Nodoka's Love: Chapter One  by James M. ZemaThis work uses characters created and owned by RumikoTakahashi.  It is meant only as a sign of my respect forher creativity and to express the enjoyment I derive fromher creations.  The characters used within might varyslightly as this takes place before the series itself anddiverges at that point. Some of the scenes within might belime scented, but I don't believe this work deserves a lime or lemon rating aside from some subtle (or so I'd liketo believe) innuendo, mainly found within Nodoka and Genma'sthoughts. ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><                       Nodoka's Love                      ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><Genma sighed slightly as he looked down upon theinoffensive looking piece of paper resting in his hands. Tightening his grip, a small tensing of his powerfulmuscles tore the useless promise asunder.  He had been sosure that the contract to make Ranma a man among men wouldsatisfy Nodoka and allow him to train his boy into thegreatest martial artist the world had ever seen, away fromhis mothers softening influence.  He would never know nowhe thought as the events of the past day flashed throughhis mind. ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><Moving in behind Nodoka as she watched their young son atplay, pride and love obvious in her features, Genma placedhis arms around her waist.  He shifted a bit as she leanedback into his arms while sighing, resting her head underhis own as she continued to watch young Ranma.  He briefly thought upon how he should approach thisparticular idea of his.  While she had allowed him to takethe boy on short training trips before, she usuallydemanded to be taken along.  Ever since he had snuck offwith Ranma when he was only a few weeks old in order totoughen him up. Those initial formative weeks wereimportant after all.  Looking back that had likely not beena good idea, all told.  However he had to get the boy awayfrom her so that she wouldn't ruin his training, thus hiscurrent attempt to get her in a good mood.Nodoka sighed as her beloved, if occasionally thoughtless,insensitive, and gluttonous, husband placed a kiss upon herneck and otherwise made his current line of thoughtobvious. "Genma, do you really think we should be doingthis in front of Ranma," she whispered as she enjoyed theembrace, and the feather light kisses brushing her neckthat went along with it, a contented look flashing acrossher face despite her words.Genma thought briefly upon trying to convince her based onhonor and those other notions she held so dear, but thenanother idea dawned which held much more appeal.  Grinninglecherously, he leaned down and whispered in his wife'sear, "maybe you're right, shall we leave Ranma be and takethis to our bedroom, my dear?"A coy smile gracing her lips, Nodoka turned and placed herarms around her husbands neck.  Pushing herself to her toesshe supplied an answer to his question with a gentle kiss,then turning away she started over to where Ranma waspunching at invisible opponents.Laying a hand on his wife's shoulder, Genma said, "allowme Nodoka."  He gently turned her around and pushed hertowards their bedroom, his hands lingering a bit as theytraced his wife's form before she moved out of his reach. As Nodoka nearly glided into the room they shared Genmaturned his attention to the little boy who was responsiblefor what would likely be a highly enjoyable persuasiveeffort.  "Ranma, come here, Boy," he called out to pull his son'sattention away from what now appeared to be a legion ofinvisible men."Whatcha want, Papa?" questioned Ranma after he hadsucceeded in dispatching all his foes with the new kickthat Genma himself had taught him earlier that day.  "Arewe gonna finger-paint again?"Genma quickly shushed his son and glanced over to thebedroom door down the hallway.  It wouldn't do for Nodokato hear about his little plan before he had gotten her intothe right frame of mind.  It never really occurred to himthat Ranma finger-painting would seem a perfectly innocentactivity to Nodoka.  Having watched the door to their bedroom for awhile nowand seeing that his wife hadn't heard, Genma whispered,"not so loud, M'boy, remember that's supposed to be ourlittle secret for the moment.  But no, we aren't going tofinger-paint again, it's time for you to practice thattechnique I showed you awhile ago."  Ranma's face fell, finally settling into a pout as hemumbled something too low for Genma to hear."What did you say, Ranma?" asked Genma sternly, though hecouldn't quite keep a smile from his lips."I said, 'I'm never gonna get that technique, Papa'," hismorose child answered, "I been practicin' it a whole lotsince you got back, but I still don't get it.""A true martial artist must make many sacrifices for theArt, in this case its time," lectured Genma, "you wouldn'tsacrifice your time for this awesome technique?  