Time's Value
By: SilverLunarStar
Chapter One: Pan- A Real Conversation
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Disclaimer Throughout the Story: I, Eli, DO NOT OWN Dragon Ball/Z/GT. It all belongs to the respectable Toriyama Akira-sensei. The only things I own that relates to Dragon Ball are a few DVDs.
Author's Note: I have only seen a few episodes of Dragon Ball GT, randomly, so bear with me, onegai! This fanfic is set sometime during GT, in the "Lost" episodes. Take your pick on exactly where. Oh, and I put this on the DBZ category because I'm pretty clueless on what happened in GT so it wouldn't really be fair to put it in the DBGT section.
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"Have any 8's?"
"Go fish; have any J's?"
Briefs Trunks passes a Clubbed Jack to Son Pan. "Have any 6's?"
Pan shakes her head.
This goes on until she is out of cards. She gives him a smug look that would make Grandma Son Chi-Chi proud.
"No fair! This game is no real challenge anyways!" He pouts like a child her age, instead of acting like the twenty-seven year old he is.
An opportunity like this is not missed by Pan. "I just think the old man likes to be treated like a thirteen year old."
His pout turns to a frown. "That was low, Son. Just bring my age into the matter, why don't you?"
She sighs. "Well, there's nothing better to do." She looks out the window to stare at… nothing.
Right now they're in the room she has claimed as 'hers' for a year. Well, for the next ten months now. Looking out into space reminds her how empty she feels herself. She misses her parents and her Grandma's cooking; heck, she even misses going to school and being dragged to the mall by Bra!
"Zeni for your thoughts?" he inquires.
She turns around. "What, can't the President of Capsule Corp. afford more than that?" She sticks her tongue out.
"Watch it or you'll loose that tongue, one of these days," he warns. 'Yup, it will soon be mine, not hers.' He gasps inwardly at his thoughts. 'What was that?' He blushes.
Pan doesn't notice though and reminds him, "Too bad Giru ate the scissors or else it'd be sooner, wouldn't it?" Pausing, she stares at the cards. "I miss my parents," she finally admits.
"It's normal for a girl your age to miss her parents." He winces at the tone in his voice.
Pan's eyes flame. "See? This is why I didn't want to tell you! I knew you'd treat me like some child." Her ki starts to rise.
"Pan, Pan that's not what I meant. I miss my parents too."
Her ki quickly drops in astonishment. She looks at him as if deciding whether or not to believe him.
"I miss hearing my mom and dad fight, I miss arguing with Bra, I even miss hearing her whine and talk about her love life. But, let me ask you this: Do you feel lonely out here?"
The question startles her and she ponders over it. It's true that she misses her family, but she can't exactly say that she's lonely. She has Trunks and Grandpa Son Goku, even though she hasn't spent time with either of them for a long time. That's the problem. She is to spend time with two people she's kept in her heart all her life, one of whom she's related to, yet she hardly knows them. Realizing this, she tells Trunks so.
Trunks is surprised. As he listens to her explanation, he thinks, 'Pan-chan has really grown up, Sure, she still acts a bit immature, but that's normal. I've known her since she was born, have baby-sat her, and sparred with her, yet I don't really know her. I haven't for years. I don't know her likes, dislikes, favorite color, food, etc. anymore…' This really depresses him. "Pan?" he softly says, once she is done.
"Hai?"
"Gomen nasai."
"Nani?!" Pan is very confused. 'What is he apologizing for? It's not his fault, necessarily.' She tells him this and adds, "It's just that we haven't really hung out since I was eight and I haven't seen ojii-san for nine years. When I finally do, he's… well he's like a ten year old!"
"Well, if you think about it, he's always had the mentality of one." He grins teasingly. She laughs, which makes him smile, glad that he's able to still do that. 'This is going to change. We're going to change.' "Oi Pan-chan, want to learn how to play poker?"
Her eyes widen. "Honto ne?" She has always wanted to learn how to play poker, ever since she was eight, in fact.
Flashback
Trunks and her Uncle, Son Goten, were in Capsule Corp. compound's living room, playing cards. They were staring each other down.
Goten sighed. "I fold."
Trunks grinned and showed him his cards.
The black haired male gapped. "Nani?! You didn't have anything but three of kind with 2's?" He groaned, letting his head fall on the table.
The lavender haired male half shrugged, half winced, and collected the zeni that's in the middle of both of them. "Don't break the table," he chided.
"It's not fair; you're a multi-billionaire, why do you insist on exploiting me?"
"I'm not the one who comes over and begs to play."
"Not my fault I don't know how to keep a stone-cold expression. You're just like-"
"Veggie-chan!" they heard a childish voice squeal out.
The two best friends stopped arguing and turned around to quite a sight.
Eight year old Pan was clinging to Vegeta's neck, half choking him.
Not that he'll ever show any weakness, but, he was struggling to remove her vice grip from him. He has to breathe after all. "What are you doing here brat? Let go of me!"
"Uncle Goten wanted to play with Trunks so he brought me to play with Bra, but she wants to have a tea party with dolls. I thought they were going to spar, but no they're playing card games with money instead, and they won't even teach me how to play! I bet they're just afraid that I'll beat them. Anyways, I'm mad at them, so I don't really care what they do anymore. I want to spar. Onegai, Vegeta-sama, onegai spar with me?" she begged, letting go of him once she finished ranting, so she could face him with pleading puppy-eyes.
