Ten years. That's how long it had been since the couple in the small rail compartment had seen the place they called home. Home. That word took on a very different meaning now. To the two small figures sleeping on the seats across from the couple, home was the place where the couple had spent the last ten years of their life. To the two adults in a loving embrace, home was their final destination. It was the place where they first met and the place where they realized they actually did care for one another as more than just two friends with a shared interest and two fathers who pinned the hopes and dreams of their two families upon their young shoulders. Home was not without drama and excitement. It was not without challenges and adventure. It was not without the strange and the weird. In fact, whether they called the place of their destination home or the place of their starting point home the environment was exactly the same. The only difference lay in its residents.

The adults in the closed rail compartment smiled as they watched the two children sleep leaning against one another. The two families they came from had no idea the little ones existed. The boy, all of seven years old, had the same drive and determination his father did but had his mother's eyes and grandfather's deep brown hair. The girl, who was a precocious six years old, was the spitting image of her father, if he were born female or splashed with cold water. The red hair upon her head and the blue eyes made her father understand the true nature of the curse that had changed his life when he was sixteen. The children were the pride and joy of their parents, their great grandfather, great aunts, great uncle, cousin, and various others that were a close part of their daily life. To them, they were their family. The family their parents came from was but a fable and a bedtime story and on that day the fable would become a reality.

"Do you think it was wrong to keep them from our families?" the mother questioned her husband.

"And have what happened to us happen to them?" the father questioned back.

The mother thought about their lives before they moved away from the only place she knew as home and had to admit her husband made a good point. The influence of their fathers was one that they did not wish upon anyone, especially if their fathers' perverted old teacher were involved. The influence the old man had on the way their fathers thought was reason enough to keep her children at a safe distance from the man. And, with the unique abilities of her husband's family if that safe distance meant living in Okayama with no contact for ten years then so be it. The time had come, however, for the distance to become less. The only indication of their arrival back home was the small old fashioned post card sent through the mail.

The card was simple with its picture of a small lake surrounded by lush green hillsides. On the reverse a simple message written in black ballpoint ink stated all their family would need to know. "Returning home with huge surprise June fifth. Have Ranma's parents, Nabiki, and Kasumi at the house. Yours, Akane."

Homecoming

Part One: The Return

Ten years changed a lot for the lives of Soun Tendo and the daughters that remained at home with him. For one, it meant serious studies and serious dating. It meant putting aside the perceptions one had of another person in favor of true happiness. It meant the dojo had a chance to be what Soun had always wanted it to be. And, it meant a strong sense of family as Soun's definition of the word began to change and grow.

For Soun family had now become the most important thing in his life. Weekly dinners with both daughters, the men they loved, and the little ones that were now his pride and joy were something he looked forward to and cherished greatly. The house was filled with laughter and the dojo filled with the sounds of students learning the art from their teacher once more. His daughters' choice in husbands, while surprising to say the least, proved to be loyal, hardworking, and very good providers. All it took was for Ranma and Akane to leave Nerima for the two men to see there was more to life than petty squabbles and one man trying to steal a woman who had no interest in them from the beginning. With their focus and lives redirected, the two men were able to find true happiness with their own Tendo woman.

It was the usual weekly family dinner that had the house full of love and laughter that evening and not the postcard that arrived in the mail quite late. Another day of classes in the dojo had come to an end and more private instruction was underway. Good friends had been invited over not because the postcard instructed they be at the house but because once a month for ten years Soun insisted Genma and Nodoka remain a part of his family's lives. The girls needed a motherly figure to turn to, especially when they married and became mothers themselves, and Nodoka was glad to provide that service to the children of her husband's best friend. Soun, on the other hand, wanted to keep his drinking buddy and shogi rival around for monthly "humiliation".

The sounds of a happy household were interrupted when the front door to the house opened signaling the arrival of someone to the Tendo home. The occupants and their guests for the night paid the sound no heed as the heated one sided discussion from the living room filled the entire first level of the house. It was a conversation the occupants of the house were used to but not those who had just walked through the front door to the house.

"Listen Yoshi, I don't care if Yammamoto is an old fashioned man I'm the one he's dealing with not my husband. I will be listened to," the woman in the pant suit yelled into her expensive Samsung phone.

"Same old Nabiki," the husband commented to his wife identifying the woman pacing around in the living room.

"Yes, but did you hear what she said about being married? We missed my own sister's wedding," the wife returned with a small tinge of sadness in her voice.

The loud frustrated sound that followed Nabiki's conversation brought forth the attention of a principal resident of the Tendo home. In no time the familiar calming voice that identified itself as being none other than Kasumi spoke with an air of concern about it.

"Nabiki is everything... Oh my," Kasumi had started to ask her sister if she was okay but was soon stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed the family of four standing in the entryway between the front door and the living room.

