Night Shadows- Chapter 5

by Tanyaneko

Disclaimer: I own… nothing. *sigh* Oh, well.

A/N: Thanks, you wonderful, wonderful people who reviewed! Someone, I know who you are. V-chan, puh-lease! Lady Dark Tiger's Eye… hehe. To Moon_sparkle, LilSweetCeres, gokusangel [NSI], fluffy, Trubi, *Ryoko*TP, Catsy, brattyangel, Bunny, Pomne, Obsessive One, amcm74, Lady of Flame, Bra Briefs-Vegeta, Sami, chibitomoe, jackie, Candy, Lady Pan, Truapana, thank you so much! I'm so glad you like my story!

This chapter hasn't been betaread… I kinda got impatient… hehe…

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Trunks lay back, staring at the stars dotting the dark night sky from his perch on Capsule Corp's domed roof, remembering the time he'd flown through the galaxy in a spaceship. Pan…she'd been in space with him, with Goku. That had been back when they were just friends, back when there was no… love… to get in the way of everything, to cause pain. Maybe there was love… but not like this. Definitely not like this. As he rested there, gazing out, he wondered what in HFIL had gone wrong during his date with Marron. It had been a disaster. It should have gone well. To everyone else, it had. Outwardly, he'd enjoyed himself. Inside, though, he just hadn't been able to bring himself to have fun.

Trunks drove to Marron's house wearing his favorite tux, driving his favorite red car, blasting his favorite music. (Marron, unlike himself and Goten, had actually moved out of her parents' house…) He walked to her front door, knocked, and then watched as she came out wearing a long pink dress.

She looked pretty, beautiful even. But his heart just didn't race at the sight, and he was as calm as ever. He didn't love her, and he was partly thankful for that. If there wasn't any love, there wasn't any risk of pain.

The restaurant was fancy. Trunks ordered everything on the menu. Marron ordered a simple salad. He couldn't help but wish that the girl in front of him was the one who could devour food like he could, but he ignored the thought. They finished at the same time.

"So tell me, Trunks, how have you been?" Marron asked him, smiling sweetly.

"Fine, just fine. I've had a sex change and now I'm pregnant with Goten's child."

The blond girl laughed a sugary little bell-like laugh. It wasn't anything like Pan's, and Trunks couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Then he saw her. She was walking in, hanging onto Ubuu's arm, laughing her amazing laugh and smiling that gorgeously vivacious smile of hers. She was actually wearing a dress- he was shocked. It was a flashy little red thing, something he'd expect on his sister, but never on Pan. Damn she looks sexy. He shook his head and shoved that thought as far away as possible. Still, he was powerless to look away. Her raven hair hung loose, falling in a shining cascade with no bandana in the way. She looked good with Ubuu, and it hurt. Trunks decided to ignore her for the rest of the evening.

He focused instead on Marron. Her eyes were black. They reminded him of Pan's dark eyes, of what he'd thrown away, of what he could have had, of her laughing and smiling and being happy with a guy that wasn't him. They reminded him of how it hurt, of why he'd gone away from Pan in the first place- to keep himself from getting hurt. He still didn't understand that his resolution was causing him even more pain.

That's why I'm here with Marron, he reminded himself. To get over Pan, to make it so that I don't need her anymore. He repeated it in his head like a mantra, but every time it sounded less convincing. But still convincing enough to keep him blindfolded from the truth.

So he smiled at Marron, laughed with her, made a whole bunch of jokes, flirted. He had to look in her eyes to do so- he realized there was nothing burning there, no fire. He wished to Dende that she did, but there were just no flames, nothing even close, in her coal black eyes.

*****

"How many times do I have to ask, dag nammit! Leave me out of your problems!" The green man screamed.

*****

Marron was sweet. She reminded him of a lollipop- the little swirly kind that little girls in pigtails would have. She'd forever be the little girl in pigtails to him, sweet little child. He didn't understand what made Pan different. If anything, rationally, it should have been the other way around. But it wasn't.

Marron was pretty, she was fun, she smiled a lot, but the girl was a… marshmallow. (A/N: Marron fans, I mean that in the nicest of ways, I swear! I have nothing against her, I'm just saying that she's a sweetheart.) But he didn't need a sugar girl. He needed someone tough, someone like him.

He knew what he needed, but he was too afraid. Pan's father could kill him, or at least inflict tremendously agonizing and brutal damage. What scared him the most, though, was what she herself could do to him emotionally. She could rip him to shreds, leaving nothing but a soulless shell of Trunks left. She had way too much power over him, and he wanted control of himself again. That was why he needed to make himself stop needing her. But it was hard when he kept wishing the girl he was with were Pan.

He drove Marron home, kissed her goodnight asked her out on a second date, and then drove home, somehow ending up on the roof, staring at the stars and thinking of Pan.

Trunks stayed up there, wondering what he was going to do. He had to find some way to forget her. He didn't want to get hurt. I'm such a coward. But there wasn't anything he could do about it.

Not too far away, Pan sat outside on her windowsill, bouncing her feet against the hard brick of the side of her apartment building, staring at the exact same stars.

Her date had gone fairly well. Ubuu was cute, funny, sweet. He was a wonderful innocent boy. But sweet and innocent weren't what she really wanted.

She already had her "bad boy with a heart." She'd always be his light, she was sure of it, forever. And he'd be her strength, even stronger that she was, with a pride and determination that amazed her, even if it meant he was a stubborn jerk sometimes- that stubborn jerk-ness part of who he was, and she loved him regardless. She just hoped that it wouldn't be long until he saw through his night shadows, to the truth, to her. But until he came to his senses, she'd go out with Ubuu. The tribal boy was fun to be around, and cute enough. Too bad he wasn't Trunks.

Yay! Chapter 5 is done! Yay! What do you people think? Reviews are always nice. Hmmm… what's gonna happen in the next chapter?

~Tanyaneko