Disclaimer: Trigun is sadly enough not mine, or there would have been way more episodes!

I hope everyone enjoys, we're finally getting somewhere, slightly hints of citrus towards the end

Chapter 14: Vash's POV
After the incident this morning with Meryl he had decided to go outside for a while, get some fresh air and look around town. Knives had joined them, allowing the two brothers to move about in harmony, startling plenty of people in the process. He could feel the dislike radiating from his brother, but he could also feel his attempt to not want to kill them too. This was almost a test for him it seemed like.

Eventually they made their way back to the house just as Milly was leaving for town. Once at the house, the two brothers sat down on the porch and visited with each other. After a while, Milly returns to the house. As she heads in, she hands him a bag of donuts and chuckles at his expression as he opens it up to eat it. Knives is sitting next to him chuckling at his antics but accepts one of the donuts.

At some point during the day, he inquires, "What do you think of the insurance girls?"

It is a few minutes before Knives answers, Well the tall one has a lot of patience or great nerves. I'm not sure which. The short one has a temper, it almost seems more explosive than mine, but I guess probably not as destructive.

Vash smiles at his brother's assessment of them. Switching to the link between them he asks, Are you going to have a problem if something happens between Meryl and me?

Again it takes a few minutes before he answers. He can feel him trying to decide what he wants to say about the idea. Well, I really don't like the spiders, but these two seem alright. I think that after all the shit I caused to happen to you I really don't have much room to complain if you decide to take up with one of them. How are you going to deal with her aging though?

This time it is his turn to take some time answering. He had forgotten that factor when thinking of all the other problems that could arise from the situation, including the problems that might still arise because of the bounty on his head. Her aging, her aging would be far faster than his. She would live her entire life and he would barely change a day. Could he handle watching her age before him? Become old while he stayed where he was? Could he deal with her loss when she inevitable died?

Yes, he finally replies, yes I can deal with it. I would rather have the memories of her and the happy times, then spend the entire time fretting about the fact that she will age while I will not. If that was the only thing I used as a standard I would be screwed, there are no unrelated females like us out there.

Knives nods, glancing at him with a partial smile on his face, You always were the one who wanted company. I don't think your designed to be on your own for very long. Well good luck with her, maybe you can find a way to lengthen her life, or slower he aging, or something. I'll help if you want, at this point it's the least I can do after the last several years of problems. Not to mention having Legato and his group harass you.

You realize that I take part of the blame for that, I never did try to talk to you about it. Vash comments in response.

Knives shakes his head at him, You're not responsible for it, I am. I chose not to tell you about Tesla, I chose to kill everyone off, I chose to spend years terrorizing you and killing the spiders. You tried several time to stop me, to keep me from doing so. In the end it was my choice to ignore you. He shrugs, looking back I can say it was not a very good choice.

Vash leans over and gives him a one-armed hug, saying nothing.

For a while more the two brothers sit there on the porch just enjoying the fact the other is there without either trying kill each other. It's nice, almost like it was before everything had gone wrong.

"Excuse me, Mr. Vash, has Meryl come back down from the hill yet?" Milly asks from behind him.

He turns to face her, startled. He hadn't realized that she had gone up it. "Which hill did she go up?"

Milly motions to the one to the side of the small city, it's the same one that they had sat on the night before he had left. Sure enough he can see her perched in nearly the exact same spot as the night before he had left. He is curious why she had gone up there, but then when he had gone up there it was to think about what to do next. Maybe she is up there for the same reason.

"I think she's waiting for you," Milly tells him seriously, "for Meryl she been very patient, but then I think that's because she doesn't know where she stands which makes her unsure."

Smiling, Milly heads back inside, and he can hear her in the kitchen.

Unsure of what to do he glances back up at the hill side, which is really a small mountain and considers if he should go or not. Knives bumps his shoulder and waves him away, "Go settle it, worse case is I acquire an annoying sister-in-law." Knives tells him softly.

Nodding, he takes off skirting the city and heading up the hill. He is not worried about what Knives will do because they had already come to an understanding. There would be no more problems from him. As he climbs up the hill he is trying to figure out what to say. By the time he has reached the top of the hill, it has fallen dark outside and the stars are rising high above their heads.

