Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma 1/2 or any of the characters, This is just for fun, not profit.
"What do you want? I'm busy."
"You're not busy, you're lost." The pigtailed boy asserted to the boy
he restrained, holding him by the wrist with a gloved hand. "This won't
take long"
Ryoga sighed. Whatever Ranma wanted from him couldn't possibly be good, and he
was better off continuing on his way, but the truth was that he was lost. Not to
mention the fact that he was cold and a nice cup of hot chocolate from Kasumi
would be worth the walk, which he thought was probably short.
Ranma tugged on his arm and he was knocked off balance and the momentum gave him
no choice but to follow. The walk was even shorter than he expected and Ranma
led him inside and sat him down at the sitting room table. "I'll be right
back," Ranma reassured his follower. While he was waiting, Kasumi offered
him hot chocolate, right on cue and produced it only moments before Ranma came
flying down the stairs with a huge smile on his face and a small bright green
box with white ribbon tied round it in his hands. He excitedly pushed the
package towards Ryoga. "Here, open it!" he exclaimed.
Ryoga sat for a short moment, astonished and confused. "It's not going to
explode, or something, is it?"
"Of course not . . . It's a birthday present!"
"But it's not my birthday."
"I don't know when your birthday is, so consider it early, or late,
whichever is closest . . . just open it!" Ranma was very excited and
talking quickly, he shoved the box into Ryoga's chest and he finally grasped it
gingerly with both hands. He carefully pulled the ribbon off over one end and
not so carefully ripped the paper away. He nervously opened the box inside and
removed an odd black thing 7 inches long with a tapered end. * There was a small
screen and a set of buttons on the front.
"Uhh . . . what is it?"
"It's a Global Positioning System. It tells you where you are in the world.
This way you won't get lost. I already entered a few locations for you. There's
directions in the box. Here, I'll set it up to get you home while you finish
your cocoa." He took the box from Ryoga, whose mouth was hanging open in
shock, and began to push buttons.
"I don't have anything for you."
"That's ok. I got this because I knew it was right for you, you can get me
something if you find something just right for me, ok?"
"Ok."
"Here, this arrow at the top points to your destination and the middle of
the screen will track your route. Read the manual to figure out how to use it
next time you need it. It's very simple, and your destinations are already set
for you!"
"Thanks." Ryoga took one last sip of his coffee and stood and began
walking in the direction of the arrow, only barely dodging out of the way of a
wall before hitting it.
"Oh, I hope this works," Ranma muttered to himself as he crossed his
fingers and watched the boy stumble off, not watching where he was going at all.
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Ryoga stared around at his surroundings. This was definitely not Nerima. Rarely
did his surroundings look like Nerima. Perhaps it was finally time to pull out
the GPS Ranma gave him. It got him home three days ago-it should work this time.
He pulled out the unit and the small booklet that came with it. Reading along,
he turned it on, waited for the three satellites to connect and accessed the
destinations menu. He blinked a few times at his options. He knew this must be
some sort of joke, so he dismissed it and selected his house.
He was a lot further from Nerima than he thought and the walk gave him time to
contemplate what the fiend Saotome had done this time. Though by the time he
reached the Tokyo city limits, he knew what the most appropriate gift for Ranma
in exchange should be. The idea itself confused him, however. He wasn't certain
it was right, but somehow it just felt correct, and he did feel relieved that he
finally had an end to all their fighting. He changed his destination.
He found Ranma as he expected to at the location labeled, "Im waiting for
you" He stood under the shelter of a gazebo in a park, attentive and ready
for the approaching boy.
Ryoga returned the system to his backpack and placed the backpack on the ground,
speaking as he approached, battle-ready. "Considering the locations you've
chosen to enter in my GPS system, I would normally consider the most appropriate
gift in exchange to be your death. But considering you must have saved up a lot
of money, and thus thought about this far in advance, and also the fact that I
have not succeeded in killing you so far, I have decided on a far better
present." And with that, he began to strike at Ranma, who stood perfectly
still and silent, but instead of easily landing the blow, he threw his fist to
the side of Ranma's face and around the back of his head, pulled him closer and
planted a firm kiss on his lips, all with precisely calculated movements.
When he finally pulled away, he noticed tears swelling up in Ranma's eyes.
"How did you figure it out?"
"Oh, c'mon, what am I supposed to deduce from a set of locations like,
'where we met', 'I first knew', 'sad I missed you', and 'Ranma's bedroom'?"
Ranma merely blushed and hugged Ryoga closer.