Conversations:

Disclaimer

Tenchi and all associated characters are the property of AIC and Pioneer LDC. I don't own any rights to them at all nor do I want to, I just want to borrow them for a while. Any other characters are property of their respective copyright holders, not me.

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Conversations

Chapter 1

In the Dark

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Tenchi awoke with the feeling that something was wrong somewhere. He couldn't quite put his finger on it though; it was just a nagging sensation in the back of his mind. It didn't feel as if there was anything dangerous about it, just a bad feeling about something. He glanced over at his alarm clock, Jeez, it's only 2:00am. He rolled over to try to go back to sleep, but that tickling in his mind wouldn't let him. He had to find out what was causing it.

He rolled out of bed and went out into the hall. Slowly he cracked open the door to Ayeka and Sasami's room. He thought of how beautiful Ayeka looked in the moonlight and how cute Sasami looked. Both were sleeping peacefully, but Ryo-ohki, who was near the foot of Sasami's futon was tossing about and uttering low whimpers. She must feel it too, he thought.

He quietly closed the door and moved on to Mihoshi's room. Looking in he saw Mihoshi sprawled out half uncovered, snoring gently. He smiled as he saw her lying there. Not much bothers her. She can get comfortable anywhere. He slid Mihoshi's door shut and continued down the stairs.

He considered looking in on Washu, but decided not to chance it yet. With everyone asleep there was no one to help him if she decided she needed a guinea pig for some project. He chuckled at the thought. Life sure was interesting now that they were all here. He moved into the living room and stood at the window, looking out over the lake. It looked peaceful enough. Then he heard it, soft sobs and moans coming from the rafters at the back of the room. Ryoko. He didn't really want to wake her up; he didn't feel like being mauled this early in the morning, but if she was feeling the same thing that he was feeling, maybe together they could find the source.

"Ryoko," he called gently up to her. "Ryoko, wake up."

The moans and whimpers stopped. He saw her large, golden eyes slowly open and she turned her head to look at him.

"Tenchi."

"Ryoko, what's wrong? Do you feel it too?"

"Tenchi, I… I…" Ryoko stuttered.

"Please come down Ryoko, let's talk about it."

She disappeared from her rafter and reappeared next to him. Strange, he thought, the minute Ryoko woke up, the feeling went away. Was she the cause? He could tell that she was upset about something, she didn't try to glomp onto him the way she normally did. Instead she just stood there quietly, head bowed. "Let's go sit on the couch," he said, guiding her over to it in the darkened room.

They sat at opposite ends, something else that was unusual; she normally tried to get as close to him as possible. He moved over closer to her and he felt her shy away. Something was definitely going on with her.

"Ryoko, what is it? What's wrong?" he asked her.

"Nothing Tenchi. Nothing that you or anyone else can do anything about anyway."

"You don't know that for sure Ryoko. Talk to me about it. Maybe there's something I can do." He moved closer to her until his leg was touching hers and he put his arm around her. He felt her tense up, and then relax against him. Her head dropped onto his shoulder.

"I don't know if you can handle it Tenchi," she whispered.

"Try me," he replied.

"It's the memories Tenchi. I remember the things that Kagato made me do. I remember all of it. It comes to me in dreams, nightmares really. All the horrible things; the blood, the destruction, the terror on people's faces. I don't want to remember those things."

"But that wasn't you Ryoko, Kagato had control. It was him, not you."

"I know that Tenchi. But I was still there. I could see everything that my body was doing. Hear everything. Feel and smell - everything. I just couldn't control anything. Do you know what it's like to be trapped in your own mind while someone else performs atrocities using your body? Can you ever know?" she sobbed to him.

"No Ryoko, I don't. And you're right. I don't know how I would handle it, or even if I could. But I do know this: you are strong. All of this has happened to you and you are still the sweet person that I care deeply about. I don't know what to do to remove those memories. I don't know if I would want to. According to Grandpa, our memories are what define us, who we are. Without those memories you might not be the Ryoko I know. I don't want a different Ryoko. I want to keep the one I have, she's kinda grown on me." He gave her a crooked grin that she could barely make out in the dim light.

She gave him a tentative smile in return.

"Tenchi?"

"Yes Ryoko?"

"Can I sleep with you tonight?" she asked meekly.

He tensed slightly and she felt it.

"No Tenchi, I don't mean like that. I just don't want to be alone anymore tonight. I promise I won't try anything and I'll be back on my rafter before the princess wakes up. She'll never know."

He relaxed. "Ok Ryoko. But we'll do it the same way I do it with Sasami when she has a bad dream. I'll get a spare futon and sleep on that. You can have the bed."

"No Tenchi, I don't want to kick you out of your bed. I'll take the futon."

"Ryoko, I insist. You get the bed." He kissed her lightly on the forehead. She gave a little shiver and had no reply.

He helped her to her feet and held her hand while they walked to the stairs.

"Ryoko?"

"Yes Tenchi?"

"Have you asked if you could spend the night with any of the others?"

"Well, I tried sleeping in Mihoshi's room a couple of times, but she moves around too much. And she snores." Ryoko giggled quietly. "I won't ask Ayeka for the obvious reasons and Washu… well Washu kind of scares me sometimes."

Tenchi chuckled. "I know just what you mean…"

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After entering his room, Tenchi pulled the spare futon out of its storage place and laid it out next to the bed.

"Ryoko, do you have anything to sleep in? I mean besides your regular clothes?"

"You mean like this?" she asked as she phased into a short teddy with bikini panties.

"Ryoko! You promised!"

"Yes, I did. I was just teasing you." The teddy changed into a flannel sleep shirt that came almost to her knees. At least his nose didn't start to bleed this time, she thought.

"Tenchi?" she asked as she crawled into the bed. "Can I stay with you every night?"

"I don't know, maybe. With the same conditions Ryoko?"

"Yes, same conditions Tenchi."

"Then yes. But you realize that Sasami or Washu sometimes come in and sleep in the bed. You'd have to share with them, and then Ayeka might find out."

"I don't mind as long as you're here. I'll share you with anyone. And if the princess finds out… Well, I'll deal with that if it happens."

The room was quiet for a few minutes.

"Ryoko?"

"Yes my Tenchi?"

"How was I able to sense your dream?"

"I don't know. Well have to remember to ask Washu about it sometime."

"Goodnight Ryoko."

"Goodnight Tenchi."

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Sasami felt Ryo-ohki settle down into a peaceful slumber. She had woken up when Tenchi closed the door to her room. She knew that her friend's fitfulness was caused by Ryoko's bad dreams and she suspected that Tenchi had somehow comforted Ryoko, probably in the same way that he comforted her when she had bad dreams. She smiled as she pulled Ryo-ohki up to cuddle with her. I'll have to ask Tsunami if she can do something to help Ryoko, she promised herself and went back to sleep.

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To be continued

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Author's notes

This is the first fic I have ever written. It takes place in the OAV Universe, several months after Here Comes Jurai I & II. There will be no original (as in created by me) characters introduced. Why should I create new ones when the ones we already have work so well together?

This is NOT a lemon fic. Not that I'm against it if it's well written, but I'm trying to remain as true to the original series as I can. There is some mild innuendo, situations and language at some points though, so if this bothers you I'm sorry. No I'm not, not really.

Nor was this originally intended as a crossover, but certain situations arose and the way it was playing out I couldn't use any Tenchi characters to resolve them. So I searched through some of my other favorite characters and found a few to fit and have kept them in the fic. I hope it works.

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