Chapter 2: The Journey

A few minutes later, Bura stormed past Pan, telling her to pack her things. She grabbed her brother and pulled him behind her. Pan left.

"All that Goten did was argue," Bura fumed to her brother from the privacy of their ship. The three Earth saiyajins had been convinced to come along, and were packing their things. "I don't like him brother, he's gonna cause trouble."

"Perhaps he will," Trunks said calmly. "But I shall deal with that when it comes. You will be in charge of teaching Pan how to act like a saiyajin, both a saiyajin warrior and woman. You will also teach the human female how to act. Parse," he continued, looking at his remaining soldier, "prepare three rooms for the Earthbreds."

"Yes my Prince," Parse saluted him and left the room, bumping into Pan as the demi-saiyajin walked in.

"Hello Pan," Trunks says. He notices that all she has is a backpack, which doesn't look full. "You pack light."

"I hardly think I'll need most of the stuff I had here on Vejitasei," Pan said drolly. "All I brought is some jeans and shirts, my training clothes, a few favorite books, and my photo album. My mom, on the other hand, wants to pack the whole house." She rolled her eyes.

"Here," Trunks replied, flicking a small capsule at her. "She should be able to fit everything she wants in that. It's a capsule made by my mother, Bulma." Pan nodded and flew off.

"Mother?" Bura said, giving Trunks a sidelong glance. "You haven't referred to her as mother in public since you were five."

"Thank you for your reminder," Trunks said, sarcasm tingeing his voice. "Seriously though, it just...came out." He turned away form his sister, a look of deep concentration in his purple eyes. Bura stood and walked out of the ship in the direction on the Son home.

"Wow! That capsule is really something." Pan said with a smile as she flew through the hatch again. She turned a thoughtful look on the cold prince. "Tell me about her. Your mother."

"My mother is a human, born near here actually," Trunks began. Pan moved to sit down next to him as he spoke. "Bulma Briefs, daughter of the owner of Capsule Corporation, the most technologically advanced company on Earth. Probably in the galaxy. She knew your grandfather briefly, for about one year, before the king -then prince- found her and brought her home to be his mate. She continued to produce technology for the Saiyajin empire, and still does."

Pan waited for him to speak more, thinking that couldn't be it. When he didn't, she spoke, "Well, nice biography, but what about your mother makes you love her?"
"What makes you think I love my mother?" Trunks said coolly, staring her right in the eye. "I don't love anyone. Emotions are a sign of weakness." He stood up and began to leave the room. As he left, he added softly, very softly, "or at least that's what the king says."

Pan, however, heard him, and stood to follow him. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Trunks..." she whispered, her voice conveying the pain she had realized he must be feeling. He turned to her and looked into her eyes. "I..."

"I hate you, Son Goten!" Bura screamed as she flew into the capsule. Trunks jerked away from Pan and quickly stepped away.

"Yeah, well you're not exactly helping matters, Princess!" Goten screamed back. "Just because your parents are rulers doesn't mean you can tell me what to do yet! So back off before I hurt you, woman!" Bura slapped him hard across the face and ran crying from the room.

"Uncle Goten?" Pan said incredulously. Goten usually got along with everyone. "What happened with Bura-hime?"

"That royal prat was trying to tell me to hurry up," He growled. "Told me to stop wasting my time packing 'trivialities'. She threw away my picture of Marron!" Suddenly Pan understood. Marron had been Goten's fiancé. The picture he was referring to was most likely the one of her right before her illness, standing with Goten in front of a lake not far from the house when they were both eighteen. She was smiling and hugging him. Two days later she was completely bedridden with a fatal lung disease. It was his favorite picture of her.

"Goten, I'm sure she didn't mean it," Pan said comfortingly. "She most definitely didn't know what that picture was, or how much it meant to you." He was crying, Pan noted, and she stood up. "I'll talk to her for you, Goten-kun." She got up and found the princess in her room.

"Bura-hime? It's Pan. Can I talk to you for a sec?" Pan explained why Goten blew up, and asked the Princess to offer him an apology for throwing the picture away. The princess refuse, saying that she apologized to no one.

