DISCLAIMER: Trigun and its characters belong to Yasuhiro Nightow.
Vash looked in the mirror. Hair was properly styled again. His duster was once more wrinkle-free. He was clean-shaven, and the scent of the soap he had washed with was still on him. This was how he should have been for his date with Meryl.
Did he just think of dinner with her as a date?
Rubbed his jaw in thought. If it could be a date to him, maybe it had been a date to her?
Crap! That might mean she was even madder than she had let on. What if she was secretly waiting for him to come back and apologize to her? He would knock and be invited in. Innocently open the door – then all manner of hellfire would be sprung from ambush.
What if she was mad enough to shoot him? He was a wanted man, after all; she would probably get the reward money and a promotion at work for eliminating the cause of many insurance woes.
Suddenly, he didn't want to face her. The people who said he could get out of any trouble had never met Meryl Stryfe.
Turned to Wolfwood, who was looking at him expectantly. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to go before I do? Do a little recon, find out how mad she is?"
"Of course not! I'm not getting stuck between you two any further than I already have."
"Come on, Wolfwood, you're always yelling at me about just charging in. Reconnaissance is proper tactics!"
The priest rolled his eyes. "What am I supposed to do, give her a note excusing you from apologizing? 'Meryl, please excuse Vash from trying to make things right with you, as he has come down with a sudden case of punk-bitch-itis.' Leave me out of it."
Scowl. "Fine! You'd probably manage to lose another two hundred double-dollars, anyway."
Set himself and walked out of the room. Paused slightly before her door. Once he announced his presence, there would be no turning back.
Meryl was worth it. Whatever he had to go through, she was worth it.
Raised his hand and knocked. Door was opened by Milly, who gave him a frosty look he would not have thought her capable of.
"I need to talk to Meryl," he said.
"You can't." No "Mr. Vash" this time. If she was this way, Meryl must really be mad.
"Meryl," he called, trying to see past Milly's form. "We need to talk!"
"You can't because she's gone," Milly informed him. "Whatever you did, it made her really upset, and now she's going back to the main office."
To Milly, she was relating the order of events. It didn't occur to her she was implying causation where there was none.
To Vash, the most important words were "she's gone". He had really messed up, and now Meryl was gone because of him.
"When? Where is she right now?" he demanded.
Milly actually snorted. "She doesn't want to see you."
"Milly! I don't have time to explain, I just need to talk to Meryl, so damn it, tell me where she is now!"
Milly hmm'ed in hesitation. Maybe things could be fixed…
"She went to P&D to get a ride out of here." P&D was Pick-up & Drop-off, local slang for the shipping area at the outskirts of town.
Vash didn't say "thank you". Didn't smile or nod or anything else. He just took off running, because the only thing that mattered now was Meryl was leaving. The truth had hit him – he couldn't lose her.
Took the stairs two at a time down, and even that wasn't fast enough. Meryl could be driving away right now! Jumped clear down the last eight steps, landing on the move. Crossed the lobby like a sprinter, juking and jiving around people in his way.
A bellhop was hauling a big luggage cart across the floor. Vash was moving too fast to move around it in time before he would run into it. It was too tall to jump. The bellhop's expression went from bored to terrified as he looked and saw a spikey-blond madman bearing down. Vash leaped right before point of impact, sticking his legs in front of him and sailing through the just-wide-enough space between the luggage and the top rails of the luggage cart. Left the astonished bellhop behind as he landed lightly and kept moving, darting through the main doors a patron had just opened.
The rain was pelting. Mud splashed his boots and duster as he ran out into the street, cutting diagonally for the street that would take him to P&D. The mud was not important; Meryl was important, and he had to really haul it if he wanted to catch her.
A man was trying to lead a very stubborn thomas out of the mucky street. The beast refused to move. Vash was going to dart around it when it bucked wildly, launching itself into his path on a collision course. Reflex took over and he dived, propelling himself into a slide underneath the thomas. Realized too late he had mis-timed the dive and. for one horrifying second, he saw from way too close the bottom of a clawed foot coming down on him.
Managed to move his head at the last fraction of a second. There was a stinging pain as a claw touched his cheek as he passed. Could swear he felt the vibration as the thomas's foot bit back into the ground, sending mud droplets flying as he slid the rest of the way from under the thomas.
