Who: Katou and Ranma What: Ranma skips dinner, Katou goes to find him. When: A couple days after this thread, early December. Where: Katou's old warehouse Warnings/Ratings: Pretty low. Language. Status: Complete
Ranma was actively avoiding Akane now. In fact he’d become a bit of a loner by accident due to it, isolating himself from other people. He caused them pain, be it through him or his father-somehow or another, he caused the people around him to suffer. Akane had mentioned some kind of dinner affair with Katou, and on a normal basis he might have been there, but after receiving the Gekkaja he disappeared entirely. He didn’t want to be with anyone, he didn’t deserve to be.
He’d tried his best to not involve Akane on his trip to Jusenkyo, and as usual she ended up a victim anyway. However Ranma wasn’t entirely unpredictable, his favorite places were rooftops. High places he could get away from the noise of streets, this time he’d chosen Katou’s old hang out actually. He figured it was the last place anybody would bother looking for him, including Akane. He couldn’t deal with his father and the rest just now. The air was cool, but Ranma didn’t seem to notice or care-there was a certain numb expression to his features as though his physical being was there but mentally he’d just checked out. Not a hint of his usual confidence or arrogance radiated from him, losing Akane was his worst nightmare realized. One hwasn’t ready to cope with.
Katou hadn’t been back to his old warehouse since he had fucked up and Akane had found him. It wasn’t that he was really afraid to go back for fear of slipping up again, but he hadn’t really had much of a reason to go back there. There really wasn’t one now, if he was totally honest. After Jin had moved to Korea, Katou just wanted some alone time away from Jack. He hadn’t had any problems the last few weeks getting alone time just by locking himself up in his room with his guitar, or going out to pick fights with anyone who would have him, but that wasn’t really the point. Sometimes, maybe, it wasn’t a bad idea to grab a six-pack of beer and go drinking alone in the place you used to live in when you were homeless.
It definitely had nothing to do with the fact that Akane had told him at dinner that Ranma had been avoiding her. That seemed like some sort of stupid lover’s quarrel (even if they were both kind of idiots about the whole ‘lover’ part of it), and Katou had his own share of love problems. Namely, getting dumped by his first boyfriend and not being able to talk about it with anyone because he hadn’t told anyone he was dating him in the first place. The fact that Katou was keeping a watch out for Ranma’s aura was really just a coincidence or something.
He wasn’t too surprised when he picked up Ranma’s aura as he approached the place, though he did make a show of rolling his eyes at no one in particular. It took him a moment to pinpoint exactly where Ranma was, he looked up and let out an exasperated sigh, took off his shirt so he didn’t rip it, and spread his three large wings.
“You can’t just go inside like a normal person?” Katou asked once Ranma came into view.
Ranma hadn’t even thought about anyone else, he was only thinking he wanted to get away from everyone. The fact that being there might awkward for Katou hadn’t even crossed his mind. A pair of dark eyes leveled on the image of the winged teenager, but he didn’t flinch. He didn’t move at all. He just watched. Normally he might have been a least a little impressed, or cocky, or something-but it was like there was nothing left. He’d seen Akane die, and it had nearly put him in a catatonic like state. It wasn’t even obvious he wa aware of the world around him.
It wasn’t like annoying Katou was a difficult thing to do, but one of the quickest ways to do so was to ignore him outright. He frowned a little, and hovering a foot above the roof, he folded his wings in so he landed. He pulled one of the beers from the rings, shook it up, and took aim. “Oi, shithead,” he said as he opened the shaken beer, hoping to spray Ranma in the face. “Pay attention to me.”
Everyone he knew was very mature of course. However the tone caused his eyes to narrow some and a pure defensive reaction to disarm the bottle from him-but it worked. It had brought his attention to the forefront of things and the world came screaming back at him like a flood of color and sound. “..Nanda? When did you get here?” He had no idea how long he’d been there or what was going on, it was almost as though he’d sleep walked his way there. In that daze, he might as well have.
