I'm back! Sorry about that two week wait, but I like I said, I was sick. Better late than never, though, right? I'm not 100%, but I'm definitely better than I was last week. Ugh…last week was terrible. I don't want to gross ya'll out, but I threw up a couple times & I had no idea why. It didn't feel like the flu. No more talk about that, though. Let's talk about the chapter instead. There will be some mature content about halfway through it & until the end pretty much. Ya'll knew what you were getting into when you started reading this story, but still, if it offends you, skip this chapter or at least the second half of it. For the rest of you, enjoy ;)

To LVR4Trunks-n-Vegeta: You really do want to see Trunks get kicked in the balls, don't you? Haha. He does deserve it. Maybe I'll make it happen. He has his reasons for everything, though, I swear. I can't promise you that his reasons are unselfish or justifiable, but still, he has them. Oh, poor Marron…we'll get to her next chapter, I think. It's all about Pan & Trunks this chapter ;)

To SERLee: I didn't mean to make you cry! I'm sorry. I guess it's a good thing that my writing got to you, but I'm still sorry. Haha. Trunks is a frisky bastard, isn't he? He was trying to make her uncomfortable & it worked. Glad you enjoyed the chapter, hon :)

To GVLuver: I'm so happy you like it so far. I'll try not to disappoint :)

To MRMenaMRM: Can I just say that getting a review from an author who's story you're reading is incredibly flattering & nerve wracking. Haha. It's silly, I know, but I love Vanishing Romance, so it's really cool that an author I like is reading my story.

Thank you for your condolences. My uncle is definitely devastated over the loss. Aiden's mother, too, but I have less sympathy for her; she refused to take him to the hospital when he was so sick. Still, it can't be easy for either of them.

On a happier note, thank you so much for your review. I like that you can relate to my story. Pan's miserable now, but when you're at the bottom, the only place left to go is up, right? Things will definitely get better…eventually ;)

To Aaliyah Rose 13: I'm glad you're intrigued. I'm also happy that I was able to put together something you haven't seen done a hundred times. I'll try to keep you interested :) Thank you for the reviews btw!

To NR: I do write my chapters on my phone. I do all my writing at night & the light from my laptop keeps my boyfriend up & I hate typing on my tablet. I guess I could go sit on the couch, but I'm so comfy in my bed. Haha. Thank you for being so understanding about my cold. You had it worse with the flu. I hope you're back to normal. It's been a few weeks, so you must be. Still, the flu is terrible & I'm sorry you had to deal with it. I'm all about flu shots. Haha. Thanks again for the sweet review :)

To lordshuvra: I'm feeling a lot better, thanks, hon. Don't feel too bad for Pan. She'll find her happy ending eventually :)

Chapter Seven: Hot n' Cold

Pan was grateful to be alone in the restaurant bathroom; she didn't need anyone eavesdropping on her emotional breakdown. Placing her hands on the sink, she leaned forward and stared at her reflection in the mirror. A couple tears had escaped, creating wet trails down her cheeks. She wasn't crying because she was going to miss Paul, though; she was crying because she was going to miss the feeling he gave her, the peace.

"You really are a selfish bitch, Pan Son," she told her reflection.

"Now, I wouldn't go that far."

Pan whirled around to find Trunks standing behind her; she hadn't even heard him come in. "What're you doing in here?" she scolded. "This is the girl's bathroom, Trunks. Long purple hair or not, you're still a boy."

"Geez, I take it back; you can be a little bitchy," he teased her.

She sighed tiredly, emotionally drained. "Trunks, please, not now. I don't have the energy to do this right now. Just go." Bowing her head, she turned back to the mirror.

Pan heard Trunks approach her, his footsteps echoing off the walls of the bathroom. She felt him place his hands on her shoulders and gently turn her back around to face him; she kept her head down. He tucked a finger under her chin and tilted her head up so that her eyes were on his. Laying his hand on her cheek, he used the pad of his thumb to wipe away the tears that had fallen.

"I always hated it when you cried," he told her quietly. "I still do."

She scoffed. "Yeah, right. If that were true, you wouldn't have been so mean to me all these years. You wouldn't have made me cry."

"That doesn't mean I liked it," he claimed. "Remember a few months ago at the wedding when you caught me staring at you while you were crying?"

"Of course I do," she responded. "You can be such a creep sometimes, Brief."

"I wasn't trying to be creepy," he chuckled. "I was just thinking."

"About what? Something dickish to say?"

"Not exactly. I was trying to decide if I should walk away or comfort you like I used to when you would get hurt while we sparred. Obviously, I picked the former. I thought it was best to keep my distance."

