Chapter Text
Year: 0610
Location: November University, November City
Population: 48,676
There is a man in a red coat bumbling around the bar. The locals roar for him as he stumbles through them. They could be cheering or calling for his blood, it’s impossible to tell. The man just smiles, tripping over long legs to triumphantly raise the acquired bottle of whiskey for the table. Milly laughs something that sounds too much like a sob, Wolfwood cheers then goes deathly silent, Livio makes a small noise - a painful little chuckle, and Meryl huffs fondly, sadly. The man's golden hair fades to soot black, his smile the same fake, sad grin he plasters on for everyone. It's all wrong. The whole bar needs to pull themselves together because this is just pitiful, and they made Milly cry, so Meryl opens her mouth –
and wakes with an exasperated shout at a crowd that isn’t there.
Across the room, Milly jumps, "Oh! Good morning, Meryl!"
It takes a moment for Meryl to get her bearings. She’s in her dorm, the smell of alcohol replaced by the citrus candle Milly's youngest sister had sent. The sticky bar top softened into the comforter beneath her fingers. The absent weight of her derringers will haunt her shoulders for the rest of the day.
"Meryl? Are you okay?" Milly calls. She's halfway dressed for her morning class, pretty brown locks that haven't been pulled back yet drape over her strong shoulders. The urge to run her hands through those strands is what finally knocks Meryl back into the present day. "That was a pretty strong shout, I didn't accidentally take anything of yours, did I?"
The worried frown on Milly's face has her scrambling over herself, "Oh, no Milly it was just a silly dream. Nothing to do with you!"
Milly's brows unfurrow and her lips stretch into a happy smile. If Meryl could just keep it there forever, she would die happily. "Alright Meryl, if you say so."
"I do! I say so!" Meryl flushes as the words leave her lips, embarrassment warming her cheeks. 'Pull yourself together, Stryfe!' She scolds herself, 'You're freaking her out! Reel it in!’
The oblivious look on Milly's face throughout Meryl's internal dialogue helps soothe her nerves. She's almost jealous of how unaware Milly is. As much as she would love for her wife to remember their past life together, there are moments – nightmares like the one she just woke up from – when Meryl would rather she remain oblivious.
At least she hasn't woken up screaming for her companions since Milly became her roommate. Every day Meryl has Milly back in her life is a blessing. She can't afford to scare her off with a dead woman's memories.
"Meryl!" Milly shouts.
"Yes?" Meryl shakes herself, "Sorry, I got lost in thought for a minute."
"Are you sure you're okay? I can have Miss Martha send me the notes..." Milly offers.
Meryl is shaking her head before Milly finishes, "I'm fine Milly, really. It's just stress for next week's finals."
Milly hesitates but Meryl is finally able to convince her to head off to class with a, "I'll feel worse if you miss class for me, go ahead Milly, please?"
Then she's finally alone in their room. The mattress springs creak as she flops back into bed. She wonders, not for the first time, where her other companions are or if she'll ever see them again. Milly is a ray of hope, a miracle in and of herself. If her lover is the only one she finds again, Meryl will be content.
It feels selfish wishing for everyone else to crash back into her life too, but that doesn’t stop her when she sees a shooting star.
...
Finals pass in a flurry of last-minute, panic-induced cramming and more coffee than her wallet can handle, but they do pass and then, mercifully, it's summer break.
Milly invites her back to her family's farm like she did the year before. Her Uncle has a counteroffer for them.
"An internship at the plant dome?" Meryl repeats.
"Yeah, one of their plant engineers needs a pair of assistants and you two are still gungho about directing that movie of yours, right?" Roberto takes a long inhale of his cigarette, "Could be a good opportunity to get a closer look at the plants."
Meryl grimaces at the smell of nicotine, but Roberto is buying them lunch and they’re seated on a balcony, so she withholds her complaints as long as the wind keeps blowing west.
"What would we be doing, Uncle Roberto?" Milly asks over her banana sundae. She’s dressed in a green button-down, brown trousers hanging from her wide hips. Her coat of choice this lifetime around is a brown trench coat hand-me-down from the very man in front of them. Meryl understands why she puts her hair up, even five hundred years later – despite both human and plant efforts – the twin suns are unbearably hot on Gunsmoke, but it makes it hard to just grab a lock and play with it like she used to.
