Burst [Ranma ½]

The temperature was unusually low. All of the news stations agreed. There wasn't any snow so it wasn't a snow day, exactly, but between the already low temperatures and the high winds, Ukyou's university had sent out an announcement that it would be a health danger for anyone to come to class. A particular disappointment considering that between school and work, the only time she got to spend these days with her childhood friend was the pottery class they shared while she worked on her business degree and Ranma on an education degree. A class that now wouldn't happen until next week.

Ukyou shook these thoughts aside and warmed her hands on her breath as she hauled her kotatsu out of storage. Usually, she kept warm behind her grill, but with the cold, her customers had opted to stay home as well. "Konatsu, can you-" she reflexively called out, before remembering that the kunoichi was currently at a ninja convention. Grumbling, she got down on her hands and knees to plug the kotatsu into the outlet behind the bookcase. The heater hummed on behind her, bringing a smile to her face. She might be spending the day alone, but she'd be nice and warm during it.

A tap at her window a few minutes later shook her from her musing under the heavy blanket. "Ranchan! What are you doing here?"

"Freezing, mostly. Let me in?"

"Of course, Sugar!"

“Thanks, Ucchan. You’re a real pal,” Ranma said with a warmth that offset the chill as she opened the window.

“Not that I don’t love seeing you, but what brings you by? It’s murder out there.”

“We don’t have class today and I’d miss you,” Ranma shrugged, “I guess that sounds silly when I say it out loud?”

“Sugar, it doesn’t sound silly at all. Sweet, really. Hang up your coat on the hook by my dresser and join me under the kotatsu.”

“Sure thing!”

Ukyou settled back down under the heated blanket only to be disturbed again, this time by an ominous groaning noise, followed by the sound of spraying water and a feminine cry of shock. She sprang to her feet and groaned herself. The upstairs neighbor’s plumbing, visible just below the bare ceiling, had gotten cold enough to freeze and spring a leak. Soaking not only her friend, but also all the clothes that could otherwise be changed into.

“See if you can warm up, Ranchan, I’ll do what I can about turning off the water.”

Running down to the basement, Ukyou quickly found the shutoff for the burst riser, and had the water turned off so her living space wouldn’t suffer any further damage. When she returned to her apartment, she was surprised to find Ranma still dressed in freezing wet clothes, mopping up the water from her floor.

“Hey! Give me that. I meant it when I told you to warm up. Take off those wet clothes and use the kotatsu, before you catch a cold!”

Ranma shivered and blushed. “Just trying to help out…”

“You want to help me out?”

“Well, yeah?”

“Good, I’m having some trouble with something and I need a little assistance. You up to it, Sugar?”

“Sure, what do you need?”

“Well I’m trying to take care of my best friend but the jackass is too stubborn to let me. Think you can get my best friend out of some wet clothes and under that blanket?”

“I, but, I mean, wait…” Ranma paused and thought about this. “You mean me?”

“Yes, you! Go! Warm up! You’re the guest. I’ll clean this and then join you.”

“Okay, okay…” Ranma stripped out of the wet clothes and awkwardly stood in the middle of Ukyou’s apartment, holding the dripping mass in one hand. “Where should I—”

“On the floor! I said I’d take care of it. You take care of you!”

Ranma awkwardly dropped the clothes as directed and crawled under the heated blanket before sighing in contentment at the warmth. Ukyou watched, making sure her stubborn friend didn’t get side-tracked with anything foolish. This was the only reason she watched, the chef told herself and her flushed cheeks. Assured that Ranma was warming up, she mopped up what she could, hung up a line, and began wringing out clothes before hanging them to dry. By the end of this process, her own clothes had gotten pretty wet from all the water she was dealing with.

Glancing at Ranma dozing at the kotatsu, she flushed and steeled herself before removing her sodden garments and hanging them as well, before sliding in under the blanket, propped up on her arms and laying next to Ranma before the other martial artist could awake and see anything.

