The little girl who had smiled up at him when his wife had given birth to her was now going to bear her own child, and it made him wonder where the time had gone.
He could remember a time that didn't seem so long ago when Nodoka had been putting her in a fancy dress for an outing when she'd been three, looking rather sweet and rambunctious at the same time. A gi had been more her style, and he could recall images of her trying really hard to get every move he could teach down. She might have been a girl, but she did have the heart of a martial artist, and had she been a boy, he'd have taken her on the training journey. But even though her lessons had been hit by the arrival of her baby brother, she'd been enthralled with the child, and was the best big sister that she could have hoped to be. A part of him recalled being rather... disturbed by the idea that she was going to get married, but he'd always held with the idea that his friend would protect her.
Now that he thought about it, he did feel bad about missing her wedding. He could have brought his boy to meet the girls then, but he'd been too drunk to do so at that time. Hell, he'd gone and forgotten that she would be there at the house, and hadn't stopped to note that anyone else was there. Had he done so, he would have known that it was her immediately. But he'd just never connected her marriage to his old training buddy to any possible affect on the arrangement.
Yet, now he had to, as the heir to both their families styles was in his baby girl's womb. Just the idea that she was old enough to bear a child was boggling his mind. He couldn't see her doing so, and sure as hell didn't want to imagine how she got to be pregnant. After all, that would mean that she and Soun had...
"SOUN!" he bellowed.
The other man in the room blinked. "What's the matter, Genma?"
"You're having a child with my baby?!"
"We've been over this, Saotome! That 'baby' is my wife, and so it's perfectly fine!"
"How can you say that?! You... you... You would have slept with her!"
"I have rights to her as her husband, you know! And she has never complained about anything to do with our bedroom! Sometimes she even does things to make it better for me!"
"Don't tell me things like that!"
"Then why ask!"
"I don't want to hear that my little girl's... tempting you!"
"What else do you expect her to do?!" Soun bellowed. "She can act to please me just as I can work to make certain that she's happy in our bed!"
"But she's my daughter!"
"And she's my wife!"
"I know that! But how could you do... do... that with her!"
"Very easily! In case you have not noticed, she's grown up into a very beautiful woman!"
Genma got put his face right in front of the other man's. "She'll always be my little girl!"
"You can always cherish her! But I love her like I never thought I would with another one when Kimiko died!"
"Then why did you... you... have sex with her!"
"Because she desires me and wants to make love to me!"
"In doing so, you got her pregnant!"
"Then be happy for her!" the Tendo Patriarch snarled. "She loves me, and together we'll be having a baby! Don't you realize what this means?!"
"That you've gone out and taken my little girl's innocence?!"
"No! That you're going to be a grandfather! The next generation of Tendos will have a Saotome grandfather! Aren't you going to be happy that she's going to have the chance to have a child of her own?!"
"Well..."
"She's been a wonderful mother to my daughters, Saotome. Now it's her opportunity to have children of her own body. That is something that she's been wishing for ever since we've gotten married. One of the first things that she told Akane was that she'd give her a sibling if she could!"
"I... It's just that she's my little girl. I want her to be nice and... the same child that played at my feet."
Soun blinked at that. "But didn't you try teaching her the Art?"
"I did. She was all that I had at the time! I wanted to let her mother teach her to be a proper girl, but I couldn't risk the school passing on. So... We reached a compromise. And when Ranma was born, she could go back to all the safe stuff that didn't have her getting hurt."
"I don't want her hurt either, Saotome, but she's my wife now, and will be giving birth to our child."
"Don't you worry, man?"
"Of course I do. But the doctor says that she's doing well, and only needs to be careful for the time being."
"Then she should do so," Genma said with a dignified nod to his head. "She needs to be watched over all the time. I don't want her overexerting herself."
"We have been doing so."
"That's good, but I want more! I won't let my little girl do anything she shouldn't!"
"This 'little girl' is perfectly capable of handling herself," murmured another voice.
Both men turned and looked towards the speaker. "Ranko...."
"Pop. Husband," Ranko replied.
"What is it, dear?" Soun asked.
"You do realize that everyone in the house, and probably the neighborhood, heard the two of you, right?"
"Were we going at it that loudly," her father apologetically replied, rubbing at the back of his head. "We didn't mean to yell."
"That's bad enough, but there is worse."
"What could you mean?"
"YOU TWO WERE SCREAMING ABOUT MY SEX LIFE!" she screeched, and clenched her fist around the handle of the frying pan that she was holding. "YOU TWO... IDIOTS!"
"Daughter, we didn't..."
"Dear," her husband stammered. "We were... that is..."
"Oh, you were, and I'm going to make you understand how bad that is... GET BACK HERE, YOU TWO!"
Ranma watched his sister run off in pursuit of the two older men until he heard the footsteps of the three sisters. "Hi."
"What's going on?" Nabiki asked.
"Ranko's gone ta beat some sense inta our dads."
"Ah..."
"She should after what they said...." Akane grumbled.
"Ain't gonna argue with ya there," the pigtailed boy replied with a shrug.
"Good idea. Idiots."
"Now, Akane, you know that Father and Mother have fought like this from time to time," Kasumi admonished gently.
"That doesn't make him right."
"This happens a lot?" Ranma asked.
"Only when Dad's being stupid again."
The middle sister nodded. "But he'll be all contrite and loving tonight. And then he'll try to make it up to her when they're alone."
"Good for them," their step-uncle replied.
"You approve?"
"Sure? If he got her mad, then why shouldn't he find somethin' ta make it better? I mean, it's not like he'd be doin' anythin' that'd be shockin'."
"You have no idea, do you?"
"What d'ya mean?"
"You just answered my question," Nabiki responded with a shake of her head. "Complete innocent."
That left him scratching his head in confusion while:
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(Posted Thu, 21 Jul 2005 03:38)
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