Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“In 500 metres, turn left onto Shakujiikoen-dori.”

Ryouga looks up, deep in concentration as he listens to the GPS’s computerized voice calling out instructions. On the narrow streets, small rowhouses alternating with hole-in-the-wall restaurants, corner stores, it’s hard for him to keep track of where he’s supposed to turn off, so his focus shifts constantly between the screen and his surroundings.

“Turn left. Then, continue straight ahead for one kilometre.”

He silently curses. The one thing he’s tended to appreciate about his navigational difficulties is that the concentration it demands keeps him from his bad habit of rumination, but simple directions like this give him too much opportunity to let his mind wander dangerously far. To think too hard, and too long, about the fact that his destination is the Tendous, where his son and his wife have been since Yoshihiro got out of daycare.

His wife, who now travels here a couple times a week in order to…

Well.

She doesn’t say, exactly, and Ryouga doesn’t ask. But it’s the only right thing to do, he knows, to let her have this one thing amidst her wife’s most difficult time in years. And he can’t ignore, either, how Yoshihiro delights in the days spent with his aunt and uncle. It’s not hard to see why; Ryouga’s sure that he can tell that being around them brings his mother joy, and for all it knots his stomach to see it, he knows that they’re good people, that their joy ought to be all their joy, his own included.

“At the next intersection, turn right.”

Ryouga glances back up at his surroundings. He knows he’s been here before: to his left, the florist. To his right, the 7-Eleven. Just ahead, a Mizuho Bank. How many times had he encountered these landmarks in his teenage years, taking every wrong turn in a desperate attempt to come back to the house that felt more like home than his own, sometimes? More times than he wants to try to count.

“Continue for 300 metres and turn left. Then, your destination will be on the left.”

He thinks about turning off the guidance for more than a moment, to let himself wander once more. But what’s that going to get him, huh? Wandering off for a month and missing his own son’s birthday in the process?

He thinks back to his parents, and bites down hard on his lip. Glancing down at the guidance again, Ryouga heaves a sigh of relief; just another minute or so of walking and he’ll be there, able to busy himself with doing so he doesn’t have to keep doing so much thinking. Just a step, and then another, and then another, and then another, and then—

“You have arrived at your destination.”

He’s here, as if he’d known how to get here all along, as if he’d come here a thousand times and he has. But back then it was home. And now it’s… he doesn’t know what it is, now.

He knocks on the door.

There’s the sound of stirring within, and footfalls that come close, before the door cracks open to reveal him.

Ranma smiles. “You made it, P-chan!”

Ryouga rolls his eyes. “You don’t have to look so shocked. I told you, I can get around fine when I’ve got my phone.”

“Hey, I ain’t shocked, just gladta see ya. I’ve been bored to tears here.” Ranma opens his posture and gestures a hand towards the hall. “C’mon, join me in the kitchen.”

Ryouga raises an eyebrow as he follows Ranma. “Bored, huh? How’d you manage that?”

As Ranma enters the kitchen, he sloshes the teapot around and feels the side of it, shrugging and pouring out a mug for Ryouga. “Kinda lukewarm, but eh,” he says, handing it over. “Yoshi was feelin’ kinda rowdy so we sat him down and put on a movie. My Neighbour Totoro, I think? Anyway, all that and the kid ain’t the only one who goes out cold… she ‘n Akane conked out halfway through too, so it’s just been me awake for the last hour or so.”

Ryouga takes a sip of the tea, nodding along before asking gingerly, “How is Akane feeling?”

Ranma tilts his head back and forth for a moment. “Physically, she seems mostly recovered. She’s sleepin’ a lot, but when she’s awake, it’s been good. Heh, sometimes she looks like she ain’t even been through surgery, but she’s always been tough as nails so that ain’t really all that surprisin’.” Ranma sighs, looking away for a moment. “Honestly, it ain’t really her I’m worried about, though.”

The implication is clear, roiling his stomach. Still, Ryouga can’t disagree with the assessment. For all that his wife seemed relieved, at first blush, to be at Akane’s side, he can’t deny that she seems like she’s been pushed to the end of her tether, some days. As often as not, she’s worked all day before picking up Yoshihiro from his daycare, sometimes leaving him with Plum for the evening, other times driving with him all the way over to Nerima and looking after Akane in her recovery.

“She’s been working a lot. Honestly, probably too much. If it was just that…” Ryouga pauses. “But she also wants to help out over here. And I don’t want to stop her, but…”

“She needs rest too. Yeah.” Ranma gazes over in the direction of what Ryouga assumes is the living room. “I get it, man. It’s hard to see all the people relyin’ on ya and not do what you can for all of ‘em. But she needs a break real bad.”

Ryouga nods glumly. “I wish I knew what’d get her to look after herself when she needs it. These days, I think I hardly know what’s best for myself, let alone…” He trails off, and shakes his head. “And Yoshi, too. You know, his birthday’s coming up and we still haven’t planned anything? Usually, she’s organized everything, but we haven’t made any plans and time’s starting to run short.”

“Well…” Ranma takes his mug into his hands, looking down into it for a long moment before speaking again. “If you wanna take it off her hands so she don’t gotta worry about it, I’d help ya put somethin’ together.”

Ryouga blinks. Although the thought had crossed his mind to try to put something together for Yoshihiro’s birthday party, there had been a heaviness that made taking action feel all but impossible. But when he stops to consider the possibility, it has a logic to it. Though he’s sure some people might see it as odd, for a boy’s father and his uncle to do this kind of thing, the thought of Ranma pitching in to lighten some of the load fills him with a rush of relief, and he smiles gratefully.

“Thanks. I might take you up on that.”

“Good,” Ranma replies with a satisfied smile. “It’s hard, bein’ a kid like that when all the grownups are all sad or worried or worked to the bone. You know something’s wrong, but nobody tells ya shit. Hell, I’ve been there.”

Ryouga snorts. “You? No offence, but I kinda have a hard time imagining your dad in our shoes.”

Ranma’s eyes cloud a little. “He’s always been a real prick, and a cheapskate, and a grouchy old liar.”

“Uh, right.”

“Got no sense of honour. Dumb as a box of rocks. Even tossed me in a pit of cats cause he got it in his thick skull it’d make me tougher. Managed to get me hitched more times ‘n I can count…”

Ryouga winces. “Look, I’m sorry I brought it up, man.”

Ranma’s expression hardens. “I still remember the way he looked sometimes, though. It was always easy to figure when we’d burned our way through the last couple yen from the latest big haul, cause he hardly slept, and ground his teeth up all night when he did. Or he’d drop me off with his stepsister in Shinjuku so I wouldn’t haveta see what he was up to, cause he knew he was no good at anything except fleecin’ people outta their petty cash and the secret techniques of Martial Arts Panty Thievin’. ‘Course, Big Sis was a hot mess too, but at least she always took me to the Lawson and let me buy whatever ice cream I wanted.” He laughs drily. “Guess all I’m sayin’ is we just gotta do our best for Yoshi.”

“Yeah…”

“And also we gotta get him an ice cream cake for his birthday.”

“Uh huh.” Ryouga’s gaze narrows. “Whose birthday are we planning again?” he says, though he can’t hold the look of mock-contempt for particularly long before he starts laughing.

Ranma grins a little guiltily, but doesn’t deny a word of it. “Hey,” he half-whispers in the face of Ryouga’s laughter, motioning downward with his hand. “Sorry, let’s keep it down, huh? I hate to wake ‘em if they’re all gettin’ sleep in for once.”

Ryouga nods, but the comment quickly becomes superfluous, as Akane appears on the threshold of the door, blearily rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Ryouga bites his lip. “Did we wake you? I’m sorry, Akane.”

She waves away his concern, blinking a few times and then smirking. “Not at all. I’m sure Ranma appreciated the company, anyway.”

Ranma gives her a rosy-cheeked smile. “She ‘n Yoshi still asleep?”

“Half-asleep, maybe. I think we all probably needed a little extra rest.” Akane has a look of fondness on her face as she turns back to Ryouga. “So, what were you two whispering about while we were all over there? Finally planning your honeymoon?” she says, sticking out her tongue irreverently.

“Uhhh,” Ryouga’s mind skips like a record for a minute, trying not to think of the implications of what Akane says. She’s teasing him, right? He knows her well enough to know that’s what she’s doing—something she picked up from Ranma somewhere along the way—and yet when she says it there’s a gravity to it, as if she were doing more than just needling him.

Ranma smiles thinly. “We were just throwin’ around some ideas for Yoshi’s birthday,” he explains. “I offered to help Ryo put it together, since she’s been kinda run ragged lately.”

