Nothing is Easy
Part 2 - Small Talk and Remote Wrestling
By Halen Rains
Akane sat silently in a corner both watching a the people of downtown Nerima rushed
about. On the table before her sat a half eaten banana split that she played with occasionally taking
a small bite. The cool air of the ice cream parlor felt good after her jog away from Furikan, and
the smooth smell of the 54 flavors didn't hurt any.
*"I can't even say that shit to myself."* Akane's nose wrinkled at that particular part of
Ranma's little rant she'd managed to over hear. She didn't know why it'd hurt her so badly, after
all she didn't care for Ranma that way. At least that's what she kept telling herself. *Then why
does it hurt so bad?* Akane quickly bound and gagged the little voice in her head that tried to tell
her she cared more than she wanted.
"Mind if I join ya?" Akane looked up to see the boy from behind the counter smiling down
at her holding two large milk shakes. Akane returned his smile and motioned for him to sit down
across from her.
"Thanks." He sat down quickly and looked at the two shakes. "I noticed you didn't care
for the banana split so I brought a milk shake instead." He pulled off the paper hat he wore and
stuffed it into his pocket then looked back up at her. "Which do you want, strawberry of
chocolate?" He noticed Akane's hesitant look and grinned. "On the house."
Akane thought for a second then took the chocolate and took a quick drink. She watched
as he did the same with the strawberry.
"Akane Tendo." She extended her hand across the table to him.
"Gomen nasai. Keichi Hasamura." He took her hand and shook it then returned to
drinking his milk shake. "You look a little young to be outta school at this time of day. Skipping?"
Akane blushed slightly and looked into her shake.
"Hai." She out the window again and frowned.
"Now that doesn't suit you." Keichi turned to look as someone started to enter the store
then decided otherwise. "God, it's been so slow lately." He looked at her and shrugged. "You'd
think with summer on its way that I'd be bogged down." He leaned back in the seat and took
another drink from his shake. "But hey I'm still getting paid."
Akane laughed and examined him while he looked away. He looked to be around twenty
or so and decent looking, not as good looking as Ranma of course, somewhere on the level with
Ryoga. His rough blond hair stood at odd angles from the hat.
"So?" Keichi sat his milkshake back on the table and looked at her closely. After a second
of staring at her he noticed her blush darken and laughed. "Boy trouble?"
"Hmm..." Akane's face slipped to annoyed. "How did you guess?"
"Well. When you work in a ice cream parlor, you hear a lot of high school kids talking. I
kinda picked up on what look matches what story over time. You've got that classic "I just got
dumped" look to you." Keichi grinned at her and laughed again.
"My... fiancé, said he doesn't know how he feels about me."
Keichi face faulted and shook his head.
"Incredible, I'm 19 and I can't even get my girlfriend to... and high school students are
already engaged." He picked up his shake and gulped down around half of it then clutched his
head in pain.
Akane giggled and waved her hands.
"I didn't wanna get engaged to him. Our parents forced us into it." Akane took a drink of
her shake then looked down at the puddle that had been her banana split.
"That sucks." Keichi straightened out again when his headache passed. "But you do
wanna be engaged now don't ya?"
Rhye stat down in the booth connected the theirs and sat back to listen. He closed his eyes
and yawned loudly.
"No!" Akane swung her hand exaggeratedly and accidently knocked Keichi's shake over
into his lap. "Oh, I'm so sorry."
Keichi waved her off then untied and removed his apron which had caught most of the
drink.
"Don't worry about it, happens all the time." He sat the apron down on the seat next to
him and looked into his cup sadly. He forgot what he'd been talking about and leaned back in the
booth.
"Still playing guardian angel, Rhye?" A handsome young man appeared in the booth
across from Rhye. His long brown hair hung loosely, pulled back behind his ears to keep it out of
his face, and light golden eyes watched the older angel closely for any signs of aggression.
"Castor. To what do I owe this unexpected visit?" Rhye frowned when he noticed the
clothing the archangel wore.
Castor half smiled at Rhye then popped his knuckles.
"Do I need an excuse to visit an old friend?"
"Lately... yes." Rhye reached into his coat and pulled out a small fruit and began to take
small bites from it.
"Someone has decided they wanna fuck with the system. Whatever they did has caused
some major ripples, noone knows how it got this bad without anyone noticing." A small sake cup
appeared in Castors hand and he began to sip from it slowly. "Not to mention the pretty boy has
gone a-wall." Castor sneered and took another sip of his sake.
