Chapter Text
Ranma and Ryoga had fallen into a routine of hiking up to the mountains to train once a week, eventually taking the trips up there together. It saved Ryoga days wandering lost trying to find the place and Ranma got a reliable sparring partner he respected, to some extent. He also got to use him as a pack mule. They’d gone up with a different group nearly every time. Akane, Genma, Soun, Dr. Tofu, and a variety of others would typically join them, but this week was the first time it’d be just the two of them out of circumstance.
Their interactions over the last year had been somewhat tense. The sparring sessions seemed to resolve some of it, but overall the lingering bit stacked week to week. Of course, the whole situation with Akane and P-Chan for Ranma gave room for some shameful thoughts over his childhood friend. For Ryoga, the simple fact that he was engaged to the girl of his dreams would wrack him with envy at times.
This trip, they'd set up camp near a small waterfall basin in a densely wooded area of the mountains. Summer had arrived and the sun began its descent as they finished their afternoon training session. They'd start individually at first but later engaged in a sparring session after they'd warmed up. Since the start of this ritual, Ryoga hadn't managed to beat Ranma yet. Things were civil and the fights were never one-sided, but Ranma could sense an undercurrent of hostility building up in his opponent each time he won. He'd almost given him shit about a few times, but uncharacteristically managed to control himself and act like a humble martial artist for once. He guessed the separation from all the chaos down in Nerima and the Tendo's dojo helped him keep his cool.
Today's training session was similar to the ones that came before-- the lost boy focused on strength and stamina and had his rival beat there, but Ranma's speed and endurance kept him in the fight. Maybe just from being stuck in their ways, after giving Ryoga the run around, he was able to eventually find an opening, countering with a high kick and catching him in the temple as he progressively lost momentum in the fight.
Ryoga managed to stop himself from crumpling over ungracefully by rolling into a crouch. He knelt for a moment, trying to get his bearings as he cradled his head in one hand and drove his fist into the ground in frustration, gritting his teeth and glaring at Ranma. It always just seemed like he got it easier than him in every single way. Ryoga had no doubt he spent far more time training than him, but he still consistently lost in their duels. Those feelings definitely came out more often when they were younger, but even after the cursed pools and the last year or so being back in the city, it came up from time to time.
Ranma couldn't help but give him a cocky grin as he kept his knee up in the air. Dazed from the blow, Ryoga gave up the round.
"I just have to keep getting faster." he told himself as he got back to his feet and bowed, and to his credit, Ranma bowed back. "It's getting harder for me each week, you'll get me eventually." He tried to encourage his friend, but came off a bit patronizing.
"Mind not sucking all the fun out of it when it happens?" he shot back with a little venom.
"Easy, jerk." Ranma shot back with an annoyed glare. "I'm just trying to be friendly."
"So you wouldn't mind hearing that from me?"
Ranma gave him a defensive look, but Ryoga watched slowly as his face shifted, clearly thinking through the simple mental exercise. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
Ryoga wandered off into the woods to meditate, wanting to cool off after the sparring session and get some time in the shade so he wasn't covered in sweat. Bathing up here had turned out to be difficult for him. He knew Ranma would sneak off alone to do it at times, but he didn't want to have to depend on him to turn him back. He always seemed to get some cheap laughs out of his cursed form, even when Akane wasn't around.
A couple of hours had passed and Ryoga started back to the camp after he tapered off the tension from the fight. He got kindling ready for the fire to get it started for the night. Ranma showed up just as the kindling sparked and a dim glow filled the small clearing of their campground. Ryoga looked over to see Girl Ranma with a towel wrapped around her hair, wearing nothing but her silk red shirt that hung a bit long off her female form. "Put some pants on you pervert." he idly commented as he tended to the fire, though in all honestly he didn't mind the view.
"What's the big deal? I'm just try'na cool off." she glanced at him briefly with an obnoxiously knowing look. The hem of her shirt was tied in a knot by her hip so it ran a bit higher than usual, showing off more of her bare skin. Ryoga glanced back and choked up a little bit as she stretched. He looked away, trying not to stare and gently blew into the kindling to get the heat going. The smog and heat from the fire starting masked his blush as he glanced over once more. As the flame took hold, he placed a few smaller pieces of firewood in the pit.
"I'll heat up some water. Change back if you're gonna act like that!" he barked at her without looking at her as he dunked the bronze kettle into a rain catcher and left it near the fire pit. An odd smell caught Ryoga's nostrils and he hesitated for a moment before lifting his arm and sticking his nose closer to his own pit. 'Jeez, I really should have bathed after.' he thought self consciously.
