The All-Americans
By
Joshua Trujillo

Part 17 - The Piper Calleth

There was a light on. It was as if they were expecting her. Ukyou 
hadn't called ahead or anything, but she figured that Yuka had 
called and talked with Sayuri. Sayuri's was a farm family, just like 
many others around the area. A wholesome girl. Ukyou thought 
that perhaps that was the reason she was attracted-

Ukyou shook her head. She was really didn't want to think about 
that. She wanted so desperately to be normal. Whether a guy or a 
girl, she just wanted to be normal. She'd even talked with Ranma 
about going to Denmark for an operation. Ukyou snorted to 
herself. Maybe she was more normal than she thought. Ranma had 
been the reason she hadn't gone. He was such a strong person. He 
held her together when they were kids. Ukyou scoffed. They were 
still kids. Pretending to be adults in a childish world. And dammit, 
if Ranma could be strong, the so could she.

But at times like this, Ukyou didn't know. She felt like turning the 
car around and heading home. Her heart fluttered in her chest. She 
tried to calm herself and go over the things she wanted to say.

She didn't want to let Sayuri go as a friend because Ukyou DID 
truly like her. But, Ukyou wouldn't tell anyone what was deep 
down...That was for no one to know. Ukyou didn't like to think 
about it herself. Those thoughts poked and prodded her, telling her 
that this relationship with Sayuri was not only acceptable, but also 
good. There were other thoughts there too...Others that weren't so 
benign.

Ukyou pulled the car into the area beside Sayuri's car. She could 
see that the people inside knew she was out there. She wondered 
briefly if Sayuri was among them. Ukyou turned the car off and 
breathed out. Opening the door, she felt the chill in the October air 
sweep across her face. She looked up briefly, wondering if God 
was looking down on all this and getting a jolly old laugh from the 
whole thing. Ukyou sighed.

The pebbles in the drive crunched happily underfoot as she made 
her way to the door. Ukyou knocked and the door opened a crack. 
A pair of brown eyes peered out from the other side of the screen 
door at about chest level. Sayuri's brother. He looked up at Ukyou 
and began to snicker. She tried to keep a deadpan expression on 
her face, but just the way he was snickering told her that the secret 
wasn't exactly that.

"Betcha' wanna see Yuri?" he continued to snicker.

Ukyou could only nod.

"'Kay," he said, "You wait here, I'll get her."

Ukyou managed a wan smile and nodded again.

The door closed slightly and she heard his footsteps to the nearby 
stairs. She hadn't taken in much when she'd picked Sayuri up for 
their ill-fated date, but most of the houses seemed to belong to the 
same architect. Stairs just off the main room, up to a landing or 
second story, things like tha-

"Hey Yuri!" she heard the boy yell, "The dyke's here!"

Anger welled up in Ukyou as well as a full blush of embarrassment 
at the term. She'd never thought of herself...How damn well DARE 
HE! What a little-

Ukyou realized that the door opened a little further and Sayuri 
looked out at her. She had been crying, probably because of 
Ukyou. All the anger that had been welling up dissipated in the 
rush of blood to her cheeks. Sayuri looked pretty good, actually. 
She had on a green sweater-vest over a dress shirt that she'd kept 
untucked. Over the tight jeans that Sayuri sometimes liked to wear, 
the effect gave most men surges of blood to various places. For 
Ukyou, it made her blush. She was silently thankful that the blush 
from her anger covered this one. Or was it the other way around? 
She didn't care.

"Ukyou," Sayuri said, sounding a little hoarse, "I don't think I'm 
ready to talk-"

"Sayuri, please," Ukyou began, "I just need to talk and explain 
things. I never got a chance to do it before and you above everyone 
else deserves an explanation."

Sayuri stood there for a minute and raised her index finger a half 
second and disappeared into the house again. When she 
reappeared, she had a jacket and pulled the door closed behind her.

"We can talk in the garage," she said, heading out, "There's a 
portable heater in there that dad uses when he works on the cars."

