Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Not Quite Worthless ❯ Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Meryl awoke feeling refreshed and strangely at ease the next morning, considering she had gone to sleep brooding the night before. She lounged a few extra moments, savoring the lingering feelings of warmth.

"That must have been some dream." She murmured to herself. She couldn't remember all of the details, but she knew it had to do with Vash…as did most of her dreams these days.

She could almost feel his arms around her…sigh. Then she buried her head into her pillow. Dammit! That would never happen, because she was too scared to tell him how she felt. Well, that would have to change.

It's not like she could rely on him to make the first move, she thought. If there were ever to be the chance of a relationship between the two of them, she would have to make the first move.

The thought made her pause, then nod in satisfaction. The more she thought about it, the better it sounded. After all, he had been a drifter for so many years; he would hardly have any experience in getting things done in any kind of efficient manner.

As she worked herself up, her previous pleasant haze was burned away in the heat of her rapidly churning brain.

Vash wouldn't know what hit him.

Meryl leapt out of bed, her practical mind already putting together a plan. She was so caught up in her scheming that she didn't even wonder how she had made it to bed the night before.

Knives sat up in his bed, his face a mixture of horror and fascination. The furious buzzing of her mind had woken him from a light doze; her intentions blared to him loud and clear. He had a fleeting thought of warning his brother, but decided that if Vash was too dull to have picked up all that noise, he was on his own.

Besides, this would give him something to observe other than Millie's baby. The boy was interesting enough, but tended to get repetitive when he discovered something new…which for a fetus was every other minute or so. After more than a century, he had long since gotten over the miracle of his own penis, and did not want to hear about anyone else's.

A curious feeling fluttered in his chest as he heard Meryl fly down the hall to the bathroom. His lips began to twitch, and before he realized it, he was snickering to himself, doing his best to keep from waking his brother in the other bed. Even as he laughed, he realized it felt awkward, as if the muscles needed to laugh had atrophied from disuse.

The idea made him sad for some reason, but he brushed it off.

Vash woke anyway, and peered at his brother curiously. Knives gave one last chuckle, got up, dressed and walked out of the room. Vash was worried for a moment, but since Knives' laughter didn't have that `destroyer of worlds and bringer of doom' ring that he had grown used to hearing over the past century, he simply yawned and shrugged off his blankets.

Vash quickly dressed and ran to the kitchen where Millie was fixing breakfast. She greeted him with a cheery smile and a plate of waffles and syrup. Meryl entered while both men were almost done and accepted her own plate with a subdued thank-you.

She was only partway through her own breakfast when Vash said, "Breakfast was great, Millie. You almost ready, Knives?"

His brother grunted.

Meryl began to panic. All of her courage seemed to have deserted her. If she didn't get started now, yet another day would go by, and she was afraid she would lose her nerve. She jerkily picked up her glass of milk, tossed it back like rotgut gin, then slammed it on the table.

"Vash!" She barked. Everyone froze, and turned to look at the dark haired woman.

"M-ma'am?" he stammered, eyes wide. Had she figured out about the night before? Man, she was gonna kill him!

"I…I…" Meryl hesitated, nervous with all the attention, but determined to get something out. Instead of a civil request for his company, what came out was a snapped, "Walk me home from work tonight."

His face cleared, although he still looked somewhat puzzled. "O-okay. Is anything wrong?" He began to frown. "Is someone bothering you?"

Meryl jumped up, not wanting to lie to him. "Oh, look, I promised I'd be in early today. I've gotta go, thanks for breakfast Millie!" and she ran out of the kitchen.

Millie and Vash looked at each other quizzically as Meryl's parting bellow reached them from the front door,

"YOU'D BETTER NOT FORGET, VASH!"

Knives let out another chuckle. This only promised to get better. "Lord, what fools these mortals be." He quoted in a low voice.

***

An excess of nervous energy kept Meryl moving all day long. One waitress called in sick, so they were understaffed, but you wouldn't have known it the way Meryl took up the slack. Keeping everyone's orders straight and getting their food to them as promptly as possible kept her from dwelling on what a mess she had made of everything that morning.

After running out of the house, she spent the whole walk to work berating herself. Stupid nerves, making her foul things up with Vash. How was snapping at him like a drill sergeant supposed to make him want to spend time with her? He was probably scared to death now.

No matter-the damage had been done, so she just needed to find a way to make the best of it. She was a bright, capable woman; surely she could come up with something between now and five o'clock.

Meryl hurried into the diner and smiled at the greeting from the owner. Nothing like some work to calm her down.

***

Much later in the day, she was resting at an empty table. The restaurant was empty for the moment, and she took to the time to catch her breath and fan herself with a menu. Her pink uniform was creased, but she couldn't care less. All she wanted was rest and a shower.

Tom, the owner, called out to her from behind the counter, "It's about time you took a rest, Meryl. You've been running all day. I didn't even see you eat lunch."

Meryl kept fanning herself. "I had a quick bite. What time is it? Two? Three?"

Tom shook his balding head in amusement. "Meryl, it's almost five."

She jumped up. "Almost five?!?" she shrieked. "No!!!"

Tom blinked. "What's happening at five?"

She threw the menu down on the floor and grabbed the sides of her head in panic. "I'm not ready!!" she moaned. "I can't believe I wasted all that time!" She began to wail incoherently, small body bending all sorts of ways.

Tom was a big man, maybe six feet tall and two hundred twenty pounds. He could easily have made two or three of Meryl. However, Tom also had a wife and three daughters, and knew the stages of imminent female meltdown when he saw them. He quickly took cover in the kitchen, knowing that no amount of reason or offers of assistance would help him now if he didn't stay out of sight.

