(A/N: Well a new computer plus a slightly sustainable internet connection means more updates to this story for you lot. So here I am with yet another chapter. I still don't own DBZ and I doubt I will by the end of this story. The warnings haven't changed and you shouldn't expect them to. Anyway…On with the show!)
Chapter 26—Sorry Lady
4 months later
The phone next to the couch began to ring, the house phone for once, not Gohan's ever busy private line. Pan sighed and pulled away from the warm pillow of comfort she had made on Piccolo's chest to answer it, failing to check the caller I.D. in her impatience. It was her job after all, because her two fathers, Gohan and Vegeta (how many times now had they asked her to pick one or the other, she didn't know) were on a date.
"Hello, Son Gohan's residence," Pan said, her voice placidly calm despite her agitation at having to move from Piccolo the pillow. She was polite as she could be, because she didn't want to catch hell from Gohan for having a 'potty mouth' again, as invariably someone told her father everything that she did wrong. But Pan was not ready for the voice that greeted her on the other end of the line.
"Hi Pan Sweetie, it's Mommy! Is your Daddy there? I was hoping to talk to him," Videl's voice was bright and sunny and so cheerful that it made Pan gag at the obviousness of her façade. She would maintain her own air of politeness, but she certainly didn't want to when she could practically smell the booze on her mother's breath from the other end of the line. It wasn't that Videl drank often, but when she did, she drank heavily, and it always caused a problem for someone somewhere. It had been awhile since it had fallen to Pan to deal with such a situation, and though she wanted to hang up, Piccolo's hard stare made sure that she didn't.
"Were you going to talk to him about getting back together?" Pan asked, putting on a falsely cheery voice that her mother would have recognized had she bothered to pay attention to Pan at all in the last four or so years. Piccolo raised a brow ridge at her in utter confusion, she smiled devilishly back at him and held up a finger indicating that he should wait for an explanation.
"Yes sweetie. I understand now that it wasn't his fault that you thought you had a crush on that Namekian, and I am certain that by now you have gotten rid of him and that dreadful tail of yours. Besides, your daddy has to be missing me," Videl said, seeming happier at her daughter's enthusiasm, Pan watched with a mirthful grin as Piccolo dramatically rolled his eyes, he could hear Videl quite clearly with his heightened senses. But to Pan it was a signal that she could stop being so polite, if Videl had ignored any and all indicators of Gohan's relationship with Vegeta for this long then she deserved to have the full weight of the news dropped unceremoniously onto her head.
"Well then, I guess you are wrong on all counts. I'm still going to marry Piccolo someday, and I am very happy with him, and my tail for that matter. It shows me for who I am, it represents the blood of a proud warrior race, of which I will always be a member. And Gohan doesn't miss you at all; Vegeta keeps him as happy as can be. Happier than he ever was when you were around for that matter," Pan said all at once in a venomous tone, the anger of a child abandoned and underappreciated showed through very prominently on her features. Piccolo sighed gently at her narrowed eyes and gently cupped the side of her face as he had seen her fathers do, stroking his thumb over her cheek attempting to bring a smile back to her face. It wouldn't do for Gohan and Vegeta to come home to a destroyed house.
The phone line abruptly went dead and the smile returned to Pan's face full force, Piccolo understood it in a very basic sense, this was the only way that Pan could punish her mother for the things that had been done to her. Of course it meant that Grandpa Satan would be mad at her again, but that never lasted long, and Pan could take it while it did. Victorious in a way, she set the phone back in its cradle and fell back over, allowing her head to once again find its pillow on Piccolo's chest. Later she would have to finish her Sophomore Biology homework, but for the moment, she was going to enjoy her Saturday and Piccolo the pillow.
(A/N: Well there you go. I thought Pan ought to have some sort of interaction with her mother. What do you think? And once again, I don't hate Videl, but for the purposes of this story, she's a dumb bitch.)