It was a beautiful morning. The air was crisp and clear, and the sun beamed down perfectly through the clouds. There wasn't the slightest chance of rain. She swore she could even hear birds chirping.
It was a perfect day for a wedding.
She really couldn't have asked for a better day herself. Ranma Saotome was a very lucky man. And he deserved a magical day to celebrate his love.
The wedding was going to be beautiful. Ukyo Kuonji could not have been happier or more grateful.
He deserved a peaceful, placid day at last, after all the years of escapades, fights, misunderstandings, near death experiences and intentional sabotage from all sides. And so did Akane Tendo, his bride to be.
Many of their mutual friends wondered how she could stand by both of them, through this final moment, the culmination of their romance.
It wasn't hard.
As the years passed, it had become increasingly obvious that she was not Ranma's first choice. Though he treated her kindly, and cared about her as a childhood friend, his heart belonged to Akane. And hers to him. Ukyo had slowly adjusted to the fact.
It was easier for her than for some of the others, like Shampoo and Mousse, who weren't in school with them and didn't see them in a casual, everyday setting. It was in the most mundane moments where it was the most visible.
And of all the suitors, she was glad it was Akane. They were, after all, friends in a certain fashion. And she respected the girl's bravery, physical prowess, and judgement. Ranma and Akane made a great pair, and not just because they were crazy for each other.
Of course, this didn't mean Ukyo's feelings had changed.
However, slowly, bit by bit, she had let him go. Maybe that was the wrong expression. She had realized he was never hers to begin with, and had fallen for Akane before she had even arrived in Nerima.
If she had been 6 months sooner in finding him, then maybe...
But she hadn't been. And today was about Akane.
She did consider herself grateful that he did care about her. Somehow, she got lumped in a weird category with Ryoga of all people, as Ranma placed her somewhere between 'friend,' and 'fellow martial artist' in his life. 'Woman,' was a category that never even crossed his mind to place her in, although occasionally he occupied it. As time went on and she honed her martial arts skills more he did get a thrill out of occasional rematches, though the fights were never close, nor a real challenge for Ranma.
Another thing that could have been avoided if she had arrived just a little earlier, maybe at 15 instead of 16...
But again, she was simply happy to be a part of his, and by extension, Akane's life. Things would never be perfectly smooth between the two of them, but they did respect and help each other, and that was really all she could ask of her former romantic rival. There would always be a friendship there, they had laid the foundation back in their school days, and Ukyo understood that now she'd work to preserve that.
Just as there would always be a friendship between her and Ranma. A friendship which meant everything to her. Even if, in the end, he didn't choose her, she chose him. As a friend. She'd given up a regular life, her family, her womanhood, prospects of a husband, all for him. And even though he wasn't hers in the traditional sense, she knew that wouldn't go to waste. She would do anything to preserve the friendship they shared as children, to keep her oldest friend, and move on with her life in the capacity that she could.
The only thing she'd never been able to really give up for him was okonomiyaki. It was the old story, Ranma chose okonomiyaki over Ukyo, and then, 10 years later, during that secret sauce debacle, she had chosen okonomiyaki over Ranma.
As much sacrificing her femininity had pained her, reclaiming it had been worse. Ukyo could never quite verbalize why. She knew something was off, bound up in her oddly servile and domestic attempts at being a girlfriend, but she couldn't figure out what. Wasn't that what a woman was supposed to be? Wasn't she doing it right, the perfect, accepting, kind, Feminine Ideal? Why had it felt like a betrayal, and more importantly, why hadn't Ranma liked it? Wasn't that what men wanted?
But, in the end, her own rejection of that role in the engagement had been a tipping point. It had also allowed her to resume her masculine clothing at times, her can-do attitude and her job. She would provide for herself. She couldn't be a woman, she couldn't be a man, but she was a chef. That was her identity. Even though she failed to become the woman she always dreamed of, it was a release of sorts. The comfort of the repetitive, consistent, beautifully natural job she'd done for all those painful, awkward, teenage years swaddled her through several more.
She'd tried to talk about it with Ranma once, and he hadn't understood. Another time she brought it up to Akane, but she didn't understand Ukyo's more binary perspective. She'd been ostracized too, by the girls at school, never quite feminine enough, never quite interested in boys enough, but she had a certain number of friends, a certain level of social acceptance Ukyo never had, and their views on femininity were starkly divided because of it.
