~*~
Preparing for a dance was harder than Pan thought, she had so much to do, a new dress, new shoes, she needed to get her hair done. But the good thing was that her family was not lagging so much behind in their debts, thanks to Gohan, they were actually paying off most of it and were no longer in financial difficulty.
Well, not really anyway, although they were not extremely wealthy, they weren't poor either, they were middle class, and slowly moving up. After all, they had a beautiful home, which was more than a lot of people had.
Yet, Videl still blamed the royals for taking her Gohan away from her. Since he had a new job, he could not come back to visit them until he was very stable. And Gohan? He absolutely loathed the royals, for forcing him to be away from his beloved daughter, wife and brother.
Since the ball requested all virgin girls of the entire kingdom under twenty-five years of age to be there. Pan guessed that Emit would be there also. She certainly hoped so, although Marron was a great friend to her. There was something that lacked between the two that made each other best friends, Pan and Marron had known each other for their entire lifetime, yet not once did Pan consider Marron to be her best friend. Neither was Emit. But Pan believed that she'd find someone.
But first of all, she needed to decide what to wear. In fact, she and Marron were going to the village in hopes of finding something.
"Hurry up!" Marron whined, "I really want a good gown!"
Pan slipped on her other shoe, "The ball isn't for another few days!"
"But I want to look my best!" Marron beamed, "Who knows? Maybe the prince would pick me!"
Pan rolled her eyes, "Fat chance of that happening."
"What do you mean?" Marron asked, "I'm not good enough for him?"
"He's not good enough for you, after all, that's what princes were like, annoying, vain, self-centered, and incredibly arrogant."
Marron twirled a strand of blonde hair with her pinky, "True, but it would be so neat to meet him! I might even get to talk to him!"
"Oh, what fun." Pan muttered.
Unaware of her friend's sarcasm, Marron skipped out of the house, "C'mon! Let's go!"
~*~
"How about this one?" Marron held out a bright red dress, "It lacks something, though."
"The lower bottom half?" Suggested Pan.
Marron laughed, "Oh, don't be naïve, Pan, it's the style now, no one wears those long, plain old dresses."
"Sure." Pan yawned, they've been shopping for an entire hour now. What a waste of time! She hadn't found one decent dress that was 'complete', and was giving up hope.
"Hey, how about this one?" Marron held the dress in front of herself, "I like it! It's so different!"
"Sure, black lacy velvet is very different." Pan sighed, "Marron? What are you thinking?"
"I don't know." Marron ignored her, "I don't think I can find a pair of matching shoes, oh well."
Pan wandered into the back of the store, looking for an out-of-date dress, something longer than knee length. Unfortunately, there was none.
The chubby shopkeeper waddled over to her, "Miss, may I help you with something?"
"Yes." Pan thought for a moment, "Do you have any old dresses?"
"Old?" The shopkeeper raised a thick eyebrow, "What do you mean, miss?"
"No." Pan bit her bottom lip, "Well, do you have anything that's not quite so . . . revealing?"
The shopkeeper nodded, "Ah, a shy one, aren't you? Of course, come with me."
Pan followed the shopkeeper into the backroom and he pointed to a dusty rack, "These are some of the more out of date clothes, they aren't selling too good, but I'll give you bargain if you decide to buy one."
"Thanks." Pan began to flip through the clothes, they certainly were less revealing, but all of them were very plain, hardly something one would wear to a ball. But then, one certain dress caught her eye. As she held it closer to the dim light, she knew that it was absolutely perfect for her.
She beamed at the shopkeeper, "You wouldn't have matching shoes for this dress, would you?"
"I'll see what I can find, miss."
Finally, after another exhausting half-hour of shopping, both Pan and Marron have gotten all their stuff, they headed for home.
"Oooo! I cannot wait until the ball! I love my new dress!" Squealed Marron.
"It certainly is very . . . pink." Pan shielded her eyes from the neon pink dress.
"I know, isn't it fabulous?" Marron sighed, "Wouldn't it be nice if we both got accepted into the palace? Then maybe we'd be sisters or something?"
Pan laughed, "Sure, that'd be nice. You and your pink dress, let's hope it doesn't blind the king."
"You're just jealous!" Marron pouted, "You didn't find a good enough dress since you were too picky, and look at your dress, it's so incredibly old fashioned!"
Pan shrugged, "I like it, especially because it's not a bright colour!"