"Erock." Rhye laughed as images of Castor and Erock yelling at each other flashed into
his eyes. "What does that fool think he's doing?"
"Noone knows, that's why I'm here. They wanted you... but Lailos relayed your
message." Castor finished his sake and made the cup vanish. "You and her ever make up?"
Rhye nodded, a smile creeping onto his face. Castor noticed and raised an eyebrow.
"You know the council doesn't approve of stuff like that." Castor suddenly began to
picture Lailos. She was by far the most beautiful of the goddesses, her natural beauty enhanced by
the fiery nature she'd learned from Rhye. Not many beings could admit they didn't fantasize about
her, only her father and Rhye.
"You know me better than that." Rhye didn't sound amused and his silver eyes began to
glow to add emphasis to the statement. "She will always be my student as long as the council sits
in power, nothing more."
Castor nodded and smiled sympathetically. *Poor Rhye. Always honor first.* He rose
from the booth and took a few steps then stopped and turned back to Rhye.
"Something is going to happen soon, Rhye. Since noone knows the cause of the damage,
it's going to be very hard to fix." Castor faded out as he spoke and vanished the moment his last
word was formed.
"Happy hunting Castor." Rhye growled lowly then turned his attention back to Akane
and Keichi.
"...and then his other fiancé's crashed the wedding tossing bombs around." Akane took a
long deep breath after finishing her story. Telling it someone really did help her notice a few
things she'd missed while it was actually happening.
Keichi shook himself and scratched his head.
"All that stuff really happened?" Keichi shrugged when Akane nodded. "And you think he
doesn't at least like you?" Keichi rolled his eyes and laid his head down on his hands. "Somehow I
don't think he'd go through all that hell for someone unless they meant something to him. Damn,
I would have trouble traveling to America to help out my girl, and Ranma fights hydra and giant
birds. Thank Kami she has more realistic standards than you do."
What Keichi had been telling her made sense, at least in a way. Sure Ranma did all that
stuff for his other fiances, but she never noticed him having trouble talking to them. She looked
up at the clock on the wall and jumped.
"I gotta go." She grabbed her purse and started for the door, pushing it open with her
back waving to Keichi. "Thanks."
"No prob." Keichi waved back without lifting his head from the table then closed his eyes.
Rhye stood and walked to the doors to watch Akane running down the street for home
and grinned. *She didn't even need my help.* He stepped out into the street and began walking
with the crowd. *Oh yeah.* He looked back at the ice cream parlor and snapped his fingers.
*Have fun.* Rhye turned away as a huge crowd suddenly began to filter into the store.
Ranma sat in the living room of the Tendo home flipping through tv stations at a slow
pace. To his left Nabiki sat, arms crossed and looking very agitated. She watched as Ranma
surfed through every station twice before her control broke.
"Pick a channel for crying out loud!" Nabiki was suddenly in Ranma's face yelling much
like Akane. When Ranma tilted his head to look around her and flipped channels two more times
Nabiki's hands couldn't help themselves. They lanced out taking hold of his neck and began
strangling him.
Ranma laughed through Nabiki's unusual display of emotion and speed up his channel
surfing until the tv screen became one big blur. In a sudden movement, Nabiki made a grab at the
remote and caused Ranma to topple over backwards. Neither seemed to notice as Nabiki fell flat
on top of Ranma and made another grab at the remote.
The door opened a moment later and Akane slipped inside, a content smile on her lips. She
started to her up the stairs and stopped short when she heard strange sounds coming from the
living room.
"Come on Ranma. Stop playing around and give it to me already."
"You can do better than that. You gotta work harder if I'm gonna give it up."
Akane stepped into the living room and looked over the end of the couch. Her smile
suddenly disappeared at what she saw.
In the middle of the floor, Ranma and Nabiki were in a not. Their legs were tied together,
causing the rest of their bodies to follow suit. Nabiki was sweating terrible and her arms reached
desperately for something behind Ranma's back.
She didn't notice that they were each still fully clothed, only the pose mattered to her.
Akane's vision flooded red and her hands curled into fists.
"I can't believe this. Right in the middle of the floor!" Akane yelled at the top of her lungs
and began stepping over the couch.
