A Love Before Time
By: Tsuki no Miko
Disclaimer: Tenchi Muyo! and the related characters belong to AIC, Pioneer, and other people.
A/n: Another story by me...aren't you all just so happy? I know you are. Anyway, who knows when this part will be out...It took me over a week to write the first part. I'll try not to make it too long between parts.
A Love Before Time: Part 2
By: Tsuki no Miko
"Where's Tenchi?" Sasami asked, giving everyone else their breakfast.
"I don't know, Sasami. I haven't seen him all morning." Aeka asked.
"Isn't he in his room?" Nobuyuki, Tenchi's father, asked.
"No, I went up there to wake up before breakfast and he wasn't there."
"Maybe he went out to the fields early." Mihoshi suggested.
"No, I sent Ryo-Ohki out to look for him. He wasn't out there either. Do you know where he could be, Ryoko?"
There was no reply from the far end of the table.
"Ryoko?" Sasami asked a little louder.
"Shhh, I haven't seen Tenchi since last night." Ryoko said, trying to ignore the pounding of her head.
"Do you have another hangover, Ryoko?" Aeka asked.
"What do you think?" Ryoko snapped back.
"I have something I could give you for that." Washu said, eating some rice.
"Thanks, but no thanks. I don't want anything that will turn me into anything else or knock me unconscious for five years." Ryoko said.
"Fine, suit yourself."
"I have something that might work." Hoshi spoke up.
Nobody but Washu and Sasami had noticed that he was even at the table.
"No thanks. I don't want anything from you. It would probably be poisoned."
"There's something I didn't think of." He said, sarcastically, eating the food Sasami placed in front of him.
"I wish I knew where Tenchi was." Sasami said. "His breakfast is getting cold."
"I wouldn't worry about him, Sasami. He'll show up." Washu said.
Sasami only nodded and sighed as she sat down to eat breakfast herself.
"How's it coming with his ship?" Ryoko asked Washu.
"I only just started on it, Ryoko." Washu said.
"So how long will it take to fix?"
"I don't know, about two days. Three at the most."
Ryoko only nodded and drank some tea.
Just then everyone started to hear noises coming from the roof.
"What was that?" Mihoshi asked, looking up at the ceiling.
"I don't know, it sounds like something's on the roof." Aeka answered.
Up on the roof of the Masaki home, Tenchi woke up, surprised that he hadn't rolled off and broken every bone in his body.
He stood up carefully and walked over to where he left the ladder, which was now gone.
"This is just great...how am I supposed to get down now?" He asked himself, looking down at the ground.
"Ryoko! Aeka! Somebody!" He started shouting.
"Did you guys here that?" Mihoshi asked.
"Yeah, it sounded like Tenchi." Sasami said. "It sounded like he was outside."
"Hmm." Aeka said, getting up and walking out into the front yard.
"Is he out there, Aeka?" Sasami asked.
"I don't see him."
"Aeka!" Tenchi called to her from the roof.
"Lord Tenchi? What are you doing up there?" She asked, shielding her eyes from the morning sun.
"Its a long story. Could you get the ladder for me please?" He asked.
Once Tenchi was back on solid ground, Aeka and Sasami looked at him.
"Were you up there all night, Tenchi?" Sasami asked.
"Yeah. I must have fallen asleep. What time is it?"
"Its eight-thirty, Tenchi."
"Why were you up there at all, Lord Tenchi?" Aeka asked.
"Just watching the stars." He said, glancing toward the house to see Ryoko standing at the door.
"You're lucky you didn't fall off, Tenchi!" Sasami said.
"Yeah." Was all he said. When he turned back to the door, Ryoko was gone.
"Well, let's go inside. Breakfast will get cold." Sasami said, pulling Tenchi into the house after her.
Nobody was left at the table when they came back inside. In fact, no one could be found anywhere on the bottom floor of the house.
"Where did everyone go to?" Sasami asked, sitting down to finished her breakfast.
"I don't know. Washu probably went off to her lab again and Ryoko's probably lying around someplace sleeping off her hangover and Mihoshi probably went out on patrol." Aeka said, sitting down as well.
Eventually all three of them finished their breakfast.
"Well, I better get to work." Tenchi said, standing up.
"Have a good day, Tenchi." Sasami said, clearing the table. "Aeka, come help me, please?"
"Oh, of course, Sasami."
Ryoko watched Tenchi walk toward the fields from behind a tree in the woods. She felt ridiculous and foolish, almost as bad as the time when she tried to get Tenchi by reading Nobuyuki's shoujo manga, but not quite.
The night before she had been drunk. REALLY drunk. Usually she didn't remember things that happened when she got that inebriated, but for some reason she remembered every word that she said to Tenchi and she couldn't bring herself to be near him.
"This is how the most feared space pirate in all the universe spends her day? Hiding behind a tree?"
Ryoko spun around quickly. A little too quickly as her headache let her know soon enough.
"Are you following me now, Hoshi?" She asked.
"Why would I do a thing like that? I just happened by and I saw you cowering behind the tree and I thought I'd say hello."
