Washu wasn’t in the mood for anything. Not even to work. She just sat
in her lab, door locked, and laying upon her cushion. She would sleep, eat,
live, but it wasn’t Washu anymore. -Why?- she thought -Why can I not work? I
have so many things I could do, so many things....I guess I really know the
reason but-
     A thud came upon the door. She sat in silence, as if worried that
whoever was out there might hear her thoughts. She waited a long time to see
if anyone would try to open the door again. Nothing. More silence. -That’s
what I’ve had for the longest time is silence. I’m so sick, yet pleased with
it. This is too odd, I have t get up. But this feeling....What is it? I
haven’t felt in such a long time...- Then she placed it, and the feeling
swelled to be even more harsh then before. She curled into a ball on her
side upon her cushion, tightly gripping her knees with all force. The
feeling was sadness.

     “Tenchi! Oh Tenchi!” Ryoko yelled across the shrine. She looked about
from her floating position in the air with eager eyes. Finally she spotted
him walking down the steps to the shrine.
     Tenchi gave a big heaving sigh and lowered his head. He knew what he
was going back to, a whole house full of odd girls. One cooked, one had a
job with an annoying assistant(and the assistant was probably asleep
somewhere in the house), the two that bickered so often over him he didn’t
with to think about, but the last one...
     He felt a quick tugging upon his shirt that felt like fingers, but not
enough force to make him stop moving. Ryoko phased in with arms tightly
around him.
     “Tenchi! This place is so boring! Can’t we go have some fun? Come on!
You and me out in the galaxy just looking for trouble-”
     “I’m not in the mood Ryoko. I’ve got other things to worry about.” And
he did. Ever since that one night with Washu everything had seemed to be out
of place. It have been four days and Washu hadn’t even stepped foot out of
her lab for food. Tenchi, in his normal nature, was worried.
     Ryoko slid around in front of him. She put her hands on hi chest and
pushed to make him stop. Her strength was enormous compared to what Tenchi
usually felt in her small little pushes. He almost had to take another step
back to keep his balance.
     Ryoko floated up to him wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. She
gave him a pouty looking face and put on a sappy voice more then before.
     “Tenchi! Why don’t you want to play anymore? Everything’s changed since
the day before! I liked it the way it was! Why can’t it be like that again?”
     “Don’t you notice anything anymore Ryoko? There’s been more changes
then just in me! Look at everyone else in the house, I’m not the only one.”
He tried to push on but she held fast. Her grips was soft about him but if
her even flinched her arms became as strong as iron.
     “Why has everything changed?”
     Tenchi sighed. His need to care for Ryoko flushed over him but her
didn’t want to tell her what happened between Washu and himself. He was
afraid of giving away some big secret of Washu’s.
     “I don’t want to talk about it...” He threw his shoulder into the push
that he gave and Ryoko finally let go. He walked on with his head lowered
and another heavy sigh left his lips.
     Ryoko just floated there for a moment, not moving at all. She seemed to
be limp as the looks of a puppet.
     “Tenchi...”

     Washu was in the lab, as she had been, with her back upon the cushion
with her legs hanging off the end. -I could stop the pain, she thought, it
would be so simple...So easy...But, what would they think? I couldn’t
possibly...-
     The pain hit again. It wasn’t on her flesh, she could have fixed that.
This deepening loneliness was about to kill her. -All these times alone,
thinking about them...I guess it all was going to pile down on me
someday...-
     -Maybe I could...It would hurt anything. They’d be happy with me. Here
with my new and better life...Why not? It will be a good experiment.- Even
though she told herself these things, she didn’t believe any of it. It all
seemed so unreliable.
     With a sigh she stood, which was for her a great accomplishment at the
moment. It felt good and harsh upon her legs for them to be used again. The
first thing she could think about(now that she was moving) was food.
     “How am I supposed to get food? At least, not right now...,” she
commented. She was a little startled to hear her own voice. t had been so
long since she had talked aloud to herself.
     She clasped her hands together and made a happy noise through her shut
mouth. “I can’t wait to get my hands on some of Sasami’s cooking tonight!”