There was no time to be thankful. No time to be shaken. No time for anything but moving. Pushed himself up, ignoring how dirty the slide had made him, and took off once more.
Mud sucked at his boots as he ran, forcing him to pull hard with each step. If he had not been wearing boots, his feet might well have come right out. Kept slipping and sliding down on his knees. Kept planting his feet and pushing himself back up, moving forward. Meryl was too important to let a little mud and rain beat him.
P&D was not too much farther. Would have been nice to get off the street, but the only walkways were on the main street the hotel was on. All the branch streets held the businesses that trafficked in things dirtier than their customers, anyway. Vash saw the proof as he ran past a certain establishment whose female workers made the saloon girls look like high-class ladies. Ignored the catcalls as he passed.
Somebody had actually had the nerve – or insanity – to try to drive in this mess. It actually was going ok – the car was moving far better than Wolfwood's bike had ever managed in the mud. But the driver saw Vash and reflexively slammed on the brakes too hard, causing them to lock as the car went into a hydroplane straight for him!
Shifted his weight to move out of the way. Felt himself start to slide as he did so – damn it! Moving too fast – if he tried to dodge, he'd slip and fall with the car coming down on him.
Screw it. If you can't move out of the way, you have to face it head-on. Ran full-tilt right at the car, each of them eating up the distance between them.
Time it just right….lean forward…put the full weight on this next step…JUMP!
Vash launched himself into the air. If he had not gotten high enough, this was going to be the end of his pursuit of Meryl. He could look forward to some broken bones. Time slowed enough that he could see the driver's expression, halfway between awestruck and horrified.
Landed solidly on the car's hood with a slight jolt. Couple of quick steps, then jumped the windshield and onto the hardtop, ran and jumped again off the car. Tucked and rolled and came up still running, not bothering to see the results of the skidding vehicle behind him.
Just gotta keep moving. She can't leave, not yet.
He kept running. Mud pulled, rain pelted, legs burned – but he kept on, each second feeling like an eternity as he pictured himself too late. She would be gone, out of his life…
There! Up ahead by that big supply truck! He'd know that white cape and pink suitcase anywhere!
Time to override the screaming muscles and really pour on the speed. "MERYL!"
She looked his way. He saw her look of shock, saw it turn to disgust. She opened the passenger door of the truck.
Oh no, you don't!
Legs pushed and he left the ground, covering the rest of the distance between them in a gravity-defying sidekick. Booted foot made contact with the truck door, slamming it closed. Somehow managed to turn himself in midair and land on one bent knee, fist planted on the ground. Looked up at Meryl, a picture of grim determination.
She was unfazed. "What the hell kind of stunt was that, you idiot? Didn't anyone ever tell you not to go around kicking doors shut on people? You're lucky you didn't kick my hand, you broom-headed moron! And get off the ground with that stupid pose, you look ridiculous!"
Stood up, breathing hard. The run over here and the close calls had taken a toll. It felt like he had covered the distance from the hotel to here in a record amount of time. Any other occasion, he might have brushed himself off; he was so dirty now, it seemed pointless.
The truck's air horn blew. "Lady, I ain't got all day," the driver yelled.
"Then get out of here," Meryl yelled back with a jerk of her head. "It seems I have a pest to squash before I leave."
The truck rumbled to life and left them awash in fumes. Its sound faded as they stared at each other, rain soaking them both.
He was covered in mud. The hair that had started out spiked-up was now something closer to a mop. His face was grimy and rain-streaked and had a nasty gash from that thomas's claw. This was not how he would have chosen to look for doing this, and standing in the rain was not a setting he would have chosen for doing this.
But he would do it, anyway. "Don't go."
"What do you care if I leave? It's not the end of the world if I do."
"It's a damn good start."
Meryl looked him up and down. "You're a mess."
"Didn't mean to be."
"I guess it's just impossible for you to actually look nice around me."
Vash looked down. To the side. Anyplace but at her accusing eyes. "You're not going to make this easy, are you?"
Face was blank as she shook her head slowly. "No."
