-Part Six-
"Welcome back, Mr. Saverem. I'm Meryl Stryfe, your new boss."Vash was immediately hit with the impression that this woman was going to give him hell. Her entire demeanor demanded that he pay attention to her every move and obey her every whim unless he wished to face the dire consequences. Gulping rather loudly, Vash reached out and gently clasped her hand, watching it bob up and down as she shook it forcefully. Releasing his fingers, Meryl made her way back behind her desk and motioned for the frightened blonde to take a seat in the newer, more comfortable chair that had replaced the old, uncomfortable, orange one.
"So, it appears you were attack by some sort of 'gang', as it says in your medical report, Mr. Saverem."
Meryl was shuffling her way through a stack of papers, much like Vash's previous boss, but she seemed to actually be looking for something, instead of wasting time. He nodded silently, not finding the courage to speak to this brash woman. Sniffing politely, she nodded as well, as if this confirmed everything.
"Mr. Saverem, it appears that your former employer saw you as a bit of a ... problem, shall we say in the least. There are numerous files filled with complaints of your behavior and other various actions that would deem you as, indeed, a problem. I have recently found evidence that you were taking lessons from some other employee here who was infinitely more experienced than you. Am I correct?"
Vash, his cheeks flushing in embarrassment, nodded quickly in the affirmative.
Meryl gently laid the papers on her desk in an orderly pile, lacing her fingers together and tucking them under her chin as she stared intently at Vash.
"Mm-hmm. Well. Mr.Saverem, I would like to make it known that I will accept no foolishness what so ever in this establishment. Any childish behavior will immediately be reported to my office and you will be handed your two- week notice before you can even think about begging for your job. I have already informed several people in the work-force as to my wishes and they will be watching you like hawks, as will I. If you slip up so much as one time, you are out of here."
She loosened her hands and picked up her mug of coffee, gingerly sipping on the cold liquid. Brushing her dark bangs out of her face, Meryl looked past Vash and towards her secretary who had been stationed near the glass door.
"Millie, would you please?"
Meryl lifted her cup of coffee suggestively, asking the tall girl to fill up her cup. Taking large, graceful strides, Millie reached her boss and cheerfully took the mug away from her, stepping back and heading for the door. Meryl then turned her attention back to the terrified Vash. Smiling thinly, she waved at him.
"So, if there are no further questions, you may go. I hope you recover fully from your ordeal. Have a nice day, Mr. Saverem."
Vash attempted a muttered 'thank you', but it merely came out as a whimper. Shuffling hurriedly out the door, he made a bee-line for the lounge, determined to get a cup of coffee before all of it was drained from the jar.
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Upon his arrival at the lounge, Vash slowly creaked open the heavy door and scuttered inside, taking refuge in the dimly lit room. The only other person in visible sight was Millie, who was retrieving her boss' coffee from the bubbling machine. He noticed how she was humming a tune quietly, almost to herself, and how she bobbed along to the cream and sugar, happy in every action that she took. When she turned and noticed Vash, her smile permeated the entire room, penetrating even Vash's unhappiness."Morning, Mr. Saverem! Would you like some coffee, too?"
Vash shook his head.
"No, it's okay. I can fix it myself."
Just to prove his point, Vash grabbed a small, stryafoam cup and poured himself a cup of the steaming liquid. He was going to need a great deal more cups than this if he was going to survive everyday with Meryl Stryfe breathing down his neck. This made him frown, gently blowing on his hot coffee.
Millie took note of his frown, concern once again covering her face as she set down Meryl's drink and tapped the blonde of the shoulder, showing not even a trace of timidness. Despite the fact that Vash was trying to drown himself in his coffee, he managed to turn around and see her starting at him intently.
"Why're you so sad, Mr. Saverem?"
Formalities bothered him whenever Millie was speaking.
"Please, just call me Vash... and there's nothing wrong. I'm fine- "
"You're lying. Was it Sempai's speech?"
