Best Friends Forever Chapter 3
Written by: DaisukiFox
DaisukiFox: I'd post this chapter and the rest for storage. I wish I had more to say in this instance but I'm just doing this because why not? I hope the Ranma 1/2 remake picks up and more readers slash fans are made.
Ryoga watched Ranma as she trained with him, they moved in perfect harmony as she instructed him in some new techniques that she felt would make him more powerful. He was extremely flattered that she had chosen to teach him her secret techniques,
"That's it! Now focus on my eyes and anticipate my moves!" Ranma instructed as she barely side-stepped a right-handed hook to the face.
"Arrr!" Ryoga growled as his calm demeanor vanished and was replaced with a look of frustration.
"Get angry and you'll get sloppy," Ranma recalled while jumping back to avoid a swift kick from Ryoga's attack.
"Just calm down, you good-looking lug you!" The redheaded cutie Ryoga was sparing with said as she immediately ran in and cupped his face with both hands.
Lost in those glimmering sapphire eyes, Ryoga had done as Ranma had asked of him but instead of calming down because he needed to. It was really more that he was too flustered to respond to such a gentle and sudden approach to training.
"Uh-huh…" Ryoga gawked as the steam rose to his face, changing his blazing intensity into a steamy haze that drifted from the top of his head like a gently cooling sauna stone.
"Ya got this… okay?" Ranma asked rhetorically as she took her stance.
"I've got this…" Ryoga said as he seemed to calm down.
"Land a hit and I may give you a reward!" Ranma added with a closing of her eyes as she had expected that to cause him to pause and blush like usual.
"Let's do this!" Ryoga exclaimed a fire roaring in his heart so intensely that it gave Ranko the appearance of a vicious but determined lion.
"Gah!" Ranma screamed a little as his aura was visible and enough in the shape of a large wild cat that it triggered her fear of cats a bit.
Without any sort of hesitation the Lost Man rushed the redhead, the promise of a reward fueling his strength and determination in a way Ranma hadn't accounted for. With no fear in his strikes, the savage teen did all he could and it seemed had adopted a new style.
If Ranma had to describe it, it was almost like Ryoga was using his version of the chestnut fist! Although much more power was packed into each punch as her hair and pigtail swayed in every direction, 'Looks like he ain't takin' my words-' she thought before finding that Ryoga's arm had moved faster than she thought it could have, narrowly missing him and almost grazing her cheek.
"Getting faster!" Ranma announced and then met Ryoga's eyes, noticing that his overwhelming rage was starting to become more focused; an almost righteous anger for an undetermined reward.
Drawing her attention to his eyes she noticed that his senses had returned, although, from the looks of his face and the small veins tensing noticeably she could tell this was a taxing experience for him.
"Still too slow!" She added but her eyes widened when she saw that one of his swings had just been a ruse.
"Got'cha!" Ryoga exclaimed as he instead reached out and grabbed Ranma by her wrist, yanking her towards him so hard that she had whiplash.
"Ahhh!" Ranma screamed before she felt the wind around her stomach trying to move fast enough not to get caught in the pressure of Ryoga's intense right hook, only to feel Ryoga's open palm suddenly bash into her stomach with much less force.
"Now Saotome, I believe there was a re-reward, you mentioned?" The Lost Man asked as he panted, taking a step back and breathing deeply as he saw the redhead drop to her knees to catch her breath.
Feeling certainly winded but not out, the redhead gritted her teeth as she caught her breath before lifting her head up as if looking to continue the fight before closing her eyes and chuckling deeply with a hoarse tone.
"I-I didn't even say what the re-reward would be Ryoga? For all you know it could have been just a sandwich…" Ranma chidded as she slowly rose to her feet.
Ryoga's eyes widened, knowing that to be true, maybe he should have set some conditions was a thought that hit him for a brief moment. "Guess you're right.." the fanged teenager remarked with a disheartened look.
"What were you hoping for?" Ranma asked as she eventually got her breathing back to a normal constant, strolling over to him with her hands cupped together behind her back.
"N-nothing, I was believe it or not-"
"Yeah, I don't believe it…" Ranma's voice trailed as when she was standing in front of him she reached her hand out to stop Ryoga from talking by putting her index finger over both his lips.
His blush had returned and now his heart was racing, not knowing how to say what he wanted all he could do was gaze into her eyes and hope she would understand.
"How about you be honest and if you really mean what you want, I'll give it to ya, simple as that Ryo…" Ranma advised Ryoga calmly and warmly, the slightest of knowing smirks spread across her adorably round but womanly face.