Ryouga’s eyes widen slightly as he looks towards Ranma; what surprises him more than the fact that Akane’s started teasing him is the fact that Ranma doesn’t join in on the fun.

“That’s sweet of you,” Akane replies. “How can I help?”

“Don’t even think about it, tomboy,” Ranma chides her. “You gotta focus on gettin’ better. The two of us can handle puttin' together a party, right?” he elbows Ryouga.

“Yeah, I think so,” Ryouga nods. In truth, he’s not entirely sure what he’s signing up for; not so much the organizing itself, but this time with Ranma, so like his wife in every way that matters and yet not quite her, either. It puts him at ease if he doesn’t think too hard about it, but pondering the concept too deeply leaves him worried he’ll overstep the fragile boundary between the two of them. Because despite what an outside observer might say, it’s obvious that he’s more than a brother-in-law, but he lacks a name to put to the concept other than that Ranma Tendou is the man that his wife might have been.

Ranma yawns and stretches his arms out. “Man, seein’ you guys all tuckered out’s got me gettin’ tired too. You wanna stay the night? I know it’s a long way home for you guys.”

Though Ryouga feels a little uncertain—it wasn’t that long ago that he left this place in furious indignation—that easy familiarity is hard to say no to, least of all from Ranma. “Are you sure? You don’t have to put yourself out on my behalf. I know you have a lot to focus on right now.”

“Hey, it’s no sweat for me. We got plenty of room here, some spare toothbrushes, you can even take the big guest room if ya want. ‘Sides, we don’t mind the company, right?” Ranma asks, turning to Akane.

“Of course. You’re always welcome here, Ryouga,” she adds.

Ryouga sighs, though more out of a sense that he doesn’t deserve their kindness than anything else. “Well, I appreciate the offer. I should probably go ask her what she thinks, and figure out how we’re going to get Yoshi to daycare tomorrow if we take you up on it.”

Over in the living room, Ranma and Yoshihiro sit together under the kotatsu, dimly lit by the television, where the simple animation for the DVD menu repeats itself on mute.

Ryouga crouches in front of his wife. It’s hard to convince himself to wake her with her face this this, its expression more placid than anything he’s seen grace it for a while, and harder still not to wonder if it’s the comforts of this place, of a second home that might really be more like a first home, that makes that smile possible. But he’s going to have to wake her anyway, if only to tell her that she can stay.

“Hey,” Ryouga says, shaking her gently by the shoulder, watching her mouth curl as she lets out a displeased groan.

“Whassat..?” Ranma rubs her eyes and sits up, blinking a few times and shaking her head. “Oh hey, Ryo. I fall asleep or somethin’? What time is it?”

Ryouga pulls up his phone and checks the time. “Around nine. He said you and Akane fell asleep in the middle of watching Totoro with Yoshi,” he adds with a fond smile.

“Ah jeeze,” Ranma runs a hand through her fringe. “He okay? I hope I didn’t leave a bunch of work for you guys to do.” Her movements a little agitated, she starts to stand up. “Why don’t I—”

Ryouga puts both hands on Ranma’s shoulders, keeping her in place. “Yoshi’s still sleeping. And whatever it is you need, I can get it.”

“What about Akane?”

“She’s awake. Sit,” Ryouga says, a little more insistently than last time, trying to channel his own impression of her, to do something for her now even if it’s small. “Do you want some tea or something? I think there’s some still in the kitchen that I can go reheat.”

Ranma’s shoulders sag slightly. “Ain’t it kinda late? What’re we gonna do about Yoshi?”

“Well, they said we’re welcome to stay. I don’t know what you wanted to do, but as long as we can make sure Yoshi gets where he needs to tomorrow, that’s okay with me.”

“Stay the night?” Ranma tilts her head, hesitation seeping into her voice. “That gonna be okay with you?”

“I just said it would be,” Ryouga answers, a little tensely. “Can you take Yoshi into daycare tomorrow? Otherwise, I can take him home with me.”

“Take him home…? Wait, Ryo, where do you think you’re goin’? If I’m stayin’ here, then I ain’t gonna send ya off on your lonesome,” Ranma reaches out to grab Ryouga’s arm. “If you wanna go back home, then I can go pack me ‘n Yoshi’s stuff up so we can head back before it gets too late.”

“No, I…” Even when Ryouga tries to be kind, she can’t help but return it in double measure, can she? And as torn as he feels, Ranma and Yoshihiro are comfortable here. If she’s asking him to stay too, then what kind of husband would he be if he turned away?

Ryouga sighs. “Has Yoshi had his bath? I can get him ready for bed, if you want.”

Ranma raises her eyebrows and smirks. “You got yer soap, or am I gonna haveta go save P-chan later?”

“I’m not as defenceless as you think, Ranma.” Ryouga snorts, and reaches out to gather up, Yoshihiro, who stirs as Ryouga pulls him into his arms and rests him against his shoulder.

“Papa?”

“Hey, buddy,” Ryouga says reassuringly, cradling his son against him. “You get tired out today?”

Yoshihiro nods sleepily. “Yeah…”

“Alright, well, why don’t we go take a quick bath and get you to bed, okay?”

He’s too tired to even acknowledge it, though, just flopping back into Ryouga’s arms and mumbling quietly. With a soft smile, Ryouga pats him on the back and stands up. “Well, I better go before he literally melts, huh?”

Ranma wakes with a start to find herself in an empty bed.

She looks around, squinting into the bright daylight that filters in from the open sliding door, letting in light from one of the hallway windows. After getting her bearings, she recognizes her surroundings as the downstairs guest bedroom of the Tendou home, and sits up on her futon. The spot beside her on the futon is not just empty, but cold too; Ryouga must have already gotten moving a while ago.

“Man,” she mumbles to herself, rubbing her eyelids and groaning. “What time is it?”

She pats the floor around the futon for a few moments, before landing on her phone, unplugging it from the cord that snakes its way to the outlet in the corner and unlocking it.

Her eyes go wide open as she sees the time: 10:33. Panic briefly grips her, her spine going straight as a ramrod, as she considers how many things she’s overslept for. To say nothing of more mundane things like breakfast, she’s missed getting Yoshihiro ready for daycare and taking him there as well, and feels a curtain of shame drape over her for failing in her responsibilities.

Quickly as she can manage, Ranma picks up yesterday’s pair of pants and shuffles into them, then throws on the sweater laid out beside it and rushes out into the hallway. She doesn’t hear any sounds of activity in the house, and as she checks first the living room, then the bathroom, then the kitchen in search of someone else, and finds nothing except the distant sounds of practice from the dojo. Just as she’s about to open the door, though, it opens from the other side, as Akane practically runs straight into her.

“Oh, hey,” Akane smiles. “You’re finally up.”

“Sorry, I musta slept through my alarms.” Ranma scratches the back of her head and peeks out the door. “Where is everybody?”

Akane gestures back towards the dojo. “Ranma’s just teaching the beginner class. I sat in for a while, but I was actually just about to go check on you.” She passes to one side of Ranma, walking back into the house and shutting the door with a small shiver, and beckons Ranma with one hand. “Have you gotten anything to eat? Come on, join me in the kitchen and I’m sure I can rustle something up for you.”

Ranma follows her with a chuckle. “You sure about that, tomboy? Maybe I’ll just take my chances…”

“Oh, I see how it is,” Akane nods with an affectionate roll of the eyes. “Only your own food’s good enough for you, huh? Don’t worry, we might still have some leftovers around.”

“No, no, I’ll tough it out for ya, ‘Kane. Gimme yer radioactive mush, I can handle it.”

“You’re not supposed to agree with me, jerk,” Akane sticks out her tongue as she opens the pantry. “Oh, we have some of these pineapple buns we got from the Cantonese bakery that opened up near Ekoda. He gave one of them to Yoshi this morning.”

“Sounds good to me,” Ranma shrugs. “Everything go okay with Yoshi this morning? Sorry I wasn’t around again. I hope I didn’t give you ‘n Ryo too much trouble gettin’ him to daycare this morning.”

Akane waves off the concern as she pulls the paper pastry bag down onto the table and rifles through it. “Don’t be. Ryouga said he was happy to help, and it looks like you really needed the rest.”

“I’ll haveta thank him for pickin’ up my slack,” Ranma comments, taking one of the buns that Akane offers her, feeling a little guilty that she should be rewarded like this for sleeping through her responsibilities. The least she can do is thank her husband, so after taking a bite of the sweet, flaky pastry, she pulls out her phone and navigates to LINE to write a message to Ryouga. But before she can, she sees another notification from a familiar name.

“Oh shit!” Ranma slaps the count\ertop as she scans the message frantically. It’s from this morning, so there might still be time if she hurries. “I gotta go, ‘Kane!”

