The Disaster Sisters: Celestial Interference

Part VI: Oh, to understand

By Kalio

A/n: Sterling-Ag: In response to your statement that it's not all Ranma's fault, I totally agree with you. Fate says that it is all his fault so it will guilt trip him into doing something- if he was made to believe it was both of their faults, then he wouldn't do anything out of macho pride. And as far as Akane goes, she's not blaming herself for the said reason. Plus, she's falling for someone else. That tends to hinder the guilt process. That doesn't however work on the doubt process as we've seen in previous chapters. In any case, this fic is more about Ranma's growth in emotions, and Akane's- well, I don't want to spoil it for you. You'll have to wait and see. Thanks for your input, its always nice to hear real concerns. And a bid thanks to everyone who reviewed me. I probably wouldn't write without you... at least anything decent without you! Thanks!

Fate looked at the screen. This was the part of celestial interference which she like the most, the part where she just got to sit back and watch. This was where humans who were really looking for love got their ass into gear and got their shit together. She pulled out her popcorn, and sat back.

***

Nabiki left the now broken-hearted girl to herself, and left shaking her head. This was not good, by any stretch of the word. At least now he would at least give serious thought to fixing things, she only hoped he would be in time.

***

By the time, the sun rose the next morning, Ranma had pulled it together, and was now back to his normal, blustering, over-confident, macho jerk self. Although, if someone happened to come up behind him and say 'boo', he couldn't have held out. He was actually up for breakfast time and going at it with more fervor than ever before- mostly because dinner the night before was a wistful dream. Akane looked at him strangely, but didn't bother to scold him for eating so fast, she was just relieved that he hadn't killed himself from training. As it was Sunday, and their was no rushing to get to school, Tatsuya really gave him a strange look, but since no one else seemed to notice, there wasn't much debating it.

Soun and Genma were glaring at each other for the first time in months- shougi games excluded, of course. Apparently, they had an argument over the fact that Tatsuya was staying there. Genma didn't like that he was getting closer to Akane than Ranma was, and he was upset that Soun might engage them, too. Soun was mad that Genma even considered the notion, and that his son wasn't doing anything about it. All in all, they were upset about the same things that everyone else was upset about. Unfortunately, this meant weird parental vibes, causing the whole room to look nervously in their direction, just waiting to see who would outburst first.

Fortunately, today was not meant for foolish fatherly outbursts.

***

After the weirdest breakfast at the Tendo's to date, save perhaps the one where Ms. Hinako stayed over, Ranma asked Akane if they could talk. She hesitantly agreed, leaving Tatsuya to talk to Nabiki about the politics of Nerima. He looked like a deer caught in headlights as Akane followed Ranma, but she knew that whatever Ranma had to say must be important, otherwise, he wouldn't have said 'please'. She apologized again, and followed him.

After a long time of walking silently, they started to approach the wood where Ranma exhausted himself. He laid down in the pine needles and Akane followed. 'Hey, Akane.'

'Yea.'

'I wanted to ask you something.'

'Shoot.'

'What do you draw?' Akane was caught off guard.

'What do you mean?'

'You know, those drawings that you have been hiding from all of us. What are they of?'

'Lots of things, people mostly.'

'Who?'

'Well, I used to draw old pictures of Mom, and then I used to draw Dad like I wanted to see him, happy and well. But I realized that it wasn't him anymore, so I stopped drawing him like that. I would draw Nabiki as a business tycoon, and Kasumi as a lonely housewife still looking for Dr. Tofu as her husband. I used to draw me as a happy little martial artist who won tournaments and contests. Now, I draw the beauty of Furinkan High de-crowned, and de-throned, just as I am.' Ranma was silent for a moment. Then:

'How do you draw me?' Akane knew this was coming but wasn't prepared to answer.

'I draw you... as you are. No more, no less.' Ranma sighed. Evasion.

'So... what's your manga about- if I may ask?'

'It's about a girl who used to be admired and popular, but the people around her don't really understand her, and she can't really believe in them and connect with them. It's about her meeting people in her search for one who would understand her, when the person who does understand her is right under her nose.'

'Sounds wonderful. Sometimes I wonder if anyone ever really understands me. If anyone ever really understands anyone.'

'I don't know... I wouldn't know. Not anymore...'

'All I know is what I want to understand.'

'Oh? What do you want to understand?' Ranma looked over at her.

'You.'

A/n: Yay: Ass in gear! Just to be clear, however, it ain't over. Not by a long shot! `Nyway, I am working hard on this... after two small side tracks called 'For the sake of amusement' and 'Hot Shimata (Damn)!'. So there will be more soon. I hope.