Ukyo blinked in the mirror.
She had no business getting distracted. this was an important day, and she had to put herself aside. Be there for her friend. Her friends.
After all, Ranma hadn't been any help because he never saw her as a woman. Which was the crux of all of it. Or one of them, anyway.
So, when he had asked her to be a groomsman, how could she have said no?
She was lucky it wasn't a shock. She had thought, with their history, that she would not even be invited to the wedding. But she was, because Ranma and Akane were two of the most inclusive and kindest people she knew. Friends she had.
And Akane had told Ranma not to ask her to be a groomsman, and when he insisted, it was Akane who showed up outside her store, and timidly warned her about Ranma's intention. And offered, should Ranma's suggestion offend her, that she join Akane's group, as a bridesmaid and close friend of the family.
She should have known Akane would be more sensitive than Ranma. And she had thanked her, and she had refused. All she had to give Ranma was her friendship, and she would give it, however she could.
It had been so long since they'd been just friends. And she wanted to be friends again.
She pulled her hair back, and admired herself in her suit in the small, grimy mirror on the desk. She looked fine. It would do.
There was a hesitant knock on the door, first gently, then more firmly. "U-Ukyo? Are you ready?" Ryoga's voiced called through the heavy wood of the church door.
She swung the door open, and he stepped back, blushing a bit. Ryoga was an interesting case. She never really understood how he saw her, man or woman, effeminate boy or cute girl, after his initial confusion. Most of the time he treated her like one of the guys, as if her external appearance and overtures of friendship had allowed him to forget her sex. Until a moment like this, a changing room, a bath house, or a new outfit caused him to remember, and he didn't know how to act. But it was always brief. He needed a friend who was a girl, someone to help him in the most basic of situations, but he couldn't handle a full conversation with a real girl. So Ukyo was a good middle ground.
Theirs had initially been a friendship of convenience, of using the other to get what they want. And yet aside from the man she chased, first violently then romantically, for almost 15 years, and his soon-to-be-wife, he was the closest thing to a friend she had in Nerima.
They hadn't spoken for almost a year after the incident at the Cave of Lost Love. But time had changed many things. And now they stood together as peers of a sort, Ranma's "friends," and practical neighbors. They had never spoken explicitly about their complex and different, parallel yet inverse, relationships to Ranma, but it echoed out into her relationship with the lost boy.
She liked to think they had an understanding. But she was never quite sure.
She was staring at him, sweat slowly gathering around his temple for daring to knock on the changing room door of a girl. "I'm ready." She replied.
"Alright. Let's head to the main chapel... Could you..?" He trailed off.
"You don't know where it is? Oh, come on, sugar. Follow me. We can't have the best man getting lost on the big day."
Ryoga blushed at this. Despite his embarrassment at the honor, and his complicated web of anger, envy, affection, insecurity, resentment and a whole lot of things Ukyo couldn't even begin to discern when it came to Ranma, Ryoga did appreciate the title. And he deserved it. Ryoga, in many ways, was the best and truest friend Ranma had. A friendship based on rivalry forgotten, on a mutual love for martial arts, and a past almost as bizarre as hers.
After all this, she wasn't even Ranma's best friend.
As she lead Ryoga by the cuff through the parish she cleared her mind. It was not hard to be a good friend to Ranma. And it was not hard to be supportive on his wedding day. Unlike Ryoga, she had given up the lingering resentment that accompanied friendly terms with Ranma years ago.
She stopped before opening the final door, and turned around. Scrutinizing Ryoga's broad frame, awkwardly fit into the rented suit, she scanned him to make sure he was presentable before letting him in. The boy wasn't helping her at all, shifting from foot to foot.
"Wait," she stopped him. "Before you go him, at least put your bow-tie on straight, you look ridiculous."
He almost protested, but they both knew he'd let her fix it. As she retied it, she got a closer look. "Is this a bandanna?"
A beat of silence passed. "Don't answer that. I don't want to know." She almost laughed, shaking her head in fond exasperation. A cinch, and he was ready. She patted his shoulder to signify she would be stepping back, out of his personal space. He breathed out, finally.
"Okay sugar, just head straight through the awning, pass beyond me and stand on my right. We'll stay there for the duration of the ceremony. At the end of the service follow me around and outside so we can chuck rice at Ran-chan's fat head." He chuckled at that, and she considered the moment of brevity, the break from his ceaseless nervousness, a win of sorts.
