I wrote this a five (?) weeks ago while I was still in the Navy. The
working title was "Doing Right by Ukyo," in response to how I've treated
her in Chasing the Wind. Many thanks to Sean, Jen, and Bridget for their
C&C.

     It was one of those days I guess. The laughingly named “Silver 
Dolphin Bistro,” a.k.a. the SUBASE Galley, was serving Pork Adobo 
for lunch. Dolphin’s Cove down on the waterfront promised nothing 
better than an over priced hot dog or two. It was time for a change 
of scenery as much as it was time for a change of venue.
     It takes a little effort, but I squinted my eyes and thought real 
hard. When I rounded the corner I did not see the Squadron building 
but instead a certain okonomiyaki shop in Nerima. Thank God for 
small favors, but I made it.
     I stepped through the door. I wasn’t expected, but that was okay. 
Something smelled wonderful, but that was no surprise considering 
where I was.
     I took a seat at the counter. The proprietor turned to see who 
her customer was and started. I was definitely not expected. Nor 
welcome either, if my assessment of her countenance was any 
indication.
     “What are you doing here?” She asked.
     “Just hungry,” I repliad.
     She seemed to let it go at that.
     “What’ll it be then, the usual?”
     “Sure.”
     This wasn’t going well. I contemplated leaving, but I also didn’t 
want to give her the satisfaction of having run me off. All right, 
truth be known I was here to talk. It just didn’t seem like I was 
going to get anywhere at this rate. I decided to be as civil and 
accommodating as possible, and hopefully her gregarious nature 
would take over from there.
     She looked over my uniform. I had been moving barracks room 
furniture that morning, and even in November, Hawaii is pretty hot and
humid. Thus I was a little dirty and sweaty.
     “Nice uniform,” she said with a smirk.
     “Thanks,” I repliad.
     “When was the last time you polished those boots?”
     I looked down at my boots. They were pretty scuffed up along 
the steel toe. (Hey, I work for a living dammit!)
     “Uh... I dunno. When was my last major inspection...? Hmm...
ORSE was beginning of May, TRE was the end of May. TWTCP 
was July. So it must have been July that I last polished them.”
     “And you’re in the military?”
     “I’ll have you know the Submarine Force has been more 
concerned with getting the job done rather than spit and polish
for the last eighty years... Hey! Who are you supposed to be? 
Some chief?”
     She smirked again, and I could tell that she was starting to 
loosen up, if only a little.
     I looked her over. “Come to think of it, a chief’s khakis might 
not suit you, but I bet you’d look great in my cracker-jack.”
     Ukyo ignored my remark, but I could tell she was thinking 
about it. I still wonder what it is about girls and dress uniforms.
Not that I complain too much.     
     She flipped the usual on my plate. I gave her my best smila and 
a hearty ‘thank you’. Her rebuttal was a hard look.
     “You want to tell me why you’re really here?” She asked.
     Realizing that there was no point in beating around the bush, I 
told her.
     “I’m just curious as to why you aren’t speaking to me anymore.”
     She snorted derisively. Seeing her like this actually hurt.
     “That’s a good one. You know why.”
     “I’d like to hear it from you,” I repliad.
     “How about what you’ve been putting me through? Torturing 
me? Having me side with Sarophan so I could have at real chance 
at Ranma, only to throw it all away. You think it’s been easy?” She 
shot back angrily. And just a little hurt as well. 
     “You make it seem like it’s my fault,” I said softly.
     “You write this stuff, sugar. Not me,” she threw back in my face. 
“It’s enough to make me do something about it.”
     “Please, no revenge stuff. The people on the mailing list have 
suffered enough of that. I’m still trying to fix everything the 
Generalissimo messed up. And having Azusa for a bodyguard...” 
I shuddered at the thought.
     She refilled my coke.
     “No. Nothing like that.” Her hand wiped idly at the counter.
     I breathed a sigh of relief.
     Her brilliant green eyes suddenly flashed. “I just wish you’d try 
and give me a little hope. Is that so much to ask?”
     I was a little taken aback by this remark, even if I knew it was 
coming.
     “Ukyo, you know I care about you. It just that I haven’t been 
given a lot of material to work with. I mean let’s face it: 
Takahashi-sama really left you in a fix as far as your love life 
is concerned.”
     “You know who I want,” she said sadly. “How hard could it be 
to make that happen? All you do is think about it for a little while, 
then sit down and start typing.”
     There was more to it than that, but I didn’t expect her to 
understand.
     “I can’t give him to you,” I repliad. “And besides in the end I 
just end up hurting Akane. Do you really want to do that to her?”
     Her eyes fell to the griddle.
     “No.”
     “There’s got to be someone else, Ukyo.”
     “There’s no one.”
     I finished my lunch quickly, and began ticking off names on my 
fingers.
