I don't own Tenchi Muyo or any related characters ect ect. Plot IS mine though! No takies!
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Tenchi tossed and turned in his bed. With a start he opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling. He'd been having a difficult time sleeping on their journey, no matter how exhausted he got. With a sigh that was barely audible he closed his eyes again and breathed deeply, trying to calm his ever buzzing mind.
He lay silent for a moment, listening to the noise of the space ship, before sitting up and heaving himself out of bed. He was in for another night of lost sleep and staring out the window. Still in his pajamas, long hair tousled and knotted from his restlessness, he left his room, ambling down the hall without destination. Compared to his dark room, the white light of the windowless hallway was blinding. He squinted, eyes watering.
Most nights, he'd go sit in the ship's living area on one of its worn couches. He enjoyed looking out of the large window in the room, watching as the tiny pinpricks of stars far away trailed through his vision. But Washu had recently discovered this new night time habit, and for the past few nights someone was always in the room when he'd entered. He was sure that his friends were worried, but he couldn't help himself. He'd tried going back to sleep, but staring at the ceiling until he did made him antsy and didn't work nearly as well as a late-night wanderings.
Tenchi continued to walk in silence down the hallway. His feet were leading him somewhere that his mind wasn't considering. To him, it didn't matter where he ended up, as long as he was alone while he was there. He'd found his greatest comfort recently in being alone. Not that he shunned the company of the others. He truly enjoyed them being there, together. It was more that he knew that since they'd started out he'd been a drag to talk to, and he often got into fights with the others. He didn't mean to, but since Ryoko had been taken, his fuse seemed to have shortened significantly. He wasn't himself at all, and it must be bad if even he noticed it himself.
Most of the bickers had been about the speed of their journey towards Jurai. He was often vocal about their insanely slow pace. He'd gotten into several small bickers with Washu and Kiyone. They'd never gotten far, and he was always quick to apologize, but they had made the atmosphere on the ship tense recently. From the moment he'd woken up in Washu's lab he'd wanted to follow and get Ryoko back as quickly as possible. But, this was not part of the agenda that they were following under Washu and Kiyone's leadership.
"We can't just rush into the situation!" Kiyone had stressed, as she did every time he'd brought up the subject of increasing their pace a little. "Mihoshi and I aren't even supposed to be in the Juraian sector! So our reason to be there needs to seem as unimportant as possible; especially during this time of general suspicion within Jurai."
"She's right Tenchi," Washu had added from her seat on Tenchi's other side. "As much as we all want to rush to Jurai, our one tiny ship can't take on the Juraian fleet. And do we really want to storm in making allegations about the royals of Jurai?"
Tenchi sighed loudly, snapping out of his thoughts. They were right; they couldn't rush recklessly into the situation. As much as he wanted to, he had no plan past actually getting to Jurai.
Tenchi looked up and around the hall. He didn't recognize where he was at all, which gave him a pleasant shock. He was sure he'd been all over the ship and down every passage at least once. Tenchi looked behind him, only seeing door-less walls, that curved around a bend and out of sight. Ahead of him was only more of the hallway which also disappeared around a curve. He stood for a moment, looking around. Then, he decided to continue down the hall the way he'd been headed. Perhaps he'd find a new room to occupy his time in.
The prospect of a new place on the ship to explore shook some of his mood off and he continued feeling better than he'd felt in a while. Turning along with the hallway, Tenchi found that at the end of this corridor was only a nondescript metal door. He knew he'd never been this way before for a fact now. The rest of the doors on the ship were a single metal door that slid to the side, but this one was two metal panels.
He approached the door cautiously, and stood before it waiting for it to open. After several moments though, nothing had happened. A hand consol on the wall caught his attention, and Tenchi put his hand on it. He didn't expect anything to happen, but he felt the warmth of sensors reading his palm-print and then an affirmative beep sounded and the door opened (much to his surprise).
