Disclaimer: Tenchi Muyo! and its characters, technologies, 
etc. are property of Pioneer and AIC. All other characters 
and ideas are property of the author and their use is 
prohibited except by consent of the author. Any similiarities 
to actual persons, events, etc. are purely coincidental and 
in no way makes the author liable. To sum up all this legal 
stuff don't steal my original characters and don't sue me for 
use of ones that aren't.

Tenchi Muyo!: Airs of the Past

Chapter 4: Many Truths Unveiled

Tenchi, Washu, and Sasami went to Washu's lab Tenchi was carrying Ryoko 
carefully trying not tohurt her anymore than she already was. Ryoko was 
laying on a regeneration bed to help speed upthe process. For being a 
dream the facilities of Washu's lab were amazing well equiped. 

Washu was pouring over the readouts from the various devices monitoring 
Ryoko's recovery. "Hmm," she finally spoke up after ten minutes of deep 
thought, "she will be fully regenerated in thirty seven minutes. At that 
point she should come out of her comatose state fairly easily." 

Tenchi was relived to hear this but he still wanted to find the others. 
Washu assured him that no one was going to get close enough to hurt them. 
Tenchi left the interdimensional portal she had in front of the door only 
to see it disappear as soon as he stepped through. He quickly pulled 
Tenchi-ken from his belt and ignited it. He turned on lights as he went 
through the house so he wouldn't be so easily snuck up on. He decided 
to check upstairs first.

He methodically and carefully went from one room to the next. When he got 
to Mihoshi's room he couldn't help but feel relieved to see her sitting on 
her bed reading something. She looked up and gave a him a teary hello and 
proceeded to cling to him crying and rambling on about some guy in a
cloak walking around. She was so scared Tenchi didn't get anything else 
out of her. He led her downstairs and almost on cue Washu popped out and 
took her from him. 

Aside from Mihoshi, the house was quiet. Tenchi decided to go towards the 
shrine hoping to run into his grandfather or dad. Tenchi ran through the 
woods towards the shrine steps keeping a lookout for anything that might 
be a danger. 

When he got to the shrine he saw lights inside so he decided to wait maybe 
he could hear something. He was so preoccupied he almost didn't turn in 
time to see his grandfather sneaking up on him. Tenchi pointed his blade 
at him and Katsuhito frowned at him. After seeing that his grandfather 
was unarmed and not threating him in any way they went inside to talk quickly. 

Ryooki and Nobuyuki were also with Katsuhito trying to figure out what was 
going on. Tenchi explained all he knew from Washu and Mihoshi before moving on. 
The only things he had to do know were to findAeka and this mysterious cloaked 
person.

Tenchi carefully walked down to the path where Aeka had attacked him. He 
saw one of Washu's worker droids waiting for him right where it happened. 

"Tenchi?" Washu's face popped up in a view screen. 

"Hi, I think I should let you know Katsuhito, Nobuyuki, and Ryoohki are 
coming your way," Tenchi started to let her in on the situation. "I have 
yet to see the person Mihoshi talked about or Aeka though."

Washu listened intently glancing at her monitors every few seconds. "That 
is the main reason I needed to talk to you, Tenchi, further down the path 
I have detected a large surge of power and the signature of the other 
Tenchi-ken. I think Aeka is fighting whoever this new person is."

Tenchi yelled a quick thanks over his shoulder as he charged down the path 
with Tenchi-ken blazing. He arrived on what did appear to be someone in a 
long flowing cloak holding a large energy sword fighting with Aeka who had 
her own Tenchi-ken and her guardians with her.

Back in Washu's lab everyone had successfully arrived and Ryoko was just 
waking up from her regen cycle. Washu was monitoring the battle and Tenchi's 
progress while everyone else was doing there best to fill Ryoko in as to what 
happened. Ryoko didn't hesitate before she flew out of the lab to help Tenchi.

At this point Tenchi wasn't sure what was going on between the newcomer and 
Aeka. The cloaked person made his decision for him when he shot a beam of 
energy that Tenchi barely avoided. The cloaked figure stopped attacking Aeka 
and focused his full attention on Tenchi. Aeka fell to the ground, unmoving 
under the protection of the guardians. 

