Work Text:
Meryl knew she should have insisted on getting more gas for the car, but of course she had to just give up when Milly gave her those eyes that were always too effective to make anyone do what she wanted. Meryl was sure she even saw Wolfwood being swayed by the younger one's looks.
It was sort of a surprise that Wolfwood was even with them. They didn't see each other a lot, the last two years. Meryl was busy with work and teaching Milly the ropes, and Wolfwood was doing… whatever he was doing. She didn't really ask, when they were together, those moments were too rare and precious to waste on “useless bullshit” as he would put it. She would never tell him she agreed with him, at least not while sober or if he could hear her. He was still walking around with the Punisher on his back, but Meryl was always with her derringers on her as well, it was just needed here, in No Man's Land. She learned it the hard way.
Still, she really wished they kept going with the car rather than the crappy bus they were currently staying in.
It was too hot, people in it were too loud, they were short on water already and their stop was still an hour away at the very least. She wondered how Wolfwood and Milly could survive with their clothes, the actual-priest-now mostly in black and Milly with way too many layers, while she was struggling with her own white and blue clothes, her cloak a way to protect herself from the sun and hide her guns.
All of that for rumors of Vash reappearing in one of those nameless small towns, in the middle of the desert. Towns without plants, that nobody ever cared to try to name outside of how far they were to the main cities. This one wasn't so far from July, maybe that is why Meryl kept the hope they would find him here of all places. There's been so many talks about someone seeing Vash, only to turn out to be a fake. Someone using his name to scare people and get money easily. She dealt with a lot of those, always reporting the impersonator.
Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she turned to see Wolfwood guiding her towards him softly, letting her rest her head on his own shoulder. Meryl let herself go a bit, some of the tension from her back leaving as she felt the way the man's chest moved, how she could hear him breathe softly. He had been forbidden from smoking in the bus and was now focusing on the leftover plastic bar of his candy, offering it no mercy.
“Do you really think he's here ?” She asked, voice low, as to not bother Milly who was currently talking with two kids at the front of the bus.
“Pretty sure. And anyways, that's the safest bet we got.”
“I'm just… I don't understand why he didn't try to contact us.”
“You know him shortie.” His hand rubbed her arm slightly, a thing that became normal for them by now. “When he realized what happened in here he probably tried to never be seen again. 'just has a hell of a bad luck.”
Meryl hummed, her hands scrunching up the tissue of her cloak. She wished she could be like him in that instant, confident if not entirely sure that they would find him. Maybe he was lying to himself, trying to convince his mind as much as her's, but it was still better than the weight at the pit of her stomach. Better than the nightmares of never finding him again.
She tried to never imagine if he simply didn't want to see them again.
She wondered if he changed. She knew he wouldn't look older, he was already past a century and a half and did not look a day older than twenty-two. But she wondered if he got a new coat, from where. How he was taking care of his prosthesis. If his hair was still spiky like when he woke back from whatever Knives and that doctor did to him in July. She herself changed a lot, in just two years, and that was without talking about Wolfwood.
He had told her she looked more serious, when they crossed each other for the first time after parting ways, just a few weeks after July. She told him he looked like shit, and she was right. They got drunk together, laughed. They promised to keep an eye out for the other.
She had known he was alive thanks to the packs mysteriously disappearing from the sort-of-grave she did for Roberto. A sign he was alive. A sign she was as well. They met, sometimes, by chance. Growing closer, into their current… situation. She didn't know if she wanted a more specific word than that. It suited them. They grew into it, loved it in a way, meeting again and again in different towns and cities.
Then one day he was waiting for her at July, and she had to explain to Milly who that shady man was and why they seemed so close. And he said he knew where Vash was.
That was all she needed to drop her current case and tell Wolfwood to get in the car, ignoring his knowing smile.
The car had run out of gas halfway to the nameless town, sadly.
Maybe it was worth it, she though. After all, she's pretty cozy here, against Wolfwood's shoulder. She understood why Vash would end up against him more often than not, back then, and how despite his complaints, Wolfwood let him do so. He wasn't exactly a softie, if she had to be honest, but he wasn't against some form of affection.
Milly came back to sit behind them as the kids and their mother left the bus on the next stop. Her hair was pulled up in a ponytail, making her look even taller than she already was, and Meryl was starting to think she had been cursed by some old-tale god to always be reminded of her height.
