THE RANMA HORROR PICTURE SHOW - quantum witch © 1999
see chapter 1 for rating, warnings, and summary
2 : THE MIDDLE
Akane lay semi-awake in the bed provided, thinking over what Ukyo had told them about herself. She had been a caterer for the party tonight, though it had actually started about a month earlier (no one had wanted to wait that long for the fun to begin), and had decided to stay, since everyone loved her okonomiyaki so much. However, Akane sensed she was hiding a secret unhappiness.
Anyway, it seemed safe enough here, at least for one night, and Akane drifted off to sleep.
o - o - o
All too soon, Ranma found himself wandering the now-quieter halls of his castle. The creature and he had cavorted in both forms, and in as many sexually-varied ways possible (at times the creature seemed to be an already skilled gymnast or martial artist, it was so...limber) until it had fallen asleep.
But Ranma was insomniac, and no longer certain what he'd done was going to be as satisfying to his heart and soul as originally hoped. Oh sure, the body was pretty happy... but that wasn't such a big deal to any of his people, since they all had such active, open-minded, perverse sex lives. He knew something was still missing, something that his heart called out for... and he was beginning to get the feeling it was right under his nose.
He stopped and found he had led himself to Akane's bedroom. And somehow it didn't shock him at all.
o - o - o
Akane awoke groggily to sense the person sitting on her bedside. Thinking it might be Ryouga, she reached out a hand to him, felt the warm masculine skin of his arm and patted it comfortingly. "Couldn't you sleep?", she asked softly.
"No I couldn't," came the reply, but it wasn't Ryoga's voice.
Eyes wide open now, she gasped, seeing it was Ranma. She knew she ought to scream, pound his head in with a heavy blunt object, anything... but he hadn't moved toward her. And in a way, hard as it was to admit, she didn't want him to leave. There was something so... familiar about this thoroughly strange person, it scared and exhilarated her. But yet she thought of Ryoga, whom she knew and trusted and cared for so much...
"What do you want from me?" she finally asked breathlessly.
"I'm sure you know," he responded softly, leaning a little closer. His breath was hot on her cheek, but he waited for her to make the first move. It had to be her choice as well.
Burning now, she felt her lips closing on his own, and the taste of him was so potent, so right... Her hands moved of their own volition, gently against his firm chest, then more urgent, slipping beneath the kimono he wore, and she felt the heat they both shared.
"I shouldn't..." she began, tears pricking her eyes now.
"You care for Ryoga," he whispered in her ear, one fingertip wiping away a teardrop, "but I think we've both known all evening how right this is. Think about everything else tomorrow..." He kissed her more deeply now, hand moving warmly over her tingling flesh.
"I've never..." she whispered, shaking gently.
"Yes, I know," he replied, "but it won't be bad... I promise..."
Akane sighed, melting against his hardness, letting the pleasure flow through her. She would think about the guilt when she was able to think at all.
o - o - o
Robe off, wearing only his loose-flowing pants, Mousse mopped the floor of the lab. Shampoo was supposed to be cleaning the tank, but she was too distracted by the muscles rippling in her partner's torso, the way his silken black hair flowed over his golden skin with every move. Mousse wasn't really accomplishing too much either, since his eye was constantly drawn to the expanse of slender, perfect thigh Shampoo displayed whenever she leaned over into the tank.
Aww, screw it!, they both thought at the same moment, threw down their cleaning tools and slammed into each other at full speed. Lifting her body with strong arms, he pressed her against the nearest surface, the elevator shaft. She grasped the iron bars with her hands above her head, wrapped her long lovely legs around his sweating back, moaning for release like a cat in heat. Her mate plunged wildly into her, and they both forgot to watch the security monitors showing where the creature was being kept...
o - o - o
Ukyo found herself again at the cryo-healing chamber -"Deep Freeze" as she called it- which held her childhood acquaintance Tsubasa. It was so ironic, how he'd followed her in disguise when she'd first come to the castle for her job, and had wound up being exactly what Ranma had needed for his creature experiment.
Tsubasa was a firm heterosexual... but also a firm transvestite. Ranma felt this ability to separate his sexuality was crucial and part of his brain's biochemistry... and that was the reason he took half of it to place in his creature. Not that Tsubasa had actually fought the decision. He and Ranma's two halves had gotten to know each other very well in the last month -especially the female-half, it seemed. Not that Ukyou had room to talk since she'd been pretty busy with the male-half herself. Tsubasa understood completely (so he said) what it was like to be split in a way, and all alone in the world in that respect. So he'd donated half his brain, after which Ranma placed him in Deep Freeze to slowly recover his health.
Ukyo hadn't really liked Tsubasa very much before. He'd been too intensely smitten with her, practically stalking her for such a long time. However, seeing just how sacrificingly kind he'd been to this person he barely knew, she had a lot to think about as she watched him heal.
