---    
Disclaimer:  I claim no rights, express or implied, over any of the
characters, names, places, events or descriptions contained in the    
Tenchi Muyo series.  My use of the aforementioned items is for    
strictly non-profit and personally recreational purposes.    
---

     Sasami closed her eyes and willfully forgot she had a body.
     She let herself fade, her self fade, until she felt it- the    
first twinge of solar wind, the first rustle of space dust, the first
tug of the gravity wells...
     She opened eyes and saw eternity stretching out in all    
directions.
     Her eyes narrowed.  Seeing was not enough.  Not for this job.
     The princess stretched out her awareness and washed her self    
over the surface of eternity as though it were a fluid thing.  She    
let the depths of her being embrace, envelop, and flow over every
micron, gently testing and feeling, letting the tactile and the    
spiritual merge into a kind of sensual, erotic freedom of    
determination that sought all and knew all...
     She came upon something with hard edges and angles, something
that resisted the seduction of her spirit.
     *There.*
      She enfolded her soul over the object, caressing it, covering
it, imprinting the shape inside her, then bringing it gently toward
the surface of her knowledge until it rose, ascendant and urgent
in her mind.
     *Ryou-oh-ki!*
     Her will snapped down on it like the jaws of a wild beast.
     And a hundred weapon barrels flared...    
--
     Ryouko arced through the stars as an angel on the wing.
     The paths of astrophysics and instinct merged and then splayed
out before her.  Everywhere she turned, she saw tunnels, twisting
wormholes of possibility and path that danced between the beams as    
though carved by a mad wizard who had learned to dance between the    
drops of an acid rain.  She chose a tunnel, followed it until she had
a space to breathe, to think, to analyze, then she turned to her more
natural instinct.
     Ryouko barred her fangs and snarled.  *I smell your blood!*
--
     Sasami felt her will slide from the surface of the target as    
though it were made of smoke and dreams.  Will was not enough, not    
this time... there was fire and blood in this thing, she could feel
the heat and the pulsing heart within it.  No, will was not enough.
     She narrowed her focus, remembering nerves and sinew,    
remembering flesh and bone...
     The princess remembered her body, but not as it had been.
     She screamed of the purifying pain of self-loss.  She gave of    
her body, gave fire to fire, and blood to blood.  She felt part of    
her body leave her, only to re grow anew, yet somehow slightly
different.  The part of her that had left was somehow still within
her, and she re-focused her will to controlling that which was no    
longer hers to control, yet was entirely of her body...
     *Let me touch you, though I am yet afar, my love...*    
--
     Ryouko’s ears rang with the alarm.  Torpedoes inbound and    
tracking.
     Ryouko had had enough of dancing.  She smelled the blood.  She
needed it.  The lust was unquenchable.  Her veins burned.  Her tongue
was raw and swollen.  Her vision swam with the need of it.
     She looked upon her quarry and saw it lash at her, but it was    
the desperate gasp of a prey run to ground.  Or so she wanted it to    
be, NEEDED it to be, because anything else would delay the slaking
of her thirst, and she could not bear that thought.
     The space pirate stared at the torpedoes until she could read
the serial numbers off their warheads, watching, empathizing,
loving, yes loving them, until her mind hummed with their circuitry,
and she could see the world as they saw it, and knew their will and
their purpose.
     Then she ripped their hearts out.
     Ryou-oh-ki slipped between the missiles as though dancing a    
minuet.  Proximity detectors clicked, fuses armed, warheads    
exploded... but never in time, and never on target.  Ryouko laughed.    
     *I can hear your heart... will it beat as I eat of it?*    
--
     Sasami felt her disembodied self grasp only nothingness,
until tears streaked down her face from the pain of the remorseless
dissolution that overtook her reach.  She could feel the hot breath
of the target now, and see the red glow of its eyes upon her.  She    
gave herself up to those devouring eyes, letting them rove over her,
drink her in, making love to them as though teasing an admirer’s
stare, seducing the gaze, leading it farther and farther and farther
into the bliss of illusion...
