Omiyage Chapter 4: Nichijou Seikatsu, a ranma fanfic

Omiyage: Nichijou Seikatsu
By Ninnik Nishukan

Ukyo had never been particularly shy, Akane thought, but nowadays she was positively bursting with energy at school. During gym class she was running first in line when they were doing laps and during the ordinary classes she'd just started answering questions more often where before she might've been quiet and even a little bit of a daydreamer, always staring at the back of Ranma's neck or something. The biggest change, however, was that she'd taken to having conversations with Akane more often at school; she'd never been cold and…well, a little bitchy with her like Shampoo had a tendency to be, but she never used to deliberately seek out Akane for a simple chat unless Ranma was around, either.

Akane found Ukyo laughing a little to herself during the lunch break one day, but when she asked her, she only waved a hand evasively and shrugged, stifling a chuckle behind her hand.

"You seem more energetic these days, Ukyo," she commented tryingly. "Are things going well at the restaurant or something?"

Ukyo grinned, nodding as she helped herself from the rice in her bento box. "Got an assistant." She said simply before falling silent as she chewed her food.

Akane arched an eyebrow, curious, and sat down next to Ukyo. Ranma was off buying lunch because he'd overslept that morning and forgot his bento box, but she, like Ukyo, had her own bento. "Must be nice to have some help," Akane said as she removed the lid of the bento. "Truth be told, I've always wondered how you've managed to run a restaurant all by yourself."

Ukyo shrugged. "I must admit it's been a relief to get some assistance."

"So who is this mystery person?" Akane asked, unable to help herself.

"I believe it might be someone you know," Ukyo said enigmatically.

Akane raised her eyebrows. "You're just saying that so I'll be forced to go and see for myself and maybe bring some business your way in the process, aren't you?" She asked flatly.

When Ukyo said nothing, her expression kept deliberately blank, Akane started thrumming her fingers on the desk top, pursing her lips in conflict until curiosity finally won her over. "OK, I will." She promised finally.

Ukyo laughed.

It really was nice to have someone around the house who could do the inhumanly heavy lifting and other such things. What it saved her in having to hire professional help seemed to ease Ryoga's guilt— although she'd insisted time and again he needn't think about it— over staying at her house as a 'freeloader'.

She could understand it, though. Everybody liked to feel useful.

Before she knew it, he'd stayed at her house for more than three entire weeks.

He was still sleeping on the floor in her room, and neither of them had mentioned anything about it. There was no other option, anyway, lest she suggest he sleep in the broom closet, and she assumed that this wouldn't go over very well.

The night after the very first night that she'd let him stay there, he'd given her this long look as he'd hovered uncertainly near the door to her room as it was getting late and she was showing signs of wanting to go to sleep.

She was stretching a little and yawning when he'd taken a hesitant step forward. "U-Ukyo? Should I…am I supposed to…I could still go home, it's not too late…"

Ukyo had looked at him, at the tense body language and insecure expression and smiled mildly at him. She'd said nothing, only got up and laid out the spare futon again and walked past him to the bathroom to brush her teeth, and that had basically been it. "Thank you, Ukyo." He'd told her quietly as he followed her to the bathroom. She'd smiled to herself when he couldn't see. "No problem."

She had thought it would be the simple thing to do, and it was. The following night, he'd rolled out the futon himself; he now knew that he was welcome to stay.

Ryoga slept better now, he realized, and thought to himself that some of it was due to the fact that he'd told her about his curse; one significant worry he'd had around her had certainly been lifted. She was still curious about it and had started asking him about how it happened.

He told her. She listened.

She seemed to come to understand the rage he'd directed at Ranma in the past as he unravelled the story of his experiences at Jusenkyo, even if he admitted that it had just been a stupid mishap. He'd needed an outlet for his misery, she said, and Ranma had been it. Even the thought that it had all been an evil ploy from Ranma's side to ruin his life was more bearable than to see it for what it truly was— nothing but a meaningless, tragic accident.

Ukyo found herself getting used to, should she wake up in the middle of the night, having someone to talk to, or at least, should he be asleep, having the placating knowledge that someone was there.

The dark circles beneath his eyes were starting to fade, and she was relieved.

Ryoga found himself getting into a sort of routine for what was perhaps the first time in his life, and while he had halfway expected something like that to be slightly boring, it rather felt...soothing. It was stable and comforting because his days felt full; he had things to do besides wandering around aimlessly. It felt like he was constantly on the move despite staying in the same place all the time. Not being lost was a very new experience to him.

The tranquillity, the peace of mind he discovered while brushing his teeth next to Ukyo every night after an actual home-cooked dinner indoors, after a long day at the restaurant, rivalled that of looking at a mountain reflected on the surface of a lake on a calm day, those days where he would forget his troubles for more than ten minutes.

No, it was better.

He wasn't alone.

Having a routine didn't have to mean that exactly the same thing happened everyday, he found. It only meant that a few things happened at more or less the same time, like breakfast, lunch and dinner, little things that helped bind the portions of the day together, little things to look forward to because it meant time alone with Ukyo, it meant a meal or a conversation; usually both.

Getting to know Ukyo, he discovered, could never be boring. He saw her conversing with her customers, saw her hair and eyes dance as she worked, saw the deft flick of her wrist as she flipped an okonomiyaki over once, twice. Each one was a little bit different; she would paint little pictures on them with the sauce, he noticed, something he'd never really thought about before, mostly because in the few instances she'd ever cooked him okonomiyaki before, he'd been so hungry that there could have been nude art of prime minister Koizumi on them and he still wouldn't have noticed before they'd all been devoured.

He surprised her by the fact that he was neat. He had yet to spread his belongings all over her room or to drop wet towels everywhere after each shower, and he always rolled up his bedding in the morning. After a couple of nights, she'd rummaged around in the attic and had conjured up some extra bedding for him so he wouldn't have to sleep in that stuffy sleeping bag. She chalked his neatness down to the fact that he would have to keep track of his belongings while travelling, so he couldn't go around just tossing them all over the place.

The only thing was that his tidiness annoyed her sometimes because it made her guilty whenever she'd make a mess of her room. Sure, she kept her restaurant and her own little kitchen spotless, but she tended to have a little more relaxed attitude when it came to her own room.

She noticed the little things, too, like the fact that he was now reading the book she'd lent him, whenever he had the time.

Besides the odd undershirt or two, Ryoga had exactly seven shirts. Two sleeveless, black ones, the Hokkaido shirt, two of his standard yellow, long-sleeved ones, a blank, red T-shirt, and a worn, green, woollen sweater. She knew because he'd gone through his entire repertoire twice already during the time he'd spent with her. After a while, when he felt like he'd repaid his debt of room and board, she'd have to breach the subject of putting him on a payroll— if nothing else so he could renew his wardrobe. She'd already tried approaching him about a salary, but he just wouldn't have it.

Ryoga took his coffee black in the morning. He made breakfast once and it was pretty good— western style, hold the bacon. He liked her yakisoba just as much as her okonomiyaki and told her she should make it more often. He was good at making curry, she'd discovered, and he'd dared her to buy the spiciest kind there was. He'd been worried when it made her eyes water; he hadn't even laughed. That had made her feel very strange.

Ukyo was an early bird, but she liked to have a cup of green tea first thing in the morning before she could even think about eating breakfast. She said it started her up. She would smile as she took the first sip.

Ukyo liked to wear jeans and a comfortable top or T-shirt when she wasn't working. He noticed how well her pants hugged her hips when she walked. When they sat and watched TV he noticed that the sleeves on her tops were always very short, because her bare upper arms would sometimes brush against his when she shifted to get more comfortable in the couch. If it was chilly of an evening, though, she would wear these very long-sleeved, soft sweaters that seemed to embrace her, and sometimes he would stare at how only the last joints of her fingers were visible where her hands peeked out of her sleeves as they curled around a tea cup; he would think how small and delicate they were and get the urge to put his arm around her to shield her against something intangible, but then he'd shake his head at himself, confused; it wasn't as if Ukyo didn't know how to take care of herself!

Of course, there were a lot of things to get used to since he'd never lived with anyone before, except maybe his parents. First of all, there was the fact that he was now living with a girl, which just put a whole new spin on his life completely.

Now he had to be careful not to accidentally walk in on her in the shower and such things, and almost every day he had to risk seeing things like bras and panties and boxes of tampons strewn carelessly about her room, which tended to make him think things he shouldn't be thinking.

During the second week, he'd noticed a strange change in her, like how she'd suddenly consumed very large amounts of tea and chocolate and how she would start sniffling and dabbing at her eyes with her handkerchief during the sappiest scenes ever when they were watching some stupid show or movie on TV at night.

Also, he'd heard her muttering to herself one morning that she was fat and when he'd tried to tell her she wasn't, for some reason she'd gotten upset and yelled at him, accusing him of lying. He'd had absolutely no clue what it was all about until he'd realized it had been going on for several days, at which point he'd simply tried his best not to get in her way.

One day he'd overslept badly and was having his morning shower, or more like an afternoon shower, when she was coming home from school, and she'd walked in on him just as he was getting out of the shower. Luckily, he'd had his back turned, but even so he'd thought he'd die from the embarrassment. He'd stayed in the bathroom for half an hour after that until she'd finally come around and banged on the door because she still hadn't used the toilet, which had been her intention in the first place.

She seemed to think it was funny, which only made it worse. It was sometimes a little upsetting how…forward and unaffected she seemed to be at times. Of course, he'd also had to wonder if she'd been laughing because she thought he looked stupid naked, a prospect that was rather painful for him. It was strange, really; normally he never worried about his appearance much at all because he felt he had so many other qualities to make him unlovable; his looks were the least of his concerns. Lately, though, he'd become self-conscious in a way that had nothing to do with his Jusenkyo curse, his abysmal sense of direction or his lack of confidence in his own social skills. He noticed he was taking a little more care when he dressed himself in the mornings.

