Pan and Trunks had been chatting happily for a good while, making each other laugh with ruthless insults. It was nice to actually get to know Trunks. Because, as she recalled, their first acquaintance was rather abrupt and with all of the things going on around them, they never really had time to talk. But now they had all the time in the world, and it seemed that Trunks displayed a different side of himself to 'Videl'. Pan enjoyed how laid-back he was right now, like he wasn't stressed out about anything at all.

But as one side of her enjoyed the attention, the other half was wondering, Umm, what is happening here? Don't you miss the real me at all?

No, he seemed perfectly content with 'Videl' here. If he worried at all about Pan, he definitely did not let on, and of course, this stirred up anger in Pan's crushed heart. But it wasn't really fair of her to be mad at Trunks, now was it? After all, here she was, lying to him and pretending to be someone else, while he was just being friendly like his princely duties required him to do. So, Pan was pretty mixed up at this moment.

It was funny how much their conversation varied. One moment they would be talking about the future, the next minute about cheese. Everything was enjoyable though and they had a very nice time out on the balcony.

Of course, it didn't last long, because- as Pan had lately noticed- whenever something pleasant happened to her, it was always rudely interrupted. In this case, exceptionally rudely…well, not really, but Pan's feelings of jealousy (more silly emotions to deal with!) must have been taking over.

The reason being? A girl in a beautiful black dress had very gracefully glided out. She was very tall and very willowy. Pan herself had always wished to be willowy, instead of being so short and dumpy, so that just contributed to the reasons why she should hate this girl even more.

Her hands were shyly clasped behind her and she looked viciously innocent with her golden curls and bubblegum-colored lips.

Trunks took notice of her, finally, and motioned to the extra chair.

"Care to join our conversation?" The girl's creamy cheeks, Pan noted, were rapidly turning red and her lips curled into an excited smile.

"Oh, yes, of course, Your Majesty!" She smoothed her long skirt and lightly sat down.

"Just Trunks, please. I hate being formal." Pan's, or rather Videl's, mouth had flown open at this remark. Had he not said the very exact thing to her when they had first met? She had considered it special, but obviously he said this to every female he came across. Most females at any rate, she decided, thinking about the crazy women in the palace who were still in search for their…'Master'.

"Oh, beg pardon. Ah, silly me, I've forgotten to introduce myself," Her hand covered her mouth as she giggled nervously. "Name's Katrina. Nice to meet you." Trunks grinned amiably.

"Likewise. So where are you from?" And the two of them lunged into a spectacular conversation. Katrina lost her ditzy demeanor somewhere along the line, and Pan sat astonished as the two talked about such intellectual topics. New laws and why they were good/bad, the neighboring kingdom and whether or not they would be going to war. Every now and then they would leap into small debates in which Katrina was always able to remarkably support her opinions, and even Trunks looked impressed.

Pan, who was pretty much forgotten, wondered why she never even thought about these sort of things. Of course, it wasn't really her fault, being raised in such a poor town, she never got a real education. But…in order to be a queen, she would most certainly need a proper education. After all, ruling the kingdom isn't as easy as she liked to imagine and what would happen if Pan was the new Queen and had to discuss such things with Trunks. She would be totally lost, that's what. Trunks needed a smart wife, right? Not someone like herself…

Perhaps, she wasn't good enough for him…

Constantly, she would do this, compare herself with others. But Trunks deserved the best and she still couldn't figure out why he had picked her.

Pan shook her head and rose from her seat. They didn't notice her. She slipped back into the palace and placed herself onto a plush couch. She gave a wry laugh as she noticed all of the women walking around and bumping into each other, searching for Trunks and calling out his name as one would do to a lost puppy. Surely some girl here was smart enough to notice the large glass doors on the other side of the room. Obviously not…

Now, what to do? Bra made all these stupid plans sound so easy, but they just never seemed to go right. Why couldn't she just confess that she was Pan? Then, he would know that she was his true love, and they could get married. Of course, it wouldn't go that easily, but…something like that.

But she knew why she couldn't tell him her true identity. It'd be way too obvious. After all, if Trunks spent the entire evening with one girl who looked somewhat like Pan, what would Vegeta think? True, they had spent a good forty minutes with each other but that wasn't so long. If he really knew that this was her, he would stick by her side the whole time, ignoring every other female. Ignoring Katrina, too, perhaps…

Pan sighed, clenching and unclenching her fists. What would she do? Go over there and fight for her man. Yes, that seemed like a good plan. She couldn't give up so easy. She was a quick learner, with the proper education, she would be miles ahead of Katrina in her studies. Just because Katrina came from a rich family. But Pan bet that she didn't know how to cook, or clean, or farm, or sew, or anything useful. What would Katrina do in a time of crisis? Probably sit down and whine…

Her eyes flashing resolutely behind her small mask, she got up from the chair, pushing away anyone who got in her way. A quick flash of blue caught her eye, and looking to the side, she was not very surprised to see Bra in the corner, giving her a huge grin and a thumb-up. Pan smiled back and that simple greeting filled her with so much courage, she knew that she would have to thank Bra later on. Quite optimistic at this point, she reached the large, glass door and was starting to push it aside when she noticed something.

And suddenly her optimism diminished.

A/N- Cliffy! Hehe, sorry, couldn't resist. Anyway, I thought that this would be the last chapter and I think I may have even said so, but I wanted to make it a little longer so I changed my original plan. But next chapter should be the last one (don't I always say that?).

As for the late update, sooooooooooo sorry. I've found a new obsession and I've been more interested in that lately; actually, I realized that I don't even like DBZ anymore (gasp!). Don't worry though, I will always be a T/P fan. ^_~

Thanks for being so patient, ya'll are awesome! Not one person yelled at me. ^-^ I'll try to work on my other stories while I'm at it, but I can't promise anything so I hope this chapter satisfies you for now. Bye bye!