Growing Relationships

In the Present

Michuru was watching the time gates with Setsuna, taking a break from sparring. It seemed like forever since they came to this place, in between times, but still there was no way to get to Haruka, Usagi, Rei, Hotaru, Kakarot or Vegeta. A year and a half had passed where her friends were at and she saw a change happening in her lover and best friend and smiled sadly.

Pluto came up beside her and laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright, Michuru?"

"I suppose so. I miss her so much, Setsuna, but something's missing."

"She's not the same person any longer Michuru."

"I know. She's not happy though."

"How do you mean?"

"She's refusing to follow her heart because of her loyalty to me."

"I don't understand, Michuru. You and she have been together forever in this life time."

"In this life time yes, but we weren't during the silver alliance. What happened in this time line changed her and made her more bitter and angry."

"Do you love her, Michuru?"

"Yes, and I always will, but it's obvious they won't see us for many, many years in the time they're in. That's a long time to stay alone. How long have we been here Pluto? I've lost count of the time."

"Same amount of time they have been in their time line. You're watching them play their events out day by day. It's impossible to tell what the future they're creating is going to hold until they've finished it. One thing is for sure, the present you know, no longer exists. When they come back, they will merge with their past selves and remember everything they've been taught and regain the powers they are teaching the children. Same thing goes for the senshi in the time stream here. With their trainers teaching them every day, they will merge with their past selves and they will become very powerful."

"Do you think they have a chance to save the Saiya-jin race and the silver alliance?"

"To soon to tell yet, but if I know the hearts of the warriors that left here, they will not stop until they have succeeded in their mission."

"They've really messed with history haven't they?"

"Yes, but for the better or worse will not be told to me yet."

"I wish there was some way I can talk to her, even for a minute."

Pluto remained silent as she stared at the events unfolding before them and wondered what would happen to all of them. Right now, they were all safe here in the time space, and if she had to, they would remain time warriors until things were fixed. Michuru walked away, to rejoin her fighting companions Endymion, Ryouga and Piccolo. Piccolo glanced at her, but chose not to pry into her personal life and continued to meditate. He didn't allow breaks very often, but they had been training hard for the past year and a half now, and even he needed to focus on something more peaceful.

Endymion saw the mental condition of his friend and chose to sit beside her, but not saying anything. For a few moments her body trembled, but nothing came out of her. Deciding to break the ice, he laid a hand on her arm, to let her know she wasn't alone right now. With a gasp, she looked up and saw the concern in the Prince's face, and something else that made her a little afraid. "If you want to talk about her, I'm willing to listen."

"You wouldn't understand. The kind of love we had, most people chose to laugh and ridicule us over."

"Do you see me doing either?" His expression was serious and sincere and she realized that he wasn't here to make fun of her, or to cut her down for whom she spent most of her life with. A tear escaped her calm demeanor and slid down her pale cheek. With a caring touch, Endymion wiped away with his thumb, and smiled sadly at her. "Let it go Michuru. She wouldn't think any less of you if you cried."

"I'm not crying because she would be mad at me. I'm crying because she's suffering and needs someone to love her then, not whenever I can see her again. I've found out from Pluto we've spent the same amount of time in here as they've spent in the past. If what she says is true, about them not coming back sooner than defeating Dr. Gero, they're going to be there for thirteen years altogether."

"Is it possible for her to love someone else?"

"Yes, I think so. She's very loyal to me and would never want to betray or hurt me. There's got to be something I can do for her."

"What about the person she's been traveling space with?"

"Turles? I doubt there's anything between them. Haruka's not trusted men since she was about twelve-years-old. I've tried to help her past that problem, but she refused to even try and stayed close to me. Things happened and we became lovers instead."

Endymion remained silent about what he thought about that. Haruka's spent a lot of time with the Saiya-jins and he's watched some of the events unfolding. It started with Bardock training her and treating her as an equal and nothing less or more. The incident during the Arena didn't help her any until Kakarot saved her life against the Saiya-jin tigers. Haruka was made a first class soldier after that testing and he had to admit he was proud of her. "Haven't you ever wanted a child of your own? Either of you?"

