An Intervening Strategy
Part II
By: Rosethorn Li

[Ryouga/Ranma/Akane] Ryouga is confused, Akane has a plan, and Ranma has a little help getting what he wants.

Post Chapters 243 (Carpe Deum) and 244 (Quit Carping!)

SpringKink Prompt: Ranma 1/2, Ryouga/Ranma(/Akane): Waking up gay(/bi)--"It's the curse! It must be part of the curse!"

Ranma dragged him to the bathroom at a rushed pace, unresponsive to Ryouga's complaints and protests. His grip was tight; the lost boy couldn't tug loose, but it wasn't to bruise Ryouga's tough skin.

"Let go!" Ryouga growled, trying to wrench his hand away. Ranma ignored him. Again. iWhat is with him?!/i

Warningly, nearing the edge of his temper, he ground out, "Ranma!"

Still no response.

With a final rough tug, Ryouga prepared to punch with his other hand, but was struck by surprise when, unprepared, he was shoved into the bathroom, the door slamming shut behind them. His back hit the wall and he fell forward, only just managing to catch himself on his knees. (There was a dent in the wall and a bruise forming where his shoulder had hit, but neither of them noticed.)

No longer gripping flesh and bone, Ranma's hands instead clenched into fists. His face was as expressionless as Ryouga had ever seen. It was frightening: Ranma always showed his emotions, he couldn't hide them. Anger won out over the sudden jolt of fear, and Ryouga glared for all he was worth.

Ranma looked down, jaw tight and teeth gritting together, back at him. He looked ready to say something, and Ryouga expected threats or shouting or anything but what it was.

A whimper.

"Wah--" His breath was knocked away by a body flying at him, not in violence, to tackle or bring him to his knees, but an embrace. Lips found his ear and Ranma was whispering something Ryouga couldn't hear; all the blood was rushing down.

Surprise colored his vision because, he noted absently, it looked like Ranma had a problem too.

"W-wait, Ranma---!" Again he was ignored, but it was okay, really, because the pig tailed martial artist's hands weren't idle and, and--

Touched ithere/i, backed against a wall with nothing but feeling…

Too intense.

His arms, he told them to shove, to push that other body away, but they won't listen; they clung instead, holding tightly and never wanting to let go. Gasping and whimpering and his mouth was betraying his pleasure and wasn't it supposed to be disgusting, to have a tongue in your ear? But it felt good.

'This is Ranma,' he kept telling him self. His self wasn't listening, drawing in the pleasure of touch. 'This is my rival.' Rival equals competition.

That part, well, his body understood. Nipping lips sucked away his breath, curious hands determined to touch skin. Warmth and hunger and embarrassment(/shame) all wrapped into one in his chest, pushed slowly away by sensation.

So he stopped thinking and felt instead, and that led to perhaps the best outcome of all.

They ended up tangled in bed, sweaty and half dressed, groping and clawing and trying to one up each other like the rivals they were. And somehow, he didn't know when, Akane was there too.

Akane's curves against his back, soft and yielding, finding places to caress and mouth that drew pleasure straight to his core and soft sounds from his lips. Ranma's strong chest against his front, hard and real, so real, hands roughly embracing parts of his body that no one else had ever touched, reaching muscular arms above and around him to stroke the woman behind. Too many points on his body where there was touch, pleasure wracking through him and he couldn't think with all this input!

But who wanted to think when Ranma was roughly turning his head to the side and Akane was kissing him, devouring his mouth in hungry gulps, teeth nipping his lips, asking, no demanding more. Ryouga was too shocked to respond at first, trying to get over the woman he so idolized roughly eating at his mouth, but then instinct overcame the uselessness of thought and he was grabbing her face and giving as good as he got.

Akane let out a startled noise, a snort of pain, as Ryouga's fangs nicked her lips and their teeth clash, as he pulled her hair too hard, strands taunt and stretching unbearably between his fingers. At the pained sound, Ryouga pulled back, an apology on his lips, ready to ask what was wrong, but in an instant he found himself spun away from Akane and into Ranma's arms instead. Then Ranma was pinning his wrists behind his back and cupping the nape of his neck with the other hand, smashing their mouths together for a heated kiss.

It was not like Akane's sort of hunger, her whose lips were soft and moist, giving and coxing, wanting something mutual and willing to give to get. Ranma was rough and demanding, overwhelming him with every sensation and wanting to win, as if this lip lock were another battle to be fought.

