Disclaimer: I do not, and unfortunately will never own Ranma ½. The story, and characters all belong to a wonderful woman named Rumiko Takahashi. The only thing that I own would have to be myself, and hopefully some part of the plot used for this fan fiction.

...With the amount of fan fiction floating around the Internet these days, I highly doubt it.

Here's a little extra note: I personally dislike Akane. Not because she's one of main characters, or because she apparently 'gets Ranma'. I just really don't like her attitude, and her supposed 'righteous fury' towards Ranma whenever she jumps to the conclusion that he's a pervert. She's spoiled rotten, and never really has to pay for her overreactions.

In my opinion, I don't think that Ranma would appreciate being treated like that. Even if he did like her, what sort of relationship would they truly be able to build? If he doesn't hate her, then he would at least be sarcastic towards her. (Even if it was only in his head)

With that said, I will do my best to not out right bash her in this fanfic.

...Are you sure that there's no possibility of me owning Ranma ½?

...No?

Well, damn.

Ashley was whistling a random little tune as she circled her 'home', peering closely at the seams of the rather small tent. After a few more minutes of circling the entire tent and carefully checking the rainfly, she nodded to herself. 'This should hold up okay... I hope.' With that thought, she attempted to drive the picks further into the ground with her foot.

After checking the tent once more, she looked up to the sky. The sky had already gotten slightly darker, but she had a feeling that the storm was still a while away. 'This'll be my first night in the tent during a storm...' She couldn't help thinking, a nervous grin creeping up on her face. If the tent wasn't able to stand up to it... She would be royally screwed.

Unfortunately, the apartment that she had been saving up for had already been rented. That idiot manager had known that she would be coming with the money soon, but had decided to ignore her in favor of someone else. She snorted, 'Well, whatever. That dump didn't even have a decent shower...'

Now, she had her sights set on an entirely different apartment complex. It would be a little bit more expensive than the other one, but she now had a signed form and had already payed half of the total cost for the apartment. On the plus side, this one came with a nice shower and bath set, as well as tiny kitchen.

She zipped up the tent and picked up the new water-proofed bag that she had wished up earlier. 'At least I won't have to worry about my wallet and art supplies getting wet.' She looked a little happier after that thought, and then proceeded to begin the trek out of the miniature forest.

She had barely reached the edge of the tree line when she suddenly looked up. What the hell was that infernal whistling noise? As she squinted at the sky, she could see a faint black shape falling from an extreme height. Her eyes widened when she began to recognize the falling figure, who seemed to be unconscious.

She winced at the figure's sudden harsh impact with one of the taller trees, and gasped as she saw him slowly slip from the top branch. Watching him hit almost every single branch on the way down was rather painful to watch. Not knowing what else to do, she ran to the bottom of the tree.

Ranma Saotome, heir to the Saotome School of Indiscriminate Grappling, wavered back into consciousness just in time to see the blond woman below him. He felt himself fall onto something soft and squishy, and then knew no more.

Ashley looked at Ranma with worry as she put another band aid over one of the larger cuts. After catching/getting squished by him, she had carried him over to the nearest bench and tried her best to fix up some of the smaller injuries. She opened one of the water bottles in her bag, and tried wiping some of the dirt that covered his face and arms, accidentally splashing him with the water.

Needless to say, she had been amazed at his transformation. It was one thing to see it from home, but to actually witness the almost instant gender change... It was freaking awesome.

Not that she would ever say that out loud, of course.

She looked down to her currently female 'patient' with a small sigh. She had tried, but her limited first-aid knowledge was pretty useless. Besides he... um... she didn't really seem to be hurt too badly. Just a few scrapes, and a small cut or two on her face and arms. Ashley couldn't believe that he could fall from an undetermined height, and then smash his way down an entire tree, with out even breaking one of his limbs... Or at least without giving himself a concussion.

She finally covered the last scrape with one of her larger bandages, and made sure to put all of the wrappers from the band-aids into the nearest garbage can. Dusting her hands off, she decided to sit on the ground beside the bench. 'Well, I guess that I'll just have to wait here...'

Ranma had been having a normal day. The usual bucket of water to the face in the morning, and the following spar with his father. Rushing through breakfast, and then walking to school with Akane. Kick the crap out of Kuno in the school yard, and then walk in late for class...

A perfectly normal morning.

...Well, for him that is.

Shampoo had surprised him after school, running him over with her demonic bicycle in greeting. Of course, this had caused Akane to freak out a little earlier than usual. This resulted in him getting an unexpected free ticket on Mallet Airlines, which always gave him a chance to enjoy the view of Nerima from a lower earth orbit perspective.

