I Love you Dad

Okay, the next chapter of "Ranma: A New Ending" IS coming. It consists of 6 major scenes, and I've written 3 of them. This chapter is going to be very cool, I assure you.

In the meantime, the idea for this little one-shot popped into my head while I was thinking of ideas for that story. I ultimately decided it didn't go with the overall flow of the story, but since it was still a great idea, I decided to tweak it a little and turn it into this. Reviews are greatly appreciated

Oh, while I'm thinking about it! I was on a manga website and I noticed that all the manga written by Rumiko Takahashi had been removed. The same is true on almost every manga-reading website. If anyone has any information, I'd appreciate it.

Disclaimer: The following is a fanfiction and nothing more. I do not own Ranma ½. That honor belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.

Summary: "I love you Dad." Akane Tendo says those words every morning, but she had no idea they could have such a profound effect… on Ranma.

"YOU OLD BASTARD!!!" Ranma shouted. Once again his morning began with him sitting atop the panda that was his father and mercilessly beating the crap out of him. The offense this time? Genma had placed earmuffs on Ranma during the night, so that he would sleep through breakfast and Genma could eat both their shares. It was a rather common occurrence actually, but one that never seemed to piss off Ranma any less. He needed that energy to deal with all the people trying to kill him, usually because of things done by, once again, his father.

Once he had determined that the Panda had been sufficiently pummeled, he picked up his things, grabbed a banana from the counter, and headed out the front door.

"I love you Dad"

… What the Hell was that? Ranma turned to the source of the odd, new sound to see Akane hugging her father. A great smile stretched across his face from ear to ear as he held his daughter tenderly in his arms. Ranma couldn't believe what he was seeing. What was Akane doing?

"Ranma? Are you ready to go to school?" Akane asked, snapping Ranma out of his trance.

"Huh? What? Oh! Yeah! Let's go…"

"I love you Dad" Ranma had never heard such a radical phrase before. It's not like he wasn't familiar with the concept of love. I mean, when you've got 3 fiancées and a crazy stalker for each gender, you pick up the concept of love very quickly. And all those romance chick flicks Akane made him watch with her (Which weren't too bad. Although, the quality of the movies had this odd tendency to drop significantly whenever she left the room…) filled in any blanks aformentioned fiancées may have missed.

So he knew what love was. It was some powerful emotion that made you care about someone a lot, more than yourself. It was the kind of emotion that made you give up your own desires to make other people happy, and want to live under the same roof, even though they drove you insane (or the kind of emotion that made you fight immortal phoenix kings). He knew that men felt it for women, that women felt it for men, that siblings felt it for siblings, that mothers felt it for children.

But his dad?

Was he really supposed to love his dad?

Did he love his dad?

To be fair, his dad didn't do very much to merit love. His earliest memories were of running from people they'd stolen from, or being thrown into a pit of cats with various meats tied around his neck, resulting in a crippling phobia. The only cradle he'd ever had was the dreaded "Hell's Cradle". He thought Father's day celebrated that your dad was going to die a good 40 years before you.

Well, you get the point…

To Ranma Saotome, the concept of loving his father was a strange and fascinating one.

"No son, not like that."

Oh, look! In a park to the side of the road, a father was teaching his son how to play that American game Besuboru.

"You have to wind up like this before you throw, so you can get good speed on the ball," the father explained.

"Like this Dad?" the young boy asked, executing the pitch.

"Yes! That's it exactly!" the father exclaimed, picking up his small boy.

"I love you Dad!" the boy said, hugging his father.

There it was! There was that strange phrase again! "I love you Dad." What kind of mysteries did it hold?

All through class, all Ranma could think about was whether or not he loved his father. (Though he rarely paid attention in class, so whatever…) Why would he love his father? Why would anyone love their father? All fathers ever did was make their kids do things they didn't want to do and force said children to deal with problems that the fathers themselves created. That's what father's did, right?

After school, he had to take a detour by the Kendo hall to get something from Akane's locker for her. And what should he see? Why, it was Kuno, practicing kendo as usual. But this time, his sparring partner was not some hapless soul who was forced to fight him, but rather the Hawaiian principal, his father.

"Son! You's got to tighten up dem's guard, o' else dem's opponents will slip right through and geet you's in de chest," he explained through a clearly faked Hawaiian accent.

"Do not think to deceive me father. You did disappear for years, leaving the estate of Kuno and the caring for of mine sister to the hands of a very young Tatewaki Kuno! What makes thee think I would be fooled into believing that you cared in the slightest for my well-being!?!" the son proclaimed through a clearly faked Shakespearian accent (Or Confucian… if you watched the Japanese dub…)

"Oh! Me son! Me did disappear on you and eet was wrong, but you's is still me big kahuna son and me love you!" the principal replied, hugging his uncomfortable son.

Wait, it wasn't a one-way street? His dad was supposed to love him back? Oh, now Ranma knew someone was screwing with him. There was no way in Hell his dad loved him. Love does not compel you to throw people into cat-pits and sell them for some fish, a bowl of rice, and two pickles!!! Was this Ryoga's idea? Not funny Ryoga!!!

