Here's my entry into the growing number of Christmas stories out there.
Enjoy ^_^

Disclaimer:  All characters portrayed in this story are the property of
Rumiko Takahashi and co.  I don't own any of them.  Please don't sue me.

This story takes place after volume 38 of the manga.  It draws ideas from
both the anime and the manga.

C & C welcomed.  Flames not.

One Day

by

Donny Cheng

	Ranma woke up feeling fresh and invigorated.  He felt as if he could take
on the whole world and win.  Today was his day, he could feel it in his
bones.  He got up from his futon and went to get his father for their usual
early morning sparring practice.  After that, it would be time for a little
last minute Christmas shopping.

			* * * * *

	Ranma fought off his father's assault as he reached for another bowl of
rice.  The table was filled with bustling noise as the whole family chatted
excitedly about the presents they were going to buy.

	"I'm back!"  Nabiki called out as she came through the front door.  She
held a load of packages in her hand.  She had made her regular rounds of
collecting various debts from people that still owed her money.  Most had
given her a present and asked for an extension since they needed their
money for presents.  She was happy to give them all extensions as they
still owed her money with interest and she got a gift in return.

	"Huh..."  Ranma, destracted by Nabiki's yell, was quickly grabbed by Genma
and thrown.  Ranma tried to flip out of the throw, but at that moment
Nabiki came walking into the dining room.  He ended up tangled with Nabiki,
resulting in many of her packages being crushed.

	Time stood still.

	Ranma could feel the tension in the air as he got off of Nabiki as fast as
possible.  He looked to the rest of the family for support and saw nobody
but Kasumi and his mother.  Everyone else had left the room in rush. 
Looking back and Nabiki, Ranma could not tell what she was feeling at the
moment.  Her head was down, apparently looking at the damage to the gifts. 
He knew he was in it deep this time.  He shuddered as he remember the LAST
time he destroyed one of Nabiki's things.  "Uh... I'm sorry!  It was an
accident.  It was really my father's fault.  I didn't mean to break any to
those presents your friends gave you."

	"Ranma, you're rambling.  I'll add it to your debt.  Yeah, your extension
is still on, so don't worry about paying it until the new year.  Now, if
you will excuse me I have some things to do."

	Ranma's heart nearly stopped at Nabiki's casual response.  He was dead.

			* * * * *

	Ranma sat on the roof debating with himself to go ahead with it or not. 
Behind him were the gifts Nabiki had left on the floor of the dining room. 
He had tried to fix it so that they at least looked presentable.  Now, all
he had to do was give them to her.  Composing himself, Ranma decided to
just bite the bullet and went for her window.  He stopped when he heard
Nabiki shuffling about.  After a moment, all was quiet.  He guessed that
she had left her room.  It looked it my be his day after all, he didn't
have to confront her.  He would just leave the presents in her room and be
done with it.

			* * * * *

	Ranma cursed as he glumly walked to the around Nerima with no destination
in particular.  He had to go and put his foot in his mouth again.  He
thought he saw Nabiki cringe when he said sorry to damaging her friends'
presents.  The truth was, those presents were bribes.  When he entered
Nabiki's room, he had noticed her ledger open on the table.  He had thought
to take a quick glance to see how much he now owed her and was surprised to
find that all of the names in it were the same as the ones on the gifts. 
Nabiki was probably in a bad mood because of his thoughtless words.  He
needed some cheering up right now, and some free food would probably do the
trick.  The Nekohanten was closest, so Ranma headed for there.

			* * * * *

	Ranma stopped and rubbed his eyes.  He still couldn't believe what he was
seeing.  He stared into the window of the restaurant.  Shampoo and Ukyo
sitting together inside the Nekohanten!?  They weren't planning another
sabotage, were they?  It couldn't be, there wasn't any wedding to crash. 
Curious, he decided to investigate.

			* * * * *

	"What did you want Shampoo?"  Ukyo was wary as she watched the amazon
closely.

	"Nothing, like Shampoo would want to speak with not nice girl," Shampoo
sniffed arrogantly.  "Great-grandmother and Mousse wanted spatula girl
here."

	"Oh, and why is that?"  Ukyo loosened up a bit after hearing that.  Mousse
and her didn't have anything against each other.

	Shampoo ingored Ukyo's question and asked one of her own, "Ukyo go to
Tendo Dojo this Christmas?"

	That caught Ukyo off guard.  "I... I haven't decided yet.  I probably
won't.  I don't want to see..."

	"...Ranma and Akane together,"  Shampoo finished for Ukyo.  "So, Ukyo
might be alone this Christmas."

	For the second time today, Ukyo was shocked.  "You're kidding me?  You're
actually concerned for me?"

	Shampoo vehemently denied that with a shake of her head.  "Shampoo told
Ukyo, is great-grandmother and Mousse concerned."

	Somehow, Ukyo doubted Shampoo.  She hardly ever had any contact with
Cologne or Mousse over the past year to warrant their concern.  However,
she did nearly bumb into the amazon nearly every day in her quest to win
Ranma.  Perhaps, their rivalry had developed some mutual respect in one
another.  "Whatever you say, Shampoo.  Misery loves company, right?"

	Shampoo nodded her head.  She breathed a sigh of relief.  It just wouldn't
do to have Ukyo think that she was softening.  It was just that look she
had seen on Ukyo's face a couple of days ago after another fight over
Ranma.  Ranma, as usual, walked away in the end with Akane.  Ukyo's face,
she realized, mirrored her own.  Utter and total despair.

