Meeting Later

by Celestron

Akane and Ranma.... A second chance, or a bit too late?

Ok, let's get this out of the way:

Dis-claim-it: Not mine, making no money. Duh.

Also, realized at one point or another that someone else has a Ranma story of the same title. My apologies for the duplicate, didn't intend to copy!

Moving right along… Well, hello! I return. Many many MANY thanks go to lisiegirl for reminding me that this thing even existed and that someone was still interested in the ending. For you, I post the finished product!

It's strange in a lot of ways for me to go back and read this. I initially had the thought that I would go through and do some major editing/re-writing/whatever. I had been told once that my rational for Akane's actions were "unbelievable". Upon reading it again, after almost 3 years…. I like it, so screw everyone else, hehe. It's a little odd to read it, I can barely remember writing it. I remember typing the opening lines, and agonizing over the last page or two, but beyond that… It was like reading someone else's story. And, viewed in such an outside fashion, I find that I like the story. It's a little… choppy in a few places, there are parts that I think I could re-write to be smoother, most noticeably Ranma's conversation with Nabiki (feel free to disagree with me… heh), but on the whole… I like it. It flows pretty well, and I enjoyed reading it, so I hope others will as well. And if not, oh well. I enjoyed writing it, and I think that may well be the most important thing here. I write cause it makes me feel good, if other people like what I've written, that's just an added bonus, gryn. Mostly, I'm just glad to give any interested people an ending, I know how much I hate it when authors don't finish their stories and I'm left hanging. It may have taken me some time (ok, a lot of time…) to get around to it, but here it is, the finished product, hope you all enjoy!

Oh yea, I realized I couldn't bring myself to break this thing apart into chapters, so you get the whole thing en mass. Have fun!

PS: …Wow, this formatting thing is getting annoying, heh. As ff . net doesn't seem to like the asterisk symbol (or links, forgot about that…), all scene changes are denoted by "xxxx". Hopefully I'll get this figured out sooner, rather than later, until then, forgive any awkward formatting please!

X

Meeting Later

Today was not a good day for Akane Tendo. She turned around to face the door she had just exited, pushed it shut and locked it. She turned again to survey the scene before her: the first real day of spring. No, today was definitely a bad day for Akane. The bad days were coming less and less lately, but they still came. It hurt, sometimes, on days like this. On sunny days like this, when the world was quiet and relaxed, and the breeze was warm… On sunny days like this when all the couples would stroll through the park, enjoying the beauty of the sakura… On sunny days like this when it seemed impossible for all the bad things to have ever happened…

On sunny days like this when she missed Ranma the most.

She clutched her bag in front of her and smiled wistfully up at the sky as the wind tugged at her long skirts. Sometimes she could almost hear his voice, soft and low, the way he used to say her name when it was important. She tried not to let the tears slip down her cheeks as she walked lightly down the steps and out the gate, leaving the empty schoolyard behind her as she made her way through the quiet, late-afternoon streets of Nerima. A familiar landmark stood beside her chosen path: Akane had to smile and laugh softly as she passed Furinkan High School. She paused to stare in through the closed gate for a moment, remembering hoards of boys attacking each morning….and one in particular. A brief flash of a boy in a bright red Chinese shirt came to her mind. For a moment she could almost see him standing there on that first day, so calm and confident against Kuno.

She shook her head, laughing at herself this time. Foolish to think of that now. She turned and walked on. Just for fun she jumped up on the fence, twirling and skipping along it. She enjoyed the view from up here. The first time she had done it, she'd realized why Ranma had always chosen this route to school. There was a certain thrill, joy from tempting gravity, and winning, like this. And plus, it was just enough added height to see over most buildings; the city seemed to go on forever.

Suddenly she stopped, and jumped down from the fence. She stood for a moment, observing the building in front of her. Dr. Tofu's clinic had almost been a second home to her when she was younger. It seemed like she had to visit at least once a day to have this bruise looked at, or that sprained ankle…. But it didn't seem like any kind of home to her anymore. The joy and peace that radiated from Kasumi and Ono Tofu was just too much for Akane sometimes. On sunny days like this…. when she missed Ranma the most….

She walked on, tilting her head back to let the last of the suns warm rays play across her face. She stopped, standing there in the street, and just stood for a moment, enjoying the feel of the sun, the wind…the world around her. Sometimes it felt like she was still that girl-child from high school, that if she opened her eyes Ranma would still be standing there, waiting for her to hurry up and get home. Calling her a slow tomboy, with no culinary skills, of course. She smiled and laughed to herself. What she wouldn't give for just one more moment with him, what she wouldn't do to be able to open her eyes and see him one more time, standing confidently, arrogantly, ready to taunt her about something…anything, just as long as it was his voice that she heard. His voice saying her name…

"Hiya, Akane." Yeah, just like that, his voice saying her name just like tha-…Her eyes snapped open and stared unfocused at the perfect blue sky above before she slowly lowered her gaze to meet his steel gray eyes. The wind picked up, she clutched at her hat to keep it from flying away, her hair, somewhat longer, but still shorter than when he had first come, brushed past her face, obscuring briefly her look of shock. Was it really…..?

"Ranma?" It was almost whispered. He gave her a strange look, not seeming to be affected by this meeting, like she was. That was enough to bring her back to reality. He left, Akane…duh, you stupid tomboy, of course he wouldn't care about seeing you again. Probably just back to see what happened to everybody, Ukyou was his friend at least…better than YOU can say…She shook herself, quickly wiping away the shocked expression and replacing it with an imitation smile. Hide the knife twisting…can't let it show…smile! "It's been awhile, how are you? It's so nice of you to come visit us! You'll come stay for some tea, won't you? Nabiki would be glad to see you, she complained about lost business sales for months after you…left…" She trailed off, realizing that she'd just put her foot in her mouth…an awkward silence filled the space between them for a moment… then…

"Uh… I'm doing fine, actually. Got a nice job and a…a house in the states." He laughed that uncomfortable laugh and put his hand on his head, slightly embarrassed. The motion produced a tiny flash of light, Akane squinted trying to see, but his hand was behind his head, blocking her view. No matter, she knew what it was… "Some movie guy hired me right off…pays good money. Actually, I came back to say 'hi' to everyone, see how all of you were doing. I never heard anything, no letters or nuthin', but then I didn't send my address, did I?" Again, the embarrassed laugh. "So anyway, I'd love to come for tea, if ya' don't mind. See how all you guys are doing?"

"Sure, Ranma. We'd love to have you. I was just heading home, too. Come on!" She set off for the dojo, skipping lightly, trying to look like she was enjoying the warm spring day and the company of an old…friend.

"Hey, wait up! I'm coming, I'm coming!" Ranma laughed lightly as he jogged off after her.

For just a moment, on that warm spring day, it was as though those five, long, and miserable years had never happened. For just a moment, on that warm spring day, all the bitter, unhappy memories seemed far away, out of reach. The pain that haunted Akane's eyes so often faded and for a moment, just a moment, that old soft glow was back. The warm feelings rushed up again, almost overwhelming her. Her love was back, almost like he'd never left. Warm sunny spring day. Quiet day of no violence. A day that used to be so rare. But the memories intruded into her fantasy all too quickly, and her past was remembered…

No, today was not a good day for Akane Tendo.

xxxx

"Nabs is around here somewhere, I'm sure I can convince her to make some tea for us all!"

"What's the matter, Akane? Still can't boil water?" He said it lightly, laughingly, as a reminder of what, to him, were better times. But it hit Akane, hard, and sank deep into the wounded soul, adding a new mark to its already scarred surface.

"Nope. Still can't boil water." The tears almost came, but she bit her tongue, determined not to let him see. Sensing that he'd said something wrong, Ranma changed the subject.

"So…uh, where is everybody? Is it just the two of you here now?" Ranma looked around, half expecting to see a giant panda walk in holding a sign saying something to the effect of, "Where've you been, boy? Slacking on training, I see."

"Actually, Ranma, it is just the two of us," Akane looked around, "everyone else has left."

"Everybody?"

"Welll…Father moved in with Ms. Hinako, our old schoolteacher, a few years back. And with Father and you gone, well there was no reason for Mr. Saotome to stay, so he left and moved back in with Auntie Nodoka. We saw him walking down the street with a large backpack a few weeks later, muttering something about an extensive training trip. Kasumi moved out to be with Dr. Tofu at his clinic about a year and a half ago. She's thinking of going to college to get a nursing degree." Akane was looking up at the ceiling, counting people off on her fingers now, "Next to go was Shampoo. She just didn't really believe that you would simply…leave one day. She kept insisting that I had hidden you away or locked you up somewhere, so she came by the house one night and proceeded to search every inch of the place. She didn't find you, obviously, so she took off spouting something like, 'Violent Mallet-Girl hide airen, but Shampoo will find. No worry, husband, Shampoo find you, save from Pervert Girl!' Nobody's seen her since. Well, with Shampoo off on her 'quest', Mousse and Cologne really had no reason to stay, so they sold the Nekohanten and left for China. It was sad, really. Mousse was so nice to me after… He'd stop in and ask how I was doing, and he never minded just listening to me talk…" Akane shook her head to clear it, then continued with her count, "Let's see… After that came the Kuno's. Kodachi convinced herself that you had faked your disappearance to be with her. It was kind of sad, actually. They finally had to send her away to a hospital. No one really expects to see her again. Tatewaki was unhappy that his pig-tailed goddess had left, but he still had me, so he didn't pout too long. That is, until I told him off, and had Nabiki work out a few things for me. We… haven't seen him around much, lately." Akane paused, "Who did I miss?"

