** Tenchi Muyo and all the associated characters are the property of AIC and Pioneer, not me. They are used here without permission.
** This story takes place in the OAV universe, some time after the end of episode 13.
** I know, it's short. It's also pretty different from other things I've done. It's just a little tiny nugget of story that I've had rattling around in my head for some time and had to get out so I could go on with other things. I don't know how much my fans will enjoy it, but hey; it's short.
** Happy reading,
**--Krin (krin@hotmail.com)
** http://www.geocities.com/mode6.geo/fanfic/
**/Note **
---
Ryouko sighed and leaned back against the smooth tile of the onsen pool. Her hair hung in damp tendrils, sticking to her face and shoulders, and her eyes slid shut in pleasure. A small, saucer-shaped cup rested in the careless grasp of one hand, half-full of a clear liquid steaming just slightly more than the water around her.
"So, Princess," Ryouko asked lazily, cracking one eyelid, "you want another?"
Aeka hiccupped discreetly and nodded, a lock of wet purple hair sweeping across her brow. "Please," Aeka replied, holding out her own empty cup for Ryouko's slightly shaky hands to refill from one of the bottles floating in a small tub beside them.
"Did you really think it would work?" Ryouko asked a few moments later, eyes shut once more.
Aeka sipped delicately from her sake cup and sighed a long breath through her nose, looking down to touch the heart-shaped locket dangling between her breasts in the hot water of the pool. "No," she said eventually, "I suppose I did not."
"Yeah," Ryouko agreed sadly, "me neither." She fumbled at her neck for a moment, tracing the thin golden chain down to her own locket, an identical twin of the one hanging in Aeka's cleavage. "I guess we should have expected he'd pull something like this."
"Mmm," Aeka murmured in agreement. "I think Tenchi would have bought them for both of us even had only one of us asked."
"Probably," Ryouko sighed, draining her cup. "I guess both of us trying to talk him into buying us valentine's day gifts in secret wasn't that hot an idea." She chuckled bitterly and joked, "At least he didn't get one for Mihoshi too."
"Mmm," Aeka murmured again.
Ryouko cracked an eye open again and reached over to nudge the violet-haired woman. "Not falling asleep on me, are you Princess?"
"Huh?" Aeka asked, blinking. "No, of course not."
"So what are you going to put in yours?"
Aeka shrugged and set her sake cup down on the edge of the pool. "I don't know. Perhaps a picture of Tenchi. What about you?"
"Tenchi," Ryouko answered promptly. "What else would I put in it?"
"I don't know," Aeka sighed, leaning back against the wall again.
"What's wrong?" Ryouko asked cautiously. In the two years since being initially forced to live with the princess, Ryouko had learned to be at least basically comfortable talking to her. They were, after all, the only women on the planet of approximately the same age and with an even vaguely similar background. *And who are capable of carrying on a conversation,* Ryouko thought, picturing Mihoshi. *But I guess that's kind of mean. What would Tenchi say?* She sighed softly, staring at the princess through one half-shut eye. Talking to Aeka was never exactly *easy*, and there was always the worry that she would get offended and then get angry. Or that she would get all weepy and moan for a half hour about her poor Tenchi. Ryouko was not sure which was worse, really.
"I just- I don't know, Ryouko," Aeka said sadly. "It just seems so hard sometimes."
"What does?" Ryouko asked, even more cautiously. It looked like she was in for a session of Morose Aeka. The princess had, however, been there for her on a few occasions. It was, Ryouko felt, her honor-bound duty to at least try to help the other woman. Honor was a relatively new concept for Ryouko, but it seemed to provide a convenient excuse for doing things she might otherwise have a hard time explaining her motivations for.
"Just...everything."
"You mean Tenchi," Ryouko guessed, refilling her cup.
"Of course I mean Tenchi," Aeka said snippishly, sitting up straighter with a rush of displaced water and reaching for the sake tub.
