ch. 10 - Explanations

A/N- okay so im really bad at keeping my self imposed deadlines... so im not giving them anymore. Because i was waaay off this time. I said one day at the most, and it's been 4 days. Not bad considering some people don't update for years, but i gave my word. BUt thats enough yackin' ENJOY THE CHAPTER!

disclaimer- really isn't necessary

xx

Pan could see the clearing. A few more strides and she was there, "Finally"

"Oh no you don't!" Trunks yelled stalking towards her, "If you go out there, there's going to be a media frenzy, and I don't think you're ready for that"

"Well what do you suggest, because I'm sure as hell not staying in the woods with you! Do you trust me –phfft- So you can try to knock me out again, I don't think so!…pervert"

"Woah wait, first of all it's not what you think. You wouldn't let me explain"

"Okay, explain!"

"Well…see… it's hard to… never mind. We've got another problem to deal with right now. But I have a plan… if you trust me."

xxxxxxx

"…what did you say!?"

"Trunks Briefs! Yes, Trunks Briefs of the Capsule Corporation, and he appears to be carrying someone. A young lady it seems. (holds hand up to ear, listening to her earpiece 'Uh huh, yes, ok') The young lady he is carrying is none other than the recently introduced Ichigo Banana of Tri-Link Incorporated. She appears to be unconscious and in need of medical attention." (whispers 'What's that?') "Mr. Briefs is choosing not to use an ambulance for Miss. Banana, and says he will be taking her to Capsules HQ medical center via helicopter." (showing Trunks bypass all media making his way to a helicopter just touching down . Shifting the limp red head in his arms, he boards the copter. Once inside, he turns to the open door facing the street and addresses the media) "All will be explained in a one hour press conference tomorrow morning ten o'clock at Capsule headquarters. If anyone is to bother myself or Miss. Banana before said time, it will be cancelled."(Closing the steel door, the copter takes off)… "And that concludes our live coverage of the route 1 crash mystery. Until tomorrow morning, I'm Eri Sato, back to you Hiroshi."

Marron was speechless. She stood gaping at the screen, eye twitching every few seconds or so. Bra was terrified 'Marron's gonna kill me!' She huddled her body against the wall for protection from the attack she knew was to come. But in an unexpected move, Marron slumped over onto the floor, face cupped in her hands. Bra rushed over to the fallen scientist and begged for mercy, "Oh Marron don't cry. I'm sorry; we shouldn't have kept it from you. Please don't be angry and stop being our friend..and stop talking to us..and quit the company and leave us unemployed, broke and having to live with our parents forever! PLEase you can't do this to me! I want to LIVE!! Won't you let me LIVE!!"

Marron sat up slowly. Turning to the guilt stricken man beside her, she smiled and revealed her face, covered in…nothing. "HA! Gotcha, one point for me, we're tied now!" she cheered, pumping a fist in the air.

"You're not crying? Oh, I'm so glad. I thought our friendship was on the lin—hey wait!" Bra's face immediately contorted from one of sorrow and relief, to one of pure outrage; brows furrowed, teeth grit, and lips curled. "How dare you make me feel bad about something!" she chastised. The ebony haired woman removed herself from the floor and nimbly walked to her desk. Calmly placing herself in the plush office chair she stared at the blue coiffed man still on the floor. "Before you go pointing fingers, answer me one question Bra...Why?"

"Why what?"

"You know exactly what!"

"Hey don't catch an attitude with me! You're the one asking vague questions. Besides, you know exactly why!" she finished waving a finger as her mother would.

"What, because I'd be a little upset--"

"Pfft! If that's not the understatement of the century! You were about to kill Pan because she was mud wrestling with Trunks--which was clearly platonic! THIS was a date. Business oriented, yes, but a date none the less."

Marron had grown extremely tired of that story. And every time she heard, the action would get a little more out of hand. Like just last weekend, Bra was entertaining her mother (who knew about the crush already) with the tale: "Energy crackled, clouds swirled, the ground shook, and I swear I saw her hair spike like a super saiyan. Then she was like, "PAN MUST DIE!!!!!" in this deep gravelly demonic voice…"

"Can we please stop bringing up that situation, I was young and dumb back then, and it'll never happen again."

