Disclaimer: The story and characters of Ranma 1/2 do not belong to me. They are the children of the brilliant Rumiko Takahashi. Worship Takahashi. NOW.
Quick Note: Revisions have been made to this fic compared to the version I had posted on my site. Enjoy.
Ryoga stopped at a corner to look up at the street sign to see if it would help him find his way, but the downpour of rain made the words blurry. Even after a bolt of lightning illuminated the sign, the words were illegible. Somehow Ryoga doubted it would've helped even if he were able to read it.
The boy sighed, and for a brief moment was grateful that he was once again lost and in solitude. This way it was likely no one he knew would see him wallowing in his own self-pity., because today he was doing a bit more wallowing that usual. Ryoga's fist involuntarily clenched around the handle of his bamboo umbrella as he reviewed the day's events.
He had been close to the dojo earlier. So close he could hear Akane breaking more bricks for her training (or for venting, depending on how her mood was swinging). But before he had a chance to enter the gate, Ranma had distracted him and now he was lost.
…Well, okay. Ryoga had thought that dragging Saotome's unconscious heap onto the grounds would impress Akane, and perhaps a few minutes were wasted on all the daydreaming he did about that… But Ranma had still side-tracked him by not taking it like a man and doing him the favor of dying on the spot. With all of the chasing he had to do, it was only a matter of time before Ryoga discovered himself lost and out of sight of the dojo.
Curse him! Hibiki thought before continuing. He had also had the misfortune of being changed into a pig twice that day, going to neck-breaking lengths to get hot water each time, and now it was raining and thus giving him a higher chance of transforming again. He was lost, he was alone, he was miserable, he was getting hungry...
And to top it all off, no one save his parents knew that today was his birthday. And his parents were just as lost.
The Lost Boy held back a few tears of frustration at the unfairness that was his life. His curse of a lousy sense of direction, Juusenkyo, having the girl he loved engaged to another man, and the loneliness that was his only constant companion…
This is not how birthdays are supposed to be, he thought as he stopped briefly in front of a building to close his eyes tightly in an attempt to momentarily shut out the world. A flash of lightning cast his shadow on the structure's door, and thunder rumbled loudly in the sky. Why can't I just be… Normal? A simple birthday with friends. One friend would do. Is that really… so much to ask?
Suddenly, the sliding door to the building that he was standing next to zipped open as light flashed through the sky at the same moment, adding dramatic affect to the action. A familiar female greeted his sight, her bright green eyes holding an apprehension and suspicion that unreasonably made him suddenly feel guilty for existing. Then she blinked, recognition replacing the tension. Letting go of her grip on the giant spatula strapped to her back, and smiled brightly.
"Ryoga!" Ukyo breathed in relief, as though she had been expecting something else that was far less pleasant. "Whew, thank goodness it's only you."
Feeling a bit sheepish for getting caught dawdling in front of her restaurant (even though eh didn't know it was hers), he self-consciously stuttered, "O-oh, hi Ukyo." Then something else came to mind. "Hey what do you mean, 'only you'?"
A small visible taint of blush appeared on her cheeks and she was suddenly unable to make eye-contact. "O-oh, nothing. I-I was just... um..."
A sudden lightning bolt sent Ukyo clinging to Ryoga's tunic with a screech. The boy stood there in shock, not noticing he had instinctively put a protective arm around her as she clung to him. A small moment passed as both realized exactly what kind of situation they were in, causing them to guiltily jump apart in a split-second. Both of their faces were a different shade of red, and neither could look into the other's eyes at first. Finally, Ryoga cleared his throat.
"Um, Ukyo?"
"Y-yes?" she responded.
"Can you tell me how to get to the Tendo dojo?"
Ukyo blinked for a moment, then chuckled before pointing in a direction. "It's that way, Ryoga." It was the exact opposite way of which he had been going, but he'd kinda figured that would just be his luck.
"Oh, thanks Ukyo," he said, and began heading off in that direction. He would have surely taken a wrong turn no more than 15 paces later if Ukyo hadn't suddenly grabbed his arm to stop him.
"Wait!" she cried. Curious, Ryoga looked back at the okonomiyaki chef with a raised eyebrow. Ukyo looked embarrassed by her action, but quickly took a hold of herself. "You're not going now are you? In this weather?!"
"Uhh, well..."
"Come on," she said, tugging at his sleeve and dragging him inside her restaurant. "You can stay with me until the storm lets up."
"B-but... I..."
"No buts! I'm not going to be responsible for you catching a cold."
