Work Text:
A high-pitched scream made Vash stop in his tracks mid-fight. He turned away from the bounty hunter he was dueling to see Meryl standing in the middle of the chaos. A tall man – one of the other bounty hunters – that just passed Vash seconds ago, had his knife lodged in Meryl’s side.
She just stared down at it, too stunned to even scream.
“Meryl! Oh my God,” Milly screamed again. She looked down on the man who, though being pretty tall compared to Meryl, looked small beside her. “Have your parents never taught you it’s very impolite to threaten women?” she asked, before getting her machine gun out from underneath her jacket. Vash watched from a distance as the sheer size of the machine gun, made the man bolt away.
A relieved sigh made its way out his mouth; at least no one else got hurt.
Vash was about to run towards Milly and Meryl when a familiar click sounded beside his ear.
When Vash slowly turned his head, he looked straight into the barrel of a gun. The bounty hunter he’d been fighting has his gun pointed right at his forehead now.
“H-Hey, wait!” Vash stammered, raising his hands in the air. “That’s unfair?”
“Unfair?” The bounty hunter laughed. “You got distracted from our fight.”
“Me? Distracted?” Vash nervously laughed along. “No way!”
He was really distracted though; Meryl was stabbed, how could he not be worried.
When he heard Meryl’s voice muttering, “ouch” he wanted nothing more than to check behind him. But with just the movement of his eyes in her direction, the man in front of him shout.
“Pay attention!” he shouted. “One more move and I will shoot you.”
“Okay, okay-“ Vash held his hands up and stared at the man behind the gun.
Hushed words came from Milly, Vash could hear something about needing a hospital, from behind him. He wanted this fight to be over; he wanted to help Meryl. But when he moved his head to just quickly check whether Meryl was doing okay, a gunshot sounded right beside his ear.
The world around him got filled with the highest tone. It was loud and high and made him dizzy.
In a reflex, Vash hit the man with his gun; he couldn’t shoot and trust not to hit any vital organs when he’d just been stunned by the loud gunshot. But this way the man wouldn’t wake up anytime soon.
After seeing the man fall to the floor, Vash’s vision went blotchy on one side.
He lifted his hand up to his face, and when he lowered it, there was blood on his fingers.
~
Meryl sat with her back propped up against Milly’s knees. She was putting all her energy in one thing; clenching her side so she wouldn’t bleed too much.
“Ouch-“ she complained. Getting cut by a knife wasn’t a pleasure, that was for sure.
“Are you doing okay?” Milly whispered.
Meryl raised her hand off the wound for a second, to see what the damage was. When blood immediately started seeping from the cut, she pressed down onto it again. It hurt quite a lot, but the amount of blood made it seem worse than it actually was. “It’s pretty superficial, I believe,” she told Milly. “He did puncture my side, but think he only hit skin.”
“Well, it is best if we get it checked out at a hospital or something, nonetheless,” Milly suggested. “Don’t you think, Meryl?”
Meryl opened her mouth to answer, but she was silenced by a gunshot sounding not too far away.
She looked up to see Vash standing at the end of the barrel of a smoking gun.
Blood spatters flew through the air.
A loud bang sounded when Vash hit the bounty hunter with the back of his gun, causing the man to fall to the ground almost instantly.
Meryl watched as Vash touched his bleeding face, letting his hand fall to his side limply. When he turned to Milly and Meryl, stumbling towards them, Meryl found it hard to believe he wasn’t fainting. Instead, he walking towards them with blood running down the right side of his face.
“Vash-“ Meryl muttered under her breath.
He wasn’t looking good, swaying from left to right. Blood dripped from his temple and his ear was shot off. Just looking at it made Meryl’s stomach turn.
“Meryl.” Vash’s voice sounded, he let himself fall onto his knees in front of her. “Are you okay?”
Meryl stared at him with an open mouth as his bloody hands reached for her side. “That guy didn’t hurt you too bad, did he?”
Meryl’s lips parted. “What are you worrying about? You’re much more injured than me.”
“No, no-“ Vash waved with his hand. “This is nothing, just a bullet graze. You see?” He pointed at the side of his head. The bullet indeed seemed to have merely grazed his temple, but still; his ear was blown off entirely. No matter how much he shrugged it off, that injury must’ve been hurting a ton.
Meryl felt herself grow faint at just the sight, and she usually could stomach quite a lot of gore.
Vash took one glance at her and turned to Milly. “She’s looking really pale, don’t you think? I think she might be losing a lot of blood-“
“Wait what, no!” Meryl grumbled; yes, she was bleeding, but she wasn’t nearly as injured as Vash.
“-do you have any bandages on you? Something we can use to bind it with?”
Milly looked at the ground and admitted, “Yes, but just one role.”
“You’re giving it to Vash,” Meryl decided. “He needs it much more than I do.”
“I told you, it’s just a graze.” Vash tried wiping away his blood, but new blood came back straight away. He turned back to Milly and said, “I don’t need it. Use it to stop Meryl’s bleeding, I can walk to a medical post no problem.”
“I’m sorry, mister Vash,” Milly began. “But I have to agree with Meryl.”
“What?” Vash asked, his determination dropping. “But why?”
“You are bleeding really badly and-“ She glanced down at her white shirt. “-it’s much easier to put bandage around a head wound than using a piece of clothing.” Milly unbuttoned the first button of her shirt.
“W-What the Hell are you doing, Milly?” Meryl blurted. “Keep on your shirt, please!”
“You can easily use fabric to bandage a wound, don’t you know that?”
“Yes, I do,” Meryl responded. “But you are not undressing in front of him.” She nodded in Vash’s direction.
Milly followed her gaze and asked, “But then where am I supposed to do that? Both of your injuries need something to stop the bleeding, right?”
“I don’t know, but you are keeping your shirt on.”
Meryl scanned across the field. Milly’s reasoning was good, that of a survivor; you could use all kinds of items to bandage a wound. They didn’t need professional supplies to do so, all the needed was something to stop them from bleeding until they reached a medical post.
Her eyes finally landed on the passed out bounty hunter, Vash had knocked out. He was wearing a simple shirt; just some cotton fabric, they could easily use it for wrapping up Meryl’s wound.
“There,” Meryl said. “Go fetch his shirt.”
“But isn’t that stealing?” Milly asked. She was a kind young lady, with good morals. Sometimes Meryl wondered if she’d been raised too well for this world.
“It’s warm out; He can miss his shirt.”
Milly hesitated before nodding. “Okay then.” She rose to her feet and got the bounty hunter’s shirt for them. She ripped it apart a little and with their makeshift bandage, she helped Meryl bind her wound; Vash demanded she’d be helped first.
Afterwards, it was Vash’s turn, who despite his injuries didn’t complain once. It was until later, when they were walking that he first told them he did have a little bit of a headache.
A little bit of a headache. Meryl found herself thinking. This guy’s insane.
But she soon went back on her judgment, because this guy in question’s Vash the Stampede. And while Meryl was sad to admit it to herself, it’s a fact that if there’s anything Vash’s used to, it’s getting fatal injuries. And somehow surviving it.
The End.