Baby Mine

Chapter Five

“Tenchi, can I speak with you privately after dinner? There’s something important I have to talk to you about,” Ryoko asked softly as Sasami called everyone to dinner.

“Of course, Ryoko,” Tenchi answered. He felt a wave of fear in his stomach at her seriousness. Surly she wasn’t thinking about leaving! He had to tell her that he loved her. Maybe he could tonight after dinner when they were talking. With that in mind he sat down at the table and the “family” proceeded to eat Sasami’s delicious meal.

“This is very good, Sasami. I’m glad I’m able to actually eat your food now that I’ve been feeling better,” Ryoko commented as she stuffed some noodles into her mouth.

“Thank you, Ryoko, I’m glad too.”

“Miss Ryoko, please refrain from speaking with your mouth open and about such vulgar topics,” Ayeka reprimanded.

Ryoko rolled her eyes and finished chewing. The rest of the meal was filled with casual conversation and Tenchi breathed a silent sigh of relief that Ryoko and Ayeka had not fought. After dinner, Ryoko helped clear the table while Sasami got to work on the dishes. Tenchi waited until Ryoko had finished clearing the table before getting her to talk with her.

“Are you ready, Ryoko?”

“Oh, let me get my sweater,” Ryoko smiled as she left the kitchen.

Tenchi held up the light blue cardigan and grinned at the space pirate. Ryoko laughed and let Tenchi help put it on her. He grabbed his own light jacket and opened the front door for her.

“Lord Tenchi, where are you going with that monster?” Ayeka demanded, coming into the front hallway.

“Ryoko has something she needs to talk to me about. We won’t be long, Ayeka so don’t worry. If we’re not back in three hours send a search party,” Tenchi answered with a teasing grin.

“I’ll send a search party if you aren’t back in one hour, Lord Tenchi. I can’t stand the thought of you being alone with that…that creature for any long periods of time! You will be sorry if you do anything disgraceful with Lord Tenchi, Miss Ryoko!” Ayeka threatened before stomping away.

Tenchi sighed and shook his head before taking Ryoko’s arm and leading her outside. They walked along a path in the woods in silence for awhile before Ryoko pulled Tenchi to a stop and turned towards him.

“Tenchi, I…um,” Ryoko looked away nervously.

“What’s wrong, Ryoko?” Concern filled Tenchi’s eyes as Ryoko continued to fidget.

Ryoko looked up at the man she loved, took a deep breath and blurted out what she had to tell him, “I’m pregnant with your child.”

Tenchi just stared at her in silence, his face blank. Ryoko hugged herself as she took a small step back and turned slightly away from him.

“This is not some joke or ploy to try and get you to marry me. I would never lie about something important like this. It’s just, I’m confused right now, what with you suddenly coming to me at night and making love to me. I just found out that I was pregnant when we went to the store on Sunday; I had to get a pregnancy test. I knew I had to tell you before I began to show just so you would know. So, that’s all I really needed to talk to you about, I just wanted you to know about the baby,” Ryoko finished and started to leave but Tenchi suddenly reached out and grabbed her arm.

“Are you really pregnant?”

Ryoko nodded. Tenchi suddenly laughed and pulled Ryoko into a tight hug. “Oh, Ryoko this fits perfectly with what I had wanted to talk to you about! I love you, Ryoko! You, not Ayeka or any of the other girls. I’ve tried to tell you every night but you usually fell asleep before I could tell you. And whenever you were awake, I was either too caught up in the moment or I could never get you alone long enough to tell you. Not that those are really very good excuses, I know! I want to marry you Ryoko, not because of the baby but because I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“Re…really?” Ryoko gasped as she looked up into Tenchi’s warm brown eyes.

“Of course, you didn’t think I was going to just say I loved you and leave it at that, did you? No, my child will need a father; I will not let it be a bastard. I will marry you and we will raise a dozen little Tenchis and Ryokos,” Tenchi grinned.

“Well, I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ve been proposed to or just told I will now become a bride,” Ryoko smiled coyly.

