Steam gently drifted into the late afternoon night, the light of the moon's pale beams reflecting on the surface of the water Nodoka currently sat in.
Though her bathtub barrel was warm and embracing, it seemed that that comforting feeling was having little if no effect on the mother of the Saotome family, 'And now that you know that, I beg you to ask Ranma or Ryoga to help with my training!' the wife of the household pondered, her eyes uncertain as she put a hand to her cheek.
"Help with his training?" she asked herself, closing her eyes with an inkling of a smile.
"I know he's asking me but I don't know if I could do more than just asking them and hoping for the best," she said quietly to herself.
She allowed herself some time to drift away, to finally rest her weary heart. Things were different now, sure she didn't have two sons anymore but she wasn't without the kind-hearted being known to her as Ryoga.
The warmth of the water, combined with the warm feeling inside, the comfort and security of knowing where and how safe her children were, 'This is such a lovely feeling, it reminds me of the time Ryoga…' she thought.
Nodoka could remember the smell in the air, recalling how she was just relaxing while watching her newest child watch the TV in the living room. He sat on his rear with his knees bent and feet on the ground.
"Ranma!" the mother of the Saotome home called out.
Standing outside while balancing himself on the top of a log, Genma or Ranma had no doubt been the ones to prepare this sort of training exercise. With his eyes closed but squinted in intense focus, Ranma Saotome was trying to maintain his balance while his hands looked to be clasped in prayer.
"Huh!?" the blue-eyed male muttered as he swore he heard his mother calling out to him. "Ah!" Ranma screamed as he lost his balance, landing painfully on one side.
Moving over to a nearby drawer she reached inside and pulled out some queue cards. She stopped when she grabbed Ryoga's lesson for the day and ran out of the home.
"Wee!?" Ryoga said as she ran on all fours, following closely behind the mother of the house.
Once outside they saw that Ranma was nursing his sore side, squinting his eyes before rising to his feet, his hands applying pressure to his pain. "What's up?" he asked.
"We thought something worse had happened dear," Nodoka replied, breathing a sigh of relief.
"It was just a fall," Ranma replied, dusting his shoulder off before returning to his training regimen.
"Such a man…" Nodoka allowed her voice to drag and her eyes to roll.
Ryoga sat as though he were a dog, he tried to reach out to Ranma but before he could, he felt Nodoka's arm on his shoulder. Flicking his head in her direction, he noticed that she was shaking her head and holding out his lesson cards.
"Bwee?" Ryoga asked after a momentary pause.
Returning to the present Nodoka trip down memory lane was now becoming a slow but warm feeling enveloping her person.
"What happened after that exactly?" she asked herself, her eyes closed shut as she tried to think back.
Searching her feelings she remembered something happening before they started their lesson for the day. Her memory was like searching through a faulty computer, all she could remember was when she started somewhere after Ranma's fall.
The earliest thing she could remember was sitting across from him in his green Jusenkyo guide's outfit. In her mind, she could remember she was holding a card up with the letters and image of a dog.
"Inu?" Nodoka said, acting as the audio to this lesson.
Ryoga blinked and looked at the card in her hand, in Nodoka's mind she remembered Ryoga sitting with his hands on his lap and resting on his knees. "I-I-I-Eu?" he stuttered.
She blinked for a moment before closing her eyes and giggling, "N-no sweety," she replied, shaking her head while stifling some laughter.
"I-I-eww…" his voice dragged out as he seemed to be trying to look down to his mouth.
Putting the queue card atop the pile hastily, the card fell off from her hand and onto the table. Her gaze remained fixated on how adorable a fang-toothed teen that acted pig with a butterfly on his nose, in her cause, however, it was more directed to his mouth than the nose.
"Aww, you're such a cutey sometimes," Nodoka complimented, then reached her hand out to poke his nose and stop him.
Reeling his head back for a second, Ryoga huffed as though he were some offended sentient cartoon animal from Disney. Rather than the normal response any person would have, this situation in and of itself was quite inane.
