Chapter 2: The Difference Between Water and Chocolate

Ryoga looked at the crushed cup in his hand, and let a low growl rise up in his throat.

"Damn that Ranma, why do I let him get me riled up?" He picked up the pieces, putting them aside. He had a small cut on a finger now, which he quickly pressed a bandanna against to stop the bleeding. It wasn't serious, but annoying all the same.

It wasn't that he didn't want to confess to Akane. He did, more then anything. He certainly didn't want Ranma to have her. However, there didn't seem to be much he could do about that lately. Despite what Ranma had said, him and Akane were getting...closer. He could feel it, hear it in Akane's voice, see it in her eyes. The truth hurt, but a part of him still wanted to hope that he had a chance.

His other hand idly went through his coat pockets in search of her picture, but his fingers fell on the wrong one. Pulling out the paper, he was surprised to see a picture of Akari, who knew about his curse and liked him still. Loved him even. Why couldn't he love her back? She was cute, funny, devoted, and interesting. Why did his heart still pine away for Akane?

The zipper to his tent made a sound, and he looked up quickly.

"Who is it?" he asked, his brow creasing. He didn't think it'd be Ranma again, but he could never be sure.

"Knock knock, Ryoga. It's Nabiki Tendo," said a female voice. Akane's sister. Ryoga put away the photo and watched as Nabiki made her way into the tent, more clumsily then Ranma. Making herself quickly comfortable on the bedding, she tucked her legs under herself, resting one hand on the ground.

"Oh. Err, hey, Nabiki. Can I, uh, help you?" He tried to remember a time when he actually had spoken with Nabiki alone, and couldn't remember one. Unsure of how to deal with this visit, he tried to keep his composure and rested his hands on his knees.

"Help me? But I'm not the one who needs help."

"What are you getting at?"

"I'm gonna make this short, Ryoga. You've got a problem, I know. Now normally, I wouldn't go into other's affairs, but this does involve my little sister. I don't want her to get hurt, and having to hurt you would, naturally, hurt her. She's so kindhearted that way."

Nabiki sniffed, and shifted her weight. Panic rose up within Ryoga, without any thought of wanting to contain it. He allowed his hands to ball up into fists, his muscles to tense, and his face to harden.

"You're not going to tell her, are you?"

"Of course not! That would make things complicated. At least, I wouldn't tell her right out. Akane needs to be told the truth, from the source. That being you. No, for this Ryoga, I have another idea...one that will lessen the hurt you need to go through, too."

"Ahh...," said a very satisfied male as he stepped out of the hot bath. Drying off his hair first with a towel, Ranma unplugged the drain with his toe and watched as the still steaming water swirled away.

On his way home, he had been careless and was sprayed with cold water from an old woman who had been watering flowers. Before he knew it, he had been the she again. Ranko, the red-headed, busty, pig-tailed girl. Despite the annoyance of changing, it didn't deter him much this time; he had been on his way home, anyway.

After getting dressed, he stepped out of the bathroom and headed down the hall to Akane's room. He first noticed the empty food dishes on the tray on the floor, and his stomach reminded him that he was hungry.

"Akane ate without me? I didn't take that long," he muttered, walking up to the door and looking at the small plaque on it. It was in the shape of a cute duck, with the name Akane inked in English letters. She always did like cutesy things, despite being a tomboy. Akane was such a contradiction.

"Hey, Akane?" he called, knocking on the door twice, sharply. When ten seconds passed without an answer, he knocked louder.

"Akane? It's me. Are ya in there? You're not mad, are ya?" he called through the wood, and received silence in return. He looked up at the sign once more, debating on what to do. He couldn't just walk into her room...could he? Wouldn't that be an invasion of her privacy? But he didn't even know if she was in there.

"I'm comin' in!" Grabbing the knob, he turned it, pushing the door open slowly.

"Hello?"

No one was there, and he pushed the door all the way, seeing her notes on the desk. When he walked in further, he saw that his notes were piled in the corner as well. Akane's school dress was folded on the edge of her bed.

"Huh. Guess she got sick of waiting," he said, taking a look around. A part of him told him to leave the room, immediately. This was a girl's room, he wasn't supposed to be there. Yet that part in itself made him want to be there. If it was Akane's room, wasn't it different? Or did that make it worse? It was just Akane, after all.

She'd kill me if she found out..

There wasn't much in the room of interest to him, just a bed, and desk. A chair, a dresser, typical bedroom items. A few stuffed animals sat in the corner, and he recognized items that he had given her. Such as the picture frame from Christmas, still sitting on her dresser, and a plushey that he had won for her at the carnival last year. He tried to think of things that she had given him, and couldn't remember if he had kept anything. He had to at least still have the scarf...right? Suddenly wondering if he did or not, he left the room, closing the door behind him and jogging down to the room he shared with his father.

