Pan enjoyed winter the least among the other seasons although it brought some of her favorite things, like snow ball fights and walking on the frozen river with grandpa Goku. Her new favorite was quiet evenings at the Brief's residence, playing with Bulla on the screened in patio. Pan sat with her back to the churning gas heater. Her afternoons with Sensei Piccolo at Kami's lookout became sparse. She missed the little, insignificant things the most, like the two hard boiled eggs waiting for her everyday in the otherwise empty kitchen refrigerator.

"What're you sad about?," Bulla grabbed Pan's attention.

"I ain't sad," Pan said and ran her forearm across her nose.

"Alrighty then," Bulla said pulling her toys out of a wooden crate, "Do you want midnight sparkle or rainbow hash?"

"ooooo! I want—," Pan paused and stared at the pony's rainbow mane. Her hand hovered over Rainbow Hash.

"Midnight Sparkle," she half whined, "Bulla?"

"Do what?"

"Have you ever thought about it?"

"Thought about what?"

Pan scanned the room nervously with her eyes and leaned closer, "We're not the same as the rest of 'em…at school I mean."

"Yeah, I know all 'bout that…," Bulla paused after her quiet words, "You know what though."

"What?"

"You and I are the same. Now, do you want her comb?," Bulla asked as she smoothed down the mane of her plastic horse.

"Yeap. It's sorta ratty 'n fuzzy."

"Like Trunks' hair in the morning," Bulla yawned.

Pan giggled at the off color remark. Pan envied Bulla in a way that bordered amusement and adoration. Bulla's flat voice and straight face added to Pan's laughter. Bulla talked with her hands. Pan usually knew what was coming before it came from her friend's mouth. Pan wasn't sure why she kept laughing. Her mother refers to it as shock factor, but Pan wasn't completely sure what Videl meant.

"Mr. Wudo—the computer guy— was talking about how much Ms. Mio liked your parent-project."

"Really, really?"

"Yep. Some garb 'bout gnomes and rainbows."

"Gnomes? They got it all wrong!," Pan vented.

"Gnomes are yuck and weird anyway, except for grandpa Brief's coy pond gnome. It's well… gnomey in the face—"

"In the face?," Pan busted with laughter.

"Yeah, you know. Anyway, he has no clothes on over his red Spuh-doo."

"What the heck's a Spur-doo?"

"Like a bathing suit thing for boys, not little boys though. Mom's tryna get grandpa to move it."

"Spuuuh-Dooo!," Pan howled.

"You sound like a whale," Bulla belly laughed," Spluuuh-Doooop!"

"Splooooop!"

"Bwuuuhhh!"

"Blaahhhh!"

"For a while, I forgot you two were in here. I thought I was hearing things," Bulma said from her seat at the patio table. Whis snickered an brought his tea cup to his lips. Beerus ignored his colossal bowl of chili for the first time that evening; he gave the girls his heaviest side-eye.

"Oh," Bulla answered her mother.

"You both need to be quiet," Vegeta spoke up," And you need to be more direct," he turned to his wife.

"As much as I tend to agree, this garbage about rainbow goblins is quite interesting."

Beerus planted his hand by his soup and looked over the table. His teeth glittered with saliva, matching his glassy leer.

"Beerus -Sama, stop leaning on the table," Whis groaned.

"As I was saying before being rudely interrupted," Bulla resumed, "I think it has something to do with Earth's water."

Whis eyeballed the hourglass shaped vessel in Bulma's hand.

"Silly me! I forgot he doesn't eat!," Whis laughed behind a fake smile.

Whis pulled Piccolo's wooden flask from Bulma's hand. He popped the cork from the flask with his purple thumb nail. He loomed over the smooth wood vessel and sniffed its mouth.

"I ran hundreds of tests. There's a residue on the inside, but I'm not sure. I just need more time, and I don't have it."

"You mean Piccolo doesn't have it," Whis leaned closer.

"Exactly."

Bulma wanted to crawl under the table and hide. Shame replaced her self-regard. She flashed Whis a fake smile. She wanted nothing more than for Piccolo to get better, but she wanted to figure out the illness, alone. The common cold in an alien body defeated her genius.

"A diversion will do us all some good," Whis said, turning to the girls.

"Wait—," Bulma's temper flared.

"Pan, Lord Beerus would love to hear your story," Whis grabbed the girl's attention.

"Might as well. I'm bored," Beerus said.

Bulma couldn't hold it in anymore, "Are you freaking kidding me!"

"Patience Bulma," he interrupted her with a quiet smile.

The eyes of the room fell on Pan. She shrugged her shoulders and combed her pony's hair.

"Daddy and I went to get grammy's spices…"