"Well, my dress is very noticeable, there's no way that the prince won't pay attention to me!" Marron countered.
"Whatever, do you want to come over tonight? We can watch a few movies." Pan suggested.
"And get ready for the ball?" Suggested Marron
"Er . . . sure."
"Count me in, then!"
~*~
"So? You must be excited!"
Trunks laughed, "Excited? You must be kidding, would you be excited if you had to get married within the next few days?"
"Of course!" Bra beamed, "After all, Trunks, you get your pick of the whole country!"
Trunks sighed, "I don't know, everything's been happening in a flash, I don't think I'm ready for marriage."
"Oh, Trunks." Bra frowned, "You're going to turn 30 soon, 3-0! Do you know what that means? It means that you're going to be an old geezer! So you better find a suitable bride quick!"
Trunks turned around to face his 17-year old sister, "What kind of person would you like to marry?"
Bra thought for a bit before answering, "Someone that cares about me very deeply, has a good sense of humour, is strong but gentle, and can be himself all the time without trying to act big."
"That's it?"
"Oh, he has to be very, very handsome also."
Trunks laughed, "Thought as much."
"Oh, Trunks, the ball's already started! You have to get ready now!" Bra whined, "I bet most of the guests have already arrived!"
"Yeah, yeah, you go first, I think I'll be out in a second." Trunks muttered.
"Suit yourself." The princess skipped down the stairs and gasped, there were so many people! The grand hall was completely filled! Trunks would definitely be able to find a suitable bride tonight! She glanced down from the balcony, her brother was going to get a lot of attention tonight. Oh well, it was too bad that she didn't have a boyfriend. Her father was way too strict.
As she saw the door open again, she saw a shimmering blur of bright pink, and as she shielded her eyes, in the process of doing so, she slipped from the smooth marble and started to fall to the floor below. The guests all gasped in horror as they watched the princess helplessly fall.
Bra closed her eyes and cursed herself, oh why hasn't she bothered to learn to fly? It would sure come in handy right now! Why didn't she bother to learn some martial arts like her dad and brother insisted in doing, she wouldn't be dead now! Wait! She wasn't dead, as far as she knew, she was still alive.
Bra opened one eye, and then the other one, "Y-you saved me!"
"Actually, you landed on me, but your way works too." The boy beneath her grinned.
"Who are you? Are you a royal? I haven't seen you before, only girls are allowed today." Bra asked.
"I'm Goten, I'm not a royal, I'm also the caterer today, the king gave me special permission to be here tonight and supervise all the chefs and I hope that answered all of your questions."
"Um . . . sure . . ." Bra blinked twice, this was too perfect, an extremely gorgeous boy rescuing her! Like Prince Charming! "Thanks for rescuing me!"
"No problem, who are you?" Goten asked.
"I'm Bra, well, princess Bra." Bra replied.
"Oh, you're the princess! I knew I saw you from somewhere before." Goten nodded, "I wouldn't have forgot such a lovely face like yours."
Bra blushed a beautiful shade of scarlet, "Um . . . gotten . . ."
"Goten."
"Oh, right, Goten, would you like to be . . . my date? For tonight?" Bra blushed even harder.
"Sure, I would be honoured, princess Bra." Goten grinned.
"Really? Thank you so much!" Bra beamed, not only did she escape death, she also had an incredibly handsome boy for a date!
"There's just one problem, though."
"What?"
"You'll have to get off me first."
~*~
Great, where'd she go? His sister disappeared on him when he needed her most, surely she did not expect him to go out and face all of those girls alone, did she?
Trunks sighed, he took his eyes off her for one second, and she's gone, probably ran off with some boy. He said to no one in particular, "Like that would ever happen, she's always too picky."
And instead of entering the grand hall through the second floor and making a grand entrance, he decided to go through the side door, he didn't want too much attention directed at him.
As he pushed open the metal door, he was overwhelmed by the number of females that were in the room! And they were all so beautiful! He rubbed his eyes, surely his father did not expect him to choose one out of the thousands here.
But he frowned in disgust as he examined what each girl was wearing, what ever happened to the good old-fashioned dresses that weren't so revealing? This might as well have been a swimsuit competition. There were mini-skirts everywhere, and spaghetti seemed to be the style this year.