     *Yes... look at me... I am naked before you... or so you think!*
--
     Ryouko found what she sought.  The target’s geometry and anatomy
was spread wide before her as though on a dissecting table; skin and
fat and muscle peeled back, every last tendon and bone stripped
bare until she could see with perfect, ecstatic clarity the    
sensitive, pulsing, delicate heart of the prey.  Oh, how she longed
to eat of that heart... she had to have it... the warm, salty,    
stinging taste of it... she wanted it so badly...
     *And I want it NOW!*
     Ryou-oh-ki twisted impossibly and brought its main gun to bear.
Energy lanced forth in a climax of energy and release that tore    
asunder the very fabric of the universe.  Ryouko shuddered in    
expectant joy.  *Let me eat of you... let me taste you... I will    
consume you, and I will brook no refusal!*    
--
     Sasami felt the lascivious eyes fix upon her, felt them pause,
felt them violate her body with their terrible intensity.  And upon
that point she laid her hands in denial, and into those hands she let
flow the sum total of her being.  Body again melted away, as did    
space, and time, and self and even the very dimensional matrix which
held the self, until pure, unending, complete, and overwhelming
beauty pierced her heart and slew her in ways that brought phantom
cries of mythic ecstasy from incorporeal lips...    
--
     Ten wings of the light hawk sprung into existence, covering
the IJSS TSUNAMI in an impenetrable shield...
     But only in one plane.    
--
     Ryouko shouted with exultant, consummated joy as her fire    
streaked past the TSUNAMI, not where she had held her sensor lock,
but onto the surface of a nearby moon.  The planetoid exploded
into a fiery outpouring of rock and plasma.    
--
     Sasami’s eyes snapped open.  She had not time to reestablish
her sense of self.  She was too deeply enthralled by the nirvana
of the light hawk wings.
     The plasma wave did the reestablishing for her.
     TSUNAMI melted into fractured cosmos as the hammer of the    
onrushing shockwave smashed into the unguarded port side.  Secondary
explosions and chain-reaction structural failures shot through the    
ship faster than thought.  In the blink of an eye, TSUNAMI was    
gone...
     ...leaving Sasami hyperventilating and retching on the floor
of the simulator.    
--
     Ryouko fell to her knees, shuddering in the aftermath of    
realized desire.  A faint trickle of blood flowed from her lip where
she’d pierced it through with a fang during the throes of her    
astronautical seizures.  Her sweat-sheened skin glistened in the    
spotlit glow of her simulator circle.  She could hear Sasami choking
and vomiting in the other circle, but she could not yet move to help
her.  She could, however, raise her head.    
--
     Sasami felt the eyes upon her, and painfully elevated her gaze
from the floor to meet Ryouko’s stare.  She smiled weakly, opened
her mouth to speak- and then snapped it shut as a wave of nausea
swept over her.  Ryouko smirked, then lay herself down and groaned.
     “Kid,” she said in a hoarse, exhausted voice, “I’m getting
to old for this.”    

----

     The simulator building hadn’t had a shower facility when it was
first built.  After all, why should it?  It was a classroom,
just like any other, except perhaps with a few more computers.
It certainly wasn’t a gymnasium, and there was no conceivable
reason that a locker room should be attached to the building.
That is, until Ryouko and Sasami had started their “sparring”
matches on the Virtual Combat floor.  Not long thereafter, a women’s
changing room and shower had been added to the lavatory.  It was    
amazing how being a member of the Family Imperial could make one’s
life easier.
     Right now, Sasami was damned glad of that little nuance.  She    
leaned forward, popping her lower vertebra and letting high-velocity
hot water play over her back.   She could feel her muscles    
unknotting.  *One more reason I hate losing,* she decided.  *It hurts
a hell of a lot more.*  The princess straightened up and stepped
backward into the spray.  “Mist,” she said simply.
     The concentrated spray that had been pounding her back and    
shoulders evaporated into a billowing fog of hot water droplets.
