The Royal Servant
Chapter 5, Raing Teardrops On A Gypsy's Past

Author's Notes: And here I am yet again with another installment to The Royal Servant. Shal we go into how long it's been. Not much to say except sign my guestbook, e-mail me at silverflame_maiden@hotmail.com or check out my forum and drop me a line (I never understood those 'figure of speeches' I mean drop me a line?). Okay, enjoy now...

Disclaimers: Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, not me. In no ways do I own Ranma 1/2 (nomatter how much I wish). The song "Don't mind Lay-lay boy" also does not belong to me but to the people at the Ranma 1/2 company *shrugs*. I know "Don' Mind Lay-lay boy lyrics aren't exactly like this but I had some many different versions of the translations for the English I just used the one I liked best. Oh yeah, in this I'm making Japanese gypsy language, alright?
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Akane slowly sat up, groaning all the while from the fall onto the hard, cold stone ground. Looking around she saw a group of wet,worried people surrounding her in the Palace Servant's Quarters kitchen. Let's see, there was that Terian Prince Ranma, the Nomiya Duchess Ukyo, her best friend Shan, her fiancee Ryo, and Tsu-tsu. So, that part of the dream was true, Ryo and Tsu-tsu did come. The outside rain pattering rhythemically at the kitchen tile roofs only confirmed her suspicions. But not seeing, Ranko, Akane smiled. *At least that part of the dream wasn't true...*

"Ne-ne okay?" Shan asked her friend looking into her brown eyes trying to see if the pupils were dilated or anything.
Shaking her head, Akane said, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine...I think. I had the wierdest dream though. It had Ranma in it and it showed me that Ranma was cursed by the old man Jusynkuo to turn into a girl. More specifically, my friend Ranko. But that's silly, right? Right?"
But nobody answered her and the young gypsy turned to Ranma to see the Prince laughnervously and scratch the back of her head.
"Um...Akane...it wasn't a dream. Ranma really does turn into a girl with a splash of cold water. More specifically...your friend Ranko," the duchess among them said.

Ranma continued to look down on the ground in guilt, but when the silence stretched and became almost unbearable he looked up to see a quivering, *glowing*, gypsy Martial Artist with a dark red, blazing schi hammer in her hand. He had one 1/5th of a millisesond to think before the so sid chi mallet imbedded his thick, Princie skull into the opposite wall.
He continued to get pounded and tried to duck Akane, only to prove it was futile. When he looked into her eyes and saw tears there, he stopped trying to duck.

"You jerk! You jerk! You jerk! Bakabakabakabaka! I trusted you! I trusted Ranko! What was it, huh, Prince? Was it all a game to you and yours alike? Did you and your royal friends laugh about it?! About the stupid servant gi that didn't know her own position and tried to befriend a Prince?" Akane yelled out with a fervor unknown to her before and suddnly the mallet dropped from her hand and disappeared as she looked at Ranma through tearful eyes and said, "I thought you were different...for one idiot second...I thought you were something else...you jerk..."

Ranma was the only one who heard her and saw her pained tears through his bruised eyelids and he felt a pain deep within a part of him he didn't know before. A game? Was that how he always thought things were? True, he didn't believe in feeling and getting attached, after all, a joke was a joke, right? But no...no...not this time...this time it wasn't a joke...and he knew he hadn't wanted to hurt Akane...he actually wanted to be friends with her...because he thought she'd understand...and she had...when he was Ranko...
Akane understood Ranko...she understood Ranko's spirit...Ranko's passion for adventure and life...but Akane...she wouldn't even want to try and undertsand him...Ranma...

He watched as she turned around and ran to open the door to the kitchen, intending to open the doors and escape...from him...
The others snapping out of their awe and wonder at the spectical gave shouts of "No!" but Akane didn't listen and open the door. The harsh wind and ice and rain from the storm slammed her into the wall and the others rushed over to shut, lock, and bar the doors again. There was a harsh storm outside, threatening to break and destroy...but there was also a storm brewing in here...threatening to break and destroy his already thin line of friendship with the gypsy girl.

He stumbled towards her and reached out his hand saying, "Akane, I-...I'm sorry..." but the three gypsies: Shampoo, Ryoga and the new, long-haired glasses wearing male gypsy blocked him and barricaded Akane from him. They looked like a wall...a wall keeping and protecting their own from the outsider...from the person that could harm her...
Shampoo was in the middle and her violet eyes were cold and hard as she said to Ranma in a tone that lacked the usual warmth she held for him, "Ranma stay away. Ranma leave Ne-ne alone. She no need to see Ranma now."

The Prince stood there speechless, his mouth and throat dry, his mouth open but no words came out. Feeling a tugging at his sleeve, he turned around to see Ukyo, his fiancee shake her head at him and she said, "Leave it be, Ranma. They don't want you near her and their not going to let you near her. Let it alone."

