Chapter Text
It has been three days since Akane’s gotten home from her wedding, and she hasn’t left her room since. Or, no, it’s been three days since her failed wedding when Akane locked her door and hasn’t spoken since. It’s been three days since Akane has listened through Ranma stumbling through a promise they’ll stay together, a “being a man’s not a fate I’d wish on anyone,” while her father cried over Akane’s ripped wedding gown.
She could hear the people talking around her, of course. Her father, sobbing, saying they should put plans of marriage on hold because clearly it already cost them so much and it wasn’t worth it if they weren’t ready. Ranma had been blamed. Akane thinks Genma might have hit her. There were clear accusations of the corrupting influence of Ranma’s curse being thrown around, though that part had mostly happened after she was assumed to be out of earshot.
When the nannichuan water fell over her head, a kettle had been pushed into her face before Akane had even fully realized her own transformation. She’d kicked it out of her father’s hands out of instinct, and had only registered something as different when she heard the rip in her dress when she moved her suddenly much larger thighs.
And that’s when she began to see what had been done to her. How suddenly the dress that had once fit her beautifully was threatening to burst at the seams. That everyone was looking at her and seeing some masculine figure whose muscles were trapped in thin fabric, somehow still holding on to a wilted bouquet.
At least her legs remained shaved in both forms.
Nabiki had given her a mirror. Akane could barely even focus on her new face. All she could see was the new hard edges where there had been none and thought, man.
Then she ran into the bathroom feeling a desperate need to throw up.
She hadn’t changed back into a girl since.
A part of it was pettiness, really. The desire to make everyone see what their meddling had done to her. That she was not the cute, petite, youngest daughter and maybe she was never meant to be.
It really had always been a matter of time, hadn’t it? They had called her “tomboy” for so long. Even after she had grown her hair. Even after she had replaced most of her pants with skirts, had tried to struggle through cooking lessons, sewing lessons, had allowed herself to be made into something cute or demure—There had always been something about her that marked her as different from all girls, and now none of them could hide from that. They would always see the way she had been at her wedding—some large, clumsy, masculine thing, trying to pretend it could ever pass as a girl.
Even though Akane won’t leave her room, Kasumi still brings her food. She leaves meals outside Akane’s door, with an assurance to their father that “she probably just needs a bit of time to get used to such a big change.” Akane’s not sure what her sister thinks of her right now. Kasumi doesn’t bring any tea with the food. The only liquid Akane ever sees is a cold glass of water. As much as the gesture confuses her, she appreciates the thought.
After three days, though, Akane thinks she might be used to her new body. She dresses in her new boxers—bought by Nabiki the day before with the demand she try them on as soon as possible, so they could get a refund if it wasn’t her size—a pair of sweat pants that used to be a bit big on her and an undershirt, grabs her dishes, and marches downstairs. She ignores the way all of her family’s heads turn when she walks by and swiftly disposes of her dishes in the sink before walking back to her father.
“You,” she growls. “Fight me.”
“Akane, I—” Dad begins, blinking in surprise.
“What’s wrong?” she demands. “Still worried about hurting your precious daughter? I thought you always wanted a son. Now you don’t even have to worry about me getting married to that idiot. I can inherit the dojo just fine on my own! Or do you think you can fix me? Because I think we all saw how well that last time.”
“I’ll fight ya, Akane,” Ranma says. Akane turns around. In her anger, she hadn’t even noticed her walking behind her. Akane narrows her eyes.
“Not too proud to hit a girl?” she asks. It’s a stupid question. Considering Ranma’s recent confession about how much she enjoys living in her cursed body, Ranma probably counts as more of a girl than Akane. Ranma’s the one who actually lives as a girl because she enjoys it, even if it is constantly interrupted with her family’s desires for manliness. Akane only acts like a girl because she’s afraid of what they’ll say when she doesn’t.
“I’m fine with it if you are,” Ranma counters. The joke is so unexpected, Akane can’t help but laugh. “Wanna borrow some pants?”
Akane considers this. She’s taller than Ranma like this, though not by that much. Her sweats work fine for now, but the added bulk of her new body will no doubt make sparring uncomfortable. And Ranma does have some fairly loose-fitting pants.