Normally she'd wear a bathrobe, but sometimes she'd walk across the hallway between her room and the bathroom in nothing but a bath towel, and he'd catch a glimpse of her from the kitchen or something and nearly choke on his tea. How could she do this to him? Did she know what she was doing to him? Ryoga knew he was shy and sort of a hopeless romantic, but as he'd be the first to admit, unfortunately he could also be a bit of a pervert.

His mind had a tendency to run away with him whenever he caught a glimpse of such things, and the reason he knew he was a bit of a pervert was because he had to be— why else did it take so much less for him to get excited than the average guy?

Usually a guy would have to see at least a naked chest or in some cases, maybe even a whole busload of naked women to reach the levels of excitement that he did, or maybe not even then; he couldn't imagine anyone else feeling like their head was about to implode like that, just before the world started spinning. You had to be pretty darn excited if it all became so much for you that you actually fainted.

The human race would have been extinct long ago if the world had been populated by males who reacted the way he did, he reasoned.

Once when he caught sight of her traipsing across the hall in a shorter towel than usual, the cup he was holding in his hand shattered, and he had to spend a good ten minutes afterwards attempting to explain to a very angry Ukyo why he was decked out on the kitchen floor with a nose bleed, the remains of her favourite cup scattered all around him.

Ryoga hadn't woken up with 'morning wood' again after that awkward incident, which had been a relief to Ukyo. However embarrassing it was to admit it, even to herself, it had been...fascinating to look at, but she'd felt like she'd been invading his privacy, which she had, despite the fact that it had happened in her room. She found herself blushing at times when he would stumble around sleepily in the mornings in nothing but boxers and an undershirt, and felt incredibly silly whenever she realized that she was doing things like swallowing nervously or clutching her bathrobe tighter around herself.

When she'd accidentally walked in on him just as he was getting out of the shower one afternoon, she'd acted like it was all just very hilarious— and it had been! Why hadn't he thought to lock the door? And why hadn't she thought to knock? It was the kind of thing that only happened in stupid sitcoms, so naturally she'd laughed. Not surprisingly, he had failed to see quite the same amount of humour in it.

…but then there was the fact that while, yes, it had all been very lame comedy-esque, the situation had also happened to involve a dripping wet, naked, young man…whom she was forced to still live with after getting to know what he looked like naked…well, the back of him, anyway; it had been a blessing that he'd been facing away from her, at least, or she'd have probably had to wait a week or at least a couple of days before being able to look him in the eye again. There were certain…parts…of him that didn't need any thinking about. Just the sight of that much skin, though, wet and tight against his muscles, even if it'd just been a brief flash, was already driving her to distraction at times. It wasn't often, but during idle moments at work, sometimes she'd be staring thoughtlessly into space and then—

BAM! Flesh-O-Rama! Or maybe she'd be sitting on the couch with him and his elbow would brush against hers and BAM! There they'd be; mental images she didn't want. It wasn't bad, it wasn't a nuisance in everyday life or anything...it was just that once in a while…

The mornings were still the times when she found it the most difficult not to stare at him, though. She watched him yawning widely one morning and caught a glimpse of his bared teeth, fanglike as they were, and instantly thought of the lions she'd seen at the zoo when she was little, lounging about in their pit and baring their fangs in mighty, roaring yawns.

Yes, he was a bit odd…and he made her think odd things.

Ukyo always wanted to do something, always suggested they go out somewhere or go to see something, like a movie or to the zoo or a museum, even though school and the restaurant took up all her time and they wouldn't be able to do even half the things on her ever-expanding list. Her zealousness could be a little stressful at times, but he knew it was because there were so many things she wanted to do now that she actually had someone to do them with.

He never objected until she asked him to come along for karaoke with a few of her regular customers after closing time one night. He didn't really know many songs, let alone the ones that were popular right then, and he didn't want to embarrass her.

He said she could go if she wanted to and he could just stay, as he assumed she knew these people and had gone out with them before, but she dithered a bit then and shook her head; from this he gathered that perhaps she was shyer than she looked, and that she hadn't been to karaoke before, or at least not with these people.

Somehow that had made him feel a burst of affection for her. He wasn't much for crowds; what he liked the best were the quiet nights when it was just the two of them. At those times, Ukyo seemed more like…well; he liked her company better, then. She was more relaxed and mellow and not so overwhelming to deal with. Then again, he knew himself well enough to be aware of the fact that practically anybody would look peppy next to him.

Ryoga turned out to be a good assistant at Ucchan's.

There was that incident when there was water all over the kitchen floor and she found that her new dish washer had turned into a piglet, and the time where he almost wandered off down the street when she asked him to step outside and take down the banners, but all in all Ryoga's employment at her restaurant was going pretty smoothly, she felt, once she'd showed him the ropes and he'd gotten used to the place.

Ukyo was always full of energy, a distinct contrast to his often gloomy moods, and she was used to dealing with people, which he wasn't. She seemed to be utterly flabbergasted when he actually volunteered to do the dishes to escape the hustle and bustle of the restaurant. He could only escape serving the customers for so long, though.

She could be very bossy, and in his opinion, perhaps she was a little too serious about her trade. Learning how a restaurant was run had been a trying few days. She even had a very certain way of doing the dishes which he had to conform to— she was very set in her ways when it came to the restaurant, which probably stemmed from the fact that she'd always run it alone— and she had a tendency to get impatient and scold him too often if he did something wrong, but after he managed to work himself into a rhythm at the restaurant, get a feel for the job, the reprimands were fewer and farer between, and as he got better at the job and the performance pressure factor went down, he was actually beginning to enjoy himself.

Then of course there was the getting up early, which he seriously doubted he'd ever get used to, but at least Ucchan's was closed on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays to allow her time for her school work. It could have been worse, he felt.

It was the time outside of work hours that seemed to be a bit trickier, in her opinion.

During the first few days while they were still getting used to not living alone, things could be a little bit on edge. It was nice having somebody around, but getting used to each other's little quirks and each other's daily routines was a little difficult at first.

She was a morning person and he wasn't, but she could tell he was trying to accommodate to her daily schedule, that he was struggling to go to sleep early and get up early so he could help her in the restaurant during weekends. He would still grumble about it in the mornings, though, calling her a slave driver under his breath. He was obviously not used to having a set time when he would have to get up in the mornings.

They'd had a big fight one day when she'd asked him to cook because she was tired. In the middle of cooking, he'd had to just step away for a brief moment to go to the bathroom, but unfortunately he couldn't find his way back to the kitchen once he was done, and Ukyo had gone to take a nap, so when she awoke a good twenty minutes later, it was to the ear-splitting, high pitched beeps of the smoke detector going off because of a smoke-filled kitchen caused by a big portion of stew cooking dry, turning the bottom of one of her best pots completely black, not to mention a panicked Ryoga stumbling around somewhere down in her restaurant, trying desperately to find the kitchen.

"You idiot!" Ukyo had screamed, still disoriented from sleep and feeling angry and somewhat frightened about what had almost happened. "You could've burned my restaurant down!"

Ryoga had cringed at that, looking wretched. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't—"

"Don't you ever just stop and think, you jackass?" Ukyo had yelled into his face. "It can't be that hard, can it? I mean, it's just a small apartment, for goodness sake! What the hell were you doing, anyway?"

Ryoga had shut his eyes, grimacing with guilt. "Just…just needed t-to go to the b-bathroom…" He'd said in a small voice.

"Argh!" Ukyo had exclaimed, bashing him over the head with her giant spatula once or twice. "Who the hell gets lost on their way to the bathroom? Fuck!" She'd stomped her foot in anger.

She'd been surprised when Ryoga had stood up, then, clenching his fists as he met her gaze. "You're talking as if I did it on purpose!"

She had growled. "Who knows? Maybe you're just stupid!" Exasperated, she'd shaken her head. She'd known it wasn't his fault, of course, but the truth was that his Jusenkyo curse wasn't half as frustrating as his utter lack of any kind of directional sense. At least you had to apply water to make the Jusenkyo curse kick in…!

"Don't call me stupid." Ryoga had said in this odd voice, sounding both subdued and defiant at the same time; she'd heard both sadness and anger there. "And you didn't have to hit me."

"Whatever!" She'd scoffed. "I need to go clean up! And thanks to you, I have to get a new smoke detector installed!"

Ryoga had frowned. "What happened to the old one?"

"My spatula happened!" She'd snapped.

"Why didn't you just turn it off?"

Ukyo had gritted her teeth. "I couldn't reach up to it to turn it off, okay?"

He'd given her an odd look. "Why didn't you just stand on a chair?"

"Shut up!" Ukyo had barked, her face red. "If it hadn't been for you, none of this would've happened!" With that, she'd turned on her heel and marched up the stairs.

An hour later when she'd calmed down and went to see what he was doing, he'd still been down in the restaurant, sitting bent over the grill with his head in his hands.

"Ryoga?" She'd frowned, suddenly feeling apprehensive.

"Don't worry, I'll leave." He'd said in clipped tones, and she'd frowned harder. "Excuse me?"

"I know I'm a bother," Ryoga had said, sounding less defiant. "So I'll just leave if you get me my stuff, seeing as I can't even find my way upstairs to get it."

Ukyo had just stared at him. "You know, you really are an idiot," She'd shaken her head.

She'd seen him wince, and noticed that his eyes were a bit red as he glanced at her; either he'd been crying or it might be that he was about to. "I know." He'd said in a dead voice.

Sighing heavily, Ukyo had shaken her head again. This was one of the things they'd been trying to get over during the last few days. She was used to speaking a bit too roughly and freely and he was very careful about what he said and took things too literally. "I know I can be insensitive, Sugar, but you're too sensitive, did you know that?"

Looking up, Ryoga had sent her a puzzled frown. "What…?"

"You're not an idiot and you don't have to leave just because we had a fight!" She'd sighed. "We can just apologize."

This had seemed to be news to Ryoga. "All right," he'd said eventually.

"I overreacted, so I said…some bad things." Ukyo had said, feeling as if she should go first. "I'm sorry for yelling at you and hitting you." She'd added, shamefaced.

Ryoga had cleared his throat. "I'm sorry for scaring you like that, making the smoke detector go off while you were sleeping and all…" He'd agreed.

