I don't know where this came from.  The idea just came to me as I was
looking over my old stories.  I tried writing it in a different style as
the first, so I don't know how it will be recieved.

Disclaimer:  All characters portrayed in this story are the property of
Rumiko Takahashi and co.

This story takes place after volume 38 of the manga.  It draws ideas
from both the anime and the manga.

C & C welcomed.  Flames not.

Ordinary:  Part 2

By

Donny Cheng

Dear Diary,

	My father.

	What can I say about him?  I don't really know him as well as a
daughter should know one's father.  You see my mom never married him.  I
was an accident of sorts.  Done out of a wild night of drinking after
graduation.  I was named after a friend of mom's nine months later.

	My mom never demanded any commitment out of him, even though I believe
that she had a crush on him at the time.  In fact, she rejected his
first offer of marriage when he found out about me.  She told me why
when she deemed that I was old enough to know about such things. 
Father, it seemed, was a very popular guy back then and had a bunch of
suitors chasing after him.  There was one in particular, one of my mom's
best friends, which he liked.  Mom didn't want to step between them.  It
turned out that she didn't need to.  Father left Nerima a little later,
not to be heard from again until a couple of years later.

	When he came back, I was already born.  I was told that he held me for
nearly a whole day before he left again.  I didn't really believe it,
but it was nice to hear.  Nobody except mom greeted him on his first
return.  Auntie Akane, the one my mom said was once his fianc�e, had
gone off to college.  The rest of his suitors had left about a year
after his disappearance.  Mom stayed with him the rest of his visit,
remembering about old times.  I assumed it was mostly father talking as
he seemed to be the more adventurous sort.

	I sometimes feel sorry for her.  I can see the love in her eyes every
time she talks about him.  I once asked her why she never asked him to
stay.  Mom just sighed sadly.  Having the body without the heart was
meaningless.  He could never be happy sitting still.  A family would
have been a burden to a martial artist as young as he.

	Oh, I'm not saying that he didn't care for me since I was never in his
plans.  He visited me on my birthday or as close to the actual day as
possible.  With no other attachment other then blood, I had been
surprised and pleased to see him take the time to visit me every once in
awhile.

	I remember one visit in particular.  This was when I was about ten
years of age.  I had woken up during the middle of the night and heard
talking.  It was him and mom.  I heard him ask her why she never
married.  I didn't hear my mom's response.  A while later I heard the
sound of a door being opened and shut.  I didn't see father leave until
I got ready for school the next day.

	He is the only reason I take martial arts lessons in my spare time.  I
guess, in some way I felt that it would bring me closer to him.  It has
helped somewhat.  He tried teaching me himself once, but it turned into
a disaster.  To put it bluntly he is a bad teacher.  He has little
patience and is too lenient on me.  After trying if a few times, he
enlisted the aid of grandfather.  Despite his years, grandfather is an
imposing man with his huge girth and was a much better teacher.

	Grandfather and grandmother Saotome dote on me too much I think. 
Grandfather keeps going on about how I was the heir and would marry
Auntie Kasumi's son.  I never understood what all that was about
especially since I'm older by about two years.  Also, he's NOT very
cute.  Grandmother is very traditional and tries to get me to learn
about maidenly duties.  She earned my eternal gratefulness when she gave
me her katana and taught me a sword kata to practice always.  I
understood that honor I received that day.  However, I do keep it well
hidden from mother.

	My mom's parents?  I won't even talk about them.  Imagine, doing that
to your own daughter just because she became pregnant and refused to
marry.  Fortunately, Akane was there to take care of mom.  When I asked
auntie once why she had been so nice, Akane just glowered and I caught
the word 'baka' escape from her lips as she stalked away.  I never asked
her again.

	My grandparents were not the only ones that spoiled me.  My mom was
also guilty that crime.  I always hated that.  She took all my faults as
she were the one to blame.  It was any wonder that I never turned into a
delinquent.  I was never scolded for bad report cards or attitude
problems.  She would always tell the teachers that it was her fault for
not being there for me.  She was a single mother that had to work during
most of the day.  I didn't need her to do that.  It was bad enough that
she earned a 'reputation' for being an young unwed mother.

	Finally, I got sick and tired of it and confronted her with it.  I
didn't want her to feel any more pain because of me.  She just looked at
me and shook her head.  She muttered under her breath about how alike I
was to father.  She agreed to be a little more 'strict' with me in the
future.

	It took me awhile to piece everything my mom told me about father to
understand the comparison she made.  Father was a person that did
anything he wanted when he was young.  He flagrantly disregarded school
rules, fought all the time, and rarely brought home a passing grade. 
However, what drew my mother and nearly every girl in the area to him
was his one spark of kindness.  He cared whether people got hurt or not
and would rather let himself be hurt before anyone else.  I was proud to
be thought of that way by mom.

	Mom often talked about the past to me.  For some reason, she never
really had that big a part in any of her stories.  She said she had been
an unassuming girl that just happened to live in the same place as
father.  He was always in the thick of the action, while she stayed on
the sidelines silently cheering him on.  Mom understood that he didn't
know that she was even alive half the time.

	Her favorite memory was of a special week.  A week where all of her
dreams came true for a moment.  Through my father's careless words, it
became known that mom became one of his suitors.  I am told constantly
of how his foot was planted firmly in his mouth.  Anyway, it turned out
that mom used this to her advantage and told Ranma her true feelings. 
Father, in his usually tact fashion, which is to say not very tact at
all, rejected her.  Mom asked for a single kiss as a favor.  I cried at
that part.  Mom had given all hope when a ray of hope shined upon her. 
Father had run up to her and offered a simple friendship instead of
love.  Not being boyfriend, girlfriend was not the end of the world he
told her.  They became good friends after that.

	Anyway, I fear that I have become side tracked.  I have not written in
here since I was a little girl, but I feel that I must get my feelings
out.  I have not told anyone else yet and I don't feel it is my place to
tell them.  My reason for writing this is to express my joy for my mom.

	I had just graduated a couple of days so I had came back to live with
her.  Mother had aged very well.  She still wore her brown hair long. 
Her features plain when she was young was now sharp and defined.

	She and I had been out shopping when we returned home to find HIM
standing there with his ever present pack in hand.  He still looked
handsome even as he is nearing his forties.  He hair still tied back in
a pig tail showed very little gray.  He never attained the paunch
grandfather has and still sported a very lean and lithe body.

	At seeing him mom handed me the bags and told me to put them away. 
Anxious to get back to the couple I didn't even bother unpacking the
groceries.  I just put them in to the fridge and went back to my
parents.  When I reached them, I saw mom crying and hugging father. 
But, they were not tears of sorrow.

	The next moment saw mom rip into her room and grab a few items of
choice clothing and some money she stashed away in her room.  She paused
just as she raced out of the room to look at me.  I felt uncomfortable
with the gaze of both parents on me.  Their eyes held a weird mixture of
happiness and sadness at the same time.  Mom turned to me and said she
would be going on a little trip.  All of a sudden I too was crying and
hugged her just as fiercely as she hugged me.

	Mom finally got her wish.  Her patience had paid off.  Father had
finally grown weary of his lonesome travels and asked for a little
company.  It was my belief that father had felt this way a long time ago
but did not say anything until I stood on my own two feet.  I gave him a
look of understanding and mouthed the words thank-you to him.

	He just grinned sheepishly and shuffled his feet.  He gave me a gentle
hug and told me to take care of myself.  With that said, he and mom
left.  I stood there not knowing what to do until I pulled this book out
and started to write.  I just needed to get that off my chest.

			Sayuri

The End. (maybe)