"Again!"
*splash*
"Again!"
*splash*
"AGAIN!"
*splash*
"Akane, calm down! You're never going to learn at this rate."
"You can do it! If you can do it, I know I can learn! Let me at those fish!"
"Akane, you're trying to cook, not spar..."
Akane Tendou looked down at herself in disgust. Her clothes were soaked through with water, and sprinkles of random cooking ingredients. Absently she licked her lips, then winced. I didn't even know we had vinegar with us...
In fact, the entire campsite was a mess. With a sigh, Akane began cleaning. It was a good thing Ranma had given up and gone to fetch some water from the river; she wouldn't have wanted him to see this.
They'd been traveling together for almost two weeks. It wasn't that bad. Almost...nice. They talked a lot: Ranma told lots of stories about when he and his Dad had traveled through the world, and Akane talked about her life before they'd showed up. The fights were kept down to a minimum. Ranma was trying really hard, she had to give him that much. He didn't insult her too often, and she wasn't as defensive. They were almost acting like a team.
Almost.
They'd done a whole lot of sparring, and she thought that maybe she was regaining the edge she'd had back when she'd been fighting all the boys in her school every morning. True, she was only working with one opponent, but Ranma was so quick that he sometimes seemed to be everywhere at once, all on his own. For once she was glad. He hadn't been insulting her martial arts either. He was critical, but he also helped show her what she was doing wrong. It was a nice change.
The cooking lessons weren't going too well, though.
Akane smiled to herself; that was an understatement. Most of the little fights they'd had were over her cooking. She wasn't an idiot- she knew how bad her cooking was. She just wished people would give her a chance.
Though after the week she'd spent living off of nothing but her own cooking, she couldn't really blame them for not wanting to.
Ranma had agreed to try and help teach her the basics of cooking, on the condition that she try anything she made before offering it to him. She was beginning to regret agreeing to that, though- not just the tasting, but the lessons in general. He was much better at teaching her martial arts.
Akane glared at the pile of various ruined foods she'd collected, and threw it onto the fire. A horrible, acidic, smoky smell emerged. She started choking, and backed away quickly, the smoke drawing tears to her eyes.
Damn. I'm never going to get the hang of this. What am I doing wrong?
"Geez, Akane, what's that smell?"
She looked up to see Ranma on the other side of the campfire, holding a a string of fish and looking warily at the fire.
She sighed again. "Nothing. Will you cook the fish? I'm gonna go wash off these clothes."
"Uh, yeah, sure. Snag some more firewood while you're gone, will ya? I want to try something." He busied himself with finding clean cooking supplies. "There's a river only five or so minutes that way-" he pointed vaguely to the left. "Not even...uh, that is, y'can't miss it."
"'Kay. I won't be gone long." Akane wandered off into the forest, thinking.
I'll bet he was about to say that even Ryouga could've found it. We've both been avoiding talking about anybody back home. Not much of a surprise, I guess...they're what we always used to fight about. Ryouga, Shampoo, Ukyou, P-chan...it was always something. This is kinda nice, but how long is it going to last? Sooner or later, one of them's going to catch up with us.
Besides, I'm not staying away forever. I do miss my family.
Then she remembered the way Nabiki was always taking advantage of every situation, her father's tendency to break into tears for the stupidiest reasons, Kasumi's obliviousness...her mother's absense...
Well, maybe not too much. I love them, but...I needed a break.
Maybe they do, too, sometimes. Maybe they've got their own ways of getting away.
She looked up. It was a beautiful night. Dark, very dark, but beautiful... the trees were so tall that not much moonlight managed to seep through the branches, and what little moonlight there was caused more shadows than light. She'd gotten used to finding her way through dark forests, though. And she could hear water ahead of her.
She almost tripped over it in the dark; it was more a stream than a river, really. The one thing Akane really missed about Nerima was being able to take a bath. She kept hoping to find a lake, or even just a larger stretch of river; something large enough to bathe in. But not deep enough to drown in! she thought quickly, remembering her terror of deep water. It would be nice to be clean- or rather, as clean as one could get without using soap or shampoo. But so far, no such luck...Akane sighed. She'd snagged a spare set of clothes on her way out of the camp, and pulled them on. On a whim she dunked as much of her head into the stream as she could, washing off the sweat that had accumulated while she was cooking. She pulled her head out of the water and stared at it thoughtfully; a small fish darted by as she watched.
