Won't Ever Understand Me-Chapter Two
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Disclaimer:(sadly) I don't own Dragonball Z....if I did, then Mirai Trunks, teen Gohan, and Goten would be all mine....(brightens) I know! I'll ask for it for my birthday! (prances about happily, singing)
A/N: This chapter's gonna be a bit shorter than the first one, but I've pretty much got the next one figured out, and the one after that.
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2 months later:
It was Christmas Eve, and all of the Z soldiers were filtering into Capsule Corp. for the annual party. There were loads of other people, too, like the Next-Gen Z's friends, and people the Bulma was associated with through work.
"Hello, Gohan, Videl!" Bulma greeted them as they came through the door, beaming when she saw Pan. "Well! Pan! You've gotten so big!"
Pan's long, silky black hair that reached down to her waist was braided, with colorful hair ties an inch apart all the length of the braid. Her short bangs ended neatly just above her eyes, and she was wearing earrings. Actual earrings! Their tomboyish Pan was wearing earrings! They were gold, and shaped like flat, miniature Eternal Dragons, about an inch long each.
She was wearing tight, dark blue Capri jeans, (jeans that are shorter than jeans, ending halfway between the knee and ankle,) and a red spaghetti strap shirt, that had glitter running around the neckline. On her left ankle was an anklet with stones carved into shapes of an orange cross, a pink heart, a blue cube, a white diamond, and so on.
The only things recognizable as Pan were her shoes, old, worn, dark denim sneakers, which went surprisingly well with the outfit.
Pan flinched as Bulma pulled her into a friendly embrace. "Hey, Bulma. Nice to see you, too. Sorry I couldn't make it to the last few parties. I've been busy."
"That's fine, honey," Bulma replied absentmindedly. "I'm sure Trunks, Bra, Goten, and Marron will be glad to see you. They're sitting on the couch by the Christmas tree, go say hi."
Pan nodded as Bulma started talking to her parents. Pan made as if to go towards the Christmas tree where the others were talking and examining presents, then, when she thought no one was looking, abruptly veered off to the left and crossed the room, slipping unobtrusively out the side door and out into the Briefs' huge side yard.
Sighing, she went and stretched out under a big tree, and closed her eyes. *This party's such a nuisance,* she thought, annoyed. *I could be training to reach Super Saiyan right now, but noooo, I have to be at this stupid party. Oh, well. I knew Dad wouldn't let me keep avoiding coming for much longer.*
She opened her eyes and turned her gaze to the stars, then looked away quickly, closing her eyes again. The stars...too many memories. She didn't want to think about that just now.
**FLASHBACK**
A fifteen year old Pan is following a twenty-one year old Trunks and a twenty year old Goten.
"Hey, you guys!" she tried to get their attention. "We haven't seen each other in a while! Want to spar?"
They stopped and looked at her, looking a little annoyed.
"Pan, we can't play around with you right now," Trunks snapped, sounding irritated. "We've got things to do, jobs now. We can't just drop everything for to hang around with a little kid, like we used to."
"Maybe some other time, Panny," Goten added vaguely, not watching her, instead, his eyes zeroing in on Marron and Bra, who were coming up the street."
"Hi, Marron, Bra," Trunks and Goten said together. Trunks continued. "Hey, you didn't show up to lunch yesterday, Marr. How about we catch some grub right now to make up for it?"
Goten nodded eagerly. "Yeah, food would be great now!"
"All right," Marron said, smiling. They walked across the street, ignoring Pan and leaving her staring, overbright-eyes glistening.
Almost as they were in the restaurant, Bra turned around and seemed to notice her for the first time.
"Oh, hi, Pan, see ya," she waved absently as they disappeared inside the building.
"Play around?" Pan whispered, clenching her fist. "Little kid? Panny? Too busy now, huh? Not too busy for Marron and Bra." A tear escaped from her eye.
**END FLASHBACK**
Pan opened her eyes, a single tear leaking our the corner of that same eye, remembering. That had only been a foreshadowing, a small reason in the cause of her totally splitting away from her 'friends'. She liked thinking about the other reasons even less.
Goten turned to Trunks, Bra, and Marron in disbelief. "I don't believe it!" he whispered, shocked. "She was heading right over here! Then she just went out!"
"Did you see what she was wearing?" Marron gaped. "Pan never dressed that well before!"
"What is going on?" Bra demanded angrily. "Why is she avoiding us? We're trying to include her!!"
Trunks frowned, then said, "Let's go out there and watch her, you guys. Stay quiet, don't let her see you."
The others nodded, and they all went out the door, unnoticed.
They saw Pan lying under the tree, and wondered how that was better than being inside with friends and family, celebrating Christmas. And they listened to the conversation that took place next.
