Mother Time
A Fiveshot by Allison Illuminated
A Few Years After Canon…
"I'm home!" Akane called from the front entryway.
The familiar sound of his wife's voice made Ranma smile, but he didn't call back a greeting. Instead, Ranma reclined back in the rocking chair, keeping quiet as he watched over the nursery, patiently waiting for Akane to come to him. The nursery was one of the loveliest gifts that Kasumi and Soun had left for Ranma and Akane when the newlywed Saotomes had taken over the dojo – Kasumi had given her own room to be turned into a sanctuary for their soon-to-be-born child, and the results, well, they were wonderful. Ranma had never much imagined himself a father as a teenager, but the peace he found from his daughter, it was like nothing he had ever known before in his life.
When Ranma had finally married Akane about a year after the failed wedding, it was like all the craziness in his life had flipped off like a switch. Genma had mellowed almost overnight. Ranma had scarcely believed it, but Genma had bowed before him and had given Akane a solemn vow that he would treat their children with the utmost respect (Akane had been twitching, barely containing her clenched fists), then had gone off to beg Nodoka for forgiveness. Nodoka had eventually taken Genma back – nowadays, the two were proud grandparents, and doted over their granddaughter in loving and sane ways, like trips to the park where they were absolutely, under no circumstances, allowed to sign or agree to anything on their granddaughter's behalf, on threat of death from Akane.
The Amazons had packed up and gone back to China. Ukyo had realized that she was a lesbian, a realization that had shaken the foundations of their little friend group for a while, but Ranma and Akane had slowly come to terms with their friend's sexuality after a small (very large, very dramatic) crisis of faith. Now Ukyo had settled into a quiet domestic partnership with Konatsu, and the Saotomes had come to their own epiphany – Akane liked women too, even though that didn't change her preference for men, nor her affections for Ranma.
With the main sources of conflict solved, the rest had quietly dissipated over time, leaving the two of them to live their lives in peace, something which neither Ranma nor Akane had any clue of how to do. For the first two years, that had meant throwing themselves full-throttle into their new lives: Martial Arts Pregnancy, a Marriage-Among-Marriage, Super Child Rearing (Ranma had begun to run out of steam by that point). But as their daughter had weaned off of breastfeeding, and Akane had begun to consider options for university, the unthinkable happened: Ranma Saotome had mellowed out. Calmed down. Let his fires of youth diminish to a gentle spark. Now Akane was a first-year student at Musashi University, and Ranma stayed home, where he taught a few martial-arts classes to local students and took care of their one-year-old daughter.
He had become, in effect, a house husband.
And the truth was? Ranma loved it.
He loved the simple life, running his dojo and taking care of his daughter. He loved taking care of the old Tendo Dojo, now the Saotome Dojo, and cooking meals to save Akane from her own lack of talent; Akane had protested at first when Ranma had tried to take over the cooking, but after a week of stubbornly eating her own cooking, and a bout of food poisoning that had landed Akane in the emergency room, Akane had begrudgingly surrendered all cooking duties to Ranma. Ranma loved being there for every moment of the life of his beautiful daughter, Saotome Keiko, who was, as far as he was concerned, absolutely perfect and flawless and don't you dare complain about our daughter that way, 'Kane, she's just right ("Well, then maybe you should have the next one!" Akane had shouted back, causing both her and Ranma to blush whenever they looked at each other for the rest of the day.)
It was true – Keiko had always seemed to prefer Ranma's female form. Akane liked to snicker about his 'predicament,' but in truth, Ranma didn't mind that he spent more time as a woman than a man these days; he would do anything for Keiko, and if his little girl felt more comfortable if he was the same, then Ranma could live with being an absolutely smoking redhead. Even though his wife would never admit it on pain of death, Akane certainly didn't seem to mind.
Sometimes when Ranma was alone with his thoughts, that little fact about his life – that he had spent far more time since Keiko's birth as a woman than a man – seemed to have more behind it than he was willing to consider, like a little nagging tug at the corners of his awareness. But in the lulling comfort of his home, when each day seemed like an idyllic continuation of the last, there was never any need to confront that itch.
Keiko preferred Ranma as a woman, so a woman Ranma would remain.
