Genre: Romance? Action? Humor? General.

Rating: PG.

Summary: Names and Ice Cream. V/Meryl fluff? Probably with a bit of OOC'ness. A really long one-shot, except not any longer a "one shot" 'cause I can't plan things.

Thoughts, Author's notes, emphasis, title inspired by the Ice Cream song by Sarah MacLachlan.

Disclaimer: I wish I owned Trigun. That's as far as it goes. :(

Oh, God, please let the whining stop!

"But, Meryl!"

"But what, Milly?" She asked again for probably the 50th time.

"It's so hot! And the store is right there!"

"Yeah, and not all of us are wearing white."

Well, sorry if I had the brains to think ahead, dork. Seriously, a red leather duster is not a sane choice for a friggin' desert planet! Meryl thought viciously at the blond who dared to speak up. She sighed mentally. Even if she was wearing the right color… er… tint, the heat of the twin suns had still managed to get to her. Damn it, she cursed silently. I want a banana sundae.

She threw up her hands and growled aloud, surprising the other two members of her party. She abruptly turned in her tracks and headed straight for the pathetic looking little shack of a store. (With its size, Meryl thought it probably had nothing of value in there, but still kept on. Hey, it had shade.) The other two said nothing of her actions, however the tall girl cheered and jumped in joy.

"Ooo… I wonder if they have pudding there…"

"Milly, it's probably a bar. They don't serve pudding there."

"Last time they did…" Meryl rolled her eyes, not wanting to think of the last time.

-- Begin flashback --

Pudding on the ceiling, gunpowder in the tea… that dork plastered out of his mind and still trying to negotiate with a trigger-happy bounty hunter slut. Yep. She was a woman who apparently thought she was smart enough to capitalize on the well known fact that Vash the Stampede was a womanizer by wearing little else than brightly colored plastic wrap and bullet slings.

In Meryl's mind she wasn't even pretty. But in Vash's inebriated mind any woman probably would have looked gorgeous, especially in sparkly colors, regardless of the slings of bullets covering up (barely) the sensitive parts.

It was in that moment Meryl felt both glad and disappointed that she was covered in white cotton.

Back to the story. Meryl had 2 derringers in her hands – 1 for that stupid woman and the other for Vash – if he got out of it alive. He had already managed to set the bounty hunter off when he groped her 5 times when she first came in. (Amazing how quick he still was when he had most likely drank a couple of dallons of beer.) She was a horrible shot, but still considerably dangerous since she had a semiautomatic rifle in her hands. Quantity, speed, and blazing fast reloading overruled quality in this case.

Damn it, Vash! Meryl screamed in her mind. The fool had been too brash to grope her again! The woman was pissed off enough to reach a rampage. (This was interesting to think of considering she put herself into that situation.) She fired wildly into the air and Derringer Meryl fired her one shot. The rifle flew from the woman's hand and fired for the last time, the bullet ricocheting off of a metal spittoon, a metallic beam, finally hitting a rusty metal chain which held a chandelier above the bounty hunter's head. The large hollow chandelier fell and bound her, and she fell and broke her shoe.

Meryl looked dazed for a second, but then she smiled and blew the smoke out from her derringer barrel.

"Waytago, Meryl!" A slightly garbled voice cheered. Meryl looked around and found her partner sprawled out on the ground scooping out the last remains of her second pudding.

The bounty hunter regained her bearings and promptly burst into tears, hobbling away with all deliberate speed with the chandelier still on.

"Aww, Insurance Girl, you made her cry!" Vash slurred. Meryl took one derringer and aimed.

"NO, Meryl!"

Really, Meryl sighed mentally. The nerve of that guy to call me 'Insurance Girl' after we've known each other so long…

He looked outside sadly at the direction the plastic wrap girl ran off in. Meryl took one look around the nearly decimated place that once used to be a bar. Noticing Vash not noticing anything, Meryl threw in frustration the derringer she saved especially for him at his head.

--End Flashback--

"Did you really have to throw that thing at me?" Vash whined. "I still have scars from that!" He pouted fiercely, pointing with intensity at the odd lump on his head.

"You know you deserved that."

"What did I do?! I didn't do anything!"

"EXACTLY." She growled. "You were so occupied with ogling that girl that you didn't seem to notice our lives were at stake!"

"Nah, I had everything under control! Honest!"

"Yeah, right." There was a jingle of bells as they walked through the entrance of the shack. "All you were thinking was when to jump her."

"How do you know that? I wasn't thinking that."

"Oh, really? Then what were you thinking?"

