Disclaimer – Trigun belongs to the honorable Nightow-sama... not me. So don't sue!

Chapter 5

Meryl felt her world tilt once again. "Your feelings...?"

Vash felt like letting out a deep breath; it was almost as if a heavy weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. Wolfwood had been right – confession was good for the soul.

Now it was her watching him, waiting for his response, "Vash...?"

Could he possibly go through with this? He found his courage wavering. 'Damn it... bail out!'

For someone who could stand down an angry mob and not break a sweat, he found it exceedingly difficult to maintain his composure. Just looking at her and imagining all the various reactions she could have made him want to curl up and slink away. Panicking, he let out that false laugh of his, turning away from her.

"No... nothing," he replied, slowly edging away from her. "Forget I said anything, Meryl—"

Everything froze.

'Shit! Shit! Shit! Shiiiiit!'

'He said my name... he actually said my name!' Meryl felt as if she were going to burst. However, reality returned very quickly as she found the object of her consternation trying to discreetly slink away. 'He— he's walking away?!' She frowned in frustration. 'The hell he is...'

"Just where do you think you're going?"

Vash let out a wail as the one feared as Derringer Meryl grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, yanking her to face him. Balance effectively thrown off, he landed on his butt in the sand at her feet. Out of reflex, his hands shot up to protect his head from the beating he was almost certain to get.

"Do you really think I'm that stupid?" she exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at him. He knew better than to answer that one. "You're not getting off that easily, mister, you brought me out here for a reason – I know it!"

"Really...?" Strangely enough, her anger at him was somewhat comforting. So he was a masochist, after all. Go fig.

However, just as soon as it had come, her anger faded away, leaving her to lower herself to his level with a heavy sigh. She lowered her head, closing her eyes.

"Meryl...?" He reached out a tentative hand to touch her.

"Don't." she replied. "Just don't."

Golden brows furrowed in confusion as he pulled back. What had just happened? What was wrong with his Meryl? 'Hold on – MY Meryl?'

"You're so cruel..." she murmured. "You open up to me just to pull away again..." Her hands clenched in her lap. "Why...?"

Well, that wasn't exactly fair. She wasn't really Miss Congeniality herself. "You do the same thing, too, you know."

She turned to face him angrily. "That's because I have to!" she exclaimed. "If you ever found out that I—" Surprise skirted across both their faces before she clapped a hand over her mouth, turning to stare at the sand again.

"That you what...?" he prompted, some underlying tone evident in his voice.

'Oh hell...' Things were already awkward between them, what was the point in lying? "That I..." She turned back to face him only freeze as he leaned down towards her. His lips brushed against hers in the lightest of kisses. Had she not already been wide-awake, she would have thought she dreamt it.

Moving away slowly, his eyes lidded slightly, he only gazed at her blinkingly. "I've... wanted to do that for a while now..."

'He kissed me...? Vash just kissed... me?!'

"But what..." She swallowed, taking a deep breath. "Does that mean...?"

He blinked again, seemingly coming back down from whatever cloud he had been floating on.

"I don't know," he admitted sheepishly. "I could try it again, if you like." And before Meryl could even mutter any sort of protest, he leaned forward again with a kiss much deeper than the first.

Overcome, Meryl found herself leaning towards him, a hand gripping the fabric of his shirt. She clung to him like a lifeline up until her body began to demand oxygen replenishment.

A goofy grin spread across Vash's face as he brought a hand up to his lips. "Wow," he breathed. "That was better than I thought it'd be."

Embarrassed, Meryl turned away from him. Why was he playing with her? "Don't joke like that..."

"I'm not." She glanced back him, his expression suddenly intense again. How was it he could switch emotions so easily? "I meant what I said earlier, you know." She merely looked at him. "You saved my life." He looked down at her hand still clutching his shirt before placing his hand on top of it. "When I really think about it, you saved my soul."

"I..." She wasn't sure of what to say.

Vash cut her off, "Funny thing is, when you stood in front of me that day, the only thing I could think of at first was how much you reminded me of Rem – your belief in people, your willingness to believe in me even after all the things that had happened to you because of me. You stood up for me, despite all that had happened. You were strong – stronger than me."

"I'm not stronger than you, Vash!" Meryl exclaimed. "I'm--" He shook his head.

"And then when the three of us were alone there, and I was holding you..." Meryl blinked at the tinge of pink spreading across his face. "I realized that there are so many more sides to you than just the Insurance Girl – I had just ignored them in favor of the bigger picture... but holding you there, I realized how close I had come to losing. Losing you." He looked down at her, his aqua eyes shining. "I didn't ever want to lose sight of you again."

"But you left again..."

"I know... but I had to," Vash's face took a pained expression briefly. "But I came back... I came back to you."

For lack of anything else to do, Meryl let out a short sigh. "Why didn't you ever say anything?"