Okay, maybe she was being dramatic.
The suns were still hitting the badly patched up vehicule, letting heat get more and more annoying as time passed, until they were the last ones in it. Maybe she started dozing off, she wasn't sure, but she was taken out of her heat induced trance by the conductor's voice, an old man with a grating tone. A warning. The next stop was the town where "Vash The Stampede" was said to be staying. They didn't bother to answer the man, not that he would listen to what three strangers would say anyway.
When they dropped off, the bus was soon full again of people leaving, looking at them like they were crazy. Maybe they were, to be fair, not everyone would run after a ghost that left absolutely nothing of an entire city for two years. But at that point Meryl didn't care, and she was sure Wolfwood didn't as well.
Milly gave Wolfwood his giant cross as she got her own stun gun back, hiding her weapon under her huge cloak. It was better to hide those, not let people think you're looking for a fight. At least that's what Wolfwood would say when asked why he kept those tissues around the Punisher.
They got into the first saloon they could find, all conversations dying even for just a moment with their arrival. Some laughs, some tired remarks. They didn't bother listening to it before going to the bar as Wolfwood took out a cigarette.
“What can I do for you ?” The man behind the counter wasn't that old, Meryl though, just tired. His own cigar was slowly burning in his mouth and the lines under his eyes were marked, making a thirty-something look more like a fifty year old.
“We're looking for Vash the Stampede. Heard he was around here ?” All noises stopped for a second after Wolfwood's words. So they were right, he was here.
“Why are you looking for him ?” The barman sighed, giving another man a beer. “He's taking the women here, and all of our men don't come back when they try to save them.”
“He's taking your women ?” That was weird, even for the epitome of weirdess that Vash was. If there was one thing Vash never did, it was willingly putting other people in danger.
“Yea.” The man scoffs. “We're not against a little bit of help, but what are a priest and two girls good for ?”
She was about to talk back, and so was Wolfwood, when the saloon's door opened suddenly, letting a tall man with a little girl under his arm get in. The girl was thrashing around, yelling at him to let her go.
Meryl could only watch the man's face. And the hand on her shoulder confirmed Wolfwood saw him as well. She recognized the worried tint in those blue eyes, the sole mole under the left one. She knew that “please believe me it's gonna be alright” expression by heart, could see it just by closing her eyes. His hair wasn't spiky anymore, falling back around his head in a soft way. He looked cute, she thought, with his light stubble. He didn't have his prosthetic, she noticed, the shirt under his elbow tied up instead. Was it lost after July ? She could already picture Bradd's annoyance with the fact.
She didn't even care about what the little girl was saying until she said the name of Vash in an angry tone, yelling he touched her and that he deserved that kick.
What ?
The man she was talking to was Vash, there was no other way. She traveled next to him for months, she could never confuse him for anyone else. Yet, that girl was calling him another name, one that did not fit him.
Wolfwood seemed as confused as her, as that girl and “Eriks” came to the bar, the man behind it seemingly used to the two. He asked her what happened, calling her “Lina”, calling Eriks her brother.
Meryl tried as hard as she could to stop staring at that too familiar man, focusing on what the girl was saying.
“That creep touched me ! All I did was an accidental kick back.”
“It wasn't so incidental, you hit him right in his head…”
Even his voice was the same.
As she was about to finally say something, finally call out to him, he tensed, taking the girl and himself under cover on the ground, making Wolfwood, Milly and Meryl imitate him as a rain of bullets came from the street.
It must have lasted just a few seconds, enough to make everyone inside yell and panic, but also enough for Wolfwood and Meryl to share a look as the priest secured his weapon against him. A second more, and Milly was ready to take her gun out.
A voice rang out, high and shrilling. The dust was slowly setting, the bullets having ceased their fire. Meryl risked a look and had to fight a laugh when faced with the man outside. A smirk that would make anyone annoyed, glasses that hid his eyes with their dark lenses, and no muscles at all under the large coat, not even close to looking like Vash. Sure, if you only knew about the blonde hair, red coat and earring it could work, but even then any “Wanted” poster would make you understand this man was not Vash.
The girl shrank even more, looking smaller against Eriks' broad chest, grimacing when the small, angry man in front of the pseudo-Vash called for her, almost throwing a tantrum to get her, the trace of Lina's kick still visible on his face. Eriks pressed her even more into him, his eyes squinting to look at the man.