"I feel fine," Ryoga assured her, dragging his feet slightly. It was nothing against the girl, but this wasn't the way to Akane's...
Ukyo paid no attention to him however and sat him down on a stool in front of her grill. Walking behind a counter, she flipped on the heat and began mixing some ingredients for the batter. "So what kind of okonomiyaki would you like?" she asked, thunder almost drowning out her words.
"Uh, I'm really... not hungry," he replied. Apparently, his stomach didn't agree, for it protested loudly. Ryoga blushed while Ukyo chuckled some more.
"So what kind?" she continued. "Chicken? Seafood? Pork?"
Ryoga cringed at the mention of pork. "Uhh.... Seafood is fine, thanks."
Nodding, the okonomiyaki chef went about preparing the order. Letting out a small sigh, Ryoga decided that Ukyo was right to just sit out the storm; after all, he didn't really care to be turned into a pig again today. Putting his elbow on the counter and resting his head in his palm, he looked around the small restaurant.
It wasn't too big, but not compact either. In fact, it was nice and cozy, and the grill felt pleasantly warm in contrast to the weather, making him grateful for Ukyo's hospitality. But why had she been so forward and jumpy? Looking at her in the corner of his eye, she didn't look any different than she usually did. The pleasant look she always had was back on her face, accompanying her warm smile and dancing green eyes. She was a persistent one when it came to optimism, yet reasonable too and he had to admit he liked her for that. It was something to admire. He sometimes wished Akane were a bit more witty like that.
Then again, if she were that quick, he mused, I'd be a P-Chan-Kabob.
Turning away from those gruesome thoughts, Ryoga focused on the sizzling sound of the okonomiyaki batter cooking on the grill. Watching her, he saw Ukyo skillfully flipped it with her mini spatulas, her movements graceful and precise. He gazed approvingly upon her techniques but his eyes wandered around the restaurant again and soon something on the counter caught his attention.
"What's this?" he asked, picking up a book.
"No! Give me that!" Ukyo cried, reaching to grasp it from him, but he pulled it out of her reach and read the title aloud.
"'Bloody Murders: Twenty spine-tingling tales of guts and gore'?" He looked skeptically up at the chef. "Really Ukyo. No wonder you were acting so jumpy."
She snatched the book from him and shot him a dirty look. "I am not jumpy!" Suddenly a combined bolt of lightning and thunderclap lit the room, earning a brief scream from Ukyo. Slapping a hand over her mouth a little too late, she looked in Ryoga's direction only to find the boy already doubling over with laughter.
"Nuh-Not j-jumpy, eh?" he gasped in-between spouts of hysterics.
"Very funny!" she snapped, her hands tightening into round fists. She really began to boil after Ryoga fell off his chair. "Will you get up, you idiot?!"
Struggling to get to his feet, Hibiki grabbed the counter to pull himself up, but only managed to climb as far as to get his head over the counter. His legs were still too weak from laughter that he had to rest there.
Perhaps they started to gain strength again when he stopped laughing, which would be when Ukyo flipped his order onto his head.
Pulling the dish off of his face, he left bits of seafood in his hair while sauce plastered his skin. It was Ukyo's turn to bust out howling now as the boy licked off the food around his lips before glaring.
"That wasn't funny," Ryoga grumbled, trying to get out all the bits of crab hanging from his bangs.
"Weheeheeheehee! Yes it was!" the chef giggled before gripping the counter for support and letting out a few more laughs. Tears formed at the corners of her eyes and when she was done, she wiped them away, flicking them aside. The few that landed on the grill hissed briefly before vanishing into small wisps of steam. "Ahhh," she breathed, ending her fit but still smiling goofily. "Thanks Ryoga, I needed that."
"That's what I'm here for apparently," the boy muttered, wiping more sauce of his face.
"Aww, I'm sorry, but you started it!" He gave her an icy glare before picking more food bits out of his hair. Deflating in sympathy, she handed him a cloth from underneath the counter. "Here."
"Thanks," he said, using it to rub his face clean. He shook it briefly through his hair before giving up and hoping he wouldn't look like he was advertising Ucchan's latest menu when he went to visit Akane. Looking up, he found the chef making another seafood okonomiyaki, causing him to eye her warily. "You're not going to throw that one at me too, are you?"
"Not unless you give me a reason to," she smiled amicably, yet he didn't miss the warning glint in her eye. Swallowing hard, he looked back to the book that Ukyo apparently had been reading before he came along and picked it up.
