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Meryl watches as Vash and Wolfwood get hurt.
She watches as her boys get stabbed, shot, broken, bruised, beaten, and cut.
She watches as Vash's injuries heal on their own, as his bones snap themselves back into place, as his skin stitches itself back together.
She watches as Wolfwood breaks open another ampoule, regardless of the new tiny cuts from the glass, as his wounds steam and heal over in a frighteningly short amount of time.
Meryl stands and watches as Vash and Wolfwood, her Vash and Wolfwood, suffer.
The two idiots are used to it. They might grimace or flinch when they get hurt, but as soon as the wounds are no longer bleeding, no longer visible, they're fine.
That's what they always say. Its "I'm fine, shortie." and "It's okay Meryl, see? All better already!" or some other vague excuse that Meryl knows is at least half a lie because does it not hurt?
Does it not hurt them, to sit there after going through something that would've killed a normal person at least twice over, and smile and grin and talk like nothing even happened? Are they just playing pretend? Or are they really so different from her that humanly pain tolerances don't apply to them?
She used to believe them sometimes. Maybe that fall wasn't as bad as it looked. Maybe that knife didn't pierce anything but a little skin.
And maybe Meryl is just weak, and that's why when she fell and she got stabbed that it hurt like hell and kept hurting for days or weeks or months.
But she started paying a bit more attention in fights, to what exactly happened to their assailants after they went down.
They were almost always writhing in pain. With the same injuries Vash and Wolfwood walked off.
She tried letting them know that she knew they were being hurt. They both gave her the same excuses.
She tried being better in fights, so they get hurt less. They both still took hits.
She tried sitting out in conflicts, thinking that, maybe she was the problem here. Maybe they take so many hits because it's either her or them and they know they'll shrug off what she won't survive.
They both continued to use their bodies as shields, for kids, elderly, the plants, anybody nearby that could be caught up in the chaos. Because a nicked shoulder or a broken rib would be better than a dead child or a town without a plant. She agreed with them about that, but she just wished it wasn't Vash's nicked shoulder or Wolfwood's broken rib. Even though Vash's peaceful demeanor and Wolfwood's semi-violent one were quite different, they were both the same when it came to innocents.
She tried again and again to not let them get hurt, but they still did. She occasionally might succeed, but it is difficult to control The Humanoid Typhoon and The Punisher in battle.
Meryl won't give up on trying to protect them anytime soon. But for now, the most she can do is clean blood off their skin and carefully bandage already-healing wounds. And stand and watch as her boys get hurt.