Dislcaimer: I nor thechilldude have any legal ownership of Ranma ½ . This is just for fun.
Africa's grassy field had remained unchanged as they swayed against the gentle breeze of the wind. The two martial artists that had dealt with several large cats were currently the only living being occupying that space. Neither said a word, Ranma was busy waiting for his master to awaken and Ryoga was flat out still unconscious.
The black haired Saotome child leaned over to his master's face and inspected him, growing impatient he placed his hand on the chest of his master and began lightly shaking him in his sleep. "H-hey... ain't cha' gonna' get up, master?"
Ryoga groaned in his immobile state, obviously Ranma's tactic worked to some degree. "A-Akane...?" Ryoga groaned and opened his eyes, spotting what he noticed to be a blurred blob; his mind in this current position tried its best to make Ranma in the shape of Akane but sadly he regained his composure far too fast, and his mind could not alter the vision of Ranma Saotome looming over him.
Glaring up at the other boy, he sat up and shoved Ranma off of him. The picture of Ranma's husky form laying on top of him, calling him master, was too surreal, and so the whole event struck as nothing more than a dream to the lost boy. "What the hell is going on?" Ryoga asked, massaging the side of his aching head. Frustration mounted as the memories of the events preceding his fainting came rushing back to him.
"Beats me, master..." Ranma replied unwittingly, shrugging and moving back over to Ryoga and trying to lay across his lap. He was unaware of the other boy's shudder or the seething rage that threatened to let loose on him as he did this.
"Get away!" Ryoga shouted, using his arms to pry Ranma off of him. When his efforts proved to be fruitless, he gave an exasperated cry and smashed a fist into Ranma's face, finally removing said person off of his lap. "You've got to be kidding me, why does your nonsense have to follow me!" Ryoga pointed, baring his teeth at Ranma.
Ranma stared unbelievingly at Ryoga as he rubbed a hand across a bruised cheek. He felt a pang in his heart as realization dawned on him; he had failed to please his master. He lowered his head in defeat and let out a heavy sigh. He then remembered a pair of tickets he'd stashed in his pocket. Excitement coursed through his veins as he realized that all hope was not lost. He jerked his head up to face Ryoga once more and cried, "I-I can make it up to ya', I swear!"
"How the hell are you supposed to make up for all the grief you've caused, huh! Saotome!" Ryoga demanded, pointing an accusing finger at Ranma. He clenched his hand tightly into a fist. His skin went white as it began to shake violently. His tone was low as he let out a ferall growl, "You've got some nerve..."
From his awkwardly seated position, Ranma produced in his hands return tickets to Nerima and showed them to his master, hoping to aid in his healing process. His hands were jittery as he nervously held the tickets up to Ryoga's face. "I can get ya' back to Nerima..." Ranma offered in an attempt to appease his master.
Ryoga was stunned that Ranma was willing to help him get back to Nerima. For a moment, a flicker of confusing shown on his face as he tried to wrap around the idea in his mind. Wasn't his rival aware that he would immediately try to win Akane's affection and steal her away from him the moment he touched down in Nerima? He couldn't make sense of Ranma's new attitude towards him. The kind-heartedness was too strange for the jerk. "Why the hell are you even offering me that?" Ryoga asked. A fang poked out of his mouth before he stared away from Ranma, almost downcast as he inwardly fought with himself. This was Ranma, for crying out loud, there was no need to get so worked up about this. Ryoga had always been a sucker for kindness.
"Cause... you're my master, that's why." The black haired Saotome child rose to his feet and held out his free hand, giving Ryoga a warm smile.
The lost boy reluctanly relented to Ranma's offer, deluding himself into believing that it was perfectly alright for him to take one the tickets if it meant returning to his precious Akane. "Don't call my master..." he growled before batting Ranma's hand away and standing on his own two feet. "Let's just get the hell outta' here already."
Ranma swiftly nodded his head and dug his hand into his other pocket, taking only a brief moment to reveal a map. He scanned the map for while before stabbing a finger at a particular point of the map. He then quickly drug it to another spot. "We gotta' go this way for a bit and then we'll be at the airport," Ranma stated with a smile on his face.
Ryoga's eye twitched. The idea of having Ranma lead him anywhere was annoying, but what else could he do in this situation? Wait around for an unimaginable amount of time to see Akane or wait a day or two on an airplane and then see her? His harsh internal debate ended with him ultimately coming to the conclusion that he had to suck up his pride and follow Ranma.
Apparently Ranma noticed his master's reluctance to follow when he walked ahead, because when he turned back to make sure he was following close behind, he found that Ryoga was still rooted to the ground. He bounced back towards him and asked, "Come on... it can't be too bad, can it?"
