AN: the characters and settings of Gundam Wing AC and Ranma ½ do not belong to me, I'm just borrowing them to play with.

OOC (out of character) , AU (alternate universe), Yaoi (male/male relationships), and Crossover warnings.

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Chapter 3

After changin' into a girl in front of my new friends first thing, the rest of that day went down hill pretty fast. To save time I'm only gonna give ya the highlights.

Ukyo was back and started actin' jealous 'bout me bein' friendly with Chang and Dana, and as a result spent the rest of the day pissin' me off by bein' damn clingy. That made Akane even madder at me which nearly got me a flight by Akane Air 'til Chang cut the head off of that mallet too. So now she was mad at both of us.

Then the teacher assigned a research project to be done in fours. Akane an' Ukyo ended up even more pissed off at me because before either of 'em could get to me to tell me I was working with them, I'd already asked Chang an' Dana if I could work with them, an' we'd decided to save the open spot for a friend of theirs that was gonna be showin' up in a couple of days.

By the time Akane and Ukyo stopped tryin' to 'convince' me to join one of 'em everyone else they wanted to work with had already formed thier groups, so they ended up working with Gosunkugi in a three person team.

Gos was thrilled.

They were royally pissed, and I knew they'd be tryin' to take it out on me just as soon as class let out.

As it turned out, most of the rest of the class was upset with me too.

The guys were mad because they couldn't ask Dana to work with 'em, which would give them an advantage in tryin' to ask her on a date. The girls were annoyed because they couldn't ask either of the new kids to work with 'em. Chang because most of 'em thought he was a hottie even if he did look kinda young, an' Dana because she was friendly an' nice enough that most of them wanted to make friends with her, and maybe get a chance to catch one of the guys she refused a date with. Only a couple girls were jealous enough to hate her because all of the guys wanted to ask her out.

In any case at lunch things only got worse, and not only did I fail to calm down Akane and Ukyo, Shampoo showed up followed by Mousse. Thanks to the resulting mess, I ended up explainin' not only about the whole fiancée mess that Pops had gotten me into, but also how I'd ended up engaged to a Chinese Amazon thanks to his stomach.

I still don't know why she thought it was so funny, but Dana ended up laughin' herself silly while Chang started fumin' 'bout injustice and comin' up with ideas for things to do to Pops in revenge. I really liked some of his ideas, specially the ones with explosives either tied to Pops tail or ducktaped to his knees, but they still didn't make up for what led to the explanation.

Thankfully things leveled off after lunch. In fact, things were really pretty quiet 'til Ryouga showed up just as school got out. As usual he accused me of hurting Akane and attacked with no other warning. Everyone at school knows to stay out of our way when we fight and the fight was pretty normal 'til he threw that damn umbella of his an' damn near hit Dana. It would've too if Chang hadn't pulled her outta the way.

That's when I decided it was time to get serious and end the fight before he hurt anyone. Fightin' Ryouga so much, I've found only a couple of ways to truly end a fight. I have to either knock him out, or knock him far enough away that he gets lost trying to find me again to keep fighting. Since I really didn't want to have to carry him to the dojo, I used his umbrella to send him flyin'.

I know I didn't get the kind of distance that Akane usually does when she sends me into the sky, but then it's not something I either practice or everyday like she does. In any case I kept the umbrella with me as I did my best to stay out of mallet range while Akane chased me home. About half way there the chase ended when Akane spotted P-chan shivering beside Ryouga's pack. He must a landed in water somewhere nearby, or been splashed after landing. I gave him a bad time as usual but couldn't dodge as quick with his pack on so I ended up getting a trip by Akane Air.

It suprised the hell out of me when I woke up, but for once she actually sent me somewhere I wanted go. Though the landin' woulda been damn embarrassin' if I'd actually been awake for it.

I came to on a futon with Dana lookin' at me an' holdin' a wet rag. As soon as she saw my eyes were open she dropped the rag and ran out the door. She must have gone to get Chang who showed up a few minutes later with Dana and some blonde kid in tow.

Which was how I met Quatre Winner, or Kat as they were callin' him, flat on my back lookin' like a pitiful mess. Not how ya wanna meet a guy livin' in the same house as a girl you like, believe you me.

When Chang finally decided that no real damage had been done and I was fine he asked what'd happened to me. I was a bit suprised when he told me that they'd found me draped over Ryouga's pack in a crater in the backyard. When I told him that Akane had sent flyin' again he growled and his left eyebrow started to twitch. At least 'till I told him why she'd hit me, and about Ryouga bein' her pet pig P-chan, he stopped bein' pissed at her an' got pissed at Ryouga.