"Huh?" Ranma and Nabiki both turned to look at her then back to each other. Ranma was
the first to make the connection and looked down at how they were sitting, a thin trickle of blood
ran from his nose when he caught a glance down Nabiki shirt. Nabiki's eyes widened as she
suddenly realized what they looked like, and the two jumped away from each other. Nabiki landed
a clumsily on the ground a few inches from where she had been while Ranma flipped across the
room and landed gracefully. The tv remote spun end over end in the air where they had been
before falling to the floor with a clatter.
"Calm down, Akane. That was an accident." Ranma waved his hands before his face then
noticed his fiances color and the very large mallet she held in a death grip. *Oh shit.*
Nabiki just sat on the floor looking confused. She didn't know what had come over her to
make her act like that. It wasn't like her to horse play, much less end up in a precarious position
like that.
"Oh really?" Akane leapt at Ranma, smashing her mallet down on the ground where he
had been when she launched the attack. She looked around for him then stopped not seeing him
anywhere in the room. "Come back here and take it like a man." Akane spun around again and her
gaze feel on her older sister who sat on the floor utterly confused. "You...you..." Akane let her
mallet fall to the floor and her anger with it. She stood there, her head hung, shaking from anger.
"Akane, please listen to me." Ranma's voice caused her to look up again and scan the
room. When she didn't see him anywhere her anger started to rise again.
Ranma looked down at Akane from where he clung desperately to the ceiling fan. He
noticed her color starting to redden again and let himself fall to the ground, landing with all the
grace of a cat. Akane slipped backwards and ended up sitting on the couch when Ranma landed
directly before her. He held out his hands and took a few steps back.
"Can I explain please?" Ranma watched his fiancé carefully and dropped his hands when
she jumped from the couch and raced up to her room *Was she...?*
Rhye sat on a blade of the ceiling fan looking down at the two. He had become the size of
a small bird, the perfect toy for Asuza. On the fan next to him a rather large dust bunny watched
down at the conversation, stirred up from Ranma's mad groping onto the fan for dear life.
"You want a job as a guardian angel?" Rhye grabbed the ball of dust and gave it a slight
tug. When it exploded covering him in a grey particles and hair he shrugged. "Yeah, I think you
got the right idea"
Ranma started slowly for the stairs after her.
Part 2 - Small Talk and Remote Wrestling
By Halen Rains
Akane sat silently in a corner both watching a the people of downtown Nerima rushed
about. On the table before her sat a half eaten banana split that she played with occasionally taking
a small bite. The cool air of the ice cream parlor felt good after her jog away from Furikan, and
the smooth smell of the 54 flavors didn't hurt any.
*"I can't even say that shit to myself."* Akane's nose wrinkled at that particular part of
Ranma's little rant she'd managed to over hear. She didn't know why it'd hurt her so badly, after
all she didn't care for Ranma that way. At least that's what she kept telling herself. *Then why
does it hurt so bad?* Akane quickly bound and gagged the little voice in her head that tried to tell
her she cared more than she wanted.
"Mind if I join ya?" Akane looked up to see the boy from behind the counter smiling down
at her holding two large milk shakes. Akane returned his smile and motioned for him to sit down
across from her.
"Thanks." He sat down quickly and looked at the two shakes. "I noticed you didn't care
for the banana split so I brought a milk shake instead." He pulled off the paper hat he wore and
stuffed it into his pocket then looked back up at her. "Which do you want, strawberry of
chocolate?" He noticed Akane's hesitant look and grinned. "On the house."
Akane thought for a second then took the chocolate and took a quick drink. She watched
as he did the same with the strawberry.
"Akane Tendo." She extended her hand across the table to him.
"Gomen nasai. Keichi Hasamura." He took her hand and shook it then returned to
drinking his milk shake. "You look a little young to be outta school at this time of day. Skipping?"
Akane blushed slightly and looked into her shake.
"Hai." She out the window again and frowned.
"Now that doesn't suit you." Keichi turned to look as someone started to enter the store
then decided otherwise. "God, it's been so slow lately." He looked at her and shrugged. "You'd
think with summer on its way that I'd be bogged down." He leaned back in the seat and took
another drink from his shake. "But hey I'm still getting paid."
Akane laughed and examined him while he looked away. He looked to be around twenty
or so and decent looking, not as good looking as Ranma of course, somewhere on the level with
Ryoga. His rough blond hair stood at odd angles from the hat.
