Genderfluid Mechanics
By: JaquiK

Chapter 6: To Be The Very Best

The rest of the school day went about as well as Aki could hope. Of course, that still meant all of their classmates swarming both him and Ran with their questions. The best Aki could do before classes started again was say that the engagement didn't actually mean anything and the two of them were just friends to each other. Ran did go along with it, confirming Aki's words, although she did pass a hurtful glance over to him when no one else was looking, which Aki responded to with an apologetic one of his own. Thankfully for both of them, things mostly died down from there and Kuno didn't show his face at all for the rest of the day.

Unfortunately, Aki was assigned to classroom cleanup duty after school was done. While Ran did make the sweet offer of sticking around and helping out, Aki said it was probably for the best if she headed out now. At the very least it would spare her from any further questions. Especially considering the other two he was assigned with.

"So, now that it's just us," Yuka commented as she gathered up the erasers, "can you finally explain what exactly happened during lunch?"

"What's there to explain?" Aki nonchalantly replied while he was busy sweeping the floor. "You were both there to see it."

"Yeah, yeah," Sayuri said as she performed the apparently very important task of making sure the desk she was casually sitting on didn't fly up in the air. "We all had front row seats for Kuno's reaction to your lavender engagement as well as Ranma's little four story swan dive, no big deal there. What we want to know about is what happened next."

"Look, nothing happened alright," Aki responded, his careful efforts to keep calm enough to not snap the broom into several pieces also serving to help him handle their questions without saying anything stupid. "Kuno challenged Ranma to a fight, then Ranma went and took him out."

"Really?" Yuka noted. "He must be a pretty good fighter to defeat Kuno. At least on your level, huh?"

"Yeah, at least," Aki admitted, trying very hard not to let his jealousy surface.

"Hey, that's cool," Sayuri said. "You finally got someone to actually train with for all your martial arts stuff. Maybe you two can even do a special rose and lily team up for your morning 'exercises'."

"Ugh, don't say that. I really don't want Ranma to have to get involved in that crap." Aki let out a frustrated sigh. "At this point, it's probably unavoidable though."

"Yeah, Kuno'll pretty much make sure of that," Sayuri noted as she hopped off the desk that miraculously didn't suddenly start levitating and walked over to Aki. "Here, I got this," she said, taking the dustpan and kneeling down to finish sweeping up the dust into it.

"Thanks for handling the tough jobs there, babe," Yuka sarcastically commented from the other side of the room.

"Glad to help," Sayuri sincerely replied. As she stood back up, she paused for a moment and leaned in so only Aki could hear her whisper. "Listen, if Ranma's secret gets out, know that I got his back, and I'll make sure Yuka does too."

Aki froze a moment, then turned to watch speechlessly as Sayuri cheerfully left to empty out the dustpan.

Those words were still racing through Aki's mind when he left the school and started towards home. As he walked along next to the canal, he was so distracted by the thought of what exactly his best friend knew that he completely missed someone approaching from behind until he received a quick poke into the small of his back. Recovering quickly from his surprise and definitely masculine sounding cry, he spun around ready to strike, only to find a somewhat damp redhead grinning at him.

"You know, as a martial artist you should make sure to focus on keeping better track of your surroundings. Otherwise, someone will be able to sneak up and catch you off guard," Ran commented with complete sincerity in her tone.

Aki, still working on recovering from his shock and Ran's words, managed to get out the most coherent thought he could. "You changed."

Ran tilted her head at that response. "What? No, I'm still…oh," she said, looking down at herself. "Yeah, we're far enough from school now that I figured I could get away with it." She gave a small laugh while rubbing the back of her neck.

"Yeah, well, just be careful about transforming where others could see you," Aki noted with a slight frown.

"Oh don't worry. I'll make sure to look out for any swimming pools before I leap off roofs from now on," Ran said with an exaggerated wink.

"I'm serious," Aki shot back. "Who knows what Kuno's gonna do now. On top of that, I think Sayuri might have noticed your transformation."