"Go away."
"Why? So you can gawk at Tenchi in private? Do you think he feels the same way about you?"
"I thought I told you to go away."
"You did, but I haven't."
"What do you want from me?"
Hoshi stepped in close to her.
"I want you to come with me, Ryoko." He said quietly.
"Why would I want to do anything like that?"
Hoshi stared intently at her with his pale eyes. She couldn't look away from him.
"Because you're not wanted here, Ryoko. You've always known it. You know that Tenchi doesn't love you. You know that Aeka and Sasami despise you for what you did to Jurai all those years ago. I don't think even Washu can stand you anymore." He said, never breaking his gaze.
Ryoko didn't say anything. She wanted to strike the bastard down where he stood, but she couldn't move. He wasn't controlling her gems but yet she couldn't control her own actions.
"What's wrong, Ryoko? You know that I'm telling the truth?"
"Shut-up." She said, finding it a massive struggle to even get the words out of her mouth.
Hoshi shook his head and laughed to himself.
"Come on, Ryoko! You know that no one could ever love something like you. Something not even human."
"SHUT UP!" She screamed, throwing her fist at him with all of her strength.
She ended up hitting a tree, causing it to fall.
"Ryoko, what happened here? I heard you scream and..." Tenchi said, running up to her after hearing all the commotion.
Ryoko looked around. Hoshi was nowhere to be found.
"Ryoko, what happened?" Tenchi asked again. "Are you all right?" He asked, taking her hand.
"Tenchi, what are you doing?" She asked him, watching him inspect her hand.
"You're bleeding. I wanted to be sure you were all right."
"Bleeding?" Ryoko repeated, just noticing the blood on her hand.
"What did you go, Ryoko? Are you going to tell me what happened?"
"It was nothing, Tenchi. Stop worrying about it. You have things to do." She said, stepping away from him and nearly tripping over part of the fallen tree.
"Watch out, Ryoko." Tenchi said, catching her. "What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing, I'm fine." She said, stepping out of his grasp again and walking away from him.
What was wrong with her? Why was she suddenly tripping over herself? And she was bleeding from punching a tree trunk? She could take punches for hours without anything drawing blood.
Tenchi stood where Ryoko had left him and watched her walk off. He looked at the tree and sighed. Something obviously happened. Ryoko doesn't usually fly around punching out trees.
The boy only sighed and started back toward the fields. There was nothing he could do about it, she had been avoiding him all morning. And when she did stay around him long enough for them to communicate she acted strangely. He shrugged it off. Maybe Ryoko was just being Ryoko again.
"Good morning, Tenchi."
Tenchi spun around quickly.
"What are you doing here, Hoshi? Shouldn't you be helping Washu fix your ship? I mean, it is YOUR ship."
"She kicked me out of the lab. Need any help?"
"No, I'm fine." Tenchi said, continuing his walk to the fields.
"I saw Ryoko just leave here." Hoshi said, following him.
"Yes, I know." Tenchi said, absently.
"Do you know why she's taken to beating up defenseless trees?"
"Something must've happened..."
"Or maybe she's just losing it." Hoshi said.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm just saying, maybe her warrantee is running low or something. I mean, she IS two thousand years old. Maybe she's just losing it, you know, up here." Hoshi said, pointing to his head.
"Don't be crazy."
"I'm not. I mean, she's punching trees, what's next? If she loses it, who could stop her? She could destroy the entire universe if she wanted to."
"And she doesn't."
"How do you know that?"
Tenchi didn't answer him, he simply walked away.
Hoshi grinned to himself as he teleported back to the house. This was going to be too simple. He'd have Ryoko right where he wanted her and from there it was only a matter of time before he got the Princesses, Washu, and the others. Their energy would feed his forever...
"Hoshi, where have you been?" Washu asked, grabbing him by the neck and dragging him into her laboratory.
"I'm not doing this so you can go frolicking in the forest. You're supposed to be helping me." She scolded him.
"Sorry. I had some things I needed to take care of."
Washu was already working, not listening to anything he had to say.
"Hey, Washu...can I talk to you for a minute?" Ryoko asked from the door.
"What is it, Ryoko?" She asked, continuing her work.
Hoshi dropped a can of adhesive calling Ryoko's attention to him.
"Nevermind. I'll talk to you about it later." Ryoko said, closing the door before she even finished her sentence.
"I wonder what that was about..." Hoshi asked innocently.
"She didn't want to talk around you." Washu said, matter-of-factly.
"I don't understand why."
"Because she doesn't like you."
Hoshi glared at Washu. She was not making this easy.
"What exactly do you need my help for?" Hoshi asked.
"I will eventually and I don't want to have to go looking for you when I do so just stay there."
Hoshi sighed.
Sasami sat in the living room watching TV. She decided that lunch today was just going to be simple so there was no need for her to spend all her time in there. Mihoshi had come back from her five minute patrol hours ago and was sleeping on the couch behind her.
