Well, here's the second part of A Careless Wish.
I've pretty much planned out the plot for the whole series, though not each induvidual chapter, so I should be able to do this fic pretty easily.
(Nnfadsh is turning out to be less easy, despite having planned out chapters. Bleh )=
Public or private feed back only =)
Ja ne,
-Alex Timiney
--
"The time has come for bitter things"
-- Attached file included as plaintext by Ecartis --
== == == == == ==
The efflux of water from her hair hid the subdued flow of tears
from her eyes. The weight of depression on her heart was too great
for her to expend energy on actually weeping, so she just knelt
there, salty tears mingling with slightly soapy cold water. Staring
at herself in the bathroom mirror, she managed to wheeze something
out.
"I wasn't dreaming..." she whispered. The young man that was
staring back at her from the other side of the looking glass was
boyishly handsome, despite the distressed expression and limp
shoulders. It was difficult for her to remember that it was herself
that she was staring at so disconsolately.
"Hot water... that's what changes me back, isn't it, Kasumi?" she
asked the elder girl, who had agreed to accompany her in the
bathroom. How she knew, she wasn't sure. It might have been
intuition, or some left over memory of who she was alleged to have
been before... before whatever had happened earlier that day.
Whatever the reason, she knew the answer before it was given, for it
seemed to her as common knowledge, as if she'd grown up with it.
Though she didn't consider herself to be an exhibitionist, Ranma
knew that she wasn't the most modest girl in town, either. Somehow,
though, she seemed to have a great deal more 'masculine modesty' than
that of the feminine variety. She wasn't sure if it was that she felt
embarrassed or ashamed of her unwanted form, or if it was simply that
she felt it inappropriate to allow a member of what was, for the
moment, the opposite sex to see her in all her masculine glory.
Either way, she was careful to keep 'himself' from exposing her front
to Kasumi, as she made her way over to the tub to splash a cupped
handful of hot water into her face.
As much as the near scolding liquid washed away her male body, it
also seemed to wash away the emotional shackles that had bound her
from anything but the most lethargic of responses to her discovery.
With the shock and denial dispelled, she slumped over the side of the
bath tub, face buried in crossed arms, and wept in earnest.
Kasumi, everly accepting the mantle of the supportive mother
figure, knelt beside the cursed girl and placed a comforting arm
across her naked back, murmuring soothing sounds.
At the touch, and kindly words, Ranma looked up, teary eyed. "You
don't understand - I'll never be able to wear pretty clothes ever
again, in case it rains!" she wailed, though it obvious from the
soulful glimmer in her eyes that such a vain observation was simply
her way of dealing with her tragic position. "And all my underwear
would get stretched and broken, and I'll never be able to wear a nice
swimsuit if I actually want to go swimming, and... and... and..." the
tirade of petty consequences of the curse continued for several
minutes before finally Ranma gained some semblance of composure, and
was left alone to finish cleaning herself up.
= == == == == =
A Careless Wish
A Ranma 1/2 'What If' fanfic
(Insert Standard Disclaimer Here)
By Alex Timiney <curator@dicordia.connectfree.co.uk>
Critical Review by "Ranko" <Omega_X@gmx.net>
Started 22/10/2002 Updated 25/11/2002
A Change of Heart
(The Tentative Second Part)
== == == == ==
Nabiki stopped the playback as she finished transcribing the tale
she had caught on tape. She reviewed the story in her head and
snorted. This was just the sort of thing that would happen to Ranma,
wasn't it? No doubt in a week or two, everything would be back to
normal again. In the meantime, she'd get to have her little bit of
fun - which almost certainly meant increased profits for a while...
it was necessary, really, though, because this sort of escapade
usually resulted in extra expenditures, like repairs to the house and
dojo.
The mercenary girl sighed, running a hand through her hair and
pushing her notebook away. Things had become much more... complicated
since the Saotomes had arrived at the dojo. The more hectic pace kept
her entertained, but sometimes she wondered how she kept up. Still,
she did keep up and, like Ranma with his martial arts, she always
came out on top in the world of finance and intrigue.
