Disclaimer: I own very little.

A/N: Now, to clear out some things about Ryoga and Ranma and whatever there is going to be between them...

First of all, yes, Ryoga's going to be an uke. I wouldn't have it any other way. He's far softer than Ranma in the end, and far more emotional. I just can't see him being a seme with Ranma.

Secondly, no, he's not falling for Ranma because Ranma's a girl half the time. (That wouldn't work well with him being the uke anyway.) He does use that as an excuse to justify his feelings to himself, yes, but deep down he does know that he likes Ranma even better when he's a boy.

If the development of their relationship seems too fast to you, though, remember these things:

How much did it take from Ryoga to fall hopelessly in love with Akane? One little kiss and a hug. And just how many times has Ranma started to trust his rivals wholeheartedly just because of a couple of noble-hearted words? Too many times to count -- even (or especially) if they've had malicious intentions.

Also, it'll still be quite some time before Ranma realizes the truth about Ryo-kun -- though he does catch up eventually, unlike Akane with P-Chan. Not for a while, though. After all, he can be pretty dumb at times. Well, most of the time. Okay, so almost continuously...

Now, this will sound like pitiful begging, but... If any of those reading this are interested in Inuyasha, please check out my new story "Prayer to the Winds". It only has a prologue so far, but there will (hopefully) be more. If I don't get enough readers (and reviews) I may decide to not try out a new Fandom yet, no matter how exciting it is.

A Pig's Life

Chapter 2:

Friends or More?

"Do your best, Ranma!" bellowed Genma, preparing to fight with his son. The said son merely smirked before attacking his father. Morning practices could be such fun... especially now. Now, he had a special trick prepared. His father wouldn't even know what hit him.

For some time Ranma contented himself with just dodging his father's attacks without much difficulty. As Genma then started to taunt him, telling him to attack if he was a man, Ranma jumped into the air and snapped his fingers. In a second a small, black object launched itself from the shadows and hit Genma. The bespectacled man flew backwards, but unfortunately wasn't knocked out.

"Good work, Ryo-kun," Ranma still shouted, laughing. "Your aim's perfect; we only need to work on the force!" The pig 'bwee'd loudly in excitement, then watched as his "master" swiftly kicked his stunned father into the koi pond. Yes, Ryo-kun could definitely have fun while playing Ranma's pet.

What was that? asked the panda's sign as it glared at Ranma. It is unfair to use outside assistance!

"Ryo-kun ain't no outside assistance, he's my pet," Ranma said cheerfully. "I'm gonna train him until he can defeat you alone!" Now, he turned towards the said pig. "Come on, Ryo-kun," he said, deciding that he did not want to waste time to becoming a girl that morning. "Let's go and get some breakfast!"

Ryo-kun snorted happily and trotted after the pigtailed boy. This was definitely turning out nicely. After seeing how fast he was, Ranma had asked him to try out being a live missile against his father. Ryo-kun, of course, had agreed. He had certainly enough experience of such a thing; in his travels he had encountered many dangers, and could not always be in his human form. He might have used even more force behind his attack, but it wouldn't do to appear as anything but a usual -- if not a bit agressive -- pig.

This plan could not go wrong, at least not as long as his secret stayed, well, a secret. Ranma didn't suspect anything, that he was sure about. To spy on his enemy and learn his tactics -- what could be better? Especially when the said enemy happened to be rather good-looking at times.

Naughty Ryo-kun, naughty! That would so not do. If he had to think that Ranma was good-looking, he could at least wait until he was a she! This was getting really out of hooves -- er, hands.

Well, anyway. Time for breakfast. The life of a bweeing live missile made you hungry.

The members of the Tendo family were already settled around the table as Ranma walked in, sat, and set Ryo-kun on the table in front of him. Seemingly he did not think anything strange about that.

"What exactly is that, Ranma?" asked Nabiki, looking at the pig. She sounded a bit astonished.