They were no more than royal concubines, he thought, as he wandered around the room, careful not to attract too much attention. And what was he supposed to do for the rest of the night? Talk to slutty girls hoping to marry him for his incredible fortune? If only he could find one sensible person to communicate with. And as he turned his head, a bright pink thing was shone right in his eyes, he yelped and quickly turned around, this was too much, he didn't think he could handle it.
He started to head back upstairs, looking at the floor so no one could see his eyes and identify him as the prince, he kept his hood on carefully, hiding his purple hair. As he avoided most of the legs and feet that came in his way, he spotted fabric, and he stopped to examine the girl, who was talking with another girl.
A pair of heelless black velvet slippers with a gold notch on the side adorned her small feet, immediately above the feet, was a beautiful black dress, tight yet not revealing at all, it showed her incredibly curved figure but nothing else. The dress itself was oriental styled, having a dragon intertwined between roses. The dress actually had sleeves, a not-so- scooped neckline. Trunks raised his head, surely a beautiful body would have a gorgeous head to go with it. And he nodded to himself as he examined her, yes, it was very gorgeous indeed, dark hair tied in a knot at the navel of her long, slender neck, and her face bore no makeup, which gave her a natural shine over the rest of the 'group'.
He noticed that the corners of her lips were raised as she spoke, he thought to himself, I know this girl from somewhere, she has such a wonderful smile.
And perhaps he had been standing there, gaping at her for too long, for she must've realized his presence, and as she turned around, she snapped, "Do you mind?"
That voice, not high, but having a course tone to it, yet a friendly and amiable sound to his ears, he had been longing for these two weeks for someone to yell at him, to argue with him. Even his father had been surprising pleasant to him. Probably from his mother's influence.
"Excuse me? I asked you a question, if you had any brains in that thick skull of yours, you'd have the decency to answer me, who are you? And do you mind not staring at me? It's unsettling and very disturbing! I'm trying to talk with a friend of mine, have you any manners?!"
Trunks stumbled back from the girl's sudden outburst, his clock falling off his head, his cerulean eyes met the girl's onyx ones, and he stuttered.
"P-Pan?"
~*~
That was one of the better cliffies, anyways, you probably all hate me now . . . ^-^
I will have the next chappie out soon, and that's a promise!
-Juunanagou4ver
Preparing for a dance was harder than Pan thought, she had so much to do, a new dress, new shoes, she needed to get her hair done. But the good thing was that her family was not lagging so much behind in their debts, thanks to Gohan, they were actually paying off most of it and were no longer in financial difficulty.
Well, not really anyway, although they were not extremely wealthy, they weren't poor either, they were middle class, and slowly moving up. After all, they had a beautiful home, which was more than a lot of people had.
Yet, Videl still blamed the royals for taking her Gohan away from her. Since he had a new job, he could not come back to visit them until he was very stable. And Gohan? He absolutely loathed the royals, for forcing him to be away from his beloved daughter, wife and brother.
Since the ball requested all virgin girls of the entire kingdom under twenty-five years of age to be there. Pan guessed that Emit would be there also. She certainly hoped so, although Marron was a great friend to her. There was something that lacked between the two that made each other best friends, Pan and Marron had known each other for their entire lifetime, yet not once did Pan consider Marron to be her best friend. Neither was Emit. But Pan believed that she'd find someone.
But first of all, she needed to decide what to wear. In fact, she and Marron were going to the village in hopes of finding something.
"Hurry up!" Marron whined, "I really want a good gown!"
Pan slipped on her other shoe, "The ball isn't for another few days!"
"But I want to look my best!" Marron beamed, "Who knows? Maybe the prince would pick me!"
Pan rolled her eyes, "Fat chance of that happening."
"What do you mean?" Marron asked, "I'm not good enough for him?"
"He's not good enough for you, after all, that's what princes were like, annoying, vain, self-centered, and incredibly arrogant."
Marron twirled a strand of blonde hair with her pinky, "True, but it would be so neat to meet him! I might even get to talk to him!"
"Oh, what fun." Pan muttered.
Unaware of her friend's sarcasm, Marron skipped out of the house, "C'mon! Let's go!"
~*~
"How about this one?" Marron held out a bright red dress, "It lacks something, though."
"The lower bottom half?" Suggested Pan.
Marron laughed, "Oh, don't be naïve, Pan, it's the style now, no one wears those long, plain old dresses."
