DISCLAIMER: Trigun and its characters belong to Yasuhiro Nightow.

" – leygrad today, two lawyers found guilty of multiple crimes including fraud, embezzlement, and criminal conspiracy against their own town, as well as several more, received their punishment at the end of a rope as they were hanged. People of the town praised this as well-deserved justice, with many expressing gratitude to the mystery man who left a series of cash gifts at their homes. Was this the same man who some say saved the town from its invasion of bandits? We may never –"

Meryl switched the station yet again, wishing she could find something that sounded just right. After several more turns, she gave up and just turned the radio off. Grabbed a grease rag and wiped at her hands and face, dirty from working on the motorbike with Vash. The doctor would have a fit when he found out how much she was using her injured hand, but this sorry excuse for a motorcycle wasn't going to maintain itself.

Vash came out with a couple glasses of lemonade. She thanked him and drank thirstily, envying the hands he had washed clean inside.

"So what do you think?" he asked as they sat together in the shade of the awning.

She rolled the cold glass across her forehead, enjoying the feel. "How's your fabrication skills?"

Shrug. "Rusty, but fair the last time I did any. Why?"

"We're going to have to make some of our own parts, I think, if we want this thing to stay running."

"Maybe it just needs some kind words," he suggested with a grin.

"Maybe it needs to be melted down for scrap if it doesn't start cooperating with me!" Shot a death glare at the bike.

"Are you absolutely sure it's not the spark plugs?" he asked.

The corner of Meryl's mouth quirked up in a half-smile. "What is it with you and the spark plugs? Should I start calling you Sparky?"

Eye roll. "Please don't. I don't like the sound of that name."

She arched an eyebrow. "Why not? I think it's a cute nickname, Sparky."

"Sounds too much like Spikey."

Chuckle. "You'd rather be called Needle-Noggin?"

Vash grinned at her again. "You can call me anything you want, so long as you call me yours."

Meryl laughed and sat back, taking a long swallow of lemonade. People in town were now using some kind of powdered mix, but nothing could ever beat fresh-made.

"You know, we could buy a new bike," he suggested. "We have money now."

"Yes, and it's going to our new life, not to making the life we have right now easy," she said pointedly. "I keep telling you this – we can't raise any eyebrows by suddenly spending money. We have to get our new identities set up. Then we need temporary identities. Once we have those things, we'll pretend we're moving because we can't make a living here. In travel, we'll use the temporary ID to buy transportation. Then when we get where we're going, we'll sign our car or bikes or whatever we'll have over to our permanent identities, just as if one party sold it to the other party. We do that for everything we have, get all new stuff. That way, after we burn the temporary ID, they won't be able to trace anything back to Ericks and Meryl Stampede. Ok?"

"You make everything too complicated," he said idly. "All these transfers of ownership. Look around, nobody cares. Money's money."

"Tch. I'll have you know, I have tracked down many a person in my day because they slipped on the details. That will not be us. Think of it this way – if you have a dead body in the trunk, you're going to be extra careful not to drive recklessly, right? What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Vash shook his head. "Sometimes you scare me."

Meryl simply laughed and cryptically said, "Insurance agents are not saints. Neither are bar waitresses."

He let that one drop. "What are our new names going to be, anyway?"

Shrug. "I don't know yet. I'm still looking at places to go. We might wind up getting several IDs and just town-hopping to cover our tracks. I want to make sure we completely disappear. Do you have any name ideas?"

Gave his own shrug. "They've always called me Vash the Stampede. Stampede's as good a name as any."

Meryl poked her finger in his chest. "Didn't you hear what I just said? We're already using that name! That's how we got tracked down in the first place! And you can't use Ericks, either, people are on to that one. I probably can't even use Meryl by now. We need names completely unrelated to us."

"How about Smith and Jones?"

"Really? Vash and Meryl, alias Smith and Jones? We're married, you dimwit! Married couples are expected to have the same last name. And don't even think about suggesting we not be married," she cut him off. "You asked, I said yes, that's one thing that's never going to change."

He smiled in agreement. "On the other hand, it could be fun. William Bonney and Patricia Garrett – 'Howdy, you can call me Billy the Kid and this here is Pat Garrett.'"

"Who are they?"

"Well, Pat Garrett was a sheriff way back when on ancient Earth. I think Billy the Kid was his deputy or something."

Snort. "Try again."

"How does James strike you? 'Frank James here, this is my wife Jessica, you can call her Jessie.'"

"And they would be…?"

"I think they were lawmen, too. That's the beauty of these names, nobody would ever take them for the names of outlaws and bandits!"

"Maybe." Patted his shoulder. "We'll come back to the names later. I do kind of like that Jessie James one, it's got a ring to it. I'm a little worried about Knives, though."

"We'll just say he's an invalid cousin or something and cover the restraints. We'll name him John Lee. It'll be fine."

Meryl shook her head. "Not that. Do you think we got through?"

Vash sighed. "I'd like to hope so, but the truth is it's going to take more than an apology and some words."

Nod. "Then we'll keep putting in the work until we get him on the right path. We just have to keep showing him the way, no matter what he throws at us. He can't break us when we stand together. You helped me realize that," she said with a smile.

Vash stood up. "That reminds me! Be right back."

Opened the door to go in, stood smoothly aside as a child's suction arrow flew by and hit a post.

"Nicole's getting to be a good shot," commented Meryl.

"What are you talking about? That was Milly!"

"So-rry!" came the harmonized voices of Milly and her daughter.

Meryl enjoyed her lemonade for a few more minutes until Vash came back with a thick library book. "Isn't it a little early for a bedtime story?"

"Shush. Listen to this." He opened to a marked page.

"'A bend test is a commonly used evaluative method for the determination of soundness and ductility of welds in ferrous and nonferrous products, as evidenced by their ability to resist cracking during bending.'"

Closed the book with a triumphant grin.

Meryl sipped from her glass. "It's important I know that why?"

"Ductility, put simply, is how well a material holds up under tensile stress. So a bend test shows you whether a welded product can bend without cracking and breaking. Think about it. You've done enough work on the bike to know this. What is welding?"

"Joining two pieces of metal, of course."

Shook his head no. "Deeper. When you weld something, you don't just join pieces, you make one piece. Welding, properly done, bonds material at the molecular level. I can take apart my gun, because it's held together by different parts. But something properly welded, that's not coming apart."

"Ok. But what are you saying? I already know we need to work on the bike. We always need to work on the bike, because there's always something going wrong with it."

He grew more excited as he explained further. Gestured with his hands. "Here's a piece of metal called Vash. Here's a piece of metal called Meryl. They're welded together through strength of love. Every trial that comes their way is a bend test. And the only way to pass a bend test is to not break, to not have any cracks. Look at everything we've been through, from the early days all the way to now, and we're still together."

Meryl started to smile as she figured it out. "So you're saying…"

His grin had widened further. "I'm saying we're not two separate pieces anymore, we're one completely bonded unit. It doesn't matter if we're up against Knives, crooked lawyers, money problems, bounty hunters – you name it, it doesn't matter.

"Because you and I, insurance girl, we'll pass the bend test every time!"