Vash's eyes darted to the floor, unaware of how perceptive Millie truly was, despite her naive front.
"O-Of course not."
She nodded sagely, reassuring herself as to Vash's problem.
"You shouldn't let Sempai get to you, Mr. Vash."
Well, at least she dropped the Saverem.
"She really is a nice person, once you get past that tough exterior she puts up all the time. I've known her for a really long time and she's a wonderful person. I'm not saying that you shouldn't take her seriously. She really will take away your job, Mr. Vash, and I really hope she doesn't do that."
Millie frowned, worrying over Vash like he was her little brother. The blonde had never met someone so immediately compassionate. She had known him for less than an hour and she was already concerned for him, becoming his ally in the workplace in an amazingly short time period. He gulped, squinting his eyes shut as he smiled weakly.
"I'll try my best, Miss Thompson."
She grinned at him again, lighting up the room. Quickly picking up Meryl's coffee, she waved goodbye to Vash, taking a few steps towards the door. Blinking for a moment, the blonde paused and stared at the closed door, thinking over the puzzling Millie. Finally shrugging it off, he turned to his drink, blowing on it once more before gulping it down. Crushing the cup in his fist, he threw it to the garbage can, missing it by a few inches.
"I think I could grow to like Millie."
He nodded and bent down, picking up his ball of a cup and gently letting it drop into the waste disposal before shoving his hands in his pockets and walking out the door.
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Vash was tapping his pencil on his desk, casting a glance at his computer's clock every five seconds. Waiting and waiting.And waiting.
The blonde had been growing ever more impatient as Wolfwood was five minutes late, ten minutes late. Grumbling to himself, he watched the clock change another minute, making Wolfwood officially fifteen minutes late. Frustrated, Vash stood up from his desk, his rolling chair shooting backwards to hit the cubicle wall behind him. The blonde jerkily shoved his pencil into a can on his desktop as he watched the clock again.
Twenty minutes.
Thirty minutes.
By the time Wolfwood was an hour late, Vash was fuming, highly disappointed, and more than a little hurt that his 'friend' had completely forgotten his duties. Deciding not to wait a minute longer, he grumpily shut down his computer and stomped to the elevator, smashing in the small, lighted button, calling the machine to his floor. He leaned against the small space of a wall next to the elevator door and crossed his arms, pouting like a five-year old who had just lost a fight with his mother over something very trivial. The elevator doors slid open and Vash marched into the tiny, enclosed space, mashing in the button for the first floor.
"Hey, Tongari."
Startled beyond belief, Vash turned to see Wolfwood casually leaned against the elevator wall, breaking the rules of the building by smoking a cigarette indoors. He blew a ring of smoke at the stunned blonde and then stubbed out the stick on the polished walls of the box. He had one hand shoved into the pocket of his black slacks, two buttons undone on his bleach-white shirt, which happened to be highly wrinkled from sitting all day. It was untucked and Wolfwood looked like one of the most comfortable people in the world as he slowly crossed his ankles.
Grinning lazily at Vash, he waved a few fingers at the blonde, who seemed to be awestruck in Wolfwood's presence. Blinking himself back to his senses, Vash coughed at the heavy smoke clogging the air and waved his hand a few times in front of his face to clear the noxious fumes away from him. Then he remembered his anger at the other man's absence.
"Wolfwood, you jerk! You were supposed to be here an hour ago!"
The dark haired man chuckled deeply, causing Vash to frown even more.
"Let's just say I was a bit caught up today, Tongari."
"What happened?"
"Couple of my bosses apparently didn't like what I was doing in a report. Thought it was unorthodox... Something like that. Chewed me out for it."
The blonde frowned further, upset not only about Wolfwood being chewed out, but also out of concern for the stability of the man's job. If Wolfwood was fired, Vash would have no excuse to see him, and for some reason, the very thought made Vash want to cry. He dropped his eyes to the floor, studying his black shoes.