Already there was a plan forming in her mind. Several, in fact,
though the foremost idea would have to be put into operation much
sooner, so it was the one she concentrated on for now. The plan was
actually quite simple, and was based on the apparent facts that (a)
Ranma was now a girl; (b) Ranma was suffering from amnesia; and (c)
there was at least one very rich boy who would pay a great deal of
money to get a date with Ranma... and even more money to be able to
genuinely claim 'her' as his girlfriend...
But first she'd have to find out exactly what she could get away
with, with this new, feminine Ranma.
Akane looked over Ranma's form. Somehow she'd been expecting that
she would be wearing girls clothing, when she returned from her bath.
But there she was, standing in the doorway with Kasumi, wearing one
of her normal Chinese outfits - a dark, short sleeved top with
bracers and black drawstring trousers. If it weren't for the puffy
redness around the girl's eyes, she'd have assumed that Ranma had
just been pretending to be a girl. As it was, she was undecided.
"Hi... Akane, right?" Ranma said, tentatively, as she stepped
forward into the room.
"Yes, of course it's me!" she barked, loosing her cool and
forgetting the situation for a moment. Seeing Ranma flinch and about
to back off, she realised her mistake and tried to make up for it.
"I'm sorry... I just forgot for a minute. It's just that, if you
think you're a girl..."
"Which I am."
"Uh, yeah, which you are... then why are you still wearing boy's
clothing?"
Ranma sighed and glanced outside. "It's a compromise. In case I
get splashed," she told the other girl. Sitting down at the table
with Akane, and turning to face the TV to watch whatever images
presented themselves, she added, "Besides, I must've had terrible
taste in clothing, or something, 'cos I couldn't find anything else
that I liked. Guess I'll have to go shopping tomorrow... assuming
I've even got any money."
"Uh, right..." Akane boggled. Ranma had admitted to having bad
taste, and had just volunteered to go clothes shopping? This was
most... un-Ranma like behaviour, and that creeped her out, since this
girl certainly looked and sounded like the Ranma she knew and lo...
um, disliked.
Still in the doorway, Kasumi smiled. On the whole, she had
decided, Ranma's transformation must be a good thing, if only because
she and Akane now seemed capable of holding a conversation for more
than a couple of lines before degrading into insults.
"I'm going to make a start on dinner, now," she announced. "You
two girls be good." She paused just long enough to receive her little
sister's muted acknowledgement and Ranma's grateful smile.
The two younger girls turned back to the TV, the room turning
silent except for the subdued noises from the set. Neither Ranma nor
Akane seemed to be paying much attention, instead they were looking
distinctly uncomfortable and occasionally fidgeting.
"So what happened to the two old guys?" Ranma finally asked after
the adverts interrupted the program.
"Huh? Our fathers? I think they went to a bar to figure out a plan
to get us to marry," the other replied with feigned indifference.
"Feh!" Ranma snorted. "As if that's gonna happen! We're both
girls, right?" As she said that she looked Akane in the eyes, with a
friendly grin on her face to take the edge off her denial.. The other
girl weakly and unsurely returned the smile. The somewhat sceptical
response took the happiness from Ranma's face and she looked away
again.
"Well, I wouldn't worry about them, anyway," Akane suggested.
"They'll probably just get drunk and forget that any of this happened
in the first place."
"Right..." Ranma agreed, softly. "Just what was it that happened,
anyway? Kasumi told me I'd gone on a date with this moron, Kuno, to
get him to use a magic sword to cure my curse, or something. But I
don't really remember clearly what happened... just that there was an
explosion, and I woke up with you kneeling over me."
"Well, uh... Kuno refuses to accept your curse - he's convinced
that your two forms are different people, and that you... or rather,
your male form is some sort of sorcerer who has magically enslaved
your cursed... um, enslaved you."
"Whoa... I mean, I got the impression that he was an idiot, but
that's just ridiculous!" Ranma exclaimed, appearing to be genuinely
shocked, or perhaps disgusted. "So what happened with this magic
sword thing, then?"
"Well, he managed to get his hands on a sword that could grant
three wishes," Akane continued, becoming less nervous with the act of
recalling the day's events. "He'd already wasted two of the wishes,
the first to 'humble' you, and the second to get a date with you..."
"Tch. That sounds like about what I'd expect from a moron of that
calibre," Ranma commented. "I bet I was already planning to go on a
date with him to get his sword, right?"
