Looking down at her finger, Alex couldn’t help but sigh. It was a her engagement ring; a simple gold band with sprinkling on crushed diamonds embedded around it “Who would have thought things would have turned out like this?”
Alex thought back to how things had been going. She had been considered an ace-pilot and was skilled with some hand-to-hand and firearms thanks to the US Air Force. After all, this was a path her mother had traveled and Alex intended to follow in her mother’s footsteps. She had the moral-support of her co-pilots and she had a top-notch navigator. Many considered Alex was well on her way to becoming a high-ranking official within the US Air Force.
“But that all came to an end with a faulty engine,” Alex thought glumly. The left turbine-engine on experimental jet she was test-piloting exploded and forced her to crash in the Rocky Mountains. Her navigator had died on impact, but Alex had survived... Because the shock and near-death situation brought forth her recessive weretiger heritage to the surface. “Something the Air Force psychiatrist later called the ‘primal survival instinct’,” Alex thought as she rolled her eyes. Whatever. She was still a weretiger.
Thanks to her survival training and new Lycanthrope abilities, Alex had survived the Rockies and made her way down to civilization, still in her hybrid form. The military was unsure of how to react to her new form, because werewolves have negative reactions, press, and legends about them. The High-command was afraid that even if the stories didn’t hold true for her, (and they didn’t) that word of her status as a Lycanthrope might affect moral. Alex was given medical leave, and ‘generous’ severance package, and was now considered to be on ‘reserve duty’.
“They might as well have just outright said they fired me thought,” Alex thought angrily as she clenched a hand into a fist. She had been stripped of her rank, and her status as a pilot for the US Air Force had been completely resigned. She was no longer a soldier for the US government. And it left her feeling empty as she no longer could continue in walking in her mother’s footsteps.
Trying to cope with her loss, but not finding any inspiration at her home, it was then that Alex decided to leave the United States for awhile and try to catch up on her father’s roots, her roots which had, in a way, damned her. Alex was born in America, and a US citizen, but she knew that her father was presumably from Japan. That is where her parents met and her father certainly looked Japanese. Alex herself looked half-Asian in her human form.
She’d received a warm welcome from her father when she came to his home. She asked him questions and he didn’t even seem to know about her weretiger heritage either. Though Alex had to admit, it was a little mysterious that he said he had gotten amnesia at some point and could not remember the first twenty or so years of his life.
“Still surprises me that he’d help me with this though,” Alex thought seriously. She knew her father was never one for all that ‘flying stuff’ as he put it. But he was a man of some political and financial influence and had gotten her a hangar at the largest airport in Japan so she could try and get back on her feet and in a place where she could still use her talent and love for flying.
“And that’s when he walked into my life,” Alex murmured to herself. She lifted her hand to her mouth and kissed her ring gently. She didn’t think she’d get much in the way of business when she started here. She was advertising flying lessons, but no one had come within the first two weeks. There were many other flying schools already established and people didn’t want to attend some no-name school. “But he did,” Alex smiled. “Ranma was desperate for flying lessons and I was happy to finally have a student.”
Alex sighed wistfully. The next few weeks that followed were amazing. Ranma took to the air like a bird and was learning the mechanics of flying at an exceptional rate. Within the first week Alex felt confident enough to let Ranma take command of the helicopter and a few other planes. He didn’t let her down.
And then there were the other times. Even when he wasn’t scheduled for flying lessons he’d come down to talk to her and help her with her hangar. He was just the lovable, helpful lug. He seemed to help fill that void in her heart that was made when she lost her career. “It was no wonder I couldn’t say no to him when he asked...” Alex thought wistfully.
Still, now Alex had new troubles to deal with. How was she going to explain this to her parents. They were kind of old fashioned, and she doubted they’d want her to have such a short courtship, “Even though they had me out of wedlock,” Alex thought grumpily. It was hypocritical, but she could understand her parents for wanting her to NOT make the same mistakes they did.
And then there was another aspect. Would she be able to contact her parents? Her father would be easier than usual to get in contact with, since she WAS in Japan. But her mother was always difficult to get a hold of. “And I just know they’d want to meet Ranma first. I haven’t even told them I had a student, let alone got engaged without going on a single date!”
Still, Alex held no regrets. Ranma had been genuine and such a sweet guy. She knew the guy had trouble trusting women and to know that he could reach past all that to want her... It flattered the Siberian weretigress greatly.
And that was why the pigtailed boy... No... Pigtailed MAN had her feline heart.
Alex couldn’t help bug giggle in delight. She was SO excited! “Maybe I’ll call Ace and tell him the good news...”
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(Posted Sun, 30 Nov 2003 19:25)
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