"How about Ucchan? And Ryoga?"

"Oh yeah! Well, Ukyo and I had a talk a couple months after you left and we worked things out. She admitted that if you had really been in love with her, then you probably wouldn't have left. She got on with her life and threw herself into her business. She has restaurants in five different countries now, including a new one in America. We're good friends now and I go see her almost every weekend." Akane had been smiling brightly, but now her shoulders drooped and her face got dark, "Ryoga… Ryoga told me a few things that I…that I was unprepared to hear. I forgave him for being P-chan, but when he told me that he thought he was…in l-love with me… well, I tried to be nice, even went on a date with him once, but… well it just didn't work. At all." Akane sighed, "He left, I hope to go find Akari, but we don't know. Nobody's heard from him since. After that it got pretty quiet around here. Ukyo worked on her business, and I worked on my schooling. Nabiki, of course, went on to major in business, with a minor in law, she said something about it being useful to know the gaps in the law enforcement system…" Akane giggled at the thought. She looked up at Ranma, "Speaking of which, Nabs is around here somewhere, so I'm gonna go find her and fill her in on some news, okay? So just look around for a while, see if you notice anything's changed. I'll be back soon, 'kay?"

"Sure thing, Akane." Ranma watched her as she left.

xxxx

Nabiki looked up, startled, as Akane burst through her door and into the room without knocking. The youngest Tendo daughter seemed barely able to control herself. Her face was buried in her hands and she seemed to be shaking, when she looked up, Nabiki could see the tears working their way down her face. Spotting her sister, Akane dashed over and threw herself into open arms.

"Shh… Akane… It's okay. What's wrong?" Nabiki, the Ice Queen, remembered a time when she would have blown off Akane's hysterics. A time when she would have shown the world that she didn't care. But that was in the past. This time she had set down the magazine she'd been skimming (had to keep up with current affairs in the business world) and immediately opened her arms to comfort and protect her younger sister. Akane's spirit had broken that night five years ago. That rainy, stormy night when Ranma had walked out of their lives, never to be seen or heard from again. Nabiki had immediately offered to track him down, but Akane had refused, saying that they'd interfered in his life enough as it was and they should just leave him alone to do whatever he wanted to do. If Ranma wanted to come back, then he would…without pressure from the family. Nabiki had reluctantly agreed, but had kept tabs on him secretly…just to make sure that he was alright, of course. But when the marriage papers had appeared in his database a few years back…well, she'd stopped looking after that. Somehow she felt that Ranma had violated something…sacred by marrying someone other than Akane. They were perfect for each other, anybody could see that. Even Ukyo and Shampoo had admitted that to her, after Ranma had left. But by then it was too late, and Ranma was gone. Never to be seen or heard from again….Never to be seen or-

"He's back, Nabiki…. Oh, god. What am I going to do…? I just…I can't…I-" She cut off and, with a low moan of pain and loss, buried herself into her sisters embrace, seeking comfort and understanding.

"Who? Akane?…. Who is back? Akane? Talk to me! Aka-" She paused, a horrible thought occurring to her, "Sato! It isn't Sato is it? Akane! Listen to me, is Sato coming back?" Nabiki carefully kept all traces of fear or hysteria, both of which she was feeling quite acutely, out of her voice. It wouldn't do to have Akane see her onee-chan as anything less than calm right now. But...what if it was Sato? No…He had been dealt with, he was never coming back!

"No…It's…it's not Sato…." Akane's voice was almost a whisper.

"Good." Nabiki gave a curt approving nod to herself before she carefully reached down and wrapped her arms around her younger sister. Slowly she began to rock her back and forth, like she'd watched Kasumi do so long ago…on that rainy, stormy night five years ago… She shook her head to bring herself back to the present… she whispered soothingly to her sister, "Don't worry Akane," she whispered, "I dealt with Sato. I never want you to think that..." she hesitated a moment, before continuing in a stronger, more stable tone, "...that he could return."

"It's not Sato, it's Ranma…Nabiki…. Oh god, what do I do?…" Akane's voice was barely above a whisper now, and she raised her head to look her sister in the eyes. "He's...been gone so long that…I-…I thought I could deal with it. I don't know if I want him to come back now, Nabiki. I just don't know." She shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut in pain. "He's the only one for me, I know it…"

"When did you decide that?"

"After the…the 'incident' two years ago." Akane and Nabiki were silent for a moment, each thinking of their memories of that particular event… Akane was the first to snap out of it, she looked at her sister pleading for help, "Nabiki, what am I going to do? It hurts, so much just to...see him..." Her voice dropped at the end, the words coming out in a hoarsely whispered tone of pain.

"I dunno, sis. I just don't know. We'll work something out. I'll be here for you…" Akane shook her head, hugging her sister once more. She wiped her eyes, carefully composing herself before she opened the door and stepped out to face her worst nightmare…and fondest dream.

Her only love.

xxxx

Why, oh why, did I come back to this place? Ranma thought to himself as he watched his dark haired ex-fiancée hurry off in search of her sister. I knew it would only be messy, ugly and painful. So why did I come back?

Unable to answer the question, he decided not to think about it anymore…at least for a while. Instead, he wandered around the dojo for a while, seeing a patched area here, or a crack in the wall there… little things that he remembered, inducing brief flashes of the memories he had of the place. Like the time after that Romeo and Juliet play. The party had been going in full swing by the time they got home. He still remembered the shock of finding out that he wasn't going to China. China had come to him. Stupid actors and their dumb stage names…He muttered to himself. Kasumi and Nabiki had gone in to keep an eye on the party, and so had missed Akane helping him up to his room, his arm around her shoulders for support, her arm around his waist to help him balance. And she didn't even mallet me! She'd been nice about it even! Apologizing for not realizing that there was no way Furinkan would have enough money to actually send anybody to China, of all places. He remembered her kneeling down to lower him to his futon, him saying it wasn't her fault, and thanks for trying to help him get his cure. She'd smiled, that cute, warm, caring, totally disarming and heart melting little smile of hers and her whispered voice… "I'll always be here to help, Ranma." Had she really meant for him to hear her? It didn't matter, he'd heard anyway, looked up to meet those soft brown eyes. For a heartbeat, he thought that maybe, just maybe…this time…they might actually… bang, crash! Startled, they'd jumped away from each other… just as stupid Oyaji and Mr. Tendo came barging into the room, demanding that Ranma come down and enjoy the party with them, not to mention the sake. By the time he'd convinced them both (with a little help from his fist and foot) that he had no intention of partaking in the noise and the sake, Akane was gone. He stuck his head out the door, into the hallway, to see if she was there, but all he saw was her door, with the little duck bearing her name slowly swinging back and forth on a door that had just been shut.

sigh, why do I keep thinking about stupid stuff like this? He snapped out of his reverie to find himself staring at that self-same duck. He reached out to touch it, but stopped as he heard the voices from across the hall. He quietly crept up to Nabiki's door, feeling a little guilty about eavesdropping…okay, not that guilty…After all, they might be talking about him…He put his ear to the door.

"….Listen to me, is Sato coming back?" Nabiki's voice drifted through the door, its tone tense and tight with something Ranma couldn't identify. Fear? Certainly not, this was Nabiki after all. Excitement? Maybe... Akane mumbled a reply that he couldn't hear, then Nabiki's voice again, "Good." Whatever she said next was mumbled, to quiet for him to hear, but then she spoke louder, "…that he could return." That who could return? This Sato guy? But Nabiki had sounded excited, or anxious, when she'd said his name, was it "good" that he was coming back, or had she said something else?. Who was this guy? And when was he coming back...and how did it affect Akane?… She wasn't…in…l-love with this guy…was she? Stupid fool, he thought to himself, you're the one who left in the first place…what did you expect?

"...been gone so long that… I-…I thought I could deal with it. I don't know if I want him to come back now, Nabiki. I just don't know. He's the only one for me, I know it…" Ranma felt the pain in his chest when he heard those words… Akane's words. He's the only one for her, now…Oh why oh why did I leave?…

"When did you decide that?

"After the…the 'incident' two years ago." It was silent in the room for a moment, then Akane's voice whispered, "Nabiki, what am I going to do? It hurts so much..." Something else was said, but he could only catch the anguished tone, the words too garbled to comprehend.

