Little Black Dress
A Love Story.
By: Marley.
Pan sat cross-legged on the dark hardwood floor of her bedroom. The rich smells of her grandmother's cooking permeated the house, floating all the way to her loft in the addition her parents had built onto her father's childhood home. Normally she'd go down and offer to help cook, even if it was just so she could sneak a few bites, but she knew ChiChi was only getting started. Her parents wouldn't be home from work for a few more hours and the preparation was beginning quite early since Goten was coming by after closing the dojo.
When she'd left Capsule Corp. earlier, she'd snuck out without saying goodbye to anyone, black suit in tow. Now it was lying across her bed. She attempted to clear her mind, resisting the urge to try it on again and pushing away thoughts of the impending family dinner. Slowly, she closed her eyes and let out a deep breath.
Trunks' insult from earlier immediately sprang to mind. Pan opened her eyes and flopped over backwards onto the cold floor. The two of them hadn't always fought like this. Pan blew her bangs off of her face. She couldn't even hold it against him, really, because the change in their relationship was her fault.
Pan could remember a time when they were best friends. When she was ten, they'd spent an entire year living together, traveling in space with her grandfather. Goten changed in the time they were away. He was still interested in girls and dating, but his attitude toward training was different. It was as though he didn't see the point in pushing himself.
The opposite was true for her and Trunks. They'd fought a dozen battles that proved they needed to be stronger and faster. Being the weakest in their makeshift family had left in Pan a deep desire to be equal to Trunks, respected by Goku. While the year had increased her primal drive to fight, Goten's had withered away without anyone there to push him.
It was only a few months after her return that she realized how deep her feelings for Trunks were. As always, she'd gone to the Capsule compound on Saturday to train with Vegeta. He was already in the GR, however and when Pan hesitated to interrupt his training, Trunks caught up with her.
"Pannie!" She'd jumped at hearing his voice and whirled around. He was jogging toward her wearing loose-fitting sweatpants and a black tank top.
"I just got here," she excused herself. She felt her face flush and wasn't sure if she was more nervous about talking to Trunks or having been caught spying on Vegeta's private training time. She knew a warrior kept secret attacks. She knew that when she sparred with Vegeta it was very different than actually fighting him in battle.
Trunks laughed good-naturedly and took her by the shoulder, steering her back toward the house. "Let's get something to eat and then see about sparring with Dad, okay?"
"Okay," Pan answered hesitantly.
Trunks heard the reluctance in her voice. "I want to talk to you, anyway," he grinned down at her as they entered the kitchen through the sliding glass door.
"Really?" Pan heard how eager her voice sounded, but she couldn't help but grin up at him. Trunks was great and she'd had a crush on him since she was six or seven.
"Yeah," he nodded as he sat down at the small kitchen table.
Pan walked into the kitchen and poured a glass of tea from the fridge. Don't blow this, she coached herself. She sat down across from him. "What did you need to talk about," she asked in what she hoped was a careless voice.
"I wanted to tell you that I'm glad you always come over here to train," Trunks began.
"I love training with you!" Pan responded a little loudly. Trunks smiled in that way that said what she was doing was 'cute,' like he did when he was about to call her Pannie. She mentally slapped herself. That's not playing it cool. Think like Vegeta.
"Let me finish," was all Trunks said. Pan nodded. "When I was about your age Goten and I learned the Fusion technique, remember?"
Pan bit her tongue. She was eleven years old. Trunks had been eight when he fought Buu. "I remember," Pan sighed. Among the Z Fighters story-telling was a great pastime and traditional of basically every get-together …especially when Grandmother wouldn't allow any fighting.
"After Goten and I had fused, it was really like we were the same person in two different bodies. We would speak in unison and answer questions someone had asked the other person," Pan nodded again, listening intently now. She'd never heard Trunks or Goten talk about fusing, though Vegeta had briefly explained it and her Grandpa G had struggled to describe what it felt like. "I guess it helped that we were incredibly similar to begin with and Goten really looked up to me, back then. Sometimes, I swear, we could read each other's minds." The look on Trunks' face was distant. "It wasn't all mooning people and causing trouble, either." He laughed. Pan smiled. Trunks looked down at her for a moment without speaking.