So, he gave one last sorrowful glance at Akane before turning away and following Ukyo to sit in another corner in the room. Far enough so that the gypsies would break their barricade...but near enough so that he could sense, look, smell, and hear her...
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Hours had past and they were all restless. Shampoo and the long-haired boy, Mousse sat on either sides of the doorway watching the rain and storm, hearing it's music. Their heads and bodies were leaned on the door and they were asleep. Ukyo had tooken out the straw sheet from a cupboard and laid it down and slept on it. The pig-boy Ryoga was leaning his back on the wall, Akane beside him resting her head on his shoulder after she had cried out her heart in his shirt, staining it. Now, they just sat there, Ryoga mumbling words to her while he stroked the top of her head and dark mass of hair.

Ranma sat leaning on a cupboard, fuming and pouting at the unfairness of life. *Huh!* he thought turning away from them *Stupid tomboy. Stupid pig-boy. Stupid rain. I don't care if she gets all mushy and let's him hold her. I don't care. I'm a Prince...I don't care what she thinks of me...I don't care if she cares for him...why's life so unfair?...* Ranma spent the last couple of hours thinking about himself. Was he like that? Was what Akane said he was true? Was he nothing at all but a shell of the Terian country and of his parents? Was he just an egotistical, selfish puppy to be indulged and pampered? He had always prided himself on being the best Martial Artist Prince...he had never allowed himself to laze around...but what else?

All his life he had been given what he wanted...what he needed...no questions asked. He was the future King after all. But sometimes, sometimes...he would want to just escape it...he wanted to be able to go out and face the wold...face it's challenges...face it and conquer and gain victory because *he* earned it. He wanted to be free to earn what he got... he wanted independence...and freedom. But what if Akane had been right? What if he went out into the world...and realized that he couldn't face it? These and other thoughts ran through his head and he didn't know what to think anymore...
*The age old question...fate or free will?...* he wondered.

Suddenly, he was distracted from his thoughts by a gypsy's sweet voice, "I should have known, Ryo, how could I not?"
"We all fall under the illusion sometimes, Ne-ne. They are all alike, Ne-ne, thieveing, lying, deceitful-" Ryoga growled, but Akane just placed two hands on his cheeks and turned him to her saying, "There are people out there who are good, kind-hearted souls that are born into the wrong family. It's all a matter of life and who they are. Don't let the past cloud your judgemnet, Ryo."

Then, the Pig-boy did something totally unexpected to Ranma...he cried.
"But I miss her so much, Ne-ne," he rasped out as Akane kissed him softly on the forehead and said as she stroked his hair, "I know. It's okay, Ryo, you'll get past it."
"But I don't want to get past it. I don't want to forget her!" he said strongly, the tears still coming. Akane put his head in her lap as she whispered, "You won't, Ryo, I promise you. No one can ever forget her. She- she was something else."

Looking up at Akane's beautiful face he whispered, "Thanks, Ne-ne...for everything."
Looking down at him, she gave a soft smile and said, "Like always, Ryo."

Shocked by what he heard Ranma tried to peace together the pieces of the puzzle, but Akane's voice slowly wafted towards him in a song that he didn't understand, but still hypnotized him anyway...

Yume demo miteru mitai
Kimi ga ochikomu nante

Senaka o tsutsuita no ni
Utsouro ni sora o mite sa

Naisho shiteta kedo
Zutto mae kara: "Wo ai ni"

Genki maki-chirasu
Kimi ga suki da yo

Don't mind! Rai-Rai Boy
Egao no hô ga itt-aru

Rai-Rai Boy
Yume mite ite ne

Don't mind! Rai-Rai Boy
Meso-meso shiteru to

Rai-Rai Boy
Uwaki shichau zo

Namida wa poi "shichai na"
Yûhi ga warau

Namaiki "tobashichai na"
Itsumo no kimi to…
Kenga ga "shitai na"

She stopped there and Ranma turned around slightly and saw that Ryoga was asleep, his head in her lap. He and Akane were the only ones awake and she softly placed Ryoga's head on the floor, giving him a soft kiss on the forehead that shot an arrow through Ranma's heart before walking over to sit next to him. For awhile they both said nothing, not knowing how to begin...or not knowing where it would end...

"Why?" she finally asked him. Yet, in that one word a wealth of explanations were to be given. Looking up at her he asked, "Why I lied or why I tricked you?"
"Why at all?" she asked softly and he felt his heart was about to break.
"I-I don't know. When I first saw you...as Ranko...I- I thought that I don't know...maybe you could understand and help me...you being a gypsy and all," he said desperatly, not knowing what he was really trying to say. *Because I l-...no that wasn't possible. I can't l-...feel that way about her..not yet...it's too soon...and not with her...it's not true...just the stress of what happened...that's all...* he thought.

"B-but Shan's a gypsy too and she would have been more then happy to be your friend if not more, why me?" she asked him, her eyes searching his now and Ranma knew that if she saw something in his eyes that she didn't want to...he would never get a cahnce with her again.
"Because, you...you were different. I don't how...maybe it's your energy...but when I'm around you...even when you were angry at me or didn't like me...I felt...I don't know...like there was a reason for me to be here...this is stupid!" he shot his hands up in there in frustration and started to walk away, but she pulled his arm and held him back, making him sit again.

