-Warning! Angsty Akane ahead! Eep! Don't worry though, this isn't going to stay a sad and pathetic "love lost" fic. There will be some sort of happy stuff coming... And yes, I will eventually get around to Ranma explaining his reaction - just not in this chapter. Thanks for your reviews everyone, I'm glad to see that you pretty much all agreed with the way I portrayed Akane in the first chapter. And Ghost in the Machine - That's why it was called Chapter One, and not The End. ~_^ Hehe.
-Disclaimer: The Ranma 1/2 Characters are not mine to make profit on. I am simply borrowing their likenesses to create a work of fiction. Please don't sue me.
Better Left Unspoken
"Akane... Akane, some things are better left unspoken..."
So few words, but enough to crush a young woman's hopes and dreams.
It had been 2 months, 16 days, 13 hours, 22 minutes and some odd seconds since Akane had had her heart wrenched from her chest. The school had finally stopped calling to see when she'd be returning to class, instead sending her a Home School package. The phone had stopped ringing with calls from her friends, with invites to the mall or movies. Akane sat in her room, almost in the same spot, day after day, moving only when necessary. Meal times were met by silence, Akane eating almost mechanically, as though the food was sawdust. Most days she didn't even bother to wash or get dressed. It was as if she had ceased to exist as a person - all that was left was a shell of her former self.
Night times were different. Only then did some emotion come into play. Akane managed to only get a few hours of sleep each night, spending the remainder crying.
"Oh, God... I still love him! How am I supposed to live without him? It's too hard. I don't want to do it, I only want him back. I was so sure he felt the same... Ranma, Ranma, why couldn't you at least have said anything? Did you care so little for me that I wasn't even worth that small effort?"
Kasumi tried frequently to bring Akane out of her depression, but all her efforts were no good. Akane would sit there and seem to listen as Kasumi gently consoled her, and explained that her life wasn't over, that there were still good things to look forward to, but as soon as the "talk" was over, she'd sink back into her room, and stare at the wall.
No one had seen or heard from Ranma since that night. Akane wasn't sure if that was worse than if he had been around, tormenting her with his presence. The rest of the Nerima gang had come occasionally to the dojo, at first to find out where Ranma was, then later to try to break through Akane's shell. They were so used to her exuberance that they were frightened of the new Akane. Nothing any of them said made any kind of difference. Akane would thank them for their concern, and then show them to the door, pleading a headache or fatigue. Eventually they too stopped coming.
Soun still held on to the engagement in desperation, hoping against hope that the two families could still be joined. Genma would go around muttering under his breath about how the boy had no honor, and how could he treat his father this way. It now seemed that Akane and Ranma had been the life force of the household, and now with one gone, and one only there in form, the dojo and house seemed to be painted in shades of grey. Where there had been laughter and shouts, people now talked in whispers, or didn't bother to talk at all.
Nabiki couldn't believe the change in her sister. She too had tried to talk to Akane, but was met with the same response that Kasumi had. She knew that she was known throughout Nerima as the Ice Queen, the girl with no emotions, but the way Akane was acting was far beyond this. It was time something was done about it. Heading upstairs, she paused in front of Akane's door and took a deep breath. She knocked sharply on the door, and not seeming to hear Akane's pleas to be left alone, opened it and walked in.
"Hey, little sister, I think we need to talk. No, wait. I need to talk, and you need to sit there and listen. And not with that glazed look on your face. Wake up, damnit! God, Akane, what are you doing to yourself? Have you looked in a mirror lately? Pardon my French, but you look like shit."
"Well, excuse me! But if you haven't noticed, I've been through a bit of a rough time lately, so you've got no right..." Akane said, with rare emotion showing, before being interrupted by Nabiki.
"I've got no right? Whatever Akane. As your sister, I've got total rights to say something if I see you, someone I love, throwing their life away. And over what? A guy. That's stupid Akane. If you can't see that, then maybe you're stupid too. GET. OVER. IT."
