Chapter 9

Ranma bounded up the stairs to his dorm room. ‘A quick change and then out to dinner with Shay-chan,’ he thought, anticipating their night out to celebrate their one-month anniversary.

In his room, he found Suge, to his surprise, actually studying. "What’s the matter, no party tonight?" Ranma asked him.

Suge looked up, a woeful expression on his face. "No, man, plenty of parties, but finals are coming up next week. I’ve got to start studying," he moaned.

"Well, it’s about time," Ranma laughed, turning to his closet. Suge, he’d learned, was pre-med, only because his father was a doctor and wanted his only son to follow in his footsteps. Choosing a dark blue button down shirt with long sleeves and his black jeans, Ranma turned to lay the clothing on his bed before heading down for a quick shower. Seeing the envelope on his bed, he picked it up. "What's this?" he asked Suge.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. That came for you while you were out. It got put in my box by mistake. Looks important," he said, frankly curious.

"Hm," was all Ranma said, seeing the return address on the envelope was the Tendo dojo and the handwriting was Akane's. Carefully opening it, he withdrew an invitation. An invitation to Akane and Shinnosuke's wedding in the spring. Ranma felt like the world was spinning crazily around him as he read the invitation, barely comprehending the words written on it in elegant calligraphy. 'Akane's wedding? So soon?' he thought dazedly, collapsing on the bed, invitation falling from his nerveless fingers.

Staring straight ahead, Ranma didn't see the small sheet of paper sticking out of the envelope. Suge bent over and picked it up, reading it silently. "Ranma-kun, you should read this," he said gently, holding out the light blue sheet to him.

Ranma took it, seeing the familiar 'From the Desk of Akane Tendo' printed across the top. "Ranma," the note began, "I'm sorry I didn't give you any warning, I thought it would be easier for you this way. Please don't be upset at me, I could not bear that. It would mean so much to me if you would come, you are still my friend and part of my life. Please don't stay away." It was signed simply "Akane," no love, fondly, sincerely, just "Akane." Ranma crumpled up the flimsy paper into a tiny ball and threw it across the room, nearly hitting Suge. He quickly gathered up his shower stuff and bolted from the room. Not liking the roof of the residence, he settled for the shower, letting the hot tears fall unheeded where no one could see him.

He hadn’t expected news of Akane’s wedding to hit him so hard and was extremely surprised at his reaction. He supposed somewhere in his heart there was a piece reserved for Akane and there always would be.

**

Carrie was combing Shay's hair, trying to get the unruly locks in some semblance of order. "I swear, girl, one day I'm gonna come in here and shave all this shit off," Carrie grumbled as she tried to gather the curls in a clip at the top of her head.

"Hey, it's not my fault, I didn't ask to be born this way," Shay said patiently, holding a handful of hair out of the way for Carrie.

"Hey, head up, don't look down," Carrie commanded. Shay immediately raised her head and stopped examining her legs for missed hairs. "Okay, I think that's got it." Carrie made a few more poofing gestures and grabbed a bottle of hairspray, liberally dousing what she considered to be problem areas.

"Hey, I have to get that stuff out you know, go easy!" Shay exclaimed in dismay.

"Voila!" Carrie gave an expansive gesture toward the mirror and Shay stepped up to examine her handiwork.

"Right on! Great job, man!" Shay tentatively touched her hair, poofing her bangs more and smoothing the few stray hairs.

"Thanks. Now go get dressed!" Carrie shooed Shay out of the bathroom, grabbing the dress that was hanging on the door. In Shay's room, she laid it on the bed and asked, "Now, what shoes were you going to wear with this?" The dress was dark forest green crushed velour and had dropped shoulders and long sleeves. There was a criss-cross of lacings in the back that tied in a bow and Shay had fallen in love with it immediately on one of her and Carrie's shopping excursions.

"Um, these?" Shay proposed hesitantly, holding up a pair of tan mid-heeled pumps.

"Please!" Carrie exclaimed with a wave of her hand. "Let me get you some real shoes." She went in her room and Shay could hear her rummaging around. She came back with a shoebox and opened it to reveal black suede ankle strapped shoes with three-inch heels. "What do you think?"

"I think I'll break my neck!"

"You will not either. Come on, put them on. Walk around in them."

