A VERY TENCHI CHRISTMAS
Written by Brian Navy (geosword@usa.net)
Copyright © 1997
All characters are Copyright to their respective creators. You know who you
are!
PART THREE: LET IT SNOW
He rolled on to his side but something kept him from rolling all the
way over. He
opened one eye and was staring into Ryoko’s beautiful sleeping face. His
other eye snapped
open but he did not move, not wanting to wake her. That was a strange
thought. Normally
he would have just yelled out and flown out of bed. He kind of expected
this kind of thing
now. At least she was still in her clothes. One of her arms was draped
over his side.
Tenchi smiled and lightly kissed her forehead. He then shook her gently.
"Hey. Wake up Ryoko." He whispered.
"Just a little longer honey." She moaned out and snuggled into him.
"Ryoko, come on, wake up."
Her eyes blinked open and she sat up, stretching.
"Oh my. Tenchi, why are you in my bed?"
"I’m not. You’re in mine." He said.
She looked around the room and laughed. "So I am. How did I get in
here? That weird
stuff you gave me must have kicked in again. Oh no! I sleep walk!?" she
said, her voice
filled with melodrama.
"It’s okay Ryoko. Just sneak out. Don’t let Aeka see you or else
world war three will
break out."
"Okay."
She leaned forward and gave him a big kiss on the lips then teleported
out of the room.
Tenchi got up and stretched himself. He opened his door and almost bumped
into Aeka. She
was already dressed in her Jurian robes, her hair tied back in the standard
duel pony tails.
"Good morning Lord Tenchi." She smiled.
"How are you feeling?"
"Like new! That stuff really worked miracles. I feel terrific,
really. Thank you."
She stood up on her tip toes and kissed Tenchi’s cheek then ran
downstairs, giggling.
Tenchi blinked after her. That was different. He shrugged and did the
morning ritual of
waking up, opting to take a shower before coming downstairs. When he
arrived in the kitchen
Aeka had already prepared him breakfast. It was something that was suppose
to be a waffle,
he guessed. Bits of things we’re sticking out of the lopsided gooey mess.
The counter top
was a wreck and Aeka’s sweet face was splattered with batter and flour.
Tenchi thought she
looked rather cute.
"I made you breakfast Lord Tenchi! I hope you like it." She smiled.
Tenchi sat down
reluctantly and stared at the breakfast before him. The waffle thing, the
black charred toast
and the mutated eggs. The orange juice looked normal so he choose to take a
drink of that first.
He then poured syrup on the waffley-thingy, a lot of syrup and then he
spread butter on the toast
which fell apart in his hand. Aeka smiled nervously. Tenchi smiled back.
He then cut off a
piece of the waffle and made sure it was dripping thick with syrup before
putting it in his mouth.
He bit down and something crunched, something with the smooth texture of an
egg shell. Tenchi
chewed on it silently while Aeka looked on with sparkling eyes.
"Is it okay?" she asked.
He drank down half his glass of orange juice before wheezing, "Yeah…
it’s just fine."
Aeka smiled brightly. So not to make her feel bad, Tenchi took another
bite of the waffle
imitation and chewed slowly, holding his breath so not to taste it. It went
down rough and he
had to slam down the rest of his juice to keep from gagging.
And so Tenchi got his morning torture. When he was done with what
surely could have been
his last meal, he went outside to shovel the new snow that had covered the
walkway during the
night. After that his dad showed up with a box full of lights, a ladder and
a couple of staple
guns.
"Okay son. Now comes the easy part. Time to trim the house with lights."
"Sounds easy enough. I hope you do a better job than that roof mosaic."
"Hey now, give me some credit will you?" Nobuyuki said, shoving a
staple gun into his son’s
hand.
"Let’s get started!"
"Are you sure this is safe Sasami?" Aeka said, looking down the snow
covered hill. It
descended for quite some distance. Aeka swallowed a nervous lump in her throat.
"Sure it is and it’s fun!" Sasami said, laying the snow sled down on
the ground.
"Not getting cold feet are you little princess?" Ryoko taunted.
"It seems a bit undignified and childish."
"Excuses, excuses! Get outta the way! Let a master show you how it’s
done." Ryoko
floated over to the snow sled and laid down on it stomach first. She
adjusted her goggles to
protect her eyes.
"Primary booster, ready! Shields up! LAUNCH!"
Ryoko pushed off hard with her right foot and zoomed down the hill,
leaving a wake of
flying snow from the blades.
"Yahooooooooo!" she yelled on the way down.
Aeka blinked and coughed. "It looks dangerous. Maybe I should just
sit and watch."
Sasami pushed her sister from behind toward the second snow sled. Aeka
looked at it like
the jaws of a shark about to clamp down on her.
