Disclaimer: Eh? I don't want a crying Ranma... :P


Sometimes, Men Can Cry

It hurt so much. He was going to lose her. After everything he had done for her, after everything he had given up for her, after everything she had come to mean to him and after everything they had been through together, she was still going to leave him… It hurt so much…

He could still remember the first time he had met her. She had been so small and fair and beautiful, and her eyes had shined out at him from under her unruly mop of dark hair as she had given him that heartbreaking smile… He had fallen in love with her right then and there.

Before, he would have ridiculed anyone who spoke of love at first sight; even when he had fallen in love once before, it had taken weeks, months even, to come to that; but right then, looking at that wonderful smile so full of life on the face of that angel, he knew he was already too far gone.

And Ranma knew that there would be no turning back.

He had been awkward at first – clumsy with his feelings and actions. He didn't know what to do with her, and he didn't know what to do with himself when he was around her. In his eyes she was a princess, a porcelain doll, and even as her prowess in martial arts grew, he couldn't help but be over-protective. Sometimes she would get annoyed and scowl at him, and she always insisted he treat her with respect. After all, she was a martial artist too! But no matter what, he could never watch her getting hurt. He could never hit her. And he could never tell her how much he cared for her.

And yet, he had thought – he could have sworn even, that he had known – that she loved him back too. He had tried to be there for her every time she needed him, and every time she hadn't needed him, and he had protected her from everything that someone as precious as her didn't need to know and he had driven away every uncouth lout that ever even thought of looking towards her, and yet…

And yet, here she was – walking down the aisle in that lovely white gown taking another and another and another step towards that man waiting for her at the end of that aisle. And with every step, she was going further and further and further away from him…

And Ranma found that it hurt. It hurt like never before and he was willing to take on ten thousand Saffrons if only she would come back. If only she would turn around and smile at him again and come running into his arms like so many times before, and if only he could turn back time to when she would only ever look at him and only ever admire him and she was immune to the charms of these men who didn't deserve her attention…

A light chuckle next to him brought his attention to his wife of twenty years, who was looking at him incredulously and shaking her head at him.

"Honestly Ranma, of all the things you could have been, who would have thought that you would be an oyabaka?"

Yes, so he was an absurdly doting father, so what? Fathers are totally allowed to cry at their daughters' weddings! And why, why, why did she, why did his little daughter, of all the people in the world, have to marry Ryoga's son?

It truly hurt so much…


For anyone who doesn't know, an oyabaka is an absurdly doting father - as is explained in the story itself.

I love doting fathers! ^o^ They are so adorable~ :3