Ryouga leaned in close, measuring that heartbeat with his teeth, nipping lightly, barely touching, but causing the other boy to shudder and moan. "Shush," Ryouga growled. He saw Akane smirk, a bit too self satisfied for his tastes. He grabbed her wrist and with a quick tug had her against his other side, an arm around her waist and her willing mouth against his.

"What?" he asked her when they were done, leaving her breathless and flushed. She moaned his name in answer, and his expression turned feral. "You like that, baby?" His voice was rough with something, and Akane widened her eyes at the sound, pupils dominating her brown eyes. "You want more?"

Akane nodded and Ranma whimpered, an unmanly sound. Ryouga looked back at him, showing off his fangs, and knew that he had won. They dissolved into a pile of flesh and noise, and could not have pulled themselves from each other for the world.

No experience is ever forgotten. Once it had registered through our senses, it becomes part of our memories, a part of us.

Sometimes our minds conspire against us: we have thoughts that, without even realizing it, influence our actions. To note something in passing is not always an insignificant matter that 'doesn't mean anything'.

At times our underlying thoughts can be so great, that when they become known to us, it is too late to stop them. Perhaps your actions have already spoken for you, or those thought patterns have become ingrained.

Other times, your thinking, and your situation, can have a little help.

Kasumi put the kettle on the stove, burner turned to high. The family was so tense, they needed to relax a little bit. After dinner tea should do the trick.

"Thank you for your help, Nabiki-chan." She smiled at her sister, who was over by the sink drying the plates from dinner.

"No problem, sis." Nabiki shrugged. "You looked like you could use the help."

Upstairs a load crash could be heard, followed by strange noises. In the family room, their father let out another wail. He'd be crying since Akane followed the boys upstairs. Nothing they could do to comfort him.

Kasumi paused, tea cup in hand and glanced up at the ceiling. "What in the world…?" The tray on the counter in front of her was half stacked with their European tea set, plates and spoons and cups. Her brows furrowed in concern.

Nabiki came up beside her and took the cup, setting on the tray, smug to her elder's confusion. "Don't worry, sis. They're fine. Just bonding a little."

"Oh my, I hope they don't strain themselves…" The only bonding between martial artists that could make such noise was, of course, some type of training.

Patting her sister's shoulder, Nabiki told her not to worry, saying, "I'm sure they're prepared. Akane-chan knows what she's doing." She was still smirking.

Kasumi answered her words with a smile. "Yes, of course." The kettle whistled, distracting her from saying anything else.

Nabiki left the kitchen and paused in the hallway, looking up the stairs to the second level. Ranma was so going to owe her, and she'd be sure to collect. Not now, though, since he was so busy.

Satisfied, the girl went to calm down her father.

In the kitchen, Kasumi hummed herself a little tune, letting the leaves seep before pouring the tea. Her little sister really was very sweet, to help Ranma-kun and Akane-chan and Ryouga-kun like this. She knew that it would be hard for them, of course, but martial artists, as they were, were nothing if not resilient.

The tea was perfect when she poured it, a nice dark steaming green. With a smile in place, and the half empty kettle beside the tea cups, she called out, "Father, tea!" Perhaps this would cheer him up.

Through this the schools would be joined; no one had ever said that it had to be traditional.

It wasn't the sun or the chill that woke Ryouga; it was the voices.

"Ranma-kun, what were you thinking?!" Quiet and feminine, but with a harsh tone, like she wanted to shout but couldn't.

Akane-san?

A gruff voice growled back, "What're you talkin' about, Akane? It was your idea!"

"Not like this!" She sounded embarrassed. Was she blushing? He could remember what she looked like, face flushed, sweaty and glowing in the dim light, heaving little breathy sounds and mouthing something…

"Not like what, you uncute tomboy?" Ranma might have been teasing, but without a second thought (and to get those thoughts out of his head) Ryouga automatically responded by throwing a pillow and shouting, "Don't talk to Akane-san like that!"

Ranma was not prepared for the projectile, but years of training let him dodge, sputtering indignantly. Near cracking her neck, Akane-san looked over at him, eyes wide, and yes, she was blushing, and was shock and embarrassed too. Quickly she averted her eyes, turning a darker shade of red, her hands much more interesting than the two men on either side of her.

Ryouga turned to Ranma, angry and upset. "What did you do?!" His voice was raspy, and not nearly as demanding as he wanted it to be. Must have been the screaming. From last night. That set off a blush of his own.

He shook his head roughly, dispelling the dirty thoughts. No! Ranma must have done something. Ranma had done something unforgivable to Akane-san!