I'll admit I just stared at him when he started rantin' 'bout injustice an' honorless pigs. After a few minutes of watchin' him get more and more worked up, I asked Kat if Chang was gonna bust somethin'. Kat told me that this was somethin' he did pretty regularly and that so far he'd never hurt himself.

All I could think to do was apologize for settin' him off.

Kat laughed, shrugged it off an' invited me to dinner. Of course I stayed, at least in part because Dana refused to let me go home 'til Akane'd had time to cool down. I coulod have told her that me stayin' away wasn't gonna help that at all, but since I was more'n happy to have an excuse to stay away from the dojo for a bit I just kept my mouth shut.

At supper I met a couple of other guys, Triton Bloom who had the strangest hair I'd ever seen, and Odin Yuy who was, I noticed, was only part Japanese.

I think they thought I didn't notice, but Yuy was pissed 'bout me bein' there for some reason and kept tryin' to glare me into leavin'. So while he kept an eye on me, I kept an eye on him and answered questions.

I even ended up tellin' stories 'bout how Pops trained me after Chang asked me what kinda trainin' I'd had and then asked if I could teach him some things. Of course no one even pretended to believe me 'bout most of it 'til I showed 'em the scars from the Neko-ken and changed into a girl and back, but I still got the feelin' that they didn't really believe me.

In any case, I when finally I got home Pops was waitin' to lecture me 'bout keepin' Akane happy and bein' a dutiful son. Which meant doin' everythin' he told me to do. I ignored him an' headed for the stairs. When he tried to smack me for not wastin' my time listenin' to him, I hit him right back and made sure to do it hard enough to knock him out. After turnin' him into a panda and haulin' him outside to sleep, I went upstairs, got ready for bed, and settled down to do some homework for once.

After the first couple of days things settled into a pretty regular pattern.

Wake up before Pops, toss him out the window and spar before breakfast, get cleaned up , eat, then race off to catch Chang, Dana, and Yuy on the way to school. Smash Kuno if Akane hadn't got to him yet, go to class, spend most of the morning tryin' not to fall asleep in class, try to avoid fiancées at lunch, more class, then head home. Fight Pops 'til supper, eat, then hide on the roof to do homework if it wasn't rainin' or lock myself in the guestroom if it was. About twice a week the four of us, me Chang, Yuy, an' Dana, would get together at their place or, more rarely, the dojo to work on our research project. If we met at the dojo, they stayed for supper, same if I was over there only afterwards I'd spar with Chang an' Yuy.

Except for the usual battles with Ryouga and Mousse that was how the days went for almost three weeks. After the first couple of weeks spendin' time at the guy's place, I started noticin' a few odd things. Like gun oil and rags in the livin' room one evenin', bloody bandages in the bathroom trashcan, and the fact that they had a full med kit instead of a first aid kit. The lack of foster parents was somethin' that I'd noticed my second night over there, but didn't ask about. Also I didn't ask why one or more of the guys would dissapear for up to two days at a time.

Somehow I knew that askin' questions would be askin' for trouble. So instead I started tryin' to figure it out on my own.

After 'bout a week a watchin' an' seein' one or two of 'em leavin' for a bit every night and tryin' to figure out where they went, I managed to follow Yuy in the rain one night.

He went to a warehouse near the docks, used a keypad thingy and slipped inside. I was about to try to get a better look when Dana came strollin' up. But somethin' was wrong. She was wearin' pants an' her chest was flat!

She was a guy!

My first guess was Jusenkyo, but spillin' hot an cold water on her later didn't do anythin' so I figured she had to be a guy pretendin' to be a girl.

By that time I was so confused I didn't know what to do. So I just kept on watchin', hopin' I'd see somethin' to help me figure out what was goin' on at some point.

It was a couple of days after findin' out that Dana was a guy that I started tryin' to figure out just exactly what I felt about her now that I knew she was ...well, a him. After a couple of days of thinkin', I finally figured out that while I knew I was interested in Dana in the same way I used to be interested in Akane, findin' out she was a he hadn't changed my feelin's at all.

You remember me mentioning nearly drownin' in the bathtub? That was when I finally figured it out, and I did the only thing I could do.

I freaked out.

ooOOoo

I spent half a week tryin' to convince myself that I was imagining things. That I wasn't still interested in Dana that way after findin' out she was a guy.

