Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and all its characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi and have been used without permission. This fanfiction was written for personal enjoyment, and hopefully the enjoyment of the readers.

Key:

"speech"

::thoughts::

flashback

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Usotsuki

by Rain

Part Four.

Everyone in the room was still. They all looked to the middle of the dance floor, where Ukyou stood, facing off a shocked Akane and a ticked Ranma. No one spoke for quite awhile. Ukyou began to get irritated with the lack of response.

She repeated herself.

"What in the blue hell is going on here?"

Akane, no matter how shocked she was, had to admit that was a rather stupid question, considering the circumstances, and the way she was dressed. Besides, if Ukyou had managed to find them, she must have already known.

"What do you think, Ukyou?" Ranma was the first to speak up.

Ukyou didn't miss the lack of her pet name.

"I've told you before, and I'll tell you again," Ukyou hissed dangerously, advancing on the pair. "There is no way you're going to marry that sorry excuse for a girl."

"Hey!" Akane snapped, "I'm not the one who dressed like a boy for ten-" but Ranma cut her off, looking angrier by the minute.

"That's where you're wrong Ukyou. Since when is it up to you who I marry? I'll marry whoever the hell I feel like! Stay out of it!"

"Is that so?" Ukyou sneered, catching Ranma in the verbal slip she had been counting on. "I have a feeling this wedding had nothing to do with the two of you, just the same as the others. Am I right?"

Looking quite like a mouse backed into a corner, Ranma found himself facing all the doubts that had made his life for the past day a living hell. This was stupid. The fiancé thing was getting old, and it should be over with anyway, he was married now. It sure didn't feel any different, though.

Ranma narrowed his eyes. "That's beside the point, Ukyou. You would have come barging in here either way, wouldn't you? I don't care what you say, this has nothing to do with you! I'll say it again, stay out of it."

"No! I won't stay out of it! You owe me an okonomiyaki cart or a ring, sugar, and I'm sick of waiting for one!"

"Stop involving me in something I had nothing to do with! That was my father's fault, and you know that. There is no way I would marry you, Ukyou. Especially not after what you did the last time this happened."

"I was only trying to keep you from doing something you'd regret forever!" Ukyou was starting to sound desperate and childish. "Ran-chan, listen-"

"Don't call me that! You called me that when we used to be friends, when I used to be able to depend on you to trust. Well you know what, you might have screwed that trust up just a little bit last time," he shouted sarcastically. "It doesn't matter what you do, anyway. This time you just weren't quick enough. And you know what? Somehow, that doesn't really bother me."

Ukyou looked crushed. Akane wasn't really sure what to think. Had Ukyou really been that dense?

::I used to accuse Ranma of leading them all on, but that was ages ago, this is just stupid,:: she thought.

"So that's it?" she asked in a small voice.

::Great, now she's pulling the 'I'm Such a Poor Little Girl, Pity Me' act. Please.::

Ranma just glared at her.

"You don't love me?"

"Ukyou, when did I ever say I loved you? We were friends, nothing more. Or at least, we were friends. I thought we were. But the whole time you were just trying to get an easy in, weren't you? You knew if you played a friend to me, if something didn't work out right, you'd be the person I'd turn to, because that's what real friends are supposed to be for. But you never really listened, did you? And we never really were real friends, I can see that now. Think about it Ukyou. If I can't even trust you to be my friend, how do you expect me to love you?"

The room got very quiet again. Akane watched Ranma, looking relieved in spite of herself. Ukyou stared hard at the floor.

"I understand," she said, turning to go.

"No," Ranma said sadly. "No, you don't."

::No one does:: Ranma realized.

Ukyou didn't bother to correct him, because she knew he was right.

There was only one last thing she had to know. And it wasn't about her anymore.

"Why her?"

Ranma found he couldn't answer. He knew why, but he knew he couldn't say. He couldn't do that to Akane. It wasn't fair.

"Please don't, Ukyou," he begged simply.

"I don't think I'm the only one who deserves to know!" Ukyou finished, her eyes resting on Akane.

Akane, at that moment, realized she still didn't know. She wanted to know. She needed to know. Why wouldn't he tell her?

"Ranma," she began quietly.

He turned to her, looking more pained than ever.

::Oh Ranma, if this is hurting you so badly, why are you doing it?::

"Why did you marry me?"

 He couldn't look at her. So he turned away. Again.