"I'm sorry to hear that, Wolfwood."
"Mm. Yeah, me, too."
Vash was still content to stare at his shoes, giving Wolfwood the chance to study the blonde. He wasn't reprimanding himself this time, drinking in his friend's appearance quickly, lest the blonde found the sense to look up. Apparently, Vash was not taking too much notice in Wolfwood's advice. He was still slouching horribly, his shirt was loosely tucked in and his pants were barely ironed. His shoes were polished perhaps a little too hastily and they were almost untied. His hair style was the same as always, but blonde strands were tipping down and brushing his forehead as he frowned, his head bowed slightly.
Wolfwood felt a twinge somewhere deep in his chest as he took in Vash's sadness, feeling himself become sad by simply watching his friend frown. Wolfwood didn't like it, and as the elevator hit the first floor, he decided that he would tell Vash so.
The metal doors slid open, Vash propelling himself from the wall and heading towards the open space of the darkened lobby just before Wolfwood exited the machine. When the pair were about halfway to the large, glass doors that led to the outside, Wolfwood caught Vash's wrist in his hand, pulling the confused blonde to a sudden stop. Turning to look at his dark haired friend, Vash frowned again, wondering what in the hell he was doing.
Wolfwood looked very serious, hand still clasping Vash's wrist. He felt that he should be repulsed by this feeling that was bubbling up inside him, bringing back that warmness he loved so much. But this felt right, whatever he was doing. He needed to cheer Vash up. Reaching his free hand up to Vash's slightly down-turned face, he lifted the other man's chin with his long fingers, forcing him to look into Wolfwood's cobalt eyes.
"You should never frown. You never know who's falling in love with your smile."
Vash's cerulean eyes widened to their limit and Wolfwood released his friend, leaving the blonde in his shocked stupor for a moment. The dark haired man was grinning like a fool for some reason not even he knew. Maybe it was because what he had done had felt perfectly alright with most of his system, despite the fact that he had just basically hit on friend in a weird way.
But what the hell. Doesn't matter. Let him interpret it the way he wants to.
Wolfwood went ahead and strolled out the glass door and began the trek towards his car. When he turned and realized that Vash was not following him, he walked backwards, leaning back and staring in the door at the blonde who was still recovering from his small dose of shock.
"You coming, Tongari?"
Shaking his head back and forth, Vash gave Wolfwood an incredulous look, almost like a deer in headlights, before flashing the dark haired man one of the brightest smiles he had ever seen. A bit taken aback at Vash's enthusiasm, he watched as the blonde bounded out the door and raced towards Wolfwood's car, grinning like a madman the whole way there.
Glad he's taken my words to heart. A smile suits him much better.
Deciding to analyze these unbidden thoughts of Vash's cuteness later when he was in bed, he shoved them all to the back of his mind and began dashing towards his car, easily catching up with the gasping blonde.
"Last one to the car pays for dinner!"
"Dinner?!"
"Yeah! I'm taking you out to eat! I'm hungry!"
Vash nearly stopped running, but realized he didn't have a dime on him, which in turn, made him run as fast as his skinny legs would carry him.
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After running all the way to the large garage stack, Vash was winded beyond anything, and his poor legs were about to give out completely, Wolfwood and himself had run up at least five levels and the dark haired man's car was now in sight. This gave Vash some more incentive, as there were no cars on the entire level and he wouldn't have to worry about dodging anything.
Pumping his long legs to their limit, he began to push himself overboard, dragging himself closer to the vehicle every second. He reached the car a few seconds before Wolfwood, slamming into the passenger side with monster truck force, the silver handle digging into his hip as he gasped for breath. Wolfwood, who had been running almost as fast as his friend, found it very hard to stop himself, thus he slammed into his winded companion, breaking his crash only by planting his hands on either side of Vash directly before he stopped.
