Hi. While this is *not* my first fanfic, this is the first I've posted to 
the list. It is a very short story dealing with some of Ranma Saotomes
loves and hates. This is the first part of two. Gratuitous C&C please. I
haven't really checked spelling or grammer yet, so be patient with me.

I don't mean to be misleading with the title, but this is not a Shampoo
story. Sorry! 

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                          Meow (Part 1 of 2)

                             a fanfic by
                             Chris Jones
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Standard Disclaimer: I have absolutely no legal right to use Ranma or any 
other of Takahashi-sama's characters. They belong to Her Nifty 
Impressiveness, Kitty, Shogakukan, Shonen, and Viz. Go ahead and sue me. If
I had any money, I would be spending a *lot* more time watching Ranma
videos than
writing Ranma stories.

Distribute this story, but please credit me.

Read on:
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	Ranma almost skipped along the fence on his way home from school. It
wasn't like him to be so hyper, but he just couldn't help himself.

	'Gotta get home.... Gotta get home.... Gotta get home....' He did
pirouettes on the turns, and jump kicks over the gates. Life was good, and
Ranma was living it. He passed Ucchan's and waved at Konatsu, who was
sweeping in front of the restraunt, and the inconspicuos looking pay phone
that hadn't been there yesterday, "Hey guy's! What's up?" With out waiting
for an answer, he darted out of sight. The ninja and the payphone were left
wondering.

	'Gotta get home.... Gotta get home.... Gotta get home....' As Ranma heard
a military plane fly overhead, he paused, part in shock, part in disgust at
himself. He had realized why he was so excited: Akane was coming back home
today. It completely ruined his mood. The martial artist jumped off of the
fence, and started trudging despondantly back to the dojo.

***

Anyone who travels regularly knows how emotional most airports can be.
Freinds, families moving up, moving on. Lovers separated and reunited.
Parents, letting go for the first time. Ranma and Akane...

	"Stupid tomboy... Like you're gonna get any better cookin' in Honolulu
than you would here." Don't leave, Akane... My life won't be the same
without you....

	"Shut up, Pervert. I don't see you aspiring to do anything else with your
life", I have to leave, Ranma.... Can't you see that?

	Nabiki smiled sardonically at the squabbling pair. "Children, Children...
It's only two weeks. Now off you go, Akane. You'll miss the plane if you
stay much longer. You wouldn't want to swim to Hawaii, now would you?"

	"Those thighs'll probably help. Things coulda kept the Titanic up. Nope,
no danger of Akane drowining 'In Case of a Water Landing'. Ranma could
barely hold back the tears. No, no, not here. Please don't let her see me
cry... 

	With a tender 'Ranma no baka' and a chaste kiss with her mallet, Akane
turned, and fled down the embarking ramp, her eyes brimming over with
tears, her heart pounding his name. True, she wanted to stay, but you
didn't win a two week stay at the 'Julia Childs Fantasy Cooking Camp' every
week. She could only hope that the other three fiancees, as well as their
meddlesome parents would keep eachother at bay until she returned to
protect her investment.

***

	Ranma moped on his way back to the dojo. Akane was coming back, and the
beatings would commence just as soon as she got off the plane.  What had
made him so happy earlier was still a complete mystery...  

	As fate would have it, if Ranma had still been singing in joy as he passed
the street construction site, he never would have heard it...

	"mew."

	Although it was a pained cry, Ranma's hair stood on end.  His pigtail
spiked as he turned to face his attacker.

	"mew ... MEW MEW MEW!" She was hurt. She was scared. There were nasty
monsters nearby and they were getting closer. And then HE was there,
beutiful, tall, and full of fighting spirit. 

	The hideous smell of fish sausage and sardine came back to him. The little
beast stood at the end of the torn up street.

	"mew," Don't let me die. I don't want to be eaten...

	"No way..." Ranma could see that the kitten had it's paw caught in the
drainage gate. It was cut badly, but the cat couldn't get it free. Then he
looked down at the other end of the street, where two or three burly
construction workers were busy laying new asphalt. Another sat on a steam
roller, backing slowly down the curb, matching asphalt to cement. From
where he was, he *might* see the kitten before he crushed it.