"Hello, Vegeta-sama," Pan said clearly, not bothering to open her eyes. She'd sensed the Prince watching her for some time.
"What the hell are you doing out here, brat?" Vegeta shot at her harshly. Pan didn't react in the slightest.
"Getting away, Vegeta-sama," she just replied calmly.
"What do you have to get away from, girl?" he questioned, walking towards her and bending his knees to lean on his haunches. No one really knew it, but Pan and Vegeta got along very well. Vegeta loved Bra, but she had never liked fighting, and he didn't get along well with Trunks, so he generally treated Pan like the daughter he would have liked to have.
"Them."
Vegeta nodded, even though Pan couldn't see him. He knew exactly what she meant, and Pan knew he knew.
"I see," he said simply. He tilted his head slightly, speculating, then lowered his voice so much that Trunks, Bra, Goten, and Marron couldn't hear him, even when they strained. "You don't fit in here."
Pan acknowledged that by nodding slightly, and opening her eyes to look at her sensei questioningly.
"Well, brat," Vegeta started gruffly, "there's only one thing that I can suggest you do, and it's going to make your parents and Kakarrot attempt to kill me, as if they ever could."
Pan raised her eyebrows promptingly.
"Spend a day or two in the Room of Spirit and Time," he said bluntly. "Work things out. Get stronger, so you can kill anyone who gives you trouble. Dende knows you should have been SSJ long ago."
Pan chuckled slightly, but they both knew that he was serious. "I think I will. Thanks for the advice, Vegeta-sama. I think we should go inside now."
Pan got to her feet, as did Vegeta, and they went different ways into the house, her through the door she'd come out, and him through the back door.
"What was that about?" Goten asked the others, scratching his head as they sat back down on the couch.
"I don't know, but I couldn't hear most of the conversation until Pan said something about, 'I think I will, thanks for the advice.' What do you make of it, bro?" Bra turned to Trunks.
"I don't know. I just don't know." He immediately shut his mouth as Pan walked over, face emotionless, until she plastered a bright smile on it. It was amazing. They would have almost believed it was genuine, but they were watching carefully now. It was fake.
"Hi Uncle Goten, Trunks, Marron, Bra," she said with false cheer.
Then Goten looked at her foot, breaking into a real smile. "You're wearing the charm anklet I gave you!" he exclaimed, beaming. Pan grinned at him.
"I you told I liked it. I wear it every time I go out," she answered. Bra, pretending to just notice something.
In an effort to make conversation with their old friend, she asked, "Hey, Pan? What happened to your bandanna?"
Pan looked back to where Bra was sitting, not surprised, though pretending to be. "I stopped wearing that years ago, Bra." Mentally adding, *When I stopped hanging around with you guys.*
"Why?" Marron inquired, adopting a teasing tone. "You looked so cute with it!"
Pan clenched her fist and her jaw stiffened, though she didn't let the others see it. *That's why. I don't want to be cute*, she wanted to say.
"It had some bad memories in it," she replied instead. Now Bra, Marron, and Goten looked at Trunks, wondering what had happened on their Grand Tour of outer space.
Sensing trouble, Goten steered away from that topic, launching into a similar, yet not the same, one. "You're hair looks really good in a braid like that, Panny. How'd you learn to do it like that?"
Inwardly screaming, *Don't call me Panny!*, but outwardly shrugging, she answered, "I've had a lot of practice."
"And when did you start calling Goten UNCLE?" Trunks asked her.
Pan smirked. "He is my uncle, isn't he?"
"It's just that, well, you never called him 'uncle' before..." Trunks trailed off, rather unnerved by how much Pan'd changed.
"I've been doing it for a while," Pan replied, putting her arms on the sofa arm and resting her head on her arms, letting her braid fall to the ground, added quietly, "Maybe you just don't know me that well anymore."
That remark kind of killed everyone's talking mood, and they sat in near silence until it was time to open presents. Only Trunks, Marron, Goten, and Bra struggled to start a conversation, but Pan never joined in, so it just died.
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RaliNeoBlade: What IS Pan's problem??!! You may think that I answered it in this chapter but that was really only a teeny portion of it, so don't assume. Well, Christmas was a disaster. Is Pan going to go into the Room of Spirit and Time? Will her parents LET her?? All this, (okay, maybe not, I might want to keep stringing you along,) on the next, (I SWEAR there's going to be more action, I have it ALL planned out,) exciting chapter, of Won't Ever Understand Me!!!
