Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of the DBZ and the song, "You Are Everything" by Stylistics. This is an adapted story from a friend named, Martha C. This disclaimer is applicable to all the chapters of this story.
NOTE: In this story, there are no dragon balls anymore as well as no more threat to the whole universe. The peace on earth has been restored. This has been taken few years after DBGT. I was having a hard time about the age difference between Trunks and Pan, so I just made my own version.
FULL SUMMARY: When Trunks had finally accepted that Pan was gone, a woman named Aiko Matsui entered his life. She looked like Pan, walked, talked and, smelled like Pan. He even thought she was his wife who disappeared almost six years ago and was playing games with him. But Aiko's records showed exactly who she was. He didn't want to forget the vow he'd made to his wife. His whole heart was filled with memories of Pan – bittersweet memories that had kept him going, but Aiko was slowly making her way to his heart that only belonged to Pan.
Chapter 1
"You want to interview the applicants?"
"Yes." Trunks said simply over the phone. He could see the face of his mother from his answer. Bulma had been rolling her eyes heavenward.
"You refused Jenny's invitation to accompany her to the orphanage this morning because you have to interview applicants?" his mother said indignantly.
"Yes." Jenny was the current titleholder of Ms. Japan and his mother's current choice for him.
"You're not just limited with talking to me Trunks," Bulma said irritably. "But your intellect is minimal at best. You're only four months short of your thirty-fourth year, for heaven's sake! It isn't logical to stop dating."
"Yes."
"And you could do something about communicating. A 'yes' is not enough. You are my son and I really hate to ask this, but are you impotent?"
He gave a long and deep sigh. He was almost amused at his mother's question. "I really hope so, Mom."
"See? You can get past a 'yes' and it's a good sign." Bulma sighed. Her tone went back to normal. "It's been few years since Pan left, Trunks. To be exact, if my memory doesn't fail me, five years and eight months."
"You still have a sharp memory, Mom."
Bulma ignored the sarcasm. "Pan was very young then. Only eighteen and wasn't sure of what she felt for you. The wedding was in haste."
"Let's stop this conversation," he said curtly. "Let Sofia be the last woman you wanted me to date."
"And talking of Sofia," Bulma halted his words that made him mutter something under his breath. Bulma ignored that, too. "If you have no time for other woman, then concentrate on Sofia. She's been waiting for you. Why not file a divorce and marry her?"
"And who will sign the divorce paper, Mom?" he answered lazily. The same topic was in discussion for several times in the last few years since he came back to Japan. "Mom, I have to hang up, I have another call." And before Bulma could answer, he already put down his phone.
He sighed. He rested his head on the headrest of the swivel chair. Damn. His mother had not given up matchmaking him with Sofia. Oh, well in fairness, any woman he could introduce to Bulma would make her jump of happiness. His mother thought he was wasting his whole life mooning for his wife.
He thought differently. Pan's memories kept him going. He didn't think his heart had the capacity to beat for another woman, not that he didn't date another woman. He had tried, in fact, to find for another love, to give himself another chance since Pan's disappearance almost six years ago.
But all the women he met, he could only see Pan through them. He was always trying to find his wife on them. Lately, he had stopped seeing women.
He raised his head when he heard Mika's voice from the intercom.
"Sir, shall I proceed to send in the first applicant?"
"Yes, please Mika."
Trunks started screening and interviewing the first three applicants. Bored and eager to dispose them fast so he could go to the fourth applicant. It was unfair. Somehow, the first three applicants were all good but they were all experienced. What they needed was a fresh graduate.
He viewed several times the resume he had been holding and then would sigh. He kept looking at the two-by-two photo at the right top corner. He couldn't take his eyes off that picture even while he was interviewing the previous applicants.
This could be wrong. The woman in the picture was Pan, he was sure of it. The same smile, shape of the face, eyes, lips, nose. Almost unimaginable. Though the woman's hair was wavy while Pan was straight.
Pan Son had her radiant beauty and so as the woman on the photo. The only difference was the name of the applicant – Aiko Matsui. A chemist graduate. Cum Laude. Pan hadn't finished her college. She was on her second semester of being a freshman, taking Fine Arts.
