Disclaimer: Smiles are free at McDonald's…but I think you have to pay for them at Burger King. CORPORATE SCUM!

A/N: Dude! There are little people on my screen! Cool!

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Petrified Tears
chapter 49



"Marron and I were talking of trying a relationship one last time when you left for college. We didn't say anything to anyone else, because we didn't want to hear everybody go off on how it had never worked between us before, so why should it would now? Not even Goten knew. I know we should have told him, we both knew, but there was just that fear he wouldn't understand, and both she and I were so desperate for any kind of relationship that I could have been abusive and she could have been stealing money from me at every turn, and we still would have crawled back to each other.

"Things went on like that for about a month, before Goten…well…for lack of a better explanation…walked in on us. We weren't…yeah…but Goten immediately placed one and one and about seventy-nine together, and came to a conclusion that wasn't that far from the truth."

"Seventy-nine?" Pan interrupted, her hands smoothing his hair back from his face.

He looked up at her guiltily and nodded.

"That's about how many times we lied to him…"

"Oh."

He looked back down at his hands as they rested across his chest.

"Goten and I weren't exactly on good terms to begin with…I guess we both sort of blamed each other as the reason to why you had gone to college so far away…and him missing his niece and me the only person in the world I've ever really trusted with near-blindness, only made us quietly hate each other when you didn't come back for Christmas and every other holiday you'd promised to come back on.

"But he'd been talking to Marron a lot, and she'd told him what she and I had agreed to tell everyone who asked: we both missed you and were compensating for your absence by giving our friendship another go. He'd bought it, because it wasn't too far from a tiny bit of the truth, but when he stormed into the office that morning, and found us…well…found us…" he trailed off and shook his head.

"He screamed at me something along the lines of me being the reason you'd gone to California, that I'd chased you off and that I was the reason you weren't coming home. I was pissed, took a swing at him, and the thing turned into an all out brawl in which no concern for Marron was spared…we probably would have killed her and ourselves had we not blown up the computer and monitor in the process and me been knocked unconscious by the blast…I'll tell you one thing, computers from three and a half years ago will destroy a room if you hit them with a ki blast."

He sighed, twisting his hands to look at the old training scars on the palms.

"When I came to, Marron and I decided 'no more', and we both quietly left and never spoke of the incident to anyone…especially not each other. She went after Goten to make amends, and I flew out and camped on the roof of your house, hoping to catch him when he went home so that he and I could talk rationally. I was there for quite a while, and believe me, by the time he showed up I was pretty disappointed in myself…and really pissed at him.

"He showed up a few hours later, but went inside without more then a glare at me, and I stayed out there until nightfall when he came storming out onto the roof to have it out with me again. We set off into the old training fields without saying anything to each other, and just started kicking the shit out of each other, same as we had done in my office-in here-that same morning, only there was no Marron to (not) worry about and nothing to blow up and knock either or both of us unconscious.

"Somewhere around midnight, about the time the moon came out, I finally just lost it, broke something, and nearly killed him. That was when we talked. I demanded to know just what the hell had gotten into him, and all he could do was yell at me about how it was my fault, that I was a cold heartless bastard, and that I didn't deserve anything I had ever gotten from any girl, unless it was a swift kick in the ass. I hit him again, and he started talking rationally.


"How could you lie to me about you and Marron?"

"I'm not the one who lied about it, Goten. She did."

"Because you told her to!"

Trunks grumbled, rubbing the side of his face with his hand. "Goten, we just didn't want to put up with all of that shit we got last time, alright?"

"No! Not alright! I'm your best friend!"

Tempted to scream, You're not my best friend anymore Goten! You started chasing girls and left me with Panny!, but considering that he had been chasing girls at the time as well, he knew better. Instead he bit the inside of his cheek with razor sharp teeth and replied with, "Goten, I know we could have trusted you to understand…but I haven't really seen a lot of you. You're always off with Paris or some other girl."

"Do you have any idea of how much you hurt her?"

Trunks stepped back, blinking quickly in confusion, allowing Goten the dignity of getting off the ground and standing up.

"Hurt who? Marron? Or Paris?"

Goten's fist had flailed out, knocking Trunks flat on his ass.

"Pan! Pan, you idiot!" Goten shrieked, towering over him.

