Unusual Feelings

"What's wrong Tenchi?" Eriko's lips were close to Tenchi's left ear; her dainty nose touched his cheek lightly. Her golden eyes glowed with warmth as she gazed deeply into his eyes but Tenchi's mind was on other things at the moment.

Shaking his head, he moved away from the overly friendly Eriko, "I'm just worried about Ryoko...She's been missing for over a week now..." His eyes lowered from Eriko's pearly smile to the sunset that was fading off in the distance. "I'm so worried about her...she always comes back after we fight...Washu can't even find her..." I hope she's alright...I should have apologized to her before I left-she was so heartbroken...

A determined expression appeared on Eriko's face as she tried to turn his attention back onto her, "Why are you so worried about her Tenchi-when you have me?" Slipping her delicate hand under his chin, she leaned forward and kissed him passionately.

Tenchi suddenly pulled away from Eriko with a disgusted look on his face, "How can you say that Lily?! I've known her for a very long time..." he shut his mouth when he was about to say more about the space pirate. He let a long sigh out, "I just hope she is okay..." Tenchi glanced back to the disappearing sunset, "I was too hard on her..."

Growing red in the face, Eriko pouted next to Tenchi on the back porch, "You like her more than me, don't you Tenchi?" She grew even redder in the face when Tenchi totally ignored her comment and just watched the sunset. "Whatever," Eriko got up and went back inside the small apartment that they had rented together, until Tenchi and she could afford a house closer to the city.

There was just a red glowing sky now, mixing and fading into a dark purple with a cloud of stars covering the top of the sky. "Please come back Ryoko..." Tenchi whispered, "I'm sorry..." He felt a cold breeze in the air, I hate to say this but...I miss you Ryoko... Shivering from the blowing wind, he got up and left the back porch to go inside to stay warm.

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"OPEN-YOU DAMN DOOR!!" Ryoko screamed at the top of her lungs as she rammed the door to her cell as hard as she could. Instantly, her energy sword appeared in her hands and she slashed it furiously at the solid door. Panting in frustration, she rammed the door again, Come on Puck-open the door so I can kill you!

Puck awoke with one eye open, "What in the world is she doing now?!" he grumbled unhappily as he left his seat at the control area. He heard loud bangs coming from the cell where Ryoko was being kept, he stopped at the front of the door and waited patiently for Ryoko to stop ramming the door down.

One more ram should do it...then you're mine... Ryoko thought threateningly to herself as she kicked the door and finally backed away from it with a dark look.

The door opened after Puck entered the codes, he peered inside the cell to see nothing but darkness. Without any warning, Ryoko attacked him with her energy sword in her hands, "You're mine!!" she hissed as she charged at him with all her force.

Ducking quickly, Puck barely missed the edge of Ryoko's sword, "Hey-no need to get all hostile here!" He jumped back a few feet when Ryoko took a swipe at him furiously, "Can't we talk about this?" he asked weakly as she went after him with the sword again.

"Take me back to EARTH!!" Ryoko cried as she made a ball of energy appear in her free hand, "Or I'll kill you!" Her eyes glowed a deep red at Eriko's brother, I'm not joking this time Puck...I'll kill you...

In a split second, Ryoko lunged at Puck with her orange energy sword edging closer to his throat. Puck stood there with an eager expression; at the very last moment, Ryoko's energy sword was stopped by Puck's green one. This caught Ryoko totally off guard; using this advantage, Puck grabbed the edge of her collar and flipped her onto the floor of the ship effortlessly. Placing his foot on her throat lightly, he pointed the end of his energy sword at Ryoko's pale throat.

"You know how long it took me to paint that door?" Puck laughed as he moved his foot away and made his energy sword disappear. "We're close to the system of Juria," he walked away from her like they had just been only sparring and not fighting to the death.

Ryoko leaped up with her jaw down, "Where did you learn that move?" she gasped as she rubbed her neck where Puck had placed his foot.

"From you actually...You taught it to me three hundred years ago-I think," he stretched his arms as he took a seat at the control area of the ship. "Have a nice nap?" Puck seemed to be in a different mood than he was yesterday.

Scratching her head, Ryoko tried to remember when she had shown him that move...it must have been part of the memories she had shut down such a long time ago. Ryoko went over to the front of the ship to see the system Juria on the main screen that Puck had pulled up for her to see, "What am I stealing?" she asked in a small whisper.