It didn't work.

Especially after the dreams started an' I began wakin' up to damp sheets an' boxers. In an attempt to get my mind away from Dana, I raided Pop's stash of girly magazines an' took off for a couple of days to try to replace what my libido was tellin' me with what I knew should have been there. While that worked for a little bit, by the morning of the third day guy's bits had replaced the girl's bits again.

It was at that point that I headed home, depressed as hell that the best dreams I'd ever had were gonna get me killed. All I could think about was Mom findin' out that I was attracted to a guy an' makin' me cut my self open.

ooOOoo

I got back to the dojo just in time to clean up an' go to school. There I stayed as far away from Dana, Chang, an' Yuy as possible. I tried to use Akane as a sheild as lunch but ended up hiding in a tree anyways. Afterwards, I waited 'til everyone else was settled and took a chair as far away from Dana as I could find and did my best to ignore her.

That only lasted 'til school got out.

Soon as the teacher had left, Dana marched over to my desk on the other side of the classroom, grabbed my ear, twisted it an' used it to pull me out the door ans down the hall. Just before she got me, I spotted Chang an' Yuy followin' him.

Next thing I knew, s..he was pullin' me into an empty room, pushin' me into a chair, an' orderin' me ta tell her... him just what the hell my problem was. When I didn't even look at her she grabbed my bangs and pulled up 'til my eyes had to follow. Then he started buggin' me 'bout why I was avoidin' her.

She kept at me 'til I couldn't stand it any more. I guess I coulda just left, but somehow I didn't even think of it. So I told him I'd figured out that I was interested in a guy. She just stared at me an' asked what my problem was then.

All I could do was stare at her...him and blush. There was no way I was gonna tell her that he made me realize that I was interested in guys too, or at least one guy in particular. And there was no way in hell that I was gonna tell him of all people just what my brain'd been comin' up with at night during the last week. So I blurted out that it was wrong, guy's were supposed to be interested in girls not other guys, an' that my mother would kill me if she found out 'bout this.

After a couple of minutes just lookin' at me, he pulled me outta the chair she'd put me in an' headed towards her house with me in tow.

Soon as we were somewhere private she sat me down again an' started to give me a lecture. I learned things from that 'little' talk that I'd never thought 'bout, much less heard 'bout, before. Some of them I'd rather not have known 'bout.

By the time he was done, supper was over, I had some extra homework to do, an' I'd finally calmed down an' started thinkin' 'bout what she'd told me instead of panicking 'bout bein' interested in guys. To tell the truth, I was feelin' better 'bout the whole thing, but I still knew my mom was gonna kill me if she ever found out 'bout this.

ooOOoo

It was more than a month after Dana an' Chang had showed up at school an' 'bout a week an' a half afer that little talk, when Akane, mad as hell because she thought I'd been sneakin' off to see Ukyo an' Shampoo, sent me flyin' towards the harbor again. Only this time she hit me so hard that I somehow ended up landin' on the roof of the warehouse I'd been watchin'. Of course I ended up goin' straight through the roof, an' makin' a hole in the floor, but the main thing is what I saw before I blacked out.

I saw Gundams.

AN: Reviews are always appreciated, especially if they help me write. Many, Many thanks to Honor and lilmizflashythang for Betaing.

AN2: Just a couple of things people.

First, the gennder confusion on Ranma's part regarding Duo in the second half of this chapter is done on purpose.

Second: READ THE WARNINGS. If you don't like what I've written for a reason that's posted in the warnings it's your problem, don't yell at ME.

This fic is posted as AU: alternate universe, OOC: out of character, and Yaoi: male/male relationships. If you are offended by any of these things

and read the fic anyway because you either ignore the warnings or want to torment yourself, it's your own damn fault.

Review responses:

Honor and lilmizflashythang: again many thanks for the offer to beta read for me and for the reviews

Death the Destroyer: to you a great big raspberry. dprrrrrrt.

Ranma Hibiki: it's not nice to tell someone they've got problems with out telling them what the problem is, also I will be updating fairly regularly for a bit.

MarkerIV and lastbastion: thank you, I'm glad you like it, and there is more on it's way.

Innortal: Thanks, I've tried to do a good job with the POV. Ranma's not going to start actively losing his mind until well after the guys leave Nerima. Cumulative stress you know...

Tower of Babel: Another great big raspberry and a word of advice, READ THE WARNINGS! idiot