A/N: See chapter one for disclaimer. I really didn't think I could get this done before my exams, but a well placed snow day (days when I love living in Canada) gave me the time to wrap this chapter up inbetween numbing my fingers on the piano and cramming for Biology and Greek. To satisfy all the update vultures out there, here you are.

Last Time: A fortune teller came along, and… oh, does it really matter, the most important thing is: Trunks kissed Pan! On with the show…

"Not Without Permission"

"Look what you did!" she half screeched. Trunks blinked, and stared at her wide-eye expression, the faint flush o her cheeks, and he subconsciously knew that a massive yell fest was approaching. Disregarding the blood (surely it was nothing too serious); he gave way to his spontaneousness, having a vague idea that it would not resurface again. He slipped his hand to the back of her waist, and before she could even change the expression on her face to questioning or yell at him to remove his hand or scream about the blood; he had brought her face up to his own, and placed his lips on hers.

And then he, obviously, kissed her. Not an end-all kiss. Not a passionate kiss. Not one of force, of questioning really… just… a kiss. A small simple kiss.

Kissing the Real Pan was quite different than kissing Dream Pan, because the dream had been flinging herself at Trunks, and all he had to do then was sit back and enjoy the kiss. Real Pan was not so enthusiastic.

She stiffened, naturally, and he could only wonder what was going through her brain at the time. She did not force him away, though did not encourage the kiss either.

In a moment, Trunks pulled back, taking his hold off of her body, giving her room to react.

Pan stood still, blinking rapidly, her face expressionless. It took a moment before she snapped out of her world and looked up at Trunks, her eyes quite blank.

"Why did you do that?" she asked deadly quiet. Trunks shifted on his feet, unsure of the answer.

He had expected her to yell or slap him, or… display some other female over-reacting display, not a simple question to which he wasn't sure if he had a proper answer. What was he to say? Oh, well, I just, you know… felt like doing it? I wanted to see if you kissed as well in my dreams? Wanted to know what it was like to kiss a peasant? …Because I feel something utterly frightening towards you, and wanted to know if a kiss would make that feeling more understandable?

Trunks opened his mouth a few times, looking quite like a fish, while Pan's blank look settling into a look of anger with every passing second. Surely a reply from him would have delayed or even stopped her outburst, which was expected from the beginning, but Trunks didn't comment quickly enough. And if he had been expecting an angered outburst, his expectations didn't come close to Pan's now narrowed eyes, and the feelings stored inside.

"You are such an idiot," she seethed. Trunks winced. It was just a kiss… "I can't believe you. Yes, lets just go and have a little fun with the little farm girl, I'm an all mighty prince, and hey, everyone on the world is here for my pleasure. What? No, Pan won't care if I go and kiss her because I need some female contact, naw, Pan won't mind. It doesn't matter that I'm a complete jerk and that one minute I'm acting all selfish and superior and the next I'm all sweet, and I have a sense of humor, and I'm slowly pulling the poor little girl into my trap. I'll win her affections, and then I can have my fun, won't that be great? And then I'll get to go back to my nice big castle and never think about the little brat again, but she'll probably still think about me, because she was actually thinking things meant things, but I was just having fun, because I'm an inconsiderate brainless bastard!" Pan ended in a yell, her entire slew of words strung together rapidly, and said with hardly any pauses for breath. Trunks stared at her.

She was breathing more heavily from lack of air, looking at him, pleading for him to respond, but all he did was stare, a look of helplessness on his face.

Pan was feeling confused and angered that he would dare try and play with her emotions before surely throwing them back in her face. Because Pan didn't play with feelings; and what she was slowly feeling for Trunks was nothing to joke around about, and on top of that, her silly fortune teller friend had said that she and Trunks…

And Trunks was staring at her, even more at a loss for words. Thinking of an explanation for kissing her in the first place was hard enough, but trying to think of a response to her rant was nearly impossible. What was she even trying to say? She thought he was just getting his kicks off of her? Was he…?

No.

But yes.

He wanted to kiss her again for all he was worth, and take her away to some far off tower where he could keep her all to himself. But he also wanted to grab the knife that was still clutched in her hands, drive it through her chest, and be rid of her and any other silly feelings she caused him.

She was shaking her head frantically.

"You don't understand a thing. Not a thing," she said, making little sense. "Would you please stop? Just… stop. Don't you get it? I'm starting to… it's not fair. Don't play with me," she said, switching through pleading tones to warning. She spun on her foot, green dress twirling with her, hair spinning as well. She started to make a proud walk away from him, but he reached out quickly, grabbing her wrist.