“Welcome back to Earth,” Katou muttered. He slipped back on his shirt, cracked a fresh beer that he hadn’t shaken up, and sat down heavily next to Ranma. The kid was definitely kind of out of it. The last time he’d seen someone spaced out like that, it had been Setsuna, after Setsuna had managed to get a bunch of his rebel angel’s slaughtered and got dumped by Sara because of a series of incredibly stupid decisions. “Missed you at dinner the other night,” he said, casually offering a beer to Ranma. Not that he really expected Ranma to take it.
“Great.” Earth. Just where he currently didn’t want to be. There was so much bullshit going on Ranma could barely stand it in the moment. Normally he might have turned down that beer, but right then he wanted the escape. He took it and idly drank it. “Wasn’t feeling well.” Bullshit again, when things hit the fan for Ranma they hit hard. There was a tiny black haired doll tucked in one of the pockets of his Chinese shirt, it’s eyes were closed now. “Still not.” He muttered as he drank the bitter tasting liquid. He hadn’t been eating much or doing much of anything except isolating.
Katou was a little surprised when Ranma actually accepted the beer, but other than a slight widening of the eyes, he didn’t show it. Maybe his attempts at corrupting his friends had been more successful than he’d thought.
Or Ranma was really fucking reeling over whatever Dream Katou assumed he’d had.
“Yeah? You always take off to rooftops of old warehouses and make your family worry when you’re sick?” Well, Akane in particular, but those two were weird about their engagement sometimes and Katou wasn’t sure if saying ‘Akane’s worried about you’ would make things better or worse.
Ranma wasn’t the sort to cave to peer pressure, or he'd have been a lot worse off than he was already. “Not that kind of sick. “ He didn't elaborate though. He just finished off the beer. “Don't suppose you got anymore? “ It wasn’t as if the rest of the fa noticed what he did beyond Akane. “Least she's alive. “ If it meant her worrying he could live with that.
Katou casually tossed him another can of beer. The surprise did show on his face when Ranma mentioned Akane being alive. It was such a non sequencer that it had to have deeper meaning. “Yeah, she is. The fuck is going on, Ranma? Are things alright?”
“..Where are you keeping them?” Ranma asked with a raised eyebrow as he caught it anyway. The hint of dry humor though faded nearly instantly at that question. “I got her killed. You said it yourself, the dreams can kill...It can happen here. I won’t be responsible for it again.” He wasn’t much of a drinker, but god damn did he want to be drunk right then.
Katou grinned. “I brought a six pack, man,” he said. “You know, in case I ran into any mopey friends.”
When Ranma mentioned that Akane died in the dreams, Katou blinked in surprise. He hadn't been expecting that. Honestly, he'd been convinced Akane had found a new boyfriend and called off the engagement or something. He reached for Ranma’s shoulder, hoping to force the other Japanese boy to look at him, or, at the very least, pay attention to him. “Ranma, she's not dead here. I died four times in my dreams, and I'm still kicking.” He was pretty sure he was technically dead - his body was the one Uriel had built for him after all instead of his old fleshy one - but this wasn't the time to bring that up. “This is our chance to do things better than we do in our dreams. To fix the mistakes we made. It's a second chance, man.”
“Tastes like shit.” His English was still rough, but he remembered the swears easily enough. Most of everything else he had to explain in Japanese. Even though beer tasted bad, Ranma wasn’t terribly concerned with flavor, just alcohol content.
A pair of dark eyes shifted toward him at the touch finally. “Yet.” He returned, resting his arm on a bent knee, and the other leg off the roof. He looked over at Katou a bit more fully, a calculating sort of glance as he sighed in annoyance. “Second chance huh?” Ranma seemed to mull that logic over a little as he looked up. A bit of cold snow dropping on his face. “....The hell?” Snow fell from the sky like flower petals through the air.
