Chapter Thirty-Four – Almost Home

[TW] Period Typical Homophobia and Transphobia, Aftermath of Last Chapter, Suicidal Thoughts

Ranko

Nodoka Saotome walked more lady-like than any woman Ranko had ever met.

That was the only thing she could think about as she trailed behind her mother, the elden blue frost shimmering around them, sometimes colored by yellow streetlights. She watched their footsteps in the powder, fresh that morning. The delicate icicles in the eaves. Her mother made the kimono look effortless, and maybe it was; maybe it was easy for her; maybe she really didn't have to think about it at all. Ranko had trouble imagining a womanhood like that. Between the shingled roofs and family compounds, down narrow alleys paved with cobblestone and slush, in that lull between sorrow and desolation – they walked through Nerima together.

Ranko kept expecting them to come to a bus stop. She expected it, even though intellectually she knew that service had halted for the night. Even if they went to the station, they would simply stand there til dawn and freeze half to death. But they didn't. Instead, after a chilly fifteen minutes, they arrived at a respectable two-story house in a pleasant suburb with neatly trimmed hedges and a welcome mat at the front door.

It was insulting how close to the Tendos her mother lived.

"Come along, dear," Nodoka said, taking one of her shivering hands in her own. She tugged her so very gently out of her stupor and toward the house. "Let's get you out of the cold."

Ranko stared at the 'Saotome' placard until the door slammed shut behind her.

It didn't hit her until Nodoka was taking her shoes off how cold her feet were. It didn't hit her until she was accepting blankets and warm tea at the kotatsu how alien it was, the notion that she was supposed to feel warm, feel this tenuous kindness brushing at the edges of her dimming awareness, brushing its slender fingers through her hair and murmuring gentle nothings as her shivers went away. It didn't hit her until she was ushered upstairs that she didn't have her soap, and had no idea how long the magic lasted, and that she would have to go back; back to the people who actually cared about her, but Pops wouldn't be there, they always left together, no matter how much it hurt. No matter how many people they left suffering in their wake. Ranko never cried when they left anymore. She didn't complain when they stole. She held her tongue when Pops swindled whichever unsuspecting soul stumbled across their path: it didn't matter, because they were supposed to leave together. There wasn't any other way. It was Ranko and Genma and the Art against the world. It didn't hit her until she was pulled away from the table toward the stairs that perhaps that wasn't true anymore. It didn't hit her until she was standing in Nodoka's room, blankly accepting a light blue yukata from her mother before being ushered into the furo to change, that maybe it would never be true again.

It didn't hit Ranko until she stood in the middle of a suspiciously familiar bedroom that she was standing in her childhood home.

Those were pictures of her on the wall.

She hadn't recognized the little boy, not at first. But that was her.

Nodoka appeared in the doorway behind her, coming to lay a hand on her shoulder. Ranko twisted back to give her a wide-eyed glance, and her expression melted, an interminable melancholy shimmering in their gentle depths.

"My son," Nodoka said. "My Ranma."

Ranko couldn't hide the full-bodied shiver that ran down her spine.

Time seemed to slow, or flow in reverse like the winds around a memorial shrine, rustling as would the petals of roadside flowers, fickle dedications to the untimely lost. A thin layer of dust coated the picture frames. Entranced, Ranko drifted across the yellow carpet to the bed, where she picked up a raggedy old stuffed animal – a floppy dog which smiled up at her, and to which she felt an inexplicable attachment. The bed was meant for a child, yet she was short enough to fit it. Old springs creaked beneath her. She hugged the old dog to her chest.

"His name is Patches," Nodoka said.

Ranko stared down at Patches.

"I- I'm sorry," she said, voice cracking. "About what I said last time. About Ranma. How he- How he deserves ta- I didn't mean it."

Nodoka stood unmoving in the doorway, back rigid.

Sniffling, Ranko wiped away a tear and squeezed Patches tighter. "I don't really think that. Nobody deserves to die. I didn't mean it."

"I know you didn't," Nodoka said. She approached the bed and sank down next to her, placing a wary hand on her knee. Ranko didn't reject the touch. "I forgave you days ago. All I hoped was that there would be something I could do to help. I… I simply can't explain it, Ranko-chan, but it- it pains me to see you suffer."

These walls had been hers, once. This bed had been hers, once. Nodoka had been hers once (or his) until the day her father had stolen her away.

