-Well, this chapter was supposed to be out this past weekend, but silly me left the only copy of it on my computer at work on Friday, so I didn't get a chance to finish it til now. I'm pretty sure I've got the rest of the story settled in my head - not sure how many more chapters there'll be, but the next one should be out shortly.
-Disclaimer: Mine! Mine, all mine! What? This cupcake belongs to me! You didn't think I meant Ranma and Co., did you? Sheesh... only in my dreams...
Better Left Unspoken
Over the next few weeks, things were going a lot smoother than they ever had before at the Tendo household. Ranma and Akane were getting into this friendship deal that they had decided on, and they were both enjoying it. Sure, each of them wished for a bit more at times, but they knew that this was the best thing for them to be doing at this point. Everyone in the household was a lot happier. Everyone except one person.
Nabiki growled. "That bastard is worming his way back into my sister's life as if he never did anything. I can't believe she's so naïve to look the other way at all the stuff he did to her! So be it." She reached over to her bedside table and opened a drawer. Pressing a tiny hidden button, she pulled out a little book. Almost lovingly she ran a finger over the title - Debts owing - and smiled. "Time to call in a few... or a lot of favors." She reached for the phone. "Oh Ranma... you won't know what hit you. And as for you Akane, I'm sorry, but this is the way it has to be. I'm only doing this for you - in the long run, you'll see I was right." She felt a twinge of unease at the thought of causing Akane pain, but brushed it away. After all, what she was doing was for the greater good, right? Opening up the black book, she started to dial...
Later that afternoon, Akane and Ranma were out by the Koi pond. Enjoying the sunshine, and each other's company, they were talking about anything that came to mind as a topic of conversation. At the moment, they were talking about Ranma's 10 year trip with his father. Akane knew some of the details, but she was sure that the whole trip hadn't been painful experiences like the Cat-Fist Training and Jusenkyo. She wanted to hear about the good things - the dojo's they went to, the people they met, what Ranma liked when he was little, stuff like that. And likewise, Ranma wanted to know about Akane's life. Just little things, that maybe would seem unimportant or trivial to a lot of people, but to him, they were vital pieces of the girl sitting in front of him. What had been her favorite cartoon, her favorite bedtime story, what music had she liked.
It's not that they had never talked before, but really, when they thought about it, most of their conversations had revolved around what was going on at the moment. It was only now that they realized that they should make the time to really get to know each other. After all, that was what friends did.
A cloud passed over the sun briefly, and Akane shivered.
"You cold, 'Kane? We can go in if you want." Ranma said, chewing on a piece of grass.
"No, not really, besides, it's so nice out here - the last bit of spring before summer is one of my favorite times of the year. Everything has already started to grow, and is just waiting to erupt into it's full glory." Akane smiled.
"Yeah, I know what you mean - I never really thought about it before - until I came here, I only thought of weather in terms of what kind of shelter Pops and I would need. And then, after falling into that pool, all I thought about was looking in the sky for clouds or sun."
"You know, I've noticed you haven't been turning into a girl as much lately - cold water doesn't seem as attracted to you as before. Wonder why that is?"
"Hey! Don't knock a good thing, Akane!" Ranma laughed. "I've noticed that too. I figure it has something to do with my Ki. The calmer I am, the calmer the air around me. I noticed that if my aura is settled, danger and disaster tend to stay away. In fact, my curse is almost like a warning beacon. If I get wet, I know something is coming. And I've noticed something a lot different about you too. Mr. Mallet. Haven't seen him hardly at all since I've been back."
"Oh, are you telling me you miss it? Cause I could change that if you wanted..." Akane said warningly, but with a large note of tease in her voice.
"N...NO! I don't mind at all! Really, that's okay! Not a problem here..." Ranma trailed off his babbling as he saw Akane giggling at him. "Aww man... alright, you got me with that one. I should have known you were just kidding around."
