CHAPTER 4

Following Vash the Stampede around to make sure he stayed out of trouble was a rather tedious task for the two Bernadelli insurance agents, although it got to Meryl much quicker than Millie. The outlaw was quite enough as he was: silly, unpredictable, generally irritating. Adding a beard to the mix? Meryl was just about ready to either turn him in for the bounty or use one of her Derringers on the broom-headed nutcase (although Vash seemed more fearful of her can of Mace than her guns).

Needless to say, the short insurance girl was exhausted after the first day of supervising the red-coated, spiky-haired liability after her much-too-short vacation. She was currently sprawled out on the hotel's bed where she had crashed as soon as she'd been able.

"I'd almost forgotten how stressful it was keeping that idiot from blowing up half the town," Meryl sighed, covering her eyes with her hands.

"Me too! I thought that the truck was going to explode after Mr. Vash tripped while helping Mr. Lawerence!" the ever-cheerful Millie replied.

"Why did we even let him help load explosives in the first place?"

The scene unwillingly replayed itself in Meryl's head.

"Be careful with that box!" Lawerence, a middle-aged man who ran Corning's explosives supplier for Gunsmoke's army, warned.

"Don't worry, sir, careful is my middle name!" Vash replied, throwing a salute. Unfortunately, the outlaw's boot caught on a stone, causing him to lose his balance. The crate of explosives was on a one-way path of collision with the truck's tank.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!" the Humanoid Typhoon screamed.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!" Lawerence screamed.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!" Meryl and Millie screamed.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!" the fleeing bystanders screamed.

The girls and Lawerence dove for cover, awaiting the imminent explosion from when the box of very dangerous explosives smashed in to the truck's full tank of gasoline.

No such thing happened.

Cautiously, the insurance agents and Lawerence peeked from their hiding place. Instead of a huge fireball, they saw the red-coated gunman casually loading the crate in to the truck.

Vash had somehow managed to stop the disaster from occurring. How so, no one was sure, but Lawerence decided he didn't really need any more help, thank you very much.

Meryl seriously couldn't remember why they'd allowed Vash to aid the local explosives supplier. How did Vash, with his luck, even manage to make it by without attracting attention in a town with an explosives supplier anyways?

"That damned outlaw nearly gave me a heart attack!" Meryl sat up and shrugged off her coat. "And that beard—it doesn't look good on him at all! It makes being around him even less tolerable! Plus, he looks so much better without it..." the insurance girl trailed off when she realized what she was saying.

Millie grinned.

"Not like that!!" Meryl shouted.

Her chipper co-worker held back a giggle. "Right."

Was it that obvious that she... sort of liked that stupid, unruly gunman? She had to admit, he didn't look that bad without that disaster of a beard... Snap out of it, Meryl, she scolded herself. There are plenty of normal guys on this planet that you can get mushy about.

Millie was still giving her that "I know what you really think about Mr. Vash" look. Trying to prevent the tall girl from seeing her blushing, Meryl stormed over to the desk. "I'm going to write some reports."

For a while, it was quiet, save for the sound of the typewriter's keys clicking furiously.

Suddenly, Millie piped up with the best idea Meryl had heard in weeks.

"I was thinking," she said, "why don't we just ask Mr. Vash to shave? He'd probably do it, you know, especially if you asked him."

Meryl immediately jumped up and hugged her fellow insurance agent. "You're a genius, Millie!"

Author's notes!

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I'm going to get to the real action before long, I promise. I actually was not planning to have any VashxMeryl, but it kind of happened and I went with it. Thanks for reading!!!!