"Well at least someone recognizes the importance of training-"
Her eyes brightened.
"-but I won't reduce myself by sparring with Kakarrot's little grand-brat." With that he walked towards the Gravity Chamber.
Pan went limp, staring at the ground, her shoulders shaking. Her ki slowly started to increase.
Goten got up and went to his niece but was pushed back rather suddenly by a spark of her overflowing ki. He looked up, dazed. He had smashed right into a wall.
"Whoa." Trunks looked just as shocked. "Pan-chan?" he said, hesitantly.
She looked up, indigo eyes blazing. "Don't talk to me! Any of you! You don't care about me, I hate you all." Suddenly, her aura turned gold and her hair started fading to a fair color. She screamed and floated above ground as her hair turned practically white. This was too much for the young, female Saiyan, as she hasn't been trained enough, so her ki quickly diminished and she fell.
Appearing practically out of no where, Vegeta was next to her in an instant, picking the demi-Saiyan child up before she hit the ground. "Brat, go find your mother and bring her to the infirmary." He started going up the stairs to the South Wing, but felt that his baka son hadn't moved. He turned around, a bit surprised that the boy's eyes were flashing to a dark shade of cobalt instead of their normal turquoise, his hair turning blonde, and he was clenching and unclenching his fists. His ki had not risen, but his power had doubled, the father could tell. This only happened automatically when instincts kicked in. Knowing better than to pick a fight or even argue with a Saiyan in this condition, halfling or not, he deposited the girl into his arms and requested, "Take the girl then, I'll go look for the onna." With that, he scanned for his mate's insignificant ki.
Pan snuggled closer to Trunks as he took her to the Recovery Room, where she spent a couple of hours resting. By the time she woke up, she didn't remember getting mad. All she knew was, from that day forward, Trunk started to distance himself a little more each day, until he barely spared her an hour by the time she reached twelve.
End of Flashback
'I must have said or done something real horrible if he ended up practically ignoring me. I mean, the conversation we had before coming here had been the longest one we'd had in a long time.'
"Hello, Trunks to Pan, come in Pan, do you copy?"
She instinctively grabs the hand waving in front of her, blinking repeatedly until she stares into a pair of worried azure eyes. "Oh, sorry, must have blanked out for a second there." She laughs nervously, bringing a hand to the back of her head, rubbing it sheepishly.
"A second? Try ten minutes. You were like on a whole other planet, in a completely different time!" he jokes, implying the Mirai time and the fact that they're in space.
"Yeah, try plant Earth, five years ago," she mumbles.
"What was that?"
"Nandemonai!" she exclaims. "So, how about them poker rules?"
He smiles at her obvious change of subject. Thanks to his Saiyan ears, he knows exactly what she said. He remembers that day as if it happened yesterday because he's had to deal with the consequences ever since.
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It only takes fifteen minutes to explain the rules to Pan before they begin their first game.
An hour later, Trunks owes Pan a whole year of lunch, twice per week, during his and her break.
Pan only owes him a week of doing his share of chores. The bad thing about Pan's winnings is that she has to wait until after they collect the Black Star Dragon Balls, but that's okay. She has his company now and she'll have it for an additional year too. She has barely seen him throughout last year, half the year before that and three months of this year, in other words, a year and nine months. A few minutes later, she finally yawns. "I'm tired." Her eyes start drooping.
Trunks smiles gently. "I'll let you get ready for bed, then."
Pan nods, standing up go to the bathroom. After brushing her teeth and washing her face, she heads back to her room. Digging up a new set of pajamas from her bag, she changes and snuggles under her covers. Hearing a knock, she mumbles, "Come in."
"Giru says we won't be within close range to any planets until the day after tomorrow," Trunks explains when he opens the door, standing at the doorway.
Pan sighs deeply. She has been hoping for some action.
Pushing himself from the entryway, he sits at the edge of the middle of her bed. Looking into her onyx eyes, he runs a hand through her now bandana-less hair. "Don't worry; I'm sure we can find something else to do tomorrow." He smirks.
Seeing the challenge in his eyes, she smirks back and nods.
His heart pounds with that smirk and, without thinking, he leans in, kissing her on the corner of her lips.
She looks up at him shocked, but seeing his smile calms her down. Returning the grin, she boldly plants her lips onto his before lying back down. "Oyasumi nasai Trunks-kun," comes her muffled voice from underneath the covers.
He is surprised by her daring move and his cheeks flush; not that she notices. "O-oyasumi Pan-chan." His missing weight is very much noticed from the bed. He whispers, before completely shutting the door, "Sweet dreams."
Pan's head peeks out and she smiles a Son smile. Shutting her eyes, she is overwhelmed by a deep and fit sleep, filled with plenty of sweet dreams.
To Be Continued
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Well, that's Pan's chapter, next will be Trunks. We'll find out exactly why he started avoiding her after she turned twelve.
Take care!
Review onegai!
As my usual policy for continuous fics that I've finished, like this one, I update once a week, as long as I get five reviews.
Eli