Disclaimer: Ranma ½ belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.

Ordinary Days
by pahlee

Chapter 1: Misunderstanding

Above the treetops the birds sang their lovely tunes as it intermingled with the chatter of student's overlapping conversations with one another. The haze emitted from the sun allotted the atmosphere to feel almost too warm, but perfect none-the-less. A few white clouds floated delicately through the bright blue sky, sometimes hiding the sun for a moment before reappearing. On the rooftop sat a couple, taking joy in their lunch break.

Akane let out a sigh as she turned her head to her sleeping companion, watching his chest rise and fall as a soft snore escaped from him. She smiled down at him before turning her head to look at the students below in the field, "How lazy…" she muttered to herself as she drew her knees to her chin. "He didn't even bother to say if the food was good," she thought to herself as she let out another sigh, "I worked so hard on it too…" A grunt, followed by a stir, caught her attention as she watched Ranma shift into another position, resuming his nap.

"So carefree," she thought to herself as she looked at his sleeping form and smiled once again, "…he looks so peaceful. I'll let it pass this time, you jerk." She laughed to herself silently as she clutched her knees closer and started to hum a little tune.

Her soft voice carried into the young sleeping martial artist's ears, a smile appearing at the corner of his lips as he listened. He was glad he turned his back to her; otherwise, he would have been too embarrassed to show how much her actions affected him. His heart raced a little faster as he listened to his companion hum. Suddenly, words replaced the hum as she sang softly, as to not wake her friend, and sang she did, beautifully. Ranma loved her voice, in every form.

"If only, I could tell you how I really feel," Akane sang, slowing her words as she let the last line slip from between her lips, "About you, about us…about how much I really love you."

Ranma's stomach felt like it was being grabbed and twisted, his heart beating faster and his face flashed red. "It's only a song!" he harshly thought to himself, "It's not like she meant it for ya! A song! A stupid…" he rolled over and sat up as he stared at Akane, who caught his glance – in a hurry, she tried to turn away, but was too late as Ranma reached out with both his hands, taking her face in them and pulled her to him. His lips clumsily found hers, allowing for a gentle kiss for a moment. But, it only took that one moment to feel the passion between the two as he pulled away, blushing and looked up at the sky, "..a stupid song."

"MR. SAOTOME!"

He jerked up, letting out a surprised gasp as he watched Ms. Hinako tap her foot on the ground; she stood next to his desk with a scowl on her face. "Whaddya want?" Ranma replied as he let out a yawn and sat back in his seat to get more comfortable, then thinking, "Dammit, was all that a dream?" He quickly shot a glance over to Akane, she was not looking at him like the rest of the class was, and instead her eyes bore onto the board as she wrote the assignment down.

"No one sleeps during my class time!" Ms. Hinako said, "Into the hallway!" She said in a last moment before she fluttered her arms, "NOW!"

"Ok, geez," Ranma said getting up from his desk looking at the child-like teacher as he walked out of the classroom, but not without taking one last look at Akane who was now staring at him, with a what-did-you-get-yourself-into-now expression plastered on her face, mixed with a probably-serves-you-right smirk. Ranma rolled his eyes, "Pft, oblivious as always," he muttered as he stepped into the hallway and held onto the two buckets of water as punishment.

The bell rang for lunch and Ranma's freedom. He purged his hands into his pockets as he realized he left his bento at home, he pulled out to hold a fluff of lint and 100 yen, "Dammit, this won't even get me curry bread!" His stomach growled, he groaned, and thought about his situation – it was not all that bad! After all, he had Ukyo or Shampoo to turn to, they never hesitated to give him free food! He laughed to himself as he turned to run toward Ucchan's to get lunch when he caught a quick glimpse of something, nay, somebody.

Akane.

He stopped as he pulled himself behind end of the wall, he peered around and stared at the short blue-haired girl as she laughed and conversed with her partner. On a closer look, her partner appeared to be a boy. "Who the hell is that? Come to think of it…" Ranma pulled himself away from the present situation to think, "She didn't look for me when the bell rang…" But laughter interrupted his train of thought as he peered back to see Akane and the boy laugh. Anger seemed to erupt in Ranma. Honestly! He could not be feeling jealous over this, right?

Akane is allowed friends, sure, but they had to be girl friends, not boy friends! At least, that was what Ranma had proclaimed, to himself. He was about to go over there and do something in defiance, but stopped himself.

What am I doing? Akane would kill me if I just waltzed right up ta' them and yell at her! I gotta' think this through…Maybe he really is just a 'friend'.

He looked back over, he had thought too early as he saw the boy lean in and kiss Akane on the cheek. Ranma felt his heart clench as he saw that Akane, in no way or form of fashion, even try to move away – instead, she smiled her rare smile. Now, that, was the last straw.

"AKANE!" he screamed, angrily walking towards the two.

"Ranma?" Akane said, with surprise in her voice.

"WHO THE HELL IS HE?" Ranma, in a sense, roared at her.

"EH! WHAT'S IT TO YOU?" Akane replied, anger now seeping into her words.

"EVERYTHING!" was all Ranma could rebut, but apparently Akane had other plans. She pulled on her partner's hands and began to walk away, "Like hell I'll talk to you with that tone!" she sharply whispered and turned her back to him. This, more than anything, unsettled Ranma even more and was about to grab her when he felt a hand fall on his shoulder.

He looked behind him to see a tear-stricken Kuno. "What the f—" Ranma thought as he looked at him, "Whaddya think ya' doin'?"he blurted as he took hold of the end of his wrist and flung him forward. Kuno, in a heap on the ground, looked up at Ranma, "Saotome, vile sorcerer! You've not only stole away my beauteous Akane, but allowed her to be wooed by another suitor, in front of both our eyes no less!" Ranma raised his foot as he slammed Kuno's head into the ground, students all around craned their necks, then lost interest – this happened on a daily basis, but it was still fun to watch Kuno get pummeled.