“What?” Akane tilts her head, seeming more puzzled than anything by Ranma’s sudden outburst. “What’s going on all of a sudden?”

Before she responds, Ranma furiously punches out a quick reply to Chie.

After finishing, Ranma dashes out of the kitchen, looking for her jacket and her bag. “Chie’s back in town,” Ranma yells as she grabs her bag, then sits herself down in front of the genkan to put her boots on. Akane keeps pace, following Ranma to the genkan, and Ranma continues to explain. “Ryouga’s mom. She’s a lot like him, and they both got a tendency to wander if nobody’s there to guide her home, so I don’t got much time to track her down if I wanna make sure she doesn’t get lost again before Yoshi’s birthday, cause if she does, there’s no way she’s gonna find her way back in time.”

Akane faces Ranma with a soft expression. “That’s sweet of you. I’m sure she really appreciates having someone who looks after her like that when she gets lost.”

Ranma looks back guiltily, dropping the shoelace in her hand. “Sorry, tomboy… I feel like a real heel leavin’ you like this without warning. You gonna be okay on yer own? I can…” Ranma stumbles as she tries to consider her options, but finds that there aren’t many that don’t force her to choose between her mother-in-law getting home and making sure Akane’s looked after.

“Actually,” Akane says with a sharp exhale. “Do you mind if I tag along? I’m feeling pretty good today, and definitely feeling some cabin fever, so I could use a little fresh air. Only if it’s okay with the two of you, of course… I don’t want to intrude.”

Ranma blinks and finishes tying her boots. “Naw, I’m sure she won’t mind the company. She’s a real sweetheart once ya manage to get her in one place for more ‘n five minutes.”

“That’s the impression I’ve always gotten, I just… well, if you’re sure,” Akane replies hesitantly.

“C’mon, ‘Kane, it’ll be fun,” Ranma stands and pats Akane on the shoulder. “When’s the last time you saw her anyway? I’m sure she’ll wanna give ya one of those big huge hugs and hear how yer holdin’ up and all.”

Akane slips into her boots and hums. “You know, I’m actually not sure that I’ve seen her since your wedding.”

“That long, huh?” Ranma pulls both their coats from the coat rack, handing Akane’s to her.

“What about you?” Akane asks as she drapes her coat over her shoulders and wraps a scarf around her neck.

Ranma opens the door, stepping out into the wintry day, and she thinks back to all of Yoshihiro’s birthdays… their anniversaries… no, typically it’s the days that aren’t out of the ordinary when Chie finds her way back into town after a long assignment, and it’s anyone’s guess who else will be there to stumble across her. “I guess it’s been a minute for me too.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re getting to see her again, then,” Akane smiles and steps out as well, shutting the door behind her. “You know, I’ve always been a little bit jealous of Ryouga. I always felt like he got the sweetest parents when it came down to everything. Even if they’re not around very often…”

Ranma flutters her eyelashes. “Sure that ain’t the only reason you’re jealous of Ryo?”

Akane’s breath hitches for a moment, and she blushes, frowns and looks away. “Damn it, that’s not fair, Ranma…”

If Ranma pushes too hard, she at least has the wisdom of years to know when she’s pushed a little too far, and she bites her tongue and hangs her head slightly. “Hey, you know I’m just messin’ with ya, right? I love ya, ‘Kane, it ain’t… I mean…”

“That doesn’t make it better, idiot!” Akane yells, her voice straining, and then sighs. “I’m doing my best here, okay? I still don’t know exactly how what we’re doing is supposed to work, and I don’t want to hurt you or Ryouga or Yoshi.” Akane takes Ranma by the hand and looks at her. “If I’m walking on eggshells, it’s not because I don’t love you, Ranma, it’s just that I can’t…”

Akane pauses, and Ranma can’t stop herself from filling the silence. “Stop yourself cause I’m too pretty?”

“Don’t push your luck,” Akane snorts. “Maybe the one I’m really jealous of is Shampoo, for knowing when to cut her losses and get out of town,” she says, sticking out her tongue.

“Hmph. Betcha if I rang her up and said hey, this tomboy’s too uncute, wanna trade places? She’d be on the next flight to Tokyo.”

“Narcissist.” Akane whacks her on the back of the head, but she can’t resist smiling, either. “Speaking of flying, where are we going? Did Mrs. Hibiki say where she was right now?”

Ranma pulls out her phone and checks her notifications, pulling up one of the photos Chie has sent her. She squints for a moment at the patterns on the tiling on the floors in the background of her photo, and then nods. “Oh hey, she got pretty close this time. That’s Ogukibo Station,” she says, pointing them generally southward.

“That counts as close?” Akane scrunches her face.

“I know,” Ranma chuckles. “Trust me, it’s a miracle she got as close as she did. One time she was comin’ in from Haneda but I hadta schlep all the way over to Chiba cause she took one wrong turn at the station and didn’t realize for an hour.”

Akane smiles congenially and looks up at the blue sky, holding out her arms as if gesturing at the crisp, unseasonably mild weather. “Well, at least the weather’s nice. Are you up to walking down there?”

“Yeah…” Ranma nods. “That sounds great.”

If the walk down in the direction of the Hibikis’ old home elicits a wave of nostalgia in Akane, recalling all of their visits to check in on Shirokuro and her puppies before Ryouga had dropped off the face of the earth for a few years, she’s not sure what stands to happen exactly when they meet Mrs. Hibiki. With the few times Akane has actually encountered her over the years, she hasn’t quite internalized that Mrs. Hibiki is no longer just the mother of a family friend, but Ranma’s mother-in-law, a woman as close to family for Ranma as the Saotomes are to Akane herself.

Of course, the larger difference is that Akane’s never heard a critical word from Ranma about her, and that rather than encouraging Akane to keep her distance, the way things always seemed to go where Nodoka was concerned, Akane finds herself brought along for the day to help Mrs. Hibiki find her own way home. So it’s not as though she’s seriously worried that the two of them will clash, more that she doesn’t know how to justify this nameless relationship between herself and Ranma, doesn’t know how to—or if she even can—reassure Mrs. Hibiki that she isn’t trying to steal her away from Ryouga.

“Don’t tell me I lost ya too, tomboy?” Ranma says, a wry smile on her face as she waves a hand in front of Akane’s face.

“Huh?” Akane shakes her head. “No, I just… sorry, I must have just gotten distracted.”

“No kiddin’.” Ranma taps a sign right in front of the stairs that lead up to the station. “Anyway, we’re here. You feelin’ okay?”

Akane shakes her arms and legs slightly, taking stock of her body feelings. Apart from feeling a little winded, there’s something about being out in the world that reinvigorates her, and she smiles back at Ranma. “Yeah, I’m good. My energy isn’t what it should be, but it’s nice to finally go out and do something for a change.”

“Good, I’m glad.” Ranma nods, then gestures into the station with her head. “Well, we just gotta find Chie now. You remember what she looks like?”

A vague image of Mrs. Hibiki forms in Akane’s head, not enough to describe her, but at least enough to pick her out of a crowd. “More or less.”

“In that case, why don’t we split up to make it easier? I’ll go upstairs and you can take the downstairs. If ya manage to find her before me, just text me and hold on tight before she manages to accidentally take the train to Nagano.”

Akane pumps her fist and shoots Ranma a satisfied expression. “Awright, let’s go!”

After parting ways, Akane begins to stroll aimlessly through the Lumine shopping mall; she does a quick walkthrough of the almost empty clothing store to one side, and the bookstore to the other, but doesn’t find any hint of Mrs. Hibiki. Shrugging her shoulders, she continues down the hallway to the next large area of the mall.

The path winds through a few small, bath boutiques and electronics stores without any customers inside, and opens onto a foyer hosting a large food hall area, where small vendors hawk sweets, snacks, and pastries alongside beautifully wrapped gift fruits and, at the far end, groceries, meats, and fresh fish. Now that it’s around lunchtime, the hall is a far cry from the empty entrance zone; many of the stalls have formed busy queues, meaning Akane has her work cut out for her as she has to slowly work her way through the crowds, peering awkwardly at the crowd of mostly mothers and grandmothers, hoping to catch a glimpse of Mrs. Hibiki.

She doesn’t have any luck with the prepared foods, so she sighs and continues her search in the grocery section, preparing to dive into a crowd when a woman holding an especially long scallion catches her eye. Her hair is wavy, dark brown but shot through with streaks of grey, and she wears thick horn-rimmed glasses, her golden eyes fixated on the vegetable in front of her with a degree of perplexity. It’s when she quirks an eyebrow in that way that’s so familiar that the realization hits her.

“Mrs. Hibiki!” Akane calls, waving over to her with one hand.