Ranma walked closer to the fire next to Ryoga, letting her hair down and putting the wet towel and pants out to dry. "You're gonna pretend like you actually want me to turn back into a guy?"
“You call yourself a man, walking around half naked like that? Pathetic. Meanwhile, thanks to you, I got the shaft in Jusenkyo with this ridiculous curse." Ryoga shot back condescendingly.
"It's just us and you know that was an accident and not my fault! How was I supposed to know you were gonna follow me and Pops all the way to China!?" she argued, getting up in his face, clearly agitated by him bringing up this old accusation again. "I didn't even know it was you I kicked off, alright?" She smelled something off and sniffed closer to Ryoga. "You stink by the way. Just go to the river and be a piglet for a bit and I can turn you back after you clean up." she waved him off while wrinkling her nose.
Frustrated, Ryoga turned to Ranma and had to keep glancing away to avoid staring at her body only covered up by the loose silk shirt. "You really are a girl aren’t you? Can’t even take responsibility for your reckless ways and now you’re complaining about the smell of sweat?” he fumed while trying not to look directly at her.
Ranma dramatically rolled her eyes and plopped down next to Ryoga's tent while unpacking some supplies. "That’s a cheap shot, you rotten little pig. Just keep blaming everyone else for your lousy, directionless life, why don’t ‘cha?” she fired back, though she wondered if she went too far. She tried to compose herself and de-escalate. She was tired and didn’t want to end the day with this childish back and forth. “Look Ryoga. I’m sorry, okay? It really wasn’t my fault though. I didn’t know about the curse and it got me too.”
Ryoga fanned the flames and didn’t respond to her. He was in his head, pissed off again about how he got stuck with, what he thought, the far more humiliating curse.
When she saw he wouldn’t even look at her, she sighed and went to rummage through her belongings. “Oh, by the way, my tent got messed up on the way back down last week and Pops is still patching it up, so... you're gonna have to share." she muttered quietly, knowing this probably wasn’t the best time to bring this up.
Ryoga's shoulders tensed at the news, turning to glare at her. "Fine." he fumed as he started unpacking his bags to prepare for the night. "Would have been nice to know before we got here." the lost boy mumbled under his breath as he took off his shirt and headed for the river with a couple of towels slung around his shoulders.
Ranma eyed Ryoga as he got up and walked off stiff shouldered towards the river. She caught herself staring at his upper body and quickly turned her head back to her backpack.
‘What the hell am I staring at? It’s just Ryoga.’ she chastised herself, but felt herself blush slightly.
He'd always been stronger than her, but she'd always been the more balanced fighter as a guy. Before he'd left for China, Ryoga had always been his go to training partner when Pops wasn't around. When they were younger anyway. Things between them used to be simple. Akane and all the other arranged marriage nonsense added layers of complexity she didn't care for.
The pigtailed girl huffed and looked up at the beautiful sunset as she lost sight of him, feeling a cool breeze in her lungs as the sun began to descend over the horizon.
Ryoga finished undressing by the riverbank on a flattened rock, leaving his towels, bandana and pants behind as he cautiously slipped into the crisp, cool water. He was mindful not to step into a spot a little too turbulent for his smaller form, having made that mistake in the past before. His little hoof held steady on an outing in the rock and he adjusted to the near-instant change in his form. As he settled in, he felt the day's dirt and grime slowly loosen up off him.
He kicked his hind legs gently and let out a soft squeal as a sigh. Cooling off felt nice, a sense of relaxation washing throughout his body as his mind began to wander. Ryoga's mind drifted towards how nice it would be to be in Akane's bed, but not too long after that daydream started, thoughts of shame started to creep in with it. His brow furrowed and he shook the thought out of mind and tried to meditate again, but then got distracted remembering the exchange back at the camp with Ranma.
Thoughts about how he should have responded in kind to her were intertwined with images of her flickering through his imagination.
‘What the…’ he thought as he felt some conflicting emotions. Ranma annoyed him to no end at times and despite barely behaving any differently between forms, it was undeniably harder for him to immediately want to fight him when he was in his cursed form.
He tried to let go of that tiff back at the camp, floating with his eyes closed, quietly squealing as he exhaled through his snout, trying to temper his emotions and calm himself.
The black piglet shook his head after some time as his body started to feel chilly, finding a shallow area on the bank, and rolling into the towel he'd prepared next to him while wrapping it around him. He blushed as he got the towel wrapped around himself, pausing as another image of her passed through his mind before grabbing his bandana and pants between his teeth and trotted off slowly back to camp, left to ponder for a few moments what that was about.
As he came back to the camp, Ranma was preparing a watered down concoction of herbs by the fire as she saw P-Chan slowly trot in. He plopped down next to her and gave her an expectant look.
