Without You
I don't own Ranma ½ or the characters, however any OCs in here are mine!
I'd like to make a couple of things perfectly clear first. One, don't flame, you are not barbarians, hopefully, so be civil with any insults you may have. Two, none of the OCs will be affecting the Ranma relationships, just spicying them up a bit. Okay? Are we clear on this? Good!
Thankfully, within all of life's "pleasant" ironies, it was Sunday! Though, just as disappointedly, Akane knew that Kasumi would soon send Nabiki to "wake' her despite Akane's wish to stay curled up under the blankets all day.
That's right, Akane wanted nothing more than to stay in bed and this time she wasn't sick, she was just low in spirits, and it wasn't only due to Nerima's general craziness. No indeed for if it had been only Nerima's craziness then Akane would not have lasted the last two-almost three-years since Ranma had arrived.
Akane had graduated from Furinkan High School and just spent the last four months being turned down from three Japan colleges for 'not meeting their requirements'. It just seemed as though she couldn't excel in anything anymore, not since Ranma arrived, and it depressed Akane to no ends.
Why can't I do anything right? she wondered as she rolled over, careful not to squish P-Chan.
"Squee?" moaned P-Chan, opening his eyes a bit to stare back at Akane.
"Morning P-Chan, did you sleep well?" Akane inquired in a soft voice, contrary to what the piglet was used to hearing from her.
"Squee," yawned the piglet.
"At least one of us did," she smiled slightly, closing her eyes for a moment to catch at least a couple more seconds of shut eye…
There were two very quick but light knocks on the door before Nabiki's voice called out, "Akane, it's time for breakfast!" Just as Akane had known it would happen and now any of her hopes of gaining some extra sleep were shot. The world could be very cruel sometimes.
"Okay," Akane replied just loud enough for Nabiki to be assured that her baby sister was in fact awake. Forcing herself into a sitting position, Akane stretched out her arms and ignored the pain between her shoulder blades.
"Ready for another day of mayhem, P-Chan?" she asked the piglet. It just shook its head while observing Akane doing her morning stretches. "Me neither."
Sitting on her bed for a moment, Akane took a few seconds to just clear her mind by not thinking of anything in particular but rather just stare mindlessly at her covers until her piglet nudged her hand with its head.
"Yes, we shall go down to breakfast," Akane assured the black pig while scratching it gently behind the ear. "But you have to let me get dressed first," she whispered to her pet before jumping off the bed and digging through her drawers for some clothes.
It was a lot more difficult to pick out clothes everyday of the week without always having to wear the school uniform six out of the seven days of the week. Still, Akane managed to pick out a yellow skirt and turquoise top. Something simple and would help keep her legs warm if the weather got cooler for it was turning into mid-autumn now.
Stripping out of her pajamas, Akane noted that P-Chan was once again starring at her wall with his back to her. That was how P-Chan was every morning when he was there and it made him seem more…human to Akane, something she took some sort of odd comfort in.
"I'm ready," she announced, quickly combing through her hair.
P-Chan turned to Akane and readily leapt into her open arms while she was setting down the comb.
"Oh!" Akane laughed, catching the piglet. "Yes, yes, we're going to go eat."
Exiting her room, Akane almost ran into the old pervert, Happosi, but thankfully she had just missed him. She was gratefully to have missed the old lecher because she still had, for what reasons she preferred not to know, he still had a fetish for stealing her 'granny underwear' as Ranma had so kindly put it once.
"He's happy about something," commented Akane, dryly as she heard the victory cheer of the old man.
"Stupid leech!" Ranma-Chan's voice rang through the house, soon followed by Ranma's shirt and boxer wearing form running down the hall. Right past Akane, nearly knocking into her and P-Chan.
"Hey!" Akane shouted after almost being trampled by her 'loving' fiancée. "You'd think he would know better than to run through the house by now."
"Squee!" agreed P-Chan, glaring down the way Ranma had gone.
Breakfast was normal for the most part; argument between Ranma and Akane over some trivial thing or other, and of course, Genma and Ranma's food fight. When had that become the norm in the Tendo household? When had it gone from quiet, mundane talks to heated arguments and food fights over a simple meal?
Akane sighed as she examined her life the past few years, something she had been doing a lot with all her free time, and she had a lot of it too. To make matters worse, it was Sunday, the worst day of the week for the mere fact that there was almost nothing to keep Akane from being bored! Boredom was not an everyday occurrence in Nerima, more of a rarity since the Saotome's came, but somehow Akane still managed to become bored.
This boredom phase had not come about until a couple of months after school had ended and after Akane found herself being rejected from the colleges of her dreams. Sure there was Ranma, he always kept things interesting with his many cute fiancées and people trying to kill him for one reason or another, and then there was Kuno, who still insisted on pursuing Akane and 'the pig-tailed girl' despite consistent protests. The man could not take a hint!
Beside the resident Nerima crazies that loved Ranma in one form or another, Akane dedicated more time to her martial arts. However, she found herself finding it more and more useless since Ranma did all the fighting and she could count on him to rescue her all the time. Despite the fact that Akane knew she should not become dependent upon Ranma's rescues she couldn't help it. When was the last time Ranma had lost a fight?