"I dunno, sis. I just don't know. We'll work something out. I'll be here for you…" Knowing that the conversation was drawing to a close, and not wanting to be malleted for eavesdropping, Ranma snuck off quickly and quietly back down to the dojo, wondering how to get control of his newly broken heart before Akane found him again.

xxxx

"Okay, Ranma! I'm back. Notice anything different while you were looking around?" Akane put her best smile on her face, but Ranma could tell that she was still upset about something…about this Sato guy…that she was in lo-

"Nope! Didn't notice a thing different. Nothing's changed since I left." He smiled brightly, until he realized what he'd said. Good ol' Saotome foot-in-mouth technique… He shouldn't bring up bad memories of the past like that. But then again, Akane was still smiling brightly. She must have gotten over his leaving a long time ago, probably with the help of that Sato guy that she was in lo-

"Oh good! I'm glad it's still the place you remember it being. We thought about adding on to the dojo, so Daddy could teach classes at the same time as me, but decided against it. By that time Nabiki was sure that Daddy would be moving in with Ms. Hinako soon anyway, so there wasn't really a point." Akane looked around a bit herself, realizing that nothing really had changed since Ranma's departure. She smiled as she looked at the pond, remembering how Ranma and Mr. Saotome had sparred every morning, ending up with a panda and a red-haired girl being called in for Kasumi's well-cooked breakfasts. Better cooked than Akane could ever manage…all those times she'd tried so hard to make something for Ranma, and it'd turn out so bad in the end…he'd never even try it, that…. Baka? Is that what you were going to say, Akane? She asked herself, Were you going to call him 'baka'? You don't have the right anymore, and you know it. She bit her tongue to keep from crying. Trying to think of something to say to fill the silence she finally turned back to look at Ranma, bright and happy smile on her face again, "So, how long were you planning to stay, Ranma? I'm sorry about Shampoo, Mouse, and Cologne leaving, but I suppose you could still visit Ukyou. I'm sure she'd be glad to see you again, but she's been so busy with her business lately. If you were planning on leaving anytime soon, then you might not get a chance to see her."

"Well, actually…I hadn't thought about it much. I suppose I figured I'd stay a week or so, but I hadn't really decided exactly how long… or even where I was going to stay. I figure I'll rent a room at a hotel around here for tonight and go see Ucchan tomorrow."

"Now, Ranma," Nabiki's voice drawled from behind him, "You know we can't have you spending that kind of money. You'll have to stay in your old guest room. Just like old times!" She smiled and winked at him.

"Old times?" Ranma snorted. "Like when you would take pictures of Kuno's beloved 'pig-tailed goddess' to sell him? Oh no…I'm not getting tricked into one of your schemes again. Uh-uh. I'd like to keep my money, thank you."

"Free of charge this time. For the sake of an old friend." She winked, waved her hand and walked off towards the house again, calling behind her, "Tea's ready!"

"She's changed a bit since I last saw her." Ranma smiled and nodded his head in Nabiki's general direction.

"Yes. She has. For the better, I think." Akane paused, remembering the events that had instigated that change. "Well, shall we go in? I'm sure Nabiki would love to reminisce about some old times."

"Sure thing, Akane." They walked into the house, each feeling the memories of "old times" as the weight of the world upon their shoulders.

xxxx

"Hey, Nabiki?" Ranma poked his head into the kitchen, glad that Akane had finally gone to bed.

"Yes, Ranma?" She pulled her head out of the fridge to look at him.

"Well, I got a question I'd like to ask. About Akane…" He tried not to look embarrassed, putting his hand behind his head. Nabiki caught a flash out of the corner of her eye, but said nothing, it didn't necessarily mean that he…

"Sure thing." Nabiki closed the fridge and took a seat, indicating Ranma should do the same. He sat and clasped his hands in front of him on the table, leaving Nabiki with no doubts about what she was seeing…

"Well…I don't know how long I can really stay, but before I left…I kinda wanted to maybe…well, maybe take Akane out to dinner or something nice. To kinda clear the air between us… or something… But I don't really know how Akane would react to something like that anymore. I think that she would have been glad five years ago, but so much has happened since then. And, well…I kinda overheard you guys talking about some guy named Sato," Nabiki's eyes widened at those words, "and I guess I got the impression that he was the new man in Akane's life for awhile, but he left. And now he's coming back?" Nabiki's face darkened, Ranma didn't notice. "Well, I don't want her to get the wrong impression or anything. I mean, I don't want to get in the way of her happiness or nothin'."

"Oh my." Nabiki's face glazed over as she sat for a moment in shock. Ranma thought that Sato… that Akane actually loved that….thing. Oh my. "Uhm, Ranma… trust me on this one. By asking Akane out to dinner, you won't be getting in the way of her happiness. Sato is…well, maybe that's something that Akane should tell you. I suggest that you ask her about it at dinner, it would do her some good to talk about…him." She said the word like she wanted to spit it on the floor. "Look, Ranma, Akane works at an elementary school around here, just down the street from Furinkan, actually. Why don't you ask her out for the evening when she gets off work? Meet her there, and then the two of you can go someplace to… 'clear the air' as you said. I don't think she'll take it the wrong way." Nabiki thought of the ring she had just seen on Ranma's finger, Akane must have seen it, too. No, she wouldn't take Ranma asking her out to dinner the wrong way at all, How could she, when she knows he's married?

"You really think it'd work?"

"Definitely."

xxxx

Akane sighed as she closed and locked the door behind her, before turning to survey the playfield in front of her. She smiled as she thought of the young children that had been playing there only a few hours ago. Had she ever been that young? Once, she supposed, she must have, but it seemed so long ago. I can barely remember what it feels like to be happy and carefree, Akane thought to herself, especially after Sato. She felt depressed about it for a moment, But I'm learning again. I have more good days than bad now. She smiled for a moment, then sighed. She was in for a streak of bad days and she knew it.

Why did he have to come back now? I was finally getting on with my life, and he just has to come back, damn him. The thought held a little bitterness. Did he come back just to flaunt that stupid ring?

That's a mean thing to think, Akane, even for you! She berated herself as she started walking towards home. Ranma would never do something just to spite her. He was better than that; more honorable. She smiled; thinking of all the things Ranma had done for his (or her) honor. Memories of Ranma were less painful now than they had been five years ago. But only barely. She sighed and silently berated herself about the uselessness of 'what ifs…' There was no point in wishing for what would never happen. She might as well grow up and get on with her life. But it's just so hard… She squeezed her eyes shut, forcing the tears away. When she opened them she found herself staring into the yard of Furinkan High School once again. She stopped and leaned against the gate, allowing the memories to sweep her away for just a moment. For just a moment she remembered the daily fights with the kendo club (and all the rest of the boys in school), and Kuno; how Ranma would always help her out, even when she told him not to; how Ranma would always eat her food at lunch, under that tree, even when he knew it would be toxic; and how, for some strange reason, he always seemed to be there for her when she needed him most, not just when she needed rescuing. Getting over Dr. Tofu would have been so much more difficult if Ranma hadn't been there to help. She was just about to continue towards home when she heard footsteps behind her.

"Good afternoon, Miss." A familiar voice behind her said in English. "Would you care to join me for dinner this evening?"

Akane turned around in surprise, to see Ranma there, bowing with his hand outstretched towards her, looking for all the world like some high court official. It was so absurd that she couldn't help herself and started to laugh. Ranma straightened from his bow and gave her a look of mock hurt.

"Why, Milady," he spoke this time in formal Japanese, "I do believe thou art mocking me!" The archaic language only served to make her laugh harder, and seeing her so happy Ranma couldn't help but join in.

"Milord, t'would be my honor to accept thy so courteous invitation." Akane said, eyes twinkling, when she finally got control of herself.

"Excellent, excellent! Shall we depart?" He held out his arm and she placed her hand on it for him to escort her to their destination. There seemed to be a silent agreement between them that, for now at least, they would leave the past where it was, forget what they had once been to each other, and simply be two good friends meeting again after a long separation.

xxxx

"So, Akane," Ranma swirled the water in the wine glass in front of him before taking a sip, "I've been meaning to ask you who this Sato guy is."

A haunted look flashed across Akane's face for a moment, but she forced the smile back before Ranma noticed. "How'd you hear about him? Nabs been talking?"

"No, sorry, but I overheard part of your conversation with her yesterday, and it sounded like he was an old flame that had left, but was coming back soon? Or something like that anyway. So I asked Nabiki about him and she said to talk to you."

"Well…what do you want to know?"

"I dunno. Who is he? When'd you meet him? What's he like? You get along well? Plans for the future?" Ranma held his breath, not sure where the lines were, but not wanting to cross them. Akane sighed and looked away for a moment, composing herself. He wasn't completely sure, but she seemed a little sad. Well, wouldn't you be if the love of your life had left you? Oh wait, youleft her, huh? Ranma silently told his subconscious to shut the hell up.

"Sato was an associate of an associate of an associate of Nabiki's. She introduced me to him about two and a half years ago, actually, and we really hit it off. Started dating maybe a week after we were introduced. At first he was so charming and nice and obviously infatuated with me. He took me places and showed me around. We went out to dinner all the time, he seemed to love spending time with me. We never fought and he never argued with me, but later we… had problems. We started to fight. A lot. And then he had to leave, for a…business trip. And we had a fight, a big one, the night before he left. And I was so…hurt… about it that I was certain that I was better off without him. But then he came back and he was apologizing and so sorry about the whole thing and he'd really changed a lot in those two months, and I realized that I had…missed him…quite a bit. So we began dating again. And then we started fighting again…. I'd try to talk things out, but we'd end up fighting anyway… and then he left again. That was two years ago."

"When is he coming back?"

"I don't know. Probably never."

"So why haven't you been seeing other guys? You're not still waiting for this Sato guy to come back are you?"