"I-I was hoping for a kiss…" Ryoga whispered bashfully after Ranma lowered her digit from his face.
"What was that? Speak up…" Ranma teased as she narrowed her eyes gently, making it obvious as she took a step closer to the martial artist in yellow.
Now Ryoga was starting to lose his patience but he had to remind himself in the back of his mind that this person was Ranma Saotome and she loved messing with him. "I was hoping for a kiss from you!" Ryoga exclaimed loudly enough to be heard clearly, hands on her shoulders.
"Hmmm…" Ranma appeared uncertain or rather it was more like she was too hard for Ryoga to read.
"If that's too much, we-" Ryoga only got so far before finding that his lips had been silenced by Ranma who had been waiting for the exact moment that Ryoga had closed his mouth and was looking away.
Deep groans erupted from within their beings, a pulsing jolt of energy spreading throughout them as they kissed with the passion that had driven them so forcefully together as before. One deep kiss wasn't enough to sate these two after how accustomed they had become to one another.
"Ryoga…" Ranma mumbled with a deep blush after pulling back from the kiss.
"Ranma…" Ryoga's voice only trailed as he couldn't find any other words to say, instead letting his feelings guide him as he went back in again, closing his eyes and capturing the redhead's perfect lips that just seemed to melt into his.
The radiant redhead returned his affection with a mirror image of Ryoga's, feeling her lips part as she felt Ryoga's hands travel down her shoulders to pull her in by her waist.
There was no hesitation as Ranma moved her arms up so she could snake them around Ryoga's neck and accepted him wholly and fully. That was until Ranma felt Ryoga's hands traveling further down, gently yet fervently longing as he explored the contours of her lower back, creating an electrifying sensation between them.
"Hold up!" Ranma warned as she put some distance between them, enough to peel Ryoga's hand away from her recently groped backend.
"Sorry! I got too into it and you're so…!" Ryoga defended as he didn't know what to say, having gotten swept up in the moment.
"I-it's alright, kay? It's just, I ain't ready for that Ryoga and-and…" Ranma began before looking away and blushing as deeply as the Lost Man was.
"I-I don't think I am too, i-it just sorta' happened…" Ryoga continued, feeling bad for having let himself go further than either were ready for.
"I'll let it slide this time especially since you won too," Ranma used as an excuse, crossing her arms with a slight pout.
"Again, I'm really sorry…" Ryoga began but saw Ranma raise her hand to tell him to stop.
"And again, it's okay…" Ranma allowed her voice to drag with uncertainty but the cute face she was making mixed with the hesitancy in her voice let him know that there might have been more to her words.
He'd been staying with the Tendos and had even taken a job at the post office to help supplement their income; it was just right down the street from them. Ranma walked him there every morning on his way to school and picked him up at the end of his shift just in time for dinner. Ryoga was enjoying staying with the family and having a roof over his head for the first time in years.
That and he was secretly seeing female Ranma was an added bonus.
After the first time that Ranma had worn female clothes for him, he'd assured her that anything that she wore looked good on her and he just wanted her to be herself. Their relationship had been tentative at first; they loved to make out and had done a little light petting and some innocent exploration, but nothing below the waist. Ranma, despite having little modesty, had proven shy about exposing herself as a lover and Ryoga was saving himself for his wedding night he said. So by unspoken agreement, they kissed heavily and kept their touches clean since that time before.
Later in the day, Ranma felt a strong urge to spend some time training in the dojo. The meticulously planned and intricate individual training lessons she had in mind had grown tiresome as the day progressed. However, it wasn't the physical exhaustion that weighed most heavily on her mind.
That moment when they had been kissing earlier had been the most intimate Ranma and Ryoga had gotten in their entire journey of exploring the complex web of emotions that had entangled them.
"Am I really ready for this? Do I love him? Are we moving too fast?" Ranma pondered these questions as she executed a series of kicks and punches with grace and fluidity, not a single drop of sweat marring her composure.
An image of a twenty-year-old Akane surfaced, bringing with it a rush of unpleasant memories. She remembered the heated arguments and shouting matches that used to define their relationship. She recalled Akane standing behind a door frame while Ranma faced the students, the hurt in her eyes palpable.
"You're way better than Tendo-sensei!"
"Why are we learning from her if she just does it to stay in shape?"
"How do I get my hands to break rocks like you do?"
Those words echoed in her mind, a chorus of discontent that resounded deep within her. She vividly remembered the day she found Akane hiding behind that door frame, her head lowered and tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Akane! Were you…?"