"Come on Aeka! It’ll be fun!"
Sasami managed to get her sister to sit down on the sled then she sat
down in front of her.
Ryo-oh-ki lept in her lap with a bright meow.
"Okay! Goggles, check!" Sasami said, sliding them down over her eyes.
Aeka quickly did
the same.
"Steering system, check!" she said, playing with the foot pedals that
controlled the front
steering blades.
"We’re ready!"
"MEOW!"
"What about safety belts?" Aeka said worriedly.
"There aren’t any! LAUNCH!"
"WHAT!?"
Aeka hugged on tightly to her little sister as the snow sled took off
down the hill. As
the speed increased so did Aeka’s frantic terrified screaming. Sasami
cheered on and Ryo-oh-ki
stood in her lap, the wind whipping the cabbit’s big ears back. After a
moment Aeka opened one
eye to see the terrain whipping pass. She hugged tighter and screamed out
again.
"I am going to die!!!"
"No you’re not! Isn’t this fun!?" Sasami giggled.
"Hardly the word for it! Stop this thing right now! I demand it!"
"The only way to stop is to get to the bottom of the hill or leap off."
Sasami giggled more.
Aeka closed her eyes back and gripped tightly to her sister, to tightly.
"Aeka! Watch it! I can’t keep control if you---" Sasami tried to say
but she suddenly lost
control and the sled began to turn to the left sharply. "OH NO!!! WIPE
OUT!!!" Sasami screamed
out as the sled tipped over. Everyone went tumbling through the snow.
After many feet of sliding
and tumbling they finally came to a stop, on their backs, staring up at the
snowing sky. Sasami
began to giggle then she started to laugh. Aeka laid there with her eyes
tightly shut.
"Good wipe out Sasami!" Ryoko said, hovering over them with her snow
sled under arm.
"Thanks Ryoko!" she beamed.
Ryo-oh-ki’s head popped out of a snow bank with a questioning meow.
Sasami giggled at the
cute cabbit which lept out of the snow bank only to disappear into another
one as she landed.
This made Sasami laugh and she crawled over to the cabbit shaped whole in
the snow and dug her
out.
"Not cut out for the snow are you Ryo-oh-ki?" Ryoko smiled.
"I am dead aren’t I? I hear the voice of the devil." Aeka squeaked out.
"No, you’re not dead. But I can change that for you if you’d like."
Ryoko grinned evilly,
popping her knuckles.
Aeka sat up and opened her eyes, shaking the snow out of her purple
hair. She checked herself
over for bodily damage and sighed in relief. Nothing appeared out of place.
"I told you it was dangerous, didn’t I?" Aeka scowled at Sasami.
"Only when you’re doing it." Ryoko teased.
Aeka tossed a snowball at Ryoko and stuck her tongue out. Ryoko
floated easily out of the
way.
"Care for a snowball rematch princess? I’ll put you down again."
"Oh, go jump in a frozen lake you witch!"
Aeka got up and stormed down the hill. Ryoko chuckled. "I sense
wounded pride."
Sasami and Ryo-oh-ki nodded in agreement.
Aeka continued to storm down the hill, mumbling to herself. "Make a
fool me will she? I am
going to get you back Ryoko! If it’s the last thing I dOOOOOOoooooooo!!!"
She suddenly found herself up to her neck in snow. She had stepped
into a deep snow drift.
Aeka sighed in frustration.
"I hate my life."
"Tonight will be the grand unveiling of our handy work son!" Nobuyuki
smiled, his arm around
Tenchi’s shoulders.
It had taken 3 hours to trim the house with lights but they were done.
It had been easy
and uneventful for the most part. The only bad incident was his dad nearly
falling off the
ladder from the second floor. Thankfully the drainage canal had been strong
enough to support
him hanging until Tenchi could get the ladder back under him.
"I’ve had enough of this cold weather!" came Aeka’s angry voice from
behind.
"Aeka, it wasn’t that bad." Sasami said, walking hurriedly to keep up
with her sisters
storming gait.
"Hey guys. What’s wrong?" Tenchi waved.
"Aeka became good friends with the snow again." Ryoko cackled.
"Shut up monkey girl." Aeka gave her a drop dead glare.
"I just had another great idea! Let’s go skating! The pond is frozen
over!" Sasami said
cheerfully.
"No thank you! If you want to risk your life in this stupid weather
then go ahead."
"Sounds fun Sasami. You coming Tenchi?" Ryoko said.
"Sure! Let me get my skates."
"You’re going Tenchi?" Aeka’s eyes flashed happily.
"Sure. I like to ice skate."
"Oh… ummm… well, I’d better go too then to keep you ummm… safe." She
smiled.
