The next day continued on as typical for the Tendo/Saotome residence, Ranma occasionally helped Akane train, they studied together and ignored the growing tension between the two of them. Perhaps due to Akane's own self-consciousness about their relationship and her worry for the future, maybe because he was spending lunch and breaks helping this new girl around the school which would lead to the eventual rumors. Which in reality had already started the day before anyways.
She was in the mood to train but had no interest in doing that at home. On her way back home from practicing at the other dojo, she had found a wandering Ryoga on the street and invited him to stay with them for the time being, seeing as the weather wasn't exactly great for camping. He thanked her profusely and walked alongside with her.
Like Ranma, he also had noticed what was happening to Akane, her long hair which fell well past her shoulders now, she had it back in a bun. The changes to her body, her strength was growing, she was maturing that was for certain. When he'd first met her, he already thought she was beautiful, so it had amazed him how she could have grown more beautiful in the last year and a half he'd known her.
What joy he'd known since he met her, a happenstance when he went looking for his revenge on Ranma when he knew he'd be returning to Japan. He had been so blind in his vengeance he had barely noticed her the first time they interacted, the last time she'd had long hair.
Hair lost to his own bandana.
But their next interaction, when she embraced him and welcomed him into her life, into her home he finally could see her for who she was.
So much more than Saotome's fiancée.
More deserving than to be Saotome's fiancée.
"Ah, Akane-san, how has your training at the Shimira dojo been going? Have they moved you from grappling and boxing yet?"
"Oh no, I actually prefer to keep working on my hand-to-hand combat. Though today was a little tough." She extended and curled her fingers causing her knuckles to pop.
"Well, it's good you're being challenged there. Are you being challenged at home at all?" She laughed.
Oh, it felt like heaven when she laughed.
"Ryoga you and I both know there's no challenges coming from inside that house. Unless it's for the last bowl of dinner of course." He laughed along with her as they approached the dojo. He followed her in as she announced herself. As she was taking her shoes off, her fiancé rounded the corner to make some comment to her when he groaned at who else was in the hallway.
"Oye Akane, why'd you have to drag this guy over here? Don't you know he's just some freeloader."
"That's rich coming from you of all people, Ranma." Ryoga remarked dropping his impossibly heavy bag on the ground.
"Hey I do my part around here." Akane rolled her eyes as she walked to the stairs listening to their conversation.
"Yeah, like what?"
"Defend the dojo fer one." She stopped her walk and gave him a look. "Plus, I get us food all the time."
"You mean from your other fiancées? That you also freeload off of?" She stated from the staircase. He turned red at that remark ready to throw her own cooking abilities in her face but it had been a bit since Ryoga had seen the two of them and getting under his skin was much more fun. Plus, he hadn't had a decent fight in a couple weeks, this would be perfect. He raised his arms behind his head and smirked at her.
"You know you're my favorite to freeload off of though, tomboy" She scoffed.
"You're pathetic." She made her way upstairs and to get some clothes for her bath.
Ranma turned his head back towards Ryoga who glared at him.
"Why she even bothers with you, I'll never understand."
"I could say the same, porky. What had you sniffin' around here anyways?"
"I was on my way to Hokkaido and made a wrong turn and Akane found me and invited me to stay." He grinned. "She wanted me to come and stay."
"Sure, she did, I'm sure she'd be singin' a different tune if she knew who you really were, P-Chan." He mocked.
"Shut UP, Ranma! All you do is run that idiot mouth of yours!"
Said idiot dropped his arms. "Ya wanna do somethin' about it? C'mon P-C-"
Ryoga grabbed him and threw him out the front door and Ranma finally got to scratch his itch for a fight.
He sets off the beauty in her
He's Venus, a Venus as a boy
The following day was bitterly cold, Akane was grateful for her warm tights since the school's heat seemed to be on the fritz again. At lunch while she was eating with her friends, the new girl followed Ranma into their class after giving her a tour of the second and third floor. He immediately took a seat at his desk, while his friends quickly moved to ask him about how he was liking playing tour guide to such a cute girl. She had some large bakery boxes in her arms and politely interrupted everyone's conversations.
"I wanted to thank you all again for welcoming me to the school, I'm still getting to know some of you so please don't mind if I get a name wrong, I'm still learning. To show my gratitude I wanted to bring in some of favorite sweets. My family lived for a time in France and I love to bake, so I hope you'll enjoy some of the choux puffs I brought."
