You're Not Alone

Chapter 4
 

Hey, fellow fans! Sorry that I didn't state their age before, but Trunks is 24, Pan 19, Bra 19, Kiara 22, and Mei 20. If Goten was in this fic, which is not to say that he wouldn't be ^.~ (wink, wink), he would be 23. Let's just say that Trunks and Goten were born 9 years later than they were supposed to be, and Bra, one year early, kay? All righty then, now that's over . . . *sigh*

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The next day, Pan went to the castle again to have another lesson. They learned various strategies, like how to use energy blasts, and how to have great speed and agility.

Trunks was surprised at Pan's ability to learn so quickly. It was obvious to him, though not to others, that she had a certain knack for martial arts. She learned so fast, almost like . . . himself. 'Could it be?' he thought. He began to watch her more carefully as she trained with him. It was becoming more persistent, now. He could see it clearly with every blow she took from her opponent. He thought he was alone in this world. 'I must find out . . .' he thought to himself. 'But how?' He decided to let it rest for a while.

As Pan sparred with Mei, she tried not to think about Trunks and Kiara. It was hard. She didn't think he'd ever return the feelings she had for him, especially with Kiara on him all the time.

After about an hour of sparring with Mei, Trunks called everyone in and they learned another technique to use in their fighting. Everyone seemed to have trouble with the move, even Pan. 'This is way harder than I expected . . .' she thought.

As if Trunks had read her thoughts, he said, "Pan, since you're doing so well, why don't you come up here and show everyone how it's done?" He grabbed her arm and brought her to the front.

"What are you doing?" she asked in a whisper. When he didn't answer, Pan became suspicious.

"All right, Pan, why don't you show everyone this move?" he asked. The was something fishy about his tone.

"Okay." she said, hesitantly. She attempted to perform the kick, but Trunks grabbed her leg and twisted it, so she fell flat on her face. Everyone laughed.

"Okay, ladies, grab a partner and work on the move. I'll work with Miss Son Pan."

As everyone left, Pan got up and stared hard at Trunks. "What the hell was that for?!" she said.

"I need to talk to you." he said.

"Why?"

"There's a question that I need to ask you."

"Yeah, what? It better be important, my nose is going to be sore for a while."

"Sorry, but I had to talk to you away from the others."

Pan was surprised. 'What could be so important that he would need to talk to me away from the other girls?' she pondered. "I'm listening."

"Well, I know this might be kind of personal, but are you a, uh . . ."

"A what?"

"A, um, a demi-saiyan?"

"Yeah, why? How did you know that?" she stuttered.

"I can tell by the way you move. My father always said that saiyan and human mixtures make powerful saiyan warriors for some reason. You reminded me of myself." he said.

"Wow, I didn't know that you were a demi-saiyan, too. So, your mother is a . . ."

"Human, yes."

"Mine, too."

"Really?"

"Yeah." she said quietly.

There was a long silence. Pan broke the unpleasant quietness.

"So, are you going to teach me this move or what?"

Trunks and Pan spent the rest of the time teaching each other different moves, or, well, halfway teaching and halfway talking. The next couple days were awesome, according to Pan, that is. She stayed about half an hour after the lesson to talk to Trunks.

While they were in the gravity room training/talking, Bra came in looking for Vegeta and saw them.

"Who are you? Why is she here, Trunks?" Bra demanded.

"This is Son Pan, she is one of my students." he replied, slightly irritated.

Bra turned to Pan. "How old are you?" she asked.

"19."

"ReallY? So am I! That's so cool!" Bra said. "Do you like play station? I just got Final Fantasy 10, and it rocks!"

"I've never gotten a play station." she said softly.

"So what? Come on! I'll show it to you, it's the coolest thing in the world." she said, dragging Pan out of the Gravity Chamber.

"Bra, we're practicing!" Trunks said.

"Come on, she's been getting the crap beaten out of her, she deserves a rest." she said, and they disappeared around the corner.

