Pan was still trying to figure out the cryptic message that Vegeta had given her an hour later while she mingled and talked with friends. Even though they were a close-knit group, they rarely got together and saw each other like this unless Bulma or her grandmother insisted upon it. Usually it would be that you saw someone once every two weeks for some reason or another unless there were deeper ties there to warrant more time together. Like her friendship with Bra and Marron.
The only downside of the party was that Uub wasn’t there. Marron had told her that the spiky haired, tanned god was close to cracking a murder case he was working on, which was the reason he had given for his absence. But everyone knew that was an excuse as much as it was a reason. Uub just didn’t want to be in the same room with Goten and vice versa; they’d just wind up getting into fight and Uub hadn’t wanted to spoil the party for her.
In any case, it still baffled her of what Vegeta had meant. Run away? What did he mean by that? She never ran away from anything. She had left to go to college and because… well because she was lusting after one of her best friends and that just wasn’t cool. Sure, she had a crush on him when she was younger. Who didn’t? Well Bra but really big duh there. But having girlish fantasies about a good-looking guy and having visions of tearing up the sheets with the same guy were two very different things, particularly when one factored what equated to a lifetime friendship into the equation.
“Pan, you all right?”
Pan blinked and looked up into Trunks’s concerned blue eyes. She hadn’t even realized it, but she had drifted outside while she was working out Vegeta’s enigmatic message and her own issues of lust towards the lavender-haired man before her. It was only the two of them on the Briefs’ patio. Inside they could hear the beginnings of one of Vegeta’s random challenges to her grandfather, who had been allowed to return to Earth as a treat for her. Hard to believe that the two men were actually best friends with the way the Saiyan King treated Grandpa Goku, but in their own odd way they shared as close of a bond as she shared with her own friends.
“Yeah, fine. Just a little disappointed that Uub isn’t here, I guess,” she replied with a sad smile. “And about earlier, at the airport… the way I reacted when I saw you… it wasn’t personal Trunks… Part of me was hoping that you had been Uub, because that would mean everything was back to normal again.” Well it was half-truth, she had wished that Uub had been at the airport with Goten on one level. On another level she had wished she had more mental preparation in seeing Trunks again. Or better yet these crazy lustful feelings were gone.
“Forget it, it’s all right,” he said, plopping down on one of the pool chairs and motioned for her to sit in the one next to his. “Believe me, you’re not the only one who wants things back the way they were when we all could hang out. Dende, I wish those idiots never met Mint Delton.”
Mint Delton was a buxom pink-haired bombshell who had strolled into all of their lives, or more precisely Goten and Uub’s, five years ago. She came from a moderately rich family (moderately was used since no one’s wealth compared to the Briefs’) and was probably more arrogant about her ‘blue’ bloodlines then Vegeta was about his royal and pure Saiyan blood. That in itself was an accomplishment considering it was the King of Sayians you were comparing someone with. The pink-haired little whore was a social climber in the worst sense.
Although Pan wasn’t a 100% certain, she was sure the woman had made a pass at Trunks, but had been turned down since the Capsule Corps. President had little liking for gold diggers. Nor did he care for superficial women, at least not in a serious relationship. As far as he was concerned, those women were good for nothing but one-night stands. Unfortunately while Trunks was smarter about women like Mint, her uncle and Uub were rather naïve and had fallen for her at the same time. And while neither had Trunks’s type of reputation and money, neither were prizes to be sneezed at.
Goten owned a five-star restaurant where he was head chef at, although he didn’t always cook every night since he had an excellent staff, each who were stars in their own right but had chosen to work for a nice guy like her uncle. The nights that did he deign to make his presence known in the kitchen were always booked months in advance. And as for Uub, he was one of the top detectives at Capsule City’s first precinct and was known for solving extraordinarily hard and gruesome cases. But considering the kind of monsters that all of them had gone against at one point or another in their lives, the monsters on Earth just didn’t cut it.
Mint drifted back and forth between the men depending on who was more popular at the time and making some wild and crazy excuse as to why she was breaking off the relationship to return to her other ex-. And for some cockamamie reason, the two morons believed her and believed the worst about the other who had used to be a best friend. It often made Pan wonder if Mint wasn’t slipping something into her uncle and friend’s drink or food because they were usually so rational. While they might get distracted by a pretty face, they just weren’t the type to go for the only the superficial.
