She reached the door. She threw it open. It banged hard against the wall.

"MILLY!" she shouted, all business. She ran to the hall closet, the one with her pink suitcase. "Milly, we've got to go!" She tugged frantically at the pink contraption. She saw her friend enter the hall out of the corner of her eye.

"Sempai, what's wrong?" Milly watched as Meryl tugged canteens and boots and goggles and dusters out of the closet and into a big pile in the hall. Frankly, it was a little frightening.

Meryl didn't pause. "Milly." This suitcase was harder to dislodge than she thought it was going to be. "…Vash…" She sucked in a breath, and then TUG! It finally popped out, throwing her off balance a bit. She fell down, the air in her lungs squished out for a moment, but she scrambled back to her feet. There were a lot of necessary supplies in this closet that they would need.

Milly was confused. "What about Vash?"

Meryl, a little winded, finally stopped all her thrashing about and looked at the junior partner. "…Vash, he--"

Before she could say anything else, Meryl heard a voice from the kitchen chime in. "Yeah, what about Vash?"

All her nervous movements stopped. Her jaw nearly hit the floor.

She heard the folding of a newspaper and then saw a spiky head pop out of the kitchen door. She saw the last face she expected to see and she stood there like a dopey idiot, not knowing how to recover.

Nobody said anything.

Milly looked warily at Meryl. Meryl stood in the hall, looking at Vash. Vash looked at the mess of travel gear from the kitchen.

Vash finally opened his mouth. "Say, insurance girl, you planning on making a trip? That's great! Becau—"

Meryl's unsure voice broke in. "You…you're still here?"

He was surprised by the emotion in her voice. "Yeah…yeah. I'm still here," he said, his demeanor instantly changing.

Silence again. Milly watched her friend's head drop to look at the mess of travel gear on the floor. Meryl felt embarrassed. She wished for Milly and Vash to go into the kitchen so she could start the day over, but they just stood there staring at her.

Milly tried to break the tension. "Meryl, Vash made breakfast, and it isn't burned!" She heard a little hurt noise come from the gunman. "He also has something important he needs to talk to us about."

Meryl looked wearily around her. She needed to process this sudden change in the situation. She needed to regroup. She needed to hide. "I think…I need to take a shower first."

Milly sputtered. "But, but, Meryl, he said it's impor—" Just then, Meryl finally made eye contact with Milly, and the big girl could see all the unshed tears in her sempai's eyes.

Meryl was quiet, but in control. "I need a shower."

"O-okay," Milly stuttered.

Meryl suddenly turned and stared daggers at Vash. "You WILL be here when I get out, right Mr. Vash?"

"Yeah, yeah, YES. Most DEFINITELY!" He was falling all over his words. That look in her eyes…she'd never been this open with her emotions before. "I will be here…in the kitchen…when you get out," he finished quietly.

"Good!" she half-yelled, turned one hundred and eighty degrees in the direction of the bathroom, and walked off without another word.

Vash sank back into the kitchen, a little dazed. He unfolded the newspaper automatically, but his mind was on the situation that had just taken place. These days, she only addressed him as "Mr. Vash" when she was really upset with him. She thought he had already left, and it had hurt her…bad. He should have just stayed in his room until morning, but he was only trying to avoid an awkward scene.

He obviously sucked at avoiding things.

As he stared blindly and guiltily at the newsprint before him, he heard a click to his right…a quiet click…the kind a gun makes when its safety is switched off. He slowly looked over to see Milly's face crumpled in protective fury.

He saw Milly, but not before he saw that her huge stungun was trained squarely on him

He jumped back and put his hands in the air as quickly as he could, the newspaper accidentally torn in half and thrown in the air during the process.

"What did you do to her, Mr. Vash!"

"I? What? Huh? I didn't… Why do you think it was me?"

"Don't be cute, Mr. Vash! You know you're the only one who can make sempai cry!"

Hold on a second: information overload.

Meryl took a few moments to compose herself. She went over the facts:

Last night, she had offered comfort to a friend

She (and the rest of humanity, by the way…) was in very real danger at this very moment.

This was not about her.

If she just stuck to the facts, she could keep herself from getting upset. While she was pretty pissed (not embarrassed, of course not!) at Vash for seeing her behavior earlier this morning, she was whole-heartedly relieved that he was still there. She tried not to get too sentimental.

But truth be told, she didn't know how to act around Vash anymore. She was pretty sure they were only friends, but still… All this honesty in the air was really screwing with her brain.

Vash had managed to talk the infamous Stungun Milly down. He had convinced her that he really was the same fun-loving, peaceful doofus that had been juggling eggs that very morning for her enjoyment. He put a plate of food for the short girl in the oven as Milly let out a torrent of confession. He listened to her talk about how Meryl always acted like this when he got out of their sight. He listened to her talk about how Meryl was completely inconsolable after the fifth moon incident. He listened to her talk about how Meryl would wait on the cliff every evening until the sun went down to get a better view, just in case he showed up.

Milly must have been feeling particularly guilty for sticking the stungun in his face because even she didn't normally talk this much.

Just as Milly was about to launch into another round of confessions, Meryl walked into the room. He got up quickly and got the plate of food out of the oven for her. She smiled a little at him and sat down to eat. She really was hungry.

Milly piped up. "So, Mr. Vash, what's the big announcement?"

Before Vash could say anything, Meryl cut in. "Milly, let me finish breakfast first. I've got a feeling that after we hear what he's got to say, I'm not going to have much of an appetite."