"I've thought about it, but I didn't want to make Haruka uncomfortable with the question, and part of my wish came true when we helped take care of Hotaru. Still, you're right. It's not the same as having my own, but sometimes one must make sacrifices for those we love." Michuru was confused. The questions Endymion was asking her, made her doubt whether she was right for Haruka or not. "I don't want her to hate me Endymion, but I feel like things have changed between us." She couldn't take it any longer as she began to cry confused and alone for the first time in several years. Haruka always seemed to be the strong one in the group and gave her strength to carry on their missions.

Hesitantly at first, afraid she would pull away from him, Endymion pulled her into a hug that told her that he would be there for her. Even if it meant being silent and only listen to her pains and sorrows. He thought he would never feel anything past what he felt for Usagi, but he did. It was strange to him, but he chose not to look at it too deep, afraid that if he did, it would kill him when Haruka returned to be with her love, Michuru. To his surprise, she didn't pull away, but turned into him and buried her head into his cape. Her shoulders shook up and down in sobs, and he thought she was going to choke on them if she didn't calm down. "Michuru, everything will work out in the end. You'll see."

"How will it work out though? I hate not knowing how things are going to turn out."

"If we were meant to know everything about our futures, and maybe even now, life wouldn't be so interesting, nor worth living. Haruka would want you to be happy and not tearing yourself up like this."

"What if I never get to even say good-bye to her and to move on with her life?"

"It will work out. Have faith in Haruka that she can take care of herself and make the right decisions."

Michuru never stopped crying as she fell asleep, and Endymion slowly and carefully pulled off his cape to wrap around her cold body. She's been shivering a lot more in the past couple of weeks and he was becoming more and more concerned about her. He decided instead of training, he would stay beside her to make sure that she didn't wake up alone again. Right now, she needed a friend more than anything.

Ryouga wanted to spar again, but looking at the Prince of Earth and Michuru, he realized he would be stuck with the silent Piccolo who never gave out any compliments. The only good thing was that he couldn't beat the Namek at all yet, and was hoping if he ever saw Ranma again, he would win the fight for sure. Ranma, was a strange person. In all his years of trying to find a weakness in him, he still had not found one. How was he always able to be so powerful? No matter how far he pushed himself, Ranma naturally eased up to his level. "I'm going to beat you Ranma if it's the last thing I do!"

"You know, it's an endless battle to try and beat someone in a fight. I've tried it for years, and that has long since become a fantasy for me."

Ryouga looked at the Namek surprised that he overheard him. "He must have sensitive hearing." Sure enough, Piccolo looked up at him and narrowed his eyes. "How would you know anything about what I'm going through? You're a lot stronger than I am."

"I know, because I spent years trying to defeat a very close friend of mine. All I cared about for the first part of my life was taking over the planet, but the one named Kakarot, kept interfering with those plans. At first our powers seemed about even, and then he began to train by other people not on Earth, and rose to power levels that I would never see in this or the next life time."

"Kakarot..., that's one of the people that got sent to the past, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Is that why we can't leave here?"

"Yes. Because of them being sent to the past, almost all of history is being changed. However, why the enemy chose to send them there instead of the future, continues to allude me?"

"What happens if they can't come back to this time line?"

"I don't know. Pluto is still trying to figure things out and keeping things stabilized. She will tell us what is to happen when the time comes."

'Why do I not like the sound of that?'

Ami was sitting on the ground, still sweating from the last session. She had to admit, she never felt better in her life, but Gohan continued to push her and Bra to their limits, even when they thought they had reached them. Bra had grown a little bit in the past year and a half, and looked a lot tougher. She looked sad though and wanted to be with her friend Pan again, but Gohan had forbidden it while she was still in training. Her sad eyes made Ami angry with each passing day and had to bite back a long overdue talk with Gohan. Bra was still a kid and was being pushed way too hard for what they considered to be a threat. What difference did it make if they defeat the enemy if they kill the spirit within a person?

Walking over to Bra, she ruffled her hair and smiled at her. "What are you thinking about?"

"I want to see Pan and my brother." Bra was trying hard not to cry, but she missed her father and normal things that kids normally have. "I want to go home!" Bra threw herself at the only person that could understand her and cried. "Please Ami. They say you're the senshi of wisdom, and Gohan's been so strict. Even daddy would let me play a little more than he does."