"Plenty of things...I'll show you when we get down there..." Puck pressed thousands of buttons to pull up images of some of the items his sister would be wanting back. "So...I guess you really like this Tenchi fellow, huh?" he asked as he glanced up from the computer keys.

Narrowing her eyes, Ryoko glared at Puck's personal question, "Why do you ask...?"

He shrugged uneasily, "You called out his name while you were sleeping," Puck turned away from his computer screen and keys. "You can always tell how much a person likes someone when they say their name whilst sleeping," the pirate winked to Ryoko.

Ryoko's glowed red, "You heard me say his name while I was sleeping?!" she hissed in a dangerous voice at him.

"I was just checking up on you-that's all, I swear-" Puck started to say when an alarm went off in the ship. "Shit..." he turned back to the controls, "The Galaxy Police have found the ship..." Placing his hands over the controls, he forced the ship to swerve right, barely missing an incoming energy beam that one of the Galaxy Police's ships fired at the pirates. "Brace yourself!" Puck warned as a Galaxy Police ship rammed into the right side of the ship.

Ryoko was ready for the collision; keeping her eyes on the main screen, she counted a total of seven Galaxy Police ships in hot pursuit of them. "I thought you had a cloaking system on this ship?!" she grumbled at Puck as he laid on the floor from the force of the ships hitting one another at a fast speed.

"It must be broken-I thought it was still on..." rubbing his shoulder, Puck jumped off of the floor and scrambled back to the controls.

A Lieutenant suddenly appeared on the main screen of the computer, "You are trespassing on royal grounds...You are under arrest-if you resist we will fire on you at will." Surprisingly enough, Ryoko knew the Galaxy Police Lieutenant; it was Mihoshi's alien father. The Lieutenant immediately recognized Ryoko also, "Ryoko?!" he yelled out loudly making the officers behind him turn to see the pirates on the main screen of their ship. Turning to them, Mihoshi's father ordered his officers to fire on Ryoko's ship without any hesitation.

"I hope you have a plan..." Puck mouthed to Ryoko as he kept the ship perfectly still; the pirate ship was now surrounded on all sides by Galaxy Police ships.

She nodded silently, "Let me have the controls..." Ryoko hissed with an excited look in her yellow eyes. Nearly pushing Puck out of his seat, Ryoko took control over the ship with a bright smile. "This is the last time you'll see the famous space pirate Ryoko, Lieutenant...enjoy it," she winked to Puck.

In a mad frenzy to try and shoot down the pirate ship, energy beams were sent in every direction; some even hit their own ships. Mastering the controls of the pirate ship in only seconds, Ryoko dodged all of the energy beams and managed to find an escape route down to the main Jurai planet.

Chasing after the pirate ship, the Galaxy Police formed into a tight niche firing as many shots as they could at the ship. Ryoko was laughing all the way, with Puck giving her weird looks in the pirate ship. Making a quick decision, Ryoko made the ship break right in front of the Galaxy Police; who were traveling as fast as they could to catch her. The Galaxy Police's ships served to miss ramming into the pirate ship, mistakenly ramming into one another and crippling the remaining ships out of the fleet.

Ryoko beamed pleasingly to Puck; who was green in the face from all the zigzagging and sudden stops; "That was fun," she said in a cheerful voice as she left the controls, "I'm done playing with the ship now..."

"Good..." Puck climbed off of the floor into his chair with a sick expression still lingering on his face. "You don't stay solemn for very long, do you?" he commented as he regained control over his sister's ship.

"What do you mean?" as Ryoko asked him this, it dawned on her what he was talking about-missing her beloved Tenchi. Glaring at Puck sourly, Ryoko turned her back on him and folded her arms across her chest smugly, "I'm still going to kill you..." she swore under her breath.

Puck of course, had heard her say this and just smirked secretly to himself about her surly comment; knowing that she would not try to kill him again-for he wasn't her enemy. "I guess you're ready to plunder and steal all the gold from Juria-right?"

The ex-space pirate just flipped Puck off in response, so he zipped his mouth shut until they got off the ship almost right in front of the place where Juria keeps all of its gold and the rest of their treasures. "So...who wants to go inside first?" he asked meekly as Ryoko snorted and brushed past him at a fast paced walk.

Stopping at the entrance to the Royal Palace, Ryoko noticed that there were no guards around what so ever. "Is it just me-or are we suddenly missing some guards and civilians around here?" Ryoko glanced around, but could not find anyone in sight except for Puck standing right behind her. "You know what, you can go inside first..." she snarled as she grabbed his collar and shoved him inside the palace ahead of her.