Chapter 21 – Breaking Point
It was so silent that the sound of the clock ticking could be heard. She was glaring at him and he was at her, but they didn't speak. Both were fully clothed, in his bedroom; Pan standing on one side of the room and Trunks on the other. It was already one o'clock in the afternoon, but it wasn't like they had anything to do. After all, it was Sunday, the only day Trunks didn't need to go to work.
He sighed and closed his eyes for a second, allowing her to win their glaring battle. He ran his hand in his hair and then looked to the floor. "So?" he asked, his voice emotionless.
She didn't speak for a second, and he was wondering if she was ignoring him. After a while she crossed her arms across her chest and continued to glare at him. "It's kinda hard to talk right now," she said.
"You'd rather stand there all day, Pan?"
"This is better than walking anywhere closer to you," she replied coldly.
He decided to take a risk and look at her. When their eyes met, his blank ones with her glare, she closed her eyes and looked away. Pan put one hand to her face, as if covering her eyes from him. It was then that he realized that she was crying. He wasn't surprised though, as she hadn't even showed any emotion other than anger. He found himself walking toward her, but when she realized what he was doing, she quickly stepped backward and shook her head.
"Don't, Trunks."
He stopped.
"Don't," she whispered, her head still slightly shaking. She gripped her hand into a fist, her fingernails digging into her palm.
"Pan, I'm sorry."
"I don't think that's sufficient, Trunks, do you?" When he didn't answer, she angrily walked over to him and though she had said she didn't want to walk anywhere near him, she stood in front of him and pushed him. He stumbled slightly backward, but was able regain his balance quickly. "Do I even want to know what happened last night?" she asked him, partially crying as she did so. "Were you drunk too?"
"It's my fault," he answered her.
"What's your fault, Trunks?" she questioned him, daring him to answer her. When he looked away, she brought her hand to her face again. Tears were threatening to fall, but before they were able to, her sadness turned to anger. Before she knew what she was doing, she shoved him again, and this time when he stumbled backward, he felt the wall behind him. "What's your fault?" she cried again, stepping closer to him to nudging his shoulder roughly with her hand. "What is, Trunks?" She nudged him again, not caring if she was crying openly in front of him.
"What do you want me to say, Pan?" he started, grabbing onto her hands to stop her from hitting him any more. "I would think that you would know what we did when you woke up this morning, so what do you want me to say?"
She tried to pull her hands away from him but he wouldn't let go just yet.
"I think its better that I brought you home before you could have given yourself to a random guy in the bar!" he continued, gripping her wrist as she struggled to get out of his grasp.
"I'd rather have that happen, Trunks! You'd rather have me do it with you?"
"Yeah, Pan, I would!"
Her mouth fell open in shock, and she stared at him as his face looked from angry and determined to realization of what he had just said. "What did you just say?" she asked him, but he didn't answer her. He let go of her hand then, and before she could restrain herself, she stepped forward to him and pressed her lips lightly against his.
His hands went up instantly to grasp her shoulders and for a second, he pulled her to him so that their kiss deepened. Then he moved one of his hands up to touch her neck, and then up to her cheek. It didn't last. He pulled away suddenly but didn't look at her. "Kami, what am I doing?" he whispered to himself.
Pan put both of her hands on his shoulder and looked to the floor. Then, after a sob escaped from her lips, she pushed him as hard as she could out of anger, but because of her crying she couldn't push him as hard as she wanted to. He was merely pushed against the wall instead. She didn't let go of him though, as if she didn't have the strength to stand on her own. "Why did you do that, Trunks?" she asked quietly, her forehead against his chest.
He wasn't sure if she was referring to what happened last night or for his reaction to her unexpected kiss. Whether it was for one of the two possibilities, he didn't answer. He couldn't.
"Why?" he heard her whisper between her cries.