Vash found Wolfwood's body in a very close proximity with his own. In fact, it was pressed against his side and soon, his shortness of breath was not just from running. Dark bangs were hanging in front of his companion's eyes as Wolfwood ducked his head, not even slightly ashamed that he could not find the will to move his arms away.
Turning slightly, Vash was facing Wolfwood, his chest centimeters away from his friend's. The blonde was timidly lifting a hand, reaching out for the dark tendrils of hair that were begging to be brushed to the side, Wolfwood's shoulders heaving up and down as he tried to regain his breath.
This was wrong.
This was wrong on so very many levels and it went against all that Vash was thought in the ways of good and evil.
But as he slowly brushed back Wolfwood's hair, tucking the shaggy strands behind his friend's ears, his morals seemed to dissolve and good and evil didn't matter as much anymore. All that he really was caring about was the being in front of him, the entity that was dissolving his concept of sin. Wolfwood slowly looked up, so surprised by the action that his breath had caught.
The blonde's hand hung in the air, his fingers a few inches away from Wolfwood's face as if he were going to touch him again. He found himself leaning forward once more, eager to feed whatever hunger inside him drove him forward. Inside Wolfwood's head, an inner battle was raging, a jerking tug-o-war of emotions that cried at him to pull back and shrieked at him to push forward.
So instead, he found himself stuck in the middle, feeling himself freeze in shock while he did nothing to pull away. The blonde was so close, Wolfwood could feel the warm breath coming from his friend.....
"Hey! Why don't you two get a room and get the hell outta here!?"
A pudgy, middle-aged security guard was positioned in a white golf cart several feet away from Vash and Wolfwood, the company logo slapped onto the side of the vehicle like the driver could care less. The man was glaring at the pair with the utmost digust as he chugged some coffee for his late night hours.
Wolfwood, his arms still trapping Vash, immediately jerked back, shoving his hands in his pockets and giving room for the blonde to get in the car. A bright red blush was shooting from Vash's toes to the very top of his head, his cheeks burning in the embarrassment of being caught doing something the world thought was bad. Wolfwood, personally, thought it was one of the most adorable things he had ever seen, but decided now was not the time to confess to that feeling.
Hastily fumbling with the car door handle, Vash dove into the relative safety of the car, burying his face in his hands after he clicked his seat belt into place. Wolfwood watched the blonde scramble into the car and the way he practically curled up in embarrassment before turning to see the digust on the security guard's face. Not giving a damn in the slightest, he flipped off the rude officer and grinned as the man spluttered into his coffee, hurriedly getting into his car and backing out as fast as he could, not giving the security guard much warning. The little golf cart zoomed forward as fast as it could and reached the safety of the wall as Wolfwood left the garage, chuckling to himself as he heard the guard's loud threats and saw his obscene gestures in the rear-view mirror.
Now that that's taken care of...
He turned to assess that Vash was still huddled in an ashamed ball on the car seat, his red face covered almost completely by his splayed hands. Wolfwood decided to ignore the entire situation that had just taken place, pushing the event to his subconscious until a later date, so he wouldn't swerve off of the road and into a streetlight.
"So, where do you want to eat tonight?"
"Huh?"
Vash finally pried his palms away from his still flushed face and stared at Wolfwood before remembering the bet his companion had made.
"O-Oh... Uhm... I .. I dunno. You pick the place. I usually just order take- out Chinese food."
Wolfwood noticed that the blonde was pointedly staring out of the window at the passing lights of the night-time streets. He found himself grinning.
"Hm. So no-go on the Chinese, since you have it a lot. How about Italian?"
Vash turned his blue-green gaze on Wolfwood in amazement.
"Italian? Isn't that a bit expensive?"
The dark haired man laughed quietly.
"Of course not. My treat. Come on, how about it?"
His friend nodded rather too quickly and turned to the window once again, content to stare out at the interesting scenery, trying to put from his mind the event that had just occurred.
