Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Unlikely Alliances ❯ A Mother and Son Reunion ( Chapter 18 )

This was originally published by me under the name Anduril at Anime Addventures, with the only changes being a few corrections in spelling, punctuation and the occasional word choice. If you like the beginning of my story but think I've gone off the rails, or have your own ideas for a great branch-off, or think I'm taking too long to update and want to continue the story yourself, come to Anime Addventures and join in the fun!

I claim no ownership rights to any of the works of Rumiko Takahashi.

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In the family room of the Tendo home, three sisters and their fiancé, lover, and future brother-in-law, respectively, waited patiently. Well, sorta kinda.

For the third time in half an hour, Ranma jerked to his feet and began to pace. Akane flinched at the movement, while Nabiki just sighed. Kasumi, of course, maintained her normal unflappable calm, her mask of serenity firmly in place — perhaps too firmly.

“Ranma, sit down!” Akane growled. “What is wrong with you, anyway?”

“Yes, little brother, you're not normally this — intense. That's usually Akane's thing,” Nabiki said from where she sat to the side, smirking slightly when Akane turned to glare at her.

Ranma stopped pacing, reaching up to tug on his pigtail, grinning sheepishly. “Yeah, sorry `bout that. Normally when I get like this I practice katas, but I can't get all sweaty right now.”

“So sit!” Nabiki retorted. “If you can't relieve your nerves, there's no point in passing them on to us.”

Ranma sighed, but sat as instructed and the sisters did their best to ignore the way he fidgeted.

 

Nodoka walked along the sidewalk toward the Tendo home, moving as fast as the restrictive formal kimono she'd insisted on wearing permitted, the bundled Saotome Family sword clutched to her chest. The tension coiling in her gut grew stronger with every step, until she wondered if she'd become physically ill. Genma and Soun easily kept pace slightly behind her, occasionally exchanging worried glances but keeping silent.

Then they were finally at the Tendo dojo! Soun stepped around Nodoka and opened the door, motioning her forward as he called out their arrival. An unfamiliar voice responded with “In here!” from the direction of the family room. Nodoka rushed (or tried to, anyway) toward the room, doing her best not to hyperventilate.

And then she was stepping into the family room and a raven-haired pigtailed teenage boy was standing there beside Kasumi and two other girls Nodoka didn't recognize but they didn't matter because the boy had to be Ranma and ...

Ranma was slammed back several steps as the gasping auburn-haired woman that looked disturbingly like a mature version of his girl form slammed into him, her arms around him and squeezing tight. “Mom,” he whispered as his own arms circled her waist.

 

The two families sat around the low family room table, Ranma flanked by Akane and Kasumi, Nodoka, wiping at her tearstained face with a napkin, sitting across from him with Genma and Soun on each side, Nabiki off to the side where she could see everyone (and not incidentally reach both her father and younger sister). The middle Tendo watched as Nodoka focused on her son, barely aware of the men on either side of her. The older woman was tensing, tightening, any minute now ...

Nodoka took a deep breath, then forced a smile. “Ranma, your father has only told me a little about you — we've been ... otherwise occupied.” She blushed lightly, hands reaching out to grasp those of her husband and the Tendo patriarch. “So tell me about yourself, please.”

“Uh, sure, what d'ya want to know?” Ranma asked, shifting uncomfortably.

“Well ... these lovely ladies, how well do you know them?” Nodoka responded, glancing at the Tendo sisters. “From what Kasumi-chan had to say yesterday, you're very close.”

Ranma, Kasumi and Akane all blushed, Kasumi's eyes dropping to the table as the other two exchanged glances. Ranma opened his mouth but nothing came out.

Nabiki sighed to herself. I knew it! Akane's still too hung up on sex, Kasumi's too bashful, and Ranma's not willing to boast about something that's not exactly true. Looks like it's up to me ... too bad the stakes are so high, this could be fun to play with. Clearing her throat to get Nodoka's attention, she said, “You're asking the wrong people. Ranma doesn't like to boast about his conquests — it can give the girls a bad reputation — and my sisters are too shy.”

“Oh? But not you?” Nodoka asked, trying to keep a worried frown off her face.

“No, not me,” Nabiki agreed. “Mind, I can't speak from personal experience, I'm engaged and Ranma's too honorable to pursue someone else's girl, but from the amount of noise those three were making last night I'd say they were definitely enjoying it.” The other three teenagers all blushed, Soun swayed slightly as the blood drained from his face, and Nodoka tensed. Nabiki carefully kept a smirk off her face. Okay, so maybe there's room for some fun here, after all. “And from the sounds being made by the two girls Ranma banged today at the Cat Café, I'd say they enjoyed it, too,” the middle Tendo continued.

Nodoka relaxed ... a bit. “Hmmm, my manly son is going to need mistresses to keep him satisfied ...” she mused.

Akane stiffened. “Forget it, not happening,” she growled. “Ranma's mine!”

