CHAPTER 8:
Spiked Coffee
The reception afterward was beautiful. Long white ribbons cascaded from the ceilings of the room, laced with flowers of pink and gold. Although they had been relocated underground, there were windows opened to wide green gardens that were lit by special lighting. The room they were in was spacious and warm. A few hundred people showed up to offer their congratulations to the "happily" married couple. Trunks shook his head. If they only knew.
Trunks sat at the head of a long table that spanned the entire side of the room. After he was able to get away from the crowds, he had taken the moment to sit down and think... Or at least, try to think. It was incredibly loud, and all he wanted to do was slip away to the Temple and grab the dragonball as soon as possible. All these formalities were starting to make him grow impatient.
The food had been far better than Pan's cooking, and Trunks was quite sure Goku was content. Although he didn't get his "restaurant," he definitely got something better: A dinner and a show, Trunks thought bitterly, a small frown forming. He looked at the plate in front of him. He had barely touched his food, no matter how good it tasted. He just wasn't feeling himself tonight. He reached over with his right hand and picked up a fruit that looked somewhat like a small apple. As his left hand was brushing it clean, he stopped to get another look at his new ring. He tried to prevent any thoughts from forming, forcing them back as he bit into the fruit. He'd deal with Pan later. Right now, he had to be patient and wait for the reception to end so they could retrieve the dragonball.
A few of his bangs tickled his forehead, and he brushed them back with his fingers. His hair was beginning to get a little too long for his liking. Even one inch longer than what he was used to began to annoy him. Everything was annoying him right now. He looked over to Pan and Goku at the other side of the room, laughing among themselves as it they had something to be happy about. Even their laughter annoyed him.
He sighed and tried to think of happy memories that could cheer him up. Most of them involved Goten and himself pulling pranks on people, especially Gohan when he was still dating Videl. When they were younger, he and Goten never took anything seriously. As the President of one of the largest companies in the world, he didn't really have time to see Goten much anymore. Nowadays, it seemed like they were drifting apart. Goten was always dating and dumping girls during the normal time he and Trunks would have spent together, and Trunks was forced to work in a job he detested, but have to face his mother's wrath later if he tried to escape his duties. While Trunks was forced to grow up, Goten still remained a kid; but Trunks still considered Goten his best friend. Nothing could change the happy and somewhat humorous memories that they shared.
It would have been really nice if Goten had come along on the Tour. Although things could never be just like old times, they both would have had a great time. Trunks and Goten could have gotten close again, while Goten could have gotten to know his father better. Although Goten never mentioned it to him, Trunks knew that Goten felt a little left out, deep down. He never really had any quality time with his father. Then again, he never did anything to push his martial arts skills. He could have visited Goku while he was away training with Uub, and Goku would most definitely have taken every opportunity to train his son. But, after they defeated Buu, Goten never took training seriously again. Trunks was forced to, because of his father, but Goten's laziness definitely affected him, and even he stopped training as hard after a while. Whenever he and Goten would spar, it would be for entertainment value.
Trunks didn't realize he had lost some of his strength until relatively recently. While they were dealing with the whole Dolltucky madness, trying to get their dragonball back, there had been a point when a large amount of bricks were going to crush him, and he had to go super-saiyan to get them off of him. When he was eight, he could have demolished those blocks with a few punches. Now, it was hard for him to go super. It actually drained most of his power. No wonder his father had stopped forcing him to train. He actually was becoming a weakling and waste of his time. He was definitely stronger than most people in the world, but even still, it hurt his pride to be at the bottom of the super-saiyan totem pole... along with Goten. Recently, his father had been training Pan more seriously, because she had an interest to come over every weekend to spar and get stronger.
Trunks' smile had long since faded. He looked at the remains of the fruit in his hand, and then glanced over to Pan again. He was proud of her, but he would never admit it. She really was doing everything she could to become stronger while Trunks would be lounging on the couch watching television with his sister. She really did have the spirit to go super-saiyan, and it was a shame that she had not transformed yet. Trunks believed in her, though. He felt that she could one day. She just needed the right boost.
