DISCLAIMER: Trigun and its characters belong to Yasuhiro Nightow.

See You Later

"See you later. Good luck."

Those were the last words Meryl Stryfe had spoken to Vash the Stampede, and he was puzzled by them. She had looked like she wanted to say more than that; so why hadn't she?

Every step Vash took was a step closer to a clash of guns. A clash of wills. A clash of brothers. He should be focusing on that.

But instead, he couldn't quit thinking about what Meryl had said.

She could have made a big speech. Could have treated it like the dramatic moment it was. Could have asked him to promise to come back.

Why had Meryl kept it so simple?

After all they had been through since their first encounter, why only give him two sentences as a goodbye?

Vash stopped and looked up into the cloudless blue, a breeze swirling grains of sand around his boots as the answer came to him.

That was it; she wasn't saying goodbye. It was right there in her two sentences; all she was doing was wishing him luck and saying she would see him later, a subtle statement of her faith that he would return alive and intact.

No need to say goodbye, because he would be coming back and she would see him again.

Vash resumed his trek with a smile.

"I get it, insurance girl," he said, partly to himself and partly to the woman who was back there, waiting for him. "See you later."