“It’s an acquired taste,” Katou said, shrugging. The first few times he drank beer had been rough but that was years ago now.
“Everyone dies; it's just a matter of when. And if Akane’s death carries over here, and you're still avoiding her, who’s going to help her?” He sighed. “A second chance is how I look at it though. When I died in my dreams, I had… a lot of regrets. So when I die here, I gotta make sure I don't make the same mistakes.”
Katou held out his mechanical arm. The snow didn't melt when it landed on the leather encased metal, and he frowned a little. “It's been snowing the last couple years here. Pro’ly means we’re gonna have another white Christmas.”
Ranma was legal drinking age in Japan so he had other drinks before beer, but right now it was the thing that was convenient so he'd take it. Maybe it would help take the edge off eventually. “You know drunken kung fu is a myth?” he said at random, swirling the liquid remaining in the can idly for a minute.
His eyes shifted down to the snowy ground with a sigh escaping his lips. “I duno how to stop it from happening. I still want to be a full guy again somehow. But maybe if the springs that changed me into this shape shifting thing are not here she won't? “ He doubted that. With his luck he'd come home to Akane dead already and was terrified of that.
“Hnn.” He responded as he touched the snow and flicked a small pile from his sleeve in Katou’s direction. Even if he didn't express it, his friends presence helped.
Katou frowned. “So, if you get rid of your little titty problem, Akane ends up dead?” Katou asked. That… kind of sounded like a shitty deal. “There’s gotta be a way around that though. Maybe you and Akane can try brainstorming something.” Katou didn’t know much of Ranma and Akane’s dreams, apart from magic hot springs that turned people into whatever died in it (gross?), and that Ranma’s father in particular was very keen on throwing around marriage proposals like they were going out of style. “Hey, maybe there’s even someone on the Network who can work their mojo.”
Katou snorted when Ranma flicked snow at him, and gathered up a handful himself. He packed it into a small snowball, and lobbed it at Ranma.
“Basically. And I’ve wanted to be normal again since it happened.” It was disappointing, a crushing blow really. Ranma now really had no choice of being a guy again unless he wanted to risk Akane. “What do you mean mojo?” He hadn’t really paid much attention to all the people on that network thing, it was a lot to keep track of..
Wincing as the snow struck, he gave Katou a shove toward a particularly high pile of snow nearby them on the roof.”Heh, Jerk.” Some of his personality was returning at least. He wasn’t nearly as distant as he had been a moment ago.
“Mojo’s like… uh…” How the hell did someone explain mojo of all concepts. “Well, in this case, I mean it to be like magic. You know, magic spells. I thought I was a goner for sure,” more than once, “but there’s a few people around who can do all sorts of things I didn’t think were possible with magic.” Like affixing his soul to his body.
And then Ranma was pushing him into the snow. “The fuck?” Katou growled, brushing some snow out of his hair. Despite the fact that he looked pissed, he was actually pretty pleased, and a bit of a malicious looking smile started to cross his lips as he scooped up a handful of snow. “Think if I facewash you, you’ll turn into a chick?” Katou asked, lunging at Ranma without giving him a chance to answer.
Sigh, more of that magi shit. Everyone just seemed so okay with talking about magic, like it wasn’t totally nuts...then again, splash him with cold water and suddenly he became a chick. A damn hot chick if he said so himself. He just rolled his eyes at the word and then couldn’t help but let a flicker of a smirk creep into his lips at Katou’s snowy disposition.
“Gonna have to catch me first.” He wasn’t that easy, he could read body language. Ranma was an expert when it came to body language thanks to martial arts. He’d already jumped out of his grasp and down toward the ground beneath them practically effortlessly.
Startled, Katou watched Ranma take off. He sighed, ran a hand through his hair, and then cupped his hands to his mouth. “I have superpowers,” Katou yelled after him. But then he grinned. If that’s how Ranma wanted to do things, then that was fine by Katou. He took off after him.