Lost and Found

It was a warm, sunny morning, and Ryoga Hibiki was lost.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Okay. Not working. Plan B.

"Where the hell am I now?!" he roared. A flock of nearby birds was sent screeching into the sunrise, a light shower of feathers pooling in their wake. Then silence.

He groaned. Well, the place seemed familiar.

Ryoga furrowed his brows, glancing down at his map, then quickly around him. Funny. He didn't know they had Japanese signs in Costa Rica. Or Japanese parks. And where were the palm trees? And those bizarre, lazy monkey creatures? He sighed, defeated.

All he had wanted was a vacation; to taste fresh, tropical air and simply forget everything… forget Ranma, forget Ukyo, forget Akane… forget about all of his life's destinations for a while. Forget that he was lost. It wasn't too much to ask, was it? Was it? He looked pleadingly to the sky.

Please, just once, let me be found instead.

Wait, where did that come from? Ryoga crinkled his nose. Being found. He whispered it to the bench beside him, where the outline of a teenage boy was imprinted in the paint.

"Let me be found." He sort of liked the sound of it.

As if on cue, young woman jogged past him, muttering to herself angrily. Ryoga glanced at her briefly, taking in her shapely hips and legs, her small, perky breasts (upon this observation he had to plug his nose with his bandanna), her short, blue-tinted black hair…

Wait a second.

"Akane?"

"Yes?" The girl came to a halt and turned to look at him. A few seconds passed, then a gasp. "Ryoga!" Her mouth opened and closed comically for a few moments, and he suspected that his must have been behaving likewise only moments before. A blush sprouted up on both of their faces. Finally, she settled on, "… Ryoga?"

They stared at each other. Ryoga gazed down at his feet, uncomfortable, while Akane's eyes bored into him. A bead of sweat plopped onto the pavement with a silent thud.

Suddenly, Ryoga felt thin, muscular arms wrap themselves around his waist. Before he could react, the top of her head curled under his neck, and she was shaking, crying silently into his collarbone. He almost toppled backward in shock.

"A-Akane?" He felt embarrassed, and concerned, and jubilant, and terrified; but mostly terrified. If Ranma walked in on a scene like this... "Uh, Akane, where's, um-?"

She stopped crying instantly, and peered up at him with a look he couldn't quite identify. Still, it made him wish he hadn't asked.

"Ran… er, he's not… here." She chuckled awkwardly. "Don't worry."

"Oh." He coughed, looking away. "And… Shampoo?"

She forced a smile. "Is now the proud, incredibly rich owner of a chain of Neko-Ken restaurants. You may have seen a couple of them while you were… you know… She, uh, broke up with Mousse, though." At this, Akane looked away guiltily, and Ryoga felt his mouth run dry.

He tried to swallow. "And… Ukyo…" It didn't come out as a question, but a desire for confirmation. A hope against hope.

Akane chewed her lip, her wide brown eyes filled with pity. He hated seeing that face. Not on her, and not for him. "Maybe we should go someplace and talk, y'know?" she started slowly, carefully. His insides clenched. "Like that place we used to go to get those milkshakes?"

"She's with Mousse now, isn't she?"

She sighed. "Ryoga, I'm so sorry… but…"

He didn't hear her.

"Hey, sugar, don't look so down," Ukyo drawled, clumsily stroking the front of Mousse's long dark hair. It slid through her fingertips like water.

It really is girly, Ryoga thought bitterly, and then words escaped him.

Ukyo had once confessed to him that Mousse's hair excited something masculine inside of her. He thought of that now, but only for a moment. His mind couldn't seem to hold any one thought for very long. "He doesn't love me either," his Ukyo continued consolingly. Who was she talking about? He couldn't think of that either.

Mousse looked up at her with bloodshot eyes. He tilted his chin up, she tilted her head down and slightly to the side, and their lips met. Ryoga closed his eyes.

Something thick and dark twisted around in his stomach.

…

"Ryoga!" He barely registered the light slap to his cheek. It was her voice that stirred him.

Akane's eyes were filled with tears, and she appeared to be shaking slightly. Was she remembering, as well? He felt the desire to comfort her and moved to do so, but something in him, the same something that had writhed around in his gut that night, stopped him after a few clumsy steps. It wanted to be as far away from Akane as possible, to send him running right now.

He contented himself with merely keeping his distance. Then her words finally reached his cluttered brain. "She- Ukyo's not with Mousse."

Ryoga blinked. "I- what- she's not? But…"

Akane nodded, chewing her lip once again. "It's not as bad as you think, but it's not… well, it's not wonderful, either. She, um, closed down her restaurant and was gone that same night. No one's seen her since."

No one had seen her since.

"Do you think… her and Ranma… ?"

Akane's eyes darkened, and Ryoga suddenly understood how Ranma and every other man on the planet could be so terrified of this tiny girl. He shuddered. "No, that's definitely not likely," he said quickly, waving his hands in front of his face. "Ranma wouldn't do that. Neither would Ukyo. She was over him. And Ranma, well… Ranma…"

"Yeah." Akane's gaze softened. "Ranma." She looked up at him, and he wondered for a while at what he saw in her eyes. "Ryoga…"

The single low murmur set his heart aflutter.

Akane groaned, fumbling blindly for the warmth of the human body beside her. She had already entwined herself around her heat source so thoroughly, she was as a wildflower clinging to the side of a church. Nothing could have pried her away.

She whimpered again. Her fingers clenched and unclenched the bed sheets, and she twisted away from the figure beside her. "No, Ranma… don't… It didn't mean anything, I promise…"

"Ranma. Ranma!" Her eyes snapped open. Even as her heart rate slowed, she continued to stare dazedly up at the ceiling, her hand reaching out to grasp nothing. The seconds ticked by.

Disoriented, Akane sat up and looked about her. She was in her apartment- that was a good sign. She peered groggily down at the body she had been curled up with. It was male, thankfully, with dark hair and a strong build; clearly a skilled martial artist. That was a very good sign.

Ranma.

For a moment, she had her life back. Waking up in the morning to a sleeping Ranma Saotome had never been in her plans for the future (that she would admit to anyone, anyway), but after that first morning, it had somehow assured her that all things would be right with the world. He may still cheat on her with his cuter, sexier, more talented fiancés, even if he didn't mean it, really, but he woke up to her face. He woke up with her. Never anyone else.

"Do you think… her and Ranma… ?"

She frowned darkly.

Then it came crashing down on her. He woke up with her, never anyone else. She could say that, as well. She could. What had happened with Ryoga… was, well, it didn't mean anything.

She chuckled bitterly. It didn't mean anything, it's not what it looks like, I didn't mean for it to happen… she had heard it all. It seemed so unreal to hear the words escape her own lips, and to watch him reject her the way she had so many times when they were both young.

He rejected her. Then that meant this man next to her couldn't be Ranma. And that meant…

Akane had to stifle her scream with both hands. Heart pounding, she carefully maneuvered herself over the man and scanned his face. A gentle, handsome face greeted her, an endearing little fang protruding from his slightly slack mouth. Ryoga. It was Ryoga. She relaxed for a moment, eyes trailing down his bare chest, and then her entire body went rigid.

He was naked, and so was she.

AN: This little thing does have a story behind it, so all questions would be theoretically cleared up as the story progresses. Is it worth continuing, though? Please let me know. (:

Also, since this is my first fanfic and first piece of writing (outside of school) in, ohh, three years or so, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated~

Thanks!