Disclamer: These characters and situations belong to the wonderful Rumiko Takahasi and her licensees. This work is strictly not for profit.
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Benaai
Part 2
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic by TeW
Last Update: June 19, 2002
DRAFT
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Akane peeked around the corner. She'd woken up in a small, sparsely furnished room with her pack in one corner. She'd dug out her bathing supplies and found the bath, with a wonderfully hot furo, something she'd missed a lot after the gas had to be turned off at the dojo.
She felt incredibly shy for some reason. Maybe the night before had been some kind of dream and they would make her leave when they found she had nothing. Between the inheritance taxes and the depressed land value from the dojo and house being almost completely destroyed, there wasn't going to be much left. After they payed off the loans she'd found her father had out, there would be enough to give Kasumi a decent dowery and that would be about it.
Several of her friends families had offered to take her in, she figured she'd end up taking one of them up on that offer. After high school she could get a job and manage on her own.
Now everything had changed. She wasn't sure she liked the idea of getting engaged, it seemed too much like what Kuno had offered her after her father's death. This was different though. This was her father's wish.
She squared her shoulder's and walked around the corner. She had to find out one way or another if they really meant this.
"Good morning Akane-chan! Are you hungry?"
"Good monring Mrs. Saotome. Yes, quite hungry." She answered as cheerfully as she could.
"Now, Akane. You can call me 'mother' if you like, or at least 'auntie'.
"Is 'auntie' okay then? I'm not ready to call anyone 'mother' yet." Akane said tentatively.
"That's fine dear, I'll be very pleased if and when you feel you can call me mother, but I understand how much you miss your real mother. She was a remarkable woman." Nodoka set a stack of plates and bowls at the table.
"You knew my mother?" Akane asked.
"Yes, we knew each other when we were younger. It was because of her that I met Genma. Oh, could you set the table Akane? I've got to get back to stiring the soup."
"Sure, Auntie."
The older woman smiled at her and headed into the kitchen. Akane put the plates and bowls around the table in the places she remembered from the night before. She wasn't sure which bowl went with which person, so she guessed.
A few minutes later Nodoka came in with a rice cooker and asked Akane to help her get the rest of the food out. It didn't take them long to get things put out The smell of the food brought Ranma and his father into the room and they were soon eating.
Between eating and berating her husband and son about their lack of table maners, the woman kept chatting with Akane. She asked if she thought her room was too small, how she was doing in school, about her sisters recovery. It was nice. Akane got the definite impression that Auntie Saotome was very glad to have a girl around to talk to. Certainly Ranma and his father didn't add anything to the conversation.
Once everyone was done, Auntie looked around the table, pulling her son and husbands attention to her and raised her voice a little.
"Now, I think it's a little late for you to make it to school this morning, and I want to discuss your switching to a closer school. Before we do that though, there's something you must know about my son before we can consider the engagement completed."
Akane glanced over at Ranma and his father. Both looked very nervious.
"Recently my husband took Ranma to China to a training ground he'd heard of. It turns out the training ground is full of cursed springs. Both of these bakas managed to fall into cursed springs. Now...well I think it would be best if we showed you."
Auntie through a glassful of water at her husband. She followed the water with her eyes, saw it hit the man and saw him turn into...a giant panda bear?.
"What?" She said weakly.
"When these two are hit with cold water they take the form of whatever last drowned in the spring. In my husband's case that was a panda. My son fell into a different spring."
Ranma sighed and took his glass, lifting it over his head. Before he poured it he looked at her sadly.
"I understand if you want to cancel the engagement." He said.
Then he poured and turned into a girl. A small, busty girl wearing the same cloths and with the same pigtail.
"I'm a guy, but this damn curse..." She said.
"I-I how?" Akane stuttered.
Nodoka filled in the momentary silence while Akane recovered. "I know it's a bit of a shock. I'm afraid I passed out when they told me last night, but you will get used to the idea. My son insists he's a man even in this form. I thought you should know about this before you commited yourself to anything."
Akane looked at Ranma. He was looking down at the table, he looked hurt, dejected, forlorn. Much the way she'd been feeling since the bomb took away most of her family. It only took a moment to make her decision. So he turned into a girl, it was obvious he wasn't happy about it, and all he had to do was avoid cold water. Didn't seem so bad. Weird, but not too bad. She'd rather have a weird family than none at all.
"I guess I don't have any serious objections. As long as you're really a guy when you look that way." She finally said.
Ranma relaxed. His father wiped his brow (which looked odd, as he was still a panda) and Mrs. Saotome smiled.
"I'll just go get some hot water for these two. Then we'll talk about school." Nodoka got up and walked into the kitchen, still smiling.
"Thanks." Ranma said when she was gone.
"Uh, you're welcome I guess." Akane answered.
"You may not realize it, but you may have just saved my life, and pop's life too."
"How did I save your life?"
"Pop here made a promise when we left on our training trip ten years ago. He would either make me a man amoung men or we would both have to committ sepukka. If you hadn't accepted me as a fiancee...well, it might have been pretty nasty."
"You're joking." Akane was agast, who would do that to their own child?
"Nope, mom's real big on honor."
Akane watched Mr. Saotome eat a piece of bamboo and wondered if becoming part of this family was such a good idea after all.
* * *
The discussion about schools went well, for about thirty seconds.
"School, feh." Ranma muttered.
