Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Incompatible ❯ Chapter 0032 ( Chapter 32 )

Trigun Fanfic

Trigun © Yasuhiro Nightow * Shonen Gaho-sha * Tokuma Shoten * JVC * Pioneer Entertainment (USA) Inc.

The following fanfiction was written by me (Chiruken) and is intended for the sole purpose of shared entertainment and not intended for publication or sale.

--Incompatible-

Trigun Fanfic Featuring Knives and Meryl. Knives hates all humans. Meryl just hates Knives. It's a match ideal for the promise of Eden.

By Chiruken

Chapter 32

**~**

Knives sat in the small saloon with his back to the wall, Emily on one side of him and Meryl on the other while Vash and Millie sat across the small table. They'd brought the young women and their prisoners to Bayleworth, a settlement smaller than a city but larger than a town and lucky enough to have a decent jail and an honest sheriff. His long fingers were wrapped around his glass of water, blue gaze fixed on the table as his companions chatted amiably amongst themselves. After receiving a half hour long diatribe on how selfish he was to disappear without a trace, without even a goodbye, he'd been virtually ignored and left in peace. Apparently they had better things to occupy them now that they'd vented their anger and resentment on him and discovered for themselves that he hadn't gone on a murderous rampage during his two year absence.

As he'd predicted, Vash and Emily got along wonderfully, their personalities so much alike that they appeared to even **think** alike. And Millie had taken well to his sister immediately. Meryl appeared to be frustrated by her seeming lack of common sense, but also appeared to enjoy her company. He was glad. It meant that he didn't have to worry about Emily's welfare once he left the group again. He found that he just couldn't be around them for too long without wanting to strangle his brother for annoying the hell out of him and wanting to shake some sense into Millie. The two of them seemed to derive perverse pleasure out of irritating both him and Meryl. The small woman was currently trying to wrestle a bottle of foul smelling liquor away from Vash with little success.

He watched as condensation formed on the outside of his glass and traced small patterns against the scuffed top of the table as he tried to ignore Vash's whining and Meryl's increasingly loud complaints about his drunken foolishness. Millie was saying something about pudding and ice cream and his sister was watching it all with wide eyes and a huge grin. She elbowed him and leaned closer once she was sure she had his attention. "You were right, Knives-brother…I **do** like Vash-brother! He's great fun, don't you think?"

"Oh yeah…a real riot." He muttered and gingerly rubbed his ribs where she'd nudged him a little more forcefully than was absolutely necessary. He'd have to remember to caution Vash about letting Emily imbibe too freely of the potent alcohol he'd been plying her with. She had a tendency to forget her strength even without the mind-numbing effects of the liquor and didn't need the added loss of control it brought about in the recently freed Plant.

Millie suddenly stood, knocking into the table. Knives made a desperate grab for his glass before it ended up in his lap. "I wanna sing!" She announced loudly and staggered off towards the as of yet silent piano standing against the far wall. "C'mon Vash!"

"Okey dokey, Millie!" Vash abandoned his battle for the bottle, sending Meryl sprawling back in her chair as he stood and hurried after the tall woman.

Millie plopped herself down on the piano bench and ran her fingers over the keys. She looked back towards the table and grinned at them. "Emily!" She beckoned the woman over with a friendly wave.

Knives watched as his sister joined the two and winced. He had a feeling it was going to be a long night. He sighed as he thought of how Emily would be suffering once morning arrived. It would be her first hangover as far as he knew. "Those three…have they no sense?" He glanced over at Meryl and shrugged. "Honestly, don't they realize what a spectacle they're making of themselves?"

"Evidently not." He leaned back and closed his eyes, listening to the melody floating towards him. Millie was surprisingly musically talented. He never would've thought that she knew how to actually play the piano. "Wonders never cease." He muttered and lifted his glass to sip at his rapidly warming water. He winced when his brother opened his mouth and began belting out a well-known tune in one of the most tuneless voices Knives had heard in a while. Singer, his brother was not.