Mrs. Hibiki turns, fixing one hand on her suitcase and leaning forward, squinting for a moment before her face seems to light up in recognition. “Akane? That’s you, isn’t it? Gosh, how many years has it been!”

It’s hard not to match the enthusiasm and the excitement on her face, and Akane replies to her with a bright smile of her own. “It has been a while, hasn’t it? Still, it’s good to see you.”

Mrs. Hibiki shakes her head incredulously. “Well, I could say the same to you, kiddo. Look at you, all grown up now and everything! I was really happy to hear it when Ranma told me you would be tagging along.” She glances briefly to each side of Akane and furrows her brow. “Where did she run off to, anyway? I thought I was going to meet her here at Shinjuku Station.”

Akane blinks. “This is Ogikubo Station, Mrs. Hibiki.”

She looks around with a puzzled expression. “It is? I could have sworn…” She shakes her head. “Anyway, I’m just glad you stumbled across me. And please, ‘Mrs. Hibiki’ sounds so stodgy. Just call me Chie, kiddo!”

“Auntie Chie, then.” Akane nods, and Chie responds with a bright smile. Satisfied, Akane continues as she points up towards the next level of the mall. “Anyway, Ranma’s just upstairs. She told me to let her know if I found you and, um…”

Akane pauses and glances down at Chie’s hand, already outstretched expectantly, and takes it in hers a little hesitantly. Ranma wasn’t kidding when she said that Chie’s sense of direction was as bad as Ryouga’s, was she?

With her free hand, Akane pulls out her phone and sends a short message to Ranma.

Then, she turns back to Chie, noticing the sheer relief written on her face and recognizing in it, despite the positive attitude, the same weariness she sees in Ryouga sometimes. “It must be nice to get a chance to come back home. Were you gone for very long?”

Chie sighs and closes her eyes, smiling softly. “A couple months. I’m not sure if Ranma ever told you, but I work as a travel nurse. It can be rewarding, but I won’t be sad when the time comes to retire. I’ve missed enough birthdays and holidays for a lifetime.”

As she tugs softly on Chie’s arm, beginning to walk them back towards the entrance, Akane nods somberly. “It must be hard to spend so long away from your family. Are you going to be able to come to Yoshi’s birthday this year?”

“Thanks to the two of you, I think so!” Chie beams, showing off a pointy pair of canines and reminding Akane of exactly where Ryouga got his own teeth from. “What about you? Ryouga was telling me that Yoshi really hit it off with you and er, Ranma,” she says, stumbling a little on the name and then clarifying, “Er, that is, Ranma-kun, I guess.”

Chie’s awkwardness as she adjusts to the reality of talking about both Ranmas at once is understandable, but also a sudden reminder to Akane that Chie represents a part of Ranma’s life that hasn’t been shared between them, someone he knows only as an old friend’s mother, instead of the mother-in-law she represents for Ranma. Come to think of it, it begins to dawn on Akane how much in Ranma’s life Yoshihiro has changed beyond the simple fact of raising a child.

“He’s such a sweet boy, I’m not sure how anyone could fail to hit it off with him, really,” Akane replies warmly. “But yes, it has been a pleasure to get to see him a little more often than usual lately. It’s meant a lot to me in a… difficult time.”

“I can only imagine,” Chie answers with a soft sigh, and pats Akane’s hand with her free hand. “Well, hang in there, kiddo. Eikou and I are rooting for you, and I know Ranma is too.”

“Thank you,” Akane says, but her attention is quickly captured by the sound of the doors at the entrance of the mall sliding open.

Akane looks ahead of her. At first, all she can make out is a familiar silhouette backlit by the bright outdoors, and then, as the silhouette strides towards the two of them, Ranma’s features fill in with an expression of sheer relief. Akane’s seen her wearing a lot of her emotions on her sleeve over the last month or so, running the gamut from joy to anger, from hope to despair, from confident to flummoxed, but she can’t help but think that what she’s seeing on Ranma’s face now is… if not unfamiliar, then something she hasn’t seen in a long time.

When Akane turns back towards Chie, she realizes, looking back down at her hands, that she’s already let go of her hand, rushing forwards towards Ranma with a relieved smile of her own. “Ranma-ji!” she cries, wrapping Ranma up in a maternal hug.

Ranma squirms and chuckles slightly. “Aw, c’mon, Ma, in the middle of the mall? Yer gonna embarrass me…” She doesn’t sound particularly upset, though, gamely returning the hug for a moment before pulling herself out of it and holding Chie at arm’s length. “I’m real glad you made it back in town. How long do we got ya for?”

“Me too, kiddo,” Chie laughs gently. “A few weeks, at least, and then I’m off to Otoineppu and Bifuka.”

“Again? Jeeze,” Ranma shakes her head. “Back to the sticks already? No rest, huh?”

Chie purses her lips, staring straight ahead as her eyes glaze over slightly. “Don’t get me started,” she says in a low tone, before glancing back at Akane. “But where are my manners. Have you two eaten? I just picked up some groceries, so I can whip up some lunch for the two of you.”

Akane holds up her hands, ready to say she doesn’t want to impose on a woman who must be tired after so long away from home, and the arduous trip needed to get there, but Ranma doesn’t give her time to demur before cutting in. “That’d be great! I woke up late, so I didn’t have a chance to grab breakfast.”

“Well, we can’t have that, can we?” Chie chuckles, and gestures forward with one hand. “Let’s get going then!”

Ranma gently takes Chie’s arm and moves her gesture about 90 degrees, until it’s pointing towards the exit to the mall. “Yeah.” Ranma smiles. “Let’s get goin’.”

When the three of them arrive at the Hibiki house, the first thing they’re greeted with is the sound of enthusiastic barking. A dog with blotchy black-and-white spots leaps up into Chie’s arms as soon as the door to the house is open, and she laughs as she fends off the dog’s paws. “Yes, what a sweet boy you are, Madara,” Chie says indulgently, blowing air kisses to her dog as he leaps up into her embrace.

“Madara?” Akane says, extending one hand tentatively to Madara’s snout and laughing gently when he licks it. “He looks familiar. Was he one of Shirokuro’s puppies?”

“Yes, he was,” Chie says, kicking off her shoes. “We adopted the others out, but he was always her favourite, and we still wanted to have company as she got older. Of course, he’s become quite the dignified old man himself, hasn’t he?” she finishes with a laugh.

It’s Ranma’s turn to greet Madara, and she pats him on the head with a slight roll of her eyes while she removes her own boots. “You sure wouldn’t know it from the way this maniac runs around when you give him the chance.”

As if on cue, Madara races around the genkan in excitement, and Chie puts on a mock huff of indignation. “Don’t listen to her, baby, I know. You’ve been a good boy for Mrs. Nagasaki, haven’t you? Have you been such a good boy for her?”

Madara thumps his tail excitedly, but Ranma scrunches her nose and groans.

“Aw, didja really haveta leave him with Mrs. Nagasaki…? You know she always gives Ryo the stink-eye whenever we come over.”

“Yeah, yeah. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and I know you and Ryouga have got your hands full…”

“Hey, I toldja already. Once we don’t gotta worry about Yoshi leavin’ his toys all over the floor…”

“Yoshi already tidies up after himself more than any other kid I’ve ever met! I’m afraid you two neat freaks are just gonna have to accept that’s how four-year-olds are.” Chie tuts quietly and setting her bag of groceries on the short drawer beside the entrance, but her long-suffering tone hardly lasts a moment before she looks back at Ranma softly. “You mind helping me out with putting away my stuff?”

“Sure, Ma,” Ranma says, picking up the suitcase and hauling it towards the living room, clearly straining from the weight of the thing. Just how much had Chie packed into that suitcase, Akane wonders?

Feeling a bit useless, Akane takes the moment to speak up again. “Can I help you out with anything?” she asks Chie.

“Oh no, kiddo. You’re a guest, don’t you worry about it. If you really want to do me a favour, why don’t you just go on into the living room, settle down, and give Madara a big bear hug so he can’t go make a mess of everything.”

Akane pouts slightly, but doesn’t press the matter, frankly a little terrified at the suitcase that looks like it’s hauling around a sack of bricks—wasn’t Chie pulling it around like it was nothing?—and deciding it’s probably better for her to avoid that kind of exertion right now.

“Come on, boy,” Akane says sweetly, patting her legs and beckoning for Madara to join her. Obviously hungry for attention, he bounds after her, and splays himself out right in front of a cushion for Akane to dote on him, which Akane can hardly find a problem with.