As Ranma walked atop the fences beside Akane, his brain was going into overtime to figure out this problem. Ranma hated problems that made him think! He'd much rather just hit things until everything worked! Akane was much better at thinking… Maybe she could help.

"Akane?"

"Yeah?"

"You love your dad, right?"

"Um… yeah…"

"And he loves you…"

"I'm pretty sure…"

"And it's supposed to be that way, right?"

"Ranma, what's wrong with you?"

"Just answer the question tomboy!"

"Gah! Fine! Yes! It is supposed to be that way!!!"

How rude of Ranma…

"Okay… cool… cool… So, why do you love your dad?"

"… Did you hit your head?"

"Akane…"

"… Well… because he's always been there for me, and he always took care of me, and he taught me everything I know, and because I know he cares about what's best for me…"

"Thanks Akane, I think I got what I needed."

"Ranma, you're weird…"

That had settled it. If that's why Akane loved her father, then it obviously wasn't applicable to him! After all, his dad didn't do any of those things!

…

Well, he did teach him everything he knew. Obviously, there were the martial arts, but he also taught Ranma how to survive in the wild, how to fend for himself, how to make quick money in a tight pinch, how to hide from people trying to kill you. All of these were important skills for someone like Ranma Saotome…

Okay, so he got one thing right! Big whoop!

…

Well, he was always there for Ranma too. In fact, he was the only person that was ever there for Ranma. Ranma had no mother and no other family. His dad had been the only person in his life for a long time, and he was more or less dependable.

So, he's got 2 out of 4. Who the Hell cares? That's 50%! That's still an F last time I checked!!!He sure as Hell didn't take care of Ranma! Ranma always had to look out for himself, with a greedy father like Genma.

…

Damn it! That's not true either! Genma did always take care of Ranma. He'd always made sure Ranma had some kind of shelter and enough food to eat, even if he did steal some from time to time. And he'd protected Ranma from wild animals when they were camping.

So… he's actually doing alright, but Ranma still didn't have to love him. After all, Genma didn't care about what was best for him! Genma only cared about himself!

…

…

…

I mean… Genma was always hard on Ranma. Always screwing Ranma over. He said he was "making Ranma tough,"

…

…

…

Of course, if Ranma didn't turn out tough… he was going to be forced to disembowel himself…

…

But then, that was Genma's fault! And Genma would have to disembowel himself too! It was just self-preservation…

…

But then, why had Genma agreed to disembowel himself in the first place…? It didn't make any sense, especially for someone as self-preservative as Genma… Unless… Genma knew he was motivated by self-preservation… so he put that there as a way of making sure he wouldn't fail…

Had Genma actually put himself directly in harm's way to help Ranma?

Come to think of it, it wasn't the only time Genma had sacrificed himself for Ranma. Ranma's earliest memories may have included the cat-pit and running for their lives, but… there was one other…

He was young… probably around 6… He and Genma were sleeping in a cave. They'd been attacked by wolves and the tent had been destroyed. Genma had gotten cut and torn to pieces trying to fight the wolves off. For some reason, he hadn't run away… So the wolves wouldn't get Ranma?

Anyway, it was winter, and Ranma was shivering from the cold. He could feel his lower extremities getting numb, and he was huddled over for warmth, underneath his thin, flimsy blanket. Genma had, of course, taken the thick one for himself.

And as if Genma couldn't possibly sink any lower, he suddenly snatched Ranma's thin blanket, and threw it over himself in addition to the thick blanket, apparently deciding it wasn't enough for him. Ranma was going to freeze to death.

But then, suddenly Ranma felt himself become very warm.

When he looked up, the thick blanket was draped across him. Genma was shivering like mad over in the corner.

The next morning, Genma had contracted pneumonia.

And he still carried Ranma on his shoulders, all the way to the next town.

…

…

…

That night, Ranma solemnly walked into the room he and Genma shared. Genma was fixing his futon, getting ready for a long night of snoring, rolling around, and excreting various gasses.

"Coming to bed, boy?" he asked, confused at his son's expression. Oh please, don't let him still be mad from this morning. Genma couldn't take another beating.

At first, Ranma said nothing. Then, he nearly gave Genma a heart attack, when he rushed at the Panda-man at full speed. Genma closed his eyes in anticipation of the beating. And then… nothing…

Slowly, he opened his eyes, as though fearful that actually looking would bring Ranma's fists down upon him. But… Ranma wasn't hitting him… Ranma was… hugging him…

"I love you Dad…"

And what happened next? Well, in Nerima they say, that Genma's small heart grew 3 sizes that day.

"I… love you too son…" he said, slowly wrapping his arms around the boy. How long had it been since he'd really held his son…? Not since he was a baby...

The hug was long, awkward, and uncomfortable… just what a family moment should be like…

It was brought to an abrupt end, however, when Genma suddenly broke the hug and punched Ranma on top of his head. "That's enough of that son. It's not manly…" he grumbled.

"Douche…" Ranma muttered, crawling into bed.

When Ranma awoke the next morning, he found that his father was absent at breakfast.

However, Ranma's portion was double the normal amount.

The End

Reviews are appreciated.

Happy Birthday Dad.