'That does it!' "Where is Gohan?"

"He went for a run, saying we needed to catch our breath before he got back."

Ami picked up Bra's little hands and began walking from where they had been training for the past four months straight. She wanted to see some of her friends again and she was tired of Gohan's drill sergeant ways. "Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"For a vacation."

"Gohan's not going to like this Ami."

"Right now, I frankly don't care what he likes. This is too much and I want a break as much as you do. I may not have been the best person or friend in the world, but this has gone too far, and I'm not putting up with it any more. He's going to treat us like people and not like robots. You're a child and I'm not a Saiya-jin!"

Ami had learned how to sense ki about three months before and completely masked hers and asked Bra to do the same. She easily found Pluto's ki and walked towards her. Pluto was still watching the gates as usual, but she looked exhausted and worried. "Pluto?"

She turned towards them and tried to hide the fatigue showing in her body, but it was not working very well. "Hello Ami. I thought you were supposed to be training with Gohan?"

"I was, but he's being a jerk and I'm not going to let him push us around any longer. I know you said we had to train, and I plan on doing that Pluto, but there has to be a line drawn and he's crossed it."

"Ami, you have to understand before you judge him."

"I'm not judging him. I just want him to be less demanding and more understanding that we're not like he is and have our own paces that we can handle."

"Now you understand how it feels to be pushed before you're ready."

"I understand now and wish I could apologize to Usagi for the past. That isn't going to happen is it?"

"It's hard to say right now."

"Pluto this is the first time you've never been certain of the time line, isn't it?"

With a sigh, Pluto leaned against her staff heavily. "Yes, and it's not a good thing Ami. Things have gone so wrong and time is not meant to be played with like this. I'm so tired and..." she never finished her words as she collapsed with her eyes rolling to the back of her head.

"Oh god." Ami caught her before she injured herself and gently placed her down on her back. She quickly took her pulse and gasped as she found it going at a fast rate, and sweat pouring off the time guardian. "What am I going to do? She needs water, and I don't have my transformation stage any longer." Ami began to cry in fear for Pluto, as she tried to elevate her head and keep her still. Something deep inside of Ami, that she had long forgotten, began to rise in her and it was massive as her hair rose from her forehead with the symbol of Mercury coming a blaze. A cool air began to build around her, and the temperature dropped thirty degrees as it began to snow around the three of them.

For several minutes, Pluto's body burned up, but soon the snow began to drop her fever and heart rate back to normal. She needed more rest, as Ami collapsed near Pluto into a deep sleep, totally drained. Bra made herself comfortable and sat next to both women in case something should happen to either of them.

Two days pass and Pluto awoke to find Ami still beside her and looking at her with concern. "What happened?"

"You've over worked yourself and I stayed here watching the time gates while you got your rest."

Pluto was stunned as she watched the senshi of ice. "Thank you Ami, but why?"

"Because I was hoping that you're still our friend, despite how badly we've acted. Usagi would have done the same thing and maybe one day I can make it up to her. You need more rest than this Pluto."

"I can't rest."

"Yes you can and I won't let you watch the time gates for another minute until you do. Doctor's orders, and if you don't listen, I'll have one of the Saiya-jins restrain you. I have your staff so you can't stop them with a time freeze. Now go to bed."

Anger and surprise registered on Pluto's face, but Ami's eyes were steady and serious. Still exhausted from the lack of sleep and constant worry, Pluto gave in to Ami's demands and started to walk away. Before she disappeared completely, she pulled something from her pockets and held out her hand to Ami. "I have something for you Ami."

"What is it?"

"Take my hand." Ami reached out and saw something blue drop into it and it had changed to a slightly darker shade of blue with a snow crystal on the front of it.

"You're giving me my transformation stick back?" Ami asked shocked to the core.

"Yes. You're ready to have it back and if you choose to do so, you may train as Mercury. You'll find that you're much stronger than you were before and have reached a new stage for yourself. Do you think you can handle the time gates for a few days?"

"If I can't I'll call you."

"Good, then change into Sailor Mercury while you are, because if something should attack you, you won't have time to change into anything else."