"Stop it! Stop saying those kind of things! I didn't want you in here in the first place, and now all you can do is call me names? Get out of here and leave me alone!"
"No, I won't. This is the first time I've seen you reacting, and I think that's a good thing. Listen up, Akane. So Ranma didn't have the reaction you were expecting. So he didn't care the same way. That's no reason for you to throw your life away. Right now, you're acting no better than Shampoo or Kodachi. Living your life for only one reason - a guy that doesn't want to be with you. I'm not saying get over the hurt, I know that will take a while, but get back to having a life! Enjoy the sunshine, your friends, provided you haven't driven them completely away, see a movie, read a book! And school - you do realize that if you don't do the work the school sent, you won't graduate? And that means no College, which I know has been a dream of yours."
"My dream was a life with Ranma..."
"SHUT UP! God, I can't believe my sister is spouting that kind of idiotic crap. It's fine to have a dream of being with a guy for the long run, but it wasn't your only dream or your oldest dream, so don't try to pretend it was. Move on. I'm not saying go out and find another guy, but at least consider the option in the future. Please Akane, I want my sister back - the one that loved life, that knew how to laugh, and have fun. All you're doing in here is making yourself sick. Shutting out the world doesn't do anything except cause you more problems in the long run."
"It's my life, Nabiki, not yours! You're so frigid, you don't know what I'm going through! The only thing you've ever loved is money, so don't you dare tell me how to act. God, you're such a bitch! Just leave me alone! I love him, and he left me! Of course I'm going to be upset! Maybe it's something a non caring unfeeling person like yourself wouldn't be able to understand!"
"Go ahead, get mad at me, call me names, do whatever, Akane. At least then I know that you're still alive inside. But still, acting like your life is over is just being immature. I thought you had grown up since you came back from Jusenkyo... looks like I was wrong." Nabiki said with a trace of scorn.
Akane blew up. Picking up the nearest object she could get her hands on, she threw it with all her might at Nabiki. Luckily it was only a stuffed animal, but the sheer force was enough to knock the girl off balance.
"Get out! Get out of here! Leave me the hell alone!" Akane got off her bed, with a look of fury.
"Fine, I'll leave, but at least think about what I said, Akane. Don't live your life thinking about the past and what went wrong. Be mad, at least it shows you feel something other than apathy. It's almost like having the old Akane back." Nabiki said as she picked herself up and left the room.
Akane threw a few ceramic figurines at the closed door, wishing it was Nabiki's head. Then she threw herself onto the bed and cried herself to an exhausted sleep. All that night her dreams were filled with all the things that Nabiki had said, replaying in all cruelty over and over.
She woke up the next morning still tired. She couldn't help think about all the stuff Nabiki had said yesterday. She hated to admit it, but it was true. She had been acting really horribly to everyone that had tried to help her through the roughness. And all she had done was sit there like a lump, thinking her life was over. Realizing this, she got out of bed, washed, got dressed and headed down to breakfast. Seeing Nabiki leaving her room, she stopped her in the hallway.
"Nabiki... I'm sorry. I've thought about what you said, and you were right. You were right about everything. I've been a stupid wreck, and selfish. I didn't stop to think that how I was acting was affecting my family. I'm not promising that I'm going to be able to change back to "Happy" Akane right away, I'm just not there yet, but I'll be better. I do need to get out of this house, and do stuff. It'll be hard, but I can do it - I can be strong like I was before."
"Akane, you have no idea how good that sounds! I'll help you however I can - in fact I'm feeling so generous with being so happy and all, that I won't even charge you for your first two sessions of "Welcome back to life" tutorials!"
"Nabiki..."
"Just kidding, just kidding... So, what do you say we go for a walk later, huh? I think that's probably better than going somewhere crowded like the mall or a movie."
"Sounds nice. Let's ask Kasumi as well. We haven't done anything, just us three, in a long time, even way before this whole mess started." Akane said with a small smile, already starting to feel somewhat better.