"This is my new pet," the boy replied, smirking. "Say hi to Nabiki, Ryo-kun." Again, he poked the pig with his finger, and got an appropriate squeak in response. The pig then glared at him, and he smirked. "Sorry... Ya'll just have to learn to be faster to greet people. I may be bad-mannered, but my pig can't be that!"

"Well, you have about the manners of a pig," snorted Akane, "so it's just fine that you teach him your own manners. That pig can't be any better than you -- he's a pervert, too, after all."

"Don't insult my pig." Ranma stuck out his tongue. Then he picked some noodles from a bowl with his chopsticks and held them for Ryo-kun to snatch. "Come on, Ryo-kun. Eat!"

The pig, of course, was all to happy to do that. "Aww, how cute he is," Kasumi said with her usual smile. "So you've named him Ryo-kun, eh? Now, that's fine. How'd you decide on such a name?"

"Well, his bandanna's kinda like the one that Ryoga guy wears," Ranma said. "Y'know, the one who was here last night? So I thought I'd call him Ryo-kun. I thought about Ryo-chan, too, but..."

"You mean that pervert was Ryoga?" exclaimed Akane in rage. Suddenly she glared at poor Ryo-kun even more hatefully than before. The pig squirmed and squeaked in silent fear.

"Ryoga, not Ryo-kun," Ranma replied. "And 'sides, I hardly think Ryoga's a pervert. More likely he wanted to fight with me and went to the wrong room. He may be an idiot, but not a pervert."

"Well, at least there's one thing where you two aren't the same, then," the girl said, fuming. At this, Ranma glared at her. Ryo-kun, however, did not even seem to notice.

The pig was currently very confused. Ranma had actually stood up for him -- for Ryoga? Sure, at the same time he'd called him an idiot, but still. Could it be possible that Ranma hadn't ruined his life on purpose?

And why exactly did he feel so weird when Ranma did defend him?

"Damn that father." Ranma muttered curses under his breath as he twisted some water off his clothes. The next second his frown was replaced by a grin as he turned towards Ryo-kun. "Ya can't come to school with me," he said, "so you've gotta stay here, understood? Don't cause any trouble to Kasumi."

"I'm sure he won't be any trouble," Kasumi said cheerfully. "Such a cute little pig surely wouldn't do anything inappropriate!" She smiled at the pig, who nodded enthusiastically. Better to play along.

"That's great. Now, let's go!" With this, Ranma dashed out and started to run towards the school in damp clothes. Akane, as always, was running down on the street right beside him.

"That pig will cause trouble," muttered Akane, sounding more angry with the pig than Ranma was with his father, who had upon his entering the house poured cold water over his son for revenge. "Mark my words; no good will come from that thing." She said the "that thing" as if it'd been a foul word.

"What exactly d'you have against my pig?" asked Ranma, sounding exasperated. "He ain't ever done nothing to you. Feel free to be angry at me for no reason, but don't take it out on Ryo-kun!"

Now, Akane fumed even more. If Ranma only had known --! But she couldn't tell. Wouldn't. She'd given her word for that, and she'd die rather than break her promise. She wasn't like Ranma.

Just then, however, the form of a human dropped onto the fencetop right in front of Ranma. Ranma stopped on his track, looking in surprise at the other boy. "Ryoga?" he asked. "Whatcha doin' here?"

"Looking for you." As the bandanna-clad boy saw Ranma's wary expression, he raised his hands in a calming gesture. "Don't worry, I do not want to fight," he said. "In fact, that's why I wanted to talk to you."

"And ya actually found me?" asked Ranma, sounding amazed. "I'm real impressed."

"Could you just drop that?" the other boy asked, sounding embarrassed. At the same time he was carefully avoiding Akane's eyes, uneasy under her heated glare. "Anyway. I've thought about things, and I think that my hatred for you was rather unfounded. So, I just thought... Could we perhaps be... friends?"

Now, Ranma was stunned. He simply stared at the fanged boy, not believing his ears.

"It's not like I didn't still want to defeat you, no," Ryoga continued, now looking rather uneasy. "It just isn't all that matters, now is it? I can win you in a match without having to kill you."

