Be Your Girl

Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Dragon Ball Z/GT or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Akira Toriyama and anyone else he says has rights to it. I am merely borrowing his characters for the sole purpose of entertainment and am making no money from this story.

Chapter One: Dying Inside

Pan stared blankly at the computer screen as she tried to will away the raging headache, a painful reminder of her night of drinking. Maybe she should have been grateful to her Saiyan blood that allowed her to walk away from drinking three bottles of brandy with only a headache, but damn it she was miserable, hungry, and under a deadline so she wasn\'t in mood to be count her blessings. She had less then four hours to come up with an advertising campaign for the new aircar to C.C.\'s board of executives and she hadn\'t been about come up with a damn thing.

The door to her office slammed shut, causing Pan to wince as she looked up to see an enraged Bra.

\"Argh...that baka...he is,\" snarled Bra before switching over to speaking Saiyan as she paced back and forth in front of Pan\'s desk.

Pan watched is silence; she knew better then to interrupt Bra when she was so pissed that the only language that she could speak coherently was her father\'s native tongue. Because Bra was speaking so fat and because she was a bit rusty on her Saiyan (well it wasn\'t like she spoke it on a daily basis), Pan could only catch snatches of waht the blue-haired woman was saying. She was certain that she heard Bra say \"how could you be related to someone so stupid\" and \"blast that heartless bitch into oblivion.\"

She waited until Bra plopped down onto the big cushy couch in her office, before asking cautiously, \"I take it that Paris broke up with Goten again.\"

\"Of course, she broke up with him because now he\'s out of fashion for her to be seen with,\" Bra retorted. \"After all he\'s only just the owner and head chef of the five-star restaurant,Nimbus . No, that\'s not good enough for her. Now she has to be the girlfriend of the great Detective Uub Beauchamp, the man who caught the Cotton Candy serial killer. And of course, that idiot of an uncle of yours is alternating from blaming himself for ruining the relationship again and blaming Uub for everything or flirting with anything that has boobs excluding family and me!\"

\"Bra would you lower the decibels,\" Pan replied, said wincing again. \"I have a headache and your ranting isn\'t doing anything to make it go away.\"

\"Sorry, Pan,\" said Bra, looking contrite. \"It\'s just that I get so frustrated. I mean... argh!\"

\"I see you\'ve already found out about Paris\'s boyfriend switch,\" said a downtrodden voice from behind them, where Marron stood holding a filled coffee pot and looking like she had lost her best friend.

\"I found out when I went to Nimbus for lunch,\" Bra replied as Marron crossed the room, placing the coffee pot on the corner of Pan\'s desk, where it usually sat, before sitting down to Bra. \"It was kind of hard not to miss when Goten was spending more time flirting with every woman in the restaurant instead of being in the kitchen. I take it Uub called you with the good news?\"

\"Yeah,\" Marron replied. \"Just a few minutes. Paris showed up at the precinct this morning. She apologized, yet again, for breaking up with him and told him she was so stupid to have gone back to Goten, that she should have known better then to think that he would be faithful to her and-\"

\"That lying bitch,\" Bra snarled, interrupting Marron. \"How can he believe that dribble? He and Goten grew up with together. There were best friends for eighteen fucking years. When has Goten ever shown him to be the type of man who would cheat on a woman?\"

\"It\'s not like Goten\'s any better,\" Marron retorted angrily in Uub\'s defense. \"He\'s never questioned Paris whenever she tells him that Uub ignores her and always puts his work for her or that he\'s verbally abusive when things don\'t go his way and that she\'s afraid of him hitting her one day. No one knows better then Uub of the power he has. For crying out loud, the man is afraid of accidently killing any of the criminals he tracks down.\"

\"Oh yes, Uub is a paragon of virtue and Goten is the dumb ass,\" said Bra, glaring at the blonde. \"That is what you\'re saying. Uub is a knight in shining armor and Goten is just a cook.\"

\"That\'s not what I meant and you know it,\" replied Marron. \"I know Uub\'s not perfect. He snores when he\'s stressed out about something, he always seems to manage to call me or show up at my place when I\'m in the shower, and he\'s bad about doing household chores. If I didn\'t go to his place at least once a week, then his apartment would resemble a pigsty.\"

Marron\'s hands clenched as she spoke and she looked down at her lap.

\"And he may be a brilliant at catching killers and rapists, but he\'s not to bright when it comes to matters of the heart. I\'m reminded of it every fucking time Paris takes him back. No matter how much she\'s hurt him before, he keeps going back for more and keeps believing that this time it\'ll last,\" said Marron. \"You know Bra, you have it better off then me. At least with Goten you know he\'ll spend time with you even when he\'s with Paris. Uub spends so much of his time working that he doesn\'t have much free time and when he\'s with Paris he spends it with her.\"

Marron looked up and the other two saw tears glistening in her eyes, before one tear slid down her cheek, followed by another.

\"Oh Marron,\" Bra cried, wrapping her friend.

Pan quickly got up and sat down on the other side of Marron, joining in on the hug.

