The Binding Of Ranma Saotome

Chapter 6: Child Support

"No. Absolutely no way!" Ryouga said, glaring at Ranma with all of his might. "There is no way that that child is mine. Just no way." Ranma smirked.

"Want me to have the stupid thing DNA tested?" She asked, confidently. So what if it was just a hunch? With the way things worked in her world, the child was Ryouga's no doubt. Ryouga blanched at Ranma's confident air.

"But… you're a guy, and I'm a guy… and we never-" A thought hit Ranma, leaving a rather large lump on her head where it had struggled to get in. despite the injury, Ranma smiled.

"That isn't what Akane thinks, though." She said, grinning. "Since it's your fault that I'm pregnant, how about you go explain to her what happened, eh?" This would be fun, the thought told her as she watched Ryouga's face fall.

I should keep this child after all! A whole lifetime of 'you got me pregnant, so you do this!' An image burst its way in through her thick skull. Ryouga in an apron, cleaning the house while Ranma herself sat pretty by the fire, playing with the child. This would be fun…

Ryouga grimaced, not that happy with the way things were going. He knew that smirk of Ranma's, and he knew that this couldn't end that well… "Great." He said, sighing. "Then you really expect me to dress up in an apron?" He asked, whacking the image of Ranma and her baby on the head.

"Stop that!" Ranma cried. "You'll hurt the baby! Never mind, at this rate you'll kill the stupid thing!" She reached to snatch the image out of the way, a look of desperation mixed with hopefulness on her face. On the one hand, she couldn't stand to see the baby hurt. That was strange. Maternal instinct or something? "And any way, how can you see into my head images?"

Ryouga looked puzzled. "I guess I just can…" He said, absentmindedly stroking the rather large orangey-red monkey that had landed in his lap. He lifted the monkey for a second to smooth out the skirts of his dress, setting it down again and scratching it behind the ears. Ranma gazed down at her rather large belly.

"Hi baby." She said softly, propping her feet up by the fire, wondering briefly why it was a child now and not a swollen stomach. She raised a finger and watched her daughter grab on, smiling at her, so glad that she wasn't dead. "Oy, Ryouga!" She called over to the kitchen.

"Hai, Ran-chan?" The aproned figure answered.

"Could I have some grub? I'm starving, and the kid wants a bottle!" A few minutes later, Ryouga arrived with a plate heaping with her favorite foods and a bottle of warm milk. He set the tray down and leaned down to give Ranma a quick kiss before returning to the cleaning. Ranma was startled by the proximity, but found that she didn't mind. She gazed fondly at the baby, who said…

"RANMA! GET OFF YOUR LAZY ASS AND COME TO BREAKFAST!" disturbing that a kid so young had learned such lang-

…

Ranma woke up.

It had been a nice dream… No, it hadn't.

…Ryouga had looked strangely good in that apron…

No, he hadn't, Ranma told herself.

They had been nice monkeys? Okay, that was fine. The monkey, at least, was an okay thought to dwell on. Though certainly not Ryouga in that flowered cotton dress… no, certainly not that.

The dream had left her addled, Ranma decided. Maybe even brain damaged. She reached for some clothing to wear, dreading the day that she would be forced to shop in the maternity section.

Stripping off her PJs, she pulled the Chinese style shirt on, and then the baggy pants up over her… Stomach. It was impossible. She couldn't be showing yet, it was simply not possible.

Then, she realized, that her imagination was getting the best of her, because she wasn't showing. She sighed. Definitely brain damaged.

And, as is true of many not possible things, it hadn't happened, Ranma reassured herself with a quick look. Two weeks to go until Dr. Tofu was back… two weeks in hell. She wobbled out to the breakfast, surprised that the morning sickness hadn't started yet. Usually it was there when she first woke up… oh, there it was. She wobbled off to the bathroom, screaming back to Akane that she would be there soon enough, thank you very much.