"Sure." Pan yawned, they've been shopping for an entire hour now. What a waste of time! She hadn't found one decent dress that was 'complete', and was giving up hope.
"Hey, how about this one?" Marron held the dress in front of herself, "I like it! It's so different!"
"Sure, black lacy velvet is very different." Pan sighed, "Marron? What are you thinking?"
"I don't know." Marron ignored her, "I don't think I can find a pair of matching shoes, oh well."
Pan wandered into the back of the store, looking for an out-of-date dress, something longer than knee length. Unfortunately, there was none.
The chubby shopkeeper waddled over to her, "Miss, may I help you with something?"
"Yes." Pan thought for a moment, "Do you have any old dresses?"
"Old?" The shopkeeper raised a thick eyebrow, "What do you mean, miss?"
"No." Pan bit her bottom lip, "Well, do you have anything that's not quite so . . . revealing?"
The shopkeeper nodded, "Ah, a shy one, aren't you? Of course, come with me."
Pan followed the shopkeeper into the backroom and he pointed to a dusty rack, "These are some of the more out of date clothes, they aren't selling too good, but I'll give you bargain if you decide to buy one."
"Thanks." Pan began to flip through the clothes, they certainly were less revealing, but all of them were very plain, hardly something one would wear to a ball. But then, one certain dress caught her eye. As she held it closer to the dim light, she knew that it was absolutely perfect for her.
She beamed at the shopkeeper, "You wouldn't have matching shoes for this dress, would you?"
"I'll see what I can find, miss."
Finally, after another exhausting half-hour of shopping, both Pan and Marron have gotten all their stuff, they headed for home.
"Oooo! I cannot wait until the ball! I love my new dress!" Squealed Marron.
"It certainly is very . . . pink." Pan shielded her eyes from the neon pink dress.
"I know, isn't it fabulous?" Marron sighed, "Wouldn't it be nice if we both got accepted into the palace? Then maybe we'd be sisters or something?"
Pan laughed, "Sure, that'd be nice. You and your pink dress, let's hope it doesn't blind the king."
"You're just jealous!" Marron pouted, "You didn't find a good enough dress since you were too picky, and look at your dress, it's so incredibly old fashioned!"
Pan shrugged, "I like it, especially because it's not a bright colour!"
"Well, my dress is very noticeable, there's no way that the prince won't pay attention to me!" Marron countered.
"Whatever, do you want to come over tonight? We can watch a few movies." Pan suggested.
"And get ready for the ball?" Suggested Marron
"Er . . . sure."
"Count me in, then!"
~*~
"So? You must be excited!"
Trunks laughed, "Excited? You must be kidding, would you be excited if you had to get married within the next few days?"
"Of course!" Bra beamed, "After all, Trunks, you get your pick of the whole country!"
Trunks sighed, "I don't know, everything's been happening in a flash, I don't think I'm ready for marriage."
"Oh, Trunks." Bra frowned, "You're going to turn 30 soon, 3-0! Do you know what that means? It means that you're going to be an old geezer! So you better find a suitable bride quick!"
Trunks turned around to face his 17-year old sister, "What kind of person would you like to marry?"
Bra thought for a bit before answering, "Someone that cares about me very deeply, has a good sense of humour, is strong but gentle, and can be himself all the time without trying to act big."
"That's it?"
"Oh, he has to be very, very handsome also."
Trunks laughed, "Thought as much."
"Oh, Trunks, the ball's already started! You have to get ready now!" Bra whined, "I bet most of the guests have already arrived!"
"Yeah, yeah, you go first, I think I'll be out in a second." Trunks muttered.
"Suit yourself." The princess skipped down the stairs and gasped, there were so many people! The grand hall was completely filled! Trunks would definitely be able to find a suitable bride tonight! She glanced down from the balcony, her brother was going to get a lot of attention tonight. Oh well, it was too bad that she didn't have a boyfriend. Her father was way too strict.
As she saw the door open again, she saw a shimmering blur of bright pink, and as she shielded her eyes, in the process of doing so, she slipped from the smooth marble and started to fall to the floor below. The guests all gasped in horror as they watched the princess helplessly fall.
Bra closed her eyes and cursed herself, oh why hasn't she bothered to learn to fly? It would sure come in handy right now! Why didn't she bother to learn some martial arts like her dad and brother insisted in doing, she wouldn't be dead now! Wait! She wasn't dead, as far as she knew, she was still alive.
