Who Said This Was The End?

Love is a very powerful emotion, it can make the strongest men fall down to their knees…it can even rule the gods. This emotion can bond two beings from different ends of the world-or the universe. Once this emotion has gotten to you, it is very hard to let it drift away from your life. Love keeps everything alive in the universe; it colors our lives and makes it more worth living. But this emotion can also have terrible prices…Some will die for the ones that they love or sacrifice themselves just to experience the emotion. Loving someone dear can last for an entire lifetime-if the emotion is lost…most can never learn how to love again. This emotion is priceless in our lives; therefore we must use it wisely…

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The Masaki House has been empty for a few years now; the only movement is the wind blowing leaves across the back porch of the house. Everything had been left in their usual spots, untouched by human or alien hands for five years. Brooms and cleaning buckets were covered with dust and dried-up leaves as they leaned against the back of the house. Inside the house, there was only darkness and stale air awaiting anyone who decided to enter this deserted house. Upstairs, all the rooms had been swept clean-the alien girls had finally returned to their home planets.

As for Tenchi's room, it was just as bare as the girls' rooms except for a small picture frame sitting on the wooden window sill. The photograph contained all of the members of the household, each one smiling and laughing. There was one addition to the household, a silver-haired space pirate could be found holding a girl's hand; who was sticking her tongue out towards another girl.

Standing in his bedroom, Tenchi remembered the entire fuss over the group picture. Ayeka did not want the picture taken until her hair was entirely dry and she was finished with her morning routine. Sighing loudly, the ten other members of the household had to wait for twenty minutes until the princess was done beautifying herself. Once that was taken care of, Sasami could not find Ryo-oki; so waiting for another twenty minutes, Sasami came back outside to the group with the space rabbit held tightly in her arms. Sneakily, Ryoko messed the back of Ayeka's hair while she was not paying attention. The princess did not realize what the ex-space pirate had done until her sister was laughing at the sight of her hair. A fight commenced between the two, Puck and Tenchi had to pull the two apart to stop it; the two girls were sent to different ends of the group to cease the fighting. Mihoshi suddenly wanted to wear her Galaxy Police hat, so she had to run back into the house to find it; she ended up coming back out with a totally different hat than what she wanted in the first place. Smacking her forehead the entire time, Kiyone tried to ignore her partner the best she could. Washu finally decided to test out her new invention that would supposedly take pictures, but it misfired and exploded in her face. Bolting back inside the house, Tenchi was forced to find his old fashion camera; which took another ten minutes. With a different camera this time, Washu started to take the picture but realized that someone was missing from the group. Trying to stay unnoticed, Puck was standing off in the background behind Washu as she flipped around to look for him. With five more minutes of coaxing Puck to join in on the family picture, the picture was taken-in a matter of two hours.

"Everyone is gone…" Tenchi whispered to himself as he tightened his grip on his green backpack, "I thought I would never see this day." He had always believed that the alien girls would live with him until his dying day, but once one of the girls left…the rest seemed to follow.

Mihoshi and her smarter partner, Kiyone, were once again united. They moved away from Earth to rejoin their comrades in the Galaxy Police Station close to the planets of the Jurai system. Upon returning to the station, they were promoted from lowly officers to highly-recognized chiefs. The two partners never married due to their considerable amount of time they had to spend catching space pirates. Mihoshi and Kiyone remained the best of friends until the very end, no matter how ditzy Mihoshi could be.

The mad scientist had finally decided that it was time for a change of scenery also. Washu packed all of her computers, inventions, scientific projects, and strange objects into two bloated suitcases. As a goodbye present, Washu gave Tenchi a communicator that she had invented. Tenchi really never knew where Washu had gone to, but he heard from her every once and a while. Even though he didn't tell anyone, Tenchi missed having Washu make crazy tests and inventions…The house was getting quieter with every girl that left Tenchi's home.

Soon after Washu had left for a distant planet, Sasami and Ayeka were planning their trip back to their home planet. Their father and mothers were ready to have them back ruling, but Ayeka always wished that she had stayed on Earth. When it was time for the two sisters to leave, they were bailing on Tenchi's shoulders. The long trip home was very painful for the both of them, but they managed to survive without Tenchi. Ayeka took her father's place as ruler once he was no longer fit to do so, with her sister as her close advisor and best friend. After a few years of being back home, Ayeka had finally found someone suitable enough to marry. She married one of her royal guards, who strikingly resembled Tenchi at a younger age, and they had two children. Being the ruler of her planet, Ayeka had no time to visit Tenchi back on Earth-she soon lost contact with him. Before Ryoko had left, the ex-space pirate sullenly parted with her favorite pet, Ryo-oki. Ryo-oki desperately wanted to go with Sasami back to Jurai, but the space rabbit also wanted to stay with its owner. Making it easier for Ryo-oki, Ryoko decided for her pet to join Sasami and Ayeka. Sasami and Ryo-oki were thereon stuck together like glue, one wouldn't go anywhere without the other. The jewel that connected Ryoko and Ryo-oki was removed from Ryo-oki's forehead; Ryoko never saw her faithful pet ever again.

