Chapter 5: Rink Side Love
Ranma was sweating a bit after a sparring session with Hibari. He wondered why every time he had an opening to strike the blonde he could only go in for a light poke or tap. Nearly two weeks into his stay with the Oozora's and Ranma still grappled with feelings of uncertainty and emotional confusion. Consciously he saw Hibari as a guy, but his subconscious refused to accept it. Had to be the curse.
The blonde in question meanwhile was panting heavily (the motion drawing Ranma's eyes, and confirming for the 100th time the lack of a bust), but beaming that smile which made Ranma further question his own sexuality.
"I actually landed a few hits today," Hibari managed between breaths, "And I think you have to admit my strength isn't really too lacking."
"Fine," Ranma replied, "You're decently strong. Surprising since you're a twig... Still too soft on defense though."
Hibari reply by sticking out her tongue.
Suddenly the door to the dojo slid open and Suzume burst in, running around them shouting too quickly for either teen to make out.
"We're gonna go skating! Skating! Yay!" they finally parsed out after the fourth or fifth lap.
"Skating?" Ranma gulped.
"Don't tell me that the amazing Saotome Ranma can't skate?" Hibari giggled.
"Never bothered to learn, pops said it was girly."
"Well, now I can teach you something," Hibari winked, once more cracking at Ranma's resolve.
Ranma grumbled and paid for his ticket. A few minutes later he was lacing up, still grumbling. Hibari was waiting impatiently as the pig-tailed boy walked awkwardly to the rink, placed a foot on the ice and... slipped onto his back
"Oh, very graceful," Hibari laughed.
"Yeah yeah, laugh it up," Ranma replied as he struggled back to his feet, only to fall again a few moments later.
"Come on, take my arm, I'll help you."
"I'm not gonna hold on all undignified, it's not manly," Ranma protested.
Three more falls, and a pair of kids laughing at him, proved too much for Ranma. He fumed and pulled off the skates, wandering towards a washroom.
"Where's he going?" Tsubame asked as she skated up to Hibari.
"When you gotta go, you gotta go," Hibari replied with a shrug.
A few moments later a short busty redhead emerged from the men's room. As Ranma wandered onto the ice and put his skates on again he found he couldn't even get upright now.
"Oh, right," he muttered, "they're the wrong size now."
Hibari just giggled while he took them back off. Sighing he wandered back to the skate rental desk. The slightly acne afflicted lad behind the counter's attention was captured instantly.
"Excuse me, mister, I think I go the wrong size of skates," the little redhead said adorably, handing over the skates.
"Oh yeah," the guy said nervously. "These have gotta be way too big. Wrong style too. I'll give you a discount for the confusion miss. If you'd like we've got a sizing scale over there, just put your foot in and tell me the number."
Ranma did as instructed. "It says 22 mister."
Almost instantly the man appeared with a tiny pair of pink and white skates.
"Here you go miss," he smiled.
"Er, ya got any a little less... pink?" Ranma replied, annoyed out of his cutesy act.
"You don't-You don't like pink?" the guy asked with a terrified tone. He didn't want to upset a cute girl. "Um... We've only got women's 22s. Or boy's."
"I'll go for the boy's, assuming they ain't pink."
In a few seconds he had a nice pair of red and black skates in his hands, with a big smile. The skates were on his feet quickly, and he was on the ice again. A few seconds later and his rear was on the ice again too.
"Ow," he grumbled. "Still, not as far to fall, and a fair bit more padding."
"You willing to accept some help now?" Hibari asked, skating up beside the redhead, an arm out.
"Yeah, alright," Ranma grumbled. "Only until I get this figured out. Can't be too hard to manage."
While he took Hibari's hand he proved quite reluctant to stand up, instead crouching awkwardly.
"What happened to all they manly pride?" Hibari asked with an eye roll.
"You seen this chest?" Ranma asked, a finger pointing in a rather undignified manner (that resulted in several male skaters nearby losing their footing as they made sure to see what they could). "I ain't exactly a man right now. A girl bein' clumsy on the ice looks a lot less silly than a guy."
"Oh, really?" the blonde asked.
"Like you'd know either way," Ranma mumbled.
The two ended up skating in silence for a bit. After about a minute Hibari grumbled and yanked Ranma into a more upright position, which elicited some complaints, but a few panicked yelps interrupted Ranma's ability to argue. He was just starting to get confident enough to let go of his skating partner when a handsome brown-haired teen slid up towards the pair.
"What a beautiful sight," the man with a figure skater's elegance smiled. "You two lovely ladies are a very pleasant surprise. Unfortunately though, I must ask you to move off the ice for a bit. A matter of safety you see, my partner and I need to do some rather intensive training."
He then leaned in a little too close to the pair of them. "I'll be happy to spend some time with you two later though."
"Miiiikaaadoooo!" an annoyingly cutesy girl shouted. "Do your girl chasing later. I want to get the Assault of 100 Foes done now!"
