They speak
Ranma spoke again, his gaze trained on Hideaki, his voice still tinted with a bullying air. "Long time no see huh, Akane?" Before he could stop himself, he continued, "I see you don't waste any time in acquiring new fiancés. Couldn't you have at least broken off our engagement before engaging yourself to someone else?" Inwardly he cringed with regret. Oh well, too late to take it back now. For the sake of his pride, he maintained his ominous posture and stony countenance.
As a furious Akane snapped back at him, he tried to calm himself. This time Akane's anger was his fault. He had to do something to rectify his cruel, unnecessary comment. He could still salvage this star-crossed reunion. All he had to do was make some kind of a joke, to get her to smile somehow, to laugh. Say something, Saotome. He wracked his brain for a quick save. A ha! He had just found a witty comment sure to ease the tension of the moment when the blonde man threw his arm around Akane, pulling her into his side. Something snapped. The second the guy pressed a kiss to the top of Akane's head, Ranma seemed to float out of his body, watching from afar as if the scene taking place was not another life event but instead something out of a romantic comedy gone sour.
***
Say something, Akane. Don't just stand there staring. "Ranma." At least that's what she thought she said. In reality, her lips moved but nary a sound was made.
His words, the harshness in his voice, caused Akane's slowly simmering temper to boil. "Excuse me?" she asked, her own voice tinged with danger. Is he accusing me of what I think he is? Him, the lover boy incarnate? The low boil bubbled more violently. "I'm not the one shacking up with a girl I met on the road! Can't you ever go anywhere without picking up another addition to your harem?"
The minute the words flew out of her mouth, Akane felt ashamed of herself. She had meant to coolly introduce Hideaki to Ranma, had even allowed herself some small delight at his usual display of possessiveness. She should have expected that, instead of a nice, normal hello, he would shoot insults at her. She hadn't meant to react the way she did, old instincts had won out over new restraint. What happened to all that self-control I keep patting myself on the back for?
She was so busy berating herself that she vaguely felt Hideaki drape an arm around her shoulder, barely acknowledged the feel of his lips against the crown of her head. Her concentration was focused on Ranma, who was methodically moving toward them, the heat coming off him in waves so strong, that a hiryu shoten ha would probably send him on a round trip to the moon. When she saw his fist clench, she seemed to float out of her body, watching from afar as if the scene taking place was not another life event but instead something out of a romantic comedy gone sour.
***
Hideaki watched the tableau unfold with a perverse grin beating throughout him. When the pig-tailed man had appeared, footsteps away from her, Akane's eyes had filled with a regretful joy that identified the stranger for him. He understood, without any introduction, that Ranma Saotome, Akane's fiancé, was standing before them. When Ranma said her name, Hideaki could hear the warning meant for him, knew that, if he hung around one minute longer, he'd be spending the next six months in traction. Despite all this, something compelled him to stay, to see what would happen next. He had heard a great deal about Akane, her fiancé, and their passionately turbulent relationship. Now that they were here, flinging words at each other like little poison darts that stabbed at their targets with deadly accuracy, he couldn't bring himself to pass up the opportunity to sit back and enjoy the show.
Hideaki had known Akane for some time now. He knew that she had come to the university seeking, not just an education, but also some sort of emotional refuge, that she had been determined to change herself somehow. He had overheard snippets of her conversations with others, knew that she described herself as having a violently volatile temper. This had always confused him as Akane had always struck him as a pleasantly joyful girl filled with fervor for life and a hunger for knowledge. While he had seen her in various shades of annoyed, irritation, and frustration, he had yet to see anything that could trigger her mutation into the madwoman she seemed so desperate to control.
He now understood what Akane deemed to be a major struggle. Her trigger, as it was, was standing right in front of them. Ranma had managed to anger Akane with a few sentences that, coming from anyone else, Hideaki was sure the girl would have laughed off. Her fury, as well as her "opponent's", was palpable, coming off the both of them in heavy waves of steam. At this rate, an explosion of wrath from both parties was probably inescapable. It would be suicide to infuriate them more. A sly grin on his face, Hideaki shrugged. Good thing I love to live life on the edge. He wrapped an arm around Akane then, watching Ranma closely, dropped a kiss atop her head. When Ranma began to stride forward, with something beyond murder in his eyes, Hideaki's delight morphed into terror. Uh oh. What have I gotten myself into now? He braced himself and prayed that the hospital would be able to sew him back together after the martial artist beat him to an indescribable pulp.