The older man sighs, "Putting it bluntly you'd be his wranglers. He's damn good at what he does but according to his supervisors, everything else is like pulling teeth with him."
"And how did you find out about it?" Meryl asks. It struck her as odd that an investigative reporter had heard about something so mundane.
Roberto takes a long drag of his cigarette, "Unfortunately for me, I've known the guy for a couple years now. He asked me for recommendations. I think you girls would have more success than anyone else they've tried to hire."
Milly turns to Meryl, sharing a surprised look. Meryl sips at the last of her smoothie, thinking it over. She’s been wanting to write and direct this movie for a long time. Getting to work so closely with a plant engineer could be a great chance to get more information or even inspiration.
"When would we start?"
Roberto waves their server over, "We can go right now."
...
The plant dome is a marvel of technology. Every plant on the Earth fleet ships from 500 years ago had been gathered into the dome along with their surviving sisters from the Ark. It was one of the only good things that came from Millions Knives' rampage across the planet and it only grew more impressive with each millennium. Multiple plants were hauled back to their cities after they spent some time in the dome recovering, but many still remained, and Meryl can't help the gasp that leaves her at the sheer number of plants before her.
Rows upon rows of plants line the inside of the dome, there must be at least thirty in this section alone. Beside her, Milly shouts in wonder, "Wow! Look at all the plants Meryl!"
Catwalks stretch between each bulb, curving up and over their heads before curving back down on the other side to join back up with the main walkway. Each bulb is connected to an enormous pool of water that surrounds the entire dome, allowing the plants to stay in their bulb or join the collective out in the pool.
Roberto continues forward, leaving the two women to jog after him once the awe fades enough for them to realize he's almost left them behind.
Meryl turns her head this way and that, trying to take in everything she can. Why hadn’t she come here sooner? This place was basically November’s crowning achievement, besides the university.
Gentle blue lights guide her from one plant to another. Some have unfurled to watch them with sparkling eyes. Others are interacting with the humans that stand before them. A little boy giggles when the plant in front of him presses her long fingers against the glass where his tiny hand is already waiting. A group of teenage girls has set up a picnic in front of a bulb further down the long path and gossip to a plant that smiles serenely at their words. An older couple presents white and orange flowers to another plant high above them, she presses close to the glass to get a closer look, wide-eyed with wonder and delight.
Periodically, instead of a catwalk or a plant bulb, the glass of the dome juts out in a square-shaped viewing area where multiple plants can gather before a crowd. Three plants are clustered in one of these areas, entertaining a visiting group of schoolchildren. The kids squeal in delight, showing off paper drawings to the enamored plants as their teachers and escorts remind them not to tap on the glass.
It hits her then, the feeling that’s been growing since she first stepped inside and saw the little boy communing with the plant.
Milly comes to an abrupt stop beside her and gently whispers, "Meryl, you're crying."
All those scars, all the running and painful smiling, the exhaustion in his eyes, the slump to his shoulders, the pain and suffering he went through until the very end – every time he got back up was for this. All for this.
Milly is in front of her now, concern etched into her face. Calloused thumbs from farm life ever so gently wiping away her tears. Meryl wants to shake her, demand that she look around them and see, 'This is what we fought for, we did this – us! – two unimportant human women – we fought with Vash the Stampede and this is what we helped make.'
She wished, not for the first time but more strongly than ever, that Milly remembered their past life and could really, truly understand the magnitude of what was happening around them.
If only he were with them now, if he could see how far they've come-
"Hey, Vash!" Roberto gruffly shouts.
Milly goes rigid in front of her, but Meryl is too focused on the ebony hair that peeks out behind a bulb to return Roberto’s greeting. It's not possible, it can't be the same Vash, not over five hundred years later but his face is unmistakable, and Meryl had thought the same about Milly three years ago.
A ghost from the past has appeared in front of her and with him blooms memories older than she's been alive.
"Wow, Mister! Has anyone ever told you, you look a lot like Vash the Stampede?" Milly beams, her hands drifting down to hold Meryl by the shoulders. Her fingers rub comforting circles as she speaks.
