Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz, Shogakukan, etc. It
doesn't belong to me, and is used without permission.

        C&C welcomed and appreciated.

        Enjoy! Note: this is just a first draft, so please keep that in mind =)!




	The interior of the Ucchan was black as ever at three in the morning. The
only light that was on was in the small apartment that rested above the
restaraunt proper.

	Ukyo Kuonji sat before her mirror and looked at the young woman that stared
at her from the other side of the glass. Her chestnut hair was unbound, and
fell haphazardly down her back. Her cheeks and nose were bright red, her
eyes unfocused and bloodshot. On the dresser, amid what few feminine beauty
accessories she owned, was a mostly empty bottle of Kentucky bourbon. She
hated the taste of sake, and beer simply wasn't strong enough. While the
bourbon burned like hell, it was her drink of choice. 

	Actually, most any hooch would do, just so long as it kept those nightmares
at bay. She stared at the ugly gaijin on the label, and for a brief moment,
the picture was of...of...

	With a shriek, Ukyo flailed her arms, knocking the three-quarters empty
bottle of Jim Beam to the floor. The square-shaped bottle burst in an
explosion of glass and whiskey that covered a large portion of the floor in
front of her door. Ukyo just stared at the puddle of shards and booze,
transfixed by the light on her ceiling that reflected off it. Her vision
doubled, re-focused, doubled again, and her stomach cramped violently.
Knowing just what this heralded, she rose from her chair and staggered
drunkenly around the bed to her bathroom. She arrived at the toilet in time
to barf vehemently. 

	This was by no means the first time. The nightmares had come and gone over
the past ten years. Each time, they left her a quivering mess. She would
awake screaming, covered in a sheen of cold sweat. She would then lay there
until the sun rose, shivering from fear and the pain that spread from her
stomach and...and... She could never bring herself to finish that part.

	Ukyo knelt before the toilet, her arms wrapped weakly around the bowl and
stared into the water. She reached up and blindly groped for the handle.
Once she finally found it, she flushed, only to feel her stomach cramp
again. As her body rejected more of the whiskey, she wondered yet again why
she went through all this trouble just for a few hours' sleep.

============================================================================

	Morning came to Nerima as it always did. Most of those in the ward welcomed
the new day with open arms. One, however, did not. Ukyo Kuonji awoke with a
groan when the alarm clock on her nightstand invaded her dreamless sleep.
The shrill, piercing cry of the alarm lanced her ears, and brought the pain
lurking in her head to the forefront. Moaning in agony, she slowly rolled on
her side and checked the drawer in the nightstand. A few moments of
searching revealed the Advil she kept there for just such occasions. Her
alcohol-and-sleep-addled brain didn't register how light the bottle was
until she up-ended it in her palm.

	"Aw shit." she whispered when no little orange pills fell into her hand.
Her throat hurt from the effort of whispering. Her throat felt parched, and
every inch of her hurt. With eyes that didn't want to stay open, she risked
a glance at the clock. The red numbers hurt her eyes, and were slightly out
of focus, but she eventually gathered that it was six a.m. Normally, she
would be heating up the grill and preparing for the breakfast crowd. The
hangover that raged in her skull convinced her that cooking would be a very
bad idea. Slowly, with much effort and discomfort, Ukyo rose and staggered
to the bathroom. 

	The light blinded her once she flipped the switch. After the glare faded,
Ukyo looked into the mirror of the medicine cabinet and was revulsed by what
she saw. For a girl of seventeen, she looked at least twenty years older.
Her eyes were red and sore, her hair tousled and hanging everywhere. Her
skin was still somewhat pale from the retching the night before. How much of
this was from the booze or the recurrence of the dreams she didn't know.
Ukyo considered not going to school that day. She felt like death warmed
over, and her condition wouldn't help her in the least with that test today.
Besides, of all the people she didn't want to see her this way, Ranma was
foremost among them. She COULD avoid him for the better part of the day, but
she shared a class with both him and Akane. Even worse, it was math. As she
stared at the haggard and worn image in the mirror, she leaned more toward
staying home. However, her grades in math weren't exactly top 5. More like
bottom five, and she needed to pass this test. Takamura-sensei wouldn't let
his students make it up, the hardass. Heaving a defeated sigh, she slowly
pulled off the wrinkled nightshirt and looked down at her breasts. Yet
another sign of the womanhood she still in some ways tried to hide. She
stepped into the shower, and was momentarily startled to full wakefulness
when the cold water hit her. For a brief moment, her hangover went away, but
returned in full force. 

	Fifteen minutes later, clean but still in pain, Ukyo staggered into her
bedroom and finally noticed the smell of stale whiskey in the air. She
looked to the floor in time to avoid stepping on the shards of broken glass
in front of her door. She didn't remember knocking the bottle over...