Shay sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed, removing her sneakers and socks. Putting the shoes on and standing up was a whole new experience, she felt like a stork moving around in them. Leaning on Carrie for support, she moved slowly into the kitchen. "You're doing great," Carrie encouraged.

"Yeah, but I won't have you to lean on," Shay protested.

"Hello, what do you think Ranma's for?"

"Point." Seeing the clock, she started walking back to the bedroom. "I've gotta get a move on."

"Let me know when you're dressed and I'll do your makeup."

Shay made it back to her room without incident and shooed Tigger away from where he was sniffing at the dress. She quickly removed her jeans and replaced them with pantyhose and unbuttoned the shirt she was wearing, revealing the dark green strapless bra Carrie had made her buy. She slipped the dress on and tugged at it until it felt right. Looking at herself in the mirror, she thought, 'Not bad.' Opening the door of her room, she let Carrie know she was dressed and saw her coming down the hall with her tackle box.

"Not too much, Ranma won't recognize me," Shay warned, not normally in the habit of wearing makeup.

"Oh, he'll recognize you," Carrie assured as she dabbed and brushed her way across her friend's face. After about 15 minutes, she announced she was finished.

Shay looked at herself in the mirror, pleased at Carrie's embellishments. She'd done a good job of bringing out her eyes, which she'd been told in the past were her best feature. "Thanks, I really appreciate it!" she said, hugging her friend. "Oh shoot," she said, looking at her watch, "It's time to go." She picked up the shoes and thrust her feet into her trusty Birkenstocks.

"Shay!"

"Hey, I can't drive in these. I'll put on the shoes when we go into the restaurant, okay?" She picked up her fringed suede jacket and purse. The jacket did not go with the dress really, but it was the warmest one she owned.

"Okay, I guess I don't want you breaking your neck tonight," Carrie acquiesced with a smile. She walked to the door with her, leaning out to yell down the stairs, "Give him hell, girl!"

With the light traffic, Shay made good time to the college campus, arriving a little ahead of schedule. She decided she would go ahead and walk up to his room instead of waiting outside. Leaving the high heels in the back seat for now, she entered the hall and passed the TV room, the hoots and catcalls making her walk faster.

Reaching Ranma's room, she knocked tentatively and was surprised to see Suge stick his head out. He was almost never in the dorm and usually asleep when he was. "Konbawa, Suge! Is Ranma ready?"

"Ah, the wonderful Miss Stevens. Stay here, I'll check." Suge closed the door again and stuck his head back out into the hall a moment later. "He, ah, has misplaced something and will be out momentarily." She could hear frantic sounds of things being shifted around and drawers being opened and slammed shut. The door was closed again and she could hear Suge saying, "Hell if I know, it was just here. Ah, here it is!"

A minute later, Ranma came out, carrying his jacket, a birthday gift from his mother. His eyes widened when he saw Shay and he looked her over from head to toe, chuckling when he saw her incongruent footwear. "I have other shoes in the car," Shay explained, looking down shyly, suddenly wishing the skirt were a few inches longer than its mid-thigh length.

"Uruwashii," Ranma whispered, hugging her.

"Mm, you smell nice," Shay complimented, returning the hug. "What was that you said?"

"Beautiful. You are beautiful," he explained, watching Shay blush.

"Well, you're not so bad yourself, hot stuff," Shay said, admiring the way the brushed cotton shirt and jeans fit him, not a little proud she'd helped him pick them out. "We've got to get going if we're going to make our seven-thirty reservations."

They were having dinner at a tiny Italian restaurant by the beach and Shay had plans for after dinner. On the way over, Shay noticed Ranma was quiet and figured something was bothering him, but did not bug him about it, knowing that he would eventually tell her what was on his mind. Inside the restaurant, they were seated at an intimate table by a window facing the sea. They talked quietly through dinner, touching each other constantly, sometimes on the arm or leg, but continually renewing physical contact.

Shay was sipping a flavored coffee for dessert when Ranma asked her to close her eyes. "I have something for you," he said. Shay obliged and heard him fumbling around in his jacket. Finally he told her she could open them.

She saw a long box wrapped in red tissue paper in front of her. "Sweetie, you didn't have to get me anything."

"I know, I wanted to though. Open it," Ranma encouraged.