\"I don\'t know why I\'m even crying now,\" Marron said. \"It\'s not like this is the first time he\'s done it. I know he doesn\'t mean to break our plans, but he has so little time that when he\'s with her he wants to spend it with her, especially since she complains about him not spending enough time with her and always uses it as an excuse to break up with him. Like tonight we were supposed to go to the beach and go star gazing, you know like how we all used to in when we were in school, but Paris wants to go to watch that new romantic movie that\'s out so while he was telling me that they\'re back together, he asked for a rain check on the star gazing.\"

The tears were now streaming down Marron\'s cheeks as her body began tremble.

\"I can\'t do this anymore,\" she cried, her whole body shaking as Pan rubbed her back comfortingly and Bra rested her head on top of the blonde\'s.

\"I just can\'t. I can\'t stand having my heart broken when he goes back to her and then have it break even more because I have to listen to him tell me that he loves her. Her, not me! And I can\'t stand seeing him torn up because she broke his heart again, because every time it happens, it\'s like someone\'s ripped my heart out. I-I just can\'t do it anymore. I don\'t want to love someone who doesn\'t love me back the way I do. Every day a little part of me is dying inside.\"

\"I know honey, I know,\" Bra whispered, petting Marron\'s hair. \"I know better then anyone else how it feels. Goten may not do the same things as Uub, but in his own way he\'s slowly killing me inside too. I wish to Dende to that I didn\'t love him, but the little green bastard hasn\'t seen fit to grant my wish yet.\"

\"Love\'s a bitch,\" Marron said quietly.

\"No kidding,\" Pan murmured, thinking about her own problems.

\"Who is he,\" asked Bra, ever the perceptive one.

\"Who\'s who,\" Pan asked, refusing to meet the direct stare of her blue-eyed friend.

\"Don\'t try playing innocent with me Son Pan,\" retorted Bra. \"The way you just said \'No kidding\' was in the tone of voice of a woman who\'s dealing with unrequieted love and don\'t try to deny it. I\'m an expert on the subject.\"

\"Besides it\'s obvious that some guy has gotten to you since he\'s caused you to drink enough to cause you to get a hangover headache,\" Marron added.

Pan turned to look at her in suprise.

\"How did you-\"

\"Know,\" Marron finished. \"Your secretary says you\'ve been bitchy all morning, not to mention the fact that you\'ve already finished off two pots of coffee already, which even for a caffine-addict like you is overkill. The only time you ever drink that much coffee in a day is when you\'re suffering from a hangover.\"

Pan remained quiet for a few minutes and looked out the window into the dark gray skies that seemed to mimic the mood in her office.

\"Trunks.\"

\"My brother,\" squawked Bra, her eyes wide in disbelief.

\"There\'s only one man on Earth with that name, Bra,\" Pan replied.

\"I know that, but I never expected you to fall in love with him of all people,\" said Bra.

\"Why shouldn\'t she be in love with Trunks,\" Marron asked. \"After all, you\'re in love with her uncle.\"

\"It\'s not that,\" replied Bra. \"It\'s just well... ever since we were kids Trunks and Pan were as close if not closer then Trunks and I were so I always thought of the two them as siblings. And since I think of Pan as sister, it just weirded me out to think of my sister in love with our brother.\"

\"Well I think of you as my sister too Bra,\" Pan said. \"You too, Maron, but I definitely don\'t think of Trunks as my brother, at least not anymore.\"

\"When did you realize that you were in love with Trunks,\" Marron asked, some of the sparkle returning in her eyes as she wiped her tear-stained face with a tissue that Bra had offered to her.

\"Right after he left for college,\" replied Pan. \"Remember the article in Seventeen? The one saying that had Trunks on the cover with that American girl who\'s father owned some casino chain?\"

\"Oh yeah, Karen whats-her-face,\" Bra said, her face scrunched up as she tried to remember the cover that Pan had mentioned.

\"It had an article about them inside of it and that they were the perfect couple and how in love they looked,\" continued Pan. \"I don\'t know why, but at that moment something just snapped in me and I wanted to fly over to America and kill her. I really don\'t understand why I didn\'t realize I was in love with him before then.\"

\"Well for thing it was probably because you were still immature before then,\" said Bra, twirling a strand of her blue hair around her index finger.

\"Oh please, Bra,\" Pan complained. \"I was not immature or have you forgotten how some of our classmates acted back then.\"

\"I\'m not talking about the immature that makes you act like a giggly little freak who does childish and petty pranks on others,\" explained Bra in an exasperated tone. \"I mean that before you realized you were in love with Trunks, you heart hadn\'t reached a point where it was ready to move on from a child\'s love for a close friend to a woman\'s love for a man.\"

\"Even if she had mature to the point that she was acceptable to loving a man, I don\'t think she wouldn have realized if she hadn\'t felt threatened,\" Marron pointed out, a thoughtful look on her face.

\"What do you mean if I didn\'t feel threatened,\" Pan asked.

\"Think about it, Trunks dated girls before he left to go off to college,\" Marron said, \"but not one of those girls ever truly had a chance at his heart because they were all a bunch of giggling little idiots who couldn\'t hold intelligent conversation if their life depended on it so Pan always had Trunks to herself even when he had a girlfriend. But in Ameica he met mature women who had substance and Karen whats-her-face was one of them. She not only had a chance with Trunks, she had him all to herself so she could win a piece of her heart. Thus threatening Pan and forcing her to realize that she loved Trunks in a more then friends way.\"

Pan and Bra just stared at Marron.