"Is this okay? I haven't had a guest for the night in many years. If you're uncomfortable-"

Ranko shook her head urgently and gripped Patches tighter. "No!" The ferocity of her tone took them both aback. "Please don't make me leave!"

Nodoka blinked.

"A-a-ano," Ranko stammered. "I mean, um, this is very generous of you, Saotome-san. Thank you for taking care of me. I promise that I'll be a good houseguest! You won't even know that I'm here!"

Far from providing the reassurance she had hoped for, her words only seemed to deepen her frown.

"You're sure you don't want to call your fiance's family?" Nodoka pushed.

The bile stuck in her throat. "I can't think about the engagement right now."

"But-"

Ranko shook her head.

Withdrawing somewhat into her own space, Nodoka's shoulders drew in. "Ranko-chan," she said, attempting to reach out once more, then rethought it. "You don't have to be alone."

Raggedy fabric soothed her aching arms.

"I'm not alone," Ranko said. She felt like a little girl; brave, or maybe foolish to refuse aid so freely offered. But she couldn't help it. It was her nature. She pushed, then pushed some more. "I have Patches."

Nodoka's expression broke.

"Right?" Ranko asked with a tinge of foolhardy hope.

"Of course," Nodoka said. "Of course you do, Ranko-chan."

Her mother rose from the bed and sank to her knees before her, sinking down and reaching out to take Patches' grubby old paws. Ranko caught her breath. It occur to her that perhaps this wasn't a lie; that there was something realhere, that she meant what she was saying and so did Nodoka, and that underneath all the deception, she sat here as a girl with her mother, and Nodoka Saotome didn't even know-

"You'll take good care of her tonight," Nodoka said in complete seriousness to the stuffed dog. She fixed the stuffed animal with a stern look. "Won't you, Patches?"

What was this feeling?

"H-he will," Ranko managed. "He promises."

For the first time since finding her in the park, her mother gave a small but genuine smile, and leaned forward to plant a kiss on her stuffed animal's head.

Kasumi

Kasumi hadn't slept a wink last night. Neither had her father.

They had waited in silence for at least an hour before it had grown unbearable. Nobody had known what to say; Akane had broken first and stormed out the door into the winter night, Ranko's discarded winter coat hugged to her chest, desperate to find her fiancee. The rest of the Tendos had gone to help her look. They had scoured Nerima: by the river, in the parks, knocking on Ukyo's door, and of course Ukyo and Konatsu had helped them look too. But she was nowhere. Kasumi didn't even know where to look – she merely followed her sister, trapped within the quiet of her tumultuous thoughts until Akane began to show signs of exhaustion and the night turned small and grim.

"Little sister," Kasumi said, stopping them beneath the streetlights. Akane had whipped around her. So spirited. "We need to go home."

"What?" Akane demanded. "No! We have to find her!"

Kasumi tried not to allow her worry to seep through. "We won't find her if she doesn't want to be found," she said, stepping closer, taking Akane's shaking hands, making herself reliable once more. "It's late and cold, and you need to sleep."

"But-"

"She might have tried to follow him," Kasumi said.

Akane blinked back tears. "You think she would do that?"

"I don't. But if she did…"

For a long minute they stood off in the darkened street, locked in a battle of wills until they both began to shiver and Akane let out an involuntary yawn.

Kasumi pressed her lips together.

"Okay," Akane conceded in a tiny voice, sniffling. "Let's go home."

They made a protesting Akane go to bed around 3am. Kasumi tried to go to sleep too. But it was nearly impossible to sleep in her room full of moving boxes, staring up at her cracked ceiling in the omnipresence of the reminders that soon she would be leaving too. Where would she be at 3am the next time her family was having a crisis? Who would tell Akane to go back to sleep? Who would tell Daddy to stop worrying? How was she supposed to take care of her sisters if she was living in a different ward? Mother had asked her to take care of them, and Kasumi was trying-

She was trying.

She got out of bed, stood in the middle of her room for a while. Ran her agitated fingers over the hem of her nightdress. She wasn't normally like this. But the thought of the sweet, struggling girl she had come to love as her sister out there in the cold night, freezing alone under some bridge… It was simply unconscionable. How Ranko must think her insouciant. But there was nothing she could do. Everything she could have done…

Kasumi leaned against a pile of cardboard boxes and trembled through an moment of weakness. Then she gathered her nightgown and went out into the living room.