They'd looked at each other solemnly for a while as they contemplated what more to say, but after a while it had become apparent that they'd already said what had needed to be said. They'd become friends again.

She'd smiled at him as he'd followed her upstairs to start up another dinner.

Ukyo made sure Ryoga got a few breaks during the day from doing the dishes. She knew he spent his breaks doing complicated kata in the backyard, because she'd caught a glimpse of it once or twice when going to fetch him for work, and she wished she had time to watch. As she cooked her okonomiyaki for her customers, she tried to imagine what he would look like as he went through entire series of them, and contemplated asking him one day to show her. Maybe even teach her.

She had P.E. at school twice a week and tried to go jogging wherever she could, at least once or twice a week, so she knew she wasn't out of shape or anything, but she was getting increasingly aware of the fact that she'd been letting her martial arts skills slip a little lately.

During the daytime when she was at school, she'd just let him sleep in so he'd be alert and awake for the few hours in the evenings on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays when Ucchan's was open during weekdays. She knew he didn't sleep in for that long, however, so she had to wonder how he spent his time.

She'd told him he was welcome to use her computer and the TV, to read her books and to help himself to food in the kitchen, but he didn't seem like he was at home at all around computers; he'd had no idea what she was talking about once when she'd tried to show him how to use the internet and unfortunately he'd managed to stumble across a porn site on which some very graphic ads kept popping up and crowding the screen and he'd ended up passed out on her bed room floor with a heavy nose bleed. She'd had to resort to slapping his pale face about twenty times before he came to again. Ukyo had then proceeded to ask him, only half in jest, if she should get him some iron tablets to stop him from becoming anaemic.

After that little episode, he'd been very reluctant to even come near her computer, let alone actually use it himself. As for TV, he didn't really seem to know a lot of shows, either, and even so, daytime TV basically stunk, so she wondered whether he just spent his days reading all of her books.

One day when she came home early after school, though, her last class having been cancelled, she found him sitting at her desk, bent over some paperwork; she walked over, her curiosity piqued. He was wearing one of his yellow, long-sleeved shirts, but her eyebrows arched as she realized she had never seen him in jeans before.

It looked good.

Couching a little to get his attention, she leaned over his shoulder. "Whatcha writin'?"

He jumped a little in his seat and craned his neck around to look up at her. "You're home early," He said somewhat blearily, as if he'd been far away. Since she kept looking at him, he glanced down at his work, waving a hand dismissively at it. "Uh, just some homework…" He mumbled evasively.

She looked puzzled. "Homework? But, um…you don't go to school…do you?"

His hairline reddened, and he bit his lip. "Well, you see…I kind of do."

"How?" She tilted her head at him.

He turned his chair to face her and drew a breath. "As you can imagine, my attendance record has to be pretty damn weak, right?"

Ukyo giggled a little; at least he was trying to have a sense of humour about it. "Yeah?

"Well, the thing is that on the first day of school I ever had, my parents explained my…" He gestured uncertainly as he tried to think of an appropriate word. "…my situation to the principal and my teachers, and they made a little arrangement."

Ukyo settled casually against the side of her desk, half-sitting, half-standing. "What was that?"

"Since I'd probably only manage to actually get to class about one out of ten times, my parents arranged for me to get every piece of homework at the start of term so I could do it by myself, and this way keep up with the other students."

"But wasn't that hard?"

He shrugged. "I got some help from my parents and from the teachers when I made it to school, but yeah, a lot of the time I had to manage by myself."

"What are you doing now?"

"Maths."

"Can I see?" Ukyo leaned closer.

His eyes flickered uncertainly from her to the homework and back up to her before he seemed to relent. "Sure…"

When he handed her the work book, she flipped through the pages, looking up at him in awe as she reached the place where his notes stopped appearing. "Ryoga…we were doing these tasks in class only a month ago!"

He met her gaze curiously. "Really?"

She nodded, incredulous. "You've almost caught up with us! That's amazing!"

He ducked his head, abashed. "Yeah, well... I've always had lot of free time on my hands, haven't I?"

Ukyo pursed her lips, determined to change the subject. She'd be damned if he was going to start coming over all brooding and depressing again. "How do they grade your work?"

This seemed to get him going a little again. "Once I finish a certain bulk of the assignments, I usually mail it to them, or if luck should have it, I can hand it in if I happen across the school on my way. Then they send the results to my house. Once I've done everything I need for half a year of school, I get more material after the spring vacation, and then I advance to the next grade once I've finished everything for an entire year… and then I get more material after the summer vacation for the next grade."

Ukyo nodded slowly. "So…if this is the material you're working on now, then…technically, you're actually in the same grade as me?"

He looked a little humiliated at this. "I may be a hopeless case, but I do want an education, you know, same as everybody else…"

"Ryoga…" Ukyo frowned. "You know I didn't mean anything like that, I just didn't know you were still in school."

He looked away. "I admit it's been kind of tough since I got my Jusenkyo curse since I have a tendency to lose my stuff after…well, you know, what with being unable to carry it and all…if it's a book, it's not too hard to replace, but if it's just handouts, it's worse…but I've had them mail me extra copies of it to my house so I can get some more if I need it." He turned in his chair again, looking down at the pile of homework on Ukyo's desk. "They've been very understanding, really." Here he chuckled ironically. "No wonder, though, seeing as me and my parents had to camp outside the school building for three days before I started school to be able to go see the principal on time."

Ukyo put a hand on his shoulder. "Everyone's entitled to an education, Ryoga."

He looked up at her and hope began to slowly bloom in him in the face of her generous smile. "Yeah, I guess so." He agreed, attempting to return the smile. Grinning, Ukyo reached up and ruffled his hair. "C'mon, sweetie, we've got a restaurant to run!"

That very afternoon, Akane came around to the restaurant like she'd said she'd do one day, and as Ryoga saw her walking in, Ukyo caught him turning a dark scarlet.

She didn't quite know why, but this made something twist inside her. Frowning briefly, she put on a smile as she looked up and met the other girl's eyes.

"Hi, Akane!"

"Hi, Ukyo! And…uh…Ryoga?" Akane was glancing back and forth between her and Ryoga, looking surprised, but then a delighted smirk slowly spread itself across her lips. "Long time, no see, Ryoga," She smiled at him before turning back to Ukyo with an amused glimmer in her eyes. "So…this is the mystery man, huh?"

As he shot her a bewildered glance, Ukyo found that she was blushing as intently as Ryoga had been doing before. Laughing nervously, she went to prepare an okonomiyaki for her class mate. "Uh…what kind of toppings would you like?" She said quickly, by way of hopeful distraction.

"Let's see…how about pork?" Akane suggested; Ukyo heard Ryoga make an odd, strangled sort of noise beside her. As she glanced at him, she noticed he'd gone slightly green around the gills. "I'm afraid we're out of pork," she lied absently as she looked at him, receiving a grateful, yet slightly weak smile from Ryoga for her troubles.

Akane shrugged, sitting down. "Seafood's fine, too."

"Excuse me," Ryoga croaked and disappeared into the back, mumbling something about having to do the dishes before he closed the door after him. After a while, they could indeed hear sounds of running water and clattering dishes.

"So, Ukyo…how did he come to be working here?" Akane asked as she watched Ukyo cooking.

Ukyo drew a breath, contemplating her answer. "I don't know, really, it just kind of turned out that way."

"What do you mean?" Akane asked curiously, leaning slightly forward.

"I just met him one day and I hadn't seen him for a long while so we just started talking, I guess, and then I met him again and we went to my house because it was raining and then there was a storm, so I let him stay here, and then I, I dunno why, but I offered him a job here…" She'd left out a lot of details, like how they'd gotten to know each other better and how she'd wanted him not to be alone but at the same time how she hadn't wanted to be alone herself and—

"He's living here?" Akane was staring at her, she suddenly realized.

Ukyo noticed belatedly that she'd been pouring okonomiyaki sauce on the grill instead of on the actual okonomiyaki. Cursing, she tried scraping the quickly burning sauce off of the grill with a spatula. "Well, what's wrong with that?" She asked defiantly, the blush blooming on her face belying her confident voice. "If he doesn't, how am I supposed to get him to come to work every day?" She demanded as she liberally applied more sauce to the okonomiyaki. "He'll be on the other side of the planet by Wednesday if I ask him to come to work on Thursday!"

Akane was looking slightly red herself by this point. "I-I didn't meant to be rude, Ukyo, I'm sorry. It's none of my business, really." She cleared her throat. "I was just…surprised, that's all."

"It's okay." Ukyo said uncomfortably; it had just dawned on her that, when having to explain to someone else the current situation with Ryoga, she had been at a loss for words, or rather, she had been forced to edit out a lot of things that had led to the current situation, and she had to wonder why. Then, again, she supposed that she had no business telling Akane the things Ryoga had told her in confidence about himself and his family and what she in turn had told him, and she had no desire to tell Akane about the time they'd spent together. It was just that she'd never had to answer any questions about herself and Ryoga before, so there were a few things she'd never had to consider, that she'd never had to ask herself whether people would find strange or not.

There was nothing secret about the two of them, though, was there?

Still, she had gotten to know so many things about Hibiki Ryoga lately, gotten to know him so well, and they were even sleeping in the same room—

"So, I guess he's sleeping in the guest room or something, right?" Akane asked politely. It wasn't her intention to pry; this was simply the only thing she could think to ask to break the silence with.

Ukyo opened and shut her mouth a few times and then looked down awkwardly. "I…I don't have a guest room." She said in a small voice.

Akane blinked. "Oh."

"He sleeps on a futon on the floor." Ukyo ventured, feeling as if she had to explain things a bit further so Akane wouldn't think that—

"I see." Akane said uncertainly, again just saying something to have something to say.

Ukyo nodded, serving her the okonomiyaki. "Yep."

Akane took a bite out of her food. "It's really good!" She blurted, trying once more to fix the uncomfortable atmosphere. Besides, it really was rather tasty, as always.

"Thanks." Ukyo nodded gratefully. "So…um…where's Ranma today?"