“I wonder if she’s been slipping them anything to make them irrational,” she mused aloud her thoughts. She thought she saw a bit of change in Trunks to her comment. It could have merely been her imagination her maybe it had never occurred to Trunks that there might be a logical solution to his best friends’ illogical behavior.
“Might, I’ll look into it,” he said after a long pause of silence. She knew he’d be able to pull it off. He might have his father’s son in a lot of ways, but when it came to the brains and science end of things he was definitely Bulma’s. “It’ll be easy to compare stuff since they live in the same building as us.”
“Yeah,” Pan said, without thinking before his words has sunk in. She nearly gave herself whiplash to look at him. “What do you mean we’re living in the same building? I’m living in the same building as Marron and Bra.”
“Yeah, you are but Goten, Uub, and I live in the building too,” he replied, looking faintly amused by her surprise. “Didn’t Bra tell you? The apartment building is owned by Capsule Corps which is why you’re getting such a great price for your place. If you went somewhere else you’d be dishing out more money for the same kind of apartment and without the amenities you’d be getting at our building.”
Pan looked slightly dazed as her mind worked through the information. She had decided before moving back that she wouldn’t move back in with her parents. She was twenty-four, after all, and she had been living on her own for quite some time now. There was no need to deal with the drama that would come with living with her parents and sisters again. So it had been the most logical thing to accept Bra’s offer to secure her an apartment in the same building that she and Marron lived in.
She would have roomed with one of them, but both of them had single-bedroom places (well actually they had two-bedroom apartments but the spare bedroom was being used as offices/gyms/etc). Some would have thought that it was ridiculous for Bra and Marron to have gotten two separate apartments when they had moved into the same apartment building, but then again those people didn’t know her best friends very well. Marron tended to be a little bit anal when it came to being neat. Not that Bra was a messy person, but she tended to live in the state of organized clutter which would have driven Marron crazy. And Marron would have drove Bra crazy by putting stuff away. There was logic to Bra’s clutter so putting things away Marron-syle would have made it impossible for the blue-haired beauty to find anything she needed.
But to find out that Goten, Uub, and Trunks were living in the same building added a kink into her plans. She had been looking forward to having a peaceful home environment after the craziness of living in the States with weird, but wonderful roommates and psychotic neighbors. She wasn’t going to get that with Uub and Goten living in the same building. They were usually good at avoiding each other, but sometimes they would run into each other and they either ignored each other while their kis spiked erratically or got into a brawl that might cost damages to the building.
And then there was that little problem with close proximity with Trunks when she wasn’t sure how to handle him. How was she to achieve some level of composure with him? To call back the normalness that had been between them before she had started having these crazy lustful thoughts for him?
“Trunks,” Mirai said, drawing Pan and Trunks’s attention as she stepped outside. The light from in the house played off the young teen’s hair, giving the jet black locks a bluish tint in some places. “You’re needed inside. Apparently this time the battle of the day between Grandpa and Vegeta is to see who has the strongest offspring. You and Goten have to fight.”
“Why me,” Trunks grumbled good-naturedly as he rose. “He does realize that he two kids, right?”
“Oh please. All Bra just has to flutter her eyes at her Daddy and Vegeta turns into a puddle of Saiyan goo,” Mirai replied, grinning. It was a well known fact that the Saiyan King doted on his Princess, who he saw as perfection for looking like her mother and being able to kick ass like her Daddy. If Bra didn’t want to fight then Vegeta usually let her get away with avoiding these ridiculous challenges that he got into with Goku. “As for Dad, he doesn’t train enough to please Vegeta so he was magnanimous enough not to press upon an unfair advantage and said Goten has to fight instead.”
“Pfffft, well I guess I better get this over with,” Trunks said. “You coming in too, Pan?”
“No, you’ve hogged Pan enough. It’s my turn to have some time with my sister,” Mirai cut in before her sister could answer. Pan arched an eyebrow about the imperious tone in her younger sister’s voice but nodded in agreement. Mirai didn’t often express her wants out loud often, so she and the family tended to give way when she did. Obviously her sister had something to say.
“Fine, I know when I’m not wanted,” the lavender-haired Prince retorted and headed inside, leaving the two sisters out on the patio. Mirai kicked off her black flats and sat on the pool’s edge, cautiously dunking her feet into the water before submerging them. Pan rose from her lounge chair and moved to sit next to her sister, also opting to taking her shoes off and dunking her feet.
“So what’s up kiddo,” Pan asked.
“How do you feel about Trunks,” Mirai asked, looking up from the rippling water and up into her sister’s eyes. “I mean, how you really, really feel about him?”