"N-no!" Ryoga exclaimed his protest in the form of words.
Though, the way in which he did so and the odd almost cute squeak of embarrassment hidden in his protest was enough to bring Nodoka's fits of laughter back.
With a hand over her mouth, she put her hand back on top of the deck. "O-okay! Back to the lesson!" she exclaimed with her eyes closed, taking some much-needed breaths of air.
"Now let's try this again," she stated, clearing her throat with her eyes closed shut, picking up the top card from the deck and showing it to Ryoga.
"Inu," she said, providing the audio for Ryoga's session.
Expecting him to repeat her immediately, Nodoka felt an anime sweatdrop forming on her head. After a little longer her head began to droop, she had to wonder if maybe Ryoga was uncertain or something.
Nodoka opened her eyes but saw that he appeared pretty confused. With an inquisitive brow, she retracted her hand to see that on the card were two identical Japanese katakana characters.
"Mama?" she read aloud, when she inspected it, she noticed that from the corner of her eye was a card off to the side of her cards.
It was as if she triggered something in Ryoga's mind, he reacted as though someone had suddenly smacked a tuning fork against the side of a table.
"Mama?" Ryoga repeated as he appeared to be recalling the picture, the example of a mother hugging their child in particular.
"D-did you just say, Mama…?" Nodoka looked surprised at first but relaxed as she was genuinely flattered that their adopted pet-like son had referred to her as his mother.
His eyes softened as he reflected on the look of need and anguish, pursing his lips he crawled over to before stopping in front of the mother of the Saotome's home. Getting on his knees he straightened his back out before holding out his hands.
"Are you asking me for a hug, de-!" she exclaimed but found that before she could finish he had caught her by surprise, hugging her as though he were saying something but literally couldn't find the words to express his feelings.
From what Nodoka could tell, it felt as though a whimpering dog had taken a liking to her, not just that but also actively seeking her attention. What must have hurt her most was that right before she was surprised and hugged by the cursed animal man, she could see tears falling from his eyes.
"I don't know if I deserve this but thank you for sharing this with me, I'm sure that was just a one-time fluke," she sighed heavily but appeared truly thankful for it.
"Mama, Mama…" Ryoga's voice broke, it sounded as though were just mere seconds from crying.
Eyes widening the kimono-wearing woman of the house stiffened up or rathered jerked lightly; much like a scared cat.
Tears welled up at the corner of her eyes before they burst forth, trailing down the sides of her cheeks as she then squinted her eyes shut and put the same amount of energy into their embrace as Ryoga was.
That's when Nodoka could no longer bear to continue reminiscing, the pained look on his face. It was something she swore she could still see till this day, though, it seemed that it wasn't as strong as it had been on that day.
"That was the first time he called his Mama," Nodoka said, remembering how this hadn't been far too long ago.
"I'm gonna get some water and maybe turn in for the night," Ranma's voice faintly hit Nodoka's ears, followed by the sound of shuffling feet and eventually the sound of a door opening and shutting.
"Huh?" A familiar male voice sounded confused.
"Ryoga! Are you staying the night!?" Nodoka's voice asked from outside as she too had decided to clean herself up, deep enough in the water to only show off a little of her cleavage.
"Y-yes! If that's fine!" Ryoga put an open palm to the side of his mouth, answering her.
"Do ya even gotta ask!?" Ranma's voice echoed from the direction of the living room or the kitchen, Ryoga wasn't entirely sure.
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As if to confirm this she remained silent, taking this as her chance she dunked her head into the warm bath water, hopefully clearing any signs of tears.
Ranma actually wanted to be vulnerable, she wanted to surrender herself to Ryoga. All the defenses her conscious put in place to keep her from exploring had been shattered. Now she was indulging herself in her more affectionate desires.
It was when Ryoga pulled the redhead so that she was on top of him, with that Ranma felt her mind returning to the world she knew. The sudden movement caused her to pull back her head and to shriek lightly.