Meryl plopped back into her former seat, mind blank. Then she mentally shook herself. "It's just a walk home." She muttered. "Just talk about your day, and things like that. There's no need to make this more complicated than it should be."

Tom, braving the empty dining room after hearing nothing but silence, poked his head from around the kitchen door. "Meryl? Everything okay out there?"

"Yeah," she sighed. "Yes, I'm fine."

"Good." Safety having been established, he brought the rest of his body into the dining room. "Hey Meryl, I've got some stuff that's about to go bad. It's not spoiled yet, but it's not selling, so I don't want it to go to waste. Do you want to take it off my hands?"

"Sure." She perked up. Free food was always welcome with their tight budget. "What have you got?"

"It's extra from that group last week. They ordered it all ahead of time, but the cops broke up the party before they could even get through half of it. I've been keeping the food in the freezer, thinking they might come back since they paid for it, but," he shrugged. "Seems like they just skipped town."

Meryl looked interested. "Party food, huh?"

"Party?" a cheerful voice broke in. "Who's having a party?"

Meryl looked up to see Vash walk into the little restaurant. He looked dusty and sweaty and utterly luscious in his plain tan work shirt, jeans and boots.

"Tom is letting us have the extra food from a party last week. They never came to collect it, and he doesn't want it going to waste." Meryl explained.

Vash nodded sagely before breaking into a wide grin. "That means we're having a party then!"

Meryl frowned. "Vash…"

"Why not, Meryl? We can celebrate your recovery. We don't have work tomorrow, and we'll have all this great food."

"But…but what if Millie's already started dinner?" Meryl felt like things were seriously getting out of her control. She didn't know if she could handle a party.

Vash shrugged. "Then we'll have it tomorrow." He sidled up to her and gave her his $$60 billion grin. "Come on…what can it hurt?"

Meryl sighed, and gave in. "Fine. You'll have to help me carry all the stuff, though."

Tom laughed at the look on her face. "That's okay, Meryl. I can load it all into my grandson's old wagon, and you can pull it home. It'll just take me a minute." And he disappeared into the back.

Meryl and Vash collected their things none too soon, because the after work crowd was starting to fill up the tiny place. Meryl waved to Tom and to the other waitresses who had arrived for their shifts.

Straightening her mantle, she walked out of the restaurant with the planet's most notorious outlaw behind her pulling a little red wagon.

Meryl slowed her normal brisk pace, wanting to savor the time alone with Vash as much as possible.

Vash unconsciously shortened his longer stride to match her pace. "How was work today?" He asked.

"It was fine. The day went by pretty fast." She replied.

They walked some more, stirring puffs of dust with every step. "How has your day been?" she asked.

"Knives didn't piss anybody off, and I got to play in the water. Now I get to walk home with a pretty girl and we're having a party tonight." Vash said easily. "I really can't complain."

Meryl fought mightily to keep from blushing and lost. She clapped her hands to her face to hide her red cheeks and embarrassed smile. She missed Vash looking down at her with an indulgent smile of his own.

Millie had indeed started dinner, but was as excited to have a party as Vash. She declared that her jambalaya was party food and would go perfectly with everything else.

"Everything else" turned out to be ice cream, frozen cookie dough, smoked salmon, crackers, and a couple of bottles of whiskey.

Vash cried tears of joy at the salmon and whiskey. Knives looked on curiously as his brother acted the fool, and his harpy woman, well… harped.

Millie shooed Vash and Meryl out of the kitchen to shower and change, while she commandeered the other twin to help her prepare the rest of the food. She unwrapped the salmon, while the ice cream was put away by a sulky Knives.

"Why do I have to help with the food?" he groused.

"Well, because Vash and Meryl have been at work at day. You've been home since lunch, so it's time for us to do our share." She responded easily.

He thought on her words as he set the cookie dough to defrost next to the stove. He had always exhorted the superiority of the Plants, only to find a human woman who exhibited their best traits without even trying. Sharing, nurturing, collective responsibility; these were the qualities he most cherished in his fellow Plants. It troubled him to find them in supposedly destructive and life-sucking creatures.

Although he had yet to speak to his brother on it, Vash's words of the previous day had deeply affected him. He loved his brother, and if anyone else had made Vash suffer the way he himself had, he would be violently displeased.

So why had he done it? He thought deeply, setting his body on autopilot. Vash kept letting these creatures cause him pain, even though he was more than capable of killing them and settling the problem once and for all. And yet, Knives could tell how happy Vash was to be around people, especially these two women. He was torn between his love for his brother and the ideals he had kept all these decades.

After a few minutes, he came to himself, realizing what task Millie had given him.

He frowned. Why was he sitting here making cookies with the pregnant woman of one of his former minions? Somehow, this question disturbed him most of all.

He shook his head. Thoughts like these just made him uncomfortable, and while he would never admit it to Vash (although Knives was sure his brother knew), he was also tired. And he also wanted his brother. Any trouble he stirred up right now would only drive him further away.

So he ignored his dawning epiphany and concentrated on making his cookies rounder and more perfect than those of the hippie woman.

A/N: And yes, our little Knives did indeed quote Shakespeare in this chapter. It was from "A Midsummer Night's Dream." He always seemed like the cultured evil genius type to me, so having him quote literature didn't seem like much of a stretch. I think he'd be a cool James Bond villain.

Also, for those who don't know, jambalaya is a Cajun/Creole rice dish. It can be made with seafood, chicken or sausage. And it's damn good when it's made right.