Sorry, guys, I've been having a huge writers block on what to do next. Normally I have things down in notes before I start a story, but this idea came down on me so quickly that I simply couldn't write it down. I've been so busy for forever; it's taken a whole year to put out this crappy thing I call a chapter. However, this is only a transitional chapter. The next one will be better, I promise. Now, I know what I'm doing, sort of, for the rest of the story, it's just me trying to figure out how to get it put down. So enjoy!
"Ow, that stings!" complained Pan as Trunks treated her split lip. He dabbed lightly with some disinfectant, giving a short laugh.
"Oh, come on, you seemed tougher than that, Pan." He said with slight amusement.
"Here, let me punch you in the face and see how you like the stupid disinfectant thing." She said, sticking out her tongue.
Trunks continued to clean her scrapes, sticking a bandage on her head. She felt oddly like a child, and her father was cleaning her up after playing too rough, except in this scenario, her father was extremely attractive. . .
Euh…sometimes the thoughts in her head were too much for even herself.
"What happened here?" asked Trunks as his fingers fluttered along the deep gash on the side of her neck.
"Er," she began softly, almost awkwardly, "he pulled a knife on me when I didn't expect it."
Trunks pursed his lips and muttered, "That madman. That god damned madman. Does it hurt?"
"Not terribly. How bad is it?"
"I need to treat it with some of the disinfectant stuff, but I think it should be fine."
Pan felt Trunks clean her wound, and he soon wrapped a bandage around her neck.
"Here," he said as he stood back to admire his work, "you're done. Let's go into the kitchen and I'll fix us something to eat."
"I'd be fine with a pint of Ben's and Jerry's if you have any." she said with a laugh. He stopped for a moment, a slight blush crept along his face.
"Well, I'm kinda all out…I ate two quarts yesterday..." he said with embarrassment. She laughed hard. She wasn't actually serious!
"You'd make a good woman, Trunks." She said, slightly out of breath, not bothering to hide the amusement in her voice.
"You know what scares me?" he confided, looking quite shy, "You're not the first person who told me that."
Pan stumbled forward she was laughing so hard. Trunks Briefs, a woman? Pan reasoned after wiping her eyes that she'd be more than willing to become lesbian if that was the case. . . But the important fact was that he was indeed a man, so he was free for dating. However, as soon as that though crossed her mind, her smile faded a little. Why was she thinking like this? There was no way that she could date him! One, she just got out of a relationship only about an hour before (which left her a total wreck) and two, he was hurt before, and he most likely wouldn't want to have a relationship, well, not with someone like her at least. She thought to herself for a moment. ' I'm not really beautiful compared to his old girlfriend, and I'm not that interesting, there's no point of getting my hopes up.' Well, that solved it. She would never date him. He was her boss, damn it! Trunks couldn't be too stable with the subject, and Pan didn't want him to feel like she was after him like all those other women looking for money. She didn't want to hurt him, either. He was such a sweet man.
A man that she could never have.
"Pan, you ok?" asked Trunks, who hovered over her with a concerned look. She smiled a little. He really was too sweet for his own good.
"I'm fine, I just got a little lost in my thoughts," she said, her smile growing, "I was just was thinking that you'd look killer in a dress. Have you ever worn heals?"
Trunks tripped over himself at that remark. He gave Pan a sour look and pushed her into the kitchen.
Pan drank her cocoa and sat back comfortably in her chair. She sported a baggy, rather fuzzy sweatshirt and some slippers that Trunks was kind enough to force on her. Trunks placed a plate of freshly bake cookies on the table and took a seat himself.
"Is there anything else you'd like?" he asked, and she shook her head.
"No, I'm fine. You've gone to too much trouble for me already." She told him, picking up a warm cookie that she helped make. Trunks was a good cook, far better than she was. They sat in comfortable silence for a while, drinking and thinking to themselves. Why hadn't she taken the time to really analyze her relationship with Kyo? Normally she had enough sense to see certain faults in things, but when it came to Kyo, it was as if she had a blind spot refusing to let her see the truth. She had spent so much of her energy just trying to ignore what was there all along, trying to pretend that she was happy, that she was in love. Before she could stop herself, a tear streamed down he face, then another one. Soon her face was covered with them, and she tried to hide herself behind her hands, shrinking into her seat. Trunks turned to ask a question but was surprised to see a tearful Pan.
"Uh. . ." he began uncomfortably, "Are you ok?" He frowned at himself. He seemed to have been asking that question a lot lately.
"Oh, god, this is embarrassing," she sobbed out, "I can't make them stop. I don't know what's gotten into me."