Ami held up her stick and realized that the old Mercury Crystal Power would not do as something else came to her lips. "MERCURY ETERANL POWER!" Blue snow crystals came from everywhere in the time stream and lifted Ami off the ground to begin her transformation. Bra was totally transfixed by her friend's change and couldn't believe this was the girl they had been fighting with for so long. A blue mini-skirt, that was slightly longer than the original, formed on her hips around a white body suit. Her ribbon reached her knees tied behind her back as the Mercury symbol was on her forehead instead of a tiara.

"Wow!" Bra shouted. "Is this what she looks like powered up?"

"Yes," Pluto said. "I will leave now."

Gohan had come back from his daily run to find that neither Ami nor Bra were where they were suppose to be. 'Where are those two? I told them I would be back to begin training again.' He tried to feel them out, but felt nothing and frowned. "This is no time to be goofing off. I swear those two don't take things seriously enough. I need to show them what a leader is capable of." He asked everyone, and none of them had seen any sign of them, and he was getting very worried that something had happened to them. "I swear, if those two are okay, I'm going to give them the lecture of their lives."

For two days, Gohan searched with no luck, and he couldn't even find Pluto's ki to ask her where they may be at. He was about to despair when he felt a sudden flair of power that seemed a lot like Ami's signature. 'How did she get so strong all of a sudden?' Silently moving through the mists, masking his own ki, he snuck up behind the power source and gasped as he saw a sight that took his breath away. How he never noticed how beautiful Ami was, was beyond him. To his relief, Bra was sitting beside Ami, looking into the time portals. He hated those rainbow colors, showing him everything that he was denied and unable to reach.

Bra turned around when she heard something behind her and gasped. In fear, she hid behind Ami's leg and trembled. She knew they were in trouble for avoiding their training, but when she saw her family in the past, she couldn't help but watch. She missed her father so much and she was happy to know she had a new mother. Mercury looked down at Bra curious and then saw where her gaze was directed and touched the top of Bra's head.

"Relax, Bra. I don't sense that he's angry, just curious at the moment. Let him come to us." Mercury continued to watch the time gates and smirked as Gohan was hesitant about coming closer to her or the time gates. After a couple of minutes, she felt him come up beside her, but he said nothing as he watched the events unfolding.

Gohan's heart ached to see his father and home again, but smiled as he watched him with his new born twins and running all over the house as they crashed everything around them. He reached out to touch the image, but it faded, only to reappear after he pulled it back. "There's still no way we can get to them, is there?"

Mercury found herself feeling a little more sympathetic towards Gohan, but knew that he needed to know a few things before he continued training them any longer. "Not at the moment."

"Why are you dressed like this?" Gohan decided to ignore the gates and circled Ami to get a better look at her. He reached out to touch the sailor uniform and felt some kind of magic on it. Mercury found herself blushing at Gohan, not understanding his motives. He was always so serious, but at the moment he was acting..., well normal.

"You're confusing Gohan."

"I try to stay that way. Now answer my question. Why are you dressed like this? Doesn't it get cold in a dress that short?"

Mercury scowled and tried to back away from him and turn her back, but Gohan circled her waist with an arm and held her still. "I don't have to answer anything Gohan. Don't you have training to do? I'm surprised you had time to break from it."

Gohan gasped in surprise at her note of anger, and realized maybe he had been going a little too hard on both her and Bra. "I decided I wanted a break." He had to hold back a laugh as his statement threw the senshi of wisdom off. "Bra, do you want to go see Pan for a few days?"

"Yeah! Can I go right now?"

"Sure."

Bra ran off in the mist before Gohan could tell her she needed to have someone with her, but Mercury stopped him by laying a hand on his arm. "Let her do this on her own. We can still feel her ki, so we won't have to worry about her getting lost. Why did you do that?"

Gohan let go of Ami and glared at her. "What do you think I am, Ami? Heartless. I think you have the same problem you did three years ago. You're willing to judge me before you know anything about a person."

It was so fast, she didn't think she had it in her, but her hand came out and slapped Gohan hard across the face. Tears were threatening to spill down her pale cheeks, but the ice in her eyes startled Gohan more. "What do you expect when you barely talk to us with any words other than training? You yell at Bra that she can't afford to goof off because the enemy won't care if she's a child or not, you pound me to the ground as if I were a Saiya-jin, and frankly, I WANT A BREAK! I don't know how you were trained, but if this is what you went through then its insanity and plain stupidity."

