Meryl flipped through some pages of an old yearbook at her wobbly table. Her chair (that was just as wobbly) tilted with her every movement. She had already spent several minutes trying to prop items under its legs to prevent the subconscious motion sickness, but the only thing that fit in the space was her yearbook, which, evidently, she needed. Apart from the couple talking above her room, it was quiet. And it remained that way until an uninvited outlaw stopped at her door and pressed it open.

"Hey, Meryl, do you have-" Vash paused when he neared the table. He changed his mind mid-sentence and asked, "What are you doing?"

Peering down at the book, he scanned the collage of pictures; almost everyone on the page was a teenager. Each person provided a smile or an impertinent expression. Two paragraphs were fitted on the right side of the page, and a group of complementary colors covered all of the remaining space.

"Looking at one of my yearbooks," Meryl sighed.

"What's that?" He asked.

"What's a yearbook?" She asked in surprise. Looking up at him she realized that was indeed his question. His aqua eyes were staring down on its pages with slight curiosity. "You don't know what a yearbook is?"

"…No…" Vash leaned forward on the table. It looked like some sort of scrap book. The reason he had come over had completely left his mind, and he continued to stare, waiting for an answer.

"Well… I guess I can introduce you to some of my schoolmates this way…" Meryl answered, feeling slightly awkward with him staring down at the book so close to her. Even though Vash had agreed to help her, the entire situation felt in its own way uncomfortable. "At the end of every schoolH year students buy yearbooks- which kind of retells the highlights of the school year." She explained.

She pushed the book further away so Vash wouldn't have to breathe on her to see it. Then she proceeded to turn the page.

It had only been a few seconds when Vash triumphantly pointed to a picture. "Look there's you!" He smiled.

"Eh! Don't look at that! It's hideous!" Meryl cried, ripping the book away from him.

"No it isn't, you look fine."

Meryl shot him a disgusted look.

Her sudden attack made Vash even more curious to glimpse the picture again.

"Just let me see," he insisted. When she refused to move he proceeded to add "Please."

"There's a better picture of me," she announced reluctantly.

"Can I see that one?" He asked hopefully. He had never seen pictures of her or Millie, and was suddenly addicted to the idea of seeing Meryl going to school with other students. She had at one time been a teenager… before she was the insurance girl.

Meryl hesitated, a serious battle raging in her as she tried to predict his reaction. Cautiously, she glanced around the room, for once comforted with the idea that Millie and the Priest were out together. After the confirmation that no one else was around, she wondered if it was safe to display it to the outlaw.

"It will be pretty strange when people find out I've never seen a picture of my wife…" Vash taunted.

That seemed to change Meryl's mind. Feeling awkward, she put the book back on the table and quickly turned the pages until it lay open to a scarlet colored background.

"Wow…" Vash said, looking between Meryl and her picture.

"What?" She demanded.

The school girl Meryl had longer hair and a gentler face. In fact, Vash couldn't remember ever seeing Meryl look that content. Someone else caught his eyes; standing behind Meryl was a young man, obviously staring at her. His shaggy blond hair drooped into his face and he had a twisted grin that had affected everything clear up to his eyes.

"Who's that?" Vash asked, pointing to the boy.

"Oh…him. That's the worst person you'll ever meet. He's a cheating dog, he followed me everywhere and-"

Vash quickly looked up at her. Lightning had just struck his brain. "Was he your boyfriend?"

Meryl stopped and stared at the outlaw. "What?"

It had only occurred to him that Meryl must have had some boyfriends growing up. He didn't allow himself to hesitate, if he was going to receive the answer from Meryl he had to spring it on her.

He smiled. His elbows left the table and he stared at her satisfied. "That guy was your boyfriend."

"No he wasn't!" Meryl growled.

Vash wasn't listening. He grabbed the yearbook and began turning the pages vigorously.

"Hey!" Meryl threatened, but Vash turned his back to her.

Meryl stood up, losing her balance for a moment because of her wobbly chair. The chair teetered and then hit the floor with a sharp clink.

The pages flipped quickly, he knew there had to be a picture with her and some guy, probably this guy in her other photo.

"Aha!" Vash cried out. He jabbed the page with a threatening finger.

"What!"

It wasn't the same the boy as before, this one had dark hair and eyes, but it was obvious he and Meryl were on close terms.

"Let me see!" Meryl demanded. She pushed the book down to her view and followed his finger.

Indeed the school girl Meryl was with another male teenager. The boy had his hand comfortably around her; they both were smiling. This had to be her boyfriend. Vash was sure of it.

"That's my brother Broomhead!"

Vash looked at her unsure.

"Look!" Meryl pointed to the caption. "Friends and Family Forever, Brant and Meryl Stryfe." She read to him. "Honestly, Vash."

Vash stared at the happy picture, wondering more about Meryl personally than ever. He knew Millie had a huge family… she talked about them a lot, but he had never heard Meryl say anything about hers.

"Is there a picture of your boyfriend in here?" He asked, breaking the heavy silence.

Meryl pulled the book out of his arms. "And why do you care about a boyfriend so much?" She hadn't thought of the answer to the question until she put the book back on the table. Why was Vash so interested in the subject? Suddenly she became aware of how alone they really were; even the talking in the room above hers has subsided. She could hear the beating of her heart, pumping blood through her body. At first she had hoped the question would silence the Broomhead's loud mouth, but now the silence made her uncomfortable again. She cleared her throat, not daring to look at him. "Anyway…" She flipped the page and pointed to another school girl. "That's Roseanne. We had PE together…"

"PE?"