"Oh, and like you didn't pull the same thing yesterday when you were saying that you missed your other fiancees?" Akane smirked, remembering. "I'm sorry about the knock to the head, but I just wasn't expecting you to say that. And before I knew it, I had already whacked you - I didn't give you much of a chance to explain that you were just making a joke. I am still working on that."
"Yeah, habits are hard to break, but luckily, so is my head. But at least we got it straightened out right away. And besides, you didn't whomp me as hard as you used to. Either your mind wasn't really set on it, or you're getting out of shape... ACK! Akane, joke! It was a joke! ...What's that look for?"
Next thing Ranma knew, he was sitting in the pond, with a different body then he had had 2 seconds earlier. "Damn..."
"Getting soft, am I? I wouldn't talk, Ranma - you should have seen that coming a mile away. But at least I only pushed you in, however tempted I was to use other means."
Although the conversation sounded like it was reverting to the old Ranma/Akane fight, they both knew that it wasn't. They loved to tease each other like this, as long as they knew the other person understood that that's all it was - teasing. The minute it turned into something darker, they had an understanding that they would stop, and take what basically amounted to a Time Out.
"Tomboy - shoving people into ponds like that."
"Baka." Akane stuck out her tongue at Ranma.
"Uncute."
"Jerk."
"Built like a brick"
"Pervert."
"Pervert!? What'd I do to be a pervert?"
"Ha! I win!" It was a running contest between the two now to see who could keep the flow of insults going the longest without breaking it. "And besides, wearing a white shirt that thin while you're a girl and sitting in water definitely screams out "Pervert" in my books." Akane winked, and started walking back to the house. "I'll go tell Kasumi to put the kettle on, okay?"
"Thanks, Akane. Appreciate it." Ranma watched the girl walk back to the house, smiling at the way the light wind tousled her short hair, and whipped at her skirt, lifting it just enough to make him catch his breath. Looking down at himself, and shrugging his feminine shoulders, he got out of the pond and headed towards the house. "Hope this isn't a sign that the day is about to take a turn for the worse..."
Nabiki sat back from her window, the entertainment gone for the moment. "Perhaps, Ranma. Who knows what could be just around the corner." Looking at her watch, she smiled. The fun was about to begin.
Akane walked into the spotless kitchen. Kasumi, looking unusually harried, glanced up and gave a relieved smile when she saw who it was.
"Oh, Akane! Can you run to the market for me? I'm making a special dish for tonight, and I just realized I'm out of shiitake (A/N - a kind of mushroom). I was sure I still had some, but I guess I forgot to put them on the grocery list when I used up the last of them."
"Yum - shiitake! What are you making?" Akane said, licking her lips.
"Nabiki asked me if I'd make steamed dumplings, and that's her favorite filling. She hardly ever asks me to make something for her, so I didn't mind. And besides, I know the whole family enjoys them, as well as Ranma and Mr. Saotome. But I'm so busy here getting the rest of dinner ready that I just don't have time to go get them by myself. Would you mind, Akane dear?"
"No problem, Kasumi! Oh! Before I forget, can you put the kettle on? Ranma had a little... accident."
"Oh my... Is he okay? He's not hurt too badly, I hope?" Kasumi said with a concerned frown.
"No, he's fine Kasumi. He just kind of accidently fell into the Koi pond. Don't know how that could have happened..." Akane looked around innocently, with a faint smile on her lips, and a twinkle in her eyes.
"Akane... You know, I'm so happy that the two of you are finally being good to each other."
"Me too, Kasumi. Me too. Okay, I'm off! I'll be back as soon as I can with those mushrooms." Akane said as she left the kitchen and headed for the door.
"Make sure they're nice and fresh! And not bruised! Oh, and don't worry about the size, I'm just mincing them anyways!" Kasumi called, wiping her hands on her apron and following Akane to the door. After closing the door behind the other girl, she headed back to the kitchen and put the kettle on one of the burners on the stove. Turning it on, she turned back to her preparations.
