Work Text:
It was a rare calm morning in Nerima, the kind of morning where Akane could get all her exercises done and then laze on the porch and let the distant sounds of the city from beyond the compound's walls wash over her.
"Mrow!"
But of course, it took very little for a calm morning in Nerima to become anything but. The second Akane heard the sound of a cat yowling in the distance, she tensed. If Ranma was in the vicinity— and with his luck, he probably was— Akane would have to go and play interference, making sure that Ranma didn't do anything too terrible under the Nekoken's influence.
"Hsss!"
"Mrooow!"
And sure enough, her unwanted fiance came clambering into the backyard on all fours, a small fish in his mouth as he ran from a group of strays chasing at his (metaphorical) tail. Akane jumped into action, grabbing a broom from inside and using it to sweep at the cats chasing Ranma across the yard, shooing them towards the gate. Once the last of the cats had been forced out, Akane tossed the broom back where she'd gotten it and went to look for her fiance.
As it turned out, she didn't have to look far at all. Right where Akane had been sitting before his arrival, Ranma was laying on his back, 'paws' splayed in the air as he basked in the morning sun. He caught sight of Akane from the corner of his eye and wiggled to the side, turning his belly to face her as he mrrp'd happily.
Akane rolled her eyes but let out a relieved sigh. Ranma while cat-brained was usually just as energetic and prone to chaos as normal, but there were times when all the cat wanted to do was laze around and get pet. Those were always the best case scenario. All Akane would have to do is indulge Ranma until he recovered and not get weird about the times he would lick her. Or how he nuzzled against her hand as Akane ran her fingers through his soft hair. Or how nice it felt when he would loaf on her lap and purr long and deep. Those were normal cat actions and the butterflies in her stomach were a perfectly natural reaction to a cat doing those things, even if that cat was also her human fiance.
Blushing, Akane placed a hand flat against Ranma's stomach and began rubbing. The cat squirmed happily under her touch and Akane's embarrassment melted away as she was drawn into the sight. Soon a second hand joined the first, and Ranma was happily rumbling under Akane's touch.
"Hey Akane— Oh, your cat is here? Good." Nabiki spoke from behind and Akane sprang back, putting a bit of extremely platonic distance between herself and Ranma.
Akane turned to her sister, standing at the threshold of their home, "Nabiki! What do you— he's not my cat!"
"Uh-huh. Sure. He definitely lets everyone pet him like you do. And rubs up against them, and lays on them, and licks them all the time too. Anyways, I've got something to show you and the cat that definitely isn't yours.", Nabiki snarked at her.
Akane groaned but stood up, knowing that talking back or ignoring her would only lead to her once-calm day getting worse. "Fine. Come on, Ranma."
"Mrrrrr…", he wiggled his belly at Akane again, begging for more pets.
Akane turned and shrugged at her sister, "Well, if the cat doesn't want to go with you there's nothing I can do about it. Oh well."
"Hmph, do you really think so little of me sis? Of course I came prepared." Nabiki leaned back inside and grabbed something from within, coming back out with a small fish wrapped in cloth in her hand.
The same kind of fish that Ranma had come running in with earlier. Akane frowned, "You brought those strays in here earlier, didn't you?"
Nabiki put a hand dramatically against her chest while the other held the fish high, keeping it away from Ranma. "Who, me? Why would I ever do that?", and then in the same breath she continued flippantly, "anyways, let's go inside so I can show your cat its present."
"Present?", Akane asked incredulously, "You don't give 'presents' unless you have to."
"It's not a present from me, sister dearest. It's a present from an… anonymous benefactor."
Akane frowned, "For my cat."
"Yes, for your cat." Nabiki shot back at her, smirking at Akane's slip-up.
Grumbling, Akane followed Nabiki and the cat into the house. There, set up in the middle of the room, was an array of buttons laid out on different colored foam platforms. "What is all this?"
"They're talk buttons. Each one says a different word when pressed, and apparently you can teach cats to use them to communicate. At least that's what I was told, I'm not sure I believe it myself." Nabiki said, throwing the fish in her hand into the center of the buttons.
Ranma happily pounced onto the fish, gracefully avoiding pressing any of the buttons as he took the fish into his mouth and devoured it bones and all. After wiping his mouth clean with his paws and then licking those clean, he sniffed curiously at the button nearest to his face. Cautiously, he reached out a paw and…
"[Food]", Ranma tilted his head as a bright, bubbly voice spoke from within the button. "[Food] [Food] [Food]", he pressed the button a few more times. Akane, meanwhile, tried and failed to pinpoint where exactly she'd heard the vaguely familiar voice from the recording.
