Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or ideas from Tenchi Muyo, Tenchi Universe, and or Tenchi in Tokyo and so on. They are copyrighted by AIC & Pioneer. I am only writing this for entertainment and the Ryoko and Hotsuma Legion. NOT for cash so please, please, pleeeeeeeeease don't sue me. I don't have much of value but my cute wittle puppy. A few graphic novels, and some Ryoko pics. My sex slave (He knows who he is). If this story seems similar to your own or someone you know, don't tell me cause I don't give a damn anymore.

Thank you TaiFighter! I forgot to tell how much time passed between TIT and my story. I'll jimmy that in somehow.

Denying the Feeling

Ryoko laid relaxed on her back on the queen sized bed, her fingers gently brushing over the teal and gold canopy hanging above her head. She was shocked to find out that her chambers had not been bothered with since her departure, but it was more of a shock to see that Hotsuma had kept it in a clean condition.

Was he excepting her back? Ryoko thought little of this as she continued to wonder with a bottle in one hand and the other playing against the thin netting above her.

Ryoko thought about how she presented herself, or more likely who she believed she was. She always believed that she was strong. No doubt about that, she was mentally and physically strong, she had to be with what she went through with Kagato. She believed that she was strong, she acted strong and no doubt she was the strongest of all of the girls and men on Earth. Or so she believed. It was amazing to realize that she really wasn't that; it seemed all to be just a mere tendril of a thought to keep her from falling apart or breaking down whenever Tenchi rejected her.

So why did I pretend? Ryoko wondered to herself. Why do we pretend just to prolong the inevitable?

"So we can spare ourselves the pain." A soft voice said.

Ryoko rolled over onto her belly careful not to spill the sweet contents of the bottle. She looked towards the bed end glaring at an exact double of herself seated crossed legged observing her with a kind expression smiling in her eyes.

"Will you stop doing that?" Ryoko shouted.

***

Hotsuma stood watching Ryoko the faint blue glow of the monitor casting beautiful yet eerie glow over his visage. Watching Ryoko had always been a joy to Hotsuma, there was something about her that made him want to stare at her for hours just to find what it was exactly that made her so attractive. He didn't watch her with perverted thoughts, he admired her too much for that, he just watched her silently in the dark.

Hotsuma removed his glasses to rub his eyes; they must be deceiving him for he saw two beautiful Ryoko's seated on the large bed. The new Ryoko had a more gentle look about her that showed she was not the Ryoko he knew but more as a part of her he wish his Ryoko would show. He quickly activated the sound. "I thought you would be use to this by now, Ryoko." The second said.

"Zero you are always appearing out of nowhere when I least expect you." Ryoko said handing her double the bottle. "You could at least warn me ahead of time."

"I am so sorry." She said pausing to take a sip from the bottle. "Mmm this is good. He wants you to stay." Zero said looking down at the bottle. "But you already know that, don't you?" She asked shifting her eyes from the bottle to Ryoko.

Ryoko humph loudly as she sat back against the headboard of the bed. "No. Why should I trust him? He did lie to me and tried to kill me." Ryoko pointed out.

Zero smiled as she gave the bottle back to Ryoko. "Let us go over the evidence shall we? He pretended to be defeated so that you could go back to Tenchi."

Ryoko took a long swig from the bottle. "No, he pretended to have died because he knew I was going to kill him anyhow." Ryoko said.

"But he still cares for you; I can see it in his eyes. You can see it too." Zero stated watching Ryoko carefully.

"As I recall he called me a barbaric brat, who cares only for money, getting drunk and wrecking things."

"And you weren't acting like one at the time?" Zero asked titling her head to the side. Ryoko glared daggers at her double. Zero only smiled knowingly disregarding Ryoko's glare. "You forget I was with you the whole time. I am always with you."

Ryoko had to admit, if only to herself, that she had indeed treated Hotsuma poorly. At the time she was trying to find something to fill the deep void within her Tenchi had left behind. But could she be blamed that he was sent to be her rebound?

Ryoko teleported herself from the bed to reappear at the door, she turned back towards Zero. "I'm going to get something else to drink do you want anything?" She asked.

