Well, and thanks for that good critizism! I was sooo happy! Still am! It was the first time after all that I posted anything! Thank you.
I hope this will match the first chapter. Though the writing style might change a bit, after all it's not only Ranma's lonely thoughts now. If you do not like it, just imagine this part never existed. ^_~


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Ranma 1/2
RAYS OF THE SUN
by kitty
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The glow of the moon


She disentangled herself from him, but when she did so she became colder and colder to Ranma's touch. Ranma felt strangely uncomfortable, as if he needed to become afraid that Akane would leave again.

But just like the other morning Ranma turned around mentally and left these dark thoughts behind him. No thinking about it, no worrying about it.

Though, this time is was harder to ignore. Ranma couldn't explain it but he felt that Akane had left more than just his touch.

Confusing.

*She sits directly in front of me... why do I feel as if she's nothing but far away..?*

Too confusing.

Ranma closed his eyes for a short moment. *Akane is with me*
He opened his eyes again and looked at his wife.
*and nothing else matters.*

-----



They sat there for a long time. In Their room. On Their futon.
Under the same ceiling which so many times drew Ranma's halfheartly and hollow attentions.
This morning it was different though.

And they talked. The whole morning they just sat next to each other and chatted avoiding carefully the sad part of the past.
Meaning anything about and after Akane's death.
As if nothing ever happened they talked about the beautiful weather lately, about that they replaced the Furinkan School building partly with a new one, about the memories they had about their school days, about their old friends - and enemies they faced together, what all of them were doing nowadays.

They talked about everything. For hours.

It were the most wonderful hours Ranma had had for a long time now.

When they ran out of new topics the both of them fell silent. But it was a comfortable silence.

Ranma smiled to himself. First he had learnt to hate the silence. He cursed it when the memories of Akane would hunt him down again, the silence made him feel so lonely.
Silence gave him nothing but memories of his girl. Silence showed him how much he missed her, how he needed her.
It made him wish for death when he couldn't bear it no more.
After some time he had learnt to accept the silence. Resigned he used to drown in the loneliness that it brought to him. He used to close up as if burrying him deep inside of himself.
And after some more time, he welcomed it. Between silence and noise was no difference anymore.
But now, the silence was good. It felt good.

She was the reason, she was there. With him. _She_ was _with_ him in silence. Together in comfortable silence.
Contently he lay back, arms behind his head, smile on his lips.
He let his gaze wander to the ceiling, yet once again.

There it was. Like always. But this time it was just the ceiling. Nothing more.
Just a part of the room.
At that moment the sun shone again brightly through the window. Actually it was just for a few minutes covered by a cloud but to Ranma it felt as if that cloud had layed upon the light for nearly eternity. Now the cloud had passed.

Ranma lay in a sunlit room and knew again what happiness felt like.


"Ranma?" Akane asked quietly, bringing him back from his daydreaming
"Mmh?"

"Do you... do you want to know how it is?"

He opened his eyes again which he had closed briefly and looked at her, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Dying?" she added.

"..."
"I could tell you what's it like in 'heaven'..." she gave him a small and shy smile.

God how he loved her. How he had missed her smiling at him like now.
He gave her a little smile in return and shook his head.

"no thanks" he whispered.

------

It was late afternoon. The sun still shone brightly and created a peaceful atmosphere. Again the soft shadows created a world of their own onto the warm ground.

"Ranma?" Nodoka shouted when she entered the Tendo resistance. "Dear, are you home?"

Behind her Kasumi stepped in. She looked still like good old Kasumi, though a bit older. More grown-up.

"Yeah, I'm here. I'm comin'!" it came back from upstairs.

"Do you think he feels better today?" Kasumi quietly asked Ranma's mother.
"I hope so."

Both walked into the kitchen, laying down all the groceries they had carried with them to cook something later.
"We'll see" Nodoka added.


"Here I am" Ranma said leaning in the doorframe, smiling this lady-killer smile at both women.

When they turned around to face the young martial artist, they both had trouble not to look shocked.
Nodoka couldn't believe her eyes *He smiles?? ..finally..he looks like he...like before Akane-chan...*

Kasumi was faster to react (and had had enough training in hiding shock or wonder): "Ranma-kun, you look good!"