"So how come he's just Tenchi when we're alone?" Ryouko asked, voicing a question that had long nagged at her. "But when he's around, it's Lord Tenchi this and Lord Tenchi that?"
"It's polite," Aeka said stiffly, obviously trying very hard not to slur her vowels.
"Don't you think he might like it if you just called him Tenchi?" Ryouko asked curiously. "You never tell him how you feel about him, really. If you keep calling him Lord Tenchi he might not think you care enough not to."
Aeka gazed suspiciously at Ryouko and pointed with her cup, asking, "And just what is all this about, Ryouko? You're trying to trick me into doing something, aren't you?"
Ryouko rolled her eyes under half-shut eyelids before sliding her gaze back to the princess. "When's the last time I tried to get you in trouble, huh?" She took a sip of sake and tilted her head back, muttering, "Not like I have to. Washuu does it for the both of us."
"Yes, well," Aeka murmured, sounding mollified but still suspicious. "I think Tenchi likes it when I call him that."
"Have you ever considered maybe doing something different would help?" Ryouko asked.
"Different? Different how?"
Ryouko shrugged, yawning slightly. "I dunno, Princess. It's just- being us hasn't worked so far, has it? Maybe if we did something different, it would get his attention."
"Is *that* why you've been doing the laundry?" Aeka asked, eyes wide in sudden realization. "And the dishes! And- and- and you even got Miss Washuu to do his homework that one time, and told him you did it!"
"You knew about that?" Ryouko asked, opening one eye again.
"Of course," Aeka replied primly, fishing in the pool for her dropped cup. "I'm not blind, Ryouko."
"Why didn't you say anything?"
Aeka shrugged, refilling her cup. "It was nice."
"You weren't worried I'd get an advantage?"
Aeka chuckled derisively and pointed, carefully, with her cup. "Ryouko, one homework assignment isn't going to win Tenchi's heart. If that sort of thing did it, I would have had him a long time ago."
"Aeka?" Ryouko asked, after nearly a minute's worth of silence. Her voice was low and hesitant, much more so than she had intended. "What- what would you do if Tenchi didn't pick you?"
"What?" Aeka asked, opening her eyes again. She had slid them shut during Ryouko's silence, head tilting slightly downward. Now she was back to rigid alertness. "What are you talking about, Ryouko? What did he say? Did he tell you something? Why are you asking me that?"
"Just- just curious," Ryouko said defensively, waving a hand to ward off Aeka's barrage of questions.
The princess was silent a long time. Long enough that Ryouko began to suspect she was not going to answer. She half suspected, in fact, that the princess was asleep with her eyes open. Finally, however, she did speak again, saying, "I don't know, Ryouko." She sighed heavily and shook her head, staring down at the water of the pool but obviously not seeing it. "I just don't know."
"Go back to Jurai?" Ryouko suggested. "Be a queen or whatever? I mean, you could find someone else eventually..."
"No," Aeka murmured. "I can't."
"Sure you can," Ryouko said, trying to sound supportive without making Aeka think she was trying to talk her into leaving. "You're cute...sort of." Aeka looked up sharply and Ryouko rolled her eyes. "Okay, so you're good looking. You're no *me*, but hey, who is? You'd find someone. There's a whole galaxy out there."
"It's not that," Aeka said sadly. "I suppose if I could not have Tenchi, I could find another man someday... I meant that I could not go back to Jurai and be 'queen or whatever'."
"Why not?" Ryouko asked, frowning.
"I gave that up to come here, Ryouko," Aeka said softly. "When- when I left Jurai seven hundred and sixteen years ago, I intended to return in only short time. A few years, at the most. But after I was gone ten years and Ryu-oh had found no sign of Funaho, Father asked me to return."
"You said no?"