     It was near one in the morning when Washu’s lab door finally opened.
Her eyes re-adjusted to the darkness quickly as she looked about. She hoped
everyone was in their beds, it would make it so much easier.
     “Washu!” A silent whisper came from above her on the stairs. Her heart
practically dropped into her stomach. Tenchi. Caught again by the same
person. It was pleasant yet horrible to hear his voice. The memories washed
over her again. She had tried to focus on food but the sound of Tenchi’s
voice reminded her of...
     Washu ducked down as her name was spoken, in hopes that, with an
unlikely chance, he’d forget she was there and go away.
     Tenchi hurried down the stairs at a fast pace in fear that she might
shut herself in again. She wouldn’t have though, she was frozen by the sound
of his voice. Any voice would have made her freeze. She longed to hear
someone again but was still afraid of what they would say.
     Tenchi noticed that she hadn’t shut the door yet, and since the had the
time to do so, he decided that she wouldn’t. He reached the end of the stair
case and walked slowly up to her.
     “Washu...?” He looked towards her in curiosity and mostly concern.
     She turned her face from him, still paralyzed, unsure of what to do.
She stared at the door, realizing her hand was still on the knob that she
thought she had let go of a long time ago. She stared at her hand, acting as
if she were studying it.
     “Washu...Please talk to me...”
     She kept her silence, daring never to look into his eyes.
     Tenchi sighed reluctantly. He looked at her, only able to see the mass
of hair  in front of him.
     “Washu...How can I help if I don’t know what’s wrong?”
     Washu felt the words and noises gathering in her throat. She didn’t
want to say anything but she had to.
     “I...” she stopped herself quickly, hearing a small tremble in her
voice. “You...Wouldn’t be able to help if I told you...” She began to close
the door, not once turning to look towards his face.
     His foot landed in the way of the door. He looked solemnly at her with
sadness in his heart. He didn’t love her, he knew that. But he needed to
help her, like he would do for any other girl in the household.
     Washu bowed her head. She wrapped her arms around one another strapping
one hand to each elbow. She stared down, focusing on the floor.
     “Washu...”
     “No! I don’t want to talk!” All that she had held in was thrusting
itself out. She couldn’t bear to hold the pain any longer.
     She forced the door upon his foot. He didn’t budge though. He didn’t
want to.
     “Please, just let me talk with you...”
     She forced the door with all of her might against id foot. She had to
get into her lab before she was swept away by him. She didn’t want to love
him, to talk to him, to do anything with him. Not now.
     His foot finally gave in. But before Washu could lock herself in,
Tenchi grabbed onto both of her shoulders. She was frozen by his touch. If
her had tapped her on the shoulder, she wouldn‘t have been able to move. He
moved in closer beside her to obscure the way her closing the door again.
     “Please Washu...” Finally she was forced to look into his eyes. Those
eyes filled with concern and dismay. It was a comforting yet horrible sight
to see someone cared so much for her.
     I should tell him...But, what would he think? No, it wouldn’t be fair
to bother him with it, not fair at all. I’ll just keep it to myself, as a I
always have. it will be better that way...-
     Washu looked down from his eyes. She took a step back into her lab. The
darkness in there made her happy and reminded her of herself. She didn’t
want to deal with this.
     “No....” It was all she could say without raging at him or bursting
into tears. It was so hard for her to keep from doing either.
     Tenchi sighed. He saw this was going no where. There was no need to
drag on this endless case. He stepped back out of total reach of the door.
     Washu looked up at him with sad and longing eyes. He looked back with
the same longing eyes. Though they were both longing for two things exactly
the opposite yet very alike.
     She reached forward and grabbed the door knob. -Tenchi...- Somehow in
her sad thoughts another one creeped in -None f Sasami’s cooking. I guess
I’ll have to make my own again.-
     She silently shut the door and moved back into her dark loneliness,
leaving Tenchi more worried then ever.

     Washu was in her lab for somewhere around a month. She never came out,
never blew up anything, just stayed in her la. She worked quietly and
diligently on her new invention that would stop all of the pain or bring on
more. She wasn’t sure which and didn’t care, she was going to make this work
no matter what. Nothing mattered, just the experiment.
     Tenchi wasn’t the only one worried anymore. Sasami was just as worried
as he was by now. She kept on cooking and doing normal work, but every day
she made sure to knock on Washu’s door for every meal. She never answered.
     Tenchi himself was almost always worried except for when Ryoko had a
chance to distract him from his thoughts. Even then it wasn’t long for Ayeka
would come charging in to break it up and he would go back to his thoughts.
     But finally, after a very long time, Washu’s invention was finished.