She started hitting him weakly with one of her fists, but he didn't move. "I wasn't…" he had to look away, to the wall opposite them before he continued. "I wasn't drunk, Pan." He knew he needed to tell her that, before time could make things worse. He could feel the pressure build up in his chest, but he held back any emotion from his face. His hands shook though, as he gripped them into a fist. "Last night when…" he didn't say it. He shook his head. "I wasn't drunk then." She let go of him then, and nearly stumbled backwards. He didn't move from his spot, nor did he meet her eyes. "You were the only one that was. I just-"
"You weren't drunk last night? Then why…" she met his eyes then. Her head was pounding, as if the hangover symptoms were just acting up. "Oh my god… You were… We still…" she felt her stomach turn, and before she could process all the information together, she ran to the bathroom right by him, locked the door, and threw up in the sink.
She turned the faucet on and cupped her hands to carry water to her mouth to rinse it. Then she leaned over the sink, the water still running, and resisted from crying again. She put her hands to her face and took in deep, slow breaths, trying to regain her composure, and remember what happened that night. After a few minutes, she took her hands away, but instantly covered her nose and mouth with one hand when a sob nearly escaped. When she was sure she could control herself, she quickly shut the water off. Then she noticed a bottle of mouthwash in front of her, and poured some in her mouth to wash away the taste of vomit in her mouth. After she spat the mouthwash in the sink, she took a deep breath, and then walked to the door.
She unlocked it quietly so he wouldn't know that she was coming out of the bathroom yet, then slowly opened it and peeked in. She found him sitting on one side of the bed, facing the window, his face in his hands, leaning over so that his elbows rested on his knees.
It was then that she realized how furious she was of him. How could he take advantage of her like that? How could he cheat on Marron? Pan couldn't talk to him now. She thought that she could never be able to talk to him again, after everything that happened. She quickly but quietly walked out of the bathroom and was nearly to the middle of the room when he spoke.
"Pan, wait."
She turned to him, feeling her eyebrows furrow downwards to a glare. "Wait for what, Trunks? Are you going to tell me something else I should know?" She saw him get up and walk toward her, but she didn't stop there. "Hm… Maybe you want to tell me that you didn't think about anything and didn't use protection," she spat sarcastically. "Or maybe you actually did wear one because you were actually thinking about having safe-"
She didn't realize he was right in front of her until he had his hands on her shoulder. Before she could free herself from his grasp, he pushed her so that she was trapped in a corner.
"Let go of me, Trunks, or I swear I'll…" She couldn't finish her threat, as he leaned in toward her, his breath against her neck behind her ear, and she couldn't continue. She gasped when his lips brushed her cheek, and her eyes closed, unable to keep them open. She felt him move closer to her lips, but he stopped right at the corner of them. He moved his hands lower until he touched her waist, and she flinched but didn't move away. Just when he was about to move his head away from her, she turned slightly so that their lips brushed together, and he moved the hand that was on her shoulder to her neck, as he did before, and crushed their lips together. After a few seconds, he moved both of his hands lower to the rim of her jeans, and since she didn't wear a belt, he pressed hard against the area where the button was to mimic the feeling of what he felt when she roughly grabbed his belt the night before.
She broke their contact then. They were both breathing hard, his hands still at the rim of her jeans, staring at her, but she couldn't look at him. "That's…" he had to catch his breath in mid sentence. "That's what you did yesterday, which led to other things in this room." He waited a while before he could continue. "You may have been able to resist that feeling, but," he laughed bitterly. "You're not a guy, Pan. You wouldn't understand how hard it is to think straight when someone as beautiful as you messes with that area." He let go of her, and then walked away, out of the bedroom to head down the stairs to the living room.
She caught him before he took a step down the stairs. Without thinking, she roughly shoved him; angry that he had made it seem like it was her fault to start with. Maybe it was her fault, she wasn't sure, but she didn't want to believe it. As a result, she was pulled with him, and they fell down the stairs, stopping only when they were at the bottom of the steps. She ended up underneath him, their legs tangled together.
"That was very mature of you, Pan," he said sarcastically.
"Shut up, Trunks. If you're such a responsible adult like you say you are, why couldn't you stop yourself from kissing me when I kissed you earlier?"