Zero held up her hand as she shook her head no. "I'm just going to go back inside. But remember I'm watching you." Once Ryoko was gone Zero repositioned herself so that she sat on her knees. Her gentle golden eyes drifted to the side until she stared directly at the hidden camera. She gave Hotsuma a knowing grin as she winked one eye then vanished from sight.

***

Zero's words had struck Ryoko like daggers in the heart. Had she not admitted to Hotsuma's words before?

Yes, yes she did. She was in the bath as she recalled the nice lovely bath almost the size of an Olympic pool. She had just overheard Hotsuma talking to someone about her behavior. He spoke of how she was a selfish barbarian, an animal perhaps worse, and an insolent bitch he no longer wanted to deal with.

She was drifting backward contemplating on how Hotsuma had labeled her. '...You're right about me drinking too much and being selfish...'

Ryoko scoffed in disgust at herself. After all wasn't it he who blew up Gaiyan thinking that she was inside? Wasn't it he who lured her out into space at to get her away from Tenchi? Wasn't it he who said they should have disposed of her instead of going through such an elaborate plan?

But if they didn't go through with the plan would either one of them have the feelings they have now?

Ryoko humph aloud, she was going soft. Ryoko then recalled the rest of her thoughts. 'But at least I'm upfront I don't slink around in the shadows and sneer people and stab them in the back. You lowlife after all we've been through!'

Ryoko's upper lip was curled into a snarl, showcasing her pointed incisors, and her hands clenched together as she unconsciously hovered a foot off of the floor. The sharp crack of the glass bottle giving way under the pressure of her clutched fist brought Ryoko back to the present. She shook her head and took a deep breath. She needed to relax.

Ryoko looked at the cracked bottle clutched in her strong nimble fingers. "I think I've drowned enough of my sorrows in booze." She said but didn't set the bottle down she just continued to stare at it thoughtlessly titling the neck from side to side making the liquid inside swirl until it formed a small cyclone. "I do drink too much." She mumbled to herself releasing the bottle leaving it to fall to its ill fate on the stone pantry floor.

-*-

Ryoko was glad to see the bath steaming hot and ready for her. Simple pleasures pleased her. Like drinking saki while relaxing in a hot spring, that was a mere joy that brought her the utmost content. It was times like those that she understood how a carrot could please Ryo-ohki. Maybe it was because she never had any luxuries to begin with. Kagato never give her anything, he never praised her. He just used his little marionette to his pleasure alone.

Ryoko sighed dreamingly, as her hair became leaden when wet. As she floated backwards she thought for the first time in days how the others were doing. Most likely they would have missed her, but it wasn't as if she was much to them, all she did was laze about the house picking fights with Ayeka. Ryoko smiled at how easy it was for her to invoke the snotty princess and vise versa. But she knew Washu would have missed her most of all, she was after all her daughter. Though they didn't look or frequently act the part. She was nothing like Washu.

'Why did you create me with faults Washu? Why didn't you make me more like you? You will be known throughout the universe as the number one scientific genius, the mad scientist, but still a genius. Where as I will be remembered as the bloodthirsty demon who mercilessly destroyed and plundered. Your only mistake.' Ryoko shook her head removing the depressing thoughts from her mind.

Ryoko sighed as she sat onto the edge of the bath. She needed to do something to clear her mind. Thinking led to depression, and depression led to drinking, and for once Ryoko didn't want to drink, forcing herself into a state of numb drunkenness, she wanted to be sober for some apparent reason or another.

"You're not a mistake, and you are not some defective machine." Zero's voice echoed in the room moments before she appeared in the water. "Washu loves you; you are her daughter, her flesh and blood. She made you using her own ovum, Ryoko."

Ryoko laid down on her belly and twirled her fingers in the raising steam of the hot bath water, her fingertips gently skimming the surface from time to time. "If I were perfect I guess I wouldn't seem so human."

"You wouldn't be human." Zero corrected.

With a gentle sigh Ryoko rolled onto her back looking over to Zero who floated belly up in the water. "I'm not human...and I'm not Jurain. I'm just-" She stopped as the words escaped her.

Zero looked over at her. "Ryoko." She finished for her.

