Autumn Storm

I think we’ll be okay in those trees!” Ranma yelled. “Can you make it?”

“I can if you can!” Akane retorted.

The two girls half stumbled, half slid down the wet, grass-covered slope. They couldn’t quite look where they were going because the stinging rain blinded them if they faced into it, and the wind blew hard enough to snatch their breath. It seemed like an eternity before they reached the shelter of a stand of pines. The trees cut off the worst of the wind, and under their thick branches the carpet of fallen needles was nearly dry.

“Let’s only put up one tent,” Ranma said through chattering teeth. “We’ll stay warmer that way, and we can use both bedrolls.”

Even with both of them working, their cold-cramped hands were clumsy and both were shivering by the time they got the tent up and crawled inside. Ranma quickly stripped to her boxers and got into her bedroll. “C’mon, Akane, it’ll be warmer with both of us in here.”

Akane undressed more slowly. She felt kind of funny about being in bed with a mostly-naked Ranma, even if they were both girls. Sometimes she found herself wondering about Ranma… wondering what it would be like if he kissed her… touched her…

Even in that form.

He’s not a girl! Even like this, he’s still Ranma.

“Oi Akane. You gonna be all night? You’re gonna freeze.”

Quickly she removed the rest of her sodden clothing and slid between the blankets, carefully not touching Ranma. I can’t let him know I think stuff like that… In the short time they had been on this trip, without the complications of family, rivals and fiancées, their relationship had developed into something that was part teacher and student, and part genuine friendship. It’s nice now… I don't want to mess it up…

“Ready for a lesson?” Ranma asked.

“Huh?”

“Ki-focusing so’s you can keep yourself warm. Start with the basic breathing, like I showed ya…”

Akane obediently followed Ranma’s directions. He often did this, seizing on a chance event to teach her something about the Art — to Ranma, everything was training. She concentrated on her breathing, and warmth spread from her center all the way to her fingers and toes. She let the focus slip away and turned onto her side, drifting, pleasantly drowsy, listening to the sounds of the wind and the rain.

A sudden, brilliant flash of lightning and simultaneous crack of thunder made Akane jump. The air smelled of ozone. Ranma turned over and wrapped Akane in a protective embrace. Her heart was pounding. “I didn’t know you were scared of storms,” he murmured.

“I was never out in a storm this bad in just a tent before.”

He held her for a moment in silence. “I haven’t either, not for a long time at least. It scares me a little too.” It was a little surprising that he didn’t mind admitting it to her. But then Akane already knew most of his worst secrets: his curse, the Nekoken, the nightmares that sometimes plagued his sleep. She’d seen him weakened, stuck as a girl… and it didn’t seem to change the way she felt. If there was one human being anywhere that he could really trust, it was Akane.

“What did you and your father do? About typhoons and things?”

“Well, come late summer Oyaji’d usually start lookin’ for someplace to stay, a temple, a monastery, maybe a dojo if he could find one that was kinda down on its luck. He’d con ’em into takin’ us in. If it was in a town I’d go to school there, or if it was some monastery in the middle of nowhere I’d study with the novices — and train of course.” She thought for a little while. “I can’t do that with you, places like that don’t take girls. Can’t do it with me either any more, most of ’em go in for stuff like standin’ under cold waterfalls in winter.”

Akane giggled. “You try that and the jig really will be up.”

The harsh brilliance of lightning lit the tent again. Both girls silently counted seconds until they heard the thunder.

“It's movin’ off,” Ranma said. “Prob’ly be nice in the morning. Guess maybe we should go to sleep.” She rolled over.“’Night, Akane.”

“Good night, Ranma.” Akane turned over and stared into the darkness. She wasn’t a bit sleepy. Now that the storm was passing, her earlier feelings had returned stronger than ever. She was acutely aware of Ranma’s smooth backside against her own. The proximity made her ache with desire, and denied her even the relief of her own fingers. All the times I called Ranma a pervert… what does that make me?

