Everything You Want
* * * * * * * * * * *
Disclaimer: Even though I wish I was the one who made Ranma 1/2 , I'm not. That goddess of good ideas, Rumiko Takahashi, did.
Author's Note: There's a flashback in this... but saying anymore will give some things (minor things, I have to admit, but still) away. (I would've italicized it, but those darn html tags aren't working!) ^__^ So that's all I'm going to say. Anyway, on with the fic!
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Chapter 4
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Ukyo shut her eyes tightly while screeching her surprise to the entire world. Her confused thoughts raced around her head, like a wheel spinning without going anywhere. 'Ryoga? What? P-Chan?' She stood up and turned around to where she thought the general direction of the door was, and walked slowly towards it in case she hit a wall. And slowly her confusion turned to anger as something clicked in her mind. 'Hot water? A curse! Jusenkyou! Ryoga is P-CHAN!' She worked herself into a controlled rage. 'RYOGA...!' Her hands clenched, her nails gouged her skin, but she didn't notice. 'Lying to us like that!' she fumed. 'And I trusted you! I trusted you, and thought well of you! I even-' She cut her thoughts off, and let only one idea flood her mind. Whup Ryoga's fanny so bad, that he'd be able to feel it for weeks. She turned around briskly, her battle spatula out, eyes shut tightly, though she could sense him a little off to her right. 'Okay. Time to kick some fanny....'
* * *
At Ukyo's shriek, Ryoga leapt up and stared at his hands in shock. 'I'm human! The hot water must have hit me!' So he was fully human. Fully man. 'Oh. That explains a lot. Like the screaming, for one,' he thought to himself, strangely calm. But his tranquility only lasted a moment, as he realized what this could result in. His next thoughts were frantic. 'Gotta find something to hide myself with!' He looked around: there was a faded red-checkered dish cloth next to the sink, hanging carelessly off the counter. He snatched it up, and flung it around his waist, but to his despair it wasn't long enough to be able to tie. He searched frantically, and then remembered. 'My bandana!' He ripped it off his head, and tied the dish cloth to it. Then he tied it around his waist, forming some crude sort of loin cloth. And just in time, too, for at that moment, Ukyo swirled around, anger written in every feature on her face, her posture indicating her rage though her eyes were closed. 'Uh-oh. This can't be good. I've got to explain, before I lose someone else!' "Ukyo, no!" he shouted, as he prepared himself to block some sort of attack.
And attack she did. Maybe it was because of her anger at him deceiving her, or him being in her kitchen as uncovered as he was. Because this time, the attack was strong- strengthened by anger, no doubt- and maybe it was even stronger than Ryoga's Shishi Hokkodan.
And Ryoga couldn't block the attack.
And Ryoga was knocked unconscious by the flat of her battle spatula.
* * *
Ukyo opened her eyes now at hearing the soft flump of his body hitting the ground. 'At least he's covered,' she growled fiercely, but even as she thought this, the anger was ebbing out of her. And then she just realized what she had done. 'I've knocked Ryoga unconscious! What'll I do?! I can't just let him sit there!' She quickly calmed herself, and analyzed the situation with amazing cool. 'He's unconscious, so I have to do something about that. Maybe a cold cloth for his forehead. Also, he is half naked counting that thing he has on. I have to find some clothing for him. And after that... what'll he do? Go wandering again?'
Ukyo shook her head, and strode to the closet where she kept an extra blanket in case she cold. She took it back to where Ryoga lay, and spread it over him, covering everything except for his head. She proceeded to her bedroom where she found some things that were just too big for her- maybe they'd fit Ryoga. Ukyo was just glad for the moment that she dressed like a man. She took the clothing downstairs and placed them on the counter in the kitchen. Then she went to a cabinet in the kitchen where extra towels were stored. She grabbed a few, and toted them into the kitchen, where she soaked them thoroughly under icy cold water. Her fingers were numb after a few seconds of exposure to the frosty water, and she couldn't help but smile a grim little smile. 'Payback, Ryoga. While I help you, I'll be giving you frostbite.' She wrung the towels out- no use Ryoga turning back into a pig- and took the relatively dry, yet cold cloths over to him. She laid them flat on his forehead, and within a few moments he came to, shivering slightly. Ukyo couldn't help it- she smiled her dour smile again, and thought to herself, 'This isn't a lot of revenge, but you probably have a good reason for being in pig-form wandering around my restaurant when you could be at Akane's, who presumably doesn't know what- or who- you are.'
Ukyo gazed at him, and kept her expression closed. "Why are you here, pig- boy?" she asked him. He sat up, paused, stopped shivering, and, to her immense surprise, started to pour the story out to her.
* * *
Ryoga came to, and shivered violently. There were cold towels on his head and a blanket covering him. 'What? Ukyo did this for me? But why-'
His musings were cut short by Ukyo, who asked him shortly, "Why are you here, pig-boy?"
Ryoga slowly brought himself into a sitting position, his head aching dully as he did so. 'Is she still mad at me? Should I tell her? Will she listen? What will she do?' he worried. But then he realized, 'She doesn't seem that mad at me.... She got me this blanket and helped me recover quickly. And knowing her, she might've very well left me here if she was still mad at me. I've got to tell her. She thinks rationally- maybe she'll even help me get over... Akane.' Another little wave of grief flowed over him, consuming him. 'I have to tell her.' And so he proceeded to tell her. Everything. From the very beginning.