There was a familiarity about the adults in the family and yet at the same time something very unfamiliar. The father stood with a body language that spoke of wisdom, experience, and a great power. He had a battle hardened body that was literally living rock. His eyes were a deep blue that held a wild calmness to them and his nearly black hair was styled into a long braided pigtail, one that seemed quite familiar. He was dressed in an elegant white silk Chinese shirt trimmed in gold with white pants tied at the waist. The sleeveless nature of the shirt with its gold knotted rope buttons and the white leather bracers accentuated well toned arms. If Kasumi had not been married and very much the faithful equal partner she would have fallen in love at that very moment.

The mother, with her deep brown eyes and almost blue tinted long black hair styled into a low bun, had the lithe body of a woman who had spent her entire life from the moment she could walk studying the martial arts. She appeared to not be inferior to her husband but his equal in nearly every way. The mother wore an elegant white silk Chinese dress matching that of her husband. The slit up the leg revealed strong well toned legs capable of taking most men down while the gold knot buttons at the shoulder added to the beauty and elegance of the dress. The matching leather bracers around her wrists and the elegant gold and diamond ring were all the accessories the woman wore.

Then there were the children. The boy, who appeared no older than seven, had his mother's deep brown eyes and hair Kasumi recognized as being the same color as her father's styled much the same way his father's was if he lacked his braid. He wore a deep blue silk Chinese shirt with matching buttons and black pants tied at the waist. He was a miniature version of his father with his mother's coloring. The girl was a vision of pink and red. Her bright blue eyes were set off by a shock of red hair with a braided pigtail of her own. She wore the complete set of a matching pink silk Chinese shirt with matching knot buttons and silk Chinese pants banded at the ankle for fighting in the martial arts. It was the girl that gave away the identities of the two adults. Kasumi was certain as to who it was standing before her.

"Father, Uncle Saotome, Auntie come quickly we have visitors and I'm fairly certain you're going to want to see who it is," Kasumi called out to her father and his guests.

Nabiki smiled at the quartet as the sounds of the three named adults could be heard scurrying to the entryway. "Well well well, the prodigal daughter returns," Nabiki commented.

The first to arrive in the living room from the kitchen was Nodoka who wondered why Kasumi had called them all to the entryway, "Kasumi why did you...Ranma can it really be you?"

"Yes mom, pop, Mr. Tendo it really is me," Ranma responded acknowledging all three parents.

"Boy you got a lot of explaining to do," Genma demanded.

Soun, however, was a bit more gentle with his request as he fought back tears, "Yes Ranma, Akane why don't you start with the little ones."

Ranma sighed and gave his son's shoulder a small squeeze to let the boy know everything would be all right and that he had nothing to fear. The boy looked up at his father with a questioning glance that was met with a small shake of the head in the negative. Ranma then give his son a gentle push and with grace and manners beyond his years the boy introduced himself.

"I am Akio Saotome son of Ranma and Akane Saotome. I am most pleased to have met you," Akio, the boy, said with a bow of great respect.

Nodoka took note of what young Akio said and looked over at her husband and Akane's father. The smiles on their faces were growing by the minute. Genma's smile came because his son had produced a son of his own to continue the Saotome name. Soun's smile showed up the moment he realized that he had something Genma would never have five grandchildren. Each of his daughters with each of their husbands had each produced at least one grandchild for him to love and spoil like any good grandfather was supposed to. And, if Soun still considered himself any type of teacher he was going to have to take Genma under his wing and give him grandparent lessons, especially where their granddaughter was concerned.

Their granddaughter. She had no fear of the new adults in the room and bounded right over to the men she correctly assumed were her grandfathers and proceeded to introduce herself in her own special way, "My name's Ranko and I'm six years old and some day I'm going to grow up to be just like my mommy and my Auntie Sasami. I like carrots. Do you like carrots? I like to help cousin Tenchi with his carrot garden. Mommy says I talk too much sometimes. Okay bye bye."

Kasumi giggled softly at the reaction the two grandfathers had on their faces as her niece bounded back to her mother. Her father and Genma Saotome stood there with a dumbfounded look on their faces as they blinked over and over trying to take in what little Ranko had said to them. Kasumi too was a bit perplexed by what her niece had said. All she, Nabiki, and the fathers knew was that Ranma needed special training from someone who understood his condition and Nodoka had arranged for him to spend time with her father in Okayama. However, as a condition of Ranma going to train with his grandfather Akane was to join him for training of her own. Nodoka knew something was blossoming between the two and it would never be allowed to grow if Ranma, a product of his environment, stayed with his father much longer.

That was ten years prior. Ten years with not a single letter or call from Okayama. Both Kasumi and Nodoka silently came to the same conclusions about the things Ranko had told her grandfathers, the woman named Sasami must have been the wife of Ranma's uncle. Concern swept across Nodoka's face when she thought her brother-in-law had failed to mention he remarried. With a sigh and using carefully chosen words Nodoka adressed her son.

"Ranma, your uncle is he currently with anyone? Has he remarried? And just who is Sasami," Nodoka questioned Ranma.