Ranma was also finding sleep difficult. The more she tried to distract herself, the more she found herself concentrating on Akane — the clean scent of her hair, the soft sounds of her breathing. Her skin tingled where Akane’s touched it, and she almost ached, she felt empty in that strange, scary place at the apex of her thighs, it felt like he had a raging hard-on, only inside. She moved toward the edge of the bed so their bodies no longer touched, but it didn't help. Che, what am I thinking? Wantin’ her in this body, that’s so perverted… I hate rain I hate rain I hate rain…

He kept seeing things in his head, scenes from the videos he’d watched over at Hiroshi’s house, only instead of the girls on the tapes it was Akane, her face and pert breasts stained pink, eyes half-closed and mouth open, her stubborn anger dissolving into passion… Sexless, uncute tomboy, he repeated over and over to himself as if it were a charm to ward off demons. It was useless, the insults had lost their power. What a load of bullshit…

Akane felt Ranma move away from her, heard the change in her breathing. She could feel Ranma’s tension even without touching. “Ranma? Doshita?” She turned over and laid her hand on Ranma’s back. The smaller girl was wound up so tight she was almost trembling!

Ranma nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt Akane’s hand. “Whaddya want?” she snarled.

“Well excuse me!” Akane flared. “You went all weird — I was worried about you!” She turned back over and flounced to her own side of the blankets, rigid with fury. “Ranma no baka!”

“Yeah, well, keep your hands to yourself and don’t go gettin’ any perverted ideas,” the redhead growled.

“That’s my line!” she snapped. Tears stung her eyes; she wanted to run out into the storm and lose herself in the rain’s chill misery.

Chikusho, Ranma fumed to herself in disgust. She could still feel Akane’s hand on her back.She cupped her breasts, kneading the firm globes and trying to pretend her hands were Akane’s. It only made the ache worse, so she stopped, retreating behind the familiarity of hate — hate for the rain, hate for her father who had gotten her into this mess, hate for her cursed body…

He knows, he’s got to have sensed what I was thinking, and now he really hates me, Akane thought. Her breath caught.

The faint sound stabbed at Ranma. “Akane? You ain’t cryin’, are ya?”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “You don’t… please don’t hate me.”

“Don’t… hah!” Realization struck in a blinding instant. “You were thinkin’ perverted stuff! I knew it! C’mon, fess up!”

“I was not!”

“I know ya were,” Ranma went on, “’cuz… I was thinkin’ stuff too.”

“Hentai!”

“Oi oi! I’m a guy, y’know! Even in this body, I've still got a guy’s feelings! How do ya think it feels, bein’ in bed with a naked girl?!”

“Disgusting,” she replied bitterly. “After all, I’m uncute, sexless…”

“No ya ain’t.”

“Ranma…”

“I know. I started sayin’ that stuff ’cuz I was mad at you for thinkin’ I was some kinda pervert, and then, well… I didn’t want anybody knowin’.”

“Knowing what?”

“How I really felt.”

“Not even me?”

“I thought you hated me! ’Sides, with everything else that was goin’ on… I ain’t ’zackly been much ’cept trouble.”

“Then… then why did you come along on this trip?”

“Che. Part of it was a chance to get away from all the crap, and part of it was I thought if it was just you and me, without all the others, then maybe we could… I dunno. Go back to the beginning, start over and do it right this time. I guess that ain’t gonna happen now,” she added bitterly. She buried her face in the blanket beneath her. “I hate it so much! This curse, the rain, all the mess Oyaji landed me in…”

“It’s all right, Ranma. I was hoping that too,” she murmured. She curled around the smaller girl, wrapped her arms around the tense body. She was warm, so warm, and her breasts were soft against Ranma’s back and she smelled like rain… “Please,” she whispered. “Don’t be mad?”

The redhaired girl relaxed just the tiniest bit. “I ain’t mad. Not at you, anyway. I just hate it so goddamn much!”

“And you’re right,” Akane admitted. “I was thinking… stuff.” She could feel her face growing hot. “I do, a lot. Usually it’s about you as a guy!” she exclaimed. “But sometimes… I wonder.” She took a deep breath, let it out. “I guess I really am a pervert.”

“Depends on how ya look at it,” Ranma replied.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I’m a guy, right? Even when I’m like this, I’m still really a guy. And a guy’s s’posed to like girls, so if I think about doin’ stuff with a girl, I’m normal. Right?”

