What is love? V2

Disclaimer: Trigun is owned by Yasuhiro Nightow. This story is being written specifically for fun, not for profit.

Author's Note: This fic is Vash x Meryl. If you dislike that pairing, you will not want to read this fic. It is anime based with manga elements put into it. This is the second version of the story, rewriting it for many reasons.

The Vash you are going to see, is my vision of a mix between the manga and anime personalities of his character. The darker side we see in the manga, with some of the lighter side we get from the anime. Though I think that his darker side wins out a bit earlier on, we see the mix later on.

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What is love?
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Vash the Stampede walked back into the town where he'd left Meryl and Millie before his fight. His brother being carried over his shoulder, Knives's breathing was getting weaker by the minute.

Vash didn't want to think too much about it. He figured the wounds were simply taking their toll on his brother. His own breathing had grown shallow as well, he was having trouble continuing, under the heat of the two suns. He reached the house where the girls had been staying, but fell unconscious in the sand in front of the building.

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Vash awoke in a comfortable bed, a damp rag on his forehead. He sat up and looked at the short girl sitting in the chair next to him.

"Meryl?"

She was a bit shocked, but looked over at Vash and breathed a sigh of relief. Half of the once golden blond hair on his head was now black. "Oh, I'm so happy you're okay, Vash."

"Where's the man that I was with? The one on my shoulder?"

"He's in the next room. Millie and I are doing everything we can to make him better."

Vash shot up from bed and went into the next room. He looked down at the man sleeping peacefully in the bed. He didn't
know why, but he put his fingers to his brother's wrist. There was no pulse, not the faintest sign of life was left in his brother. Tears streamed down Vash's face.

"I always said that I'd send him to Hell, for what he did. For taking Rem from me, for causing the Fall. Until that last fight I always believed myself when I said it. But when I had the chance to kill him, my gun to his face and I saw the fear in his eyes, I couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger.

"I thought that if I brought him back, and showed him the good side of humanity, that I'd be able to change him. I tended to his wounds the best I could, but it wasn't enough. I killed him!"

Meryl knew very little of the man that was lying on the bed there, killed by Vash. She knew that if Vash killed him, even unintentionally, that this man must have been very evil.

"Was this Him, Vash? The man you sought? Was this Knives?"

Vash only nodded. This was enough to send shivers down her spine. The man sleeping so innocently when they laid him in bed was none other than the man who had tried to kill her entire species.

She wasn't sure what to do, but she could tell that he needed comforting. She walked over and put her arm around his shoulder. "You tried your best Vash, that's all anyone could ever ask of you. He wasn't a good man, and you did what you could to save him."

"But that wasn't enough was it?! He's still dead and it's all because of me! If I hadn't shot four holes in him he'd be okay right now!"

Meryl didn't know what to say, so she said nothing. She simply hugged him, and let his tears fall on her shoulder.

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The funeral for Knives was held a week later. His body had been preserved by the city's mortician. Vash gave the eulogy, speaking of the good times they'd had as young children on the ship.

As Millie piled the dirt onto Knives' coffin, Vash cried again. His brother was really gone forever, and though Vash always wanted him to be dead for what he did, he couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

Knives trusted Vash not to kill him. He was so confident that one day they would be fighting on the same side. He was misguided in his ways, but he was still Vash's brother, and his death hurt the Plant more than he'd expected.

"I always thought that once he was gone, it would be a relief. That with the threat gone I could live in peace. But now it feels like there's this hole in my life. I spent so much time fighting him, and training, I don't know how to live a peaceful life anymore."

Millie spoke up, "Well Meryl and I would be really happy to help you learn."

Vash smiled a bit. "Thanks Millie. I'm going to go for a walk and clear my head."

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Meryl walked into work that evening with a fake smile on her face. She wouldn't have been in, but they needed the money, and as Millie says, "Nobody wants to tip a gloomy waitress. My Middle Big Sister told me so."

In the back of the bar, Vash sat working his way through what seemed to be his second bottle of a rather strong whiskey. There was a big cheesy grin on his face as he saw Meryl come in.

She ran over and grabbed the bottle from his hand, "Vash, what do you think you're doing?!"

"I'm just havin' a drink, Meryl! Go ahead, have a swig. I bet you'll like it."

Meryl slapped him, "I know that you're having trouble accepting your brother's death, but this is no way to deal with it! Now get up, I'm taking you home."

"I can walk home just fine myself!" Vash stood up, and promptly fell onto his ass again. He looked up at her, "Okay, so maybe I can't."

Meryl walked up to the bar to speak with her boss, "Excuse me, Mr. Black. I'm sorry this is such short notice, but I'm going to need the night off."

Roy Black was a big man, but a gentle soul. He looked down at his newest employee and spoke, "Mind if I ask you why Meryl?"

"Well, you see sir, my friend over there just recently lost his brother and decided that drinking his pain away would be the best option he could take. It's kind of contradictory to a bar waitress' normal stand point, but I can't let him do that. I have to take him home and make sure he doesn't get hurt."

Roy knew who she was talking about, Vash was the heaviest drinker he'd seen in a while. "Sure Meryl, go take care of your friend." Meryl bowed a little to her boss, "One more thing, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Roy?"

"At least one more time, sir. I really appreciate you letting me off like this." Roy smiled a bit as Meryl went back and helped Vash up from his seat.

As they left the bar door Vash looked back over the bar room, "Good bye, my new friends! I'll be back soon!"

"No you won't, Vash." Meryl dragged him out of they bar. As they walked down the street Vash leaned on her shoulder less and less. When she finally looked up at him, he was walking straight with no trouble. "Wait just one minute, what's going on here Vash?"

"You know what I am, Meryl, but you don't know everything there is to know about me. I can't actually get drunk, but going and having a drink just seemed like the appropriate thing to do right now.

"I've never understood why. Sometimes if I have too much I start to feel some minor physical effects, blurred vision, but most of what you see is acting.

"I just thought that I'd be able to get my mind off of Knives for a while if I was having a good time."

Meryl looked up at him, "Vash, I want you to look me in the eyes, I have something to tell you." Vash did as instructed and
bent down a bit to look her in the eyes, "Knives was evil. He tried to destroy all living things on Gunsmoke other than Plants.

"If you hadn't fought him, he would have succeeded. The fact that you had to kill him isn't a good thing, but if his death means that all of humanity could survive then isn't that better? Like the old saying goes, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, right?"

Vash teared up a bit, "Maybe you're right Meryl. All my life, I was determined to kill him, to make him pay, but now that I've done it I feel worse than I did before he was gone."

"Of course you do, Vash, you hate killing. He was no different than anyone else, he deserved a chance at life, but don't think that makes you any worse for killing him. You'll get through this, and I'll be here to help you."

Vash hugged her tight, "Thank you, Meryl. I know that with you and Millie helping me I'll be able to discover my own path. I still killed my brother, and I can't change that. But I'll get through this, I suppose, as long as you'll be there to help me out."

Meryl held him in her arms, "Of course I'll be there Vash. You couldn't pay me enough to leave you because... I love you Vash."

Vash pulled back a little and looked at her, her cheeks were as pink as the Fifth Moon hanging high in the sky, and the look in her eyes was one of sincerity. "I love you too Meryl." Tears welled up in both of their eyes, as their lips were drawn closer together. It was their first kiss, but definitely not their last.

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Final Note: Again, I still wouldn't call this a literary masterpiece. Just a one-shot I did for a friend. So, I hope you enjoyed, and even if you didn't, but have something constructive to say I'm always willing to listen to people that want to help me write better.