The man chuckles as he makes his way down to them, walking along the side of the dome from a plant higher up on the wall. Fear slices through Meryl’s stomach before she remembers the three gravity plants that famously reside somewhere further into the building.
"You know, probably not as often as you would think." The ghost replies.
The closer he gets the more discrepancies Meryl can pick out. The color of his eyes is off, greener with less blue and he’s got an undercut now, once spikey hair flopping forward into teal-green eyes. In place of buckles and leather, black baggy pants and a dark turtleneck cover his body, the only inch of skin she can see aside from his face are the three fingers on his right hand, uncovered by his gloves. The long red coat is different, bigger, and with far fewer buttons. Meryl catches a closer look at his left arm as he brings it up to rub at the side of his neck. The sleeve drops enough to pick out teal metal.
He didn't manage to keep his arm in this life either. She dreads finding out how much he's lost in his new life.
Roberto introduces them, "Vash, this is my niece Milly and her friend Meryl. Girls, this is the cattle you have to herd."
"Cattle...?" Vash's lips twitch as if he can't decide if he's amused or upset by Roberto's words. He settles on a familiar pout.
"You asked me to find you an assistant, I brought you two." And with that, the man turns around and leaves.
"Wait, Mr. Niro!" Meryl calls after him in vain.
"Err, uh..." Vash has his arms outstretched in his own attempt to bring Roberto back. He flails a bit when it's clear the man won't be returning to elaborate more on the situation. It surprises Meryl a little, how shy this version of Vash is. The man she remembers would have kicked up a fuss, Meryl can practically hear him shrieking "DON'T LEAVE US HERE LIKE THIS!! COME BACK!"
"Well, I hope he at least told you what you'll be doing." This Vash sheepishly says instead, rubbing at his neck again. A new nervous tic?
"Oh don't worry about Uncle Roberto Mr. Vash, he's really a nice guy." Milly snatches up Vash's free hand and holds it between her palms. She shakes his hand so hard he almost falls over, "I'm Milly Hopson and this is Meryl Stride just like he said, we were told you needed some assistants over the summer and we're on break now, so we'd be happy to intern with you-"
Meryl loves Milly, she really does, but she can see that Vash is being used as a rag doll and hardly registering any of her words.
"Milly." Meryl lays a soothing palm over their conjoined hands and gently untangles them, "The poor man can't keep up with you."
She smushes the pride in her chest down when she manages to intertwine her fingers with Milly’s instead.
Milly blinks down at her, unconcerned by the exchange of hands, and then looks at her dizzy victim, "Oh...Oh! I'm so sorry, I got carried away again."
"Not at all, it's alright Miss." Vash regains his bearings slowly. Milly hovers nervously, reluctant to touch him as he stumbles back a bit. "Well, it seems like you got the gist of it."
Vash finally settles on his feet before immediately bouncing right back, "I'm Vash Estamp, all I really need you to do is keep me on task. There's so much to do around here, I can hardly keep track of it all." He chuckles.
"And what do you do Mr. Estamp?" Meryl asks. Vash waves her off immediately, "Just call me Vash, the Mister part just reminds me how old I am."
He gestures for them to follow him, and they make their way toward the back of the Dome, "I do some pretty basic stuff, there's just a lot of it and I travel some but it's up to you ladies if you want to come with me when I do."
The rows of bulbs continue, a couple of plants breaking off to follow. Meryl waves at them and they happily wave back. Eventually, they reach a service elevator and Vash swipes a card to call the elevator.
"I try to make schedules, but it changes so much last minute that I sort of gave up and the paperwork is..." Vash grimaces and Meryl hides a snicker, she always figured he'd be horrible at paperwork.
The look on his face after reading one of her insurance reports was nothing short of ghastly and he'd only made it through the first paragraph. As they ride up to the office floors, he explains the finer points of the internship.
She's prepared for a mountain of paperwork to await them in his office but the chaos she sees instead puts even a mountain to shame. There are so many stacks of paper, all piled as high as Meryl is tall. Half of them have been piled onto the floor, his desk too occupied with more papers to handle them.