He blinked at her, then put his hand behind his neck and laughed nervously. "I—I don't remember!" That stupid, annoying, high-pitched laugh. "But I wasn't going to jump her."

"Then why did you?" She glared at him.

"Um… hi…" A young, confused waitress greeted as they sat down on the bar stools. "Menu? Er, I mean… Hi. I'm Divi. Here are your menus!" She smiled, embarrassed. "What'll you have?"

"Ooo… Meryl, they do have pudding!"

"So I'm guessing you'll have one of those," Divi smiled.

"Bring 7." Milly smiled greatly. The waitress' eyes enlarged, and then went back to normal.

"Sure. And you, sir?" Vash smiled at her.

"Plain ol' beer, thanks." Meryl was surprised –he didn't hit on the waitress. Then again, Divi looked and probably was 16 years old. AN: That's me! :P

"Great choice." She said; sounding rehearsed. "And you, M—Miss…?" A bit of doubt there. Over what?! Meryl felt annoyed, but let it slide.

"I don't suppose you have a banana sundae?"

Divi whispered "Back page." Meryl flipped to the other side.

"Oh, good. I'll have one."

"Okay! Thank you. I'll be right back." Divi gave a smile as she disappeared into the back room. For a seemingly small shack, inside was completely different. Spacious, warm, inviting, clean… Maybe the shack had been an illusion due to the desert heat? Maybe Meryl was just hallucinating about the inside because she was suffering from heat stroke? Then again, the three were the only customers there.

"Here you go!" Divi cheerfully announced as she came back. She held a tray of pudding in one hand, a beer and a banana sundae in the other. Skillful and quick, Meryl thought.

"Will there be anything else?" Divi smiled. Something hanging off her neck caught the light and Meryl's attention, as well as Vash's.

"That's a seahorse." He said.

"A what-what?" Divi asked, voicing aloud Meryl's question. Milly was far too occupied with her pudding to notice or care.

"Seahorse. It's a little creature that lives in the water. It's about this big—" He made an imaginary measurement using his thumb and index finger.

Divi blinked at him. "Oh, cool. I just got this because it was orange and pretty. And look!" She held up her pendant. "It wiggles!" She demonstrated. Meryl smiled at her.

"Oh, that's so cute!" Milly exclaimed, finished with over half her tray and finally paying attention to the rest of the world.

"Isn't it? Me and my best friend – er – I mean my best friend and I went to this fair—" Divi continued conversing with Milly as Vash spoke over them to Meryl.

"I didn't think anyone would remember the little things like that," he smiled.

"The se—um—"

"Seahorse?"

Meryl nodded. "Is it like salmon?"

"Not exactly. These guys live in large, deeper bodies of water." How did he know that?

"But they're so small…"

He shrugged. "That's what Rem taught me."

Rem. His surrogate mother. The woman who taught him everything she knew. Vash could never love anyone else as much as he did her…

And why did it matter? Oh, yeah, Meryl just happened to have had fallen in love with Vash.

"Your name is kind of ironic for this kind of place," he added softly.

"Ironic?"

"Yeah. One of its meanings is 'beautiful seas'." She turned to look at him and found him gazing straight back at her. He felt much too close for comfort.

"What is a 'sea'?" She asked, blushing slightly, turning away to take a little spoonful of her melting banana sundae.

"A place of spiritual nourishment or renewal." Said he. There was something wrong with the tone of his voice. It seemed more… open, inviting... incredibly sexy... She turned to him again.

"Really?"

"No —not technically. It's actually just a body of water, but from what I've read about it, it was always a place where people found solace." He paused. "I needed something like that." He was speaking in past tense.

"And you never found it, did you?" Meryl asked softly, feeling depressed for him. "Of course not. We're on a desert planet."

"No. I did." He smiled. There was something wrong in his smile as well… It felt —it felt… real.

Wait a minute, was he talking about her? She turned back to her sundae. No, couldn't be. One thing she never offered him was solace. She couldn't.

"You… you mentioned that there was more than one meaning to my name. Do you know any others?"

"Well, there is one more…"

"Which would be…?"

It's not as good as the first one." He warned.

The temperamental side of Meryl took over. "Tell me," she commanded, with a voice that demanded "don't piss me off."

He unconsciously pulled back a little. "The other meaning is 'a small, ferociously mean bird'. Well, I guess it's fitting," he grinned. AN: Falcons are mean, right? That explains a lot about the people back at my Jr. High…

A vein pulsed in Meryl's head. "Fitting?" She fumed. "I'll show you why it's fitting!" He instinctively protected his head so she punched him in his arm. Knowing his strength and tolerance for pain it probably made little harm.