Ranma walked in a few minutes later. Seeing the kettle on the stove, the girl grabbed it and checking to see if it was hot enough, but not too hot, poured an amount over her head, and quickly changed back to his normal form.
Kasumi frowned at Ranma. "Oh my... It'd be so much better if you could do that in the washroom in the future, Ranma. I just washed the floor in here."
Ranma had the grace to look embarassed. Shrugging sheepishly, he scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, Kasumi, I wasn't thinking. Let me clean it up for you."
"Thank you Ranma, that'd be very nice." Kasumi said as she handed him a towel.
"Thanks for heating that up for me - I take it Akane was already in here? Where'd she head off to, d'ya know?"
"Hmm?" Kasumi said, slightly distracted by her cooking. "Oh, yes, Akane. She was here, but she went to the store for me - she should be back in a bit. Did you need to talk to her?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that, just was wondering where she had got to, is all. Anyways, that's all cleaned up now - I'll let you get back to your cooking." Ranma looked at Kasumi, who had already lost herself to her humming and cooking. With a little chuckle, he left the room. At least some things hadn't changed in the 6 months he had been gone.
Ranma sat down on the couch and grabbed the remote. Flipping through the channels, he quickly discovered that there wasn't anything on that he was interested in. He picked up a manga that was lying on the side table and tried to read it, but gave up when he found that he was just looking at the same frame over and over. He felt like a ball of endless nervous energy and it was all he could do to keep himself from pacing. After driving himself crazy with the rhythm of his fingers beating a pattern on the couch, he leapt up.
"Man! I'm totally tense! Must be time for a workout!" Heading towards the dojo, he paused when he heard the doorbell. "I'll get it Kasumi!" He called.
"Thank you, Ranma." Came the reply.
Whistling a catchy little tune, Ranma loped to the door and answered it. Standing there was a young man that he vaguely remembered from school.
"Hey, Ranma! Glad to see you're back, pal! We've missed you around these parts - been pretty boring at school without you and Akane."
"Hey thanks... Umm... Juro! Yeah, Juro, it's been a while hasn't it."
"So, you planning on coming back or what? You missed a lot of the year, you know."
"Yeah." Replied Ranma. "I don't think I'd be able to come back this year - doubt if Principal Kuno would even let me back in. I figure I might try to do some work this summer, and then finish up the rest by winter. So, what brings you by here, anyways? If you don't mind me saying, I don't think it's to see me - Nabiki, right? Don't tell me Nabiki went and found herself a guy, did she?"
Juro suddenly looked a little nervous. Pulling at his collar, he said "Actually... I'm here to pick up Akane. We have a, a date tonight."
Being that this was the last thing Ranma expected to hear, it was no surprise that he froze. Managing to find his voice, he croaked "A date? With Akane?"
"Umm, yeah, that's what I said. Can you tell her I'm here?"
"Oh, man, I'm sorry, but you must have made that date with Akane a while back now - she probably forgot to call you and cancel. Now that I'm back in town, I doubt she'll want to go out with you." Ranma said with just a touch of arrogance.
"Well, no, actually we just made this date a few days ago. I asked her out a lot when you were gone, and always got turned down, but figured I'd give it one more shot, and she said yes."
"Listen Juro, I think you got your wires crossed there. You must have misunderstood - there's no way you've got a date with Akane. She probably meant just a get together with some people, a casual thing, you know - I'm surprised she hasn't mentioned it to me yet - I'm sure I'll be coming." Ranma said, starting to get a little peeved.
"Dinner and a movie? Just the two of us? Like as in a more than friends thing? What bit about my date with Akane don't you get? Now, can you please go get her? Our reservations are soon." Juro stepped towards the door, as if he was going to come in.
Ranma blocked the entrance way. He had no idea what was going on, but there was no way this creep was going to take Akane out. "Listen, buddy. Sorry to have to tell you this, but Akane's sick. She's upstairs sleeping right now, and I'm not gonna go wake her up." It was a lame excuse, but Ranma was grasping at straws to get this guy out of here before Akane got back.