The boys in class collectively nodded as she passed out each puff, asking to be reminded of their names. Each pastry she handed out one by one, smiling and thanking people for their patience with her. She came up to Akane and her girlfriends and passed them each one, the puffy pastry smelled immaculate not to mention looked it.
Akane immediately thought about how she'd never be able to make something like this and swallowed the thought as not to be rude.
"I hope you enjoy it Tendou-san."
Akane's head shot up and looked at the other girl.
She was even more beautiful up close. To be fair Akane thought she herself was a cute girl, pretty. But in the deepest recesses of her mind that she only ventured on her most confident of days, did she admit the beauty of other girls around her. Shampoo for example was not just a pretty girl, she was gorgeous and exotic to boot.
Worse still her fiancée's girl side was also drop dead gorgeous which had done nothing to qualm the already confused feelings she had in her mind and heart.
But this girl was so beautiful it felt painful to look her straight on, her jade eyes were bright and wide, her cute nose and small smile were truly gorgeous. Akane made the mistake of dropping her eyes to her lips for a moment that seemed to not be lost on the other girl.
Shit.
She smiled wide and blushed, offering treats to the other girls as Akane looked at her dessert with complicated feelings.
The new girl made her way over to Ranma and his friends and Akane shot her gaze back down to her desk to focus on that instead.
Dariole smiled wide and again passed out food, her hands swiftly moving to provide the sweets to the waiting young men. Her hand seemed to linger for a moment on a sweet but she grabbed and gave it to Ranma.
"Saotome-san, I especially hope you enjoy. Thank you so much for all your help this week." She smiled and turned away quickly. The guys around him groaned, not again with these girls getting the hots for this idiot. He was already up to his eyeballs in gorgeous girls and now another one wanted something to do with him. He was like a plague on the male population of the school.
He eyed the sweet for a moment, admiring the craftmanship to be able to bake it.
For a moment he wished that Akane had been able to bake, even if she was a terrible cook maybe baking would've come to her and she could've been making him all kinds of sweets for months now.
A fresh tray of cookies fresh out of the oven.
Some soft melon pan.
A small, sweet peach cake with whipped cream she made for just the two of them.
That she could feed him bite by bite.
With nimble fingers.
He adjusted himself and scooted closer against his desk, grumbling a "thanks" before taking bites out of the sweet provided to him. It tasted just as good as it looked, he had to slow himself eating it so it didn't look bad to Akane and Ukyou who were both in class today. Licking the side of his mouth as he placed the sweet down, he looked over at Akane with hunched shoulders as if that would hide him from his own invasive eyes.
She ate slowly and seemed to enjoy it, her hair in a ponytail that grazed the back of her neck. He watched as she enjoyed the treat, normally something she didn't when it came from another girl. She took a small bite and ate, looking off at the other girl, chewing slowly. Feeling something on her, she turned towards him as he returned to his own puff and devoured the last few bites.
She fingered the sweet in her hands before taking another bite, pushing things out of her mind.
xxx
Akane couldn't have wanted to get out of that school faster this afternoon. She was really in need of a good workout, something to get these feelings out.
Heading out through the front, Akane caught the new girl speaking with a couple other classmates and decided to make her way over as well. The girl's bright giggle cut through her as she stood next to Yuka, catching up with the conversation.
It wasn't right to just abandon Ranma on their walk home but he'd been cozying up to Ukyou more than normal during the end of lunch and during classes. She'd wanted to sit by him for a lecture and he had insisted, stretching an arm out to invite her closer to him. Akane had balked slightly at it, since when had he gotten so much more touchy feely with her? Was he pissed at her and trying to get her jealous? He had a tendency to do things like this when he was mad or annoyed with her, sometimes just to get under her skin. Or maybe he just wanted to embarrass her? But even that seemed a bit meaner of him than usual. She shook her head and let it go, she didn't really have any good reason to get jealous about this, nothing that wouldn't embarrass her further to the point of mortification. She didn't have exclusive dibs on being that familiar with him.
She was one of three fiancées after all.
Maybe she hadn't noticed that Ukyou was more forceful today about being close because of that girl. Maybe she felt threatened.
Maybe he just wanted to do that with Ukyou.
Doesn't mean it didn't sting a little.
it was probably for the best to get away from him for a bit after school.
