Chapter 12

"Come on, Shay-chan, I'm standing right here," Ranma taunted from his spot in the dojo. Shayla, already close to exhaustion, scowled at him, pushing the hair out of her eyes. They were in the Tendo's dojo sparring and Shayla was sure she was disappointing Ranma with her lack of endurance. 'Come on,' she thought, 'I've only been doing this for a couple months. Jeez.'

"I can't believe we've been doing this for two hours and you're still fresh as a daisy," she said truculently, getting into a ready stance.

"You forget, I've been doing this since I could walk. I could go for days," Ranma gloated, shifting to get ready for Shay's attack.

"Ha," came a voice from the door, "still bragging, I see."

Ranma and Shay turned to see a young man with an enormous backpack leaning on the doorframe of the dojo. Shayla saw he was pretty strong looking and assumed he was one of Ranma's old friends. 'Cute, too,' she thought. Her limited Japanese did not let her understand the exact words, but she did catch the scornful tone.

"Ryoga? How did you find your way here?" Ranma asked, also in Japanese, covering the distance between them in a split second.

Ryoga reached out and clasped his friend's outstretched hand. "You know I always end up here," he laughed. "Who's that?" he asked motioning to Shay with his chin. "A new student?"

"Of a sort." He turned to Shay and held out his hand, beckoning to her. "Come here," he said in English. "I want you to meet Ryoga Hibiki, one of my oldest friends."

Shayla came forward shyly and bowed, saying in her best Japanese, "Very nice to meet you, Hibiki-san."

"Ryoga, this is Shayla Stevens, my girlfriend and star pupil," Ranma proclaimed proudly.

Ryoga bowed deeply and said, "It is my honor to meet you, Shayla-san," in perfect English. "How long has he been teaching you the art? I hope you haven't picked up any of his bad habits."

"Bad habits? What are you talking about, P-chan?"

"Hey! Who're you calling P-chan?" Ryoga growled.

"I wonder, pig-boy!" Ranma sprang away backwards and stood ready for the attack he knew would come.

"Rrrrannnmmaaa! Prepare to die!" Ryoga leaped past Shayla, foot extended for a punishing blow on the smirking martial artist. Shay felt her heart leap into her throat as she saw Ranma dodge at the last possible second. What followed was, to Shay, nothing short of astounding. The two young men leapt, whirled, dodged, punched and kicked with superhuman speed and strength. Several times, Shayla was sure one of them would be killed, but would be saved by a last minute dodge. Unsure if she should intervene, Shayla stood at the door, frozen. After a few moments, she sensed someone next to her and turned to see Nabiki regarding fight with a bored expression.

"Oh, I should have known he would show up sooner or later," she said, crossing her arms against the chill air in the doorway.

Thankful that Nabiki spoke very good English, Shay turned to question her. "Who? Ryoga?" Nabiki only nodded, eyes still fixed on the combatants. "Will they hurt each other?"

"Only if one of them gets extremely lucky. I just hope they don't destroy the dojo again. Lumber is so expensive."

**

After their furious sparring session, Ranma thanked the Tendos for the use of their dojo and invited Ryoga back to his parent's house for a meal and use of their bath. Once they were all cleaned up, they sat down to another one of Nodoka's delicious meals. "So Ryoga," Ranma said, "where have you been lately?"

Ryoga sighed and set down his rice bowl. "Where haven't I been? Let's see…last week I was in Malaysia, and before that India. I dropped in on Joketsuzoku for a bit. Shampoo says hello."

"Yeah? How is she doing?"

"Well, since Cologne isn't doing too well these days, she's started to take over some of her matriarchal duties."

"What? I thought you had to be a mother to do that?"

"Well, last spring Shampoo gave birth to a baby girl," Ryoga told him with a smile.

"Mousse?"

"No. No one's seen him in a long time. Shampoo told me about 6 months after they moved back to the village, she and Mousse had a huge fight and no one's seen him since."

"Really? I woulda thought nothing could make that blind bat leave Shampoo," Ranma mused, leaning back from the table a bit.

"What's the deal with Shampoo and Mousse?" Shayla asked, taking a sip of miso soup.

Ryoga and Ranma looked at each other and grinned. "You wanna tell her or should I?" Ryoga asked, gesturing with his chopsticks.

"I'll tell her," Ranma said. "Remember me telling you about all of the fiancées I used to have? You remember Shampoo was one of them, right?" Shayla nodded, looking at Ranma over a bowl of noodles. "Well, Mousse was a boy from her village who followed her here and constantly fawned all over her. She couldn't stand him at all and the worst thing was, when he lost his glasses, he would be hugging lampposts, yelling, 'My darling Shampoo! I love you!'" Ranma laughed.

Ryoga was laughing too. "Yeah, and when he changed into a duck," Ryoga collapsed into helpless giggles.