At the low table, hands still pressed rigid against his knees, Soun had not moved from when she had left him two hours earliest.

"Father," Kasumi whispered, knuckles raised to her lips.

He glanced at her.

"You're still awake."

Soun's heavy expression fell to the table. "Kasumi. Tell me. Do you think I have done the right thing, allowing this… this engagement to continue even once my daughter's suitor has become a woman? Have I-"

"Daddy-"

"Have I not failed," Soun asked uncertainly, "in my duties as head of this household?"

Kasumi held her tongue.

"Please. Speak your mind on the matter."

"I… I don't know my opinions on the matter," Kasumi murmured. "I thought I did, and I was wrong. And it seems to make them both happy."

"Yet it causes such misery. Yet it tears father and so- Ahem, I mean, family. Apart." His brow furrowing deeper, Soun set his jaw, rolling his fists against his taut knees. Kasumi had never seen him this torn. "I want to believe that Ranko has failed in her obligations as a son. I cannot help but believe that Saotome has failed, miserablyfailed, in his obligations as a father. I have… taken significant pains not to equate the two, but the both of them are gone now, and I cannot help but wonder-"

Kasumi was shaking her head before he finished the thought.

"Was I wrong to indulge her?" Soun asked helplessly. "The girl, these… fantasies of womanhood. She was a girl, anyone could see it. Was it my fault? Was I the one who tore them apart?"

"Daddy, no." Kasumi sank down at the table by his side. "That man, that horribleman… He never deserved to be a father."

Soun bowed his head, clenching tighter. "But had I encouraged the boy not to spurn his duties to his family, his honor-"

"No," Kasumi repeated, firmer. "I won't allow you to think that, I simply won't. While I can't- I can't say that I understand her, it isn't Ranko's fault that she was cursed with this terrible affliction, and it certainly wasn't her fault she was treated that way. Don't forget that she never would have gotten cursed if that man hadn't dragged her off to China in the first place. Whether she's a girl by birth or by magic, I don't care anymore. That wouldn't have changed anything."

"But- But Saotome said-"

"If it wasn't her womanhood, it would have been her martial arts," Kasumi said bitterly. "It would have been her schooling or her habits or her appetite or her mannerisms. He would have found excuses to punish her no matter the cause. I'm very sorry, I know he was your friend, but Saotome-san is a bad man. He beats his child, he freeloads, he steals. He's a bad friend and a bad father and an awful, rotten house guest, and I'm glad he's gone!"

By the end of her tirade, Soun was staring at her with wide eyes.

She blushed and scrambled to regain her composure.

"Oh my."

"...You know," Soun mused as he sank back on his haunches. "You used to ramble like that all the time when you were a little girl."

"I don't know what came over me," Kasumi said. She ducked her head in shame.

Soun shook his head.

"No… No, it's fine. I asked for you to speak your mind. I wonder sometimes what happens in there… Perhaps I ought to ask more."

Kasumi stared at her father in silent worry.

"It's simply hard to believe that Saotome's son turned out to be a lesbian," Soun sighed. "How did we get here? I don't know; I simply can't believe it."

And even though she had spent the whole conversation defending Ranko and Akane and their choices, even though she fought hard to keep her true feelings under wraps, part of Kasumi couldn't help but sag in agreement. She hadn't signed up to have a homosexual for a sister any more than her father for a daughter. And what had it brought Akane save pain and suffering? What had it brought Ranko save isolation and a fatherless future? How could she condone such behaviors when they brought them such anguish? If only they had followed the expectations of their families… If only they had not been cursed with such perverse urges…

Perhaps society would treat them with a kinder hand.

But Ranko was 'that way' most certainly, and Kasumi had slowly begun to accept that her sister was too, and the last thing she wanted was to worsen their hurts. The world was so unkind to them already – they didn't need her to be unkind to them too. Concealing her true feelings of honor and filial duty was the least that she could do.

"Neither can I," Kasumi said.

Soun offered her a tight smile in return.

Nodoka

How the sun shone through the open morning window. Nodoka laid back against her pillows, her mind idly lingering on the silkiness of her sheets, the rumpled folds of her yukata. She had the most curious feeling, as though she had gone to bed in mourning and woken up ten years younger – rejuvenated, but why? Merely knowing that there was a child in her home again?

Hung over the mantle of her dresser, her katana loomed in its wearied wrappings.

