And now, as promised wait 7.  Expect 8 sometime tomarrow.

The characters that appear fleatingly in reference only are the proporty 
of Takahashi.  Everything else is my fault.

Matthew Trotter, Warning: not to be taken internaly
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A Long Period of Waiting of Several Months
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	A collection of short stories
		     by
	       Matthew Trotter
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Fellowship
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   It was perfect.  Ukyo was going to be happy for the rest of her life, 
and Ranma and Akane would never have to worry about her ruining things 
for them ever again.  These were the kinds of things she lived for.  The 
only thing that might make the moment any better was if Sarcasm was here 
to be annoyed when everything worked out fine.  Out of the corner of her 
eye she noticed Emotion walking back into the room.
   "Hi, Emotion.  Where did you go?"
   "Oh, uh...I went to find the cat."
   "We don't own a cat."
   "Um...that's probably why I couldn't find it."
   Fellowship frowned at her sister, there was something suspicious about 
the way she looked.  It wasn't the pink kitty shirt, or the kind of ratty 
looking jeans, or even the blinding red shoes.  No there was something 
else... Fellowship couldn't place it.  She was no good at deceit.  Oh 
well, she would ask later.  Right now there were a few more things to 
align before the big event...like a lumber sale...

   The operation was underway.  The point of no return had been reached.  
Now it was up to the mortals to do what came naturally.  There was no 
doubt that it would work.  They were both lonely and reaching out for 
love.  They would make the perfect couple.  There was a chill that ran up 
her back.  It was like someone poured a glass of ice water down your 
back.  It had to be...
   "What have you got against them?"
   Sarcasm.  "They are going to be happy.  There is nothing you can do to 
wreck operation Sign Of Love.  You might as well sit down and be wrong."
   "S.O.L.  Gee, seems strangely appropriate."
   She snapped back around, the miniature was sailing through the air 
toward the Acme Tea Shop.  How?  It was perfect, Ukyo had been ready to 
date anyone.  She had even thought about asking Ryoga out.  How could it 
have failed?
   "Gee, who knows.  Could have been anything.  Like Ukyo has a free will 
and isn't beset by some weird delusion that she'd instantly fall for some 
cross dressing fem boy just because she's lonely.  Then again I'm sure..."
   "You did that didn't you?!"
   "...that you'll blame me.  Oh, of course.  It was me.  I delight in 
all forms of human sorrow.  Why there's nothing like a little heart ache 
to make my day.  I thought tomorrow I'd see if I couldn't help Akane find 
out that P-chan is Ryoga..."
   She knew better.  She wished she hadn't said anything.  She didn't 
like to see people unhappy, but he was one of the ones that felt it.  He 
wouldn't do something like that on purpose.  Tell Akane that Ryoga is 
P-chan!?!?!?  Hey, that might work.  If Ranma could be there to hold her 
and comfort her...it might just work.  It would really bring them together.
   "What are you, bent on disaster?"
   "Huh?  No, look at it, it could work.  If Akane had Ranma to cry to it 
would really put them together."
   "You know what's wrong with you?"
   "What?"
   "Entropy."
   "Entropy?"
   "Yeah.  You make all these plans that are contingent upon a stable 
world.  But the world's not stable."
   "...And that's what's wrong with me?  I thought entropy was when 
everything naturally fell apart."
   "Exactly.  You never plan on everything falling apart.  Look at that 
thing with Kodachi."
   "That wasn't my fault, that was Chance."
   "Oh?  And who convinced Chance that if Kodachi tried the love lipstick 
and missed she and Ryoga would end up together?"
   "You were spying on me?!?!?!?!!!"
   "You were talking in the reading room."
   "And why were you listening in?"
   "I was reading the R'yleh Text."
   "And you just happened to hear everything I said?"
   "Who was the one making a point of saying loudly, 'I doubt Sarcasm 
could find a problem with this plan' every couple of minutes?"
   Oh yeah..."Well, so what."
   "It was entropy.  If Mikado and Azuza hadn't shown up it would have 
worked.  But you didn't have a back up plan in case it all went wrong.  
Entropy one, Fellowship zero."
   "Oh yeah?  And how did entropy destroy Operation Sign Of Love?"
   "Oh, I don't think it did, really.  That was just a stupid idea."
   The red shoe bounced off his forehead with a satisfying thwack.