Disclaimer- I don't own Trigun. I don't own Russian checkers. Danielle and Rachel made it up.
Thanks so much for the reviews. You made me so happy! Sesshomarus Little Demon made me happy, too. You live in Colorado? What city? My dad is moving to Colorado Springs. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. Chrissy is on AIM right now. She's helping me with this chappie. Thanks, Chrissy! She totally helped me on a lot of this. A lot of this is her work. I know. She needs to start writing Trigun fics. Hint hint, Chrissy. She can't, though. She hates Trigun and she hasn't seen even one part of one episode. Bad, Chrissy! Bad!
Chapter 6 Love OctagonEveryone enjoyed admiring the $$1,000 check that Heather won from the tournament. They were all trying to grab for it when all of the sudden they heard a knock at the door. Heather went to see who it was. She had just started opening it when she screamed. Everybody hurried over to see what she was staring at." Oh my god, Levi?!", Rachel said, astounded. Chrissy was to busy staring at the boy in the door to glare at her.
'So this is Levi? Hmmm.... not as cute as i was expecting,' Chrissy thought to herself.
Rachel read her mind. "Hey! He is cu- uh... cutting the... uh... carpet?" she blushed.
Knives read her mind, too. "You were expecting him to be cute?! What would you have done if he was?!"
"Aw! Knives is jealous!" Danielle squealed. "That is so cute!"
Heather opened the door completely. "Can I come in?" Levi asked to the staring faces.
"Sure," Heather said plainly.
"What are you doing here?" Rachel asked.
"Well, one minute I was at my school with that guy." Levi pointed to Hal. "And the next, I'm at that tournament thing," Levi answered. "I heard Rachel's voice and then followed it to you guys, and then followed you here. I was hoping you could help me since you're here, too."
"I remember you! I was visiting your school and one of your friends showed me his Trigun DVD. All of the sudden, I was here. How did that happen?" Hal wondered aloud.
"Wait. Hal Sparks was at your school?" Danielle asked excitedly. "You've never come to our school."
"Umm.... sorry?" Hal responded. "I was at his school his school doing a TV thing about how I love kids. Then, this kid takes out a Trigun DVD and I was amazed because I love Japanese and Anime, and Manga so I took a look."
"Then I tried grabbing it from you." Levi said suddenly. "Then we were here. Can anyone explain that?" Levi asked with a confused face on.
"No," all but Heather said.
"I can! It's a cosmic force!" Heather said with a somewhat feared look at Chrissy.
"Shut up! There is no such thing as cosmic forces." Chrissy said angrily.
"Then how do you explain it?" Heather said curiously.
"Maybe we just got lucky?" Andie said suddenly.
"Lucky? You call this lucky?" Eric responded quickly, looking at Danielle. "I agree."
"I call it lucky," Knives said, looking at Chrissy.
"Oh my gosh. This is insane," Chrissy said, seeing he was looking at her.
"It's not insane. I'd call it luck too," Vash said from behind Knives, but instead of looking at Chrissy, he was staring at Heather.
"Really? You think it's luck?" Heather said with the biggest smile on her face since the first time she had seen Forrest.
"It is luc-," Legato started.
"Enough with the luck!" Chrissy screamed.
"Okay for now, lets just chill," Eric said, sounding as stupid as normal.
"Chill? Fine," Chrissy said still trying to get over the fact that they would be "chilling" in Trigun. "What do you want to do?"
"We could go to Boswell again?" Rachel said eagerly."
"Okay. Lets go," Andie said happily. "I want to see what this Boswell thing is all about."
"Well... it's one of the names on the spine of our Algebra 1 text book," Heather pointed out.
"Really?" Eric asked. "I don't really pay attention in math let alone look at the spine of the book."
"It's ok, Eric. We understand," Danielle said, acting as if she were talking to a child.
"I don't feel like going," said Vash and Wolfwood at the same time.
"If Vash isn't going, I'm not going," said Heather.
"I'm not going if Wolfwood isn't going," Millie piped.
"Okay anybody else that wants to stay?" Rachel asked, hoping that she wouldn't be the only left going. Nobody said anything. "Good. Lets go!"
