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Ranma 1/2: Mysterious Harem
Akane walked into the house and slipped off her shoes. She had stopped briefly to talk to a friend, so for possibly the first and only time in his life, Ranma had arrived home first. As she headed up to her bedroom, Akane could hear her fiancee's voice coming from the living room. He sounded angry, so she figured he was probably arguing with Genma again. She didn't pay much attention to them, catching only a few words as she passed.
"...any stupid ideas! I'm sick of this whole thing! Ranma and Ranma's fiancees, that's all I ever hear! I'll choose my OWN fiancee in my OWN way when I'm GOOD and READY! And you wanna know what I think about-" his voice trailed off as Akane went upstairs, rolling her eyes. She figured Ranma should have learned by now how impossible it was to try and argue with their fathers when they got an idea in their heads. She closed her door and got out her homework, planning to finish it up before dinner so she could relax. There was a muffled slam from downstairs and Ranma's voice from outside through her open window.
"I told ya, I'm going for a walk!" Akane peeked out the window to watch her
fiancee stomping off. She almost laughed; he was positively glowing with righteous
indignation. Shaking her head in amusement, Akane turned to her homework and
forgot about Ranma for the time being.
"Airen!" Shampoo threw her arms around her prospective husband. "Shampoo miss you so, so much!" She sighed, snuggling her head against his chin. Ranma grimaced.
"Yeah, um...kinda tight in here, Shampoo..." Shampoo giggled happily.
"Silly Ranma! Has looked all over for Shampoo, now has found her!" Ranma coughed.
"Uh, well, not exactly..."
"Never mind that. Come, come, Shampoo feed husband lots of food!"
"No thanks, Shampoo. Look, I'd love to stay and chat-" Ranma was lying. "-But I've really gotta go." Ranma peeled himself away from Shampoo and darted off. As he went, though, something fell from his pocket and fluttered to the ground.
"Airen, wait! Drop something!" Ranma was already gone, so Shampoo bent down
to pick up the small piece of paper. "What this thing, anyway?" She flipped
it over. Instantly the Amazon's eyes widened. "Aiya!"
"Ranma-honey!" Ukyo flipped a pair of okonomiaki on her grill. "Hi!"
"Hi, Ukyo. Whoa!" Ranma gasped as Ukyo threw herself over the counter to give him a hug.
"I knew you couldn't stay away! I didn't see you all day yesterday."
"Yeah." Ranma stepped out of Ukyo's embrace. "I just wanted to say hi."
"Want an okonomiaki? I'll make one specially for you!"
"Nah, that's ok. I'm not hungry."
Ukyo paused, eyebrows raised. "Not hungry? Now that's something I've never heard from you before."
"Yeah, well, I kinda had a huge fight with pop."
"Oh, I'm sorry. What's the trouble?"
"Aw, nothin'. Just his stupid attitude about me an' my 'fiancees'."
"Oh, I see. Silly how everyone can't see that we belong together, isn't it, Ranma-honey?"
Ranma sighed. "That's not exactly what I meant. Anyway, I gotta go. Bye, Ukyo." As Ranma stood and left the restaurant, something white slipped from his pocket and landed gently on the counter. Ukyo called after him.
"Hey, Ran-chan, you dropped something!" He was already gone, so Ukyo shrugged
and picked up the item he'd dropped. She set it down out of the way, glancing
at it briefly. Then she glanced at it again. Her mouth dropped open. "Hey!"
"Ranma-darling!" Ranma was heading home when an unwelcome voice split through the air. "Oh, Ranma-darling, I've found you at last!" There was a peal of eardrum-shattering laughter. Ranma stepped back with an alarmed squeak as Kodachi suddenly appeared inches in front of him. He was instantly snatched in a loving, choking embrace. "Ranma-snookums, I've been searching for you everywhere!" Kodachi breathed.
"Yeah...great...look, Kodachi, I'm really in a hurry..."
"In a hurry! Of course, silly me. But you could never be in too much of a hurry for your own true love, the talented, fragrant flower, the Black Rose!"
"Actually, I could. See ya, Kodachi." Ranma slipped away from the gymnast and ran off quickly, failing to notice the object that dropped from his pocket.
"Oh, Ranma-darling! You dropped something!" She bent to pick it up. As she turned the small item over, Kodachi stared for a moment, then began to laugh loudly.