"What's wrong with school?" Akane asked.
"What do I need school for? I'm a martial artist." Ranma replied.
"You have very little understanding of what it means to be a martial arts teacher if you think you don't need more schooling." His mother said sternly. "Or were you planning on being some kind of street fighter?"
"Umm..." Ranma *had* considered doing some street fighting. Actually, he had done some at his fathers insistance. Still, he didn't want that as a way of life. Street fighters basically did what he and his father had been doing fo the last ten years: travel train, and fight. He didn't know what he wanted to do with his life, but that definitely was *not* it."
"Besides, you no have a responsibility to Akane too. Once you two are married you will have to support her. An education will improve your ability to do that." His mother said.
"I can take care of myself." Akane said.
His mother smiled at her. "I know you can dear, you've been doing so since the tragity with your family. But what if you decide to have children?"
Akane blushed and looked down at the table. Ranma felt like doing the same, but kept his eyes on his mom.
His mother smiled at both of them before pulling the conversation back on topic.
"Now, we must decide which school you will go to. Akane goes to Furienkan, and I'm sure I can arrange for you two to go there. There is also a closer school which might make things easier. After some consideration, I think Akane should deicde which school."
His mom looked over at Akane. "So what would you prefer Akane? A clean break from your old life or to keep contact with your friends at school?"
Akane was silent for a moment. "A clean break I think. I'll miss my friends, but I can still visit them sometimes. And it will help with some problems I'm having with some of the boys there."
"I think that's a wise choice. You'll also save considerable travel time, which will help if you want to keep up both your studies and your martial arts."
"Now," Nodoka continued. "We should talk about the household arrangements and then I think the two of you should take some time to get to know each other."
* * *
Akane looked at the mess in the bowl in front of her. When Auntie had asked what household task she thought she was the worst at she'd immediately answered `cooking'. She never imagined that Nodoka would then tell her she was to help cook a meal every day.
"Hmm...I see you were serious about cooking being your least developed household skill. Now that I have an idea of where you need to start I think we are done for today. We can continue tomorrow at dinner time."
"Yes, Auntie."
"Oh, don't worry dear. Cooking takes considerable practice. Why in just a few months I'm sure you'll be cooking very nice meals." Nodoka said.
"Umm...months?" Akane said. That seemed like a long time just to learn to cook. Maybe there was more to it than she thought.
"Oh, yes. Of course that will only be simple meals. It takes years to learn to cook really well. That's partially because there are so many different recipies for the different seasons, but also because there are so many details to think about when cooking a meal."
"Oh." Akane said in a small voice.
"I will have lunch ready in a few minutes, why don't you go fetch Ranma."
"Okay."
Akane went up the stars slowly. Working with Auntie Saotome in the kitchen had reminded her of Kasumi's attempts to teach her to cook. That reminded her of Kasumi's current state, the terrible stillness forced on her by her injuries, the terrible pain in her eyes when they spoke.
Akane sat on the top step and wept as she hadn't since the first few days after the bomb took her family.
* * *
Ranma looked up from the magna he'd been reading. His martial arts made him very sensitive to his surroundings, and a girl crying right outside his door was hard to miss. He stood and walked over to the door then paused in indecision.
What could *he* do? He was no good at this mushy stuff. If it was someone trying to hurt her or something then he could have protected her, but this was beyond him. Unfortunately the only other options were to sit in his room and listen to her cry, or to jump out the window. He didn't think he could stand listening to her cry, and he would *not* run away. Even from this. Probably.
Bringing to mind every word of advice his father had even given him concerning women (it didn't take long) he quickly went through his options. He could attack her, that's what his father did when he was feeling bad, and she was a martial artist. Then he remembered the cast on her arm and decided he couldn't do that until she was well. He racked his brain for any other ideas, coming up mostly blank. The only thing he could come up with was what his father had said when Akane had started crying when they first met her.
Swallowing hard, he stepped out of his room and sat next to his fiancee for a moment before slipping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her lightly toward him.
She didn't seem to notice at first, then her crying lightened and stopped. She still was breathing hard and sniffing a lot, and hadn't looked up yet, but this seemed to have helped some. Maybe his dad wasn't as much of an idiot as he thought, at least where women were concerned.
Akane finally looked up at him. Her eyes were still glistening with tears and her face was red, but she actually looked pretty cute.
"Thank you Ranma." Akane said.
Ranma put his free hand behind his head played with his pigtail, as he did when he was nervious. "Hey, no problem."
"Now, please move your arm before I break it."
As soon as her words registered Ranma yanked his arm away, putting both hands in his lap. "Ah...sorry, I was just, I mean you..."
Akane looked into his eyes, seeming to be searching for something. Whatever it was she seemed to find it. Or maybe to not find it, but she seemed satisfied.
"You really weren't trying to be a pervert, where you?" She said so quietly that he almost couldn't hear her.
"Hey! What are you saying?"
Akane smiled at him, then stood up, holding out a hand to him as if to help him up. "Come on, your mom said it was time to eat."
Ranma looked at the hand for a second, then took it. She dragged him up to a standing position with surprising strength. Then smiled at him again before dropping his hand and heading down the stairs.
Ranma shook his head as he followed her. He felt like he'd just passed some kind of test, but he had no idea what kind of test or why he'd had to pass it. Women, he decided, were really strange.
=== END CHAPTER 2 ===
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