Everyone who wanted to go stepped out the door and left for Boswell. "They needed new clothes anyway. They were started to smell," Heather joked. 'I hope our cell phones came with us,' she thought.
She walked over to where she kept her new clothes and the clothes she came with. Heather scavenged through her stuff trying to find her cell phone.
She found it and looked in her contacts for Andie's cell phone and selected it. On the third ring, the phone was answered and Andie's voice was heard. "Hello?"
"Hello, Andie. This is Heather. What are you doing?" Heather asked mischievously.
"Um... nothing really. I'm just buying some clothes with the money you won."
"Really? Guess what I'm doing."
"I don't know. What are you doing?" Andie raised an eyebrow.
Heather gasped on the other line. "Wolfwood you naughty boy!" she exclaimed.
Andie gaped. "Heather?!"
"Yes? Wolfwood is being a bad little boy." Heather grinned.
Wolfwood just sat at the table drinking from a mug of black coffee. He looked at her strangely like she was a freak or something. "What am I doing?" he asked.
"You're molesting me," she answered quietly coving the mouthpiece on the phone so Andie wouldn't hear. She took her hand off the mouthpiece and yelled, "Wolfwood! Put your clothes back on!"
Andie screamed. Everyone in the store looked at her. "I'm just going to go into the bathroom," she said to Rachel. Rachel nodded. Andie walked into the women's restroom and started yelling at Heather.
Heather held her phone two feet from her ear. Vash, Wolfwood, and Mille heard Andie's screams coming from it. Heather walked over to Wolfwood and jumped into his lap. His eyes widened. "Just play along," she whispered. "Hey, Andie? Wolfwood is sitting on my lap."
"YOU LIAR!" Andie yelled into the phone.
"You're right, Andie. I am lying." Andie let out a breath. "I'm sitting on his lap."
"WHAT?!"
"I actually want to go into the bathroom, too," Heather said. "How about you, Wolfie?"
"Oh, yeah," he answered seductively. Millie started cracking up. Vash blinked.
Andie heard him. "No, Wolfwood, darling! Don't listen to her!"
Wolfwood and Heather stifled a laugh. "Come on, Wolfie. Keep your clothes on until we get there." They hit the ground with their feet acting like they were walking. "Aren't you coming Vash? Millie? You can watch." Millie doubled over in laughter.
Andie had come out of the girl's bathroom. Her phone was on speakerphone. Forrest was hearing the whole thing. His breath caught in his throat. What if she liked this guy?
Heather quickly unzipped the blue sweatshirt she was wearing. "Wolfwood! Don't unzip that, yet! Ooh! Wow. That's big." Wolfwood blushed. Millie controlled herself just to start laughing again. "Wolfwood!" Heather gasped. "Don't touch me there!" She started stroking Wolfwood's jaw. "I just love your jaw. It's so sexy!"
"I thought you thought Vash's jaw was sexy," Andie said angrily.
"I suppose you're right, Andie." Andie glared at her silver flip phone. "I lied to you, Wolfwood. I don't really go for the bad boy, rugged look. I'm more for the clean-shaven, boy next-door, wussy sort of guy." She looked at Vash. "I'm sorry we couldn't do anything fun."
"It's ok, honey. I understand," he replied. By now, Millie was rolling on the floor laughing her ass off.
"You know you still can't have him," Heather whispered to Andie after she slid off of Wolfwood's lap. "He loves Millie."
"I know that, Heather," Andie said back. "It's just fun to think about. It's hard to be alone. I don't want to be alone."
"I have a plan," Heather replied.
"Hey Chrissy, can I talk to you for a second?" Levi asked.
"Um... sure," Chrissy responded with a confused face. He led her into a corner. "What's up?" Chrissy asked, still confused.
"I really like Rachel but-" Levi started.
"Oh my gosh?! Seriously?" Chrissy said, cutting him off.
"Yeah," he started again "but she's with that blue-haired guy so I don't want to tell her."
"Oh. I'm sorry." Chrissy responded, not sure exactly what to say.
