Chapter 35
Vegeta, Gohan, Goten, and Trunks were practically living in the gravity room now. Ammit was supposed to arrive in just a few short weeks and they wanted to get as strong as possible before he arrived. Every day they woke early, met at Capsule Corp, went into the gravity room, worked out until lunch, ate, and then went back in and fought until the room was destroyed or it was time for dinner. At which point they ate, then went back in again, worked out hard until Bulma kicked them out by shutting off the power, after that the four Saiyans went to their homes, fell asleep and the cycle began again. It was grueling and unpleasant, even for Vegeta, but they knew that it could mean the difference between victory and defeat in the coming battle.
"Well ladies, I think I'm starting to wish Ammit would just hurry up and get here so I can have my husband back," Videl said as she, Chi-chi, Bulma, and Valese sat around Bulma's kitchen table eating breakfast.
"I know what you mean," Valese said putting her fork down. "Goten's been so busy with training that we haven't… you know… in over two weeks." Videl nodded in understanding.
"Oh, you poor thing," Bulma said, "you two are still practically newly weds."
"You would think that taking one day out of their busy training schedule wouldn't be too much to ask so they could spend it with their wives or mother," Chi-chi chimed in. "I swear, these Saiyans are all alike. Goku used to do the same thing to me. Sometimes I used to have to drag him away from his training and into the bedroom by his ear just so we could have some husband and wife time."
"Vegeta's the same way," Bulma added.
"Yeah, they really need to get out a little more," said Videl with a smile, "but I guess if I'm going to have my husband ignoring me for this long, at least it's cause he's trying to save the universe. I mean, it's pretty hard to get mad at him for something like that."
"Ha," Chi-chi said with a mischievous grin, "it's not that hard, it just takes practice." The four women laughed.
"I just hope when this is all over Trunks will start thinking about settling down with a nice, young lady. He has all these girls throwing themselves at him, but he never stays with one for more than a few weeks."
"I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it?" Chi-chi teased.
"Yeah, yeah," Bulma said as she scratched the side of her face with her middle finger.
Pan watched Akira out of the corner of her eye as the ship's auto-pilot plotted the quickest route back to Earth. Something was different about him, but she wasn't quite sure what it could be.
"Um, so, how was being dead?" she asked feeling slightly stupid, but not knowing any other way to bring up the topic.
"Well, it was definitely an interesting experience. Piccolo wanted me to say hi to you and your dad for him," Akira smiled, but his eyes didn't ever seem to meet hers.
"Did you learn anything good from King Kai. You know he's trained most of my dad's friends to some extent, he even trained my grandpa."
"Yeah, I heard something about that," he was looking very uncomfortable.
"So, did you learn anything?"
"Uh, yeah. I guess I learned the whole repertoire… you know, Keo Ken, Spirit Bomb, Instant Transmission."
"All that?! You've only been dead a few months. How did you learn that much that quickly?"
"Actually I leaned most of them in the first month, the rest of the time I spent training with Piccolo, Pikkon, and Olibu—What?" Akira said as he noticed that Pan's mouth was hanging open.
"You learned all that in a month? That's impossible."
"I guess I'm just a quick study…and King Kai's a really good teacher. Besides, I'm a lot stronger than Goku was when he first arrived at King Kai's place."
Pan still looked shocked, but she seemed to accept his explanation. "So, anything else happen?"
"Not really. The food wasn't too bad, the company was good, and the conversation was… uh, enlightening." Pan gave him a quizzical look, but Akira didn't elaborate and the two sat in awkward silence for several minutes until she got up and went into the gravity room.
She trained alone for nearly an hour before Akira joined her, but even then his presence was almost unnoticeable. He just did a few pushups and sit-ups, and then began meditating.
Pan finished her exercises and landed a short distance from him, watching him quietly. Akira's body seemed perfectly calm as he sat cross-legged, hovering a few inches off the ground. Were it not for a slight look of exertion that passed over his face every few minutes, Pan would have sworn that the 300G was not even affecting him.
"Do you need a sparring partner?" Akira asked without opening his eyes, causing Pan to jump slightly at the unexpected noise.
"Uh, yeah. Sorry, I didn't mean to bug you."
"You never bug me Pan," he said as he climbed to his feet. Pan smiled warmly at him; pleased to be getting the old Akira back, but he immediately looked away.
What's his deal? Pan asked herself as she stretched her legs. He hasn't looked at me for more than a minute since we took off and he's been acting really strange. Did I do something wrong? Did HE do something wrong? She found herself becoming a little angry at his irritating behavior towards her.
She and Akira finished stretching at about the same time then dropped into their fighting stances and waited for someone to make a move. Pan struck first, disappearing and then reappearing behind the young man. He blocked her attack with ease and made a half-hearted counter punch, which she swatted away. The two Saiyans flew about the room, punching and kicking each other.
After five minutes of this, Pan began to notice that Akira didn't seem to be trying very hard. His attacks were all weak and sloppy, and his blocking was slow and ineffective. He barely seemed to even be paying attention to what he was doing.
Am I boring him? she asked herself. What a jerk! If he didn't want to do this, he could have just said so…Maybe it's time I make him pay a little more attention. With a huge explosion of golden light, she powered up to Super Saiyan and flew at Akira with lightening fast speed, leveling him with a single punch. The young man hit the ground hard and looked up at Pan with a mixture of surprise and anger.
In an instant he was behind her; he grabbed her in a bear hug, pinning her arms at her sides. Pan struggled for several minutes, but Akira's strength and speed were too great for her to overcome. She relaxed slightly and lay her head back on his shoulder.
"Well, I guess there are worst places to be trapped," she said with a grin.
He flinched at these words, then his arms loosened their hold and Pan felt him power down slightly. She freed her arms with one quick jerk, then reached over her shoulder, grabbed Akira by his shirt and with a mighty pull sent him plummeting back to the ground.
She dropped to the floor and ran at the young man, looking to press her advantage, but just as she reached him, his foot swung around and kicked her legs out from under her. Pan's momentum carried her into Akira and the two Saiyans tumbled until Pan's back slammed into the wall.
She looked up and found Akira's face just inches from her own. "Uh…I guess that's enough sparring for now," she said with a grin.
"Um… yeah," the young man said quietly. The two Saiyans starred at each other for a long moment and then, as if drawn by magnets, their faces inched towards each other.
Pan closed her eyes and waited for the kiss. After several seconds she opened them and found Akira staring at her with a strange mix of terror and uncertainty on his face.
"I…uh…I need to get…uh…food."
"What?" Pan asked in surprise, but Akira was already out the door. She waited for a few minutes, half-expecting him to return and explain himself, but he never did. Pan trained alone for the rest of the day, growing angrier and more confused with each passing hour.
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A/N: This chapter was annoyingly hard to write, so I apologize if it wasn't one of my better ones. Fighting is much easier to work with than all this emotional junk! Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it, or, at the very least, didn't hate it. My weekdays are starting to get a little busy so I don't know if I will be able to update as often, but I'll try to post at least one chapter a week, maybe more if my weekend is particularly boring. Thanks for reading.