Rali: So what do you think? Please R/R! I got hardly any reviews for the last chapter, (pout) and I worked really hard on it. So, please tell what you think!! Okay, I'm done. Really. I'm going now. I swear. You'll hear no more out of my mouth this chapter. Seriously.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer:(sadly) I don't own Dragonball Z....if I did, then Mirai Trunks, teen Gohan, and Goten would be all mine....(brightens) I know! I'll ask for it for my birthday! (prances about happily, singing)
A/N: This chapter's gonna be a bit shorter than the first one, but I've pretty much got the next one figured out, and the one after that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2 months later:
It was Christmas Eve, and all of the Z soldiers were filtering into Capsule Corp. for the annual party. There were loads of other people, too, like the Next-Gen Z's friends, and people the Bulma was associated with through work.
"Hello, Gohan, Videl!" Bulma greeted them as they came through the door, beaming when she saw Pan. "Well! Pan! You've gotten so big!"
Pan's long, silky black hair that reached down to her waist was braided, with colorful hair ties an inch apart all the length of the braid. Her short bangs ended neatly just above her eyes, and she was wearing earrings. Actual earrings! Their tomboyish Pan was wearing earrings! They were gold, and shaped like flat, miniature Eternal Dragons, about an inch long each.
She was wearing tight, dark blue Capri jeans, (jeans that are shorter than jeans, ending halfway between the knee and ankle,) and a red spaghetti strap shirt, that had glitter running around the neckline. On her left ankle was an anklet with stones carved into shapes of an orange cross, a pink heart, a blue cube, a white diamond, and so on.
The only things recognizable as Pan were her shoes, old, worn, dark denim sneakers, which went surprisingly well with the outfit.
Pan flinched as Bulma pulled her into a friendly embrace. "Hey, Bulma. Nice to see you, too. Sorry I couldn't make it to the last few parties. I've been busy."
"That's fine, honey," Bulma replied absentmindedly. "I'm sure Trunks, Bra, Goten, and Marron will be glad to see you. They're sitting on the couch by the Christmas tree, go say hi."
Pan nodded as Bulma started talking to her parents. Pan made as if to go towards the Christmas tree where the others were talking and examining presents, then, when she thought no one was looking, abruptly veered off to the left and crossed the room, slipping unobtrusively out the side door and out into the Briefs' huge side yard.
Sighing, she went and stretched out under a big tree, and closed her eyes. *This party's such a nuisance,* she thought, annoyed. *I could be training to reach Super Saiyan right now, but noooo, I have to be at this stupid party. Oh, well. I knew Dad wouldn't let me keep avoiding coming for much longer.*
She opened her eyes and turned her gaze to the stars, then looked away quickly, closing her eyes again. The stars...too many memories. She didn't want to think about that just now.
**FLASHBACK**
A fifteen year old Pan is following a twenty-one year old Trunks and a twenty year old Goten.
"Hey, you guys!" she tried to get their attention. "We haven't seen each other in a while! Want to spar?"
They stopped and looked at her, looking a little annoyed.
"Pan, we can't play around with you right now," Trunks snapped, sounding irritated. "We've got things to do, jobs now. We can't just drop everything for to hang around with a little kid, like we used to."
"Maybe some other time, Panny," Goten added vaguely, not watching her, instead, his eyes zeroing in on Marron and Bra, who were coming up the street."
"Hi, Marron, Bra," Trunks and Goten said together. Trunks continued. "Hey, you didn't show up to lunch yesterday, Marr. How about we catch some grub right now to make up for it?"
Goten nodded eagerly. "Yeah, food would be great now!"
"All right," Marron said, smiling. They walked across the street, ignoring Pan and leaving her staring, overbright-eyes glistening.
Almost as they were in the restaurant, Bra turned around and seemed to notice her for the first time.
"Oh, hi, Pan, see ya," she waved absently as they disappeared inside the building.
"Play around?" Pan whispered, clenching her fist. "Little kid? Panny? Too busy now, huh? Not too busy for Marron and Bra." A tear escaped from her eye.
**END FLASHBACK**
Pan opened her eyes, a single tear leaking our the corner of that same eye, remembering. That had only been a foreshadowing, a small reason in the cause of her totally splitting away from her 'friends'. She liked thinking about the other reasons even less.
Goten turned to Trunks, Bra, and Marron in disbelief. "I don't believe it!" he whispered, shocked. "She was heading right over here! Then she just went out!"
"Did you see what she was wearing?" Marron gaped. "Pan never dressed that well before!"
"What is going on?" Bra demanded angrily. "Why is she avoiding us? We're trying to include her!!"
Trunks frowned, then said, "Let's go out there and watch her, you guys. Stay quiet, don't let her see you."
The others nodded, and they all went out the door, unnoticed.
They saw Pan lying under the tree, and wondered how that was better than being inside with friends and family, celebrating Christmas. And they listened to the conversation that took place next.