Ran gave a nonchalant shrug. "I'm pretty sure I can handle anything Kuno throws at me, no problem. And even if Sayuri did figure things out, I bet she'll have my back. She's your friend after all." A big grin grew on her face. "Plus she seemed really cool and nice to me."

"Oh? And did you think she was super pretty too?" Aki angrily blurted out, the words escaping from his lips before he could stop himself.

"Huh?" Ran's smile dropped as she looked over in confusion. "What does that mean?"

"Nothing." Aki tried to shake off the annoying surge of jealousy as he took Ran's hand. "Let's hurry up and get home."

Ran, however, refused to play along and didn't budge. "Why? Is there something important going on at your house?"

"Well, no. Not really."

"Then what's the rush?" Ran's smile returned as she pulled Aki into a side hug while sweeping an arm across the cityscape. "I've never been in this part of the city before, so I want to take a little time to do some exploring. It would be a big help if I had a really cool, handsome guy to be my tour guide."

"Oh, um…" Aki wasn't quite sure if the blush forming on his cheeks was more from the compliment or from the hand currently on his waist. "I mean, I don't know if…"

Ran let go of the hug and proceeded to take both of Aki's hands into her own. "Please? Will you do this for me?" The radiant smile and pleading puppy dog eyes she displayed would have melted even the iciest of hearts. Although there was also something else behind those eyes that Aki could quite put his finger on.

"Sure, I'd love to show you around," Aki said with his own smile.

"Alright!" Ran let go of Aki and leaped in the air with a fist pump. "Okay, where are we going first?"

Things started off simple enough with a casual stroll around a few streets, seeing some of the houses in the area as the two talked. Aki went on about quite a few topics, including his time participating in the various school plays, starting with his first role as Romeo. Ran in turn was very happy to talk about her time with Ryoga and with Ucchan, although whenever Aki would take something Ran mentioned and transition to something related, Ran ended up quickly deflecting and avoided talking about the new topic.

Eventually, they got into an area with some shops. Aki pointed out the store where Kasumi did most of the food shopping. Ran got distracted by some dresses displayed in a department store window, and she just stared at them for a bit with a strange expression on her face. Aki reassured her that there would be plenty of time to try things on during their planned girl day on Wednesday. Ran seemed a bit hesitant at first, but then simply nodded in agreement.

Their next stop was a nearby park, where Aki used to play all the time as a kid. Right now though, he was more than happy to just walk down the path with Ran by his side. Aki could feel Ran's fingertips occasionally brushing up against his, and he took a look around the area, wondering if he could get away with fully slipping his hand into hers.

"Oh hey! Check out that playground over there." Ran quickly ran over to the children's play area and looked around. Aki cracked a smile at the girl's sudden enthusiasm as he walked over to join her. Although he also had to raise an eyebrow at the slightly confused expression now on her face.

"Huh. I remember these places being a bit bigger," Ran muttered out.

Aki gave a slight chuckle. "Oh, I know what you mean. I used to play here all the time when I was a little kid. It definitely felt much bigger to me back then."

"Oh really?" The grin on Ran's face was back. "What was your best time?"

"Time?" Aki asked, now confused himself.

"Yeah, for getting through the course." Ran looked around the playground once more and there was something nostalgic behind her eyes. "I can't even count the places like this I went to when I was younger. Dad would find one for me and then let me know the path I had to go through. He was really good at coming up with the most complicated paths to take, and it usually crossed over the whole playground several times. Climbing up, over, and around, as fast as I could. Then running back and starting over, trying to be even faster. Some days I must have gone through one of his courses more than a hundred times. Then, if I managed to be fast enough, he would let me…" Ran trailed off as the smile dropped from her face slightly.

"Well, why don't we try something a little simpler this time," Aki offered as he directed Ran towards the swings. This particular set was fairly high up, with the support bar on top at least five meters above their heads, giving the two teenagers plenty of room. He got in one of the swings and immediately went to work pumping back and forth, getting higher and higher with each pass. He looked over, only to find Ran still standing nearby, simply watching. "Hey, join in. Or are you scared you're gonna get shown up," he said with a grin. Ran simply gave a grunt and continued to watch.