"No. It's just that… after he left I…. realized that there was… had been, in my lifetime, only one man that I wanted to be with and since he's…unavailable…well." Akane shrugged, as her eyes flicked quickly down to the gold band on Ranma's finger, then back to the wine glass in her hand. Ranma was too busy staring intently at the wall behind Akane's head to notice.

xxxx

There's only one man that she wants? Ranma repeated her last statement over and over in his head. So it was true, she really is in love with this Sato guy. But what about what Nabiki said? She seemed to really detest this guy. I think there's more to this story than meets the eye… He looked down from the wall and glanced at Akane, who was still staring intently into the wine glass in front of her. But what if Nabiki is wrong, and Akane really does l-love this guy? He almost laughed at the irony. I'm the one who left, and I actually come back thinking that she… He shook his head, snapping himself out of that line of thought. He looked around; he had to do something to cheer her up. His gaze came to rest on the couples dancing out on the floor.

"Akane, would you care to dance?"

xxxx

"…care to dance?" Ranma's voice broke into Akane's mind and forced her back to the present. Her memories of Ranma, especially how he had reached out for her hand after the thing with Shinnosuke…. It didn't seem to matter what she did, she just couldn't forget. And here he wanted to dance? She wasn't so sure that she should get that close to him… but… he had that look in his eyes. He was smiling softly, and looking at her, trying desperately to make her happy again. She never could resist him when he was like this…

xxxx

A strange woman, dressed in a business suit with short, straight-cut brown hair and a no-nonsense air about her watched quietly from a corner of the room, near the bar, as a young couple got up and began to dance. They flowed so gracefully with each other, giving the whole scene a certain sense of rightness. She sipped once at her drink, then set it down on the counter and strode out the doors without paying. They knew her here.

She walked briskly, trying to organize her thoughts, but the image of the dark haired woman talking with the pig-tailed man kept invading her mind. She knew what that conversation must have been about… and how much Akane must have left out of her explanation.

Nabiki would have to think about this. What, and how much, should she tell him? Because, at this point, there was no doubt in her mind that Ranma would be asking. And soon.

xxxx

"Nabiki, there's something I need to ask you." Ranma sat down across the table from her as she sipped her tea.

"You asked Akane about Sato, I presume?" He nodded. "And what she said and what I said don't quite add up, do they?" He shook his head. She sighed. "I've been waiting for this since you first showed up, and I still don't think I'm prepared…but…I'll try to answer you as well as I see fit."

Ranma raised his eyebrow at that, but didn't question it. He looked around for a moment, then paused to study his hands, collecting himself before he finally looked up at Nabiki and asked, "What is the real story behind Sato and the incident two years ago?"

Nabiki sighed again and closed her eyes for a moment, "Are you absolutely certain you want to know, Ranma? Think carefully for a moment…."

"Nabiki." Ranma's steely blue gaze met the Ice Queens and held it for a moment. "I am absolutely certain that I want to know."

"I…I think I was afraid you would answer that." Nabiki sighed and rubbed her eyes tiredly before looking back up again. Unable to meet Ranma's gaze, she opted for staring out the window, at the floor, the wall behind his head…

"Nabiki…" Ranma quietly prompted her. "You're stalling, Nabiki."

She nodded, and began.

xxxx

Sato seemed like a nice man. He was a gaijin, but didn't have a terrible accent and knew a lot about Japanese customs. He'd been a business major and foreign language minor, he'd said. Studying Japanese in hopes of joining the business field over here. He wasn't very big yet, running only random odd jobs for people, but he was reliable and had come highly recommended from people Nabiki trusted. But, they warned, he sometimes had a temper problem and could get rather belligerent, so don't push him too hard.

Belligerent? Temper? Humph, Nabiki snorted to herself, sounds just like someone else I know. And, after growing up with her, there's just no way that this guy could be something I can't handle.

So she hadn't worried about it.

xxxx

"That's what I regret most, Ranma." Nabiki tore her gaze away from the window to look at him. "That I knew, I was warned, and I didn't do anything about it. I knew and I should have said something. But she was always so strong…before-" Nabiki cut off, shaking her head, and turned her gaze to the window again. "It doesn't matter, now. It's too late."

xxxx

Sato had done a few inventory checks for her. Run a few errands. Kept a few people in line. He was instantly Nabiki's favorite for a payment collector. Especially a late payment collector. It was his size: He was tall, almost 6 foot, and broad in the chest and shoulders. He had a hard, chiseled look to his face and could seem scary or frightening to those who had never met him. But he was a nice guy, generally. He smiled and laughed and suddenly wasn't so scary. Almost.

He made fast friends with the family when he would stop in with a report. Kasumi took an instant liking to him, as he was very polite and respectful of Japanese culture. She would bake cookies for him and often insisted that he stay for dinner.

But it was Akane that caught his eye. And she did seem to return the interest, a little. So when he asked her out to a movie one night, Nabiki was all in favor. Here was a nice guy, with good business sense, and good looks (for a foreigner). He was quiet, nice, polite and very respectful. What harm could there possibly be in this? Akane needed to date somebody. It had been so long since she had shown any interest that Nabiki was beginning to despair of her ever getting over Ra-…. er, her last…boyfriend…

One date turned into many, and soon Akane was moving out of the dojo and into his apartment.

Sato's business had been paying off as well. Nabiki had seen to that. No sister of hers was going to live in a dumpy old apartment if she had anything to say about it. It wasn't a tiny apartment, but it wasn't exactly huge either. Just…quaint. Akane hadn't been this happy in so long. The whole family was relieved to watch her come out of her shell. They'd all been afraid that the vibrant, energetic Akane that they all knew was never going to come back.

Akane went to school, studying to be a teacher, and Sato ran odd jobs for Nabiki. Things seemed normal. For a while, anyway. Then, one day, Nabiki noticed something odd.

It was in the summer before Akane's sophomore year in college, the second summer after Ranma left. Nabiki and Akane had gone out to lunch to celebrate one of Nabiki's latest business successes. If the napkins had been any color but white. If they hadn't been cloth. If Akane hadn't seemed nervous. If she hadn't been so anxious to get out of the house that day. If…if…if... Nabiki had been playing 'what if' games in her head for so long now. Akane had wiped her mouth on the napkin and Nabiki had caught the motion out of the corner of her eye. Nothing special, an everyday gesture. But a bit of color had come off on the napkin. Nabiki had trained herself to notice small flaws like that, she had to look at merchandise for quality check all the time. That's the only reason she noticed the make-up that had come off onto the napkin.

xxxx

" 'That's odd', I remember thinking to myself," Nabiki told Ranma, as she stared outside, " 'I don't remember Akane ever wearing make-up.' "

"Don't most women?" Ranma's voice startled her out of her thoughts for a moment and she turned to look up at him.

"Well, yeah. Most women do wear make-up. But Akane isn't most women. I've never even seen her wear lipstick, and here she was with foundation and everything on, and just to go out to lunch with me?" Nabiki shook her head, "No, Ranma. That's nonsense coming from a very sensible person. It seems like a minor thing to you, but she's my little sister. I know everything about her that she knows, and probably a lot of things that she's forgotten. It seemed… strange, to me, that she would change so suddenly. I checked it off as being Sato's influence, that she wanted to look nice for him, but then there was everything else about the whole thing. Her nervousness, how she wanted so badly to get out of the apartment that she had liked so much only a few weeks before. I tried to dismiss it as my imagination, but then I noticed some other things…"

xxxx

There was a slight heat wave that summer, affecting everybody, it seemed, except Akane Tendo. She kept to long sleeved blouses, claiming she was cold. Even Kasumi, the ever oblivious, noticed that. Akane laughed, and waved them off when they asked, but everyone could tell something wasn't right. It was the laugh. Akane's laugh. It seemed somehow…forced.

The pieces soon fell together for Nabiki. Akane's nervousness around Sato, her new found use of make-up, her long sleeved shirts; not to mention Sato's increasing belligerence, courser attitude… he seemed to degrade, lose his polite respectfulness of their customs. Kasumi stopped baking cookies for him. But nobody said anything, they didn't have proof. Until…

xxxx

"I confronted her one day, after she'd called and asked to go see a movie or something. She'd sounded desperate to get out of the apartment." Nabiki closed her eyes and lowered her head for a moment, before looking back up at Ranma and continuing. "I was supposed to pick her up, there was a park she wanted to walk through first, but as I neared the apartment I heard voices. Actually only a voice at first. It was a loud voice, yelling, angry, and it was coming from Sato's apartment room. All the nearby tenants had their heads poked out the doors. One older woman noticed me; I asked her if she knew what was wrong. She looked at me and told me that it wasn't anything new, this man screamed at his girlfriend a lot. He kept yelling. I tried to hear if Akane was saying anything back, but if she was, then it was in a whisper. The second I knocked on the door, his voice stopped. The door opened and Akane smiled at me like nothing was wrong. I couldn't see Sato." Nabiki broke off, then continued slowly, hesitating. This was obviously very difficult for her to talk about. "It was when she reached…for her coat. The sleeves on…her…her blouse….they fell back a bit. Her wrists… Ranma, her wrists were the most ugly mix of black and blue bruises and an angry red color that could only mean that…just before I got there…Sato had been…." Nabiki choked back a sob. There was silence in the room for a moment, then, "It was at that moment, Ranma, that I knew for sure. Sato had been beating and...and…and abusing MY little sister! I. Vowed. Revenge." She barely managed to grit the last sentence out from between clenched teeth.

"What happened then?" Nabiki looked up sharply at Ranma's question. For an instant she forgot her own anger. Never before in her life had she heard a voice so cold, cruel, and terribly angry. She was suddenly glad that Sato was no longer anywhere Ranma could reach him. She didn't want to think about the carnage that would ensue upon that little meeting.