Oh, myonly son, how..."Ranma hurried to interrupt his father before he couldreally get into the speech, just as Genma had planned, andspoke up.  "Uh no, I wasn't complainin', umm, I was just,umm..."Genma let the grin he was hiding surface and stated, "thenprepare yourself my son, and perhaps you shall have learntthe technique by the time I return."At these words Ranma trudged into his room, Genmafollowing him shortly thereafter to see him already sittingbefore the little pile of odd items he had made into ashrine of sorts. Watching as his son placed the cat ears,composed of some felt and a pair of heavy duty head phones,on his ears and started trying to make cat sounds, hechuckled.  Nodoka could get just a _tad_ loud when theywere together, and it probably wouldn't do to have the boywondering what was going on in his parents bedroom. This had been his best idea yet, and it was still workingsince he had thought it up a year ago, although it hadn'tbeen put to heavy use until just a short while ago when heand Tendo had finally freed themselves from the Master. Besides, who knew, maybe when he finally got around toteaching Ranma the real Neko-ken this would help him masterit sooner.  Still chuckling from time to time, he left his son playingwith the cat toys and headed towards his room.  Pausingoutside to catch his breath and calm himself, he wasextremely surprised when an arm snaked out of the room andquickly pulled him in before sliding the door shut.An hour or so later as the couple lay together in theirbed Genma turned over and looked at Nodoka with a sly grinon his face. Careful not to rouse her too much he startedintroducing his idea in a slightly less verbose speech thanhe had originally intended, almost bluntly actually, sincehe didn't think she would be listening very closely afterthe past hour.  Unfortunately after a few minutes ofnodding dreamily his wife's sleepy eyes suddenly snappedopen and she turned to glare at him."You want to _what_, Genma dear?" she said ominously."Well, you see," Genma stuttered nervously as he looked athis wife's rapidly darkening expression, "the boy can'tvery well become the martial artist he has the potential tobecome around the house..."  He trailed off as therealization struck him that he had perhaps made a tacticalerror when implementing his plan."And what, pray tell, makes you think you are going totake my little boy away from me, Genma _dear_?" his wifequestioned.  "I will not let you take him away from me justlike that.  If you really need to take him on a trainingtrip that's fine, but I _will_ be coming along.""But No-chan...""Don't you "No-chan" me," Nodoka said firmly, deftlydiverting his hands from where they were about toreinitiate his original plan.  "Did you really think Iwould give up my son just like that?"  Her lower lip beganto tremble slightly as she continued, "I don't believeyou'd..."  Small sniffle.  "...think something like thatabout me."  Tears were now beginning to well up at theedges of her eyes.Panicking slightly Genma immediately thrust the paper hehad just been about to show her behind his back again."There, there, Nodoka I was just joking," he chuckledweakly, "really, I'm not quite that bad."  He crossed his fingers behind his back as he said that andthen stated, "I just want what's best for my family,really."  He could never quite figure out why it was thathis Nodoka's tears could move him like this, or why theyseemed to pop up whenever he really wanted something forthat matter, but nonetheless that was how it was.  He wouldjust have to find some other way of convincing his wifethat it really was for the best if he and Ranma went onthis little training trip of theirs alone.<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><Dropping the now shredded piece of paper, Genma ploppeddown in a cross legged sitting position, his elbows restingon his knees and hands supporting his head.  Ponderingexactly how he might manage to convince Nodoka that the boyand him needed to go on this trip alone.  He was so lost inhis thoughts he never even noticed the hyper active childcome flying at him until he was staring up into his sonsface with a slightly dazed look upon his own."Papa, are we goin' on 'nother trip soon?" the young childquestioned exuberantly as he bounced up and down on hiswheezing father.  "Mama said that you wanted to go on areal long one this time," he announced before his face fellslightly, "she said she thought you didn't want her to comethough, Papa.  Why wouldn't you want Mama to come?"With a sudden flash of insight, or a lack of oxygen fromhis son's bouncing, Genma realized that he wasn't going tochange Nodoka's mind--while they were still here.  Hestarted grinning a bit as a new plan sprung into being andgrabbed Ranma as he leapt to his feet.  "Now why wouldn't I want your Mother to come, Ranmam'boy," he said as the smile on his face widened.  "Whydon't you tell your Mom to start packing for the both ofus, we're going to be going on a _long_ trip."Ranma giggled at the expression of glee on his father'sface before he wiggled out of his arms and ran down thehall towards his parents room shouting, "Mama, Mama, Mama!!"Grinning at his ingenious idea and forgetting for themoment how well his last one turned out, Genma adjusted hisglasses and went to find that training manual he had foundin the Master's things.  While said Master was slightlyinebriated.  It was written in Chinese but that shouldn'thinder him too much since it had nice easy to read maps onthe back with big X's over the really good training grounds(odd how those other training grounds were circled though).He had been planning on going to those locations last but aslight change of plans was now in order.<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><A week later, Nodoka paused as they were about to boardthe ship they were taking to China.  Her husband had hadsome strange idea about _swimming_ across the Sea of Japanuntil she "gently" reminded him that Ranma was only five.He had sulked for almost the entire day, and she wonderedif she had handled that properly.  Her mother's advice onproper wifely behavior had been very odd in places, anddownright confusing in all the others, and she was neverquite sure exactly how it was supposed to be applied.  Thusshe generally just used the techniques she had been taughtas she pleased, when it didn't obviously conflict with herfamilies honor.  She was always faintly surprised when her "wifely wiles",as her mother was fond of calling them, worked on Genma, aswell as a bit guilty. Of course that guilt often went awaywhen she found out exactly what Genma had been planning,but she still felt it at times.  The guilt she was feelingright now wasn't enough to cancel out the joy she felt atbeing with her husband and son anyway, and she would makesure to make it up to Genma.  Possibly a few times.  Herskin began to flush as a warm heat washed through her body,so she nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a handfall on her bottom."Hmm, I wonder what it was that brought that blush to yourcheeks," Genma teased as he caught the hand which hadinstinctually swung for him, swiftly bringing it to hismouth and placing a kiss on it, his eyes keeping a steadywatch on her other hand.Nodoka's blush got even brighter before she said, "it wasnothing at all, I assure you," with a haughty toss of herhead. Only the hand which was still lightly held to Genma'slips marred the effect, well, that and the blush whichstill stained her cheeks crimson.  It was little gestureslike this which allowed her to get past the major blundersGenma seemed to make all to often."Ahh, I see," smirked Genma, "so it wouldn't be somethinglike this?"  He bent slightly and put his mouth to her ear,little whispered comments exactly mirroring what she hadbeen thinking about.  Well maybe not that one, or that one,oh that one sounded good..."Umm, well," she started, "possibly, well, you see..."Flustered she settled for a dignified retreat and turned toRanma, carefully looking him over while ignoring the blushstill on her cheeks.  "Are you ready, Ranma?  This will beyour first time on a boat," she said, "so you need to becareful with your balance."Ranma smiled brightly and chirped, "I can do it, Mama, meand Papa practice balance all 'a time.  Wanna see?" Without waiting for an answer the young boy ran over toGenma and before he could react climbed up to hisshoulders.  Then screwing up his face in concentration heproceeded to climb up his father's head and stand in place--on only one leg.Nodoka looked at her sweating husband intently for a fewseconds then turned her attention back to her beamingchild.  "That is...very good, Ranma, how often did you sayyou do this?" To tell the truth she wasn't _too_ surprised,she had seen little feats like this during the entire hiketo Kyoto.Genma quickly reached up and grabbed his son off of hishead and started running into the ship's interior whilecalling over his shoulder, "no time for that now, No-chan,we have to get settled in."  Finishing his save he tucked adelighted Ranma under one arm and quickly made for theinterior of the ship, the young child laughing the entiretime.Nodoka kept up her scowl until right after Genma turned acorner and could no longer see her.  A secretive smilegracing her mouth, she walked up the ramp and started forthe room at a slightly more sedate pace.  She couldn'treally let Genma see that she approved of his trainingmethods, that way they would probably stay at their currentlevel, remaining challenging without being likely to leavelife long scars, she hoped.  Her mother had made sure she understood that a good way tokeep a husband, or child for that matter, in line was tomake sure you showed your disapproval--before you actuallydisapproved.  