"Since when have you been interested in scaring yourself with these silly stories?" he asked, eyeing the volume lazily and turning it in his hand.
"For your information, those are true stories!"
"Ukyo, anything with the word, 'tales' in it, is not a true story. These are just a bunch of imaginative scenarios created by sick-minded people who make money off of the poor saps who read them!"
"'Poor saps'?"
"Yeah, like..." Ryoga trailed off and looked up at Ukyo who had a good five spatulas in her hand. "Uh.... Let me rephrase that."
"I think you'd better," she said, forcing a pleasant smile.
"These are just fictional stories, Ukyo. The stuff in these kinda of books could never happen. For example..." He pulled open the book and randomly selected a reading.
"The two teens huddled together in the corner of the empty restaurant, watching helplessly as the disfigured shadow meticulously approached their direction, its footsteps hard and heavy against the cold hard floor. Stopping only to retracted a wicked blade that gleamed with an ungodly glow from the moon, still smelling of the blood of its last victims, the madman rushed forward in a surge of inhuman speed.
"The boy's body made a poor shield against the weapon, but momentarily spared his beloved from death. His blood staining the floor and her clothes, his last breath leaving him, she looked up into the cold eyes of her killer, knowing they would be the last things she ever saw.
"The storm outside mercilessly swept away her screams."
Ryoga slammed the book shut, and looking up he imagined his eyes were as wide as Ukyo's. The two looked at each other before jumping ten feet in the air as another lightning bolt struck. After recovering, both looked at the book before glancing back at each other.
Tossing the publication over his shoulder, Ryoga rested his elbow on the counter and tried to resume his confident and natural air. "Who likes to read anyway?" he justified. Ukyo nervously laughed in agreement.
"Yeah, watching TV is always better, don't you agree?" She reached for the remote to the television set she had placed in the restaurant a week ago to entertain the customers.
"Uh, well I don't watch it much," Ryoga said after a moment. Ukyo realized that he was lost most of the time and most likely didn't carry around a portable one. "But it's always better than reading!"
"Right!" the chef smiled, and activated the set. The tube stuttered to life just in time to show a boy and girl running frantically through what looked like a cemetery.
"Run!" the boy cried to the attractive brunet dressed in a short miniskirt, complete with tank top and cropped jean jacket. The scene changed to show something hideous yet unidentifiable chasing after them through the bushes while a storm threatened overhead. It switched back to show the boy tripping over a tombstone and getting his pant leg caught on some stray thorns from a nearby briar patch.
"Ken!" the girl cried, rushing back to his side and frantically helping him tug at his leg. Another shot of the monster closing in on them.
"RUN!" Ken shouted, pushing the girl away and urging her to save herself; but as an ever-faithful girlfriend, she refused to leave his side. As they continued to pull him to freedom, the storm broke out and rain poured from the heavens, accompanied by roaring thunder and brilliant clasps of lightning.
Suddenly "The Thing" burst from the shrubs and sped forward with saliva dripping from its bloodthirsty jaws. The two teens turn around just in time to see its razor claws come slashing down at them, both issuing their first and final scream.
(*click*)
Ukyo and Ryoga stared at the blank screen, their faces unreadable masks although their eyes were wide with the ideas of terror and horror. Kuonji finally cleared her throat and placed the remote back under the counter.
"Well, who needs TV? We can entertain ourselves in a delightful conversation!"
"R-right!" her companion agreed. "Conversation!"
The two looked at each other, searching for something to start talking about. Needless to say there was a long moment of silence save for the sizzling okonomiyaki and the sound of the still-pouring rain that hit the roof. Getting uncomfortable with the stillness of everything, Ryoga began.
"So... uh... Hey! Maybe the radio!"
"RYOGA!"
To be continued...
NOTES FROM THE AUTHORESS:
Good golly, this is an OLD fic. I wrote it three years ago. I wrote terribly back then.
...Of course, this is a revised version, so it's better than the original. Still... Goodness. It just seems so... old.
Ah well. While this is not quite satisfactory work to me now, it sure was back then, so I hope most of you can enjoy this. Basically I had to post this fic because I took it off my current site (a DBZ site) and someone suggested that I post it on FF.net so that its existance doesn't vanish from the net completely.
Well, hope you liked it! This isn't quite a total Ryoga/Ukyo fic now, although it started out as one. I'm still revising the rest so we'll see how it goes.
More to come, minna! Just as soon as I'm done revising it that is... ^^;
Ja ne!