Addition to the Growing Pains 'verse, continuing from chapter 33 with Marron getting ready for her and Uub's anniversary date. Spoiler alert: he doesn't make it to dinner.
"Bra, at least try to be reasonable!"
"Oh come on," the blue haired heiress whined, "it's your anniversary, you should be getting all dolled up for your dinner date! Uub will love it!"
Yeah, if he even shows up, a bitter voice spat from the back of Marron's mind, "the restaurant I picked is super lowkey, Uub's not big on dressing up and I didn't want him to be out of his element."
The trio were standing around, or laying around in Pan's case, in Marron's room while the blonde went through her closet in search of something casual to wear to dinner.
"Pan, help me – Pan?" Bra cocked her head to the side, finding the brunette fast asleep on Marron's daybed, "she's asleep? Again? I think that's the third time today."
"You know she's been working a lot more lately," Marron admonished, though she couldn't help the concern she felt for her younger friend, "she's been pretty tired because of all the hours. This is the first real day off she's had in a week or so, I really don't blame her."
"Lately she's either working, in a shitty mood, or asleep…" Bra mused, "ever since she broke up with Trunks, anyway." It was still weird, saying that aloud, weirder still that it'd even happened in the first place, right under her nose, and she hadn't been any of the wiser.
They'd made up after their blowout back in January, but it still stung a bit that her best friend hadn't trusted her enough to share the secret.
"Bra, we promised not to mention that anymore," Marron warned, gently but firmly, "even though she's asleep—"
"I still have ears like a bat," Pan drawled sleepily, opening one eye to peer at her friend, "I can go back to my room if you two wanna keep gossiping about me. Besides," she paused to yawn, "I thought we were supposed to be helping Mar pick something for her anniversary date with Uub."
"It's supposed to be a group effort, but you keep falling asleep every five minutes, Miss Narcolepsy." Bra retorted gently.
"I've been packing in 12-18 hour shifts at the hospital for the last two weeks, and when I'm not scheduled, I'm usually on call. This is the first day I haven't been either, so sue me for getting some sleep in when I can." Pan rolled her eyes, "I'll go make some coffee so I can perk up a bit."
"Make us some too, if you feel up to it Pan-chan." Marron entreated sweetly, "I'm sorry, we're just a little worried."
"Worried, now why could that be?" Pan made a sarcastic show of considering the question, "because I'm working myself to the bone to cope with my breakup, and to avoid him, instead of using my words?"
Bra huffed, unimpressed, "yeah, actually."
"Well, today's Marron's day, so we're not opening that can of worms," she smiled thinly, "now, let me go get the coffee going." She draped the throw blanket she'd been snoozing under over her shoulders and shuffled out of the room.
"She's worrying me," the bluenette whispered, "I've never seen her like this before."
"She just ended a nearly decade long relationship with the man of her dreams," Marron pointed out, "and it was her first relationship to boot, it's not like she has a precedence for this. We just have to make sure we're here for her when she does let it out."
Marron glanced up from the papers she'd been grading, hearing piqued by the sound of a familiar rhythmic knocking on the front door. She heard a door swing open down the hall, small feet padding on the carpet, and then Pan emerged from her bedroom, hair mussed and wearing an oversized t-shirt and a pair of shorts.
"That's the third time in the past half hour," she mumbled around a yawn, "you gonna answer it?"
Bra poked her head out of the kitchen, face dappled with flour, "it's Uub, of course she's not answering it." She disappeared just as quickly as she'd come, focused on her baking.
Pan stretched her arms over her head and yawned long and deep, popping her jaw in the process. She gave her blonde friend a bored look, "you know you're gonna have to hear him out eventually?"
The young teaching aide acted as if she hadn't heard her friend, instead resuming her grading in a notably more agitated manner. Pan sighed and pivoted on her heel, "Well could you at least get rid of him? I have work in the morning and I can't sleep with him beating the door down." She padded back down the hall towards her bedroom.
"More like she can't sleep without my brother sneaking into her sheets every other night." Bra muttered under her breath. Marron gave her an unimpressed look as Pan's ki sparked with annoyance, indicating that she'd overheard.
