Title: Ranma's… Husband? 33: The beginning of…
Rating: Teen-ish.
Disclaimer: Not mine; no way, no how.
Official Pairings: Akane/Mousse, Kiyoshi/Ranma, Ryu/Kasumi, Nabiki/Hitomi.
Author's notes:
Second last chapter. Eek.
I've only got about another three minutes that I can spend doing this so I won't write anything else here, aside from that I hope you enjoy it and please forgive me for not responding to your reviews, I really haven't been able to (and after I promised to do better too.)
Final Note:
Thank you for reading. Thank you again if you review. Thank you for putting up with me.
You are all fantastic.
000
(Nodoka's POV)
Ranko was acting so strange. So very strange…
The girl was usually so attentive, so considerate, but Ranko had been distracted ever since she'd returned.
There was obviously something wrong. She had rung ahead when she had known that she would be returning to the Tendou's and Kasumi had promised that someone would tell Ranko she was coming back, but the girl had already been in bed when she arrived.
It was even worse this morning. Ranko was sitting at the breakfast table staring blankly into space and paying no one any attention. She was, to be honest, sort of irritated by this. She had so wanted to talk to someone about what had happened, about why she had come back, and she was sure that Ranko would be a sympathetic ear.
She sometimes wondered how some people could exist in the world the way they were… and her recent experience trying to help her friend had only reinforced this opinion.
Tamiko was her friend, her neighbour, they lived only a few houses away from each other. The other woman could be kind, could be sweet, but there was always something slightly artificial about it. They'd met when Tamiko, her husband and her son had first moved to the area and Tamiko had needed someone to show her around.
Unfortunately she had offered to do just that.
The thing about Tamiko was, well, that she was so pathetic, so weak. She always had been, at that. Too prone to crying, to fluttering around, to nerves and doing anything to please anyone but being so darkly resentful; deep down. It was, honestly, a bit tiresome.
She had responded to her son's upset, his rage, his announcement of what had happened by becoming hysterical. That wasn't, of course, helpful. Everything had spiralled out of control, and eventually Tamiko had rung her asking for help and nursing a bruised cheek.
So she had gone to her friend's rescue and she had almost, almost gotten everything sorted out. Got that stupid boy to understand that he was right, that his feelings were wrong, and then the young man who had seduced him, led him astray, had shown up.
Tall, slender, darkly handsome, and with an heir of sinful wickedness. The first thing she had caught herself thinking was what a boy like that would want with Tamiko's plain, boring, stupid son? The second thing was that he didn't look like the sort of boy who would give up on something that he wanted.
Which he hadn't been.
Within minutes of his arrival he'd undone all her hard work and had Tamiko's stupid boy all but eating out of his hand. She hadn't been pleased. However her displeasure had nothing on Tamiko's reaction, on the pure, unadulterated hysteria that she'd unleashed.
It had all deteriorated into a screaming, shouting, wailing, crying mess… and then Uyeda, Tamiko's husband, had shown up, fresh off the aeroplane.
He'd walked into the whole mess, taken one look at the arrogant boy who had been snarling at her, and gone pale. About half an hour later she had been walking out of their front door, bags in hand, Tamiko whimpering apologies at her, and Tamiko's stupid, foolish son curled up in the arms of the favourite son of Uyeda's boss.
She was, she was certain, completely disgusted with them all.
Her husband, her Genma, would never throw the health and wellbeing of his family aside to preserve his job prospects. He wasn't like that. He had honour… the honour of a thief, but it was still honour.
She missed him, she really did. Most of the time she didn't let her mind dwell on it, but sometimes it became too much for her. The loneliness, the waiting, not knowing how he was…
Oh well, nothing she could do about it now.
She glanced back at Ranko, who was unresponsive, and sighed. This was also getting tiresome.
Neither of the Kurosawas had shown up yet and she couldn't help but wonder if, perhaps, that was the reason that Ranko was so despondent. If it was the reason then she couldn't help but think that it was incredibly sweet, if a little inconvenient for her, that Ranko was missing Kiyoshi.