Aeka nodded. "I did. I told him that I would do whatever it took to find Yousho. I loved him so much... You know we were born only a year apart, Ryouko?" She sighed, "He was there my entire life, and I for nearly all of his until we were twenty. Then you came and--"
"A year? But- I thought- He looks older than that."
"It's a disguise," Aeka snapped, looking slightly abashed at her own anger.
"I know *that*. I mean under it. He looks at least a half dozen years, maybe a decade older than you."
"Jurain men mature quickly," Aeka sighed. "It's a genetic leftover from a war a very, very long time ago."
"Really?" Ryouko asked curiously. "I never knew. How much more quickly?"
"They reach maturity at the age of six," Aeka explained, sounding somewhat detached and once more staring into the water. "Millions of years ago we were part of a war." She chuckled softly. "Part of. Jurains were just soldiers, modified to bond to the Trees and with our men able to fight after only six years of life."
"Who would do that?"
"No one knows," Aeka said quietly, staring deeply at the shifting reflections on the pool surface. The slur was nearly gone from her voice, now. "No one knows who started the war, or even for how long it was fought. We call it Quandary, now, when it's spoken of. People still fight it, in some places. Nearly all the intelligent races of the galaxy were created to fight in the war called Quandary, and Jurains were merely the most successful." The princess pursed her lips after trailing off, still staring vacantly.
Ryouko coughed and shifted her seat. "So- um- Aeka... You were saying, about your dad?"
"Oh, yes," Aeka said, blinking and looking slightly more animated. "When I refused to return to Jurai, Father and Mother Funaho had another son, Yudori."
"And he gets the throne?" Ryouko asked, confused. "But you were born first. Isn't that how it works?"
"No," Aeka murmured. "No one cares when someone was born when you live to be ten thousand or more. It's based on who would do the best job ruling the empire. It's not easy, Ryouko. No one does it for love of power or position. There are Houses for that, or fiefdoms. The empire needs a steady, competent hand."
"And this Yudori guy is it?" Ryouko asked. "What about you? You'd-" Ryouko paused, realizing what she was about to say. *She deserves it, though.* "You'd make a good queen, I think."
Aeka smiled slightly. "Thank you, Ryouko. You would make a terrible space pirate."
Ryouko felt herself blushing. That was possibly the highest compliment the princess had ever paid her.
"But regardless of our feelings," Aeka continued, looking grim once more, "Yudori will be the next emperor and my sister Aniko will be his wife. They have nearly seven hundred more years experience than I do."
"But you could catch up, couldn't you?" Ryouko asked. "I mean, your dad still looks pretty healthy. If he lives another three thousand years, you'd only be seven hundred short. Couldn't you challenge them or something?"
"I could," Aeka agreed. "But why, Ryouko? I do not think I was meant for the throne." She chuckled and lifted her bangs, exposing the small circle in the center of her forehead. "I was born to it, but I don't think I was ever truly destined. In these past years... I've found I like living on Earth. It's so much more...peaceful than Jurai, ith all the political hassles and intrigue. That's part of what so attracted me to Tenchi. He's a normal young man whom I could have a normal life with. I didn't even realize it at the time, but I think that's what I really wanted from the first. I thought of taking him back to Jurai with me, to challenge Yudori like you said and have Tenchi to rule at my side. But that's not what I wanted. Tenchi is no emperor, and if he were that sort of man I don't think I would love him half as much.
"I suppose that if Tenchi chose you, I would stay on Earth. Or go to another planet like it. I miss Jurai, but I do not think I was ever meant to live there."
"Hey," Ryouko jested weakly, "maybe he'll pick Mihoshi. We could go open up a little tea house somewhere together."
Aeka chuckled, just as weakly, and shook her head. "I think everyone but Tenchi knows it will be one of us, Ryouko." She stared silently into the water after that and Ryouko mimicked her, the only sound for some time the soft splash of displaced water and the click of cups being refilled.
"So what would you do?" Aeka asked suddenly, startling Ryouko.