Trunks looked her over and sighed softly, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"You don't have to pretend to be strong all the time," he said quietly, "you've just been hurt. You can't expect to feel better about it in a few hours time. It won't feel better for a while."
"I just don't see why I'm complaining," she said from between her hands, tears still flowing like mad, " I have no room to talk. You've been through worse then I have. That woman...she tricked you in the worst way."
Trunks shook his head slightly and said, " Don't trouble yourself with me, Pan. I've had months to think about it. You, however, are allowed the right to feel miserable."
"I put so much of myself into that relationship," Pan confessed, " It was all for nothing. All that time he was with someone else. He was telling her things that he used to say to me. How could I have not seen it?"
Trunks smiled a bitter smile. He was in the same boat as Pan just a few months before. Of course, Trunks had done the same things she had; ignored the signs, pretended that everything was ok…
"We all tend to trick ourselves into thinking that some things will change, or that things will turn around by themselves if you leave them be. However, the truth is that people like Kyo and my, uh...former girlfriend won't change, not if they don't want to. You would have never found happiness with him, even if you had stayed and tried to work things out. From what I gathered on the situation, he saw your trusting nature as a weakness, something to use against you when the time was right."
"He tried to do that tonight," she said quietly, nodding a little, "he tried to lie about what happened. He expected me to believe that she forced him to sleep with her. Heh, it's kinda funny, now that I look back on it. He sounded so stupid."
Pan laughed a little, giving a few soft sniffles. Trunks grabbed her now empty mug and got up to refill it.
"Did you want more marshmallows?" he asked, and received a nod, and he poured more of the chocolaty fluid in his favorite smiley panda mug. He placed it in front of Pan, and she sipped it thoughtfully.
"She was beautiful, you know." She murmured quietly. Trunks gave her a puzzled look.
"Who?" he inquired. She gave a sad smile.
"The woman I found him with. I wouldn't be surprised if she was a model or something. She had a pretty face and blonde hair that was so long…just like how Kyo liked it. He hated me for getting my hair cut. I guess he thought it made me look ugly, or something."
Trunks gazed at her thoroughly, and came to the conclusion that she was definitely not ugly. He looked her over and noticed quite a few things. He looked at her lips, which were softly pouting, tinged pink with a hint of a bruise. Her pale skin looked smooth, and it accented her hair nicely. Black locks cut at sharp angles, framing her face, tickling her slightly rouged cheeks. Soon, however, he felt his eyes settle on her dark ones, her sad, emotional eyes were easily her best feature. He wondered why he had never noticed before. . .
Pan Son was beautiful.
Trunks let out a breath that he was holding in as he touched a lock of her dark hair.
"I think this cut looks good on you," he said, rather more raggedly then he would have liked, "Kyo was insane to ever think you were ugly."
Pan blushed a little and tried to ignore how he stared so insistently at her. She fingered her hair a little and cradled her mug.
"Yeah, well, it doesn't matter anymore; I don't have to worry about impressing him anymore. I'm just glad that you're here to help me."
Trunks smiled in spite of himself. If only she was there for him when he needed someone who would understand.. ' Then again,' he thought, ' would I have even accepted her help? I was so different back then. I like it better this way. It feels…wonderful to be needed the way that she needs me.'
"You know," he found himself saying, "you're going to be ok. Not normal, but ok. You'll get through this. You don't have to be happy for a while. Just ok."
Pan shook he head in agreement. She understood what he said. She didn't have to feel happy right then. She didn't have to feel happy in the next week or the week after. But she would be ok. And she would get happy again, just not right away. Trunks gave her a re-assuring smile, and then looked at the clock across from him.
"Well, I think it's time that we go to bed, it's almost two." Said Trunks, and Pan raised an eyebrow.
"Really? Oh god…" she got up quickly and looked to the ground.
"Look," she began quietly as a blush crept onto her face, "before you get all gentlemen-like and stuff, I want you to know that I'll be perfectly fine on the couch. You can sleep in your own bed."
Trunks looked surprised. It was as if she had read his mind. He gave a small smile before arguing his case.
" Look, Pan, it really doesn't matter. I like sleeping on the couch. It's not that bad, and considering that you are the guest, I really would like it if you had a more comfortable setting."
"Oh, Trunks, you know where this is going, right?" she exclaimed smoothly as she drooped her arms dramatically around his shoulders, "Neither of us will be able to decide what to do, and then we would just have to settle in sleeping in the same bed…"
"Oooh, god..." Trunks muttered with a roll of his eyes.
