A/N: So, three years. Wow. I don't even know what to say about that. Well, for those of you who are just tuning in, this is the next chapter of my story, Forgotten. For those of you who have read it all before, you might notice that this isn't chapter 10, which is what you were probably expecting. This is chapter 8. A while back, I went back and revised chapters 1-7 and I had every intention of doing the same with the subsequent chapters, but despite my best efforts, I just couldn't work with what I had. At the time, I was more caught up in the romance of the plot rather than the plot itself and the story sort of spiraled off course. For those of you that enjoyed those chapters, I apologize, but they just don't belong with this story. So, if you're expecting to just pick up the story where you remember it stopping, then you're in for a world of confusion.

Thank you so much for all of your reviews! Some of you have written me personally, inquiring about the status of this story and encouraging me to update. I really love hearing from everyone and I appreciate your support! Also, for some reason, when I took down the old chapters, I expected the reviews to be deleted with them, but (much to my dismay) they stayed. So, if you're interested in sharing your thoughts about the lastest chapters and you already reviewed the old chapter 8, you'll have to submit an anonmous rewiew or send me a PM. Either way is fine with me. I just want to hear from everyone!

I'm currently working on the next chapter of the story, and I hope to have it up soon. I hope the following does not disappoint.

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Ayeka

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Life in the main house was very different now that Ryoko was essentially living at the shrine with Katsuhito. Things had a way of not exploding or bursting into flames or crumbling into debris. Ayeka hadn't spoken much since the incident and no one had seen Washu for nearly a week. Even though Sasami and Ryo-Oki went about their usual routine, anyone could tell that they were just going through the motions. Mihoshi was still away and hadn't sent any messages detailing when she'd be home again.

And Tenchi… Tenchi was at a loss. Aside from his usual chores and sword practice with his grandfather and occasionally with Ryoko, he was expressly forbidden to step foot at the shrine, a compromise which had been arranged between Ryoko and his grandfather to keep the peace. If he'd thought that one kiss was going to magically bring the two of them closer together, he was dead wrong. For all intents and purposes, Ryoko clearly despised him and made a grand show of making sure he knew it. With each passing day, despite all of his efforts to ignore her hostility and be kind to her, Tenchi was sure that she grew more and more irritated with him. Even the very sight of him was enough to make fists tighten and her hair spark with her rage. Sword practice was especially difficult. Even though she was forbidden to use her powers, she was still the same Ryoko, who was a fast learner and could be a cruel sadist. He had always had a problem fighting her—even in the beginning when he considered her to be an actual threat—he always hesitated. And, naturally, she took full advantage of it.

In the span of just one week she'd fractured three of his fingers, dislocated his knee, and given him one hell of a concussion. She was brutal, and his practice of turning the other cheek just gave her a better target. He'd considered speaking to his grandfather about it, but immediately decided against it. She already had no respect for him and he didn't want to make it worse.

He hissed as Ayeka wrapped a bandage around his wrist, her purple bangs flitting over her eyes and she concentrated on her task. Usually, he would have gone to Washu to help him with this sort of thing, but he had a feeling that she was still bitter with him and he didn't want to chance bothering her when she was in a bad mood. She was after all, technically, Ryoko's mother. Like mother like daughter, they say.

"Tenchi-sama, please excuse me if you find my question inappropriate, but are you a masochist?"

Tenchi nearly choked on the water he'd been drinking while Ayeka casually busied herself with putting away all the medial supplies. "Because it seems to me," she continued, not bothering to look at him or wait and see if he had something to say. "That a boy who willingly kicks a hornet's nest time and time again, must really enjoy being stung. Either that, or he's mentally unstable, in which case, the boy would be wise to seek professional treatment."

"I'm not a masochist, Ayeka—I'm just not going to let her decide anything for me. She can hate me all she wants and beat me into a bloody pulp, but I'm not going to—" Tenchi stopped suddenly as Ayeka kneeled down in front of him and leaned forward, her eyes wide.

Tenchi waited a moment, breathless and very uncomfortable. She was so close he could smell her perfume, a warm wooden scent that always reminded him of the days he used to spend walking in the forest, letting his mind wonder as the wind coaxed him forward. It was always a scent that made his stomach flip whenever she wondered too close. He opened his mouth to say something but she cut him off.

"You called me, Ayeka." She said.

"Yeah…?" he said, his voice barely a whisper as she leaned in closer.

"No formalities, no title, just my name." He could feel her breath coating his lips. She was really too close. A familiar warmth embraced his heart and he remembered why he'd spent so many days just lost in thought over her—the delicate gestures, her conniving smiles, her apple-blossom blushes. And she was so close.

Without even thinking, Tenchi closed his eyes and would have closed the distance between them, had Ayeka not leaned back at that exact moment and stood up.