Next to her personal martial arts training, Akane also sparred-if anyone could call it sparring-with Ranma. That was another area that frustrated Akane to no ends! As much as Akane respected Ranma for being a gentleman and not hitting a girl, she also was very irritated by it because there she would be giving it her all and Ranma would dodge all her attacks easily. Not once would he bother to fight back by throwing a punch, whether it was real or one that would miss her by a mile, or a kick. The boy was so maddening!
That could have been why Akane found herself in the lovely ice cream shop reading Romeo and Juliet for the hundredth time that year. Unfortunately, reading the play caused Akane's thoughts to be taken to the-as she dubbed it-'Taped Kiss Incident' from her school's own rendition of the classic play.
Now that Akane's thoughts were on her memories of the 'incident' she couldn't help but wonder, What would have happened had I not taped Ranma's mouth? I mean of course we would've kissed and all, but would it have changed anything between us now?
"Hey Akane."
No, nothing would have changed. I would have denied that the kiss had meant anything the second after Ranma declared that it was just a play and he felt nothing about it, Akane decided, not hearing anyone calling out her name as she stared blankly at her book.
"Hey Akane," Ranma-chan's voice sounded, snapping Akane from her thoughts; "I've been looking for ya for almost an hour now. You coulda told Kasumi where you going at the very least."
"Why were you looking for me?" Akane questioned, pretending to be deeply engrossed in the book rather than with her-forced-fiancée who sat across from her.
Hating to be ignored, especially when he was trying to give a message, Ranma did the one thing he could think of to get Akane's attention away from that book. He plucked the book from her hands and hid it behind his back.
"Hey!" Akane cried as she lung across the table, trying vainly to snatch the book from Ranma. Not succeeding in the retrieval of her book Akane readied her fist to send Ranma on a one way flight away from her and into whatever water mass there may be.
"Cool it Akane!" he exclaimed, holding up his hands in surrender. "I'm just trying to tell you that you got some sort of package from…"
Before Ranma could even finish his sentence he was glomped by none other than the bimbo-ish Amazon, Shampoo. Not wishing to get jealous, Akane clenched her teeth together and clutched her skirt.
Stay calm, don't let her get to you… chanted Akane as she took in deep breathes.
"Ranma, Shampoo thought she saw you here," the Amazon exclaimed giving Ranma a tight squeeze.
"That's nice, really but I…" Ranma began.
"Ranma, what about the package?" interrupted Akane, trying to take her mind off the matter at hand.
As though recalling Akane's presence, Ranma turned to her and tried to remember exactly what Kasumi's message to Akane was. "Oh yeah," he remembered, "you got some package from some Shihiro person in the United States…"
Akane didn't need to hear anymore, and she no longer cared about the fact that Shampoo had latched herself to Ranma once again. All Akane needed to know was what was in that package.
"Hey!" Ranma shouted after Akane but she did not reply to him.
"Ranma no run! Ranma go on date with Shampoo today, yes," declared Shampoo.
"H…hey now…"
Akane had to get to that package before Nabiki could get her hands on it for that package was special since it was from Shihiro. Shihiro was not a friend from the states but something more; not a fiancée but the Tendo girls' uncle. For Shihiro Kusankagi's the younger brother of Mrs. Tendo and he owned his own dojo in the United States. So with the limited income, receiving packages from Uncle Shihiro were rare but special to the girls.
Entering the house, Akane quickly shook off her shoes and raced to the kitchen to find Kasumi searching the cabinets for some seasoning or other.
"Kasumi," Akane gasped breathlessly, she had sprinted the whole way home, "did a package come for me?"
"It's in your room and it must be important since Uncle left a note on it to tell Nabiki to not lay a finger on it," Kasumi answered absently.
"Oh?" This surprised Akane since her Uncle enjoyed hearing the girls tell him how Nabiki made them pay either for the package or for the contents. So for him to place a 'DO NOT TOUCH' note on it was rather odd.
"Why don't you go see what it is," suggested Kasumi with her gentle smile.
With a numb nod, Akane ran up to her room and closed the door quietly behind her. There, on her bed, was the package, still intact and covered in scotch tape all around with no way for anyone to open it without leaving evidence of having done so.
Sitting down on her bed, Akane grabbed the package and gave it a gentle shake. Something jiggled inside of it, something solid and most certainly not made of glass or plaster. So it was not breakable.
Looking about her room for something sharp to cut open the package, Akane set the box down and scanned the room for that object. She found it on her desk, a letter opener, most likely left there due to Kasumi's great thinking.
Getting up, Akane retrieved the knife-like object, then returned to her bed, and began to tear the tape apart. Pulling back the flaps, Akane took a deep breath, under normal circumstances she would not be so nervous about seeing the surprise inside but these were not normal circumstances.
Here goes nothing; she smiled taking a look at what was inside the box.
Inside were a VHS tape, a brochure, and a letter, so it kind of made the whole 'surprise' anticlimactic for Akane. I was getting nervous over such a small thing! she berated herself as she picked up the letter. What has he to say for himself?
Reading through the letter Akane was left slightly confused, so she read it again and this time she dropped the letter with wide eyes. He didn't! Why would he…? her mind questioned but her mouth said nothing, yet.
"Kasumi!!!"