"Wh-what?" Ryouko asked, looking up from her sake cup. She thought it was nearly time to cut it off, having just missed her mouth for the first time.
"What would you do," Aeka repeated, then clarified, "if Tenchi picked me instead of you?"
"Oh," Ryouko uttered succinctly. "I don't know."
"You would...go back to pirating?" Aeka asked carefully.
"No," Ryouko said firmly. "Def'nitely not." She blinked and shook her head to clear it.
"Another man, then?"
Ryouko sighed and set her cup carefully atop the surface of the pool water, watching it float. "What do you think, Princess?"
"I suppose not," Aeka murmured.
"I've thought about it," Ryouko admitted. When she saw Aeka's expression she hastened to add, "About what I'd do, I mean. Not about other men. I just don't know. You might not want to be a princess anymore, Princess, but at least you have a home and family to go back to."
"I wouldn't make you leave," Aeka said softly.
"What?" Ryouko asked, looking sharply up at her bath mate.
"If- if it turned out it was me that Tenchi chose, I wouldn't make you leave, Ryouko. You could stay here with us."
Ryouko frowned. "You don't mean like one of those Jurain deals, do you? I mean, you're cute and all, Aeka, but I'm not really-"
"No, no," Aeka said quickly, waving her hands in denial. "I didn't mean that. Though, if Tenchi wanted to..."
"No," Ryouko said firmly. "No way, Aeka. It wouldn't work. We've talked about this."
Aeka sighed, "I know. It just seems like such a simple answer, sometimes."
"Nothing simple about it," Ryouko groused, refilling her cup. "Tenchi's not Jurain enough, and neither am I. I- I like you, Aeka, okay? I mean, we're...friends, I guess. But I can't share him with you. It would hurt every time I saw him touch you, and all three of us in bed..." Ryouko shivered and wrinkled her nose. "No thank you."
"Well," Aeka said a moment later, "I didn't mean that anyway. I just meant that you wouldn't have to leave, if he and I were together. I know it would be...awkward, to say the least, but Tenchi would not want you to just go. We are a strange family, but that's what we have become."
"Yeah, I guess," Ryouko agreed, still trying to erase Aeka from her mental image of herself making love to Tenchi.
"I just want Tenchi to be happy," Aeka sighed. "I know he can't be happy this way. You know I've- I've actually thought about leaving, Ryouko? Just...going. Leaving him to be with you."
"But what if I'm not who he wanted?" Ryouko asked in a near whisper.
"He could be happy with either of us Aeka said, slipping down into the water up to her chin. "I'm calm enough to give him a good, peaceful life and you- you're wild enough to keep him excited. It's just so hard, sometimes, living with him and loving him and not getting anything back. Sometimes I think it would be better to just give up the fight and let him have you than keep torturing all three of us this way."
"Aeka?" Ryouko asked. "There's..." She took a long, deep breath. "There's something I want to show you, Aeka."
Aeka opened her eyes and looked over at Ryouko. "What is it?"
"Let's go to your room," Ryouko suggested. "I- I have it hidden."
* * *
"What is it?" Aeka asked, taking the tightly folded paper square from Ryouko's slightly shaking hands.
"Just- just read it," Ryouko requested, sitting down on the floor beside Aeka's futon.
Aeka looked doubtful, but unfolded the paper into a small sheet, roughly torn along one edge. It was torn in three other places as well, but had been taped back together. The whole piece was thoroughly wrinkled and discolored, the words on its surface barely legible thanks to the bleeding of the ink into the surrounding paper. The princess squinted at the characters, trying to discern meaning from half-ruined sentences. At first she labored slowly, but as she went along her eyes widened further and, as the blood slowly drained from her complexion, Aeka's eyes nearly flew across the remaining text.
When she reached the end, Aeka looked up desperately and asked, "Where is it, Ryouko? Where's the other piece? This is missing a piece here, at the end. Where did you get this? Is it even real? Where's the piece, Ryouko?"