"I have a plan though." Levi said.
"Okay? What is it?" Chrissy asked, questionably.
"I want to pretend to get together with you and make Rachel jealous," Levi said as though he had been planning it for a while.
"Wow. Interesting. Okay, I just don't want to Rachel really mad or hurt her feelings, or ruin your friendship or anything," Chrissy responded quickly.
"It wont be that serious don't worry."
"Okay. Good," Chrissy said simply.
"Can we go yet? I'm getting bored." Danielle said suddenly, from the other side of the store.
"Fine. Lets go." Rachel answered. "Come on, Andie! We're leaving!" Andie, who was looking very happy I should add, nodded her head, said goodbye to Heather, and hung up. Danielle, Andie, Chrissy, Eric, Forrest, Levi, and Rachel purchased their new clothes and, in Rachel's case, eyeliner and started on their way home.
On the way back Levi started his "plan". "Hey. I was just wondering, do you want to walk with me on the way back?" Levi asked Chrissy on the way.
"Um... okay." Chrissy said, trying to act suspicious.
"I don't think I properly introduced myself. My name is Levi, though, you probably already know."
"I'm Chrissy. This is Knives. She said pointing to the guy walking on the other side of her. That's Andie. That's Danielle. Wait you already know her, right? That's Hal Sparks, you kind of already know him. That's Eric. That's Meryl. That's Forrest. That's Legato. And that's, obviously, Rachel." she said, pointing to each one in turn. "Okay." Chrissy leaned over to whisper in his ear. "Rachel keeps looking at us."
"Good. I mean...." Levi said, trying to find the right words.
"I get what you mean."
The whole way back, Rachel kept looking away from Legato to stare at Levi and Chrissy. They arrived back at the house to find Heather grinning from ear to ear at Andie. Wolfwood held the door open for everybody. Heather and Andie walked in first. Heather waved and winked at Wolfwood on the way in. He smirked.
Heather dragged Andie into the room Knives had previously occupied. "So? What do you think?" Heather asked Andie when she made sure the door was securely closed.
"It's great! So, how are you going to do it, again?" Andie asked.
"Well, it's already started. Levi went to Chrissy to make Rachel jealous. It's working! And have you seen Knives? He kept glaring at Levi for some odd reason. It was funny. I'll tell him to go after Millie. He has to tell Millie the plan so she won't get too confused. Wolfwood will get jealous and go for Meryl who will also know of the plan. Vash will get jealous and go after me! How joyful! Forrest will hopefully get jealous and try to go for Danielle. I know. Weird," she said to Andie's wide-eyed stare. "Eric has been jealous of Hal this whole time. Now, he has someone else to stare evilly at. Ha! Anyway, Hal will get jealous and go after you."
"WHAT?! That is so stupid! No! And I don't know anyone who'll get jealous of me!" Andie ejaculated.
"Well, I've been paying close attention and reading a few minds. Legato has a thing for you though he doesn't show it."
"That's insane."
"He's insane."
"I'm not going to date a guy that killed Wolfwood!"
"You won't have to." Andie stared blankly at her. "Wolfwood's not dead." Heather grinned. Andie sighed and agreed reluctantly. "Anyway! Legato will get jealous and stay with Rachel to try and get you jealous. All the while, Rachel is trying to get Levi jealous by staying with Legato. Isn't that great! I should be a psychologist and because I know how the human mind works."
"Whatever, Heather. I do like it, up until the me and Legato part."
"You know he's sexy. I like his jaw. How bout you?"
"You know... he does have a nice jaw," Andie agreed.
"That's the spirit! Come on, Andie! Let's get this show on the road!" Heather said optimistically. 'This better work,' she declared mentally.
They walked out into the living room. Chrissy looked at them. "You're back, finally. What were you talking about?" she asked.
Andie gestured Chrissy to come into the room and explained everything. "We realized how incredibly boring it is without you, Heather," Millie pointed out.
The mentioned blonde smiled proudly and sat on Vash's lap. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and leaned on his chest. "Mmm..." she sighed. 'I love getting Vash to like me. It feels nice.'
