Dislcaimer: And now, a special guest appearance by the owner of DBZ! *Panabelle is shoved onstage by her demonic Jack-muse* Shit! Jack! Get your horny little butt back here, I need to kill you!

A/N: Something I forgot to mention in my notes last chapter; Thank you everyone who's been emailing me in the past couple days to get off my lazy butt and write. I'll actually admit that I was so caught up in original stuff, I forgot I even had PT going!, but I won't forget so soon again! I promise! Speaking of my original stuff, go read Tears of Blood. *shameless plug*

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Petrified Tears
chapter 68



"WHAT?!?"

Trunks swallowed and backed hastily away, hands up in front of him, body bent over backwards in attempt to keep Pan from his throat. Pan leaned in for the kill, eyes savage and teeth bared.

"Pan, calm down-"

"TRUNKS!!!" she roared. Trunks scrambled backwards, tripping over his desk in the process and landing in a terrified heap on the other side. He jumped up with a shot, quickly making sure to keep the desk between them as a black-haired, blue eyed, miniature ChiChi stared him down from the other side.

"Pan, listen, I can explain!" he started hurriedly, having seen Goku squirm his way out of ChiChi's wrath more than enough times to pull it off.

"You have three seconds," she growled, leaning forward on the desk, gripping the edge with her hands.

He winced as the wood cracked.

Note to self: I'm not Goku and Pan's stronger than ChiChi.

"Three…Two…"

Suddenly remembering that he had three seconds-now one-to save his neck, Trunks started sputtering as quickly as he could, almost not caring if she could understand him because he knew she wouldn't care the reason.

"Pan, he's an old client and my mom's friend; he has kids and grandchildren to suppor-"

"Time's up!" she thundered.

Trunks cowered behind his swivel chair, prepared to bolt to either side of the desk when she came after him so that the desk would remain between them.

"Don't kill me?" he whimpered, waiting to see which way she'd dart.

Pan screamed, lifted the desk off the ground and heaved it at the wall.

"Oh shit."

With an animalistic cry of rage that would have made both ChiChi and Bulma proud to tears, Pan launched herself at the son of the mighty prince, knocking him to the ground with his chair, pinning him beneath her, and wrapping her hands around his neck.

"You promised me we wouldn't be here all night! That I could eat with my family, sleep in my bed, and get home at a decent hour!" she cried, banging his head against the floor of the office every few syllables in a steady rhythm until his tongue lolled out of his mouth and his eyes flopped about in his head as she shook him; and even then she didn't stop.

"I hate you! You arrogant, self-serving, obstinate, son of a-eep!" She broke off into a scream and jumped high enough to cling to the light fixture on the ceiling as there came a tapping at the glass.

Trembling, she stared wide-eyed at the tappers; Trunks recovered his senses and turned to the window, jumping up and eagerly letting ChiChi and her two banquet-sized picnic baskets into the office, completely oblivious to Goten's presence.

"Food, as promised," ChiChi announced, setting the baskets down as Goten placed her on the ground. Trunks scooped her up, swinging her around like a doll.

"Wonderful, wonderful woman!" he sang, twirling around the room with her.

Goten rolled his eyes at the spectacle of his best friend and mother, and turned to face his niece.

"Did we scare you Panny?"

Humilated, Pan extracted herself from the light fixture and lowered herself to the floor.

"Hi, Uncle Goten."

She was immediately smothered in a hug only Goten knew how to give, nearly swallowed whole by his arms and chest.

"Uncle Goten!" she screamed into his shirt, laughing, her voice coming out as a giggle. "I love you too, but this is ridiculous!"

Laughing, he released her, holding her arms-length and eye-level in front of him so that she dangled helplessly like a child; her toes were inches from the ground as they smiled at each other.

"You do know I'm not six anymore, right, Uncle Goten?"

In the background, ChiChi smacked Trunks as they twirled.

He laughed again, his black eyes sparkling through the black hair that hung in his face.

"It's just been a while since I've seen you, that's all, Pan-Pan."

Her happy face dropped into one of violent intentions. "Call me that again and I'll be forced to destroy you."