Akane looked slightly wretched at the question. "I, uh…think he's…well, you see…um…" She cursed herself mentally; she'd always been so lousy at lying.

"He's afraid I'm still mad at him, isn't he?" Ukyo said bluntly.

Squirming a little in her seat, Akane nodded reluctantly.

"Thought so." Ukyo nodded.

"Are you?" Akane leaned again, a concerned frown on her face.

Ukyo was scraping absently at the stains on the grill with a small spatula. "I kinda won't know until I talk to him again."

Akane nodded slowly. "I understand." She sat up straighter and took another bite out of her meal. "How is Ryoga, anyway?" She inquired after a pause. "He kinda just disappeared before I got to talk to him."

Ukyo couldn't help but smile a little. "I think he's doing just fine."

"I sort of miss him sometimes when he's gone," Akane said wistfully, poking at her okonomiyaki with her chopsticks. "He's always so nice to me. It really is too bad that he's always gone for such a long while at a time." She lamented.

Ukyo clutched her spatula tighter as she felt, out of nowhere, a spear of agitation and sadness impale her heart; it was strange, she was feeling kind of sick, kind of upset, kind of…

She suddenly thought back to Ryoga's blush upon Akane's entrance and the feeling all but tripled in its intensity. What the hell was this? She had no idea; all she knew was that the cause of it was how Akane had been talking about Ryoga right then. Why was she talking about him with such familiarity? She didn't know him!

"He's not that great!" She heard herself say, feeling strangely detached, suddenly understanding what people meant when they said it was as if they were on the outside looking at themselves. "He's got no sense of direction, he's always depressed, he's self-destructive and spineless and has no decision-making skills whatsoever and do you know what he did last night, he—"

Again, Akane was goggling at her as if she was some bizarre, exotic creature from another dimension, and Ukyo snapped her mouth shut when she realized what she'd been saying. "I-I…I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me," She sputtered, ashamed, glancing in a burst of panic at the door to the back room to see if Ryoga had heard anything, but fortunately the sounds of frantic dishwashing were still audible.

Akane sucked in a breath as a pang of guilt and not a small amount of shock overwhelmed her; that was exactly how she'd refer to Ranma whenever somebody put her on the spot about how she felt about him or…whenever some other girl would praise him. She made a silent vow to try to check herself from now on, to keep from doing it the next time. And maybe she should stop asking Ukyo questions about Ryoga, because there was obviously…something…going on that Ukyo wasn't entirely prepared to deal with yet; it was like looking in a mirror, Akane thought. Even though she and Ranma had progressed slightly as of late, it was still like looking in a mirror.

"It's okay," She said meekly to Ukyo; after all, who was she to pass any judgement?

Ukyo caught her gaze and there was some sort of strange understanding in the other girl's eyes, which made her feel oddly unsettled; what was it that Akane understood, and how was she looking right then, exactly what kind of feelings did her face convey to the world to make Akane give her that look?

"I-I…I don't know what…I'm sorry…" She mumbled, only half-aware of what she was even saying.

At that moment, though, she didn't get much more time to contemplate it, because Ryoga came out of the back room again. "Um…Ukyo? The dishes are done, what should I…?"

Her face red, she shook her head furiously. "You don't have to— I mean, there's nothing to do really, we've already, um…just take a break, okay?"

"Okay." Nodding, Ryoga went to grab himself some cold tea from the small refrigerator behind the grill. "So…uh…how are things, Akane?" He started somewhat hesitantly as he noticed that neither of the girls were talking.

"Oh." Akane seemed a little preoccupied as she answered. "I…things are fine, just fine. I mean, there haven't been any challenges lately and Ranma seems a bit bored, but then again, that means the house hasn't been wrecked in quite some time, which is a miracle, really, and I know especially dad is happy about that, so…yeah…"

Ryoga nodded; he worried about that household sometimes. Whenever he thought his own life was too weird, he'd think that it was all relative when he thought about them. However crazy your own life was, there was always somebody who had it crazier. "That's good."

"School's going great as of late, but I have to admit I'm kind of looking forward to when it's over." She smiled a little.

Ukyo nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, I second that! I long for the day when we won't have to deal with Principal Kuno or Miss Hinako!"

Akane crossed her fingers and screwed up her face in a mock-plea to the Heavens. "Only one more school year to go! Here's hoping!"

They chatted a bit more about school, and Ryoga, not really having anything to contribute with as he knew little of Furinkan school life, simply hung back and idly listened to them talking. It had been quite awkward seeing Akane again after that whole Gyoichi ordeal, and he'd just needed to get away for a moment so he could gather his wits. Now that he wasn't…pursuing Akane anymore, he had no reason to cuddle up to her as P-chan, and besides, he'd spent a lot of time over the last year or more thinking about the immoral circumstances of doing what he'd been doing, and the time had come to end it. He should've done it years ago— hell, he shouldn't have started it in the first place.

It had been very embarrassing to have to forcibly extract himself from Akane's grip, but what would Ukyo have thought if he'd just let himself be—

Gods! Why can't someone just show up at the door tomorrow and say, "Hey, seeing as your life has sucked so badly up to now, we all pitched in, went to China and got you this tub full of Nannichuan! Hop in, the water's great!"

…or something like that, anyway.

He shook his head; one day he'd cure his curse…one day…

When Akane finally excused herself and left, Ryoga couldn't help but to feel a little relieved. He'd have to explain it all to her one day, and apologize…and hope she wouldn't kill him. Anything would be better than feeling almost paralyzed with guilt every time he saw her.

After closing time, Ukyo went up to her room to change into her yukata while Ryoga changed out of his work clothes in the bathroom.

When she was done changing, she walked to the door and pushed it open to go to the kitchen to start dinner, but stopped as she caught sight of the Furinkan high school uniform for girls, hanging on the front of her wardrobe door.

She'd spent most of her first and second year of school at Furinkan trying to decide whether or not to wear it regularly, she recalled. She did put it on once during second year, and was suddenly asked out by Hiroshi, Daisuke and at least two other boys in her class, but she wasn't interested in them, and she just didn't feel like herself when she was wearing it, so she never wore it again.

Also, she'd been very suddenly harassed by Kuno, carrying the biggest bouquet of roses she'd ever seen, which had been a very valid reason not to wear it anymore. Apparently he was shallow enough not to have any interest in her when she was wearing a boy's uniform again.

She hadn't been thinking much about the dress this last year at Furinkan, however, so she had no idea why she'd left it on display in her room. It probably wouldn't even fit her anymore, what with the increase of her bust size and her hips that had started showing in her during the last months of her second year at Furinkan.

She had to wonder sometimes, though, if maybe she wasn't putting herself to waste, not wearing this school uniform. She'd certainly gotten more attention the other way. Sure, she wore her boy's uniform with the jacket open and a white top underneath, and she'd stopped wearing the chest bindings and exchanged them for bras and she'd stopped tying her hair in a low, boyish-style ponytail, but the fact of the matter was that she was still basically wearing a boy's uniform and she was still walking around with a giant spatula strapped to her back.

All through high school, Ukyo had found herself wondering from time to time what the other people at school thought about her; did they talk about her? If they did, what would they say? In particular, she wondered if the girls would comment on her style of clothing and laugh, if they would call her a moron behind her back for trying to compete with the likes of Akane and Shampoo for Ranma's attention…

"You don't have to wear that, you know."

Ukyo turned, surprised, and saw Ryoga standing in the doorway where she'd left the door open. He was wearing jeans again— probably his only pair, she thought, briefly amused— and his red T-shirt, as it was becoming too hot for wearing long sleeves indoors. His head was tilted as he regarded her with a somewhat concerned frown as he leaned on the door frame. From his expression, she had to wonder if she looked that miserable or something.

"What?"

Ryoga gave her a one-shouldered shrug. "If you don't really want to wear it, I mean."

Ukyo laughed self-deprecatingly. "Yeah, I guess dresses don't suit me, huh?"

He shook his head solemnly. "It's not about if it suits you or not. It's just…I dunno…you don't have to conform to something that you feel you have to be just because…because somebody else says that's how you're supposed to be. Um…you know?"

Ukyo grinned lopsidedly, shaking her head at him. "School uniforms are all about the conformity, Ryoga! That's the whole point!"

Ryoga reddened slightly and flapped a hand in dismissal. "Okay, just forget it, I…I was just trying to— you're fine the way you are, Ukyo! I look at all these girls in pastel-coloured, frilly things and I just can't imagine you ever—"

Ukyo eyebrows shot up; he'd been comparing her to other girls? "But that's the way girls are supposed to…I mean, wearing a school uniform for guys when you're a girl is just plain weird…right?"

Ryoga shrugged again, taking a few steps into the room. "Not for you."

Ukyo frowned at him sceptically. "You thought I was a boy the first time you met me!"

He sighed; as he'd thought, she really had been more upset about that than she'd let on, and for the hundredth time he had to wonder just how deeply the emotional wounds of her past went. "My mistake," He admitted. "And besides, you don't wear your uniform like a boy anymore, and you don't look like a boy! The point is that you don't have to dress in a very certain way just to look like a girl."

"But Akane…!" Ukyo blurted.

He blinked, perplexed at the sudden turn the conversation was taking. "Akane? Why are you worried about Akane?"

"B-because you—"Ukyo clapped a hand across her mouth, her eyes wide; what in the world was she even saying? "I mean, she's…so popular…and cute…and Ran-chan…um…"

I'm jealous, she realized; the truth of it came to her like a slap in the face. Being jealous of Akane was nothing new to her, but as for the reason behind the jealousy…well, that was definitely new.

When Ryoga had turned the colour of an egg plant at Akane's entrance, it was as if something inside of her had broken. It was like being five years old and being told that the oni at Setsubun was really just your uncle and a couple of your neighbours dressed up in stupid costumes. It was as if something she'd enjoyed believing in had all been a fancy little lie; sure, the oni were frightening, but they'd made life interesting.