"Yes, you were... hey, I wonder if that counted as a wish? I mean,
since it would've happened whether he wished for it or not..." she
thought out loud, before getting back to her tale. "So, anyway, today
you went on a date... he came to pick you up at four in the
morning." That elicited a disgusted chuckle from the other girl.
"Well, you spent most of the day trying to steal the sword from him,
and stopping him from wasting the wish on really stupid things... but
after your father managed to take it, it turned out that only Kuno
could use the sword... But, of course, you couldn't get him to simply
wish for you to be cured of your curse, because he didn't believe in
it... Instead you managed to get him to wish for 'the pigtailed
girl', that's female you, to be freed from your control."
Throughout the latter part of the explanation, Ranma's expression
darkened. A barely perceptible aura of anger and defiance surrounded
the girl. "So basically, this sword turned 'Ranma Saotome', a guy who
turns into a girl, into me, the 'pigtailed girl' - a figment of the
imagination of a grade-A idiot..." she growled, scowling at the floor
and clenching a fist at her side. Before Akane could try to console
her, she continued, angrily. "Well, I'm gonna show that moron that
I'm the kinda imaginary gal best left in your head!" She reached up
for her pigtail and, after a moment of hesitation, undid the little
piece of string that kept her plaited hair together.
"I'm not gonna be this pervert's pigtailed wet dream... I'm gonna
be his nightmare!" she proclaimed, even as her braid untwined and
fell loose about her shoulders.
"Ranma..." Akane didn't know what to say. Sure, she'd seen the old
Ranma get angry like this before, usually over being defeated, but
this new Ranma... she was upset about something rather new and
unfamiliar, and Akane wasn't sure how far the girl would go... The
removal of the pigtail unsettled her more than she realised, too - in
the several months since the Saotome's had arrived, not once had she
seen Ranma's hair in any other style; he'd not even undone when
taking a bath, or washing his hair.
"It's funny... I got the strangest feeling that I shouldn't have
done that..." Ranma said, examining the whisker like string that
she'd just removed. "D'you know why?"
"No... but you've never undone it before."
"Hmm... I'll go with my intuition for now, then," she said, and
used the little piece of string to hold her hair back in a loose
ponytail.
Just outside the room, Nabiki cursed. 'Well there goes that idea'
she thought angrily. 'Time for plan B...'
Plan B was... um...
"Damn, I don't have a plan B!" she muttered heatedly under her
breath. 'Maybe I could 'persuade' Ranma to date some /other/ boys,'
she quickly thought out. After all, if he's really a girl, she should
be happy to date guys. If not, then it'll blow his cover, and I'd be
open to persuasion to keep his secret...'
"Excuse me, where is Tendo Dojo... oh... Hello Akane! What are you
doing here?"
"Hello Ryoga!" Akane cheerily replied. "I live here."
"You live in Kyoto?"
"No, silly. We're in Tokyo. This /is/ the Tendo dojo."
Ranma boggled. This guy... this rather good looking guy... this
actually quite handsome guy had managed to walk into the living room
of the place he was looking for, and /hadn't noticed/? What was even
more strange was that, upon reflection, it didn't seem all that
surprising. She leaned over to Akane and whispered in her ear, "Who
is this guy?"
"This is Ryoga Hibiki," Akane told her, in not so hushed tones.
"You don't remember him, either?"
Ryoga paused and looked on, catching, but not comprehending the
interchange.
"Not really," Ranma confirmed. "He's cute, though. Is he single?"
Ryoga, hearing this, suddenly lost his balance and found his face
firmly planted into the tatami mat. Akane sweated nervously and
glared at Ranma as if she'd just sprouted bat wings and proclaimed it
happy hour on human souls... which is not quite the same way an
average person would react to such a display of demonism, but then
Akane was anything but average...
"Do you /feel/ well!?" she asked, caustically.
"What? Just 'cos boy are perverts, it doesn't mean a girl can't
have a little fun with the good looking ones!"
"I'm right here, you know!" Ryoga complained, getting back on his
feet.
Still hidden in the shadows, Nabiki cursed even more. 'How can
this Ranma be so... bold?!' she wondered. 'The old Ranma couldn't
even stand up to all his fiancees, let alone actually express an
interest in anyone! This has got to be some sort of put on...
