Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Gossamer Wings and Sweet Tasting Things ❯ Wolfwood ( Chapter 4 )

-----Gossamer Wings and Sweet Tasting Things-----
---A Trigun Fanfiction---

-----DISCLAIMER-----

I dun' own.
Dun' sue meh.

-----AUTHOR'S NOTES-----

Lynda: Finally! A character we KNOW!! O_o
Sailorspazz... The Angelinas like Magic Knight Rayearth? Wow, I never thought of that. Gee, I suppose so. ^_^;; Actually, I just tried to get the most extreme and different personality types into three characters. It wasn't intended! Gomene!!
Thanks Lady Shadowcat for pointing out my Gunsmoke/Earth mistake! I did mean it as in the plane earth, but it confusing, so I changed it! Thanks for pointing it out!!
And for CardMisstress Sakura, HERE COMES WOLFWOOD!!!

Thanks for the reviews guys! They are surprisingly inspirational!!

Kuroneko: Mya!

-----*+*-----

There, Vash thought vaguely within the cozy confines of his mind, is something incredibly comforting about Trash Cans. Drunk people swear by them, Cats and rats love them, They are a nice comfortable size and they are fundamentally lacking in the trap door department. Vash had had enough of trap doors. Seriously. He was beginning to fear the ground which is a silly thing to have a phobia of, considering the little problem called 'Gravity'.

He was currently crammed uncomfortably into the garbage bin, having fallen painfully into it after his plummet. And Vash hadn't bothered to move post crash. After all, he wouldn't encounter any problems in here, could he? ... Only he was bent in a very unnatural position and his back was sure to kink permanently that way unless he moved.

Hmm... Spend the rest of his afterlife safely in a garbage bin constantly looking between his knees, or spend the rest of his afterlife being dropped down trap doors... Hmmm...

The thing that worried him most, however, was that he didn't fly. Vash was an official Guardian Angel, dammit, and Geli had given him wings, hadn't she?! So why didn't he drift safely down to land instead of hurtling at break neck speed in a vertical downward direction? It was most confusing.

Ignoring the protests of his cramping spine, Vash contemplated the last couple of week's events. Not too bad, considering some dead people didn't get out much at all. But he was not sure if he liked it. It was just like life, only more confusing and with more weirdoes.

He was mulling over this when a scream rattled the bin he was crammed into. Vash sighed. He should've known his uncomfortable languidity was too good to last. He made to get up... And discovered an interesting problem. Trash cans are very hard to get out of when your arms and legs are the only things emerging from them. Some more useless struggling proved that trash cans were near impossible to get out of when your arms and legs are the only things emerging from them. Not to worry... He was a resourceful man...

As another panicked and feminine scream split the air, Vash began rocking the bin. It rolled from left to right, more and more violently, wavered on the brink, then crashed to its side spilling out a very bruised Humanoid Typhoon.

'Ow.' Vash managed as he pulled himself painfully to his feet, trying to straighten his bent back. Satisfied that he was back to his normal gangly self, Vash looked around him for the source of the scream. He was in an alleyway and it was night time. That was the extent of his knowledge. But out there, there was a damsel in distress. And something's simply run deeper than thought; a girl screaming defenselessly being among them.

Stumbling out of the dirty little alley way, Vash found the cause of the disturbance. A pretty young lady was being threatened at knife point for her purse and valuable belongings by an evil and malicious thug. Vash's mind switched over to 'auto'.

'Hold it right there!' he called out to the dirty thief gallantly. He was promptly ignored.

'Gimme the cassshhh!!' the afore mentioned criminal hissed at the poor woman, knife wavering over her throat. She whimpered and handed over her purse.

'Please don't hurt me!' she begged as he began rifling through her belongings.

'I SAID HOLD IT!!!' Vash shouted louder.

'This is it?!' The thief spat in frustration, still oblivious to our slightly nonplussed hero. 'I need somethin' more substantial than this, honey!'

'I don't have any more!' she wept, shaking.

'Ex-CUSE ME?!?!?' Vash shouted, getting slightly agitated.

'Don't lie!' the thug snapped, his knife inching closer to the skin on her neck.

