(cont)
"Wo ai ni...words I thought I'd never hear without cringing in fear. It's
been so long, like another lifetime, since that Shampoo was here. This
Shampoo, though, she gave instead of take, she sacrificed instead of possess,
she even saved me out because it was the right thing for me to do, not
because she had a plan to marry me shortly after. She made me happy at the
expense of her own heart, and she changed her ways for herself, not for me.
She made me live, and she brought back the joy I once felt. So strange
looking at the new Shampoo and feeling that old stirring in my heart again,
the kind that you think is only reserved for one person, but with Akane
freshly gone...I didn't want to betray her memory. So I resisted her for a
week, until I had a dream, or maybe it was her ghost visiting me...I don't
know to this day, but she smiled at me, and told me to be happy in this life,
and to not worry about her...kouin'yanogotoshi, time flies like an arrow, she
said. Life is short, so spend it with loved ones as much as possible. Then
she kissed me goodbye and faded away, whispering 'I love you'....
"The next day, me and Shampoo went out on our first of many dates. A year
later, we were engaged, and then married a few months later. The rest is
history...."
Ukyou was backing against the wall, her weirdness meter spiking up at the
scene. "Um, Ranchan, when did you get so insightful like that?"
He slowly blinked once, then looked to Ukyou. "You'd be surprised what a
life like mine will do for your thinking."
"I see...wow, you did more than change, did you know that? If I didn't know
you, I would have sworn you were someone else."
He smiled, though a little embarrassed. "Well..."
A knocking interrupted.
"Shampoo, can you get the front door?"
"Okay..." The woman shook her hair out, stood from her warm spot on Ranma's
chest, then zipped over to the door.
"So you're really living a happy life with her..." Ukyou whistled. "I'd
never have guessed it could happen, especially with your phobia of cats and
her curse."
He sighed deeply. "Neither did I, and that was the first thing we got a fix
on. Took three months, but now, it's going to take at least twenty cats, or
a really big one to trigger the neko-ken."
She nodded. "Sounds like you really got a handle on things, then."
He smiled. "Not really, but I'm learning from all my past mistakes, took a
while, but I am. Me and Shampoo will argue from time to time, sure, but we
learn to forgive and compromise and all of that stuff, you know?"
Just then, Shampoo stuck her head down the hall. "Akari's going to be here
in twenty minutes."
He chuckled. "Some things will never change..." He turned back to his best
friend. "Coming along?"
Ukyou kind of shrugged. "Okay..."
* * * * *
"Thanks, Kasumi-dono. I really hate to be inconveinincing you like this,"
Ryouga said taking a tea cup and saucer into his hands.
"Oh, it's no problem." Her fingers stroked the forehead of the now-sleeping
Kiko, a plate with two cookies and an empty glass of milk set upon a small
table.
Slowly, he sipped the piping hot liquid. "This tea...it's good."
"Thank you, but it's a special tea Shampoo made."
"Oh, then, Shampoo..."
Shampoo, Ranma, and Ukyou walked into the living room then. No sooner than
he caught sight of the latter, he squawked and leapt behind the sofa he was
sitting on. Ukyou blinked as she saw Ryouga's body taking to air.
"R...ryou...ga?"
Peeking over the top of the sofa, the bandana-wearing man looked at the
stunned woman. "U...ukyou...?"
Mechanically, she walked over to one of the bags she and Kiko brought in.
Picking up a largish, black nylon bag, and with her back turned to Ryouga,
opened it, and took out something. As it dropped to join its brethern, Ukyou
turned back around, her eyes smouldering with unmittigated hatred directed to
him. He saw the look in her eyes and grew afraid. "You...jackass!!"
Suddenly, he yelped as a small, sharpened spatula imbedded itself a scant
inch from his crotch.
"Ryouga, please don't make too much noice; you'll wake your daughter Kiko up."
"Sorry, Kasumi-d--my what?!" His eyes expanded to the size of the plates
from the fine china set.
Ukyou was starting to deliver another spatula, but it fell from numb fingers.
"H....how...how did you know?"
"She has Ryouga's eyes and hair coloring, but her slightly longer canines are
a big giveaway."
Ranma and Shampoo blinked in surprise and exchanged glances.
"I didn't know that; did you, Sham-chan?"
"No, Airen. By the way, wasn't Ryouga married to Akari at that time?"
"...I think so..."
If the Kansai had been eating, she would have choked to death.
"M-m-m-married?!"
The lost man looked around the room sheepishly. "Um, yeah, I am.... Akari
and I have been married for over five years now...coming up on six soon."
"But you slept with me, then you ran out on me! How could you do that when
you were married?!" She was trembling with each word.
"I was drunk that night, okay? Drunk, depressed, down, and lost. And I
wasn't married then."
Kasumi put her wheelchair into motion and disappeared into the kitchen with
Kiko, still rubbing the sleeping girl's forehead. "We'll let your parents
work things out on their own." Meanwhile, Ranma and Shampoo were still a bit
stunned by this new revelation.
"Akari and I were having some problems. One night, she said that she wasn't
sure if she wanted to go through with the wedding, so she asked for a little
time apart. I took it way too hard, like I usually do, and got depressed
over it. So I got lost for a few days, and chanced upon you. Looked like
you had your own problems, but you took solace in my company, as I did in
yours. We got drunk, and the next thing I know, we were just waking up in
bed with quite a hangover. You have no idea how terrible I felt then. It
was an accident that should never have happened. So I ran..." He sighed
heavily, hanging his head. "I've already told Akari about it soon as I got
back, and she forgave me after a week. Now, I ask for your forgiveness,
Ukyou-san...."
In response, she fell to her knees and began to cry.
Ranma shook himself out of the appalling daze. "Sham-chan, please help Ukyou
to the wash room."
She nodded mutely, padding over to Ukyou. Slipping her hands beneath the
unresisting woman's arms, Shampoo had gotten Ukyou walking down the hall to
the wash room. He sighed as they disappeared; he hadn't seen Ukyou like that
since he told her that he was marrying Akane a year after the first failed
wedding attempt.
Looking at his despairing friend, who had picked himself from the floor, and
was now sitting on the sofa, he shook his head. "What a perfect life, ne,
old buddy?"
"...perfect...my ass..." Ryouga's shoulders slumped even more. "Akari's
going to kill me when she finds out...."
"Eh, she'll understand, cause she loves you for the big idiot you are."
"You know, you're not helping here..."
"Sorry, couldn't resist at least one of them. I'll stay with you till Akari
gets here, okay?"
"...thanks, Ranma."
"No problem. After all, somebody's gotta talk coherently when she gets here."
In reply, Ryouga half-heartedly whacked Ranma with a plush pillow.
"...thanks for trying to cheer me up..."
"No problem. That's what friends are really for."
After getting the inference half a minute later, Ryouga wholehearted whacked
Ranma with the plush pillow.
The End