Trunks put the fruit core down onto his plate and stood up. Several girls were by him, talking with smiles and waving their hands in conversation. One looked over to him and meandered her way through the others to approach him. She was relatively small for her race, standing only about three feet tall. He felt like a tower next to her, being over six feet tall. When she spoke, her voice came out like high ringing bells. It reminded him of Lelanu's voice as she had performed the ring bonding ceremony.
"Pardon me, but whatwill you name your first child?" She looked at him with big green eyes that begged for an answer.
"Uh," Trunks scratched his head and looked to his feet. What an odd first question to just blurt out to someone. He felt a little awkward in answering that. He really didn't want to think about kids yet. They were not something on the top of his priority list at this point in his life. "I don't know, I'm sorry. That will have to wait." A small blush began to form by his nose. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned around to see a familiar face. "Uh, hi Pan..."
"Wouldn't your father want you to name your son Vegeta?" Pan grinned widely at him, making his blush more apparent. He didn't say anything in response; rather, he looked at her and began to subconsciously play with his hair.
"Honestly, Trunks, you look like a nervous wreck. You really need to calm down." Trunks looked down to see that she was holding two glasses and was holding one out to him.
"What's this?"
"I don't know. It tasted pretty nasty at first and it stung, but after a few sips it began to taste pretty good. They say it is a tradition for everyone to drink it, and since you are one of the stars of this party, I figured you might at least like to try it."
Trunks took the glass and eyed its contents curiously. The liquid was light blue and had small green swirls inside it. He brought it to his lips and hesitated a moment before taking a small sip. His eyes went wide and he choked loudly, almost spilling the drink to the floor. "Pan! What is this? How much of this have you had!"
"I don't know. I think about two glasses so far. This is my third."
"Pan, you need to stop drinking that. That drink is far too strong for you." He set his drink down and reached out for hers, but she yanked it back.
"No! It's my drink. I have a high metabolism, and it hasn't affected me at all."
Trunks could feel all the annoyance he felt earlier begin to edge its way into his system again. "Pan... give that to me, right... now..." He could imagine his mother's impatient and angry face painted on his right now as he glared at the fourteen year old who was drinking to her heart's content. "NOW, Pan."
"See, this is what I'm talking about. You need to lighten up." With that, she downed the rest of her drink while Trunks stared unmoving. She slammed her empty glass next to his and began to walk away.
"Pan, you come back here right now."
"Stop treating me like a little kid." She turned around to face him, a scowl on her face.
He raised his hands in defense, but kept his stern look. "I'm not treating you like a kid, Pan. I just think –"
"Good" she interrupted him, smirking softly. She looked over to one of the serving girls and said, "I'd like a coffee, or anything that resembles it, black. With some of that blue liquid in it for flavor."
Trunks slammed his right hand to his forehead. She has no idea what she's doing. She's never been drunk before. She really has no clue. His impatience was growing even thinner. He felt at any moment, he could snap. What would Goku do in this situation? He blinked to himself and looked across the room, to the corner where Goku was laughing happily with Hikaru and Lelanu. Okay, cross that out. What would my father do?
Suddenly he pictured the entire planet in shambles.
That didn't seem like such a bad idea right about now.
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Pan was very, very, very happy.
She didn't feel this way at first. After her second cup of black and blue coffee, she began to feel a bit tingly. It was so slight that she barely noticed it when talking to people. Her mind was on other subjects at hand. After it spread to a general numbing of her body, however, she began to feel her tongue slow down and betray her flow of speech, switching around consonants and mispronouncing random words.
At some point, she lost all feeling entirely and forgot what she was talking about. She began to lose awareness of where she was, and found her feet attempting to give way below her. When the full blow hit her, she was somewhere in the middle of the room, talking to who knows, rambling about nothing of interest, and feeling quite happy.
She noted that the entire world moved in slow motion around her. She felt like a video tape, with the option of rewinding and fast-forwarding all motion. The room was so warm, it was almost smothering her. Everyone was brushing past her, pushing her slightly, but just enough to the point where she felt she was losing her center of gravity. She found herself grabbing onto people for support.
