Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever, own Dragonball Z/GT, though I wish I did. *sigh*
To Snag a SaiyanChapter Two: Implementing Phase One
Pan skimmed through Bra's closet as she tried to find something to wear. She really didn't want to go shopping. Besides, there was no time for that, and Bra had a closet full of clothes. There had to be something suitable for her to wear.
She tried making up her mind as she stood directly in the closet doorway with her arms crossed over her chest. 'What to wear? What to wear?' Pan groaned in irritation and blew a stray hair out of her face. 'Decisions are the worst. Oh! How I hate them.'
There had to be an easier way. She had to be making this harder than it should be. This was Trunks she was dealing with for crying out loud. Trunks. The guy she has known all her life. Trunks. The man she has grown to become best friends with other the years.
Pan heavily sighed as she dejectedly bowed her head. Okay. So, she knew what her problem was. Finding a suitable dress was far from her biggest concern. It was Trunks. Dende, she was nervous as hell, but she was determined to not let it get to her.
She once again started deciphering through Bra's immense wardrobe. Suddenly, she spied an outfit off to the right. A little sparkle twinkled in her eye, causing her to momentarily forget about her shot nerves. She reached inside the closet and gently pulled the delicate garment out. Pan turned and walked towards the center of the room, wanting to get a better look under the overhead light. She smiled. It was one of the most beautiful outfits she'd ever seen.
Just then Bra walked into her bedroom only to stop dead in her tracks. "Oh, my . . . Pan, that's perfect! It'll look great on you."
Pan gave her best friend a pleased expression. "It just kind of stood out over everything else." She then walked over toward the full-length mirror on the other side of the room and placed it directly in front of her.
Bra came to stand at her side, wanting to see what it looked like as well.
"So, what do you think?" Pan hesitantly asked. It is not like she wore dresses that often. In fact, she did not wear them unless the occasion fell under the 'requirement' category.
"I think that dress was meant for you. I can't believe I ever thought it would look good on me." Bra truthfully answered.
"Oh, I'm sure." Pan sarcastically replied. "Bra, you look good in whatever you wear."
Bra smirked at the comment. "That may be . . ." She replied with a sweep of her hair over her shoulder. " . . . But, that dress didn't look near as good on me because as I said before the dress was meant for you."
Pan once again glanced at her reflection in the mirror with the dress still held in front of her. "You really think so."
Bra placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and smiled. "I know so."
~*~*~*~*~*~
No matter how hard he tried he just could not concentrate on the documents in front of him. What was his sister scheming now? It was causing a nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach, and Trunks did not like it.
Bra had waltzed into his office a few hours ago, after the whole ceiling tile incident, only to declare that in apology for getting him into trouble with mom that she had found him a suitable date for that night's dinner meeting. She then proceeded to make darn sure he couldn't call anyone else either.
She had marched her happy self over to his desk, then she had the gall to actually reply, "Excuse me for a second, will ya?" as she opened his top drawer and removed his little date book.
"I'll be taking this." She announced.
"What do you think you are doing?" He asked, completely annoyed by that point.
At that question, his sister looked so much like their mother that it was almost scary. She smirked at him and casually said, "You already said yourself that you were sick of frivolous relationships. So, consider this as me nudging you in the right direction."
He raised an annoyed eyebrow at her. "Thank you very much." He sarcastically replied. "But, I don't need nudging."
"Pah-lease."
"Humph." His glared and crossed his arms.
"Trust me, Trunks." She gave him her best puppy-eyed expression.
Trunks grunted and turned his head away, not wanting to see the look on her face, the look where she always somehow managed to get her way. "Famous last words."
"I'm serious." She beseeched adding a pouting lip for emphasis.
He dejectedly sighed. "How can I be so sure?"
She needed a good bargaining chip, but what could she offer him to make him relent. "Look." She sighed, not being able to think of anything specific. "If you don't like the girl or don't have a good time, then I'll owe you one."
Trunks turned back to face his sister. "You owe me one regardless." He tonelessly replied. "This is your friend I'm taking out."
Bra jumped up excitedly. "Good! Then you agree."
"What? I didn't say that!" How'd this happen? A second ago he could have sworn he was gaining the upper hand in this argument.