He can walk home with her for all I care.
Can stay at 'Ucchan's' if he wanted.
She bristled at the thought and her face soured.
"Tendou-san?" She popped up and looked at the new girl.
"Ah Sato-san, I didn't get the question." She smiled sweetly.
"You're engaged to Saotome-san, is that true?" She blushed.
"Well, uh...technically. But it's our parent's choice. We're both apart of the same martial art's school."
"But he's also engaged to Kuonji-san as well?"
Akane rubbed her head on her shoulder to get the sudden uncomfortable creak in it gone.
"Yeah, it's all kind of a mess. We're not even the only ones if you can believe it." She laughed to break the tension and uncomfortableness of the moment. God this felt stupid but better to hear it from her than the inevitable people who would be mentioning Shampoo any day now. The other girl joined in with a polite laugh as well.
"I can't imagine what that must be like for you and Saotome, so many fiancees and unsure of what to do? I wouldn't know what to do if I had four myself." She spoke as if she was going to reach over and take her hand for sympathy. Akane almost let her until the words caught up. Before she could say anything, she heard from behind her.
"Ey Akane! What're you doin'?" Ranma came jogging up to her with Ukyou in toe, putting her arm around his in a sudden show of dominance. He had an air of annoyance around him.
"I... figured you and Ukyou left together." Her mind was stumbling between focusing on the competitive moves of the rival ahead of her and from the new girl's strange comments.
"Nah, come on let's head out. Ukyou offered to make us dinner." Said girl's head flew to the side and she gapped at him.
"Ranchan, I said that I would make us dinner. Just you and me." She said behind her teeth as he shook the comment off like he was getting something out of his hair. He squeezed his eyes shut.
"Ah...yeah, I guess, I didn't remember it like that..." Akane rolled her eyes and turned away. Figured he'd be too busy flirting to actually listen to anything a girl was saying to him. It's why he constantly found himself in trouble with any of them. The idiot.
"Don't worry about it Ranma, go on ahead with Ukyou. I have studying to do anyways." She shoulder checked him and walked away, ready to get to her room, maybe go back to the Shimura dojo and take out the frustrations of this day. He swung himself out of Ukyou's grip and stomped after her, leaving the chef fuming in her spot.
"Ranchan!"
A pair of jade eyes followed the two fiancees and took the scene in.
"Akane! Slowdown will ya!"
She didn't slow down; she didn't even turn to look at him.
"If you need to you can always study with Ukyou, she goes to our school too." Her nose was held up snobbishly and she continued to evade his looks. He leapt up and stood in front of her to try and block her way and when she tried to maneuver around him, he easily mimicked her movements which only served to make her angrier.
"What do you want?! Just let me through!" She tried shoving around him but he grabbed her forearm. Before she could slap his hand off her, they heard the distant yelling from Ukyou and a soft chime of a bell that would be approaching close behind.
"C'mere." He pulled her by her arm and she yelled at him as he picked her up and made a quick run back away from the street, hiding the two of them behind some snowy bushes. He kept her across his lap, his hand around her mouth as she tried to push him away from her, calling him all kinds of vulgar names into his palm. "Shh-shut up, alright?"
She groaned, annoyed at his antics as he watched Shampoo and Ukyou interact with one another, both unsure of where he'd gone so quickly. He was in no mood to deal with them fighting over him after class. All he had wanted was an easy night, a nice meal, quiet. But between all of the girls he's had to interact with today, he's got one hell of a headache and doesn't need to get yanked all over town by girls looking for his attention. Doesn't need to get the shit beat out of him for not being attentive enough either.
What he thought would take a moment turned into minutes of arguments between the two and he could feel the girl between his crossed legs shivering slightly.
"Ya cold?" He whispered, still trying not to be caught. She shook her head, trying to be quiet as well. The last thing he needed was those two catching them like this. He rolled his eyes. "So stubborn." He dropped his hand from her mouth and started rubbing her shoulders and arms, trying to warm her up above her jacket. She stayed still as he rubbed her, trying not to blush which now seemed impossible. She just hoped he assumed her face would be red from the cold. His hands and body were warm against her and she was grateful at his choice to warm her up. He stopped and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
"I'm plenty warm, just lean against me 'til they leave, alright?" He pulled her to his chest and dropped his jaw over her head and resumed warming her arm. She stayed frozen but for a new reason, there was nothing mocking or teasing in his touch, nothing to psyche her out or make her nervous. Just trying to provide her some warmth as they remained alone, out of the eyes and ears of the other girls. She could hear his heart beat against her ear, steady, strong. Calm, so calm.