Meryl closed her eyes to stop a glare coming Heather's way. Chrissy walked in the hugest smile on her face. She looked from Levi, to Knives, to Wolfwood, to Vash, to Forrest, to Eric, to Hal, and ended at Legato. She snorted and fell on the floor holding her side, she was laughing so hard. Everyone blinked and stared. They had never seen Chrissy laugh like that before. It must have been something in the air...
What happened was a strange sight. When Chrissy controlled herself, she walked over to where Levi was standing and slipped her hand in his. They looked at Rachel. She lifted Legato's arm and draped it around her shoulders. Legato was too busy looking at Andie to notice. Andie was goggling at his jaw. He smiled at her and she smiled back.
Heather kissed Vash on the cheek and walked to his brother. "Psst! Knives!" she whispered in his ear. "I suggest you try to get Chrissy jealous by flirting a little with Millie."
Knives looked at her strangely and, not without a fearful look at Wolfwood, hesitantly walked to where Millie was sitting with Wolfwood. "Hey, Millie? I saw a pudding-making machine at Boswell and I bought it. I love pudding and I heard you do, too. Do you want to go to the kitchen with me and we could try it out?"
'Hmm... This seems strange. Mr. Knives is acting a lot more different than Mr. Vash described. This could all be an act and right when I step into that kitchen he'll kill me. At least I won't have to live to see Wolfwood's death.' She mentally kicked herself. 'Millie! That was selfish! Don't you think like that again! I suppose I'll give him a chance. Everyone deserves one.' She looked at Wolfwood and back at Knives. "Ok, Mr. Knives! That sounds scrumptious!"
Right when they crossed the threshold into the kitchen, Millie visibly winced. She was expecting her untimely death. Knives began unpacking parts of the pudding machine and putting it together. When he finished, he explained how to use it. "You put the pudding powder in here. Press that button and all this stuff happens in here and out comes pudding," he said using the uneducated words that he was unused to. Millie smiled and picked the chocolate pudding powder.
They worked together, all the while Knives talking incessantly about unimportant things like the suns and the way their light shines on the desert sand. When he was sure he had hold of some of her trust, he said, "I need you to do something for me."
"Anything, Mr. Knives," she said.
"I think I love Chrissy and she's acting like she likes that Levi guy. I want to try to make her jealous by acting like I like you. Am I making sense?"
Millie laughed. "I'm sure that will work, Mr. Knives!"
"Yeah! Turning it on will really improve our chances of making pudding! I agree, Millie," Knives covered up her slip of the tongue.
"I just love, love triangles!" she exclaimed loudly so everyone in the living room could hear her.
"I don't think we can shape the pudding into triangles, Millie," Knives said just as loudly as her so they could hear him. "It doesn't keep its shape very well."
Millie looked confused. "Huh?"
He leaned over and whispered, "We can't let anyone know about this, and especially Chrissy, or the plan won't work."
"Oh," she mouthed.
When they were finished making the pudding, they brought it out to everyone else to eat. "Hey, Millie? Do you want to go out to dinner?" Knives asked.
"Of course, Mr. Knives!" She took his arm that he held out to her and waved to everyone in the room. When they were outside, Millie sighed. "I'm so happy, Mr. Knives. I'm trying to get Mr. Wolfwood to like me. This is working! Did you see his face?" Knives smiled and nodded.
Back inside, Wolfwood sat next to Vash gaping. "M- Millie a- and Kn- Knives? How d- did th- that hap- happen?!"
He didn't wait for Vash to answer. In a second, he scanned the room and dragged the first girl he saw into the spare bedroom. He softly but forcefully pushed her into the room and lightly shut the door. He turned around. Meryl blinked.
"Um... hello?"
"Meryl. I need you help," he stated. At hearing him say her real name, she knew this was serious so she nodded dutifully. "I'm scared. I'm afraid Millie likes Knives." Despite trying to be serious, Meryl started laughing. "What?"
"Millie would never go for Knives! She was devastated when you died! Did you think she was that heartless?" Meryl scolded.