"Ukyo, it started about three days ago, when, as usual, I'd gotten lost."
* * *
Ryoga wandered through a forest, tired and hungry. 'Oh, Akane,' he thought, his heart bursting with repressed emotion, 'I would give my life just to see your face... hear your laugh... hear your voice....' At that exact moment, he heard her, his love, his life, Akane Tendo. By some strange quirk of fate, Ryoga was in the woods behind Furinkan High. But Akane was crying. Ryoga sprinted ahead, and was about to break cover when something inside of him said that it might be better if he heard this. So Ryoga obediently stopped, and listened to her.
"C'mon, Akane, it isn't that bad," one of Akane's friends soothed. "Ranma was just being stupid... I bet he likes you."
Ryoga felt his anger flare up. 'It was that idiot Ranma who made you cry! Akane, I'll kill him for you!' Just as he was about to run off and murder Ranma, he heard Akane's beautiful voice again.
"I don't care if that pervert likes me!"
Ryoga could have flown. Akane didn't like Ranma! He had a chance!
"But Akane! You said you liked someone!" another girl gasped out. "Are you saying you like someone other than your fiancé?"
"I hate that jerk, and I hate everything about him! He's so rude, so insulting!" Akane shouted to drown out the question, though there was still a slight under current of tears in her voice.
Ryoga was floating on Cloud Nine. There was only one other male she liked that wasn't head-over-heels over another girl, and that was him! 'Could she be saying she loves me?!' While he was absorbed in the possibilities of his future with his love, Akane and her friends disappeared, their voices fading away into the clear afternoon sky.
* * *
Ukyo looked at Ryoga impassively. "So what did you do eventually, after you heard this?" she asked, keeping her voice free of all feeling on purpose.
Ryoga rubbed the back of his head in a bewildered, yet sad sort of fashion. "I, uh, proposed to her later."
Ukyo felt her heart plummet to the bottom of her feet. 'He... proposed?' "And your reasoning behind this?" she continued, hiding her emotions.
Ryoga seemed a little depressed. "I... when I heard her talking, I... I thought... I thought she liked me." He shook his head, his anguish only too evident. "But I was wrong...."
Ukyo didn't want Ryoga to be like this. He had seemed almost happy while he was telling his story. 'So why don't I let him continue?' She looked him straight in his eyes, honey-gold to coffee-brown. "Continue."
* * *
When Ryoga realized they had vanished, he was upset. 'Now I'll never find her all because of my stupid sense of direction!' he moaned inwardly. He raced towards what had been the general direction of Akane's voice and left the woods, but she wasn't there. He kept on running, though, intent on finding his russet-eyed angel and getting back the heart he had lost to her. But he couldn't find her; the only thing he found was dejection. 'If I can't find her, I can never tell her my feelings! And if she doesn't know them, she may be forced to marry Ranma!' He could hardly bear the thought: his lovely Akane, trapped with a man she didn't love! 'I have to find her! She loves me, doesn't she? She as good as said it back there!'
But a small, detached, all-too-blunt corner of his mind asked him, 'But what if she doesn't love you? When her friend asked her if she loved Ranma, she just avoided answering the question. She might love him.'
But Ryoga stubbornly refused to listen to what his mind had to say. He continued to roam the city, searching for her, but he couldn't find Akane anywhere. And for once, he couldn't even stumble upon the Dojo. And just as the stars began to gleam in the blue-black night sky, the tired wanderer pulled off his pack in an empty clearing to take a quick rest. There were many different plants all around him, which Ryoga dismissed as weeds. He then lay back on his pack, and tried to clear his head so he could relax. But his mind, at last undistracted, came back to haunt him relentlessly.
'Akane might not love you... she might love Ranma....'
'How can you say such a thing? Akane loves me, I can feel it!' Ryoga replied, aghast.
'Yes, she may love you... but she only loves you the way she'd love a brother,' that frank part of him told him.
Ryoga was shaking inside. 'What if... what if that's right?' he trembled, completely overcome by doubt. But doubt held him only for a heartbeat. 'Akane does love me! Can't I have a little faith in her?'
He could sense that part of him readying another argument, but he quelled it immediately. 'I don't have to listen to that... it's only me! It's not like Akane was telling me that!' Ryoga shifted his position the minutest bit so that his head was resting on pack. 'Akane does love me... I'm sure of it!' And holding that thought to his heart the way a child may hang on to a stuffed animal when frightened, Ryoga fell into a slumber filled with dreams of his ebon-haired queen, Akane.
The next morning, Ryoga awoke, fully rested. He stretched languidly under a sunny, azure-blue sky. Only a handful of clouds drifted lazily across it, looking like a flock of sheep grazing in a field of cerulean grass. From the position of the sun, Ryoga could tell that it was around nine in the morning. 'I really overslept last night,' he thought, though he felt a little pleased that he had done something so different for a change.
The black-haired man sat up and looked around him, and his breath stopped for a moment when he took in the beauty surrounding him. The plants that he had called weeds were anything but- they were wildflowers, and liberally scattered all among them were small, golden sun-flowers.
