I'm rewriting this story. My writing style has changed, yet again, but this idea still intrigues me. Also I, and several kind reviewers, noticed an abundance of spelling, grammar, and paragraph mistakes. I'm taking the time to look through what is written and fix this. Also, I thank the ones that reviewed, favorite, and alerted the original version of this story, apologize for the wait, and hope you will enjoy this.
I don't own Ranma 1/2
A Second Chance to Make or Break: a rewrite
Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo, both seventeen years of age, are about to go on the weirdest journey of their young lives (and they've been on some pretty weird journeys). Our young heroes are currently headed off to school, and well…they seem to arguing.
Ranma Saotome glared at his fiancée as he ran across the thin railing.
"Why d'ya have ta be so uncute all tha time?" he grumbled.
Contrary to what he was saying, Ranma found Akane Tendo to be very cute, possibly pretty sometimes, and on the occasion, to be positively beautiful. He would never have the courage to tell her this though, as his dear ol' dad, and Ranma used that term loosely, had basically made him suppress any sort of emotion for the first sixteen years of his life. This didn't stop the fact and feeling, however, that Ranma was very much in love with her.
Since the event of Saffron and the wedding that had occurred shortly after, Ranma and Akane had attempted to stop their constant fighting. This proved to be very difficult. Ranma still had an abundance of 'fiancées' running around (plus the occasional insane Kuno) and Akane was still extremely jealous. Jealousy plus Akane usually equaled to fighting, her mallet, and the use of hurtful insults between the two of them. Akane still did not know the true identity of her little 'P-Chan', and as such, still insisted on sleeping with him whenever he showed up; this in turn made Ranma exceptionally angry. And this too would lead to fighting. However, this had been happening a lot less as of late and Ranma suspected that Ryoga's girlfriend Akari had a hand in it. He felt grateful for her.
"Hey, are you even listening to me?"
Ranma snapped out of his thoughts, and realized that he had stopped walking. Akane had jumped up onto the fence in front of him and pierced him with a withering glare that would have made a weaker man cower. Ranma, however, didn't even notice the ice in her eyes; he was too busy noticing the fact that she was at a dangerous height. One wrong move and it would be into the canal with her. He didn't want to risk it.
Another change the appearance of Saffron had brought was the constant need for Ranma to protect Akane. Having already been doing that already, Ranma had basically turned into a mothering hen whenever she so much as scraped her knee.
"Get off the fence, it dangerous!"
Ranma moved as if too remove her, but Akane wasn't going to give up easily.
"You do it daily," she pointed out.
"I also have been training for a better part of fifteen years," he argued, "while you've gone to school every day of your life and get good grades."
She scowled at him.
"Well if I don't practice I'll never be able to do it, will I?"
He huffed, but said nothing else. As she began to cautiously make her way across, he monitored her movements, and was surprised to find that, aside from being a little wobbly, she was successful. It irked him a bit. It had taken him a year of training to get his balance to perfection, and here she was getting it on her first try. Then it hit him.
"This isn't your first time practicing with your balance, is it?"
She laughed a sweet tinkling sound that made Ranma go weak at the knees.
"Of course not, and you already knew that. Given the fact that it was how I broke my leg at that time," she said, jumping down from the fence. The two were nearing the school.
He smacked his forehead as he joined her on the ground.
"Oh yeah, how could I forget, since it was my fault and all," he grumbled, angry at his momentary stupidity.
Akane shook her head. "It was not your fault, so don't go blaming yourself."
"Wasn't my- what d'ya mean it wasn't my fault?! I caused that flash that distracted you and-"
"Idiot. Hiroshi and Daisuki explained the entire thing later. You were trying to protect me," she said, smiling.
He rubbed the back of his head and opened his mouth to retort when they heard the familiar, and heart-stopping scary, yell of "Nihao Ranma!"
Shampoo had arrived on the scene. Out of the corner of his eye, Ranma noticed the smile drop from his fiancée's face and she scowled. Ranma wasn't too happy about the arrival of the Amazon either. He grimaced as the ample and curvy woman glomped him.
"Airen go on date with Shampoo now, yes?"
Ranma practically growled as he ripped himself from her grip.
"No Shampoo I'm not going ta go on a date with you, and for the last time I'm not your Airen!"
He stalked away from her, pointedly ignoring her angry and hurt look, and went to catch up with Akane, who had walked ahead. As he came up behind her, she increased her pace. He rolled his eyes and the two raced into the school, paying no mind to the mysterious absence of Kuno.
Akane did not speak with Ranma for the rest of the school day, which he spent trying to figure out what the heck he'd done wrong.
