Ranma 1/2

Disclaimer: I don’t own Ranma, Rumiko Takahashi does. I just borrowed some of the characters. Rated: NC-17

Shades of Home

Chapter 43

Steven just stared for a second, then he sat down heavily, nearly collapsing. Sunny burst into tears and fell on the nearest chest. Kuno and Ryouga just stared for a second, then headed for where they'd seen Steven last. The shouts and wails of grief and pain echoed around the valley.

"What?"

"Saotome . . . the Dragon . . . it ate him?"

"Oh . . . my . . . god."

The chaos continued for minutes, until Shuba managed to get everyone with a radio to pay attention to him. He organized the troops and started a withdrawal. The only option they had now was a nuclear strike. A dirty bomb which would kill every living thing for several miles around and sterilize that area for years.

"I'm not leaving him. I'm not. He can't be dead. He had a plan."

"Kuno come on, we have to go."

Kuno Tatiwaki threw a royal fit, refusing to believe the evidence of someone else's eyes, refusing to leave until he saw a body. Ryouga snarled and snapped, he was all for doing something drastic, he just wasn't sure what. Sunny just stared at the dragon as if to see through its skin into its innards. All the Conroy-gumi started firing anything and everything they could get their hands on into the dragon. Shuba started trying to get them to stop but they wouldn't, so he just sat and listened to them firing.

The dragon could be heard in the background growling and roaring. It sounded . . . in pain.

Trucks and troop carriers were heading out; the radio was being broken down, the tower lowered onto its truck, and choppers still hovered over the dragon to keep it from flying away

Ranma's Team were still pouring fire into the dragon as if it might some how bring Ranma back. Steven was right there with them, he'd gotten his hands on a four-chamber ground to ground missile launcher and was in the process of re loading it for the second time.

"Come on guys, give it up! We got to get out of here." Shuba didn't have much hope of them listening.

"No, it goes down or we don't leave."

"Come on. We're going to bomb it. Dirty nuke. Move out."

"We can't . . . he might."

Conroy gave Rio the look, that look that commanding officers sometimes get when they have to give an order they don't like.

"Still be alive. Damn you . . . he's gone. That fucking dragon ate him. How's he going to live through that?"

"I don't know! But I know he's not gone!"

The entire group refused to leave until the last minute, so Shuba left them alone to battle until they gave up. It was easier on everyone and it kept the dragon distracted until the withdrawal was complete.

As the Conroy-Gumi poured fire into the dragon, they wound up concentrating fire on one place on the dragon's side. It continued to snap and snarl at the fire, but it also screamed like it was in pain and clawed at its chest. Flapping its wings in an attempt to fly, it screamed even louder as one wing didn't seem to want to work properly.

"Stop! Hold your fire! What the hell."

Commands crackled back and forth on the radio, the only band that was working now was the local band between members of the team. Everyone saw the same thing. The dragon was in extreme pain and the wounds that they had given it weren't big enough to be the cause.

"We got to get something . . . what is going on with that bastard. He's roaring fit to split."

"I know, I know. But we're not doing it. That wound isn't enough to . . . oh hell, that little bastard!"

"I'm gonna kill him when I get my hands on him"

"Ranma"

"He's "

The confused clamor was cut off by Steven. Demanding radio silence, he cut through the mess of walkovers and swearing.

"I don't know what the hell is going on but that dragon is in pain and we need to find out what's causing it. If it is one of our weapons, we can all use that one and bring it down."

Shuba quickly ran over the compliment of weapons used on the dragon and correlated that with the increase in the dragons reactions. Nothing added up–until he thought to correlate the whole time frame.

"Damnit! That dragon started showing pain reactions approximately three minutes after it swallowed Ranma."

Then into the stunned silence a small voice stuttered, "H-h-he took my SCAT's. . . . Son of a fucking bitch whore. I . . . he . . . he did it on purpose. He let . . . oh, fuck."

"What the hell is a scut or . . . "

"It's a SCAT, a super compression air tank. They . . . well, they're small and hold a lot of air for the size. He may have as much as thirty minutes per tank and I had two. If he did what I think he did, he's got a set the size of Texas."

"What do you think he did?"

"I think he let that dragon swallow him."

Shuba started swearing on the radio and then ordered radio silence.

"I want absolute silence, not a word from anyone. I'm gonna try to get him on the radio."

The SEAL interrupted him, telling him that Ranma couldn't talk to them because of the mouth piece. Shuba replied he knew that but that he might be able to get some sounds from the radio to tell them if Ranma was still alive inside the dragon.

