Love Springs Eternal - Part 5 - A Ranma 1/2 Commission For JW

Akane’s eyes fluttered open to greet the day, only to close immediately when she was met by bright light. The curtains were apparently open. Not only that, but the other side of the bed was unexpectedly empty, though the warmth of its previous occupant still lingered.

“C’mon Akane,” came Ranma’s surprisingly still feminine voice. “You’re not planning to spend the whole day asleep, are you?”

“What else would I do on a Sunday?” Akane countered, a slight smile coming to her lips despite the indignant tone she’d taken. “If anything, I’m wondering what you’re doing up so early.” Early being about 11 AM, going off her bedside alarm, but still. It was a Sunday!

“I don’t know… maybe spar a bit at the dojo?” Ranma suggested.

“Spar?” Akane asked, unsure if she heard right. “What happened to your whole ‘I don’t hit girls’ thing?”

“Yeah, well… you’re strong enough, aren’t you?” Ranma replied, running a hand through her red hair. “And… I figured I might as well get used to it, seeing as how I’m… y’know… a girl, now…”

“Now?” Akane asked, pushing herself upright on the bed. She was starting to get a little concerned. “You’ve been able to turn into a girl for as long as I’ve known you. What’s so different, all of a sudden?”

“Well, now it’s permanent,” Ranma muttered, too quietly for Akane to hear. 

“I’m sorry, what?” Akane asked, arching an eyebrow. She thought she’d heard something about a perm? But considering Ranma’s still straight-as-ever hair, she was pretty sure that wasn’t it.

“I said it’s permanent, alright?” Ranma snapped, crossing her arms. “Happy?”

“Permanent?!” Akane all but screamed back, pushing herself to her feet. “How? Why? For how long?”

“I don’t know… since yesterday? At the picnic. Kodachi called me over with some crap about having water from the Spring of the Drowned Man. I knew right off the bat she was off her rocker, but when she doused me with the stuff anyways… Well, it was just more Spring of the Drowned Girl, so now I’m cursed twice over. I’m still not even sure how she got her hands on it… I mean, did she actually go all the way to Jusenkyo just to get the wrong water?”

“Who cares about that right now?” Akane replied, hands on her hips. “What matters is it being permanent! Why didn’t you tell me about this yesterday?”

“Maybe ‘cause I knew you’d freak out about it?” Ranma replied. “I didn’t want to ruin our anniversary.”

“Our anniversary? Or the sex?”

Akane regretted the words the moment they came out of her mouth - and not just because of the hurt look Ranma flashed her, paired with a physical flinch. She was just so angry. Not about the fact that it was permanent, but at the fact that Ranma had gone and hidden it from her… Still, she knew she’d gone too far.

“Ranma,” she began, holding out a hand for her husband, but it was already too late. The hurt in Ranma’s eyes had turned to anger, and she in turn was moving away from Akane and towards the bedroom door.

“Whatever,” she said, with one last glare over her shoulder. “If that’s what you think of me, then I’m out of here.”

“Ranma!” Akane protested. “You can’t just leave! This isn’t some spat, like when we were highschoolers - we’re married now!”

“Yeah? Well, I’m not the man you married, now am I? I’m not sure I’m even a man at all…” Saying so, Ranma crossed the room’s threshold and slammed the door shut behind him, leaving Akane behind. Maybe, she couldn’t help but fear, for good.

Still… “She could have at least apologized…” Akane couldn’t help but mutter. It wasn’t like all this was on her shoulders, after all… Was it?

***

“Bwahahaha!” Ryoga laughed, slapping his knee. “So let me get this straight… You’re stuck as a girl? Forever? And Akane’s a minute away from dumping your ass now that you’re not the man she knows?”

“I didn’t say she was definitely divorcing me!” Ranma protested. “I’m just… worried, you know? What if she hates this new me?”

“Then get it reversed, dumbass,” Ryoga replied, rolling his eyes. It was better than the advice he would have given, once upon a time, when he still thought Akane was the one for him… but him and Akari were doing good, these days. No way was he going to pull a dumb-ass move and start talking about another girl as the target of his affections. He wasn’t Ranma.

“What if I don’t want to?” Ranma whispered, so softly that Ryoga almost missed it. “What if… I’d rather just end this dumb curse, and leave things this way?”

“Leave things this way?” Ryoga asked, wrinkling his nose. “What the hell are you talking about? That’s not ending the curse - that’s giving into it!”

“Same difference, isn’t it?” Ranma argued. “No more back and forth… no more constantly questioning myself and my gender. No more being called a crossdresser, or a pervert over something I can’t really control….”

“So you’re just giving up?” Ryoga asked. “That doesn’t sound like the Ranma I know.”

“Then call me Ranko,” the redhead replied, crossing her arms in front of her chest. A move that was made a little awkward by her chest, but she tried to ignore the way it squashed her boobs. “Or whatever else you want! Because the manly Ranma’s gone.”

“Ranma…” Ryoga started, only to pause when he felt the redhead’s glare. “...I’m not calling you Ranko, or whatever. You can’t really be giving up, right? I mean, this is what, the third or fourth time some BS made your curse permanent? Why give up this time?”

“Because I don’t know if I want to fight it, this time!” she shouted. “I… I like being feminine, alright? I like how people treat me. How… Well, not so much how people look at me. At least not the guys… the jealous looks girls sometimes give are nice, though.” And maybe the not-so-jealous looks she got, too, when they came from  girl’s direction

“Ranma…” Ryoga started, before holding up a hand. “Or Ranko, or whatever the hell else you want to be called… You’re not feminine. Not at all. I mean, the very idea makes me wanna laugh!”