Going straight for the dresser, he opened the drawers and began tearing through them. Winter clothes, summer clothes, fighting clothes, odd pieces he couldn't recognize. Soon clothing littered the floor, but he still hadn't found it.

"C'mon, I gotta still have it...somewhere..."

"Gotta have what, boy?"

Ranma didn't stop, and didn't even turn around. He didn't have to turn around to recognize his father's voice, and he certainly didn't want his father to see his eyes widen.

"My...gi. Ya know, the other one," he said, in a forcefully annoyed voice. He pulled out another few articles and then finally saw it. The scarf was stuffed in the lowest corner of the middle drawer, behind an old pair of pants and a slipper. He sighed with relief at seeing it, and began to put things back in the drawer.

"You mean this one?" asked Genma, his voice suspicious. When Ranma turned around, he saw him pointing to a gi that was hanging up on a hook on the wall, belt and all. Sheepishly, Ranma put a few more articles of clothing away, then walked over to it.

"Yeah, that one. Close the door, will ya Pop? I'm gonna change." Before Genma Saotome had the door half closed, Ranma had his gi on and was opening it again to run out.

"Hey, aren't you going to clean this up?"

"Later! Training's more important, right?" he shot back. He thought he heard his father protest, but couldn't hear what it was.

That was close. If Pop knew I was looking for something Akane gave me, he wouldn't shut up about it. Taking a quick turn, he headed for the front door, wondering what he should do. It'd be odd for him to wait upstairs for Akane in his gi, and he wasn't sure if he should go out looking for her yet. She was probably mad at him anyway, for what he had said earlier. He thought about going back to ask his father if he'd seen her, but decided against it.

"Looks like I'm training then." It felt too quiet to be in the house, anyway. Where was everyone? He hadn't seen Nabiki or Kasumi, and Mr. Tendo didn't appear to be around. He knew his mother was out at their real house, supervising the renovation, and the old freak hadn't been seen in two days. Guess it's just one of those days.

When he got to the dojo, he heard sounds coming from within. Slowly, he opened the door and peered into the familiar room. When he saw who was there, he became quiet and still, watching with a blank expression on his face. It was Akane. For a moment he just watched her, tumbling around in her gi, her hair pulled back with a bandanna. Despite how clumsy she was sometimes, she could be graceful. When she tried. He watched as she sparred her shadow, and then moved on to some mid-air flips. She was getting better at those, lately. When she landed on the fourth time with her back to him, he slipped into the dojo and slid the door shut.

"Who's ther-..Oh, hi Ranma," she said, turning around. Realizing that she didn't appear to be mad at him, Ranma relaxed. She walked to a nearby shelf to pick up a small towel, and began wiping the sweat off of her face.

"Yo, Akane. I thought we were gonna study?" he asked, approaching her. Her face was flushed from the workout, but otherwise she didn't look very winded.

"Sorry, I got tired of waiting and thought I'd come out here for a while. It's hard to sit down for too long. Where were you?"

"With Ryoga. Just took longer then I thought it would." It was the truth, mostly at least. He watched as Akane sat on the floor and began stretching her short legs. Not wanting to have to look down to talk with her, he sat down as well, but didn't stretch. He was too hungry to do any exercises, but he had to stay for a while because of the damned gi and his father.

"Oh. And you changed because you got your clothes dirty?"

"Somethin' like that."

"As long as that's settled."

A sudden noise from the side of the room caused Akane's face to turn, and Ranma looked over as well, wondering if it was his dad coming to berate him about the mess of their bedroom. The door had opened, Nabiki was standing there, an eyebrow raised. Realizing how close they were sitting to each other, Ranma and Akane immediately stood up, backing away from each other a pace.

"So this is what you two do in the dojo all the time. Makes sense," said Nabiki, as though she had just solved a mystery. Sauntering into the room, she stuffed a hand into her pocket, and pulled out a piece of paper.

"We weren't doing anything," said Akane defensively. Wanting to echo her words, Ranma opened his mouth, then immediately shut it. Adding more fuel to Nabiki's fire could be dangerous; if he acted like something had happened, she would probably jump to conclusions. Grunting instead, he looked at the paper that Nabiki was now holding up in front of their faces. Why did Nabiki have to always be so assuming? It frustrated him to no end.

"A note from Ryoga?" asked Akane, taking the piece of paper out of Nabiki's hands. Immediately, Ranma snatched it up and held it above Akane's head to look at it.

