Outtake from A Dash of Fluff and one of three of my tries to start chapter 24. I rather liked this one, so I decided to post it.

"Hi, babe," Pan edged into the room gingerly, "so, um... I spent the day at Bra's and she needed some help with something weird..."

Trunks looked up at his wife, "weird? Let me guess, shopping? Picking an outfit? Fashion-related stuff that's outside of your mainstays?"

Pan shook her head slowly, moving her clasped hands behind her back, "no, she actually was messing around in the lab and she needed a guinea pig for something saiyan related so I was manipulated into volunte- ow!" she jerked sharply as her hands brushed against something her husband couldn't see, "I volunteered my services."

"You what?" The saiyan Prince was up out of his office chair at once, instantly in front of his wife and checking her over, "what did she do to you? Did she tell you what it was going to do to you? Why'd you even-" he shook his head, "you're such a pushover when it comes to her, that's why. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just a wee bit on the sore side," the young woman tenderly touched the back of her right hip, "it feels like there's something trying to tear its way out of my tailbone, though. She didn't tell me what she was doing, she just shot me up in my butt cheek and sent me on my way before I could ask."

"Tearing out of your tailbone?" the Prince queried, "Pan, I think she gave you something to grow your tail back."

"Really? Why?" the daughter of Gohan furrowed her nose, "there aren't any threats coming to Earth so I don't need the boost of strength..." she grimaced and grabbed a fistful of her dark hair, "Kami, I can't go to work like this. It hurts too much. I'll have to take off for a few days until it grows in and then a few more so I can get used to having it. Dammit Bra." she grumbled the last part.

For the rest of the day, the Briefs woman was in an irritable, short-tempered mood. She could barely stand to be around her children without losing her patience and having to leave the room for a few minutes to calm down. She knew she could't blame the twins, they were young and they didn't know better, but she just didn't have the tolerance for their shenanigans today.

Lately, Panda and Toran had been taking after their father and Uncle in their younger years and had become quite the pair of tricksters, albeit a lot calmer. Pan swore that if she sat on another whoopi cushion she was going to leave and never come back... Maybe not never, but close to it. The mother of four was struggling to cope with the abominable pain tearing through her tail bone, slightly rewriting a tiny portion of her saiyan DNA to coax a tail to grow from it was draining her of all her motherly patience.

"Pandora Velia Son-Vegeta Briefs and Toran Goku Son-Vegeta Briefs," Pan finally hissed, tossing the abused whoopi cushion to the side, "if you don't quit with these little tricks, I'm going to suspend your training privileges and ground you from spending the night at Grandma Bulma's every other weekend."

The two five year-old chibis froze mid-plot, staring up at their mother with identical wide blue eyes. She narrowed her own dark blue eyes at them both and shook her head, "don't give me that look. Either stop or lose privileges. Which one will it be?"

"I like having privileges, Toran-kun," Panda murmured to her twin as they turned away from their mother to have council, "but pulling tricks on people is fun, too."

"But Mama's mad, so it's not fun anymore," Toran responded softly, "privileges are more fun than pranking people."

In the end, the twins chose their privileges and their beleaguered mother retreated to the bedroom to take a few moments to herself. It hurt insanely much to lie on her back, with which she was most comfortable, so she had to lie on her stomach and be utterly uncomfortable. It was in this position that her eldest child found her, face pressed to the mattress and mentally cursing her sister in-law to the depths of HFIL.

"Mama?" the seven year-old asked worriedly, climbing onto the bed, "Mama, are you okay?" She gently touched her mother's back and was shocked and frightened to have her mother moan in discomfort and flinch away from her touch. Eyes filling with tears, the eldest Vegeta Briefs-Son chibi hurried down the hall to her father's office.

"Papa!" Nora burst into the office, tailed by her ornery kitty, Asher, "Papa, something's wrong with Mama." Trunks opened his arms to the worried chibi and held her to his chest, rubbing her back and shushing her cries gently, "your Mom's just hurting a bit because your Auntie Bra did something to her and it wasn't pleasant."

"We should beat Auntie Bra up then," the dark purple haired seven year-old deliberated at once, "Mama's back is hurting her a lot, Papa."

"We should," the Briefs smiled eagerly at the thought of getting revenge for his irate, sore little wife, "but she doesn't train and Uncle Goten wouldn't be too happy about us beating her up. I'll call him and let him know that she's on punishment, though."

"Okay," Nora was satisfied with this, and tugged on his arm, "come see about Mama. I think she needs a Papa hug."

I doubt she wants me to hug her right now, Aniol... but I'll see what I can do...

A few moments later, Trunks was sitting on the edge of the bed, unable to touch his wife in any way without setting off a wave of pain at her coccyx, the epidermal surface of which was starting to look a bit swollen. He frowned worriedly at this, now aware of the method through which the tail would emerge from her tailbone.

"Anything I can do, Panny?"