'It's almost like an omen!' Ryoga thought, his eyes glistening with happiness. 'A good omen! Perhaps this is the day I'll tell Akane the way I feel!' Ryoga took in a deep breath. He felt so hopeful, so happy, so full of life. Wanting to take some luck along with him, Ryoga started picking the most perfect flowers he could find. He created a lush bouquet, and around it tied a scrap of cloth he dug out of his pack.
Taking a deep breath of the air which seemed so pure and clean, he strode out of the clearing, back the way he came. His heart seemed so light; it was floating. 'No... floating is too much of an understatement. My heart is flying! I feel free, I feel alive!'
As he walked along the road, so completely lost in his thoughts, he didn't realize that he was going to collide with someone. And when he did, they both stumbled back a bit. "Sorry," he mumbled as he shook his head slightly to clear it. Only when he looked up did he realize who it was.
"Akane!" he said, startled.
"Ryoga!" she replied, smiling more brightly than the sun's rays. "Ryoga, I haven't seen you in a while!" Akane's expression was delighted, and that only made Ryoga's heart contract painfully, watching her and not being able to touch her. Yet.
"Akane, I haven't seen you either," he answered; his voice was quiet, but had a hint of hardly contained joy. He looked deeply into her eyes, those two brown pools of light, and felt so content. 'Now... now is the time.' "A- Akane?"
"Yeah?" she asked. Now her face had an odd look; it was that of mild curiosity and a mixture of other things.
"Um...." 'C'mon, Ryoga, think of something to tell her! Something she'll love! And give her the flowers already!' Ryoga groped for a moment, and held the flowers up to Akane's confused face. "Akane, I've been lost for all this time, and just now, I've found my way," he said, his voice starting to tremble with suppressed emotion.
"What do you mean, Ryoga?"
Ryoga fumbled with the words, and finally reached what he deemed the right thing to say. "What I mean is, just up till now, I've been confused. And now, I... I....um...." 'Ryoga, you idiot, you're messing it up! Now just hurry up and get it done with before you disgust her or something!' "I, um, Akanewillyoumarryme?" Mentally he kicked himself repeatedly. 'Yeah, that was smooth!'
"Excuse me? I couldn't understand you; you were speaking too fast," Akane said, somewhat perplexed.
Taking a deep breath, and summoning more courage than he had ever needed before, he said it normally. "Akane, will you marry me?"
Akane froze on the spot, and had Ryoga been looking her in the face instead of at his clasped hands, he would have seen the blood drain from her face.
'But she loves me, doesn't she?' he thought, when suddenly he realized something. "Akane, if you need to talk to your family about this, I'll come back tomorrow to the Dojo around noon."
Akane merely nodded, and took the proffered bouquet mechanically, not really noticing. Then she walked numbly in the direction of her dojo.
As Ryoga watched her vanishing back, he felt like punching himself. 'Ryoga, you idiot! She doesn't like you! See the way she reacted?' He shook his blue-black head, to ashamed to do anything else. But then he grasped something else. "Maybe, just maybe, she acted like that because it came as a shock. I'm not sure she realized how much I love her until today," he said aloud to himself. "And maybe, she was thinking about what she would tell her father." And with that, he turned around and walked the opposite direction Akane had taken. 'She does love me. I know it. This... this just came as a shock to her, that's all....'
* * *
"What happened after that?" Ukyo asked. She was still keeping her voice impassionate. She didn't want Ryoga to know how she felt about this. 'I feel... I don't know what. Is it... ah, never mind. Right now, I have to pay attention to Ryoga.' She shook her head the tiniest bit, and listened to what the raven-haired man had to say.
"I... I just kind of wandered after that until night. I bought some food when I got hungry, and around nightfall, I stumbled upon a park. I found a clump of bushes far away from the pond, and went to sleep," Ryoga said, with just the tiniest hint sadness in his voice.
'Who knew telling my story would help so much?' the man wondered, though his heart was still bleeding, however slowly. 'But right now I'm at the part when I'm happy... what will it be like when I get to the part when I'm torn to pieces and trodden on?' He shook his head, and went on.
* * *
That morning when Ryoga woke up, he couldn't help but feel nervous. Even though he had assured himself many times that Akane loved him, he still felt tense. Ryoga stretched again, in such a way that every vertebrae in his back popped back into place. Ryoga had slept on quite a few rocks last night, and several of them weren't smooth in the least bit. He looked at the length of the shadows, and figured out that it would be noon in a couple hours. He also figured out that he was very hungry.
Sighing, he stood up and picked up his pack. He dug his rough hand into a scuffed pocket, and pulled out around 500 yen. 'Yes! I can get something to eat!' He meandered around the park's paths, making sure that he didn't leave the gravel or the park. It just wouldn't do to find himself on another continent the day he expected to get married.
After 30 minutes or so, he found a man selling some food off a cart. Though he knew he was being cheated out of his money by its ridiculous price, he bought some anyway. 'It just smells too good....' And the food was, he had to admit, delicious. Not as good as Kasumi's, but tasty nevertheless. He savored every delectable morsel, and when he finished, he asked the food peddler what time it was.
