Chapter 1

It was the first week in December in Okayama Prefecture, a thick blanket of early snow covered the countryside. Residing in that prefecture, the grounds around the modern house near the old Masaki shrine were no exception. Sasami (with Ryo-Ohki on her head) was skating across the iced-over lake adjacent to the house. She had turned Azaka and Kamidake into a pair of huge snowmen that were sliding uncontrollably across the ice trying to catch her.

"Look out!" Azaka shouted as he and Kamidake slid straight into a snowbank. Sasami started laughing so hard she slid into a snowbank herself.

Washu was sweeping the steps to the shrine; she had been watching the frivolity on the lake and chuckled. Suddenly, much to her surprise, a flying snowball connected with the back of her head. Down she went, off the side of the steps, ending up face first in the snow. Now sporting a snow beard she heard the familiar laughter of a certain Galaxy Police officer. She jumped to her feet and turned around. Before her were Mihoshi and Aeka both holding their sides laughing, Washu quickly made a snowball and hurled it at the blonde. It missed and hit Aeka squarely in the face, dropping the princess backwards, landing on her royal backside. The chaos further escalated and "The Great Snowball War" commenced.

Tenchi, not part of the epic battle, had just finished bokken practice with his grandfather for the day, and was walking into the house, "Grampa…making me practice when it's so damn cold outside… my feet feel frozen!" he grumbled to himself. He opened the front door and carefully walked into the house looking around. He steeled himself, preparing for the inevitable 'surprise' glomping by a certain former space pirate. When this didn't happen, it puzzled Tenchi. Everyone else is out of the house, he worried. Now would be the perfect time for Ryoko to try to take advantage. She was, however, nowhere in sight.

Something felt off. As he walked into the living room, he heard a faint sneeze come from the couch. He saw Ryoko wearing her familiar golden-yellow and blue dress, lying on the couch rubbing her forearms.

"Ryoko, are you alright?"

Her head snapped up at the sound of his voice. She jumped off the couch and said with a grin, "Of course I am." He smiled and was about to walk toward the steps when Ryoko fell back onto the couch with a groan.

He rushed over and crouched at her side. "Ryoko, what's wrong?" he asked, his voice filled with concern. "And don't tell me you're fine." She looked into his eyes and was about to say exactly that when a wave of dizziness hit her, and all she could do was moan softly.

Tenchi's frowned and felt her forehead with the back of his hand. This gesture generated from her both a little smile and a thought; He really does care about me.

"Wow, you're on fire," he said pulling his hand back.

"But Tenchi, that can't be, I'm freezing," she said quietly.

Tenchi thought for a second then said, "You've got a really bad fever, you need to stay warm and get some sleep." He grabbed a blanket from one of the other couches and wrapped it around her, rubbing her left forearm through the blanket.

After a few seconds she spoke up in a weak voice, "I'm still cold, Tenchi."

Tenchi quickly thought of an idea that would be the best thing for her, but it could cause… complications. The hell with it, he resolved. She needs this. I'll deal with any consequences later. "Come on Ryoko," he told her as he gently picked her up, blanket and all. "You can sleep in my bed. It's warmer than that support beam you normally sleep on." He offered a slight smile.

As he walked up the stairs, she rested her head and palm against his chest, and smiled. It might not be for the reason I always hoped I'd go, but he is carrying me to his room, she thought with a weak grin. Tenchi slightly swallowed as her hand touched his chest, but he made no effort to remove it.

After entering his room and closing the door behind him, he slowly set her down in the middle of his bed. As he gently pulled the covers up to her neck, he brought his face to within inches from hers. She blushed at his concern for her, and he blushed due to their proximity.

Tenchi noticed a few things about Ryoko that seemed different. Normally her golden cat-like eyes portrayed strength and determination. Now they looked more like that of a kitten's; soft and a bit vulnerable. Her cyan hair wasn't arranged in its normal pointed spikes; it was let down and flowed over the pillows and her shoulders, in a more traditionally feminine manner.

He had never seen her look like this before. He found it...very attractive... It wasn't her normal brazen style that she had shown during her numerous attempts at seducing him, but something occurring naturally; without effort. He felt a bit of a lump in his throat.

"I'll be right back. I'm going to get Washu." He pulled away from her blushing face a little slower than he would normally do. They both noticed, but neither commented on it. He walked to the door, opened it and looked back at her. She was lying down, her head on the pillow looking at him.

"Thank you." she said quietly. He smiled at her, slightly nodded, and closed the door. She heard his footsteps as he hurried down the stairs and out the front door.