"I guess a weeping girl isn't worth your time," she snarled.

Rolling his eyes, he said, "My point is that I don't like seeing you cry. I didn't like it that day and I don't like it now. I couldn't stay away this time, though."

"If you don't like it, then why the hell did you always make me cry? Why do you still do it?" Pan snapped.

"It's complicated," he replied.

"Complicated?" she repeated. "God, you're the most confusing person I've ever met." She shoved him away from her, putting some space between them. His proximity and touch threatened to break her further. Glaring at him, she asked again, "Why are you in here, Trunks? Shouldn't you be out there celebrating? This is what you wanted after all. Paul and I are done. If you're here to gloat, don't; just leave me alone."

"It is what I wanted," Trunks agreed, "but I'm not here to gloat."

"Right," she scoffed again and laughed humorlessly. "Why else would you have followed me into the women's restroom?"

"I was worried about you," he said as if it were obvious.

"I don't believe that for a second. You've never cared before and I doubt you care now. Like I said, this is what you wanted. Wish granted. Paul will be gone soon and then you can start thinking of more ways to torment me."

"I do care, Pan," he corrected her. "Yes, I wanted you two apart, but I didn't expect you to take it so hard. I honestly didn't think you loved him or anything. Guess I was wrong."

"I don't love him," Pan snapped. "Our relationship is…complicated."

"Complicated how?" inquired Trunks.

"I'm not going to open up to you of all people, Trunks," she spat. "You wouldn't understand anyway. I doubt that any of your relationships lasted longer than a fuck or two."

"Well, you're not wrong," the older Saiyan smirked.

Pan rolled her eyes, disgusted. "Could you at least pretend not to be such a man whore?"

"You're the one who brought it up," he said. "I wasn't about to deny it. Oh, and for your information, I have been in love once."

Her eyebrows shot up. "You have? With who?"

"I don't think so, Son. That's all you're getting from me," he said with a shake of his head. "Don't try to change the subject to my love life; we were talking about yours."

"I told you I'm not going to talk to you about it," Pan sigh, exasperated.

Trunks was silent as he stared at her contemplatively. Pan turned back to the mirror, keeping an eye on his reflection out of the corner of her eye as she tried to fix her smeared make up. After several long, awkward moments, he finally said, "I didn't want you and that kid to break up because I wanted to hurt you, you know."

The black-haired girl's eyes connected with his in the mirror and she watched him cautiously as he approached her again. "Why then?"

"He doesn't deserve you," he told her simply. "No one does."

Pan's eyes narrowed. "You think I'm so bad that no man deserves someone like me? Thanks, asshole. You sure know how to cheer a girl up."

"What?" She saw his brow furrow in the mirror. "I mean the opposite, Pan. You're too good for him, for any man."

Her narrowed eyes widened in surprise. That was his reason for wanting them apart? Why did he feel that way? He hated her…didn't he? Pan continued to stare at his reflection while she pondered his words, their meaning and if he truly meant them. For all she knew, it could've been another joke; she wasn't prepared to rule out the possibility.

Before she knew it, Trunks was standing directly behind her. She jumped when she felt him lay his hands on her hips. "Trunks? What're you doing?"

He lowered his head and buried his face in the crook of her neck, inhaling deeply. He held her gaze as he replied, "What I've wanted to do all night." He inhaled again. "You smell so good. You've no idea how hard it was sitting so close to you. You were making my mouth water more than the food was."

"I'm not even wearing perfume," Pan said through trembling lips. Having him so close to her, touching her, caused every rational thought to leave her mind. She forgot what an asshole he was, that they were step siblings, and that they were in a public bathroom. Her primal urges and long suppressed desires began to take over and she leaned back into him. His arms encircled her waist, pulling her tighter against him as his tongue darted out to taste her.

"So good," he half-groaned, his eyes temporarily closing. She assumed her "smell" was a Saiyan thing & only another Saiyan would react so strongly to it. When his eyes opened again, Pan noticed that they had darkened with obvious desire, as had her own. "God, I can't do this anymore."

"Can't do what anymore?" Pan whispered.

So fast it made her slightly dizzy, Trunks spun her around, so that she was once again facing him. He lowered his head, his mouth slowly descending towards hers. Pan's heart beat rapidly in her chest as he closed the distance between them. When his lips were only centimeters away from hers, he stopped, his blue eyes staring intensely into her dark ones.

"Pan, I-" His head suddenly jerked to the side in the direction of the bathroom door, the sound of approaching laughter catching his attention & cutting him off. It sounded like female laughter and there was only one place they could be going. "Shit," growled Trunks.

"What're we going to do?" Pan asked, panicked. She didn't know what would happen if she got caught in the women's restroom with a boy, but she didn't want to find out.