Time must have been passing all around her, but she could not feel its effects on her. She had no idea how long it had been since the party started. The world was tipping like a see-saw and she was having a fun ride. Everything passed faster when she was enjoying herself.
She felt a pair of strong hands grab her, but didn't care to look and see who it was. At least now, she was able to stand straight and watch the tables rock back and forth. She squinted her eyes, trying to see someone in front of her, but couldn't make the person out. She didn't care, anyway. Oh yeah, it was her Grandpa. He was saying something to her, with a smile maybe on his face, but Pan wasn't really looking. She tried to listen, but she just couldn't focus on his words. She instead was picturing herself losing all her senses, floating in a void while watching people from a little movie theater in her mind.
Wow, I feel so good right now. Every part of her was relaxed. She felt like she needed to reach out and grab the person behind her just because it felt good to move her arms. She wanted to move her legs too. Dancing would be really nice. There wasn't any music, but she could hear all kinds of songs in her head. She turned around and hugged the person behind her just because it felt good to have contact like that. And it also felt good to move her hands up and down the person's back. She enjoyed doing that. She really liked the contact.
Everything seemed so simple. No emotions clouding judgement. She felt a hand in her hair, and dug her face deeper into the person's chest. It was a male. He was taller than her. She couldn't picture anyone in her mind that could be a male and taller than her. She just couldn't focus her thoughts that way. That hand feels really good... and his back feels really good on my hands. She tried to rock back and forth with him, to attempt to dance, but he refused to budge.
She frowned slightly to herself. Suit himself. She continued to hug him because it felt so right. He continued to run his hand through her hair, which also felt so right. She could feel the world shifting around her, but he supported her and kept her from falling. She felt like she was floating. Suddenly, she felt as if she wanted to fly, to feel the wind around her right now. That would feel so nice. It was so hot in the room.
A mental picture of a lavender haired male popped into her mind. That's right, it's Trunks. She remembered that he would be there, and would most likely be holding her like that. He was saying something, but she didn't think it was to her. She could feel his chest vibrating with the sound, and it felt so good. Everything felt so good.
She closed her eyes and tried to listen to the conversation. She could only pick out several words at a time, process them slowly, and found she missed out on several other words while she was interpreting the previous ones. She heard the sentences as if they were in another language. They were choppy to her, and although she understood every word, she couldn't get the meaning out of them. What were they trying to say? Why were they talking so fast?
"She is drunk, and I don't know..." She heard Trunks say this, and tried to picture it in her head. She, Pan, is drunk. So this is what being drunk feels like. And he doesn't know something. I wonder what he doesn't know. She listened more, "...Temple, but I don't want..." She pictured what the Temple might look like. And, what didn't Trunks want? "...tomorrow... we're running out of time...Goku..."
She put the pieces together, trying to fill in his meaning. It seemed as if he were trying to say she wouldn't be able to go to the Temple tonight for some reason.
"I'm fine," Pan said and pushed herself away from Trunks, wobbling on the see-saw again. Her words seemed muffled in her head. She wasn't sure if they heard her right, so she said more loudly, "I'm fine!"
She looked over to Goku, who was shaking his head. He smiled sheepishly, "Hey Trunks, she says she's okay. You know, maybe it's best..." She zoned out again. She couldn't focus on anything this time. The world went out of focus and the ground gave way under her feet. She felt strong hands grab her waist and steady her. At least, she thought she was steadied, but it was hard to tell with all the tipping going on around her. All of this just seemed so funny to her, for some reason. She burst out laughing, mostly at herself for her stupidity for drinking so much, and gave Trunks another bear hug. His chest had never seemed more inviting, and she felt like she could fall asleep on it for the rest of her life and be content.
Is this what love is? If so, I want more of it! She squeezed him even tighter as she smiled against his chest. "I love you Trunks. I love you, I love you... I..." Everything seemed so perfect. She was so tired. She felt herself slipping out of consciousness.
Her last thought before blacking out entirely was that she really could have gone for another one of those coffees.
