Author's Notes:

Well, faithful readers, here we are at chapter, uh, five and yet again I really have nothing substantial to put in my little pre-chapter notes. I'm sorry if this chapter is a little slow. It marks the end of the exposition (Readers: Holy crap! The first four chapters were only exposition??) and the beginning of the *real* plot of the story.

I had only originally intended this to be a pretty short, fluffy fic with minimal angst and drama and so on, but I changed my mind. Needless to say, the story description's gonna be changing soon as well, but that's pretty inconsequential.

This chapter has a re-occurring "waking up" motif that I used a lot because I'm really tired today. Yeah.

Tanku to:

Fezzojoey, Dark Phoenix, Alucard, Pierce, MichiSpiritChan, Sakiya, KaikaNozomi, Molly-chan the Anime/game fan, Misty Shadow, Ah-choo, Polka Dot, Midnight Star, Venus Smurf, Ladybugg, Saiyan Butterfly, Ana, Nian, and Angelmoon.

And to all you people who thought Vash and/or Knives was dead; Shame on you! Vash wouldn't kill his own brother and he "disapproves of suicide", remember??? ^_^

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It only took me about two minutes to realize that Milly and me dragging Vash and Knives through the city to the hotel room in fancy dresses and high heels wasn't exactly the smartest idea.

Firstly, let me tell you that despite his lanky appearance, Vash was heavy. Not to mention the fact that his heels were dragging on the ground. What with our relative size, me dragging him five blocks wasn't a very easy venture. Add to that the fact that everyone around us was staring at us, and that made the trip a very unpleasant one.

After what seemed like decades, we arrived at the hotel, and some employees in the lobby offered to help us carry them up to our rooms. As soon as I finished throwing a blanket over Vash's motionless body, and Milly did the same with Knives, we passed out on the couch from exhaustion.

I awoke to blinding and painful light streaming in through the windows, prying my sore eyelids open like some sort of heavenly crow bar. I groaned unintelligibly, attempting to get comfortable but then realizing that something was constricting my movement. I sat up, still half asleep, and was mildly surprised to find myself sprawled over the couch and more surprised to find myself wearing a slightly wrinkled black ball gown.

At the realization of my surroundings, the memories of last night's events came rushing back to me like a tidal wave. I leapt to my feet as quickly as one can when half awake and wearing a sleep-twisted dress and attempted to make my way to Vash's room as fast as possible, on the way tripping/stubbing/whacking myself on every possible object. I stepped on both of my high-heeled sandals, in the process almost falling but catching myself on the coffee table which I then whacked my elbow on, stubbed my toe on one of the legs of the armchair, scraped my calf on the doorframe, and stumbled into Vash's room where I found him sleeping soundly.

I growled in an almost animalistic fashion and managed to plop safely down into an armchair, muttering a few choice words directed at the hotel managers, Vash, Knives, and God for the experience I had just had to endure.

"All in the name of love, I guess…" I said softly, feeling my anger melt away as I gazed at Vash's sleeping form. He looked so peaceful and calm while he slept. AS if there wasn't a care in the world…

I was jarred from my contemplative state as Milly walked through the door dividing our rooms, rubbing the sleep blearily from her large blue eyes. "Man, you look horrible, Sempai," She yawned. "How 'bout you go take a shower and get dressed and I'll watch over these two boys."

I felt a smile creep over my features at Milly's ever-generous attitude, and also the fact that she referred to Vash and Knives as "boys", as if we were babysitting two unruly brothers, which, now that I thought of it, was pretty much what we were doing. Sure, that was Vash and Knives for you; 133 going on 9.

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Vash and Knives slept in an almost comatose manner for nearly 5 days, during which time the money for the hotel room came out of Vash's pocket which, or so I found, was extraordinarily deep.

I had taken to sitting next to Vash's bed through the night, sneaking over to his room after Milly went to bed and watching him as he slept. Yeah, I know it seems like a kind of creepy-stalker-person kind of thing to do, but I felt a sense of simple and complete happiness when I was sitting there beside him, watching the slow rise and fall of his chest as he breathed.

I made sure that I returned to my room before dawn every night because, for some reason, I didn't want Milly to know about my nightly trips. But one night, apparently I had stayed a little bit too long and I couldn't recognize the signs of my drowsiness until I fell asleep completely, my arms and head resting on the side of Vash's bed.

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Waking up after sleeping for an unnaturally long time is an experience that can be quite scarring to an inexperienced individual. Even I, who was of course very experienced with this kind of thing, was very disoriented when I woke up in the sunny hotel room late one morning, only to find Meryl asleep and half-sprawled across my bed.

Her raven hair was mussed and she was wearing her normal night shirt, I noticed. I wondered vaguely how long I'd been sleeping as I slowly dredged up the events that had happened prior to when I'd last fallen asleep from my memory.

We had been at the restaurant…and I had been dancing with Meryl…and she had almost said…I paused there and did a double-take over my memory, feeling the blood creep up into my cheeks as I looked down at the woman sleeping on my bed.

And then…I froze and sat bolt upright. Knives had been there I had had a fight with Knives and he'd said the strangest things. Where was Knives? Had he escaped again? I quickly found myself in a panic until I gave the room a more thorough scan and found my twin still slumbering on the couch.

I sunk back down against the pillows and found myself absently stroking Meryl's hair.

God, that's weird, I thought. But for some reason I didn't stop. I didn't bother to analyze my actions because I was still busy sorting out my scattered thoughts.

After several minutes, I felt Meryl's head shifting under my hand and lifted it away with shock, as if berating my hand for its rebellious actions.

Meryl's eyelids cracked open and her gray eyes gazed at me sleepily from behind them.

"Ah, Vash. I see that you're finally awake." She woke herself up a little more completely and took in her surroundings, jumping with apparent shock at the realization of her location.

She propped herself up at a position where my traitorous eyes realized that they could see all the way down her nightshirt. With what I considered an extremely large amount of willpower, I wrenched them away and looked at anything but her. Oo…what nice drapes…that picture frame is pleasant…great lamp…very stylish nightstand…wow, great breasts. I mentally whacked myself and cursed every hormonally-oriented part of the endocrine system I could think of and wished for Meryl's privacy's sake that she would just stand up, go back to her room, and change into her normal, reasonably modest Insurance Girl uniform. All the while, of course, another part of me wished she would stay, and perhaps lean over even farther for my personal benefit.

I mentally slapped myself again, but this time, it seemed that the pubescent boy part of my psyche got the better part of the deal. Meryl stood up and then sat next to me on my bed, looking down at her feet in a way that prevented me from discerning her emotions.

"Vash…I need to tell you something."

"Yeah?" I tried my hardest to keep the waver out of my voice.

She buried her face in her hands and ran them slowly up and through her hair. "I'm sorry…this is just…really hard for me." She choked slightly as she spoke, as if stifling a sob.

"It's okay, Meryl, you can tell me whatever." I tried to sound reassuring even though I myself wasn't in the best mental or emotional condition and wrapped my arm around her shoulders.

She looked up at me, tears rimming her eyes, and for some reason, something inside me told me that this wasn't going to be a confession of undying love.

"Vash, we've been assigned to someone else. If we stay with you any longer we're going to lose our jobs."

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Dum dum dummmmm…don't miss the next action-packed installment!