[Ranma/Xover] With This Ring...
ana...@earthlink.net
respective creators.
With This Ring...
---------------------
By: Anand Rao
Mamoru sighed as he entered the jewelry store. (Hopefully I can find one
here,) he thought. He had already visited over a half-dozen jewelry stores
that day and was starting to lose hope.
He was going to marry Usagi.
He had proposed, and she had accepted; several times, in fact. It was like a
beautiful and simple dream, and he could almost see the majestic future that
would unfold before them. Yet, that was years, perhaps even centuries away,
and before then, he wanted to give Usagi something symbolic. He wanted to
give her something simple and pure that showed his love for Usagi; not
Endymion's seemingly inevitable destiny with Serenity.
So, here he was, traveling all over Tokyo, looking for the perfect engagement
ring. A bell jingled over the front door as he entered the store. As he
quickly glanced around at the room's display cases, a saleswoman approached
him.
"May I be of assistance?" she asked, cheerfully smiling at Mamoru.
"Yes, I'd be interested in browsing through your assortment of engagement
rings," he replied.
"You too?" she asked, glancing at another young man in the store. "All our
engagement rings are in those cases over there," she said, gesturing towards
the other man. (Why are all the handsome ones taken?) she thought to herself.
"Thanks. I'll take a look at them and get back to you," Mamoru replied. He
walked towards the appropriate display cases and stood next to the other man.
He spent a few moments looking at the rings, and sighed when not even one of
them caught his interest. He glanced at the man standing next to him. He
was at least a full head shorter than Mamoru, had short black hair, and was
staring intently at the display case. "Any luck?" Mamoru asked softly.
"Huh?" the other man asked, turning slightly towards Mamoru.
"Any luck finding a ring," Mamoru clarified.
"No, not really."
"Me either, and this is the eighth store I've been to," Mamoru replied. "Hi,
my name is Mamoru Chiba."
"Keiichi Morisato," the other man replied.
"Morisato. . . Hey, didn't you win the Pacific Rim Motor Cross race last
week?" Mamoru asked.
"Yeah, I did," Keiichi replied, smiling shyly.
"I'm not really into racing," Mamoru confessed, "but I caught the tell end of
the race on television while I was waiting for Usagi to get ready for dinner."
"Usagi?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. Usagi is my fiancee," Mamoru explained.
"Fiancee? So, you already asked her," Keiichi observed.
"Yes, just recently."
"Well, I guess, for you, the hard part is over," Keiichi replied, sighing
tiredly.
"You'd think so, wouldn't you? I didn't realize how difficult it would be to
find a ring!" Mamoru exclaimed.
"I know. Nothing here seems. . . right. Nothing really expresses how I feel
for Belldandy. I - I guess I was hoping to find a ring that could say what I
can't," Keiichi said.
"Belldandy's your girlfriend? How long have you two been together?"
"It's been about five years now."
"That's a long time. I'd think you'd a feel for it, if she was ready. Women
are notorious at dropping hints about that sort of thing," Mamoru said dryly.
"My relationship with Bell is a bit complex," Keiichi said uncomfortably.
"Her, um, Father might not let her get married."
The jingling of front door's bell caught both of their attentions. A young
man, a teenager, walked into the store. He had short black hair that ended in
a thin ponytail in the back. Smiling shyly at the saleswoman, he walked
directly to the display case of engagement rings.
"Hi," he said, nodding towards Mamoru and Keiichi.
(Looks like -everyone- wants to get married today,) Mamoru thought. "You
looking for a ring too?" he asked.
"Yeah. I was in here before, but, er, got interrupted."
"Well, I hope you have better luck than we've had," Keiichi said ruefully.
"Not much of a selection, huh?"
"Not really."
"Damn! And I need four rings, too!" the man exclaimed.
"Four?" Keiichi and Mamoru exclaimed incredulously.
"Um, better make that five, no need to wait," the man observed.
"Why would anyone need five engagement rings?" Keiichi asked.
"It's kind of a long story." The young man started laughing nervously "Oh,
by the way, my name is Tenchi."
Keiichi and Mamoru introduced themselves, and Tenchi started began studying
the rings. "You know, Tenchi, polygamy is illegal in Japan," Keiichi pointed
out.
"That won't really matter in my case," Tenchi said, almost bitterly.
For a moment, Mamoru imagined being married to all the Inner Senshi; and he
shuddered. "You're a brave man," he said, sympathetically patting Tenchi's
shoulder. (Either that, or really stupid,) he thought.
"Well, I'm not going to find anything here. I'm going to try to find a new
store," Keiichi said.
"It was nice meeting you, Keiichi. And cheer up, I'm sure things will work
out," Mamoru replied.
"Yeah. Thanks, Mamoru, I-"
The front door of the jewelry store slammed open and a teenage girl with
bright red hair, tied in a pig tail, wearing a Chinese-style red shirt ran
into the store. She quickly closed the door and leaned back against it. The
three men tensed immediately; the girl looked very frightened.
"Is something wrong, Miss?" the saleswoman asked, moving closer to the red
headed girl.
"C-c-cat," she stuttered.
"Cat?" Tenchi repeated in confusion.
The girl nodded her head vigorously, spraying droplets of water in all
directions.
"Hey, you're all wet," Keiichi observed.
