The Lost Boy's Lost Love

Chapter 7: The Morning After

"Ranma, aren't you going to eat anything?" Kasumi asked with concern. "There's miso soup, made just how you like it."

"I don't really have much of an apetite, thanks," Ranma replied flatly. He was sitting with his arms crossed over the kitchen table, staring into a tall glass of milk. His lower left jaw was purple and bruised and his tongue snaked over the ache of a chipped tooth. Nobody'd said anything about it yet, as bumps and scratches were fairly regular occurrences for the young martial artist. Nabiki and Kasumi were both enjoying their breakfast in a mutually sleepy silence; Akane hadn't come down yet.

"Well, get your elbows off the table. Manners," Kasumi reminded him. However much the request annoyed him, Ranma obeyed.

"Has anyone seen P-chan?" he heard Akane ask as she came into the kitchen.

"Hmph," Ranma grunted. Akane stopped, looked at him and frowned. "Ranma, have you seen him?"

Ranma lifted his glass and took a long, slow gulp of milk. He smacked his lips as he set it down. "Nope," he said.

Akane sighed and looked uneasily around the kitchen. She turned around and left to search the rest of the house.

:::[outside]:::

Ryoga sat on the sidewalk outside the Tendo house, elbows on his knees, his cheek resting on one palm while his other hand made a fist and began softly, repeatedly bumping against his forehead. He stared at the ground, the euphoria of the previous night gone completely, replaced instead with feelings of fear, guilt, and shame. He should've been happy - he was about to have the privilege of walking the beautiful Akane Tendo to school, after all. But not a single part of him felt any good at all; even his skin felt slimy. He'd been hoping and praying all night that Ranma hadn't said anything to Akane and broken his promise, but quite honestly, Ryoga couldn't have blamed him if he had. If he were in Ranma's position, he probably would have done so. God, how could he have been such a pig?

His fist began to strike his head harder and more violently, until he was practically punching himself in the face. It was amazing how, no matter what, he always found a way to ruin things for himself. Maybe he really was just unlovable.

He heard the front door of the house open and looked to see Akane walking out in her school uniform, followed closely by Ranma. Ryoga forced himself to get it together and stood up to greet them, prepared to accept whatever may come.

To his small relief, Akane smiled when she saw him, but her expression quickly replaced itself with a look of distress. "Ryoga, what happened!?" she gasped, referring to the blackness that enveloped his eye. "Did somebody hit you...?" She hurried over and reached a hand out to touch his face and inspect the damage.

Ranma bit his tongue and glared at the spectacle of her concern. She hadn't cared to examine his wound. In fairness, Ryoga's looked a lot worse.

Ryoga glanced uncertainly at Ranma, questioning whether the pig-tailed boy would say anything about what had happened. The cold glare that Ranma met him with was alarmingly unreadable, but for several long seconds, he didn't speak. Ryoga's brow curled in disbelief. Even now, Ranma would keep his secret? Oh, bless him for that!

Akane noticed the look the two boys exchanged and took a step back to stare at them both, remembering the bruise that Ranma was sporting and gradually piecing two and two together.

"You two...?" she started, but she couldn't find the words. Maybe it was a conceited conclusion to jump to, but what else could it be? The two goons had been fighting over her! This little love-triangle of theirs was quickly getting out of hand. Akane didn't even find it cute anymore. For goodness sake, she didn't want them hurting each other! She glared over at Ranma and gave him a hard, accusing poke in the chest. "YOU started this, didn't you?"

Ranma sputtered in bewilderment, "Wait, what!?"

"And just because I gave him my attention for ONE day, instead of you!" She poked him in the chest again. "Ugh! I can't even believe it! I just can't believe it! You are just so - you are so - !!!" And again.

Ranma's jaw hung open indignantly. He hadn't done a damn thing except defend her honor, and this was the thanks he got? He opened his mouth to speak, but Rygoa beat him to it.

"No, no no," the lost boy hastily interrupted and grabbed Akane's shoulder to turn her away. "No! Ranma didn't do this!" He forced out a laugh.