"In here." Trunks grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the stall farthest away from the door. If Pan's head wasn't so foggy with arousal, she would have known that hiding in a stall was the obvious answer to their problem. Pushing her in before him, Trunks managed to close and lock the door right as the one to the bathroom creaked open. The laughter of the girls who entered echoed loudly through the room.

"God, this heat is ruining my make up," one said.

"Totally," another replied. "There's no point wearing it if you're just going to sweat it off."

"At least I'll look good for a minute or two before it does. Let me fix it and then we can get the hell out of here and go somewhere with decent air conditioning," the first girl told the other.

Pan heard the faucet turn on and the sound of water running. She released the breath she had been holding and turned to look at Trunks, who was already staring at her. He raised his index finger to his lips, warning her to be quiet. Then he pushed her backward until her back hit the cool tile of the wall. He pressed his hard body against her as he cupped her face and guided her lips to his.

It felt like an eternity, but his lips finally brushed against hers, sending a shiver down her spine. His kiss started off slow & soft, the complete opposite of their first kiss, which was hungry and aggressive. It felt more intimate, almost like he was savoring it. He soon became desperate for more, though. His lips quickly became more demanding, his tongue forcing its way into her willing mouth. When his tongue brushed against hers for the first time, she couldn't stop the small moan that escaped, which drew the attention of the girls Pan had almost forgotten were in the room with them.

"Hello?" the first girl's voice called out. "Is everything okay?"

Trunks' mouth detached from hers, trailing kisses down her jaw and neck, leaving Pan free to answer. "Everything's fine," she replied, trying to calm her erratic breathing. "Just really bad cramps."

"Been there," the girl sympathized. "I hope you feel better."

"Thanks," Pan gasped out as Trunks nibbled on her neck. She bit her lip to stop another moan from escaping.

A few seconds later, the bathroom door opened again and she heard the girls leave. Reaching down, she pulled Trunks' face back up to hers and reclaimed his lips. She brought her leg up and wrapped it around his thigh, allowing him to grind the hardness between his legs against her.

Taking advantage of their new-found privacy, he whispered between kisses, "I can't fucking stop thinking about you, Panny." Kiss. "Seeing you with someone else-" kiss "-it was driving me crazy." Kiss. "I wanted to be the one taking you out tonight."

Pan was delirious with lust, but she still had enough brain power left to remember how he had acted earlier that night when he first met Paul. If what Trunks had just said was true, then that meant her suspicions were correct; he was jealous of Paul, which had to mean he wanted her.

Before she could delve deeper into her revelation, she felt Trunks' hands pushing again at the hem of her dress, forcing all coherent thought out of her head. Unlike earlier, though, when he was trying to make her uncomfortable during dinner by doing the same thing, his hands were now driven by lust and need. He continued to kiss her deeply and hungrily as his hands slid up her legs with purpose.

Her weak knees almost gave out completely when he finally reached his destination, massaging her mound through her underwear with his large palm. She had never been touched by a man that way before and the pleasure racing through her was overwhelming to say the least.

Powerless to resist him, Pan felt him pull her panties to the side, his finger slipping easily inside her wet core. When his thumb began rubbing gentle circles on her clitoris and a second finger entered her, she broke the kiss to moan loudly, her hands grasping his strong biceps to keep herself standing.

Trunks smirked at the sound. "Quiet, Panny. You're going to get us caught."

Pan could only nod as she felt an orgasm beginning to build, the light contractions becoming stronger and sweeter with each passing second. Trunks' fingers slid in and out of her, his thumb swirling faster than before and with the perfect amount of pressure. The pleasure deep within her continued to build and build until finally, she exploded.

"Oh, God," She bit her lip & whimpered, arching her pelvis against his hand and gripping his biceps as wave after wave of pleasure coursed through her. The familiar fireworks she saw when they first kissed burst behind her closed eyes and the electric feeling she was beginning to associate with him frayed every one of her nerve endings.

"That's it," Trunks muttered, letting her ride out her release while massaging her with his palm again.

They were both breathing hard when she came down from her high, her from the powerful climax she had just experienced and him from his pent up desire.

"We should get out of here," she said once her breathing had returned to normal. "Before someone else comes in."

Trunks stared at her for a moment, his fiery eyes gorgeous & captivating, before leaning down and kissing her again, his lips forceful and desperate. His hand ran through her long black hair, knotting behind her ear. He bit and sucked on her bottom lip before breaking the kiss and resting his forehead against hers.

"I fucking need you," he panted. "Right the fuck now."