He was still holding his cheek where she had slapped him, and looked at her wide eyed. In his whole life, not even Vedel had ever been this angry with him. However, the minute she said that his trainers were stupid and insane, his anger matched hers. "My father and Piccolo are not insane."

"You could have fooled me. How long have they been training you to fight Gohan?"

"Since I was five, but after about eight, I chose to keep fighting."

"Did you want to fight at first?"

Gohan saw where she was getting at and wanted to run at that point. "No. I was forced to fight or get killed at the beginning, but after awhile it became easier."

"Don't you see? You're doing exactly to us, what you didn't want to happen to you. I don't mind training Gohan, but Bra is only a child herself, and up to right before we came in here, she has never thrown a fist in her life. She told me her father didn't force the issue on her and let her be a normal child if she chose to be so. She's very insecure right now, because everything in her life is unstable. Her father is in another time line, has a new mate, and she can't even see her new brother and sister. How would you feel at her age? As a matter of fact, how do you feel now? That's your half-sisters down there and you can't even hold them." He looked back at the time gates, and what he saw there made him upset and angry. He got to hold Goten as a baby and Pan, but he was being denied these two. Shaking he tried to back away and drive away the images in front of him, but Mercury was persistent as she grabbed his arm and turned him to look her straight in the eyes. "Tell me you don't care. I'm daring you."

"I can't tell you that. Don't you understand? I'm hiding what I'm feeling through our training. If I allow myself to think about what has happened and what is happening now, it would destroy me. I'm not this hard going all the time, but..." he hesitated, but she wouldn't let him stop.

"But, what? I'm not going to making fun of you, if you just tell me the truth."

"But, if I get too soft, everyone around me will suffer for it. I have to go. You're right; I have more training to do." He almost got away, but Mercury grabbed his tail and squeezed hard enough to bring him down to his knees in a grimace. She made sure not to squeeze to hard, because she had no intentions of hurting him.

"You're running again and this time from yourself. Now you have two options. Either tell me what is bothering you, or you're going to be on your stomach for a while with your tail in my hands. And, considering I'm supposed to be watching the gates at the moment, I'll drag you back over there and sit on you until you start cooperating."

Gohan growled in agitation and humiliation as he looked over his shoulder and the fact that she had outsmarted him and had complete control of the situation. "Ami, let go of my tail right now. You don't have the strength to pull me that far, or the guts." He took that back when she threw his tail over her shoulders and began to drag him back to the time gates and turned him to where he was facing them. Keeping her promise, she sat on his back Indian style, his tail in her hands while she crossed them. 'I swear, when I get out of this, I'm going to get even with her.' His pride wouldn't allow him to open up and talk about his past or emotions. Too much training from Piccolo had taught him that emotions were bad right before a battle and more times than he can remember, he was right. That's why his father ended up dying against Cell, and that's why he failed so badly against Majin Buu at the beginning.

Mercury knew this was going to take Gohan some time to open up to her, but she had a lot of patience and Pluto needed a lot of time off. "I'll still be here when you get ready to talk Gohan. Take your time, because I have plenty of it."

"Ami! I swear to Kami, if you don't let me go right now, then you're only making this worse when you finally do." Gohan tried to roll over, but one slight squeeze caused him to collapse back down, and he started cursing worse than Vegeta had done in a long time.

"That's not very nice Gohan. I'm going to ignore you for the rest of the day and if you're better tomorrow, I'll ask you again if you want to talk to me." True to her word, no matter how much hollering and threats he threw at her, she tuned him out and watched the time gates.

'I hope Piccolo or Trunks don't find me this way. This would be very, very humiliating.'

Trunks was in the middle of eating lunch when he saw his sister come running from the mist and hugged him. "Bra, what are you doing here, and where is Gohan?"

"He's having a chat with Ami right now. She looked a bit mad too and judging from his hollering I think she's letting him have it."

"Hollering?"

"I think I heard him scream something about letting go of his tail, but I guess she didn't because I heard more cursing after that. Does daddy curse as bad as he does?"