"So...when you were Ranko...all the things you said...the things you told me...were true?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah," he tried to smile, but failed. This was it...the final decision...the ball was in her court now...
Akane thought back to all the things Ranko told her. The need and desperation for freedom...for independence...Ranko would have given up everything just for a chance... one chance...at a human life...to live life...to defeat obstacles...tof ight for what she wants... and all those words...that passion for life...belonged to Ranma...every single word of it. Akane looked up at Ranma and suddenly, suddenly she saw him in a new light.

His dark, blue-black hair which was usually in it's neat pig-tail was hanging wet and limp, his hair out of place, his bangs in his eyes. His large-dark-blue eyes suddenly seemed more dangerous and glinting in the dark..like a feral tiger ready to strike...a hunter on the loose. His expensive Prince clothes were soaking wet and looked like rags in this light. All in all, the great handsome Prince Ranma Saotome looked like a ragged peasant Ranma.
Akane didn't know it...but in that very moment...she fell head over heels in love...

Pushing a thick wet bang from that had fallen in front of his eyes she whispered, "I guess me and Ranko can't be friends anymore..." and added a couple seconds to let him digest that.
When she saw his face lose mostly all that was left of it's color she took pity on him and kissed his forehead as she whispered, "But I wouldn't mind hanging around Ranma. For the time that I'm here."

Ranma felt relief and joy rush over his body like waterfalls and when Akane pulled backl they both blushed at the innocent peck on the forehead for it was so much more then that. It was a promise.
"Of course, this doesn't mean I have to get along with that baka Prince," she smiled and he smiled also saying, "And I don't have to get along with that uncute tomboy."

She punched him lightly on the arm, but said, "I'm going to let that one slide. But just this once."
"Akane?" he asked her.
"Hmmm?" she answered.
"I have a favor to ask you..." he said nervously and the gypsy girl knew that this whatever it was was making Ranma shake inside and all over.

Taking a deep breath Ranma said quickly, "Canyoumakemeagypsylikeyou?"
Akane smiled, she heard him, but she asked, "What did you say?" just to torture him.
"I said, caould you make me a gypsy like you?" he asked looking down.
"Well, I don't know Ranma, if you're a gypsy you have a lot of responisbility and things to learn before the Matriarch, my hiba-chan comes back. By that time she's going to test you and if you past then you get to become a gypsy," Akane said.

"Isn't there any other way?" the Prince asked.
"Well yeah, two others. One if you were born into a gypsy family and the second if you marry a gypsy. You naturally aren't born as a gypsy and no gypsy woman would marry an oustider. Except Shan. You can always marry Shan," she joked and Ranma grimaced before saying, "I'll take the training...that is...if you'll help me?"
Hitting him in the arm again, the dark haired girl said, "Hey, don't talk about Shan like that. And fine, I'll help you. Tsu-tsu, Shan, and Ryo can help you too. Although, Ryo and Tsu-tsu will probably kill you before they help you."

Fianlly, now that they were on the subject Ranma asked, "What's with the two? I know who Ryoga is and I assume that long-haired gypsy is Tsu-tsu but why do they get to travel around and why don't they like me? And what about what happened earlier today? What was that all about?"
Akane looked at the two male gypsies in question and said, "Tsu-tsu is a greta guy but he's seriously in love with Shan and has trained all his life in order to beat her in combat and therefore win her as his wife. Unfortunatly for him when he reached the point where he was better then Shan, the person who allows the challenges to be issued, me, had lost a bet to Shan and therefore paid it by not letting the challenge be issued. He's been chasingg us ever since. Ryo...he...he really doesn't like outsiders...especially nobles and royalty, so I would stay out of his way if I were you."

"What was it you sang earlier anyway? I couldn't understand a word of it," Ranma asked.
Akane smiled softly as she turned to look at her fiancee, "Oh that's a song me and Ryo have dubbed as our own. It's called Don't Mind Lay-lay boy. It's in gypsy language but I can sing it in Terian."
She opened her mouth and this time when Ranma heard the music, he also undertsood the words...

Just like a dream; don't know what I should say
Being depressed like this is not your style

Even tho' I poke at you for a while
Sadly, you don't hear me...
You look away

Even tho' I never let it show
From the first day I met you: "Wo ai ni!"

Energy that you spend so free...
It's me who loves you, you know

Don't mind! China Boy
Frown 'n' you'll bring me down, my...

China Boy
Dreaming, I love you best

Don't mind! China Boy
Boo-hoo 'n' you'll make me blue, my...

China Boy
I don't have to stay, you know

Take those tears, and...
Toss 'em to China

Who needs glum when we've got the sun?

Take those sighs, and...
Toss 'em asi-da!

Let's go back to days of old...
A fight would be so fi-na

On the other side of the room, Ryoga stirred in his sleep and a soft name escaped from his lips, "Akari..."
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Author's Notes: The more you e-mail me and encourage me the faster I'll get the next chapter out.