"So?" Keichi sat his milkshake back on the table and looked at her closely. After a second
of staring at her he noticed her blush darken and laughed. "Boy trouble?"
"Hmm..." Akane's face slipped to annoyed. "How did you guess?"
"Well. When you work in a ice cream parlor, you hear a lot of high school kids talking. I
kinda picked up on what look matches what story over time. You've got that classic "I just got
dumped" look to you." Keichi grinned at her and laughed again.
"My... fiancé, said he doesn't know how he feels about me."
Keichi face faulted and shook his head.
"Incredible, I'm 19 and I can't even get my girlfriend to... and high school students are
already engaged." He picked up his shake and gulped down around half of it then clutched his
head in pain.
Akane giggled and waved her hands.
"I didn't wanna get engaged to him. Our parents forced us into it." Akane took a drink of
her shake then looked down at the puddle that had been her banana split.
"That sucks." Keichi straightened out again when his headache passed. "But you do
wanna be engaged now don't ya?"
Rhye stat down in the booth connected the theirs and sat back to listen. He closed his eyes
and yawned loudly.
"No!" Akane swung her hand exaggeratedly and accidently knocked Keichi's shake over
into his lap. "Oh, I'm so sorry."
Keichi waved her off then untied and removed his apron which had caught most of the
drink.
"Don't worry about it, happens all the time." He sat the apron down on the seat next to
him and looked into his cup sadly. He forgot what he'd been talking about and leaned back in the
booth.
"Still playing guardian angel, Rhye?" A handsome young man appeared in the booth
across from Rhye. His long brown hair hung loosely, pulled back behind his ears to keep it out of
his face, and light golden eyes watched the older angel closely for any signs of aggression.
"Castor. To what do I owe this unexpected visit?" Rhye frowned when he noticed the
clothing the archangel wore.
Castor half smiled at Rhye then popped his knuckles.
"Do I need an excuse to visit an old friend?"
"Lately... yes." Rhye reached into his coat and pulled out a small fruit and began to take
small bites from it.
"Someone has decided they wanna fuck with the system. Whatever they did has caused
some major ripples, noone knows how it got this bad without anyone noticing." A small sake cup
appeared in Castors hand and he began to sip from it slowly. "Not to mention the pretty boy has
gone a-wall." Castor sneered and took another sip of his sake.
"Erock." Rhye laughed as images of Castor and Erock yelling at each other flashed into
his eyes. "What does that fool think he's doing?"
"Noone knows, that's why I'm here. They wanted you... but Lailos relayed your
message." Castor finished his sake and made the cup vanish. "You and her ever make up?"
Rhye nodded, a smile creeping onto his face. Castor noticed and raised an eyebrow.
"You know the council doesn't approve of stuff like that." Castor suddenly began to
picture Lailos. She was by far the most beautiful of the goddesses, her natural beauty enhanced by
the fiery nature she'd learned from Rhye. Not many beings could admit they didn't fantasize about
her, only her father and Rhye.
"You know me better than that." Rhye didn't sound amused and his silver eyes began to
glow to add emphasis to the statement. "She will always be my student as long as the council sits
in power, nothing more."
Castor nodded and smiled sympathetically. *Poor Rhye. Always honor first.* He rose
from the booth and took a few steps then stopped and turned back to Rhye.
"Something is going to happen soon, Rhye. Since noone knows the cause of the damage,
it's going to be very hard to fix." Castor faded out as he spoke and vanished the moment his last
word was formed.
"Happy hunting Castor." Rhye growled lowly then turned his attention back to Akane
and Keichi.
"...and then his other fiancé's crashed the wedding tossing bombs around." Akane took a
long deep breath after finishing her story. Telling it someone really did help her notice a few
things she'd missed while it was actually happening.
Keichi shook himself and scratched his head.
"All that stuff really happened?" Keichi shrugged when Akane nodded. "And you think he
doesn't at least like you?" Keichi rolled his eyes and laid his head down on his hands. "Somehow I
don't think he'd go through all that hell for someone unless they meant something to him. Damn,
I would have trouble traveling to America to help out my girl, and Ranma fights hydra and giant
birds. Thank Kami she has more realistic standards than you do."
What Keichi had been telling her made sense, at least in a way. Sure Ranma did all that
stuff for his other fiances, but she never noticed him having trouble talking to them. She looked
up at the clock on the wall and jumped.
