After all, it would be much better to have his wife by his side, than to have his pain in the ass old man sharing this sort of food with him.
A laugh at the idea that a cheap sandwich could mean so much to him almost got out of his chest, but he couldn't help himself. On so many walks after Haruka's practice runs with the team, they'd go and get something to eat at a similar place, so many times in fact that they had they had certain places that they'd loved to go. He could remember the two of them perched on railings as they shared a pair of croquettes in the early evening hours.
It was things like that which made for the start of their relationship. Others might have wondered about what sort of romance that would be, but they'd been fine with it. To them, there wasn't any need for the 'traditional' sort of stuff. They'd been natural buddies, with even competition with each other being more about fun than winning.
He had never understood why some of the other guys got so annoyed with her winning. Sure, she did it in a lot of 'guy' fields, but it wasn't like she wasn't doing it through her own work. But then, being the jerks that they were, they claimed that she was trying to be a guy, and he knew that simply wasn't the case. She was a girl who wanted to do well in a lot of guy stuff. Even the fact that she could dress to look like a guy didn't change the fact that she was a girl, and was happy as one.
In fact, he'd gotten to be protective of her, and had learned to mock the jerks that tried to put her down. It was hard not to knock them on their asses, but he was able to show them that he could do it easy. Then again, he'd seen how she'd been treated as some sort of unapproachable idol of cool, and he didn't understand how those people missed her loyal nature, and teasing sense of humor.
Then again, he didn't understand a lot of things about people. Growing up as he had, he'd never been able to put much stock in all the little things that seemed so idiotic. And that had made her protective of him, as he'd been open and truthful, and she tried to keep him from getting into all sorts of messes.
The funny thing was that they hadn't looked to fall in love with each other, or anyone else. For him, she had been the sole girl that he could understand, and when he realized that he'd found her attractive, it was a surprise, to say the least. From the way that she'd come all flushed off the track after a meet, to how she would smile at him in that way of hers when she was playing around with him, he found her to actually be beautiful.
Actually saying that she was 'cute' had left her staring at her, and he'd stumbled around to make it clear that he actually meant it as a guy did with a girl that he was interested in.
For a time, he'd wondered if he'd messed up their relationship, but when she'd accidentally informed him that she thought that he was 'cute' too, he'd known that something special had happened. They had been friends before, but from that moment on, they had been much more. With him, she could be as soft and as feminine as she could be, and she would still have him caring for her as much as when she was riding motorcross. He never had to worry about her being delicate, as she was someone who understood him for who and what he was.
Their marriage had been a natural step in their relationship as far as he was concerned. Nothing could have convinced him that he was making the wrong decision. And when she'd shown up in a dress, which was the sort of garment that she didn't usually wear, he knew that she wanted it as much as he did. She told him that she wanted it to be special for the two of them, and with that outfit, she'd made it clear that she wanted to be his wife. Even though he would have married her even if she'd come in a pair of sweats, that gesture meant a whole lot to him.
Leaving her had been damned hard for him, and now that he was back in Tokyo, he had his first chance to get back to her. That was something that he could not give up on, and he was going to head back to her as soon as he could. With his father wanting to visit some friend, he knew that it might take a bit of time. However, he had people in town, like his mother and the Tendo sisters who would help him reunite with her.
"Boy! I paid good money for that, so don't let that go to waste!" Genma demanded, jolting the younger Saotome out of his thoughts.
"Only reason ya brought to is 'cause it was a 'two for one' sale," Ranma retorted.
"It's still good food! Or do you like to have camp food better?"
"Food is food."
"Exactly, and if I were you, I'd be eating that at this moment!"
The pigtailed boy looked down at his sandwich, and realized that he didn't feel good about sharing something that was his and Haruka's. It just didn't seem right, and he knew that he would much rather have her there than his father. So, he tossed his sandwich into his surprised father's arms, and started walking away. "Then why don't ya eat it? I don't feel like doin' that."
Genma blinked at the sight of his son refusing food. Having raised the boy since Ranma was little, he knew how his son handled eating, and saying 'no' to it was odd, to say the least. That confused him, and he couldn't figure out what the hell would do that.
Then he shrugged to himself and started to eat the sandwich. It wasn't good to waste food like that, and if his boy didn't want it, that meant more for him. Pushing aside the strange behavior Ranma had shown, the elder Saotome male started to enjoy the food, while:
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Fri, 04 Nov 2005 02:46)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.