" - just drop dead, creep!" Akane stormed off, rushing without seeming rushed to Furinkan High.

Ranma easily kept pace on the chicken-wire fencing. "Hey." She sped up. "Hey, Akane." For once, he felt he hadn't put his foot far enough in his mouth - maybe because he was not nursing a new bruise. "Akane, you can't just ignore me, y'know. We're in the same class, all that."

"Who says I can't?" She stopped to regard him full-faced. "You mean so little to me, it's so easy to - tune - You - OUT!"

She quickly turned on her heel, watching Ranma's face open up like a popped balloon. She wasn't able to see him lose his footing, hitting the pole, teetering.

---

Akane stared out the window, watching the sky turn bluish-white, the clouds arranged like a kaleidoscope, throwing rays across, to and fro, into the trees -

"Psst!"

- a wind whizzing by -

"Psst!"

Her head clicked up a notch. "Oh. Yuka."

"I know there's something wrong with you and Ranma - "

"There is nothing - "

" - but," she hushed her own voice to keep Akane from raising hers, flashing a glance from their bespectacled teacher, "you wouldn't want to be sent out - "

"Well," the teacher said, responding to the suddenly open door, "Mr. Saotome." He raised a hand, walking to the hallway. "Don't come in - you know where to get the buckets." He pulled the door closed.

"Akane, what's g- ?" She, of course, intently went back to her books.

Yuka sighed.

---

Lunch.

Sayuri and Yuka edged up to Akane's desk from behind. "Say, Akane - "

" - Ranma!" Hiroshi was whirling towards the door. "Man, are you in for - !"

"Not here, you knucklehead!" Daisuke bonked him one upside, holding him with the other hand brusquely around a shoulder, then led the both of them out the door.

Akane afforded a causal glance to the bento box, and sniffed. Only for a second, hiding the packed lunch the next in her school bag.

Sayuri whispered, "this is bad."

"Tell me 'bout it," Yuka replied.

---

Study hall.

*BOOM!* "Nihao, Ran-!"

Suddenly, Akane was on her feet.

The silence was palpable. Even Shampoo seemed piqued by this show of spine by the Tendo girl. She tightened her hold on the bonbori expectantly.

Grabbing her books to her chest, she made her way to the desks further from the wall, sitting on the desk chair next to Yuka. "You were saying something earlier?"

"Akane?" Sayuri said, aghast, "what about Sham- ?"

Yuka stilled her with a gaze. Together, the three of them built the shield which made only them impervious to Chinese influence or imports.

---

The setting sun threw Akane's shadow well halfway to the school. She turned, again watching the elongated doppelganger stare from the walk, nothing else.

She felt the stare, a soft, embarrassed look, but it came from elsewhere and someone else. It stopped motion as she did, but she could not tell its exact location.

She continued the silent stroll home, not at all assuaged from her suspicions.

---

"Welcome home, Ak- " Akane turned to look over her shoulder before taking her next step into the house. "Akane? Is something wrong?"

She finally gave up the ghost and gave Kasumi a look of some relief. "Nothing, Kasumi."

"Hey, sisters." Nabiki walked past the two of them. "Heard you got into a fight with R- "

Akane walked past her to go to the stairs.

The doorbell rang.

"Hey, Ran- "

"Welcome home!"

---

"You don't say..."

"He seemed so down..."

"Just do as - "

"I think she's c- "

Akane slid the door open. "Where's dad?"

Kasumi gave her a bowl of rice as she sat down, picking up her chopsticks. "He and Mr. Saotome were out running errands for Grandfather."

Both of the younger sisters had weird expressions on their faces for a moment.

"Oh, Ranma," Kasumi said, looking behind Akane, "sit down and have some dinner."

The moment Akane turned to look, the door had slid closed again. She sat back down, slightly more stooped.

"Oh, come now," Kasumi continued. "You did come down to eat, right?"

Akane looked at Kasumi, then at where she was looking at, then back at Kasumi, who started to look slightly reproving. "Who are you - ?"

"Ranma," Kasumi started, looking behind the rice bowl with Ranma's chopsticks, "just because Akane's ignoring you doesn't mean that you have to take it so badly."

"Ran- ?" Akane drooped again. "Not funny, Kasumi."

"What?" Nabiki slurped the noodle, then turned to Akane. "Don't you think you should apologize?"

"For what, Nabiki?" Akane started to feel picked-on.

"Not you, Akane." She leaned back slightly. "What did you say to her, Ranma?"

"What? Oh - " Akane took both sisters in with one glance. "I can't believe - "

"It doesn't matter if she's ignoring you," Kasumi said, ignoring Akane, "you two should at least try to get along."

"You are," Nabiki seconded, "affianced, after all."