"Physical Education," she answered. "You didn't go to school, did you?" She continued to stare at the picture of the sagacious girl. It was common on Gunsmoke to receive no education. Going to school was expensive, and many children never got the opportunity.

"No," Vash answered.

"Well… if you get asked anything about being a doctor, answer vaguely," Meryl advised.

Vash lost track of time as they continued through her yearbook. It was no doubt that what he found most interesting was the collection of signatures on the inside of the cover. Meryl sounded like she had had a lot of friends in high school. He encountered a peculiar (to say the least) paragraph from someone named Travis- by the sound of it, he had been Meryl's boyfriend, but Vash didn't dare mention his thoughts to her.

When the book was finally shut and out of Vash's mind, he remembered how hungry he was and why he had come over in the first place. Without the slightest word, he escorted himself to the hotel cupboards.

"Vash-?"

His stomach let out a low growl as he stuck his head in the cupboard. Besides a box of crackers and a small loaf of bread, it was empty. He opened the next one and found it completely spotless. Either these girls ate a whole lot or nothing at all.

"Don't you have any food around here?" Vash asked her. "I thought Millie went to get groceries."

"I thought we already discussed this…"

"Yes, but that was the first time, hasn't she gone to get groceries three different times?" Vash asked.

"Yeah…" Meryl blushed slightly. "But this is Millie we're talking about, sometimes she gets distracted."

"By that Priest?" Vash pulled out a package of crackers. It crinkled as he forced the plastic apart and introduced the snacks to hotel air. "Sounds like it's becoming a bit of a habit to me…"

Meryl watched him pop a cracker into his mouth.

"What do you do when they're- she's not here?" He asked.

"Paperwork mostly," she answered, staring at the cover of her yearbook. She wasn't examining it, but it gave her somewhere to rest her eyes during their uncomfortable idleness.

It sounded boring. Vash wasn't much of a writer.

"What sort of stuff do you write in those reports anyway?" He asked when another topic hadn't been brought up.

This time Meryl looked up at him. "They're work reports. I report about our progress on our job…which, might I add, hasn't been much."

"Hey! I've been quiet lately," Vash insisted.

Before Meryl could argue, footsteps reached their ears.

"See? I told you we would make it back in time for lunch," Wolfwood's voice sounded through the thin walls.

Vash stopped chewing.

"But Mr. Priest, wasn't there something we were supposed to be doing for Ms. Meryl?" Millie asked.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure her and Needle Noggin already ate."

He pushed the door open.

"Good afternoon!" The Priest announced their arrival.

Vash swallowed his disintegrating cracker.

"Ah, Spiky, glad to see you made it over here," Wolfwood complimented, and proceed to knock Vash in the back.

Vash was relieved he had swallowed his cracker, if he hadn't, he surely would be coughing a cloud of it.

"Millie, did you get the groceries?" Meryl sighed.

"Yeah," Vash agreed and turned to the priest. "You were supposed to be getting groceries! There's nothing to eat!"

Wolfwood eyed Vash in disbelief. "What does it matter to you? It's the girls that live here. It's their groceries. And believe it or not, Meryl is quite capable of picking them up herself if it's so serious. Heck, Spiky, why don't you go with her and buy your own food."

"Yeah, Mr. Vash," Millie agreed, but with a much more bubbly tone. "You should go grocery shopping with Ms. Meryl sometime."

Vash locked eyes with Meryl for a moment. The grocery shopping phrase had recently developed a new connotation between them, one that apparently Wolfwood was familiar with as well.

"I don't know, he hasn't gone for so long, he may have forgotten how." Wolfwood nudged Vash in the side. "What's wrong Spiky? You were just telling me the other day you were out of food- if you know what I mean. And apparently all that's here is crackers." Wolfwood leaned over Vash and helped himself to one, letting his comment roll over in the outlaw's mind.

It worked.

"Fine!" Vash snapped.

"What?" Meryl sputtered.

"We'll show you how it's done," Vash insisted.

Wolfwood slipped him a sly smile. "Well?"

He turned to Meryl. She felt her stomach jump, and hoped she wasn't turning red in the face. What exactly was going on in that spiky head of his?

"Meryl," he addressed. "Let's go get groceries."

She didn't move a muscle. She searched his eyes for some kind of decoding in his message. "I…" she studied his eyes again. "The paperwork-"

"Come on Insurance Girl, this gal is hungry, and there's nothing to eat here," Wolfwood pointed out. He swung his arm securely around Millie. "And we know what a disaster it would be if Vash went to buy groceries by himself…"

Vash shot the Priest one last look before opening the hotel door.

"Well?" The Priest pressed, his eyes drilling into Meryl's.

Numb, Meryl stepped toward the door looking worried. What was going on? She looked at Vash again and saw no sign of weakness. Her heart thumped loudly. This Priest had been causing quite a bit of trouble lately…

Vash shut the door behind her.

Author's note: Thanks for all the reviews received from the last chapter. I really do appreciate it and love them (compliments and critiques). So, if anyone would be so kind to review this chapter, I would be much obliged; it gives me more motivation to write. Thanks for reading!