"Oh. Okay." Tenchi smiled back.
Ryoko frowned and grumbled.
The pond was a solid thick sheet of ice, well suited for skating.
Ryoko flew on to the
ice and went into a graceful triple axle to revival even the best figure
skater. Sasami
clapped and skated on to the ice herself, a little shakily at first but then
more firmly.
Ryo-oh-ki hoped after her and spun out of control on the ice with a
surprised meow. Tenchi went
out next, skating backwards at a high rate of speed. Aeka choose to sit on
a fallen log nearby,
a pair of skates next to her. She eyed them and sighed. She had never
skated in her life.
She returned her eyes back to Tenchi who was moving gracefully around the pond.
"Oh Tenchi…." She sighed.
Aeka sunk her head down and looked at the ground, kicking the snow with
her feet. She sighed
again then looked up at the sound of someone sliding to a halt on the ice.
It was Tenchi.
"Aren’t you going to skate Princess Aeka?" he asked.
"I… don’t know how to."
"That’s no problem. It’s really easy. I’ll teach you. Put your
skates on."
Aeka’s unhappy face lit up with a big smile. "Okay!" she said, putting
on the skates and
quickly lacing them up.
"Ryoko is really moving! The crowd is wild with anticipation of her
next breath taking move.
And there she goes!" Ryoko commentated out loud as she lept into the air
into a blurringly fast
spin. She remained airborne for ten seconds, spinning with her arms out to
her sides then she
came out of it, floating in mid air for a second before landing gently back
on the ice. She threw
up her arms and took a bow.
"And the crowd goes wild!" she shouted, making crowd cheering sound
effects. She looked up
and noticed no one was watching her. She searched for Tenchi and saw him,
holding Aeka by the
hands skating backwards with her. She was wobbling on her skates, her legs
bowed. It was a very
ungraceful display.
"You just have to find your center of balance." Tenchi said.
"My center of balance, right. Exactly where is it?" Aeka said,
wobbling almost out of
control. Tenchi brought them to a stop.
"First off, just learn to stand on your skates."
"Okay." Aeka said regaining her footing. She managed to stand up
right… for about two
seconds before wobbling again. She fell forward with a cry. Tenchi caught
her in a hugging
embrace. Their faces were now dangerously close to each other. Aeka found
herself lost in
Tenchi’s brown eyes. Tenchi gulped as he found himself gazing into Aeka’s
beautiful red eyes.
Uncomfortable silence. Aeka’s eyes closed and she started to lean forward.
Tenchi knew this
was the start of a kiss. He wanted to kiss her, just like he had done to
Ryoko. He tilted his
head and started to lean forward then Aeka went suddenly flying across the
ice, Ryoko having
rammed into her. Aeka screamed, her arms flailing as she skated out of
control and crashed head
first into a snow drift on the bank of the pond.
"Oppps! I am so clumsy! I just lost control. I am so sorry. Maybe
you could help me with
my skating Tenchi."
"You seemed to be doing fine earlier." He said, cocking an eyebrow at
her, speaking in a flat
tone which conveyed his disbelief of Ryoko’s "accident". He skated over to
Aeka and helped her up.
"You okay?" he said.
Aeka’s face was red hot. Her eyebrows were furrowed close together, a
vicious grimace on her
face, her lower lip trembling in boiling anger.
"RYOKO! You did that on purpose!" she exploded.
"I did not! It was an accident!" Ryoko protested.
"Have I ever told you how much I hate your guts Ryoko?" Aeka hissed.
"Well I can assure you the feeling is mutual you stuck up bit---"
"HEY! HEY! Come on you two! This is suppose to be the season of
friendship and family.
Jeez. Can’t you just get along for these couple of days?" Tenchi sighed.
Aeka folded her arms over her chest and hmphed! Ryoko stuck her tongue
out, pulling the
skin under her eye down. Her other hand giving Aeka the bird.
"And you need to cool it the most Ryoko." Tenchi barked.
"What did I do!? You always take her side!"
"Because you’re usually the one that starts it." Tenchi shouted.
Ryoko look genuinely hurt by that. Her eyes started to tear up and her
lower lip quivered.
"Well fine then! If I am such a bother I’ll just leave!"
Ryoko blinked out of sight. Tenchi sighed heavily, his festive mood
suddenly drained. He
felt guilty suddenly.
"I’ll be back." Tenchi said, heading for the house. When he cleared
the tree line he could
see a figure on top of the roof, sitting. He could tell it was Ryoko. He
made his way into the
house and up to the attic. He climbed up the ladder and opened the roof
hatch. He stuck his head
out and saw Ryoko sitting there, her back turned to him. He could hear her
crying and frowned.
He climbed on to the roof, closing the hatch, then he sat down next to her.