Finally, as Aki got slightly above horizontal on his swing, he pushed off. Flying through the air, he managed to get fully past the wood chip area and landed with a bit of a huff on the grass. He looked over to Ran, hoping to get at least a decent reaction out of her. Instead, the girl gave a simple nod, then went over to the swings herself and sat in the same one Aki just leaped out of.

Ran got a rhythm going very quickly, getting up to Aki's previous highest point even faster than he did. However, when she let go, it wasn't a leap forward. Instead, the redhead pulled herself up to stand on the swing right before it hit its apex and leapt backwards, flipping herself up and catching the bar at the top in a handstand position. Then, once again showing skills that would bring pause to olympic level athletes, she transitioned her momentum into several spins on the bar before letting go and backflipping over Aki's head to finally land several meters past him.

Aki gave a glare that only deepened when Ran turned and showed that cheeky smile on her face. Before he could give a retort, a new thought entered his mind, and he instead crossed his arms and gave an expectant look. "Okay, so when are you gonna teach me that move?"

Ran's smile dropped and she looked away, off towards the entrance of the park, and started to almost unconsciously rub her forearm. She let a silence hang between the two of them for a few seconds before speaking up in a very casual tone. "Hey, is there a good place to get some cheap food around here?"

"Um, yeah sure," Aki said, blinking at the sudden change of subject. "Kasumi's gonna have dinner for us in a couple of hours or so, though."

"See? That's plenty of time for a quick snack." Ran then flashed those annoyingly cute puppy dog eyes again. "Please?"

"I…alright," Aki said with a sigh as he gave in. "What are you in the mood for? Takoyaki?"

Ran thought for a moment, then shook her head in the negative.

"Okay, how about some natto?"

Ran made a face and gave a much more definitive shake of her head.

"Alright, I got the message there. What about okonomiyaki?"

"That's…" Ran looked down, an expression of nostalgic longing on her face. "Maybe some other time. Hey, you know what I haven't had in a while? Some really greasy American burgers."

"Oh, I guess that could work."

"Great!" Ran's happy little grin was back. "Lead the way."

Aki made sure they at the very least stopped by one of the nicer American based fast food places. Rather than staying to eat there, he also decided to take Ran to another nice park area for their little meal. They sat down at a nice bench near a rather lovely water fountain with their bag full of only somewhat greasy cheeseburgers and a couple of sodas.

Aki started by taking his straw out of the bag and tearing off the end of the paper wrapping. He got ready to do the trick of blowing off the rest of the wrapper off the straw, then thought better of doing such a thing outdoors, especially because the nearest trash can was about 15 meters away. Instead he simply removed the wrapper and put it carefully into their food bag, trading it for one of the cheeseburgers.

He took a quick drink of his soda first, then unwrapped his burger and started to chow down in typical teenage boy fashion, savoring the greasy goodness. He looked over to Ran, who was busy with her own burger, although she was being noticeably more slow and careful than she was during breakfast and lunch earlier. She also seemed to be deep in thought as she stared straight ahead. He had to admit the moment of calm and silence was a bit nice after all the chaos of the last couple days.

Aki quickly finished his burger and crumpled up the wrapper in a small ball. Looking over to the trash can off in the near distance, he gave a small nod before giving a careful toss of the wrapper towards it. The small ball of garbage sailed through the air, making the 15 meter distance. However, the direction was slightly off and the wrapper landed about half a meter to the left of its intended target.

He looked over to Ran, but she gave no reaction, still staring straight ahead and eating. With a slight frown, Aki got up and walked over to the trash can to pick up the wrapper. He then held onto said item and walked back to the bench, calmly sitting down again. Taking a moment, he readied himself and tried again, tossing the crumpled up wrapper once more. This time it managed to just get past the edge of the trash can and landed inside.

Aki gave a tiny cheer of victory, then looked over to the redhead next to him once more, expecting some acknowledgement, or more likely for the girl to pull off the same thing while standing on her head or performing a flip or whatever to show off. Instead, Ran quietly finished her own burger, then, still staring off in the direction of the trash can, crumpled up the wrapper and handed it over to him with one simple command spoken from her lips.