Ugh. Akane will probably have to ask her for shopping advice after this, won’t she? Not only is Ranma an expert at shopping for girls’ clothes, she’s also the only one who knows how to make sure something fits between transformations. Akane never considered that might be a skill she’d have to learn.
“Show me what you got,” Akane says. Ranma nods.
A few minutes later, they’re both in the dojo and Akane is wearing the first well-fitting pants for her new form.
“Ready?” Ranma asks. Akane nods, and lunges.
Ranma dodges easily. As usual, she fights like she’s dancing and it is utterly impossible for Akane to land even a single hit.
“Hey,” Ranma says, catching Akane’s fist. “Do you hate me?”
Akane raises an eyebrow, about to ask where on earth that question came from, but—
“Yes,” Akane says, throwing a kick. Ranma jumps above it. “I hate how easy this is for you. I hate that you’re a better girl than me. And I’m not even going to get to be a better boy than you to make up for it!”
“They don’t let you be bad at being a boy when you go to an all-boy’s school,” Ranma says easily, jumping onto Akane’s shoulders. “Fastest way to get your head bashed in.”
If Akane hadn’t been too busy feeling sorry for herself, she’d pity Ranma for that. Instead, she grabs Ranma’s ankles and flips them both backwards. Ranma lets out a yelp as she tumbles onto the ground and scrambles back to her feet.
“You’re definitely getting the hang of fighting like this faster than I did,” Ranma grumbles.
“I don’t think the height difference is as big for me,” Akane says, but she can’t hide how pleased she is at the compliment. Honestly, she might have grown almost as much as Ranma shrinks. She hasn’t really had time to measure herself.. “... How did your mom react to everything?”
“Oh, yeah, you didn’t see that part, huh?” Ranma hops onto the ground, sitting with her legs crossed, apparently taking this as a sign the fight’s done. “Freaked out less than Pops did about everything, honestly. Basically said that this whole mess compromised your honor as a woman or somethin’, and the manly thing to do would be to take responsibility for it.”
“I’m cursed, not pregnant.” Akane snorts. It feels like an extremely Nodoka thing to say, though it is a bit tamer than what Akane had been expecting.
“Well, she was worried that the curse might affect any grandbabies she might have been hoping for, too, so I had to go and admit to a room full of our friends and family that I’ve been getting periods.” Ranma rolls her eyes. “Both of our Pops’ fainted at that, but Ma got real bright and cheery, saying it was nice to think we might both be able to pull our weight there. Think she might be expectin’ us to have double the kids because of it now.”
Akane groans and hides her face.
“Your mom is so strange,” she says, turning red just thinking about all the interesting conversations she’s about to have with her future mother-in-law. “Wait, you get periods? Since when?”
“Well, it didn’t happen before Jusenkyo, I’ll tell you that,” Ranma jokes. Akane rolls her eyes. “I don’t really got a specific cycle. If I’m stuck as a girl, it gets a bit more regular, but spending too much time as a guy pushes it back. So it really only happens every other month or so.”
“Still… it’s kind of strange that we’ve lived together this long and it’s the first time I’m hearing about it,” Akane says.
“Well, no one wants to hear about a guy’s period, do they?” Ranma says, scratching herself in embarrassment. “Pops knows. He hates thinking about it, but he understands that I wanna be a girl full-time when it happens so I can get it over with. I just steal your pads when I need ‘em.”
“Why do you know where I keep my pads?” Akane demands. Ranma raises an eyebrow.
“Would you rather I ask Nabiki?” she shoots back. Ranma hops back onto her feet and motions for Akane to attack again.
“No,” Akane admits. She doesn’t put it past her sister to charge for that, even if just as a joke. Not really the response Akane would wish on anyone, especially if they’re still getting used to PMS. “I guess that does explain why I’ve been running out faster than I thought I should be lately. I just… I guess I figured you’d go to Kasumi.”
“Well…” Ranma looks down. “Thought about it. But it seemed kinda personal. Guess I was a little worried you’d all think I was making fun of you if I brought it up.”
