Inu-Ranma, Part 2
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction
By Medina
::Well, i'm not sure how many people read Inu-Yasha, but I've gotten some
support for this, so here goes. Oh, and if you can't tell with my stories,
the whole crux of the matter doesn't happen right away. It'll take a few
chapters to find out what's going to happen.::
Akane found herself doing a lot of things that weren't normal for her;
this morning, she just happened to be humming happily as she dressed and sat
down for breakfast. Her family was worried -- this was not the Akane they
knew, and if Akane didn't know what she knew, she would be worried for
herself as well. Another thing was odd; she had beaten Ranma to breakfast,
who came sauntering in a few minutes after she had come down. He looked
tired, and a little flushed.
"My, my, this is an odd morning," Nabiki quipped, looking up from the
stock reports in the paper, "Akane's as chipper as a songbird, and Ranma's
late to breakfast! Too much partying, eh, Saotome?" Ranma grunted as Kasumi
placed a bowl of egg over rice in front of him, and he picked up his
chopsticks hesitantly, not seeming too interested in the food.
"I know, you and Akane were up all night necking! Haha!"
"You kissed and told!?" Akane screamed at Ranma, slapping his face into his
ricebowl. He jerked his head up, face spotted with rice and egg, and fumed
at Akane.
"Why would I tell Nabiki that I kissed a tomboy like you?!" he shot back,
while Akane reached for his throat. The kitchen was suddenly quiet, and they
froze, looking at Nabiki.
"I... was just joking." They were both suddenly back in their seats,
Akane intently eating her breakfast, and Ranma seemed to have a sudden
interest in the gardening section of the newspaper in front of him. Soun and
Genma grinned, knowing for once when not to intervene with their children,
and shook hands below the table. Nabiki continued to stare, then shook her
head. Ranma nervously looked up at the clock on the wall, and shot out of
his seat.
"Oh! Look at the time! Come on, Akane, we'll be late for school!" he
grabbed Akane by the wrist, and pulled her out the door, ricebowl and all.
They were half-way to school already when Ranma finally let her go, and she
had finished her breakfast by then. He wheezed, his face red and sweaty.
Akane looked down at him, for he had crouched down to better catch his
breath, and he peered up at her. "What?" he asked between gasps.
"Are you okay? I mean, you come in and kiss me in the middle of the
night, you're late for breakfast, and you drag me out of the house. Are you
finally feeling the effects of being punched too many times?" she toyed at
him.
"Uncute," he tossed back, between another gasp.
"Fine, then I'll go to school by myself," she began to walk away from him.
"Hey, wait," he stood up, catching up with her.
"Seriously," she said, watching the street for cars before they crossed,
"was that just... a game last night? Was I dreaming?" Ranma saw the honesty
in her eyes; he liked her when she was being reasonable.
"I... I just wanted to thank you, that's all," he said uneasily. "So, you
kiss everyone you're grateful to Okay, I can live with that," she said,
disappointed. "Wow, I'm not getting mad... what's wrong with me?"
"Hey, not everyone... just someone who gives me a really great gift... ,"
he said thoughtfully, wondering too why Akane hadn't pounded him yet, and
looked over at her; she was smiling again? If he hadn't lost it, she surely
had! "But... um... you're not mad at me 'bout it, are you?"
"No," was all she said back to him, and continued to walk in silence. He
stared up at the sky, his arms held up behind his head, confused.
"Just as the world seems to be calming down, she has to go and complicate
things... by being nice. Why did I have to kiss her... she's so... not cute.
She's beautiful. What? What am I doing?" he looked at her again, and she
was still glowing in that strange womanly way she had the night before -- the
same way that had made him want to kiss her. "That's it... I am cracked..."