"Again."

"I…what?" Aki took the crumpled up wrapper, confused by the sudden bluntness from the girl.

"Do it again," Ran repeated, her voice now much lower and gravely.

Aki's eyes narrowed slightly but he did indeed try again, taking just a little more time to make sure he got his aim right. His first attempt got very close, however it did miss, just bouncing off the edge. Grumbling, he got up to retrieve the wrapper and sat back down, his next shot managing to hit the mark. He looked expectantly over to Ran, who was in the middle of eating another burger. The girl simply took the wrapper off her still unfinished sandwich, crumpled it up in one hand and gave it to Aki.

"Again."

Frustration slowly building inside him, Aki almost decided to just bounce the wrapper off Ran's little red head. There was something about this that felt off though, so he chose the second option of just showing her up. He focused as hard as he could and took his shot. This time, the crumpled up wrapper landed right into the trash can on his first try.

He gave another quick cheer and looked over to Ran with a bit of a smirk and an expectant look in his eyes. Ran continued to not give a reaction. Instead, she finished the last of her burger, then reached into the fast food bag and pulled out the paper wrapper of Aki's straw, carefully compressing it into a tight little sphere, then held it out to him.

"Now do it with this."

Aki finally had enough and he shot to his feet, slapping Ran's hand away. "What the hell? What, just because you're some super crazy talented martial artist that's the best at everything, you think that lets you be such a huge jerk? Why can't you just be happy for me?!"

Ran still didn't look back at him, instead continuing in that low, gravely voice. "Never be happy with what you have. Never be satisfied. Never be content, boy! Always think about getting better. If you don't, you'll just end up as a weak little girl."

Aki's retort was quickly stopped as the undercurrent of Ran's words washed through the red haze. "Wait, is that…"

"It was one of the first things my dad taught me," Ran continued in her normal voice. "Every day, for as long as I could remember, he would drill that into me. Never stop. Keep improving. No matter what. Even those few times that I heard pride in his voice, it was immediately followed by 'make sure to do better next time'. And I did. Over and over and over again. I became the best, because anything less was unacceptable."

Ran paused to reach into the food bag again, taking out her still unopened straw. She carefully tore the very end of the paper wrapper. "Some days, I can at least respect him for making me as good as I am. Other days…" With a quick puff, the straw wrapper went sailing in a perfect arc through the air, landing in the dead center of the trash can. "...Other days, I hate him more than anything else in the world."

She placed the straw into her soda and took a long slow sip. Then, finally, she turned towards Aki, intense blue eyes framed by the beginnings of tears piercing right through him.

"Do you still want to be trained by me?"

Aki stared back, finding himself struggling to get any words out. "Ran…you…"

Ran in turn gave a tiny smile and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Damn it. I didn't mean to…don't worry, I won't cry into your shoulder two days in a row. I mean, I know that girls are supposed to do that with their boyfriends. I just…"

She quickly stood up and slapped both her cheeks with her hands. "Okay!" she said with a sudden level of cheer in her voice with only a hint of strain underneath. "I guess we should head back to your house. Kasumi's probably worried about you by now. Maybe I'll be lucky and Dad will be a panda, so I won't have to hear him talking about being all manly and crap and-"

Aki reached out and grabbed Ran's hand, stopping her little rant as well as her slight trembling. "You know, we still have plenty of time before dinner, and Kasumi knows I can take care of myself. Why don't I show you around the park a little more."

"Oh, are you sure?" Ran asked, a slight tinge of red in her cheeks. "You really don't have to…"

"Hey now," Aki said with a smile. "What kind of gentleman would I be if I didn't show such a beautiful and lovely young lady all of the sights?"

"That's…um…" a now very crimson faced Ran stammered out. "Okay, lead the way."

The two took care of the rest of their garbage and started to slowly walk around the park. Aki wasn't quite sure exactly when he put his arm around Ran's shoulder or when Ran put her arm around his waist, but he certainly wasn't going to complain about it.