Sighing, Tenchi tore his eyes away from the photograph, "I'll miss them…" Silently leaving his darkened room, Tenchi went back downstairs and headed towards the front door. He took one last look around his house, this was the last time he was going to see it like this. A faint smile appeared on Tenchi's lips as he remembered everything that had happened since he had been in this house. Turning his back to his past, Tenchi opened the front door, locking it behind him as a tear rolled down his cheek. "I'll miss it all…"

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Watching the sunset off in the distance, Ryoko took a seat on the edge of a jagged rock that was lodged deep into the sand. Closing her eyes, she could hear the distant waves of the ocean clashing against the shore of the golden beach. This is the sound of my home… Ryoko had not realized what it felt like to be somewhere you belong, to feel at home.

Yes, she did miss the Masaki house back on Earth, but she did not belong there-Ryoko always felt like an intruder on Earth. Opening her yellow eyes, Ryoko watched the golden hue of the two suns fade into a darker shade of red and then into a hue of royal purple. A glittering tear tumbled down her cheek, I miss Tenchi…But he's gone now…Glancing away from the sunset, Ryoko quickly wiped the tear away from the bottom of her chin.

A gentle hand touched her right shoulder; looking back up, Ryoko's yellow eyes were being gazed into by steel colored eyes. "Hey beautiful," Puck whispered as he raised his hand to touch her wet cheek. "Are you alright?" he asked in a soft voice as he pushed her blue hair away from her yellow eyes. Staring into her eyes, he could tell that she had been crying. Puck took a seat on the sand next to Ryoko's feet; he lifted his head up high to watch his love think. "You should go and visit him…" he suggested with a little cough.

Ryoko went pale and turned her head towards him, "I couldn't leave you here all alone…" Her voice was calm now; the rush of the ocean had filled the ex-space pirate with peace. "I've just never spent this long without seeing him…" she lowered her head and placed her hand on her dry cheek. Silently she glanced over to her beloved Puck; he was watching her with a faint smile on his face.

There was a crooked look in his steel eyes, "Five years is long enough to stop madly obsessing about someone, don't you think?" he laughed at her when she just blushed in reply. For a moment, he turned away from Ryoko to catch a glimpse of the fading suns off in the horizon of the ocean. "Go see him, Ryoko," he whispered as he leaned against her bare legs.

Laughter came from Ryoko, "Don't give me that look…" she grumbled when she had suddenly noticed that Puck was giving her the puppy eyes. Pausing for a brief moment, Ryoko thought of what to tell him. "It's better if I don't see him ever again…" Ryoko's hand reached down below the rock as she carefully ruffled his silver hair.

Puck pushed himself away from the rock, "But you've known him since he was born, Ryoko…" Staring her down stubbornly, Puck finally dropped the subject when she appeared to be on the verge of tears. "Do you regret any of it?" he whispered to Ryoko as he turned his back on her to watch the purple hue in the sky turn to blue and then to black.

Regret? Is he talking about me regretting ending up with him instead of Tenchi? Jumping off her jagged rock, Ryoko went behind Puck and wrapped her arms around his waist. Sighing loudly, she rested her head on the edge of his shoulder as she gave him a tight hug. Ryoko wanted to give him a truthful answer, she thought long and hard about her past-even to before she had met Tenchi. Finally, she spoke of what she really regretted, "I wish I could have found you sooner…" she whispered sweetly in his ear.

A smirk spread across Puck's lips, "You are lying," he muttered coyly as he turned his head to the right to see her soft yellow eyes.

Shaking her head in reply, Ryoko gave him another tight hug, "If I had met you sooner, I would have had a real home…" she sighed solemnly. "If I had met you sooner-I would have known what it had felt like to be loved back…" Ryoko stopped when Puck touched her hands and held them tightly.

"I believe you, Ryoko…always have…" Puck released her hands as he turned to face her with a weak smile. "I regret that we met under the circumstances that we did," scratching the back of his head, Puck gave Ryoko an uneasy look. "Of course, with that all said…" Puck started to dig into his pockets in his vest to find something. "Damnit where is it-" he grumbled after a few moments of searching all of his pockets. He regained his coolness as he reached for Ryoko's left hand and slipped something onto her finger, "Will you marry me then?"

Tears filled the corners of Ryoko's yellow eyes, "Why wouldn't I say no?" she laughed as she jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I love you too much to say no…" she winked as the two kissed.

Slyly, Puck twirled her around in the sand and stopped her a few inches away from him. "We could go to Sanurai for our honeymoon," he whispered as he dramatically pulled her closer to him.

Ryoko gave him an odd expression, "Isn't Sanurai the place where they have solid gold statues of every emperor in that galaxy?" she whispered as her eyes began to sparkle with joy.

"Precisely, my dear…"

THE END