"As do you" Ranma responded, still a happy grin plastered on his face.

Nodoka's eyes shimmered with wetness and she gave her son a warm smile "It's nice to see you learn to deal with it. I'm so happy for you, son" she finally brought out.

"I don't have to deal with nuthin', mom - She's back"


Suddenly even the clock seemed to stop. Both women froze.

"What?" Kasumi hesitatly asked, her usual politness forgotten.
"Akane came back. I don't know how but she's here again" it happily poured out of the young man.

Mrs. Saotome gave Ranma a sympathetic look. Suddenly she felt an ache stab in her heart, the hope and joy from seconds before replaced by grief.
*Don't Ranma. I'm going to lose to this*...

Her words felt weak "Ranma. Dear. ..." she didn't know what to say.

"Maybe we should sit down" Kasumi added with a shaking voice.

Both women went to sit down in the next room, which was exactly what Ranma wanted as Akane stood at the end of the stairs and they would certainly nearly bumb into her.
Nodoka left the kitchen first, eyes fixed on the ground. Kasumi followed her knowing the house well enough to walk without really paying attention to the surroundings. Even if she was blind she would know where to go and where everything was. At the moment she felt as if she was blind. Though she could see perfectly physically, she couldn't see or realize anything. The pain of the lost sister vivid again, blurring her vision...

Akane had eye-contact with Ranma, she looked a bit uncertain. Her husband on the other hand was like his old self again, full of fire and self-confidence. That made Akane brave, his happiness warmed her and she was very happy herself.

She stepped down the last few steps, and finally stood in the middle of the hall.
Breaking the eye-contact she tried to catch the gaze of her mother-in-law.

Akane: "Mom?"

At that moment Nodoka looked up and directly into Akane's eyes.


But her eyes were unfixed, staring at nothing.

Akane hadn't even enough time to blink and Nodoka walked right through her.
Shocked Akane let Kasumi pass likewise. Even if she had wanted to she couldn't have gone out of the way.
She was frozen in place.

Like Ranma.


Both, Kasumi and Nodoka had sat down by the small table. Neither spoke as they were deep in thought how to handle the affair best.

"Mom?" Akane repeated with a shaking voice, as if she would cry any moment. She turned to look at them.
"Onee-chan?"

Ranma thought he could see her hope dying right there. He heard her make a few attempts to say something but no words would leave her lips.

After a few seconds Ranma broke his stare at Akane and let his gaze settle on the ground.
He felt pain for Akane.
But another pain joined, as he had to realize what he denied to see earlier. No one could ever punch him as hard as this pain was.

She was not _really_ here again.


----


They sat all four at the table. Ranma stared blankly at nothing in front of him while Mrs. Saotome and Kasumi tried their best to help.

Nodoka chose her words carefully and used a calming tone: "....Sometimes you can't help it. You miss someone so much that you imagine this someone would be with you again."
"But you, Ranma-kun, you have a strong mind" Kasumi continued "don't create a fantasy-world. That illusion would corner you one day. .. I...I miss her too. Very..."
Akane shut her eyes.

Nodoka made a deep breathe. "Son. Akane is not here. She died. You have to accept that."
"NO." Ranma finally showed reaction. "She's here. She's sitting here with us. Right here next to me."

"Ranma- please, she's not -" Kasumi tried but was cut off by her brother-in-law:
"Stop it! It's not my fault if you can't see her! I can! I can talk to her! I can -"
This time Nodoka interrupted: "Son, that's crazy!"

"That's it, I go!" and with that he angrily left the room.

Tears were in Nodoka's eyes. Kasumi blinked and looked into another direction to get the wetness out of hers.
They stayed that way for a few minutes.


Akane stood up and walked upstairs. Not once looking back.

------


Evening. At the moment Ranma wasn't even sure that after each day the night would follow. He didn't know anymore.
He lay on the futon. Akane sat at the desk, his back facing him. Neither spoke a word.


"Akane?" he didn't look at her.
"..." she just raised her head but didn't turn to look at him either.

"...am I crazy?"

She turned around.
"Maybe that wish made me crazy? This.., this way I could see you again, ne?"