Akane can’t argue with that. She won’t deny that she probably would have… reacted a bit poorly to hearing that if Ranma had brought it up when they first met. In her current condition, though, all she can imagine is how she could be caught in the very same situation and winces in sympathy.
Akane shakes her head, trying to distract herself from the thought. She tries to charge Ranma, but Ranma deftly twists out of arm reach.
“Anyway, everyone knows now, so Ma bought me some for myself.” Ranma laughs. “You should’a seen the look on Pops’ face when she brought it home!”
Akane can’t help but giggle at the thought. Her new, deeper voice makes the sound feel distorted and odd. She sighs immediately after.
“I don’t know how I’m going to get used to this,” Akane admits. “It’s not—sure, being a boy is weird, but what’s weirder is seeing my face in a mirror, or hearing my voice, and knowing that just a few days ago I looked completely different! How am I ever supposed to look at this stranger and think it’s me?”
“It’s not easy,” Ranma agrees. “Not surprised you haven’t changed back yet. First time is always the hardest. I never… I mean, sometimes this body…”
Ranma fidgets, uncomfortable.
“You’d rather be a girl.” Akane nods. She goes for a low kick, hoping to catch Ranma off-balance. “You said something about that after we left the caves.”
“I was hopin’ we’d both forget about that,” Ranma admits. She stumbles from the kick, but turns her fall into a handstand, and cartwheels back up. “... Don’t hate me, but when you got splashed instead of me—of course I was real worried for you! It’s a curse for a reason! An’ I saw your face, so I knew you weren’t taking it well, but…”
“You were happy,” Akane says. They’d been standing next to each other, after all. And she’d had plenty of time to turn the day’s events over in her mind. Plenty of time to lift weights and punch holes in her wall through her aggression about it, too. She can see now that the expression on Ranma’s face before Akane ran off was relief. Akane thinks she probably should have expected that. If she’s being honest, she’d rather be the one splashed than be the reason Ranma would be forever denied a body she felt so comfortable in.
Ranma looks down again.
“Maybe just a lil’ bit,” she says softly.
“I should have told you what my dad was planning,” Akane says. “That’s probably why this all happened. He kept pushing and pushing, saying it’d be the perfect surprise, and we’d finally be normal, but… I never asked you if you wanted it.”
“I would have said I did,” Ranma admits, bouncing on her toes with nervous energy. “I wasn’t happy the first time I turned into a girl, you know? All I could think was that all these things I hated about my body were gone, and it was replaced by something stranger. Felt like some twisted joke. Spent all that time trying to find something I liked about myself, and then all of the sudden it didn’t even matter.”
Akane swallows, surprised at how much she could relate.
“I don’t,” she admits. “Hate this body as much as I thought I would.”
“Yeah?” Ranma says, encouragingly.
“I like looking strong,” Akane says. Her hands twitch with the desire to move, but she’d rather not distract Ranma by continuing their fight while they speak. She doesn’t think she can say it twice. “And not just strong for a girl. This feels like a body… that might make people treat me seriously.”
Ranma nods, not a hint of judgment in her eyes.
“I want clothes that fit,” Akane adds. “But I don’t want to go outside. I—”
Akane looks down. If she can’t be honest with Ranma, who else is there?
“I don’t want people to look at me like a freak,” Akane admits. “It’s not—I don’t think you’re a freak, but—”
Ranma’s look of suspicion makes Akane cut herself off. She lets out a long sigh.
“I put a lot of thought into my appearance,” Akane says, a bit begrudgingly. “Even though I don’t really want to. Because the comments I got from everyone when I was actually masculine got too much to handle. But you… I didn’t understand how you could deal with the opposite so easily.”
“Someone doesn’t remember how hard I fought not to wear that leotard in the Gymnastics competition.” Ranma snorts, then begins to walk around Akane.
“Someone also remembers you intentionally flashing people to get what you want,” Akane retorts, readying herself for defense. Ranma flushes, then lunges at Akane.