Over the next little while, Akane started to get better. She smiled more, and started working on her school work. She hadn't gone back to the school, though, as she just wasn't ready to face the mass of boys or Kuno, since they had no doubt by now heard about Ranma's absence. She still thought about Ranma a lot, and it still hurt, but it was no longer that crushing agony that it had been. She knew she still loved him, and that a part of her would always love him, but she could now see that she had a life outside of him.
Akane also got back into training her Martial Arts. When Ranma had been living with them, she had almost stopped practicing, after all, she had been too busy being kidnapped, or going on various adventures with Ranma and the gang. True, her life now was a little more boring, as when Ranma had left, so had all the trouble that seemed to follow him. Her first few training sessions made her realize how rusty she was. She had gained some power over the past few years, but her style was definitely lacking.
One evening, about a month after Nabiki's talk, she was working on a new routine in the dojo, when Kasumi came in.
"Akane, you have a visitor"
Akane's first thought was "Oh my God! It's Ranma, he's come back!" Then she was mad at herself for thinking that. It was true that everytime the phone rang, or the doorbell sounded, her heart gave a little leap, but she was working on it.
"Ryoga's come to see you, isn't that nice of him?" Kasumi continued.
"Oh, Ryoga! I haven't seen him in a long time!" Akane wasn't sure if she was happy or sad that it wasn't Ranma, as she really had no idea how she would react if he ever did come back.
Akane wrapped a towel around her neck and invited Ryoga into the dojo.
"I'm so happy to see you, it's been way too long! What have you been up to? How's Akari? Are you guys getting serious yet?"
"Well, that's actually what I came to talk to you about, Akane." Ryoga said with a little frown.
Akane laughed. "I don't know that I'm the best person to ask for relationship advice, Ryoga."
"No, it's not that. Akari and I are getting serious, but before I fully commit to her, there's something that I have to know. It's about you. You see, I, umm..." Ryoga broke off, blushing profusely.
"Come sit down, and we'll talk. Please, you know that you can talk to me about anything." Akane went and sat down at a small table in the room.
"Well, Akane, you must have known that I like you."
"Of course! And I like you too! You're a great guy."
"No, Akane, I meant that I really like you... What I'm trying to say here is... Oh man, this is hard... I'm just going to come out and say it. I've had feelings for you for the longest time! I need to know if there is any kind of chance for us! I like Akari a lot, but I can't stop thinking about you, either. I'm so confused, I can't lead Akari on with false hopes like this any longer. I have to make a choice, but I don't even know what I want that choice to be. I just needed to tell you my feelings!" Ryoga looked like he wanted to run away as fast as he could, to get lost somewhere extremely remote.
"Ryoga... I can't really say that I'm surprised by this, I sort of had the feeling recently that you felt like this, but I have to let you know, I can only ever be friends with you. It would be too hard to even try for anything else. I look at you, and all I can think of is Ranma. So many of my memories of you involve him, that it would be like constantly reliving my past, being with you. That wouldn't be fair to either of us. Maybe if I had met you without knowing Ranma, or with you not knowing Ranma, but as it is, I can't. I just can't. Ryoga, I'm so sorry. Please, I hope that this won't ruin our friendship." Akane said sadly.
Ryoga sat in silence for a bit, then nodded his head. "Well, that's pretty much what I had expected to hear, I guess that I just needed to hear it from you. I do love Akari, and you will always hold a special place in my heart, but you are right - it wouldn't be fair to either of us if we tried to make anything more than a friendship between us. Thank you for being honest, and yes, I still want to be your friend. But there's still something else I have to tell you, about how I was after that water at the wedding..."
"Oh Ryoga, don't worry, I already know!" Akane said with a smile.
Ryoga's jaw dropped. "You do? And you're not mad? Akane, I'm so sorry, I never meant to let it continue that long, I never meant any dishonor to you!"
"Oh Ryoga, I know that you were just confused at the time, and didn't want Ranma to have the water. I know that now if you had a second chance, you would have let him have it."