"Oh my goodness, you're not very good at paperwork are you Mister Vash?" Milly cheerfully informs him. Vash looks ready to cry – scratch that, he is crying.
"It just keeps coming no matter what I do." He sniffles with wet eyes.
Good grief.
Meryl rolls up her sleeves, "How do you want them sorted?"
"Wait you're going to start right now?" Vash protests, “You don’t even have a card to get into the building yet!”
Heading towards the left side of the room, Meryl glances over the documents on top, "It's only going to get worse the longer we wait. Better start as soon as we can!"
"So, you...really want the job?" Vash mutters in quiet awe.
"Oh, Meryl this is going to be great! I hope we get paid better than that internship last year!" Milly takes the right side of the room, an unspoken agreement to meet in the middle.
"We didn't get paid at all, Milly." Meryl huffs, the remnants of her disdain for that internship still lingering even a year later. The news station was very little help in gaining experience with writing, they were basically coffee mules the whole summer.
"I - yes! Of course you'll get paid!" Vash assures them, elation evident in how much happier he already looks. "Uh, sorting..."
Milly and Meryl both look back at him. Meryl is ready for him to say something absurd that she will override immediately (she refuses to organize them based on color or title), but then he surprises her again, "I get documents related to mechanical issues and plant-specific issues. Some are from outside the Dome and some are time sensitive so if you could organize them based on priority, location, and job that would be great!"
Were her memories off or is this a more competent version of Vash?
"Are you okay? Is that too much?" He winces at the look on her face. Meryl quickly shakes her head and puffs up with confidence, "Nope, just start the clock and consider this our first day on the job!"
"Don't worry about a thing Mr. Vash, we'll get this sorted for you!" Milly adds.
"You girls are a pair of life savers thank-"
A shout from down the hall calls his attention, "Vash! Amber's tank is leaking again! Hurry!"
Vash is running out the door with a parting holler "-yousomuchIhavetogonowbye!"
A fond grin curls at Meryl's lips, relief loosening her shoulders. Some things just don't change it seems.
Milly giggles across the room, "I think this internship is going to be fun Meryl!"
…
Vash Estamp, they quickly learn, is not notorious for getting distracted as Roberto had told them. Though Meryl supposes on some technical level this does kind of count. Vash has a pager that connects to the terminal in his desk, so the ladies can hear when the man is paged for some crisis or other. At least once every half hour his comm goes off with a -
“Vash, we need you in section A.”
“Paging Mr. Estamp, we have a problem over here in control room B.”
“Estamp, if you get the chance I have a meeting with the treasurer in an hour and I need your opinion on some notes.”
“Hey V? Hera isn’t responding to any input and we’re not sure if she’s just sleeping or not.”
“Vash! The girls are fighting in section F again! That damn brat is upsetting Ariel!”
Meryl wrinkles her nose. Don’t they have other people to call for things like that? No wonder Vash has bags under his eyes. And the documents they've organized so far…she’s pretty sure this one should have gone to the janitor instead of the Head Plant Engineer. Milly had eventually started a pile specifically for the maintenance officer and transport official. It’s with much disdain that Meryl adds to the piles.
What in the world is going on here?
Thankfully around four (near closing time for the public Meryl notes), the alerts slow significantly and the office goes quiet. Only the sound of shuffling paper fills the space. Six stacks have replaced at least ten smaller ones, and the girls can finally see the floor of Vash’s office.
Meryl is expecting Vash to come back to the office eventually, but another hour passes and he’s oddly absent. Just as she’s about to grab Milly to start looking, a large man with a mean face opens the office door.
“Found him on the pipes.” The man explains, doing very little from persuading Meryl he isn’t a kidnapper. Vash is fast asleep in his arms, dozing away. “You his new assistants?”
“That’s us.” Meryl gawks, it’s not like Vash to just fall asleep anywhere and the sight threw her for a loop. “I’m Meryl and this is Millie.”
“Gofsef. I’m one of the security guys around here.” He grunts and places Vash down onto the couch in the corner. He shifts awkwardly from one foot to another now that his task is completed, “I hear he’s more likely to fall asleep under his desk, so just...check there, I guess? If you can’t find him.”