	"mew."

	"Leave me alone! I hate CATS!"

	"mew," But if you leave me, the monster will eat me....

	Ranma turned to walk away. Fate could have Ms. Kitty.

	"meeeeeew" I-I understand. Maybe it's better this way...

	"Bloody hell..." Ranma gritted his teeth, screwed his eyes shut, and
turned back toward the kitten.

***

	Nabiki was quite suprised to feel the sudden sensation on her backside, as
she was standing in front of the counter. She had been ordering an ice
cream, but now...  Nabiki turned to see who was being perverted.

	It was.... Ranma? He was on all fours, and rubbing up against her with
brotherly affection.  If her brother had been a siamese, mind you.

	"Oh great...Saotome succumbs once again." She sighed mournfully as the
other patrons began to stare.  
	
	Ranma finished rubbing his right side against her and turned to finish the
job. Every cat knew that you were supposed to offer *both* your flanks to
the people who fed you, or took care of your house. It was just being nice.

	As Ranma turned, Nabiki was presented with the source of Ranma's current
affliction. In his mouth, Ranma was carrying a white and grey tabby kitten
by the scruff of her neck. The kitten purred contentedly, even though
something seemed to be wrong with it.

	"Lovely... Just Lovely." She tried to get away from Ranma, moving to sit
in a booth, but the martial artisit followed her, and lept up on the table,
where he meowed plantively.  "Would you get down? You're being embarassing!"

	"Miiiiiaaaaooowwww!" Ranma seemed happy to see her, if nothing else. He
looked like he was still halfway watching the kitten.... WHO WAS LICKING
HER ICECREAM!!!!

	"Ranma! What is the big idea bringing this little beast--

	"miarr, " The kitten looked up in thanks for the sweet meal. Nabiki was
about to shoo it off, when she saw it limp away from the bowl.  When it
started trying to clean its face, she understood.

	"What happened to it, Ranma?" She picked up the kitten and examined its
left forepaw. It had been ripped pretty badly down the middle. "Did you do
this?"

	"Raoooorrrr!" Ranma hissed slightly.

	"Sorry.... geez!" She didn't think that he *would* do something like that,
but with the Saotomes, sometimes you never knew.
	
	Ranma picked the kitten out of Nabiki's hands with his teeth, almost
protectively. It looked utterly ridiculous, but still, he looked at her
questioningly. The kitten purred, its eyes closed, and its paws hanging
limply. She seemed contented to stay where she was.

	"Maybe we should see Doctor Tofuu?" He would look at the kitten's leg, and
might be able to do something for Ranma, as well.

	"Meow."

*** 

	"Hmmm, severe, chronic, aluripohobia. I've seen it before, but never in a
case this severe..."  Tofuu studied Ranma, who was curled up around the
injured kitten, napping contendedly on an examination table. "How did this
happen, again?"

	Nabiki quickly recounted the the story of Ranma's training in the
Neko-ken, and his father's stupidity. She told the doctor of how Genma had
interperated the training manual. "...And the next page even *said* that it
was a stupid technique."

	"I see... Tofuu pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "And
Akane is the only person who can calm him down?"

	Nabiki thought for a second. "There was an old lady who could do it. She
was a neighbor of the Saotomes, but she passed away some time ago."

	"Hmm... This is not good." Tofuu began skimming through a psychology text.
"Have you tried any kind of confrontation therapy yet?"

	"We tried. Kassumi let a bunch of cats in the house when we found out, but
Ranma just locked himself in the bathroom." Nabiki winced as the doctor's
glasses fogged slightly at the mention of her sister.
		
	"I don't see why that shouldn't have worked... If it was Kassumi." The
doctor sighed and lay the psychology tbook on the examination table in
frustration. "Does any kind of shock help to bring him around?"

	"Well,"  Nabiki started, "Alame *did* punch him face first into a water
fountain the last time it happened.  It may have just been Akane, though."

	"No harm in trying something similiar..." Tofuu walked to the sink and
filled a large syringe with cold water. "Ranma?" He tried to get the
martial artist's attention, but Ranma was far too rooted in his slumber to
notice. "Nabiki, would you shake him, please?"

