Check Please
Bura-sama
Monday, December 4, 2000
Disclaimer: I do not own nor claim any rights to DBZ/GT. No profit is being made, and no infringement is intended.
Author Notes: This is AU. This is t/m NOT t/p! So if you are going to flame me for it not being t/p, don't waste your time! I'm happy with this story. That's something very few authors can say on ff.net, or so I've come to believe. And yes, I know they are OOC. Get over it, or don't read!
PART ONE
Dancing dancing
Floating breathlessly across
That starry sky of heaven
Dancing dancing
Eyes bright and hoping
That you'll be mine tonight
Dancing dancing
The time has come
For us to stop
Dancing dancing
You're not mine tonight.
Chapter One
Fries and milkshake, table four. Marron set the one tray down and grabbed another. Steak, salad and soda, table eight. She picked up an empty plate, and took it back to the kitchen. She went back to the vacant table and wiped it down with the small cloth she took out of her pocket. She took another tray, and went to bring the food to the next customers.
"Marron," her friend called from behind. Marron balanced the tray on one hand and turned to her friend. Pan grinned and pointed back to table five. "They have all six trays." The color drained from Marron's face as she managed to carry two more trays of food. Pan finished clearing off the table she was serving, and grabbed the other three. "Here, I'll help you."
***
"What's taking so long?" Vegeta said with agitation as he looked around for the waitress to bring his food.
"Patience, Vegeta." Bulma said as she too looked for the person to bring their snack - well her dinner and Vegeta and Trunks' snack. She looked at the time. They had ordered four minutes ago, and still hadn't been served. Bulma took a pen from her purse and started filling out the service evaluation card. Just as she started scribbling in her complaint for slow service, her bowl of soup was set on the table.
"Sorry for the delay," the waitress said as she and another started setting the food on the table. "One tomato soup, two clam chowder, four medium-done steaks, six apple pies, three baked potatoes, two egg omelets, one chicken casserole dish, and five rolls?"
Bulma looked over the food, and Trunks started eating. Vegeta almost took a bite, but stopped and turned to the waitress. "That was twelve egg omelets." The girl looked at him skeptically, but started checking the order.
"Okay," she nodded, as Bulma got a glance at the order form. It said two egg omelets. She looked to the girl with sympathy. "I apologize for our error. It will be just a moment please," she started to turn away, but Vegeta caught her wrist.
"These steaks were supposed to be 'rare'."
Bulma scoffed, "Vegeta, I've told you that you can't eat raw meat in public places." She turned to the waitress, "The steaks are fine."
***
"Come on, you know you want to," Pan goaded as she started washing dishes. Her shift was up, and most of the people had already left. She was waiting for Marron to get off, and all the customers were gone except for table five. They were still eating, and had just sent Marron back to bring the teenage girl more soda. Then the younger guy had asked for more ice cream, and the father had been quite rude about it.
Marron scooped the ice cream into the bowl and started putting the cherries on top. "I can't do that," she said as Pan waited for the answer. "If our new manager found out about it, then I'd be out of the job for sure." Both girls looked back to the dining area, where table five was staring at the clock and filling out an evaluation form. "And I need the money."
Pan just sighed and started on Marron's half of the dirty dishes. "If you say so,"
Marron grabbed the soda in one hand and the ice cream in the other.
***
Trunks knew nothing good would come out of the situation when his father started drumming his fingers against the table top, leaving indentions in the surface. The waitress came back, handed the soda to Bra, and set the ice cream before him.
"It's about time," Vegeta huffed and scowled. "Making my princess wait," Bra smirked and stuck her tongue out at him.
Trunks looked up to the chocolate coated cherries to the girl who was about to turn away. "I don't eat cherries,"
The waitress gave him a disgusted look, took the ice cream in one hand, and glanced at the clock. "What would you like, sir? We close in ten minutes."
***
Pan watched her friend come back through the door, melting ice cream in one hand, and an angry expression on her face.
Pan shook her head sadly and "You know you want to,"
Marron started scooping up the ice cream, and reached for the chocolate syrup bottle. She started pouring it on the ice cream. "I'm not spitting in their food, Pan." The ice cream bottle sputtered and ran empty. "Great, now what am I going to do?"
Pan dried off her hands and went to the storage room. She came back with a dusty bottle of syrup. "Use this."
"Pan, this expired last year." Marron tapped her foot against the floor and looked back to the dining area. The restaurant closed in three minutes.
Pan just shrugged and blew some of the stuff of it. "They'll never notice." She shook the syrup bottle and squirted it on the ice cream. Marron gave a disgusted look and took the ice cream out to the waiting man. Pan grabbed a mop and started cleaning the floors.
***
"He was kinda cute," Pan giggled as she locked the door.
"Hmm..." Marron locked up the dumpster and then came up beside Pan. "Thanks for getting my half of the dishes,"
"No problem," Pan tugged her jacket over her shoulders and shivered against the cool air. "I can't believe they didn't leave you a tip."
Marron sneezed and pulled on her own coat. She had to talk to the new manager about getting new uniforms. "I can." She walked out to the rusty car that she and Pan shared. "I'm going home, how 'bout you?"
Pan shook her head. "I've got to pick up some dry cleaning. See you later,"
Chapter Two
Why did you leave me?
Why didn't you stay?
My heart beats so sad,
When you're away.
Why did you leave me?
Why didn't you stay?
Pan leaned against the rumbling washing machine as she flipped through the pages of her magazine. She smirked at the advertisements, and finally tossed it aside. She put another coin into the machine, and started her second load of clothes. The door slid open, and she looked up to see the purple-haired man from table five. She scowled and picked up the magazine just to have something to do. Although he looked might fine, he had a horrid personality.