Thus she had made it a practice tooccasionally make some type of remark which could beconstrued as slightly threatening in regards to Genma'straining methods. She smiled brightly as she thought of theperfect method to show that illusionary disapproval toGenma the following day--after she had thanked him properly.As she thought about Genma's training methods she wonderedif he had actually been serious about having her train.Admittedly it was a bit boring to just sit at the campwhile her husband and son trained, but she had never beforethought to go along with them. When presented with thechoice of participating in some of Ranma's exercises andhelping his training along, and thus first being trained inat least the basics, or staying at home, though it hadn'tbeen a difficult decision.She had always had something of a fascination for martialarts and had even managed to sneak in a few lessons fromtime to time.  However her mother had disapproved of thatpassion rather strongly and they had been few and farbetween at best. Genma's occupation had been a large partof why she initially started seeing him.  Plus, he camefrom a good family so her parents hadn't disapprovedcompletely, even if they didn't like him personally.Her thoughts were interrupted as she spotted the open doorthat marked the cabin they had been assigned to, lightsounds of mayhem passing through the portal.  Nodoka smiledthen pasted a stern expression upon her face as she walkedinto the room, the former expression soon returning andstaying in place for the remainder of the day--and thenight.><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><A sudden weight coming down on his stomach caused Genma towake with a startled grunt, the wind forced from his lungsas said weight started fidgeting.  Opening a single blearyeye, his sight quickly focused on the little boy who wasvery nearly dancing on his stomach.  "Just what do youthink you're doing, Boy?" he asked, part of him amused bythe tussle haired child now sitting on his stomach andanother part, the one which wanted to sleep, just a bitannoyed.A slightly apprehensive Ranma smiled with what heobviously thought was an innocent expression and replied,"Mama said I should get you up, an' I tried and tried butyou wouldn't open your eyes." Genma's eyes were drawntowards Ranma's side, where a small hand was peeking outfrom behind his son's back, fingers crossed.  Ranma smiledbrightly and said, "but Mama said I _had_ to get you up."  Genma sighed and wondered how Ranma had slipped pastNodoka, his son, while loved, usually wasn't to go near asleeping Genma.  This was primarily due to the fact thatsince Ranma had been trained in one of the primary tenetsof the Saotome school, namely jumping, he had taken togreeting his father with said skill.  Genma smiled wryly,all told it wasn't quite as pleasant as the kiss he hadexpected to be woken with would have been.Genma yawned, then sat up stretching, absent mindedlycatching his son as he tumbled off of his stomach.  "Whereis your mother anyway?"Ranma's forehead wrinkled a little bit before he offered atentative answer.  "Outside?"  A quick glance toward thedoor on his part did little to augment the obviously unsureresponse."You need to work on your fibbing, Boy.  That just isn'tgoing to cut it if your mother catches you at it."Genma shook his head and hefted the boy over his shoulder,walking past Nodoka in the bathroom which had joined thetwo rooms they purchased.  He made sure to ignore the lessthan ladylike language coming from his wife as sheattempted to account for the ship's sway while she put upher hair.  Past experience taught him that pointing it outwasn't going to gain him anything.Reaching the door to the cabin, Genma turned and examinedthe ship a bit more closely.  Wooden decking, only slightlyslippery, was passed over, as was the narrow railings andthe semi-choppy sea beyond it.  He finally settled on therigging which climbed the mast, walking toward it with asure stride only a sailor or martial artist could havematched. Genma's thoughts as he instructed his son wandered, but asusual of late tended to focus upon Nodoka.  The past fewweeks since the Master, may he rest in peace, hadbeen...disposed of...had seemed like Heaven. Nothing wouldstop Ranma from being the best though, even his ownweakness.  He had to get his son away from Nodoka beforeshe softened him.  Mind you, the boy did seem moreenthusiastic when he could show off what he learned to hismother, but he was sure that was just a stage he was goingthrough.Genma turned his attention back to Ranma as he reached thetop of the mast, grinning to himself at the skill the boyshowed this early.  "Now get down from there, Boy!  