…

To say that the day had gone well was the farthest thing from the truth possible. The truth was that the day had been terrible. The truth was that she was living in hell. The truth was that Ryouga had finally found his way back to Furinkan High… And that wasn't the worst of it. Because, do you remember the metal stick that had made Ranma pregnant in the first place? Well, now Shampoo had it. And apparently if a girl hit a boy, the girl would get pregnant, and if a boy hit a girl, the girl would get pregnant… basically, if anyone hit anyone of the opposite sex, the girl was screwed, because the girl had a womb. Ranma was seriously wishing that she wasn't a girl…

Of course, she wasn't, but that wasn't helping much with Shampoo chasing her around with a kettle of hot water, trying to turn her into a guy and become pregnant with her child… If only shampoo knew how truly horrible being with child was. But she couldn't tell her, oh no… not with Ryouga around. She just wasn't ready to deal with telling Pig-boy that he was a father. Somehow she had a feeling that he wouldn't take the news that well.

She could just imagine it. "Ryouga, guess what! I'm pregnant!" She would say. He would look at her as if he always expected that she would come to this. Then supplying "It's yours." She couldn't quite imagine the reaction, but it wouldn't be good. She leaned against the tree in the schoolyard, wishing with all her heart that Ryouga would just stay away forever, and trying to keep her mind off that morning's dream.

Especially the last part. She had to keep her mind off the last part. But she couldn't help but wonder if there was some part of her subconscious that really wanted Ryouga to… No.

Ranma looked up for a moment, idly staring at a funny shaped cloud. She'd been female too long. She was feeling quite exposed. In fact, she was hardly even blushing when she was steered into the girls' locker room by someone who wasn't aware of Ranma's 'condition'. That, however, wasn't as odd as blushing when a new student had wolf-whistled at her, as rude and open as this was (footnote). But she'd blushed at that, and the new student was a boy! If Ranma had let herself think on a deeper level she'd be disturbed to find how in control her body was. Sadly, though, Ranma wasn't this accepting of her own mental freedom.

The funny shaped cloud was closer now, and was a funny color.

…The funny shaped cloud was Shampoo!

…With a kettle!

Running, thought Ranma, would be a good idea right now…

Only narrowly managing to dodge the hot water that was raining from the 'funny shaped cloud', Ranma caught the stick. She was pleased with herself until she realized that she'd caught it with her head.

"OW!" She yelled, infuriated. For no good reason she was absolutely furious with Shampoo. After all, normally this would simply be a minor nuisance, and she'd get on with it,

Ranma turned a glare on Shampoo so cold that when Mousse walked by he actually froze over before managing to get away, and Mousse was used to Shampoo's glares!

However, Ranma noticed this; Shampoo winced under Ranma's gaze, and Ranma felt guilty. She felt her cheeks redden with embarrassment, but she turned around.

Who cares about school right now? Ranma asked herself, heading home. She felt a rather unfamiliar sting in her eyes, and blamed it on hormones, refusing to let herself cry.

Shampoo, Ranma could tell, was still stuck in place, now wondering if she could move anymore. So, Ranma'd learned to glare daggers after all.

It began to rain. However, on a different note, Ranma's mind was too taken up with guilt to notice anything outside her skin.

Eventually Ryouga spoke up irritably.

"Look, are you going to the Tendo dojo or not?" He snarled. However Ranma, who had been entirely unaware of the existence of anything other than herself, and her guilt, hadn't even noticed him. She jumped. Ryouga was smirking under his umbrella when she turned around, clearly feeling smug that he'd snuck up on her.

Ranma tried to tell him to just go away, and that no she wasn't going to the Tendo dojo, but she found she couldn't speak. Her throat tightened, and the only thing she could see was that image of Ryouga kissing her, no matter how hard she focused on shoving it to the back of her mind.

"Well?" Ryouga prompted her, growling in a piggish way. Ranma's vision began to blur. She felt her knees buckling under her weight, but just before she fell she muttered: "S'your fault…" then hit the pavement. It was a small victory, but there it was.

…

A very confused face was looming over Ranma when she woke up. After a moment, Ranma realized that it was her own face, and then it didn't seem quite as confused.

"Ah, a mirror." She said. The mirror reacted at the same time, though it was mute.

"Hmmm?" Said the voice of Ryouga, turning around and breaking the view Ranma had of herself through the mirror on his backpack. "Oh, you're awake," He said dully. Ranma tried to nod, but her neck was sore from hanging her head so low.

"Yeah," She said instead. After a moment of very confused momentum, and perhaps even a little gravity(though Ranma wasn't sure about it), Ranma was vertical, being held up by Ryouga.

