A Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction
By The Lost Boy -- WLostBoyW@Aol.com

  Yes, I know that this sort of story was done to a point already, and
done well, thanks to Chris Jones in his story called Meow. I just 
felt that it could be explored some more..

  Nekoken
  Part 1

  Akane smiled to herself, a rare thing in her life.  It seemed that the 
strange martial artist had disrupted her life incessantly since his arrival, 
but she didn't mind too much.  She couldn't for the life of her admit why, 
though.  She shrugged off that line of thought and returned to the cause of 
her smile.  For once, she would have the advantage over Ranma.

***

  Ranma looked around after school, expecting to see Akane any minute. They 
always met out front to walk home after school, and he didn't know why that 
would change.  After a few minutes, he began the trek back to the Tendo dojo, 
alone.  He picked up his pace and ran atop the fence without bothering to 
think about what he was doing, and got his heart rate up a little bit.

  After a few minutes of running, he recognized a female form exiting a house 
in front of him and continue her way down the street.  He increased his pace, 
determined to catch up and wondered what she was doing.  He yelled out, "Hey, 
Akane! Wait up! Whatcha doing, you uncute tomboy! Why didn't you wait for me?!"

  At this point, Akane turned around and glared at him before yelling, "Ranma 
no baka!" and then slamming him with her mallet.  At least, that's what he 
envisioned happening when reflecting on what he had said.  When she didn't 
turn around, he got slightly worried.  What if Shampoo or someone had done
something to her when he wasn't around? He tried yelling at her again, but 
did little good for all the response he got.  By now, he had nearly 
caught up to her.  When he was about twenty feet away, she halfway turned her 
head around and smiled at him.

  He was shocked, to say the least.  His mind raced to see what he had missed 
in this one-sided conversation.  Of all the responses he should have gotten, 
this was the most unlikely.  He paused for a moment to regain his senses, then 
continued towards her.  He noticed she had her arms in front of her, obviously 
carrying something that he couldn't see.  Finally he caught up to her, nearly 
sideways with her on the fence.  He said, "Hey Akane, you sick or something?
You're not acting like your normal tomboyish self."

  Right then, she turned towards him, letting him see what she was carrying.  
His worst nightmares were realized in that millisecond, and he cringed in 
fear, causing him to fall backwards off of the fence into the drain.  
Ranma-chan half drowned herself before remembering not to try to breathe 
underwater, and poked her head up.  "Aghhhh! Get it away!" she screamed, when 
Akane moved closer to her with a *KITTEN* in her arms.

  "Geez, supreme martial artist Ranma Saotome scared of a little kitty-cat? 
Boy, that sure shows his knowledge of the Art," Akane smirked.

  Meanwhile, Ranma-chan was scurrying off in direction of the dojo as fast as 
she could, hoping against hope Akane wouldn't follow.  When she turned her 
head to look, horror upon horrors, Akane was following a little ways back, a 
large grin on her face and the kitten in her arms.  

  Later, Ranma wouldn't remember what happened exactly.  He would never be 
able to move that fast no matter how hard he tried, and he tried numerous 
times.  Currently, her legs became a blur and she broke several track records 
while racing for the dojo.  Akane, satisfied she'd had her revenge, slowed 
down and watched the red blur disappear in the distance.

***

  When she got home, Akane went upstairs to her bedroom and sat down, letting 
the kitten smell around her room and become accustomed to it.  She sighed, and 
walked out of her room, only to encounter Ranma glaring at her from the bottom 
of the stairs.

  "What were you thinking?! You know I can't stand cats."

  "Well, my friend and her parents left town on a vacation.."

  Ranma's eyes narrowed slightly while contemplating Akane's last remark, then 
gasped when the realization hit.

  "You mean.. You're taking that THING in while they're gone?!"

  "Oh hush, it's just a cat, it can't hurt you. Don't worry, I'll protect you 
from it, Ranma", Akane was enjoying this immensely.  She couldn't remember the 
last time she'd seen pure panic on Ranma's face, and thought it was remarkably 
funny now.  She smiled.

  Ranma, seeing her reaction, felt his mood darken immediately.  He just 
asked, "How long."

  Akane replied, "Just for the weekend."

  Ranma paled considerably, "But it's only Friday now!"

  "It's only a few days, you can take that, can't you?"

