Roamin' Ryoga – Chapter 2

I've been re-watching Ranma ½ with a friend of mine and we've been talking about fanfictions we read back in the day. We used to read A LOT of Ranma ½ fanfiction. So, while at work, this idea came to me. I hope I can do it justice.

I don't own Ranma 1/2, or any other properties, songs, movies, or people mentioned in this story. Any resemblance to real people, or events are entirely coincidental.

Ryoga woke up in a very familiar room. Remembering last night, Ryoga let out a sigh. It was a lovely dinner, and everyone was great… but soon, he would be gone again. Probably wouldn't see them for months.

He got up, noticing that his pack must still be downstairs. 'Dammit, now I have to find my way downstairs just to change clothes…'

Ryoga left the room to find downstairs. It took him about 20 min. Not too bad if he did say so himself. Walking into the main room, he had to keep himself from bursting into laughter. Ranma was sitting down, as a girl, with his daughter giving him a make-over. There was lipstick over half of his face, and red hair pulled into about 4 ponytails and at least 2 braids. Ranma was gently trying to ask Momoko if she was almost done. A patient father as always, he seemed to be hitting the end of his rope.

Ryoga sauntered into the room with a very wide smile on his face.

"Hey Ranma, you've never looked better." Ryoga was suppressing a lot of laughter at the moment.

"Uncle P-chan! Isn't daddy pretty?" Momoko seemed very proud of her work.

"Daddy is very pretty! But don't you think he would look even prettier in a dress?" Ryoga was reveling in Ranma's discomfort as he made the suggestion in a sing-song voice. Ranma glared at Ryoga.

Momoko's eyes grew even wider and she got really excited. "I'll ask mommy for a dress for daddy!" She ran off to find Akane.

Once he was sure Momoko was out of range, Ranma glared hard at Ryoga who had just burst into laughter. "I hate you so much right now."

Through the laughter, Ryoga managed to ask, "Why is she giving you the make-over and not Akane?"

Ranma crossed his arms under his ample chest and said, "My hair is longer… and she likes that it's the same color as hers…" His female side hasn't seemed to age a day. Ranma still looked 16, and Ryoga suspected he would always look 16 in his cursed form.

Ryoga calmed down and grabbed his backpack from the corner of the room.

"You're not leaving already, are you? I thought Nabiki was picking you up around lunch-time?" Ranma asked quizzically.

"Yeah, but I need to take a bath and change clothes don't I? I may not have nice clothes to see her with, but I can at least be clean." Ryoga started walking towards what he thought was the bathroom. He opened a broom closet. "Ummm…. Ranma?"

"If you promise to never laugh at what Momo-chan dresses me in, I'll take you to the bathroom." Ranma looked at Ryoga with a serious look in his eyes. It was a little hard to take seriously with the bad lipstick and hair, but Ryoga agreed.

Ryoga had just finished a bath and put on his best set of clothes. Nothing fancy, but also not frayed around the edges. Might as well dress nice for arguably the most successful Tendo sister. Once he found the door to leave the bathroom, he found that Ranma was standing outside the door. Cleaned up and male again.

"Ready for breakfast?"

"What happened to Momo-chan's make-over?" Ryoga had a snide smile on his face as he looked at Ranma.

"Akane told her not to dress up daddy while we had company. Now, never bring it up again." Ranma sounded like the last part was not a request, and started walking towards the dining room.

Ryoga quickly grabbed his backpack and started following Ranma. "Hey, wait for me!"

Following Ranma got Ryoga to the breakfast table in record time. Ranma and himself both sat at the table and Akane passed them both bowls of rice. Masaru was eating quickly and in mass quantities. He really was his father's son. Akane was helping Momoko master her beginner's chopsticks to eat a pickle off her rice bowl. Ryoga noticed that the stuffed P-chan had found its way to the table next to Momoko. Ryoga smiled at the girl. She really was growing so fast. She could hardly talk the last time he saw her.

Half-way through breakfast, Akane looked over to Ryoga and asked, "Hey, what are your plans after you leave? Anywhere you plan on going?"

Momoko looked horrified at her mother. "Uncle P-chan isn't leaving again is he?" She turned to Ryoga and gave him the biggest, saddest puppy-dog eyes and the cutest pout to match.

