RANMASPOTTING
	By: Ben Kalman 
	Chapter 2

	Genma stumbled home.  He wasn't sure what time it was, but he'd run out of what
little money he had and couldn't afford any more sake,  so he'd figured it must be bedtime. 
Singing a Samurai war chant, in a loud (and rather off-key) coice, he somehow managed to
stumble his way upstairs.  Noting that he hadn't washed or even changed clothes in the last
few..days..or was it weeks? "Oh well," He though as he raised his voice for the chorus, if 
you can call it that," I might as well break my routine and change now!"
	As lights started turning on, and everyone looked in the hall to see if the noise 
they heard was P-Chan stuck in the air conditioner again, Genma finished his merry tune, 
took a swig from his hip flask, and bowed to his audience.  Ranma, looking rather 
embarrassed, grabbed his father and attempted to pull him into their room.
	"Ranma, m'boy (hic) coming to join yer dear ol' dad in a tune (hic)?"
	"This isn't very funny y'know, Pop," Ranma whispered, "Everyone's starin'!"
	Nabiki stifled a loud yawn and turned back to bed, cursing the bad sense of humor
the gods must have had to have forced her into being born into such a family.  Soun's face
darkened with each moment, until Kasumi kindly gave him a valium and tucked him in.  Then
she looked in on Ranma and Genma, to make sure that everything was under control.  
Apparently it was.  Although Genma was snoring loudly enough to rival a freight train, Ranma
seemed to be dozing off as well. "Funny," she thought, "But he seems to be losing weight..."
	She heard a couple of giggles coming from Master Happosai's room, so she went to 
take a peek though the hole she'd drilled through the wall for these such occasions.  There
were similar ones looking into every room in the house. "Oh my!" She exclaimed to herself
quietly, and covered her mouth as she giggled.  Happosai was engaged in some very naughty
games with several...er...ladies...of not so high standing.  Actually, they seemed to be 
less ladylike and more adolescent.  Although they handled him like pros...she had never
realized the old guy was quite so energetic...or so virile for that matter.  Howeever, 
the seven girls seemed to be already tiring out.  she giggled again and went to check on
Akane before going to sleep herself.  Akane was curled into a foetal position, her head 
shaking back and forth.  She was repeating, "No...please...no," over and over again.  Kasumi
was abou to go in and wake her from her nightmare, when P-Chan nuzzled into Akane and rested
his head against her breast.  She let out a contented sigh, pulling P-Chan closer, and 
mumbled, "Oh yes..Dr.Tofu..i'm only happy when you're inside me..."
	Kasumi's head snapped up with a start.  Dr.Tofu was hers! Her territory! However,
when she saw Akane's thumb go into her mouth as she fell into a deeper, dreamless sleep,
Kasumi realized how silly she was being.  After all, Akane was still a child, and still a
virgin of course.  She wouldn't understand what sex was, certainly not in the way that 
Kasumi and Dr.Tofu regularly explored it.  Shaking her head at how ridiculous she was to
even consider being jealous, of *Akane* of all people, even for a moment...she giggled once
again, and headed off to bed, "Let Akane dream her little girlish fantasies and puppy loves,
I'll dream of the real thing!"


	Ranma leaned against the wall of Ukyo's apartment, while Ukyo rested her head in 
his lap.  He studied the wall opposite him, lost in his thoughts, and absently stroking the
side of her face.  She concentrated on eh ceiling, content to be with Ranma.  Suddenly, she
turned over, and looked in Ranma's eyes, holding her head in her hands.
	"Ranma.." She started, then stopped, hesitant to speak.
	Ranma smiled down at Ukyo, his trance snapped. "Yes, Hon?"
	"Why don't we..you know,you..and me.." She stopped again, a faint blush rising on 
her cheeks.
	Ranma leaned forward and kissed her gently. "Don't worry, you can tell me.  What's
the matter?"
	"Let's get married," She burst out, releasing the words in an explosion of emotion,
"We're technically engaed anyway, and then you wouldn't have to sneak here ever time we 
wanted some time alone...or a good shot!"
	"Yeah, but what about Akane? It's break her heart if I left! And I owe her family
at least an explanation...without their money we'd have never been able to afford the junk.
After all, Nabiki's the one who supplies us most of the time, anyway.  Except when the old
hag has a surplus, that is-" He cut himself off, when he saw the tears slowly making their
way down Ukyo's cheksm only to roll off onto the floor.  "Ukyo...what's wrong?" Ranma asked
softly as he gently wiped her tears away.
	"Akane this, Akane that! AKEN AKANE AKANE!!! Do you love *her* or do you love ME! 
Tell me now, or leave me forever, because I can't stand another woman controlling your life,
Ranma! I want you with me forever, with no one else to stand in my way!"
	"Ukyo, dearest, you know I love you...but you also know that in his drunkedness, my
stupid promised me to three women...plus the fact that I'm technically married to three 
others," Ranma shuddered as a picture of Shampoo and her sisters entered his mind. "I love
you more than all of them put together, but I'm stuck!"
	Ukyo collapsed into a heap, and just sobbed for a moment, before looking up.  Her 
face was pale, her nose and eyes red.  Tears were streaming down her face as she looked up 
and said in an almost inaudible whisper, "Then go Ranma...leave my life forever.  I can't
share you..I need you, and if you can't live with me, and me alone, married or not, then 
you can't live with me at all."
	Now it was Ranma's turn to start crying, "Why Ukyo, why??  You've always known my
situation, but you've never brought it up before...why now?"
	"Because I'm pregnant, and you were my first and only, Ranma...it has to be yours!"
	Ranma looked at her a momentin a state of disbelief.  then he reached forward and 
drew Ukyo into his arms.  He held her for a few minutes of slience, the whispered in her 
ear, "Then I choose you.  My love for you is so strong that I would never leave such a 
burden on you.  I give you my heart and soul...and my hand in marriage."
	He leaned forward and kissed, and she returned his kiss fiercely, her eyes aglow
with pride.  While still locked in this embrace, Ranma reached over for the baggie of hash 
he'd just scored earlier.  He hadn't heard the man, who now stepped on his hand, enter.  He
looked up in acombination of surprise and annoyance, and was about to get up when he saw the
pistol.
	"Wha-?" Was all he could say when he was shot, twice in the gut.  Ukyo screamed, her
shrieks singing out shrilly through her three room apartment, until the man swung the butt
of his longhorn revolver across her temple.  He bound and gagged her unconcious body, waited
a few moments to make sure no one had heard her scream, then carried her away, leaving the 
convulsing form of Ranma to shiver on the floor in a puddle of his own blood.

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