Wild time Chapter 2 Disclaimer. The characters and situations aren't mine. Yet. SLAM! The door flies and open and bashes the wall next to it as I step in. I move a bit to the side so that when it misses while it rebounds shut. I stomp through into the middle of the waiting room of Ranma's Clinic and Chiropractor building and plop myself down onto one of the cushy chairs. This time I'll see it. I've positioned myself so that I can see both the exit and the door to the back room easily. There's no way in hell he'll be able to sneak up on me this time.... "Why hello. Is everything all right Setsuna?" a voice speaks up from right behind me. "EEK!" I shriek, startled, and my reaction to the surprise of discovering that Ranma was right behind me leaves me clinging to the ceiling and shaking like a sugar fiend half way through a box of Lucky Charms. "DAMNIT! Every time! How do you do that!?!?" "Oh my," he responds calmly, both hands clasped behind his back and his head cocked to the side as he peers up at me. "You seem awfully high strung today. Would you like a cup of tea and a plate of cookies?" One deep breath later I return to the floor. "You have no idea how weird today was," I tell him primly. "I'll get the chocolate-mint wafers," he tells me sympathetically. Chocolate-mint wafers. If there is anything in the universe better than chocolate-mint wafers, then... well, then nothing. The simple fact is that there is nothing better in the universe than chocolate- mint wafers. "You do that," I tell his back as he heads off to the back rooms. While he's gone I start pacing around the clinic. A quick glance at the receptionist desk shows that it is once more empty. Jeez. He goes through those like a cold victim through tissues. **** Now, some of you readers might be wondering to yourselves, 'My, my. What IS going on?' Others might be simply going 'duh?' Either way, let me give you a quick rundown of why I am once more at the Ranma's clinic. It's the one oasis of sanity left in my life. That's why. During my first meeting, after I had told Ranma my story, he had been sympathetic. After a nice cathartic cookie binge he had extended me the invitation to drop by whenever I needed some cookies again. Which is kind of cool, because if he said whenever I needed to talk to anyone, I would have ignored him completely. However, with the offer of food, my return was almost guaranteed. The next day, after a scuffle between some of my fiances, (Akane, some guy from Jupiter with a penchant for drugs, and another guy from Mars that enjoys making pizza) I dropped by and discovered that however good Ranma is at sneaking up at people, he's even better at patching them up. After that well, it was only natural to drop by whenever something happened. Some rival from a moon around Saturn, or a run in with the things that Akane calls cooking, an attempt at seduction, or just whenever I get knocked out of the house before I have the opportunity to eat. There's always a good reason to stop by. Great cookies too. **** "What happened to the new receptionist? What's-her-face? Vicky?" I ask Ranma when he returns. While he places the tray down on table by the chairs, he taps the wall behind him with one hand. Next to the "Absolutely no sex" sign a new one has been placed up. "Please refrain from seducing the doctor." "Again?" I ask, kind of awed by it. It's amazing how many he's resisted, and discouraging at that. If he refuses the others so easily, how does that affect my chances? "How many is that now? Eight?" "Yes," he sighs quietly. "It's so hard to find good help these days," he continues in his calm tone of voice, and helps himself to a wafer. He takes a sip as I shove five cookies into my mouth and begin munching. "So. Would you like to tell me how your day was?" "Sure," I mumble out, the sound muffled by the cookies in my mouth. "It went a little something like this..." **** "PRUDE!" Akane bellows at me, before unleashing a mallet. You know, it's not like I enjoy being malleted, but the most annoying part of the whole ritual is the whole 'prude' part. I'm not a prude, damn it. I like sex as much as the next Plutonion. It's just that I don't want to do it with her, that's all. Of course, if I tell her that a mallet will be the least of my concerns. "Stupid tomboy!" I manage to make out as I'm propelled through the air. Below me Mousse turns to start yelling at Akane for knocking me into next week. Mousse is originally from Jupiter, some kind of barbarian tribe there. It seems that I made such a good impression on them when I stopped by for some training that the tribe as a whole married me to him. The