––––––––
Trunks had kept a careful watch on Pan ever since she stormed away from him and ordered a spiked coffee. After twenty minutes of seeing her obviously beginning to feel its affects, his annoyance became more of pity toward the girl. She really had no idea what she was getting herself into. He wasn't about to play parent with her. He figured that should be up to Goku if anything. With that in mind, he approached Goku and felt the need to present Pan's case.
"Hi Trunks, what's up?" Goku broke off his previous conversation and smiled over to demi-saiyan who looked as if he had seen better days.
"I was wondering if you've been monitoring Pan like I have...?"
Goku began to laugh and waved the issue away. "Yeah, she's really drinking a lot tonight isn't she?" He smiled at Trunks and winked. "Sometimes it takes learning the hard way to learn at all."
"I don't understand, Goku. We could have taught her the hard way any other night. Why tonight? We have a mission right after this!"
"And all the better if she doesn't remember it, right?" Goku still had that stupid grin plastered on his face. Trunks sighed.
"Are you telling me that you didn't tell her to watch the amount of alcohol she would consume tonight?"
"Of course I warned her. She is fourteen after all, but apparently she's the legal drinking age here and she wouldn't hear any of it." Goku put his arms behind his head and yawned out, "You know how stubborn she can be."
"Yeah..." Trunks looked over to Pan who was flailing her arms while screaming some unintelligible comment to some Kikaruans. She had completely lost perception of the volume of her voice. She could get really loud if she wanted to. She was becoming an embarrassment. Goku didn't seem to care, though. It frustrated Trunks to know that he was the only one minding the whole mess.
He became aware that Pan was slowly making her way toward him and Goku without looking at them. It was as if she were staring right through him, unable to concentrate her vision right. He noticed she was stumbling, forcing her way through people as if they were road blocks. Right before reaching him and Goku, she turned around and looked as if she were lost. He took a step and grabbed her shoulders, stopping her. Goku walked over to face her and looked her in the eye.
"Hey Pan, you okay?" Goku snapped his fingers in her face, but got no response. She was in a daze, staring at nothing. Goku grinned widely toward his granddaughter when she didn't respond. "Wow Pan, I think you really did drink too much." He looked over to Trunks. "It's so funny, Trunks. Look at her," Goku waved his hands before her eyes. "This is definitely a photographic moment."
Pan turned around and began to hug Trunks, digging her face into his chest. As he held her, he could feel her wobbling as if she couldn't balance herself, even when stabilizing herself against him. He felt a pang of concern for her and wanted to let her know that everything would be alright. He ran his fingers through her hair in an attempt to comfort her and get her to relax against him. He could feel it working, and she began to rub her hands against his back. He interpreted that as a sign that she was feeling better. He looked over to Goku, who was searching through the blue backpack for his camera.
"Don't do it, Goku, if even for the sake of her humility. If I were in her shoes, I'd never forgive you for taking pictures of me this far gone. Goten tried to do that to me, once, when we were in college. He was stupid and ended up taking the pictures on my camera." Goku raised one eyebrow toward Trunks, who went on, "I, of course, discovered them, and I got sweet revenge later. But I won't talk about that one. That one is an 'unmentionable'." Goku grinned, and Trunks thought for a moment. "You know, I don't think he got over it, even eight years later."
Goku chuckled. "With a photograph or not, Pan is going to remember this night forever, even if the only memory is the headache she's going to have when she wakes up tomorrow. I'm glad I got to see it. I don't think it will ever happen again, knowing her."
Trunks smiled. "Yes, as you say, she is definitely learning the hard way." Suddenly, Pan almost threw him off-balance as she began to try to rock back and forth against him. Feeling as if her health were in danger, he shook her a slight bit. She didn't seem to respond. "Pan, are you okay? What's wrong?" Worry clouded his eyes as he looked to the twelve year old in front of him. "You know, Goku, she is drunk. I don't know if it would be the best idea to enter the Temple while she's like this."