*Ranma, you look so broken...*

"I turn insane, don't I? Don't I? I imagine you're here again, ...
...but you aren't. Just I can see you, just I can talk with you, just...I can't touch you and others walk through you like a gh- ...I don't know anymore what's right, Akane. I don't know anymore what.. what I... I don't know anymore, Akane." his voice was untypically shaking she had painfully to realize.

Akane could say nothing. *I'm so sorry Ranma..so very very sorry*
What had happened to Ranma? Where was this strong boy who dealt with everything, no matter what?

After a short silence, Ranma had a calmer and firmer voice again.
"All I know is that I love you deeply ...and I want so badly to believe that you're true..."


Was she true? Was he crazy? Akane didn't know herself, so what should she answer?
She knew just one thing for sure:

"I am with you."


He finally turned his head in her direction and gave her a weak smile.

--------


This morning began with a little rain shower. But the nature thanked for the water after all these warm days.

The telephone rang. Once. Twice.
Ranma blinked. Akane lay next to him in the futon but she had kept her distance.
Sixth ring. Seventh. Then the answerphone was activated. Ranma had never liked it. It had been a Christmas present from Nabiki.
~Hello. This is Akane and Ranma Saotome's answerphone. We're not at home at the moment so just leave a note and we're answering soon.~ ~beep~
"Hi Ranma, it's Nabiki. Kasumi and I are pretty worried about you, you know. I think it's just gotten too much for you. We also talked to Tofu-san and decided that it's probably best to search for professional help. Tomorrow I'll be back from America and I'll visit you immediately, 'kay? We can talk ab--" ~beep~

...

Akane seemed to be still asleep. Good that she didn't hear that anyway.
Ranma regarded the ceiling. It bored him. He looked towards the window. A cloudy sky greeted him.
*Professional help* Ranma repeated mentally. He closed his eyes again.

------


One and a half hour later Ranma woke up to the shouts of his father. Akane wasn't any longer lying next to him, so Ranma suspected that she must have gotten up and be downstairs somewhere.


"Son!"

Ranma just gave a small mixture of a sigh and a growl.
Heavy footsteps could be heard coming nearer. Ranma let out a breath and got into a sitting position.
The door swung open (without knocking of course), Genma entered.

"There you are, Ranma."
"Here I am, pops"
"Your mother couldn't get out of all her sorrow over you since yesterday! What are you talking about Akane being here again!"
"I won't talk about it now" Ranma responded staying calm.
"You'll go apologize to your mother now or I'll have to deal with her in that state all day!"
"Feh. Go away."
"What is this anyway about Akane?"
"Like I said already: not now"
"You're my son, don't you dare to go crazy!"

That did it, Ranma jumped out of his bed and screamed back: "I'm not crazy, old man!! She is here! And even if I just imagine it, it doesn't matter to me because she is here! Even if just I can see and hear her, it doesn't matter to me!! I love her and I will never give her away again!! And now go the f#ck out!"

For once Genma could sense that he overdid it and angrily left the room passing right through a baffled Akane.


---------


End of chapter 2
I know, it's a strange story. If you wonder when the characters act OOC then please remember that they grew older and have changed - they need to be OOC though of course I try to keep the main thing about the persons. Just remember when Ranma thought he'd lost Akane because of Saffron (when she turned a doll I mean and he didn't know about it yet) and he kept just staring ahead. That image and reaction is the basis for this fiction's Ranma as what he just *thought* back there has now acutally happened. And now that he has Akane back I think even our dear Ranma would get emotional and do anything to just keep her forever at his side...aww, isn't that romantic...btw, I'm sorry that the darkness still seems to overweigh the romance. Mmh. Can't help it, deal with it.

Like I already wanted to add last time: I would like to say that I (luckily) have never lost anyone, so I don't know how it feels and what you do. So all I write is just imagination, I'm sorry if I exaggerate or whatever, I'm sorry for people who lose someone dear to them and would never dare make an entertainment out of it by writing about it. I'm paying you my respects for acutally being strong enough to live through that, I can't even really imagine how that must feel.

I hoped you liked this anyways.
Please review, thanks.

Next and last chapter: Back to the stars