Inside was a room he instantly recognized. It was the control room of the ship. Tenchi was surprised he hadn't recognized the way before, since on other trips on the ship he'd occupied the room a lot. He stepped in, almost cautiously, looking for a pilot. But no one was in the room except himself. He took a few more cautious steps forward, alert.
"Hello?"
No one answered him, and he approached the captain's chair to find it empty. A bit of his anxiety eased and he walked around the room more freely. There was really nothing interesting about the room, and since he didn't know what the buttons and levers did, Tenchi didn't bother trying anything. After a brief look around, he decided it was time to leave, and went for the door.
But, before he could leave, a screen caught his eye. On it a window was blinking, and read 'translation complete, press to continue'. Behind the window though, was what had really grabbed his attention. It was a picture of Ryoko, several years younger, dressed in her space-pirate uniform with a devilish grin on her face. Despite there being no one else in the room, Tenchi looked left and right guiltily, and then pressed the blinking red button on the side of the screen.
Much to his surprise, the article had been translated from (what he assumed had been) Juraian, to Japanese. He skimmed the article, and suddenly felt quite sick, leaning forward to brace himself against the control panel in front of him. To his left the doors to the room opened and Kiyone stood there, a steaming mug in her hand. She looked from Tenchi to the screen and back and her expression changed to apparent distress. Tenchi didn't bother to look at all.
"You read it?" she asked him, though she obviously knew the answer. Tenchi nodded anyway, unable to pull his eyes from the screen. There was a lump in his throat, and a foul taste in his mouth.
"You...you better come with me then." Looking paler than usual Kiyone turned and went back down the hall. After a moment Tenchi followed her. Kiyone lead them to the ship's living area, the door sliding open to show that Mihoshi and Washu were there, and up at that late hour. They were both seated on the purple couch by the window, and neither looked surprised to see Tenchi or Kiyone. Mihoshi though, was looking close to tears.
"Come sit Tenchi," Washu beckoned with none of her normal cheeriness. She motioned to the chair across from where she was sitting. Tenchi sat there awkwardly, Kiyone taking the seat next to him. There was silence for a moment, as Tenchi gathered his thoughts. Everyone seemed to be waiting for him to speak first.
"Was that news article true?" he finally said, as he collected his thoughts. Tenchi looked up and around at everyone. "About Ryoko attacking that maid that was delivering food to her? Do you really think she'd do that?"
Washu fixed him with a steady gaze. "Do you think she did?"
"No." There was a certain finality that he said that single word with, that hung in the silence following. Washu and Kiyone looked at each other, their expressions set.
"I guess there is only one thing left to do then," Washu said, turning brilliantly green eyes to Tenchi. "It is time for us to take up the offensive."
Tenchi's breath caught in his throat and he looked incredulously at Washu. He wasn't sure what to say, but he was feeling empowered. All the agitation he'd been feeling was finally finding a form, and a place to go.
"First thing we have to do is speed our pace up," Washu told the assembled, though her eyes were fixed on Tenchi. "We also need to get a better understanding of the situation on Jurai."
"How'll we do that?" Mihoshi asked, her voice still wavering slightly.
"By finding everything recent we can on Lord Kibishii, Lady Ayeka," Washu started, listing each off on her fingers. "Any other political conflicts going on right now, the situation and method surrounding Sasami's death..."
They were all silent for a moment, staring at each other from across the coffee table. Then Kiyone cleared her throat and looked around.
"Well, sitting around won't get us anywhere," she stated briskly, standing up. "I'm going to the control room to speed us up a bit, OK?" She looked directly at Tenchi when she asked this, her blue eyes fixed solemnly on his.
"OK..." he told her back, with a slight nod. His tone was serious, and ready for business. He watched Kiyone leave with hope in his heart, and as the conversation continued between Mihoshi and Washu, he felt his heart lighten considerably. As the stars outside the window started to speed past faster, his spirit lifted even more.
Looking at Mihoshi and Washu, Tenchi smiled slightly. It was his turn to help. It was embarrassing to him to realize after his boost of morale that he'd been very sulky, and of no help to them but to nag and sulk. What had happened to him to do that?