"Then?… Then I sent his ass off to the local prison. But not before he met with Akane one last time." Ranma's face remained emotionless, but his hands clenched into fists. The fact was not lost on Nabiki; she hoped he didn't ruin any of the furniture. She no longer set aside money for 'the Ranma factor'. She took a deep breath and continued, "Akane was home, by herself. I was off dealing with the police report on Sato, and Kasumi had gone to buy some things for dinner that night. Sato must have been watching the house, that's the only way he would have known when to get to her… I don't know what was said, Akane later told me that he accused her of selling him off to me, that he kept yelling at her and calling her a traitor. I don't know for sure when it started, but by the time I got back the…the…the b-beating was… the beating was going in full force. Akane….she didn't do anything to defend herself. She just sat there and took it. By the time the cops I'd called had arrived she was in pretty bad condition. I tried to stop him myself, but…well, Akane was the martial artist of the family. You don't need muscles in the business world, you're supposed to hire those when you need them." Nabiki rolled up her sleeve to show Ranma a faded white line running from wrist to elbow on the underside of her forearm. "That's where I got this. Threw me into an already beat up wall and I managed to flail my arms around just right so…. But it wasn't so bad. Not compared to what he did to Akane. Not even your fight with Saffron had done so much damage." Nabiki got a faraway look in her eyes again; it was obvious that she wasn't seeing the same four walls and floor that Ranma was seeing. "In the hospital…I… I think that it was the worst that I have ever seen Akane. Not even the days after you left had been so hard on her."

"After I left? How was that hard on her?" Ranma's voice held a bitter edge to it, and, upon hearing it, Nabiki sat straight up in her chair and looked at him with wide eyes and one hand covering her mouth. She shook silently for a moment, making Ranma wonder what was wrong; until he realized it was quiet laughter, not tears, coming from the young businesswoman.

"Ah, Ranma. It's been a long time since anything made me slip up like that. I wasn't supposed to tell you that those days had been difficult at all. Much less why they were." Nabiki shook her head, then looked Ranma in the eyes. It seemed to him that she was…looking for something. Then she smiled again. "Well, I don't know why I'm checking your eyes. Your tone said it all."

"Said what?"

"You want to know why those days after you left, those godawful long days after you left, were so hard on Akane?" Ranma mutely nodded that he did. "Those days were so terrible for her because she realized something that I and Kasumi and Father and Ukyo and Shampoo and Kodachi and Kuno and Ryoga and Everyone Else had realized a long time ago. Ranma, Akane cried herself to sleep every night for months because she finally realized that she was in love with you and had been for quite some time."

pause

Ranma's face finally registered his comprehension of those last words…

Oh, how Nabiki wished she had her camera with her now. That look…that look on Ranma's face. Priceless. Definitely priceless.

"Sh-she…she what! B-but she said th-that…that in her l-lifetime there h-had been only one guy that she wanted….only one guy that was for her… and that he was unavailable… and she'd j-just been talking about… this Sato guy… and I thought…I was so sure that… but then, what you just told me. But I didn't realize that it was…was me she was talking about." Ranma was practically reduced down to a blubbering mass. "But… what does she mean unavailable? I…I don't understand."

"Huh? Ranma-honey, would you look down at your ring finger and tell me what you see?"

"I see my hand…. OH!" Ranma's eyes were the size of saucers by this point. "The ring! I completely forgot!"

"Forgot? What, forgot that you were married? Ranma, that's a pathetic excuse, even for you."

"But Nabiki, I'm not!" Nabiki looked at him strangely. Ranma just sighed. "I'm not married. At least, not anymore. I signed the divorce papers the day before I came here. I just…forgot about the ring."

"Oh." Nabiki paused, thought about the implications, then, "Oh my."

"Yes, Kasumi." Ranma just grinned.

"Shut-up Ranma." Nabiki said it absentmindedly. She was still pondering the implications of this. If Ranma wasn't married, and he had come back… did that mean that he….? She narrowed her eyes; why would he have left in the first place if he-…

"Nabiki?" She looked up. "Akane…if… if it ain't S-Sato that she's in…a…in l-love with…than does that mean that she's still..uhm…in l-love with m-me?"

"Yes, Ranma. It had been so long since she'd talked about it that I wasn't so sure. But then, what she said that first day you came back, and then the way she danced with you last night…"

"You were there? Somehow I'm not surprised."

"Just checking up on an investment of mine."

Ranma nodded, and took a deep breath, calming himself and preparing for the worst. "Okay. Now, finish the story of Sato."

"Damn."

xxxx

Nabiki used some of her connections to see that key bits of important paperwork suddenly went missing. It amused her to no end to watch Sato fume silently in his cell. Amused her so much that she went to see him almost everyday, taunting and threatening him. She was certain that he would be in there for a very long time.

So certain that, for a time, she forgot about the miserable bastard, and concentrated on her sister.

Akane healed fast. She came home from the hospital barely a week and a half after she went in. Most of the scarring was minimal, almost all the cuts faded within two weeks, and the swelling in her jaw went down quickly, too. Only a slight bruise remained. The broken arm, however, took a bit longer. Being in such good condition, even though she hadn't been practicing as much lately, meant that she was much more resilient and healed a bit faster. But nobody's bones knit back together overnight.

She was still wearing a brace when Sato got out of prison two months later.

xxxx

"How did he get out, Nabiki?" Ranma practically growled at her, "I thought you had him locked up for a long time there."

"Yes, well. I hadn't counted on his progression through the business world. I didn't realize that he already had his own set of contacts. People who owed him. Mainly people that he'd written off collections for in my books. One of those people happened to be a judge. Originally I had been blackmailing him; he would sell his vote in court to the highest bidder. I'd sent Sato to collect once. I didn't notice then, I had some other things to attend to, but when I went back through my records it was painfully obvious. Sato had written off the money, and then proceeded to destroy my evidence. So he got out. Simple as that." Nabiki shrugged her shoulders.

"I seem to recall Akane saying something about getting back together with this guy. Why didn't you prevent that, Nabiki?" Ranma's voice was merely curious; there was no hint of accusation in those words, which only made it all the worse for Nabiki. She knew that Ranma was blaming her for letting Sato near Akane again, and he was right. She should have done something.

"I tried, Ranma. I tried, and because I did I lost all contact with my little sister for a month." Nabiki looked about to cry. "A whole month, Ranma. She wouldn't talk to me. She wouldn't have anything to do with me. We had a fight about it; screaming, yelling, throwing things, calling names….the whole works. She kept saying that it wasn't his fault. She…she was almost incoherent, Ranma. She made very little sense. She kept yelling at me, accusing me of making her into a tomboy. She said that I didn't want her to be a girl; that I was trying to limit her and keep her a violent tomboy for the rest of her life. She said that it was my fault that you left, because I encouraged her tomboy side… I think… I've tried to analyze why she went back to him a hundred times in my head, Ranma, and I think it's because she was trying to be all the things she isn't."

"That doesn't make much sense, Nabiki."

"Well, you remember how you used to tease her about being an uncute tomboy? And how she couldn't cook? And how she was violent?" Ranma nodded, a bit sheepishly. "Well, Akane hasn't hit anyone since the day you left. She stopped yelling all the time, and getting angry at little things. She modeled herself after Kasumi….and… Ranma, I…I happen to know that the…the first time that Sato…hit…hit Akane, was the first time she ever made dinner for him. She tried so hard to learn to cook. And it was the first thing to cause Sato to be violent…well, that just reinforced her idea of stupid, uncute, tomboy who can't cook. Ranma, I know that you were just teasing. I can guess how you really felt about my sister all that time, but…" Nabiki shook her head, looking up to meet Ranma's eyes. "You have to understand, Ranma. Those words came back to haunt her after you left. She blamed herself. She was convinced that if she had learned to cook like Ukyo, sew like Kasumi, not get angry all the time…that if she'd been more feminine and cute, then you would never have left. She was certain that it was all her fault. We talked her out of that, of course, and eventually she stopped crying about it…but I don't think she ever stopped blaming herself. So when Sato came along, I think she tried to be all the things that you wanted her to be. And when he hit her…well, she couldn't be violent, so she didn't fight back. She stayed demure and quiet. Cute and feminine. And got hurt."

"I- I'm sorry, Nabiki. I never meant for that to happen at all. I never thought that my teasing would have any lasting effect. I…I just didn't think. I can't believe…I just never realized…I didn't know I was hurting her that bad….I'm sorry."

"I am not the one you should be apologizing to."

A pig-tailed head came up sharply, and steely blue gaze lifted from the carpet to match that of the Ice Queen. A moment passed; then, "So, for whatever reason, Akane went back to him…."

xxxx

Nabiki lost all contact with her sister for the next month, but after the whole mess was ended, Akane told her story:

For the first week after she moved back in with Sato, things went perfectly. He had gone through some anger management classes, and it showed…then. Akane went to classes in the morning, while Sato ran some business; then each came home in the evening. Sato acted every inch the loving and adoring would-be-husband, complimenting Akane's dress, her cooking, or how well she was doing in college.

But Akane still felt restless. Something was there, just below the surface, something…wrong. But she couldn't tell what.

Two weeks later, the answer was clear.

