DISCLAIMER: Trigun and its characters belong to Yasuhiro Nightow.
Peace of Mind
"Let me just go get my coat!" the daughter of Vash the Stampede told her date.
The teenaged would-be suitor sat nervously. Across the table from him sat the most dangerous man on the planet, finishing cleaning his weapon.
"I-it-it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir," the kid stammered.
Vash snepped the cylinder into place wordlessly, closing and breaking open the gun again to ensure it worked properly.
"Your daughter's told me a lot about you..."
"I'm going to hunt you."
The kid blinked. "I - I beg your pardon, sir?"
"I'm going to hunt you," Vash repeated. "I'm going to load this gun, then I'm going to come after you. If you survive 24 hours of me pursuing you, then I'll judge you worthy of dating my daughter. But if I catch you - well, don't let me catch you." He inserted a shell into the cylinder.
"You can't be serious!" the teen blurted.
Vash thumbed in another shell.
"Oh, my God, you are!"
Another shell went in.
The kid jumped to his feet, nearly knocking over the chair he had just been sitting in, and bolted past Vash. He clawed the front door open, blowing through it with such force he created a vacuum that sucked it closed.
Vash's daughter emerged, pulling on her coat. "Sorry it took so long - wait, where did he go?"
"I don't know," Vash said innocently. "He just suddenly up and left."
"Why does this keep happening to me?" she shrieked in dismay, running off to her room.
Meryl Stryfe came from the kitchen just in time to hear their daughter's door slamming. She looked at the empty chair. "Good grief, you did it again, didn't you?"
Vash smiled serenely.
"You know, eventually she's going to find a boy you can't scare off."
"I know," Vash told her, his smile widening. "But until that happens, my peace of mind stays intact."