Kasumi entered the room carrying the last of the breakfast food, which she carefully placed on the table before frowning and turning to Ranko, "Ranko… Um… Did Kiyoshi say if he'd be coming around today when you saw him last night?"
Something strange and broken flashed across Ranko's face before the girl shook her head and spoke out in a dead voice "No. He's not. He's not coming back. It's… over."
She could feel her jaw drop as a rush of horrible, wretched sympathy washed through her. "Oh Ranko…" she didn't want to pry, but she had to know "What happened?"
Ranko shook her head, a bitter twist to her mouth "Nothing… not really. It was all… all nothing. A lie." She was sure, in that moment, that Ranko was about to burst into tears, but somehow Ranko gathered herself and continued with steely composure "It doesn't matter anyway, its better this way. At least he'll have a chance… a chance to find someone that will make him happy."
Running on instinct she reached out and pulled Ranko to her, wrapping her arms around the girl. Ranko let her, didn't protest, but when she'd pulled her close Ranko didn't even react, just sat there like a stone, or a corpse.
It was sad, tragic even, and she felt her heart break for the girl. She still didn't understand what had happened, maybe he'd cheated on her? If he had then he would be in for a nasty surprise when she got her hands on him, but there was still time for her to find out.
She had to find out.
So she'd suggest that Ranko took the day off school (what could one day off every now and then hurt) and they'd spend the day together, she was certain that she could weasel the truth out of Ranko before long, and then do her best to fix it.
000
(Ukyou's POV)
She'd been thinking. Thinking about Ranchan, about what she wanted, about what she felt and she had reached a conclusion. That conclusion was…
She didn't know.
She just… her feelings towards Ranma were a tangle inside her head. A confused, muddled mess, and she couldn't quite work out where they beginned and where they ended. She wasn't sure, not anymore, that she'd ever really loved him in a romantic sense, but she knew that did love him as a friend.
That didn't stop the hurt though. That didn't stop the betrayal, or the anger that she'd felt when he and his father had disappeared from her life taking her father's okonomiyaki cart and her dignity and honour with them. She knew now that he hadn't realised what was happening, didn't even know she was a girl instead of a boy, but it still hurt. There'd been so many years of that hurt and that shame compared to the time she'd spent enlightened to the truth.
It had had such a big impact on her life. An impact that she needed to exorcise.
Not matter what else there was between him, his family owed her for that okonomiyaki cart so… she had an idea, a way to make things… if not right, then a little more… acceptable… and to give herself time to untangle the thoughts and feelings about Ranma.
So that was why she was here, at the Tendou Dojou, before school on a morning shrouded with an ominously dark sky, her hand raised to alert the inhabitants of the house to her presence. It was strange, there was something in the air… like electricity, like a storm on the horizon.
She looked up at the sky, it was an unpleasant shade of slatey, greeny, blue-grey, yes, there was a storm coming, it was inevitable, the weather had been so good recently.
Shaking off whatever strange mood had struck her, she knocked on the door and waited. Barely thirty seconds had passed before the door opened, exposing a frowning Kasumi.
She smiled stiffly and asked "Is Ran…chan there?"
Kasumi frowned harder and glanced back into the house with trepidation before nodding her head, "I'll bring… her… out, OK?"
"Alright…" she replied, wondering what was wrong.
Kasumi shrugged and stepped back into the house, shutting the door behind her, which left her staring pointlessly at the front door. As she waited patiently for Kasumi to return with Ranma it occurred to her that maybe she'd arrived at one of those times when chaos was erupting in Ranma's life… why did he put up with it? She hadn't really thought about it before, but it must make life difficult for him to always be surrounded by such chaos. It didn't take long for the door to open again, and she found herself staring at a Ranma she wasn't sure she recognised.
He looked tormented.
Her body reacted before her mind had finished processing, stepping back, away from him. There was something about this that she just didn't like, something about the look in his eyes…
He stepped out of the house and walked towards her, "What do you want Ukyou?" he asked in a dead voice.
