Part Title: Locker Room Blues
Series: Ranma 1/2
Author: Chibi_Koji_no_da
Pairing: Ranma x Ryouga (mentioned Ranma + Akane and Ryouga + Akane)
Rating: PG-13
Warning: OOC, AU, some mild angst, mild fluff
Note: contains lots of spoilers.
Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 and its characters do not belong to me in any shape or form, although if she wanted to give away Mousse, Ryouga, Kuno and Ranma - I wouldn't say no ^_^
CHUse me CHUse you.
Part One:
Locker Room Blues.
***************
Walking through the park, Ryouga tried to clear his head of thoughts, specific ones from earlier in the day, but no matter how hard he tried, the events of the girls locker room kept haunting his mind.
"Ryouga,"
He stopped at the familiar voice, and turned to face the person calling. He scowled at what he saw.
Ranma, or rather Ranma-Chan was standing there wearing the girls school uniform, and the damned pair of glasses that had fooled him earlier.
"What's the matter Ranma?" he sneered at his rival, "Didn't you humiliate me enough earlier? Don't," he made a gesture with his hand to cut Ranma-chan off as she started speaking, "Whatever it is I don't want to HEAR IT." and lunging forward, he unleashed a volley of violent punches.
He was surprised when everyone of them hit their mark, and Ranma-chan fell to her knees, blood pouring from her nose, and her face already beginning to swell.
"Why didn't you dodge or block?" he levelled a kick at the crumpled girl, again surprised when it connected with a dull thump to Ranma-chan's ribs, "What's wrong?"
He bent down and peered at his rival, although he always went on about killing the other boy, really he considered him one of his only friends, and it disturbed him that Ranma was now badly hurt because of him.
Normally, the other boy would have dodged all of his attacks, even in his female form, none of them should have hit. Lifting Ranma-chan's head so that he could look the other in the eye, he winced at the purple bruise swelling on the side of Ranma-chan's face, "Why didn't you block - what sort of game are you playing here?"
"I'm not playing a game," Ranma-chan's eyes slid close, and the red-head turned her face away, "I deserved all of those punches that's why." turning back, she looked at him, honesty sparkling in her wide blue eyes, "I wanted to say I was sorry."
"Sorry?" Ryouga dropped his hand in disgust and turned his back on his friend, "If you're sorry, why," he turned again and lifted Ranma-chan up, until her feet were dangling from the floor, "Why are you wearing that outfit?!" Throwing her from his grip, Ryouga glared at her.
Ranma-chan managed to land on her feet, but she sensed trouble - she could hear a group of boys from her class, walking towards the park they stood in. Taking a deep breath, she launched herself into Ryouga's arms and hid her face in his chest.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he exclaimed, having not heard the boys approaching.
"Ryouga," Ranma pulled Ryouga's ear down to her mouth, "There are some boys from my class coming this way - they don't know that I'm the same as male Saotome Ranma; you have blood on your knuckles and my face is swollen. If they see that, then there'll be trouble - they'll think you're beating up a girl."
Ryouga stilled his efforts to get free, and was surprised to see that he DID have blood on his knuckles. Feeling slightly helpless, he wrapped his arms about Ranma-chan's back, noting that it felt nice having a soft warm body pressed against him. He had to remind himself that the body belonged to Ranma - and it was actually a boy he was holding in his arms.
He felt Ranma-chan's back stiffen in his embrace, and then he understood why - he could hear someone else approaching from the other direction, someone he really didn't want to see him holding Ranma-chan - but he knew it was too late when a cultured voice echoed through the park,
"Osagi no Onna!"
and moments later
"You wretch - release my beloved Osagi no Onna, I challenge thee to a duel."
By this point, the boys from Ranma's class had arrived and were laughing amongst themselves at the look on Kuno-sempai's face as he spied one of his love interests wrapped in a pretty intimate looking embrace with another man.
Not knowing what else to do, Ryouga scooped the petite female form of his friend, into his arms, making sure that the marks marring her face couldn't be seen and he jumped over the wall and left at a run towards the Tendo dojo.
Reaching the dojo in record time, he landed just outside the main wall, and peered in through the gate. He could see Ranma and Akane's father playing a game at the table, and Kasumi-san was serving them tea. There was no way he would be able to take Ranma-chan into the house without them noticing, and he didn't want Akane to find out that he had beaten Ranma-chan up so badly for no apparent reason.
"Ryouga,"
He looked down into his arms, and blushed when he realised that he was still holding on to her, rather tightly too. Letting the girl fall unceremoniously to the floor, he again wondered at Ranma-chan's lack of usual co-ordination.
"So," Ryouga advanced on the girl until she was pressed back against the wall; he noticed that Ranma-chan was favouring one leg and had an arm wrapped about her side. The glasses had fallen off in his flight from the park, and he could see that her eye was bloodshot and looked painful; shaking his head and reminding himself that it was RANMA he was talking to, he continued, "You were going to tell me - what are you sorry about, and why you're wearing that outfit."
Ranma-chan lowered her head and looked at the floor, all of the words she had been planning to say, slipped free of her mind and made her feel vulnerable and like a real girl - it was a feeling that as a man, he hated.
Taking a deep breath she looked up, "I am sorry about the pants incident."
"I see," Ryouga looked angry again, and Ranma could tell that the words had better come quickly.
"And, I'm wearing this outfit because, because it's the only way you've ever seen me as anything other than your rival."
"What?" Ryouga was dumbstruck, and his first thought was that Ranma was playing another trick on him, but he held his tongue and waited for the other martial artist to continue.
"When you said - when you said that you had started to believe in the glasses wearing girl, I was happy - I was happy for one moment that you weren't thinking about Akane, that you were just thinking about me; and it's true," Ranma painfully pushed up from the wall, mindful of the sore ribs under her hand.
Reaching up with the other hand, she petted Ryouga's hair and pulled herself closer, until her lips were a fraction away from his, "It doesn't matter if you love someone else Ryouga-chan." and swiftly Ranma closed the gap and kissed the shock boy.
Smiling, Ranma-chan pulled away and ran as fast as her battered body would let her, into the dojo and into the bathroom - no one would question the bruises if he was in male form - they would assume that he had been training.
Outside, Ryouga still stood shocked, and slowly put his fingers to his lips, they tasted of Ranma's blood and his lips tasted of Ranma-chan's kiss, he suspected that a kiss from male Ranma would taste the same - his first kiss had been stolen from him by a girl who was actually another man, another man who appeared to be serious about what had been said.
Turning around, he picked a direction and started walking - not sure where his feet would take him, only knowing that he needed to think. For some unimaginable reason, he wasn't angry with Ranma - rather he was flattered that the other boy would come clean with his feelings like that, and to another boy no less - he couldn't even tell Akane that he liked her; it made him wonder - was his hesitation all nerves, or did his heart know something that his head didn't.
With thoughts filling his head, he walked out of Tokyo and down the road, all the while contemplating the strange creature that was his rival.
END PART ONE.
