Disclaimer: *Chibi Trunks pulls on pant leg, pouts at the chibi doll* *scoops action figure into arms and squeezes* *Chibi Trunks squirms in attempt at freedom*
A/N: Wait a minute here--keep reading? AAH!? Did I update another chapter? *looks* I did! I did! Oh, and remember ya'll, reviews are like smiles. They brighten your day.
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Petrified Tears
chapter 85
"I'll go get him," Mr. Summers started but Pan held out her hand before her, shaking her head no.
"He's so caught up in his own little world right now that he wouldn't understand," she said quietly, smiling sadly. Trunks's fingers tightened on her hand as the older man eyed her worriedly. She ducked her head, not willing to meet the old man's gaze.
"Panny?" Trunks whispered, ducking his head close to hers, pushing his nose into her ear, trying to make her smile. She bit the side of her bottom lip as he put his arm over her shoulders and ducked his face, trying to look into hers. "You alright, PanPan?"
She blushed at the nickname, twisting her shoulders, trying to free herself from his hold. He only gave her another squeeze, kissing her temple briefly.
"Miss Son, Mr. Briefs," their client broke in, his eyes concerned and confused. He shifted his hold on his wine glass, setting it down without taking his elbow from the table, leaving his fingers to gliss along the glass rim. "What is it that you need to speak to me about?"
Trunks opened his mouth to start, but his breath fell away before even touching the words as Pan leaned forward and pulled the top card from the deck that Jack had abandoned before leaving. The two older men watched her as she sat back into her seat and smiled at the card.
"The ace of spades…lucky card…" She sighed and twirled the card in her fingers.
"Miss Son?"
"Pan?"
She blinked and looked up, looking between the two men with a smile that was as sincere as it was sad.
"Hmm? Oh…sorry. It was a game we played…At the frat house…er…well, we called it a frat house, but it wasn't…isn't. Some friends of Jack's and classmates of mine decided we were tired of the fraternity boys and sorority sisters and decided to make our own. It was basically a house bought on campus, for the outsiders and outcasts who wanted to be part of a group but couldn't stand tradition, a complete fraud that just looked good for those of us on scholarship. So we had three floors: the main floor for mingling, the 'sorority' floor, and the 'fraternity' floor. It's a long story."
She laughed again, a bit of her happiness returning for the first time since she'd come down the stairs of her own home a few hours ago. She smiled up at Mr. Summers, seeing traces of her college friend in his face, but not finding him there. She was glad about that.
"We called ourselves the Bicycle House by Jack's suggestion," she continued, showing the card to the others, tapping it on the edge of the table. "It was a total gag, but campus took us seriously, and put rules on the house. Such as, no females in the male rooms and vice versa, for any reason other than sticking in their head and saying 'you've got a phone call' or something of the like. So Jack and Molly and I would spend a lot of time sitting in the hall outside of my room playing cards." She tapped the card on the table again. "The ace of spades was a gag from a day we played war last summer…to make a long story short, I gave Jack one random card after he lost. It was this card, and he killed Molly, and took half my deck before I managed to win it back from him in a triple war. Since then, we'd play 'find the ace' and whoever found it got to boss the other two around si-…until someone else snagged the card from them."
She smiled again and leaned forward, setting the card back on the top of the deck, looking up and meeting the warm eyes and knowing smile of Mr. Summers.
"You're not…engaged to each other, are you," the old man said gently as she sat back in her seat. She blinked and looked at him strangely. Trunks laughed sheepishly beside her.
"No, we aren't," he admitted. She looked at him, at the lopsided and quiet grin as he stared down at the table cloth. Something inside of her compelled her to pull her hand from her skirt and set it over his. He started at her touch, instinctively entwining his fingers into hers. "It's my mother's 'subtle' way of telling me she wants to see me married. Pan got caught in the crossfire."
The older man laughed quietly and Pan rubbed the back of her neck with her hand, looking up at him almost guiltily. "Is it that obvious?"
He smiled at them. "Well, noo…except that in most occasions, the newly-engaged are oftentimes much happier, despite how exhausted they are."
Pan and Trunks glanced at each other out of the corners of their eyes and both drew a breath of relief, and yet there was something guarded that only the older man seemed to catch.
"We're really sorry about this, Mr. Summers," Pan started, discretely pulling her hand back from Trunks as she looked up to see Jack walking back towards them. "Um…do you think…"
"I don't know," the old man replied quietly as Jack came up behind him.
"Doubt it," Trunks whispered, watching her face fall a little. He leaned closer and pressed his lips against her earlobe, giving her a one armed squeeze once more. "We'll tell him, Panny, I promise you. I'll fix this, I promise." He pulled away and she smiled at him. "I promise."
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A/N: Yeah. Reading back, I relized I'd put two characters of juxtaposing genders into a FRAT house. Yeah. I needed to fix that before someone else pointed it out to me. And that thing about the war of the ace of spades? That happened. Pure chance. I extracted revenge on Jack for that one. Oh well, at least the Lloyd didn't beat me.
-Panabelle ;P
www.angelfire.com/ca7/cathrynsfault