"But she didn't call to cancel..."
Ranma interrupted. "It was a very sudden onset of the, the flu. Yeah, she's really sick. She'd be pretty mad, in fact, if anyone saw her looking so crappy. So, you can go, and I'll be sure to tell her you stopped by. Bye now - thanks for coming." Ranma subtly, or rather not so subtly, edged Juro out of the doorway, gave a little flippant wave and shut the door. Looking out the peephole, he saw Juro stand there for a second, and then he turned and walked down the steps towards the street. Ranma didn't stop watching until he was halfway down the block.
"What the hell? Akane made a date? What's going on? She'd better get home soon, cause she's got some explaining to do." His workout forgotten, Ranma sat in a chair close to the door, so that he'd catch Akane as soon as she got home.
"Okay, man, chill out. Let her tell you about it. No need to confront her, don't want to start an argument - I'm sure she meant to say something, yeah, that's it, I'll let her bring it up." Ranma tried to relax himself. Using a semi-meditative state, he managed to calm himself down somewhat. There had to be a explanation for all of this.
About 15 minutes later, Akane arrived home. Opening the door, and walking in, she kicked off her shoes.
"Kasumi! I'm back - got what you needed."
"Okay, Akane - can you bring them into the kitchen for me please?"
"Sure thing, Kasumi." Akane started to head over there, when she caught sight of Ranma. "Hi Ranma! Don't tell me you missed me so much that you were waiting for me to come home!" She joked. "I wasn't gone that long, silly." After dropping off the mushrooms in the kitchen, she came back.
"No, I was just relaxing, thinking about the day, and the evening, and what a nice night it is - the kind of night where people go out, and do things, you know."
*Yeah, real subtle, Saotome. Give her a chance to say something.* Ranma thought to himself.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, it is a nice night for going out I suppose." Akane kept throwing glances out the window, only half listening to what Ranma was saying.
"You... waiting for someone, Akane?" Ranma asked nervously.
Akane jumped. "Oh. No, I was just making sure that the neighbors dog wasn't in our yard again - we've had a real problem lately with him doing his business on the grass." It was obvious that that wasn't the reason she was watching the street.
Ranma found that his fingers were tapping that insane rhythm on the arm of the chair again. Slapping his other hand over top of his fingers, he tried again.
"So... got any plans for the evening?" He said, trying to be casual.
Akane looked at the clock. "Well, I thought about going out for a while, but I don't know, it's later than I thought. Maybe I'll just stay in after all."
"I guess he's not coming here..." She whispered to herself.
Ranma however, overheard. Panic set in. *Man! She did have a date with that guy! And she wasn't going to tell me about it! Phew! At least I got rid of that dweeb before she got back. Now she thinks she's been stood up or something. Come on, Ranma, turn on that charm, make her forget about that guy.*
"Well, I think there's a good movie on the TV tonight, if you want to pop some popcorn and watch it with me."
Akane sighed, finally turning away from the window. "Sure, Ranma. That sounds like fun."
During the movie, Ranma was distracted. He kept looking over at Akane, and replayed Juro's words through his head over and over. If anyone had asked him, he could have sworn that the movie's entire dialogue consisted of two sentences: I'm here to pick up Akane. We have a, a date tonight.
Lying in bed that night, he couldn't sleep. Ranma just couldn't believe that Akane had been planning to go out with another guy. And that she hadn't even been planning on telling him. He thought they were friends. Hell, he thought they were more than friends. What was going on?
End Chapter Six
-Hope you enjoyed this installment. Please R&R, I appreciate all the good stuff I've heard from you guys, and I also appreciate your comments on what you think would make this fic better. I had a really good suggestion from Gie, in a review, about how this story is really dialogue based, and to make it a bit more descriptive. So, I tried to throw in a little more of that in this chapter, don't know if I succeeded or not. Probably not, as I look back, and see that this entire chapter is just about, once again, completely dialogue... I tried...