The man looked at his watch, and told him, "Around eleven-ten, sir."
Ryoga thanked the man, and decided it would be best to start to try and find the dojo soon. 'But what if I get lost? I could end up on top of Mount Everest if I'm not careful!' he groaned mentally. 'I hate this god-forsaken sense of direction I have. It is so embarrassing to find myself in the middle of a lake as a pig when I only meant to go to a different room in a building. But as a minor consolation, not many people know that I'm the pig.' Sighing to himself, Ryoga walked over to one of the benches along the side of the path. He kept his eyes firmly upon it without blinking, for even if he closed his eyes for a nanosecond and then opened them, he'd find himself heading a different direction.
Once he made it to the green painted bench, he sat down upon it heavily. Ideas of getting to the Dojo seemed to flicker in front of his eyes, all of them seeming stupider than the last. 'I've got to figure out something quickly! My chances of being with my Akane are slipping!' He sat with his chin in his hands, slouched over, when a woman passed in front of him. "Excuse me, ma'am!" he called to her.
The woman looked back at him, seeming a little annoyed. "Yes?"
Ryoga paused for a moment, considering his choices. "Do you know hot to get to the Tendo Dojo?"
The woman scowled at him darkly, and replied with all-too evident aggravation, "No, I don't." She turned about quickly and her hair lashed out behind her, like an enraged python.
'Well, at least ask for the time, Ryoga!' He shouted mentally to himself. "Do you know the time?" he shouted after her.
She glanced at her watch quickly, and answered with poorly hidden impatience, "Eleven-thirty!" And with that, she took off with a quick stride, as if trying to get out of hearing range before the man could ask any more questions.
Ryoga looked back at his callused hands with very slight panic- what if he couldn't get to Akane's in time? Then suddenly, a young boy, around twelve years old, walked slowly in front of him, muttering to himself about getting some money. 'I have an idea,' he thought, pleased with his quick- thinking. 'And it just might work if my experience with Nabiki is applicable to this kid....'
"Hey, you there!" he said to the boy, letting just a little urgency seep into his voice. The young child looked at him warily, and seemed ready to bolt at any moment. "I heard you need money- if you take me to the Tendo Dojo, I'll give you ten yen! Do you know where it is?"
The boy nodded eagerly. "Yes, yes I know where it is! I'll take you there right now if you want me to!"
Ryoga hid a smile. 'Maybe when Nabiki was young she was as willing to get money as this kid.' "Okay, then. Lead the way."
The boy walked with long strides, and seemed to have a business-like purpose to his steps as Ryoga followed him. 'Yes, I don't doubt it,' he thought, greatly amused, 'Nabiki was probably a lot like this kid.'
Soon Ryoga's thoughts drifted to more important thoughts... namely those about Akane. And about her marrying him.
* * *
"What exactly do you mean by thoughts about her marrying you?" Ukyo questioned.
Ryoga hung his head. "I meant what everyone would think if I married her. Who would be happy. Who would be angry. Who would be upset. Who would try to wring her neck and mine."
Inside, the okonomiyaki chef blushed. She was sure that she was on one of his lists. 'Probably under the 'happy' category.' She smiled internally to herself, a smile that was not quite amused yet not quite sad yet not quite bitter all at the same time. Her emotions were so mixed up ever since her last encounter with Ranma. She quickly shoved that thought out of her mind. 'Better not think of that now... I need to focus on Ryoga here.'
Externally, she kept her face passive. Something inside of her said it would be best if she had an impartial face on. That maybe, maybe, it might make her thoughts impartial. 'But it's really not working....' She shook her head slightly again to clear it, and Ryoga seemed to take that as a sign to go on.
"When I got there, not only was Akane there, but the rest of her family and the Saotomes. I gave my guide the money I promised him, and then asked Akane.... I asked her if she would marry me. She... she said... no." Ryoga shuddered visibly. He could feel the hot liquid starting to form at his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. He only blinked his eyes rapidly in a futile attempt to clear them.
Ukyo felt helpless. She wanted to help Ryoga, to give him a shoulder to cry on. But she knew him all too well. He would only spurn it, rather than easing his pain and showing his weakness. And then his despair was all too much....
She could almost feel it, coming off of his body in palpable waves. She almost felt the need to break down and sob herself. 'How is it that the man can affect me so much?' she cried to herself, half in frustration and half in... some emotion she couldn't name. "It's okay, Ryoga... I'm here for you," Ukyo whispered, so silently that she was sure Ryoga hadn't heard it, for he was so swallowed by his distress. Ryoga made no motion that he had heard her anyway-he seemed to be mentally debating something inside, but he seemed to finally reach a decision.
Ryoga looked at Ukyo with eyes full of grief and... pity? And then he told her, "As I was leaving, I heard Ranma and Akane talking.... I think Ranma was telling her that he loved her."
Ukyo's tawny-colored eyes filled with resent, and she replied bitterly, "I know."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Author's Note: Wow! My longest chapter yet! I feel happy! And you should feel proud of yourselves if you managed to figure out where the flashback scenes were. Also, kudos to whoever figured out that sometimes I rewrite a scene twice, but under someone else's point of view. Anyway... review now if you haven't already. Thanks! ~ AmberWing
* * * * * * * * * * *
Disclaimer: Even though I wish I was the one who made Ranma 1/2 , I'm not. That goddess of good ideas, Rumiko Takahashi, did.
