Meryl was sitting so close to him. She was literally iches away from Vash, staring out of the window of the bus that was carrying them both closer and closer to December. They had been like this since the night before, when she had asked him what he wanted from her. She had thrown up a huge barrier between them, almost tangible, that he could almost feel radiating from her. He watched her for a few minutes, knowing that he had somehow done something so catastrophic as to bring their relationship to the breaking point.

Relationship? He didn't even know what to call her by.

He couldn't call her Meryl. He had gotten that message loud and clear. He couldn't call her "insurance girl" anymore. She was off the case, and besides, the nickname seemed altogether too casual for the situation they were in. To contemplate using any derivative of a nickname with the word "short" in it was completely absurd.

"Hey..." he began, wanting to establish some sort of truce before this got even more out of hand. She hadn't spoken a word to him since she stopped crying the night before.

"Ms. Stryfe," she offered automatically without looking at him.

He scrunched his face up. He didn't like the sound of that at all. He didn't even want to say it. "Ms. Stryfe..." But he did. It was almost like she was giving him permission to talk to her.

However, she cut him off curtly, detached, her eyes still staring out the window. "Mr. Vash the Stampede, if you are concerned over reimbursement of the bus fare you so graciously offered, I am sure that once we arrive at the central office and a new agent is assigned, Bernardelli's will be glad to settle the expense." She rattled this off like it was a matter of course. He almost forgot that she was sitting there in a destroyed, blood speckled, dusty grey dress looking more tired and dehydrated than he'd seen her in a long time.

"B...bus fair?" he sputtered, confused by her almost mechanical tone of voice and the introduction of the idea of a "new agent." It was true that he had paid out of his Super Secret Stash O' Cash at the bottom of his duffle bag, but he wasn't even thinking... "No, that's not what I --"

"Then what is it, Mr. Vash," she turned and looked at him straight in the eye, "that you want?"

He practically whithered under her unflinching gaze. He looked away, glanced back, then looked away again. "I...never...nevermind." He couldn't hold back a quiet sigh of utter defeat. He didn't know how to win this battle. He didn't even know how to fight. Should he even be sitting next to her? Was there even a reason for him to be on this bus? He heard Meryl exhale loudly, then sensed as she turned back toward the window. Damnit. She had actually been waiting for a response. If he only knew what to say to her, he would say it.

What do you want from me?

He didn't know. He'd never had to field that particular question in his entire life. One thing was for sure: it was driving him crazy that she wasn't talking to him. He thought of Meryl as a rather private person, but being shut out so completely made him realize just how open she had been with him. In their whole time together, she never saw him as a threat, she didn't even believe he was the Vash the Stampede for weeks. Even at his most destructive, she still tried to follow him. Her guard had been as low as she ever let it get. He could see that now. All the times she had trailed him, all the times she had looked over him: these weren't things she did for just anybody.

What everybody else got was the cool and aloof insurance agent shtick, and he was very much disgusted with himself that she was now giving it to him.

Meryl and Vash had been on the bus for a few hours. Meryl had been right: there was a bus line that meandered across the steamer's route. It took them a good bit of walking to find a stop, but they did, and they were lucky that a bus passed through the area so frequently. When the bus driver stopped, he gave each one of them a once over, guaging for trouble:

The tall man had a nearly completely swollen black eye, and his clothing was covered in blood. The short girl looked to have just walked out of a hostage situation, what with her shredded dress and her expression of exhaustion.

He didn't like the look of these two. He would let the girl on, of course, but the guy...he wasn't so sure... Why was he so beat up?

"Fare!" the bus driver automatically announced after assessing the two. The driver saw an exchange that put his mind a little more at ease about the young man.

The girl's eyes shot open, as if somehow the idea of having to pay her fare was a brand new concept. At the same time, the young man was digging into his pocket looking rather sheepishly.

"Hey Mer...I mean Ins...um...got any cash? They took my wallet when they booked me."

The girl looked over at him and gave him the most savage death glare the bus driver had ever seen. He watched as the young man threw his hands up in surrender. The young woman took a deep breath and simply began to walk right past him, like getting on the bus at this point was an impossibility and she didn't have the heart to argue with the driver to change his mind. He was about to call out to her to wait a minute when the young man sprang into action.

He grabbed her shoulder quickly, frantically, but just as she turned around, he stopped touching her as soon as inhumanly possible. "Just a joke! A joke!" He began digging furiously into the bottom of his bag, which seemed to have a whole lot of stuff in it at the moment.

The girl walked past him and boarded the bus. "Thank you so much sir for waiting." The driver was surprised by the poise and grace this young lady could exhibit even under these conditions. He was going to ask her if everything was okay, but she had already turned and had zeroed in on the last empty bus seat.

Just then, the young man clammored up the stairs with a wad of bills in his hand. "How much do I owe you?"

"Where are you aiming to get to?" the bus driver asked.

"December?" the young man asked.

The bus driver stopped for a moment and eyed the young man. He didn't seem like a bad fellow. If the driver had known any better, he would say that the two of them had gotten caught up in something that neither one should have been involved in. "Fifty double dollars...for the two of you," he finally said, generously. Fare was normally thirty-five each.

The young man tried to smile as he handed the driver the money, but it came out as a lopsided grimace. Poor kid, the man thought to himself. The young man paid the fare, then turned. The bus driver couldn't figure out why, but he was suddenly enveloped in a deep feeling of sadness. The young man's shoulders slumped as he made his way to the seat the girl had chosen. He hesitated, waiting for something. It never came. He looked around at other seats. There seats available next to other passengers, but he didn't look to interested in sitting with anybody else. He finally sighed, stowed his bag in the overhead rack, and sat down, one long leg stretched out in the aisle. He leaned back in the seat and looked up at the ceiling, letting out one long exhale.

Whether it was relief or defeat, the bus driver didn't know.

A/N: Alright, another short chapter to go with the previous short chapter! Thanks to Jenn for being my 200th reviewer and thanks to Mitai, Redcliff, and TrisakAminawn for sticking with the story. SERIOUSLY! :) Hell, thanks to everyone for all the reviews! If there are some typos, I wrote this in notepad, so I didn't have spell check. JUST SAYING!

In the next chapter, there will be some Meryl and Vash resolution...it's just that it could go either way... I'll update soon! Reviews!