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

Most of that day was spent relaxing and even though Goten insisted on a small party fro the new inductees to the Z Fighters; Trunks threatened to kill him several times over if one was put on: he was still really embarrassed about purring last night, even though it was Rei who'd stroked his tail, he was still feeling a bit dumb for letting it wrap around her thigh

"Goten, get your butt out here for Tekken, now" Asuka called

The group, minus Rei and Trunks were assembled around the Katsuragi television to see Asuka and Goten play Tekken

"Where did Trunks and Rei go?" Hikari asked

"No sure, probably went home to relax" Goten said as he came into the living room

"But they could of relaxed here" Shinji piped up

Hikari shook her head

"No I don't think so" she said and ruffled Shinji's hair

"Why though?" he asked

"Because they're really private people.  Rei as you know is very shy about her feelings anyway and Trunks, well, I guess it's just his way to be private" Hikari explained

"Hikari's right; Trunks's dad was the same.  Not for the life of him at first could he relax in such large company with his wife.  But in private he could.  It's just a trait Trunks has and I think it's also why the two get on so well" Goten added

"Oh, so you're saying because they both like to keep feelings in house it draws them to each other and in the process draws these feelings out?" Shinji asked

"Bingo, 3rd Child, maybe you aren't as dumb as you seem" Asuka remarked

There was silence as the Tekken tournament began

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

In the quiet of Trunks's apartment, the only noise was the steady sound of two people breathing slowly; the noise of sleep.  Trunks was on the couch with his feet on a foot rest and Rei's head in his lap with her stretched over the rest of the couch.  This time he made sure his wayward tail was safely unable to grasp the sleeping angel in his lap.  The quiet of the apartment continued for some hours, well into the afternoon in fact as both teens were very tired and Rei was sore from the mission.

Trunks woke up feeling hungry and went into the kitchen to make a sandwich: which really meant any kind of food he could get his hands on was slapped between two large slices of rye bread

"Okay, turkey, ham, chicken, duck, beef.  Mayonnaise, mustard, and kebab sauce.  Lettuce, tomatoes, onions, capsicum, olives.  That'll do for a small snack" he said and began making his lunch

In his mad rush to eat the giant meal, he woke Rei up.  She got up and came into the kitchen and the sight she saw would make her laugh for the rest of her life: Trunks was on the ground because in his Saiyen way, he had tried to eat the sandwich whole and now had it stuck in his mouth and was trying to get it out.

Trunks thought Rei was going to yell at him for being piggish.  Instead, her lips began curving upwards; then a fully fledged smile hit her face.  But it didn't stop there, she began shaking, then giggles escaped her mouth, then chuckles until eventually Rei slid down the door frame nearly convulsing in loud, outrageous laughter at the sight of Trunks: warrior and super being trying to unstick a large sandwich from his mouth

Trunks grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and wrote on it:

'I am glad this is funny for you, but, can I please have some help' the message read

"Okay" she said and went over to help

Rei grabbed Trunks's jaws and yanked them apart and the sandwich fell on the floor with a plop and a splat.  Then she reset his jaw

"Oh damn.  All that pain and I still didn't get a sandwich out of it" he pouted

"Come on. I think we should train a little.  We have a Tournament to continue tomorrow" Rei said and went home to change into her Gi

"Indeed" Trunks said and picked up his sandwich and ate it anyway, in smaller portions however.

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

And so they trained: in the mountains far from the city and most things civilised.  Rei's power continued to grow at an alarming rate, when it eventually came to the point where Trunks had to almost power up to Super Saiyen to keep things even between them.  After several hours of this hard training they sat down to rest

"You're improving at a remarkable rate Rei; this kind of improvement is rare in any fighter" Trunks complemented his girlfriend on her abilities

"Thank you" she replied and took a drink of water

Trunks got up and looked around: not a soul for miles: he then decided that here is where the demonstration would be done

"Rei, I am bringing Misato and some of the others here: to show them my power so they won't be afraid of me any more.  Any objections?" he asked

"No" she answered simply

"Of course, if you feel like demonstrating your superiority to the others as well, I certainly won't stop you" he added