Taking the spot next to her, he is almost surprised that she is humming. "Hello Meryl," he murmurs in greeting.

She turns to look at him and he can tell that she had been crying, "Hi Vash," she replies.

Looking out over the city at the shining light and the stars, he glances in her direction inquiring, "Did I ever thank you for helping me decide what to do about Knives?"

That seems to startle her and her head whips around to face him, "What?"

He nods, "When they were dragging me around and otherwise causing all sorts of havoc to my otherwise beaten up body, you stopped them, and during so something you said struck a chord. It made it easy for me to remember that things weren't always bad between us. I know I thanked you for saving me, but I couldn't remember if I thanked you for help with him."

She shakes her head, "Um, no you didn't."

Again he nods, his turquoise eyes locked on to hers and very serious, "Thank you, for everything."

This time it is her turn to nod, though as she stares at him, he gets the impression that is not what she wants to hear. "I promised I would explain when I got back, I know Merra showed you something, I just don't know what she showed you." pausing, he glances out at the stars again. Turning back towards her he continues, "You can ask me anything, I promise to answer. The biggest reason I wasn't answering happens to be at the house right now, probably being watched by tall girl since she seems to have taken me literal."

Meryl chuckles at that, before becoming serious again. "She showed me a lot of things, you two as children, the people you grew up around, Tesla, the Fall, the years following. From both your views, though yours was clearer than his. Apparently the anger he felt made it hard for them to connect. I have spent almost all day sorting through all the information." She falls silent for a moment, staring out at the stars but he says nothing, having a feeling that there is more that she really wants to say. Giving a shake of her head, she turns to look at him, her light lavender colored eyes meeting and holding his own. "When you left I was angry and sad both, angry because I didn't understand why you had to leave, didn't understand what was going on. Sad because I didn't know if you would make it back or not, or even if you really wanted to." Again she pauses to shake her head. "It was frustrating."

He nods, understanding completely. He had almost told her everything before he left, but decided not to just in case there was a Gung-ho-Gun out there that he had missed. If she didn't know anything she would be safe, so he hadn't said a word, just told her that he would be back.

"Then yesterday, last night, Merra showed me so much that it was overwhelming. I was sad and angry all over again, but for completely different reasoning. It was wrong what happened with your sister, you and your brother. And suddenly I understood way more than I expected. I wanted to hate him when you showed back up," she tells him, "I so wanted to hate him for the harm he caused you but I can't, because I can almost understand the logic that drove him."

With that said, tears start to silently run down her face. Vash is not sure what he is supposed to do, he had never seen her like this before but he knows that he always likes to be held when he feels down. So he slides closer to her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her between his legs. Resting his cheek against the top of her head, he makes soft comforting noises as he holds her.

She turns, curling herself into his arms, the tears still streaming down her face but slowing down. Her arms encircle him as her head rests against his chest above his heart.

"I can understand, you know. I wanted to hate him, I almost did hate him actually but in the end, he's my brother." Vash tells her as he holds her close. He is enjoying the feel of her smaller body curled against his. It's something that he hopes he can have in the future, preferably with her not crying.

A weak chuckle comes from her as she tilts her head up to look him in the face. Her eyes seem far brighter than normal with the lavender seeming to be almost amethyst in coloring.

Not knowing why, but definitely not knowing why not he tilts his head just the slightest, brushing his lips against hers. Everything seems to stand still as he does so a second time, its intoxicating the idea that he can kiss her without her hating him for it but maybe he should stop because he definitely does not want to take advantage of her. What if he is misreading the situation? Oh dear…

He had stopped kissing her when his mind had kicked into overdrive.

"Vash?" she whispered.

"Yes Meryl?" came his slightly husky reply.

"Stop thinking and kiss me already."

His eyes widened at her softly voiced demand. "I…" he begins but finds a hard time forming a proper sentence. "I just don't want to take advantage and have you hate me later." He finally gets out.

She gives him a soft smile, shifting a hand to the back of his head, "I am definitely not going to hate you later," she tells him, "now kiss me."

Smiling back, he does just that, enjoying every minute of it.