Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong


Ranma 1/2: A memorable past 3


     Ranma sighed as he sat down on the bench in the park. His stomach
grumbled for he hadn't eaten all day. He had woken up late, and thus, he'd
missed breakfast. He'd also missed lunch becuase he had found out Shampoo
had laced his soup with something he preferred not to think about. He could
had eaten at Ukyo's, but he had eaten there for the past several days
straight. He was so hungry, he would had even eaten Akane's cooking.
  "What am I thinkin' of?!" Ranma muttered to himself. He was desperate for
food, but not that desperate. But then again, anything in his stomach was
better than nothing, right? Even if it was Akane's cooking, right?
  He checked his wallet. All he had was a lousy 1000 yen. Considering how
much he always ate, that wouldn't be even enough. Besides, he couldn't spend
the money. He owed it to Nabiki, and he wanted to pay her off as soon as
possible. If he didn't she would probably make him do something unthinkable
to pay her back, like dress up in women's underwear while in her female form
so Nabiki could take pictures of her and sell them to Kuno. Ranma would
never allow something like that, but he knew he would stoop to that low if
it would get Nabiki off his back.
  He sighed as he watched people going about their business in the park.
There were families flying kites, some having picnics, and some walking
their pets. Out of all the people in the park, he noticed two little girls
that stuck out like sore thumbs. They were twins, both of them dressed in
the prettiest matching dresses. They had brown hair that glistened from the
setting sun. They looked like they were around eight or seven, and they
looked like little darlings. They were both eating ice cream on cones.
  "I never knew angels came that young" Ranma smiled. As he watched them
lick their ice cream to their heart's content, it made him think back to
when he used be like them, innocent. He used to be free of complications,
the only thing he had to worry being when to have fun. That was all before
he had to leave with his father on his training trip. Those were times he
would treasure with himself always.
  As the little girls licked their ice cream, one of the scoops of ice cream
fell off the cone of one of the twins. It tugged at his heartstrings as he
saw the little girl cry. But then he felt this warm feeling envelope him
when he saw the girl's sister give the ice cream to her twin sister.
  "Here, you can have mine" the little girl said, handing it to her sister.
Her sister smiled as she gladly took it, only to accidentally have the scoop
of ice cream fall of that cone also. She began to cry again.
  Ranma got off his bench and walked over to the little girls. He walked up
to the crying girl kneeled down next to her "Please, don't cry" His heart
cried of for the girl as he saw her cry. It pained him to see children cry.
If he had children, he would do all that was in his power to keep them
happy, to keep them from crying.
  "But I dropped my ice cream, and now I dropped Meggie's" the girl said
between tears. Ranma realized that Meggie must be her sister's name "Well,
little girl, how would you like it if I bought you and your sister each an
ice cream" he noticed that the sister was eyeing him a bit suspicious, which
was very good because they were strangers "Would you like me to take you to
an ice cream shop? What's your name?"
  "I'm Jessie" the girl said, her tears stopping, exactly what Ranma wanted
to see "This is Meggie. Thank you anyway, but our Daddy told us to never go
with strangers"
  "You're a very smart girl" Ranma said. Whoever the Daddy was to these
little girls, he certainly did an excellent job of raising them "You're
right, you shouldn't go with me. Your father taught you very well. I have an
idea, how 'bout you stay here while I go get it for you?"
  "You'll do that?" the other girl, Meggie, said. She looked thrilled.
Although she had voluntarily given her ice cream away, she wished she still
had it.
  "Sure, what would ya like?" he said, smiling warmly. The little girls
looked very happy to hear him offer to buy it for them. It seemed to make it
worthwhile.
  "I like chocolate, and Jessie likes vanilla" one of the girls said.
  "Okay, jus' stay right here, I'll be back in a sec" Ranma quickly headed
off toward the stores that dotted the outskirts of the park. He walked up to
on of the ice cream stores and entered. He quickly, and happily, bought the
ice cream flavors the two girls wanted. Once he got his order, he placed the
napkins in his pocket, and then the quickly ran back toward where the girls
were. He was grateful that they had listened and stayed where they were.
  "Here ya go" Ranma said as he handed the vanilla flavored cone to Jessie.
Although they looked exactly alike, for some reason, Ranma could tell the
difference between the two of them. They felt like two completely different
people to him.
  "Arigato" the girl said in delight. She quickly started licking the ice
cream, a big smile on her sweet, angelic face. Some of the ice cream ran
down her chin.
  "And here ya go" Ranma said handing the chocolate ice cream to the other
girl. The girl smiled a big smile as she began to also lick the ice cream.
  Ranma noticed that some of the ice cream was running down the first girl's
chin. He reached into his pocket and produced a napkin, wiping the little
girl's chin "There ya go. We wouldn't want you to get yourself dirty, now
would we?"
  "Arigato" she said "Didja know you have the same pig-tail as our Daddy?"
  "Oh really?" he said, a bit surprised. He thought he was the only one who
ever sported the pig-tail look. 
  "Meggie, Jessie" came a voice from the distance. It sounded like their
father. Ranma turned to face the father, but he couldn't get a good look at
him because the sun was behind the man, making it hard for Ranma to see him
clearly. All he did notice was that the father seemed to emanate this
paternal aura that he wish his own father had.
  "Well, we gotta get going now" one of the girls said "Thank you for the
ice cream. We really appreciate it" The two girls ran off toward their
father, almost jumping into into his arms if it weren't for the fact that
they were holding ice cream cones.
  Ranma stood there for a moment as he watched the girls explain what Ranma
did for them. He saw the father turn his attention toward him and nodded his
head.
  "Arigato" the man's voice sounded very gentle and caring.
  "No problem" Ranma said, nodding his head. He wished he could get a good
look at the father, but the glaring sun made it impossible. All he did was
smile before turning around to head home.
  Ranma thought of how the girls thanked him. He knew he would never forget
this day. Even though he was aware that he had spent the money that he owed
Nabiki, he wasn't at all worried about what she would do to him. Spending
the money on the little girls was worth it. As he headed home, he now knew
the meaning of the gift that would keep on giving. He knew that he wouldn't
forget this day, that if he were to ever think about it, it would bring a
smile to his face.
  Smiling, Ranma knew it was money well spent.
  

<End for now>


        Well...there's another fanfic. First off, I'd like to say that the
characters were created by Rumiko Takahashi and I would never infringe on 
any of her works. Please e-mail me if you have comments. I'm sorry for any
spelling or grammatical mistakes. I wrote this in a single sitting meaning I
might have missed in correcting some errors. I don't really know why I wrote
this. I just sat down and wrote whatever came into mind, and this was what
I came up with. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it.


P.S.-If you want any of my other fanfics, just ask.


                                        Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong


<Bye>