How is it so calm? Is he that calm?
"Tch, they're still talkin' come on. I wanna get home." He spoke aloud as he blew hot air into his hands. For whatever reason hearing him like this made her finally go crimson or maybe it was the whole situation suddenly hitting her. His warm body so close to hers, taking care of her so she wasn't cold, being so open in his words, his comforting and exciting scent, like deep woods, like bright spice and undeniably male. She felt incredibly embarrassed to be thinking of him like this while being in this position but knew freaking out would only get them both caught.
Slowly the girls set off without an issue, although clearly upset to head home with no fiancé to join them. Ranma and Akane both waited patiently while the sun dipped lower, the seasonal darkness settling in earlier.
They sat there in silence; the only sound was Ranma's hand gliding up and down her covered arms. When things had remained quiet, she lifted her head up and thanked him ready to stand up and head home. But when she shifted to move, he kept his hands on her shoulder and arm.
Her wide eyes searched his, questioning but not angry, soft. Confused.
"Ranma?"
He didn't say anything, just kept them there a moment longer. She felt her upper body go stiff and was unsure of what to do or say here. It all felt like comfort, like a warmth or heat she'd never known, she wanted to sink into it, run away from it.
To keep looking at him now terrified her but she couldn't pull away, his bright eyes in the dark of the evening were almost overwhelming but she didn't want to leave, wanted to be swept up in whatever this was now.
She almost didn't catch how his strong jaw moved forward, hesitant in the small motion as his face grew closer to hers. But she watched his head tilt lightly and his eyes focus more on her and that was when everything came crumbling around her and she completely panics.
"We should head home!" She yelped in his arms. He stopped and blinked his eyes, like he was waking up. "Ka-Kasumi will wonder where we are." She straightened herself and got up from his lap, offering him a hand up.
"Yeah...better head home." He said with a little grumble she couldn't make out, embarrassed, annoyed maybe? She felt bad and walked alongside him for some moments in uncomfortable silence.
"I've got a little stash of gummy candy I'd be willing to share after dinner if you're up for it? If you still wanted to study that is." She offered up with a sincere smile. He smiled back and his stomach rumbled and they both let out a little laugh at it.
I'm a softhearted woman he's a hardheaded man
And he's gonna make me feel just as bad as he can
He's got himself a mean streak a half a mile wide
Now he's dancing on this heart of mine
After dinner, Akane invited him to study with her in her room. Ryoga had stepped away from the house earlier and now who knew when he'd be back. She looked over from her desk to her bed where he was laying, legs bent in front of him. He was reading over the chapter they were working on with the book in one hand, the other one behind his head playing with his own braid, a mindless gesture he'd do when he was bored or focused. Now she couldn't really tell.
When they came up, he had immediately had taken her bed much to her chagrin. For one she knew if he was tired enough, he'd doze off and then she'd have to keep waking him up until finally telling him to sit somewhere else.
The second issue was the distraction when she would eventually crawl into bed and find his scent still perfuming her pillow. And then she'd either have to flip the pillow and not think about it or be like a little girl with a stupid crush and lay her head against it, indulging in secret.
She frowned a little looking at the pillow now wedged between her headboard and his back.
He groaned and dropped the book on his face.
"Akane this is so boring. Why do we gotta do this anyways?"
"So we can graduate and get into universities." She answered without looking up. "So we can make money and not be destitute."
He lifted the book off his head and smiled at her.
"So we're not destitute? What's that s'pposed t'mean?" He teased and she shook her head annoyed. He loved to mock her with the same big words she'd use on him that she knew damn well he didn't know the meaning to most of the time.
"It means so neither of us are homeless. You are the last person I would want to be stuck in extreme poverty with." He scoffed.
"Why? I'm resourceful, I'm good at thinkin' on my feet."
"You're good at conning people." She interrupted with a smile.
"I don't' con nobody, I take advantage of situations." He smiled back. He turned to face her and laid on his side. He waved a hand over himself. "I mean c'mon look at me, brains and brawn. I'm an ideal fiancée." She laughed in a short, curt sound.
