~Week 12~
The days are so peaceful since Tenchi came home, they seem to pass so quickly; I can hardly believe it's been months since I discovered Ryoko that morning in the bathroom, but I can see the changes every day now. Soon, I think, even Tenchi is going to notice.
Washu's home-made morning sickness remedy worked like a charm—"It ought to," she told me, "I engineered it to Ryoko specifically!"—but the pirate doesn't take it anymore. She doesn't need to; it seems the months of sickness have passed, and now she grows more radiant every day, like all the old wives' tales say she should. Of course, sometimes I'm terribly jealous, of her new glowing beauty and of her growing child, but it's just fuel for our play-fights. We try to keep up appearances, arguing across the dinner table, though I'm sure it's clear to everyone that we both lack our old venom. It's been ages since we had an all-out physical battle—we agreed early on that it would be too risky, not knowing what might hurt the baby. I think Tenchi is pleased by the growing peace between us, though I'm sure he can't fathom how it came about. Sometimes I can't help but laugh, watching his baffled expressions, and I can tell that Washu's laughing with me, from the sparkle in her eyes. We both agree, the scientist and I, that Ryoko will have to make an announcement very soon. I think she's just working up the courage, and I can certainly understand that. Some things are hard to say.
~o~o~o~
It comes to a head at dinner one night. With her genuine appetite back plus one, Ryoko devours a huge amount of food at meals, and disappears frequently to get snacks or satisfy cravings at the market in town. When Tenchi and Sasami started making noises about the money she was spending, she blushed—actually blushed—and started dipping into her trove of cash from her recent time in space. "Seems only right," she said one evening as we shared a quart of fudge ripple ice cream, "that Hotsuma should help me pay for the kid, doesn't it?" I laughed.
"Just don't let Kiyone find out that you kept all that treasure…"
But even with a constant supply of snacks, courtesy the stolen funds, Ryoko still eats like a horse. It's a full table tonight; even Katsuhito is down from the shrine to share a meal, sitting serenely between Kiyone and Nobuyuki. It's Nobuyuki, in his blundering way, who finally sets things in motion.
"You sure do have a big appetite lately, Ryoko," he comments, reaching for more fried tofu and snaring a piece before she polishes off the plate. "You know, I think you've been putting on a little weight."
Time seems to freeze for a moment as everyone's eyes widen—even Mihoshi knows that's not the kind of thing you say to Ryoko, not even when she's been so calm and happy lately—and the pirate's eyes narrow sharply. She stands, her gaze fixed on Father as he tries to backpedal. "Well, now, don't get angry, Ryoko, I think you…you carry it very well! I mean, I, ah…. Please don't blow up the house…."
Then Washu snorts with barely contained laughter, and the tension pops like a bubble. Ryoko smiles lopsidedly and looks down at herself, then over at me. I nod. Now seems to be the time.
"Listen, everyone…there's something I need to tell all of you."
Tenchi looks up at her with some concern. "Is everything all right, Ryoko?"
She smiles gently. "Just hear me out, okay?" She pauses, gathering her composure, and I can tell she's been rehearsing what to say, just in case the moment arises. The thought makes me smile, and I lay my hand over her foot, beneath the table where nobody can see. She straightens at that, suddenly calm. "You all know that I went back to pirating for a while, when Tenchi was gone." There are nods around the table, and a suspicious look from Kiyone in response. "Well…Kiyone and Mihoshi spent some time with me out there, they know better than anyone else how hard I was trying to forget about Earth, and my family here. We know now that Hotsuma was sent to me by Yugi, part of her plans to separate us, but I didn't know that at the time. He was a good partner, as pirates go. I wasn't in love with him, or anything, and looking back on it, I think I was too confused and lost to have loved anyone new in my life, but…." She pauses, losing steam as she looks around at everyone's anxious and puzzled expressions. "Well, love doesn't matter for everything, and…well…"
"Just tell them straight, Ryoko," Washu interrupts, grinning, and Ryoko lets out a shaky breath.
"Well," she says, smiling nervously and laying a hand over her stomach, "I'm pregnant."
I can almost hear Ryoko's anxious heartbeat in the shocked silence that follows; then Katsuhito calmly takes a sip of his tea. "That explains quite a lot," he murmurs as he sets the cup down, and then the table explodes with noise.
Sasami leaps to her feet and throws her arms around the pirate, grinning brighter than a star. "You're gonna have a BABY? That's so exciting, Ryoko!" Mihoshi isn't far behind, blubbering about how happy she is, and Kiyone just looks smug.
"Huh, I thought so!"
Nobuyuki elbows Katsuhito with a gleam in his eye. "It'll be almost like I'm a grandfather!" he shouts, clearly delighted.
Tenchi is still trying to process the information, though I think he's just relieved that it's not a prank Ryoko's playing, telling everyone she's carrying his child. When she glances down at him, though, even he's smart enough to see the fear behind her hopeful expression, and he smiles, bewildered. "Well…congratulations, Ryoko!"
Her eyes melt, and she suddenly looks happy, deliriously happy, and I know it's as I suspected—the real fear that she's been hiding from all of us the last three months was of Tenchi's anger or disapproval. This time he's finally done something right by her, and somehow it makes me love him even more.
