A/N: All the apreciation is much apreciated. Warning I'm a slow writer so don't expect updates to beLess thatn a month apart.

Part 1: Just the man I wanted to see…

"Aaaaaaaaauuuugh!"

CRASH.

Tenchi looked up from the row of carrots he was hoeing to see Siena Yamada lying face down under his bike in the middle of the carrot patch. He smiled in memory of the last time Seina had come to visit, arriving in exactly the same fashion. "Well well well, if it isn't 'The Luckiest Man in the Universe.'" Despite his intimate understanding of the potential hazards of multiple strong women in one household, Tenchi couldn't resist a small touch of schadenfreude as there was now some one with a more complicated love-life than his own.

A plaintive voice rose from beneath the wreckage. "I'd be glad to share, Tenchi-sempai. How much of my luck can I give you? " At this Tenchi threw back his head and laughed, then wandered over to help his friend, now cousin by marriage, out from under the remains of his bike. As Siena stood and brushed the dirt off of his front, Tenchi gave him a serious examination. The young man was taller and broader than he had been when last Tenchi had seen him, and there was a new air of strength underlying his easygoing nature. There was also tension and a look of wariness and suppressed hurt in the young man's eyes that Tenchi had never seen before.

"Sorry, that wasn't very nice of me, but it was what all the unattached males were calling you after the… umm wedding."

Siena closed his eyes wearily. "They would. Can you think of a more embarrassing way to get married?" he sighed.

"Not off hand," Tenchi responded, fighting a grin. Having what had to have been the biggest wedding in the last thousand years interrupted by the groom getting kidnapped was so typical of Seina's ridiculously bad luck. Tenchi still had not figured out why the four representatives of the Renzan Federation had felt that they couldn't wait until after the wedding to take the Galaxy Police's premier pirate hunter off to deal with their pirate situation. "You must admit that it was unique. Did you not know they were transmitting visual?" Seina shook his head, his blush deepening. "Ryouko took notes, and I'm pretty sure that Dad 'aquired' a copy of the transmission." Siena buried his now brick red face in his hands and sank to the ground. Considering the way that negotiations between the kidnappers and Seina's four original brides had moved from merely embarrassing to down right pornographic, this seemed to Tenchi an entirely reasonable reaction. As a result of this interruption in his nuptials Seina had wound up married to all eight women, envied by all the single men in attendance, and worried about by everyone with sense. "Ayeka and I got Sasami's eyes covered pretty fast, so you don't have to worry about that at least," Tenchi finished.

"Oh good," came the muffled reply, "I can die happy."

Sarcasm? Tenchi thought in surprise. This is new. He decided Seina had been teased sufficiently about his unconventional wedding, for the time being at least. "So where are all your lovely wives?" he asked eying Seina carefully. "We rather expected you all to come visit a few days ago."

Siena looked up at him and leaned back on his hands scanning the road on the hill above them. "Most of them are at the store 'helping' but Neiju-chan should be around here somewhere. We were bringing Fuku-chan over to play with Ryo-oohki and get a check up. I think she convinced Sasami-chan to give her a cooking lesson when she and Noike-san were at the store yesterday."

As if on cue, a slender girl, apparently about eleven, maybe twelve, with lime green hair and incredibly pale skin looked over the guardrail at the top of the hill. "O-nii-chan! Are you OK!?' she called and then raced down the hill to where the two young men were sitting. She slowed to a stop and both she and the small cabbit she clutched to her chest gave Seina a quick examination with concerned eyes. Relieved expressions spread across both their faces as they launched themselves at the somewhat battered boy. Seina found himself thrown to the ground again, this time flat on his back nose to nose with the youngest looking of his eight wives kneeling on his chest.

Tenchi eyebrows rose to his hair as Neiju Yamada, the 2000-year-old retired High Priestess of Melmas, planted a possessive kiss on her husband's lips. By Seina's expression, Tenchi guessed his friend was just as surprised by this enthusiastic display of affection but kissed her back just as possessively. Neiju drew back a little and said, not quite jokingly, "Please be more careful. You promised you wouldn't get yourself killed before I'm old enough to have sex."

"H-h-hai."