She flinched, and then cringed, ashamed of her reaction. "I wanted to talk to you…"
He didn't say anything else, just stared at her with cold eyes. She wanted to ask how he was, ask what was wrong, but he didn't look like he wanted to talk to her and she needed to say what she needed to say.
She squeezed her eyes shut so she couldn't see him and get distracted, before taking a deep breath. "You don't love me, I don't know if I love you. We may or not make each other miserable, but all that doesn't matter," she risked a peak at his blank face before closing her eyes again and continuing, "Your family owes my family the price of one okonomiyaki cart and I will have the money. I propose that you work for me until the debt is payed off and then, and only then, I'll call the engagement off."
Taking a few seconds to gather her courage she opened her eyes to see his reaction. Even though that same sense of wrong, of hurt, was still there in his face he was actually looking at her, seeing her and when she met his eyes he nodded. "Alright."
"Alright," she parroted back to him before shaking her head to gather her thoughts, "I thought that you could work the dinner shift during the week, starting Monday, and do the lunch shift on the weekend so you can have dinner with your old man and the Tendous."
He nodded, "Sounds alright."
She nodded back, feeling foolish and obsolete, "I'll see you on Monday then?"
He nodded and turned to go back into the house. She watched him go wondering if it was alright that she hadn't even asked how he was.
000
(Ranma's POV)
He'd had a bad night, a bad morning, and it looked like he was going to have a bad day. He felt trapped inside his mind, looking out at the world from behind a glass window, stuck inside with his swirling thoughts. He'd realised something, something that was, on reflection, blindingly obvious.
He was in love with Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
That made him an idiot. It did. That just showed exactly how stupid he could be. What was he thinking? Kiyoshi was a guy. Kiyoshi was…
His mother would kill him. She would. And she was back now too, back and trying to get Ranko to come out of her shell and elaborate on what had happened to loose her a fiancé. He couldn't even think how he could begin to explain what had happened.
Bloody Happosai.
It was all such a mess and he really, really didn't know what to do.
At least it looked like Ukyou would be off his back soon enough, maybe once they were no longer engaged they could go back to being just friends. Maybe.
His footsteps felt heavy, as if his body was made of lead, as he walked back to the dining room. He passed Kasumi, who was watching him with concern, and did his best to give her a reassuring smile. He owed her one; she'd smoothed everything over with his old man the night before, when his brain hadn't been working properly.
Not liking the sense of dread he felt he walked back into the dining room and sat down next to his mother, his hand reaching out for the cup of tea Kasumi had just delivered just before the doorbell had rung.
Nodoka was frowning at him and he couldn't quite bring himself to smile for her, or bring himself to care about the look on his pop's furry, monochromatic face. His mother frowned at him before shaking her head. "Oh Ranko…" he heard her whisper.
They sat there in the awkward silence for far too long, waiting for he-didn't-know-what to snap them out of it.
He missed Akane, wished so badly that he could talk to her about this, about how he felt, but she was at school and still so very angry with him. He hated that, wished he'd known better, wished he hadn't gone along with Ryouga. He'd known that it was wrong, deep down.
His mother's voice suddenly intruded into his thoughts "Why don't I get the recipe books? We can bake something, it might take your mind off… off whatever has happened."
Bake something… Actually that wasn't such a bad idea; he sort of liked cooking and it would take her mind off trying to find out what had happened with him and Kiyoshi.
000
(Hitomi's POV)
Her lunch sat forgotten in her lap as her mind wandered.
She hadn't realised before she'd spent the night at Nabiki's house, exactly how chaotic the other girl's life was. It was strange, very strange. She'd admired Nabiki for such a long time, seen in her such strength, such intelligence, so many good qualities, but she had never quite seen how vulnerable the other girl was. Well, she actually didn't think that even Nabiki realised how vulnerable she was.