\"What,\" the blonde grumbled. \"You asked me what I meant, so I just gave you explanation.\"

\"Nothing Marron,\" Bra said. \"Just thinking that sometimes you actually do have your smart moments.\"

\"Why thank you,\" Marron began to say before her eyes narrowed into a glare. \"I can\'t believe that you just called me dumb!\"

\"And it only took her a few minutes to figure out that you insulted her,\" Pan said, winking at Bra.

\"Oh you two are going to get it,\" Marron cried.

She grabbed one of the pillows off the couch and whacked Pan and Bra in the face.

\"That does it, it\'s on now,\" Pan cried, grabbing another pillow.

\"You\'re dead meat, Marron,\" yelled Bra, as she did the same.

The girls began whacking each other with pillows and it wasn\'t long until feathers were flying everywhere and sneezes were heard amid the laughter and shierks.

\"Ahem.\"

All three froze and turned towards the door where an older version of Bra stood.

\"Working hard I see, eh girls,\" Bulma asked in an amused tones.

Bra, Marron, and Pan glanced at each other and then burst out laughing as Bulma shook her head wryly and left.

*~*~*~*~*

\"Argh,\" Pan snarled, glaring at the blank screen in front of her. \"Why can\'t I think of anything? It\'s not like this is the first advertising campaign I ever worked on.\"

Sighing, she brought up the picture of the new air car, the Virgo, onto the screen. Staring at it with a frown, she picked up her coffee cup to take a sip and then looked down at it in disgust when she realized it was empty. Without looking, she grabbed the coffe pot and poured the hot liquid into her mug while cursing in Saiyan at the car that was causing her so many problems.

\"How many times have I told you that drinking coffee stunts your growth,\" a familiar voice whispered into her ear.

\"What the-\" she sputtered as her head turned, her eyes meeting cobalt blue.

\"Damn it, Trunks,\" she growled, glaring up at him. \"How the hell did you sneak up on me?\"

Trunks pulled a necklace out from under his shirt that had silver medallion hanging from it.

\"Ki shield,\" he explained, grinning at her. \"Boy are you in pissy mood. Are you PMSing?\"

\"Bastard,\" she retorted.

\"You state the obvious, Pan,\" he replied. \"Everyone knows my parents didn\'t get married until after Bra was born.\"

\"I hate you.\"

\"No you don\'t,\" Trunks said with a smirk on his face that was identical to his father\'s infamous smirk. \"I\'m your boss.\"

\"Didn\'t you read the poll about how 90 of all employees hating their bosses,\" asked Pan, arching an eyebrow.

\"Fine, you can\'t hate me becaues I\'m your best friend,\" he said. \"And besides hating your best friend is a sin.\"

\"Hmph,\" she snorted, rolling her eyes. \"Fine, I don\'t hate you. I adore you from your lavendar hair to your huge feet. And I absolutely, postively love you from the depths of my very soul. Happy now?

Pan gasped as Trunks grasped her chin with his hand and tilted her face up, bringing his face closer to hers so that he could see better. Her heart began beating rapidly and the room seemed much warmer then it had once been before. He stared into her eyes, a searching look in his eyes and she panicked thinking that maybe that he heard the sincerty in her voice when she had said she had jokingly said she loved him, the only way that she could ever admit her feelings for him. But then he shook his head slightly and small smile touched his lips.

\"You look good, Pan,\" he said finally and a shiver went down her back when she felt his breath near her face.

\"I,\" she began to say before she was interrupted by another voice.

\"Trunks?\"

They both looked up to see a slender woman of medium build standing in the doorway of the office. Her dark brown hair, that fell past her shoulders, was the same color of her eyes that held a softness and warmth in them.

\"Oh there you are Cara,\" Trunks said, as his hand dropped away from Pan\'s face. \"You\'ve got perfect timing.

Trunks walked across the room and put his arm around Cara\'s waist and pulled her with him to stand in front of Pan\'s desk.

\"Cara, I\'d like you to meet one of my best friends, Son Pan,\" he said.

\"I\'ve heard so much about you, Miss Son,\" gushed Cara, a timid smile on her face. \"I\'m happy to make your aquaintance.\"

\"Call me Pan,\" replied Pan, forcing herself to smile at the newest of Trunks\'s girlfriends.

\"As long as you call me Cara,\" the other woman said. \"And I hope you\'ll agree to be my bridesmaid in our wedding. I don\'t really have many close girlfriends so I\'d really like for you to say yes.\"

\"W-wedding,\" stammered Pan.

\"That\'s right, Cara and I are engaged,\" Trunks said. \"We\'ll be married in one month.\"

\"Oh Trunks, I can\'t wait,\" Cara cried, staring up at him adoringly. \"I love you.\"

\"I love you too, Cara.\"

It took every bit of Pan\'s control to keep from crying out in pain as his words pierced her heart and a part of her soul died.