She slowly tore of the paper and opened what she knew to be a jewelry box to reveal a silver kanji character on a fine silver chain. "Wow," was all she could say.

"You like it?" Ranma asked anxiously. He'd never given a girl a real gift, much less jewelry. Nathan went along with him for support when he'd gone to the silversmith's to order the custom made pendant.

"What does it mean?" Shay lifted the necklace out of the box, feeling the weight of the pendant.

"It is omoi, it's an expression of my feelings for you," Ranma explained, getting up and moving behind her to put the necklace on her.

"And what are those feelings?"

"My affection, desire," he was back in his seat now, holding her hands, "and my love. I love you, Shay-chan." There. He’d finally said it. Now that he’d done it, he wondered what the big deal had been before.

"Oh," was all she could say in a small voice, looking down at the pendant. She knew she was going to start crying any second now, great big blubbering tears and didn’t want to ruin her makeup. She looked up and saw Ranma watching her, looking slightly anxious. "I love you too, Ranma." She felt tears starting to leak out of her eyes and grabbed a napkin, dabbing gently at them. "There I go again," she said.

Ranma watched her trying to dry the tears without messing up the makeup she had on. The waiter brought the check and Ranma left the money for it, along with a healthy tip while Shay excused herself to the bathroom to clean up. When she came back, looking much restored, he helped her into her jacket and they left the restaurant.

They were quiet in the car as Shay drove, Ranma holding the hand that wasn’t engaged in driving. After about 15 minutes, he asked, "Where are we going?"

"You’ll see," was all Shay would say. They started moving uphill and pine trees started to appear. The road changed to dirt and finally they stopped. "We’re here," she announced.

"Where’s here?" Ranma had no idea where they were and why they were out in the desolate area.

"It’s a surprise, come on." Shay had changed the strappy high-heels for her Birkenstocks again and took a blanket and pair of binoculars out of the trunk. She started moving toward a break in the trees, the moonlight more than adequate for her to pick her way around the various obstacles.

Ranma followed her, completely mystified. They passed beyond the trees and suddenly Ranma was faced with the ocean. He saw they were on a point of land, a high cliff really, and had a magnificent view of the Pacific. He saw Shay seated on a log, unfolding the blanket. "Here, sit down," she said, patting the spot on the log next to her.

Feeling like he was in some kind of odd dream, he sat down and helped Shay wrap the blanket around them. "What is this place?" he asked in wonderment.

"The place isn’t all that special, it’s what you can see from here." She handed him the binoculars after looking through them herself.

He held them up to his eyes. "What am I supposed to be looking at?"

He felt Shay’s hands on his head, guiding his vision more to the left. "There, that should be just about right."

"Okay, now what?"

"Such impatience, grasshopper!" Shay scolded. "Wait for a few minutes, you’ll see."

Suddenly, Ranma saw a silvery plume jet up into the air and almost dropped the binoculars. "Sugoi, what was that?" he asked, looking at Shay in amazement.

"A Gray Whale," Shay told him with a smile. "They’re at the tail end of their migration south. These are a few stragglers."

"Hey! There’s another one!" Ranma exclaimed with delight. They sat and watched the parade in silent awe of the magnificent beasts. When the pod passed, Ranma turned to Shay and said, "That was the most amazing thing I've ever seen! Thank you, Shay-chan." He leaned in close to kiss her, gently cupping her cheek with his slightly callused hand.

"Mm, you're welcome." Shay whispered into his ear. Ranma put the binoculars down between them on the blanket-covered log and gathered Shay in with both arms, kissing her again. Ranma was still occasionally surprised that kissing was so much fun. He'd never had time for girls when he and his pop were training and with Akane. . . there was never the opportunity. Besides, she probably would have called him a hentai and kicked him across half of Nerima.

Shay was different, she loved him, he knew. She'd said so just tonight. He felt something probing at his lips and opened his mouth to allow Shay's tongue to slip in and grapple with his own. The first time she'd tried that, he about jumped out of his skin, until Shay explained that was what is called "French kissing". Since then, according to Shay, he'd gotten to be pretty good at it. He broke the kiss and looked at her, hair highlighted silver by the moonlight. "Kawaii. . " he whispered as he tickled her earlobe with his tongue, moving down her neck, giving her goosebumps with his hot breath.

