If We Were 3

- Chapter 10

Growing Affections

6 years

She was moving so fast that the chill air stung her face. However; she didn't let that stop her. She kept moving hopping from branch to branch as fast as her legs would alow. She kept her focus and didn't let anything sway her. She noticed the shadows following behind her and pushed herself to move faster.

The shadow figure was moving in quickly, a little too fast for her liking. She tried to push her legs to go further and faster, but it was starting to burn. Work through it she thought as she kept going. She wondered if the figure had gotten any closer and chanced a look behind her. A big mistake as she suddenly collided with something hard. She fell to the ground and landed with a thud.

"OOWww!" She cried, rubbing her head.

"You two really should watch where your going."

She looked up to find a girl with long dark navy blue hair, wearing a black gi tied together with a black sash.

"What are you looking at me for? Ranma's the one who should watch where he's going." She backfired as she glanced over to the boy she had collided with. He was aswell rubbing his head in an attempt to soothe the pain. He shot a glare at her and replied.

"Oh please, you were the one who was looking back at Akane not me."

"Oh come on you guys," Akane began. "Let's just call it a draw and head back to camp. I'm starved!" Akane said as her stomach growled a little bit.

"Fine." They both agreed as they got up and headed back.

"I'm not bleeding, am I?" Ukyo questioned as she searched her head for red liquids.

"No, your perfectly fine." Akane said removing Ukyo's hand from her head.

"If anyones bleeding it's me. Man how fast were you going?" Ranma asked searching his own head for any traces of blood.

"Faster than you I bet." She smirked.

"Oh yeah, we'll just see about that. Race you back to camp!" Called out as he flew of into the woods.

"Oh you're on!" Ukyo replied, as she followed.

"Wait for me!" Akane called trying to catch up. Speed had never been one of her advantages. She was a lot better with balance and strength. She had to push herself pretty hard to catch up with those two.

When she finally arrived at camp the two were arguing over who got there first.

"Oh please, I was at least 5 centimeters ahead of you." Ukyo exclaimed.

"In your dreams, I beat you by a landslide." Ranma replied.

It was kind of funny to watch those two go at it like that. There always fighting about who is the best, and Akane didn't know why, but for some reason it kind of bothered her. It's not that she feels excluded, because that's definitely not the case. Ukyo and Akane spend almost all of their time together and she loves to talk to Ranma whenever he's around. It's something different. Seeing the two quarrel as if...as if they were a couple. She didn't want to admit that she was jealous, probably because she didn't believe she was or rather refused to believe it. She wanted to be happy for them. Her two best friends getting together. She should be happy not upset.

"Breakfast time!"

Everyone instantly turned towards Genma who had three containers filled with food. He quickly tied all of them on the very top of the tallest trees he could find. The trio looked at each other with a grin and sprinted towards their own container of food. They were all sitting down and eating within 30 seconds.

Genma had to admit it was getting harder to keep their food away from them during meal times. Soon he probably won't even bother. He'll just let them have the food without a struggle.

6 years had passed and the children were now eleven years old. They were growing up fast, and things were quickly changing. It was becoming harder and harder to get away with things now that the kids were smarter and knew better. By this time he had hoped to be rid of Ukyo, but that hadn't worked out so well. Every time he tried to ditch her somewhere the other two would stand their ground and refuse to go on without her, or she would just track them down herself. She had become aware of the fact that Genma wanted to get rid of her very early in the game and it made getting rid of her all that much harder. Eventually he just gave up. Hopefully things would turn out okay.

"Were all out of water." Ranma said as he went to get a drink.

"Then let's go get some more." Ukyo said, taking the bucket from Ranma. Ranma turned back to Akane who had stopped packing up her things and was now looking at the two.

"We'll be right back." He simply stated as he quickly followed after Ukyo.

Akane sighed as she turned back to one of the diaries she had. She had so many by now and they took up most of the space in her bag but, she wouldn't dare get rid of one. All of her memories since day one were stored inside each and everyone of her books.

She dug through her bag and pulled out a really old black notebook that had Akane written in red on the front. She looked at it for a second and smiled. She then continued to open it to the first page. She looked at the poorly drawn picture of Ranma lifting her up on his shoulders so that she could reach the food on the high branch. She then looked down at what she had written beside it. 'best frends. She smiled at the memory, then looked back to where Ranma and Ukyo had disappeared to. Maybe she was jealous?

Ranma and Ukyo were making their way through the trees to where the stream was running. Ukyo kept looking over to where Ranma was. It had been seven years since the both met and became friends and six since they were engaged. They hadn't really understood what that ment at the time, but when they found out it had put a lot more pressure on the two. Sure Ukyo really liked Ranma, but did she really want to marry him?

They finally got to the stream after 5 minutes of walking. Ranma knelt down with the bucket and started to fill it up with water.

"Ranma?" Ukyo finally spoke. Ranma looked up at her, then stood up when the bucket was full, and handed it to her.

"Yeah?" He replied as he started for the trees again.

"Do you like me?" She asked, a little nervous about the whole thing.

"Sure I do." Ranma replied with no hesitation.

"right well I mean do you like like me?" She asked again, trying to get her point across. Ranma didn't stop walking, but he did tighten up a bit.

"What do you mean?" He asked not sure if he heard right.

"I mean can you see us with a future together?"

"I don't know, maybe? I mean I always heard that you're supposed to marry the person you fall in love with, but I don't really know what love is I mean I'm just 11 years old." He exclaimed as they got closer to camp.

"I guess you have a point." Ukyo sighed as she looked down at her feet.

"I mean it ain't that I don't like you or nothin. it's just I kinda have to grow up a little more to be certain of how I really feel for you." He added as he noticed her disappointed look.

"It's fine, I understand." She replied with a half-hearted smile.

When they got back to camp most of their stuff had been packed up. Genma was going over some old scrolls while Akane was practicing katas on the other side of the clearing. Ukyo really thought that Akane looked super graceful. She was like a giselle or a swan.

She continued to walk to the fire pit she noticed that Ranma was no longer beside her. She looked back to find him still standing by the trees staring at Akane. Ukyo looked back to her than back to Ranma. Maybe growing up had nothing to do with it? She could see the look in his eyes as he continued to watch her every move. It was like he was captivated by her. But who could blame him? She was quite beautiful. With her soft pale skin, her long blue hair, and her warm chocolate-brown eyes. Maybe Ranma already knew what it felt to love someone and he didn't even know it.

Ukyo turned around and headed straight to the fire pit to boil the water. As soon as everyone had a drink they quickly packed everything up and headed back out.