Not sure what I was going to do with this one to begin with… I won't leave it unfinished, though. That's not in my nature. Here I go. A new chapter. Enjoy!

I returned to the site of the broken water pipe with more towels and another mop. The water had been shut off and the pipe was almost fixed, but the puddles seemed endless. As a matter of fact, I could barely turn around without finding a new puddle right behind me, even if I'd already cleaned up that spot.

"How're you holding up, Mori-chan?" Akane asked, taking the mop from me.

I placed my newly freed hand up on top of my head and sighed as I felt a thick bandage where my horns would've been. "I am fine… I suppose…" I said. "It hurts a little… not near as badly as my siblings said it does."

Akane nodded, beginning to mop up a puddle that appeared behind me. "Are you sure it doesn't hurt all that badly?" she asked.

I turned around to look for a puddle to clean up. "No, it does not hurt unless I touch it." I said. "Even then, it only stings a little."

Akane looked at me, still looking a bit concerned.

"Why? What is wrong?" I asked.

Ranma dashed through with towels on his feet to soak up the water and retrieved two dry towels from me. "Can you try to stop the waterfalls running from your eyes?!" He grumbled. "You're soaking the floor every time we dry it up!"

I touched my cheek and pulled my hand back to find it soaked.
Truth be told… my head was keeping a constant ache and it stung rather badly when I touched my head. But I felt I would be troubling them if I mentioned I was in such pain. Mon always did hate it when I came to him about my injuries… I was covering the pain really well, I thought, but those tears would not stop flowing. Even when I could get myself to laugh, they kept coming.

"F-Forgive me." I stuttered. "I did not realize I was causing trouble."

In a swift motion, Ranma squashed my face between both of his towel covered hands and began roughly rubbing the tears from my face and catching the new ones that formed behind the dried ones. All the twisting and shaking around made it difficult to do anything other than stand there and grunt while he tried to stop my tears.

"Ranma, that's too rough! Stop it!" Akane said. "You'll only make her cry more!"

"What else can we do? I stayed up all night to keep Happosai away from your room last night!" he retorted. "You and Kasumi were comforting her all night and she's still pouring tears, even if she's not sobbing! She lost her horns two days ago! She needs to stop crying, at least!"

He came to an abrupt stop as Akane slammed her mop down on his head, glaring at him. "You jerk! Just what is forcing her to stop crying going to do?" she snapped.

Ranma snapped back up, meeting her glare with one of his own. "It's not like I'm hitting her over the head with a mop!" he roared at her. "I'm just trying to dry her eyes!"

"That doesn't justify the fact that you are being rough with her!" Akane retorted.

I stepped back out of his line of grip so that he wouldn't grab me again. Slowly, I backed away from the growing argument and bumped into someone. Ryoga grunted quietly as I turned to face him.

"I-I apologize!" I said. "I was not aiming to bump into you, I promise!"

Ryoga stared at me like I was having some sort of unexplained fit of madness. "I know. You're backing away from them, right?" he asked.

He pointed at Ranma and Akane. I gave a nod, not pulling my attention from Ryoga.

"I don't blame you." He said. "I love Akane-san to death, but she can be very scary when she and Ranma go at it like this."

I raised my head in slight surprise and turned to look over at Ranma and Akane. They hadn't noticed what Ryoga'd said in the least. So… He doesn't want her to know he loves her? I thought to myself. What good does that do?

I turned to Ryoga, a question coming to mind. "Ryoga-san… I realize that I was speaking out of turn the other day, when I spoke of your feelings…" I said. "I also realize that you do not want your feelings known… But, I must ask, why? Wouldn't it be better to tell her how you feel so that she may return your feelings?"

Ryoga turned away from me to watch Ranma and Akane fight. A tiny smile touched his face and I couldn't be sure what he was thinking. "I guess you Uchuujin are just that simple and straight-forward on your planet, huh?" Ryoga asked. "You need only confess your feelings and they will be returned… We humans tend to wait a while, though."

I tilted my head to the side. "Doushite? Such good feelings were meant to be shared. Why hide them?" I asked.

He propped himself up on the mop, looking a bit dazed as he watched the fight… or, at least Akane's side of the fight.

"Different people have different reasons for hiding their good feelings." Ryoga said. "Pride… Poor timing… The one they love already has someone… I'm just scared, though…"

"What of?"

He was silent for a bit, watching as Akane threw Ranma to the floor, using him to rub up some of the puddles on the floor. "She's really cute and so many guys like her… some of them are better guys than me," Ryoga said. "So even if I tell her I like her, there's a chance that she's already decided she likes someone else… she just hasn't told them yet…"

I turned to watch the fight as Ranma got up and began mopping Akane's face and hair.