Both felt the heat rising to their faces, especially since Ryoga's hands were both still firmly grasping the redhead's more than superior posterior.
"Ya-ya can let go now," Ranma suggested as she lifted herself with her eyes shut tightly.
"S-sorry," Ryoga replied while panting deeply, removing his hands from her well-rounded end.
When he did so she flopped back to her futon, doing as Ryoga was taking deep breaths. They both rested on their backs, trying to catch their breaths.
"T-That was some pretty good training," Ranma muttered, giving herself her usual dose of denial.
Ryoga opened his eyes to look at her and sighed heavily, 'After all that it was all just training, huh?' the cursed male thought while hoping that Ranma wouldn't look near the pants tent he had set up, no doubt it was during the time his hands had better acquainted themselves with the redhead's lovely curves.
"On-on the subject of training," Ryoga began but found his voice cutting short, not that he wanted to but just felt as though all the confidence in him suddenly vanished.
"Y-yeah?" Ranma asked in between breaths.
"Can you help with some of my training then?" Ryoga asked, keeping his cracking tone from getting too loud.
Going red in the face, her eyes swirled as Ranma felt as though this must have been his own way of asking her for something intimate. She wanted to outright reject the request but found that she didn't have the will to do so, her mind and heart were in too constant of a state of flux.
"W-what sorta trainin'?" She managed to ask shakily.
"I was hoping, maybe you could help me be a better boyfriend," He suggested as he looked off to the side.
Her thoughts began to run amuck, assuming all manner of intimate situations. In fact, she noticed something wasn't quite right with her. She couldn't speak up to deny his request, she decided just to let her mouth run.
"W-what were you thinking?" she inquired, finally looking at him to see that instead of looking as she would expect him to have, given what they were doing earlier, she instead saw Ryoga's defeated-looking husk.
"How should I ask a girl out?" Ryoga asked softly, shifting his position on the futon so his back was facing her.
"H-huh?" Ranma's voice sounded confused.
"I mean, I know you said you have no dating experience before our date but I'm going to need it if we don't, ya know," Ryoga suggested as he grit his teeth for a second.
It was towards the end of what he was saying that Ranma was able to put together what was wrong, 'He's bothered cause he wants it to be more than training but-but I don't know what exactly I feel, so then why does my throat hurt so damn much when I think about Ryoga with some other girl too?' she thought trying to make sense of the ocean of confusion in her mind, her face softened as she recalled the misery in his voice, like a faint cry in the ocean, desperately calling out to her.
"Ranma?" Ryoga asked as he felt the silence between them had dragged on for a bit too long.
Putting her hand over her heart, she stared up at the ceiling and remembered that time, that time Ryoga first made her feel so painfully weak. No, that wasn't accurate, the time he had made her wish she could be a woman for him, 'I can feel it again, what does it mean? I don't know what to do,' she eventually shut her eyes.
"I guess I should take that as a-" he started to say but stopped when he felt a strong but delicate hand touch his shoulder.
"I'm sorry, I still don't have an answer for you," the redhead admitted, her tone gentle and warm. "Until you came into my life, I never felt these feelings before, I was always too busy trying to become the best…" her voice trailed as she lost her confidence, unsure if what she said would ease Ryoga's worries in any way.
Everything said to him was actually very encouraging for Ryoga, though, was there anything else she wanted to tell him? What was she building to? Adjusting his position so that he was facing her again, he felt her hand fall limply from his body.
"But I asked Ma after a while how early people start dating and it turns out it can almost happen at any age, sometimes I wonder if I would have ever gotten around to dating," Ranma continued but her voice was cracking slightly as she outlined her thoughts to him.
The Lost boy recognized that look in her eyes, that was a look of utter despair. He didn't know why he was getting a sense of déjà vu. Without thinking he reached his hand out to hers, taking it in his, the raven-haired teen eyes quaked.