But he still flattered her. "OW!" He was about to tell her that it was what she asked for so she shouldn't have hit him, but when he looked up she was gone. He blinked and looked around, realizing all was full of silence. He turned around and found Milly and Divi looking back at him.

"She's gone to the bathroom." Divi explained.

"Did it work, Mr. Vash?" Milly asked. Divi's eyes widened again as she realized who he was, and an eyebrow fell to question.

Vash chose to ignore that. "The first part did – I thought it did, but then she asked me about the other meaning." Milly shook her head.

"See, Mr. Vash, I told you Meryl would ask about the second one!"

"I hoped she wouldn't."

"What are the both of you trying to do?" Divi asked. The two others looked at her. "Er, sorry. You don't have to tell me, I'll go away." She smiled nervously.

"No, please stay Ms. Divi." Milly called back as the girl started inching away. "Well, Meryl and Mr. Vash have liked each other for a long time but both Mr. Vash and Meryl have been very busy so they hadn't had much time together but now that they're not busy they're still too shy and I WANT MERYL AND MR. VASH TO BE HAPPY TOGETHER!!!" Vash and Divi stepped back as they watched Milly shake her fist in the air at the ceiling, standing as tall as she could. Vash hoped Meryl didn't hear that in the restroom.

Divi gasped. "OH! I see, you two are trying to get you—" she pointed at Vash, "and Meryl hooked up!" She laughed.

Vash pressed his index fingers together, looking down and blushing. "Eh, well, things aren't going as planned."

"Well, in my opinion you both are acting like people my age. Especially you – and you've been around for a while."

Vash blinked at her. "Do I look that old?"

"I think you should just tell her that you like her." Divi offered.

"Yeah, Mr. Vash! That's what I've been telling all along."

"But—I thought you girls liked romantic stuff."

"If she's not getting it, obviously it's time to do something a bit more direct." Divi reasoned. "She seems like an awfully direct person, anyway."

Meryl walked out. Were they talking about me? She thought, only hearing the last part that Divi had said.

"Hey there! I had a feeling you got lost or something!" Vash laughed. Meryl glared at him.

Divi whispered to him, "Maybe you should stop pissing her off first, no?"

"I do this when I'm nervous, okay?" He whispered back.

Divi shook her head. "For some reason I don't think it helps."

Meryl sat back down, looking at her totally liquid ice cream. "Oh, eww…" Vash pulled out a straw (from where is anyone's guess) and stuck it in the tall glass that the sundae was served in and took a loud sip.

"It's drinkable now." He smiled. He handed Meryl another straw. Meryl didn't know whether to feel disgusted or not. "Hey, it's actually pretty good!"

Was he trying to scare her? She smiled nervously and pushed the now drink toward him.

"No, no, it's yours."

"But you drank out of it!"

"I used a straw! I have no germs, I swear!"

Eww… backwash… Meryl thought.

Divi asked Meryl "Would you like another one?" Meryl sighed.

"You know," Vash started once he realized she wasn't going to try drinking it. "You should try things. It makes you more—" he stopped suddenly and turned toward the door. "Everybody get DOWN!"

For Meryl everything slowed down indefinitely. Divi fell to her knees, and the frills of her skirt fluttered softly in the wind she created. The headband she was wearing – black and white checkers – got covered by her falling long black hair and her hands – long fingers, large palms, short nails, no polish – as she protected herself. Next was Milly. Milly turned around, her long brown hair whipping the wind as she pivoted around on her heel toward the counter. She closed her eyes as her mouth opened, taking in a long inhale for the scream that would most likely follow. Her green jacket stretched and tension lines were created, green waves falling down her back. There was a very distinctive "whoosh" through the hair. Space was being cut and slashed through – pushed and pulled apart – violated as the impending projectile ripped apart sound… and time...

Then… there was Vash. He had turned away from Meryl, making sure that the other girls got down safely. He thinks I can take care of myself, Meryl thought. And I can… but why can't my body move? I know what's going on – I can see what's going on – I can FEEL it! But I can't respond! His blond spikes swayed as he turned – searching, scouting – back to Meryl. What she first noticed were his eyes.

They were aquamarine – bright with vitality, but darkening with anticipation and worry. The light shone off his irises, the thin lines networking through making his eyes appear as a type of living crystal.

They came ever closer.

Well, useful information about me: I'm an "artist", a programmer, and a general geek. Vash/Meryl forever!