Bittersweet Friendship Chapter 2: BF CH1, a ranma fanfic

'I guess this is how it's going to end...' I trailed off as the blast of hot water relaxed my body as I go into auto-pilot in preparation of starting my day. I decided to forgo the usual ritual of undoing my hair as it took some time to put it back the way I wanted it. 'I never thought it would end this way,' I thought as I closed my eyes, more images invaded my mind.

Driving to the restaurant where Akane works while she is on the phone beside me in a low voice.

I'm sitting on the bed in front of Akane. Akane had a solemn look on her face as she says "I'm sorry."

Standing in the middle of my room with the phone pressed up to my ear as Akane tells me, "I want the same future that you want, but not with you…"

I opened my eyes to blurred vision. I felt my eyes well up and I don't know if I cried due to the water running down my face…..

Bittersweet Friendship: Chapter 1

Coincidences centered around you…

I unlocked the door of my car and hopped in. I put the key in the ignition and waited for my car to warm up. I leaned back and closed my eyes for a bit. I started thinking of the many events that happened these past 4 months and more images flashed in my mind.

"You know," I said, flicking my pig-tail to my back. "There's one thing I regret doing in high school. Sure, I hated the people in Furinkan. That's the reason why I skipped school a lot and barely graduated. I don't regret skipping school. But there's one person I regret not maintaining my friendship with. Akane Tendo." When I said her name, my brother's eyes lit up in recognition.

At that moment in time, the words of my sister started repeating in my head.

'Who knows? Maybe someone you have known for a while might pop up and you'll start talking again.'

"Akane? How is she," I inquired?

"What can I get you boys to drink?" she asked as she leaned over closer to me.

I nervously walked up to restaurant, my heart beating quickly again. I stopped in mid-stride and asked myself, 'Why am I so nervous? It's not like she's going to recognize me. Four years is a long time.' I composed myself and slowed my heart beat taking deep breaths. As soon as I felt that I was ready, I opened the door.

Seeing those images made me think of how all this started and how weird it was that before I even started seeing her again, that all these signs just pointed me to her…

July 27, 2006; 10:08pm

I groaned as I exited the car and stepped out to the driveway. Sitting and not doing anything for 40 minutes in a cramped space is hard on the body. I heard my brother, Kenji, right behind me.

"It was great seeing them again, ne Ranma?" asked my brother looking up at the dark night sky. Kenji had gone home since it was summer break. He attended Tokyo University or Todai studying for an Electrical Engineering degree. He's the standard college kid, partying, homework, and class. I told him one time that with all that going on, who has time to get a girlfriend. Yes, 21 years old, and still no first girlfriend. The "them" that he mentioned was a bunch of family friends: the Amazons, Xian Pu Mu Tsu, and Khu Lon. Xian Pu, Mu Tsu, and my brother were all 21 years old. I am two years older than they were.

"Yeah," I replied. "The beginning was kind of tough due to our age difference, but I managed to find something in common to talk about." I elaborated as I looked up at the stars with him. At the end of the night, all four of us were sitting around cracking jokes at each other. That got me thinking. Outside of work and the Art, I don't really have many friends. Sure, there are people that I hang out with, but I work with those people. After 5pm, we become complete strangers until 7am the very next day. I realized that I wanted someone that I can call, to talk to about anything, to do nothing with and still feel that I spent good, quality time with them.

'What about Akane?' asked a small voice in my head? 'Great, now I'm hearing things. But the disembodied voice is right. What about Akane?' I thought as my gaze settled on a tiny pebble right by my foot. We were friends in high school. 'Akane Tendo. Now that's a name I haven't spoken in a while.'

My brother, the observant person that he is, noticed my gaze and knew I had something on my mind. "What up, Ranma?" inquired Kenji. I looked up at him and smiled, appreciating his concern.

"Akane Tendo? The younger sister of Tofu's girlfriend? Whatever happened to her?" inquired the future engineer.