The cloaked figure threw his hood off revealing long white hair. He was an old 
man. He pointed hisrather nasty looking sword at Tenchi, "Ah, the  First Crown 
Prince of Jurai. Finally I get to see you face to face."

Tenchi glared at the man, "Who are you and what are you doing to Aeka?"

The man let out a smirk, "Perceptive aren't you? Well since I shall soon kill 
you and your pitiful group of people you call a family, I do not see how it 
makes a difference. I didn't do anything to her if you must know, I allowed her 
to wake up so I could fight you alone. As for who I am...well, I am a simple 
scientist, and I am here to kill you."

Tenchi readied his blade to fight the white-haired man. They stood there for a 
moment sizing each other up. Then they both charged. The blue blade of Tenchi-ken 
flared in protest as it met the deep grey blade of energy that Tenchi's opponent 
was wielding. The old man let out a feral roar as he stepped back and swung at 
Tenchi's waste. Tenchi easily swept the blade to one side and thrust Tenchi-ken 
outward only to connect with a shield made of the same dark grey matter as the sword.

Suddenly he tensed as thought hit, but Tenchi's blade was blocked, .......then he 
teleported away and Tenchi saw Ryoko standing there in full battle dress holding 
her sword in her outstretched right hand. Tenchi switched off Tenchi-ken as he heard 
the man's voice like an echo or afterthought clinging to the edge of reality.

"You have won this round, young warrior, but I will have my vengence against you 
and that bitch that stabbed me!"

With the words fading out on the wind the voice was gone and Tenchi snapped back 
to consciousness. He was sitting in his chair, Aeka was there frantically shaking 
his shoulder trying to wake him. He glanced over to Ryoko and she was still lying 
in his bed unconscious. Aeka stopped shaking him realizing he was finally awake. 

She looked at him concerned, "Lord Tenchi, are you alright?" Tenchi ran his fingers 
over the scar from where Aeka had stabbed him, wincing from the pain of the still 
tender flesh of the wound.

"I will be fine Aeka," he said but at the same time was trying to find out what 
had possessed her to stab him. He was pretty tired still and he felt confident 
he had silenced the man from his dreams for the night. "If you do not mind I 
would like to try to sleep now though." 

Aeka hesistantly left, she had more to say but decided it could wait until morning. 
Tenchi hated to lie to her but he needed time to think before he asked her about it. 
He didn't think anything about the first night's dream because no one seemed to be 
consciously making decisions, but in tonight's dream washu explained that through the 
whole dream everyone was consciously there.

Tenchi looked over and Ryoko was still sleeping. He got up to check her wound. "Well, 
its not bleeding and it looks to be fairly well healed. She's probably in no more pain 
than me now." he was mumbling to himself and he continued to as he moved back to his 
chair.

Ryoko lay awake feeling a good amount of pain in the stab wound. She had almost sat 
up when Tenchi had touched her wound, but she stopped herself. She wanted to hear 
his thoughts for a minute before she spoke up.

Tenchi was still rambling, his thoughts pouring out in a harsh whisper. He hadn't 
noticed Ryoko staring at him. "Maybe she wasn't aiming for me, I suppose I could 
see her stabbing Ryoko. On the other hand she might have seen me hug Ryoko and 
decided to try and kill us both, I don't think she is that tempermental though. 
Of course she has been angry before almost to the point of seriously hurting
Ryoko. Yea, but do you really think she would try to stab you knowing full well 
a blow there should kill you? I think not, no matter how angry she was. What about 
Ryoko? How do you think she will react to being stabbed with you by Aeka? Hey, I'm 
not even sure Aeka did it. The Whole family did kill me the first night I had these 
dreams."

Ryoko couldn't help roll her eyes and snicker a little bit as she listened to Tenchi 
have a serious conversation with himself. He glanced over and felt the blood rush 
to his face as he turned a deep shade of crimson, realizing Ryoko was listening to him.