Author's Note: There's a flashback in this... but saying anymore will give some things (minor things, I have to admit, but still) away. (I would've italicized it, but those darn html tags aren't working!) ^__^ So that's all I'm going to say. Anyway, on with the fic!
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Chapter 4
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Ukyo shut her eyes tightly while screeching her surprise to the entire world. Her confused thoughts raced around her head, like a wheel spinning without going anywhere. 'Ryoga? What? P-Chan?' She stood up and turned around to where she thought the general direction of the door was, and walked slowly towards it in case she hit a wall. And slowly her confusion turned to anger as something clicked in her mind. 'Hot water? A curse! Jusenkyou! Ryoga is P-CHAN!' She worked herself into a controlled rage. 'RYOGA...!' Her hands clenched, her nails gouged her skin, but she didn't notice. 'Lying to us like that!' she fumed. 'And I trusted you! I trusted you, and thought well of you! I even-' She cut her thoughts off, and let only one idea flood her mind. Whup Ryoga's fanny so bad, that he'd be able to feel it for weeks. She turned around briskly, her battle spatula out, eyes shut tightly, though she could sense him a little off to her right. 'Okay. Time to kick some fanny....'
* * *
At Ukyo's shriek, Ryoga leapt up and stared at his hands in shock. 'I'm human! The hot water must have hit me!' So he was fully human. Fully man. 'Oh. That explains a lot. Like the screaming, for one,' he thought to himself, strangely calm. But his tranquility only lasted a moment, as he realized what this could result in. His next thoughts were frantic. 'Gotta find something to hide myself with!' He looked around: there was a faded red-checkered dish cloth next to the sink, hanging carelessly off the counter. He snatched it up, and flung it around his waist, but to his despair it wasn't long enough to be able to tie. He searched frantically, and then remembered. 'My bandana!' He ripped it off his head, and tied the dish cloth to it. Then he tied it around his waist, forming some crude sort of loin cloth. And just in time, too, for at that moment, Ukyo swirled around, anger written in every feature on her face, her posture indicating her rage though her eyes were closed. 'Uh-oh. This can't be good. I've got to explain, before I lose someone else!' "Ukyo, no!" he shouted, as he prepared himself to block some sort of attack.
And attack she did. Maybe it was because of her anger at him deceiving her, or him being in her kitchen as uncovered as he was. Because this time, the attack was strong- strengthened by anger, no doubt- and maybe it was even stronger than Ryoga's Shishi Hokkodan.
And Ryoga couldn't block the attack.
And Ryoga was knocked unconscious by the flat of her battle spatula.
* * *
Ukyo opened her eyes now at hearing the soft flump of his body hitting the ground. 'At least he's covered,' she growled fiercely, but even as she thought this, the anger was ebbing out of her. And then she just realized what she had done. 'I've knocked Ryoga unconscious! What'll I do?! I can't just let him sit there!' She quickly calmed herself, and analyzed the situation with amazing cool. 'He's unconscious, so I have to do something about that. Maybe a cold cloth for his forehead. Also, he is half naked counting that thing he has on. I have to find some clothing for him. And after that... what'll he do? Go wandering again?'
Ukyo shook her head, and strode to the closet where she kept an extra blanket in case she cold. She took it back to where Ryoga lay, and spread it over him, covering everything except for his head. She proceeded to her bedroom where she found some things that were just too big for her- maybe they'd fit Ryoga. Ukyo was just glad for the moment that she dressed like a man. She took the clothing downstairs and placed them on the counter in the kitchen. Then she went to a cabinet in the kitchen where extra towels were stored. She grabbed a few, and toted them into the kitchen, where she soaked them thoroughly under icy cold water. Her fingers were numb after a few seconds of exposure to the frosty water, and she couldn't help but smile a grim little smile. 'Payback, Ryoga. While I help you, I'll be giving you frostbite.' She wrung the towels out- no use Ryoga turning back into a pig- and took the relatively dry, yet cold cloths over to him. She laid them flat on his forehead, and within a few moments he came to, shivering slightly. Ukyo couldn't help it- she smiled her dour smile again, and thought to herself, 'This isn't a lot of revenge, but you probably have a good reason for being in pig-form wandering around my restaurant when you could be at Akane's, who presumably doesn't know what- or who- you are.'
Ukyo gazed at him, and kept her expression closed. "Why are you here, pig- boy?" she asked him. He sat up, paused, stopped shivering, and, to her immense surprise, started to pour the story out to her.
* * *
Ryoga came to, and shivered violently. There were cold towels on his head and a blanket covering him. 'What? Ukyo did this for me? But why-'
His musings were cut short by Ukyo, who asked him shortly, "Why are you here, pig-boy?"
Ryoga slowly brought himself into a sitting position, his head aching dully as he did so. 'Is she still mad at me? Should I tell her? Will she listen? What will she do?' he worried. But then he realized, 'She doesn't seem that mad at me.... She got me this blanket and helped me recover quickly. And knowing her, she might've very well left me here if she was still mad at me. I've got to tell her. She thinks rationally- maybe she'll even help me get over... Akane.' Another little wave of grief flowed over him, consuming him. 'I have to tell her.' And so he proceeded to tell her. Everything. From the very beginning.