"Oh yeah! An ideal fiancée, alright. Now I know today's been weird when you're speaking with such high delusions of yourself." He was going to hit her back with some insult but listened to what she said.
"Wait, you thought today was weird too?" She dropped her smile and turned completely in her chair to talk to him.
"Was it for you?" She asked.
"Dunno, just...had a strange feeling. I felt just off most of the day, I still feel kinda off."
The truth was Ranma hadn't just felt it, he knew he was off but couldn't put his finger on why or how. From his over enthused reaction to Ukyou wanting to sit with him earlier in the day, he'd felt like he was swimming in thoughts that weren't his own. Ukyou sitting by him made him find her so... cute. He had insisted on her taking a chair next to him, have her feed him little snacks in secret during the lecture and he had been more than willing to take her sweet ministrations to him. And when she'd mentioned dinner together, her eyes wide and excited, he'd nodded and told her he was looking forward to it.
And as they were leaving all together and he'd been reminded of Shampoo and her curvy body that she always pressed on him, he wondered what it would feel like to not have the layers of clothing between them, how would it feel against his arm, his chest. She always smelled so good and could be so sweet to him when she wasn't trying to trick him or poison him or hurt his other fiancees. She was just such a persistent girl; he couldn't fault her for that. Not many girls would be that unwilling to give up.
But there was a part of his brain that felt like this was wrong, even in his cloud of lust for Shampoo and admiration of Ukyou, something told him it was wrong.
And then leaving school he saw her and it was like a lighthouse in the fog that covered the sea.
Her annoyed eyes and pursed lips, pointed at him and his actions after class. God damnit when had she gotten so beautiful?
He shook his head thinking about it, he thought Akane was cute, plenty pretty but earlier today he'd thought her scornful face was a work of art, like he couldn't breathe when she looked at him. And when she had given him a cold shoulder as she prepared to head home, he'd been so quick to want to go with her, to follow her wherever she wanted to go as long as she left with him. He would absolutely try to get under her skin to get her to pay attention to him at times but today felt embarrassing, how whiny and desperate he felt he'd been. And then as soon as he got a hand on her, how he needed her close to him and he took the opportunity to grab her and leap away from the other two because now that she was there, the other two could've just faded away. Everything could've faded away.
And wait.
Wait.
Holy SHIT he had tried to kiss her.
He silently began to panic, sweat building beneath his bangs as he realized how he had acted. Why didn't she say anything, should he say something? Tell her everything was weird this afternoon? How he definitely had not been acting himself?
But wait. Did she like him grabbing her and keeping her warm? She hadn't hit him or yelled at him; she was normal to him at home tonight. Pleasant enough, focused on school though.
The silence was getting to be too much, he hadn't said anything more and she was waiting on him for something. Anything. He sighed.
"Must've been just feelin' under the weather. I guess it's not a big deal."
She looked at him quizzically. Why did he just dismiss that they both had felt weird? He had been so weird with her and Ukyou, why was he ready to move on already?
"I think it was more than that, Ranma. Both you and I felt something was off, right? I mean, maybe..."
"Maybe what? We got some weird shit comin' for us? Come on, 'Kane it's been months since we've had anything like that."
He suddenly remembered his weird dream from class, when the Akane from his dream had warned him of something coming. Maybe he should say something?
But quickly he decided he wasn't going to say anything, the last thing he wanted was her getting involved. He never liked when she did because it meant her possibly getting hurt or getting in the way. And even when she didn't insert herself, she'd be pulled into the messes somehow and she'd be kidnapped and need to be saved.
Or dead.
He mentally shook that thought off as he looked over at her as she was looking her homework over. She chewed the eraser to her pencil, obviously no longer thinking about the problems in front of her. Her eyes scanned without reading.
"I don't know Ranma, but it feels...wrong. Today hasn't felt right... I've felt it since lunch."
"It's nothin' Kane, just let it go." He had no interest in talking about school, about what happened, certainly not about how he acted.
And as if she could read his mind.
She dropped her hands on her desk and turned her head towards him, an eyebrow raised.
"So, I should expect for you to do more snuggling up to Ukyou in class moving forward?" There was no joking lit to her voice. If it was one thing she couldn't quite joke or tease about yet with him it was the other fiancees. Their actions towards him or his towards them. That was a line not ready to be crossed.
"Ah jeez, gimme a break alright I, I don't know she looked like she needed someone to pay her some attention for a little bit. It wasn't serious."
