Stargazing

Chapter 1 - The Past and the Present

I have always been intrigued by the way history repeats itself. Sometimes, a situation will give you nothing more than a mild case of déjà vu until you experience a brief, flashing moment of recollection where you suddenly recognize the familiarity of your surroundings and remember when you last saw them.

Well, now is one of those times.

I smile at my daughter as she walks through the front door after school, and I see myself in her. She has my smile, my hair, and my facial features, and even in personality she is me all over again. Still, when I hug her when she gets into the kitchen and I brush a few stray strands of hair out of her face, she smiles and stares back at me not with eyes that are brown like mine, but with eyes that are identical to the sapphire pair that I fell in love with as a child.

She claims that after the Nakazawa boy up the street broke up with her, she is heartbroken. Her trembling lower lip and intense frown do their best to convince me of this fact, but I shake my head and smile at her sadly, bittersweet memories flashing before my eyes.

She doesn't know what real heartbreak is.

And at these moments, as I watch her glumly climb the stairs to her room, I feel a great swell of pride deep in my heart. She is so much like me.

A moment later, when my mate strolls into the kitchen and wraps his arms around me from behind, I am already lost in memories of the past, and I remember, with a faint smile gracing my lips, how this all came to be...

I had always been told that Grandpa Goku was a great man – that he was the most powerful, as well as the most selfless, being in the universe. This is how I grew up – hanging onto every word of stories in which Grandpa, Vejita, Dad, Trunks, and Uncle Goten were the heroes. I idolized them as the fearsome warriors who had defeated Majin Buu, Cell, Freeza, and countless other super-villains. They were the reason that I threw myself into my training with such fervor – I hoped that maybe someday I might be worthy enough to fight alongside them.

That dream of mine, at least, came true.

I returned from our adventure with the Dragonballs a stronger person, but I realized that, sadly, the romantic aspect of my life was virtually nonexistent. Contrary to the beliefs of my mother and grandmother, I did know why. I was feisty, stubborn to a fault, fiercely loyal, and cheeky, sometimes unbearably so. Not to mention I could kick ass better than any human on this planet, and quite frankly, that scared most guys away.

But that wasn't all.

I was also in love with my former babysitter, a man fourteen years my senior, and the most unattainable bachelor in the universe…

Trunks.

Don't ask me when it happened, or how. I wouldn't be able to tell you. All I knew was that he occupied a larger space in my heart than any other person. Nevertheless, I was realistic enough to know that I had no chance with him. How could I? I was nothing but the tomboy little girl that he used to baby-sit. I was his best friend, his Pan-chan. He only ever saw me as a child, and never even stopped to consider that I might be a possible candidate for a mate. Of course he didn't, not when he was always surrounded by willing, beautiful, perfect women who would jump on a chance just to shake his hand. He would never look at me the way I would want him too, the way that I looked at him when no one else was watching – with unconditional love.

So I never told him. I never told anyone.

But it destroyed me to watch him confess his love to another, to pretend to care when he came to me, ecstatic after just proposing marriage to the woman he claimed was "the love of his life." It tore my heart to pieces to put on a smile and say congratulations when I didn't mean it, when I really wanted to burst out screaming and go kill the bitch that dared to steal my love.

But I couldn't.

I couldn't because he would hate me for it, and because I felt that my life wasn't worth living if he hated me. So I shut in my pain and did what he expected me to do, said what he expected me to say.

But in my head, I had already made a decision that would change my life forever...

I sat on a tree branch overlooking the front yard of Capsule Corporation, where Bulma was holding a reunion of some sort. This long weekend, all of the Z-senshi had gathered at CC to catch up, as most of us hadn't seen each other for many years. The Briefs, Kuririn, Juuhachigou, Marron, Kame-sennin, Oolong, Yamucha, Puar, Tenshinhan, Chaotzu, Uub, Piccolo, and all of us Sons were there, the majority of us socializing in the courtyard.

Naturally, a few of us weren't.

Piccolo was meditating at the base of the tree I occupied, and Vejita was nowhere to be found, go figure. I smirked. The arrogant prince was most likely training in the gravity chamber, and I decided to go join him. I nimbly jumped off of my branch, landed on the grass and stretched my muscles, then made a beeline for the GR.

"Oi Pan, come over here!"

I saw from the corner of my eye Bura waving at me and smiled brightly. She was standing next to the refreshment stand, close to, I noticed with a mental smirk, the spot where Uncle Goten was stuffing his face full.

"Yo," I offered in greeting, trying desperately to hide my amusement at her obvious affection for my uncle. "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing much," she said evasively. I rolled my eyes, but then decided to play along.

"Ah – okay. Well, you're welcome to stay here and continue crushing on Uncle Goten, but I think I'm gonna go train with Vejita in the GR."

"Pan!" she replied furiously, her cheeks turning bright red in embarrassment. I simply grinned cheekily in response, then left her stuttering in my wake.

I knocked three times on the door to the GR and waited for Vejita's usual gruff "What the hell do you want" before letting myself in. The gravity generator automatically shut off as I strolled in and started stretching.

"Hey, Vejita. Is it okay if I spar with you?"

I think he actually looked less disgusted than usual.

"Do what you want, brat. I suppose could use a good punching bag."