Now Naibiki's smirk finally surfaced. “Don't you mean `ours', little sis? You are sharing him with big sis, after all.” Then as the trio's blushes grew even deeper, she added, “Besides, those two aren't available, anyway. They're already in a relationship — with each other.” Nabiki watched Nodoka closely as her words hit home. Let's see — there's the outrage at Ukyo's and Shampoo's implied lesbianism, confusion at what Ranma's doing in bed with two lesbians, dawning elation that her son's manly enough that even lesbians can't resist him — time!

“Of course, Ranma has something of an unfair advantage, what with his Jusenkyo curse,” Nabiki added nonchalantly, then suppressed a grin at Nodoka's confused expression. Glancing over, she did smile slightly despite her best efforts at Genma's panicked expression.

“Curse? What curse?” the older woman asked.

“That's not im—” Genma got out before Nabiki interrupted him.

“What, Uncle Genma didn't show you? I'm surprised he managed to avoid cold water a full day. Of course,” she added thoughtfully, “he's never seemed to have the problem with getting splashed that Ranma has. Perhaps because he's made his peace with it and Ranma hasn't?”

Now Nodoka looked completely lost, and Nabiki shrugged, picked up her cup of now-cold tea and threw it into Genma's face. His wife suddenly found herself being pushed to the side and turned to look, then scrambled to the side with a shriek of panic at finding herself beside a giant panda, ending up in Soun's lap. Genma immediately backed off and turned toward the doorway, only to find Ranma standing between him and the door, rising from where his leap across the table had deposited him. Before Genma could brace himself a solid kick knocked him back into the room. “Forget it, Pop, no way are ya runnin' away from this one,” the pigtailed boy growled.

The panda quickly rolled back to his feet and whirled away from his son toward the open wall window and the yard beyond it, only to find Kasumi standing in his way. “Saotome-san! It is most unseemly for you to run away and leave the children to deal with this. Sit down if you wish to be welcome again in this house,” she said sternly.

The panda stood staring for a few moments at the true mistress of the household, stunned at her abrupt assumption of her true authority, then slowly sat back down, ignoring Akane's growl and angry glare from where she still sat across the table.

Kasumi continued to gaze sternly at him for a long moment, then glanced over, expression softening, at where a shaking Nodoka was clasped in the Tendo patriarch's arms. Dropping to her knees, Kasumi smiled comfortingly at the panicked woman. “Quite a shock seeing that for the first time, isn't it? Don't worry, whatever his form that's still your husband. I'll fetch some sake and hot water to prove it, all right?” Finally, Nodoka drew a deep breath and nodded, and Kasumi rose and hurried from the room.

 

Nodoka poured hot water from the tea kettle over her husband's head yet again and stared as the panda's form melted into that of her husband yet again, then sat back shaking her head in amazement. “That such magic truly exists in this world — amazing!” Then, turning to Ranma, she said, “But Nabiki said that you also have a curse — one that gives you an advantage over other men. What is it?”

Ranma froze, fidgeted in place, then finally sighed and, reaching out for the pitcher of water his mother had been using on Genma, he closed his eyes and poured. The now split-second sensation of his entire body shifting and reshaping like a bag loose sand squeezed in the middle and molded swept through him, and Nodoka stared, frozen in shock, mouth fallen open, as the now redheaded girl that looked enough like her younger self to be her sister put down the pitcher, eyes fixed to the table. Akane glanced between the two, then reached out and pulled Ranma against her, staring challengingly at her future mother-in-law.

Nodoka finally closed her mouth and sat back slightly, face troubled as Nabiki watched. Now for the distraction, the middle Tendo thought, wait for it, wait for it.... Finally Nodoka straightened, mouth opening ... Now! “Yeah, turning into a girl must give Ranma real insight into what a girl wants. Maybe that's why he's had real trouble dealing with his curse, considering how the guys at school must be jealous and all,” Nabiki tossed out breezily. “Still, I guess he's done rather well. I suppose all the other crap his dad's put him through got him used to it.”

Nodoka paused, mouth still open, then turned to Nabiki. “Other `crap'?” she asked, mouth twisting with distaste at the word.

“Oh, sure,” Nabiki said. “Let's see, how many times has Genma sold you for as little as a meal?” she asked the redheaded girl.

Ranma shrugged, from where she leaned against Akane. “Dunno,” she muttered.

“Then there's the crazy training methods — none of them match the catfist training, but a lot come pretty close. Really, it's amazing he lived long enough to visit Jusenkyo!”

“Catfist training?” Nodoka slowly repeated.

 

The four teenagers listened to the sound of Nodoka screaming for Genma to come back and face his punishment like a man coming to them from the yard, Nabiki reclining on her back and smirking at the ceiling while the other three girls stared at the kimono-clad woman inexpertly waving around the sword she'd pulled out of the bundle she'd brought with her, Soun beside her ducking the wild swings even as he begged her to calm down. “Well, that's that — deal signed, sealed, and witnessed,” the mercenary Tendo said, laughing softly. “Damn, that was fun!”