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Not Quite Worthless	By : Scathach Category: +S to Z > Trigun Views: 6672 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Trigun, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 3
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TeaRoses: Sorry! Someone else asked about Knives/Millie, and somehow I thought it was you. My bad�

Everyone else; thanks again for reviewing.

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 ger ger 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 fos cos company, what came out was a
snapped, �Walk me home from work
tonight.�

cla class=MsoNormal>

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 titchitchen.

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.yes"> �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.�yes"> 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 Shakespe in 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.
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