Day In and Day Out
It was a beautiful day. Washu sighed. Today she was going to take Ryoko on a walk. Her reason was that she needed to talk to her with no distractions. She sighed again. This was going to be so hard. She walked to the living room and looked up at her daughter's perch on the ceiling beam. Ryoko was either dead or asleep. Sometimes Washu could not tell. She smiled.
"What to do, what to do," Washu said to herself as she looked up. "How should I wake her up? I could pour a bucket of water on her. No, I could push her off the beam. No, I'm trying to extend an olive branch not start a war now." And with that Washu folded her arms, sat next to Ryoko, and put her hand on her daughter's ankle and shook it. "Ryoko, sweet, it's time to get up. Ryoko wake up. Ryoko wake up!"
After a couple of minutes of being ignored she decided diplomacy was over. She floated off the beam and leaned over next to Ryoko's ear and yelled at the top of her voice, "WAKE UP NOW!"
Ryoko's eyes shot open and she practically flew off her beam, knocking Washu off balance. Bam! Washu hit the floor and looked darkly up at Ryoko. Her daughter was looking around like a frightened cat, her hair standing up slightly, her tail jerking around nervously. Looking down and seeing Washu she visibly relaxed and floated down.
"What was that for?" Ryoko said, rubbing her left ear.
"For not waking up when I told you to. After all, we have a very busy schedule today."
"What do you mean a 'busy schedule'," Ryoko said.
"It's a surprise."
"I don't like surprises."
"Well, I do and that's all that matters," Washu said.
Washu grabbed Ryoko's hand and started dragging her toward the living room. When they got there, she opened the sliding door, turned and said, "Time to go." She started to lead the way through the door and Ryoko nearly jerked her off her feet. She landed hard on the bottom frame of the door. She turned and glared at Ryoko. "What is it?"
"I don't want to go out right now. Can we go later today?" Ryoko whined.
Washu stood up, crossed her arms and thought. Ryoko doesn't want to go out right now, huh? Damn! I was planning for us to leave for a couple of hours until the house empties out. Once everyone is gone, we could go back and be alone. Hmmm. She could probably still use her original plan but she would have to force Ryoko to go and she felt bad doing it that way. After all, she had planned for a day of happiness and what was the point if she had to force Ryoko and make her unhappy.
An idea began to form. Hey, I could force everybody else out of the house! Tenchi could go to the shrine. Everyone else will just have to find something else to do. She smiled. Yep, that will work just fine.
Washu uncrossed her arms, closed the door, and walked past Ryoko into the dining room in search of the others.
Ryoko eavesdropped, wondering what Washu was up too. She heard everyone say hello and start talking. After a couple of minutes she began to relax. Then suddenly, the peace was shattered. Ryoko flinched.
"EVERY BODY OUT!" Washu yelled. There was a good sized disturbance. Ryoko could hear people scattering and falling over furniture. All over the house doors and windows banged open. "You don't have to go to Yosho's but you can't stay here! OUT!"
When silence reigned again, and she knew they were finally alone, Washu calmly walked back in and smiled. "So you wanna watch Samurai 13?"
Ryoko was speechless.