Ranma saw the look on his mother's face. He knew she did not like to have secrets kept from her. With a heavy sigh of his own, Ranma proceeded to reveal what would be the first of many secrets told during their visit home, "No Uncle Nobiyuki hasn't remarried yet. He has been living with a very nice woman though. Her name's Kiyone and she's in law enforcement. She's a bit younger than him. As for Sasami, she's actually grandpa's younger sister. You see, grandpa and his parents didn't see eye to eye when he was younger and he left home against his father's wishes to go live with his grandfather at the family shrine. Grandpa and his younger sisters were reunited a few months before Akane and I showed up at the shrine."

As the others took in what Ranma had said, a loud cracking sound of wood hitting wood came from the dojo. Ranma was very familiar with the sound of two wooden bokens crashing against one another. Watching the reaction of the others in the room he saw a rather mad look fall upon Nabiki's face.

"Damn him, I told him not to be teaching Akira that way," Nabiki commented angrily at the assumption her husband had gone against her wishes with their son's lessons.

"I only hope Sora and Yuko are okay. I don't want our husbands' lessons to harm my children in any way," Kasumi added with great concern in her voice.

The moment she heard the names of her sisters' children Akane's heart sank. She had missed the births of two nephews and a niece. Her children had cousins and she and Ranma had kept them from them. As her sisters made their way to the dojo, Ranma and her children followed close behind. Their fathers merely shrugged their shoulders returning to their shogi game while Nodoka headed back for the kitchen. With a resigning sigh, Akane followed her sisters and family to the dojo.

Upon arriving at the doorway to the dojo the group of six were treated to a sight two of the adult females were used to. Kasumi let out a sigh of relief and smiled at the sight of her son and nephew carefully going through a kendo exercise with their bamboo training swords. Nabiki was not convinced that the scene playing out before her eyes was completely true. She still believed that her husband had tried to teach their son his kendo lessons the way he was taught, through high level combat right from day one. Ranma and Akane simply watched as their nephews tried hard to mirror each other perfectly. In their minds the scene playing out was quite adorable.

"Tatewaki Kuno, tell me that noise I just heard was not you battling against our son at full strength," Nabiki demanded catching the attention of her now named husband.

Ranma and Akane held back a small gasping breath as they saw the man turn around and reveal himself to be none other than Kuno. Taking the hand of his angry wife in his own Tatewaki looked her straight in the eyes and responded to her demands, "I assure you I was merely demonstrating the form the boys are learning tonight in competition combat with my honored sister-in-law's husband. You and the gracious Kasumi have nothing to worry about as the children were seated at a safe distance from our demonstration."

"You better be telling the truth or so help me I'll go from tigress in the bedroom to Ice Queen," Nabiki laid out for the man she loved.

Ranma watched as Nabiki took in a calming breath and let a smile come across her face as Kuno moved to envelope his wife in a loving embrace from behind. His attention then turned to the other man in the room. It was obvious looking at him from behind the man was not the local doctor, Tofu Ono. There was something familiar yet unfamiliar about the man as he watched the slightly older boy on the right facing side try and correct his younger cousin's stance. What happened next brought forth the biggest surprise of the day yet.

"Honey, we have visitors," Kasumi called out to the man she married.

From behind, Ranma saw a man with long brown hair so dark it could be mistaken for black dressed in a silk shirt with long flowing sleeves. The moment he stood up and around Ranma was greeted by a most familiar face. He was lacking glasses but there was no mistaking that the man Kasumi married was none other than the Chinese Amazon Mousse. In his arms was a little girl no older than four with her arms wrapped around the man who was most definitely her father. She had Mousse's deep blue almost purple eyes and Kasumi's hair color. However, her most distinguishing feature was the smile that mirrored that of her mother's. She was a miniature Kasumi dressed in a lilac polo dress with her pulled back in low pigtails by matching bows. All at once, husband and wife had a hard time wrapping their brains around what they saw because of what they knew about Kasumi.

"You married Mousse," Ranma and Akane asked in stunned unison.

"Do you two find something wrong with our being married," Mousse questioned back.

Akane saw nothing wrong with her sister being married to Mousse. It was puzzling that she ended up choosing him after all the time she spent pinning over Dr. Tofu. That was the confusing part and Akane voiced her confusion and possibly Ranma's aloud, "There's nothing wrong with who my sister marries as long as that man shares a mutual love with her. I'm just finding it hard to figure out why is all. You see, when we first met Kasumi was very much infatuated with Dr. Tofu and he was pretty much the same way about her. We all thought at one point they'd realize the other felt the same way and end up married. This is, well, quite the unexpected surprise but in a very good way."

"Yeah man I never thought you'd be with anybody but Shampoo. What brought you to ask Kasumi to marry you," Ranma added wondering just what the story was behind Mousse and Kasumi's marriage.

Mousse let out a chuckle at the look of sheer and utter confusion on the faces of his sister-in-law and her husband. The great Ranma Saotome and the woman he loved were literally dumbfounded at the revelation they were now related to someone who once considered Ranma his greatest rival. Smiling at the pair Mousse gave them an answer that would have to suffice for the time being, "That my dear Saotome is a story best left for the dinner table."