A Dowry of Words

"I know, can you believe it? A free day at the Ganawa Hot Springs Resort? I don't even remember entering this contest!" Genma Saotome couldn't believe his good luck, holding up the voucher he'd received anonymously in the mail."Well, I wish I had, Saotome! Have a wonderful time!" Genma's best friend clapped him on the back, motioning to the sidewalk. "You'd better get going, or you'll miss your train!""Oh, crap!" Genma looked down at his watch. "You're right, Tendo! I'd better get a move on! See you tomorrow!" The balding man turned down the street, running at the maximum speed his aging body would carry him in the direction of the Nerima train station.From the rooftop across the street, a redheaded teenage girl in a white lace dress watched as the man she once called her father sprinted down the road. She waited until the gate to the Tendo yard was closed and the aging martial artist was out of view before hopping to the ground.Yeah, old man, get a move on. Have a great time, and try not to think too hard about the number of photos of your kid in a miniskirt I signed to raise the money to get rid of your ass for a day.She adjusted her ponytail, smoothing her dress and brushing a little dust from the rooftop off of her knees before taking a deep breath and ringing the bell.A moment later, Kasumi Tendo walked gingerly into the dining room, gently interrupting her father as he sat on his porch looking out onto the koi pond and the dojo beyond. "Father? Someone is here to see you.""Oh! Yes!" Soun stood, chuckling a bit nervously. He wasn't expecting anyone, and he had no idea what it could be about. "Please, Kasumi, send them in."Nearly holding her breath, the young woman in the white lace dress entered the room where she'd had breakfast every day for two years. She hadn't set foot in it since the day she ran out in the middle of the night and threw away everything she knew for the sliver of a scintilla of a hope that she might one day become half the woman that stood in that room now."Ranma. I… didn't expect to see you here."Kasumi sighed. "Father, her name is…"Ranko held up her hand, pleading with her eyes for Kasumi to stop."Good morning, Mr. Tendo." Ranko bowed formally to the father of the woman she loved, awaiting his acknowledgement before rising."What brings you here? Is everything alright with Akane?" Soun sat back on the floor, crossing his legs.Ranko sighed, shaking her head. "No, sir, it isn't." She knelt on the floor a few meters away from him, bowing her head. "Mr. Tendo, sir, I am here because Akane needs you.""Oho, is that so? She certainly didn't seem to need me very much when we spoke last. Besides, she has someone else taking care of her now, doesn't she, Ranma?"Ranko clenched her teeth, but allowed her eyes to show no anger. "Sir… I don't know how to say all this to you, so I'm just going to try, okay? I'm not here for me. If you want to call me by my old name, call me boy, call me son, hey, if it makes you feel better, I'll bear it. I've heard a lot worse, from people I respect a whole lot less. I can take it. I can bear any shame you want to throw at me. The only thing I can't handle is watching the person I love more than life itself suffer for the crime of loving me. You can't hurt me worse than that, no matter how hard you try."Ranko leaned forward, placing her hands, and then her forehead, on the floor, her ponytail coiling around her right cheek on the cypress flooring. "I am here, Mr. Tendo, to beg you not to punish Akane for being the kind, caring, and loving person that you raised her to be. You made her a person that could see the best in everyone, sir, even… even a freak like me. Don't hold that against her now, sir. Please."Soun sighed. "Please get up, Ran…" He sighed, not even sure how he wanted to finish his sentence.Ranko sat back up to her knees, but kept her head bowed. Like a proper bride, she thought to herself. "Mr. Tendo… I love Akane. I will bow and scrape and apologize for every other part of my life if it makes you feel better, but that, I am not sorry for, and I never will be. I know I'm not what you dreamed of for Akane. Not anymore, at least. I know I don't deserve her. I know I'll probably never be who you want to see with her, and it breaks my heart, but I will learn to live with it."She sighed heavily, looking down at the silver ring around the third finger of her left hand, letting it give her strength."Mr. Tendo, I'm… I'm never going to be a guy again. It's just not going to happen for me, and… I don't want it to anymore. I never in a thousand years thought I would say this, but… I am becoming the woman I am meant to be. I am still learning what that means. I'm still learning who I am a little bit every day, with Akane's and my new family's help. But I can say for absolute certain that I am a woman, and I belong with Akane. She asked me on Christmas to spend the rest of my life with her, and I said yes. It was the easiest decision I've ever made."Ranko sighed. "I know you want Akane to have a husband one day that will protect her, and provide for her. That will be strong for her, and keep her safe, and make her proud. And… I may be a girl now, but I can still do all of those things. I am going to fight for her every day for the rest of my life, sir. I still consider those things my responsibilities, and nothing about the fact I'm wearing a dress while I say it is gonna change that. But… there are things a person expects of a wife, too. Wives are expected to be dutiful and respectful. To take care of their partner and their home. To be nurturing and soft and supportive. I want to give Akane all of those things, too. She doesn't have to choose. I want you to know that I will give her the best of who I am. All of who I am. I promise.""And what if she wants children? Have you considered that? You may say you can do everything else she'd expect of a husband, but that would be pretty difficult, even for you."Ranko looked around the room desperately for an answer. That was the one question she'd dreaded. If Akane wanted it badly enough, she would bear the agony and try to change back just long enough, but she doubted Akane would ever allow it. Just then, her eyes fell on the silver dragon coiled around her left wrist, and her eyes lit up with the epiphany she'd been searching for these last three days."My mother has five daughters, of which I am one, even though I wasn't born to her. She wanted to be a mother, and so she found children that needed her. She went and built herself a family with her own two hands. We could do the same, if we ever decide to."Soun sighed, standing and beginning to pace around the room. "Ran…ko, it's not that I don't care about you. Of course I do. I know you're a good person and I know you care about Akane. I do want