Being in that house, amongst those people, even after whatever had happened (Nabiki hadn't explained it to her, and she hadn't wanted to push) to cause the sense of agonised disquiet that she'd felt from them all, she could sense this quiet misery permeating the building. This sense of loss and loneliness…
She wondered how Nabiki could have stood growing up there, and if it had anything to do with how Nabiki could be at times. Her capacity for cruelty. She wasn't delusional, she wasn't… for all that Nabiki was to her, she had never let it blind her to the other girl's faults.
But, sometimes, a person's faults made them more attractive, made them more real, made them someone tolerable instead of someone so perfect that spending even five minutes with them made you want to kill them… and then sometimes a person's faults were the thing that made you feel that way…
She looked over to Yuuka and Aoi, who were huddled together whispering and giggling, with annoyance. They weren't taking her… association… with Nabiki too well and were doing their best to make her even more miserable than usual.
She was sick of them, to be honest, and these days she had begun to wonder why she even had anything to so with them or their circle of friendly sycophants. It was habit, she supposed, more than anything else.
A warm tingle down the back of her neck, something she couldn't explain, alerted her to Nabiki headed over towards them. She smiled a smile that she hoped wasn't too dopey or idiotic looking at the other girl and felt herself flush with pleasure when Nabiki smiled back.
"Oh God, not again," Aoi whined at a very irritating pitch.
She flashed her eyes over to her unhappy pseudo-friend to see the girl glancing from her to Nabiki and back to her, a strangely mixed expression on her face. She shook her head, she just didn't seem to care about what the others thought of her anymore, and began to get to her feet only to have Yuuka's bony hand with those overly-long claw-like nails shoot out and wrap around her forearm.
She looked down into Yuuka's eyes, hidden behind her new, pale-blue, coloured contacts, and frowned. "What?"
"We've been talking," Yuuka said, sounding completely serious for once, "And we've decided that it's either us or her."
She blinked twice, before speaking with artificial politeness, "What do you mean?"
"Nabiki Tendou's…" Yuuka half smirked to her self, "Bad news. She's not one of us and we don't like you being friendly with her. She'll hurt you Hitomi, use you, abuse you, hell, probably turn you into more of her porn and we don't want to be part of it, so, yes, it's either us or her."
Yuuka looked entirely too confident, and when she glanced over at Aoi she could see that same arrogance on her face. They thought she'd choose them, be content with remaining their pet… She smiled softly at Yuuka, the first pure, real smile she had shown her in such a very long time, and yanked her arm out of the startled girl's grip.
She walked away from her not-quite-friends (not bothering to acknowledge their protests) away from her old life, her old self, and over to her future. To Nabiki. To the person who greeted her with a real smile, whose hand reached out and took her own, who looked back the way she had come and smiled a smile full of pure, unadulterated triumph before softening as she turned to face her.
She smiled back, happy… free… and let Nabiki lead her away from her past.
000
(Genma's POV)
He hated this. Hated. It was wrong, all wrong, everything was wrong.
He should be happy, yes he should, that bloody Kurosawa was finally gone, out if his son's life, but the boy's misery… it was a little more difficult to ignore than he'd thought it would be.
It was like… the last time the boy had been like this, so keen on pretending he wasn't real, was just after… after… it had been a mistake, he knew that now, the Nekoken training and it had been so, so awful after. Ranma quiet and shocky, not speaking for days, not reacting to anything and it been just too much so he'd done it again. Told himself that he was trying to help Ranma get over it, that it would be better if the boy confronted his fears, when really he'd just wanted Ranma to react to something, anything, and even hearing his screams had been a relief.
It was wrong and he'd broken his son in some way he couldn't quite touch, couldn't bring himself to acknowledge, and now Ranma was acting broken again.
Would it really be so bad?
Would it?
Kiyoshi seemed a nice enough boy, in his own way, and he had noticed that the Kurosawa was better at respecting his son than anyone else Ranma was engaged to. The… nature… of the relationship aside- his feeling of unease and disquiet and slight disgust at the idea of his son being involved with another boy- the main problem was Nodoka. His wife. Ranma's mother. Nodoka and his bloody stupid promise.