'I'm not lying!' she wailed in response, looking ready to faint.

'Aw, MAN!' Vash whined, stepping forward to take more direct action. He was halfway across the street when there was a deep reverberating gunshot. The mugger was knocked off his feet and thrown across the street and into a building wall. The young lady screamed and sunk to her knees. Vash spun around to find the source of violence and his eyes fell on a tall woman, blue eyes, brown hair and holding an enormous and painful looking Stun Gun in her hands, glaring at the criminal with innocent disapproval.

'Freeze!' she shouted in contrary to her actions, smoke curling from one of the many barrels of her gun. The bandit failed to move.

'Wow.' Vash managed as she carefully placed her gun on the ground and knelt by the crying female.

'Are you ok, miss?' the big girl asked the blubbering woman, holding out one of her hands.

'Ye-Yes, thank you.' the teary woman stuttered, standing by herself, gathering her belongings, bowing and then hurriedly walking away in the opposite direction. Her savior had a gigantic gun, after all. The tall brunette watched in polite confusion in the motionless street.

'And I was just doing some shopping for Sempai.' she sighed, picking up a paper bag full of groceries. Vash walked up to her.

'That was a close one! Thanks a lot.' he said, grinning. The woman simply sighed as she slung the huge hunk of metal over her shoulder with ease. 'Um... Hello?' Vash tried again, waving a hand in her face.

'She can't see or hear you, idiot.' A voice noted to Vash's left. The gunman swung around and squinted into the shadow of the building. A man stepped out of the gloom and shrugged. 'You must be new.' he noted, taking a drag of his cigarette.

'And you are?' Vash asked warily.

'Wolfwood. Nicholas D. Wolfwood.' replied the black suited man, holding out a hand. The blonde took it slowly.

'Why can't they-' he began, motioning to the tall girl who was moving away. Wolfwood began to follow her.

'Because they are alive. We're not.' the dark haired man replied, matching a casual pace with the woman. 'Like her?' he suddenly asked, waving a hand at the person in front of him. 'She's Milly Thompson. My Guard.'

'Guard?' Vash asked quizzically, following. He had no idea where he was or what he was supposed to do, so he might as well follow a person who knew what they were doing.

'Yeah, the human I look over. Y'know? You've got to 'Guardian Angel' someone.' Wolfwood said, brushing off his scruffy looking black suit. He raised a quizzical eyebrow at Vash. 'Didn't they teach you anything?'

'Not really, no.' Vash replied sheepishly, grinning. 'So you're a Guardian Angel too?'

'We prefer the term 'Winger'.' Wolfwood stated, advancing a couple of steps to push aside a cat which Milly would've stepped on accidentally, considering she couldn't see past her shopping bag.

'Doesn't look like she needs much guarding.' Vash noted, pointing to the Stun Gun.

'After you've been in the trade for a while, you'll eat those words.' the suited man said darkly, dropping behind to trail Milly again. He turned to Vash.

'So who're you? Lose your Guard?' he asked, flicking his cigarette.

'I don't even know who my Guard is.' Vash replied in a whiny voice, feeling miserable and slightly betrayed. He stomached everything those psychotic sisters put him through, just to be completely ignorant to his own trade.

'You mean you sat through weeks of training and didn't learn one thing?!' the black haired man asked incredulously.

'A day.' Vash corrected, grimacing at the memory. Wolfwood nearly dropped his cigarette.

'You got out that early?! How the hell did you manage that?!'

'Um. I blew up the Quadro-Atomic-Neutralization-Dissilator.' he murmured in slight embarrassment. Wolfwood conducted something between a snort and a splutter, and it was sometime before Vash realized that the suited man had tried to laugh while taking a drag of his cigarette.

'I'm glad someone blew that thing sky high, I'm just sorry it wasn't me! Heh, Lina would've flipped.' Wolfwood choked, wiping away a stray tear.

'You know her?' Vash asked.

'Oh, hell yeah. The Angelina sisters taught me too, y'know.' the dark haired man replied, shoving his hands in his pockets. 'Best in the god damn class.' he added, grinning. Something clicked over in Vash's mind.

'You... Wouldn't be... Puppy would you?' he asked slowly, watching his companions face carefully. Wolfwood froze, turned white and faced Vash slowly.