biggest problem with this is that they never told me about this little arrangement. So when I left, they organized a little task force containing my want- to-be husband and his grandmother, a twisted little gnome called Cologne, to come and get me. Some chick that has a crush on this Mousse character named Shampoo tagged along, but she's more interested in killing me and claiming her beloved then dragging me back, so it's easier to deal with her. After a long flight (I don't need to describe it, after you've heard about one you've heard about them all) I find myself once more down town bereft of food and cash. A moment of privacy was nice though. Sighing, I turn towards home and begin the trip. "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step," I mutter to myself. I was dressed in a green Jupiter style shirt (Author's note. That's kind of like one of those Chinese shirts where one side crosses all the way over to the other before it buttons down. It's similar but different to the shirts Ranma wears in the canon universe) and a comfortable pair of black pants. I start to hum as I tuck my hands behind my head as I walk, and I let my elbows swing back and forth in time with my steps. To the left of me are a bunch of tall office buildings, with little signs that proclaim the names of the owners. The signs don't even bother saying what the offices are for. I guess that the only people interested in their business have to hunt them down. It's not like you get a lot of impulse buying/window shopping for lawyers and accountants. Across the street to my right more simple stores: coffee shops, drug stores, and private retailers. Every couple of blocks or so a street vendor has decided to station themselves, providing a bunch of really neat smells like hotdogs and stuff. Another nice day. I guess getting walloped across town wasn't that bad after... GRUMBLE. I sign and slump forward in defeat. I. Just. Can't. Win. "Hey lady. You hungry?" a voice says behind me. I grunt. "Yea. And broke too." Suddenly a delicious smell wafts under my nose. I peers up through my hair, which had fallen in front of me, and come face to face with a corndog. Further traveling of my eyes reveals one of those street vendors I had seen earlier behind the offered food. "On the house. Just do something nice for someone else today," the guy grins. "...Thanks," I thank him, and then lit up with a smile while I took the offered corndog. I move on, taking small bites of the food to make it last longer. "Well," I mumble to myself through a mouth full of delicious snack food. "That was pretty cool." I casually tilt my head to the side to get a better angle at the food, and when I do so a flash of red catches my sight. Chewing, I move for a better look. SPATUEY! Some guy next to me finds himself suddenly a lot more disgusting when I spit out the food I had been munching on a second ago. That flash of red. Hair. Red hair, combined with a business suit, and one of the most provocative walks I have ever seen. Ranko. Two blocks down from me on my right. She's facing away from me, but that doesn't matter. I can tell it's her anyway. I open my mouth to shout at her, get her attention, but then stop. Who was she? How had she known my name? I think now might call for some covert operating. I start to follow her, keeping a block back at all times. After a three minute, and an altogether anticlimactic chase scene, I stop at the end of the block and peer through a window display as the woman called Ranko sits herself down at a open air coffee cafe. I kept watching for another minute, and then another woman joins her. The new woman is taller than Ranko, but just as graceful. She has small wave of rich black hair that just brushes the tips of her shoulders and she's wearing fashionable black dress. She, like Ranko, is incredibly hot. Together the two of them cut quite an elegant pair. The two start talking as a waiter brings them both drinks. I step back from the window I'm looking through, so that the wall is between us. I've come this far, nothing left to do but follow through. After a quick loop around the block, I'm now approaching the cafe from behind the two. A second later, and I'm two tables away, and blocked from their sight by a row of decorative potted plants. And now for some eavesdropping. "Are you sure about she's the one?" is the phrase that greets me as I start listening in. It doesn't sound like the voice that I remember being Ranko's, so it must be the other chick. "From what I've seen, she's a lot different." "Yes," Ranko answers, and I get a warm tingle all up and down my spine. Is it just me, or is it