If only he could go back in time, stop himself; everyone would be so much happier.
He could even go back home, go back to her… he missed her so much, so much of the time. It was almost as if time had erased the sharp edge of how he'd felt back then, and he felt that if he only had another chance to make things right, to be with her, he wouldn't make the same mistakes.
It didn't matter though. No. It was all broken now and he couldn't have it all, couldn't have his entire family healthy and whole.
If Nodoka ever found out that Ranma was Ranko all hell would break loose, and even if they found a way to return Ranma to his previous self he didn't know if it could erase Ranma's feelings, the memory of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and Ranma's resulting misery.
So yes, it was all broken now, and he couldn't help feel that it was his own damn fault.
000
(Ryu's POV)
He smoothed down his best suit one last time and met his own mocking eyes in the mirror. He looked good. Checking his hair one last time he gathered his courage, this was going to be an interesting day.
He strolled out of the bathroom, trying desperately to ignore the burning weight in his pocket.
The house felt empty as he walked through it; his mother wasn't home- she was at work, no doubt trying to exorcise her own guilt over what had happened- and Kiyoshi… Kiyoshi was out in the garden, staring off into nothing. He felt a momentary pang of guilt over leaving his brother, but he had more pressing worries, and he'd be back later.
Kiyoshi was being an idiot, a real idiot. If he loved Ranma, truly loved Ranma, he should be fighting to win Ranma properly now that the secret most likely to tear them apart had been exposed and dealt with, instead of lurking around as if his world was ending.
The problem was, though, that his brother was just too timid, too much of a coward. If it was him in that situation he wouldn't let thing remain like this.
No, he didn't like waiting, didn't like being miserable. He liked action. Action…
Oh shit, what was he doing?
This was a mistake, a mistake.
He shook off his doubts; he was doing the right thing, he'd be happy in the long run.
As he left the house he noticed that the sky was an unhealthy shade of grey and the air felt as if a storm was coming. Appropriate weather then, for what he was about to do.
He walked to the Tendou Dojou with a deliberately empty mind, knowing that if he let himself think he'd want to run away. He knocked on the door and waited, his heart in his throat, for Kasumi to let him in. The door opened, revealing her standing there looking so strangely appealing, and oddly enough some of his anxiety left him. She wasn't Kana, it would be alright.
She cocked her head at him and smiled and before he knew it he was smiling back, she really was beautiful. She stepped aside and walked back into the house, leaving him to shut the door behind himself. He toed off his shoes and followed her back to the kitchen, where she returned to packing things into her basket.
"Kiyoshi not with you?" she asked, not looking up.
"No," she mustn't know what happened, "He's at home."
"Ah…" she sighed, before fixing him with a frown, "When you go back home could you tell him that Ran… ko… is really upset, so I would be very grateful if he'd come back and fix whatever he's done." She really didn't know, but he found the concern in her voice when she spoke about Ranma to be very… sweet, sweet and strangely appealing. After Kana he found that there was just something about kind women. "As it is Auntie Saotome is doing her best to cheer… her… up, but I don't know how good of a job she's doing. She's sent Ranko down to the shops to pick up the ingredients for some cake that they'll be baking…" she continued talking, paying him far less attention than he wanted her to,
"Kasumi…" he interrupted her, he had to, he'd come here for a reason and that reason wasn't watching her pack food into a basket and ramble on about his brother's mistakes. "Kasumi… I want…"
She looked up at him, obviously his tone had finally gotten through, and asked "Ryu? What is it?"
He forced himself to meet her gaze and began to ramble, "I… I like you, more than I've liked anyone in far, far too long, and I can't quite bring myself to imagine life without you. Things are different now, I finally have some purpose in life, and… well… Ryuko is gone. Never coming back." He took a deep breath and tried to ignore the confusion on her face, "I don't know if I love you and I don't think you love me, but I do think that we'd make each other happy, that we'd get along… so what I'm trying to say is…"
He reached into his pocket and brought out that tiny, heavy box. He looked down at it once- thinking to himself that once he did this he couldn't undo it- and held it out towards her.