The nights are getting colder. Pretty soon, we'll have to go back. Maybe Ranma's survived living outside in the winter, but I don't want to try it.
She shook her head in an attempt to dry her hair. Hmm. My hair's getting longer...it's been a while since I thought of cutting it, even before I started on this trip. It was short enough so that even a month of growing makes a noticeable difference, I guess.
Maybe I'll grow it out. I sometimes miss having long hair. 'Sides, I'm sure not gonna ask Ranma to try cutting it, and I can't do it myself.
What am I doing?
Akane pursed her lips. Friends. We're friends. Sure, when we get back, everyone will either try to marry us off right away or make sure we never see each other again, but we're friends. Not fiancees, not anything, just friends. That's all I wanted, right? After all, I hate boys. I'm never getting married, or at least not for a good long while. I just wanted to be friends with him.
Right?
Damn, I really don't know anymore. He's trying so hard to be nice...really, he is being pretty nice. He could've just picked me up and dragged me back home. He even apologizes lately when he says something stupid. So do I. I guess things are going okay.
Why am I not sure, all at once?
Akane tossed her head one more time. Hmph. Wonder why he wants the extra firewood? We usually don't need a fire burning all night, and it'd be silly to have me train by breaking it into logs or something. He already knows I can do that.
Guess I'll find out.
Ranma sat in front of the fire, contemplating and lightly tossing an acorn up into the air and catching it with his right hand, munching on a piece of fish in his left. He didn't have a clue what sort of fish it was, but it tasted pretty good. Geez, you'd think that after spending ten years living in the wild, I'd know the names of more plants and animals and things than I do. Pop was never too good at that, though. And I wasn't too interested either. But it'd be handy to know what a thing was, instead of just being able to guess if it was poisonous or not.
What's takin' Akane so long? She's gotta be starving; she spent hours trying to make dinner. He shuddered. I can't believe that her cooking hasn't improved at all! She should stick to sparring and getting firewood and other stuff. How's she supposed to improve her skills if she comes down with a stomachache every night?
Well, maybe tonight's lesson will help. Or maybe it'll just get my head bashed in if she can't figure out how to do it...
"Hey, Ranma, here's that extra firewood. What's it for?"
Ranma took a deep breath. Well, here goes nothin'. "Bring it over here, Akane. We're gonna try something."
With a quizzical look on her face, Akane dropped the firewood next to Ranma and sat down.
Ranma threw another branch on the fire, which flared up and burned more brightly than before. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out several small rocks, and tossed them on top of the fire. "Okay, Akane. You've seen me do this before, but pay attention anyway."
He focused his attention, and his hands moved like lightning. Within two seconds he had pulled all the rocks off of the fire. His hands weren't burned at all.
He grinned and tossed one of the pebbles into the air lightly. "Tenshen Amigurikan. We haven't got any chestnuts out here, so these will have to do."
Akane's eyes boggled. "You want me to try that???"
"Akane, you're already pretty strong. What you really need to work on is speed. I've been helping you develop that since we started this trip. You're still not as fast as you need to be, though- nowhere near as fast as you could be- and trying this will help. I doubt you'll be able to master it for a while, but just practicing it should help you get faster. After that, everything'll get a lot easier." She still looked doubtful. He threw the small rocks back on the fire. "Just give it a shot."
Akane eyed the fire warily and took a deep breath. "Okay." She raised her hands; her eyes narrowed in concentration. "Tenshen Amigurikan... YOWTCH!!!" She blew at her hands furiously; they were slightly burned. "Damn."
Ranma handed her a bucket of water, smiling. "I said it wouldn't be easy."
She thrust her hands into the water, which steamed slightly. "Ow. How long did it take you to master this?"
"A couple'a days, I think. Though I only got it when I tried with the fish, remember?"
"Yeah. Okay. Again." Her hands reached towards the fire, and came back almost immediately. "Ow!!!" She dunked them into the bucket for a few seconds. "Again."