"Not serious?" She dropped into an exaggerated frown as if she was starting to understand. "Ah yeah, just putting your arm around her while she fed you snacks during history lecture. Not serious at all!" She scoffed. "Please, have a little more respect for my intelligence."
"I said it wan't serious Akane! She just wanted company."
"Yeah, wanted you to come home with her and really show you how much she needs company!" She turned away and went back to her work. "Whatever. I'm going back to my homework, why don't you see if 'Ucchan' still needs that company." She pouted in her seat. He groaned and sat up.
"God you can be so uncute you know that?" He stared at her while she ignored him. "It wasn't serious! None of it is!"
"Oh, so now your engagements and fiancees aren't serious huh?" He shook his head like he had had something thrown at him.
"What the hell are you talkin' bout, 'Kane? We were talking about today and you're talkin' bout engagements all of a sudden."
She sighed and closed her eyes, punching her anger down as far as she could now that it was on the verge of boiling over. Those words from Dariole had weighed on her heavy throughout the evening, that some new girl would show sympathy over the fact that she was engaged to a boy with two other fiancees.
One third of a group of girls in the world's most embarrassing club.
There was nothing cute or fun or endearing about being strung along as one of his fiancees. It had been bad enough two years ago to just be engaged to someone she didn't know. And when she was just warming up to him, warming up to him as just a person, turns out he was engaged to another girl because of a weird tradition from where she was.
But of course, he would tell her no, he didn't even know her.
But then he didn't. And they moved to Nerima and she took his silence as permission to make her mark on him. And how openly she spoke about how their engagement came before Akane's, how it wasn't even valid in her village's eyes.
And what was Akane going to do? Claim a guy she didn't even know? Was just getting to know? He had lived in her house for a month or so at that point, she didn't even know what to think of him. But now their engagement was thrown in her face and how everyone expected her, HER to stake the claim for him.
But then she'd been able to get to know him more, even with the other suitors, his other fiancée and she accepted that things could be complicated but maybe they could figure things out. She had...liked him, even with his dumb mouth, thoughtless actions and cruel words, he could still be sweet and loyal and protective.
He was also so, so cute.
Like even cuter than Tofu.
And just when things had gotten comfortable, wouldn't you know it. ANOTHER FIANCEE. And this time, an engagement made even before Shampoo's! And even though her intention on finding him was taking revenge against him, she had instead fallen for him with his encouraging words and passive actions.
And Akane had found herself 3rd in line, these girls had longer claims to him than herself. Openly expressed their feelings for him, tried to woo him, tried to catch his eyes where they could.
And she just shared a roof with him.
And even if both his mother and father considered her to be his real fiancée, was she really? What besides the title made it real or worth anything?
For the last couple weeks, a thought formed in her mind. What if he took up at Ukyou's or Shampoo's? Certainly they could take care of him, give him whatever he needed, food, attention, anything he wanted.
And if he did leave, what would it be like for them? Would he even want to talk to her, hang out with her? She thought they were friendly but would he really be going out of his way to see her or be around her? Would she at that point?
Maybe their engagement really was just was one of convenance, for Ranma and his family and her father. And the thought left her feeling empty.
"Akane? Earth to Akane?" She looked up and he was waving a hand in her face, her eyes focusing on his palm. "Welcome back, tomboy." He scoffed, she swallowed hard.
Today's been weird.
And confusing.
And she was feeling bold. And tired.
In heart, in soul, in mind.
Tired.
"Ranma." She looked out her window and then at him, her hair in a messy bun flopping against her scalp as she turned. "What are you going to do about the engagements?"
"Wha?" He started, before going red and embarrassed. He looked away. "Whatcha mean?" She sighed.
"I mean are you going to make a decision soon? We're graduating in a couple weeks and... don't you want to take control? Take control of your life." Her eyes softened. "Aren't you tired?"
The silence between them was thick and uncomfortable. She could see him swallow, panic rising in him. She shook her head. She'd pressed too hard.
"Forget I mentioned it. Like you said, it's been a weird day. It's probably nothing, like a cold or something going around."
God was she tired. The idea of going to university with a wishy-washy fiancée felt overwhelming because she was so focused on that right now. On her own future.
Maybe she could just not mention it to new friends there.