The look hurt Ryoga to the core, but before he could respond, Ranma pitched in. "Hey now Momo-chan! Uncle P-chan can't stay here forever. Adults need to live their own lives. But he'll be back. He always comes back eventually."

Ryoga was glad that Ranma defended his leaving to the young child. She didn't yet understand why he could never stay for long. Looking right at Momoko, Ryoga calmly added in with a gentle smile, "I'll always come back to see you. You'll never know when, but I'll always come back." Momoko seemed to calm down a bit. Then Ryoga reached across the table and grabbed the stuffed pig, handing it to Momoko. "Plus, you'll always have a little bit of Uncle P-chan right here. Although, I would still like it better if you called me Uncle Ryoga."

At being handed her favorite thing in the world, Momoko smiled widely and hugged the stuffed pig as hard as she could.

Ryoga gave a small smile at the child and turned to Akane. "I don't have any real plans right now. Since I'm not out for revenge anymore, I'm really not sure what to do…. But anytime I try to make a plan, it never works out anyway. I might as well keep doing what I have been."

"What have you been doing? Still camping in the woods a lot?" Ranma was trying to grab the last fish from the middle of the table when his and Masaru's chopsticks met. Father and son glared at each other for a moment, as if a fight over the last fish was about to break out. Ranma slowly closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and let go of the fish. Masaru ate it with no remorse.

"Yeah, been camping a lot. Why'd you let Masaru get that last fish?"

"My first instinct was to fight him for it. But I think back to Pops and I don't want to do anything he did. I want to be a better father than that. I can always cook another fish if I need to. There's no reason to fight over food." Ranma finished his rice bowl and turned back to Ryoga. "Just living in the woods then?"

"Nah, I get offered places to sleep occasionally. I still need money for food and supplies sometimes. When I'm in small towns, I tend to do bits of work to help them out, and I get offered food, shelter for the night and a bit of money to keep me going. I'll break boulders, help dig up fields for crops… a lot of manual labor mostly." Ryoga finished his rice bowl and set it down. "Thanks for breakfast."

Akane gathered the empty bowls, "Oh, you're always welcome here. Drop by anytime. Sounds like you've been doing some nice honest work."

"Yeah, it's a nice way to get by. I meet some real nice people, see some nice towns, and I always end up here in the end." Ryoga was in a pretty good mood. This was the life. The life he wished he could have all the time…

There was still a few hours until Nabiki was supposed to get Ryoga, and being the weekend, Masaru didn't have school. So Ranma thought it a good idea for Ryoga and Masaru to spar. Ranma watched as they sparred in the yard. He wanted to minimize the property damage, now that he was responsible for the upkeep to the home. Ranma watched as Ryoga held back most of his strength… but was forced to use his full speed. Speed was never Ryoga's strong suit…

Masaru and Ryoga were sharing blows back and forth, Masaru trying to keep his distance, and Ryoga trying to get into a grapple. The conflicting styles made for a very intense practice bout. After what seemed like a long time, a voice could be heard from the house, "Ryoga! I just got a call from Nabiki and you should be ready to go soon!"

At the sound of Akane's voice, Ryoga looked towards the house, distracted. Masaru took the opening and gave Ryoga a final kick… into the koi pond.

Loud squealing could be heard from the pond as a small black pig was struggling to get out of the water. Ranma sighed and scooped up the struggling pig. "You shouldn't get distracted, even in a practice match." He turned to Masaru, "You did a good job keeping up with Uncle Ryoga, but what did I say about the koi pond?"

Masaru was smiling smugly but tried to look a little sheepish when he responded, "Don't take advantage of a Jusyenkyo curse in a fight unless it's a REAL fight."

Ranma nodded his head at his son, and looked back at the struggling pig he was holding. "Stop struggling Ryoga! I'll run you a bath so you'll be ready." He started walking back to the house but stopped to look over his shoulder at Masaru. "Hey, Masaru! Can you gather his clothes from the pond and wring the water out? We should try to get them as dry as possible before Uncle Ryoga leaves."

Masaru made a face as if he was gonna make a response… but thought better of it and started gathering Ryoga's clothes from the pond.

"And there ya go!" Ranma tossed the pig into a nice hot bath that he had just drawn. Ryoga's muscular form emerged from the water, coughing out the water that had gone down his throat.

