Looking down at her finger, Alex couldn’t help but sigh happily. On her finger was the engagement ring Ranma had given her; 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 for her in life. She had been considered an ace-pilot; one of the company top guns. And besides her amazing flying techniques, she was skilled with some hand-to-hand and firearms thanks to the US Air Force training. 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 a little glumly. The left turbine-engine on experimental jet she was test-piloting for the government overheated and exploded, which forced her to crash in the Rocky Mountains. Her navigator had died on impact, but Alex had survived... Because the shock from the crash and near-death situation brought her recessive weretiger heritage to the forefront. “Something the Air Force psychiatrist later called the ‘primal survival instinct’,” Alex thought as she rolled her eyes. Whatever, she wasn’t much for that psychiatric mumbo-jumbo. That fact was that Alex had become a Siberian weretigress.
Thanks to her army survival training and her new-found Lycanthrope abilities, Alex had survived the Rockies and made her way down the mountains and back 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. This ended with Alex being given ‘medical leave’, and generous ‘severance package’, and for the US Air Force’s purposes, 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 terminated, as if she had 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 could possibly have been what damned her. Alex was born in America, and was 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, Tora when she came to his home. After some initial pleasantries and some rest, Alex asked her father some 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 was adopted into his family 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 as she looked around the hangar which served as her place of work and home. She knew her father was never one for all that ‘flying stuff’ as he so eloquently put it. But he was a man of some political and definite 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. Sure, 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 all the other schools were filled up and not taking new students. I was happy to finally have a student.”
Of course, Alex didn’t think she’d get him as a student when he first came in. She had been in her hybrid form at the time, relaxing. Alex had been so sure that if someone saw her in that form, they’d run screaming. “But Ranma didn’t,” Alex thought gladly. Ranma just shrugged it off and still asked her if he could attend her school for flying lessons.
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 he flew as if he had been a pilot for years!
And then there were the other times she had been around Ranma. Even when he wasn’t scheduled for flying lessons he’d come down to talk to her and help her with her hangar and helped her with maintenance of the aircraft. 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, even with all the joy she now felt with Ranma, Alex had new troubles to deal with. How was she going to explain this to her parents? They different from the norm, but 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 in some ways, she could understand her parents for wanting her to NOT make the same mistakes that they did.
And then there was another aspect. Would she be able to contact her parents? Her father would be much easier than usual to get in touch with, since she WAS in Japan. But her mother was always difficult to get a hold of, even when Alex was in America. “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 to Alex, he was such a sweet guy. She knew from some of the storied Ranma told her that the guy obviously had trouble trusting and being around women. And to know that he could reach past all that emotional baggage 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...” She thought. Hell, why not? Ace was like a brother to her, and she knew he’d be happy for her.
See other episodes by Red Priest of the 17th Order
(Posted Wed, 03 Dec 2003 16:52)
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