Trunks noticed a slight brightening of her eyes when he said that

"Shall we train some more or are you tired?" Trunks asked

"I am a little tired" Rei replied and got up, stretching

Trunks took this opportunity to admire his girlfriend: she was smaller than him by a few inches; and leaner.  Her skin was still pale but was a lot darker than it used to be.  Her muscles had thickened out a little, giving her very powerful legs and arms.  Trunks went behind Rei and encircled her waist with his arms and nuzzled her neck

"What are you doing?" she asked, going red

"Just reinforcing that I love you, and to compliment you; you've grown more beautiful since I met you" he said, his voice was deep

"Then in turn Trunks, I must say that you are a rather handsome young man.  And I love you also" she replied, grateful of the attention

Like before at the party, Trunks's tail had wrapped itself around her thigh

"Does that happen a lot?" she asked, pointing the offending appendage

"Occasionally" Trunks replied and willed back around his waist

"Come on, we should get home and a rest a little.  And you need a shower" Rei said, playfully jibing Trunks

"As milady commands" he said and bowed extravagantly before taking off towards the sky

[Oh, so you want to play do you?] Rei thought and gave chase

The aerial game of tag lasted for the duration of the flight home and even continued into the apartment for a little while.  They darted around the room until it developed in a wrestling match.  It was all even until Rei tripped Trunks over, and pinned him down by straddling him

"Pinned" she said, getting right in his face with an uncharacteristically sly grin on her face

"Well, since it ended up this way, I gladly accept the loss" he shot back, and yet again his tail wrapped itself around Rei's thigh

The pair were in fact seconds away from kissing each other when Goten, Ritsuko, a camera carrying Misato and the rest of the Z Fighters walked in

FLASH

Trunks and Rei blinked as Misato snapped a photo of them in what could easily be called an awkward position

"Well, this should make a handy and cute addition to my blackmail scrapbook" she teased and hid the camera

Rei was up and into the showers before anyone else could take a happy snap, leaving Trunks on the floor, blinking at the roof for almost three minutes before he eventually said something

"Damn it!" he cursed as he got up and glared at Misato

"Man, I never figured you were into the cutesy thing" Goten jibed, giggling

"Shut up" Trunks snapped and went to his room to get changed into his Saiyen battle armour

Rei emerged from the shower to a round of applause from her sister

"Bravo Rei, very well conquered" she said and smirked at her blushing sibling

Trunks chose that moment to emerge in his Saiyen clothing: a skin tight spandex body suit with white gloves and boots made from something no one recognised.  His battle armour was made from the same material; it was the same design as his father's later uniform

"Shall we?" he said and pointed to the door

Rei used his entrance to nip into the guest room and change into her Gi again: while changing she reflected on the sight she had just seen: she knew Trunks had muscles under those baggy pants and shirts, but damn.  She had not expected anything like that.  Shaking her head she got into her clothes and reverted back to her old self: she still felt a little uncomfortable being relaxed with the others around

"I am ready" she said in her normal monotone voice as she emerged from the room

"Okay, everyone out" Trunks said and herded the group outside

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

It ended up that Goten and Trunks were carrying Ritsuko and Misato to the area for the demonstration because although they both knew how to use Ki, neither had enough to fly

[This is bullshit] Goten griped as he tightened his grip around the nervous Misato

Trunks was lucky that Ritsuko wasn't afraid of heights, or him for that matter because that was still half of Misato's problem: she was scared of Goten and himself

"Okay, we're here" Trunks said and dived down to the clearing where he and Rei were training hours earlier

Misato and the others all sat down while Trunks, Goten and Rei stood up front

"No doubt Goten has explained to you what we are" Trunks began

The group nodded

"Well then, let's get this circus on the road" Goten said

Trunks began to power up; he was going to make a show of it though

"HAH!" he cried and powered up to Super Saiyen 1

"This is Super Saiyen; a legendary level of power supposedly to awaken in our people once every thousand years" Goten gave the commentary

Trunks grinned and began to turn it up a notch, this time, the ground shook and the trees began to sway

"HAAAAH" a longer scream as his hair now stuck straight up and became pointier and the aura darkened while creating a crater

"This is the level called Ascended Super Saiyen; or more simply, Super Saiyen 2" Goten again explained it

Misato was shaking: his power was astounding and the amount of energy he gave off could power the Evas for nearly a month non stop if she calculated the whole thing correctly

"Well I think that's everything" Goten said

Trunks however, had other ideas and smiled as he began to yet again increase his power; making everyone including Goten spin around in shock