"Trunks?" Pan tested softly.
"Sorry, Pan," he grinned. "I guess Goten and I changed a lot during high school. Sometimes now I feel that way about you, though." Pan took a sip of her tea in order to hide a smile she feared was so wide it would crack her face in half. She wondered for a moment if Trunks could hear how fast her heart was beating in her chest. "Come on," he pushed back his chair and jumped up. "Dad's powered down."
Pan sat there for a moment, though. the way Trunks described his friendship with her reminded her of the way her father had described his love for her mother. It was something Pan admired. As she followed Trunks out into the yard, staring up at the great expanse of West City, she realized there was no one else for her on the Earth.
Pan sat forward and stared over her small bed, with its' thick, handmade quilt, out the window. The view of the Paozu Mountains from her second story bedroom was breathtaking. She wasn't sure how Vegeta could stand to live in the middle of the city like that. Absently, Pan pushed herself to her feet and crossed her room to the more comfortable window seat.
That memory seemed so distant, though Pan recalled it clearly for how precious it was to her. At the time, Trunks had been almost finished with business school and she still hadn't even started looking at colleges. Pan swallowed hard. She hated thinking about how much older Trunks was. Fourteen years was such an incredible distance. Even when she felt like it was something they could ignore, the sharp words Trunks had spoken after realizing her crush on him a few years ago were enough to bring tears to her eyes.
"Pannie," Trunks had drawled. His voice held frustration and embarrassment and her nick-name reverberated like something disgusting in her ears. "You're a baby, you're fifteen! I'm almost thirty years old," exasperation was stamped onto his face. "Plus, you're about the most immature tom-boy ever. You whine about everything, you're totally irresponsible and self-serving, and you've never had one boyfriend."
Pan closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the look on his face, she felt like she couldn't breathe.
"Grow up!"
Pan pushed the window open and rolled out of it in one smooth motion. The wind immediately picked up her short strands of hair, tossing them lightly as she rushed toward the ground. For a moment Pan let herself fall, then she forced her energy downward and shot off in the opposite direction. Soaring away from the house, the clean scent of the forest filled overtook her senses as a single tear rolled down her cheek.
"Grow up," she swiped the back of her hand across her face. But growing up was hard. She was already beginning to look at colleges and that scared her. No matter what Trunks thought, she recognized college as what had torn he and Goten apart. They might have begun to really grow into different people and develop into themselves during high school, but college was what drove a wedge between them.
Trunks had attended the prestigious Business School of Southern University, while Goten had completed basic studies at several different schools in New East City. It wasn't the physical distance that drove them apart, either. They'd always lived across a continent from each other and never had to spend much time together to stay close. Trunks could have studied marine biology in the Papaya Islands and Goten ice in the Empire without distance making a difference for them.
It was the experiences that they had without each other, away from their families, that changed them. And, Pan figured, those experiences were ultimately based on what type of lives they were expected to lead. Trunks was going to become the next President of the multi-billion zeni Capsule Corporation while Goten scraped by teaching martial arts to children at his sister-in-law's father's dojo. Through college Trunks had attended parties and classes, striving to be a normal Human, just as Goten went back to basics in his training.
Maybe Goten didn't push himself in training after Baby had been defeated, but that was years ago now. And anymore, neither did Trunks. Pan rolled in the sky, watching as clouds turned over to the trees and the wide river which wound through the woods below her, then back to the clouds again. She soared along on her back for a while, lost in thought and staring absently at the clouds painted fiery reds and deep oranges by the setting sun.
At least they were each doing what they loved. As adults, they did the things they were born to do and lived using their natural talents. Trunks managed his family's company and Goten worked with children.
What were her talents? What would she go on to study after finishing high school in the spring? Pan sighed, as the wind whipped her hair around her eyes. She was obnoxious and tenacious, born to fight. She just wasn't Saiyan enough to be great. …to be Super.
Author's Note: I'm sorry for not updating for so long. You can all thank my last reviewers for getting me back onto this website to continue posting stories. And remember: if you like it enough to favorite it, you like it enough to review. ;)