So you can do something nice, thought Ranma, with a smile. Although this thought was cut short by Ryouga saying his next line.

"Now that you're awake, take me to Akane's house!" He said in the tones of someone who wasn't sharing their umbrella, no matter what.

Words fought to be said through Ranma's mouth, and all of them were rude. After a moment of carefully selecting, she picked the least offensive one.

"Bugger off." She said, struggling loose of Ryouga's grip.

"Isn't that a little beyond your normal vocabulary?" Said Ryouga in an arrogant tone.

Hormones, thought Ranma again, then said. "It's your fault."

"What?" Said Ryouga. Ranma closed her eyes, and pinched her nose.

"Oh god… I want to die…" She said, hobbling away, realizing that on top of being pregnant she also had a fever, and could hardly walk. Gosh, I'm thinking so slowly…She thought.

However, she realized after another moment of not walking, she was being carried by…

…By Ryouga.

"You're steering." He warned her.

Oh no… thought Ranma. Akane's going to lo-ove this…

…

And, Akane did. She loved it so much that her room might as well have been on fire. After all, she was in it, crackling with smoke coming out of her ears, and refused to make Ranma dinner.

"See? Akane doesn't want to see you." Said Ranma to Ryouga. It was true, though it wasn't the whole story.

"I do not understand. Is my undying love not enough for her? Why does she not want to see a man who loves her with all his heart?" Asked Ryouga, who had somehow gotten on top of the fridge and was using it as a stage.

"Get down from there, pig-man!" Said Ranma, throwing a banana at his head, which made a very satisfying squish noise when it hit.

"Ranma, what have you done to poison my Akane?" Ryouga roared. Ranma was keenly aware of how close Ryouga's face was to hers.

"It's your fault, as I said." She stated, quite pleased with herself for not lying.

"What are you two up to?" Asked the new entry to the kitchen.

"Nabiki, you couldn't have picked a better time!" Said Ranma cheerfully, grabbing Ryouga by an ear. "Poor Ryouga needs a rebound girl, because his widdle-teeny-weeny heart was bwoken!" Said Ranma. Mentally she giggled at the baby-talk ending. Nabiki, for once, look completely at a loss for words.

"What's wrong with you?" She asked, staring at Ranma with an increasingly puzzled expression.

"What ever do you mean?" Asked Ranma, blinking as cutely as she could, clearly mocking Nabiki.

The girl continued to stare, and was slightly sad when she realized she didn't have her camera with her.

Ranma's view slowly panned to Ryouga's hand. Which, she found, was on her butt for balance. Ranma looked up at Ryouga's face, forcing an expression of disgust, because she wasn't sure why it didn't come on its own.

"Are you that desperate? I'm a guy!" Said Ranma, bombarding Ryouga with fruit. Ryouga slowly fell over, and Ranma panted, out of breath, feeling very violated. She shuddered.

"I have to go wash myself now… Make sure not to let him touch you, Nabi-san." After a moment of walking Ranma's brain kicked in.

Nabi-san? She wondered. Did I really say that?

Once in the bathroom Ranma froze. No longer was that nickname the most frightening thing, but now she saw a note, along with her pregnancy test. The note read as follows.

Hey Ranma, it'll cost you 10,000 yen a week if you want me to keep a lid on it. I got Akane to tell me who the father is… And I'll tell him…

Only one person in the word wrote notes like that. And that one person had been left in the same room as Ryouga… The person Ranma least wanted to have aware of a child in her womb(FN2).

(Footnote: he was an American…)

(FN2: Well, that's not true, really the person he least wanted to tell was Soun. Well, him and Genma.)

A/N: "Hiyo! Miko-Chan here, hope you liked this chapter! I did the last half, and I'll do the first half of the next one. I can blame no one for the slow updating but myself… And Shino-Chan. Aanyhoo, have a great day, and all that jazz."

A/N: Hey, it's me. Shinoru. Finally we have chapter 6 out! This story has gotten pretty far! I really like the dream sequence at the beginning, so review and tell me watcha thought! Also, chapter four of my story Icy Skies is almost ready… I did the first half of this chapter, and I think I am free of my writer's block! For at least a few seconds…