Disclaimer: *slowly running out of ideas* Uhm, I don't own Dragonball Z/GT and I'm not making any money with it (even though a friend of me says that I should do that)
A/N: See? I told you that you would hate me after reading the last chapter! But somehow I've expected more death threats… *shrugs* Whatever… But thanks for your reviews, death threat or not, I'm always happy when I get them…
Some of you asked again, when Trunks will finally find out about Pan's secret… Well, I guess you have to wait till the weekend… I hope that I can write so fast that you don't have to take longer… By the way, Takeo will also appear then… (Can you believe it? This guy hasn't even appeared in this fic yet, and I'm already planning a fic about him…)
Well, if you have any other questions, feel free to ask, even though I can't guarantee that I will answer them… Right now I can just wish you to enjoy this chapter…
Chapter 15:
Rejection
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Bra was still hugging Trunks, softly rocking back and forth, trying to sooth him like a small child, while her thoughts were running wild. It was really hard to believe. Pan is Pia. Pia's Pan. They're one and the same. Pia, the beautiful, successful and confident woman and Pan, the smart and cute tomboy, who should right now be in the States on College, are the same person. She had been back for one month and no one had noticed! Suddenly everything made sense!
Her thoughts were interrupted, as Trunks suddenly started to speak again. "I-I wanted to spend… the rest of my life with her… I wanted to… propose to her tonight…" he said, before a new wave of sobs overcame him.
Bra, too, got tears in her eyes. She thought that it was her fault. She had told Pan to break up with this guy, not knowing that the one she was talking about was her brother. "I'm sorry, Trunks… I'm so sorry…" she mumbled, as her own tears began to run freely. What should she do now? She couldn't tell Trunks - that was no option. She was sure that would upset him even more, when he heard the truth from someone else than Pan. Maybe she should talk to her…
Suddenly Trunks turned out of the embrace and got up. "Trunks?" Bra asked confused, "where are you going?"
"I'm not going anywhere," he said with a deathly cold voice. "But I want you to leave. Don't tell anyone what has happened in the last minute, especially not father."
"But Trunks…"
"Leave!" he almost yelled and turned to her. As Bra saw the look on her brother's face, a look that cold that it sent shivers down her spine, she was for the first time in her life afraid of him. She just wanted to leave the room, as she heard Trunks' voice again. "And I warn you. Don't talk to Pia. If you do, I'll find out. This is between her and me. I don't want you to get involved."
She had to bite back other tears that were threatening to fall and threw the door behind her shut. What should she do now? Trunks had told her that she shouldn't talk to Pia, or better, to Pan. Should she really listen to him? She pondered this thought for a few minutes, while she was walking to her room and came to the decision, as hard as it was, to wait. As much as she wanted to help, Trunks' threat was still in her head and she had to admit, he was right. This was something between him and Pia, well, Pan. But she still felt bad for giving Pan this advice… She just hoped that everything would work out between those two and that Pan would find the courage to tell him that she's Pia. Otherwise Bra would never be able to forgive herself…
Trunks watched as the door to his room was thrown shut and then walked into his private bathroom. After he splashed a bit cold water in his face, he looked at his reflection in the mirror. His eyes were still red from the crying, but otherwise they were blank and had a darkness in them that hadn't been there before, while his face held a scowl. While his sister had been trying to sooth him, he had made a decision. He wouldn't let those feelings get near him again. No one would ever again be allowed to hurt him like this. His pride wouldn't allow repeating this display of weakness again. Bond or not, he wouldn't cry over her again. He smirked at his mirror image and at exactly that moment the resemblance between him and his father was uncanny. He grabbed the towel and wiped his face dry, before he left the bathroom again with one word in his mind. Never.
The next morning Trunks was already up pretty early and now on his way into the kitchen, where his mother was already having breakfast. "Good morning, mother," he said shortly, as he sat down at the table with them.
"Good morning Trunks," Bulma greeted him cheerfully. "So, how did it go yesterday? I didn't hear you coming home last night…"
"I don't know, what you are talking about, mother," he told her, as he was devouring his breakfast.
"Trunks? Are you okay?" Bulma asked, worried by her son's behavior.
"Sure, everything's fine." He got up and grabbed his briefcase. "I have to go now, or I will be late for work." Without looking back, he left the house and went to his car.
Bulma just stared after him. No matter what he said, he wasn't okay. Something was seriously wrong with her son. "VEGETA!"
~*~
As Pan woke up the next morning, she was a bit disoriented. The last thing she remembered from the previous day was that she broke up with Trunks. Pan suddenly felt new tears coming into her eyes and buried her head in the soft fur of the huge teddy bear, which she was holding tightly. Everything after picking up the roses from the floor was a blur. She remembered that she had been sitting on the floor and crying for quite a while, but she couldn't remember how and when she finally got to bed and fell asleep. The only thing she knew for sure was that she was relieved as sleep finally released her from the terrible feeling of guilt that she felt now again. How much did she want to just fall asleep again, but she knew that she had to get up. She had to face reality.
She got out of the bed and went to the kitchen to get something to eat. But after she had filled one bowl with cereal, she felt a wave of nausea washing over her. She quickly dashed into the bathroom and just reached the toilet in time before she had to vomit on the floor. As she felt that she had fully emptied her guts, she sat down on the cold bathroom floor and leaned against the wall, as new sobs came over her. All this stress really got to her and even seemed to work up her stomach.