Ryoko held her side and made a painful face as she sat up still feeling the effects 
of the stab. "I don't know how much pain you are in, but I'm fine," she laughed 
and then doubled over in pain. "Ouch, shouldn't move this much yet." 

Tenchi just stared at her for a minute getting even redder when he realized she had 
heard most of what he had said. "I..that is..well..um..," he stuttered trying to make 
some semblance of an excuse for talking to himself and waking her up doing it.

Even in the dim moonlight Ryoko could see how red Tenchi was getting. She got up with 
some difficulty and started to walk. She could barely stand from the wound and fell 
to her knees. "Damn Aeka," she mumbled under her breath.

Tenchi was down at her side and helped her back to his bed. "I want you to promise 
me you won't hurt Aeka. I don't think she hurt me on purpose." 

"So it's OK if she was just aiming at me then?" Ryoko shot him a glare that made
his blood run cold. 

"No, thats not what i meant. I don't think that would have been right. I don't 
think she attacked either one of us intentionally. She must have been controlled, 
or it wasn't her, something like that. After all you stabbed me in my dream too 
you know."

"Now thats not even funny, I'm telling you that wasn't me!"

"Well im sure the same arguement could have been said of Aeka"

"What's with you anyway why are you defending Aeka all of a sudden? You seemed 
pretty suspicious in your own little talk with yourself back there."

"I don't think Aeka did what we think she did, there is something else going on here"

Ryoko sighed realizing she wasn't going to get anywhere with this conversation, 
"If you say so. I guess I'll believe you for now."

"Thats better. When have I ever lied to you?"

Ryoko smiled an evil grin that would have made Washu proud, "Well, You once told 
me you hated me."

"I was angry. That doesn't count."

"You know you could always make it up to me," she whispered in a seductive 
voice to him.

Tenchi was almost redder than ever when he thought of what she had in mind, 
"Umm...I think I will wait on that," Tenchi's hands clasped tight over his 
mouth when he realized what he had just said to her. "Thats not what I meant, 
that came out wrong," he was still blushing as he tried desperately to cover 
up his mistake.

Ryoko's smile widened, "I've been waiting too long already, Tenchi."

"I didn't mean to say that!"

"I can tell what you really want, My Tenchi," she inched closer up the bed 
to him.

"Um...It wasn't meant to give you any ideas, Ryoko," he was now beet red.

"You could just sit back and relax....."

"No, I'm really serious," his voice quavered, though showing no sense of 
authority.

Ryoko stuck out her bottom lip and crossed her arms, "Oh, fine, Whatever"

"Thank you, Ryoko. Besides you're in no condition to be moving much right 
now"

"I think I could make an exception. There is something else you could do 
for me, My Tenchi"

Tenchi's mind was racing trying to figure out what she would ask know, 
"Uh..I Suppose that depends"

"Don't worry It's nothing that fun yet, I swear"

"It's the yet that worries me"

"Oh, you are so paranoid!"

"Really?" a strong hint of sarcasm was in his voice.

"All I want is for you to keep a promise that's it."

*How bad can it be?* Tenchi thought hoping it was one he intentionally made. 
"So what was the promise?"

"You remember a few months ago, when you spent the whole night with me on the 
roof?" (A/N: chapter 1)

"Yeah, I didn't sleep at all that night"

"Me either. Anyway when we were on the roof you said sometime you would take 
a trip, just you and me, into space. Since you don't have school for a few 
months I thought this would be the perfect time"

Inside Tenchi groaned. He wanted a vacation and he didn't want to break his 
promise, but his Grandfather would never say yes. If by some miracle he did 
how would Aeka react? Not to mention the rest of his family. On top of that 
how would he get through three full months alone with Ryoko without something 
happening? "How could I get away from my chores long enough to take a vacation 
for that long?"

Ryoko's smile got even bigger than before, "I already talked to Katsuhito"

Tenchi's eyes widened, that was the biggest hurdle, "How did you, I mean he 
never would have...."

