A/N: Thank you for your continued supprort and reviews! Chapter 29 sheesh this is like the ten years of Friends episodes haha
A/N2: A few hours after uploading this chapter I deleted it and added something to the end. Sorry if this caused any turmoil lol! (12/5/117:42pm)
:*: Love is in the Air :*:
January first. The beginning of a new year introduced itself with another clouded sky and more rain. Pan's eyes eased open as the man next to her stirred awake. After exchanging their good mornings, they snuggled against each other for warmth underneath his blanket, both of them secretly thinking about the events that had transpired the previous night.
After their morning conversation over random thoughts, Trunks pulled on a pair of windbreakers and a sweater while his girlfriend replaced her undergarments and jeans and borrowed one of his jackets. They departed at the base of the stairway while he went to begin breakfast and she went to wake up the other three.
They looked so cute, the three of them. Pan could visualize their adult bodies as kids in the exact same position they were in now. Goten was sprawled out on the loveseat while the girls shared the longer couch.
Pan grazed her fingers across Marron's lips, causing her to swat at them with an irritated groan. Pan then inserted her finger into the pocket of her cheek, Marron immediately sat up.
"What the- Pan! Fuck I thought it was a roach or something."She wiped her mouth with the back of her arm, tossing Bra's legs from her lap.
Bra wiggled in her fetal position and slowly sat up, stretching her arms.
"What'd you guys do last night?" Pan perched herself on the arm of her sleeping uncle's couch, combing her fingers through her tangled hair.
Bra and Marron exchanged a smirk. "Oh nothing," Bra began. " Just watched movies. Then we heard some disturbing noises from upstairs." She wrinkled her eyebrows in sarcastic concern.
Pan's eyes darted left to right then back at them.
Marron chimed in. "Yeah something like, ahh, ohhh," She moaned. Her and Bra laughed.
Pan could feel her cheeks reddening.
"Pan, I can't believe you gave it up to my brother last night!"
"Whoa whoa whoa, what? We didn't have sex!" She whispered the word, remembering her uncle was next to her, hopefully still asleep. Her friends glared at her skeptically. "He.. he just, you know..."
Pan could see the lightbulbs go off as they got her drift. "That's it? I have never moaned like that from someone just going down on me!" Marron exclaimed in a hushed tone. "Wait, so does that mean that you..." She put her fist near her mouth while sticking her tongue in the side of her cheek.
Pan laughed as she stood to her feet. "I'm not answering that."
Remembering she had stuck her finger in her mouth just moments ago, Marron really wanted to brush her teeth now.
Being the girlfriend of her best friend was, much to Pan's delight, the best decision she had ever made. Once winter break ended and he and Goten had to return to their college town, they called and texted each other every day, and he came down on the weekends to see her. Her mother's condition wasn't worsening with the current treatment she was undergoing, but then again it wasn't getting better. Gohan had finally agreed to allow Pan to join them to one of the oncology units where Videl underwent her treatments.
The hospital's patients ranged from small children to the elderly. The mere sight of them left Pan aphonic.
"Excuse me, miss?" While waiting at the reception desk to fetch her mother's nurse, a small boy patted her leg. He looked to be no more than the age of five, and was completely bald. "Can you get that pen for me?" His little finger pointed to a pen hanging off the counter.
"Of course." Pan snapped it from the chain and handed it to him, watching him run back to the table in the waiting room. Nobody was around, not even his parents. "What're you drawing?" She asked, sitting at the table with him.
"Well, since it's spring time, I'm drawing a flower for my mom." She watched as his little hands circled about the paper with the blue inked pen. She was impressed with his art skills.
"Where is your mom?" She inquired, looking around the empty room once more.
"She's talking to the doctor. I got more medicine today." He added, smiling as he added the ladybug to his leaf.
"Medicine? What do you take medicine for?"
"I have leukemia." His pen moved slower now, then stopped. His bright brown eyes met Pan's, his beaming smile uneven with the somber atmosphere Pan felt.
She didn't know how to respond. She forced a small smile back at him while she searched for something to say.
"Katsu, honey, are you ready to go?" They both looked as a woman who looked to be in her early thirties joined them. She had short sandy brown hair that framed her face in a bob. She looked very sophisticated in her black slacks and pink button up. Her heels tapped with her footsteps as she glided across the white tile. "Oh, I see you made a friend?" She smiled down at Pan.
"Oh, hi, I was just keeping him company." Pan rose to her feet.
"Look, mom, I made you a flower!"
The woman scooped him up in her arms and examined the drawing. "It's beautiful! He knows I love flowers, so he deemed spring as his favorite season because of all the pretty colors." She pecked him on the cheek and made her way towards the exit.
Pan waved goodbye as his little hand wagged side to side at her from his mother's shoulders.
"Katsu." She repeated to herself. "It means victory. Good luck, Katsu."
xXxXxXx
Trunks arrived as planned that friday night for one on one time with Pan. After some fast food and a movie, they headed to the lakeside and watched the wind ripple the water, bouncing the reflection of the full moon on the lake. Pan sat between Trunks' legs, resting her head against his that was resting on her shoulder. She told him about her mother's treatment and being at the oncology specialty hospital, and about Katsu.
"But enough about me." She ended her ramble, leaning away to kiss him on his temple. "Nothing new with you?"
