Loom
By Max-chan
Author's Notes: What can I say folks? Enjoy. Oh yeah, if you want to see more chapters of a certain story *hint hint* e-mail me and tell me.
Disclaimers: Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and the song 'Loom' belongs to the great Ani Difranco.
* * *
You've always got those dark sunglasses
* * *
The phone rang at the Tendo residence.
Akane stirred and groggily placed a hand on Ranma's arm.
"Don't pick it up, Ranma," she begged.
"I have to, Akane," he told her before pulling his arm away and getting up. The bed shifted slightly as Ranma's form stood silhouetted by the window. Akane sat up with the sheets clutched around her.
She sighed as Ranma answered the shrill phone.
"Hello? Yes, I'm Ranma Saotome. Uh-huh. Okay. I'll come and get her. Don't worry, I'll pay the bill. Can you tell me where your bar is? Okay, thank you. I'll be right over. Bye."
Ranma went into the closet to put on his shirt. When he entered the bedroom again, Akane was staring at him from behind angry eyes.
"You're just encouraging her, you know," Ranma's wife informed him.
"She's my friend," was all he said before the door closed and the room had one less person in it.
* * *
Covering half your face
* * *
The bar was obviously closing down. There were only three people left: the bartender, the girl with her head on the bar and the drunk guy in the corner. Ranma walked briskly over to where the girl sat on the stool, her mass head of hair surrounding her back and head.
"You Ranma?" the bartender asked.
"Yes," the Martial Artist answered as he placed one arm under the girl's shoulders and pulled out some money with the other arm.
"Here," he said as he placed the money on the table. "I'll take care of her now. Come on, Ucchan."
The girl's head bobbed up and a bright smile bloomed on her beautiful face.
"Ranchan!" she squealed before clutching him tighter.
Ranma shot a shaky smile at the bartender before dragging his friend out.
* * *
But if you promise to take them off
* * *
The street was windy when he dragged her out. Ranma hadn't noticed when he had been hopping from building to building but now he did. The Martial Artists started to place a hand under Ukyo's legs and start running, but her voice stopped him.
"Let's just walk, okay? What do you say?" she murmured.
Ranma returned his hand back to his side.
"Okay," he said.
They walked on.
"Do you think-"
"Ucchan, you gotta stop doing this," he interrupted her.
"Doing what?" she asked.
"You know, getting drunk, calling me up and-"
Ukyo stopped and turned her head up so that her face was directly underneath Ranma's. Her large eyes swam.
"Do you hate me?"
* * *
I promise I won't squander your gaze
* * *
"Of course not!" he exclaimed, not entirely sure about the lie in his words. Ukyo gave him a smile that was all broken pieces and dead dreams. It would have touched him a long time ago, when he was still a boy and believed that he had to protect all those around him. He learned long ago that life became much easier when you stopped trying to be everybody's hero.
They continued to walk as the long wind howled. It whispered things to Ranma that he did not want to hear as Ukyo's body warmed his side. Traitor, it said. You don't want to be here; why be a hypocrite?
The buildings were all closed tight against the breaking weather. Children were tucked tight and warm inside as parents slept and dreamt of comfort. Why was he out here? Why wasn't he in bed where the desire to continually fight some unknown struggle ceased to be?
Why was he here with this girl he barely knew.
The beautiful girl with the silk hair clutched tighter to his coat as they swayed along to some old song no one chose to acknowledge anymore. A song where little friends grew up to be loyal allies against a dying world. A song where you didn't need to understand; you just needed to be there. It was a song they danced to unwittingly; she in her smooth, intentional steps; he in his puppet strings and his lagging steps.
When does the enemy stop being the world?
When did the enemy become the little friend we were supposed to trust?
"Mmm..." she murmured into his shoulder.
* * *
I will be picturesque I will be nice
* * *
"Do you think I'll look good in white?" the beautiful girl giggled into his shoulder. He felt her breath shake on his arm and travel down his veins, warming his blood. Ranma exhaled, his breath becoming substance then nothingness.
"You'll look good in anything, Ucchan," he told her with ambivalent thoughts.
She giggled again before tilting her head up. Ukyo clutched his arm tighter.
"You serious, sugar?" she asked.
Ranma felt his eyelids beginning to droop. His Martial Artist body slowly going to waste and he didn't even care. Pop had come over just yesterday to scold him, but he didn't worry too much. The old man's body was going to waste also but he seemed to be happy. After all, who wouldn't be happy trekking the wilderness with their best friend, drinking and gaming all day.
