It was late. The Tendos, and his father, had already gone to bed. Ranma, however, wasn't tired enough yet, and had things on his mind besides. He'd tried training in the dojo for a while, but launching a flurry of kicks and strikes at an imaginary opponent hadn't expelled the uncomfortable words and images from his head. He had to do something, if he was going to get any sleep tonight. Maybe I need to actually sit down and think things through. He gave a resigned sigh. Why the heck not, he thought wryly, it's been a day for firsts… So he headed for his preferred thinking spot, the roof.
—Only to find it already occupied. "Hey, P-chan. I would've thought you'd be snuggled up in Akane's bed by now."
Ranma was no less surprised by the fact that Ryoga didn't try to clobber him than by the other boy's actual reply. "I decided to skip it tonight; didn't feel like risking life and limb. Nothing against Akane, but that girl is a violent sleeper."
That… was different. But there was relevant information to be drawn from this reply. "I take it you didn't find the Nan'niichuan, then?"
Ryoga tossed a small ceramic pot in Ranma's general direction. The pigtailed boy caught and opened it, finding a note inside. "'...thank you for your patronage… temporarily out of service… original Nan'niichuan in Jusenkyo, China!' Those jerks!"
Ryoga turned to look at him, a half-smile tugging at the corner of the short-haired boy's mouth. "Don't worry; we'll find a cure eventually."
Ranma blinked. There was something severely wrong with this picture. "Ryoga, man… you feelin' all right?"
Ryoga chuckled a bit at the irony. "Yeah, actually… I am."
The sound of his rival's sincere good humor jarred Ranma into realizing what was strange about the scene. Ryoga's… not feeling sorry for himself… Did I fall out of a tree and knock myself into Bizarro World? Then again, hadn't that been the goal of his parting words to Ryoga when he left the girls' locker room? "Words"…right. He suppressed a shudder.
He still felt weird about that whole kissing-another-boy-on-purpose thing… even if he had been a girl at the time. But Ryoga was never gonna know. Nobody was ever gonna know. In fact, it might as well have never happened. In fact, it didn't ever happen. Nothing happened. At all. Nothing
Good, now that that's settled… "Hey Ryoga."
"Yeah?"
"There's no sense in your tryin' to get home in the middle of the night like this. I doubt the Tendos would mind if you stayed the night. There's plenty of floor in me and Pop's room."
"Sure. I'll get my sleeping bag. Thanks, Ranma." The other boy stood and headed for the edge of the roof.
"No problem. I'll see you downstairs."
o o o o o
Author's Note: This story was originally a random "what if" that was bouncing around in my head and needed to be exorcised. Writing it was my way of saying to it, "Hie thee hence, and do not haunt me thus!" Then it just kind of took on a life of its own, as these things are wont to do. That whole bit with Ranma and Akane just kind of got away from me and went along its merry way, with me watching in befuddlement. It's not really meant to be 100 true to how the characters would behave in the series, but I do try to keep it vaguely in-character. I amused myself with the idea that Ranma manages to convince himself that he's channeling Nabiki and is therefore capable of being intelligent. Bear in mind that most of this got written in the middle of the night, and I got about three hours' sleep the night previous. But now I think I'm going to let my epilogue alone, for the story needs no excuse. And no, I don't know why I keep quoting A Midsummer Night's Dream, other than because it's there.