...Well it would have, if not for Akane being a whole lot angrier at him than usual. Her boosted 'righteous anger' had actually managed to knock him unconscious. Maybe he had been breathing too close to her again? After all, almost everything that he ever did was perverted.

...At least according to the youngest Tendo.

He honestly couldn't remember the flight, but he did briefly remember landing on something that had thankfully cushioned him from the ground. 'Damn... That really would have sucked.' With these thoughts in mind, he slowly began to regain consciousness.

The first thing that he noticed was that he was laying down on something far more comfortable than the ground. He groaned, the light from sun was really irritating him. He heard a feminine gasp and a small bit of movement before opening his eyes in surprise. He bolted up, and immediately slipped into a defensive stance.

There was a slow whistle, "My, that was impressive."

He turned and blinked stupidly at the woman standing behind him. "Um..."

The large blond grinned cheekily at him, "Nice to see that you're finally awake."

It was then that Ranma noticed his slightly damp clothes, and his... her breasts. "I-I..."

Ashley actually blushed as she adjusted the bag on her shoulder, "That would be my fault. I was just trying to clean you up a little so that I could get the band-aids to stick properly..."

Ranma then noticed the various band-aids of different sizes and colors covering the few scrapes on his arms. "You... saw?" At the girls nod, he couldn't help but twitch. "Well? ...Aren't you going to say something?"

The blond blinked at him and tilted her head to the side. "About what?"

'M-maybe she didn't see it...' The redhead smiled, looking hopeful.

Ashley saw the sudden change of emotions on Ranma's face, and couldn't help but sigh. "Please, don't even bother pretending to be a girl. I saw you change... Quite frankly, I'm not so sure why you're expecting me to freak out."

Ranma looked over at her, eyes wide. 'She... really doesn't care?'

She sat on the bench, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. "I'm Ashley-marie, sorry about this."

The redhead blinked and slowly sat down beside her. "Uh... Ranma Saotome."

Ashley turned towards the pigtailed martial artist with a small grin, "Well? Are you just going to leave me in the dark about this?"

Ranma sighed and leaned back against the bench, "...Do you really want to know?"

"Well... It's not like I have anywhere to go tonight..." She shrugged, the grin never leaving her face.

Ranma looked her over suspiciously a few times before sighing and giving in. "Ever heard of a place called Jusenkyo?"

Ashley was trembling.

Not with fear, but with rage.

Ranma had taken quite easily to his explanation, and after going through the standard story he had decided to tell her a little bit more about his everyday life. Within the span of a few hours, he had come very close to telling her his life story. ...Not that she didn't already know it, of course.

She couldn't help but smile quietly to herself, 'I guess he just really needed someone to actually talk to.' She had stayed almost completely silent during Ranma's little summary of his life, only nodding to let him know that she was still listening.

It wasn't the same as watching it on a television set. It wasn't the same as reading it in a book... She couldn't really find any humor in most of the things that Ranma had told her... The exact same things that she would have been giggling over if she had been at home.

Hearing Ranma's voice as he described what it had felt like when he had first fallen into the spring...

Listening to him as he told her about what he had to put up with in his everyday life...

It just... wasn't funny anymore.

She slowly clenched and unclenched her fists as she thought of Genma. 'The lazy-ass bastard...' Of course, Ranma had left out the everyone's names, as well as the Neko-ken training... But that didn't mean that she couldn't fill in the blanks. She took a deep breath, and then slowly released it. It wouldn't do any good to lose her temper in front of Ranma.

Ranma had leaned back towards the back of the bench again, completely at a loss of what to do. First, this nice girl tries to save him. She does all that she could at the time to help him in his unconscious state... She finds out about his curse and doesn't feel uncomfortable around him, or decide to call him a pervert..?

He didn't know what it was... One moment he's giving her the basic Jusenkyo story, and before he had realized it he had told her... almost everything. He had never talked that much... to anyone. 'Maybe she used some kind of special manipulation technique?'

After seriously looking her over, he couldn't see anything that would qualify her as a martial artist. "She obviously doesn't train..." He jumped up from the bench, his hands covering his mouth. 'Oh crap. Did I say that out loud?'

"You're right Ranma, I don't train. ...I'm sorry to say that I can't even throw a decent punch."

He blinked at her casual answer. "Aren't you mad at me for saying that?"

She smiled in an easy going manner, "C'mon Ranma. Honestly, do I look like a martial artist?"

"Well, no... It's just that..."

