Chapter 2

Chapter 2

And promptly bumped into Kasumi, who had been standing outside the door. She had come home only a few minutes before and had been about to knock on Akane's door, when Ranma came out.

"Oh dear," Kasumi said gently, at the sight of Ranma's anguished face. 'There must be something more going on here then just the usual stuff,' Kasumi thought. She didn't move for awhile, trying to decide the right thing to do, finally she knocked on the door.

Akane stiffened, for a small second, she thought it was Ranma again, then she heard Kasumi's voice quietly asking,

"Akane, is everything all right? May I come in?" Akane took a long breath, trying to steady her voice,

"Yes, come in." Kasumi entered, her eyes took in the room, Akane standing in the middle of the room, chest heaving with emotion; there was the hole in the ceiling that looked very similar to the many holes that often popped up in the Tendo household; and then that large chunk of wall missing, showing that Shampoo had been to visit.

"Oh dear," Kasumi sighed. She went over to Akane, put a hand on her shoulder and asked gently, "what happened here?" Akane sank to the floor, unable to support herself upright any longer. And told the whole story.

She explained what she had overheard in the classroom. She told about how she run into the trashcan and then ran blindly outside, and down the street. She explained how she had come home and tried breaking some blocks, only to find that her concentration wasn't up to the job and she only ended up hurting herself. Then she repeated the conversation with Ranma, glossing over a few bits, emphasizing others, finally she ended with Ranma's inability to kiss her and her ordering him out of her room.

"Oh dear," Kasumi sighed in several places, after Akane had finished she asked, "so, what are you going to do now?" Akane looked at her, brow furrowed and answered,

"I don't know. It's so confusing, I'm getting so many different signals. First he tells Ukyo that he doesn't want to marry me, then when I offer him the chance not to marry me, he says he won't leave until I give him a kiss. But he is… he can't kiss me!" Akane finished in a rush, burying her face in her hands and bursting out in fresh tears. "I don't know what to do! Help me Kasumi!" Akane was getting hysterical.

"Well," began Kasumi, "the first thing is for you to decide whether or not you want to end the engagement." Akane slowly raised her head and looked at Kasumi in wonder.

In the Dojo, Ranma was going through an intricate series of complicated maneuvers, attempting to relieve some of his frustration. "Why, why?" He said over and over again. "Why do I screw everything up? Why can't I just tell her, show her… how much… how much she means to me? I don't want to end our engagement, do I?" Ranma sat down cross-legged, barely even out of breath. "Damn it, if I can't even decide what I want, how can I hope to understand what she wants?" He got up again and began to pace around. "She can't want to end this engagement really, can she? Maybe it would be best, I never mean to hurt her, but I always do. Maybe I should take a page out of Ryoga's book and go training for awhile, perhaps when I come back things will make more sense." He stopped walking. "If I'm ever allowed to come back."

Ranma had made up his mind, it wasn't fair to either of them to stay, so he went back to the room he shared with his pop and began to pack. He got out the backpack he always used on training trips and began to put in the basics. When emptying a bottom drawer however, he came across a number of pictures he had hid there. There were about half a dozen of them altogether, all of them of him and Akane.

There was a picture of the two of them when they were at the martial arts skating competition. Akane had looked so beautiful that day, in that cute little outfit, the memory of those few moments when she had squeezed his hand and begged him not to push himself still made his heart skip a beat. Then Ryoga managed to ruin the whole thing as usual. There was a nice one from the production of Romeo and Juliet they had been in together, another time he had been unable to kiss her. Even now the memory of that evening still brought a barrage of emotions. There were a number of others, but the one he really wanted to see was the very last picture in the small pile, the one that no one knew he had. It was the picture had that crazy voodoo guy had taken of them right after Ranma's first cat-fu attack had ended, when he was sitting on Akane's lap, when he had kissed her, without his knowledge. Ranma sighed,

"Too bad that the only times I can kiss her is when I don't know I'm doing it." Ranma held the photographs tightly in his hands and then put them in the bag as well.

Ranma was walking out the door, pack on his back when Kasumi came out. "Ranma!" Kasumi exclaimed. "You aren't leaving without saying good-bye are you?" Ranma turned to her and said,

"I left some notes on the table, one for my pop, one for you, and one for Akane. I thought they would explain the matter."

"Maybe they would, but that wouldn't make the pain any less for Akane," Kasumi said, as gently as possible. Ranma was suddenly indignant,

"Don't you see Kasumi? That's the only reason I'm leaving. I don't want to hurt her anymore. Not until I can figure this out at any rate. I'm leaving, but I'll come back and with any luck, I'll have figured out what's wrong with me. I will have figured out what it is that makes me hurt the one person that I…" Ranma trailed off.

"Oh dear. If you love her, why don't you just tell her?"

"Who said I loved her?" Ranma said with a sneer. He almost immediately regretted his words when he heard,

"Ranma you jerk!" And felt the large mallet come down painfully on his head. "Just how many ways can you find to torment me?" Yelled a very angry Akane, her battle aura flaring.

"I'm sorry Akane," Ranma said, in a small, defeated tone. "I wish that I could have left without hurting you again, but I seem to be doomed to be idiot." Ranma turned to her, stood up, and continued, "I said I wouldn't leave until I got a kiss from you, but seeing as how I seem unable to do even that, I should probably leave without one." Akane was astonished. He looked into her eyes for a few minutes, trying desperately to memorize her face, knowing that he probably wouldn't see it for a long time, then he turned to go, but Akane grabbed his sleeve and said,

You know what Ranma?" Ranma turned to her again, but said nothing however, his eyes showed the confusion that he didn't verbalize. "I am tired of this game." Then Akane grabbed the collar of his Chinese shirt with both hands and pressed her lips against his.