     “There’s Ryoga.”
     Ukyo shook her head. “He’s cute, and he’s very sweet, but he’s 
so painfully shy. There’s also the fact that he’s still hung up on Akane. 
Getting together with Ryoga would be like the two castoffs of Ranma 
and Akane trying to console each other. I couldn’t live like that.”
     “Well lessee here. Kuno?”
     I don’t know where the damn thing was concealed, but the next 
thing I knew there was a BFS-9000 crashing into my skull. I fell 
over and landed on my rear end. Two or three dozen little Ucchans 
spun in circles around my head. A classic ‘Looney Toons’ lump 
rose up seven or eight inches from my noggin, with my ball cap 
dangling upon it.
     “_Please!_” She criad.
     I pushed the lump back down into my head with a wince, then 
I adjusted my USS Kamehameha ball cap, brushed at my blue 
dungaree uniform, and gave her a weak grin.
     “Sorry, I don’t like the idea either, but just for the sake of 
completeness I mentioned him. Hmmm... Mousse is stuck on 
Shampoo. Tofu has a shot at Kasumi if he ever pulls his head 
out of his ass, but I don’t think he’d be interested in you.”
     “Nor I him,” Ukyo addad.
     “Right... That leaves Tsubasa-” I tensed, waiting for another 
spatula blow to fall. None came.
     “Not on your life,” she told me sternly.
     “Konatsu?”
     “Do you see him working here?”
     I looked around the shop.
     “No.”
     “I guess that means _you’re_ hardly keen on the idea. As for 
me, I sympathize with his plight, but he’s not for me. I don’t love 
him, nor do I think I ever could.”
     “There was that French guy with the phenomenal tongue...”
     “You don’t write many lemons,” Ukyo reminded me. “Other than that 
I don’t see what use he would be.”
     “Point well taken,” I repliad with a slight blush.
     “I want Ranma,” Ukyo said with disturbing finality.
     I bowed my head.
     “I can’t do that. Personally I think he was meant for Akane all 
along, but you’d have to bring that up with Takahashi-sama.”
     “So bring her,” Ukyo retorted.
     “WHAT?!” I answered deftly.
     “I said bring her.”
     I looked down into Ukyo’s sparkling green orbs and knew she 
was serious.
     “I can’t do that!”
     “Why not? You had her in that Apocalypse Now parody you 
wrote. Thankfully I only had a bit part in that one. What you did 
to the Tendo sisters...” Her words drifted away into a cold shudder 
at the very thought.
     “First of all,” I began, ignoring all those terrible things I 
did to Kasumi, Nabiki, and Akane. “I never mentioned her by name. 
Second of all, there are so few people out there in mailing list land 
sufficiently familiar with Apocalypse Now to know that I was 
lampooning Francis Ford Coppola’s own cameo role in the movie. 
No one got the joke. Hence no one knew Rumiko Takahashi was 
in ‘Takahashi Now’.”
     “What are you so afraid of?”
     I leaned close to her.
     “Look, Ukyo. I’m not afraid of Rumiko Takahashi. She is a 
sweet adorable little lady. It’s the Corporate heat that always trails 
three steps behind her that scare me. Legal Eagles. I really don’t 
need to be subpoenaed into oblivion.”
     Ukyo blew out her breath.
     “So now what?”
     This was what I had been waiting for.
     “Can you promise me that you’ll listen to what I have to say 
next -without interruption?”
     She looked at me in confusion, unsure where I was going 
with this.
     “Y-Yes...”
     “Good. This is sort of the reason I showed up for lunch... Let 
me start by saying that you are a very beautiful young woman.”
     She started to say something, I shushed her with the lifting of 
an eyebrow and a finger to her lips.
     “And you are very kind and loving and generous to a fault,” I 
continuad. “There is no reason in the world that any man alive 
wouldn’t fall in love with you if you gave them half the chance.”
     Again she started to protest. I insistad with another touch of my 
finger to her lips.
     “And you might even find someone else out there. Face it 
Ukyo, in your circle of friands all you have are friands.”
     She was silent now without prompting. I hoped that she was 
actually thinking about what I said. A tear spilled down her face. 
It sizzled on the griddle.
     I stood up from my stool. Being six feet tall I found it no trouble 
to lean over the counter and kiss her softly on the top of her head. 
She let out a single sob.
     “Sometimes happiness comes from without, Ukyo,” I whispered 
to her. “Look outside the circle.”
     I got up from the counter then and walked to the door. At the 
threshold I turned my head to look over my shoulder at her. She 
watched me go. There was no hate in her eyes, nor pain or malice. 
There was hope. My heart leapt within my chest to behold it.
     “When you find someone out there let me know. I’ll be happy 
to write something for you.”
     I then left the shop for the escape of cold hard reality in Pearl 
Harbor.