“I know it probably doesn’t mean much coming from me,” Ranma says, as Akane blocks a hit. “But I don’t think you need to prove you’re a girl. You’re already a pretty cool one, from what I can see.”
Akane smiles. Leave it to Ranma to figure out exactly what she wanted to hear.
“That goes the same for you, you know,” Akane says. “I’m sorry I used to argue. I was too jealous to see how good of a girl you are. Sometimes it made me feel like a pretender.”
“Pretender?” Ranma scoffs and puts her hands on her hips. “Akane, you were born a girl! You think I got anything on that? No matter what I do with my curse, if I don’t change one stupid paper all everyone’s going to see is some boy that’s out of his mind!”
“But you’re—” Akane cuts herself off, not sure how to properly convey how natural Ranma seems in her spring form.
“I’m a girl when a guy likes my boobs, and a boy when they think I owe ‘em money.” Ranma shakes her head. “I’m sure if I didn’t look so cute, or if I wasn’t as strong, they’d have a lot more to say, trust me.”
“Really making me want to go back to school,” Akane grumbles. She throws another punch. Ranma ducks underneath her and flips her on her back.
“I can get some clothes for ya,” Ranma offers. “Got anything in mind?”
“You probably know what looks better on me than I do.” Akane snorts, not bothering to get off the ground. “I’ve just been copying Sayuri and Yuka’s styles for the past few years. Haven’t really spent that much time thinking about what I want. But I guess I can’t keep doing that now, can I?”
Ranma nods. She understands perfectly, Akane can tell. It’s almost a bit funny. They’d spent so long at each other’s throats, and yet she’s the only one Akane can trust with any of this.
“Hey, Ranma?” Akane says. “Thanks for not calling me a tomboy.”
“I wouldn’t deal a blow that low in a friendly fight,” Ranma says. She holds out a hand. “I’ll find you something you like, Akane, I promise.”
Ranma comes home with three outfits. One pair of shorts that looked like they could have been from the girl’s section, but androgynous enough to fit her in both forms—especially since it came with a belt built in. They’d be a little long on her in her birth form, but not comically so. Two pairs of pants, one black, one silver, both tight enough to look form-fitting on her now, but casual and loose after a bit of hot water. For shirts, there was a cropped t-shirt that would likely fit like a normal shirt as a girl, and a nicer shirt she was instructed to wear with a new tank top underneath—“fer, uh, keeping your tits hidden.”
“These look pretty good on me,” Akane says.
“Well, I haven’t spent all this time with you for nothing!” Ranma says brightly.
“Does this mean you’re done sulking?” Nabiki asks, popping her head into Akane’s room. “Because there are some things we need to work out, Sis.”
“Like what?” Akane scowls. Nabiki doesn’t react to the hostility in her voice.
“Want me to get you a boy’s uniform?” she asks. Akane blinks.
“Oh,” she says. “You can—you can do that?”
“It’s less of a big deal than you might think,” Nabiki says. “Especially if I mention—”
“Don’t,” Akane interrupts. She flushes. “I don’t. I don’t want anyone to know about my curse.”
Nabiki raises an eyebrow and looks at Ranma.
“Okay,” she says. “Guess we’re doing this whole song and dance again.”
Akane flushes darker.
“Well, sorry for the reruns!” she snaps. “Maybe boys don’t care if one of them turns into a cute girl they can ogle, but girls definitely care when they think one of them turns traitor! I don’t know how Ranma’s lasted so long in the boy’s locker room, but—”
“Aw, it wasn’t too bad,” Ranma interrupts. “They stopped trying to splash me after I slammed the first guy into a locker.”
Akane forgets her anger to stare at Ranma in bewilderment. Nabiki does the same.
“... Is that what you learned from going to an all-boy’s school?” Akane asks, remembering their earlier conversation. Ranma flashes a peace sign. The casualness of the gesture is… Slightly worrying! “Well, that’s not going to work in the girl’s locker room! They’ll just say I’m too violent to be trusted around girls and stick me with the boys! And I don’t think I need to remind you how many of them think of me as some prize to be won!”
“Maybe you can convince them it’s gay to go after you,” Nabiki offers.