As Akane takes a seat and begins rubbing Madara’s belly, she watches Ranma and Chie fall into a seamless rhythm, feeling a little like she’s been made privy to something more intimate and familial than she’d thought to expect. Ranma unzips the suitcase, laying it out on the floor, and Chie begins to take out ornately carved wooden boxes, one at a time, and lay them out on the floor in a loose pattern. They look like they’ve done this dozens of times before, and it begins to sink in to Akane that Chie is as much Ranma’s mother as Nodoka; at this point, maybe even more so.

“So, wheredja wind up this last time?” Ranma says, glancing down at one of the boxes. “Nagano, huh? That’s neat. Bet the snow’s real pretty this time of year.”

Chie nods, groaning slightly as she continues to unpack the boxes. “Oh, it was gorgeous, kiddo. I didn’t have much time for sightseeing, but I did get a chance to see the hot springs with all those monkeys in them in Jigokudani.”

“Bet Yoshi’d get a kick outta that,” Ranma replies with amusement. “What’s that monkey Pokemon again? Bet he’d call ‘em all that.”

“Oh, I’m one step ahead of you on that,” Chie grins, stuffing her arm back into her seemingly endlessly filled suitcase, and finally pulling out a comically large stuffed monkey. With its stylized face, Akane figures it must be a Pokemon doll of some kind.

“Ma…” Ranma’s breath hitches for a second, and she gives Chie a hug. “He’s gonna love it.”

“C’mon, kiddo. If I can’t spoil my grandson, what am I good for?”

“Alright, alright,” Ranma says, picking up a few of the boxes and carrying them over to a huge shelving unit, where dozens of other souvenirs and knick-knacks are arrayed. “So, what else? You run into anybody?”

“Oh! You remember Young-mi?”

Ranma snickers affectionately. “Yeah, she put me ‘n Ryo up that one time when we got lost lookin’ for the cabin, remember?”

“She’s a doll.” Chie beams. “Well, she and the girls said they’d always wanted to do a ski trip, but they were always too scared of starting cause they’re all beginners. So, I gave ‘em a couple pointers and they were racing down the mountain by the end of it!”

“That where all these boxes are from?” Ranma replies with a knowing smirk.

“Weeeell… she said she had some extra bowls from her last run, so I thought they might make some nice souvenirs for folks, you know?” Chie looks down at one of the boxes, then pauses for a moment, before turning to Akane. “Oh! That reminds me.”

Chie grabs a box, walks over to Akane, and drops it in front of her. “Here, you oughta have one too.”

Akane looks at the box a little guiltily, while Madara sniffs it quizzically, before presumably losing interest when he realizes that it doesn’t smell like food. “Oh no. That’s sweet of you, but I couldn’t possibly, Auntie.”

“Oh, nonsense, kiddo,” she says with a dramatic wave of her arm and a broad grin. “You helped me get home. We Hibikis remember that sorta thing. Heck, with how many times you helped my kid get back here when you were teenagers, you probably deserve a couple of those by now anyway.”

Akane glances past Chie for a moment, up at Ranma, who smiles gamely and shrugs her shoulders. “Thank you,” Akane says. “Again. Are you sure there isn’t anything I can do for you?”

Chie taps her chin. “Well, now that we got all this stuff unpacked, I was gonna go make some food. Why don’t you keep me entertained by telling me what you and Ranma-kun have been up to, huh? I haven’t heard much other than what the kids have told me, so I’m sure there’s a lot you can catch me up on!”

Despite the woman’s relentless cheeriness in everything she’s said to Akane thus far, there’s a part of Akane that isn’t quite ready to believe what she hears, what she feels, this warmth and mothering from a woman who isn’t a stranger, but possibly something even more fraught than that—her wife’s husband’s mother, for heaven’s sake. What could the two of them possibly be to each other, except for enemies?

And yet, Chie thinks nothing of inviting her to her home, showering her in love, handing her an artisanal souvenir and cooking her a home-cooked meal. Where Akane had questioned whether Ranma, Yoshihiro, and Ryouga could really be the family she dreamed of them being, the welcome that Chie offers to her leaves Akane wondering whether she had been worried over nothing all along.

“Alright, Auntie.”

“Fantastic. You guys like dakgalbi?” Chie asks.

“I’m not sure…” Akane hums. “What dish is that again?”

Circling around after dropping off the last box, Ranma pats her on the shoulder reassuringly. “I think you liked it. I made it for ya the other day, remember? That chicken dish?”

With a firm nod and a smile on her face, Akane follows along after Chie and joins her in the kitchen.

“Alright kids, that oughta do it for today.” Ranma claps and nods to himself as he surveys the classroom of small children, then bows briefly. “Remember to bow out, and don’t forget any stuff you put on the genkan!”

After droning out a dutiful, “Yes, sensei,” the children shuffle out one by one from the dojo, and Ranma follows them to the rear gate, where a number of kids skip off on their own, while others rush to greet their parents at the entrance. Ranma smiles and waves, bowing slightly as parents come to pick up their kids one by one, until only one is left standing beside him.

Ranma smiles down at Kazusa. “Good work out there today, kiddo. Betcha yer gonna knock Mom and Dad’s socks off with those new moves of yours, huh?”

Kazusa harumphs and crosses her arms. “I wanna learn the real moves.”

“Real moves?” Ranma chuckles. “Those are real moves you’re learnin’.”

“Not like the ones you and Auntie Akane can do,” Kazusa crosses her arms dismissively. “I saw her blow something up without even touching it once!”

Ranma lets himself imagine, for just a moment, the absolute destruction that Kazusa Ono armed with a technique like a Mouko Takabisha or Bakusai Tenketsu would be capable of, and shivers. “You gotta get a good handle on the basics before you try out stuff like that, Kazusa-chan. Keep at it, though, and you’ll be throwin’ chi like the best of us in no time, huh?”

Kazusa turns up her nose and looks away, refusing to even consider Ranma’s point.

Fortunately, he has a trick up his sleeve, and crouches down to her level with a grin. “Hey, there’s some sweets I got in the pantry just waitin’ to get eaten. Whaddaya say we go in and grab some before we head back to yer folks?”

She turns slowly, a small, sweet smile growing on her lips as she entertains the prospect of a midday sugar rush. “Okay,” she finally says.

They head inside together. Ranma briefly peeks his head into the living room, but it seems that Akane and his double must have run off to do an errand, so he shrugs his shoulders and continues to the kitchen. There, he opens the pantry and pulls out an assortment of candies and snacks and lays them on the kitchen table. He’s always stocked up on them to earn goodwill whenever Kasumi’s kids come to visit, and if he has one or two of them himself, well… nobody else would be the wiser, would they?

Kazusa surveys the full spread of snacks at her disposal, but her eyes don’t linger on them for long before they dart towards the refrigerator. “Uncle Ranma, do you have…” she pauses and chews on her lip. “...ice cream?”

“Oh ho, yer after the good stuff today, aren’tcha,” Ranma raises an eyebrow. “Well, lucky for you, I might have some squirrelled away.”

Kazusa begins to jump excitedly, but Ranma quickly holds out a palm in a stopping gesture to her.

“That’s if ya promise to be good when you go home. I know it feels good to bust stuff up and show it who’s boss, ‘specially when you got stuff to be mad about, but how do you think it makes us grownups feel when we gotta go out and fix it, huh?”

Just as quickly as she had jumped for joy, Kazusa puts on a hangdog expression and sulks slightly. “Sorry…”

“Hey, chin up, kiddo,” Ranma reassures her. “You gonna be good today?”

“Yes,” Kazusa nods vigorously.

“Then c’mon, let’s go getcha some ice cream. It’ll be our little secret,” he says, putting a finger over his lips.

Walking over to the freezer, Ranma cranes down to the lower shelf and pulls out a tub of strawberry ice cream; then, standing up, he fishes out a small container of strawberries, a container of whipped cream, and a small bottle of chocolate sauce. From the assorted sweets laid out on the table, he finds some pre-packaged castella cake and pocky and gets to work at assembling a pair of magnificent parfaits for himself and Kazusa; the kind he’d have killed for (or at least flirted with a shopkeeper for) when he was younger.

Ranma slices a few pieces of the castella into thin strips along the bottom of each scalloped crystal koori cup, creating a protective bottom for the parfaits, before dropping a scoop of ice cream, and then arranging a neat circle of slices of strawberry along the sides of the glasses and draping them with a decorative garnish of whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate sauce. Satisfied with his handiwork, Ranma slides one of them over to Kazusa and proudly awaits her judgment.

Kazusa’s eyes go wide and she takes the spoon with a sense of awe, almost reverently, and scoops out a bite of it and places it in her mouth, before she lets out a sound of delight. “It’s delicious!”

