The Final Con

By Melanie E.

Greg and Josie have been going to conventions together for years, and Greg has always been comfortable with who she was. Why have things changed now?

NOTE: While this story is written to stand on its own, it is highly recommended that newcomers read the first three Con stories before diving into this one, if simply to see what has happened between the characters in the past.

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Silence.

Silence in the car on the way over. Silence in the room while getting dressed. Now, silence while they stood in line to turn in their tickets, in exchange for the green or purple wristbands that would indicate their permission to enter the convention for the next three days.

What was going on?

Josie shuffled her feet in nervous tension as the stared at the back of her friend Greg's head. What had changed? Why was he nervous about her now, when for the past five years they had been doing this regularly?

If she were honest with herself, it had started several weeks earlier, when they had first made plans to attend the convention. Well, Greg had made plans with her alternate identity, Jeremy. The two of them shared an off-campus apartment, and Greg had made it well known from the get go that Jeremy/Josie was free to dress and be however she wanted while there.

It had started out with just occasionally wearing a skirt, or a pair of her girl's jeans, but it hadn't taken two months before she was spending all her time outside of classes as Josie. Never once had it seemed to bother Greg, not even when they would go out to eat or to visit the parks or whatever else they decided to do to pass the weekends.

That was before Greg's girlfriend had found out about Josie, though. Pamela had always been the jealous type, and Josie knew that she had complained to Greg more than once about his fairy of a friend, and later roommate, but it had only taken Josie forgetting to change before answering the door for her once to set her off completely. There had been yelling, mostly one sided, until Greg had arrived to break things up, and that was exactly what happened.

One week later, after hardly speaking to one another since the ordeal, Josie was surprised when Greg mentioned the latest con, and asked her if she wanted to go.

Now here they stood, and she was starting to regret her earlier eagerness to come.

"Name?"

"Josie Arnold."

"Nice costume."

"Thanks."

She was proud of her costume, to be sure. Dressing as girl-type Ranma was perhaps a bit cliche, but it spoke to her a lot more than some of the other costumes she had considered, and the usual outfit had been easy to duplicate as well. Greg's Kuno costume had been almost as simple, leaving the two plenty of time to work on more complicated costumes for later in the weekend.

If she even stayed, Josie told herself sadly as she watched Greg walk away without even looking back to see if she was following.

For the briefest of moments she considered abandoning him and doing her own thing, just to see how he would react. But no, she told herself, he was her friend, and she wasn't going to leave him like that.

Even if he was acting like a jerk.

With a little jogging she quickly caught up to the boy as he walked away from her, seemingly oblivious to her own internal struggle.

"Where are we going?" She asked, trying to get him to talk to her.

With a shrug he continued walking, not even turning to face her.

This wasn't like him at all.

Greg seemed determined to ignore her, but with a sharp tug on his arm that nearly sent him tumbling to the floor she knew she finally had his attention.

"What was that about!"

"We need to talk," Josie answered back, just as angrily. "Now."

"Can't it wait until--"

"NOW."

She watched his eyes grow wide in surprise before he nodded his assent. Without waiting for any further answer, she began to drag him back toward the elevators, angling for the privacy of their rooms.

Five minutes later, she had him cornered.

"Alright, so what's your problem been?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Greg said with a grimace. Since his initial look of surprise, he had not even looked her in the face again.

"Greg, you've been avoiding talking to me for weeks now! What's going on?" She felt her anger lessen as her sadness at the situation took over instead. "I thought we were friends, and now... I didn't mean to mess things up for you and Pam, but--"

"Huh? Oh, that! You think?"

The two of them stared at one another for a moment, neither sure how to continue.

Finally it was Greg who broke the silence, one of his smiles breaking his face for what Josie could have swore was the first time in weeks. "I really screwed this up, didn't I?"

"What?" Josie asked, more confused than ever.

"Jose, things were going south there before she ever saw you. Well, you know what I mean," he said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "We've been growing apart for a couple of years now, just neither of us had the nerve to break it off. You did me a favor."

"Then... why haven't you been speaking to me? I thought you'd decided you hated me because I--"

"No," Greg said, cutting her off with a hand on her shoulder. "Josie, why would I hate you? I'm sorry if you thought I -- wait. The reason I haven't spoken to you a lot is because there's something I wanted to say, but I didn't know how."

"Huh?" Josie lowered herself to her bed, no longer knowing which way was up or down. What was going on?

"Josie. No, I've gotta do this properly." With a shake of his head and shoulders the normal Greg was gone, and Josie could almost believe she was looking at Tatewaki Kuno himself, overblown posture and all. "Pigtailed girl," he said, waiting a few seconds for her giggles to subside. "You are the most beautiful flower to have bloomed in these lands in many long centuries. Like a cherry blossom caught upon a spring breeze, you--"

"Okay, okay, stop it!" She was laughing openly now, all sense of hostility gone. "I wanna talk to Greg, not The Blue Lightening or whatever he's called now."

With a twinkle of his eyes the normal Greg was back. "Alright then, honestly?"

She nodded. "Honestly."

"When you and Pam ran into each other, and things blew up, it made me think about a lot of things that have been going on in my life. See, I realized something, but I didn't want to do this wrong."

"Do what wrong?"

"This." With that, Greg reached within his robes and withdrew a small black box, cracking it open to reveal a glittering emerald ring. "Josie," he said, lowering himself to one knee before her, "you're the only girl I want in my life. So, please. Will you marry me?"

Josie felt the color drain from her face as she stared at the ring in her best friend's hands. She tried to speak, but nothing would come out as she did a very un-Ranma thing, and fainted on the spot.

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NOTES: Welp, I never thought I'd end up posting another one of these things, but like with my last story "It's The Little Things," I was sitting here, and it occurred to me, and, well, here it is. Unedited or proofed, so if it reads badly or doesn't make much sense, well, screw it, that's the way it's gonna stay, 'cause I've got too many other things to work on to worry about it :P

Other than that, I hope ya'll enjoyed it!