Nodoka sat up and mindlessly went about her morning routine, but didn't take the sword down from its usual mount. She didn't take it into the kitchen either. It was sacrilege, it had become the very ornamentation of her life, the ladle that cleansed her hands of their ills. But something kept her from the ritual. She was struck with the sudden feeling, impenetrable, that she had passed into the realm of some unannounced spirit; their domain, her home; or perhaps that she had invited something over her threshold, that darling Ranko-chan were the herald of some deeper stirring, a sign-

Foolish thoughts.

And yet.

What was one supposed to do with an errant child? A motherless child, a fatherless child – not an orphan, but abandoned all the same. What of the draw she felt to her, the pull in the park, the instinctual desire to reach out and redo her messy braid, wipe the tears from her uncanny face; to tuck her into bed at night, that wasn't a normal thing to feel about someone else's child, was it? Or perhaps it was a mother's instinct. Perhaps she had grown truly desperate so disconnected from her baby boy that any child in distress would do. Yes, she was failing Ranma, she had failed Ranma all those years ago, and yet- She hadn't borne the sword since that night in the park. Ranko's condemnation still rung in her ears, the wrenching despair in her gut; and now, steps removed from that foolish promise she'd made all those years ago, Nodoka had only begun to conceive of the true depths of her own failings.

She would have made her own child, her own son, commit seppukku.

What kind of mother could she claim to be?

Nodoka gasped at the stove and bit back her silent tears, jabbing at her browning eggs, forcing herself to collect her emotions. Her terrible feelings. All this over a teenager, a stranger. How could anything she could do for this girl make up for how poorly she had treated her own son? What gave her the right to try?

Before she fully understood what she was doing, her hands had found their way to the telephone, where they dialed a familiar number and raised the shaking receiver to the cusp of her shoulder.

It rang thrice.

"Hello," came a soothing male voice across the line, "You've reached Club Xtra, I'm afraid we've just closed, we'll be opening again at five pm, please call back-"

"Sato-san," Nodoka said unsteadily. "I'd like to talk to Rei-chan, please."

There was a pause across the line. "Oh," said Sato. "Nodoka-san. Listen, I sent him to bed an hour and a half ago, it's after hours. Can't it wait until tonight? You know the girls need their rest."

"Please, it's- It's urgent."

"I'm very sorry, Saotome-san, but-"

"I'll pay triple," Nodoka hurried.

A long silence.

"I'll go wake him up."

While she waited on hold, she portioned out the eggs onto two plates, not one, then poured two glasses of water and doled out two bowls of rice. Then she knelt down at the kotatsu, the receiver stretching out the light gray cord from the wall, anxiously drumming her fingers against the worn spruce. Most mornings she wrung her hands around the ceremonial blade. One of her old parenting group friends had called her suicidal once. Nodoka didn't think she was; but then she never talked with that friend anymore. It was hard to remember how to loft anything but a weapon. Yet she held the receiver firm, musing over how she might go about coaxing Ranko into calling her dear future husband once she woke up. Surely if the girl's father was gone, her fiance's family would help.

A cute little yawn interrupted her musings.

"No-chan?" Rei asked, a whine creeping into her voice. "It's so late…"

Nodoka couldn't hold back her smile.

"It's nine o'clock in the morning, dear."

"I know!"

"I'm very sorry for waking you, I promise I won't keep you long from your sleep. It's just… Oh, I simply don't know what to do! Do you remember that wonderful young girl I was telling you about? The one who-"

Rei-chan sniffed haughtily. "The one who was mean to you in the park?"

"The one who reminds me of my son."

"Yeah, I remember her."

"Well," Nodoka said, "she's sleeping upstairs in Ranma's old bed right now, and I don't know what to do."

"Ehhhhh?"

Like a bottle come uncorked, Nodoka found herself spilling the whole story out to Rei-chan, even the parts she hadn't told her before. There was something about her that was just so easy to find a confidante in. Offering various opinions at the beginning, Rei quieted the more Nodoka spoke of Ranko's past and her situation.

"...And it's just so confusing," Nodoka said as she neared the end of her story, anxiously clutching to the receiver. "I could have sworn that she was living with her uncle, and that her father was staying in China, but now- now it seems that her father was here, and left her, and- And I just can't shake this feeling that she's-"

"Lying to you?" Rei-chan asked bluntly.