They headed in. Ukyo took her spot. The organ played a chord. The ceremony began.
Standing shoulder to shoulder between Ryoga and Mousse, she took pride in the fact that Ranma had considered her one of his closest friends.
As Ranma, inexplicably in girl form and sopping wet somehow, took her place at the front of the chapel, she glanced at her groomsmen for support. Ukyo radiated placid contentment as she removed herself from the picture as much as possible.
She didn't think about missed opportunities. She didn't think about unrequited love left to fester and its' corpse she called friendship. She didn't think about her own failure. She didn't think about the fact that she was standing in a suit, on the groom's side. She didn't think about how she wasn't even that good of a friend.
She put a smile on her face.
She thought the bride looked lovely. More importantly, she thought Akane looked happy. She could see tears in her eyes.
She thought Ranma looked beautiful as well. Her grin was so ecstatic it bordered on sheer disbelief and confusion.
She thought the vows were perfect, though she couldn't remember a word of them later.
For some reason, the only moment where Ukyo's composure faltered was the instant she saw the rings. Without meaning to, and for no reason she was aware of, she choked. Maybe it was the reminder of that engagement ring scare, back in their high school days, and her desperation. For an instant, she felt as if she couldn't breathe. The walls seemed to close in on her. There were too many people and they were too close- but this was Ranma's day, Ranma and Akane's and she couldn't lose herself she-
All of a sudden, a hand gripped hers.
Subtly, somewhat behind them, so it couldn't be seen from even the front rows, Ryoga Hibiki was holding her hand.
Ukyo glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. He didn't move, nor did he give any external signal of difference. His thin smile, lips pressed together, didn't change.
Ryoga was not a comforting person. He never had been. His bouts of melodramatic depression and neuroticism were unpredictable at best, and made navigating any conversation not about martial arts difficult. In basic cooperative endeavors, it had always been Ukyo who managed him and his emotions in order to stay on the most basic of tasks.
But here he was, next to her, giving her something to hold.
She clutched the hand like a lifeline.
It didn't matter in that moment. If he knew all the selfish, jealous, and mean spirited thoughts going through her head. If he was trying to reel her in, caution her against outward expression. If he commiserated with her and actually understood what she truly felt in that moment.
Out of everyone here, if anyone could presume her innermost feelings in regards to the couple and the entire situation, it would be Ryoga. If anyone could ever understand exactly what it meant to be a groomsman for the man you chased around the world out of misplaced anger and vengeance, it'd be Ryoga. If anyone could grasp the emotions she felt watching the one that got away, the one she gave up on voluntarily, marry someone else, it'd be Ryoga.
Maybe the large, calloused, and vaguely damp hand in hers was a sign he was there for her, no matter the nature of her thoughts in that moment. She gave it a squeeze, a put the finals remnants of her self loathing, invidiousness, and frustration into the bone creaking press of his hand.
Or, maybe he was just as self centered as she was. Maybe the wimp needed his own support, watching the girl he pined over for years marry his best friend. He would be one to soliloquize about some bull like that, despite having a girlfriend. The jackass.
Ukyo liked that she didn't know whether he needed something from her, or she needed something from him.
He squeezed her hand back.
Akane swung Ranma in a low dip, and gave him a kiss in front of their families and friends. And cheer went up, and applause shook the chapel as the two girls scampered down the aisle, giggling and trying to trip each other. They looked supremely happy.
Ukyo and Ryoga allowed the throng of people to ease their grip on each other. In a loose hold she guided him outside. As bright sunlight his their faces, and they rejoined the crowd once more, this time as true supportive friends, with nothing but good wishes, she thought she heard a whisper.
"Thank you."
Her mouth moved as she tried to say the words back, but no sound came out.
Finally, watching Ranma fall on his face on the chapel steps while Akane, Mousse, and Nabiki laughed, a real smile began to appear on her face. She took a deep breath, a let out a loud cheer for the happy couple.
I do not own any of the Ranma 1/2 characters. They belong to their respective owners.
I'm sorry it's a Christian ceremony, I wrote this spur of the moment and I only really know how Christian ceremonies work.
I wrote this whole Ranma 1/2 fic spur of the moment drunk on a weeknight in 2025, plagued by all the Ukyo thoughts that have haunted me over the years, and listening to Liz Phair's Friend of Mine on a loop. I wonder what Ukyo would think of the song. I hope you enjoyed.