"This is," Akane stood, "just too much. I've got to - "

Nabiki slapped the table with a flat hand. "Why don't you just tell her then?"

Akane turned to look down and back, then back at Nabiki, "what? What?"

Ranma's bowl sat quietly. His chopsticks held no comment.

"Fine, be that way then." Nabiki held her bowl again, and finished her ramen. With that, she left.

Kasumi took the meal plates and, after a while, Ranma's bowl, then, too, left for the kitchen.

Akane had not budged. "What's going on here?"

---

Akane opened the door to her room, feelign deja vu - she wore the same pyjamas, the one with the symbols of the zodiac - stepping in from a hot and bothered bath. Save for the fact that she had longer hair then, she was still thinking about Ranma.

What had he said early that morning that ticked her so? She woke up early, planning to cook Ranma's lunch today - "marriage training", Kasumi had quipped, "marriage breaking," Nabiki countered snidely - only to be come across by him in the process of packing.

	Don't tell me you're trying to cook me lunch *again.*

	And so, if I am?

	It's not as though you can make me eat it, Akane.

The fool! He didn't need to eat it if he didn't want to.

	"She did wake up early to make it for you, Ranma," Kasumi said sweetly, bringing out breakfast.

	Frankly, I don't see why she bothers.

	"It's because she bothers, Ranma," Nabiki slipped in.

	Well...

She never saw him caught that much off-balance.

	We're off, Kasumi!

	"Be home soon! Ranma, don't forget what I told you!"

	What did Kasumi mean, Ranma?

	Oh, he said, jumping to the fence, she just gave me some pain relievers and Alka Seltzer, just in case I needed it.

Funny, ha ha.

	Why don't you - ?

The door was ajar. She knew she closed it a few moments before.

Peering just outside, she saw no one in the hall, and no one on the laundry porch. "Hello?"

"Akane?" Kasumi came out of her room, toiletries in hand. "Is there some problem?"

"No, Kasumi," she lied.

"Oh, okay. I'm going to take my bath now." She disappeared into the stairway.

"Hmm..." She went back in and closed the door again.

She noticed the window slightly open. That she knew she kept closed. "Okay, now what's - ?!"

"Ranma!"

That wasn't Akane.

Nabiki stared, arms akimbo, at the edge of Akane's bed. "I can't believe you're already here and you're still clammed up."

"Jeez, Nabiki," Akane gasped, shocked, "what are you doing here?"

"Mr. Lover-boy here," she waved in the direction of the motionless "Ranma", "said that he couldn't go in your room alone - said you might think he was a pervert - well, you did say it, right?" The last words were directed to the bed again.

"Whe...?" She couldn't voice it, but she frustratedly mouthed "Where?"

"Where?" Nabiki shook her head. "I know you're still angry at him, Akane, but you can't ignore him when he's just - right - here!" She gestured to the bed with both hands emphatically.

"Well," Akane crossed her arms across her chest, "if he's just there, why doesn't he apologize? Well?"

Not to be outdone, Nabiki crossed her arms and stared at the edge. "Well?"

The bed was quiet.

"Well?"

The bed kept its silence.

"Argh!" She pushed Nabiki out. "I can't believe that I believed you!"

"You little wimp!" Nabiki hollered from over Akane's shoulder. "You better sort this with her tonight, or I'll have you, Saotome!"

With a last shove, Nabiki was outside, and the door was again closed.

"Sorry."

"AAAAAAAAHHH!" Akane turned, shinai in hand -

- facing Ranma, who was sheepishly sitting on the edge of her bed.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry already! Jeez, Akane!" He covered himself with both arms.

"What are you doing in - ?!" She noticed the box he held. "What are you doing with that?" She pointed the training sword at it.

"This?" He held the bento box with both hands. "I - um, ate it."

"You... ate... my cooking?" She sat on the bed, fascinated by the sight of a completely empty lunch box as it sat in his hands.

"I, *koff*, I did, Akane." He rubbed his stomach to emphasize his point.

"Did, did you like it?"

"Well..." Here he began to notice the proximity that he shared, in Akane's bedroom, with Akane, in her jammies, her eyes bright and hopeful, with the express approval of both her sisters... "Shampoo's lunch was better."

---

"How did it go, Nabiki?"

"Like I planned, Kasumi, exactly as I planned."

Kasumi smiled, but that was cut short by the sound of splintering windows and glass shattering. "Oh, dear."

"Yeah, well I expected that." Slightly worth having erased all of Ranma's debt to her, Nabiki thought, to have him act like a wimp to Akane.

"I hope he took more of those painkillers I gave him," Kasumi concluded.

**********

In conclusion, I wanted to make it more surreal, with Ranma really not registering to Akane before he apologized, but oppotunity, motive and execution presented themselves.

Well... back to work.

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