Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ Laundry Day ❯ Chapter one ( One-Shot )

Disclaimer: It has been come to my attention that I do not own Tenchi Muyo. I thought that I did but apparently I lost it in a card game to Pioneer and AIC. So this story is written without their permission and I beg with the gods of legal recourse that they do not sue me.

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Tenchi Muyo!

Laundry Day

By

The Human Duck

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It had been two marvelous weeks since Sasami had forced Ayeka to leave her room. Two weeks since Ayeka had found herself in the arms of one Tenchi Masaki.

Before that day Ayeka was in the bowels of despair, her brother was gone forever, she had lost her ship and had no way to return home, she had to rely on strangers for food and shelter, and she was forced to live with the creature that had attacked her home and got her in this mess to begin with.

But now things were so much better. She had found out that her brother was indeed alive some where on this planet and she found that she really didn't care that he had married and had children with someone else. Tenchi and his father had made her feel welcome in their home. And she was quickly learning how to make Ryoko as upset as Ryoko made her.

Still Ayeka felt that she should do more for the people that had taken her in. She'd rather not repay them by lounging about as Ryoko did. She felt that she should make the household duties lighter for them somehow, earn her keep.

On that day she had spotted Tenchi in that room with the two white boxes. Ayeka didn't know what those boxes were for only that one was called the "washer" and the other was called the "dryer." She watched Tenchi place his garments into one of the boxes and then pour a blue liquid over them. He then twisted a dial and pressed a button. The box hummed to life.

"Tenchi what are you doing?" she asked him.

Tenchi turned to her with a startled expression on his face. "Oh Miss Ayeka, I didn't realize you where there. I'm just doing my laundry."

"Your laundry?" Ayeka had never heard that word before.

"Yeah, you know, cleaning my clothes."

"Ohhhhhh," said Ayeka. Ayeka's culture had long ago developed the technology necessary for self-cleaning fabrics. Her clothes would clean themselves.

Ayeka thought for a second. This was a perfect way to repay Tenchi's kindness. The task seemed simple enough and she could make life easier for him. Plus she would get to touch his undergarments, which had been touching his…

Ayeka mentally chided herself for having such perverse thoughts; still a good idea was a good idea.

"Lord Tenchi, you no longer have to do your laundry. From now on I will be doing it for you."

"What?"

"It's the least I can do to repay you for your kindness."

Tenchi seemed just a little bit nervous. "Really you don't have to Miss Ayeka."

"But I insist."

Tenchi sighed. "Well okay, let me show you how everything works."

Tenchi quickly explained all the settings, detergent, softener sheets, separating by color…

Ayeka thought she understood everything well enough.

Tomorrow she'd be doing it for the first time.

* * *

Ayeka poured the detergent over Tenchi's clothes. It felt good to do something nice for him.

Perhaps she should use just a bit more detergent. Tenchi deserved to have very clean clothes.

She stared at the machine.

Maybe just a little bit more.

Just another drizzle.

A few more drops.

Hmm, the bottle was empty. Oh well.

Ayeka closed the lid and turned on the machine.

* * *

When she returned to place the clothes in the dryer Ayeka found the entire room filled with foam. It poured from the lid of the washer and spilled over the floor till it reached the height of her waist.

Ayeka waded through the foam towards the machine hoping to turn it off before it got any worse. But it was too late.

She didn't know what had happened but she knew it was her fault.

* * *

After apologizing to Tenchi and his father and after learning how to use the mop, Ayeka had been allowed to continue to do the laundry. She was rather relieved to find that Nobuyuki seemed very happy that she wanted to do this and how quickly Tenchi forgave her.

This time she didn't make the same mistake. Tenchi's clothes came out perfectly clean. All that remained was for the dryer to finish.

The dryer door chimed and she opened the door of the dryer.

Oh no.

* * *

Tenchi held one of his favorite shirts out in front of him. Well, it had been one of his favorite shirts. Now it was so small that Ryo-ohki was the only one in the house who could wear it.