"All in all, everyone will probably share one reason to hide their feelings." Ryoga said. "It's to be sure of them. They'll ask themselves plenty of questions while they wait… Is this really the person I like?... Would we get along alright?... Do they accept me for who I am?... Would they still love me if I lost my best character trait?... Asking these questions helps humans pick the right person to be with. Love at first sight really only happens in fairytales, here on Earth…"

Waiting… Asking questions… I thought to myself. It makes sense, the way he puts it…

I remembered the day I met Mon, right then. I'd confessed my feelings for him right away, loving everything about him just from looking at him. I didn't feel any need to ask any questions about him, to myself or anyone. But Mon and I are Uchuujin! We are different from humans! I thought to myself. Yes, we are in love! There is no question!... So why did Mon disappear, then?

My heart skipped a beat. It was a very painful skip and my body felt a bit colder after that. My tears came to a stop, the pain was that bad.
I'd avoided the subject for all I was worth… but now, I was beginning to trail toward asking the questions Ryoga'd just mentioned… and it was causing an ache in my chest…

Ryoga takes over…

I cast my eyes over at Mori. Her gaze was lowering to the floor. Vaguely, I wondered if I'd said something wrong, but I couldn't bring myself to ask. Because, somehow… I already knew the answer.

She was thinking about her fiancée, who'd 'disappeared' the same day she found herself stranded on Earth. She was questioning her situation, at the very least. Perhaps Uchuujin weren't all that different from humans after all? Perhaps it was just that she was young and naïve and didn't really know her own feelings just yet? Whatever the case, she was beginning to change a bit, now. Possibly even grow.
That thought made me feel a bit strange. On one hand, it was good that she was changing. She was such a clumsy little alien and always said the wrong things, so, if she learned something here, that was one less wrong thing she would say. On the other hand… What would this do to her on the deeper level? Would she be hurt? Would she be angry? Would she start crying again? Not that it appeared that she'd ever stopped in the first place…

Suddenly, she jerked her head up, waking me from my little daze. She turned to me, putting her arm out in front of me in a protective manner. I didn't really realize what was going on until the mop and my feet were knocked out from under me from Akane throwing Ranma across the floor, accidentally hitting me in the process. I yelled out in shock, falling toward the floor…

Mori resumes…

I saw it before anyone else, even the ones involved. Akane threw Ranma over her shoulder and he was flying right toward Ryoga.
My painful reverie was gladly pushed aside as I realized that I was the only one seeing what was going to happen and I turned to warn Ryoga. In that instant, I forgot how to use my voice and only put up my arms to protect him from the blow coming toward him… except that Ranma was flying just a little too low for me to catch and headed for Ryoga's feet.
Ryoga never moved as Ranma bowled under his feet and panic struck me as he began to fall. I reached for him… and grabbed a fist full of his hair, narrowly keeping his face from colliding with the floor. For a moment, everything was still, recovering from the shock of everything that'd just happened. I panted a few of times, gathering myself to start thinking again. A slight shift of my finger reminded me of how I was holding onto Ryoga and I gasped, quickly pulled him up to stand and stepped back.

"Forgive me! I grabbed your hair again!" I said. "You told me so many times and I know better, but-"

"It's alright."

I fell silent, looking up at him. Ryoga rubbed his head calmly, quietly, not looking to be in any pain.

"Yanked hair is better than a face-plant on the floor." He said. "That was actually a great catch, too… Remind me to praise it properly once I'm through pummeling this idiot!"

Ryoga spun around and started an attack on Ranma. A red blur slipped out of Ryoga's line of attack. As it came to a stop by one of the classroom doors, I could see that it was a woman dressed exactly like Ranma, only she had red hair. "Hey! Akane threw me! Why're you comin' after me?!" she yelled.

"Shut up and take your punishment like a man, cross-dresser!" Ryoga snapped.

They tore off down the hall… quite literally. No one would be easily walking down that hall for quite some time. I turned to Akane, my eyes wide, and I pointed off in the direction they'd headed. "Ranma… turns into a woman?" I asked. "How?"

She sighed, kicking a broken mop aside as she folded her arms. "Well, about a year ago, in China…" Akane began, leading into a very long explanation…

Doushite – Why?

Uchuujin – Space person/people.

I have a feeling I'll be ending this thing soon. I just don't care for this one anymore… But, then, according to some of my readers of late, no one else likes it either, so… Reviews are still welcome…