"Oh, but can't you see the possibilities!" she cried, "This is just what we need! On a cold night like this...well, we'll need to warm things up. Who knows what could come out of it!"
"A headache?" he prompted. She gave him a pout.
"Oh, you're no fun." She said sadly, " Well, I don't care what you say, I'm not sleeping in a bed while you're forced to sleep on some stupid couch."
Trunks thought for a moment, then gave her a smirk.
"I have and idea…."
"This wasn't exactly what I had in mind." Said Pan, her voice muffled from the sleeping bag she was enveloped in. Trunks lay about a foot away in another rather fuzzy sleeping bag on the cold floor of his apartment. Trunks shrugged a little as he lay on his side to face her.
"Well, at least we don't have to warm things up, as you put it."
"Oh, but that's not fair, you might be great in bed and I'd be missing out."
"Believe me when I tell you this, I've never had complaints before; so you can take my word for it."
"Well, then, someone as experienced as you should have no problems with instructing an eager student like myself." She said, batting her eyes playfully.
"Er..." said Trunks, his more bashful side kicking in, "I don't think that it's appropriate discussing this when we are just a foot away from one another, in sleeping bags none the less."
Trunks blushed slightly as Pan giggled. He hadn't been this friendly with member of the opposite sex in a long time. By god, was he actually flirting? However, before his bashful side totally took over, he found himself asking a rather risky question.
"Well, you said you're a student, right? So are you experienced?" he inquired awkwardly. She gave him a coy smile.
"It's just too bad, Trunks Briefs…you could've found out the fun way, but I'm not telling you now."
Trunks shrugged and turned over in his sleeping bag, his back facing her. Pan sat up and looked at him. She pushed him a little to get his attention, but he wouldn't pay attention.
" Trunks…" she whined, " don't you wanna know?"
" Not especially, but I have a feeling that you're going to tell me anyways, so let's make this as pain-free as possible and just get it over with." He replied and turned back.
She smiled a little before going on, " I wouldn't say I'm experienced, but I'm not a beginner, if you know what I mean. I've only ever been with two people before. Once in college and then with Kyo."
"Are you serious?" Asked Trunks, " That's it?"
"Well, excuse me, Mr. Sex Crazed Psycho; I'm just not really into that kinda stuff. My first time was kinda funny, now that I look back at it. You wanna here about it?"
Trunks gave a quick moan of protest and threw his sleeping bag over his head. Pan just settled by him and pulled it back off.
"Well, too bad, you're going to hear about it anyway," she replied, and Trunks gave her a mean look, "I was 19, and I had been dating this guy for a while. His name was Gene Beagerman. He was really sweet, he used to bring me hot pockets and stuff and then we would study together. Well, one day he said that he loved me, and said that I loved him back, and one thing lead to another. . .well, I can definitely say that it was the worst twenty seconds of my life."
Pan gave a little sigh of remembrance before settling down onto her back to stare at the ceiling.
"So," said Trunks, "do you think you really loved him?" Pan looked thoughtful before she gave an answer.
"No…not real love; it was more puppy love then anything else. We stayed friends after that incident, deciding it was just too weird. Plus, Gene was confused with his life at that point, and all that he really needed was a friend."
"Why was he confused?" asked Trunks, and Pan began to giggle again.
"Well, about a year later, he figured out that he wasn't exactly attracted to women any more. He found that he was really gay, and he fell in love, actual love-love, with his partner in advanced physics. So that's my story."
Trunks was deemed speechless at the moment. He couldn't find the words to say what he thought at the moment.
"So you turn him gay then?" he asked.
"I don't think so, it wasn't that bad… So what about you; what's your story?"
Trunks looked at her strangely before answering, "That, my dear, is a story for another time. Now we should really go to sleep."
"Alright, fine!" exclaimed Pan. Then all was quiet. Pan sat for a moment, just listening to Trunks' breathing. It was funny how things worked out she thought after a few minutes of silence. A few months ago, Pan would have been surprised if Trunks had even known what her first name was. Now they were sleeping within a few inches from one another like a couple of kids on a camping trip. It was a strange feeling, knowing that if she had never stood up to Kyo, she wouldn't be here with Trunks. It was because of him that she was able to move on.
"Trunks, are you awake?" she said softly, "I want to tell you something," She gave him a little shake but he didn't reply. He gave a small snort in his sleep and turned over. Pan gave a small smile and snuggled into her warm sleeping bag.
"Thanks, for everything."
So, yeah, that was it. I know it was short and I know it could be better, but I already know the next chapter will be very exciting. So be kind and review, I would kill for a couple of reviews. Thanks!