A lovely thing happened to me several months ago. My computers died... they died real good... Everything gone... Including all my stories and all my story notes... Even the manuscript I had working for a novel (probably the only thing I had backed up). One day I may work on the stuff I had before, but for now, I'll start with this.

I was recently going through my list of Ranma clichés in my profile and came to the conclusion that I was really bored. So I decided to write a beginning to a fic I may write in the future. This may either continue or fall into obscurity... Who knows?

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Drinking was more trouble than it was worth.

That was one of the few valuable lessons Ranma had learned from his father. Granted the older man had never truly wished to teach him such a lesson, but examples had been taken note of, and things had been seen. It was no surprise that the greatest of Genma's plans had always been made when he was drunk, and it came as even less surprise that the end result was that he, Ranma, usually paid for said plans. The conclusion was obvious, drinking was more trouble than it was worth.

It did beg the question though; if drinking was more trouble than it was worth, why exactly had Ranma found himself waking with disgustingly painful hangovers every night for the past eight months. The answer was deceptively simple.

"Fuckin Akane..." Ranma growled, "fuckin engagement, fuckin pops, fuckin Nabiki, stupid, dumbass, FUCKIN LIFE!"

The words were punctuated with the sound of shattering glass; another glass that had, once again, victim to the strength and newly found temper of the former Saotome. Former Satome. The thought only heightened the rage. Everything, since the beginning of his life, had conspired to break him. The nekoken, the fiancées, the isolation from his peers, the sepukku contract, his mother, his father, his so-called friends... everyone and everything had tried at one point or the other to break him... but they had all failed... He hadn't broken, and he'd overcome each and every single trial.

He wasn't the best person; at least now he could admit that; but he'd been decent, and he'd had a good heart. Obviously that hadn't been enough.

"Fuckin Akane."

It always came back to her. Drinking was supposed to help him forget. All it did was bring back memories; memories that served to fuel the rage even further. It was all he had. Drunk, sober, didn't matter. Rage was all he knew, all he felt and he doubted it would change any time soon. It had started a year ago with the accident on the set, and had continued up to this day...especially on this day.

"Happy fuckin birthday to me."

And just like the last time, he was going to drink himself into a stupor, beat the hell out of some dumbass stupid enough to pick a fight, pass out in his cardboard box, wake up, and do it all over again.

"Fuckin life."

Fucking life indeed...

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Short, but I like it. If anyone else wants to use it, go ahead, just make sure to pm me.