Disclaimer: Ranma ½ is a property of Rumiko Takashi and I'm not taking ownership of it.
Author's Note: This is a one shot story. I just took a little break from writing Young Heart and made this one. Hope you enjoy it. Please read and review.
The story took place several years after the manga and the characters are now adults.
Crazy in love
By Erzamarie
"Why are you here outside by yourself?" A man in tuxedo asked from behind the lady.
"Just having some air. How about you? Why are you here? Shouldn't the best man be inside giving the groom a toast or something?" she asked back right after turning to face the man.
"I already did that. And as part of my job as a best man, I'm also tasked to entertain some of the guest including you." He handed her a glass of wine which she eagerly accepted.
"So you're making your rounds then," she stated not really waiting for any confirmation.
"You could say that," he said. Then slowly he took a sip on his wine.
She turned to away from him to face the breath-taking view of the garden in the night. "How are the newlyweds doing?" the woman asked after sipping her wine.
"They are having so much fun. Daisuke and Yuka look so happy." He gazed to the same direction she was staring.
Hearing this, she turned her eyes to her glass and traced its mouth with her fingers then continued to stare at it as the moon was reflected on the liquid. "I'm glad that they are. They deserve to be happy."
"They sure do," he said softly.
An awkward silence came between them for several minutes. They both felt it but neither one don't know how to break it or what to say to each other.
"Seeing them so happy makes me want to get married as well," she uttered suddenly although it made her self-conscious.
"Is that so?" he asked then he smiled after seeing the tinged of red creeping through her cheeks.
"Yes," she said firmly. With no other explanation, she left her answer as simple as it is. "What about you?"
"What about me?" a bit surprised with the question.
She looked at him with keen eyes and then giving a smile of approval, she said, "Now that you've grown older and more mature, I honestly think you look like you're ready for it."
"Ready for what?" he asked still not getting where she's heading.
Directly looking into his blue eyes, she answered, "For marriage, I mean."
Her unexpected answer made him laugh. The atmosphere of familiarity between them that suddenly came did not prepare him for such kind of questions. Certainly they had grown mature for the past 8 years but he had never expected them to be talking like this especially on that kind of subject without bickering or killing each other. Time had really changed them a lot. Getting his composure back, he said, "I'm still looking for a crazy woman to come and sweep me off my feet."
"Didn't you already find her?"she asked not catching his amused look.
"What do you mean?" he asked back acting as if he didn't understand her questions.
She knew he was teasing her but she wasn't bothered by it. Before these kind of conversation would only end up with him flying in the sky but now they were able to talk about it. "Well, the girls that were running after you were all crazy over you. Take for example Kodachi, she is literally crazy over you to the extent of poisoning her competition."
Again, he was taken aback at how simply she opened the topic of his fiancées. Although it was all in the past but still it was one of the subjects that he thought that will never come up. "She's indeed crazy but she's not crazy over me. But it's not the kind of craziness in a woman that I was looking for. The level of her insanity is beyond what I'm looking for. Aside from that, her insanity is genetic and I did nothing to cause it."
"I see. What about Shampoo? She is crazily in love with you." She looked at him to see the seriousness of his answers and his honesty as well.
"She's not crazy over me. But rather she's loyal to her tribe. Her insane dedication to their Amazonian law made her that way. I admire her for that but that's not the thing I am looking for," he answered truthfully as he was flooded with the memories of the Amazonian girl.
"I guess you're right," she said in agreement. Although she thought that Shampoo did love him even if it only came after she started to get to know him.
"Of course, I am." He said it with a smart ass attitude.
She just ignored his all-knowing attitude and continued, "That leaves Ukyou. She's not mentally disturbed or a devotee to any tribe or belief."
"Ukyou's pretty normal except for her eccentric taste in the fashion of cross-dressing and her known attitude of holding grudges against people," he explained as he remembers his first meeting with Ukyou and how he had mistaken her as a boy. It was one of the things he could never forget as he was deceived by it.
"So why not her? She's not crazy like the other two and she cares a great deal over you." As the years passed between all of them, it was Ukyou that she hoped to be with him as she knew that Ukyou truly cares for him.
Ukyou did care for him but he couldn't return them and that was the simple and logical explanation he had why he didn't choose her. "Like I said I'm looking for a particular kind of craziness in a woman."
"Then what kind is it?" she asked although she really didn't want to hear it.
"The kind that would make you jumped from a cliff to save the person you love without hesitation. It's the anxiousness you feel when you worry about her and the feeling of elation when you're holding her hand and being beside her. It's the crazy beating of your heart of the thought of losing her to someone else. But you'll smile for her if that happens because that insane emotion would give the courage to smile for her happiness although your heart bleeds. And if ever she hurts you, you'll forgive her a thousand times for the sole reason that you love her." He answered her like he was narrating a beautiful story but has a bittersweet end. Looking at him, he wore a satisfied look on his face which gives you an impression that he has accepted such fate.
She looked at him and she felt small. Tears were brimming from her eyes but she hid them from him. Not then and not now will she ever let him see how much painful it was for her. So she lowered her head and tried to concentrate on the almost empty glass in her hand. "I see."
He missed seeing the look on her face because he was busy remembering the feelings of yesterday. It was hard for him then and it's still hard for him today. It was moments like this when he remembers that the wound was still there but he got used to it. He lived through the pain because that's all he could ever do. "You wouldn't understand what I'm saying unless you had experienced being crazy as well."
"Have you experienced it then?" It was a silly question since it's pretty obvious of the answer but she needed to hear it from him.
"Yes, I did. I got a little crazy for awhile until I realized I got crazy alone. She wasn't feeling the same way as I thought she was," he answered truthfully and sadly.
His answer was like a dagger piercing through her. Right there and then she wanted to make him stop and just walk away from all the things he said. But she couldn't do that especially since it was her who asked to be free from the engagement without giving any explanation. "Did you regret it?" she asked although it was more for her than to him. For the last 8 years, she had lived her life regretting what she did. If there's only a rewind button in life, she had used it already.
"No, I didn't," he replied. He became angry, scared and hurt but he never regretted it. If anything else, he was thankful for the experience because falling in love can never be a mistake. "I felt sad about it but I never felt regret not even for a second."
"What if you're wrong? What if you made a false conclusion and the real thing is she was as crazy as you were to her," she begged. For 8 years she didn't feel obligated to explain anything from anyone -not to her father, to her sister and to him. And today, she regretted not giving it to them especially to him. The fear of living in his world made her bail out on him but it didn't mean that she did not care. She pushed him away because she's afraid of what he was offering to her. All she saw was the constant worries about his fiancées, the long bickering and the strangers who suddenly appear and kidnap them. She got afraid of living that kind of life.
He never thought it that way. It didn't even occur to him that he had just misunderstood everything. For the past years, she had every chance to clear everything but she didn't. "But you weren't, were you?" he asked just to make it clear but he was not hoping for anything.
"No. I'm not," she lied. It's the right thing to do. She wasted a lot of time she got where she could have cleared everything. There is no point telling him the truth now especially since they both have their own separate lives. Keeping it to herself is her punishment for what she did and she has to bear it.
No one spoke after that. They were both remembering what happened in the past. He is moving forward and taking the past as an experience while the other is regretting it. The awkward silence was suddenly broken by the load ringing of his mobile phone.
"Hello? Yes. Oh, I see. Ok, I'll be there. Wait for me. Ok, bye." He answered it enthusiastically after seeing the name appearing in the screen.
"Who was that?" she asked as her curiosity grew after watching him talked to his phone animatedly.
He gave her a boyish grin which he used to give her before. "Hopefully the crazy woman I am looking for."