A/N:

Summary:

In which our Heroine discovers her mother is in fact, NOT trying to kill her and the Tendou family gets a tongue lashing from their eldest

Also, blatant shipping.

Notes:

Kids are sad, the sky is blue~

There are monsters in the spare bedroom~

So this might be more than a oneshot now, possibly going to go on further.

It doesn't mean Vegas Rules is on the side - I've got the next chapter of that already 95% written and 60% drafted, but this one has been running away from me.

Also you have NO IDEA how much I want to make this into a Marimite crossover. Ladylike!Ranma would fit right in at Lillian. Might spinoff from it, not sure yet.

I really, REALLY want to.

Two chapters in one day!

The Tendou household has become a glacier. Kasumi glares at her family as she puts the food down for the evening meal. Everyone tries not to notice the empty place. "I hope you're happy with yourselves." She says icily, and Akane flinches at the undercurrent of anger in Kasumi's usually-sweet tones. "Because I do not think she will come back."

"Of course he will!" Akane yells. "The pervert'll just come crawling back sometime after his head gets fixed."

"Akane-chan, were you even listening to Doctor Tofu? Even her chi and her aura have become that of a woman." Kasumi looks angrier than any of them have ever seen her before. "I miss Ranma-kun, but I try not to let it bother me because we have Ranma-chan right here with us." Her glare covers Akane, who looks down in shame. "Or we did." And Kasumi looks down in her own shame. "That fall onto that rock could have killed her outright!"

Nabiki speaks up. "Should we go looking for her?" She asks and Kasumi shakes her head.

"No, I think we will only make things worse if we do right now." The eldest sister says forlornly. She'd enjoyed the help around the house, the small bits of chatter she'd coaxed out of Ranma-chan before the girl had caught her saying goodbye in her head to the old Ranma one last time to welcome Ranma-chan into her life properly. One stupid moment. I should have waited before thinking that at that time, and not privately.

She should have noticed when Ranma became so withdrawn and upset. She should have noticed when everyone treated it like one long funeral, even though Ranma-chan was right there, suffering. She'd been right, they hadn't seen her, and she felt nothing but a gnawing, empty shame about that. She should know better.

The phone rings, making her jump and she wipes her hands on a towel, and goes to answer it. "Tendou residence. Oh, hello Ryouga-kun, how are things? You did?" Kasumi goes pale. "She what?!"

Akane stares across as Kasumi sits on a nearby stool, looking faint. "I… I s-see. Is she okay? Oh, I'm so glad. You met who?" A pause and then a long, slow sigh. "Thank goodness. Yes. Thank you for calling, Ryouga-kun, I'm sure the others will be relieved. What? Oh, yes, it's quite a story, she might tell you herself, or if you come here, we can do the same. But basically she hit her head and… changed. Yes, it's very strange. No it isn't a trick, even Doctor Tofu says it's permanently in her chi and aura."

Kasumi sighs. "There was an argument and my foolish family overreacted again like the idiots they are." Winces from the peanut gallery. "Could you do me a favour, Ryouga-kun? Could you stay with her for now, even though she's…? Oh, thank you. You're a sweet boy. No problem. Thank you for looking after her. And please… tell her I am sorry and was thinking the wrong thing at the wrong time, and that I love her and will see her soon."

With a click Kasumi puts the phone down. She lets out a long sigh and puts her face in her hands a moment, shuddering. Akane goes over to her. "Onee-chan?"

Kasumi sits up and takes a long breath, wiping her damp eyes. "That was Ryouga-kun." She says. "He caught Ranma-chan as she was throwing herself off the bridge." Akane gasped. "He said… he said he wasn't sure if it was on purpose or not. It looked like she might have slipped, but she was a-already leaning out… He caught her and was about to bring her here when he met a nice lady."

Akane nodded, relief flooding her and assuaging some of her guilt. Thank goodness for that, it could have been days until they found themselves anywhere near the Tendou house.

"Fortunately, the lady let Ryouga-kun bring Ranma-chan into her home to recover. Ryouga-kun says that the lady is very nice and is letting them stay the night."

"Can't we go fetch her?" Akane asks. Kasumi shakes her head.

"No Akane, I think it's very important that Ranma-chan stay where she is. We've all hurt her terribly and while some of us," Her eyes narrowed as if to say 'namely you', "have a larger portion of the blame, we are all still to blame. I also think that this lady will be best for Ranma-chan in her current state." She smiles a moment warmly. "After all, a girl should reconnect with her mother."