"Damn you, Zero" she muttered under her breath. "You're so emotional." Ever since she and Zero had bonded, she had moments, when she was around Tenchi, when she could hardly speak. "Oh well, at least the day wasn't a total loss," she voiced with a smile. She sighed, but then suddenly broke out into a series of coughs.

Tenchi exited the house, moving quickly towards the shrine, the last place he had seen Washu. As he reached the shrine steps, he spotted her up at the top in a huge snowball fight with Aeka, Mihoshi, Sasami and even Ryo-Ohki. He started running the stairs, calling Washu, trying to get her attention. As he finally cleared the last set of steps and reached the landing; Wham! He got a face full of snow.

He brushed the snow from his eyes, and saw Washu tossing a snowball from hand to hand. "You had to know that would happen," she quipped as she raised the ball like she was about to throw it at him. "Now what were you saying?"

He spoke with a somewhat annoyed tone. "Washu, can you come to the house?" Then, in an effort not to raise too many questions he said, "I, uh, need your help with something."

"Is anything wrong Lord Tenchi?" Aeka asked.

"No, nothing's wrong," he answered quickly. "I just need Washu's opinion on something."

Washu sensed that he wanted to talk in private. "Sure Tenchi, I'll go with you," she said as she dropped her snowball.

He sighed and started to walk back down the steps with Washu following closely behind.

Everyone silently watched the pair disappear down the steps and out of sight. "I wonder why Lord Tenchi needs to talk to Miss Washu," Aeka thought out loud. Before she could continue her train of thought a snowball hit her right between her shoulder blades. A laughing Mihoshi could be heard. The "Great Snowball War" had resumed.

Washu followed Tenchi down the steps, neither speaking. She could tell he was worried about something and she was fairly sure of what that was, or in this case who, but she decided to let him speak first.

They entered the house and Tenchi stopped and turned around and stared straight into her eyes, "I've got a feeling that you already know what I'm going to ask you, but, Ryoko's really sick, and I was hoping that you could help her."

"Sorry Tenchi, but the common cold is something even the greatest scientific genius can't fix," Washu said. That was, of course, was an outright lie; she had developed a cure centuries ago. Her thoughts however were, Without a quick cure, he'll have to take more personal care of her, which might just be what's needed.

"All you can do is to make sure she stays in bed, gets plenty of liquid and lots of rest," she stated in a motherly voice.

Tenchi just sighed with a half grin, "Oh well, looks like she'll have to tough it out like a regular earthling."

"Sorry I can't help, Tenchi." Washu offered, shrugging. "I just remembered I need to monitor one of my experiments. Later." She giggled and ran off to her lab. I need to program the computer to watch this interesting turn of events, she thought with an evil smirk.

Tenchi watched Washu dash into her lab and raised an eyebrow. "Okay… bye then," he muttered well after she disappeared behind the door.

He shrugged, turned, and made his way to the kitchen. A few minutes later he emerged with a bowl of soup and a warm bottle of diluted sake on a tray, past a just returned Sasami on her way into the kitchen, giving her a quick silent smile in the passing. He brought the tray up to his room and opened the door to see Ryoko looking up at the ceiling, staring off into space.

"Ryoko?" he said quietly, just in case she was about to fall asleep. As he said it she snapped her head towards the sound with a serious look on her face, but it softened as soon as she saw it was him.

She sat up and smiled. "You're late," she said weakly.

"Sorry, I brought you something though." He smiled back walking over to her and set the tray on her lap.

"Aeka didn't make this did she?" she inquired eyeing the soup suspiciously.

Tenchi chuckled, understanding the reason for Ryoko's questioning the soup's origin:

About a week ago she and Aeka had decided to have a cook off, drafting an unwilling Tenchi as the judge since everyone else was 'conveniently' absent… they had known it was coming and had left the vicinity as quickly as possible.

Ryoko's dish was initially presented, and seemed fine at first until his taste buds were assailed by as multitude of flavors, the majority of which one would more normally associate with sticks and mud pies. He did manage to smile his way through it and to swallow it with no after effects, triggering a proud smile of triumph on Ryoko's face.

Not to be undone by a 'mere pirate', Aeka placed her very under-cooked dish in front of Tenchi and looked upon him with expectant eyes. Not wishing to embarrass the princess, he took a quick bite of the half raw offering, thinking he could tough it out. He was wrong, which he discovered almost immediately, as his body attempted to purge the offending mouthful along with the contents of his stomach. After a mad dash to the bathroom and barely making it in time, he heard Ryoko claim victory which, of course, Aeka fervently denied.