"[Water] [Play] [Treat] [Pet] [Mad] [Ouch] [Outside] [Hmm?] [Poop] [Akane] [Nabiki] [Kasumi] [Ranma] [Panda] [Where] [Sleep]…", Ranma began to move across the array, methodically pressing each button in turn. After pressing them all he looped back around, pressing them each again in succession. Akane and Nabiki watched in quiet fascination as the cat seemed to internalize each word and its location.
"Huh. It's usually supposed to take months for cats to figure it out— I guess Ranma really is smarter than an average cat." Nabiki said as she fished out a small camcorder.
"Hey! What are you doing with that?", Akane reached out to take the camera from Nabiki's hand.
"Jeeze sis, relax! Our anonymous benefactor just wanted some footage of the results, nothing else," Nabiki leaned away from her grabbing hands.
"You know Ranma hates having his picture taken when he's cat-brained!"
"Well, if you don't let me record then I'm just going to have to take all these buttons back. Don't you want to hear what your cat has to say?"
"I don't care, take them and—"
"[Nabiki] [Yes]", the arguing sisters stopped and stared down at the cat, "[Nabiki] [Yes] [Akane] [No]."
After a few moments of stunned silence, Nabiki smugly grinned, "See, he's fine with it! Nobody's gonna see it other than our benefactor anyways."
"Fine. So we just stand here and what, wait to see what else he says?", Akane asked, taking her place at Nabiki's side.
"Well I'm sure you could try asking some questions, not like it really matters to me. All I was paid for was to deliver the buttons and record whatever happens with them.", Nabiki said as she finished adjusting her camcorder.
Ranma, meanwhile was staring up at Akane expectantly with those big shining eyes of his. It was rare to see him so still, cat or otherwise, and after a moment Akane's brain finally stuttered out a basic question to ask. "Ranma, do you want anything?"
"[Want] [Water] [Yes]", Ranma pawed out on the buttons.
Nabiki and Akane glanced at each other for a moment before Nabiki spoke up, "Well? Your cat is thirsty— go get him some water." Akane huffed, going to the kitchen and filling a bowl. When she returned, she put the water down a few feet away from the buttons. The sisters watched as Ranma approach the bowl. He sniffed at the water for a moment before experimentally lapping at it with his tongue. Satisfied, he raised a paw and slammed it onto the side of the bowl, sending its contents flying up and one the cat's head.
"Mrrrow!", the now lighter voice of the cat rang out as he shook his head, red pigtail flopping in the air. Akane couldn't help but shake her head in disbelief; the cat clearly hated getting wet, even though that was obviously what was going to happen when he slapped the bowl like that. Nabiki, meanwhile, looked like she was taking Ranma apart with her eyes— and possibly discovering something she hadn't expected inside.
Eventually, Ranma finished shaking himself off and stared up at the two humans in the room. He looked back at the buttons, and then back at the humans. Once, twice, three times until Nabiki finally growled out, "What? Come on, Ranma, use those buttons I got you. What else do you want?"
Ranma looked back at the buttons again before turning back and giving Nabiki a long, wide-eyed stare. Nabiki shooed him with her free hand and Ranma let out a mewl that Akane could only describe as sassy before getting up on his paws and circling back towards the buttons.
"[Ranma] [Outside]", the cat pawed out before looking to the humans expectantly. Akane dutifully opened the sliding door behind her, posting herself to the side as she already imagined how things would go. Ranma would go outside, Akane would close the door, and then a minute later Ranma would be pawing at the door to be let back in. It was a familiar song and dance, and one Akane was usually willing to deal with if it kept Ranma out of even bigger trouble.
Instead of annoying her in the usual way, though, Ranma just tilted his head at her.
"What? You said you wanted to go outside!", Akane motioned towards the opened door.
"Mrow!", the dissatisfaction was clear in the cat's tone. "[Ranma] [Sleep]."
"Okay? So you want to sleep outside? I already opened the door for you."
"Mrrrr", Ranma chuffed at her in disapproval. Then, he slowly began to circle around the array of buttons. He stopped and raised his paw to press one, but hesitated before continuing his search. He repeated the action a few times before eventually, he stopped at one button in particular and stared at it for a few seconds. "[Paw]", the cat tilted his head, but instead of moving on to another button began pressing it over and over again. "[Paw] [Paw] [Paw] [Paw]."