"Ranma. . " he heard her breathe, voice full of longing. She wasn't a virgin, he knew that. Not long after their first date, they'd had a long discussion that had started out in play, but ended up serious. She'd told him of her sexual experiences with her boyfriends in high school and, regrettably, Nick. By the same token, she did know that he was a virgin, and though he was eager to correct the situation, he did not want to rush into anything, he'd had enough of that back home.

He turned to face her more, almost straddling the log, blanket completely forgotten, and moved his hands down her sides, enjoying the feeling of the suede jacket on his palms, moving his hands to the front to cup her breasts. He'd noted they were not as big as his female form's had been during their previous sessions, but enough for him. Pushing them together, he kissed the top of her cleavage, darting his tongue in between them, tasting the perfume she had put there earlier. Her hands were running all through his thick, dark hair, moving down his muscled back. She brought his head back up and kissed him deeply, making his heart pound so hard he was sure she could hear it.

"Ranma," she whispered urgently, "I want you now, tonight."

"Uh? Tonight?"
"I want you to make love to me tonight."

"Here? Now?" Ranma was trying to figure out how they would manage to make love on a blanket-covered log on a windswept cliff jutting out into the Pacific.

"No, silly, not here, my apartment," Shay explained with a smile, looking into Ranma's eyes, a little sad that it was too dark to see their blue color.

"Your apartment?" he gulped. "Isn't Carrie there?"

"I expect so," Shay said with a calmness she did not exactly feel. ‘Carrie had never had any problem bringing guys home before, she thought to herself, why should I?’ She stood and started folding the blanket. "Are you one of those noisy guys?" she asked mischievously.

"No! Uh, I don't know. Well, maybe. . " Ranma trailed off, following Shay back to the car, absently picking the binoculars up off of the log.

"Well, I guess we'll find out, won't we?" Shay grabbed Ranma and held him tightly to her, grinding her hips and nipping his bottom lip.

On the way back to town, Ranma's thoughts were in a whirl. This was a side of Shay he'd never seen before and had had only the barest suspicion might even exist. He'd never really seen this side of any girl for that matter. He supposed Shampoo came closest, but even the way she acted was nothing compared to how Shay was behaving tonight. 'Okay, Saotome, get a grip. You've never had a problem telling girls no before,' he told himself. 'Yeah, but those girls all had something wrong with them, they were freaks,' his other side counseled. He could not deny that when he kissed Shay, he felt very unmistakable stirrings in his loins.

They pulled up outside of the darkened apartment. "Good, Carrie's asleep. The woman sleeps like a rock." Shay took Ranma's hand and pulled him toward her as they ascended the stairs, kissing him playfully. She somewhat quietly unlocked the door as Ranma kissed and bit her neck.

Inside, they kissed and groped their way to Shay's bedroom in the dark, closing the door firmly behind them. Shay turned on a bedside lamp so she could see to light the various scented candles she had in the room. As she lit them, Ranma watched from the bed. Having shed his jacket, he was laying on his back, hands clasped behind his head with his legs hanging off of the edge. He liked watching Shay move, she had her own kind of unconscious grace and he'd been encouraging her to try martial arts lately, knowing instinctively she'd be good at it.

Candles lit, Shay turned off the bedside lamp and looked at Ranma, illuminated by the wavering candlelight. Throwing her jacket on a chair, she laid down next to him. "Hey sweetie," she smiled, propping herself on one elbow.

"Hey," he said softly, pulling her down for a kiss. He felt her unbuttoning his shirt and froze, stiff with awkwardness.

"What's wrong? Do you want me to stop?"

"No, gomen. . . " Ranma was flustered and nervous and it showed.

"Hey, it's okay. Relax, let me take over. Do one of your martial arts things where you concentrate on being one with the bed or something," she teased.

'Good idea,' Ranma thought as he closed his eyes and relaxed, concentrating on keeping his breathing deep and even.

"Hey, don't fall asleep on me, ok?"

