A Quiet Rooftop Moment

By BGlanders

***

For as far as the eye could see, the great blanket of milky white stars that Ryoko had come to know so well seemed to engulf the clear, cool evening sky.  Night after night the demoness had found herself floating aimlessly around the house only to wind up here, on the edge of the cold tiles of the Masaki roof.  Maybe she would watch some TV with Sasami or knock a few back with Aeka, but after awhile even spending time with them got old.  After awhile, everything seemed to grow old to the space pirate. 

When this would happen, Ryoko would drift silently to her rooftop, and make no mistake; above all else the roof was her territory.  Few would tread where the queen of cats was known to hold sacred, and the roof was by now well known to be one of those few places.  It was here, under that familiar blanket of white, shimmering stars that she would lay; endlessly gazing with questioning, yellow eyes that reflected the tiny sparkles like diamonds against a golden shore. 

Usually Ryoko didn't find the time to sit for long moments and think about things.  For her, life required little questioning when it came to decisions. For her, life was black or white, right or wrong, take it or leave it, and Ryoko was the type to take it and run.  So it was rare that she found herself questioning her moves, regardless of what they might entail.  For some reason though, she found herself winding up more and more underneath this same silent sky, staring at everything and nothing all at once. 

The problem, she figured, was that she didn't even know what the problem was.  That alone set her to thinking about what could be so wrong that she would be bothered by it, and this made her feel even more bothered.  Eventually she would sigh, fade back through the ceiling and drift off into a dreamless sleep on her favorite rafter (another place well avoided by those who would know better than to disturb her peace of mind). 

It was while on the roof as she was pondering her unknown problems that she received a visitor from the household below her.  She knew them by their scent, the way they moved, even by the sound of their breathing.  She knew who it was without even giving a glance over her shoulder, and strangely enough this didn't seem to bother her visitor in the slightest.

"Ryoko… what are you doing up here?  You'll catch cold if you stay out too long, you know…"

Ryoko allowed a slight smile to cross her face at the kind remark.  She knew perfectly well that if she could swim through the black, endless, freezing void of space, something so trivial as a summer's breeze would have quite a time trying to damage her health.  Still, she answered anyway.  It was the human side of her showing through, she supposed.

"I know.  I won't be out much longer… I just needed some time alone, that's all."

Her visitor, a young man wearing a brown jacket with his name written on its breast in red kanji, wandered over to the demoness, mindful not to loose his balance and fall off, for the roof was a bit steep, and he didn't feel like breaking a leg.

"Ryoko… has something been bothering you lately?  You seem, well, not yourself lately…"

Ryoko sighed as Tenchi Masaki, the future ruler of the Jurain Empire and quite possibly the most powerful mortal being in the known universe, not to mention her own one true unrequited love, carefully tried to seat himself a good meter away from her.  Without a glance in his direction, Ryoko answered, her eyes continuously fixed on the blanket of stars above her.

"What?  You mean I haven't been blowing things up or melting through the walls or, dare I say it, trying to get you in the sack lately?  Is that what you mean by me not acting like myself?"

Tenchi felt a sweat cross his brow as he hurriedly tried to back paddle his statement.

"Well er,  what I mean is, um… you've just seemed detached these last few weeks, I guess…"

Ryoko lay for several moments longer, letting the silence around them build.  Tenchi felt his words trailing off, his own efforts not producing anything in the way of a reaction.  Shrugging, he stood, brushed off his pants and started to head for the window that looked out upon the roof, for how else could the family members get up there so easily?

"Well, um, I guess I won't bother you anymore.  Goodni…"

Tenchi was cut off by an orange streak of light whispering past his left ear, slightly singing the hairs on his neck.  In front of him, a small, smoldering crater had mysteriously appeared.  Sweating profusely, Tenchi ceased his retreat for the safety of the house and turned again to Ryoko, who was now sitting up straight and looking quite angry.

"Damnit!  You're supposed to ask me what's wrong, not walk away!"

"…Oh."

Ryoko turned away from the boy king and swung around to face the roof's ledge, her legs dangling out over the side.  Her arms were crossed over her chest, and despite the fact that it was evening, Tenchi could swear that the area of space around Ryoko's head seemed even darker than the night that surrounded them.

Slowly, Tenchi walked back to the edge of the roof.  Without saying a word, he once again sat on the ledge, this time right next to the space pirate he called friend.  The quivering uneasiness that usually wavered in his voice was gone as he quietly asked, "So what's wrong Ryoko?"

Ryoko sat motionless for several minutes, and for a moment Tenchi thought that he was merely wasting his time.  Then Ryoko looked up, her half closed eyes once again filled with the beauty of the night sky.

"You see that out there?  I've been there.  Pick any one of them and I could probably tell you a story about an adventure I've had there, or a crime I committed.  I've been to all of them, seen all of them, and they were all so different…so…unique."

She pointed at one in particular.  It was a faint one that was two over from a rather bright star in the center of the night sky.  Tenchi followed the outline of her arm and let his gaze fall on the tiny flake of light that the demoness had pointed out. 