			* * * * *

	Ranma's mood was sinkening to a dangerous low.  He was sure that he could
throw a full shi shi hokodan blast right now if wanted to.  Just as that
thought crossed his mind, Ranma noticed a bandana wearing boy walking up
ahead of him.  A fight right about now could help him vent his anger.

			* * * * *

	"Damn!  Where am I now?"  Ryoga was starting to panic.  Only a couple of
hours left until night and he couldn't find his way home.  "Mom and Dad are
home together for the first time in years and Akari will be there too.  How
is she going to feel if I don't show up for that Christmas dinner I invited
her to?  Arrgh!"  With a cry of pain, Ryoga let loose a full shi shi
hokodan into the air.

	Ranma watched this all from a distance.  Life sucked.

			* * * * *

	Ranma stopped at the jeweler's shop.  He looked at the object twinkling in
the window.  He looked that the money in his hand.  He thought of what he
had seen today.  What the hell, he thought, Christmas only comes once a
year.  She can wait a little longer for his gift to her.  Ranma immediately
raced off for a some shopping.  Then he would have a few errands to run.

			* * * * *

	"Come back here, Ranma."  Ryoga called out as he chased after the pig
tailed boy.  "Give me back that present, right now!"

	Ranma smiled as he neared his destination.  With a flick of his wrist, he
threw the package he had taken form Ryoga into an open window of a house.

	Ryoga cursed Ranma, as he ran towards the house.  He jumped in through the
window and found it to be very dark inside.  He stumbled his way through
trying to find a light switch.

	<Flip>

	"Are you trying to find this Ryoga-kun?"

	Ryoga stared in shock as the lights opened to reveal Akari standing beside
both his parents.  "What..?

	"Merry Christmas, Ryoga!"  His father cheerfully called out.

	Ryoga knew it had to have been Ranma.  How could that jerk do this?  Now
he would have to let Ranma live at least through till the holidays were
over.

			* * * * *

	"Hey, Shampoo?"  Ukyo looked at a pair of packages that had mysteriously
appeared on top of the counter.

	"What?"  Shampoo asked as she finished closing up for the day.

	"Did you see who brought these in?"  The packages each had a tag with a
name on it.  One was 'Ukyo' and the other was 'Shampoo'.

			* * * * *

	Akane smiled as she carefully unwrapped her present.  It was a journal. 
It looked exactly like her mother's old recipe book.  She looked up at
Ranma and noticed him squirming.  "Ranma, why?  I thought you didn't like
me cooking."

	Oh man, why did she have to go and smile like that, Ranma thought as his
legs turned to jello.  "I know I can't stop you from cooking.  So, I might
as well try to help.  At least that's what my mom says."

	"Thank you, Ranma.  You have no idea what that means to me.  Do you like
my present?  I thought that since I did so well with the scarf last year, I
would try something harder."

	Ranma bigsweated.  The sweater looked very much like the scarf he recieved
last year, meaning that is looked like a fishing net.  "Yeah, I like it."

			* * * * *

	Ranma surveyed the crowd before him.  With the exception of Ryoga, Mousse,
Cologne, Shampoo, and Ukyo, nearly everyone from last year was here.  He
kind of missed that.

	"Ranma."

	Ranma turned his head at the sound of his name.  It was Ukyo.  She pointed
outside and beckoned him to follow her.

			* * * * *

	When they reached the koi pond, Ranma asked, "What did you want, Ukyo?"

	"I wanted to thank you for this present."  Ukyo touched the small spatula
with her name engraved on it affectionately.  It hung across her chest
forever near her heart.

	"What?  How did you know it was me?"  Ranma twitched nervously and
scratched the back of his head.

	"Ranma, I can recognize you bad writing any day of the week.  Besides,
you're my only friend in Nerima."

	"It wasn't anything special.  It didn't cost very much and it wasn't that
much trouble to get it engrav..."

	Ukyo shut Ranma up with a peck on his lips.  "It's special to me.  This
will be among my most treasured belongings.  Shampoo, your turn!"  Ukyo
called out to the amazon.  She then vaulted up and over the Tendo's wall.

	Shampoo emerged from her hiding place in the bushes.  She and Ukyo had
agreed to greet Ranma seperately.  Ukyo won the toss and had decided to go
first.  It was now her turn.

	Ranma felt the air from his lungs rush out as Shampoo nearly crushed him
with her strongest hug yet.  For the first time, Ranma did not immediately
push her away.

	"Shampoo thank Ranma for gift."  The hair ornament that Ranma had given
her was very tacky and probably cheap, but Shampoo did care in the
slightest.  She hoped against hope that Ranma would allow this one hug this
time.  She was pleasantly surprised to find Ranma not pushing her away.  He
didn't respond either, yet Shampoo felt that it was okay.

	"Akane, wait!  I haven't given you my present yet."  Nabiki's loud voice
could be heard from within the house.

	Ranma nearly jumped out of his skin.  The only thing that seperated Akane
from this sight were just the dojo's doors.  Fortunately, Shampoo finally
let go of him and just as quickly left over the wall taking Ukyo's path.

	Akane opened the doors to find Ranma standing outside, alone.  "Ranma,
there you are.  I looked all over for you.  Kasumi is about to light the
Christmas tree, come on."

	"Okay."  Ranma followed Akane inside.

			* * * * *

	Nabiki watched as Ranma and Akane entered the dojo.  Consider this your
Christmas present.  Nabiki opened her new ledger with her name plastered in
front written quite badly.  She neatly wrote in the words on the very first
line:  Nabiki to Ranma:  1 gift - Debt paid.  Merry Christmas, Ranma.

			* * * * *

The End.

Visit Donny's Anime Fanfic Archive at
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Ginza/4537