"Get yer head outta ya' butt," Ranma spat, "Akane was never yours in the first place." He turned to leave, determined to find out who the boy Akane was with when he heard a harsh, but soft, whisper, "Neither yours," followed by a thump as Kuno laid unconscious on the ground.

Ranma threw away the last words of Kuno in his mind, what right did he have to say that to him? He knew Akane was repulsed by the very being of Kuno! "But, what about me?" he thought, but also brushed that thought away as he saw Akane's blue hair up ahead. He turned and skidded to stand next to her and her suitor. He grabbed onto Akane's shoulder and huffily, turned her around to have her eye-to-eye, which was hard since he was a good head taller than her. As soon as he did, he regretted it as he saw that her eyes were puffy from the tears that fell freely from her eyes and the genuine look of fear in her eyes shot through him, piercing his heart.

"What the hell did you do to Akane?" Ranma turned to the boy to question, glaring at him with an utmost feeling of hate. If he laid so much as a finger on her…

"Stop it, Ranma," he heard Akane say through her stifling sobs, "He didn't cause m-my tears," Ranma turned his attention back to Akane, his brows furrowing to an v to look into her eyes, "…"

"It was you."

The Tendo household seemed peaceful this afternoon, but Kasumi was not in the kitchen preparing snacks and Nabiki never came home that afternoon as she went with friends, and the two fathers away on mission in the next town over. In fact, it gave a weird feeling to know that Kasumi would not be there to offer snacks when the teenagers came home, although she offered the same luxury in her new home if they ever came there after school.

For three years, the Saotome's and Tendo's lived under the same roof. In that time span, the (then) 22-year-old Kasumi married Ono Tofu and left the Tendo home. Leaving the housework to whoever grasped it, this ended up to be Akane—whose cooking was replaced by carry-outs and microwavable meals.

So, it was not a surprise when a crying Akane came bursting through the door to forget her eldest sister would not be there to greet her, to comfort her, as soon as she got home. She had forgotten, and allowed herself to go to her room, locking the door behind her as she lay in bed. She recalled the incident that happened at noon.

It was the first time he ever struck her, the first time he fell after her in a series of apologizes as she just walked away slowly, then sprinting away in a series of long strides, no longer holding back her tears as they fell. Akane buried her face into her pillow, sobbing.

Stupid jerk, he didn't even let me have a chance to explain. He d-didn't have to go so far as to hit me! Stupid, stupid….

She fell asleep muttering the word, "stupid", as the feeling of exhaustion caught up to her and passed out. Her mind wandered into dreamland where there was no fighting, just her and the field of flowers she often would dream about.

In school, Ranma had left as soon as Akane ran from him, he knew she was going home, to her room…to cry because of him, again. But this time, it was different, he knew he would not get the chance to talk with her calmly, he shuddered and his heart broke into more pieces as he recollected the feeling of her cheek against his palm.

He did not know why he did it, but he did and there was no way he could change that. After all his promises, all his talk – it was him! He wanted nothing more than to hurt himself a thousand times over for ever laying a hand on Akane. "Dammit Akane, what are you doing to me?" he thought to himself as he ran home.

Inside, he saw Akane's shoes at the door, looking out of place as they were her school shoes. He took his off and went up the stairs, he rested his hand on the doorknob, and stopped. What was he going to do now? Even if she let him in, which was most likely not going to happen, what would he say to her? Sorry would not be enough! Sweat beaded against his chin, sliding down the side of his face as he stood there nervously.

"Akane?" he whispered softly as he perched his ear to the door.

He heard the quiet rhythm of her breathing, he noted that she probably fell asleep. Trying the doorknob, he found it was locked – no surprise there. He stood away from the familiar door and just stared at the door. He hurt her. Not just mentally, but…physically. He looked down at his hand once again, and he swore to himself that he had not even hit her that hard.

"DAMMIT!" he cursed as he punched the wall behind him, seeing the pieces fall to the ground, he stomped his way to his room.

Akane jolted up when she heard the impact and stared at her door, "Ranma." She whispered as she pressed her ear against the door to hear his retreating footfalls and opened the door, just ever so slightly. She saw the hole in the wall, and let out a sigh, "Stupid, he's gonna have to patch that up before our dads get back." She went back to her bed, leaving her door unlocked, and pulled her knees to her chest.

She placed one hand on her cheek where Ranma slapped her and let out a breath she did not know she was holding, "Ranma, you jerk…even when you're angry at me, you still hold back." She looked at the door and titled her head, it was not the fact that he had struck her, but how he talked to her that made her sad. He always did have that tone of arrogance, but Akane felt that she was put down. Always being compared to her fiancée, Akane thought that she could confide in someone about that, not her sisters or friends – someone she knew who would listen to her without any bias.

So she had turned to her cousin, who came by that afternoon at lunch and greeted her with a familiar kiss on the cheek, the way most family familiars would—nothing behind it, but Ranma went and took it the wrong way.

It's not like he really cares, he just doesn't want his ego, or rather his reputation to go down that he can't have all the girls. He's so stupid. Why did I have to fall in love with someone like him?


A/N: Okay! After re-reading this, and editing on my own accord, I present to you Chapter 1! It's not much, more like a filler chapter (already!) but it will set the basis of the story, the plot? Well, you'll just have to keep reading, don't you? :D I think this story will about 10 chapters in length (more or less). See you at the next update!