Akane knew he didn't get what was going on; he had been the one who had
kissed her, not the other way around, but she understood that Ranma usually
acted on impulse, and usually didn't understand his own motivations right
away. That was alright, because she was in just as much of a whirl, but it
was a whirl she could handle. She thought back to the wedding that didn't
happen. She had been so angry when he had denied having feelings for her,
but that was months ago. Something new, something better seemed to be
arising in the both of them -- maybe they were maturing, and were both coming
to realize that beneath all of the animosity that came from being forced
together, they really did love one another. Love. Wow, that was a big step,
and Akane wasn't sure if she wanted to say that yet, but maybe, with Ranma's
impulsive nature, she wouldn't be the one who'd say it first. She was
confused too, but she didn't want to get angry; she wanted something new to
arise from the confusion, this time. And maybe, just maybe, she could have
something normal in her life.
* * * *
Ranma knew something was amiss, but he just couldn't put his finger on it
right now. No, he already had identified the party, the cake, the moonlit
kiss -- those were identifiable anomalies, and he had already tucked those
incidences into his "odd, yet nice" category. This was something else,
something having to do with himself, and nothing else. As he padded along
the route to school, now entering the gates of the too-familiar Furinkan
High, he took advantage of the comfortable silence that he and Akane were
sharing for once. It was great; something that he could get used to, he
thought, looking at Akane's pleasant expression from thr corner of his eye
and grinned absently himself. He furrowed his brow momentarily, wracking his
brain to identify what was wrong.
"Saotome! Thou'rt scum--" A quick leap and a roundhouse sent Kuno
facefirst into the dirt, where he stayed down as he normally did at this time
in the morning.
"7:45, right on the nose. Don't have time to bother with him today," he
went over in his head, not even missing a beat in his walk with Akane, and
lifted up his hand to wipe the sweat off of his brow.
Sweat? A roundhouse to Kuno made him break a sweat?
Leaving his hand there, he did feel warmer than usual... but perhaps that
was due to the... embarassing... situation during breakfast. He nodded; it
had to be that. Climbing the stairs to class, he decided to rest on the
conclusion that it was simply fallout from the other oddities that had
visited him. Now he was free to contemplate where Akane's mallet came from,
or why Kuno was still attacking him at school when he had graduated the year
before, or why did old men keep sea salt?
He would have liked to have left it that way, however, when he had finally
made it to the floor his class was on -- the third floor -- he felt as if he
were going to collapse and tumble right back down to the bottom. Mustering
all of his strength, he tried to keep up with Akane, but couldn't, and
stopped, leaning against the railing. He hoped Akane would just go to class
on her own and not wonder why he had fallen behind, but the way that they
were carrying on this morning... She had barely taken three steps before she
noticed his presence missing. He cringed, not wanting to be seen faltering,
especially by Akane. He tried not to make eye contact with her as she pushed
herself through the crowd of students hurrying to class in the other
direction.
"What's wrong, Ranma?" she asked, looking almost peeved that he was just
standing there. He forced a grin.
"Ah, nothin', I just felt like, well, you know, stopping and smelling the
roses?" he winced. "I suck at lying..."
Akane's expression twisted at that, "What? At the top of the cement
stairwell on the third floor?"
"I enjoy the smell of..." he sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose, "gym
clothes and... the chemistry lab... and ammonia..." he gave up and smiled
sheepishly at her. Akane shook her head; sometimes it was best just to not
pursue the subject any further. She grabbed his hand and pulled him like a
dead weight towards their homeroom.
"C'mon, we're nearly late-- Ranma, your hand's so hot, what have you been
doing?" she asked forcefully, but retracted, as the statement seemed to
connote something she didn't want to even picture. Then she got the idea.
"Let me feel your forehead," she said, reaching up to place the back of her
hand against his face. He jerked back, not letting her.
"Come on!" she yelled, getting angry, and slapped her hand to his face so
hard that he almost fell backwards. "Ranma, you're burning up! Geeze,
didn't you notice at all before we left home that you're sick?" she told him,
looking up at him in an admonishing yet motherly way.
"Sick? Me? No way in hell. You know I never get sick -- I'm just in too
good health to be sick..." he trailed off, seeing as how that statement
didn't make sense in itself, but it dawned on him; he did feel sick. That
morning, not being able to get up on time, he wasn't hungry for once in his
life, running halfway to school had caused him to be completely winded, and
the stairs! he barely made it up! He frowned. "I'm not sick."