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With his hunger fully satiated, Vash was drowsily attempting to keep his eyes open as he leaned his head back on the head rest, his eyelids feeling as though they weighed five tons each. Wolfwood was driving him back home, taking his time as the radio softly played. Lazily, he cast a feeble glance at Wolfwood, who was driving the car with one hand and drumming his fingers on his car door with the other."When the moon hits your eyes... dum dum dum ... That's amore..."
Vash was entranced. Wolfwood had a really great tenor voice and the more he sang, the more Vash fell in love with it. Occasionally, he would hit a lower bass note and a shiver would snap through the blonde's body, despite his relaxed demeanor.
"When the world seems to shine, like you've had too much wine... That's amore... dum dum dum... "
It truly was mesmerizing to Vash and he found himself completely absorbed, growing closer and closer to some sort of admittance... Something was raging against the emotional barriers in his mind, something that wanted so desperately to break loose.
"... Back in old Napoli, that's amore..."
He quietly hit the final note and held it softly before stopping the car, breaking Vash out of his reverie and pushing him back to reality, all confessions shoved to the side as he unhooked his seatbelt. Wolfwood turned and stared as the blonde clambered out of the car, stumbling to his feet on weak knees.
"I'll walk you to the door, Tongari. I still don't trust this neighborhood."
Vash nodded slowly and began to walk towards the entrance of his apartment building as Wolfwood grabbed his keys out of his car, locking the doors behind him. The pair made their way up the stairs and to the rickety door where a large, white sign had been plastered over most of the upper portion. Under the flickering light above them, they both made out the words:
To All Residents: This building is being condemned by the National Board of Health as a structure to be torn down. No construction will be made to replace the building. All personal belongings should be removed from the building by the date listed at the bottom of this notice. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
Signed, The Managers
Vash's eyes widened fractionally as he finished the notice.
"The sign says I have to have my stuff out by tomorrow. Oh my God... Wolfwood! What am I gonna do?! I don't have any place to live! Where am I going to get the money for a new apartment!?"
But as the blonde was falling into hysterics, Wolfwood was busting open the door and sticking his head inside, checking to make sure there was nothing to kill him on the other side. Vash was rather stunned as his friend began to saunter up the steps to Vash's apartment, his hands shoved in his pockets. Wondering what he was doing, the blonde scrambled up the steps, grabbing his arm and stopping him. Wolfwood looked down on the blonde, who was positioned further down than he was.
"What're you doing, Wolfwood?"
"I'm going to get your stuff, of course."
Vash continued to stare up at him, confused.
"What do you mean?"
Wolfwood smiled and pulled a cigarette out from his back pocket, striking a match on the filthy wall beside him.
"Well, I figured you would want your stuff, since you were going to be staying with me and all for a while."
The blonde blinked as a slow smile crept to his face. He let go of Wolfwood's arm and grinned fully.
"Do you mean it? I can really stay with you?"
The dark haired man blew out a puff of smoke before answering.
"I wouldn't have said it unless I had wanted you to, Tongari."
Wolfwood nearly fell off the stairs as Vash tackled him and hugged him around his waist tightly, squeezing the breath from his companion in a matter of seconds. He laughed rather loudly and pried the childish blonde off of him before resuming his trip up the stairs.
"So, which apartment is yours?"
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A/N : grins So? Didja like it?? I had fun writing this chapter. It was nice and happy.. and sorta fluffy, though not really. I'm trying to pull Wolfwood and Vash closer together as slowly as possible, even though I do wish I could hurry myself up... Oh, and yes, that song. It's 'Dean Martin : That's Amore' if you were interested at all. I love that song =)Oh yeah, apparently, I've been spelling 'styrafoam' wrong, but I had no clue that I was. Technically, the spelling is 'styrofoam'... But I'm too lazy to go back through my story and re-type what sounds just the same. I don't think anybody really cares. If they do, uhm... They should probably get a life -.-;
You've read, please review. I loooove getting the attention! ::wags tail::