"Another Morning's Story"
Soatome-sama
"Enough! I… I don't want to hear anymore!" The words, only after they had found their way past the hurt and pain tumbled from her mouth. Her throat tight with grief and regret,choked off the rest of what she had planed to say.
"Akane?" Ranma, stopping in mid struggle, looked over the amazon that was currently trying to prove she could muster all of her love into one gigantic hug. With his arms pressed tightly against his chest in the uberhug, he could only pan his neck to see Akane over the wild mop of purple hair. The sight of her, hurt as she was broke Ranma's heart.
Akane stood across from the kitchen moments away from sprinting away from him to escape to the safety of her room. As usual the unshed tears stood at her eyes, the glossiness bring to light just how brown her eyes were. Her apron was ruined; the meal she had prepared was running down the front of it in large, sticky, clumps. The first thing Shampoo had done upon entering through the wall had been to save her Husband from the vile threat'. Without a second to even consider it the Amazon had knocked the dish onto Akane, only caring that it was away from her love. (The rest of the food on Akane was the Ramón Shampoo had brought. Upon Ukyo's arrival the chief had knocked it away before Ranma could be drugged' quoting the okonomiyaki cook.)In all it was another usual morning in the Tendo family household. Kasumi and Nodoko were busy serving Soun and Genma while Nabiki pulled herself out of the reach of flying objects such as rocks, tables, Ranma, plates, etc, etc…
"Akane?" Ranma repeated firmer seeing she wasn't able to go on. Using a move that he had not though of before Ranma rolled out of the death embrace. Like it or not, want to or not, the sight of Akane in trouble, any kind of trouble made Ranma mature for however long he need to. "Akane what's…" He tried to prompt for a third time before she interrupted. "Don't Ranma, don't say another word unless it's the truth." Somehow the tone of Akane's voice found the stable center between a plea and demand. "What?" Without meaning to Ranma spoke for the whole room.
"Not another word Ranma... unless it true." Akane's voice broke, the strength she was known for was gone. Her speech was soft, without the usual safe guards she put into it to hide any weakness. No force on Earth could have pulled their eyes away from each other's at that moment. Though seven other people shared the room with them, only Ranma and Akane mattered now. The rest of the world had suddenly gone away except for the two of them.
"Ranma I don't care if you say that you love me or hate me. Say that Shampoo has always been the one for you, or even that you plan to spend the rest of your life eating okonomiyaki… I… I don't (sniff) care if you tell me what's your favorite color, Ranma... Just tell me the truth... please." The last word took an eternity to say and then was only as loud as a whisper lost in the wind.
The silence that followed was palpable, it hung in the air like salt water on the sea breeze clinging to every substance, filling every void in the space of the family room. So it's about last night.' Nabiki thought with a smirk after figuring out what had caused this. The previous evening had once again found Ranma and Akane moments away from admitting their feelings for one another. Of course Ryoga showed up just in time to make sure what ever had been about to happen not happen. Immediately Ranma began to spout off every lie, prevarication, fib and fabrication he could think of to avoid saying anything important to Akane. Stopping to think for a moment Nabiki was glad she had thought of the reason Akane was acting so out of character. It was a little disheartening for Nabiki to see her sister like this.
Ranma didn't move letting Akane's words sink in. Absorbing what she had said the young man knew just what he had to do. Nabiki didn't move when Ranma walked over to her school books, and only batted an eye when he ripped a page out of her ledger. Silently Nabiki applauded her humanitarian nature for not ripping Ranma apart when he used her favorite pen to write something in that chicken scratch writing of his.
Akane was she only one surprised when Ranma handed her the note he had neatly folded in half. "What's this she?" Slightly amazed she had been able to stand her ground as he had walked up to her. Ranma just smiled at her with that smirk that made her want to bust him on the jaw, or as of recently plant one on his lips. Like I should've done last night before Ryog… STOP IT AKANE!' She mentally chided herself. "A truth," For once Ranma was in control, right in the center of his element. Things like this had always bother him, made him feel he was not charge of himself it was out of his means to define what was going on around him, and could almost always lead to hurt. As far as Ranma was concerned matters of the heart were just stupid. But this time Akane had changed the rules, she had challenged him. Once she had dared him to say a truth she had turned the argument into a battle. And as Ranma had once said to Mr. Tendo, as a Saotome he was always ready for war. Akane took a moment to steady herself before she folded up the note. Her eyes wide in disbelief she opened her mouth to speak. "What note say?" Akane paused sure that wasn't her voice. Turning she noticed both Shampoo and Ukyo glimmering the same shade of blue, and with a slightly scary look of calm.
"Yha, what'cha give her Rachan?" For the first time in moments Ranma noticed there were other people in the room. Without hesitation Ranma readied to do what he always did in scenes like this. "Don't you dare run you jackass… He's rabbitting!" Immediately the two chiefs were after him. "You know Akane," Nabiki said with a lazy grin lacing her fingers together under her chin. "You might want to hide that before those two realize it will be much easier to get that note from you then catching him." Akane was up stairs and in her room before Nabiki even finished speaking. Getting up Nabiki eventually wandered over to see how much damage Ranma had done to her logs.
That night before she slept the youngest Tendo daughter looked at her message board, smiling at the carefully hidden sheet of paper behind the photo of the group at Togenkyo Island. With nothing else on her mind the young woman easily slept with sweet dreams knowing that Ranma liked the color scarlet.
The End
Authors thoughts:
1/30/2000, wow that was a long time ago... Here I am after six years getting the bug to one again write Ranma fan fiction. The reason I'm posting this is o1) I've made a couple changes that should have been a half decade ago. 2) In a silly attempt to wet my feet once more in the fan fiction waters. Everyone I used to work with on these is now gone in the winds of the internet. Well for now I guess I'll use this as my first volley into finding someone to work with on proof reading and such.
Saotome-sama