'Damn, some more! How am I going to sell dates with him, if he's
just going to hit on every good looking moron he meets?'
"So where have you been to this time, Ryoga?" Akane asked, trying
to forget everything Ranma just said.
"Eastern Europe," the lost boy told her as he handed her some
gifts from a carrier bag. The first was a bottle of Canadian Maple
syrup, the next was an 'I love NY' t-shirt and cap, followed by a
postcard showing the 'Hollywood' sign, and finally a bottle of
tequila.
"Wow," the girl exclaimed as she looked over the distinctly
American souvenirs. "That's... that's... really far away."
Meanwhile, Ranma pouted, and glared at Akane. "'Guess he is spoken
for, after all."
"Huh? What do you mean?" the other girl seemed genuinely confused
by Ranma's remark.
"Would you stop that?" Ryoga growled. "Just what is wrong with
you, Ranma?" The angry question was accompanied by an elbow jab aimed
at Ranma's head.
The formerly-pigtailed-girl dodged the half hearted attack, and
struck back with a convenient shojo-mallet. "Really, that's that no
way to treat a girl," she chastised the stunned boy, even as little
stars danced in front of his fishcake eyes, and a lump rose under
where the mallet was embedded into his skull. "Especially in front of
your girlfriend!"
"Really Ranma, he's not my boyfriend!" Akane said sincerely, with
a glimmer of emotion held in her eyes. "Besides, I wouldn't want to,
because... I mean, you and I... I already... that is..." A blush
began to rise on her cheeks, as she tried to say something she'd
never thought she'd want to say... and to someone who only looked
like the person she wanted to say it to, but was really someone else.
Wasn't he... she?
"Ranma... for humiliating me like that in front of Akane... YOU
WILL PAY!" Ryoga cried out, having recovered from the mallet strike.
He hopped up and pressed a barrage of punches into his target,
forcing the girl to duck and dodge, slowly pushing her backwards into
the yard.
Though she had no difficulty in avoiding the attacks, Ranma was
scowling all the while. Once clear of the house, she said to the boy,
"I don't normally like to beat up clumsy, graceless boys, but..." Her
hands suddenly became a blur as she struck with dozens upon dozens of
blows to the boy, aiming at weak spots once she took down his
defences. In the time it took her to yell, "Katchu Tenshin
Amaguriken!" she had dealt out enough hits to send her attacker
flying into the wall.
She stood there for a moment, panting lightly, staring first at
her fallen opponent, and then at her hands. "Neat! I know a secret
technique!"
"Stop it, both of you!" Akane called out from where she stood on
the veranda. "Ranma! Look out!"
Unfortunately for Ranma, Ryoga may have been down, but he wasn't
out. Before Akane could finish her warning, Ryoga's umbrella was
already bearing down on it's target. The call was enough to allow
Ranma to steel herself against an impact, but not enough to get out
of the way. The tip of the lead weighted umbrella struck her in the
chest, and sent her flying into the koi pond.
Ryoga got up and walked over to the pool, grinning triumphantly.
The smirk was wiped off his face, though, when a soaking wet, /male/
Ranma bobbed up in the water, spitting out a fish from his mouth.
"Ranma! Your... your curse! You're a boy!"
Ranma scowled at the other boy. "You jerk!" he growled, as reached
into his shirt. "You made me brake my bra!" He pulled out the
offending undergarment, flinging it into Ryoga's face for him to get
a good close up view of the broken clasp.
"You were wearing a bra?" Akane asked, incredulous. Blood trickled
out of Ryoga's nose and he fell over backwards as she spoke.
"Well yeah, duh," Ranma said, as if the answer was obvious. "Why
wouldn't I? Apart from the curse, I mean." He got out of the pond,
while the girl stared at him, looking slightly dazed. "I'm gonna go
and change. Panties aren't really designed with male anatomy in
mind," he said, and walked off in the direction of the kitchen.
Akane suddenly found herself needing to sit down.
"2000 yen."
Ryoga blinked as he came to. Ranma's bra had been removed from his
face, and Nabiki was standing over him, hand held out expectantly.
"2000 yen," she repeated.