"I- I found it in Tenchi's laundry," Ryouko explained quietly, voice shaking. "I was putting his things in the dryer and- and his diary had gotten into his stuff in the wash... I kind of flipped through it and that one..."
"Where's the rest?" Aeka asked desperately. "What does it *say* Ryouko?"
"It- it says," Ryouko whispered, voice barely audible. "It says..."
"Tell me," Aeka demanded pleadingly. "You have to, Ryouko. Tell me what it says."
"It- it-" Ryouko closed her eyes and squeezed her hands into fists. "It says your name."
The sheet of half-crumpled paper fell to the floor from Aeka's numb fingertips. "Oh Tsunami," she whispered. "Oh my dear Tsunami. Ryouko, that- that means..."
"I know," Ryouko murmured.
"But- why, Ryouko? Why did you show this to me?
"Tenchi should be happy," Ryouko sighed.
"But you could have kept it to yourself. He said that he-"
"I know what he said," Ryouko snapped, then sighed again. "I- I'm sorry, Aeka, I- I just want him to be happy, the same as you do. If that means..."
"How long have you known?"
"Two weeks," Ryouko mumbled.
"Two weeks," Aeka repeated. She touched Ryouko's fist with her fingertips and shook her head. "You're a stronger woman than I, Ryouko. Are- are you sure?"
"Don't even offer, Aeka," Ryouko said, voice flat and deadly serious. "Don't even. If you do, I'm not going to say no."
Aeka stared into Ryouko's eyes a long moment, then nodded once, shortly. "Neither would I."
Ryouko looked down at the piece of paper on the floor and sighed, a soft, almost-moan escaping her lips with it.
"You did the right thing, Ryouko," Aeka said softly. "I- I know that's no real comfort, but you did. I would have done it if our situations were reversed."
"Now I guess we have to tell him," Ryouko said, ignoring Aeka's comment and still staring at the paper.
* * *
"Lord Tenchi," Aeka said curtly, standing between him and the television where he sat on the couch, "we need to speak with you, Lord Tenchi."
He opened his mouth to reply, but Ryouko cut him off. "Don't say anything. Just listen to what she has to say. No running away this time." She looked over at Aeka and nodded.
"Lord Tenchi," Aeka said again. "It has come to our attention that there are certain matters which you have kept hidden from us." He looked surprised and, once again, started to reply. This time it was Aeka who cut him off, "No you don't. I'm going to read something to you, and I want you to tell me if it's true."
Ryouko touched Aeka's arm to draw her attention and leaned over to whisper, "I'm going to go wait in the hall. If you need me, just yell."
Aeka stared at the cyan-haired woman, then nodded. She gripped Ryouko's arm firmly and smiled. "Thank you, Ryouko."
Ryouko shook her head. "I didn't do this for you, Princess. This is for him." Pulling away from Aeka's grasp, Ryouko walked calmly out of the living room. She heard Aeka clearing her throat behind her just as she turned the corner and, when the princess began to read, Ryouko leaned back against the wall to listen.
"I wish that I could tell you this to your face," Aeka read, "but I think we both know that's impossible. There's just so much stuff going on here all the time, I can barely think straight half the time. And when I can, everything is just so confusing."
Ryouko slid slowly to the floor, hugging her knees and leaning back against the wall for support. She knew what would come next. She had read the page of Tenchi's diary so many times she could have spoken it backwards. When Aeka spoke again, Ryouko's lips moved silently in time.
"I love you," Aeka read aloud. "I love you so much it hurts, sometimes. I want so desperately to touch you that I have to run away because I know that if I don't, I won't be able to help myself. I wish I could tell you, but I just can't. It couldn't work. I've known that almost since the very beginning. I'm just a simple farm boy, and you're a- We're just so different. But I love you anyway."