"Pan-" he began, but was interrupted by a small choke from her. "…Pan?"

"My hand… really hurts…" she murmured, slowly dropping to her knees. His hand was still on her wrist, so he knelt down beside her to accommodate the height difference. She was staring wildly at her now open palm, which was now quite wet with blood. Trunks grimaced.

"Geez, we'll have to-"

"And, it's like, woo, I'm a big scary old guy that wants to get Panny, so I'll show up and kiss her, and then some big and scary young guy that wants some fun, is like, wow, if that guy can get a kiss from her, surely I can, because I'm pretty, so I'll just take a go at her. And slice her hand off, she won't mind," Pan murmured, eyes staring off past Trunks.

"Uh… Pan? You're rambling… are you okay? Are you in shock?"

"And Panny doesn't mind because he has been nice to her, and she has a feeling… and he gave her berries when the old guy was mean to her, but the berries were very yucky, but she ate them anyway. Ate them anyway, and-"

"Uh oh. Pan, how many berries did you eat?" he asked, looking her up and down. She shook her head drowsily. Trunks tried to hold back a smile. "Did you know that those are slightly intoxicating? If you ate a lot of them on an empty stomach…"

"-he's got very nice hair though…"

"I think you're drunk Pan… Pan?"

"Maybe… ooh… I'm just going to-" she muttered, dropping forward into his chest, her breathing quick but even. She was asleep. Trunks couldn't hold back a chuckle.

"So. You get two unwelcome kisses, a slash to the hand, and get intoxicated on berries, all in the span of an hour or so. I don't think today is your day, Miss… Panny?" he asked, smiling slightly at the nick name, positive he had heard it in reference before just now. Perhaps her uncle had called her by the name?

He cast a glance around quickly, making sure no one was around, before daring to pick the sleeping girl up in his arms and start towards the house.

A young woman walked, almost freely, through the castle centered in the capital. She was, by no means, given permission to have free reign of the palace by nobility status – she was far from it. She was a simple servant in the castle, forced to do the whim of the royalty. Not that she minded. That was her job, and she never really thought about doing anything but that.

Usually, she would be away in the morning and near lunch hours of the day, off at market buying last minute items that would be served with lunch. But one of the kitchen boys was fidgety and was sent out instead to get rid of his excess energy, not wanting to have too much of an energetic teen around when work was to be done.

Besides, usually it was just safe to walk around, always prepared to refrain from being cheery or happy, on the off chance the king, or even prince really, was walking past and was in a foul mood. Why, just the other day the king had stormed past her, looking quite livid. Naturally she had scrambled out of his way, and the next time she saw him he looked rather pleased with himself… but that was beside the point.

The point really was that you could never be too careful with what emotions you displayed on your face. It was much more necessary, as said, to do so in front of the male royalty, but with the Queen… well, if she minded what mood you displayed yourself in, she never made a point of expressing her dislike. That is to say, if you walked by with a smile while she was in a foul mood, you would not be found dead or worse down some dusty corridor.

Even so, the staff of the castle had sadly taken note of the Queen's sudden change in mood. Usually she would be smiling to herself, and it was not uncommon to have her stop and hold a conversation with you, even if you were the lowliest of servants. This made her recent downheartedness much more wearing on the staff, who found the Queen quite likable.

And so, it was with this common kitchen knowledge she had armed herself with, walking through the hallways, against the direction the Queen herself was walking. She mentally prepared herself to walk past with a mild smile, and small bow – confident that this would be a neutral response to walking past the royalty, and not offend in any way. Getting ready with the best calm, slightly dreary smile she could come up with, she prepared herself as the Queen walked closer and closer to her.

She smoothed out her apron quickly, tucking stray hairs behind her ears, and licking the edges of her mouth as far as possible, in case any residue of breakfast was still on her face.

Being both mentally and physically prepared to greet the Queen in the proper way, the kitchen girl was thrown for a loop at the expression on the royal's face when she neared close enough.

For someone who was sulking around the entire past week, this woman had seemed to do a complete one-eighty over night. The Queen walked with an almost non-existent skip to her walk, her hands held calmly in front of her, and a true smile framed her lips.

Upon direct passing, the Queen turned her enchanting cerulean eyes on the girl, made the slightest nod of her head, before continuing on her way. The girl stood, rather confused, any thoughts of properly greeting royalty gone, as she watched the Queen's retreating back.