-Disclaimer: Mine! Mine, all mine! What? This cupcake belongs to me! You didn't think I meant Ranma and Co., did you? Sheesh... only in my dreams...
Better Left Unspoken
Over the next few weeks, things were going a lot smoother than they ever had before at the Tendo household. Ranma and Akane were getting into this friendship deal that they had decided on, and they were both enjoying it. Sure, each of them wished for a bit more at times, but they knew that this was the best thing for them to be doing at this point. Everyone in the household was a lot happier. Everyone except one person.
Nabiki growled. "That bastard is worming his way back into my sister's life as if he never did anything. I can't believe she's so naïve to look the other way at all the stuff he did to her! So be it." She reached over to her bedside table and opened a drawer. Pressing a tiny hidden button, she pulled out a little book. Almost lovingly she ran a finger over the title - Debts owing - and smiled. "Time to call in a few... or a lot of favors." She reached for the phone. "Oh Ranma... you won't know what hit you. And as for you Akane, I'm sorry, but this is the way it has to be. I'm only doing this for you - in the long run, you'll see I was right." She felt a twinge of unease at the thought of causing Akane pain, but brushed it away. After all, what she was doing was for the greater good, right? Opening up the black book, she started to dial...
Later that afternoon, Akane and Ranma were out by the Koi pond. Enjoying the sunshine, and each other's company, they were talking about anything that came to mind as a topic of conversation. At the moment, they were talking about Ranma's 10 year trip with his father. Akane knew some of the details, but she was sure that the whole trip hadn't been painful experiences like the Cat-Fist Training and Jusenkyo. She wanted to hear about the good things - the dojo's they went to, the people they met, what Ranma liked when he was little, stuff like that. And likewise, Ranma wanted to know about Akane's life. Just little things, that maybe would seem unimportant or trivial to a lot of people, but to him, they were vital pieces of the girl sitting in front of him. What had been her favorite cartoon, her favorite bedtime story, what music had she liked.
It's not that they had never talked before, but really, when they thought about it, most of their conversations had revolved around what was going on at the moment. It was only now that they realized that they should make the time to really get to know each other. After all, that was what friends did.
A cloud passed over the sun briefly, and Akane shivered.
"You cold, 'Kane? We can go in if you want." Ranma said, chewing on a piece of grass.
"No, not really, besides, it's so nice out here - the last bit of spring before summer is one of my favorite times of the year. Everything has already started to grow, and is just waiting to erupt into it's full glory." Akane smiled.
"Yeah, I know what you mean - I never really thought about it before - until I came here, I only thought of weather in terms of what kind of shelter Pops and I would need. And then, after falling into that pool, all I thought about was looking in the sky for clouds or sun."
"You know, I've noticed you haven't been turning into a girl as much lately - cold water doesn't seem as attracted to you as before. Wonder why that is?"
"Hey! Don't knock a good thing, Akane!" Ranma laughed. "I've noticed that too. I figure it has something to do with my Ki. The calmer I am, the calmer the air around me. I noticed that if my aura is settled, danger and disaster tend to stay away. In fact, my curse is almost like a warning beacon. If I get wet, I know something is coming. And I've noticed something a lot different about you too. Mr. Mallet. Haven't seen him hardly at all since I've been back."
"Oh, are you telling me you miss it? Cause I could change that if you wanted..." Akane said warningly, but with a large note of tease in her voice.
"N...NO! I don't mind at all! Really, that's okay! Not a problem here..." Ranma trailed off his babbling as he saw Akane giggling at him. "Aww man... alright, you got me with that one. I should have known you were just kidding around."
"Oh, and like you didn't pull the same thing yesterday when you were saying that you missed your other fiancees?" Akane smirked, remembering. "I'm sorry about the knock to the head, but I just wasn't expecting you to say that. And before I knew it, I had already whacked you - I didn't give you much of a chance to explain that you were just making a joke. I am still working on that."
