A.N—I don't own Ranma 1/2.

Cyclamens

Autumnal coolness welcomed Akanes face as she walked out of New York's air port. A line of yellow cabs extended in front of her. For a moment she considered if she really should take a bus to the city, but Mrs. Ono's orders were clear: she can't be thrifty – the most beautiful room in the most selected hotel, the most fancy restaurants and the most exiting clubs. And that's that. Unconsciously she touched her short hair. She still wasn't used to her new haircut. She smoothed a hand over her new expensive clothes that she bought recently, grabbed her suitcase with her other hand and dragged it to the end of the passengers line. She didn't have the chance to locate herself when a black limousine stopped next to her. The back window opened without a sound and a man dressed in a black business suit leaned through. "Need a ride?"

What happened? She wondered. Through all the flight he ignored her and suddenly he's so nice.

When the stewardess led her to her sit in the first class area she recognized him immediately and her heart started to lose control. BAKA! She admonished herself. He is married! M-A-R-R-I-E-D! It didn't help. Her heart refused to calm and the butterflies continued to tickle in her belly. At first she tried to be less noticeable and hide in her sit but when a long hour passed and he still didn't picked his face up from the documents he pondered about she started to relax.

She really was a baka. What is there to hide from! Here is they hardly know each other. The max he could tell her is a few polite words, ask what going with the flower shops and what did she do with the cyclamens. When he finally picked his head up and surveyed his surrounding she was already in control on her feelings. When his eyes captured hers she immediately smiled at him with friendship, but he didn't react as expected. His eyes stayed indifferent and his lips rose only for a fast and polite smile. Not the same charming, tempting smile. She moved nervously. For some reason it didn't came to her that he wouldn't recognize her. But why should he remember? She cynically wondered. She had to remember: money sticks to money and beauty to beauty.

"Where do you have to go?"

In spite of his nice ton she measured how to take his offer. It wasn't clear to her if she heard a thread of disrespect in his voice. She considered if she should play as if she's hurt and declaim the offer or surrender to the little stubborn inner voice of hers that pushed her to stop doing petty invoices and enjoy from what's happening. She gave him another look. His eyes were even more beautiful from what she remembered. Her heart, her body and her knees that turned to water decided for her. She's not going to bed with him, she calmed herself. She's just getting a ride and maybe a little attention. There's no sin in that. "Manhattan 'Pier' hotel the fifth avenue in front of..."

"I know the hotel" he cut through. "It so happens to be that I stay there too". The driver already hurried to get out of the limo and put her suitcase in the car trunk and she was already sited next to him finding herself going back in her thoughts to that time a year ago to that night before chrisms night.

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The darkness came down a long time ago, but the shop was still crowded with costumers, and the invitations continued to flow on the phone and on the fax. It seemed to Akane that everyone in the state was busy only in sending each other flower. Roses, Gladiolus, Gerberas, Begonias, Camellia, Lily, Tulips. Only she doesn't have anybody to send flowers to, and nobody's sending her. She bent to the bucket with the Cyclamens that was pushed to the corner. Cyclamens that came only yesterday fresh and beautiful, and had no buyers. Pale, shy, their pointy petals are cast down, and only their tips are blushed with gentle pink. The people who walked in ignored them. Maybe because of their slightly bended head they thought they are withering, Akane pondered when she placed the bucket in a more protruding place.

A feeling of sadness surrounded her. Poor Cyclamens, she thought. Nobody wanted them. For a brief moment she let the depression sip into her, rap her. And then she straightened up with a quick move. You'd think it's her first holyday she's spending alone. She snickered in irony. Not the first and most likely not the last. Suddenly she thought about Kuno, and right away shuddered. It's been two years since she cancelled their wedding in the last minute, and still, every time she remembered him by, her skin turned all Goosebumps. He was a phone technician. A simple guy that dreaming about taking down the moon and stars was strange to him. Every Saturday he went to see a football game and in every Tuesday night he was strict at filling the lottery, maybe he'll win, that's what he said. Until their last fight he didn't treat her bad. Only when he slammed her to the floor after he came back angry from a football game which his team lost at, and found out she was reading a book and didn't make him a hot dinner like she was used to every Saturday night, she realized how her life with him would look like. The shock and humiliation were worth the moderate.

Her sister Kasumi and Nabiki as usual stood against her.

"Stop deluding yourself Akane", Nabiki berated her. "All the man is garbage. Egotistical. Look at me and Ryoga. Eight years married, three kids, sex once two months, overdraft over our heads, not speaking and hardly having fun. And still live. Raising the children and dreaming about winning the lottery. Don't think you're attributed, that you'll have something better."

"I don't know..." Akane tried to protest, "Couples sometimes come to the shop and they really look happy together. For example, there's this guy tall and handsome, you see money isn't a problem for him, and every Friday he and his wife pass by the shop hand in hand, and he buys her flowers, you can see they're fun together..."

"Even if there is a guy like that is one to a thousand", Nabiki cut her off nastily. "You can be sure he wouldn't even look your way. Men like that look for women like them. Money stick to money and beauty stick to beauty. Get down from the high tree you're climbing on. You look like a hatchling, you don't have education and to top it all – you're poor. Who will take you, tell me?"

Akane was already used to Nabiki's vulgar style, but every time she got mad at herself for the pain that the things Nabiki said made her. Right Tatewaki (A.N.—is this right?) was her only serious boyfriend, but it wasn't because nobody else wanted her. In the shop a guy would come on to her, only she was a little shy and it was difficult to her to make contact. Until she decided she liked someone, until she found the right words, until she got the courage to say something that might be interpret as an invitation to ask her phone number – he was already gone.

"Akane! Come on, what are you dreaming? We still have a lot invitations to take care of", her boss, Mikado prompted her. It was her forth year working in the big and wonderful flower shop, and in the next November she'll celebrate her twenty five birthday. The salary wasn't high but was enough to live on. In holydays she got a bonus and Mikado Let her do as she pleased with the flower arrangements, always complimenting her on her good taste and talent. Not the top of ambitions, not a fancy career, but something she love and enjoy doing. When she finished high school she thought about going to college, study art, but all her pretty dreams came to a stop when she started checking the possibilities and found out how expansive the lessons. Her mother died from cancer and her father lived on a small payment from teaching the art a few children at the dojo. Akane moved from her father's house in Nerima to Kyoto, and became a secretary that moved from one office to another. Those were miserable years. She hated the secretary job. It had no inspiration, no beauty, and no color.

"Akane!"

"Sorry, sorry," Akane hurried to apologies and moved to the next customer.

Two more hours past 'til Mikado decided that they worked enough for the day. He released the extra workers and as he closed the cash box he turned to Akane, "do you mind closing? I have to run."

"No problem", Akane smiled. Mikado's question was rhetorical. Almost every evening she locked the shop. All the others ran to their nightly business, only to her nothing waited, except for her books and plants and Mrs. Ono, of course.

On his way out Mikado glanced at the Cyclamens. "You can take the Cyclamens home." He said and left.

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Well, th-th-th-that's all folks! The first chappie. Plz R&R!

Lili Boom (