Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Promises to Keep ❯ One-Shot

I don't own Trigun or any of it's characters. This fic is in the same vein as Crosses to Bear, only this time it's Milly's p.o.v. Hopefully, I actually kept the big girl true to her character. Semi-spoilers for episode 23, by the way. Enjoy!

Promises to Keep
By Esor

Everything is happening so fast. Things are changing so quickly that I feel like I can barely keep up. One day, everything is just fine, and the next it's suddenly all so confusing and different. Mr. Vash and Mr. Wolfwood are barely speaking to each other. It feels like that time I fell in the river near my house and was swept away by the current, only this time my big brothers aren't here to save me.

I sit on the bed where just a few hours ago, Mr. Wolfwood and I, we...were together. I remember the first time Mom told me about...that. She said that someday I would meet a man, a very special man, and I would know in my heart that the time was right. Mr. Wolfwood is the one Mom was talking about, I just know it. And I think he feels the same way about me, but I'm so confused right now. There's something wrong. Something is going to happen soon, and he knows it. Even though he wouldn't say anything, I could still tell. I could tell from the way he looked at me, from the way he held me in his arms. Whatever it is, it worried him. It worried him so much that he spent half the night awake, standing by the window.

Then I hear it. Gunfire. It's loud and close. Mr. Wolfwood's out there right now, fighting. I'm afraid that something bad might happen. He might get shot. He might have to shoot someone else. I know how much it hurt him to do what he did to Zazie, and I don't want him to have to go through that again. I pull my legs up onto the bed, hugging them to my chest. I want to grab my stungun so I can help him. I want to go and help him so much that it hurts, but I can't. I have to stay. He made me promise to wait here until he came back. Dad always said a promise is a promise, no matter what. And I promised that I would stay, so I have to, no matter what.

I hear Meryl enter, looking for Mr. Wolfwood, but I don't look up. She sounds surprised to see me, curled up like this on Mr. Wolfwood's bed. She asks me why I'm here and I almost tell her, tell her everything, when an explosion shakes the walls of the tiny room. I place my hands on the sides of my head, hoping to block out the noise, the shooting, all of it. I don't want to hear it anymore. I feel my eyes start to fill with tears, and I look down. I tell Meryl that I can't leave. Mr. Wolfwood told me to stay here, so I have to. He made me promise not to move. And if you promise to do something, you have to do it.

After Mr. Wolfwood made me promise to wait in his room, I asked him to promise me he would be okay. He gave me a lopsided smile and told me not to worry my pretty little head about it. I keep telling myself that everything is going to be fine. Mr. Wolfwood has been in plenty of tough spots before, and he always makes it out okay. But...there was something about the way he looked at me as he was leaving. His eyes were filled with guilt, pain, and so much sadness. It was almost as if he thought that was the last time he would see me. Like he already knew that he wouldn't be coming back.

I promised to stay here and wait for him. I can handle that, I can. I just, I just wish he promised me that he would be alright. If he promised me that, then I wouldn't have to worry so much. Mr. Wolfwood would never break his word, he's too nice to ever do something like that. He would have to be extra cautious out there so he could come back.

A promise is a promise, after all.