Chapter 7: Chapter 7
"You didn't come home," a voice called. Pan arched a brow. "I didn't feel like coming home," she groused. She looked away from the computer screen in front of her and looked back at Trunks. He wouldn't admit to her that he had felt bad for his outburst at the café and had gone to her home to wait for her to arrive. When she didn't he knew she had gone back to work. Pan decided to play his game, tit for tat. "You left me at the café," she commented. He groused out, "Of course I did you were reminding me of how I failed you." Her eyes widened, but she hid that from him by going back to focus on her work. "You did not fail me," she said softly as she looked over a folder.
He watched her frown over it and her hand touched a screen below her. "Najin! Get in here!" she ordered. Her firm voice caught him off guard, but he could hear feet scrambling and the lab door opened, revealing the young man in his lab coat. Trunks felt his upper lip curl, he didn't like the young man and his close relation to Pan. "Y-yes Pan?" he called. She looked at him from the folder, snapping it shut. He came up to her as she held the folder out to him. "You need to review this, the calculations are a bit off, only by half a degree. But it needs to be rewritten before you submit is to Ms. Briefs."
Najin was taller than her, with soft red hair and rather tanned skin. He had freckles that decorated his face and as he thought he pulled his hands from his lab coat. Najin sighed and said, "Really?" He took the folder from her and laid it out on the table before them. He spread out the various papers and his hands cupped his chin as he continued to look through the various formulas and equations. Trunks stepped up and saw Najin's furrowed brow deepen before Trunks pointed at one formula, towards the end of the work. "Here," he said. "You did not switch your positive to a negative, a small error." Najin's eyes widened and his head rose to finally look at Trunks. Trunks saw blue eyes staring back at him until Najin pushed his glasses back up onto his face. His brow arched and he asked, "Pan when did he become the expert here?" Trunks felt his eyes widen at the informal call of Pan's name. She smiled for him. "Najin," she began until Trunks said, "I own this company, why wouldn't I be an expert?" he challenged. Najin arched a brow but was still unsurprised. And then Najin stepped away and began stacking his work back into the folder. "I will make sure to look over these this evening," he announced.
He walked to her and Trunks felt his chest tighten as Najin caught Pan's arm and pressed his fingers into her wrist, while his other hand came up and touched her forehead. Pan blushed madly, she tried stepping away, but Najin said, "Your pulse is a little elevated today and your face feels clammy. I would advise actually do what you said you would and go home." And with that he let her go and left. Pan gulped as Trunks suddenly stood before her, his eyes curious and a little wide with jealousy. He stepped closer to her and without a word he eased over and looked directly into her face. She could clearly see the scar that scraped down his face and she gulped. "What?" He leaned closer and she felt uncomfortable underneath his intense gaze. But Najin interrupted them once more. "Mr. Briefs?" Trunks saw her head rise and she leaned over to look around Trunks. "Yes?" he groused as he looked at the young man over his shoulder. Najin gulped at the dark look in his eyes and Najin's confident attitude waned as he merely said, "Thank you." Trunks straightened himself and looked back at Pan as Najin left once more.
Trunks eyed her and she laughed nervously. "Pan, who was that man?" he asked carefully and Pan looked over the papers and without missing a beat she said, "You've met him before." Trunks arched a brow and eased over to a stool, taking a seat to watch her as she worked once more. So he restated his question, "Who is he to you?" She felt like he was critiquing her like a child. "Your mother hired him to be my assistant," she said properly. "Why did he check your vitals?" he said and she responded truthfully. "I have had health issues after our run-in with Merona," she said. He leaned back and asked, "Why did Merona settle for me?" Pan's eyes rose to look at him and she rose from her seat and took a stance before him. Her hand came out and she lifted his hand into hers. "Because she wanted to breed me," she said softly. "And she settled for you because she knew she could hurt me by taking you. She also knew she could use you as she wished, just like she had when we first met her. I'm sure you endured many of her dabblings that she calls experiments."
Her other hand came up and touched his wrist, just where his pulse lay and she noted, "You are so calm. I wonder what she did to you to make you seem so angry and yet so numb all at the same time." He slipped his hand away from her and she laughed lightly. "You want so badly to get close to me again, but you can't, can you? Physically you can, but you can't open up to me," she asked. He merely stared at her and she nodded. "You don't know how to act around us anymore, it must be difficult holding up a façade here and with your family," she said solemnly.