Bra rolled her eyes at her friend's incompetence, "Mare, it was less than two months ago. 'Young and dumb' doesn't work."

"Okay well then can we just call us even? You guys don't bring up that 'thing', and I'll overlook the whole secret date 'thing'." She sombered in light of the situation, "Although it still really hurt that you kept something from me."

"Okay, from now on I promise never to purposefully keep something from you ever again. No matter how grave the consequences might be."

"Good, no wait!" she snipped, pondering over Bra's wording, "purposefully?!"

"Hey, Bra Camisole Briefs never breaks a promise; therefore I pick my words carefully. I can't help what happens by accident; so I refuse to have my good name sullied because of it."

The raven haired scientist was baffled; never had such a vain comment made so much sense. 'I guess there is a good reason for Bra writing all our contracts.' Leaning over the large glass topped desk, she extended her hand, "Ok, deal."

xxxxxxx

Waking up, she hadn't realized she'd even fallen asleep. Not yet ready to open her eyes and greet the day, she reached down to pull the covers closer; only to realize, she had no blanket. It's often kicked off during restless slumber, so she executed plan B: curl up into a ball. However, plan B was quickly aborted, it was hot…really hot… too hot in fact. Crimson matted uncomfortably to her head, and across her eyes. Eyes shooting open, she yelped, "Blood? What happened? Why am I bleeding?!" The screaming abruptly ended upon the sound of laughter.

Trunks chuckled softly, "Calm down, you're not bleeding, see?" Looking down at her he gently brushed her face with his thumb, removing damp red hair from her vision.

"Oh" Thoroughly embarrassed, she just wanted to sink into her pillow and return to dreamland. However, it was at that moment she realized that her pillow and Trunks' lap were one 'n the same. Snapping up quickly, then falling back just as fast, she grabbed her head "Awhh my head! It feels like giant apes are river dancing in there! Jiminy Christmas this hurts! What happened?!" Trunks watched the young woman, with guilty eyes. She continued to squirm as the headache intensified with each passing second. There was nothing he could do for her right now. The copter wasn't equipped with the necessary medical supplies, and the compound was still a ways off. "Hey, Goten.."

The pilot turned around, hearing his name, "Huh?"

"Put this thing in overdrive. We need to get to the medical center."

"Yeh, I know. That's where we're going, remember?" he rolled his eyes, relishing in the fact that he remembered something Trunks didn't, "You told the press that's where you were going because Ichigo, as you said 'passed out'. So now we have to go there to keep the story straight." Facing forward again, he continued to guide; until a thought occurred. Narrowing his eyes, he whipped his head around, "Unless…You thought I was going to forget our destination while we were flying?" he alleged slightly offended. The aircraft dipped, causing Trunks' head to slam into the wall. "Oops, my bad."

"Ow…dammit!"Rubbing the forming knot,"Goten I wasn't calling you incompetent. You're a certified pilot for cryin out loud! We just need to get there faster, Ichigo might actually be hurt" he clarified before turning back to the struggling girl.

"See, I told you to knock on wood, but nooo--"

"Goten! Just speed this thing up."

Trunks rushed Pan to the medical wing, up the stairs, and into the VIP suite. Bulma had her all hooked up and pumped full of morphine in record timing. All that was left, were the test results:

"Trunks Vegeta Briefs, what were you two doing?! Ichigo is suffering from exhaustion, malnutrition, and a concussion!"

"Nothing! I don't know what happened. One minute we're escaping the paparazzi, the next, she's passed out on my lap."

"Is that all…?" she interrogated, giving him that motherly 'you better tell the truth' glare.

"Well-I I …See I had to-but then I ..and then it didn't…" sighing in frustration, "I'll tell you later. Right now I just want to make sure she's ok, and take her back home or to her office, where ever." He shuffled out the room with his head hung, "I'll be in my room. Page me when she's ready."

The sun had almost set for the day, and all that remained was sliver of tangerine hovering just above the horizon. The sky put on its very own light show, taking on shades of yellow, red, purple and blue. And three doves swam through the air. But Bra missed it; she was too focused on the powder blue convertible pulling up to the corner of 3rd and Kage. "P-Ichigo's back! Ichigo's back! Hey! why's he driving my car! Oh well Ichigo's back! Kuriku, guess what, Ichigo's--"

"Back, I know, I heard you. But unlike you, I'm in my own office doing work. So I don't have time to pointlessly celebrate the arrival of a person whom we have and will continue to see every day, all day until…until-I don't know when, but a very long time!"

