Night Shadows- Chapter 14

by Tanyaneko

Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own it. Never have. Probably never will. Too bad.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who has been reading this story. Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Thanks so much to everyone who is actually still reading it. I'm very sorry that it took so long to get this chapter out. I had kind of a mini burnout and had to take a break from the whole fanfiction scene. I really don't know when I'll get the next chapter out as school is starting soon and I'll be busy, but here's this chapter. Thanks so much for sticking around.

Love,

Tany

P.S. Guess what people? Tomorrow (August 21) is my birthday! Happy birthday to me! ^.^

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Summary of the story (since I know it's been a while):

Pan's in love with Trunks. Trunks is in love with Pan, but he's being a pansy. How's that for a summary? Hehe, just kidding. Anyway, to make himself stop thinking about Pan, Trunks starts going out with Marron. Pan goes out with Ubuu to make Trunks jealous. But Marron and Ubuu are in *looooooove*. Oooooooh. Yeah. So Marron asks Trunks to marry her in the hopes that it will jolt him to his senses. It doesn't, and instead he says yes, thinking he'll never have to worry about loving Pan if he does. Bra overhears and then tells Pan, who is heartbroken, of course. Emotionally drained, Bra needs someone to talk to- Goten. She tells him everything. Then Trunks calls Goten to tell him the news, and this is where our story picks up…

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"Trunks, Buddy. Why are you calling?" Bra heard Goten say. He was obviously lying- but then again, there was absolutely no way he was going to let Trunks know that he knew perfectly well why his purple-haired friend was calling.

Bra looked at him, and deciding it would be better if Goten talked to Trunks on his own, mouthed, "Maybe I should go and try to talk to Pan again."

Goten nodded, and after his aqua-haired girlfriend walked out the door, continued listening to Trunks.

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"Well, Goten, you'll never believe it," he was saying, "but…"

Nope, Goten thought. I don't. I can't believe you'd do something like this.

"But, see… I'm getting married."

Goten paused for a moment, let his friend think he was shocked speechless, then said, "So you love her then?"

"…No."

"Then why, Dende, Trunks, tell me why are you marrying her?"

"Because I love Pan."

Goten looked at the phone, glared at it as if it were Trunks, and then said, "Man, you are making absolutely no sense. You love someone else, so you're marrying a girl you're not in love with."

"Exactly."

"Please. Explain to me how this makes any sense at all."

Goten heard Trunks sigh over the line before he said, carefully, "I have to marry her, Goten. It hurts… not being with Pan. I have to make it stop. I have to marry Marron. It's the only way."

The black haired man rolled his eyes, not caring that his friend couldn't see it. "Uh… you could always tell Pan you love her. She loves you. You know that."

"I KNOW!" Trunks was yelling now. "I KNOW!"

"Then why don't you tell her?"

"Because she can hurt me, Goten. She can hurt me and someday, when she's not in love with me anymore, she will."

"How do you know you're not just meant to be together?"

"Dende, Goten. What are the chances of that happening?"

"So you're going to let yourself be unhappy now just because someday she might not love you anymore. Of course. I can see your logic perfectly." Goten was getting rather annoyed and it was making him uncharacteristically sarcastic.

"You don't understand, Goten. All my life, I've never felt this way before. It's too intense. It's… it's scary. I have to make it stop. I can't give in, because one day she might walk away. And I don't think I'd be able to handle that."

Goten was silent for a moment, and then he said something slowly and quietly. "Trunks, I know I'm not the smartest guy in the world. But have you ever thought that if you're meant to be together, she'll never leave you? And if you're not, it won't hurt so badly if she does?"

The other side of the line was dead quiet. Then Goten heard the phone drop, and the sound of Trunks running out the door. He smiled.

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Bra took a deep breath and knocked on Pan's door. She hoped Pan was in better condition now- Bra knew that her dark-haired friend needed to talk, but it really wouldn't work if she… well… didn't want to talk.

This time, when Pan opened the door, she wasn't smiling. Instead, her lips were pressed together in a frown, tear tracks covered her wet cheeks, and her eyes… her eyes were red and puffy of course, but that wasn't really what bothered Bra. It was the look in them- darker than usual, almost dead in the way they were completely devoid of hope. And there was no cheery hello, she just stood aside and let her friend walk in.

Bra tried to smile, and managed pathetically, but it was just so hard when Pan was like that. Her usually vibrant friend reminded her of a wilting flower- pale, and limp and looking close to collapse. "So…" she started a bit awkwardly, "how are you doing?"

Pan was honest. "Horrible," she whispered in a voice ragged from sobbing and Bra knew she couldn't say anything louder.

As they sat down, she turned to Bra with a determined looked in her eyes. It wasn't the usual type… it was a hollow, hopeless type of determination, the kind that made Bra scared to think of one thing she might do.

"Pan… what… no- you can't!"

The black-haired girl laughed hollowly. "I'm not killing myself Bra, if that's what you're worried about." Bra sighed in relief, but then Pan continued. "This will hurt more."

Pan looked down at her hands as Bra stared at her. For a while, she didn't say anything, and then finally, she looked at her friend with tear-shiny eyes. "I… I've thought about it. I've thought about it so much, and now it's the only thing I can do. You see, I still love him. Even after all this, I still love him."

Huh? Bra blinked confused blue eyes as she continued listening to her companion. Maybe Pan would make sense in a bit.

"You know," Pan was saying, with another cheerless little laugh, "I really did think he loved me too. I mean, I thought… I was beginning to think I had him."

"You had every right to," Bra consoled, patting her friend's hand. "I thought so too, I think we all did…"

"No, not as much as I did… Dende, how stupid of me. But then, I was probably just seeing things how I wanted to see them. Foolish of me… how foolishly stubborn. Maybe he was telling the truth the first time when he told me he'd said those mean things because he was defending Marron. Maybe he just made up all that about being jealous just so that I would talk to him again."

Bra didn't know what to tell her. Was there anything that she could?

And Pan wasn't finished. "He's marrying her, not me. He's in love with her, not me. That's why I have to do what I have to do. Bra… I'm giving up. I'm going to let him go."

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And that's it for this chapter! Sorry it's kinda short, but I had to end it there. Hope you all liked it…

Ooh… what's going to happen next? Why was Goten so happy when Trunks dropped the phone (okay, so that part's obvious…) Where did Trunks go? How is Ubuu going to take the news of the engagement? When is Bra going to start wondering why Marron was crying in the hallway? Why am I writing so questions? The answers to all these (or at least some) will soon be revealed in the next chapter.

Until next time,

~Tany