The absolute radio silence was scary in a way. On the sort of radio they used, there is always some kind of back chatter, fizzing noises of open mikes and the faint babble of talk on the fringes of the bands, bleed over; that sort of thing. But now, there wasn't a sound. And into that silence, behind the screams of the dragon, the sound of grinding teeth came over quite clearly. Then the odd grunt of exertion. Ranma was still alive and doing something inside the dragon.

"Jesus, he's still alive. I can hear him. What the hell is he doing. What." All Steven could do was swear fluently and virulently

Shuba sent out a recall for a med-evac, Sunny and Dr. Tofu. He wanted to call for the whole medical team, but they were too far away, so he settled for what he could get. He also called off all further armed attacks on the dragon. What if they inadvertently did something to Ranma or upset his plans in some way. All they could do was wait, and see what happened next.

After ten minutes that seemed like ten days, or maybe years. The dragon stopped screaming and started to sag, making whimpering noises. Then it just jerked once as its sides heaved suddenly. It collapsed without another sound and lay twitching slightly.

"He did it! He killed it! "

Sunny was jumping up and down and hugging anyone and everyone. They still didn't know where Ranma was but the dragon was down and that meant that he had succeeded. Now if he was just able to get out somehow

The wait nearly killed several of the people standing around worrying. Steven paced and snarled. Sunny clutched Rio's arm so hard that he had bruises. Ryouga and Kuno both approached the corpse trying without success to cut into it somehow. The rest of the observers chewed fingernails or indulged in inappropriate jokes. Anything to let off some of the tension.

Finally the hoped for conclusion arrived. Ranma crawled out of the dragons mouth, choking and swearing. He was slimy with who knew what and fell out of the toothy jaws onto the ground with a soft plop. Then he rolled over onto his stomach and started determinedly crawling away from the gigantic corpse. He didn't get very far as he was immediately jumped by half a dozen men who stripped off his filthy clothes and started checking him for wounds.

He wasn't wounded, at least there were no cuts. He was bruised and had a broken rib or two, but he was barely conscious. When Rio shook him, he barely responded. Rio picked him up and carried him to the nearby lake and just waded into the water with him. He was still covered in slime and it was burning him. Rio only knew that because the men who'd undressed him had gone to wash their hands complaining about it. So Rio took him into the water and started washing the slime off. The water was so cold that both Ranma and Rio started shivering almost immediately.

"We gotta get this stuff off him quick. I don't know what it is, but it's burning me and I know it has to be burning him. Here, find me some soap or something. Come on, don't just stand there gawking at me like a dork."

Dr. Tofu came at a run, with Sunny so close behind him that she nearly tripped him. They both ran right into the water and straight for Ranma and Rio. Other members of the team started getting ready to receive Ranma as soon as he was clean.

As Rio loosened Ranma's hair from its braid Sunny and Tofu started checking him over, that was when Sunny realized that he was in real and imminent danger. He'd used up all his Chi. He'd retained barely enough to keep himself alive.

Everyone has Chi, it is life force, what keeps the biological engine running. Only those who have the skill to use a chi attack of some kind have to worry about running out. These people can actually kill themselves by using up all their chi, Sunny could do it by healing and Ranma could do it by attacking. And that was what he'd done. He had used up so much chi that he was in real danger of dying on them.

Tofu checked Ranma over physically and listed his injuries, he had three broken ribs, a broken ankle, a dislocated shoulder and an assortment of bruises and contusions. None of them life threatening but the lack of chi was going to be a real problem unless someone did something right away.

Sunny ordered Rio to bring Ranma to the lake shore and put him down. Then she ran her hands over him carefully, searching for more wounds. She didn't find any, but she could tell if she didn't replace at least part of his chi he was going to die. So she pressed her hands to his chest and fed him as much chi as she could spare. He absorbed it like a sponge and came to with a gasp.

"Sunny! Stop! Now! That's enough. You can't spare any more. I don't . . . mmmmmf"

Sunny used one of Ranma's tricks to shut him up. He just lay back and let her kiss him, he was so exhausted that he could barely respond.

"Ranma you're gonna get it when you get better what the hell were you thinking husband if you'd warned me . . . "

"You'd have found a way to stop me. Sunny, I can't do this right now. I hurt all over. Can we do this later, like next century?"

At Sunny's motion, Rio took a blanket from someone and carefully wrapped it around Ranma, then picked him up and started for. . .

"Un . . . where am I taking him? He can't go far. And in his condition, I really don't think he should endure the trip back to Japan. Is there somewhere near?"

Tofu nodded, he had made arrangements. He motioned to a MASH tent that was set up just a short way away.

"Over here. They really got the tent up quick. Just bring him right in. This tent has everything I'll need to treat him." Tofu bustled around, turning down a bed for Ranma and motioning to Steven who was carrying Sunny. "Put Ranma here and Sunny there. She doesn't need anything. She's just depleted her chi helping Ranma. Too bad she couldn't heal him too, but that's ok. I'll work on him, set the broken bones, and I've got a nice unguent for all those bruises."

