DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the Tenchi Muyo! characters. I made up other names and places that are not mentioned in the Tenchi saga and are mentioned here. Please ask before using them!



CHAPTER TITLE: Time of Peace

AUTHOR: Ryoko-chan

CHAPTER: 7

PUBLISHED: 3/13/02

OWN STORYLINE: Heaven & Earth

A/N: I'm looking at the last episodes, and they look corny to me!!! x_x... Well, Tenchi's Light Hawk Wings popped out extremely suddenly so they didn't help Tenchi much... and Sakura is somewhat stronger than Tenchi, even in her early age. In addition, about Ryoko banishing the family from Earth, well she just didn't want anything to do with space and wanted Sakura to have a normal life.

* Means note at the end of the chapter.

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Planet Jurai, the next day
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"Princess Setsuna," one of the royal house cleaners said as she entered the room in which the three teenagers had spent the night in. "Your parents and family are awaiting for your appearance this morning."

Setsuna moaned as she awoke, "alright. Tell them we'll be down in about ten minutes."

"Yes, Princess," said the house cleaner, now exiting the room.

Setsuna yawned as she slowly made her way to wake up Andrew and Sakura. "Come on, it's time to wake up."

"It's six o-clock!!! Why do they want us up so early?" Andrew complained.

Sakura merely yawned and quickly got out of bed, "Setsuna, where is your bathroom?"

"Oh, just outside the second door to the left," Setsuna said pointing to the door.

"Thank you," she said bowing respectfully before she left.

"What's with her?" Andrew asked.

"Mom told me that uncle Tenchi's very cordial so maybe that's why Sakura's like that..."

"Well, mother Ayeka is like that too, but I don't listen to her half of the time."

Setsuna nodded, "I don't listen to my mom at all." She shrugged and headed outside "I'm changing. You have the room to change and don't mess anything up!"

"OK," Andrew said. As he saw Setsuna leaving the room, he approached the vanity trunk that was next to her bed.

"Don't you dare!" Setsuna called from outside.

Andrew, startled, stepped away from the trunk and started to get dressed.

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Minutes later
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"Good morning," the three teens said bowing to the adults of the family.

An'ya nodded as a response to them and let her sight guide them to their perspective seats.

"So, Sakura, how is school going?" Yosho asked his great-granddaughter.

Sakura bashfully looked up from her plate; "I'm doing great, great-grandfather."

"As I thought. Please, call me Yosho. I like to think I'm still too young to be a great-grandfather," Yosho said, smiling.

"You call more than 2,000 years young?" Ryoko asked.

Yosho smiled, "so, you're talking to us now."

"I am part of this family aren't I?"

"You didn't seem to act like it before," Ayeka bitterly stated.

"Honey... please, settle down," Maia said.

Ayeka sighed, "well, as long as we are all together. Lord Tenchi, how is business at the shrine coming along?"

Tenchi smiled, "well, we're getting a lot of new people come to visit it with the story of Ryoko. Even if she isn't inside the cave any more (and the tourists do wonder about my wife being called the same as the demon) the tourists don't really mind."

Ryoko squirmed on her chair. It had been more than 12 years now that she had been referred to as a "demon" and mostly her arch rival, Ayeka, brought it up. It did hurt her to hear Tenchi say that word since he hadn't called her that for more than 15 years. She shrugged and continued to eat her food.

"It seems you gave refined your manners, Mrs. Masaki," Ayeka said.

"For your information, Ayeka, I have greatly changed in all these years," Ryoko calmly answered.

"Did you learn how to cook yet?" Sasami enthusiastically asked.

Ryoko simply nodded, "I have to cook for my family you know."

"It's great to see you've changed," Ryo-ohki said.

"You should come down with us next time," Washu said with her mouth full.

"Yeah! It would be nice to get out of this boring lifestyle!" Setsuna said.

An'ya just glared at her daughter, "what do you mean 'boring'?"

Setsuna nervously laughed, "um... not that training to be the future queen is boring, it's just that... well... I would like to see how planet Earth is..."

"Nice save," Yosho whispered. An'ya glared at him too.

Ryoko gently laughed, "you haven't changed at all, An'ya."