She inhaled deeply and stood perfectly still.  After a moment, Sasami
could feel the sweat begin to pour off her.  It quickly mixed with
the omnipresent water and flowed in rivulets off her body.  She was
dimly aware that it somewhat defeated the purpose of taking a shower
to induce sweating, but the heat and the subsequent opening of her    
pores felt too damned good for her to care.
     A yellow, slitted eye appeared in the gap between the shower
curtain and the wall.  A voice spoke.
     “Cold Rinse.”
     Sasami screamed and jumped a good three inches into the air as    
icy cold water bombarded her from every direction.  “DAMN IT, RYOUKO!
OFF! OFF!”
     The water ceased.  Ryouko’s laughter echoed through the locker
room.  “Gotcha!”  Sasami tore the shower curtain open and launched
herself at the empress.  Ryouko caught her neatly in a towel, wrapped
it around her struggling body, then shoved her gently away.  Sasami
growled.
     “Isn’t it enough you beat the crap out of me in the sim?  Do you
have to torture me in the shower, too?”
     “Consider it payback for last time,” the former space pirate
grinned.  “On both counts.”
     “Feh.  Watch your back, demon.”
     “Always, princess.”
     Sasami smiled to show she was joking- at least in some measure,
anyway- and headed for her locker.  Behind her, Ryouko sat on a bench
and stretched.  “Good fight today,” the empress said.  “Just about
made my head explode.”
     “Yeah, me too.”  Sasami withdrew a hairbrush from her locker
and went to work on her hair.  *This used to be a hell of a lot    
harder before I got a military haircut.*  “Sometimes I don’t know if
I’m about to die in there or have an orgasm.”
     Ryouko laughed.  “Yeah, I know what you mean.  Every time we    
have a match, I have to go home and haul Tenchi’s ashes to convince
myself I’m not a lesbian.”
     Sasami giggled and put her brush back in its place.  “I hear    
that.  Of course, not being married, I have to go out and hunt down
my victims.”
     Ryouko quirked an eyebrow.  “Speaking of which, who is this guy
you’re meeting tonight?”
     Sasami let her towel fall to the floor.  She rummaged through
the clothes hanging in her locker, finally extracting her    
undergarments.  “Kenji?  Oh, he’s a JFMITC guy.”
     “So he’s older than you.”  Ryouko materialized an undress    
uniform around herself.  She would have preferred sweats and a tank
top, but they were still on Academy grounds.  “What have I told you
about older guys?”
     “Oh, give me a beak.  He’s less than 70 years older than I am.”
Sasami gave the empress a sidelong glance.  “You’re starting to sound
like Aeka.”
     Ryouko rolled her eyes.  “Nice try, kid.  You can’t manipulate
me that easily.  Though 70 years isn’t that much, I’ll give you    
that.”  She gathered the stray tendrils of her hair and began to    
sweep them into a style at least remotely approaching regulation.
“How’d you meet him?”
     Sasami blushed.  “Um... would you believe online?”
     Ryouko just stared.
     Sasami’s blush deepened.  “Not on an open chat or anything!
TASWIST!”
     Ryouko blinked.  “Taswist?”
     “TASWIST.  Tactical And Strategic Warfare Integrated Simulated
Trainer.”  Sasami returned her attention to getting dressed.
     “Oh, that joint battle sim?  Waitaminute... you met a GUY on the
team battle trainer?”
     “You tell anyone, I kill you.”  The princess stepped into her    
off-hours jumpsuit and began fastening the various closures.     
“Slowly.”
     “How the hell did you manage to pull THIS one off?”
     “The JFMITC guys run the red forces for our joint sims, right?”
     Ryouko nodded.  “Yeah.”
     Sasami sat down on the bench and yanked her boots out of the    
locker.  “Well, this one guy keeps kicking our ass, right?  I mean,
not every time, but often enough that we’re not looking forward
to when his team comes up in our rotation.”  Ryouko nodded, and    
Sasami continued.  “So I started IM’ing him during the battles.
Trying to mess with his head.  Psyops and all that.”
     Ryouko nodded again.  “Go on.”
     Sasami finished putting her boots on.  She stood up with a sigh.