"Is there anything we can do for you? What's wrong?" Mamoru asked. The girl
closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay. It's just Shampoo," she murmured to herself.
Opening her eyes, she glanced around the store. "Um, sorry about this; better
be going," she said quickly. She turned around and was about to open the
door when a loud female scream could be heard from outside.
"Raaaaanmaaaa! Where are you?"
"Uh, on second thought, maybe I'll look around or something," the girl said
nervously.
The three men exchanged puzzled glances. "Miss, are you sure you're all
right? There's nothing to be scared of," Mamoru said soothingly.
"Hey! I ain't scared of nothing!" the girl replied indignantly. "I'm just
here looking, um, looking. . . for a, uh, ring! Yeah, that's it; I'm looking
for a ring."
"An engagement ring?" Keiichi asked, smiling at his own joke. Mamoru and
Tenchi grinned widely as well.
"Wh-what the h-hell would I want an en-engagement ring for?" the girl
sputtered.
"S-sorry! It was just a joke! Honest!" Keiichi exclaimed, a little unnerved
by the girl's anger.
"Hey, what are a bunch of guys doin' in a jewelry store? Isn't this the sorta
place for girls to hang out?" she asked suspiciously.
"Usually," Mamoru frowned, "Unless, of course, a guy wants to buy an
engagement ring."
"All three of you? Getting married?"
The three men nodded, and suddenly, a look of inspiration grew on Tenchi's
face. "Say, maybe what we need is a different point of view. Miss, do you
think you can you help us pick out our rings?"
"Uh, I'm not really good at that sorta thing. Besides, I really should be
go-"
"Ranma! You coward! Come out here and prepare to die!" a male voice
challenged from outside.
"Oh man," the girl whined, her left eye twitching slightly. "Yeah, I guess I
can help ya for a few minutes."
"Great! My name's Tenchi."
"Keiichi."
"Mamoru."
"Yeah, yeah. Nice ta meet ya, my name's Ranma," she said tiredly.
(I wouldn't have guessed!) Mamoru thought dryly.
"Thanks, Ranma. We're all having trouble trying to find just the right ring.
See anything here that you'd suggest?" Tenchi asked.
"Any reason you guys didn't just ask the Saleslady? I mean, that's why she's
here," Ranma pointed out.
"Well, I think an unbiased opinion would be better," Keiichi replied.
"Salespeople tend to point you towards the most expensive item available,"
Mamoru whispered.
"Uh, right. Let's see what we got here." Ranma stepped closer to the
display case and took a look at assortment of rings. "They all look kinda
nice, what's the problem?" she asked.
"We don't want 'kinda nice'. We want something special," Mamoru explained.
"What's the big deal? I mean, do girls really care about this sorta stuff?"
Ranma asked.
"You tell us," Mamoru retorted dryly.
"Yeah, you're a girl," Tenchi chimed in.
"I'm NOT a- um, that is, I'm not really good at this sorta stuff. Look, if ya
love someone, what does it matter? Get a ring, any ring, and just. . . tell
her how you feel. If you love her, that's. . . all. . .that. . . matters,"
Ranma said, a look of surprise growing on her face.
"Is something wrong, Ranma?" Keiichi asked?
"Huh? Oh, uh, I just sorta figured out something that's been bothering for a
while, that's all," the red head replied.
"I see. Well, I'm not going to find what I'm looking for here, but thanks for
the advice, Ranma. I think I'll follow it," Keiichi replied.
"Good. Great. Look guys, I gotta go. There's. . . someone I need to talk to
for a bit," Ranma said stepping back towards the front door. "Good luck,
and. . . thanks." Ranma turned away and ran out of the store, the door
slamming behind her.
"Strange girl," Mamoru observed.
"Yeah. I liked her attitude though. I wonder if she's right, that girls
don't really care about the ring," Tenchi mused.
"I don't know about that, but I do know this. I'm going home and tell
Belldandy that I love her, and then, we'll pick out a ring together," Keiichi
replied.
"Now -there's- an idea I like!" Mamoru agreed.
"I. . . don't think that's going to work in my situation," Tenchi said
uncomfortably. (Those girls would destroy every jewelry store we went to!)
"Some how, even you will find a way through this, Tenchi. I have a feeling
we all will," Mamoru said, smiling lightly. "How about some lunch? There's
this Chinese place called the Cat Café near by. I've heard it's really
popular. We can sit down and talk about our future wives."
"Thanks Mamoru, I can go for that. Besides, I'd -really- like to hear
Tenchi's story," Keiichi replied, grinning expectantly at Tenchi.
Mamoru laughed as Tenchi blushed sheepishly. The three young men left the
jewelry store, each feeling a bit better then when he had entered. As the
door closed behind them, Tenchi started his tale.
"It all started with this Demon's cave near my grandfather's shrine. . ."
------------------------------------------------
Fini
Next time, (if there is a next time,) meet the brides-to-be!
Hey there, I'm still writing, albeit a bit slowly. The strangest thing
happened after I moved out of my parent's house. I developed a socal life!
^_^ Anyway, LoaM 4 and FtSotC 9 are going smoothly if slowly, and are each
about half way done. I'm also working on an alternate reality Eva story that
promises to be rather... dark. Which is a new concept for me, but I'm having
fun.
See ya!
-Anand
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