The man is awfully shy for a guy of his size. Milly is quick to set him at ease and lead him out, much to Gofsef’s obvious relief. In the meantime, Meryl approaches Vash, “Mist – uh, Vash? Hey, Vash, wake up.”
It takes a couple pats on his cheek, but Vash eventually stirs to blink blearily up at her.
“…I fell asleep again, didn’t I?” He laments.
Meryl nods much to his obvious despair. Gloved hands scrub harshly at his face before he smacks his cheeks, “Okay! I’m up now!” Vash leaps to his feet, “What time is it?”
The watch on Meryl’s wrist says, “5:12”
Ebony hair flops with each exaggerated nod he gives, “Right! Okay! That gives us plenty of time to get you guys everything you need for this internship.”
Meryl and Milly follow him out of the room, but not before pointing out the organized piles. “Hey look at that! You got more done than I thought you would, thanks!” And with totally warranted smugness at their progress, they make their way down to security to get their badges and then up to HR to sign the necessary papers.
By the time everything is said and done, their shift is over, and Vash sees them out. He waves enthusiastically at them from the front entrance with energy only Milly tries to match. As the last sun starts to set, washing their apartment in a familiar orange hue, Meryl thinks back to Milly’s words.
Fun might be stretching it; the internship is still a job but...
But Milly is here and now so is Vash. They found each other again. A new adventure in a new time. Maybe they’ll find the others too.
"Yes, I think so too." She whispers into her pillow.
...
With over 700,000 square feet to its name, the Dome remains one of November’s crowning achievements and the greatest tourist attraction since its opening. After six expansions and two remodels, the plants and their tank share a building with the Plant History Museum and a branch of the November Public Library. Suffice it to say, it’s huge and every inch of it rattles with Meryl’s shout of displeasure.
The stacks that they had wrangled into some semblance of order have been replaced with brand-new piles.
"Yeah..." Vash wilts, shrinking back down into his coat. The engineer had taken refuge in its baggy nature at Meryl’s screech, doing his best impression of a turtle. He was only just starting to emerge too when he saw the look on her face, "This is partly why I can't keep any secretaries."
"Good thing there's two of us! Come on Meryl, if that's all they give him every day it shouldn't take us long to catch back up!" Milly recovers the quickest, striding back over to her side of the room.
Meryl sets her jaw. Vash wilts further, letting the red coat collar hide everything except his eyes.
"You're right. Let's get to work! No flimsy sheets of paper will get the best of us!" Meryl rolls up her sleeves, this time with a vengeance. Milly giggles and claps her hands excitedly, unperturbed. She had told Meryl once in their past lives that she found this side of her cute.
Vash perks back up, eyes wide and quickly coming out of his red shell, "I-! I'll get started too!"
He throws himself at the remaining organized piles with enthusiasm.
For the majority of the morning, they sort while he reads and signs. It quickly becomes a silent competition to see if Milly and Meryl can organize faster than Vash can sign. The stack of prioritized papers is already empty and less than half the local job papers remain from yesterday, but the girls keep the papers coming. Meryl smirks every time he puffs up with pride at finishing a pile only to squawk when he immediately gets another stack. It’s fun and the nostalgia of his little noises quickly soothes Meryl’s earlier ire, she nearly forgot how expressive he was, but soon enough Vash starts to fall behind.
There is a seemingly endless demand for him to go out and help around the Dome. They quickly get used to the spontaneous ping of alerts from his pager before Vash is rushing out in a flurry of limbs.
During one of the times that Vash is away, a professionally dressed woman sticks her head in with a new cart of papers.
"Oh, you ladies must be the new assistants!" She greets them, "I hope you stick around; we certainly need the help."
Milly waves at her with a smile that dims a little when Meryl frowns deeply at the cart. "Hang on, is this all really for him?"
"Afraid so..." the woman laments, she leans back out the doorway, checking both ends of the hallway quickly before whispering, "Mr. Estamp got saddled with three other jobs after a couple guys quit two months ago.”
Milly and Meryl lean in closer to hear her better. "The director is cutting corners; I’d be careful if I were you. You might get saddled with more jobs.”
"Thank you, Miss..." Meryl fishes.
"Luida. I'm the head secretary for the Dome."