***
"Akane!" at the gleeful shout behind him, Ranma snapped back into himself. Slowly, the fog that had blurred his vision cleared and he turned to see a group of people bearing gifts. He could sense Akane shift behind him, heard her call out, "Hey guys!" her voice slightly weak, quite confused, and very relieved. "What are you doing here?"
"We're here to surprise you, of course!" One of the girls stepped forward, scowling at something behind him. "Hideaki, you were supposed to get her into the apartment!"
"I tried!" a voice, which Ranma presumed belonged to the blonde named Hideaki. "But my plans went awry."
The girl who reprimanded him, a slight thing with brown hair so light it almost seemed red, frowned. "We can't trust you to do anything, can we?" Her frown shifted to Ranma and her look grew curious. "Who are you?"
"I'm…"
"OH! You're Ranma, aren't you? Ranma Saotome! I can't believe we're finally meeting you. Akane, why didn't you tell us he was coming?" The words, this time spoken by a different girl, burst forth in machine gun speed. A girl, one who seemed all too familiar, exploded forward, enveloping him in a quick hug, strong despite its brevity. "I'm so glad you're finally here! I can't wait to hear all about you." She turned to Akane. "Well, Akane? Are you going to make us stand out here all night? Let us in! We don't want to wake the neighbors do we?"
"Of course we don't." Ranma turned to face Akane. He was surprised when she took his hand and gave it a soft squeeze. "You'll be joining us, won't you Ranma?" Hypnotized by her smile, he couldn't help but nod and let the ball of energy bustle him into Akane's apartment.
***
"Akane!" The girl in question blinked at the sound of Miki's voice. Throwing Hideaki a peeved glance, she elbowed him in his side and peered around Ranma. At the sight of her friends, laden with a cake, flowers, balloons, and kinds of other gifts, she bubbled with delight. Still a little dazed from the previous altercation, she greeted them with a little less enthusiasm than normal, her brain still trying to shake off the fog of fighting with Ranma.
She smiled when Yukino reprimanded Hideaki for failing in his mission and chuckled softly as Sana greeted Ranma with her usual vigor. When her friend demanded that they take the party inside, Akane turned to Ranma. She was compelled to apologize for her comments, but knew she couldn't do it in front of everyone. She wanted to talk to him, to find out where he'd been, what he was doing now. She wanted to throw herself into his arms and command her friends to come back tomorrow. She pushed all those thoughts aside. She didn't know how he got there but for now it was enough that he was there. In a spurt of bravery, she reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze, trying to wordlessly tell him how wonderful it was to have him here. "You'll be joining us, won't you Ranma?" When he nodded, her heart sang and she happily led him and her friends into her apartment.
***
Akane waved good-bye to her friends, thanking them again for the impromptu housewarming party. She closed the door and watched Ranma, who was busy tidying up. She strolled over to him, relieving him of the load of plates he had just picked up. "Thank you. You don't have to stay. I can finish cleaning up myself. You didn't even have to come in," she chuckled. "I'm sorry Sana bullied you into it."
Ranma picked up a stray glass. "It's all right. I wanted to." He waited until Akane's eyes met his, "I wanted to come in. I want to stay."
His gaze was so intense; Akane found she was unable to hold it for very long. "Yes. Well anyway, thanks."
They continued to clean up in silence. When the last dish was washed and left to dry, when the last piece of wrapping paper was picked up, they both scoured the room for one last task to do, searching for anything that would keep the night from ending.
"Well, I guess that's it," Akane sighed, trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice. "I think this place is cleaner than it was before the party." She smiled at Ranma, took pleasure in the fact that he smiled back. "Thanks again, Ranma. And," she bowed quickly. "I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I was angry. I didn't think before I spoke. I haven't said anything mean out of anger in a long time. I feel really bad about what I said."
Ranma shook his head emphatically. "No, Akane. It wasn't your fault. It was mine. Yeah, you didn't have to say what you did, but I'm the one that brought it on. I admit, I was jealous. I haven't been mad like that in a long time either," he grinned wryly. "I guess you bring it out with me."
A long pause followed. When Akane spoke, her voice was filled with wonder. "Did we just apologize to each other? Civilly and willingly?"