"Woah, woah, wait a second, man! Let me explain!" The pig tailed boy held his hands up defensively, ready to defend himself from the glowering martial artist, horrified at his dark, angry aura. "This wasn't how it was supposed to be!"

Ryouga somehow went from laying propped up on his elbow to standing in the time it took Ranma to blink, looming over the defensive boy. Akane-san was just below him, seated at his feet, and he had to lean over her to glare at Ranma. He was all too aware of her proximity (oh so close, and those noises still echoing in his mind), and channeled half jealous rage on her behalf, unquestioning in his right to defend her virtue.

Not that she would have it if she knew his thoughts. Indeed, she was already taking his side.

"How it was supposed to be?" Akane-san asked, anger back and plain as the red aura billowing around her. She joined Ryouga in towering over the cowering Ranma, hands on her hips. "You said you'd explain, so explain! How was it supposed to be, huh?"

Ranma was backed into a corner; he shouted out the first thing that came to mind. "The book said-" His own hands covered his mouth before the sentence could complete itself. Feared added to his eyes as they darted back and forth, looking for a means of escape. From both Ryouga and Akane, there were none: any escape route he chose to take, one of them would grab him.

"What book?" Akane-san ground out, the same time as Ryouga.

Shaking his head frantically, Ranma refused to answer.

"Where is it?" Ryouga growled. Ranma's eyes, wide and frantic, gave him a sense of power. The power he'd been lacking since the other boy had stolen his bread and run away from their fight. Last night he'd won and now Ranma was his.

What the hell?

Like before, Ryouga pushed it away. Another place, another time. His aura evolved into something darker, not sinister, but something beyond anger. "Ranma," he stated plainly, voice heavy, "tell me where it is."

Ranma's eyes were darkening in turn, though he kept shaking his head as if he couldn't stop.

Akane-san added to the effect, moving in closer, eyes narrowed and staring hard down at her fiancé. "What book, Ranma?" She was nice about it, but even trying she couldn't hide her irritation.

Biting his lip, he shrank back as far as he could away from them without it looking like he was retreating because his tattered pride wouldn't let him, blushing and glancing around the room, anywhere but them. Or his bed, which he was on the edge of. His eyes kept flicking back to the pillows, though…

Ryouga noticed, and followed his eyes; Akane, too.

One moment, one chance. Quick as anything, Ranma burst past them, breaking their lax blockade with pure force and dashing towards the door. Freedom! He could go to the Cat Café or Ucchan's and not have to explain himself!

Until Ryouga caught the end of his ponytail.

They tumbled down together, Ryouga falling hard on his shoulder, Ranma ending up tangled in the scattered blankets, face buried in the pillow and limbs at every angle. From under the pillow tumbled a book; it skidded across the floor, stopped by Akane's feet, flipping open in the process.

A thick volume, paperback, worn at the edges and pages marked by multicolor sticky marks they sometimes used in class. Loose notebook paper, once tucked carefully between the pages, scattered when the book flew open, notes in Ranma's untidy hand scrawled across the pages.

'Ranma and Ryouga Together Forever' written time and time again, surrounded by hearts. 'Hibiki Ranma' over a poorly drawn picture of Ryouga and Ranma-chan holding hands, or staring dreamily into each other's eyes.

Panicked, Ranma scrambled for the book. The sheets around his legs kept him in place, and he flailed, trying to pry loose. He managed to get to his knees before he tripped and fell again.

Ryouga maneuvered to the other side of the room without making a sound, wild eyed and pressed up against the wall, as far away from Ranma as he could get. His heart was beating too quickly, and he took it as shock, even though his eyes were still so dark with something and his stomach was doing flips that had nothing to do with lack of food.

They all stared at each other, speechless, in shock.

"Breakfast, everyone!" the cheerful voice of Kasumi-san cut through the silence. It broke the tension, and everyone's eyes immediately broke from each other's, looking anywhere but the book.

Akane raised her voice and shouted down, falsely cheerful, "Just a second, onee-san!"

Ranma was bright red and curled up into himself, pillow over his head. Maybe if they couldn't see him, they'd forget he existed.

"It must be the curse!" Ryouga exclaimed. "It has to be part of the curse." That would explain everything! He was grasping at straws, desperate to explain his rival's inadvertent profession of love. (Like what had happened last night wasn't enough, and of course he wasn't thinking about it, not at all.)

Akane was silent, frowning in concern at her fiancé's shaking form. "Ranma-kun…" she whispered. "I'm sorry…"

"Akane-san?" Ryouga asked, concerned, near hysteria forgotten. He looked at her in askance; however, she only had eyes for the shuddering and terrified young man.

