perfect little teeth, and followed Micheal inside.

Emily was the first female Micheal had truly let himself love after his mother's death. Aunt Laurel he had loved, just not very strongly. His mother's death had really affected him, and Emily understood that. She went with him every year to visit the tombstone memorial he had hand-carved, and made sure that their son knew all about his grandmother. Named Kristopher, after his mother's father, he was born not quite two years after Emily and Micheal's wedding at the age of twenty-three. He grew up hearing all the stories about his grandmother, which Micheal enjoyed telling even more than Kristopher enjoyed hearing them.

"Gramma-auntie!" Kris yelled before jumping into Laurel's lap.
"Whoa there, boy. I'm old and brittle; you have to watch the bones. Might turn to dust any moment." She hugged her great-nephew and laughed with the other adults.
"You're not that old, Laurel. Besides, with age comes true beauty." Micheal smiled. With his thirty one years, he had become quite handsome, just like his mother had always said would happen.
"Wait a second. Compliments? What do you want?" Laurel asked, suspicious now.
"Well, we were hoping for dinner," he replied, laughing.
"Just dinner? Boy, you must learn to keep the big compliments for things much more than just food for your belly," Laurel said before joining him in laughter.
"We saw gramma Remarie's grave today," beamed Kris proudly, as if looking at a carved stone near the S.E.E.D.S. crash site was that much of an accomplishment.
"Well, didja say hi for me?" Laurel asked, as she always did when her grand-nephew informed her of the family's annual trips the graveyard.
"Yup, just like I promised." He smiled widely then, showing off his missing front tooth.
"Well, that's good for you," she replied before scooting him out of the way and getting up out of the rocking chair.
"I'll help you with dinner, Aunt Laurel," Emily volunteered.
"Why thank you, dear."

 Ten years had passed, and Kristopher no longer delighted in visiting his grandmother's memorial. As had been the ritual, Micheal was once again visiting, just as he did every year. Emily had stayed home this time, though, to give him privacy to "talk" to her. As he was approaching, he saw a blonde man in a tattered coat walking away from the graveyard quickly, seemingly coming from the direction of his mother's area.
"How odd," Micheal muttered to himself, then shrugged and headed in himself, humming a tune his mother had been fond of.

Vash was depressed at seeing Rem's memorial tombstone. The words were dirty and moss-covered, and looked as if no one ever took care of it. The name had been too hard to clear, so he had only seen bits of it. What he saw of the inscription had been "In lvin memoy of Remri My Saverem, oer, we, and wderul prsn. Sh wil alay be misd." But the stone had also given him hope, the flowers on the would-be grave not even a year old. She had living relations, he assumed. He could maybe even track down her family. He rushed off, not even noticing the man walking towards the cemetery, carrying the same kind of flowers that had been dying near the stone. He was too ecstatic that he could finally find a piece of Rem!