I smiled at him, amused at his memory. We knew of Tofu's girlfriend, but not many knew her younger sister. We hung out mostly at Furinkan being in the same class for two years. There were a couple of times in which she went over and we studied together but not enough for a lot of people to remember.

"The last I heard, she was still working as a waitress at the restaurant in Juuban." I informed him. That restaurant in particular had great food. Heck for me, any food is good food, but this one had great food. My brother and I had made it a habit to go there every time I got paid. The food was a little on the expensive side though. During that time, I only saw Akane two or three times before my brother started going to Todai and I stopped going there. I didn't want to go and eat alone.

"Didn't she have a crush on you when you were in Furinkan?" inquired Kenji. My whole family thought that she had a crush on me in school but I knew better. She had just recently started going to Furinkan and didn't have that many friends. She was a shy girl when I first met her, but when she knew that I knew Tofu, we started being friends.

"I don't think she had a crush on me. She was just being friendly because she didn't know very many people." I informed my younger brother. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a cigarette. As I was lighting my cigarette, my brother said, "Yeah right. You're blinder than you think." That comment gave me a series of coughing fits which prompted my brother to give me some smacks on the back. "Told you smoking was bad for you, "he teased.

"What the heck are you talking about? We just hung out a few times and that was it!" I explained my coughing fit to him. He just rolled his eyes at me and continued watching the stars. After few puffs on the cigarette and a few minutes of silence, I turned to Kenji.

"You know, it would be nice to know if she's married, or has a boyfriend. To tell you the truth, I saw her a little bit in my last years in Furinkan and I started seeing her in a different light." I said dropping my cigarette on the ground and ground it with my heel.

"Didn't you say she was annoying?" asked my brother as he grinned at me while I spat at the ground due to the taste of the cigarette.

"At first she was, but when I started getting to know a little bit about her, she wasn't too bad. She's actually very sweet. I remember on my 16th birthday, she gave me 16 origami swans all tied on a string with a bell at the end. I felt bad about it because she took the time to remember my birthday and I didn't do anything for hers. Heck, I don't even know when her birthday is." I explained.

"Yeah, you're an ass," joked my younger sibling. I grinned at him and pushed him a little.

"Shut up. Let's get inside. I'm sure mom and pops are wondering what were doing," I said as I started walking to the door that leads to the house.

July 29, 2006; 12:40pm

"Hello?" I asked with my ear against the speaker of my phone.

"Hey little brother. What's going on?" asked my annoying sister. Sakura has been at Hokkaido living with her boyfriend for the past 6 years. She met him during one of our yearly trips. There were a couple of instances where he visited Nerima to see her. After Sakura had graduated, she decided to move to Hokkaido to live with her boyfriend. My parents of course refused since they didn't like their relationship but what are they going to do? They can't kick her out since she was going to leave in the first place. At that moment in time, my parents and Sakura started the 2 years of silence. No communication between them whatsoever. But parents being parents, they finally started calling her again to check on what she's doing. She finally graduated college a year ago and my parents were so proud of her. The boyfriend was even there and he treated us all at the graduation party for my sister in a restaurant.

"Nothing. What going on with you?" I inquired. We haven't been talking that much. I figured it's been a month and a half since I last talked to her. I'm sure she's going to ask me about…

"Nothing. So what happened?" Not wasting any time I see. My girlfriend for a year and 4 months and I broke up in May. I lived with her for 1 year and two months. So yes, 2 months in the relationship, we moved in together. I thought that it would be beneficial for me to live with her since she lived closer to my work than my parents. Plus, the stress of my parents' nagging was getting to me. After we broke up, I decided to move back to my parents' place.

"It was just not working out. Every time we come over to visit mom and pop, she would just sit there bored as hell. She won't start a conversation with them, and mom and pops just don't want to talk to her." I sighed. "No matter what I tried to do, it wasn't getting any better. You know me though, family comes first. And the thought of the person I cared about not getting along with my family made me subconsciously change my personality."

"What do you mean?" she probed.

"This is coming from mom and pops. And I quote: 'You are quiet, not smiling, and reserved. Whenever you come over alone, you are yourself again.'" I explained.