"You didn't have to toss me in! I could have jumped in myself." Ryoga settled into the water giving a side-eye to Ranma.

Ranma gave a laugh. "It just reminded me of when we were young. I'd have to save your bacon anytime your secret was about to get out." Ranma gave a large grin.

Ryoga hung his head and sank deeper into the water. "Could you please leave? I'd like to finish this bath alone."

Ranma's smile faded and he looked at the solemn Ryoga for a moment, before muttering, "Sure man." And turning to leave. He paused in the doorway. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything you went through because of me. You're always welcome here… anytime you're in the neighborhood." Ranma left the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

Ryoga was now alone in the bath, knowing he'd have to be ready to leave soon. People liked to think about 'The good-old days' but…. Were they ever really good? They were important, sure – but he would never describe them as 'good'.

Drying his hair, Ryoga saw that Ranma had left his whole pack in the bathroom dressing room. His best outfit was out of the question now, but he was sure he had something that wasn't frayed to death. "Guess I'm wearing long sleeves today." He stated to himself as he brought out a long sleeved shirt and long pants. The pants had his classic crisscross ties at the calves and the shirt had some solid bracers on the forearms. It's was the only thing left without frayed edges.

Coming out of the bath with his backpack, Masaru was waiting by the door with his arms crossed, looking like he didn't want to be standing there. He was holding a small bag. Seeing Ryoga, Masaru gave an exasperated sigh, rolled his eyes just a bit and turned to Ryoga. He bowed and said, "I'm sorry for kicking you into the pond and getting your clothes wet." And under his breath adding, "even though you were wide open…" He stood up and handed Ryoga the bag. "I've dried your clothes the best I could."

Ryoga could sense that Ranma was down the hall listening in. Ryoga took the bag and tousled Masaru's hair like he would when he was a kid. "Thanks."

Masaru looked uncomfortable with the tousling and fixed his hair. He started walking towards the living room but made sure to look back to see if Ryoga was following.

Ryoga smiled and followed Masaru. As he entered the main room, Momoko latched onto his leg.

"Please don't go Uncle P-chan! You can stay with us forever!"

Ryoga bent down and gave Momoko a large hug. "Don't worry Momo-chan. Uncle Ryoga will come back. You can count on it!"

She still looked sad, but looked into his face, "You promise?"

For a brief second… a thought of Reiko flashed across his mind… but with a determination in his voice, he said, "I promise."

Akane walked into the room dressed in a white gi. "It was nice to see you again Ryoga! Come by anytime. Sorry I can't stay for your whole good-bye. I have a class starting in a few minutes. Good Luck with Nabiki!" She jogged off to the dojo.

Ranma picked up Momoko, so she wasn't holding onto Ryoga anymore. "Come on Ryoga. I think I heard Nabiki's car pull up." Ranma motioned to the front door and Ryoga picked his backpack back up.

In front of the house was a very fancy black car. A very well dressed man got out of the car and opened the back door, motioning for Ryoga to get in. "Mr. Hibiki, I presume? I was told to pick you up by Ms. Tendo."

Ryoga was confused for a moment, as was Ranma. Ranma spoke up first, "I thought Nabiki was coming here?"

The driver straightened and looked directly at Ranma. "Ms. Tendo is quite busy and sent me to pick up Mr. Hibiki." Looking back at Ryoga, the driver continues, "Might we proceed Mr. Hibiki? We are on a tight schedule."

Ryoga looked at Ranma, who shrugged his shoulders. This seemed like something Nabiki would do. She didn't have a whole lot of time on her hands after-all. Waving a last good-bye to Ranma and Momoko, Ryoga got into the back of the car with his backpack, tossing the bag of slightly damp clothes on the backpack.

Ranma and Momoko were both waving good-bye to Ryoga. "You better come back before this one's old enough to take you on!"

Ryoga chuckled at the comment, but couldn't retort back as the car had already started pulling away. Looking around, the car was quite roomy and very comfortable. There was, however, a dark glass separating him and the driver. 'I guess this'll be a quite ride.' With that thought, Ryoga leaned back into the plush seat and relaxed. This wasn't a bad way to travel at all….

A/N – Chapter 2! Don't worry, the story will be starting proper next chapter. I just love the world-building. I love thinking that these characters have everyday lives and just go about their business. Let me know if you like the story!