What was with the royals, she thought, surprised. Did they all have the habit of walking around as if their personal hell was perched on their shoulder and the next as if their heaven had taken its place? First the king, now the queen. What was next? She couldn't help but wonder what in the world was causing the mood swings to circle through the royal family. She wondered where the prince was… was he experiencing the swings, or had he fled away from those of his parents.

The simple curiosity of the entire thing got the better of her. Her original plans of taking a break during lunch were rethought. She could have her free time after the meal… she wanted to be an extra hand at the lunch table… maybe one of the royals would spill a snippet of what was going on, which not only could satisfy her curiosity, but could also provide possible gossip.

Mind made up, she switched her direction, and started to walk back to the kitchens.

Trunks smiled to himself.

He could do that… no one was around to see it. Well, even if someone was around to see the smile, they wouldn't see it, but of the one person who could see it… she wasn't around. Well, technically, she was, but… Trunks had stopped making any rational sense the minute he decided it would be wise to walk up to Pan and kiss her.

Oh, granted, it had seemed like a superb idea at the time, and in fact, looking back, he didn't regret doing it, not even now. What was to regret, really? Better Pan take it hard, collapse from the alcohol content in the natural berries while he was around, rather than if she had been off on her own, winding up unconscious in the middle of her farm.

Then again, it was of course possible that she had fainted from a mixture of the alcohol and the fact that her hand was pouring more blood out by the second. Perhaps blood made her queasy? Somehow, he doubted it, but it was always a possibility.

She hadn't been hard to carry up to her bedroom, all things considered. Trunks didn't have much experience in carrying sleeping ladies up to their chambers. It simply wasn't an activity that princes indulged in during their free time.

She had been lighter than he would have guessed, and he wasn't sure if that was from his own misconceptions of his strength, or maybe just from the lack of carrying the opposite sex around he didn't have a proper weight reference to refer to.

Not that he carried someone of the same sex around often.

He had, of course, known where her bedchambers were in the house. This knowledge came purely accidental, since only the night before he had chosen that particular room for his sleeping area, to later find out that it actually belonged to Pan. As a whole, this knowledge came as rather disappointing, in that it meant really, no matter what, he would have to move from the bed he had been resting on. There's always a silver lining though, and this cloud came with a stripping Pan.

Being a gentleman, and having no desire to see the girl strip further, he had made his presence known before she undressed completely.

He wondered if he would stand by that decision now.

Which was amusing in a way. That had been less than twelve hours ago, yet already his perceptions of the girl had changed greatly. In fact, just within the past day he had known her, Pan had…

Well, she had a way of saying things, doing actions, gestures… that would make him think. Think about things that he probably would normally not have…

Back at the castle, would he ever have thought about living with love, or about simple life, or… well, anything really? No.

He shook his head.

Somehow, even now, things were starting to change. His sweet fiancée had been right. He would change over the course of the journey. He would learn friendship, that much was for certain. But something inside him was nagging… as if he would learn much more than simple friendship. He all but proved that by the kiss.

Though was it an unrequited one?

He turned his gaze from the wall, towards the sleeping figure on the bed. He sat comfortably at the edge of the mattress, his knees over the side of the bed, torso twisted so that he was facing Pan. She herself had been laid on the bed on her back, mindful of her still-bleeding hand, but in the few minutes Trunks had simply been thinking, she had turned in her sleep, now on her side. Her clean dress wasn't as presentable as it had been literally minutes before.

There was no blood covering it, which Trunks was quite relieved by. He didn't have a weakness to the sight of blood; he had dealt with blood and death since a young age. But he had always viewed the opposing side – the team that had usually caused the injury, and had no clue what to do when someone was harmed. Give a healthy person to him to injure, sure he could do it. Toss him a sword and they'd be gone in five seconds flat. Hand him an injured man to heal and he was lost.

Now he wasn't horribly beyond lost, obviously. Having trained in fencing and dueling, he knew the extreme basics to blood loss. If you had a cut, apply pressure and continue fighting. With this knowledge he had grabbed some cloth from the kitchen and wrapped it around Pan's palm after placing her in bed. It would surely need to be further tended to, so as to avoid infection, but he wasn't sure what to do and would have to wait for her to awaken and instruct him.

As if on cue, the sleeping girl beside him let a soft sigh escape her lips before beginning to lift her heavy eyelids.