Akane shrugged, "If you insist... but it's not my problem if you get in
trouble with the school for bringing in a virus when you knew that you should
have stayed home..."
"I'm not goin' home."
"Did I tell you to?"
**BRIIIIIING!!**
They whirled to see the time on the clock: "8:00" "We're late!!!" they
both screamed and scurried off to class.
"Another fine mess..." Akane grumbled, shifting her weight so she could
optimally reserve her strength to hold onto the buckets full of water that
she had in her hands. She peered over to Ranma, as she always did when he
made them late. Well, sometimes it was her fault, but she blamed him anyway;
he always made a good scapegoat. She softened when she saw him. He was
definitely sick, no matter how hard he tried to deny it or cover it up -- she
could see the sweat beading up on his nose and forehead, and his face was
brightly flushed. She noted his hands shaking, trying to keep his grip on
the buckets.
"Okay, I am sick..." he admitted to himself, feeling the weakness in his
entire body. Normally, he would be able to carry these buckets around for
days without feeling the slightest ache in his arms and hands, but now... he
might as well been carrying the world while Atlas took a coffee break!
"Miss Tendo, Mr. Saotome, that's enough. Come back in," the teacher
said, poking his head out of the door. Akane placed the buckets gently along
the wall for the janitor to dump out when he came by. Ranma, in a gasp of
relief, dropped the steel buckets to the floor with a loud clang, nearly
sloshing the water out onto himself. He sweated more in relief of that!
Akane waited, as he trudged to her side and back into the classroom.
"Why don't you go to the nurse's station and get excused to go home. You
must have the flu, and it's not good to be out and about with that," she
whispered to him, a look of honest concern on her face. The look tempted
him, but... no! He, Ranma Saotome wouldn't ko'd by a virus!
"I can handle it, Akane."
"When did the room start to tilt?" he asked himself, fifteen minutes into
the morning lecture on definite integrals. He shook his head, and looked
down onto his note paper -- he had hardly a scribble, but it looked like it
was raining. "Eew... Alright, Akane, you win..." he glanced over to her;
he knew that she had been keeping an eye on him since they sat down, and when
she met his gaze, nodded at him to go ahead and get the teacher's attention.
He reluctantly raised his hand, which felt as heavy as the buckets had been
earlier.
"Mr. Saotome?" the teacher asked absently, continuing to write equations
on the chalk board.
"Teach, I think I need to see the nurse..."
"Go ahead." Ranma turned to slide out of his seat, and when he started
to stand up, he felt everything flip. His legs wobbled out from under him.
"Crap, not in front of the whole class..." He felt himself crash to the
ground in a heap, he tried to get up, but the room wouldn't stop spinning,
and he welcomed the blackness that followed. "Didn't wanna see the looks on
their faces anyway...."
* * * * *
"Unnh..." he groaned, blinking his eyes, which stung like he had just made
it through a dust storm. He knew that he was lying down, and looked down the
length of his body, but his view was blocked somewhat close to his face. He
felt the cold, dripping towl on his forehead. Oh. Tilting his, rather, her
head to the side, she saw the nurse's stout form in the corner talking to
none other than her mother! She would have screamed, but found that she
neither had the strength, nor the desire to hack through the phlegm in her
throat in such a way. She felt someone pick up the rag off of her head, and
place it back on, newly cold with fresh water. Switching sides of sight,
albeit, a little too fast, for it made her head hurt even more, there was
Akane playing nursemaid to her! This was too much...
"What are you all doing?" she hissed in annoyance, shooting up straight on
the cot in the nurse's station and immediately experiencing the
stomach-twisting vertigo that she had felt earlier, she fell back down onto
the cot.
"Quit fawnin' over me... I can take this," she muttered, trying to get back
up, albeit, slower.