"What the hell?" Goten said

"And this is to, even further, beyond" Trunks quoted Goku as he began to again transform

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" his scream was so loud people in the next town heard it

The aura tripled in power and size: the crater underneath him became deeper and wider.  Misato was the first to note that Trunks's hair had begun to grow longer, until it reached his waist.  With a final short scream and flash of light, he was finished

"Wow" Shinji gasped

"You'll forgive me for the delay, but I haven't had much cause to use this before on my own.  This is Super Saiyen 3" Trunks said

Now even Ritsuko was amazed; and she had seen some truly amazing things

"Rei, I do believe that you wanted to also demonstrate your power" Trunks said and handed the stage over to his girlfriend

Rei nervously took the spot light and began to power up herself: she grit her teeth and put as much power into it as she could, creating an effect not unlike Trunks's level 3 power up.  She also began think about things that made her angry, apparently it made the adrenaline really turn it up and as a result more Ki was allowed the flow through the body.

She thought of things like Toji putting her down, Misato looking over her and people hating her for no reason

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH" she gave an almighty scream and a bright white flash illuminated the area

When it cleared; all assembled were treated to a sight to behold: Rei was glowing alabaster white, so much so that it became painful to look at her

"Trunks, what happened?" Rei was getting frightened: she could feel her own power at it was a hell of a lot larger than it was a few hours ago

"Calm down; remember what I taught you: calm down and control the aura" he put himself between him and the rest of the group

It took a few minutes, but eventually Rei dulled the brightness surrounding her.  But her power was still huge.  She was well past Super Saiyen in power, by now she nudging a bit over Super Saiyen 2

"Wow.  That was incredible Rei" Hikari said and bounded over to her friend and gave her a hug.

Only to promptly be sent flying back from the all the power just cruising around her body

"Whoa, I'll think twice before hugging you again" she grumbled as she stood up

"Sorry, Hikari" Rei mumbled

Trunks decided to take a bit of action

"Okay, Goten: take Misato and the others home, Ritsuko I think you should stay and give us some help here" he said

Misato quickly snapped a few pictures of the pair before Goten picked her up and flew away.  Hikari, Shinji and Asuka followed after another quick look at their friends

"Okay, Ritsuko.  I know Rei's special, but I've never seen a human do that before" he said and sat down: the two women did the same

"It's because I am not totally human Trunks" Rei said softly

"Yeah I know" he said and looked at Ritsuko again for an explanation

"I don't know anything about this" she said

Rei looked at her sister forlornly

"Do you remember the accident I had as a child, where I cut myself on some glass and nearly bled to death?" Rei asked

"Yeah: you had a blood transfusion from a donor at Nerv…" Ritsuko allowed her brain to pull everything back into place

"What ever was given to me that day; it wasn't human blood" Rei said and looked at the ground, almost shamefully

"Ritsuko: I suggest that you keep this information to yourself.  It could cause problems and get you into trouble" Rei added before Ritsuko did something stupid

"Okay, just don't expect me to like it" she growled while imagining Gendo Ikari's head between a hydraulic compactor press, a` la Terminator

"I'll take a walk, give you two some time alone" Ritsuko said and went to check out the copse of trees a few meters away

Rei looked at Trunks, he still hadn't powered down from Super Saiyen 3

"Do you still love me?" she asked

"That's a silly question: nothing will stop me loving you, not even death" he said and reached his hand out to her; Ki sparks flew between them on contact

"I met you, and I fell in love with you.  When I trained you I could feel the hidden potential you had, just begging to be let out.  And now it is, no force on the face of this planet will ever harm you, and if they do.  They can answer to me" he said, puffing himself up a little

Rei had to smile at his bantam rooster like behaviour when it came to himself, but even more so at his crazed Rottweiler habits when it boiled down to her safety

"Thank you" she said

Trunks stood up and held his hand out to her; she took it and he helped her up

"No thanks needed" he said

Ritsuko watched the whole thing from the trees and then it dawned on her why, apart from mutual attraction, that Rei and Trunks went well together: they were equals.  They were both powerful and respected each other's power.  As Trunks called her over, Ritsuko's mind was filled with a single thought

[Gendo Ikari; whatever you've done to that girl, it shall be your undoing] she thought before the trio rejoined their friends

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

Sorry for the late update but I just went back to College.  So further updates will take longer to come