Bra opened one eye, and then the other one, "Y-you saved me!"
"Actually, you landed on me, but your way works too." The boy beneath her grinned.
"Who are you? Are you a royal? I haven't seen you before, only girls are allowed today." Bra asked.
"I'm Goten, I'm not a royal, I'm also the caterer today, the king gave me special permission to be here tonight and supervise all the chefs and I hope that answered all of your questions."
"Um . . . sure . . ." Bra blinked twice, this was too perfect, an extremely gorgeous boy rescuing her! Like Prince Charming! "Thanks for rescuing me!"
"No problem, who are you?" Goten asked.
"I'm Bra, well, princess Bra." Bra replied.
"Oh, you're the princess! I knew I saw you from somewhere before." Goten nodded, "I wouldn't have forgot such a lovely face like yours."
Bra blushed a beautiful shade of scarlet, "Um . . . gotten . . ."
"Goten."
"Oh, right, Goten, would you like to be . . . my date? For tonight?" Bra blushed even harder.
"Sure, I would be honoured, princess Bra." Goten grinned.
"Really? Thank you so much!" Bra beamed, not only did she escape death, she also had an incredibly handsome boy for a date!
"There's just one problem, though."
"What?"
"You'll have to get off me first."
~*~
Great, where'd she go? His sister disappeared on him when he needed her most, surely she did not expect him to go out and face all of those girls alone, did she?
Trunks sighed, he took his eyes off her for one second, and she's gone, probably ran off with some boy. He said to no one in particular, "Like that would ever happen, she's always too picky."
And instead of entering the grand hall through the second floor and making a grand entrance, he decided to go through the side door, he didn't want too much attention directed at him.
As he pushed open the metal door, he was overwhelmed by the number of females that were in the room! And they were all so beautiful! He rubbed his eyes, surely his father did not expect him to choose one out of the thousands here.
But he frowned in disgust as he examined what each girl was wearing, what ever happened to the good old-fashioned dresses that weren't so revealing? This might as well have been a swimsuit competition. There were mini-skirts everywhere, and spaghetti seemed to be the style this year.
They were no more than royal concubines, he thought, as he wandered around the room, careful not to attract too much attention. And what was he supposed to do for the rest of the night? Talk to slutty girls hoping to marry him for his incredible fortune? If only he could find one sensible person to communicate with. And as he turned his head, a bright pink thing was shone right in his eyes, he yelped and quickly turned around, this was too much, he didn't think he could handle it.
He started to head back upstairs, looking at the floor so no one could see his eyes and identify him as the prince, he kept his hood on carefully, hiding his purple hair. As he avoided most of the legs and feet that came in his way, he spotted fabric, and he stopped to examine the girl, who was talking with another girl.
A pair of heelless black velvet slippers with a gold notch on the side adorned her small feet, immediately above the feet, was a beautiful black dress, tight yet not revealing at all, it showed her incredibly curved figure but nothing else. The dress itself was oriental styled, having a dragon intertwined between roses. The dress actually had sleeves, a not-so- scooped neckline. Trunks raised his head, surely a beautiful body would have a gorgeous head to go with it. And he nodded to himself as he examined her, yes, it was very gorgeous indeed, dark hair tied in a knot at the navel of her long, slender neck, and her face bore no makeup, which gave her a natural shine over the rest of the 'group'.
He noticed that the corners of her lips were raised as she spoke, he thought to himself, I know this girl from somewhere, she has such a wonderful smile.
And perhaps he had been standing there, gaping at her for too long, for she must've realized his presence, and as she turned around, she snapped, "Do you mind?"
That voice, not high, but having a course tone to it, yet a friendly and amiable sound to his ears, he had been longing for these two weeks for someone to yell at him, to argue with him. Even his father had been surprising pleasant to him. Probably from his mother's influence.
"Excuse me? I asked you a question, if you had any brains in that thick skull of yours, you'd have the decency to answer me, who are you? And do you mind not staring at me? It's unsettling and very disturbing! I'm trying to talk with a friend of mine, have you any manners?!"
Trunks stumbled back from the girl's sudden outburst, his clock falling off his head, his cerulean eyes met the girl's onyx ones, and he stuttered.
"P-Pan?"
~*~
That was one of the better cliffies, anyways, you probably all hate me now . . . ^-^
I will have the next chappie out soon, and that's a promise!
-Juunanagou4ver