There was a moment of silence before Ryoga growled and followed at a slow gate. The entire duration of his walk, he kept his head down, annoyed by Ranma's newly formed attitude. He was already beginning to hate this side of Ranma more.
The pig-tailed boy gave a silent sigh. He didn't want to displease his master at all, but even after offering him the tickets, he could tell that the other boy was still unhappy. But what more could he do? His master had always held a large dislike of him. It would be a long time before he would be able to change his opinion of him. However, Ranma was willing to endure it all; his loyalty and honor depended on it!
After a while, Ranma began to grow concerned. He always knew his master was depressed, but he wasn't usually this silent or broody; at least that was what he told himself. But the longer the silence drew on, the more worried he became. He was just about to turn around and ask the other boy what was wrong when he noticed something about his surroundings. He could only hear his own footsteps and not Ryoga's.
Alarmed by his discovery, Ranma jerked around only to find that Ryoga was nowhere in sight. He widened his eyes as he mentally smacked himself in the face for being such a dolt. He had forgotten all about Ryoga's directional curse. "Master!" he cried, praying to kami-sama that he hadn't already gotten too far away from him.
He broke out into a run, speeding down a hill of sand and nearly tripping over his own feet. A strong gust of wind arose just then, kicking up sand nearby and slapping it in Ranma's face. He clenched his eyes shut in pain as the sand burned his eyes. No longer able to see where he was going, Ranma made a misstep and fell end over end down the sandy hill and landing in a puff of smoke at the bottom.
As the sand cleared and revealed Ranma's fallen form, he coughed wiped his face with his hand, removing dust particles from his eyes. He warily opened his eyes. Through puffy red eyes, he searched around for any signs of Ryoga. He finally stopped when he saw Ryoga's fleeing form in the distance.
Knowing now that he was not to late, Ranma cried, "Master!" and sped off in Ryoga's direction. He sprinted as fast as he could. A light smile played onto his lips as he drew ever closer to the other. In no time at all he had caught up to the boy. As he neared the boy, he began slowing down, but he wasn't fast enough, as he was heading straight for Ryoga's back. At this point, he was unable to veer left or right, and he inevitably crashed into the other both, and together the two fell into a heap of tangled limbs.
"Ugh," Ryoga gasped as he unexpectedly fell to the ground. He was knocked into a state of dizziness, and the whole world spun around him as he tried to make sense of what just happened. When he finally began to recover from his ordeal, he saw that Ranma was on top of him once more. He sent the pig-tailed boy the meanest glare he could conjure up and shouted, "What the hell are you doin'?" He was ready to pound Ranma into the ground once more.
Ranma, already knowing what was coming to him from past experiences, removed himself from Ryoga's person as best as he could. Unfortunately for him, this was not as easy as it sounded, as a few of his appendages had found themselves under Ryoga, sandwiched between him and the sandy ground. As a result, Ranma's jerk caused Ranma and Ryoga both to fall down in a roll into another depression. They fell end over end until they finally reached the bottom, where they were finally separated by the force of gravity.
Ryoga groaned. Today was just not his day. Slowly, he picked himself off the ground and glared down at Ranma. "Just what the hell was that for?"
"Sorry, I didn't mean ta do that, master!" Ranma cried as he held his hands up defensively. He whimpered as his master stood over him menacingly. "ya got lost on yur way, and I was just tryin' ta find ya. That's all, I swear!"
"Are you mocking me?" Ryoga growled as his eye twitched for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. He snapped. "And what did I say about calling me master?" As he watched Ranma break down into hysterics, he shook his head frustratedly and said, "Look, let's just drop it, okay? Let's get back to Nerima already."
Ranma stopped and stared up at Ryoga warily. After a while he nodded voicelessly and stood up, taking the lead again and leading Ryoga toward the airport. After what seemed like forever, they reached their destination. After the exceedingly boring preparations for their flight-dealing with security checks, metal detectors, and so on and so forth-they boarded a small plane and were ready for the long flight back to Nerima.
They were given the best seats on the plane, a row of comfortable looking seats that oddly resembled couches. They energetically took their seats, and as much as Ryoga was discomforted by the fact that Ranma was only sitting inches away from him, as the make-shift couch was only large enough to accommodate the two of them, he couldn't deny that the feeling of relaxing in the soft cushion wasn't worth it. He could practically feel the tension ebb away from him as he leaned back into the fabric of the couch and closed his eyes.
Ranma watched Ryoga the entire time, making sure to remain silent. After the most recent incident with him running into Ryoga, he didn't dare utter a word to his master. He waited patiently should the lost boy command him to take action.