“Hm, what?” Just in time, too.

“All done,” she cheerfully announced.

“Oh, that was fast,” Ranma yawned.

“It took the time it took. Have a nice nap?” She shifted her arms to get more comfortable, looking down next to her at Ranma’s face, barely protruding from the edge of the blanket.

“Yeah, I guess I-“ Ranma stopped, noticing Ukyou’s bare arms. “Ucchan, you, your clothes are—”

“Completely soaked like yours and hanging to dry? Yeah.”

“But, but you—”

“Don’t have anything you haven’t seen before? I suppose.”

“But I’m—”

“My best friend who I trust to the end of the Earth?”

“I, but we—”

“Are enjoying a nice quiet day where we don’t have to stress out or worry, and can just spend time together with no pressure or expectations?”

Ranma thought about this, before relaxing. “You’re…”

“I know I’m a good friend. You’re a good friend too. I’m glad you came to check on me today.”
“Yeah,” Ranma sighed, beginning to doze off again. “Best friends. I’m glad I came out here today too.”

Ukyou inched closer to share her body heat and settled down to nap as well. Then, they dozed off to the sound of the wind outside.

 

“It’s really important to you, isn’t it,” she asked later, after they awoke. “Keeping all of us as friends?”

“Yeah, I mean, I don’t got so many I can afford to lose any of you.”

“I guess living on the road you’d lose contact with people sooner or later, but your living situation has been more stable for a while, Sugar. You haven’t made any new friends?”

“I’m not really great at that,” Ranma admitted sheepishly. “So the friends I do make, well…”

“The amazing Ranma Saotome, not really great at something? Say it ain’t so,” she teased.

“No, I mean it! I don’t know how to make friends. It just kinda… happens?”

“How do you not make friends? You’re charming and adorable!”

Ranma blushed. “But I don’t! Other people kinda make friends with me I guess. I don’t know how I’d start.”

“You go up to people and you talk to them, you big goof. Ten minutes talking to you and anybody would want to be friends with you, or want to punch you, which for you is almost the same thing, eventually.”

“What do I talk about, though? How does small talk work? Do I just go up to people and talk about the weather? You can’t really get to know somebody that way.”

Ukyo stared intently at her friend for a few seconds. “Can’t I? Is that a challenge? What’s your favorite weather?”

“Huh, I guess that’d work. I don’t really have one anymore, but I used to. This’ll sound a bit odd. Promise not to laugh?”

“I will never promise not to laugh,” she said solemnly. “Sometimes you need it. I promise that if I do, it will because you are my friend and your life is weird enough to be a comedy on TV or a manga. Not because I think any less of you.”

Ranma snorted. “Okay, fair. I’d read a manga about my life. Alright, so, my favorite weather used to be the weather right before it rains. The wind has a particular feeling, and the sky feels almost alive. You can feel the rain about to come, and you can try to guess the exact moment it’ll start. I’ve gotten pretty good at it,” Ranma said, passion building in the description until a drop in mood with the last sentence.

“But not anymore,” Ukyo prompted softly.

“No. Not anymore. The fun is gone. The start of rain means something more now.”

“Do you really hate it so much?”

“At first I hated it more than I do now. Before I got used to it. That ruined the weather before the rain for me. Even now, as comfortable as I am like this… it’s the change itself I hate, if I’m not the one choosing it. The start of a rainstorm is a choice I don’t get to make.”

“If I’d known…” she looked out at the window, rain beating down filling the silence. “I wouldn’t have asked you to come out here today.”

Ranma shrugged. “You didn’t know and you didn’t ask. I chose to visit my friend in the rain. It’s not my favorite again yet, but for helping me be able to choose… maybe it will be.”

The two sat, enjoying their oranges and waiting for the their clothes to dry.

“So,” Ranma started, “what’s your favorite weather?”

Ukyo laughed at her friend. After a second, Ranma did too.