"You don't need to do anything Ranma, I guess I'm just looking for a sign," Ryoga admitted in defeat.
"A-a sign?" Ranma asked, sounding to be in a haze.
"A sign that maybe there's still hope for an-" Ryoga began elaborating, his hand wandering over to her face but stopping just short of caressing her cheek.
"Us?" Ranma asked gently, looking to his hand as it neared, looking disappointed when he stopped.
"Can you give me something, anything?" Ryoga pleaded to her, leaning forward.
Thinking it through, she looked away from the cursed teen. How could she? All she knew was that there was something not didn't quite make sense to her. How could she keep doing this? She wasn't even using this for training anymore, she was being asked to yet again consider her situation. At this point, she didn't know if he had worn her down or if she honestly wanted to advance their progression as a couple or figure if they were a non-couple.
"How about that date you asked for?" Ranma offered, getting bold enough to do as she had offered.
"R-Really?" Ryoga dumbfounded a little too loudly for the redhead's liking.
"Sssh!" she warned while blushing bright red. "Keep it down and just ask me the right way before I change my mind," she ushered him.
Blinking rapidly and wanting to smack himself across the face, he swallowed hard and blushed lightly. "Ranma, will you go out with me after training tomorrow?" he asked, only choking out a little near the end of asking her.
"S-sure, sounds nice, are we having the date where we train or do you have somewhere else in mind?" Ranma asked for confirmation.
"I wanna' see where it takes us," Ryoga answered softly.
"Alright, y-you're on for tomorrow after training," she shut her eyes and leaned her head back.
Before she could react she felt the other occupant of the room pull her closer to his frame. Ryoga had placed her close to his heart, she could hear his heart beating like a drum.
This wasn't him taking advantage, this was him seeking comfort.
Hesitating only slightly, Ranma blushed lightly and shut her eyes as she felt herself resting her head against his chest, relaxing their hold it eased into Ryoga resting on his back and Ranma holding him from his side.
Over time the blanket of night was slowly peeled back, signaling the start of a new day. The day was new and the feeling was fresh. Still sleeping as they had been before, Ryoga rested on his back while Ranma clung to his side.
The faint sounds of leaves rustling and birds chirping in the forest invaded their ears, both began to stir until both their eyes were about halfway.
For some time, there were no words, only quiet contemplation.
For Ryoga it was how he could make the love he has come to know flourish, all the while becoming strong enough to stay by Ranma's side as a martial artist. Discovering what it meant to be truly human was also something that played a huge role in the cursed teen's life.
Ranma's was to find the answer that she wanted while attaining the glory of being the world's greatest and most manly of martial artists, 'Ryoga likes me for me, so I don't gotta worry bout not being able to be manly,' she thought, her inner glee lost on her as she had to admit that she was feeling comfortable enough to drift back to sleep.
"Ranma, was last night a dream or did we-" Ryoga started in a half-asleep tone, raising his head a smidge.
They met eyes in the middle and looked as though both knew the other must have known what the other was getting at, so they both decided to close their eyes at the same time and blurt out an answer.
"Ask you out after train-"
"Made out while you grabbed-"
"Huh!?" Ryoga gasped as he leaned his head back.
Going just as red in the face for guessing incorrectly, she knew that before she could set the record straight it might have already been too late.
"Y-Yeah that still happened, thank you for that by the way…" Ranma cleared his throat, awkwardly showing his appreciation.
"I-It wasn't what you were getting at so-so what did you wanna' say?" She inquired, hopefully changing the topic would ease the tension.
Now they were thoroughly awake thanks to that mishap, it was better to move onto the ever so slightly less embarrassing discussion.
"Did you really agree to go on a date with me?" He asked with much more conviction than before.
"I still don't have a solid answer for ya man but I'll tell you something," Ranma began as she looked at his eyes.
"What's that, Ranma?" Ryoga pressed her to continue.
"You make me want to be a little more, girly ya know," Ranma answered, sounding disgruntled and annoyed while blushing faintly.