He and Akane should go on vacation one day. Have some fun, maybe even practice a little. He'll take her to see Jusenkyo. He'll take her to see the world, just like he promised himself he would do when they got married.
"No, Ucchan, I'm not serious. You don't need to know what I think. Believe you look pretty and you will."
"Meanie!" yelled Ukyo as she let go of his arm and ran ahead a few paces. Strange how her body could suddenly gain control of itself like that.
* * *
I won't do anything you can't tell your own wife
* * *
"Come back, Ucchan," he called out to her with a dead tone. "You'll hurt yourself."
"Too late!" she yelled into the air. She spun around , her hair trailing behind her like a waterfall for the damned. She stopped. He stopped. The wind howled between them.
"You already did that, sugar," Ukyo told him.
Ranma said nothing.
Suddenly, uncalled for, an image immerged in the Martial Artist's head. Happosai jumping off, bouncing with bags of precious items over his shoulder. His eyes bright and his smile wide. A child in a world of earthly delights.
Goodbye Ranma, m'boy! I'm going off to find the ladies!
The old jerk's last farewell. He was gone just as fast as he had arrived. Just like the others.
Just like the others.
Dust settling in the wind.
Impossibilities.
* * *
I will think before I act I will think twice
* * *
"What happened?" the beautiful girl begged of him, her voice hitched and bent.
He knew what she meant. Not what happened to her. Not what happened to him. Not what happened to them.
What happened to a world that no longer cared for them? Like an indifferent audience, Fate had once placed her careful eyes on them, finding amusement in him. Then, one day, without explanation or reasons, she (like the audience member who had moved on) just stopped coming to their acts. Their once special lives, above the others, had been reduced to normality. A favorite child now cast aside.
It hadn't bothered him.
It slowly killed her.
"I don't know. Maybe we grew up-"
"Bullshit!" she screamed. The wind heightened it's cry to match hers.
His annoyance grew. It was the slow drip of water destroying the stone. Sometimes, he couldn't even bring himself to speak to her.
"You're going to have to deal with it, Ucchan. Everybody else did. I did, Shampoo did, Akane-"
"Akane, Akane, Akane. Oh, what about you doesn't include Akane?"
A desperate fist banging against the doors of injustice, refusing to see the hole in the wall.
* * *
Just let me see your eyes / eyes
* * *
Ranma refused to say anything. He just stood there, an unwavering soul against the harsh wind.
"I think it's here, you know. Before her, your life was...was...grand! Grand! Then, she came and suddenly the essence was gone. She ruined it with her drabness," Ukyo sneered.
He told her, "You can't possibly blame Akane. If anything, things got more crazy since I met her."
"Oh stop it. Everybody always sticking up for Akane, as if she wasn't enough of a brat!"
Well, did you know that brat was the reason I went after you that first time, Ukyo? Do you? I didn't want to go save you. I wanted to live my life and leave your problems to be solved by you, but she wouldn't let me. She forced me to think of how much you needed your friend. She forced me to go get you and even when you strain our nerves at night, she never stops me from saving you. Selfish? Do you want to talk about selfish, Ucchan?
But he didn't tell her this. She wouldn't have heard him anyway.
The beautiful girl continued to rant.
"If it was one thing she did, it was making to not want to fight the change. If it wasn't for her, you wouldn't have accepted this! You wouldn't have accepted being normal."
She spat out the last word.
* * *
Each time we spoken Put in our token And rid the tilt-a-whirl
* * *
"What's wrong with normal?" he asked her. Hypocrite! his mind shouted.
The night faded away.
It was that day again. The sunlight were like glass shards piercing through the air. The granite beneath his feet was hot, warmed by the morning. Ranma saw her in front of him, her lavender hair shifting slightly in a dance with the wind. He saw the violet lakes that were her eyes and suddenly became uncomfortable. His lazy hands moved to the back of his dark head in habit. Akane stood beside him, her familiar voice going on and on about something, like a lulling record putting his child's mind to sleep.
"...couldn't believe...miss you...any way you could stay..."
Ranma's head snapped up.
"What did you say, Akane?" he asked the girl beside him.
"Pay attention, Ranma! I asked Shampoo if there was any way that she could stay," reprimanded the Tendo girl.
"Why would you want her to stay?" he questioned her, realizing all too late how misinterpreted his question could be received. Akane missed the emphasis of the you in his voice, as did the others.
"Jerk! She's leaving! How could you say that?" she yelled.
"Son-in-law," the old crone groaned.