She'd believed that maybe someone, and not just anyone, either, had found her more interesting than Akane for once, and—

"D-do you really care about that? Being popular at school?" Ryoga asked tentatively. Was there some boy at school that she liked? Was that it? If Ukyo started dating someone, they probably wouldn't like him living with her and he might have to leave…! Ryoga found that his hands had fisted out of their own volition and that he had to force himself to relax; what had gotten into him?

She twisted her fingers in her hands, shrugging. "I don't know…"

"But school's nearly over, anyway, you said so yourself." Ryoga interjected.

Ukyo nodded slowly; popularity wasn't the point. That had just been a lame excuse. "I guess."

"I don't get why you feel the need to compare yourself to Akane." Ryoga frowned.

Ukyo scoffed. "Yeah, I'm no competition, right?"

Ryoga rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Jeez! And this coming from the person who's always telling me not to put myself down? You're just as cute as Akane! Maybe even cu—"He sucked in a breath and bit his tongue to choke down the words that had almost escaped him. Maybe you're even cuter. Or maybe cute isn't even good enough of a description. Maybe you'd have to use stronger adjectives like—

He didn't want to say it because she didn't need to hear his opinion, anyway; he wasn't some popular guy at school! Because it would just be his opinion; to her mind, everybody else would still favour Akane. He couldn't stop himself from thinking it, though.

Ukyo fixed round, disbelieving eyes on him. Did he honestly think she was cute? "You're just saying that, right?"

Ryoga shook his head profusely as he pursed his lips, trying to keep his mouth shut.

"Well…" Ukyo said reluctantly. "I guess I have been getting a few looks lately…and there was this one guy in my class who asked me out last week…his name is Takeshi, I don't think you know him… "

"What did you tell him?" Ryoga blurted, his cheeks feeling as if they were on fire. The awful, sinking feeling in his heart made him oddly glad that he hadn't told her just what he thought of her appearance.

Ukyo drew a breath, looking at him as if she hadn't expected him to even ask. "Uh…I…well…I guess I said no."

And then in a split second, his heart was soaring into his throat. She said no! Ryoga swallowed; why did he feel as if he'd just finished walking a path of burning hot coals on his bare feet and somebody had handed him a gazillion yen and a flask of Nannichuan for his troubles? "Oh?" He asked, feigning nonchalance. "Why?"

Ukyo blinked; why had she said no? He was a very nice boy, not like some of those jerks from back home who only thought about the latest Hanshin Tigers game and how to get into a girl's underpants, so why? "Well…I guess this guy is nice and all, but he's just not…he's not…" What isn't he? Where was I even going with that sentence? "Uh…look, I just don't really like him like that, okay?" Feeling as if this wasn't enough, she added: "Besides, I don't have time for that stuff, right?"

Ryoga nodded enthusiastically. "Right!"

Truth be told, she'd been slightly zoned out the entire time Takeshi had been talking, for some reason staring fixedly at his teeth and trying very hard to figure out why they weren't pointier…and why his voice wasn't deeper and why he wasn't blushing a whole lot more. Then she'd remembered that she was almost out of pickled ginger at the restaurant and had to order more in time for the weekend rush, so she'd excused herself saying she was too busy but she was sure he was very nice and would make some girl very happy and why didn't he stop by the restaurant some time with his friends, but now she really had to go because she had simply so many things to do, you know how it is—

And she'd left. And she'd gone home, and she'd ordered the ginger and she'd done her homework and she'd sat down to dinner with Ryoga and had ended up never telling him about being asked out on a date at all because she'd completely forgotten about Takeshi— as if being asked out was something boring that happened to her on a regular basis or something— because she'd been too busy eating and talking and laughing and just generally feeling quite contented.

Ranma came to visit the day after Akane, which was a Saturday. It was during the slightly quieter time of the day in the restaurant, when the flow of customers would abate, when he and Ukyo would usually chat together as they straightened up the place a little, and Ryoga found himself getting a little edgy as Ranma sat down in front of the grill, as if he'd imposed on their private time.

"Hi, Ukyo," Ranma greeted her, and he seemed so cautious, nothing like his chipper ol' self; by that, Ryoga was reasserted that Ukyo would get hurt one day.

As Ranma greeted him, it was obvious that he was a little taken aback by the lost boy's presence in Ukyo's restaurant. "Uh, hey, Ryoga…" His eyebrows skyrocketed as he took in the okonomiyaki uniform that Ukyo had let him borrow; ever since she'd started the restaurant, she'd had two extra sets of uniforms— one for males and one for females— just in case she wanted to hire an assistant. His gaze travelled inquisitively to Ukyo's. "He working here now?"

Ukyo shrugged. "Looks like." Apparently Akane hadn't informed him of that little detail, for some reason. She'd have to ask her about that at school on Monday.

A careful grin tugged at Ranma's mouth, and he looked quite amused for a moment, but then he suddenly looked as if he'd just remembered some bad news he'd gotten word of, his grin fading. "Um…Ukyo…are you still angry?"

Ukyo exhaled slowly. "A little."

"I'm sorry." Ranma mumbled.

Ukyo put down the glass she'd been drying with a dish towel and looked at him. "Haven't seen you in a while. Outside of class, I mean."

"Yeah, um…" Ranma cleared his throat, looking down. "I thought I'd give you some time to…uh…"

"Calm down?" Ukyo said bluntly, smirking just slightly.

Ranma's eyes widened. "Well, um…"

"I'm sorry, too, I know I was a little…upset." Ukyo looked down at her hands, troubled; Ryoga found himself wanting to reach out and...and touch her, somehow, her hand, her arm, her back, anywhere that might make her feel better. He didn't do it; he imagined she would only think he was being weird. Even so, he just couldn't stand to see her look sad, even a little. "You want some tea?" Ukyo asked then, finally lifting her gaze.

Ranma nodded, glad of the distraction. "Please."

As Ukyo got up to get him tea, Ryoga stepped in front of her and stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. Ukyo stared at him in surprise and he dropped his hand, looking a little startled. "Uh, I…I can get the tea." He offered quickly and went to do it before she could object. He just couldn't have her waiting on Ranma like that, not after all the freebies he'd gotten over the years and not after the fight they'd had.

As he went to give Ranma his tea, he saw the other boy biting his lip and looking even more uncomfortable. "Thanks, Ryoga." Ranma mumbled, giving him a curt nod.

Ranma had noticed that Ukyo hadn't started to prepare an okonomiyaki for him as usual and by this he gathered that she didn't want him to stay that long. He knew he was wrong to have mooched so much okonomiyaki from her in his time, but to be fair she'd always more or less thrown it at him— sometimes quite literally— and it had always seemed to make her happy in the past when he'd accepted her cooking, probably because she knew she could provide something for him that Akane couldn't, he suspected.

He had to admit that the almost otherworldly inability to cook was one of Akane's many faults, but who was he to talk? He had a crippling fear of cats, he was the worst card player in the world, he had all the tact and sensitivity of…well, his father (though he personally felt he'd been getting better after getting to know Akane), he was a magnet to every insane martial artist out there (not to mention just mayhem and chaos in general), he ate like a horse, he was absolutely lousy at relationships of any kind, he always let his ego get the better of him and of course…he turned into a girl whenever it started raining or whenever someone saw fit to throw a bucket of water at him.

If Akane could accept his plethora of flaws, he had no problem accepting hers. Sure, she was violent, temperamental, clumsy and couldn't swim, cook or sow, but then again, she was also strong, brave, kind, loyal, honest, generous, considerate, did much better than him in school and of course…she was beautiful. She'd gotten better at cooking lately; she'd managed to make a good curry, after all, and besides, he himself could cook to a certain degree, and he supposed that there was no rule anywhere that said the woman had to cook.

There was just something about her that made virtually everybody like her…maybe because people could sense that Tendo Akane had no agenda, no angle; she was simply a nice person who'd talk to people for no other reason than because she wanted to talk to them. Also, there was the fact that though she might be tomboyish, Tendo Akane was a cute girl. In fact, if he didn't get his rear in gear soon, there was always the risk involved that somebody might snatch her up before he did.

Akane was an independent woman, and at some point she'd get tired of waiting for him.

But there were so many complications, and this was one of them. He glanced sadly at Ukyo, wondering how he'd ever manage to end the engagement without hurting her. How was it that he always managed to get himself into these kinds of situations? Granted, this particular problem had been his father's fault, but as for Shampoo and Kodachi and not to forget his rivals Mousse, Hibiki Ryoga and Kuno Tatewaki…those problems were all his own.

However, with the latest development…maybe Ryoga would forget about Akane? Glancing at Ryoga where he was tidying up behind the grill, his back to him, Ranma cleared his throat to get his attention. "So…um, how come you're working here now, Ryoga?"

To his surprise, he saw Ryoga's back tense up, the boy almost losing his grip on the bottle of yakisoba sauce he was holding. "None of your business, Ranma," He muttered in a strained voice, refusing to turn around, and as Ranma looked to Ukyo for some sort of explanation, Ranma saw that her eyes were a little bigger; she obviously hadn't expected this, either.

Ranma cleared his throat again, this time out of nervousness. "You're right, it's not." He was dying to know, but Ryoga had a point, and he knew that now was not the time to act intrusive, especially what with having hurt Ukyo's feelings and all. He downed the rest of the tea and got up, giving Ukyo a short bow. "Well, I better get back home. Thanks for the tea, Ukyo," He tried smiling a little at her, and felt uplifted when she returned it with a tentative smile of her own. "It was nice seeing you again. You, too, bacon butt!" He added quickly before turning on his heel and running out of the restaurant.

"RANMA!" Ryoga growled and leapt across the grill to follow his long-time rival, when he suddenly heard Ukyo laughing.

"What?" He skidded to a halt and looked at her curiously.

"Just…I gotta wonder when you two are ever gonna stop…you know?" Ukyo chuckled a little, wiping a hand across her eyes.

"Probably never, if it's up to him," Ryoga mumbled and shook his head as he walked slowly back to the grill.