Trunks reinforced his grip on her, his body language telling her yes, there's something I have to tell you. She waited patiently. "My school wants me to do some study abroad thing in the US this year. The country's top five business major students get picked." He said it as if it were some small matter.
"Trunks, that's great! You're doing it, right?"
A small smile curved his lips seemingly pleased with her reaction. "I'm not sure yet-"
"Why not? A chance to work in the US that's big, Trunks. I'm not in college yet and even I know that." She waited for his response when something hit her. "Wait, you're not thinking of rejecting it because of me, are you?"
"Wha- of course not." She was not convinced. "I don't like being apart from you as is. But six months away from you..."
Six months? Pan thought it would only be a couple weeks, but half a year? It was hard to believe they had only been dating for four months now, it felt so much longer for the both of them. She tried to hide the uneasiness she was feeling, masking it with a smile. "Trunks," She turned to face him. "We're both at that time of our lives where it's now or never. Doors are going to open up, and opportunities are going to be offered. If we don't take them, we're just setting ourselves up for failure. Six months is a long time, but if our only enemy is distance, then I'm sure we'll live through it." She stuck her tongue out playfully. He cupped her cheek with his hand, caressing her smooth skin.
There was something in his eyes that was new to her. His face was so relaxed. His eyes were fixed on her, drifting from her own eyes, to her lips, her hands, and returned to her dark orbs. The night was perfect. There was a cool breeze in the air rustling the trees around them and gently brushing through their hair. The lake was vacant, they were alone with just the sound of crickets and their breathing.
There was so much Trunks wanted to say to her, he just couldn't find words strong enough to tell her how she made him feel. The mere sight of her took his breath away. Her boyish attitude, musical laugh, her soft, silvery voice. He didn't like everything about her. He loved everything about her.
"What're you thinking about, mister mysterious?"She shifted her weight to her left cheek and curled her legs next to her, still facing him between his bent legs.
His chest rose and fell with a slow, deep breath. "I love you, Pan."
For once, those words and that feeling that she too felt didn't scare her. He had always been there for her, back when they were friends and especially now that they were more than friends. Not to mention that he was extremely attractive, and now he loved her and only her.
He smiled at her softened expression. "You're not gonna cry are you?" He teased her glassy eyes.
"No, I was just thinking about how most girls have to sleep with a guy before she hears those words." She grinned, leaning into him and nibbling on his bottom lip. He rested his forehead against hers and took her mouth in his. Their evening together was perfect. Just the two of them wrapped up in each other not caring about anything else in the world for that moment.
As their passionate performance ended, Pan rose from his laying body, straddling his hips between her thighs. Her palms rested on his as she admired the man below her.
He toyed with her hands, gazing back up at her. Goten was right, he felt like a love sick puppy.
As eleven pm neared, the two headed back to her house. Gohan didn't verbally establish a curfew, but Trunks knew her father held some traditional values, so he brought her home at a reasonable hour whenever they went out. Eleven was late, but since Gohan and Videl had went on a date night themselves Trunks kept her out a little later than usual.
"We beat my parents home, shocker." The two snuggled onto the couch in the living room with a small table lamp and the television supplying the dim lighting in the room. "So..." She began hesitantly, her fingers stroking the back of his hand that was dangling around her shoulders. "for your business trip, you'll be leaving when?"
"June fifth." He leaned her head atop of hers when she didn't respond and kissed her on the temple. "The day after your graduation. Did you and the girls plan a graduation trip yet?"
She exhaled through pursed lips and rotated her body to close any space between them. Her outside leg crossed over his lap as her arms hugged him tightly. June fifth... That's less than one month away... Trunks' hand smoothed up and down her back, then tightened around her, neither of them wanting to let go.
"Aww look who it is!" Videl's voice chimed as she entered the dim room. Trunks' and Pan unwrapped from each other while her mother kicked off her heels and plopped down to the adjacent couch.
"Hi, Mom. You look like you had fun tonight." Pan noted her mother's lack of balance as she entered the room.
"She tried to keep up with me." Gohan teased his wife as he handed her a glass of water and joined her on the couch. "How was your night?"Gohan noticed a satiated smile cross his daughter's face.
"It was fun. We went to a lovely restaurant called Chicken King," she elbowed Trunks teasingly, her parents chuckling at the idea of the fast food joint being the choice for a date. "went to the movies, then went to the lake for a while. You?"
"Just about the same." Her mother responded. "Except we went to a nice restaurant." She threw that one in just to embarrass Trunks.
"Filet mignon or deep fried nuggets, Pan's not selective like some people." Trunks retaliated playfully, initiating a few more minutes of silly bantering back and forth. Gohan lulled his life away from the two for 'bed time' as he referred to it.
Alone once again, Pan clicked off the table lamp next to them and shifted to a laying position on the couch with Trunks as they began watching a movie. Neither were paying attention to it, just focusing on the warmth each other provided. Trunks hadn't meant to stay the night, not that he didn't want to, he just wanted to keep Gohan's trust.
"Trunks?" Pan whispered aloud, not sure whether or not he was still awake.
"Hm?" A low rumble vibrated through his throat.
"I love you, too."
Trunks slept easy that night with his nose in the hair of the woman he loved, and loved him back.