Akane stumbled down the stairs, feeling hot and numb all over. She growled and shoved her hand through her bangs. It had been two weeks since the fight with Saffron and the nightmares hadn't stopped.
She slammed the door to the living room open, not getting a chance to curse her own clumsiness because she wasn't alone. Ranma was sitting at the table, staring at nothing in particular and nursing a cup of tea. They startled at her entrance, and had to force themself not to attack if the tension in their shoulders was anything to go by. Akane winced.
"Sorry," she whispered as she down next to them, careful not to brush shoulders. Well, careful not to touch at all really.
"It's okay." Ranma said, bumping their shoulder against hers lightly. She sighed and leaned into them.
"Can't sleep either?" It seemed obvious once she asked it.
Ranma responded anyways, "Nope. I think I've been down here for a few hours."
Akane hummed against their arm. The two of them sat like that for a little while, a rare silence between them.
"Hey," Akane said softly. Ranma looked down at her. "Can I play with your hair?" she asked, sitting up a bit to look them in the eyes. They looked amused in a way that would have annoyed her if she were running on more than an hour of sleep.
"Sure?" They pulled the tie from their hair and quickly ran their own fingers through it. Akane smiled and did the same. She wanted to try braiding it again but if she couldn't do it normally she doubted she could now.
Akane spent about five minutes just running her hands through their hair. Ranma ended up leaning into her touch, occasionally humming. Akane couldn't help but think of how they purred in cat form. She giggled.
"What's so funny?" Ranma grumbled through a yawn.
Akane just started laughing. "Nothing, nothing." They made a suspicious noise but didn't push it further. She managed to get herself under control and swept all of their hair to their back. "Can I see your hair tie?" Ranma just nodded a little and handed it to her.
Akane sighed as she saw it was a string. It would be easier if they used the circular ties… maybe she'd buy them some. She shook her head and focused on the task at hand. Akane gathered their hair and pulled it into a bun. Now for the tricky part.
It took her a minute or so but Akane got the tie secured. She looked down at her work and bursted out laughing. She wondered how she'd gotten this bad, especially since she used to have long hair herself.
Ranma jerked a bit at her laughing and she realized they'd fallen asleep. "What did you do to my hair?" They asked after regaining their bearings.
"A bun… sort of." Akane said in between laughter. Ranma crawled over to the tv to see their reflection. They started laughing too.
"Akane, this is so bad," they were practically wheezing,"how did you ever manage your own hair?"
Having her own thoughts parroted back at her just made Akane laugh harder, collapsing against the table. "Shh, we have to," she started laughing harder, "shh… shit. We're going to wake everyone up." Ranma nodded and clapped their hands over their mouth, not that it did much good.
"We should really go to sleep." Akane mused, finally having gotten ahold of herself. Ranma had still been grinning and even giggling every now and then but the idea of trying to sleep again sobered them up. "Hey, what if you sleep in my room tonight?" Akane asked, forcing herself to sit up.
Ranma flushed, noticeable even in the dark. "...okay," they squeaked out. Akane pushed herself to her feet and walked over to them. She held out her hand and smiled. Ranma smiled back and took her hand.
"You should probably take your hair down."
"What, this? It's gonna fall out in a minute anyway,"
"Oh shut up."