'Don't ever call me that again.' he warned. Vash laughed.

'YOU are Puppy?! Hey, Ange says 'Hi!'' he exclaimed, trying to hold back the hysterics that were threatening to burst from his mouth. Wolfwood shuddered.

'Graduation day was the greatest @#$%in' day of my life.' he said darkly, flinching at some painful memory. Vash giggled.

'They seemed to think you'd teach me.' he said simply, following the Guard and Guardian Angel through the streets. Wolfwood raised an eyebrow.

'Damn, they must've been pissed with you to shrug you off so easily.' he noted.

'Um. They gave me this then dropped me down a trapdoor.' Vash replied, holding out the small keycard to his scruffy looking companion. Wolfwood stopped and took it from his unresisting hands.

'Well, this is a good start. This is your Meta-Kard. It will tell you who your Guard is, and all sorts of other useful junk too.' he said, pressing what looked like a small button. The small rectangle of metal beeped several times and what Vash had thought was a small black section turned out to be a screen. After a couple of minutes worth of mumbling, Wolfwood snapped his head up.

'Vash?! You're Vash the Stampede?!' he demanded incredulously, waving the keycard about like a weapon. Vash backed up.

'Ye-Yeah.' he managed, getting ready to run. Wolfwood blinked.

'You're nothing at all like I envisaged.' he admitted, scratching the back of his head.

'I kinda have that effect on people.' Vash replied, grinning apologetically. Wolfwood shrugged in response.

'I guess it's you though. Lesson 1: 'The Meta-Kard Does Not Lie'. Pleased to meet you Vash the Stampede.' he said, holding out his hand for the second time. Vash took it gladly this time.

'Who would've thought this planet's most wanted criminal graduated from Heiloz inc?!' Wolfwood laughed.

'Um... Heaven and Hell wouldn't have me.' Vash admitted, grinning ruefully. He shrugged, however, and changed the subject. 'How about you? What were you when you were alive?'

'A Man of The Clothe.' Wolfwood replied promptly, motioning to the little crosses on his cuffs. Vash blinked then proceeded to look the opposite man up and down.

'You don't look like a priest.' he finally said, frowning.

'I kinda have that effect on people.' Wolfwood retorted, echoing Vash's own words a few moments earlier. This scored a grin from the blonde gunman.

'I guess so, Preacher Man.' he said, grin broadening. Wolfwood smiled.

'Not as much as you, Outlaw.' he replied, raising an amiable eyebrow. The stood in the street, smiling at each other, the starts of a friendship building.

'Um.' Vash said suddenly after a healthy pause, blinking his aqua eyes innocently. 'I think we've lost the big girl.'

'Wha-?!'

The street was entirely lacking of Milly Thompson. Wolfwood swore quite loudly.

'I haven't let her out of my sight in 4 @#$%ing YEARS!! I can see why the @#$%ing Angelinas were so pissed off at you to kick you out!! I just lost my @#$%ing GUARD!!' he shouted angrily, clutching his head. Vash pointed to the Meta-Kard.

'How 'bout that. You said it did all sorts of useful stuff.' he offered, snatching his card back. Wolfwood blinked then pulled out his own. It looked much more battered than Vash's did.

'Didn't think of that. They DID tell me I could track her with this... Of course I've NEVER been in this situation before.' he snapped, shooting an acid glare at Vash who had the decency to look embarrassed. After a few minutes of quiet beeping and even more swearing, the dark haired man laughed in victory. 'Gotcha! She's just gone to the office! Everything is OK!!'

'You sure do stress about losing your Guard.' Vash noted, raising an eyebrow.

'4 years, pal. After your 4 years, you see if you can live without 'em.'

'Um...'

'AFTERlive without 'em, then!'

'Who is my Guard anyway?' Vash asked, jogging to keep up with Wolfwood who had set out at a determined pace.

'Oh, yeah. Forgot about that. You're in luck pal. Our Guards are friends, so it looks like you and me are gonna be stickin' together whether we like it or not.'

'But who-?'

'I'll leave it to you to meet her.'