"Hello," the guy said and pushed the magazine out of Pan's hands.
Pan scowled and looked at him skeptically. She jerked her magazine out of his hands and started reading again. "What do you want?"
He smiled with confidence and pushed the magazine down again. "Just to talk," he looked down at her waitress uniform. "Pan,"
Pan shivered slightly. She felt that once he knew her name, he knew things about her, that he had some sort of power over her. 'A real snake in the grass,' as her late mother would have said. She scowled, "And your name is?"
The boy blushed. She hesitated to call him boy - he was at least thirty - but had a childish persona that made her see him as a little kid. "Uh .. it's Trunks. Trunks Briefs."
Pan held back a snicker and a comment referring to James Bond and said instead, "Pan. Satan Pan,"
Trunks started to say something, but stopped and grew quiet. "Your grandfather was Mister Satan, wasn't he?"
Pan gave a small nod and temporarily forgot that she was supposed to be making this humiliating for him. "Yeah. My mom..."
Trunks shifted his weight from his right foot to his left foot in the uncomfortable silence. "Yeah, I heard about the accident ... and the fire..."
Pan refrained from mentioning the fact that the fire wasn't an accident, and that her mother and grandfather would be alive today if they hadn't been so close to the truth. She also suppressed the fact that Marron's parents had also been killed in the fire, and that was why they were being waitresses. "What do you want?" she snapped as painful memories started to rise to the surface.
"Uh ... yeah. I wanted to talk about what happened at the restaurant today, and that girl." He blushed at the last part.
"Oh?"
***
Marron shrugged out of her jacket as she came through the back door to the restaurant. The restaurant's two morning cooks were already frying eggs, pancakes, and the usual breakfasts. Marron waved to a few of them, and went to wash her hands.
"Hey," Pan called as she started setting food on trays. "You've got tables three, six, and four,"
Marron nodded and grabbed the tray of coffee, bagels, and omelets. She pushed against the double doors, and she went out to bring people their breakfast. This was her favorite time of day to work at the restaurant. Major meal orders were sparse, and most people just wanted a cup of coffee or an omelet. She smiled, mornings were always good. The day had just started, and the wrong orders and complaints usually didn't come in until dinner. Unless, of course, it was a day like today. The smile left her face, and she walked over to table three.
She set the coffee down, and handed him the bill.
"I ordered a bagel." the purple-haired man coughed and traced his finger along the rim of the of the coffee cup.
Marron, her day ruined, checked the order, which actually did indicate a bagel special, and hurried back to the kitchen.
***
"Why did you do that?" Marron shouted as she grabbed the tray Pan held in her hand.
"He's a nice guy." At Marron's scoff, she added, "Once you get past that arrogance,"
"Well, since he's such a nice guy," she shoved the tray back towards Pan. "Then you bring him his bagel."
Pan watched Marron disappear into the storage room. She sighed, rolled her eyes, and headed out with the bagel.
"Well, Trunks-san, you blew that one." She took a quick glance around the restaurant, and was relieved to see Trunks was the only customer. She took a seat on the opposite bench, and folded her hands under her chin. "What exactly was going through your head just then?"
"I wanted a bagel." He shrugged and blushed as his eyes followed to Marron, who was glaring at them from behind the kitchen door. "I was hungry." He watched as Marron left the kitchen and started sweeping the floor. "She's really special, isn't she?"
Pan turned and looked as her best friend started wiping off the empty tables. "Yep." She glared at Trunks with her best 'strike terror into the hearts of the weak' look. "And, if you're going to jerk her around, then quit now, or you'll have to answer to me."
***
What are they talking about? Marron wiped down another table and moved closer to her friend and the cheap bastard that Pan had poisoned the night before. She groaned as she watched their new no-nonsense manager come through the door. He looked around and spotted Pan not working.
"Miss Satan," Marron rolled her eyes at the manager and started refilling the coffee mug. "Miss Satan, do I need to remind you that you are being paid to work, not to converse and get in the customer's way. Why aren't you working?"
Marron smirked as she held the coffee pot filled with hot, steamy, black coffee, and turned to refill the purple-haired boy's mug. She turned and walked into Mr. Smith, the new manager. The hot coffee spread across his shirt and he jumped back, landing on the tray of hot cinnamon buns. "Oh, Mr. Smith! I'm so sorry! I don't know what happened!"
Mr. Smith struggled to get up, and tipped over three more chairs in the process. He huffed out something incoherent, and jerked his shirt down. "Clean up this mess at once!" He turned to Pan, "And you, get back to work!" He jerked on his coat and stormed out the door.
Pan gave Marron a grateful smile and hurried to the back room. Marron retrieved a mop and began cleaning up the steaming coffee. She looked over the purple-haired guy who was eating his bagel. He looked at her admirably. "What are you looking at?"
He grinned and stuck out his hand. "I'm Trunks."
Marron looked at his hand and went back to moping the floor. "Marron." She looked at him again. "What are you doing here?"
"Will you go to the park with me? After you get off?"
"My shift doesn't end until eleven. And even if it ended earlier, I wouldn't go with you."
He grinned. "You're off on Sunday."
Marron shook her head and mentally cursed Pan for having a big mouth. "No."
"I just want to talk to you for a little while. Are you sure you won't come?"
Marron shrugged and reached for her order form. "What time?"
Trunks grinned.
Well, that was chapters one and two. Did you like it? Of course, I would like to say that this is not part of the t/p vs. t/m "war". I just happen to like t/m, and I wrote a fic about it. Sorry it's so short!
