Hello FFMLR. Hi, everybody getting this via the list relays. It seems that I've run into a bit of a sticking point on 'THE CLAN'. It's all scripted out, but I'm having serious problems with Chapter 24. I'm unsure of how to craft some of the dialouge and action and am feeling like I'm stagnating a bit. To keep from feeling like I'm spinning my wheels pointlessly, I'm going to start posting something I had not intended to for a while, and certainly not until after 'THE CLAN' was done. If you are familiar with my writing purely from 'CLAN', then you are in for a shocker. This isn't much like 'Ranma's Apartment' either. I would even go so far as to say it has a bit of 'Shoujo' tone. I've had some reservations about posting it, but Dave Roeder and some of the great guys on FFIRC have been encouraging me to do so. This hasn't been pre-read and other than some thorough spell- checking, hasn't been much edited either. All C&C is very much appreciated. So here, in all it's limited glory is a story about what happens when the things we take for granted are beaten upside the head, and all the things we were afraid to face come falling out for the whole world to see. I hope you like it. It's called: ------------------------------ newRanma 1: Hurting by Chris Jones ------------------------------ Ranma woke to the familiar sound of clanging and banging which he had learned to hate so much during his extended stay at the Tendou Dojo. Akane was up early and cooking breakfast. Ranma groaned and turned over, burying himself just as far as he could get in his futon. It was true that Akane's cooking *had* improved somewhat since he had known her. If she very carefully followed instructions, and if he or Kasumi were right there to make sure she was behaving, she could usually turn out something that was less than toxic. The banging pans, however, tipped Ranma to the fact that Kasumi was probably *not* closely supervising her little sister. Worse, one of the things that Akane had definitely not improved on was her treatment of the common Grade AA egg. Her 'breakfasts', such as they were, should have been outlawed in most of the modern world because they constituted cruel and unusual punishment, at least according to Ranma. "Have you seen the cinnamon, Kasumi?" Ranma heard his fiancee's voice drift up from the kitchen. "Never-mind! This steak seasoning will probably work just as well." Ranma groaned in dread. He really didn't want to be sick. Sick... That was the ticket! Ranma hunkered down in his futon and began to lick his palms so that they would be cold and clammy. It was stupid and childish, but if it would work in American movies then it would probably work for him as well. "Ranma, it's time to get up for school," Kasumi said, knocking on the closed door. "Nnnnn..." Ranma groaned loudly. Overacting was a Saotome gift. "Ranma-kun?" "NnnnnNNNN..." he groaned, a little bit of irritation entering his voice. "Ranma-kun. Are you okay?" "NNNNNNNNN!" Ranma half-bellowed, half-moaned. Kasumi opened the door and peeked inside to make sure Ranma was decent. She came in a little ways and knelt next to the youth. Hunched over in his futon, Ranma groaned dramatically again. Kasumi took Ranma's hands and carefully felt his palms. "Cold," she noted with concern. "And clammy. Are you feeling alright, Ranma-kun?" "Unnn..." Ranma began to tremble slightly. "Hmm... Your head doesn't feel warm, does it?" Kasumi asked, gently caressing Ranma's forehead. "You're not faking to get out of eating Akane's breakfast are you?" Ranma's eyes popped open in surprise. He grinned nervously at Kasumi, who was staring down at him with a calm expression. It was as close to a look of disapproval as Kasumi ever got. "Ranma?" "Uhhh..." The martial artist began to sweat. "Hmm... I'm certain you wouldn't do that," Kasumi said, putting a finger to her chin. "What wouldn't the baka do?" Akane asked from the doorway of the guest room, a gooey spatula in hand, . Ranma coughed nervously and began to moan even louder. "I'm certain that Ranma would be more than honest enough than to fake being sick so he wouldn't have to eat your cooking, Akane! Don't you think?" Akane's eyes went wide with rage. "He's faking being sick so he doesn't have to eat my cooking?!" "UNNNNNNHHHH!!!!" Ranma moaned in desperation. "I KNEW IT!!!" Akane screeched, bringing her goop- covered egg-turner to bear. "Unnnh?" Ranma squeaked out. "Die, Ranma!" Ranma sighed deeply and leapt to his feet. Pretenses just weren't going to be an option today. "My, Ranma!" Kasumi giggled. "You certainly do run fast for a sick person." By the time Kasumi made it downstairs, Akane and Ranma were in the kitchen. Much to her dismay, Akane was trying to pelt Ranma with raw eggs, making a horrible mess in the process. "Oh, come on, Akane! I wasn't eggspecting you to be this upset about it!" Ranma cracked. "That's going too far, Ranma!" Akane screamed. She lifted the skillet full of rapidly blackening egg yolk, whipped cream, and steak sauce and sent it frisbee style for Ranma's head. Ranma dodged to one side, leaning as far