Unsure of what else to do, Akane approached and reached down to Ranma, but he didn't even pay her any mind as he moved on to press a new sequence of buttons. "[Ranma] [Gone] [Paw] [Come]."
"Ranma gone, paw come… You're talking about the Nekoken, right? We already know about that", Akane asked having still not moved from her crouched position by the buttons, one hand out to take Ranma's paw.
The cat stared back at her without understanding before pressing the buttons again, "[Ranma] [Gone] [Paw] [Come]."
Before Akane could come up with another interpretation, Nabiki chimed in. "You're saying that you aren't Ranma, right?"
"Meow~!", the cat happily voiced before thinking to use its buttons, "[Yes]."
Akane honestly wasn't sure how what exactly that meant. Ranma did sort of 'go away' when confronted by cats, but that was just him withdrawing into a trauma response, right? That made about as much sense as anything related to Ranma could when the cat just did basic things like nap, or beg for pets, or eat fish. But the trauma response being able to speak for itself, and being able to explain that Ranma was 'gone'? That was something different, something Akane couldn't quite wrap her head around yet. She doubted the cat would be able to explain it either. Instead, she settled on satisfying a different curiosity. "If you aren't Ranma, do you have a different name?"
"[Yes] [Paw]", the cat hit the buttons in quick succession.
"Your name is Paw?"
"[Yes] [Paw] [Yes] [Paw][Yes][Paw][Yes]", 'Paw' happily bouncing between the two buttons, pressing them so fast that the sound began to overlap.
"Paw…", Akane whispered to herself in awe as more began to click into place. She'd known that Ranma didn't have any memories of his time under the effects of the Nekoken, but she had always assumed that was just part of the dissociative trauma response. That that was all the cat was— a strange dissociative episode. But the cat… but Paw considered itself more than that. It was its own being, with its own name that it had chosen for itself.
Paw butted its head against Akane's hand, and she found herself scratching its scalp as she looked at the cat as though it was her first time seeing it— and maybe it really was her first time really seeing it. Akane glanced up at Nabiki, who was dutifully capturing every moment on camera, before redirecting her attention to the cat. "It's nice to meet you, Paw.", she said, surprising herself with how softly it came out.
As Akane continued to pet the cat, Paw descended into a deep rumble of purrs and began rubbing more and more insistently against Akane. At first rubbing up against her hand, then pressing into her chest before finally toppling Akane over and ending up on top of her.
"Paw! Come on, get off of me! Paw! Come on! Off!", Akane commanded, snapping her finger in Paw's face even as she continued to pet Paw's head with her other hand. It felt different, lighter, knowing it wasn't quite Ranma that was loafing on top of her— that there wasn't any of the extra baggage that came with him. Case in point, Paw began happily kneading into Akane's breasts and she didn't feel the overwhelming urge to punt the pervert into the stratosphere. Paw was just a cat— a weird cat, but a cat all the same, and Akane couldn't blame it for touching her breasts any more than she could blame P-Chan.
Then Akane remembered that her sister was still in the room, recording everything that was happening. "Paw, get off… please?".
Hesitantly, Paw finally listened and slinked off of Akane, letting her stand back up. Slowly, Akane turned around and began marching towards Nabiki, glaring straight into the camera the whole time.
"Hey, wait! If you destroy my equipment I'm going to have to take those buttons away. Don't you want to know more about Paw?", Nabiki reached for the door beside her, ready to make her escape, "Ooh, like— Hey Paw, any secrets of Ranma's you wanna share?"
"Don't answer that!", Akane wheeled around to yell at Paw, giving Nabiki the space she needed to slip out the door with camera in tow. Akane whipped back around, ready to pursue her but—
"[Water] [Ranma] [Happy]"
— Akane looked back at Paw, "Huh?"
Paw slowly moved between buttons, staring intently at each before pressing through a few sequences, Akane's mind running overtime to try to parse each one.
"[Water] [Ranma] [Happy]", Ranma— Ranma, not Paw— liked water? Akane had always figured it would be the opposite, considering how often a random splash of water could ruin his day.