There was just something about having her youngest sister look at her directly, which could be a bit unnerving at times. Particularly when she combined with questions that had about the same impact as when she sparred with someone and had been stupid and let her guard down enough to allow a direct hit to her stomach. She didn’t quite understand why the question made her panic slightly. There was no reason to.
“Why do you ask that, Mirai? You know he’s one of my best friends,” she answered, trying to sound calm but not quite keeping that tremble out of her voice. She felt like something inside her was screaming for to escape. To not think so deeply, because if she did nothing would be the same. It would be worse then suddenly developing lustful thoughts about Trunks.
“Is that really all he is to you Pan?”
There was something in Mirai’s voice and eyes that seemed more to Pan. Not something you’d expect from a teen. But then when had Mirai or any of them in this group ever been normal? They were more because of their bloodlines and who they were and were related to. They had all fought one big bad at least once in their life. Pan had even died once and been wished back. To think it wouldn’t affect her baby sister was stupid.
“Vegeta’s right. You are still running from it. Or maybe it’s more correct to say you haven’t acknowledged it consciously.” There was a hint of sympathy and sadness in Mirai’s voice.
“Consciously realized what,” Pan demanded, finally having reached the last straw of having people talk circles around her and not tell her what they meant. A part of her scared to find out yet the stubborn half of her and that Dende-damned Sayian pride and fearlessness made her push ahead.
“If you don’t know yet I don’t think you want to know. Or if you’re ready.”
“TELL ME, MIRAI.”
They both stared at each other, stunned by Pan’s outburst. In unison, they glanced back at the house to see if anyone had noticed. But they had nothing to worry about since it seemed the whole gang had moved towards the gravity room to watch the duel between Trunks and Goten.
“Very well. Pan, you love Trunks. And not in the ‘you’re my best friend who happens to be a guy’ kinda way, but the ‘you’re my mate’ kinda way.”
“Wh-” Pan started to protest before her sister’s words fit into a piece inside of her like a puzzle. Images poured through her mind, a jumble of memories and what were visions or hopes of the future. She had so many memories… memories of Trunks because it seemed every memory she had, he was somehow intertwined into them.
Trunks smiling her after a day where they had all gone to the amusement park, enjoying the cheap thrills of the rides which compared to what they could do shouldn’t have been as much fun but had been.
Trunks looking tired, dripping with sweat after a sparring match with Goten and Uub, but yet having the strength to give her a cocky smirk at being the victor.
Trunks, floating outside her bedroom window apologizing for forgetting her birthday, looking so adorably cute and reminding her of a puppy that had just got caught making an accident on the carpet. He hadn’t appreciated that comparison, when she had pointed it out to him, and came into her room to tickle her with a vengeance until she begged mercy.
And between those memories, there was images… images that had often been vague because she had never placed a face to them… until now. Waking up to see Trunks sleeping next to her and then seeing him slowly wake up and smile at her in pleasure just because he was happy that she was the first thing he saw in the morning. Or seeing herself standing in the kitchen cooking stir fry, while he pretended to help but instead kept sneaking pieces of chicken from the pan. Or the final stirring image, walking down the aisle on her father’s arm and seeing Trunks at the altar turn and look at her and light up knowing that she’d soon be his and only his for all time.
It slowly sunk in. She was in love with Trunks. Had been in love for quite some time. Even quite possibly all her life. Every guy she had dated had reminded her of Trunks in some way but none had lasted because they weren’t Trunks. Like any other red-blooded woman she had had fantasies of men and what it would be like to kiss them or maybe more. Yet none of those fantasies had come close to the fantasies she had had of the Prince of Saiyans that had started to occur when she was twenty.
It had been him. For years she had been wearing blinders because they had been friends first and foremost. She hadn’t wanted to ruin that and so some part of her had shielded her, but the shield had started cracking over the years. And now it was gone. She finally knew her own heart.
“But Dende help me what do I do now?”
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Final Thought from Pan:
I’m in love with Trunks…
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Author’s Note:
Okay here are the ages of the characters in the story. Some may be a little off then actual canon, but they’ve been edited to suit the story.
Trunk Briefs: 38 Pan Son: 24 Hana Son: 19
Goten Son: 37 Bra Briefs: 25 Mirai Son : 17
Uub Magia: 33 Marron Chestnut: 31
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Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z/Dragon Ball GT or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Toriyama Akira and anyone else he says has rights to it.
