Fake It Til You Make It

Chapter 9

A Dangerous Game Of Hide And Seek

Some religious station was playing on the radio that no one in the car was actually paying attention to. Meryl was once again in the driver's seat (for some reason, she really was a terrible driver), Milly was in the front middle humming quietly with her eyes closed, and Roberto was in the passenger seat trying to drift off. In the back, it was Vash, you, and Wolfwood; the three of you were fast asleep.

"Ugh, that's enough doomsday talk for now," Meryl complained after sipping on her water. "What was that station anyway?"

"Standard religious trash, newbie," her superior replied.

"It's probably from the Plant Church worshippers," Milly piped in. "I hear there's a headquarters for it in JuLai."

"Yeah, they're the ones who pump out that kind of propaganda." Roberto shifted in his seat to look out his window at the red sand, "As far as whack-job sects go, they're fairly up and coming."

A rather rough going over a dune shook the car. Being somewhat of a light sleeper, seeing as he was a man wanted by many, Vash was startled awake at the jostle. He sat back silently, listening in on their conversation.

Meryl groaned, complaining about the heat. In return, Roberto and Milly teamed up to tell her a 'chilling story' about why the sand was red out here. She could only stare at the two as they spoke. They were totally playing off of her fear at the moment. She chuckled nervously.

Roberto leaned forward to get a glimpse at her fear-stricken face, "Eh? You still hot after that chilling story?"

"Hot and very annoyed!" Then her eyes widened, seeing a dead creature in their path, and she promptly slammed on the break "Holy shit!"

You were tossed into Wolfwoods lap as the car spun around. Your eyes blinked open painfully and you found yourself staring at his stupid smirk.

"Look at you, falling for me already?"

You scrambled to sit up, hissing out, "Not on your life."

"Look. Over there."

Vash nudged your shoulder, making you look at him, and then followed his gaze out the window. Yep, it was a dead creature alright. You followed the rest of the group out of the car, going out Vash's door with him instead of Wolfwood's.

We just met, for fucks sake, why would he flirt with me, you thought while making a face.

You welcomed flirting when it was coming from Vash, but from Wolfwood? Not so much. You knew that eventually, he would trust Vash more than his fear of the doctor, and his morals would rub off on him, but that hasn't happened yet.

Especially with Livio soon to make an appearance.

You furrowed your brow at the thought just as Meryl jogged up to the carcass and examined its wound.

"Looks like wormy took a fist straight to the skull," Wolfwood remarked.

"Fist?"

"Do you think it could have been someone in Knives' group?"

"Could've been that monster in our story," Roberto joked.

You took it as a half-truth, because, well, he was partly right. You nudged Vash at the sight across the horizon.

"You haven't been back in a while, right?" You whispered to him.

Vash had already noticed the windmill-powered town in the distance. If you were pointing it out to him as he was also taking notice of it, he had a feeling that this was part of his 'story'.