"Yeah, you did."
"Damnit, Bra."
"Look." She said exasperated, but far from giving up. "Just go to your damn meeting, have a good time once the boring shit is over, and if it doesn't work out, I'll never set you up again."
"Fine." He replied in defeat.
"I knew you'd come around." She said with a huge grin.
"I better not regret this." He grumbled.
"You won't." She winked at him then quickly waltzed out of his office just a quickly as she waltzed in a few minutes earlier.
Now hours later, here he was staring at the pile of work on his desk.
"Dende, what did I do to deserve this?" He held his head in hands and groaned.
A slight sound quickly pulled him out of his reverie. He looked up and amusedly watched as Goten walked back into his office holding a small sheet of plywood, which, by the way, looked to have been spray-painted white.
"Where have you been, and what the hell is that?"
Goten grinned sheepishly and held it up. "This is the best I could do."
"You know that's not going to work." Trunks coolly replied.
"Sure it will." Goten chirped. He then floated up to the hole in the ceiling and placed the plywood up there like any regular piece of ceiling tile. "See."
Trunks looked up and scowled at his best friend's idea of fixing the hole in his ceiling. Sure the hole was covered, but the contrast between the white spray-painted piece of plywood and the neutral colored ceiling tiles that surrounded it really stood out. "Mom is going to flip her lid."
Goten scratched the back of his head as he got a closer inspection of his handy work. "Okay. So, I'm not Mr. Fix-it."
Trunks smirked. "You can say that again."
Goten glared. "Like you could do any better."
Trunks glared back, accepting the challenge. "Sure. Watch." He then pressed the intercom button on his phone.
"Yes, Mr. Briefs." A soft voice said on the other end.
"Mrs. Thornhill, could you please call maintenance and tell them I have a hole that needs to be repaired in my ceiling before tomorrow morning."
"Sure thing, Mr. Briefs."
"Thanks and once that's done you may leave for the evening, if you wish."
"You're welcome and thank you."
"You're welcome too and have a good evening, Mrs. Thornhill."
"You too, Mr. Briefs."
Trunks turned off the intercom and smirked as he looked at Goten, who by now was seated in the chair on the opposite side of his desk.
Goten glared. "Why didn't you do that earlier?"
"Because you said you'd fix it."
"And, you believed me?" He almost shouted.
Trunks snorted. "No. Just wanted to see what you'd come up with." He then leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and smiled devilishly.
"Humph." Goten glared even more.
Trunks' smile was attempting to increase, but then he caught a glimpse of the clock stationed on the far wall. It was past the time that he needed to leave.
Trunks got up to leave his office, grabbed his suit jacket from the coat rack behind his desk, and put it on.
Goten, seeing his friend getting ready to leave, quickly forgot his irritation of the previous moment. "Wow, you're leaving early."
Trunks looked at his watch to reconfirm the time. "Goten, it's 5:00."
"I know, but you never leave on time."
"I have that meeting at six remember, and I still need to get ready then pick up my date before I go there."
"So, who are you bringing to this one?" Goten asked as they walked out of the office.
"I don't know." Trunks truthfully answered as they continued walking, passed his secretary's now empty office and down the deserted corridor.
"Oh." Goten absently replied. It was not until they were halfway to the elevator that Trunks' odd answer struck him. "Huh? What do you mean you don't know?" He asked with a perplexed look.
Trunks amusedly smiled at Goten's typical reaction. "Bra set up the date, and I don't know who it is."
Goten suddenly stopped in his tracks and starred wide-eyed at him.
Trunks stopped then too and turned around. "What?" He hesitantly asked.
Goten patted him on the shoulder as he gave a sympathetic expression. "My condolences, my brave friend."
Trunks glared. "Oh, shut up." He snarled and stalked off the rest of the way down the hall.
Goten, unable to contain himself, burst out laughing. It took him a few moments to realize that he was about to be left behind and ran to catch up. "Oh, I'm just kidding." He teased as he reached the elevator that Trunks was already waiting for.
Trunks frowned. "Yes, but you're not helping any."
Goten grinned. "Sorry." He half-heartedly replied.