"You know what? I just noticed that Ranma's stopped calling me Ucchan." Ukyo said off-handedly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he's just calling me Ukyo now…" She shrugged, looking somewhat wistful. "I guess it could be interpreted as a sign of respect…right?" She herself had tried cutting down on her use of the nickname "Ran-chan" in hope that he would take her more seriously. Had he noticed it?

Ryoga shrugged, too. "If only I were that lucky."

Ukyo laughed, "Yeah, it's better than 'bacon butt', at any rate!"

Ryoga cringed. "As long as you don't start calling me that too, I have no complaints." He muttered, walking around the grill to continue tidying up a little. He was awfully quiet all of sudden as he stood idly wiping the counter even though it was already basically clean.

Ukyo regarded him curiously, taking in his suddenly sullen demeanour. "What's wrong?"

Ryoga looked up, slightly befuddled. "Nothing, I…I'm just…I'm kind of wondering about that too, you know?"

"About what?"

"Why am I working here?"

Ukyo wavered. "You…you don't like it?"

"What?" This seemed to take him by surprise. "No, I do, it's just…why? I mean, I realize that what with…my curse and my bad sense of direction, I'm not exactly the most dependable employee, so…why?"

A week ago, or maybe two, this question would have been so easy to answer, but now, for some reason, she didn't quite know what to say. "Well…uh…I think you're a great help, really. With you around, I feel like I finally have some free time once in a while, and I don't feel like road kill by the end of the day, but…um…I just…I like having you here, I guess. It's just nice not to be alone for once…you know? I just really like…"

…you. She almost said.

"I like having you around, I like spending time with you, it's…nice." By the end of her somewhat incoherent speech, Ukyo realized she was fidgeting and that Ryoga's stare felt like a spotlight on her. She looked down at her feet instead, which relieved some of the pressure on her, and as she kept talking, for a minute or two she slipped into a sort of reverie, just seemed to forget he was there.

"It's like…before, on Saturday nights, when I'd lock up the shop after everybody had gone home, I'd feel happy for just a brief moment, you know? Happy that the working day was done and that I could finally relax…but then I'd go up to my apartment and it would be empty and quiet and I didn't quite know what to do with myself.

I mean, I could have dinner and then read a little or watch some TV and probably I'd have some school assignment to finish up— there's always something to do, that's not the point! I just felt really restless, you know, after watching all those groups of friends and couples going out for dinner on a Saturday night and I sat there, alone, just wondering about where they were right then, if they'd gone out to a movie, maybe, or maybe dancing or to karaoke or even just back home to have a chat and a few drinks, something like that, and I just thought…why am I sitting here alone on a Saturday night with nothing better to do than homework?"

Ukyo shuffled her feet a little and shrugged. "Now, though, it doesn't even matter if I stay home because I'm not alone. Last Saturday I was locking up the store and I looked up and there you were and you smiled at me and I just knew it'd be a nice evening. It didn't matter if we didn't really do anything special, because we were tired anyway, and you're good company and you're nice because you treat me with respect and you talk to me as if I'm an interesting person, so…you just make me feel good about myself, that's all. And at night it's as if I feel almost…safer because you're here…I dunno, I just sleep better."

She frowned a little, finally looking up. "I don't care if you have a Jusenkyo curse and no sense of direction; you're a good employee. I've hardly seen you look depressed since you started working here and that makes me happy." She smiled a little. "I've even discovered that you have a sense of humour!" Ukyo laughed softly. "Surprised me, anyway!"

Ryoga swallowed, shaken to the core by all the things she'd just revealed to him. "I…I don't know what to say."

"Huh?" Ukyo halted. Had she been talking for so long that something inappropriate had slipped in unnoticed among all of her babble?

"I…I didn't even know that you…uh, I know we're friends, but I didn't think you thought about me…I mean, I didn't think I meant much at all…" He raised a trembling hand to brush his bangs out of his eyes. "Nobody's ever taken such an interest in me before." He looked at her shyly. "Nobody's ever accepted me like this before…"

Ukyo blinked, and then felt her face heat up. "I-I…I don't, uh, I mean, I do, but it's…um…" Before she knew it, he'd walked up to her, reaching out for her and looking for all the world like he was just about to wrap her up in a hug. Freezing up on the spot, she could do nothing but stare at him. What was he doing? She'd never expected him to— he was so shy and jumpy about physical contact, so why was he…?

"Ryoga…" The tone in her voice scared the living daylights out of her as his name escaped her lips. What the hell was that almost longing note supposed to—

The way she said his name seemed to have had the same effect on Ryoga, because he lowered his arms and bolted a good five feet away from her, staring back at her and blinking, disoriented. His mouth opened and shut a few times and it was clear he had no idea what to say.

"Ryoga?" This time she sounded hesitant.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what…why…um…" He shook his head in defence, looking horrified.

"Welcome to Ucchan's!" Ukyo exclaimed suddenly, and Ryoga spun around to see a group of university students filing in through the front door. As Ukyo showed the customers to their seats and took their orders, something that was usually his job, Ryoga realized that she'd been just as frightened by the strange moment as he, and he was glad that it had passed.

After the last few customers had left and they had finished cleaning up the restaurant, Ryoga went outside to sweep the street in front of Ucchan's. As he pushed the broom back and forth and around, listening to the soft scratching noises the bristles made, he became preoccupied with thoughts of how he'd almost hugged Ukyo.

Why did he do that? Sure, she'd said some nice things to him…okay, amazing things, but that didn't give him a reason to— he should've just said thanks or something, right? Or if he ever did hug her, he should wait for her to take the initiative…right?

He suddenly noticed that a shadow had fallen across the small heap of dust, weeds and trash he'd accumulated; upon looking up, he noticed Ranma standing there.

"What're you doing back here again?"

"Kinda wanted to talk to you, that's all." Ranma said easily, cocking his head to one side.

Ryoga regarded him warily. "I haven't learned any new techniques lately, you know."

"Oh-kaaay…" Ranma blinked. "I haven't either. What's your point?"

Setting his broom aside, Ryoga straightened and looked at the other boy through slightly narrowed eyes. "My point is…what do you want?"

"I told you," Ranma raised his eyebrows. "I wanna talk."

Ryoga sighed in irritation. "About what?"

Ranma cleared his throat. "Well, for one, you haven't been around to see Akane lately."

Despite himself, Ryoga grinned a bit. "And you're complaining?"

Ranma reddened a little, but shook his head. "Nah, just wanna know why, I guess. I mean, you're here, you're in Nerima, and you've been hanging around for an unusually long while, so it seems weird that you haven't visited yet."

Ryoga let out a long-suffering breath and went to gather up the little pile and throw it in the trash. When he was done, Ranma was still standing there, waiting for his answer. Damn, but that boy just wouldn't let something go, would he? Okay, then…maybe it was time to settle this once and for all.

"You wanna know if you've lost a rival, is that it?" Ryoga asked dryly, looking him in the eye.

"Uh…I…" Ranma frowned at him, looking a bit worried now.

"Akane…" Ryoga looked down, swallowed and started over. "Akane only wants to be friends." He looked up sharply, meeting Ranma's gaze. "You were there, you heard it. She doesn't like me like that, and some stupid plan isn't gonna change that."

Of course Ranma remembered it, how could he not? When Akane's voice had echoed around the crater created by Ryoga's Shi Shi Hokodan, telling Ryoga that she actually liked him, it had felt as if his heart was being compressed; he'd felt a punch in his chest far more powerful than that of being hit by the wave of heavy ki before. He'd been on his knees, almost beaten, and he'd been so close to just giving up, just letting himself be beaten until there had come that blessed clarification— "Let's be friends forever, Ryoga!"

"Ryoga…" Ranma was still looking wretched and that only made it feel worse; Ryoga didn't need his pity. He knew he was probably saying too much and that he was going to regret it, but the words just kept on pushing at the back of his throat, demanding to be let out.

Ryoga chuckled self-deprecatingly. "You know what the worst thing about admitting this is? It's not because I'm so sad and depressed because she's not in love with me, because I know that she cares about me and that she's my friend and all, but— and I've asked myself this a lot over the years— I don't really know her, do I? I mean, I'm always gone for so long at a time and I only ever bump into her by chance and talk to her for about five minutes or so before something crazy happens or I get lost again, so how can I be in love with someone I hardly ever see?" He asked rhetorically, staring not at Ranma but at the skyline over the roofs of the farthest houses that were visible.

"Was I ever even really in love with her to begin with? I have no idea!" Ryoga clenched his fists. "Most of the time I had to wonder if I was only using her as a reason to keep going, as some sort of goal, and because she was the only one who was ever nice to me, I guess I could always look forward to seeing her again each time I passed through here, but as for love…" Ryoga paused and shook his head, trying to think this through. He hadn't exactly been prepared to make this speech tonight. He'd played with the thought of attempting to explain it all to Ukyo to get it off his chest, but he hadn't seemed to be able to find the words with which to explain it, and besides, she hadn't asked. Ranma, he realized now, was the one who actually needed to hear this, anyway, not Ukyo.

Akane had always been his motivation on the many lonesome journeys, but that was just the trouble. As often as he was away from her, the memory of her was always slightly foggy, and his lonely, tired mind would piece together what he could remember, and thus Akane's image was glorified on his retina, her gentle smile restraining his impulses to give up. She became more of a notion than a real person, more of a concept of beauty and innocence. And of course, the thought of stealing her from Ranma, that unworthy, rude slob, had also kept him going. The one thing he'd also liked about Akane was the fact that at times she had seemed to dislike Ranma almost as strongly as he did.

Just goes to show how wrong you can be...

Each time he saw her, Ryoga told himself she was just like he'd pictured; of course she never really was, but he really only ever saw her in brief glimpses at a time, and only had short conversations with her, because they were always interrupted by his own shyness or by Ranma, who never seemed to be far from Akane, so all this time her goddess-like image in his mind was kept up, because he never really got to know her as an ordinary person; always like some beautiful thing that was slightly out of reach. Time after time, Ryoga was met with Akane's sweet smile and the eyes which told him that she was completely oblivious to his cry for affection.