"Yeah, habits are hard to break, but luckily, so is my head. But at least we got it straightened out right away. And besides, you didn't whomp me as hard as you used to. Either your mind wasn't really set on it, or you're getting out of shape... ACK! Akane, joke! It was a joke! ...What's that look for?"
Next thing Ranma knew, he was sitting in the pond, with a different body then he had had 2 seconds earlier. "Damn..."
"Getting soft, am I? I wouldn't talk, Ranma - you should have seen that coming a mile away. But at least I only pushed you in, however tempted I was to use other means."
Although the conversation sounded like it was reverting to the old Ranma/Akane fight, they both knew that it wasn't. They loved to tease each other like this, as long as they knew the other person understood that that's all it was - teasing. The minute it turned into something darker, they had an understanding that they would stop, and take what basically amounted to a Time Out.
"Tomboy - shoving people into ponds like that."
"Baka." Akane stuck out her tongue at Ranma.
"Uncute."
"Jerk."
"Built like a brick"
"Pervert."
"Pervert!? What'd I do to be a pervert?"
"Ha! I win!" It was a running contest between the two now to see who could keep the flow of insults going the longest without breaking it. "And besides, wearing a white shirt that thin while you're a girl and sitting in water definitely screams out "Pervert" in my books." Akane winked, and started walking back to the house. "I'll go tell Kasumi to put the kettle on, okay?"
"Thanks, Akane. Appreciate it." Ranma watched the girl walk back to the house, smiling at the way the light wind tousled her short hair, and whipped at her skirt, lifting it just enough to make him catch his breath. Looking down at himself, and shrugging his feminine shoulders, he got out of the pond and headed towards the house. "Hope this isn't a sign that the day is about to take a turn for the worse..."
Nabiki sat back from her window, the entertainment gone for the moment. "Perhaps, Ranma. Who knows what could be just around the corner." Looking at her watch, she smiled. The fun was about to begin.
Akane walked into the spotless kitchen. Kasumi, looking unusually harried, glanced up and gave a relieved smile when she saw who it was.
"Oh, Akane! Can you run to the market for me? I'm making a special dish for tonight, and I just realized I'm out of shiitake (A/N - a kind of mushroom). I was sure I still had some, but I guess I forgot to put them on the grocery list when I used up the last of them."
"Yum - shiitake! What are you making?" Akane said, licking her lips.
"Nabiki asked me if I'd make steamed dumplings, and that's her favorite filling. She hardly ever asks me to make something for her, so I didn't mind. And besides, I know the whole family enjoys them, as well as Ranma and Mr. Saotome. But I'm so busy here getting the rest of dinner ready that I just don't have time to go get them by myself. Would you mind, Akane dear?"
"No problem, Kasumi! Oh! Before I forget, can you put the kettle on? Ranma had a little... accident."
"Oh my... Is he okay? He's not hurt too badly, I hope?" Kasumi said with a concerned frown.
"No, he's fine Kasumi. He just kind of accidently fell into the Koi pond. Don't know how that could have happened..." Akane looked around innocently, with a faint smile on her lips, and a twinkle in her eyes.
"Akane... You know, I'm so happy that the two of you are finally being good to each other."
"Me too, Kasumi. Me too. Okay, I'm off! I'll be back as soon as I can with those mushrooms." Akane said as she left the kitchen and headed for the door.
"Make sure they're nice and fresh! And not bruised! Oh, and don't worry about the size, I'm just mincing them anyways!" Kasumi called, wiping her hands on her apron and following Akane to the door. After closing the door behind the other girl, she headed back to the kitchen and put the kettle on one of the burners on the stove. Turning it on, she turned back to her preparations.
Ranma walked in a few minutes later. Seeing the kettle on the stove, the girl grabbed it and checking to see if it was hot enough, but not too hot, poured an amount over her head, and quickly changed back to his normal form.