Nodoka let out a scandalized gasp. "Rei!"

"I'm just saying…"

"I just can't make sense of it. My story, it's hardly flattering, but it still seems so odd to me that she would react so strongly about my son! And last night, when I brought her to Ranma's room, she seemed so… emotional about it. I offered her his old stuffed animal, and why, she practically clung to it the whole night! She was still snuggling with dear little Patches this morning. It was the sweetest sight. For a minute, it was…" Nodoka sighed and picked at her cooling eggs with her chopsticks. "It was almost like having Ranma home again."

"Uh-huh," Rei said.

"I haven't an idea of what I ought to do with the poor girl next."

"And what did you say her name was again?"

"Ranko."

"Ran… ko… And your son's name was…?"

"Ranma, of course."

"Mm."

Nodoka tilted her head in confusion. "But I've told you that before."

"Sure, sure," Rei-chan said. "I'm sure that the girl whose name sounds very similar to your missing son who may or may not have always wanted to be a girl, and who you feel this inexplicable connection to, and who agreed to go home with you and sleep in your missing son's bed for the night has absolutely nothing to do with Ranma-kun."

Relieved beyond words, Nodoka sighed in agreement, a warm bout of fondness for her dear friend blossoming in her chest. "I knew you would understand," she said happily. "An old woman's musings, you'll have to forgive me."

There was a long, long silence.

"No-chan… You're thirty-five…"

Nodoka blinked. "Well, I hardly see how that's relevant to the conversation!"

Akane

She awoke to the pleasant sound of her door banging open.

"Akane," Nabiki said, hurrying over as Akane swung upright in a bleary hurry. "Sis, c'mon, get out of bed. Ranko's on the phone."

There was no staying in bed after that.

In the living room, Kasumi was saying something into the receiver, a harried look on her face. When she looked up at them, it was not to Akane but to Nabiki, eyes wide. Kasumi mouthed something, and Nabiki staggered, leaving her swiveling between her sisters in confusion. All night she had tossed and turned in her worry, barely able to drift off into a troubled sleep in the early hours of the morning – and now this. She hadn't had a second to catch her bearings since the stupid panda had walked out. Nabiki cursed under her breath.

"What?" Akane demanded. "Where is she?"

Somebody said something on the other side of the line.

"Oh, yes, auntie," Kasumi said, pursing her lips in alarm. "That is, um, Ranko's fiance." Her what? "I'll tell, erm,himthat he's on speaker phone right now, yes. Here, I'll put you on speaker too."

Akane's mouth dropped open.

Nabiki grabbed her arm and threw a hand over her mouth before she could say anything, whispering into her ear, "Play along, sis, please. It's important."

"What the hell is happening," Akane hissed through Nabiki's hand.

Crackling across the line, Ranko's tittering nervous laughter was completely unmistakable – and utterly infuriating. How dare she make Akane worry all night! Akane growled under her breath, ripped her way free from Nabiki's grasp, and stomped over to grab the receiver from Kasumi.

"Yes?" she snapped.

Ranko's laughter grew even more strained. "Ehehe~ Ano… Hi, um, Akira-kun."

Akira-kun? Akira-kun?

Akane lost her shit.

"Where the hell are you?" she demanded, stomping across the room toward the kitchen. "Do you have any idea how worried I was about you last night? Nabiki and I were out looking for you until three am! Three am! Where are you? Are you alright? Are you- Are you-"

Ranko abruptly stopped laughing. "Hey," she said, a little tremor entering her voice. "'Ka- Um, Kira-kun, I'm okay. Really."

"You scared the hell out of me, you idiot tomboy!" Akane yelled, trying not to cry.

"Hey-"

"Don't hey me!"

"I'm sorry," Ranko said, her voice shrinking back. "I- I'm sorry, Kira, I just- After he left and I just- I couldn't, I can't, I can't-"

Oh. It didn't take a genius to hear Ranko's distress no matter what sort of games she was playing across the line. All of the fight leaving her bones, Akane sagged back against the wall, thrusting one hand into the pocket of her yellow duckling pajamas and clutching the receiver with the other. She let out a shaky breath. "Okay," she managed. "That's- It's okay. Are you safe? Please tell me you didn't sleep outside last night."

"I didn't," Ranko said. "I stayed with Auntie Saotome."

Akane choked on air as Nabiki and Kasumi exchanged a guilty look.