"What??!! Uhh, yeah, that's it. Once again, I do apologize to you for ruining that day. I'd apologize to Ranma too, but... well, you know." Ryoga realized then that he'd never be able to tell Akane about P-Chan. She didn't need any more hurt dealt out to her than she had already received. And it wasn't like the little pig would ever be making another appearance in her bedroom anyways. Sometimes it was just better to let things lie as they were.
"Well, I'd better be going. Akane, thank you for your friendship, it means a lot to me. What we talked about helped me realize that although I thought that I loved you, I really love Akari. I guess you were the girl I couldn't have, and I had let that build up to more in my mind." Ryoga wasn't exactly sure if this was the truth or not, but it was the best way he could make a graceful exit.
"I hope we see you back here soon! Akari is a lucky girl to have found a guy like you. You make sure you treat her right, okay? I want you to be happy!" Akane smiled at Ryoga as she walked him to the exit.
"And Akane? I didn't really want to bring this up, I know it's still a hard thing for you to talk about, but I'm glad to see you're doing better. We were all so worried about you for a while there. It's nice to see you smile again."
"Thank you. If it wasn't for my family and my friends, I don't know how I would have gotten through this past little while. You were all so understanding, even when I didn't deserve it."
"I have to admit, part of me still wants to track him down and yell "Ranma Saotome, prepare to die for treating Akane like this!" but I guess old habits die hard, huh?"
"Yeah, I suppose they do. Thanks for stopping by, Ryoga. It was really nice seeing you again, I'm glad we got to talk."
Akane smiled as she closed the door. It had been hard to let Ryoga down like that, but she knew it had to be done. Then she frowned. It hadn't been all that hard. If she had been able to do it, why hadn't Ranma?
End Chapter Two
- Okay, before anyone starts screaming at me, Ranma WILL be showing up eventually in this fic, probably as soon as the next chapter! I am after all a die hard Ranma and Akane fan, even though I'm completely in love with Ryoga... ^_^ And yes, Ryoga was OOC, but after all, this is after the manga, so who's to say that he didn't grow up too? And besides, it's my story so there! :P Hehe, just kidding. But really, this is a continuation fic, so I'm choosing to have them grow up and mature a bit after the Jusenkyo experience. Please continue to R&R - it really helps me write when I know that people are reading and enjoying. And if you aren't enjoying it, you can either tell me what's wrong with it, or just stop reading it!
-Disclaimer: The Ranma 1/2 Characters are not mine to make profit on. I am simply borrowing their likenesses to create a work of fiction. Please don't sue me.
Better Left Unspoken
"Akane... Akane, some things are better left unspoken..."
So few words, but enough to crush a young woman's hopes and dreams.
It had been 2 months, 16 days, 13 hours, 22 minutes and some odd seconds since Akane had had her heart wrenched from her chest. The school had finally stopped calling to see when she'd be returning to class, instead sending her a Home School package. The phone had stopped ringing with calls from her friends, with invites to the mall or movies. Akane sat in her room, almost in the same spot, day after day, moving only when necessary. Meal times were met by silence, Akane eating almost mechanically, as though the food was sawdust. Most days she didn't even bother to wash or get dressed. It was as if she had ceased to exist as a person - all that was left was a shell of her former self.
Night times were different. Only then did some emotion come into play. Akane managed to only get a few hours of sleep each night, spending the remainder crying.
"Oh, God... I still love him! How am I supposed to live without him? It's too hard. I don't want to do it, I only want him back. I was so sure he felt the same... Ranma, Ranma, why couldn't you at least have said anything? Did you care so little for me that I wasn't even worth that small effort?"
Kasumi tried frequently to bring Akane out of her depression, but all her efforts were no good. Akane would sit there and seem to listen as Kasumi gently consoled her, and explained that her life wasn't over, that there were still good things to look forward to, but as soon as the "talk" was over, she'd sink back into her room, and stare at the wall.
No one had seen or heard from Ranma since that night. Akane wasn't sure if that was worse than if he had been around, tormenting her with his presence. The rest of the Nerima gang had come occasionally to the dojo, at first to find out where Ranma was, then later to try to break through Akane's shell. They were so used to her exuberance that they were frightened of the new Akane. Nothing any of them said made any kind of difference. Akane would thank them for their concern, and then show them to the door, pleading a headache or fatigue. Eventually they too stopped coming.