Akane poked her head into the nursery and visibly relaxed when she caught sight of Ranma, slipping into the room. Ranma smiled at his wife, happily accepting her kiss when she came over to his rocking chair.
"Didn't wanna wake her up," Ranma murmured, casting an adoring look at the crib, where Keiko was still peacefully snoozing, although she had begun to stir. "Poor thing tuckered herself out earlier, 'Kane. Told ya she'd like those blocks you got her last week."
"Did she," Akane said in an amused tone, though not without a note of consideration
"Oh yeah," Ranma boasted. "We made a big old tower, and then Kei-chan knocked it all down, and then Kei-chan had loads of fun crawling all over me. Then I got her to eat her natto, and she didn't even throw it up!"
Akane laughed and leaned down to kiss Ranma on the forehead again, then drifted over to the crib to stare down at Keiko. "It sounds like an eventful day."
Ranma yawned, nodding his head in agreement. "Little brat tuckered me out too," he said. "I was taking a big ole nap before you got home. Good day at school?"
Akane gave a half-shrug. "The usual. Listen, Ranma… I've been thinking…"
"Bout what?"
Letting out a big sigh, Akane leaned back against the crib, her eyes meeting Ranma's. She crossed her arms. Ranma frowned; it looked like something was really eating at his wife, and he didn't like that he wasn't sure what.
"You had your period last week," Akane said.
That had been a miserable couple of days – Ranma hated how heavy his flow was, and he'd spent most of it laying on a futon with a heating pad over his angry uterus, letting Nodoka take over the parenting duties for a day. "Yeah," Ranma agreed, shuddering. "Didn't love that. Why – we out of pads or something? I can go to the store tomorrow."
"What? No, that's not what I-" Breaking off, Akane pushed a frustrated hand up into her hair, which she'd taken to wearing even shorter than in high school. "Ranma," Akane said flatly. "When was the last time you were a guy?"
Ranma blinked owlishly at Akane. "Uh…" he said, racking his brain. "I dunno, a couple of weeks ago? Why? Do ya want to have sex tonight? We could go and drop Keiko off with Ma and Pops."
Akane sighed louder. "Baby, we had sex last night."
Blushing at the memory, Ranma gave a sheepish chuckle. "Yeah, that was pretty neat." When Akane's eyebrow twitched, Ranma quickly backpedaled. "I mean, fantastic! Wonderful! Totally awesome! I love what ya did with your fingers, ya know?"
"Ranma," Akane moaned, dropping her face to her hands. "You have no idea, do you?"
Ranma did not, in fact, have any idea, but trying to guess the mysteries of his wife's mind had only ever ended in disaster for him, so he kept his mouth shut.
Akane sighed a third time, chuckling to herself. Ranma took the moment of apparent self-reflection to admire his wife – he'd used to pick on Akane for being a tomboy, but over the years, Ranma had come to love how handsome Akane was, the way that her short hair framed her jaw, the casual way she wore trousers and a loose shirt to school to blend in with the men in her biology department. "Listen," Akane said. "I was talking with some of the guys from my class, and I was telling them about you, about your curse and everything… and they said some things that got me thinking. I know you don't mind your curse, but have you ever thought-"
Her thought was interrupted by a sleepy noise from the crib. Both Akane and Ranma turned toward the crib as Keiko yawned and stirred, blinking her big brown eyes open. Ranma let out a little aw.
"Oh," Akane said softly, her shoulders falling. "Hello, Kei-chan, darling."
"Mama," Keiko said.
It was like the world stopped moving. Akane gasped and her hands flew to cover her mouth; in an instant, Ranma was up and by her side, smiling so widely that it felt his face would split. "Did she-" Akane gasped.
"Her first word," Ranma said reverently.
Akane laughed in delight, and Ranma flew into her arms with a big goofy grin on his face, letting his wife spin him around. Ranma kissed Akane fiercely, wrapping his arms around her neck.
"Mama," Keiko whined, squirming in her crib.
"Yes, my big girl," Akane said, disengaging from Ranma and reaching down into the crib to pick up Keiko, settling the girl in her arms. "Mama's coming, don't worry." Akane beamed at Keiko, kissing her cheek, and Ranma's heart melted at the sight of his two girls together. "I can't believe you just said your first word. Mama is so proud of you, Kei-chan."
