Trunks's eyebrows twitched as he floated to the ground ready to give this interrupting arsehole the thrashing of his life.
"Hey, jerk-off; it's rude to interrupt" Trunks snarled
Everyone in the room stopped dead, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop in that room. Gendo fixed the boy with a penetrating stare, but Trunks had inherited his father's eyes, they could be warm and caring, but they could also be colder than ice and harder than steel; even more so when he was Super Saiyen
"Do not interfere in affairs that do not concern you" Gendo said and tried to brush Trunks aside
Trunks however had no intention of moving and stood fast, daring Gendo to attack him. Gendo looked at the boy closely and even though he disliked him, he at least respected him for being brave.
"Bravery, I admire that, but graveyards are full of brave people" Gendo said
"They're also full of idiots. Which are you?" Trunks shot back: his wit was sharp
Shinji sat in the background smirking and giggling at the sight of his father being beaten in a slinging match by a young boy. Gendo scowled and threw a punch at Trunks. The young Saiyen just smiled and caught the hand with a deft movement.
"Well, I guess we know what you are" Trunks said
Before Trunks could do anything foolish, Rei put her hand on his shoulder and whispered something in his ear
"Don't worry. The council interviews everyone once a week. It's just my turn now" she explained, a soothing tone in her voice
Growling, Trunks released Gendo's arm and nodded, his temper cooled from her words
"Okay" he said and stepped aside, but his gaze never left Gendo
Rei silently followed the request from Gendo, but all the time he felt Trunks watching him with hawk eyes: he knew that Seele would throw a serious fit over this: she had nearly kissed the boy for Christs sake.
[I'll have to give her a memory dump] Gendo decided as he led her out of the conference room
[Don't worry Rei: I'm keeping an eye open for you] Trunks thought and focused on her Ki
****************
Goten saw the mood of the party was going sombre so he decided to liven it up a bit, that's when he caught sight of Aoba's guitar
"Hey, who's guitar?" he asked
"Mine" Aoba said
Goten picked it up and grabbed a pick
"May I?" he asked
Aoba nodded and Goten plugged the instrument in to an amp and some speakers
"Okay. Any requests from the birthday girl?" he asked Ritsuko
"Sweet Child O' Mine" Ritsuko said
"Done" he said and began strumming away, like Hendrix, only younger.
Misato wasn't paying any attention at all, she was still looking at Trunks: he had displayed a great deal of bravery in the face of a man who was quite easily in control of the most powerful weapons known to mankind and the evil nature to use them. In the meantime, Ritsuko wanted to talk to Trunks: for she had witnessed a rare event
"Hi, I'm Ritsuko; Rei's step sister" she said, looking at the boy
"I thought you had lavender hair and blue eyes", she added
"I'm Trunks, and it's a bit of dye, gel, and some contacts" Trunks replied
"What do you do here?" he asked
"I'm the lead scientific person. I work mainly with the Evas and try to improve them as much as possible," she explained
"Okay. Tell me; do this council interview the pilots every so often?" he asked
"Yeah, although they speak to Rei more often than Asuka. Shinji hasn't had his first interview yet", she said dismissively
Trunks sighed: as long as the whole thing was legitimate he figured Rei was safe. However Trunks was far from right: a council had indeed interviewed Rei: but it wasn't just a performance review.
***********
Rei woke groggily in a medical ward somewhere inside Nerv: the commander was standing over the bed with a doctor flanking him
"How are you?" he asked
"Fine" she replied, her head was thumping like a jackhammer
"Good. You took a tumble after your interview, that's why you're here" Gendo said
"Do you remember anything?" the doctor asked
"I was at a party, mot much more than that. It was my step-sister's" Rei told them everything she could remember.
Gendo escorted her back to the conference room: the group had split up into adults and kids by now. Gendo shook his head as he saw his Chief of Operations swooning around drunk with her hapless boyfriend following her to try and get her to sit down. Gendo turned his attention to Trunks; he was sitting with a look on his face that denoted concern and concentration, as if he was searching for something.