Confused, he reached into a pocket and pulled out the appropriate
amount. As he was about to hand it over, he regained some cognitive
function.
"Wha... what for?"
"For saving you from your own perversity... and for knowing what
happened to Ranma."
A pair of 1000 yen notes changed hands.
"Kuno got a magic sword that grants wishes," she told the boy.
"Ranma tried to get him to use it to cure his curse, but it
backfired."
"That's it?" he asked, disappointed with the spartan report.
"3000 yen," Nabiki demanded, hand held out.
More money migrated from one pocket to another.
"The wish supposedly turned Ranma into a real girl, body, mind and
soul," she said, though she wasn't entirely convinced yet, herself.
"He's now a 'she' cursed to turn into a 'he', and she's also
suffering from amnesia."
"Anything else?" Ryoga asked. Not that he'd be able to afford it,
now that he was out of cash.
"Not unless you want a date with her," she told him. "I don't
think you made a good impression, though."
"Huh? What!? Why the heck would I want to date Ranma?!"
"Hmm, that's what I thought you'd say," she commented as she
walked away, counting the five slightly used bills in her hands.
"Shame, though. You two'd make a cute couple."
Dinner was a subdued affair with the two fathers still missing. Ryoga had managed to avoid getting too lost, and so had stayed for
the meal, taking the place of the two older men. The stiff atmosphere
wasn't helped by the way that Ranma was picking at her food, and
Ryoga and Akane were too busy stealing covert glances at her to
really be paying any attention to their own food. Nabiki didn't miss
a single motion or expression, but, being a master at this game, she
was able to consume her portion normally. Kasumi appeared to all eyes
to be oblivious to the world. But she wasn't...
"Is anything wrong with the food, dear?" she asked, her hazy
indifference parting to reveal a concerned smile.
"Huh? No! No... it's great... I'm just not all that hungry at the
moment," Ranma replied, barely looking up to speak. "It's just
that... well. I know this must be creeping you guys out, me being a
real girl and everything, but it's even more freaky for me!" Her
pained expression spoke volumes as she glanced around at the other
diners.
Akane and Kasumi looked thoughtful, considering the statement in
their own ways, while Nabiki maintained her icy observation and Ryoga
simply oozed confusion
"Here I am, in a house I don't remember, but I can find my way
about, and surrounded by people I don't know, but I can recognise by
their behaviour," she continued, expanding upon her remark. "It's
really, really disconcerting, and... I want to go home, but I don't
have one... or I do, but this is it."
Kasumi put a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder. "I'm sure
you'll get used to this soon, and it'll all come back to you."
"Hmm... I guess." Ranma looked doubtful, almost anxious. The was
the briefest of pauses before she went on, "But there's one thing
that's really bugging me; Where's my mother?"
Most of the diners looked thoughtful for a moment, having never
considered this before. None of them noticed the abrupt halt to the
sounds of wildlife outside, as if some natural law had been broken,
or a demon awoken.
Elsewhere, in the bar where Genma and Soun were partaking in the
joys of warm sake, neither of the two fathers noticed when the glass
belonging to the more stoutly of the two spontaneously shattered. But
then, they were blind drunk.
"You know, it's never come up before," Kasumi recalled, trying to
think of the best way to comfort the distressed, younger girl.
"Perhaps you could ask your father when... um, after he returns. He
of all people should know."
Ranma looked a little less tense at the suggestion, but by no
means any happier - her situation was unchanged, after all. But with
a solution to focus on, she ate somewhat more heartily, and the meal
was finished in silence.
Ryoga watched Ranma, a blank expression on his face. He watched
his arch-rival chatter like a girl with Akane. He watched the neo-
girl's expression swing from one emotion to another, smoothly and
naturally, without exaggeration. He watched someone who was
undoubtedly Ranma, but not at all the Ranma he knew, and not even one
of the personas he adopted as a disguise.
"So I told her that I'd win if she held on to me, and didn't let
go? How could I have been so insensitive to say that while you were
standing there?"
"Well, you were a jerk."
"Yeah, you don't say... how on earth did you put up with me?"
"I don't know, really. But we did..." Akane drifted off, her gaze
following suit while her minds eye was filled with visions of an ice
rink battle.
Ranma shuffled a little closer to the other girl, and took a hand
in her own.
