---

    She left her parent, reentered the house, walked up the stairs, grabbed
her still unpacked backpack, hoisted it onto her shoulders, returned
downstairs and looked at her mother and brother.
    "I'm dead." she stated. "Go on with your lives."
    With that, she left. She never looked back.

    Two weeks later, Ucchan's Okonomiyaki closed down for the night. It
never opened again.

    "The rest of the story you know." Ukyou finished. "I came to New York,
got a Green Card, opened this place and met you."
    "And now?" Malcolm asked. Ukyou looked at him, confused. 
    "About this," he clarified, picking up the invitation. "Are you going to
go?"
    "I...don't know. On one hand, I want to see everybody again. But, I'm
not sure if I could handle seeing Ranma and Akane...together. And I'd
have to visit Konatsu and--" Her voice dropped. "My family."
   Malcolm took her hand. "Are you sure that isn't what you want?"
   "What?"
   Malcolm sighed. "It sounds to me like you're searching for some closure
to your life in Japan. You said yourself that you're still in love with Ranma.
You haven't visited Konatsu's--" Malcolm decided to rephrase the
statement after seeing Ukyou wince. "--Konatsu in over a year. And then,
there's your father..."
    "You sound like Sigmund Freud." Ukyou quipped.
    "Rheally? How zo?" Malcolm said with a bad psuedo-German accent.
    Ukyou burst out laughing, her would-be fiancee joined her.
   "Anyway," Malcolm said. "My point is, you won't be alone."
   "I'm not following you?"
    Malcolm picked up the invitation and pointed to Akane's postscript.
   "They want to meet Prince Charming, I'd hate to disappoint them."
    "You mean, you'll come with me?"
    Malcolm nodded. "I've got some vacation time saved up and the firm can
do without me for a few days. Accountants are a dime a dozen in this
town, anyway. Whaddya say?"
    Ukyou was silent for a few moments, then looked up at her red headed
companion with a smile. "Yes."
   Malcolm smiled in return, walked over to the cash register counter,
grabbed the phone from underneath it and dialed his travel agent.
   As the line rang, he placed a hand in his jacket pocket and fingered the
ring box.
   <Not yet,> he thought. <Maybe afterwards, but not right now.>

    Ukyou looked at her..lover? She wasn't sure. Yes, they had made love.
But was it true love? She was fairly certain Malcolm loved her, but she
wasn't sure if she retuned it. They were close friends, extremely close
friends. She blushed as memories of their first evening "together"
crossed her mind.
    No, she didn't know if she loved him. But all the same, she was glad he
was coming with her. She glanced up at the wall where the pictures of
those she had spent her teen years with hung silently.
 
    "Home." she whispered.


---

    Okay...I can hear the weaponry being charged now. How dare I set
Ukyou up with an American, right? Well, don't worry about it. 
     As I mentioned before, this story was part of a series that fell through
due to the fact that the majority of the participating authors had several
things happen to them all at once, myself included. As a result, the enitre
series is currently in limbo, and since I'll be leaving in a month anyway, I
figured I might as well post this thing and see what happens.
      Special thanks goes to Hitomi Ichinohei for providing answers to my
questions about family disownment in Japan. And hopefully, I haven't
misinterpreted the answers too badly.
        Special thanks also goes to those authors who volunteered for the
"Reunion" project, unsuccessful though it was. Maybe next time, guys.

         As always C&C is accepted.

                                                             ---Erin 2.5