back as he could to avoid the scorched skillet as it passed overhead. The skillet slammed into the wall behind him, sending up a spray of ruined egg and sauce. "Ha, tomboy! You'll never-- *whup*!" Ranma's feet went out from under him, made slippery from the wasted egg. He fell back. Akane clenched her teeth at the sight. She had never seen Ranma lose control so badly before. It was like watching a car crash in slow motion. His arms were windmilling wildly. His feet were both rising in the air. With a sickening thud, the side of his head impacted the corner of Kasumi's kitchen counter. Akane gasped, seeing the red mark on the counter. Ranma twisted and fell to his side with the force of the impact. He collapsed on the tile floor limply like a rag doll. "Ranma?" Akane asked, her voice full of worry. The martial artist was still, blood from the gash on the side of his head beginning to run down across his face. "Ranma! Talk to me!" Akane cried. "Wass?" Ranma mumbled after several seconds. Akane exhaled. "Baka." Ranma blinked, pushing himself to a sitting position. "Nnn.. Stupid tomboy," he complained, wiping egg off his face. "Creep. You could have at least tasted my breakfast." "Whatev-- nnn..." Ranma blinked again, getting to his feet unsteadily. He staggered once and did his best to regain his balance. "Okay." "Are you okay?" Akane asked. "Of course I'm okay!" Ranma snapped back angrily. "Jeez, Akane. I've taken worse than this. A tomboy like you ain't gonna hurt me." "Get ready for school, you two!" Kasumi advised from the doorway of the kitchen. Ranma nodded, wiping the blood away from his face. He probed gingerly at the small cut on the side of his head. "Are you okay, Ranma-kun?" Kasumi asked. "Do you need to see Tofuu-sensei?" "Yeah, I'm okay. I just need to get cleaned up." Kasumi grimaced as her sister and her fiancee walked by. Ranma's eyes were shining a deep black, ringed by only a tiny circle of blue. "Come home if you start feeling unwell, Ranma," Kasumi advised. "Yeah, sure," Ranma replied, dabbing at the cut. "Stupid tomboy..." "I'm sorry, already!" Akane yelled. After only a few minutes, Akane and Ranma left. Kasumi had the kitchen mostly clean in only a few minutes, so she decided to take a break and call Doctor Tofuu with her concerns. "K-k-kasumi! What a surprise to meet you here, of all places!" Tofuu answered the phone. "Oh, Tofuu-sensei! You big silly. I was wondering if you'd come by to see Ranma after school this afternoon. He slipped and hit his head on the counter this morning, and I'm worried that he may have a bit of a concussion." "Mmm.." Tofuu said, slipping into a calmer role as physician. "Ranma's got a thick skull. He should be okay, but I'll come by and check." * * * "Are you okay, Ranma?" Akane asked. "Yeah! Quit worryin' about it, Akane." Ranma said, grumbling. He glanced up at the fence, but decided against running along it since his balance still felt a little off. He clenched his eyes shut, trying to ward off the wave of nausea currently assailing him. He grimaced, thinking about how unfair it was. He hadn't even *eaten* the nasty egg dish, and it was still making him sick. "Ranma?" Akane asked, trying to get his attention. "Ranma?" *splash* "Wonderful. Just freakin' wonderful." Ranma looked down in irritation at the evil little washer woman. The boy- turned-girl shook her head sadly and trudged onward. At least the change seemed to drive the nausea and lightheadedness away. "You're leaving a lot of openings today," Akane noted. "Well, somebody clonked me on the head this morning," Ranma snapped irritably. "Just let it go, Akane." "All right." Akane exhaled heavily and walked in silence the rest of the way to school. The bell still managed to ring before they got to the front gates. Luckily, neither Kunou nor any of the morning morons were out. "You go ahead to class," Ranma prompted. "See if you can get us out of bucket duty. I'm gonna go find some hot water." Akane nodded and sprinted away from the red-head. Ranma sighed and started to look for a convenient restroom. The boys restroom he came across had a large 'Out of Order' sign taped to the front door and water was trickling out from underneath the door. "Uhh..." The nausea was getting worse, and the pain in her head pounding, Ranma rationalized that it would be all right if he were to just get a cup of warm water from the girl's rest room and come back out before she changed. Warily, she pushed the door open. "Anyone in here?" Not hearing an answer, Ranma stepped cautiously inside. The pain was almost blinding. Ranma's stomach lurched ominously and she felt a salty, bloody taste in the back of her throat. Rather than going to the sink as she first thought to do, Ranma instead leaned over the trash can and began to dry heave. She managed to stand back up without actually vomiting. She turned, lurched toward the sink. Upon seeing her own wide-eyed expression, Ranma passed out. * * * "Is Ranma sick today?" Ukyou asked during the class break. Akane shook her head. "I don't think so. He got wet on the way to school, so he