"I'm sorry."
Akane looked into Ranma's intent gaze, momentarily shocked by the
unexpected gesture. Her face melted into a warm smile, and she gave
the other girl's hand a squeeze. "Don't be. You shouldn't have to
apologise for something you didn't really do."
Unnoticed in the background, Ryoga quietly stood. His brow
furrowed and eyes cast down, he turned his back to the tender scene
and slipped away.
The moment past, Akane also rose. "Well, I'm going to have a bath
and get an early night. We've got school tomorrow, you know."
Ranma brightened for a moment as she joined Akane on her feet, but
her expression darkened a second later. "Guess I'm going to have to
deal with lots of people treating me like a boy."
"Probably. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get by alright." A
comforting hand was placed on Ranma's arm, and then removed as Akane
headed for the furo.
"Wait... do you mind if I took a bath with you?"
Akane span round and glared at the shorter girl. "I thought you
were supposed to be a girl?"
"I am! What's wrong with two girls taking a bath together?"
"But... but you'll see my body!"
"And you'll see mine... hey, /I/ should be the one upset! You
might try to splash me so that you can ogle /my/ body!"
"I'm not a pervert, unlike /some/ people, and you probably just
want an excuse to show yourself off!" Teary eyes punctuated Ranma's
hurt expression. "Anyway, I'm not interested in ogling boys."
"Oh, like /that/ are you?" The neo girl abruptly crossed her arms,
almost as if to push her bust into the other's face. Now smirking, it
was an odd visage, given the tears.
"Wha...? No! That's not what I meant!"
"Prove it!"
"Fine!"
They both stomped off, side by side, to the bathroom. Both oozing
fury, and both determined to do their damnedest to have the most
relaxing, unperverted bath they could manage.
A little ways off, Nabiki resumed her voyage from the staircase to
the kitchen, in search of snacks. She grinned, sighing.
"The more things change, the more they stay the same..."
With a quick, angry glance at each other, the next stage of the
impromptu Anything Goes Bathhouse Perversion Aversion Challenge
began. With their backs to each other, trousers and skirt were
synchronously dispensed with, followed by shirt and jumper. The two
girls looked over their shoulders to take in the other's progress,
and to take an opportunity to scowl.
Akane's scowl didn't quite come off right. There was just
something about seeing Ranma so casually wearing women's underwear
that made this all seem so silly. Pride and anger carried her on, the
faint red hue in her cheeks disappearing. A short moment later, both
girls were stark naked and facing each other, their gazes held
resolutely at eye level.
Taking the initiative, the Saotome girl slid open the door to the
inner furo. For a moment she stood in the doorway, her expression
hidden from Akane's view. Before the Tendo girl could query Ranma's
hesitation, the shorter girl slammed the door shut again. Lifting the
towel she held to her chest, she turned around, her gaze fixed on the
floor. She shivered a little.
"YYAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!"
Staggering back at the force of the scream, Akane worriedly asked,
"Ranma, what's wrong?"
One foot in, one foot out. Ryoga looked at the door and considered
his options. Ignoring the trickle of blood from his nose, he dove for
the faucet.
The door burst open and a robe clad Akane dashed in. She looked
left. She looked right. Nothing.
"There's no one here." Her tone was almost disappointed.
Ranma, wrapped in a long bath towel, stepped out from her cover.
Standing in the doorway, she peered over Akane's shoulders to confirm
the observation.
"Except for that pig," Ranma pointed, sounding confused.
"P-Chan!" The animal in question was bleeding from the snout, and
had a nasty bump on it's little porcine head. He was out cold. In a
flash, the piggy was swept up into Akane's arms. "Who did this to
you, hmm? Was it that nasty phantom pervert who was in here?"
"Hey! It wasn't a phantom; it was Ryoga!"
Nabiki looked in on the scene, drawn by the commotion. She quickly
came to a conclusion and, smirking, left before she was noticed.
"...and stay the same..."
Ranma eyed the small black piglet suspiciously. "That's your pig?"
"Yes... well, sort of. I just kind of adopted him one day.
Sometimes he disappears for days on end, but he always comes back to
me."
Ranma closely examined the animal. "I'm getting some bad memory
vibes, or something..."
"Well, you never really did get along with him before."