Was he thinking about what a pale imitation of him it was ?
The small man calls again for the girl, showing a pistol against a man's temple, a far from empty promise judging by the way everyone in the saloon tensed up. He yells out again, giving a timer.
Three.
Eriks releases Lina, pushing her against the bar instead.
Two.
He gets up, and as Meryl goes to do the same, Wolfwood's hand is on her shoulder.
One.
He shakes his head as Eriks steps outside. “Not now. Wait and see.”, he tells her without a word behind his shades. The girl tries to go to the window behind Eriks, but Milly gets her before that. She yells out as her brother gets closer to the gang, his only hand up in the air.
Before he even had the occasion to talk, a gunshot rang out, making the hair on the right side of his head move with the bullet so close to it. If he tensed a bit, he stayed mostly still. It's the first time Meryl could truly look at him, the clothes he had on, so far from his usual black turtleneck and pants. He's still as tall as ever, still standing up too upright for the false idiocy he put up most of the time.
She missed him, she realized.
“I asked for the brat to come out.” said the angry man, his pistol fuming from the shot, still holding his hostage close.
“Sorry, can't do that.” she could hear his fake smile from here, could picture his face. “You guys would kill her, and I'm sure we can talk it out, she's still just a twelve years old girl.”
“You think you can get out of it so easily ?!” the angry man starts again, his shrills hurting Meryl's ears. Eriks was slowly getting on his knees, his arm in front of him in a pleading manner. The sight makes her heart crack, seeing him still acting this way despite everything. The small man starts shrieking again, and Meryl gets more and more tempted to get a derringer and shoot.
“Boss, Vash the Stampede ! What do you wanna do ?”
“I'll be going back… If he strips down and acts like a dog.”
A single second passes. And then Eriks looks back up, his voice serious and calm when he asks for confirmation. Lina yells as he gets up, finally escaping Milly's arms and standing next to Meryl and Wolfwood at the window.
He turns back just enough to look at Lina, asking her to close her eyes. His own met Meryl's. She sees something, in those blue eyes, not quite recognition, not quite confusion. Like if he knew her but didn't remember from where. His eyes fell on Wolfwood who was holding the girl back, telling her to hide angrily and that same flash happened in those sad eyes.
He turned back as Wolfwood finally managed to hide the girl who was still too close for comfort.
Meryl could only stare in terror as the clothes fell down, revealing a body that had more scars and metal than flesh. Some scars she could easily tell were from that day, the knives' from Vash's own brothers leaving wounds that still looked hardly healed. Most she would probably never learn the story behind them, constant reminders of past successes and failures to protect and help others.
It was horrific, to be presented with his skin he used to hide so carefully in such a twisted way. To be shown such a personal part of him, to watch something she wished he could have shown her when he desired to.
Despite all of that, she found him beautiful. Because it was Vash here, right in front of her, still trying to protect others, two years would never change that. Because he was letting go of his dignity if it meant helping a poor girl. Because he was alive, and his scars told a story. Because Vash was always beautiful to her.
For seconds that seems an eternity, Eriks barks and pants, holding himself up as good as he can with only one arm. Meryl turns to Wolfwood, who doesn't look surprised one bit, as should be expected of him. The girl cries, hidden under the window and Meryl can't help but feel bad for her.
Finally, the pseudo-Vash decides to go, making his gang go with him. Eriks gets back up slowly, hiding what little dignity he has left with his hand, a smile slowly growing on his face as he turns to get his clothes back.
Then another gunshot rings.
Eriks falls to the ground.
Blood spills from his stomach.
Lina yells and jumps over the window, escaping Wolfwood's hands.
Meryl follows too late, her hand barely missing the girl's wrist.
A bandit ceases her and drags her with him on a bike.
Silence falls as the engine gets further away.
Meryl yells before going to Eriks' side, pressing her hand on the wound as Wolfwood and Milly call for a doctor in the saloon.
Eriks' eyes still have that weird shine on them as he looks at her before a nurse puts him on a stretcher, taking him away from the trio. Milly offers Meryl a tissue to clean her hands as they follow the nurse, steps fast and big so as to not lose any time.