Ranma couldn't help whimpering slightly as Rio set him on the bed. He hurt like crazy. In fact he hurt so bad that he passed out, again.

Tofu looked at Sunny and she smiled back. At her nod, he turned back the blanket and started examining Ranma, he noted the scars on his chest with a frown and then passed sensitive fingers over his ribs, checking for the breaks. He carefully rolled Ranma over onto his side and blinked at the scar under his shoulder blades, he tucked a brace under Ranma and rolled him the other way so that he could fasten it to support the broken ribs. Then he put Ranma's dislocated shoulder back in place and used velcro straps to fasten his wrist and upper arm to the brace to support the joint until it stabilized.

"Ankle." Sunny reminded Dr. Tofu.

"Got it. Just need to get this soft cast and some tape."

"Tape?"

"Yes, I like this kind of cast. Easier on the patient than plaster and you can take it off to bathe."

Dr. Tofu retrieved a two-piece plastic cast and proceeded to gently maneuver Ranma's broken ankle back into place and tape the cast onto it. He gave Sunny a sharp look as she suddenly giggled.

"Something funny?"

"Yes, but not about this. I just remembered something. I'll tell you about it when I'm not so tired."

Sunny proceeded to fall fast asleep, still holding Steven's hand. He'd sat right beside her, keeping silent so that Tofu wouldn't feel he had to ask him to leave. There would only have been an argument, as Steven had no intention of leaving at all.

"Ok Doc. What's the what?"

"I assume, by that question, you want to know Ranma's condition. He's not good. He used up so much chi that he would have died if Sunny? . . . yes, Sunny hadn't replenished it. At quite a cost to herself, I might add." At Steven's concerned look he hurried to say, "She's not in any danger, just very tired. However, Ranma is going to need quite a lot of time to recuperate and so will Sunny. You don't deplete chi to this extent and bounce back over night. Not even Ranma. I've never seen someone use up so much chi and survive. If you have any plans of using Ranma anytime in the next three or four months, forget them right now, and as for the girl, she needs at least two weeks rest herself."

Steven dragged his jaw off the floor and sighed. "I know we almost lost him, but you're serious? He really used up all his chi?" At Tofu's nod, he ran a shaking hand through his hair and shrugged. "He'll get whatever he needs and so will Sunny. Lady Yao Sun and her husband . . . "

Dr. Tofu choked and spluttered, he'd been sipping at some tea and couldn't at first clear his throat enough to even ask, "That young girl is third in line to the throne of Amazona? Oh my. And is her husband coming soon? I need to . . ."

Steven just pointed to Ranma with a slight, self-satisfied smirk. "Husband."

"Oh. Do you know how long that young man avoided marriage to someone he didn't love? He liked Akane well enough and if she hadn't had major issues herself, I think they would have made a good couple. So now he's married to someone . . ."

"Don't even look there. He loves her more than life itself. And she's just as crazy about him. I never saw two kids so much in love and trying so hard to get over things. She'll make him a good wife and he's perfect for her. He won't put up with the foolishness that the amazons have forced on the husbands of the ruling families for centuries. And she won't either. They had a traditional wedding, but tradition went out the window the minute Ranma came in the door. You'd better get him patched up quick. If you don't, I don't like your chances of escaping one of Sunny's scolds"

Tofu just looked at Steven for a minute then shrugged, he wasn't afraid of a scolding. He was truly more worried about Ranma and Sunny's recoveries than he was about her not being happy.

"Well, I'll deal with that when the time comes. Right now, I think you'd better go outside and fill all those unhappy people in on how Ranma is doing."

"Ok, Doc. And just exactly what do I tell them?"

"That Ranma will be fine. It'll take some time, four months at least, but he'll suffer no ill effects from this . . . foolishly heroic or heroically foolish act. Your choice in the wording. And Sunny will be fine in two or three weeks. They both need peace and quiet to recover. I'd like to keep them here, somewhere. Away from the activities at the Compound. You know that Ranma will never rest if he keeps hearing all the choppers taking off and the preparations needed to go to another incursion. So, as Sunny is a Princess, I think that it would be in the best interests of both of them to take advantage of that fact and demand use of one of the royal residencies."

Steven rubbed a hand over suddenly burning eyes. "Ok, Doc. Whatever you say. As soon as Ranma is conscious, I want to talk to him. I'll go send his team to set up camp and bed down."