“So to make a long story short, it went from taunting, to talking,
to... I don’t know, whatever comes after talking.”
     The empress smirked.  “So you cyber-sexed him on the trainer
IM line?”
     “NO!  I DIDN’T!”
      Ryouko burst out laughing.  “Why so defensive, princess?”
     “I am SO going to kill you!”  Sasami put her hands on her hips
and glared.  “It’s not like that,” she muttered.  “It’s not like that
at ALL.”
     Ryouko noticed the simmering undertone in Sasami’s voice and    
abruptly stopped laughing.  “Hey, hey, I didn’t mean it like that,
kid.  Easy.”  She frowned slightly.  “Why so touchy?”
     Sasami let her breath out in a long, frustrated exhalation.
“I just... I feel like such a stereotype.  You know, ‘geek-girl
meets boy online.’  I make FUN of those people.”
     “Well, do you at least know what he looks like?”
     “Yes, and he’s CUTE!”  She said it with such enthusiasm
and vehemence that Ryouko started laughing again.
     “Well alright then!  So long as he’s good looking.”  She winked.
     “He is, he really is.”  Sasami closed and locked her locker.
“A friend of mine, Vance, has a brother at JFMITC, so he goes over
there all the time.  He offered to set something up, and in a fit of
insanity I said yes.”  She looked at Ryouko.  “I’m sure it won’t work
out.  I mean, he can’t be the same in real life as he is on a    
computer, can he?”
     “Yeah, just like space pirates can’t fall in love with future
emperors of Jurai,” Ryouko said deadpan.
      Sasami blinked, then smiled.  “Okay, okay, point taken.”
     “Good.”  Ryouko looked the wall clock.  “Well, you better get    
going.  Can’t be late to your first real life date with the    
cyber-hunk, now can you?”
      “Ry-ou-ko!”
     Ryouko grinned and teleported out of the room, leaving Sasami
to glare at the space where the empress had just been.    

----

     Later that evening, Sasami stood in front of Rockhopper’s,
examining her reflection in the window.  She was, unusually for her,
a bit nervous.
     *That’s because you think you actually LIKE this guy,* she    
thought.  *Though chances are this’ll be a disaster...*
     She scrutinized the reflection in front of her.  Short    
light-blue hair.  Deep maroon body-hugging dress.  Black high heels.
Black H’lar velvet jacket.  *If it’s all about looks,* she decided,
*then I’ve got this in the bag.*  Sasami gave her mirror image an    
assertive nod.  *Here goes nothing.*  She stepped forward, opened
the door, and walked inside.
     Warm air and white noise rolled over her like a surging tide.
Sasami blinked as her eyes adjusted to the dimly lit interior.
*For heaven’s sake, every person in the capital must be in here    
tonight!*  The greeter approached her.  “Table, Miss?”
     “Um, I’m meeting someone.”
     The greeter looked her up and down for a moment, comparing
her looks to a description he’d been given a half-hour before.  He    
decided that they matched.  “Right this way, your Highness.”
The greeter stepped off toward the back of the restaurant.  Sasami’s
eyes rolled as she followed.  *Damn it, I spend nearly thirty years
locked away at the academy, and half the time I STILL can’t go    
anywhere in this town without somebody recognizing me.*  She ardently
hoped that the greeter wouldn’t call his friends and tell them she    
was eating here tonight.  Next thing she knew there’d be paparazzi
all over the place...
     The greeter led her to a small and blessedly out-of-the-way
booth in a back corner of the establishment.  A man, his features
indistinct in the half-light, rose from his seat and stood at her    
approach.
     “Your table.”  The greeter gave a very slight (and, to Sasami’s
relief, barely noticeable) bow before departing.  Sasami acknowledged
it with a practiced inclination of her head, then turned to her    
dinner companion.
     “Hi.”  His voice was soft, almost blurred around the edges.
“How are you?”  Sasami nearly blinked in surprise.  Military men    
tended to have a clipped, authoritarian tone about them.  His voice
sounded almost lazy; not quite a drawl, but definitely unhurried
and effortless.  She’d not expected that.     