Goku bought a hand to his chin. "I don't know what the policy is about that. I was under the impression you had to go on your wedding night? But I could be wrong. Let me go ask Hikaru." Goku wandered off through the crowds as Trunks was still holding Pan against him. Or, rather, Pan was holding him against her and he was letting her because he wasn't sure if she would be okay standing on her own.
Trunks felt the need to talk to her and get a response. She hadn't said anything since she pressed herself against him. "Pan, I need you to tell me that you are okay." She once again kept her silence. "Pan, are you awake?" He sighed as he ran his fingers through the poor girl's hair. "Pan, you and I still have to go to the Temple, but I don't want to bring you if you can't talk to me. Tell me you are okay. I'm worried about you."
Goku arrived on the scene with Hikaru in tow. Hikaru bowed toward Trunks in his little white robe. The little man asked slowly, "Whatbe the problem here?Be the bride feeling under the weather?"
Trunks' eyebrows formed a frown and he blushed a little, "Well, kind of. You see...she drank a little too much and now she isn't conscious enough to respond to anything I'm saying. I want to ask if we can go to the Temple in the morning tomorrow, but at the same time I feel I want to get out of here because we're running out of time. I..." Trunks sighed in exasperation, feeling like he could pull his hair out, "I wanted to know if we could still enter tonight with her drunk, or would that offend your God... um... Raiyan or something?"
"Of course you can enter like that. Some prefer to enter that way, in fact. By wearing no clothes and –"
"Ahhh! You knowwhat,I get it. Okay..." Trunks' face turned pink with the mental image. He had gotten over his hormone craze when he had hit his mid twenties. Especially with Pan, there was no way he could permit himself to have such a vision. It would never happen. Never. Trunks felt his pride in his throat, slowly choking him. "Listen, Goku..."
"I'm fine." Pan pushed away from Trunks on wobbly feet. The force of her impact drove Trunks to stumble backward in surprise.
"Pan?"
"I'm fine!"
Trunks looked over to Goku with an expression on his face reading: 'What is she talking about?'
Goku shook his head smiling sheepishly toward him. "Hey Trunks, she says she's okay. You know, maybe it's best if you two went right now and got it over with. It looks like she's snapping out of it. You might want to get naked before she's aware of everything again. She might give you a hard time otherwise." At this, Goku began to laugh hysterically. Trunks' eyes narrowed at Goku's awful humor, but in a sick way, he had a point.
"You're right." He hated admitting it to himself, though. He sighed as Goku continued to laugh to himself.
Pan began to fall again, but Trunks instinctively caught her just in time, holding her up by her waist. She once again fell into his arms as if he were her hero. This time, however, Trunks was feeling a little awkward about holding her, as if nothing good could come from this. She began to laugh, echoing Goku and dug her face deeper into his chest.
In mid-laugh, Goku managed, "You know what Trunks? I think she's taken a liking to holding you!" He put his hands on his stomach as he doubled over from laughing.
Pan mumbled something into his chest. He could feel the vibration of her voice and pushed her back a little so he could hear. What came out froze him in terror. It even got Goku to stop laughing and stare in amazement. "...I love you! I love you... I...!"
Trunks was too dumbstruck to even catch her when she collapsed to the ground. There was no way she could have realized what she was saying. He looked in panic over to Goku, who had a classic grin on his face while his eyes screamed out an "I told you so."
Trunks found it hard to breathe for a moment. He felt like he would soon be following Pan as he staggered away from her, too dizzy to form any coherent thoughts. He blinked a few times, and looked at Goku's face. His shock was being replaced by seething anger. He knew what Goku was thinking.
"One word out of your mouth, Goku, and I'll make you regret it!" His fists turned white and his eyebrows knotted in a scowl that would have made even his father's blood turn to ice.
Goku placed a finger over his lips as if to shush Trunks as well, the biggest, stupidest smile on his idiotic face before he turned around to walk away. Trunks wanted to punch him. He needed to blow something up. He needed to kill something. "Goku!" The boy turned around still looking quite humored. "You and me. Right now. Outside the city." He could feel his ki skyrocketing.
"Sure thing!" Goku flashed his famous Son grin before prancing out of the room.
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–9/30/05–