Goten shook his head and chuckled, his eyes closing and his smile taking over the whole of his face.

"It'd take her seriously if I were you, and not piss her off. I've already seen my life flash before my eyes four times in the past 2 hours," Trunks piped up, looking up from one of the picnic baskets. ChiChi promptly smacked him on the back of the head.

Goten glanced back at him shyly as he rubbed the back of his head, not quite sure what to say to his once-best friend.

"I'm not done with you yet, either," Pan cut in, her eyes flashing angrily. "You promised I wouldn't have to spend another night in this office, then you turn right around and promise Mr. What's-his-face I would!"

"That's not my fault and you know it, Pan," Trunks replied, suddenly brave with others there, but still unable to meet her gaze; "And I'm not making you go to dinner with him tomorrow night, so stop complaining."

Her face darkened and her eyes turned almost black.

"Don't plan on sleeping tonight."

"Don't think about napping until you explain that sister comment to me."

Pan glared.

Trunks glared back.

Pan bared her teeth.

Trunks broke into a sweat.

Pan growled.

Trunks began to look nervously for an escape route.

Goten set Pan down.

Trunks sprinted past them to retrieve the remains of his desk.

Goten stared back and forth between the two before side-stepping past his niece to help Trunks gather and reassemble the wood, the two working together awkwardly.

Pan remained where Goten had set her, turning her head to keep the brunt of her glare on the purple-haired half-saiyan. ChiChi merely watched, waiting to empty the picnic baskets.

Forty-five minutes later, most of the food was gone, with the exception of an apple pie and two bunches of grapes.

"So, Panny, any boyfriends in California?" Goten asked as he and the other two semi-saiyans stared almost drooling at the last pie.

"Guy friends, but no boyfriends. Just some guy I roomed with for a while."

"That Jack guy," Trunks supplied.

"Jack mean anything to you?" Goten asked, his gaze so deep he seemed to be counting the sugar and cinnamon grains on the apple slices.

"Yeah. My sanity."

"Food," Trunks replied.

ChiChi closed her eyes and shook her head, setting an empty platter in the bottom of the second basket. They'd been at this for half an hour, Goten asking a question, Pan replying, Trunks tossing out some random comment that some how managed to both elaborate on Pan's answer and oddly answer Goten's question. They never went out of order; it was absolutely amazing.

She glanced over at them, Pan sitting cross-legged on the desk, Trunks in his swivel chair, Goten in one of the padded chairs opposite from Trunks. All three just sat there staring at the last pie, each waiting for the perfect moment to tackle it when the others wouldn't expect it, staring at it as if it were a holy idol.

If she didn't know better, she'd accuse them of trying to eat the pastry with their eyes.

Actually, she did know better, and yet she would still accuse them of trying to eat it with their eyes.

They were all part saiyan, of course they were trying to.

"So…"

Pan lifted a hand, yawning into the back of it, displaying the bandage on her palm from her run-in with Trunks' windshield to all the occupants of the office.

ChiChi narrowed her eyes, seeing Trunks' name all over the bandage.

"Alright young lady, what happened?" she demanded.

Pan tore her gaze from the pie, looking to her grandmother with large, perplexed eyes.

"Huh? What do you mean, Grandma?"

ChiChi marched over and grabbed the girl's wrist, yanking her off the desk.

"Oh. That."

ChiChi then proceeded to drag her towards Trunk's private bathroom. Pan panicked, suddenly aware that she was being dragged away from the pie, and tried to claw her way back to it, quite unsuccessfully.

"Grandma, hang on, just-no! I can't-"

"The pie will still be there when we get back. I want to clean this, now."

With one last whimper, Pan and ChiChi were gone, the door slamming shut behind them.

A moment later, in perfect unison, Trunks and Goten became aware that Pan was no longer there. Blinking, both raised their heads and turned to look at the missing daughter of Gohan, each keeping the pie in their peripheral vision. Each rolled an eye in to meet the other's gaze, their faces following until the two met in a head on stare for the first time in four years.

"So…"

"…Yeah…"

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A/N: Rico ran around the rig, ready to REVIEW.

*hint hint*

-Panabelle ;P
Shrine of the Saiyan Squirt