"Ah, Rei. You're back", Trunks said
He went over to her with a small smile on his face
Rei cocked her head at Trunks with confusion in her eyes and stared at him for almost a minute til she answered
"Who are you?" she asked
The world around Trunks went black: those words had cut through him like no Ki wave had ever managed to, and hurt twice as much
"I'm sorry, but I don't remember you" she said and walked past him, over to the punch bowl. Trunks looked up to see Gendo's smirking face
"Trunks. Doka oe anat sui" Goten yelled in a strange language (Don't do anything stupid)
"Xa Goten, Ia wau gesa ano" he answered (Relax Goten, I wasn't going to)
[What the hell language is that?], almost everyone wondered
Trunks again turned to Gendo and glared at him
"Iza Rei ir ijra ba ouya, Ia wiy xute ouya" he said in a low, icy and dangerous tone
Trunks then turned bowed to the assembly, looked forlornly at the isolated Rei and left. Gendo was puzzled as to what Trunks said to him but just dismissed it and left. Asuka looked at Goten
"What did he say?" she asked
Goten took a moment before answering
"Roughly 'if Rei is injured by you, I will kill you', or words to that effect" he answered
The rest of the evening went off without a hitch; many of the adults asked Goten what Trunks said, but he lied saying he didn't speak the language as fluently as Trunks did and that their guess was as good as his.
[Oh am I going to give you a chewing out when I get home] Goten seethed that Trunks would put him in that position, but that was his mate Gendo was messing with.
*************
Ritsuko drove Rei home, but on the way she decided an explanation was in order
"Okay what happened?" she asked at a red light
"What do you mean?' Rei asked
"With Trunks. Misato told me he flew you to the party, you were practically wrapped around him in fact. Then you go away for fifteen minutes, come back and you don't remember him" Ritsuko snapped
"Should I have?" Rei asked
"Well if a handsome young man flew me somewhere, then yes I think I would remember both him and the flight after twenty minutes" the scientist was very confused
"Is there anything else?" Rei asked
"How about him nearly breaking Gendo's wrist because he thought the man was going to hurt you?" she asked, knowing that Rei would remember something like that.
"That was after you two nearly kissed", she added
Ritsuko certainly wasn't going to forget the bastard's face when that young boy caught his hand and nearly broke it. Another thing she would never forget was how, happy, Rei seemed to look when they were about to kiss, and then that old coot came in and ruined the whole thing.
"I don't remember any of that," she answered
[They were air dancing for heaven's sake. I wish my boyfriend would learn that] Ritsuko was stunned into silence by the responses she was getting from her stepsister.
The two remained silent until Ritsuko pulled up at Rei's apartment block
"See you after school tomorrow Rei" Ritsuko said and drove off
Rei walked up to her apartment, but stopped. She remembered that Trunks, the boy who assaulted the commander, lived a floor above her. Rei then headed upstairs and knocked on the door, number 501. A minute later, Goten answered
"Oh, hi Rei" he said
"I wish to speak to Trunks" she said, her voice was monotone
"Sure" Goten turned his head "Trunks! Rei to speak to you" he called
"He'll be here in a minute" Goten said and invited Rei in.
Trunks came out of the bathroom in a singlet and pair of sweat pants
"Hi" he said
Rei said nothing. Trunks anticipated her move and lowered his Ki to lower than a child's, so that when Rei slapped him across the face, she didn't break her hand, SLAP, the sound resonated through the apartment: Goten was speechless
"Stay away from Commander Ikari, and stay away from me" Rei said; her voice colder now
The slamming of a door broke the apartment's silence: as Rei exited it. Goten went over to Trunks warily, he didn't want to startle him
"Shit, Trunks are you okay man?" Goten asked
Trunks snorted and looked away, he then went to his bedroom
[So, that's what it feels like to have your heart broken, and your soul ripped out] Trunks recalled his father saying these moments would hurt worse than any battle injuries.
The door closed and Trunks went to sleep, and Goten sat down to contemplate this series of events: he came to one conclusion
"They must have been bonding because…" Goten dared not say it aloud
[…Only that could make Trunks, son of Vegeta, prince of the Saiyens, cry] he finished in his head.
*****************
A/N: As a rule, I have adopted, if you want to make a crossover romance good, the two characters must overcome many obstacles: this is one of them in Evangelion regarding Rei, because I read somewhere that after a session in the LCL tube in the Dummy System room, most of her outer memories are erased, leaving only core ones intact.