"Ranma, why?"

"I can't," he managed to choke out.

"Can't what?"

"I can't tell you. I can't."

Akane didn't understand. What was so complicated? Was it because…

"Why not, Ranma? Why do you have to make something so simple so complicated? Why do you always have to mess things up when you don't have to? Did you even think about what I was feeling?"

Ranma lowered his head. ::More than anything else:: he wanted to say.

"I get it," Akane was regressing again. She was letting herself get angry. Because she didn't understand. Why wouldn't he let her understand?

"You married me because you had to, didn't you?"

At this, Genma and Soun chose this moment to  make themselves scarce, and as Nodoka was too preoccupied with the scene playing out before her, she didn't bother to try and stop them. Ukyou had a look on her face that seemed to say she hadn't quite been expecting this, even if it could have been in her favor. But she knew it wasn't.

Akane clenched her fists at her sides, glowering at Ranma, though he wasn't looking at her. He just stood there, his back to her, looking uncharacteristically hopeless, his shoulders slumped, his arms hanging numbly at his sides, no arrogant, easy confidence that he usually had.

"Well I've had enough. If you're only willing to marry me for honor; if you're going to be that heartless and cruel, that selfish…"

"Akane, I-"

"Enough!" Akane shouted, starting to cry. "I'm not listening to excuses anymore, they don't mean anything anyway." She turned around, she couldn't look at him and say this.

"I hate you."

Ranma looked as if he had been stabbed. Nodoka felt the same.

::Kamisama… What have I done?:: she thought. The only person who felt any more guilty than she was her son.

"And it was supposed to be our wedding day. Not that I'm surprised," she whispered through her tears.

She ran out the door.

Soun had started the waterworks again. Ranma hadn't bothered to move, and by now a red-headed girl, in a blue tuxedo that was too big for her, that made her look even smaller than she felt, stood where a tall, dark-haired young man once had. She found she didn't care very much. At her feet was a bouquet of flowers that Akane had dropped when she left. She just stared at it, not really seeing it.

"Ranma?" Ukyou began tentatively, reaching out a hand to her.

Ranma shrugged her off roughly, not looking at anyone.

"Leave me alone, Ukyou," she said tonelessly. "Don't ever touch me again. I really tried to expect better of you, after the last wedding. I was wrong. Am I ever right?"

Ukyou knew that wasn't meant as a question. So she left. She had no place there anymore.

*           *           *

Ranma walked up the stairs as soon as he got home. He hadn't bothered talking to anyone; he didn't want to have to deal with pacifying voices and vacant words right now. They weren't worth anything.

Nabiki only looked stiff, but no emotion passed over her carefully controlled face. Kasumi looked worried, but knew when talking was useless.

::I hope things aren't damaged beyond repair.::

It was all anyone could hope for at the moment.

Ranma, passing Akane's room, hears the muffled sound of sobs coming from the other side of the door. He had heard that sound too many times to count, but this one hurt the most. He cringed with the pain of holding everything back and laid his fingers gently on the wood.

::When did everything go so wrong? Didn't I do the right thing?::

Not finding any answers from a cold door to an unwelcoming room, he choked on his words.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered.

Akane heard him, just barely.

Sitting up from where she lay on her bed, she chucked her pillow at the door.

::Not as sorry as I am.::

End Part Four.

I'm really sorry, but the website was being all whacky, and it wouldn't let me post the fourth part, so I had to remove my first three posts and start over again, so my reviews are gone! Minna-san, gomen nasai! I'm really sorry to those of you who took the time to review for me, I always appreciate them, and I wish the thing had been working!

So, here is the next part, after the trouble to get to that point.

The endless flashback will be over in the next part, I swear! And so will the depressing stuff! Well, actually, you'll have to wait and find out, but I swear it'll get better!

Flameraven: Yes, Ukyou found out through Ryoga. I figured she might have found him wandering

somewhere and he blabbed. I don't plan on bringing him into it anymore, nor Ukyou, so I didn't really get into details.

I hope those of you who started out reading aren't going to abandon it, I promise it will stop being so depressing once the main action comes in. *laughs evilly* That's right, the main action has only just begun!

Until my next post; next day delivery or sooner, guaranteed!

::Rain

P.S. Contact me at creepyoldmanwink@yahoo.com

I am not a creepy old man. I am a teenage girl. It's a joke with a friend. So there. ^_~