"See that one there?  It had a planet that was so cold everything was made of ice.  The houses, the schools, even the castles.  All of it was ice, and the people there were content with that fact.  They had such wondrous sculptures there that people would come from all over the universe to see them, and at night the planet's magnetic filed would create the most beautiful lights in the night sky.  It was like watching the sea become infused with color, then watching it spill out over the heavens.  It was beautiful.

 

"Not two planets over another race lived.  Their planet was much warmer than their neighbors.  They had endless seas that stretched out for as far as you could imagine, Tenchi.  The beaches there were covered with white, powdery sand that felt like sugar between your toes, and the forests beyond the beaches were lush and green.  At night the sky would turn purple, and the water looked like it was carved from some deep, blue stone that rippled in the moonlight.  It was beautiful there too."

Tenchi felt himself become lost in Ryoko's words.  His mind started to paint delicate pictures of fairy tale worlds, each one more beautiful than the last.  He tried to let himself see what Ryoko had seen, and even as he tried her realized that he couldn't know, not even in a thousand years, all the beauties and wonders she had seen in her time. 

"I saw them Tenchi.  I saw so much when I was in space.  It was a never-ending voyage with stop after stop of wonders.  Sure I was a slave to Kagato, but that didn't mean I couldn't loose myself in the beauty of the universe from time to time.  It was all so big, so beautiful…"

Tenchi felt something warm and soft shift under his arm, and only then realized that his arm was around Ryoko.  Her head leaned against his shoulder, and Tenchi found himself wondering what it would be like to feel that closeness, that warmth every night.  If nothing else, it would be something to remind him that he wasn't dreaming, that this life, this woman beside him was real.  Idly, he let his mind drift on that thought until Ryoko's words brought him reeling back to reality.

"I want you to come with me Tenchi.  I want you to see those wonders with me.  I want to see them, for myself if nothing else.  I need to know that… that there's something out there that's waiting for me.  Something to remind me why I'm here, why I live from day to day.  I need something, anything to make me feel… free, Tenchi.  I want to be free…"

Ryoko felt Tenchi's arm tighten ever so slightly around her, giving her an excuse to snuggle closer to him.  Tenchi spoke, his eyes tracing the outline of Ryoko's unique, beautiful hair.

"But Ryoko, how can you say that?  I mean, you've got all of us here for you, and we care about you very much.  You're a part of our world, you know that.  How can you say…"

"I know, Tenchi.  I know you all care, and for that I'm eternally grateful.  It's just… for so long I wanted to go out on my own, without any chains pulling me back.  I wanted to make a decision on my own, one for myself and no one else.  I wanted to know what life was like outside of… I wanted to know what it was like to live my life for myself.  I just… hell, I just had a birthday last week!  At least, mom thinks I had one last week anyway…"

"Congratulations Ryoko!  So how old are you?"

WHAP!

Tenchi pulled his arm way from Ryoko for a moment to nurse the side of his face, which at the moment was sporting a rather large bruise. 

"THAT'S NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS!"

Tenchi nodded, mumbling a 'sorry'.  Ryoko felt her anger dissipate as she looked out over the tree line that extended from the edge of the house yard.  Idly she noted how it looked like the ocean at night; great waves of black moving silently against one another, whispering as they passed for places unknown.

"I guess the point is that I'm getting restless, that's all.  I'm… God I feel like I'm going to scream, and I don't even know why."

Tenchi nodded, his eyes trying to catch a glimpse of Ryoko's as they stared at the endless inky landscape.  With a slight 'oomph' he got to his feet and started to walk back towards the window a second time.  After taking two steps, he stopped and turned to face Ryoko again, but all he saw was her back.

"Ryoko, do you regret ever coming to live here?"

At that she turned to face him, her face looking half surprised to the young prince.

"No… not once.  Not ever.  I'm happy with where I've gotten with my life, Tenchi.  I'm happy just to be here with you and the others.  I just…"

Tenchi raised his hand, motioning for her to stop.

"Then as long as you don't regret what you do with your life, you should never hesitate to live it.  I'd like to see those places with you Ryoko.  Someday… someday we will see them… and it will be because we want to, and we won't regret going there, no matter what."

Ryoko's face seemed to light up for a moment in the darkness, and for the briefest of seconds Tenchi thought he could actually see her hope burning like two dying embers in her eyes.

"Do you really mean it Tenchi, or are you just saying that to make me feel better?"

Tenchi felt himself smile at her words.

"I mean it, Ryoko.  Someday we'll get out of here and go wherever we want to, but not tonight."

A cool breeze chose that moment to wisp past Tenchi's singed neck, causing what little hair remained there to stand on end.

"It's getting pretty chilly out… Ryoko?  You wanna come inside for awhile?"

Ryoko shook her head, her eyes already drifting back to the curtain of stars overhead.

"No… I think I'll stay here a bit longer.  You go ahead and I'll follow soon, okay Tenchi?"

"Sure.  Good night, Ryoko."

With that, Tenchi turned to climb through the upstairs window and return to the warmth and security of the place he called home.  Before he did however, he paused and turned one last time to Ryoko, who was already laying on the roof, staring out into the glitter-covered abyss.

"Ryoko?"

"Yeah Tenchi?"

"Happy birthday, Ryoko."

"…Thanks."

***

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