  Ranma was not afraid of many things.  In fact, he was afraid of nothing.  
Cats.. simply induced some .. apprehension in him.  The very idea of spending 
any amount of time near one chilled him to the bone.  He walked out to the 
dojo, and sat down, thinking about his fate.  

***

  The next morning, Kasumi woke up, and prepared to make breakfast for 
everyone.  She walked into the kitchen, and was about to start, when she heard 
a strange noise.  It sounded rather like purring, and she couldn't figure out 
where it was coming from.  She walked out into the dojo, thinking it may have 
come from out there.  In the center of the dojo was Ranma, still sitting there 
with his eyes wide open.  Kasumi wondered if he had been there all night, when 
she noticed where the purring was coming from.  A small kitten was curled up 
against his right leg, purring contentedly.  

  Kasumi walked over and picked up the kitten, watching Ranma.  His eyes never 
left the kitten, wide with terror.  She left into the kitchen, planning to get 
a saucer of cream.  Once she left the dojo, she heard something slump onto the 
dojo floor and begin snoring.

***

  Genma was next to wake up, itching for morning practice.  He noticed the 
futon next to his was empty, and hadn't been slept in. "Ahhh," he thought, 
"Maybe Ranma and Akane are getting along better than Soun and I thought." He 
moved through the house to get the camcorder, and looked into Akane's room.  
He then frowned, since only Akane was there.  He sighed, and went downstairs 
to the dojo to do his morning katas.  That's when he saw his son, heir to the 
Saotome school of Martial Arts, slumped on the floor snoring loudly. 

  "Wake up, boy!", he said as he tossed his snoring son into the pond.  
Ranma-chan came up, sputtered a few times, found a rock to rest her head on, 
and went back to sleep.

*** 
 
  Akane came in after jogging to breakfast.  It smelled delicious as always, 
and she smiled at her older sister briefly before sitting down.  She 
unconsciously glanced over at where Ranma should be, and got slightly mad at 
him for not being there for breakfast.  That's when she heard the splashes.

  "Kasumi, are Ranma and his father still practicing? It's awfully late for 
them to still be at it.. Mr. Saotome should already be in here eating."

   Kasumi smiled, "Yes, Mr. Saotome has decided Ranma needed extra practice 
this morning.  I think Ranma is trying a new technique."

  Intrigued, Akane decided to see what was going on.  She encountered a panda 
attempting to fight an unconscious redhead.  The interesting thing was, the 
redhead seemed to be winning.  Akane grimaced, "The baka even fights in his 
sleep." Turning back to breakfast, she head a small meow and looked down to 
see a small black and white kitten looking up at her with huge innocent eyes.  
The instant the meow was heard, the redhead's eyes slammed wide open while 
dodging several swipes from her father.  Since she was a good 50 feet away, 
she decided maybe it wasn't necessary to run screaming for her life from the 
kitten.  Then she remember the night before involving that kitten, and opted 
for running for her life anyways.  She kicked the panda in the stomach, 
sending it flying headfirst into the pond.  Then she went around the house and 
made it upstairs to her room via window.  

  She lay down on her futon, and sleep threatened to overcome her, and just as 
she was about to close her eyes and drift into blissful oblivion, she heard 
playful padding into her room, followed by a slight meow and pressure on her 
chest.

  Ranma-chan was too scared to open her eyes.  She hoped fervently that Kuno 
had somehow made it into her room and was groping her or something, for 
anything was preferable to what she knew it had to be.  She felt a sandpaper 
tongue lick her chin, and she was forced to open her eyes out of instinct.  
She regretted it immediately as she saw a large pair of brown cat-eyes.

  All the times the Nekoken had taken him in his life, Ranma only remembered a 
few things that were constant about it.  An immense feeling of terror, and a 
feeling of submersion like being forced underwater.  Finally, the one thing 
that ALWAYS happened, was a feeling of his humanity being sucked away.  The 
scary thing was, every time he came back it took him a while to feel like 
himself again.  

  Now, she felt all these experiences and knew for a half a second what was to 
come.  As she felt her consciousness slowly die out, she wondered if and where 
she'd find herself.  Overriding most of these thoughts though, was a primal 
fear shaking her mind to its core.

******************************************************************************

  Blah blah blah.. This happens to be my first fanfic, though I've been on the 
FFML for quite a while and enjoy reading them immensely.  This probably sucks,
though it's something that's been running around in my head for a while (along 
with several thousand other ideas ^_^).  Any and all C&C appreciated greatly.

  The Lost Boy

  WLostBoyW@aol.com