Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z or Sailor Moon. Dragonball Z and all of its characters belong to Akira Toriyama. Sailor Moon and all of its characters belong to Naoko Takeuchi.

Author's Notes: I meant to have this chapter out sooner than this but I haven't had the time. When I finally got a chance to sit down and work on it, it was probably one of the easiest of the chapters I've written.

It was largely a transitional chapter so there won't be as much excitement taking place.

Remember to review. Constructive criticism is accepted and welcomed.

Altered Destinies

Kynthia

Part 12

Rei rubbed her eyes as she tried to wake up. She had managed to grab an hour or so of sleep after getting back. She needed more but after the frightening revelation she had had she was grateful for whatever sleep she could get.

She dragged her feet as she walked to her closet. She needed to get dressed and downstairs before someone came up to check on her. As she reached into her closet to grab a pair of jeans, a premonition hit with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

Her fingers grasped the closet door as she fought to stay on her feet. She was suddenly no longer in her room at Capsule Corporation. She could smell burnt tar and feel a blast of heat slap her in the face. Sand stung her eyes. She felt afraid. The fear wasn't hers but it was there. The predominant emotion was anger. When she came out of it, Rei found herself kneeling on the carpet with her hand in a white knuckled grip on the closet door. The other hand had dug into the carpet by her knees and she forced her grip free as she felt her nails being bent back painfully in the carpet. She rubbed her hands together as she tried to calm herself.

'Danger,' she thought detachedly. Something bad was obviously going to happen. The biggest downside to having premonitions was that they didn't provide dates or pictures of those who would be affected. She'd just have to do what she always did and stay on her toes in case something happened soon. She had had many premonitions that she didn't bother to tell the other girls about. They never knew unless she was sure at least one of them would be affected in some way.

Mechanically Rei stood up and got dressed. She tried to push the premonition and everything happening in her love life to the back of her mind. She tried not to flinch when she realized she had thought the 'L' word.

*~*~*

When Rei got down stairs she was too tired to notice how the chatter taking place in the kitchen seemed livelier than normal or the fact that Hotaru was blushing more than was probably healthy. She merely made her way to the fresh pot of coffee sitting on the counter and poured herself a cup. This was probably one of the best things about moving to Capsule Corp: caffeine.

"When?"

"Last night."

"I can't believe they kissed."

For one horrifying moment in time Rei thought that her friends knew everything and that Usagi had spilled her secret. She was saved from making a complete fool of herself and fainting on the spot by Hotaru.

"It's none of your business what we do!" Hotaru exclaimed. Her face was still beat red.

Taking another sip of her coffee Rei tried to sort things out. She quickly turned around and joined the barrage.

"Did you kiss Trunks?"

Hotaru hid her head behind her arms. She groaned before they heard the thump that signaled her head had just landed on the table.

"Last night," Minako said eagerly. She was obviously ignoring the trauma this was causing their friend.

"Minako and I saw it," Usagi added. She was grinning as much and Minako was.

"I never thought of you as the type to play peeping tom," Rei said before taking another sip of her coffee. She looked at the dark liquid in her mug and not at the angry blonde that was now standing and pointing a shaky finger at her.

"We were doing no such thing!" Usagi shouted. Her grin was suddenly gone.

Minako was still seated and appeared to be giving something a great deal of thought. "Technically we're not. At least I don't think so. We were trying to hear things, not see them." She appeared not to notice the incredulous looks that Makoto and Rei gave her, the way Ami's eyes got a little big, or the way Hotaru groaned from behind her folded arms.

"Not like that you perverts!" Usagi shrieked after realizing what her friends might have made of Minako's remark.

"Of course not," Rei remarked dryly.

"It's not."

"Sure." Rei wandered into the living room with Usagi trailing behind her trying to proclaim her innocence. Leave it to Usagi to take her mind off of things.