“If they were worried about dating a tomboy they wouldn’t have fought me so hard at school every day!” Akane snaps. “Just because I don’t like boys doesn’t mean I don’t know how they think. They all want to feel some stupid power rush when they finally prove they’re better than me. The harder I fight, the more they get the thrill of turning some brute like me into a real woman. Kuno-sempai’s probably going to make some oath to ‘return my maidenhood’ or whatever the second he hears about this—if he doesn’t know already.”
“He doesn’t,” Ranma confirms. “Nabiki convinced Shampoo to say she swapped it with the instant stuff—at least to the folks who saw what happened. Kuno hit me and demanded I tell him what happened to you when you bailed, but I don’t think he noticed anything. Think Kodachi just assumed you were upset cuz the water ruined your make-up.”
“Shampoo really said that?” Akane asks. “Why? What did you give her?”
“She’s an Amazon.” Nabiki shrugs. “The idea of turning into a man is pretty shameful. Turns out she’s got some sense of female solidarity beneath that terrifying exterior of her’s. I figured it would make things easier if you wanted a cure. But maybe I shouldn't have assumed.”
“What I want is for everyone to stop telling me how I should feel about my body,” Akane grumbles, She sits down on her bed and lets Ranma pat her shoulder. Akane frowns. “I remember Grandpa was clinging to my wedding dress at some point. Did I black out and hit him or something?”
“I think you may have sent him to the moon,” Ranma says solemnly. Akane scowls and shoves her.
“You punched him through the roof,” Nabiki reminds Akane. “I think the shock of you turning into a guy weakened him, because Dad and Uncle Genma managed to mail him off in a box somewhere.”
Akane snorts. Good riddance.
“Didn’t expect it to be so easy,” Ranma agrees. “But I don’t think getting a cure is gonna be that simple.”
“I have my angles,” Nabiki says, as vague as ever. “I mean, the guide sent it over as a gift, didn’t he? It’s pretty clear this isn’t how he didn’t want us to use it like this. As long as we pay for postage, I don’t see why he shouldn’t offer us a refund. But shipping stuff like that’s pretty pricy, so if you decide you don’t want it, we can put that cash towards your new wardrobe,”
“So does that mean you don’t… care?” Akane wrinkles her face. “That I’m like this?”
“Honestly? Not really.” Nabiki shrugs. “I care how my darling little sister—or brother—is feeling. If the body isn’t the thing that’s upsetting you, then why should I make you get a cure? Seems to me that you and Ranma-chan are a matching set now. Maybe that means your next wedding will actually succeed.”
“Are you trying to comfort her, or make me angry?” Ranma asks. Nabiki laughs.
“I’m multi-tasking,” she says. “Daddy was talking about pulling you out of school, by the way.”
“What?” Akane exclaims, standing up. “He can’t do that!”
“Yeah, how come I had to go to school when I was stuck as a girl, but Akane gets out of it?” Ranma demands.
“That’s not what I mean!” Akane insists. “This is my life! He doesn’t get to just stop me from seeing my friends just because he’s ashamed I’m not the girl he wanted me to be!”
“Exactly.” Nabiki walks into Akane’s room and pats her sister on the arm before walking out again. “I talked him out of it. I’m going to let you play hookey for two more days. Then I’m dragging your ass back to Furinkan myself.”
“You don’t even go there anymore!” Ranma calls after her.
Akane stares at the doorway even after her sister leaves her sight.
“Well, guess that’s her way of being encouraging,” Ranma says. Akane makes a noise of acknowledgement. “At least if they stick you with the guys, I can make sure no one messes with you in the locker room.”
“If I don’t fight my own battles, they’re not going to see me as one of them,” Akane mutters. “I’ll just be this weird failed girl they’re stuck with.”
“You want ‘em to see you as a guy?”
Akane shakes her head.
“I just know they’re not going to see me as a girl anymore, so…” she sighs. “Better a boy than a freak.”
“Huh,” Ranma comments. She starts folding one of Akane’s new shirts. “Thought the same thing about myself back in middle school.”
Akane sighs again.
“We really are a matching set, huh?” she says.