Uncomfortable
silence.
"Ryoko…" he started to say.
"Leave me alone. I don’t want to be a bother to you." She sniffled,
not looking at him.
"Look at me."
She sniffled, wiped her eyes and looked at him. She looked really sad
and it drilled a hole
through Tenchi’s heart.
"I’m sorry Ryoko. I didn’t mean to yell at you."
"I just get so jealous." She hugged him. Tenchi blinked then hugged
her back. She rested her
head on his shoulder.
"Yeah. I know." He said, doing the next thing that came natural. He
stroked her hair
comfortingly.
"It seems to me that you like her more." She whispered.
Tenchi had no reply to that. He thought about it and again he could
not choose. To choose one
was to lose the other and he decided right then that he loved them both. It
was not a solution but
for him it was enough at that moment.
"I…"
<Say it stupid. It’s easy. Tell her.>
"I…"
Ryoko pulled back and looked at Tenchi, her eyes searching his.
"I…"
"…love you too." Ryoko said. She kissed him softly on the lips.
Tenchi melted into the kiss
and hugged her tightly, letting go of his bent up oppressed feelings. He
kissed back, a little
rougher. Ryoko reacted to the more aggressive kiss and parted her lips
slightly, running her tongue
along his lips. Tenchi opened his mouth slightly and added his tongue to
the kiss. And then they
lost their balance on the roof and began sliding down it. Tenchi yelped,
arms flailing, trying to
grab something. When the roof ran out Tenchi shut his eyes and cried out
but he did not fall. He
dared to open his eyes back up after a couple of seconds. Ryoko was staring
at him, smiling. He
looked down. They were floating high above the ground. Tenchi looked back
at her and smiled,
chuckling.
"You can let go of them now, if you want." Ryoko winked.
Tenchi noticed his hands were firmly planted on her breasts. He
laughed nervously and quickly
let go.
"Tenchi?" Nobuyuki called out. "Where are you?"
Ryoko floated them to the ground in front of Nobuyuki.
"The tree is here. Give me a hand would you."
"Sure."
They walked around to the front of the house. Tenchi stopped dead in
his tracks. The tree
somehow looked even bigger than it had at the lot.
"Wow." Ryoko whistled.
"How are we going to get that in the house dad?" Tenchi asked.
"Wow! What a pretty tree!" Sasami said as Aeka and her arrived on the
scene.
"Magnificent." Aeka gasped.
"I figure we can take it through the garage into the den, but first, we
have to make room in
the den."
They entered the house and looked around the den. Tenchi concluded
after just a few seconds
that there was no way to fit the tree. The ceiling was just to low.
"There’s no way. The ceiling is to low."
"Not a problem!" Ryoko smiled.
The gem on her right wrist glowed and she aimed her hand up at the
ceiling. A ball of orange
energy shot up and blew a hole through it. Everyone in the room blinked at her.
"What!?" Ryoko blinked back.
After two hours of agonizing struggle they finally got the tree inside,
in it’s base, and
standing up right. The hole Ryoko had created had worked out perfectly.
The tree itself had
survived the move almost completely intact. When it was in place they stood
back and admired it,
short winded.
"Let’s start decorating!" Sasami said eagerly.
Everyone fell over in exhaustion.
Tenchi dragged himself into his room which now had the top of a
Christmas tree sticking
through the floor. He ignored it and flopped into bed. The clock on his
night stand said it
was 2 a.m. It had taken nearly 8 hours to decorate the thing and he was
bushed. It was very
pretty though, thanks to the artistic vision of Sasami.
Tomorrow would be the party. Tenchi looked forward to spending
Christmas with all his friends
and family. That happy thought was on his mind as he passed into sleep.
Washuu flipped up the welding shield and wiped her brow. The last bit
of hardware was in
place and the software was complied. Now all she had to do was hunt for
what she needed to make
this an unforgettable present. Tomorrow she would give her present to
Tenchi, Nobuyuki and Youshou.
The excitement building in her was driving her mad. She flew to her chair
and began the hunt.
END OF PART 3 OF 4
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WASHUU: Lineage... Social status... why should these
things matter? That's how grown ups are...
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oo President of the TEARS FOR TENCHI club, ;_; oo
oo Member of M.A.S., MEN AGAINST SHAMPOO! oo
oo Devoted worshipper of KAWAII anime girlies! oo
oo President of ANIME NATION! oo
oo Holder of the sacred P-chan plushie! oo
oo Keeper of the Carrot Basket! oo
oo Member of #AAS# - Achika Appreciation Society! oo
oo Grand Sardine of the Nuku-Nuku Fan Club oo
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Advice for the day: Don't make super bounce balls out of
nitroglyisern.