Then suddenly he'd realized that he'd fallen prey to one of the biggest clichés of all time; he'd been in love with the idea of being in love. To always have someone to think about with fondness and to strive for had been his driving force; were he faced with a difficult mountain to climb or a seemingly endless forest to trudge through, he'd say "I'm doing it for you, Akane" and it'd help take his mind off of the strenuous physical effort. Though he hadn't been truly in love with Akane, he was grateful to her; the imagined crush on her was probably one of the things that had kept him alive out there. He knew how self-destructive he could be if he didn't have confidence or hope to keep him upright. Akane was one of the few people he knew who had shown him kindness.

Ryoga shook his head. "I would always think, when faced with a challenge, that I was doing it for Akane, but what was the use? She'd never know about it, anyway, and she sure wouldn't lose any sleep over wondering where I was!" He sighed. "She's sweet to me and she's cute and a nice person, but she could be anyone…you know? I feel like I just clung on to this image of her as my "true love" because she was the first girl who showed me affection…the first girl to kiss me…but at those times she didn't even know it was me because of the curse!" Gritting his teeth, he glanced at Ranma, who was looking increasingly shocked and even a little panicked; he'd never been very good at handling people's feelings.

"I don't know her," He repeated in a quiet voice. "I don't even know what her favourite food or her favourite colour is or what her dreams for the future are or any of that stuff, and she probably knows even less about me! We could be completely incompatible for all I know, but I never thought about that because I was desperate for affection. Why else would I turn on a dime every time I saw another chance at love?" He scoffed, shaking his head at himself. "So, yeah…the worst thing about admitting this is that I feel like I've just lost another contest with you. A very long, stupid and hurtful contest, but a contest nonetheless… and not because she doesn't love me like that."

"Ryoga?" Ranma hazarded; this had been a lot for him to take in all at once, and it couldn't have been any easier for Ryoga, who'd been the one actually admitting it. "Are you okay?"

"Actually?" Ryoga chuckled a little. "You know what's kind of funny?"

"No…?" Ranma asked apprehensively.

"I don't think I've ever felt this okay." Ryoga smiled faintly.

Ranma stared at him; he'd given up on Akane, and still he felt okay? Then again, he'd just confessed that he wasn't in love with her; it was just that Saotome Ranma couldn't imagine someone being able to just stop being in love with Tendo Akane— unless…they'd never been in love to begin with…

"Ryoga?"

The sudden voice coming from the restaurant door made both boys turn their heads. "Yes?" Ryoga replied as Ukyo regarded the two of them in bewilderment. "Ranma? What's going on? Is something wrong?"

Ranma shook his head vehemently, putting both hands up in a placating manner. "No, no, nothing's wrong, I just came to talk to Ryoga for a while."

Shooting Ranma a searching look, Ukyo then turned to Ryoga. "I'm starting dinner now, Sugar. Are you boys done talking or should I wait a while?"

Ranma's eyes widened; he not only worked here, but ate dinner here as well? "Uh…" He glanced at Ryoga curiously. The other boy just shrugged. "I think we were about done, right, Ranma?"

Ranma nodded slowly. "Right…"

"Okay. See you at school, Ranma," Ukyo smiled at him and disappeared back into the restaurant.

"See ya!" Ranma called after her.

As Ryoga gathered up the broom and dustpan, Ranma took the chance to grab his sleeve. "Hey, Ryoga?"

"What?" Ryoga replied, sounding less annoyed than earlier.

"What's Ukyo's favourite food?"

"Homemade pumpkin curry," Ryoga answered automatically before he could think twice about it. "Hey, why do you wanna know?" He added suspiciously.

"Huh." Ranma looked mystified; she'd never told him that. "I always just figured it was okonomiyaki."

Ryoga nodded; he'd thought so too before Ukyo had told him pumpkin curry was her favourite. At his baffled look, she'd replied that just because okonomiyaki was her favourite thing to cook, it wasn't necessarily her favourite thing to eat. "She probably gets enough of that at work, anyway, right?" Ryoga wrinkled his nose a little.

"Right." Ranma grinned knowingly; old Pork Buns had just unintentionally told him what he'd come here to figure out in the first place. He knew what was going on now! "Well, your dinner awaits!"

"Goodbye." Ryoga sent Ranma's suddenly too wide and too self-content grin a strange look before going back inside and closing the door behind him.

"What in the world was that all about?" He muttered to himself as he padded through the restaurant.

Ukyo appeared at the top of the stairs, grinning down at him. "Greetings! I have come to guide you on your perilous journey up the stairs and into the kitchen!"

Ryoga groaned at the lame joke. "Very funny!"

Ukyo shrugged and put on a theatrical expression of mock-modesty. "I try, Hibiki…I try."

Ryoga had to stop and just look at her up there for a moment, a small smile appearing on his face.

"So, what's with the cat-that-ate-the-canary expression?"

Ukyo looked pleased at that, and gave him that smile that always made her look like she knew a really good secret. "Well, you just won't believe how much cash we raked in today! I think it was that group of business men that came in during the last hour that did it!"

Ryoga laughed as he climbed the stairs. "Are you channelling Nabiki, or what?"

"Shut up!" Ukyo pouted, swatting him on the shoulder as they walked down the hallway to the kitchen.

Saotome Ranma, jogging home alone, simply couldn't stop grinning to himself.

"I'm getting worried about ruining your reputation," Ryoga told her unexpectedly as he was returning from the kitchen, carrying drinks for them.

"What?" Ukyo threw over her shoulder, busy looking at the news. Dinner was done with, the dishes had been cleared away and they'd moved to the couch in her room to watch the evening news as per usual, and when he went to get them some ice tea, the thought had occurred to him as he'd absentmindedly watched the liquid pour into the glasses.

Ryoga came into the living room, ice cubes rattling with each step. "Your reputation," he repeated, hesitating a bit now as she turned away from the TV, giving him her full attention. "I mean…won't it be ruined by me living here? You know, the whole 'two unmarried people living together' thing? People might misunderstand…" He frowned a little as he handed her the glass, remembering about her tale of the boy who'd asked her out. Would other boys refrain from doing so if they knew about him living there?

Ukyo was simply staring at him now, which prompted him to further explain himself. "I…uh…I know that some of the Furinkan students come here, so…do they ever bother you with questions and stuff? About me?" Now both Ranma and Akane knew, and he couldn't keep from wondering what she thought about that, or if she thought anything about it at all.

Ukyo laughed. "You're such a gentleman to worry about that, Ryoga!" Ryoga made an exaggerated bow, like a cartoon stage actor, and she giggled even more, but when he straightened again, he was still looking quite troubled. Ukyo blinked; he really was serious about this, wasn't he? "Nabiki's probably spread the gossip all over Nerima by now, but I wouldn't worry about it, that sort of thing dies down." She tried reassuring him.

Ryoga was about to choke on his ice tea. Were people gossiping about them? What would Akane and Ranma think? And how could he best restore Ukyo's honour? But then he noticed the look on her face.

"People have been talking behind my back for most of my life, and it doesn't bother me." She insisted. "It's just gossip."

Ryoga stared at her. That expression; it was as if she was remembering something, and was greatly affected by the memory of it, but doing her best to actually force the emotions from her face...

"Why?" It was all Ryoga could think of to say under the circumstances.

Ukyo shrugged, her expression grim. "I was different, I guess. A girl dressing as a boy and all that. When people found out about it, they generally avoided me. And there was the fact that Ranma and Genma had run off and left me behind, and that somehow that made me...I dunno, lower than them. They said I'd never find a husband. It's kinda bizarre, really. I mean, six year old girls gossiping about an engagement like a bunch of old biddies? Things like that shouldn't be important when you're six..." Ukyo said in a hollow voice, devoid of anger.

"No, they shouldn't..." Said Ryoga, absorbing her gloomy mood like a sponge as his own childhood memories came back to haunt him. He sat down heavily on the couch next to her.

"And then it just continued into high school." She added darkly. "I was always good for a laugh, it seemed."

"Why did you dress up as boy, Ukyo?" He asked gently, not looking to upset her any further.

She shot him a brief, somewhat shy glance before she looked away, fixing her gaze on the wall. "I don't know. I guess I didn't want to be a girl anymore after being abandoned by a boy and his father like that." Again she shrugged. "It made sense at the time, and I guess the habit just stuck by me until I could have my revenge. Also…it was kind of a relief, really, not having to be picked up by boys all the time like the other girls. Except for Tsubasa, I didn't have any unwanted suitors. I just didn't want that kind of attention. I couldn't handle it, even from the nice boys. And each time I heard some of the boys at the school I went to having their locker room talks about girls, I lost even more faith in boys."

Ryoga sat his glass down and looked worriedly at her. Did she still think all men were creeps? Was that why she'd turned Takeshi down? "Look, Ukyo, I've seen and heard things on my journeys and talked to men who have made me shocked and disgusted, men with no sensitivity, no honour, no respect, but there are many people who aren't like that, and I—"

Ukyo smiled wearily. "I know, Sugar. The boys at school weren't all jerks, and the ones who were— well, I know that most of the boys were very young and probably didn't know what they were talking about or didn't quite mean it…they were probably just trying to seem all tough and cool. And as it turned out, Ranma wasn't half the bastard I'd pictured; he's actually a pretty nice guy. He's very sweet, really, and courageous, and I know he cares for me, he just has a knack for getting into trouble and for putting his foot in his mouth."

Although hearing Ukyo praising Ranma like that was about as fun and comfortable as somebody sticking a q-tip much too far into his ear— and made him wince just as much— Ryoga had to admit that she might have a point or two. He nodded reluctantly. "I guess Ranma is more innocent than people think, but he does often do stupid things without thinking about the consequences. He needs to work on his people skills, that's for sure, especially when it comes to girls."

"Oh-ho!" Ukyo laughed, highly amused. "He's not the only one who has trouble talking to girls!" Ukyo smirked teasingly and ruffled his hair. She liked doing that; there was just so much of it to ruffle.

Ryoga made an attempt at smoothing his hair down again and glared at her. "Yeah, well...at least I don't go insulting girls left and right like he does!"