Akane stared at him in confusion. "He didn't?"

"I didn't?" Ranma mumbled.

"Well, I dunno what happened to him," said Ryoga, "But I ... ran into a pole ...! Heh..." He scratched his head awkwardly. "On my way back... in the dark. Guess I should watch where I'm going better, huh?..."

Ranma had saved him from Akane's wrath; now, Ryoga was just repaying the favor.

Akane frowned. She turned back to Ranma and peered doubtfully at his discolored jaw.

"Uh," Ranma hesitated. "...Got in a scuffle with my Pop this morning. You know how he gets."

The excuses sounded reasonable enough, Akane thought, and besides, when could they have even gotten into a fight, anyway? Ryoga had left last night, and Ranma spent the whole morning sitting in the kitchen. Akane flushed red as they both stared at her; she suddenly felt very dumb for making assumptions.

"Oh..." She said, thoroughly embarrassed. "Oh, well... good, because...I just don't want you guys fighting with each other." A moment later, she reached out to grab Ryoga's hand in her left and Ranma's in her right, and gave them both a squeeze. "Last night was stupid. Let's just all be friends, okay?" she said with a soft smile, "Always."

Ranma yanked his hand away. "Ohhh, it's 'let's be friends!' all of a sudden, is it!?" he said scornfully, "Are you even gonna apologize for just assuming that I started it?"

"Well," Akane said sharply, Ranma's tone bringing her to a quick temper. "Ryoga wouldn't start a fight over something so silly and immature, Ranma, so it couldn't have been him. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for you."

Ryoga averted his eyes as Ranma fumed. "Ugh! You're so naive, you know that?" Ranma told her, full fury igniting. "If you had any clue at all what a jerk this jerk-off is, then you wouldn't be so keen on being his bee-eff-eff."

Ordinarily, Ryoga would've spat back at Ranma with some of his own criticisms, but now, those words couldn't even move him to anger, because Ranma was only telling the truth. Ryoga felt nauseous, absolutely sick with himself. Akane interpreted his silence as a mark of his maturity.

"Oh, whatever!" Akane rolled her eyes and dragged the other boy off down the sidewalk with her, his hand still fastened in hers. She was sick and tired of Ranma trying to convince her that Ryoga was some kind of threat. "C'mon, Ryoga. I don't wanna be late."

Ranma followed along behind the pair, keeping them well within his sights. He hadn't ratted Ryoga out, because in his mind, what he'd stumbled upon the previous night wasn't a new development - it just confirmed what he had known along, which was that Ryoga Hibiki was nothing but a troublesome little pervert. He wished he could prove that to Akane, but that would involve breaking his promise, and he couldn't do that. Even for this. He'd sworn.

Those mischievous gears in Ranma's head started turning. Maybe there were other ways he could get his point across, without having to defy one of his few virtues.

Up ahead, Ryoga kept his eyes focused on their path. He could barely stand to look at Akane, and holding her hand was giving him such agonizing spasms of guilt that he felt like he just wanted to collapse to the ground in a sobbing confession. He shouldn't have watched; he should've looked away, he should've went for the door sooner. The image of her lovely white body kept entering his thoughts as they walked side by side, making him feel loathsome and filthy. Ranma's swift punishment had left no doubt in his mind that he'd done a very bad thing. Even though Ryoga had been more than able to fend off the attack, given his ridiculous strength in comparison to Ranma's, it was the raw animosity that the young Saotome came at him with that caused Ryoga to fully recognize his own depravity. He didn't even deserve Akane anymore.

"Are you alright?" Akane asked. "Why so quiet?"

Ryoga lowered his head. "I'm just feeling a little under the weather," he said. He bit his tongue 'til it bled for lying to her.

"Oh, no," Akane cooed with a note of sympathy that made his eyes water. "You didn't have to come and walk with me if you weren't feeling well... oh, I know! I'll take you to see Dr. Tofu. He can check out that bruise, too.