"I sat down with him and we had a long talk. He told me a whole bunch of stuff 
about calming down, relieving stress, and finding other ways to settle fights 
with Aeka. You know the usual don't put another hole in the house crap. I told 
him a vacation would help and he agreed. Then I said I could always use someone 
to go with me. He smiled and laughed and said he would be glad too! You know your 
grandfather has a twisted sense of humor? Anyway after he finished laughing for 
a bit he knew what I was getting at. He said he thought you were acting stressed 
and a vacation away from some of the pressure would be good for you too! So here 
I am asking you now to go with me."

"Wow, this must have took a lot of planing."

"Damn Straight!"

"Well I did promise and what better opportunity than now?"

"Really? You mean it?" Ryoko's eyes teared up and she jumped at Tenchi, ignoring 
her pain to pick him up in a big bear hug. She fell back on his bed still not able 
to support her own weight let alone Tenchi as well. 

Tenchi blushed when they realized how close they were and would have rolled off 
had Ryoko not been hugging him tight not caring about how close they were. Ryoko 
slowly opened her eyes and met Tenchi's look of mixed happiness and fear with her 
own sly smile and golden eyes. Tenchi and Ryoko stared at each other for a few 
tense seconds that seemed like minutes. They inched closer until they could feel 
each other's breath. Ryoko looked deeply into Tenchi's dark brown eyes and he 
stared back into her golden, feline eyes.

That's when Tenchi's alarm clock blared to life. With a wave of her hand Ryoko 
Telekinetically threw the clock into the wall. Then looked back at Tenchi. He 
was still captivated by her beauty. He inched closer again and their lips touched 
and in a moment of sheer wonder and happiness they held a passionate kiss. The 
seconds that the kiss took seemed to last forever for them. They didn't care
about the world around them as the sun was creeping above the trees. When they 
broke apart Tenchi blushed the deepest, darkest red he had all night. Ryoko 
looked up at him and giggled.

"I didn't think you had it in you, My most wonderful and darling Tenchi!" she purred. 
She had finally gotten her beloved to return his affection after years of waiting. 
He looked at her again and could see the happiness and love in her eyes. He couldn't 
help but smile. He had waited too long to kiss her. Tenchi rolled on his back Ryoko 
holding him tight the whole time and kissed again as Tenchi caught her in his own hug. 
Ryoko gave him a strange look. Tenchi was so surprised he couldn't help but look at 
her with a similar perplexed look. 

"OK, who are you and what have you done with My Tenchi?" she gave him a funny little 
smile. Tenchi couldn't help but laugh in spite of himself. 

He looked up at the deep penetrating gaze of Ryoko's eyes. "Ryoko?"

"Yes, My Perfect Tenchi?"

"I'm sorry."

"Right now you have absolutely nothing to apologize for, unless you are sorry you 
kissed me."

"No, that was the best decision I've made in a long time. I wanted to point out I'm 
letting you know before I pick someone and I wanted to apologize that I didn't sooner." 

"Oh, I love you, Tenchi!"

Tenchi said half to himself (truly knowing it for the first time) and half to her, 
"I love you, too, Ryoko."

They pulled each other into a kiss and just then Sasami yelled that breakfast was 
ready.

Down at the table, Aeka, Mihoshi, and Washu were already at the table waiting for 
Tenchi and Ryoko.

Back upstairs Ryoko and Tenchi broke off their kiss.

"Ryoko, I dont want the others to know until I get a chance to tell them alright?" 
Tenchi looked in her eyes with a seriousness the rarely came from him.

"I promise, My Tenchi," she kissed him quickly and teleported downstairs. 

When Ryoko arrived downstairs she came under a sudden and fierce barrage of questions. 

Aeka took a deep breath, "Well, don't you look unusually happy for someone who was on her 
deathbed! What did you do? Why is Tenchi still upstairs? What took you so long?" 

Everyone gave Aeka a strange look as she proceeded to rattle off questions not even 
waiting for an answer. Ryoko calmly started to answer questions, "Well im not now 
obviously. Slept-in. Changing, I guess but you should really ask him that. I was on 
my deathbed, remember? So why are you in such a strange mood princess?"