Luida gives them a parting wave and leaves with far fewer papers for the engineers further down the hall. It’s odd to see her so young and dressed up in modern clothes. Luida was an amazing woman, and Meryl looked up to her leadership skills and no-nonsense attitude when it came to helping Vash and running ship 3.
"Meryl, do you really think Mr. Vash has been taking on all those other jobs?" Milly asks with a concerned press of her lips.
"It makes sense, doesn't it? We made all those extra piles because we thought they were meant for someone else." Meryl responds.
Milly takes a short moment to think about it, "Does that mean he's been working overtime?"
Meryl's head shoots up from the stack, glancing at the empty space where the stacks they had organized the day before were placed, "I didn't notice it before, but he was reading through everything before he signed it. If he got through all the priority stuff that we organized yesterday..." Meryl runs the calculations quick as a lightning strike. She slams the stack of papers down, "NO WONDER THAT MORON FALLS ASLEEP SO FAST!"
She doesn’t have time to decipher the fond look on Milly’s face while she rants and raves. She’s going to give someone a piece of her mind.
...
Vash barges in with lunch an hour later, "I hope I guessed right; I wasn't sure what your preferences were."
Meryl makes grabby hands at the extra cups of coffee he brought, no doubt reading off what was written on their cups this morning. "Oh wow, thank you, Mr. Vash!" Milly wolfs down her sandwich.
“Please just call me Vash.” He begs her.
“No.” Milly smiles sweetly. Meryl cackles at him while he hangs his head and sighs. She loves it when Milly shuts people down in the nicest, bluntest way possible. It flabbergasts people and leaves them sputtering. Vash takes it with much more grace than others like he almost expected such a cheerful denial.
Meryl doesn’t have time to ponder that when she needs to know, “Are all of these really yours?”
Vash wearily eyes the documents for the maintenance officer and sulks, “Yes.”
Meryl groans, pinching the bridge of her nose already sensing the on-coming Vash-the-Stampede-induced migraine. She loves the man, she really does, but could he go one lifetime without sweeping up extra trouble for her?
Her sandwich does not respond to her grumbles, though Vash has his puppy eyes cranked up to eleven, “You can still quit if you want.”
The migraine rears its head, “Absolutely not!” She’s just found him again, like hell a bunch of papers are going to scare her off. “Milly!”
Milly launches to her feet, standing at attention, “Yes?”
“I’m waging war on all this damn paperwork, what say you?”
“Yes!”
Meryl shucks off her jacket. Time to get serious.
“Ah, but your lunch…” Vash trails off, watching his interns go to war on his papers. It’s a massacre.
Injuries on both sides are sustained, and band-aids and tape are dispersed among the troops. It’s fortunate the offices on either side of Vash’s are empty, the police would have been called ten times over. The only soul who dares to brave the battleground is Luida, resupplying troops for the enemy. Vash, fearful of the monsters he’s unleashed, signs his papers under his desk and warns everyone else away. One only has to hear the snarls and cackles coming from his office to heed the warning.
Thus, the legend of the Dome Demons is born.
…
It takes four days to fight the disorganized mess of papers into something resembling order. By then the three had settled into a routine where Meryl and Milly would organize in the morning while Vash ran around like a chicken with his head cut off. Around 12 he would reappear in the office with lunch, always something they both enjoyed despite him never asking what they prefer. Meryl chalks it up to the food itself, who doesn't like a Ruben sandwich with extra mayo, pickles, and bacon? Then it was back to flipping through papers and piling them high until late afternoon when Gofsef would appear with a sleeping Vash like clockwork.
With nothing left to organize Meryl finds herself at a loss on the fifth day. She flounders for something to do. Vash's absence, which hadn't been a problem before, is now keenly felt. Milly looks around the room as if searching for a physical answer when she startles Meryl with a triumphant shout. "Ah-ha!"
She holds up a calendar book from Vash's desk and flips it open. A pink tongue pokes through her lips as she scans it. She’s so cute.
"Who uses paper calendars nowadays?" Meryl openly wonders.