He scowled as she ignored the note he had flicked at her ear for the umpteenth time.
"Akane, hey Akane," he whispered. The scowl on her face deepened but she made no move to address him, instead focusing even more upon their teacher.
~oOo~
"What the hell is your problem?!"
The two were on their way home. Ranma, losing all patience for her silence, cornered Akane against the fence.
"I don't know what you mean," she sniffed, turning her head from him.
He growled.
"Dammit Akane I thought we were going to stop this! I can't fix whatever the hell I've done wrong unless you tell me what it is! I can't read your mind, though I wish I could sometimes, it'd make it a hell of lot easier to figure you out!"
Neither of them heard the faint cackle in the distance; too busy glaring at each other.
"If this is about this morning Akane-"
"This is about our entire life Ranma! If we don't resolve this, we could end up in our twenties, married, and still have that Chinese bimbo barging in on us demanding that you marry her, or, heaven-forbid, stealing one of our children to raise in her village."
He heard the anguish in her voice, saw the tears beginning to sparkle in her eyes, but he only zeroed in on two things.
"You really want to get married, have a child, with me?" he asked, his eyes lighting up slightly.
She blushed.
"Well," she mumbled, "I understand if you don't want to marry me, but the same principal applies to Uky-"
"I'd love to marry you!"
The moment he'd said it, Ranma had clapped a hand over his mouth, furious with himself at the slip. Ever since the blunder before the failed wedding, Ranma had been trying to watch what he said. So far…there was no success.
She grinned widely and slipped by him, tugging on his arm.
"Let's go home," she said, not letting go of his arm. He blushed but didn't protest and the two made their way home, one contemplating the mood-swings of women, the other cheering herself on the success she'd made.
They made it home without any more incidents, just in time for dinner.
Akane's mood quickly dropped. You could have cut the tension at the table with a knife. All eyes were trained on the to-be-wed couple as they silently ate their food. Finally Akane snapped.
"Take a picture, it'll last longer," she yelled, standing up. "Don't you dare Nabiki, that was sarcasm," she added, when her sister had pulled her camera out.
"Thanks for the meal Kasumi, it was wonderful. C'mon Ranma lets go spar. "
She pulled him out by the ear, ignoring his protests,
"-but I haven't even finished my rice!"
The rice in question quickly vanished into the mouth of a happy panda.
In the dojo Akane faced a strangely flustered Ranma and took up a fighting stance.
"Fight me," she ordered.
He looked thoughtful for a second, a look that Akane thought looked completely foreign on his face, before he agreed, shocking her completely.
At first, like was usual; he avoided her attacks and didn't go offensive at all. However, when Akane growled out, "Hit me!" he gave a little smirk.
"If you insist," he said simply.
And his fists, whenever they came in contact with parts of her, which was very often, would lightly tap her. While very small, this was progress from not hitting at all. She thought back to all the times she had practically begged him to spare with her and realized how great an improvement this was.
The two fought like a dance, hitting and blocking and they did not grow tired for a long while. After about an hour Akane saw what she assumed to be an opening, a very rare occurrence, and impulsively took it. He took her by surprise and set her softly to the floor.
He poked her. "I win," he said, smirking that annoyingly irresistible smile of his.
Akane was breathing heavily, but managed a smile. "Well, that was fun."
"Yeah," he agreed, "and you've gotten better."
She looked up in surprise. "Have I?"
He nodded and she grinned widely, launching herself at him in a hug. They landed in a heap.
"Ranma-""-Akane," they whispered in unison.
They sat up.
"Sorry," she mumbled. He didn't look at her.
"It's fine."
They sat silently like that for a while, cautiously giving the other glances when they thought they weren't paying attention.
"I wish we hadn't messed things up in the beginning," Ranma said suddenly.
"What d'you mean?" she asked.
"Well I was pretty happy when you asked ta be friends, since as you know I didn' have many friends growing up. That's why I was hesitant to tell you I was a boy; since I heard you say you couldn't stand losing to one of them. And then when you did figure out I was a boy and began to freak out over it, I was a bit hurt, which led ta me insulting you, which led ta you hating me even more."
"Which led to even more mistrust and misunderstandings," Akane finished.
"Sometimes I wish we were able to fix them," Ranma grumbled.
This time the couple did hear the cackle. The two watched as silvery mist filled the room and a voice boomed,
"I have heard your wishes and will grant them! Through the bounds of time and space; you will go back, and erase the mistakes!"
They disappeared in a flash.
~Fin~
Well that's one chapter rewritten. Only chapter 2 and then it will be all new things.
I'd like it if you reviewed and told me what you think of this version. Please and thank you!
~inusgirllovesmonkeys