Genma, sitting next to Soun, passes out.

"…Mother?" Ranma whispers. Fear and horror fick across her face as she looks to the torn-up contract.

The lady nods. "My name is Saotome Nodoka. And you are my s-daughter, Ranma, aren't you?"

"But I… Father said you were…"

The woman's hand around hers tightens slightly. "I was what?"

"D-dead!" Ranma blurts out. Her eyes go to the contract again. "B-but…"

Nodoka looks at the paper, then at Ryouga who is half risen from sitting, battle aura active and clearly ready to grab Ranma at a moment's notice. What a nice, protective young gentleman. She shakes her head at him, but he doesn't sit down. Good boy.

Ranma's hand in hers is trembling as the girl desperately tries to unlock her hand and Nodoka knows she's on the verge of fleeing.

"B-but I'm not…"

"Ranma-chan, I am not going to make you fulfil a contract you fingerpainted. Nor am I going to do the same to your father. Please calm down, dear."

Ranma swallows, heart running a mile a minute, a sick, dizzy feeling washing over her as the adrenaline from the terror beats through her body. She slumps bonelessly to the floor, out cold for the third or fourth time that day.

Ryouga relaxes at Nodoka's words and manages to sit himself back down. "Is she alright, Saotome-san?" He asks as Nodoka keeps Ranma in her lap.

"I think she has had a most trying day." Nodoka says quietly, running her hands through her daughter's hair. She lets out a breath. "Hibiki-kun, would you mind using that telephone over there to call the Tendou household? They must be worried about her."

"Oh, um, sure." Ryouga stands up and gives a short bow as he does. "I apologise for my display earlier, Saotome-san. I did not know if you were going to enforce that contract and… Ranma is my… friend." He grimaces as if tasting something bad. "If Ranma is to die it'll be by my hand!" He can't help but add on the end to save himself the embarrassment of the statement of friendship with Ranma.

Nodoka raises an eyebrow at that but waves him to the phone and while Ryouga is speaking with Kasumi she gently lifts the petite redhead in her arms. She is so small and light.

Carrying the girl up to the room that had been hers at one point, she sets Ranma on the well-made bed and puts the blankets up over her. She leans over and kisses the girl on the forehead and the troubled expression on Ranma's face lightens somewhat as she curls up. Nodoka sits on the edge of the bed, running her hands through her daughter's hair and eventually hears Ryouga stopping outside, gently knocking on the open door.

She smiles and motions for him to come in. He rubs the back of his neck. "I spoke with Tendou Kasumi-san. She sounded very relieved." He says, looking uncomfortable as he sees Nodoka sitting with her daughter. "She also gave me some information, if you want to hear it, Saotome-san."

"Please, Hibiki-kun, call me 'Auntie'. You're clearly one of my daughter's closest friends to be so ready to jump to her defence."

Ryouga sits on the chair at the desk, leaning on the back with folded arms, looking embarrassed. "Please call me Ryouga then, Auntie." He says, letting out a sigh. "And I've been less of a friend most of the time and more of a rival. But I don't know about now."

He explains to Nodoka what Kasumi had told him. Ranma hit his head and became her. He tells her about many of the things he knows happened, as well as what Ranma was like previously.

Nodoka listens in shock and closes her eyes. "What a mess." She says softly, running her fingers through Ranma's hair. She undoes the braid a little at a time, putting the ornament to the side, then slowly runs a brush through it. "I wish I had been there for her."

Ryouga rubs the back of his head nervously. "Kasumi-san also said this was permanent, and that the family doctor had confirmed both her aura and chi were those of a female. So, I think… I think it's safe to say that before she was a boy who turned into a girl… now she's a girl that turns into a boy."

"She doesn't seem to like it very much. Being a boy." Nodoka says quietly, wistfully. There's a strange dichotomy to her feelings. Joy that her child is alive and well, sadness that she isn't the man amongst men she was going to be, but also further joy that she has a daughter who is so pretty.

"Ranma… before… didn't seem to mind too much. Changing into a girl, I mean. He'd protest and be all macho but… he'd also use it to get ice cream from people or as an advantage in a fight." Ryouga laughed softly, "He's tricked me a few times. I can see the funny side now, but I was always livid at the time. I guess, somewhere between being rivals we became friends."