"Ukyo, it started about three days ago, when, as usual, I'd gotten lost."
* * *
Ryoga wandered through a forest, tired and hungry. 'Oh, Akane,' he thought, his heart bursting with repressed emotion, 'I would give my life just to see your face... hear your laugh... hear your voice....' At that exact moment, he heard her, his love, his life, Akane Tendo. By some strange quirk of fate, Ryoga was in the woods behind Furinkan High. But Akane was crying. Ryoga sprinted ahead, and was about to break cover when something inside of him said that it might be better if he heard this. So Ryoga obediently stopped, and listened to her.
"C'mon, Akane, it isn't that bad," one of Akane's friends soothed. "Ranma was just being stupid... I bet he likes you."
Ryoga felt his anger flare up. 'It was that idiot Ranma who made you cry! Akane, I'll kill him for you!' Just as he was about to run off and murder Ranma, he heard Akane's beautiful voice again.
"I don't care if that pervert likes me!"
Ryoga could have flown. Akane didn't like Ranma! He had a chance!
"But Akane! You said you liked someone!" another girl gasped out. "Are you saying you like someone other than your fiancé?"
"I hate that jerk, and I hate everything about him! He's so rude, so insulting!" Akane shouted to drown out the question, though there was still a slight under current of tears in her voice.
Ryoga was floating on Cloud Nine. There was only one other male she liked that wasn't head-over-heels over another girl, and that was him! 'Could she be saying she loves me?!' While he was absorbed in the possibilities of his future with his love, Akane and her friends disappeared, their voices fading away into the clear afternoon sky.
* * *
Ukyo looked at Ryoga impassively. "So what did you do eventually, after you heard this?" she asked, keeping her voice free of all feeling on purpose.
Ryoga rubbed the back of his head in a bewildered, yet sad sort of fashion. "I, uh, proposed to her later."
Ukyo felt her heart plummet to the bottom of her feet. 'He... proposed?' "And your reasoning behind this?" she continued, hiding her emotions.
Ryoga seemed a little depressed. "I... when I heard her talking, I... I thought... I thought she liked me." He shook his head, his anguish only too evident. "But I was wrong...."
Ukyo didn't want Ryoga to be like this. He had seemed almost happy while he was telling his story. 'So why don't I let him continue?' She looked him straight in his eyes, honey-gold to coffee-brown. "Continue."
* * *
When Ryoga realized they had vanished, he was upset. 'Now I'll never find her all because of my stupid sense of direction!' he moaned inwardly. He raced towards what had been the general direction of Akane's voice and left the woods, but she wasn't there. He kept on running, though, intent on finding his russet-eyed angel and getting back the heart he had lost to her. But he couldn't find her; the only thing he found was dejection. 'If I can't find her, I can never tell her my feelings! And if she doesn't know them, she may be forced to marry Ranma!' He could hardly bear the thought: his lovely Akane, trapped with a man she didn't love! 'I have to find her! She loves me, doesn't she? She as good as said it back there!'
But a small, detached, all-too-blunt corner of his mind asked him, 'But what if she doesn't love you? When her friend asked her if she loved Ranma, she just avoided answering the question. She might love him.'
But Ryoga stubbornly refused to listen to what his mind had to say. He continued to roam the city, searching for her, but he couldn't find Akane anywhere. And for once, he couldn't even stumble upon the Dojo. And just as the stars began to gleam in the blue-black night sky, the tired wanderer pulled off his pack in an empty clearing to take a quick rest. There were many different plants all around him, which Ryoga dismissed as weeds. He then lay back on his pack, and tried to clear his head so he could relax. But his mind, at last undistracted, came back to haunt him relentlessly.
'Akane might not love you... she might love Ranma....'
'How can you say such a thing? Akane loves me, I can feel it!' Ryoga replied, aghast.
'Yes, she may love you... but she only loves you the way she'd love a brother,' that frank part of him told him.
Ryoga was shaking inside. 'What if... what if that's right?' he trembled, completely overcome by doubt. But doubt held him only for a heartbeat. 'Akane does love me! Can't I have a little faith in her?'
He could sense that part of him readying another argument, but he quelled it immediately. 'I don't have to listen to that... it's only me! It's not like Akane was telling me that!' Ryoga shifted his position the minutest bit so that his head was resting on pack. 'Akane does love me... I'm sure of it!' And holding that thought to his heart the way a child may hang on to a stuffed animal when frightened, Ryoga fell into a slumber filled with dreams of his ebon-haired queen, Akane.
The next morning, Ryoga awoke, fully rested. He stretched languidly under a sunny, azure-blue sky. Only a handful of clouds drifted lazily across it, looking like a flock of sheep grazing in a field of cerulean grass. From the position of the sun, Ryoga could tell that it was around nine in the morning. 'I really overslept last night,' he thought, though he felt a little pleased that he had done something so different for a change.
The black-haired man sat up and looked around him, and his breath stopped for a moment when he took in the beauty surrounding him. The plants that he had called weeds were anything but- they were wildflowers, and liberally scattered all among them were small, golden sun-flowers.