Tofu shook his head, saying, "You should tell them to go on home, Ranma won't be awake for at least four days. He'll sleep straight through and I may keep him drugged for another day or two. They are welcome to come in to see him but he wouldn't talk to them or anything. I'm truly sorry about that, but if I let him come to he won't rest, and getting him back under will be impossible. He must rest or he'll never recover, and the damage to his physique could be irreversible."

Tofu watched as Steven dragged himself out of the chair he'd been sitting in and headed out the door.

"Ok, I'll talk to his team, and anyone else with need to know, but no one is going to like it much. They're going to want to guard him or something . I think he'll be safe enough here. Let me get the road on the show, as they say, and I'll be right back."

Steven talked to Conroy and Kuno. Ryouga had been med-evaced back to the Compound and was listening in on his cell phone. The general consensus was that Ranma needed to be back in the Compound but Steven explained Tofu's logic and everyone had to agree, so Ranma stayed where he was and everyone else went back to Japan, under very vocal protest.

"Shut up! You all want to stay here and help Ranma and that's good, but you all hang around and he won't rest a second, he'll be up and around messing with you guys. You'll get daily updates on him. You can train and we are going to need your help real bad, since Ranma and Ryouga are both hors de combat for the near future. We aren't expecting any big incursions, but we need to stay ready, so you guys go back and get rested and ready. Get going."

They all headed for the chopper pad under protest but agreed that there wasn't much they could do and that Steven was right, Ranma wouldn't rest as long as they were around. Rio snarled, "Steven, daily updates or I'm gonna come after ya with a rusty file. Got that?"

"Yeah, I do, and I'm coming back with you because he won't rest with me around either. So I'm in the same boat as you."

"Who's gonna take care of the kid, if you don't?"

"Damnit! He's got a wife now, and a mother-in-law that's the second-best healer we've got. His wife being the first. She can't do much right now, but she'll be good in another day or so. And if Sunny can't get the job done, it can't be done. I'm gonna go tell Tofu that I'm leaving with you all."

That accomplished, he caught up with the men and they all left on the last chopper out. They couldn't help feel that they were abandoning Ranma but they weren't, they were leaving him in the loving care of his wife, mother-in-law and his physician. As well as a, supposedly, very grateful amazon village.

.

Sunny woke late that afternoon and started issuing orders like the princess she was. She got Kou Lon to come to her and made arrangements for them to take over the head woman's house. It wasn't as rude as it might seem because Kou Lon had her own home and the old head woman did too, so the residence had been empty for several years. All Sunny had to do was make arrangements to clean it and they could move in.

"I want it clean by tomorrow, there's a whole village of able bodied women, and men too, who should be glad to do the job. There's no reason it can't be done within the time frame I asked for. If there's some reason that it can't be done I can always have Ranma's secondary team do the job. I'm sure they'll be glad to help us out. It just seems to me that it's a shame that someone like Ranma has to take second place to a bunch of over blown egos."

Sunny smirked at Tofu, "That ought to get them off their fannys and on the job. We should be able to move in tomorrow. I don't want to spend too many nights in this tent, nice as it is. One mountain night here and you'll be convinced. How's Ranma?"

Tofu took Ranma's vitals again. "Well, he's still out of it, but I think he could come to by this evening, late. But if he doesn't come around by tomorrow before we move him, I'm going to be worried. Until then it's wait and see. How do you feel?"

"I'm tired, but other than that, ok. I would like to try to heal Ranma some, but he'll have a fit. And I think he'd be right. I really don't think I ought to do more."

"That's ok. I've seen him in bad shape before. Not this bad, but really sick. He'll recover in time. I don't like all this chi healing. It's too forced for me. Natural healing lets the mind heal as well as the body. And Ranma has been under a lot of stress, I can tell by the tension in his muscles. What all has he been doing? He's got some scars I'd like explanations for."

Sunny picked at her blanket for a moment while she thought about what she should say. Finally remarking, "I think I should let Ranma tell you whatever he thinks you ought to hear. I also think you're right about healing him. He needs to heal from this naturally, there has been too much stress on him lately, what with his mother and all. So I'll make arrangements and we'll stay here until he's all better. You'll stay, won't you?"

Tofu smiled at Sunny and decided. "I've been his doctor for a year, until he disappeared. I testified at the trial. I'll stay as long as you need me. Now I want you to go back to sleep too. You need rest."

Sunny allowed Dr. Tofu to tuck her in and settled down to sleep, rolling over so that she faced Ranma and he would be the first thing she saw when she woke. Ranma had turned his face to her the minute she'd started talking and some of the tension had left his shoulders.

Sunny woke and watched Ranma sleeping, he was suspended somewhere between sleep and unconsciousness, his eyes rolling and shifting as he dreamed. She watched as he moved restlessly and clutched convulsively at his covers. His lips moved and he twitched.