“You like that? Well I’m just glad I got to make it for ya, Kazusa-chan.” Ranma can’t repress the smile that comes to his own cheeks, not just at a job well done, but also in earning the satisfaction of one of the pickiest customers in the Tendou family. Of course, it wasn’t just for her that he’d pulled out all the stops; he takes a spoon for himself and the other parfait and takes a bite of his own.

It’s been too long, he thinks, and the nostalgic flavour is as comforting for him as Kazusa’s happiness. It reminds him of the days he’d drag Akane out to the ice cream parlour if for no other reason to earn them both some space from the household drama (although the ice cream definitely didn’t hurt matters).

It doesn’t take long for them both to polish off their portions, and Ranma rinses out the cups quickly in the sink before patting Kazusa on the shoulder. “Alright, kiddo. Yer mom’s probably gonna wonder where we ran off to if we don’t getcha home soon, so we oughta get a move on.”

“Fiiine…” Kazusa heaves a sigh and rinses out her cup in the sink. “Can I go to the bathroom before we leave?”

“Course you can, kiddo. I’ll grab yer stuff and wait for ya by the door, alright?”

Kazusa nods, and Ranma begins packing up Kazusa’s things—sneaking a few snacks into another bag to bring to her siblings—before waiting for her out by the genkan. With a few minutes to himself, Ranma’s mind wanders to Kazusa’s cousin, wondering whether he might like something like what he just made for his birthday. A strawberry shortcake, maybe, with an ice cream core? He turns it over in his head for a moment, shrugs, and opens a chat with Ryouga.

Ranma’s ready to put his phone down, figuring Ryouga must be busy at work, when he sees activity on the other end, followed by a response.

Ranma smirks and shakes his head.

From beside him, a small voice clears her throat. “Uncle Ranma?”

That’s enough to make Ranma flush bright crimson and pull his phone down to his side; he hadn’t been expecting Kazusa to come back so quickly.

“Are you okay?” she asks. “You’re making kind of a weird face.”

“I’m fine, kiddo,” Ranma shakes his head and laughs. He glimpses down, unlocking his phone again and shooting off a quick text to Ryouga with a smirk:

Then, looking back to Kazusa, he flashes her a reassuring smile. “C’mon, let’s get goin’.”

There’s a shriek from upstairs.

“Hooooome ruuunnnnn!”

The racing feet of a young child, another loud thunk reverberating through the ceiling, and Kasumi heaves a deep sigh. After the handful that Kazusa had turned out to be, she had hoped her two younger children would take more after herself or her husband than, of all people, her quick-tempered little sister. Mentally, she begins to count down the number of years she has until they’re as old as Akane was when she stopped being a regular source of mayhem, and then gives up when she remembers exactly who fell into their lives when Akane turned 16.

“Aki,” Kasumi calls, wincing a little as she hears the edge in her own voice. When she calls up to her son again from the living room, she softens her voice. “Aki, come on downstairs, okay?”

Across from her, Kai looks up from his pile of toys curiously. “Mama?”

“It’s okay, sweetie,” Kasumi sets down the folded towel onto the pile of laundry in front of her and gives a reassuring glance back at her younger son. “Your brother is just being a little bit silly, I’m sure.”

As if on cue, there’s another feral scream from upstairs, and the clattering sound of something falling over.

“Aaakiiiiii…” It isn’t lost on Kasumi that now she’s the one who sounds like her little sister. Sighing deeply, she stands and beckons to Kai. “Come on, honeybunch. We have to go save your brother from himself.”

Gathering Kai into her arms, she starts making her way to the staircase when she hears the sound of keys jangling against the door, followed by it opening to reveal Ranma and Kazusa. “We’re here!” he calls, and Kazusa echoes it with her trademark sullenness.

Kasumi doesn’t know whether the timing is terrible or brilliant, but at the very least it seems to distract Aki, who immediately comes bounding down the stairs. Kai, too, manages to wiggle his way out of Kasumi’s grasp and heads straight for the door. Within a minute, the two brothers have swarmed around Ranma, jumping up and down and exclaiming, “Uncle Ranma!”

“Hey, you two,” Ranma chuckles and pats the two of them on the head. “Good to see ya. You kids been good?”

By now, Kai and Aki know the answer to this question. “Yeah!” they both shout.

“‘Course you have.” Ranma glances briefly up and quirks his eyebrow, asking Kasumi the same question silently.

Kasumi just sighs and waves her hand. Part of her wants to chide him for his relentless indulgence, but another part of her is simply relieved that he has any kind of capacity to keep her wild children pacified for more than a moment.

Ranma smirks and starts rooting around his handbag, no doubt for that bag of snacks he constantly seems to be carrying around whenever he’s around her children. After a moment, he snaps his fingers and pulls out a small container of chocolate Pocky. “Here ya go. Don’t eat ‘em too quick now.”

Aki tears off the foil and immediately jams half of the Pocky sticks into his mouth; Kazusa, meanwhile, holds out her hands, passing on the sweets, and slips out barely noticed and heads for her bedroom upstairs. Kai, the shortest of the bunch, tugs on Ranma’s pant leg until Ranma gamely swoops him up with one hand, letting him clamber onto him and passing him the remainder of the Pocky box with his free hand. Then, turning back to Kasumi, he gives her a gracious look. “Hey, Kasumi. You holdin’ up okay?”

“Oh, I’m alright. We don’t have much exciting going on right now, I was just folding some laundry while Kai kept me company down here.”

She’s gotten good at this by now, the thin smile and deflection a well-worn refrain, but he’s even better at seeing through it, because he dispenses with the usual etiquette of the polite back-and-forths about nothing and goes straight to offering her what she’d really like more than anything: a break. “Why don’tcha take a load off for a bit? I don’t gotta teach again for another couple hours, so I can help ya tidy up or whip up some food if you want.”

And there he is again to save the day. It’s one of his nobler points, Kasumi has to admit, and where she once might have been too proud to accept what it might say about her capacity as a mother, the dark circles under her eyes tell the whole story, and she doesn’t even put up the pretence of a protest to Ranma’s offer, her brows drooping graciously. “I really appreciate it, Ranma.”

“Nah, don’t mention it,” he replies with his trademark modesty—and how strange, Kasumi thinks to herself, that the teenager whose first impression was that he had an ego the size of the sun, that she’s come to know the way he habitually puts others first—and he beams back at Kasumi, before picking up Aki and throwing him onto his other shoulder, turning himself into a walking jungle gym. “So, you guys hungry? Whaddaya say I make ya some omurice?”

“Yeah!” Aki pumps his fist excitedly.

“Whoa there, kiddo,” Ranma pats Aki on the leg and shepherds in his stray arm as they pass by one of Toufuu’s antique Chinese medicine jars on display, continuing into the kitchen. “Careful with your arm there, okay? We wanna make sure we don’t get so excited we break any of yer mom and dad’s expensive stuff.”

For a moment, Aki writhes in frustration, clearly still more energy in him than he knows what to do with, but then Ranma sets him and his brother down and says, “Hey, I gotta real important job for you, okay? I’m gonna need some help makin’ lunch. You think you can crack some eggs into a bowl for me?” He turns around, grabbing a large mixing bowl from under the countertop and passing it over to Aki, and then quickly fetching the container of eggs from the fridge.

As Aki directs his focus intently on his task, Ranma’s attention gets just a few moments to his own preparation, pulling out an onion, a carrot, a chef’s knife, and some cooking oil, before it turns just as quickly to Kai, who’s taken all of a minute to get himself into trouble, opening one of the drawers and sticking his head inside to explore the exciting world of whirling, sharp-edged kitchen appliances.

“Nah, don’t look in there, Kai-chan,” Ranma tuts, putting him back into place in one of the seats and pointing back at the wok. “Watch carefully, alright? I’m gonna show ya something cool.”

After seasoning the pan and cranking the heat on the stove, Ranma holds the onion in one hand and his knife in the other. With a flourish of the knife, he gracefully dices the onion in mid-air, letting the pieces fall into the pan with a soft hiss, while the peels harmlessly float back down onto the cutting board.

Ranma’s audience—Kai and Aki—laugh with delight, and their eyes go wide over the display of prowess. “Do it again!” Kai claps.

“Okay, one more,” Ranma says with a thin smile, and repeats his acrobatics with a carrot, peeling and slicing the carrot in mid-air. “Now remember it’s dangerous to get close to the stove while it’s cooking, so be good and let Uncle Ranma do this part, alright?”

Pacified by awe, Kasumi’s two sons watch as Ranma moves on to the next part. Emptying a container of leftover rice into the pan, he tosses the contents of the pan into the air with a flick of the wrist and then catches them a moment later.