Aiko's parents – Akiro and Yuki Matsui. The applicant was almost 24 years old, younger by few months than Pan. The application form Aiko had filled in stated that she was single while Pan had been married – to him. She was Pan Son.
He pressed the intercom. "Mika, please send the next applicant." He rested on his chair, tapped his fingers on the armrest and waited for the applicant to come in.
He suddenly felt nervous and he didn't like it. The last time he felt this feeling was when he went back home in LA, finding out that Pan was gone.
The door opened and came in the woman he had been waiting. He gasped when he saw her as if someone had punched his stomach. The applicant said 'Good morning' but he was so occupied on the figure in front of him.
This woman was Pan!
She aged by five years. The model-slim body had been filled with flesh. All in the right places – which he had to admit, became her. But then, he knew she was his wife.
She wore a simple round-necked and sleeveless yellow dress that accentuated the fair skin. The knee-length dress was jersey that hugged her curves lovingly and showed a nice pair of legs that ran forever. Just like Pan's.
On her feet were yellow strappy sandals with 3 inched heels. She was of Pan's height. The resemblance was getting more and more. And he was having a hard time reining his control each and every passing minute.
No two different people were exactly alike, in every physical aspect. But then, 'one had a double somewhere'. Could this woman be Pan's double?
Aiko hemmed and hawed. She was standing just behind the door. He cursed himself for his obvious evaluation on her. He pointed the visitor's chair in front of his desk. "Sit down please." He said in a professional tone, hiding what he was feeling at that very moment.
She strode towards the chair, smooth and relaxed. She placed her hands on her lap and looked at him. They must have been taught that in universities – looked straight into your interviewer's eyes.
And that was when he noticed that the color of her eyes which the camera hadn't caught in the two-by-two photo. Cinnamon brown! Pan's eye color!
Anger surged through him. He wanted to reach for her and shake her. He had to pull all his self-control for it not to show on his face. Because if she were really Pan, why she didn't know him? She would never have the guts to enter Capsule Corporation and of all, to apply for the job, after what she had done? After running away from him, from her family without any trace? And most of all, her ki was of a normal human, not Pan's.
A soft, hesitant smile cracked the woman's face. A smile that held his breath. It was the same smile that Pan wore when she was uncertain. Trunks could feel the tremor within him and he collected himself and looked down into her files. "Aiko Smith Matsui," he started, "Your mother isn't Japanese? Are you living with your parents?" His eyes went back to the woman. He wanted to see her reaction, to confirm on something.
"Her father was half-Japanese and American, Kenji Smith who married my grandmother Miranda Katsumoto." She cut into his thoughts. "But she was born here in Japan." She slightly frowned when she answered his last question. "And yes, Sir. I'm living with my parents."
Her answer disappointed him. He looked again on her files. She had the same husky voice he remembered. The same voice that used to purr whenever they made love. He could feel the heat down his groin just the thought of it.
He shrugged it off and rested his back on his executive chair. He faced her, "So, tell me about yourself Miss Matsui. Start with your parents."
It was a general question to test the ability of the applicants to express their selves. But for him, it was more on personal motive.
"My parents met and married here in Japan. But my family, along with my grandmother, migrated to US two months after I was born. I spent mostly my life in Los Angeles –"
Trunks drew his breath. Aiko stopped and looked at him curiously. He collected himself. This was too much of a coincidence. "Go on, please."
"It was only few months ago when we came back here and stayed for good."
"What prompted your family to come home?"
"Because of my father. He has terminal illness, heart illness. He wanted…" She swallowed. "He wanted to spend the rest of his life here, of whatever is left."
"How is your father now?"
Sadness filled her eyes as she looked down on her lap. "Getting weaker... We knew it already, that it would happen to him anytime soon."
Trunks nodded. "I'm sorry about the condition of your father, Miss Matsui." He said with a trace of sincerity in his voice.