Kasumi frowned at Ranma. "Oh my... It'd be so much better if you could do that in the washroom in the future, Ranma. I just washed the floor in here."
Ranma had the grace to look embarassed. Shrugging sheepishly, he scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, Kasumi, I wasn't thinking. Let me clean it up for you."
"Thank you Ranma, that'd be very nice." Kasumi said as she handed him a towel.
"Thanks for heating that up for me - I take it Akane was already in here? Where'd she head off to, d'ya know?"
"Hmm?" Kasumi said, slightly distracted by her cooking. "Oh, yes, Akane. She was here, but she went to the store for me - she should be back in a bit. Did you need to talk to her?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that, just was wondering where she had got to, is all. Anyways, that's all cleaned up now - I'll let you get back to your cooking." Ranma looked at Kasumi, who had already lost herself to her humming and cooking. With a little chuckle, he left the room. At least some things hadn't changed in the 6 months he had been gone.
Ranma sat down on the couch and grabbed the remote. Flipping through the channels, he quickly discovered that there wasn't anything on that he was interested in. He picked up a manga that was lying on the side table and tried to read it, but gave up when he found that he was just looking at the same frame over and over. He felt like a ball of endless nervous energy and it was all he could do to keep himself from pacing. After driving himself crazy with the rhythm of his fingers beating a pattern on the couch, he leapt up.
"Man! I'm totally tense! Must be time for a workout!" Heading towards the dojo, he paused when he heard the doorbell. "I'll get it Kasumi!" He called.
"Thank you, Ranma." Came the reply.
Whistling a catchy little tune, Ranma loped to the door and answered it. Standing there was a young man that he vaguely remembered from school.
"Hey, Ranma! Glad to see you're back, pal! We've missed you around these parts - been pretty boring at school without you and Akane."
"Hey thanks... Umm... Juro! Yeah, Juro, it's been a while hasn't it."
"So, you planning on coming back or what? You missed a lot of the year, you know."
"Yeah." Replied Ranma. "I don't think I'd be able to come back this year - doubt if Principal Kuno would even let me back in. I figure I might try to do some work this summer, and then finish up the rest by winter. So, what brings you by here, anyways? If you don't mind me saying, I don't think it's to see me - Nabiki, right? Don't tell me Nabiki went and found herself a guy, did she?"
Juro suddenly looked a little nervous. Pulling at his collar, he said "Actually... I'm here to pick up Akane. We have a, a date tonight."
Being that this was the last thing Ranma expected to hear, it was no surprise that he froze. Managing to find his voice, he croaked "A date? With Akane?"
"Umm, yeah, that's what I said. Can you tell her I'm here?"
"Oh, man, I'm sorry, but you must have made that date with Akane a while back now - she probably forgot to call you and cancel. Now that I'm back in town, I doubt she'll want to go out with you." Ranma said with just a touch of arrogance.
"Well, no, actually we just made this date a few days ago. I asked her out a lot when you were gone, and always got turned down, but figured I'd give it one more shot, and she said yes."
"Listen Juro, I think you got your wires crossed there. You must have misunderstood - there's no way you've got a date with Akane. She probably meant just a get together with some people, a casual thing, you know - I'm surprised she hasn't mentioned it to me yet - I'm sure I'll be coming." Ranma said, starting to get a little peeved.
"Dinner and a movie? Just the two of us? Like as in a more than friends thing? What bit about my date with Akane don't you get? Now, can you please go get her? Our reservations are soon." Juro stepped towards the door, as if he was going to come in.
Ranma blocked the entrance way. He had no idea what was going on, but there was no way this creep was going to take Akane out. "Listen, buddy. Sorry to have to tell you this, but Akane's sick. She's upstairs sleeping right now, and I'm not gonna go wake her up." It was a lame excuse, but Ranma was grasping at straws to get this guy out of here before Akane got back.