Trunks sighed. He didn't know whether it was a tire sigh, or a sad sigh. He sat down and pondered the thought for a while.

The next couple days after practice, Pan stayed for more private lessons. Afterwards, she would go off to hang out with Bra. Pan and Bra had become close, and she feared that she was also getting closer to Trunks. The thought of being, well, more than a friend to Trunks, was good, but something inside her held her back. She attempted to ignore him during lessons, but it wasn't easy. She decided to concentrate on the private lessons more, instead of staring at Trunks all day. Today's lesson was special, he was going to teach her something non-phisical.

"Okay, Son Pan, we're going to learn something special today." he said, simply.

"Cool, tell me!"

"Instead of more, let's say, physical things, we're going to do more of a knowledge lesson."

"And that would be . . . ?"

"We are going to learn about the different types of flowers." Pan face faulted.

"The different types of flowers?! I'm a warrior, not a sensitive girlie girl." she said, slightly ticked off.

"I'm aiming for broadness in the mind, here, not make-up and dresses." he said.

"Like you know the names of all the flowers . . ." she muttered.

"Actually, I know almost all of them." he said. Pan raised an eyebrow.

"Come with me." he said, leading her out of the gravity room. He walked through the long corridors of the palace, Pan following closely behind.

"Now, you have seen a flower before, right?" he asked. Pan nodded. "Now, the point of memorizing all f the flowers in the garden, is so you are aware of what kind of environment you are in. For example, if you were on planet Frost, you would need to know that the Frostinian Flower can spit acid - burns a hole right trough your skin. And That if you are on planet namek and see those tall, green Ancala trees, you'll know that the air there is thin - breathable, yes - but thin. Knowing these helps you know what to expect if you are fighting on a strange planet."

"Oh," said Pan, sheepishly. "Sorry."

"That's okay. Oh, this is my sister's favorite flower, the Lilac, it's from Earth.

"Which one is that? It's beautiful. . ." she said, looking at a red flower.

"That's another Earth flower, called the rose. They come in many colors.' he said.

"What is it used for?"

"Well, they are usually used for decoration, or for giving to friends and loved ones. You can have one, if you like it so much." he said, sweetly.

She smiled and reached down to pick one,but cut her finger on one of it's thorns. She pulled her hand back, to look at her inger, which had small amounts of blood where the thorn had touched her delicate skin.

"Are you okay?" he asked, grabbing her hand and rubbing it gently with his own.

"Yes, I'm just --" she looked up at him and blushed.

"Sorry, I forgot to tell you, roses have thorns . . ." he said, smiling, still holding her hand, amazed by how sopt it was . . .

"Yeah . . ." she said, staring deep into his blue eyes. Neither of them realized that the space between them was slowly closing. Before Trunks could wake up from his trance, his lips had met passionaltely with Pan's. She was the first to realize what was happening. She broke away from the kiss, and backed away, blushing furiously. "I - uh . . ." she stuttered, emmense spaces inbetween each word. Trunks had turned beet red, adjusting his colar, which seemed to be tighening every second.

"I - uh - need to - uh - go . . ." she managed to choke out, as she bolted out the door, her cheeks a crimson red.

Trunks walked back into the gravity room, still adjusting his colar, because it seemed to be choking him, due to the large lump in his throat. Suddenly, Bra ran into the room, looking around. "Have you seen Pan?" she asked.

"Um - no. She - uh - left early." he said. Bra shrugged and walked out of the room.

As Trunks was training, he felt a familiar ki to his right. Someone was watching him.

"I hope you aren't starting to get fond of that girl." said a voice from the corner of the room.

"I thought you left." said Trunks as he grabbed a towel from the rack.

"Why would I? I wanted to talk to you." said Kiara, stepping out of the shadows.

"What about?" he asked, sounding as if he didn't care.

"About . . . us." she said, smirking.