She couldn't remember a time when she felt so… well, 'icky' seemed like a stupid word, but was the most appropriate. Her head was throbbing with a dull pain. An almost muffled pain, that was usually the side effects of a fever or a late night at the bar (according to her uncle, seeing as how she would never have an alcohol drink, let alone too much of said drink. Ha.)

The headache was bearable, in retrospect. Her hand however, deserved immediate recognition. Pan waged a slow and steady war to open her eyelids, with failing luck. She had half a mind just to turn over and crawl back into the deep sleep that was keeping her eyes closed, but she couldn't with that stupid hand of her. Why did it hurt so much? Had she slept on it wrong?

She groaned aloud, slightly miffed at her lack of energy. While she wanted to fall back to slumber, she knew she shouldn't and that, judging by the amount of light filtering through her eyelids, it wasn't time to sleep away the day. Not when she was in charge… but what was with her hand?

At the sound of her slight groan, a voice interrupted her confusion, one that she recognized, but with slight difficulty, having never heard it laced with the concern it held now.

"Pan… are you awake, now?" it asked. Trunks, her mind told her automatically. Along with this name came a row of comments she would not voice, and felt mildly resentful towards. She didn't think it was exactly fair for her mind to insult the idiot, especially since…

… wait a minute. At the physical sound of Trunks' voice, the entire reason as to why she was in bed at the moment came to her. The real reason her hand ached so much. The reason… oh. He had kissed her. Kissed her!

Pan grimaced, both physically and mentally. How had she reacted? Her thoughts were so clouded…

Don't you get it? I'm starting to… it's not fair. Don't play with me.

Oh. Right. She groaned a second time, refusing to open her eyes, despite the gentle voice above her that was asking her to do so.

Why had she even said that to him? Now… no, she had said more. She had rambled on and on and on, in a drunken stupor… those berries really were bad. Why hadn't she remembered what too many could do for you? She was smarter than that…

She frowned. She had been acting silly ever since Trunks had caught her with Keipher. So, he had saved her from him and his… urgh, kiss. So he had been nice enough to find those berries for her, even if they had intoxicated her. So he had been so nice, she couldn't help falling for him. So what? What was she; some silly twelve year old girl with a heart throb? She was old enough not to fall for some silly smile. Especially one from the prince!

But… it wasn't just his smile. He was insufferable, arrogant, and an idiot to boot, but she had found herself trying to coax out a smile, to try and make him open up a little more, despite herself. And, yes, she had succeeded in some degree hadn't she? They had a conversation late last night that hadn't ended in cruel words formed to do intentional harm. It had been meaningful and…

How long had it been since she had seen a man that could formulate an intelligent sentence? Truly – it wasn't as if she spent her entire life around mindless ill-spoken boys, it was simply that…

When they talked to her, they talked to her as a woman. Talked to her as if, even though they were less educated than her, they were superior in intellect. When Trunks talked to her, it was with more equality. Yes, he talked down to her, but she had the correct feeling that this was due to his royal superiority complex, and not to do with her gender.

She had started to fall for him because when he looked at her, it was as if he recognized that he was talking to a human being that held wit and the ability to think her own thoughts… not simply a pretty girl to be won over.

Did it help that he was handsome as well? Did it help that he would smile at her, with a smile that should not grace the features of mortals?

She refused to deny to herself that she was stricken. But why? She was more mature than this, and she had really only seen this man for the past twenty four hours. How could she possibly be in love?

Pan was forced to quickly fight back all memories of Fairy Tales, and their Love at First Sight fables. Her life was no fairy tale, and Trunks was no prince charming.

She couldn't love him. She shouldn't. Because he would just use her infatuation to have his fun, and then leave. He would leave thinking it was funny, and maybe even be regretful some days that he had strung the little farm girl along. But Pan knew better. Really, because he couldn't use her infatuation against herself, because quite frankly, she believed it went a bit beyond infatuation.

She was starting to think that…

"Pan!" the voice spoke with a sudden desperation. Dropping her train of thought, she opened her eyes quickly. It took a few moments for the blurriness in front of her eyes to settle, and through clear vision, she could plainly see the relief on the young royal's face.

"Phooey," she murmured, almost inaudible. Trunks' brow furrowed, although whether at the comment itself or in an attempt to understand what she had said, wasn't definite. He tilted his head to the side slightly, brushing lavender hair away from his face almost impatiently before leaning closer to talk to her.