"Yes Asuza," Mikado replied. "You two girls stay safe."
Hibari and Ranma were confused at the rather strange name for a skating move, until they looked around to see a swarm of men in hockey player gear, all moving forward aggressively.
"Only in Nerima," Hibari grumbled as they skated to one side (well, Hibari skated, Ranma was more towed).
"Huh?" Ranma asked.
"Probably combat skating or something weird like that," Hibari replied. "So many oddballs in this ward. I blame all the manga and anime studios. People want to show off. They'll do anything dumb to inspire the next big hit."
As the hockey players moved into position Ranma half remembered that someone had told him Nerima was known for anime and turnips... or was it radishes? Either way, martial artist versions of varying activities seemed a much better selling point to him. Everyone should have led with that.
The hockey players descended, as Mikado lifted Asuza into the air. The pair began to spin, Azusa kicked furiously, sending opponents flying every which way. Then the pair split up, Mikado slid into a particularly thick clump of hockey players, and lashed out with elbows and knees to knock the men from their feet in seconds. Azusa meanwhile swept a number of ankles with a number of low kicks, then took out her last opponent with a dangerous looking kick to the face, splitting his mask with her skating blade, though impressively stopping before she cut his face.
"9 seconds," one of the men lying on the rink sighed. "Truly they are the golden pair."
"Hmph," Azusa replied. "If Mikado concentrated, instead of showing off to those girls, we'd have been done faster."
"I can't help that I'm a showman," Mikado smiled as he skated toward Ranma and Hibari, a comb in his hair. "Did you ladies enjoy the show?"
"Yeah!" Ranma replied, ignoring his distaste for being called a lady. "That's way more fun than regular skating. Better moves than hockey too. I coulda probably finished 'em all in 5 seconds myself though."
"Spirited little thing, aren't you?" Mikado laughed. "And you, my lovely blonde angel?"
"Fighting's not really my top interest," the yakuza heir replied, before a mischievous smirk grew on her lips. "You're fairly cute though, so that made it better."
Sure, Hibari knew the guy was a slime, but watching Ranma get flustered about Hibari flirting, and then get flustered over the fact he got flustered, was too funny to miss.
Mikado Sanzenin smiled seductively. "Always glad to please a cute girl like you. Perhaps I can make your day even better."
With that he placed a hand seductively on Hibari's chin, and moved his face so that their lips were mere inches apart. Hibari's eyes narrowed, fist clenching in preparation for any further movement.
"HEY!" Ranma shouted angrily.
"Hmm?" Mikado blinked and turned to the diminutive redhead, his face still very close to Hibari's.
"What do you think you're-WAAAH!" Ranma's shouted was interrupted as he found himself slipping, still not steady on skates.
Before he could hit the ground Sanzenin had caught him, "Poor girl, so innocent. I'll happily teach you to skate."
"Er, no thanks," Ranma replied as he realised he'd been physically swept of his feet and he began squirming awkwardly (not unlike a cat... but it would be best not to share that particular comparison with him).
"At least let me steal a little prize for catching you," Sanzenin smiled.
Ranma couldn't reply as Mikado moved in quickly for the kiss. As their lips met Ranma slid into a state of shock. He stopped processing anything of his surroundings, only vaguely aware he'd been placed back on the ice, and was slowly drifting forward. Suddenly tears filled his eyes, and he burst into a frightened scramble away, no rational thoughts in his mind.
Watching the small redhead flee Sanzenin felt a twang of guilt. "So pure. So innocent. I should have saved her to be girl number 1000 on my list of kisses. Oh well. 999 is still an important number."
Ranma barely registered that as he opened the door out of the rink, remembering there were public baths in the building. He also completely missed Hibari tensing up, eyes filled with rage. All that repeated through Ranma's mind as he scrambled into the baths was 'How dare he? How dare he?'. Ranma was so furious he rushed through the bathing area and leapt into the tub without so much as removing his skates (to the disappointment of the men in the bathing area). As a black haired boy rose from where the red-haired girl had dove in, with the same clothes on, the men began to look around for a hidden camera or something to explain the oddness. One poked around, convinced the redhead was still under water.
Fuming, Ranma marched back to the skating rink, barely noticing the pain in his feet from the much too small skates. Stomping out onto the ice, with murder in his eyes, Ranma had his quest for revenge thrown into confusion by what he saw.
Sanzenin was already unconscious, slumped against a cracked side board with a furious Hibari standing over him, fists balled and eyes filled with nearly as much murderous intent as Ranma felt in his own heart. Ranma stomped over to the blonde, not sure if he was angry Hibari for robbing him of vengeance, or glad to actually have someone take his side for once in his life. When Ranma finally reached the blonde (oblivious to the damage he was doing to the rink with his stomping, and Azusa's protests about it) he decided that the anger was stronger.