Immediately, Ranma went into defense mode.
"Aw Shampoo, you know I didn't mean it like that," he whined.
The Amazon nodded and smiled, but his smile hurt him more than her tears did.
"Shampoo know, Ranma. Not like Stupid Girl Akane-"
"Hey, I was just trying to help!"
"-Shampoo understand. Always understand. Not Ranma fault," she said, still smiling.
And there she was before him, the girl who had been ready to kill her Amazon sisters for him. There she was, his last chance at what he once believed he wanted. He could walk away with her now.
But beside him stood his chosen anchor in these turbulent waters, her arms across her chest and a scowl on her face.
"It isn't anybody's fault, Shampoo. People come and people go...and I guess some matter more than others. Thanks," he told her sincerely.
The Amazon bit her lips.
"One hug, Ranma? Akane no get jealous?" the Amazon wheedled in her familiar way.
"Go ahead! See if I care!" was the shout from behind the back of a head.
Ranma almost forgot how he always had the breath literally knocked out of him every time he got a hug from this Amazon. Killer Queen.
"You good person Ranma. Bye-bye."
She slowly let go, extended her smile a little more, then unexpectedly hugged the shocked Akane.
"Bye-bye, too too violent girl. You live safe now that Shampoo no here."
Before Akane could react, Shampoo had jumped away and shouldered her pack.
"Bye now you two. For real this time."
Then she was gone, taking with her Ranma's last chance.
* * *
And I was giggling and dizzy Flirting like a twelve year-old girl
* * *
Maybe Ukyo's right. Maybe it is Akane's fault. But I don't blame her and I don't regret my decision.
"What's wrong with normal? Everything! It was something you were supposed to save me from, you jerk!"
She was crying now. The wind died down and quieted so all that remained were her sobs and the night.
He said, "You don't fight the tide when it's taking you somewhere you want to go. Have you ever considered that normality was something I wanted? Something I craved for all of my life?"
She said, "If only your curse had-"
He said, "No, it was more than my curse."
* * *
The carnival of you and me are coming to town
* * *
They crowded around the dojo floor, a band of survivors finally reaching land.
"Can this be real?" one of them asked. It doesn't matter which one.
"We've been fooled before," another said.
But this time something seemed real. This was the marker for the beginning of the last chapter of the faerie tale.
"Only one way to find out," the leader said (and we all know who the leader is).
So, they all jumped in with high hopes hanging preciously off a hook.
And they didn't change.
How lucky can you get when a man from China just happened to have brought an extra barrel of Nannichuan.
When Fate cuts her ties, she cuts them clean.
* * *
Watch how we spin and spin and then fall down
* * *
"Why didn't you think of anybody else? Who you would hurt?"
Ukyo was starting to walk away now, her silk hair calm and matching to her uneven steps.
Ranma followed her, keeping his distance.
"I did think of everybody else. That's why I chose not to fight it. I helped their lives. Akane, Shampoo, Ryoga-"
A boy no longer cursed. A free boy who no longer needed the love and acceptance of a teenage girl. Without that love, he had no hidden pain. Ryoga, finally free from his chains of misery.
Ryoga, wandering aimlessly away, truly happy at last.
"No, don't go," was the pig-tailed boy's plea but Ryoga did not hear him. He just heard the birds chirping and singing to him, to him, and he just heard the sound of gossamer wings sprouting from his heavy back.
"Don't go..."
But for once, Ryoga's mind was not thinking of Ranma.
Forever is much longer than we can imagine.
* * *
Now we just say hello and head for firmer ground'
* * *
Something ran up Ranma's throat and grabbed at his words. He choked before continuing.
"-You can't tell me I'm selfish, Ucchan. You don't know what I gave up."
The beautiful girl's swaying head stopped and for the first time that night, she peered at him through clear eyes. We don't want to see the things that bring truth to our denying lips.
But Ukyo wasn't a bad person.
She was just a very lost girl, not born with the abilities to fight the torrents and the rain.
But she wasn't a bad person.
She heard the pain in her best friend's words and she couldn't have allowed her own failings to further hurt him that night. The little song began again. Two little friends with cardboard armor against an invisible foe.
"Ranchan.." she sighed as her long legs slowly pulled her over to where the Martial Artist stood. A pale hand with long fingers grazed his cheek.
"We don't always have to fight, Ucchan," he told her, his voice soft as the wind now.
Ukyo smiled cautiously.
"Is this my Ranchan talking? It can't be," she joked.