"Didn't know how, I guess," he replied with a shrug. "Besides, I wasn't sure how you'd take it. After all, what can a donut-scarfing Needle-noggin like me offer you but armloads of trouble?"

She laughed, and Vash found himself smiling once again. "The same thing some loud, bitchy, bossy old know-it-all who nags at you all the time can, I guess."

This time he laughed also. "Vash...?"

He looked down at her questioningly. "Hm?"

"Do you think that you'd ever..." She looked down at her feet, feeling embarrassed once again. "Feel as strongly about anyone as you did Rem?"

"No." She forced herself not to look up lest he see the hurt on her face. "What I felt for Rem was kinda like what a son feels for his mother... but I..." He chuckled. "I feel something like it – a little stronger maybe – right now."

"Oh..." Her voice sounded so small, even to herself. Was this what Derringer Meryl had been reduced to? Scrounging up her courage, she forced herself to meet his gaze, which was still focused on her. "Towards who?"

Then something miraculous happened. A smile appeared on his face, brighter and truer than any she had ever seen. So honest was it that she felt tears pricking at her eyes at the mere sight of it.

"Towards you, Meryl." He replied. "Towards you."

She blinked, completely stunned.

He leaned towards her, his face mere inches away from hers. "When you saved my soul that day," he replied softly. "You also took my heart." 'Damn, I'm cliché!' "I'm in love with you, Meryl."

Well, there were two ways she could respond to this. One was to turn into a sobbing heap in his arms, professing her undying love for him as well. However, that didn't quite seem like something quite fair. Besides, after all the mental and emotional duress he had put her through, should she let him have it easy?

Of course not; that just wasn't Derringer Meryl's style.

Meryl's mouth closed over his as she initiated a deep and passionate kiss that would have stood his hair on end had it not already been in its usual stick-straight hairstyle. After a few seconds, she pulled away from him, smiling.

"I'm in love with you, too, Vash." She replied.

His eyes lit up in joy. "Really?"

"Really." With that, she pulled back away from him.

Before he could ask what she was doing, Vash's eyes widened in horror as her fist came flying out of nowhere. It sliced through the air with record speed, colliding with is face and sending him crashing into the ground. After sliding backwards a few feet, he collected his jaw in his hand, looking up in bewilderment. "Hey, just what the hell was that f—"

His mouth snapped shut at the furious look she gave him. "THAT'S for being such a Needle Noggin!!" With that, she began her stomping trek back towards the house.

For a few moments Vash merely stared after her blinkingly. Yow... he worked his jaw experimentally. Meryl Stryfe wasn't your average Insurance Agent – hell, she wasn't your average anything.

And he loved her.

000

Although she tried to maintain her furious façade, Meryl could not keep the grin from her face. He loved her – he had actually said so himself. Her mind went briefly through all the hardships they had overcome with him. Was there any doubt in her mind of her feelings for him?

'No... none whatsoever.'

Legato had tried to twist her mind against him... to make her hate Vash the way everyone else seemed to. But little did he realize how futile a task that had been when she had already been in love with him.

In her eyes, Vash was a good and honest man. He always would be.

"Hey, Meryl... wait for me, will ya? Aaah, you're so cruel to me, Meerrrrryllll!!!"

He'd always be a Needle-noggin, too, but that was beside the point.

She had thought that day in LR had been the worse day of her life – perhaps it had been. However, it was also the beginning of many, many more.

Vash finally caught up to her, slipping his hand into hers. She found herself giving him a small smile that which he eagerly returned.

Many more days with Vash? Meryl couldn't wait.

End

Author's Notes –Wow... the ending didn't really come out like a wanted it, but really that's no one's fault but my own. I had started writing this with no intention of including Knives, but it was brought to my attention that his at least being mentioned was integral to the plot of the story. He is the real reason behind Vash's constant suffering after all, so he needs to be mentioned.

However, seeing since I had meant for this to be only 4 chapters (of course, it isn't, but that's really no surprise) I got a bit lazy and hurriedly explained the whole resolution with Knives. It's a cop out, I know, and I apologize for that, but I couldn't really think of anything else without going too far off on a tangent. The point of this fic was merely to focus on how the events of LR affected Meryl and Milly – Meryl especially – and I had already deviated from that. Again, my bad.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this brief little ficlet. Once again, I got an idea and just had to get it out of my system – I'm sure you understand. I want to thank everyone for his or her reviews and constructive criticisms. They mean a whole lot to me.

(Wow, this author's note is a bit more depressing than I'd thought it'd be... maybe it's cause of the track I was listening to... can't think of the name of it off hand, but it was track 9 off Chevelle's new cd... which I LOVE! Actually, the fact that it's after midnight might be a factor, too... )

Erm... got on a tangent again... damn, those things are pain, ain't they?

Anywhoo... remember the 3 R's of fanfiction, guys...

Reading

Writing

Reviewing

Ja matta ne!