"Wow. That's a lot coming from them. It must have been a drastic change for you for them to even notice it." Sakura commented. "So what are you up to now?"

"Just been working. I got the promotion that I applied for. 54 raise!" I smiled.

She squealed, "Congratulations! I'm so happy for you. But I was talking about your love life."

"Non-existent."

"Oh," she said intelligently. "But that's ok. Who knows? Maybe someone you have known for a while might pop up and you'll start talking again."

'Huh? What is she talking about someone I've known for a while?' I thought.

"What do you mean? Do you know something that I don't?" millions of possibilities racing through my mind as far as what she was talking about.

"No. I was just saying that it might happen." she responded enigmatically. After that response, she refused to keep talking about what she meant. We just spoke about what happening currently with her. After a few minutes we decided to part ways until the next time either she or I call.

Her words were on my mind for a couple more days until I got wrapped up in my work. I became a corporate trainer for a big company based in Nerima. Apparently, my skill of teaching others through the Art transitioned to other things as well. The routine started out easy enough. I woke up at 6am to shower and left for work at around 6:30am. I got to work at 7am which I work until 5pm. After 5pm, I go home, take care of the things I need to take care of and I go to sleep at 10:30pm to 11pm.

July 31, 2006; 5:21pm

I was on my way home when pops called me.

"Hey, guess who I saw at the mall," teased my old man. He goes to the mall to walk around. He calls that exercise but I call it babe watching. I decided to humor him.

"Who," I asked flatly?

"Akane…"

At that moment in time, the words of my sister started repeating in my head.

'Who knows? Maybe someone you have known for a while might pop up and you'll start talking again.'

"Akane? How is she," I inquired?

"She apparently still works at that restaurant you and Kenji went to all the time." Pops replied. "She looked good. Lost a little bit of weight from the last time I saw." Akane had some baby fat while we were in Furinkan. But for me, appearances don't matter. I'm not going to lie though; I have to be attracted to them in order for me to hold an interest in pursuing a relationship. The only thing that matters to me is where the person's heart lies. A person can be beautiful, but can also be ugly on the inside. That kind of people turns me off.

"Did she say anything else?" I prompted.

"No, she just told me that she says hi. Hey, I have to go. I have some more 'walking' to do."

"All right pops. Talk to you when you get home." I said distractedly with my thoughts running rampant on the different possibilities on how Akane is. I dropped the call and drove home in silence.

July 31, 2006; 6:09pm

I took my keys out of my pocket to unlock the door only to discover that the door swung open to reveal my brother with a huge grin on his face.

"What's up Kenji," I asked him as I squeezed past him to remove my shoes.

"Ranma, you've been asking me what I want to do for my birthday, right?" My brother and I usually go out for his birthday. My treat of course since he's a poor college student and I am the one with the full-time job.

"Why don't we go to that restaurant again? I've missed that place and the food. Who knows, maybe you'll see someone there," my brother smiled. Looking into his eyes, I knew that somehow, he got wind of pops seeing Akane. Pops and his big mouth.

"Sure. I could use some good food. We'll go on Tuesday so it's exactly on your birthday," I concluded the conversation as I made my way upstairs to my room.

August 3, 2006; 4:36pm

'24 minutes left,' I counted as I looked up at the clock on my computer at work. It seems that my whole body cannot sit still from the idea of seeing Akane again. 'It's been so long. Is she going to recognize me? Does she still remember me?'

I absently type more words on the document I was composing all the while thinking of the different possibilities of our first meeting in four years. Four years is a long time for someone to forget about someone they once knew in high school. A lot can happen. People change as the seasons change.

'Is she still the same Akane that I know? The sweet Akane that always thinks of her friends. The Akane that likes to smile and laugh a lot.' I look up at the clock again. 15 minutes left. 'Screw it. This is the first time I left early and they're not going to say anything to me,' I decided as I shut off my computer and left to go home.