Wolfwood relaxed. "Still. I really want to be with her. I might die again when Heather and them leave. I want to get some time with Millie. Could you act like we're together so I can get her jealous? I know that's a cruel way to get her to notice me more but... I don't know. Besides, you love Vash, don't you?"
"I didn't know I was that obvious." Meryl blushed.
"Well, you could try to get him to envy you. That would be nice, wouldn't it?"
"I guess." She sighed.
The fake couple locked arms, walked out into the living room, and sat on the floor with each other. Wolfwood awkwardly pulled her closer to him and she hesitantly leaned her head on his shoulder.
Vash tensed at the sight of them. 'That looks so wrong. She looks like she really likes him! How could she do that to me? Wait. I never told her how I feel. Damn it! I should have! Now they're together! How could Wolfwood get over Millie that fast? Hold the phone... All right, Wolfie. I see how it is. Two can play this game, Preacher Man!' The jealous outlaw got up from the couch and advanced to Heather who was sitting at the kitchen table in the connecting kitchen with Forrest, Danielle, Hal, Eric, Chrissy, Levi, Rachel, and Legato.
He came up behind the laughing girl and wrapped his arms around her from behind. She stiffened. "Ok, Eric. You never told me you had a twin."
"I don't. That's Vash," Eric said.
"That's not Vash, stupid. Stop lying," Heather argued.
Vash leaned his lips close to her ear. "It's me, Heather," he breathed.
He ran his hands up and down her arms. 'Ok, gross!' Heather mentally puked.
"I like you, Heather. You always made me laugh. I like it when women make me laugh."
"You do recall that I'm not a woman. I'm only thirteen."
His eye twitched remembering the moment when he discovered that piece of information.
Flashback
"It's an adult joke you wouldn't understand," she said. Rachel gave off a short laugh.
"I'm hurt, Heather," Vash looked down sadly and wiped away an imaginary tear.
"Aw! I still love you!"
"You do?" Vash jumped forward and grabbed Heather's hands.
"Um... I love you like I love all of my friends. To me, Vash, you are just a fantasy. You're the star of one of my favorite shows. Now that I'm here, I realize that you and Meryl are so cute for each other!" The mentioned couple blushed and looked away from each other. "Besides, I'm only thirteen years old."
"You're how old?!" Vash and Meryl asked simultaneously. This just triggered more laughter on Rachel's part.
End Flashback
And that was after she kissed him, too. He mentally shuddered and resumed his 'getting Meryl to love him' plan. "I don't care about that, Heather. You're still a sexy beast."
Eric, Danielle, Rachel, Andie, and Chrissy couldn't control their laughter. Forrest bit his tongue to stop himself from going and punching Vash right in the face. He hated the way Vash was touching her. He almost growled when Vash started whispering in her ear. Soon the disturbed expression fell from Heather's face and she smiled broadly.
"I need you to act like we're together in order to get Meryl to fall in love with me. Will you help?" he whispered hopefully. She nodded, turned around in her chair, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pressed her lips forcefully on his.
'This is so much fun! I can so be an actress!' She tapped into Vash's brain and started talking to him there. 'Wow.'
'What?' he replied.
'Nothing. Look at Forrest would you?' she asked.
'Ok.' He did so.
'What is he doing?' she asked.
'Looking at me like he wants to shoot my head off. I would know. I get that look a lot.'
She mentally laughed. 'I bet you do- Wait! He's looking at you like he wants to kill you?'
'Why do you sound so excited?' he furrowed his eyebrows with his eyes closed.
'That means he's mad!'
'Oh really? I had no idea.'
'Shut up! He's jealous of you! That means he likes me! That's why he was at my lunch table! He wanted to tell me how he felt!'
'Ok. Stop yelling. You're giving me a headache.'
'Do you realize how long we've been holding our breath?'
'Yeah? So?'
'Is that another little plant perk?'
'I guess so. I don't really know. You'll have to ask Knives.'
'I'm pretty sure it is. We might have to stop. We're freaking my friends out.'
'How do mine look?'
'Well, Meryl looks a little surprised, envious, upset, and well...'
