It was kinda funny waking up the next day. Ukyo felt oddly… good? It was weird. She vaguely remembered following Akane, who was sneakily meeting with Ranma’s mother. Then Ranma’s mother saw her and invited her in, and they had this big, friendly talk. Really cleared the air. Let out all the emotions, told the story and got it out in the open. Then Nodoka had said… Something kind of important that made Ukyo feel really good about herself, and after that she’d gone home.
Trick was… Whenever she tried to focus on the specifics they wouldn’t come to her. And that didn’t bother her in the slightest, though it probably should have. Still. She couldn’t help but smile. Ukyo couldn’t remember the last time she felt so thoroughly girly. She was practically skipping while closing up shop, and hadn’t even bothered binding her breasts this morning. It just didn’t feel like the right thing to do, you know?
“Morning, Uchan!” said a familiar voice that filled her soul with joy and love.
“Morning, Ranchan!” she replied to the boy on top of the fence; then she noticed that Akane was with him as well albeit on the ground. Oddly, this didn’t bother her so much as it probably should. The two of them were romantic rivals for that boy’s affections, weren’t they? Then again those two also lived together, so it made sense that they would go to school at the same time. If only she could do something about the living together part… “What brings the two of you out this way?”
“My idea!” Akane cheerfully replied, flashing a completely adorable smile that made Ukyo’s heart inexplicably skip a beat. “We’ve been friends for a while now, so I thought we should spend some time getting to know one another a bit better.”
Ukyo searched for a reply but found herself without anything to say at all. For some reason just looking at Akane’s smiling face seemed like it filled up the whole world. She felt relaxed. Completely. Like swimming in a bottomless field of cotton candy. A familiar smell hit her and Ukyo’s legs felt sort of… Weird. Where had she smelled that before? Was that perfume Akane was wearing? Where had she smelled that before?
“It’s not often the tomboy has a good idea,” Ranma said, earning himself a sharp, almost sarcastic look from Akane. “But even a stopped clock -”
“Can tell time better than you,” Akane finished, striding forwards and taking Ukyo by the arm. “Come on, let’s go or we’ll be late. I want you to tell me <i>all</i> about Ranma when he was little. I’m sure he was <i>so</i> adorable.”
“H-Hey, wait a minute!” Ranma sputtered. Akane turned and stuck her tongue out at him. It was funny. Almost like their usual antics, but for some reason it felt more playful than spiteful. Almost like it was a joke, like Akane was gently tickling Ranma instead of outright insulting him.
That should have worried her. Instead Ukyo felt sort of, kind of… Happy about it.
<hr>
Is it really paranoia when an odd day is one where something freaky doesn’t happen to you or those around you? Is it really paranoia when you can switch genders frequently and are personally familiar with at least four people capable of becoming animals under similar conditions? How about personally being aware of a technique to erase memory, another that can dramatically reduce strength or turn a person’s sensitivity to heat into overdrive? In short, nope. It’s not really anything like paranoia when you’re personally aware of these things. Because if stuff like that can happen then so can anything.
But. There has to be a reason for it to happen. Akane Tendo doesn’t suddenly get all cute and stuff without something going on. Right? She was the uncute tomboy that, at best, he was friends with after a lengthy period of them not really understanding one another. Her figure wasn’t nearly as sexy as any of the other girls he knew, and her biggest advantage was a pretty smile that she never used because she was always so pissed off.
Today? In spite of his best efforts to draw her into an argument, despite every insult he could think of, she didn’t rise to it. It was like her reactions were a token effort. At worst her reactions were - God help him - perfectly reasonable, well tempered and <i>polite</i>. Or actually funny even if at his expense.
Ranma’s feelings about Akane were always a little confused, now they were beyond confused and into the point where he wanted to hang around her just to find out what the hell was going on. What was wrong with her all of a sudden? Was it a curse? A spell? The possibility that it could be something more mundane, say, that she actually liked him, was discarded for the impossibility it was. Why, that would be like if all of a sudden he liked her! As in, you know, <i>like</i> liked her. Which he didn’t! Absolutely not!
The sound of Akane’s laugh filled the air, and completely unnoticed by any of the three of them Ranma’s lips turned up into a goofy smile for a half second. Then he heard Ukyo’s laugh, and that brought him back to reality.
To him, Ukyo was a boy. Even though she was a girl, he’d always made that association in his mind. She was a cute girl and all, but she dressed like a boy and behaved a lot like one as well. Even when she was trying to be flirtatious with him - It must be what Akane’s always complaining about when he uses his girl form to flirt with guys. It just didn’t quite feel right. Not usually…
Ranma turned his attention away from Akane’s weird behaviour and zeroed in on Ukyo. He studied her. Really studied her. He pulled up the image of Ukyo, his best and oldest buddy. Ukyo took two extremely feminine steps forward, the image shattered and Ranma very nearly stumbled over. Overnight her body language had gone through a complete overhaul. Sure, there were little trip ups here and there where she did adopt a rather masculine turn of phrase or a piece of body language or something, but overall… Feminine. Completely feminine. Not just feminine. <i>Sexy</i>.
Ranma looked between the two gossipy girls and had a series of revelations hit him all at once. These two were probably his best friends. Not Hiroshi or Daisuke, certainly not Ryoga, Mousse or Kuno. These two. Akane and Ukyo. He could (and did) hang out with either of them. Both of them. And they’d have fun together. Just the three of them. The second revelation was a little more personally surprising because he was shy in a weirdly specific way. But in spite of his efforts pnot to think it, he couldn’t help but think it because by trying to make himself not think it he had to be thinking about what he didn’t want to think about. Therefore, the thought popped right into his head regardless of whatever else he wanted.
He was sexually attracted to both of them. Yeah. Who could have guessed? A healthy, straight young man like him sexually attracted to two healthy, pretty young girls with whom he had other emotional attachments. Obvious to everyone else. Could knock him over with a feather. Why? Well. Perhaps it had to do with his curse. Perhaps it had forced on him a certain perspective that sex was rather a meaningful and personal act that should only be done with someone you felt a profound emotional connection with. Or perhaps he would feel that way even if he weren’t cursed to occasionally turn into a girl that was actually cuter than either of the girls just down and to his left from the fence he was walking on.
Complicated. That was a good word to use right about now. Awkward was another. But that wasn’t all. The two of them were behaving in an unusual way, which meant something was up. For them to both start behaving in more feminine ways around the same time? That smacked of something being up. They were his friends, right? And friends looked out for one another.
Though there was another reason Ranma wasn’t admitting to, even to himself. That reason: As attracted to them as he was now was but a pale shade compared to what he felt with the way things used to be. Though, now that his period of self reflection had made him more consciously aware of these feelings, should he be successful in returning their behaviour to their more tomboyish ways, Ranma would scarcely be able to resist either one of them.
- Ranma investigates! And latches onto the completely wrong suspect pretty much immediately.
- Akane and Ukyo’s closer friendship is noticed by someone all too willing to grab the wrong end of the stick.
- Akane and/or Ukyo return to Nodoka’s that night for another session.
- Nodoka pays a visit to the Tendos.
- Something else
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