"Hey, give that back!" Quickly, Ranma read the note, and frowned. Had Ryoga misinterpreted his words? What the note said was nothing like what he had told Ryoga to do.

"A date? He can't do that! You're not interested anyway, right Akane?" he asked, giving her the paper. She snatched it, giving him one of her don't-push-me looks, and read it over herself.

"I'm sure it's not how it looks. Ryoga doesn't like me that way anyway, he probably just wants to talk." Ranma rolled his eyes. How can she be so dense?

"So you're actually gonna go?" His fists balled up, and he balanced his weight on his toes, waiting for an answer. She looked up from the paper slowly.

"Well I can't just leave him there. He said he'd be waiting, and if I don't show up, he could be waiting all night."

"I could tell him you're not coming."

"Why are you being so helpful, all of a sudden?"

This was getting out of control. All Ryoga had to do was listen to him, just show up and confess to Akane. On Ranma's territory. Under Ranma's control. What was this date crap all about?

"What, I can't be helpful?" he countered, crossing his arms. Nabiki broke in, stepping between the two.

"Now, now, you two. Ranma, why don't you just let her go on this date with Ryoga?" Feeling as though he were now cornered, Ranma stepped back and looked at Nabiki. Her eyes were firm and intent, as though she had other reasons that she wouldn't voice with Akane there.

"Cause...cause he...arg, whatever. Do what you want Akane, it's not like I care." He took a few steps towards the door, waiting for her to call out. She always called out, but this time she was hesitating. That just upset him even more, and he opened the dojo door much more swiftly then need be.

"Ranma!" He stopped, waiting for her to finish. "There's nothing to be jealous over."

"I'm not jealous!" And I'm not, either. But why does she have to do things like that? Is she that thick? Stupid Ryoga...

"You are too! I can tell."

"You can't tell nothin'."

There were a few seconds where he waited before taking a step outside. As soon as he had one foot out the door, Akane began again.

"Ryoga's just a friend. That's it. So don't worry, okay? The date's not for another few days. If you want to study still, you can wait for me in the house, I'll be there soon." Just a friend? Stupid Ryoga. Probably didn't want to have me be around when he told her.

"Who's worryin'? See ya later," he said coldly, waving her off. Closing the door, he headed back to the house, realizing with a sinking feeling that now he really would have to study tonight.

"So what was really going on, sis?" asked Nabiki. Akane had almost forgotten she was there.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. Really. Careful, Nabiki, you're getting as bad as Dad is," she replied. "You were talking with Ryoga, right?" Nabiki blinked, and nodded.

"Sort of. I happened to see him when I was passing by the park. He told me he had a message he wanted to get to you, then handed me this paper."

"Nothing else? It's odd that he'd suddenly want to talk to me. I hope everything's okay," she said, putting the note in her pocket. Maybe it's because of the fight him and Ranma had. Those two idiots, always fighting, she thought, walking towards the door.

"Thanks for passing it on. I'm going to head back to the house now," she said, waving a hand to her sister as she opened the door and walked out.

"Sure."

Akane smiled before closing the door, and half jogged back to the house.

I hope Ranma's over that fit he had, now...idiot, getting jealous over Ryoga.

After entering the main Tendo house, she walked towards the stairway, hearing sounds the kitchen; dishes clattering and liquid being poured into a cup. A quick peek into the kitchen confirmed that Ranma was heating up his food from earlier, and had changed into black pants and a yellow, short sleeved shirt. Nodding to herself, she reasoned that she'd have about ten minutes to change before he would finish. At most, anyway. Quickly, she ran upstairs to do that, taking the tray of dishes with her on the way back.

Once downstairs, she found Ranma still eating in the kitchen. The sight of him, now calmer, made her anxiety over Nabiki's behaviour fade. She had no right to interfere like that, to just walk in and assume, but that moment was past now. Quietly, she watched Ranma for the moment, sitting at the table. He ate a piece of cake and had a glass of water in his other hand; used bowls nearby showed that he had quickly eaten Kasumi's leftovers.

"Hey, almost done?" she asked, putting her tray on the counter. He finished the cake in one bite, and downed the water.

"Am now," he said, then Akane's eyes moved to look at a clock on the wall.

"7 o'clock already. We should get started," she said, watching Ranma reluctantly get up. Nodding, she turned around headed to her room, hearing Ranma follow. He's not trying to get out of it? she thought, amazed. He usually did, unless his mother was around. Nadoka Saotome was the only person who could do anything close to bossing around Ranma.

"Yeah, yeah," she heard Ranma say, but he still followed her into her room. They studied for almost an hour before Ranma left, and not another word about Ryoga or the date was voiced.