Sunny fell asleep watching Ranma and woke to Ranma thrashing in the throws of one of his fighting nightmares. All she could do was yell for Tofu and hope he knew what to do about it. It turned out that he did, he sedated Ranma using some mix he'd made up in advance.

After sedating Ranma, Tofu dragged out a set of restraints and started to strap them onto the bed.

"Give it up now, they won't work and that'll just upset him even more. You can't restrain him, he'll fight until he either hurts himself or gets loose. We don't want either of those things to happen, do we?"

Tofu looked at Sunny and shook his head, grumbling, "If he's gotten that strong I don't know what to do. He'll start fighting and I don't think I can hold him by myself."

Dr. Tofu tucked Ranma in again and sat down to watch over both teens, he'd been in the Compound just long enough to get settled and have his supervisor find out that he was used to working on Ranma which had put him somewhere near the top of the pecking order and dumped a load of responsibilities on his shoulders that he was perfectly ready to accept. He would get Ranma better no matter what it took.

.

Dr. Tofu watched over Ranma and Sunny for several hours. Ranma didn't wake, but he had nightmares and nearly woke several times. Every time Ranma started to dream, his moans woke Sunny, who immediately started soothing him. It worked better than anything Tofu had ever seen, all she had to do was whisper those soothing nothings that everyone used and Ranma was right back to sleep. This was good but it also meant that Sunny wasn't getting enough sleep and that was bad. She needed rest as much as Ranma did if she was to recover.

Ranma opened one eye and groaned. He hurt everywhere, for a moment he couldn't figure out why. Then he remembered.

"Well, fuck. It worked . . . I guess." Ranma opened the other eye and looked around. He didn't see Steven, which made him wonder. But he saw Sunny in the bed next to him and realized that she was getting up, "Sunny stay right there. I won't have my wife getting sick from over healing. You . . ."

But Sunny got up anyway, she wasn't physically ill, just chi exhausted, which could be dangerous if she used up too much more chi without allowing herself time to recover.

"I'll be ok, Ranma. I gave you enough of my chi to keep you from dying and by the way I want to have some words with you about that but I'm not doing anything more for you you'll just have to heal by yourself so don't over do it I don't have any more chi to spare and Tofu will have my head so just lay there and be good"

"Sunny, shut up and kiss me ‘K. Cause I thought for sure I'd never see you again and I want you to kiss me so bad I'll get out of bed and . . mmmmffff"

Sunny climbed on the bed and cuddled up to Ranma, kissing him for all she was worth. He kissed her back and realized how weak he was as the simple actions of waking up and kissing Sunny exhausted him.

"Sunny, I'm so weak. I really overdid it this time. I'm already tired. And I'm really thirsty, could you get me some water?"

Sunny poured Ranma a drink of water and stuck a straw in the glass. After emptying the glass and half another Ranma dropped off to sleep again. But he wasn't out of the woods quite yet. Two hours later he threw out a fever.

Tofu sighed and left Sunny to watch over Ranma as he made arrangements to move him into a half-cleaned house. In his condition, he couldn't stay in the tent, no matter how nice it was. It was still a tent and it would get cold over night. He didn't think the kerosene heaters could keep up the damp cold of a mountain lake valley.

Kuo Lon gathered every person in the village over 12 and issued orders that were sure to be obeyed.

"He saved us at a cost to himself that no other man would have the nerve to pay, so now we pay him back. That house will be livable in the next four hours or I'll know the reason why." And it was.

They moved Ranma and Sunny into the house at dusk and put them in separate rooms over Sunny's protests. Ranma was unconscious again, so he didn't protest, until later.

"Sunny! Sunny, wake up! Hurry. Ranma's combative and we can't get him to calm down, he's thrashing around and has already punched Kou Lon into a wall and I can't get him to listen to me."

Sunny jumped out of bed and couldn't believe she'd slept through so much noise. That showed how tired she was but she hurried to Ranma and crawled onto his bed. She wrapped her arms around him, making Tofu gasp, if Ranma hit her, he could easily hurt her.

"Koi? Shhh, hush . . . it's ok. I'm here. No one is going to hurt you. Hush . . . hush . . . Ssshhh! Nani? Na do kor'ya, Koi . . . Suki da! Kichou . . . no more. Wake up. Ai Shiteru, Koi."

Ranma moaned and opened his eyes, his fever was high again and he was partly out of it still, but he seemed to know Sunny and calmed at once. Sunny settled herself with Ranma's head on her shoulder and lay there petting his hair and whispering to him. There was no way she was going to be separated from him again and she let everyone know it.

Dr. Tofu gave orders for cold water to be brought. He was going to bathe Ranma with it to bring down his fever but when the water was brought, it was hot. He explained to the man that he wanted fresh, cold water but got a blank look, he realized that the man didn't speak Japanese and his Chinese wasn't up to the task.