August 3, 2006; 5:40pm

"Stupid traffic," I muttered as I strolled in my room to change for tonight's event. I emptied the pockets of my pants and went into the closet to look for a nice shirt and jeans to wear. I chose a black polo shirt with stone wash jeans. I quickly changed and went out of room to look for Kenji. He was downstairs playing Winning Eleven 7 on the XBOX 360.

"Hey, you hungry yet?" I asked my brother as he busily controlled Robbie Keane trying to score a goal.

"A little. But let me finish this game and then we can go." he responded without taking his eyes off the TV. I sat down on the couch and watched him play his game, all the while my leg twitching in the anticipation of seeing Akane.

After a few minutes, he finally won his game against Arsenal, 3 goals to 1. He continued to go around the menu of the game looking at different statistics for his players and also trying to acquire other players for his team.

"Just a minute." he informed me as he tediously checked the statistics of Christiano Ronaldo. I got fed up with waiting as I nonchalantly walked to the TV and shut off the XBOX 360 and looked him straight in the eye.

"Let's go." frustration evident in my voice. He grinned at me and he went to the door to put on his shoes. I stood there hovering over him, impatiently watching as he took his time lacing up his tennis shoes.

After a couple of minutes, he looked up at me and grinned, "Let's go."

August 3, 2006; 5:59

The ride to Juuban was held in silence. Well, silence for me anyways. My brother kept talking about the different scenarios in his soccer game should he acquire the players he wanted for his team and which team he was going to face for the cup in his division. He noticed my nervousness and he tried to get me to talk with him about his soccer game. At this point in time, I held no interest in his game. There was only one prevalent thought in my mind. Any guesses?

My beating of my heart became audible as soon as we took the exit ramp off the highway.

Boom………………..boom………………….boom………………….boom.

The light off the ramp turned green.

Boom…………..boom…………..boom…………boom.

I turned left and waited for another stop light to turn green.

Boom……….boom……….boom………boom.

The light turned green and I switched over to the right lane in preparation of turning right into the road which the restaurant sits.

Boom…….boom…….boom……boom.

I turned into the street and I can see the restaurant looming, inviting me to enter.

Boom…..boom…….boom……boom.

I turned into the parking lot and put my car into park. I stepped out of the car and stood next to it for a minute gazing at the restaurant.

"C'mon aniki. Let's go," invited my brother and I automatically fell into step behind him.

Boom…boom…boom…boom.

Now my ears are ringing from the sheer volume of my heart beating. We stepped into the restaurant and I looked around. I was sure that all the people there can hear my heart beat. The host smiled at us and invited us to sit by the bar. My head swiveled as I tried to see if Akane was there.

There! The door to the kitchen is opening. I can see raven hair and I can hear a woman's voice talking.

Boomboomboomboom.

My heart beat as if I am going to have a coronary as the door slowly opened to reveal Kodachi. I released the breath I didn't know I was holding. Seeing her though made my heart beat even faster. Not from anticipation, but from awkward nervousness. She was a hostess before in this restaurant. There were times when my brother and I came in which she openly flirted with me. Until she asked my how old I was. I was 21 years old at the time in which she flirted with me and she was 24. As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I saw the sheer disappointment on her face. 'I thought you were 26,' she had said as she walked away from me. After that episode, she never really talked to me. I guess now she's working as a server.

She looked my brother and I over and sauntered over to where we were sitting.

"What can I get you boys to drink?" she asked as she leaned over closer to me. I leaned my body away from her and gave my brother a look. The corners of his lips elevated a little and he managed to croak out a Dr. Pepper before he shut his mouth again. I can see his shoulders shake as he tried to suppress his laughter. I used to think that Kodachi was cute and even entertained some thoughts about asking her out. I was in a conundrum though since she has a problem with younger guys, judging from her reaction the last time.

"I'll just have water, thanks." I replied without looking at her and I was giving my brother hand signals to shut up. She gave me a wink and she walked away, adding more movement to her hips as if she was expecting that we were looking. As soon as she was out of earshot, Kenji started laughing out loud. I punched him on the arm as I looked around and apologized to the people who were giving us weird looks.