"[Ouch] [Water] [Ranma] [Sad]", 'Ouch Water'… Hot water? Ranma obviously didn't like getting hit with hot water, the kind hot enough to be 'Ouch'; Nobody did. But Sad… Something about using that button, that word, over others felt like it meant something deeper than that. And combined with what Paw had said before…
"[Water] [Ranma] [Look] [Yes] [Sound] [Yes]", did 'Water Ranma' mean girl Ranma? Girl Ranma was happy, but boy Ranma was sad? Then why would…
"[Ranma] [Scared] [Panda] [Mad] [Ouch]", oh. Oh. Did that all mean… The girl who showed up at the Tendo Dojo that first day, the one with the pretty smile that Akane so desperately wanted to be friends with… That was the 'real' Ranma? That if Akane hadn't walked in on him in the furo, if Genma hadn't revealed everything, then Ranma would have stayed her?
Akane had to be sure, had to know for certain she wasn't misinterpreting a cat changing everything she knew about the 'man amongst men' with a few simple buttons. "Is Ranma a girl?"
Akane's stomach worked itself into knots as she watched Paw search around the button panels for the right one. What answer did she even want to hear? What would happen if Paw gave the wrong answer? Would she be able to look at Ranma the same?
"[Yes]"
Akane let out a sigh as her body slacked. Ranma was a girl. That girl from the first day, she was real. Maybe a little bit more rough around the edges, with a bad tendency to put her foot in her mouth, but she was real. Not just some fantasy Ranma busted out from time to time to pull off some scam, or just had to deal with whenever an unlucky splash went his way. And if that girl was real, then Akane's feelings in those unguarded moments when the girl smiled her way, or giggled at some joke, or pouted at her and fluttered her eyelashes… Those feelings were also…
Real.
"[Ranma] [Look] [Yummy] [Hmm?]"
"What? Ranma look— No!", Akane sputtered out as her train of thought was violently broken. Paw stared up at her, face split in a Cheshire grin that truly befit its catty nature.
"[Ranma] [Want] [Akane]. [Akane] [Look] [Yummy], [Akane] [Smell] [Yummy]"
"No, there's no way he— she— could possibly—" Akane spun around as she heard the sound of something heavy thudding onto the wood floor behind her. "Nabiki!"
"You're being, hehe, you're being wing-catted, you— you useless lesbian! Hehehehehehe!", Nabiki rolled around just outside the door, camera left laying to the side as she was overtaken with laughter. "And— and even with its help, you still can't get it together! Hehehehehe— Hey, wait don't—!"
Akane stomped Nabiki's camcorder into bits and barely avoided doing the same to Nabiki herself as she stormed out of the room. "Eh hehehe, oh well. Good, heh, good effort Paw. Am I, hehehehe, yummy too?"
"Mrow", Paw lightly bapped Nabiki in the face as it followed its owner outside.
"Rude. Hehehehe, hehe, heee…", Nabiki's giggling fit finally died down as she rolled over to assess the damages to her camcorder. A total loss on the equipment end, but if she was lucky… Carefully picking through the shattered electronics, Nabiki plucked out a fully intact memory card. "Bingo."
Nabiki stood up and brushed herself off before turning her prize over in her hand. There were at least a dozen people who would pay good money for the secrets help on that card. Most of them would probably cause more harm than good to profits in the long run, but it wouldn't hurt too much to bring it to the one who commissioned it all, would it? Then again, could she really expose something so private, just for a little bit of cash on top?
Ah, who was she kidding, of course she could! Momma needed a new camera, after all…
"…And that's the last of it before Akane smashed the camera— I'm charging you the standard replacement fee for that, by the way.", Nabiki explained as she stared up at the 'anonymous benefactor', a looming shadow cast from atop a massive throne.
"Excellent, you will be paid well for your service. I just have one tiny little question I want to ask…", the voice from atop the throne echoed through the large, cavernous room.
"Yes?", Nabiki gulped, her face a steady mask of composure. Everything about her 'benefactor' unsettled her, from the way they acted to the sorts of abominations they surrounded themself with. Still, the massive wad of cash held loosely in their hand was exactly what Nabiki needed to stay.
"Pawline's owner is soooooo cute too! When Azusa takes Pawline, do you think her owner would like being Azusa's pet too?" Azusa kicked her feet in joy at the thought, dislodging a few stuffies from her plushed throne.
Nabiki suppressed a shudder and climbed forward, smooshing her foot into the face of a big shark plush as she raised herself up to Azusa's level. "There's no amount you could ever pay me to find that out.", Nabiki swiped the stack of yen from Azusa's open hand and unceremoniously jumped back down to the floor, leaving a trail of smushed plushies in her wake.