     “Fine, thanks,” she answered.  “I hope you haven’t been waiting
long?”
     “Not long at all.”  He shook his head slightly, his lips parting
into a small, warm smile.  “Won’t you join me?”  He motioned toward
the booth with a slight tilt of his head and an offhand wave of his
hand.
     Sasami slid into the booth.  Kenji followed her a moment later.
Now that he’d sat down, she could see his features clearly by the    
light of the small lamp on the table.  He looked nearly exactly
like his pictures.  His hair was dark and close-cropped in standard
military fashion.  A strong chin and high cheekbones gave his face
a somewhat blockish look, but the effect was softened by an    
infectious grin and a hint of mischief in the way he cocked his brow.
His eyes were deeply set and were a dark shade of either grey or    
blue.  They were also slightly bloodshot and had faintly dark circles
under them, which seemed to confirm he was experiencing the long    
hours and low sleep lifestyle of the typical JFMITC student.  He    
wasn’t beautiful, but he was definitely cute.  Especially when he    
smiled.  The implied waywardness of his expression contrasted
markedly with his understated voice and manner.
     Sasami suddenly started.  He’d stopped speaking.  *Damn it, what
was he saying while I was checking him out?  Oh well, might as well
be direct about it...*
     “I’m sorry, what did you say?  I was busy looking at you.”
     Kenji chuckled back at her.  “Oh really?  And what were you    
looking at?”
     “Your face.  I was deciding that I thought you were cute.”
     “Oh.”  Was she imagining it, or was he blushing slightly?
He laughed again.  “Thanks.  I’m glad you think so.”  Sasami mentally
noted that he knew how take a compliment.  She’d found that to be a    
rare trait.  “I’d offer you my opinion on your looks,” he said with
a crooked grin, “but we’d be here all night.”
     Sasami quirked her eyebrow.  “Try me.”
     “Okay, I warned you.”  He seemed to think for a moment, then    
spoke.  “Devastatingly beautiful.  You have a very attractive
body.  Well proportioned.  Very natural in both composition
and movement.  Incredible smile, too.  Lights up your whole face.
And you have beautiful eyes.  The color’s very arresting; it    
contrasts very well with your skin and hair.  Makes for a very    
pleasing, very striking whole.  You’re easy to look at.  Hell, hard
not to look at.”  Sasami blinked.  Kenji laughed.  “And if that’s
laying it on thick for a first date, I must protest that you did ask
for it.”
     Sasami sat back in her chair.  “So much for the first-date
conversation being tentative and harmless,” she muttered.
     “You asked, I answered,” he stated matter-of-factly.
     “I suppose I did,” she responded wryly.  “Though a more cautious
man would have said much less.”
     “Hmph.  Might as well answer the question honestly.  Way I see
it, if we keep dating, you’re going to get to know me, so why pretend
I’m like someone I’m not?  And if we don’t keep dating, there’s
not much point in it either.”
     “So, we’ve been talking for twenty seconds, and we’ve completely
skipped all the normal pleasantries, all the usual conversational
topics, and we’ve gotten right into attraction and philosophy
of courtship rituals.”  Sasami tapped a fingernail against the table.
“Is this how your dates usually go?”
     “Nope.  I have no clue what the hell I’m doing.”
     “That’s a relief, because neither do I.”  She grinned.  “So,    
what WERE you saying when I got caught staring at you?”
     He gave her a sheepish look.  “The ‘normal pleasantries’.”
     Sasami laughed.  “So much for being Mister Bold.”
     “Eh, I can’t live up to my own propaganda ALL the time.”  He    
laughed in a mild display of self-derision.  “Okay, now that I’ve    
made an ass of myself, I’ll return to something a little safer.  How
are you this evening?”
     Sasami shook her head in amusement.