"Hello, Vegeta-sama," Pan said clearly, not bothering to open her eyes. She'd sensed the Prince watching her for some time.
"What the hell are you doing out here, brat?" Vegeta shot at her harshly. Pan didn't react in the slightest.
"Getting away, Vegeta-sama," she just replied calmly.
"What do you have to get away from, girl?" he questioned, walking towards her and bending his knees to lean on his haunches. No one really knew it, but Pan and Vegeta got along very well. Vegeta loved Bra, but she had never liked fighting, and he didn't get along well with Trunks, so he generally treated Pan like the daughter he would have liked to have.
"Them."
Vegeta nodded, even though Pan couldn't see him. He knew exactly what she meant, and Pan knew he knew.
"I see," he said simply. He tilted his head slightly, speculating, then lowered his voice so much that Trunks, Bra, Goten, and Marron couldn't hear him, even when they strained. "You don't fit in here."
Pan acknowledged that by nodding slightly, and opening her eyes to look at her sensei questioningly.
"Well, brat," Vegeta started gruffly, "there's only one thing that I can suggest you do, and it's going to make your parents and Kakarrot attempt to kill me, as if they ever could."
Pan raised her eyebrows promptingly.
"Spend a day or two in the Room of Spirit and Time," he said bluntly. "Work things out. Get stronger, so you can kill anyone who gives you trouble. Dende knows you should have been SSJ long ago."
Pan chuckled slightly, but they both knew that he was serious. "I think I will. Thanks for the advice, Vegeta-sama. I think we should go inside now."
Pan got to her feet, as did Vegeta, and they went different ways into the house, her through the door she'd come out, and him through the back door.
"What was that about?" Goten asked the others, scratching his head as they sat back down on the couch.
"I don't know, but I couldn't hear most of the conversation until Pan said something about, 'I think I will, thanks for the advice.' What do you make of it, bro?" Bra turned to Trunks.
"I don't know. I just don't know." He immediately shut his mouth as Pan walked over, face emotionless, until she plastered a bright smile on it. It was amazing. They would have almost believed it was genuine, but they were watching carefully now. It was fake.
"Hi Uncle Goten, Trunks, Marron, Bra," she said with false cheer.
Then Goten looked at her foot, breaking into a real smile. "You're wearing the charm anklet I gave you!" he exclaimed, beaming. Pan grinned at him.
"I you told I liked it. I wear it every time I go out," she answered. Bra, pretending to just notice something.
In an effort to make conversation with their old friend, she asked, "Hey, Pan? What happened to your bandanna?"
Pan looked back to where Bra was sitting, not surprised, though pretending to be. "I stopped wearing that years ago, Bra." Mentally adding, *When I stopped hanging around with you guys.*
"Why?" Marron inquired, adopting a teasing tone. "You looked so cute with it!"
Pan clenched her fist and her jaw stiffened, though she didn't let the others see it. *That's why. I don't want to be cute*, she wanted to say.
"It had some bad memories in it," she replied instead. Now Bra, Marron, and Goten looked at Trunks, wondering what had happened on their Grand Tour of outer space.
Sensing trouble, Goten steered away from that topic, launching into a similar, yet not the same, one. "You're hair looks really good in a braid like that, Panny. How'd you learn to do it like that?"
Inwardly screaming, *Don't call me Panny!*, but outwardly shrugging, she answered, "I've had a lot of practice."
"And when did you start calling Goten UNCLE?" Trunks asked her.
Pan smirked. "He is my uncle, isn't he?"
"It's just that, well, you never called him 'uncle' before..." Trunks trailed off, rather unnerved by how much Pan'd changed.
"I've been doing it for a while," Pan replied, putting her arms on the sofa arm and resting her head on her arms, letting her braid fall to the ground, added quietly, "Maybe you just don't know me that well anymore."
That remark kind of killed everyone's talking mood, and they sat in near silence until it was time to open presents. Only Trunks, Marron, Goten, and Bra struggled to start a conversation, but Pan never joined in, so it just died.
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RaliNeoBlade: What IS Pan's problem??!! You may think that I answered it in this chapter but that was really only a teeny portion of it, so don't assume. Well, Christmas was a disaster. Is Pan going to go into the Room of Spirit and Time? Will her parents LET her?? All this, (okay, maybe not, I might want to keep stringing you along,) on the next, (I SWEAR there's going to be more action, I have it ALL planned out,) exciting chapter, of Won't Ever Understand Me!!!
Rali: So what do you think? Please R/R! I got hardly any reviews for the last chapter, (pout) and I worked really hard on it. So, please tell what you think!! Okay, I'm done. Really. I'm going now. I swear. You'll hear no more out of my mouth this chapter. Seriously.