He didn't answer her. Instead, he attempted to untangle his legs from her and get up, but Pan grabbed onto his shoulders and rolled them over so that she was on top. "I didn't touch anywhere close to below your waist earlier, Mr. Oh-so-innocent," she continued and at the same time, grabbed onto his belt as if to prove her point.
His body instantly stiffened, and he grabbed onto her hand and pulled it away from him. "I told you, you shouldn't mess with that area," he spoke quietly.
Their eyes locked, and it seemed like time stopped as they stared into each other's eyes. Trunks let go of her hand slowly, and then he placed both of the palms of his hand to the floor and sat up, bringing her up with him. Her legs were now on either side of him, and they were dangerously close to one another. Pan leaned forward to him just like before, but before their lips met, she paused for a split second, and then pressed her lips against his. He moved his head so that he caught her upper lip while she caught his lower one, and their kiss deepened then.
You're cheating on her.
He sharply inhaled and broke their contact by looking to the floor. He sighed while shutting his eyes and cursed under his breath. "Pan, what are we doing? I can't do this. I shouldn't do this. I promised her I wouldn't hurt her, yet I couldn't control myself yesterday and even now." He seemed to be talking to himself as he ranted. "Kami, what the heck is happening to me?"
"Trunks, I…"
"Last night, when we… It didn't mean anything, right? All it was was a concupiscence event, nothing else."
She stared at him blankly. "What the heck are you talking about?"
"It was lust, not love. We're just… Acquaintances now."
Pan got off of him and stood up, watching as he did the same. She didn't meet his eyes as she nodded, looking away. "Not even friends, because then we would be friends with benefits, and," she laughed sadly. "Mr. Briefs can't have that, can he?"
"Pan, you understand, right? I… Our lives change, and… You knew from the very beginning, when you were 15 and came up to me and talked to me, our friendship wouldn't last, right? You knew that I'm older than you, and we'll someday grow apart because of that." He touched her shoulder when he saw her eyes water. "I can't-"
"Keep promises," she interrupted. She nodded and looked at him. "You can't keep promises, have self-control, remember who your girlfriend is, and," she stopped when he scoffed.
"If I can remember correctly, you were the one who kissed me for no reason, Pan, both earlier, and just now."
"Yeah, and do you know why I did that?"
He let go of her shoulder and crossed his arms. "Well go ahead and explain."
"Now I can go off to my own life, Trunks, and be able to tell complete strangers, 'Yeah, the President of Capsule Corporation isn't capable of finding himself a soul mate after many years, so he decided to screw other people, no matter who they are, including me!'"
"You wouldn't do that, Pan. I know you. You're not the type of person who would betray someone like that, especially if that person was your best friend."
"I thought I knew you too, you know? You're not the type of person who would cheat on your girlfriend with his best friend, but guess what?" she stepped forward, close to him. "Seeing as you did something I thought you would never do, I guess we were living a lie from the beginning."
"Well at least we know our position now."
"Right, and that is…?"
He looked down at her as he stepped forward too, so that their faces were close. "We're complete strangers."
She forced a laugh and looked away. "Good. I never needed you in my life anyway."
Though she told him that, she knew it wasn't true. She really did need him. There was no one left for her, though she wouldn't admit it. He really was blind, as he still didn't know about Marron's condition, or her unusual behavior in result of the loss of her parents. And she hated him for that.
A/N: Alright, there's another one. Thanks for the reviews, by the way. Yup, I did get inspired again, though I don't know how, lol. I'm glad that you guys liked the previous chapter, and I hope you enjoy this one as well, even though this one isn't something to be happy about, seeing as Trunks wasn't able to control himself. I'll have to admit though; this isn't one of my best chapters because I had different moods each day I continued to write this chapter. I was kind of depressed when I wrote the first portion of the story, and I think you can tell (or maybe it's just my imagination) because of their mood, so I apologize for the inconsistency. I hope this chapter was decent enough though. Oh yeah, I know that Gohan and Videl would have been able to survive the plane crash, but I wanted to 'get rid of them' somehow so that Pan would be by herself, so that event was mostly for convenience. Sorry, I couldn't come up with a way for them to be gone so I decided to go with a plane crash.