***

Ukyou watched in mute fascination as the little wires inside the 
heater began to glow red. It lent an eerie glow to the whole of the 
garage, the shadows barked and dancing like pups around a 
campfire in her mind. An old motorcycle hulked in the corner, but 
Sayuri seemed completely at ease out here, so Ukyou decided that 
it should be okay, at least from a rational standpoint. Some part of 
her reminded her that accessible heavy blunt instruments were at 
hand for Sayuri to use.

"You were going to explain why you lied to me?" Sayuri asked.

The little hairs on the back of Ukyou's neck stood up and said, 
'RUN!' in capital letters. Ukyou took a breath and ignored them.

"I had to lie to you," Ukyou began calmly, "I lied to everyone. It's 
not really a lie in the sense that I DID try to warn you and the other 
girls off-"

"OH get over yourself, will you?!" Sayuri shouted, "You just got a 
big thrill from going out on a date with me! Admit it!"

Ukyou remained silent and shook her head.

"I can't make you believe the truth if you don't want to believe it."

Sayuri folded her arms across her chest.

"Then you TELL me what the truth is."

"The truth?" Ukyou more said than asked, "The truth is that I DO 
like you, but I'm pretty sure that neither one of us is ready for this 
kind of relationship. I mean, friends, yeah, of course...But this?"

Ukyou shook her head again.

"Ranma knows about me because we were friends from a long 
time ago," Ukyou continued, her eyes closed, "I never wanted to 
hurt anyone. I was just...Accepted as a guy. It feels good to be 
accepted and liked, you know? I just got used to the feeling at my 
first school."

"Then dad and I moved to the school I was in when I met Ranma," 
she said, "I hadn't been there long, but Ranma immediately fit in 
wherever he went. It was like a gift. At first, I hated him for it 
because it was so hard for me to fit in, but then, even we became 
friends. I couldn't help liking him."

Ukyou looked up. Sayuri had uncrossed her arms and was walking 
in a small circle in front of Ukyou, watching the ground.

"Well, I got in quite a few fights in those days. Trying to be manly, 
I guess. But one time, I got in over my head and Ranma helped 
me," Ukyou began again, "You know how kids are. I had a friend 
for life then. I told him about my secret and instead of laughing or 
something like that, he accepted me. From then on, he even helped 
me occasionally."

"Yeah, I had a crush on him at one point," Ukyou confessed, more 
to herself than to Sayuri, "But I realized that it would ruin the 
friendship between us, so I got over it. And yeah, it was hard, but I 
wanted to keep Ranma as a friend."

"Is that why you lied to me?" Sayuri asked, softly, "Because you 
wanted to be friends?"

Ukyou smiled slightly and nodded.

"Somewhat," she said, "I mean, I never want to lose you as a 
friend, of course. But I like you Sayuri, I mean, honestly like you. 
You're bright and cheerful and happy and..."

Ukyou had run out of adjectives. She sighed and bowed her head.

"And you just make me feel good," Ukyou said quietly, "Look, I've 
never regretted my decisions to keep this a secret because then I'd 
go around living in a lie myself. I never wanted to drag anybody 
into this, I really thought that Ranma would be the first, last and 
only person I'd ever tell, really..."

Ukyou looked up and saw the odd smile that had crossed Sayuri's 
face. It was a one sided smile of the cat that wasn't exactly hungry, 
but had a playtoy mouse anyway.

"You know, you actually didn't tell me," Sayuri said, "I guess that's 
one of the reasons that I got angry. I didn't hear it from you. I don't 
even think I would have cared if you'd have told me yourself."

"Yeah," Ukyou said, "I've never been good at getting my emotions 
out to anyone."

"You are like a guy, in that respect," Sayuri said, "And I realize 
that you weren't exactly in a position to tell anyone, anything at the 
time and that's okay. By the way, are you okay? I mean..."

Ukyou looked into her eyes. She nodded and smiled at Sayuri 
before bowing her head again.

"That's good. I never wanted you to get hurt like that," Sayuri 
smiled a rye smile again, "Even though I probably wished for it in 
the past day or two."

Ukyou looked up and laughed slightly. Yeah, she knew the feeling.