*~*~*

When Trunks finally left the relative safety of the gravity room he found Hotaru waiting for him. He looked around quickly to make sure that none of her weird friends were around before doing anything else. When he realized that the coast was clear he blushed and wondered if her was supposed to kiss her now.

Hotaru made him nervous for several reasons. She was the first girl he ever thought he was seriously beginning to fall for and then there was the little fact that they had to live together. He was damn near terrified of doing the wrong thing and then there was the little fact that the majority of her friends were as pushy as his mom and just as nuts.

She came to him and gave him a peck on the cheek. She was blushing. She quickly looked around to see if anyone were looking.

"About last night," she said nervously. Trunks unconsciously straightened. "Um, my friends can be kind of annoying sometimes. And…"

He waited for her to finish but she seemed to have become fascinated by the carpet and was unable to answer. "And," he prompted.

"Well," Hotaru once again began, "that had been my first kiss."

"Oh." Trunks had no idea what he was supposed to say to that. "Did you…"

"I was thinking," she said as though he hadn't spoken, "that maybe we could try again." She looked around the hallway and back to him, "Preferably without an audience this time."

He chuckled slightly, "It didn't turn out to be a very private moment did it."

"They told everyone this morning," she groaned. It was easy to tell that this bothered her. Her personal life was the hot topic for discussion and that would make anyone annoyed.

"They're not here now," he said with a grin. He leaned forward and put his hands on her shoulders. They're faces were inches away before they swiftly came back to their surroundings.

"Hotaru!"

"I spoke too soon," Trunks muttered before glancing around. He caught sight of the control panel for the gravity room. The extra gravity was turned off so for the moment it was just another room. He had an idea. He wrapped an arm around Hotaru's waist and pulled her in after him. "They won't find us in here."

*~*~*

Rei and Minako sat on the back step of Capsule Corp and looked out across the yard. It would be night soon and the sky was already turning purple.

"It's so weird thinking about Hotaru with someone," Rei muttered aloud.

"I know," Minako said softly, "I didn't think anything this remotely normal would ever happen to us." Her eyes sparkled with sudden mischief and Rei began to feel nervous. She slid a little away from where Minako was sitting next to her.

"What? You're giving me a look."

Minako suddenly clapped her hands together in front of her. "Now I just need to find someone for Ami, Usagi, Makoto, and you."

"No." Rei said in a final manner. Her life was complicated enough without adding some guy who hadn't asked for any of this to be dumped on him.

"One reason." Minako said as she crossed her arms.

"Shouldn't you be trying to find yourself a boyfriend?" Rei asked in hopes of throwing Minako onto another trail.

"One day my prince will come," Minako said in an almost defiant manner. "And in the mean time I have to take care of my friends," she said in her normal cheerful tone.

"Prince?" Rei asked. "Prince of what?"

"Hmm. He doesn't have to be a prince as long as he gives me that feeling," Minako said. She turned her head to stare at the stars.

"That feeling?" Rei asked. She started to get her own feeling and it resembled food poisoning.

"You know that feeling," Minako said slowly as though she were talking to a very slow learner. At Rei's blank expression she sighed and tried to explain more, "That feeling that makes you feel special, tingly, and wanted." She had a wistful grin on her face.

Rei felt like she was going to be sick. She was beginning to have flashbacks to the night before. They weren't all unpleasant. Damn it.

*~*~*

"Wahoo!" Bulma stood up and shouted in triumph. Ami, who had been sitting merely a table a way in the large lab, nearly fell off of her stool in surprise.

"I take it you're finished," Ami said as she tried to calm her nerves.

"Yep!"

Ami eyed the creation on the table. It vaguely resembled a handgun but with many attachments that seemed to spring from the barrel without any sort of pattern. It was designed to destabilize energy in individuals. She had helped with the designs.

"Do you think it will work?"

"I'm sure it will but we have no way to be sure without one of the androids."

"I hope it will help."

"So do I."