Nodoka miles warmly at the boy and he blushes again. "Ryouga-kun, thank you for being her friend, even if you have tried to harm her before. I will support my daughter no matter who she is or chooses to be, but I would very much like for you to stay with us for some time. I think she will need a friend."

"Y-yeah, sure. I can do that. Kasumi-san said that there had been… trouble… at the Tendou household."

Nodoka smiles at him. "You are such a kind young man. It's no wonder my daughter values you highly."

He looks down, going red. "I'm not that great, Auntie." He says. "I'm cursed too." She gasps.

"Do you… also turn into a girl?" She asks. He shakes his head.

"…No. I turn into a little black piglet, Auntie." He says it with shame and inwardly, Nodoka sighs. Two children with what seems like fragile egos… though Ranma definitely seems less egotistical than she apparently was given their limited interactions earlier. But still fragile, like glass.

Did she fall or did she throw herself?

"Well, as long as we have hot water that shouldn't be a problem. Be careful and we should be fine."

Ryouga nods.

When Ranma next opens her eyes, it's dark and the only light in the room is bleeding in from the hallway outside. She blinks to full awakening and looks to the side to see Ryouga sleeping with his arms on the back of the chair. His mouth is open, showing that cute little fang and he's drooling a little.

Ranma blushes slightly and looks up to see kind brown eyes looking down at her.

"Ah, you're awake again, Ranma-chan." Nodoka says, leaning forwards and kissing her daughter's forehead. "I'm glad, I was worried you might have hurt yourself again."

Ranma's heart clenches in her chest around the ball of ice that's still there and she shifts, terror in her eyes. Nodoka puts a hand to her forehead. "You don't have a fever, thankfully, I think it's emotional exhaustion. Any girl would be the same after a week like that."

"M-mother…" Ranma manages to stammer out, fear in her voice and Nodoka kisses her forehead again.

"Ranma." Nodoka says softly to her. "I am your mother and above all else, I love you. Whoever you are, whatever you are. I love you. Don't ever forget that."

Ranma starts to cry, the tears running down her cheeks and she wails. "Oh mother, I was so scared. And I… I… I killed your son." She sucks in a shuddering breath. "I'm just a corpse that got up and walked around, just a changeling put in place of someone people loved…"

"Shhh, shhh." Nodoka soothes. "You're you, no matter who you are." She pulls Ranma into her lap. "You haven't killed anyone. Understand? Not yourself, not the old Ranma. No one." She squeezes her daughter close, marvelling again at how petite and pretty she is. "Can you tell me what happened?" Ranma calms down a little, soaking the warmth from her mother, feeling the comfort.

She tells her everything. Jusenkyo, the Tendou household. The throw from Akane, the rock, the momentary twinge as something in her mind finally clicked into place and she found who she was. Waking up from the dream of boyhood.

The long-running funeral her life had become, the look she saw in Kasumi's eyes, the never-ending cycle of violence from Akane, which wouldn't be a problem if she was still the old Ranma, but she's not.

The fleeing and running and the bridge and the thought that maybe she should just become an actual corpse and stop bothering everyone, the fall and being caught and then Ryouga's arms and the only semi-heard journey back. She doesn't say if she threw herself from the bridge or fell.

By the time she finishes, Nodoka's lips are in a tight line and a frown creases her pretty eyes. Ranma has cried herself out again, and all she feels a numb pain in the centre of her chest, the ice ball growing inside of her.

"Well, it's clear you can't stay there." Nodoka says crisply. "No one treats my daughter so poorly."

"Please don't think too ill of them, Mother." Ranma says in a small voice, nestled on Nodoka's lap. She's so small flits across her mother's mind again. "They loved who I was… I was just a jibakurei to them."

"No." Nodoka says, angrily. "You are my daughter and I love you. I expected better."

"Kasumi-san did too." Ryouga says from where he was sleeping. He opens his eyes and yawns, Ranma again spotting that cute fang. It was her favourite thing about Ryouga, she reflects. She feels a flutter in her heart and puts her hand to her chest, going slightly red. "She sounded very angry with her family, Ranma." He smiles at her gently, almost completely differently to how he had before. "She said to tell you that she was thinking the wrong thing at the wrong time, and that she's sorry, and that she loves you."

Ranma looks down and laces her fingers together, shame on her face. "I should think better of Kasumi-nee-chan." She says. Ryouga shrugs.

"It sounds like you had a hard time and assumed. It happens. Look how often we would fight because of that." He rubs the back of his head nervously.

