Though Kodachi was easily more startled by this than Ranma she was quickly, reflexively even, engulfed in his arms as if to carry her away. Shouting, "No! You do it this way!" The okonomiyaki chef walked around them, positioning Ranma's arms for offering comfort, telling him, "She's not a sack of grain you have to carry somewhere. Put your arms around her like you mean it! No! Here and here. Haven't you ever hugged anyone before?"
"Ugh, uh... no?" Ranma squeaked out, tensing and then gradually relaxing as no one hit him from any side.
"Oh." Ukyo's breath caught, and she sniffed once before telling him, "One around her waist just above the hips, one around her back just below the shoulders. You want to make her feel like you want to mold her whole body softly to yours, and... excuse me a second..." Ukyo ducked around the news cart to cry at not being the one in Ranma's arms for this hug, his first ever from the sound of it, or the first that wasn't accidental.
Kodachi caught those tears and sniffling, though Ranma didn't seem to, but made no effort to stir from within those mighty arms cradling her gently. In truth she was too bewildered to consider why the chef could do this for her.
"Don't just stand there, you jackass! Whisper in her ear that you like her. Tell her she looks good." Ukyo's choked sob came from around the cart. "Smile and tell her that you don't ever want her to be lonely again."
Ranma's grip around Kodachi relaxed. "Ucchan, are you..."
"JUST DO IT, RANCHAN!"
Ranma's arms quickly snapped back stiffly into place around Kodachi, whose senses had been so battered by the conflicting emotions that she didn't know what to think.
Ukyo somehow mastered herself and her voice floated more softly around the news cart. "Not so tense, Ranchan. She's not a tube of toothpaste. You aren't trying to squeeze her out. You hug a person because you care about her, because you like and want to feel her close to you. Now do it right. Tenderly."
A few more sniffs were heard and then a whisper, "Someday you'll want to let a girl know that you consider her the most wonderful thing in all of the whole wide world and want to spend the rest of your life as close to her as you can get. Hugs are necessary to doing that. You've got to practice. Try to sense how wonderful it feels for her to be in your arms."
Amazingly, through this flood of information and advice, Ranma had managed a halfway decent hug for a first timer, though as Kodachi thought about it she agreed with the chef. He needed work, lots and LOTS of work. Now when could they practice? She could clear out her weekday schedule, school wasn't important...
Hearing Ukyo's sobs and not understanding them at all, Ranma focused on what he could do right now, and the best he came up with was that teaching him the technique was hurting her somehow, but she didn't want him to stop until he was finished. While that seemed odd it wasn't impossible, so he focused on the last thing she'd said and just tried to feel out how he felt about holding Kodachi this way.
In that second he got it right.
But he did more than that, far more than he'd ever intended really, as he'd involved his chi and Force senses reaching an unintended effect as her own chi patterns went unexpectedly open and receptive to his own.
In his mind, he heard his teacher's voice describing what he felt. "Here problem is," a sea of feeling within her suddenly highlighting to his mind's view. "This solution is," an area of his own mind became softly emphasized.
Without bothering to question how, Ranma brought the two together.
As had Ukyo, Kodachi had unconsciously filled her aura with her emotions whose tangle was so much of a mess he didn't know how to make sense of them or where to begin. But that didn't matter so much now as his probes met her acceptance and desire for contact, pulling him inside of her heart and soul, binding them together like he'd also linked Ucchan. She also broke down in sobs, feeling his acceptance suddenly but overwhelmingly clear and certain.
As a wailing Kodachi clung to her Ranchan like a barnacle, Ukyo sat miserably hugging her knees to her chest and waiting for this to be over.
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(Posted Mon, 18 Jul 2005 05:35)
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