went to find some hot water. I wonder what's keeping him?" * * * The clothes wouldn't do. Besides being wet and uncomfortable, they just didn't weren't very cute. The school uniform wasn't a *lot* cuter than the red and black Chinese clothes, but it was at least more feminine. She also picked out a cute pair of cotton panties to wear instead of those awful boxers, but they didn't happen to have a bra in her size. The clerk at the school store gave her an odd look upon checking out, but she didn't care. She ran back to the bathroom to change and twirled happily in front of the mirror. She was so pretty now! Maybe Akane would lend her a little bit of blusher or nail polish. "Wouldn't that be cute?" she squealed, sweetly pulling her braided pigtail over one shoulder. Ignoring the little bit of nausea and dizziness that still plagued her, she made her way back to the hallways and tried to look for her classroom. Instead, she came across a blue-robed kendoist doing bucket duty in front of one of the junior classrooms. "Pigtailed girl!" Kunou shouted. "Verily, you have come to comfort me in my time of distress!" "Hiieee, Kunou-sempai," the pigtailed girl replied. She smiled happily at the kendoist's greeting. Kunou dropped his buckets with a splash and a noisy clatter and rushed towards the pigtailed girl, his arms outstretched to embrace her. "Your garments have changed!" Kunou exclaimed, staring into the girl's glassy eyes. "No longer are you forced to wear the rude peasant garments Saotome favors. What has brought about this most wondrous metamorphosis, my love?" "Those other clothes were icky, Kunou-sempai," she explained. "I got some new ones at the school store. Do you think I'm cute?" Inside her, the nauseous feeling began to rise again. She crushed it down, and snuggled into Kunou's embrace, despite the feeling that something was horribly, catastrophically wrong. "Let's get away from here, Sempai," the girl suggested. "My tummy's upset, and I want to get outside!" Kunou's visage appeared troubled for a second. "Skip school?" he asked incredulously. "My pigtailed angel wants me to cut class? Play hooky? Commit truancy?" "Pretty-please?" she begged, standing on the tiptoes of one foot to stare directly into Kunou's eyes. Kunou's resolve had the chance of a Twinky at a Weight- watcher's convention. In seconds, he was running for the entrance of the school, dragging the pigtailed girl behind him. "Wai! Wai!" she shouted in glee, lifted off her feet by Kunou's rapid flight from the confines of the school. "Let us away to my mansion, my dearest beauty!" Kunou exclaimed. "Hurry, Sempai!" the pigtailed girl said. "Faster! Faster!" Inside, she struggled to keep from vomiting. * * * "Ranma and I split up when we first got here," Akane explained over the phone, "but then I lost track of him. He hasn't shown up for first or second period." "He's not here," Kasumi said. "Perhaps he decided to come home and got hungry on the way?" she suggested in a far- off manner. "Maybe," Akane admitted. It was far-fetched, but knowing Ranma, it was entirely possible. "I just know he decided to stop at Shampoo's for a snack!" Akane complained. "And after he refused to eat the perfectly good breakfast I made for him!" "Where airen, violent girl?" Shampoo asked. Akane turned, her hands still on the phone. Behind her, Shampoo stood with her ramen carrying case balanced lightly on two fingers." "You haven't seen him either?" Akane asked, worry beginning to enter her voice. "Shampoo was going to surprise with big mid-morning snack," the purple-haired girl said. "But airen not in classroom. Is Akane hiding Ranma somewhere," Shampoo asked nervously, seeing the worried expression on her rival's face. Akane shook her head. "I haven't seen him since we first got here. Maybe we should go talk to my sister. She may know someone who saw him leave." * * * "Sugoi!" the pigtailed girl exclaimed upon seeing the vast home theater system. "This is really awesome, Sempai! I've never seen a television that big before!" "Verily! The purses of house Kunou know no bounds when the viewing pleasure of my loves is at stake. Why, just yesterday I sat here watching Samurai Theater, when I realized just how important it was to me that I share this incredible experience with you and--" "You're rambling, Sempai," the pigtailed-girl giggled. Kunou clamped his mouth shut, a slightly embarrassed expression decorating his face. "Why don't you put on something good," the pigtailed- girl said, "like Dragonball. I'll go get freshened up and we can watch together for as long as you like!" "Heeeee..." Kunou murmured, unable to speak as the girl nuzzeled at his broad chest. She skipped off in search of a bathroom. Seeing her turn the corner of a hallway, Kunou made a squeaking noise and dove towards the video cabinet beneath the giant television. He pulled out his prized Dragonball laserdisc collection and started the player. "Forsooth, I would assume that one so lovely as the pigtailed-girl would choose to gaze upon a film more involved in romance and plot," he said, making