"It's just what, Ranma?" She tilted her head to the side, the smile slowly transforming into a smirk.

"...I've never told anyone the complete story like that. I... How did you get me to do it?" He looked at her in a slightly accusing way, his eyes narrowing.

Ashley held up her hands, "Wow, wow! Slow down there... I never made you do anything."

He paused for a moment. 'She's right.'

The only thing that she had really done the entire time was nod, and give him an encouraging smile or two... He had almost told her the whole story without even realizing it.

He played with his braid nervously, "Um... Sorry. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions like that."

She shrugged, "No problem... This kind of thing used to happen to me all the time at home."

"What, being confused for a martial artist?"

She laughed, a surprisingly loud sound from someone with such a quiet voice. "Nah... I'm pretty easy to talk to, I guess. I used to have a bunch of girls at school come to me for advice, or just so that they could have someone to tell their problems to."

Ranma blinked, "Why would they keep coming to you? ...Were they your friends, or something?"

Ashley grinned, "Not at all, actually... I barely knew them, but they liked coming to me. I guess it's because they knew that I'd keep their secrets safe. Whatever someone tells me, won't ever be repeated."

"So, you won't tell anyone about...?"

"It'll be our little secret."

Of course, after hours of being ignored, Ranma's stomach decided to loudly input it's own opinion. Ranma looked away, a bright blush covering his cheeks as he coughed into his hand. "Um, well... Right then."

The blond looked up towards the dark sky, a rumble of thunder signifying that the storm was well on it's way. "Aw, crap... I'm sorry for keeping you out this late!"

Ranma looked around a little, "Um... Aren't your parents going to be mad if you're late getting home?"

She paused, wincing slightly. "Ah... No. I'm currently living alone."

"Well, are you hungry?"

At this moment, Ashley's own stomach decided to growl out an answer before she could even open her mouth. She blushed, "Oops. Ehehe... You didn't hear anything."

He raised an eyebrow. "Of course not. A bear just decided that now would be the perfect time to go for a walk in the park."

She nodded sagely, "Exactly."

They both stared at each other for a few seconds of silence, before finally bursting into laughter.

After taking a while to convince Ashley that he wouldn't break his back by carrying her, Ranma jumped up to the nearest rooftop and set off to the Tendo dojo. There was no denying that she was heavy, but she was no where near as big as his father. After a minute or two, she had finally relaxed enough to stop stabbing him with her nails. He wasn't about to say it out loud, but it had actually hurt... But only slightly. He was the best, after all.

He couldn't help but sigh with relief as he landed in front of the gate, placing the large woman gently onto her feet. She looked at him worriedly as they walked up the path towards the house. "Oh, god... I knew you shouldn't have carried me! Oh... Your poor back..."

He simply waved it off, and opened the door. "Kasumi, I brought a guest over for dinner! Is that okay?"

After they had removed their shoes, Kasumi walked out of the kitchen. "Oh? Did you invite one of your little friends over again, Ranma?"

Ashley waved, "Hello Kasumi!"

"Oh my!" Kasumi smiled and gracefully bowed in greeting. "Ashley-marie! It's so nice to see you again!"

"Aw, Kasumi... Just call me Ashley. Ashley-marie is a bit of a mouthful..."

She nodded, "Ashley, I tried those sugar-free cookies that you seemed to like so much. They were quite... Um... 'Awesome'!" The eldest Tendo daughter raised her dainty fist into the air with an enthusiastic smile.

The blond giggled, "Of course they're awesome!" She matched Kasumi's smile before continuing. "So, is there anything that I can help you with?"

"Oh, you really don't need too..."

"Oh, I insist!"

Ranma blinked in confusion as the two women made their way to the kitchen, chatting away happily. 'They know each other...?' He shrugged to himself, and then decide to go find the fat panda. Maybe they could have a quick spar before the rain started...

...Okay, so... I lied. It's not longer than the last chapter. But hey, at least it's new. That's got to count for something, right?

Oh, a note... I prefer referring to Ranma as a 'he' instead of changing it to 'she' whenever his curse gets activated. Why? Because he still considers himself to be male, even when in female form.

Also, before anyone asks, no I am not going to be pairing myself up with Ranma. That's a budding friendship, there. ...Or at least an attempt at it.

What did you think of it, anyway?

Good?

Bad?

Holy-shit-learn-how-to-freaking-type?

Review and tell me!

Luv,

Shifta Shi-Chan(aka Ashley)

xoxoxo

(P.S. If anyone's confused about my appearance, I've posted a pic of myself on my profile.)