“I guess…” There seemed to be something skewed about Ranma’s reasoning, but maybe that had something to do with the soft breasts pressing against her own.

“Well it ain’t like I'm havin’ fantasies ’bout Kunou or nothin’” the redhead retorted. “And you’n’me’re engaged, right? Just work with me a second here,” Ranma added hastily as Akane’s body started to tense.

“What are you getting at?”

“It’s normal for girls to think stuff like that ’bout their fiancés, so if you have fantasies ’bout me, you ain’t perverted neither. Even if I’m in this body.” She put her arm around Akane. “This feels really nice.”

Neither of them actually decided to start the kiss. It just happened, part accident and part agreement. Their lips touched, and then fire swept through both of them. Akane’s lips parted for the penetration of Ranma’s tongue; her own answered in kind. She wrapped her legs around Ranma’s body, needing to hold all of her, touch all of her…

“Wow,” she whispered, a very long time later.

“Yeah,” Ranma agreed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to lose it like that.” She moved away.

“No, don’t!” She clung to him. “It's okay, I — I lost it too. It was… I never felt that way before.”

“Yeah, well, glad I could gratify your curiosity.” Ranma turned over. I wanna be a guy I wanna be a guy I wanna be a guy…

“Is this because you’re a girl? You idiot — I don’t care!!” She hugged him fiercely.

“Yeah, just like you —”

“It’s not… all I really wanted to say is that whatever I think about doing with you, it’s with you, not with ‘a guy’ or ‘a girl.’ You. Ranma. Whatever body Ranma happens to be in. I’m not… asking you to do anything, except, well, you don’t have to try so hard to keep away from me.”

Ranma went tenser than ever. “I’m always a little bit scared when I’m a girl,” she confessed. “Even if it’s somethin’ I gotta do, like when I tried to get that wishin’ sword away from Kunou, I always wonder if I’m turnin’ into a girl for real. Not really stuff like goin’ out for parfaits, or fightin’ in girl form, but anything that involves tryin’ to… anything that heads toward sex… and bein’ with you like this almost makes it worse. I mean, the way your skin feels, and the way you smell… if I were a guy I might not be able to stop myself, and even now when I’m a girl… I want you so bad…” Her voice wavered; she swiped tears from her face.

“When we started on this trip, I sort of figured we’d get together sooner or later,” Akane went on. “At least I hoped so. I always assumed you’d be a guy when it happened, but well, I stopped minding your girl side a long time ago.” She put her arms around the smaller girl. “You kind of turn me on too. Mostly as a guy, but… this way’s nice.”

Ranma turned around in her arms. “I… I don't know what to do,” she whispered.

“You never… did manzuri?

The redhead shook her head. “Scared I’d like it too much, not enough privacy, scared somebody’d find me doin’ it. Oyaji… Oyaji caught me playin’ with myself once and whipped my ass good, and that was before I got cursed, so… And can you imagine what would happen if Nabiki caught me doin’ that?”

Akane giggled. “It’s not what Nabiki would do, it’s what Kunou would do when he got the pictures! ‘Oh my poor osage-no-onna, what privations have driven thee to such an extremity? Come, I shall allow thee to date with me.’”

Ranma shuddered. “C’mon, if I start thinkin’bout Kunou I’ll have nightmares. Have you? Done stuff to yourself?”

“Sometimes.” She was silent a moment. “Usually I pretend I’m with you.”

“What…”

“Mmm, we start out by kissing.”

Tentatively, Ranma’s lips touched Akane’s. Her lips were soft, firm and yielding at once, as they parted to allow the two girls’ tongues to touch. The kiss deepened, tongues sliding past one another, alternately sucking and probing, as they pulled each other closer and their hands began exploring each other’s bodies. Mouths broke apart to go on exploring journeys of their own, along jawlines and throats and up to ears, and back to mouths again. Akane gasped and moaned as Ranma’s questing hand found her breast, gently kneading, pinching the sensitive nipple into a hard little bud. I wonder if he feels the same things I do. She followed suit, cupping Ranma’s full breasts in her slender hands and rubbing her thumbs over the erect nubs.

“Ohhh Akane, that feels so good…” Ranma took one of Akane’s nipples into her mouth and swirled her tongue around it before sucking gently.

