A Bit of an Apology Note/Warning: Four words that aren't worth what they should be, and I hope you will accept them… because I really do mean them: I. AM. SO. SORRY.
Hontou no hontou! *bursts into tears*
Also, a little note:
This is doomed to be an anticlimax to all I've built you up for and I apologize profusely beforehand. If I could have prevented my ridiculous cocky attitude prior to this (I'm turning into Ranma, run!), I would have saved you the trouble of hoping for something better than mediocre. If you still want to see how it ends (which you basically already know from The Morning After) then douzo, be my guest! I'll love you forever! *bats eyelashes*
Disclaimer: IIIII'MMM BAAACCCKKKK… *creepy music*
The Basic Story So Far:
Rain: *walks across the street to buy a bagel, gets run over by a car*
Readers: No! What about The Night Before?! ARGH! You can't die NOW!
Rain: *does oyakusoku pozu* Hmph! *gets up, staggers over to keyboard*
… *Suddenly is hit over the head with a HUGE stack of school papers* WHUMP!
Readers: She's down for the count this time.
-- weeks later --
(actually, more like months, isn't it?)
Rain: *pops up out of nowhere, happy go lucky and insane as ever* Hey, all! *types*
Readers: What the hell? Where did you come from? Who are you?
Rain: Hey! *pouts*
butterfly: Can you believe it! It's the living dead! I remember her! It's Rain!
Readers: Oh, yeah, her.
Rain: (overjoyed at simply being remembered) *dances*
How was that for a comeback disclaimer? Feh, I'm back and I still don't own Ranma. I tried, but like Nabiki said, you can't beat her in court. Damn. *throws hands up in air*
"The Night Before"
by Rain (who is, amazingly, not dead)
Chapter Five
Ranma and Akane couldn't do much but stare at each other. Being in a state of shock tends to do that to you.
Both of them were so surprised (a) at what Ranma had just somehow found the guts to do, and (b) at the fact that they both wanted to try it again.
Uncertainty and doubt, along with general awkwardness won out, and Ranma moved away from Akane, looking everywhere else but at her face.
"Er…Um, yeah…" He was half hoping she'd interrupt, but nothing doing. Akane was, for once in the vicinity of Ranma, at a loss for words. And mallets.
"…I'll wake you up at 7 …since Kasumi isn't here…" Ranma said clumsily, more to fill the silence than to say anything relevant. "…You usually go jogging, so… yeah…"
Ranma turned and moved to the window, shaking his head exasperatedly. Jogging? Please… You could have come up with something better than-- Akane suddenly reached out and took his hand, stopping him short.
"Ranma," she said in a small voice. "Wait…" Ranma looked back at her apprehensively. He felt extremely foolish, and just wanted to sprawl out on his futon in his own room and try and sleep. Which wouldn't be easy, considering what had just happened.
Akane wasn't sure why she held him back. Was it because her heart was fluttering so fast, because her cheeks were slightly warm, because it felt like her insides were doing somersaults?
She decided it could be any of those and that she didn't care which. Tossing all rational thought aside, Akane pulled Ranma's arm down sharply and, before Ranma could totally loose his balance, caught him halfway to the floor in another kiss. Gentle yet passionate. Somehow, only the kind Ranma and Akane had the talent for. Not long after, she pulled back, looking at Ranma through half-lidded eyes. Akane's heartbeats were pounding so loud in her ears that she was almost afraid something was wrong inside her chest.
"Stay."
………
… A very charged silence followed.
"…Akane…" Ranma was looking very intensely back at her, as if he were trying to find something in her eyes that he needed to see. But whatever it might have been, he found it soon enough. Giving her a small smile, he reached down, cupping the back of her neck, and kissed her again, this time without wondering whether she would mind.
It could have been the buildup of over a year of bickering and hassling and harassing one another that turned that unusual 'something' between them into this moment; could have been the ridiculous circumstances that released the hesitation of both parties into the night air that flowed through the gap in the window. Akane wasn't sure but she didn't care, besides. She couldn't, not when it felt so… right; the feel of Ranma's gentle touch on her skin, the things he could do to her heart rate by simply coming in contact with her in some way… It was a magnetic thing.
"What in the name of Kami are we trying to pull?" Akane laughed quietly to herself. "The start of World War III?" It was meant as a sort of half-joke, but upon further thought, Akane wasn't sure what might result of such a bizarre turn of events. This was Nerima, after all. Post Ranma - as Akane liked to call it - as well.
Ranma laughed a bit too, but touched his forehead to hers and ran his hand up and down her arm reassuringly.
"I could care less what anyone else says, Akane," Ranma began. "For once," he added, smiling; feeling braver than ever before upon broaching that particular subject.
"Akane," Ranma began, regarding her thoughtfully for a brief time. "Now seems as good as ever to say it. But I have to explain something first, so bear with me."
"What do you mean?" Akane asked, curious and anticipating and nervous all at once.
"Well…" Ranma chose his words carefully. "When I say this to you, I want it to mean more than I can say in just those few words, if you know what I mean… Er… Give me a sec, I want this to come out right…" he added, thinking That's definitely an issue with you, isn't it?
Finding the thread of thought he wanted to follow, Ranma tried again. "When I say things to you, I hardly ever mean them the way they come out — which is to say, completely wrong and moronic sounding — and that's mostly the reason I just decide to finish saying the stupid thing and end up babbling… which I am doing right now, actually…"
He chuckled a bit to himself and tried to finish the thought, yet again. Akane couldn't help thinking How genuinely Ranma.