to see you happy. But do you honestly think you can make her happy, like… this?"Ranko looked up into his eyes, her own sparkling with tears of determination. She dared not move from her knees. "If I can't, Mr. Tendo, I will die trying.""But what if you can't? If you knew, right now, that Akane would be happier one day without you, what would you do?" He hated having to be so blunt with the girl, but he just didn't think someone so young could see how bleak a future could be with such emptiness in it."If I knew that, sir… If I really believed that she'd be better off without me, I would leave and never look back. And I don't think I'd ever smile again so long as I lived." Ranko shuddered at the thought of it."And how am I to know that, exactly? It's easy to say profound words when you come here to try and make peace, but what people do when they're faced with that choice is often very different." Soun leaned on the sliding door, looking out over the pond contemplatively.Despite being out of his field of vision, Ranko stayed where she was, her head down. This was a time for calm formality, even though the emotions coursing through her were fire and ice both."Because I already did it once."Soun turned. "How do you mean?"Ranko looked up from her knees. "When I left here that day, do you think I did it because I wanted to? Because I had any idea what I was going to do with myself? Where I was going to go? Sir, I left your home in disgrace so that Akane could move on, because she deserved so much better than to be chained to the wreckage of the person I used to be, and I knew she would never give up on me. She's too kind, too good, for that. She doesn't turn her back on people. So, I tried to do it for her. And you know what she did? She came and found me anyway. And even then, when I tried to push her away, for her own good, she wrapped her arms around me and she hasn't let go ever since."The Tendo patriarch grumbled, sipping from a cup of tea that had long gone cold. "And so, then, how am I to know that you would stick it out, and do the hard thing for her sake, when you have to?Ranko bowed her head. "Because I am here now.""Beg your pardon?" Soun set his teacup down. Her answer should have upset him, but rather, it intrigued him somewhat.The redheaded girl sighed heavily. She fought back her hurt, and her anger. She needed to speak to him rationally, even though what she had to say hollowed her out to her core. "You made no secret of the fact you were disgusted with me when you came to see us. I have been through hell to become a person I could be proud of, a person worthy of Akane's love, and you looked at me like I was something dirty that corrupted her somehow."She swallowed hard. She knew he expected a certain amount of masculinity out of her right now, and she dared not cry. "I had hoped you could be the father that he never was for me, too. Like you used to be, before. I wanted to impress you, and make you proud of me, Mr. Tendo. I prepared for that day for weeks. I… I wanted to earn the right to be called yo… your daughter. And you made me feel cheap, and broken and… wrong, and I was so hurt and so angry. It would have been easier for me to never see your face again than to have to relive how disappointed I was that day. But being without you is killing Akane, and so I swallowed my pride and came here for her, because she's too proud to ever do it for herself. She would never speak with you again if she thought it would make things easier for me, but I don't want that for her. For either of you. I care about you both far too much. So, if my pride is the price I have to pay to fix this for you both, please, take it."With a heavy sigh, Soun walked over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "I was shocked with everything that you told me that day. Regardless of what I think about you having a relationship with Akane… like this, you did a brave thing leaving here and making your own way like you did, and I was wrong to judge you so harshly for it. I truly am sorry for that, Ranko."The redheaded girl shuddered a little, the force of her emotions quaking her spine from how hard she was fighting not to let them escape through her tear ducts. "Apology accepted. Thank you."Soun sighed. "It would be such a hard life for her, having to keep you hidden."Ranko allowed herself the smallest of smiles. "Yes sir, we've had our issues about that, for sure. But we've come to an agreement together. I will stand behind her in the shadows, as long as I get to stand behind her at all.""But…" He shook his head, idly resetting the shogi board from the last game he had played with the father of the young woman who sat in his dining room. "How would you even provide for her? You work in a bar.""My singing is starting to show potential, and I can always help her teach classes if she needs me to. But also, me and Akane… we're a team. I don't know that I'll be able to do it by myself right away, or ever, but together, we can do anything." That, she truly believed.He turned, his expression softening somewhat. "I understand what you're asking me for. Tell me why I should let this happen, Ranko."She looked down at her hands, closing her eyes. The fact that he had used her true name twice without hesitation gave her an injection of hope. "It doesn't matter if I ended up a boy, or a girl, or a mouse, or a basketball. I am going to love your daughter until the sun burns out, sir. I am going to live every breath for her. I am going to put her first, always. I am going to make her proud. I am going to treat her with kindness and honor and respect. I am going to support her, care for her, and protect her for the rest of my life."And, respectfully, Mr. Tendo, I'm going to do it whether you say I can or not. You can hate me and disrespect me forever for it if you want, and it will break my heart, but I will accept it. All I came here to say is that Akane is going to love me for the rest of her life, too, no matter what you say. The world is going to make that hard enough for her without her own father turning his back on her, too. I can't be the man you say she needs. That's true. But I'm with her every day, and right now, I can tell you that the man she needs in her life is you, and you're letting her down."Soun took a step closer, looking over the woman asking for his daughter's hand. There was a gentle sincerity to her, and a softness that he did not quite recognize, but the same resolve he would have expected from Ranma Saotome still burned within her. What was it the girl had said about that woman that ran the bar she worked at? Cotton wrapped around concrete?"And you really think you can do all of the things you said?"Ranko lowered her hands and her forehead to the floor again."I swear it, sir. On my honor, as a Tendo."