"Party pooper"

"Idiot"

"Kill joy"

"Moron"

"Wet blanket!"

"Dimwit!"

"Malcontent!"

"Imbecile!"

"Uh…uh-Fussbudget!"

"Fussbudget?"

"Yes, fussbudget"

"What the hell is a fussbudget?" came a groggy sounding Pan. She leaned heavily on the doorframe with half lidded eyes; one hand gripping the wall, the other clutching her stomach.

"Apparently Iam, according to-Hey are you ok?"

"And what happened today?!" chipped in Bra throwing her hands to non existent man hips

"Food, I need food," she panted, "and then, I will explain everything."

"Deal! Now lets go to lunch!" Bra hooked the two girls' arms and took off.

xxxxxxx

"Alright you guys, see you tomorrow. And remember our little deal today"

"We know, we know, no more secrets.."

"And no more bringing up the 'psycho Marron' story" they both relayed, relieved yet disappointed with the agreement. …No more psycho tale (sniffle sniffle)…

They waved their goodbyes and left the parking lot. Marron jumped in the air and took off north towards her uptown apartment. While Bra set off walking east towards Capsule Corp. Business rival, yes, but still home sweet home. And Pan took off…

"You're coming home with me again?" Bra questioned stopping "Not that I have a problem with it or anything"

"Well, yeh you see I kinda told my parents that I had bought a condo, but I haven't. So until I do, I need to not go home. Because they'll interrogate me and I don't like lying to them. I already lie to them about my job."

"What did you tell them?"

"Well since my mom already knew that you got me a job. I made up a job that they'd think you'd have" she responded smiling. Bra didn't like where this was going one bit. "And what might that be, hmm?!" she breathed through clenched teeth. She already had an idea what the answer might be. Everyone besides Pan and Marron thought she was a clothes obsessed narcissist, so the logical career would be…

"I'm the financial advisor for your fashion design company."

"Pan, you know I don't know anything about designing clothes!"

"I know, calm down! That's why I also told them it was a secret, and the only reason they knew is because I trusted them not to tell. I said that you weren't ready to reveal your designs to the world yet, and that if people knew what you were doing there would be too much pressure of perfection." Bra's face softened at the information and a smirk appeared, "I have taught you well Son Pan, I have taught you well" she whispered bowing her head in mock admiration, "Now lets head home!" Turning down a dark alley, they turned off their switchem rings and returned to normal. "Ah, it feels so good to be a girl again"

"You say that every time!"

"It feels good every time!"

Smiling, they put the jewelry away, and jumped into the sky headed home.

xxxxxxx

Touching down, they skipped merrily to the door, proud with all they had accomplished during the day. Cracking the front door, it blew open as Bulma stormed out. "Where is he!" she snorted. Fingers curled, jaws clenched, back hunched, and legs spread, she was ready for a fight. Not that she'd win with such horrible form, but she was ready. "Where is that tabloid loving primate! I know he's almost here!"

"He's like a minute away, Bulma." Pan answered, not at all put off by the older scientist's mood. It was a common thing. "Wait, how did you know he was almost here, since when could you sense ki?"

"Ki? That's what that was?" she questioned standing up straight, "I sensed ki?" Her face broke out in a mega-watt smile, and she began to jump around, "I sensed ki! I sensed ki! I sensed ki! Hooray for me!"

"What's with all the celebrating?" Trunks chuckled touching down.

"I sensed--YOU!" she finished with a snarl. "You! Me! Kitchen mister! NOW!"

Not wanting to get chewed out anymore than he was going to, Trunks followed the enraged woman into the house.

xxxxxxx

Tada!!! chapter 10

please hit that button and review it'd be greatly appreciated... or give a story suggestion if you'd like, or write senseless rambling I don't care! i just like feedback.. but really big thanks to Alexis who is a consistent reviewer:)

OH! and fyi- i probably won't be updating again until july sooooo yeh sorry... i got stuff to do, but don't you fret, I will most certainly be back:)