She turned away and went dead still when his arm snaked up around her and his hand cupped her throat. "And what if I snapped?" he whispered lightly. His fingers pressed into the thin flesh at her neck and Pan took in a soft breath and leaned back against him. "Do you think you're alone? Hiding from everyone? Did you forget I was with you when she used us?" His eyes were hard and then suddenly they softened, she said, "I can't imagine what you went through, but please try to remember I was once there for you." She turned in his arms and her arms rose to curl around his lean waist and she held onto him. She faltered in her serious tone as tears threatened to fall. "Do you know how long I've waited just to do this again?" she whispered. He sighed and she said, "Just to hold onto you like this again?" He pulled away from her, he was leaving her. Her hand snapped out and caught his. "Come home with me," he said before she could say anything else. Pan's eyes widened. "Wha-"
"Mother said she kept up with my home," he said. She blushed madly, much like she would have done years before. She had never been to his home. Even before he left he was a very private person. She slowly nodded. "Okay."
Pan stepped into the house and looked around his house and he stood at the end of the hallway and waited for her, "What are you doing?" he questioned. "I'm just looking around, I've actually never been here," she commented. Her eyes met his then and his own narrowed. "Get over here," he ordered and she sighed before she arched a brow and stayed put.
His heart stopped at her next question. "Why didn't you come home sooner?" she asked and he finally walked back to her, he lied, but curled his arms up around her shoulders. "Because I had to make sure I had full control over myself," he growled as he caught her hand and she easily slipped away from him. He whipped around to face her, frustrated before he paused seeing her slip out of her jacket and hang it up and slip out of her shoes. He didn't want her doing that, he didn't want her undressing he wanted to do that, and he caught her shoulder and swung her around backing her into the nearest vertical surface and kissed her. She stiffened and his hands kept her to him when she tried to pull away. "Trunks," she said softly. His hand tightened into a hard fist and rested against the wall just next to her head. Her eyes rose to look at him and she said, "I'm sorry. My body it...well," she trailed off. He growled and turned away before she caught his ponytail and pulled.
"Trunks," she whispered, he let out a low growl when she tugged on his hair, "What can I do for you?" His frustration melted and he sighed as she curled her arms around his lean waist. He touched his hands to cover hers and his lips did he want? He wanted to pound into her, to feel her around him once more like he had had her before he was taken. He wanted to lose himself in pleasure with her, but his urges were just reminders of when Merona would greet him late into the evening and take what she wanted from him. What did he need from Pan? He needed to remember what it was like to be with her. "I want you to stay the night," he whispered roughly and her eyes widened, "What?"
"You heard me," he growled as he turned in her arms and rested his chin on her shoulder, "I want you to stay here, with me and be here tomorrow morning." She pulled away from him, her hands rested on his lean hips and she looked at him. "I have work tomorrow," she reasoned and he shook his head, "I told mom you weren't coming in." And her jaw fell open as she nervously laughed and pushed him back, "You didn't!" she exclaimed and he pulled her back against him, "I did," he whispered. "I have never ever missed a day of work in my entire life!" she stated menacingly and Trunks shrugged. "So what? What were you saving all those sick days for anyways?" He then arched a brow, "What do you do anyways that's so important to my mom?" She pouted at him and shook her head, "You know exactly what I do for her."
He held her against him and he said softly, "Let's pretend, that I never left." Her eyes widened and she turned to look at him. "Trunks-" she began and he eased his face into the crook of her neck. "No funny business, I just want to sleep next to you, I want to remember what it was like when I was home," he admitted softly. She merely sighed, "Okay." She could pretend, she could pretend nothing was wrong with her. That he had never left and that she could be everything he wanted, and everything he needed. He lifted her up into his arms and walked them slowly to his back bedroom and Pan blushed at the sight of the enormous bed in the room. "How in the world did they fit this bed in here?" she exclaimed. "They built the room around it," he replied. He took her to the side of the bed and she bashfully said, "I don't have any pajamas here."
"No worries, we can split them," he reasoned. Her brow furrowed as he laid her out and then walked to a chest of drawers at the edge of the bed and he pulled out a set of linen pajamas. "You can have the top," he reasoned and she felt a small smile curl her lips. The room was dark besides the moonlight that gently lit the room and he leaned in and kissed the top of her head, as he handed her the shirt. She lifted herself up and awkwardly walked to the bathroom to change. It was an action that did not go unnoticed by him, but he allowed her, her privacy. If she were bashful or embarrassed by being seen by him it was really no surprise. He assumed she had not been looked upon by a man since he was taken. He undressed and lifted himself into the linen pants and noted that they felt odd against his skin because he was used to sleeping in far less than the thin fabric. The bathroom door opened and Pan showed herself, and he felt, for the first time in a long time, laughter well out of him. She looked like a child in an oversized shirt. She was so very petite.
Her blush disappeared when she heard his laughter and she walked over to him as he sat upon the edge of the bed. She stood between his knees and she leaned in and kissed his forehead. "I have missed that laughter," she said and he nodded. "I didn't think I could laugh anymore," he reasoned. He curled his arms around her and pulled her into the bed. She folded into him and he pulled the blankets on top of them and then, for the first time in many moons, he felt sleep overtake him. And he slept with her next to him, and he slept soundly. She slept deeply and wonderfully without the terror of a nightmare.