Meryl knew he could survive such a small injury, Wolfwood told her about the wound he got before facing Knives and how it seemed to have healed in just minutes. She knew he wouldn't let something that small kill him, not when this girl was still in danger.
It wasn't hard to get into the room Eriks was in, with all of the panic happening. Meryl and Milly did have to stop Wolfwood from strangling two men bad mouthing the man that had just saved their life, but they weren't stopped and no one seemed to notice them despite Wolfwood's giant cross.
“Eriks !” an old lady stepped in, and Meryl could swear she saw her at the outskirts of the town when they were arriving by bus. The nurses and doctor didn't seem phased by her either, simply calling her granny Sheryl, going to her before getting thoroughly ignored. “Enough with that ! Lina is in tr-”
“Well, Sheryl.” The doctor stepped closer to Eriks as the old lady grabbed the sheet around the man currently asleep. “He's safe, we should keep him for the night but the bullet is out.” Meryl didn't miss the mumble of a nurse about how the bullet was almost pushed out by his body without their help. A reality he didn't need to know.
“Dammit.” the lady squeezed her cane harder in her hand, tears coming to her eyes. “I don't care if he's the legendary gunman or whatever ! They think they can just do this to an old lady ?!”
As she goes to get a shotgun exposed on the wall, the medical staff comes to get her out of the room and away from the weapon, letting Meryl and Wolfwood step closer to Eriks without trouble. Well, the doctor did say something about only medical staff being allowed in the ward, but it's not like Wolfwood or her cared about that, right now.
She stared a little more at Eriks. How his soft features were still here, despite everything. How his breathing was slow, his nose with a soft blush. She wanted to reach out and hold his face in her hands, like he let her do once, a night where neither of them were able to sleep in the desert.
Wolfwood seemed to think for a while next to her, ignoring the remarks about not needing a church man now, looking at Eriks’ face. She wondered if he was thinking the same thing as her for a second, then came the slap right to his sleeping face.
She did not blame the doctor and nurse for yelling at him, she wanted to as well until the nurse and her noticed those big blue eyes open on the bed, shining with what she learned to recognize as a fake innocence from him.
“Yo. Long time no see.” Wolfwood smiled as the doctor rambled in awe at how fast Eriks was waking up. She could feel herself smile as well as Milly stepped closer, without doubt feeling a little left out of the reunion.
“Doctor, I’m sorry… Can I have a moment ?”
If the doctor hesitated for a small moment, he left, simply asking Meryl to stop the priest from pushing him too hard.
Silence reigned for a few seconds, no one knowing what to say. Meryl could feel the hairs on her arms standing up, not so much because of a non-existent breeze than the electricity in the air she learned to associate with Vash. She bit her lip, stopping it from wobbling as a thousand of things came to her mind all at the same time. Thanks, reproaches, cries, laughs, everything comes at once to her head.
“We finally found you, idiot.” Her voice was weak, and she leaned a bit in the hand Wolfwood put on her back.
“What have you been doing for the last two years ?” Wolfwood’s voice was free of any reprimands. It’s a simple question. One they’ve both been asking themselves for two years. “How does someone that shot the moon just disappears, Va-”
“Stop it.” Eriks’s voice was calm, too much so. Meryl’s lip started to wobble again and she bit harder. He looked away from them, eyes not seeing anything. “I… don’t remember. Didn’t.”
She felt the air leave her lungs, as if the words just punched her in the guts.
“You don’t remember… What.” she felt her hands shake, and felt Wolfwood’s hand grabbing her coat tightly. “Anything ?”
“I… I remembered a fall.” he slowly got up, and Meryl could swear he never seemed so small before. “I remembered bribes. A man that looked like me. A song, my… Name.” he swallowed his spit, looking back at them. “I remember your voices. And when I saw your faces I… I recognized them. I just didn’t know from where I knew those faces.” he turned to Milly with a sad excuse of a smile, laughing a bit. “Yours is still unknown to me, sorry.”
“That’s because it’s the first time we meet, mister Vash.” Milly smiled at him, bright and sweet and always so open. “I started following Meryl around just a few months ago actually !”
“Well it’s nice to meet you, Milly !”
“You said you didn’t remember, Needle-Noggin’, past tense. So now you do ?”