"With who?"

Before Ranko had a chance to respond, a second lighter voice came across the line, and it sent chills of recognition down her spine.

"Hello, Akira-kun," the unfamiliar voice said. "I'm so very glad that you were looking for Ranko-chan last night. Such a nice young man. We're very sorry to have worried you last night."

"Uh…" Scratching her head, Akane stood like an idiot in the middle of the room, unsure of how to respond. Was that supposed to be a compliment? She didn't want to be compared to a smelly boy! "Hi. Who is this?"

"Oh, my name is Nodoka Saotome," Nodoka said, her pleasant voice turning Akane's whole world upside down. "I' ve come across Ranko a few times on my walks, and I found the poor thing in distress last night, and, well, I could hardly let a wonderful young lady stay out alone in the park at night! She didn't want to come home, so I let her stay in my son's room last night. But it's such a relief to hear that she's got a fine young man looking out for her too."

"Ah," Akane said dumbly. "Erm. Yes. That's me. Akira Tendo."

"Tendo?" Nodoka sounded taken aback. "Oh my, what a coincidence!"

Akane had a sinking feeling growing in her gut, only worsened by Ranko's telling silence and her sisters' knowing pity. "How so?"

Nodoka tittered to herself. "Well, you see, my husband used to have a friend named Tendo. One Soun Tendo, I believe. He owns a dojo in the neighborhood. You wouldn't happen to be related to him, would you?"

"I am," Akane said faintly. "He's my father."

"Then you must be right around the same age as my son!"

"Your… son?"

"Why, yes!" Nodoka beamed across the line. "Oh, it's been so many years since I thought about it, but how wonderful would it have been to have another little boy to go on playdates with my Ranma! Oh, Ranko, you've got a marvelous fiance. You'll take good care of her now that her father's gone, won't you?"

"O-o-of course," Akane stammered. "Always."

Ranko's mother hummed in satisfaction, and Akane had to clap her hand over her mouth to hide her utter shock.

"Akira-kun," Nodoka said as though she hadn't just exploded Akane's entire worldview. "I'm glad I could be here for Ranko dearest, but a girl shouldn't be alone in a time of strife. She's just lost her father, you see. Won't you come over and take care of her?"

"Mo- Auntie Saotome," Ranko said faintly over the line. "I'm fine! Really, I'm swell, I'm spiffy, I've never been better in my entire life, really, promise! See? I can do a backflip!"

"That's nice, sweetheart, but a young lady shouldn't push away the people who love her," Nodoka scolded.

"L-l-love-"

"Um…" Akane blinked at her sisters for a moment, then looked down at her boobs. She raised a hand to cup one, and Nabiki muffled her laughter into Kasumi's shoulder. "I'm not sure that's such a great idea, Auntie."

"Whyever not?"

"Yeah, Akira-kun," Nabiki snickered. "Go and sweep your fiancee off her feet."

Akane stuck out her tongue at Nabiki, then swallowed as the gravity of the situation began to hit her. She couldn't deal with another web of lies, not again. "Ranko," she said, "Aren't you going to come home?"

The pause dragged on for an agonizingly long time.

"I don't want to."

"You…"

"I'm sorry," Ranko said into the receiver. "I ain't- I don't know- He's just gone."

"I know," Akane murmured back, a tear slipping down her cheek. "I know, Ranchan."

"Where am I supposed to go?"

The fact that Ranko was currently staying in her childhood home with her unsuspecting mother went unspoken. Akane felt weightless with disbelief, untethered from the tatami beneath her. Ranko had a home somewhere else; a parent somewhere else; a life somewhere else. Genma had gone as quick as he had come. And would Ranko disappear to – struck, she was engulfed by that memory, Ranko turning back atop the autumn mountainpeak, beaming back down the trail at her from beneath the august red torii – she had looked so pretty, captured there in that moment, and Akane could not help but feel that her first love had left some part of her, some part of the both of them, in the spirit of that shrine. If her family was elsewhere…

But Akane was supposed to be Ranko's family.

When had Akane begun to consider Ranko Saotome her family?

"Ranko…" Akane said, her voice quivering. "Come home." Come back to me.

She could hear Ranko thinking. She knew the sound of her mind.

"Can I?" Ranko asked in a small voice.

The answer was immediate.

"Always."

She already knew what the answer would be. But that didn't make it hurt any less when she heard it pass her girlfriend's lips.