"I know, I know, you're supposed to be a man among men," Ryoga answered with a pause and nervous chuckle.
"Since I'm giving you this second date, you better start showing up more often after training too, ya got that?" Ranma gave the dark-haired male a powerful glare.
"I-I swear, Ranma!" he answered, lifting his other hand to tell her to stop.
"Good! You can't try to win me over if you're gone all the time so-so don't let all this have been for nothing, okay?" Ranma asked, not sure why her throat started to close up quickly and painfully, like a force of nature telling her to seize any further words.
"Speaking of winning over, do you mind if I have something else to hold me over?" He swallowed thickly, looking down at her alluring gaze.
"Sorry bub, there's a price now," Ranma smirked coyly.
"A price? H-how much are you asking?" Ryoga grits his teeth lightly as he averted his eyes from her mouth to her shimmering crystals she'd call eyes.
"Promise to make me some breakfast and take out the trash I was supposed to last night," She closed her eyes and flicked her head away, her pigtail whipping because of how quickly she had looked away.
"Seriously? You're still forgetting?" He seemed angry but the kind of angry someone gets when they really want to get what they want.
"Do you wanna kiss or lecture me?" Ranma's tone softened as she made her eyes half-lidded, setting her trap.
Taking charge of the situation, Ryoga brought the girl from his side up closer to his face. "Kiss," he paused before taking those pale rosebuds lips against his own pair.
Ranma's eyes tensed for a moment before relaxing, 'So glad Ma is going to work so early, I can't stop breaking her Ryoga rules,' she thought, though her inner thoughts sounded far from regretting her decision.
Feeling as though the heat in the room had gone up by several notches, they continued to kiss. Though Ryoga tried to change the style from regular to French, he found that Ranma would block him.
"What do I gotta do to get more?" Ryoga asked, pulling back while panting heavily.
"A lot more than just one breakfast," she panted her response, giving a cocky wink.
"You're such a damn tease," he grumbled.
"Do you accept the terms, Pig-boy?" Ranma mocked adorably as she pulled herself up by his shirt and closer to his face.
"Tell me how much later and I will!" Ryoga exclaimed accidentally, unaware of the fact that Nodoka was already gone.
"You got it!" she answered before closing her eyes and giving him as he requested, taking the lead.
A new day came to be, the sun was high in the sky and over the home of a certain cursed feline. Her house was much like the others around the village but her family's estate was much wider and at least two stories tall. The garden was well maintained but nothing overly lavish or over the top, flowers, and trees were displayed in decorative arrangements.
From inside Shampoo's home was a lavender-colored blur, zipping around a living room at incredible speeds before stopping to finish dusting what she thought was a statue, a delighted smile gracing her face as she.
"Excellent work Great-Granddaughter, you've managed to get on my nerves…" she mumbled before suddenly appearing above the younger girl's head, conking her with her cane.
"Aiya!" She responded and opened her eyes, about to complain when she saw that Cologne was standing right next to a statue of her current self.
"I would even dare say you're trying to say something, dear Great Granddaughter…" her voice trailed in annoyance.
"Shampoo only look for a second and think you statue!" she explained and in her defense, it was a life-size replica after all.
Giving a skeptical brow she crossed her arms and glared, sighing before shaking her head, there were more important things to worry about.
"Nevertheless, I 'm more than proud to say you've more than proven your skill with a feather duster," Cologne smiled warmly.
After nursing her wound with some light pressure, the young Amazon blinked her eyes before closing her eyes and bowing. "May Shampoo go see Airen?" she requested.
"If you wish, now that you've proven you can do anything a proper and respectable mother can do," She bowed and stood aside to unveil a simple square display with a map placed atop.
Shampoo's eyes widened as she clenched her fist out in front of her, now she was ready to claim what was hers!
With all the skills of an honorable mother and badass Amazonian warrior she figured she'd seize the day and pay her husband to be a visit...