"I won't I'm wide awake," Ranma assured her. He felt her next to him, the heat of her body and something more. Now that he was concentrating, he could start to feel the outer edges of her chi. He opened his eyes a little to make sure she was not glowing or anything. He felt her unbuttoning his shirt the rest of the way, untucking it from his jeans and spreading it open, running her cool hands over his smooth chest. Next he knew his jeans were being unbuttoned and his shoes and socks were removed. Almost unwillingly, his breathing came faster, anticipating what was going to come next. Her lips were on his, at first soft and gentle, then hard and demanding. She moved down his neck to his collarbone, trailing with her tongue and biting suddenly. "Uh!" Ranma's breath came out in a gasp of surprise as he fought to regain control over his breathing, the only thing he felt he still had control of and that was slipping quickly.

He felt her hot breath moving lower and her tongue tracing a line down, down, down, leaving a trail of gooseflesh in its wake. Suddenly, he felt her tongue in his belly button, a strange sensation, but not unpleasant, he decided. She had stopped kissing him, but he knew she was still on the bed and he used this opportunity to try to regain control over his breathing only to lose that control to a totally unexpected tongue flicking his left nipple. "Ah!" he gasped as he felt his whole body jerk in reaction to the sensation. He snapped his eyes open and looked down to see Shay tracing a circle around one nipple with her tongue and her fingers tracing a circle around the other. Looking up at him, she pinched and lightly bit both nipples at the same time. "Oohh, Kami-sama," Ranma groaned, closing his eyes again.

The hand left his right nipple and moved down, sharp fingernails scratching down his washboard stomach, pausing briefly to circle his bellybutton before moving down farther. He closed his eyes tighter in anticipation, and was only slightly disappointed when Shay began to stroke his erect penis through his boxer shorts. She squeezed the head and bit down on his nipple at the same time, eliciting another gasp from Ranma. "My turn," Shay whispered seductively in his ear.

Ranma helped her lay back on the bed and looked at her in wonderment, amazed that such a wonderful woman was his and loved him. He removed his shirt and jeans, leaving them where they fell and, clad only in boxers, lay down next to Shay. He started by kissing her ear, tongue probing her outer ear, lightly nipping the lobe. He could feel her shiver and this encouraged him. Moving farther down, he pushed the front of her dress down, revealing the strapless bra she was wearing. Shay took her arms out of the sleeves and stood up, pushing the dress completely off. Ranma stood up behind her and, having some experience with female garments if not necessarily the females themselves, easily removed her bra, reaching around to cup her bare breasts. He felt her arch her back against him as he lightly squeezed them and kissed her neck.

He turned her to face him and kissed her mouth, tongue insistent and probing. Running his hands on her bottom, he felt the pantyhose. 'These have got to go,' he thought to himself, slowly pushing them down. Once they were a little ways off, he pushed her gently down on the bed and removed them the rest of the way, leaving her in the lacy underwear she had elected to wear that night. Easing himself on top of her, careful not to crush her, he nuzzled her breasts, enjoying the feel of the silky skin against his face. This at least was familiar territory; he'd been to "second base" with Shay before. He took a hard nipple into his mouth and began to suckle gently, hearing her moan.

"Oh, Ranma, a little harder," she breathed.

"Mm, what do you say?"

"Please, pretty please, harder, bite me, use your tongue," she gasped, moving her hands over his back, scratching with her fingernails. Ranma was only too happy to oblige and began to flick his tongue rapidly back and forth over her nipple while he rolled and pinched her other nipple between his thumb and forefinger. He could feel her hips grinding against his and had begun to respond in kind when he felt another weight on the bed.

Opening his eyes, he looked directly at Tigger. "Gah!" was all he could say.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" Shay asked, confused at what caused him to stop his exquisite manipulations. Seeing Tigger, she sprang into action, pushing Ranma off of her and scooping Tigger up in one smooth motion. Carrying him to the door, she quietly opened it and pushed the offending feline out into the hall. "Go on," she said as she closed the door. "All gone," she reassured Ranma and saw him visibly relax.

"Arigato, sorry I made you shoo him out like that," Ranma apologized, feeling the tiniest bit foolish.

"Hey, I don't need you rendered useless to me tonight, bud." She lay back down on the bed. "Back to work," she teased.

"Excuse me? What do you say?"

"Oh, please Sensei Saotome, show me those moves again," she said in a breathy voice with wide, innocent eyes in conscious imitation of one of his students, a particualarly annoying freshman.

Ranma rolled his eyes, "Ask a stupid question. . . " he murmured as he bent to his work, choosing the other nipple this time. As he felt Shay start to grind her hips again, he became acutely aware of his hard on and stopped his ministrations on her breasts to look at her and try to determine how he should proceed.