Akane had returned from class and was cooking dinner, humming a song that she had often heard Kasumi sing. Dinner cooked, the plates were set, and time passed… Akane finally decided to eat by herself. She was just finishing up, about to wash the dishes, when Sato came home. It was obvious by the way he staggered through the door that he was drunk. The loving man that had existed for the last two weeks had disappeared, and the abusive…bastard…that had left for jail two months ago was back.

The fight started much the same way that all of Akane's fights with Ranma had started; an insult to her cooking, then a bash on her tomboyish side, and a few snide remarks about various ineptitudes, mainly about her martial arts. In an instant she felt the flare of anger that had always happened in the past with Ranma. For a second, a mallet hovered on the edge of hammerspace….then Akane remembered; there was a reason that she didn't use that mallet anymore. There was a reason that she no longer got angry, or fought back.

Ranma left because you were a violent tomboy, Akane thought to herself. And in so thinking, she pushed the mallet away. And she prepared to weather the storm. But this fight was….different. For some reason, Akane didn't feel like shrinking back from Sato, and the moves to various kata's kept running through her head as she listened to him yell at her. But she held herself still. That is, until Sato crossed the line…

xxxx

"Oh, Ranma, you'll never believe what ended the whole thing." Nabiki looked as though she wasn't sure whether to laugh, or be angry. The anger, Ranma could understand. Nobody he knew would enjoy hearing about their sister getting beaten up. But the laughter? "It was what he said… I just couldn't believe it. If Sato had been around back before you left, he never would have thought of saying something like that…" Her lips twitched, and for a moment Ranma thought he saw her smirking….

"What did he say?" Ranma was quite puzzled by this point. And a little annoyed. Here he was, worried about what had happened to Akane, the one true love of his life, and Nabiki was laughing?

"Akane told me how drunk he was; he couldn't even stand upright. And he kept going off about her cooking, and her sewing, not to mention that he thought she was still a bit of a tomboy because she worked out and practiced her kata's. Well, he finally ran out of his usual insults and so he was forced to think up something new. Not a good idea after three bottles of sake." Nabiki's lips twitched again. This time, Ranma was sure that he saw a smirk. He quirked his eyebrow, waiting for her to get to the point. "Well, Sato had heard about you somehow. I think he asked about all the Ranma-sized holes in the ceiling of the dojo….anyway, he found out that you had been engaged, until one day you just left. I think I was the one who let it slip that Akane had been pretty hurt by the incident…that she blamed herself for being a violent tomboy and all... So in his drunken stupor, he thought that he could use it against her." Nabiki got up and staggered over, mocking being drunk, to Ranma. "He staggers over to where she's standing, almost falling on his face, he's so drunk, and of all the things to say at that moment, he looks her in the eyes and says," at this point, Nabiki leaned down and stared Ranma in the eyes, " 'I think that Ranma guy was pretty smart, running away like that. Who would ever want to get marred to a kawaiikune tomboy like you!'" Her voice started to waver a bit as she began her act, and she started shaking. Ranma was trying to figure out what was wrong, until she finished and promptly fell over laughing. Ranma just stared.

"Nabiki, I fail to see what's so funny about the situation! Akane was stuck in a room with a man who had already sent her to the hospital once, and she won't fight back. What is the matter with you? Don't you care about your own sister!"

"Oh, Ranma…" Nabiki, slowly gaining control of her laughter, wiped the tears from her eyes. "You have to realize something. Sato might have been big and tall, not to mention a little vicious at times, but even Kuno could have beaten him easily. He was just a bouncer, no actual skill. He couldn't do a kata to save his life."

"I still don't get it, Nabiki. The picture you just painted for me shows an Akane who is too emotionally hurt to fight back…"

"That's just it, Ranma. The second Akane heard Sato say that, she realized a few things. He was right; you were gone. Nothing was going to change that fact, and it was high time that she faced the music. At that exact moment, she came to grips with the idea that you were gone and would probably never come back. She also realized something else. Loving someone means that as long as they are happy, you are happy. Akane knew that you were tired of your life here, being chased by four fiancées, and almost forced into a marriage that she thought you didn't want at all. She could only assume, on the information given her by me, that you were probably happy in your new life. Otherwise, wouldn't you have come back by now?" Nabiki paused, thinking. "I think…Ranma, I'm pretty sure that that was the exact moment that Akane knew that you, so far in her life, had been the only man she had ever really loved. And it pissed her off to no end to hear Sato use you the way he did. She accepted the fact that you had left, and because she had accepted that, then it ceased to bother her as much as it had for the three years prior. I think that at that moment, she resigned herself to probably never falling in love again. Or at least, not that way. Maybe she might have found somebody later that was 'good enough', but never as good as what she had with you."

"Do you think…do you think that I really meant that much to her?"

"Still do, Ranma. Still do." Nabiki winked at him, "I'll have you as a brother-in-law yet, just you wait." She smiled for a second, then grew serious again, "Look, Ranma. After Akane had come to grips with all this, she could stop deluding herself. It was like she had been dreaming a terrible nightmare for the last three years, especially those six months with Sato, and suddenly she was waking up. She looked around herself at the dingy apartment, and down at the pathetic drunken loser in front of her, and she did something that she had promised herself she would never do again. She got pissed. She got pissed, whipped out her mallet, and left a Sato-sized hole in the ceiling. I think she decided that, after having changed herself so much and still not having you, she was tired of being someone that she wasn't."

"What happened to Sato?"

"Akane hunted him down. Actually, she didn't have to. Her aim for throwing you in the koi pond was still there, and so that's where he ended up." Nabiki barked a laugh at that memory. "I'm sitting in the kitchen with Kasumi, talking about Akane, actually, when all of the sudden, we hear this splash from outside. We both just looked at each other for a moment, wondering if you had come back, and then we ran outside, only to find Sato out cold and floating in the middle of the pond. We considered leaving him there to drown… but homicide cases can get quite messy. We'd just finished dragging his sorry behind out of there when Akane comes storming up, demanding Sato. Kasumi and I just stood there, staring at her with our jaws hanging down to the ground. Sato groans and gets up, shivering and blue with cold, but still a little drunk. He starts mumbling something about tomboys and bad cooking, and all of the sudden this red glow starts to light up the backyard, and there's Akane, arua flaring, mad as hell." Nabiki laughs again, " 'Sato, no BAKA!' Wham, there's a mallet sized lump on his head!" She leaned back in her chair in peals of laughter. Ranma's lips were starting to twitch a bit themselves, but he managed to hold his laughter in check until Nabiki finally calmed down a bit. "So I made a few calls, severed a few of Sato's would-be 'connections' and threw his ass back in jail. Two years later and he hasn't even been considered for any kind of parole. And if he does get out… well, he'd better not come back around here, that's for sure. There'd be another Sato-sized hole in the ceiling so fast you wouldn't believe it."

"So Akane went back to normal after that?"

Nabiki instantly sobered, "Not really. She started training again, and she laughed more, and even got angry sometimes. But she's still blaming herself for driving you away, somewhere inside. She never quite became her old, vibrant self again. And she hasn't dated another guy since, but I guess you've heard about that."

"Yeah, I guess I have." Ranma looked down at the floor, "Nabiki, I really messed up Akane's life, didn't I? I tried so hard not to, but the insanity just kept following me. I hoped so much that she would be able to be happy again once I was gone. All I ever did was get her into trouble. I'll bet she never got kidnapped before I came. I wanted her to be happy again, so I figured that all I had to do was leave, and she could be normal again." He looked up at Nabiki and she was surprised to see tears in his eyes, "But it was too late by then, wasn't it? The damage had already been done, and it was all my fault. I just didn't think…I just didn't think that my teasing really ever got to her. I can't believe I was so stupid, thinking that all I had to do was go away. All I managed to do was make things worse. If I hadn't left, then…then Sato never would have happened. I…I did so much damage to her life…that I don't know if I have any right to try and come back into it…"

"But do you want to, Ranma? Do you still love my sister?"

"…yes…"

"Then maybe you should take her out to dinner again and explain away that little band of gold on your finger. Then…well, then just wait and see what happens."

xxxx

Akane sighed as she shut the door behind her. How much longer was Ranma going to stay? It had been nearly a week since he'd arrived. He set a strange pattern to their last few days together. Every morning before she would head to work, Ranma would ask her to spar with him. The first time he'd asked, she'd nearly laughed in his face, not thinking he was serious. But he was. And so, for the first time since she'd met him nearly eight years ago, Akane Tendou had sparred with Ranma Saotome. And had continued to spar with him every morning for the past six days.

After their sparring match, she would go bathe, dress, and meet Ranma and Nabiki at the table for breakfast. After breakfast she'd head to work for the day, after which Ranma would meet her to escort her home. Their walks home were by far the best part of Akane's day. They would laugh and joke with each other; sometimes they would race along the fence, Ranma lightly taunting her to keep up. But the taunting that would have made her angry enough to mallet him home five years ago, now served only to make her smile. Though whether that was due to nostalgia on Akane's part, or a wiser choice of wording on Ranma's part, was uncertain.

Today, however, as Akane neared the gate to the school, it was clear that the joviality of the last six days was not to be repeated. Ranma's form was hunched over, leaning against the wall, muscles tensed and looking for all the world as though he were about to do battle. Perhaps he was.