"I'm sorry," he said. "The way I acted – I wasn't trying to be mean. It was supposed to come off as cocky, to pull you in."
"It doesn't matter what it was supposed to do, and it's too late to be sorry. I don't get hurt twice."
"I'm not asking you to. I'm asking you to give me a chance to not hurt you. To take you out and get it right this time."
Was that rain or tears on her face?
"I told you, it's too late! You had your chance to get it right, and instead you made me feel like a fool! I sat through that horrible evening, waiting for you to be someone I wanted to be around, and you never were. You had every chance, and you passed them all up. You ordered food I didn't want, refused to show me even a modicum of respect, and then you made me pay. You asked me out, you ordered the food, but I had to pay – what made you think that was ok? What makes you think this is ok now?"
"Meryl –"
"Shut up," he heard her whisper. "When I see you put your own life on the line to protect others – when I see you relax and smile – when you asked me out – I think I love you, Vash the Stampede.
"But I don't want to know you anymore."
A near-brush with the mean end of a thomas. Avoiding getting hit by a car. A mad dash to stop Meryl from leaving. Out of all those things, her words came the closest to putting him down.
"I want to know you." He put it the only way he could, given the bomb Meryl had just dropped.
"It doesn't –"
Shushed her, one finger over her mouth. "It does. This is a fork in the road for us. The fork in the road. You go one way, our story ends. We never get to find out what happens. You go the other way – say yes, and we can live our story together. Wouldn't you like to find out we live happily ever after?"
She knocked his finger aside. "I said yes yesterday. Look what happened. Why would I say it again?"
Grabbed her hands in his, locking fingers, holding on tight. "Damn it, Meryl! Because this is life! Nobody's perfect – we fight, and we struggle, and we fall and get up and try again. If we're really lucky, we find someone to try again with.
"I mess up. I'm not the big legendary superhuman the stories make me out to be; I'm a guy who's made mistakes, some of them terrible, and I'll make more. I don't know how to be slick, I don't know how to impress you, and on occasion I'll probably do things that hurt you."
"You're not helping your case."
Pulled her close, leaning down to look directly in her eyes. "But I promise you - I'll never hurt you on purpose, and I'll always try to fix whatever I do wrong. I'll try to be the man that you deserve, even if I won't always succeed.
"You think you love me, Meryl Stryfe; I'm standing here right now, swearing to you – I know I love you."
He sealed his words with a light kiss. One soft brush of his lips against hers made her heart spin topsy-turvy.
"This is the Vash I want to date," she sighed with a smile, forgetting that he was very muddy and they were both in a downpour.
"Then don't leave."
Head cocked. "I have to, Vash. I don't have a choice."
"But I thought we just fixed things with us!"
"That has nothing to do with this."
"Then what's going on?" he demanded.
"I have to go to December. It's time for my yearly evaluation."
His face betrayed his confusion.
"Every agent gets evaluated once a year," she explained. "The higher-ups decide how well you've done your job. I expect high marks, considering who I've had to deal with."
"And what is that supposed to mean?"
Smiled and patted his cheek. "Nothing. Were you really worried I was leaving because of you?"
He looked down, shuffling his feet. "Well – of course I was. I wanted to make sure I could give you this." Reached into a pocket and pulled something out, pressing it into her hand.
Meryl's smile became a grin when she saw it was the twenty double-dollars he had said he would pay her. "Let's keep what happened a non-date. Let me go to December, then when I get back I'll go on a real date. With the real you."
He leaned in. "Our first date."
"Of many," she breathed, right before she met his kiss.
Some distance away, unbeknownst to them, a certain priest had followed along. "At least one of us gets what he wants," he said to himself.
"What are you talking about, Mr. Priest?"
Wolfwood nearly jumped out of his skin, surprised to find Milly behind him. "Nothing," he quickly replied, and changed the subject. "What are you doing here?"
"Same as you," the big girl replied with a smile. "Watching a good thing." Casually put her arm around him. "It gives you hope for the future, doesn't it?"
He glanced at her arm, then back at her. Met her smile with his own. "Yeah. It does."
Two weeks later, on the day Meryl came back, the rain finally stopped. Vash was waiting for her.
When he laid eyes on the woman he had sworn his love to, the sun broke through.