"So that's the reason that you've done this for so long? To be 
accepted?" Sayuri asked.

Ukyou nodded.

"Sick, ain't it? I've talked with dad about it," Ukyou pursed her 
lips, "He blames himself, but I've told him that it's always been my 
decision. I guess after a while it just became habit and then it felt 
so good to be just one of the guys."

"Yeah," Sayuri muttered.

A silence fell between them as they tried to gather thoughts that 
didn't seem to want to be gathered. Ukyou looked up. Sayuri 
looked back and breathed out a sigh.

"So," Sayuri began, "What happens now?"

Ukyou sighed, happy that the discussion seemed to be drawing to a 
close. And Sayuri hadn't utilized any power tools, which was even 
better.

"Well," Ukyou began, "I still want to be friends. Because of the 
fights we've had with Toma, Akane and Ryouga know about me as 
well. It was just-"

Ukyou stammered as she looked at the dread fear on Sayuri's face.

"What is it? Something-?" Ukyou looked around.

"T-T-toma..." Sayuri muttered softly.

Tears began to stream down her cheeks and she wrapped her arms 
around her middle. Then it struck Ukyou. Toma must have-When 
she was out...

Ukyou reached out to Sayuri, who huddled in Ukyou's arms and 
sobbed against her chest.

"He...He..." Sayuri stammered, not able to complete the thought.

"Shhh...I know," Ukyou tried to comfort her, "He did the same 
thing to me and Akane."

Sayuri pulled back and looked up at Ukyou, fear etched across her 
face. She thought for half a second and wrapped her arms around 
Ukyou, who just stroked the hair of the smaller girl and tried to 
provide some measure of solace. Ukyou was frightened. Sure, what 
Toma did affected her, but not like this. This was almost like-

Ukyou pulled Sayuri out to arms length.

"He took my form as a guy, didn't he?" Ukyou asked.

Sayuri just nodded.

"I-I-" Sayuri tried to gather herself, "When the doctors told me 
about you, it set everything in my head. What T-T...He had done. I 
was just so confused."

Ukyou fished around in her jacket pocket and found some kleenex. 
Sayuri wiped her eyes as she calmed. Ukyou quietly vowed to 
herself that, even if she didn't remain friend with Sayuri, she still 
owed Toma a BIG ass-kickin'.

"I don't know, I guess I'm just feeling sorry for myself and 
everything," Sayuri muttered, "I mean, I've always been unlucky 
with guys. Yuka has had her way with a couple and I guess I'm just 
envious or something. Then Toma does THAT to me...I guess I'm 
just unlucky..."

Ukyou touched the shoulder of the other girl as a move to comfort 
her.

"Look," Ukyou tried to continue, "I'm sure you have lots of guys 
that would love a date. If you want, I could even probably hook 
you up with Ryouga, or somebody..."

Sayuri shook her head sadly. Then took a breath and smiled. 
Ukyou felt her heart lift in an instant and shook her head as her 
own smile appeared.

"Actually, I've already found someone," Sayuri said, smiling away.

"Well, great!" Ukyou said, hoping for the best, "I'll always be your 
friend and I'll help in any way I can, okay?"

Sayuri smiled her lopsided smile again and reached over to the 
door to the garage. She tilted her head, indicating that they should 
exit. Ukyou slipped out ahead of her and Sayuri began to walk to 
Ukyou's car. Ukyou followed. The stars clustered in utter brilliance 
across the center of the sky, the Milky Way whispering secrets into 
the night.
Sayuri turned.

"I've thought about it for the past couple nights and I've decided 
something," she said, her eyes shining brightly in the moonlight.

Ukyou smiled back.

"What's that?"

Sayuri moved quickly and stepped up on the tips of her toes. It 
happened faster than Ukyou ever thought possible, but Sayuri 
reached up and lightly kissed Ukyou on her lips.

"I love you, Ukyou," she whispered.

Sayuri then turned and ran into the house.

Ukyou stood there. In the driveway, with the cold wind framing a 
hot soul, she only had one thought.

Oh shit...