"Guys, I am going to go to bed now," Tenchi announced, as way of excusing himself. "Tomorrow, I'll start bright and early on gaining information." He beamed at them, running a hand through his hair, and then left.
But once back into his bedroom, Tenchi didn't fall to sleep right away. Crawling under his now cold covers, his mind stayed fixed on the mood that had previously gripped him. He was almost shocked at himself, and knew his father and grandfather (had the latter been alive still) would never have allowed him to wallow in self-pity like that. But why'd it happen?
Ryoko had gotten into trouble before. With a history like hers, it was no doubt hard to escape conflict entirely. But that had never happened to him before, with any of the girls. Through all dilemmas he'd remained confident and level-headed. Why had this, of all the things that could have gotten to him, become so big in his mind?
Quietly, his eyes strayed around the room with that thought churning in his mind. Why this time? Why Ryoko?
Think about this logically, he told himself. How does Ryoko being gone make you feel now?
Taking a deep breath, he searched for that answer.
He felt lonely, and concerned, and distressed. But there had to be something else, something new that hadn't been there before.
His mind regressed to that first evening that Ryoko had been back. To that peaceful, single evening they'd shared. When he'd opened the door and seen her standing there, windswept and beautiful in the last rays of the sun, his heart had skipped a beat. It wasn't at all what he'd had expected to feel when he'd see her again. In his own awareness of the increase of his heart beat, he'd stumbled over the only word that could find its way to his lips.
"Ryoko?"
Color had filled his cheeks, and his emotions seemed to mirror that same sheepishness she'd been feeling. Even as he welcomed her in and the two had sat down for dinner, he'd felt awkward. More like the bumbling naïve teen he'd been when she'd left. College had changed him in many ways, but sitting by her, he'd never been at more of a loss for words before.
That night, at the dock, he'd spilled to her those insecurities; how he was afraid she'd become fragile, how he'd be too rough. He'd made her cry. Ryoko had always been tough, but now suddenly just his words could hurt her; it was a frightening contrast.
He didn't think his apology had been enough. For a terrifying moment he'd been certain that his innocent mistake had ruined everything. But Ryoko had said those words, tenderly, perfectly.
"I don't want to leave this again."
It was abruptly alright again, and he'd tightened his embrace around her with a single thought in his mind.
"I don't want to leave this either."
Falling back to reality, and to the quiet buzzing of the spaceship, those words remained in his mind. He said them aloud, to whoever was or was not listening.
"I don't want to leave this either." It suddenly made sense, and he was shocked by its simplicity. His skin became hot, and his mouth became dry.
"I'm in love with Ryoko..." To say it aloud sounded strange, and final. But it was at the same time comforting. He knew that he'd been hiding it from himself since Ryoko had left that one evening five years prior. He'd had five years to dwell over that first and seemingly final kiss. Five years to collect her photographs and place them in his room. Five years to ask of her whenever Mihoshi and Kiyone had visited.
Did everyone but him know? Extreme awareness of his foolishness welled up inside. Why, even Ryoko herself must have realized it before him. Tenchi's eyes drooped with sleepiness. Even Ryoko...
That night he dreamed of her smile, to wake up and realize it hadn't been the first time.
-------------------- END CHAPTER 8
a/n –
I. AM. SO. SORRY. I was mia for what? A year? I apologize ten fold! I just...couldn't get a hold of Tenchi's character/major writers block/I just really didn't want to stop the focus on Ryoko yet. But I felt I had to show what was going on with everyone else (more so on Tenchi), so I refused to save this for later chapters.
This chapter was extremely difficult for me to write, and also a lot shorter compared to recent chapters. It actually just sat around stagnating for a long time until just a few nights ago, when a revelation of what to do with this section happened:D
The next chapter goes back to Ryoko, but fear not! The plot thickens, and soon we'll be getting stuff from all sorts of POVs (ok...at the moment it's only 3...but still)! But that is all I'll say:X