The Usual Disclaimer: I do not own Trigun, Meryl, Milly, Wolfwood, Rem, Knives, or Vash, as much as I wish I owned one particular character. . . .Oh, well. I can dream, can't I?

Glory

Chapter Four: Reminscing

She was sitting on a bench when it happened. Out of nowhere, it seemed, a human missile launched at her and clung tightly to her shoulders. If she hadn't been off guard, she would've known it was going to happen. But since she was, she barely resisted jumping and spinning on her attacker.

But she already knew who it was. Only one person had ever acted this way around her, although by now she thought he'd have gotten over it.

"Wesley, cut it out," she said, standing up and prying his hands apart. She got laughter as a reply.

Wesley, a red-headed boy - no, man now - had always been overactive around her. His hair was cut short and fluffy, his eyes a light but still bright shade of blue. You could almost see through them. He retained several freckles across his nose from his younger years, she noticed. His face was less that of a handsome man but still cute. Today he was wearing a light blue shirt, tight and showing off his full-grown muscles and a pair of pure black jeans. And even after all this time, he still preferred brown boots.

She shook her head. "Only you, Wesley."

He laughed again. "They don't call me that anymore. Now they call me. . ." he struck a pose, "Wes."

She laughed out loud at him. After all this time, he was still such a kid. He must be in his mid-thirties by now. "Wes, huh? Well, I suppose it was about time you got yourself a nickname."

He shrugged, putting his hands into his pockets. "I guess." There was a few moments of silence, both of them just standing there. Then he spoke again. "How'd you like to meet my wife?"

She did a double take. "You have a wife now?"

"Why?" he asked, then raised a brow and grinned. "Jealous?"

"Hardly," she laughed out. "But I had the impression you'd never settle down enough to get a wife."

His grin didn't waver. "And twin girls."

"Ah, I see. Do you have a job, too?"

"I'm multi-talented," he said, again shrugging. "So how bout it?"

"Another time; I have things to do today," she said evasively.

"Whatever. Later, Glory," he said, and waved as he walked away. "But you're going to meet them!"

She waved back. "I wouldn't miss it!" She laughed again as he left, and in her peripheral vision she caught a red shirt and blonde hair standing on end. Instantly she lowered her eyes to her seat and sat back down. She made no move to show she knew he was coming, but she caught his feet pause in their walking for a moment. Another second passed and she heard his voice.

"Hey, Glory!"

She looked up, to her left first, as though she wasn't sure which way it was coming from. Then her head swung to the right and caught Vash waving at her. Her heart froze in her chest for a second when she saw his face.

There was that grin again. The silly, playful, I'll-never-grow-up grin. She knew that half the time it was just an act to keep everyone off-guard about him, but she could tell this one was straight from his heart. She smiled and stood up again, waving in return. She'd left her boomerang on a roof, and apparently he noticed it was missing.

"Hi, Vash," she said back as his eyes scanned the empty ground next to her. "I wasn't expecting to see you again so soon." It was an honest sentence, at least.

"You're missing a certain weapon," he pointed out.

"I know." She smiled. "And it's a weapon to bring peace to the world," she corrected. "Get it straight or don't get it."

She saw that sentence startled him. He wasn't expecting that one - good. That helped her. "You know," she went on, "you're missing a certain someone."

He laughed once. "Yes, I know. She's gone off to get something." His eyes glittered and narrowed like he was about to tell a secret. "I think she's gone to buy donuts." Once the words left his lips, his eyes widened again like that of a child in a candy store and he clasped his hands together. "Oh, please let it be donuts," he said, eyes focused on the sky.

Glory laughed in pure delight at him. "I believe the word is 'addicted'," she told him, and took a few steps towards him. It got annoying fast when people kept walking in between them, obscuring her sight of him. "Where are you headed?"

There was that grin again. "You probably won't understand, but I'm going to the plants."

"Really?" She raised an eyebrow for effect. "What for?"

"That's my secret," he told her, as though it was one of those if-I-told-you-I'd-have-to-kill-you things.

"Well, can I tag along?" she asked. "I've got nothing better to do for today."

"Planning on spying on me?" he asked, only half teasing. Then he was catching on that their "chance encounters" weren't quite so much "chance". That was good.

She drew an invisible tally in her mind's eye. That made it Vash: one, Glory: infinite. He was catching up. About time. "Well, let me come and you'll find out," she said back.

He raised one brow at her remark, then shrugged. "Come then, if you like. It's not like you're banned from the plant, right?"

"True," she laughed. He continued his questioning as they made their way to the plant, and she continued to answer evasively. In truth, she'd been meaning to visit them again - after all, she hadn't seen them in quite a few years. She just hoped they wouldn't tell Vash about her. That just might screw things up.

The plants were just as she remembered them, but she didn't let them notice her or let Vash see anything except curiosity in her face. She asked questions to the man who was leading them, questions about where they got the plants, what they were and how they got power from them. It was always interesting listening to human's theories about the plants.

"As far as I know, they're some sort of alien species, and they're very generous - or that's what my mother says. It might be childish to think like that after all these years, but I guess I'm one of those guys who'll never grow up."

"Don't be silly," Glory said. "No pun intended, but really, George, everyone has to have an opinion. I'm just happy that yours isn't 'They're weaker creatures with too much extra power'." Without noticing, she let disgust into her voice, and she didn't notice Vash's gaze as George replied to that with interest.

"What, did somebody actually say that?"

"Don't worry, he paid for that one," she assured him.

"So what," Vash began, "you don't believe that plants are weaker creatures?"

"Of course not. They're not batteries," she said, then bit her tongue. She was giving herself away! She was lucky she didn't say 'We're not batteries', or that would have gotten him very suspicious. She looked at him with one brow raised. "Why; do you?"

He shook his head. "I'm just surprised."

She smiled. "I do that a lot," she told him.

"Right, well, let's keep going," George went on. "This one handles the main power supply, with those four surrounding it adding extra power for when we need it. That fifth one in the back is storing extra power just in case. . ."

He was still talking, but Glory found she couldn't pay attention any longer. She could feel that Vash was looking at her again, trying to figure her out. At one point she felt him try to search her with power, but resisted responding. She pretended to not notice him, to be absorbed in the plants, but with every second she was focusing more and more on her elder brother. She could only pray that her powers were still above his and she could hide still.

Vain hopes, perhaps, but hope was a large part of her life.

~*~

Chapter four is short, yes, but I couldn't figure out what else to add. The chapter title is stupid, I know. Again, I couldn't think of anything better. It was untitled for some time.

On a positive note, I found a site to host my pictures! Go check it out. It has all sorts of art there. www.deviantart.com, my name being DragonsLover1. If you want to see anime art, go under "Indy art" and then "anime". I'm not quite sure if they have a search yet, (not there right now) but I know they have a browse.

Short chapter, but I UPDATED!!! Man, Glory's feeling so neglected right now. And I'm sorry guys, but lately I've been devoting myself mostly to Transformations, since so many people are going nuts over it. If you haven't read it yet, you might want to. People keep telling how they read it all in one sitting and got hooked and so on. I must be a better writer than I thought.

Bye!