Ranko(?) glared at her fellow cursed, daring him to go on.

“I’m just saying,” Ryoga doubled down, shaking his head, before closing his eyes. “But… If you’re telling me you want to be a girl or some shit… Then more power to you. I’m just not sure Akane’s going to be willing to go along for the ride.”

“Yeah…” Ranko whispered. “That’s what I’m afraid of…”

***

Akane slammed her mug down on the table, before waving to the head cook. “Gimme some more.”

She was mostly drinking apple juice, but you wouldn’t know it from the loud belch she let out. Much to the annoyance of the proprietor and ‘head cook,’ Ukyo.

“I’m cutting you off.”

“What?” Akane complained, “Come on! Just one - no, two more okonomiyaki! And a pitcher of apple juice!”

“Come on, Akane, you can’t anger eat your problems away,” Ukyo said, trying to coax her friend into opening up a little. “Even if it is good for my wallet. You still haven’t told me what’s wrong.”

Akane let out a groan, crossing her arms on the table and then slamming her head down on them. After a moment of sulking, she finally muttered, “Ranma’s curse is permanent.”

“Again?” Ukyo asked, arching an eyebrow. “That doesn’t seem like anything worth getting mad over.”

“It’s different this time,” Akane insisted, frowning. “She didn’t even tell me it’d happened! She just acted like everything was normal! Even talked me into… I mean…” Akane blushed, not wanting to talk about it any further.

“Woah… didn’t know you swung that way.”

“It’s different with Ranma!” Akane protested. “I mean, he’s still a man… Or… She was one, anyways…”

“What’s this ‘was’ crap?” Ukyo asked. “Just because he didn’t want to admit his problems doesn’t mean he doesn’t have them. I’m sure he’s already working on ways to get back his male form.”

“You didn’t see her this morning,” Akane replied, shaking her head. “There was none of her usual anger about  the curse being locked. If anything, she was…”

“Scared?” Ukyo offered, saying what Akane couldn’t bring herself to. “Of how you’d react? Because, no offense, but you do have a pretty violent streak.”

“I don’t want to hear that from you,” Akane muttered, eyeing her mug and wishing it was full again. It was just nice to have something to distract herself with, even if it wasn’t alcoholic. “I just… don’t know what to do.”

Ukyo sighed, shaking her head, and eyeing her store. There weren’t really a lot of other customers, and she was pretty sure Konatsu could handle things for a minute or two while she talked things over with her friend. 

“Look… Let’s say you’re right about the whole ‘Ranma is permanently a girl thing’ - that there’s no reversing it. Maybe something’s different this time, or maybe she suddenly can’t find it in herself to try… What’s it matter to you? Are you planning to divorce him?  Or her?”

Akane shuddered, confronted by a question she most definitely didn’t want to ask herself. 

“I don’t know…”

“You did say it didn’t matter if he was a her if it was still him,” Ukyo pointed out.

Akane nodded, slowly - or at least gave the best approximation of a nod she could, with her head still on the table. “I guess that’s the problem… What if… what if he’s changed? Or what if I don’t know him as well as I thought? I never saw this coming, not in a thousand years, and yet now it’s here, and… he didn’t even tell me.”

“Then go have a talk with him! God knows your communication methods could use an overhaul… Maybe instead of smashing things over each other’s heads and yelling you could just have a talk?”

“...Maybe…” Akane admitted, before lifting her head off the table. Then she shook it, slapped her cheeks, and stood. “No. You’re right! I’m going to have a talk with her!”

“Thattagirl,” Ukyo encouraged. “Now, about the bill…”

***

‘Ranko’ walked home, fists clenched tight - not out of anger, but in an unconscious attempt to keep ahold of the courage that drove him forward. She felt scared - more afraid than she’d been since the day she and Akane actually tied the knot - and she knew exactly why.

She was a girl, now. Maybe she’d been one for a while… Hell, maybe from the very beginning of this damn curse, feminity had been seeping its way inside… She didn’t know. She just knew that she was tired of fighting it. Yet, all this time, there’d been someone fighting at her side - if she let go of the fight, would she lose everything else she had in the process?

With such thoughts swarming her mind, she almost missed the turn to her house. In fact, she likely would have gone right past it, if not for the fact that she wasn’t alone.

Akane had been on her way, too, still struggling with the knowledge that maybe she didn’t know her husband - or wife? - as well as she should. Still wondering whether the man she loved was in there… or was it woman she loved? She didn’t know, and that lack of knowledge was scary - a fear that could easily lead to anger, whenever she wondered just how much Ranma had purposefully hidden…

She, too, had her mind clouded. She, too, would have missed the turn, if not for the person standing on the other side of the street, her red hair in an instantly recognizable ponytail.

The two women stared at one another for a long moment. ‘Ranko’ nervously fidgeting, fists forgotten, while Akane’s own fingers curled up on instinct. Neither of them moved. Neither of them spoke. They just stared at each other.

Until, finally, a single word escaped ‘Ranko’s’ lips. 

“...Sorry…”

Tears welled up in Akane’s eyes, pouring out as if a dam had broke. She ran forward, throwing her arms around her spouse. She… still didn’t really get what was going on. There was still a lot she didn’t understand… but somehow, in that moment, she knew she wasn’t alone in her confusion.

They’d just have to figure things out together.

~~~
Author's Notes

And so Ranko and Akane begin to walk a new road in life... Or something? The series is far from over, at least from my understanding. (I certainly owe enough chapters to keep it going for quite a while. I can't thank JW enough for how patient they've been.)

I intend to start posting these in public soon... Though I'm not entirely sure where I'll be posting them, just yet.