          After that, the evening progressed as such evenings tend
to.  There was light banter, mostly about school and things military
(an obvious and risk-averse common ground), interspersed with drinks,
dinner, and finally dessert.  Sasami found her dinner companion
pleasant company throughout.  He laughed easily and at the    
appropriate moments, and was always perfectly polite- though she    
noticed on more than one occasion that his eyes were spending a more
than usual amount of time on her face... and on her chest.  She found
the latter mildly amusing. He seemed to be doing his level best to    
avoid such slips of attention, and his utter failure to do so only
made the effort all the more endearingly funny.  At any rate, his    
earlier words had clearly been in earnest.  He definitely found her
attractive.  That said, he made no further move to comment upon or    
call attention to the fact.  For her part, Sasami found herself
relaxing and having a good time.  Kenji was a good listener.  Most
military men she’d dated had a bad habit of always having to compete
with her.  If she told a story, they had to tell a better one.  If    
she complained, they either had to have a solution, or a worse    
complaint.  Kenji just listened, then told her what he thought.
It wasn’t a characteristic she’d run into much, and she liked it.     
Even still, she was a little wary.  Was it possible that she’d found
herself a reasonably good-looking, soft-spoken, articulate,
well mannered, and confident young man in the middle of the Juraian
military establishment?  The odds of that, she figured, were in about
the same neighborhood as the sudden development of a point    
singularity in her swizzle stick.
     Finally, dessert was finished and the after-dinner drinks set    
out.  Sasami noticed, but did not comment, as Kenji quietly palmed
the check.  She wasn’t above letting a date pay for dinner, but she
hated it when they made themselves out as heroic for doing so.  *The
boy just keeps checking off all the right boxes,* she thought.
*But now what happens that dinner’s over?*  A rustle of silk over her
skin reminded her that she’d come prepared for extracurricular
activities later in the evening.  *He’s certainly interested...
but I don’t know.*  She looked at him intently.  *I just don’t know.*
     Kenji noticed her stare and gave her the quirked-eyebrow
and crooked-smile combination that she’d already figured out was his
default expression.  “I give up,” he said.  “What’d I do now?”
     Sasami blushed slightly.  “Just thinking about something.”
     “I’d ask what, but that’s rarely a fortuitous question to ask a    
lady.”
     Sasami outright laughed.  “And don’t you forget it.”
     “Not likely.”  He looked at her empty drink, then down at his    
own.   “Not to be over bold, since I’ve put my foot in my mouth once
this evening already, but would you care to take a stroll down the    
river walk?  It’s a bit cold, but I always enjoy he view.”
     Now it was Sasami’s turn to quirk her eyebrow.  The river walk
was a notorious make-out spot for young couples.  *Perhaps this guy’s
not so atypical after all,* she reflected.  *What the hell, let’s
find out.*  “Sounds great.  Shall we?”
     He smiled broadly.  “Outstanding.”
     They rose and made their way to the front door.  Kenji tried
to make it there first, she assumed to open it for her, but she    
discreetly blocked him and let herself out.  She hoped it didn’t
bother him, but if it did, too bad.  People had opened doors for her
through most of her life; now whenever she had the chance to do    
things for herself, she did.
     The distance to the river was short and quickly traversed.
The night was cold and clear, with a brisk breeze curling up from the
river to blow Sasami’s hair about her shoulders as she strolled
down the hewed stone path.  She noticed several families perched
upon the rocks and benches lining the walk, all of them with their
eyes skyward; the Juraian capital was laid out in accordance
with strict building codes, included in which was a prohibition
against non-directed night time light.  The result was a breathtaking
array of stars, undiminished by sky glow, which hung overhead in a    
dazzling display of natural beauty.
     Somehow, though, Sasami couldn’t help but think of how many more
stars she could see from space.  She felt a little saddened by that.
Had she been irreversibly jaded?
     “You know,” Kenji said quietly, “the stars are beautiful
here, but you can see so many more when you’re up there with them.”
     Sasami gave him hard look.  “Are you a telepath?”
     Kenji looked surprised.  “Um, no.  Should I be?”
     “No, it’s just that I was thinking the exact same thing.”   She
reached up to brush a wind-blown strand of hair from her face.  “It’s
very nice here, but it just doesn’t have the punch.”