"Ranma? What's wrong?" Her voice sounded strained, cautious, even to her own ears. Was she really this flighty? A tense Ranma was all it took to disarm her? He looked up, his serious blue eyes met hers, and she knew she wasn't going to like what he was going to say next.

"Akane…I…I have to…to leave tomorrow. My ticket…" He seemed flustered, unsure. Was he going to apologize for having to leave? Why would he do that? It wasn't like he belonged here anymore…that he would be staying for anybody here…. He looked up at her, eyes questioning.

"I understand, Ranma. After all, you only came for a visit, you wouldn't want to be…away for too long, would you? I'm only sorry that you didn't have time to see Ukyou while you were here. She should be visiting her new restaurant in the U.S. soon, I could give you the address?" She put on her best fake-smile, hoping against all hope that he wouldn't see the devastated loneliness in her eyes.

"Akane…" He hesitated again, seeming at a loss for words. With a deep breath he collected himself and started again, "Akane, I was hoping you would come to dinner with me again. There's something we need to discuss before I can leave."

His statement seemed to hang there, in the space between them, like some hideous ultimatum. There's something we need to discuss. It was so… ominous. The silence weighed heavily there for a moment…two…. three…. Finally Akane looked up and met his gaze, nodding once, slowly, before turning to walk home.

The trip was made in silence.

xxxx

Dinner was strained. And that was putting it nicely. After the few pleasantries had been exchanged, How was your day? What did you do?, the conversation seemed to die. Actually, it was much more like the conversation had been whipped into a corner, and was now hiding, hoping to escape any further abuse. Akane and Ranma engrossed themselves in their menu's, as though each were reading the most fascinating novel, and were startled when the waiter arrived to take their order. Instantly they were all smiles, laughing and joking with the waiter, Oh, a couple out on a date? No, no, just old friends. The house wine? Sure, that'd be great. Anything else? No, no, that should be plenty, thanks. And so the waiter left. And so there was, once again, silence.

Finally, after the meals had been served and half-finished, Ranma cleared his throat and braved the wrath of the gods of silence.

"So… Akane, about what I wanted to talk about….I was hoping, y'know, that we could talk about it?" Inwardly, he cringed. The gods were not favoring him tonight.

She looked up from her plate, soft brown eyes guarded and closed to him. She did not want to hear what he had to say. She did not want to give him another chance. That much, he could tell. She was only here to humor him. Nabiki had been wrong, Akane did not want him to be back here at all. As he continued to hold her gaze, she began to fidget, eyes darting between him, the door, and the clock on the far wall. She seemed almost anxious for the night to be over, looking forward to the moment when she could say goodbye to him and get him out of her life for good. She seemed scared of what he would say, and he suddenly understood that his next words would determine if she stayed the remainder of the evening, or if she took off running out that door and away from him. Ranma needed a new topic, and he needed one fast.

"Uhm, well… I… Actually, I was, uh… wondering how the dojo was going." Mentally he smacked himself. Hard. With a mallet the size of Japan. "You see, I was thinking of opening a dojo back home." He smacked himself again. Way to go, referring to that place as 'home', reminding her that I'm leaving, that I don't belong… "I was thinking about teaching. Well, not that I'm not teaching now and all, y'know with the whole fake moves in the movies thing and all, but I mean, y'know, really teach… Get back in to practicing the art, pass it on and all, and so I wondered if you could tell me anything about how it was to run the dojo here. Y'know, so maybe I could get an idea of how to go about in back home and all…." Train derailed, Ranma stopped, remembering to breathe. He crossed his fingers under the table, hoping she'd buy into his act. Hoping she'd just go along with it…

"Ranma, I really didn't do anything. It was a while ago. And Nabiki was the one who really ran the thing, I just showed up when she told me to and taught who she told me to. You really should be asking her." Akane was looking at him strangely, though with a hint of thanks in her gaze. As though she knew that he was going to talk about something else, but was glad that he'd changed his mind. He sighed, knowing that the words he wanted to say, more than anything, weren't going to come out. Not here, not now, and not like this. It was so awkward and uncomfortable. How was he supposed to say that he…

"I'm sorry Akane. I should have realized that. I'll ask Nabiki later." She smiled in relief, looking back down as though it was safe now. He wasn't going to discuss anymore tense subjects and she wasn't going to have to deal with past issues. But Ranma had one more question, and he was going to ask it, come hell or high water. "Akane, I want to ask you one more thing, before I leave." She looked up, a deer-caught-in-the-headlights kind of expression on her face. He tweaked his lips up into a half smirking smile and stood, bowing formally with his hand outstretched towards her.

"May I have this dance?" Oh please, just say yes. Just one more time, let me hold you in my arms… It was stupid, and he knew it, but he hoped that maybe, just maybe, he could find the courage on the dance floor that he was oh-so-obviously lacking here at the table.

She nodded and held out her hand. He led her to the dance floor.

He held one of her hands in his, the other lay lightly on his shoulder. He rested his other hand softly against her waist, and they began to move to the slow blues tune. They improvised as they went along, altering kata's, mostly. It was strange, though. Ranma kept using offensive style kata's, hoping to get closer to Akane, and she kept using defensive styles, trying to keep the distance between them… But her resolve wore down slowly as she realized that Ranma actually seemed to want to get closer to her. Slowly she moved into the protected circle of his arms, resting her head on his shoulder. Two bodies swayed together as one and Akane slipped away into daydreams where Ranma had never left, and they were married by now, with children at home…and he loved her. For a time, she forgot… but it couldn't last forever, and as the song ended, reality crashed back down on her, in the form of a shiny golden ring. She saw it glimmer out of the corner of her eye as it caught the light, and she stopped cold on the dance floor, tears beginning their slow trek down her face.

"No…" She whispered the negative. "No…I can't… I'm sorry, but I just can't…I can't be this close to you…and so far away….I…I thought I could handle it, but I was wrong…I can't do it…please….Ranma, stay away from me." Her voice rose at the end, as she reached out her hand, placed it on his chest and pushed herself away, running out the door and into the night.

It was unfortunate that she moved so quickly, or she might have heard Ranma quietly whisper four little words: I love you, Akane….

But it didn't matter. He knew where to find her.

xxxx

"Oh, Ranma…it still hurts. So much. I thought I could do it and be strong…but it hurts too much, seeing you." Her quiet whisper accompanied the rivers gurgle…

"Akane?"

"Ranma?… Oh no…no…Please, stay away from me, Ranma. I can't take it….please." The last word was a whispered plea of desperation.

"Do you hate me that much?" His soft words made her pause. She turned her head to look up at him, then moaned softly and covered her face with her hands again, shaking her head in a vigorous no.

"I…I could never hate you…Ranma….never…. but I…I just can't do it…I can't be this close and this far away…please, it hurts too much…"

"What is it, Akane? I don't understand. What can I do?"

Her dark haired head rose from her hands, and he watched, mesmerized, as a tear formed in her deep brown eyes, then slowly splashed to her cheek and made a track down her face to her chin…. "Don't…"

"Don't what?" Quiet whisper, barely heard.

"Don't look at me like that…. Not when I can't have you…"

"What?" He looked surprised. So did she. She hadn't meant to let that slip.

"Just…go away….please. I can't take it, having you so close when you're not…available….If Nabiki told you about Sato, then you know that he obviously isn't the one I was talking about when I said I had only loved once…. Please….Ranma, just go…" Her voice was so quiet and strained that he could hardly hear it, but hear it he did. And those were just the words he'd been hoping she would say. He smiled softly and took her chin in his hand, turned her face and looked in her eyes.

"What are-"

"I missed…I missed those eyes, Akane. Beautiful dark brown eyes. They flashed when you were angry, but they were so warm and caring when you smiled. And when you smiled at me…" He smiled faintly, himself, at the memory. "I fell in love the moment I met those warm, caring brown eyes." As she sat there, stunned, he picked up her hand and pressed something into it. She started numbly at it for a moment, then looked up in shock.

"Let me tell you a story," he sat down carefully beside her, still holding one of her hands in his. "I went to America, when I left here. I'm sure Nabiki told you that much, with her tracking systems. It was…strange at first. Big and confusing. I got a job easy, some guy wanted me to choreograph and teach some fake fighting skills to be used on camera for movies and stuff. It was easy, and paid decent. But I was lonely, Akane." He squeezed her hand and smiled softly. "One day, as I was leaving work and walking home, I saw a lovely young woman in a yellow sundress and a straw hat. She had short dark hair, and was standing with her back turned to me." He shook his head, "I was so certain it was you. She was staring, obviously confused, at a map of the subways, and she had a small slip of paper in her hand. I just knew that Nabiki had finally pinpointed my exact whereabouts and that you had finally come. So I walked up and I said, in the best English I could, 'Good afternoon, Miss. Would you care to join me for dinner this evening?' I was trying not to laugh, I didn't want to make you angry, I didn't know where I'd end up if you malleted me and sent me flying. So imagine my surprise when she turns around…and it wasn't you. She must have been able to tell by the look on my face that I had mistaken her for someone else, but she took me up on the dinner offer anyway. She was young, Japanese, and just as new to America as I was, so I offered to show her around a bit, help her out with the subway system and all." Ranma stopped talking for a moment, his eyes slowly turned to rest their gaze on the ring still held in Akane's hand. "She…she looked so much like you…. She even acted like you sometimes… But her eyes. They were hazel, like mine, and every time I looked in them, I was reminded of what I'd left behind…."