Soun still held on to the engagement in desperation, hoping against hope that the two families could still be joined. Genma would go around muttering under his breath about how the boy had no honor, and how could he treat his father this way. It now seemed that Akane and Ranma had been the life force of the household, and now with one gone, and one only there in form, the dojo and house seemed to be painted in shades of grey. Where there had been laughter and shouts, people now talked in whispers, or didn't bother to talk at all.
Nabiki couldn't believe the change in her sister. She too had tried to talk to Akane, but was met with the same response that Kasumi had. She knew that she was known throughout Nerima as the Ice Queen, the girl with no emotions, but the way Akane was acting was far beyond this. It was time something was done about it. Heading upstairs, she paused in front of Akane's door and took a deep breath. She knocked sharply on the door, and not seeming to hear Akane's pleas to be left alone, opened it and walked in.
"Hey, little sister, I think we need to talk. No, wait. I need to talk, and you need to sit there and listen. And not with that glazed look on your face. Wake up, damnit! God, Akane, what are you doing to yourself? Have you looked in a mirror lately? Pardon my French, but you look like shit."
"Well, excuse me! But if you haven't noticed, I've been through a bit of a rough time lately, so you've got no right..." Akane said, with rare emotion showing, before being interrupted by Nabiki.
"I've got no right? Whatever Akane. As your sister, I've got total rights to say something if I see you, someone I love, throwing their life away. And over what? A guy. That's stupid Akane. If you can't see that, then maybe you're stupid too. GET. OVER. IT."
"Stop it! Stop saying those kind of things! I didn't want you in here in the first place, and now all you can do is call me names? Get out of here and leave me alone!"
"No, I won't. This is the first time I've seen you reacting, and I think that's a good thing. Listen up, Akane. So Ranma didn't have the reaction you were expecting. So he didn't care the same way. That's no reason for you to throw your life away. Right now, you're acting no better than Shampoo or Kodachi. Living your life for only one reason - a guy that doesn't want to be with you. I'm not saying get over the hurt, I know that will take a while, but get back to having a life! Enjoy the sunshine, your friends, provided you haven't driven them completely away, see a movie, read a book! And school - you do realize that if you don't do the work the school sent, you won't graduate? And that means no College, which I know has been a dream of yours."
"My dream was a life with Ranma..."
"SHUT UP! God, I can't believe my sister is spouting that kind of idiotic crap. It's fine to have a dream of being with a guy for the long run, but it wasn't your only dream or your oldest dream, so don't try to pretend it was. Move on. I'm not saying go out and find another guy, but at least consider the option in the future. Please Akane, I want my sister back - the one that loved life, that knew how to laugh, and have fun. All you're doing in here is making yourself sick. Shutting out the world doesn't do anything except cause you more problems in the long run."
"It's my life, Nabiki, not yours! You're so frigid, you don't know what I'm going through! The only thing you've ever loved is money, so don't you dare tell me how to act. God, you're such a bitch! Just leave me alone! I love him, and he left me! Of course I'm going to be upset! Maybe it's something a non caring unfeeling person like yourself wouldn't be able to understand!"
"Go ahead, get mad at me, call me names, do whatever, Akane. At least then I know that you're still alive inside. But still, acting like your life is over is just being immature. I thought you had grown up since you came back from Jusenkyo... looks like I was wrong." Nabiki said with a trace of scorn.
Akane blew up. Picking up the nearest object she could get her hands on, she threw it with all her might at Nabiki. Luckily it was only a stuffed animal, but the sheer force was enough to knock the girl off balance.
"Get out! Get out of here! Leave me the hell alone!" Akane got off her bed, with a look of fury.
"Fine, I'll leave, but at least think about what I said, Akane. Don't live your life thinking about the past and what went wrong. Be mad, at least it shows you feel something other than apathy. It's almost like having the old Akane back." Nabiki said as she picked herself up and left the room.