"Pan? You ate too many of those berries, I think. You sort of… collapsed outside. After rambling for a good while. But… umm, your hand…"

"I know," she said quietly, still wondering what to do about Trunks. How was she expected to act around an invisible prince who had just kissed her and she had fainted into his arms… the sudden romantic cliché of the entire scene hit Pan.

"Yes… well… I didn't know what – your hand I mean, I wasn't sure…" he trailed off, and it wasn't until that point Pan noticed how completely awkward and almost shy he was being. He hadn't stripped her or something equally embarrassing, had he?

But a quick glance down reassured her that, yes, all of her clothes were in tact on her body. She didn't know what to say to this. She desperately wanted to take back the last… well, however long it had been since the kiss. How long had she slept? She wasn't sure, but judging by the strong amount of daylight still streaming through the window, she guessed it hadn't been all that long.

She narrowed her eyes. Just what had possessed Trunks to kiss her! As if she needed any of that added stress to the entire predicament she was in at the moment. Bad enough she had to worry about running the whole farm (not that it didn't practically run itself), bad enough that she had the creep Keipher to deal with, and certainly bad enough that she had a cursed prince following her around; but she definitely didn't need said prince walking around, kissing her as he pleased. So, really, what had made him…?

Pan blinked, turning her gaze sharply to Trunks, who was eyeing her carefully. His jaw was set forward, his eyes searching her face, and his soft hair slowly falling back from behind his ear. He raised an eyebrow at her sudden stare on him.

"What did she say to you?" Pan asked suddenly. Trunks raised his other eyebrow, so that his face was set in mild surprise.

"Who?"

"No, what," Pan said irritably. Trunks rolled his eyes.

"She, who?" he elaborated. Pan only stared back, and it didn't take long before he realized who she was talking about, deciding to ask just to confirm it. "Your fortune-telling friend?" He was met with a nod in the affirmative. "What makes you think she told me anything?"

Pan shot him a glare.

"Well… anything important, anyway," he went on. Pan just shook her head and sat up. He made a move to stop her, or at least help her to ease her way up, but she held a warning hand up and was already on her feet before he could do anything to stop her.

"Why else would you suddenly decide to…" she trailed off, making a vague gesture towards her lips. "I don't know what she was trying to do, but you have no business doing that without permission. None," she said sharply, her eyes looking dark, and not because of their natural colour. She walked quickly from the room, closing the door behind her, leaving Trunks sitting on her bed; alone.

He merely stared at the closed door, knowing that it wasn't just that piece of wood that had shut him away from Pan.

She stared dispassionately at the mass array of items in front of her, all which would serve a purpose, and she knew perfectly well what each item's purpose was.

"Make a love spell," she mimicked quietly. "As if they're the easiest and safest things to do in the whole world," she spat bitterly. Her elbows were rested on the edge of the work table, her chin positioned on overturned palms.

That man was so stupid. How could she possibly go and make a love spell – a love spell of all things – for the poor prince. She scowled at the memory, casting a sour look on her pretty face.

It wasn't as if she were complaining because of the time or energy one would take. In fact, one that would work on the passionate Prince would have to be relatively strong. It would be a challenge to make, and would put her skills through a nice workout, and the professional part of her was slightly looking forward to it.

However, that part of her was being weighed down by the more outspoken area of her mind that was raging at the unfairness of it all.

What was the point in cursing the prince to invisibility if her stupid master would turn around and tell her to undermine everything it had meant to achieve. She wanted the prince to love for real… for who would want to marry someone with no love involved? And her plan was perfect, right now Trunks was off with that Pan, and they would no doubt be tearing each other limb from limb at this point, but they would be friends.

She was sure of it.

And then Trunks would be ready to step from friendship to love, if he wasn't already, and he could finally marry happily. And so could she. But, no, that wasn't the way Idiot Master saw things. Just slap a love spell on him, and then everything will work to his twisted desire.

Never mind that if she had wanted a prince that would love her falsely, she would have made the spell in the first place. It was probably easier to sit and work out the spell than to try and make him invisible to the one person that would hate him, yes, but eventually forgive him and make him a better person. That had been hard work, and now it was for nothing.

It would seem, she would have to marry him with false love, whether she liked it or not. With a sigh, she set back to work, creating the poison that would undo everything Trunks had accomplished in his heart.

Yeah, that ending was anticlimactic, I know. I won't even be able to think about this until my exams are all done, so I'm sorry if the next chapter takes a while. I'm hoping it won't. In any case, leave a review with your thoughts; I appreciate every one of them.

Angel Eevee