The last thing Trunks remembered after yelling out his ultimate attack then launching it was hitting the ground, pretty hard.  Hard, if hitting the ground counted as hard then by his own estimates he should have been nearly exhausted from the strain he had put out.  He tried to get up but a soft hand stopped him

"You should rest, you exerted a great deal of energy", that voice was unmistakeable: Rei

"Rei, where am I?" he asked, trying to adjust his vision

"You're in my apartment: Goten helped bring you here from the battlefield before my rescue team arrived" she explained

"How long have I been asleep?" Trunks was able to see the ceiling as he asked this

"At least 17 hours" Rei replied, she pressed a cold damp rag to Trunks's head, as Goten had instructed her.

Trunks was still tired, and he fell back asleep rather quickly.  Rei watched him: she had no doubt the commander sensed his power level during the battle and she was wondering what he would do about Trunks, and she now had her suspicions about Goten being just as strong.  She felt it in her soul however that Trunks was stronger, and could still raise in power.  A knock at the door made her reverie break: grumbling, she answered it: it was Shinji, Hikari, Goten and Asuka

"Hi, we came to visit your friend" Hikari said.

Rei nodded and allowed them in, Trunks was on the small bed he had with him ion his apartment so Rei wasn't on the floor.  His skin was a bit paler than any of them remembered it being but otherwise he looked fine.  Shinji however saw something that, if Goten hadn't been on the quick for, would have let the proverbial cat out of the bag

"What the hell is that brown furry thing?" he asked, pointing to Trunks's unfurled brown Saiyen tail

"Fur belt" Goten lied, but Rei shot him a piercing glance; she knew

"Okay, well, we'll be going now.  Call us when Trunks wakes up" Shinji said

"Goten, stay here, I wish to ask you something" Rei said, before the not so wily Saiyen could escape

"Okay" he stuttered

As soon as everyone had left, Rei fixed Goten with another piercing stare, one that was very reminiscent of his mother, so much so that it scared him

"Why does Trunks have a tail?" she asked in a quiet voice, Goten could sense the notes of betrayal under it

"Well, it's part of who we are" he said meekly

"I see.  Trunks showed me something, he transformed.  He was in the same state when he tore my plug open.  How do you do that?" Rei was getting angrier, although the casual observer wouldn't see it

Goten was in between the devil and the deep blue sea, but he couldn't lie, not to the other saviours of the planet.

"Okay then, get comfortable.  This is a long story" Goten said and sat down.  Rei did likewise on her bed.

**********

2 hours later

**********

Rei lay on her bed pondering all the information Goten had given her, some of it fascinating and some of it terrible, like the bloody history of the Saiyen race as galactic pirates and plunderers.  However, se did not judge Goten and Trunks by these standards, if she did then it would be hypocritical because humans had done the same to each other many years ago, some still did it.  Also, Goten mentioned that he and Trunks were the last remnants of the race, just them.

[What must it be like, to see what they have seen, be where they have been and do what they have done?] Rei wondered

She was looking at the still unconscious form of Trunks on the small futon bed on the floor, he was only as old as she was, yet he had seen terrible things, things she even could not hold a candle to, in all her nights in Terminal Dogma in the experiments the commander had her half sister run on her, these seemed pale in comparison to what these two boys had seen, and done.  Goten had stressed that they were no Angels (in both senses of the word), and had had to commit terrible acts to win against evil, never anything cruel, but it weighed on their consciences all the time

"What pain lies in the minds of those who fight?" she wondered over to Trunks as she spoke.

Rei had never 'looked' at Trunks; she knew what he looked like and like herself, his hair made him stand out in a crowd, but to look closely at his face, she could see lines of worry, sadness and pain, small scars and other things.  Rei was going to get back into bed, when she noticed tears start to slip from Trunks's eyes

"What?" she was surprised

Rei knelt back down and looked closely at them: she had never seen tears before.  She watched the small droplets of water slide down his face.  Then, out of pure curiosity she reached out and caught one with her finger.  Rei held close to her face and studied the droplet: it seemed no different from any other drop of water; she held it under her nose, no smell and in a move she herself did not understand, she tasted it.  It had slightly salty taste to it, like seawater.  Before she could leave for bed, one more thing made her blink in surprise

"M, mother" Trunks was speaking in his sleep

This was really surprising and it occurred to Rei that the only details left out by Goten were the ones regarding their families, but she was very closed up about her own family, so she wasn't going to press either of them for those details.