Trunks frowned and was going to have a talk to Gohan about using fowl language in front of a child. Even his father didn't cuss in front of Bra when she was around, and that was something. "I'll talk to him about that later. What do you want to do then?"

"Can I stay with you guys for a few days? I miss you and Pan a lot. Please!" She was about to start crying again and Trunks didn't think he could handle that and quickly agreed to her."I don't mind. The girls need a break anyway." Pan and Minako had been silently watching the two and jumped up and gave each other a high five when they heard they could have a few days off from training. Not wanting to let Trunks change his mind, they ran up to him and grouped hugged him.

"Thank you so much!" Minako and Pan cried together.

"Do you three mind?" The three of them smiled at each other and began tickling Trunks until he was begging for mercy. If Gohan thought Trunks would be serious, he should have thought again, because Trunks was always the trouble maker between himself and Goten. He preferred to make training fun instead of a chore. "Al right, that does it. You three better start running because I'm going to make you pay." With squeals of laughter, they each separated to have Trunks chase after them. For several hours they played tackle and tag, and Trunks had managed to take out the two kids, but the trickster was still evading him. How anyone can be as evasive as him, was beyond him, but he was finding it exciting and circled Minako looking for an opening to catch her. She had improved in speed in the last year, making it hard to simply snag her. Then he came up with a plan to take her down. He bent over, making like he was exhausted from the days exertion. Just like he had predicted, Minako stopped trying to get away and looked at Trunks confused.

"Trunks, you never get tired like this. Are you feeling all right?"

Trunks started to laugh as he lifted his head and looked straight into her eyes. "I'm going to show you something Minako." His eyes began to change to green, his hair rose into the air turning to blond and then a golden flame surrounded his body as he powered up. He stood back up and his body tensed before he made his move. Minako was speechless as she saw Trunks for the first time as a Super Saiya-jin and wondered what it meant. "I wanted to tell you something," he purred. "I'm nowhere close to being tired." Like a lightning bolt, he sprung at Minako and had her pinned beneath him in a bear hug, before she even considered about running. "Tag, you're it." He thought about letting her go, but something about the way she kept staring at him, made his heart skip a beat.

"You have to let me go first," she whispered.

'No.' He couldn't resist as his mouth covered hers and gently spread them open to gain entry to her sweet innocence. Bra and Pan screwed up their faces and decided that visiting Goten would be a great idea, leaving Trunks with Minako. At the moment neither could care less, as Minako ran her hands through his hair and gave into the wonderful feeling she had. His hair flattened back down to his lavender color. When they ended the kiss she looked at him with flushed cheeks and a smile.

"I think we need to take it easy."

"Why? Minako, there's one thing you need to know about me, that I'm a prince of a dead race and always get what I want, when I want."

"What are you saying?"

Trunks flipped over onto his back bringing her with him and she straddled his stomach. "I'm saying I want you."

"Why?" Her innocent questions made Trunks laugh as he sat up and brought his nose close to hers.

"Do you need a reason? Where would you like me to start? You have heart; you're beautiful, innocent and conniving when you want something bad enough. You don't treat me like an idol to be had as a trophy and you pay attention to what I try to teach you. Although, sometimes it takes a few tries to explain it right."

"Are you saying I'm an airhead and stupid," Minako squeaked. She never thought his opinion mattered, but thinking that she was too stupid for him, hurt and she tried to get loose so he wouldn't see that her feelings were hurt.

Growling, he captured her mouth more aggressively than he did the first time. All his emotions and heart went into this one kiss as he tried to show her how he felt. "Did I say you were stupid?" He asked in-between breaths for air. He never gave her a chance to reply back as he would keep her mind on something else. Trunks began moving his mouth on her chin to work his way over to her neck, breath coming faster and heavier as he found the spot right next to her veins and throat. He wanted to bite her for some strange reason, and the more he tried to fight it, the more powerful the instinct became. His mind and body were in conflict with each other and he whimpered against her.

"Trunks? She held his face in her hands and gasped at the carnal desire in his eyes and the trembling in his arms as he held her waist close to him. Her back rested against his knees and her slight movements on top of him, made his desire heigten further. "I love you..." she had admitted how she had felt for awhile now, but never thought he would feel the same way until now.

