Ranma stood blinking a moment at Soun's abrupt departure. Then he quelled a surge of anger as he took in Kasumi's appearance. She had puffy eyes, unkempt hair and her clothing was somewhat rumpled. There were large stains on the sleeves of her dress as well the oversized apron she wore. And those burns on her hands would probably need attention.
How can he just ignore this! She looks so lost... so... so *HURT*! He gave himself a brief shake (reminding himself of his current feminine status in the process) and dispelled such recriminating thoughts. Nah, that ain't really fair. He's gotta feel at least as bad as she does, and the other two probably do need more attention. But still... this ain't right.
So thinking, Ranma looked around the kitchen and noted the general untidiness, so different from what he remembered. Dishes piled in one half of the sink and part of the counter, traces of hastily wiped up spills over the rest of countertop and table, and the stove was a mess. The pot on the front burner was boiling over again even as he looked at it.
"Oh, geez!" He quickly moved to turn off the stove and moved the pot to one of the back burners. He turned his attention back to Kasumi, as she had let out a squeak when he moved. "Kasumi..-chan..." And he had to swallow back a vague ill feeling when he looked at her closely. She was clutching a stirring ladle to her chest with both hands, along with a large bunch of apron material. He could see tears standing in her eyes and he supposed the slight grimace on her face was her attempt at a smile. The heart-breaking picture she presented was too much for him to take.
He gently extracted the ladle from her hands and turned to place it on the counter. When he turned back, she was looking at her shoes. She's ashamed! The thought hit him like a blow. She thinks she's gotta do all this as perfect as her mom did...
Not really knowing if it was the right thing to do, but unable to come up with something better, Ranma gathered Kasumi into a clumsy embrace. She twisted away from him at first, but gave up after a moment. "Shh, it's OK. I told yer ol- your father I was here to help an' I meant it." He got no reaction other than a quiet sniffle. "It's OK to cry sometimes, an' I think losing your mama is a pretty good reason." She started to tremble and took a hoarse gulp of air, and Ranma felt like hitting himself. Stupid! That was probably the worst thing to say. God!
He tightened his grip when Kasumi started to pull away. "Ah man... I, uh, shouldn'ta said that. I'm... sorry." She nodded and said something, but, as she was turned away from him, it was too quiet for him to understand. "Wha'dja say?"
She turned halfway to him and repeated herself. *sniff* "I'm sorry to burden you. I shouldn't treat a guest so... I need to clean up in here and get dinner started-" Her voice broke. "-again."
As she half-heartedly tried to pull away, Ranma regarded the back of her head for a moment in disbelief. Then his eyes flicked to the tea service and he was hit by sudden insight into the Kasumi he remembered. I just hope she doesn't hate me for saying it now. The thought of someone like Kasumi hating him stabbed at his guts, but if she could be happier...
"Kasumi-chan." She seemed to ingore him, however, and continued her feeble resistance. He sighed and decided to be a little more authoritative. "Kasumi, stop. Listen to me." This time she did stop, she even nodded. "OK, listen..." He took a deep breath. "Nobody expects you to replace your mother." He released the breath and swallowed. "'Cept maybe you." He relaxed his grip around her shoulders so she could leave if she wanted. Now that he had said it, he really wished he hadn't.
Her reaction suprised him, though. Instead of ignoring what he said like she had been, or running off, she met his gaze with wide eyes. Then after an instant, her face crumpled and she fairly collapsed against him as her shoulders began to convulse with sobs.
"Uh, hey... I didn't mean to..." He grimaced as Kasumi buried her face in his breasts. He looked around for someplace to sit, as their current position was very awkward. He decided to sit on the tall stool by the pantry and gathered Kasumi onto his lap. It was less awkward, though not much less, since even at... whatever age she currently was, she was still at least as tall as his cursed form.
They sat that way for some time... Ranma couldn't tell, maybe 20 minutes, when he noticed that muffled sobs against his chest had stopped and he was absently combing his fingers through her hair. He stopped and frowned, wondering where he had seen that done, just when she looked up at him. She recoiled at the frown until he smiled.
"Feel better?" He cursed to himself when her face started to scrunch up again, but she drew a deep, shuddering breath, wiped her eyes, and nodded. "Ah... good..." He picked her up and set her on the stool in his place. "Let's get this place cleaned up a little, huh?" He offered her a smile.
"Oh no, you're a guest! It's not, not... proper." Kasumi surged to her feet, looking alarmed. Her alarmed expression then gave way to shame and she looked down at the floor. "Even if I do need the help..." She began to sniffle again.
"Hey, hey... didn't we just go over this?" Ranma gave her a light, playful punch to the shoulder. "Ain't nothing wrong with accepting help if ya need it, alright?"
"Okay..." Her voice was very small.
He sighed in exasperation. "Look, I'm here to help, and I'm gonna help, no matter what. An' I'm gonna keep helping until you don't need help no more." He frowned to himself as he considered something. "And you know what?" She looked up at that. "Maybe you don't really need help at all. Maybe I'm just making things easier for you."
She offered him a tiny, watery, and above all, genuine smile. He smiled back.
"Alright! Now, let's see if we can't save this miso soup, an' then I'll get started on these dishes." And Ranma started to do just that, until he remembered. "Oh wait! Before I forget, let's have a look at those hands. I noticed the burns." Kasumi flushed and tried to hide her hands in her dress. "C'mon, you don't want them to get infected." So, she sat silently, letting him dress her hands. Well, it ain't much but it's a start. I hope I can keep this up and not say something really stupid. Ranma finished quickly, the burns looked worse than they really were. "Alright, now let's get started!"
Kasumi watched the odd, red-haired lady for a moment, before getting caught up in her energy. She still felt hollow in her middle. And she still felt like she was trying to swallow a stone, but maybe... maybe it was getting better. Things didn't look quite so hopeless as they did before.
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(Posted Tue, 01 Jul 2003 10:02)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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