"I AM NOT IN A STRANGE MOOD, DEVIL WOMAN!!!!" Aeka bit back.

Ryoko looked at her and understood almost immediately, "You're jealous! You're jealous 
that I slept in Tenchi's room while he kicked you out! That's why you're mad!"

"Oh, you are so IMPOSSIBLE!" Aeka was fuming especially since Ryoko nailed why 
she was mad. "Besides that how did you know about that?!!"

"I may have been on my deathbed princess, but I don't sleep through everything," 
Ryoko replied as calmly as ever.

"And why are you so happy?" Aeka began to calm down seeing Ryoko was not the 
slightest bit angry and she probably couldn't have made her mad if she gave her 
everthing she could.

"I had a good nights sleep," it took all of Ryoko's limited self control to not 
break out laughing at the princess. 

Washu finally decided she had time to pop a question in, "Ryoko, seriously how 
does your wound feel?"

"Oh, It feels great now, Mom!" just to emphasize the point she stood up and 
showed the now somewhat healed scar on her stomach. 

"Ryoko, are you sure you are alright?" Washu continued.

Ryoko gave her a cheerful smile, "Yea, why do you ask?"

Washu just gave her a the strangest glare that had been seen in the house 
in days, "You haven't said anything mean to Aeka, much less fought with her, 
even when she provoked you to where you two would have normally left holes 
in the house. You haven't shown the slightest bit of being tired and we 
all know you are not a morning person. The wounds you have should still 
cause immense pain, more than you seem to be feeling, and to top it all 
off you just called me mom without a slightest hint of sarcasm or anger 
in your voice. If i didn't know any better I'd say you had an abnormally high 
adrenaline concentration in you right now or that you found an awful lot of 
morphine somewhere."

"Well, if it will make you feel better you can run some tests on me after 
breakfast?" Ryoko still had a cheerful smile on her face. At this everyone 
gawked at her and if they had something in their mouth they had choked on it 
or spit it out. 

Washu got up and walked over to her daughter and placed her hand on Ryoko's 
forehead. "Hmm..your temperature seems normal." She grabbed Ryoko's wrist and 
checked her pulse, "that is a little higher compared to normal." She reached 
behind her and a subspace portal opened up. She pulled out a needle. At this 
Ryoko's smile got a little smaller but never left her face even when Washu 
took her blood. "I don't get it. There is no way you are going to convince me 
there is nothing out of the ordinary other than opening the wall around your 
end of the link so i can probe your mind." 

Ryoko frowned at that. "I'm really sorry. I would love to help you but I can't 
do that right now." 

"WHY NOT?" Washu was suddenly very annoyed by her current guinea pig's sudden 
unwillingness to cooperate.

"I promised and that is all I will say," with that Ryoko looked away from Washu. 

Luckily, before things got any worse with Ryoko, Tenchi came down. He had a 
very happy look on his face as he said his good mornings to everyone one. 
Another thing that struck them as weird was Ryoko didn't glomp onto Tenchi 
when he came downstairs. She just sat there beaming like she had been all 
morning. When Tenchi sat at the table all she did was give him the same 
extremely cheery good morning that she gave everyone else. (Unknown to the 
others at the table she was already holding his hand)

Breakfast was unusually civil because Ryoko was acting so nice to everyone. 
They all explained the plans they had for the morning somewhere during the 
course of the meal. Tenchi said he was going to the shrine. Aeka wanted to 
talk to Tenchi. Ryoko wanted to go with Tenchi. Washu wanted Ryoko to come 
to her lab. Sasami was just going to play with Ryoohki which was just fine 
with Ryoohki. Mihoshi was already in her patrol uniform.

People started leaving the table. Tenchi went up to the shrine to talk to 
his grandfather. Aeka waited at Funaho for him to finish at the shrine. 
Ryoko got to be Washu's Guinea Pig as promised. Everyone else got to do what 
they planed on doing.

At the shrine Tenchi went into the tea room where his grandfather was. 
"Hello, Grandfather."

"Sit, Tenchi, and stop being so nervous. I know why you are here."

"How did you know?" 