"Can you kill Bra for me the next time you see her?" the small woman drawled, "I'm never helping her out in the lab again. Who knows, maybe she did the DNA combinations wrong and I'm actually growing a snake tail or an alligator tail... or something that shouldn't cause this much pain..." she sighed into the comforter, "Can you run me a hot bath in the Jacuzzi tub and sit in it with me? Please, I need something to lay my chest on so my back won't touch the tub wall."

"Okay, just let me send the kids to their Grandma's. Your mom already has Boxer, doesn't she?"

"No, he's at Marron's but he'll be at my mother's later on today."

*a little later*

"I think giving birth was only slightly less painful than this," Pan whispered against her husband's chiseled pectoral muscles, "the only plus is that it only hurts when I mo- scratch that, ow..." she fidgeted against Trunks, sitting up fully, "ow... Oh Kami, I think it's about to shoot out of me."

"Really?" Trunks questioned, "I thought it would take a bit longer... not that I'm complaining," he corrected his inquiry at the murderous look his wife gave him, "I don't like seeing you in pain, Panny, you know that." His palm brushed against a now quite obvious bump at the base of Pan's spine, and she gasped and jerked against him.

"I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"

Pan's cheeks flushed deep red, "No," she mumbled, "that actually felt really good..."

"Well, Dad told me that the tail is a saiyan's biggest erogenous zone," Trunks murmured, and his wife stiffened, "really? You mention your Dad now, while we're in the tub together and you just did that to me? Really?"

"Sorry..."

The former Son gave a laborious groan against his chest and shifted, trying to get comfortable, "I hate her... I hate her... I hate her... Kami, I'm going to kill her..." she cried out sharply, her face pinching up, and then all the tension flooded out of her body. The petite woman turned to look behind her, eyebrows raised, as a twitchy, wet, and quite fluffy black tail rose up out of the suds and water, flinging small drops of water with each twitch.

"Well..." the saiyan Prince mumbled, "that was eventful..."

"It was like an ingrown hair... except it was an ingrown tail..." Pan responded, reaching out to touch her new appendage, "it looks really soft and silky, even though it's wet." The tip of the tail twined through her fingers and wrapped around her wrist and she found herself smiling. The daughter of Gohan realized this and scowled, "this still hurt like hell... I'm still going to kill her."

"No you're not," Trunks rolled his eyes, "I can see the look on your face. You're completely enthralled and obsessed with your new tail."

"Is it really that obvious?" she mumbled, struggling to get the appendage to release her hand, "come on... this thing should've come with instructions." In their bedroom, a musical chiming reached their ears and Pan sighed, "that's my cell phone." As she stood to go retrieve the device, she swayed slightly, off balance with the addition of her new tail.

"Hey," Trunks steadied her, "you alright, Pan-chan?"

"Fine, fine," Pan flared her ki to dry herself off and, blissfully ignorant of her nude state, used the wall as guidance to reach the bedroom, "I'm going to seriously injure your sister, dear." Once she was in the bedroom, the former Son wrestled to get a robe on. Her tail was flailing and swinging about, keeping her from getting the robe on properly.

Tired of fighting against her new limb, Pan snatched the phone off of the bed and, upon seeing the caller ID, answered and spat, "Hello?"

"Is that any way to greet your favorite sister in-law and best friend ever?" Bra sounded scandalized, "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"Oh, well I'm fine actually, now that the horrible pain my 'favorite' sister in-law inflicted on me has subsided," the wife of Trunks sneered, "seeing as she saw it fit to go around injecting others in the butt with foreign substances, and that area isn't even meant for injections, you could've permanently damaged my sciatic nerve, you bubble headed moron."

Trunks coughed loudly to hide his laughter at that last bit, and Pan shot him a winning smile over her shoulder as her sister in-law formed a response.

"Touchy, touchy," the bluenette snorted, "I bet you already fell in love with it, didn't you? And I am not a bubble headed moron," she sniffed, "you're just mean."

"Guilty as charged," all the fight drained out the brunette woman, and she smiled as her tail brushed against the underside of her arm, "it's definitely a welcome change, but it could've happened at a more manageable time, sis. I just started back working last week, you know, so I can't really afford to miss any days."

"You're Pan Son-Vegeta Briefs. They'll get over it."

"You really are a bubble headed moron, Bra, the real world won't stop to wait on my hand and foot because of my surname, we're not all pampered princesses like you are."

"Bah! Whatever! You know you love your new tail!"

"Yeah, yeah," the wife of Trunks hummed thoughtfully, "Hey, you think you could grow Trunks's tail back?"

Trunks, who was pulling on a pair of pants, jerked upright at once, leaving his trousers to fall around his ankles, "Hey!"

On other line, Bra giggled, "I think I can manage that."

"I'd really like to see him with a fluffy lavender tail attached to his delectable butt," Pan smiled, "but I think we're gonna have to take a little rain check... at least until he forgets about it. We'll get him when he least expects it."

"Ew, I don't want to know what you think of my brother's butt," Bra snickered, "but you're right... we'll have to sneak up on him."

"It's a plan."

Maybe I'll keep this on retainer for later on in the story. I really like it.

~CloudSpires1295~