getting warm in here? How can anyone have such a sexy voice? "I suppose she is. But you must remember, Ho-chan (author's note I hate using Japanese lingo in an English fic, but I can't think of any other way to translate the expression), I never knew her from before." "Yes. Yes, I suppose you didn't. I apologize, Ran-chan." "There is no need." The two stop talking for a second, and the sound of drinking meets my ears. Right about then, I realize that I'm still clutching a half eaten corndog. A quick bite tells me its still good, so I chow down. "Ran-chan..." the woman with the short hair starts. Ranko had called her Ho-chan, but that doesn't really say much about what her real name might be. "Yes?" "I've never asked this of you before. I haven't really felt its my place," the woman begins, and then hesitates. My ears perk up. "What will happen to you after all this is over?" "I don't know," Ranko answers. "Ran-chan...You know..." the woman begins slowly. "You are always welcome, to me. When this is all over, when you've finished it...You could come live with me." My jaw drops mid-chew. Was that a proposal? Wow, did I ever pick a time to start eavesdropping! I can't help myself. I scrunch down at my table so that I can see the two women through a gap in the plants. "Ho-chan" is looking up through her bangs at Ranko shyly, playing with the rim of her mug of coffee. The redhead under question is sitting up primly in her chair, with impeccable posture, though her head is bowed. "Hotaru," Ranko begins and then stops. Slowly, the redhead reaches out and takes one of the other woman's hands. "I...Your offer is tempting. So tempting. But I..." Hotaru leans forward at this, interrupting. "I know what you're going to say, Ranko. Don't. She's gone now. She's been gone for a very long time. She's just a ghost now. Don't let a ghost destroy your future." As the woman Ranko had called Hotaru spoke, her voice became more and more impassioned. At the end of her tirade, she had moved her chair to right in front of Ranko's. The look in the short haired woman's eyes was so intense it makes my breath catch. Wow, this is heating up. "I can make no promises, Hotaru. You know that," the redhead whispers. I can barely hear her. Hotaru's only response to this is to lean in more and kiss Ranko. The two's hands remain held in front of each other and the remain in their seats, but somehow the kiss comes off to me as the most passionate thing I have ever seen in my life. I start to blush before I realize it. After the kiss goes on for a minute or so, I kind of start to get...uncomfortable. Looking around, I'm at least glad to realize that I'm not the only one watching. The sight of two beautiful women playing tonsil tennis is enough to get the eyes of everyone present. Finally, Hotaru breaks off the kiss. Standing slowly, she steps next to the still Ranko. Ranko still has her eyes closed. Leaning forward, the beautiful black haired babe whispers, "I'll wait." And with that, the woman called Hotaru left. **** "After that Ranko walked off, and when I tried to follow her, she had just disappeared again," I finish off. After a quick chug of my tea to wet my throat after talking I look at Ranma. Nothing. His face is completely expression less, his head bent and eyes covered by his bangs. Sometime during the story he had tucked his arms into his sleeves. After a couple of seconds of silence, I start to get uncomfortable. So, I kill the silence. "What do you think?" I ask, and eat another cookie. He answers. "I think that you saw something very, very personal. I also think that you shouldn't eavesdrop anymore." Damn. Upon further studying, I think he's right. I've seen people claim to be in love before, but everything I've ever seen is kinda pathetic compared to the way that Hotaru chick kissed Ranko. Just knowing that I had been spying on them when it happened makes me feel kinda shitty. Best thing to do in a situation like this? Act like it's not really that important and change the subject. "I wonder who they were talking about at the beginning? All they called her was 'she'." After another second of silence, Ranma answers. "You said this 'Ranko' didn't know her from before? But that this 'Hotaru' did?" "Yea, yea. But they only talked about her for a second, and it was so cryptic," I complain. Suddenly a thought hit me, and I stiffen for a second. Is it possible? Ranma apparently notices, and asks me about it. "Is something wrong, Setsuna?" I answer slowly. "This 'she' they were talking about. Do you think it might be me?" Am I being paranoid, or were they really talking about me? Ranma has no answer for me.