Nothing is Easy
Part 3- What may come
By Halen Rains


It had been a typical day for Tendo Akane. She had woken up feeling fine, gone to school,
fought through a crowd of boys, come home, and gone to sleep. It was the next day that changed
her life. As always she'd gone for her morning jog, how was she supposed to know that at that
same time a girl and her father were making their way to her home. How should she have known
that by the end of that day, she'd be engaged.

"Hi, I'm Ho-o-o-ome!" Akane called as she entered the gates of her house and rushed to
her room to change. After getting dressed in her lucky yellow gi, she headed out to the dojo for a
little early morning practice. She stacked three cinder blocks then took a step back.

"HYAAHH!" With a loud cry she let loose her anger and brought her palm down onto the
bricks. "AHHH!" She looked up happily and corrected her hair. "That was nice."

"There you go again." Nabiki's voice came from behind her, causing Akane's eyes to pop
open in waiting of her oncoming insult. "No wonder all the boys think you're so weird."

"So why should I care?" Akane looked over her shoulder and her eyes widened. Where
her sister should have been stood a strange boy. He was, despite her very solid hatred of boys,
very attractive.

The boy was taller than her and had Raven black hair tied into a pigtail. He strolled slowly
up to her, a smug look on his face and stopped a few feet away.

"Geez, Akane. You can't get anything right can you?" He pushed her aside and pointed to
where Akane's breaking bricks stood five high now, not a single one broken.

"Ranma!" Akane suddenly noticed her appearance had changed. Her hair was short now,
and her clothes had changed to her school uniform.

"Watch." Ranma turned from her and effortlessly smashed his hands through the five
cinder blocks then stood dusting himself off. "I knew violent girl was weak, but that just sad."
Suddenly Shampoo stood before Akane. The gorgeous Amazon glared at Akane and drew out a
bonbori. "Husband needs strong wife, not a flat chested tomboy like you." As she spoke her voice
shifted to Ranma's, mocking her.

"Stop it!" Akane turned away from Shampoo and ran into the house. She ran towards the
stairs heading for her room and stopped short when sounds from the living room stopped her
short.

"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 tried to turn away, but found herself unable to stop walking towards the source of
the voices. When she looked over the couch her she gasped at what she found.

On the floor lay Ranma and Nabiki. They were wrapped in a bed sheet that hide their
naked bodies up to their waists.

"Oh hey sis." Nabiki noticed Akane and waved. "How was your work out?" She smiled
and her face disappeared for a second as she passionately kissed Ranma then looked back to her
sister.

Akane suddenly found she couldn't move, or even breath for that matter. All she could do
was stand there and stare.

"Oh come on Akane." Ranma turned to look at her and shrugged. "It's not like you give a
shit anyway."

"Th...that's not true." Akane whispered as she looked into Ranma's eyes.

"Hmm....could have fouled me." He sounded uninterested and turned back to Nabiki.
"Where were we anyway?"

"Stop...please."

Ranma turned back to look at her, a questioning expression on his face.

"Why. What reason do I have to be faithful to you? All you ever do is yell at me or hit
me." Ranma stood, letting the bed sheet fall away from him. To Akane's surprise he wasn't
completely naked, he wore his usual black pants. "See, you don't even trust me." He walked over
to Akane and looked into her face.

"Give me one good reason I should even waste my time on a kawiikune tomboy like you?"
Ranma smiled at her and let his hand rest on her waist.

Akane looked down to where his hand touched her then back to his face. She started to
say something then stopped short.

"See, you can't say that shit either." Ranma pulled his hand away from her and took a step
back.

"No! Wait!" Akane reached out for him and suddenly found herself stepping out into
nothing.


"Later hun." Ukyou stepped up beside Ranma and wrapped her arms around his waist.
She started to kiss him, but suddenly tossed her away. She vanished when she hit the ground.

"Akane!" Ranma reached out for and caught her left arm solidly. She looked up at him
from the dark cliff she hung over and found the same questioning look on his face. "Why?" Akane
looked away from him to the endless darkness beneath her and let out a gasp when she noticed
hundreds of feral eyes staring up hungrily at her.

"Why?" Ranma's voice seemed so distant to her now, her grip began to slip and she let
out another cry.

"Because I..." Akane caught on her sentence and looked up at him hurt. As she looked she
found something else, his old strength and confidence staring her in the face. "I..."

Ranma's grip tightened around her arm and a smile slid across his face. She hadn't said it,
but he still pulled her from the darkness.



Akane sat up and rubbed her eyes. It had gotten dark since she'd come to her room and
fallen asleep. She climbed off her bed and hurriedly changed clothes out of her school uniform. *I
never gave him a chance.* She opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. *Poor Ranma.*

Against the wall opposite her door, Ranma sat on the floor asleep. His knees pulled
against his chest and his head resting on them.

"Come on." She whispered to him as she lifted him from the floor and carried him to his
room. The door was cracked, so she pushed it open with her hip and placed him down on the
futon then pulled the sheet over him. Ranma rolled onto his side facing her. She smiled down at
him then tip toed from the room.

"Akane?" Ranma opened his eyes and watched as she froze and turned to look at him. He
sat up and put his hands on his knees. "Can I ask you something?"

"What?" Akane took a few steps in his direction and sat down on the floor.

"Did you overhear me at school?" He looked away from her and rubbed his neck
nervously.

"A little." She frowned slightly at the memory and watched him shudder. "Look, Ranma,
it's not important."

Ranma didn't look at her, but shook his head. *Not important?*

"Why?" Ranma looked at her again. He didn't notice the strange look in Akane's eyes at
the question.

Akane didn't know how to answer. Some how she'd managed to walk right into that pit
from her dream. The wrong answer could put an even bigger gap between them, but the right
answer... *Like I really want that.* Akane mentally slapped herself at the thought and let her eyes
fall to the floor. *Get over yourself, girl. This is the perfect chance.* Hesitantly she looked up at
him and studied his face. Everything from her dream was there. Even the well hidden fear that
even he probably didn't realize was there. As she opened her mouth to talk she felt someone
behind her and turned expecting both their fathers to be sitting there waiting impatiently, but
instead a tiny ball of black hair leapt up at her.

"P-chan!" Akane hugged the little piglet tightly then held it up to look at. "Where have
you been?" She kissed him on the nose then turned her attention back to Ranma. He wasn't there.

"Ranma?" Akane studied the empty room carefully, letting her eyes rest on the open
window which had been closed moments before. Suddenly her heart sank at the silence in the
room, she'd messed it up. Usually she blamed everything on him, but she realized this time had
been her fault. A lot of times had been her fault when she thought about it. She turned and left the
room silently, pulling the door slowly closed behind her and returned to her room.