"Ranma, I want you now, I'm so ready for you," Shay whispered urgently to him, pupils huge in the candlelight. "Don't be scared, you won't hurt me." Her hands were moving down, grasping the waistband of his boxers and pulling them down. Ranma groaned as he felt his dick spring free of the confining garment and helped Shay rid herself of her panties.

He was so ready, he felt like he was going to explode at that moment. Struggling to maintain control, he looked down at the body Shay presented him with, full of desire. "Shay, it may not be much, I'm . . . "

"Shhh, it'll be okay. I love you." Ranma took a deep breath and with a brief thought to Kami-sama, slowly entered his girlfriend. The sensation was totally unlike anything he'd ever experienced, soft, wet and incredibly hot. He slowly withdrew and pushed back in, picking up speed. Shay was just starting to move to his rhythm when, as he predicted it was over too soon. With a shuddering groan, Ranma came and collapsed momentarily on top of Shay, too overcome by sensation.

She was hugging him close, legs wrapped around his narrow waist, murmuring in his ear, stroking his hair, kissing his face. He felt the wetness of her tears and was alarmed. "I-I'm sorry, Shay-chan," he apologized, pushing himself up on his arms.

"Sorry for what?"

"I upset you."

"What makes you think that?"

"You're crying," Ranma said lamely, unable to think of any other reason.

"Silly boy," Shay laughed, "you know I cry whenever I get emotional."

"Oh. I'm sorry I didn't, you know, last longer," Ranma said, looking down and feeling himself blush.

"Sweetie, don't worry about it, you're young and next time will be much better," she reassured him. And it was. As well as the next, and the next. . . until, exhausted, they finally fell asleep; Shay curled up with Ranma's arm protectively around her.

So asleep were they, they did not notice the door opening a crack or hear Carrie say, "About time, you two."

**

Ranma moved his head, trying to avoid the persistent shaft of light trying to make its way into his eyes. Sleepily, he thought, ‘I don’t have this problem in the morning, my windows face west.’ Suddenly his eyes snapped open as he remembered where he was and what happened last night. He was snuggled deep in the quilts on Shay’s bed, looking down he could see the top of her head resting on his chest, still asleep.

He smiled fondly, hugging her closer, remembering the events of the night before. They seemed possessed of a dream-like quality and Ranma found himself recalling flashes of images, Shay-chan, her skin turned golden by the candlelight riding on top of him, looking like a beautiful, terrible vasha. Another image, this one of her with her eyes closed in ecstasy as he moved slowly on top of her.

Not liking the idea of being away from her during winter break, he thought, ‘Maybe I’ll ask her to come to Japan with me over spring break.’ His stomach lurched as he remembered the invitation he received, the one from Akane. "Please don’t stay away," she had written. Well, he wouldn’t stay away, he couldn't.

He felt Shay stirring, starting to wake up. She lifted her head from his chest and smiled at him. "Ohayo," she said softly.

"Ohayo," Ranma returned, still thinking about Akane’s upcoming wedding.

Seeing the troubled look on his face, she asked, "What’s wrong?"

Sighing, Ranma sat up and said, "Well, I didn’t want to bring this up last night and spoil our evening, but. . ." and he told her about the invitation from Akane. What he didn’t tell her was how much it bothered him to hear that Akane and Shinnousuke were getting married, even though she’d clearly shown her preference long ago.

"You’re going to go, right?" Shay asked, sitting up in the bed, wrapping the quilt around her.

"Of course, I don’t really have a choice. I’m going to be home for the break anyway and it will look strange if I don’t go." Ranma paused here for a moment. "Shay-chan, would you go with me to Japan for the break?" he asked in a rush, holding his breath in anticipation of her answer.

"Sweetie, I would love to go!" she exclaimed, hugging him.

"You could stay with my family, you wouldn’t have to worry about a hotel, my parents would love to have you as a guest."

"I’d have to clear it with my parents first, of course. I would be gone over Christmas. . . Tell you what, we’ll bring it up over Thanksgiving weekend, ok?" They were going to Shay’s parents for the Thanksgiving weekend coming up next week. Ranma did not really know what Thanksgiving was, but he knew a lot of food was involved, and that was all right with him. "So, what did you think about last night?"