Trunks scowled. "No you're not." He said just as the elevator doors opened. It was obvious Goten was still trying to contain his amusement, which only served to irritate Trunks further. He crossed his arms and turned his head away from Goten after they entered the elevator. "So, don't even try apologizing."
Goten's resounding laughter that echoed as the elevator doors closed was the only reaction Trunks received.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Pan patiently tried to sit still as Bra finished fixing her hair. She did not have much time until it was time to leave and the closer it got the more nervous she became. She was one step shy of shaking in her chair, and, of course, Bra was oblivious to it all as she completed her masterpiece.
Pan closed her eyes and relaxed her breathing, hoping a brief meditation would calm her nerves. It usually worked for her daddy and Mr. Piccolo, so why shouldn't it work for her as well. Slowly but surely her stomach seized its summersault pattern, so she reopened her eyes.
She unrecognizably stared at the image before her in the mirror. It was that of a beautiful young woman. The person looking back at her could not be herself. It was not possible. Pan blinked, thinking it was only a dream, but the image before her remained.
"So, what do you think?" Bra asked interrupting her thoughts.
Pan gasped. She couldn't believe any of this was happening to her. It was almost like the beginning of a fairy tale. Now all she had to do was get prince charming to see the light.
Pan smiled as the initial surprise wore off. "It's beautiful. Thank you, Bra."
Bra clasped her hands together and got a dreamy look on her face. "Oh, Pan, this is all so romantic. I can't wait until my brother sees you because he is not going to know how to react. It's all so sweet when you think about it."
She tried blinking back a few tears, but the effort proved futile as her sentimental side took over. "Why, it seems like only yesterday that we were playing make-believe, and you'd be the great warrioress and I'd be . . ."
Bra suddenly became totally engrossed with her childhood memories and she let the tears happily roll down her face along with a few uncontrollable sniffles that managed to escape as well.
" . . . the beautiful princess . . . and . . . and . . . in the end we'd get to live happily ever after because you got to marry your dream prince and I got mine. It was all so wonderful. Oh, those were the days, huh Pan?" She finished her emotional reverie, then wiped her tears away with the end of her sleeve, and smiled brightly with another dreamy look upon her face.
Pan blinked a few times as she silently stared at her best friend. "Um . . . Earth to Bra." She said and grabbed a hold of Bra's arm in an attempt to shake some sense back into her.
Bra shook her head to clear her thoughts and looked down at Pan, who, in her confused state, looked to be half worried but also half amused.
Bra smirked. "What?"
Pan raised a questioning eyebrow. "Sometimes I wonder about you, you know that?"
"Not half as often as I wonder about your sanity." Bra retorted back as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Yeah well, I'm not the one who just took a trip to La-La Land."
Bra decided to blow the comment off. "Whatever. Anyways, as I was saying before, the look on my brother's face is going to be priceless."
"Well, his face is probably going to be about the same as everyone else's once they see me walk down those stairs."
"True." Bra answered then had an amusing thought. "How loud do you think my mother is going to screech when she gets a look at her 'other daughter' all dressed up."
Pan groaned.
Bra giggled. "I'm just kidding. It's not going to be that bad."
"Says you." Then she got a contemplative look upon her face. "Hey, if all of this goes according to plan what does that make us."
"Huh?" Bra asked totally confused.
"Well, are you going to be my sister-in-law or my aunt?"
"Ack! I'm not going to be an aunt. I'm not that old yet."
"You will be if you marry my uncle." Pan smirked.
"This is not a joke, Pan. Besides I'm too young to be an aunt!" Bra whined.
"Also, are our kids going to be first cousins or second cousins?"
"Huh?" Bra's head was starting to spin.
"Well, since you and Trunks are siblings that makes our children first cousins on your side of the family, but on my side of the family your children will be my first cousins, which would make my children second cousins to yours."
Bra's head was now reeling. "Why are you worried about this now, we'll worry about these confusing details when the time arises?" She said flabbergasted.
"Why not now? Wouldn't it be wiser to work this out before we're in too deep over our heads?" Pan teased.
"Because! This is too much to handle at once. I just want to get you on your date, so we can implement phase two of the plan and adding something else into the fray will only confuse the issue. Besides, I'm too young to have a niece, much less one that's the same age as me!"