"Yeah, yeah-- hold on." she muttered, brushing her hands of some ground up plant matter over the pot as she pulled the bronze kettle off from the side and poured some of the contents into a large bowl. She held the bowl over his head and waited for the go-ahead, slowly pouring it over him after he nodded. As the last drop left the bowl, she set it down and turned away to give him some privacy.
Ryoga started getting dressed, pulling his legs through his black woven pants and toweled his hair off before wrapping it up in his bandana. He grabbed a rough, black sleeveless shirt from his pack and pulled it over himself slowly while his eyes slowly drifted over to Ranma as she worked quietly around the fire. She'd changed out of the red shirt and was wearing those blue and beige boxers with a white tank top that also hung a bit too loose on her smaller, feminine frame.
She turned to look at him and he looked away just in time to avoid it being a 'thing'. He could see a small pot of brown rice and the unpalatable, though effective medication for recovery she was still working on.
Ranma was never in his female form after their training sessions and something felt different, at least for Ryoga. He ran the towel through his hair once more and before he could put it down, Ranma grabbed it and whipped it over onto the clothesline a few feet away. Just a moment later, she brought a small bowl filled with rice up to his face, waiting for him to take it.
"Here, eat up." she mumbled at him, still annoyed from their exchange earlier. She tossed a pair of chopsticks at him as she dished herself and sat cross legged beside him by the fire. A bowl of pickled meat and vegetables sat between them as she dug into her food. Ryoga stared at her for a moment too long as he watched her eat.
"What's up, P-Chan?" she asked with that bit of stank on his pet name that she knew riled him up, staring back at him with a blank face. He was uncharacteristically calm in the face of her usual taunt. "N-nothing... I think this is the first time you've been in your girl form after training this whole time we've been coming up here." he noted as he continued eating his rice.
Ranma's eyes wandered up and to the left, her lips pursed in thought at his comment. "Mmm, so what?"
"And it's the first time you've ever served me food." Ryoga mentioned, though he tried his best not to make it sound too significant.
Ranma couldn't hold back a sudden jerk in her body at that observation. "Y-yeah well, don't get used to it." she ended the conversation as she wolfed down her rice and focused her eyes inside the bowl. Her eyes drifted over to him as he calmly ate while staring off into the void. She squinted her eyes as she wondered what he might be trying to say without saying it, if anything at all.
They continued eating in silence for several minutes, both helping themselves to the recovery concoction in the larger pot. Neither of them could help but make a sour face as they choked it down, but it had a reputation for doing what it was supposed to. They both left their campware soaking in a bucket to clean in the morning. Ranma shivered as the sky went dark. A new moon's night in the summer, the temperature had a tendency to drastically fall after sunset in the mountains. They quickly began to wind down before it got uncomfortably cold.
Ryoga was always a bit of a utilitarian when it came to setting up camp, but he worried his suggestion would come off sounding odd to her even as it stumbled out of his mouth.
"Hey, my tent isn’t that big. It might be better if you stay as a girl... if that wouldn't be weird... since you'd be smaller... that's... if you were still needing to share." He felt his cheeks glow hot as he rambled on and forced himself to stop, turning to look at Ranma, who turned to look at him with a toothbrush in her mouth.
She paused for a moment and spat out the suds, noticing Ryoga's face blushing a bit. She laughed inwardly, but decided not to openly embarrass him about it. She picked up a lightweight baby blue sweater from her pack she'd borrowed from Nabiki and pulled it over her head before responding. "Yeah, that makes sense." she yawned and scratched the back of her head, the sleeves of the sweater a little too long for her arms and the hem went past the boxers she was wearing, making it seem as though she was wearing nothing else and giving her a petite look.
"I mean, unless that'd be uncomfortable for you." he tried to round out his train of thought, but she'd already crawled inside his tent. Ryoga felt odd about the whole situation, even though he'd had plenty of run-ins with Ranma in her female form for a variety of reasons and odd encounters, some at his expense. He quickly brushed his teeth and rinsed while thinking through whether or not this time it may have felt different since there were no other family or friends around.
Ryoga unrolled the comforter from his pack and entered the tent, hesitating ever so slightly as he saw Ranma already setup shop in the center of it on a narrow tatami covered with a thin blanket. He calmly unrolled his comforter, trying to avoid bothering her and took off his bandana and shirt, neatly folding them and leaving them by the front flap. He unrolled his futon and blanket and settled in near her while trying to give her some space, laying on his side facing away from her.
It didn't seem like Ranma was moving, so he reached over and turned the valve on the oil lamp gently until it let off just enough light to get around if needed. The lost boy tucked himself in with a stretch and a sigh, looking forward to some rest.