She sat there on the floor for she didn't know how long, before she finally got up to take a shower. And she didn't care. After waking up without an alarm clock she would have been late for work anyway.
About one hour later Pan was on the way to Trunks office. She still looked terrible and her whole body was shaking, but she had to do this. Hesitating, she walked into the office and found Trunks sitting with his back to her. "You're late," he stated coldly.
"I know…" Pan said, trying hard to keep her voice from wavering and went over to her desk, which, as she noticed, was now further away from Trunks' desk.
Trunks got out of his chair and picked up some folders. "Now that you're finally here, you can start with your work. I'll have a conference in about ten minutes and after that I'll be out for lunch. I want you to have looked through those folders until I come back, do you understand me, Miss Shen?"
Pan winced at the way he almost spat her name out. "Yes sir, Mr. Briefs…" she mumbled, not being able to look at him.
"Fine. Expect me to be back after lunch," he told her, before he left the office.
After Trunks was gone, Pan opened the first folder. But she couldn't concentrate on it. She had a hard time to fight back new tears, as she thought of how Trunks had acted. This was not the Trunks she had known all her live. He was like a stranger. Gone was the ever-present light in his eyes and his whole facial features had changed over night. And it was all her fault.
Wiping the tears from her eyes, she concentrated again on the folder. She had to be strong. She was, after all, a Saiyajin.
~*~
"Hey dad, what did mom want?" Bra wanted to know, as Vegeta came back into the gravity room, after Bulma had called him out, because she wanted to talk to him.
Vegeta snorted. "She wanted to know, if I had noticed some changes in your brother's behavior. She told me that he had acted like a stranger this morning," he told her, as he continued his stretches, but stopped, when he saw the strange look on Bra's face. "Do you know something about it?"
"What?" she asked. She had been thinking about Trunks behavior towards her the previous evening. "No… I-I don't know anything…" she stuttered, but the look her father was giving her made her squirm. He knew that she was lying to him. "Okay… Pia broke up with him last night…"
Vegeta was at a loss of words, probably for the first time in his life. The only thing he wanted to do now was beating Kakarotto's grandspawn up. How could she be so stupid? Why hadn't she just told him? He growled, as he walked to the door of the gravity room and opened it.
"Dad, were are you going?" Bra asked confused.
"To the office. The girl's probably there," he told her and just wanted to take off into the sky, as he felt Bra holding his arm.
"But there's one thing you should know dad…" she said carefully. "Pia is Pan."
Surprised, Vegeta turned around and stared at his daughter. "How did you find out?"
"Pan called me last night and asked me to help her with a problem she had with a man. I told her to break up with him, but at that time I didn't know that it was Trunks. I just found out about the whole thing last night…" she told him. "But wait a minute… You knew?" she asked surprised, as she really understood her father's question. Vegeta just nodded. "When?"
"At the party," Vegeta just said before he took into the sky.
Bra looked after the disappearing form of her father. He really knew? But why didn't he tell anyone? Did her mother know, too? Those and other questions were running through her mind, but she decided that she had to talk to her father later, when he was back.
~*~
Pan almost screamed, when she suddenly heard a knock at the window. She turned to it and saw that it was Vegeta, so she opened it and let him inside. "Hey Vegeta, what do you want?" she asked, trying to sound casual.
"Where's the brat?" Vegeta wanted to know, as he looked around the room.
"He's at a conference and after that he wanted to go out for lunch… We're alone…" Pan answered uneasily.
"That's good," he said and turned to her, "because I wanted to talk to you alone." Instinctively Pan inched a bit back from him, but he grabbed her right arm, where the bracelet was sitting and pulled her closer. "How can you be so stupid?" he asked, trying to keep his voice low, so that no one on the corridor could hear something. "You should have just told him! Then you wouldn't be in this mess you're in now! How do you plan on keeping it from him, now that you're bonded?"
"You want to know how?" Pan asked, beginning to defend herself. "Ever heard of something called mental barrier? With the mental barrier up, he can't go into my head. This way he can't find out about me."
"Have you ever thought about the other consequences the bond has?" Vegeta pried further. "You know that you can't deny it."
"This is why I don't deny it, Vegeta. I accept this bond, but I don't react to it. This way I keep the effects of the bond from kicking in. You of all people know that this works. You did the same, when you were in space after you mated with Bulma, right?" Pan told him.
"Could be," Vegeta just said. "But what you're doing is still stupid. I should rip this bracelet off of your arm so that everything is over." He held up her arm and grabbed the ki-shield.
"Vegeta, no!" Pan yelled, as she started to cry again. "Please… don't. I just need a bit more time… Please…"
Vegeta let go of her arm. "Okay," he said, his voice softened. "Do what you want." Without saying more, he climbed again out of the window and took off.
After Vegeta was gone, Pan walked back to her desk and sat down on her chair, laying her head on the desk and burying her face in her arms. This was not how she wanted everything to turn out. She had silently hoped that Trunks would somehow understand her. And now he was rejecting her and it was her own fault…But maybe, maybe Trunks' way of acting would just be temporary… Maybe he was just hurt really bad and would get over it soon… With this thought in mind, she began to work again, with the goal to please Trunks and make it easier for both of them, until she was ready.
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I know, this chapter was again a bit more depressing than the others, but I hope that you like it nonetheless…
But, hey! It took me just one day to write it! Yay me!
Please review!
Eternally yours
ChibiChibi