First a note for the Hentai among us: This story deals (in part) with
Ukyo's search for companionship and sexual fulfillment. Think about that
and look at the title. ;-)

On Wed, 28 May 1997 21:00:15 -0500, Richard Lawson wrote:

"Sorry?"  Her voice was getting louder and more hysterical.  "Sorry for what?  
Sorry that you have such a bad cook for a wife?  Sorry that we had a son that 
needs to be taken care of?  Sorry that you married a miserable hag?"

"Akane!"  He clenched his jaw, tried to calm himself.  "Don't do this.  Remember 
what the sensei said?  The post-something depression?"

"Admit it Ranma!"  Akane stood up, still holding the baby carefully, Ranma was 
glad to note, despite her anger.  "You're sorry we had Nouma, aren't you?  Sorry 
that we got married.  You'd rather be out fighting with someone than be spending 
any time with me!"

This part is *very* reminiscent of "Bitter End".

I'd like to see a little more explanation of this from Akane's point of
view; to see a little more clearly the provocations that got her so
upset (blown out of proportion though they were by her depression).

love?  Love to you means being able to have sex on a regular basis.  Well, I'm 
sorry that we haven't been able to do that for the past few weeks.  You'll just 
have to go elsewhere to find 'love'."

Uh oh, ominous foreshadowing...

She turned around and put her arms around him, nestling her head on his 
shoulder.  He responded by wrapping his arm around her shoulders.  Their feet 
touched, and they wrapped their legs around each other.

She sighed happily, putting a touch of pleasure into it.  This felt *so* good.  
How long had it been since she'd made love to him?  She couldn't remember.  
Maybe it was time to reacquaint herself with the experience.

She kissed his shoulder, somewhat surprised to find that he was wearing a tank 
top.  When had he ever worn one of those?  Boy, that was strange.

This was the scene that made me jump up in my chair; made me think
"Lawson's done it again. Better wait a week before I send my own fic to
the list."

But the follow-through was disappointing for me:

He turned his head and kissed the top of her head.  He dropped his head back on 
top of the pillow, which she took to mean he was too tired to go any further.  
She could accept that; maybe they could do something in the morning.

[big snip]

"Ukyo, please tell me.  This is important.  Are you saying we didn't... didn't 
have sex last night?"

A light finally dawned in Ukyo's mind.  Suddenly everything made sense.  "Ranma, 
of course not.  We just slept together."

This story did such a great job of setting up a totally plausible
situation where they *could* have had sex, and it just turns out that
they didn't. I keep wondering what would have happened if they *had*
done it.

That for me would have made a more interesting story. Not (just) because
I'm a hentai; I've read more than enough pointless lemons, thank you. I
just think it would have been fascinatingly intense drama to show how
the characters would have reacted in this situation. Would Ranma and
Ukyo both believe each other when they said that it was unintentional?
How would Ranma and Akane, and their families, deal with it when the
truth came out? How would baby Nouma being in the picture change or
complicate things?


Anyway, that's just my two yen on this. A very good story in any case.

Gary Kleppe
kleppe@execpc.com, Home page http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe
My fanfics and the FFML map are on my comics/manga page,
       http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics