"Hi!" Mihoshi threw open the front door with youthful exuberance.  "Hi, hi, hi!"

            "Er, hello!" An attractive girl with long blue hair paced into Tenchi's home, clinging to her luggage desperately as Mihoshi pinned her with a friendly hug.

            "I haven't seen you forever!" The blond discontinued the embrace.  "I'm so glad you can stay with us for the week!"

            Washu winked at the pilots, obviously responsible for the good timing.

            "Well I'm glad, too!" The newcomer sighed as her luggage fell to the ground.  "I haven't exactly been able to make the rent lately… well in a long time, actually.  Not after I was fired from my detective position.  And now that I'm in between jobs…" She looked downcast.

            "Don't be sad!" Mihoshi encouraged her friend.  "Let me introduce you to all my wonderful friends!"

            Everybody was in the entryway, smiling warmly at the guest.  (Fine, the pilots were just staring.)

            "You know Tenchi, Ayeka, Sasami, Ryoko, and Sasami!  These are heroes from another dimension, Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei!  Everybody, this is my old friend Kiyone!"

            "Heroes from another dimension?" Kiyone queried as she shook hands with each of the pilots.  "Should I even ask?"

            Ayeka smiled sarcastically.  "Probably not."

            "Come sit down, Kiyone!" Tenchi gestured towards the sitting room.  Everybody followed his direction, but there were now so many guests in the home that some had to find a seat on the floor.

            Washu began elbowing Quatre viciously.  It had only been a few hours since they had been dismissed from class.  "What are you guys waiting for?" She hissed.

            "Kiyone used to work together in the police force!" Mihoshi explained cheerfully.  "She's really hard working."

            "I wouldn't say that." Kiyone grimaced.  "I've just worked a lot.  Lots of odd jobs and almost-careers to try to pay the rent, you know?"

            "Odd jobs?" Duo repeated the familiar phrase.  "Me too!"

            "It's no fun, is it?  Anyway, I'm really happy to be spending time here."

            The conversation continued casually.  Sasami excused herself to go work on dinner.

            A few hours later, everybody was finishing a delicious meal.

            "I'd almost forgotten how well you cook, Sasami!" Quatre said politely.

            Sasami blushed gracefully, ignoring an outbreak of screaming between Ayeka and Ryoko.  "Thank you!"

            Wufei grumbled and continued eating a huge pile of rice.  "Stupid women."

            "Well it's been an educational evening." Washu reminded her class blatantly.  "But I think it's time for us all to retire.  I've conjured up some quarters for all of our guests.  Follow me?"

            "Good night, everybody." Kiyone stood up.

            "This way." Washu beckoned.  "I took the liberty to create some inter-dimensional rooms for you.  Nobody has phobias about hyper space, do they?"

            "No, we're fine." Heero was just happy to be getting away from the chatty 'family.'

            "Good." Washu stopped in front of a wall and held up a mechanical controller.  She pressed some buttons and a perfectly average looking door appeared where there was just a blank hallway before.  "This is for you guys.  Sleep tight.  And don't forget about your eternal quest for knowledge!" She spat out the last word and cocked her head in Kiyone's direction.

            Trowa glared at them both and was the last to enter the room, shutting the door loudly behind him.

            "What was that all about?  Eternal quest?" Kiyone looked nervously at the mad scientist.

            "Oh, they're die-hard scholars.  Want to see your room?"

            "Okay…"

            "Hm." Heero evaluated the room.  "She didn't go out of her way, did she?" The space was mostly barren, except for five plain beds lined up evenly across one wall.

            "Probably some plot to get us to pass that class." Wufei snorted and collapsed into one of the beds.  "Maybe she thinks sparse living quarters will drive us crazy?"

            "Or into plusher surroundings." Duo sat onto the next bed.  "The girls' rooms look pretty nice.  Should we see if they're feeling lonely tonight?"

            "Duo!" Quatre tossed a pillow at his friend, somewhat playfully.  "Didn't you pay attention in class?  Girls want to be respected.  You don't just walk into their rooms in the middle of the night and say…" He blushed.

            Trowa folded his arms behind his head, ignoring how uncomfortable the bed was.  "And say, 'lonely?  Want to WHAP'?" He completed the sentence blandly.

            "Want to WHAP, please." Heero corrected him, lobbing a pillow at his face.  "Now be quiet, Quatre's turning green."

            Actually, it was more of a fuchsia color.  "That's horrible!"

            "Oh come on, Quatre!" Duo flung the pillow back at him.  "It must have crossed your mind.  That's the nature of our final."

            "It didn't cross my mind." Wufei said forcefully.  He rolled over and pretended to sleep.

            "Hm." Duo relaxed as best he could, but quickly realized that this was like sleeping on a rock.  A pointy rock.  "Kiyone's pretty hot, isn't she?"

            Trowa kept the pillow Heero shot at him and tried to make the bed more tolerable with it.  "Is she your 'target,' Duo?"

            Quatre changed colors again.  "Does anybody else think this whole assignment contradicts the entire lesson we're supposed to be learning?"

            "What do you mean?" Heero tried to reclaim his pillow, but Trowa wouldn't let it go.

            "I mean, what's romantic about tricking some random girl into thinking we're interested in them?  That's cruel… not respectful at all."

            Wufei opened his eyes again.  "What choice do we have?  The rules are clear.  I hate this whole thing, but we have to get home."

            "That's right." Trowa finally gave up the pillow.  "We should just think of it as another battle… only the opponent has polished finger nails, and an appetite for poetry."

            "Opponent?" Quatre sighed and returned to his natural hue.  "That's even worse than calling them a target."

            "Well if you don't like it, then don't finish the assignment." Heero arranged the reclaimed pillow on his bed and tried it out.  "Because there's still one too many of us, and it won't hurt our chances if you drop out."

            "Good going, Heero!" Duo reversed his head and feet, seeing if the bed would be more comfortable that way.

            "Shut up all of you, I'm trying to sleep!" Wufei growled.

            "You don't have to give up, Quatre." Trowa said.  "Actually, your odds are pretty good, considering that incident when Tenchi and the girls ended up in our dimension.  As a matter of fact, you probably could walk right into Mihoshi's room right now and say-"

            "Don't say it!" The blonde's complexion went rather blue.

            Duo jumped out of the bed and started fluffing the mattress energetically.  "If you can't even say it, you're never getting home."

            "Yeah." Heero took his pillow and tried resting on the floor.  "You can't even listen to it without imitating a vomiting rainbow."

            "I don't care.  That has nothing to do with getting a girl to say 'I love you'."

            "Well we'll see." The fluffing hadn't improved the quality of Duo's bed in the least.  "See you in the morning."