Ranma huffs triumphantly, turning the burner down and setting the pan aside. “Okay, there’s gonna be plenty more time to watch me do tricks later, so let’s get movin’. Aki, when you’re done with the eggshells, can you hand em to your brother? And Kai, when Aki gives ya all the eggshells, can you bring em over to me? We all gotta work together here.”

The two children nod and set to work at their task, and Ranma’s gaze finally turns back onto Kasumi. “Sorry for takin’ over there for a minute. Hope ya don’t mind me goin’ through some of the stuff in the fridge.”

Kasumi just shrugs and smiles. “It’s there to be eaten. Besides, I should be thanking you for cooking at all.”

Ranma frowns, his eyes narrowing subtly. “Toufuu ain’t been pitchin’ in his fair share lately?”

“No, that’s not it,” Kasumi says with a shake of her head. “But he’s usually working at lunch time, so even with Kazusa off at school or lessons, I’ve always got to make it while trying to deal with these two raising hell. You would think with how long I did just that for the whole family before I moved out, I should be used to it by now, but…”

“Nah, I get it. It ain’t easy doin’ all that stuff when you have a buncha kids to keep track of. Or so I imagine.”

Despite what she’s sure are his best efforts to put on a brave face, it’s impossible not to notice how Ranma’s expression darkens just a little at the topic, and Kasumi puts a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. “You know more than you think, you know. And you make it look easy at that.”

Ranma scratches the back of his neck sheepishly with one hand, turning his body back to the stovetop and idly scraping down the sides of the pan with the other. “Well, I think I get how they feel a little. Kids get bored easy, but if you give em something to care about, they can sit there doin’ stuff for hours.”

Kasumi glances dubiously over at the unfolding scene of Aki messily cracking eggs into the mixing bowl and handing their crumpled fragments over to his younger brother. “I appreciate the sentiment, but… do you think that’s going to be okay over there? They’re making quite the mess.”

Ranma replies with a thin-lipped smile. “Well, wouldja rather have a little eggshell in your omelette or a kid screamin’ about baseball at the top of his lungs?”

“...Well, I suppose you make a good point.” Kasumi suppresses a small laugh. “I can’t say I’m complaining about the volume in the house right now,” she finishes, unable to suppress a slight yawn.

He tilts his head. “Sure you don’t wanna take a nap or somethin’? I gotta pretty good handle on ‘em right now, I think. I can save ya a portion when I’m done, if you want.”

“Thank you, Ranma. I might take you up on that, if it’s not too much of a bother,” Kasumi says with a sigh. “I should probably check on Kazusa, anyway.”

As Kasumi exits the kitchen, coming to the foot of the stairwell, Ranma adds before she leaves, “I know she’s a handful, Kas, but don’t worry too much about her. Yer a good mom, ya know that? She’s gonna be okay.”

It’s a strange reminder, Kasumi thinks as her cheeks warm at the compliment, that so many people still remember Ranma as if he were still his teenaged self, a self-centred, swaggering martial artist. It’s this version of him, though, that she thinks might be the most authentic version of him she’s seen, the Ranma who looks after his friends and family as if he were their mother.

With a full stomach and the warm comfort of an afternoon spent in the company of Akane and Chie, Ranma feels comfortable for the first time in a long while.

A little too comfortable, she realizes, as the first time she glances down at the clock, she catches a glimpse of a flurry of texts from Ryouga and how quickly the time has gone by.

“Dammit!” Ranma hisses, and then looks up. Across from her, sitting at the low table in the living room, both Chie and Akane look at her blankly.

“Is everything alright, Ranma?” Akane asks, resting her chin on her knuckles, her face scrunching up a little with nerves.

“I gotta go!” Ranma gets up from the zabuton and picks up her plates and utensils frantically. “Gotta pick up Yoshi from daycare!”

“Oh jeez, good catch, kiddo,” Chie replies. “And hey, don’t worry about the dishes. I’ll clean up that stuff, and you can focus on heading over to grab your kid. You gotta make sure he’s happy and healthy for the party, right?” she adds with a smile.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Ranma answers, though it’s hard for the praise not to feel empty when she had, if only for a moment, let herself forget about her responsibility to her son.

And yet, in the end, she finds herself right back where she was a few hours ago, facing the prospect of abandoning one family member for another.

No, not one. Two.

And this time, her selfishness in trying to have it all, to bringing Akane with her—to her mother-in-law’s house, of all places, salting the wound at both ends in a way neither of them deserved—has put them all in an awkward situation. Ranma’s going to be cutting it close as it is heading straight to Yoshihiro’s daycare; of course, that means leaving Akane on her own here at Chie and Eikou’s house, having to sort out her own way back to her own home.

“Akane,” Ranma asks, her voice a little unsteady, “are you gonna be okay? Like, gettin’ back and all?”

Akane shrugs. “Well, I might not walk all the way home, but in the worst case, I’m sure I can get a cab. I think I have my wallet here with me somewhere…”

Akane’s the same as ever, a gracious guest, but Chie does her one better as a gracious host. She takes Akane’s hand gently, stops her from rummaging around in her purse, and offers her a reassuring grin. “Don’t even worry about it, alright? Me ‘n Eikou have a frequent rider discount with the local taxi company, so just lemme know when you’re ready to head home and I’ll call one for you.”

“Thank you, that’s really kind of you,” Akane replies.

“I told ya already, she’s a sweetheart,” Ranma says as she collects her bag and tosses her phone into it, then turns to Chie. “Thanks for lunch, Ma. Try not to wander off before Yoshi comes over, alright?”

“Oh, I’m not going anywhere if I can help it,” Chie answers firmly. “With any luck, my husband might come by too.”

Ranma waves and makes for the exit, listening as Akane and Chie continue their conversation. But for all that Ranma craves to spend more time with the both of them, the more pressing matter of picking up Yoshihiro takes priority, and she forces herself to walk away

“You must miss your husband while he’s gone. Is he out of town as often as you?”

“He’s an interpreter, so he’s always getting dragged along on some trip or another whenever there’s a big meeting. It means he comes by more often, but he’s never around very long when he does, poor guy.”

“I hope he comes by again soon.”

“Thanks, kiddo. I’m sure he’d love to…”

The conversation grows more faint as Ranma walks out of earshot, and finally fades to nothing when Ranma shuts the front door of Chie’s home behind her. Then, glancing down at the time once more, Ranma girds herself, then begins a sprint for the train station.

It’s not until she reaches the first place she can actually sit down, a train on the Marunouchi line after a gaggle of old women have disembarked at Shin-Nakano Station, that Ranma’s heart rate comes down from the thrumming pace that’s been driving her to action since she left her in-laws’ home. Glancing down at the time on her smartphone, she worries she might be cutting it close, but there isn’t anything she can do at this point other than wait.

It’s hard, in the dead air of the transit, crammed in with a bunch of salarymen and commuters, not to dwell on the implications of where she finds herself. Running late, taking a train halfway across the city back to where her son is, all because she can’t keep herself away from her past in Nerima.

There are so many reasons Akane’s cancer is an injustice, but most of all, Ranma wonders whether the greatest injustice of all is that a child was denied the chance for someone like Akane to be their mother. She’d have done it well, better than whatever it is that Ranma’s doing now, spread thin as she is against the demands of her life, leaving everyone to get less than what they deserve from her. But Akane’s always been so determined, so strong in the face of anything, that the world would surely have bent to her will, letting her do anything and everything a mother ought to be.

And if a part of Ranma mourns that she couldn’t be the one to make Akane a mother, she wonders whether that would really have been any better. Maybe the answer is that someone else would have been better for Akane from the start. Someone kind and strong, devoted beyond belief, with a good heart and a good family.

Someone like Ryouga.

She shakes her head. It’s stupid to indulge in what-ifs when there are people depending on her right now, the people she’s depended on to achieve the happiness she’s clawed from the life she was left with. For now, she stands and sets herself back on her mission, hustling out of the train and making for Yumenokuni Preschool.

Most of the remainder of the route passes by unremarkably, but when she rounds the corner to the last block in front of the daycare, she notices a man walking a few steps across from her. She can’t place his name right away, but his dark chapatsu hair and the sharp cowlick that pushes up his fringe is surprisingly familiar.

After a few moments, he looks back at her, squinting for a moment before his eyes widen. “Wait a sec… Ranma?”

His response is genuine, but it reminds her of the sarcastic lilt of one of her old high school classmates, and after a few seconds, the name comes to her. “Daisuke? That you?”

“Hey. Almost didn’t recognize ya without the pigtail,” he laughs and gestures at an imaginary lock of hair at the nape of his neck.