She explained clearly her family, with no hesitation. He was expecting to hear her telling about Gohan and Videl, Goku and Chi-Chi and Goten. Or anything that would relate to them. But instead she told about different names he didn't even know. Perhaps he did truly miss Pan and had mistaken this woman to be her. He couldn't blame himself, the similarities between the two were unfathomable.
"I wasn't supposed to be the one interviewing you," he said after a long moment. "The officer in charge for the interview called in sick. So, I don't really have any idea what to ask you further."
That was absurd. He was able to ask the previous applicants. Though, it was true that he wasn't really the one doing the interviews, he lied about the Vice President for Operations being ill. It was by accident that he went inside Akihiro Matsumoto's office and noticed the pile of resumes in his table. He looked at it, one by one and caught up with Aiko Matsui. And so he offered to interview the first batch of applicants. Aiko Matsui was on the fourth list.
He looked at the woman in front, "You will actually work for research and your immediate boss is –"
"W-what does that mean?" Shocked was obvious on her lovely face. "Am I hired?"
"Oh, well." He looked down on her resume. He knew in his heart that he would hire this woman if only because she was Pan's dead ringer. The good scholastic record was a bonus. It wouldn't be hard to explain why he was hiring her.
"I read your resume, Miss Matsui. And on my opinion, you are qualified for the position of Junior Analyst. We usually give newly graduates a chance." He saw the change of her expressions, from shocked to happiness. The same as Pan.
"You're hired, Miss Matsui." He stood up and offered his hand to shake. "Welcome to Capsule Corporation." It was unfair that he still interviewed other applicants but he wanted to give himself the benefit of the doubt.
Aiko was pleased to shake his hand, smiling sweetly. The smile that gave a sudden pain in his heart, because every move this woman did, it was no different with Pan. Even the facial expressions. Or he was the one who kept on insisting the similarities?
"Thank you, Sir. I'll do my best for the company."
"I'm expecting that." He wanted to hold her hand longer than necessary but that would be foolish. He released her hand and sit again.
"One last thing Miss Matsui," he said. "I just want to ask you a personal question."
Aiko slightly frowned but cleared it immediately. "Okay."
"This may sound odd but I want to hear your answer." He coughed lightly. "Do you still remember where and what were you doing five years ago?" He looked at her intently. He didn't want to miss any facial expression she would make. He didn't know what to think about his question.
She shifted uncomfortably in her chair. She had the look of trying to remember what to answer.
"Well?"
"I… supposed… I was at the university."
"You supposed?"
"Well... yes." She nodded. Her brows furrowed in mild confusion. She swallowed twice. She stopped for a while before she spoke again. "I was studying. Yes, of course."
To convince him and herself at the same time? His question made Aiko Matsui uneasy. Her voice quavered a little. But he wasn't stupid to miss that she was trying to fabricate her answer. She could have added some details to her answer, like important events that happened on that particular period.
This made him think. The only consolation was that she didn't know him. She couldn't fake that. The only way to prove that she was Pan was to ask her to strip. Pan had a pinkish birthmark on the inner part of her right thigh, more of a heart shape. For so many times, his lips trailed that mark which crawled up to her curls and to the most private part of her. He loved the way she had moaned and cried…
He mentally shook his head. Just thinking of it made him feel uncomfortable, he closed his eyes, trying to control himself.
"A-are you all right, Sir?" she asked, a little frown on her forehead.
Trunks released a sharp breath. He was half-aroused actually. And that shocked him even more. His thoughts of Pan and their lovemaking always turned him on. But, for Pete's sake, not in the middle of an interview!
"I am sorry…" He grabbed his handkerchief. "I suddenly felt headache."
"It must be the heat, Sir." She offered an excuse lamely. "I guess I have to go." There was a worried little frown on her forehead as she stood. "Should I ask the secretary when can I start?"
"You can start on Monday, Miss Matsui."
She smiled. "Thank you, Mr. Matsumoto. I promise to do my best and not to disappoint you."
"I'm not Akihiro Matsumoto, Miss Matsui." He corrected her when she was about to open the door. "My name's Trunks. Trunks Briefs."