	Nabiki gently nudged Ranma's shoulders. "Ranma?" Time to get up."

	"Rawol?" Ranma looked up and yawned, only to be squirted in the face. The
kitten mewed angrily at being splashed, but Ranma (now a girl) took the
sysringe from Tofuu in six perfectly even slices.

	"Rawwwwrrrrrr..." Ranma growled at Tofuu, but soon began 'cleaning' the
water off of the kitten after she had a second to calm down.

	"I'm sure that's not sanitary..." Tofuu frowned in defeat. "I think I'm
going to have to send him to Doctor Nishiama. He specializes in phobias and
MPS."

	"What are his rates like?" Nabiki was carefully examining her father's
bankbook.

	"Nabiki?!?!"

	"Well, Uncle Saotome *is* pretty cheap, Doctor," Nabiki snapped the
bankbook shut with a wicked grin. "Somebody's going to have pay for it. Do
you give much to charity, Doctor Tofuu?"

	"A-actually," Tofuu *hoped* she was only kidding, "I think Doctor Nishiama
is looking for a case study. He may take the case for free." He had seen
that evil glint in her eyes before, and it ended up costing him better than
200,000 yen, after all the expenses.

	"We'll see... At any rate, can you do anything for Ranma's kitten? I'd
hate for it to suffer." Nabiki glanced over to the kitten, who was now
cleaning herself. It tried to lick its sliced pay, but it was obvious that
the wound was far too painful to touch.

	Ranma, on the other hand, had started cleaning as well, and was having no
problem. She was doing a pretty decent job of looking kittenish.

	Nabiki knew that if she could get Ranma into a leotard, and maybe some of
those cute 'cat ears', that one photo would pay for Ranma's treatment for a
decade, as well as repairs to the dojo. Her fingers twitched involuntarily
for a shutter button.

	"I think I'll bandage and splint that paw, and I can give you some pain
drops, but you really should take her to a vetrenarian.

	"Ranma or the cat?"

	Tofuu didn't answer. Ranma wearily let him pick up the kitten. He cleaned
the cut, and bandaged it wiwh gauze and tounge depressors. As an
afterthough, he put a few drops of a clear liquied on top of the bandage.

	"Antiseptic?" Nabiki asked.

	"Actuallly, you can't give small animals alchohol-based antiseptics. There
is a danger that it will poison them if they lick it. That was the same
nail polish I give to people who chew their nails. It's non-toxic, and it
*should* keep her from tearing the splint.
	
	The kitten mewed questioningly up towards the Doctor. She shook the weight
on her paw, sniffed it, and jerked violently at the smell.

	Ranma was straining to clean her pigtail as the doctor gave the kitten
back. Ranma looked disdainfully at teh bandage, but picked the kitten up by
the scriff of the neck. She hopped off the table, and started pading toward
the door of the clinic.

	"I guess that all you can do for Ranma right now is to try and keep him
safe until Akane gets home. Barring that, I'll have Doctor Nishiama get in
touch with you."  Tofuu looked somewhat baffled as Ranma began scratching
at the doorframe. "If he insists on carrying the kitten with his mouth, you
really should bathe it."

***
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Wullp, that's it for now. I hope to have the second part completed by the
end of this week, and for sure before spring semester starts. 

My notes:

Tofuu's expirience with Nabiki's greed refers to the "Pelvic
Fortunetelling" episode, when she persuades him to allow her to pose as his
fiancee, in return for  new clothes, dates, etc... If the figure for his
losses sounds a bit high, tell me.

Dr. Nishiama, Tofuu's psychologist friend, is completely fictional and will
never appear. Does anybody else think Ranma's feline transformation counts
as Multiple Personality Syndrome?

Next time: Ranma-neko plays with Kunou, and Akane gets a kitty! 

Hamster
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Chris Jones                    hamster@arn.net	
Hamster House of Animation     http://users.arn.net/~hamster
The Ranma 1/2 Gallery          http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/6413
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'My name is NOT Charlotte!' 'It's P-chan' 'Right! Uhhh..No!' -R1/2