Pretend he was just a house guest, a longtime family friend that just happened to be staying with them for an uncertain amount of time. Pretend he was just an instructor moonlighting there for the time being. Maybe she could ask him as nice as humanly possible to keep their situation to himself, that there was no need to tell everyone about them.
Like "them" was even a thing.
She rubbed her temples and dropped her hands to her work. Neutral, tired.
She could feel him looking at her, but didn't want to make him sweat more by looking to him for an answer or expecting anything now.
She cared for him after all and she had sprung this on him out of nowhere.
The ping pong game of protecting herself and wanted to support him at times was truly exhausting and typically lead to a no-win scenario.
"I uh...I mean..." He coughed and she watched the problems in front of her as if they could give her any answers to her private life. "I mean... I guess I kinda... have an idea... but I mean."
She slowly turned to look at him, his face was slowly turning the same shade of crimson as his top. At least from what she could see when he wasn't looking away from her.
She looked at him without hope or anger or fear or anything. She just wanted to listen.
No expectations.
"I mean... I kinda..." He fingered her sheets. "Man, I guess if I'm put on the spot and hafta choose I guess... I'm... pretty used to bein' here. And... I wanna dojo of m'own to run. My parents would be happy I guess and..." Her face stayed neutral as he looked up at her.
"I'm...pretty comfortable here. Y'know if I gotta make a choice and all." He smiled a little, the slight lift of his mouth was boyish and sweet.
But she couldn't return it.
She didn't know what she expected. She didn't know why she bothered asking. If the tension between them had been uncomfortable before it was stifling now.
Her face was set hard, her lips pressed together in a slight pouted frown. His little smile dropped when she didn't return it, he felt everything drop into his stomach.
What the hell was he thinking telling her that? This god damn day was making him not think straight.
Akane swallowed hard, pressing her tongue to the roof of her mouth, feeling the sting of hard emotions behind her eyes. Her throat felt like it was tightening up.
Why had she asked that.
Why?
She dropped her eyes finally, breathing lightly.
"Well. I'm glad you like my home so much, Ranma."
He stared at her head, his eyes moving trying to see hers.
"I'm so glad it's been comfortable for you. And that you have a dojo you can run." Her eyes met his and the cold he found there was one he hadn't seen in some time. He wanted to reach out, say something.
But that truth was too much. For his pride, for this moment.
"Akane..."
"Please." She offered as she turned away from him. "I would like to finish my homework alone Ranma." She looked at the problems again and focused on that. He watched her with a heaving chest. He wanted to go up and grab her, tell her the truth, the real truth.
He wanted to shake her and scream for her to realize what he had admitted to. Wasn't that good enough?
Make her look at him and tell him her truth, didn't he just lay everything out?
"'Kane, I-"
"I just want to finish my work. Please." She wouldn't look at him. "When you want to be alone, I respect that. Can you show me the same consideration please?"
This was bad.
This was really bad.
She wasn't flying off the handle, she wasn't leaping from her chair to strangle him or decking him in the throat and calling him names.
Instead, she was just sad? Just nothing?
Akane having Akane emotions meant anger or annoyance or in recent months sarcasm and teasing. Or generally happy.
And he was happy when she was happy.
But for her to be like this, devoid of all that, asking for privacy, it wasn't good. All he wanted was to stay planted here and make her tell him what she was feeling, be bullheaded and stubborn and refuse to leave until she told him and let him fix it.
She never let him fix it.
He took a deep breath and he let those selfish thoughts go away. Even she was allowed some space from him. How quick was he to knock on her window when she was alone, sneak into her room when Ryoga was pretending to be her pet, in general how often he inserted himself into her things.
It was because he lov-
Because he liked to be around her, was that so wrong?
But in the time it took him to think about things and she hadn't yelled at him or pushed him out of her room, just waited to excuse himself, he nodded and stood going to her door.
"'Night Akane."
"Goodnight Ranma." She looked at her desk.
"Would...if you feel like talkin'..." he couldn't finish.
"I know where to find you." She turned her head so he could see her profile a moment before she went back to her position. He nodded and closed the door.
After a few moments she got up, locked her window and closed her curtains. She closed her books and turned off her desk lap.
She didn't bother dressing into pajamas.
She slipped in to her sheets.
She flipped her pillows over.
She let her thoughts wander, wash and pass through her.
Sleep came with difficulty but it came eventually.
With him atop her roof.