Disclaimer: me me me me me. you you you you you. we we we we we don't oooooooooooooooooooooooooooown, dbz.

A/N: *nice big stretch* So...very...close! *cracks neck and starts on tomorrow night's chapter*

********************************************
Petrified Tears
chapter 104



"Didn't you promise me the first dance, Gohan?"

Pan smiled, watching her mother snag her father's wrist and drag him, protesting, whining, and resisting, to the dance floor. She settled back onto a table, planting her feet in a chair. In the chair next to her feet, her uncle laughed.

"Shame Marron couldn't make it," he said quietly, resting an arm on her lap, the other along the back of his chair. "All of us finally together and Krillin worried to death over his daughter."

"Because of Bra?" Pan asked quietly, still finding the reason her friend had given as completely like Krillin or 18.

Goten shook his head, black hair flopping about his face. She smiled, scratching the top of his head, a part of her aching for the grandfather he so resembled, another just happy that he was still with her. He turned his head this way and that, letting her scratch the spots that itched, letting his eyes wander until he found Bulma and her daughter making the rounds, currently in the middle of a heated debate with Yamcha. Bulma was raging-Bra was clutching her stomach and laughing.

"No…despite anything she says, most of us don't care. It's her life and therefore her decision. Trunks is convinced she's just lonely and confused, but he's still supportive of her. I think he's just disappointed that he won't get to help Vegeta scare new boyfriends into submission."

Pan laughed quietly and he looked up at her, leaning against her side as she turned his head into an armrest.

"No, the reason Krillin's scared for his daughter is only indirectly connected to Bra's change in lifestyle, and that's a sketchy line, at best."

"What changed her? I mean…"

Goten shook his head knowingly, watching as Yamcha turned to Bra for help, only to make her laugh harder. "The story with Bra is that she finally found a guy that really meant something to her, who then went off and left her. If she wants you to know the details, she can tell you herself, but we both know that she won't say anything. She bottles things up just as much as the rest of us."

Pan nodded in agreement, letting her uncle continue with what was obviously common knowledge.

"Basically, she almost loved the guy, got her heart broken one too many times by the bastard, and has since lost all faith and trust in the male population."

Pan remained quiet for a while, and then offered up a strange, "Oh," before resting an elbow on her knees and her chin on her hand. "So that's what Trunks meant."

He looked back up at her, curious black eyes looking for an answer in blue.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah…Trunks and I have been having a lot of late night heart-to-hearts lately. He made mention of Bra confiding in him that all of the decent men are out of bounds."

Goten nodded, his gaze level on hers.

"Something tells me you've been edging around what your heart really needs you to tell him."

She ignored the statement though she felt a pinch in her heart as his words voiced what her emotions had been trying to tell her. Across the yard, Bulma pushed Yamcha into a punch bowl, soaking him completely and knocking Bra onto the ground with a fit of hysteria.

"So why's Krillin so worried about Marron?" she asked quietly.

Goten looked back up at her, but was unable to answer.

"Currently, the bastard's stalking her," came a voice from behind them. Pan turned and watched as Trunks came up and stood beside her, his eyes on his sister, a slight twinkle in cobalt blue eyes that shortly turned back to her. "Marron likes the guy, but she doesn't know how to tell Bra. And she also knows that he's probably a mistake waiting to happen. Bra's pretending she never knew that bastard was using her to get to Marron. Krillin's decided it's best to just keep Marron to himself and 18 for a while-they don't' want her to get hurt by the guy like my sister did, and they also know that the two have been best friends ever since…" He broke off, staring at the ground and rubbing the back of his head. Pan smiled as he shoved a hand into his black slacks. He was fidgety for some reason that was beyond her, and it was cute as anything. "Well, for about four years now. Krillin nor 18 want her to jeopardize Bra for a playing bastard, and Marron understands that. So she's taking her sabbatical from teaching and staying home to think things over and decide what she really wants to do."

"She teaches?"

"Kindergarteners," Goten chirped proudly. He grinned. "18 and I conned her superiors into thinking she'd been on the verge of a nervous breakdown due to family stress, so they cut her hours and told her to take the rest of the year off. Next year she'll work a half day, then spend the other half helping me with the dojo."

Pan laughed. "The guy must be a real asshole for you to hate him like you do," she added with a hit of wonder, looking over at Trunks. He blushed and shoved the other hand deep into a pocket.

Goten tapped her knee, drawing her attention.

"The guy makes both of us look like catholic priests. The kindest way to put it, is that he taught that asshole who wanted to take you to prom." Pan shuddered at the memory. Beside her, Trunks shifted his weight and slipped an arm around her back.

"He's not so bad," he replied, glaring down at her uncle. "He's never gone so far as to necessitate violence, but that doesn't mean my father and I don't want to kill him anyways."

She smiled tentatively. "Whatever happened to that asshole?"

Both fell silent. She looked anxiously between the two, wondering what had happened to her last boyfriend, the guy who had tied to date rape her when she was hardly 18. When they remained silent, she pinched her uncle's arm.

"Oooow," he whined, whimpering pitiably. She grinned as he rubbed at the reddened skin, before looking up at Trunks, her elbow poised to make contact with his ribs.

A smirk lit on his lips, she frowned in return.

"What did you two do to him?" she demanded.

"We wrapped him up in a big red bow and gave him to my Father as an early Father's Day gift," he grinned, laughing at the horror of the inhuman act that spread across her face. He only laughed harder as she turned and pummeled with half-hearted fists.

"No one deserves that!" she cried as he defended himself by curling around them both, ensnaring her against his chest.

His laughter grew a little somber as she giggled into his shirt, the scent of her hair engulfing him. His hand sought out hers, gently grasping her fingers.

"Let's go dance," he chuckled quietly, tugging her to her feet. Still giggling, she followed him onto the dance floor.

**************************************
A/N: And for anyone who's considering the Tear Drops Challenge, I've tweaked things a bit. You can now draw any t/p pic (mushy or non), or a gohan/pan father/dauther pic. Submissions due the 20th of February.

-Panabelle ;P
All be will explain in time, and time is running out.