Her eyes pleaded with concern and heartfelt apologizes, baffling Ryouga, and even though Ranma couldn't see it, he felt her sympathy and that gave him strength.

Ranma mumbled something against the pillow, too muffled to hear.

Blinking, Akane asked, "What?"

Ranma lifted the pillow enough to say, "Not the curse."

"What is it, then?" Ryouga wanted to know, even though a part of him was still screaming to flee.

"Your fault," Ranma said sulkily, peeking out from underneath his cover and glaring. Anger over comes embarrassment when you could blame someone else. "You and that stupid fishin' rod."

"But the carp came off!" he protested fervently, flailing his arms in a kind of flustered dance. His heart was still beating awfully hard, and it must be with anger, because that bastard, Ranma, was blaming him for something that was entirely not his fault! "I saw it! You don't, it can't affect you anymore!"

"Yeah, it did," Ranma said dryly, head still buried under a pillow. "Feeling didn't go away."

That struck Ryouga, unbalanced him; anger and anything else he felt were swept away by pure, unbridled shock. "Huh?"

"Feeling didn't go away," the pig tailed boy repeated real slow, eyes hot and glaring and yes indeed they were filled with something much, much worse.

Ryouga hung onto the wall for dear life, fingers digging trenches into the wood. His knees threatened to give out and he squashed a welling feeling of something like hope, such an unknown, contrary emotion to his very nature that he mistook it as fear and if there is one thing he would not be, it was to be afraid!

No anger, only shock; he couldn't even muster up enough sorrow to turn into something useful.

Fruitlessly, he searched the room by sight. Akane wouldn't meet his eyes, even when he searched her face pleadingly, expression saying that she'd known. Nothing make sense anymore!

"W-what?!"

Ranma was fed up. Fed up with pretending and being subtle and whatever else. "You made me frickin' love you, pig boy!" he roared. "What was I supposed to do?"

"What…?" Ryouga could only repeat himself. He was pretty sure his brain was broken.

"It was my idea," Akane-san inferred. "That he…try something."

That earned her a glower. "Didn't tell me 'til last night," Ranma mumbled sulkily. "What happened, anyway?"

"Last night?" she asked, not wanting to talk about it but knowing it was important.

"Yeah, last night. Why'd we, you know…" He looked away, blushing. (Ryouga liked that look on him very, very much. Yeah, his brain was definitely broken and stuck in some weird place that appreciated Ranma's facial expressions as much as he usually did Akane-san's mere existence.) "…jump each other 'n all that?"

"I don't know." Akane shook her head, looking away. "Onee-chan sent me up to check on you after you guys took forever in the bathroom…"

Which set off another round of blushing for Ryouga, who was now remembering what they'd done in there.

"Can we, you know, talk about this stuff later? I'm kinda getting' hungry here." The smells of food were wafting up from downstairs and through the thin paper of the sliding door, filling the room with the inviting scents of a traditional Japanese breakfast.

Akane glared, none too pleased with the interruption. "Ranma, you're always thinking with your stomach!"

"Can't help it, I'm hungry!" Ranma bickered back, falling into a familiar routine. Something normal so sought out it was okay to fight as long as he didn't end up out the roof like usual.

The implications to his statement prevented a rebuke from Akane, she was too busy blushing and looking away. "I'll…meet you downstairs!" she said instead, and fled the scene.

Ryouga's brain was still broken, his fingers digging past the plaster and into the wall. Akane-san had left him with Ranma!

Who was looking directly at him and asking something about food and would he take all day?

Fixated on the blue of those eyes, and spill of untidy hair across tanned skin, the lost boy followed Ranma, transfixed.

Ranma led the boy out of the room, careful to go slow on the stair 'cause pig boy was still so out of it, and noticed that they weren't the only two in the hall.

Nabiki smirked at him and raised an eyebrow. A sheen of sweat broke out on the back of his neck, and Ranma couldn't meet her eyes.

Instead, he grabbed Ryouga's arm. "C'mon, lost boy, let's get you some food."

It was warm and it was nice and it made him happy, and darn it, it was worth owing that collection shark.

Maybe.

Right now there was Kasumi's cooking, Ryouga to one side (daze and his food kept missing his mouth so Ranma took it upon himself to help) and Akane to the other, and a whole heap of their company in the future. Nice way to start the day.

"What's that smile for?" Akane snapped, blushing a darker than red, bordering on purple.

Ranma grinned and said, "Nothin'."