'Oh, it's a her? Is she cute?!' Vash asked happily, eyes lighting up. He hadn't had a chance to hit on girls since he died, so this was a nice turn of events. Wolfwood shot Vash a look.

'A little word of the wise. You've got a long time to spend with 'em, so it's best not to start out on the wrong foot.' he said slowly, rounding a corner and continuing down the street. Vash winced.

'Why do I have a bad feeling about this?'

-----*+*-----

'Hey, Thompson! Keeping on top of work?'

'Sempai is sick today, sir!' Milly replied to her superior as an answer, going through her bags. She produced a meticulously neat stack of reports, strung together with some twine. She handed them over. 'She insisted that I hand these in, sir, because you know Sempai! All work and no play!' The chief took the reports and stared at them in horror.

'She practically passed out in the office so I demanded she leave. But did she go? Oooh, no. Had to threaten her with demotion, didn't I? THEN I receive next week's work in advance when she is supposed to be getting better! I need a break! Thompson could you please keep her away from work for a while?!' he begged, motioning to his desk which was covered in equally as neatly stacked paperwork. Milly blinked.

'But sir, I can't do that beca-'

'Confiscate her typewriter then!'

'I'm not sure if I can get it away from her...' Milly said ruefully, hugging her paper bag. The chief grimaced.

'Do what you have to. That's an order.' he replied, waving her away and looking rather upset as he was doing it. Milly sighed and turned. As she left the office Wolfwood and Vash, who were leaning on the building waiting patiently, proceeded to follow her.

'Insurance? She's an insurance worker?' Vash asked, blinking in surprise and pointing to Milly's Stun Gun again. Wolfwood shrugged.

'Claims Investigators.' he corrected.

'Yeah, but... Insurance?! What so dangerous about insurance that they need Guardian Angels?!' the blonde asked incredulously.

'It's a rough job, but someone has to do it.' Wolfwood replied simply. Contemplating this, the insurance girl, ex-priest Angel and ex-Humanoid Typhoon Angel made their way through the streets in silence, each to their own thoughts. Milly suddenly turned left and stepped up to a modest looking apartment, key already in the door. It opened and the tall brunette stepped inside and immediately dropped the bag on the door side table.

'Seeeeempai?!' she called, rattling her keys as another forewarning. Wolfwood grinned.

'Cute, ain't she?' he asked with what could almost pass as 'proudly'. Vash blinked. Milly stepped up to the first door, opened it a crack, peeked in and giggled. She closed the door and backed up.

'Goodnight Sempai.' she whispered, smiling and making for the door. Wolfwood patted Vash on the shoulder.

'Welcome home, Vash the Stampede.' he grinned and waved. 'Good luck and no sudden movements!'

'Wha- You're not gonna just leave me here?!' Vash demanded, latching on to Wolfwood's sleeve. The priest shrugged.

'You can't come with me, the Big Girl's already got a guard!'

'But I don't know what to do!'

'No big deal. We'll be back in the morning. If you can't stand 12 hours with her unconscious, you'll be screwed when she's awake.' Wolfwood noted, taking a contemplative drag of his cigarette. He shrugged off Vash's grasp. 'Just try not to blow anything up yet, ok?'
With that the scruffy looking priest followed Milly Thompson out the door, giving one last slightly sadistic wave before the door to freedom closed loudly after them. Vash blinked.

'Why can't I just catch a break?' he whined, scratching the back of his head in a show of misery. He took a deep breath, steeled himself and advanced to the door beside him.

Wolfwood was right. How bad could one unconscious person be?

-----*+*-----

-----AUTHOR'S NOTES-----

Lynda: Mwe heh. At least you now know what this fic is going to be about. Took my time, though, didn't I? Sorry if you don't like the way things are swinging, but I do have a story in mind and almost EVERY character has their part. Vash guarding Wolfwood or Knives, as cute as it may be, just didn't fit the plot. Gomene....

Kuroneko: Mya?

Lynda: I finally get to write Wolfwood, isn't he just too cute?! Er... Evil... No... Um... Whatever... -_-;

AND!! Last note, I'm going to slow down chapter output. Lynda just ran out of free time. ;_; I'll try my best though... ;_; **sniffles**