"What? Who turned into a duck?" Shayla asked.

Ranma widened his eyes as he realized what Ryoga had said and he gave him a warning look. "Uh, what Ryoga meant was Mousse had this really funny thing he did where he stuck his feet out on the sides and waddled around. Hilarious."

"Oh, okay," Shayla said, thinking not for the first time that the Japanese sense of humor was sometimes a little odd.

"So anyway, when they left Japan, we'd heard that Mousse and Shampoo had gotten married or whatever they do in that village," Ranma finished. "I guess that's not the case," he mused, shaking his head.

"So, Ranma, how are things in America?" Ryoga asked, eager to change the subject.

"Great! I'm teaching my own Kenpo class, and my studies are going very well, thanks to my tutor here," Ranma enthused, taking Shayla's hand.

"Sounds good. I've been trying to drop by, but you know how that goes," Ryoga said with a shake of his head.

"Yeah, poor Ryoga, the eternally lost boy," Ranma commented.

"Lost man, thank you very much," Ryoga countered.

"I have a question," Shayla said, "why does Ryoga always get lost?"

"Um, heh," Ryoga stammered scratching the back of his head. No one had ever come right out and asked him that fundamental question and he wasn't quite sure how to answer it. Ranma came to his rescue.

"Well, see, a long time ago, one of the Hibiki ancestors was cursed that he and all of his descendants would wander the earth forever. You can point him in the right direction to go, but sooner or later he'll take a wrong turn or something and end up who knows where."

"Wow. That's harsh. So your parents get lost too?" Shay asked.

"Well, just my dad. Mom's not a Hibiki descendant, so she can get where she's going. She used to travel around with Dad, but she's been staying home more and more. I guess she sees Dad about every six months or so. She manages to keep him around for a few days, has him fix things around the house, does his laundry and stuff," Ryoga shrugged.

"I imagine that's a pretty fun few days," Shay said with a grin.

"Why? All he does is fix stuff and relax," Ryoga said.

"Ryoga, they haven't seen each other in six months, I'm sure they do more than watch reruns of 'This Old House'," Shayla said, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

Ryoga looked at her for a few moments and then a blush started to spread over his cheeks. "Oh. Well, I suppose so. I never...thought about it."

They continued to talk long into the night, each trying to outdo each other in telling Shay of their wild adventures and heroic battles, often reducing her to tears of laughter. Ranma asked Ryoga to stay over and said they'd take him to his mother's tomorrow.

**

"You know, I really envy you," Ryoga said as they watched Shayla amble down the hall to the guestroom.

"Hm, what's not to envy?" Ranma joked smugly.

"No, really. You're doing what you want. You're going to school in America, you have a great, gorgeous girlfriend, your own students. Man, what I wouldn't give to be in your situation."

Ranma felt sorry for his friend. He was right, things were going really well for him right now, and now he felt like he'd been rubbing his success in Ryoga's face. "Hey man, I'm sorry," he started awkwardly, "I didn't mean to make it look like…"

Ryoga shook his head. "Don't be sorry. There's nothing you can do about it. Hell, there's nothing I can do about it." He looked down at the floor and traced the pattern of the tatami mat with his finger. Looking back up he smiled. "I haven't done so bad though. I can speak fifteen languages, make a meal out of most things found in your average rain forest and split apart a two ton boulder with my index finger," he said, pointing the finger in question at Ranma.

"Hey, watch where you point that thing," Ranma chided, relieved that his friend wasn't going to go into one of his famous depressions and level the house. He'd have trouble explaining that one to Mom in the morning. "What about you? Any romances on the horizon? Seen Akari lately? Ukyo?"

"Heh. I saw Akari a couple of months ago. I managed to stay on the farm for a couple of weeks. It was nice."

"She still like you even though you're no longer P-chan?"

"Well, I would say we're more friends now. Sometimes I think that when she looked at me, all she saw was that stupid black piglet."

"Bummer. I always thought she was kinda weird. What about Ukyo?"

"I saw her today before I saw you at the Tendo's. She was playing around with her new computer. We talked for a little while and she told me how well the business is doing and about her school plans and her plans for after school. She's got her whole life mapped out already and here I am not even able to follow a roadmap."

Ranma sat quietly, not really knowing what to say. He knew Ryoga's was a very lonely life and let him talk.

Quiet for a while, Ryoga spoke up again. "So, how about you and Shayla? She seems really wonderful. You guys getting along okay?"

"Ryoga, when you find the right one, you'll know immediately. I knew as soon as I walked into that classroom." Warming up to one of his favorite subjects, Ranma told Ryoga about their relationship. He told him about their day at the beach and how they'd watched whales from a cliff. He didn't tell him about what came after the whale watching though; he had to have some secrets. "She's so smart, she can play the guitar, she wants to be a teacher, she wants to learn Kenpo and she wants to be with me."

"She know you used to turn into a girl?"