"I gotta go." She grabbed her purse and started for the door, pushing it open with her
back waving to Keichi. "Thanks."
"No prob." Keichi waved back without lifting his head from the table then closed his eyes.
Rhye stood and walked to the doors to watch Akane running down the street for home
and grinned. *She didn't even need my help.* He stepped out into the street and began walking
with the crowd. *Oh yeah.* He looked back at the ice cream parlor and snapped his fingers.
*Have fun.* Rhye turned away as a huge crowd suddenly began to filter into the store.
Ranma sat in the living room of the Tendo home flipping through tv stations at a slow
pace. To his left Nabiki sat, arms crossed and looking very agitated. She watched as Ranma
surfed through every station twice before her control broke.
"Pick a channel for crying out loud!" Nabiki was suddenly in Ranma's face yelling much
like Akane. When Ranma tilted his head to look around her and flipped channels two more times
Nabiki's hands couldn't help themselves. They lanced out taking hold of his neck and began
strangling him.
Ranma laughed through Nabiki's unusual display of emotion and speed up his channel
surfing until the tv screen became one big blur. In a sudden movement, Nabiki made a grab at the
remote and caused Ranma to topple over backwards. Neither seemed to notice as Nabiki fell flat
on top of Ranma and made another grab at the remote.
The door opened a moment later and Akane slipped inside, a content smile on her lips. She
started to her up the stairs and stopped short when she heard strange sounds coming from the
living room.
"Come on Ranma. Stop playing around and give it to me already."
"You can do better than that. You gotta work harder if I'm gonna give it up."
Akane stepped into the living room and looked over the end of the couch. Her smile
suddenly disappeared at what she saw.
In the middle of the floor, Ranma and Nabiki were in a not. Their legs were tied together,
causing the rest of their bodies to follow suit. Nabiki was sweating terrible and her arms reached
desperately for something behind Ranma's back.
She didn't notice that they were each still fully clothed, only the pose mattered to her.
Akane's vision flooded red and her hands curled into fists.
"I can't believe this. Right in the middle of the floor!" Akane yelled at the top of her lungs
and began stepping over the couch.
"Huh?" Ranma and Nabiki both turned to look at her then back to each other. Ranma was
the first to make the connection and looked down at how they were sitting, a thin trickle of blood
ran from his nose when he caught a glance down Nabiki shirt. Nabiki's eyes widened as she
suddenly realized what they looked like, and the two jumped away from each other. Nabiki landed
a clumsily on the ground a few inches from where she had been while Ranma flipped across the
room and landed gracefully. The tv remote spun end over end in the air where they had been
before falling to the floor with a clatter.
"Calm down, Akane. That was an accident." Ranma waved his hands before his face then
noticed his fiances color and the very large mallet she held in a death grip. *Oh shit.*
Nabiki just sat on the floor looking confused. She didn't know what had come over her to
make her act like that. It wasn't like her to horse play, much less end up in a precarious position
like that.
"Oh really?" Akane leapt at Ranma, smashing her mallet down on the ground where he
had been when she launched the attack. She looked around for him then stopped not seeing him
anywhere in the room. "Come back here and take it like a man." Akane spun around again and her
gaze feel on her older sister who sat on the floor utterly confused. "You...you..." Akane let her
mallet fall to the floor and her anger with it. She stood there, her head hung, shaking from anger.
"Akane, please listen to me." Ranma's voice caused her to look up again and scan the
room. When she didn't see him anywhere her anger started to rise again.
Ranma looked down at Akane from where he clung desperately to the ceiling fan. He
noticed her color starting to redden again and let himself fall to the ground, landing with all the
grace of a cat. Akane slipped backwards and ended up sitting on the couch when Ranma landed
directly before her. He held out his hands and took a few steps back.
"Can I explain please?" Ranma watched his fiancé carefully and dropped his hands when
she jumped from the couch and raced up to her room *Was she...?*
Rhye sat on a blade of the ceiling fan looking down at the two. He had become the size of
a small bird, the perfect toy for Asuza. On the fan next to him a rather large dust bunny watched
down at the conversation, stirred up from Ranma's mad groping onto the fan for dear life.
"You want a job as a guardian angel?" Rhye grabbed the ball of dust and gave it a slight
tug. When it exploded covering him in a grey particles and hair he shrugged. "Yeah, I think you
got the right idea"
Ranma started slowly for the stairs after her.