"You're planning on ditching us again, aren't you?" Meryl leaned closer to speak quietly and still be heard over the duet being performed in two equally flat voices. "Are you at least going to say goodbye this time?"

He set the glass on the table and pushed it away, his interest in it having fled. "No. It's better if I just leave."

"Better for who?"

"Me. I don't want to deal with Vash blubbering like an idiot." He answered honestly. He saw no reason to lie to her. He had a feeling she'd be able to see through any subterfuge he tried to enact in regards to this subject.

"What about Emily? She really looks up to you, you know. I think she'd be hurt if you just abandoned her, Knives."

"She has Vash. They're better suited to each other than I ever will be." He shrugged and turned to watch as they began a strange, wobbling dance to accompany the tune Millie was currently coaxing out of the piano.

"Millie and Vash quit their jobs to go searching for you." He glanced over at her with a silently questioning look. "Remember how Vash took the job of sheriff? Millie was his deputy." She explained with a frown. "Of course, thinking about those two double-teaming the criminals is just plain scary."

"Why are you telling me this now?"

"Vash had finally found the peaceful life he's always wanted. When you left, he had to give it all up to look for you. Why don't you let him have a few years of happiness, Knives?"

He scowled at her irritably. "I'm not stopping him, woman. He's free to do as he pleases."

"Not if he's constantly worrying about you and what you might do." She shifted in her chair to face him more fully. "Vash is afraid you might just decide to continue where you left off before and try to kill us all. That whole 'kill the humans to create Eden' stuff you've been spouting for over a century."

"Actually, it was kill the spiders to save the butterflies, but close enough."

She sighed and shook her head, grey eyes dropping from his to stare instead at her hands currently clasped in her lap. "I see. Do you still see us as spiders, then? Is that all we are? Insects to be swatted?" Her voice was a low whisper and barely carried over the music in the background.

He frowned down at her bowed head and shifted uncomfortably. He got the impression that his answer was much more important than she wanted to let on. He wondered at that. Why would she possibly care one way or the other? Besides the obvious of course. She was human after all. He decided that she wanted to know so she could either reassure or warn his brother, depending on what he told her. "Humans **are** like spiders." He began slowly, watching as her shoulders tensed at his quiet words. "They can be just as venomous, bloated with the poison of their evil thoughts and deeds, committing unspeakable horrific crimes against their neighbors. Grotesque, immoral, and completely without compassion for the suffering they cause to others. It's disgusting to witness such acts of blatant cruelty being inflicted on the weak."

Meryl raised her head to meet his gaze directly, grey eyes silently pleading. For what, he wasn't sure. "But…not everyone…"

He raised a hand, halting the lecture he was certain was about to come. "Let me finish, Meryl." She closed her mouth and seemed to sink a little lower in her chair as she nodded slowly with obvious reluctance. "Humans are frail creatures, easily crushed and broken." He smiled and impulsively reached out to gently cup her cheek, his fingers curving around the delicate bones of her face. "The spider will spin its web and continue to do so despite the fact that parts can be torn down and destroyed. It will turn around a rebuild and continue to create its home despite the obstacles set before it. Humans do the same. Tear down their homes and they rebuild. Destroy their crops and they replant. They never give up hope that tomorrow will be better. Spiders, Meryl, can be just as beautiful as butterflies…just different." The saloon disappeared, leaving them alone, blue and grey staring intently into the other. A faint blush spread across her cheeks as her lips parted and he leaned a little closer, thinking that this particular spider was more beautiful than anything he'd ever seen before. He forgot, for the moment, that her tender affections were directed to his brother. He forgot that she was merely questioning him in place of Vash. He even forgot that he was a logical creature not given to fanciful human emotions as he leaned even closer. All that currently filled his mind was how her eyes radiated warmth and acceptance and how soft her cheek was beneath his finger tips, how her delicate scent…an odd combination of gunpowder and flowery soap…was and how her lips parted on a soft sigh as her grey eyes slid shut as she leaned towards him. The moment was broken when the table was slammed into and his forgotten glass of water tipped over the edge into his lap.