"Listen, dope, you're sick, and you're weaker than..." Akane noticed a
spark of apprehension mark girl-Ranma's face, "well, let's just say that you
won't be fighting anyone for a few days. Auntie Nodoka's here because the
school called her over, since your father and mine went out drinking this
morning for god knows what reason," she paused; they both knew why. "The
administration doesn't want someone with such a mean virus to be around
giving it to other students... they figure anything that would knock you
down so hard might be lethal to a normal teenager." Her tone had gradually
softened, and Ranma could see the earnest care in her face. Ranma sighed,
and looked down.
"Okay, you win... I'll go home," she told Akane, now that she had been
able to inch her way up into a sitting position, and looked back up at the
other girl; she looked relieved.
"Good. Anyway, it wasn't like you had much of a choice..." Akane smirked.
"Ooh, just you wait-- Gaaah!" girl-Ranma screeched as she felt herself
being squished and lifted into the air.
"My poor baby!! Don't you worry a bit! Mommy's going to take good care of
her little Ranma until she's all better!" Nodoka said, nearly crushing the
life out of her female-formed son.
"I'm a booooy..." Ranma gurgled. Akane giggled, grabbing the cup of hot
water she had by her and splashed Ranma, turning her back into a him.
Amazingly, being fifty to seventy pounds heavier now, Nodoka could still haul
him over her shoulder as she would if he were a toddler. Ranma looked to
Akane with pleading eyes, and she conceded, embarrassed for him.
"Auntie Nodoka, please," she said, "I'm sure we could let him walk on his
own and help him along." Nodoka thought about it, and nodded, putting Ranma
down on his feet. Akane gently wrapped Ranma's arm over her shoulders,
holding his hand with one arm, the other supporting his back, holding onto
his waist. She felt the firm muscles on his back and side ripple as he made
an effort to move, and blushed. Suddenly, she found herself face to face
with him, his eyes formed into an expression that she didn't recognize too
well...
"Thanks, Akane... I'd never live it down if everyone saw mom carrying me
like a baby down the halls, especially since..." he paused -- Akane almost
had a finger on what that look he was giving was -- "I don't think I could
have gotten out of her grip if I tried..."
Okay, that was pain. But it was still more complex. It was like... he was
honestly grateful for her help, but defeated at the same time. They began to
walk out, and Akane was hoping that they wouldn't meet any students out in
the hall, for Ranma's sake. On the day after his birthday, he didn't deserve
this -- to be seen having two women helping him down the hall like a withered
old man.
Ranma knew Akane felt bad for him; had the positions been switched, he
would have felt the same, but, it would have been different for her. Girls
were the ones who were supposed to faint away without a moment's notice, and
it was okay for a girl to show a little bit of weakness every now and again,
(Akane could sure use a bit of that!) but a guy? No way in hell. Granted,
Ranma was a girl sometimes... He pushed that thought out of his head with a
sneer. At least when he had the weakness moxibustion spell on him, he was
still able to stand up, walk around, make it up flights of stairs, not fall
out of his seat in class... He cringed. Everybody had seen that, and there
must have been a commotion made, heck, the whole school probably knew about
it by now! He sighed, and felt his mother rub his back gently as she had him
held up on the other side of Akane; he did love his mom, but she could be
too much at times.
"How are you holding up, Ranma?" Akane whispered in his ear, probably
feeling the heat from his body and seeing his changing facial expressions.
They were going down the main stairs now, and they had yet to meet any
students.
"I'm okay... stop worryin' about me, k?" he told her, his voice coming out
strained, betraying his statement. He cursed the virus that had gotten into
his body, cursed his immune system for letting it through, cursed the world
for knocking him down! He breathed in and out deeply, feeling faint again --
he couldn't expend any energy seething at things he couldn't do much about.
"You know these things. It'll be gone in a couple 'a days," he told her
confidently. She looked a little lighter now, and it made him feel a bit
better just seeing that.
"Akane! I can't believe... I found you so fast!" a familiar voice chimed
in from behind, and Akane glance over her shoulder. "Say, what are you three
doing here in Okinawa, anyway?" Both Ranma and Akane sighed -- he'd catch on
in a few minutes.
