C&C is welcome and more!

Ryoga walked alone across the mountains. Unaware of the pure beauty of his hard form against a backdrop of amber sunset and crisp sky. He never saw his good traits, only his bad. It was easier to live with disappointment when you thought lowly of yourself.  He lifted his eyes and caught sight of an unmistakable town, "I'm back."

Never taking his eyes from the buildings before him, The lost boy stumbled toward the cause of all of his life's pain and also all of it's joy. Ranma.

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Ranma was sparring with his father as always that morning, but he was harsher, more focused. He had alot of pain in him this time. All timeshe had pain, but now it was getting harder and harder to hide it. Ranma had started wondering if it was worth it to hide anymore. // I have so much scar tissue that I wish you saw.//

"Come on old man. You can't beat me."

His father through a wild punch.

"I'm so afraid of you. You're such a big bad man."

"Sarcastic Mister know it all."

"Ooh catchy insult."

They fought until Ranma's father ended up in the Koi pond. The fight was Ranma's. //yeah. woopie for me.// He thought sarcastically.

As he sat beside the pond, alone in his dark musings, Ranma touched the water lightly, not enough to turn him, only enough to make the water ripple. //Each ripple touches another one in the end. they all come from one tiny disturbance,  That feels so familiar. // He touched the water again. //Koi pond. it's a fish pond. Still I can't help but imagine two lovers meeting beside such a pond and giving it the name.// Ranma shook his head, //What am I thinking? I'm no romantic.//

He leapt to the rooftop and lounged there, appearing to all the world as one bored with life. For all puposes, he was.

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When the lost boy saw Ranma falling asleep he leapt to the roof, prepaired to do battle. "Saotome. . .!" He stopped and stared at the sleeping boy. "He's so helpless when he's asleep." He bend down and whisphered softly against th sleeper's lips, "close your eyes and I'll kiss you still with the bird I'll share. . ."

He jumped down and started to run. Unsue of where he was going, he just had to get away from Ranma and this feeling that had crept upon his heart so unexpectedly. //And I can never have him. What chance would a boy like me have with him.// He looked up and almost screamed with frustration, "Damn it! now where am I?!"
More days walking with no one beside him. All alone and full of his hearts steady laments. The scenic beauty was very beautiful but. . . so lonely. "With the bird I'll share this loney view." He thought as a raven landed on his shoulder. Unafraid of suh a gentle soul. "I think I'll call you Ran-chan."

The bird cawed it' approval and Ryoga walked on, "With the bird I'll share this loney view."

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Ranma gasped in shock an da bit of pain as Akane slammed her fist into the back of his head and shoved him forward until his face was pressed hard against the sone wall of the school.

"Itai! Fine! push me up against the wall!"

"It's your own fault Ranma Saotome! Flirting with that baka China girl in a push-up bra. Falling all over yourself to make he happy!"

"I wasn't fallin' all over myself! She turnes into a at when she get's splashed I hate cats!"

"Nihao Airen!"

Ranma groaned, "Kami. . ."

"Hey Ranma Honey!"

Akane glarred more.

"Hey it's not lik I like them! Why do they want me anyway? Just leave me alone ok?!"

Ryog watched from the shadows of a tree's leaves, Ran-chan perched on his shoulder, "Ranma no baka. They want to lick your heart and taste your health. don't you realize how wonderful you are in thei eyes? In mine?"

He lowered his eyes and shook his head, 'but as always with the bird I'll share this lonely view... oh Ranma."
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The wandering martial artist slid from the tree and felt himslf slammed hard against it from behind. "What the f. . .?!"

"This is him isn't it?"

"Yeah, come on, hurry up."

Ryoga could understand what was happening, everyhin was blurred around the edges from the blows they raine on his temples.

The group of boys pulled him into the school bathroom and locked the door. That's when he realized what they meant to do. "No! NO!!!!" He let loose a shi shi hokodn but it was too late to stop their mischief. He fell unconsious."

When he came to he heard a voice, ". . . blood loss. . .  in a bathroom stall. . . uhuh, will he be ok?"

He recognized the voice and face, barely. . . //Sounthern girl with a scarlet drawl. . . // "Ukyo?"

"Oh God your ok! Phew! I thought Ranma was going to kill me!"

"Ranma?"

"Yeah, you know, tall dark and handsome, womn problems, Ranma."

"He doesn't care about me Ukyo. Why should he?"

"Because you're friends."

A caw mad him shift his eyes to the window, "Hey bird. Thought you'd left."

"You got a bird?"

The boy blushed, "Well, he found me." He stretched and stood, "I gotta go."

"Where?"

"Wherever."

"What about your parents, wont they want to see you while you're here?"

"I waved goodbye to ma and pa a long tie ago."

"And now?"

"Now, with the bird I'll share." He said cryptically and walked away from the girl who was just another reason he could never tell Ranma about the kiss, or his hearts feelings.

"I'll be fine." He told himself. "I have Ran-chan don't I? And with the bird I'll share this loney view." he Paused then nodded somewhat less happily, "yeah. . . with the bird I'll share this loney view..."
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Ranma sat in Doctor Tofu's office the next day with his face in bandages. His grumbling was interupted by Dr. Tofu's good advice of, "Live Hard acting and Soft Spoken."

"Yeah. Right." The pigtailed boy grumbled, "Hard _not_ to be soft spoken, with a broken jaw." He looked out this window an caught sight of Ryoga. He bid a hasty farewell to the doctor and stepped outside, but not to brawl, he had been haveing an odd dream. . . Ryoga was in it, so maybe he had some answers.

"Hey Ryoga!"

"I don' tfeel like fighting."

"Don't wanna fight."

"Oh." He walked som more until the silence was too much. "Autumn's sweet, ne?"

"we call it fall."

"How unromantic."

"Since when were you romantic?"

He shrugged and kept walking.

Now a regular person would have gotten the message but not Ranma. He was stubborn to now end and if he was in the mood to go to the moon, he'd make it to the moon if he had to crawl. It was just who he was. "So when'd you get a bird?"

"A while ago."

"What's his name?"

"Bird."

The bird opened it's mouth and cawed, "Ran Chan, Ran Chan, Caw!"

Ryoga glarred at it, "Traitor."

"You named your bird after me?"

"Yeah so?"

"Why?"

"Cause you're both annoyin as hell!"

"Oh." Ryoga cursed his temper when Ranma's eyes fell flat.

"It' because with the bird I'll share the loney view... but I wash it was you with me."

"Me?"

"Yeah, but I know you'd never want to. . ."

"Ryoga didn't you ever think I had scar tissue that I wish you saw?"

"No! You?!"

"Yes you sarcastic Mister know it all!"

"Like what?"

"Like the scar from lossing your trust."

"As if you cared."

"Ryoga I do! I actually dream of you did you know that?!"

"Why?"

"Because. . . I. . . because. . ."

"Baka. Close your eyes and I'll kiss you."

Ranma closed his eyes and whispered,  "cause'" right before Ryoga's mouth claimed his own.

When they parted Ranma stared at Ryoga dumbly. "I. . . uh. . ." The lost boy kissed him again and Ranma smiled, "Mmmm!"

The Raven cawed once and flew away into the sunset, and far off somwhere another lost boy spoke those same words Ryoga had, "With the bird I'll share, with the bird I'll share this loney view."

~With the bird I'll share
this loney view...~
 
 
 

~Owari~