Sunny spoke from the bed. Her orders were crisp and short. She was in full healer mode and not to be argued with, the man hurried to obey her. This time the water was so cold it made Dr. Tofu's hands sting. But he bathed Ranma's face and arms with it and finally got his fever to break. He knew it wouldn't last but it was good for now.

Ranma snuggled into Sunny's arms and fell into a restful sleep, but Sunny wasn't going to get much sleep with his head on her shoulder and her arms wrapped around him.

"Can't you get him to . . . er . . . um." Tofu turned red, then sighed, running his hands through his hair. He wasn't sure how to address this girl, he knew she was Ranma's wife but was she really a wife or in name only. He knew also that she was a princess, so that confused him even more. "I'm sorry, I'm at a total loss here. Are . . . well . . .um . . . never mind. I'll talk to Kuo Lon in the morning. Go to sleep, if you can."

Sunny couldn't have cared less if Tofu was confused or not. She wanted Steven, not this stranger and she decided that in the morning Princess Yao Sun was going to make a long over due appearance.

Next morning, Kou Lon and the amazons were treated to Sunny in full cry. She rounded up the house hold and gave orders, then she got on the radio and called the Compound. When her request to speak to Steven didn't get past the first level, she got pissy.

"I gave you a code word that should have gotten me to Steven without questions. I want him on the line and I want him now. If I don't hear his voice in the next minute, there's going to be hell to pay and I don't mean maybe."

"Look, little girl, I don't know . . . "

"Just exactly who the hell do you think you're calling little girl in that tone of voice. I am Yao Sun of the Amazons and I will speak to Steven Campbell. Now!"

The man suddenly gulped and punched her up to the next level where she spoke briefly to a supervisor and then was passed on to Steven. He agreed to come back to Joketsu and help her.

When Steven arrived the first thing he did was speak to Tofu, who told him that the only one who could get Ranma to rest was Sunny and that she needed rest herself.

"He worries about her constantly. He won't rest. It's like he can't relax until he's sure she's safe. He's worrying himself into an illness."

"Well, I'll take care of that. All we have to do is get that farce annulled and send Sunny back to her mother."

Doris, who'd just walked up, stared at Steven like he'd gone insane No one noticed Ranma sitting in the window box over their heads. He retreated to his bed to worry himself truly sick.

"Steven, have you lost every grain of sense you've got? You do that and you'll kill him just as surely as if you'd shot him in the head. He loves her as much as she loves him, and that's more than life itself. If you separate those kids, it'll be cruel. I won't have it."

Tofu and Steven both looked at her for long moments then just shrugged. Ranma's life had always been a circus. What else about his life should be normal. Even his marriage was . . . odd.

Ranma curled up on his bed and shivered. He was cold, why he should be cold, he couldn't quite understand but he couldn't stop shivering. They were going to annul his marriage, take Sunny away from him. He knew it was really for the best, they were way too young to be married. But it hurt all the same. In fact, he couldn't help but shed a few tears.

"Koi, why . . . you're crying. What's wrong? You're way too sick to be upset I'll get whoever did this it's not . . . " Sunny climbed into the bed and wrapped her arms around Ranma, rubbing at his arms to warm him. She could see he was covered with goose bumps and shivering with chill.

"It's ok Sunny." Ranma sat up weakly and swiped at his eyes. "I just overheard Steven telling Doris and Dr. Tofu that he's going to annul our marriage. I didn't expect that. I just caught me by surprise, is all. I guess it's for the best. We're too young . . ."

"I'd like to know how he thinks he's going to annul the marriage. We're married according to ancient amazon customs and since you were engaged to my cousin the only way we could get married was by . . . um . . . the Chinese word for it is self sale. You sold yourself to me. You belong to me. And I'm not giving you up for anything. They can just forget it."

Ranma looked at Sunny then gathered her into his arms and held her. He was still sick; his shoulder throbbed with his heart beat, his ribs made it hard to get a deep breath and his ankle twinged every time he bent it, but he was happier than he'd ever been.

Sunny gently helped Ranma lay back down and covered him up. "You're still really sick, I think your fever is rising again. Stay in bed. I'll be right back. As soon as I get my pjs " Ranma reached out and caught Sunny's wrist, he knew she wasn't at her best yet either.

"Lay with me. You're still recovering too. Go get your pjs and come right back."

Sunny did exactly as Ranma asked. All she wanted was to be with him, rest and get better. Sunny curled up with Ranma and they both went to sleep, leaving their troubles for tomorrow.

.