Ranma laughed. "Yeah, I guess we did." He scratched the back of his head. "Will wonders never cease?"
"Speaking of wonders, I can't believe you know Akito!"
"Isn't that weird? He never mentioned knowing you, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised, there's no way he could have connected the two of us, is there?"
"You never know with Akito. He may have made the connection and decided against saying anything. Unlike Sana, he doesn't like butting into other people's businesses unless it's life threatening."
"That sounds like him, all right." Suddenly, decisively, he turned to Akane. "Hey, Akane? I know it's late and all, but I was wondering…that is, if you're not tired or anything…can we talk?"
Deep brown eyes widened with understanding. "Sure, Ranma. I'd like that. But let's not do it here, okay? I love this place, but I feel so crowded in right now."
Ranma beamed. "I know just the place."
***
Akane laughed boisterously then clamped her hands over her mouth when she realized that she might wake the neighbors. Staring up into the starlit sky, she told Ranma, "This is fabulous! What a great view."
Ranma plopped onto the ground and looked out onto the neighborhood below. "I discovered it my first night here. My apartment is nice and all, but I got so used to sleeping out underneath an open sky I felt closed in." He flashed Akane a smile, "I guess you could say I have a thing for roofs."
"You've changed," Akane noted, settling beside him. "You're the same as you always were, I think, but somehow you're different too."
"How do you figure?"
"Well, for starters, when Hideaki put his arm around me, I could tell that you wanted to do something to him. But I could also tell that a part of you was trying to fight the part that wanted to hit him. In the past, you usually charged at guys who touched me or attempted to touch me. This time though, your movements were almost deliberately slow, as if you were trying to hold yourself back."
"I try not to rush into fights anymore. I used to think that everything that ever happened was a battle I had to win. Although I don't think everything is a battle anymore, I've also learned that some of the battles have to be thought through before they are won."
"I heard you talking with Akito tonight. You love teaching, don't you?" Akane's breath caught at the delight that filled Ranma's eyes.
"I do," he replied with just a little bit of wonder in his voice. "I did a lot of traveling and rediscovered how much I love learning the art. I met up and learned from a ton of different masters. It was so different to learn from someone who was teaching me because I wanted to learn and not because they wanted a new underwear-stealing disciple, to learn new moves for the sake of learning them and not because they are teaching my rival a countermove.
"I started helping out in different dojos to pick up a little money and to have a place to crash when the weather was bad. I thought of it as practice. I knew that, if our dads had their way, we would be teaching in the dojo someday, so I was prepared do it. I never realized how much I would actually enjoy it until I was doing it."
"You seem so happy with it, I'm happy for you."
They sat, enjoying the simple peace of the night.
"Akane. About our last fight, the one we had before I left. I'm really sorry."
Akane bit her lip in an attempt to hold back the dam of tears welling up inside her. How could something that happened so long ago still hurt so very much?
"I tried to find you. But, by the time I thought I could, it was too late. I didn't think you could forgive me."
"Fate is a funny thing, isn't it?" Akane's voice was soft. "After you left, I kept waiting for you to come back. I kept expecting you to apologize in that non-apologetic way you used to have. I waited and waited, but you never came. When I first got here, I had already lost all hope. I seemed to cry all the time, I was miserable. Dad kept begging me to come home, but I was too stubborn to go. I wanted to prove to you that here was where I wanted to be, that here was where I belonged.
"My heart mourned for you because I loved you. I loved you and you hurt me. I was so confused. At that point, our bad times seemed to outnumber the good. I thought loving someone meant giving them the power to cause you pain. But loving you was a pain I craved, a pain I needed. Although it meant getting hurt over and over and over, I wanted you back in my life.
"And then I met someone, someone who taught me to see, to listen, to feel. And I realized that I didn't love you after all."
Author's stuff: So? What do you think? THANKS A TONNAGE FOR THE REVIEWS! They do wonders for my ego and fuel thr writing bug. =) Truthfully, this story was supposed to be short and sweet, but the encouraging reviews have morphed it into a longer monster. Is that a bad thing? I hope I haven't lost my focus. Please let me know what you think!
Coming up in the next chapter (at least I hope it will be coming up): the story behind their huge fight. And the answer to the question, why, if she doesn't love him, was she so happy to see him? I hope you'll read it!