“Ranma…” Akane ran her hand down the front of Ranma’s body, and encountered the waistband of Ranma's boxers. She slid her fingers under the elastic, over the taut stomach, and into the furry tangle just where her legs met. Ranma moaned around her mouthful of breast and slid her legs apart, while Akane’s fingers probed at her innermost recesses. She gasped, her back arched, writhing in helpless ecstasy as Akane touched some spot that outlined all her nerves in electric fire, Akane’s fingers thrusting deep into her…

“Wow,” was all Ranma could say when she found her voice again. So that’s how a girl comes. Akane was thrusting her dripping fingers into the redhead’s mouth, making her suck her own juices… that was exciting too, she didn’t understand why.

“Mmm, you get the idea now?” Akane murmured.

“I think so,” Ranma murmured, and wriggled out of her now-soaked boxers.

Akane likewise stripped off her panties. “Oh, this is better.”

“Like this?” She’s so wet, so soft… at the heart of what felt like a maze of folds, Ranma found a hard little knob. When she pinched it, Akane cried out and writhed and got even wetter. Wow, how long can I keep her goin’ like this?

Ranma began a triple onslaught, one hand playing with Akane’s meike, the other with a nipple, while her tongue caressed the other peak. As Akane’s juices flowed over Ranma’s fingers, though, she began to wonder what her fiancée tasted like. She moved lower, blowing over Akane’s stomach, dipping her tongue into her navel, nuzzling the crisp black curls.

Akane felt Ranma’s tongue, soft and warm and wet, gentler than fingers, exploring every centimeter of her inmost folds. “Ahh, yes, right there,” she gasped. Ranma lapped greedily at the clean sea-salt taste as Akane writhed in growing ecstasy.

“Turn around, Ranma,” Akane begged. “Let me do it to you too.”

“Nani?” she mumbled.

“So we can come… together… please, Ranma.”

Why not? The redhead slid around so that she was lying against Akane, her breasts pressed against the other girl’s stomach, and spread her legs. She felt Akane’s slim fingers sliding over her slippery flesh, gently opening her, and then the exquisite sensation of a soft, warm, wet tongue probing into her, caressing every part of her before enveloping her clit in its velvet embrace. Moaning, she allowed herself to be swallowed up by pleasure, keeping back only enough of herself to do to Akane the wonderful things that Akane was doing to her. In timeless ecstasy the two girls soared together, higher and higher, no longer separate people but only a single being of pure yin. Akane thrust her fingers deep into Ranma’s opening and sucked on her clit as though by stimulating her lover, she could bring about her own desperately needed release. Ranma whimpered with need, and then some barrier deep inside her went down and her whole body seemed to turn into golden light, just as against her Akane’s slender form shook with the force of her own climax.

“Wow.” A very long time later, Ranma found the strength to turn around, burrowing into Akane’s embrace. “That was…”

“Way more than I ever felt by myself,” Akane whispered.

“Umm. But I still wish I could be a guy for you.”

“Yeah… I want you inside me for real. Although… at least this way… I don’t have to worry about getting pregnant.”

“Mmm. Maybe we should keep it girls till I can get some rubbers?”

“Probably a good idea. But don’t be too long, okay? ’Cause I… I want you really bad.”

“Me too.” They kissed with gentle passion, tasting themselves in each other. Outside, the storm faded to a gentle rain, which gradually stopped as the two girls drifted into sleep.


NOTES, EXPLANATIONS ETC.

The idea of Ranma accompanying Akane on a training trip comes from Ashfae’s excellent continuation-fic “Validation.” The idea of two hormone-driven teenagers out in the wilderness, with none of the complications that usually drive them apart, simply screamed lemon — and the addition of typhoon season made a yuri scenario inevitable. A lot of the byplay was also inspired by a hentai doujinshi called “The Touch of Akane.”

Juggling gender pronouns is always tricky when writing Ranma; from time to time I do use the masculine even though he’s in girl form throughout — partly to differentiate Ranma from Akane, and partly because Ranma is most self-conscious about his masculinity when he is in female form.

Doshita: What’s the matter?

Manzuri: “Thousand rubs.” Female masturbation.

Meike: Literally, “treasure.” One of the prettiest words for a woman’s private parts.