"Ow!" *splash* "Again."
"Ow!" *splash* "Again!"
"OW!" *splash*
"Akane, that's enough. You'll really get hurt if you keep this up."
Akane blew on her hands, which were very red. She glared at him. "You're getting even for all the times I malletted you, aren't you."
Ranma forced himself not to grin. "Hey, if you don't want to learn the technique, we can go back to practicing other stuff..."
"I'll get it."
"I know you will."
Akane looked up and stared at him, a perplexed expression on her face. After a moment, she started blushing. Ranma felt his cheeks get hot and realized he was probably blushing, too. "So, uh, yeah, I guess that's it for tonight, right? We'll get back to work in the morning. See ya then, 'kay?" He all but ran for his tent, stumbling into his sleeping bag.
Geez, why'd I do that? That was dumb; she's probably pissed 'cause I left all the cleaning up to her...but damn, she's cute when she blushes. Wonder what she was thinking?
Ranma heard the clanging of pots and pans being stacked together, and smiled to himself. Yep. She's at least a little pissed, or else she wouldn't be makin' so much noise.
She's doing pretty well...learning even faster than I usually do. I wouldn't be surprised if she picks up the Chestnut Fist in a few days. Just like me. Cologne said it took most warriors a year to master, and that I must either be stubborn or brilliant to get it so quick. He grinned. With Akane, it's probably both. She's a good student, now that she doesn't lose her temper all the time. I didn't think I'd have this much fun. Why weren't things ever like this between us before?
Oh yeah; 'cause someone was always interrupting, or she was hitting me, or my foot was in my mouth. Another loud *clang!* caught his attention, and he grinned. Okay, so I still sometimes put my foot in my mouth, but anyway, life is good.
I'll have her try that technique with fish tomorrow, instead of hot small rocks; maybe that'll be easier for her...
Before long, Ranma had drifted into sleep.
"Hey Ranma, let's stop here, okay? I'm hungry, and this is a nice place."
Ranma smiled to himself They'd been traveling for another two days, with Akane stopping at every possible opporunity to try- again- to master her new technique. So far, she still wasn't making any progress. It was much earlier in the day than when they usually broke camp, and he wasn't fooled at all by her reasons for wanting to stop now. On the other hand, he knew that in her position, he'd do the same thing.
Good thing nobody's been following us, near as I can tell. It'd be easy to keep track of all the campfires we've been leaving behind! "Sure thing, Akane," he responded, dropping his backpack onto the ground. "You go snag wood for a fire while I set up camp, okay?"
"Okay." Akane eagerly dropped her own backpack to the ground and skipped off into the woods. Ranma busied himself with setting up their two tents, clearing a place between them and setting up a circle of rocks in which to build a fire, and finding the ingredients for their dinner that night. Before too long, Akane returned carrying a bunch of dead, broken branches. She placed them inside the ring of rocks that Ranma had made, and sat down in front of them. She picked out two of the smaller branches and started rubbing them together, as fast as she could manage. That was an idea she'd had the day before: that if she rubbed two sticks together quickly enough, the friction would make them catch on fire. That way, they could save matches, and she'd get more practice at moving her hands quickly. Ranma was proud of her for thinking of that- he never would've- even though it hadn't worked yet.
"Hey!" Akane cried out suddenly. Ranma turned to see that this time, a small fire had started on one of the branches, which Akane quickly thrust into the rest of the pile of wood. Before long, a cozy fire was burning.
"Not bad, Akane!" Ranma applauded her. "Your speed must be improving."
Akane smiled brightly. "Maybe this time..."
"Give it a shot. I'll fix us some grub."
Ranma couldn't help but smile wryly to himself as his cooking was interrupted sporatically by sharp yelps of pain. She never knows when to quit... He grinned. Kinda like me. Heh. "C'mon, Akane, that's enough for now. You don't want to injure your hands, right? And didn't you say you were hungry?"
He looked back to see Akane staring at her reddened hands glumly. "I'm never going to get this, Ranma."
"Sure you will. You're just getting started."
"Whatever. That river should still be nearby; I want to dunk my hands for a few minutes. They hurt."