"Um? Well, what can I do when I have a daughter that acts like my sister?" An'ya bitterly said.

"Hey, calm down. It's a good thing that you haven't changed!" She looked at Setsuna, "so, you're a revel like your old aunt Ryoko?"

Setsuna viciously nodded with a big grin.

Everyone laughed except for An'ya.

"It's nice to see that Sakura turned out more like Lord Tenchi than you," Ayeka told Ryoko.

"Settle down, Princess, I'm not here to make trouble," Ryoko said mischievously smiling.

Tenchi placed his hand on top of his wife's, "I'm not gonna let you cause any trouble, dear."

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That afternoon
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"Mom, we're heading out to the mall," Setsuna called just before leaving the palace slowly pushing her two cousins out.

"Alright, just don't come home late!" An'ya called back.

"Wow, your mom isn't usually this easy to persuade," Andrew commented.

"I know. Well, since aunt Ryoko, grandma and uncle Tenchi are here, she must have some catching up to do."

Andrew nodded and looked at Sakura, "you haven't said a thing. Did the cat eat your tongue or something?"

Sakura shook her head.

"Then why don't you talk?" Andrew asked.

"About what?" Sakura answered.

"Well, how your life is down on Earth," Setsuna said.

"Life is okay down there. I am having some problems with my best friends though," Sakura admitted.

"Setsuna and I are best friends," Andrew said.

Sakura smiled, "I noticed. It must be nice being able to have whatever you want," she said to Setsuna.

"At times it is. It gets boring easy."

"Tell me about it," Andrew said, his head drooping. "Mother Ayeka doesn't let me do anything."

"We're already engaged to each other even though our mothers don't want to talk about it right now," Setsuna said.

Andrew's head drooped further. "I would have liked to be married to Tira," he admitted.

"Tira? That little poor girl? What's wrong with me?"

'Bad question,' Sakura thought, 'let's see him get out of this one.' She smiled.

"What are you smiling about?" Setsuna asked her.

"It's cool to know that I have cousins."

"Well, duh! I can't believe aunt Ryoko erased your memories. We were the closest of friends when we were little. Then that incident happened. I can't believe she banned us from Earth," Setsuna said.

"I know," Andrew continued.

Sakura sighed. As they reached the mall, Sakura was surprised at seeing so many stores. Sure, there were many stores in Tokyo but she had never seen a mall that was so huge. "Wow," she said under her breath.

"It's good enough," Setsuna shrugged, "you should see the mall in planet Toki. It's like a thousand times bigger than this one."

Andrew nodded, "how about we go to the Blue Eyes arcade?"

"Yeah!" Setsuna said enthusiastically.

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That night, a water fountain behind the mall
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Sakura sat looking at the sprinkling water that looked up at her. She had never recalled having such great fun in her life. Not even with her two best friends down on Earth. Not even when Terran and she had those long talks. 'I miss him,' she said to herself.

"You having fun?" Andrew asked coming from behind.

Sakura nodded looking back at him, "I've never had so much fun."

Andrew smiled and sat down besides her, "do you miss Earth?"

"Not right now," Sakura said looking into his eyes. 'He's even cuter in person,' she told herself. She giggled before turning her gaze back to the water looking at Andrew's reflection.

"What?" he asked.

"I was thinking that you look cuter than you did that time you called grandmother."

Andrew turned his gaze to Sakura's reflection in the water. He blushed and took her hand, "you're cute too. Just don't tell Setsuna I said that."

They both looked at each other and smiled. They had a hint of pink highlighting their cheeks, at least that is what they noticed before their lips met. Minutes later, their lips parted and an awkward giggle was heard from both teens.

"That was my first kiss," they both admitted.

Andrew took Sakura's hand in his, stood up and started guiding her back home.*



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* Setsuna had left earlier because she felt sick. Apparently, she ate too much food.

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A/N: Sorry for not writing this chapter sooner it's that I've been under a spell of writer's block and I've been busy.

Next time: The family visits planet Jir and they old head back home to Earth. Sakura starts to finally see what her powers are and gets a few lessons from her parents. Join me next time as the family has one more chance being together in chapter 8: Treasuring Old Memories