I sniggered. "Not a chance, Veggie-head. I'm gonna be the one to pound your ass into the ground," I replied with a smirk.

In a burst of ki, I launched myself into a series of back flips not a moment too soon. Wow, I mused. He got that Gallick Gun charged up pretty fast.

My feet connected with the wall of the chamber and I kicked off hard, throwing myself into an attack of lightning-quick kicks and punches. Vejita took me head on, meeting me blow for blow and getting in more hits than I could count. Shit. And I hadn't even managed to land a single hit yet!

We continued to exchange blows until he felt we were warmed up enough, and then the fun really began.

The thing I loved most about sparring with Vejita was his creativity - he could come up with attacks and moves that I could only dream of being able to imitate. That and, I added to myself as his fist connected squarely with my jaw, he never goes easy on me. Crap. I could taste blood in my mouth.

I had no time to hesitate, however, and decided to take the offensive before he could beat me down any further. Damn, he was fast! He managed to dodge most of my attacks and even countered with several of his own, sending me flying in desperation out of the way of an especially intense ki blast. Turning around, I noticed too late that he had phased out on top of me, and I just managed to brace myself before he brought his two closed fists down on my head.

Ouch.

Stunned by the powerful blow, I crashed to the ground and grit my teeth, forcing myself to roll out of the way just in time to avoid another ki blast. I stood up, yelled as I spiked my ki, and prepared to launch myself back into battle when –

"Vejita!"

My blood turned to ice as my ki level dropped. Let me tell you something – Bulma Briefs was one scary lady when she wanted to be. So much that I sincerely commended Vejita for having enough courage to marry her.

As if on cue, the door to the gravity chamber beeped and slid open to reveal the president of Capsule Corporation in a livid rage. Only Vejita appeared unaffected by his wife's intimidating presence.

Oh, man...

If looks could kill...

"What in the world have you done to poor Pan-chan?" she began in a soft, deadly voice before continuing on a lengthy, fiery tirade. "Have you completely lost your mind, Vejita? I told you specifically not to get carried away at this gathering! Do you have any idea how important today is? Good Dende, look at her, she's bleeding everywhere!"

I winced at the sharpness of her tone. Vejita, however, responded by calmly turning and walking to the showers adjacent to the gravity room. It seemed he was more than used to Bulma's frequent outbursts.

As soon as he was gone, Bulma turned to face me. I braced myself for the onslaught.

"Come on, Pan, let's get you cleaned up," she said calmly. I let out the breath that I didn't know I was holding. "Go take a shower and meet the rest of us out to the courtyard. Trunks has an announcement to make."

"Announcement? What sort of announcement?" I asked her, curious.

"You'll find out in a bit," she answered evasively. She smiled brightly to herself and giggled. I stared at her strangely as she did it again. I had never seen Bulma in such a giddy state before. She was near bursting with happiness and was acting uncharacteristically like a teenager on a sugar high.

More unnerved than curious, I wandered off to take a quick shower, trying hard not to read too much into the feeling of icy dread that was beginning to settle in my stomach.

It was probably nothing but paranoia, I kept telling myself.

Probably.

Five minutes later I was cleaned up and dressed in fresh clothing, courtesy of Bura. It was a little more form-fitting than I would have liked, but I wasn't that concerned with what outfit I was wearing at the moment, anyway.

I was more concerned with why the sense of foreboding gathering in the pit of my stomach was steadily increasing in strength.

I walked out into the yard - Vejita was already there - and everyone turned around to glance at me. "Good, she's here, now we can start," said Bulma. She still looked giddy, which was seriously starting to freak me out. The fact that Vejita was looking at me calculatingly wasn't helping my nerves, either.

Trunks was standing in front of everyone, Marron at his side. Upon seeing her, I suppressed the urge to growl. They had been going steady for a while now, something that bothered me to no end. I childishly crossed my arms and thought to myself that whatever announcement he wanted to make, she didn't need to be there, clutching onto his arm like some mindless bimbo. I snorted and frowned, sulking. It's not like he needed her help giving a stupid little announcement anyway. She had no reason to be there.

An unbidden thought then came to me. What if she did have a reason to be there?

The stubborn part of me remained firm. They'd only been dating for about a year now, which obviously wasn't enough time for Trunks to decide whether or not Marron was "the one." Then, at the front of the group, Trunks took a deep breath and smiled shakily, looking to Marron for support. He took her hand in his, intertwining their fingers together before looking to face the group again. Then, even the stubborn part of me began to have doubts.

He wouldn't do that to me, would he? I thought, suddenly feeling sick.

Ah, but you never told him how you felt, a little voice in the back of my head replied oily. He wouldn't know what he's doing to you.

I paled, and the deep sense of dread I felt in the pit of my stomach increased.

Oh, Dende, please, no ... anything but this...

I locked eyes with Trunks. Suddenly, I felt cold. Before I knew it, I had forced my face into an expressionless mask. All I knew was that I had to hide the turmoil I was feeling inside. Trunks looked confused for a moment, then regained his composure and opened his mouth to say eight words that would change my life.

"Marron and I have decided to get married."

"No," I mouthed silently. "No."

Author's Note: Just as a side note, Pan is about 19 and Trunks is 33.

Disclaimer: Any and all characters belonging to Dragonball/Z/GT are the legal property of Toriyama Akira and/or FUNimation.