When they woke, Ranma was feeling much better, he hadn't spiked a fever even though it remained slightly elevated. He'd slept restlessly but without nightmares. And he was famished.

"Sunny . . . Wife o'my heart. Wake up. I'm hungry and Dr. Tofu will tie me to the bed if I get up yet."

Sunny smiled at Ranma and crawled out of the bed, "On my way, o hungry husband. I'll see what there is in the kitchen and you come down in a few minutes. I'll stave Tofu off." Sunny produced a much desired item, a crutch, and propped it against the bed. "Don't go an inch without that. Not even a millimeter. You got me."

"Yeah, not a step. I promise. I got over punishing myself long ago. I don't want to mess up what healing I've done. But I'll starve soon." Ranma's starving orphan face made Sunny laugh. She was getting better fast, but she still had quite a way to go to replace her chi. She gave Ranma a speculative look.

"Don't get any ideas, wife. I'll heal on my own. Just feed me." Ranma managed to get out of the bed without hurting himself. Quite an accomplishment, in light of all his injuries, and headed down stairs to the kitchen for breakfast.

Sunny looked at the meal with undisguised distress. It was a slapped together collection of yesterdays' rice, pickles, some kind of steamed mess and a few odds and ends of obviously left over dishes.

Ranma eyed the mess too and decided, "We'll be fine on our own. Sunny, I'll clean up the kitchen, you go to the market and get something fit to fix."

Sunny shook her head, "No, Ranma, I'm not going to put up with this. We need to start out as we intend to continue and that's not by letting people who are supposed to serve us get away with slacking."

"Right, but do you feel like fighting every inch of the way to get them to do what they ought? I don't. Tofu will be here soon, he said he'd be here at noon. Just find me something fit to eat for now. When he get's here, we'll make other arrangements. Funny how quick they forget."

"I don't like it. Where will we go, if we don't stay here? We could go to the palace but we'd get even less rest. This sucks."

Ranma sat at the table and ate the rice and some pickles. He pushed a bowl to Sunny, remarking that it didn't look too bad. Then he suddenly put his finger to his lips.

"He's just a boy and she's too young too. They lie. Those two aren't the real dragon slayer and princess. It's some kind of trick to embarrass us."

"Yes, it is so. We won't put up with it. We'll go back to the village now."

Ranma raised an eyebrow, he was already tired just coming down the stairs and he knew they couldn't stay here, maybe Dr. Tofu would have some ideas.

Sunny rattled around in the kitchen, fixing something for herself, there were plenty of supplies, rice, vegetables, even some meat, so she made a quick stir fry and sat down to eat it. Watching Ranma's face, she decided to just rush her fences and be done with it. Steven had said that Ranma's house wasn't going to be ready for weeks yet as the dragon had set everything off schedule.

"Ranma, we need to find a place away from the Compound and the palace and here. Somewhere you can rest, somewhere I can too. I'm ok, so don't get that look. I just . . . we just need to replenish our chi and you need to heal naturally. But where? Your house won't be ready, everything is off schedule, but they will finish it as soon as they can."

Ranma stopped eating with his chopsticks still between his lips, he got an arrested look on his face and then a sly one.

"Sunny, I own a house. Or at least Mom and Pop do and I don't think either one of them will object if we use it. We'll head out as soon as Tofu says it's ok. What do you think? It should be in good shape. If not, I'll get Sasuki to go fix it up. Kuno won't mind. Speaking of him where is he, he should have shown up by now."

Sunny was glad to have some good news and she had the same for Ranma, "Oh, Kuno is in the village and Ryouga and Leela are just up the valley setting up a permanent home there. There will be more incursions here, the magic boys say that the last incursion is it for about six months or more. But this area is a vortex, so it needs a permanent keeper and that will be Ryouga, with Leela's help, he'll be ok. And we won't have to worry about them trying to hide things. Kou Lon will see to that. So with Xian Po and Mu Tsu, this area is in good hands."

"That's great, but what about Kuno? He staying in Japan?"

"Yes, he's going to have to limit his activities. His sister is in Switzerland permanently but he still has all the Kuno businesses to take care of, so he's glad we have a hiatus "

"Great. No problems until I'm better. That's a relief. Can you get hold of him? I want him to send his servant to check out my house and make sure it's livable. We'll go there. I hate to make you run all over the place but I don't trust any of the men in this village to do anything right. Don't wear yourself out, but find Tofu and Kuno and ask them to come to me. I'd do it, but if I don't stay off this ankle it'll never heal. Love you."

"Love you too, but if I find out that you've been doing anything, I'll sit on you. You do too much and you'll throw out another fever. You're probably going to anyway for a while. I'll go find both of them, have a word or two with the elders, and be back. Don't worry about me wearing myself out. I'm not tired physically, I just used up a lot of chi on you, so I'll just take it easy. It'll be ok. Bye."