"Uh, no."

"No?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I haven't found the right time to tell her yet," Ranma squirmed under the gaze of his friend.

"You know she's bound to find out, especially the longer she stays here in Nerima. Someone's bound to mention it."

"I know, I know," Ranma sighed. "I thought sure someone was going to spill it at Akane's wedding, but I guess I lucked out."

"Well, sooner or later you need to tell her or someone's going to do it for you," Ryoga admonished. "How was Akane's wedding?"

"Weird. I didn't tell you, we went out to lunch a couple of days before it. It was like she was making sure she picked right or something. Seeing everyone at the wedding was like being in some dream where you're in this room full of people and you look down and suddenly notice you're naked. She's happy and I'm really glad, but I hope I never have to do anything like that again."

"I tried to come, but I didn't get there in time. Took a wrong turn in Kyoto."

"I figured. Akane understood." Ranma laid down flat on his back on the floor and stretched his legs up, touching his toes with his fingers. "What about you? You still in love with her?"

Ryoga leaned back, supporting himself on his elbows. "No. After she put you over for Shinnosuke, I thought I had a chance, especially now that P-chan was gone. I hung around for a few days, but it was the same as before." He mimicked a high falsetto, "That Ryoga, he's such a nice boy. Oh my!"

"Hey, you do that pretty good," Ranma snorted sitting up and re-crossing his legs.

"Anyway, I don't know if you knew this or not, but I keep a journal with me and of course it was all full of stuff about Akane. Well, she managed to find it one day, I think I'd left it out or something, and she read some of the stuff I'd written about her. She came to me, she wasn't mad or anything, I never wrote anything about being P-chan, but we had a serious talk. Well, she had a serious talk; I had a serious listen. She said all this stuff about how she used to feel about you and how she feels about Shinnosuke now and how she'd never considered me as more than a friend."

"Wow, that's rough."

"Yeah. I tried to avoid the dojo as much as possible, but you know how that goes. I always seem to end up there. After a while, I got used to seeing Akane with Shinnosuke and the hurt started to go away."

They were quiet for a while, each thinking his own thoughts, when Ranma spoke up. "Hey, wanna fight?"

"Huh? Now?" Ryoga asked, stirred from his introspection.

"Yeah, why not?"

"Have you noticed the time?"

"Everybody's asleep." Ranma leaped to his feet and started bouncing up and down. "Come on, we were in the dojo today and couldn't really let loose. You know how long it's been since I let loose a good Mouko Takabisha? "

"I don't know Ranma, we do a lot of damage. I can't get away with a Bakusai Tenketsu in the middle of town anymore." Ryoga stood up and started stretching.

"All right, nothing really destructive. Come on, I haven't had a good fight in months."

Just then, Shayla came walking down the hall. "Sweetie? Are you still up?" she asked sleepily.

"Yeah, for a little while longer," Ranma said, kissing her on the forehead. "What're you doing up?"

"I rolled over and you weren't there," she said petulantly, looking up at him through sleep blurred eyes. "I came to see if you were still awake."

"I'll be there in a minute, I just gotta beat the shit outta Ryoga here."

"Watch your mouth, Saotome," Ryoga growled, cracking his knuckles.

"Are you guys going to fight again?" Shayla asked, looking from Ranma to Ryoga, wide-awake now.

"Yeah, wanna watch?" Ranma asked eagerly.

"Okay. Let me get my jacket." Shayla moved to grab her jacket, giving Ranma an opportunity to admire her t-shirt and sweat pants clad body. Seeing Ryoga looking at her, he shot him a dirty look. "Okay, let's get ready to rumble," she said, coming back into the room. "There's snow outside, are you gonna go out barefoot?"

"Shay-chan, a true martial artist is used to hardship and adverse conditions. Ryoga, on the other hand, might want to put on his shoes," Ranma smirked.

"Oh, are you gonna get it," Ryoga whispered, smacking his fist into his open palm and shaking his head.

The walked outside with the combatants taking stances in the snowy front yard, glad there was a streetlight near the Saotome property to provide ample light. Shayla stood on the front porch, rubbing her hands to keep them warm.

"Okay, now don't wake up the old man or he'll want to join in," Ranma cautioned.

"Heh, fat chance if he sleeps anything like you," Ryoga smirked in return.

"Keep talking, pig-boy," Ranma taunted, bouncing up and down like a prizefighter.

"That's it. Shayla-san, I regret to inform you that I'm going to have to kill your boyfriend. Rrrraaannnmmmaa! Prepare to die!" Ryoga yelled as he launched himself at Ranma, or rather, where Ranma was a second ago. Feeling punches on his side, he landed and executed a whirling kick that Ranma barely managed to avoid. Once again, Shay was amazed at the speed and skill of the fighters and realized just how much Ranma held back in their sparring sessions and the occasional fight with Nick.