“Marry me, Ryoko; be my wife?” Tenchi asked softly as he knelt down on one knee. “I don’t have a ring at the moment but I promise to get you the most beautiful one out there.”

“Yes, yes I’ll marry you. I love you, Tenchi!” Ryoko cried as tears began to trickle down her cheeks.

Tenchi stood up and, laughing, grabbed Ryoko and twirled her around as they laughed. Once he stopped, he pressed his lips against hers in a passionate kiss. When they parted, Tenchi stared into her golden eyes, love reflecting in them just as he knew his own reflected his love for her.

“We will get married in October, the 31st. I know you love autumn and October is the best month for it. Then, you will join me in Tokyo where we will live and raise our family.”

“Tenchi, you’re still in college. Shouldn’t you wait until you graduate before we get married? You will need to study and a baby will keep you up late at night and not let you study when you need to. You’ll become testy and we’ll fight and it just won’t work out! I’ll become testy and blame you for not helping out with raising the baby! It would just be safer if we waited until after you graduated before we get married,” Ryoko urged.

“No, I will not spend three more years without you by my side as my wife. We will raise our kid together and we will not fight as much as you say. I can get Washu to build some sort of portal that will allow you to return here whenever you need to. We’ll work things out but I refuse to waste anymore time,” Tenchi argued.

Ryoko looked at Tenchi for a few minutes. “I will be a hormone-crazed hippo in October.”

Tenchi just laughed. “Yes, but you will be my hormone-crazed hippo! You can get an empire waist wedding gown. That way the baby won’t be as noticeable.”

Ryoko gave him an odd look. “How do you know that that’s what those kinds of dresses are called?”

Tenchi flushed and gave a nervous laugh, “Ayeka as lecturing me on Juraian clothes one day and telling me what all the different styles were called. I remember her mentioning the empire waist one was a popular one for hiding pregnancies.” He frowned at that as he continued. “Of course, now that I think about it, she may have been hinting as something with that comment.”

Ryoko just looked at him before laughing. Tenchi grinned and pulled her into his arms, his hands resting on her stomach.

Ryoko looked up into the sky for awhile before turning back to Tenchi. “Maybe I should have a grey wedding gown and the bridesmaid dresses could be an ocean blue to represent me as a hippo and them as the water?” Ryoko laughed. “Anyway, if you start blaming me for your sleepless nights due to a screaming baby, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Tenchi nodded and kissed her. “Duly noted. How did Washu take the news of your pregnancy?”

“She was very surprised when I told her who the father was but other than that she seemed fine with it. She thought you had made your choice…”

“Which I had,” Tenchi interrupted.

“Yes, as I was saying, I told her you hadn’t or at least you had but it was probably Ayeka whom you had chosen. She is much more your type of girl, almost always polite and refined, something I never am. She was raised to be a wife, I was raised to fight and destroy.”

Tenchi turned Ryoko in his arms and looked deep into her eyes. “I didn’t want Ayeka, Ryoko. I wanted you. I want you. Ayeka may have been raised to be a wife but not the type of wife I want. She was raised to be the wife of an emperor. Plus, she’s my great-aunt; I was not raised to marry family members. Something about messed up genes in the kids. The minute I knew she was related to me that closely turned me away from seeing her as a romantic interest. I’ve only seen her as a friend, but you, I’ve always been attracted to you. First it was just physically but later, I’m not sure when, I became attracted to you emotionally. You know, haven’t you ever heard that sometimes actions speak louder than words?”

“Oh, so I was just supposed to know that you loved me just because you came to me at night and made love to me? Men do that all the time and don’t love their partners. I was just a means of getting free sex…” Ryoko started.

“Have I made you that insecure about yourself, Ryoko? I may have changed these past two years but not to the point where I would take sex as something that I could just get without thinking about the woman’s feelings. If I had felt that way, I would have had a girl in college or I would have taken you up on your “offers” long before this. And I’m pretty sure I said something about giving you a child that first night. That was one of the reasons I came to you. I wanted to give you the child you wanted and I thought it was the perfect time to tell you I loved you. I guess that didn’t work out quite as well as I’d pictured it.” Tenchi said with a frown.

