For The One You Love
By Rachel
- Chapter 9 -
Tenchi held Ryoko in his arms. He stared down at her and smiled slightly watching her sleep. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly letting his one hand run through her cyan hair. Ryoko mumbled Tenchi's name with a little sigh cuddling closer to him as she moved her one hand from his bare chest. Tenchi's eyes softened as he kissed her on the head gingerly. "Love you too Ryoko…"
"Hmmm…" She murmured nodding slightly. It was four in the morning, and Ryo-oki just passed over the Japan boarder and was heading home to Okayama.
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Washu sighed. "I told her not to do anything with him, and what does she do? Everything you shouldn't… Why did I even bother telling her not to?" Washu paced back and forth. "You tell her she can't have sex, she has sex… You tell her she can, and she does!" Washu cursed under her breath. 'Damn her, why is it so hard for her to understand, or listen to me?!'
"Washu, we'll be landing in ten minutes." Sasami popped her head through the door.
"Yeah…" She groaned.
"You want me to go tell Tenchi?"
"No!" She shouted and ran up the stairs. "I'll tell him…" She quieted down slightly coughing.
"Oh… All right. I'll just make sure I have all my stuff with me then." Sasami looked at her strangely shaking her head. 'The people I know are all starting to lose it, I swear!'
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"So what's it like?" Nathan stared in awe at Ayeka. She was so beautiful to him.
"What is what like?" She laughed taking a sip of her tea.
"Space… Being far away from your home. What's… Juri is it?" Nathan paused waiting for her to reply.
"Yes, that's it… Juri."
"What's that like?"
Ayeka thought for a moment. "That's a tuff one… Umm, well, space is like a never ending blackness, it's very frightening at times, yet it has this mysterious beauty to it that just draws you further and further into the blackness… I never get tired of it. My father, when I was a little girl used to take me out at night into the gardens and we'd look at the stars and try and count them," Ayeka laughed again. "I would always lose count and get angry and yell at the stars blaming them for moving or something."
Nathan smirked. "Wish I could have done that. I've always lived in the cities. I lived in Tokyo for about five years, New York for three, and then we finally moved to France when I turned nine. My parents got a divorce and I stayed in France with my mother… You see, in the cities there is too much light, I could never see the stars, unless I was lucky or something…" Ayeka frowned. "Anyway you miss Juri?"
Ayeka was a little taken aback. "I…" She sighed. "Yes and no." She took another sip of her tea, finishing it. "I miss my family and home, my planet. But my father kept on pressing me to get married. I couldn't take it and when I came to Earth… I met Tenchi. I've lived here ever since. It's like a second home to me. I don't have to feel like a princess here. I just feel like a normal person… Maybe even human." Ayeka pulled a peace of hair behind her ears. "As for the planet. It's almost like Earth, but it has different trees, plants… Different wildlife." Ayeka closed her eyes picturing her home. An idea popped into her mind when she remembered her father and her star gazing. "You want to look at the stars?"
Nathan blushed slightly. "What?" He hadn't been paying attention to her for the last minute or so. He had been watching her every move. How graceful she was…
"When we get back to Tenchi's, it's at a shrine on top of a mountain. There are only a few other homes there, so it's nice and dark… I… I mean, there isn't much light so we should be able to see the stares very well." She blushed. "That's if you want to."
"I'd love to." He smiled with a kind glance.
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"Tenchi, RYOKO!" Washu screeched. Tenchi jumped up quickly.
"Ryoko!" Tenchi hissed.
"Hmm?" Ryoko sat up and rubbed her eyes. "What?"
"RYOKO!" Washu pounded on the door again.
"Ehh!" Ryoko screamed getting dressed quickly. "I've got to get back to my room!" She kissed him quickly full on the lips. She didn't want to pull away, but she was afraid Washu was going to break the door and she fazed away. Tenchi pulled on a pair of sweat pants and answered the door.
"You missed her Washu…" Tenchi opened the door and looked down at her.
"Where is she?!"
"Her room, I would try there." Tenchi smiled pointing to the room across from him. "Be kind Washu; don't be too hard on her."
"Heh! Don't worry I'll be as kind as I can…" She grumbled. "Oh, we'll be home in a moment. We've made it back safely without being shot down, it's a miracle…" She waved her hand in a circle. "Wop de do…" She rolled her eyes.
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'I'm dead, I'm dead!'
"Yes, you're dead..." Washu spoke through their mind link. "I told you not to do anything until I did the blood tests and everything!"
"I didn't care, I'm fine, we're fine. No worries, now could you maybe NOT talk through the mind link and leave me alone?"
"Fine, I'm still doing the test when we land in a few minutes, just see me in the lab then."
"Yes mother…" She replied sneeringly.
"I'm just doing this because I care about you my little Ryoko." Washu smiled opening the door as Ryoko fazed into a red tank top and blue flare jeans.
Yeah, those tests and all you said were for science when I was little helped science a whole hell of a lot…" Ryoko glared. Washu's eyes widened.
"You… You remember that?"
"How could I forget?!" Ryoko screamed, as tears fell from her eyes. "You really cared about my well being then, so why do you now?!" Ryoko fell to her bed.
'She was only three or four when I did those tests on her… She lost all her memories of Kagato and her past after he made her attack Juri.'
"The one thing that I remembered was my mother and all the pain she put me though…" Ryoko had read Washu's mind. She sat down in her appearing chair and looked at Ryoko sadly.
"My Ryoko…"
"My Ryoko, my ass." She grumbled. "I can still remember everything." Ryoko glared at her. "You hooked me up to machines over and over again, showing people how resistant I was to pain, but do you have any idea how much that hurt?!"
"Uhh, do you know how it felt to loose my husband and daughter?! I did it so that other families wouldn't have to deal with the lose I went through! Kagato had attacked the planet where I was living at the time. He was driving across a large bridge, when Kagato attacked our planet; I was in my lab still doing some research, when it happened. The bridge fell into the ocean below; they said that they died on impact. My goal was to create a being that would be able to withstand such events; and eventually have it capable of being inserted into a human fetus, just like a little shot. I succeeded when I did the test on you. I clamed you as my own, I took care of you until you were about six years old, then Kagato attacked again. He knew somehow about you and your powers. So he took advantage of them and stole you away from me, it was like loosing my husband and little girl all over again." Washu didn't hold the tears and let them fall freely.
"I—" Ryoko was cut off.
"That's when I lost it… Or became the 'mad scientist', as they put it. I began searching all over for you. I gave up my job, my home, I had to barrow money from my husband's family just so I could afford food and fuel for my ship. I searched for years on end. Looking all over the universe, until one day I found you and Kagato, not far from Juri, you had grown up so much. But, Kagato threw me in the mirror world, I only could watch you from afar. Then one day, you never came back from an attack. I didn't see you again for all those years that you were being held on Earth. Kagato forgot about me almost, until he sensed your energy coming from Earth. After Tenchi had revived you. You finally a year later came and killed Kagato, and saved me. Well, in a sense it was you… But it was really Mihoshi I guess…" Washu sighed. "I wouldn't have done it to you, if there wasn't a purpose to it Ryoko… TO me you're everything. Just like my little girl, and my husband were…"