Ranma and Akane both waited for Keiko to give one of her gummy smiles back, but Keiko kept fussing, twisting around in Akane's arms. Akane's face began to fall at Keiko's restlessness – and then the unthinkable happened.
Keiko twisted to look at Ranma and waved a little arm at him. "Mama!"
Akane choked. Ranma paled.
"Mama!" Keiko whined, growing more restless, kicking against Akane. "Mama!"
The horrible paralysis that settled over the two parents was only broken when Keiko began to sniffle, clearly on the verge of a meltdown. Akane snapped out of her stunned horror and rocked Keiko, shooting Ranma an alarmed look. "No, no, don't cry," Akane hushed, but Keiko only whimpered louder. "Oh, Keiko- You want Ranma? You want me to give you to Ranma?" Keiko let out an unhappy cry, and Akane swallowed. "Okay. Shh, shh, I'm going to give you to Ranma now."
They handed off the baby. The instant Keiko was in Ranma's arms, she calmed down, leaning against Ranma's chest. Ranma held Keiko, feeling things that he didn't understand, strange and wonderful and terrifying things. "Mama," Keiko sighed happily, then almost immediately began to doze against Ranma. Within a minute, she was asleep.
The two adults, who had no such luxury, stood petrified in the center of the room for a long minute afterwards.
"Akane," Ranma hedged, searching his wife's face for her reaction. Akane was still, and if that wasn't terrifying-
"She called you Mama," Akane said.
"Uh," Ranma said.
In the four years that Ranma had known Akane – God, how had it been such a short time – Ranma had only seen Akane get this quiet a small handful of times. There had been the dreaded haircut incident, which Ranma still tried to avoid in conversation; one time shortly after the failed wedding, when Ranma hadn't quite gotten his shit together yet and had gotten himself into a compromising position with Shampoo, and Akane, instead of getting angry, had simply gotten very quiet and very small before she'd walked away; and one time during the pregnancy, when Ranma had made the deadly mistake of comparing bodies with his pregnant wife, and Akane had gone to sleep on Nabiki's couch for the week. All three of those times, Ranma had done something that had angered his wife to the point of a complete shutdown. This, though…
Ranma had learned over the years to fix his own actions, but there was nothing he could do to change Keiko's.
"What did she want?" Akane asked, a brightness shimmering in her eyes.
Swallowing, Ranma hugged Keiko closer as their daughter began to snore. "Sometimes she wakes up from her nap and wants me," he said quietly. "That's why I was in here, cause it's easier ta catch her when she's drowsy than to deal with the meltdown if I'm not there. Normally I just go sit in the rocking chair and…" Akane took a shuddering breath, blinking back her silent tears as they began to fall. Ranma faltered. "…let her sleep against my chest."
"Right," Akane whispered. "Good. That's good. You should do that."
"Akane," Ranma said helplessly.
Akane took a step back, shaking her head. "I- I can't," she said. "I can't think straight, I'm not thinking straight. You need to give me a minute."
Spinning on her heel, Akane strode out of the room; Ranma winced when he heard the loud sob that sounded in her wake. The front door slammed shut behind her.
Ranma groaned and sank back down into the rocking chair.
As though she could feel his distress, Keiko made a sleepy noise and snuggled closer.
"It's okay, Keiko," Ranma whispered even as her mind spun, trying to process what had just happened. He ran his fingers through Keiko's downy hair, starting to rock. "It's okay. Mama's here."
[A/N] I was in a mood, plus I've been really vibing with the Ranma fandom lately, so I decided to write this cute little story about trans parenthood. I'm thinking this is only gonna have five chapters, but you never know with me lol. Also known as I was reading Sachiko Scramble by vechloran and thought Mirei was just adorable and it made me want to write about Ranma with a little kid.
Gender Sleepy C29 is percolating right now (it's gonna be called Waterproofing) but I haven't quite figured it out yet; it'll come out in the next few weeks if I'm on top of my shit, or in June if I'm not lmao. Also started the fourth draft of my novel so that's probably the next few months of my writing life.
Hope you enjoy the fluff with a lil side of gender angst :) Throw your darling author some comments if you please.
Cheers, Allie