************

Trunks woke up with a pounding headache and a great deal of disorientation

[Was I out on the piss?], he wondered, this thought was soon washed away as the memories came back piece-by-piece

"Now I know how Jason Bourne felt.  Ooh, pain in ribs, pain in ribs" he muttered as he tried to get up.

This time he was a great deal more successful than he was the day before and was on his feet after a few tentative tries.  His stomach rumbled loudly

"Food, I need food", he said in a zombie-like voice

Trunks scanned the building: he was alone.  He checked Rei's wall clock: it read 10:30

"Well, I can go home, shower, get dressed, eat and go to school or not go to school and clean this place up" he wasn't fond of dirty places, but he wasn't dumb enough to tell that to Rei

Trunks went upstairs, his plan of action decided.  After showering, grabbing half a Senzu Bean to fix his ribs, dressing and eating, Trunks headed back to Rei's with full intent to clean the place of his mess, if any.  The apartment was a dump: dirty, dusty and cramped

"How she has stayed sane in this place is a feat I wish I could achieve" he muttered and set about removing any of his clothes and property.

First the bed: then his dirty linin from her wash basket.  Eventually Trunks came across a pillowcase, it looked like his so he just grabbed it and threw it in the bag he had with him and left the apartment.  When that was done, Trunks gave the apartment a once over, a few cloth strokes and a sweep here and there and it looked fine.

"Well, that should clear my debt" he decided and went home

He checked the clock again: it was only 11:30

"Oh well, a few hours of school won't hurt" he decided and left the building

*************

Goten was board as all hell: this old coot of a teacher was rambling on and on and on about 2nd Impact: he knew what happened; he'd watched it from Kaishin.

[Can't this old goat talk about anything interesting?], he pleaded with the gods, in fact he was sure he could hear North Kai and Shin laughing at him

Asuka was watching Goten, she was going to confront him about what happened on the battlefield the other day: she knew he had something to do with it.  Asuka was going to ask Rei, but something made her hold back; in all truth she didn't like Rei a great deal, there was respect, but not friendship.  However, if her feeling on who destroyed the Angel was right, she wasn't going to broadcast her feelings.

"Sorry I'm late" a familiar voice flew into the room

"That's okay, Ms. Ayanami explained you absences to me, take a seat," the old teacher said

Trunks made his way to his seat and sat down.  He opened his laptop and typed a message to Rei

\Thank you, for helping me\ it said

Rei wrote on in response

\Thank you for saving me\

Trunks left it at that and lay his head down.  Rei on the other hand was looking outside at the sky, reflecting on her words

[Thank you] she thought

She had never thanked anyone for anything, no one at all.  Rei was understandably confused as to why then, did she thank Trunks: if anything she should be afraid of him: he was an alien, a very powerful one with a great deal of fighting skill, but she wasn't afraid of him and maybe it was because she had seen his vulnerable side, if not this child side when he asked for his mother, but in truth she had no idea why he didn't scare her, because he really scared everyone else.

*************

When they were dismissed for lunch, Trunks grabbed Goten and asked to speak with him in private

"How much did you tell her?" he asked

"It took two hours, so quite a lot, the only reason we got busted was because you went off half cock and blew that Angel up, okay.  We have been rumbled Trunks, but only by them.  No one but them know" he explained

"Why are you so tetchy?" Trunks asked

Goten grumbled "Well Rei wasn't the only one to guess what was going down, I had to explain it to Asuka, Hikari and Shinji" he griped

Trunks nearly collapsed with laughter: that kind of speech would no doubt create a few questions for the lecturer.

"Okay, cool" Trunks said and began to walk away

"Bye the way; how is everything on the Rei front?" Goten asked, watching for a reaction, any reaction.

He got one all right: Trunks stopped moving and began to sort of sway on his feet, Goten could also feel a strange kind of energy being emitted from his friend, not good or bad, just different from the usual he gave out.

"Ah ha, I see the process is going along well" he commented and watched as Trunks rubbed a spot on his neck.

[Wait a second…] Goten realised that he'd been doing that around Asuka a great deal, and Trunks had done that with Rei around

"Well I'll be a blue assed monkey" he realised that Trunks wasn't the only one bonding with a mate, he was too.

[This could really complicate matters] he thought.