"Ranma?" Ranma turned towards the sound of Akane's voice. She was leaning against the dojo door.
"Hey, Akane."
She brushed an awry strand of dark hair behind her ear. "Kasumi says we should finish our homework before dinner."
"It's still afternoon."
Akane rolled her eyes. "I know, but it always takes you forever to get finished."
"Are you?"
"As a matter of fact, yes. And if you don't get your butt moving, I'm going to go offer to help make supper." Akane stumbled back against the wall as Ranma flew past her. Something white flew gently down to the ground in his wake. "Ranma! Hey, Ranma you dropped something!" He was long gone by now, so Akane shrugged and reached down to pick it up. As she turned it over curiously, her eyes grew wide in shock. "Wha...?" She stared after Ranma, her mouth open.
Ranma was sitting on his futon, trying to make sense of a particularly difficult problem, when he heard a commotion from downstairs. "Uh oh," he muttered, before getting up and heading for the door.
Downstairs, Ranma saw that his fiancees, plus Kodachi were gathered, and all were arguing. Akane came in the door then, a dazed look on her face. "Ranma-" she began, then stopped when she saw the other girls.
"He's mine!"
"No way, look at this!"
"Don't be foolish, little girls, THIS proves it!"
"Oh, my." Kasumi walked up to the bickering girls. "Now, let's just all sit down and have a cup of tea and we'll get this all sorted out, alright?" she smiled. No one could ever argue with Kasumi, so the girls settled down to some degree as Kasumi brought out the teacups. Nabiki wandered into the room as well and sat down curiously to watch. "Now, then. What seems to be the trouble?"
"Yeah, what are you all doing here?" Akane asked, annoyed.
"It's because of this," the other three girls said in unison, holding up small items. The Tendo sisters and Ranma leaned in for a closer look. Nabiki was silent for a moment, then slipped out of the room quietly. Nobody noticed her go, they were all too surprised. Akane suddenly became very quiet.
"Hey, how did you get those?" Ranma asked.
"Oh, my."
"Airen carry picture of true fiancee, Shampoo!" Shampoo waved the small photo of herself. "That prove he love her best!"
"Don't kid yourself, sugar," Ukyo sniffed. "Ranma was carrying a photo of me." She held it up. "See? It's as plain as the nose on your face; Ranma has always been sweet on me!"
"Ha!" Kodachi scoffed. "Such impudent girls! It's obvious that the lure of the Black Rose is truly irresistible!" She waved the picture of herself inches from Ukyo's nose. Ukyo shooed her away.
"Don't be ridiculous! Ranma-honey is mine!"
"He mine!"
"Mine!"
"Mine!"
"Mine!"
"Hold it, hold it, HOLD IT!" Ranma shouted. Everyone stopped to stare at him. "Look, girls, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation to this."
"Yeah?" Ukyo raised an eyebrow. "So what is it?"
"Well, see, it's...it's..."
"Who cares. Ranma, you're such a jerk!" Akane turned on her heel and left. Ranma started to go after her, but Shampoo grabbed his arm.
"Forget violent girl!"
"Shampoo, it's not what you think! There's a perfectly good reason for all this!"
"So what that be?"
"It's this." Nabiki returned, holding up a photograph. It depicted Ranma standing in the center, with Kodachi to his left and Shampoo and Ukyo to his right. They were all smiling, except Ranma, who looking a little haggard. "See? You'll notice your photos came out of this larger one; the edges are all torn." The girls examined their pictures and noticed it was true. Kasumi murmured something, her face concerned, and headed out after her little sister.
"But why Ranma tear picture and carry all pieces?" Shampoo frowned.
"Yeah, that was kinda dumb," Ukyo agreed. Ranma rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
"Well, see, Nabiki took that and gave me the double this morning. I had left it out in the living room when pop saw it and asked if it was mine. I said yeah, and he made some remark about my harem an'...well, we kinda had a fight."
"Yes, they certainly did," Nabiki rolled her eyes.
"So who tore the photo up?"
"My guess," Nabiki said grandly, "Is that Ranma did it himself. He got mad at his father's reference and was trying to point out that he is still, technically, single. He proved his point by separating everyone in the picture. Am I right?"