'What?'
'Murderous. I'm scared.'
'Be brave, Heather. We're going to get the people we love and no one is going to stop us!'
'Wow. Now I know you feel. My head hurts when you yell.'
'You just aren't used to it yet. I've had 133 years of it.'
'I just realized... this is like kissing my uncle or something. Ugh...'
'I really don't know what you are to me. I guess probably daughter or niece but would you really want Knives to be your dad?' he asked.
'You just kind of seem like that cool uncle that I get to hang out with and Knives is like a no fun dad. It works out.'
'Ok! Now I need to breathe!' Vash exclaimed. They each pulled away, blushing.
"Ha! I win! I held my breath longer than you did and you've had much more experience!" Heather said proudly.
"Actually, I've had no experience. As much as I do chase girls, I've never really gotten close enough to one." He sighed. "Anyway, so do you... uh... want to go to the movies or something?"
"Of course, love! How bout the bakery? I'm craving doughnuts."
"Really? Me too!"
"You're always craving doughnuts."
"Am not!"
"Are, too!"
"Am not!" Their voices faded into the background as they walked out the door and into the evening.
"Um... Hal? Could be go see a movie?" Danielle asked her boyfriend.
"I don't know. That's not really where I would go on a first date. Unless we're both gung ho to see the movie or we both just want to make out in the dark."
"I choose make out in the dark." They linked arms and walked outside.
"Hey, Levi? What do you want to do?" Chrissy asked.
"I don't know. What is there to do here?" he asked Meryl and Wolfwood.
"Nothing much. It's a Sunday. There's a service in the evening. It starts at 7:00pm. You have 15 minutes to get there," Wolfwood answered.
"Only you would know that," Rachel teased after Levi and Chrissy agreed on the church service. They left the house with Chrissy talking about how Levi's dark blue denim jeans and black leather jacket weren't very appropriate for church and Levi saying they were just fine.
Meryl pulled out a game called Russian checkers. She, Wolfwood, Rachel, and Legato sat around the table playing it.
Forrest and Eric sat themselves down on the couch and started watching television. Eric flipped through the unfamiliar channels and stopped on a show called, "What do you do when the girl of your dreams is helping another guy get the girl of his dreams to notice him by making that girl jealous, which is, in turn, making you jealous?" Eric and Forrest blinked.
"We are here, live in Boswell Bakery interviewing people who need help with this subject or can relate to this subject. We are interviewing Heather who has started a love octagon," the speaker said. "This is no ordinary love polygon, viewers!"
"Hello everyone out there!" the TV turned off before the camera switched to Heather. The boys wanted to see who the Heather was.
Meryl turned and looked outside. "It's a minor sand storm. Nothing to worry about," she said and turned back to her game.
Eric and Forrest sighed and went to their last resort. They each grabbed a book from the near bookshelf and started to peruse the pages. To Eric, who didn't like to read very much, the words blurred together and he soon fell asleep. Forrest kept on reading.
Meryl, Wolfwood, Legato, and Rachel continued playing Russian checkers. Heather couldn't finish her interview because of the power going out but she and Vash recommenced their pigging out on doughnuts. Despite the movie stopping because of loss of power, Danielle and Hal continued making out in the darkness. At the Boswell diner, Knives and Millie kept eating their dessert. Knives ate cookies and Mille with her pudding. And last but definitely not least, Chrissy and Levi had the priest continue his sermon. A little storm shouldn't interrupt any prayer.
Meanwhile, in a nearby town, a blonde girl with shoulder length hair walked down the deserted windy road with a blank expression on her face. The drop from the sky must have hit Stephanie pretty hard in the head. 'Who am I? Where am I? What am I?' she asked herself while wandering aimlessly around in circles, in and out of buildings, up to doors, knocking on them and running away, running into poles, and nearly tripping over the edge of the town well and falling to her death.
I hope you liked this chapter. It was really long. I hope I did a good job and made up for the long, interminable wait. Review! And thank Chrissy! She helped with about half of this chapter. So give her credit. I'll be sure to tell her what you said. Thank you and REVIEW!!!!