It's been a while since this was posted, but I've got a backlog of fanfics
here....

At 11:05 4/2/1998 -0800, Chameleon wrote:

Me again...here's another I wrote earlier.  (I have at least one more that
I want to clear out before I start writing something new - and hopefully a
little longer).  Anyway, thanks to everyone who responded to my last post.
Here we go again...

-Saotome Laura

----------------------
                                Revelation

  I walk down the street with my best friend next to me, looking for the
  man we both call "Master." For years, we have suffered indignities
  from this man; humiliation, pain, and retribution. He has starved us,
  left us to take punishment for his crimes, made us bow before him. We
  have tried everything to get out of his grasp, but he always returns,
  like some never-ending nightmare.

  But no more. Today, it ends. My friend speaks. "Happosai, the source
  of all this evil...now he shall be brought to justice! Now is the time
  to take revenge for all he has done to us!" I reply the only way I
  can, in writing: *Never again shall we bow to him.* And I mean it.
  Never again.

  Suddenly, a kettle comes out of nowhere. The man I hate, the man I
  would do anything to get rid of, the man I must call "Master," pops
  his head out of the kettle and speaks my son's name. "Ranma,
  you...you..." Without thinking, I strike. The shriveled thing leaps
  out of my swing, causing me to instead hit my old friend. For an
  instant, he notices us. "Hm? What are you two doing here?" he gets out
  before my son manages to do what I could not. Suddenly, his attention
  is all on Ranma again. I seethe. After all we've done, after all we
  try to do, we are still no more of a threat to him than a child.

  My son speaks, and I am jolted out of my thoughts by the words he
  says: "Come 'n' get me! I'm no teddy bear like my old man!"

  His words knock the breath out of my chest. Teddy bear? Is that how he
  sees me? I know that I haven't been the best of fathers, and I know
  that my son doesn't like me much. I can accept that, even if I don't
  like it. But I had always thought that Ranma at least respected me.
  I'd always believed that sometimes he thought I was a monster. But not
  a _joke_.

  I strike out in a rage again at the source of this indignity to end
  them all. The one who had caused me to become a fool in my son's eyes.
  The kettle crumples, and Tendo speaks. "So...it is done..." I merely
  stand there. Could it have been that easy?

  A moment later, my question is answered. The remains of the kettle
  explode as Happosai's battle aura flares. I am knocked backward into a
  wall and lay there, silently. The action continues around me, but I do
  not notice. Instead, I am trapped in a memory that my son's words
  brought back. (I'm no teddy bear like my old man...)

  ***

  *SLAP!* "Do it better, boy! How do you think you're going to carry on
  the Saotome School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts if you can't even
  block a punch right?" "I-I..." *SLAP!* "Get off the floor, Genma! Or
  do you plan to sit there and cry all day like the pathetic weakling
  you are?" *SLAP!* "Now, try it again!" "B-but, dad..." *SLAP!* "I told
  you to try it again! You're seven years old, Genma. Don't act like a
  baby." *SLAP!* "You're not worthy of being called a Saotome!" *SLAP!*
  "If only I'd had a _real_ son, not a stupid crybaby like you!" *SLAP!*
  "Weakling!" *SLAP!* "Idiot!" *SLAP!* "Joke!" *SLAP!*

  ***

  I shake my head to clear the memory. Looking up, I see Happosai, the
  man so like my father in all the worst ways, his battle aura flaring
  across the sky. And I see my son, at sixteen braver than I ever was.
  His voice cries out, defiant. "You freak! I'm not afraid of you!"

  (I'm no teddy bear like my old man...)

  I have had enough. No more bowing. No more groveling. No more attempts
  to get approval from a man that doesn't deserve my respect. I stand up
  and push my son out of the way. *I, too, have my pride.*

  Every ounce of ki I can muster, every smidgen of anger, every touch of
  hatred, all pours into my battle aura. I feel myself growing, until my
  aura is as tall as the hated man in front of me. My eyes flicker to
  the boy at my side. For the first time in a long while, I see
  something in his eyes as he looks at me...something like admiration.
  For one moment, I feel strong again.

  Then he speaks. "Pop...what are you going to do?" I freeze. What _am_
  I going to do? I've never really done anything like this before...And
  suddenly, it's gone. My ki is used up, and I sink back to the ground,
  spent. *I...leave it to you, son...* And just like that, the look in
  Ranma's eyes is gone, replaced by a more familiar expression, that I
  now recognise as contempt. "Aww, why'd you bother gettin' big like
  that if there was nothin' you could do with it?" He sees me as a joke
  again.

  Which is, I realize, exactly what I am.

    ***

    "No, you can't have it!"  "WAAH!"  "That kind of toy is for wimps!" 
    "WAAAAAH!  I WANT IT!"  "Quit whining!  You're six years old!"  
    "WAAH!"  "Shut up or I'm never taking you shopping again!"

    ***

    "Wait a minute, there is something you can do with it!  Try it again."  
    I get up off the ground and regather my ki.  Suddenly, a bucket of 
    cold water appears out of nowhere.  "After all these years, you 
    finally got me a teddy bear.  Thanks, Dad."

  __________________________

The story is good with the original ending, and the repeated "teddy bear"
references were just asking for it!

  Author's Notes:

  I always thought Genma kinda got the short end of the stick in most
  fanfics.  Heck, I've seen fics where he's been murdered, and even Ranma
doesn't really care.  But I've always had kind of a soft spot for him...he
seems to me to be just a father doing the best he can with absolutely no
idea what it means to be a good parent.  I firmly believe that Genma had
either no male role model while growing up and therefore took Happosai to
be the model of fatherhood (shudder) or else had an abusive father, in
which case I'm surprised he didn't turn out worse.  Not that I'm trying to 

He probably had neither a good dad nor a good mom (otherwise he might have
learned something from watching his mother even if his father was awful).

excuse some of his behavior toward his son (especially the cat-fist
training), but I think he's not the monster that some people seem to think
he is.

  All characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi...etc, etc (insert
  standard legal stuff here...)

  In case you didn't catch it, this scene is from "Fathers Know Best,"
  Viz GN #6, Part 7.  

  As always, C&C ecstatically welcomed!