Akane threw a few ceramic figurines at the closed door, wishing it was Nabiki's head. Then she threw herself onto the bed and cried herself to an exhausted sleep. All that night her dreams were filled with all the things that Nabiki had said, replaying in all cruelty over and over.
She woke up the next morning still tired. She couldn't help think about all the stuff Nabiki had said yesterday. She hated to admit it, but it was true. She had been acting really horribly to everyone that had tried to help her through the roughness. And all she had done was sit there like a lump, thinking her life was over. Realizing this, she got out of bed, washed, got dressed and headed down to breakfast. Seeing Nabiki leaving her room, she stopped her in the hallway.
"Nabiki... I'm sorry. I've thought about what you said, and you were right. You were right about everything. I've been a stupid wreck, and selfish. I didn't stop to think that how I was acting was affecting my family. I'm not promising that I'm going to be able to change back to "Happy" Akane right away, I'm just not there yet, but I'll be better. I do need to get out of this house, and do stuff. It'll be hard, but I can do it - I can be strong like I was before."
"Akane, you have no idea how good that sounds! I'll help you however I can - in fact I'm feeling so generous with being so happy and all, that I won't even charge you for your first two sessions of "Welcome back to life" tutorials!"
"Nabiki..."
"Just kidding, just kidding... So, what do you say we go for a walk later, huh? I think that's probably better than going somewhere crowded like the mall or a movie."
"Sounds nice. Let's ask Kasumi as well. We haven't done anything, just us three, in a long time, even way before this whole mess started." Akane said with a small smile, already starting to feel somewhat better.
Over the next little while, Akane started to get better. She smiled more, and started working on her school work. She hadn't gone back to the school, though, as she just wasn't ready to face the mass of boys or Kuno, since they had no doubt by now heard about Ranma's absence. She still thought about Ranma a lot, and it still hurt, but it was no longer that crushing agony that it had been. She knew she still loved him, and that a part of her would always love him, but she could now see that she had a life outside of him.
Akane also got back into training her Martial Arts. When Ranma had been living with them, she had almost stopped practicing, after all, she had been too busy being kidnapped, or going on various adventures with Ranma and the gang. True, her life now was a little more boring, as when Ranma had left, so had all the trouble that seemed to follow him. Her first few training sessions made her realize how rusty she was. She had gained some power over the past few years, but her style was definitely lacking.
One evening, about a month after Nabiki's talk, she was working on a new routine in the dojo, when Kasumi came in.
"Akane, you have a visitor"
Akane's first thought was "Oh my God! It's Ranma, he's come back!" Then she was mad at herself for thinking that. It was true that everytime the phone rang, or the doorbell sounded, her heart gave a little leap, but she was working on it.
"Ryoga's come to see you, isn't that nice of him?" Kasumi continued.
"Oh, Ryoga! I haven't seen him in a long time!" Akane wasn't sure if she was happy or sad that it wasn't Ranma, as she really had no idea how she would react if he ever did come back.
Akane wrapped a towel around her neck and invited Ryoga into the dojo.
"I'm so happy to see you, it's been way too long! What have you been up to? How's Akari? Are you guys getting serious yet?"
"Well, that's actually what I came to talk to you about, Akane." Ryoga said with a little frown.
Akane laughed. "I don't know that I'm the best person to ask for relationship advice, Ryoga."
"No, it's not that. Akari and I are getting serious, but before I fully commit to her, there's something that I have to know. It's about you. You see, I, umm..." Ryoga broke off, blushing profusely.
"Come sit down, and we'll talk. Please, you know that you can talk to me about anything." Akane went and sat down at a small table in the room.
"Well, Akane, you must have known that I like you."
"Of course! And I like you too! You're a great guy."