In front of him Ayeka stood with her eyes downcast. "I'm sorry Lord Tenchi. I didn't mean for it to happen."

Tenchi scratched the back of his neck. "Um, that's okay Miss Ayeka. We all make mistakes. You don't have to do my laundry anymore. I can do it, really."

Ayeka gasped. "B-b-but I want to Tenchi. I-I like doing it."

Tenchi sighed. Part of him told him that he'd lose more shirts from this. But for reasons unknown to him he couldn't say no to Ayeka. "All right, you can keep doing it."

Ayeka smiled. "Thank you, I won't make any more mistakes. I promise."

* * *

Ayeka was convinced that she had one last chance to get this right. If she made another mistake Tenchi might not let her help him anymore.

Ayeka opened the lid of the washer and prayed to the gods that everything would be okay. She peered inside.

Everything was clean.

Everything was… pink.

All of Tenchi's whites were pink. His t-shirts, his socks, his (blush) undergarments, all were pink.

What had happened? She had only put whites in the wash, nothing red. So how the heck did it happen?

Ayeka searched the washer for an explanation. She saw a spot of red amongst the pink. She reached in and pulled out a red tank top.

She knew instantly whom it belonged to. She had been there when Ryoko had bought it when they went into town two days ago. Then she realized that Ryoko must have thrown it in the washer after she left.

"Ryoko! Get in here!" Ayeka shouted.

A few seconds later Ryoko phased through the wall of the laundry room. "What is it?" she asked. "I'm trying to take a nap."

Ayeka thrust the tank top towards the former space pirate.

Ryoko smiled. "You got the stain out. Thanks princess." She snatched the tank top from Ayeka's hands. "Hey it's still wet."

"You've ruined Tenchi's clothes!"

"What the hell are you talking about?'

Ayeka held out a pink t-shirt.

Ryoko arched an eyebrow. "So what's wrong with it?"

"It used to be white!" Ayeka explained. "When you put that little garment of yours in the wash the dye ran and stained everything pink. Now Tenchi will be furious."

Ryoko panicked. "Can you fix it?"

"Your thoughtlessness caused this, you fix it."

"Maybe we can tell Tenchi that it was pink to begin with."

Ayeka sighed. "He's not stupid. He won't fall for such an obvious lie. But I guess you would choose such a deceitful path."

"Well I don't know how else fix it!"

"Maybe if you actually did something around the house instead of just lounging about all day you'd know how to fix it."

"Shut up! I'm trying to think." Ryoko floated in mid-air, cross-legged, with her chin cupped in one hand. "Got it!" she snapped her fingers before teleporting away.

Ayeka cursed. She figured that Ryoko would run away rather then take responsibility for her actions. Ayeka tossed the tank top into the dryer and retrieved more detergent and some bleach. Maybe that would return the clothes to normal.

* * *

The night manager shook his head. "Okay, tell me one more time, what exactly happened here?"

The stock boy sighed. "Like I said before, a woman with the weirdest haircut I've ever seen suddenly appeared out of no where. She grabbed as much underwear as she could, and men's underwear at that. When I asked her what she was doing she told me to `get bent.' Then she just disappeared."

"You know if you needed underwear so badly you could have just used your employee discount or at least come up with a better lie."

"But I didn't-"

"I'm sorry but I'm going to have to let you go."

"Great."

Author's notes or "What the heck was I thinking?": This is the first fic I've written without an ending in mind when I started. That's why it starts out with Ayeka learning to do the laundry and ends with Ryoko stealing underwear. I didn't mean for that to happen, really. The fic wrote it's own ending.

Also I am aware that the Masakis line dry their clothes, but I wanted to make a joke about Ayeka shrinking Tenchi's clothes. That's why they have a dryer in this fic.

In case you can't tell this fic takes place between OAV episodes three and four.

C&C can be sent to hmanduck@aol.com.

Thanks for taking the time to read my fic.

Dave^_^