Flash Back

When Trunks and Pan had fallen asleep, Minako would get up and practice everything she had learned from Trunks for about two to three hours a night, until she had finally understood his concepts. She hated not being as smart as Ami and wanted Trunks to respect her as a fighter as well as a person. No other guy would approach her because they thought she wasn't smart enough to know how to handle a relationship. She didn't know that he had watched her practice every night and smiled at her efforts, but knew she would stop if he told her about it.

Trunks knew something was holding her back from reaching her true power, but he didn't know what. Minako had been hiding her feelings from everyone about the past. She knew they all said some bad things to Usagi, but her words were the worst because she called Usagi reckless and dangerous. The memories stabbed Minako's heart, but she tried to act like nothing was wrong.

About six months after training she was laying on her back after another failed attempt at blocking Trunks roundhouse and was wondering what Usagi was up to at that moment and how she was doing. 'I miss her so much and wish I could take back what I said. If anyone was a bad leader, it was me.' Trunks came up to get her back to training again when she broke down and began crying like she lost her best friend. Pan had stopped practicing too, and came over to see that Minako had curled into a ball, clutching her knees. This was so unexpected by both of them, that they were at a loss for words, for no matter how much she took a beating from either of them, she never cried.

"Trunks!" Pan shouted. "Pick her up."

"Why me?"

Pan rolled her eyes, and walked off. "Because you're a lot bigger than I am, and she's too heavy for me to lift."

"I never thought you would admit to being weaker than I am, Pan."

"I'm not weaker. It's just that you're supposed to be the gentlemen and pick up a lady after she falls and hurts herself."

"Where did you get the idea that I was a gentleman."

"Well Goten says you're a lady's man, and when I asked father, he told me you helped them out of their slight problems."

If Trunks had ever been embarrassed about being labeled, it was then. He was glad that Gohan had described his habits a little more delicately than Goten had, and swore he was going to beat his friend into the ground. Minako started telling him everything she had done to her friend in the past and how it was eating her alive to know that she may never be able to apologize or make it up to her.

He spent a lot of time talking to her about that incident and soon she began to calm down and let it go and promised that if sometime in the future she did see her friend again, she would apologize. In the mean time, she was going to become the best leader of her group that she could.

End Flash Back

"I love you too Minako." He allowed his instincts to take over then and grabbed Minako's throat and spent about a week with her before he went looking for Pan or Bra. He didn't know if he was suppose to mate with Minako or not, but he didn't care too much. For the first time he had someone that was more than a one night stand.

Makoto was in a deep meditation, trying to clear her mind of everything that plagued her. The senshi were coming together again, but three were separated from the group and this bothered her. Would things have gone so wrong if they hadn't driven the most important thing from them? Rini, Pan and Bra had gotten together and decided they would go play together instead of train for awhile. Goten agreed to let Rini go, thinking that she had earned the free time. He seriously thought about going to visit Trunks when he felt something going on between his friend and Minako. Shaking his head in wonder and no surprise, he watched Makoto meditate instead. She was always so serious and determined to get a head. She didn't act like the rest of the women in her group and loved to fight.

Wanting to have some fun, he snuck up behind Makoto and covered her eyes, to have her jump up startled and elbow him in the groin. Without blinking, she reached behind her and threw him several hundred yards into the ground. When she saw who she had thrown, she gasped and covered her mouth with one hand and backed up. Goten slowly stood back up, not looking too happy about getting hit where he did. "Geez, thanks Makoto. Remind me not to get behind you again."

"Goten?"

Goten was furious and slowly walked back up to Makoto, tail lashing out behind him like a whip ready to strike. He was hoping to get some sparring in with her, but ended up getting a pain between his legs that might not go away for a couple of days. "You know what your problem is Makoto? You're too uptight and you don't ever relax when you're alone. Not everyone is out to hurt or take advantage of you. What if that had been Bra or Pan playing that trick on you? They could have been seriously hurt, because you don't look or think before you act. You're a Saiya-jin Makoto and with the kind of power you have, you can kill someone." Makoto felt ashamed of herself, and started to run off, afraid to let anyone see her cry, especially a man.