Taking a shuddering breath, Ranko whispered, "I need a little more time."

Akane opened her mouth to respond, but a voiceless sob came out instead. Hair falling into her face, she fell back against the wall and thrust out the phone, which was promptly accepted by Nabiki. Kasumi rushed to Akane's side, and Akane fell apart into her sister's side.

"Saotome-san," Nabiki said brusquely, pacing across the room with a hand in her hair. "Yeah, this is Nabiki Tendo, I'm Akira's older sister. Listen, can Ranko-chan stay another night at yours? I think she needs space right now, and, well, frankly we don't have that at home and can't afford to put her up in a hotel for the night. Really? Great. Thank you so much, I promise we can find a way to repay you- Oh, that's very generous, Auntie. Thank you. Listen, here, call me back when Ranko's feeling better and I'll be right over. Yes ma'am, I'll make sure our father knows what's happening. I can come over at any time- Yeah, any time. Just give us a call and I can be over in fifteen minutes. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Listen, Ranko-chan is my little sister, I don't care what her deadbeat dad wants, she's family. Yeah. We'll take care of her. Promise. Okay. Take care of her please. Great. Thank you so much, Saotome-san. Just give me that call. Bye-bye."

The phone hung up with a clatter.

A slow rage beginning to build in her gut, Akane looked up through her bangs with glowering eyes, fixing both of her sisters with one of the most venomous glares she had ever given anyone.

Kasumi edged away from her. Nabiki swallowed.

"How long," Akane hissed.

Nabiki let out a nervous laugh. "Little sister-"

"How long," Akane snarled, pushing her way to her feet with clenched fists, "have you known that Ranko's mother is in Nerima?"

"Akane-" Kasumi breathed.

"HOW LONG?"

Kasumi squeaked and backed away. "Two nights ago!" she yelped. "I swear, Nabiki told me!" Then she turned on her heel and fled the room, leaving Nabiki alone to face her sister's wrath.

"Oh great," Nabiki scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Just throw me under the bus. Fantastic."

Akane growled and raised a fist. Nabiki rapidly paled, stumbling over herself to back away, and the sordid truth came spilling out in an instant.

"Only since October, I swear!"

"OCTOBER?!"

For a minute, Akane waged war against her temper, shaking in the middle of the room.

Nabiki edged warily around her.

"Sis..."

Gentle arms wrapped around her.

"Damn it," Akane whispered into Nabiki's shoulder, hugging her sister back. "Damn it…"

Nabiki held her closer. "I'm just trying to keep her safe," she whispered back, her voice fierce and broken. "That's all I'm- I wouldn't, Akane. I swear I wouldn't, please, you have to believe me."

Akane sniffled. "I do…"

In the shadowed hallway, Kasumi watched them embrace with haunted eyes.

[A/N] There's something very fascinating about how fandoms and fanon ebb and flow and change over time. Over the last 3/4ths of a decade, Gender Sleepy has been sometimes behind the curve, sometimes ahead of it, sometimes right with it. I've had a bunch of interesting conversations thinking about, like, tropes and where the broader fandom is going right now (remake! yeeeeeee~!), and it's always fun when I do something by complete accident that I've had planned for years and everyone thinks it's this big planned moment. It's great to write something which resonates differently with people in different ways as time goes on. It's all you can hope for as a writer - that your work will be fluid, that it'll carry meaning far beyond its original intent. That's the best part of the craft in my opinion.

I had a lot of fun with this chapter, and I've got some stuff planned for the next few that's even better~

Thank you as always to my wonderful reviewers and commenters, namely JaquiK, Beedok, AlineZaWizard, deadCartes, InaNewmoon, MarisaReset, KaiserDrgn, SamuelJamuel, AEM, Linka_Knight, Xadlly, TheCoolestKira, FullOfNuns, wtrClover, princesscolumbia, JessWraith, Shiagur, dat_physics_boi, ScrapTonic, ResponsiblyIrresponsible, Lukkai, Caimano, Ubermeh (great username lol), Pale_Yellow_Luci, and merendinoemiliano for reviewing. As always, your wonderful feedback is what keeps me coming back to this fandom year after year. Extra thanks as always to NobleHeroine, Korra, and Sevillana for their editing help and their patience and support through what has been a rather trying month.

Let me know what you thought!

Cheers, Allie