"But in all honesty," she said sadly. "I am sorry. But daddy says never apologize to your warriors, or they'll think your weak."

"Nonsense!" Pan exclaimed sharply. "All it shows is that you care about their feelings."

"You don't understand, Pan," Bura said with a sigh. "Feelings and caring about them are considered weak on Vejitasei for any warrior, male or female. If I wasn't a warrior as well as the princess, I could probably apologize. But I can't. Trunks would kill me."

"That's harsh," Pan said grimly. "Good thing I'm not usually one for emotional crap. Well, except anger of course, but I assume that that emotion is tolerated?" Both women fell into a fit of giggles, interrupted only when Pan remembered the reason for her visit.

"Please apologize, Bura-hime," She entreated one last time. "Trunks doesn't have to know. I'll distract him while you apologize. After you do, tell him that he can't tell anyone and to come to me for an explanation."

"All right, Pan," Bura agreed after a moments hesitation. "But lets do it now. My brother should be in-"The saiyajin princess stopped abruptly as the ship lurched. "We're taking off! He could have warned us, the bloody prat! Come on, now is the best time. Challenge him to a spar once the ship clears orbit."

"Okay." They got up and made their way to the main room of the ship. "Have we cleared orbit yet, Prince Ice cube?" Pan asked cheekily.

"In 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...we're clear. Why?" the prince asked indifferently.

"I want to spar, but Goten refuses, and so does your sister." Pan said. "And I gave up sparring my father long ago. So what do you say?"

"Well, I need to evaluate your power anyway," the prince said. "Alright." The two entered the gravity room and promptly began sparring, trading punches, kicks, and ki blasts faster than the eye could follow. Bura turned to Goten in the now-empty room. "Goten," she began. "I'm really sorry about what I said down there. I didn't realize..." she trailed off, not wanting to mention his dead love.

"It's alright," He said after an awkward silence. 'I know you couldn't have know better. I just got caught up." Another awkward silence ensued. "It wasn't recent, you know. She...died six years ago, when I was eighteen. I...I promised her I'd move on, but I can't seem to." He began crying again and Bura quietly left him to his memories.

Meanwhile, Trunks had gained the upper hand in their match, but only slightly. Pan decided that she wouldn't go super until she talked to her dad. She didn't know how wise it would be to reveal that all three could transform not only to super saiyajins, but to the level beyond super saiyajin (AN: SSJ2). All of a sudden, the wind was knocked out of Pan as she received a kick square in the stomach. She flew back into the wall, bouncing painfully off the titanium. She looked up to see the prince rushing at her, fist upraised. She quickly vaulted above his head, spun, and threw a kick to his head, which he grabbed. She attempted to escape as he swung her around by the foot, and ended up knocking into him, sending both of them crashing to the ground. Of course, he landed on top of her. He opened his eyes only to realize this. He turned red and jumped up.

"Hmph," he said, offering her a hand up as well.

Did Prince No-Emotions really just blush? Pan thought with a smirk that she (unsuccessfully) tried to hide. Maybe he does have emotions. He noticed her smirk and turned an even deeper shade of red.,

"I think its time we went to bed. Lessons can wait for tomorrow," he mumbled, gesturing towards the door. Pan couldn't' resist.

"Which lessons?" She teased as she passed through the doorway ahead of him. She heard him choke and turned around to see him turn even more red. She walked away with a laugh. She had to admit that he was very cute when he blushed.

The next morning, Pan and Bura sat in Pan's room going over Saiyajin customs. They had covered warrior customs first, seeing as how Pan would act primarily as a fighter at first.

"Warriors," Bura said. "Are equal on the battlefield and in the training room, regardless of gender. Ability is the only standard. When in a training facility, a man will move out of the way for the woman with higher power, but that's the only time."
"Great," Pan said. "So as long as I stay in the training room, I shouldn't mess up."