"Hmm... guess that could be it." She peered into the eyes of the
rousing creature, her expression neutral. "Any idea why?"
"Not really. I think you might have been jealous, or something,
because I let him sleep with me."
The other girl snorted. "That'll be it, then. That sounds so like
Ototo-Ranma."
P-Chan, now fully awake, glanced wide eyed from the nearest face,
barely visible over the intervening bosom, to the towel clad amnesiac
girl, and back again.
"Ototo-Ranma?" Akane asked.
"Yeah, well the old Ranma was a boy, and I'm not, so Ototo- and
Onna-Ranma for the old, male me, and the new, female me..." Ranma
trailed off at Akane's understanding nod. "... hey, weren't we in the
middle of having a bath?"
Both their expressions turn hard, as suddenly they were once again
in a stand off.
"Yes, we were."
The pig was placed on the floor, and moments later a robe and a
towel spilled to the ceramic floor, their folds fluidly cascading
against legs and ankles. The world now cotton white, P-Chan was saved
the embarrassment of another dead faint. His eyes clamped shut, he
took his leave and dashed for the door. The pathetic squeak of a
small animal barrelling headlong at full pelt into a hard wall went
unnoticed by the two girls. They were busy.
With towels and robes in the appropriate places, Akane and Ranma
had moved to the wash area. They sat, each with a bucket of cold
water, ready for cleansing. With another quick, above-the-neck glare
at each other, the tubs were lifted up and... Ranma hesitated, but
the jerky halt to the bucket's movement caused it's content to spill
out.
Akane didn't notice. She was busily using the act of washing down
with soap to avoid looking at Ranma. With the expected matching
sounds of furious scrubbing missing, instead replaced by a soft
sobbing, she was finally distracted enough to take a sideways glance.
Ranma was sitting there, not moving except for the occasional soft
shake. Tears were dribbling down his downcast face. Akane was taken
aback, and she just stared at the boy by her side. Her eyes drifted
for a moment, focusing on the far wall, while her mind reviewed the
most prominent memories since Ranma's arrival. None of those memories
featured a weeping male Ranma.
Well, there was the thing with Mikado Sanzenin, but that was a
different kettle of fish, both in cause and manner.
"I hate this..." the murmur was barely audible.
The shock fading away, replaced by soft compassion, Akane stood
with her tub. She scooped some hot water from the bath and then
disgorged it over the distraught boy, washing away the tears.
Ranma looked up at the girl standing over her, a warm smile
forming on her face. The eye contact was natural and comfortable, not
forced and cold as before.
"Thank you."
The battle was over. Both sides winners.
Considering their activities, Soun and Genma returned home much
earlier than expected. Barging in through the front door, they made
quite a ruckus, and elicited the stern disapproval of Kasumi.
In her room, Nabiki heard the clamour as she put the finishing
touches to her extra-curricular homework and muttered, "... and stay
the same."
Having just finished their bath, Ranma and Akane watched the
eldest girl usher the two fathers into their respective beds. They
followed shortly behind, making their way to their own rooms. Ranma
stopped short on the threshold of the Saotome room, looking inside at
the already snoring Genma, a worried from on her face.
From the door to her own room, looked back and saw Ranma's
hesitation. "What's wrong?"
"I... I don't want to sleep in there tonight. Not alone, and not
alone with him," the shorter girl said quietly, hardly looking away
from the door.
Akane regarded the girl for a moment, and made a decision that the
day's event's had made possible. "You wanna stay in my room tonight?"
Ranma gave her a thankful grin. "Sure." She sneaked into her room,
grabbing her futon, and her fishcake patterned pyjamas, then followed
Akane into the other's room.
She set up, and they both got dressed for the night, the earlier
tension from the bath not even bothering to make a show. If Ranma
caught Akane's wistful glances in her direction, she made no comment.
"Here."
"Huh?" Ranma looked at the comatose piglet that Akane held out to
her.
"You can look after him tonight. Maybe you two can make up, and
put the past behind you."
Ranma took the piggy to her chest and looked down at him,
thoughtful and smiling. "Maybe we can. Goodnight."
Each now in their respective beds, and P-Chan snuggled up in
Ranma's arms, Akane killed the light. "'Night."
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