The lost boy caught up to the trio, and bowed to Nodoka, who returned the
gesture with a motherly smile. Looking confused, he examined the setup: two
women, namely Ranma's mother, Nodoka, and his fiancee, Akane, giving him,
Ranma, the toughest martial artist this side of the Ural mountains aid in
walking down the street to their house. Ranma showed no signs of a recent
battle, either. Perhaps a spell? Ryoga, before beginning to say something,
commended himself for his conduct; not months before, he would have
challenged Ranma to a duel right there and then for a) the normal "You Ruined
My Life" bit, b) for daring to stand so close to Akane, and c) leaving
himself so blatantly open! Yes, Ryoga, you have become a better man!
"If you don't mind me asking," he broke the momentary silence and waited
for their attention, which took hardly a second, "why are you ladies walking
him down the street? Is he drunk?" Ryoga nearly slapped himself. Stupid,
stupid...
Ranma glowered, Akane rolled her eyes, and Nodoka giggled, and spoke up
before either her son or his fiancee could stop her.
"Oh, you tease, Ryoga dear! My little Ranma simply has a touch of the flu
and he doesn't have much balance right now, or strength for that matter, so
we're just helping him home to get into bed," she told the fanged youth with
a broad smile on her face the whole time, not noticing that Ranma looked as
if he were about to vomit, to be shortly joined in the act by Akane. Ryoga
bigsweated.
"Is that so?" his eyes narrowed evilly at Ranma; he wasn't an enemy, but
there was still karma that the pigtailed boy had coming to him! "Poor Ranma,
I hope that he didn't make a big deal of it at school," he spurred Nodoka on.
"Oh, no, no, Ranma would never wail or moan about a little fever, although
he did faint away in the middle of his math class. Isn't that right, my poor
sick baby?" she squeezed Ranma to her side again, his eyes smoldering with
rage. Ryoga simply grinned.
"Alright, Mrs. Saotome. If you ever need any help while he's sick, I'm
always available to lend a hand for a poor, sick friend."
"Thank you so much, Ryoga dear! I'll be sure to keep you in mind!" she
looked down at Ranma, who wished he would just pass out again to block out
the horror of this treatment! "Ranma, that Ryoga is such a sweet, good
friend, isn't he?" He nodded, and looked daggers at the pig-boy.
"Hey, Akane," Ranma began, still glaring at the self-satisfied Ryoga,
"you seen P-chan lately?"
"No, I haven't, actually. Why?"\
"When we get home... I'm sure he's going to appear, like magic, right
before your eyes!" Ryoga sweated.
"What are you talking about? I think you're getting delusions from your
fever."
"Naah, I'll make him show up for you to see!"
Ryoga lost his smile.
* * * * *
As much as Ranma would have liked to have dumped cold water on Ryoga in
front of the whole Tendo household, he was spent by the time they got home,
and collapsed, gratefully, onto his futon, and rolled up inside his blankets.
It was late fall, and the chill breeze of the outdoors had been more than
enough to make him less than comfortable. It made little sense to him,
however, how he could be so cold when his body was raging with fever. His
head hurt too much to think about it, and so he nuzzled his face into the
pillow and allowed himself to relax into sleep.
"Kasumi dear, do you have a thermometer anywhere in the house?" Nodoka
asked the eldest Tendo daughter, who was cleaning the lunch dishes in the
kitchen. Kasumi's normally pleasant face washed with a look of deep thought
for a moment, and reverted when she nodded to the woman.
"Oh yes, we do Mrs. Saotome, it's in the upstairs bathroom under the
sink. It's a thermal scanner that dear Dr. Tofu gave to me after he got a
new one," she seemed to drift further off into space when she mentioned the
good doctor's name. Nodoka smiled and bowed.
"Thank you, Kasumi dear."
"If you'll excuse my curiosity, who needs it?" it had seemed odd to her,
as she knew if someone in her family was sick, for she would be tending to
them right away.