"No, Akane, I meant that I really like you... What I'm trying to say here is... Oh man, this is hard... I'm just going to come out and say it. I've had feelings for you for the longest time! I need to know if there is any kind of chance for us! I like Akari a lot, but I can't stop thinking about you, either. I'm so confused, I can't lead Akari on with false hopes like this any longer. I have to make a choice, but I don't even know what I want that choice to be. I just needed to tell you my feelings!" Ryoga looked like he wanted to run away as fast as he could, to get lost somewhere extremely remote.
"Ryoga... I can't really say that I'm surprised by this, I sort of had the feeling recently that you felt like this, but I have to let you know, I can only ever be friends with you. It would be too hard to even try for anything else. I look at you, and all I can think of is Ranma. So many of my memories of you involve him, that it would be like constantly reliving my past, being with you. That wouldn't be fair to either of us. Maybe if I had met you without knowing Ranma, or with you not knowing Ranma, but as it is, I can't. I just can't. Ryoga, I'm so sorry. Please, I hope that this won't ruin our friendship." Akane said sadly.
Ryoga sat in silence for a bit, then nodded his head. "Well, that's pretty much what I had expected to hear, I guess that I just needed to hear it from you. I do love Akari, and you will always hold a special place in my heart, but you are right - it wouldn't be fair to either of us if we tried to make anything more than a friendship between us. Thank you for being honest, and yes, I still want to be your friend. But there's still something else I have to tell you, about how I was after that water at the wedding..."
"Oh Ryoga, don't worry, I already know!" Akane said with a smile.
Ryoga's jaw dropped. "You do? And you're not mad? Akane, I'm so sorry, I never meant to let it continue that long, I never meant any dishonor to you!"
"Oh Ryoga, I know that you were just confused at the time, and didn't want Ranma to have the water. I know that now if you had a second chance, you would have let him have it."
"What??!! Uhh, yeah, that's it. Once again, I do apologize to you for ruining that day. I'd apologize to Ranma too, but... well, you know." Ryoga realized then that he'd never be able to tell Akane about P-Chan. She didn't need any more hurt dealt out to her than she had already received. And it wasn't like the little pig would ever be making another appearance in her bedroom anyways. Sometimes it was just better to let things lie as they were.
"Well, I'd better be going. Akane, thank you for your friendship, it means a lot to me. What we talked about helped me realize that although I thought that I loved you, I really love Akari. I guess you were the girl I couldn't have, and I had let that build up to more in my mind." Ryoga wasn't exactly sure if this was the truth or not, but it was the best way he could make a graceful exit.
"I hope we see you back here soon! Akari is a lucky girl to have found a guy like you. You make sure you treat her right, okay? I want you to be happy!" Akane smiled at Ryoga as she walked him to the exit.
"And Akane? I didn't really want to bring this up, I know it's still a hard thing for you to talk about, but I'm glad to see you're doing better. We were all so worried about you for a while there. It's nice to see you smile again."
"Thank you. If it wasn't for my family and my friends, I don't know how I would have gotten through this past little while. You were all so understanding, even when I didn't deserve it."
"I have to admit, part of me still wants to track him down and yell "Ranma Saotome, prepare to die for treating Akane like this!" but I guess old habits die hard, huh?"
"Yeah, I suppose they do. Thanks for stopping by, Ryoga. It was really nice seeing you again, I'm glad we got to talk."
Akane smiled as she closed the door. It had been hard to let Ryoga down like that, but she knew it had to be done. Then she frowned. It hadn't been all that hard. If she had been able to do it, why hadn't Ranma?
End Chapter Two
- Okay, before anyone starts screaming at me, Ranma WILL be showing up eventually in this fic, probably as soon as the next chapter! I am after all a die hard Ranma and Akane fan, even though I'm completely in love with Ryoga... ^_^ And yes, Ryoga was OOC, but after all, this is after the manga, so who's to say that he didn't grow up too? And besides, it's my story so there! :P Hehe, just kidding. But really, this is a continuation fic, so I'm choosing to have them grow up and mature a bit after the Jusenkyo experience. Please continue to R&R - it really helps me write when I know that people are reading and enjoying. And if you aren't enjoying it, you can either tell me what's wrong with it, or just stop reading it!