"Aw Meryl, it looks like he really did try to keep up, but it’s blank for the past four weeks." Milly shows her. As she said, the beginning of the year looked neatly organized. Meetings and appointments are jotted down with a time and place. In contrast, Mid-March is chaos. Scratched out and frantically written words squeezed into every open space makes it look like a six-year-old scribbled all over it. It's blank for much of April.
Meryl frowns at it, then down at Vash's terminal. Fingers clench, resolve straightens her spine. "Okay, here's what we're going to do, Milly."
Vash is ambushed at lunch. The poor man goes pale at the sight of their glimmering eyes and stubborn posture. Honestly, he looks like he's about to get mugged.
"I want you to tell us your schedule.” Meryl demands, “As much as you can right now."
"Are you sure?" He hesitates, "It changes by the hour."
Milly insists and no one says 'no' to Milly, so he naturally acquiesces. Meryl informs him in no uncertain terms that she will start fielding all his calls and alerts. She braces for an argument, it's a lot of trust for someone of Vash's standing to suddenly hand his comm over to a bunch of interns, but he gives in with obvious relief.
It's only then that Milly realizes she still doesn't have a job. "Oh but wait, what will I do?"
Vash hums in thought, "You could drive the cart?"
The two ladies give him an uncomprehending blink.
"I use a golf cart to get around downstairs. The dome is so big, even if I ran it would still take ten minutes to get anywhere." He clarifies.
Milly lights up at the prospect, saluting him like she used to at the Bernardelli higher-ups, "You can count on me!"
The lunch hour ends shortly after and Meryl launches herself into her work, reforging every inch of the iron will she had in her last life. The terminal crackles to life, messages and calls flowing in like a vengeful river. If she was actually a newbie this would quickly become overwhelming. Good thing she’s not.
"Vash is in the middle of working on Fiona's tank, I'll send him your way as soon as he's done."
"Mr. Klark, if you wanted something like that done so last minute, you should have said something sooner. Mr. Estamp has more important things to worry about right now."
“He doesn’t have time for a meeting in ten minutes, let me schedule one for you.”
“Ma’am that is not his job.”
The other employees catch on fairly quickly that once Vash's assistant puts her foot down, there's nothing to be done. They argue with her at first, demanding they speak to Vash themselves, but Meryl has faced down far far scarier things than a couple of disgruntled employees.
When the clock strikes 4, instead of Gofsef, it's Milly carting Vash into the office. Meryl's stomach turns at the somber look on her partner's face, "He's very tired, Meryl."
Without exchanging a word, just a look and a nod, they both decide to let him sleep. It reminds Meryl of how they were long after their wedding. Silent conversations happening between them, both sometimes moving without even having to make eye contact. They haven't known each other that long here, but Meryl likes to think some of their past relationship made it through the reincarnation cycle.
Or maybe it's just a coincidence.
"How did it go?" Meryl whispers.
"Great! I'm still getting used to the layout, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. How about you? We got fewer calls than I thought we would." Milly whispers back
"I'm getting there. Mr. Lee is giving me some hell, but he'll get over it."
"Oh, we met him. He was very upset about what you said to him." That was a surprise, though Meryl should have expected the mule of a man to go around her. "I nearly clocked him, the horrible things he was saying about you, but Mr. Vash stuck up for us and I drove over his foot on the way out. You should have seen it, Meryl. I think Mr. Vash likes having us around!"
Ignoring the confession of a hit-and-run, Meryl suppresses the fondness swelling in her chest. The chief didn’t often step in to defend them at Bernardelli. It was nice to know Vash didn’t have the same reservations. He was always a good man, but it was odd he was already so fond of them and trusted them so much.
He must have gotten sappier with his new life.
She watches him doze away on the couch while Milly covers him with a blanket she brought just for this occasion. The larger woman settles down at the end of the couch, quickly drifting off with Vash into dreamland.
Meryl wonders if maybe they went soft. This version of their world was much nicer, bounties were largely a thing of the past, plant-human relations were stable, and very few people carried guns anymore. Their main concern was a guy shit-talking Meryl at work rather than a townful of hired guns or a humanity-destroying ship.
Vash was falling asleep among strangers, Meryl didn’t have to worry about where their next meal would come from, Milly wrote home more often…
She wonders if the other two got to be softer in this life too.