“That stupid, that stupid…GAH!!” ever exasperated, Meryl just shoved the final donuts in, putting her mouth to work chewing instead of yelling. She knew it wouldn’t do any good; if Vash had any sense of responsibility, he wouldn’t have just left her and Milly hanging like that. He was just lucky that she didn’t bite his nose off, though now Meryl wished that’s what she had done.

After stuffing those glazed goods into her maw, making her cheeks once again bulge widely, all of her aggression seemed to go in her teeth as she mashed them down so savagely. Even with her mouth hanging open with every bite, only a few crumbs managed to escape her wrath as no matter what, she could not let go of how much she couldn’t stand Vash right now. By the time she took her last chew though, the irritated Insurance girl had unknowingly wondered over to her room’s full body mirror, and let’s just say that see food wasn’t the only thing that disgusted her at that moment.

Any rage turned to anguish and depression as she simply swallowed down her food, while unable to look away at the woman she saw before her. Had this been what she had been reduced to? She didn’t want to believe it, but even Wolf Wood would tell her that she didn’t have a prayer in escaping the truth. It was as clear as what stretched out her dress.

“Look at me.” She muttered. Her hands slipped down to her round midsection, running over the smooth curvature of it all, and she nearly lost it when she felt all of those love handles. Meryl couldn’t bare to look at anything else because she knew that it would be just as bad.

“Why did I do this?” Meryl asked herself. No matter how unintentional it was, this was her fault. So much fat ruining her clothes, which got tighter and more uncomfortable all the time it seemed, and donut boxes strewn throughout the room, with the specks of her latest victims stuck around her mouth, it all disgusted her so much, and just as she began to tear up, the doorknob turned.

“Meryl,” as her partner entered, the disgraced woman turned her face away from the mirror and her. “Don’t look at me Milly.” She told her, but when the door shut, she was still there. Such longing radiated from her eyes, as all Milly wanted was for her friend to smile again. She tried to by exposing some of her own shortcomings “Meryl please, you really shouldn’t worry so much. You know, when I was a kid and I kept on growing, I-”

“That’s different Milly.” Meryl told her with no room for argument. Her partner went silent and so she made her case “You’re just taller than most people, that’s perfectly fine, but look at me. I’m a planet!”

“You’re not that big.” Milly wanted to tell her friend that she was overreacting, but like a certain Humanoid Typhoon, she wasn’t stupid. Meryl even added “Maybe not now, but what do I do if this doesn’t stop? Just a second ago, I thought about buying out all of the ice cream there is in this town.” Milly hoped that was before she had gotten her donuts.

“I’m disgusting.” That was the last straw; Milly wasn’t going to stand for this anymore. She hated to get aggressive, but her friend needed to stop tearing herself down. Marching over her way, She grabbed Meryl by the shoulders and spun her around. It was time her friend heard the truth.

“Meryl, listen to me; you are a beautiful, smart, very nice girl. You always have been and you always will be. You shouldn’t care that your body’s gotten rounder; I don’t. You’re still the same wonderful person who I am proud to call my friend and partner, and you better believe that I’m not the only who thinks this.” She said. Whenever Milly got upset, it was like a lunar eclipse; very rare and you want to see, but you are afraid to look. However, much like the revolting sight Meryl had seen in the mirror, she couldn’t look away, especially when her friend was saying so many nice things. Still, it was very hard to believe, even when coming from someone as honest as Milly.

“…..I’ll bet Vash doesn’t. This whole thing is his fault; that stupid jerk.” She angrily mumbled. It was so easy to switch back to being angry at the source of her problem. Since the day they met, he had put them through so much hell, and yet they always stuck by since it was their job. However, along the way, Meryl had hoped that there was more to it than that. Despite his scary reputation, Vash seemed like such a nice person, making her want to consider him a friend, but then he up and disappears on them, making their job a lot more difficult than it had to be, and here she was now; looking more like a white whale on dry land.

“Oh come on,” the sound of that voice made her want to hit something and munch on something deep fried right now. Tilting her head down, the now stupefied looking Meryl bore witness to the sore of all her troubles lifting up Milly’s dress as he emerged out from under it, saying to her “don’t be that way.”

*WHAM!*

His smile turned into a painful wince as Meryl smashed his head with frying pan that came out of nowhere. Milly had stepped back as soon as she hit her target, hoping that things didn’t go from bad to worse. If Meryl was ever going to feel better about herself, she needed to hear how beautiful she really was from more than just her. Hopefully Mr. Vash was up to the challenge, otherwise who knows what Meryl might do to him.