"Mm, it was wonderful. You are so beautiful, Shay-chan." He reached out to finger the silver pendant laying on her still tan skin.

"I’m glad you liked it," she smiled, gently caressing his shoulder. "Would you like to do it again?"

A wide, lazy smile started across his face and froze there. "Shit! I didn’t. . . You didn’t. . . We didn’t. . ." he exclaimed in horror, staring at Shay.

Shay looked nonplussed and then suddenly understanding, said softly, "It’s okay, sweetie. I can’t get pregnant."

"What? How?"

"I’m on birth control. I had a couple of pretty good scares in high school and I didn’t feel like dealing with the same thing in college."

"Oh. What, those pill things?"

"No, Norplant." Shay extended her arm out to him. "You can’t see them, but you can feel them." She took his hand and pressed lightly down on her upper arm. "Can you feel the rods?"

"Yeah," Ranma was a little grossed out by this and quickly withdrew his hand.

"So we’re safe, okay?"

"But what if," Ranma started.

"But nothing. If I wasn’t protected, we wouldn’t have done it.," Shay interrupted, placing a finger against his lips. They made love then, slowly and carefully, with Shay showing Ranma the places and things that pleased her most.

**

"Hello, Mom?" Ranma said into the phone, raising his voice to be heard. The connection this time wasn’t too good.

"Hello, Ranma! How are you doing? Such a surprise to hear from you. You know, Mrs. Yokohama next door, her son calls every week! Such a devoted son!" Ranma rolled his eyes at his mother’s not so gentle hint that he didn’t call as often as he should.

"Wow, Mom. That Mrs. Yokohama is one lucky mother! How are you an Pop doin’?"

"He is fine, but he is getting out of shape. All he does is sit around, eat and play shogi with Soun. I hope you are coming home soon to whip him back into some sort of shape."

Ranma laughed, imagining his mother’s exasperation with his lazy father. If he or Happosai weren’t around, Genma wouldn’t get up for anything less than a 6.5 earthquake. "Yeah, Mom, winter break’s just around the corner, I’ll be home." Here he paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts. Thanksgiving was a couple of days ago and Shay had brought up going to Japan with Ranma to her parents and they were surprisingly cool about it. They had a hard time with the idea of her missing Christmas, but between the two of them, they had managed to convince her parents that Shay should take this opportunity to visit a foreign country, even if it was with a boy they’d just met. "I got Akane’s invitation."

"Oh, you did?" his mother asked carefully.

"Yeah, it came a couple of days ago."

"And?"

"And I’m okay. I’m going to bring a friend with me to the wedding, I hope that’s okay. I guess I can check when I’m there for the winter break," Ranma said, trying to sound nonchalant. If he was smart, he’d ask Kasumi.

"Oh, one of your school friends?"

"Uh, sorta. Actually she’s my girlfriend."

"Oh, really? That’s great! Who is she, what’s her name? You know, just the other day, Mrs. Takeda was telling me about her daughter studying at the art school in San Francisco. She gave me her number and I was waiting for you to call so I could give it to you. Now I don’t need to! Tell me about her!"

Ranma hadn’t told his family about Shay, unsure of how they would react to him having a gaijin girlfriend. His mom was still traditional about some things and had been the most upset when Akane broke off their engagement and he refused to be engaged to one of the other Tendo girls. He decided to bite the bullet and said, "Her name is Shayla, she’s a student here studying to be a teacher."

"Oh? Shayla? That’s an unusual name for a Japanese girl. Is she one of those American born Japanese?"

"No, Mom, she’s not Japanese."

"Not Japanese?" Ranma could sense his mother thinking this one through. "Couldn’t you find a nice Japanese girl there in the United States?"

"No, Mom, I couldn’t find a nice Japanese girl here in the United States. I like Shayla and you will too. Is it okay if I bring her with me? She’s really looking forward to meeting you."

"Well, I suppose it couldn’t hurt anything if you bring her here to meet us," his mother sighed, seemingly resigned to the fact that her son did not have a Japanese girlfriend. She would have to see what she could do about that.

"Thanks, Mom, you’re the best!" They talked of inconsequential things after that, family gossip and hung up soon after, each satisfied that they would make the other see things their way.