A while ago I seem to remember someone posting a one-hour fic challenge. I wrote one, but then my internet went down and I keep forgetting to post it now that I'm back online... anyway, here it is:

Title: A Lot Can Happen In An Hour…
Author: Mordain
Part: 1/1 (thank god)
Warnings: Erm… none, really… it’s all implied. OOCness.
Archive: Sure
C&C: Naturally
Summary: Ranma is suffering from insomnia… response to the 1-hour fic challenge.
Parings: Mousse/Ryouga, Mousse/Ryouga/Ranma
Disclaimer: I don’t own them. *sob* And I don’t make any money off of my writing, either, so suing me would be an exercise in pointlessness.
Authors Note: This frightens me. It wasn’t really *meant* to come out this way, really it wasn't…

//(Start: 6:48 PM)//

Ranma stared at the ceiling, unable to sleep. He didn’t know why, but he’d been feeling out of sorts lately… like something was wrong. Well, more wrong than usual.

/It’s not like my life has ever been normal…/ he sighed and turned once more on the futon mattress, but sleep still evaded him. He was certainly tired enough, though; he hadn’t slept well in days and the last one had been particularly strenuous; he had managed to not only get in a fight with Mousse – for no apparent reason – but also Ryouga, who had appeared then mysteriously vanished in the middle of the fight, and Kuno, who, while easily taken care of, had been particularly insulting. Kodachi’s cookies hadn’t helped either, but he had luckily managed to spit most of them out. The ‘prize’, though, was when Akane presented him with a ‘special’ plate of food during dinner. And when he had been even more tactless than usual in refusing it, she had malleted him through the roof. Again. Effectively, everything that could’ve gone wrong had gone wrong.

So he was tired, dead tired, but couldn’t sleep. He found himself growing frustrated, not only at the lack of ability to rest, but also at the chaos in his life. /I can’t take much more of this… there’s gotta be somethin’ I can do./ He stood up, eyes rimmed darkly with exhaustion, but he knew that if he didn’t do something, nothing would ever change.

So he stood and started to sneak out the window, unsure as to what he would do, but certain that something needed to be done. That and he was going mad from lack of sleep, but that’s beside the point.

He managed to resist the urge to pound the sleeping panda into a fine paste on his way out – but promised himself that he would deal with the old man soon. After all, it *was* mostly his fault…

He climbed out the window successfully and jumped lightly down unto the dew-dampened grass, reflexes still well enough intact so that he landed safely. And stood there, for several minutes, a little chilly in the nighttime cold, but totally at a loss as for what to do. Finally he moved to a certain window and looked in. Voyeurism was the last thing on his mind, however, as he looked at Akane’s sleeping figure. Akane was alone in the bed, though; for once Ryouga hadn’t made it back to her to sleep there as P-chan.

Ranma shrugged off that failed idea and headed out, not really going in any particular direction or particularly caring. After a while he found himself in the park, where a familiar tent was set up in the usual location. He heard sounds that could’ve been words from inside it, but couldn’t understand what was being said.

/He’s still awake? Hm…/ He opened the tent flap. “Hey, Ryou…” he cut off abruptly, frozen in shock, as his entire body suddenly burned with embarrassment. It took him a few seconds to regain motor control, and during that time period a thin line of blood trickled out of his nose. And after he could move, he apparently didn’t realize it for several more seconds before he finally let out a loud, shocked squeak and spun around, flushed so brightly red that he was certain that he shone like a beacon to anyone nearby.

One of the two boys inside the tent froze at the sudden intrusion and looked up, feeling as if he were in slow-motion during those perhaps four seconds that passed before the pigtailed intruder turned away.

“What are you *doing* here!?” Ryouga demanded, voice a little strained.

“I should be asking *Mousse* that…” came the answer in an equally stressed voice.

“Umm…” the lost boy suddenly remembered to be embarrassed, and did so with a vengeance. It didn’t help that the longhaired Amazon didn’t seem to realize that anyone else was there.

But apparently he did, because he spoke, although his voice was a bit muffled. “What does Ranma want? I think the tent’s a bit small for three, sorry…” He looked up, at Ryouga who was still residually red but otherwise totally distracted from his embarrassment, and at the blur that was Ranma. Exchanging a series of glances with Ryouga, he came to a decision, based on one – no, two – no, three facts.

Ranma was still there. And had glanced over his shoulder several times (even without his glasses Mousse wasn’t as blind as he often pretended to be). And there was, in fact, room for three if a little creative arranging was done…

“You sure?”

Mousse nodded in a most inventive way, making Ryouga quite agreeable.

With a wicked grin Ryouga reached out with his free arm, snagging Ranma’s ankle expertly. The pigtailed boy let out a surprised shout as he was dragged bodily into the tent and the entrance was closed behind him.

“Hey! Ohh…”

Any and all protests were quickly silenced. This may have been affected, however, by his placement at the center of the knot that was required for all three to fit within the confines of the tent.

Ranma ‘slept’ quite well that night after all.

//(End: 7:41 PM; word count: 864)//

***

~Mordain