"Pretty much," Bura admitted. "As long as you remember the rule that govern a warrior's life of Vejitasei. Now, onto female roles outside of battle." Pan groaned, and Bura glared at her. "A female may start a conversation with anyone she wishes, of course, except males of the royal family and elite class. Women pretty much have the same rights as on Earth, but with a few important differences."

"Such as?" Pan asked. She was paying attention, much as she didn't want to.

"The male can hit his mate if he wants," Bura said. "Of course, if the female is strong enough, she can always fight back, no government interference at all. A son may never strike his mother, punishable by jail and being ranked as third class permanently. Of course, a mother must raise her son properly. She is in charge of his early training, such as reading, writing, math, etc, as well as basic fighting skills such as flying, ki balls, and basic technique. Failure in this area can mean removal as the 'mother' of your children. Another woman will raise them, though you will still be their father's mate."

"But what about Bulma?" Pan asked. "Surely she didn't teach you all of that stuff? Well, obviously the mental skills, but Bulma can't fly."

"No, but she knew the theory." Bura replied with a smile. "She made one of the guards do whatever it was she wanted us to learn. A guard would stay in one exact spot until Bulma told him what to do. We learned quite quickly. Besides, I don't think my father would have decided to remove her as out mother."

"Oh, so the husband makes that decision, not the government?" Pan asked.

"Well, the husband can submit her as unfit, but the government has to check it out first to make sure its legit. Next, mating -marriage to you, I suppose. Probably much the same as your customs. A dating time, followed by a small ceremony. In the saiyajin ceremony, the male simply asks the female to be his mate forever in front of a witness not related to either saiyajin. They're not considered mated -married- until they're marked. The mark is just a small bite, usually around the neck/shoulders area. Notice how your third teeth are sharper than the others? Well, the bite is infused with a particular hormone which causes scarring, making the mark permanent. There are no divorces in Saiyajin culture. Of course, there is a bond also, making it almost impossible to separate anyway. It's a sort of mental affinity for your mate. No telepathy or empathy or any of that, but the two can tell exactly where the other is and if he or she is in danger."

"What happens when one dies?" Pan asked.

"Well, lets just say its not pleasant." Bura said with a frown.

"What's not pleasant?" both girls turned to see Videl in the doorway.

"Nothing mom," Pan said, getting up to hug her mom. After, she looked at her mother's throat. Sure enough, there was a small scar at the base of her neck. "I'll be back, Bura-hime. I'm going spar."

She walked to the gravity room and put the gravity on max, tensing her muscles as the gravity suddenly increased. She quickly began her usual warm-up of sit ups, push ups, punches and kicks. Suddenly she became aware of another ki in the room.

"Hello Trunks," She said without turning around.

"How did you know it was me?" He asked, surprised. Not that his surprise showed on his face, but Pan was getting good at reading both his and Bura's tails. The tip of his had given a small twitch to the right.

"I felt your ki," Pan said rolling her eyes. "duh." The prince looked at her intently.

"You mean you can sense other's ki?"

"Can't you?" Pan asked. He shook his head. "Here, I'll teach you. Its fairly easy....I'll bet you don't know how to hide your ki, or distinguish between them. I'll teach you those too."

After the lesson, they played hide-and-go-seek to test his skills. Pan was hiding under the bed Bura was on. "Pan." Bura said. "Why are you under my bed?"

"Shh!" She said, putting her finger to her lips. "Trunks and I are playing hide-and-seek! I'm hiding."

Bura's eyes narrowed. "Do you mean to tell me my brother is playing a children's game?" Pan nodded. "I don't believe it. He didn't play them we were children, why would he now?"

Pan gave the blue-haired princess a wicked grin. "Training." She pulled her head back under the bed just as Trunks burst through the door.

"HA!" He shouted. "FOUND you...Bura?" He stared at his sister, perplexed. Bura almost burst out laughing. "You're not Pan." he said. Bura rolled her eyes.

"Obviously not." she said. "What are you doing anyway, running around yelling like a child?" He glared at her.

"Training." he took another step into the room.