"Ranma…."

"Well, it turned out that the slip of paper she had in her hands was the address of her new apartment in the big city. An apartment in the same complex as mine, on the same floor as mine, and down the same hall as mine. She moved into the room directly across the hall from me." Ranma looked away, obviously wondering where to go from here. What was he supposed to say? I kinda got married, Akane… Yeah, that'd probably earn him a one-way ticket back to the US, care of Akane express. And, at the moment, he had absolutely no intentions of going anywhere without the girl sitting next to him.

"And so, with this 'lovely young woman in a yellow sundress' living so close, who could blame you for falling in love? Getting…m-married…." Akane withdrew her hand from his and shied away from him, as though trying to put a physical barrier between them. "It's okay, Ranma. I understand….it was….silly…of me to think that you had come back….f-for me…." Her voice dropped to a barely audible whisper, "Here, take your ring…" She held out her hand, band of gold resting (accusingly, Ranma thought to himself) on her palm.

"Akane," He reached out and closed her fingers over the ring, then held her balled fist between his hands, "You're right. I…I did get….m-married…" His heart almost broke at the way she cringed away from those words. "But you're also wrong."

"About what?"

"It isn't silly for you to think that I came back…for you." He hesitated, but only for a moment. It was now, or never. "The…the marriage…it didn't last, Akane." He shook his head slowly; "I tried so hard to change her, to make her just like you, that I never let her become her own person. She didn't realize it at first, but towards the end…I think she really started to resent me. We fought, so much, about stupid little things. Like how I wanted her to keep her hair trimmed short like you have it, but she wanted to grow it long. How martial arts were important to me, and should be to her too, but she couldn't care less." He snorted, "We actually fought about fighting once. I said something about it being too quiet all the time, no excitement and no fights with Ryoga or you, Shampoo, Ukyo, Kodachi… She couldn't believe that I missed it. She started accusing me of wanting to leave her and go back to my old life. I dismissed the thought, and the argument ended…but I started thinking, 'Maybe she's right, maybe I do miss my old life.' And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I did miss it here. I missed the crazy days just as much as the quiet ones, just as long as they were here, one of the few places I've ever called 'home'. I decided to come back, just for a week, as a vacation. Visit all my old friends again, catch up a bit on how they'd been doing. I mentioned it to her and…well, she made all of the fights I ever had with you seem like minor little spats. Screaming, yelling, flying pottery, pots, pans, plants, furniture…you name it, she threw it at me. I got mad right back at her, and we both sat there and yelled at each other for a good half an hour before she said those fateful words. She kept accusing me of coming back here for you. She said that you were all I ever talked about and that if I was going to come back here to be with another woman, then she wanted a divorce first…."

"Oh, Ranma…I'm sorry. I didn't realize…" Akane reached out a hand, resting it on his shoulder, trying to comfort him.

"Huh? Oh, don't worry about it. It would've happened sometime. Better just to get it over with and move on. But Akane, I had to admit, she did have a point…."

"Nani?"

"I think…I think that I did…come back here…for…just for….for you…."

Akane's eyes widened to the size of saucers, and her hand dropped listlessly away from Ranma's shoulder in shock. She stared at him in silence for a moment, then turned her eyes down to look at the hand that held the ring. Slowly she uncurled her fingers and stared at the confusing object. Didn't a ring mean that you…you loved someone? How did things just…end? What meaning did the little golden band have now? She looked back up at Ranma, wanting to find an answer in his eyes. She looked at him for a moment, then slowly held up her hand, offering the ring to him. She didn't know what else to do with it. He smiled, reached out and picked it up. Slowly, he twirled it in his fingers, letting it catch the soft moonlight, examining it from every angle.

"Ranma…" He looked up at her, still grinning, "What…what are you going to…to do with it?" What are you going to do with the ring? Your past? Your memories? Your present?…Your future…? The questions ran through her head, but she kept quiet, not wanting to confuse the moment.

"Do with it?" He threw the ring up in the air, and caught it swiftly, smoothly. "I don't know. I hadn't really thought about it." He looked at it closely, "It's kind of meaningless now, isn't it? Or maybe," he looked up and met her gaze, "Maybe it was meaningless all along? What do you think, Akane?"

"I…I don't know, Ranma." What on earth is he talking about?

"I think that it was meaningless all along, Akane. Because I think that I knew all along that she wasn't the right person. And so now I'm left with a useless ornament of absolutely no value. This is also known as, 'junk'." He grinned at her, slyly now. "What do you do with junk, Akane?"

"Ranma?"

"You throw it away, of course!" And with the proclamation he flicked his wrist, tossing the ring to land with a plop in the river. His eyes never left hers. Was he throwing away his past, then?

"But…I don't understand…. You don't want to…to keep it? As a reminder or anything? You're just throwing away your past?"

"Yes. I am." Ranma's smile faded, and a more serious look dominated his face, "Akane…I'm not sure I have the right to be any part of your life at all anymore. I know that I have caused you more trouble and pain than anything else…but I just couldn't…I just couldn't stay….gone. I had to come back, at least to make sure that you were okay. If you'd ended up with someone else, even Ryoga, I would have dealt with it, as long as you were happy. Like Nabiki says, being in love with someone means that their happiness makes you happy, too." He looked down at her hand, reached out to hold it, slowly ran his fingers across it, examining, closely, the lines and scars that told the story of her life. "I was restless…I suppose. It bothered me to not know what had happened to you. After everything that had happened to you because of me, I wanted to know that I'd finally done at least one thing right…." He looked up and met her eyes, "But it looks like I didn't even manage that. In trying to help, I only made the situation worse. I made your life miserable, caused everybody to leave you all alone here, and that….that mess with Sato…if I hadn't teased you so much… Akane, I…I just want you to know that I really am sorry. I never meant for any of that to happen. I…I guess that I just didn't think about what I was doing. Typical for me, ne?"

"Ranma…"

"No, Akane…I should have known better. I should never have le-"

"Ranma! Stop, please. I….I'm trying to comprehend all the things that you just told me… I'm not sure how to respond…. You came back so…so cool and confident, asking me out to dinner and all, and with a ring on your finger, too…. I was…well, devastated. I know how long you've been gone, and I knew that you were all on your own, no fiancées chasing after you or anything, but somehow I….I kept managing to convince myself that one day you'd come back, for me. That one day you would realize that I had been just as stupid calling you 'baka hentai' as you had been in calling me 'kawaiikune tomboy'." She turned her head to look at the river that had swallowed the past. "So you came back, and I saw that ring on your finger, and I knew… and so I thought to myself, 'that's okay, I'm glad that he's happy. But it hurts.' I decided that I would just pretend for a while; act happy and glad to see you, until you went away again. But it was harder than I thought it would be…especially when you asked me to dance… I just…I just couldn't seem to come to grips with the idea that you were in love with someone else. It was just like the first time you left, and I didn't know what to do. I'm sorry for running away like that, but I just had to leave… And so now I've convinced myself that you love some other girl, and you're just here to visit, see the old neighborhood, and it hurts, but I'm dealing with it… Then you have to go and turn the tables on me." She smiled wanly up at him, "So naturally, I'm feeling a bit dazed and confused. Just give me a moment to catch up with reality, okay?"

"I guess I should apologize again. I should have just told you flat out about the ring and all, but I just…forgot I was wearing it." Ranma gave her an unsure half-smile, trying to figure out what to do next. Akane shivered, it was getting cold out. And late. They should probably head home.

"Shall we go ba-"

"Maybe we should go ba-"

They looked at each other and laughed. Ranma stood, stretched his muscles quickly, then reached down to help Akane up. Instead of releasing her hand, he drew her arm through his and, linked as they were, they walked slowly through the evening, enjoying the quiet moment.

"Ranma?"

"Hmm?"

"When was the last time we ever walked like this? Do you remember?"

"I think I do. Wasn't it that one year, before I left, and we walked down the sidewalk…it was snowing, I remember that. I carried that memory with me in America, it seemed somehow…special, I think. A quiet moment found in the midst of chaos." He smiled quietly.

"I think your right! 'A quiet moment in the midst of chaos'… yup, I think that just about sums it up!" She laughed softly, Ranma turned to look down at her face, wanting to see her smile, just as the wind picked up and tossed her hair playfully. For a moment, just an instant, it seemed like that winter walk through the snow again, as soft white flakes drifted by on the breeze, settling in her soft dark hair. She noticed his stare and looked at him quizzically, wondering what was on his mind.

"Sorry, but for a moment there it was just like that winter walk we took. The blossoms…looked just like snow, and the way you looked up and laughed…smiled at me…for a moment, it felt like I'd never left at all." He shook his head slowly, trying to bring himself back to reality.

"Sakura? Like snow?" She thought about it for a moment, looking around. "I suppose you're right, again. It does look kinda the same." She smiled again and reached out to catch one of the floating petals. She let one drift softly down to settle on her palm, admired it for a moment, then gently blew it away. As she dropped her hand down to her side again, Ranma's much larger and warmer one reached out to engulf it. She squeezed it tightly for a moment, looked up at him and smiled. Such deep blue eyes…

"We should do this more often…"

"We should do this again sometime…"

They looked at each other and chuckled quietly. Their laughter trailed behind them as the drifted home, finally happy again. Finally.