No Need For an Exclamation Mark!
by Mark Doherty (mdoherty@mailbox.uq.edu.au)

In a mad scientist's transdimensional lab...

"Ano... Washu-chan..."

"Yes, Mihoshi?"

"Why am I tied up like this?"

Washu grinned as she straightened the cap of her nurse's outfit. "The way 
you can pop up in a secure lab, the way you do _everything_ wrong but 
things still turn out right, the way you've survived for as long as you 
have without enough brain cells to rub together to start a fire... there 
has to be a reason you're so braindead lucky. And I'm going to find out 
what it is. Some sort of power like Tenchi's? Perhaps you're the 
culmination of an experiment in an ultimate weapon bio-form, designed 
to be activated when the people who made you lost, like a doomsday device. 
Oh well, we can have fun finding out together."

"Washu-chan... what are you doing?"

"Just getting a few samples. I always did prefer the hands on approach."

"N...now now, Washu-chan. I don't think... uh... I don't think you 
should..."

"Nonsense. I am a doctor, you know. Sure, I picked up the degree on a bet
over ten thousand years ago, but what the hey. Say, are those panties 
standard Galactic Police issue?"

"Wa... Washu! Stop... stop this right now! This i... is wrong! You must...
oh... a little to the left, a little to the left."

+++

Everyone was gathered around the dinner table.

"So anyway," Washu continued her explanation to her shock-frozen audience,
"one thing led to another. And, well..."

Mihoshi giggled, holding up her hand to show the engagement ring. "It's an
Earth custom, but we couldn't resist."

Ryoko looked between the happy couple, and then took a slug of sake from 
the bottle in her numb hand. When Aeka wordlessly held out her hand, the 
demon-girl silently handed the bottle to her. Aeka chugged the bottle, 
before giving it back.

It wasn't so much Washu's surprise announcement, Ryoko decided as she
brought out a second bottle. It was the contemplative glances that Sasami
had been giving her for the last few minutes...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dedicated to anyone who's ever done an irrational, no-explanations-offered
matchup fanfic.