"So anyway what I was trying to get at there was… Basically everything I throw at you means something else that I just conveniently leave out. I guess it's so I can half lie to myself, and half lie to you, by pretending I said what I wanted, and that you didn't take it the wrong way. Of course, that's generally a load of bull and doesn't quite work, but I'm usually so afraid of your reaction that I just play it off as general ignorance, which seems to work."
Realization hit Akane. No wonder he seems so… well… idiotic when he argues with me.
"So I might as well tell you what I mean from now on when I say stupid stuff like that. Kawaikune, for me, is more like you're not cute, but that's what you call puppies or little annoying kids, and that's not how I think of you. To me, you're… you're beautiful." Ranma turned to the side, unable to look at Akane at the moment. Akane blushed and couldn't help but smile. "And I guess 'You're cute when you smile' is more like you're even more beautiful to me when you're smiling. Just like now—" he looked back to her, and her blush grew deeper; "—and when I say tomboy, well… what if I like tomboys?" He looked very seriously at Akane. "What if I like you just the way you are? Is that so bad?"
Ranma quieted a minute and let this sink in.
"Not at all," she replied finally, looking happier than ever. In all the time she had known Ranma, Akane had never imagined that he could be telling her what he was saying now, and even if she had thought of it before, it wouldn't have felt this good.
"… And when I tell you… When I say 'I love you'…" Akane stiffened, caught a bit off guard. "What I mean isn't only that… I just those three words I want you to think of all the others that come with it… It means that you make everything real for me, and better than I could myself. It means you make a better person out of me, regardless of what other people say about us. It means that I want you to wear this—" he slipped a ring on her finger "—if you feel the same, because I want to spend the rest of my days with you, if you don't mind this crazy life I bring along with me. It means that you're the only girl for me. That's what I mean when I tell you I love you."
Akane trapped Ranma in a fierce hug that lasted a long while. She only pulled back to whisper a quick "Understood" before she kissed him once again.
It was so strange to the both of them; it hardly felt like the first time they had ever come in contact with one another like this. It was, but then again it wasn't. To anyone who didn't know Ranma or Akane well, they most likely wouldn't have seen the small steps taken, ever so subtly, one at a time, beginning almost from the first day.
Things were slowly growing more passionate, necessitating only a few short breaths before one would meet the other again.
"Akane…" Ranma whispered hoarsely in her ear, ruffling the tufts of her midnight hair that spread across the pillow. "…I have no idea what I'm doing."
"Neither do I," she said.
They were quiet for a while; Akane staring at the ceiling over Ranma's shoulder, Ranma tangling his fingers in Akane's hair, silvery from the moonlight pouring through her bedroom window.
They looked at each other again. There really wasn't anything to say. Except…
Ranma caught sight of the ring, looking as if it belonged no where else than on Akane's finger. He took her hand in his and gave it a small squeeze.
"But you could say we know enough."
Everything seemed to have been flipped upside down, but maybe they looked better this way.
One half met the other once again, and it went on from there.
Fin.
A/N::
First and foremost… Arigatou Gozaimashta!!! *bows* You people rock my world. Even as I'm in a slump I get these awesome reviews, and it inspires me not to give up! I really was thinking of killing this one, but thanks to you patient people, here I am. Yes, you rock my ridiculously crazed and random world. ^^
But, like I said before, after all that buildup, it was an anticlimax, wasn't it? Gomen ne! I really wanted it to be so much more than it ended up being, but… Argh! The world is against me these days. Besides, I became suddenly and madly obsessed with an entire new idea for a BIG multi-chapter fic that I really am getting into, and WOW! It's been a fun few weeks, sans the death threats that is. ^^;;
So… Yeah, I'm not dead, lol. Disappointed? ^_~
I was having a LOT of trouble deciding whether or not to post this chapter as is, or go a bit further. If I had decided to go a bit further, I would have had some more writing to do, and some gaps to fill, so I wasn't sure which way I wanted to go. But I've finally come to a decision that makes me happy, and lets you all finally find out that, yes, I'm still alive!
See, the end of this chapter could have been an ending all by itself, but I could also have gone on from here, so that's why I was in limbo for a while there. But I decided to just stick to this one last chapter, so now that I know what I'm going to do, it's all good.
I'm so sorry, though! I'm so guilty about this, I promised myself I'd never make people wait for posts like authors I've read in the past have, because I know it drives you crazy. But one thing led to another, I was still really unsure where I wanted to take it, and suddenly this huge 7 page paper was due for English, so I had to write that, and then a big French project came, and then another huge ass English project that's like 40% of my final grade and whoa! was I busy all of a sudden. It's getting to that point of the school year where the teachers look at their calendar and go "Hey, it's almost May! Time to kill the kids!" But there's a bit of a calm in the storm, if a small one, so I'm taking full advantage of it.
It's not quite time to give up on me, just yet! …Although I think I might deserve it. ^^;
We'll see what comes of this mess… Thank you all so much for at least reading to chapter four!
:: Rain
P.S. And this is very important to me…
Anyone who wants me to read a story they've written, or that is in progress, I would love to hear from you! I'm interested in building up my reading/review history, and I need some good stuff to work with, so let me know if you're interested in my opinions, lol. I love reading all of your stuff and hope to hear of more of it in the future. Also, I love posting fanart for people, I just need to get a new scanner, hehe… but hey, the thought is there! Ok, enough of this twaddle. Mata ne.