"Hey Sasami." Ryoko said wearily, falling back into one of the chairs.
"What's wrong, Ryoko? You look tired."
"I don't know. I just suddenly feel so drained. I can barely move."
"Its probably your hangover still giving you trouble." Aeka said walking into the living room from her bath.
"No, its not." Ryoko said, too tired to argue. "I just suddenly don't want to move."
"Maybe you have the same problem Mihoshi does." Aeka said, pointing to the sleeping Galaxy Police woman.
"Hey, Ryoko, what happened to your hand?" Sasami asked, pointing to the cuts.
"It was nothing." She said, covering her hand quickly.
"Did you see Tenchi out there? Is he coming home for lunch soon?"
"I'm sure he's coming home for lunch, Sasami. Nobody would ever miss one of your meals." Aeka said, sitting down in another of the chairs.
"Has anyone seen Washu today? I mean, after breakfast."
"I was just in her lab. She's still working on that...on Hoshi's ship." Ryoko said.
"Hey, Aeka, do you think its true that Hoshi actually used to work for Father?" Sasami asked.
"I really don't know, Sasami. I suppose we could ask Azaka and Kamidake. They would know, most likely."
"He's probably lying. He probably could only find The History Of Jurai volumes 1 through 200 and he faked all the rest."
Sasami giggled.
"You're so suspicious of everyone, Ryoko." Aeka said.
"Shouldn't I be? And what was with Tenchi this morning?"
"He slept on the roof, Ryoko. He's starting to act like you."
"Where was the ladder? Why didn't he get down that way?" Ryoko asked, remembering Aeka having to get the ladder for him.
"It was on the other side of the yard. Someone must have moved it without realizing that Tenchi was on the roof." Sasami said.
Ryoko didn't say anything, she just sighed.
"I'm home." Tenchi shouted, causing all the girls to jump at once.
"You're back early, Tenchi. I haven't even started lunch yet." Sasami said.
"Don't worry about it, Sasami. There wasn't much for me to do out in the fields today so I figured that I would come back early and see what everyone does while I'm not here."
"Pretty much what we do when you are here, Tenchi." Sasami said.
"How's your hand, Ryoko?" Tenchi asked her.
"Fine."
"Ryoko, can I talk to you for a minute?" Tenchi asked.
Ryoko nodded and got up and followed him into Sasami and Aeka's room. The closest room.
"What is it, Tenchi?"
"Are you feeling all right, Ryoko?"
"What? I'm feeling fine, I'm just a little tired, that's all. Why?"
"Its just that...that thing with the tree earlier."
"Again with the tree?"
"Well, what happened?"
"I thought I saw someone...but they left before I could hit them and I ended up hitting the tree."
"Who?"
"Just someone I remembered from my past."
"Someone dangerous?"
"Is there anyone who's not dangerous from my past, Tenchi?"
He didn't answer that question.
"So you think I'm going crazy, huh Tenchi?"
"No, of course not. I was just wondering if there was something you weren't telling me."
"Well, there isn't, Tenchi. And I'm not going crazy either. Are you afraid that I'm going to blow up the planet or something?"
"Ryoko, don't be like this."
"Like what? I'm asking a simple question."
"Of course I don't think you're going to blow up the planet. That's ridiculous."
"But you do know that I could if I wanted to?"
Tenchi nodded.
"But I don't want to."
"Good." He said.
"Is that all, Tenchi?" She asked.
He opened his mouth to say something, but shut it quickly.
"That's all, Ryoko. Are you feeling all right? You look tired."
"Its nothing. I just think I used too much energy hitting that tree." She smiled lazily.
Tenchi didn't say anything as he followed her back into the living room.
Suddenly she started falling forward.
"Ryoko! What's wrong?" He asked as he caught her.
"Tenchi, what's wrong?" Aeka and Sasami asked, running up behind him.
"I don't know. Help me get her on the couch."
"But Mihoshi's there." Sasami said.
"Wake her up, Sasami." Aeka said, helping Tenchi with Ryoko.
"Mihoshi! Mihoshi, wake up!" Sasami said as she shook her awake.
"What's going on?" Mihoshi asked sleepily. "What's wrong with Ryoko?"
"Move it, Mihoshi." Aeka said.
"We need to lie her down." Tenchi explained.
Mihoshi jumped off the couch as Tenchi and Aeka laid Ryoko down on the couch.
"Ryoko? Are you OK?" Tenchi asked, kneeling beside her.
"Ten...chi..." She said weakly.
"What's wrong with her, Tenchi?" Sasami asked.
"I don't know. Someone go get Washu."
"I'll go." Mihoshi said, running off toward Washu's lab.
"Hang on, Ryoko. Hang on..."
If the years take away
Every memory that I have
I would still know the way
That would lead me back to your side.
The North star may die
But the light that I see in your eyes
Will burn there always
Lit by the love we have shared
Before time.
===========
~End Part 2~
Coming Soon:
A Love Before Time: Part 3
A/n: Sorry for stopping at such an evil place, but I have to keep you all interested somehow. ^_^