Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or anything that goes with them.
Pan slowly swam out of the darkness of her despair, closing the mental doors as she came back to herself. She dimly realized that the heartrending sobs had stopped quite some time ago while she was resting against someone's chest with their arms around her. She slowly opened her eyes, feeling another slow tear leak out to splash the tanned flesh beneath. Only one person can make her feel like this, and she hated him. Roughly shoving herself out of his arms, Pan glared at Trunks with something all most like hate burning in her eyes.
The worry in Trunks's eyes slowly bled out to be replaced with indifference. Standing up carefully, the demi-Saiyan is regal in his rage as he gives Pan a mocking bow. "Forgive me, madam. I had thought that you were in need of comfort. My apologies." Straightening himself, he strode silently out of the room, closing the door with that same careful anger.
Shaking, Pan looked at herself in the mirror. She began to wipe her face clean, pushing away the memories that threaten to overwhelm her. Knowing Trunks is in his room down the hall helps her regain her composure faster as she knows he'll burst into the room again if she makes even the tiniest sound of distress.
"Damn Saiyan hearing." She mutters to herself as she tucks away the few stray hairs.
Deciding this is a good as it gets for her, Pan exits the room, returning to the party. Her shoulders visibly sag when she sees that her grandmother is no longer passing for sober, in any sense of the word.
Giving herself another mental shake, she plasters a fake smile on her face when she notices her father's close scrutiny. Videl is giving Pan a death glare, silently motioning for her daughter to go over and talk to Chichi. Pan ignores her mother, and joins the other group of women, noticing that Bulma has not made an appearance yet. Pan listens to the conversation for a moment, before regretting her choice. Marron is prattling on about the newest club in town, with Bra agreeing on how hot it is. Paris is putting her two cents into the conversation whenever she can, and Pan knows she's the odd one out.
Pan couldn't help but flinch as a hand descended on her shoulder.
"Pan, I think you're mother wants you to go talk to your grandmother." Pan plastered a fake smile on her face as she turned and stared into her father's cold obsidian orbs.
"Gee daddy, I thought you didn't want me to associate with drunks?" As soon as the words had left her mouth, she regretted them. Gohan's eyes went from cold to rage in a second. Before she could brace herself, the back of his hand connected with her cheek. Pan fell to the ground, her cheek numb from the blow while her mouth and nose bled. She propped herself on an arm, starring at the ground while listening to the dull roar in her ears. She knew her father was screaming at her, she just wasn't sure what he was saying. Counting to ten mentally she slowly picked herself up off of the ground.
Not bothering to wipe the blood off of her face, she turned to her parents who were still screaming. Her eyes shifted to Goten who was holding the now weeping Chichi; everyone else seemed to be frozen. Pan felt the air shift behind her as several people stepped up. Gohan froze in mid-rant as he realized what he had done, and in front of whom.
"You need to leave." Bulma's icy voice caused several of the people to flinch while Gohan directed his fury to her for a moment. Glancing back, Pan cracked a crooked smile as Bra and Vegeta stepped up behind Bulma, showing who they stood by. Gohan simply stared at them for a moment before spinning on his heel. Videl grabbed Pan's arm roughly, jerking her daughter into motion.
"Come along Pan." Videl nodded her head to the Briefs before following her husband. 'Good going kid, now you're gonna get it when you get home too.' Had Pan glanced over her shoulder, she would've seen three pair of blue eyes casting death over Gohan and Videl.
The slap in the face was expected. Pan simply starred at her mother as she paced in front of her. Sitting primly down on the couch, she simply followed Videl with her eyes while listening to her rave like a lunatic with half of her mind.
"Do you have any idea how badly you embarrassed me today?"
'I embarrassed you?'
"And to think, I was going to try to get you a job with your father!"
'Yeah, bet he'd love that. I'd keep his secretary from sucking him off each day.' "Pan! Are you even listening to me?" Pan raised her eyes to her mother's dark blue ones, giving a small smile.
"No." Videl gave a small scream of frustration before slapping her across the face again. Pan kept the smile on her face, barely feeling it as Videl glared at her. Her mother gave a low growl, then punched her. Pausing for a moment, the punches soon became faster and harder, until there was a sight blur to her mother's small fists. Pan sat their stoically through the whole thing, knowing if she so much as twitched, her father would come and help.
Falling into her bed with a small groan, she felt all the aches and pains from the day rush up to greet her. Her mother had beat on her for about an hour or so, leaving her with bruises. Most of them would fade while she slept, but her father had decided to take her out for some…sparring.
'Sparring my ass, he should've just said he was gonna finish the beating.' Pan smiled, instantly regretting it as her lip cracked and bled. 'At least it wasn't as bad as usual…Must be because he all most had people stand up to him today.' Pan debated on calling her boyfriend, like she'd promised, but she had something much more important to do; sleep.
"Tomorrow…Tomorrow will be the day…Then everything will change." Getting up slowly, she shuffled over to her dresser, changing into her pajamas. Switching off the light, she nestled into a cocoon of blankets.
"I hope," was all she muttered before passing out into a dreamless sleep. A lithe shape rose up from the shadows of a tree outside her window. It peered through the glass, taking stock of the unconscious girl before retiring to its own home.
Yeah, another revised chapter. Do the page breaks help at all? Let me know please.
Reviews are most welcome!