"Everyone thinks you're so much better! So much faster! Even some say prettier when you're teaching as-as…"
"Why does that matter, Kane? Aren't we just supposed to be happy for each other?" Ranma's voice quivered as she got lost in the painful memory, a solitary tear tracing its path down her cheek.
She stood alone in the dojo, her thoughts drifting back to Ryoga. Their romantic moments together played out in her mind, reminding her of how he had evolved from a reliable friend into something more. She recalled the genuine happiness in his eyes when he watched her train her students, unaffected by concerns about who was the most liked instructor, for he had never even been one himself.
"Maybe I could make him a sensei too," Ranma mused, her lips pursing as she clenched her fists tightly.
Ryoga sat alone in the living room of the Tendo dojo, the faint echoes of the night serving as his background music. The distant chirping of crickets filled the air, their melodies resembling the sound of distant violins on those warm summer nights in Nerima. The fang-toothed man thoroughly reviewed the paperwork spread out before him, cross-checking each document for accuracy. With focused determination, he analyzed the data, comparing numbers and figures in a seemingly endless sea of administrative work.
"Administrative assistant was supposed to be easier?" Ryoga mused aloud, his voice a soft murmur in the quiet room. As he proceeded to enter the next set of data onto a fresh sheet, he couldn't help but feel as though this job consisted of nothing but paperwork.
A heavy yawn escaped his lips, his hand instinctively covering his mouth. Fatigue was beginning to set in. He glanced at his wristwatch to check the time, squinting at the numbers in the dim light of the room.
"Guess that's all for tonight," Ryoga muttered to himself, the exhaustion evident in his weary voice. He carefully organized the files and data entry sheets, placing them neatly into a single yellow envelope.
However, there was a pause in his actions, his mind wandering back to the intimate moments he had shared with Ranma earlier. Confusion swirled within him as he contemplated the depth of his feelings and the uncertainties of their complicated relationship.
"Ugh, I'm just heading to bed…" Ryoga sighed, his eyes closed in contemplation as he stood up, clutching the folder securely under his arm.
Sliding the door open to her shared room, the redhead yawned into her hand, her mouth going wide as she shut her eyes and walked inside still dressed in her training gi as she started by untying her black belt around her waist.
"Guess Ryoga's got a lotta' work tonight, bad enuff they make the guy work there they gotta' take his time away from me-" She paused with a blush and laughed nervously to herself, pretending she hadn't just said that as she took her jacket off; revealing a white muscle shirt.
Her leg moved around behind her so her heel could gently shut the sliding door behind her shut.
With his arms dropped to his sides, Ryoga ascended each step with his eyes closed shut. He just couldn't wait for the sweet oblivion of sleep that awaited him. "Ranma's probably asleep already…" He mumbled to himself as he reached the top of the stairs.
"Maybe I should let-" Ranma was saying while dragging her pants downwards, her back facing towards the door but her boxers getting dragged down considerably more than she had wanted she reached behind herself to correct this.
"R-Ranma?" Ryoga's voice uttered in disbelief as he caught sight of the top portion of her derriere.
"I'm so sorry!" Ryoga cried out as he shut the door while pressing his back up to it, his heart thumping in his chest so loudly he swore it'd be too loud to hear anything.
After that, Ryoga had waited outside the door until it slowly popped open with the redhead clearing her throat to catch Ryoga's attention as he had at some point moved to the wall across from their shared room's door.
"Ranma…" Ryoga began but as he looked up he saw the redhead just moving back into the room, now wearing her boxers and muscle shirt properly as she got down on her futon, doing so quickly enough to let him know that she was still feeling distressed about what had just happened.
Faced with little choice but to go sleep in the living room, he decided that Ranma probably just wanted to go to sleep.
With her back towards him and facing in the direction of the window in their room, Ranma looked out at the starry sky. Her eyes glistened with a deep look of introspection, she could sense him moving around, the sound of fabric hitting the floor as she could hear a sigh of exhaustion coming from behind her.
A soft thudding noise hit the ground, before the sounds of someone shuffling around and then what followed Ranma could only guess was Ryoga pulling the sheets up to himself.
The redhead waited, expecting him to say anything, anything at all that could break the odd tension between, 'Are we really gonna' go the whole night like this? Did I kill the guy's confidence? D-Do I want him to be confident about t-that? With Akane, it just sorta happened and I was a guy then, and ever since Ryoga's been around I've been feeling how I used ta' feel for Akane but now as a woman…' she pondered all the while, that was until she heard Ryoga shifting around in his futon.