"Subtle things, voice tones, shifty fingers, sweat on your forehead." 

Tenchi quickly cleared his throat, wiped his forehead with his sleeve, and 
clasped his hands together. "I was wondering about a conversation you had 
with Ryoko and the particulars of it?"

"Thats another reason I knew you would need to speak with me. You may have not 
noticed me but I was downstairs through most of breakfast, and I must say you 
are no good at hiding secrets."

Tenchi blushed even though he was trying to remain calm.

"Have you informed Aeka and the rest of the girls yet?"

"I obviously will let them know before we leave."

"Thats not all I meant you should tell them about, Tenchi."

Tenchi turned the darkest shade of pure red he ever had, "How do you know about 
that?"

"Two people obviously attracted to each other both late for breakfast. They spent 
the night in the same room obviously not getting sleep, yet they both come downstairs 
feeling happier than ever and looking completely refreshed like the weight of the 
world has been lifted off their shoulders. Both of them act abnormally happy and civil 
toward everyone. One doesn't even take offense at something that would normal result 
in mass destruction. Then at the table said two people hold hands throughout the entire 
meal thinking no one had noticed. I know you have had feelings for her for sometime. 
I could see it in the way you looked at her, but as an extremely curious person 
and your grandfather I need to know one thing." He smiled at Tenchi.

By this time Tenchi had a mixed look of awe and fear on his face. Had he told anyone? 
Would he? What did he want to know? "Uh...eheheh So what can I tell you?"

"How close is my grandson to being a man?" Katsuhito had a purely idiotic look on 
his face.

Tenchi's look of worry turned to one of complete shock, "You are as bad as Dad is 
you know that? All we did was kiss, nothing more." 

They both couldn't help but laugh. Tenchi more out of relief than anything else. 

"Alright since I can tell you want this to be kept a secret until you are ready to 
tell the rest of the group I will wait until you are done. Tell them before you 
leave and have a nice vacation Tenchi."

"Thank you, Grandfather." Tenchi bowed as he left. At the same time he was praying 
he didn't end up as a dirty old pervert like his dad and apparently his grandfather.

Next on Tenchi's list of humiliating things to do was to let Aeka know he was going 
on the trip with Ryoko and that he had picked Ryoko over her. This would be the 
hardest part of his day. 

He walked up to Funaho and saw Aeka sitting at the base of the tree waiting for him. 
"Um...Miss Aeka?"

"Oh hello, Lord Tenchi," Aeka looked more than a little depressed. "I need to go 
back to Jurai, that is why I had to talk to you."

"No, thats not necessary, really its not!" Tenchi didn't want to break up his happy 
little family thats why it took so long for him to choose one of the girls. 

"I knew that man from somewhere, I need to find out why." Aeka tried to explain.

"Oh," thats when it dawned on Tenchi that she didn't know yet. "Miss Aeka?"

"Lord Tenchi?"

"I have some unsettling news to give you." Tenchi was feeling worse and worse 
about it by the minute but he knew he couldn't hide it from them forever.

"Does this have to do with Ryoko?"

"Why do you ask that?"

"You and her were awfully jubiliant this morning. She even called Washu her 
mom and volunteered to be her Guinea Pig."

"It does involve her, yes."

"Well, go on."

"I..This is hard for me to say to you Aeka"

"Oh no, you didn't choose...." Aeka started to cry softly. She had suspected it 
but wished that it wasn't actually true.

"Yes, I'm sorry"

"Why? What is it that makes her better than me?" 

"Last night when I realized how close I could have came to losing her thats when 
I knew for the first time that my choice was already made. I'm sorry, Aeka, for 
what I put you through. I want you to know Ryoko and I have no hard feelings 
between us or you. We both think of you as a very close friend and we don't want 
this to tear us apart."

Aeka dried some tears from her eyes, "I understand, Lord Tenchi, and I too wish 
to continue to be your close friend. I will return after I find the information 
I need." 

"Thats the other thing I needed to talk with you about. I am going on a trip so 
I will definitely not see you for at least three months. I thought I should let 
you know." 