sure that the remote worked properly. "A 'chick-flick' as it were. If the pigtailed Venus desires to watch Dragonball, however, who am I to deny her wishes?" The pigtailed girl finally found a lavish bathroom among the endless guest rooms. She was starting to get a little dizzy and light headed, but sat down over the western style basin and relieved herself. She checked her face in the mirror and wished she had some makeup. It was then that the second wave of nausea hit. Back in the viewing room, Kunou's head popped up at the tearing, wet, wretching sound. "Pigtailed-girl?" After a few minutes, he heard the water begin to run, and a low gargling sound, as if the girl was washing out her mouth. He was about to rise and check on her, but the pigtailed girl appeared back in the hallway before he could move. She wiped her mouth once and skipped back over to the sofa where Kunou sat. "Are you quite well, my vision of lovliness?" Kunou asked with some concern in his voice. "I was all icky-sicky, but I'm okay now," the pigtailed-girl replied in a sing-song voice. "I'm cold now. Would you hold me, Kunou-sempai?" Kunou began to tremble in excitement despite the girl's admission of illness. He couldn't answer, but reached out for the girl anyway. She giggled and collapsed into his arms, her luminous, glassy eyes staring up lovingly at him. * * * "No, I haven't seen him either," Nabiki said. "But Kunou-chan went missing after first period. Maybe they went somewhere to fight." "I rather doubt it," Ukyou said. "I think Ran-chan would rather avoid Kunou than pick fights with him." "I really don't think he was feeling well," Akane interjected in a worried tone. "Should we call the police?" "After he's only been missing a few hours?" Nabiki said. "This *is* Ranma we're talking about. "Shampoo have bad feeling," the amazon said. "Best we find Ranma now." "I'll come too!" Akane said. "And skip class?" Nabiki asked. "This *is* Ranma we're talking about," Akane replied sarcastically. "I'll come too," Ukyou agreed. Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Alright. I'll cover for you, *just* this once. And all of you owe me big favors." The three girls nodded and took off down the hallway. After a few seconds, Nabiki went back inside her classroom and sat down next to a friend. "Ranma skipped school today," she said. "He usually comes, even if he sleeps through class all day." "You want me to keep an eye out, boss?" The girl asked. Nabiki nodded. "Something's up, and I don't know what it is yet." * * * It certainly wasn't Kunou's first kiss, but as the trembling pigtailed-girl pressed her lips to his cheek, he found it was the one he treasured most. "Oh, pigtailed-girl," Kunou whispered as high-powered martial arts played out on the screen in front of the pair. "Kunou-sempai," she said, tightening her embrace. He wondered if he was shaking as badly as the pigtailed girl as he gently wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He turned, moving his face closer to hers. Her vacant smile gave him no reason for concern, so he leaned in and pushed his lips to hers. She clumsily returned the kiss with trembling lips. With his arms around her back, Kunou leaned her back and began to let his lips roam up and down her neck. He took her increased shaking as a sign of her arousal. "Kunou-sempai," she whispered, struggling to move out from under him. Anxiously, he stood, acutely aware of his own desire for her. Weakly, the girl stood. She clutched at her head. "Pigtailed-girl," Kunou said, wondering what was wrong. "Are you okay?" She cried once and fell over. Kunou blinked in surprised. "Pigtailed-girl?" Her blouse was only about half-way buttoned, revealing a generous amount of cleavage above the top of her school dress. Likewise, her short skirt had flared out as she fell and settled up around her waist, displaying her white cotton panties for him to gaze upon in wonder. Her body was so close to him! She was flaunting herself so daringly. He kneeled in front of her, his hand reaching out almost of its own accord to gently brush her exposed thigh. Why did this feel so wrong? "Pigtailed-girl?" he asked again. She made no motion. Kunou's hand withdrew, just before he allowed it to brush against the thin, almost translucent fabric of her panties. He shifted his position and shook her shoulders slightly. "Pigtailed-girl. Wake up. Please?" Kunou clenched his teeth and began to pat her face. The girl's eyelids didn't even flutter. Her head slumped to one side as he let her go. Blood began to run freely from one nostril. Kunou exhaled heavily and staggered to his feet. His body's arousal quickly giving way to worry and dread, he lurched from the room and grabbed a phone in the hallway. "Emergency services," a polite, feminine voice asked on the other end after Kunou dialed the appropriate numbers. "How may I help you?" "You must send an ambulance at once!" Kunou demanded. "The pigtailed-girl... my guest, she's dying!" ----- ~to be continued... Ranma and his friends belong to Rumiko Takahashi. They're used here without permission.