Curiosity overcame her and she looked over her shoulder, doing her best to do so as unnoticeably as she could but at the corner of her eye she could see that he hadn't moved to face her back and had shown her his back.
Ryoga looked at the door in front of him but rather than actually looking at it, it was more like he was trying to see beyond it like it was just in the way of what lay ahead; just like everything else in his way. All his life things had never gone his way, not with his parents, not with any sort of an extended family, few friends but mostly those sadly lonely nights that filled most of his days kept shooting into his mind, taunting him, the insults, the violence, the animal attacks, the times he had taken injuries as P-chan and being chased down by predators, 'Maybe I shouldn't have gone so far, this is Ranma, of course, she couldn't let go of what she used to be… what… what… he used to be…' Ryoga thought, trying to focus on all the terrible things Ranma had done to him, the lies, the tricks, every little chance they could to take a shot at each other.
"Ryoga…" Ranma's voice gently caught the former wanderer's attention.
Ryoga flinched so heavily that he looked as though he had been a cat suddenly awoken from a deep sleep. He didn't know if she was looking or anything so he refused to say anything.
"I just saw you twitch man so quit messing around, there's something I wanna ask you."
"W-what is it?" Ryoga asked, looking down onto his pillow longingly, 'Ranma probably just wants to maybe sleep in the living room, after all, that, wouldn't surprise me…' he assumed with a disgruntled inner reflection.
"Can you hold me?"
Yet again faced with indecision Ryoga waited for a second, unsure of how to respond, 'I don't get you Ranma, he doesn't want to be with me but he keeps doing things like this! Is he experimenting or toying with my feelings like before!? I should give her a piece of my-' Ryoga thought bitterly as if finally having enough he gazed upon her figure as she had dropped her blanket to reveal her back so he could move.
"Guess that's a no, huh?" Ranma began sounding as if she knew that she should have known better.
Rustle…
Her heart skipped a beat, a faint blush across her face as her eyes glistened in the pale moonlight. Her mouth went agape as she felt him getting behind her, his arms wrapping around her, spooning the gender-fluid crimson temptress.
Though both were too busy with their internal struggles, they hadn't fathomed the fact that they were doing all they could do within themselves to fight off their uncertainty.
Thump-Thump!
Swallowing a limp in his throat harder than any other time in his life the Lost Man held onto his former rival slash complicated relationship, 'I know I shouldn't be indulging this, I know I should be better than this but-but…' Ryoga's internal voice faded into the depths of his mind, vanishing within in subconscious cosmos.
Ranma took a sharp intake of air, trying to steady her breathing but instead came out like soft but hurried gasps, 'I like the guy but I've always lived like a guy too an ever since…' she thought thinking back to that night when Ryoga and her had kissed, how powerful and intense that feeling had been.
Shutting his eyes the Eternally Lost twenty-year-old held onto the girl in his arms, glad that he didn't start bleeding from the nose anymore, 'I shouldn't become so attached but dammit! I'm a man too and if Ranma's going out of her-his-her way!' he thought as his mind couldn't settle on how he wanted to see his layered relationship with the redhead in his arms.
Like a sixth sense triggering within Ranma, she could feel his distressed aura and knew that she had to do something for him, 'Hope I don't regret this but maybe the guy needs it, maybe I need it…' she thought as she put one of her hands over Ryoga's much larger one.
It was then that Ryoga felt Ranma intertwining their fingers together if that hadn't been enough what really caught him off guard was that she was moving his hand away from her midsection, 'Guess Ranma isn't for spooooo-' he thought as his brain fried for before he could complete his train of thought he felt Ranma instead of getting his hand off her instead moved his arm up her muscle shirt, gliding it against her bare skin and finally to her right breast, helping him to cup it fully in his hand, causing both to take strained breathe but most of all for Ryoga to sit up a little.
"Ranma are you…?" Ryoga inquired nearly without breath, a deep shade of red adorned his face.
"Just this once, it's okay…" She continued as her face trailed, looking behind her and then closing her eyes as she kissed the man she wanted to get to know a little more personally.
Ryoga's face at first seemed confused and looked as though he wanted to pull away and protest but found that he couldn't muster that fire in his belly. He couldn't summon it, the flames fizzled before being replaced by a look of affection and joyful bliss.
"Mmm…" He moaned under their kiss, returning it as his hand explored the soft but busty orb in his palm; acquainting himself with every part of her he was allowed to while they kissed and Ryoga fondled.
Sorry, it gets a bit more steamy in this version and that may be why I didn't want to post here as well because the standards here seem more strict.
Foxes from the Foxxy~
DaisukiFox~