     “I know what you mean.”  He paused for a moment, then turned
to the railing and looked out across the river.  “Though there’s
more to the view than the stars.”
     “How do you mean?”
     He gestured generally at the rippled expanse of water.  “You    
never hear waves lapping at a shore in space.  There’s no breeze
to tickle your hair against your face.  There’s no crunch of dust or
stone beneath your feet.  You can’t taste frost coming on at night.”
Kenji looked up at the stars, then continued.  “I can’t see as many
stars from here, but I can’t feel as many things from there.  It’s
a trade off.  Incredible, but cold, unmoving visuals, or a vibrant,
alive, but imperfect view from the ground.”  He turned to look at    
her.  “Different times, you want different things.”
     Sasami looked back at the stars, pondering what he’d said.  “So,
is that wisdom?”
     Kenji chuckled.  “No, it’s the philosophizing of a vastly under
qualified fool who’s trying to say something pretty to a beautiful
woman.”
     Sasami blushed slightly.  “Don’t knock yourself.  It was pretty
good.”
     “Good to hear it.”  He was about to say something else, but a    
stiff gust of wind swept over them.  Sasami shivered.  Kenji noticed
her chill.  “Come on, let’s get you home and out of the wind.  Before
I use it as an excuse to put my arm around you.”  He smiled to show
he was joking, though Sasami suspected that he was at least half    
serious.  “Where you crashing tonight?  Back at Satsuma?”
      Sasami opened her mouth to answer, then closed it.  She didn’t
know what to say.  She’d applied for overnight liberty, and it had    
been granted.  Did she want to tell him that?  Would he think it    
meant she wanted to go home with him?   And would he be right?
     She wasn’t sure.
     *When in doubt, tell the truth,* she decided.
     “I don’t know, to be honest.  I burned a weekend liberty for    
this little adventure, but I wasn’t smart enough to make arrangements
for someplace to stay.”
     Kenji‘s eyebrows went up.  “You know, I might take that as    
intent to stay out all night with me.  Or stay in, as the case may    
be.”
     “You might.”  Sasami shrugged.
     “That was awfully noncommittal.”
     “I guess it was.”
     “So was that,” Kenji laughed.  “Tell you what, I know you don’t
want to go back to the Hall, and since I’m a borderline masochist,
let’s head to my place.  I just lost a roommate two weeks ago.  We    
were renting a place down on the delta, now half the whole house is    
empty.”  Sasami looked at him askance.  “I know, I know, it sounds
suspect,” he said in response to the look, “but I promise to chain
myself to my half of the house.  Nothing like frustrating the hell
out of myself for the night by having a gorgeous woman sleeping
on the far side of the house.  If that sounds too creepy, you could
always go back to the palace, right?”
     Sasami made a face.  He’d managed to go the entire evening
without referencing her nobility, and she wasn’t glad of the    
reminder.  “No, not the palace.  Your place is fine, so long as    
there’re clean sheets and a separate bathroom.  And a padlock on the
bedroom door.”  She smiled sweetly.
     “I’m sure we could arrange something.  All fooling aside, I    
really just want to show the place off.  We got a sweet deal on the
house, and now that my buddy’s gone I won’t be able to hold on to it
for much longer.”
     “Don’t worry about explaining it,” Sasami replied.  “I’m okay
with sleeping in extra bedrooms in guys’ houses.  I had a lot of    
experience with that when I was younger.”

----

     “Great Jurai,” Sasami exclaimed.  “How did you guys afford this
as students?”
      Kenji smiled proudly.  “I told you we had a sweet deal.”
     Sasami found herself staring at the cavernous main room of a    
two-story house on a bluff overlooking the river delta.  An open    
spiral staircase led to a half-floor loft above, and hallways    
stretched out in both directions below.  The interior was mostly
soft whites and beiges, though the individual room décor tended    
toward darker colors.  “There’s a bay window up in the loft with a    
GREAT view of the delta,” Kenji remarked.  Hold on a second, I’ll dig
some sheets out of the hall closet and go make up the bed.”  He    
scurried off into one of the hallways, leaving Sasami to look about.