“Always so sharp, Wolfwood.” he laughed a bit, his hand finding a resting place on his still closing wound. “Not… Not everything. There’s still some dark spots in my memory. But I remember a lot. I remember you.”
The tears fell gently on her cheeks, as he looked at them, the confused light in his eyes gone. She laughs and takes his hand, squeezing it gently as he squeezes back. Wolfwood’s hand goes from her back to her shoulder and Milly hugs her softly. But Meryl can only smile as she can feel the light static cursing through Vash’s hand, the heat of his body.
He’s here. He’s alive.
She feels his hand slip from hers as he puts it on her cheek, wiping away the tears that keep falling, after two years of restraints. He says a name, a question. Meryl shakes her head, Wolfwood says he died in the elevator they put him and Meryl in. Vash’s face gets sad, but he doesn’t focus on it.
“Hey, I got this for you.” Wolfwood gets a small package out of his vest, giving it to Vash. “Bradd was convinced you would get back, and gave me this when I visited a few months ago.”
“You visited Home ?” Vash smiled as Wolfwood grumbled, his cheeks turning slightly red. The package gets opened, revealing a simple gun, different from the one he had before July. “This is…”
“They weren’t able to do the same as before. The caliber is a bit larger, but it’s not like it would bother you, right ?”
Vash laughed a bit as he examined the weapon. It looked almost brand new, with the bad light from the bulb above their head, but like most things on the SEEDS ships, it was probably older than any human on this planet.
They left once Vash was able to put on some clothes, leaving only a note to the doctor and nurses.
The walk was almost too casual. They talked about his missing arm that was staying at his house with the old lady. Talked about Meryl’s articles on July, on Vash, on seemingly anything. About Wolfwood’s conversion into a “real” priest, the cross hanging from his neck a new thing for the gunman. About Milly’s apprenticeship, and what she knew about Vash which wasn’t a lot. A small remark about Meryl smelling like gunpowder now, an acknowledgement of her capacities.
It felt all too familiar to Meryl, a familiarity that made her chest warm up.
They arrived while Vash and Wolfwood were still bickering about Vash’s aim, the second insisting it can’t be the same as ever if Vash didn’t practice, which the blonde seemed all too eager to prove wrong. The building was silent, but it only took an instant for tens of bandits to get out of their hiding spot, cannons facing the four of them.
Wolfwood was the first to get his own gun out, the Punisher looking more used and worn down than in July, the drapes usually hiding the cannon floating behind them as both Vash and Meryl reminded the priest to not kill anyone to his barely hidden annoyance.
A gunshot rang out and it’s the sign to start.
Meryl didn’t bother trying to keep up with the boys, knowing all too well they’re able to take care of themselves just right. She heard one or two bandits yelling about the priest’s weapon, about Vash’s skills that are beyond human. She covered Milly’s left once, reminding the younger girl to be careful. Her derringers were more than enough to incapacitate the men around, littering the floor around her once they became useless.
It only takes a couple of minutes for the bandits to be incapacitated. And a few seconds for the pseudo-Vash to come out, holding Lina in his grip.
Meryl looked around for Vash and found him next to Wolfwood, his pistol still held tight in his hand as the priest slowly inhaled the smoke from his cigarette. They’re without any sign of a wound, which is reassuring, but she didn’t miss how Vash was slowly thinking of the best course of action as the man yelled out.
She saw the gun in Vash’s hand fall to the ground.
She saw the look in his eyes.
She smiled as he grabbed it back, almost inhuman in his speed and shot the impostor six times.
They get Lina back, the girl sobbing in her brother’s arms as Milly and Meryl get closer to the men. Meryl can only thank the priest for only injuring the bandits, avoiding to get grabbed by him as much as she can, giggling when he finally put her on his shoulder. Milly grabs the derringers back on the way, giving them to Meryl with a smile.
They’ll get onto the road later, once Vash has done his goodbyes.
For now, Meryl stayed close to him and Wolfwood, feeling their hands brushing hers. They joked again, Vash and Milly still helping the girl wipe her tears.
When they got to the house, something changed for Vash. The look in his eyes was almost sad, nostalgic.
“I think I enjoyed being Eriks.” he said as Lina was being held by her grandma. “But I think I missed being with you even more.”
She smiled, cheeks getting redder as Wolfwood laughed just a bit, the smoke from his cigarette framing his face.
“We missed you too.”