The silence wasn't awkward to the lost boy, as he allowed his mind to drift around aimlessly in thought. He kept his eyes closed, avoiding eye contact with the pig-tailed martial artist. While usually displeased with the very presence of Ranma, this time he was able to cast their differences aside, as they were able to in times of dire need. His thoughts then trailed to all the different encounters he and Ranma had had up to this point. He found it quite odd that he was using his bizarre relationship with Ranma to distract him from Ranma, but he didn't stop himself.
And then he regretted not doing so, as the call of 'master' echoed in his thoughs. The very word, etched deeply in his mind, left him in a fit of shudders. He felt uneasy as he brought an unsteady hand to his head and touched his temples. The word left an uneasy feeling in his stomach.
Ranma immediately noticed Ryoga's change in mood and asked, "What's up master?" He placed a hand on his shoulder and gripped firmly onto it.
"Don't touch me!" Ryoga replied, in a grim tone. His throat dried as he tried to swallow non-existent saliva. "...Why do you keep calling me that?" His voice faltered as he asked that. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't shake the uneasy feeling.
Ranma shook his head and replied simply, "Because I gotta'... kay?"
Ryoga was at a loss; he couldn't piece together anything that Ranma said. Why was Ranma doing all this, and why did he insist on calling him by that intolerable name? They both hated each other's guts! At least, most of the time they did. But that was just what they did when they were around each other. It was the norm! Very rarily did they ever cooperate with one another. And now, here Ranma was going against everything their rivalry stood for.
Almost painfully, Ryoga groaned and said, "At least keep your hands to yourself...I'm not okay with another man touching me." He just wasn't willing to deal with this right now. Or rather, he couldn't. His mind was going in a million different directions, and his most important task had to be obtaining Akane's affection for himself. He can deal with Ranma's ridiculous attitude later.
Ranma gave Ryoga a calculated look before raising one of his hands and calling to a flight attendant. "Can I get one of those?" Ranma asked, pointing to one of the items for sale. The attendant handed Ranma the water bottle and nodded her head, leaving.
Ryoga didn't even pay Ranma any mind while he was ordering something. Instead he looked out the window and stared at the scenery outside, mesmorized by its beauty.
"Oh Ryoga..." a female voice said, right before she leaned onto the lost boy and held his arm in place. "You're such a big strong man..." she said, her voice soothing and somewhat suggestive.
Big blue eyes met with Ryoga's green eyes and he found himself a bit transfixed to hers. "Stop that!" He suddenly found himself breathing heavier as he struggled to come to grips with the situation at hand.
The two were obviously making a scene, since a few of the other passengers(mostly the males) stared at Ryoga, wanting to be in his position. "I'm sorry master...!" Ranma groaned, nuzzling her head to the arm of her strong master. The feeling sending chills up the spine of the poor lost boy. It was at that moment that Ryoga felt his nose release a trickle of blood and his movement halted.
Ranma stopped and turned her head to the frozen Ryoga, she blinked for a moment. "Guess dat was too much for him to handle..." Ranma commented. In truth, all she really wanted to do was to appease her master, to make him feel wanted. It was something that Ryoga had been wanting from Akane, and Ranma was sure in herself that she could fill that role. Not to mention the fact that he was obviously displeased with being in the company of a man, so being unable to return to being a man, she turned toward her curse.
meanwhile, unbenknownst to either Ranma or Ryoga, Genma, the white gi wearing master, looked around his campsite and noticed that Ranma had gone missing. It took him a moment before he realized something. Ranma had both tickets back home..."Ranma!" he cried, falling to his knees with his hands clamped to the sides of his head.
DaisukiFox: That's it for today folks! And don't worry we have an explanation for the way Ranma's been acting! Or at least I assume we do... it's been awhile and I'll probably need to ask thechilldude where we were gonna' take this fic.
thechilldude: One more thing. I'd like to note that Dai's and my writing style are drastically different, and he was the one that wrote this one mainly and I was trying to add in a few details here and there and somehow I added a lot of details. 1400 words of details to be exact, and it makes me feel really bad for adding so much to it when it's his work too! But I assure you that the direction of the chapter was left unchanged and the dialogue pretty much stayed the same. Anybody who reads my stories can immediately tell this because Dai's better at wording their dialogue than I am. I look forward continuing this piece alongside Dai and hope that our writing styles won't clash as we progress through this piece. The next chapter shall be written by me and edited by Dai, so he gets the next chance to scrutinize one of our chapters. xD Also I'd like to point out that this is my first dual author fanfiction, and we are only in the second chapter thus far (and with us having such a long break since the last one), so please excuse any major flaws in our writing styles. I believe that as we continue writing this piece, our teamwork will shine, and we'll have a wonderful piece for world of Ranma/Ryoga fanfiction. This has been news from thechilldude, reporting out. Have a good day. :P