"Whatever you say . . . Auntie."
Bra grumbled.
Pan laughed.
"I'm glad you're finding this amusing."
"No more amusing than the thought of Trunks referring to his best friend as his uncle as well."
Bra stopped grumbling momentarily and smiled. "Oh, I never thought of that. Those two will not only be brothers-in-law but nephew and uncle as well." She smirked. "Now, that is funny."
"Yeah, and can you imagine the look on Trunks' face when that realization does occur to him."
Both friends started laughing at the thought.
"I just hope I'm there when it happens." Bra said between laughs.
"Me too." Pan replied gaining control of her laughter. Then she stood up from her chair and went to retrieve the long elegant gloves that were lying on the bed.
"Oh, by the way, I hope you realize you have nothing to worry about." Pan said as she slid the gloves on.
Bra turned quickly around to face her friend confused at the remark. "Don't have to worry about what?"
"I refuse to call you Aunt Bra." Pan smirked.
"I'm going to hold you to that." Bra said as she once again crossed her arms.
Pan smiled then turned around to look at her reflection in the full-length mirror wanting to make sure she wasn't forgetting anything. 'Let's see. Hair done. Check. Make-up. Check. Dress. Check. Gloves. Check. Jewelry. Check. I think that's everything.' She turned back to Bra to get the final stamp of approval. "So, how do I look?" She inquired as she turned in a small circle.
Bra smiled. "I think my brother is going to have a nose bleed."
"Bra!" Pan screamed, which caused Bra to burst out laughing.
Suddenly a loud knock interrupted them. "Bra! Are you in there?" Came the hurried voice on the other side.
"Yeah, what do you need?" She casually asked.
"What do I need?! Are you kidding me? Damnit Bra, I need to be leaving in a few minutes and I have no idea who I need to pick up much less where I need to go to get them." Trunks shouted through the door.
"Oh, chill out big brother. You don't have to go pick anyone up. She's already here."
"She is?" He asked surprised.
"Yes. She is. Now, be a good boy and go back downstairs because she'll be down in a minute." Bra teased.
Trunks exasperatedly sighed. "Fine."
Bra turned back towards her friend when she heard Trunks' footsteps fade down the hall. "Come down in another minute or two, so you can make your grand entrance. I'm going to wait for you with everyone else down there." She walked toward the door, but turned around right before opening it. "Oh, one more thing. You might want to put your shoes on before walking down there too."
Bra smiled at Pan's bewildered look then walked out the door.
Pan came out of her stupor when she heard Bra's retreating footsteps fall silent. She lifted up the hem of her dress and looked down. Sure enough her stocking covered feet were shoeless.
"Figures. I would be the one to make such a simple oversight." She shook her head and smiled her inherited Son smile. "Ah well."
She retrieved the shoes and slipped them on. She then took a deep breath to calm her ever-present nerves. "Well, here goes nothing . . ." She gulped. " . . . and everything."
~*~*~*~*~*~
~~~To Be Continued~~~
Hey everyone!
Sorry this took longer than I originally thought. My computer had the misfortune of receiving a virus a few weeks ago, which screwed up everything. *grumbles a few obscenities* It was not even funny. I had to totally reformat my hard drive, which made me loose everything.
Well, everything except my papers for school and earlier chapters of my fics, which were fortunately saved on disks. However, I lost the first pages I originally typed for this chapter. I was lucky enough to have some of it written on paper before I typed it in my computer, so I was able to get some of it back. Do you have any idea how hard it is to scratch your brain trying to remember all that you originally typed for a story? It's not easy, I can tell you.
I also had to misfortune of loosing the address book with my email. Therefore, anyone who sent me a review to this story between April and May that did not get an answer back it is because your email, unfortunately, got deleted before I had the chance to reply. I'm sorry I usually try to reply to everyone. I may often be late when replying to emails, but I usually reply back to those who were nice enough to send me comments about my fic. I'm sorry to those of you that didn't get an answer to your email.
Well, this is all for chapter two. In chapter three, Pan and Trunks' date gets underway, and Pan gets a brilliant idea to help Bra snag the unsuspecting Goten. So stay tuned.
Bye,
Carebear