Tsubasa's naked form, suspended in peaceful sleep with a barely discernible laser scar on his forehead beneath long reddish-brown hair, truly was a beautiful sight. Ukyo had come to realise that he really was quite a man after all. Once he was healed, she thought she might be more willing to reconsider her attitude toward him. And she didn't think only half a brain would affect him much.. except maybe calm him down a bit, since the creature seemed to have the irrationally passionate half.
Giggling a little to herself, she found one hand lingering above his cold hard body under the glass... and the other lingering on the hot soft flesh beneath her robe...
A bit later on, Shampoo wandered into the room to clean (finally), and discovered Ukyo sleeping beside Tsubasa's chamber... again. She grinned and motioned to Mousse, who picked the poor girl up and carried her to their private bedroom. No sense anyone being all alone, they both agreed... and a threesome was very warm and cozy compared to the Deep Freeze.
o - o - o
Ranma knew that each side of his form could feel completely happy individually for a time. But he'd never felt anything that made both sides happy at once. As he stood in the hallway, now outside Ryoga's room, he thought he just might have found the way to accomplish it for the first time ever. Stopping long enough to pour cold water over his head, transforming to female, he slowly opened the door and slipped inside.
Ryoga's trained senses heard the slight creaking of hinges and soft footsteps, and he was wide awake in seconds. Not moving from the bed, but tensed in readiness, he waited for the person to come closer. At the right moment, he leapt up, grabbing the intruder and pinning them to the floor. Ranma was too shocked to respond at first, but it took only a second for Ryoga to realise the person beneath him was soft and female, especially since there was a delectable curved breast directly in his left palm. Fearing he'd just flattened Akane, and embarrassed as hell, he leaped off as quickly as he'd fallen on, apologizing breathily.
"It's okay, I don't blame you for it," Ranma replied.
Eyes wide now, Ryoga saw who it was, and blushed hotly. "Why are you here?"
"I'm sure you know," she said, repeating her earlier words to Akane.
Like it or not, Ryoga did know. He had been fighting the attraction with every ounce of considerable strength he possessed, but was failing. This person was so magnetic to him, in a way that even Akane was not, and he hated the burning feeling of guilt it gave him to notice that fact.
Ranma touched his face then, speaking softly, "Ryoga I know the way in which we are alike... and I can explain to you why it happens, how it is possible..."
Knowing what she referred to, but unable to yet voice it, he simply sat there, letting her stroke his face, neck, shoulders, chest... then he tearfully pulled her to him, hands in her hair, kissing her deeply. When he felt her deep sigh of joy, he pushed away in shame. "I shouldn't," he gasped.
"You care for Akane," she said the words again, "but I think we've both known all evening how right this is. Think about everything else tomorrow..." Her hands resumed touching him, moving lower and more insistently.
"I've never... uh...," he whispered nervously.
"Yes, I know," she said, "but it's all right... just give yourself over to the pleasure and it will teach you the way to go..."
Giving in to the power of the feelings, Ryoga tested and tasted, explored and was explored, took and gave, until they both were totally sated and spent. Answers to lifelong questions (as well as guilt) could wait another few hours.
o - o - o
The creature Takacchi had slipped its bonds. It felt a wildness and frustration it couldn't have named if it had known language. Possessed by these feelings, it crept through the castle halls and empty rooms, female at first, whining and sighing and clutching a rose to its bosom, seeking its darling Master. Partway through its search, suddenly the transformation overtook it. Barely noticing the change, now-male, it pined and moaned in a somehow more poetic tone for its pig-tailed Mistress.
After a time of wandering, it found it had come full circle and returned to the lab, curled up in its original birth chamber, stuck a thumb in its mouth and slept fitfully.
Had anyone had been watching (as they were supposed to be doing, if they weren't wrapped up together in a knot of sweating flesh and electrical appliances), they would have witnessed the first hint of changes that were truly unplanned for...
o - o - o
Ranma had returned to the throne room hours later, and was curled up sleeping in the giant chair. Mousse's voice close to her ear roused her slightly.
"Wha-?" she mumbled, "whaddizzit?"
"We have a visitor, Mistress."
She shook herself awake then, allowed Mousse to pour hot water on her head from the kettle he'd brought. "Go get Shampoo and Ukyou, and wake up everyone for breakfast. Looks like it's time for serious talking."
Mousse nodded and went to rouse both his mate and Ukyo from their mutually spent slumber.
Ranma stretched and did some tai chi exercises to awaken more fully. This was the day he'd really been waiting for all along, more than even the unveiling of his creation. News was coming for him that would change the course of his life forever... but he had news of his own to include, whether it was liked or not. And he intended to do whatever he could to prevent losing what he'd found.