"It's for my little Ranma. He's come down with a touch of the flu, and
Akane and I brought him home from school. Don't worry -- I wrote an excuse
notice for the both of them, and had a note sent to Nabiki to have their
homework brought home," Nodoka's voice seemed heavier now, and Kasumi left
from scrubbing the dishes to face her more openly.
"Mrs. Saotome, are you well yourself? You suddenly look so worried..."
Kasumi said in a motherly voice that rivaled Nodoka's own. Nodoka caught
herself, and immediately brought her being up to her normal buoyancy.
Smiling once again, she shook her head.
"Ah, Kasumi dear, you care so much for others! I'm just worn out from
helping my little Ranma walk back from school, and of course -- I do have the
concern that any mother would have for her sick child!"
Kasumi lit back up as well; "Of course, of course! In that case, would
you care for some tea to relax yourself? I think we have some chinese herbal
tea that would do wonders for Ranma as well," she was instantly up in the
cupboard, rummaging through her collection of teas.
"Thank you, Kasumi dear, you are an angel! I'll set the water boiling
while you do that." While Nodoka Saotome filled the teakettle with water from
the tap, her worried look returned to her...
"Something is not right in the world right now... I feel it in my bones...
The ancestors must be trying to warn me about it..."
Just as he felt himself finally drifting away into a most welcome sleep,
something began to kick his side. "Pop, Akane, Happosai... whoever it is,
they aren't going to interrupt my sleep!" he declared in his mind and
remained as determined as ever to remain in dreamland. The kicking stopped,
and Ranma began snoring.
"SAOTOME! WAKE UP!!!"
He shocked back to the waking world with an assault to his hearing, his
ears rang more now than they had been with his headache. Looking up he saw
the frowning face of Ryoga Hibiki with a bullhorn that he must have borrowed
from Akane's stash of magically-appearing-and-dissapearing items, and, yes,
the bullhorn disappeared as soon as Ryoga shifted his stance to a kneeling
position next to Ranma.
"Whaddya want, Dan?" Ranma smirked halfway, unable to maintain his
straight face using such a lame joke. He had been tempted many times before
to use it, but never had felt in a cheesy enough mood to use it.
"I-- What? You dare insult me by putting me in the same league as that
pink-gi'd fool!? I do not incite foolish battles... ah, I mean, I would
never cry as he... I'd never play second fiddle to... ... I WOULD NEVER WEAR
PINK!" Ryoga's face was nearly to the floor, his fist pounding on the wooden
floor. Ranma narrowed his eyes and sighed.
"Are you finished?"
"Yes." Ryoga sat up straight, wiping the tears away from his eyes, his
countenance returning to the seriousness that he had been holding before.
"Now that we're even--"
"Says who?" Ranma interjected drolly. Ryoga glared, but continued.
"-- I was going to offer you some help. Here," he handed Ranma a
folded-up napkin with something in the middle. Ranma shook out the contents
into his hand: two white pills.
"Sorry, man," he handed them back to Ryoga, "I'm not into
methamphetemines. You might be into what whole raver scene, but I value my
body." Ryoga's face went wide with exasperation.
"It's acetaminophen, you boob!" he roared, showing the bottle of pills he
had taken them from; it was all in English, saying "Tylenol".
"Oh. Is this the stuff they call "acid" in the USA? I'm not into that,
either," Ranma said, looking at the bottle, trying to decipher the English as
best he could. Ryoga grew a volcano atop his head.
"IT'S A FEVER REDUCER!!! Why on Earth would you think that I'm dealing
drugs??" as he seethed, Ranma looked up, his mood remaining even and shrugged.
"Dunno, but it would explain you getting lost all of the time..." Ryoga
facefaulted. "Oh, so this is that stuff, eh? Thanks, buddy, I'll be sure to
take these. Uh... you ok, Ryoga?" he looked down at Ryoga, who was nearly
passed out from the energy he had expended.
"Just peachy."
End Part Two
This was almost 2 installments, but I decided, what the hey, might as well
put it all out now. It'll be a little while before there are any new
installments of either this or Without You. I'm getting settled into my dorm
room, so we'll see if I feel like writing. Until then.