She chuckled, "Don't worry, Ryoga, you're a nice guy. In fact, you're one of the guys who've made me regain my faith in the other gender. You showed me that there really are some nice boys out there."

Ryoga stared at her in awe. "R-really?"

Ukyo nodded. "Uh-huh. You, Ranma…and Mousse too, now that I come to think of it." She said, looking a bit puzzled at herself. "The way he's devoted to Shampoo, it just kills me. He's so sweet to her, he loves her so much, and he'd sacrifice anything to have her love him back. It's just so tragic, you know, like one of those sappy, epic stories on TV about unrequited love. I didn't think they actually made guys like that in real life! He should try living for himself once in a while, and maybe then he'd like his life better." She shook her head, smirking briefly before turning serious again, her brows knitting together as if she was about to admit to something she didn't like admitting to.

"I feel kind of sorry for her, too, though." Ukyo confessed, glancing at him. "…Shampoo, I mean….even though she's not exactly my favourite person in the world, and I know she doesn't love him that way, I can tell she feels worse about constantly turning him down than she lets on." She added.

At the mention of the two other boys, Ryoga was surprised to find that he was feeling kind of disappointed, as if he'd had to share a first prize or something, but he quickly rallied. "Yeah," He agreed, nodding absently. "All he ever talks about is her." He felt sorry for Mousse, too, now that Ukyo was describing the male Amazon's situation, but he hadn't ever really given it much thought before. Despite some of the adventures they'd had together, he didn't actually know Mousse very well, and besides, during the almost going on two years he'd been mixed up with the Nerima Wrecking Crew, he'd been too busy feeling sorry for himself for various reasons to feel sorry for someone he hardly knew.

"Anyway, Ryoga," Ukyo went on casually, "Like I said, there's nothing to fear about my reputation. I'm not bothered by gossip. Besides, who'd ever really think that we were a couple, anyway, unless Nabiki was running around flashing them manipulated photos of us or something?"

To his own shock, this comment stung Ryoga quite harshly. "…who'd ever really think…?" She didn't have to put it like that, did she? What did she mean, that he wasn't worthy? That no one, least of all she, would ever want to be his girlfriend? "Is it really all that ridiculous?" He asked, his voice made hard to cover up the underlying sadness.

Ukyo gave him a bewildered look. "What?"

"You and me being a couple? Why would no one believe it?" He muttered, knowing that he probably shouldn't be pursuing the subject, but overwhelmed by his own insecurities; he had to know her opinion of him.

Ukyo suddenly felt they were moving out of their depths. "Uh…oh, sorry, Ryoga, I didn't mean it like that, like you're not…that it's…um, it's just…I don't think anyone's considered it before. Do you? I mean, no one looks at us and thinks, um, and thinks like…" She paused, then but on a stupid, deep voice with faux bravado, obviously pretending to be one of the boys at school.

"Oh, wow, that Ryoga and Ukyo, now there's, uh, now there's a romance just waiting to happen…um, you know?" She finished lamely. Of course someone at school gossiping about them hooking up would use much cruder terms than "romance", but she didn't want to make this even more awkward by mentioning anything having to do with sex. She didn't quite like the direction in which the conversation was moving, and she didn't like the fact that Ryoga thought that she was insulting him like that. How could he think that? Didn't he trust her?

"I meant no offence, Ryoga."

Normally, she would have patted him on the back or something to reassure him, but now she felt as if this would somehow be inappropriate. She'd been having weird thoughts about him ever since he'd moved in with her, or maybe even before that, and weird reactions to things he said or that other people said to her about him, and she suddenly really, really did not want to discuss this kind of thing with him or anyone.

She caught her mind drifting towards things associated with exactly that— couples— and was horrified to find that it really wasn't all that difficult to see herself with him, not only shopping, cooking, cleaning, eating, watching TV together and talking— they did all those things anyway, all of those so-called couply things, so that didn't bother her— but that her mind could also quite readily conjure up fleeting images of them holding hands, hugging, kissing and touching each other in, in…uh, places! And that was badbadbad…! It shouldn't be so easy to picture that!

"Okay, Ukyo. I'm sorry, I guess I just misunderstood." Ryoga said reluctantly, wondering why he'd felt so hurt by the comment. Why should he care if people thought they were a couple or not? Why should he care if Ukyo dated a boy at school or not? Why should he care if she secretly laughed at the idea of them getting together? His train of thought only got as far as a pathetic—

Because…!

—for an answer before it derailed, and then he couldn't think straight at all, only sense some strange, confused feelings of frustration and inadequacy, perhaps in part because he had no words with which to describe what he was feeling, even to himself.

All he knew was that his eyes were fixed upon her lips now and that they were almost overpowered by his brain to travel down her throat, across her collar bone and to the swell of her bre— he managed to steer his own eyes back to her eyes somehow, and silently thanked his ancestors or whoever it was who had granted him this small mercy. Why had he even been as dumb as to start this conversation in the first place? Why had he felt the need to?

"As for me," Ukyo continued, and he noticed that she was now, for some reason he couldn't quite fathom, looking quite flustered. "My life is complicated enough even without considering what people are gossiping about me!"

Ryoga nodded solemnly. "You've got a point there…" Oh, gods, did she ever have a point! He'd always thought, or rather hoped, that life would get less difficult as he grew older, but it seemed that it was in fact the complete opposite of this that was the case.

Wanting to hug Ukyo was only the beginning of his troubles.

In the silence that followed, Ukyo felt the need to turn up the volume of the background chatter of the TV news and reached for the remote; it only helped very marginally in breaking the awkward atmosphere in room. She was looking straight at the screen, she realized after a few minutes, yet she had no idea what was going on; she seemed to be looking right through the figures on the screen, they seemed blurry even, and the things they were saying simply went in one ear and out the other.

Hazarding a hasty glance over at Ryoga, she saw that he was leaning forward, but that he, too, didn't seem to be paying any attention to what was happening onscreen. He had this troubled, intense stare that seemed to be directed somewhere a few inches above the screen; he was simply gazing into thin air.

For a moment, she considered just turning the TV off since neither of them were actually following the program anyway, but if she did that, it might mean they'd have to go to bed, and why was the prospect of that suddenly making her very, very disturbed?

They ended up staring silently at the TV for another hour, neither saying a word.

The midnight movie came on. It was some weird, low-budget eighties thing with people in rubber octopus suits portraying aliens whose main point of existence appeared to be trying to kill people by flailing their spongy, grey arms very ineffectively about and trying to keep the audience from catching a glimpse of the zippers in the backs of their costumes. It had been advertised as a horror film, which proved to be very false advertising indeed. This was comedy gold. As the opening credits had rolled, they'd automatically exchanged a what-in-the-world-is-this kind of look and had started to chuckle and scoff disbelievingly; this had fortunately served to break most of the tension between them.

After their initial burst of laughter had died down, Ryoga had something on his mind. "Ukyo…?"

"Yeah?" Ukyo tore her gaze from the bizarre events onscreen, turning slightly to glance at him.

There was a pause before Ryoga spoke again, and when he did, his voice sounded a little off. "Who's Tsubasa?"

Ukyo couldn't help it, and laughed again. It was just so out of the blue! Surely that wasn't what he'd been sitting there thinking about? "That's a long story, Hibiki!"

"We've got time." Ryoga suggested, prompting her carefully. "Tomorrow's Sunday."

Ukyo regarded his slightly ducked head and dancing eyes. Why, if she didn't know any better, she'd think he was jealous or something! "Okay," she agreed, and they settled in for a night of Attack of The Octopus People and the tale of Kurenai Tsubasa.

About twenty minutes later, they got up to make popcorn.

Author's note: Phew! This has definitely been the chapter for all the big speeches! Stay tuned for chapter five! Ryoga and Ukyo go to Osaka!

And before you ask…no, Tsubasa isn't going to appear in the next chapter, or any of them. Not because I don't like him, but because he gave up on Ukyo a long time ago and has no function in this story. He was basically a one-shot character in the manga, it seemed. I never saw him before or after his introduction story.

Attack of The Octopus People is a parody of the really bad late night B-movie we get to see a clip of in Gremlins 2: The New Batch. I don't know if it's an actual movie or not.

Nichijou Seikatsu: Everyday life.

Yakisoba: Fried noodles cooked with stuff like cabbage and a few other vegetables, a little meat and yakisoba sauce. You can also sprinkle some pickled ginger and dried fish flakes on top, if you like. This is a very common dish at okonomiyaki restaurants, and very delicious. Ukyo used giant, rubber yakisoba noodles in her big fight with Ranma when she first came to get her revenge.

Kata: Kata (literally: "form") is a word describing detailed patterns of movements practiced either solo or in pairs. Kata are used in many traditional Japanese arts such as theatre forms like kabuki and schools of tea ceremony (chado), but are most commonly known for the presence in the martial arts. (Source: Wikipedia)

Hanshin Tigers: One of the popular Nippon Professional Baseball teams based in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, which are in the Central League. The Hanshin Electric Railway owns the Tigers directly. Formerly known as the Osaka Tigers. (Source: Wikipedia).

Oni: Demon, devil, evil spirit.

Setsubun: "Dividing of the seasons". Spring Setsubun celebrates the beginning of spring. It has been celebrated in many ways, but perhaps the most common custom found throughout Japan is the traditional Mame Maki or the scattering/throwing of beans (mame) to chase away the evil oni. In some ritual forms, the Toshi Otoko literally "year man" but referring either to the "man of the house" or to men who are born in the animal sign of the coming year (dog for the year 2006) will throw mame within the house or at someone perhaps dressed as oni and repeat the saying Oni ha Soto; Fuku ha Uchi (Evil Out! Good Luck In!). After the ritual throwing of the beans, family members may then pick up the number of beans corresponding to their age; eating these brings assurance of good fortune in the coming year. These days, of course, it is not uncommon to see children dressed in oni masks, others madly throwing beans, and all gleefully shouting for evil to hit the road. (Source: Google).

PS: Homemade Japanese pumpkin curry really is very tasty!