"You've made your intentions perfectly clear, Tenchi-sama. I would appreciate if you would use more propriety when addressing me in the future." And with that said, Ayeka bowed and swept out of the room. Clenching her hands into fists, she fought to keep them from shaking. Her face was dry, but she wished she could just break down. She didn't care who saw or heard—she just wanted all the sorrow and all the bitterness and all the anger to just come bursting out. But it wouldn't. It stayed firmly locked away inside her and with a silent curse, she descended the stairs, crossed the threshold and went outside.

XxxX

Inside his room, Tenchi was busy pacing the floor and cursing himself with every step. Just what the hell was he thinking? God, he'd been killing himself to get Ryoko to trust him again, and just five seconds ago, he's contemplating kissing Ayeka. She was right—they both were right. He was an unforgivable ass and he was there was something definitely wrong with his mind.

Yes, he was attracted to Ayeka—there was no use denying that—but he was in love with Ryoko. Or at least, he thought he was. What did he even know about love anyway? Was he even sure? What made him such an expert? He'd always thought that Love (which he somehow imagined with a capital 'L') was supposed to be one of those things that just hit you like a bolt of lightening from the sky and you just knew. Nothing like that had ever happened to him, though. Sure there were times when one of the girls would catch him off guard and he'd find himself contemplating if it was Love, but then something else would happen and he'd dismiss the thought entirely. With Ryoko, he thought he'd finally understood. He'd felt something very powerful when they fought Kagato on Souja—when she was crawling and begging for his life. And he'd felt it again when he found her missing in Washu's lab—right before she appeared out of nowhere and stuck her energy sword right in his face. Was that Love?

Or was he just as lost as he'd always been.

Raking his hands through his hair, he collapsed onto his bed and tried to sort out the chaos in his head. Sure it was very easy to picture a life with Ryoko by his side. They'd been together so long that it was nearly impossible to picture one without her. On the other hand, if he really gave it some thought, he could think the same about Ayeka. He could see the two of them together just as clearly as he could with him and Ryoko. Pulling his hands over his face, he groaned and turned over, smothering his face into his pillow. He'd already crossed the line. There was not reset button—no turning back. Even though he hadn't come right out and said it, he'd chosen Ryoko for better or worse.

Though, Tenchi was beginning to worry just how much worse it could get, and seeing the way things were progressing, it was all downhill from here.

XxxX

Why she felt so compelled to make her way to the shine, Ayeka didn't know—nor did she particularly care at the moment. The clack of wooden swords echoing over the landscape did not phase her one bit as she slipped past the dueling pair and made her way into the shrine settling down for a nice cup of tea.

"Stop," Katsuhito said, causing Ryoko to freeze mid dodge and fall flat on her rear. "Break time." He said calmly, slowly making his way back into the shrine.

Ryoko bit back a slew of curse words, her mind replaying a certain incident where her mouth had earned a few unpleasant chores for her outbursts. The gleaming floors in the shrine were a testament to her recently putting a leash on her tongue. Grumbling something about senile old men, she crossed her arms and followed him inside. While she walked she made sure to keep her wooden sword safely tucked under her arm lest she break another one. Roofing the shrine was an experience she never wanted to go through again.

"Ah, perfect timing, Ryoko," Katsuhito said, setting down a cup for her. "I was just about to assume that you wouldn't be joining us." As he said that, Ryoko looked down and noticed a woman sitting at the table who looked an awful lot like the little girl she'd laughed at when she—oh fuck. Wide eyed, slack jawed, and smelling like death warmed over, she gawked at the now fully grown Princess of Jurai. Ayeka. The rational part of her mind, which she rarely paid any attention to anyway, tried to remind her that she'd been informed about Ayeka and their current living arrangements a long time ago. Still, as usual, her thoughts cruised right over logic and planted themselves firmly in the memory of her ransacking this girl's home planet and having the audacity to laugh at her while she did it.

"Has anyone ever told you that's rude to stare."

Ryoko blinked, while Ayeka affected boredom and flipped a defiant strand of purple hair behind her shoulder. She didn't just… Oh hell no.

"Is bashing someone's head in and fucking with their memories something they teach all the princesses from Jurai, or were you just taking the initiative?" Ryoko said, smirking when she noticed the princess stiffen ever so slightly. Well, beating around the bush had never been Ryoko's style anyway.

"Well, I must admit, you do have an uncanny ability to draw out some of my less refined mannerisms." Ayeka returned, and Ryoko could have sworn she saw her smirk—if only for the tiniest of seconds. Yeah, she could deal with this.

"You're using my cup." Ryoko stated, changing the subject just like that.