"What the hell was that, Ranma?" asked my sibling between breaths. It took him several minutes to finally calm down all the while I was glaring at him.

"Remember Kodachi? The chick I told you about that flirted with me and then asked me how old I was? Remember?" I prodded as my Kenji's eyes lit up in recognition.

"Oh yeah. Where she asked you how old you were and when she found out the truth, she walked away. She must not remember you." he surmised.

"Ha-ha, I know I'm easily forgettable. Now she's flirting with me all over again." I sighed in exasperation. My brother suddenly gave me the signal of stop the conversation as Kodachi walked back with a glass of Dr. Pepper and set it down by Kenji and a glass of water which she set down by me. She then took out her notepad and asked,

"So are you boys ready to order?" lifting up her pen in preparation to start taking our orders. Kenji looked at me and mouthed the question 'Boys' to me. I shrugged and looked at the menu as Kenji followed my lead. I pointed out a couple of appetizers and ordered a large entrée for myself and Kenji did the same. She grabbed our menus and proceeded to lay a hand on my shoulder. I looked at her hand and looked into her eyes with a questioning gaze. She just smiled and patted my shoulder then walked away. Kenji saw the whole exchange and shot me a look. I just shrugged and I waved another server to us.

"Hi. Is Akane working today? I'm a friend of hers." I asked a girl with short stature and dark hair. The girl looked up and put a finger on her chin and thought for a minute.

"She's not working today. She works tomorrow so just come back tomorrow," she replied and took off in a hurry.

After that episode, it seemed like everybody in the restaurant approached me, asked me if I was friends with Akane, informed me that she was not working today, and asked me to come back tomorrow. The dinner Kenji and I ate was delicious as expected. After I paid and stood to leave, the bartender just called out saying, "See you tomorrow!" The evening was not a complete bust since my stomach was full. Kenji did not say a word about the situation as he knew I was a little disappointed at not seeing Akane so the ride home was spent in silence.

As soon as we got home, my mom asked me where her food was.

"I didn't know you wanted some." I replied. She gave me a hurt look and said,

"I didn't know I have to call you to bring something back for your mother." I shrugged and I told her that I was going to pick something up for her the next time I go. Concluding the discussion, I went back to my room. Kenji just signaled something to my mom as I was climbing the stairs. I assumed that he let her know what happened.

August 4, 2006; 5:18pm

I was driving home and I thought back to last night. 'Jeez, I'm being an ass to mom. She didn't know what happened so I have to do something today to make it up to her.' I thought as I waited for the car in front of me to move another two feet before stopping. 'Stupid traffic.'

I waited for 20 minutes with the stop and go traffic only for the cars go from 15 mph to 70mph and with no indication of an accident in sight. 'Figures.'

As I was nearing the exit ramp towards Juuban, I debated with myself if I should stop by and pick something up for mom since I was being short with her the previous night. Also, to check if Akane is already at work.

'Screw it. I'm going to get her something.' I thought as I quickly switched lanes effectively cutting off a car that was trying to bypass another car. I sped into the exit ramp as the horn from the car I cut off blared behind me.

August 4, 2006; 5:24pm

I nervously walked up to restaurant, my heart beating quickly again. I stopped in mid-stride and asked myself, 'Why am I so nervous? It's not like she's going to recognize me. Four years is a long time.' I composed myself and slowed my heart beat taking deep breaths. As soon as I felt that I was ready, I opened the door.

Author's notes: Sorry, that's it folks. I am starting to put all the chapters which lead to the eventual meeting. I felt that the chapters were too short and people were getting frustrated from the cliff hangers and that there's no Akane after 4 parts into the story. I will delete the later chapters and will update again sometime the next week. Due to some things happening in my life right now, I am under a lot of stress and also pressed for time. I will make an effort on making the chapters longer and the updates more frequent. To those who reviewed the story, I truly appreciate it. To those with the flames, this is just for fun for me and am not looking to be the next Stephen King. It's a way for me to relieve some stress and kind of tell people of what's going on with me. I understand how you feel and it's ok with me. You don't have to read it if you are trying faults in everything.