* * *
You are the one way glass that watches me standing at nine at the bank
* * *
He returned, "Who was that boy really?"
Ukyo allowed her head to drop so that their foreheads touched.
"Just a little boy I knew once," she answered.
Ranma raised his head to stare out at the long sidewalk.
"Come on," he urged before starting to move. Ukyo matched his steps.
Two survivors who can not bare to look each other in the eyes after they've been rescued.
Selfishness has it's price, after all.
* * *
I always look into your glasses like a callous into a fish tank
* * *
The restaurant was dim when he entered it. She stood by the long , hot counter with a spatula posed in mid-air. Her eyes were staring at something he could not see.
"Ucchan?"
"Ranchan!" she gave a startled cry as her eyes darted up to meet his.
"What is it? A flyer? A competition? Lost relatives? Tell me how it ends."
Ukyo understood what he said.
"A job opening in another city," she told him. "I'll be the main chef. I'll be famous."
"Not a surprise. So, when do you leave?"
"I'm not going to."
It was now Ranma's turn to appear startled.
"What?"
A scratch in the recording.
"I'm not leaving," Ukyo repeated, her body suddenly nervous. "I'm not taking the opening. I'm staying. The others don't see all this for what it really is, but I do. I don't want it."
"You can't do this?"
She looked at him behind light bangs. A mocking grin never seen before graced her lips.
"You really think so?"
* * *
All I could ever see was the spectre of me reflected
* * *
"We are more alike than you and Akane."
"I know, Ucchan. We are the same person."
"Then why-"
"You can't love yourself like that."
"Oh."
"Then-"
"Yes, if she had left with my father's best Martial Arts books and left me behind, I would have spent the rest of my life training to kill her as well."
"And you would have forgotten it all with one kind word from her, right?"
"Right."
* * *
I want a monument to the friendship that we never had erected
* * *
"We were never really friends."
"You can't be friends with yourself. You can only stand side by side."
"Wish you could have told me sooner."
"I just found out."
* * *
I wanted to take up lots of room
* * *
She's crying now, her muffled sobs leaving notes in the wind's sheet music.
"You wanted to be larger than life," he stated.
"Yeah, but you had stolen my spotlight, you jerk. And then you decided you wouldn't fight when it got taken away. I would have fought," she cried.
"Yeah, but it was no longer your fight."
* * *
I wanted to loom
* * *
A new love for Kodachi. Gosunkugi seemed just the right guy.
Give Kuno something to care about somewhere else.
How easy it was to alter lives.
* * *
You always got those dark sunglasses Between us when we talk
* * *
They reached Ukyo's store. They stopped and turned to stand face to face.
She could see his eyes but could not interpret those pools.
"They're not really windows, you know," Ranma informed the beautiful girl.
"Yeah, just found out."
* * *
Until the party is over If you want to take a walk
* * *
Morning was starting to come now. The sun shyly broke through the clouds to touch them.
"Thanks for getting me, Ranchan."
The Martial Artist could hear the wind starting up again. One day they would all be gone and who would be here to acknowledge the winds? New replacements for the old kids. Sadness came in packages, showing up at the oddest moments.
"Hey, that's what I'm for," he laughed, that crooked smile coming back on.
"No, your more than that. It's just not so easy to see now," said Ukyo.
"Same applies to you, Ucchan," said Ranma.
She laughed and in her laugh, sparkling liquid crystals fell from her eyes, but they were clear and they were clean. They were not muddy with regret.
Maybe this is really the last night.
* * *
We could just look around Not do nothing wrong
* * *
Her pale hand touched the doorknob.
"Come over any time, sugar. You and Akane. You're always welcome at Ucchan's."
"We would love to. Free food is still free food despite everything, right?"
"Right."
* * *
Try to be at least as brave as our songs
* * *
Two little boys sitting side by side. One destined for greatness, one destined for shadows.
But which is which?
Sometimes, when she really bothers to ponder this, she realizes the truth.
It doesn't really matter at all.
* * *
I will bring my heart I will bring my face
* * *
Ranma entered the house quietly. Some creaks could be heard now and then/ Either he needs more training or the house needs more repairs. The Martial Artists slid open the door to his bedroom. His uncute tomboy wife lay sprawled on the entire bed.
Sheesh, bed-hogs, he thought but his mind was content.
Ranma laid down and closed his eyes.
He promptly fell asleep.
Akane's arm lazily draped over his shoulder in habit.
Normality isn't really that bad at all.
* * *
You name the time and place
* * *