"…You're treating me very nicely, Ryouga-kun. I have becoming myself to explain my better treatment of you, but why are you suddenly so much nicer to me?"

Ryouga flinches but gives his answer consideration instead of his usual open-mouth-insert-foot method. "Because no one deserves to think they're not a real person like you do." He says. "And I know how deeply those thoughts can cut."

Nodoka looks between the two of them and smiles gently to Ryouga. What a sweet boy. A little rough around the edges but perhaps… She shakes her head gently. She shouldn't be thinking of matchmaking yet. But still… It was clear Ranma had some feelings for the boy.

"Ryouga-kun, would you like to take a proper rest? You must be very tired."

He yawns widely and Ranma watches those fangs of his. The lost boy nods "Yes please, Auntie." He smiles at Ranma as Nodoka sets her on the bed and the girl stands up on wobbly legs. She doesn't seem to want to be far away from her mother and the sight warms his heart. Ranma as a boy was insufferable, but if this was to be Ranma as a girl it was very cute.

He stops as a feeling like icewater dripping on him hits.

He' just called Ranma cute in his head. Today must have been more tiring than usual, he mused. He follows the two ladies out of Ranma's room and towards a guest room.

"Here you are, dear, the futon should be over there and there's plenty of bedding. It's not too late but you do seem tired, so it's probably best you take a rest. Carrying my daughter all that way can't have been easy."

Ryouga smiles and flexes his arm. "It's fine, Auntie, I could carry Ranma all day if I needed to. I'm really strong." He blushes as he sees the knowing smile on Nodoka's face.

"He's right, Mother…" Ranma says with a soft smile. She's got a bit of Nodoka's kimono pinched in her right hand, like she doesn't want to let go. "He's even stronger than my old self was, and he can really take a beating." She lets go a moment and unclasps the umbrella from Ryouga's back, swinging it around gently, then holding it out to her mother. Predictably the umbrella crashes to the floor with a heavy thunk as Nodoka gasps at the weight. Ryouga grumbles a moment, picking it back up even easily than Ranma had and slotting it back onto his backpack.

Nodoka stares at her daughter and Ryouga who had both picked the umbrella up as if it weighed nothing at all when she could barely lift it in both hands. "W-well, dears." She says after a moment. "I suppose it's very good since a lady does not fight." She looks at Ranma, who nods.

"I d-don't like violence." The girl mumbles and Ryouga's mind crashes to a halt. He reboots a moment later, staring at her. She shrinks from his look, but then looks proudly up. "A lady doesn't fight unless she absolutely has to."

"That means you'll need to protect her, Ryouga-kun." Nodoka says sternly. "Can you do that for me?"

Ryouga nods, "Good boy." Nodoka smiles and sweeps out of the room. Ranma coughs nervously, foot pressing into the floor as she looks at Ryouga from a downcast gaze, blush on her cheeks.

"…Thank you for helping me." She says sincerely. "You saved my life…" A few tears fall from her eyes and she rubs her wrist over her face. Ryouga isn't sure what to do until she rushes forwards and encircles him in a close hug. "Thank you." She whispers from somewhere in his abdomen and he gently puts his arms around her after mastering his first instinct to attack. She's still fast and strong.

"You're welcome, Ranma. I'm sorry your family were so bad to you." Her head shakes.

"S'not your fault." She replies thickly, speech returning a little to her older cadence.

"I-I have to ask… D-did you fall on purpose?"

Ranma freezes in his arms.

"I won't tell your mom." He says. "Though you should either way."

"I don't know." She responds after a moment. "I-I was thinking about it and… Well, I-I didn't want to b-be a burden a-and I thought m-maybe it's," She sniffles, "B-better if they've got an actual, you know, corpse to mourn and not a w-walking, talking r-reminder of what they l-lost."

"So… you jumped?" He asks with a lump in his throat.

"…I think I was st-still thinking about it, and I f-fell and then I th-thought maybe it's better this w-way while I was f-falling."

"Ranma…" He says softly. "Tell your mom. Please. For me." Her head shifts on his abdomen and she squeezes him once, then lets go and steps back, a watery smile on her face as she exits the room. "Goodnight, Ryouga-kun." She says.

"Goodnight, Ranma-chan." He replies, smiling softly at her.

They both ignore the blush on each other's cheeks as Ranma closes the door behind her and walks downstairs to see her mother.