"Well my trip will probably take at least three months so that doesn't matter to 
much. Out of pure curiosity this trip wouldn't have anything to do with Ryoko 
would it?"

"I promised her I would take a trip with her in space a few months ago."

"So you were going to go away with her for months even before you picked her?"

"Yes, I just had no idea she would bring it up so soon."

"You really are horrible you know that?" She chuckled a little, angry and at the 
same time relieved.

"Yeah, I know," Tenchi sighed, very happy that this part of his day was over and 
Aeka knew what he had to tell her.

In Washu's lab Ryoko had already became the victim of many tests and experiments. 
Washu was still a little angry that Ryoko wouldn't let her know why she was so 
happy. Washu thought she had a pretty good idea, "I am the greatest scientific 
genius in the universe after all," she told herself. She still wanted conclusive 
proof though. She wanted to hear it from Ryoko or Tenchi. 

Ryoko was currently laying on a table lost in thought. She didn't even notice as 
Washu hooked and unhooked machine after machine taking numerous different readings. 
She barely even flinched when Washu took a second blood sample. When Washu started 
prodding the stab wound is when she finally snapped out of her daydreaming. 

"Hey, take it easy around that could you? Just because it doesn't hurt much doesn't 
mean you need to make it!" Ryoko pulled back from Washu who was still holding a 
nasty metal instrument that Ryoko had no idea the purpose of.

Washu smirked, "Do my ears deceive me or did you just have a hint of anger in 
your voice?"

"So what if I did?" Ryoko cocked her head to one side still looking at the metal 
thing in Washu's hand.

"I was beginning to think that I could do anything and you would still be your 
same happy self." 

"So you thought I was just because I was happy you could hurt me?" Ryoko gave 
her a nasty look.

"No, I was just checking the progress of your healing. Sorry if that hurt." 
Washu grinned a happy and yet somehow evil little grin.

"Well, I suppose just try not to hurt me, ok?" Ryoko started to lay back down.

"See! I knew it there is something going on that is making you happy enough to 
take any level of abuse from me!" Washu was jumping all over the chance to 
get it out of Ryoko.

"What is wrong with you today? Just because I'm acting a little helpful there 
is something wrong with me?" 

"No, I just know that something has made you unusually happy and I need to know 
what it is!" 

"I can't," Ryoko looked at her apologetically, "I promised I wouldn't." 

"This must be important, if you are so adamant about not telling your own mother," 
Washu pouted a little bit hoping to guilt Ryoko into telling her.

Ryoko just gave her another apologetic look, "You will know by the end of today 
is that good enough for you?" 

At this Washu cracked a big smile, "Ok, little Ryoko, I can wait a day!"

Ryoko stood up and kissed Washu on the forehead before phasing out. Washu just 
stood there dumbstruck, "Whatever it is she must be really happy about it."

Tenchi was heading towards the house, thinking of what to do next. He still needed 
to let the rest of the girls know about Ryoko and the trip he was taking soon with 
her. He also had to pack. All things considered the day was going pretty smoothly. 
It was getting close to lunch so he decided to let the rest of the group know then. 
"If they don't already know that is," he wondered.

Ryoko was watching Tenchi from her perch on a cherry blossom tree. "Should I or 
shouldn't I?" She teleported to him and caught him in a bearhug, pulling him 
to the ground. *too late I did* she thought as she planted a kiss on his lips. 

To Be continued..... 

Author's Notes: Ok this chapter took a little longer than I expected but is by far 
my longest one yet. I wanted to wait on getting ryoko and tenchi together but now 
seemed to fit just right. Also I know Ryoko was acting OOC, but I think if Tenchi 
picked her that is the kind of mood she would in. Anyway I hope you enjoyed it the 
next chapter is almost done and should be up soon. (im rolling now!) If you think 
you know where the should I or shouldn't I thing came from let me know. I actually 
worked that in as a tribute to a great cartoonist. (It wasn't exactly like that in 
the comic either.) As Always Questions, Comments, Critism, Hate Mail, or promises 
to worship the ground I walk on (jk) can be directed to: kemanorel_7@yahoo.com