Tenchi had never declared an actual winner. He would have rather fought Kagato again than get in the middle of that contest.

"Tenchi!" Ryoko whined pulling on his sleeve in the present. "Don't zone out on me now."

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I was just remembering something." He noticed half the soup and all of the sake were gone. He blushed when he realized that he had been sitting right next to her, for who knows how long, but hadn't moved away.

After she finished the soup, she closed her eyes and stated flatly, "I still say I was the winner."

Tenchi chuckled a little, "Whatever you say Ryoko."

Ryoko acted hurt, "You mean I didn't win?" but she couldn't help but smile.

"Well... um..." he verbally stumbled around looking for the right words. He decided to take the easy way out, "Here, I'll take the tray back to the kitchen." As he slid the tray off of her lap and onto his, Ryoko placed one hand on one of his hands, and put the other on his shoulder.

This is different, he thought. She isn't squeezing the life out of me in one of her famous bear hugs she tends to do. That was as far as his mind got. Then all at once, she gently squeezed his hand, her other hand pulled his shoulder towards her chest, and she kissed his cheek. "Thank you," she whispered.

He sat there dumbfounded for a second, wide eyed. He snapped out of it and stumbled back off the bed. The tray somehow landed flat on the floor, losing none of its contents. Tenchi slowly got up on his knees and leaned on the bed. "You don't need to thank me," he said shakily.

"You're taking care of me aren't you?" she asked turning on her side leveling her eyes with Tenchi's. "I appreciate it."

"Really… there's no need… to thank me," he said sweating and turning red as Ryoko's face was staring back at him just a few inches away. Her golden eyes were so... so... striking. He saw them reflecting an emotion that was neither lust nor anticipation.

"But I want to thank you, Tenchi," she said so quietly he barely heard it

As he looked into her amazing eyes, memories sparked, including the first time he had seen them:

When he was a baby, his mother would carry him on her back. They walked past the cave near the shrine frequently and once he saw a woman standing there looking at them, with golden eyes. He reached out to her and she looked amazed. He knew he shouldn't have remembered that, but, yet, somehow he did.

When he was five, he often played near the cave even though he no longer saw the lady. He was looking into its entrance, one time, behind the locked gate, when suddenly his grandfather appeared behind him. "Why must you come here time and again, when you know that it's forbidden?"

"Why is it forbidden Grandpa?" Tenchi asked.

"I'll tell you why. A demon sleeps here," he replied.

Even though that scared Tenchi, he would return to the cave whenever he could, still drawn to it.

Later that year, Tenchi's mother died. He ran to the place where he had always felt safe; the cave. He had laid in front of its entrance, crying, pounding his fist in anger and grief. The snow had been falling but somehow he had stayed dry and warm. He felt as if someone was with him, sharing his pain, feeling his sorrow and protecting him.

He continued visiting the cave, sitting near the entrance, quietly talking with the presence he could no longer feel.

Years passed. He couldn't spend as much time around the cave, but he never forgot that feeling of that presence that had comforted him. Every year when school started, he went to the cave to say goodbye to the one he both never met but at the same time had always known was there, somehow…

Then as suddenly as the memories hit him, they left. He was back in his room, still looking into her eyes. In all the time he had known her, he had never felt like this. Her face was so close to his, but he didn't try to move away. She was in his bed, but he didn't want to make her leave.

Could it be that that he was…?

"Ryoko... I... I..." he said hesitantly, not sure if this was the right thing to do or the right time.

"Yes, Tenchi?" she asked, not waiting for an answer. She closed her eyes and ever so slowly brought her face to his. He didn't bother trying to finish speaking; he closed his eyes and leaned toward her face.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. "Tenchi, dinner's ready," Sasami called through the door. His eyes shot open, seeing Ryoko's face so close. He, out of reflex, stumbled backwards. Ryoko kissed the air where he had been a moment before. She opened her startled eyes and saw Tenchi had moved away from her.

"I, uh, need to tell the others that you're sick," he said quickly. Before she could speak, he had grabbed the tray and was out the door.

She sat there for a moment, looking at the door, not sure how to react. He almost said it, the Zero part of her said. But he didn't, the rest of her answered. You saw how fast he ran away. She sat there in silence.

Down in her lab, Washu, watching her monitor, frowned, shook her head slowly and scoffed, "Great timing Sasami…"