He tossed a bucket at her. "Bring some water back with you; my canteen's nearly empty."
She caught it automatically, then winced, glaring at her reddened hands. Biting her lip in frustration, she walked off. Ranma watched after her, remembering how often he'd burned his hands when he was trying to learn the Chestnut Fist technique and feeling almost sympathetic.
But hey, what fun is martial arts without a little challenge, right?
Whistling, he unwrapped two fish that they'd caught earlier in the day. After inserting two sharpened sticks carefully through them, he held them over the fire. Before long the smell of cooked food was making his mouth water. Walking all day is hungry work! He grinned to himself and began eating one of the fish. Not bad. Definitely not Kasumi's cooking, but it'll keep us going.
She's been gone a while, he realized suddenly. I thought she said she'd only be a few minutes.
Ranma waited a while, but Akane didn't return. He began to get worried, and considered his options. I can go look for her, or I can stay. It'd probably be better to stay; I can't leave the fire unattended, and building it up again is always a hassle. Besides, it's probably nothing.
Still...
Muttering under his breath about stupid tomboys getting themselves in trouble, Ranma kicked the fire into oblivion and wandered in the direction Akane had gone. He found the river within minutes; they'd been following it closely, so that they'd always have a source of water handy. But Akane was nowhere in sight. He looked around carefully for signs that she'd been there, and didn't see any offhand. Scowling, he walked along the edge to see if she was nearby.
His ears picked up something; the sound of the water was changing gradually. The river was growing a bit wider, its current a bit more rushed.
It probably flows into a lake somewhere along here. Oh man, for all I know that idiot's gotten herself drowned!
He pushed a branch out of his way with one hand, and reached up to wipe the sweat off of his face with the other, and froze partway through the motion. He stared, not daring to move, at the scene before him.
His guess was accurate; the river emptied into a small body of water in a clearing. The moon was three-quarters full, and there was more than enough light for him to see clearly by.
Akane was floating at the edge the lake, her hair flowing with the water, her face turned towards the sky. Her skin was pale, almost glowing in comparison to the dark water around her. With a sigh, she ducked under for just an instant, making a little splash; then she stood up and walked out of the water.
Ranma could only watch in wonder, his mind reeling...the grace of her movements, her beauty in the moonlight, that sad half-smile on her face...her hair had been growing long again; it covered her neck...she looked almost mysterious, older than the teenager he knew. He watched, fascinated, as drops of water wound their way down her skin, as she leaned over to pick up the clothes she'd left on the bank.
Maybe a branch snapped under his foot, or maybe she heard the sound of his heart pounding. For whatever reason, she chose that moment to look up.
Their eyes met.
Akane froze for a minute, then- slowly- she picked up the shirt she had been reaching for and stood up again, without ever letting her eyes leave his. She looked at him, without moving again, for what seemed like an eternity.
Ranma's mind had taken a vacation. Carefully, he backed up several steps, then turned and walked in the opposite direction. He didn't pay attention to where he was going, and missed the camp entirely. Eventually he sat down in the middle of the woods, leaning back against a tree. Again, he reached up a hand to wipe the sweat off of his forehead.
It was only then that he noticed his hands were shaking.
After he'd left, Akane remained standing by the edge of the water, the towel gripped tightly in her hands. Why are my hands shaking? she thought, in an odd mix of curiosity and calmness. She was amazed at how detached she felt. She wondered if she should be angry.
Ignoring her trembling hands, she quickly dried off and put her clothes back on. I wonder what he was thinking...
What am I thinking???
She bit her lip, trying desperately to puch the mental images out of her mind, but it didn't work very well. Her entire body was tingling.
Something had changed- finally, absolutely changed. She didn't know how she knew, but she did.
Oh lord, what do I do now?
Yes, I know that Akane can't swim, is terrified of deep water, sinks like a brick with an elephant attached, etc...this water is not that deep. In fact, if she stood up, it would probably not even be past her knees. (of course it gets deeper the further into the lake you go, but she wouldn't do that) She was desperate for a bath, and I was desperate for a good clear moment of romantic tension. So there! *Gryn*
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