I don'twant you taking it easy looking around the ship!" Absentlynoting his son beginning the trip down, he returned to hismusings, trying to think through the entire problem at hand.He had been sure that Nodoka would have balked just atgoing to China actually, his plan just wasn't quite comingalong as fast as it might. After a few weeks of actualtraining, his wife would probably just give up and go home,she just wasn't meant for this type of trip.  Besides, thiswas the Master's training route, and if that wasn't enoughto drive her off then nothing ever would be.  Why she'dprobably break at the first ravenous horde of deadlyharpies, the ones disguised as average women until theMaster revealed them."Genma?" called Nodoka behind him, "what are you doingover there?  I've been looking for you for fifteen minutes."A few thoughts of Nodoka's icy visage yesterday, whenRanma was showing off, passed through his head when herwords registered. He very carefully did _not_ look up whilehe turned around to face his wife, a nervous smileplastered across his face.  "Hello, No-chan.  Nice morning isn't it?  I was justadmiring it, yes, that's it.  Admiring the scenery. Beautiful."  He took a deep breath to emphasize his pointand abruptly lapsed into a coughing fit, the tar, sweat,and brine combining into a rather unsavory, almost deadly,mix of fumes.Nodoka wore an amused smile, vaguely seen through tearfilled eyes, as she said, "Isn't the middle of the boat arather odd place to be 'observing the scenery', Dear?"Genma smiled weakly and began to wrack his mind for anexcuse, however a cry of "Banzai!" from somewhere up aboveprovided just the distraction he needed.  Or perhaps_didn't_ need.  The question was really moot to tell thetruth, as Ranma landing lightly and rolling across the deckuntil he stopped near Nodoka's feet was about as not neededas it was possible to get.Somehow he didn't think that he'd be getting out of thisone quite as easily as he had last night's.It was a couple of days later that the ship finally setanchor in a small harbor, somewhere in southern Korea. Genma had originally chosen the spot as the closest pointbetween the mainland and Japan, and it primarily remainedas their destination because he didn't want to alter theplans he had made for traveling.Glancing around the cabin one last time, his wife'sinsistent voice hurried him along and he was soon ready,grabbing the packs that he was insisting each of them wear,his wife included.Muttering slightly, though not too loud as Nodoka had justfinally allowed him back into her bed the previous night,he began careful planning as he walked over to the plankand down to the dock. Ideas for training at the variousgrounds, and how he could work Nodoka into them, passedthrough his mind one after another even as he set the packsdown.His wife's voice easily jolted him out of his ramblingswhen his family had assembled next to him.  "What was that,Dear?  I thought I heard you mention my name...?""Nothing, Nodoka, just thinking about all of ourtraining," he answered her question in a careful tone,trying not to chuckle as he thought of his sweet littlewife as she asked him in a pleading voice to take her home.Falling into his arms in a swoon as he..."Are you alright, Genma?" Nodoka asked in a sugary sweetvoice, "you seem somewhat out of it, and that giggling...""I DO NOT GIGGLE!" Genma yelled indignantly."...was getting a little distracting," Nodoka continued,ignoring her husband's protests.  "By the way, is thismine?"  She hefted the heavier of the two packs he hadbrought out, not exactly with ease, but not nearly as muchtrouble as she should have."Eh, no, umm, that one's mine," mumbled Genma as a singledrop of sweat trailed down his back.  His shoulders slumpedslightly as he grabbed the pack from Nodoka and turned toget Ranma ready.  Thus he didn't see the silent sigh ofrelief or the furious rubbing motions his wife made as shetried to get feeling back in her arms from the short timespent holding the enormously heavy pack. Turning back tohis wife, he noticed she already had her pack on her backand so he gestured to his family beginning their trek intothe deepest wilds of China.><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><Any and all commentary upon this would be most appreciated,especially upon the writing style itself.  I've tried tofocus primarily upon the characters and their thoughts inthis story, and would like some feedback upon how itturned out.While I don't want to give out even tentative dates forany of my projects, I should be sending out a revisedversion of Forbidden Feelings next, and starting upon thesecond chapter after that.  I have at least part of thesecond chapter of this finished though, so that might getout first.All of my works, and my sisters, can be found athttp://www.lands-beyond-reality.com/ranma/, and again ifat all possible I would appreciate comments being sent toranma@lands-beyond-reality.com.--James M. Zemahttp://www.lands-beyond-reality.com/ranma/E-mail: ranma@lands-beyond-reality.com