"Being sure about ourselves, are we?" asked Ranma. After a moment of thinking, he said, "Okay."

"W-what?" asked Ryoga, genuinely surprised, like his wide eyes well showed. "O-okay what?"

"Okay, let's be friends." Ranma smiled, sticking out his hand. "Ya seem like a good guy, Ryoga. Besides, it'd be nice to have a friend who can actually get even close to matching my skills!"

"Hey!" exclaimed Akane angrily. "What about me, eh? What am I to you, then?"

The pigtailed boy blinked in surprise, turning to look at his reluctant fiancée. "Well, considering your usual behaviour, you most certainly don't want to be my friend," he said. "And besides, you're nowhere near to match my skill. And you're a girl on top of all."

Ryoga may not have had any sense of direction, but he did have some senses at least. Therefore, he knew better than well that he should now leave, lest he receive an accidental beating along with Ranma. So, he decided to walk right towards the fighting couple. In no time at all he found himself happily lost once again.

"Kami-sama, what a day." Ranma sighed, sitting on the roof. "At first pops, then fightin' with Akane twice and Kuno thrice. And like that hadn't been not enough, I got hit by cold water on my way home. Twice. Couldn't've gotten more insane if it'd tried to." Ryo-kun, who was sitting in his lap, didn't even bwee in agreement, just leant back against the boy. It was incredibly comfortable, Ranma's lap.

"Y'know what, Ryo-kun?" Ranma asked from the animal in his lap. "Ryoga came to talk to me on my way to school today. He said he wanted to be friends. Ain't that amazing? I mean, I'd never have thought. Maybe he's a nice guy after all." He smiled cheerfully. "I'm real happy, y'know. Never had a real friend before. Me and pops were always goin' 'round, didn't really get to know anyone."

Ryo-kun began to feel slightly uneasy. His main reason for the offer of friendship had been seeing how Ranma would react. If the other boy had refused, then it'd been okay to hate him and use his new position as Ranma's pet on his advantage in any way possible to ruin Ranma's life. However, now he didn't feel too sure about it. Not only had Ranma readily accepted his offer, but he seemed to be genuinely happy about the thought of having a friend. Well, of course. Running always around training with his father, Ranma probably had about as many steady human relationships as Ryoga himself, being eternally lost.

How could he properly hate Ranma now? He couldn't, really. It looked like Ranma really hadn't meant to ruin his life, no matter how improbable that had seemed at first. Instead, Ranma was just like him -- a young boy with very few friends. They both could probably indeed use a good friend. And who could understand their situation better than each other? Nobody, that's who.

No, he could not view Ranma as his enemy anymore. That didn't of course mean he'd give up on defeating him, just like he'd told Ranma earlier that day. However, he also wanted to be friends with the other boy -- or at least try to. They were rather similar in the end; they might get along pretty well.

And, of course, if there was somebody he had to befriend, that somebody could just as well be handsome.

Ryo-kun was quite flushed and very thankful that blushing didn't really show up on a black pig. Like previously stated, this was getting really out of hooves. Having a crush on female Ranma, that he might have handled, but having a crush on male Ranma was just impossible. Wrong. Despicable.

And exactly what he was doing now.

He should have been ashamed. Really, he should. Still, he couldn't help but feel rather glad as Ranma shivered a bit, then took him into his hands and pressed him against his chest. "Come on, Ryo-kun. We'd better get inside," Ranma said, standing up with the pig still in his hands. Again, Ryo-kun stayed silent, simply enjoying the feel of a muscular chest against his back. This was wrong, wrong and oh-so wonderful.

Well, if he really had to have a crush on a guy, it might just as well be somebody who was female at least part of the time. That way, he could at least somehow justify his feelings.

...Except that while it felt good being held against female Ranma's chest, this was even better...

Naughty Ryo-kun, naughty.

A/N: ...I truly like the word "bwee" now.

Next chapter:

Kodachi, the Black Rose, shows up and falls in love, like we all know she did. However, who she falls in love with is an important question. Kukukukuku.