She noticed a series of framed plaques above the holoscreen and moved
closer to look them over.
     *Good lords... graduated with merit... post-grad program...
academic awards... oh, you’ve got to be kidding me, he graduated
from basic in only fifteen years??? That’s impossible!*  She scanned
down the rest of the awards and honors, growing increasingly
jealous as she went.  And she thought SHE had been smart...
     “Ack, you found my ‘I love me’ wall,” Kenji said from behind
her.  “Don’t look at those, they say way too much about my ego.”  He
hurried past her up the stairs with his arms full of sheets.  “Be    
back in a second.”
     Sasami decided to follow him up the stairs.  At the top of the
climb, she walked into a largish area devoid of furniture; apparently
he’d been telling the truth about his departed roommate.  Kenji was
busily setting up a futon in the middle of the space, adding sheets
and pillows as he went.  He noticed her approach and spoke over his
shoulder as he worked.  “The bathroom’s through that door on the    
right, the closet’s to the left.  Oh hell, that reminds me, I need
to dig out some sweats or something for you to sleep in.  It gets    
cold in here at night, the open space is too big for the heater.”
     Sasami almost said something very suggestive about how he could
keep her warm, but stopped herself.  She immediately began wondering
why she’d thought of that- and why she hadn’t said it.
     She was finding herself in the very difficult position of not    
knowing exactly what she was thinking, let alone why.
     “Okay, that ought to do it!”  Kenji straightened up from his    
work.   “One fully made futon.  Better than my own bed.”  His face
clouded over.  “That is, unless you prefer the bed.  I could make it
up with new sheets, and sleep up here...”
      “No, it’s fine, really.  It’s been a long time since I slept
on a futon, but I used to like it when I did.”  She looked around
the area.  “So, tell me, where precisely do you put the padlock?
I did mention the padlock, did I not?”  She looked at him sternly.
“Not planning to take advantage of me, are you?”
     Kenji averted his eyes and laughed nervously.  “Can’t say the    
thought hasn’t crossed my mind, but no, I wasn’t planning on it.”  He
thought for a moment.  “Did that sound as much like fishing as I    
think it did?”
     “Yep.”  Sasami smirked.  “Come on, let’s go downstairs.
I’m not tired yet.  I think the ballgame’s still on the holo.”  She
headed downstairs, keeping her back to him so he couldn’t see her    
laughing at his answer.    

----

     A few hours later at the end of a terribly boring sporting
event, Sasami was close to nodding off on the downstairs couch.     
Kenji seemed more awake, but the increasingly dark circles under his
eyes gave the lie to that appearance.  “Okay, that’s it for me,” she
yawned.  “Sack time.”  Kenji looked around in an exaggerated
way.  Sasami watched him for a moment, then gave up and asked. “What
are you doing?”
     “Looking for that damned padlock.”
     Sasami laughed.  “Oh, can it.”  She thought about it for a    
second, then made a spur-of-the-moment decision.  “You can come    
upstairs if you want.”
     “Would you be terribly offended if I declined?”
     “No, but I’d be a bit surprised.  I thought you were    
interested.”  Sasami grinned.  “Tell me I’m wrong.”
     “Not at all.  But I’m also pretty sure I like you, and I learned
a while ago that first-date sex invariably screws things up.”  He    
paused.  “Okay, now ask me again.”
     “What?  Why?”
     “So I can say ‘yes’ this time.”
     Sasami started laughing again.  “Nope.  You only got one chance.
But you know that custom where you get a good-night kiss if it’s been
a good date?”
     “Yeah?”
     Sasami leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on Kenji’s cheek.
“I had a great night.  I’ll see you in the morning.”  She rose and    
headed up the stairs.
     Kenji sat there for a moment, then picked up a pillow and    
whacked himself with it in the forehead.  He fell back onto the    
couch, laughing bitterly.
     “It must run in the damn family,” he muttered.  “It must be the
genes.”