000
(Ryouga's POV)
He was confused, confused and angry. Confused, angry and, for once, not actually lost. He was still in Nerima, he hadn't quite managed to leave yet, something he wasn't sure was a blessing or a curse.
He'd been thinking about Ranma a lot, constantly really, and he couldn't escape the thought that maybe, just maybe, he was actually attracted, if not in love, with the other boy. How else could he explain having thrown himself at Ranma in such an embarrassing way?
It was unbearable, the very thought…
It was eating away at his mind, eating away at his sense of self, and things couldn't go on like that. They just couldn't. He couldn't…
So he'd decided that it was time to deal with Ranma once and for all. He wasn't exactly sure what he was going to do, but it did involve making sure Ranma was in his male form and beating him into a soft, squishy pulp. You couldn't love a pulp, could you?
As it was he wasn't sure where, exactly, in Nerima he was, but that didn't matter so much because he was enjoying a nice breakfast of a steamed pork bun and a flask of hot tea that he'd bought from one of the little Chinese restaurants near the park where he'd camped. Of course he'd have to find somewhere to shelter before the storm that was threatening broke, but he guessed that he had a good few minutes left before that became a priority.
He finished the pork bun and took a sip of the still very hot tea as he walked around the corner into another street. A very familiar street… There was the Tendou Dojou, just up ahead.
Shrugging, almost unable to believe his good luck, he sped up, coming closer and closer to the woman with red hair who was taking her shopping home…
Woman with red hair?
It was. He could see that now, in the walk, in the way she was carrying herself.
Ranma.
"Ranma Saotome, prepare to die!" he was shouting before he even realised it, letting his body have free reign.
Ranma whirled to face him, a look of… was that fear?... on that pretty face. "Ryouga! Don't! Please…"
He ignored his rival, instead throwing his tea into Ranma's face so that Ranma was back to Ranma, and lashing out. Ranma ducked his blow, that fear still present and opened his mouth to say something. He ignored the other boy, instead focussing on the fight, on making Ranma fight, as his rival seemed to be trying to avoid it.
He needed this. Needed it. It had to be over, once and for all.
000
(Nodoka's POV)
Ranko had been gone a long time, maybe she should have gone with her, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time. Trying to make Ranko more confident by sending her out by herself, and, to be honest, she had been just a little sick of dealing with Ranko's depression.
She knew it was selfish, stupid, but there had always been a part of her that was never very tolerant when dealing with other people's problems.
Her tea was getting cold, she'd probably have to go and ask Kasumi to make her another pot, but she didn't really want to. She didn't really like Kasumi, and she more than suspected that Kasumi didn't really like her either. It was tiresome, so very tiresome… she was sick to death of staying with the Tendous. Maybe when her house was fixed she could ask Ranko to stay with her for a while? She did like Ranko, even if she didn't really like anyone else with the last name 'Tendou'.
Maybe she should go and get Ranko, it looked like there was going to be a storm any minute now…
"Ranma Saotome, prepare to die!"
The shout echoed through the house, through her…
Ranma…
She was on her feet and running to the front door before she'd even had a chance to think, she erupted out onto the street with even bothering to put on her shoes, ignoring the sting of gravel digging into her feet.
There… a boy, dark haired, slender, slight… but he looked like, he looked like her.
He could see her, could see her looking, and there was recognition in his eyes. It was, her son…
He was fending off another boy who had obviously challenged him, a slightly taller, heavier set boy, but she could see that his heart wasn't in the fight.
She opened her mouth to call out to him, to call the fight off, when, with a sudden flash of lightening and a crack of thunder, the skies opened, pouring freezing rain down on them all.
She was still looking at him, still looking… as he became…
"RANKO?!!!"
000
This is not a death fic. It's not! I promise.