Akane slowly shook herself awake and looked around her room, then sat up on her bed. “I’m up, Kasumi, I’ll head down to the furo in just a second,” she called to her sister outside her door, then stood up and grimaced at the state of the wedding dress she was still wearing. I guess waiting up for Ranma to come home wasn’t such a good idea, or at least not lying down for a few minutes after the first four hours, she thought sourly, ignoring the coil of worry working its way into her gut. Carefully, to avoid damaging it more than it already was, she slipped out of the dress, pulled on more day-to-day clothes, and headed for the furo.
Akane had just finished breakfast and Kasumi was handing her a bento at the door when a female Ranma walked past a just leaving Nabiki and through the door, still dressed in the tux their fathers had shoved him into the previous day (though now very much the worse for wear).
“Oh my, Ranma, you’re a mess!” Kasumi exclaimed. “Were you actually out all night?”
Ranma nodded tiredly. “Yeah, I had some thinking to do,” she said casually, then glanced at a tense Akane’s deer-in-the-headlight gaze and gave her a slight nod.
Akane slumped, blowing out her breath in relief, then gave Ranma a brilliant smile. “Well, get washed up. I’m sure Kasumi can make you an extra-large bento,” — with questioning look at Kasumi and getting a quick nod — “and if you hurry, we’ll still be on time without rushing.”
From just outside the door, Nabiki frowned thoughtfully at what she had just seen, but just said, “Well, I have people to meet before school starts, I’ll see you two at lunch,” before waving a quick farewell before resuming her walk to school.
Akane walked along to school in a little bubble of happiness, a broad smile on her face, glancing occasionally at the pigtailed boy walking alongside her dressed in his usual black and red. The only thing that could have made her happier was if it had been a pigtailed girl, but soon … Soon!
She was so caught up in her happy thoughts of the future that she didn’t even notice Ranma’s growing tension, until he suddenly stopped with a sigh. Nodding to the park across the street, Ranma said “Come on, Akane, we’re gonna be a little late fer school. We need ta talk.”
Jolted from her daydreams, Akane sobered at her fiancé’s serious tone, suddenly terrified, but quickly caught up to him as he headed for the park.
A few minutes later, Akane looked around as Ranma sat down on a park bench, and not seeing anyone within earshot hesitantly asked, “Ranma … you are going to become a girl … right?”
“I’m willing to,” Ranma replied, and Akane sighed in relief only to stiffen as he continued, “but there’s a matter of honor to be taken care of first.”
“You mean the engagements? Or the sepukku contract?” a now confused Akane asked.
“Actually, only one engagement — ours,” Ranma replied. “I thought a lot last night, and decided that none of the other engagements matter ‘cause the Tendo one comes first. The fact that Pop made a bunch more false ones doesn’t matter to us, let him deal with ‘em — or not.”
“Well, Ukyo isn’t going to like that,” Akane said with more than a hint of satisfaction, and Ranma grimaced.
“Yeah, well, after the way she showed up at our wedding throwin’ exploding okonomiyaki yesterday, I’m not sure I care,” he said. “We’ll hafta talk to her about that, an’ tell her what we’re gonna do — Shampoo, too.”
“And what are we going to do?” Akane asked. “You’re saying that you’re going to become a girl, but that to satisfy honor we need to get married. We can’t do both!”
“Actually, according to the contract we don’t need to get married, we just need to unite the schools,” Ranma said with a smirk. “Our fathers talk like that means marriage, but it doesn’t, not really. We just need to train together, learn each other’s style, and … you need to have my kid, to pass the united school on.”
Akane froze, staring at Ranma. After a few minutes, she finally got her mind working enough to ask, “Have a kid — you mean, have sex with you as a guy, get pregnant?”
“Get pregnant, yeah,” Ranma agreed with a shrug, a faint blush growing on his face. “But not sex. I talked to Dr. Tofu at his new clinic this morning, an’ he says I can make a … a deposit, and you can use artificial insem — insemin — insemination. But you’ll have to wait a few years, somethin’ ‘bout your legal age.”
“Well, that’s something,” Akane said thoughtfully. “But, getting pregnant … I never really considered …” Her voice trailed off.
Ranma sat and watched her think for a few minutes, and finally said, “You know, you’re askin’ a lot of me, here. I like being a guy, there aren't many things more important to me — my honor, protectin’ the innocent, you. But you are more important, so I’m willin’ to give it up to be with you.
“But what kind a’ price are you willin’ to pay, for us to be a couple?”
“I’m going public as a lesbian!” Akane almost shouted. “Do you think that’s going to be easy?!”
“Nah, but so am I, only unless we move out of town, for me it’s gonna be even worse ‘cause I used to be a guy. But that doesn’t matter, not really. Does my honor matter to you?”
At that Akane froze, staring at Ranma, then finally slumped. “You’re right,” she sighed. Then, with a forced chuckled, she asked, “So how are we going to do this? You said we’d have to wait a few years before I could get pregnant. You aren’t planning to wait that long before going girl, are you?”
“Yeah and no,” Ranma replied. “I figured I’d wait to lock the curse ‘til you’re pregnant, just in case, but start spending as much time as I can as a girl right away.”
“Right away? As in, today? Right now?”
“Well, maybe not quite that quick,” Ranma said. “There’s only a couple weeks left in the school year, so how ‘bout I still go to school as a guy and change to a girl after school? Then when school starts up again I can start attending as a girl, see if they’ll let me take the girls’ gym class. Sound good?”
“Sounds very good,” Akane said, smiling brightly and with more than a little relief. Then standing up, she added, “Now, come on. If we run we still might make it before school starts.”
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(Posted Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:34)
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