	"Fuck it." she said. Her voice was a little stronger, but still hoarse.
After retrieving a towel, she knelt down and began to clean up the previous
night's mess. After getting the floor as clean as she could, she threw away
the towel. Seven o'clock, still an hour and a half to kill. Joy.

============================================================================

	Her eyes hurt from the sunlight as she stood in the courtyard watching him.
Ranma, the only man in her life, seemed on the verge of running for his. It
was the typical lunchtime lunacy, and it was almost cliche. He was being
assaulted by three different women with three different dishes, and in
typical Ranma fashion, he was totally clueless. Any choice he made would be
wrong. Finally, he took off running, with the other three in hot pursuit.
Ukyo hung her head and sighed. He probably didn't even notice that she
wasn't there. Besides, she hadn't prepared anything for him anyway.

	The soft flourescent lights inside were easier on the eyes, but Ukyo's head
still pounded in it's slow, steady beat. She sat at her desk awaiting the
test so she could go home and let her head return to its normal size.
Takamura-sensei looked up in time to scold the last two arrivals, two people
she REALLY didn't want to see. Akane wore an angry scowl, while Ranma
sported several new bruises. Nothing surprising, really. As per usual, Ranma
hardly noticed she was alive. At times, she just wanted to strangle him.
Pushing those thoughts out of her mind, she put on her cheerfule facade and
accepted the test. She looked at the first question, and the pain in her
skull instantly cranked up a few notches.

	|| If a train leaves from Tomobiki ward at 10:00 a.m. at 40 KpH, and a
train from Nerima ward... || Oh, sweet holy FUCK!

============================================================================

	Ukyo flipped the okonomiyaki with grace that was almost second nature. Her
hangover had almost subsided, but she still felt terrible. After the math
test (which she was sure she flunked), she made a bee-line straight for
home. The restaurant was still empty, the dinner rush didn't start until
five or six. Ukyo scooped the little disk of food onto a plate and took a
seat in the small chair she kept behind the counter. The hot okonomiyaki
burned on its way down her throat, and made her stomach churn a little.
Stifling her gag reflex, Ukyo ate the rest of her dish in a rush. Here it
was two o'clock and she was still a little under the weather. Her stomach
finally accepted the food, but not without a little griping. Her stomach
quieted for now, she rose from the chair and finished arranging the
ingredients. 

	With her materials ready, Ukyo looked down at the cabinet where she kept
her dry supplies handy. Flour, soba noodles, salt, and the like. One thing
she kept in there, though, was as far from dry as one could get. Another
bottle, this one filled with cheap vodka, rested near the back. Vodka really
wasn't her flavor, but it knocked her out in a hurry. For a moment, she was
tempted to take a sip. 

	//What would it hurt?\\ asked a soft voice inside her head. //Just a little
nip to take the edge off. C'mon, whaddaya say?\\ She violently shook off the
voice. It usually kept quiet, something that just lurked in the dark shadows
of her mind with a good deal of her life. A bender like the previous night,
however, would bring it out again the next morning. At times, resisting the
voice was damned hard. It was a seductive voice, one that carressed her
concsiousness like a lover. And, nine times out of ten, it sounded like...

	"Yo, Ucchan!" Her vision was suddenly filled with Ranma's face. For a
panicked second, she thought the voice had come to life. She jumped back,
clutching her hand to her chest in shock. "You all right?" Ukyo read the
concern on his face and felt her heart soar. Something was wrong, however...

	"Uh...Ranchan, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in school?" she asked.

	"What are you talking about?" Ranma asked, totally confused. "It's past
three." A quick check of the clock on the far wall confirmed it.

	Ukyo flushed, wondering just how long she was running on auto pilot. On
reflex she poured some batter on the griddle, preparing an okonomiyaki for
him. As she prepared the dish, she waited for him to speak. What he did,
what Akane did to him, whatever. Instead, he just sat on the stool, giving
the okonimiyaki a predatory look. In moments, the dish was ready. Ukyo
scooped it onto a plate, and placed it before Ranma.

	Ranma dove into it with gusto. He didn't just eat the damn thing, he
inhaled it. He was eagerly awaiting the second, and the third, and the
fourth, and...

	"Later, Ucchan! Thanks for the food!" Ranma said as he walked out the door.
Ukyo stared after him, despair and rage warring for dominance inside her. He
was her fiancee, damnit! Why didn't he act like it? What was she, a free
lunch? She heaved a weary sigh. He'd come around, she was certain.

	She just wished he'd hurry up.

        This has been sitting on my hard drive for quite some time now. I
came across it, and figured I'd touch it up a little and release it. I hope
you all enjoyed it.

Jed