Sprawled nearly on his back, legs askew, he dropped his power level back to normal and stared up at his friend as if he had just turned into a giant ape.

"Pan? What the hell are you talking about? How the hell did I hurt Pan?"

Goten had glared down at him for a moment, then had dropped his own power level and stared down at him sadly.

"You really don't know, do you?" he said quietly.

Trunks stared up at him incredulously. "What do you mean, 'I don't know'? What the hell are you talking about?"

Goten sighed.

"You don't know what it was like for her…any of it. What she went through."

"What what was like for her? What did she go through? Goten, what in the name of Dende are you talking about?"

Goten merely shook his head. "If you don't know already, you wouldn't believe me." And with that, he turned and walked back to the house.


Trunks sighed after reflecting back on, and telling Pan of, the conversation.

"So basically, it's my fault you two fell out," she stated simply after a few minutes of contemplation.

He tilted his head and looked back her. They were lying on the desk again, both using the other's shoulder as a pillow. She was looking at the ceiling in careful contemplation, her face peaceful and almost smiling as she reviewed what he'd told her.

"Not really…"

"No. If I hadn't gone to Cali, or if I'd come home every so often, you two wouldn't have busted your balls with trying to pin the blame of my being happy in Cali, and not wanting to come home, on each other."

He was quiet for a moment, looking back at her.

"Well, if you put it that way…yeah, I guess. But not really…"

"Like hell 'not really'. Uncle Goten knew I had my reasons, and he's the only soul I trusted them with. Unfortunately, he kinda crossed hairs and turned multiple reasons into one, and blaming you was the outcome. But had I not gone to Cali, he never would have found out those reasons, never would have gotten his own idea of everything, and never would have tried to beat the shit out of you in my name." She shook her head. "Whichever way you paint the picture, it's all going to come down to my going to California and not coming home."

"Or to Marron lying to Goten because I was too chickenshit to tell him she and I were seeing each other again."

Pan quieted, but then shook her head. "He would have understood if it were just Marron. Hell, he's never told you about half of the girlfriends he had, and I know for a fact he's never told you that he dated Bra for about two weeks during my senior year."

"What?!"

Pan squawked indignantly as she was thrown to the floor by Trunks flopping over to stare at her.

Rubbing her head and rubbing her ass, she looked up at him.

"Oops."

His eyes took up more then half of his face, while his pupils had shrunk to barely half their normal size.

"He what?" he demanded flatly.

She swallowed thickly, cursing herself and the easy frame of mind that her family was cursed with that allowed them to slip up with words even when telling themselves to shut the hell up, and sat up, pressing her feet sole-to-sole and holding them in her hand while rubbing the back of her head.

"Just ignore I said anything, alright? Nothing happened, the age difference was too creepy for either of them and they broke up as soon as Bra discovered the Mexican exchange student and Goten discovered Digimon. Ok? Please? I doubt they even ever kissed. Trunks? Please? Don't say anything? Please?" she begged, laughing giddily, sweating.

Grumbling, he locked eyes with her.

"Only on the terms that you tell me how the fuck Goten was able to 'cross hairs' and come to the conclusion I'd hurt you."

Her face paled even further.

"I give you my full-hearted blessings and permission to kill and castrate him. I'll even help."

His head fell forward against the hand griping the edge of the desk.

She laughed as she listened to him grumble.

"Sorry Trunks. But there are just some things I'll never you. It's kind of like your sex life. I don't want to hear it, nor do I want you to tell it. In this case, I don't want you to hear my reasons, nor do I want to tell you them."

He grumbled into his fist, staring with a dumb "I knew better then to ask" expression on the visible top half of his face.

She laughed.

"Maybe someday…but not anytime soon. I'm all for this 'no secrets' thing you've proposed, but telling you all of my reasons would just be going too far."

He glared down at her, his face comical to the point of near hysteria, and then formed real words besides the inane and inaudible grumblings he had done nothing but form for the past three minutes.

"Then what's your deepest, darkest secret, Pan."

She smiled warmly up at him, her face bordering the bright innocence that her father and uncle had inherited from their father.

"I would give almost anything to be your sister for one day."

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A/N: no more chapters for today. *sniffs* Oh damn. Oh well.

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NO! NO! DON'T GO HERE! DON'T DO IT! NO NO NO NO NO! *screaming shrilly*