Cursing, Goten ran after her and tackled her to the ground and held her into a tight bear hug. Surprised, Makoto went down with a heavy thud and skinned her knee and this ticked her off further than she already was and looked to see Goten scowling at her. "Goten, you jerk!" She tried working her arms free, but Goten's arms were like steel and would not even flex as she tried to get lose. Her tail lashed out to hit his face, but his own tail quickly wrapped around hers and pulled it behind him. She struggled and struggled to get lose, but soon began to realize the only thing she was really doing was rubbing her front up against Goten and this began to make her blush and saw the reaction in his face. Soon she stopped struggling against him, out of breath and over exerted.

Growling, Goten leaned into her ear, "Would you calm down? Are you always this aggressive when people want to talk to you?" His voice was so soft and calm against her ear that she shivered and started to blush a deep crimson. Goten thinking she was turning red out of anger cursed and bit her neck out of instinct.

"Owww! What are you trying to do, kill me? I'm only aggressive when people tear a whole in my knee. Now get off of me, and quit biting me!" Goten was breathing harder as the slight blood that came from her neck filled his nose, and he lost control of himself as he began licking it from her neck, ignoring her shout of anger. Makoto was confused. He bit her, but for some strange reason, her body started to react and burn up. A soft whimper came from her throat as he began licking the wound and nipping harder.

He stopped to look at her knee behind him, shifted his weight off of her to take his shirt off and to rip it into bandages. "Then don't run off when someone's having a discussion with you." As he started wiping off the blood, the smell slammed into him again, sending his mind into over drive. Makoto began to relax when she saw Goten tense and something enter his eyes. Instead of wiping the blood away like he should have done, he began to lick the wound on her knee, sending bolts of fire up her leg and through her body, like an electric shock. Makoto tried to push him off with her other foot, but he pushed it back down and pulled her knee closer to his mouth. He saw her beginning to react, which made his blood boil for more, and a longing he didn't wish to fight.

With one last effort, Makoto punched Goten and tried to make a run for it, but he pressed her face down on the ground with his hand on her back and an arm around her waist to hold her tighter against him. "Goten..."

His mouth was on her neck again and more aggressive as the excitement of her struggling drove him to do things he wouldn't have thought about normally. He wasn't thinking about a girlfriend or a mate, but Makoto seemed right for some reason, and he wasn't about to let her go. His tail caressed her thigh, moving upwards, causing a deeper shade of red to cross her face, and he realized that she was blushing and not angry. "I take it you've never been with anyone before?"

"No." Makoto felt strange as thoughts entered her mind. "How?" She turned her head around to meet his eyes, and his look was feral. "You're in my head."

"That's the bond that I created by biting you. If you don't want to go insane then you better finish it." He let her turn onto her back, but he refused to let her hit him. Her mouth began to lightly kiss his chin, lips and moved to where he had bitten her, and hesitated. She had never done anything like this before, but something foreign took control of her mind and she bit down as hard as she could, making Goten shout in pain. He noticed the kids looking at him with slight fear on their faces. "Go find Piccolo and stay with him. I suggest you stay away from the rest of us for a couple of weeks."

"But," Pan said.

"Go now!" Goten shouted. The kids bolted in fear as Goten was ready to pounce them. After they were alone, his gaze focused on Makoto and she was no longer fighting him, but pulling him closer. "You're mine now."

Piccolo was in the middle of sparring Endymion and Ryouga when Pan, Bra and Rini came running in terror. "What the?" Piccolo demanded. "Why are you not with your trainers?"

"They've all gone crazy!" Pan shouted.

"Goten's going to kill us!" Rini started to cry.

"I want daddy! Gohan's not acting normal."

Michuru didn't know what had the children so worked up, but it was apparent Goten had scared the kids really bad, if they thought he was going to kill them. "Should we check it out?"

Piccolo had been sensing something changing between the three Saiya-jins, but he wasn't sure what. But judging from the way Kakarot was acting before he disappeared, this was close to it. "No. Not if you value your life. There's only one that hasn't gone completely crazy yet, and that's because his ki is extremely low at the moment. I'm wondering what happened to Gohan for him to be this weak right now."

"He's not being hurt is he?" Pan asked.

"No, but I suggest you stay away. I sense a strong sense of damaged pride and anger." Bra started laughing and everyone turned to look at her.