Sunny made sure Ranma was going to stay put, more or less, and after watching from the top of the wall as Ranma settled himself on the bench by the front door, she went to find Steven, Kuno and Dr. Tofu.

They were in conference in the village restaurant. And the consensus was that they should leave well enough alone. Both teens were more mature than many people twice their age, so all three men felt that they should be allowed to do pretty much what they wanted to. Of course Steven would keep an eye on them and Dr. Tofu was going to be living with them until Ranma was completely recovered. Kuno had offered any one of several residences for their use and was going to see to it that their expenses were taken care of.

"We don't need financial help, between Ranma's salary and mine, and my personal fortune, we're good. But thank you all the same. Kuno, Ranma sent me to find you, in fact all three of you. Would you please come see him. He's all upset." Sunny took a deep breath and they all cringed, with good reason, her tirade started with the condition of the house and continued through Steven's marriage annulment plans "If you think I'm going to allow you to steal what's mine you don't know much about me or Amazonian marriage customs just back off." and on to Ranma's stubborn refusal to realize how sick he could become if he didn't get enough rest. "Which he's not going to get here or in the palace or at the compound so I'd like to know what you plan since his house isn't ready and I'd like to know why he doesn't have a house after all he's done for you, you can't do something that simple for him and he already has a house in Nerima but he doesn't know want shape it's in since it's his mothers and we want to move into it as soon as possible and that's why he wants to talk to Kuno to see if he will let someone called Sasuki see to getting it fit to live in and would you do that and Tofu will live with us until Ranma's better Steven if you would . . . .mmmmmm"

Kuno did what he knew would get him punched silly if Ranma saw, he put his hand over Sunny's mouth.

"Yes, I'll send Sasuki to the house as soon as Ranma tells me the address and he'll see to it that it's ready to move into as soon as you want. No matter what shape it's in. He'll have access to as much money as is needed to get it ready as quickly as possible. I'll stay at my house, it's not far from where you'll be. It's pretty centrally located, so it's actually near everything. And if his house can't be gotten ready soon enough, my house is big enough for you to stay as long as you want. I'd offer for you to stay with me permanently but I understand newly weds wanting a little extra privacy. Consider fixing up the house my wedding present."

Sunny smiled and thanked Kuno, remarking that he could argue with Ranma himself. As long as he kept Ranma seated and resting.

"As for you, Dr. Tofu, I want a report on your finding on Ranma asap and I want another on myself. I need to know exactly what we are dealing with. I know that I can't heal Ranma like I'd like to I don't think all this forced healing is as good as we thought at first it was. He doesn't seem to heal quite all the way it's probably psychological more than physical he needs to rest mentally he's been through so much in the last year that his body thinks it's hurt worse than it really is. It doesn't make any difference he needs rest and I'm going to see he gets it. I bet he throws out a fever tonight I just feel it he needs peace and quiet so Steven you need to make sure that we don't have to worry about paying bills or tradesmen you understand? I know how to keep a budget mother taught me how to manage an estate. I've managed my estates since I was twelve with mom's supervision of course so I can do it if necessary but I'd really rather not have to fight with people who doubt my abilities and try to keep Ranma from doing something silly at the same time. Ok.

"Sunny, run down will you. We'll take care of all the arrangements for both of you. I didn't understand about the marriage until I talked to your mother. You do realize what you've done, don't you?"

"Oh yes, so does Ranma. He might not have realized exactly what the ceremony meant but he wasn't about to do something like that and not mean it for real. He's quite insulted and so am I; we aren't a couple of stupid kids, no matter how old we are. Don't forget we're . . . we're . . . well, I'm not sure what we are, but you have to admit we aren't normal seventeen-year-olds, none of us. So just go with the flow; help us out and keep strangers off our backs and everything will be ok, right?"

Dr. Tofu sighed. He had been hoping for different results, but with Ranma, everything was always off the charts weird and you just had to, as Sunny had said, go with the flow. He decided he would just stay with the two and do whatever he needed to to get Ranma better.

So the three men went to see Ranma and, after discussing everything, agreed that Kuno would send Sasuki to check on the house, Steven would make arrangements to pay the bills out of their salaries, and Dr. Tofu would stay with them until Ranma and Sunny were well on the way to recovery.

.

Late that evening Sunny and Ranma sat on the bench watching the sun set and enjoying each others company.

"Well, I'll be dammed. Sunny do you realize that we're married, we're going to have a home of our own, a real live semi-normal life. Could anything be better?"

"Yeah, you well again."

"Workin' on it."

~ * ~

Picture of the dragon.
http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/fanq/k/e/kenn2/dragon.jpg.html