"Yeah," Ranma admitted sheepishly. "In fact, I think I still have the piece with me in it." He pulled it out of his pocket. "See?" He set it down on the floor. "I guess that was kinda a stupid thing to do in the first place."
"Well, it doesn't matter," Ukyo announced. "Ranma-honey is STILL mine!"
"He's mine!" As a fight erupted, Ranma remembered that he had been going to go after Akane and slipped out. Nabiki watched him go, silently smirking.
Akane ran outside and plopped down in the dojo with her back to the wall and her knees drawn up against her face. She knew it was stupid to cry, but she couldn't help it. That stupid jerk Ranma. A small, square object sat on the floor next to her.
"Akane?" Kasumi walked into the dojo softly and knelt down beside her. "What's the matter?" Akane just shook her head. Kasumi noticed the small object and picked it up. "Akane, is this why you're crying?"
"Maybe," Akane said haltingly. Kasumi looked confused.
"But why? Aren't you flattered?"
"No." Akane's voice was thick with tears and muffled. "He has pictures of everybody! That jerk!"
"Oh, that. Well, apparently, they all came from the same picture of Ranma and everyone. I'm not sure why he tore them up; maybe he was angry."
"Oh, great," Akane said bitterly. "So he's angry. So what? He was still carrying around pictures of all his fiancees, that pig!"
"Well, maybe. But I think you might like to know that you weren't in the original picture with everyone else. This is your last school photo. Ranma was helping me clean out my scrap box last week, and this fell out. He asked if he could keep it, so I let him have it; I hope you don't mind. Anyway, I need to start dinner now." Kasumi stood and hurried out of the dojo. Akane raised her head, sniffling, her brow furrowed with confusion. As she bent to look at the photo more closely, a shadow fell over her.
"Akane?"
Akane gasped and got to her feet. Ranma gasped too, when he saw the tear tracks down her face. "Ranma!" She waved the picture in front of his face. "Just what were you doing with my school picture!?"
Ranma's face turned pale. "How..how did you get that?"
"You dropped it earlier. Just answer the question."
"I...I...K-Kasumi gave it to me."
"She said you asked for it."
Ranma looked like death itself. "Well...maybe...s-sorta..."
"What were you doing with it, you pervert?!"
"I'm not a pervert! I didn't mean nothin', it's just..."
"Just what?!" Akane stuck her face close to his. "What are you up to?!"
"I...I..."
"Well?"
"I.."
"Well?!"
"WELL!! WELL, YOU *ARE* MY FIANCEE, AREN'T YOU?!?" Ranma thundered. Akane blinked in shock.
"Ranma...!" Her fiancee turned his head away, blushing painfully. "I...I don't know what to say..."
"Then don't say nothin'. Anyway, the pictures I had of the other girls were from a picture Nabiki gave me. I was fighting with my dad and I got mad, so I tore it up."
"So...you're saying...you were carrying around a picture of...just me?"
"Maybe." Ranma tried to act as if he wasn't caught in the World's Most Awkward Situation and blushing up a storm. "But ya don't have to go and make a big deal outta it. After all I-" Ranma dropped the sentence like a wet bar of soap as Akane threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. He gulped. Having Akane so close made him nervous. But then..it wasn't altogether unpleasant. Ranma wrapped his arms around her slowly, not especially surprised to find that she fit there perfectly.
Akane was secretly thrilled when Ranma returned her hug. She liked the feeling of being in his arms. It was a pleasure she rarely enjoyed. Akane smiled, hiding her face against his shoulder as she felt him place a soft kiss on the top of her head.
Ranma couldn't remember ever being so close to Akane under such agreeable circumstances.
In spite of the physical strength he knew she possessed, she felt incredibly
delicate in his arms. He bent his head and shyly kissed her hair.
Kasumi smiled to herself as she watched Akane hug Ranma tightly, and the boy returning the gesture. Her smile only widened as she saw Ranma press his face against Akane's hair, kissing her gently. She tiptoed away then, back to the house to prepare dinner. She would make sure that the pair sat together tonight. Three girls ran by her then, out of the yard and down the street. Ukyo chasing Shampoo with her spatula and Kodachi chasing both of them with her ribbon, which she was cracking like a whip. Kasumi merely giggled and headed into the house as Nabiki, sneaking carefully around the outside of the dojo, slowly slid her camera around the doorway and began snapping pictures.
The End