"I'm afraid you'll have to make due with what you have," Ayeka said, raising the cup to her lips. Before she could even get a drop into her mouth, Ryoko snatched the cup from her hand, sloshing tea all over the table, and promptly spat it in. Katsuhito raised an eyebrow. Ayeka wrinkled her nose in disgust. And Ryoko smiled, proudly, and sat down to join them.

"I've grown rather attached to it," she said, sliding the other cup over to Ayeka.

"Uncouth demon," Ayeka grumbled under her breath.

"Stuck up, bitch," Ryoko murmured back, smirking behind her cup. Yeah, this was definitely something she could handle.

XxxX

Mihoshi beamed as her shipped flew into the outer rim of the Solar System. She was almost home, and that meant Sasami's delicious cooking and Ayeka's dirty romance novels, and Ryoko's sake collection, and Ryoko's back-up sake collection, and Ryoko's absolutely-for-emergencies only sake collection, and Washu's expiriments, and best of all Tenchi. Still dressed in her night clothes, Mihoshi smiled as she blushed shamelessly and buried her face into her pillow. Ah, she couldn't decide on what to do first. Well, if she arrived in time for dinner, which was obviously her first priority, then she could enjoy that while she chatted up Ayeka and Ryoko, who despite sending her off with a cheery farewell, were surely missing her.

Oh, but if she arrived in between meals then she could always track down Tenchi. Surely he'd missed her while she was away. Maybe he'd give her a 'welcome home' hug and they'd walk back to the main house holding hands and—oh she was getting ahead of herself. Hugging her pillow to her chest, Mihoshi giggled and decided to watch some T.V. to pass the time.

Reaching over the various piles of manga, paperwork, and candy wrappers, she snatched up the remote and turned on the T.V. Mihoshi glanced at the time and quickly flipped through the channels, settling on a drama that she'd been neglecting while she was working. Smiling as the opening credits played over the screen, she leaned back and settled into her bed.

One hour later and she was tearing into a box of tissues and really regretting her decision to watch this particular drama. She should have known that Yuki would protest the marriage, but that he would bring a gun to the ceremony and try to assassinate the bride—oh Mihoshi couldn't bear the injustice of it all. And of course, the bride, Chisato just had to tell Yuki with her dying breath that she was really in love with him and the whole marriage thing was just a trap ingeniously devised by his own father, who had never forgiven Yuki for choosing to pursue his budding musical career despite his father's wishes. And then Yuki suddenly confessed that he wasn't really Yuki at all, but his long lost twin sister Yukino, who had mysteriously disappeared ten years ago and returned to find her bother a ruined man thanks to Chisato, whom he believed was going to marry his best friend. And Yukino couldn't bear to see her brother in such a state, so she hid him away from the world and lived under his identity. Then the real Yuki appeared from the shadows and confessed to having a split personality that was in love with Chisato and her mother, whom he'd had an affair with months ago. But after hearing her heartfelt confession, he declared that Chisato was his one and only love and he couldn't bear to live without her. And then poor Chisato, whose last moments had somehow lasted thirty minutes plus commercial breaks, died in Yuki's arms while violins cried in the background and torrential rains beat against the stained glass windows of the sanctuary.

"But what about the children?" Mihoshi wailed, fretting over the fates of Chisato and Yuki's illegitimate heirs. Would they go to their father or would they be cast out into the streets to live and die as orphans? How was she supposed to survive the week in suspense, knowing the lives of two innocent children rested in the hands of the man who'd ruined their parents' lives? Weeping hysterically and blowing her nose, she didn't register the frantic cries from Yukinojo until he popped down right in front of her face, screaming.

"Mihoshi-san, we're entering Earth's atmosphere without any landing coordinates!"

"Hmm?" Mihoshi blinked, her mind instantly skipping over the last part of her computer's statement and latching on the 'entering Earth' part. "Oh, we're almost home!" she beamed.

"We're about to crash!"

"Oh, don't be silly. The alarm would have gone off if we were anywhere near the atmosphere," she replied gaily.

"But you turned off the alarm because you said it was ruining Chisato's final moments!"

Mihoshi blinked again.

"Wait, what?"

XxxX

From her position outside, Sasami could just make out the familiar sound of Mihoshi's ship careening through the sky. Shrugging her shoulders, she calmly collected the rest of the linens from the laundry line, taking the time to carefully fold them in the basket, and walked into the house. Not a second after she shut the door behind her, Mihoshi's ship slammed into the lake, sending a shock wave of water shooting up into the sky and raining down again.

Having done this countless times before and perfected her timing to an exact art, Sasami appeared just as Mihoshi came sloshing inside, crying and hiccuping while Sasami handed her a towel and a steaming cup of tea.

"Welcome home, Mihoshi-nee-san."

Mihoshi smiled and sniffed. It was good to be home.

She wondered what she'd missed while she was away.