"THAT WAS MY FIGHT!" Ranma roared.
Hibari shot him an icy glare, "Well sorry for trying to defend your honour."
"A man doesn't need someone else to defend his honour!" Ranma shot back.
"OH! Now you care about being manly!" Hibari countered. "You just want to cherry pick what you see as the best of both worlds!"
"And you don't you... you pervert!?" Ranma roared. "For the first time in my life I'm truly and properly angry, and you've robbed me of the satisfaction of beating up the guy responsible!"
Hibari seemed ready to say something, but instead tears welled up in those bright blue eyes and the blonde skated away in bitter silence. Ranma let out a primal roar, and smashed his fist into the ice, needing to destroy something. He then tore off the painfully tight skates, before deciding to go for a rooftop hopping run.
"Oh boy," was all Tsugumi managed to say as she gathered up her younger sisters to return home.
Azusa meanwhile began doodling on Mikado's face, and many of their training buddies joined in. That would teach Mikado for dropping his guard so much towards girls he found cute.
It was evening by the time Ranma returned to the Oozora compound. He landed in the backyard, having leapt over the wall, and stormed through the large household. His fuming was interrupted by the appearance of Tsugumi.
"Oh, Ranma, you're back," the eldest Oozora daughter smiled compassionately. "I hope you're feeling a bit better?"
Ranma grumbled something incoherent.
"Oh hey, it's lover boy," Tsubame laughed as she strolled in. "You know, we really should tell Mikado the truth. He thinks he's kissed 999 girls now, but it's probably more like 998 and ½."
"Tsubame, stop teasing. And Ranma, don't let it bother you so much," Tsugumi tried to reassure him. "It's just a kiss. I'm sure you'll forget about it soon enough. I know I've had more than a few forgettable kisses in my life."
"Mhm, not really a big deal, since you're both boys it barely counts," Tsubame laughed. "Unless maybe it was your first kiss. It wasn't... was it? That would be too much!"
The silence provided the answer, and Tsubame burst out laughing. Tsugumi couldn't help but giggle a little too. Ranma's aura turned dark and he stomped off to his room. He flopped angrily onto his bed, screaming something into his pillow. The sulking was interrupted as the divider between his room and Hibari's opened.
"So, pouting is manly?" Hibari asked. "I think dad wants me to take notes on these things."
"Oh, here to laugh at me too?" Ranma hissed.
"No," Hibari replied with surprising empathy, as the blonde sat down beside Ranma on the bed. "I've come close to your situation too many times. You've got to learn to be better prepared for those types of guys."
"You didn't fare much better. He almost kissed you," Ranma grumbled as he sat up. "If I hadn't said something-"
"I'd have socked him before our lips touched," Hibari replied confidently. "My guard is always up for those sorts of guys."
"Oh?" Ranma said, a hand sliding under Hibari's rear, and another on the beautiful blonde's shoulder, swept the yakuza heir into Ranma's lap, and their lips sat mere centimetres apart.
Both teens blushed, until Ranma's eyes grew wide as he realised what he was doing, and he leapt backwards, stumbling onto his combination of a need to defend his own honour and subconcious desire had caused Ranma to act without thinking. Waving his arms in front of him the pig-tailed martial artist began blurting out excuses.
"I wasn't – I wouldn't – no way would I kiss ya. Having – having a guy as my first and second kiss would be too much. No. Can't do it!" he was rambling.
"Hmmph, you're far too shy," Hibari replied, trying not to let the words sting.
"You keep thinking the curse is making me open to that sorta weird stuff, don't ya?" Ranma shot.
"I keep hoping that maybe it will make you a little more open, yes. But not to anything weird. Just love, despite whatever cruel jokes of gender the Kami have played on both of us," the blonde countered. "Instead all I get is pain as you keep seeming ready and then pull away. Do you know how much that hurts? I see something like love in your eyes for a moment, then it's replaced with disgust every time!"
Ranma felt stunned at the words and the way it hurt. As the blonde stormed back across the divider and slammed the door between the two of them he was left trying to process just what it meant. Slowly he convinced himself that Hibari's motives had to be perverted. After all, Hibari used the girl's change room, and in Ranma's opinion anyone born a man who did that had to be some sort of deviant and pervert... even if Hibari seemed more interested in guys. How did that mesh?
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of sobbing across the divider. For a brief moment he wanted to go over and comfort Hibari, but then talked himself out of it. Clearly he was just too confused and stressed out today.
Leaping off a boat before it was properly docked, a Chinese girl in bright clothing smiled to herself. She was finally on the trail of her enemy again. Dusting herself off quickly she set off towards the city centre.
"Did that girl have blue hair or purple? I couldn't tell in this light," a dockworker asked, too tired to really care about stopping her.
"Looked more purple to me," his coworker replied.
"Nah, that was definitely blue," another disagreed.
The argument would continue the rest of the shift.