"But she didn't call to cancel..."
Ranma interrupted. "It was a very sudden onset of the, the flu. Yeah, she's really sick. She'd be pretty mad, in fact, if anyone saw her looking so crappy. So, you can go, and I'll be sure to tell her you stopped by. Bye now - thanks for coming." Ranma subtly, or rather not so subtly, edged Juro out of the doorway, gave a little flippant wave and shut the door. Looking out the peephole, he saw Juro stand there for a second, and then he turned and walked down the steps towards the street. Ranma didn't stop watching until he was halfway down the block.
"What the hell? Akane made a date? What's going on? She'd better get home soon, cause she's got some explaining to do." His workout forgotten, Ranma sat in a chair close to the door, so that he'd catch Akane as soon as she got home.
"Okay, man, chill out. Let her tell you about it. No need to confront her, don't want to start an argument - I'm sure she meant to say something, yeah, that's it, I'll let her bring it up." Ranma tried to relax himself. Using a semi-meditative state, he managed to calm himself down somewhat. There had to be a explanation for all of this.
About 15 minutes later, Akane arrived home. Opening the door, and walking in, she kicked off her shoes.
"Kasumi! I'm back - got what you needed."
"Okay, Akane - can you bring them into the kitchen for me please?"
"Sure thing, Kasumi." Akane started to head over there, when she caught sight of Ranma. "Hi Ranma! Don't tell me you missed me so much that you were waiting for me to come home!" She joked. "I wasn't gone that long, silly." After dropping off the mushrooms in the kitchen, she came back.
"No, I was just relaxing, thinking about the day, and the evening, and what a nice night it is - the kind of night where people go out, and do things, you know."
*Yeah, real subtle, Saotome. Give her a chance to say something.* Ranma thought to himself.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, it is a nice night for going out I suppose." Akane kept throwing glances out the window, only half listening to what Ranma was saying.
"You... waiting for someone, Akane?" Ranma asked nervously.
Akane jumped. "Oh. No, I was just making sure that the neighbors dog wasn't in our yard again - we've had a real problem lately with him doing his business on the grass." It was obvious that that wasn't the reason she was watching the street.
Ranma found that his fingers were tapping that insane rhythm on the arm of the chair again. Slapping his other hand over top of his fingers, he tried again.
"So... got any plans for the evening?" He said, trying to be casual.
Akane looked at the clock. "Well, I thought about going out for a while, but I don't know, it's later than I thought. Maybe I'll just stay in after all."
"I guess he's not coming here..." She whispered to herself.
Ranma however, overheard. Panic set in. *Man! She did have a date with that guy! And she wasn't going to tell me about it! Phew! At least I got rid of that dweeb before she got back. Now she thinks she's been stood up or something. Come on, Ranma, turn on that charm, make her forget about that guy.*
"Well, I think there's a good movie on the TV tonight, if you want to pop some popcorn and watch it with me."
Akane sighed, finally turning away from the window. "Sure, Ranma. That sounds like fun."
During the movie, Ranma was distracted. He kept looking over at Akane, and replayed Juro's words through his head over and over. If anyone had asked him, he could have sworn that the movie's entire dialogue consisted of two sentences: I'm here to pick up Akane. We have a, a date tonight.
Lying in bed that night, he couldn't sleep. Ranma just couldn't believe that Akane had been planning to go out with another guy. And that she hadn't even been planning on telling him. He thought they were friends. Hell, he thought they were more than friends. What was going on?
End Chapter Six
-Hope you enjoyed this installment. Please R&R, I appreciate all the good stuff I've heard from you guys, and I also appreciate your comments on what you think would make this fic better. I had a really good suggestion from Gie, in a review, about how this story is really dialogue based, and to make it a bit more descriptive. So, I tried to throw in a little more of that in this chapter, don't know if I succeeded or not. Probably not, as I look back, and see that this entire chapter is just about, once again, completely dialogue... I tried...