'It's almost like an omen!' Ryoga thought, his eyes glistening with happiness. 'A good omen! Perhaps this is the day I'll tell Akane the way I feel!' Ryoga took in a deep breath. He felt so hopeful, so happy, so full of life. Wanting to take some luck along with him, Ryoga started picking the most perfect flowers he could find. He created a lush bouquet, and around it tied a scrap of cloth he dug out of his pack.
Taking a deep breath of the air which seemed so pure and clean, he strode out of the clearing, back the way he came. His heart seemed so light; it was floating. 'No... floating is too much of an understatement. My heart is flying! I feel free, I feel alive!'
As he walked along the road, so completely lost in his thoughts, he didn't realize that he was going to collide with someone. And when he did, they both stumbled back a bit. "Sorry," he mumbled as he shook his head slightly to clear it. Only when he looked up did he realize who it was.
"Akane!" he said, startled.
"Ryoga!" she replied, smiling more brightly than the sun's rays. "Ryoga, I haven't seen you in a while!" Akane's expression was delighted, and that only made Ryoga's heart contract painfully, watching her and not being able to touch her. Yet.
"Akane, I haven't seen you either," he answered; his voice was quiet, but had a hint of hardly contained joy. He looked deeply into her eyes, those two brown pools of light, and felt so content. 'Now... now is the time.' "A- Akane?"
"Yeah?" she asked. Now her face had an odd look; it was that of mild curiosity and a mixture of other things.
"Um...." 'C'mon, Ryoga, think of something to tell her! Something she'll love! And give her the flowers already!' Ryoga groped for a moment, and held the flowers up to Akane's confused face. "Akane, I've been lost for all this time, and just now, I've found my way," he said, his voice starting to tremble with suppressed emotion.
"What do you mean, Ryoga?"
Ryoga fumbled with the words, and finally reached what he deemed the right thing to say. "What I mean is, just up till now, I've been confused. And now, I... I....um...." 'Ryoga, you idiot, you're messing it up! Now just hurry up and get it done with before you disgust her or something!' "I, um, Akanewillyoumarryme?" Mentally he kicked himself repeatedly. 'Yeah, that was smooth!'
"Excuse me? I couldn't understand you; you were speaking too fast," Akane said, somewhat perplexed.
Taking a deep breath, and summoning more courage than he had ever needed before, he said it normally. "Akane, will you marry me?"
Akane froze on the spot, and had Ryoga been looking her in the face instead of at his clasped hands, he would have seen the blood drain from her face.
'But she loves me, doesn't she?' he thought, when suddenly he realized something. "Akane, if you need to talk to your family about this, I'll come back tomorrow to the Dojo around noon."
Akane merely nodded, and took the proffered bouquet mechanically, not really noticing. Then she walked numbly in the direction of her dojo.
As Ryoga watched her vanishing back, he felt like punching himself. 'Ryoga, you idiot! She doesn't like you! See the way she reacted?' He shook his blue-black head, to ashamed to do anything else. But then he grasped something else. "Maybe, just maybe, she acted like that because it came as a shock. I'm not sure she realized how much I love her until today," he said aloud to himself. "And maybe, she was thinking about what she would tell her father." And with that, he turned around and walked the opposite direction Akane had taken. 'She does love me. I know it. This... this just came as a shock to her, that's all....'
* * *
"What happened after that?" Ukyo asked. She was still keeping her voice impassionate. She didn't want Ryoga to know how she felt about this. 'I feel... I don't know what. Is it... ah, never mind. Right now, I have to pay attention to Ryoga.' She shook her head the tiniest bit, and listened to what the raven-haired man had to say.
"I... I just kind of wandered after that until night. I bought some food when I got hungry, and around nightfall, I stumbled upon a park. I found a clump of bushes far away from the pond, and went to sleep," Ryoga said, with just the tiniest hint sadness in his voice.
'Who knew telling my story would help so much?' the man wondered, though his heart was still bleeding, however slowly. 'But right now I'm at the part when I'm happy... what will it be like when I get to the part when I'm torn to pieces and trodden on?' He shook his head, and went on.
* * *
That morning when Ryoga woke up, he couldn't help but feel nervous. Even though he had assured himself many times that Akane loved him, he still felt tense. Ryoga stretched again, in such a way that every vertebrae in his back popped back into place. Ryoga had slept on quite a few rocks last night, and several of them weren't smooth in the least bit. He looked at the length of the shadows, and figured out that it would be noon in a couple hours. He also figured out that he was very hungry.
Sighing, he stood up and picked up his pack. He dug his rough hand into a scuffed pocket, and pulled out around 500 yen. 'Yes! I can get something to eat!' He meandered around the park's paths, making sure that he didn't leave the gravel or the park. It just wouldn't do to find himself on another continent the day he expected to get married.
After 30 minutes or so, he found a man selling some food off a cart. Though he knew he was being cheated out of his money by its ridiculous price, he bought some anyway. 'It just smells too good....' And the food was, he had to admit, delicious. Not as good as Kasumi's, but tasty nevertheless. He savored every delectable morsel, and when he finished, he asked the food peddler what time it was.