"Hide-and-go-seek is NOT training." Bura said, amazed by his answer.

"Actually, it is. Pan taught me how to sense ki, and I have to find her by her ki signature." He put his finger to his lips and reached for the bed. He reached under the bed and pulled Pan out. "Hello Pan."

"Hey Trunks," she mumbled, clearly upset at losing. She had crossed her arms and begun to sulk when all of a sudden, something happened that never had before.

Trunks laughed. Not the amused chuckle his father was famous for, he had done that before, but a real laugh.

"Okay, who are you and what have you done with my brother?" Bura said jokingly to Trunks, who stopped laughing. He almost dropped Pan on her butt in his hurry to leave the room.

What just happened to me? Trunks thought. He had laughed. Trunks Briefs, Prince of Saiyajins, had laughed like an Chikyuujin. I'm getting weak. His eyes narrowed. And its all her fault. If I don't talk to her, I won't get any weaker. He stopped just inside his room. Could he handle it?

"We land tomorrow!" Bura announced to the crew. It had been four days since Trunks had laughed, and he had avoided Pan like the plague. No, he hadn't avoided her, just completely and unobtrusively ignored her existence. He still spoke to her, and in a civilized manner, but there was nothing personal anymore. Ice cube was an apt description.

"Finally!" Gohan said with a smile. "I say we celebrate with an all-day mini-tournament!"

This was agreed upon by all, and they spent the better part of the day fighting each other. Parse, who was still injured, sat out. Bura beat Videl in the first match; Pan beat her father in the second match; and Trunks beat Goten by a hair in the third. Pan then easily beat Bura, and was about to take on Trunks.

They began fighting. Who does he think he is, acting all high-and-mighty? Pan thought angrily. He has feelings, I know it! I saw them! She hit him with a punch in the jaw. Then how come there are no emotions now, not even pain? Another side argued. All saiyajins love battle, but he has no emotion towards it. Its just another thing to excel at She blocked a small ki blast and elbowed him in the stomach. Can't he just face reality? The other side retaliated. He has emotions, so why doesn't he just show them, the "JERK!" Pan yelled that last word as she punched him repeatedly in the stomach. She went to kick him, but Goten grabbed her arms, knocking her out of her train of thought.

"Pan! You won!" He said. "Stop kicking him, already!" She stopped, hands falling to her side, noticing that the purple haired prince was unconscious.

"Yay," she said gloomily as she walked to her room. She lay down and fell asleep. It was 10 pm.

Trunks regained consciousness a few seconds after Pan walked out. The last thing he remembered was seeing Pan's brown eyes, full of anger and sadness, as she yelled "jerk." He sighed and stood up.

"Well," Gohan said. "Are you okay, Prince?" Trunks nodded, brushing something off of his wife beater.

"Fine." The spot on his shirt wasn't coming off.

"Well, good night then," Goten said. "Wake us up before we enter the solar system, I want to see Vejitasei from space." Gohan and Goten left, along with Bra, who merely shot her brother a worried glance.

Trunks's hand stopped over the spot, recognizing it. It was a tear. And it wasn't his. He sat in the gravity room for awhile, then got up and left, turning off the light. This isn't working. And I don't like it.

"Pan?" Pan groggily sat up as the voice called her. The voice belonged to Trunks. "Pan, I,"

"Don't talk, Trunks," Pan said wearily. Probably wants to congratulate me for winning or some bloody stupidity like that. Suddenly she was enveloped in two strong arms. She could feel his hair against the back of her neck.

And then, so quietly that close as she was she almost didn't catch it, he said, "I love you." She turned around and looked into his eyes. For the first time, Pan saw emotion in them. Her lips met his in the sweetest kiss Pan had ever had. She broke away after a few seconds. "What? I..."

"Shh," Pan said. She lay back down, pulling him with her, and fell asleep in his arms. Trunks looked down at the black haired demi-saiyajin who had made a second spot of emotion in his ice cold heart. To HFIL with the king Trunks thought with a smile as he fell asleep. I'm happy.