Ryoko smiled at Zero. She enjoyed how Zero knew just what to say. She knew her mind almost better than she did. In a way she was the person Ryoko hid away deep inside, the person who was smarter, kinder, and to most others a better person. "But what does that make me besides special?" Ryoko asked.

Aero looked at Ryoko, burning golden eyes locked together. "Sometimes being special means being lonely, Ryoko. We both know that. But you don't have to be, you aren't alone anymore."

"You say that like I don't know that already!" Ryoko snapped.

Zero swam over to Ryoko. "Then why are you denying the feeling?" She asked.

Ryoko gave her a look of confusion. "What feeling?" Ryoko asked. Zero gave Ryoko a look of disappointment before she vanished.

Ryoko continued to run her fingers through the water. "Dumb Zero, she has no idea what she's talking about." Ryoko mumbled to herself as she walked to the mirror and looked over her nude frame. She was proud of her body, as she should be she had the body to flaunt. She traced over her oblong ears, her long incisors that were fondly called fangs, and the golden glint of her feline like eyes. "Why did Washu make me so fallible?" She asked aloud. Releasing a defeated sigh Ryoko drew her fingers over the foggy face of the mirror.

~*~

Hotsuma stared at Ryoko from the deep shadows, watching her as she wrote on the mirror. Why did she think she was flawed? Was Tenchi the cause of these self-conscious interjections?

He too then began to wonder. Why did Yugi make him imperfect? She had the power, so why require him the need of glasses?

Hotsuma removed the thin frames to clean them of the vapor build. The images in the distance blurred into fuzzy shapes. It was amazing how vulnerable he was without the little tool of glass and wire.

The sound of vibrating mater drew him out of his thoughts. Replacing his gasses on the ridge of his nose to see Ryoko had left.

Hotsuma had nothing to do; maybe he'd follow Ryoko's example and take a bath. Before he went to filter the water he remembered that Ryoko had written something on the mirror.

Hotsuma,
Take a picture, it'll last you longer.

Hotsuma laughed lightly to himself, Ryoko was a perplexing woman to allow his spying to go on when she knew for so long. But how long had she known? Perhaps she knew he was spying since she caught him plotting to kill her.

Had it really been a little over a year since they showdown in the blowing snow. 'Love, something guys like you don't understand.' Ryoko had told him as they began to face off.

"You don't realize how wrong you are Ryoko." Hotsuma said. "Because of you I understand how it feels."

~*~

"Are you sure your Ryo-ohki is fit to travel again?" Hotsuma asked looking up into the sky at the cabbit turned starcraft.

Ryoko closed her eyes and smiled. "It's been a full week of lounging and carrots for her, I think she's most than just rested. Bye Hotsuma." Ryoko said flying up towards Ryo-ohki.

Hotsuma watched for a second as she flew away. "Goodbye Ryoko," He said. He tucked his hands into his pockets to protect them from the cold. "We made great partners in crime together." He added under his breath turning away.

Ryoko spun around and looked back down at the golden haired man. 'Are you really going to just leave him like this?' Zero asked.

'He might get lonely.' Ryo-ohki added her childlike voice to the conversation in Ryoko's mind.

Loneliness. A deep deep pain that you can feel take over your entire body. It stabs you numbly and you can't feel anything else but. It tightens about your stomach making you lose your appetite yet you can still feel the bite of hunger along with the dull yet painful bite of loneliness. And it makes one cry unexpectedly, without warning or reason. If not dealt with the loneliness will dwell in the heart turning slowly into bitter resentfulness.

"Hey Hotsuma!" Ryoko called hovering in the air.

Hotsuma turned and looked up at her.

"Well I was wondering if um... that is that Ryo-ohki and Zero said that I should um..." Ryoko looked down into the snow scratching her right forearm. What is up with me? Why am I so nervous over one stupid question? "Ah! If you don't what to stay on this block of ice then you had better hurry up; I'm not freezing my tail on this iceberg a minute longer!" Ryoko stated.

Hotsuma only smiled but quickly hid it by bowing. "As you say my dear."

______________________
End o' part 3

PS sorry it took so long. Back in school.