The man looked at his watch, and told him, "Around eleven-ten, sir."
Ryoga thanked the man, and decided it would be best to start to try and find the dojo soon. 'But what if I get lost? I could end up on top of Mount Everest if I'm not careful!' he groaned mentally. 'I hate this god-forsaken sense of direction I have. It is so embarrassing to find myself in the middle of a lake as a pig when I only meant to go to a different room in a building. But as a minor consolation, not many people know that I'm the pig.' Sighing to himself, Ryoga walked over to one of the benches along the side of the path. He kept his eyes firmly upon it without blinking, for even if he closed his eyes for a nanosecond and then opened them, he'd find himself heading a different direction.
Once he made it to the green painted bench, he sat down upon it heavily. Ideas of getting to the Dojo seemed to flicker in front of his eyes, all of them seeming stupider than the last. 'I've got to figure out something quickly! My chances of being with my Akane are slipping!' He sat with his chin in his hands, slouched over, when a woman passed in front of him. "Excuse me, ma'am!" he called to her.
The woman looked back at him, seeming a little annoyed. "Yes?"
Ryoga paused for a moment, considering his choices. "Do you know hot to get to the Tendo Dojo?"
The woman scowled at him darkly, and replied with all-too evident aggravation, "No, I don't." She turned about quickly and her hair lashed out behind her, like an enraged python.
'Well, at least ask for the time, Ryoga!' He shouted mentally to himself. "Do you know the time?" he shouted after her.
She glanced at her watch quickly, and answered with poorly hidden impatience, "Eleven-thirty!" And with that, she took off with a quick stride, as if trying to get out of hearing range before the man could ask any more questions.
Ryoga looked back at his callused hands with very slight panic- what if he couldn't get to Akane's in time? Then suddenly, a young boy, around twelve years old, walked slowly in front of him, muttering to himself about getting some money. 'I have an idea,' he thought, pleased with his quick- thinking. 'And it just might work if my experience with Nabiki is applicable to this kid....'
"Hey, you there!" he said to the boy, letting just a little urgency seep into his voice. The young child looked at him warily, and seemed ready to bolt at any moment. "I heard you need money- if you take me to the Tendo Dojo, I'll give you ten yen! Do you know where it is?"
The boy nodded eagerly. "Yes, yes I know where it is! I'll take you there right now if you want me to!"
Ryoga hid a smile. 'Maybe when Nabiki was young she was as willing to get money as this kid.' "Okay, then. Lead the way."
The boy walked with long strides, and seemed to have a business-like purpose to his steps as Ryoga followed him. 'Yes, I don't doubt it,' he thought, greatly amused, 'Nabiki was probably a lot like this kid.'
Soon Ryoga's thoughts drifted to more important thoughts... namely those about Akane. And about her marrying him.
* * *
"What exactly do you mean by thoughts about her marrying you?" Ukyo questioned.
Ryoga hung his head. "I meant what everyone would think if I married her. Who would be happy. Who would be angry. Who would be upset. Who would try to wring her neck and mine."
Inside, the okonomiyaki chef blushed. She was sure that she was on one of his lists. 'Probably under the 'happy' category.' She smiled internally to herself, a smile that was not quite amused yet not quite sad yet not quite bitter all at the same time. Her emotions were so mixed up ever since her last encounter with Ranma. She quickly shoved that thought out of her mind. 'Better not think of that now... I need to focus on Ryoga here.'
Externally, she kept her face passive. Something inside of her said it would be best if she had an impartial face on. That maybe, maybe, it might make her thoughts impartial. 'But it's really not working....' She shook her head slightly again to clear it, and Ryoga seemed to take that as a sign to go on.
"When I got there, not only was Akane there, but the rest of her family and the Saotomes. I gave my guide the money I promised him, and then asked Akane.... I asked her if she would marry me. She... she said... no." Ryoga shuddered visibly. He could feel the hot liquid starting to form at his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. He only blinked his eyes rapidly in a futile attempt to clear them.
Ukyo felt helpless. She wanted to help Ryoga, to give him a shoulder to cry on. But she knew him all too well. He would only spurn it, rather than easing his pain and showing his weakness. And then his despair was all too much....
She could almost feel it, coming off of his body in palpable waves. She almost felt the need to break down and sob herself. 'How is it that the man can affect me so much?' she cried to herself, half in frustration and half in... some emotion she couldn't name. "It's okay, Ryoga... I'm here for you," Ukyo whispered, so silently that she was sure Ryoga hadn't heard it, for he was so swallowed by his distress. Ryoga made no motion that he had heard her anyway-he seemed to be mentally debating something inside, but he seemed to finally reach a decision.
Ryoga looked at Ukyo with eyes full of grief and... pity? And then he told her, "As I was leaving, I heard Ranma and Akane talking.... I think Ranma was telling her that he loved her."
Ukyo's tawny-colored eyes filled with resent, and she replied bitterly, "I know."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Author's Note: Wow! My longest chapter yet! I feel happy! And you should feel proud of yourselves if you managed to figure out where the flashback scenes were. Also, kudos to whoever figured out that sometimes I rewrite a scene twice, but under someone else's point of view. Anyway... review now if you haven't already. Thanks! ~ AmberWing