"N-no, that's alright," Ryoga said, shaking his head. "I'm okay, I think I just need to rest for a while. Don't worry. I'm fine to walk for now..."

Akane nodded slowly. "Well, don't strain yourself, or you could get sicker. I don't want that to happen."

Ryoga finally looked at her and smiled weakly, eyes glinting with an emotion she couldn't place.

"You're really an angel, you know that?" he told her.

Akane blinked at him. She smiled and laughed, shrugging with a blush. An angel, huh? She guessed that was a pretty big compliment, as far as compliments went.

In the time Ranma spent scowling at Ryoga and Akane's interlocked hands - which, by the way, made it seem very much as though those two were, in fact, an 'item' - he plotted out his whole scheme. He'd prove to Akane what a horndog Ryoga was via the ace up his sleeve: the lost boy's 'long lost fiance', the beautiful and voluptuous Miss Lacy. He'd already suffered through Ryoga's deprived behavior once, all he had to do now was get the kid to take the bait a second time, snap a picture, and walla! - proof that Ryoga was a slave to his cock. Then he'd change back to himself and pressure him into confessing. After all, Akane might've discerned Lacy's true identity, but Ryoga hadn't, so getting him into another compromising situation ought to be an easy enough task, he figured. He'd just need to find another good wig and dress.

Soon the trio reached the bustling school grounds, Furinkan students all around, chatting and gossiping while they waited for the first bell. Akane and Ryoga came to a stop, but Ranma continued passed them and disappeared into the crowd.

"Thanks for walking with me," Akane said with a smile and released his hand. "You should go and rest. I'll see you later."

"Yeah," Ryoga nodded slowly, fidgeting with his bandana. "No problem at all. See you later..."

The first bell rang at last and a multitude of students began herding into Furinkan's doors. Ranma was one of the first among them, but he wasn't on his way to class. He had more important matters to attend to. He veered off toward the amphitheater, easily escaping notice by patrolling school staff.

There was a small dressing room behind the amphitheater stage. Ranma remembered it from his stint with the theater troupe, when they'd been performing Romeo and Juliet - what a crazy night that had been. When he got to it, the door was locked, but he'd anticipated this; he fumbled through his bag for a hidden bobby-pin. What? Rule 15 of the Saotome Anything Goes School of Martial Arts: Always keep a lock-pick handy. Whether you're going to need to get into a place or out of a place, you just never know.

After a few tries, Ranma heard the click that awarded him entrance. He stepped in and looked around with a devious smirk at the smorgasbord of costume wear - wigs, gowns, cosmetics, almost everything he needed, it was all here. He could even cover up this unsightly bruise of his. He kicked the door shut and quickly started sifting through the racks of clothing and gathering up everything he'd need. This was all well and good, but he was still missing the most integral part of his plan: a camera. Now who did he know that had a camera? ...Shit, he thought. It was going to take some serious buttering up to get Nabiki to loan out any more of her things out to him.

Out of the mess of theatrical costumes, he managed to pull a silky, colorful ruched dress that would show off his shoulders and legs, and a blond wig that matched the color (though not the style) of his previous. There was even a box of props in which he found a convenient pair of silver eye glasses, though they were a little comically over-sized. Ranma scooped up several containers of make-up and stuffed all these things into his backpack, then headed off to the lady's room. By the time he got there, first period had begun and the halls were empty. He slipped inside, changed shape and clothes, and proceeded to make himself downright irresistible.

Ranma admired herself in the mirror, twirling around to see the dip in the dress's back and then adjusting her breasts. Man, those perky jugs looked damned good even without a bra. There was no way that little pervert would be able to reject her. Even she'd have a hard time turning herself away. She powdered her jaw until her face was all one even color, then leaned over the sink and stared into the eyes of the almost-unrecognizable young woman looking back. "Mmmm, Ryoga," she breathed, practicing her seductive charm. "Ha! Just you wait, Akane... you won't believe how easy it is to get this kid to show his true colors."

~~~
RAEDE