“Heh, I ain’t worn it in a while,” Ranma replies, though it’s hard not to be a little self-conscious with the reminder that she hasn’t seen Daisuke in long enough that there’s a lot more than the braid that he doesn’t know about. “What’re you doin’ here?”

“Well, when a guy and a girl fall in love…” Daisuke smirks to himself. “Yeah, a couple years later he’s gonna find himself recruited to go pick up the kid from daycare every so often.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Ranma chuckles. “Well, congratulations, anyway. Though maybe I oughta be sending my apologies to yer wife.”

“Jesus, man. Shots fired,” Daisuke replies, but he’s laughing too. “You still got me pegged as a horny teenager or something?”

“Yeah, yeah, people change,” Ranma waves like she’s swatting away a fly. “Seriously though, that’s great. Which one’s yours? Maybe my kid knows ‘em.”

“That’d be Suzu, she’s with the 4s and 5s.”

Ranma slaps her forehead in recognition. “Right…! ‘Suzu Takahashi.’ Now that I think about it, she’s got yer cowlick, too,” she gestures to her forehead and laughs. “She’s a good kid. Yoshi always gets along with her, or so he says.”

Daisuke clicks his teeth as the two of them come to a stop in front of the daycare, where a crowd of other parents wait for their children. “Yoshi, huh? No kidding. I think she’s mentioned him a couple times too.”

“Small world, I guess,” Ranma shakes her head. “I’ve only ever seen your wife pick her up before, I guess.”

“Yeah, Sacchi works part time, so it’s usually easier for her to do this kind of stuff unless it’s the weekend.”

Ranma raises an eyebrow. “Hey, it’s 2012, man. Dads gotta get with the times and put in their fair share.”

Daisuke smirks as he leans against the railing of the fencing in front of the daycare. “Oh, I’m sure you’d know all about that,” he says smugly. “How’s Yoshi like having two moms, huh?”

He can’t know the irony of what he’s saying, but Ranma laughs anyway. As much because of the bitter truth that Daisuke—who Ranma hasn’t seen since before a sword split her life in half—is unwittingly right, as because of the small part of her that drinks in the casual implication that Akane is still her wife.

But unlike the times before where an old friend has crossed her path, where she found herself forced to grind out the miserable truth that she and Akane had parted ways and lived apart, now she lunges at the intoxicating possibility that, for just a moment, Ranma can step into his shoes and be Akane’s husband again.

“Wouldn’t ya know it, but he can’t get enough of it,” Ranma responds with a wry smile. “Hell, who can blame him? I sure coulda used a pair of moms at his age… best I got was pretty much that big sis who bought me chocolate pudding and taught me how to scam guys outta cash.”

“Sorry, dude, I forgot how messed up your childhood was,” Daisuke laughs alongside her, shaking his head incredulously. “How’s Akane doing, anyway?”

“Well…” Just as quickly, Ranma’s brought back to earth by the statement, although there’s a vein of satisfaction that she clings to, that even though the answer to his question isn’t a good one, she doesn’t have to pretend to talk about Akane. “She’s caught a couple tough breaks lately.”

Daisuke rubs the back of his neck. “Sorry, I didn’t wanna bring up bad vibes. We don’t haveta get into it.”

“It ain’t that, just… I didn’t wanna drop somethin’ heavy on ya without warning.”

“Well, hit me. I dunno if Sacchi ever told ya, but I work as a psychologist. Apparently I got a ‘good ear’, or so they say.”

“Psychologist, huh? Man, I wouldn’ta ever guessed that,” Ranma answers with a raised eyebrow.

“Don’t look so surprised,” Daisuke responds with a slight pout. “Everyone’s gotta pay the bills somehow, right? Why, you gonna tell me you’re still running around beatin’ up monsters for a living?”

Ranma rolls her eyes. “When ya put it that way, you make it sound like Sailor Moon.”

“So? Dude, I know you can rock a miniskirt if you want to.”

“Who’s a horny teenager again?” Ranma replies with a glare.

“Sorry, sorry! I mean it as a compliment!”

“...You ain’t wrong, though,” Ranma smirks. “But I getcha. I still do a little teachin’ on the side, but mostly I work as a physical therapist these days. There’s a whole lotta grannies out there with ankle and back problems.”

“Nah, I can see that,” Daisuke says with a critical eye. “You guys were always goin’ over to that bonesetter guy a couple blocks away, right?”

Ranma snorts. “Usually cause Akane walloped me and dislocated somethin’, but yeah, Toufuu. I ain’t seen him as much lately, but he was a big help when I was gettin’ through vocational school, and when I graduated he helped me find a clinic down here in Sumida that had an opening.” Ranma pauses and glances back at the doors to the daycare, where the first few children have begun to straggle out. “Might be seein’ a little more of him soon, I guess, since he’s been helpin’ out a bit with Akane.”

Daisuke’s expression tightens up again. “You mentioned Akane’s been having some issues. Is she okay?”

Ranma makes a so-so gesture with her hand. “She’s been dealin’ with cancer. They caught it pretty early, but it’s still her second time. All the treatment’s goin’ okay so far, but I mean, if it were really all that okay, she wouldn’ta got it in the first place.”

Daisuke shakes his head gravely and puts a reassuring hand on Ranma’s shoulder. “Fuck cancer, man. It’s a real bitch, especially that young. How’s she holding up?”

“I mean, you remember Akane. She’s tough as nails, but she’s still gotta do a couple rounds of chemo, so it ain’t exactly a cakewalk.”

Daisuke exhales. “Well, I know it doesn’t mean much, but give my good luck to her. I saw my aunt go through all that and it’s real hard on you, but I’m sure she’s gonna come out stronger on the other end.”

“Thanks, man. It’s rough, but I know she’s gonna knock it outta the park.”

“Amen to that.”

There’s a moment of quiet between them, but it’s not uncomfortable, the two of them instead turning to the growing crowd of children walking out of the daycare building. To the side of them, a few parents have already begun to flag down their children and take them by the hand, while a couple others have walked into the courtyard to get a better look at where their children might be.

The first child Ranma recognizes is Suzu, who skips over to greet her dad. A few paces behind her, Ranma tracks down Yoshihiro in the crowd. When their eyes meet, his face lights up and he rushes towards her as well. “Mama!” he cries.

Beside her, Daisuke shoots her a skeptical look. Maybe she’s been kidding herself, letting Daisuke believe in this fantasy world where time stopped when they were nineteen, but she can’t fault herself for taking the rare opportunity when she can, and she just shrugs and offers him a sheepish smile in return before turning back to her son.

“You have fun today, kiddo?”

“Yeah. Papa brought me today but we got lost so we had to explore and then we found a place that had fancy hot chocolate and they gave me some hot chocolate!” Yoshihiro exclaims in a single breath, somehow.

“Nice score.” Ranma offers Yoshihiro a high five, then leans in conspiratorially. “Think you can show me where ya found it next time? You know how yer momma feels about chocolate…”

Yoshihiro giggles. “Of course, mama.”

Beside the two of them, Daisuke gets his own report from Suzu, chuckling as he tries to get a word in edgewise. When he finally gets a chance, he emerges from the conversation and cocks his head towards Ranma. “Hey, it was nice to see ya again, man. No pressure, but you wanna catch up sometime? Maybe let the kids have a playdate or something, grab a drink?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Ranma replies, although she knows that any more than this will break the spell, that she’ll have to step out of the comfort of these old shoes and back into the other pair, just as broken in by now, though they could never be a replacement.

Daisuke pulls a business card from his pocket, scribbles something onto it, and holds it out to Ranma with one hand. “I know it’s kinda cringey, but here. My LINE.”

“Thanks, man.” She flicks the card over with one hand and snickers at the card’s soothing design, while pulling up LINE on her phone with the other, punching in Daisuke’s information, and sending off a message.

Across from her, Daisuke’s phone pings, and he flicks his gaze down to confirm it. He’s about to put the phone down when he does a double take, squinting at his phone again. “Wait a sec… ‘Hibiki’? What’s that all about?”

“That’s a long story,” Ranma says, then puts her arm around Yoshihiro’s shoulder. “We gotta get goin’, though. Tell ya next time?”

“I… yeah, sure,” he says, and for a moment, Ranma sees something flicker in his eyes, feels his attention drawn to her in a way she’s never seen from her old friend, and suddenly, the idea of Daisuke as a psychologist no longer feels so absurd to imagine.

Then the moment fades, and he smiles, waving Ranma off as he turns to his own child.

Ranma lets out a breath. She feels exhausted, suddenly, as if she had never slept at all, still willing herself awake, staring bleary-eyed at her phone in the Tendous’ guest room.

“Come on, kiddo,” she says at last, pulling Yoshihiro closer to her. “Let’s go home.”