"We can't," Pan whispered. Shame was already starting to simmer in her gut, making her feel sick. She couldn't believe she had let him do that to her, in a bathroom stall no less. They were both here on dates with other people, not to mention they were also step siblings. Oh, God, what would my dad think if he found out what I had done?

"You're right," Trunks told her, looking around as if just now realizing where they were. "We should go home. Our parents & Bulla should be gone, so we'll have plenty of privacy."

Our parents. That only made her shame and guilt worsen. She loved Trunks and she would've gone home with him in a heartbeat; but they shared said home with his mother and her father, parents they also shared now. It didn't matter that they weren't home. How could she do something she knew they would disapprove of under their roof? If she didn't think it would hurt her father, she would take Trunks up on his offer, but she knew it would and she didn't want to be responsible for hurting her only remaining parent.

Also, she didn't completely trust Trunks' intentions. She didn't know exactly how he felt about her and she didn't know that he wouldn't leave her the next morning; she couldn't handle it if he did. His words sounded nice and genuine, but words could be deceiving. It was hard for her to trust someone who had already caused her so much pain. He may say he wanted her, needed her, but who's to say he wasn't lying & if he wasn't, who's to say he'd still want her once he had her once. Plus, he was with Marron, who was crazy about him. She didn't want to gamble with her friend's heart or her own. There was too much uncertainty, too much risk of her heart getting broken.

"No, Trunks," Pan whispered, pushing him away. "We can't do this, we can't go any further. We've already done more than we should have."

"What do you mean?"

"You're my stepbrother now. We can't do stuff like that with each other. No matter how much we want to. You said so yourself after we kissed at the wedding."

"I changed my mind, Pan," he said. "I don't want to stay away from you anymore. It's killing me."

She looked into his eyes and saw sincerity there. It only hurt her more, though, to think he actually did want her, but that she couldn't be with him without hurting those closest to her. Pan squeezed her eyes shut tightly, trying to keep her tears at bay. "You're so hot and cold, Trunks. I don't know which side of you is the real one. Besides, what about our parents? They're married, remember?"

"Screw them," Trunks declared. "Why should their marriage dictate how we live our lives?"

"They wouldn't like it." Pan opened her eyes and stared at him through watery eyes. "They'd be so ashamed. I can't do that to my dad."

"They'd get over it," he insisted. "I think they'd want us to be happy."

"Even if they were okay with it- and that's a big if- what about Marron?" she inquired.

"What about her?" he countered.

"She's head over heels for you, Trunks. Always has been."

"Marron's not exactly my type."

"If she's not your type, then why the hell would you ask her out?"

He shrugged. "I wanted to crash your date, but I needed a date of my own. It was obvious that Marron had a thing for me, so I asked her."

Pan's mouth fell open in shock. She recovered quickly, though, and sneered at him,"You were just using her? That's disgusting. I didn't think even you could sink that low."

"I needed to crash your date, Panny," he said frantically, eager to explain himself. "I had to get you away from that guy."

"And you decided to use my friend to do it?" the angry Saiyan yelled. "You may have no problem hurting Marron, but I can't do it." She moved to leave, but Trunks grabbed her arm, stopping her.

"Pan, I don't want to hurt Marron either, but I had no choice. I realized too late that staying away from you was impossible. Please, come back to the house with me and we'll talk more. I can explain everything." He stared at her with wide pleading eyes. Pan was tempted to give in, but she couldn't. She shook her head, pulled her arm free, & exited the stall, Trunks yelling after her, regardless of who might hear him. "I'm not done with you, Pan. Not by a long shot."

She kept walking, though, desperate to leave the restaurant and get home. Trunks had finally admitted he had some sort of feelings for her- assuming he was telling the truth, of course- but everything and everyone was still against them. She was right; knowing he cared about her, too, was a lot worse than her feelings being unrequited. She didn't think life could get any worse than it was, but it had.

Author's Note:

I'm really sorry if this chapter didn't meet your expectations. I feel like my recent fever fried my brain a bit & I'm hoping it didn't affect my writing too much. That being said…how was it? Good? Bad? I hope some of Trunks' behavior was explained. Let me know your thoughts, opinions, & feelings in a lovely review. Or don't; I won't hold it against you ;) I forgot to apologize when I started this story for any OOC-ness, so, yeah, sorry. Also, I was thinking about doing a one-shot sequel to my story Until the End. What I need from you, though, are baby names. Even if you haven't read it, I'd love to hear your suggestions. One boy name & one girl name, please. Thanks, guys. See ya'll next Wednesday!

P.S. Welcome to all my new story followers. Your support means the world to me. Thank you! That goes for all my readers. You guys are the best :) 3

-Chels xoxo