Ryouko reached up to the locket hanging from her neck and opened it, slowly, listening while Aeka continued to read. Her vision was blurring and Ryouko blinked rapidly, hoping to hold back tears.
"I want to spend my whole life with you, but I don't see how I can. I could never make you happy. You're so wonderful, and I'm so normal. You deserve better than me, and every minute that we were together I'd be thinking about how you might find someone you like more at any time. I want to have a relationship with you, but I just don't think I could handle it. I mean, I don't even understand why you love me. I'm nobody special.
"And on top of that there's the other girls. How can I hurt them? I want you, and I know how much all of us are hurting the way it is, but at least they have hope. If I do something, they'll lose that too. And her. She's- I guess she's what I always thought I'd want in a woman, before I got to know you. I think that, when it happens eventually, I'll have to pick her. I love all of you, but I think I could be happy with her. I know what she expects of me, and I know what to expect out of her. Life wouldn't be anything like what it would with you, and I think a part of me will always kind of regret it, but some day it will have to be her.
"I know how much that's going to hurt you, and I wish there was some way to stop it. I just don't know how. It's gone on so long already, I don't know how to make it not hurt someone when it's over. But I'm too afraid of hurting you to just do it. So instead I'm writing all this down in my diary, knowing you'll never see it."
Ryouko bit her lip to keep from making a sound and wiped at her face with a wrist.
"So that's how it has to be. When I finally find the courage to do it, it will have to be her. I wish so much it could be you that sometimes I think I'm going to go nuts just thinking about it. This is just how it has to be, and I hope you'll understand. I know you won't, but I have to hope anyway. I just wish that, before that happens, you could know how much I love you-" Aeka paused and Ryouko bit down harder on her lip. She tasted blood, but did not ease the pressure. She knew what would happen if she dared even move a muscle.
"And that's where it ends, Lord Tenchi," Aeka said. "The last piece is missing, but Ryouko told me what was on it."
"Wh-where- where did you-"
"Ryouko gave it to me," Aeka said in response to Tenchi's half-asked question.
"But- but she- how- I- I don't--"
"I'm not going to tell you where she got it, Lord Tenchi. What is important is whether or not this is true. Is it?"
Ryouko held her breath, swallowing heavily.
"Yes," Tenchi sighed. "All of it. I- I'm sorry Aeka, I-"
Ryouko heard Aeka hug him. It sounded like she had practically tackled him. "Don't be sorry," she cried, "it's okay, Tenchi. It's okay, I know now. We can be together, just like you wanted. It's okay."
"But- but Ryouko," Tenchi stammered. "Aeka, you- what about--"
"Ryouko told me," Aeka explained, somewhat breathless. "She told me because she wants you to be happy. It's okay, my Tenchi. Everything will be okay now. She told me it was my name on the paper. I know how you feel now, Tenchi. Don't you see? We can make it work."
No one said anything for what seemed, to Ryouko, like a very long time. Scenarios ran through her mind one after the other and she tried desperately to quash each. They were not what she wanted. They were not what was best for Tenchi. And if she told herself that again and again, maybe she could believe it.
"Aeka," Tenchi sighed, finally, "I just--"
"Everything's going to be okay," Aeka promised him sweetly. "We're together now, Tenchi, and everything will be okay from now on. I promise."
"And- and you're sure that Ryouko--"
"I'm sure," Aeka said.
"Then- then I guess-"
"Yes, Tenchi?"
"Then I guess you're right. We- we're...together."
Ryouko forced herself to her feet, using the wall as a brace and wiped at her eyes. She managed to clear them enough to see and looked down at the tiny scrap of paper in her hand. It was water damaged and rumpled, but otherwise whole. "Ryouko," she whispered, reading it to herself as she had so many times before. "Ryouko."
Folding the paper with all the care she had in her to use, Ryouko replaced it in her locket and snapped it shut. Then she leaned against the wall once more and, when the tears came again, Ryouko did not wipe them away.