The bluenette flinched and ducked back into the kitchen, leaving Marron alone in the living room with her papers and grading rubric. Another round of knocking came from the front door, and she muttered a low oath before tossing her things to the side and rising from the couch. She stomped the short distance around the couch and into the small foyer, still grumbling in annoyance.
Marron jerked the door open and leaned in the doorway, an uncharacteristic scowl on her normally pleasant face. Uub recoiled and stepped back, slowly lowering his hand back to his side.
"It's late," the blonde snapped, "and you're keeping Pan up with all the knocking; she has work first thing in the morning. If I wanted to talk to you, I'd call. But wait," she held up a hand, halting the Majin's protest, "you won't fucking answer because you're too busy training."
"Mar, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get carried away."
"You got 'carried away', missed the dinner plans we made a month in advance, and you forgot that it was our anniversary," Marron's icy blue eyes narrowed dangerously, "because of your precious training. I've let it slide before, and maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but this was important to me. You're always working, busy with your village, or doing 'Earth's Savior' things. I don't mind that, those are your responsibilities, but you promised you'd make time and that you'd be there and you never showed." Some of the ice in her gaze melted away, and she looked down at her socked feet, forlorn.
"I know I did, and I know I hurt your feelings," Uub held up his hands in mock-surrender, "if you want, we can make new plans."
Marron pursed her lips in distaste, "we always do this. You forget a date, I get upset, you sweettalk me into letting it slide and things are good for a while… and then the cycle repeats," she sighed, "I'm tired of it."
"I'm sorry I can't just drop everything and be there whenever you want me to be." A note of annoyance wormed its way into the Majin fusion's voice and for a moment, Marron saw red.
"That's not at all what I'm asking for," the blonde murmured, voice low and scathing, "don't twist my words. I don't want you to 'drop everything' for me, I want you to remember that you have a girlfriend and give her some attention once every blue moon. The bare minimum, is that too much to ask?"
"I would never ask you to completely ignore your responsibilities for me," Marron insisted, "all I want is for you to not forget plans and promises that we've already made. If that's too much to ask, then maybe we need to take a break."
In the kitchen, Bra nearly dropped the mixing bowl full of cookie dough she held in her arms in shock. She'd been unwittingly eavesdropping in the midst of her baking, and that last tidbit was the last thing she'd expected her friend to say.
"Mar, it was one time." Uub insisted, "I know I can get a little too far into things when I'm busy, I forget to check my phone, and I lose track of time easily, but that doesn't mean we need a break. Mar I love you, please don't do this."
"We've been together for five years; I don't have enough fingers and toes to count all the times I've been stood up because your work kept you, your training ran long, you were meditating and lost track of time, or your village needed you. I've never guilt tripped you about that, sure I was upset but I never lashed out. That 'one time' is bull and you know it."
"Alright, fine. You're right," Uub conceded, "I'm sorry."
"That's not enough." Marron admitted morosely, "'sorry' isn't enough anymore. I deserve better than 'sorry', and it's been pretty much five years of the same sorry ass song and dance. I'm done."
"Marron," Uub implored, "baby, you can't be serious. I can be better, I swear."
"I am done," she told him, softly but firmly, "you should go. Have a good night, Uub." Her icy blue eyes glimmered with unshed tears as she stepped back into the house and closed the door in his face.
The blonde's shoulders shook as she struggled to keep her emotions from overwhelming her but, despite herself, the tears began to flow. She hadn't been content with her relationship with Uub for some time, but it didn't make it hurt any less to cut things off.
Marron pivoted on her heel and found herself face to face with Pan and Bra, the latter holding a bowl full of raw chocolate chip cookie dough and a bottle of merlot. Both of them were giving her such loving, concerned looks she couldn't help the sob she let slip.
Bra put the mixing bowl and wine down on the nearest flat surface and drew her blonde friend into a tight hug. Marron immediately buried her face in the bluenette's front and went to pieces. A moment later, she felt Pan's strong arms wrap around them both.
"You're okay, sweetie," the blue haired heiress murmured, "we've got you."