Deciding they were finished, Tenchi cleared his throat. Seina sat up hurriedly leaving Neiju seated in his lap and burying her suddenly scarlet face in his chest. "Sempai," Seina paused and cleared his throat to bring his voice back down to its usual register,"may I present my wife, Neiju Yamada. Neiju-chan, this is my friend, Tenchi Masaki." Neiju scrambled to her feet and bowed. Tenchi bowed back, a little lower than necessary, while he banished the grin trying to form on his face. "Ohayoo-gozimasu, Neiju-san. It is a pleasure to meet you at last." As Seina stood up, Tenchi looked around, "So, where is Fuku-chan?" Seina and Neiju looked around wildly for a second then relaxed as they heard a contented 'Miyaa,' from the edge of the field where the notorious pirate ship Ryo-oohki was sitting in her little girl form. Her sister Fuku was sitting in her lap in the two bio-constructs' common form, an exceptionally cute cross between a kitten and a bunny, eating a carrot. The three of them walked over to where the two biological spaceship-cores were playing.

As they approached, Fuku looked up from her carrot then jumped into Seina's arms. Ryo-oohki stood up and bowed politely before giving both Seina and Neiju big hugs, miyaa-ing happily the whole time. "It's good to see you again too," said Seina.

"She's been waiting for you to come over since you all arrived three days ago." Tenchi said. The little girl spaceship nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

"I'm sorry, Sempai." Said Seina. " I meant to bring everyone over for a visit earlier but... well… things happened." he finished in a rush. Tenchi looked carefully at his three visitors and came to a decision. "Neiju-san," he said, "would you mind taking Ryo-oohki-chan and Fuku-chan back to the house? You would probably find it more pleasant cooking with Noike-san and Sasami-chan than watching me weed. If you let me borrow Seina, we can be done by lunch."

Neiju cocked her head to the side and looked at Tenchi and Seina with a thoughtful expression. "OK then. I'm sure you two have a lot to catch up on." At this she looked pointedly at her husband. "But don't take too long. Ryo-chan, Fuku-chan, shall we go?" The cabbits miyaaed an excited affirmative and turned to race up the hill.

As Seina watched Neiju walk back to collect her bike, the two cabbits hopping ahead of her, he brought his fingers to his lips as if to assure himself they were still there. Tenchi fetched an extra hoe from the shed and waved at Neiju as she set off with the cabbits in her bike basket, then the two young men set to work hoeing the carrot patch.

After a few minutes of watching Seina attack the weeds with a ferocious intensity, Tenchi stopped, leaned on his hoe, and asked, "Is something on your mind, Seina-kun?"

At this Seina jerked up in surprise, after a moment he looked down and said softly, "Yeah."

"You want to talk about it?" Tenchi asked after another short pause, with studied indifference.

Seina's response, when it came, was barely audible. "Yeah... Yeah I do."

As she reached the top of the hill Neiju paused and looked back toward the field where her husband and his friend, the second heir apparent to the throne of the Jurian empire, were tending the late fall crop. In the galactic year since she had retired as leader of both the planet and religion of Melmass the telepathic abilities that had garnered her that position had begun to lose some of their strength. However as she had had the most powerful abilities of any person to hold that position, a fact that had contributed to her unprecedented 2000-year incumbency, they were still formidable. Both Seto-sama and Airi-sama had told her that she could trust this Tenchi Masaki and she was glad she had been able to confirm it. Even with reduced sensitivity, she could see in Tenchi the same inherent kindness and compassion wrapped around an iron will that had first lead her to choose Seina as a protector and then to fall in love with him.

I hope he can help Seina-san, she thought, chewing on her lower lip worriedly. Despite her best efforts the fractures in their newly formed family were growing. It hurt so much to see the man she loved torn by the conflict between the eight women he had taken in to his heart. She absentmindedly rubbed her cramping stomach with her left hand, "How does he do it Fuku?" she wondered aloud. "He loves all of us so completely AND equally... even them." Her voice sharpened at the thought of the four interlopers who had inserted themselves into the family that the crew of the Kamidake had become. Karen, Suiren, Gyokuren, Hakuren; she had known them first as Seto-sama's aides. She even liked them individually, but their constant efforts to take precedence over herself and her three new sisters in their beloved Seina's affections strained her determination to smooth the conflicts within House Yamada. It didn't help that she and Seina had decided that it would be best if they put off consummating their marriage until her body had matured a bit more. This brought her attention to the thing she had been trying to ignore since she left the field. I kissed him, like THAT, in front of the PRINCE.

She shook her head to clear her mind of the image and her face of the rising blush and started down the hill toward the Masaki house. According to all she'd heard, this Tenchi had managed to keep a household with six women, whose combined personal firepower was sufficient to take on the Galactic Army, for almost three years with out anyone being killed. And she was going to find out how he did it.