Ryoko just shrugged and turned in Tenchi’s arms to look up at the stars. “How did you view us girls before you made a decision?”

“Well, to be honest I thought you were all annoying to begin with. What with your seductive actions, Ayeka’s prim and proper behavior, both of you fighting with each other, Mihoshi’s ditziness and whining, Washu’s “experiments,” Kiyone’s yelling and complaining at and about Mihoshi, and even Sasami’s perky, naïve attitude.

“However, once I got used to all of your faults I began to appreciate you guys for who you were. Also, I think Dad was glad there were young girls in the house around my age. I think he was worried that I was gay because I never showed any interest in the opposite sex. I think he may have also viewed you guys as some sort of replacement for my mother in my life, you know, kind of like sisters to me. I know he always hoped that I would eventually choose one of you but in the mean time he saw them as the sisters I never had. I could see it with Sasami but Ayeka, as I said before, I saw as an aunt. The same goes for Washu but Kiyone and Mihoshi I see as cousins. You were always the one who never seemed to fit which I think is why I was always attracted to you. I could love you as an actual woman and not feel as if I was in love with a family member. We’ll work things out, Ryoko, together. Now, onto something that’s a little more concerning, when will your morning sickness go away?” Tenchi asked, nuzzling his face in her hair. Ryoko smiled.

“I don’t know. Minako says it’s different for every woman. She always goes in a pattern. She has morning sickness for the first three months, unusual food cravings for the next three months and mood swings for the last three months. Mom said for her son she had morning sickness, cravings and mood swings all mixed together in no real pattern. Are…are we going to tell anyone about the baby when you tell everyone your decision?”

“Not yet. I think it would be safer if we wait a little bit before saying anything. I don’t want anyone to think that I had chosen you because of the baby. Ayeka might think you seduced me and raped me. And speaking of Ayeka, we better get back to the house before she actually sends out a search party.”

“We’ll have to tell them, you know?”

“Hai, but don’t worry about it, I’ll take care of it. Ayeka will need to know that I was not swayed by anything but my own heart,” Tenchi said, hugging Ryoko close to him.
“I hope you know I will not find out what the sex of our baby will be until it is born so you will have to wait to find out with me,” Ryoko grinned.

Tenchi just grinned back as they made their way up the porch steps. Tenchi opened the door and they entered. Ayeka hurried over to them and immediately grabbed Tenchi’s arm in a protective grip. Ryoko just rolled her eyes as she watched the Princess check Tenchi over for any signs that Ryoko had done something unacceptable to “Lord Tenchi.”

“I’m going to bed, I’ll see you guys in the morning,” Ryoko muttered as she turned and headed up the stairs. She grinned when she caught Tenchi’s pleading look which turned into a grin and a wink.

“What was that all about, Lord Tenchi?” Ayeka demanded.

“Nothing, she just wanted to talk to me about something important.”

“Important? Ryoko? Ohhhohohohahaha that is funny Lord Tenchi! Anything Ryoko has to say is never important!”

“Ayeka, please, just because Ryoko is not a princess does not mean she does not have important things to say. If you had asked to speak with me about something important I would have gone with you to listen to whatever you had to tell me,” Tenchi explained as he disengaged his arm from Ayeka’s grip.

“Forgive me, Lord Tenchi, I had no idea. I’m sorry.”

‘You rarely do,’ he thought with a sigh. Tenchi turned and went upstairs to get ready for bed. Now that Ryoko knew his feelings for her, he wasn’t worried about having to tell Ryoko how he felt before she fell asleep. Plus, when he came to her that night, he felt there would be something different in the way they made love, something more special due to their acknowledged feelings. With a smile, Tenchi waited until he was sure everyone was in bed then made his way to Ryoko’s room.

“Hello, my darling,” he smiled softly as he climbed into her bed with a passionate kiss.

“Mmmm, I love you Tenchi.”

“I love you too, Ryoko.”